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Me not, but the brute ferpent, in whofe

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Man I deceiv'd, that which to me belongs,
Is enmity, which he will put between
Me and mankind; I am to cruise his heel;
His feed, when is not fet, fhall bruise my

head.

A world who would not purchase with a

bruife,

500 Or much more grievous pain? Ye have th'

account

Of my performance: What remains, ye Gods, But up and enter now into full blifs?

So having faid, a while he stood, expecting Their univerfal fhout and high applaufe, 505 To fill his ear: when contrary, he hears On all fides, from innumerable tongues, A difmal univerfal hifs, the found

Of public fcorn: he wonder'd, but not long Had leifure, wond'ring at himself now

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His vilage drawn he felt to sharp and spare;
His arms clung to his ribs; his legs entwining
Bach other, till fupplanted down he fell
A monftrous ferpent on his belly prone,
Reluctant; but in vain, a greater pow'r
Now rul'd him, punifh'd in the shape he

finn'd

515

According to his doom. He would have spoke,

But hifs for his return'd with forked tongue, To forked tongue; for now were all transform'd

Alike, to ferpents all as accellories

To his bold riot: dreadful was the din

-520

Of hiffing through the hall, thick fwarming

now

With complicated monsters head and tail,
Scorpion, and Afp, and Amphisbaena dire,
Ceraftes horn'd, Hydrus, and Elops drear, 525
And Dipfas, not so thick fwarm'd once the
foil

Bedropt with blood of Gorgon; or the ifle
Ophiusa, but still greatest he the midst,
Cow Dragon grown, larger than whom the

fun

530

Ingender'd in the Pythian vale on fiime,
Huge Python! and his pow'r no lefs he feem'd
Above the rest still to retain: they all

Him follow'd, iffuing forth to th' open field,
Where all yet left of that revolted rout,
Heav'n-fall'n, in ftation ftood or juft array, 535
Sublime with expectation, when to fee
In triumph issuing forth their glorious chief:
They faw, but other fight instead! a crowd
Of ugly ferpents: horror on them fell,
And horrid fympathy: for what they faw, 540
They felt themselves now changing: down
their arms,

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Turn'd to exploding hiss, triumph to shame Cast on themselves from their own mouths. There stood

A grove hard by, fprung up with this their

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His will who reigns above, to aggravate Their penance, laden with fair fruit, like

that

550

Which grew in Paradise, the bait of Eve' 'Us'd by the tempter: on that prospect strange Their earnest eyes they fix'd; imagining

For one forbidden tree, a multitude

Now ris'n, to work them further woe or

shame:

555

Yet parch'd with scalding thirst and hunger

fierce,

1

Though to delude them fent, could not ab

ftain,

But on they roll'd in heaps, and up the trees Climbing, fat thicker than the fnaky locks That curl'd Megaera; greedily they pluck'd 560 The fruitage fair to fight, like that which grew

Near that bituminous lake where Sodom

flam'd;

This, more delufive, not the touch, but tafte Deceiv'd they fondly thinking to allay

. Their appetite with guft, instead of fruit 565 Chew'd bitter afhes, which th' offended taste With fpattering noile rejected: oft they allay'd, Hunger and thirst constraining; drug'd as oft With hatefulleft difrelifh, writh'd their jaws With foot and cinders fill'd so oft they 570

fell

Into the fame illufion; not as man,
Whom they triumph'd once laps'd. Thus were

they plagu'd

And worn with famine, long and ceaseless

hifs,

575

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Till their loft fhape, permitted, they refum'd:
Yearly injoin'd, fome fay, to undergo
This ennual humbling certain number'd days,
To dash their pride, and joy for man feduc'd.
However some tradition they difpers'd
Among the Heathen of their purchase got.
And fabled, how the ferpent, whom they

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Ophion with Eurynome, the wide
Encroaching Eve perhaps, had first de rule
Of high Olympus; thence by Saturn driv'n,
And Ops, e're yet Dictaean Jove was born.

Mean while in Paradise the hellish pair 585

Too foon arriv'd, Sin, there in pow'r before, Once actual'; now in body, and to dwell Habitual habitant; behind her Death,

Clofe following pace for pace, not mounted yet, On his pale horse: to whom Sin thus began. 590 Second of Satan fprung, all conquering Death,

What think'st thou of our empire now? Tho' earn'd

With travel difficult, not better far

Than ftill at Hell's dark threshold t' have fat

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To me, who with eternal famine pine,

Alike, is Hell, or Paradife, or Heav'n;

There beft, where most with ravin I may

meet:

Which here, tho' plenteous, all too little

To ftuff this maw,

feems,

600

this vaft unhide - bound

corps.

To whom th' incestuous mother thus reply'd: Thou therefore on these herbs, and fruits, and flowers

Feed first on each beast next, and fish, and

fowl;

1

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