Sublime with expectation when to see
In 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

540

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 the applause they

meant

Turned to exploding hiss, triumph to shame,

545

Cast on themselves from their own mouths. There

stood

A grove hard by, sprung up with this their change,
His will who reigus 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 risen, to work them further woe or shame;
Yet parched 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 locks
That curled Magæra: greedily they plucked
The fruitage, fair to sight like that which grew
Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flamed;

550

555

560

561. like that, like the fruit called Apple of Sodom, which resembles a smooth orange or yellow apple. It is fair to the sight, but contains only air and seeds within. It was formerly supposed to be filled with ashes.

562. that bituminous lake, the Dead Sea. where Sodom flamed. See Genesis xix. 24-28.

This, more delusive, not the touch, but taste
Deceived; they, fondly thinking to allay
Their appetite with gust, instead of fruit
Chewed bitter ashes, which the offended taste
With spattering noise rejected: oft they assayed,
Hunger and thirst constraining; drugged as oft,
With hatefullest disrelish writhed their jaws
With soot and cinders filled; so oft they fell
Into the same illusion, not as man

565

570

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 say, to undergo

This annual humbling certain numbered days
To dash their pride and joy for man seduced.
However, some tradition they dispersed
Among the heathen of their purchase got,
And fabled how the serpent, whom they called
Ophíon, with Eurynomè (the wide

Encroaching Eve perhaps), had first the rule
Of high Olympus, thence by Saturn driven
And Ops, ere yet Dictæan Jove was born.

Meanwhile in Paradise the hellish pair
Too soon arrived; Sin there in power before,
Once actual, now in body, and to dwell
Habitual habitant; behind her Death,

565. gust, pleasant taste. 569. writhed, they writhed. 572. triumphed, triumphed over. once lapsed, only once fallen.

576. certain numbered days, for a certain number of days.

579-584. Ophion was one of the Titans, who reigned, with Eurynome, over Olympus, till they were conquered by Saturn and

575

580

585

his wife Rhea, or Ops. Jupiter or Jove was called Dictæan from Dicte, a mountain in Crete, where he was brought up. The Greek name Eurynome means wideencroaching.

587. Once actual, having been there once in act, and therefore in power, though not in person, or in body.

Close following pace for pace, not mounted yet
On his pale horse; to whom Sin thus began:

590

"Second of Satan sprung, all-conquering Death, What think'st thou of our empire now, though earned

With travail difficult? not better far

Than still at Hell's dark threshold to have sat watch,

Unnamed, undreaded, and thyself half-starved?" 595

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 600 To stuff this maw, this vast unhide-bound corpse."

To whom the incestuous mother thus replied: "Thou therefore on these herbs and fruits and flow

ers

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, action, all infect,
And season him thy last and sweetest prey."

605

This said, they both betook them several ways, 610 Both to destroy, or unimmortal make

All kinds, and for destruction to mature

Sooner or later; which the Almighty seeing,

590. his pale horse. "And I looked, and behold, a pale horse; and his name that sat on him was Death." Revelation vi. 8.

593. not better, is it not better.

599. there best, there is it best. ravin, prey, rapine. 601. unhide-bound, capacious; not bound as with a close skin. corpse, body (of Death).

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 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 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

615

620

A place so heavenly, and conniving seem
To gratify my scornful enemies,

625

That laugh, as if transported with some fit
Of passion I to them had quitted all

At random yielded up to their misrule,

And knew not that I called and drew them thither, My hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth Which man's polluting sin with taint hath shed

630

On what was pure; till crammed and gorged, nigh burst,
With sucked and glutted offal, at one sling
Of thy victorious arm, 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.

635

Then heaven and earth renewed shall be made pure
To sanctity that shall receive no stain;
Till then the curse pronounced on both precedes."

He ended, and the heavenly audience loud Sung hallelujah, as the sound of seas,

Through multitude that sung:

618. had, should have.

"Just are thy ways,

639

642. hallelujah. The meaning

631. with taint, carrying with of this word is, "Praise ye the

it taint.

633. glutted, swallowed.

638. renewed. See 2 Peter lii. 13; also Book III. 333-338.

Lord."

643. Through, by reason of. Just are thy ways. See Revelation xv. 3.

Righteous are thy decrees on all thy works;
Who can extenuate thee? Next, to the Son,
Destined restorer of mankind, by whom
New heaven and earth shall to the ages rise,

645

Or down from Heaven 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 blanc moon
Her office they prescribed; to the other five
Their planetary motions and aspécts,

In sextile, square, and trine, and opposite
Of noxious efficacy, and when to join
In synod unbenign; and taught the fixed

650

655

660

644. Righteous. See Revela- third of the zodiac, or one huntion xvi. 7.

645. extenuate, diminish in honor; weaken in power.

648. descend. See Revelation xxi. 1, 2.

650. several charge, charge to each; office to be severally performed.

651. sorted with, fitted. 652. precept, command.

656. solstitial. When the sun is in the northern solstice, or point in the ecliptic at which it is farthest north from the equator, it is the height of summer to the northern hemisphere. blanc, white or pale.

657. the other five. See V. 177. 658-661. aspects, their situation with regard to each other. When in sextile, they are separated by one sixth of the zodiac, or sixty degrees; when in square, by one fourth of the zodiac, or ninety degrees; in trine, by one

dred and twenty degrees. When they are in opposition, they are one hundred and eighty degrees from each other, or opposite. They are said to be in conjunction, or to join, when they meet in the same part of the zodiac.

660. Of noxious efficacy. The pretended science of astrology taught that the aspects of the planets influenced the destiny of human beings. If the aspect was opposite, their influence was unbenign, as often when they were in conjunction, or met in synod.

661-664, the fixed, the fixed stars. These, like the planets, were supposed to act upon events on earth, and to shower malignant influence, as also to affect the air, so as to cause tempestuous weather, either when they rose or set with the sun.