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 Highest; for which both thou
And they, outcast from GOD, are here condemn'd
To waste eternal days in woe and pain?

695

700

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 thee more,
Thy king and lord? Back to thy punishment,
False fugitive, and to thy speed add wings,
Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue
Thy ling'ring, or with one stroke of this dart
Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before.
So spake the griesly terror, and in shape,
So speaking and so threat'ning, grew tenfold
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 Ophiucus huge
In th' arctic sky, and from his horrid hair

692 Drew]

'He boldly drew millions of souls.'

See Beaumont's Psyche, c. xv. st. 296.

093 Conjur❜d] Virg. Geo. i. 280.

708

'Et conjuratos cœlum rescindere fratres.' Hume.

705

710

comet] See Virg. Æn. x. 272. Tasso G. L. i. vii. 52.

Newton.

first in

700 Ophiucus] See Sir F. Bacon's Astronomy. And such comets have more than once appeared in our time; Cassiopeia, and again in Ophiuchus.'

710 horrid hair] See Plin. N. Hist. lib. ii. c. 22.

"Co

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 715 Over the Caspian; then stand front to front Hov'ring a space, till winds the signal blow To join their 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 atchiev'd, whereof all hell had rung, Had not the snaky sorceress that sat Fast by hell gate, and kept the fatal key, Ris'n, and with hideous outcry rush'd between. O father, what intends thy hand, she cry'd, Against thy only son? What fury, O son,

725

metas horrentes crine sanguineo.' See Nonni Dionys. xvii. 6. Sylvester's Du Bartas, p. 14.

'Then with long bloody hair, a blazing star
Threatens the world with famine, plague, and war,
To princes death, to kingdoms many crosse.'

711 Shakes] Mr. Dyce refers to Lucan. Phars. vi. 468.

Excussere comis.'

714 two black clouds] Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, b. i.

c. 16. st. 10. Thyer.

715 artillery] See Gayton's Chartæ Scriptæ, p. 20; (1645).

• The magazine of heaven here. Artillerie
Which oft in dreadful thunderings rend the skie.'

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

Whate'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 735
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,
What thing thou art, thus double-form'd, and why,
In this infernal vale first met, thou call'st
Me father, and that fantasm call'st my son :
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 eye 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

740

745

750

Surpriz'd thee, dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum
In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast
Threw forth, till on the left side op'ning wide, 755

746 the portress] P. Fletcher's Locusts, ed. 1627, p 34. 'The Porter to th' infernall gate is Sin. Tedd.

760

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 heav'n; 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 Thy self in me thy perfect image viewing Becam❜st enamour'd, and such joy thou took'st 765 With me in secret, that my womb conceiv'd A growing burthen. Mean while war arose, And fields were fought in heaven; wherein remain'd, For what could else? to our almighty foe Clear victory, to our part loss and rout Through all the empyrean: down they fell Driv'n headlong from the pitch of heav'n, 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 775 These gates for ever shut, which none can pass Without my op'ning. 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. 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

780

785

770

Forth issu'd, 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, 790
Inflam'd with lust than rage, and swifter far
Me overtook his mother all dismay'd,

And, in embraces forcible and foul

Ingend'ring with me, of that rape begot

These yelling monsters that with ceaseless cry 795 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 800
Afresh with conscious terrors vex ine round,
That rest or intermission none I find.
Before mine eyes in opposition sits

Grim death my son and foe, who sets them on,
And me his parent would full soon devour
r'or 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,

787 Made to destroy] See James i. 13. Bentl. MS.

794

805

810

rape begot] See Amadis de Gaul, vol. iii. lib. iii. c. 10. p. 183, ed. Southey.