What matter, where, if I be still the same, Ard what I should be; all but less than he Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least We shall be free; the Almighty hath not built Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: Here we may reign secure, and, in my choice, To reign is worth ambition, though in hell: Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven. But wherefore let we then our faithful friends, The associates and copartners of our loss, Lie thus astonish'd on the oblivious pool, And call them not to share with us their part In this unhappy mansion; or once more With rallied arms to try what may be yet Regain'd in heaven, or what more lost in hell?" So Satan spake, and him Beelzebub
Thus answer'd: "Leader of those armies bright, Which but the Omnipotent none could have foil'd, If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge Of battle when it raged, in all assaults Their surest signal, they will soon resume New courage and revive; though now they lie Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire, As we erewhile, astounded and amaz'd; No wonder, fall'n such a pernicious height." He scarce had ceased when the superior fiend Was moving toward the shore: his ponderous shield Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round, Behind him cast; the broad circumference Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views At evening from the top of Fesolé, Ör in Valdarno, to descry new lands, Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe. His spear, to equal which the tallest pine Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast Of some great admiral, were but a wand, He walk'd with, to support uneasy steps Over the burning marle, not like those steps
On heaven's azure, and the torrid clime Sinote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire: Nathless he so endured, till on the beach Of that inflamed sea he stood, and call'd His legions, angel forms, who lay intrance l Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks In Vallambrosa, where the Etrurian shades, High over-arch'd, imbower; or scatter'd sedge Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion arm'd Hath vex'd the Red Sea coast, whose waves o'erthrew Busiris and his Memphian chivalry,
While with perfidious hatred they pursued The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld From the safe shore their floating carcasses And broken chariot-wheels: so thick bestrewn, Abject and lost lay these, covering the flood, Under amazement of their hideous change. He call'd so loud, that all the hollow deep Of hell resounded. "Princes, potentates, Warriors, the flower of heaven, once yours, now lost, If such astonishment as this can seize
Eternal spirits; or have ye chosen this place After the toil of battle to repose
Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find To slumber here, as in the vales of heaven? Or in this abject posture have ye sworn To adore the Conqueror? who now beholds Cherub and seraph rolling in the flood With scatter'd arms and ensigns, till anon His swift pursuers from heaven-gates discern The advantage, and descending, tread us down Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf. Awake, arise, or be for ever fall'n!"
They heard, and were abash'd, and up they sprung Upon the wing: as when men wont to watch On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread, Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake.. Nor did they not perceive the evil plight In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel; Yet to their general's voice they soon obey'd,
As when the potent rod
Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day,
Wav'd round the coast, up call'd a pitchy cloud Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind,
That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung Like night, and darken'd all the land of Nile: So numberless were those bad angels seen, Hovering on wing under the cope of hell, "Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires; Fill at a signal given, the uplifted spear Of their great sultan waving to direct Their course, in even balance down they light On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain.. A multitude like which the populous north Pour'd never from her frozen loirs, to pass Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons- Came like a deluge on the south, and spread Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan sauds. Forthwith from every squadron and each band The heads and leaders thither haste where stood Their great commander; godlike shapes and forms Excelling human, princely dignities,
And powers that erst in heaven sat on thrones, Though of their names in heavenly records now Be no memorial; blotted out and razed By their rebellion from the books of life. Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve
Got them new names; till, wandering o'er the earth Through God's high sufferance for the trial of man,. By falsities and lies the greatest part
Of mankind they corrupted to forsake God their Creator, and the invisible Glory of him that made them to transform Oft to the image of a brute, adorn'd With gay religions, full of pomp and gold, And devils to adore for deities:
Then were they known to men by various names, And various idols through the heathen world. Say, muse, their names then known, who first,, who last,
Roused from the slumber on that fiery couch,
At their great emperor's call, as next in worth Came singly where he stood on the bare strand, While the promiscuous crowd stood yet aloof. The chief were those, who, from the pit of hell, Roaming to seek their prey on earth, durst fix Their seats long after next the seat of God, Their altars by his altar, gods adored Among the nations round, and durst abide Jehovah thundering out of Sion, throned Between the cherubim; yea, often placed Within his sanctuary itself their shrines, Abominations; and with cursed things His holy rites and solemn feasts profaned, And with their darkness durst affront his light. First, Moloch, horrid king, besmear'd with blood Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears; Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud Their childrens' cries unheard, that pass'd through fire To this grim idol. Him the Ammonite Worshipp'd in Rabba and her watery plain,` In Argob and in Basan, to the stream Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart Of Solomon he led by fraud to build His temple right against the temple of God Ou that opprobrious hill; and made his grove The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence And black Gehenna call'd, the type of hell. Next, Chemes, the obscene dread of Moab's sons, From Aroer to Nebo, and the wild Of southmost Abarim; in Hesebon And Horonaim, Seon's realm, beyond
The flowery dale of Sibma clad with vines, And Eleäle to the asphaltic pool.
Peor his other name, when he enticed Israel in Sittim, on their march from Nile,
To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe. Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarged Even to that hill of scandal, by the grove Of Moloch homicide; lust hard by hate; Till good Josiah drove them thence to hell.
With these came they, who, from the bordering flood Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names Of Baalim and Ashtaroth; those male, These feminine: for spirits when they please, Can either sex assume, or both; so soft And uncompounded is their essence pure;' Not tied or manacled with joint or limb, Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones, Like cumbrous flesh; but, in what shape they choose Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure,
Can execute their aëry purposes,
And works of love or enmity fulfil.
For those the race of Israel oft forsook Their living Strength, and unfrequented left His righteous altar, bowing lowly down To bestial gods; for which their heads as low Bow'd down in battle, sunk before the spear Of despicable foes. With these in troop Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians called Astarte, queen of heaven, with crescent horns! To whose bright image nightly by the moon Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs; In Sion also not unsung, where stood Her temple on the offensive mountain, built By that uxurious king, whose heart, though large, Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell
To idols foul. Thammuz came next behind, Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured The Syrian damsels to lament his fate In amorous ditties all a summer's day':' While smooth Adonis from his native rock Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood Of Thammuz yearly wounded: the love-tale- Infected Sion's daughters with like heat; Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch Ezekiel saw, when, by the vision led, His eye survey'd the dark idolatries Of alienated Judali. Next came one
Who mouru'd in earnest, when the captive ark Maim'd his brute image, head and hands lopp'd off
« IndietroContinua » |