Page:Milton - Milton's Paradise Lost, tra il 1882 e il 1891.djvu/39

729–763.] With naphtha and asphaltus, yielded light As from a sky. The hasty multitude Admiring entered; and the work some praise, And some the architect. His hand was known In heaven by many a towered structure high, Where sceptred angels held their residence, And sat as princes, whom the supreme King Exalted to such power, and gave to rule, Each in his hierarchy, the orders bright. Nor was his name unheard or unadored In ancient Greece; and in the Ausonian land Men called him Mulciber; and how he fell From heaven, they fabled, thrown by angry Jove Sheer o'er the crystal battlements: from morn To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, A summer's day; and with the setting sun Dropped from the zenith, like a falling star, On Lemnos, gean isle. Thus they relate, Erring; for he with this rebellious rout Fell long before; nor aught availed him now To have built in heaven high towers, nor did he 'scape By all his engines, but was headlong sent With his industrious crew to build in Hell. Meanwhile the winged heralds, by command Of sovereign power, with awful ceremony And trumpet's sound, throughout the host proclaim A solemn council, forthwith to be held At Pandemonium, the high capital Of Satan and his peers. Their summons called From every band and squared regiment, By place or choice the worthiest; they anon, With hundreds and with thousands, trooping came, Attended. All access was thronged; the gates And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall Though like a covered field, where champions bold