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 renew'd, and the dire form Catch'd by contagion, like in punishment,
As in their crime. Thus was th' applause they meant Turn'd to exploding hiss, triumph to shame Cast on themselves from their own mouths. 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 Us'd by the Tempter: on that prospect strange Their earnest eyes they fix'd, imagining For one forbidden tree a multitude
Now ris'n, to work them further woe or shame; Yet parch'd with scalding thirst and hunger fierce; Though to delude them sent, could not abstain, But on they roll'd in heaps, and up the trees Climbing, sat thicker than the snaky locks That curl'd Megæra: greedily they pluck'd. The fruitage fair to sight, like that which grew Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flam'd; This more, delusive, not the touch, but taste, Deceiv'd; they fondly thinking to allay Their appetite with gust, instead of fruit Chew'd bitter ashes, which th' offended taste With spattering noise rejected: oft they' assay'd, Hunger and thirst constraining, drug'd as oft,
With hatefullest disrelish writh'd their jaws With soot and cinders fill'd; so oft they fell
Into the same illusion, not as man
Whom they triumph'd once laps'd. Thus were they And worn with famine, long and ceaseless hiss, Till their lost shape, permitted, they resum'd, Yearly injoin'd, some say, to undergo
This annual humbling certain number'd days, To dash their pride, and joy for man seduc'd. However some tradition they dispers'd Among the Heathen of their purchase got, And fabled how the serpent, whom they call'd Ophion with Eurynome, the wide Encroaching Eve perhaps, had first the rule Of high Olympus, thence by Saturn driven And Ops, ere yet Dictæan Jove was born.
Mean while in Paradise the hellish pair Too soon arriv'd, Sin there in power before, Once actual, now in body, and to dwell Habitual habitant; behind her Death Close following pace for pace, not mounted yet On his pale horse: to whom Sin thus began:
Second of Satan sprung, all conqu'ring Death, What think'st thou of our empire now, though earn'd With travel difficult, not better far
Than still at Hell's dark thre hold to' have sat watch Unnam'd, undreaded, and thyself half starv'd?
Whom thus the sin-born monster answer'd soon:
To me, Alike is Hell, or Paradise, or Heav'n,
who with eternal famine pine,
There best, where most with ravin I may meet; Which here, though plenteous, all too little seems To stuff this maw, this vast unhide-bound corps. 6or To whom th' incestuous mother thus reply'd:
Thou therefore on these herbs, and fruits, and flowers Feed first, on each beast next, and fish and fowl, No homely morsels; and whatever thing
The scithe of Time mows down, devour unspar'd;
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, 619 Both to destroy, or unimmortal 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 utter'd thus his voice :- See with what heat these dogs of Hell advance To waste and havock 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 quitted all, At random yielded up to their misrule;
And know not that I call'd and drew them thither My hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth Which man's polluting sin with taint hath shed On what was pure, till cramm'd and gorg'd, nigh burst With suck'd and glutted offal, at one sling
Of thy victorious arm, well-pleasing Son, Both Sin and Death, and yawning Grave at last, Through Chaos hurl'd, obstruct the mouth of Hell For ever, and seal up his ravenous jaws.
Then Heav'n and Earth renew'd shall be made pure To sanctity that shall receive no stain:
Till then the curse pronounc'd on both precedes. 640 He ended, and the heav'nly audience loud Sung halleluiah, as the sound of seas, Through multitude that sung: Just are thy ways, Righteous are thy decrees on all thy works; Who can extenuate thee? Next, to the Son, Destin'd 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 e. rth 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 blanc moon Her office they prescrib'd, to th' other five Their planetary motions and a. pécts
In sextile, square, and trine, and opposite Of noxious efficacy, and when to join
In synod unbenign; and taught the fix'd Their influence malignant when to shower, 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 aereal hall. Some say he bid his Angels turn askance The poles of earth twice ten degrees and more From the sun's axle, they with labour push'd Oblique the centric globe; some say the sun Was bid turn reins from th'equinoctial read Like distant breadth to Taurus with the seven Atlantic Sisters, and the Spartan Twins Up to the Tropic Crab ; thence down amain By Leo and the Virgin and the Scales, As deep as Capricorn, to bring in change Of seasons to each clime; else had the spring Perpetual smil'd on earth with vernant flowers, Equal in days and nights, except to those Beyond the polar circles; to them day Had unbenighted shone, while the low sun To recompense his distance, in their sight Had rounded still th' horizon, and not known Or east or west, which had forbid the snow From cold Estotiland, and south as far Beneath Magellan. At that tasted fruit The sun, as from Thyéstean banquet turn'd
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