Suffice, or what evasion bear him safe Their rising all at once, was as the sound Through the strict senteries and stations thick Of thunder heard remote. Towards him they bend Of angels watching round? Here he had need With awful reverence prone ; and as a god All circumspection, and we now no less Extol him equal to the Highest in Heaven : Choice in our suffrage ; for, on whom we send, Nor fail'd they to express how much they prais'd, The weight of all and our last hope relies.” That for the general safety he despis'd This said, he sat; and expectation held His own : for neither do the spirits damn'd His look suspense, awaiting who appear'd Lose all their virtue ; lest bad men should boast To second, or oppose, or undertake Their specious deeds on Earth which glory excites, The perilous attempt : but all sat mute, Or close ambition, varnish'd o'er with zeal. Pondering the danger with deep thoughts; and Thus they their doubtful consultations dark each Ended, rejoicing in their matchless chief : In other's countenance read his own dismay As when from mountain-tops the dusky clouds Astonish'd: none among the choice and prime Ascending, while the north-wind sleeps, o'erspread Of those Heaven-warring champions could be Heaven's cheerful face, the louring element found Scowls o'er the darken'd landskip snow, or shower ; So hardy, as to proffer or accept, If chance the radiant Sun with farewell sweet Alone, the dreadful voyage; till at last Extend his evening-beam, the fields revive, Satan, whom now transcendent glory rais'd The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds Above his fellows, with monarchal pride, Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings. Conscious of highest worth, unmov'd thus spake. O shame to men! devil with devil damn'd "O progeny of Heaven, empyreal thrones, Firm concord holds, men only disagree With reason hath deep silence and demur Of creatures rational, though under hope Seiz'd us, though undismay'd. Long is the way Of heavenly grace : and, God proclaiming peace, And hard, that out of Hell leads up to light : Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife, Our prison strong; this huge convex of fire, Among themselves, and levy cruel wars, Outrageous to devour, immures us round Wasting the Earth, each other to destroy : Ninefold; and gates of burning adamant, As if (which might induce us to accord) Man had not hellish foes enow besides, The Stygian council thus dissolv’d; and forth Wide gaping, and with utter loss of being In order came the grand infernal peers; Threatens him, plung'd in that abortive gulf. Midst came their mighty paramount, and seem'd If thence he 'scape into whatever world, Alone the antagonist of Heaven, nor less Or unknown region, what remains him less Than Hell's dread emperor, with pomp supreme, Than unknown dangers, and as hard escape ? And God-like imitated state : him round But I should ill become this throne, O peers, A globe of fiery seraphim enclos’d, And this imperial sovranty, adorn'd With bright imblazonry, and horrent arms. With splendour, arm’d with power, if aught pro- Then of their session ended they bid cry pos'd With trumpets' regal sound the great result : And judg'd of public moment, in the shape Towards the four winds four speedy cherubim Of difficulty, or danger, could deter Put to their mouths the sounding alchemy, Ne frotn attempting. Wherefore do I assume By herald's voice explain'd; the hollow abyss These royalties, and not refuse to reign, Heard far and wide, and all the host of Hell Refusing to accept as great a share With deafening shout return'd them loud acclaim. Of hazard as of honour, due alike Thence more at ease their minds, and somewhat To him who reigns, and so much to him due rais'd Of hazard more, as he above the rest By false presumptuous hope, the ranged powers High honour'd sits? Go therefore, mighty powers, Disband, and, wandering, each his several way Terrour of Heaven, though fall’n; intend at Pursues, as inclination or sad choice home, Leads him, perplex'd where he may likeliest find While here shall be our home, what best may ease Truce to his restless thoughts, and entertain present misery, and render Hell The irksome hours, till his great chief return. More tolerable; if there be cure or charm Part on the plain, or in the air sublime, To respite, or deceive, or slack the pain Upon the wing, or in swift race contend, Of this ill mansion : intermit no watch As at the Olympian games or Pythian fields ; Against a wakeful foe, while I abroad Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal Through all the coasts of dark destruction seek With rapid wheels, or fronted brigades form. Deliverance for us all: this enterprise As when, to warn proud cities, war appears None shall partake with me.” Thus saying rose Wag'd in the troubled sky, and armies rush The monarch, and prevented all reply ; To battle in the clouds, before each van Prudent, lest, from his resolution rais'd, Prick forth the aery knights, and couch their spears Others among the chief might offer now Till thickest legions close; with feats of arms (Certain to be refus'd) what erst they fear’d; From either end of Heaven the welkin burns. And, w refus'd, might in opinion stand Others, with vast Typhcan rage more fell, His rivals; winning cheap the high repute, Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air Which he through hazard huge must earn. But In whirlwind; Hell scarce holds the wild uproar they As when Alcides, from Oechalia crown'd Dreaded not more the adventure, than his voice With conquest, felt the envenom'd robe, and tore Forbidding; and at once with him they rose : Through pain up by the roots Thessalian pines, The And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on Into th' Euboic sea. Others more mild, In confus'd march förlorn, the adventurous bands Retreated in a silent valley, sing With shuddering horrour pale, and eyes agliast, With notes angelical to many a harp View'd first their lamentable lot, and found Their own heroic deeds and hapless fall No rest. Through many a dark and dreary vale By doom of battle ; and complain that fate They pass'd, and many a region dolorous, Free virtue should enthral to force or chance. O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp, Their song was partial ; but the harmony Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of (What could it less when spirits immortal sing?) death, Suspended Hell, and took with ravishment A universe of death ; which God by curse The thronging audience. In discourse more sweet | Created evil, for evil only good, (For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense,) Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds, Others apart sat on a hill retir’d, Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, In thoughts more elevate, and reason'd high Abominable, inutterable, and worse Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate, Than fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceivid, Fix'd fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute, Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire. And found no end, in wandering mazes lost. Mean while, the adversary of God and man, Of good and evil much they argued then, Satan, with thoughts inflam'd of highest design, Of happiness and final misery, Puts on swift wings, and towards the gates of Hell Passion and apathy, and glory and shame, Explores his solitary flight : sometimes Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy : He scours the right hand coast, sometimes the left; Yet, with a pleasing sorcery, could charm Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars Pain for a while or anguish, and excite Up to the fiery concave towering high. As when far off at sea a fleet descried Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring That dismal world, if any clime perliaps Their spicy drugs; they, on the trading flood, Might yield them easier habitation, bend Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape, Four ways their flying march, along the banks Ply stemming nighly toward the pole : so seem'd Of four infernal rivers, that disgorge Far off the flying fiend. At last appear Into the burning lake their baleful streams: Hell bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof, Abhorred Styx, the food of deadly hate ; And thrice three-fold the gates; three-folds were Sad Acheron, of sorrow, black and deep; brass, Cocytus, nam'd of lamentation loud Three iron, three of adamantine rock Heard on the rueful stream ; fierce Phlegethon, Impenetrable, impal'd with cireling fire, Whose waves of torrent fire infiame with rage. Yet unconsum'd. Before the gates there sat Far off from these, a slow and silent stream, On either side a formidable shape; Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls The one seem'd woman to the waist and fair ; Her watery labyrinth, whereof who drinks, But ended foul in many a scaly fold Fortlıwith his former state and being forgets, Voluminous and vast ; a serpent arm'd Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain. With mortal sting : About her middle round Beyond this food a frozen continent A cry of Hell-hounds never ceasing bark'd Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung Of whirlwind and dire lail, which on firm land A hideous peal; yet, when they list, would creep, Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems If aught disturb’d their noise, into her womb, Of ancient pile; or else deep snow and ice. And kennel there; yet there still bark'd and howid, A gult profound as that Serbonian bog Within unseen. Far less abhorr'd than these Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old, Vex'd Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts Where armies whole have sunk: the parching air Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore : Burns frore, and cold performs the effect of fire. Nor uglier follow the night-hay, when, callid Thither by harpy-footed furies hal'd, In secret, riding through the air she comes, At certain revolutions, all the damn'd Lur'd with the smell of infant blood, to dance Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change With Lapland witches, while the labouring Moon Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more Eclipses at their charms. The other shape, fierce, If shape it might be call'd that shape had none From beds of raging fire, to starve in ice Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb; Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine Or substance might be call'd that shadow seemid, Immoveable, infix’d, and frozen round, For each seem'd either : black it stood as night, Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire. Fierce as ten furies, terrible as Hell, They ferry over this Lethean sound And shook a dreadful dart; what seem'd lis head Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment, The likeness of a kingly crown had on. And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach Satan was now at hand, and from his seat The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose The monster moving onward came as fast In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe, With horrid strides; Hell trembled as he strode. All in one moment, and so near the brink; The undaunted fiend what this might be admir’d, But Fate withstands, and to oppose the attempt Adınir'd, not fear'd; God and his Son except, Medusa with Gorgonian terrour guards Created thing naught valued he, nor shunn'd; The ford, and of itself the water Hies And with disdainful look thus first began. All taste of living wiglıt, as once it fled 1 “ Whence and what art thor!, execrable shape, That dar’st, though grim and terrible, advance All on a sudden miserable pain Surpris'd thee, dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum To whom the goblin full of wrath replied. Out of thy head I sprung: amazement seiz'd " Art thou that traitor-angel, art thou he, All the host of Heaven; back they recoil'd afraid Who first broke peace in Heaven, and faith, till then At first, and call'd me Sin, and for a sign Unbroken ; and in proud rebellious arms Portentous held me; but, familiar grown, Drew after him the third part of Heaven's sons I pleas'd, and with attractive graces won Conjúr'd against the Highest; for which both thou The most averse, thee chiefly, who full oft And they, outcast from God are here condemn'd Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing To waste eternal days in woe and pain ? Becam’st enamour'd, and such joy thou took'st And reckon'st thou thyself with spirits of Heaven, With me in secret, that my womb conceiv'd Hell-doom'd, and breath'st defiance here and scorn, A growing burden. Meanwhile war arose, Where I reign king, and, to enrage thee more, And fields were fought in Heaven ; wherein re. Thy king and lord? Back to thy punishment, main'd False fugitive, and to thy speed add wings, (For what could else?) to our Almighty Foe Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue Clear victory ; to our part loss and rout, Thy lingering, or with one stroke of this dart Through all the empyréan; down they fell Strange horrour seize thee, and pangs unfelt before." Driven headlong from the pitch of Heaven, down So spake the grisly terrour, and in shape, Into this deep! and in the general fall So speaking and so threatening, grew ten-fold I also; at which time, this powerful key More dreadful and deform. On the other side, Into my hand was given, with charge to keep Incens'd with indignation, Satan stood These gates for ever shut, which none can pass Unterrified, and like a comet burn'd, Without my opening. Pensive here I sat That tires the length of Ophiuchus huge Alone ; but long I sat not, till my womb, In the arctic sky, and from his horrid hair Pregnant by thee, and now excessive grown, Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head Prodigious motion felt, and rueful throes. Levell’d his deadly aim ; their fatal hands At last this odious offspring whom thou seest, No second stroke intend; and such a frown Thine own begotten, breaking violent way Each cast at the other, as when two black clouds, Tore through my entrails, that with fear and pain With Heaven's artillery fraught, come rattling on Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew Over the Caspian, then stand front to front, Transform’d: but he my inbred enemy Hovering a space, till winds the signal blow Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart To join their dark encounter in mid air : Made to destroy! I fled and cried out Death ! So frown'd the mighty combatants, that Hell Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sigh’d Grew darker at their frown ; so match'd they stood; From all her caves, and back resounded Death! For never but once more was either like I Hed, but he pursued, (though more, it seems, To meet so great a foe : and now great deeds Inflam'd with lust than rage,) and, swifter far, Had been achiev'd, whereof all Hell had rung, Me overtook his mother all dismay'd, Had not the snaky sorceress, that sat And in embraces forcible and foul Fast by Hell-gate, and kept the fatal key, Engendering with me, of that rape begot Ris'n, and with hideous outcry rush'd between. These yelling monsters, that with ceaseless cry “O father, what intends thy hand,” she cried, Surround me, as thou saw'st, hourly conceiv'd " Against thy only son? What fury, O son, And hourly born, with sorrow infinite Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart To me; for, when they list, into the womb Against thy father's head ? and know'st for whom ; That bred them they return, and howl and gnaw For him who sits above and laughs the while My bowels, their repast ; then bursting forth At thee ordain'd his drudge, to execute Afresh with conscious terrours vex me round, Whate'er his wrath, which he calls justice, bids; That rest or intermission none I find. His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both.” Before mine eyes in opposition sits She spake, and at her words the hellish pest Grim Death, my son and foe; who sets them on, Forbore; then these to her Satan return’d. And me his parent would full soon devour “ So strange thy outcry, and thy words so strange For want of other prey, but that he knows Thou interposest, that my sudden hand, His end with mine involv’d; and knows that I Prevented, spares to tell thee yet by deeds Should prove a bitter morsel, and his bane, What it intends ; till first I know of thee, Whenever that shall be ; so Fate pronounc'd. What thing thou art thus double-form’d; and why But thou, O father, I forewarn thee, shun In this infernal vale first met, thou call'st His deadly arrow ; neither vainly hope Me father, and that phantasm call'st my son: To be invulnerable in those bright arms, I know thee not, nor ever saw till now Though temper'd heavenly; for that mortal dint, Sight more detestable than him and thee." Save he who reigns above, none can resist. To whom thus the portress of Hell-gate replied. She finish'd ; and the subtle fiend his lore " Hast thou forgot me then, and do I seem Soon learn'd, now milder, and thus answer'd smooth. Now in thine eye so foul ? once deem'd so fair “ Dear daughter, since thou claim'st me for thy In Heaven, when at the assembly, and in sight sire, Of all the seraphim with thee combin'd And my fair son here show'st me, the dear pledge In bold conspiracy against Heaven's King, Of dailiance had with thee in Heaven, and joys Then sweet, now sad to mention, through dire change | So wide they stood, and like a furnace mouth Befall’n us, unforeseen, unthought of; know, Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame. I come no enemy, but to set free Before their eyes in sudden view appear From out this dark and dismal house of pain The secrets of the hoary deep; a dark Both him and thee, and all the heavenly host Illimitable ocean, without bound, Of spirits, that, in our just pretences arm’d, Without dimension, where length, breadth, and Fell with us from on high: from them I go height, This uncouth errand sole ; and one for all And time, and place, are lost; where eldest Night Myself expose, with lonely steps to tread And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold The unsounded deep, and through the void immense Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise To search with wondering quest a place foretold Of endless wars, and by confusion stand. Should be, and, by concurring signs, ere now For Hot, Cold, Moist, and Dry, four champions Created vast and round, a place of bliss fierce, In the pourlieus of Heaven, and therein plac'd Strive here for mastery, and to battle bring A race of upstart creatures, to supply Their embryon atoms; they around the flag And by decision more embroils the fray, Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire, But all these in their pregnant causes mix’d His famine should he fill'd; and blest his maw Confus’dly, and which thus must ever fight, Destin’d to that good hour : no less rejoic’d Unless the Almighty Maker them ordain His mother bad, and thus bespake her sire. His dark materials to create more worlds; “ The key of this infernal pit by due, Into this wild abyss the wary fiend And by command of Heaven's all-powerful King, Stood on the brink of Hell, and look'd a while, I keep, by him forbidden to unlock Pondering his voyage : for no narrow frith These adamantine gates; against all force He had to cross. Nor was his ear less peal’d Death ready stands to interpose his dart, With noises loud and ruinous, (to compare Fearless to be o'ermatch'd by living might. Great things with small,) than when Bellona storms, But what owe I to his commands above With all her battering engines bent to rase Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me down Some capital city; or less than if this frame Into this gloom of Tartarus profound, Of Heaven were falling, and these elements To sit in hateful office here confin'd, In mutiny had from her axle torn Inhabitant of Heaven, and heavenly-born, The stedfast Earth. At last his sail-broad vans Here in perpetual agony and pain, He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke With terrours and with clamours compass'd round Uplifted spurns the ground; thence many a league, Of mine own brood, that on my bowels feed ? As in a cloudy chair, ascending rides Thou art my father, thou my author, thou Audacious; but, that seat soon failing, meets My being gav’st me; whom should I obey A vast vacuity : all unawares But thee? whom follow? thou wilt bring me soon Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb down he drops To that new world of light and bliss, among Ten thousand fathom deep; and to this hour The gods who live at ease, where I shall reign Down had been falling, had not by ill chance At thy right hand voluptuous, as beseems The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud, Thy daughter and thy darling, without end.” Instinct with fire and nitre, hurried him Thus saying, from her side the fatal key, As many miles aloft : that fury staid, Sad instrument of all our woe, she took ; Quench'd in a boggy Syrtis, neither sea, With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale, Had from his wakeful custody purloin'd The guarded gold : so eagerly the fiend With impetuous recoil and jarring sound O er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense The infernal doors, and on their hinges grate Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, Of Erebus. She open'd, but to shut And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies; Excell'd her power; the gates wide open stood, At length a universal hubbub wild That with extended wings a banner'd host, Of stunning sounds, and voices all confus'd, Under spread ensigns marching, might pass through Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear With horse and chariots rank'd in loose array; With loudest vehemence: thither he plies; turns or rare, Undaunted to meet there whatever power Mov'd on, with difficulty and labour he; Or spirit of the nethermost abyss But, he once past, soon after, when man fell, Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask Strange alteration! Sin and Death amain Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies Following his track, such was the will of Heaven, Bordering on light; when straight behold the Pav'd after him a broad and beaten way throne Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread Tamely endur'd a bridge of wondrous length, Wide on the wasteful deep : with him enthron'd From Hell continued reaching the utmost orb Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things, Of this frail world; by which the spirits perverse The consort of his reign ; and by them stood With easy intercourse pass to and fro Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name To tempt or punish mortals, except whom Of Demogorgon! Rumour next and Chance, God, and good angels, guard by special grace. And Tumult and Confusion all embroil'd, But now at last the sacred influence And Discord with a thousand various mouths. Of light appears, and from the walls of Heaven To whom Satan turning boldly, thus : “ Ye powers Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night And spirits of this nethermost abyss, A glimmering dawn : here Nature first begins Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy, Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire As from her outmost works a broken foe That Satan with less toil, and now with ease And, like a weather-beaten vessel, holds What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds Gladly the port through shrouds and tackle torn; Confine with Heaven ; or if some other place, Or in the emptier waste, resembling air, From your dominion won, the etherial King Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold Possesses lately, thither to arrive Far off the empyreal Heaven, extended wide I travel this profound; direct my course; In circuit, undetermin'd square or round, Directed, no mean recompense it brings With opal towers and battlements adorn'd То your behoof, if I that region lost, Of living sapphire, once his native seat; All usurpation thence expellid, reduce And fast by, hanging in a golden chain, To her original darkness, and your sway, This pendant world, in bigness as a star Which is my present journey) and once more Of smallest magnitude close by the Moon. Erect the standard there of ancient Night : Thither, full fraught with mischievous revenge, Yours be the advantage all, mine the revenge.” Accurs'd, and in a cursed hour he hies. Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old, Book III. The Argument. him to the Son, who sat at his right hand; Confusion worse confounded; and Heaven-gates foretels the success of Satan in perverting Pour'd out by millions her victorious bands mankind, clears his own justice and wisdom Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here from all imputation, having created Man free, Keep residence: if all I can will serve and able enough to have withstood his tempter ; That little which is left so to defend, yet declares his purpose of grace towards him, Encroach'd on still through your intestine broils in regard he fell not of his own malice, as did Weakening the sceptre of old Night : first Hell, Satan, but by him seduced. The Son of God Your dungeon, stretching far and wide beneath ; renders praises to his father for the manifestNow lately Heaven and Earth, another world, ation of his gracious purpose towards Man : Hung o'er my realm, link'd in a golden chain but God again declares, that grace cannot be To that side Heaven from whence your legions extended towards Man without the satisfaction fell; of divine justice : Man hath offended the maIf that way be your walk, you have not far; jesty of God by aspiring to godhead, and thereSo much the nearer danger; go, and speed; fore, with all his progeny, devoted to death, must Havoc, and spoil, and ruin, are my gain.” die, unless some can be found sufficient to He ceas'd; and Satan staid not to reply, answer for his offence, and undergo his punishBut, glad that now his sea should find a shore, ment. The Son of God freely offers himself a With fresh alacrity, and force renew'd, ransom for Man : the Father accepts him, orSprings upward, like a pyramid of fire, dains his incarnation, pronounces his exaltation lato the wild expanse, and, through the shock above all names in Heaven and Earth ; comOf fighting elements, on all sides round mands all the angels to adore him: They obey, Environ'd, wins his way; harder beset and hymning to their harps in full quire, celebrate And more endanger’d, than when Argo pass'd the Father and the Son. Meanwhile Satan Thorough Bosporus, betwixt the justling rocks ! alights upon the bare convex of this world's Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunn'd outermost orb; where wandering, he first finds a Charybdis, and by the other whirlpool steer'd. place, since called the Limbo of Vanity : what So be with difficulty and labour hard persons and things fly up thither : thence comes |