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 sons,
Conjur'd against the High'est, for which both thou
And they, outcast from God, are here condemn'd
To waste eternal days in woe and pain?
And reckon'st thou thyself with Spirits of Heav'n,
Hell-doom'd, and breath'st defiance here and scorn
Where I reign king, and, to enrage the more,
Thy king and lord? Back to thy punishment,
False fugitive, and to thy speed add wings,

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Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue

Thy ling'ring, or with one stroke of this dart

Strange horrors seize thee, and pangs unfelt before."
So spake the grisly terror, and in shape,

So speaking and so threat'ning, grew tenfold

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More dreadful and deform: on th' other side,

Incens'd with indignation, Satan stood
Unterrify'd, and like a comet burn'd,
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
In the arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head
Level'd his deadly aim; their fatal hands
No second stroke intend; and such a frown
Each cast at th' other, as when two black clouds,
With Heav'n's artillery fraught, come rattling on
Over the Caspian, then stand front to front
Hov'ring a space, till winds the signal blow
To join the dark encounter in mid-air:
So frown'd the mighty combatants, that Hell
Grew darker at their frown, so match'd they stood
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 snaky sorceress that sat
Farst by Hell gate, and kept the fatal key,
Ris'n, and with hideous outcry rush'd between.

1

"O Father, what intends thy hand," she cry'd, Against thy only Son? What fury', O Son.

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Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart

Against thy Father's head? and know'st for whom ;
For him who sits above and laughs the while
At thee ordain'd his drudge, to execute

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What'er his wrath, which he calls justice, bids;
His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both."]
She spake, and at her words the hellish pest

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Forbore then these to her Satan return'd.

"So strange thy outcry, and thy words so strange

Thou interposest, that my sudden hand,

Prevented, spares to tell thee yet by deeds

What it intends, till first I know of thee

740

my

Son;

What thing thou art, thus double-form'd, and why,
In this infernal vale first met, thou cali'st
Me Father, and that phantasm call'st
I know thee not, nor ever saw till now
Sight more detestable than him and thee."

T' whom thus the portress of Hell gate reply'd.
"Hast thou forgot me then, and do I seem
Now in thine eyes so foul? once deem'd so fair
In Heav'n, when at th' assembly, and in sight
Of all the Seraphim with thee combin'd
In bold conspiracy against Heav'n's king,
All on a sudden miserable pain.

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Surpris'd thee, dim thine eyes and dizzy swum

In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast

Threw forth, till, on the left side opening wide,

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Likest to thee in shape and count'nance bright,

Then shining heav'nly fair, a goddess arm'd

Out of thy head I sprung: amazement seiz'd

All th' host of Heaven; back they recoil'd, afraid
At first, and call'd me Sin, and for a sign
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❜st enamour'd, and such joy thou took'st
With me in secret, that my womb conceiv'd
A growing burden. Meanwhile war arose,

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And fields were fought in Heav'n; wherein remain'd

(For what could else?) to our Almighty Foe

Clear victory, to our part loss and rout

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Through all the empyrean: down they fell,

Driv'n headlong from the pitch of Heaven, down

Into this deep, and in the general fall

I also; at which time this powerful key

Into my hand was giv'n, with charge to keep

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These gates for ever shut, which none can pass

Without my opening. Pensive here I sat
Alone, but long I sat not, till my womb,
Pregnant by thee, and now excessive grown,
Prodigious motion felt and rueful throes.

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At last this odious offspring whom thou seest,

Thine own begotten, breaking violent way,

Tore through my entrails, that, with fear and pain
Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew
Transform'd? but he my inbred enemy
Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart,
Made to destroy: I fled, and cry'd out, Death!
Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sigh'd
From all her caves, and back resounded, Death.
I fled; but he pursu'd, (though more, it seems,
Inflam'd with lust than rage) and, swifter far,
Me overtook, his mother, all dismay'd,
And in embraces forcible and foul,
Engendering with me, of that rape begot
These yelling monsters, that with ceasless cry

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Surround me, as thou saw'st, hourly conceiv'd
And hourly born, with sorrow infinite

To me; for when they list into the womb

That bred them they return, and howl and gnaw

My bowels, their repast; then, bursting forth
Afresh, with conscious terrors vex me round,
That rest or intermission none I find.

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Before mine eyes in opposition sits

Grim Death, my son and foe, who sets them on,
And me his parent would full soon devour

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For want of other prey, but that he knows

His end with mine involv'd, and knows that I
Should prove a bitter morsel, and his bane,
Whenever that shall be; so fate pronounc'd,
But thou, O Father, I forewarn thee, shun
His deadly arrow; neither vainly hope
To be invulnerable in those bright arms,
Though temper'd heav'nly, for that mortal dint,
Save he who reigns above, none can resist."
She finish'd, and the subtle Fiend his lore
Soon learn'd, now milder, and thus answer'd smooth.
"Dear daughter, since thou claim'st me for thy sire,
And my fair son here show'st me, the dear pledge
Of dalliance had with thee in Heav'n, and joys
Then sweet, now sad to mention, thro' dire change
Befall'n us unforeseen, unthought of; know
I come no enemy, but to set free
From out this dark and dismal house of pain
Both him and thee, and all the heav'nly host
Of Spirits, that, in our just pretences arm'd,
Fell with us from on high: from them I go
This uncouth errand sole, and one for all
Myself expose, with lonely steps to tread

Th' unfounded deep, and through the void immense

To search with wand'ring quest a place foretold

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Should be, and, by concurring signs, ere now

Created vast and round, a place of bliss

In the perlieus of Heav'n, and therein plac'd
A race of upstart creatures, to supply
Perhaps our vacant room, tho' more remov'd,
Lest Heav'n, surcharg'd with potent multitude,
Might hap to move new broils: Be this or ought
Than this more secret now design'd, I haste
To know, and, this once known, shall soon return,
And bring ye to the place where thou and Death
Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen
Wing silently the buxom air, imbalm'd
With odours; there ye shall be fed and fill'd
Immeasurably, all things shall be your prey."

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He ceas'd, for both seem'd highly pleas'd, and Death

Grinn'd horrible a ghastly smile, to hear
His famine should be fill'd, and blest his maw
Destin'd to that good hour: no less rejoic'd
His mother bad, and thus bespake her sire.
"The key of this infernal pit by due,

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And by command of Heav'n's all powerful King,

I keep, by him forbidden to unlock

These adamantine gates: against all force

Death ready stands to interpose his dart,

Fearless to be o'ermatch'd by living might.
But what owe I to his commands above

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Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me down

Of mine own brood, that on my bowels feed?
Thou art my father, thou my author, thou

My being gav'st me; whom should I obey

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But thee, whom follow? thou wilt bring me soon
To that new world of light and bliss, among
The Gods who live at ease, where I shall reign
At thy right hand voluptuous, as beseems
Thy daughter and thy darling, without end."
Thus saying, from her side the fatal key,
Sad instrument of all our woe, she took;
And, towards the gate rolling her bestial train,
Forthwith the huge portcullis high up drew,

870

Which, but herself, not all the Stygian powers
Could once have mov'd; then in the key-hole turns

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Th' intricate wards, and every bolt and bar
Of massy ir'on or solid rock with ease

Unfastens on a sudden open fly,

With impetuous recoil and jarring sound,
Th' infernal doors, and on their hinges grate
Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook
Of Erebus. She open'd, but to shut

Excell'd her pow'r; the gates wide open stood,

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