Now there, next the oath of God, that Wrestler reigns Who fills the land and world with peace, his spear my Blind ignorance, false gods, and superstitious fear. * But me, oh! never le tme, Spirits, forget That glorious day, when I your standard bore With you assaulted heaven, his yoke forswore; Where are those spirits? Where that haughty rage What? Are our hearts fallen too? Droop we with age? Can we yet fall from hell and hellish spite! Can smart our wrath, can grief our hate assuage? And now you states of hell give your advice, This said, and ceased,-straight humming murmurs rise : Some chat, and some new stratagems devise, And every one heaven's stronger power ban'd, And tear for madness their uncombed snakes, And every one his fiery weapon shakes, And every one expects who first the answer makes. So when the falling sun hangs o'er the main, All have sharp spears, and all shrill trumpets have : Their files they double, loud their cornets sound, Now march at length, their troops now gather round: The banks, the broken noise, and turrets fair rebound. The 2nd Canto commences, as usual with this poet, in a strain of solemn reflection. At the fourth stanza, the following striking metaphor introduces the respondent to the infernal leader: As when the angry winds with seas conspire, rage on fire While waves with thundering drums whet on the fray, And blasts with whistling fifes new rage inspire: Yet soon as breathless airs their spight allay, A silent calm ensues: the hilly main Sinks in itself; and drums unbraced, refrain Their thund'ring noise, while seas sleep on the even plain. All so the raging storm of cursed fiends, Blown up with sharp reproof and bitter spight, First rose in loud uproar, then falling, ends And ebbs in silence: when a wily spright To give an answer for the rest intends: That hardly hell itself can trust his forgeries! The speech of this demon strongly reminds us of the replies of the fallen angels to Satan, in "Paradise Lost," more particularly that of Belial, who seems to be his counterpart. Fletcher, according to the prejudice of his time, has made Equivocus the patron of the followers of Ignatius, whose qualifications as devilish agents are set forth very much at full in his speech.He advises (and here again the resemblance to Milton is very striking,) the infernal prince to carry the war from heaven to earth; to assail in particular the "Wrestler" and his subjects in the obnoxious "little isle" and to employ the agency of his friends the Jesuits for that particular enterprise-the synod approves his counsel. With that the bold black spirit invades the day, And heaven, and light, and lord of both defies. All hell run out, and sooty flags display, A foul deformed rout: heaven shuts his eyes; The stars look pale, and early mornings' ray Lays down her head again, and dares not rise: A second night of spirits the air possest; The wakeful cock that late forsook his nest, Maz'd how he was deceived, flies to his roost and rest. So when the south, dipping his sable wings Light with dark clouds, waters with fires are met, And finds west's shades in east, and seas in ayers wet. Canto the third opens with the following stanza : False world how dost thou witch dim reason's eyes! Thy comforts, pleasures, joys are all vexation, Thy wages, care, grief, beggary, death, damnation, Look as in dreams where the idle fancy plays, A third sees sport in love and courtly dances; A sixth to find some glittering treasure chances: Soon as they wake they see their thoughts were vain, And quite forget and mock their idle brain ; This sighs, that laughs to see how true false dreams can feign. Such is the world, such life's short acted play: This base and scorn'd; this high in great esteeming, This poor and patched seems, this rich and gay; This sick, that strong; yet all is only seeming: Soon as the parts are done, all slip away; So like, that waking, oft we think we're dreaming, And dreaming hope we wake.-Wake watch mine eyes! What can be in this world, but flatteries, 1 Dreams, cheats, deceits, whose prince is king of night and lies? The scene now shifts from the infernal regions, to the theatre of the world, and we are introduced to the Jesuits and the countries of Europe most favourable to their opinions and subject to their influence. The fiend Equivocus is dispatched to Rome which is well described as contrasted with its former state. Say Muses, say, who now in those rich fields Upon the ruins of those marble towers, Founded, and rais'd, with skill and great expence Of ancient kings, great lords, and emperors, He builds his Babel up to heaven, and thence Thunders through all the world; on sandy floors The ground-work slightly floats, the walls to sense Seem porphyr fair, which blood of martyrs taints; But was base loam, mixed with strawey saints; Daub'd with untempered lime, which glittering tinfoil paints. * The Pope. |