The Complete Poetry of John Milton (60 page)

   335     
Nor did they not perceave the evil plight

               
In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel;

               
Yet to thir Generals Voyce they soon obeyd

               
Innumerable. As when the potent Rod

               
Of
Amrams
Son
³⁷
in
Egypts
evill day

   340     
Wav’d round the Coast, up call’d a pitchy cloud

               
Of
Locusts
, warping
³⁸
on the Eastern Wind,

               
That ore the Realm of impious
Pharaoh
hung

               
Like Night, and darken’d all the Land of
Nile:

               
So numberless were those bad Angels seen

   345     
Hovering on wing under the Cope of Hell

               
’Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding Fires;

               
Till, as a signal giv’n, th’ uplifted Spear

               
Of thir great Sultan waving to direct

               
Thir course, in even ballance down they light

   350     
On the firm brimstone, and fill all the Plain;

               
A multitude, like which the populous North

               
Pour’d never from her frozen loyns, to pass

               
Rhene
or the
Danaw
,
³⁹
when her barbarous Sons

               
Came like a Deluge on the South, and spread

   355     
Beneath
Gibralter
to the
Lybian
sands.
⁴⁰

               
Forthwith from every Squadron and each Band

               
The Heads and Leaders thither hast where stood

               
Thir great Commander; Godlike shapes and forms

               
Excelling human, Princely Dignities,

   360     
And Powers that earst in Heaven sat on Thrones;

               
Though of thir Names in heav’nly Records now

               
Be no memorial blotted out and raz’d

               
By thir Rebellion, from the Books of Life.
⁴¹

               
Nor had they yet among the Sons of
Eve

   365     
Got them new Names, till wandring ore the Earth,

               
Through Gods high sufferance for the tryal of man,

               
By falsities and lyes the greatest part

               
Of Mankind they corrupted to forsake

               
God thir Creator, and th’ invisible

   370     
Glory of him that made them, to transform

               
Oft to the Image of a Brute, adorn’d

               
With gay Religions full of Pomp and Gold,

               
And Devils to adore for Deities:

               
Then were they known to men by various Names,

   375     
And various Idols through the Heathen World.

               
Say, Muse, thir Names then known, who first, who last,

               
Rous’d from thir slumber, on that fiery Couch,

               
At thir great Emperors call, as next in worth

               
Came singly where he stood on the bare strand,

   380     
While the promiscuous croud stood yet aloof?

               
The chief were those who from the Pit of Hell

               
Roaming to seek thir prey on earth, durst fix

               
Thir Seats long after next the Seat of God,

               
Thir Altars by his Altar, Gods ador’d

   385     
Among the Nations round, and durst abide

               
Jehovah
thundring out of
Sion
, thron’d

               
Between the Cherubim; yea, often plac’d

               
Within his Sanctuary it self thir Shrines,

               
Abominations; and with cursed things

   390     
His holy Rites, and solemn Feasts profan’d,

               
And with thir darkness durst affront his light.

               
First
Moloch
,
⁴²
horrid King besmear’d with blood

               
Of human sacrifice, and parents tears,

               
Though for the noyse of Drums and Timbrels loud

   395     
Thir childrens cries unheard, that past through fire

               
To his grim Idol. Him the
Ammonite

               
Worshipt in
Rabba
and her watry Plain,

               
In
Argob
and in
Basan
, to the stream

               
Of utmost
Arnon.
Nor content with such

   400     
Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart

               
Of
Solomon
he led by fraud to build

               
His Temple right against the Temple of God

               
On that opprobrious Hill,
⁴³
and made his Grove

               
The pleasant Vally of
Hinnom, Tophet
thence

   405     
And black
Gehenna
call’d, the Type of Hell.

               
Next
Chemos
,
⁴⁴
th’ obscene dread of
Moabs
Sons,

               
From
Aroar
to
Nebo
, and the wild

               
Of Southmost
Abarim;
in
Hesebon

               
And
Horonaim, Seons
⁴⁵
Realm, beyond

   410     
The flowry Dale of
Sibma
clad with Vines,

               
And
Eleale
to th’
Asphaltick
Pool.
⁴⁶

               
Peor
his other Name, when he entic’d

               
Israel
in
Sittim
on thir march from
Näe

               
To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe.

   415     
Yet thence his lustful Orgies he enlarg’d

               
Ev’n to that Hill of scandal, by the Grove

               
Of
Moloch
homicide, lust hard by hate;

               
Till good
Josiah
drove them thence to Hell.

               
With these came they, who from the bordring flood

   420     
Of old
Euphrates
to the Brook
⁴⁷
that parts

               
Egypt
from
Syrian
ground, had general Names

               
Of
Baalim
and
Ashtaroth
,
⁴⁸
those male,

               
These Feminine. For Spirits when they please

               
Can either Sex assume, or both; so soft

   425     
And uncompounded is thir Essence pure,

               
Not ti’d or manacl’d with joynt or limb,

               
Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones,

               
Like cumbrous flesh; but in what shape they choose

               
Dilated or condens’t, bright or obscure,

   430     
Can execute thir aerie purposes,

               
And works of love or enmity fulfill.

               
For these the Race of
Israel
oft forsook

               
Thir living strength, and unfrequented left

               
His righteous Altar, bowing lowly down

   435     
To bestial Gods; for which thir heads as low

               
Bow’d down in Battel, sunk before the Spear

               
Of despicable foes. With these in troop

               
Came
Astoreth
, whom the
Phœnicians
call’d

               
Astarte
, Queen of Heav’n, with crescent Horns;

   440     
To whose bright Image nightly by the Moon

               
Sidonian
Virgins paid thir Vows and Songs,

               
In
Sion
also not unsung, where stood

               
Her Temple on th’ offensive Mountain, built

               
By that uxorious King,
⁴⁹
whose heart though large,

   445     
Beguil’d by fair Idolatresses, fell

               
To Idols foul.
Thammuz
⁵⁰
came next behind,

               
Whose annual wound in
Lebanon
allur’d

               
The
Syrian
Damsels to lament his fate

               
In amorous ditties all a Summers day,

   450     
While smooth
Adonis
from his native Rock

               
Ran purple to the Sea, suppos’d with blood

               
Of
Thammuz
yearly wounded: the Love-tale

               
Infected
Sions
daughters with like heat,

               
Whose wanton passions in the sacred Porch

   455     
Ezekiel
saw, when by the Vision led

               
His eye survay’d the dark Idolatries

               
Of alienated
Judah.
⁵¹
Next came one

               
Who mourn’d in earnest, when the Captive Ark

               
Maim’d his brute Image, head and hands lopt off

   460     
In his own Temple, on the grunsel
⁵²
edge,

               
Where he fell flat, and sham’d his Worshipers:

               
Dagon
⁵³
his Name, Sea Monster, upward Man

               
And downward Fish: yet had his Temple high

               
Rear’d in
Azotus
, dreaded through the Coast

   465     
Of
Palestine, in Gath
and
Ascalon

               
And
Accaron
and
Gaza’s
frontier bounds.

               
Him follow’d
Rimmon
, whose delightful Seat

               
Was fair
Damascus
, on the fertil Banks

               
Of
Abbana
and
Pharphar
, lucid streams.

   470     
He also against the house of God was bold:

               
A Leper
⁵⁴
once he lost and gain’d a King,

               
Ahaz
his sottish Conquerour, whom he drew

               
Gods Altar to disparage and displace

               
For one of
Syrian
mode, whereon to burn

   475     
His odious offrings, and adore the Gods

               
Whom he had vanquisht. After these appear’d

               
A crew who under Names of old Renown,

               
Osiris, Isis, Orus
⁵⁵
and thir Train

               
With monstrous shapes and sorceries abus’d

   480     
Fanatic
Egypt
and her Priests, to seek

               
Thir wandring Gods disguis’d in brutish forms

               
Rather then human. Nor did
Israel
scape

               
Th’ infection when thir borrow’d Gold compos’d

               
The Calf
⁵⁶
in
Oreb:
and the Rebel King
⁵⁷