41. Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of Chaos
42. Sing
(1)Of man's first disobedience, and
(2)Of the fruit of that forbidden tree whose
mortal taste Brought death into the World, and
all our woe,With loss of Eden,
till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the
blissful Seat.
Sing
, Heavenly Muse, that didst inspire , on the
secret top Of Oreb, or of Sinai,
That Shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of Chaos.
43. Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of Chaos
The Fall of Man, Adam and Eve or Adam and Eve in the earthly paradise is a 1628-1629 painting by Rubens,
http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2012/06/new-classical-schooling.html
Bacchantes Dancing to a Tympanon, Detail of a red figure on a black background. About 450 B.C.E. (Paris, Louvre)
Chain Dance. Detail of a fresco on a Greek tomb, about 400 B.C.E., Ruvo di Pulia, southern Italy. discovered in 1833 and preserved at the Museo Nationale, Naples
Adam eventually chooses to fall with Eve not because he is ‘deceived’ by her, but because he
is ‘fondly overcome with female charm’ (IX. 999). The adverb ‘fondly’ is censorious and reminds us
that there is a powerful argument here against which Adam’s error is to be measured, but the logic of
this argument is unequal to the overwhelming emotion with which Adam shows himself being
overcome by Eve’s female charm. The moving words he speaks to her moments before eating of the
fruit are as noble as any lover ever spoke in literature: ‘Our state cannot be severed, we are one, /
One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself’ (IX. 958–9). Readers are justified at this moment to think
of Satan, who defiantly declared in the opening book of the poem that it is ‘Better to reign in Hell,
than serve in Heav’n’ (I. 263). What Adam is saying is disquietingly similar – it is better to love in
the fallen world than remain forever alone in paradise. Take away love and companionship and
paradise too can become just another kind of hell. Adam and Eve’s dire trespass undeniably debases
the sort of intellectual, chaste love Milton elevates as an ideal throughout the poem