O more of talk where God or Angel
Gueft
With Man, as with his Friend, familiar
us'd
To fit indulgent, and with him partake
Rural repast, permitting him the while
Venial discourse unblam'd: I now must change
Those Notes to Tragic; foul distrust, and breach
Difloyal on the part of Man, revolt,
And disobedience: On the part of Heav'n
Now alienated, distance and distaste,
Anger and just rebuke, and judgement giv'n,
That brought into this World a world of woe,
Sinne and her fhadow Death, and Miserie
Deaths Harbinger: Sad task, yet argument
Not lefs but more Heroic then the wrauth
Of ftern Achilles on his Foe purfu'd
Thrice Fugitive about Troy Wall; or rage
Of Turnus for Lavinia difefpous'd,
Or Neptun's ire or Juno's, that fo long
Perplex'd the Greek and Cytherea's Son;
If answerable style I can obtaine
Of my Celestial Patroness, who deignes
Her nightly visitation unimplor'd,
And dictates to me flumbring, or inspires
Eafie my unpremeditated Verfe:
Since first this Subject for Heroic Song
Pleas'd me long choofing, and beginning late;
Not fedulous by Nature to indite
Warrs, hitherto the onely Argument
Heroic deem'd, chief maistrie to diffect
With long and tedious havoc fabl❜d Knights
In Battels feign'd; the better fortitude
Of Patience and Heroic Martyrdom
Unfung; or to describe Races and Games,
Or tilting Furniture, emblazon'd Shields,
Imprefes quaint, Caparisons and Steeds;
Bases and tinfel Trappings, gorgious Knights
At Jouft and Torneament; then marshal'd Feast
Serv'd up in Hall with Sewers, and Seneshals;
The skill of Artifice or Office mean,
Not that which justly gives Heroic name
To Perfon or to Poem. Mee of these
Nor skilld nor ftudious, higher Argument
Remaines, fufficient of it felf to raise
That name, unless an age too late, or cold
Climat, or Years damp my intended wing
Deprest, and much they may, if all be mine,
Not Hers who brings it nightly to my Ear.
The Sun was funk, and after him the Starr
Of Hesperus, whose Office is to bring
Twilight upon the Earth, fhort Arbiter
Twixt Day and Night, and now from end to end Nights Hemisphere had veild the Horizon round: When Satan who late fled before the threats
Of Gabriel out of Eden, now improv'd
In meditated fraud and malice, bent
On mans destruction, maugre what might hap
Of heavier on himself, fearless return'd.
By Night he fled, and at Midnight return'd
From compaffing the Earth, cautious of day,
Since Uriel Regent of the Sun defcri'd
His entrance, and forewarnd the Cherubim
That kept thir watch; thence full of anguish driv'n,
The space of seven continu'd Nights he rode
With darkness, thrice the Equinoctial Line
He circl'd, four times crofs'd the Carr of Night
From Pole to Pole, traverfing each Colure;
On the eighth return'd, and on the Coast averse
From entrance or Cherubic Watch, by stealth
Found unsuspected way. There was a place,
Now not, though Sin, not Time, first wraught the
Where Tigris at the foot of Paradise
Into a Gulf shot under ground, till part
Rofe up a Fountain by the Tree of Life:
In with the River funk, and with it rose
Satan involv'd in rifing Mift, then fought
Where to lie hid; Sea he had searcht and Land
From Eden over Pontus, and the Poole
Maotis, up beyond the River Ob;
Downward as farr Antartic; and in length
Weft from Orontes to the Ocean barr'd
At Darien, thence to the Land where flowes
Ganges and Indus: thus the Orb he roam'd
With narrow fearch; and with inspection deep
Confider'd every Creature, which of all
Most opportune might serve his Wiles, and found
Exalted from fo base original,
With Heav'nly spoils, our spoils; What he decreed
He effected; Man he made, and for him built
Magnificent this World, and Earth his feat,
Him Lord pronounc'd, and, O indignitie!
Subjected to his service Angel wings,
And flaming Minifters to watch and tend
Thir earthie Charge: Of these the vigilance
I dread, and to elude, thus wrapt in mist
Of midnight vapor glide obfcure, and prie
every
Bush and Brake, where hap may finde
The Serpent fleeping, in whofe mazie foulds 161
To hide me, and the dark intent I bring.
O foul defcent! that I who erft contended
With Gods to fit the highest, am now constraind
Into a Beast, and mixt with bestial flime,
This effence to incarnate and imbrute,
That to the hight of Deitie afpir'd;
But what will not Ambition and Revenge
Defcend to? who afpires muft down as low
As high he foard, obnoxious first or last
To baseft things. Revenge, at first though sweet,
Bitter ere long back on it self recoiles;
Let it; I reck not, so it light well aim'd,
Since higher I fall fhort, on him who next
Provokes my envie, this new Favorite
Of Heav'n, this Man of Clay, Son of defpite,
Whom us the more to fpite his Maker rais'd
From duft: fpite then with spite is beft repaid.
So faying, through each Thicket Danck or Drie, Like a black mist low creeping, he held on His midnight search, where fooneft he might finde
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