Part curb their fiery fteeds, or fhun the goal
With rapid wheels, or fronted brigads form.
As when to warn proud cities war appears
Wag'd in the troubled sky, and armies rufh
To battle in the clouds, before each van
Prick forth the aery knights, and couch their spears
Till thickeft legions clofe; with feats of arms
From either end of Heav'n the welkin burns.
Others with vaft Typhoean rage more fell
Rend up both rocks and hills and ride the air
In whirlwind; Hell fcarce holds the wild uproar.
As when Alcides, from Oechalia crown'd
With conqueft, felt the envenom'd robe, and tore
Through pain up by the roots Theffalian pines,
And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw
Into th' Euboic fea. Others more mild,
Retreated in a filent valley, fing
With notes angelical to many a harp.
Their own heroic deeds and hapless fall
By doom of battle; and complain that fate
Free virtue fhould enthrall to force or chance.
Their fong was partial, but the harmony (What could it lefs when Spi'rits immortal fing?) Sufpended Hell, and took with ravishment
The thronging audience. In difcourfe more fweet 555 (For eloquence the foul, fong charms the sense,) Others apart fat on a hill retir'd,
In thoughts more elevate, and reafon'd high
Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate,
Fix'd fate, free will, foreknowledge abfolute, 560
And found no end, in wand'ring mazes loft.
Of good and evil much they argued then,
Of happiness and final mifery,
Paffion and apathy, and glory and fhame,
Vain wisdom all, and falfe philofphy:
Yet with a pleafing forcery could charm
Pain for a while or anguish, and excite
Fallacious hope, or arm th' obdured breast
With ftubborn patience as with triple steel.
Another part in fquadrons and grofs bands,
On bold adventure to discover wide
That dismal world, if any clime perhaps
Might yield them eafier habitation, bend
Four ways their flying march, along the banks
Of four infernal rivers, that difgorge
Into the burning lake the baleful streams;
Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate;
Sad Acheron of forrow, black and deep;
Cocytus, nam'd of lamentation loud
Heard on the rueful ftream; fierce Phlegethon, 580
Whofe waves of torrent fire inflame with rage.
Far off from thefe a flow and filent stream,
Lethe the river of oblivion rolls
Her wat'ry labyrinth, whereof who drinks,
Forthwith his former ftate and be'ing forgets, 585
Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.
Beyond this flood a frozen continent
Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual ftorms
Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land
Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin feems 590
Of ancient pile: all elfe deep fnow and ice,
A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog
Betwixt Damiata and mount Cafius old,
Where armies whole have funk: the parching air
Burns frore, and cold performs th' effect of fire. 595
Thither by harpy-footed furies hal'd
At certain revolutions all the damn'd
Are brought, and feel by turns the bitter change
Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,
From beds of raging fire to ftarve in ice
Their soft etherial warmth, and there to pine
Immoveable, infix'd, and frozen round,
Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire.
They ferry over this Lethean found
Both to and fro, their forrow to augment,
And wish and struggle, as they pafs, to reach
The tempting ftream, with one fmall drop to lofe
In fweet forgetfulness all pain and woe,
All in one moment, and fo near the brink;
But fate withftands, and to oppofe th' attempt 610
Medufa with Gorgonion terror guards
The ford, and of itself the water flies
All tafte of living wight, as once it fled
The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on
In confus'd march forlorn, th' adventrous bands 615
With fhudd'ring horror pale, and eyes aghaft,
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,-
Rocks, caves,lakes,fens, bogs,dens, and fhades of death,
A univerfe of Death, which God by curfe
Created ev'il, for evil only good,
Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds,
Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, 625
Abominable, inutterable, and worse
Than fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd,
Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimæras dire.
Mean while the Adverfary' of God and Man, Satan with thoughts enflam'd of hig❜heft defign, 630 Puts on fwift wings, and towards the gates of Hell Explores his folitary flight; fometimes
He fcours the right hand coast, sometimes the left, Now fhaves with level wing the deep, then foars Up to the fiery concave tow'ring high.
As when far off at fea a fleet defcry'd
Hangs in the clouds, by equino&ial winds
Clofe failing from Bengala, or the ifles
Of Ternate and Tidore, whence Merchants bring Their fpicy drugs: they on the trading flood 640 Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape
Ply ftemming nightly toward the pole.
So feem'd Far off the flying Fiend: at last appear
Hell bounds high reaching to the horrid roof,
And thrice three-fold the gates; three folds were brafs,
Three iron, three of adamantine rock,
Impenetrable, impal'd with circling fire
Yet unconfum'd. Before the gates there fat
On either fide a formidable shape;
The one feem'd woman to the waist and fair,
But ended foul in many a fcaly fold
Voluminous and vaft, a ferpent arm'd
With mortal sting: about her middle round
A cry of Hell hounds never ceafing bark'd
With wide Cerberian mouths full loud, and rung
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 unfeen. Far less abhorr'd than these
Vex'd Scylla bathing in the fea that parts
Calabria from the hoarfe Trinacrian fhore :
Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when call'd
In fecret, riding through the air fhe comes,
Lur'd with the smell of infant blood, to dance 664
With Lapland witches, while the lab'ring moon
Eclipfes at their charms. The other shape,
If shape it might be call'd, that shape had none
Diftinguishable in member, joint, or limb,
Or fubftance might be call'd that shadow feem'd,
For each feem'd either; black it ftood as night,
Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell,
And shook 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 faft
With horrid ftrides, Hell trembled as he ftrode.
Th' undaunted Fiend what this might be admir'd,
Admir'd, not fear'd, God and his Son except,
Created thing nought valu'd he nor fhunn'd;
And with difdainful look thus first began.
Whence and what art thou execrable shape
That dar'ft, though grim and terrible, advance
Thy mifcreated front athwart my way
To yonder gates? through them I mean to pass,
That be affur'd, without leave afk'd of thee: 685
Retire, or taste thy folly', and learn by proof,
Hell-born, not to contend with Spi'rits of Heaven.
To whom the goblin full of wrath reply'd.
Art thou that traitor Angel, art thou He,
Who firft 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 condemn'd
To wafte eternal days in woe and pain? 695
And reckon't thou thyfelf with Spi'rits of Heaven,
Hell doom'd, and breath'ft defiance here and fcorn
Where I reign king, and to enrage thee more,
Thy king and lord? Back to thy punishment,
Falfe fugitive, and to thy fpeed add wings,
Left with a whip of fcorpions I pursue
Thy ling'ring, or with one ftroke of this dart
Strange horror feife thee', and pangs unfelt before.
So fpake the grifly terror, and in shape,
So fpeaking and fo threatning, grew ten-fold
|