X-1. Meanwhile the hainous and despightfull act / Of Satan done in Paradise, and how / Hee in the Serpent, had perverted Eve, / Her Husband shee, to taste the fatall fruit,

X-5. Was known in Heav'n; for what can scape the Eye / Of God All-seeing, or deceave his Heart / Omniscient, who in all things wise and just,

X-8. Hinder'd not Satan to attempt the minde / Of Man, with strength entire, and free will arm'd, / Complete to have discover'd and repulst / Whatever wiles of Foe or seeming Friend. / For still they knew, and ought to have still remember'd / The high Injunction not to taste that Fruit,

X-14. Whoever tempted; which they not obeying, / Incurr'd, what could they less, the penaltie, / And manifold in sin, deserv'd to fall.

X-17. Up into Heav'n from Paradise in haste / Th' Angelic Guards ascended, mute and sad

X-19. For Man, for of his state by this they knew, / Much wondring how the suttle Fiend had stoln

X-21. Entrance unseen. Soon as th' unwelcome news / From Earth arriv'd at Heaven Gate, displeas'd

X-23. All were who heard, dim sadness did not spare / That time Celestial visages, yet mixt / With pitie, violated not thir bliss.

X-26. About the new-arriv'd, in multitudes / Th' ethereal People ran, to hear and know / How all befell: they towards the Throne Supream / Accountable made haste to make appear / With righteous plea, thir utmost vigilance,

X-31. And easily approv'd; when the most High / Eternal Father from his secret Cloud, / Amidst in Thunder utter'd thus his voice.

X-34. Assembl'd Angels, and ye Powers return'd / From unsuccessful charge, be not dismaid, / Nor troubl'd at these tidings from the Earth,

X-37. Which your sincerest care could not prevent,

X-38. Foretold so lately what would come to pass, / When first this Tempter cross'd the Gulf from Hell. / I told ye then he should prevail and speed / On his bad Errand, Man should be seduc't / And flatter'd out of all, believing lies

X-43. Against his Maker; no Decree of mine / Concurring to necessitate his Fall, / Or touch with lightest moment of impulse / His free Will, to her own inclining left

X-47. In eevn scale. But fall'n he is, and now / What rests but that the mortal Sentence pass / On his transgression Death denounc't that day,

X-50. Which he presumes already vain and void, / Because not yet inflicted, as he fear'd, / By some immediate stroak; but soon shall find / Forbearance no acquittance ere day end. / Justice shall not return as bountie scorn'd.

X-55. But whom send I to judge them? whom but thee

X-56. Vicegerent Son, to thee I have transferr'd / All Judgement whether in Heav'n, or Earth, or Hell.

X-58. Easie it might be seen that I intend / Mercie collegue with Justice, sending thee

X-60. Mans Friend his Mediator, his design'd / Both Ransom and Redeemer voluntarie, / And destin'd Man himself to judge Man fall'n.

X-63. So spake the Father, and unfoulding bright / Toward the right hand his Glorie, on the Son / Blaz'd forth unclouded Deitie; he full / Resplendent all his Father manifest / Express'd, and thus divinely answer'd milde.

X-68. Father Eternal, thine is to decree, / Mine both in Heav'n and Earth to do thy will / Supream, that thou in mee thy Son belov'd

X-71. Mayst ever rest well pleas'd. I go to judge / On Earth these thy transgressors, but thou knowst,

X-73. Whoever judg'd, the worst on mee must light, / When time shall be, for so I undertook

X-75. Before thee; and not repenting, this obtaine / Of right, that I may mitigate thir doom

X-77. On me deriv'd, yet I shall temper so / Justice with Mercie, as may illustrate most / Them fully satisfied, and thee appease.

X-80. Attendance none shall need, nor Train, where none / Are to behold the Judgement, but the judg'd,

X-82. Those two; the third best absent is condemn'd, / Convict by flight, and Rebel to all Law

X-84. Conviction to the Serpent none belongs.

X-85. Thus saying, from his radiant Seat he rose

X-86. Of high collateral glorie: him Thrones and Powers, / Princedoms, and Dominations ministrant / Accompanied to Heaven Gate, from whence / Eden and all the Coast in prospect lay.

X-90. Down he descended strait; the speed of Gods / Time counts not, though with swiftest minutes wing'd.

X-92. Now was the Sun in Western cadence low / From Noon, and gentle Aires due at thir hour / To fan the Earth now wak'd, and usher in

X- 95. The Eevning coole, when he from wrauth more coole

X-96. Came the mild Judge and Intercessor both

X-97. To sentence Man: the voice of God they heard / Now walking in the Garden, by soft windes / Brought to thir Ears, while day declin'd, they heard, / And from his presence hid themselves among / The thickest Trees, both Man and Wife, till God / Approaching, thus to Adam call'd aloud.

X-103. Where art thou Adam, wont with joy to meet / My coming seen far off? I miss thee here,

X-105. Not pleas'd, thus entertaind with solitude,

X-106. Where obvious dutie erewhile appear'd unsaught:

X-107. Or come I less conspicuous, or what change

X-108. Absents thee, or what chance detains? Come forth.

X-109. He came, and with him Eve, more loth, though first / To offend, discount'nanc't both, and discompos'd;

X-111. Love was not in thir looks, either to God

X-112. Or to each other, but apparent guilt, / And shame, and perturbation, and despaire, / Anger, and obstinacie, and hate, and guile.

X-115. Whence Adam faultring long, thus answer'd brief.

X-116. I heard thee in the Garden, and of thy voice / Affraid, being naked, hid my self. To whom

X-118. The gracious Judge without revile repli'd.

X-119. My voice thou oft hast heard, and hast not fear'd, / But still rejoyc't, how is it now become

X-121. So dreadful to thee? that thou art naked, who

X-122. Hath told thee? hast thou eaten of the Tree / Whereof I gave thee charge thou shouldst not eat?

X-124. To whom thus Adam sore beset repli'd. / O Heav'n! in evil strait this day I stand / Before my Judge, either to undergoe

X-127. My self the total Crime, or to accuse / My other self, the partner of my life; / Whose failing, while her Faith to me remaines, / I should conceal, and not expose to blame

X-131. By my complaint; but strict necessitie / Subdues me, and calamitous constraint / Least on my head both sin and punishment, / However insupportable, be all

X-135. Devolv'd; though should I hold my peace, yet thou / Wouldst easily detect what I conceale.

X-137. This Woman whom thou mad'st to be my help, / And gav'st me as thy perfet gift, so good, / So fit, so acceptable, so Divine, / That from her hand I could suspect no ill, / And what she did, whatever in it self, / Her doing seem'd to justifie the deed; / Shee gave me of the Tree, and I did eate.

X-144. To whom the sovran Presence thus repli'd. / Was shee thy God, that her thou didst obey / Before his voice, or was shee made thy guide, / Superior, or but equal, that to her / Thou did'st resigne thy Manhood, and the Place

X-149. Wherein God set thee above her made of thee, / And for thee, whose perfection farr excell'd

X-151. Hers in all real dignitie: Adornd / She was indeed, and lovely to attract / Thy Love, not thy Subjection, and her Gifts

X-154. Were such as under Government well seem'd, / Unseemly to beare rule, which was thy part

X-156. And person, hadst thou known thy self aright.

X-157. So having said, he thus to Eve in few: / Say Woman, what is this which thou hast done?

X-159. To whom sad Eve with shame nigh overwhelm'd, / Confessing soon, yet not before her Judge / Bold or loquacious, thus abasht repli'd.

X-162. The Serpent me beguil'd and I did eate.

X-163. Which when the Lord God heard, without delay / To Judgement he proceeded on th' accus'd

X-165. Serpent though brute, unable to transferre / The Guilt on him who made him instrument / Of mischief, and polluted from the end / Of his Creation; justly then accurst,

X-169. As vitiated in Nature: more to know / Concern'd not Man (since he no further knew) / Nor alter'd his offence; yet God at last

X-172. To Satan first in sin his doom apply'd / Though in mysterious terms, judg'd as then best: / And on the Serpent thus his curse let fall.

X-175. Because thou hast done this, thou art accurst / Above all Cattle, each Beast of the Field;

X-177. Upon thy Belly groveling thou shalt goe, / And dust shalt eat all the dayes of thy Life.

X-179. Between Thee and the Woman I will put / Enmitie, and between thine and her Seed;

X-181. Her Seed shall bruise thy head, thou bruise his heel.

X-182. So spake this Oracle, then verifi'd / When Jesus son of Mary second Eve,

X-184. Saw Satan fall like Lightning down from Heav'n, / Prince of the Aire; then rising from his Grave

X-186. Spoild Principalities and Powers, triumpht / In open shew, and with ascention bright

X-188. Captivity led captive through the Aire, / The Realm it self of Satan long usurpt, / Whom he shall tread at last under our feet;

X-191. Eevn hee who now foretold his fatal bruise,

X-192. And to the Woman thus his Sentence turn'd.

X-193. Thy sorrow I will greatly multiplie / By thy Conception; Children thou shalt bring

X-195. In sorrow forth, and to thy Husbands will / Thine shall submit, hee over thee shall rule.

X-197. On Adam last thus judgement he pronounc'd. / Because thou hast heark'nd to the voice of thy Wife, / And eaten of the Tree concerning which / I charg'd thee, saying: Thou shalt not eate thereof, / Curs'd is the ground for thy sake, thou in sorrow

X-202. Shalt eate thereof all the days of thy Life; / Thorns also and Thistles it shall bring thee forth / Unbid, and thou shalt eate th' Herb of th' Field, / In the sweat of thy Face shalt thou eat Bread,

X-206. Till thou return unto the ground, for thou / Out of the ground wast taken, know thy Birth,

X-208. For dust thou art, and shalt to dust returne.

X-209. So judg'd he Man, both Judge and Saviour sent,

X-210. And th' instant stroke of Death denounc't that day

X-211. Remov'd farr off; then pittying how they stood / Before him naked to the aire, that now

X-213. Must suffer change, disdain'd not to begin / Thenceforth the form of servant to assume, / As when he wash'd his servants feet so now / As Father of his Familie he clad / Thir nakedness with Skins of Beasts, or slain,

X-218. Or as the Snake with youthful Coate repaid;

X-219. And thought not much to cloath his Enemies:

X-220. Nor hee thir outward onely with the Skins / Of Beasts, but inward nakedness, much more / Opprobrious, with his Robe of righteousness, / Araying cover'd from his Fathers sight.

X-224. To him with swift ascent he up returnd, / Into his blissful bosom reassum'd / In glory as of old, to him appeas'd

X-227. All, though all-knowing, what had past with Man / Recounted, mixing intercession sweet.

X-229. Meanwhile ere thus was sin'd and judg'd on Earth, / Within the Gates of Hell sate Sin and Death, / In counterview within the Gates, that now / Stood open wide, belching outrageous flame / Farr into Chaos, since the Fiend pass'd through, / Sin opening, who thus now to Death began.

X-235. O Son, why sit we here each other viewing

X-236. Idlely, while Satan our great Author thrives / In other Worlds, and happier Seat provides

X-238. For us his ofspring deare? It cannot be / But that success attends him; if mishap, / Ere this he had return'd, with fury driv'n / By his Avengers, since no place like this / Can fit his punishment, or their revenge.

X-243. Methinks I feel new strength within me rise, / Wings growing, and Dominion giv'n me large / Beyond this Deep; whatever drawes me on, / Or sympathie, or som connatural force / Powerful at greatest distance to unite / With secret amity things of like kinde

X-249. By secretest conveyance. Thou my Shade / Inseparable must with mee along: / For Death from Sin no power can separate.

X-252. But least the difficultie of passing back / Stay his return perhaps over this Gulfe

X-254. Impassable, Impervious, let us try

X-255. Adventrous work, yet to thy power and mine / Not unagreeable, to found a path / Over this Maine from Hell to that new World

X-258. Where Satan now prevailes, a Monument / Of merit high to all th' infernal Host,

X-260. Easing thir passage hence, for intercourse, / Or transmigration, as thir lot shall lead.

X-262. Nor can I miss the way, so strongly drawn / By this new felt attraction and instinct.

X-264. Whom thus the meager Shadow answerd soon. / Goe whither Fate and inclination strong / Leads thee, I shall not lag behinde, nor erre

X-267. The way, thou leading, such a sent I draw / Of carnage, prey innumerable, and taste / The savour of Death from all things there that live:

X-270. Nor shall I to the work thou enterprisest / Be wanting, but afford thee equal aid,

X-272. So saying, with delight he snuff'd the smell / Of mortal change on Earth. As when a flock

X-274. Of ravenous Fowl, though many a League remote, / Against the day of Battel, to a Field, / Where Armies lie encampt, come flying, lur'd / With sent of living Carcasses design'd / For death, the following day, in bloodie fight. / So sented the grim Feature, and upturn'd / His Nostril wide into the murkie Air, / Sagacious of his Quarry from so farr.

X-282. Then Both from out Hell Gates into the waste / Wide Anarchie of Chaos damp and dark / Flew divers, and with Power (thir Power was great) / Hovering upon the Waters; what they met / Solid or slimie, as in raging Sea

X-287. Tost up and down, together crowded drove / From each side shoaling towards the mouth of Hell.

X-289. As when two Polar Winds blowing adverse / Upon the Cronian Sea, together drive

X-291. Mountains of Ice, that stop th' imagin'd way / Beyond Petsora Eastward, to the rich

X-293. Cathaian Coast. The aggregated Soyle / Death with his Mace petrific, cold and dry, / As with a Trident smote, and fix't as firm

X-296. As Delos floating once; the rest his look / Bound with Gorgonian rigor not to move,

X-298. And with Asphaltic slime; broad as the Gate,

X-299. Deep to the Roots of Hell the gather'd beach / They fasten'd, and the Mole immense wraught on / Over the foaming deep high Archt, a Bridge / Of length prodigious joyning to the Wall / Immovable of this now fenceless world

X-304. Forfeit to Death; from hence a passage broad,

X-305. Smooth, easie, inoffensive down to Hell.

X-306. So, if great things to small may be compar'd, / Xerxes, the Libertie of Greece to yoke, / From Susa his Memnonian Palace high / Came to the Sea, and over Hellespont / Bridging his way, Europe with Asia joyn'd, / And scourg'd with many a stroak th' indignant waves.

X-312. Now had they brought the work by wondrous Art / Pontifical, a ridge of pendent Rock

X-314. Over the vext Abyss, following the track / Of Satan, to the self same place where hee / First lighted from his Wing, and landed safe / From out of Chaos to the out side bare

X-318. Of this round World: with Pinns of Adamant / And Chains they made all fast, too fast they made

X-320. And durable; and now in little space / The confines met of Empyrean Heav'n / And of this World, and on the left hand Hell

X-323. With long reach interpos'd; three sev'ral wayes / In sight, to each of these three places led.

X-325. And now thir way to Earth they had descri'd, / To Paradise first tending, when behold / Satan in likeness of an Angel bright / Betwixt the Centaure and the Scorpion stearing / His Zenith, while the Sun in Aries rose:

X-330. Disguis'd he came, but those his Children dear / Thir Parent soon discern'd, though in disguise.

X-332. Hee after Eve seduc't, unminded slunk / Into the Wood fast by, and changing shape / To observe the sequel, saw his guileful act / By Eve, though all unweeting, seconded

X-336. Upon her Husband, saw thir shame that sought

X-337. Vain covertures; but when he saw descend / The Son of God to judge them terrifi'd

X-339. Hee fled, not hoping to escape, but shun / The present, fearing guiltie what his wrauth

X-341. Might suddenly inflict; that past, return'd / By Night, and listening where the hapless Paire / Sate in thir sad discourse, and various plaint,

X-344. Thence gatherd his own doom, which understood / Not instant, but of future time. With joy

X-346. And tidings fraught, to Hell he now return'd,

X-347. And at the brink of Chaos, neer the foot / Of this new wondrous Pontifice, unhop't / Met who to meet him came, his Ofspring dear.

X-350. Great joy was at thir meeting, and at sight / Of that stupendious Bridge his joy encreas'd. / Long hee admiring stood, till Sin, his faire / Inchanting Daughter, thus the silence broke.

X-354. O Parent, these are thy magnific deeds, / Thy Trophies, which thou view'st as not thine own, / Thou art thir Author and prime Architect:

X-357. For I no sooner in my Heart divin'd, / My Heart, which by a secret harmonie / Still moves with thine, join'd in connexion sweet, / That thou on Earth hadst prosper'd, which thy looks / Now also evidence, but straight I felt

X-362. Though distant from thee Worlds between, yet felt / That I must after thee with this thy Son; / Such fatal consequence unites us three:

X-365. Hell could no longer hold us in her bounds, / Nor this unvoyageable Gulf obscure / Detain from following thy illustrious track.

X-368. Thou hast atchiev'd our libertie, confin'd / Within Hell Gates till now, thou us impow'rd / To fortifie thus farr, and overlay / With this portentous Bridge the dark Abyss.

X-372. Thine now is all this World, thy vertue hath won

X-373. What thy hands builded not, thy Wisdom gain'd / With odds what Warr hath lost, and fully aveng'd

X-375. Our foile in Heav'n; here thou shalt Monarch reign,

X-376. There didst not; there let him still Victor sway, / As Battel hath adjudg'd, from this new World

X-378. Retiring, by his own doom alienated, / And henceforth Monarchie with thee divide / Of all things parted by th' Empyreal bounds, / His Quadrature, from thy Orbicular World, / Or trie thee now more dang'rous to his Throne.

X-383. Whom thus the Prince of Darkness answerd glad. / Fair Daughter, and thou Son and Grandchild both, / High proof ye now have giv'n to be the Race / Of Satan (for I glorie in the name, / Antagonist of Heav'ns Almightie King) / Amply have merited of me, of all

X-389. Th' Infernal Empire, that so neer Heav'ns dore / Triumphal with triumphal act have met,

X-391. Mine with this glorious Work, and made one Realm / Hell and this World, one Realm, one Continent

X-393. Of easie thorough-fare. Therefore while I / Descend through Darkness, on your Rode with ease / To my associate Powers, them to acquaint / With these successes, and with them rejoyce, / You two this way, among these numerous Orbs / All yours, right down to Paradise descend;

X-399. There dwell and Reign in bliss, thence on the Earth / Dominion exercise and in the Aire, / Chiefly on Man, sole Lord of all declar'd, / Him first make sure your thrall, and lastly kill. / My Substitutes I send ye, and Create / Plenipotent on Earth, of matchless might

X-405. Issuing from mee: on your joynt vigor now / My hold of this new Kingdom all depends, / Through Sin to Death expos'd by my exploit.

X-408. If your joynt power prevailes, th' affaires of Hell / No detriment need feare, goe and be strong.

X-410. So saying he dismiss'd them, they with speed / Thir course through thickest Constellations held / Spreading thir bane; the blasted Starrs lookt wan, / And Planets, Planet-strook, real Eclips

X-414. Then sufferd. Th' other way Satan went down / The Causey to Hell Gate; on either side

X-416. Disparted Chaos over built exclaimd, / And with rebounding surge the barrs assaild, / That scorn'd his indignation: through the Gate,

X-419. Wide open and unguarded, Satan pass'd, / And all about found desolate; for those / Appointed to sit there, had left thir charge,

X-422. Flown to the upper World; the rest were all / Farr to the inland retir'd, about the walls / Of Pandæmonium, Citie and proud seate / Of Lucifer, so by allusion calld, / Of that bright Starr to Satan paragond.

X-427. There kept thir Watch the Legions, while the Grand / In Council sate, sollicitous what chance / Might intercept thir Emperour sent, so hee / Departing gave command, and they observ'd.

X-431. As when the Tartar from his Russian Foe / By Astracan over the Snowie Plaines / Retires, or Bactrian Sophi from the hornes / Of Turkish Crescent, leaves all waste beyond / The Realm of Aladule, in his retreate / To Tauris or Casbeen. So these the late / Heav'n-banisht Host, left desert utmost Hell / Many a dark League, reduc't in careful Watch / Round thir Metropolis, and now expecting / Each hour thir great adventurer from the search

X-441. Of Forrein Worlds: he through the midst unmarkt, / In shew Plebeian Angel militant / Of lowest order, past; and from the dore / Of that Plutonian Hall, invisible

X-445. Ascended his high Throne, which under state / Of richest texture spred, at th' upper end

X-447. Was plac't in regal lustre. Down a while / He sate, and round about him saw unseen:

X-449. At last as from a Cloud his fulgent head / And shape Starr bright appeer'd, or brighter, clad / With what permissive glory since his fall

X-452. Was left him, or false glitter: All amaz'd / At that so sudden blaze the Stygian throng / Bent thir aspect, and whom they wish'd beheld, / Thir mighty Chief returnd: loud was th' acclaime:

X-456. Forth rush'd in haste the great consulting Peers, / Rais'd from thir dark Divan, and with like joy / Congratulant approach'd him, who with hand

X-459. Silence, and with these words attention won.

X-460. Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Vertues, Powers, / For in possession such, not onely of right,

X-462. I call ye and declare ye now, returnd

X-463. Successful beyond hope, to lead ye forth / Triumphant out of this infernal Pit / Abominable, accurst, the house of woe, / And Dungeon of our Tyrant: Now possess, / As Lords, a spacious World, to our native Heaven / Little inferiour, by my adventure hard

X-469. With peril great atchiev'd. Long were to tell / What I have don, what sufferd, with what paine

X-471. Voyag'd th' unreal, vast, unbounded deep / Of horrible confusion, over which

X-473. By Sin and Death a broad way now is pav'd / To expedite your glorious march; but I

X-475. Toild out my uncouth passage, forc't to ride / Th' untractable Abysse, plung'd in the womb / Of unoriginal Night and Chaos wilde, / That jealous of thir secrets fiercely oppos'd / My journey strange, with clamorous uproare

X-480. Protesting Fate supreame; thence how I found / The new created World, which fame in Heav'n / Long had foretold, a Fabrick wonderful

X-483. Of absolute perfection, therein Man / Plac't in a Paradise, by our exile

X-485. Made happie: Him by fraud I have seduc'd

X-486. From his Creator, and the more to increase / Your wonder, with an Apple; he thereat

X-488. Offended, worth your laughter, hath giv'n up / Both his beloved Man and all his World, / To Sin and Death a prey, and so to us,

X-491. Without our hazard, labour, or allarme, / To range in, and to dwell, and over Man / To rule, as over all he should have rul'd.

X-494. True is, mee also he hath judg'd, or rather / Mee not, but the brute Serpent in whose shape / Man I deceav'd: that which to mee belongs,

X-497. Is enmity, which he will put between / Mee and Mankinde; I am to bruise his heel; / His Seed, when is not set, shall bruise my head: / A World who would not purchase with a bruise,

X-501. Or much more grievous pain? Ye have th' account / Of my performance: What remains, ye Gods, / But up and enter now into full bliss.

X-504. So having said, a while he stood, expecting / Thir universal shout and high applause

X-506. To fill his eare, when contrary he hears / On all sides, from innumerable tongues / A dismal universal hiss, the sound / Of public scorn; he wonderd, but not long

X-510. Had leasure, wondring at himself now more; / His Visage drawn he felt to sharp and spare, / His Armes clung to his Ribs, his Leggs entwining

X-513. Each other, till supplanted down he fell / A monstrous Serpent on his Belly prone,

X-515. Reluctant, but in vaine: a greater power / Now rul'd him, punisht in the shape he sin'd,

X-517. According to his doom: he would have spoke, / But hiss for hiss returnd with forked tongue / To forked tongue, for now were all transform'd / Alike, to Serpents all as accessories

X-521. To his bold Riot: dreadful was the din / Of hissing through the Hall, thick swarming now

X-523. With complicated monsters head and taile, / Scorpion and Asp, and Amphisbæna dire, / Cerastes hornd, Hydrus, and Ellops drear,

X-526. And Dipsas (not so thick swarm'd once the Soil / Bedropt with blood of Gorgon, or the Isle

X-528. Ophiusa) but still greatest hee the midst, / Now Dragon grown, larger then whom the Sun / Ingenderd in the Pythian Vale on slime, / Huge Python, and his Power no less he seem'd / Above the rest still to retain; they all

X-533. Him follow'd issuing forth to th' open Field,

X-534. Where all yet left of that revolted Rout / Heav'n-fall'n, in station stood or just array, / Sublime with expectation when to see / In Triumph issuing forth thir glorious Chief;

X-538. They saw, but other sight instead, a crowd

X-539. Of ugly Serpents; horror on them fell, / And horrid sympathie; for what they saw, / They felt themselvs now changing; down thir arms,

X-542. Down fell both Spear and Shield, down they as fast, / And the dire hiss renew'd, and the dire form / Catcht by Contagion, like in punishment, / As in thir crime. Thus was th' applause they meant, / Turn'd to exploding hiss, triumph to shame / Cast on themselves from thir own mouths. There stood

X-548. A Grove hard by, sprung up with this thir change, / His will who reigns above, to aggravate / Thir penance, laden with Fruit like that / Which grew in Paradise, the bait of Eve / Us'd by the Tempter: on that prospect strange / Thir earnest eyes they fix'd, imagining / For one forbidden Tree a multitude / Now ris'n, to work them furder woe or shame;

X-556. Yet parcht with scalding thurst and hunger fierce, / Though to delude them sent, could not abstain,

X-558. But on they rould in heaps, and up the Trees

X-559. Climbing, sat thicker then the snakie locks / That curld Megæra: greedily they pluck'd

X-561. The Frutage fair to sight, like that which grew / Neer that bituminous Lake where Sodom flam'd;

X-563. This more delusive, not the touch, but taste / Deceav'd; they fondly thinking to allay / Thir appetite with gust, instead of Fruit / Chewd bitter Ashes, which th' offended taste

X-567. With spattering noise rejected: oft they assayd,

X-568. Hunger and thirst constraining, drugd as oft, / With hatefullest disrelish writh'd thir jaws / With soot and cinders fill'd; so oft they fell

X-571. Into the same illusion, not as Man

X-572. Whom they triumph'd once lapst. Thus were they plagu'd / And worn with Famin, long and ceasless hiss, / Till thir lost shape, permitted, they resum'd,

X-575. Yearly enjoynd, some say, to undergo / This annual humbling certain number'd days, / To dash thir pride, and joy for Man seduc't.

X-578. However some tradition they dispers'd / Among the Heathen of thir purchase got,

X-580. And Fabl'd how the Serpent, whom they calld / Ophion with Eurynome, the wide- / Encroaching Eve perhaps, had first the rule / Of high Olympus, thence by Saturn driv'n / And Ops, ere yet Dictæan Jove was born.

X-585. Mean while in Paradise 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

X-589. Close following pace for pace, not mounted yet / On his pale Horse: to whom Sin thus began.

X-591. Second of Satan sprung, all conquering Death, / What thinkst thou of our Empire now, though earnd / With travail difficult, not better farr / Then stil at Hels dark threshold to have sate watch, / Unnam'd, undreaded, and thy self half starv'd?

X-596. Whom thus the Sin-born Monster answerd soon. / To mee, who with eternal Famin pine, / Alike is Hell, or Paradise, or Heaven, / There best, where most with ravin I may meet; / Which here, though plenteous, all too little seems / To stuff this Maw, this vast unhide-bound Corps.

X-602. 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 morsels, and whatever thing / The Sithe of Time mowes down, devour unspar'd,

X-607. Till I in Man residing through the Race, / His thoughts, his looks, words, actions all infect, / And season him thy last and sweetest prey.

X-610. This said, they both betook them several wayes, / Both to destroy, or unimmortal make / All kinds, and for destruction to mature

X-613. Sooner or later; which th' Almightie seeing, / From his transcendent Seat the Saints among, / To those bright Orders utterd thus his voice.

X-616. See with what heat these Dogs of Hell advance / To waste and havoc yonder World, which I / So fair and good created, and had still

X-619. Kept in that State, had not the folly of Man / Let in these wastful Furies, who impute / Folly to mee, so doth the Prince of Hell / And his Adherents, that with so much ease / I suffer them to enter and possess / A place so heav'nly, and conniving seem / To gratifie my scornful Enemies,

X-626. That laugh, as if transported with some fit / Of Passion, I to them had quitted all, / At random yielded up to their misrule;

X-629. And know not that I call'd and drew them thither / My Hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth / Which mans polluting Sin with taint hath shed / On what was pure, till cramm'd and gorg'd, nigh burst / With suckt and glutted offal, at one sling

X-634. Of thy victorious Arm, well-pleasing Son, / Both Sin, and Death, and yawning Grave at last / Through Chaos hurld, obstruct the mouth of Hell / For ever, and seal up his ravenous Jawes.

X-638. Then Heav'n and Earth renewd shall be made pure / To sanctitie that shall receive no staine: / Till then the Curse pronounc't on both precedes.

X-641. He ended, and the Heav'nly Audience loud / Sung Halleluia, as the sound of Seas, / Through multitude that sung: Just are thy ways, / Righteous are thy Decrees on all thy Works; / Who can extenuate thee? Next, to the Son, / Destin'd restorer of Mankind, by whom / New Heav'n and Earth shall to the Ages rise, / Or down from Heav'n descend. Such was thir song,

X-649. While the Creator calling forth by name / His mightie Angels gave them several charge, / As sorted best with present things. The Sun

X-652. Had first his precept so to move, so shine, / As might affect the Earth with cold and heat / Scarce tollerable, and from the North to call / Decrepit Winter, from the South to bring / Solstitial summers heat. To the blanc Moone

X-657. Her office they prescrib'd, to th' other five / Thir planetarie motions and aspects / In Sextile, Square, and Trine, and Opposite, / Of noxious efficacie, and when to joyne / In Synod unbenigne, and taught the fixt / Thir influence malignant when to showre, / Which of them rising with the Sun, or falling,

X-664. Should prove tempestuous: To the Winds they set / Thir corners, when with bluster to confound / Sea, Aire, and Shoar, the Thunder when to rowle / With terror through the dark Aereal Hall.

X-668. Some say he bid his Angels turne ascanse / The Poles of Earth twice ten degrees and more / From the Suns Axle; they with labour push'd / Oblique the Centric Globe: Som say the Sun

X-672. Was bid turn Reines from th' Equinoctial Rode / Like distant breadth to Taurus with the Seav'n / Atlantick Sisters, and the Spartan Twins / Up to the Tropic Crab; thence down amaine / By Leo and the Virgin and the Scales, / As deep as Capricorne, to bring in change

X-678. Of Seasons to each Clime; else had the Spring / Perpetual smil'd on Earth with vernant Flours, / Equal in Days and Nights, except to those / Beyond the Polar Circles; to them Day

X-682. Had unbenighted shon, while the low Sun / To recompence his distance, in thir sight / Had rounded still th' Horizon, and not known / Or East or West, which had forbid the Snow / From cold Estotiland, and South as farr / Beneath Magellan. At that tasted Fruit

X-688. The Sun, as from Thyestean Banquet, turn'd / His course intended; else how had the World / Inhabited, though sinless, more then now, / Avoided pinching cold and scorching heate?

X-692. These changes in the Heav'ns, though slow, produc'd / Like change on Sea and Land, sideral blast, / Vapour, and Mist, and Exhalation hot, / Corrupt and Pestilent: Now from the North

X-696. Of Norumbega, and the Samoed shoar / Bursting thir brazen Dungeon, armd with ice / And snow and haile and stormie gust and flaw, / Boreas and Cæcias and Argestes loud / And Thrascias rend the Woods and Seas upturn; / With adverse blast up-turns them from the South / Notus and Afer black with thundrous Clouds / From Serraliona; thwart of these as fierce / Forth rush the Levant and the Ponent Windes / Eurus and Zephir with thir lateral noise,

X-706. Sirocco, and Libecchio. Thus began

X-707. Outrage from liveless things; but Discord first / Daughter of Sin, among th' irrational, / Death introduc'd through fierce antipathie: / Beast now with Beast gan war, and Fowle with Fowle, / And Fish with Fish; to graze the Herb all leaving,

X-712. Devourd each other; nor stood much in awe

X-713. Of Man, but fled him, or with count'nance grim / Glar'd on him passing: these were from without

X-715. The growing miseries, which Adam saw / Alreadie in part, though hid in gloomiest shade,

X-717. To sorrow abandond, but worse felt within, / And in a troubl'd Sea of passion tost, / Thus to disburd'n sought with sad complaint.

X-720. O miserable of happie! is this the end / Of this new glorious World, and mee so late / The Glory of that Glory, who now becom / Accurst of blessed, hide me from the face / Of God, whom to behold was then my highth

X-725. Of happiness: yet well, if here would end / The miserie, I deserv'd it, and would beare / My own deservings; but this will not serve;

X-728. All that I eat or drink, or shall beget, / Is propagated curse. O voice once heard / Delightfully, Encrease and multiply, / Now death to hear! for what can I encrease / Or multiplie, but curses on my head?

X-733. Who of all Ages to succeed, but feeling / The evil on him brought by me, will curse / My Head, Ill fare our Ancestor impure, / For this we may thank Adam; but his thanks / Shall be the execration; so besides / Mine own that bide upon me, all from mee / Shall with a fierce reflux on mee redound, / On mee as on thir natural center light

X-741. Heavie, though in thir place. O fleeting joyes / Of Paradise, deare bought with lasting woes!

X-743. Did I request thee, Maker, from my Clay / To mould me Man, did I sollicite thee

X-745. From darkness to promote me, or here place / In this delicious Garden? as my Will

X-747. Concurd not to my being, it were but right / And equal to reduce me to my dust, / Desirous to resigne, and render back / All I receav'd, unable to performe / Thy terms too hard, by which I was to hold / The good I sought not. To the loss of that,

X-753. Sufficient penaltie, why hast thou added / The sense of endless woes? inexplicable

X-755. Thy Justice seems; yet to say truth, too late,

X-756. I thus contest; then should have been refusd / Those terms whatever, when they were propos'd:

X-758. Thou didst accept them; wilt thou enjoy the good, / Then cavil the conditions? and though God

X-760. Made thee without thy leave, what if thy Son / Prove disobedient, and reprov'd, retort, / Wherefore didst thou beget me? I sought it not

X-763. Wouldst thou admit for his contempt of thee / That proud excuse? yet him not thy election, / But Natural necessity begot.

X-766. God made thee of choice his own, and of his own / To serve him, thy reward was of his grace, / Thy punishment then justly is at his Will. / Be it so, for I submit, his doom is fair,

X-770. That dust I am, and shall to dust returne: / O welcom hour whenever! why delayes / His hand to execute what his Decree / Fixd on this day? why do I overlive,

X-774. Why am I mockt with death, and length'nd out / To deathless pain? how gladly would I meet / Mortalitie my sentence, and be Earth / Insensible, how glad would lay me down

X-778. As in my Mothers lap! There I should rest / And sleep secure; his dreadful voice no more / Would Thunder in my ears, no fear of worse / To mee and to my ofspring would torment me

X-782. With cruel expectation. Yet one doubt

X-783. Pursues me still, least all I cannot die,

X-784. Least that pure breath of Life, the Spirit of Man / Which God inspir'd, cannot together perish

X-786. With this corporeal Clod; then in the Grave, / Or in some other dismal place who knows / But I shall die a living Death? O thought

X-789. Horrid, if true! yet why? it was but breath

X-790. Of Life that sinn'd; what dies but what had life / And sin? the Bodie properly hath neither.

X-792. All of me then shall die: let this appease

X-793. The doubt, since humane reach no further knows.

X-794. For though the Lord of all be infinite, / Is his wrauth also? be it, man is not so, / But mortal doom'd. How can he exercise / Wrath without end on Man whom Death must end?

X-798. Can he make deathless Death? that were to make / Strange contradiction, which to God himself / Impossible is held, as Argument

X-801. Of weakness, not of Power. Will he, draw out, / For angers sake, finite to infinite / In punisht man, to satisfie his rigour / Satisfi'd never; that were to extend / His Sentence beyond dust and Natures Law, / By which all Causes else according still / To the reception of thir matter act, / Not to th' extent of thir own Spheare. But say

X-809. That Death be not one stroak, as I suppos'd, / Bereaving sense, but endless miserie

X-811. From this day onward, which I feel begun / Both in me, and without me, and so last

X-813. To perpetuitie; Ay me, that fear / Comes thundring back with dreadful revolution / On my defensless head; both Death and I / Am found Eternal, and incorporate both,

X-817. Nor I on my part single, in mee all / Posteritie stands curst: Fair Patrimonie

X-819. That I must leave ye, Sons; O were I able / To waste it all my self, and leave ye none!

X-821. So disinherited how would ye bless

X-822. Me now your curse! Ah, why should all mankind / For one mans fault thus guiltless be condemn'd,

X-824. If guiltless? But from mee what can proceed, / But all corrupt, both Mind and Will deprav'd, / Not to do onely, but to will the same / With me? how can they then acquitted stand

X-828. In sight of God? Him after all Disputes

X-829. Forc't I absolve: all my evasions vain / And reasonings, though through Mazes, lead me still / But to my own conviction: first and last / On mee, mee onely, as the sourse and spring / Of all corruption, all the blame lights due;

X-834. So might the wrauth. Fond wish! couldst thou support / That burden heavier then the Earth to bear / Then all the World much heavier, though divided

X-837. With that bad Woman? Thus what thou desir'st, / And what thou fearst, alike destroyes all hope

X-839. Of refuge, and concludes thee miserable / Beyond all past example and future, / To Satan only like both crime and doom.

X-842. O Conscience, into what Abyss of fears / And horrors hast thou driv'n me; out of which / I find no way, from deep to deeper plung'd!

X-845. Thus Adam to himself lamented loud

X-846. Through the still Night, not now, as ere man fell, / Wholsom and cool, and mild, but with black Air / Accompanied, with damps and dreadful gloom, / Which to his evil Conscience represented

X-850. All things with double terror: On the ground / Outstretcht he lay, on the cold ground, and oft / Curs'd his Creation, Death as oft accus'd / Of tardie execution, since denounc't

X-854. The day of his offence. Why comes not Death, / Said hee, with one thrice acceptable stroke

X-856. To end me? Shall Truth fail to keep her word, / Justice Divine not hast'n to be just?

X-858. But Death comes not at call, Justice Divine / Mends not her slowest pace for prayers or cries.

X-860. O Woods, O Fountains, Hillocks, Dales and Bowrs, / With other echo late I taught your Shades / To answer, and resound farr other Song.

X-863. Whom thus afflicted when sad Eve beheld, / Desolate where she sate, approaching nigh, / Soft words to his fierce passion she assay'd: / But her with stern regard he thus repell'd.

X-867. Out of my sight, thou Serpent, that name best

X-868. Befits thee with him leagu'd, thy self as false / And hateful; nothing wants, but that thy shape, / Like his, and colour Serpentine may shew

X-871. Thy inward fraud, to warn all Creatures from thee / Henceforth; least that too heav'nly form, pretended / To hellish falshood, snare them. But for thee

X-874. I had persisted happie, had not thy pride

X-875. And wandring vanitie, when lest was safe, / Rejected my forewarning, and disdain'd / Not to be trusted, longing to be seen / Though by the Devil himself, him overweening / To over-reach, but with the Serpent meeting

X-880. Fool'd and beguil'd, by him thou, I by thee,

X-881. To trust thee from my side, imagin'd wise, / Constant, mature, proof against all assaults, / And understood not all was but a shew / Rather then solid vertu, all but a Rib / Crooked by nature, bent, as now appears, / More to the part sinister from me drawn, / Well if thrown out, as supernumerarie

X-888. To my just number found. O why did God, / Creator wise, that peopl'd highest Heav'n / With Spirits Masculine, create at last / This noveltie on Earth, this fair defect / Of Nature, and not fill the World at once / With Men as Angels without Feminine,

X-894. Or find some other way to generate / Mankind? this mischief had not then befall'n,

X-896. And more that shall befall, innumerable

X-897. Disturbances on Earth through Femal snares, / And straight conjunction with this Sex: for either / He never shall find out fit Mate, but such / As some misfortune brings him, or mistake, / Or whom he wishes most shall seldom gain / Through her perversness, but shall see her gaind / By a farr worse, or if she love, withheld / By Parents, or his happiest choice too late / Shall meet, alreadie linkt and Wedlock-bound / To a fell Adversarie, his hate or shame:

X-907. Which infinite calamitie shall cause / To Humane life, and houshold peace confound.

X-909. He added not, and from her turn'd, but Eve

X-910. Not so repulst, with Tears that ceas'd not flowing, / And tresses all disorderd, at his feet

X-912. Fell humble, and imbracing them, besaught / His peace, and thus proceeded in her plaint.

X-914. Forsake me not thus, Adam, witness Heav'n / What love sincere, and reverence in my heart

X-916. I beare thee, and unweeting have offended, / Unhappilie deceav'd; thy suppliant

X-918. I beg, and clasp thy knees; bereave me not, / Whereon I live, thy gentle looks, thy aid, / Thy counsel in this uttermost distress,

X-921. My onely strength and stay: forlorn of thee, / Whither shall I betake me, where subsist?

X-923. While yet we live, scarse one short hour perhaps, / Between us two let there be peace, both joyning,

X-925. As joyn'd in injuries, one enmitie / Against a Foe by doom express assign'd us, / That cruel Serpent: On me exercise not

X-928. Thy hatred for this miserie befall'n, / On me alreadie lost, mee then thy self

X-930. More miserable; both have sin'd, but thou / Against God onely, I against God and thee,

X-932. And to the place of judgment will return, / There with my cries importune Heaven, that all / The sentence from thy head remov'd may light / On me, sole cause to thee of all this woe, / Mee mee onely just object of his ire.

X-937. She ended weeping, and her lowlie plight, / Immovable till peace obtain'd from fault / Acknowledg'd and deplor'd, in Adam wraught / Commiseration; soon his heart relented / Towards her, his life so late and sole delight, / Now at his feet submissive in distress, / Creature so faire his reconcilement seeking, / His counsel whom she had displeas'd, his aide;

X-945. As one disarm'd, his anger all he lost, / And thus with peaceful words uprais'd her soon.

X-947. Unwarie, and too desirous, as before, / So now of what thou knowst not, who desir'st

X-949. The punishment all on thy self; alas, / Beare thine own first, ill able to sustaine / His full wrauth whose thou feelst as yet lest part, / And my displeasure bearst so ill. If Prayers

X-953. Could alter high Decrees, I to that place / Would speed before thee, and be louder heard, / That on my head all might be visited, / Thy frailtie and infirmer Sex forgiv'n, / To me committed and by me expos'd.

X-958. But rise, let us no more contend, nor blame

X-960. Each other, blam'd enough elsewhere, but strive / In offices of Love, how we may light'n

X-962. Each others burden in our share of woe; / Since this days Death denounc't, if ought I see, / Will prove no sudden, but a slow-pac't evill, / A long days dying to augment our paine, / And to our Seed (O hapless Seed!) deriv'd.

X-966. To whom thus Eve, recovering heart, repli'd. / Adam, by sad experiment I know / How little weight my words with thee can finde, / Found so erroneous, thence by just event / Found so unfortunate; nevertheless, / Restor'd by thee, vile as I am, to place / Of new acceptance, hopeful to regaine

X-973. Thy Love, the sole contentment of my heart / Living or dying, from thee I will not hide / What thoughts in my unquiet brest are ris'n, / Tending to some relief of our extremes, / Or end, though sharp and sad, yet tolerable, / As in our evils, and of easier choice.

X-979. If care of our descent perplex us most, / Which must be born to certain woe, devourd / By Death at last, and miserable it is / To be to others cause of misery, / Our own begotten, and of our Loines to bring / Into this cursed World a woful Race, / That after wretched Life must be at last / Food for so foule a Monster, in thy power

X-987. It lies, yet ere Conception to prevent / The Race unblest, to being yet unbegot. / Childless thou art, Childless remaine: / So Death shall be deceav'd his glut, and with us two / Be forc'd to satisfie his Rav'nous Maw.

X-992. But if thou judge it hard and difficult, / Conversing, looking, loving, to abstain / From Loves due Rites, Nuptial imbraces sweet, / And with desire to languish without hope, / Before the present object languishing / With like desire, which would be miserie / And torment less then none of what we dread,

X-999. Then both our selves and Seed at once to free / From what we fear for both, let us make short,

X-1001. Let us seek Death, or he not found, supply / With our own hands his Office on our selves;

X-1003. Why stand we longer shivering under feares, / That shew no end but Death, and have the power,

X-1005. Of many ways to die the shortest choosing, / Destruction with destruction to destroy.

X-1007. She ended heer, or vehement despaire / Broke off the rest; so much of Death her thoughts

X-1009. Had entertaind, as di'd her Cheeks with pale.

X-1010. But Adam with such counsel nothing sway'd, / To better hopes his more attentive minde / Labouring had rais'd, and thus to Eve repli'd.

X-1013. Eve, thy contempt of life and pleasure seems / To argue in thee somthing more sublime / And excellent then what thy minde contemnes; / But self-destruction therefore saught, refutes / That excellence thought in thee, and implies, / Not thy contempt, but anguish and regret / For loss of life and pleasure overlov'd.

X-1020. Or if thou covet death, as utmost end / Of miserie, so thinking to evade

X-1022. The penaltie pronounc't, doubt not but God / Hath wiselier arm'd his vengeful ire then so / To be forestall'd; much more I fear least Death / So snatcht will not exempt us from the paine / We are by doom to pay; rather such acts / Of contumacie will provoke the highest / To make death in us live: Then let us seek

X-1029. Some safer resolution, which methinks

X-1030. I have in view, calling to minde with heed / Part of our Sentence, that thy Seed shall bruise

X-1032. The Serpents head; piteous amends, unless / Be meant, whom I conjecture, our grand Foe / Satan, who in the Serpent hath contriv'd

X-1035. Against us this deceit: to crush his head / Would be revenge indeed; which will be lost

X-1037. By death brought on our selves, or childless days / Resolv'd, as thou proposest; so our Foe / Shall scape his punishment ordain'd, and wee

X-1040. Instead shall double ours upon our heads.

X-1041. No more be mention'd then of violence / Against our selves, and wilful barrenness, / That cuts us off from hope, and savours onely

X-1044. Rancor and pride, impatience and despite, / Reluctance against God and his just yoke

X-1046. Laid on our Necks. Remember with what mild / And gracious temper he both heard and judg'd

X-1048. Without wrauth or reviling; wee expected / Immediate dissolution, which we thought / Was meant by Death that day, when lo, to thee

X-1051. Pains onely in Child-bearing were foretold,

X-1052. And bringing forth, soon recompenc't with joy,

X-1053. Fruit of thy Womb: On mee the Curse aslope / Glanc'd on the ground, with labour I must earne

X-1055. My bread; what harm? Idleness had bin worse;

X-1056. My labour will sustain me; and least Cold / Or Heat should injure us, his timely care / Hath unbesaught provided, and his hands

X-1059. Cloath'd us unworthie, pitying while he judg'd;

X-1060. How much more, if we pray him, will his ear

X-1061. Be open, and his heart to pitie incline, / And teach us further by what means to shun / Th' inclement Seasons, Rain, Ice, Hail and Snow,

X-1064. Which now the Skie with various Face begins / To shew us in this Mountain, while the Winds / Blow moist and keen, shattering the graceful locks / Of these fair spreading Trees; which bids us seek

X-1068. Som better shroud, som better warmth to cherish / Our Limbs benumm'd, ere this diurnal Starr

X-1070. Leave cold the Night, how we his gather'd beams / Reflected, may with matter sere foment,

X-1072. Or by collision of two bodies grinde / The Air attrite to Fire, as late the Clouds

X-1074. Justling or pusht with Winds rude in thir shock / Tine the slant Lightning, whose thwart flame driv'n down / Kindles the gummie bark of Firr or Pine, / And sends a comfortable heat from farr,

X-1078. Which might supplie the Sun: such Fire to use,

X-1079. And what may else be remedie or cure / To evils which our own misdeeds have wrought,

X-1081. Hee will instruct us praying, and of Grace / Beseeching him, so as we need not fear

X-1083. To pass commodiously this life, sustain'd / By him with many comforts, till we end / In dust, our final rest and native home.

X-1086. What better can we do, then to the place / Repairing where he judg'd us, prostrate fall / Before him reverent, and there confess / Humbly our faults, and pardon beg, with tears / Watering the ground, and with our sighs the Air

X-1091. Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign / Of sorrow unfeign'd, and humiliation meek. / Undoubtedly he will relent and turn / From his displeasure; in whose look serene, / When angry most he seem'd and most severe, / What else but favor, grace, and mercie shon?

X-1097. So spake our Father penitent, nor Eve / Felt less remorse: they forthwith to the place / Repairing where he judg'd them prostrate fell / Before him reverent, and both confess'd / Humbly thir faults, and pardon beg'd, with tears / Watering the ground, and with thir sighs the Air / Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign / Of sorrow unfeign'd, and humiliation meek.