He on his impious foes right onward drove,
Gloomy as night: under his burning wheels
The stedfast empyrean shook throughout,
All but the throne itself of God. Full soon
Among them he arrived, in his right hand
Grasping ten thousand thunders, which he sent
Before him, such as in their souls infixed
Plagues. They, astonished, all resistance lost,
All courage; down their idle weapons dropt.
O'er shields and helms and helmed heads he rode
Of thrones and mighty seraphim prostrate,
That wished the mountains now might be again
Thrown on them as a shelter from his ire.
Nor less on either side tempestuous fell
His arrows, from the fourfold-visaged Four
Distinct with eyes, and from the living wheels
Distinct alike with multitude of eyes.
One spirit in them ruled, and every eye
Glared lightning, and shot forth pernicious fire Among the accursed, that withered all their strength, And of their wonted vigour left them drained, Exhausted, spiritless, afflicted, fallen.
Yet half his strength he put not forth, but checked
His thunder in mid volley; for he meant
Not to destroy, but root them out of heaven.
The overthrown he raised; and as a herd
Of goats or timorous flock together thronged,
Drove them before him thunderstruck, pursued
With terrors and with furies to the bounds
And crystal wall of heaven, which, opening wide,
Protenus incestos atrae se noctis in hostes
Coniicit instar habens, ardescentumqve rotarum
Vi tremit ex imis radicibus ignifer aether.
Unius inconcussa suo stat robore sedes
Ipsa Dei. Tanto ruit inpete et ilicet hostem
Adseqvitur, dextraqve tonitrua vindice circum
Innumero vibrat numero, praemissaqve tela
Torqvet agens ante atqve infigit corde sub alto
Pestes. Adtoniti cessant obsistere, cessat
Robur, et e manibus procumbit inutile ferrum.
Scuta super galeasqve simul galeataqve regum
Magnanimumqve ducum pergit capita ire iacentum.
Qvam vellent iterum, diis tutamen ab iris,
Montibus urgeri: sed utrimqve haud secius urget
Tempestas telorum ac ferreus ingruit imber.
Qvattuor hunc formae emittunt totidem ora ferentes,
Qvaeqve suis distincta oculis, pariterqve rotarum
Innumeris distincta oculis animataqve virtus.
Sed cunctos mens una regit, sed lumina flammis
Singula fulmineis rutilant, unde emicat ignis
Exitioqve uno sceleratorum agmina miscet.
Vis exusta perit, solitus vigor ossa reliquit,
Spemqve animumqve simul disiectaqve robora ponunt.
Sed neqve dimidias vires exercet, et ignem
Lapsu inhibet medio; neque enim rescindere ad unum,
Sed penitus toto voluit convellere caelo.
Ille solo levat eversos; qvalesqve caprarum
Aut ovium inbelles se conglomerare catervas
Vidimus, adflatos tonitru fugat ante corusco,
Terga premente metu furiisqve seqvacibus usqve
Limen ad extremum et crystallina moenia caeli.
Rolled inward, and a spacious gap disclosed
Into the wasteful deep. The monstrous sight
Struck them with horror backward, but far worse
Urged them behind; headlong themselves they threw
Down from the verge of heaven: eternal wrath
Burnt after them to the bottomless pit.
Hell heard the unsufferable noise, Hell saw
Heaven ruining from Heaven, and would have fled
Affrighted; but strict fate had cast too deep
Her dark foundations, and too fast had bound.
Nine days they fell. Confounded Chaos roared,
And felt tenfold confusion in their fall
Through his wild anarchy; so huge a rout
Encumbered him with ruin. Hell at last
Yawning received them whole, and on them closed;
Hell their fit habitation, fraught with fire
Unquenchable, the house of woe and pain.
He died, and left the world behind;
His once wild heart is cold;
His once keen eye is quelled and blind :
What more?- His tale is told.
He came; and baring his heav'n-bright thought,
He earned the base world's ban;
And having vainly lived and taught
Gave place to a meaner man!
Illa patent late atqve in se revoluta residunt,
Ingentemqve aditum pandunt ad inane profundum,
Horribile adspectu. Fugiunt formidine retro;
Pone tamen graviora instant: de limite caeli
Dant se praecipites: sed inexsaturabilis ira
Ardet adhuc imasqve Erebi sectatur in umbras.
Audiit horrendum sedes inferna fragorem,
De caeloqve ruens caelum conspexit, et imos
Quaesierat percussa nova formidine tractus;
Ni nimium inmoto nigras fundamine sedes.
Hoc metuens iecisset ineluctabile fatum,
Vincla super nimium arcta addens. Labentibus ibat
Nona dies. Chaos audita mugire ruina.
Adtonitumqve decemgeminos sensisse tumultus
Per discordia regna plagasqve sine ordine fusas:
Tantae stragis erat vasta sub mole gravatum.
Tandem Erebus magno integros adcepit hiatu,
Adceptosqve sinu clausit: nec talibus ullum
Aptius hospitium; nunqvam hic desaeviit ardor
Igneus; hic posuere cubilia luctus et angor.
Mortuus est superaqve excessit luce: refrixit
Cor nuper ah qvam fervidum!
Obruit atra qvies oculi penetrabile fulgur:
Qvid plura? Dicta fabula est.
Venit amans veri: docuit praeclara: docentem
Sprevere cives sordidi:
Sic labor effluxit vanus. Nunc illius inplet
Natura crassior locum.
No change, no pause, no hope! Yet I endure.
I ask the earth, have not the mountains felt?
I ask yon heaven, the all-beholding sun,
Has it not seen? The sea, in storm or calm,
Heaven's ever-changing shadow, spread below,
Have its deaf waves not heard my agony?
Ah me! alas, pain, pain ever, for ever!
The crawling glaciers pierce me with the spears
Of their moon-freezing crystals; the bright chains
Eat with their burning cold into my bones.
Heaven's winged hound, polluting from thy lips
His beak in poison not his own, tears up
My heart; and shapeless sights come wandering by,
The ghastly people of the realm of dream,
Mocking me: and the earthquake fiends are charged
To wrench the rivets from my quivering wounds.
Pictorum Certamen ambiguum.
Nennt den Urbiner den ersten der Maler; allein Leonardo Ist zu vollendet, um blos irgend der zweite zu seyn.
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