The Adamus exul of Grotius; or The Prototype of Paradise Lost — page 63: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

46 Adam. Eve. Adam. Eve. ADAMUS EXUL. To self-wrought doom so desperately ¢ Reflect, If you consent to live, will not your life Improve, and bring a happier calmer hour For mortal dissolution ? In the past The crime hath been all mine. The punishment Will doubly light on me; but if you act This other sin, so unrepentable, Of your own choice, and wilfully against Your Eve’s dearest soliciting,—O think, Will you not mourn persuasion, thus despised ? I have believed thee once, and once too much. And wilt thou slay me too ? - No; rather I Would die a thousand deaths, than harm my Eve. Though your wild grief will not itself submit To your own conscience, reason, and pure sense Of truth and prudence, yet forbear a while, And listen to your wife—if e’er you owed To her soft words attention. O, ye fates! That woman thus should act the comforter To man, and so invert great Nature’s law ; And yet it much concerns me to repair By words, the bitter ills that words have wrought To him, to me, to all. My dearest lord, Who for my sake did’st risk all perilous doom, Shall I not by my tears, my bursting sighs, My agonies of heart, attempt to save Him whom my madness ruined. O forbear ! This most insensate and precipitous storm Of passionate outcries. Struggle with despair, And triumph o’er yourself. So it befits _ The manly mind to conquer and subdue All doubts, all fears, a]] evils. I implore, I do beseech thee, Adam, spare thy life, For thy wife’s sake at least. You boast yourself Strong, valiant, half omnipotent of soul, To mock at death and trample on the grave. Now to my mind, ’tis more like cowardice To fear to live. He best o’er-masters death Who doth not wish nor hate it. Therefore arm Thy breast with shield of manliest fortitude, And face the opposing host. The past is nought But an ingenuous error. If you fall Amid the gallant combat, you ‘Il be like A brave and innocent hero. If you die By your own hand, you sign your verdict just And seal your own death-warrant miserably. Adam. Whence does she borrow these sweet words of truth, \ Virtue and innocence, amid this crowd. (C@ inn @ DOO <S (c@