As it has been your lot,

Like mine, on earth here to rejoice with man,
Man once a demi-god and now but dust,
Here soon with falchions armed,

Falchions that blaze with fire,

As guardians of these once delightful gates
The brave and active Cherubim shall aid you.

SCENE IX.-Chorus of ANGELS that sing, ARCHANGEL, ADAM, and EVE.

ADIEU, remain in peace!

O thou that livest in war!

Alas, how much it grieves us,

Great sinner, to behold thee now but dust.
Weep! weep! indulge thy sighs,

And view thy lost possession now behind thee;
Weep! weep! for all thy sorrow

Thou yet mayst see exchanged for songs of joy :
This promise to the sinner Heaven affords
Who contrite turns to Heaven with holy zeal.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.-VOLAN, Chorus of FIERY, AIRY, EARTHLY, and AQUATIC SPIRITS.

Volan. Forth from a thousand clouds of flame and

smoke,

From the deep bosom of the spacious earth,

I to these scenes a messenger return.

Now to the fatal sound

Of these entwisted pipes,

By hissing snakes united,

And all attuned to the fierce notes of death,

Now cease, now cease ye all,

Ye potent spirits, to reside in fire,

Or in the air, in water, or in earth,

Appear! why pause ye? such is the command

Of your brave emperor, the chief of hell.

Harl: hear ye not the sound

That calls you forth from out your various dwellings?

Behold! how from the sphere of blazing fire

Arsiccio, of the blazing legion prince,

Comes to pay homage to his mighty lord.

Arion. Lo, from the field of air I too descend,

I who am called Arion,

The mighty ruler of this winged band,

At the command of hell.

Tarpalce. Of the infernal palace

To bend before the prince,

Forth from a thousand subterraneous paths

The great Tarpalce, chief of earthly sprites,
Raises his brow to heaven.

Ondoso. From many a vein of water,

From many a rising fount,

From rills, and rivers, torrents, floods, and streams,
And from a thousand marshes, pools, and lakes,

Such as I am, Ondoso, of soft spirits

The humid, floating ruler, now on wing,

Here even I attend, to reverence

The subterranean power.

Volan. Lo, from the dark abyss to lightsome air,
Great Lucifer now rising, and with him

The most sagacious band

Of hellish counsellors.

SCENE II.-LUCIFER, FIERY, AIRY, EARTHLY. AQUATIC. INFERNAL SPIRITS, and VOLANO.

Lucifer. Ah light! detested light!

Yet once again I look toward thy rays,

The sightless mole of hell,

And like a frantic angel,

Dazzled and grieved at heart,

Immortally I die.

Beliar. Of what dost thou complain? why grieves our god? Clear up thy countenance, and see around

How thy palms shake; thy banners float in air,

Signs of that valour which has conquered heaven,

And now in triumph may enjoy the world ;

Ah, too imperfect is the victor's glory,

If he exult not in his victory.

Lucifer. Destructive victory! unworthy boast!
Laughter to weeping turned,

Is that which thou esteemest the praise of hell.

Ah, Heaven's high power has found

A new expedient, to our endless shame,

To make our vanquished foe remain the victor,

And triumph, though defeated.

Mirim. What barbed arrows in my wounded heart,
Great Lord, hast thou enfixt!

Lucifer. Ah! for no other purpose have I called you

From realms of air and fire,

From earth, from water, and the central depths

Save that we might project in council here

How man may fall entirely overwhelmed,

If to destroy him by the fruit I failed.
Digrignan. Ah, how can Adam live,

If he indeed has eat the fruit forbidden,
Condemning him to death?

Now well may we exclaim,

That Heaven this day inures itself to falsehood.

Lucifer. Hear it,. Ó hell, and shudder at the sound,

And let thy lively joys now turn to languor.
Tell me, thou Beliar, how seems to thee,
After the tasted fruit, man on the sudden
Discovered naked, and amid the branches
Of thickest growth hastening to hide his shame ?
Beliar. In viewing his own nakedness, he shows us
The tasted fruit has robbed him of all grace;

The very foliage where he hides informs him
He is become a beast,

And, like a beast, is doomed in death to lose
His body and his soul.

Lucifer. Thou, Coriban, relate why man has formed With a fig's ample leaf

A mantle for his waist.

Coriban. I'll tell you, 'tis the nature of the fig
To rise not high, and prove of short duration;
Still less may man expect to glory's height
To raise himself; for short shall be his date.
All the contentious elements at war,

Occasioned by his sin, now in their conflict
Shall overwhelm him, and the hope with souls
More to embellish heaven shall be in vain.

Lucifer. And thou, Ferea, what denotes the serpent, Whom in his anger God is pleased to curse?

Ferea. I will be brief in telling all that's true :
When he pronounced a curse upon the serpent,
Man had already heard his malediction;
And thus to that he added,

Prone on thy belly, serpent, thou shalt grovel,
As if to man suggesting,

Dark as a riddling God, man is of clay;

And clay shall now be destitute of soul,

As destitute of soul each other reptile.

Lucifer. Thou, Solobrico, tell me, what thinkst thou

Of this strange speech to man?

Thou by thy sweat must gain

The bread that forms thy food.

Solobrico. This bread to us discovers

The life of man's frail body,

A body formed of earth, as now indeed

Grain must be drawn from earth to make this bread

The vital element :

His sweat denotes the element of water,

His countenance is air, his labour fire;

So that this dark expression

Of being doomed to gain his bread by sweat,

To man says, thou shalt live

In many griefs and troubles,

A short space in the world;

Then is thy lot to die,

Turning again to earth, air, water, fire.

Lucifer. And, Gismon, thou, to woman when he said,

That with the pangs of birth

She should produce her offspring, say what meaning Lurked in that new expression to bring forth?

Gismon. This said expression birth

Denotes the being born,

When her young progeny shall rise to light :
He also might denote a new partition
By this new word bring forth,
Innumerable pains,

In which the suffering parents

Shall both participate to rear their children.
Of body and of soul

The certain death I see in this expression :
That this may be, turning to man he said,
That he should die, and then to Eve he added,
That she with bitter anguish should bring forth.
Now this mysterious saying nothing means,
If not that man is meant

By death corporeal, and his frail companion
By death that strikes the soul;

Thus from mortality,

With loss reciprocal, the soul is taken :
And thus, when each has languished,
The body in its dying,

The soul in its departure,

Leaving at length its transient dear abode ;
So verified shall be the mighty sentence
From him the mighty judge,

Of bringing forth with dire excess of pain.
Lucifer. All you, that most sagacious
I reckoned once in my infernal kingdoms,
I find now least sagacious.

To thee I turn, Arsiccio, tell me now

What means that mystery,

The cursing of the earth?

Arsiccio. And to the blame of man I too return;

Can it be true this cursing of the earth?

What does the mystery mean?

Means it indeed the earth?

Foolish is he who thinks so! what offence
Has she committed? no 'twas not the earth
Was cursed, but only man, who is of earth;
And human nature all is cursed with him;
And that decree, it should no more bear fruit,
Was uttered for no purpose

But to proclaim to man,

That, as a sinner, heaven is snut against him.

Lucifer. Arion, thou exalt thyself in air; Do thou inform me why with skins of beasts This man and his companion were arrayed. Arion. This clearly shows to us

That God no longer makes account of man.

Hear me, unconquered sovereign,

This clothing Adam with the lifeless skins
Of fleeced animals to us imports,

That, as with dying beast,

The body, soul, and spirit, also die,
So death shall also prove

The dread destroying ravager of men

By the dread fruit's effect.

Lucifer. Ondoso, thou who art profest a diver,
Canst thou pervade the depth

Of these confused decrees? inform me now
What means the mystery

Of cherubim with fiery falchions

Forbidding entrance to the gates of Eden.
Ondoso. No mystery, great king,

But the destruction of the human race,
Portended by these falchions.
They mean indeed the death
Of man's terrestrial form,
And their fierce blades of fire
Damnation to his soul:

So that when struck by death

The body shall be ashes, and the soul
Shall by eternal justice

Within the dark Avernus

Become a prisoner, lost to light and heaven.
Now blest are we, since we behold it clear,
That, rising to the realms above, 'tis ours
To make Olympus joyful, since when we
Resigned our seat in heaven,

At those exalted gates

No armed cherubim was placed to guard;
Thus all is justly weighed,

And in an even balance;

For now the world's inhabitants shall be

The birds, the fish, the beasts:

Of the Tartarean gulf

Man, and his numerous race;

We only on gay wing shall soar to heaven,

On this supreme condition,

That heaven's great Lord shall pardon ask of thee,

Repenting of his error, and that both

Shall rule the realm of heaven,

Both Lucifer and God.

Lucifer. Tarpalce, say what thinkest thou of man? Tarpalce. 'Tis not my sentiment man can be saved. In short, this man has sinned;

And he who draws from man his flesh and life,

He shall be called a sinner;

And he who is a sinner shall be damned;

And since it is denied

That these the seats of heaven, that once were ours,