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 ye, and declare ye now, return'd Successful beyond hope, to lead ye forth
Triumphant out of this infernal pit Abominable, accurs'd, the house of woe,
And dungeon of our tyrant: now poflefs,
As lords, a fpacious world, to our native heav'n
Little inferior, by my adventure hard
With peril great achiev'd. Long were to tell
What I have done, what fuffer'd, with what pain 470 Voyag'd th' unreal, vast, 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 paffage, 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 ftrange, with clamorous uproar Protefting fate fupreme; thence how I found The new-created world, which fame in heav'n Long had foretold, a fabric wonderful, Of abfolute perfection, therein man Plac'd in a paradise, by our exile
Made happy: him by fraud I have seduc'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 fin 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 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 applause 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 fharp and spare, His arms clung to his ribs, his legs entwining 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 monsters head and tail,
Scorpion, and afp, and amphisbæna dire,
Ceraftes horn'd, Hydrus, and Elops drear,
And Dipfas; (not fo thick fwarm'd once the foil Bedropt with blood of Gorgon, on the isle Ophiufa ;) but ftill greateft he in the midft, Now dragon grown, larger than whom the fun Engender'd in the Pythian vale on flime, Huge Python, and his power 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-fallen, in station stood 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 faw,
They felt themfelves now changing: down their arms,
Down fell both fpear and fhield, down they as falt, And the dire hifs renew'd, and the dire forin
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 frange Their earneft eyes they fix'd, imagining For one forbidden tree a multitude
Now ris'n, to work them further woe or shame; Yet, parch'd with scalding thirst and hunger fierce, Though to delude them fent, could not abitain, But on they roll'd in heaps, and up the trees Climbing, fat thicker than the fnaky locks That curl'd Megæra: greedily they pluck'd The fruitage fair to fight, like that which grew Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flam'd; This, more delusive, not the touch, but taste, 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 aflay'd, Hunger and thirst constraining, drug'd as oft, With hatefulleft difrelifh writh'd their jaws, With foot and cinders fill'd, so 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 ceafeleis hifs, Till their loft fhape, permitted, they refum'd, Yearly enjoin'd, fome fay, to undergo This annual humbling certain number'd days, To dash their pride, and joy for man seduc’d.
However, fome tradition they difpers'd Among the Heathen of their purchase got, And fabled how the ferpent, 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 Dictaan Jove was born.
Meanwhile in paradife the hellish pair Too foon arriv'd,' Sin there in power 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 horse: to whom Sin thus began: Second of Satan fprung, all conq'ring Death, What think'st thou of our empire now, though earn'd With travel difficult, not better far
Than ftill at hell's dark threshold to have fat watch Unnam'd, undreaded, and thyself half starv'd?
Whom thus the fin-born monfter answer'd foon: To me, who with eternal famine pine, Alike is hell, or paradise, or heav'n,
There beft, where most with ravin I may meet; Which here, though plenteous, all too little feems 600 To ftuff this maw, this vaft unhide-bound corps.
To whom th' incestuous mother thus reply'd : Thou therefore on these herbs, and fruits, and flowers, Feed first, on each beast next, and fish, and fowl, No homely morfels; and whatever thing
The fcythe of Time mows down, devour unfpar'd; Till I in man refiding through the race,
His thoughts, his looks, words, actions, all infect, And feafon him thy last and sweetest prey.
This faid, they both betook them several ways, 610 Both to deftroy, or unimmortal make
All kinds, and for destruction to mature Sooner or later; which th' Almighty feeing, From his tranfcendant feat the faints among, To those bright orders.utter'd thus his voice: See with what heat these dogs of hell advance To waste and havoc yonder world, which I
So fair and good created, and had still Kept in that state, had not the folly of man Let in these wafteful furies, who impute Folly to me; fo doth the prince of hell And his adherents, that with so much ease I fuffer them to enter and poffefs
A place so heav'nly, and conniving seem To gratify my fcornful enemies,
That laugh, as if, transported with fome fit
Of paffion, I to them had quitted all,
At random yielded up to their misrule:
And know not that I call'd and drew them thither
My hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth
Which man's polluting fin with taint hath shed
On what was pure, till cramm'd and gorg'd,' nigh burst With fuck'd and glutted offal, at one fling
Of thy victorious arm, well-pleafing Son,
Both Sin and Death, and yawning Grave at laft, Through Chaos hurl'd, obftruct the mouth of hell
For ever, and feal up his ravenous jaws.
Then heav'n and earth renew'd, fhall be made pure To fanctity that shall receive no ftain:
Till then the curfe pronounc'd on both precedes. He ended, and the heav'nly audience loud
Sung hallelujah, as the found of feas,
Through multitude that fung: just are thy ways,
Who can extenuate thee? Next, to the Son,
Righteous are thy decrees on all thy works:
Deftin'd restorer of mankind, by whom
New heav'n and earth fhall to the ages rife,
Or down from heav'n defcend. Such was their fong,
While the Creator, calling forth by name
His mighty angels, gave them feveral charge, As forted beft with prefent things. The fun Had first his precept fo to move, so shine, As might affect the earth with cold and heat Scarce tolerable, and from the north to call Decrepit Winter, from the fouth to bring Solftitial Summer's heat. To the blank moon Her office they prefcrib'd, to th' other five
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