Me not, but the brute ferpent, in whofe Man I deceiv'd, that which to me belongs, head. A world who would not purchase with a bruife, 500 Or much more grievous pain? Ye have th' account Of my performance: What remains, ye Gods, But up and enter now into full blifs? So having faid, a while he stood, expecting Their univerfal fhout and high applaufe, 505 To fill his ear: when contrary, he hears On all fides, from innumerable tongues, A difmal univerfal hifs, the found Of public fcorn: he wonder'd, but not long Had leifure, wond'ring at himself now His vilage drawn he felt to sharp and spare; finn'd 515 According to his doom. He would have spoke, But hifs for his return'd with forked tongue, To forked tongue; for now were all transform'd Alike, to ferpents all as accellories To his bold riot: dreadful was the din -520 Of hiffing through the hall, thick fwarming now With complicated monsters head and tail, Bedropt with blood of Gorgon; or the ifle fun 530 Ingender'd in the Pythian vale on fiime, Him follow'd, iffuing forth to th' open field, Turn'd to exploding hiss, triumph to shame Cast on themselves from their own mouths. There stood A grove hard by, fprung up with this their His will who reigns above, to aggravate Their penance, laden with fair fruit, like that 550 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: 555 Yet parch'd with scalding thirst and hunger fierce, 1 Though to delude them fent, could not ab ftain, But on they roll'd in heaps, and up the trees Climbing, fat thicker than the fnaky locks That curl'd Megaera; greedily they pluck'd 560 The fruitage fair to fight, like that which grew Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flam'd; This, more delufive, not the touch, but tafte Deceiv'd they fondly thinking to allay . Their appetite with guft, instead of fruit 565 Chew'd bitter afhes, which th' offended taste With fpattering noile rejected: oft they allay'd, Hunger and thirst constraining; drug'd as oft With hatefulleft difrelifh, writh'd their jaws With foot and cinders fill'd so oft they 570 fell Into the fame illufion; not as man, they plagu'd And worn with famine, long and ceaseless hifs, 575 Till their loft fhape, permitted, they refum'd: Ophion with Eurynome, the wide Mean while in Paradise the hellish pair 585 Too foon arriv'd, Sin, there in pow'r before, Once actual'; now in body, and to dwell Habitual habitant; behind her Death, Clofe following pace for pace, not mounted yet, On his pale horse: to whom Sin thus began. 590 Second of Satan fprung, all conquering Death, What think'st thou of our empire now? Tho' earn'd With travel difficult, not better far Than ftill at Hell's dark threshold t' have fat To me, who with eternal famine pine, Alike, is Hell, or Paradife, or Heav'n; There beft, where most with ravin I may meet: Which here, tho' plenteous, all too little To ftuff this maw, feems, 600 this vaft unhide - bound corps. 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; 1 |