Robert Bridges, ed. (1844–1930). The Spirit of Man: An Anthology. 1916. | | | | Paradise Lost, ii. 582 |
John Milton (1608–1674) |
| | | .. FARR 1 off from these a slow and silent stream, | |
| Lethe the River of Oblivion roules | |
| Her watrie Labyrinth, whereof who drinks, | |
| Forthwith his former state and being forgets, | |
| Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain. | 5 |
| Beyond this flood a frozen Continent | |
| Lies dark and wilde, beat with perpetual storms | |
| Of Whirlwind and dire Hail, which on firm land | |
| Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems | |
| Of ancient pile; all else deep snow and ice, | 10 |
| A gulf profound as that Serbonian Bog | |
| Betwixt Damiata and mount Casius old, | |
| Where Armies whole have sunk: the parching Air | |
| Burns frore, and cold performs th’ effect of Fire. | |
| Thither by harpy-footed Furies hail’d, | 15 |
| At certain revolutions all the damn’d | |
| Are brought: and feel by turns the bitter change | |
| Of fierce extreams, extreams by change more fierce, | |
| From Beds of raging Fire to starve in Ice | |
| Thir soft Ethereal warmth, and there to pine | 20 |
| Immovable, infixt, and frozen round, | |
| Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire. | |
| They ferry over this Lethean Sound | |
| Both to and fro, thir sorrow to augment, | |
| And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach | 25 |
| The tempting stream, with one small drop to loose | |
| In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe, | |
| All in one moment, and so neer the brink; | |
| But fate withstands, and to oppose th’ attempt | |
| Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards | 30 |
| The Ford, and of it self the water flies | |
| All taste of living wight, as once it fled | |
| The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on | |
| In confus’d march forlorn, th’ adventrous Bands | |
| With shuddring horror pale, and eyes agast | 35 |
| View’d first thir lamentable lot, and found | |
| No rest: through many a dark and drearie Vaile | |
| They pass’d, and many a Region dolorous, | |
| O’re many a Frozen, many a Fierie Alpe, | |
| Rocks, Caves, Lakes, Fens, Bogs, Dens, and shades of death, | 40 |
| A Universe of death, which God by curse | |
| Created evil, for evil only good, | |
| Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds, | |
| Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, | |
| Abominable, inutterable, and worse | 45 |
| Then Fables yet have feign’d, or fear conceiv’d, | |
| Gorgons and Hydra’s, and Chimera’s dire. | |
| | Note 1. Milton, Paradise Lost, ii. 582. In line 2 from end of quotation—I think that Milton would have approved Bentley’s emendation here. B. says that as Fear is personified so Fable should be, and would read Than Fable yet hath feigned. If the passage is a reminiscence of Bruno, then the plural fables would be accounted for, since Bruno has | Quos esse magis non posse putamus |
| Quam vatum figmenta, Orcum, Rhadamantia regna, |
| Gorgona, Centaurum, Scyllam, Geriona[sic], Chimaeram. |
| De innumerabilibus immenso etc. vii. 8. |
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