Had leifure, wondring at himself now more;
His Visage drawn he felt to sharp and spare,
His Arms clung to his Ribs, his Legs entwining
Each other, till supplanted down he fell
A monftrous Serpent on his Belly prone,
Reluctant, but in vain, a greater power
Now rul'd him, punisht in the shape he fin'd,
According to his doom: he would have spoke,
But hiss for hiss return'd with forked tongue
To forked tongue, for now were all transform'd
Alike, to Serpents all as accessories
To his bold Riot: dreadful was the din
Of hissing through the Hall, thick swarming now
With complicated monsters head and tail,
Scorpion and Afp, and Amphisbana dire,
Cerafter horn'd, Hydrus, and Ellops drear,
And Dipsas (not so thick swarm'd once the Soil
Bedropt with blood of Gorgon, or the Ifle
Ophiusa) but still greatest he the midst,
Now Dragon grown, larger than whom the Sun
Ingender'd in the Pythian Vale on flime,
Huge Python, and his power no less he seem'd
Above the rest still to retain; they all
Him follow'd issuing forth to th' open Field,
Where all yet left of that revolted Rout
Heav'n-falln, in station stood or just array,
Sublime with expectation when to see
In Triumph issuing forth their glorious Chief;
They saw, but other fight instead, a crowd
Of ugly Serpents; horror on them fell,
dahorrid sympathy; for what they faw, ey felt themselves now changing; down their arms, wn fell both Spear and Shield, down they as fast, _d the dire hiss renew'd, and the dire form Echt by Contagion, like in punishment, in their crime. Thus was th'applause they meant, rn'd to exploding hiss, triumph to shame [ftood ft on themselves from their own mouths. There Grove hard by, sprung up with this theit change,
s will who reigns above, to aggravate neir patience, laden with Fruit, like that
hich grew in Paradise, the bait of Eve
s'd by the Tempter: on that prospect strange
heir earnest Eyes they fix'd, imagining
or one forbidden Tree a multitude
low ris'n, to work them further woe or thame; sss
et parcht with scalding thirst and hunger fierce,
Though to delude them sent, could not abstain,
But on they roll'd in heaps, and up the Trees
Climbing, fate thicker than the snaky locks
That curl'd Magara: greedily they pluck'd
The Frutage fair to fight, like that which grew
Near that bituminous Lake where Sodom flam'd;
This more delusive, not the touch, but taste
Deceiv'd; they fondly thinking to allay
Their appetite with gust, instead of Fruit
Chew'd bitter Ashes, which th' offended taste
With spattering noise rejected: oft they affay'd,
Hunger and thirst constraining, drug'd as oft,
With hatefullest disrelish writh'd their jaws
With foot and cinders fill'd; so oft they fell
Into the fame illufion, not as Man
[plagu'd
Whom they triumph'd once lapst. Thus were they
And worn with Famine, long and ceafless hiss,
Till their loft shape permitted, they refum'd,
Yearly enjoin'd, some say, to undergo
This annual humbling certain number'd days,
To dash their pride, and joy for Man feduc'd.
However some tradition they dispers'd
Among the Heathen of their purchase got,
And Fabl'd how the Serpent, whom they call'd sto
Ophion with Eurynome, the wide
Encroaching Eve perhaps, had firft the rule
Of high Olympus, thence by Saturn driv'n
And Ops, e'er yet Diftaan Jove was born.
Mean while in Paradise the hellish pair
Too foon arriv'd, Sin there in power before,
Once actual, now in body, and to dwell
Habitual habitant; behind her Death
Close following pace for pace, not mounted yet
On his pale Horse: to whom Sin thus began. 590
Second of Satan sprung, all conquering Death, What thinkft thou of our Empire now, tho' earn'd With travel difficult, not better far Than ftill at Hell's dark threshold to have fate watch, Unnam'd, undreaded, and thy felf half starv'd? 595 Whom thus the Sin-born Monster answer'd foon. To me, who with eternal Famine pine, Alike is Hell, or Paradise, or Heaven, There beft, where most with ravin I may meeti
chhere, tho' plenteous, all too little seems 600 tuff this Maw, this vast unhide-bound Corps. o whom th' incestuous Mother thus reply'd. u therefore on these Herbs, and Fruits, and Flours first, on each Beaft next, and Fish, and Fowle, homely morfels, and whatever thing Sithe of Time mowes down, devour unspar'd, I in Man residing through the Race thoughts, his looks, words, actions all infect, d season him thy last and sweetest prey. This faid, they both betook them several ways, 610 th to destroy, or unimmortal make
kinds, and for destruction to mature oner or later; which th' Almighty seeing, om his transcendent Seat the Saints among, those bright Orders utter'd thus his voice. 615 See with what heat these Dogs of Hell advance waste and havoc yonder World, which I fair and good created, and had still ept in the State, had not the folly of Man et in these wasteful Furies, who impute olly to me; so doth the Prince of Hell Ind his Adherents, that with so much ease fuffer them to enter and possess
A place so heav'nly, and conniving seem
To gratifie my scornful Enemies,
Thrat laugh, as if transported with some fit
Of Paffion, I to them had quitted all,
At random yielded up to their misrule;
And know not that I call'd and drew them thither
My Hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth 620
Which mans polluting Sin with taint hath shed
On what was pure, till cramm'd and gorg'd, nigh bun
With fuckt and glutted offal, at one fling
Of thy victorious Arm, well-pleasing Son,
Both Sin, and Death, and yawning Grave at lak
Through Chaos hurl'd, obstruct the mouth of Hell
For ever, and feal up his ravenous Jawes.
Then Heav'n and Earth renew'd shall be made pre
To fanctity that shall receive no ftain:
Till then the Curse pronounc'd on both precedes. 64
He ended, and the heav'oly Audience loud
Sung Halleluja, as the found of Seas,
Through multitude that fung: Just are thy ways,
Righteous are thy Decrees on all thy Works;
Who can extenuate thee? Next, to the Son, 645
Destin'd restorer of Mankind, by whom
New Heav'n and Earth shall to the Ages rife,
Or down from Heav'n descend. Such was their fong,
While the Creator calling forth by name
His mighty Angels gave them several charge, 650
As forted best with present things. The Sun
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
Solftitial fummers heat. To the blanc Moon
Her office they prefcrib'd, to th' other five
Their planetary motions and aspects.
In Sextile, Square, and Trine, and oppofite
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