Adjoin'd, from each thing met conceives delight;
The smell of grain, or tedded grass, or kine,
Or dairy, each rural sight, each rural sound;
If chance, with nymph-like step, fair virgin pass,
What pleasing seem'd, for her now pleases more;
She most, and in her look sums all delight:
Such pleasure took the serpent to behold
This flowery plat, the sveet recess of Eve
Thus early, thus alone; her heavenly form,
Angelic, but more soft and feminine,
Her graceful innocence, her every air
Of gesture, or least action, overaw'd
His malice, and with rapine sweet bereav'd
His fierceness of the fierce intent it brought.
That space the evil-one abstracted stood
From his own evil, and for the time remain'd
Stupidly good, of enmity disarm'd,

Of guile, of hate, of envy, of revenge;
But the hot hell that always in him borns,
Though in mid heaven, soon ended his delight,
And tortures him now more, the more he sees
Of pleasure, not for him ordain'd: then soon
Fierce hate he recollects, and all his thoughts
Of mischief, gratulating, thus excites.

"

Thoughts, whither have ye led me ! with what sweet Compulsion thus transported, to forget

What hither brought us! hate, not love; nor hope

Of paradise for hell, hope here to taste
Of pleasure; but all pleasure to destroy,
Save what is in destroying; other joy
To me is lost. Then, let me not let pass
Occasion which now smiles; behold alone

Da tutto quanto incontra trae diletto;
Sentor di grano, fien reciso o armenti
O cascine, rurali aspetti e suoni;
Ma se, qual ninfa, bella vergin passa,

Quanto gli piacque, or par per lei più bello,
Ma ella la più, e in suoi guardi ogni diletto
Assomma: tal godè il serpe a questo
Quadro fiorito almo recesso d' Eva
Così mattina e sola sì; sua diva
Angelica ma più molle sembianza
Feminea, sua innocenza cara, ogni aria
Di gesto o minima movenza tenne
Sua frode e con dolce estasi compresse
La ferità del diro suo consiglio.
Quel tempo il perfido si stette astratto
Da sua propria empietà, e rimase allora
Stupidamente buon, spogliato d' ira

Di dolo, d'odio, di livor, vendetta;
Ma l' igneo inferno sempre ardente in lui
Posto anco in ciel, gli ruppe tosto il gaudio,
E già più cruccio sente che diletti

Più vede a se negati; quindi a un tratto
Fiero odio aduna e tutti i suoi pensieri
Di pravità si gratulante accende.

« Pensieri, u m' adduceste? Con qual dolce Violenza si rapiti obliare quanto

Qui v' addusse? Odio, non amor, non speme Di mutar paradiso con inferno,

Non speme di goder qui; è gaudio mio Distrurre e sol distrurre; ogni altro gaudio Svani da me. Dunque or già non mi sfugga Il destro che m' arride; ecco solinga

Te woman, opportune to all attempts:
Her husband (for I view far round) not nigh,
Whose higher intellectual more I shun,

And strength, of courage haughty and of limb
Heroic built, though of terrestiral mould;
Foe not informidable! exempt from wound,
I not; so much hath hell debas'd, and pain
Enfeebled me, to what I was in heaven.
She fair, divinely fair, fit love for gods,
Not terrible, through terror be in love
And beauty, not approach'd by stronger hate,
Hate stronger, under show of love well feign'd;
The way which to her ruin now I tend. »>
So spake the enemy of mankind, enclos'd
In serpent, inmate bad! and toward Eve
Address'd his way: not with intented wave,
Prone on the ground, as since; but on his rear,
Circular base of rising folds, that tower'd
Fold above fold, a surging maze! his head
Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes;

With burnish'd neck of verdant gold, erect
Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass
Floated redundant: pleasing was his shape
And lovely; never since of serpent-kind
Lovelier; not those that in Illyria chang'd
Hermione and Cadmus, or the god
In Epidaurus; nor to which transform'd
Ammonian Jove, os Capitoline was-seen,
He with Olympias, this with her who bore
Scipio, the height of Rome. With tract oblique
At first, as one who sought access, but fear'd

To interrupt, side-long he works his way.

La donna, sta opportuna ad ogni assalto:
Lo sposo (a quanto io veggo intorno) è lungi,
La maggior mente sua vitar mi giova
Ed il valor, d' alto coraggio e membra
Eroiche, benchè di terreo plasma ;

Non vil nemico e da ferite immune,
Io no; si inferno mi percosse, e affranse
Pena da quel ch' io m' era in ciel. Bella ella,
Bella qual diva, degno amor di numi,
Non terribil, benchè han terror amore
E beltà, se odio fiero più non tentali,
Odio più fiero in vel d'amor celato;
Con quest' arte trattar vo' sua ruina. »

Così dell' uom parlò il nemico chiuso
Nel serpe, ospite reo! e drizzò sua via
Verso Eva: non con onde sinuose

Prono sul suol, qual poi, ma su sua coda,

Che gira base di salenti spire

Surte spira su spira, ondante invoglio!
Cresta alta in capo avea, carbonchio agli occhi;

Brunito il collo di verde oro e eretto
Tra sue giranti spire che sull' erba
Fluttuante allargan: bella avea la forma
Ed amabil; nè fu giammai poi serpe
Più amabile; nè quei in che nell' Illirico
Furo mutati Ermione e Cadmo, o il nume
D'Epidauro; nè quello in cui nascoso
Giove Ammone appari, o Capitolino,
Quegli ad Olimpia, questi a lei che a luce
Die' Scipio onor di Roma. A tratti obliqui
In pria, qual chi vuole appressar ma teme
Turbar, passando rasentolle il fianco.

21

As when a ship, by skilful steersman wrought
Nigh river's mouth or foreland, where the wind
Veers oft, as oft so steers, and shifts her sail :
So varied he, and of his tortuous train
Curl'd many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve,
To lure her eye.

She, busied, heard the sound
Of rustling leaves, but minded not, as us'd
To such disport before her through the field,
From every beast; more duteous at her call,
Than at Circean call the herd disguis'd.

He, bolder now, uncall'd before her stood,
But as in gaze admiring: oft he bow'd
His turret crest, and sleek enamel'd neck,
Fawning; and lick'd the ground whereon she trod.
His gentle dumb expression turn'd at length
The eye of Eve, to mark his play; he, glad
Of her attention gain'd, with serpent-tongue
Organic, or impulse of vocal air,

His fraudulent temptation thus. began:

« Wonder not, sovran mistress, if perhaps
Thou can'st, who art sole wonder! much less arm
Thy looks, the heaven of mildness, with disdain ;
Displeas'd that I approach thee thus, and gaze
Insatiate, I thus single, not have fear'd
Thy awful brow, more awful thus retir'd.
Fairest resemblance of thy Maker fair,
Thee all things living gaze on, all things thine

By gift, and thy celestial beauty' adore
With ravishment beheld! there best beheld,
Where universally admir'd; but here

In this enclosure wild, these beasts among,