Where armies whole have funk: the parching air
Burns frore, and cold performs th' effect of fire, 595. Thither by harpy-footed furies hal'd
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
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 Lethéan found
Both to and fro, their forrow to augment,
And wish and struggle, as they país, to reach
The tempting ftream, with one small drop to lose
In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe,
All in one moment, and so near the brink;
But fate withftands, and to oppofe th' attempt
Medufa 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' adventrous bands 615
With fhudd'ring horror pale, and eyes aghast,
View'd firft their lamentable lot, and found
No reft: through many a dark and dreary vale
They pafs'd, and many a region dolorous,
O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp,
Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death, A univerfe of death, which God by curfe
Created ev'il, for evil only good,
Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds,
Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things,
Abominable, inutterable, and worfe
Than fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd,
Gorgons, and Hydra's, and Chimæra's dire.
Mean while the Adversary' of God and Man,
Satan with thoughts inflam'd of hig❜heft defign, 63a
Puts on fwift wings, and tow'ards the gates of Hell
Explores his folitary flight; fometimes
Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds
Clofe failing from Bengala, or the iles
Now shaves with level wing the deep, then foars
Up to the fiery concave towring high.
As when far off at sea a fleet defcry'd
He fcours the right hand coast, fometimes the left,
Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring
Their fpicy drugs: they on the trading flood
Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape
Ply ftemming nightly tow'ard the pole. So feem'd
Far off the flying Fiend: at last
Hell bounds high reaching to the horrid roof,
And thrice three-fold the gates; three folds were brass, Three iron, three of adamantin rock,
Impenetrable, impal'd with circling fire,
Yet unconfum'd. Before the gates there fat
On either fide a formidable shape;
The one feem'd woman to the waste, and fair,
But ended foul in many a fcaly fold
Voluminous and vaft, a ferpent arm'd
With mortal fting: about her middle round
of Hell hounds never ceafing bark'd
With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung 655
A hideous peal; yet, when they lift, would creep,
If ought difturb'd their noise, into her womb,
And kennel there, yet there still bark'd and howl'd,
Within unfeen. Far lefs abhorr'd than these
Vex'd Scylla bathing in the fea that parts
Calabria from the hoarfe Trinacrian fhore:
Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when, call'd
In fecret, riding through the air fhe comes,
Lur'd with the fmell of infant blood, to dance
With Lapland witches, while the lab'ring moon 665
Eclipfes at their charms. The other shape,
If shape it might be call'd that shape had none
Diftinguishable in member, joint, or limb,
Or fubftance might be call'd that fhadow feem'd,
For each feem'd either; black it ftood as Night, 679
Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell,
And fhook a dreadful dart; what seem'd his head
The likeness of a kingly crown had on:
Satan was now at hand, and from his feat
The monster moving onward came as fast
With horrid ftrides, Hell trembled as he ftrode.
Th' undaunted Fiend what this might be admir'd,
Admir'd, not fear'd; God and his Son except,
Created thing nought valued he nor shunn'd;
And with difdainful look thus first began.
Whence and what art thou, execrable fhape,
That dar'ft, though grim and terrible, advance
Thy mifcreated front athwart my way
To yonder gates? through them I mean to pass,
That be affur'd, without leave ask'd of thee:
Retire, or tafte thy folly', and learn by proof,
Hell-born, not to contend with Spi'rits of Heaven.
To whom the goblin full of wrath reply'd.
Art thou that traitor Angel, art thou He,
Who first broke peace in Heav'n and faith, till then
Unbroken, and in proud rebellious arms
Drew after him the third part of Heav'n's fons
Conjúr'd against the Hig'heft, for which both thou
And they, outcaft from God, are here condemn'd
To waste eternal days in woe and pain?
And reckon't thou thyfelf with Spi'rits of Heaven,
Hell-doom'd, and breath'ft defiance here and fcorn
Where I reign king, and, to enrage thee more,
Thy king and lord? Back to thy punishment,
Falfe fugitive, and to thy fpeed add wings,
Left with a whip of fcorpions I pursue
Thy lingring, or with one stroke of this dart
Strange horror feise thee', and pangs unfelt before.
So fpake the grifly terror, and in shape,
So fpeaking and fo threatning, grew ten-fold
More dreadful and deform: on th' other fide
Incens'd with indignation Satan ftood
Unterrify'd, and like a comet burn'd,
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
In th' arctic fky, and from his horrid hair
Shakes peftilence and war. Each at the head
Level'd his deadly aim; their fatal hands
No fecond stroke intend, and fuch a frown
Each caft at th' other, as when two black clouds,
With Heav'n's artillery fraught, come rattling on 715
Over the Cafpian, then stand front to front
Hovering a space, till winds the fignal blow
To join their dark encounter in mid air :
So frown'd the mighty combatants, that Hell
Grew darker at their frown, fo match'd they flood;
For never but once more was either like
To meet fo great a foe: and now great deeds
Had been achiev'd, whereof all Hell had rung,
Had not the fnaky forceress that fat
Faft by Hell gate, and kept the fatal key,
Ris'n, and with hideous outcry rush'd between.
O Father, what intends thy hand, she cry'd,
Against thy only Son? What fury', O Son,
Poffeffes thee to bend that mortal dart
Against thy Father's head? and know'st for whom;
For him who fits above and laughs the while
At thee ordain'd his drudge, to execute
Whate'er his wrath, which he calls juftice, bids;
His wrath, which one day will deftroy ye both.
She spake, and at her words the hellish pest
Forbore: then thefe to her Satan return'd.
So ftrange thy outcry, and thy words fo ftrange
Thou interpofeft, that my fudden hand
Prevented fpares to tell thee yet by deeds
What it intends; till firft I know of thee,
What thing thou art, thus double-form'd, and why
In this infernal vale firft met thou call'ft
Me Father, and that phantafm call'ft my Son;
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