And my fair Son here showst me, the dear pledge
Of dalliance had with thee in Heav'n, and joys

Then sweet, now fad to mention, through dire 820
Befalln us unforeseen, unthought of, know (change
I come no enemie, but to fet free

From out this dark and dismal house of pain,
Both him and thee, and all the heav'nly Hoft
Of Spirits that in our juft pretenfes arm'd
Fell with us from on high: from them I
go
This uncouth errand fole, and one for all
My felf expofe, with lonely steps to tread
Th' unfounded deep, & through the void immense
To fearch with wandring quest a place foretold
Should be, and, by concurring figns, ere now
Created vast and round, a place of blifs
In the Pourlieues of Heav'n, and therein plac't
A race of upstart Creatures, to fupply

Perhaps our vacant room, though more remov'd,
Least Heav'n surcharg'd with potent multitude
Might hap to move new broiles: Be this or aught
Then this more fecret now defign'd, I haste
To know, and this once known, fhall foon return,
And bring ye to the place where Thou and Death
Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen
Wing filently the buxom Air, imbalm'd
With odours; there ye shall be fed and fill'd
Immeasurably, all things shall be

your prey.

He ceas'd, for both feemd highly pleafd, and Death
Grinnd horrible a gastly smile, to hear

His famine should be fill'd, and bleft his mawe
Deftin'd to that good hour: no less rejoyc'd
His mother bad, and thus befpake her Sire.

The

830

840

850

The key of this infernal Pit by due,
And by command of Heav'ns all-powerful King
I keep, by him forbidden to unlock

These Adamantine Gates; against all force
Death ready ftands to interpofe his dart,
Fearless to be o'rematcht by living might.
But what ow I to his commands above
Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me down
Into this gloom of Tartarus profound,

To fit in hateful Office here confin'd,
860 Inhabitant of Heav'n, and heav'nlie-born,
Here in perpetual agonie and pain,

With terrors and with clamors compasst round
Of mine own brood, that on my bowels feed:
Thou art my Father, thou my Author, thou
My being gav'ft me; whom should I obey
But thee, whom follow? thou wilt bring me foon
To that new world of light and bliss, among
The Gods who live at ease, where I fhall Reign
At thy right hand voluptuous, as beseems
870 Thy daughter and thy darling, without end.
Thus faying, from her fide the fatal Key,
Sad inftrument of all our woe, she took;
And towards the Gate rouling her bestial train,
Forthwith the huge Porcullis high up drew,
Which but her self not all the Stygian powers
Could once have mov'd; then in the key-hole turns
Th' intricate wards, and every Bolt and Bar

Of maffie Iron or follid Rock with ease
Unfaft'ns on a fudden op'n flie

880 With impetuous recoile and jarring found
Th' infernal dores, and on thir hinges great

Harth

Harsh Thunder, that the lowest bottom shook
Of Erebus. She op'nd, but to shut

Excel'd her power; the Gates wide op'n stood,
That with extended wings a Bannerd Hoft
Under spread Enfigns marching might pass through
With Horse and Chariots rankt in loose array;
So wide they stood, and like a Furnace mouth
Caft forth redounding smoak and ruddy flame.
Before thir eyes in fudden view appear
The secrets of the hoarie deep, a dark
Illimitable Ocean without bound,

(highth,

Without dimenfion, where length, breadth, and
And time and place are loft; where eldest Night
And Chaos, Ancestors of Nature, hold

Eternal Anarchie, amidst the noise

Of endless warrs, and by confufion stand.

For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four Champions fierce
Strive here for Maistrie, and to Battel bring
Thir embryon Atoms; they around the flag
Of each his faction, in thir several Clanns,
Light-arm'd or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift or flow,
Swarm populous, unnumber'd as the Sands
Of Barca or Cyrene's torrid foil,

Levied to fide with warring Winds, and poise
Thir lighter wings. To whom these most adhere,
Hee rules a moment; Chaos Umpire fits,
And by decifion more imbroiles the fray
By which he Reigns: next him high Arbiter
Chance governs all.
all. Into this wilde Abyss,
The Womb of nature and perhaps her Grave,
Of neither Sea, nor Shore, nor Air, nor Fire,
But all these in thir pregnant causes mixt

890

900

910

Con

Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight,
Unless th'Almighty Maker them ordain
His dark materials to create more Worlds,
Into this wilde Abyss the warie fiend

Stood on the brink of Hell and look'd a while,
Pondering his Voyage; for no narrow frith
920 He had to crofs. Nor was his eare less peal'd
With noises loud and ruinous (to compare
Great things with fmall) then when Bellona ftorms,
With all her battering Engines bent to rafe
Som Capital City, or lefs then if this frame
Of Heav'n were falling, and these Elements
In mutinie had from her Axle torn

The ftedfaft Earth. At laft his Sail-broad Vannes He spreads for flight, and in the furging smoak Uplifted fpurns the ground, thence many a League 930 As in a cloudy Chair afcending rides

Audacious, but that feat foon failing, meets
A vaft vacuitie: all unawares

Fluttring his pennons vain plumb down he drops
Ten thousand fadom deep, and to this hour
Down had been falling, had not by ill chance
The strong rebuff of fom tumultuous cloud
Instinct with Fire and Nitre hurried him
As many miles aloft: that furie stay'd,
Quencht in a Boggie Syrtis, neither Sea,
940 Nor good dry Land: nigh founderd on he fares,
Treading the crude confiftence, half on foot,

Half flying; behoves him now both Oare and Saile.
As when a Gryfon through the Wilderness
With winged course ore Hill or moarie Dale,
Pursues the Arimafpian, who by ftelth

Had

Had from his wakeful cuftody purloind
The guarded Gold: So eagerly the fiend
Ore bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,
With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his way,
And swims or finks, or wades, or creeps, or flyes:
At length a universal hubbub wilde

Of stunning sounds and voices all confus'd
Born through the hollow dark affaults his eare
With loudest vehemence: thither he plyes,
Undaunted to meet there what ever power
Or Spirit of the nethermoft Abyss

Might in that noife refide, of whom to ask
Which way the neerest coast of darkness lyes
Bordering on light; when ftrait behold the Throne
Of Chaos, and his dark Pavilion spread

Wide on the wasteful Deep; with him Enthron'd
Sat Sable-vefted Night, eldest of things,

The confort of his Reign; and by them stood
Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name
Of Demogorgon; Rumor next and Chance,
And Tumult and Confufion all imbroild,
And Difcord with a thousand various mouths.
T'whom Satan turning boldly, thus. Ye Powers
And Spirits of this nethermoft Abyss,
Chaos and ancient Night, I come no Spie,
With purpose to explore or to disturb
The fecrets of your Realm, but by constraint
Wandring this darkfome defart, as my way
Lies through your fpacious Empire up to light,
Alone, and without guide, half loft, I seek
What readieft path leads where your gloomie
Confine with Heav'n; or if fom other place (bounds

950

960

970