The present; fearing, guilty, what his wrath Might suddenly inflict; that past, return'd By night, and listening where the hapless pair Sat in their sad discourse and various plaint, Thence gather'd his own doom; which understood Not instant, but of future time, with joy And tidings fraught, to hell he now return'd: And at the brink of Chaos, near the foot Of this new wondrous pontifice, unhoped Met, who to meet him came, his offspring dear. Great joy was at their meeting, and at sight Of that stupendous bridge his joy increased. Long he admiring stood; till Sin, his fair Enchanting daughter, thus the silence broke: O parent, these are thy magnific deeds,
Thy trophies! which thou view'st as not thine own:
Thou art their authour, and prime architect:
For I no sooner in my heart divined,
(My heart, which by a secret harmony
Still moves with thine, join'd in connexion sweet)
That thou on earth hadst prosper'd, which thy looks Now also evidence, but straight I felt,
Though distant from thee worlds between, yet felt That I must after thee, with this thy son; Such fatal consequence unites us three. Hell could no longer hold us in our bounds, Nor this unvoyageable gulf obscure Detain from following thy illustrious track: Thou hast achieved our liberty, confined Within hell-gates till now; thou us impower'd To fortify thus far, and overlay,
With this portentous bridge, the dark abyss. Thine now is all this world; thy virtue hath won What thy hands builded not; thy wisdom gain'd With odds what war hath lost; and fully avenged Our foil in heaven: here thou shalt monarch reign, There didst not; there let him still victor sway, As battel hath adjudged; from this new world Retiring, by his own doom alienated;
And henceforth monarchy with thee divide Of all things, parted by the empyreal bounds,
His quadrature, from thy orbicular world;
Or try thee now more dangerous to his throne. Whom thus the prince of darkness answer'd glad: Fair daughter, and thou son and grandchild both: High proof ye now have given to be the race Of Satan (for I glory in the name, Antagonist of heaven's Almighty King),
344. Which being understood not now, but of future time: joy and tidings, for joyful tidings.
381. His quadrature. The holy city, the New Jerusalem, is described of this figure. See Rev. xxi. 16.
Amply have merited of me, of all
The infernal empire, that so near heaven's door Triumphal with triumphal act have met,
Mine, with this glorious work; and made one realm, Hell and this world, one realm, one continent Of easy thoroughfare. Therefore,—while I Descend through darkness, on your road, with ease, To my associate powers, them to acquaint With these successes, and with them rejoice;- You two this way, among these numerous orbs, All yours, right down to Paradise descend;
There dwell, and reign in bliss; thence on the earth Dominion exercise and in the air,
Chiefly on man, sole lord of all declared:
Him first make sure your thrall, and lastly kill. My substitutes I send ye, and create Plenipotent on earth, of matchless might Issuing from me; on your joint vigour now My hold of this new kingdom all depends, Through Sin to Death exposed by my exploit. If your joint power prevail, the affairs of hell No detriment need fear: go, and be strong!
So saying, he dismiss'd them; they with speed Their course through thickest constellations held, Spreading their bane; the blasted stars look'd wan; And planets, planet-struck, real eclipse
Then suffer'd. The other way Satan went down The causey to hell-gate: on either side Disparted Chaos overbuilt exclaim'd, And with rebounding surge the bars assail'd, That scorn'd his indignation: through the gate, Wide open and unguarded, Satan pass'd, And all about found desolate; for those, Appointed to sit there, had left their charge, Flown to the upper world; the rest were all Far to the inland retired, about the walls
Of Pandæmonium, city and proud seat Of Lucifer; so by allusion call'd
Of that bright star to Satan paragon'd:
There kept their watch the legions, while the grand In council sat, solicitous what chance Might intercept their emperour sent; so he Departing gave command, and they observed. As when the Tartar from his Russian foe, By Astracan, over the snowy plains,
413. Planet-struck. We say of a thing, when it is blasted and withered, that it is planet-struck, and that is now applied to the planets themselves. And what a sublime idea doth it give us of the devastations of Sin and Death!-NEWTON.
432-6. Astracan: A city at the mouth
of the Volga. Sophi, a title of the king of Persia, called Bactrian, from one of his richest provinces. Turkish crescent, for Turkish standard or power. Aladule, the Greater Armenia, so called from its last king, Aladulis. Casbeen, or Kashin, a city south of the Caspian Sea, a little north
Retires; or Bactrian Sophi, from the horns Of Turkish crescent, leaves all waste beyond The realm of Aladule, in his retreat To Tauris or Casbeen: so these, the late Heaven-banished host, left desert utmost hell Many a dark league, reduced in careful watch Round their metropolis; and now expecting Each hour their great adventurer, from the search Of foreign worlds: he through the midst unmark'd, In show plebeian angel militant
Of lowest order, pass'd; and from the door Of that Plutonian hall, invisible
Ascended his high throne; which, under state Of richest texture spread, at the upper end Was placed in regal lustre. Down awhile He sat, and round about him saw, unseen: At last, as from a cloud, his fulgent head And shape star-bright appear'd, or brighter; clad With what permissive glory since his fall Was left him, or false glitter. All amazed At that so sudden blaze, the Stygian throng Bent their aspect, and whom they wish'd beheld, Their mighty chief return'd: loud was the acclaim; Forth rush'd in haste the great consulting peers, Raised 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 possession such, not only of right, I call ye, and declare ye now; return'd Successful beyond hope, to lead ye forth Triumphant out of this infernal pit Abominable, accursed, the house of woe, And dungeon of our tyrant: now possess,
As lords, a spacious world, to our native heaven Little inferiour, by my adventure hard
With peril great achieved. Long were to tell
What I have done, what suffer'd; with what pain Voyaged the unreal, vast, unbounded deep Of horrible confusion; over which
By Sin and Death a broad way now is paved, To expedite your glorious march; but I
Toil'd out my uncouth passage, forced to ride The untractable abyss, plunged in the womb Of unoriginal Night and Chaos wild;
west of Teheran, where the Persian mo- | The said council is said (i. 795) to sit in narchs made their residence after the loss of Tauris, (Ecbatana.)
445. State: A canopy, covering. 457. Divan. The Devils are frequently described by metaphors taken from the Turks. Satan is called the sultan (1.348) as here the council is styled the divan.
secret conclave. The Devil, the Turk, and the Pope being commonly thought to be nearly related, and often joined together.-NEWTON.
475. Uncouth: Unknown. Unoriginal: Not originated, not generated.
That, jealous of their secrets, fiercely opposed- My journey strange, with clamorous uproar Protesting fate supreme; thence how I found The new-created world, which fame in heaven Long had foretold, a fabric wonderful Of absolute perfection! therein man Placed in a Paradise, by our exile Made happy: him by fraud I have seduced · From his Creator; and, the more to increase Your wonder, with an apple; he, thereat Offended, worth your laughter! hath given up Both his beloved man and all his world, To Sin and Death a prey; and so to us, Without our hazard, labour, or alarm, To range in, and to dwell, and over man To rule, as over all he should have ruled. True is, me also he hath judged, or rather Me not, but the brute serpent, in whose shape Man I deceived: that which to me belongs Is enmity, which he will put between Me and mankind; I am to bruise his heel;
His seed, when is not set, shall bruise my head.
A world who would not purchase with a bruise,
Or much more grievous pain? Ye have the account
Of my performance: what remains, ye gods, But up, and enter now into full bliss?
So having said, awhile he stood, expecting Their universal shout, and high applause, To fill his ear: when, contrary, he hears On all sides, from innumerable tongues, A dismal universal hiss, the sound` Of public scorn: he wonder'd, but not long Had leisure, wondering at himself now more: His visage drawn he felt to sharp and spare; His arms clung to his ribs; his legs entwining Each other, till supplanted down he fell A monstrous serpent on his belly prone, Reluctant, but in vain; a greater Power Now ruled him, punish'd in the shape he sinn'd, According to his doom. He would have spoke, But hiss for hiss return'd with forked tongue To forked tongue; for now were all transform'd Alike, to serpents all, as accessories To his bold riot: dreadful was the din Of hissing through the hall, thick-swarming now With complicated monsters head and tail, Scorpion, and asp, and amphisbæna dire,
480. Protesting fate supreme: Calling upon fate as a witness against my proceedings.
throw," a term of the gymnasium; so reluctant, “struggling against."
524. Amphisbana, &c. See Webster's 513. Supplanted: From the Latin sup- Dict. Ophiusa, (from the Greek opis, planto, to trip up one's heels, to over-ophis, "a serpent:") a small island in the
Cerastes horn'd, hydrus, and elops drear, And dipsas, (not so thick swarm'd once the soil Bediopt with blood of Gorgon, or the isle Ophiusa;) but still greatest he the midst, Now dragon grown, larger than whom the sun Ingender'd in the Pythian vale on slime, Huge Python, and his power no less he seem'd Above the rest still to retain. They all Him follow'd, issuing forth to the open field, Where all yet left of that revolted rout, Heaven-fallen, in station stood or just array; Sublime with expectation when to see In triumph issuing forth their glorious chief. They saw, but other sight instead! a crowd Of ugly serpents; horrour on them fell, And horrid sympathy; 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 hiss renew'd, and the dire form Catch'd, by contagion; like in punishment,
As in their crime. Thus was the applause they meant 545 Turn'd to exploding hiss, triumph to shame
Cast on themselves from their own mouths. There stood
A grove hard by, sprung up with this their change
His will who reigns above, to aggravate
Their penance, laden with fair fruit, like that Which grew in Paradise, the bait of Eve Used by the tempter: on that prospect strange Their earnest eyes they fix'd, imagining For one forbidden tree a multitude
Now risen, to work them farther woe or shame; Yet, parch'd with scalding thirst and hunger fierce, Though to delude them sent, could not abstain; But on they roll'd in heaps, and, up the trees Climbing, sat thicker than the snaky locks That curl'd Megæra. Greedily they pluck'd The fruitage fair to sight, like that which grew Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flamed; This more delusive, not the touch, but taste Deceived: they fondly thinking to allay Their appetite with gust, instead of fruit Chew'd bitter ashes, which the offended taste With spattering noise rejected: oft they assay'd, Hunger and thirst constraining; drugg'd as oft, With hatefulest disrelish writhed their jaws, With soot and cinders fill'd; so oft they fell Into the same illusion, not as man
Mediterranean, off the coast of Spain, the inhabitants of which are said to have quitted it for fear of being devoured by serpents.
560. Megara: One of the Furies, whose hair was serpents, like Medusa's.
562. Bituminous lake: The Dead Sea. 572. Triumph'd: That is, triumph'd So in line 186 of this book.
525. Elops, a serpent spoken of by Pliny. | over.
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