Chapter 13

LUCIFER.

_Lucif._ Fair place! yet what is this to heaven, where I Sat next, so almost equalled the Most High? I doubted, measuring both, who was more strong; Then, willing to forget time since so long, Scarce thought I was created: Vain desire Of empire in my thoughts still shot me higher, To mount above his sacred head: Ah why, When he so kind, was so ungrateful I? He bounteously bestowed unenvied good On me: In arbitrary grace I stood: To acknowledge this, was all he did exact; Small tribute, where the will to pay was act. I mourn it now, unable to repent, As he, who knows my hatred to relent, Jealous of power once questioned: Hope, farewell; And with hope, fear; no depth below my hell Can be prepared: Then, Ill, be thou my good; And, vast destruction, be my envy's food. Thus I, with heaven, divided empire gain; Seducing man, I make his project vain, And in one hour destroy his six days pain. They come again, I must retire.

_Enter_ ADAM _and_ EVE.

_Adam._ Thus shall we live in perfect bliss, and see, Deathless ourselves, our numerous progeny. Thou young and beauteous, my desires to bless; I, still desiring, what I still possess.

_Eve._ Heaven, from whence love, our greatest blessing, came, Can give no more, but still to be the same. Thou more of pleasure may'st with me partake; I, more of pride, because thy bliss I make.

_Adam._ When to my arms thou brought'st thy virgin love, Fair angels sung our bridal hymn above: The Eternal, nodding, shook the firmament, And conscious nature gave her glad consent. Roses unbid, and every fragrant flower, Flew from their stalks, to strew thy nuptial bower: The furred and feathered kind the triumph did pursue, And fishes leaped above the streams, the passing pomp to view.

_Eve._ When your kind eyes looked languishing on mine, And wreathing arms did soft embraces join, A doubtful trembling seized me first all o'er; Then, wishes; and a warmth, unknown before: What followed was all ecstasy and trance; Immortal pleasures round my swimming eyes did dance, And speechless joys, in whose sweet tumult tost, I thought my breath and my new being lost.

_Lucif._ O death to hear! and a worse hell on earth! [_Aside._ What mad profusion on this clod-born birth! Abyss of joys, as if heaven meant to shew What, in base matters, such a hand could do: Or was his virtue spent, and he no more With angels could supply the exhausted store, Of which I swept the sky? And wanting subjects to his haughty will, On this mean work employed his trifling skill?

_Eve._ Blest in ourselves, all pleasures else abound; Without our care behold the unlaboured ground Bounteous of fruit; above our shady bowers The creeping jessamin thrusts her fragrant flowers; The myrtle, orange, and the blushing rose, With bending heaps so nigh their blooms disclose, Each seems to swell the flavour which the other blows: By these the peach, the guava, and the pine, And, creeping 'twixt them all, the mantling vine Does round their trunks her purple clusters twine.

_Adam._ All these are ours, all nature's excellence, Whose taste or smell can bless the feasted sense; One only fruit, in the mid garden placed,-- The Tree of Knowledge,--is denied our taste; (Our proof of duty to our Maker's will:) Of disobedience, death's the threatened ill.

_Eve._ Death is some harm, which, though we know not yet, Since threatened, we must needs imagine great: And sure he merits it, who disobeys That one command, and one of so much ease.

_Lucif._ Must they then die, if they attempt to know? He sees they would rebel, and keeps them low. On this foundation I their ruin lay, Hope to know more shall tempt to disobey. I fell by this, and, since their strength is less, Why should not equal means give like success?

_Adam._ Come, my fair love, our morning's task we lose; Some labour even the easiest life would chuse: Ours is not great: the dangling boughs to crop, Whose too luxuriant growth our alleys stop, And choke the paths: This our delight requires, And heaven no more of daily work desires.

_Eve._ With thee to live, is paradise alone: Without the pleasure of thy sight, is none. I fear small progress will be made this day; So much our kisses will our task delay. [_Exeunt._

_Lucif._ Why have not I, like these, a body too, Formed for the same delights which they pursue! I could (so variously my passions move) Enjoy, and blast her in the act of love. Unwillingly I hate such excellence; She wronged me not; but I revenge the offence, Through her, on heaven, whose thunder took away My birth-right skies! Live happy whilst you may, Blest pair; y'are not allowed another day! [_Exit._

GABRIEL _and_ ITHURIEL _descend, carried on bright clouds, and flying cross each other, then light on the ground._

_Gab._ Ithuriel, since we two commissioned are From heaven the guardians of this new made pair, Each mind his charge; for, see, the night draws on, And rising mists pursue the setting sun.

_Ithu._ Blest is our lot to serve; our task we know: To watch, lest any, from the abyss below Broke loose, disturb their sleep with dreams; or worse, Assault their beings with superior force. [URIEL _flies down from the Sun._

_Uriel._ Gabriel, if now the watch be set, prepare, With strictest guard, to shew thy utmost care. This morning came a spirit, fair he seemed, Whom, by his face, I some young cherub deemed; Of man he much inquired, and where his place, With shews of zeal to praise his Maker's grace; But I, with watchful eyes, observed his flight, And saw him on yon steepy mount alight; There, as he thought, unseen, he laid aside His borrowed mask, and re-assumed his pride: I marked his looks, averse to heaven and good; Dusky he grew, and long revolving stood On some deep, dark design; thence shot with haste, And o'er the mounds of Paradise he past: By his proud port, he seemed the Prince of Hell; And here he lurks in shades 'till night: Search well Each grove and thicket, pry in every shape, Lest, hid in some, the arch hypocrite escape.

_Gab._ If any spirit come to invade, or scout From hell, what earthy fence can keep him out? But rest secure of this, he shall be found, And taken, or proscribed this happy ground.

_Ithu._ Thou to the east, I westward walk the round, And meet we in the midst.

_Uriel._ Heaven your design Succeed; your charge requires you, and me mine. [URIEL _flies forward out of sight; the two Angels exeunt severally._

_A Night-piece of a pleasant Bower:_ ADAM _and_ EVE _asleep in it._

_Enter_ LUCIFER.

_Lucif._ So, now they lie secure in love, and steep Their sated senses in full draughts of sleep. By what sure means can I their bliss invade? By violence? No, for they are immortal made. Their reason sleeps, but mimic fancy wakes, Supplies her part, and wild ideas takes, From words and things, ill sorted and misjoined; The anarchy of thought, and chaos of the mind: Hence dreams, confused and various, may arise; These will I set before the woman's eyes; The weaker she, and made my easier prey; Vain shows and pomp the softer sex betray. [LUCIFER _sits down by_ EVE, _and seems to whisper in her ear._

_A Vision, where a tree rises loaden with fruit; four Spirits rise with it, and draw a canopy out of the tree; other Spirits dance about the tree in deformed shapes; after the dance an Angel enters, with a Woman, habited like_ EVE.

_Angel._ [_Singing._] Look up, look up, and see, What heaven prepares for thee; Look up, and this fair fruit behold, Ruddy it smiles, and rich with streaks of gold. The loaded branches downward bend, Willing they stoop, and thy fair hand attend. Fair mother of mankind, make haste And bless, and bless thy senses with the taste.

_Woman._ No, 'tis forbidden; I In tasting it shall die.

_Angel._ Say, who enjoined this harsh command?

_Woman._ 'Twas heaven; and who can heaven withstand?

_Angel._ Why was it made so fair, why placed in sight? Heaven is too good to envy man's delight. See, we before thy face will try What thou so fearest, and will not die. [_The Angel takes the fruit, and gives to the Spirits who danced; they immediately put off their deformed shapes, and appear Angels._

_Angel._ [_Singing._] Behold what a change on a sudden is here! How glorious in beauty, how bright they appear! Prom spirits deformed they are deities made, Their pinions at pleasure the clouds can invade, [_The Angel gives to the Woman, who eats._ Till equal in honour they rise, With him who commands in the skies; Then taste without fear, and be happy and wise.

_Woman._ Ah, now I believe! such a pleasure I find, As enlightens my eyes, and enlivens my mind. [_The Spirits, who are turned Angels, fly up when they have tasted._ I only repent, I deferred my content.

_Angel._ Now wiser experience has taught you to prove, What a folly it is, Out of fear to shun bliss. To the joy that's forbidden we eagerly move; It inhances the price, and increases the love.

_Chorus of both._ To the joy, &c.

_Two Angels descend; they take the Woman each by the hand, and fly up with her out of sight. The Angel who sung, and the Spirits who held the canopy, at the same instant sink down with the tree._

_Enter_ GABRIEL _and_ ITHURIEL _to_ LUCIFER, _who remains._

_Gab._ What art thou? speak thy name and thy intent. Why here alone? and on what errand sent? Not from above; no, thy wan looks betray Diminished light, and eyes unused to day.

_Lucif._ Not to know me, argues thyself unknown: Time was, when, shining next the imperial throne, I sat in awful state; while such as thou Did in the ignoble crowd at distance bow.

_Gab._ Think'st thou, vain spirit, thy glories are the same? And seest not sin obscures thy god-like frame? I know thee now by thy ungrateful pride, That shews me what thy faded looks did hide, Traitor to Him who made and set thee high, And fool, that Power which formed thee to defy.

_Lucif._ Go, slaves, return, and fawn in heaven again: Seek thanks from him whose quarrel you maintain. Vile wretches! of your servitude to boast; You basely keep the place I bravely lost.

_Ithu._ Freedom is choice of what we will and do: Then blame not servants, who are freely so. 'Tis base not to acknowledge what we owe.

_Lucif._ Thanks, howe'er due, proclaim subjection yet; I fought for power to quit the upbraided debt. Whoe'er expects our thanks, himself repays, And seems but little, who can want our praise.

_Gab._ What in us duty, shews not want in him; Blest in himself alone, To whom no praise we, by good deeds, can add; Nor can his glory suffer from our bad. Made for his use; yet he has formed us so, We, unconstrained, what he commands us do. So praise we him, and serve him freely best; Thus thou, by choice, art fallen, and we are blest.

_Ithu._ This, lest thou think thy plea, unanswered, good. Our question thou evad'st: How didst thou dare To break hell bounds, and near this human pair In nightly ambush lie?

_Lucif._ Lives there, who would not seek to force his way, From pain to ease, from darkness to the day? Should I, who found the means to 'scape, not dare To change my sulphurous smoke for upper air? When I, in fight, sustained your Thunderer, And heaven on me alone spent half his war, Think'st thou those wounds were light? Should I not seek The clemency of some more temperate clime, To purge my gloom; and, by the sun refined, Bask in his beams, and bleach me in the wind?

_Gab._ If pain to shun be all thy business here, Methinks thy fellows the same course should steer. Is their pain less, who yet behind thee stay? Or thou less hardy to endure than they?

_Lucif._ Nor one, nor t'other; but, as leaders ought, I ventured first alone, first danger sought, And first explored this new-created frame, Which filled our dusky regions with its fame; In hopes my fainting troops to settle here, And to defend against your Thunderer, This spot of earth; or nearer heaven repair, And forage to his gates from middle air.

_Ithu._ Fool! to believe thou any part canst gain From Him, who could'st not thy first ground maintain.

_Gab._ But whether that design, or one as vain, To attempt the lives of these, first drew thee here, Avoid the place, and never more appear Upon this hallowed earth; else prove our might.

_Lucif._ Not that I fear, do I decline the fight: You I disdain; let me with Him contend, On whom your limitary powers depend. More honour from the sender than the sent: Till then, I have accomplished my intent; And leave this place, which but augments my pain, Gazing to wish, yet hopeless to obtain. [_Exit, they following him._