Suspended Hell, and took with ravishment The thronging audience. In discourse more sweet (For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense,) 556 Others apart sat on a hill retired, In thoughts more elevate, and reason'd high 560 565 570 Four ways their flying march, along the banks 575 Into the burning lake their baleful streams; Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate; Cocytus, named of lamentation loud Heard on the rueful stream; fierce Phlegethon, Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage. 580 585 590 A gulf profound, as that Serbonian bog Betwixt Damiata and mount Casius old, Where armies whole have sunk: The parching air At certain revolutions, all the damn'd 595 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 600 Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine Immovable, infix'd, and frozen round, Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire. Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment, 605 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 the attempt The ford, and of itself the water flies All taste of living wight, as once it fled The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on 610 In confused march forlorn, the adventurous bands, 615 With shuddering horror pale, and eyes aghast, View'd first their lamentable lot, and found No rest through many a dark and dreary vale 620 Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death, A universe of death: which God by curse Created evil, for evil only good; Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds, Abominable, inutterable, and worse Than fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceived, 625 Satan, with thoughts inflamed of highest design, 630 Puts on swift wings, and towards the gates of Hell Explores his solitary flight: sometimes He scours the right hand coast, sometimes the left; Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars Their spicy drugs; they, on the trading flood, 640 Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape, Ply stemming nightly toward the pole so seem'd Hell bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof, And thrice threefold the gates; three folds were brass, 'Three iron, three of adamantine rock 616 Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire, Yet unconsumed. Before the gates there sat, On either side a formidable shape: The one seem'd woman to the waist, and fair; 650 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 Hellhounds never ceasing bark'd With wide Cerberian mouths full loud, and rung 655 If aught disturb'd their noise, into her womb, 660 In secret, riding through the air she comes, 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, And shook a dreadful dart; what seem'd his head Satan was now at hand, and from his seat The monster moving onward came as fast 675 680 685 691 Whence and what art thou, execrable shape! Thy lingering; or with one stroke of this dart 695 700 705 710 More dreadful and deform. On the other side, To join their dark encounter in mid air: So frown'd the mighty combatants that Hell Grew darker at their frown: so match'd they stood; To meet so great a foe: And now great deeds 721 725 O Father! what intends thy hand, she cried, 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 Forbore; then these to her Satan return'd: 731 735 So strange thy outcry, and thy words so strange Thou interposest, that my sudden hand, Prevented, spares to tell thee yet by deeds 740 What thing thou art, thus double-form'd; and why, |