Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/236

 194

��PARADISE LOST

��And all the Blest. Stand fast; to stand or fall 6 4 o

Free in thine own arbitrament it lies. Perf et within, no outward aid require ; And all temptation to transgress repel." So saying, he arose; whom Adam thus Followed with benediction: " Since to

part, Go, Heavenly Guest, Ethereal Messenger,

��Sent from whose sovran goodness I adore !

Gentle to me and affable hath been

Thy condescension, and shall be honoured

ever 6 49

With grateful memory. Thou to Mankind

Be good and friendly still, and oft return! "

So parted they, the Angel up to Heaven

From the thick shade, and Adam to his

bower.

��BOOK IX

��THE ARGUMENT

Satan, having compassed the Earth, with meditated guile returns as a mist by night into Paradise ; enters into the Serpent sleeping. Adam and Eve in the morn- ing go forth to their labours, which Eve proposes to divide in several places, each labouring apart : Adam consents not, alleging the danger lest that Enemy of whom they were forewarned should attempt her found alone. Eve, loth to be thought not circumspect or firm enough, urges her going apart, the rather desirous to make trial of her strength ; Adam at last yields. The Serpent finds her alone : his subtle approach, first gaz- ing, then speaking, with much flattery extolling Eve above all other creatures. Eve, wondering to hear the Serpent speak, asks how he attained to human speech and such understanding not till now ; the Serpent an- swers that by tasting of a certain Tree in the Garden he attained 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 argu- ments induces her at length to eat. She, pleased with the taste, deliberates a while whether to impart thereof to Adam or not ; at last brings him of the fruit ; relates what persuaded her to eat thereof. Adam, at first amazed, but perceiving her lost, resolves, through vehe- mence of love, to perish with her, and, extenuating the trespass, eats also of the fruit. The effects thereof in them both ; they seek to cover their nakedness ; then fall to variance and accusation of one another.

No more of talk where God or Angel

Guest With Man, as with his friend, familiar

used

To sit indulgent, and with him partake Rural repast, permitting him the while Venial discourse unblamed. 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 Heaven, Now alienated, distance and distaste, Anger and just rebuke, and judgment

given, io

That brought into this World a world of

woe, Sin and her shadow Death, and Misery,

��Death's harbinger. Sad task ! yet argu- ment

Not less but more heroic than the wrauth Of stern Achilles on his foe pursued Thrice fugitive about Troy wall; or rage Of Turnus for Lavinia disespoused; Or Neptune's ire, or Juno's, that so long Perplexed the Greek, and Cytherea's son: If answerable style I can obtain 20

Of my celestial Patroness, who deigns Her nightly visitation unimplored, And dictates to me slumbering, or inspires Easy my unpremeditated verse, Since first this subject for heroic song Pleased me, long choosing and beginning

late,

Not sedulous by nature to indite Wars, hitherto the only argument Heroic deemed, chief maistrie to dissect With long and tedious havoc fabled knights 30

In battles feigned (the better fortitude Of patience and heroic martyrdom Unsung), or to describe races and games, Or tilting furniture, emblazoned shields, Impreses quaint, caparisons and steeds, Bases and tinsel trappings, gorgeous knights At joust and tournament; then marshalled

feast

Served up in hall with sewers and seneshals: The skill of artifice or office mean; Not that which justly gives heroic name 40 To person or to poem ! Me, of these Nor skilled nor studious, higher argument Remains, sufficient of itself to raise That name, unless an age too late, or cold Climat, or years, damp my intended wing, Depressed; 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

Star

Of Hesperus, whose office is to bring Twilight upon the Earth, short arbiter 50

�� �