The Complete Poetry of John Milton (111 page)

   1055   
Had shadow’d them from knowing ill, was gon,

               
Just confidence, and native righteousness,

               
And honour from about them, naked left

               
To guiltie shame: hee cover’d, but his Robe

               
Uncover’d more. So rose the
Danite
strong

   1060   
Herculean Samson
from the Harlot-lap

               
Of
Philistean Dalilah
, and wak’d

               
Shorn of his strength. They destitute and bare

               
Of all thir vertue: silent, and in face

               
Confounded long they sate, as struck’n mute,

   1065   
Till
Adam
, though not less then
Eve
abash’t,

               
At length gave utterance to these words constraind.

            
      
       O
Eve
, in evil hour thou didst give ear

               
To that false Worm, of whomsoever taught

               
To counterfet Mans voice, true in our Fall,

   1070   
False in our promis’d Rising; since our Eyes

               
Op’n’d we find indeed, and find we know

               
Both Good and Evil, Good lost, and Evil got,

               
Bad Fruit of Knowledge, if this be to know,

               
Which leaves us naked thus, of Honour void,

   1075   
Of Innocence, of Faith, of Puritie,

               
Our wonted Ornaments now soild and staind,

               
And in our Faces evident the signes

               
Of foul concupiscence; whence evil store;

               
Ev’n shame, the last
⁷⁷
of evils; of the first

   1080   
Be sure then. How shall I behold the face

               
Henceforth of God or Angel, earst with joy

               
And rapture so oft beheld? those heav’nly shapes

               
Will dazle now this earthly, with thir blaze

               
Insufferably bright. O might I here

   1085   
In solitude live savage, in some glade

               
Obscur’d, where highest Woods impenetrable

               
To Starr or Sun-light, spread thir umbrage broad

               
And brown
⁷⁸
as Evening: Cover me ye Pines,

               
Ye Cedars, with innumerable boughs

   1090   
Hide me, where I may never see them more.

               
But let us now, as in bad plight, devise

               
What best may for the present serve to hide

               
The Parts of each from other, that seem most

               
To shame obnoxious, and unseemliest seen,

   1095   
Some Tree whose broad smooth Leaves together sowd,

               
And girded on our loyns, may cover round

               
Those middle parts, that this new commer, Shame,

               
There sit not, and reproach us as unclean.

            
      
       So counsel’d hee, and both together went

   1100   
Into the thickest Wood, there soon they chose

               
The Figtree,
⁷⁹
not that kind for Fruit renown’d,

               
But such as at this day to
Indians
known

               
In
Malabar
or
Decan
spreds her Armes

               
Braunching so broad and long, that in the ground

   1105   
The bended Twigs take root, and Daughters grow

               
About the Mother Tree, a Pillard shade

               
High overarch’t, and echoing Walks between;

               
There oft the
Indian
Herdsman shunning heat

               
Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing Herds

   1110   
At Loopholes cut through thickest shade: Those Leaves

               
They gatherd, broad as
Amazonian
Targe,
⁸⁰

               
And with what skill they had, together sowd,

               
To gird thir waste, vain Covering if to hide

               
Thir guilt and dreaded shame; O how unlike

   1115   
To that first naked Glorie. Such of late

               
Columbus
found th’
American
so girt

               
With featherd Cincture, naked else and wild

               
Among the Trees on Iles and woodie Shores.

               
Thus fenc’t, and as they thought, thir shame in part

   1120   
Coverd, but not at rest or ease of Mind,

               
They sate them down to weep, nor onely Teares

               
Raind at thir Eyes, but high Winds worse within

               
Began to rise, high Passions, Anger, Hate,

               
Mistrust, Suspicion, Discord, and shook sore

   1125   
Thir inward State of Mind, calm Region once

               
And full of Peace, now tost and turbulent:

               
For Understanding rul’d not, and the Will

               
Heard not her lore, both in subjection now

               
To sensual Appetite, who from beneath

   1130   
Usurping over sovran Reason claimd

               
Superior sway: from thus distemperd brest,

               
Adam
, estrang’d in look and alterd stile,

               
Speech intermitted thus to
Eve
renewd.

            
      
       Would thou hadst heark’n’d to my words, and stai’d

   1135   
With me, as I besought thee, when that strange

               
Desire of wandring this unhappie Morn,

               
I know not whence possess’d thee; we had then

               
Remaind still happie, not as now, despoild

               
Of all our good, sham’d, naked, miserable.

   1140   
Let none henceforth seek needless cause t’ approve

               
The Faith they owe;
⁸¹
when earnestly they seek

               
Such proof, conclude, they then begin to fail.

            
      
       To whom soon mov’d with touch of blame thus
Eve.

               
What words have past thy Lips,
Adam
severe,

   1145   
Imput’st thou that to my default, or will

               
Of wandring, as thou call’st it, which who knows

               
But might as ill have happ’n’d thou being by,

               
Or to thy self perhaps: hadst thou bin there,

               
Or here th’ attempt, thou couldst not have discernd

   1150   
Fraud in the Serpent, speaking as he spake;

               
No ground of enmitie between us known,

               
Why hee should mean me ill, or seek to harm.

               
Was I t’ have never parted from thy side?

               
As good have grown there still a liveless Rib.

   1155   
Being as I am, why didst not thou the Head

               
Command me absolutely not to go,

               
Going into such danger as thou saidst?

               
Too facil then thou didst not much gainsay,

               
Nay, didst permit, approve, and fair dismiss.

   1160   
Hadst thou bin firm and fixt in thy dissent,

               
Neither had I transgress’d, nor thou with mee.

            
      
       To whom then first incenst
Adam
repli’d.

               
Is this the Love, is this the recompence

               
Of mine to thee, ingrateful
Eve
, exprest

   1165   
Immutable
⁸²
when thou wert lost, not I,

               
Who might have liv’d and joyd immortal bliss,

               
Yet willingly chose rather Death with thee:

               
And am I now upbraided, as the cause

               
Of thy transgressing? not enough severe,

   1170   
It seems, in thy restraint: what could I more?

               
I warn’d thee, I admonish’d thee, foretold

               
The danger, and the lurking Enemie

               
That lay in wait; beyond this had bin force,

               
And force upon free will hath here no place.

   1175   
But confidence then bore thee on, secure

               
Either to meet no danger, or to find

               
Matter of glorious trial; and perhaps

               
I also err’d in overmuch admiring

               
What seemd in thee so perfet, that I thought

   1180   
No evil durst attempt
⁸³
thee, but I rue

               
That errour now, which is become my crime,

               
And thou th’ accuser. Thus it shall befall

               
Him who to worth in Woman overtrusting

               
Lets her will rule; restraint she will not brook,

   1185   
And left t’ her self, if evil thence ensue,

               
Shee first his weak indulgence will accuse.

            
      
       Thus they in mutual accusation spent

               
The fruitless hours, but neither self-condemning,

               
And of thir vain contest appeer’d no end.