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Whose failing, while her faith to me remains,

I should conceal, and not expose to blame,

By my complaint; but strict necessity

By my complaint; but strict necessity

Subdues me, and calamitous constraint,

Lest on my head both sin and punishment,

However insupportable, be all

Devolved; though, should I hold my peace, yet thou

Wouldst easily detect what I conceal.

This woman, whom thou madest to be my help,

And gavest me as thy perfect gift, so good,

So fit, so acceptable, so divine,

That from her hand I could suspect no ill,

And what she did, whatever in itself,

Her doing seemed to justify the deed;

She gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

To whom the sovereign Presence thus replied:

Was she thy God, that her thou didst obey

Before His voice? Or was she made thy guide,

Superior, or but equal, that to her

Thou didst resign thy manhood, and the place

Wherein God set thee above her, made of thee,

And for thee, whose perfection far excelled

Hers in all real dignity? Adorned

She was, indeed, and lovely, to attract

Thy love, not thy subjection; and her gifts

Were such as under government well seemed,

Unseemly to bear rule, which was thy part

And person, hadst thou known thyself aright.

So having said, he thus to Eve in few: Say, woman, what is this which thou hast done?

To whom sad Eve, with shame nigh overwhelmed, Confessing soon, yet not before her judge Bold or loquacious, thus abashed replied:

The serpent me beguiled, and I did eat.

¹ Thus to Eve in few. - In few words.