Begone, at length begone,

Ye frightened angels, now relinquish heaven !
The warrior doomed to hell

Becomes the blessed lord of these bright seats.

Michael. Why longer pause to crush the proud loquacity Of this presumptuous and insulting rebel?

Soon with a pen of adamant, with striking

Dread characters of blood,

Within the volume of eternal woe

The glory shall be blazoned

Of thy lost victory.

To arms! at length to arms,

To spread dismay through hell!

Joy, Man! smile, Heaven; and Tartarus, lament !

Lucifer. Seldom upon the vaunting

Of a proud tongue too bold

Boldness of hand attends.

To arms to arms!

Thou fight with me; and you, my followers, all
Unconquerable warriors,

Transperse and put to flight this abject crew,
The timid partisans

Of an unwarlike leader!

Ah! him who favours brief and endless shame
Possessed in heaven, and now on earth displayed
Great fortitude but with unequal force,

Him a celestial stroke

Now drives confounded to the blind abyss;

And justice here decrees,

That he who lost the fight should lose the sun.

Angels and God, at length ye are triumphant !
Now, now is Lucifer

O'erwhelmed, and all his legion

Sinks from the light of day to endless night. Michael. Fall thou at length, fall wounded and subdued,

Fierce monster of the shades,

To death's deep horrors, there be doomed to die
By an immortal death!

Nor hope thy wings to heaven

Ever to spread again, that wish, too bold

For thee, so desperate and unrepenting.

Thou'rt fallen, at length thou'rt fallen,

Most arrogant of monsters,

In pain thou sink'st as low,

As high in joy it was thy hope to soar.

Again thou learn'st to fall,

Transfixt with thunder, to the drear abyss.

Fool! thou hast wished to take this man thy captive,

And thou alone hast plunged

Within the deepest gulf:

Hence, pierced and overwhelmed,
Sinking to Tartarus

The flame of wrath eternal

Bore thee to hell, the hell of hottest fires.
A spotless angel, O thou prince of falsehood,
Thy folly hoped to put to flight and wound;
But thou, opposed to him

Hast yielded, plying thy winged feet in haste.
Thou too hast hoped to turn the spacious world,
In hostile flame, to ashes,

And at thy ardent blast and baleful breathing

Clouds, lightning, and tempestuous bursts of thunder,

With rattling deadly bolts of arrowy flame,

Rolled through the air, whence all the mountains shook, And all the vales re-echoed in convulsion.

And yet, behold, in heaven

The spheres move round more musical than ever,

And all the azure sky

The lucid sun with brighter beam adorns ;

Behold the ocean, tremulously placid,

And from his Persian gulf

In gay abundance scattering pearl and coral;
Nor weary are the sportive fish in gliding
Along the trembling sapphire.

Behold, what verdant and what flowery brows

These pleasant vales in exultation raise;

Hark, to the grateful accents

Of every flying songster,

Inhabitant of air,

That in his flight now gives

Voice to the woods and music to the vales.

Now, all rejoicing in a day so noble,
To the confusion and the shame of hell,
Let every spotless ensign rise to heaven,
And fluttering sport with the exulting winds;
Let all the instruments of heavenly glory
Sound through the sky the victories of heaven!

SCENE IX.-ADAM, EVE, Chorus of ANGELS.

O SOUNDS beloved, that call us now in joy,
To scenes we left in sorrow; ah! I fear
To taint the fragrance of the heavenly host,
Stained as I am with sin.

O thou, that haply of celestial ruby

Wearest the blazing mail,

Hallowed and brave Archangel,

Brave, yet compassionate, thy golden locks

Radiant as light, thy glittering helmet covers:

Thou in thy right hand shakest the spear of victory,

And raisest in thy left a golden balance :

Close, close thy painted plumes so rich in gold,
And cast a gentle look

On him who, prostrate, honours and adores thee.

Eve. O happy dawn of the eternal sun, Thou courteous kind restorer,

To these my blinded eyes

With sorrow darkened, and bedewed with tears; Now of thy rays, a fixt contemplator,

The mole of error stands ;

Now on your voice depends

An asp, once deaf to heaven's most friendly dictates I, wavering wanderer,

Who undissembling_own

The fault in which I fell, to thee I bend,

Nor in my speech deny

That I am Eve, the cause
Of human-kind s perdition.

Now let thy guardian hand

(O in the deeds of God thou faithful servant!) Relieve me from the depth

Of my so great offences.

Adam. Of heavenly mysteries

And secret will of God,

Thou hallowed blest revealer,
Angel of eloquence !
The fatal presages

Of mournful Eve and Adam
Now quiet with the breath
Of thy exalted converse;
So that this troubled flood

That strikes the heart, in issuing from the eyes,
No more may make me seem

A rock of sorrow in a sea of tears.

Michael. Arise, O both arise, you who of God

Are creatures so regarded,

Dismiss your fears of the infernal portent.
If your eternal Lord

Corrects you with one hand,

He with the other proffers your protection.

With happy auspices,

He who delivers souls,

On his light wings directs his flight to you,

In God's dread warfare harbinger of peace.

The mighty Fount of life,

The Artificer of souls,

The Architect of worlds,

The mighty Lord of heaven,

Maker of angels and of all things made,

The infinite Creator,

To safety summons you,

And to short war a lasting peace ordains.

Now from those double fountains

The warm and gushing streams

Of sorrow, Eve, restrain!

Thou hast been culpable

In rashly seizing the forbidden fruit ;
To man thou hast occasioned

Anguish and grief; thou hast indeed converted
Peace into war, and life into perdition:

Now by the aid of Him,

Whose handmaid nature is, and servant fate,

Who can restrain the sun,

And motion give to this unmoving mass,

Even yet may Eve enjoy

In prison, liberty;

May be unbound, though fettered,

And triumph, while she is o'ercome, and vanquish.

Now, since there shines in heaven

The star of love and peace,

And to the shame of hell,

The victor to the vanquished yields his palm,
Ah, now let each, with humble eyes to heaven,
Incline the knee to earth,

And supplicant in prayer, give God the praise
Of goodness infinite;

For you shall find, to recompense your zeal,

That God your father is, your mansion heaven.

Adam. Thou mighty Lord, who resting high above,

With regulated errors

And with discordant union guidest heaven;

O of the fair eternal realms of light

Thou Lord immutable, resplendent power,

Thou dazzler and obscurer of the sun!
Now in these weeping eyes

And on this humid cheek

I dry my bitter tears, I cheer my heart.
Now, by thy zealous mercy,
Though spotted, I have safety;
Security in hazard, love in hate,
And sinking into hell,

And yet a citizen of highest heaven.
Eve. With dissolution life,

With strife and contest peace,

With ruin victory,

With deep offence salvation,

With powers of darkness heaven,

These to unite is not a human talent,

But of the eternal hand,

Omnipotence supreme; hence is it, Lord,

That wounded Eve is whole,

Triumphs in loss, and, though subdued, has glory.

My guide, I will obey thee;

Since, O benignant Lord,

Thy service is dominion,

And to obey thee, glory

If pain allow not that I speak the pain

Which wounds my heart so deeply,

Thou most indulgent Father

Givest to the heart and soul a new existence:
Awakened by affliction,

Raising my voice to heaven,

I'll teach resounding echo

To carry to the sky my humble song,

Devoted to thy praise.

Michael. Ye victims cleansed by tears, Ye martyrs in affliction,

Amidst your blessed pains,

Ye holocausts of life and of content!

Now call the stars no more
Vindictive; war is now
Converted into peace,

And death turned into life.

Hence mortal Adam is now made immortal,
And Eve, though dead in many parts, revives.
The potent fire of love,

In which the tender God of mercy blazes,
Inflames him with pure zeal to save the sinner.
Contend, resist, and bravely

Wage with the hostile Serpent constant war ;
It is man's province now

To conquer Hell, and triumph over Death.
Creatures of grace! feel deeply now for ever,
That your most gracious Father

Would not direct towards the ground your face,
As he has made the brute, but up to heaven;
So that, for ever mindful of their source,

Your happy souls may point towards their home:
For the high realm of heaven

Is as a shining glass, in which of God
The glories ever blaze.

Inure yourselves to water, sun, and winds,
And in the stony caves,

In the most barren desert

That the sun visits when he blazes most,

There both exert your powers;

There many years and many,

United ye shall dwell in hallowed love;

And from your progeny henceforth the world

Exulting shall derive fertility.

And now to you, ye mortal pair, I promise,

As ye together sinned,

If ye in penitence have joined together,

Together e'en in Heaven,

In a corporeal veil

Contemplating the sacred face of God,

Ye shall enjoy the bliss of Paradise.

Adam. Greater than my offence I now acknowledge

Your mercy, O my God!

Since you, become the sovereign friend of man,