Sauts out the Storms: the Winds and waves complain, And vent their Malice on the Cliffs in vain.
The Port lies hid within: on either Side
Two tow'ring Rocks the narrow Mouth divide.
As haggar Hauk, prefuming to contend With hardie fowle, above his able might,
His wearie pounces all in vaine doth spend To truffe the prey too heavie for his flight;
Which coming down to ground does free it felf by fight.
Aufpicious Health appear'd on Zephir's Wings; She feem'd a Cherub most divinely bright,
More foft than Air, more gay than Morning Light.
Hail blooming Goddefs! thou propitious Pow'r,
Whofe Bleflings Mortals next to Life implore;
With fo much Luftre your bright Looks endear,
That Cottages are Courts when thofe appear.
Mankind, as you vouchfafe to fmile or frown,
Find Eafe in Chains, or Anguish in a Crown.
The fecond Bulwarke was the Hearing fenfe, 'Gainst which the second troupe affignment makes ; Deformed creatures, in ftrange difference,
Some having heads like Harts; fome like to fnakes,
Some like wild Bores late rous'd out of the breakes,
Slaundrous reproches, and foule infamies,
Leafings, backbitings, and vain-glorious crakes,
Bad counfels, prayfes, and falfe flatteries,
All thofe against that fort did bend their batteries.
The beating Heart demanding firft the Ufe, Is the first Mufcle Nature does produce.
By this impulfive Engine's conftant Aid
The tepid Floods are ev'ry way convey'd :
And did not Nature's Care at first provide
The active Heart to push the circling Tide,
All Progrefs to her Work would be deny'd.
The falient Point, fo firft is call'd the Heart,
Shap'd and fufpended with amazing Art,
By turns dilated, and by turns compreft,
Expels, and entertains the purple Guest:
It fends from out its left contracted Side
Into th' Arterial Tube its vital Pride.
Faire Helene, the flowre of beauty excellent,
And girlond of the mighty Conquerours,
That madeft many Ladies deare lament
The heavy lofs of their brave Paramours,
Which they far off beheld from Trojan_towres,
And faw the fields of faire Seamander ftrowne
With carcaffes of noble warriours,
Whoes fruitlefs lives were under farrow fowne, And Xanthus fandy bankes with blood all over(flowne. Spen.
By that fame way the direful Dames do drive
Their mournful Chariot, fill'd with rusty bloud,
And down to Pluto's houfe are come belive :
Which paffing thro', on every fide them stood
The trembling ghofts with fad amazed mood,
Chattring their iron teeth, and staring wide
With ftony eyes; and all the hellish brood
Of fiends infernal flock't on every side
To gaze on earthly wight,that with the night durft
They pass the bitter waves of Acheron, Where many foules fit wailing woefully, And come to fiery flood of Phlegeton,
Whereas the damned ghofts in torments fry,
And with fharp fhrilling fhrieks doe bootlefs cry,
Curfing high Jove, the which them thither fent.
The house of endless paine is built thereby,
In which ten thoufand forts of punishment
The curfed creatures eternally torment.
Before the threshold, dreadful Cerberus
His three deformed heads did lay along,
Curled with thoufand Adders venemous,
And lilled forth his bloody flaming tong:
At them he gan to rear his bristles ftrong.
And felly gnaree, until days enimy
Did him appeafe, then down his tail he hong,
And fuffered them to paffen quietly:
For fhe in Hell and Heaven had power equally. Spen.
Nine times the Space that meafures Day and Night
To mortal Men, he with his horrid Crew
Lay vanquish'd, rowling in the fiery Gulph:
Confounded, tho' immortal: But his Doam
Referv'd him to more Wrath; for now the Thought
Both of loft Happiness and lafting Pain
Torments him; round he throws his baleful Eyes,
That witness'd huge Affliction and Difmay,
Mix'd with obdurate Pride, and ftedfaft Hate :
At once, as far as Angels ken, he views
The dismal Situation, wafte and wild;
A Dungeon horrible, on all Sides round,
As one great Furnace, flam'd; yet from thofe Flames
No Light, but rather darkness vifible,
Serv'd only to discover Sights of Woe,
Regions of Sorrows, doleful Shades, where Peace
And Reft can never dwell, Hope never comes,
That comes to all: but Torture without end
Still urges, and a fiery Deluge fed
With ever-burning Sulphur unconfum'd.
There the Companions of his Fall, o'erwhelm'd
With Floods and Whirlwinds of tempeftuous Fire,
He foon difcern'd, lie weltering about him:
His Head up-lift above the Wave, his Eyes
That fparkling blaz'd, his other Parts befides
Prone on the Flood, extended long and large,
Lay floating many a Rood: in Bulk as huge
As whom the Fables name of monstrous Size,
Briareus, or Typhon, whom the Den
By antient Tarfus held :
So ftretch'd out huge in length the Arch-Fiend lay, Chain'd on the burning Lake.
Forthwith upright he rears from off the Pool
His mighty Stature: On each Hand the Flames
Driv'n backward, flope their pointed Spires,and rowl'd
In Billows; leave i'th' midst a horrid Vale:
Then with expanded Wings he steers his Flight
Aloft, incumbent on the dusky Air,
That felt unusual Weight, 'till on dry Land
He lights, if it be Land that ever burn'd
With folid, as the Lake with liquid Fire.
He walk'd
Over the burning Marle, the torrid Clime
Smote on him fore befides, vaulted with Fire.
Another Part in Squadrons and grofs Bands,
On bold Adventure, to discover wide
That difmal World, bend
Four Ways their flying March, along the Banks
Of four infernal Rivers, that difgorge
Into the burning Lake their baleful Streams.
Abhorred Styx, the Flood of deadly Hate:
Sad Acheron, of Sorrow black and deep:
Cocytus, nam'd of Lamentation loud
Heard on the ruful Stream: Fierce Phlegeton,
Whofe Waves of torrent Fire enflame with Rage;
Far off from these a flow and filent Stream,
Lethe, the River of Oblivion rowls
Her watry Labyrinth, whereof who drinks,
Forthwith his former State and Bein; forgets,
Forgets both Joy and Grief, Pleasure and Pain.
Beyond this Flood a frozen Continent
Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual Storms
Of Whirlwind and dire Hail, which on firm Land
Thaws not, but gathers Heap, and Ruin feems
Of antient Pile all elfe deep Snow and Ice.
Burns frore, and Cold performs th' Effect of Fire.
Thither by Harpy-footed Furies hall'd,
At certain Revolutions, all the Damn'd
Are brought, and feel by Turns the bitter Change
Of fierce Extreams, Extreams by Change more fierce :
From Beds of raging Fire to ftarve in Ice
Their foft ethereal Warmth, and their to pine
Immovable, infix'd, and frozen round,
Periods of Time; thence hurry'd back to Fire.
They ferry over this Lethaan Sound
Both to and fro, their Sorrow to augment;
And wish, and struggle, as they pass to reach
The tempting Stream, with one fmall Drop to lofe
In fweet Forgetfulness, all Pain and Woe;
But Fate withstands, and to oppofe th' Attempt
Medufa with Gorgonian Terrour guards
The Ford, and of it felf the Water flies
All Taste of living Wight, as once it fled
The Lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on,
In confus'd March, forlorn, th' advent'rous Bands
With fhudd'ring Horror pale, and Eyes aghaft,
View'd first their lamentable Lot, and found
No Reft thro' many a dark and dreary Vale
They pafs'd, and many a Region dolorous,
O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp,
Rocks, Caves,Lakes, Fens, Bogs, Dens,and Shades of Death:
A Univerfe of Death,
Where all Life dies, Death lives; and Nature breeds Perverfe, all monftrous, all prodigious Things,
Abominable, inutterable, and worfe
Than Fables yet have feign'd, or Fear conceiv`d;
Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire.
|