405

The dark, unbottom'd, infinite abyss,

And through the palpable obscure find out
His uncouth way, or spread his aery flight
Upborne with indefatigable wings,

Over the vast abrupt, ere he arrive

The happy isle? What strength, what art can then 410 Suffice, or what evasion bear him safe

Through the strict senteries and stations thick

Of angels watching round? Here he had need

All circumspection, and we now no less

Choice in our suffrage; for, on whom we send, 415 The weight of all and our last hope relics.'

This said, he sat; and expectation held

His look suspense, awaiting who appear'd
To second, or oppose, or undertake
The perilous attempt: but all sat mute,

Pond'ring the danger with deep thoughts; and each
In other's count'nance read his own dismay,

Astonish'd: : none among the choice and prime

420

Of those heav'n-warring champions could be found
So hardy, as to proffer or accept

425

Alone the dreadful voyage; till at last

Satan, whom now transcendent glory rais'd

Above his fellows, with monarchal pride,

Conscious of highest worth, unmov'd thus spake: 'O Progeny of heav'n, empyreal Thrones,

430

With reason hath deep silence and demur
Seiz'd us, though undismay'd. Long is the way

And hard, that out of hell leads up to light;

Our prison strong; this huge convex of fire,

435

Outrageous to devour, immures us round
Ninefold, and gates of burning adamant,
Barr'd over us, prohibit all egress.
These pass'd, if any pass, the void profound
Of unessential night receives him next
Wide-gaping, and with utter loss of being
Threatens him, plung'd in that abortive gulf.
If thence he 'scape into whatever world,
Or unknown region, what remains him less
Than unknown dangers, and as hard escape?
But I should ill become this throne, O peers,
And this imperial sovranty, adorn'd

440

445

With splendour, arm'd with pow'r, if aught propos'd

Of hazard as of honour, due alike

To him who reigns, and so much to him due

Of hazard more, as he above the rest

455

High honour'd sits? Go, therefore, mighty powers,

Terror of heav'n, though fall'n; intend at home,

While here shall be our home, what best may case
The present misery, and render hell

More tolerable; if there be cure or charm

460

To respite, or deceive, or slack the pain
Of this ill mansion: intermit no watch
Against a wakeful foe, while I abroad

Through all the coasts of dark destruction seck
Deliverance for us all: this enterprise

465

None shall partake with me.' Thus saying rose
The monarch, and prevented all reply;
Prudent, lest, from his resolution rais'd,
Others among the chief might offer now
(Certain to be refus'd) what erst they fear'd;
And, so refus'd, might in opinion stand
His rivals; winning cheap the high repute,
Which he through hazard huge must earn.
Dreaded not more th' adventure, than his voice
Forbidding; and at once with him they rose:
Their rising all at once, was as the sound

470

But they

Of thunder heard remote. Towards him they bend
With awful reverence prone; and as a god
Extol him equal to the High'st in heav'n:

475

Nor fail'd they to express how much they prais'd, 480 That for the general safety he despis'd

His own: for neither do the spirits damn'd

Lose all their virtue; lest bad men should boast

Their specious deeds on earth which glory excites,

Or close ambition, varnish'd o'er with zeal.

485

Thus they their doubtful consultations dark

Ended, rejoicing in their matchless chief:

As when from mountain-tops the dusky clouds

Ascending, while the north wind sleeps, o'erspread
Heav'n's cheerful face, the louring element

490

Scowls o'er the darken'd landskip snow, or shower;
If chance the radiant sun with farewell sweet
Extend his evening beam, the fields revive,

The birds their notes renew and bleating herds

Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings.
O shame to men! devil with devil damn'd

495

Firm concord holds, men only disagree
Of creatures rational, though under hope

Of heav'nly grace; and, God proclaiming peace,
Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife,
Among themselves, and levy cruel wars,
Wasting the earth, each other to destroy:
As if (which might induce us to accord)
Man had not hellish foes enow besides,

500

That, day and night, for his destruction wait.

505

The Stygian council thus dissolv'd; and forth

In order came the grand infernal peers:

Midst came their mighty paramount, and seem'd
Alone th' antagonist of heav'n, nor less

Than hell's dread emperor, with pomp supreme,

510

And God-like imitated state: him round
A globe of fiery Seraphim enclos'd
With bright imblazonry, and horrent arms.
Then of their session ended they bid cry

B

With trumpets' regal sound the great result:
Towards the four winds four speedy Cherubim
Put to their mouths the sounding alchymy,
By herald's voice explain'd; the hollow abyss
Heard far and wide, and all the host of hell
With deaf'ning shout return'd them loud acclaim.

515

520

Thence more at ease their minds, and somewhat rais'd

By false presumptuous hope, the ranged powers
Disband, and, wand'ring, each his several way
Pursues, as inclination or sad choice

Leads him, perplex'd where he may likeliest find
Truce to his restless thoughts, and entertain
The irksome hours, till his great chief return.
Part on the plain, or in the air sublime,
Upon the wing, or in swift race contend,
As at th' Olympian games or Pythian fields;
Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal
With rapid wheels, or fronted brigades form.
As when, to warn proud cities, war appears
Wag'd in the troubled sky, and armies rush
To battle in the clouds, before each van

525

530

535

Prick forth the aery knights, and couch their spears,
Till thickest legions close; with feats of arms
From either end of heav'n the welkin burns.
Others with vast Typhoean rage more fell,
Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air
In whirlwind; hell scarce holds the wild uproar.
As when Alcides, from Oechalia crown'd
With conquest, felt th' envenom'd robe, and tore

540

Through pain up by the roots Thessalian pines,

And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw

545

Into th' Euboic sea. Others more mild,
Retreated in a silent valley, sing

With notes angelical to many a harp

Their own heroic deeds, and hapless fall

By doom of battle; and complain that fate

550

Free virtue should enthrall to force or chance.
Their song was partial; but the harmony
(What could it less when spirits immortal sing?)
Suspended hell, and took with ravishment

The thronging audience. In discourse more sweet

555

(For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense), Others apart sat on a hill retir'd,

In thoughts more elevate, and reason'd high
Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate,
Fix'd fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute,
And found no end, in wand'ring mazes lost.
Of good and evil much they argued then,
Of happiness and final misery,

Passion and apathy, and glory and shame,
Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy:
Yet, with a pleasing sorcery, could charm
Pain for a while, or anguish, and excite
Fallacious hope, or arm th' obdured breast
With stubborn patience, as with triple steel.

560

565

Another part, in squadrons and gross bands,

570

On bold adventure to discover wide

That dismal world, if any clime perhaps

Might yield them easier habitation, bend

Four ways their flying march, along the banks
Of four infernal rivers, that disgorge

575

Into the burning lake their baleful streams:
Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate;
Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep;
Cocytus, nam'd of lamentation loud

Heard on the rueful stream; fierce Phlegethon,
Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage.
Far off from these, a slow and silent stream,
Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls

580

Her wat'ry labyrinth, whereof who drinks,
Forthwith his former state and being forgets,
Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.
Beyond this flood a frozen continent

Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms
Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land
Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems
Of ancient pile: or else deep snow and ice,

585

590

A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog

Betwixt Damiata and mount Casius old,

Where armies whole have sunk: the parching air

Burns frore, and cold performs th' effect of fire.
Thither by harpy-footed furies hal'd,

595

At certain revolutions, all the damn'd

Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change

Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,

From beds of raging fire, to starve in ice

600

Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine

Immoveable, infix'd, and frozen round,

Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire.

They ferry over this Lethean sound

Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment,

605

And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach

The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose

In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe,

All in one moment, and so near the brink;

But fate withstands, and to oppose th' attempt

610

Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards

The ford, and of itself the water flies

All taste of living wight, as once it fled

The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on

In cónfus'd march forlorn, th' advent'rous bands

615

With shudd'ring horror pale, and eyes aghast,

View'd first their lamentable lot, and found

No rest: through many a dark and dreary vale

They pass'd, and many a region dolorous,

O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp,

620

Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death, A universe of death, which God by curse

Created evil, for evil only good;

Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds,

Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things,
Abominable, inutterable, and worse
Than fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd,
Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire.

625

Meanwhile, the adversary of God and man, Satan, with thoughts inflam'd of highest design, Puts on swift wings, and towards the gates of hell Explores his solitary flight: sometimes

630

He scours the right hand coast, sometimes the left;

635

Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars
Up to the fiery concave tow'ring high.
As when far off at sea a fleet descried
Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds
Close sailing from Bengala, or the isles

Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring

Their spicy drugs; they, on the trading flood,
Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape,

640

Ply stemming nightly toward the pole: so seem'd
Far off the flying fiend. At last appear

Hell-bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof,

And thrice threefold the gates: three folds were brass, 645 Three iron, three of adamantine rock

Impenetrable, impal'd with circling fire,

and fair;

Yet unconsum'd. Before the gates there sat
On either side a formidable shape;
The one seem'd woman to the waist,
But ended foul in many a scaly fold
Voluminous and vast; a serpent arm'd
With mortal sting: about her middle round
A cry of hell-hounds never-ceasing bark'd
With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung
A hideous peal; yet, when they list, would creep,
If aught disturb'd their noise, into her womb,
And kennel there; yet there still bark'd and howl'd,
Within unseen.
Far less abhorr'd than these

Vex'd Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts
Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore:
Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when, call'd
In secret, riding through the air she comes,
Lur'd with the smell of infant blood, to dance
With Lapland witches, while the lab'ring moon
Eclipses at their charms. The other shape,
If shape it might be call'd that shape had none
Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb;

650

655

660

665

Or substance might be call'd that shadow seem'd,
For each seem'd either: black it stood as night,
Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as hell,

670

And shook a dreadful dart; what seem'd his head,

The likeness of a kingly crown had on.

Satan was now at hand, and from his seat

The monster moving onward came as fast

675

With horrid strides; hell trembled as he strode.

Th' undaunted fiend what this might be admir'd,

Admir'd, not fear'd; God and his Son except,
Created thing naught valued he, nor shunn'd;