But fate withstands; and to oppose the 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 confused march forlorn, the adventurous bands. With shuddering 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, [of death: Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades 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 conceived, Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire.
Meanwhile the Adversary of God and Man, Satan, with thoughts inflamed of highest design, Puts on swift wings, and towards 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, towering high: As when, far off at sea, a fleet descry'd Hangs on 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 toward the pole: so seem'd Far off the flying Fiend. At last appear
Hell bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof, And thrice three-fold the gates; three folds were Three iron, three of adamantine rock, [brass,
Impenetrable, empaled with circling fire, Yet unconsumed. 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 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, Lured with the smell of infant blood, to dance With Lapland witches; while the labouring 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 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, With horrid strides: Hell trembled as he strode. The undaunted fiend, what this might be, admired, Admired, not fear'd: God and his Son except, Created thing nought valued he, nor shunn'd; And with disdainful look, thus first began:
Whence, and what art thou, execrable shape, That darest, though grim and terrible, advance Thy miscreated front athwart my way
To yonder gates? Through them I mean to pass, That be assured, without leave asked of thee. Retire, or taste thy folly, and learn by proof, Hell-born, not to contend with Spirits of Heaven." To whom the goblin, full of wrath, replied, "Art thou that traitor-Angel, art thou he, Who first broke peace in Heaven, and faith, till Unbroken; and, in proud rebellious arms, [then Drew after him the third part of Heaven's sons, Conjured against the Highest; for which both thou And they, outcast from God, are here condemn'd To waste eternal days in woe and pain? And reckon'st thou thyself with Spirits of Heaven, Hell-doom'd, and breathest 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 lingering; 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 threatening, grew ten-fold More dreadful and deform. On the other side, Incensed with indignation, Satan stood Unterrified; and like a comet burned, That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge, In the 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 the other, as when two black clouds, With heaven's artillery fraught, come rattling on 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 stood: For never but once more was either like
To meet so great a foe: and now great deeds Had been achieved, whereof all Hell had rung, Had not the snaky sorceress, that sat Fast by hell-gate, and kept the fatal key, Risen, and with hideous outcry rush'd between. "O Father, what intends thy hand," she cried, "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 returned:
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, [why, What thing thou art, thus double-formed; and In this infernal vale first met, thou call'st Me father, and that phantasm call's: my son: I know thee not, nor ever saw till now Sight more detestable, than him and thee."
To whom, thus the portress of Hell-gate replied. "Hast thou forgot me then, and do I seem Now in thine eye so foul? once deem'd so fair In Heaven, when at the assembly, and in sight Of all the Seraphim, with thee combined, In bold conspiracy against Heaven's King, All on a sudden miserable pain
Surprised thee; dim thine eyes, and dizzy swam In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast Threw forth, till on the left side, opening wide, Likest to thee in shape and countenance bright, Then shining heavenly fair, a goddess arm'd, Out of thy head I sprang. Amazement seized All the host of Heaven; back they recoil'd, afraid At first, and call'd me SIN: and for a sign Portentous held me: but familiar grown, I pleased, and with attractive graces won The most averse; thee chiefly, who full oft, Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing,
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