rowle With terror through the dark Aereal Hall Some say he bid his Angels turne ascanse The Poles of Earth twice ten degrees and more From the Suns Axle they with labour push'd Oblique the Centric Globe Som say the Sun Was bid turn Reines from th' Equinoctial Rode Like distant breadth to Taurus with the Seav'n Atlantick Sisters and the Spartan Twins Up to the Tropic Crab thence down amaine By Leo and the Virgin and the Scales A deep as Capricorne to bring in change Of Seasons to each Clime else had the Spring Perpetual smil'd on Earth with vernant Flours Equal in Days and Nights except to those Beyond the Polar Circles to them Day Had unbenighted shon while the low Sun To recompence his distance in thir sight Had rounded still th' Horizon and not known Or East or West which had forbid the Snow From cold Estotiland and South as farr Beneath Magellan At that tasted Fruit The Sun as from Thyestean Banquet turn'd His course intended else how had the World Inhabited though sinless more then now Avoided pinching cold and scorching heate These changes in the Heav'ns though slow produc'd Like change on Sea and Land sideral blast Vapour and Mist and Exhalation hot Corrupt and Pestilent Now from the North Of Normbega and the Samoed shoar Bursting thir brazen Dungeon armd with ice And snow and haile and stormie gust and flaw Boreas and Caecias and Argestes loud And Thrascias rend the Woods and Seas upturn With adverse blast up-turns them from the South Notus and Afer black with thundrous Clouds From Serraliona thwart of these as fierce Forth rush the Levant and the Ponent Windes Eurus and Zephir with thir lateral noise Sirocco and Libecchio Thus began Outrage from liveless things but Discord first Daughter of Sin among th' irrational Death introduc'd through fierce antipathie Beast now with Bead gan war and Fowle with Fowle And Fish with Fish to graze the Herb all leaving Devourd each other nor stood much in awe Of Man but fled him or with count'nance grim Glar'd on him passing these were from without The growing miseries which Adam saw Alreadie in part though hid in gloomiest shade To sorrow abandond but worse felt within And in a troubl'd Sea of passion tost Thus to disburd'n sought with sad complaint O miserable of happie is this the end Of this new glorious World and mee so late The Glory of that Glory who now becom Accurst of blessed hide me from the face Of God whom to behold was then my highth Of happiness yet well if here would end The miserie I deserv'd it and would beare My own deservings but this will nor serve All that I eat or drink or shall beget Is propagated curse O voice once heard Delightfully Encrease and multiply Now death to heare for what can I encrease Or multiplie but curses on my head Who of all Ages to succeed but feeling The evil on him brought by me will curse My Head Ill fare our Ancestor impure For this we may thank Adam but his thanks Shall be the execration so besides Mine own that bide upon me all from mee Shall with a fierce reflux on mee redound On mee as on thir natural center light Heavie though in thir place O fleeting joyes Of Paradise deare bought with lasting woes Did I request thee Maker from my Clay To mould me Man did I sollicite thee From darkness to promote me or here place In this delicious Garden as my Will Concurd not to my being it were but right And equal to reduce me to my dust Desirous to resigne and render back All I receav'd unable to performe Thy terms too hard by which I was to hold The good I sought not To the loss of that Sufficient penaltie why hast thou added The sense of endless woes inexplicable Thy Justice seems yet to say truth too late I thus contest then should have been refusd Those terms whatever when they were propos'd Thou didst accept them wilt thou enjoy the good Then cavil the conditions and though God Made thee without thy leave what if thy Son Prove disobedient and reprov'd retort Wherefore didst thou beget me I sought it not Wouldst thou admit for his contempt of thee That proud excuse yet him not thy election But Natural necessity begot God made thee of choice his own and of his own To serve him thy reward was of his grace Thy punishment then justly is at his Will Be it so for I submit his doom is fair That dust I am and shall to dust returne O welcom hour whenever why delayes His hand to execute what his Decree Fixd on this day why do I overlive Why am I mockt with death and length'nd out To deathless pain how gladly would I meet Mortalitie my sentence and be Earth Insensible how glad would lay me down As in my Mothers lap there I should test And sleep secure his dreadful voice no more Would Thunder in my ears no fear of worse To mee and to my ofspring would torment me With cruel expectation Yet one doubt Pursues me still least all I cannot die Least that pure breath of Life the Spirit of Man Which God inspir'd cannot together perish With this corporeal Clod then in the Grave Or in some other dismal place who knows But I shall die a living Death O thought Horrid if true yet why it was but breath Of Life that sinn'd what dies but what had life And sin the Bodie properly hath neither All of me then shall die let this appease The doubt since humane reach no further knows For though the Lord of all be infinite Is his wrauth also be it man is not so But mortal doom'd How can he exercise Wrath without end on Man whom Death must end Can he make deathless Death that were to make Strange contradiction which to God himself Impossible is held as Argument Of weakness not of Power Will he draw out For angers sake finite to infinite In punisht man to satisfie his rigour Satisfi'd never that were to extend His Sentence beyond dust and Natures Law By which all Causes else according still To the reception of thir matter act Not to th' extent of thir own Spheare But say That Death be not one stroak as I suppos'd Bereaving sense but endless miserie From this day onward which I feel begun Both in me and without me and so last To perpetuitie Ay me that fear Comes thundring back with dreadful revolution On my defensless head both Death and I Am sound Eternal and incorporate both Nor I on my part single in mee all Posteritie stands curst Fair Patrimonie That I must leave ye Sons O were I able To waste it all my self and leave ye none So disinherited how would ye bless Me now your curse Ah why should all mankind For one mans fault thus guiltless be condemn'd If guiltless But from me what can proceed But all corrupt both Mind and Will deprav'd Not to do onely but to will the same
innumerable tongues A dismal universal hiss the sound Of public scorn he wonderd but not long Had leasure wondring at himself now more His Visage drawn he felt to sharp and spare His Armes clung to his Ribs his Leggs entwining Each other till supplanted down he fell A monstrous Serpent on his Belly prone Reluctant but in vaine a greater power Now rul'd him punisht in the shape he sin'd According to his doom he would have spoke But hiss for hiss returnd with forked tongue To forked tongue for now were all transform'd 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 taile Scorpion and Asp and Amphisbaena dire Cerastes hornd Hydrus and Ellops drear And Dipsas not so thick swarm'd once the Soil Bedropt with blood of Gorgon or the Isle Ophiusa but still greatest hee the midst Now Dragon grown larger then whom the Sun Ingenderd in the Pythian Vale on slime Huge Python and his Power no less he seem'd Above the rest still to retain they all Him follow'd issuing forth to th' open Field Where all yet left of that revolted Rout Heav'n-fall'n in station stood or just array Sublime with expectation when to see In Triumph issuing forth thir glorious Chief They saw but other sight instead a crowd Of ugly Serpents horror on them fell And horrid sympathie for what they saw They felt themselvs now changing down thir arms Down fell both Spear and Shield down they as fast And the dire hiss renew'd and the dire form Catcht by Contagion like in punishment As in thir crime Thus was th' applause they meant Turnd to exploding hiss triumph to shame Cast on themselves from thir own mouths There stood A Grove hard by sprung up with this thir change His will who reigns above to aggravate Thir penance laden with Fruit like that Which grew in Paradise the bait of Eve Us'd by the Tempter on that prospect strange Thir earnest eyes they fix'd imagining For one forbidden Tree a multitude Now ris'n to work them furder woe or shame Yet parcht with scalding thurst and hunger fierce Though to delude them sent could not abstain But on thy rould in heaps and up the Trees Climbing sat thicker then the snakie locks That curld Megaera greedily they pluck'd The Frutage fair to sight like that which grew Neer that bituminous Lake where Sodom flam'd This more delusive not the touch but taste Deceav'd they fondly thinking to allay Thir appetite with gust instead of Fruit Chewd bitter Ashes which th' offended taste With spattering noise rejected oft they assayd Hunger and thirst constraining drugd as oft With hatefullest disrelish writh'd thir jaws With soot and cinders fill'd so oft they fell Into the same illusion not as Man Whom they triumph'd once lapst Thus were they plagu'd And worn with Famin long and ceasless hiss Till thir lost shape permitted they resum'd Yearly enjoynd some say to undergo This annual humbling certain number'd days To dash thir pride and joy for Man seduc't However some tradition they dispers'd Among the Heathen of thir purchase got And Fabl'd how the Serpent whom they calld Ophion with Eurynome the wide Encroaching Eve perhaps had first the rule Of high Olympus thence by Saturn driv'n And Ops ere yet Dictaen 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 conquering Death What thinkst thou of our Empire now though earnd With travail difficult not better farr Then stil at Hels dark threshold to have sate watch Unnam'd undreaded and thy self half starv'd Whom thus the Sin-born Monster answerd soon To mee who with eternal Famin 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 unhide-bound Corps To whom th' incestuous Mother thus repli'd Thou therefore on these Herbs and Fruits and Flours Feed first on each Beast next and Fish and Fowle No homely morsels and whatever thing The Sithe of Time mowes 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 wayes Both to destroy or unimmortal make All kinds and for destruction to mature Sooner or later which th' Almightie seeing From his transcendent Seat the Saints among To those bright Orders utterd thus his voice See with what heat these Dogs of Hell advance To waste and havoc 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 wastful Furies who impute Folly to mee 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 gratifie my scornful Enemieâ— 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 mans polluting Sin with taint hath shed On what was pure till cramm'd and gorg'd nigh burst With suckt and glutted offal at one sling Of thy victorious Arm well-pleasing Son Both Sin and Death and yawning Grave at last Through Chaos hurld obstruct the mouth of Hell For ever and seal up his ravenous Jawes Then Heav'n and Earth renewd shall be made pure To sanctitie that shall receive no staine Till then the Curse pronounc't on both precedes He ended and the heav'nly Audience loud Sung Halleluia 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 thir song While the Creator calling forth by name His mightie 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 tollerable and from the North to call Decrepit Winter from the South to bring Solstitial summers heat To the blanc Moone Her office they prescrib'd to th' other five Thir planetarie motions and aspects In Sextile Square and Trine and Opposite Of noxious efficacie and when to joyne In Synod unbenigne and taught the fixt Thir influence malignant when to showre Which of them rising with the Sun or falling Should prove tempestuous To the Winds they set Thir corners when with bluster to confound Sea Aire and Shoar the Thunder when to
degree of Life inducement strong To us as likely tasting to attaine Proportional ascent which cannot be But to be Gods or Angels Demi-gods Nor can I think that God Creator wise Though threatning will in earnest so destroy Us his prime Creatures dignifi'd so high Set over all his Works which in our Fall For us created needs with us must faile Dependent made so God shall uncreate Be frustrate do undo and labour loose Not well conceav'd of God who though his Power Creation could repeate yet would be loath Us to abolish least the Adversary Triumph and say Fickle their State whom God Most Favors who can please him long Mee first He ruind now Mankind whom will he next Matter of scorne not to be given the Foe However I with thee have fixt my Lot Certain to undergoe like doom if Death Consort with thee Death is to mee as Life So forcible within my heart I feel The Bond of Nature draw me to my owne My own in thee for what thou art is mine Our State cannot be severd we are one One Flesh to loose thee were to loose my self So Adam and thus Eve to him repli'd O glorious trial of exceeding Love Illustrious evidence example high I Ingaging me to emulate but short Of thy perfection how shall I attaine Adam from whose deare side I boast me sprung And gladly of our Union heare thee speak One Heart one Soul in both whereof good prooff This day affords declaring thee resolvd Rather then Death or aught then Death more dread Shall separate us linkt in Love so deare To undergoe with mee one Guilt one Crime If any be of tasting this fair Fruit Whole vertue for of good still good proceeds Direct or by occasion hath presented This happie trial of thy Love which else So eminently never had bin known Were it I thought Death menac't would ensue This my attempt I would sustain alone The worst and not perswade thee rather die Deserted then oblige thee with a fact Pernicious to thy Peace chiefly assur'd Remarkably so late of thy so true So faithful Love unequald but I feel Farr otherwise th' event not Death but Life Augmented op'nd Eyes new Hopes new Joyes Taste so Divine that what of sweet before Hath toucht my sense flat seems to this and harsh On my experience Adam freely taste And fear of Death deliver to the Windes So saying she embrac'd him and for joy Tenderly wept much won that he his Love Had so enobl'd as of choice to incurr Divine displeasure for her sake or Death In recompence for such compliance bad Such recompenâ—â— best merits from the bough She gave him of that fair enticing Fruit With liberal hand he scrupl'd not to eat Against his better knowledge not deceav'd But fondly overcome with Femal charm Earth trembl'd from her entrails as again In pangs and Nature gave a second groan Skie lowr'd and muttering Thunder som sad drops Wept at compleating of the mortal Sin Original while Adam took no thought Eating his fill nor Eve to iterate Her former trespass fear'd the more to soothe Him with her lov'd societie that now As with new Wine intoxicated both They swim in mirth and fansie that they feel Divinitie within them breeding wings Wherewith to scorne the Earth but that false Fruit Farr other operation first displaid Carnal desire enflaming hee on Eve Began to cast lascivious Eyes she him As wantonly repaid in Lust they burne Till Adam thus 'gan Eve to dalliance move Eve now I see thou art exact of taste And elegant of Sapience no small part Since to each meaning savour me apply And Palate call judicious I the praise Yeild thee so well this day thou hast purvey'd Much pleasure we have lost while we abstain'd From this delightful Fruit nor known till now True relish tasting if such pleasure be In things to us forbidden it might be wish'd For this one Tree had bin forbidden ten But come so well refresh't now let us play As mee is after such delicious Fare For never did thy Beautie since the dâ—y I saw thee first and wedded thee adorn'd With all perfections so enflame my sense With ardor to enjoy thee fairer now Then ever bountie of this vertuous Tree So said he and forbore not glance or toy Of amorous intent well understood Of Eve whose Eye darted contagious Fire Her hand he seis'd and to a shadie bank Thick overhead with verdant roof imbowr'd He led her nothing loath Flours were the Couch Pansies and Violets and Asphodel And Hyacinth Earths freshest softest lap There they thir fill of love and Loves disport Took largely of thir mutual guilt the Scale The solace of thir sin till dewie sleep Oppress'd them wearied with thir amorous play Soon as the force of that fallacious Fruit That with exhilerating vapour bland About thir spirits had plaid and inmost powers Made erre was now exhal'd and grosser sleep Bred of unkindly fumes with conscious dreams Encumberd now had left them up they rose As from unrest and each the other viewing Soon found thir Eyes how op'nd and thir minds How dark'nd innocence that as a veile Had shadow'd them from knowing ill was gon Just confidence and native righteousness And honour from about them naked left To guiltie shame hee cover'd but his Robe Uncover'd more so rose the Danite strong Herculean Samson from the Harlot-lap Of Philistean Dalilah and wak'd Shorn of his strength They destitute and bare Of all thir vertue silent and in face Confounded long they sate as struck'n mute Till Adam though not less then Eve abash't At length gave utterance to these words constraind O Eve in evil hour thou didst give eare To that false Worm of whomsoever taught To counterfet Mans voice true in our Fall False in our promis'd Rising since our Eyes Op'nd we find indeed and find we know Both Good and Evil Good lost and Evil got Bad Fruit of Knowledge if this be to know Which leaves us naked thus of Honour void Of Innocence of Faith of Puritie Our wonted Ornaments now soild and staind And in our Faces evident the signes Of foul concupiscence whence evil store Even shame the last of evils of the first Be sure then How shall I behold the face Henceforth of God or Angel earst with joy And rapture so oft beheld those heav'nly shapes Will dazle now this earthly with thir blaze Insufferably bright O might I here In solitude live savage in some glade Obscur'd where highest Woods impenetrable To Starr or Sun-light spread thir umbrage broad And brown as Evening Cover me ye Pines Ye Cedars with innumerable boughs Hide me where I may never see them more But let us now as in bad plight devise What best may from the present serve to hide The Parts of each for other that seem most To shame obnoxious and unseemliest seen Some Tree whose broad smooth Leaves together sowd And girded on our loyns may cover round Those middle parts that this new commer Shame There
time With joy And tidings fraught to Hell he now return'd And at the brink of Chaos neer the foot Of this new wondrous Pontifice unhop't Met who to meet him came his Ofspring dear Great joy was at thir meeting and at sight Of that stupendious Bridge his joy encreas'd Long hee admiring stood till Sin his faire Inchanting Daughter thus the silence broke O Parent these are thy magnific deeds Thy Trophies which thou view'st as not thine own Thou art thir Author and prime Architect For I no sooner in my Heart divin'd My Heart which by a secret harmonie Still moves with thine join'd in connexion sweet That thou on Earth hadst prosper'd 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 her bounds Nor this unvoyageable Gulf obscure Detain from following thy illustrious track Thou hast atchiev'd our libertie confin'd Within Hell Gates till now thou us impow'rd To fortifie thus farr and overlay With this portentous Bridge the dark Abyss Thine now is an this World thy vertue hath won What thy hands builded not thy Wisdom gain'd With odds what Warr hath lost and fully aveng'd Our foile in Heav'n here thou shalt Monarch reign There didst not there let him still Victor sway As Battel hath adjudg'd from this new World Retiring by his own doom alienated And henceforth Monarchie with thee divide Of all things parted by th' Empyreal bounds His Quadrature from thy Orbicular World Or trie thee now more dang'rous to his Throne Whom thus the Prince of Darkness answerd glad Fair Daughter and thou Son and Grandchild both High proof ye now have giv'n to be the Race Of Satan for I glorie in the name Antagonist of Heav'ns Almightie King Amply have merited of me of all Th' infernal Empire that so neer Heav'ns dore Triumphal with triumphal act have met Mine with this glorious Work and made one Realm Hell and this World one Realm one Continent Of easie thorough-fare Therefore while I Descend through Darkness on your Rode with ease To my associate Powers them to acquaint With these successes and with them rejoyce 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 Aire Chiefly on Man sole Lord of all declar'd Him first make sure your thrall and lastly kill My Substitutes I send ye and Create Plenipotent on Earth of matchless might Issuing from mee on your joynt vigor now My hold of this new Kingdom all depends Through Sin to Death expos'd by my exploit If your joynt power prevailes th' affaires of Hell No detriment need feare goe and be strong So saying he dismiss'd them they with speed Thir course through thickest Constellations held Spreading thir bane the blasted Starrs lookt wan And Planets Planet-strook real Eclips Then sufferd Th' other way Satan went down The Causey to Hell Gate on either side Disparted Chaos over built exclaimd And with rebounding surge the barrs assaild That scorn'd his indignation through the Gate Wide open and unguarded Satan pass'd And all about found desolate for those Appointed to sit there had left thir charge Flown to the upper World the rest were all Farr to the inland retir'd about the walls Of Pandaemonium Citie and proud seate Of Lucifer so by allusion calld Of that bright Starr to Satan paragond There kept thir Watch the Legions while the Grand In Council sate sollicitous what chance Might intercept thir Emperour sent so hee Departing gave command and they observ'd As when the Tartar from his Russian Foe By Astracan over the Snowie Plaines Retires or Bactriâ—â— Sophi from the hornes Of Turkish Crescent leaves all waste beyond The Realm of Aladule in his retreate To Tauris or Casbeen So these the late Heav'n-banisht Host left desert utmost Hell Many a dark League reduc't in careful Watch Round thir Metropolis and now expecting Each hour their great adventurer from the search Of Forrein Worlds he through the midst unmarkt In shew Plebeian Angel militant Of lowest order past and from the dore Of that Plutonian Hall invisible Ascended his high Throne which under state Of richest texture spred at th' upper end Was plac't in regal lustre Down a while He sate and round about him saw unseen At last as from a Cloud his fulgent head And shape Starr bright appeer'd or brighter clad With what permissive glory since his fall Was left him or false glitter All amaz'd At that so sudden blaze the Stygian throng Bent thir aspect and whom they wish'd beheld Thir mighty Chief returnd loud was th' acclaime Forth rush'd in haste the great consulting Peers Rais'd from thir Dark Divan and with like joy Congratulant approach'd him who with hand Silence and with these words attention won Thrones Dominations Princedoms Vertues Powers For in possession such not onely of right I call ye and declare ye now returnd Successful beyond hope to lead ye forth Triumphant out of this infernal Pit Abominable accurst the house of woe And Dungeon of our Tyrant Now possess As Lords a spacious World to our native Heaven Little inferiour by my adventure hard With peril great atchiev'd Long were to tell What I have don what sufferd with what paine Voyag'd th' unreal vast unbounded deep Of horrible confusion over which By Sin and Death a broad way now is pav'd To expedite your glorious march but I Toild out my uncouth passage forc't to ride Th' untraceable Abysse plung'd in the womb Of unoriginal Night and Chaos wilde That jealous of thir secrets fiercely oppos'd My journey strange with clamorous uproare Protesting Fate supreame thence how I found The new created World which same in Heav'n Long had foretold a Fabrick wonderful Of absolute perfection therein Man Plac't in a Paradise by our exile Made happie Him by fraud I have seduc'd 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 labour or allarme To range in and to dwell and over Man To rule as over all he should have rul'd True is mee also he hath judg'd or rather Mee not but the brute Serpent in whose shape Man I deceav'd that which to mee belongs Is enmity which he will put between Mee and Mankinde 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 Thir universal shout and high applause To fill his eare when contrary he hears On all sides from