Footnote: 
1.  With all this mitigation, the passage seems horrible bombast.

THE

STATE OF INNOCENCE,

AND

FALL OF MAN.

ACT I.

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.