So having said, a while he stood, expeg
Thir universal shout and high applause [ 505 ]
To fill his eare, when trary he hears
On all sides, from innumerable tongues
A dismal universal hiss, the sound
Of public s; he wonderd, but not long
Had leasure, w at himself now more; [ 510 ]
His Visage drawn he felt to sharp and spare,
His Armes g to his Ribs, his Leggs entwining
Each other, till supplanted down he fell
A monstrous Serpent on his Belly prone,
Relut, but in vaine: a greater power [ 515 ]
Now ruld him, punisht in the shape he sind,
Acc to his doom: he would have spoke,
But hiss for hiss returnd with forked tongue
To forked tongue, for now were all transformd
Alike, to Serpents all as accessories [ 520 ]
To his bold Riot: dreadful was the din
Of hissing through the Hall, thick swarming now
With plicated monsters head and taile,
Scorpion and Asp, and Amphisbæna dire,
Cerastes hornd, Hydrus, and Ellops drear, [ 525 ]
And Dipsas (not so thick swarmd ohe Soil
Bedropt with blood of Gon, or the Isle
Ophiusa) but still greatest hee the midst,
Non grown, larger then whom the Sun
Ingenderd ihian Vale on slime, [ 530 ]
Huge Python, and his Power no less he seemd
Above the rest still to retain; they all
Him followd issuing forth to th open Field,
Where all yet left of that revolted Rout
Heavn-falln, in station stood or just array, [ 535 ]
Sublime with expectatioo see
In Triumph issuing forth thir glorious Chief;
They saw, but ht instead, a crowd
Of ugly Serpents; horror on them fell,
And horrid sympathie; for what they saw, [ 540 ]
They felt themselvs now ging; down thir arms,
Down fell both Spear and Shield, down they as fast,
And the dire hiss renewd, and the dire form
Catcht by tagion, like in punishment,
As in thir crime. Thus was th applause they meant, [ 545 ]
Turnd to exploding hiss, triumph to shame
Cast on themselves from thir own mouths. There stood
A Grove hard by, sprung up with this thir ge,
His will whns above, to aggravate
Thir penance, laden with Fruit like that [ 550 ]
Which grew in Paradise, the bait of Eve
Usd by the Tempter: on that prospect strange
Thir ear eyes they fixd, imagining
For one forbidden Tree a multitude
Now risn, to work them furder woe or shame; [ 555 ]
Yet parcht with scalding thurst and hunger fierce,
Though to delude them sent, could not abstain,
But on they rould in heaps, and up the Trees
Climbing, sat thicker then the snakie locks
That curld Megæra: greedily they pluckd [ 560 ]
The Frutage fair to sight, like that which grew
hat bituminous Lake where Sodom flamd;
This more delusive, not the touch, but taste
Deceavd; they fondly thinking to allay
Thir appetite with gust, instead of Fruit [ 565 ]
Chewd bitter Ashes, which th offeaste
With spattering noise rejected: oft they assayd,
Hunger and thirst straining, drugd as oft,
With hatefullest disrelish writhd thir jaws
With soot and ders filld; so oft they fell [ 570 ]
Into the same illusion, not as Man
Whom they triumphd once lapst. Thus were they plagud
And worn with Famin, long and ceasless hiss,
Till thir lost shape, permitted, they resum