Meanwhile the heinous and despiteful act
Of Satan done in Paradise, and how
He in the serpent, had perverted Eve,
Her husband she, to taste the fatal fruit,
Was known in Heav’n; for what can scape the eye
Of God all-seeing, or deceive his heart
Omniscient, who in all things wise and just,
Hindered not Satan to attempt the mind
Of man, with strength entire, and free will armed,
Complete10 to have discovered and repulsed
Whatever wiles of foe or seeming friend.
For still12 they knew, and ought to have still remembered
The high injunction not to taste that fruit,
Whoever tempted; which they not obeying,
Incurred, what could they less, the penalty,
And manifold in sin16, deserved to fall.
Up into Heav’n from Paradise in haste
Th’ angelic guards ascended, mute and sad
For man, for of his state by this they knew,
Much wond’ring how the subtle fiend had stol’n
Entrance unseen. Soon as th’ unwelcome news
From Earth arriv’d at Heaven Gate, displeased
All were who heard, dim sadness did not spare
That time celestial visages, yet mixed
With pity, violated not their bliss.
About the new-arrived, in multitudes
Th’ ethereal people ran, to hear and know
How all befell: they towards the throne supreme
Accountable29 made haste to make appear
With righteous plea, their utmost vigilance,
And easily approved; when the Most High
Eternal Father from his secret cloud,
Amidst in thunder uttered thus his voice.
“Assembled angels, and ye Powers returned
From unsuccessful charge, be not dismayed,
Nor troubled at these tidings from the Earth,
Which your sincerest care could not prevent,
Foretold so lately what would come to pass,
When first this Tempter crossed the gulf from Hell.
I told ye then he should prevail and speed40
On his bad errand, man should be seduced
And flattered out of all, believing lies
Against his Maker; no decree of mine
Concurring to necessitate his fall,
Or touch with lightest moment45 of impulse
His free will, to her own inclining left
In even scale. But fall’n he is, and now
What rests48 but that the mortal sentence pass
On his transgression, death denounced that day,
Which he presumes already vain and void,
Because not yet inflicted, as he feared,
By some immediate stroke; but soon shall find
Forbearance no acquittance53 ere day end.
Justice shall54 not return as bounty scorned.
But whom send I to judge them? Whom but thee
Vicegerent Son, to thee56 I have transferred
All judgment, whether in Heav’n, or Earth, or Hell.
Easy it might be seen that I intend
Mercy colleague with justice, sending thee
Man’s friend, his Mediator, his designed
Both ransom and Redeemer voluntary,
And destined man himself to judge man fall’n.”
So spake the Father, and unfolding bright
Toward the right hand his glory, on the Son
65 Blazed forth unclouded deity; he full
Resplendent all his Father manifest
Expressed, and thus divinely answered mild.
“Father Eternal, thine is to decree,
Mine both in Heav’n and Earth to do thy will
Supreme, that thou in me thy Son beloved
May’st ever rest well pleased. I go to judge
On Earth these thy transgressors, but thou know’st,
Whoever judged, the worst on me must light,
When time shall be, for so I undertook
Before thee; and not repenting, this obtain
Of right, that I may mitigate their doom
On me derived, yet I shall temper so
Justice with mercy, as may illustrate most78
Them79 fully satisfied, and thee appease.
Attendance none shall need80, nor train, where none
Are to behold the judgment but the judged,
Those two; the third82 best absent is condemned,
Convict83 by flight, and rebel to all law;
Conviction84 to the serpent none belongs.”
Thus saying, from his radiant seat he rose
Princedoms, and Dominations ministrant
Accompanied to Heaven gate, from whence
Eden and all the coast in prospect lay.
Down he descended straight; the speed90 of gods
Time counts not, though with swiftest minutes winged.
Now was the sun in western cadence92 low
From noon, and gentle airs due at their hour
To fan the earth now waked, and usher in
The evening cool, when he from wrath 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 their ears, while day declined; they heard,
And from his presence hid themselves among
The thickest trees, both man and wife, till God
Approaching, thus to Adam called aloud.
“Where art thou Adam, wont with joy to meet
My coming seen far off? I miss thee here,
Not pleased, thus entertained with solitude,
Where obvious106 duty erewhile appeared unsought:
Or come I less conspicuous, or what change
Absents thee, or what chance detain? Come forth.”
He came, and with him Eve, more loath, though first
To offend, discount’nanced both, and discomposed;
Love was not in their looks, either to God
Or to each other, but apparent guilt,
And shame, and perturbation, and despair,
Anger, and obstinacy, and hate, and guile.
Whence Adam falt’ring long, thus answered brief.
“I heard thee in the garden, and of thy voice
Afraid, being naked, hid myself.” To whom
The gracious judge without revile118 replied.
“My voice thou oft hast heard, and hast not feared,
But still120 rejoiced, 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 replied.
“O Heav’n! In evil strait this day I stand
Before my Judge, either to undergo
Myself the total crime, or to accuse
My other self128, the partner of my life;
Whose failing, while her faith to me remains,
I should conceal, and not expose to blame
By my complaint; but strict necessity
Subdues me, and calamitous constraint
Lest on my head both sin and punishment,
However insupportable, be all
Devolved135; though should I hold my peace, yet thou
Wouldst easily detect what I conceal.
This woman137 whom thou mad’st to be my help,
And gav’st me as thy perfect gift, so good,
So fit, so acceptable, so divine,
That from her hand I could suspect no ill,
And what she did, whatever in itself,
Her doing seemed to justify the deed;
She gave me of the tree, and I did eat.”
To whom the sov�
�reign Presence thus replied.
“Was she thy God, that her thou didst obey
Before his voice, or was she made thy guide,
Superior, or but equal, that to her
Thou didst resign thy manhood, and the place
Wherein God set thee above her made of thee,
And for thee, whose perfection far excelled
Hers in all real dignity: adorned
She was indeed, and lovely to attract
Thy love, not thy subjection, and her gifts
Were such as under government well seemed,
Unseemly to bear rule, which was thy part155
And person, hadst thou known thyself 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 overwhelmed,
Confessing soon, yet not before her judge
Bold or loquacious, thus abashed replied.
“The Serpent me beguiled and I did eat.”
Which when the Lord God heard, without delay
To judgment he proceeded on th’ accused
Serpent though brute, unable165 to transfer
The guilt on him who made him instrument
Of mischief, and polluted from the end
Of his creation; justly then accursed,
As vitiated in nature: more to know
Concerned not man (since he no further knew)
Nor altered his offense; yet God at last
To Satan first in sin his doom applied,
Though in mysterious173 terms, judged as then best:
And on the serpent thus his curse let fall.
“Because thou175 hast done this, thou art accursed
Above all cattle, each beast of the field;
Upon thy belly groveling thou shalt go,
And dust shalt eat all the days of thy life.
Between thee and the woman I will put
Enmity, and between thine and her seed;
Her seed shall bruise thy head, thou bruise his heel.”
So spake this oracle, then verified
When Jesus son of Mary, second Eve183,
Saw Satan fall like lightning184 down from heav’n,
Prince of the Air185; then rising from his grave
Spoiled Principalities and Powers, triumphed
In open show, and with ascension bright
Captivity led captive through the air,
The realm itself of Satan long usurped,
Whom he shall tread at last under our feet;
Even he who now foretold his fatal bruise,
And to the woman thus his sentence turned.
“Thy sorrow I will greatly multiply
By thy conception; children thou shalt bring
In sorrow forth, and to thy husband’s will195
Thine shall submit, he over thee shall rule195.”
On Adam last thus judgment he pronounced.
“Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife,
And eaten of the tree concerning which
I charged thee, saying, ‘Thou shalt not eat thereof,’
Cursed is the ground for thy sake, 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 th’ field,
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 judged he man, both Judge and Savior sent,
And th’ instant stroke of death denounced210 that day
Removed far off; then pitying how they stood
Before him naked to the air, that now
Must suffer change, disdained not to begin
Thenceforth the form of servant to assume,
As when215 he washed his servants’ feet, so now
As father of his family he clad
Their nakedness with skins of beasts, or slain, Or217 as the snake with youthful coat repaid;
And thought not much219 to clothe his enemies:
Nor he their outward only with the skins
Of beasts, but inward nakedness, much more
Opprobrious, with his robe of righteousness222,
Arraying covered from his Father’s sight.
To him with swift ascent he up returned,
Into his blissful bosom reassumed
In glory as of old, to him appeased
All, though all-knowing, what had passed with man
Recounted, mixing intercession sweet.
Meanwhile ere thus was sinned and judged on Earth,
Within the gates of Hell sat Sin and Death230,
In counterview within the gates, that now
Stood open wide, belching outrageous flame
Far into Chaos, since the fiend passed through,
Sin opening, who thus now to Death began.
“O Son, why sit we here each other viewing
Idly, while Satan our great author236 thrives
In other worlds, and happier seat provides
For us his offspring dear? It cannot be
But that success attends him; if mishap,
Ere this he had returned, with fury driv’n
By his avengers, since no place like this241
Can fit his punishment, or their revenge.
Methinks I feel new strength within me rise,243
Wings growing, and dominion giv’n me large243
Beyond this deep243; whatever draws me on,
Or sympathy, or some connatural force
Powerful at greatest distance to unite
With secret amity things of like kind
By secretest conveyance249. Thou my shade
Inseparable must with me along:
For Death from Sin no power can separate.
But lest the difficulty of passing back
Stay his return perhaps over this gulf
Impassable, impervious,254 let us try
Advent’rous work, yet to thy power and mine
Not unagreeable, to found a path
Over this main257 from Hell to that new world
Where Satan now prevails, a monument
Of merit high to all th’ infernal host,
Easing their passage hence, for intercourse,
Or transmigration261, as their lot shall lead.
Nor can I miss the way, so strongly drawn
By this new felt attraction and instinct.”
Whom thus the meager264 shadow answered soon.
“Go whither fate and inclination strong
Leads thee, I shall not lag behind, nor err
The way, thou leading, such a scent I draw
Of carnage, prey innumerable, and taste
The savor of death from all things there that live:
Nor shall I to the work thou enterprisest
Be wanting, but afford thee equal aid.”
So saying, with delight he snuffed272 the smell
Of mortal change on Earth. As when a flock
Of ravenous fowl, though many a league remote,
Against275 the day of battle, to a field
Where armies lie encamped, come flying, lured
With scent of living carcasses designed277
For death, the following day, in bloody fight.
So scented the grim feature279, and upturned
His nostril wide into the murky280 air,
Sagacious281 of his quarry from so far.
Then both from out Hell gates into the waste
Wide anarchy of Chaos damp and dark
Flew diverse284, and with power (their power was great)
Hovering upon the waters; what they met
Solid or slimy, as in raging sea
Tossed up and down, together crowded drove
From each side sho
aling288 towards the mouth of Hell.
As when two polar winds blowing adverse
Upon the Cronian Sea290, together drive
Mountains of ice, that stop th’ imagined way291
Beyond Petsora eastward, to the rich291
Cathayan Coast291. The aggregated soil293
Death with his mace petrific, cold and dry,
As with a trident smote, and fixed as firm
As Delos296 floating once; the rest his look
Bound with Gorgonian rigor not to move,
And with asphaltic slime; broad as the gate,
Deep to the roots of Hell the gathered beach
They fastened, and the mole300 immense wrought on
Over the foaming deep high-arched, a bridge
Of length prodigious joining to the wall
Immovable of this now fenceless world
Forfeit to Death; from hence a passage broad,
Smooth, easy, inoffensive305 down to Hell.
So, if great things to small may be compared,
Xerxes307, the liberty of Greece to yoke,
From Susa308 his Memnonian palace high
Came to the sea, and over Hellespont
Bridging his way, Europe with Asia joined,
And scourged with many a stroke th’ indignant311 waves.
Now had they brought the work by wondrous art312
Pontifical312, a ridge of pendant rock
Over the vexed314 abyss, following the track
Of Satan, to the selfsame place where he
First lighted from his wing, and landed safe
From out of Chaos to the outside bare
Of this round world: with pins of adamant
And chains they made all fast, too fast they made
And durable; and now in little space
The confines321 met of empyrean Heav’n
And of this world, and on the left hand Hell
With long reach interposed; three sev’ral ways
In sight, to each of these three places led.
And now their way to Earth they had descried,
To Paradise first tending, when behold
Satan in likeness of an angel bright
Betwixt the Centaur and the Scorpion steering328
His zenith328, while the sun in Aries rose:
Disguised he came, but those his children dear
Their parent soon discerned, though in disguise.
He after Eve seduced, unminded slunk
Into the wood fast by, and changing shape
To observe the sequel334, saw his guileful act
By Eve, though all unweeting, seconded
Upon her husband, saw their shame that sought
Vain covertures; but when he saw descend
The Son of God to judge them, terrified