Ply, stemming nightly toward the pole: so seemed
Far off the flying fiend. At last appear

Hell-bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof;

And thrice threefold the gates; three folds were brass, 645
Three iron, three of admantine rock,
Impenetrable, impaled1 with circling fire,

Yet unconsumed. Before the gates there sat2
On either side a formidable shape;

The one seemed woman to the waist, and fair;
But ended foul in many a scaly fold,
Voluminous and vast, a serpent armed

With mortal sting; about her middle round
A cry of Hell-hounds never ceasing barked
With wide Cerberean mouths3 full loud, and rung
A hideous peal; yet, when they list, would creep,
If aught disturbed their noise, into her womb,
And kennel there; yet there still barked and howled
Within, unseen. Far less abhorred than these
Vexed Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts
Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrin shore:
Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when, called
In secret, riding through the air she comes,

650

655

660

south pole, to reach the Cape of Good Hope: stemming suggests the laborious effort of Satan's flight, in the dark, against all opposition. 1 Impaled,-paled in, inclosed.

2 This sublime description of sin and death, and their offspring, may be compared with James i. 15.

3 Cerberean mouths,--like those of Cerberus, the fabulous, three headed watch dog of the infernal regions.

4 Far less abhorred than these vexed Scylla.-The dogs that vexed Scylla were less detestable than the offspring of sin described above. Circe, a sorceress, is fabled to have poisoned the sea where Scylla used to bathe, so that when she next entered it, her lower limbs were turned into dogs. Calabria, the southern extremity of Italy. Trinacria, a name of Sicily— from its three promontories giving it the shape of a triangle. Hoarse, from the tempestuous sea breaking upon it.

E

Lured with the smell of infant blood, to dance
With Lapland witches, while the labouring moon1
Eclipses at their charms. The other shape,-
If shape it might be called, that shape had none
Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb,

665

Or substance might be called that shadow seemed,

For each seemed either; black it stood as night,
Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell,

670

And shook a dreadful dart; what seemed his head
The likeness of a kingly crown had on.

Satan was now at hand: and from his seat

The monster moving onward came as fast,

675

With horrid strides; Hell trembled as he strode.

The undaunted fiend what this might be admired ;

Admired, not feared: God and his Son except,
Created thing nought valued he, nor shunned;
And, with disdainful look, thus first began:

680

"Whence and what art thou, execrable shape! "That darest, though grim and terrible, advance "Thy miscreated front athwart my way "To yonder gates? through them I mean to pass, "That be assured, without leave asked of thee: "Retire, or taste thy folly; and learn by proof, "Hell-born! not to contend with spirits of Heaven." To whom the goblin full of wrath replied: "Art thou that traitor angel, art thou he,

685

"Who first broke peace in Heaven, and faith, till then 690 "Unbroken; and, in proud, rebellious arms,

"Drew after him the third part of Heaven's sons

66

Conjured against the Highest; for which both thou "And they, outcast from God, are here condemned "To waste eternal days in woe and pain? "And reckon'st thou thyself with spirits of Heaven, "Hell-doomed!2 and breath'st defiance here and scorn,

695

1 The labouring moon eclipses, &c.—The belief that the moon was affected by magical incantations, gave rise to the phrase "labours of the moon,' applied to eclipses.

Hell-doomed; Satan had called death hell-born, which death thus retorta

"Where I reign king, and, to enrage thee more, "Thy king and lord! Back to thy punishment, "False1 fugitive! and to thy speed add wings; "Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue

700

"Thy lingering, or with one stroke of this dart
"Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before."
So spake the grisly terror; and in shape,
So speaking, and so threatening, grew tenfold

705

More dreadful and deform: on the other side,
Incensed with indignation, Satan stood
Unterrified; and like a comet burned,
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
In the arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head
Levelled his deadly aim; their fatal hands
No second stroke intend; and such a frown

710

Each cast at the other, as when two black clouds,3

With Heaven's artillery fraught, come rattling on
Over the Caspian; then stand front to front,
Hovering a space, till winds the signal blow
To join their dark encounter in mid air:

So frowned the mighty combatants, that Hell

715

Grew darker at their frown; so matched they stood; 720

For never but once more was either like

To meet so great a foe: and now great deeds
Had been achieved, whereof all Hell had rung,
Had not the snaky sorceress, that sat
Fast by Hell-gate, and kept the fatal key,
Risen, and with hideous outcry rushed between.
"O father! what intends thy hand," she cried,
"Against thy only son? What fury, O son!
"Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart

1 False!-because he had called himself a spirit of Heaven.

725

2 Ophiuchus,-Anguitenens, or Serpentarius, the serpent-holder-a constellation stretching over about 40 degrees of the northern sky.

3 As when two black clouds...over the Caspian;-A sea which, though several hundred feet below the level of the Mediterranean, is subject to heavy squalls from the high mountains in its neighbourhood.

7777

A

PARADISE LOST.

lus and know'st for whom ;1 730 And laughs the while 4-0 recute

"xe both." ** destroy ye 00.

- cas justice, bids;

de hell sh pest

3. Sua returned:

པ་གསནཱནཤྲཱི ཀ ནོར ད ར ཀྱི གs o strange

474

Yorth: till on the left side opening walls,
Livest to thee in shape and countenance bright,
Then shining heavenly fair, a goddess armel,
Out of the head sprung: amazement seized
All the host of Heaven; back they recoiled afraid
"At first, and called me Sin, and for a sign
Portentons held me: bat, familiar grown,

For whom, in remonstrates with Satin for aitnily
thee he must know to whose advantage that woul
through death, was to destroy him that

750

755

- I pleased, and with attractive grace win
The most averse; thee chieffy, vic, fill this
"Thyself in me, y perfect mage, Teving
* Becames enamoured; and men joy taon sack &
With me in secret, tas ny voma nezist

← A growing inzien. Manville var arise,

•And felts were fugit in Heav; vieren "mained For vias zonat eise