Through many a dark and dreary vale Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death; Created evil, for evil only good, Where all life dies, death lives and nature breeds Perverse all monstrous, all prodigious things, Abominable, unutterable, and worse Than fables yet have feigned or fear conceived.-ii. 418. Through this region ran the four infernal rivers, Styx, Acheron, Cocytus, Phlegethon, while that of Lethe separated it from a "frozen continent,"* dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms Of whirlwind and dire hail.-ii. 588. The vault of Hell is terminated by a portal, And thrice threefold the gates; three folds were brass, Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire, Yet unconsumed.-ii. 645. After the expulsion of the rebel angels, the Son of God, on the wings of Cherubim Uplifted, in paternal glory rode Far into Chaos and the world unborn.-vii. 218; and there setting the "golden compasses" of God, he marked out the circumference of the World, which then came into existence under the influence of the Spirit of God. It was a "firm opacous globe," i.e. a hollow sphere, of which we shall presently describe the interior, restricting ourselves here to the outer surface. When Satan lighted on it in coming out of Chaos, A globe far off It seemed, now seems a boundless continent, Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of night Of Chaos blustering round, inclement sky, (iii. 422,) *These are also the four rivers of Dante's Hell, and he too places Lethe in a separate region. except on the side facing the wall of Heaven, whence came At top whereof, but far more rich, appeared At the other extremity, on the surface of the globe a bright sea flowed Of jasper or of liquid pearl. "Thence," says the Argument, "Satan comes to the gate of Milton's idea of the primitive earth was, that it occupied Earth now Seemed like to heaven, a seat where gods might dwell Her sacred shades.-vii. 327. Earth in her rich attire Consummate lovely smiled.-ib. 501. The poet also makes Satan exclaim :— O earth! how like to heaven! if not preferred More justly, seat worthier of gods, as built For what god after better worse would build ?—ix. 99. *See Excursus I. Milton, in fact, taxed his imagination to the utmost in his Empyreal; from before her vanished Night, The poet does not mention the mode or the exact time of To their prepared ill mansion driven down.-vi. 738. Hell at last Yawning received them whole and on them closed; Unquenchable, the house of woe and pain.-vi. 874. The exact situation of Hell of course could not be assigned. As far removed from God and light of Heaven As from the centre thrice to the utmost pole.-i. 73 ; that is, three semidiameters of the World. The rebel angels A dungeon horrible, on all sides round, Thence extended "dry land," which burned With solid, as the lake with liquid, fire. This land, like the soil of Heaven and Earth, contained within Pandaemonium, the high capital Of Satan and his peers.-i. 756. When the fallen angels proceeded to explore this land,- "To banish for ever into a *This idea occurs in Milton's carlier writings: In heaven or earth or under earth in hell.-iii. 321. See above, p. 209. Through many a dark and dreary vale Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death; Created evil, for evil only good, Where all life dies, death lives and nature breeds Perverse all monstrous, all prodigious things, Abominable, unutterable, and worse Than fables yet have feigned or fear conceived.-ii. 418. Through this region ran the four infernal rivers, Styx, Acheron, Cocytus, Phlegethon, while that of Lethe separated it from a "frozen continent,"* .. dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms Of whirlwind and dire hail.-ii. 588. The vault of Hell is terminated by a portal, And thrice threefold the gates; three folds were brass, Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire, Yet unconsumed.—ii. 615. After the expulsion of the rebel angels, the Son of God, on the wings of Cherubim Uplifted, in paternal glory rode Far into Chaos and the world unborn.—vii. 218; and there setting the "golden compasses" of God, he marked out the circumference of the World, which then came into existence under the influence of the Spirit of God. It was a "firm opacous globe," i.e. a hollow sphere, of which we shall presently describe the interior, restricting ourselves here to the outer surface. When Satan lighted on it in coming out of Chaos, A globe far off It seemed, now seems a boundless continent, Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of night Starless exposed, and ever-threatening storms Of Chaos blustering round, inclement sky, (iii. 422,) These are also the four rivers of Dante's Hell, and he too places Lethe in a separate region. |