Whilom she was the daughter of Locrine,

My sliding chariot stays,
That had the sceptre from his father brute. Thick set with agate, and the azurn sheen
She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit Of turkis blue, and emerald green,
Of her enraged stepdame Guendolen,

830 That in the channel strays;
Commended her fair innocence to the flood, Whilst from off the waters fleet
That staid her flight with his cross-flowing course. Thus I set my printless feet
The water-nymphs, that in the bottom play'd, O'er the cowslip's velvet head,
Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in, That bends not as I tread ;
Bearing her straight to aged Nereus' hall; Gentle swain, at thy request,

900 Who, piteous of her woes, rear'd her lank head, I am here And gave her to his daughters to imbathe

Sp. Goddess dear,
In nectar'd lavers, strew'd with asphodel; We implore thy powerful hand
And through the porch and inlet of each sense To undo the charmed band
Dropt in ambrosial oils, till she reviv'd, 840 Of true virgin here distrest,
And underwent a quick immortal change, Through the force, and through the wile,
Made goddess of the river: still she retains Of unblest enchanter vile.
Her maiden gentleness, and oft at eve

Sabr. Shepherd, 'tis my office best
Visits the herds along the twilight meadows, To help ensnared chastity:
Helping all urchin blasts, and ill-luck signs Brightest lady, look on me:

910
That the shrewd meddling elfe delights to make, Thus I sprinkle on thy breast
Which she with precious vial'd liquors heals ; Drops, that from my fountain pure
For which the shepherds at their festivals I have kept, of precious cure;
Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays,

Thrice upon thy finger's tip
And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream Thrice upon thy rubied lip:
Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils. 851 Next this marble venom'd seat,
And, as the old swain said, she can unlock Smear'd with gums of glutinous heat,
The clasping charm, and thaw the numming spell, I touch with chaste palms moist and cold
If she be right invok'd in warbled song ;

Now the spell hath lost his hold;
For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift And I must haste, ere morning hour,

920 To aid a virgin, such as was herself,

To wait in Amphitrite's bower.
In hard-besetting need; this will I try,
And add the power of some adjuring verse.

Sabrina descends, and the Lady rises out of her seat
SONG
Sabrina fair,

Sp. Virgin, daughter of Locrine, Listen where thou art sitting

860

Sprung of old Anchises' line, Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave,

May thy brimmed waves for this

Their full tribute never miss
In twisted braids of lilies knitting
The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair;

From a thousand petty rills,
Listen for dear honor's sake,

That tumble down the snowy hills :

Summer drought, or singed air,
Goddess of the silver lake,
Listen, and save.

Never scorch thy tresses fair,
Nor wet October's torrent flood

930 Listen, and appear to us,

Thy molten crystal fill with mud; In name of great Oceanus;

May thy billows roll ashore By the Earth-shaking Neptune's mace,

The beryl and the golden ore; And Tethy's grave majestic pace,

870

May thy losty head be crown'd
By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look,
And the Carpathian wisard's book,

With many a tower and terraee round,

And here and there thy banks upon By scaly Triton's winding shell,

With groves of myrrh and cinnamon. And old soothsaying Glaucus' spell,

Come, lady, while Heaven lends us grace, By Leucothea's lovely hands,

Let us fly this cursed place, And her son that rules the strands,

Lest the sorcerer us entice

940 By Thetis' tinsel-slipper'd feet,

With some other new device. And the songs of Syrens sweet,

Not a waste or needless sound, By dead Parthenope's dear tomb,

Till we come to holier ground; And fair Ligea's golden comb,

880 Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks,

I shall be your faithful guide

Through this gloomy covert wide
Sleeking her soft alluring locks ;
By all the nymphs that nightly dance

And not many furlongs thence
Upon thy streams with wily glance,

Is your father's residence, Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head,

Where this night are met in state

Many a friend to gratulate From thy coral-paven bed,

950 And bridle in thy headlong wave,

His wish'd presence; and beside

All the swains, that there abide, Till thou our summons answer'd have.

Listen, and save.

With jigs and rural dance resort;

We shall catch them at their sport, SABRINA rises, attended by water-nymphs, and sings. Will double all their mirth and cheer :

And our sudden coming there By the rushy-fringed bank,

890 Come, let us haste, the stars grow high, Where grow's the willow, and the ozier dank, But night sits monarch yet in the mid sky.

29

PARADISE LOST.

And from thence can soar as soon The Scene changes, presenting Lwillow town and the To the corners of the Moon. president's castle ; then come in country dancers,

Mortals that would follow me, after them the Attendant Spirit, with the two Love Virtub; she alone is free: Brothers, and the Lady.

She can teach ye how to climb

1020 SONG.

Higher than the sphery chime;
Spir. Back, shepherds, back; enough your play. Heaven itself would stoop to her.

Or if Virtue feeble were,
Till next sun-shine holiday :
Here be, without duck or nod,

960
Other trippings to be trod
Of lighter wes, and such court guise
As Mercury did first devise,
With the mincing Dryades,

PARADISE LOST.
On the lawns and on the leas.

BOOK I.
This second Song presents them to their Father and

THE ARGUMENT.
Mother.

The first Book proposes, first in brief, the whole Noble lord, and lady bright,

subject, Man's disobedience, and the loss there. I have brought ye new delight; Here behold so goodly grown

upon of Paradise wherein he was placed: then

touches the prime cause of his fall, the Serpent, Three fair branches of your own;

or rather Satan in the serpent; who, revolting Heaven hath timely tried their youth,

970

from God, and drawing to his side many legions Their faith, their patience, and their truth, And sent them here through hard assays

of angels, was, by the command of God, driven

out of Heaven, with all his crew, into the great With a crown of deathless praise,

deep. Which action passed over, the poem hastens To triumph in victorious dance

into the midst of things, presenting Satan with his Der sensual Folly and Intemperance.

angels now falling into Hell described here, not

in the center (for Heaven and Earth may be supThe dances [being] ended, the Spirit epiloguizes.

posed as yet not made, certainly not yet accursed) Spir. To the ocean now I fly,

but in a place of utter darkness, fitliest called And those happy climes that lie

Chaos: here Satan with his angels lying on the Where day never shuts his eye,

burning lake, thunder-struck and astonished, after Up in the broad fields of the sky:

a certain space recovers, as from confusion, calls There I suck the liquid air

980 up him who next in order and dignity lay by him: All amidst the gardens fair

they confer of their miserable fall; Satan awakens of Hesperus, and his daughters three

all his legions, who lay till then in the same manThat sing about the golden tree :

ner confounded. They rise; their numbers ; Along the crisped shades and bowers

array of battle; their chief leaders named. accordRevels the spruce and jocund Spring ;

ing to the idols known afterwards in Canaan and The Graces, and the rosy-bosom’d Hours,

the countries adjoining. To these Satan directs Thither all their bounties bring ;

his speech, comforts them with hope yet of regainThere eternal Summer dwells,

ing Heaven, but tells them lastly of a new world And west-winds, with musky wing,

and new kind of creature to be created, according About the cedar'd alleys fling

to an ancient prophecy, or report in Heaven; for, Nard and cassia's balmy smells.

that angels were long before this visible creation, Iris there with humid bow

was the opinion of many ancient Fathers. To Waters the odorous banks, that blow

find out the truth of this prophecy, and what to Flowers of more mingled hue

determine thereon, he refers to a full council. Than her purfled scarf can show;

What his associates thence attempt. PandemoAnd drenches with Elysian dew

nium, the palace of Satan, rises, suddenly built (List, mortals, if your ears be true)

out of the deep: the infernal peers there sit in Beds of hyacinth and roses,

council. Where young Adonis oft reposes, Waxing well of his deep wound

1000 OF Man's first disobedience, and the fruit In slumber soft, and on the ground

Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Sadly. sits the Assyrian queen:

Brought death into the world, and all our woe, But far above in spangled sheen

With loss of Eden, till one greater Man Celestial Cupid, her fam'd son, advanc'd,

Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
Ilolds his dear Psyche sweet entranc'd.

Sing, heavenly Muse, that on the secret top
After her wandering labors long,

Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
Till free consent the Gods among

That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed Make her his eternal bride,

In the beginning, how the Heavens and Earth
And from her fair unspotted side

Rose out of Chaos : Or, if Sion hill
Two blissful twins are to be born,

1010 Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flow'd Youth and Joy: so Jove hath sworn.

Fast by the oracle of God; I thence
But now my task is smoothly done,

Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song,
I can fly, or I can run,

That with no middle flight intends to soar
Quickly to the green earth's end,

Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues
Where the how'd welkin slow doth bend ; | Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme

D

990

And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer Cloth'd with transcendent brightness, didst outshire
Before all temples the upright heart and pure, Myriads though bright! If he whom mutual league,
Instruct me, for thou know'st; thou from the first United thoughts and counsels, equal hope
Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread, And hazard in the glorious enterprise,
Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast abyss, Join'd with me once, now misery hath join'd
And mad'st it pregnant : what in me is dark In equal ruin: into what pit thou seest
Illumine; what is low, raise and support;

From what height fall'n, so much the stronger provid That to the height of this great argument

He with his thunder: and till then who knew I may assert eternal Providence,

The force of those dire arms? Yet not for those, And justify the ways of God to men.

Nor what the potent Victor in his roge Say first, for Heaven hides nothing from thy view, Can else inflict, do I repent or change, Nor the deep tract of Hell; say first, what cause Though chang'd in outward lustre, that fix'd mind, Mov'd our grand parents, in that happy state, And high disdain from sense of injur'd merit, Favor'd of Heaven so highly, to fall off

That with the Mightiest rais'd me to contend, From their Creator, and transgress his will And to the fierce contention brought along For one restraint, lords of the world besides ? Innumerable force of spirits arm’d, Who first seluced them to that foul revolt? That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring, The infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile, His utmost power with adverse power opposd Stirr'd up with envy and revenge, deceivd In dubious baitle on the plains of Heaven, The mother of mankind, what time his pride And shook his throne. What though the field be Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host

lost? Of rebel angels; by whose aid, aspiring

All is not lost; the unconquerable will, To set himself in glory above his peers,

And study of revenge, immortal hate. He trusted to have equall’d the Most High, And courage never to submit or yield, If he oppos'd ; and, with ambitious aim

And what is else not to be overcome; Against the throne and monarchy of God, That glory never shall his wrath or might Rais'd impious war in Heaven, and battle proud, Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace With vain attempt. Him the Almighty power, With suppliant knee, and deisy his power Hurld headlong flaming from the ethereal sky, Who from the terror of this arm so late With hideous ruin and combustion, down

Doubted his empire; that were low indeed, To bottomless perdition ; there to dwell

That were an ignominy, and shame beneath In adamantine chains and penal fire,

This downfall: since by fate the strengih of guls Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms.

And this empyreal substance cannot fail, Nine times the space that measures day and night Since through experience of this great event To mortal men, he with his horrid crew

In arms not worse, in foresight much advancd, Lay vanquish'd, rolling in the fiery gulf,

We may with more successful hope resolve
Confounded, though immortal : but his doom To wage by force or guile eternal war,
Reserv'd him to more wrath! for now the thought Irreconcilable to our grand foe,
Both of lost happiness and lasting pain

Who now triumphs, and, in the excess of joy
Torments him: round he throws his baleful eyes, Sole reigning, holds the tyranny of Heaven.”
That witnessed huge affliction and dismay,

So spake the apostate angel, though in pain, Mix'd with obdurate pride and stedfast hate ; Vaunting aloud, but rack'd with deep despair: At once, as far as angels' ken, he views

And him thus answer'd soon his boid compeer The dismal situation, waste and wild ;

“O prince, O chief of many throned powers, A dungeon horrible on all sides round,

That led the embattled seraphim to war As one great furnace flam'd; yet from those flames Under thy conduct, and, in dreadful deeds No light; but rather darkness visible

Fearless, endanger'd Heaven's perpetual kingServ'd only to discover sights of wo,

And put to proof his high supremacy, Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fale And rest can never dwell; hope never comes, Too well I sce, and rue the dire event, That comes to all : but torture without end That with sad overthrow, and foul defeat, Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed

Hath lost us Heaven, and all this mighty host With ever-burning sulphur unconsum'd:

In horrible destruction laid thus low,
Such place eternal Justice had prepar'd

As far as gods and heavenly essences
For those rebellious; here their prison ordain'd Can perish: for the mind and spirit remains
In utter darkness, and their portion set

Invincible, and vigor soon returns,
As far remov'd from God and light of Heaven, Though all our glory extinct, and happy state
As from the centre thrice to the utmost pole. Here swallow'd up in endless misery.
O, how unlike the place from whence they fell! But what if he our conqueror (whom I now
There the companions of his fall, o'erwhelm'd Of force believe almighty, since no less
With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire, Than such could have o'erpower'd such force as ours,
He soon discerns; and weltering by his side Have left us this our spirit and strength entire
One next himself in power, and next in crime, Strongly to suffer and support our pains,
Long after known in Palestine, and nam'd That we may so suffice his vengeful ire,
Beelzebub. To whom the arch-enemy,

Or do him mightier service as his thralls And thence in Heaven called Satan, with bold words By right of war, whate'er his business be, Breaking the horrid silence, thus began.

llere in the heart of Hell to work in fire, " If thou beest he; but O, how fall’n! how Or do his errands in the gloomy deep; chang'd

What can it then avail, though yet we feel From him, who in the happy realms of light, | Strength undiminish'd, or eternal being

To undergo eternal punishment ?"

In billows, leave i' the midst a horrid vale. Whereto with speedy words the arch-fiend replied, Then with expanded wings he sieers his flight

“Fall'n cherub, to be weak is miserable Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air Doing or suffering; but of this be sure,

That felt unusual weight; till on dry land To do aught good never will be our task, He lights, if it were land that ever lurn'd But ever to do ill our sole delight,

With solid, as the lake with liquid fire; As being the contrary to his high will

And such appear'd in hue, as when the force Whom we resist. If then his providence Of subterranean wind transports a hill Out of our evil seek to bring forth good,

Torn from Pelorus, or the shatter'd side Our labor must be to pervert that end,

of thundering Ætna, whose combustible And out of good still to find means of evil; And fuellid entrails thence conceiving fire, Which oft-times may succeed, so as perhaps Sublim'd with mineral fury, aid the winds, Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb And leave a singed bottom all involv'd His inmost counsels from their destin'd aim. With stench and smoke: such resting found the But see, the angry victor hath recall'd

sole His ministers of vengeance and pursuit

of unblest feet. Him follow'd his next mate: Back to the gates of Heaven: the sulphurous hail, Both glorying to have 'scap'd the Stygian flood Shot after us in storm, o'erblown, hath laid As gods, and by their own recover'd strength, The fiery surge, that from the precipice Not by the sufferance of supernal Power. Of Heaven receiv'd us falling; and the thunder, “ Is this the region, this the soil, the clime," Wing'd with red lightning and impetuous rage, Said then the lost arch-angel, “this the seat Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now That we must change for Heaven: this mournful To bellow through the vast and boundless deep.

gloom Let us not slip the occasion, whether scorn, For that celestial light? Be it so, since he, Or satiate fury, yield it from our foe.

Who now is Sovran, can dispose and bid Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild, What shall be right: farthest from him is best, The seat of desolation, void of light,

Whom reason hath equall'd, force hath made suSave what the glimmering of these livid flames

preme Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend Above his equals. Farewell, happy fields, From off the tossing of these fiery waves ; Where joy for ever dwells. Hail horrors, hail There rest, if any rest can harbor there;

Infernal world, and thou, profoundest Hell, And reassembling our amicted powers,

Receive thy new possessor, one who brings Consult how we may henceforth most offend A mind not to be chang'd by place or time: Our enemy; our own loss how repair;

The mind is its own place, and in itself How overcome this dire calamity ;

Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. What reinforcement we may gain from hope;

What matter where, if I be still the same If not, what resolution from despair."

And what I should be, all but less than he Thus Satan, talking to his nearest mate, Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least With head uplist above the wave, and eyes We shall be free; the Almighty hath not built That sparkling blaz'd; his other parts besides, Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: Prone on the flood, extended long and large, Here we may reign secure, and, in my choice, Lay floating many a rood ; in bulk as huge To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell: As whom the fables name of monstrous size, Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven. Titanian, or Earth-born, that warr'd on Jove; But wherefore let we then our faithful friends, Briareos or Typhon, whom the den

The associates and copartners of our loss, By ancient Tarsus held; or that sea-beast Lie thus astonish'd on the oblivious pool, Leviathan, which God of all his works

And call them not to share with us their part Created hugest that swim the ocean stream: In this unhappy mansion; or once more Him haply slumbering on the Norway foam With rallied arms to try what may he yet The pilot of some small night-founder'd skiff Regain'd in Heaven, or what more lost in Hell ?" Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell,

So Satan spake, and him Beelzebub With fixed anchor in his scaly rind

Thus answer'd; “ Leader of those armies bright, Moors by his side under the lee, while night Which but the Omnipotent none could have foil'd, Invests the sea, and wished morn delays : If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge So stretch'd out huge in length the arch-fiend lay of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft Chain'd on the burning lake: nor ever thence In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge Had ris'n or heav'd his head; but that the will Of battle when it rag'd, in all assaults And high permission of all-ruling Heaven Their surest signal, they will soon resume Left him at large to his own dark designs ; New courage and revive; though now they lie That with reiterated crimes he might

Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire, HIeap on himself damnation, while he sought As we erewhile, astounded and amaz'd; Evil to others; and, enrag'd, might see

No wonder, fall'n such a pernicious highth." Ilow all his malice servid but to bring forth

He scarce had ceas'd when the superior fiend Infinite goodness, grace and mercy, shown Was moving toward the shore: his ponderous On Man by him seduc'd; but on himself

shield, Treble confusion, wrath and vengeance pour'd. Ethereal temper, massy, large and round, Forth with upright he rears froin off the pool Behind him cast; the broad circumference His mighty stature; on mach hand the flames, Hung on his shoulders like the Moon, whose orb Driven backward, slope ww.eir pointing spires, and Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views rollid

At evening from the top of Fesolé

man,

Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands,

Their great commander; godlike shapes and forms Rivers or mountains in her spotty globe.

Excelling human, princely dignities,
His spear, to equal which the tallest pine

And powers that erst in Heaven sat on thrones,
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast Though of their names in heavenly records now
Of some great ammiral, were but a wand, Be no memorial; blotted out and ras'd
He walk'd with, to support uneasy steps

By their rebellion from the books of life.
Over the burning marle, not like those steps Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve
On Heaven's azure, and the torrid clime Got them new names, till, wandering o'er the
Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire :

Earth,
Nathless he so endur'd, till on the beach Through God's high sufferance for the trial of
Of that inflamed sea he stood, and callid
His legions, angel forms, who lay intranc'd By falsities and lies the greatest part
Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks Of mankind they corrupted to forsake
In Vallombrosa, where the Etrurian shades, God their Creator, and th' invisible
High over-arch’d, imbower; or scatter'd sedge Glory of him that made them to transform
Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion arm'd Oft to the image of a brute, adorn'd
Hath vex'd the Red-Sea coast, whose waves o'er- With gay religions full of pomp and gold,
threw

And devils to adore for deities :
Busiris, and his Memphian chivalry,

Then were they known to men by various names, While with perfidious hatred they pursued And various idols through the Heathen world. The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld

Say, Muse, their names then known, who first,
From the safe shore their floating carcasses

who last,
And broken chariot wheels : so thick bestrown, Rous'd from the slumber, on that fiery couch,
Abject and lost lay these, covering the food, At their great emperor's call, as next in worth
Under amazement of their hideous change. Came singly where he stood on the bare strand,
He call'd so loud, that all the hollow deep While the promiscuous cloud stood yet aloof.
Of Hell resounded. “Princes, potentates, The chief were those, who, from the pit of Hell
Warriors, the flower of Heaven, once yours, now Roaming to seek their prey on Earth, durst fix
lost,

Their seats long after next the seat of God.
If such astonishment as this can seize

Their altars by his altar, gods ador'd Eternal spirits ; or have ye chos’n this place Among the nations round, and durst abide After the toil of battle to repose

Jehovah thund'ring out of Sion, thron'd Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find Between the cherubim; yea. often plac'd To slumber here, as in the vales of Heaven? Within his sanctuary itself their shrines, Or in this abject posture have ye sworn Abominations; and with cursed things T'adore the Conqueror ? who now beholds His holy rites and solemn feasts profan’d, Cherub and seraph rolling in the flood

And with their darkness durst affront his light. With scatter'd arms and ensigns, till anon First Moloch, horrid king, besmear'd with blood His swift pursuers from Heaven-gates discern Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears ; Th’advantage, and, descending, tread us down Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts Their children's cries unheard, that pass'd through Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf,

fire
Awake, arise, or be for ever fallin." [sprung To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite

They heard, and were abas'd, and up they Worshipt in Rabba and her watry plain,
Upon the wing; as when men wont to watch In Argob and in Basan, to the stream
On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread, Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such
Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake; Audacious neighborhood, the wisest heart
Nor did they not perceive the evil plight Of Solomon he led by fraud to build
In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel; His temple right against the temple of God,
Yet to their general's voice they soon obey On that opprobrious hill; and made his grove
Innumerable. As when the potent rod The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence
Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day,

And black Gehenna call’d, the type of Hell.
Wav'd round the coast, up call'd a pitchy cloud Next, Chemos, th' obscene dread of Moab's sons,
Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind, From Aroer to Nebo, and the wild
That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung Of southmost A barim ; in Hesebon
Like night, and darken'd all the land of Nile: And Horonaim, Seon's realm, beyond
So numberless were those bad angels seen The flowery dale of Sibma clad with vines,
Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell, And Eleälé to th’ Asphaltic pool.
Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires, Peor his other name, when he entic'd
Till, as a signal given, the uplifted spear Israel in Sittim, on their march from Nile,
Of their great Sultan waving to direct

To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe.
Their course, in even balance down they light Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarg'd
On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain. Even to that hill of scandal, by the grove
A multitude, like which the populous North Of Moloch homicide ; lust hard by hate ;
Pour'd never from her frozen loins, to pass Till good Josiah drove them thence to Hell.
Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarons sons With these came they, who, from the bord'ring
Came like a deluge on the South, and spread

flood Beneath Gibraltar to the Lybian sands.

of old Euphrates to the brook that parts Forth with from every squadron and each band Egypt frorn Syrian ground, had general names The heads and leaders thither haste where stood lof Baalim and Ashtaroth; those male,