Pondering his voyage; for no narrow frith He had to cross. Nor was his ear less peal'd 920 With noises loud and ruinous, to compare Great things with small, than when Bellona storms, With all her battering engines bent to rase Some capital city; or less than if this frame Of heaven were falling, and these elements In mutiny had from her axle torn
The stedfast earth. At last his sail-broad vannes He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke Uplifted spurns the ground; thence many a league As in a cloudy chair ascending rides
Audacious; but, that seat soon failing, meets A vast vacuity: all unawares
Flutt'ring his pennons vain plumb down he drops Ten thousand fathom deep, and to this hour Down had been falling, had not by ill chance The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud Instinct with fire and nitre hurried him As many miles aloft: that fury stay'd, Quench'd in a boggy Syrtis, neither sea, Nor good dry land: nigh founder'd on her fares,
927 sail-broad] See Maximi Tyrii Diss. vol. i. p. 214, ed. Reiske. τεινάσαι τὰς πτερύγας ὥσπερ ἱστία. And Lucret. vi. 743. 'Pennarum vela remittunt.' Or consult Wakefield's note. See Milton's Prose Works, i. 148: ed. Symmons. 936 rebuff] Compare Statii Theb. vii. 35.
Atque illum Arctoæ labentem cardine portæ Tempestas æterna plagæ, prætentaque colo Agmina nimborum, primique Aquilonis hiatus In diversa ferunt.'
Treading the crude consistence, half on foot, Half flying; behoves him now both oar and sail. As when a gryfon through the wilderness With winged course o'er hill or moory dale Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth Had from his wakeful custody purloin'd The guarded gold: so eagerly the fiend
O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. At length a universal hubbub wild
Of stunning sounds and voices all confus'd, Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear With loudest vehemence: thither he plies, Undaunted to meet there whatever power Or spirit of the nethermost abyss
Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask
942 oar] Beaumont's Psyche, c. xvi. st. 224. 'Spreading their wings like oars.'
Marino's Sl. of the Inn. p. 49.
'With wings like feather'd oars.'
And Dante, II. Purg. c. ii.
'Si che remo non vuol, ne altro velo.' C. xii. 4.
945 Arimaspian] Eschyli Prometheus, ver. 810. See Pomp. Mela; lib. ii. c. 1. Solini Polyh. xv. 22. Prisciani Pervig. ver. 700. Plauti Aulularia, act iv. sc. 8. i. p. 142. Plin. N. Hist. lib. iv. c. 26. See Bulwer's Artif. Changeling, p. 102.
949 With head] See Sidon. Apollinar. c. ii. 171. Antholog. Lat. ed. Burm. vol. 1, p. 403, Ep. cciii. for this manner of speech:
'Pastor, Arator, Eques, pavi, colui, superavi, Capras, rus, hostes, fronde, ligone, manu.'
Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies,
Bordering on light; when straight behold the throne
Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread
Wide on the wasteful Deep: with him enthron'd Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things, The consort of his reign; and by them stood Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name Of Demogorgon; Rumor next, and Chance, And Tumult, and Confusion, all imbroil'd, And Discord with a thousand various mouths. T'whom Satan turning boldly, thus.-Ye Powers, And Spirits of this nethermost abyss, Chaos and antient Night, I come no spy, With purpose to explore or to disturb The secrets of your realm; but by constraint Wand'ring this darksome desart, as my way Lies through your spacious empire up to light, Alone, and without guide, half lost, I seek What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds Confine with heaven; or if some other place, From your dominion won, th' ethereal King
Possesses lately, thither to arrive
I travel this profound; direct my course; Directed, no mean recompence it brings To your behoof, if I that region lost, All usurpation thence expell'd, reduce To her original darkness and your sway, Which is my present journey, and once more Erect the standard there of antient Night;
Yours be th' advantage all, mine the revenge. Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old, With fault'ring speech and visage incompos'd, Answer'd. I know thee, stranger, who thou art, 990 That mighty leading angel, who of late [thrown. Made head against heaven's King, though over- I saw and heard; for such a numerous host Fled not in silence through the frighted deep, With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout,
Confusion worse confounded; and heaven-gates Pour'd out by millions her victorious bands Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here Keep residence; if all I can will serve, That little which is left so to defend, Encroach'd on still thro' your intestine broils Weak'ning the scepter of old Night: first hell, Your dungeon, stretching far and wide beneath; Now lately heaven and earth, another world, Hung o'er my realm, link'd in a golden chain 1005 To that side heaven from whence your legions fell: If that way be your walk, you have not far; So much the nearer danger: go and speed; Havock, and spoil, and ruin are my gain.
He ceas'd; and Satan stay'd not to reply, But glad that now his sea should find a shore, With fresh alacrity and force renew'd
Springs upward, like a pyramid of fire,
1013 a pyramid of fire] Drayton in his David and Goliah. 1630.
'He look't like to a piramid on fire.' Todd.
Into the wild expanse, and through the shock Of fighting elements, on all sides round. Environ'd, wins his way; harder beset
And more endanger'd, than when Argo pass'd Through Bosporus betwixt the justling rocks: Or when Ulysses on the larboard shun'd Charybdis, and by th' other whirlpool steer'd. 1020 So he with difficulty and labour hard Mov'd on, with difficulty and labour he; But he once past, soon after when man fell, Strange alteration! Sin and Death amain Following his track, such was the will of Heaven, Pav'd after him a broad and beaten way Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf Tamely endur'd a bridge of wond'rous length, From hell continu'd, reaching th' utmost orb Of this frail world; by which the spirits perverse With easy intercourse pass to and fro To tempt or punish mortals, except whom God and good angels guard by special grace. But now at last the sacred influence
Of light appears, and from the walls of heaven 1035 Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night A glimmering dawn: here Nature first begins Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire As from her outmost works, a broken foe, With tumult less and with less hostile din, That Satan with less toil and now with ease Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light, And like a weather-beaten vessel holds
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