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For each seem'd either; black it stood as night,
Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell,

And shook a dreadful dart; what seem'd his head,
The likeness of a kingly crown had on,

Satan was now at hand; and from his seat
The monster, moving onward, came as fast
With horrid strides; hell trembled as he strode.
Th' undaunted fiend what this might be admir'd;
Admir'd, not fear'd; God and his Son except,
Created thing nought valu'd he, nor shunn'd;
And with disdainful look thus first began:

Whence, and what art thou, execrable shape,
That dar'st, though grim and terrible, advance
Thy miscreated front athwart my way

To yonder gates? through them I mean to pass,
That be assur'd, without leave ask'd of thee:
Retire, or taste thy folly; and learn by proof,
Hell-born, not to contend with spirits of heav'n.
To whom the goblin, full of wrath, reply'd:
Art thou that traitor-angel, art thou he,

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?,
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 grisly 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,

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That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
In th'arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
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
Over the Caspian, then stand front to front,
Hovering 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 achiev'd, whereof all hell had rung,
Had not the snaky forceress 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!
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
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 phantasm 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 eyes 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

Surpris'd thee, dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum
In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast
Threw forth; still on the left side op'ning wide,
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
Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing,
Becam❜st enamour'd, and such joy thou took'st
With me in secret, that my womb conceiv'd
A growing burden. Meanwhile war arose,
And fields were fought in heav'n; wherein remain'd
(For what could else?) to our almighty foe
Clear victory; to our part loss and rout,
Through all the empyreau: down they fell,
Driv'n headlong from the pitch of heaven, down
Into this deep; and in the general fall

1 also; at which time this pow'rful key

Into my hand was giv'n, with charge to keep
These gates for ever shut, which none can pass
Without my opening. 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
Forth issu❜d, brandishing his fatal dart,

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Made to destroy: I tied, 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,
Inflam'd with lust than rage,) and swifter far,
Me overtook, his mother, all dismay'd,
And in embraces forcible and foul,
Engendering with me, of that rape begot
These yelling monsters, that with ceaseless cry
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
Afresh, with conscious terrors vex me 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
For want of other prey, but that he knows
His end with mine involv'd; and knows that I
Should prove a bitter inorsel, and his bane,
Whenever that shall be; so Fate pronounc❜d.
But thou, O father, I forewarn thee, shun
Ilis deadly arrow; neither vainly hope
To be invulnerable in those bright arms,
Though temper'd heav'nly, for that mortal dint,
Save he who reigns above, none can resist.
She finish'd; and the subtle fiend his lore

Soon learn'd, now milder, and thus answer'd smooth:
Dear Daughter, since thou claim'st me for thy sire,
And my fair son here shew'st me, the dear pledge
Of dalliance had with thee in heav'n, and joys
Then sweet, now sad to mention, through dire change
Befall'n us unforseen, unthought of; know
I come no enemy, but to set free

From out this dark and dismal house of pain
Both him and thee, and all the heav'nly host
Of spirits, that, in our just pretences arm'd,

Fell with us from on high: from them I go
This uncouth errand sole; and one for all
Myself expose, with lonely steps to tread

Th' unfounded deep, and through the void immense
To search with wand'ring quest a place foretold
Should be, and by concurring signs, ere now
Created, vast and round; a place of bliss
In the purlieus of heav'n, and therein plac'd
A race of upstart creatures, to supply
Perhaps our vacant room; though more remov'd
Lest heav'n, surcharg❜d with potent multitude,
Might hap to move new broils. Be this, or ought
Than this more secret now design'd, I haste

To know; and this once known, shall soon return,
And bring ye to the place where thou and Death
Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen
Wing silently the buxom air, imbalm'd

With odours; there ye shall be fed and fill'd
Immeasurably, all things shall be your prey.

He ceas'd, for both seem'd highly pleas'd, and Death
Grinn'd horrible a ghastly smile, to hear
His famine should be fill'd; and blest his maw
Destin'd to that good hour: no less rejoic'd
His mother bad, and thus bespake her sire:
The key of this infernal pit by due,

And by command of heav'n's all-pow'rful King,
I keep, by him forbidden to unlock

These adamantine gates; against all force
Death ready stands to interpose his dart,
Fearless to be o'ermatch'd by living might.
But what owe I to his commands above
Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me down
Into this gloom of Tartarus profound,

To sit in hateful office here confin'd,

Inhabitant of heay'n, and heav'nly born,

Here in perpetual agony and pain,

With terrors and with clamours compass'd round, Of mine own brood, that on my bowels feed? Thou art my father, thou my author, thou

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