And wish and struggle as they pass, to reach The tempting stream, with one small drop to lofe

In fweet forgetfulness all pain and woe, et All in one moment, and fo near the brink: But fate withstands, and to oppose th' at tempt

Medula with Gorgonian terror guards

The ford, and of itself the water flies [

All taste of living wight, as once it fled

610

The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on I
In confus'd march forlorn, th' advent'rous
I
bands
J

615
With fhudd'ring horror pale, and eyes aghast,
View'd first their lamentable lot, and found
No reft: through many a dark and dreary vale
They pafs'd,' and many a region dolorous,
O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp, 620
Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and
fhades of death,

A universe of death, which God by curfe
Created evil, for evil only good,

Where all life dies, death lives, and nature

breeds,

Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious

things,

Abominable, inutterable, and worfe

625

Than fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd, Gorgons, and Hydra's, and Chimera's dire.

་

Mean while the Adverfary of God and Man, Satan, with thoughts inflam'd of highest defign,

630

Puts on swift wings, and tow'rds the gates of

Hell

Explores his folitary flight; fometimes.

He scours the right-hand coast; sometimes the

left,

Now shaves with level wing the deep; then

foars

Up to the fiery concave towring high
As when far off at fea a fleet defcry'd
Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds
Close failing from Bengala, or the ifles

635

Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring

Their spicy drugs: they on the trading flood 640. Through the wide Ethiopian, to the Cape Ply stemming nightly tow'rd the pole.

feem'd

So

Far off the flying Fiend. At last appear
Hell bounds high reaching to the horrid roof,
And thrice threefold the gates;

were brass

three folds

Three iron, three of adamantin rock,
Impenetrable, impal'd with circling fire,

645

Yet unconfum'd. Before the gates there fat On either fide a formidable shape;

The one feem'd woman to the waste, and

fair,

But ended foul in many a scaly fold,

650

Voluminous and vast, a serpent arm'd
With mortal fting: about her middle round
A cry of hell - hounds never ceafing bark'd
With wide Cerberian mouths full loud, and

rung

655 A hideous peal: yet, when they lift, would

creep,

If ought difturb'd their noise, into her womb, And kennel there, yet there ftill bark'd, and howl'd

Within, unseen. Far lefs abhorr'd than these Vex'd Scylla bathing in the sea that parts 660 Calabria from the hoarfe Trinacrian shore : Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when, call'da In fecret, riding through the air she comes, Lur'd with the smell of infant blood, to dance With Lapland witches, while the lab'ring

Moon

665 Eclipfes at their charms. The other fhape, If shape it might be call'd that shape had none Diftinghuishable in member, joint, or limb, Or substance might be call'd that shadow

And fhook a dreadful dart; what feem'd his

head

The likeness of a Kingly crown had on.
Satan was now at hand, and from his feat
The monster moving onward came as fast 675
With horrid strides. Hell trembled as he
strode.

Th' undaunted Fiend what this might be admir'd,

Admird'd, not fear'd; God an his Son except,
Created thing not valued he nor fhunn'd;
And with difdainful look thus firft began. 680

Whence and what art thou, execrable shape, That dar'st, though grim and terrible, ad

vance

Thy mifcreated front athwart my way
To yonder gates? through them I mean to

pafs,

That be affur'd, without leave afk'd of

thée.

685

Retire, or taste thy folly, and learn by proof, Hell-born; not to contend with spirits of

Heav'n.

To whom the goblin full of wrath reply'd, Art thou that traitor - Angel, art thou He, Who first broke peace in Heav'n, and faith, till then

Unbroken, and in proud rebellious arms 691 Drew after him the third part of Heav'n's fons,

Conjur'd against the Higheft; for which both

thou

And they, outcaft from God, are here con-
demn'd

To wafte eternal days in woe and pain? 695
And reckon'st thou thyself with spirits of

Heav'n,

Hell-doom'd! and breath'ft defiance here and

[corn

Where I reign King, and, to enrage thee

more,

Thy King and Lord? Back to thy punishment,
Falfe fugitive! and to thy speed add wings; 700
Left with a whip of fcorpions I pursue

Thy lingring; or with one stroke of this dart
Strange horror feize thee, and pangs unfelt
before.

So spake the griefly terror, and in shape,
So fpeaking and fo threatning, grew tenfold 705
More dreadful and deform. On th' other fide
Incens'd with indignation Satan stood
Unterrify'd, and like a comet burn'd,
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
In th' arctic sky, and from his horrid hair 710
Shakes peftilence and war. Each at the head
Level'd his deadly aim; their fatal hands.
No second stroke intend; and fuch a frown

Each caft at th' other, as when two black
clouds,