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 Hydra's, and Chimera's dire.
Mean while the Adversary' of God and Man,
Satan with thoughts inflam'd of highest design,
Puts on swift wings, and tow'ards the gates of Hell Explores his folitary flight; fometimes
He fcours the right hand coast, sometimes the left,
Now shaves with level wing the deep, then foars
Up to the fiery concave towring high.
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 adamantin 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 waste, and fair,
But ended foul in many a scaly fold
Voluminous and vaft, a ferpent arm'd
With mortal sting: about her middle round
of Hell hounds never ceafing bark'd With wide Cerberean 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 lefs abhorr'd than thefe
Vex'd Scylla bathing in the sea 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 fmell of infant blood, to dance
With Lapland witches, while the lab'ring moon 665
Eclipfes at their charms. The other shape,
If fhape it might be call'd that shape had none
Diftinguishable in member, joint, or limb,
. Or fubftance might be call'd that fhadow 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 fast
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 valued he nor shunn'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 país,
That be affur'd, without leave ask'd of thee:
Retire, or take thy folly', and learn by proof,
Hell-born, not to contend with Spirits of Heaven.
To whom the goblin full of wrath reply'd.
Art thou that traitor Angel, art thou He,
Who first broke peace in Heav'n and faith, till then
Unbroken, and in proud rebellious arms
Drew after him the third part of Heav'n's fons
Conjúr'd against the Hig heft, for which both thou
And they, outcast from God, are here condemn'd
To wafte eternal days in woe and pain?
And reckon't thou thyself 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 purfue
Thy lingring, or with one stroke 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
More dreadful and deform: on th' other fide
Incens'd with indignation Satan ftood
Unterrify'd, and like a comet burn'd,
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
In th' arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
Shakes peftilence and war. Each at the head
Level'd his deadly aim; their fatal hands
No fecond stroke intend, and such a frown
Each caft at th' other, as when two black clouds,
With Heav'n's artillery fraught, come rattling on
Over the Cafpian, then ftand front to front
Hovering a space, till winds the signal blow
To join their dark encounter in mid air:
So frown'd the mighty combatants, that Hell
Grew darker at their frown, fo match'd they food;
For never but once more was either like
To meet so great a foe: and now great deeds
Had been achiev'd, whereof all Hell had rung,
Had not the fnaky forceress that fat
Fast by Hell gate, and kept the fatal key,
Ris'n, and with hideous outcry rush'd between.
O Father, what intends thy hand, the cry'd,
Against thy only Son? What fury', O Son,
Poffeffes thee to bend that mortal dart
Against thy Father's head? and know'ft for whom ;
For him who fits above and laughs the while
At thee ordain'd his drudge, to execute
Whate'er his wrath, which he calls juftice, bids;
His wrath, which one day will destroy ýe both.
She fpake, and at her words the hellish pest 735
Forbore, then thefe to her Satan return'd.
So ftrange thy outery, and thy words fo ftrange
Thou interpofeft, that my sudden hand
Prevented fpares to tell thee yet by deeds
What it intends; till first I know of thee,
What thing thou art, thus double-form'd, and why In this infernal vale firft met thou call'
Me Father, and that phantafm call'ft my Son;
I know thee not, nor ever faw till now
Sight more deteftable than him and thee.
T'whom thus the portrefs of Hell gate reply'd.
Haft thou forgot me then, and do I seem
Now in thine eye fo foul? once deem'd so fair
In Heav'n, when at th' assembly, and in fight
Of all the Seraphim with thee combin'd
In bold confpiracy against Heav'n's king,
All on a fudden miferable pain
Surpris'd thee, dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum
In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast
Threw forth, till on the left fide opening wide,
Likeft to thee in fhape and count'nance bright,
Then fhining heav'nly fair, a Goddess arm'd
Out of thy head I fprung: amazement seis'd
All th' hoft of Heav'n; back they recoil'd afraid
At first, and call'd me Sin, and for a fign
Portentous held me; but familiar grown,
I pleas'd, and with attractive graces won
The most averse, thee chiefly, who full oft
Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing
Becam'ft enamour'd, and fuch joy thou took'st
With me in fecret, that my womb conceiv'd
A growing burden. Mean while war arose,
And fields were fought in Heav'n; wherein remain'd
(For what could elfe?) to our almighty foe
Clear victory, to our part lofs and rout
Through all the empyréan: down they fell
Driv'n headlong from the pitch of Heaven, down
Into this deep, and in the general fall
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