Thus Milton's Satan:
"O hell! what do mine eyes with grief behold!
Into our room of bliss thus high advanced
Creatures of other mould; earth-born perhaps,
Not spirits, yet to heavenly spirits bright
Little inferior; whom my thoughts pursue
With wonder, and could love, so lively shines
In them divine resemblance, and such grace
The hand that formed them on their shape hath poured.
Ah gentle pair! ye little think how nigh
Your change approaches, when all these delights
Will vanish and deliver ye to woe!
More woe the more you taste is now of joy;
Happy, but for so happy ill secured
Long to continue, and this high seat your heaven
Ill fenced for heaven to keep out such a foe
As now is entered; yet no purposed foe
To you, whom I could pity thus forlorn,
Though I unpitied; league with you I seek,
And mutual amity, so strait, so close,
That I with you must dwell, or you with me
Henceforth; my dwelling haply may not please,
Like this fair paradise, your sense; yet such
Accept your Maker's work; he gave it me,
Which I as freely give. Hell shall unfold,
To entertain you two, her widest gates,
And send forth all her kings; there will be room,
Not like these narrow limits, to receive
Your numerous offspring; if no better place,
Thank him who puts me loath to this revenge
On you, who wrong me not, for him who wronged.
And should I at your harmless innocence
Melt as I do, yet public reason just,
Honor and empire with revenge enlarged,
By conquering this new world, compel me now
To do what else, though damned, I should abhor."
Milton's Paradise Lost, iv. 358-392.
More elevated, impassioned, and complex are the feelings of Milton's Satan, more eloquent his expression; yet the simple energy, the menacing concentration of the arch-fiend painted by St. Avitus, has a powerful effect.
The third book exhibits the despair of Adam and Eve after the fall; the coming of the divine Judge; his sentence, and their expulsion from paradise. Where Milton represents Adam as giving way to indignation against Eve, St. Avitus causes him to rage against the Creator himself.
"Adam thus saw himself condemned: his guilt
By inquiry made manifest. Yet not
In humble suppliance did he sue for mercy:
Nor with deep penitence, and tears, and prayers,
And self-accusing, shamed confession, plead
For the remission of his punishment;
Fallen, miserable, no pity he invoked.
With lifted front, with anger flushed, his pride
Broke forth in clamorous reproach.
'Twas then
To bring my ruin that the woman was given
To be my helpmeet! That which from thy hand,
Creator! was received as best of blessings—
She—overcome herself—has conquered me
With counsels sinister! prevailed with me
To take the fruit she had already tasted;
She is the source of evil; from her came
The sin, beguiling me too credulous;
And thou, Lord, thou didst teach me to believe her
By giving her to be my own in marriage,
With sweet ties joining us! Ah! if my life,
Lonely at first, had so continued—happy!
If I had never known this fatal union,
The yoke of such companionship!
These words
Of Adam the divine Creator heard,
And thus severely spoke to desolate Eve;
Woman, why hast thou in thy fall drawn down
Thy wretched spouse? Deceived, and then deceiving,
Instead of standing in thy guilt alone,
Why sought'st thou to dethrone the higher reason
Of this thy husband?
And the woman, full
Of shame and sorrow, daring not to raise
Her face with conscious blushes all suffused,
Answered: The serpent did beguile me; he
Persuaded me to taste the fruit forbidden."
Book iii. 96-112.
The original poem runs thus:
"Ille ubi convictum claro se lumine vidit,
Prodidit et totum discussio justa reatum,
Non prece submissa veniam pro crimine poscit,
Non votis lacrymisve rogat, nec vindice fletu
Præcurrit meritam supplex confessio pœnam.
Jamque miser factus, nondum miserabilis ille est.
Erigitur sensu, timidisque accensa querelis
Fertur in insanas laxata superbia voces.
Heu male perdendo mulier conjuncta marito!
Quam sociam misero prima sub lege dedisti,
Hæc me consiliis vicit devicta sinistris,
Et sibi jam notum persuasit sumere pomum.
Ista mali caput est, crimen surrexit ab ista.
Credulus ipse fui, sed credere tu docuisti,
Connubium donans, et dulcia vincula nectens
Atque utinam felix, quæ quondam sola vigebat,
Cœlebs vita foret, talis nec conjugis unquam
Fœdera sensisset, comiti non subdita pravæ.
Hac igitur rigidi commotus mente Creator,
Mœrentem celsis compellat vocibus Evam.
Cur miserum labens traxisti inprona maritum
Nec contenta tuo deceptrix femina casu,
Sublimi sensum jecisti, ex arce virilem!
Ilia pudens, tristique genas suffusa rubore,
Auctorem sceleris clamat decepta draconem,
Qui pomum vetito persuasit tangere morsu."
Thus Milton: