At last (me thought) I leap’d into the boate,
Which seene, the Sculler pluck’d me by the throate
To haue his Fare first; asking what it was,
He cry’d a Penny. I for That did passe:
Being glad for bought experience I could tell,
That Auarice house stood the next doore to hell.
Charon, by interpretation is Ioy; for after we haue ferried ouer the troublesome passage of death, and landed on the shoares of Blessednesse, then the Ferriman (how churlish and terrible soeuer hee seemed at first) hath a countenance merry and comfortable. Charon also, is pictured Old, thereby signifying Good Councell, & Sweete Perswasion to prepare for death, and that brings Ioy: For what Ioy can bee greater, than that which ariseth out of an assured knowledge of a spotlesse Innocence, or of an hope that sins committed are repented and pardoned?
Anon (to see with what a Restlesse Gyre
The Soule entranc’d is whirld, some times through fire,
Then waues, then Racking Clowdes: earth, heaun and hell
Lying (then) all-open, free, and passible)
Me thought, being in a Twinkling ferried o’re,
And trembling on the horrid Stygian shore,
I saw the Brazen gates of deepe Abysse
In a vast bottome standing: none can misse
The way, it is so beaten, and so wide
That ten Caroches (breast-wise) in may ride.
To is there is a Headlong base Descent,
Slippery in whorrying downe, yet turbulent
Through throngs of people dayly poasting thither,
For Day nor Night are the Gates closde together.
As at some direfull Tragoedy (before
Not Acted) men prease round-about the dore
Crowding for Entrance, yet none entrance haue,
But (like toss’d billowes) this and that way Waue:
So Here; I ask’d the cause, and thousands cry’d,
Hell is so Full, there’s roome for Few beside.
In thrust I’mongst the thick’st, and sweating got
(For all the Aire mee thought was sulphry hot)
With much a-doe to’th Gate, where stood a grim
And churlish Porter, being in voyce and limbe
A Dog; yet like the Porter of a Iayle,
On new-come guests he Fawn’d and wagg’d his taile,
But bawl’d aloud for Fees, ready to teare
Their throats, who without bribes begg’d Entrance ther,
I choak’d the Curre with what he crau’d, and went
On with bold steps to the Black Regiment.
The Feeding and Feeing of Cerberus, taxeth those in office, who wey the gift, not the cause; and haue no other language in their mouthes, but Quid dabis? yet S. Paul willeth him that hath an office, to looke to his office: And as for-taking of Bribes, there is a direct Statute against it, set downe by the Vpper house of Heauen, in these expresse words, Thou shalt take no Bribe, Exod. 23.
Noyse was my Guide (mee thought) by which being led,
I got to’th Court where Soules were Sentenced:
Full was it of braue Fellowes and fine Dames,
Their Haire (once so perfum’d) all turn’d to Flames.
The Prince of Darkenesse, sate vpon a Throne
Of red-hot Steele, and on his head a Crowne
Of Glowing Adamant: As in he drew
The noysome Ayre, flames from his nostrils flew,
His Eyes flash’d fire, and when with dreadfull sound
He Roar’d (for that’s his Voyce) he shooke the grownd
Of his Tartarean Pallace) massy Keyes
(The Ensignes of his Empire) held (as Stayes)
A Canopy of Brasse aboue his head,
Which hard (to last) in Hell was Hammered.
Those Keyes being Emblems of Eternall paine,
For who there enter ne’re come forth againe,
Being lock’d-vp Euer: At his clouen feete
Three Iudges sate, whom I did lowly greete.
Those Iudges names are Minos, Rhadamanth, and AEACUS: the Infernall King is called Pluto. Now, albeit by the lawes of God we both beleeue, and are bound to acknowledge Him onely to bee Supreme Lord and Iudge both of Heauen, Earth, and Hell, yet sithence those former figured Names (drawne from Poeticall Inuention) carry in them a Morall and Instructiue Meaning, they are not altogether to be reiected; and the rather because in Picturing forth so Terrible an Obiect as the Kingdome of Hell, and Tortures of the Damned, I striue to shaddow the Horrors of them, and to set them off with heightning both of Profit and Delectation.
The Iudges in their hands held Whips of Wire,
Dipp’d in boyld brimstone to pay Soules their hire
According to their Facts: The King of Fiends
Spying me there ith throng, roares out and sends
Two of his Furies (Beadles of the Court)
To drag me to him, who in currish sort
(Like flesh-hooke-fingred Sergeants) hal’d me on:
Being there, the Iawes of Black Damnation
Thus yawnd, and bellowed: Wherefore art thou come
Hither (thou Slaue) ere Death sets downe thy Doome?
Thou art aliue, and not a soule that drawes
Breath Vitall, by our dread infernall Lawes
Must here set Footing. Humbly then (mee thought)
With pale and fright full lookes I Him besought,
That since I was a Stranger, and aliue,
Hee by his Hellish large Praerogatiue
Would signe my Passe, but to walke all the Rounds
Of his vast Countries and to view their Bownds:
A yelling Out-cry all-about was hurld,
That’twas not fit one of the Vpper World
Should be a close intelligencing Spy
Of their scorch’d shores to make discouery.
But the Crim Tartar, with distorted brow
Thwarting their grumbling, held it scorne to bow
To any wish of theirs, and Vnder-writ
The Passe, with to ades bloud from the Witches pit,
Charging me as my soule (if ere it fell
Into his Pawes) should answere it in hell,
Not to a next World that my Pen betrayd
What there I saw. His threatning being obay’d,
From him I tooke my way, nor did I feare
To lose my path, Hels path was euery where.
HEERE BEGIN THE DESCRIPTIONS BOTH OF THE DARKENESSE AND FIRES OF HELL, &C.
AS ALSO OF THE PARTICULAR TORMENTS ASSIGNED TO EUERY MAN, ACCORDING TO HIS PARTICULAR SINNES.
ON wings of hot desire I flew from thence
With whirle-wind swiftnesse, noyse, and violence,
Being mounted on a Spirits back, which ran
With Mandrake-shrikes, and like a Lubrican:
Whilst round (mee thought) about me there did roare
Ten thousand Torrents, beating on a shoare
Made all of Rocks, where huge Leuiathans lay
Gaping to swallow Soules, new cast away.
THE DARKENESSE OF HELL.
WERE all the Rowndure betwixt Hell and Heauen
One Clowd condensd, & into blacknesse driuen,
Not That; no, nor the Chaos vn-refinde,
(When in one Bundle Darknesse vp did binde
That confus’d Lumpe of Mixtures) being put too,
Not That: no nor if since the world was new,
All Nights (that euer were) might grow in One,
Neither could That: nor that AEGYPTIAN
Caliginous, Black vapor, which did rise
From Caues infernall to blind Pharaohs eyes,
Clammy as if that pitch from Heauen did melt,
And glutinously-thick it might be felt:
Adde to all these, that hideous direfull howre,
When all the lamps Coelestiall out did powre,
Their lights like spent oyle, dropping from their Sphaere
(As in my dreame at first it did app
eare:)
Not all these Darkenesses together glowd,
And ten-times-ten Redoubled and Renewde,
Are halfe so dismall as the Night infernall,
Black, Stinking, Stiflling, Poysning, and Eternall.
See for this Darkenesse Math. 22. 13. Iud. 13. Iob 10. Prou. 4. 14. Psal. 107. 10.
HORROR OF HELL FIRE.
HOW then (it may be asked) did my weake Sight
Pierce these thick walles of Horror, where no light
Euer shed Beame? why, on that Sorcerous Coast
Where Hagges and Witches dwelt was not I lost?
My Spirit had balls of Wild-fire in his head
For Eyes (me thought) and I by them was led:
For All these coale-pits (faddom’d deepe as hell)
Still burne, yet are the Flames Inuisible.
This fire is none of that, which God lent Man,
When (driuen by sinne out) he from Paradise ran,
Bitten with cold, beaten with frosts and Snow,
And in meere pitty did that Warmth bestow,
Teaching him how to kindle it at first,
And then with food combustible haue it nurst:
No; this Red, Gloomy Fornace is a Firing,
Deuouring, yet not wasting nor selfe-tiring.
Arithmetick cannot in Figures set
An Age of Numbred yeares to swell so Great,
As to fill vp that time when these shall dye,
Being NEVER, for it burnes Eternally,
From the Worlds first Foundation, to’th Confounding:
Were Deluges on Deluges abounding,
Not All that Raine (able to drowne the World,
Reach’d it to heauen) nor thousand Oceans hurld
On top of all those Waters, can euer slake
Or quench the least drop of this brimstone Lake.
For (which most dreadfull is) the Flames cease Neuer
To torture Soules, and yet no light seene Euer:
It is a Burning which doth Brightnesse lack,
The Coales being infinite-hot, and infinite black.
Yet through my horse of Hell gallopp’d amaine,
Now plung’d in Boyling lakes, then vp-againe;
Leaping into vast Caues, where heate neuer comes:
For sharper cold then Winters breath, benummes.
The Aire so stiffe, it freezeth All to ice,
And Clowdes of Snow; whose Flakes are harder thrice
Than those Quadrangled Haile-stones, which in Thunder
Kill Teemes, and Plough-men, and riue Oakes in sunder.
THE EXTREMITIES OF COLD IN HELL.
THE Hyperborean wind, whose Rough hand flings
Mountaines for Snow-balls, and on’s Marble wings
Beares Rocks of ice, fetch’d from the Frigid zone,
Which stuck ith North Seas, Seas and shoares were One;
Ten thousand wild Waues hardned in the Aire
Rattling like Isicles on his grizly Haire,
And in his driueling Beard Snow ten-times more
Than e’re the bald-pate Alpes in Periwigs wore,
When from his Caues of brasse (bound there in Giues
Of Adamant) out he whorries, and’ fore him driues
(In whirlewindes,) Haile, Frosts, Sleete, and Stormes; and
With rugged Winter, whom he Roaring greetes, (meetes
Then clapping their obstreperous Squallid Wings,
Each of them on the frozen Russian dings
Such bitter blasts downe, that they flye in Droues
(Though swadled all in furres) to Sweltring Stoues:
The Muffe, the Scythian, nor the Freeze-land-boore,
Nor the Laplandian Witch once peeping o’re
A threshold, left their Noses, Cheekes, and Eyes
(Pinch’d off by his Clumzy Nailes) be made a prize
To snarling Boreas. O yet! all this cold
(Were it pil’d vp in heapes a hundred fold,
In stifned Clowdes to freeze ten thousand yeere)
Is a Warme Thaw, to’th piercing Horrors heere.
Hells Cold so biting, so Inuincible,
Insufferable, Inexpressible,
That from all cold else the sharpe nips doth steale;
Should fire come neare it, it would fire congeale,
Till Flames turne icy Flakes, and force fire leese
His Vertue so, that coales Red-hot will freeze.
Here I beheld (mee thought) Soules Scar-crow-like,
Some bound, some hang bith heeles, whose heads did strike
The Icy-knobbed-roofe, toss’d too and fro,
By Gusts implacable, able downe to throw
Rampires of Brasse; which still beate out the Braines.
And still Renewde them with Plangiferous Paines.
Here, I beheld Kennels of fat-paunch’d Dogges,
From one to one howling in Dialogues
Of Hellish Language, cursing that they sat
At prowd Voluptuous Tables, yet forgat
Numm’d Charity, when at their gawdy gates
She begg’d but Scraps of their worst Delicates,
Yet staru’d for want; whilst they at Toasting fires
Bath’d their Ranke Guts: and with sharpe whips of Wires
(But nothing else) heated her Shiuering limbes:
They quaffing Bowles (ith’ mean time) crown’d to’th Brims.
And when ragg’d Souldiers, of their Bodies making
Anatomies in Wounds, with chill blasts quaking
And shrunke-vp mawes, did to their Worships come,
A Whipping-Poast, and Halter was their Doome.
Or when Thin-pale-cheek’d Schollers held but forth
Their Thread-bare armes, and did beseech their Worth
To pittie haplesse Learning once so much
As not to see her beg: No, they’d not Touch
A Poore bookes couer, though within it lay
Their Soules wealth, but (in scorne) Shuffled away.
O Diuine Vengeance! how most Iust thou art?
What they Stung ochers with, is Now their smart.
Bleake Agues, Apoplexies, Murres, Catarrhes,
Coughes, Dropsies, Rhewmes, diseases that make wars,
And in cold bloud kill Health, did here reigne rife,
And though they could not Wast, yet Worried life.
Death from his earthy hands flung here and there
Cold Snakes, and Scorpions, which did piece-male teare
Frost-bitten Soules, and spewd them vp againe
Wanting Disgestion: And to whip Paine with Paine,
Ten thousand Salamanders (whose chill thawing
Puts Bonfires out) their stark-stiffe lunges were gnawing:
Harsh was their Musicke therefore, on no string
But Yels; Teeth-gnashing, Chattring, Shiuering.
When thus farre I was transported by my Dreame: I called to minde (me thought) that vpon earth I had heard many great Schollers defend, that there was no Cold in hell: But then (turning ouer the leaues of my memory) I found writteu there, that Iob once spake thus.
They shal passe from the waters of Snow, to too much Heate. And that vpon those wordes Reuerend Bede did inferre, that Iob seemed to point (with his finger as it were) at Two Hels, the one of Fire, the other of Cold. And that S. Hierome vpon the tenth of Mathew, did auouch the same thing: And againe, that Hugo Victorinus, in his Booke De Anima, had ser downe, that in Hell there was a Passage from the waters of Snow, to the heate of Fire, and both of these were Insufferable, &c. Iob 24.
I likewise (me thought) remembred, that the Author of the Booke (intituled De Triplici Habitaculo, that is to say, Of Heauen, Earth, and Hell) being thought to be the worke of Saint Augustine, had these wordes, There are two principall Torments in Hell; viz. Intollerable Colde, and Intollerable Heate. Whereupon the Euangelists wrote, there shall bee in Hell, Weeping, and Gnashing of Teeth: Teares, melting from the eyes through the extremity of Fire, and that of the Teeth, proceeding fro
m the Sharpenesse of Colde.
Then called I to minde, that Iustinianus, in his Booke De casto Connubio Animae, sayd thus: There is in Hell, a Fire Corporeall, Inextinguible, wanting Combustible matter to nourish it: It shines to Punishment, not to Consolation. In that place there is Colde Incomparable, Gnashing of Teeth, and Smoake most Horrible-Stinking, &c. And that Haymo commenting vpon Mathew, sung the same Tune, thus: That among all the Tortures in Hell, the greatest were Heate and Cold.
My memory (me thought) amongst these mustred, Anselmus in his Elucidary, Innocentius with his booke DeContempta Mundi, with many others, all fighting vnder the same Opinion.
Againe, I tooke hold vpon the 39. Chapter of Ecclesiasticus, speaking thus: They are Spirits created for Reuenge, and in their fury they haue fortified their Torments; when the finall Day shall come, they shall powre forth the force and rage of him that created them, Fire, Hayle, Famine, &c.
These, & other Fortifications of Reading defending me, were Armors sufficient & of proofe, that there was Cold in Hell: And that haply the Infernall torments did so change, that some times the Soules of men were scorched in fires, and anon as grieuously plagu’d with inexpressible anguish of cold: yet considering with my selfe, that it was no Pillar for Saluation to leane vpon, to beleeue that there was or was not any such thing, it could (me thought) be no offence to Perswade, It was so, or not so: and the rather, because it was but a Dreame.
My Mephostophilan Nag (which foam’d before
With a white frothy Sweate, by scudding o’re
The Fields of Flames) had now the Glanders got
Through sudden Cold, when he was Extreame hot:
Foundred he was besides (halting downe-right)
So that I durst nor on, nor yet Allight;
My selfe (mee thought) being almost frozen dead.
Back therefore did I reyne his stubborne Head,
When quick as Thought, he gallopp’d thence away,
And came againe where Soules all broyling lay:
Vpon them fell downe stormes of burning Speares,
Trumpets red-hot, blowing Flames into their Eares,
Each Sence, and Member, that on earth had bin
An Armour in the quarrell of Damn’d Sin
To fight’ gainst Heauen, were (here) in pieces rent,
And Faults weigh’d out with equall punishment.
The Glutton roar’d for Cookes to giue him meate,
Drunkards for Wine, to quench their scalding Heate,
Adulterers for their Whoores, to coole those Fires
Which now burnt hotter then their old Desires:
Complete Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker Page 257