Michael monologue (Act 3) — Vondel's Lucifer

Come, Uriel, armor-bearer, who dost guard 570 The Right divine and punishest the Wrong: Take up thy flaming sword: fly down below, And drive the twain from Eden, who have dared Transgress, so rash and blind, the primal law. Go, guard the gate of the Paradise profaned, And forcibly the exiles drive away From this rare food, this tree, prolonging life. Permit not that they pluck the immortal fruit, Nor their abuse of heavenly gifts allow. Thou art placed, as sentinel, the garden over, 580 And o'er this tree. Then see that Adam shall Be driven out, and that from morn to eve He plough the field, and till the clayey ground From which, the breath of God once fashioned him, Ozias, to whose hand once God Himself With honor did entrust the ponderous hammer Of bright-hewn diamond made, also the chains Of ruby and the clamps so sharp of teeth, Go hence, and capture and securely bind The host of the infernal animals, 590 Also the lion and the dragon fell, That furiously against our standards rage. Sweep from the sky these hordes accursed, and bind Them neck and claw, and chain them forcibly. This key of the black bottomless abyss And all its dungeons is unto your care, Azarias, enjoined. Go hence, and lock All that our power assail within those vaults. Maceda, take this torch, to you this flame Is given: go light the deep lake sulphurous. 600 Down in the centre of the Earth, and there Torment thou Lucifer, who hath brought forth Such numerous horrors, in the eternal fire Unquenchable, with chilling frosts commingled: There Grief and Horror and Obduracy, And Hunger, Thirst, and comfortless Despair, The sting of Conscience, Wrath implacable, The punishments given for this mad attempt, Amid the smoke from God's deep glow concealed, Bear witness to the blasting curse of Heaven, 610 Passed on this Spirit impious, the while Shall come the promised Seed, the Reconciler, Who shall appease the blazing wrath of God, And in His wondrous love to man restore All that by Adam's trespass has been lost.