12

Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Vertues, Powers, [ 460 ]

For in possession such, not onely of right,

I call ye and declare ye now, returnd

Successful beyond hope, to lead ye forth

Triumphant out of this infernal Pit

Abominable, accurst, the house of woe, [ 465 ]

And Dungeon of our Tyrant: Now possess,

As Lords, a spacious World, to our native Heaven

Little inferiour, by my adventure hard

With peril great atchievd. Long were to tell

What I have don, what sufferd, with what paine [ 470 ]

Voyagd th unreal, vast, unbounded deep

Of horrible confusion, over which

By Sin and Death a broad way now is pavd

To expedite your glorious march; but I

Toild out my uncouth passage, forct to ride [ 475 ]

Th untractable Abysse, plungd in the womb

Of unoriginal Night and Chaos wilde,

That jealous of thir secrets fiercely opposd

My journey strange, with clamorous uproare

Protesting Fate supreame; thence how I found [ 480 ]

The new created World, which fame in Heavn

Long had foretold, a Fabrick wonderful

Of absolute perfection, therein Man

Plact in a Paradise, by our exile

Made happie: Him by fraud I have seducd [ 485 ]

From his Creator, and the more to increase

Your wonder, with an Apple; he thereat

Offended, worth your laughter, hath givn up

Both his beloved Man and all his World,

To Sin and Death a prey, and so to us, [ 490 ]

Without our hazard, labour, or allarme,

To range in, and to dwell, and over Man

To rule, as over all he should have ruld.

True is, mee also he hath judgd, or rather

Mee not, but the brute Serpent in whose shape [ 495 ]

Man I deceavd: that which to mee belongs,

Is enmity, which he will put between

Mee and Mankinde; I am to bruise his heel;

His Seed, when is not set, shall bruise my head:

A World who would not purchase with a bruise, [ 500 ]

Or much more grievous pain? Ye have th account

Of my performance: What remains, ye Gods,

But up and enter now into full bliss.