Treading the crude consistence, half on foot,
Half flying; behoves him now both oar and sail,
As when a gryfon through the wilderness
With winged course o'er hill or moory dale
Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth
Had from his wakeful custody purloin'd
The guarded gold: so eagerly the fiend

945

[rare,

O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or
With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way,
And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies,
At length a universal hubbub wild

Of stunning sounds and voices all confus'd,
Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear
With loudest vehemence: thither he plies,
Undaunted to meet there whatever power
Or spirit of the nethermost abyss

Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask

912 oar] Beaumont's Psyche, c. xvi. st. 224.

"

Spreading their wings like oars.'

Marino's Sl. of the Inn. p. 49.

'With wings like feather'd oars.'

And Dante, II. Purg. c. ii.

945

'Si che remo non vuol, ne altro velo.' C. xii. 4.

955

Arimaspian] Æschyli Prometheus, ver. 810. See Pomp. Mela; lib. ii. c. 1. Solini Polyh. xv. 22. Prisciani Pervig. ver. 700. Plauti Aulularia, act iv. sc. 8. i. p. 142. Plin. N. Hist. lib. iv. c. 26. See Bulwer's Artif. Changeling, p. 102.

949 With head] See Sidon. Apollinar. c. ii. 171. Antholog. Lat. ed. Burm. vol. 1, p. 403. Ep. cciii. for this manner of speech:

Pastor, Arator, Eques, pavi, colui, superavi,

Capras, rus, hostes, fronde, ligone, manu,'

Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies,
Bordering on light; when straight behold the

throne

970

960

Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread Wide on the wasteful Deep: with him enthron'd Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things, The consort of his reign; and by them stood Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name Of Demogorgon; Rumor next, and Chance, 965 And Tumult, and Confusion, all imbroil'd, And Discord with a thousand various mouths. T'whom Satan turning boldly, thus.-Ye Powers, And Spirits of this nethermost abyss, Chaos and antient Night, I come no spy, With purpose to explore or to disturb The secrets of your realm; but by constraint Wand'ring this darksome desart, as my way Lies through your spacious empire up to light, Alone, and without guide, half lost, I seek 95 What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds Confine with heav'n; or if some other place, From your dominion won, th' ethereal King Possesses lately, thither to arrive I travel this profound, direct my course; Directed, no mean recompence it brings To your behoof, if I that region lost, All usurpation thence expell'd, reduce To her original darkness and your sway, Which is my present journey, and once more 985 Erect the standard there of antient Night;

980

Yours be th' advantage all, mine the revenge.
Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old,
With fault'ring speech and visage incompos'd,
Answer'd. I know thee, stranger, who thou art, 990
That mighty leading angel, who of late [thrown.
Made head against heav'n's King, though over-
I saw and heard; for such a numerous host
Fled not in silence through the frighted deep,
With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout,

995

Confusion worse confounded; and heav'n gates
Pour'd out by millions her victorious bands
Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here
Keep residence; if all I can will serve,
That little which is left so to defend,

Encroach'd on still thro' your intestine broils 1000
Weak'ning the scepter of old Night: first hell,
Your dungeon, stretching far and wide beneath;
Now lately heaven and earth, another world,
Hung o'er my realm, link'd in a golden chain 1005
To that side heav'n from whence your legions fell:
If that way be your walk, you
have not far;
So much the nearer danger: go and speed;
Havock, and spoil, and ruin are my gain.

He ceas'd; and Satan stay'd not to reply, 1010 But glad that now his sea should find a shore, With fresh alacrity and force renew'd

Springs upward, like a pyramid of fire,

1013

1630.

a pyramid of fire] Drayton in his David and Geirah,

1015

Into the wild expanse, and through the shock Of fighting elements, on all sides round Environ'd, wins his way; harder beset And more endanger'd, than when Argo pass'd Through Bosporus betwixt the justling rocks: Or when Ulysses on the larboard shun'd Charybdis, and by th' other whirlpool steer'd. 1020 So he with difficulty and labour hard Mov'd on, with difficulty and labour he; But he once past, soon after when man fell, Strange alteration! Sin and Death amain Following his track, such was the will of Heav'n, Pav'd after him a broad and beaten way Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf Tamely endur'd a bridge of wond'rous length, From hell continu'd, reaching th' utmost orb Of this frail world; by which the spirits perverse With easy intercourse pass to and fro To tempt or punish mortals, except whom God and good Angels guard by special grace. But now at last the sacred influence Of light appears, and from the walls of heav'n 1035 Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night A glimmering dawn: here Nature first begins Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire As from her outmost works, a broken foe, With tumult less and with less hostile din, That Satan with less toil and now with ease Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light, And like a weather-beaten vessel holds

1010

1045

Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn;
Or in the emptier waste, resembling air,
Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold
Far off th' empyreal heav'n, extended wide
In circuit, undetermin'd square or round,
With opal tow'rs and battlements adorn'd
Of living saphire, once his native seat;
And fast by hanging in a golden chain
This pendant world, in bigness as a star
Of smallest magnitude close by the moon.
Thither full fraught with mischievous revenge,
Accurs'd, and in a cursed hour, he hies.

1030

1055

1052 This pendant world] Verbatim from Shakespeare's Meas. for Meas. act iii. scene i.

1054 mischievous]

'Thither full fraught, with hope of wished success.'

Bentl. MS.