SCENE I.--_Represents a Chaos, or a confused Mass of Matter; the Stage

is almost wholly dark: A Symphony of warlike Music is heard for some time; then from the Heavens, (which are opened) fall the rebellious Angels, wheeling in Air, and seeming transfixed with Thunderbolts: The bottom of the Stage being opened, receives the Angels, who fall out of sight. Tunes of Victory are played, and an Hymn sung; Angels discovered above, brandishing their Swords: The Music ceasing, and the Heavens being closed, the Scene shifts, and on a sudden represents Hell: Part of the Scene is a Lake of Brimstone, or rolling Fire; the Earth of a burnt Colour: The fallen Angels appear on the Lake, lying prostrate; a Tune of Horror and Lamentation is heard._

LUCIFER, _raising himself on the Lake._

_Lucif._ Is this the seat our conqueror has given? And this the climate we must change for heaven? These regions and this realm my wars have got; This mournful empire is the loser's lot: In liquid burnings, or on dry, to dwell, Is all the sad variety of hell. But see, the victor has recalled, from far, The avenging storms, his ministers of war: His shafts are spent, and his tired thunders sleep, Nor longer bellow through the boundless deep. Best take the occasion, and these waves forsake, While time is given.--Ho, Asmoday, awake, If thou art he! But ah! how changed from him, Companion of my arms! how wan! how dim! How faded all thy glories are! I see Myself too well, and my own change in thee.

_Asm._ Prince of the thrones, who in the fields of light Led'st forth the embattled seraphim to fight; Who shook the power of heaven's eternal state, Had broke it too, if not upheld by fate; But now those hopes are fled: Thus low we lie, Shut from his day, and that contended sky, And lost, as far as heavenly forms can die; Yet, not all perished: We defy him still, And yet wage war, with our unconquered will.

_Lucif._ Strength may return.

_Asm._ Already of thy virtue I partake, Erected by thy voice.

_Lucif._ See on the lake Our troops, like scattered leaves in autumn, lie; First let us raise ourselves, and seek the dry, Perhaps more easy dwelling.

_Asm._ From the beach Thy well-known voice the sleeping gods will reach, And wake the immortal sense, which thunder's noise Had quelled, and lightning deep had driven within them.

_Lucif._ With wings expanded wide, ourselves we'll rear, And fly incumbent on the dusky air.-- Hell, thy new lord receive! Heaven cannot envy me an empire here. [_Both fly to dry Land._

_Asm._ Thus far we have prevailed; if that be gain, Which is but change of place, not change of pain. Now summon we the rest.

_Lucif._ Dominions, Powers, ye chiefs of heaven's bright host, (Of heaven, once your's; but now in battle lost) Wake from your slumber! Are your beds of down? Sleep you so easy there? Or fear the frown Of him who threw you hence, and joys to see Your abject state confess his victory? Rise, rise, ere from his battlements he view Your prostrate postures, and his bolts renew, To strike you deeper down.

_Asm._ They wake, they hear, Shake off their slumber first, and next their fear; And only for the appointed signal stay.

_Lucif._ Rise from the flood, and hither wing your way.

_Mol._ [_From the Lake._] Thine to command; our part is to obey. [_The rest of the Devils rise up, and fly to the Land._

_Lucif._ So, now we are ourselves again an host, Fit to tempt fate, once more, for what we lost; To o'erleap the etherial fence, or if so high We cannot climb, to undermine his sky, And blow him up, who justly rules us now, Because more strong: Should he be forced to bow. The right were ours again: 'Tis just to win The highest place; to attempt, and fail, is sin.

_Mol._ Changed as we are, we're yet from homage free; We have, by hell, at least gained liberty: That's worth our fall; thus low though we are driven, Better to rule in hell, than serve in heaven.

_Lucif._ There spoke the better half of Lucifer!

_Asm._ 'Tis fit in frequent senate we confer, And then determine how to steer our course; To wage new war by fraud, or open force. The doom's now past; submission were in vain.

_Mol._ And were it not, such baseness I disdain; I would not stoop, to purchase all above, And should contemn a power, whom prayer could move, As one unworthy to have conquered me.

_Beelzebub._ Moloch, in that all are resolved, like thee. The means are unproposed; but 'tis not fit Our dark divan in public view should sit; Or what we plot against the Thunderer, The ignoble crowd of vulgar devils hear.

_Luci._ A golden palace let be raised on high; To imitate? No, to outshine the sky! All mines are ours, and gold above the rest: Let this be done; and quick as 'twas exprest.

_A Palace rises, where sit, as in council,_ LUCIFER, ASMODAY, MOLOCH, BELIAL, BEELZEBUB, _and_ SATAN.

Most high and mighty lords, who better fell From heaven, to rise states-general of hell, Nor yet repent, though ruined and undone, Our upper provinces already won, Such pride there is in souls created free, Such hate of universal monarchy; Speak, for we therefore meet: If peace you chuse, your suffrages declare; Or means propound, to carry on the war.

_Mol._ My sentence is for war; that open too: Unskilled in stratagems, plain force I know: Treaties are vain to losers; nor would we, Should heaven grant peace, submit to sovereignty. We can no caution give we will adore; And he above is warned to trust no more. What then remains but battle?

_Satan._ I agree With this brave vote; and if in hell there be Ten more such spirits, heaven is our own again: We venture nothing, and may all obtain. Yet who can hope but well, since even success Makes foes secure, and makes our danger less? Seraph and cherub, careless of their charge, And wanton, in full ease now live at large; Unguarded leave the passes of the sky, And all dissolved in hallelujahs lie.

_Mol._ Grant that our hazardous attempt prove vain; We feel the worst, secured from greater pain: Perhaps we may provoke the conquering foe To make us nothing; yet, even then, we know, That not to be, is not to be in woe.

_Belial._ That knowledge which, as spirits, we obtain, Is to be valued in the midst of pain: Annihilation were to lose heaven more; We are not quite exiled where thought can soar. Then cease from arms; Tempt him not farther to pursue his blow, And be content to bear those pains we know. If what we had, we could not keep, much less Can we regain what those above possess.

_Beelzebub._ Heaven sleeps not; from one wink a breach would be In the full circle of eternity. Long pains, with use of bearing, are half eased; Heaven, unprovoked, at length may be appeased. By war we cannot scape our wretched lot; And may, perhaps, not warring, be forgot.

_Asm._ Could we repent, or did not heaven well know Rebellion, once forgiven, would greater grow, I should, with Belial, chuse ignoble ease; But neither will the conqueror give peace, Nor yet so lost in this low state we are, As to despair of a well-managed war. Nor need we tempt those heights which angels keep, Who fear no force, or ambush, from the deep. What if we find some easier enterprise? There is a place,--if ancient prophecies And fame in heaven not err,--the blest abode Of some new race, called Man, a demi-god, Whom, near this time, the Almighty must create; He swore it, shook the heavens, and made it fate.

_Lucif._ I heard it; through all heaven the rumour ran, And much the talk of this intended Man: Of form divine; but less in excellence Than we; endued with reason lodged in sense: The soul pure fire, like ours, of equal force; But, pent in flesh, must issue by discourse: We see what is; to Man truth must be brought By sense, and drawn by a long chain of thought: By that faint light, to will and understand; For made less knowing, he's at more command.

_Asm._ Though heaven be shut, that world, if it be made, As nearest heaven, lies open to invade: Man therefore must be known, his strength, his state, And by what tenure he holds all of fate. Him let us then seduce, or overthrow; The first is easiest, and makes heaven his foe. Advise, if this attempt be worth our care.

_Belial._ Great is the advantage, great the hazards are. Some one (but who that task dares undertake?) Of this new creature must discovery make. Hell's brazen gates he first must break, then far Must wander through old night, and through the war Of antique chaos; and, when these are past, Meet heaven's out-guards, who scout upon the waste: At every station must be bid to stand, And forced to answer every strict demand.

_Mol._ This glorious enterprise-- [_Rising up._

_Lucif._ Rash angel, stay; [_Rising, and laying his sceptre on_ MOLOCH'S _head._ That palm is mine, which none shall take away. Hot braves, like thee, may fight; but know not well To manage this, the last great stake of hell. Why am I ranked in state above the rest, If, while I stand of sovereign power possest, Another dares, in danger, farther go? Kings are not made for ease, and pageant-show. Who would be conqueror, must venture all: He merits not to rise, who dares not fall.

_Asm._ The praise, and danger, then, be all your own.

_Lucif._ On this foundation I erect my throne: Through brazen gates, vast chaos, and old night, I'll force my way, and upwards steer my flight; Discover this new world, and newer Man; Make him my footstep to mount heaven again: Then, in the clemency of upward air, We'll scour our spots, and the dire thunder scar, With all the remnants of the unlucky war, And once again grow bright, and once again grow fair.

_Asm._ Meantime the youth of hell strict guard may keep, And set their centries to the utmost deep, That no etherial parasite may come To spy our ills, and tell glad tales at home.

_Lucif._ Before yon brimstone lake thrice ebb and flow, (Alas, that we must measure time by woe!) I shall return, (my mind presages well) And outward lead the colonies of hell. Your care I much approve; what time remains, Seek to forget, at least divert your pains With sports and music, in the vales and fields, And whate'erjoy so sad a climate yields.

_Betwixt the first Act and the second, while the Chiefs sit in the palace, may be expressed the sports of the Devils; as flights, and dancing in grotesque figures: And a song, expressing the change of their condition; what they enjoyed before, and how they fell bravely in battle, having deserved victory by their valour, and what they would have done if they had conquered._