Spreading their bane; the blasted stars look'd wan,
And planets, planet-struck, real eclipse

Then suffer'd. Th' other way Satan went down
The causey to Hell-gate; on either side
Disparted Chaos over-built 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 th' inland retired, about the walls

415

420

Of Pandemonium, city and proud seat
Of Lucifer, so by allusion call'd,

425

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 emperor sent; so he

Departing, gave command; and they observed.

430

As when the Tartar from his Russian foe
By Astracan over the snowy plains
Retires, or Bactrian Sophi from the horns

Of Turkish crescent, leaves all waste beyond
The realm of Aladule, in his retreat

435

To Tauris or Casbeen, so these the late
Heav'n-banish'd host, left desert utmost Hell
Many a dark league, reduced in careful watch
Round their metropolis, and now expecting

Each hour their great advent'rer from the search 440
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 th' upper end
Was placed in regal lustre. Down a while
He sat, and round about him saw, unseen.

412. See Ovid, Met. ii. 791.

445

426. Paragon'd, from the French parungonner. 432. Astracan, a large city in one of the islands of the Volga. -Sophi, the king of Persia, who is styled Bactrian, from one of the richest of the Persian provinces.

435. A adule, the greater Armenia.-Tauris, a city in Persia, now called Ecbatana.-Casbeen, another great city in the same country.

Ꭱ

At last, as from a cloud, his fulgent head

And shape star-bright appear'd, or brighter, clad 450
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 aspéct, and whom they wish'd beheld,
Their mighty chief return'd. Loud was th' acclaim:
Forth rush'd in haste the great consulting peers, 456
Raised from their dark Divan, and with like joy
Congratulant approach'd him, who with hand
Silence, and with these words attention won:

461

Thrones, Dominations,Princedoms, Virtues, Pow'rs, 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 Heav'n

Little inferior, by my adventure hard

With peril great achieved. Long were to tell

465

What I have done, what suffer'd, with what pain 470 Voyaged th' 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
Th' untractable abyss, plunged in the womb
Of unoriginal Night and Chaos wild,
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 Heav'n
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,

475

480

485

400

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 495 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, 500
Or much more grievous pain? Ye have th' account
Of my performance: What remains, ye Gods,
But up and enter now into full bliss?

So having said, a while 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, wond'ring at himself now more:
His visage drawn he felt to sharp and spare,
His arms clung to his ribs, his legs intwining
Each other, till supplanted down he fell
A monstrous serpent on his belly prone,
Reluctant, but in vain; a greater Pow'r
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

505

510

515

520

With complicated monsters, head and tail,
Scorpion, and Asp, and Amphisbæna dire,
Cerastes horn'd, Hydrus, and Elops drear,

525

And Dipsas (not so thick swarm'd once the soil

504. The transformation of the fallen angels mentioned in this passage is a fine invention, and one of those bold marvels which so well fit the nature of epic poetry.

513. Supplanted, here used in its original sense, from the Latin supplanture, to trip up by the heels.

524. Amphisbæna, a serpent with a head at both ends of its body; Cerastes, as here called, a horned snake; Hydrus, a water snake; Elops, a serpent which gives no notice of its approach. and Dipsas, one which occasions a feverish thirst by its bite.

M

Bedropt with blood of Gorgon, or the isle
Ophiusa); but still greatest he the midst,
Now Dragon grown, larger than whom the sun
Engender'd in the Pythian vale on slime,
Huge Python, and his pow'r no less he seem'd
Above the rest still to retain. They all
Him follow'd, issuing forth to th' open field,
Where all yet left of that revolted rout
Heav'n-fall'n, 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. Horror on them fell,
And horrid sympathy; for what they saw,

530

535

540

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 th' applause they meant Turn'd to exploding hiss; triumph to shame, 546 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 550
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 further woe or shame; 555
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 Megara. Greedily they pluck'd
The fruitage, fair to sight, like that which grew

560

527. Lucan, Phars. ix. 696. in which the account is given of Perseus slaying the Gorgon.-Ophiusa is an island in the Mediterranean, which was deserted by its inhabitants, on account of the enormous multitude of serpents there.

530. The Python was a serpent said to have sprung from the lime that was left after the Deucalian deluge.

560. Megæra, one of the furies.

565

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 th' offended taste
With spatt'ring noise rejected. Oft they' assay'd,
Hunger and thirst constraining, drugg'd as oft
With hatefullest disrelish, writhed their jaws
With soot and cinders fill'd; so oft they fell
Into the same illusion, not as Man

570

Whom they triumph'd once lapsed. Thus were they

plagued

And worn with famin, long and ceaseless hiss,
Till their lost shape, permitted, they resumed;
Yearly enjoin'd, some say, to undergo
This annual humbling certain number'd days,
To dash their pride, and joy for Man seduced.
However, some tradition they dispersed
Among the Heathen of their purchase got,

575

And fabled how the Serpent, whom they call'd
Ophion with Eurynome, the wide

580

Encroaching Eve perhaps, had first the rule
Of high Olympus, thence by Saturn driv'n
And Ops, ere yet Dictæan Jove was born.

Mean while, in Paradise the hellish pair

585

Too soon arrived, Sin there in Pow'r before,
Once actual, now in body, and to dwell
Habitual habitant; behind her Death

Close following, pace for pace, not mounted yet
On his pale horse: to whom Sin thus began:

590

562. It is said by Josephus that trees were to be seen about this devoted spot, which bore fruit delicious to the eye, but falling into ashes the moment it was touched.

573. Bentley reads with thirst and famin dire.

574. This idea is supposed to have been taken from the old romances, or from Ariosto, Can. 43. st. 98

581. So true it is that the most ancient mythological fables bear evident traces of having originated in traditions derived from the scripture history.-Ophion, or the serpent, was undoubtedly Satan; and Eurynome, or the wide-ruling, must have referred to Eve, who was so called from the ambitious desires with which she eat the forbidden fruit.-Jortin says, Milton took the idea from Apollonius, i.

586. Sin in pow'r, that is, there was a possibility of its betraying Actual once, namely, when Adam really sinned; and in body, when it became always present and active.

man.

590- Rev. vi. 8.