Which, but herself, not all the Stygian powers
Could once have mov'd; then in the key-hole turns
The intricate wards, and every bolt and bar

Of massy iron, or solid rock, with ease
Unfastens. On a sudden open fly,

With impetuous recoil and jarring sound,
The infernal doors, and on their hinges grate
Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook
Of Erebus. She open'd, but to shut

Excell'd her power: the gates wide open stood,
That with extended wings a banner'd host,
Under spread ensigns marching, might pass through
With horse and chariots rank'd in loose array;
So wide they stood, and, like a furnace-mouth,
Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame.
Before their eyes in sudden view appear

The secrets of the hoary deep; a dark
Illimitable ocean, without bound,

Without dimension; where length, breadth, and height.
And time, and place, are lost; where eldest Night
And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold

Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise

Of endless wars, and by confusion stand.

For Hot, Cold, Moist, and Dry,* four champions fierce,
Strive here for mastery, and to battle bring
Their embryon atoms; they around the flag
Of each his faction, in their several clans,
Light-arm'd, or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift, or slow,
Swarm populous, (unnumber'd as the sands

Of Barca, or Gyrene's torrid soil,

Levied to side with warring winds,) and poise

Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere,
He rules a moment: Chaos umpire sits,

And by decision more embroils the fray

909 By which he reigns: next him high arbiter

merly hung over the gateways of fortified places, ready to be let down suddenly in case of surprise.

Mas.)

1 Milton has borrowed the elements of Ovid's description of Chaos (Mel. i. 18, etc.) avoiding all his puerilities.

The light, shifting sands of Barca and Cyrene, ancient names of desert tracts in the north of Africa, are thus described by Addison in his tragedy of Calo;—

"Seest where yon vast Nnmidlan plains extend?

Sudden the impetuous hurricanes descend—
Sweep through the air—In circling eddies play-

Tear up the sands, and sweep whole plains away—

The helpless traveller with wild surprise

Sees the dry desert all around him rise,

Aim smothered in the dusky whirlwind—diet."

Chance governs all. Into this wild abyss,
The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave,1
Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire,
But all these in their pregnant causes mix'd
Confus'dly; and which thus must ever fight,
Unless the Almighty Maker them ordain
His dark materials to create more worlds;
Into this wild abyss, the wary fiend

Stood on the brink of hell, and look'd a while,'
Pondering his voyage; for no narrow frith s
He had to cross. Nor was his ear less peal'd
With noises loud and ruinous, (to compare
Great things with small,) than when Bellona storms,
With all her batt'ring engines bent to rase
Some capital city; or less than if this frame
Of heaven were falling," and these elements
In mutiny had from her axle torn

The steadfast earth. At last his sail-broad vans "
He spreads for flight, and, in the surging smoke
Uplifted, spurns the ground; thence many a league,
As in a cloudy chair, ascending rides

Audacious; but, that seat soon failing, meets

A vast vacuity: all unawares,

Fluttering his pennons vain,1 plumb down he drops
Ten thousand fathom deep; and to this hour
Down had been falling, had not, by ill chance,
The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud
Instinct with fire and nitre hurried him
As many miles aloft: that fury staid,

Quench'd in a boggy syrtis, neither sea,

8

Nor good dry land; nigh founder'd on he fares, 941 Treading the crude consistence,—half on foot,—

i Lucretius, v. 260.—"Omniparens eadem rerum commune sepulchrum." Compare Spenser's description of Chaos (Fairy Queen, III. xi. 36 —(T., Th.)

• The period properly begins at 910, but the poet lingers in his description of Chaos, as Satan lingers to reconnoitre, before he proceeds. "Stood and looked," the same as standing looked. The first part of the sentence depends on the latter verb, as 5, 368.— («., P.)

3 Frelum, a strait.

Hor. Hi. Od. iii.: "Si fractus illabalur orbis."

> From vannut, properly a fan, or large winnowing machine. So v. 269.

Hor. iii. Od. ii.: "Spernit humum fugienle penna."

Hesiod (Theog. 138) :

Χασμα μεγ' ουδε κε παντα τελεσφορον εις ενιαυτον
Ουδας ικοιτ', ει πρωτα πυλέων εντοσθε γένοιτο
Αλλα κεν ενθα και ενθα προ θυελλα θυελλη

Αργαλέη. - (Τ.)

"Pennons," from the Latin penna, pinions.

• So Lucan (Pbarsal, ii. 504): "dyriis—in dubio pelagi lerræque reliquit."-(H.)

963

Half flying; behoves him now both oar and sail.1
As when a gryphon,2 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

O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,
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
Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies
Bordering on light: when straight behold the throne
Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread

Wide on the wasteful deep! With him enthron'd
Sat sable-vested Night,6 eldest of things,

The consort of his reign; and by them stood

> II behoves him now lo use every effort, as galleys hard pressed do. "Remis velisque," was a proverb for might and main.—(H.)

• Gryphons were fabulous creatures, with the wings and head of an eagle, and the body of a lion; and are said to guard gold. The Arimaspians were said to be a oneeyed people in Scylhia, who adorned their hair with gold. See Lucan. Pharsal. iii. 280. Herodotus (iii. 116, iv. 27,) and other authors relate that there were continual wars between them and the Gryphons about gold, the Gryphons guarding it, and the Arimaspians taking it whenever they had an opportunity. See Plin. Nat. Hist. vi. 2 (JV.) Eschylui has a reference to them (Prom. Vinct. 820.) :

Οξυστόμους γαρ Ζήνος ακραγείς κυνας
Γρύπας φυλάξαι, τον τε μουνωπα σρατου
Αριμασπον ιπποβάμον, οι χρυσορρύτον

Οίκουσιν αμφι ναμα Πλουτωνος παρου.-(Stil.)

The difficulty, irregularity, and uncertainty of Satan's voyage arc incomparably expressed by the number of monosyllables and pauses here. There is a memorable instance of the roughness of a road admirably described by a single verse in Homer (II. xiiii. 116) where there are a number of breaks as here:

Πολλα ο αναντα, καταντα, παραντα τε, δοχμια τ', ήλθον.

So Spenser (Fairy Queen, I. li. 28) describes the distress of the Red Cross Knight:—

"Faint, weary, sore, emboyled, grieved, brent,

With heal, toll, wounds, anus, smart, and inward th-e."—(N., Th.)

This great beauty is heightened by the irregular combination, and studied disorder in the opposition of the words.

Nethermost abyss." Though the throne of Chaos was above hell, and consequently part of the abyss was so, yet a part of the abyss into which Satan fell in his voyage was also far below it; so that, considered altogether, it was nethermost in respect to hell. Therefore there is no impropriety in applying "nethermost abyss" to Chaos.—(P.)

5 μexpreяdos vu?. (Eurip. Ion.) See Spenser's line description of night, which is very much in the taste of this allegory. Fairy Queen, I. v. 20.-(N.)

998

Orcus, and Ades, and the dreaded name

Of Demogorgon! Rumour next, and Chance,
And Tumult, and Confusion, all embroil'd,
And Discord with a thousand various mouths!

To whom Satan, turning boldly, thus: "Ye Powers*
"And Spirits of this nethermost abyss,
"Chaos and ancient Night! I come no spy,
"With purpose to explore, or to disturb
"The secrets of your realm; but, by constraint
"Wandering this darksome desert, as my way
"Lies through your spacious empire up to light,
"Alone, and without guide, half lost, I seek

"What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds
"Confine with heaven; or if some other place,
"From your dominion won, the ethereal King
"Possesses lately, thither to arrive

"I travel this profound: direct my course :
"Directed, no mean recompense 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
"Erect the standard there of ancient Night:
"Yours be the advantage all, mine the revenge!"
Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old,
With faltering speech, and visage incompos'd,
Answer'd: "I know thee, stranger, who thou art;—
"That mighty leading angel, who of late

66

"Made head against heaven's King, though overthrown.
I saw, and heard; for such a numerous host
"Fled not in silence through the frighted deep,
"With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout,

"Confusion worse confounded; and heaven-gates
"Pour'd out by millions her victorious bands
Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here

66

1 Demogorgon was a frightful, nameless deity which the ancients thought capable of producing the most terrible effects, and whose name they dreaded to pronounce. He is mentioned as of terrible power in incantations. See Lucan. Pharsal. vi. 744; Slat. Tbeb. iv. 514. Spenser, Fairy Queen, I. v. 22; Tasso, Gier. Lib. xiii. 10. Virgil (£a. vi. 8731 places similar imaginary beings within hell.-(N.)

2 Like secrela sometimes, secret places. So Virg. (Geor. iv. 403) :

En. vi. 101:

"In secretd senls dacam quo fessu* ab undis
Se reciplt."

--"Horrendæque procul secreta Sibylla
Antrum Immaue petit."

8o Spenser (Fairy Queen, VI. xii. 24):—

And searched all their cells and tecrett near.

1

1022

"Keep residence; if all I can will serve
"That little which is left so to defend,

1

"Encroach'd on still through your intestine broils '
"Weak'ning the sceptre 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*
"To that side heaven from whence your legions fell.
"If that way be your walk, you have not far;
"So much the nearer danger: go, and speed!
"Havoc, and spoil, and ruin, are my gain."
He ceas'd; and Satan staid not to reply,
But, glad that now his sea should find a shore,
With fresh alacrity, and force renew'd,
Springs upward, like a pyramid of fire,
Into the wild expanse; and, through the shock
Of fighting elements, on all sides round
Environ'd, wins his way: harder beset,

4

3

And more endanger'd, than when Argo pass'd
Through Bosphorus, betwixt the justling rocks: *
Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunn'd
Charybdis, and by the other whirlpool steer'd.
So he with difficulty and labour hard

Mov'd on; with difficulty and labour he.*"

* All the early editions read "our:" but it is so evident from the following verses that the encroachments here mentioned were the creation of Hell, and of the new world, and the "broils," those between God and the rebel angels, that the best modern editions read "your." "Weakening" here agrees with "broils," and therefore they should not ba separated by a comma, as in the early editions.—(P.)

2 There is mention made in Homer (II. viii. 20) of Jupiter's golden chain, by which he could draw up the gods, the earth, the sea, and the universe, and hold them suspended, but they could not draw him down.—(N.)

3 Argo was the first long ship ever seen in Greece, in which Jason and his companions sailed for Colchis, to fetch the golden fleece. Bosphorut, the straits of Constantinople, from Bou; ropes, the ox ford, the sea being there so narrow that cattle are said to have swam across it.—The "justling rocks," two rocks at the entrance into the Black Sea, called by the Greeks Symplegadet, from un, dashing together; which Milton very properly translates, the justling rocks, because they were so near, that at a distance, from the rocking of the sea, they seemed to open and shut, and justle one another, as the ship varied its course this way and that. Hence, at one time they were supposed to float, and were called Sundromades, and by Juvenal (xv. 19) "concurrentia saxa."—(N.) They were sometimes called Cuaneai, or dark blue, from the mist that hung constantly over them. The voyages of Jason through the Symplegades, and of Ulysses through Scylla and Charybdis, were the most famous and hazardous in all antiquity.

Ulysses sailing on the larboard (to the left hand, where Scylla was) did thereby shun Charybdis, which was on the starboard, or right hand. Virgil, Æn. iii 425, describes Scylla as a whirlpool," Naves in saxa trahenlcm." (See the whole description.) Scylla is a rock in a small bay on the Italian coast, into which the tide runs so strongly as to draw in the ships which are within the compass of its lorcc, and either dash them against the rocks or swallow them in the eddies; for, when the currents so rush in, they are driven back by the rock at the farther end, and so form an eddy or whirlpool.—(P.) See Athan. Kircher's account.

The repetition of the words is designed to fix the reader's attention to the labour and difficulty; and the closing of the repetition with the word "he" seems to convey a