Of your brave emperor, the chief of hell! That calls you forth from out your various dwellings? 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 call'd 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 earthy sprights, 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 THE SECOND. LUCIFER, FIERY, AIRY, EARTHLY, AQUATIC, INFERNAL SPIRITS, and VOLANO. Lucifer. Ah light! detested light! Yet once again I look toward thy rays, And like a frantic angel Dazzled, and griev'd at heart, Immortally I die. Beliar. Of what dost thou complain? why grieves our God? Clear up thy countenance! and see around Lucifer. Destructive victory! unworthy boast! Laughter to weeping turn'd, Is that, which thou esteem'st the praise of hell. A new expedient to our endless shame, To make our vanquish'd foe remain the victor Mirim. What barbed arrows in my wounded heart, Great Lord! hast thou enfixt! Lucifer. Ah! for no other purpose have I call'd you From realms of air, and fire, From earth, from water, and the centʼral depths, Digrignan. Ah how can Adam live, Now well may we exclaim, That heav'n this day inures itself to falshood. Lucifer. Hear it oh hell! and shudder at the sound! And let thy lively joys now turn to languor! He is become a beast, And like a beast is doom'd in death to lose Lucifer. ThouCoriban relate why man has form'd With the figs ample leaf Coriban. I'll tell you, 'tis the nature of the fig Occasion'd by his sin, now in their conflict Whom in his anger God is pleas'd to curse? Ferea. I will be brief in telling all that's true; Prone on thy belly serpent thou shalt grovel 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 think'st 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 form'd 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; Of being doom'd 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 Lurk'd 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 Innumerable pains, In which the suff'ring parents Shall both participate to rear their children: Of body, and of soul The certain death I see in this expression: |