At least might feem to hold all power of thee,
Ambitious Spirit, and would it be thought my God,
And torm'it refus'd, thinking to terrify
Me to thy will defift, thou art discern'd,
And toil'it in vain, nor me in vain moleft.

496

500

To whom the Fiend, now fwoln with rage, reply'd: Then hear, O Son of David, Virgin-born; The Son of God to me is yet in doubt; Of the Meffiah I have heard foretold By all the Prophets of thy birth, at length Announc'd by Gabriel, with the first I knew, And of th' angelic fong in Bethlehem field, On thy birth-night, that fung thee Saviour born. From that time feldom have I ceas'd to eye Thy infancy, thy childhood, and thy youth, Thy manhood lait, though yet in private bred; Till at the ford of Jordan, whither all Flock to the Baptiit, I among the reft,

505

510

Though not to be baptiz'd, by voice from heav'n
Heard thee pronounc'd, the Son of God belov'd.
Thenceforth I thought thee worth my nearer view
And narrow ferutiny, that I might learn
In what degree of meaning thou art call'd

515

The Son of God, which bears no fingle sense:
The Son of God I alfo am, or was;

And if I was, I am; relation ftands:

All men are fons of God: yet thee I thought

520

In fome respect far higher fo declar'd.

Therefore I watch'd thy footsteps from that hour,

And follow'd thee ftill on to this waste wild;

Where by all beft conjectures I collect

Thou art to be my fatal enemy.

525

Good reason then, if I before-hand feek

To understand my adverfary, who

And what he is; his wildom, power, intent;

By parl, or compofition, truce, or league,

To win him, or win from him what I can.

530

And opportunity I here have had

To try thee, fift thee, and confefs have found thee

Proof against all temptation, as a rock

Of adamant, and as a centre, firm,
To th' utmost of mere man both wife and good,
Not more; for honours, riches, kingdoms, glory,
Have been before conteinn'd, and may again:
Therefore to know what mbre thou art than man,
Worth naming Son of God by voice from heav'n},
Another method I must now begin.

So faying, he caught him up, and, without wing

Of hippogrif, bore through the air fublime
Over the wilderness and o'er the plain ;
Till underneath them fair Jerufalem,
The holy city, lifted high her towers,
And higher yet the glorious temple rear'd
Her pile, far off appearing like a mount
? Of alabaftar, topt with golden fpires:
There on the highest pinnacle he fet

The Son of God, and added thus in fcorn:

535

540

545

550

There ftand, if thou wilt stand; to stand upright

Will afk thee fkill: I to thy father's house

Now how thy progeny; if not to stand,

Have brought thee, and highest plac'd; higheft is beft;

Caft thyfelf down; fafely, if Son of God:
For it is written, He will give command
Concerning thee to his angels; in their hands
They fhall uplift thee, left at any time

555

Thou chance to dafh thy foot against a stone.
To whom thus Jefus: Allo it is written,
Tempt not the Lord thy God: he faid, and flood:
But Satan, fmitten with amazement, fell.
As when earth's fon Antæus (to compare
Small things with greateft) in Irafia itrove

560

With Jove's Alcides, and oft foil'd still rose,
Receiving from his mother earth new ftrength,
Fresh from his fall, and fiercer grapple join'd,
Throttled at length in th' air, expir'd and fell;
So after many a foil the tempter proud,
Renewing freth affaults, amidst his pride,
Fell whence he ftood to fee his victor fall.
And as that Theban monster, that propos'd
Her riddle, and him who folv'd it not devour'd,

565

570

That once found out and folv'd, for grief and spite
Caft herfelf headlong from th' Ifinenian fteep;
So, ftruck with dread and anguish fell the fiend;
And to his crew, that fat confulting, brought
Joyle's triumphals of his hop'd fuccefs,
Ruin and defperation, and difinay,
Who durit to proudly tempt the Son of God..
So Satan fell; and ftrait a fiery globe
Of angels on full fail of wing flew nigh,
Who on their plumy vans receiv'd him soft
From his uneafy ftation, and up bore

575

580

As on a floating couch through the blithe air,
Then in a flow'ry valley fet hin down

585

On a green bank, and fet before him spread
A table of celeftial food, divine,

Ambrofial fruits, fetch'd from the tree of life,
And from the fount of life ambrofial drink,
That foon refresh'd him wearied, and repair'd,
What hunger, if ought hunger had impair'd,
Or thirst; and as he fed, angelic choirs
Sung heav'nly anthems of his victory
Over temptation, and the tempter proud.

True image of the Father, whether thron'd
In the bofom of blifs, and light of light
Conceiving, or remote from heav'n, inshrin d
In fleshy tabernacle, and human form,
Wand'ring the wilderness, whatever place,
Habit, or itate, or motion, ftill expreffing
The Son of God, with God-like force indu'd
Against th' attempter of thy Father's throne,
And thief of Paradile; him long of old

Thou didst debel, and down from heav'n caft
With all his army; now thou haft aveng'd
Supplanted Adam, and, by vanquishing
Temptation, hath regain'd loft Paradise,
And fruftrated the conqueft fraudulent;
He never more henceforth will dare fet foot
In Paradife to tempt; his fnares are broke:
For though that feat of earthly bliss be fail'd,
A fairer Paradife is founded now

590

595

600

605

610

For Adam and his chofen fons, whom thou

A Saviour art come down to re-instal,

615

621

625

Where they fhall dwell fecure, when time shall be,
Oftempter and remptation without fear.
But thou, infernal Serpent, fhalt not long
Rule in the clouds; like an autumnal star
Or lightning thou fhalt fall from heav'n, trod down
Under his feet: for proof, ere this thou feel'st
Thy wound, yet not thy laft and deadliest wound,
By this repulfe receiv'd, and hold'st in hell
No triumph in all her gates Abaddon rues
Thy bold attempt; hereafter learn with awe
To dread the Son of God: he all unarm'd
Shall chafe thee with the terror of his voice
From thy demoniac holds, poffeffion foul,
Thee and thy legions; yelling they shall fly,
And beg to hide them in a herd of swine,
Left he command them down into the deep
Bound, and to torment fent before their time.
Hail Son of the Moft High, heir of both worlds,
Queller of Satan, on thy glorious work

Now enter, and begin to fave mankind.

Thus they the Son of God, our Saviour meek, Sung Victor, and from heav'nly feaft refresh'd Brought on his way with joy; he unobserv'd Home to his mother's houfe private return'd.

THE END OF PARADISE REGAIN'D

6.0

635

639

A DRAMATIC POEM.

Τραγωδία μίμησις πράξεως σπεδαίας, Ει
Ariftot. Poet. cap 6.

Tragedia eft imitatio aftlobis ferie, etc. per mifericordiam et metum perfciens talium affectuum luftrationem.

OF THAT SORT OF DRAMATIC POEM WHICH IS CALLED TRAGEDY.

TRAGEDY, as it was anciently compos'd, bath been ever held the

gravest, moraleft, and most profitable of all other poems: therefore laid by Ariftotle to be of power, by raising fity and fear, or terror, to purge the mind of those and fucb like paffions, that is, to temper and reduce them to just mealure, with a kind of delight, firred up by reading or feeing those paffions well-imitated. Nor is Nature wanting in her own effects to make good bis affertion: for fo in phyfic things of melancholic kue and quality are used against melancholy, four again four, falt to remove falt humours. Hence philofophers, and attr graveft writers, as Cicero, Plutarch, and cthers, frequently cite cut of tragic poets, both to adorn and illuftrate their difcourfe. The Aptit Paul himself thought it not unworthy to infert a verse of Euripidesimo the text of Holy Scripture, 1 Cor. xv. 33. and Paraus, commerting on the Revelation, divides the whole bock as a tragedy, into aƐts diftinguifhed each by a chorus of heavenly harpings, and Jong between. Heretofore men in highest dignity have laboured not a little to be thougi! able to compofe a tragedy. Of that benour Dionyfius the Elder was no less ambitious than before of his attaining to the tyranny. Auguftu Cafar aljo had begun his Ajax; but, unable to please his own judg ment with what he had begun, left it unfinished. Seneca, the phil pher, is by fome thought the author of thofe tragedies, at least the bef of them, that go under that name. Gregory Nazianzen, a Father the Church, thought it not unbefeeming the fanctity of his perfon to write a tragedy, which is intitled Chrift fuffering. This is mentioned :: vindicate tragedy from the small efteem, or rather infamy, which is the account of many it undergoes at this day with other common inerludes; happening through the posts' error of intermixing comic fuf with tragic fadness and gravity; or introducing trivial and vulgas perfons, which by all judicious, hath been counted abfurd, and broug in without difcretion, corruptly to gratify the people. And thrugi ancient tragedy ufe no prologue, yet using fometimes, in case of af defence or explanation, that which Martial calls an epiftle; in behaj of this tragedy coming forth after the ancient manner, much different from what among us palles for beft, thus much before-hand may be epiftled; that chorus is here introduced after the Greek manner, not ancient only but modern, and fill in uje among the Italians. In the modelling, therefore, of this poem, with good reason, the ancients am Italians are rather followed, as of much more authority and fam