Page:Paradise lost by Milton, John.djvu/298

292 And strength, of courage haughty, and of limb Heroic built, though of terrestrial mould Foe not informidable, exempt from wound, I not; so much hath Hell debased, and pain Enfeebled me, to what I was in Heaven. She fair, divinely fair, fit love for Gods, Not terrible, though terror be in love, And beauty, not approached by stronger hate, Hate stronger under shew of love well feigned, The way which to her ruin now I tend."
 * So spake the Enemy of Mankind, enclosed

In serpent, inmate bad, and toward Eve Addressed his way; not with indented wave, Prone on the ground, as since, but on his rear, Circular base of rising folds, that towered Fold above fold, a surging maze, his head Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes, With burnished neck of verdant gold, erect Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass Floated redundant. Pleasing was his shape And lovely, never since of serpent-kind Lovelier; not those that in Illyria changed Hermionè and Cadmus, or the god In Epidaurus; nor to which transformed Ammonian Jove, or Capitoline, was seen, He with Olympias, this with her who bore Scipio, the highth of Rome. With tract oblique At first, as one who sought access but feared