第 28 页

Was she thy God, that her thou didst obey

Before his voice? or was she made thy guide,

Superiour, or but equal, that to her

Thou didst resign thy manhood, and the place

Wherein God set thee above her made of thee,

And for thee, whose perfection far excelled

Hers in all real dignity? Adorned

She was indeed, and lovely, to attract

Thy love, not thy subjection; and her gifts

Were such, as under government well seemed;

Unseemly to bear rule; which was thy part

And person, hadst thou known thyself aright.

So having said, he thus to Eve in few.

Say, Woman, what is this which thou hast done?

To whom sad Eve, with shame nigh overwhelmed,

Confessing soon, yet not before her Judge

Bold or loquacious, thus abashed replied.

The Serpent me beguiled, and I did eat.

Which when the Lord God heard, without delay

To judgement he proceeded on the accused

Serpent, though brute; unable to transfer

The guilt on him, who made him instrument

Of mischief, and polluted from the end

Of his creation; justly then accursed,

As vitiated in nature: More to know

Concerned not Man, (since he no further knew)

Nor altered his offence; yet God at last

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To Satan first in sin his doom applied,

Though in mysterious terms, judged as then best:

And on the Serpent thus his curse let fall.

Because thou hast done this, thou art accursed

Above all cattle, each beast of the field;

Upon thy belly groveling thou shalt go,

And dust shalt eat all the days of thy life.

Between thee and the woman I will put

Enmity, and between thine and her seed;

Her seed shall bruise thy head, thou bruise his heel.

So spake this oracle, then verified

When Jesus, Son of Mary, second Eve,

Saw Satan fall, like lightning, down from Heaven,

Prince of the air; then, rising from his grave

Spoiled Principalities and Powers, triumphed

In open show; and, with ascension bright,

Captivity led captive through the air,

The realm itself of Satan, long usurped;

Whom he shall tread at last under our feet;

Even he, who now foretold his fatal bruise;

And to the Woman thus his sentence turned.

Thy sorrow I will greatly multiply

By thy conception; children thou shalt bring

In sorrow forth; and to thy husband’s will

Thine shall submit; he over thee shall rule.

On Adam last thus judgement he pronounced.

Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife,

And eaten of the tree, concerning which

I charged thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat thereof:

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Cursed is the ground for thy sake; thou in sorrow

Shalt eat thereof, all the days of thy life;

Thorns also and thistles it shall bring thee forth

Unbid; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,

Till thou return unto the ground; for thou

Out of the ground wast taken, know thy birth,

For dust thou art, and shalt to dust return.

So judged he Man, both Judge and Saviour sent;

And the instant stroke of death, denounced that day,

Removed far off; then, pitying how they stood

Before him naked to the air, that now

Must suffer change, disdained not to begin

Thenceforth the form of servant to assume;

As when he washed his servants feet; so now,

As father of his family, he clad

Their nakedness with skins of beasts, or slain,

Or as the snake with youthful coat repaid;

And thought not much to clothe his enemies;

Nor he their outward only with the skins

Of beasts, but inward nakedness, much more.

Opprobrious, with his robe of righteousness,

Arraying, covered from his Father’s sight.

To him with swift ascent he up returned,

Into his blissful bosom reassumed

In glory, as of old; to him appeased

All, though all-knowing, what had passed with Man

Recounted, mixing intercession sweet.

Mean while, ere thus was sinned and judged on Earth,

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Within the gates of Hell sat Sin and Death,

In counterview within the gates, that now

Stood open wide, belching outrageous flame

Far into Chaos, since the Fiend passed through,

Sin opening; who thus now to Death began.

O Son, why sit we here each other viewing

Idly, while Satan, our great author, thrives

In other worlds, and happier seat provides

For us, his offspring dear? It cannot be

But that success attends him; if mishap,

Ere this he had returned, with fury driven

By his avengers; since no place like this

Can fit his punishment, or their revenge.

Methinks I feel new strength within me rise,

Wings growing, and dominion given me large

Beyond this deep; whatever draws me on,

Or sympathy, or some connatural force,

Powerful at greatest distance to unite,

With secret amity, things of like kind,

By secretest conveyance. Thou, my shade

Inseparable, must with me along;

For Death from Sin no power can separate.

But, lest the difficulty of passing back

Stay his return perhaps over this gulf

Impassable, impervious; let us try

Adventurous work, yet to thy power and mine

Not unagreeable, to found a path

Over this main from Hell to that new world,

Where Satan now prevails; a monument

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Of merit high to all the infernal host,

Easing their passage hence, for intercourse,

Or transmigration, as their lot shall lead.

Nor can I miss the way, so strongly drawn

By this new-felt attraction and instinct.

Whom thus the meager Shadow answered soon.

Go, whither Fate, and inclination strong,

Leads thee; I shall not lag behind, nor err

The way, thou leading; such a scent I draw

Of carnage, prey innumerable, and taste

The savour of death from all things there that live:

Nor shall I to the work thou enterprisest

Be wanting, but afford thee equal aid.

So saying, with delight he snuffed the smell

Of mortal change on earth. As when a flock

Of ravenous fowl, though many a league remote,

Against the day of battle, to a field,

Where armies lie encamped, come flying, lured

With scent of living carcasses designed

For death, the following day, in bloody fight:

So scented the grim Feature, and upturned

His nostril wide into the murky air;

Sagacious of his quarry from so far.

Then both from out Hell-gates, into the waste

Wide anarchy of Chaos, damp and dark,

Flew diverse; and with power (their power was great)

Hovering upon the waters, what they met

Solid or slimy, as in raging sea

Tost up and down, together crouded drove,

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From each side shoaling towards the mouth of Hell;

As when two polar winds, blowing adverse

Upon the Cronian sea, together drive

Mountains of ice, that stop the imagined way

Beyond Petsora eastward, to the rich

Cathaian coast. The aggregated soil

Death with his mace petrifick, cold and dry,

As with a trident, smote; and fixed as firm

As Delos, floating once; the rest his look

Bound with Gorgonian rigour not to move;

And with Asphaltick slime, broad as the gate,

Deep to the roots of Hell the gathered beach

They fastened, and the mole immense wrought on

Over the foaming deep high-arched, a bridge

Of length prodigious, joining to the wall

Immoveable of this now fenceless world,

Forfeit to Death; from hence a passage broad,

Smooth, easy, inoffensive, down to Hell.

So, if great things to small may be compared,

Xerxes, the liberty of Greece to yoke,

From Susa, his Memnonian palace high,

Came to the sea: and, over Hellespont

Bridging his way, Europe with Asia joined,

And scourged with many a stroke the indignant waves.

Now had they brought the work by wonderous art

Pontifical, a ridge of pendant rock,

Over the vexed abyss, following the track

Of Satan to the self-same place where he

First lighted from his wing, and landed safe

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From out of Chaos, to the outside bare

Of this round world: With pins of adamant

And chains they made all fast, too fast they made

And durable! And now in little space

The confines met of empyrean Heaven,

And of this World; and, on the left hand, Hell

With long reach interposed; three several ways

In sight, to each of these three places led.

And now their way to Earth they had descried,

To Paradise first tending; when, behold!

Satan, in likeness of an Angel bright,

Betwixt the Centaur and the Scorpion steering

His zenith, while the sun in Aries rose:

Disguised he came; but those his children dear

Their parent soon discerned, though in disguise.

He, after Eve seduced, unminded slunk

Into the wood fast by; and, changing shape,

To observe the sequel, saw his guileful act

By Eve, though all unweeting, seconded

Upon her husband; saw their shame that sought

Vain covertures; but when he saw descend

The Son of God to judge them, terrified

He fled; not hoping to escape, but shun

The present; fearing, guilty, what his wrath

Might suddenly inflict; that past, returned

By night, and listening where the hapless pair

Sat in their sad discourse, and various plaint,

Thence gathered his own doom; which understood

Not instant, but of future time, with joy

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And tidings fraught, to Hell he now returned;

And at the brink of Chaos, near the foot

Of this new wonderous pontifice, unhoped

Met, who to meet him came, his offspring dear.

Great joy was at their meeting, and at sight

Of that stupendious bridge his joy encreased.

Long he admiring stood, till Sin, his fair

Enchanting daughter, thus the silence broke.

O Parent, these are thy magnifick deeds,

Thy trophies! which thou viewest as not thine own;

Thou art their author, and prime architect:

For I no sooner in my heart divined,

My heart, which by a secret harmony

Still moves with thine, joined in connexion sweet,

That thou on earth hadst prospered, which thy looks

Now also evidence, but straight I felt,

Though distant from thee worlds between, yet felt,

That I must after thee, with this thy son;

Such fatal consequence unites us three!

Hell could no longer hold us in our bounds,

Nor this unvoyageable gulf obscure

Detain from following thy illustrious track.

Thou hast achieved our liberty, confined

Within Hell-gates till now; thou us impowered

To fortify thus far, and overlay,

With this portentous bridge, the dark abyss.

Thine now is all this world; thy virtue hath won

What thy hands builded not; thy wisdom gained

With odds what war hath lost, and fully avenged

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Our foil in Heaven; here thou shalt monarch reign,

There didst not; there let him still victor sway,

As battle hath adjudged; from this new world

Retiring, by his own doom alienated;

And henceforth monarchy with thee divide

Of all things, parted by the empyreal bounds,

His quadrature, from thy orbicular world;

Or try thee now more dangerous to his throne.

Whom thus the Prince of darkness answered glad.

Fair Daughter, and thou Son and Grandchild both;

High proof ye now have given to be the race

Of Satan (for I glory in the name,

Antagonist of Heaven’s Almighty King,)

Amply have merited of me, of all

The infernal empire, that so near Heaven’s door

Triumphal with triumphal act have met,

Mine, with this glorious work; and made one realm,

Hell and this world, one realm, one continent

Of easy thorough-fare. Therefore, while I

Descend through darkness, on your road with ease,

To my associate Powers, them to acquaint

With these successes, and with them rejoice;

You two this way, among these numerous orbs,

All yours, right down to Paradise descend;

There dwell, and reign in bliss; thence on the earth

Dominion exercise and in the air,

Chiefly on Man, sole lord of all declared;

Him first make sure your thrall, and lastly kill.

My substitutes I send ye, and create

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Plenipotent on earth, of matchless might

Issuing from me: on your joint vigour now

My hold of this new kingdom all depends,

Through Sin to Death exposed by my exploit.

If your joint power prevail, the affairs of Hell

No detriment need fear; go, and be strong!

So saying he dismissed them; they with speed

Their course through thickest constellations held,

Spreading their bane; the blasted stars looked wan,

And planets, planet-struck, real eclipse

Then suffered. The other way Satan went down

The causey to Hell-gate: On either side

Disparted Chaos overbuilt exclaimed,

And with rebounding surge the bars assailed,

That scorned his indignation: Through the gate,

Wide open and unguarded, Satan passed,

And all about found desolate; for those,

Appointed to sit there, had left their charge,

Flown to the upper world; the rest were all

Far to the inland retired, about the walls

Of Pandemonium; city and proud seat

Of Lucifer, so by allusion called

Of that bright star to Satan paragoned;

There kept their watch the legions, while the Grand

In council sat, solicitous what chance

Might intercept their emperour sent; so he

Departing gave command, and they observed.

As when the Tartar from his Russian foe,

By Astracan, over the snowy plains,

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Retires; or Bactrin Sophi, from the horns

Of Turkish crescent, leaves all waste beyond

The realm of Aladule, in his retreat

To Tauris or Casbeen: So these, the late

Heaven-banished host, left desart utmost Hell

Many a dark league, reduced in careful watch

Round their metropolis; and now expecting

Each hour their great adventurer, from the search

Of foreign worlds: He through the midst unmarked,

In show plebeian Angel militant

Of lowest order, passed; and from the door

Of that Plutonian hall, invisible