130 Her tale: “The speaking serpent’s suasive words
I harboured, while the guile and bland request
Misled me: for, with venoms viperous
His words inweaving, stories told he me
Of those delights which should all fruits excel.”
135 Straightway the Omnipotent the dragon’s deeds
Condemns, and bids him be to all a sight
Unsightly, monstrous; bids him presently
With grovelling beast to crawl; and then to bite
And chew the soil; while war should to all time
140 ’Twixt human senses and his tottering self
Be waged, that he might creep, crestfallen, prone,
Behind the legs of men,—that while he glides
Close on their heels they may down-trample him.
The woman, sadly caught by guileful words,
145 Is bidden yield her fruit with struggle hard,
And bear her husband’s yoke with patient zeal.
“But thou, to whom the sentence of the wife
(Who, vanquished, to the dragon pitiless
Yielded) seemed true, shalt through long times deplore
150 Thy labour sad; for thou shalt see, instead
Of wheaten harvest’s seed, the thistle rise,
And the thorn plenteously with pointed spines:
So that, with weary heart and mournful breast,
Full many sighs shall furnish anxious food;
155 Till, in the setting hour of coming death,
To level earth, whence thou thy body draw’st,
Thou be restored.” This done, the Lord bestows
Upon the trembling pair a tedious life;
And from the sacred gardens far removes
160 Them downcast, and locates them opposite,
And from the threshold bars them by mid fire,
Wherein from out the swift heat is evolved
A cherubim, while fierce the hot point glows,
And rolls enfolding flames. And lest their limbs
165 With sluggish cold should be benumbed, the Lord
Hides flayed from cattle’s flesh together sews,
With vestures warm their bare limbs covering.
When, therefore, Adam—now believing—felt
(By wedlock taught) his manhood, he confers
170 On his loved wife the mother’s name; and, made
Successively by scions twain a sire,
Gives names to stocks diverse: Caïn the first
Hath for his name, to whom is Abel joined.
The latter’s care tended the harmless sheep;