That fought at Thebes, and Ilium, on each side
Mixed with auxiliar gods; and what resounds
In fable or romance of Uther's son,
Begirt with British and Armoric knights;
And all who since, baptized or infidel,
Jousted in Aspramont or Montalban,
Damasco, or Morocco, or Trebisond,
Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore,
When Charlemain with all his peerage fell
By Fontarabia. Thus far, these, beyond
Compare of mortal prowess, yet observed
Their dread commander:1 he, above the rest
In shape and gesture proudly eminent,

Stood like a tower: his form had yet not lost
All her original brightness, nor appeared
Less than archangel ruined, and the excess
Of glory obscured: as when the sun, new-risen,
Looks through the horizontal misty air,

2

Shorn of his beams; or, from behind the moon,
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds

in alliance with the King of Armorica or Bretagne, or Brittany, in France. Aspramont, a town of the Netherlands; Montalban, now Montauban, in the south of France; Trebisond, anciently Trapezus, on the north shore of Asia Minor;-places famed for joustings, or combats on horseback, between the Christians and infidels. Biserta, or Utica, in Africa, whence the Saracens crossed into Spain. Fontarabia, a strong town in Biscay, in Spain, where Charlemain was defeated by the Saracens, according to some writers.

1 Observed their dread commander.-Though so incomparably surpassing all mortal prowess, they kept their eyes on their leader, as watching the first hint of his will. Addison well calls attention to the elaborate sublimity of the following description, which surpasses the ideas of the greatest masters in poetry or painting.

2 Shorn of his beams.-The picturesque truth of this description of the sun seen through a mist is striking. Disastrous. In the days of astrology misfortunes were ascribed to unfavourable positions of the planets: as the twilight occasioned by an eclipse of the sun was due to an unusual position of the sun and moon, it was fitly described in astrological language as disastrous, or unnatural. In ages of ignorance, it was believed to portend disturbance in states, and danger to kings.

On half the nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes monarchs; darkened so, yet shone
Above them all the archangel: but his face
Deep scars of thunder had intrenched, and care
Sat on his faded cheek, but under brows

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Of dauntless courage, and considerate pride

Waiting revenge: cruel his eye, but cast

Signs of remorse and passion, to behold

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The fellows of his crime, the followers rather

(Far other once beheld in bliss!) condemned

For ever now to have their lot in pain;
Millions of spirits for his fault amerced
Of Heaven,1 and from eternal splendours flung
For his revolt; yet faithful how they stood,"
Their glory withered! as, when Heaven's fire
Hath scathed the forest oaks or mountain pines,
With singed top their stately growth, though bare,
Stands on the blasted heath. He now prepared
To speak; whereat their doubled ranks they bend
From wing to wing, and half inclose him round
With all his peers: attention held them mute.
Thrice he essayed, and thrice, in spite of scorn,
Tears, such as angels weep, burst forth at last
Words, interwove with sighs, found out their way.
"O myriads of immortal spirits! O powers
"Matchless, but with the Almighty; and that strife
"Was not inglorious, though the event was dire,
"As this place testifies, and this dire change
"Hateful to utter: but what power of mind,
"Foreseeing or presaging, from the depth
"Of knowledge past or present, could have feared
"How such united force of gods,-how such

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1 For his fault amerced of Heaven; made to forfeit, penally deprived of. 2 Yet faithful how they stood-1. 605, to behold-how they stood.

3 The appropriateness of this comparison hardly needs to be pointed out.

"As stood like these could ever know repulse?
"For who can yet believe, though after loss,
"That all these puissant legions, whose exile
"Hath emptied Heaven, shall fail to reascend
"Self-raised, and repossess their native seat?
"For me be witness all the host of Heaven,
"If counsels different or dangers shunned
"By me have lost our hopes: but he, who reigns
"Monarch in Heaven, till then as one secure
"Sat on his throne, upheld by old repute,
"Consent, or custom; and his regal state1
"Put forth at full; but still his strength concealed,
"Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall.
"Henceforth his might we know, and know our own;
"So as not either to provoke, or dread

“New war, provoked: our better part remains,
"To work in close design, by fraud or guile,
"What force effected not; that he no less

"At length from us may find, who overcomes

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By force, hath overcome but half his foe.

2

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"Space may produce new worlds, whereof so rife "There went a fame in Heaven, that he ere long "Intended to create, and therein plant

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"A generation, whom his choice regard

"Should favour equal to the sons of Heaven. "Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps

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"Our first eruption; thither or elsewhere: "For this infernal pit shall never hold

"Celestial spirits in bondage, nor the abyss

"Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts

"Full counsel must mature: peace is despaired;

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1 Regal state, royal pomp, display of royal greatness and dignity.

2 Whereof so rife there went a fame in Heaven, &c.-Beautiful glimpses of the destined creation of man, rumoured in Heaven before the revolt of the angels. The allusion is repeated, book ii. 346.

"For who can think submission? war then, war, "Open or understood, must be resolved.”

He spake; and, to confirm his words, out flew
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs
Of mighty cherubim; the sudden blaze

Far around illumined Hell: highly they raged
Against the Highest, and fierce, with graspèd arms,
Clashed on their sounding shields1 the din of war,
Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heaven.
There stood a hill not far, whose grisly top

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Belched fire and rolling smoke; the rest entire

Shone with a glossy scurf; undoubted sign

That in his womb was hid metallic ore,

The work of sulphur. Thither, winged with speed,

A numerous brigade 2 hastened; as when bands

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Of pioneers, with spade and pickaxe armed,
Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field,
Or cast a rampart. MAMMON3 led them on;
MAMMON, the least erected spirit that fell

From Heaven; for e'en in Heaven his looks and thoughts 680
Were always downward bent, admiring more

The riches of Heaven's pavement, trodden gold,
Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed

In vision beatific: by him first

Men also, and by his suggestion taught,
Ransacked the centre, and, with impious hands,
Rifled the bowels of their mother earth

For treasures, better hid. Soon had his crew

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1 With grasped arms, clashed on their sounding shields, &c.-As the Roman soldiers of old applauded a speech of their general, by striking their shields with their swords.

2 Brigade, spelt in the old editions "brigad," a term supposed to have been introduced into Spain by the Moors.

detached or broken off from a larger body.

It means a party of troops

3 Mammon, a Syriac word meaning riches, personified as a demon or genius presiding over wealth, like the Greek term Plutus.

Opened into the hill a spacious wound,

1

And digged out ribs of gold. Let none admire
That riches grow in Hell; that soil may best
Deserve the precious bane. And here let those,
Who boast in mortal things, and wondering tell
Of Babel, and the works of Memphian kings,
Learn how their greatest monuments of fame,
And strength, and art, are easily outdone
By spirits reprobate; and in an hour,
What in an age, they, with incessant toil,
And hands innumerable, scarce perform.
Nigh on the plain, in many cells prepared,
That underneath had veins of liquid fire
Sluiced from the lake, a second multitude,
With wondrous art, founded the massy ore,

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Severing each kind, and scummed the bullion dross:2

A third as soon had formed within the ground

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A various mould, and from the boiling cells,

By strange conveyance, filled each hollow nook:
As in an organ, from one blast of wind,

To many a row of pipes the sound-board breathes.
Anon, out of the earth a fabric huge

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Rose, like an exhalation, with the sound
Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet;
Built like a temple, where pilasters round

Were set, and Doric pillars, overlaid

With golden architrave :3 nor did there want
Cornice, or frieze with bossy sculptures graven;

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1 The works of Memphian kings-the Pyramids of Egypt, near Memphis. Ancient writers relate that 360,000 men were employed for nearly twenty years in building one of the Pyramids.

2 Bullion dross.--Bullion means a mass of unwrought precious metal. Milton seems to denote by it, metal not yet perfectly purified. Thus, in his tract on the Reformation of England, he speaks of extracting “gold and silver out of the drossy bullion of the people's sins."

3 Architrave, the lowest division of an entablature, or that part of a