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Admir'd, not fear'd; God and his Son except,
Created thing nought valued he nor shunn'd;
And with disdainful look thus first began.

Whence and what art thou, execrable shape,
That dar'st, though grim and terrible, advance
Thy miscreated front athwart my way

To yonder gates? through them I mean to pass, That be assur'd, without leave ask'd of thee : Retire, or taste thy folly,' and learn by proof, Hell-born, not to contend with Spirits of Heaven.

To whom the goblin full of wrath reply'd,
Art thou that traitor Angel, art thou He,
Who first broke peace in Heaven and faith, till then
Unbroken, and in proud rebellious arms

Drew after him the third part of Heaven's sons
Conjúr'd against the Highest, for which both thou
And they outcast from God, are here condemn'd
To waste eternal days in woe and pain?
And reckon'st thou thyself with Spirits of Heaven,
Hell-doom'd, and breath'st defiance here and scorn
Where I reign king, and, to enrage thee more,
Thy king and lord? back to thy punishment,
False fugitive, and to thy speed add wings,

Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue

Thy lingering, or with one stroke of this dart
Strange horror seise thee,' and pangs unfelt before.
So spake the grisly terror, and in shape,
So speaking and so threatening, grew ten-fold
More dreadful and deform: on the other side,
Incens'd with indignation Satan stood
Unterrify'd, and like a comet burn'd,
That fires the length of Ophiucus huge
In the Arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head
Levell❜d his deadly aim; their fatal hands
No second stroke intend, and such a frown
Each cast at the other, as when two black clouds
With Heaven's artillery fraught, come rattling on
Over the Caspian, then stand front to front
Hovering a space, till winds the signal blow
To join their dark encounter in mid air:
So frown'd the mighty combatants, that Hell
Grew darker at their frown; so match'd they stood;

For never but once more was either like

To meet so great a foe: and now great deeds

Had been atchiev'd, whereof all Hell had rung,

Had not the snaky sorceress that sat

Fast by hell-gate, and kept the fatal key,
Risen, and with hideous outcry rush'd between.
O Father, what intends thy hand, she cry'd,
Against thy only son? what fury,' O Son,
Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart

Against thy father's head? and know'st for whom?
For him who sits above and laughs the while
At thee ordain'd his drudge, to execute
Whate'er his wrath, which he calls justice, bids;
His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both.
She spake, and at her words the hellish pest
Forbore, then these to her Satan return'd:

So strange thy outcry, and thy words so strange
Thou interposest, that my sudden hand
Prevented spares to tell thee yet by deeds
What it intends; till first I know of thee
What thing thou art, thus double-form'd, and why
In this infernal vale first met thou call'st

Me father, and that fantasm call'st my son ?
I know thee not, nor ever saw till now
Sight more detestable than him and thee.

To whom thus the portress of hell-gate reply'd :

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Hast thou forgot me then? and do I seem
Now in thine eye so foul? once deem'd so fair
In Heaven, when at the assembly, and in sight
Of all the Seraphim with thee combin'd

In bold conspiracy against Heaven's King,

All on a sudden miserable pain

Surpris'd thee, dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum
In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast
Threw forth, till on the left side opening wide,
Likest to thee in shape and countenance bright,
Then shining heavenly fair, a goddess arm'd,
Out of thy head I sprung: amazement seiz'd
All the host of Heaven; back they recoil'd afraid
At first, and call'd me Sin, and for a sign
Portentous held me; but familiar grown,
I pleas'd, and with attractive graces won
The most averse, thee chiefly, who full oft
Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing,
Becam❜st enamour'd, and such joy thou took'st
With me in secret, that my womb conceiv'd
A growing burden. Mean while war arose,
And fields were fought in Heaven; wherein remain'd
(For what could else?) to our almighty foe

Clear victory, to our part loss and rout

Through all the Empyrean: down they fell
Driven headlong from the pitch of Heaven, down
Into this deep, and in the general fall

I also; at which time this powerful key
Into my hand was given, with charge to keep
These gates for ever shut, which none can pass
Without my opening. Pensive here I sat
Alone, but long I sat not, till my womb,
Pregnant by thee, and now excessive grown,
Prodigious motion felt and rueful throes.

At last this odious offspring whom thou seest
Thine own begotten, breaking violent way,
Tore through my entrails, that with fear and pain
Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew
Transform'd: but he my inbred enemy
Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart

Made to destroy: I fled, and cry'd out Death;
Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sigh'd
From all her caves, and back resounded Death.
I fled, but he pursued (though more, it seems,
Inflam'd with lust than rage) and swifter far,
Me overtook his mother all dismay'd,

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