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, That fires the length of Ophiucus 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 heaven's artillery fraught, come rattling on
708 comet] See Virg. Æn. x. 272. Tasso G. L. i. vii. 52. Newton. 709 Ophiucus] See Sir F. Bacon's Astronomy. And such comets have more than once appeared in our time; first in Cassiopeia, and again in Ophiuchus.'
710 horrid hair] See Plin. N. Hist. lib. ii. c. 22. 'Cometas horrentes crine sanguineo.' See Nonni Dionys. xvii. 6. Sylvester's Du Bartas,
'Then with long bloody hair, a blazing star
Threatens the world with famine, plague, and war,
To princes death, to kingdoms many crosses.'
711 Shakes] Mr. Dyce refers to Lucan. Phars. vi. 468. 'Humentes late nebulas, nimbosque solutis
714 two black clouds] Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, b. i. c. 16.
715 artillery] See Gayton's Chartæ Scriptæ, p. 20; (1645).
'The magazine of heaven here. Artillerie
Which oft in dreadful thunderings rend the skie.'
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 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 sorceress that sat Fast by hell-gate, and kept the fatal key Risen, 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 735 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 fantasm 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 eye so foul, once deem'd so fair In heaven? when at th' assembly, and in sight Of all the seraphim with thee combin'd In bold conspiracy against heaven's King, All on a sudden miserable pain
Surpriz'd thee, dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast Threw forth, till 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 heaven; 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 burthen. Mean while war arose, And fields were fought in heaven; wherein remain❜d, (For what could else?) to our almighty foe Clear victory, to our part loss and rout Through all the empyrean: down they fell Driv'n headlong from the pitch of heaven, down Into this deep, and in the general fall
746 the portress] P. Fletcher's Locusts, ed. 1627, p. 34. "The Porter to th' infernall gate is Sin.' Todd.
I also; at which time this powerful key Into my hand was given, 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 Made to destroy: I fled, 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
Ingend'ring with me, of that rape begot
These yelling monsters that with ceaseless cry 795 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
787 Made to destroy] See James i. 13. Bentl. MS.
794 rape begot] See Amadis de Gaul, vol. iii. lib. iii. c. 10. p. 183, ed. Southey.
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 morsel, and his bane, Whenever 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 heavenly; 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 show'st me, the dear pledge Of dalliance had with thee in heaven, and joys Then sweet, now sad to mention, through dire change
Befall'n us, unforeseen, 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 heavenly 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
« AnteriorContinuar » |