Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage.
Far off from these a slow and silent stream,
Lethe the river of oblivion, rolls

Her wat'ry labyrinth, whereof who drinks,
Forthwith his former state and being forgets, 585
Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure, and pain.
Beyond this flood a frozen continent

Lies, dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms
Of whirlwind and dire hail; which on firm land
Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems 590
Of antient pile; all else deep snow and ice;
A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog
Betwixt Damiata and mount Casius old,

Where armies whole have sunk: the parching air
Burns frore, and cold performs th' effect of fire. 595
Thither by harpy-footed Furies hal'd

At certain revolutions all the damn'd

600

Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change
Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,
From beds of raging fire to starve in ice
Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine
Immovable, infix'd, and frozen round,
Periods of time; thence hurried back to fire.
They ferry over this Lethean sound
Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment,
And wish and struggle, as they pass to reach
The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose

605

589 dire hail] Hor. Od. i. ii. 1. ' diræ grandinis.' Newton. 595 Burns] Virg. Georg. i. 93. Boreæ penetrabile frigus adurat,' Newton.

In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe,

All in one moment, and so near the brink:
But fate withstands, and to oppose th' attempt 610
Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards

The ford, and of itself the water flies

All taste of living wight, as once it fled
The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on

In confus'd march forlorn, th' advent'rous bands,
With shudd'ring horror pale, and eyes agast,
View'd first their lamentable lot, and found
No rest through many a dark and dreary vale
They pass'd, and many a region dolorous,
O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp,
Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of
A universe of death, which God by curse
Created evil, for evil only good,

419

[death,

Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds, Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, 65 Abominable, inutterable, and worse

620 Alp] In the singular number; so in Dionysius Perieg. See Schnieder's note to Orphei Argon. p. 198. "AXTIO apxn, singulari numero, est in Dion. Perieg. ut in Metrodori Epigr. (Anal. ii. 481.) Alpem Juvenalis nominat. (Sat. x. 152.)

621 Rocks]

'Rocks, shelves, gulfs, quicksands, hundred, hundred horrors.' See Middieton's World tost at Tennis, p. 26.

623 evil] Esch. Eumen. ver. 71.

κακῶν δ ̓ ἕκατι κἀγένοντ.

625 all monstrous] See Heywood's Hierarchie, p. 437, lib. 7. So that all births which out of order come

Are monstrous and prodigious.'

Than fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd, Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire.

Meanwhile the adversary of GoD and man, Satan, with thoughts inflam'd of highest design, 630 Puts on swift wings, and toward the gates of hell Explores his solitary flight; sometimes

He scours the right-hand coast, sometimes the left;
Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars
Up to the fiery concave towering high.
As when far off at sea a fleet descried

Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds
Close sailing from Bengala, or the isles

635

Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring
Their spicy drugs: they on the trading flood 640
Through the wide Æthiopian to the Cape
Ply, stemming nightly toward the pole: so seem'd
Far off the flying fiend. At last appear
Hell bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof;
And thrice threefold the gates; three folds were
Three iron, three of adamantine rock,
Impenetrable, impal'd with circling fire,
Yet unconsum'd. Before the gates there sat

[brass,

617

639 Of Ternate See Fanshawe's Lusiad, p. 219, c. x. 84, 132. (1655).

'Tidore see! Ternate! whence are rolled

(Holding black night a torch) thick plumes of flame.' 640 trading] treading. Bentl. MS.

642 nightly] rightly. Bentl. MS.

615 thrice threefold] Samson Agon. ver. 1122. 'And seven times folded shield.'

Clypei septemplicis.' Bentl. MS.

On either side a formidable shape;

The one seem'd woman to the waist, and fair, 650
But ended foul in many a scaly fold,
Voluminous and vast, a serpent arm'd

660

With mortal sting: about her middle round
A cry of hell hounds never ceasing bark'd
With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung 655
A hideous peel: yet, when they list, would creep,
If aught disturb'd their noise, into her womb,
And kennel there; yet there still bark'd and howl'd
Within unseen. Far less abhorr'd than these
Vex'd Scylla bathing in the sea that parts
Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore:
Nor uglier follow the Night-hag, when call'd
In secret riding through the air she comes,
Lur'd with the smell of infant blood, to dance
With Lapland witches, while the labouring moon 665
Eclipses at their charms. The other shape,
If shape it might be call'd, that shape had none
Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb,
Or substance might be call'd that shadow seem'd,

653 mortal sting] Spens. F. Q. ver. i. i. 15.

'pointed with mortal sting.' Bentl. MS.

654 A cry] And that some troop of cruel hellish curs Encircle them about.'

v. Phillis of Scyros. p. 104. (1655).

Vex'd] Dulichios vexasse rates.' Bentl. MS.

665 labouring moon] See Ovid. Metam. iv. 333. and Stat. "heb. ver. 687. Siderum labores.' v. Plin. N. Hist. lib. ii.

x. p. 162, ed. Brotier. Casimir Sarb. Lyr. ii. v. lunæ labores.'

'Solis

१

For each seem'd either; black it stood as night, σ. Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell,

And shook a dreadful dart; what seem'd his head The likeness of a kingly crown had on.

675

Satan was now at hand, and from his seat
The monster moving onward came as fast,
With horrid strides; hell trembled as he strode.
Th' undaunted fiend what this might be admir'd;
Admir'd, not fear'd; GoD and his Son except,
Created thing naught valued he, nor shunn'd;
And with disdainful look thus first began.

680

Whence and what art thou, execrable shape, That dar'st, though grim and terrible, advance Thy miscreated front athwart my way To yonder gates? through them I mean to pass, That be assur'd without leave ask'd of thee. Retire, or taste thy folly, and learn by proof, Hell-born, not to contend with spirits of heav'n. To whom the goblin full of wrath replied, Art thou that traitor angel, art thou he,

672 And shook]

685

'His dart anon out of the corpse he took, And in his hand, a dreadful sight to see, With great triumph eftsones the same he shook.' See Sackville's Int. to Mirror for Mag. p. 266, ed. 1610. 676 hell] 'And made hell gates to shiver with the might.' Sackville's Introd. p. 265.

679 Created] See Wakefield's Lucretius, lib. i. 117, and Sylva Critica, v. p. 74, where this phrase is illustrated.

683 miscreated] Spens. F Q. i. ii. 3. miscreated fa ii. 42. miscreated mould.' Bentl.