In the fifth act, Temptation, in alluring forms, invites the fallen pair to new crimes. Flesh, in the figure of a lovely young woman, accosts Adam, showing him how all things breathe of love; and Lucifer, in human shape, persuades him to yield to her enticements. Here occurs one of the most exquisitely delicate and beautiful touches in the poem, and one that none but a true poet could have conceived. The guardian angel of man yet hovers, unseen, at a distance; when he sees him thus sore beset, he comes to his assistance. The protector is invisible; but his warning voice, soft as the promptings of a dream, sounds in the sinner's ear:
"Angel. 'Tis time to succor man. Alas! what dost thou,
Most wretched Adam?
Lucifer, (to Adam.) Why remain'st thou mute?
Why art thou sad?
Adam. I seem a voice to hear,
Sorrowful yet mild, which says, 'Alas! what dost thou,
Most wretched Adam?'"
Act v. sc. 3.
Following the promptings of the angel, which are continued through the scene, Adam proposes that Lucifer and his companion shall kneel with him in prayer. Thus he escapes the temptation and danger. Lucifer and his demons refuse to pray, and, assuming their proper shape, next assail him by force; but from this peril he is also guarded.
We then behold Eve wandering desolate and desponding, affrighted at all that meets her eyes. Her lamentation has much simple beauty.
"Eve. Dar'st thou, O wretched Eve!
Lift up thy guilty eyes to meet the sun?
Oh! no; they are unworthy—well thou know'st!
Once, with unfaltering gaze they could behold
His beams, and revel in their golden light;
Now thy too daring look
His dazzling rays rebuke;
Or, if thou gaze upon his face, a veil
Of blindness shrouds thy sight. Alas! too truly
I dwell in darkness, if my sin has stained
With horrid mists the pure and innocent sun!
O miserable Eve!
If now I turn my feet where fountains gush
To taste the limpid current, I behold
The crystal wave defiled, or scorching sands
Usurp its place. If, famished, I return
To pluck the grateful fruit from bending trees,
Its taste is bitter to me; or the worm
With blasting touch doth revel on its sweetness.
If, wearied, I recline among the flowers,
Striving to close my eyes, lo! at my side
The serpent rears its crest, or hissing glides
Among the clustering leaves. If, to escape
Faint from the noontide heat, I seek the shade
Of some thick wood, I tremble at the thought
Of wild beast lurking in the thicket's gloom;
And start with dread if but the lightest leaf
Stir with the wind."
She also is assailed by a new temptation personified under the name of World. This allegorical personage, arrayed in rich and gorgeous vestments, crowned with gold and gems, endeavors to captivate her imagination by artful flatteries; by visions of splendor and regal power reserved for "the queen of the universe." From a visioned palace comes a troop of nymphs laden with ornaments, with which they offer to adorn their mistress, dancing and singing around her; but Eve, deaf to World's flatteries, resists and flies from him; both she and her consort are too penitent to listen to evil solicitations, and at Adam's rebuke the troop disappears in confusion. Then Lucifer and his devils, armed for man's destruction, rush in to seize their victims. The fierce and final struggle between the powers of heaven and hell, for the dominion of earth, takes place; for the arch-fiend encounters Michael and his angels, sent to rescue the frail beings of clay, who, in terrified astonishment, witness the battle. It would be doing injustice to the poem not to give some extracts from this striking scene.
"Michael. Tremble, thou son of wrath,
At the fierce lightning of this barbed spear,
The smiting hand of him who leads heaven's host.
Nor against God, but 'gainst thyself thou wagest
War, and in thine offence offend'st thyself.
Back to the shades, thou wandering spirit of hell,
From this celestial light shut out for ever!
Drop thy dark wings beneath the glory which
The Father of all light, who formed the suns,
Imparts to me! Hence, with the noxious band
Of God's accursed foes; nor tarry here,
An evil host, with your infernal breath
These precincts to pollute, to scatter gloom
Through man's pure air of life!
No more thy hissing vile, serpent of hell,
Shall harass innocence!