Adam. Ne'er be it true, ah never
That to obtain thy favour,

I prove to Heaven rebellious and ungrateful.
And to obey a woman,

So disobey my Maker and my God!

Then did not death denounced

With terror's icy paleness blanch thy cheek?
Eve. And thinkest thou, if the apple

Were but the food of death,

The great producer would have raised it there,
Where being is eternal?

Thinkest thou, that if of error

This fruit-tree were the cause,

In man's delighted eye

So fertile and so fair,

He would have formed it flourishing in air.

Ah, were it so, he would indeed have given
A cause of high offence,

Since nature has ordained,

(A monitress sagacious),

That to support his being, man must eat,
And trust in what looks fair, as just and good.
Adam. If the celestial tiller,

Who the fair face of Heaven
Has thickly sown with stars,

Amidst so many plants fruitful and fair,
Placed the forbidden apple,
The fairest and most sweet,
'Twas to make proof of man,

As a wise keeper of his heavenly law,
And to afford him scope for high desert;
For he alone may gain the name of brave,
Who rules himself and all his own desires.
Man might indeed find some excuse for sin,
If scantily with fruits

This garden were supplied;

But this abounding in so many sweets,

Man ought not to renounce

The clear command of Heaven.

Eve. And is it thus you love me?

Ne'er be it true, ah never,

That I address you as my heart, my life!

From you I'll only wander,

Bathed in my tears, and sighing,

And hating even myself,

I'll hide me from the sun.

Adam. Dear Eve! my sweetest love!

My spirit and my heart!

Oh, haste to dry thine eyes!

For mine are all these tears

That bathe thy cheek, and stream upon thy bosom.

Eve. Ah, my unhappy state!

I that so much have said, so much have done
To elevate this man

Above the highest Heaven, and now so little
Can he or trust or love me !

Adam. Ah, do not grieve, my life!
Too much it wounds my soul

To see thee in affliction.

Eve. I know your sole desire

Is to be witness to my sighs and tears;
Hence to the winds and seas

I pay this bitter tribute.

Adam. Alas! my heart is splitting.
What can I do? When I look up to heaven,
I feel an icy tremour

Even to my bones oppress me,

Anxious alone to guard the heavenly precept:
If I survey my partner,

I share her tears and echo back her sighs.

'Tis torture and distraction

To wound her with refusal my kind heart

Would teach my opening hand to seize the apple. But in my doubtful breast

My spirit bids it close.

Adam! thou wretch! how many

Various desires besiege thy trembling heart!

One prompts thee now to sigh,

Another to rejoice; nor canst thou know

Which shall incline thee most,

Or sighs, or joyous favour,

From woman, or from God.

Eve. Yet he reflects, and wishes

That Eve should now forsake

Her hope of being happy

In elevating man,

Even while I hold the fruit of exaltation!

Adam. Though mute, yet eloquent

Are all your looks, my love;

Alas! whate'er you ask

You're certain to obtain ;

And my heart grants, before your tongue can speak.

Eyes, that to me are suns,

The Heaven of that sweet face

No more, no more obscure!

Return! alas! return

To scatter radiance o'er that cloudy cheek!

Lift up, O lift thy brow

From that soft mass of gold that curls around it,

Locks like the solar rays,

Chains to my heart and lightning to my eyes!

O let thy lovely tresses,

Now light and unconfined,

Sport in the air and all thy face disclose,

That paradise, that speaks a heart divine!
I yield thee full obedience;

Thy prayers are all commands:

Dry, dry thy streaming eyes, and on thy lips
Let tender smiles like harmless lightning play
Eve. Ah, misbelieving Adam,

Be now a kind receiver

Of this delightful fruit!

Hasten, now hasten to extend thy hand
To press this banquet of beatitude!
Adam. Oh, my most sweet companion,
Behold thy ardent lover!

Now banish from his heart

The whirlpool of affliction, turned to him
His dearest guide, his radiant polar star!
Show me that lovely apple,

Which 'midst thy flowers and fruits,
Ingenious plunderer, thou hidest from me!
Eve. Adam, behold the apple!

What sayest thou? I have tasted, and yet live.
Ah, 'twill insure our lives,

And make us equal to our God in Heaven.

But first the fruit entire

We must between us eat,

And when we have enjoyed it,

Then to a radiant throne, a throne of stars,

Exalting Angels will direct our flight.

Adam. Give me the pilfered fruit,

Thou courteous pilferer!

Give me the fruit that charms thee,

And let me yield to her,

Who to make me a God has toiled and wept!

Alas! what have I done?

How sharp a thorn is piercing to my heart

With instantaneous anguish!

How am I o'erwhelmed

In a vast flood of sorrow!

Eve. Alas! what do I see?

Oh, bitter knowledge! unexpected sight!

All is prepared for human misery.

Adam. O precious liberty! where art thou fled? Eve. O precious liberty! O dire enthralment! Adam. Is this the fruit so sweet,

The source of so much bitter?

Say why wouldst thou betray me?

Ah why of heaven deprive me!
Why make me forfeit thus

My state of innocence,

Where cheerful I enjoy a blissful life?

Why make me thus a slave

To the fierce arms of death,

Thou, whom I deemed my life?

Eve. I have been blind to good,
Quick-sighted but to evil,
An enemy to Adam,

A rebel to my God,

For daring to exalt me

To the high gates of heaven,

I fall presumptuous to the depths of hell.

Adam. Alas, what dart divine appears in heaven,
Blazing in circling flame?

Eve. What punishment,

Wretch that I am, hangs o'er me? Am I naked!

And speaking still to Adam?

Adam. Am I too naked? hide me! hence!

Eve. I fly.

SCENE II.

Volano. Thou'rt fallen, at length thou'rt fallen, O thou presuming

With new support from the resplendent stars,

To mount to seats sublime !

Adam, at length thou'rt fallen to the deep,

As far as thy ambition hoped to soar;

Now see thou hast attained

To learn the distance between heaven and hell.
Now let Avernus echo,

To the hoarse sound of the funereal trumpet!

Joyful arise to light,

And pay your homage to the prince of hell!

SCENE III.-Satan, Volano, Chorus of SPIRITS, with their flags flying, and infernal instruments.

Volano. Man is subdued, subdued !

Palms of eternal glory!

Why pause ye now? to your infernal reeds

And pipes of hoarsest sound, with pitch cemented,

And various instruments of discord,

Now let the hand and lip be quick applied !

Behold how triumph now to us returns,

As rightly he foretold

Our Stygian Emperor!

Spread to the wind

Your fluttering banners! Oh, thou festive day,

To Hell of glory, and to Heaven of shame!

SCENE IV.-SERPENT, VAIN GLORY, SATAN, VOLANO, and SPIRITS.

Serpent. To pleasures and to joys,

Ye formidable dark sulphureous warriors!

Let Fame to heaven now on her raven plumes

Direct her rapid flight,

Of man's completed crime

The mournful messenger.

Satan. Behold, again expanded in the air The insignia of hell!

Hear now the sounds of triumph,

And voices without number

That raise to heaven the shout of victory?

Serpent. Lo, I return, ye Spirits of Avernus,
And as promised, a proud conqueror !
Lo, to these deep infernal realms of darkness
I bring transcendent light, transcendent joy;
Thanks to my fortitude, which from that giant
Now wretched, and in tears,

Forced his aspiring crown of fragile glass;
And thanks to her, this martial heroine,

Vain Glory, whom to my proud heart I press.

Satan. The torrent hastes not to the sea so rapid,

Nor yet so rapid in the realm of fire
Flashes kindle and die,

As the quick circling hours
Of good are joined to evil

In life's corrupted state;

The work of my great Lord, nor less the work
Of thee, great Goddess of the scene condemned;
Up, up with homage quick

To show ourselves of both the blest adorers!

Serpent. Now, from their bended knees let all arise, And to increase our joys

Let thy glad song, Canoro,

Now memorise the prosperous toil of hell.

Canoro. Happy Canoro, raised to matchless bliss,

Since 'tis thy lot to speak

The prosperous exploits of Lucifer!

Behold I bend the knee,

And sing thy triumph in a joyous strain;

Behold, the glorious triumph

Of that unconquered power,

Who every power surpasses,

The mighty monarch of the deadly realm!

Now raise the tumid form,

Avernus, banish grief;

Man is involved in snares,

And Death is glutted with his frail existence.

This is the potent, brave,

And ancient enemy

Of man, the dauntless foe,

And dread destroyer of the starry court.

No more contentment dwell

In the terrestrial seat:

Thou moon, and sun, be darkened,

And every element to chaos turn!

Man is at length subdued.

From a corrupted source,

A weak and hapless offspring,