Paradise Lost + Paradise Regained (2 Unabridged Classics + Original Illustrations by Gustave Doré). Джон Мильтон

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СКАЧАТЬ from Heav’n, with all his Host

      Of Rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring

      To set himself in Glory above his Peers!

      He trusted to have equal’d the most High,

      If he oppos’d; and with ambitious aim

      Against the Throne and Monarchy of God

      Rais’d impious War in Heav’n and Battel proud

      With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power

      Hurld headlong flaming from th’ Ethereal Skie

      With hideous ruine and combustion down

      To bottomless perdition, there to dwell

      In Adamantine Chains and penal Fire,

      Who durst defie th’ Omnipotent to Arms.

      Nine times the Space that measures Day and Night

      To mortal men, he with his horrid crew

      Lay vanquisht, rowling in the fiery Gulfe

      Confounded though immortal: But his doom

      Reserv’d him to more wrath; for now the thought

      Both of lost happiness and lasting pain

      Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes

      That witness’d huge affliction and dismay

      Mixt with obdurate pride and stedfast hate:

      At once as far as Angels kenn he views

      The dismal Situation waste and wilde,

      A Dungeon horrible, on all sides round

      As one great Furnace flam’d, yet from those flames

      No light, but rather darkness visible

      Serv’d only to discover sights of woe,

      Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace

      And rest can never dwell, hope never comes

      That comes to all; but torture without end

      Still urges, and a fiery Deluge, fed

      With ever-burning Sulphur unconsum’d:

      Such place Eternal Justice had prepar’d

      For those rebellious, here their Prison ordain’d

      In utter darkness, and their portion set

      As far remov’d from God and light of Heav’n

      As from the Center thrice to th’ utmost Pole.

      O how unlike the place from whence they fell!

      There the companions of his fall, o’rewhelm’d

      With Floods and Whirlwinds of tempestuous fire,

      He soon discerns, and weltring by his side

      One next himself in power, and next in crime,

      Long after known in Palestine, and nam’d

      Beelzebub. To whom th’ Arch-Enemy,

      And thence in Heav’n call’d Satan, with bold words

      Breaking the horrid silence thus began.

      If thou beest he; But O how fall’n! how chang’d

      From him, who in the happy Realms of Light

      Cloth’ d with transcendent brightness didst outshine

      Myriads though bright: If he Whom mutual league,

      United thoughts and counsels, equal hope,

      And hazard in the Glorious Enterprize,

      Joynd with me once, now misery hath joynd

      In equal ruin: into what Pit thou seest

      From what highth fal’n, so much the stronger provd

      He with his Thunder: and till then who knew

      The force of those dire Arms? yet not for those

      Nor what the Potent Victor in his rage

      Can else inflict do I repent or change,

      Though chang’d in outward lustre; that fixt mind

      And high disdain, from sence of injur’d merit,

      That with the mightiest rais’d me to contend,

      And to the fierce contention brought along

      Innumerable force of Spirits arm’d’

      That durst dislike his reign, and me preferring,

      His utmost power with adverse power oppos’d

      In dubious Battel on the Plains of Heav’n,

      And shook his throne. What though the field be lost?

      All is not lost; the unconquerable Will,

      And study of revenge, immortal hate,

      And courage never to submit or yield:

      And what is else not to be overcome?

      That Glory never shall his wrath or might

      Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace

      With suppliant knee, and deifie his power

      Who from the terrour of this Arm so late

      Doubted his Empire, that were low indeed,

      That were an ignominy and shame beneath

      This downfall; since by Fate the strength of Gods

      And this Empyreal substance cannot fail,

      Since through experience of this great event

      In Arms not worse, in foresight much advanc’t,

      We may with more successful hope resolve

      To wage by force or guile eternal War

      Irreconcileable, to our grand Foe,

      Who now triumphs, and in th’ excess of joy

      Sole СКАЧАТЬ