A globe1 of fiery Seraphim inclosed, With bright emblazonry, and horrent arms. With trumpets' regal sound the great result: 515 With deafening shout, returned them loud acclaim. Thence more at ease their minds, and somewhat raised 520 By false presumptous hope, the rangèd powers Disband, and, wandering, each his several way Pursues, as inclination, or sad choice, Leads him; perplexed where he may likeliest find 525 Truce to his restless thoughts, and entertain 530 535 1 Globe: a body of persons closely crowded together. Horrent: "bristling," describing the appearance of the dense mass of pointed weapons. 2 Alchymy,—here used for a mixed metal of which trumpets were made. 3 Olympian games, or Pythian fields:-The Olympian games, so called from Olympian Jupiter, to whom they were dedicated; or from Olympia, a city in Greece, where they were celebrated every fifth year. The Pythian games were celebrated near Delphi, in honour of Apollo. As when...war appears waged in the troubled sky,—The diversions of the fallen spirits having been compared to the Grecian games, to signify the ardour with which they were pursued, are now likened to the coruscations of the aurora borealis (often superstitiously supposed to portend wars), to signify the vast space occupied by them. 5 Couch their spears.-Fix them in the rest, in the posture of attack. 6 Welkin.-Atmosphere, the place of clouds. Others, with vast Typhoan1 rage, more fell, Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air 540 In whirlwind: Hell scarce holds the wild uproar. With conquest, felt the envenomed robe, and tore, 545 And Lichas from the top of Eta threw Into the Euboïc sea. Others, more mild, With notes angelical, to many a harp, (What could it less when spirits immortal sing!) 4 550 The thronging audience. In discourse more sweet 555 (For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense,) Others apart sat, on a hill retired, In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate- 1 Typhoan,-see I. 1. 199 note. 560 2 Alcides,-Hercules,-so called from his grandfather Alcæus, after the conquest of Echalia, a city of Boeotia, sent to his wife Deianeira, for a certain white robe, in which he designed to celebrate sacred rites in thanksgiving for his triumph. In a fit of jealousy, on account of the king's daughter whom he had brought with him, his wife, before sending the robe, dipped it in the blood of Nessus, who had been slain by Hercules with arrows poisoned with the blood of the serpent Python. The poisoned robe infected Hercules, and stuck so close that he could not strip himself of it, without tearing off his skin at the same time. The torture made him furious, and he gave vent to his rage by tearing up pines, and throwing Lichas, who had brought him the robe, from Mount Eta into the Euripus, or Strait between Euboea and the mainland of Greece. 3 Partial,-i.e., to themselves: dwelling only on the sad consequences of their conduct, not on its guilt. C. The parenthesis introduced here, suspending the reader's attention, renders more striking the statement as to the music suspending Hell. 5 Fixed fate, &c.-The repetition of these words from the former line, but in inverted order, and with an epithet to each, well illustrates the wandering mazes of their discourse. N. And found no end, in wandering mazes lost. 565 570 Four ways their flying march, along the banks 575 Into the burning lake their baleful streams: Heard on the rueful stream; fierce Phlegethon, 580 Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage. Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls 585 590 1 The Greeks reckoned five rivers in Hell, calling them after the names of the noxious rivers of their own country. Milton introducing them into his description of Hell, adds the proper meaning of their names, sufficiently appropriate to their situation,-hate, sorrow, lamentation, rage, oblivion. 2 Serbonian bog,-a large lake in Egypt, on one of the eastern mouths of the Nile. It was surrounded by hills of loose sand, which, being blown Betwixt Damiata and mount Casius old, Where armies whole have sunk: the parching air Burns frore, and cold performs the effect of fire.1 At certain revolutions, all the damned 595 Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change Of fierce extremes-extremes by change more fierce : 600 Their soft ethereal warmth; and there to pine Immoveable, infixed and frozen round, Periods of time; thence hurried back to fire. Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment, 605 And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose But Fate withstands, and to oppose the attempt 610 into it, afforded at times a treacherous footing; whole armies, attempting to cross it, are said to have been swallowed up. See Herodotus, b. iii. 1 Burns frore, and cold performs the effect of fire.-Frore an old word for frosty. The effect of intense cold on animal and vegetable substances is known to be like that of intense heat, in destroying their texture. 2 Harpy-footed furies haled.—The Furies, or avenging deities, represented by Homer as inhabitants of Erebus (the infernal region of darkness), where they remain quiet, till some curse pronounced upon a criminal calls them into activity. Harpies, fabulous monsters resembling birds, with the heads of maidens, with long claws, and faces pale with hunger. Haled, dragged with violence: this verb is now generally written, and always pronounced "haul." 3 The impossibility or tasting the waters of Lethe, though so near them, is happily introduced to show that in Hell there is no forgetfulness; memory being one of the tormentors of the damned. Medusa, one of the Gorgons,-fabulous monsters, whose heads were covered with serpents instead of hair; the sight of Medusa's head was believed to turn the beholder into stone. Tantalus, a wealthy king, who for his crimes was fabled to be punished in the infernal regions with a raging thirst, which he could never quench; for though placed in the midst of a lake, the waters receded from his lips whenever he attempted to drink. In cónfused march forlorn, the adventurous bands, 615 No rest. Through many a dark and dreary vale O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp 620 Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of deathA universe of death! which God by curse Created evil-for evil only good,1 Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, 625 Abominable, inutterable, and worse Than fables yet have feigned, or fear conceived, Meanwhile, the adversary of God and man, He scours the right-hand coast, sometimes the left: As when, far off at sea, a fleet descried3 1 For evil only good.-Fit for nothing but evil. 630 635 2 Hydras.-The famous Hydra was a fabulous monster with nine heads, of which the middle one was immortal. One of the labours of Hercules was to destroy this monster. Chimera, a monster, fabled to breathe fire; the fore part of its body being that of a lion, the hind part that of a dragon, and the middle that of a goat. The origin of the fable was, no doubt, a mountain of that name, in Lycia, from which at one point flames issued, while one region of it afforded shelter for lions, another for goats, and a third for reptiles. Beaufort, who visited the locality in the present century, describes a stream of gas still issuing from the mountain, which burns perpetually, and is used by the natives in the operation of cooking. 3 As when, far off at sea, a fleet, &c.-A majestic simile, comparing Satan with outstretched wings to a fleet of the largest ships then known-the Indiamen. The length of their voyage suggests the idea of the distance of Satan's expedition. Ternate, and Tidore, two of the molucca or spice islands of the Indian Archipelago, which, though among the smallest, have always held a sort of political supremacy. Equinoctial winds, the trade winds, which, in the neighbourhood of the Equator, blow steadily at certain seasons. Ethiopian [sea], the Indian Ocean. Stemming nightly toward the pole,-directed by the stars at night in their course towards the |