To range in and to dwell, and over man
To rule, as over all he should have rul'd.
True is, me alfo he hath judg'd, or rather
Me not, but the brute ferpent in whose shape
Man I deceav'd: that which to me belongs,
Is enmity, which he will put between
Me and mankind; I am to bruise his heel;
His feed, when is not fet, fhall bruise my head :
A world who would not purchase with a bruife,
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 universal shout and high applause
To fill his ear, when contrary he hears
On all fides, from innumerable tongues.
A dismal univerfal hifs, the found

Of public fcorn; he wonder'd, but not long
Had leafure, wondring at himself now more;
His vifage drawn he felt to fharp and spare,
His arms clung to his ribs, his legs entwining
Each other, till fupplanted down he fell
A monftrous ferpent on his belly prone,
Reluctant, but in vain, a greater power
Now rul'd him, punisht in the shape he fin'd,
According to his doom: he would have spoke,
But hifs for hifs return'd with forked tongue
To forked tongue, for now. were all transform'd
Alike, to ferpents all as acceffories

To his bold riot: dreadful was the din

Of hiffing through the hall, thick fwarming now

With complicated monsters head and tail,
Scorpion and asp, and Amphisbæna dire,
Ceraftes horn'd, Hydrus, and Ellops drear,
And Dipfas (not fo thick fwarm'd once the foil
Bedropt with blood of Gorgon, or the isle
Ophiufa) but still greatest he the midst,

Now dragon grown, larger than whom the fun
Ingender'd in the Pythian vale on flime,
Huge Python, and his power no less he seem'd
Above the reft ftill to retain; they all
Him follow'd iffuing forth to th`open field,
Where all yet left of that revolted rout
Heav'n-fall'n, in station stood or just array,
Sublime with expectation when to fee
In triumph issuing forth their glorious chief;
They faw, but other fight instead, a crowd
Of ugly ferpents; horror on them fell,
And horrid fympathie; for what they faw,

They felt themselves now changing; down their arms,
Down fell both spear and shield, down they as fast,
And the dire hifs renew'd, and the dire form
Catcht by contagion, like in punishment,

As in their crime. Thus was th'applause they meant,
Turn'd to exploding hiss, triumph to shame

Caft on themselves from their own mouths. There stood
A grove hard by, fprung up with this their change,
His will who reigns above, to aggravate

Their penance, laden with fruit, like that
Which grew in Paradife, 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;
Yet parcht with scalding thirst and hunger fierce,
Though to delude them fent, could not abstain,
But on they roul'd in heaps, and up the trees
Climbing, fat thicker than the fnakie locks
That curl'd Megara: greedily they pluck'd
The frutage fair to fight, like that which grew
Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flam'd;
This more delufive, not the touch, but taste
Deceav'd; they fondly thinking to allay
Their appetite with guft, instead of fruit
Chew'd bitter afhes, which th'offended taste
With fpattering noife rejected: oft they affay'd,
Hunger and thirst constraining, drug'd as oft,
With hatefulleft difrelish writh'd their jaws
With foot and cinders fill'd; fo oft they fell
Into the fame illufion, not as man

Whom they triumph'd once lapft. Thus were they plagu'd
And worn with famine, long and ceafless hiss,
Till their loft shape, permitted, they refum'd,
Yearly enjoin'd, fome fay, to undergo

This annual humbling certain number'd days,
To dafh their pride, and joy for man feduc't.
However fome tradition they difpers'd

Among the heathen of their purchase got,
And fabl'd how the ferpent, whom they call'd
Ophion with Eurynome, the wide-
Encroaching Eve perhaps, had first the rule
Of high Olympus, thence by Saturn driv'n
And Ops, ere yet Dictaan Jove was born.

Mean while in Paradife the hellish pair
Too soon arriv'd, Sin there in power 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.

Second of Satan fprung, all conquering Death,
What think'st thou of our empire now, though earn'd
With travail difficult, not better far

Than ftill at hell's dark threshold to have fate watch,
Unnam'd, undreaded, and thyfelf half starv'd?
Whom thus the fin-born monster anfwer'd foon,
To me, who with eternal famine pine,
Alike is hell, or paradise, or heaven,

There beft, where moft with ravin I may meet;
Which here, though plenteous, all too little feems
To stuff this maw, this vaft unhide-bound corps.

To whom th'incestuous mother thus repli'd.
Thou therefore on these herbs, and fruits, and flours
Feed first, on each beast next, and fish, and fowle,
No homely morfels, and whatever thing
The fithe of time mows down, devour unfpar'd,
Till I in man residing through the race,

His thoughts, his looks, words, actions all infect,
And season him thy last and sweetest prey.
This faid, they both betook them several wayes,
Both to destroy, or unimmortal make
AM kinds, and for deftruction to mature
Sooner or latter; which th'almightie feeing,
From his tranfcendent seat the faints among,
To those bright orders utter'd thus his voice.

See with what heat these dogs of hell advance
To wafte and havoc yonder world, which I
So fair and good created, and had ftill
Kept in that ftate, had not the folly of man
Let in these wafteful furies, who impute
Folly to me, fo doth the prince of hell
And his adherents, that with so much ease
I fuffer them to enter and poffefs
A place fo heav'nly, and conniving seem
To gratifie my scornful enemies,

That laugh, as if tranfported with some fit
Of paffion, I to them had quitted all,

At random yielded up to their misrule;

And know not that I call'd and drew them thither
My hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth
Which man's polluting fin with taint hath shed
On what was pure, till cram'd and gorg'd, nigh burst
With fuckt and glutted offal, at one fling

Of thy victorious arm, well pleafing fon,
Both fin, and death, and yawning grave at last
Through chaos hurl'd, obftruct the mouth of hell
For ever, and feal up his ravenous jawes.

Then heav'n and earth renew'd fhall be made pure
To fanctitie that shall receive no staine:
Till then the curfe pronounc't on both precedes.
He ended, and the heav'nly audience loud
Sung halleluia, as the found of feas,

Through multitude that fung: just are thy ways,
Righteous are thy decrees on all thy works;
Who can extenuate thee? next, to the fon,
Deftin'd reftorer of mankind, by whom