He fled, not hoping to escape, but shun
The present, fearing guilty what his wrath
Might suddenly inflict; that past, returned
By night, and list’ning342 where the hapless pair
Sat in their sad discourse, and various plaint,
Thence gathered his own doom, which understood344
Not instant, but of future time. With joy
And tidings fraught, to Hell he now returned,
And at the brink of Chaos, near the foot
Of this new wondrous pontifice, unhoped
Met who to meet him came, his offspring dear.
Great joy was at their meeting, and at sight
Of that stupendous bridge his joy increased.
Long he admiring stood, till Sin, his fair
Enchanting daughter, thus the silence broke.
“O Parent, these are thy magnific deeds,
Thy trophies, which thou view’st 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 connection 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 consequence364 unites us three:
Hell could no longer hold us in her 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 empow’red
To fortify thus far, and overlay
With this portentous371 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
Our foil in Heav’n; 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 doom378 alienated,
And henceforth379 monarchy with thee divide
Of all things parted by th’ empyreal bounds,
His quadrature381, from thy orbicular world,
Or try thee now more dang’rous to his throne.”
Whom thus the Prince of Darkness answered glad.
“Fair daughter, and thou son and grandchild both,
High proof ye now have giv’n to be the race
Of Satan386 (for I glory in the name,
Antagonist of Heav’n’s Almighty King)
Amply have merited of me, of all
Th’ infernal empire, that so near Heav’n’s door
Triumphal390 with triumphal act have met,
Mine with this glorious work, and made one realm
Hell and this world, one realm, one continent
Of easy thoroughfare. 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 exercise400 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
Plenipotent404 on Earth, of matchless might
Issuing from me: on your joint vigor now
My hold of this new kingdom all depends,
Through Sin to Death exposed by my exploit.
If your joint power prevails408, th’ affairs of Hell
No detriment need fear409. Go and be strong.”
So saying he dismissed them, they with speed
Their course through thickest constellations held
Spreading their bane; the blasted412 stars looked wan,
And planets, planet-struck413, real eclipse
Then suffered. Th’ other way Satan went down
The causey415 to Hell gate; on either side
Disparted416 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 Pandaemonium, city and proud seat
Of Lucifer, so by allusion called,
Of that bright star426 to Satan paragoned.
There kept their watch the legions, while the grand427
In council sat, solicitous428 what chance
Might intercept their Emperor sent, so he
Departing gave command, and they observed.
As when431 the Tartar from his Russian foe
By Astracan over the snowy plains
Retires, or Bactrian Sophy 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
Heav’n-banished host, left desert utmost Hell
Many a dark league, reduced438 in careful watch
Round their metropolis, and now expecting
Each hour their great adventurer from the search
Of foreign441 worlds: he through the midst unmarked,
In show plebeian angel militant
Of lowest order, passed; and from the door
Of that Plutonian hall, invisible
Ascended his high throne, which under state445
Of richest texture spread, at th’ upper end
Was placed in regal luster. Down awhile
He sat, and round about him saw unseen:
At last as from a cloud his fulgent head
And shape star-bright appeared, or brighter, clad
With what permissive451 glory since his fall
Was left him, or false glitter: all amazed
At that so sudden blaze453 the Stygian throng
Bent their aspect, and whom they wished beheld,
Their mighty chief returned: loud was th’ acclaim:
Forth rushed in haste the great consulting peers,
Raised from their dark divan457, and with like joy
Congratulant458 approached him, who with hand
Silence, and with these words attention won.
“Thrones, Dominations,460 Princedoms, Virtues, Powers,
For in possession such, not only of right,
I call ye and declare ye now, returned
Successful beyond hope, to lead ye forth
Triumphant out of this infernal pit
Abominable, accursed, the house of woe,
And dungeon of our tyrant: now possess,
As lords, a spacious world, to our native Heaven
Little inferior, by my adventure hard
With peril great achieved. Long were to tell
What I have done, what suffered, with what pain
Voyaged th’ unreal471, vast, unbounded deep
Of horrible confusion, over which
By Sin and Death a broad way now is paved
To expedite your glorious march; but I
Toiled out my uncouth475 passage, forced to ride
Th’ untractable abyss, plunged in the womb
Of unoriginal477 Night and Chaos wild,
That jealous of their secrets fiercely opposed
My journey strange, with clamorous uproar
Protesting fate supreme480; thence how I found
The new created world, which fame in Heav’n481
Long had foretold481, a fabric wonderful
Of absolute perfection, therein man
Placed in a Paradise, by our exile
Made happy; him by fraud I have seduced
From his Creator, and the more to increase
Your wonder, with an apple; he thereat
Offended, worth your laughter, hath giv’n up
Both his beloved man and all his world,
To Sin and Death a prey, and so to us,
Without our hazard, labor, or alarm,
To range in, and to dwell, and over man
To rule, as over all he should have ruled.
True is,494 me also he hath judged, or rather
Me not, but the brute serpent in whose shape
Man I deceived: that which to me belongs,
Is enmity, which he will put between
Me and mankind; I am to bruise his heel;
His seed, when is not set, shall bruise my head:
A world who would not purchase with a bruise,
Or much more grievous pain? Ye have th’ account
Of my performance: what remains, ye gods,
But up and enter now into full bliss.”
So having said, a while he stood, expecting
Their universal shout and high applause
To fill his ear, when contrary he hears
On all sides, from innumerable tongues
A dismal universal hiss, the sound
Of public scorn; he wondered509, but not long
Had leisure, wond’ring at himself now more;
His visage drawn he felt to sharp and spare,511
His arms clung to his ribs, his legs entwining
Each other, till supplanted513 down he fell
A monstrous serpent on his belly prone,
Reluctant515, but in vain; a greater power
Now ruled him, punished in the shape he sinned,
According to his doom517: he would have spoke,
But hiss for hiss returned with forkèd tongue
To forkèd tongue, for now were all transformed
Alike, to serpents all as accessories
To his bold riot: dreadful was the din
Of hissing through the hall, thick swarming now
With complicated monsters head and tail,
Scorpion and asp, and amphisbaena524 dire,
Cerastes horned525, hydrus, and ellops drear,
And dipsas526 (not so thick swarm’d once the soil
Bedropped with blood of Gorgon, or the Isle
Ophiusa528); but still greatest he the midst,
Now dragon529 grown, larger than whom the sun
Engendered in the Pythian vale530 on slime,
Huge Python531, and his power no less he seemed
Above the rest still to retain; they all
Him followed issuing forth to th’ open field,
Where all yet left of that revolted rout
Heav’n-fall’n, in station stood or just array,
Sublime536 with expectation when to see
ln triumph issuing forth their glorious chief;
They saw, but other sight instead, a crowd
Of ugly serpents; horror on them fell,
And horrid sympathy; for what they saw,
They felt themselves now changing; down their arms,
Down fell both spear and shield, down they as fast,
And the dire hiss renewed, and the dire form
Catched by contagion, like in punishment,
As in their crime. Thus was th’ applause they meant,
Turned to exploding hiss, triumph to shame
Cast on themselves from their own mouths. There stood
A grove hard by, sprung up with this their change,
His will who reigns above, to aggravate
Their penance, laden with fair fruit like that
Which grew in Paradise, the bait of Eve
Used by the Tempter: on that prospect strange
Their earnest eyes they fixed, imagining
For one forbidden tree a multitude
Now ris’n, to work them further woe or shame;
Yet parched556 with scalding thirst and hunger fierce,
Though to delude them sent, could not abstain,
But on they rolled in heaps, and up the trees
Climbing, sat thicker than the snaky locks559
That curled Megaera: greedily they plucked
The fruitage fair to sight, like that which grew
Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flamed;
This more delusive, not the touch, but taste
Deceived; they fondly thinking to allay
Their appetite with gust565, instead of fruit
Chewed bitter ashes, which th’ offended taste
With spattering noise rejected: oft they assayed,
Hunger and thirst constraining, drugged568 as oft,
With hatefulest disrelish writhed their jaws
With soot and cinders filled; so oft they fell
Into the same illusion, not as man
Whom they triumphed once lapsed. Thus were they plagued
And worn with famine, long and ceaseless hiss,
Till their lost shape, permitted, they resumed,
Yearly enjoined, some say575, to undergo
This annual humbling certain numbered days,
To dash their pride, and joy for man seduced.
However some578 tradition they dispersed
Among the heathen of their purchase got,
And fabled how the serpent, whom they called
Ophion with Eurynome, the wide-
Encroaching Eve perhaps, had first the rule
Of high Olympus, thence by Saturn driv’n
And Ops, ere yet Dictaean584 Jove was born.
Meanwhile in Paradise the Hellish pair
Too soon arrived, Sin there in power before,586
Once actual, now in body586, and to dwell
Habitual habitant; behind her Death
Close following pace for pace, not mounted yet
On his pale horse590: to whom Sin thus began.
“Second of Satan sprung, all conquering Death,
With travail difficult, not better far
Than still at Hell’s dark threshold to have sat watch,
Unnamed, undreaded, and thyself half starved?”
Whom thus the Sin-born monster answered soon.
“To me, who with eternal famine pine,
Alike is Hell, or Paradise, or Heaven,
There best, where most with ravin I may meet;
Which here, though plenteous, all too little seems
To stuff this maw, this vast unhidebound601 corpse.”
To whom th’ incestuous mother thus replied.
“Thou therefore on these herbs, and fruits, and flow’rs
Feed first, on each beast next, and fish, and fowl,
No homely morsels, and whatever thing
The scythe of Time mows down, devour unspared,
Till I in man residing through the race,
His thoughts, his looks, words, actions all infect,
And season him thy last and sweetest prey.”
This said, they both betook them several ways,
Both to destroy, or unimmortal611 make
All kinds, and for destruction to mature
Sooner or later; which th’ Almighty seeing,
From his transcendent seat the saints among,
To those bright orders uttered thus his voice.
“See with what heat these dogs of Hell advance
To waste and havoc617 yonder world, which I
So fair and good created, and had still
Kept in that state, had not the folly of man
Let in these wasteful Furies, who impute
Folly to me, so doth the Prince of Hell
And his adherents, that with
so much ease
I suffer them to enter and possess
A place so Heav’nly, and conniving seem
To gratify my scornful enemies,
That laugh, as if transported with some fit
Of passion, I to them had quitted627 all,
At random yielded up to their misrule;
And know not that I called and drew them thither
My Hell-hounds, to lick up the draff630 and filth
Which man’s polluting sin with taint hath shed
On what was pure, till crammed and gorged, nigh burst
With sucked and glutted offal, at one sling633
Of thy victorious arm633, well-pleasing Son,
Both Sin, and Death, and yawning grave at last
Through Chaos hurled, obstruct the mouth of Hell
Forever, and seal up his ravenous jaws.
Then heav’n and earth renewed shall be made pure
To sanctity that shall receive no stain:
Till then the curse pronounced on both precedes640.”
He ended, and the Heav’nly audience loud
Sung hallelujah, as the sound of seas,
Through multitude that sung: “Just are thy ways,
Righteous are thy decrees on all thy works;
Who can extenuate645 thee? Next, to the Son,
Destined restorer of mankind, by whom
New heav’n and earth shall to the ages rise,
Or down from Heav’n descend.” Such was their song,
While the Creator calling forth by name
His mighty angels gave them several charge,
As sorted best with present things. The sun
Had first his precept so to move, so shine,
As might affect the Earth with cold and heat
Scarce tolerable, and from the north to call
Decrepit winter, from the south to bring
Solstitial summer’s heat. To the blank656 moon
Her office they prescribed, to th’ other five
Their planetary motions and aspects658
In sextile659, square, and trine, and opposite,
Of noxious efficacy, and when to join
In synod661 unbenign, and taught the fixed
Their influence malignant when to show’r,
Which of them rising with the sun, or falling,
Should prove tempestuous: to the winds they set
Their corners, when with bluster to confound
Sea, air, and shore, the thunder when to roll
With terror through the dark aerial hall.
Some say he bid his angels turn askance668
The poles of Earth twice ten degrees and more
From the sun’s axle; they with labor pushed
Oblique the centric globe: some say the sun
Was bid672 turn reins from th’ equinoctial road
Like distant breadth to Taurus with the sev’n
Atlantic Sisters, and the Spartan Twins