Where armies whole have sunk: the parching air
Burns frore, and cold performs th' effect of fire. 595
Thither by harpy-footed Furies hal'd

At certain revolutions all the damn'd

600

Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change
Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,
From beds of raging fire to starve in ice
Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine
Immovable, infix'd, and frozen round,
Periods of time; thence hurried back to fire.
They ferry over this Lethean sound

605

Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment,
And wish and struggle, as they pass to reach
The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose
In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe,

All in one moment, and so near the brink :
But fate withstands, and to oppose th' attempt

610

Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards

The ford, and of itself the water flies
All taste of living wight, as once it fled
The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on

In confus'd march forlorn, th' advent'rous bands, 615
With shudd'ring horror pale, and eyes aghast,
View'd first their lamentable lot, and found
No rest through many a dark and dreary vale
They pass'd, and many a region dolorous,
O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp,

620

595 Burns] Virg. Georg. i. 93. Borem penetrabile frigus adurat.' Newton.

620 Alp] In the singular number; so in Dionysius Perieg. See

(

Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of

death,

A universe of death, which God by curse

Created evil, for evil only good,

625

Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds,
Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things,
Abominable, inutterable, and worse

Than fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd,
Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimæras dire.

Meanwhile the adversary of GOD and man,
Satan, with thoughts inflam'd of highest design, 630
Puts on swift wings, and towards the gates of hell
Explores his solitary flight; sometimes

635

He scours the right-hand coast, sometimes the left;
Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars
Up to the fiery concave towering high.
As when far off at sea a fleet descried
Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds
Close sailing from Bengala, or the isles

Schnieder's note to Orphei Argon. p. 198. "Alлios ¿x, singulari numero, est in Dion. Perieg. ut in Metrodori Epigr. (Anal. ii. 481.) Alpem Juvenalis nominat. (Sat. x. 152.)

621 Rocks]

'Rocks, shelves, gulfs, quicksands, hundred, hundred horrors.'

See Middleton's World tost at Tennis, p. 26.

623 evil] Esch. Eumen. ver. 71.

κακῶν δ' έκατι κἀγένοντ.

625 all monstrous] See Heywood's Hierarchie, p. 437, lib. 7.

'So that all births which out of order come

Are monstrous and prodigious.'

640

Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring
Their spicy drugs: they on the trading flood
Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape
Ply, stemming nightly toward the pole so seem'd
Far off the flying fiend. At last appear

Hell bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof;

And thrice threefold the gates; three folds were

brass,

Three iron, three of adamantine rock,

Impenetrable, impal'd with circling fire,
Yet unconsum'd. Before the gates there sat
On either side a formidable shape;

645

650

The one seem'd woman to the waist, and fair,
But ended foul in many a scaly fold,
Voluminous and vast, a serpent arm'd
With mortal sting: about her middle round
A cry of hell-hounds never ceasing bark'd
With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung 655

639 Of Ternate] See Fanshawe's Lusiad, p. 219, c. x. 84, 132. (1655).

'Tidore see! Ternate! whence are rolled

(Holding black night a torch) thick plumes of flame.'

640 trading] treading. Bentl. MS.

642 nightly] rightly. Bentl. MS.

645 thrice threefold] Samson Agon. ver. 1122. 'And seven times folded shield.'

'Clypei septemplicis.' Bentl. MS.

653 mortal sting] Spens. F. Q. ver. i. i. 15.

'pointed with mortal sting. Bentl. MS.

654 A cry] And that some troop of cruel hellish curs Encircle them about.'

v. Phillis of Scyros. p. 104. (1655).

A hideous peal: yet, when they list, would creep,
If aught disturb'd their noise, into her womb,

And kennel there; yet there still bark'd and howl'd
Within unseen.
Far less abhorr'd than these

660

Vex'd Scylla bathing in the sea that parts
Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore:
Nor uglier follow the Night-hag, when call'd
In secret riding through the air she comes,
Lur'd with the smell of infant blood, to dance
With Lapland witches, while the labouring moon 665
Eclipses at their charms. The other shape,
If shape it might be call'd, that shape had none
Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb,

Or substance might be call'd that shadow seem'd,
For each seem'd either; black it stood as night, 670
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.

660 Vex'd] Dulichios vexasse rates.' Bentl. MS.

675

665 labouring moon] See Ovid. Metam. iv. 333. and Stat. Theo. ver. 687. 'Siderum labores.' v. Plin. N. Hist. lib. ii. c. x. p. 162, ed. Brotier. Casimir Sarb. Lyr. ii. v. 'Soli et lunæ labores.'

672 And shook]

'His dart anon out of the corpse he took,

And in his hand, a dreadful sight to see,
With great triumph eftsones the same he shook.'

See Sackville's Int. to Mirror for Mag. p. 266, ed. 1610.

676 hell] And made hell gates to shiver with the might.'

Sackville's Introd. p. 265.

Th' undaunted fiend what this might be admir'd;
Admir'd, not fear'd; GOD and his Son except,
Created thing naught valued he, nor shunn'd;
And with disdainful look thus first began.

680

685

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 replied. Art thou that traitor-angel, art thou he, Who first broke peace in heaven and faith, till then Unbroken, and in proud rebellious arms Drew after him the third part of heaven'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,

691

695

679 Created] See Wakefield's Lucretius, lib. i. 117, and Sylva Critica, v. p. 74, where this phrase is illustrated.

683 miscreated] Spens. F. Q. i. ii. 3. 'miscreated fair.' ii. vii. 42. 'miscreated mould.' Bentl.

692 Drew] He boldly drew millions of souls.'

See Beaumont's Psyche, c. xv. st. 296.

693 Conjur'd] Virg. Geo. 1. 280.

'Et conjuratos cœlum rescindere fratres.' Hume.