Uriel monologue (Act 3) — Vondel's Lucifer

What fair perspective it was, thus to view A hemisphere or crescent moon beneath, And up above a point trilateral: To see the legions, that upon the word Of their commanding chiefs close in their ranks, 190 Or them deploy, in their battalions stand As firm as walls of iron, as if they, With all their ordnance, dumb artillery, And martial engines, there in equipoise Were placed, full-weighted 'gainst the balanced air! They hang suspended like a silent cloud, A cloud whereon the sun doth pour his beams, And which he paints with shade and varied hue And airy rainbows. So then, steeply flown Aloft, the bold celestial eagle sees 200 God's foe, the hawk, circling his flight beneath. He strikes his wings together valiantly; But brooks awhile the hawk's wild wheeling there, And vain defiance, while he flames ere long To swoop upon his feathered back and pluck His glossy plumes: when, in the aery vast, "With curvèd beak and talons he shall seize His prey, or drive it, with the wind behind, Far from his eyes. Thus they precipitate Themselves, and stream down from their place on high. 210 Even like some inland lake, or waterfall. In some far, Northern wild, that from the cliffs Dashes with thundering resonance that frights The beasts and monsters in deep-hidden dells; Where from the precipice, rocks, loosened, fall, With massive torrents and uprooted trees In countless numbers, that in their fierce plunge Crush and destroy all that the violence Of stream and stone and wood cannot withstand. The point of the advancing column strikes 220 The crescent's centre with assault most fell Of brimstone, red and blue, and flames, with stroke On stroke and quick-succeeding thunderbolts A piercing cry ascends. Their army's heart, Endangered, now begins, by slow degrees, To fail support of the accursèd one. The half-moon's bow, beneath the strain, begins To crack and break (for the ends together curve); So that they who the centre hold, must yield Before that onset fierce, and flee, if soon 230 Deliverance be not brought from their distress. Prince Lucifer, swift-driven here and there, Approaches at this cry, and fearlessly Himself exposes on his car, to show His valor in this crisis dire. This gives New heart unto the faltering ones. Then, from The foaming bit of his now furious team. He wards the feilest blows and fiercest strokes. The lion and the dragon blue, enraged, Leap forward at his word with fearful strides: 240 One bellows, bites, and rends, while poison shoots Out from the other's forkèd tongue, who thus A pest provokes, and, raving, fills the air With smoke blown from his nostrils far and wide.