The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose in sweet forgetfulness all pain ard wo, All in one moment, and so near the brink; But fate withstands, and to oppose th' attempt 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 confus'u march forlorn, th' advent'rous bands With shudd'ring horror pale, and eves 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.
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, unutterable, and worse
Than fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd, Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire.
Meanwhile the Adversary of God and Man, Satan, with thoughts inflam'd of highest design, Puts on swift wings, and tow'rds the gates of hell Explores his solitary flight: sometimes
He scours the right hand coast, sometimes the left, 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 descry'd 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 Ply, stemming nightly tow'rd the pole. So seemed 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 Three iron, three of adamantine rock Impenetrable, empal'd with circling me,
Yet unconsum'd. Before the gates there sat On either side a formidable shape;
The one seem'd woman to the waist, and fair, 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 ought disturb'd their noise into her womb, And kennel there, yet there still bark'd and howl' 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; 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,
And shook a dreadful dart; what seem'd nis 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 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 valu'd he nor shunn'd; And with disdainful look thus first began:
Whence and what art thou, execrable shape'
That dar'st, though grim and terrible, advance Thy miscreated front athwart my way
To yonder gates? Through them I mean to pass That be assur'd, without leave ask'd of thee; Retire, or taste thy folly, and learn by proof, Hell-born. not to contend with spirits of heav'n. 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 ther. Unbroken, and in proud rebellious arms
Drew after him the third part of heav'n's sons Conjur'd against the Highest, for which both thor And they, outcast from God, are here condemn'd To waste eternal days in wo and pain?
And reckon'st thou thyself with spirits of heav'n Hell-doom'd, and breath'st defiance here, and scorn Where I reign king, and to enrage thee more, Thy king and lord? Back to thy punishment, False fugitive, and to thy speed add wings, Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue Thy ling'ring, or with one stroke of this dart Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before So spake the grisly terror, and in shape, So speaking and so threat'ning, grew tenfold More dreadful and deforın on th' other side Incens'd with indignation, Satan stood Unterrify'd, and like a comet burn'd, That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge In th' arctic sky, and from his horrid hair Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head Levell'd his deadly aim; their fatal hands No second stroke intend, and such a frown. Each cast at th' other, as when two black clouds With heav'n's artillery fraught, come rattling or Over the Caspian, then stand front to front Hovering a space, till winds, the signal blow To join their dark encounter in mid air: So frown'd the mighty combatants, that hell Grew darker at their frown, so match'd they s.ood
For never but once more was either like
To meet so great a foe: and now great deeds Had been achiev'd, whereof all hell had rung, Had not the snaky sorceress that sat
Fast 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. Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart
Against thy Father's head? and know'st for whom? For him who sits above and laughs the while At thee ordain'd his drudge, to execute
Whate'er his wrath, which he calls justice, bids · His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both. She spake, and at her words the hellish pest Forbore; then these, to her, Satan return'd:
So strange thy outcry, and thy words, so strange Thou interposest, that my sudden hand Prevented, spares to tell thee yet by deeds What it intends; till first I know of thee, What thing thou art, thus double form'd and why In this infernal vale first met thou call'st Me Father, and that phantasm call'st my son; I know thee not, nor ever saw till now Sight more detestable than him and thee.
T'whom thus the port'ress of hell gate reply'd. Hast thou forgot me then, and do I seem Now in thine eye so foul? once deem'd so fair In heav'n, when at th' assembly, and in sight Of all the Seraphim with thee combin'd In bold conspiracy 'gainst heav'n's King, All on a sudden, miserable pain
Surpriz'd thee, dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast Threw forth, till on the left side opening wide, Likest to thee in shape and count'nance bright, Then shining heav'nly fair, a goddess arm'd Out of thy head I sprung; amazement seiz'd All th' host of heav'n; back they recoil'd afraid
At first, and call'd me Sin, and for a sign Portentous held me; but familiar grown, I pleas'd, and with attractive graces won The most averse; thee chiefly, who full oft Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing, Becam'st enamour'd, and such joy thou took'st With me in secret, that my womb conceiv'd A growing burden. Meanwhile war arose And fields were fought in heav'n; wherein remain'd (For what could else?) to our almighty foe Clear victory, to our part loss and rout Through all the empyrean: down they fell Into this deep, and in the gen'ral fall I also; at which time this pow'rful key Driv'n headlong from the pitch of Heav'n, down Into my hand was giv'n, with charge to keep These gates for ever shut, which none can pass Without my opening. Pensive here I sat Alone, but long I sat not, till my womb Pregnant by thee, and now excessive grown, Prodigious motion felt and rueful throes. At last this odious offspring whom thou seest Thine own begotton, breaking violent way, Tore through my entrails, that with fear and pain Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew Transform'd: but he my inbred enemy Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart Made to destroy: I fled, and cry'd out Death! Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sigh'd From all her caves, and back resounded Death! I fled, but he pursued, (though more, it seems, Inflam'd with lust than rage) and swifter far, Me overtook his mother all dismay'd, And in embraces forcible and foul Engend'ring with me, of that rape begot These yelling monsters, that with ceaseless cry Surround me as thou saw'st, hourly conceiv'd And hourly born, with sorrow infinite To me for when they list, into the womb
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