The Complete Poetry of John Milton (113 page)

   75        
Before thee; and not repenting, this obtain

               
Of right, that I may mitigate thir doom

               
On me deriv’d,
⁵
yet I shall temper so

               
Justice with Mercie, as may illustrate
⁶
most

               
Them fully satisfied, and thee appease.

   80        
Attendance none shall need, nor Train, where none

               
Are to behold the Judgement, but the judg’d,

               
Those two; the third best absent is condemn’d,

               
Convict
⁷
by flight, and Rebel to all Law

               
Conviction to the Serpent none belongs.
⁸

  85   
    
         Thus saying, from his radiant Seat he rose

               
Of high collateral glorie: him Thrones and Powers,

               
Princedoms, and Dominations ministrant

               
Accompanied to Heaven Gate, from whence

               
Eden
and all the Coast
⁹
in prospect lay.

   90        
Down he descended strait; the speed of Gods

               
Time counts not, though with swiftest minutes wing’d.

               
Now was the Sun in Western cadence
¹⁰
low

               
From Noon, and gentle Aires due at thir hour

               
To fan the Earth now wak’d, and usher in

   95        
The Eevning cool when he from wrauth more cool

               
Came the mild Judge and Intercessor both

               
To sentence Man: the voice of God they heard

               
Now walking in the Garden, by soft winds

               
Brought to thir Ears, while day declin’d, they heard,

   100     
And from his presence hid themselves among

               
The thickest Trees, both Man and Wife, till God

               
Approaching, thus to
Adam
call’d aloud.

           
      
       Where art thou
Adam
, wont with joy to meet

               
My coming seen far off? I miss thee here,

   105     
Not pleas’d, thus entertaind with solitude,

               
Where obvious dutie
¹¹
erewhile appear’d unsaught:

               
Or come I less conspicuous, or what change

               
Absents thee, or what chance detains? Come forth.

               
He came, and with him
Eve
, more loth, though first

   110     
T’ offend, discount’nanc’t both, and discompos’d;

               
Love was not in thir looks, either to God

               
Or to each other, but apparent
¹²
guilt,

               
And shame, and perturbation, and despair,

               
Anger, and obstinacie, and hate, and guile.

   115     
Whence
Adam
faultring long, thus answer’d brief.

           
      
       I heard thee in the Garden, and of thy voice

               
Affraid, being naked, hid my self. To whom

               
The gracious Judge without revile repli’d.

           
      
       My voice thou oft hast heard, and hast not fear’d,

   120     
But still rejoyc’t, how is it now become

               
So dreadful to thee? that thou art naked, who

               
Hath told thee? hast thou eaten of the Tree

               
Whereof I gave thee charge thou shouldst not eat?

           
      
       To whom thus
Adam
sore beset repli’d.

   125     
O Heav’n! in evil strait this day I stand

               
Before my Judge, either to undergoe

               
My self the total Crime, or to accuse

               
My other self, the partner of my life;

               
Whose failing, while her Faith to me remains,

   130     
I should conceal, and not expose to blame

               
By my complaint; but strict necessitie

               
Subdues me, and calamitous constraint,

               
Least on my head both sin and punishment,

               
However insupportable, be all

   135     
Devolv’d; though should I hold my peace, yet thou

               
Wouldst easily detect what I conceal.

               
This Woman whom thou mad’st to be my help,

               
And gav’st me as thy perfet gift, so good,

               
So fit, so acceptable, so Divine,

   140     
That from her hand I could suspect no ill,

               
And what she did, whatever in it self,

               
Her doing seem’d to justifie the deed;

               
Shee gave me of the Tree, and I did eat.

           
      
       To whom the sovran Presence thus repli’d.

   145     
Was shee thy God, that her thou didst obey

               
Before his voice, or was shee made thy guide,

               
Superior, or but equal, that to her

               
Thou did’st resigne thy Manhood, and the Place

               
Wherein God set thee above her made of thee,

   150     
And for thee, whose perfection farr excell’d

               
Hers in all real dignitie: Adornd

               
Shee was indeed, and lovely to attract

               
Thy Love, not thy Subjection, and her Gifts

               
Were such as under Government well seem’d,

   155     
Unseemly to bear rule, which was thy part

               
And person,
¹³
had’st thou known thy self aright

           
      
       So having said, he thus to
Eve
in few:

               
Say Woman, what is this which thou hast done?

           
      
       To whom sad
Eve
with shame nigh overwhelm’d,

   160     
Confessing soon, yet not before her Judge

               
Bold or loquacious, thus abasht repli’d.

           
      
       The Serpent me beguil’d and I did eat.

           
      
       Which when the Lord God heard, without delay

               
To Judgement he proceeded on th’ accus’d

   165     
Serpent though brute, unable to transferr

               
The Guilt on him who made him instrument

               
Of mischief, and polluted from the end

               
Of his Creation; justly then accurst,

               
As vitiated in Nature: more to know

   170     
Concern’d not Man (since he no further knew)

               
Nor alter’d his offence; yet God at last

               
To Satan first in sin his doom apply’d,

               
Though in mysterious terms, judg’d as then best:

               
And on the Serpent thus his curse let fall.

   175  
      
       Because thou hast done this, thou art accurst

               
Above all Cattel, each Beast of the Field;

               
Upon thy Belly groveling thou shalt goe,

               
And dust shalt eat all the dayes of thy Life.
¹⁴

               
Between Thee and the Woman I will put

   180     
Enmitie, and between thine and her Seed;

               
Her Seed shall bruise thy head, thou bruise his heel.
¹⁵

           
      
       So spake this Oracle, then verifi’d

               
When
Jesus
son of
Mary
second
Eve
,

               
Saw Satan fall like Lightning down from Heav’n,

   185     
Prince of the Air; then rising from his Grave

               
Spoild Principalities and Powers, triumpht

               
In open shew, and with ascention bright

               
Captivity led captive through the Air,

               
The Realm it self of Satan long usurpt,

   190     
Whom he shall tread at last under our feet;

               
Eevn hee who now foretold his fatal bruise,

               
And to the Woman thus his Sentence turn’d.

           
      
       Thy sorrow I will greatly multiplie

               
By thy Conception; Childern thou shalt bring

   195     
In sorrow forth, and to thy Husbands will

               
Thine shall submit, hee over thee shall rule.

           
      
       On
Adam
last thus judgement he pronounc’d.

               
Because thou hast heark’n’d to the voice of thy Wife,

               
And eaten of the Tree concerning which

   200     
I charg’d thee, saying: Thou shalt not eat thereof,

               
Curs’d is the ground for thy sake,
¹⁶
thou in sorrow

               
Shalt eat thereof all the days of thy Life;

               
Thorns also and Thistles it shall bring thee forth

               
Unbid, and thou shalt eat th’ Herb of the Field,

   205     
In the sweat of thy Face shalt thou eat Bread,

               
Till thou return unto the ground, for thou

               
Out of the ground wast taken, know thy Birth,

               
For dust thou art, and shalt to dust return.

           
      
       So judg’d he Man, both Judge and Saviour sent,

   210     
And th’ instant stroke of Death denounc’t that day

               
Remov’d farr off; then pittying how they stood

               
Before him naked to the air, that now

               
Must suffer change, disdain’d not to begin

               
Thenceforth the form of servant to assume,

   215     
As when he wash’d his servants feet, so now

               
As Father of his Familie he clad

               
Thir nakedness with Skins of Beasts, or slain,

               
Or as the Snake with youthful Coat repaid;
¹⁷

               
And thought not much
¹⁸
to cloath his Enemies:

   220     
Nor hee thir outward onely with the Skins

               
Of Beasts, but inward nakedness, much more

               
Opprobrious, with his Robe of righteousness,

               
Arraying cover’d from his Fathers sight.

               
To him with swift ascent he up returnd,

   225     
Into his blissful bosom reassum’d

               
In glory as of old, to him appeas’d

               
All, though all-knowing, what had past with Man

               
Recounted, mixing intercession sweet.

               
Meanwhile ere thus was sin’d and judg’d on Earth,