Man had not hellish foes enow besides,
That day and night for his destruction wait. The Stygian council thus diffolv'd; and forth In order came the grand infernal peers: Midft came their mighty paramount, and feem'd Alone th' antagonist of Heav'n, nor less Than Hell's dread emperor with pomp fupreme,
And God-like imitated state; him round A globe of fiery Seraphim inclos'd
With bright imblazonry, and horrent arms. Then of their feffion ended they bid cry With trumpets regal found the great refult: Tow'ards the four winds four speedy Cherubim Put to their mouths the founding alchemy By heralds voice explain'd; the hollow' abyss Heard far and wide, and all the hoft of Hell With deafning fhout return'd them loud acclame. 520 Thence more at ease their minds, and fomewhat rais'd By false presumptuous hope, the ranged Powers Difband, and, wand'ring, each his several way Purfues, as inclination or fad choice
Leads him perplex'd, where he may likelieft find 525 Truce to his restless thoughts, and entertain The irk fome hours, till his great chief return. Part on the plain, or in the air fublime, Upon the wing, or in swift race contend, As at th' Olympian games or Pythian fields; Part curb their fiery steeds, or fhun the goal With rapid wheels, or fronted brigads form. As when to warn proud cities war appears
Wag'd in the troubled sky, and armies rush To battel in the clouds, before each van
Prick forth the aery knights, and couch their spears Till thickeft legions close; with feats of arms From either end of Heav'n the welkin burns. Others with vast Typhoean rage more fell Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air In whirlwind; Hell fcarce holds the wild uproar. As when Alcides, from Oechalia crown'd With conqueft, felt th' envenom'd robe, and tore Through pain up by the roots Theffalian pines, And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw
Into th' Euboic fea. Others more mild, Retreated in a filent valley, fing
With notes angelical to many a harp
Their own heroic deeds and hapless fall
By doom of battel; and complain that fate Free virtue fhould inthrall to force or chance.
Their fong was partial, but the harmony
(What could it less when Spi'rits immortal fing?) Sufpended Hell, and took with ravishment
The thronging audience. In difcourfe more sweet 555. (For eloquence the foul, fong charms the fenfe,) Others apart fat on a hill retir'd,
In thoughts more elevate, and reafon'd high Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate, Fix'd fate, free will, foreknowledge abfolute, And found no end, in wand'ring mazes lost. Of good and evil much they argued then, Of happiness and final misery,
Paffion and apathy, and glory' and shame, Vain wisdom all, and falfe philosophy : Yet with a pleafing forcery could charm Pain for a while or anguish, and excite Fallacious hope, or arm th' obdured breast With stubborn patience as with triple steel. Another part in squadrons and grofs bands, On bold adventure to discover wide
That difmal world, if any clime perhaps
Might yield them easier habitation, bend
Four ways their flying march, along the banks Of four infernal rivers, that difgorge
Into the burning lake their baleful streams; Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate; Sad Acheron of forrow, black and deep; Cocytus, nam'd of lamentation loud
Heard on the rueful ftream; fierce Phlegethon
Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage. Far off from these a flow and filent stream,
Lethe the river of oblivion rolls Her watry labyrinth, whereof who drinks, Forthwith his former state and be'ing forgets, Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain. Beyond this flood a frozen continent Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems Of ancient pile; or elfe deep fnow and ice, A guif profound as that Serbonian bog Betwixt Damiata and Mount Cafius old,
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 foft 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 pafs, to reach The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe,
All in one moment, and fo near the brink;
But fate withstands, and to oppose 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 first their lamentable lot, and found
No reft through many a dark and dreary vale
They pass'd, and many â region dolorous,
O'cr many a frozen, many a fiery Alp,
Rocks, caves,lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and fhades 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 monftrous, all prodigious things, Abominable, inutterable, and worse
Than fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd, Gorgons, and Hydra's, and Chimera's dire.
Mean while the Adversary' of God and Man, Satan with thoughts inflam'd of hig’hest design, Puts on swift wings, and tow'ards the gates of Hell Explores his folitary flight; fometimes
He fcours the right hand coast, sometimes the left,
Now fhaves with level wing the deep, then foars Up to the fiery concave towring high.
Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape
Ply stemming nightly tow'ard the pole. So feem'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 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 wafte, and fair, But ended foul in many a fcaly fold Voluminous and vaft, a serpent arm'd
With mortal fting: about her middle round
« 上一頁繼續 » |