University of Virginia Library

Act III.

Scene 1.

Paradise.
Lucifer.
Fair place; yet what is this to Heav'n, where I
Sate next, so almost equall'd 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 bestow'd unenvy'd good
On me: in arbitrary Grace I stood:
T'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 pow'r once question'd: hope, farewel;
And with hope, fear; no depth below my Hell
Can be prepar'd: then, ill be thou my good;
And vast destruction, be my envy's food.
Thus I, with Heav'n, 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 our selves, our num'rous progeny.
Thou young and beauteous, my desires to bless;
I, still desiring, what I still possess.

Eve.
Heav'n, 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 broughtst thy Virgin Love,
Fair Angels, sung our Bridal Hymn above:
Th'Eternal, nodding, shook the Firmament,
And conscious Nature gave her glad consent.
Roses unbid, and ev'ry fragrant Flow'r,
Flew from their stalks, to strow thy Nuptial Bower:
The furr'd and feather'd kind, the triumph-did pursue,
And Fishes leapt above the streams, the passing Pomp to view.

Eve.
When your kind Eyes look'd languishing on mine,
And wreathing Arms did soft embraces joyn,
A doubtful trembling seiz'd me first all o'r;
Then, wishes; and a warmth, unknown before:
What follow'd, was all extasie 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 joyes, as if Heav'n meant to shew
What, in base matters; such a hand could do:
Or was his Virtue spent, and he no more
With Angels could supyly th'exhausted store
Of which I swept the Sky?—
And wanting Subjects to his haughty Will,
On this mean Work, employ'd his trifling skill.

Eve.
Blest in our selves, all pleasures else abound;
Without our care, behold th'unlabour'd Ground,
Bounteous of Fruit, above our shady Bowers
The creeping Jess'min thrusts her fragrant Flowers;
Thy Myrtle, Orange, and the blushing Rose,
With bending heaps so nigh their blooms disclose,
Each seems to smell the flavor which the other blows:
By these the Peach, the Guava, and the Pine,
And creeping 'twixt 'em all, the mant'ling Vine,
Does round their trunks, her purple clusters twine.

Adam.
All these are ours, all nature's excellence
Whose tast or smell can bless the feasted sence:
One only fruit, in the mid garden plac'd,
(The tree of knowledge,) is denys our tast;
(Our proof of duty to our Maker's will:)
Of disobedience, death's the threatned ill.

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

Lucifer.
Must they then dye, if they attempt to know
He sees they would rebel, and keeps them low.
On this foundation I their ruine 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 mornings task we lose;
Some labor ev'n the easiest life would choose:
Ours is not great; the dangling boughs to crop,
Whose too luxuriant growth our Alleys stop,
And choak the paths: this our delight requires,
And Heav'n 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.
Lucifer.
Why have not I like these, a body too,
Form'd 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 wrong'd me not; but I revenge th'offence
Through her, on Heav'n whose thunder took away
My birth-right-skyes! live happy whilst you may,
Blest pair, y'are not alow'd another day!

Exit.
Gabriel and Ithuriel descend, carried on bright Clouds; and flying cross each other, then light on the ground.
Gabriel.
Ithuriel, since we two Commission'd are
From Heav'n the Guardians of this new-made pair,
Each mind his charge, for, see, the night draws on,
And rising mists pursue the setting Sun.

Ithuriel.
Blest is our lot to serve; our task we know:
To watch, least any, from th'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 show thy utmost care.
This morning came a spirit, fair he seem'd,
Whom, by his face, I some young Cherub deem'd,
Of Man he much inquir'd and where his place,
With shews of zeal to praise his maker's grace;
But I, with watchful eyes, observ'd his flight,
And saw him on yon steepy Mount alight,
There, as he thought unseen, he lay'd aside
His borrow'd masque, and reassum'd his pride:
I mark'd his looks, averse to Heav'n and good;
Dusky he grew, and long revolving stood
On some deep, dark design; thence shot with hast,
And or'e the mounds of Paradise he past:
By his proud port, he seem'd the Prince of hell;
And here he lurcks, in shades, till night: search well
Each grove and thicket, pry in every shape,
Lest, hid in some, th'arch hypocrite escape.

Gabriel.
If any spirit come t'invade, or scout
From hell, what earthy fence can keep him out?
But rest secure of this, he shall be found,
And taken, or proscrib'd this happy ground.

Ithuriel.
Thou to the East, I westward walk the round,
And meet we in the midst

(Uri.)
Heav'n 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.
Lucifer.
So, now they lye, secure in love, and steep
Their sated sences in full draughts of sleep.
By what sure means can I their bliss invade?
By violence? No; for they're immortal made.
Their Reason sleeps; but Mimic fancy wakes.
Supply's her parts, and wild Idea's takes
From words and things, ill sorted, and misjoyn'd;
The Anarchie of thought and Chaos of the mind:
Hence dreams confus'd 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 canopie out of the tree, other Spirits dance about the Tree in deform'd shapes, after the Dance an Angel enters, with a Woman, habited like Eve.
Angel
, singing.

Woman.
No; tis forbidden, I
In tasting it shall dye.

Angel.
Say who injoyn'd this harsh command.

Woman.
'Twas Heav'n; and who can Heav'n withstand?

Angel.
Why was it made so fair, why plac'd in sight?
Heav'n is too good to envy man's delight.
See, we before thy face will try,
What thou so fear'st and will not dye.

The Angel takes the fruit and gives to the Spirits, who danc'd, they immediately put off their deform'd shapes, and appear Angels.
Angels
singing.
Behold what a a change on a sudden is here!
How glorious in beauty how bright they appear!
From spirits deform'd they are Deities made
Their pinions at pleasure, the clouds can invade,
[The Angel gives to the Woman who eats.
Till equal in honor 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 turn'd Angels fly up, when they have tasted.
I only repent
I deferr'd 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 increasts 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.
Gabriel.
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
Diminish'd light, and eyes unus'd to day.

Lucifer.
Not to know me, argues thy self unknown:
Time was when, shining next th'Imperial throne,
I sate in awful state; while such as thou
Did, in th'ignoble crowd at distance bow.

Gabriel.
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 shows me what thy faded looks did hide.
Traytor to him who made, and set thee high;
And fool, that pow'r which form'd thee to defie.

Lucifer.
Go, slaves, return, and fawn in Heav'n again;
Seek thanks from him whose quarel you maintain.
Vile wretches! of your servitude to boast:
You basely keep the place I bravely lost.

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

Lucifer.
Thanks, how er'e due, proclame subjection yet:
I fought for pow'r to quit th'upbraided debt.
Who er'e expects our thanks himself repaies;
And seems but little, who can want our praise.

Gabriel.
What in us duty, shows 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 form'd us so
We, unconstrain'd, what he commands us do.
So praise we him and serve him freely best:
Thus thou, by choice, art fall'n, and we are blest.

Ithuriel.
This, lest thou think thy plea unanswer'd, good;
Our question thou evad'st, how did'st thou dare
To break Hell bounds, and near this humane pair
In nightly ambush lye?

Lucifer.
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 sulphu'rous smoak, for upper Ayr?
When I, in fight, sustain'd your Thunderer,
And Heav'n on me, alone spent half his war,
Think'st thou those wounds were light? should I not seek.
The clemency of some more temp'rate Clime
To purge my gloom; and by the Sun refin'd,
Bask in his beams, and bleach me in the wind?

Gabriel.
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?

Lucifer.
Nor one, nor t'other; but as leaders ought,
I ventur'd first alone; first danger sought;
And first explor'd this new created frame,
Which fill'd 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 Heav'n repair,
And forrage to his gates from Middle Ayr.

Ithuriel.
Fool, to believe thou any part canst gain
From him, who could'st not thy first ground maintain.

Gabriel.
But whether that design, or one as vain,
T'attempt the lives of these, first drew thee here;
Avoid the place; and never more appear
Upon this Hallow'd earth else prove our might.

Lucifer.
Not that I fear, do I decline the sight:
You I disdaïn; let me with him contend
On whom your limitary power's depend.
More honour from the sender than the sent:
Till then, I have accomplish'd my intent;
And leave this place, which but augments my pain
Gazing to wish, yet hopeless to obtain.

[Exit.
[They following him.