With a twin juice for functions several.”
And, no less blind meantime than Night herself,
Deep night ’gan hold them, nor had e’en a robe
90 Covered their new-formed limbs.
Amid these haunts,
And on mild berries reared, a foamy snake,
Surpassing living things in sense astute,
Was creeping silently with chilly coils.
He, brooding over envious lies instinct
95 With gnawing sense, tempts the soft heart beneath
The woman’s breast: “Tell me, why shouldst thou dread
The apple’s happy seeds? Why, hath not
All known fruits hallowed? Whence if thou be prompt
To cull the honeyed fruits, the golden world
100 Will on its starry pole return.” But she
Refuses, and the boughs forbidden fears
To touch. But yet her breast ’gins be o’er come
With sense infirm. Straightway, as she at length
With snowy tooth the dainty morsels bit,
105 Stained with no cloud the sky serene up-lit!
Then taste, instilling lure in honeyed jaws,
To her yet uninitiated lord
Constrained her to present the gift; which he
No sooner took, then—night effaced!:—their eyes
110 Shone out serene in the resplendent world.
When, then, they each their body bare espied,
And when their shameful parts they see, with leaves
Of fig they shadow them.
By chance, beneath
The sun’s now setting light, they recognise
115 The sound of the Lord’s voice, and, trembling, haste
To bypaths. Then the Lord of heaven accosts
The mournful Adam: “Say, where now thou art.”
Who suppliant thus answers: “Thine address,
O Lord, O Mighty One, I tremble at,
120 Beneath my fearful heart; and, being bare,
I faint with chilly dread.” Then said the Lord:
“Who hath the hurtful fruits, then, given you?”
“This woman, while she tells me how her eyes
With brilliant day promptly perfused were,
125 And on her dawned the liquid sky serene,
And heaven’s sun and stars, o’ergave them me!”
Forthwith God’s anger frights perturbed Eve,
While the Most High inquires the authorship
Of the forbidden act. Hereon she opes