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

710

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.

66

“O father! what intends thy hand," she cried, "Against thy only son? What fury, O son, Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart

725

Against thy father's head? and knowest for whom; 730
For Him who sits above, and laughs the while
At thee, ordained his drudge, to execute
Whate'er his wrath, which he calls justice, bids;
His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both!

She spake, and at her words the hellish pest

707. Incensed, in its literal meaning of ablaze, on fire. 709. Ophiuchus, a constellation in the northern heaven. 716. Caspian; a case of Milton's use of geographical names. Introd., p. xlvii.

721. Like, likely. 735. Pest.

735

See

Like a plague, a destroyer, something that snatches

people from life.

Forbore; then these to her Satan returned:

"So strange thy outcry, and thy words so strange Thou interposest, that my sudden hand Prevented spares to tell thee yet by deeds

What it intends, till first I know of thee,

740

What thing thou art, thus double-formed; and why,

In this infernal vale first met, thou callest

Me father, and that phantasm callest my son.

I know thee not, nor ever saw till now

Sight more detestable than him and thee."

745

To whom thus the portress of Hell-gate replied: "Hast thou forgot me then, and do I seem Now in thy eye so foul? once deemed so fair

In Heaven, when at the assembly, and in sight
Of all the Seraphim with thee combined
In bold conspiracy against Heaven's King,
All on a sudden miserable pain

750

Surprised thee, dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum
In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast
Threw forth till on the left side opening wide,
Likest to thee in shape and countenance bright,
Then shining heavenly fair, a goddess armed,

755

Out of thy head I sprung. Amazement seized

All the host of Heaven; back they recoiled, afraid
At first, and called me Sin, and for a sign
Portentous held me; but, familiar grown,
I pleased, and with attractive graces won
The most averse, thee chiefly, who full oft
Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing
Becamest enamoured, and such joy thou tookest

760

765

746-813. The description, more or less allegorical, of Sin and Death is based upon the verse of the epistle of James i. 15, "Then, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." When Milton puts Satan for lust, he thinks of him as representing unbridled Desire unchecked by a love of Right. So he regarded the perfect Liberty as the opposite of Sin, i. e., freedom to carry out the law of Righteousness.

With me in secret, that my womb conceived
A growing burden. Meanwhile war arose,

And fields were fought in Heaven; wherein remained (For what could else?) to our Almighty Foe

Clear victory, to our part loss and rout

770

Through all the empyréan. Down they fell

Driven headlong from the pitch of Heaven, down
Into this deep; and in the general fall

I also; at which time this powerful key

Into my hand was given, with charge to keep
These gates for ever shut, which none can pass

775

Without my opening. Pensive here I sat
Alone; but long I sat not, till my womb,
Pregnant by thee, and now excessive grown,
Prodigious motion felt and rueful throes.
At last this odious offspring whom thou seest,
Thine own begotten, breaking violent way,

Tore through my entrails, that with fear and pain
Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew
Transformed; but he my inbred enemy
Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart

Made to destroy: I fled, and cried out "Death!"
Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sighed
From all her caves, and back resounded "Death!
I fled; but he pursued (though more, it seems,
Inflamed with lust than rage), and, swifter far,
Me overtook, his mother, all dismayed,
And in embraces forcible and foul
Ingendering with me, of that rape begot

780

785

790

These yelling monsters, that with ceaseless cry

795

Surround me, as thou sawest, hourly conceived
And hourly born, with sorrow infinite

To me; for when they list, into the womb

That bred them they return, and howl, and gnaw
My bowels, their repast; then bursting forth

800

777. Pensive, thoughtful.

Afresh with conscious terrors vex me round,
That rest or intermission none I find.

Before mine eyes in opposition sits

Grim Death, my son and foe, who sets them on,
And me his parent would full soon devour
For want of other prey, but that he knows

805

810

His end with mine involved, and knows that I
Should prove a bitter morsel, and his bane,
Whenever that shall be; so Fate pronounced.
But thou, O Father, I forewarn thee, shun
His deadly arrow; neither vainly hope
To be invulnerable in those bright arms,
Though tempered heavenly; for that mortal dint,
Save he who reigns above, none can resist.
She finished; and the subtle Fiend his lore
Soon learned, now milder, and thus answered smooth :
"Dear daughter! Since thou claimest me for thy sire,
And my fair son here shewest me, the dear pledge
Of dalliance had with thee in Heaven, and joys
Then sweet, now sad to mention, through dire change
Befallen us, unforeseen, unthought of; know,
I come no enemy, but to set free

From out this dark and dismal house of pain
Both him and thee, and all the heavenly host
Of spirits, that, in our just pretences armed,
Fell with us from on high. From them I go
This uncouth errand sole; and, one for all,
Myself expose with lonely steps to tread
The unfounded deep, and through the void immense
To search with wandering quest a place foretold

803. In opposition, over against.

808. Bane, destruction, death.

813. Dint, blow.

815

819

825

830

825. Just pretences. Pretence had not then, as now, the necessary idea of emptiness, falseness. It meant merely a claim, or a demand, just or unjust.

829. Unfounded, without foundation.

Should be, and, by concurring signs, ere now
Created, vast and round, a place of bliss
In the purlieus of Heaven, and therein placed
A race of upstart creatures, to supply

Perhaps our vacant room; though more removed,
Lest Heaven, surcharged with potent multitude,
Might hap to move new broils. Be this or aught
Than this more secret now designed, I haste
To know; and, this once known, shall soon return,
And bring ye to the place where thou and Death
Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen
Wing silently the buxom air, embalmed

835

840

With odours: there ye shall be fed and filled

Immeasurably; all things shall be your prey."

He ceased, for both seemed highly pleased; and Death

Grinned horrible a ghastly smile to hear

846

His famine should be filled, and blessed his maw

Destined to that good hour. No less rejoiced

His mother bad, and thus bespake her sire: "The key of this infernal pit by due,

850

And by command of Heaven's all-powerful King,
I keep; by him forbidden to unlock

These adamantine gates; against all force

Death ready stands to interpose his dart,

Fearless to be o'ermatched by living wight.
But what owe I to his commands above

. 855

Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me down
Into this gloom of Tartarus profound,

To sit in hateful office here confined,

Inhabitant of Heaven, and heavenly-born;

Here, in perpetual agony and pain,

860

833. Purlieus. The places round about a royal domain were called

purlieus. Here, however, the word means only near by.

840. How his prophecy is carried out may be seen in ii. 1024-1030 and x. 229-324.

850. By due, as due to me, as my right.

858. Tartarus, the classic name for Hell.