Of lowest order, pafs'd; and from the door Of that Plutonian hall, invisible
Afcended his high throne, which under state Of richest texture fpread, at the upper end Was plac'd in regal luftre. Down a while He fat, and round about him faw unseen: At laft as from a cloud his fulgent head
And shape star-bright appear'd, or brighter, clad 450 With what permiffive glory fince his fall Was left him, or falfe glitter: All amaz'd At that fo fudden blaze the Stygian throng Bent their aspéct, and whom they wish'd beheld, Their mighty chief return'd: loud was th' acclame: Forth rush'd in hafte the great confulting peers, Rais'd from their dark Divan, and with like joy Congratulant approach'd him, who with hand Silence, and with these words attention won. Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers, For in poffeffion fuch, not only' of right, I call you and declare you now, return'd Successful beyond hope, to lead you forthr Triumphant out of this infernal pit Abominable, accurs'd, the house of woe, And dungeon of our tyrant: now poffefs,
As Lords, a fpacious world, to' our native Heaven
Little inferior, by my adventure hard
With peril great achiev'd. Long were to tell
What I have done, what füffer'd, with what pain 470 Voyag'd th' unreal, vaft, unbounded deep
Of horrible confufion, over which
By Sin and Death a broad way now is pav'd To expedite your glorious march; but I Toil'd out my uncouth passage, forc'd to ride Th' untractable abyfs, plung'd in the womb Of unoriginal Night and Chaos wild, That jealous of their fecrets fiercely' oppos'd My journey strange, with clamorous uproar Protesting fate fupreme; thence how I found
The new created world, which fame in Heaven Long had foretold, a fabric wonderful
Of abfolute perfection, therein Man
Plac'd in a Paradife, by our exile
Made happy: Him by fraud I have feduc'd
From his Creator, and the more to increase
Your wonder, with an apple; he thereat Offended, worth your laughter, hath giv'n up Both his beloved Man and all his world, To Sin and Death a prey, and so to us, Without our hazard, labor, or alarm, To range in, and to dwell, and over Man To rule, as over all he should have rul'd. True is, me alfo he hath judg'd, or rather Me not, but the brute ferpent in whose shape Man I deceiv'd: that which to me belongs, Is enmity, which he will put between Me and mankind; I am to bruise his heel; His feed, when is not fet, fhall bruise my head:: A world who would not purchase with a bruife, Or much more grievous pain? Ye have th' account Of my performance: What remains, ye Gods,
But up and enter now into full blifs?
So having faid, a while he stood, expecting Their univerfal fhout and high applaufe
To fill his ear, when contrary he hears On all fides, from innumerable tongues A difmal univerfal hifs, the found
Of public fcorn; he wonder'd, but not long Had leifure, wond'ring at himself now more; His vifage drawn he felt to sharp and spare, His arms clung to his ribs, his legs intwining Each other, till fupplanted down he fell A monftrous ferpent on his belly prone, Reluctant, but in vain, a greater power
Now rul'd him, punish'd in the shape he finn'd According to his doom: he would have spoke, But hifs for hifs return'd with forked tongue To forked tongue, for now were all transform'd Alike, to ferpents all as acceffories
To his bold riot: dreadful was the din
Of hiffing through the hall, thick fwarming now With complicated monfters head and tail,
Scorpion, and Afp, and Amphisbæna dire, Ceraftes horn'd, Hydrus, and Elops drear,
And Dipfas (not so thick swarm'd once the foil
Bedropt with blood of Gorgon, or the ile Ophiufa) but still greatest he the midft,
Now Dragon grown, larger than whom the fun Ingender'd in the Pythian vale on flime,
Huge Python, and his pow'r no lefs he feem'd Above the reft ftill to retain; they all
Him follow'd iffuing forth to th' open field, Where all yet left of that revolted rout Heav'n-fall'n, in ftation ftood or just array, Sublime with expectation when to fee
In triumph iffuing forth their glorious chief: They faw, but other fight instead, a crowd Of ugly ferpents; horror on them fell, And horrid fympathy; for what they saw,
They felt themselves now changing; down their arms,
Down fell both spear and shield, down they as fast, And the dire hifs renew'd, and the dire form
Catch'd by contagion, like in punishment,
As in their crime. Thus was th' applause they meant Turn'd to exploding hiss, triumph to shame
Caft on themselves from their own mouths. There ftood A grove hard by, fprung up with this their change, His will who reigns above, to aggravate
Their penance, laden with fair fruit, like that Which grew in Paradife, the bait of Eve Us'd by the Tempter: on that prospect strange Their earnest eyes they fix'd, imagining
For one forbidden tree a multitude
Now ris'n, to work them further woe or fhame; 555 Yet parch'd with scalding thirst and hunger fierce, Though to delude them fent, could not abftain, But on they roll'd in heaps, and up the trees Climbing, fat thicker than the snaky locks That curl'd Megara: greedily they pluck'd The fruitage fair to fight, like that which grew Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flam'd;
This more delufive, not the touch, but tafte Deceiv'd; they fondly thinking to allay Their appetite with guft, instead of fruit Chew'd bitter afhes, which th' offended tafte With fpattering noise rejected: oft they' affay'd, Hunger and thirft conftraining, drug'd as oft, With hatefulleft difrelish writh'd their jaws With foot and cinders fill'd: fo oft they fell Into the fame illufion, not as Man Whom they triumph'd once laps'd. Thus were they And worn with famine, long and ceaseless hiss, Till their loft shape, permitted, they refum'd, Yearly injoin'd, some say, to undergo
This annual humbling certain number'd days, To dash their pride, and joy for man feduc'd. However fome tradition they difpers'd
Among the Heathen of their purchase got,
And fabled how the Serpent, whom they call'd
Ophion with Eurynome, the wide
Encroaching Eve perhaps, had first the rule
Of high Olympus, thence by Saturn driven And Ops, ere yet Dictæan Jove was born. Mean while in Paradise the hellish pair Too foon arriv'd, Sin there in pow'r before, Once actual, now in body, and to dwell Habitual habitant; behind her Death
Clofe following pace for pace, not mounted yet On his pale horfe: to whom Sin thus began.
Second of Satan fprung, all conqu'ring Death, What think'st thou of our empire now, though earn'd
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