With me how can they then acquitted stand In sight of God Him after all Disputes Forc't I absolve all my evasions vain And reasonings though through Mazes lead me still But to my own conviction first and last On mee mee onely as the fourse and spring Of all corruption all the blame lights due So might the wrauth Fond wish couldst thou support That burden heavier then the Earth to bear Then all the World much heavier though divided With that bad Woman Thus what thou desir'st And what thou fearst alike destroyes all hope Of refuge and concludes thee miserable Beyond all past example and future To Satan only like both crime and doom O Conscience into what Abyss of fears And horrors hast thou driv'n me out of which I find no way from deep to deeper plung'd Thus Adam to himself lamented loud Through the still Night not now as ere man fell Wholsom and cool and mild but with black Air Accompanied with damps and dreadful gloom Which to his evil Conscience represented All things with double terror On the Ground Outstretcht he lay on the cold ground and oft Curs'd his Creation Death as oft accus'd Of tardie execution since denounc't The day of his offence Why comes not Death Said hee with one thrice acceptable stroke To end me Shall Truth fail to keep her word Justice Divine not hast'n to be just But Death comes not at call Justice Divine Mends not her slowest pace for prayers or cries O Woods O Fountains Hillocks Dales and Bowrs With other echo late I taught your Shades To answer and resound farr other Song Whom thus afflicted when sad Eve beheld Desolate where she sate approaching nigh Soft words to his fierce passion she assay'd But her with stern regard he thus repell'd Out of my sight thou Serpent that name best Befits thee with him leagu'd thy self as false And hateful nothing wants but that thy shape Like his and colour Serpentine may shew Thy inward fraud to warn all Creatures from thee Henceforth least that too heav'nly form pretended To hellish falshood snare them But for thee I had persisted happie had not thy pride And wandring vanitie when lest was safe Rejected my forewarning and disdain'd Not to be trusted longing to be seen Though by the Devil himself him overweening To over-reach but with the Serpent meeting Fool'd and beguil'd by him thou I by thee To trust thee from my side imagin'd wise Constant mature proof against all assaults And understood not all was but a shew Rather then solid vertu all but a Rib Crooked by nature bent as now appears More to the part sinister from me drawn Well if thrown out as supernumerarie To my just number found O why did God Creator wise that peopl'd highest Heav'n With Spirits Masculine create at last This noveltie on Earth this fair defect Of Nature and not fill the World at once With Men as Angels without Feminine Or find some other way to generate Mankind this mischief had not then befall'n And more that shall befall innumerable Disturbances on Earth through Femal snares And straight conjunction with this Sex for either He never shall find out fit Mate but such As some misfortune brings him or mistake Or whom he wishes mod shall seldom gain Through her perversness but shall see her gaind By a farr worse or if she love withheld By Parents or his happiest choice too late Shall meet alreadie linkt and Wedlock-bound To a fell Adversarie his hate or shame Which infinite calamine shall cause To Humane life and houshold peace confound He added not and from her turn'd but Eve Not so repulst with Tears that ceas'd not flowing And tresses all disorderd at his feet Fell humble and imbracing them besaught His peace and thus proceeded in her plaint Forsake me not thus Adam witness Heav'n What love sincere and reverence in my heart I beare thee and unweeting have offended Unhappilie deceav'd thy suppliant I beg and clasp thy knees bereave me not Whereon I live thy gentle looks thy aid Thy counsel in this uttermost distress My onely strength and stay forlorn of thee Whither shall I betake me where subsist While yet we live scarse one short hour perhaps Between us two let there be peace both joyning As joyn'd in injuries one enmitie Against a Foe by doom express assign'd us That cruel Serpent On me exercise not Thy hatred for this miserie befall'n On me alreadie lost mee then thy self More miserable both have sin'd but thou Against God onely I against God and thee And to the place of judgment will return There with my cries importune Heaven that all The sentence from thy head remov'd may ligh On me sole cause to thee of all this woe Mee mee onely just object of his ire She ended weeping and her lowlie plight Immoveable till peace obtain'd from fault Acknowledg'd and deplor'd in Adam wraught Commiseration soon his heart relented Towards her his life so late and sole delight Now at his feet submissive in distress Creature so faire his reconcilement seeking His counsel whom she had displeas'd his aide As one disarm'd his anger all he lost And thus with peaceful words uprais'd her soon Unwarie and too desirous as before So now of what thou knowst not who desir'st The punishment all on thy self alas Beare thine own first ill able to sustaine His full wrauth whose thou feelst as yet lest part And my displeasure bearst so ill If Prayers Could alter high Decrees I to that place Would speed before thee and be louder heard That on my head all might be visited Thy frailtie and infirmer Sex forgiv'n To me committed and by me expos'd But rise let us no more contend nor blame Each other blam'd enough elsewhere but strive In offices of Love how we may light'n Each others burden in our share of woe Since this days Death denounc't if ought I see Will prove no sudden but a slow pac't evill A long days dying to augment our paine And to our Seed O hapless Seed deriv'd To whom thus Eve recovering heart repli'd Adam by sad experiment I know How little weight my words with thee can finde Found so erroneous thence by just event Found so unfortunate nevertheless Restor'd by thee vile as I am to place Of new acceptance hopeful to regaine Thy Love the sole contentment of my heart Living or dying from thee I will not hide What thoughts in my unquiet brest are ris'n Tending to some relief of our extremes Or end though sharp and sad yet tolerable As in our evils and of easier choice If care of our descent perplex us most Which must be born to certain woe devourd By Death at last and miserable it is To be to others cause of misery Our own begotten and of our Loines to bring Into this cursed World a woful Race That after wretched Life must be at last Food for so foule a Monster in thy power It lies yet ere Conception to prevent The Race unblest to being yet
to thir labours which Eve proposes to divide in several places each labouring apart Adam consents not alledging the danger lest that Enemy of whom they were forewarn'd should attempt her found alone Eve loath to be thought not circumspect or firm enough urges her going apart the rather desirous to make tryal of her strength Adam at last yields The Serpent finds her alone his subtle approach first gazing then speaking with much flattery extolling Eve above all other Creatures Eve wondring to hear the Serpent speaks asks how he attain'd to human speech and such understanding not till now the Serpent answers that by tasting of a certain Tree in the Garden he attain'd both to Speech and Reason till then void of both Eve requires him to bring her to that Tree and finds it to be the Tree of Knowledge forbidden The Serpent now grown bolder with many wiles and arguments induces her at length to eat she pleas'd with the taste deliberates a while whether to impart thereof to Adam or not at last brings him of the Fruit relates what perswaded her to eat thereof Adam at first amaz'd but perceiving her lost resolves through vehemence of love to perish with her and extenuating the trespass cats also of the Fruit The Effects thereof in them both they seek to cover thir nakedness then fall to variance and accusation of one anotther NO more of talk where God or Angel Guest With Man as with his Friend familiar us'd To sit indulgent and with him partake Rural repast permitting him the while Venial discourse unblam'd I now must change Those Notes to Tragic foul distrust and breach Disloyal on the part of Man revolt And disobedience On the part of Heav'n Now alienated distance and distaste Anger and just rebuke and judgement giv'n That brought into this World a world of woe Sinne and her shadow Death and Miserie Deaths Harbinger Sad task yet argument Not less but more Heroic then the wrauth Of stern Achilles on his Foe pursu'd Thrice Fugitive about Troy Wall or rage Of Turnus for Lavinia disespous'd Or Neptun's ire or Juno's that so long Perplex'd the Greek and Cytherea's Son If answerable style I can obtaine Of my Celestial Patroness who deignes Her nightly visitation unimplor'd And dictates to me slumbring or inspires Easie my unpremeditated Verse Since first this Subject for Heroic Song Pleas'd me long choosing and beginning late Not sedulous by Nature to indite Warrs hitherto the onely Argument Heroic deem'd chief maistrie to dissect With long and tedious havoc fabl'd Knights In Battels feign'd the better fortitude Of Patience and Heroic Martyrdom Unsung or to describe Races and Games Or tilting Furniture emblazon'd Shields Impreses quaint Caparisons and Steeds Bases and tinsel Trappings gorgious Knights At Joust and Torneament then marshal'd Feast Serv'd up in Hall with Sewers and Seneshals The skill of Artifice or Office mean Not that which justly gives Heroic name To Person or to Poem Mee of these Nor skilld nor studious higher Argument Remaines sufficient of it self to raise That name unless an age too late or cold Climat or Years damp my intended wing Deprest and much they may if all be mine Not Hers who brings it nightly to my Ear. The Sun was sunk and after him the Starr Of Hesperus whose Office is to bring Twilight upon the Earth short Arbiter Twixt Day and Night and now from end to end Nights Hemisphere had veild the Horizon round When Satan who late fled before the threats Of Gabriel out of Eden now improv'd In meditated fraud and malice bent On mans destruction maugre what might hap Of heavier on himself fearless return'd By Night he fled and at Midnight return'd From compassing the Earth cautious of day Since Vriel Regent of the Sun descri'd His entrance and forewarnd the Cherubim That kept thir watch thence full of anguish driv'n The space of seven continu'd Nights he rode With darkness thrice the Equinoctial Line He circl'd four times cross'd the Carr of Night From Pole to Pole traversing each Colure On the eighth return'd and on the Coast averse From entrance or Cherubic Watch by stealth Found unsuspected way There was a place Now not though Sin not Time first wraught the change Where Tigris at the foot of Paradise Into a Gulf shot under ground till part Rose up a Fountain by the Tree of Life In with the River sunk and with it rose Satan involv'd in rising Mist then sought Where to lie hid Sea he had searcht and Land From Eden over Pontus and the Poole Maeotis up beyond the River Ob Downward as farr Antartic and in length West from Orontes to the Ocean barr'd At Darien thence to the Land where flowes Ganges and Indus thus the Orb he roam'd With narrow search and with inspection deep Consider'd every Creature which of all Most opportune might serve his Wiles and found The Serpent suttlest Beast of all the Field Him after long debate irresolute Of thoughts revolv'd his final sentence chose Fit Vessel fittest Imp of fraud in whom To enter and his dark suggestions hide From sharpest sight for in the wilie Snake Whatever sleights none would suspicious mark As from his wit and native suttletie Proceeding which in other Beasts observ'd Doubt might beget of Diabolic pow'r Active within beyond the sense of brute Thus he resolv'd but first from inward griefe His bursting passion into plaints thus pour'd O Earth how like to Heav'n if not preferr'd More justly Seat worthier of Gods as built With second thoughts reforming what was old For what God after better worse would build Terrestrial Heav'n danc't round by other Heav'ns That shine yet bear thir bright officious Lamps Light above Light for thee alone as seems In thee concentring all thir precious beams Of sacred influence As God in Heav'n Is Center yet extends to all so thou Centring receav'st from all those Orbs in thee Not in themselves all thir known vertue appeers Productive in Herb Plant and nobler birth Of Creatures animate with gradual life Of Growth Sense Reason all summ'd up in Man With what delight could I have walkt thee round If I could joy in aught sweet interchange Of Hill and Vallie Rivers Woods and Plaines Now Land now Sea and Shores with Forrest crownd Rocks Dens and Caves but I in none of these Find place or refuge and the more I see Pleasures about me so much more I feel Torment within me as from the hateful siege Of contraries all good to me becomes Bane and in Heav'n much worse would be my state But neither here seek I no nor in Heav'n To dwell unless by maistring Heav'ns Supreame Nor hope to be my self less miserable By what I seek but others to make such As I though thereby worse to me redound For onely in destroying I find ease To my relentless thoughts and him destroyd Or won to what may work his utter loss For whom all this was made all this will soon Follow as to him linkt in weal
ignorance of good and Evil Of God or Death of Law or Penaltie Here grows the Cure of all this Fruit Divine Fair to the Eye inviting to the Taste Of vertue to make wise what hinders then To reach and feed at once both Bodie and Mind So saying her rash hand in evil hour Forth reaching to the Fruit she pluck'd she eat Earth felt the wound and Nature from her seat Sighing through all her Works gave signs of woe That all was lost Back to the Thicket slunk The guiltie Serpent and well might for Eve Intern now wholly on her taste naught else Regarded such delight till then as seemd In Fruit she never tasted whether true Or fansied so through expectation high Of knowledg nor was God-head from her thought Greedily she ingorg'd without restraint And knew not eating Death Satiate at length And hight'nd as with Wine jocond and boon Thus to her self she pleasingly began O Sovran vertuous precious of all Trees In Paradise of operation blest To Sapience hitherto obscur'd infam'd And thy fair Fruit let hang as to no end Created but henceforth my early care Not without Song each Morning and due praise Shall tend thee and the fertil burden ease Of thy full branches offer'd free to all Till dieted by thee I grow mature In knowledge as the Gods who all things know Though others envie what they cannot give For had the gift bin theirs it had not here Thus grown Experience next to thee I owe Best guide not following thee I had remaind In ignorance thou op'nst Wisdoms way And giv'st access though secret she retire And I perhaps am secret Heav'n is high High and remote to see from thence distinct Each thing on Earth and other care perhaps May have diverted from continual watch Our great Forbidder safe with all his Spies About him But to Adam in what sort Shall I appeer shall I to him make known As yet my change and give him to partake Full happiness with mee or rather not But keep the odds of Knowledge in my power Without Copartner so to add what wants In Femal Sex the more to draw his Love And render me more equal and perhaps A thing not undesireable somtime Superior for inferior who is free This may be well but what if God have seen And Death ensue then I shall be no more And Adam wedded to another Eve Shall live with her enjoying I extinct A death to think Confirm'd then I resolve Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe So dear I love him that with him all deaths I could endure without him Five no life So saying from the Tree her step she turnd But first low Reverence don as to the power That dwelt within whose presence had infus'd Into the plant sciential sap deriv'd From Nectar drink of Gods Adam the while Waiting desirous her return had wove Of choicest Flours a Garland to adorne Her Tresses and her rural labours crown As Reapers oft are wont thir Harvest Queen Great joy he promis'd to his thoughts and new Solace in her return so long delay'd Yet oft his heart divine of somthing ill Misgave him hee the faultring measure felt And forth to meet her went the way she took That Morn when first they parted by the Tree Of Knowledge he must pass there he her met Scarse from the Tree returning in her hand A bough of fairest fruit that downie smil'd New gatherd and ambrosial smell diffus'd To him she hasted in her face excuse Came Prologue and Apologie to prompt Which with bland words at will she thus addrest Hast thou not wonderd Adam at my stay Thee I have misst and thought it long depriv'd Thy presence agonie of love till now Not felt nor shall be twice for never more Mean I to trie what rash untri'd I sought The pain of absence from thy sight But strange Hath bin the cause and wonderful to heare This Tree is not as we are told a Tree Of danger tasted nor to evil unknown Op'ning the way but of Divine effect To open Eyes and make them Gods who taste And hath bin tasted such the Serpent wise Or not restraind as wee or not obeying Hath eat'n of the fruit and is become Not dead as we are threatn'd but thenceforth Endu'd with human voice and human sense Reasoning to admiration and with mee Perswasively hath so prevaild that I Have also tasted and have also found Th' effects to correspond opener mine Eyes Dimm erst dilated Spirits ampler Heart And growing up to Godhead which for thee Chiefly I sought without thee can despise For bliss as thou hast part to me is bliss Tedious unshar'd with thee and odious soon Thou therefore also taste that equal Lot May joyne us equal Joy as equal Love Least thou not tasting different degree Disjoyne us and I then too late renounce Deitie for thee when Fate will not permit Thus Eve with Countnance blithe her storie told But in her Cheek distemper flushing glowd On th' other side Adam soon as he heard The fatal Trespass don by Eve amaz'd Astonied stood and Blank while horror chill Ran through his veins and all his joynts relax'd From his slack hand the Garland wreath'd for Eve Down drop'd and all the faded Roses shed Speechless he stood and pale till thus at length First to himself he inward silence broke O fairest of Creation last and best Of all Gods works Creature in whom excell'd Whatever can to sight or thought be formd Holy divine good amiable or sweet How art thou lost how on a sudden lost Defac't deflourd and now to Death devote Rather how hast thou yeelded to transgress The strict forbiddance how to violate The sacred Fruit forbidd'n som cursed fraud Of Enemie hath be guil'd thee yet unknown And mee with thee hath ruind for with thee Certain my resolution is to Die How can I live without thee how forgoe Thy sweet Converse and Love so dearly joyn'd To live again in these wilde Woods forlorn Should God create another Eve and I Another Rib afford yet loss of thee Would never from my heart no no I feel The Link of Nature draw me Flesh of Flesh Bone of my Bone thou art and from thy State Mine never shall be parted bliss or woe So having said as one from sad dismay Recomforted and after thoughts disturbd Submitting to what seemd remediless Thus in calm mood his Words to Eve he turnd Bold deed thou hast presum'd adventrous Eve And peril great provok't who thus hath dar'd Had it been onely coveting to Eye That sacred Fruit sacred to abstinence Much more to taste it under banne to touch But past who can recall or don undoe Not God Omnipotent nor Fate yet so Perhaps thou shalt not Die perhaps the Fact Is not so hainous now foretasted Fruit Profan'd first by the Serpent by him first Made common and unhallowd ere our taste Nor yet on him found deadly he yet lives Lives as thou saidst and gaines to live as Man Higher
innocence Now therefore bend thine eare To supplication heare his sighs though mute Unskilful with what words to pray let mee Interpret for him mee his Advocate And propitiation all his works on mee Good or not good ingraft my Merit those Shall perfet and for these my Death shall pay Accept me and in mee from these receave The smell of peace toward Mankinde let him live Before thee reconcil'd at least his days Numberd though sad till Death his doom which I To mitigate thus plead not to reverse To better life shall yeeld him where with mee All my redeemd may dwell in joy and bliss Made one with me as I with thee am one To whom the Father without Cloud serene All thy request for Man accepted Son Obtain all thy request was my Decree But longer in that Paradise to dwell The Law I gave to Nature him forbids Those pure immortal Elements that know No gross no unharmoneous mixture foule Eject him tainted now and purge him off As a distemper gross to aire as gross And mortal food as may dispose him best For dissolution wrought by Sin that first Distemperd all things and of incorrupt Corrupted I at first with two fair gifts Created him endowd with Happiness And Immortalitie that fondly lost This other serv'd but to eternize woe Till I provided Death so Death becomes His final remedie and after Life Tri'd in sharp tribulation and refin'd By Faith and faithful works to second Life Wak't in the renovation of the just Resignes him up with Heav'n and Earth renewd But let us call to Synod all the Blest Through Heav'ns wide bounds from them I will not hide My judgments how with Mankind I proceed As how with peccant Angels late they saw And in thir state though firm stood more confirmd He ended and the Son gave signal high To the bright Minister that watchd hee blew His Trumpet heard in Oreb since perhaps When God descended and perhaps once more To sound at general Doom Th' Angelic blast Filld all the Regions from thir blissful Bowrs Of Amarantin Shade Fountain or Spring By the waters of Life where ere they sate In fellowships of joy the Sons of Light Hasted resorting to the Summons high And took thir Seats till from his Throne supream Th' Almighty thus pronouncd his sovran Will. O Sons like one of us Man is become To know both Good and Evil since his taste Of that defended Fruit but let him boast His knowledge of Good lost and Evil got Happier had it suffic'd him to have known Good by it self and Evil not at all He sorrows now repents and prayes contrite My motions in him longer then they move His heart I know how variable and vain Self-left Least therefore his now bolder hand Reach also of the Tree of Life and eat And live for ever dream at least to live For ever to remove him I decree And send him from the Garden forth to Till The Ground whence he was taken fitter soile Michael this my behest have thou in charge Take to thee from among the Cherubim Thy choice of flaming Warriours least the Fiend Or in behalf of Man or to invade Vacant possession som new trouble raise Hast thee and from the Paradise of God Without remorse drive out the sinful Pair From hallowd ground th' unholie and denounce To them and to thir Progenie from thence Perpetual banishment Yet least they faint At the sad Sentence rigorously urg'd For I behold them softn'd and with tears Bewailing thir excess all terror hide If patiently thy bidding they obey Dismiss them not disconsolate reveale To Adam what shall come in future dayes As I shall thee enlighten intermix My Cov'nant in the womans seed renewd So send them forth though sorrowing yet in peace And on the East side of the Garden place Where entrance up from Eden easiest climbes Cherubic watch and of a Sword the flame Wide waving all approach farr off to fright And guard all passage to the Tree of Life Least Paradise a receptacle prove To Spirits foule and all my Trees thir prey With whose stol'n Fruit Man once more to delude He ceas'd and th' Archangelic Power prepar'd For swift descent with him the Cohort bright Of watchful Cherubim four faces each Had like a double Janus all thir shape Spangl'd with eyes more numerous then those Of Argus and more wakeful then to drouze Charm'd with Arcadian Pipe the Pastoral Reed Of Hermes or his opiate Rod. Mean while To resalute the World with sacred Light Leucothea wak'd and with fresh dews imbalmd The Earth when Adam and first Matron Eve Had ended now thir Orisons and found Strength added from above new hope to spring Out of despaire joy but with fear yet linkt Which thus to Eve his welcome words renewd Eve easily may Faith admit that all The good which we enjoy from Heav'n descends But that from us ought should ascend to Heav'n So prevalent as to concerne the mind Of God high-blest or to incline his will Hard to belief may seem yet this will Prayer Or one short sigh of humane breath up-borne Ev'n to the Seat of God For since I saught By Prayer th' offended Deitie to appease Kneel'd and before him humbl'd all my heart Methought I saw him placable and mild Bending his eare perswasion in me grew That I was heard with favour peace returnd Home to my Brest and to my memorie His promise that thy Seed shall bruise our Foe Which then not minded in dismay yet now Assures me that the bitterness of death Is past and we shall live Whence Haile to thee Eve rightly call'd Mother of all Mankind Mother of all things living since by thee Man is to live and all things live for Man To whom thus Eve with sad demeanour meek Ill worthie I such title should belong To me transgressour who for thee ordaind A help became thy snare to mee reproach Rather belongs distrust and all dispraise But infinite in pardon was my Judge That I who first brought Death on all am grac't The sourse of life next favourable thou Who highly thus to entitle me voutsaf'st Farr other name deserving But the Field To labour calls us now with sweat impos'd Though after sleepless Night for see the Morn All unconcern'd with our unrest begins Her rosie progress smiling let us forth I never from thy side henceforth to stray Wherere our days work lies though now enjoind Laborious till day droop while here we dwell What can be toilsom in these pleasant Walkes Here let us live though in fall'n state content So spake so wish'd much-humblâ—d Eve but Fate Subscrib'd not Nature first gave Signs imprest On Bird Beast Aire Aire suddenly eclips'd After short blush of Morn nigh in her sight The Bird of Jove stoopt from his aerie tour Two Birds of gayest plume before him drove Down from a Hill the Beast that reigns in Woods First hunter then pursu'd a gentle brace Goodliest of all the Forrest Hart and Hinde Direct