Of lowest order, pass'd; and from the door
Of that Plutonian hall, invisible
Afcended his high throne, which under state
Of richest texture spread, at the upper
end
Was plac'd in regal luftre. Down a while
He fat, and round about him saw unseen:
At last as from a cloud his fulgent head
And shape star-bright appear'd, or brighter, clad 459
With what permiffive glory fince his fall
Was left him, or false glitter: All amaz'd
At that fo fudden blaze the Stygian throng
Bent their afpéct, and whom they wish'd beheld,
Their mighty chief return'd: loud was th' acclame :
Forth rufh'd in hafte the great confulting peers,
Rais'd from their dark Divan, and with like joy
Congratulant approach'd him, who with hand
Silence, and with these words attention won.
Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers,
For in poffeffion fuch, not only' of right,
I call you and declare you now, return'd
Successful beyond hope, to lead you forth
Triumphant out of this infernal pit
Abominable, accurs'd, the house of woe,
And dungeon of our tyrant: now poffefs,
As Lords, a fpacious world, to' our native Heaven
Little inferior, by my adventure hard
With peril great achiev'd. Long were to tell
What I have done, what fuffer'd, with what pain 470 Voyag'd th' unreal, vaft, unbounded deep
Of horrible confufion, over which
By Sin and Death a broad way now is pav'd
To expedite your glorious march; but I
Toil'd out my uncouth paffage, forc'd to ride
Th' untractable abyfs, plung'd in the womb
Of unoriginal Night and Chaos wild,
That jealous of their fecrets fiercely' oppos'd
My journey strange, with clamorous uproar
Protefting fate fupreme; thence how I found
The new-created world, which fame in Heaven
Long had foretold, a fabric wonderful
Of abfolute perfection, therein Man
Plac'd in a Paradise, by our exile
Made happy: Him by fraud I have feduc'd
From his Creator, and the more to' increase
Your wonder, with an apple; he thereat
Offended, worth your laughter, hath giv'n up
Both his beloved Man and all his world,
To Sin and Death a prey, and so to us,
Without our hazard, labor, or alarm,
To range in, and to dwell, and over Man
To rule, as over all he should have rul'd.
True is, me alfo he hath judg'd, or rather
Me not, but the brute ferpent in whose shape
Man I deceiv'd: that which to me belongs,
Is enmity, which he will put between
Me and mankind; I am to bruife his heel;
His feed, when is not fet, fhall bruise my head:
A world who would not purchase with a bruise, 500
Or much more grievous pain? Ye have th' account
Of my performance: What remains, ye Gods,
But up and enter now into full blifs?
So having faid, a while he ftood, expecting
Their univerfal fhout and high applaufe
To fill his ear, when contrary he hears
On all fides, from innumerable tongues
A difmal univerfal hifs, the found
Of public fcorn; he wonder'd, but not long
Had leifure, wond'ring at himself now more ;
His vifage drawn he felt to fharp and spare,
His arms clung to his ribs, his legs intwining
Each other, till fupplanted down he fell
A monftrous ferpent on his belly prone,
Reluctant, but in vain, a greater power
Now rul'd him, punish'd in the shape he finn'd
According to his doom: he would have spoke,
But hifs for hifs return'd with forked tongue
To forked tongue, for now were all transform'd
Alike, to ferpents all as acceffories
To his bold riot: dreadful was the din
Of hifling through the hall, thick fwarming now
With complicated monfters head and tail,
Scorpion, and Afp, and Amphisbæna dire,
Ceraftes horn'd, Hydrus, and Elops drear,
And Dipfas (not so thick swarm'd once the foil
Bedropt with blood of Gorgon, or the ile
Ophiufa) but ftill greateft he the midst,
Now Dragon grown, larger than whom the fun
Ingender'd in the Pythian vale on flime,
Huge Python, and his pow'r no less he seem'd
Above the reft ftill to retain; they all
Him follow'd iffuing forth to th' open field,
Where all yet left of that revolted rout
Heav'n-fall'n, in ftation stood or just array,
Sublime with expectation when to see
In triumph iffuing forth their glorious chief:
They faw, but other fight instead, a crowd
Of ugly ferpents; horror on them fell,
And horrid sympathy; for what they faw,
They felt themselves now changing; down their arms,
Down fell both spear and shield, down they as fast,
And the dire hifs renew'd, and the dire form
Catch'd by contagion, like in punishment,
Thus was th' applause they meant
Turn'd to exploding hifs, triumph to fhame
Caft on themselves from their own mouths. There flood
A grove hard by, fprung up with this their change,
His will who reigns above, to aggravate
Their penance, laden with fair fruit, like that
Which grew in Paradife, the bait of Eve
Us'd by the Tempter: on that profpect ftrange
Their earneft eyes they fix'd, imagining
For one forbidden tree a multitude
Now ris'n, to work them further woe or fhame; 555
Yet parch'd with fcalding thirst and hunger fierce,
Though to delude them fent, could not abstain,
But on they roll'd in heaps, and up the trees
Climbing, fat thicker than the fnaky locks
That curl'd Megara: greedily they pluck'd
The fruitage fair to fight, like that which grew
Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flam'd;
This more delusive, not the touch, but taste
Deceiv'd; they fondly thinking to allay
Their appetite with guft, inftead of fruit
Chew'd bitter ashes, which th' offended taste
With fpattering noise rejected: oft they' affay'd,
Hunger and thirst constraining, drug'd as oft,
With hatefullest difrelish writh'd their jaws
With foot and cinders fill'd: so oft they fell
Into the fame illufion, not as Man
Whom they triumph'd once laps'd. Thus were they
And worn, with famine, long and ceaseless hiss,
Till their loft shape, permitted, they resum'd,
Yearly injoin'd, fome fay, to undergo
This annual humbling certain number'd days,
To dash their pride, and joy for man seduc'd.
However fome tradition they difpers'd
Among the Heathen of their purchase got,
And fabled how the Serpent, whom they call'd
Ophion with Eurynome, the wide
Encroaching Eve perhaps, had first the rule
Of high Olympus, thence by Saturn driven
And Ops, ere yet Dictaan Jove was born.
Mean while in Paradise the hellish pair
Too foon arriv'd, Sin there in pow'r before,
Once actual, now in body, and to dwell
Habitual habitant; behind her Death
Close following pace for pace, not mounted yet
On his pale horfe: to whom Sin thus began.
Second of Satan fprung, all-conqu❜ring Death, What think'st thou of our empire now, though earn'd
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