LITMIR.BIZ

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enemie Forth issu’d, brandishing his fatal Dart Made to destroy: I fled, and cry’d out Death; Hell trembl’d 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 then rage) and swifter far, Me overtook his mother all dismaid, And in embraces forcible and foule Ingendring with me, of that rape begot These yelling Monsters that with ceasless cry Surround me, as thou sawst, hourly conceiv’d And hourly born, with sorrow infinite To me, for when they list into the womb That bred them they return, and howle and gnaw My Bowels, their repast; then bursting forth Afresh with conscious terrours 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 involvd; and knows that I Should prove a bitter Morsel, and his bane, When ever that shall be; so Fate pronounc’d. But thou O Father, I forewarn thee, shun His 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 suttle Fiend his lore

       Soon learnd, now milder, and thus answerd smooth.

       Dear Daughter, since thou claim’st me for thy Sire,

       And my fair Son here showst me, the dear pledge

       Of dalliance had with thee in Heav’n, and joys

       Then sweet, now sad to mention, through dire change

       Befalln us unforeseen, unthought of, know

       I come no enemie, 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 pretenses arm’d

       Fell with us from on high: from them I go

       This uncouth errand sole, and one for all

       My self expose, with lonely steps to tread

       Th’ unfounded deep, & through the void immense

       To search with wandring quest a place foretold

       Should be, and, by concurring signs, ere now

       Created vast and round, a place of bliss

       In the Pourlieues of Heav’n, and therein plac’t

       A race of upstart Creatures, to supply

       Perhaps our vacant room, though more remov’d,

       Least Heav’n surcharg’d with potent multitude

       Might hap to move new broiles: Be this or aught

       Then 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 seemd highly pleasd, and Death

       Grinnd horrible a gastly smile, to hear

       His famine should be fill’d, and blest his mawe

       Destin’d to that good hour: no less rejoyc’d

       His mother bad, and thus bespake her Sire.

      The key of this infernal Pit by due,

       And by command of Heav’ns all-powerful 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’rematcht by living might.

       But what ow 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 Heav’n, and heav’nlie-born, Here in perpetual agonie and pain, With terrors and with clamors compasst round Of mine own brood, that on my bowels feed: Thou art my Father, thou my Author, thou My being gav’st me; whom should I obey But thee, whom follow? thou wilt bring me soon To that new world of light and bliss, among The Gods who live at ease, where I shall Reign At thy right hand voluptuous, as beseems Thy daughter and thy darling, without end.

      Thus saying, from her side the fatal Key,

       Sad instrument of all our woe, she took;

       And towards the Gate rouling her bestial train,

       Forthwith the huge Porcullis high up drew,

       Which but her self not all the Stygian powers Could once have mov’d; then in the key-hole turns Th’ intricate wards, and every Bolt and Bar Of massie Iron or sollid Rock with ease Unfast’ns: on a sudden op’n flie With impetuous recoile and jarring sound Th’ infernal dores, and on thir hinges great Harsh Thunder, that the lowest bottom shook Of Erebus. She op’nd, but to shut Excel’d her power; the Gates wide op’n stood, That with extended wings a Bannerd Host Under spread Ensigns marching might pass through With Horse and Chariots rankt in loose array; So wide they stood, and like a Furnace mouth Cast forth redounding smoak and ruddy flame. Before thir eyes in sudden view appear The secrets of the hoarie deep, a dark Illimitable Ocean without bound, Without dimension, where length, breadth, and highth, And time and place are lost; where eldest Night And Chaos, Ancestors of Nature, hold Eternal Anarchie, amidst the noise Of endless warrs and by confusion stand. For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four Champions fierce Strive here for Maistrie, and to Battel bring Thir embryon Atoms; they around the flag Of each his faction, in thir several Clanns, Light-arm’d or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift or slow, Swarm populous, unnumber’d as the Sands Of Barca or Cyrene’s torrid soil, Levied to side with warring Winds, and poise Thir lighter wings. To whom these most adhere, Hee rules a moment; Chaos Umpire sits, And by decision more imbroiles the fray By which he Reigns: next him high Arbiter Chance governs all. Into this wilde Abyss, The Womb of nature and perhaps her Grave, Of neither Sea, nor Shore, nor Air, nor Fire, But all these in thir pregnant causes mixt Confus’dly, and which thus must ever fight, Unless th’ Almighty Maker them ordain His dark materials to create more Worlds, Into this wilde Abyss the warie fiend Stood on the brink of Hell and look’d a while, Pondering his Voyage; for no narrow frith He had to cross. Nor was his eare less peal’d With noises loud and ruinous (to compare Great things with small) then when Bellona storms, With all her battering Engines bent to rase Som Capital City, or less then if this frame Of Heav’n were falling, and these Elements In mutinie had from her Axle torn The stedfast Earth. At last his Sail-broad Vannes He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoak Uplifted spurns the ground, thence many a League As in a cloudy Chair ascending rides Audacious, but that seat soon failing, meets A vast vacuitie: all unawares Fluttring his pennons vain plumb down he drops Ten thousand fadom deep, and to this hour Down had been falling, had not by ill chance The strong rebuff of som tumultuous cloud Instinct with Fire and Nitre hurried him As many miles aloft: that furie stay’d, Quencht in a Boggie Syrtris, neither Sea, Nor good dry Land: nigh founderd on he fares, Treading the crude consistence, half on foot, Half flying; behoves him now both Oare and Saile. As when a Gryfon through the Wilderness With winged course ore Hill or moarie Dale, Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stelth Had from his wakeful custody purloind The guarded Gold: So eagerly the fiend Ore bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his way, And swims or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flyes: At length a universal hubbub wilde Of stunning sounds and voices all confus’d Born through the hollow dark assaults his eare With loudest vehemence: thither he plyes, Undaunted to meet there what ever power Or Spirit of the nethermost Abyss Might in that noise reside, of whom to

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