iRAyi.SE I 
 
 BOC 
 
 PR 
 
 - 
 
 :; ;; : .V 
 
 
 mw ■• .-,.«. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 Chap....?.!) Copyright No... 
 Shelf. 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
Xake JEnolisb Classics, 
 
 For College Entrance, 1899. 
 
 Under the editorial supervision of LINDSAY TODD DAMON, A.B. 
 Instructor in English in The University of Chicago. 
 
 Limp Cloth. 
 SHAKSPERE — Macbeth, 25c. 
 
 John Henry Boynton, Ph.D., Instructor in English, Syracuse 
 University. 
 
 MILTON — Paradise Lost, Books I, II, 25c. 
 
 Frank E. Farley, Ph.D., Instructor in English, Haverford 
 College. 
 BURKE — Speech on Conciliation with America, . . . 25c. 
 Joseph Villiers Denney, B. A., Professor of Rhetoric and Eng- 
 lish Language, The Ohio State University. 
 
 CARLYLE — Essay on Burns, 25c. 
 
 Geo. B. Alton, State Inspector of High Schools, Minnesota. 
 
 DRYDEN — Palamon and Arcite, 25c. 
 
 May Estelle Cook, A.B., Instructor in English, South Side 
 Academy, Chicago. 
 POPE — Homer's Iliad, Books I, VI, XXII, XXIV, . . . 25c. 
 Wilfred Wesley Cressy, A.M., Associate Professor of English, 
 Oberlin College. 
 
 GOLDSMITH — The Vicar of Wakefield 30c. 
 
 Edward P. Morton, A.M., Instructor in English, The Indiana 
 University. 
 COLERIDGE — The Ancient Mariner, . . ."] 
 
 LOWELL — Vision of Sir Launfal I In I 25 c. 
 
 William Vaughn Moody, A.M., Instructor in | ° ne VoL > 
 English, The University of Chicago. J 
 
 HAWTHORNE — The House of the Seven Gables, . . . 35c. 
 Robert Herrick, A.B., Assistant Professor of English, The 
 University of Chicago. 
 
 DE QUINCEY — The Flight of a Tartar Tribe 25c. 
 
 Charles W. French, A.M., Principal Hyde Park High School, 
 Chicago. 
 ADDISON — The Sir Roger deCoverley Papers, . . . 30c. 
 Herbert Vaughan Abbott, A.M., Instructor in English, Har- 
 vard University. 
 COOPER — Last of the Mohicans. (Announcement later). 
 SCOTT— The Lay of the Last Minstrel, . . . In preparation. 
 SCOTT— Marmion, In preparaticu. 
 
 SCOTT, FORESMAN & COMPANY, 
 
 'Publishers, 
 378-388 Wabash Avenue, Chicago. 
 
Zbc Xafce iBnglteb Classics 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 LINDSAY TODD DAMON, A.B. 
 Instructor in English in The University of Chicago 
 
Gbe Xafce English Classics 
 
 MILTON'S 
 
 PARADISE LOST 
 
 BOOKS I AND II 
 
 EDITED FOR SCHOOL, USE 
 
 FRANK EDGAR FARLEY, Ph.D. 
 
 INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY 
 
 CHICAGO 
 SCOTT, FORESMAN AND COMPANY 
 
 1898 
 

 18388 
 
 Copyright 1898 
 3y SCOTT, FORESMAN AND COMPANY 
 
 7, 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This book aims to furnish the student merely 
 such information as seems absolutely necessary to 
 a comprehension of the text of Milton's poem. 
 It is not intended to take the place of a 
 teacher, but merely to prepare the way for him; 
 for that reason nothing like aesthetic criticism or 
 elaborate elucidation has been attempted. Neither 
 is it meant to be a hand-book for teachers. Every 
 teacher of Milton should own David Masson's 
 larger three-volume edition of Milton's Poetical 
 Works (New York, The Macmillan Co.), and the 
 first volume, at least, of A. Wilson Verity's edition 
 of Paradise Lost (Cambridge University Press, 
 England). Other useful helps to the study of 
 Milton are Masson's Life of John Milton, narrated 
 in connexion with the political, ecclesiastical, and 
 literary history of his time, six volumes (Macmil- 
 lan) ; Pattison's Life of Milton (in the English 
 Men of Letters series); Garnett's Life of Milton 
 (in the Great Writers series, — particularly valuable 
 for its Bibliography) ; [Selected'] English Prose 
 
8 PREFACE 
 
 Writings of John Milton, edited by Henry Morley 
 (in the Carisbrooke Library) ; Milton's Prosody, 
 by Robert Bridges (Clarendon Press) ; The Astron- 
 omy of Milton'' s Paradise Lost, by Thomas N. 
 Orchard, M. D. (Longmans) ; Bradshaw's Con- 
 cordance to the Poetical Works of John Milton 
 (Macmillan) ; Lowell's Essay on Milton (Works, 
 Riverside edition, Vol. IV) ; Macaulay's Essay on 
 Milton. 
 
 The editor has bnt one or two suggestions to 
 make to teachers. It is intended that the Intro- 
 duction shall be read through — not necessarily 
 learned — before the text is touched. The Glossary 
 and the Notes have purposely been made as com- 
 pact as possible, in order that the student may 
 master them so far as they pertain to each succes- 
 sive lesson ; for, although the one aim of a course 
 of study in Paradise Lost should be, it would 
 seem, to teach the student to enjoy the poem, no 
 poem can be adequately appreciated the text of 
 which is in any degree unintelligible — and students 
 are apt to deceive themselves with regard to the 
 accuracy of their own interpretation of an English 
 classic. On the other hand, it is hoped that too 
 much of the time available in the class-room may 
 not be spent in reciting the editor 's explanations, 
 
PREFACE 9 
 
 for no poem should be associated in a student's 
 mind merely with definitions and troublesome 
 grammatical constructions. A skillful teacher will 
 avoid both pedantry and undue laxity. 
 
 The section on Milton's Verse has been added to 
 the Introduction, with the hope that it may help 
 the student in reading the poem aloud. It would 
 be well if considerable portions of the verse might 
 be read in class, with a view to bringing out its 
 musical qualities. 
 
 In the preparation of this book, free use has been 
 made of Masson and Verity, and some help has 
 been obtained from other editions, particularly 
 those of Cook and Macmillan. The text is mainly 
 that of Masson, with some alterations in punctua- 
 tion. 
 
 The editor wishes to acknowledge his obligation 
 to Mr. Lindsay Todd Damon, of the University of 
 Chicago, for his editorial indulgence, and for 
 numerous valuable suggestions ; and to Dr. F. N. 
 Robinson of Harvard University, for his kindness 
 in revising the proof sheets of the Introduction, 
 Notes and Glossary. 
 
 F. E. F. 
 
 Syracuse University, October, 1898. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAOE 
 
 Introduction 
 
 John Milton 13 
 
 Milton's Works in the Order of Publication 22 
 
 The Genesis of Paradise Lost ... 25 
 
 The Subject Matter of Paradise Lost . 37 
 
 Milton's English 57 
 
 Milton's Verse . . . . • . . '65 
 
 Milton's Preface on "The Verse" ... 73 
 
 Text and Notes 77 
 
 Glossary 151 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 I. JOHN MILTON 
 
 John Milton was born on the 9th of December, 
 1608, in London. His father, a scrivener (a kind 
 of notary, or framer of legal documents) by pro- 
 fession, and a man of musical and literary tastes, 
 took great pains that the boy's natural love for 
 books and study should be stimulated, both by 
 careful home training, and later by a course at St. 
 Paul's School. John Aubrey, on the strength of 
 information furnished by Milton's brother Christo- 
 jmer, gives us a curious account of the studious 
 lad: "When he went to schoole, when he was 
 very young, he studied very hard and sate-up very 
 late, commonly till 12 or one a clock at night, and 
 his father ordered the mayde to sitt-up for him, 
 and in those yeares (10) composed many copies of 
 verses which might well become a riper age." 1 
 Of these copies of verses, only paraphrases of two 
 Psalms, and a poem On the Death of a Fair 
 Infant Dying of a Cough , interesting chiefly as 
 literary curiosities, have been preserved. 
 
 1 'Brief Lives' chiefly of Contemporaries, set down by 
 John Aubrey, between the years 1669 and 1696. Edited 
 from the author's Mss. by Andrew Clark. Oxford, 1898, 
 II, 63. 
 
 13 
 
14 INTRODUCTION 
 
 In due time Milton left his Puritan home to 
 matriculate at Christ's College, Cambridge, where 
 Aubrey says he "was a very good student . . . 
 and performed all his exercises . . . with very 
 good applause." In spite of some disagreement 
 with the authorities (Aubrey says that on one 
 occasion Milton's tutor "whipt him"), when the 
 poet retired in 1632 to his father's house in 
 Horton, Buckinghamshire, he could look back 
 with satisfaction on his career at Cambridge: 
 "There for seven years," he writes, "I studied the 
 learning and arts wont to be taught, far from all 
 vice and approved by all good men, even till, 
 having taken what they call the Master's degree, 
 and that with praise, I ... of my own accord 
 went home, leaving even a sense of my loss among 
 most of the Fellows of the College, by whom I 
 had in no ordinary degree been regarded." 1 
 
 Milton carried with him into his retirement some 
 burdens of his own. He had made up his mind 
 before the end of his university course that he 
 could not conscientiously take orders, as his father 
 had intended, and no profession appealed to him 
 as an alternative, though he knew vaguely that his 
 pursuits must be intellectual. He had already 
 acquired some reputation by his pen : the Vacation 
 Exercise, the ode On the Morning of Christ' 's 
 Nativity, the lines Upon the Circumcision, On 
 Shakspere, and on The Passion, the epitaphs on 
 
 1 Defensio Secunda. (Masson's translation.) 
 
INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 the University Carrier and the Marchioness of 
 Winchester, and possibly some other pieces usually 
 printed among Milton's minor poems, all belong 
 to his college days. Of special interest among 
 these minor pieces, is a sonnet written on Milton's 
 twenty-third birthday, in which he laments that he 
 has accomplished so little in life. Now that he 
 had withdrawn from the university, his conscience 
 would not allow him to lead a life of idleness, or 
 even of isolation from the interests of the world 
 about him; yet he was unable to determine defi- 
 nitely the direction of his future activity. 
 
 For five years Milton remained at Horton, read- 
 ing widely, particularly in the classics, and thinking 
 high thoughts. These years of study and medita- 
 tion bore fruit in the finest of Milton's minor 
 poems: to this period belong V Allegro, II Pen- 
 seroso, Arcades, Comus and Lycidas. 
 
 In the spring of 1638 Milton made a memorable 
 journey to Italy. Everywhere the young fellow 
 found a warm welcome. In Eome he was enter- 
 tained by Cardinal Barberini. At Florence he was 
 honored by the literary circle, and one day there 
 came a dramatic moment when he stood in the 
 presence of the blind Galileo, then "grown old, a 
 prisoner to the Inquisition, for thinking in Astron- 
 omy otherwise than the Franciscan and Dominican 
 licensers thought. ,n At Naples he won the friend- 
 ship of Giovanni Battista Manso, Marquis of Villa, 
 
 1 Areopagitica. 
 
16 INTRODUCTION 
 
 to whom he addressed one of the best known of 
 his Latin poems. As Milton was about to leave 
 Naples for Sicily and Greece, however, tidings 
 reached him of the approach of civil war in 
 England. "Thinking it base," he says, "to be 
 travelling at my ease for intellectual culture while 
 my fellow-countrymen at home were fighting for 
 liberty," 1 he changed his plans and made a rather 
 leisurely journey homeward, arriving in England 
 in August, 1639. 
 
 This year marks the end of Milton's long period 
 of passivity, of scholarly acquisition and seclusion. 
 Shortly after his return from Italy, the news of the 
 death of his friend Charles Diodati prompted him 
 to write the Epitaphium Damonis, the noblest of 
 his numerous Latin poems; but this is the last 
 sustained piece of verse we get from him in two 
 decades. He began almost immediately to take 
 such an active part in public affairs, that before 
 many years few men in England were better known. 
 By 1641 Milton had begun the long series of con- 
 troversial pamphlets on religious, social and 
 political questions which made his reputation 
 among his contemporaries, and not until the decline 
 of the Commonwealth did he again give serious 
 attention to purely literary interests. Still, a few 
 splendid sonnets are preserved to us in the wreck- 
 age of these twenty years, and in 1645 Milton col- 
 lected and published such poems as he had at hand 
 
 1 Defensio Secunda. 
 
INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 In March, 1649, two months after the execution 
 of Charles L, Milton was made Latin secretary to 
 the Committee of Foreign Affairs under the Com- 
 monwealth. By January, 1651, he had so com- 
 mended himself to the government that the Council 
 of State entrusted to him the task of answering 
 Salmasius's Defensio Regio }iro Carolo /., a 
 dangerous book which had appeared during the 
 previous autumn. Milton's physicians warned 
 him that if he undertook this commission, his 
 eyesight, which for some years had been weaken- 
 ing, would probably fail him altogether, but he 
 was not the man to flinch for any reason from 
 what he believed to be his duty to the Common- 
 wealth. Two months later the Latin Secretary 
 sent to the press his Defensio pro Populo 
 Anglicano, and by the following spring he was 
 totally blind. He continued to supervise the 
 foreign correspondence of the State, however, till 
 the Restoration cut short forever his active partici- 
 pation in politics. 
 
 Most of the writings published by Milton during 
 his controversial period have long since become 
 obsolete, with the issues which occasioned them; 
 some of them reveal an unpleasant side to Milton's 
 character, for they show that this high-minded 
 Puritan could be, when he chose, not only arrogant, 
 but even savage and vituperative. Perhaps we 
 need make special mention here only of the Reason 
 of Church Government Urged Against Prelaty 
 
18 INTRODUCTION 
 
 (1641), some portions of which deserve to be saved 
 from oblivion for the splendor of their style, and 
 for their autobiographical interest; of the Areopa- 
 gitica (1644), a magnificent defence of the liberty 
 of the press, and, on the whole, Milton's finest 
 prose work ; and of The Tenure of Kings and Mag- 
 istrates (1649), a strenuous defence of the judges 
 of Charles I. In these and his other prose writ- 
 ings, Milton stood in general for freedom of con- 
 science and individual liberty: tyranny, whether 
 it took the form of the cruelty of Laud, the intoler- 
 ance of the Presbyterians, or the "divine right" of 
 the Stuarts, was hateful to him. His strong sense 
 of justice is apparent, again, in the group of sonnets 
 which he gave to the world during these stormy 
 years, and which are associated, for the most part, 
 with men and matters of current interest. 
 
 The last years of Milton's life were devoted largely 
 to the composition of Paradise Lost (published 
 1667), Paradise Regained (1671), and Samson 
 Agonistes (1671), and the revision of his earlier 
 poems (1673), though he found time for a Latin 
 Grammar (1669), a History of Britain (1670) 
 and other minor works. Milton's old age was not 
 altogether solitary. "He was visited much by 
 learned [men]: more than he did desire," says the 
 ingenuous Aubrey. We know that among Mil- 
 ton's visitors were some congenial young men who 
 chatted with the blind poet, read to him, and 
 wrote at his dictation. Two of these, Cyriack 
 
INTRODUCTION 19 
 
 Skinner and a son of Henry Lawrence, Milton has 
 commemorated in sonnets. Jonathan Eichardson, 
 joint author with his son of Explanatory Notes 
 and Remarks on Milton's Paradise Lost, pub- 
 lished in London in 1734, has recorded (pp. iv, v) 
 a quaint bit of contemporary comment on the poet 
 in his latter days: "I have heard many Years 
 Since," he notes, ''that he LTs'd to Sit in a Grey 
 Coarse Cloath Coat at the Door of his House, near 
 Bun-Mil Fields, Without Moor gate, in Warm 
 Sunny Weather, to Enjoy the Fresh Air, and so, 
 as well as in his Eoom, receiv'd the Visits of People 
 of Distinguish 'd Parts, as well as Quality, and 
 very Lately I had the Good Fortune to have 
 Another Picture of him from an Ancient Clergy- 
 man in Dorsetshire, Dr. Wright; He found him 
 in a Small House, he thinks but One Room on a 
 Floor: in That, up One pair of Stairs, which was 
 hung with a Rusty Green, he found John Milton, 
 Sitting in an Elbow Chair, Black Cloaths, and 
 Neat enough, Pale but not Cadaverous, his Hands 
 and Fingers Gouty, and with Chalk Stones, among 
 Other Discourse He exprest Himself to This Pur- 
 pose: that, was he Free from the Pain This gave 
 him, his Blindness would be Tolerable." 
 
 Milton's domestic life was not altogether pleas- 
 ant. The first of his three wives, Mary Powell, 
 a young and lively girl who had been reared in a 
 Royalist family, was ill suited to a Puritan house- 
 hold, and their incompatibility brought both her 
 
20 INTRODUCTION 
 
 husband and herself much unhappiness. To Cath- 
 erine Woodcock, his second wife, who died after only 
 fifteen months of married life, Milton alludes with 
 great tenderness in the sonnet beginning: 
 
 Methought I saw my late espoused saint 
 Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave. 
 
 Late in life he married Elizabeth Minshull, who 
 seems to have done her best to make up, by her min- 
 istrations, for the slights of Milton's not always 
 dutiful daughters. She survived his death, which 
 occurred on the 8th of November, 1674. 
 
 Of Milton's personal characteristics we get some 
 hint from Aubrey's scattered notes: "His har- 
 monicall and ingeniose soul did lodge in abeautifull 
 and well-proportioned body. He was a spare man. 
 He was scarce so tall as I am [Aubrey describes 
 himself as of 'middle stature'] . . . hehadabroun 
 [i. e. auburn] hayre. His complexion exceeding 
 faire — he was so faire that they called him the 
 lady of Christ's College. Ovall face. His eie a 
 dark gray . . . He had a delicate tuneable voice, 
 and had good skill. His father instructed him. 
 He had an organ in his howse : he played on that 
 most ... Of a very cheerfull humour. — He 
 would be chearfull even in his gowte-fitts, and 
 sing . . . Extreme pleasant in his conversation, 
 and at dinner, supper, etc. : but satyricall, . . . His 
 wiclowe haz his picture, drawne very well and like, 
 when a Cambridge schollar . . . which ought to 
 
INTRODUCTION 21 
 
 be engraven ; for the pictures before his bookes are 
 not at all like him." 
 
 It is apparent from these jottings that Milton 
 was by no means an uncompanionable man, how- 
 ever austerely he may have written. It is not easy 
 to estimate his character consistently. With his 
 gentleness toward his friends we have to contrast 
 his harshness, bitterness, and downright brutality 
 toward his enemies. Measured by ordinary stand- 
 ards, no man ever shaped for himself higher ideals ; 
 yet he could apparently lose sight of those ideals 
 in the very act of forcing them upon others. The 
 confidence in his own judgment and in his own 
 destiny which shows itself in Milton's earlier con- 
 troversial writings never forsook him, even in the 
 face of an affliction that would have crushed a less 
 determined spirit. The same iron resolution that 
 impelled him to sacrifice his eyesight for the good 
 of his country, sustained him in his blindness so 
 that he could say of himself : 
 
 STet I argue not 
 Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate one jot 
 Or heart or hope : but still bear up, and steer 
 Right onward. 1 
 
 It is Milton's indomitable courage and splendid 
 self-reliance that give character to the man. The 
 accident of his Puritan affiliations emphasized these 
 qualities in his writings, and obscured the ten- 
 
 1 Sonnet on his blindness, addressed to Cyriack Skin- 
 ner. 
 
22 INTRODUCTION 
 
 derness and human sympathy that, under other 
 conditions, might have heen revealed to us in a 
 more approachable, if less exalted, personality. 
 
 II. MILTON'S WORKS IN THE ORDER OF PUBLI- 
 CATION 
 
 1. A Mask [Comus]. 1637. 
 
 2. Lycidas [in "Obsequies to the Memory of Mr. 
 
 Edward King"]. 1638. 
 
 3. Of Eeformation touching Church-Discipline in 
 
 England. 1641. 
 
 4. Of Prelatical Episcopacy. 1641. 
 
 5. Animadversions upon the Remonstrant's 
 
 Defence against Smectymnuus. 1641. 
 
 6. The Reason of Church-Government urged 
 
 against Prelaty. 1641, 
 
 7. An Apology against a Pamphlet called A 
 
 Modest Confutation of the Animadversions 
 upon the Remonstrant against Smectym- 
 nuus. 1642. 
 
 8. The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce. 1643. 
 
 Second edition, enlarged, 1644. 
 
 9. Of Education. To Master Samuel Hartlib. 
 
 1644. Reprinted at the end of Milton's 
 Poems in the edition of 1673. 
 
 10. The Judgment of Martin Bucer concerning 
 
 Divorce, now Englished. 1644. 
 
 11. Areopagitica. 1644. 
 
 12. Tetrachordon. 1645. 
 
 13. Colasterion. 1645. 
 
 14. Poems . . . both English and Latin, composed 
 
 at several times. [The English poems : On 
 the Morning of Christ's Nativity; A Para- 
 phrase on Psalm CXIV; Psalm CXXXVI; 
 The Passion ; On Time ; Upon the Circum- 
 
INTRODUCTION 23 
 
 cision; At a Solemn Music; An Epitaph on 
 the Marchioness of Winchester; Song on 
 May Morning; On Shakspere; On the 
 University Carrier ; Another on the Same ; 
 L'Allegro; II Penseroso; Ten sonnets, as 
 follows: "0 Nightingale," five sonnets in 
 Italian, "How soon hath Time," "Captain 
 or Colonel," "Lady, that in the prime of 
 earliest youth," "Daughter to that good 
 Earl"; Arcades; Lycidas; Comus. The 
 Latin Poems consisted of an Elegiarum 
 Liber, containing fifteen pieces, and a 
 Sylvarum Liber, containing nine, to which 
 were added two bits of Greek verse. 
 
 To the second edition, 1673, were added 
 the nine following sonnets: "A book was 
 writ of late," "I did but prompt the 
 age," "Harry, whose tuneful and well 
 measured song," "When Faith and 
 Love," "Avenge, Lord, thy slaughtered 
 saints," "Wlien I consider how my light 
 is spent," "Lawrence," "Cyriack, whose 
 grandsire on the royal bench," "Me- 
 thought I saw my late espoused saint"; 
 also the poem On the New Forcers of Con- 
 science; a translation of the Fifth Ode of 
 the First Book of Horace; paraphrases of 
 Psalms I-VIII, LXXX-LXXXVIII; On 
 the Death of a Fair Infant; A Vacation 
 Exercise; two more Latin poems, and a 
 Greek epigram on Marshall's engraving of 
 Milton's portrait.] 1645. 
 
 15. The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates. 1649. 
 
 16. Observations upon the Articles of Peace with 
 
 the Irish Rebels. 1649. 
 
 17. Eikonoklastes. 1649. 
 
24 INTRODUCTION 
 
 IS. Pro Populo Anglicano defensio contra Claudii 
 anonymi, alias Salmasii Defensionem 
 Regiam. 1651. 
 
 19. Pro populo Anglicano defensio secunda. 1654. 
 
 20. Pro se defensio contra Alexandnim Morum 
 
 [with a Supplementum Responsio]. 1655. 
 
 21. Scriptum Domini Protectoris contra . . . 
 
 Hispanos. 1655. 
 
 22. A Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical 
 
 Causes. 1659. 
 
 23. Considerations touching the likeliest means to 
 
 remove Hirelings out of the Church. 1659. 
 
 24. The Ready and Easy way to establish a Free 
 
 Commonwealth. 1660. 
 
 25. Brief Notes upon a late Sermon . . . preached 
 
 ... by Matthew Griffeth, D. D. 1660. 
 
 26. Paradise Lost. 1667. Second edition, 1674; 
 
 third, 1678; fourth, 1688. 
 
 27. Accidence commenced Grammar. . . . 1669. 
 
 28. The History of Britain. 1670. 
 
 29. Artis Logicae plenior Institutio. 1670. 
 
 30. Paradise Regained. 1671. 
 
 31. Samson Agonistes [published with the preced- 
 
 ing]. 1671. 
 
 32. Of true Religion, Heresy, Schism, Toleration, 
 
 and what best means may be used against 
 the growth of Popery. 1673. 
 
 33. Epistolarum Familiarum liber unus. 1674. 
 
 34. A Declaration or Letters Patent of the Election 
 
 of this present King of Poland, John the 
 Third [a translation]. 1674. 
 
 POSTHUMOUS 
 
 35. Literse Pseudo-Senatus Anglicani, etc. 1676. 
 
 36. Character of the Long Parliament and 
 
 Assembly of Divines in 1641. [This is of 
 
INTRODUCTION 25 
 
 doubtful authenticity. It purports to be a 
 suppressed portion of Milton's History of 
 Britain.] 1681. 
 
 37. A Brief History of Muscovia. 1682. 
 
 38. Letters of State. [A translation of No. 35 
 
 above. Edited by Milton's nephew, 
 Edward Phillips, with a life of Milton pre- 
 fixed. This volume contained four sonnets 
 never before printed: To Cromwell; To 
 Fairfax; To Sir Henry Vane; To Cyriack 
 Skinner ("Cyriack, this three-years-day 
 these eyes").] 1694. 
 
 39. The first edition of the collected Prose Works 
 
 of Milton, published in 1697, contained two 
 tracts never before printed : A Letter to a 
 Friend Concerning the Ruptures of the 
 Commonwealth (written in 1659) ; The 
 Present Means and Brief Delineation of a 
 Free Commonwealth (written in 1660). 
 
 40. De Doctrina Christiana. 1825. 
 
 III. THE GENESIS OF PARADISE LOST 
 
 When John Milton returned to his father's house 
 in 1639, after his triumphal tour in Italy, it was 
 with a serious purpose to do something for England 
 that should justify the long years of leisurely study 
 which his father's indulgence had made possible. 
 Milton's tastes and accomplishments were those of 
 a man of letters, and he seems to have meant, 
 from the first, to serve his country in some way 
 with his pen. He was more at his ease in verse 
 than in prose, 1 and a great poem seemed to him the 
 
 1 In The Reason of Church Government, he apologizes 
 for writing in prose, "wherein knowing myself inferior 
 
26 INTRODUCTION 
 
 most fitting memorial he could leave his country- 
 men — perhaps an epic, which should mean to 
 Englishmen what the Iliad meant to the Greeks, or 
 the JEneid to the Romans. The earliest specific 
 hint we get of a purpose to compose such a poem, 
 occurs in the Latin lines addressed to Manso in 
 1639, where he wishes the Spirit might aid him in 
 singing of King Arthur and the Knights of the 
 Round Table. Later in the same year, certain 
 verses in the Epitaphium Damonis indicate that 
 the idea of an Arthurian epic still appealed to him. 
 Again, in a famous passage in The Reason of 
 Church Government, published in 1641, Milton 
 speaks, less definitely, of his ambition to "leave 
 something so written to aftertimes as they should 
 not willingly let it die" — something, moreover, not 
 in Latin, then commonly regarded as the more 
 elegant and dignified language, but in English. 
 Having made up his mind to this, "I applied 
 myself," he writes, "to that resolution which 
 Ariosto followed against the persuasions of Bembo, 
 to fix all the industry and art I could unite 
 to the adorning of my native tongue: not to 
 make verbal curiosities the end (that were a 
 toilsome vanity), but to be an interpreter and 
 relater of the best and sagest things among 
 mine own citizens throughout this Island in 
 
 to myself, led by the genial power of nature to another 
 task, I have the use, as I may account, but of my left 
 hand." 
 
INTRODUCTION 27 
 
 the mother-dialect; that what the greatest and 
 choicest wits of Athens, Kome, or modern Italy, 
 and those Hebrews of old, did for their country, 
 I, in my proportion, with this over and above of 
 being a Christian, might do for mine; not caring 
 to be once named abroad, though perhaps I conld 
 attain to that, but content with these British 
 Islands as my world, whose fortune hath hitherto 
 been that, if the Athenians, as some say, made 
 their small deeds great and renowned by their 
 eloquent writers, England hath had her noble 
 achievements made small by the unskillful handling 
 of monks and mechanics." Then he goes on to 
 express his doubt whether the poem he contem- 
 plates had best take "that Epic form whereof the 
 two poems of Homer, and those other two of 
 Virgil and Tasso, are a diffuse, and the Book of 
 Job a brief , model," or "whether those Dramatic 
 constitutions wherein Sophocles and Euripides 
 reign shall be found more doctrinal and exemplary 
 to a nation. The Scripture," he points out, "also 
 affords us a divine Pastoral Drama in the Song of 
 Solomon, consisting of two persons and a double 
 chorus, as Origen rightly judges; and the 
 Apocalypse of Saint John is the majestic image 
 of a high and stately Tragedy, shutting up 
 and intermingling her solemn scenes and acts 
 with a sevenfold 1 chorus of hallelujas and harping 
 symphonies." And he not only hesitates between 
 the epic and the dramatic forms of composition, 
 
28 INTRODUCTION 
 
 but he is uncertain "what king or knight before 
 the Conquest might be chosen in whom to lay the 
 pattern of a Christian hero." In view of subse- 
 quent developments it is significant that he should 
 here turn to Scriptural examples both of the epic 
 and of the drama. 
 
 The projected poem continued to weigh on 
 Milton's conscience. In the Library of Trinity 
 College, Cambridge, is a manuscript note-book 
 containing among other things a list of about a 
 hundred subjects suitable for dramatic treatment, 
 jotted down in the poet's handwriting apparently 
 between the years 1639 and 1642. Sixty of these 
 subjects, according to Masson, are drawn from 
 Biblical, and thirty -eight from British history. 
 At the head of the list are four drafts, in outline, 
 of a play to be modelled after the Greek tragedy, 
 with a chorus, and to be called Paradise Lost, or 
 Adam Unparadised. Other Scriptural topics are 
 The Flood, Abraham and Isaac, Joshua, Samson, 
 David, Solomon, Christ Bom, Herod Massacring, 
 Lazarus, and Christus Patiens. Among the topics 
 from British history, are The Massacre of the 
 Britons by Hengist in their Cups at Salisbury 
 Plain, A. D. 450-476; Ethelbert of the East 
 Angles, Slain by Off a the Mercian King, A. D. 
 792; Alfred, in Disguise of a Minstrel, Discovers 
 the Danes'" Negligence; Sets on with a Mighty 
 Slaughter, A. D. 878; Harold Slain in Battle by 
 William the Norman, A. D. 1066; Macbeth, 
 
INTRODUCTION 20 
 
 Beginning at the Arrival of Malcom at Macduff. 
 Arthur is not mentioned — perhaps, it has been 
 conjectured, because Milton felt that aftef all he 
 could not concern himself with unauthenticated 
 legends — possibly because with his growing republi- 
 canism he had lost his enthusiasm for purely chiv- 
 alrous ideals. 
 
 We may believe that of all these subjects, Milton 
 was most attracted by Paradise Lost: for he not 
 only made four attempts at planning the tragedy, 
 but he seems actually to have written some of the 
 text. "In the 4th booke of Paradise Lost," 
 records Aubrey, "there are about six verses of 
 Satan's exclamation to the sun, which Mr. E. 
 Phil[l]ips remembers about 15 or 16 yeares before 
 ever his poem was thought of. Which verses were 
 intended for the beginning of a tragoedie which he 
 had designed, but was diverted from it by other 
 businesse." 1 This "other businesse, " as we 
 have seen, proved to be of a sufficiently serious 
 character. These were stirring times in England, 
 and with the civil and religious liberty of his 
 countrymen at stake, Milton's conscience would 
 not allow him to spend his days in making verses. 
 What he might ultimately have accomplished had 
 
 1 This evidence is corroborated by Phillips (Milton's 
 nephew) himself, in the memoir prefixed to his edition 
 of Milton's Letters of State, London, 1694 (p. xxxv.) 
 It appears that the verses here referred to are 11. 32-41 
 of the present Fourth Book. 
 
30 INTRODUCTION 
 
 this crisis not arisen, is a matter of interesting but 
 futile conjecture. Political life is not ordinarily 
 thought of as the best possible school for a poet : 
 how far the stress and strain of those twenty years 
 made or unmade this poet, no man can say: one 
 thing we know — the Heavenly Vision came at last, 
 and John Milton was not disobedient. 
 
 It was not until about the year 1658 that Milton 
 found leisure to take up again the idea that had 
 dominated his youth. There was no question, 
 now, so far as we know, of topic or of form. To 
 the blind and disappointed Puritan statesman, 
 Paradise Lost seemed the one inevitable subject, 
 and for some reason the poem shaped itself in his 
 mind as an epic rather than as a drama. Masson 
 has collected for us scraps of contemporary testi- 
 mony which, in the aggregate, give us a tolerably 
 clear notion of the process of composition. Milton 
 would think out his lines until he had twenty or 
 thirty in his head, then ask the first friend who 
 came to hand to take them down from dictation. 
 Occasionally, some one would read to him, for cor- 
 rection, the passages which had been written in 
 this piecemeal fashion. Phillips, in his memoir, 
 gives us some account of Milton's amanuenses. 
 His daughters "he made serviceable to him in that 
 very particular in which he most wanted their 
 Service, and supplied his want of Eye-sight by their 
 Eyes and Tongue ; for, though he had daily about 
 
 1 P. xli, f. 
 
INTRODUCTION 31 
 
 him one or other to Read to him — some, persons of 
 Man's Estate, who of their own accord greedily 
 catch 'd at the opportunity of being his Readers, 
 that they might as well reap the benefit of what 
 they Read to him as oblige him by the benefit of 
 their reading; others, of younger years, sent by 
 their Parents to the same end — yet, excusing only 
 the Eldest Daughter by reason of ber bodily Infirm- 
 ity, and difficult utterance of Speech, . . . the other 
 two were Condemn'dtothe performance of Reading 
 and exactly pronouncing all the Languages of what- 
 ever Book he should at one time or other think fit 
 to peruse. Viz. The Hebrew (and I think the 
 Syriac) the Greek, the Latin, the Italian, Span- 
 ish, and French. All which sorts of Books to be 
 confined to Read without understanding one word 
 must needs be a Tryal of Patience almost beyond 
 endurance ; yet it was endured by both for a 
 longtime." 
 
 It appears from the foregoing that the duties of 
 Milton's amanuenses were by no means restricted 
 to the preparation of a fair copy of the poem. 
 Notwithstanding the vast store of learning which 
 the poet brought to his task, he was continually 
 making researches that should increase the wealth 
 of his allusion. Years before he had solemnly 
 recorded his conviction that such a work as he now 
 had in hand was "not to be raised from the heat of 
 youth, or the vapors of wine — like that which flows 
 at waste from the pen of some vulgar amorist, or 
 
32 INTRODUCTION 
 
 the trencher fury of a riming parasite ; nor to be 
 obtained by the invocation of Dame Memory and 
 her siren daughters, but by devout prayer to that 
 Eternal Spirit who can enrich with all utterance 
 and knowledge, and sends out his Seraphim with 
 the hallowed fire of his altar, to touch and purify 
 the lips of whom he pleases. To this," he con- 
 cluded significantly, "must be added industrious 
 and select reading, steady observation, insight into 
 all seemly and generous arts and affairs. . . . ,n 
 The last two decades had given him his opportuni- 
 ties for observation, and insight into affairs; and 
 now that the time had come for the work to which 
 he had so long ago consecrated himself, he was 
 beginning the day with a chapter in the Hebrew 
 Bible and an hour or two of meditation, and spend- 
 ing much of the remaining time in the special read- 
 ing that he conceived his task demanded. 2 The 
 results of this laborious preparation are not super- 
 imposed upon the poem as a kind of decoration — 
 they are a part of its very texture. "Milton must 
 have had the Bible almost entirely by heart," says 
 Masson. "Not only are some passages of his poem, 
 where he is keeping close to the Bible as his 
 authority, intentional coagulations of dispersed 
 Scriptural texts ; but it is possible again and again, 
 
 1 The Reason of Church Government. 
 
 2 Aubrey is our authority. It should be remembered 
 that Milton had in hand at this time, besides Paradise 
 Lost, a History of Britain and other prose works. 
 
INTRODUCTION 33 
 
 throughout the rest, to detect the flash, through his 
 noblest language, of some suggestion from the 
 Psalms, the Prophets, the Gospels, or the Apoc- 
 alypse. So, though in a less degree, with Homer, 
 the Greek Tragedians (among whom Euripides was 
 a special favourite of his), Plato, Demosthenes, and 
 the Greek classics generally. So with Lucretius, 
 Cicero, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Juvenal, Persius, and 
 the other Latins. So with the Italian writers whom 
 he knew so well — Dante, Petrarch, Ariosto, Tasso, 
 and others now less remembered. So with modern 
 Latinists of various European countries, still less 
 recoverable. 1 Finally, so with the whole series of 
 preceding English poets — particularly Spenser, 
 Shakespeare, and some of the minor Spenser ians 
 of the reigns of James and Charles I. , that quaint 
 popular favourite of his boyhood, Sylvester's Du 
 Bartas, not forgotten." 2 
 
 We have seen that for the successful accomplish- 
 ment of his design, Milton relied — the passage is 
 fine enough to bear repetition — on "devout prayer 
 to that Eternal Spirit who can enrich with all 
 utterance and knowledge, and sends out his Ser- 
 aphim with the hallowed fire of his altar, to touch 
 and purify the lips of whom he pleases." Again 
 
 1 Professor Masson does not mean that these works 
 are lost, but that they are not always easily accessible 
 to the ordinary reader. 
 
 2 Milton's Poetical Works. New York and London, 
 1894, II, 55 f. 
 
34 INTRODUCTION 
 
 he writes, in the same connection, that the fulfill- 
 ment of his plan "lies not but in a power above 
 man's to promise.' ' There can be but little doubt 
 that the poet regarded himself as at times directly 
 inspired from Heaven, and that consequently his 
 invocations to the Heavenly Muse are something 
 more than an ordinary epic convention. At the 
 beginning of the ninth book he tells us that his 
 "celestial Patroness" 
 
 Deigns 
 Her nightly visitation unimplored, 
 And dictates to me slumbering, or inspires 
 Easy my unpremeditated verse. 
 
 It seems to be literally true that Milton composed 
 much at night, sometimes ringing up his daughter 
 "at what hour soever," Eichardson says, "to 
 secure what came" — sometimes dictating twenty 
 or thirty verses to his wife in the morning. Phil- 
 lips reports that his vein flowed most happily 
 between the autumnal and the vernal equinoxes, 
 and that accordingly "in all the years he was 
 about this poem, he may be said to have spent but 
 half his time therein." 
 
 The process of composition went on, apparently, 
 for six or seven years. In the autumn of 1665, 
 Thomas Ell wood, a young Quaker — one of those 
 persons who had "greedily catch 'd at the oppor- 
 tunity" of reading to Milton, visited the poet at 
 his cottage in Chalfont-St. -Giles, in Buckingham- 
 shire. "After some common discourses had passed 
 
INTRODUCTION 35 
 
 between us, ' ' Ell wood writes in his Autobiography, 1 
 4 'he called for a manuscript of his; which being 
 brought he delivered to me, bidding me take it 
 home with me and read it at my leisure ; and when 
 I had so done, return it to him with my judgment 
 thereupon. When I came home, and had set my- 
 self to read it, I found it was that excellent Poem, 
 which he intitled Paradise Lost." 2 
 
 It was not until the end of August, 1667, that the 
 poem, consisting at this stage of ten books, had 
 been printed by Samuel Simmons in an edition 
 of rather more than thirteen hundred copies. 
 Milton received five pounds in cash (worth nearly 
 eighteen pounds at the present standard), and was 
 to be paid a like sum as the first, second and third 
 editions were each in turn entirely disposed of, 
 each edition to be reckoned at thirteen hundred 
 copies. Considering the nature of Milton's poem 
 and the temper of these Restoration times, the book 
 sold surprisingly well, for by the end of April, 
 1669, the first edition had been exhausted and Mil- 
 
 1 The History of the Life of Thomas Elhvood . . . 
 written by his own hand, Fourth edition, Lond., 1791, 
 p. 212 f. 
 
 a It was a remark of Ellwood's on the return of this 
 manuscript — "Thou hast said much here of Paradise 
 Lost, but what hast thou to say of Paradise Found?" — 
 that led to the composition of Milton's lesser epic, 
 Paradise Regained, published in connection with Sam- 
 son Agonistes in 1671. 
 
36 INTRODUCTION 
 
 ton received his second five pounds. 1 In 1674, 
 the year of Milton's death, the second edition 
 appeared, with the seventh and tenth books each 
 divided, so that there were now twelve books 
 instead of ten. The growing popularity of the 
 poem is curiously attested by the publication, this 
 same year, of Dryden's State of Innocence, an 
 impossible opera adapted by Milton's permission 2 
 from Paradise Lost. The preface speaks of Mil- 
 ton's epic as "undoubtedly one of the greatest, 
 most noble, and most sublime poems which either 
 this age or nation has produced." 
 
 The fourth edition, published in 1688 by the 
 famous Jacob Tonson, 3 was an expensive, illus- 
 trated folio, to which some of the most eminent 
 men in England subscribed. In connection with 
 the sixth edition, 1G95, appeared the first commen- 
 tary on the poem, furnished by a Scotch school- 
 master named Patrick Home. Before the end of 
 the seventeenth century, then, the book was being 
 
 1 This was the last installment paid to the poet person- 
 ally. Six years after Milton's death, his widow ac- 
 cepted eight pounds from the publisher as a full com- 
 pensation for all her rights in the poem, so that 
 altogether Paradise Lost brought Milton and his heirs 
 eighteen pounds (equivalent to sixty-three pounds in 
 modern currency). 
 
 2 Not any too graciously given, if we may believe 
 Aubrey : "Mr. Milton recieved him civilly, and told him 
 he would give him leave to tagge his verses." 
 
 3 Tonson at this time owned but half the copyright. 
 
INTRODUCTION 37 
 
 frequently reissued and carefully studied. Early 
 in the eighteenth century Addison contributed 
 to the Spectator his important series of criticisms 
 on the poem ; reprints, commentaries and critical 
 essays continued to multiply, and the succession 
 has been maintained unbroken down to our own 
 day. Within a quarter of a century of his death 
 Milton's fame was secure, and as he had hoped, 
 "aftertimes" have shown no disposition to lose 
 interest in the one English epic — if we except the 
 fragmentary Beowulf — worthy the name. 
 
 IVATHE SUBJECT-MATTER OF PARADISE LOST 
 
 Of the various subjects which Milton passed in 
 review when he was evolving the idea of his great 
 poem, none offered such literary possibilities as the 
 story of the creation, temptation and fall of man. 
 Indeed it is hard to conceive of a more exalted 
 theme. Here was matter, not, to be sure, for a 
 national epic which should perpetuate the achieve- 
 ments of the English race, but for something far 
 nobler — an epic of the entire human race. Here 
 was a theme, moreover, that would touch English 
 interests as closely as the story of Arthur or of any 
 other national hero. The Bible was the one 
 familiar book in every household, and to most 
 Englishmen the expulsion from Eden jvas an event 
 far more real than the Saxon or the Norman con- 
 quest. Not only the literature of Milton's time,* 
 
38 INTRODUCTION 
 
 but the very speech of the common people was 
 impregnated with Scriptural allusion. 
 
 The notion of a Biblical epic was not original 
 with Milton; for centuries the Bible had been a 
 favorite subject, in European literature, for poetical 
 treatment. As far back as the fourth century of 
 our era we find here and there the Gospel narrative, 
 the Scriptural account of the Creation, the destruc- 
 tion of Sodom, the ministry of Jonah, the Deluge, 
 and other episodes of the Old and the New Testa- 
 ment unskillfully written down, with much show of 
 elaboration, in Latin hexameters. 1 One of the 
 best known relics of Anglo-Saxon literature that 
 has come down to us — the so-called Credmonic 
 Paraphrase — is a clumsy attempt, made presumably 
 in the seventh century, to re-tell, with certain 
 embellishments, the stories of Genesis, Exodus 
 and Daniel. In Italy and in Holland, in Milton's 
 own century, plays and other poems on Scriptural 
 subjects were occasionally produced, and Sylves- 
 ter's Divine Weekes and Workes (1605), a trans- 
 lation from the French of Du Bartas, is an example 
 of a pre-Miltonic treatment of a similar theme. 
 
 When Milton tells us, then, that he intends to 
 write of : 
 
 Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme 
 we must not take him too literally. No 
 
 1 Examples are the Historia Evangelica of Juvencus, 
 the Paschale Carmen of Sedulius, and the Be Spiritalis 
 Historice Gestis of Avitus. 
 
INTRODUCTION 39 
 
 one knew better than Milton — most learned of 
 English poets — of the existence of poems of the 
 same general type as his own. He has even been 
 accused of stealing right and left from his pred- 
 ecessors in this field, so that if we are to believe 
 some critics, Paradise Lost is but a patchwork 
 arrangement of scraps and shreds borrowed without 
 acknowledgment from these Latin, Anglo-Saxon, 
 Italian, Dutch and English sources. In view of 
 the similarities in characterization, description and 
 method which are inevitable when several writers 
 attempt to treat independently a subject as definite 
 and as familiar as the one under discussion, it is 
 hard to say how far Milton may have been indebted 
 to these earlier Biblical poems. Like the rest, Mil- 
 ton felt obliged to adhere to the generally accepted 
 idea of the Creation and the events immediately fol- 
 lowing, as outlined in the Old Testament, certain 
 apocryphal writings — notably the Gospel of Nico- 
 demus — and the commentaries of mediaeval theo- 
 logians. But granted this inevitable parallelism in 
 the general method of procedure, Milton's poem is 
 still, regarded in its entirety, quite unlike anything 
 written before or since. The grandeur of the 
 scale on which the poem is conceived, the height 
 and breadth and depth of the blind Milton's 
 spiritual vision, the unapproachable dignity of his 
 style, make Paradise Lost not only far and away 
 the best Biblical epic in any language, but one of 
 the great epics of all time. 
 
40 INTRODUCTION 
 
 For the reader who approaches Milton's poem 
 for the first time, the text is full of difficulties of 
 language and allusion. Some of these difficulties, 
 however, may be disposed of at the outset by a 
 general account of the structure and meaning of 
 the poem. In the first place the reader must have 
 clearly in mind the physical conditions under which 
 the action is supposed to take place. Milton car- 
 ries us back to a time when there was no Earth, no 
 Universe of sun and planets and fixed stars, no 
 Hell. We have to think of all existing things as 
 contained, at the beginning of the poem, in two 
 Vast, indefinite tracts, approximately hemispherical, 
 whose functions Masson explains as follows : 
 
 "The upper of these two hemispheres of 
 Primeval Infinity is Heaven, or The Empyrean — a 
 boundless, unimaginable region of light, freedom, 
 happiness, and glory, in the midst whereof God, 
 though omnipresent, has His immediate and visible 
 dwelling. He is here surrounded by a vast popu- 
 lation of beings, called 'The Angels,' or 'Sons of 
 God,' who draw near to His throne in worship, 
 derive thence their nurture and their delight, and 
 yet live dispersed through all the ranges and 
 recesses of the region, leading severally their 
 mighty lives and performing the behests of Deity, 
 but organised into companies, orders, and hier- 
 archies. Milton is careful to explain that all that he 
 says of Heaven is said symbolically, and in order 
 to make conceivable by the human imagination 
 
INTRODUCTION 41 
 
 what in its own nature is inconceivable; but, this 
 once explained, he is bold enough in his use of 
 terrestrial analogies. Bound the immediate throne 
 of Deity, indeed, there is kept a blazing mist of 
 vagueness, which words are hardly permitted to 
 pierce, though the Angels are represented as from 
 time to time assembling within it, beholding the 
 Divine Presence and hearing the Divine Voice. 
 But Heaven at large, or portions of it, are figured 
 as tracts of a celestial Earth, with plain, hill, and 
 valley, whereon the myriads of the Sons of God 
 expatiate, in their two orders of Seraphim and 
 Cherubim, and in their descending ranks, as 
 Archangels or Chiefs, Princes of various degrees, 
 and individual Powers and Intelligences. Certain 
 differences, however, are implied as distinguishing 
 these Celestials from the subsequent race of Man- 
 kind. As they are of infinitely greater prowess, 
 immortal, and of more purely spiritual nature, so 
 their ways even of physical existence and action 
 transcend all that is within human experience. 
 Their forms are dilatable or contractible at 
 pleasure; they move with incredible swiftness; 
 and, as they are not subject to any law of gravita- 
 tion, their motion, though ordinarily represented 
 as horizontal over the Heavenly ground, may as 
 well be vertical or in any other direction, and their 
 aggregations need not, like those of men, be in 
 squares, oblongs, or other plane figures, but may 
 be in cubes, or other rectangular or oblique solids, 
 
42 INTRODUCTION 
 
 or in spherical masses. These and various other 
 particulars are to be kept in mind concerning 
 Heaven and its pristine inhabitants. As respects 
 the other half or hemisphere of the Primeval 
 Infinity, though it, too, is inconceivable in its 
 nature, and has to be described by words which 
 are at best symbolical, less needs be said. For it 
 is Chaos, or the Uninhabited — a huge, limitless 
 ocean, abyss, or quagmire, of universal darkness 
 and lifelessness, wherein are jumbled in blustering 
 confusion the elements of all matter, or rather the 
 crude embryons of all the elements, ere as yet they 
 , are distinguishable. There is no light there, nor 
 properly Earth, Water, Air, or Fire, but only a 
 vast pulp or welter o^unfoimed matter, in which 
 all these lie tempestuously intermixed. Though 
 the presence of Deity is there potentially too, it 
 is still, as it were, actually retracted thence, as 
 from a realm unorganised and left to Night and 
 Anarchy ; nor do any of the Angels wing down into 
 its repulsive obscurities. The crystal floor or wall 
 of Heaven divides them from it; underneath 
 which, and unvisited of light, save what may 
 glimmer through upon its nearer strata, it howls 
 and rages and stagnates eternally." 1 
 
 This cosmos sufficed for untold ages, until in the 
 process of time the rebellion of a third part of the 
 Angels of Heaven made it necessary that a new 
 region should be provided for their imprisonment. 
 
 1 Milton's Poetical Works, II, 79 f. 
 
INTRODUCTION 43 
 
 Then the Almighty set apart in the depths of 
 Chaos a district called Hell, shut in by walls and 
 roof of fire, and guarded by ninefold gates of 
 brass, iron, and adamantine rock. The ever- 
 burning soil of this dismal waste is diversified by 
 volcanic hills and drained by five rivers, four of 
 which discharge into a lake of fire; beyond the 
 fifth, Lethe, which Professor Himes 1 thinks is to 
 be regarded rather as an endless canal encircling 
 the lake at some distance — 
 
 A frozen continent 
 Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms 
 Of whirlwind and dire hail ; 
 
 for as in the Inferno of Dante, extreme cold, as 
 well as extreme heat, is used as an instrument of 
 torture. 
 
 In the course of the nine days during which the 
 rebellious angels lie * 'rolling in the fiery gulf" of 
 Hell, after their fearful fall from the Empyrean, 
 the Messiah, by direction of the Almighty, creates 
 in the midst of another portion of Chaos, close to 
 Heaven and suspended from it by a golden chain, 
 our World — that is to say, Earth with the ten 
 enveloping spheres which, according to a late 
 modification of the Ptolemaic system of Astronomy, 
 make up the Universe. The general situation 
 
 1 Paradise Lost . . . With an Introduction and Notes 
 on its Structure and Meaning. By J. A. Himes, N. Y., 
 1898, pp. 14 ff. 
 
44 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 at this stage may be illustrated by the following 
 diagram, adapted from Masson: 
 
 In this diagram, the series of concentric spheres 
 comprising the Ptolemaic Universe are represented 
 in cross section, so that they appear as concentric 
 rings, with the Earth like a dot at the centre. All 
 but the outermost of these spheres were believed 
 to be transparent, and to revolve about the Earth. 
 The first sphere, counting from the Earth out- 
 ward, carried with it the moon; the second, the 
 planet Mercury ; the third, Venus ; the fourth, the 
 Sun; the fifth, Mars; the sixth, Jupiter; the 
 
INTRODUCTION 45 
 
 seventh, Saturn; the eighth, the fixed stars; the 
 ninth was the Crystalline Sphere which caused the 
 procession of the equinoxes ; the tenth, the Primum 
 Mobile, revolved with all the other spheres about 
 the Earth, completing one revolution every twenty- 
 four hours, thus bringing about the alternation 
 of day and night. A man standing on the Earth 
 and looking upward, then, would find himself 
 gazing into the crystal depths of these spheres — 
 his sky — which Milton in one place 1 rather con- 
 fusingly calls Heaven, for the opaque Primum 
 Mobile would prevent his seeing into the real 
 Heaven of the Angels, the Empyrean. 
 
 It will be remembered that the Copernican 
 theory of Astronomy, which makes the sun the 
 centre of our Universe, was known but not gen- 
 erally accepted in England in Milton's time. 
 Milton shows hia familiarity with this theory in at 
 least two passages in Paradise Lost — Bk. iv, 592- 
 597, and Bk. viii, 15-178. The latter passage is 
 of particular interest, for in it the Archangel 
 Raphael is represented as discussing with Adam 
 the respective merits of the Ptolemaic and the 
 Copernican systems, and it affords some ground 
 for believing that Milton was himself almost, if not 
 quite, ready to accept the theory of Copernicus. 
 Whatever his personal views on the question may 
 have been, however, we can readily understand 
 why he should have adopted in his epic the 
 
 1 Paradise Lost, ii, 1004. 
 
46 INTRODUCTION 
 
 picturesque conception of the universe so familiar 
 in literature, so generally accepted by his readers, 
 and so well adapted to poetic imagery. 
 
 For the purposes of his poem, Milton adds to the 
 commonly received theory some special details 
 partly original, partly borrowed. The Ptolemaic 
 Universe is represented as hanging from the 
 floor of Heaven by a golden chain. When- 
 ever one of the angels wishes to visit Earth, a 
 golden ladder is lowered from Heaven to the 
 Primum Mobile — the opaque, shell -like outer sphere 
 — in which is a trap-door leading to the starry 
 depths below, and eventually to our Earth, for the 
 spheres concentric within the Primum Mobile 
 apparently offer no impediment to spiritual essences. 
 After the fall of Man, Sin and Death bridge over 
 that portion of Chaos separating Hell from the 
 Primum Mobile, so that the fiends may have free 
 access to our Earth. Most extraordinary of all is 
 a desolate, wind-swept tract on the outer shell of 
 the Primum Mobile, called by Milton, Limbo, or 
 the Paradise of Fools. 
 
 No diagram can give the faintest suggestion of 
 the vastness of the scale on which all this is 
 planned. The only specific information Milton 
 imparts with regard to measurement, is that the 
 distance from Heaven to Hell is three times the 
 radius of the Ptolemaic system. 1 This is puz- 
 zling, for when Satan, after his long voyage through 
 
 1 Paradise Lost, i, 73, 74. 
 
INTRODUCTION 47 
 
 Chaos, catches his first glimpse of our universe 
 pendent from Heaven, it appears to him 
 
 In bigness as a star 
 Of smallest magnitude close by the moon. 1 
 
 And even this is a highly inadequate comparison, 
 for Heaven seems so huge to Satan that he cannot 
 tell whether it is square or round. It is probable 
 that the whole matter presented itself with more or 
 less vagueness to Milton's imagination, and that 
 he himself could not have constructed a chart 
 which should have been absolutely consistent with 
 his narrative ; his Heaven and Hell were not built 
 from an architect's plans and specifications, and 
 no surveyor followed Satan through Chaos. 
 
 Now that we have some idea of Milton's cos- 
 mography, we shall find it convenient to sum up 
 the story which the poem tells. The creation 
 of the new planetary universe served a single 
 purpose — the peopling of the earth at its centre 
 with a new race who should repair the loss occa- 
 sioned by the expulsion of the rebel angels 
 from Heaven ; and, though first and last the poem 
 covers the entire range of human destiny, it is 
 with the vicissitudes of the earliest representatives 
 of this race that Paradise Lost professes to be 
 chiefly concerned. Instead of beginning with the 
 rebellion in Heaven and going on to relate in 
 chronological order the various events that led to 
 the banishment of Adam and Eve from the Garden 
 
 1 Paradise Lost, ii, 1052-3. 
 
48 INTRODUCTION 
 
 of Eden, Milton chooses, like Homer and Virgil, 
 to plunge at once into the midst of the action, and 
 
 I to sum up later the earlier stages of the story. 
 Accordingly, when Milton's first book opens, the 
 revolt of the angels is supposed to have been 
 accomplished. The rebels have been cast out 
 of Heaven, have fallen for nine days through 
 Chaos, the roof of Hell has closed over them, and 
 for another nine days they have been weltering v / 
 4 'thunderstruck and astonished, ' ' in the lake of fire. 
 Satan, their leader, is the first to recover himself. 
 He rallies Beelzebub, his lieutenant, then in a 
 speech full of stinging innuendo, arouses the rebel 
 army. They make their way to the shore where 
 Mammon and his crew erect, with magical rapidity, 
 a stately palace, Pandemonium, within which the 
 chiefs assemble in council. 
 
 The second book opens with the debate in 
 Pandemonium. Moloch counsels continued war 
 against the Almighty, even if it end in annihila- 
 tion; Belial is for "ignoble ease and peaceful 
 sloth"; Mammon advises making the best of the 
 situation by developing the natural resources of 
 Hell; Beelzebub reminds the company of the 
 rumor that Earth and Mankind are about this time 
 to be created, and suggests that some one investi- 
 gate the matter with a view to seeing if Man may 
 not be made to join them in dishonoring God. 
 Satan applauds this last scheme, and volunteers to 
 undertake, alone, the dangerous quest; whereupon 
 
INTRODUCTION 49 
 
 the council approves and adjourns. Satan makes 
 his way to the gates of Hell ; after some opposi- 
 tion, the guardians, Sin and Death, allow him to 
 pass beyond. He steers his course through 
 Chaos, pacifies the old Anarch and his consort, 
 Night, who rule the region, and finally catches 
 sight of the newly-made Universe, hanging, star- 
 like, close under the wall of Heaven. 
 
 The third book begins with a magnificent 
 apostrophe to Light. The Almighty, from his 
 throne in Heaven, sees Satan approaching the 
 Earth. To the Son, he foretells Satan's success 
 in seducing Mankind, Man's impending fall from 
 grace, and the necessity of a Eedeemer. The Son 
 offers himself as a ransom. The Father accepts 
 him, and the angels ''hymning to their harps in 
 full quire, celebrate the Father and the Son." 
 Meanwhile, Satan has found footing on the "bare 
 convex" of the Primum Mobile. He proceeds 
 through the Limbo of Vanity, or the Fools' 
 Paradise, to the stairway which leads him down 
 into the planetary spheres. Disguising himself as 
 an angel of lower rank, he journeys on to the 
 sphere of the Sun, where the Kegent, Uriel, points 
 out to him the way to Earth. Satan alights on 
 Mount Niphates. 
 
 Book four gives us our first glimpse of Adam 
 and Eve in Eden. Satan, discovering from their 
 conversation that the Tree of Knowledge has been 
 forbidden them under penalty of death, determines 
 
50 INTRODUCTION 
 
 to make them disobey. Uriel, suspicious of Satan, 
 warns the Archangel Gabriel to protect Eden. 
 Gabriel sends two angels to the Garden, where 
 they find Satan tempting Eve in a dream. They 
 bring him before Gabriel, and Gabriel and Satan 
 are about to fight when a sign from Heaven checks 
 them. Satan takes to his wings. 
 
 In the fifth book, the Almighty sends the 
 Archangel Raphael to Adam and Eve to warn 
 them against Satan's wiles. Eaphael is hos- 
 pitably entertained by the pair, and at Adam's 
 request starts to tell the story of Satan's rebellion: 
 The trouble began on the day when the Almighty 
 commanded all the Host of Heaven to worship his 
 Anointed Son. Satan, refusing obedience, ''drew 
 his legions after him to parts of the North, and 
 there incited them to rebel with him, persuading 
 all but only Abdiel, a seraph, who in argument 
 dissuades and opposes him, then forsakes him." 
 
 The events of the sixth book are best epitomized in 
 the language of Milton's Argument : "Raphael con- 
 tinues to relate how Michael and Gabriel were sent, 
 forth to battle against Satan and his Angels. The 
 first fight described : Satan and his Powers retire 
 under night. He calls a council ; invents devilish 
 engines, which, in the second day's fight, put 
 Michael and his Angels to some disorder ; but they 
 at length, pulling up mountains, overwhelmed 
 both the force and machines of Satan. Yet, the 
 tumult not so ending, God, on the third day, 
 
INTRODUCTION 51 
 
 sends Messiah his Son, for whom he had reserved 
 the glory of that victory. He, in the power of his 
 Father, coming to the place, and causing all his 
 legions to stand still on either side, with his chariot 
 and thunder driving into the midst of his enemies, 
 pursues them, unable to resist, towards the wall of 
 Heaven; which opening, they leap down with 
 horror and confusion into the place of punishment 
 prepared for them in the Deep. Messiah returns 
 with triumph to his Father. " 
 
 In the seventh book Eaphael goes on to relate 
 "how and wherefore this World was first created: 
 — that God, after the expelling of Satan and his 
 Angels out of Heaven, declared his pleasure to 
 create another World, and other creatures to dwell 
 therein; sends his Son with glory, and attendance 
 of Angels, to perform the work of creation in six 
 days: the Angels celebrate with hymns the per- 
 formance thereof, and .his reascension into 
 Heaven." 
 
 In the eighth book Adam inquires about the 
 movements of the stars and planets, "is doubtfully 
 answered, and exhorted to search rather things 
 more worthy of knowledge." Adam relates to 
 Eaphael his own experiences since his creation, 
 particularly his first meeting with Eve. Raphael 
 repeats his admonition to beware of Satan, and 
 departs. 
 
 Book nine tells of Satan's return to Eden, in 
 the form of a serpent, to tempt Eve. He finds 
 
52 INTRODUCTION 
 
 her alone, Adam and Eve having decided to divide 
 their labors, and addresses her flatteringly. "Eve, 
 wondering to hear the Serpent speak, asks how 
 he attained to human speech and such understand- 
 ing not till now; the Serpent answers that by 
 tasting of a certain tree in the Garden he attained 
 both to speech and reason, till then void of both. 
 Eve requires him to bring her to the tree, and finds 
 it to be the Tree of Knowledge forbidden; the 
 Serpent, now grown bolder, with many wiles and 
 arguments induces her at length to eat. She, 
 pleased with the taste, deliberates a while whether 
 to impart thereof to Adam or not ; at last brings 
 him of the fruit; relates what persuaded her to 
 eat thereof. Adam, at first amazed, but perceiv- 
 ing her lost, resolves, through vehemence of love, 
 to perish with her, and, extenuating the trespass, 
 eats also of the fruit. " They become ashamed and 
 reproach one another. 
 
 The tenth book relates that God, learning 
 through the Guardian Angels of the transgression 
 of Adam and Eve, sends the Son to sentence them. 
 Satan returns to Pandemonium ; as he is recount- 
 ing his adventures to his comrades, the whole com- 
 pany are suddenly transformed into hissing ser- 
 pents. Sin and Death, learning of Satan's success, 
 build a bridge over Chaos, from Hell to our 
 universe, and make their way to Eden. "God 
 foretells the final victory of his Son over them, and 
 the renewing of all things; but for the present, 
 
INTRODUCTION 53 
 
 commands his Angels to make several alterations 
 in the Heavens and Elements," which bring upon 
 the earth "pinching cold and scorching heat," 
 bleak winds and pestilent mists. Death introduces 
 Discord among the beasts of the earth, who fall to 
 devouring one another. Adam and Eve repent and 
 supplicate the offended Deity. 
 
 In the eleventh book, "the Son of God presents 
 to his Father the prayers of our first parents now 
 repenting, and intercedes for them. God accepts 
 them, but declares that they must no longer abide 
 in Paradise; sends Michael with a band of 
 Cherubim to dispossess them. ..." Michael 
 descends to Eden, breaks to Adam and Eve the 
 news of their banishment, yet of their ultimate 
 redemption, then, taking Adam upon a high hill, 
 unfolds to him in a vision all that shall happen on 
 earth down to the time of the Flood. 
 
 In the twelfth book "The Angel Michael con- 
 tinues, from the Flood, to relate what shall 
 succeed ; then, in the mention of Abraham, comes 
 by degrees to explain who that Seed of the Woman 
 shall be which was promised Adam and Eve in the 
 Fall: his incarnation, death, resurrection, and 
 ascension ; the state of the Church till his second 
 coming. Adam, greatly satisfied and recomforted 
 by these relations and promises, descends the hill 
 with Michael ; wakens Eve, who all this while had 
 slept, but with gentle dreams composed to quiet- 
 ness of mind and submission. Michael in either 
 
54 INTRODUCTION 
 
 hand leads them out of Paradise, the fiery sword 
 waving behind them, and the Cherubim taking 
 their stations to guard the place." 
 
 That portion of Paradise Lost included in the 
 present edition, serves, it will be observed, merely 
 as an introduction to the matter with which the 
 poem mainly concerns itself, viz., the temptation 
 and fall of our frail originals, their expulsion from 
 Eden, and the formulation of the plan of redemp- 
 tion. We are not permitted so much as a glimpse 
 of the Earth on which this tragedy is enacted — for 
 as the second book draws to an end, our stellar 
 universe has just appeared to Satan — a mere speck 
 on his horizon. Constructively, then, the value 
 of the first and second books appears to be two- 
 fold: (1) they furnish a motive for Satan's intru- 
 sion in the Garden of Eden ; (2) they open up to 
 the reader's imagination the stupendous reaches 
 of the Miltonic cosmography, and sweeping from 
 his mind all notion of the ordinary physical 
 limitations of space and corporeal existence, they 
 give scale to the entire poem. 
 
 Yet the contents of these books should not be 
 regarded as merely so much preliminary matter: 
 they have a unity and a profound significance of 
 their own, apart from their reminiscent and pro- 
 phetic suggestiveness. The action takes place 
 entirely within the bounds of Hell or in the "hoary 
 Deep" beyond, and it concerns itself with a single 
 subject — the rallying of the broken forces of the 
 
INTRODUCTION 55 
 
 rebel angels and the settlement of their future 
 policy. The only actors are the Fallen Angels and 
 other evil spirits, none of whom, with the excep- 
 tion of Satan, plays directly any important part in 
 subsequent events. In one sense, then, these two 
 books stand by themselves as a study in demo- 
 nology. 
 
 We have here, however, no commonplace theo- 
 logical symbolism. These outcasts from Heaven 
 are strangely ennobled: something of their orig- 
 inal angelic glory still radiates from them; it 
 is impossible to reconcile these luminous and 
 majestic beings with the horned and hoofed devils 
 of tradition. Supreme above them all, dominating 
 the situation from beginning to end by his splendid 
 presence, towers the Euined Archangel. Later on 
 in the poem, this regal figure is degraded, like the 
 rest, to bestiality ; but here Milton cannot disguise 
 his admiration for him. Whether or not Milton, 
 himself the representative of a lost cause, sym- 
 pathized with Satan and his associates as ' 'foiled 
 rebels and republicans," as Lowell suggests, 1 need 
 not concern us. It is enough that in these two 
 books the rebel angels are invested with a dignity 
 that makes them of greater interest, as epic per- 
 sonages, than any other characters in the entire 
 poem. 
 
 As a piece of skillful construction, of artistically 
 and consistently developed narrative, Paradise 
 
 1 Works, Riverside ed. , III, 3. 
 
56 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Lost is not entitled to a high degree of merit. 
 To say that the author attempted the impossible 
 and failed, is one of the commonplaces of criticism 
 Not even a Milton could successfully compass the 
 philosophical difficulties of his theme, any more 
 than he could reconcile abstract theology with 
 poetry. The portion of the poem we are con- 
 cerned with, however, presents comparatively few 
 incongruities ; the action is fairly simple and the 
 characters act on their own responsibility. 
 
 From the point of view of style, too, these 
 introductory books deserve particular study. 
 Milton sets a high standard for himself in the 
 opening lines, but the strain scarcely falters from 
 the beginning to the' end. The same fullness of 
 harmony is hardly sustained throughout any other 
 two consecutive books of the poem. 01 the 
 imagery it is impossible to speak adequately. Only 
 by successive efforts does the mind perceive the 
 difficulty of comprehending the vastness of Milton's 
 plan, or of visualizing clearly the shadowy forms 
 that rear themselves from the molten surface of the 
 lake, and assemble in Pandemonium. Before one 
 can picture any part of the scene to one's satis- 
 faction, some new simile or chance epithet destroys 
 the perspective, and its elements have to be 
 regrouped on a larger, but always inadequate scale. 
 It is this indefiniteness of outline, this continual 
 and unlimited expansion of the field of perception 
 by the use of suggestive rather than specific 
 
INTRODUCTION 57 
 
 terminology, that makes each recurrent reading of 
 this part of the poem a fresh delight. 
 
 V. MILTON'S ENGLISH 
 
 The style of Paradise Lost presents some diffi- 
 culties to the modern reader that call for a word or 
 two of comment. These difficulties arise partly 
 from Milton's use of Elizabethan idioms, which 
 he generally preferred to those of Dry den's time, 
 partly from his fondness for forcing the meaning 
 of words derived from the Latin, and particularly 
 from his habit of condensing his sentences by all 
 sorts of omissions, and of inverting the natural 
 order of the thought. Not many actually obsolete 
 words and phrases, such as ''burns frore " (ii, 
 595), " where champions bold Wont ride in 
 armed" (i, 763-4) and "the sounding alchymy " 
 (ii, 517), occur in the first two books. More 
 numerous and more troublesome are a class of 
 words which, though in present use, are employed 
 by Milton in an archaic or an unusual sense. 
 Such are abject (i, 312), abused (i, 479), admire 
 (i, 690), advanced (i, 536), advise (ii, 376), 
 afflicted (i, 186), arbitress (i, 785), argument 
 (i, 24), assert (i, 25), astonished (i, 266), at- 
 tempted (ii, 357), buxom (ii, 842), confer (i, 774), 
 conjured (ii, 693), converse (ii, 184), denounced 
 (ii, 106), element (ii, 490), event (i, 624), exercise 
 (ii, 89), expatiate (i, 774), fact (ii, 124), fail 
 (i, 167), fame (i, 651), fatal (ii, 104), frequent 
 
58 INTRODUCTION 
 
 (i, 797), humane (ii, 109), incense (ii, 94), instinct 
 (ii, 937), intend (ii, 457), luxurious (i, 498), 
 mansion (i, 268), offend (i, 187), orient (i, 546), 
 passion (i, 605), pennons (ii, 933), pernicious 
 (i, 282), powers (i, 186), prevented (ii, 467), 
 proper (ii, 75), recess (i, 795), mV//i (i, 543), re- 
 luctance (ii, 337), remorse (i, 605), row^ (i, 747), 
 rwm (i, 46), scope (ii, 127), secret (i, 6), sentence 
 (ii, 51), starve (ii, 600), still (i, 165), study 
 (i, 107), suhlime (ii, 528), success (ii, 9), sz^s- 
 pended (ii, 554), ^mp£ (ii, 404), ft>o& (ii, 554), 
 uncouth (ii, 407), unfounded (ii, 829), wn/es 
 (i, 68), w^er (i, 72), virtue (i, 320), voluminous 
 (ii, 652), warping (i, 341), witnessed (i, 57). 
 The reader should look out particularly for words 
 of Latin origin, which Milton is apt to use with a 
 suggestion of their Latin meaning. 
 
 With Syntax, Milton takes every possible liberty. 
 No writer of his time uses greater freedom in the 
 omission of subjects, predicates, auxiliaries, pro- 
 nouns, prepositions, conjunctions, and all sorts of 
 connecting phrases. Examples may be found on 
 every page of Paradise Lost: 
 
 His trust was with the Eternal to be deemed 
 Equal in strength, and rather than be less 
 [He] Cared not to be at all.— ii, 46-8. 
 
 How wearisome 
 Eternity so spent in worship paid 
 To [one] whom we hate ! — ii, 247-9. 
 
INTRODUCTION 59 
 
 Or could we break our way 
 By force, and [if] at our heels all Hell should rise 
 With blackest insurrection, to confound 
 Heaven's purest light, yet our great Enemy, 
 All incorruptible, would on his throne 
 Sit unpolluted.— ii, 134-9. 
 
 But perhaps [to some] 
 The way seems difficult and steep to scale 
 With upright wing against a higher foe. 
 Let such bethink them, etc. — ii, 70-3. 
 
 The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds 
 Attest their joy, [so] that hill and valley rings. — ii, 
 494-5. 
 
 Through them I mean to pass, 
 [Of] That be assured, without leave asked of thee. — 
 ii, 685. 
 
 What remains [for] him less. — ii, 443. 
 
 Examples of similar condensations are frequent 
 enough in the work of any Elizabethan dramatist. 
 In some cases, however, Milton seems to be imi- 
 tating certain peculiarities of Latin syntax. These 
 imitations are easily accounted for when we remem- 
 ber that from his earliest youth Milton had accus- 
 tomed himself to writing Latin, both in verse and 
 in prose, and that in the years immediately pre- 
 ceding the composition of Paradise Lost he had 
 been engaged much of the time in dictating letters 
 and other state documents in that language. Ex- 
 pressions such as " Though all our glory extinct " 
 (i, 141), "God and his Son except" (ii, 678), 
 
60 INTRODUCTION 
 
 >> 
 
 " Though . . . Their children's cries unheard 
 (i, 394-5) suggest the Latin ablative absolute; 
 " Stood fixed her stately highth " (i, 723), is an 
 accusative of extent; " Never, since created Man" 
 (i, 573), and "After . . . summons read" 
 (i, 797-8) seem to be imitations of a Latin con- 
 struction like post hominem creatum; ' ' What 
 doubt we " (ii, 94) is like quid dubitamus; " Nor 
 did they not perceive " (i, 335), imitates a Latin 
 construction with nee non; in "So as not either to 
 provoke, or dread New war provoked" (i, 644-5), 
 and many similar cases we have something like a 
 familiar Latin use of .the participle. In a few 
 cases Milton appears to imitate even the Latin 
 form of participles of Latin origin, as " expecta- 
 tion held His look suspense" (Lat. suspensus — ii, 
 417-8). The omission of the -ed termination 
 of perfect participles in general is frequent with 
 Milton, as with Shakspere: " satiate fury" (i, 179), 
 "thoughts more elevate" (ii, 558), "With head 
 uplift" (i, 193). 
 
 Sometimes we find a violent change of con- 
 struction in the midst of a sentence : 
 
 How oft amidst 
 Thick clouds and dark doth Heaven's all-ruling Sire 
 Choose to reside, his glory unobscured, 
 And with the majesty of darkness round 
 Covers his throne, from whence deep thunders roar, 
 Mustering their rage, and Heaven resembles Hell ! — 
 ii, 263-8. 
 
INTRODUCTION 61 
 
 We should expect " cover" in place of "covers" 
 in line 267, and " so that " in place of " and " in 
 line 268. 
 
 If thou beest he— but Oh how fallen ! how changed 
 From him, who in the happy realms of light, 
 Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine 
 Myriads, though bright !— i, 84-7. 
 
 Here the construction demands ''did" rather 
 than "didst." 
 
 Unexpected changes of tense are frequent : 
 
 Each at the head 
 Levelled his deadly aim ; their fatal hands 
 No second stroke intend ; and such a frown 
 Each cast at the other, as when two black clouds, etc. 
 — ii, 711-4. 
 
 He now prepared 
 To speak ; whereat their doubled ranks they bend. 
 — i, 615-6. 
 
 He scarce had finished, when such murmur filled 
 The assembly, as when hollow rocks retain 
 The sound of blustering winds, which all night long 
 Had roused the sea, now with hoarse cadence lull 
 Seafaring men o'erwatched. — ii, 284-8. 
 
 Sometimes Milton affects an inverted arrange- 
 ment of words or phrases : 
 
 For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense. — 
 ii, 556. 
 
 Into this wild Abyss the wary Fiend 
 Stood on the brink of Hell and looked awhile.— ii, 
 917-8. 
 
62 INTRODUCTION 
 
 That is to say, "The wary Fiend stood on the 
 brink of Hell and looked a while into this wild 
 Abyss. ' ' 
 
 Let us not then pursue — 
 By force impossible, by leave obtained 
 Unacceptable — though in Heaven, our state 
 Of splendid vassalage. — ii, 249-52. 
 
 I.e., " Let us not then seek after our state of 
 splendid servitude, impossible to obtain by force, 
 unacceptable, though it be in Heaven, if obtained 
 by leave." 
 
 Now and then the thought is curiously con- 
 fused : 
 
 Satisfied 
 With what is punished. — ii, 212-3. 
 
 I.e., "with the amount of punishment." 
 
 I know thee not, nor ever saw till now 
 
 Sight more detestable than him and thee. — ii, 
 
 744-5. 
 
 I.e., "a sight so detestable as he and thou. " 
 
 And by what best way, 
 Whether of open war or covert guile, 
 We now debate. — ii, 40-2. 
 
 I.e., " and what way would be best." 
 
 Retire; or taste thy folly. — ii, 686. 
 I.e., " taste the result of thy folly." 
 
INTRODUCTION 63 
 
 God and his Son except, 
 Created thing naught valued he nor shunned. — ii, 
 678-9. 
 
 Milton is not to be understood as classing God 
 and his Son among created things. 
 
 An apparent interchange of various parts of 
 speech is common in Paradise Lost, as in Shak- 
 spere and other Elizabethan writers : an adjective 
 for a noun, "this essential" (ii, 97), "vast 
 abrupt " (ii, 409), "palpable obscure" (ii, 406); 
 a verb for a noun, "beyond Compare" (i, 587-8); 
 an adjective for an adverb, " To punish endless " 
 (ii, 159), " and reasoned high " (ii, 558). Some- 
 times a transitive verb is used intransitively : 
 
 What creatures there inhabit. — ii, 355. 
 
 Satan with less toil, and now with ease, 
 Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light. — ii, 
 1041-2. 
 
 Sometimes an intransitive verb, transitively: 
 
 And confer 
 Their state-affairs. — i, 774-5. 
 
 * Ere he arrive 
 
 The happy isle?— ii, 409-10. 
 
 Among other peculiar Elizabethan expressions 
 are: "With more successful hope" (i, 120) for 
 " with more hope of success" ; " Ages of hopeless 
 end" (ii, 186), for " ages without hope of end "; 
 11 the oblivious pool" (i, 266), for " the pool that 
 
64 INTRODUCTION 
 
 makes one oblivious"; "conscious terrors" (ii, 
 801), for "terrors of which I am conscious" ; "Liken- 
 ing his Maker to the grazed ox" (i, 486), that is 
 " to the ox whose nature it is to graze" ; " unen- 
 vied" (ii, 23), for "unenviable"; "abhorred" 
 (ii, 659), for "abhorrent"; "spares to tell thee" 
 (ii, 739). 
 
 "His" or "her" are almost invariably used by 
 Milton, after the Elizabethan fashion, in place of 
 "its," which did not come into general acceptance 
 until the end of the seventeenth century. "Its" is 
 said to occur but three times in Milton 's poetry : 
 Paradise Lost, i, 254; iv, 813; Nativity Ode, 
 106. 
 
 Occasionally we find violations of strict gram- 
 matical usage, as 
 
 For the mind and spirit remains 
 Invincible.— i, 139-40. 
 
 Belial came last, than whom a Spirit more lewd 
 Fell not from Heaven.— i, 490-1. 
 
 For that mortal dint, 
 Save He who reigns above, none can resist. — ii, 813-4. 
 
 'Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires. — i, 346. 
 
 Milton's spelling and punctuation were quite 
 arbitrary, hence inconsistencies in this respect 
 between various editions of Paradise Lost need 
 trouble nobody. Each editor punctuates the text 
 to suit himself, and it is customary to adopt 
 
INTRODUCTION 65 
 
 modern orthography, except in the case of some 
 special words like higJith, brigade landship, 
 where Milton's spelling has a peculiar phonetic 
 value, and other words like ammiral, haralds, 
 soldan, sovran, which indicate Milton's preference 
 for Italian forms. 
 
 VI. MILTON'S VERSE 
 
 A concise analysis of Milton's blank verse would 
 be a hopeless task. The measure of Paradise 
 Lost is too delicately modulated and too richly 
 varied to be reduced to formulas that may be 
 drummed out at the ends of one's fingers, and 
 Milton's inconsistency in the use of elisions, con- 
 tractions, inversions and other variations makes 
 the tabulation of inflexible rules out of the ques- 
 tion. Often it is possible to read a given line in 
 two ways, either of which would conform to 
 Milton's usage elsewhere ; hence the interpretation 
 of his verse is sometimes a matter of individual 
 taste and judgment. Certain sorts of metrical 
 license, however, are habitual enough with Milton 
 to warrant their mention here as a kind of test to 
 be applied to doubtful lines. 
 
 The normal line in Paradise Lost may be re- 
 garded as made up of ten feet, each consisting of 
 an unaccented, followed by an accented syllable i 1 
 
 1 In the following examples the symbols w and ' are used to Indi- 
 cate stress, not quantity. 
 
66 INTRODUCTION 
 
 The great | Seraph | ic Lords | and Cher | ubim 
 In close | recess | and se | cret con | clave sat. — i, 
 794-5. 
 
 Only a small portion of Milton's verses, how- 
 ever, conform exactly to this norm. One of the 
 commonest variations is the transposition in one or 
 more feet of the places for the unaccented and the 
 accented syllable: 
 
 Re gions | of sor | row, dole | ful shades, | where 
 peace. — i, 65. 
 
 For one | restraint, | lords of | the world | besides. — 
 i, 32. 
 
 illu | mine, what | is low | raise and | support. — i, 
 23. 
 
 Hov'ring | on wing | under | the cope | of Hell. — i. 
 345. 
 
 This transposition may occur in any foot, though 
 it is commonest in the first and rarest in the fifth. 
 Occasionally a foot consists of two accented 
 syllables : 
 
 Rocks, caves, | lakes, fens, | bogs, dens, | and shades | 
 of death.— ii, 621. 
 
 With head, | hands, wings, | or feet, | pursues | his 
 way. — ii, 949. 
 
 Frequently, of two unaccented syllables : 
 
 From their | Crea | tor, and | transgress | his will.— i, 
 31. 
 
 It is probable that Milton, like Shakspere, 1 
 
 See Schmidt's Shakspere Lexicon, Appendix I. 
 
INTRODUCTION 67 
 
 sometimes availed himself of the privilege of 
 changing for metrical purposes the ordinary accent 
 of a word. If an adjective or participle of two 
 syllables with the accent on the last is followed 
 immediately by a strongly accented syllable, the 
 accent of the former word appears in some cases 
 to be shifted back to the first syllable : 
 
 Next Che | mos, th'ob | scene dread | of Mo | ab's sons. 
 — i, 406. 
 
 Encamp | their le | gions, or | with 6b | scure wing. 
 — ii, 132. 
 
 In con | fused march | for lorn, | th' adven | t'rous 
 bands. — ii, 615. 
 
 Or un | known re | gion, what | remains | him less 
 Than un | known dan | gers and | as hard | escape. 
 — ii, 443-4. 
 
 His un | couth way, | or spread | his aer | y flight. — ii, 
 407. 
 
 This un | couth er | rand sole, | and one | for all. — ii, 
 
 827. 
 
 i 
 
 And sat | as Prin | ces, whom | the su | pre me King. — 
 i, 735. 
 
 Our Su | preme Foe | in time | may much | remit. — 
 — ii, 210. 
 
 Obdurate (i, 58) is apparently always accented 
 by Milton on the second syllable. Of. Paradise 
 Lost, vi, 790; xii, 205. 
 
68 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Many of the elisions and contractions found in 
 Paradise Lost are common to all English poetry : 
 Disobedience (i, 1) and incorporeal (i, 789) may 
 be pronounced as if they were words of four sylla- 
 bles; perpetual (i, 131), associates (i, 265) as if 
 they were trisyllabic; impious (i, 43), hideous 
 (i, 46), sulphurous (i, 171), mightiest (i, 99), 
 mightier (i, 149), conquer ov (i, 143), capital 
 (ii, 924), suffering (i, 158), sufferance (i, 366), 
 glimmering (i, 182), populous (i, 770), popular 
 (ii, 313), ominous (ii, 123), -fiery (i, 52), as if they 
 were dissyllabic; poiver (i, 103), ruin (i, 91), 
 riot (i, 499), trial (i, 366), showers (ii, 4) ; 
 towers (ii, 62), flying (ii, 942), (/o% (ii, 162), 
 p7?ar (ii, 302), iron (ii, 878), prison (i, 71), 
 everc (i, 416), reason (i, 248), fallen (i, 92), mew 
 (i, 211), driven (i, 223), as if they were mono- 
 syllabic. In ii, 623 evil appears once as a mono- 
 syllable and again as a dissyllable. 
 
 Crea | ted ev'l, | for e | vil on | ly good. 
 
 irit and spirits are often monosyllabic (i, 
 17, 139, 318), often dissyllabic (i, 101, 609; ii, 
 956); likewise Heaven (contrast i, 27 with i, 491). 
 If a word ending in a vowel is followed by a 
 word beginning with a vowel, the first vowel is 
 frequently obscured, though not necessarily quite 
 suppressed, in pronunciation: 
 
 11 Th' A 6 | man mount" (i, 15); "th' ethe | real sky" (1 
 45); "Th' infer | nal ser | pent" (i, 34); "th' Omnip | 
 
INTRODUCTION 69 
 
 Stent" (i, 49); "toth' ut | most pole" (i, 74); "Heal | so 
 against" (i, 470); "To set | himself | In glo | vy above | 
 his peers" (i, 39); "an ig | nomin | y and shame" 
 (i, 115); "O'er man | y a fro | zen man \y a fi' | ry 
 Alp" (ii, 620); "Be't so | since he" (i, 245) ; "T adore" 
 (i, 323); "Strange hor | ror seize | thee 'nd pangs | un- 
 felt | before" (ii, 703). 
 
 This elision may take place if the first word, ends 
 in w: 
 
 And sor | row and pain (i, 558); 
 or if the second word begins with h or wh: 
 
 T have found" (i, 524, 525); "All th' host j of Heav'n 
 (ii, 759); 
 
 T' whom thus" (ii, 746); "T' whom Sa | tan, turn | Ing 
 (ii, 968). 
 
 In Milton's manuscripts and in the early 
 printed editions these elisions and contractions are 
 frequently indicated by the spelling : the first edi- 
 tion pi Paradise Lost for example has adventrous 
 (i, 13); W Ocean (i, 202); W ethereal (i, 45); 
 Heav'ns (i, 9) ; Evening (i, 289) ; imbowr (i, 304) ; 
 chos'n (i, 318);/^'^ (i, 330). Even the or- 
 dinary contractions of the preterite and preterite 
 participle in -ed are indicated in the first edition : 
 fioiu'd (i, 11) ; unconswtfd (i, 69) ; ceasH (i, 283) ; 
 wallet (i, 295); scatterd (i, 304). 
 
 In nearly if not quite every case in which, a line 
 in Paradise Lost appears to contain one or more 
 
70 INTRODUCTION 
 
 feet of three syllables, the extra syllable may be 
 disposed of by elision or contraction. Occasion- 
 ally, however, a line will be found which has an 
 extra syllable at the end : 
 
 Will en | vy whom | the high | est place | expos j es 
 
 ii, 27. 
 
 Of Heav'n | received | us fal | ling; and | the thun | 
 der.— i, 174. 
 
 Of sov | ran pow'r, | with aw | ful cer | emo [ ny. — i, 
 753. 
 
 In many cases an apparent extra syllable at the 
 end may be slurred in pronunciation •} 
 
 And out | of good | still to | find means | of ev'l. — i, 
 165. 
 
 Or sub | stance, how | endued, | and what | their 
 pow'r. — ii, 356. 
 
 Swarmed and | were straight | ened; till, | the sig | 
 nal giv'n. — i, 776. 
 
 Of reb | el An | gels, by | whose aid | as pir'ng.— i,38. 
 
 Strength un | dlmin | Ished, or | eter | nal be'ng. — 
 i, 154. 
 
 Free, and | to none | account | able, | preferr'ng.— ii, 
 255. 
 
 1 The contractions in the following examples do not represent 
 Milton's spelling. 
 
INTRODUCTION 71 
 
 And possibly: 
 And high | disdain | from sense | of in | jiired mer't. — 
 i, 98. 
 
 In general, Milton's verse should be read as 
 naturally as possible, with the spoken rather than 
 the written word in mind. The reader should en- 
 deavor to give each word its proper rhetorical 
 accent, without distorting its pronunciation in 
 order to make it conform to a theoretical metrical 
 scheme. Earely some such distortion may be 
 necessary, but most of the elisions and contractions 
 noted above are matters of ordinary poetical license 
 or of everyday speech. 
 
 Milton gives vitality to his measure not only by 
 variations in single feet, but by subtle modulations, 
 brought about by a skillful adjustment of pauses, 
 in the rhythm. Hardly any two successive verses 
 will be found with exactly the same ebb and flow ; 
 indeed the sense is so frequently carried over from 
 one line to the next, and yet again to a third or 
 four tli, that the metrical unit is rather a verse - 
 group than a single line or a couplet. Not infre- 
 quently the movement of the verse is made to 
 illustrate the thought, as in the unwieldy line 
 (i, 202) in which the Leviathan is described, or 
 the famous passage (ii, 876-83) which tells of the 
 opening of the gates of Hell. No English poet has 
 ever shown more complete mastery over the medium 
 he wrought in than Milton, and no poem in our 
 language is better worth studying for its superb 
 
72 INTRODUCTION 
 
 orchestration than Paradise Lost. "Milton almost 
 requires a solemn service of music to be played 
 before you enter upon him, ,, says Charles Lamb. 
 "But he brings his music, to which, who listens, 
 had need bring docile thoughts, and purged 
 
THE VERSE 1 
 
 The measure is English heroic verse, without rime, as 
 that of Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin ; rime 
 being no necessary adjunct or true ornament of poem or 
 good verse, in longer works especially, but the invention 
 of a barbarous age, to set off wretched matter and lame 
 metre ; graced indeed since by the use of some famous 
 modern poets, 2 carried away by custom, but much to 
 their own vexation, hindrance, and constraint to express 
 many things otherwise, and for the most part worse, 
 than else they would have expressed them. Not with- 
 out cause, therefore, some both Italian and Spanish 
 poets of prime note have rejected rime both in longer 
 and shorter works, as have also, long since, our best Eng- 
 lish tragedies, as a thing of itself, to all judicious ears, 
 trivial and of no true musical delight ; which consists 
 only in apt numbers, fit quantity of syllables, and the 
 sense variously drawn out from one verse into another, 
 not in the jingling sound of like endings, a fault 
 avoided by the learned ancients both in poetry and all 
 good oratory. This neglect then of rime so little is to 
 
 1 This first appeared, together jvith the Arguments 
 and the following note by the publisher, in the "fifth 
 binding" (1668) of the first edition. (See Masson's 
 Life of Milton, vi, 623) :— 
 
 The Printer to the Reader. 
 Courteous Reader, there was no Argument at first 
 intended to the book ; but for the satisfaction of many 
 that have desired it, I have procured it, and withal a 
 reason of that which stumbled many others, why the 
 poem rimes not. — S. Simmons. 
 
 2 Dryden defended the use of rhyme in his Essay of 
 Dramatic Poetry (1667 or 1668) ; he was at this time 
 writing rhymed plays. 
 
 73 
 
74 THE VERSE 
 
 be taken for a defect, though it may seem so perhaps to 
 vulgar readers, that it rather is to be esteemed an ex- 
 ample set, the first in English, 1 of ancient liberty 
 recovered to heroic poem from the troublesome and 
 modern bondage of riming. 
 
 1 It is true that Paradise Lost was the first significant 
 poem of an epic character to be written in English 
 blank verse, if we except Surrey's translation, published 
 in 1557, of the second and fourth books of the ^Jneid. 
 
PAEADISE LOST 
 BOOK I 
 
THE ARGUMENT 
 
 This First Book proposes, first in brief, the whole 
 subject: Man's disobedience, and the loss thereupon of 
 Paradise, wherein he was placed: then touches the 
 prime cause of his fall — the Serpent, or rather Satan in 
 the Serpent ; who, revolting from God, and drawing to 
 his side many legions of Angels, was by the command 
 of God driven out of Heaven with all his crew into the 
 great Deep. Which action passed over, the Poem 
 hastens into the midst of things ; presenting Satan with 
 his Angels now fallen into Hell — described here, not in 
 the Centre 1 (for heaven and earth may be supposed as 
 yet not made, certainly not yet accursed), but in a 
 place of utter darkness, fitliest called Chaos. Here Satan 
 with his Angels lying on the burning lake, thunder- 
 struck and astonished, after a certain space recovers, as 
 from confusion ; calls up him who, next in order and 
 dignity, lay by him: they confer of their miserable 
 fall. Satan awakens all his legions, who lay till then in 
 the same manner confounded. They rise: their num- 
 bers ; array of battle ; their chief leaders named, accord- 
 ing to the idols known afterwards in Canaan and the 
 countries adjoining. To these Satan directs his speech ; 
 comforts them with hope yet of regaining Heaven ; but 
 tells them lastly of a new world and new kind of 
 creature to be created, according to an ancient 
 prophecy or report in Heaven; for that Angels were 
 long before this visible creation was the opinion of 
 many ancient Fathers. To find out the truth of this 
 prophecy, and what to determine thereon, he refers to 
 a full council. What his associates thence attempt. 
 Pandemonium, the palace of Satan, rises, suddenly built 
 out of the Deep : the infernal Peers there sit in 
 council. 
 
 1 The Centre, i. e. , of the earth, where Hell was sup- 
 posed to be situated. In 1. 686 Milton means by centre 
 the earth itself, the centre of the Ptolemaic Universe. 
 
 76 
 
PAEADISE LOST 
 
 BOOK I 
 
 Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit 
 Of that forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste 
 Brought death into the world, and all our woe, 
 With loss of Eden, till one greater Man 
 5 Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, 
 Sing, Heavenly Muse, that on the secret top 
 Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire 
 That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed 
 In the beginning how the Heavens and Earth 
 
 10 Rose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill 
 
 Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed 
 Fast by the oracle of God, I thence 
 Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song, 
 That with no middle flight intends to soar 
 
 15 Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues 
 Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. 
 And chiefly Thou, Spirit, that dost prefer 
 Before all temples the upright heart and pure, 
 Instruct me, for Thou know'st ; Thou from the first 
 
 so Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread, 
 
 8.— See Exod., iii, 2, and Deut., iv, 37. 
 9. — "Rose in the beginning," not "taught in the 
 beginning." 
 16.— See Introduction, p. 38. 
 
 77 
 
78 PARADISE LOST 
 
 Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast Abyss, 
 
 And madest it pregnant : what in me is dark 
 
 Illumine, what is low raise and support ; 
 
 That to the highth of this great argument 
 
 I may assert Eternal Providence, 25 
 
 And justify the ways of God to men. 
 
 Say first — for Heaven hides nothing from Thy 
 view, 
 Nor the deep tract of Hell — say first what cause 
 Moved our grand parents, in that happy state, 
 Favored of Heaven so highly, to fall off 80 
 
 From their Creator, and transgress his will 
 For one restraint, lords of the world besides. 
 Who first seduced them to that foul revolt? 
 
 The infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile, 
 Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived ^ 
 
 The Mother of Mankind, what time his pride 
 Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host 
 Of rebel Angels, by whose aid, aspiring 
 To set himself in glory above his peers, 
 He trusted to have equalled the Most High, 40 
 
 If He opposed ; and with ambitious aim 
 Against the throne and monarchy of God 
 Raised impious war in Heaven, and battle proud, 
 
 32. — For; because of. Keightly alters the punctua- 
 tion so that for shall mean "except for." 
 
 40-1. — The Serpent trusted to prove a match for the 
 Most High in case the latter should oppose his ambitious 
 schemes. Macmillan interprets, "If he (Satan) opposed 
 God." 
 
PARADISE LOST 79 
 
 With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power 
 
 r> Hurled headlong naming from the ethereal sky, 
 With hideous ruin and combustion, down 
 To bottomless perdition ; there to dwell 
 In adamantine chains and penal fire, 
 Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms. 
 
 so Nine times the space that measures day and night 
 To mortal men, he with his horrid crew 
 Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf, 
 Confounded, though immortal. But his doom 
 Reserved him to more wrath ; for now the thought 
 
 55 Both of lost happiness and lasting pain 
 
 Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes, 
 That witnessed huge affliction and dismay, 
 Mixed with obdurate pride and steadfast hate. 
 At once, as far as Angels ken, he views 
 
 60 The dismal situation waste and wild : 
 A dungeon horrible on all sides round 
 As one* great furnace flamed; yet from those flames 
 No light ; but rather darkness visible 
 Served only to discover sights of woe, 
 
 Go Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace 
 And rest can never dwell, hope never comes 
 That comes to all; but torture without end 
 Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed 
 With ever -burning sulphur unconsumed. 
 
 70 Such place Eternal Justice had prepared 
 
 For those rebellious ; here their prison ordained 
 
 In utter darkness, and their portion set, 
 
 As far removed from God and light of Heaven 
 
80 PARADISE LOST 
 
 As from the centre thrice to the utmost pole. 
 
 Oh how unlike the place from whence they fell ! 75 
 
 There the companions of his fall, o'erwhelmed 
 
 With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire, 
 
 He soon discerns ; and, weltering by his side, 
 
 One next himself in power, and next in crime, 
 
 Long after known in Palestine, and named so 
 
 Beelzebub. To whom the Arch-Enemy, 
 
 And thence in Heaven called Satan, with bold 
 
 words 
 Breaking the horrid silence, thus began : — 
 
 'If thou beest he — but Oh how fallen! how 
 changed 
 From him, who in the happy realms of light, 85 
 
 Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst out- 
 shine 
 Myriads, though bright! — if he whom mutual 
 
 league, 
 United thoughts and counsels, equal hope 
 And hazard in the glorious enterprise, 
 Joined with me once, now misery hath joined 90 
 
 In equal ruin — into what pit thou seest 
 From what highth fallen: so much the stronger 
 
 proved 
 He with his thunder : and till then who knew 
 
 74.— See Introduction, p. 46. 
 
 84-124.— Under the stress of his emotion, Satan here 
 speaks disjointedly, without much regard to syntax; 
 some of his verbs have no subjects, and some of his 
 nouns no predicates. 
 
PARADISE LOST 81 
 
 The force of those dire arms? Yet not for those, 
 
 95 Nor wfrat the potent Victor in his rage 
 Can else inflict, do I repent, or change, 
 Though changed in outward lustre, that fixed 
 
 mind, 
 And high disdain from sense of injured merit, 
 That with the Mightiest raised me to contend, 
 
 100 And to the fierce contention brought along 
 Innumerable force of Spirits armed, 
 That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring, 
 Hfs utmost power with adverse power opposed 
 In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven, 
 
 io.i And shook his throne. What though the field be 
 lost? 
 All is not lost : the unconquerable will, 
 And study of revenge, immortal hate, 
 And courage never to submit or yield, 
 And what is else not to be overcome : 
 
 no That glory never shall his wrath or might 
 Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace 
 
 109. — "And whatever else is unconquerable." Verity, 
 following the early editions, sets a colon at the end of 
 1. 108, and a note of interrogation at the end of 1. 109, 
 and interprets: "To retain one's hate, one's courage 
 etc. , is not that to be still unsubdued : in what else but 
 this lies the test of being not overcome?" Masson sug- 
 gests as other possible interpretations : "and what else 
 is there that is not to be overcome?" or, "and what is 
 there that else (i. e., without the fore-mentioned qual- 
 ities) is not to be overcome?" Glory, 1. 110, means the 
 glory of being invincibly courageous. 
 
82 PARADISE LOST 
 
 With suppliant knee, and deify his power 
 
 Who, from the terror of this arm, so late t 
 
 Doubted his empire — that were low indeed ; 
 
 That were an ignominy and shame beneath ns 
 
 This downfall ; since by fate the strength of gods 
 
 And this empyreal substance cannot fail ; 
 
 Since, through experience of this great event, 
 
 In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced, 
 
 We may with more successful hope resolve 120 
 
 To wage by force or guile eternal war, 
 
 Irreconcilable to our grand foe, 
 
 Who now triumphs, and in the excess of joy 
 
 Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heaven. ' 
 
 So spake the apostate Angel, though in pain, 125 
 Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair ; 
 And him thus answered soon his bold compeer : — 
 
 ' Prince ! Chief of many throned powers ! 
 That led the embattled Seraphim to war 
 Under thy conduct, and, in dreadful deeds 1 30 
 
 Fearless, endangered Heaven's perpetual King, 
 And put to proof his high supremacy, 
 Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate ! 
 Too well I see and rue the dire event 
 That with sad overthrow and foul defeat 135 
 
 Hath lost us Heaven, and all this mighty host 
 In horrible destruction laid thus low, 
 
 112-4. — "The power of him who, because of the terror 
 inspired by this arm, so lately feared for his authority." 
 EmpirG=imperium. 
 
 120. — Successful hope; hope of success. 
 
PARADISE LOST 83 
 
 As far as gods and Heavenly essences 
 
 Can perish : for the mind and spirit remains 
 
 ho Invincible, and vigor soon returns, 
 
 Though all our glory extinct, and happy state 
 Here swallowed up in endless misery. 
 But what if he our Conqueror (whom I now 
 Of force believe almighty, since no less 
 
 145 Than such could have o 'erpowered such force as ours) 
 Have left us this our spirit and strength entire, 
 Strongly to suffer and support our pains, 
 That we may so suffice his vengeful ire ; 
 Or do him mightier service, as his thralls 
 
 150 By right of war, whate'er his business be, 
 Here in the heart of Hell to work in fire, 
 Or do his errands in the gloomy Deep? 
 What can it then avail, though yet we feel 
 Strength undiminished, or eternal being 
 
 155 To undergo eternal punishment?' 
 
 Whereto with speedy words the Arch-Fiend 
 replied : — 
 'Fallen Cherub, to be weak is miserable, 
 Doing or suffering : but of this be sure — 
 
 141. — Though all our glory extinct; an imitation of 
 the Latin ablative absolute. See Introduction, p. 59. 
 
 144-5. — Of force such force. Of force, 
 
 "of necessity," rather than "in respect to force"; such 
 force has the ordinary meaning. This sort of play upon 
 words is not uncommon with Milton. Cf. 1. 642, and 
 ii, 39-40. 
 
 154-5. — "Existence made eternal in order that we may 
 suffer eternally." 
 
84 PARADISE LOST 
 
 To do aught good never will be our task, 
 
 But ever to do ill our sole delight, igo 
 
 As being the contrary to his high will 
 
 Whom we resist. If then his providence 
 
 Out of our evil seek to bring forth good, 
 
 Our labor must be to pervert that end, 
 
 And out of good still to find means of evil ; 165 
 
 Which ofttimes may succeed, so as perhaps 
 
 Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb 
 
 His inmost counsels from their destined aim. 
 
 But see ! the angry Victor hath recalled 
 
 His ministers of vengeance and pursuit ito 
 
 Back to the gates of Heaven ; the sulphurous hail, 
 
 Shot after us in storm, o'er blown hath laid 
 
 The fiery surge that from the precipice 
 
 Of Heaven received us falling; and the thunder, 
 
 Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage, its 
 
 Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now 
 
 To bellow through the vast and boundless Deep. 
 
 Let us not slip the occasion, whether scorn 
 
 Or satiate fury yield it from our foe. 
 
 Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild, iso 
 
 The seat of desolation, void of light, 
 
 Save what the glimmering of these livid flames 
 
 Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend 
 
 From off the tossing of these fiery waves ; 
 
 There rest, if any rest can harbor there ; iffi 
 
 And, reassembling our afflicted powers, 
 
 Consult how we may henceforth most offend 
 
 Our Enemy, our own loss how repair, 
 
PARADISE LOST 85 
 
 How overcome this dire calamity, 
 
 loo What reinforcement we may gain from hope, 
 If not what resolution from despair.' 
 
 Thus Satan, talking to his nearest mate, 
 With head nplift above the wave, and eyes 
 That sparkling blazed; his other parts besides, 
 
 195 Prone on the flood, extended long and large, 
 Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge 
 As whom the fables name of monstrous size, 
 Titanian, or Earth-born, that warred on Jove, 
 Briareos or Typhon, whom the den 
 
 aoo By ancient Tarsus held, or that sea-beast 
 Leviathan, which God of all his works 
 Created hugest that swim the ocean-stream. 
 Him, haply, slumbering on the Norway foam, 
 The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff 
 
 205 Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell, 
 With fixed anchor in his scaly rind, 
 Moors by his side under the lee, while night 
 Invests the sea, and wished morn delays. 
 So stretched out huge in length the Arch-Fiend 
 lay, 
 
 210 Chained on the burning lake ; nor ever thence 
 Had risen or heaved his head, but that the will 
 And high permission of all-ruling Heaven 
 Left him at large to his own dark designs, 
 That with reiterated crimes he might 
 
 215 Heap on himself damnation, while he sought 
 
 205. — Many stories of this sort are to be found in 
 literature. See, for an example, Siribad the Sailor. 
 
86 PARADISE LOST 
 
 Evil to others, and enraged might see 
 
 How all his malice served but to bring forth 
 
 Infinite goodness, grace, and mercy, shewn 
 
 On Man by him seduced ; but on himself 
 
 Treble confusion, wrath, and vengeance poured. 220 
 
 Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool 
 His mighty stature ; on each hand the flames 
 Driven backward slope their pointing spires, and, 
 
 rolled 
 In billows, leave in the midst a horrid vale. 
 Then with expanded wings he steers his flight 225 
 
 Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air, 
 That felt unusual weight ; till on dry land 
 He lights — if it were land that ever burned 
 With solid, as the lake with liquid fire, 
 And such appeared in hue, as when the force 230 
 
 Of subterranean wind transports a hill 
 Torn from Pelorus, or the shattered side 
 Of thundering iEtna, whose combustible 
 And fuelled entrails thence conceiving fire, 
 Sublimed with mineral fury, aid the winds, 235 
 
 And leave a singed bottom all involved 
 With stench and smoke: such resting found the 
 
 sole 
 Of unblest feet. Him followed his next mate, 
 Both glorying to have scaped the Stygian flood 
 As gods, and by their own recovered strength, 240 
 
 Not by the sufferance of supernal power. 
 
 'Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,' 
 Said then the lost Archangel, 'this the seat 
 
PARADISE LOST 87 
 
 That we must change for Heaven? this mournful 
 gloom 
 
 245 For that celestial light? Be it so, since he 
 Who now is sovran can dispose and bid 
 What shall be right : farthest from him is best, 
 Whom reason hath equalled, force hath made 
 
 supreme 
 Above his equals. Farewell, happy fields, 
 
 250 Where joy forever dwells! Hail, horrors! hail, 
 Infernal world! and thou, profoundest Hell, 
 Receive thy new possessor, 'one who brings 
 A mind not to be changed by place or time. 
 The mind is its own place, and in itself 
 
 255 Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of HeavenT~~ 
 What matter where, if I be still the same, 
 And what I should be, all but less than he 
 Wham thunder hath made greater? Here at least 
 
 248. — After equalled, supply "with us"; "from him 
 who is in intelligence merely our equal, though our 
 superior in physical strength." 
 
 254-5. — Cf . Shakspere's ' 'There is nothing either good 
 or bad, but thinking makes it so" {Hamlet, II, ii, 255 ff. ) ; 
 "I'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell" (Midsum- 
 mer-Night's Dream, II, i, 243). These famous lines are 
 paralleled by many passages in our own and other 
 literatures. 
 
 257. — All but less than; nearly equal to. "The phrase 
 is a combination of 'only less than,' and 'all but equal 
 to' " (Beeching, quoted by Verity). Other editors take 
 all but less in the sense of "except for the fact that I 
 am less." 
 
88 PARADISE LOST 
 
 We shall be free ; the Almighty hath not built 
 Here for his envy, will not drive us hence : 260 
 
 Here we may reign secure, and in my choice 
 To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell : 
 — - Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven. 
 But wherefore let we then our faithful friends, 
 The associates and co-partners of our loss, 265 
 
 Lie thus astonished on the oblivious pool, 
 And call them not to share with us their part 
 In this unhappy mansion, or once more 
 With rallied arms to try what may be yet 
 Regained in Heaven, or what more lost in Hell?' 270 
 
 So Satan spake ; and him Beelzebub 
 Thus answered: — 'Leader of those armies bright 
 Which but the Omnipotent none could have foiled, 
 If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge 
 Of hope in fears and dangers — heard so oft 275 
 
 In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge 
 Of battle when it raged, in all assaults 
 Their surest signal — they will soon resume 
 New courage and revive, though now they lie 
 Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire, 280 
 
 As we erewhile, astounded and amazed : 
 No wonder, fallen such a pernicious highth!' 
 
 He scarce had ceased when the superior Fiend 
 Was moving toward the shore ; his ponderous shield, 
 Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round, 285 
 
 Behind him cast. The broad circumference 
 
 259-60. — "The Almighty hath not built here a place 
 of which he will envy us the possession." 
 
PARADISE LOST , 89 
 
 Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb 
 Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views 
 At evening from the top of Fesole, 
 
 290 Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, 
 Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe. 
 His spear — to equal which the tallest pine 
 Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast 
 Of some great ammiral, were but a wand — 
 
 295 He walked with, to support uneasy steps 
 Over the burning marie, not like those steps 
 On Heaven 's azure ; and the torrid clime 
 Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire. 
 Nathless he so endured, till on the beach 
 
 300 Of that inflamed sea he stood, and called 
 His legions, Angel forms, who lay entranced, 
 Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks 
 In Vallombrosa, where the Etrurian shades 
 High over-arched embower ; or scattered sedge 
 
 305 Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion armed 
 
 Hath vexed the Red-Sea coast, whose waves o'er- 
 
 threw 
 Busiris and his Mem phi an chivalry, 
 While with perfidious hatred they pursued 
 The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld 
 
 3io From the safe shore their floating carcases 
 And broken chariot -wheels : so thick bestrown, 
 
 304. — Scattered sedge; the Hebrew name for the Red 
 Sea means Sea of Sedge. 
 
 305. — The rising and setting of Orion was thought to 
 bring stormy weather. 
 
90 PARADISE LOST 
 
 Abject and lost, lay these, covering the flood, 
 
 Under amazement of their hideous change. 
 
 He called so loud that all the hollow deep 
 
 Of Hell resounded: — 'Princes, Potentates, 815 
 
 Warriors, the Flower of Heaven — once yours, now 
 
 lost, 
 If such astonishment as this can seize 
 Eternal Spirits ! Or have ye chosen this place 
 After the toil of battle to repose 
 
 Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find 320 
 
 To slumber here, as in the vales of Heaven? 
 Or in this abject posture have ye sworn 
 To adore the Conqueror, who now beholds 
 Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood 
 With scattered arms and ensigns, till anon 325 
 
 His swift pursuers from Heaven-gates discern 
 The advantage, and descending tread us down 
 Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts 
 Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf? 
 Awake, arise, or be forever fallen!' 330 
 
 They heard, and were abashed, and up they sprung 
 Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch, 
 On duty sleeping found by whom they dread, 
 Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake. 
 Nor did they not perceive the evil plight 335 
 
 In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel ; 
 Yet to their General's voice they soon obeyed 
 Innumerable. As when the potent rod 
 Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day, 
 Waved round the coast, up called a pitchy cloud 340 
 
PARADISE LOST 91 
 
 Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind, 
 That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung 
 Like night, and darkened all the land of Nile: 
 So numberless were those bad Angels seen 
 
 345 Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell, 
 'Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires; 
 Till, as a signal given, the uplifted spear 
 Of their great Sultan waving to direct 
 Their course, in even balance down they light 
 
 350 On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain : 
 A multitude like which the populous North 
 Poured never from her frozen loins, to pass 
 Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons 
 Came like a deluge on the South, and spread 
 
 355 Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan sands. 
 
 Forthwith, from every squadron and each band, 
 Thfe heads and leaders thither haste where stood 
 Their great Commander ; godlike shapes, and forms 
 Excelling human, princely Dignities, 
 
 360 And Powers that erst in Heaven sat on thrones ; 
 Though of their names in Heavenly records now 
 Be no memorial, blotted out and rased 
 By their rebellion from the Books of Life. 
 Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve 
 
 365 Got them new names, till, wandering o'er the Earth, 
 Through God's high sufferance for the trial of man, 
 By falsities and lies the greatest part 
 
 353.5. —The allusion is to the invasion of the Roman 
 Empire by the Germanic and Slavic races. The Van- 
 dals conquered Carthage in the year 439 A. D. 
 
92 PARADISE LOST 
 
 Of mankind they corrupted to forsake 
 
 God their Creator, and the invisible 
 
 Glory of him that made them, to transform 870 
 
 Oft to the image of a brute, adorned 
 
 With gay religions full of pomp and gold, 
 
 And devils to adore for deities: 
 
 Then were they known to men by various names, 
 
 And various idols through the heathen world. 375 
 
 Say, Muse, their names then known, who first, 
 who last, 
 Roused from the slumber on that fiery couch, 
 At their great Emperor's call, as next in worth 
 Came singly where he stood on the bare strand, 
 While the promiscuous crowd stood yet aloof. 380 
 
 The chief were those who, from the pit of Hell 
 Roaming to seek their prey on Earth, durst fix 
 Their seats long after next the seat of God, 
 Their altars by his altar, gods adored 
 Among the nations round, and durst abide 385 
 
 Jehovah thundering out of Sion, throned 
 Between the Cherubim ; yea, often placed 
 Within his sanctuary itself their shrines, 
 Abominations ; and with cursed things 
 His holy rites and solemn feasts profaned, 390 
 
 And with their darkness durst affront his light. 
 
 373. — Mediaeval theologians sometimes identified the 
 fallen angels with heathen, particularly classical 
 deities. 
 
 387.— See Exod., xxv, 22. 
 
 388.— See Jer., vii, 30. 
 
PARADISE LOST 93 
 
 First Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood 
 
 Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears, 
 
 Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud, 
 
 395 Their children's cries unheard that passed through 
 fire 
 To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite 
 Worshiped in Rabba and her watery plain, 
 In Argob and in Basan, to the stream 
 Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such 
 
 400 Audacious neighborhood, the wisest heart 
 Of Solomon he led by fraud to build 
 His temple right against the temple of God 
 On that opprobrious hill, and made his grove 
 The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence 
 
 405 And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell. 
 Next Chemos, the obscene dread of Moab's sons, 
 From Aroar to Nebo, and the wild 
 Of southmost Abarim ; in Hesebon 
 And Horonaim, Seon's realm, beyond 
 
 410 The flowery dale of Sibma clad with vines, 
 And Eleale to the Asphaltic pool. 
 Peor his other name, when he enticed 
 Israel in Sittim, on their march from Nile, 
 To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe. 
 
 415 Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarged 
 Even to that hill of scandal, by the grove 
 Of Moloch homicide, lust hard by hate ; 
 Till good Josiah drove them thence to Hell. 
 
 414.— See Numb., xxv, 1-9. 
 418. — See II Kings, xxiii, 
 
94 PARADISE LOST 
 
 With these came they who, from the bordering flood 
 
 Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts 420 
 
 Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names 
 
 Of Baalim and Ashtaroth — those male, 
 
 These feminine. For Spirits, when they please, 
 
 Can either sex assume, or both ; so soft 
 
 And uncompounded is their essence pure, 425 
 
 Not tied or manacled with joint or limb, 
 
 Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones, 
 
 Like cumbrous flesh; but, in what shape they 
 
 choose, 
 Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure, 
 Can execute their aery purposes, 430 
 
 And works of love or enmity fulfil. 
 For those the race of Israel oft forsook 
 Their living Strength, and unfrequented left 
 His righteous altar, bowing lowly down 
 To bestial gods ; for which their heads as low 435 
 
 Bowed down in battle, sunk before the spear 
 Of despicable foes. With these in troop 
 Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians called 
 Astarte, Queen of Heaven, with crescent horns ; 
 To whose bright image nightly by the moon 440 
 
 Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs ; 
 In Sion also not unsung, where stood 
 Her temple on the offensive mountain, built 
 By that uxorious king whose heart, though large, 
 Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell 445 
 
 To idols foul. Thammuz came next behind, 
 Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured 
 The Syrian damsels to lament his fate 
 
PARADISE LOST 95 
 
 In amorous ditties all a summer's day, 
 
 450 While smooth Adonis from his native rock 
 Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood 
 Of Thammuz yearly wounded: the love-tale 
 Infected Sion's daughters with like heat, 
 Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch 
 
 455 Ezekiel saw, when, by the vision led, 
 His eye surveyed the dark idolatries 
 Of alienated Judah. Next came one 
 Who mourned in earnest, when the captive ark 
 Maimed his brute image, head and hands lopt off 
 
 460 In his own temple, on the jgrunsel-edge, 
 
 Where he fell flat, and shamed his worshipers : 
 Dagon his name, sea-monster, upward man 
 And downward fish ; yet had his temple high 
 Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast 
 
 465 Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon, 
 
 And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds. 
 Him followed Rimmon, whose delightful seat 
 Was fair Damascus, on the fertile banks 
 Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams. 
 
 470 He also against the house of God was bold : 
 A leper once he lost, and gained a king, 
 Ahaz, his sottish conqueror, whom he drew 
 God's altar to disparage and displace 
 For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn 
 
 475 His odious offerings, and adore the gods 
 
 Whom he had vanquished. After these appeared 
 A crew who, under names of old renown, 
 Osiris, Isis, Or us, and their train, 
 471.— See II Kings, v, 1-18 and xvi, 10-12. 
 
96 PARADISE LOST 
 
 With monstrous shapes and sorceries abused 
 Fanatic Egypt and her priests, to seek 480 
 
 Their wandering gods disguised in brutish forms 
 Kather than human. Nor did Israel scape 
 The infection, when their borrowed gold composed 
 The calf in Oreb ; and the rebel king 
 Doubled that sin in Bethel and in Dan, 485 
 
 Likening his Maker to the grazed ox — 
 Jehovah, who, in one night, when he passed 
 From Egypt marching, equalled with one stroke 
 Both her first-born and all her bleating gods. 
 Belial came last, than whom a Spirit more lewd 49 ° 
 Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love 
 Vice for itself. To him no temple stood 
 Or altar smoked; yet who more oft than he 
 In temples and at altars, when the priest 
 Turns atheist, as did Eli's sons, who filled 495 
 
 With lust and violence the house of God? 
 In courts and palaces he also reigns, 
 And in luxurious cities, where the noise 
 Of riot ascends above their loftiest towers, 
 And injury and outrage ; and when night 500 
 
 Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons 
 Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine. 
 Witness the streets of Sodom, and that night 
 In Gibeah, when the hospitable door 
 Exposed a matron, to avoid worse rape. 505 
 
 These were the prime in order and in might; 
 
 483-5.— See I Kings, xii, 19-20, 28-29; Exod., xxxii, 4, 
 and xii, 35-36. 
 487-9.— See Exod., xii, 29, 
 
PARADISE LOST 97 
 
 The rest were long to tell, though far renowned 
 
 The Ionian gods — of Javan's issue held 
 
 Gods, yet confessed later than Heaven and Earth, 
 
 510 Their boasted parents; — Titan, Heaven's first-born, 
 With his enormous brood, and birthright seized 
 By younger Saturn ; he from mightier Jove, 
 His own and Ehea's son, like measure found ; 
 So Jove usurping reigned. These, first in Crete 
 
 sis And Ida known, thence on the snowy top 
 Of cold Olympus ruled the middle air, 
 Their highest Heaven; or on the Delphian cliff, 
 Or in Dodona, and through all the bounds 
 Of Doric land ; or who with Saturn old 
 
 520 Fled over Adria to the Hesperian fields, 
 And o'er the Celtic roamed the utmost isles. 
 
 All these and more came flocking ; but with looks 
 Downcast and damp, yet such wherein appeared 
 Obscure some glimpse of joy, to have found their 
 Chief 
 
 525 Not in despair, to have found themselves not lost 
 In loss itself ; which on his countenance cast 
 Like doubtful hue. But he, his wonted pride 
 Soon recollecting, with high words that bore 
 Semblance of worth, not substance, gently raised 
 
 530 Their fainting courage, and dispelled their fears : 
 Then straight commands that at the warlike sound 
 Of trumpets loud and clarions, be upreared 
 His mighty standard. That proud honor claimed 
 Azazel as his right, a Cherub tall : 
 
 535 Who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurled 
 The imperial ensign, which, full high advanced, 
 
98 PARADISE LOST 
 
 Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind, 
 
 With gems and golden lustre rich emblazed, 
 
 Seraphic arms and trophies ; all the while 
 
 Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds : 540 
 
 At which the universal host up-sent 
 
 A shout that tore Hell's concave, and beyond 
 
 Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night. 
 
 All in a moment through the gloom were seen 
 
 Ten thousand banners rise into the air, 545 
 
 With orient colors waving; with them rose 
 
 A forest huge of spears ; and thronging helms 
 
 Appeared, and serried shields in thick array 
 
 Of depth immeasurable. Anon they move 
 
 In perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood 550 
 
 Of flutes and soft recorders — such as raised 
 
 To highth of noblest temper heroes old 
 
 Arming to battle, and instead of rage 
 
 Deliberate valor breathed, firm and unmoved 
 
 With dread of death to flight or foul retreat ; 555 
 
 Nor wanting power to mitigate and swage, 
 
 With solemn touches, troubled thoughts, and chaso 
 
 Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain 
 
 From mortal or immortal minds. Thus they, 
 
 Breathing united force with fixed thought, 560 
 
 Moved on in silence to soft pipes that charmed 
 
 Their painful steps 'er the burnt soil ; and now 
 
 Advanced in view they stand, a horrid front 
 
 Of dreadful length and dazzling arms, in guise 
 
 Of warriors old, with ordered spear and shield, 565 
 
 Awaiting what command their mighty chief 
 
PARADISE LOST 99 
 
 Had to impose. He through the armed files 
 Darts his experienced eye, and soon traverse 
 The whole battalion views — their order due, 
 
 570 Their visages and stature as of gods ; 
 
 Their number last he sums. And now his heart 
 Distends with pride, and hardening in his strength 
 Glories ; for never, since created man, 
 Met such embodied force as, named with these, 
 
 575 Could merit more than that small infantry 
 
 Warred on by cranes : though all the giant brood 
 Of Phlegra with the heroic race were joined 
 That fought at Thebes and Ilium, on each side 
 Mixed with auxiliar gods ; and what resounds 
 
 580 In fable or romance of Uther's son, 
 
 Begirt with British and Armoric knights ; 
 Ai^d all who since, baptized or infidel, 
 Jousted in Aspramont, or Montalban, 
 Damasco, or Marocco, or Trebisond; 
 
 585 Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore 
 
 573. — Since created man; see Introduction, p. 60. 
 
 582-7. — Milton mentions in this passage some familiar 
 names in the French and Italian Mediaeval romances 
 which tell of the conflicts between the Christians and 
 the Saracens. Aspramont was near Nice; Montalban, 
 in Languedoc; Damasco is Damascus; Trebisond was 
 in Cappadocia ; Biserta is near Tunis, and the allusion 
 is to the invasion of Spain by the Moors ; Fontarabia 
 is in Spain, forty miles from the pass of Roncesvalles, 
 where Charlemagne's twelve peers (but not Charle- 
 magne himself) are said, in the Song of Roland, to have 
 fallen in battle. 
 
100 PARADISE LOST 
 
 When Charlemain with all his peerage fell 
 
 By Fontarabbia. Thus far these beyond 
 
 Compare of mortal prowess, yet observed 
 
 Their dread commander. He, above the rest 
 
 In shape and gesture proudly eminent, 590 
 
 Stood like a tower ; his form had yet not lost 
 
 All her original brightness, nor appeared 
 
 Less than Archangel ruined, and the excess 
 
 Of glory obscured : as when the sun new -risen 
 
 Looks through the horizontal misty air 595 
 
 Shorn of his beams, or from behind the moon, 
 
 In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds 
 
 On half the nations, and with fear of change 
 
 Perplexes monarchs. Darkened so, yet shone 
 
 Above them all the Archangel ; but his face 600 
 
 Deep scars of thunder had intrenched, and care 
 
 Sat on his faded cheek, but under brows 
 
 Of dauntless courage, and considerate pride 
 
 Waiting revenge. Cruel his eye, but cast 
 
 Signs of remorse and passion, to behold 605 
 
 The fellows of his crime, the followers rather 
 
 (Far other once beheld in bliss), condemned 
 
 Forever now to have their lot in pain ; 
 
 Millions of Spirits for his fault amerced 
 
 Of Heaven, and from eternal splendors flung 610 
 
 For his revolt ; yet faithful how they stood, 
 
 Their glory withered: as, when Heaven's fire 
 
 598-9. — Thomas Tomkyns, an official censor of the 
 Press, at first took exception to these lines when Mil- 
 ton's manuscript was submitted to him. 
 
PARADISE LOST 101 
 
 Hath scathed the forest oaks or mountain pines, 
 With singed top their stately growth, though bare, 
 
 615 Stands on the blasted heath. He now prepared 
 To speak ; whereat their doubled ranks they bend 
 From wing to wing, and half enclose him round 
 With all his peers : attention held them mute. 
 Thrice he assayed, and thrice, in spite of scorn, 
 
 «20 Tears, such as Angels weep, burst forth : at last 
 Words interwove with sighs found out their way : — 
 
 1 myriads of immortal Spirits ! Powers 
 Matchless, but with the Almighty! — and that strife 
 Was not inglorious, though the event was dire, 
 
 625 As this place testifies, and this dire change, 
 Hateful to utter. But what power of mind, 
 Foreseeing or presaging, from the depth 
 Oi knowledge past or present, could have feared 
 How such united force of gods, how such' 
 
 630 As stood like these, could ever know repulse? 
 For who can yet believe, though after loss, 
 That all these puissant legions, whose exile 
 Hath emptied Heaven, shall fail to reascend, 
 Self -raised, and repossess their native seat? 
 
 635 For me, be witness all the host of Heaven, 
 If counsels different, or dangers shunned 
 By me, have lost our hopes. But he who reigns 
 Monarch in Heaven, till then as one secure 
 Sat on his throne, upheld by old repute, 
 
 640 Consent or custom, and his regal state 
 
 Put forth at full, but still his strength concealed; 
 Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall. 
 
102 PARADISE LOST 
 
 Henceforth his might we know, and know onr own 
 
 So as not either to provoke, or dread 
 
 New war provoked. Our better part remains 645 
 
 To work in close design, by fraud or guile, 
 
 What force effected not ; that he no less 
 
 . At length from us may find, who overcomes 
 ~V By force hath overcome but half his foe. 
 
 Space may produce new worlds ; whereof so rife 650 
 
 There went a fame in Heaven that He erelong 
 
 Intended to create, and therein plant 
 
 A generation whom his choice regard 
 
 Should favor equal to the Sons of Heaven. 
 
 Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps 655 
 
 Our first eruption: thither or elsewhere; 
 
 For this infernal pit shall never hold 
 
 Celestial Spirits in bondage, nor the Abyss 
 
 Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts, 
 
 Full counsel must mature. Peace is despaired, 6 «o 
 
 For who can think submission? War, then, war 
 
 Open or understood, must be resolved. ' 
 
 He spake; and, to confirm his words, out-flew 
 
 / Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs 
 Of mighty Cherubim ; the sudden blaze 685 
 
 Far round illumined Hell. Highly they raged 
 Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms 
 Clashed on their sounding shields the din of war, 
 Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heaven. 
 
 There stood a hill not far, whose grisly top 670 
 
 Belched fire and rolling smoke ; the rest entire 
 Shone with a glossy scurf, undoubted sign 
 
PARADISE LOST 103 
 
 That in his womb was hid metallic ore, 
 
 The work of sulphur. Thither, winged with speed, 
 
 675 A numerous brigad hastened: as when bands 
 Of pioneers, with spade and pickaxe armed, 
 Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field, 
 Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them on, 
 Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell 
 
 680 From Heaven, for even in Heaven his looks and 
 thoughts 
 Were always downward bent, admiring more 
 The riches of Heaven's pavement, trodden gold, 
 Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed 
 In vision beatific. By him first 
 
 685 Men also, and by his suggestion taught, 
 
 Ransacked the Centre, and with impious hands 
 Rilled the bowels of their mother Earth 
 For treasures better hid. Soon had his crew 
 Opened into the hill a spacious wound, 
 
 690 And digged out ribs of gold. Let none admire 
 That riches grow in Hell ; that soil may best 
 Deserve the precious bane. And here let those 
 Who boast in mortal things, and wondering tell 
 Of Babel, and the works of Memphian kings, 
 
 695 Learn how their greatest monuments of fame, 
 And strength, and art, are easily outdone 
 By Spirits reprobate, and in an hour 
 What in an age they, with incessant toil 
 
 673-4. — All metals were believed in the Middle Ages 
 to be generated from sulphur and mercury. 
 697. — In an hour; supply "is performed." 
 
104 PARADISE LOST 
 
 And hands innumerable, scarce perform. 
 Nigh on the plain, in many cells prepared, 700 
 
 That underneath had veins of liquid fire 
 Sluiced from the lake, a second multitude 
 With wondrous art founded the massy ore, 
 Severing each kind, and scummed the bullion dross. 
 A third as soon had formed within the ground 705 
 A various mould, and from the boiling cells 
 By strange conveyance filled each hollow nook : 
 As in an organ, from one blast of wind, 
 To many a row of pipes the sound-board breathes. 
 Anon out of the earth a fabric huge no 
 
 Eose like an exhalation, with the sound 
 Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet — 
 Built like a temple, where pilasters round 
 Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid 
 With golden architrave ; nor did there want 715 
 
 Cornice or frieze, with bossy sculptures graven : 
 The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon, 
 Nor great Alcairo, such magnificence 
 Equalled in all their glories, to enshrine 
 Belus or Serapis their gods, or seat 720 
 
 Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove 
 In wealth and luxury. The ascending pile 
 Stood fixed her stately highth, and straight the 
 doors, 
 
 703. — The second edition reads found out in place of 
 founded. 
 
 723. — Stood fixed her stately highth; see Introduc- 
 tion, p. 60. 
 
PARADISE LOST 105 
 
 Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide 
 
 725 Within, her ample spaces o'er the smooth 
 And level pavement : from the arched roof, 
 Pendent by subtle magic, many a row 
 Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed 
 With naphtha and asphaltus, yielded light 
 
 730 As from a sky. The hasty multitude 
 
 Admiring entered, and the work some praise, 
 And some the architect. His hand was known 
 In Heaven by many a towered structure high, 
 Where sceptred Angels held their residence, 
 
 735 And sat as Princes, whom the supreme King 
 Exalted to such power, and gave to rule, 
 Each in his Hierarchy, the Orders bright. 
 Nor was his name unheard or unadored 
 In % ancient Greece ; and in Ausonian land 
 
 740 Men called him Mulciber; and how he fell 
 
 From Heaven they fabled, thrown by angry Jove 
 Sheer o'er the crystal battlements: from morn 
 To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, 
 A summer's day; and with the setting sun 
 
 745 Dropt from the zenith, like a falling star, 
 
 On Lemnos, the iEgaean isle. Thus they relate, 
 Erring; for he with this rebellious rout 
 Fell long before ; nor aught availed him now 
 To have built in Heaven high towers ; nor did he 
 scape 
 
 750 By all his engines, but was headlong sent 
 With his industrious crew to build in Hell. 
 Meanwhile the winged haralds, by command 
 
106 PARADISE LOST 
 
 Of sovran power, with awful ceremony 
 And trumpet's sound, throughout the host pro- 
 claim 
 A solemn council forthwith to be held 755 
 
 At Pandemonium, the high capital 
 Of Satan and his peers. Their summons called 
 From every band and squared regiment 
 By place or choice the worthiest ; they anon 
 With hundreds and with thousands trooping came wo 
 Attended. All access was thronged, the gates 
 And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall 
 (Though like a covered field, where champions bold 
 Wont ride in armed, and at the Soldan's chair 
 Defied the best of Panim chivalry 765 
 
 To mortal combat, or career with lance) 
 Thick swarmed, both on the ground and in the air, 
 Brushed with the hiss of rustling wings. As bees 
 In spring-time, when the Sun with Taurus rides, 
 Pour forth their populous youth about the hive ™ 
 In clusters ; they among fresh dews and flowers 
 Fly to and fro, or on the smoothed plank, 
 The suburb of their straw-built citadel, 
 New rubbed with balm, expatiate and confer 
 Their state-affairs. So thick the aery crowd ra 
 
 Swarmed and were straightened; till, the signal 
 
 given, 
 Behold a wonder ! they but now who seemed 
 In bigness to surpass Earth's giant sons, 
 Now less than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room 
 Throng numberless, like that pygmean race 7 8° 
 
PARADISE LOST 107 
 
 Beyond the Indian mount ; or faery elves, 
 Whose midnight revels, by a forest-side 
 Or fountain, some belated peasant sees, 
 Or dreams he sees, while overhead the Moon 
 
 785 Sits arbitress, and near to the Earth 
 
 Wheels her pale course ; they, on their mirth and 
 
 dance 
 Intent, with jocund music charm his ear ; 
 At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds. 
 Thus incorporeal Spirits to smallest forms 
 
 790 Reduced their shapes immense, and were at large, 
 Though without number still, amidst the hall 
 Of that infernal court. But far within, 
 And in their own dimensions like themselves, 
 The great Seraphic Lords and Cherubim 
 
 Tor. In close recess and secret conclave sat, 
 A thousand demi-gods on golden seats, 
 Frequent and full. After short silence then, 
 And summons read, the great consult began. 
 
PAKADISE LOST 
 BOOK II 
 
THE ARGUMENT 
 
 The consultation begun, Satan debates whether an 
 other battle be to be hazarded for the recovery of 
 Heaven : some advise it, others dissuade. A third pro- 
 posal is preferred, mentioned before by Satan, to search 
 the truth of that prophecy or tradition in Heaven con- 
 cerning another world, and another kind of creature, 
 equal, or not much inferior, to themselves, about this 
 time to be created. Their doubt who shall be sent on 
 this difficult search : Satan, their chief, undertakes alone 
 the voyage ; is honored and applauded. The council thus 
 ended, the rest betake them several ways and to several 
 employments, as their inclinations lead them, to enter- 
 tain the time till Satan return. He passes on his 
 journey to Hell-gates, finds them shut, and who sat 
 there to guard them; by whom at length they are 
 opened, and discover to him the great gulf between 
 Hell and Heaven; with what difficulty he passes 
 through, directed by Chaos, the Power of that place, 
 to the sight of this new World which he sought. 
 
 no 
 
BOOK II 
 
 High on a throne of royal state, which far 
 Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind, 
 Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand 
 Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold, 
 
 5 Satan exalted sat, by merit raised 
 To that bad eminence; and, from despair 
 Thus high uplifted beyond hope, aspires 
 Beyond thus high, insatiate to pursue 
 Vain war with Heaven; and, by success untaught, 
 
 10 His proud imaginations thus displayed : — 
 * Powers and Dominions, Deities of Heaven! 
 For since no deep within her gulf can hold 
 Immortal vigor, though oppressed and fallen, 
 I give not Heaven for lost : from this descent 
 
 15 Celestial Virtues rising will appear 
 
 More glorious and more dread than from no fall, 
 And trust themselves to fear no second fate. 
 Me though just right, and the fixed laws of Heaven, 
 Did first create your leader, next, free choice, a 
 
 20 With what besides, in counsel or in fight, 
 Hath been achieved of merit, yet this loss, 
 Thus far at least recovered, hath much more 
 Established in a safe unenvied throne, 
 Yielded with full consent. The happier state 
 
 25 In Heaven, which follows dignity, might draw 
 
 14. — Give not . . . for=do not regard as. 
 
 in 
 
112 PARADISE LOST 
 
 Envy from each inferior ; but who here 
 
 Will envy whom the highest place exposes 
 
 Foremost to stand against the Thunderer's aim 
 
 Your bulwark, and condemns to greatest share 
 
 Of endless pain? Where there is then no good 30 
 
 For which to strive, no strife can grow up there 
 
 From faction ; for none sure will claim in Hell 
 
 Precedence, none whose portion is so small 
 
 Of present pain that with ambitious mind 
 
 Will covet more. With this advantage then 35 
 
 To union, and firm faith, and firm accord, 
 
 More than can be in Heaven, we now return 
 
 To claim our just inheritance of old, 
 
 Surer to prosper than prosperity 
 
 Could have assured us ; and by what best way, 40 
 
 Whether of open war or covert guile, 
 
 We now debate; who can advise may speak.' 
 
 He ceased; and next him Moloch, sceptred king, 
 Stood up, the strongest and the fiercest Spirit 
 That fought in Heaven, now fiercer by despair. 45 
 His trust was with the Eternal to be deemed 
 Equal in strength, and rather than be less 
 Oared not to be at all ; with that care lost 
 Went all his fear : of God, or Hell, or worse, 
 He recked not, and these words thereafter spake : — 50 
 
 'My sentence is for open war. Of wiles, 
 More unexpert, I boast not: them let those 
 
 47-9. — "Rather than be less, he ceased to care to 
 exist. That care for existence once lost, he ceased to 
 fear annihilation." 
 
PARADISE LOST 113 
 
 Contrive who need, or when they need ; not now. 
 For while they sit contriving, shall the rest — 
 
 55 Millions that stand in arms, and longing wait 
 The signal to ascend — sit lingering here, 
 Heaven's fugitives, and for their dwelling-place 
 Accept this dark opprobrious den of shame, 
 The prison of his tyranny who reigns 
 
 go By our delay? No ! let us rather choose, 
 Armed with Hell-flames and fury, all at once 
 O'er Heaven's high towers to force resistless way, 
 Turning our tortures into horrid arms 
 Against the Torturer ; when to meet the noise 
 
 65 Of his almighty engine he shall hear 
 Infernal thunder, and for lightning see 
 Bl&ck fire and horror shot with equal rage 
 Among his Angels, and his throne itself 
 Mixed with Tartarean sulphur and strange fire, 
 
 to His own invented torments. But perhaps 
 The way seems difficult and steep to scale 
 With upright wing against a higher foe. 
 Let such bethink them, if the sleepy drench 
 Of that forgetful lake benumb not still, 
 
 75 That in our proper motion we ascend 
 Up to our native seat ; descent and fall 
 To us is adverse. Who but felt of late, 
 When the fierce foe hung on our broken rear 
 Insulting, and pursued us through the deep, 
 
 80 With what compulsion and laborious flight 
 We sunk thus low? The ascent is easy then ; 
 The event is feared: should we again provoke 
 
114 PARADISE LOST 
 
 Our stronger, some worse way his wrath, may find 
 To our destruction — if there be in Hell 
 Fear to be worse destroyed ! What can be worse 85 
 Than to dwell here, driven out from bliss, con- 
 demned 
 In this abhorred deep to utter woe ; 
 Where pain of unextinguishable fire 
 Must exercise us, without hope of end, 
 The vassals of his anger, when the scourge 90 
 
 Inexorably, and the torturing hour, 
 Calls us to penance? More destroyed than thus, 
 We should be quite abolished, and expire. 
 What fear we then? what doubt we to incense 
 His utmost ire? which, to the highth enraged, 95 
 Will either quite consume us, and reduce 
 To nothing this essential — happier far 
 Than miserable to have eternal being ! — 
 Or if our substance be indeed divine, 
 And cannot cease to be, we are at worst ioo 
 
 On this side nothing ; and by proof we feel 
 Our power sufficient to disturb his Heaven, 
 And with perpetual inroads to alarm, 
 Though inaccessible, his fatal throne : 
 Which, if not victory, is yet revenge.' ios 
 
 He ended frowning, and his look denounced 
 
 100-1.— At worst On this side nothing; "as badly off as 
 we can be without suffering annihilation." Some 
 editors set off "at worst" between commas, and inter- 
 pret: "To whatever extremities we may be reduced, we 
 are bound, at any rate, to escape annihilation." 
 
PARADISE LOST 115 
 
 Desperate revenge, and battle dangerous 
 
 To less than gods. On the other side up rose 
 
 Belial, in act more graceful and humane ; 
 
 no A fairer person lost not Heaven ; he seemed 
 For dignity composed, and high exploit. 
 But all was false and hollow ; though his tongue 
 Dropt manna, and could make the worse appear 
 The better reason, to perplex and dash 
 
 115 Maturest counsels : for his thoughts were low ; 
 To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds 
 Timorous and slothful ; yet he pleased the ear : 
 And with persuasive accent thus began : — 
 'I should be much for open war, Peers, 
 
 120 As*not behind in hate, if what was urged 
 Main reason to persuade immediate war 
 Did not dissuade me most, and seem to cast 
 Ominous conjecture on the whole success ; 
 When he who most excels in fact of arms, 
 
 125 In what he counsels and in what excels 
 Mistrustful, grounds his courage on despair 
 And utter dissolution, as the scope 
 Of all his aim, after some dire revenge. 
 First, what revenge? The towers of Heaven are 
 filled 
 
 130 With armed watch, that render all access 
 Impregnable : oft on the bordering deep 
 Encamp their legions, or with obscure wing 
 Scout far and wide into the realm of Night, 
 Scorning surprise. Or could we break our way 
 
 135 By force, and at our heels all Hell should rise 
 
116 PARADISE LOST 
 
 With blackest insurrection, to confound 
 
 Heaven's purest light, yet our great Enemy, 
 
 All incorruptible, would on his throne 
 
 Sit unpolluted, and the ethereal mould, 
 
 Incapable of stain, would soon expel 140 
 
 Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire, 
 
 Victorious. Thus repulsed, our final hope 
 
 Is flat despair : we must exasperate 
 
 The Almighty Victor to spend all his rage; 
 
 And that must end us, that must be our cure — 145 
 
 To be no more. Sad cure ! for who would lose, 
 
 Though full of pain, this intellectual being, 
 
 Those thoughts that wander through eternity, 
 
 To perish rather, swallowed up and lost 
 
 In the wide womb of uncreated Night, 150 
 
 Devoid of sense and motion? And who knows, 
 
 Let this be good, whether our angry foe 
 
 Can give it, or will ever? How he can 
 
 Is doubtful ; that he never will is sure. 
 
 Will he, so wise, let loose at once his ire, 155 
 
 Belike through impotence, or unaware, 
 
 To give his enemies their wish, and end 
 
 Them in his anger, whom his anger saves 
 
 To punish endless? " Wherefore cease we then?" 
 
 Say they who counsel war; "we are decreed, ieo 
 
 Beserved, and destined to eternal woe ; 
 
 Whatever doing, what can we suffer more, 
 
 What can we suffer worse?' ' Is this then worst, 
 
 Thus sitting, thus consulting, thus in arms? 
 
 152. —Let this be good; granting this to be a good thing. 
 
PARADISE LOST 117 
 
 166 What when we fled amain, pursued and struck 
 With Heaven's afflicting thunder, and besought 
 The Deep to shelter us? this Hell then seemed 
 A refuge from those wounds. Or when we lay 
 Chained on the burning lake? that sure was worse. 
 
 ito What if the breath that kindled those grim fires, 
 Awaked, should blow them into sevenfold rage, 
 And plunge us in the flames? or from above 
 Should intermitted vengeance arm again 
 His red right hand to plague us? What if all 
 
 175 Her stores were opened, and this firmament 
 Of Hell should spout her cataracts of fire, 
 Impendent horrors, threatening hideous fall 
 One day upon our heads ; while we perhaps 
 Designing or exhorting glorious war, 
 
 180 Caught in a fiery tempest, shall be hurled, 
 Each on his rock transfixed, the sport and prey 
 Of racking whirlwinds, or forever sunk 
 Under yon boiling ocean, wrapt in chains; 
 There to converse with everlasting groans, 
 
 185 Unrespited, unpitied, unreprieved, 
 
 Ages of hopeless end ! This would be worse. 
 War therefore, open or concealed, alike 
 My voice dissuades : for what can force or guile 
 With him, or who deceive his mind, whose eye 
 
 190 Views all things at one view? He from Heaven's 
 highth 
 All these our motions vain sees and derides ; 
 Not more almighty to resist our might 
 188. — Supply "avail" after guile. 
 
118 PARADISE LOST 
 
 Than wise to frustrate all our plots and wiles. 
 Shall we then live thus vile, the race of Heaven 
 Thus trampled, thus expelled to suffer here 195 
 
 Chains and these torments? Better these than 
 
 worse, 
 By my advice ; since fate inevitable 
 Subdues us, and omnipotent decree, 
 The Victor's will. To suffer, as to do, 
 Our strength is equal, nor the law unjust 200 
 
 That so ordains : this was at first resolved, 
 If we were wise, against so great a foe 
 Contending, and so doubtful what might fall. 
 I laugh, when those who at the spear are bold 
 And venturous, if that fail them, shrink, and fear 205 
 What yet they know must follow — to endure 
 Exile, or ignominy, or bonds, or pain, 
 The sentence of their conqueror. This is now 
 Our doom ; which if we can sustain and bear, 
 Our Supreme Foe in time may much remit 210 
 
 His anger, and perhaps, thus far removed, 
 Not mind us not offending, satisfied 
 With what is punished; whence these raging 
 
 fires 
 Will slacken, if his breath stir not their flames. 
 Our purer essence then will overcome 215 
 
 Their noxious vapor, or, inured, not feel; 
 Or, changed at length, and to the place conformed 
 In temper and in nature, will receive 
 
 201-2. — "All of us who were wise made up our minds 
 to this in the first place." 
 
PARADISE LOST 110 
 
 Familiar the fierce heat; and, void of pain, 
 
 220 This horror will grow mild, this darkness light ; 
 Besides what hope the never-ending flight 
 Of future days may "bring, what chance, what 
 
 change 
 "Worth waiting, — since our present lot appears 
 For happy though but ill, for ill not worst, 
 
 225 If we procure not to ourselves more woe. ' 
 
 Thus Belial, with words clothed in reason's garb, 
 Counselled ignoble ease, and peaceful sloth, 
 Not peace ; and after him thus Mammon spake : — 
 * Either to disenthrone the King of Heaven 
 
 230 We war, if war be best, or to regain 
 
 Our own right lost. Him to unthrone we then 
 May hope, when everlasting Fate shall yield 
 To fickle Chance, and Chaos judge the strife. 
 The former, vain to hope, argues as vain 
 
 235 The latter ; for what place can be for us 
 
 Within Heaven's bound, unless Heaven's Lord 
 
 Supreme 
 We overpower? Suppose he should relent, 
 And publish grace to all, on promise made 
 Of new subjection ; with what eyes could we 
 
 240 Stand in his presence, humble, and receive 
 Strict laws imposed, to celebrate his throne 
 
 220. — Light; probably a noun, rather than an adjec- 
 tive. 
 
 224. — "From the point of view of happiness, but 
 wretched ; yet from the point of view of wretchedness, 
 not the worst possible." 
 
120 PARADISE LOST 
 
 With warbled hymns, and to his Godhead sing 
 
 Forced Halleluiahs ; while he lordly sits 
 
 Our envied sovran, and his altar breathes 
 
 Ambrosial odors and ambrosial flowers, 245 
 
 Our servile offerings? This must be our task 
 
 In Heaven, this our delight. How wearisome 
 
 Eternity so spent in worship paid 
 
 To whom we hate ! Let us not then pursue — 
 
 By force impossible, by leave obtained 250 
 
 Unacceptable — though in Heaven, our state 
 
 Of splendid vassalage ; but rather seek 
 
 Our own good from ourselves, and from our own 
 
 Live to ourselves, though in this vast recess, 
 
 Free, and to none accountable, preferring 255 
 
 Hard liberty before the easy yoke 
 
 Of servile pomp. Our greatness will appear 
 
 Then most conspicuous, when great things of small, 
 
 Useful of hurtful, prosperous of adverse, 
 
 We can create, and in what place soe'er 260 
 
 Thrive under evil, and work ease out of pain 
 
 Through labor and endurance. This deep world 
 
 Of darkness do we dread? How oft amidst 
 
 Thick clouds and dark doth Heaven's all -ruling 
 
 Sire 
 Choose to reside, his glory unobscured, 265 
 
 And with the majesty of darkness round 
 Covers his throne, from whence deep thunders roar, 
 Mustering their rage, and Heaven resembles Hell ! 
 As he our darkness, cannot we his light 
 Imitate when we please? This desert soil 270 
 
PARADISE LOST 121 
 
 Wants not her hidden lustre, gems and gold; 
 Nor want we skill or art, from whence to raise 
 Magnificence ; and what can Heaven show more? 
 Our torments also may in length of time 
 
 275 Become our elements, these piercing fires 
 As soft as now severe, our temper changed 
 Into their temper ; which must needs remove 
 The sensible of pain. All things invite 
 To peaceful counsels, and the settled state 
 
 280 Of order, how in safety best we may 
 Compose our present evils, with regard 
 Of what we are and where, dismissing quite 
 All thoughts of war. Ye have what I advise.' 
 He scarce had finished, when such murmur filled 
 
 285 The assembly, as when hollow rocks retain <r 
 
 The sound of blustering winds, which all night 
 
 long 
 Had roused the sea, now with hoarse cadence lull 
 Seafaring men o'erwatched, whose bark by chance, 
 Or pinnace, anchors in a craggy bay 
 
 290 After the tempest : such applause was heard 
 As Mammon ended, and his sentence pleased, 
 Advising peace ; for such another field 
 They dreaded worse than Hell ; so much the fear 
 Of thunder and the sword of Michael 
 
 295 Wrought still within them ; and no less desire 
 To found this nether empire, which might rise, 
 By policy, and long process of time, 
 In emulation opposite to Heaven. 
 282. — The second edition reads were for where. 
 
122 PARADISE LOST 
 
 Which when Beelzebub perceived, than whom, 
 Satan except, none higher sat, with grave 300 
 
 Aspect he rose, and in his rising seemed 
 A pillar of state ; deep on his front engraven 
 Deliberation sat and public care ; 
 And princely counsel in his face yet shone, 
 Majestic, though in ruin. Sage he stood, 305 
 
 With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear 
 The weight of mightiest monarchies ; his look 
 Drew audience and attention still as night 
 Or summer's noontide air, while thus he spake: — 
 'Thrones and Imperial Powers, Offspring of 3io 
 
 Heaven, 
 Ethereal Virtues ! or these titles now 
 Must we renounce, and, changing style, be called 
 Princes of Hell? for so the popular vote 
 Inclines — here to continue, and build up here 
 A growing empire ; doubtless ! while we dream, 815 
 And know not that the King of Heaven hath 
 
 doomed 
 This place our dungeon — not our safe retreat 
 Beyond his potent arm, to live exempt 
 From Heaven's high jurisdiction, in new league 
 Banded against his throne, but to remain 320 
 
 In strictest bondage, though thus far removed, 
 Under the inevitable curb, reserved 
 
 302. — A pillar of state; probably in the sense of the 
 Ciceronian columen reipublicce. (Sest. 8, 19), and of the 
 Shaksperean "pillars of the state" (II Hen. VI, I, i, 75), 
 rather than of "stately pillar." 
 
PARADISE LOST 123 
 
 His captive multitude. For he, be sure, 
 
 In higlith or depth, still first and last will reign 
 
 885 Sole king, and of his kingdom lose no part 
 By our revolt, but over Hell extend 
 His empire, and with iron sceptre rule 
 Us here, as with his golden those in Heaven. 
 What sit we then projecting peace and war? 
 
 330 War hath determined us, and foiled with loss 
 Irreparable ; terms of peace yet none 
 Vouchsafed or sought ; for what peace will be given 
 To us enslaved, but custody severe, 
 And stripes, and arbitrary punishment 
 
 335 Inflicted? and what peace can we return, 
 But, to our power, hostility and hate, 
 Untamed reluctance, and revenge, though slow, 
 Yet ever plotting how the Conqueror least 
 May reap his conquest, and may least rejoice 
 
 340 In doing what we most in suffering feel? 
 Nor will occasion want, nor shall we need 
 With dangerous expedition to invade 
 Heaven, whose high walls fear no assault or siege, 
 Or ambush from the Deep. What if we find 
 
 345 Some easier enterprise? There is a place 
 (If ancient and prophetic fame in Heaven 
 Err not), another World, the happy seat 
 Of some new race called Man, about this time 
 To be created like to us, though less 
 
 336. — To our power; to the best of our ability. Note 
 the striking phraseology (What peace . . . But . . . 
 hostility and hate), and compare 11. 678-9. 
 
124 PARADISE LOST 
 
 In power and excellence, but favored more sso 
 
 Of him who rules above ; so was his will 
 Pronounced among the gods, and by an oath 
 That shook Heaven's whole circumference, con 
 
 firmed. 
 Thither let us bend all our thoughts, to learn 
 What creatures there inhabit, of what mould 355 
 
 Or substance, how endued, and what their power, 
 And where their weakness : how attempted best, 
 By force or subtlety. Though Heaven be shut, 
 And Heaven's high Arbitrator sit secure 
 In his own strength, this place may lie exposed, 360 
 The utmost border of his kingdom, left 
 To their defence who hold it ; here, perhaps, 
 Some advantageous act may be achieved 
 By sudden onset : either with Hell-fire 
 To waste his whole creation, or possess 365 
 
 All as our own, and drive, as we are driven, 
 The puny habitants ; or if not drive, 
 Seduce them to our party, that their God 
 May prove their foe, and with repenting hand 
 Abolish his own works. This would surpass 370 
 
 Common revenge, and interrupt his joy 
 In our confusion, and our joy upraise 
 In his disturbance ; when his darling Sons, 
 Hurled headlong to partake with us, shall curse 
 Their frail original, and faded bliss — 375 
 
 351-3. — Here as often, Milton applies to Scriptural 
 matters the terminology of classical mythology. Gods 
 must mean "angels." Cf i, 116; i, 148; ii, 391. The 
 allusion to the nod of Jove that shakes Olympus, is 
 obvious. See Iliad, i, 528 ff. 
 
PARADISE LOST 125 
 
 Faded so soon ! Advise if this be worth 
 Attempting, or to sit in darkness here 
 Hatching vain empires.' Thus Beelzebub 
 Pleaded his devilish counsel, first devised 
 
 380 By Satan, and in part proposed ; for whence, 
 But from the author of all ill, could spring 
 So deep a malice, to confound the race 
 Of Mankind in one root, and Earth with Hell 
 To mingle and involve, done all to spite 
 
 385 The great Creator? But their spite still serves 
 His glory to augment. The bold design 
 Pleased highly those infernal States, and joy 
 Sparkled in all their eyes ; with full assent 
 They vote : whereat his speech he thus renews : — 
 
 390 'Well have ye judged, well ended long debate, 
 Synod of gods ! and, like to what ye are, 
 Great things resolved ; which from the lowest deep 
 AVill once more lift us up, in spite of fate, 
 Nearer our ancient seat — perhaps in view 
 
 395 Of those bright confines, whence, with neighboring 
 arms 
 And opportune excursion, we may chance 
 Re-enter Heaven ; or else in some mild zone 
 Dwell not unvisited of Heaven's fair light, 
 Secure, and at the brightening orient beam 
 
 400 Purge off this gloom ; the soft delicious air, 
 To heal the scar of these corrosive fires, 
 Shall breathe her balm. But first, whom shall we 
 
 send 
 In search of this new world? whom shall we find 
 
126 PARADISE LOST 
 
 Sufficient? who shall tempt with wandering feet 
 
 The dark, unbottomed, infinite Abyss, 405 
 
 And through the palpable obscure find out 
 
 His uncouth way, or spread his aery flight, 
 
 Upborne, with indefatigable wings 
 
 Over the vast abrupt, ere he arrive 
 
 The happy isle? What strength, what art, can then 410 
 
 Suffice, or what evasion bear him safe 
 
 Through the strict senteries and stations thick 
 
 Of Angels watching round? Here he had need 
 
 All circumspection, and we now no less 
 
 Choice in our suffrage ; for on whom we send, 415 
 
 The weight of all, and our last hope, relies. ' 
 
 This said, he sat ; and expectation held 
 His look suspense, awaiting who appeared 
 To second, or oppose, or undertake 
 The perilous attempt ; but all sat mute, 420 
 
 Pondering the danger with deep thoughts ; and each 
 In other's countenance read his own dismay, 
 Astonished. None among the choice and prime 
 Of those Heaven -warring champions could be found 
 So hardy as to proffer or accept, 425 
 
 Alone, the dreadful voyage ; till at last 
 Satan, whom now transcendent glory raised 
 Above his fellows, with monarchal pride 
 Conscious of highest worth, unmoved thus spake : — 
 1 Progeny of Heaven ! Empyreal Thrones ! 430 
 
 "With reason hath deep silence and demur 
 Seized us, though undismayed. Long is the way 
 And hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light ; 
 
PARADISE LOST 127 
 
 Our prison strong, this huge convex of fire, 
 435 Outrageous to devour, immures us round 
 
 Ninefold ; and gates of burning adamant, 
 
 Barred over us, prohibit all egress. 
 
 These passed, if any pass, the void profound 
 
 Of unessential Night receives him next, 
 440 Wide-gaping, and with utter loss of being 
 
 Threatens him, plunged in that abortive gulf. 
 
 If thence he scape into whatever world, 
 
 Or unknown region, what remains him less 
 
 Than unknown dangers and as hard escape? 
 445 But I should ill become this throne, Peers, 
 
 And this imperial sovranty, adorned 
 
 With splendor, armed with power, if aught pro- 
 posed 
 
 And judged of public moment, in the shape 
 
 Of difficulty or danger, could deter 
 450 Me from attempting. Wherefore do I assume 
 
 These royalties, and not refuse to reign, 
 
 Kefusing to accept as great a share 
 
 Of hazard as of honor, due alike 
 
 To him who reigns, and so much to him due 
 '*"> 5 Of hazard more, as he above the rest 
 
 High honored sits? Go therefore, mighty Powers, 
 
 Terror of Heaven, though fallen ; intend at home, 
 
 438. — Profound is the noun, Cf. Lucretius, i, 1101, 
 inane profundum. Cf. also 1. 980; and 1. 829, where 
 void may be the adjective, and immense (Lat. 
 immensum) the noun. 
 
 452. — Refusing; if I refuse. 
 
128 PARADISE LOST 
 
 While here shall be our home, what best may ease 
 
 The present misery, and render Hell 
 
 More tolerable ; if there be cure or charm 460 
 
 To respite, or deceive, or slack the pain 
 
 Of this ill mansion ; intermit no watch 
 
 Against a wakeful foe, while I abroad 
 
 Through all the coasts of dark destruction seek 
 
 Deliverance for us all: this enterprise 465 
 
 None shall partake with me.' Thus saying, rose 
 
 The Monarch, and prevented all reply; 
 
 Prudent, lest, from his resolution raised, 
 
 Others among the chief might offer now 
 
 (Certain to be refused) what erst they feared, 470 
 
 And, so refused, might in opinion stand 
 
 His rivals, winning cheap the high repute 
 
 Which he through hazard huge must earn. But they 
 
 Dreaded not more the adventure than his voice 
 
 Forbidding ; and at once with him they rose ; 475 
 
 The rising all at once was as the sound 
 
 Of thunder heard remote. Towards him they bend 
 
 With awful reverence prone ; and as a god 
 
 Extol him equal to the Highest in Heaven. 
 
 Nor failed they to express how much they praised 480 
 
 That for the general safety he despised 
 
 His own ; for neither do the Spirits damned 
 
 468-9. — "Lest others high in authority, encouraged by 
 his resolution, might offer. " 
 
 482-5. — "Not even devils are void of all good qualities, 
 so no bad man need pride himself on any virtuous deed 
 he may have performed from selfish motives." 
 
PARADISE LOST 129 
 
 Lose all their virtue, — lest bad men should boast 
 Their specious deeds on Earth, which glory excites, 
 
 485 Or close ambition varnished o'er with zeal. 
 
 Thus they their doubtful consultations dark 
 Ended, rejoicing in their matchless Chief; 
 As when from the mountain-tops the dusky clouds 
 Ascending, while the North-wind sleeps, o'erspread 
 
 490 Heaven's cheerful face, the louring element 
 
 Scowls o'er the darkened landskip snow or shower; 
 If chance the radiant sun with farewell sweet 
 Extend his evening beam, the fields revive, 
 The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds 
 
 495 Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings. 
 shame to men ! Devil with devil damned 
 Firm concord holds ; men only disagree 
 Of creatures rational, though under hope 
 Of heavenly grace ; and, God proclaiming peace, 
 
 500 Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife 
 Among themselves, and levy cruel wars, 
 Wasting the Earth, each other to destroy : 
 As if (which might induce us to accord) 
 Man had not hellish foes enow besides, 
 
 505 That day and night for his destruction wait ! 
 
 The Stygian council thus dissolved ; and forth 
 In order came the grand Infernal Peers ; 
 Midst came their mighty Paramount, and seemed 
 Alone the antagonist of Heaven, nor less 
 
 510 Than Hell's dread Emperor, with pomp supreme, 
 And god-like imitated state ; him round 
 A globe of fiery Seraphim enclosed 
 
130 PARADISE LOST 
 
 With bright emblazonry, and horrent arms, 
 
 Then of their session ended they bid cry 
 
 With trumpet's regal sound the great result: 515 
 
 Toward the four winds four speedy Cherubim 
 
 Put to their mouths the sounding alchymy, 
 
 By har aid's voice exjolained; the hollow Abyss 
 
 Heard far and wide, and all the host of Hell 
 
 With deafening shout returned them loud acclaim. 520 
 
 Thence more at ease their minds, and somewhat 
 
 raised 
 By false presumptuous hope, the ranged powers 
 Disband; and, wandering, each his several way 
 Pursues, as inclination or sad choice 
 Leads him perplexed, where he may likeliest find 585 
 Truce to his restless thoughts, and entertain 
 The irksome hours, till his great Chief return. 
 Part on the plain, or in the air sublime, 
 Upon the wing or in swift race contend, 
 As at the Olympian games or Pythian fields ; 530 
 
 Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal 
 With rapid wheels, or fronted brigads form: 
 As when, to warn proud cities, war appears 
 
 533. — Macmillan quotes Josephus, who says that when 
 Jerusalem was about to be taken by Titus, "before 
 sunset chariots were seen in the air, and troops of sol- 
 diers in their armour running about among the clouds 
 and besieging cities." (Jewish War, Bk. VI, ch. V, 
 Bohn ed., v, 106.) See also Shakspere's Julius Caesar, 
 II, ii 19-23. In 11. 708-11, Milton alludes to the 
 common belief in the portentous significance of 
 comets. 
 
PARADISE LOST 131 
 
 Waged in the troubled sky, and armies rush 
 
 535 To battle in the clouds ; before each van 
 
 Prick forth the aery knights, and couch their 
 
 spears, 
 Till thickest legions close ; with feats of arms 
 From either end of Heaven the welkin burns. 
 Others, with vast Typhoean rage more fell, 
 
 540 Kend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air 
 In whirlwind ; Hell scarce holds the wild uproar : 
 As when Alcides, from (Echalia crowned 
 With conquest, felt the envenomed robe, and tore 
 Through pain up by the roots Thessalian pines, 
 
 545 And Lichas from the top of (Eta threw 
 Into the Euboic sea. Others, more mild, 
 Eetreated in a silent valley ,*sing 
 With notes angelical to many a harp 
 Their own heroic deeds and hapless fall 
 
 550 By doom of battle ; and complain that Fate 
 Free Virtue should enthrall to Force or Chance. 
 Their song was partial, but the harmony 
 (What could it less when Spirits immortal sing?) 
 Suspended Hell, and took with ravishment 
 
 555 The thronging audience. In discourse more sweet 
 (For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense) 
 Others apart sat on a hill retired, 
 In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high 
 
 557.— Milton here appears to ridicule the Schoolmen's 
 endless discussions of the freedom of the human will, 
 though elsewhere he treats the matter seriously. See, 
 for example, Bk. iii, 96-128. 
 
132 PARADISE LOST 
 
 Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate, 
 
 Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute; 560 
 
 And found no end, in wandering mazes lost. 
 
 Of good and evil much they argued then, 
 
 Of happiness and final misery, 
 
 Passion and apathy, and glory and shame, 
 
 Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy! — 565 
 
 Yet with a pleasing sorcery could charm 
 
 Pain for a while or anguish, and excite 
 
 Fallacious hope, or arm the obdured breast 
 
 With stubborn patience as with triple steel. 
 
 Another part, in squadrons and gross bands, 5?o 
 
 On bold adventure to discover wide 
 
 That dismal world, if any clime perhaps 
 
 Might yield them easier habitation, bend 
 
 Four ways their flying march, along the banks 
 
 Of four infernal rivers that disgorge 575 
 
 Into the burning lake their baleful streams : 
 
 Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate ; 
 
 Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep ; 
 
 Cocytus, named of lamentation loud 
 
 Heard on the rueful stream ; fierce Phlegethon, 580 
 
 Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage. 
 
 Far off from these a slow and silent stream, 
 
 Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls 
 
 Her watery labyrinth, whereof who drinks 
 
 Forthwith his former state and being forgets, 585 
 
 Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain. 
 
 559-60. — Milton often heightens his effects by skillful 
 repetition. Cf. 11. 599, 1021-2. 
 
PARADISE LOST 133 
 
 Beyond this flood a frozen continent 
 
 Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms 
 
 Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land 
 
 590 Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems 
 Of ancient pile ; all else deep snow and ice, 
 A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog 
 Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old, 
 Where armies whole have sunk : the parching air 
 
 595 Burns frore, and cold performs the effect of fire. 
 Thither, by harpy-footed Furies haled, 
 At certain revolutions all the damned 
 Are brought ; and feel by turns the bitter change 
 Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce, 
 
 coo From beds of raging fire to starve in ice 
 
 Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine 
 Immovable, infixed, and frozen round 
 Periods of time ; thence hurried back to fire. 
 They ferry over this Lethean sound 
 
 cos Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment, 
 And wish and struggle, as they pass to reach 
 The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose 
 In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe, 
 All in one moment, and so near the brink ; 
 
 6io But Fate withstands, and, to oppose the attempt 
 Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards 
 The ford, and of itself the water flies 
 All taste of living wight, as once it fled 
 The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on 
 
 615 In confused march forlorn, the adventurous bands, 
 With shuddering horror pale, and eyes aghast, 
 
134 PARADISE LOST 
 
 Viewed first their lamentable lot, and found 
 
 No rest. Through many a dark and dreary vale 
 
 They passed, and many a region dolorous, 
 
 'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp, 620 
 
 Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of 
 
 death — 
 A universe of death, which God by curse 
 Created evil, for evil only good ; 
 Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds, 
 Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, 025 
 
 Abominable, inutterable, and worse 
 Than fables yet have feigned, or fear conceived, 
 Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire. 
 
 Meanwhile the Adversary of God and Man, 
 Satan, with thoughts inflamed of highest design, 630 
 Puts on swift wings, and toward the gates of Hell 
 Explores his solitary flight ; sometimes 
 He scours the right hand coast, sometimes the left ; 
 Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars 
 Up to the fiery concave towering high. 635 
 
 As when far off at sea a fleet descried 
 Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds 
 Close sailing from Bengala, or the isles 
 Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring 
 Their spicy drugs ; they on the trading flood, < 1 • 
 
 Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape, 
 
 623. — Good; serviceable. 
 
 636-43. — Satan is compared to a compact ("close sail- 
 ing") fleet driven by the trade- winds ("equinoctial 
 winds," "trading flood") through the Indian Ocean 
 ("wide Ethiopian") — a fleet so far away that it appears 
 to hang in the clouds. 
 
PARADISE LOST 135 
 
 Ply stemming nightly toward the pole : so seemed 
 Far off the flying Fiend. At last appear 
 Hell -bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof, 
 
 645 And thrice threefold the gates ;three folds were brass, 
 Three iron, three of adamantine rock 
 Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire, 
 Yet unconsumed. Before the gates there sat 
 On either side a formidable Shape. 
 
 650 The one seemed woman to the waist, and fair, 
 But ended foul in many a scaly fold 
 Voluminous and vast, a serpent armed 
 With mortal sting. About her middle round 
 A cry of Hell-hounds never-ceasing barked 
 
 655 With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung 
 A hideous peal; yet, when they list, would creep 
 If aught disturbed their noise, into her womb, 
 And kennel there, yet there still barked and howled 
 Within unseen. Far less abhorred than these 
 
 660 Vexed Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts 
 Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore ; 
 Nor uglier follow the night hag, when, called 
 In secret, riding through the air she comes, 
 Lured with the smell of infant blood, to dance 
 
 662-6. — It is not necessary to suppose that Milton had 
 in mind any individual "night-hag," though it is pos- 
 sible that Hecate is meant. The partiality of witches 
 for "infant blood" is well known. Lapland sorcerers 
 were famous all over Europe. It was believed that 
 eclipses could be caused by magic (cf. i, 785-6). Con- 
 versely, a time of eclipse was particularly favorable to 
 sorcery. 
 
136 PARADISE LOST 
 
 With Lapland witches, while the laboring moon 665 
 
 Eclipses at their charms. The other Shape — 
 
 If shape it might be called that shape had none 
 
 Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb; 
 
 Or substance might be called that shadow seemed, 
 
 For each seemed either — black it stood as Night, gto 
 
 Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell, 
 
 And shook a dreadful dart ; what seemed his head 
 
 The likeness of a kingly crown had on. 
 
 Satan was now at hand, and from his seat 
 
 The monster moving onward came as fast, 675 
 
 With horrid strides ; Hell trembled as he strode. 
 
 The undaunted Fiend what this might be 
 
 admired — 
 Admired, not feared ; God and his Son except, 
 Created thing naught valued he nor shunned — 
 And with disdainful look thus first began : — 680 
 
 * Whence and what art thou, execrable Shape, 
 That darest, though grim and terrible, advance 
 Thy miscreated front athwart my way 
 To yonder gates? Through them I mean to pass, 
 That be assured, without leave asked of thee. G85 
 
 Retire ; or taste thy folly, and learn by proof, 
 Hell-born, not to contend with Spirits of Heaven. ' 
 To whom the Goblin, full of wrath, replied : — 
 
 678-9. — God and his son except, is an imitation of the 
 Latin ablative absolute. It will be noted that if Milton's 
 language were taken literally, he would appear to 
 include God and His Son among created things. 
 
 686.— Thy folly; the result of thy folly. 
 
PARADISE LOST 137 
 
 'Art thou that Traitor- Angel, art thou he 
 
 690 Who first broke peace in Heaven and faith, till 
 then 
 Unbroken, and in proud rebellious arms 
 Drew after him the third part of Heaven's sons, 
 Conjured against the Highest, for which both thou 
 And they, outcast from God, are here condemned 
 
 695 To waste eternal days in woe and pain? 
 
 And reckon 'st thou thyself with Spirits of Heaven, 
 Hell-doomed, and breath 'st defiance here and scorn, 
 Where I reign king, and, to enrage thee more, 
 Thy king and lord? Back to thy punishment, 
 
 7oo False fugitive, and to thy speed add wings, 
 Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue 
 Thy lingering, or with one stroke of this dart 
 Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before/ 
 So spake the grisly Terror, and in shape, 
 
 705 So speaking and so threatening, grew tenfold 
 More dreadful and deform. On the other side, 
 Incensed with indignation, Satan stood 
 Unterrified, and like a comet burned, 
 That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge 
 
 7io In the arctic sky, and from his horrid hair 
 Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head 
 Levelled his deadly aim ; their fatal hands 
 ~No second stroke intend ; and such a frown 
 
 692.— See Rev. xii, 4. 
 
 697. — Hell-doomed, hence not to be reckoned among 
 the "spirits of heaven"; a retort to Satan's Hell-born, 
 1. 687. 
 
138 PARADISE LOST 
 
 Each cast at the other, as when two black clouds, 
 
 With Heaven's artillery fraught, come rattling on 715 
 
 Over the Caspian, then stand front to front 
 
 Hovering a space, till winds the signal blow 
 
 To join their dark encounter in mid-air : — 
 
 So frowned the mighty combatants, that Hell 
 
 Grew darker at their frown ; so matched they stood ; 720 
 
 For never but once more was either like 
 
 To meet so great a foe. And now great deeds 
 
 Had been achieved, whereof all Hell had rung, 
 
 Had not the snaky Sorceress that sat 
 
 Fast by Hell -gate and kept the fatal key, 725 
 
 Kisen, and with hideous outcry rushed between. 
 
 '0 father, what intends thy hand,' she cried, 
 'Against thy only son? What fury, son, 
 Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart 
 Against thy father's head? and know'st for whom? 730 
 For him who sits above, and laughs the while 
 At thee ordained his drudge, to execute 
 Whate'er his wrath, which he calls justice, bids— 
 His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both!' 
 
 She spake, and at her words the hellish Pest 735 
 Forbore : then these to her Satan returned : — 
 
 'So strange thy outcry, and thy words so strange 
 
 721-2.— Cf. I Cor. xv, 25-26. Perhaps Milton has in 
 mind the "harrowing of Hell," as described in the 
 apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus. 
 
 730. — And know'st for whom, is sometimes printed as 
 an exclamation. The sense is about the same either 
 way ; she simply wishes to remind Death that he serves 
 the Almighty. 
 
PARADISE LOST 139 
 
 Thou interposest, that my sudden hand, 
 Prevented, spares to tell thee yet by deeds 
 
 740 What it intends, till first I know of thee 
 
 What thing thou art, thus double -formed, and why, 
 In this infernal vale first met, thou call'st 
 Me father, and that phantasm call'st my son. 
 I know thee not, nor ever saw till now 
 
 "45 Sight more detestable than him and thee. ' 
 
 To whom thus the Portress of Hell-gate replied : — 
 'Hast thou forgot me then, and do I seem 
 Now in thine eye so foul? once deemed so fair 
 In Heaven, when at the assembly, and in sight 
 
 "50 Of all the Seraphim with thee combined 
 In bold conspiracy against Heaven's King, 
 All on a sudden miserable pain 
 Surprised thee ; dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum 
 In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast 
 
 T55 Threw forth, till on the left side opening wide, 
 Likest to thee in shape and countenance bright, 
 Then shining heavenly fair, a goddess armed, 
 Out of thy head I sprung. Amazement seized 
 All the host of Heaven : back they recoiled afraid 
 
 760 At first, and called me Sin, and for a sign 
 Portentous held me; but, familiar grown, 
 I pleased, and with attractive graces won 
 The most averse ; thee chiefly, who full oft 
 Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing 
 
 765 Becam'st enamoured; and such joy thou took'st 
 
 758. — An obvious reminiscence of the classical 
 account of the birth of Minerva. 
 
140 PARADISE LOST 
 
 With me in secret, that my womb conceived 
 
 A growing burden. Meanwhile war arose, 
 
 And fields were fought in Heaven; wherein 
 
 remained 
 (For what could else?) to our Almighty Foe 
 Clear victory, to our part loss and rout 770 
 
 Through all the Empyrean. Down they fell, 
 Driven headlong from the pitch of Heaven, down 
 Into this deep ; and in the general fall 
 I also : at which time this powerful key 
 Into my hands was given, with charge to keep 775 
 
 These gates forever shut, which none can pass 
 Without my opening. Pensive here I sat 
 Alone ; but long I sat not, till my womb, 
 Pregnant by thee, and now excessive grown, 
 Prodigious motion felt and rueful throes. 780 
 
 At last this odious offspring whom thou seest, 
 Thine own begotten, breaking violent way, 
 Tore through my entrails, that, with fear and pain 
 Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew 
 Transformed; but he, my inbred enemy, 785 
 
 Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart, 
 Made to destroy. I fled, and cried out Death! 
 Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sighed 
 From all her caves, and back resounded Death! 
 I fled; but he pursued (though more, it seems, 790 
 Inflamed with lust than rage) and, swifter far, 
 Me overtook, his mother, all dismayed, 
 And, in embraces forcible and foul 
 Engendering with me, of that rape begot 
 
PARADISE LOST 141 
 
 ?95 These yelling monsters, that with ceaseless cry 
 Surround me, as thou saw'st, hourly conceived 
 And hourly born, with sorrow infinite 
 To me; for, when they list, into the womb 
 That bred them they return, and howl, and gnaw 
 
 800 My bowels, their repast; then, bursting forth 
 Afresh, with conscious terrors vex me round, 
 That rest or intermission none I find. 
 Before mine eyes in opposition sits 
 Grim Death, my son and foe, who sets them on, 
 
 805 And me, his parent, would full soon devour 
 For want of other prey, but that he knows 
 His end with mine involved, and knows that I 
 Should prove a bitter morsel, and his bane, 
 Whenever that shall be : so Fate pronounced. 
 
 sio But thou, father, I forewarn thee, shun 
 His deadly arrow ; neither vainly hope 
 To be invulnerable in those bright arms, 
 Though tempered heavenly; for that mortal dint, 
 Save He who reigns above, none can resist.' 
 
 815 She finished ; and the subtle Fiend his lore 
 Soon learned, now milder, and thus answered 
 smooth : — 
 'Dear daughter — since thou claim 'st me for thy 
 she, 
 And my fair son here show'st me, the dear pledge 
 Of dalliance had with thee in Heaven, and joys 
 
 820 Then sweet, now sad to mention, through dire 
 change 
 Befallen us unforeseen, unthought of — know, 
 
142 PARADISE LOST 
 
 I come no enemy, but to set free 
 
 From out thia dark and dismal house of pain 
 
 Both him and thee, and all the Heavenly host 
 
 Of Spirits that, in our just pretences armed, 825 
 
 Fell with us from on high. From them I go 
 
 This uncouth errand sole, and one for all 
 
 Myself expose, with lonely steps to tread 
 
 The unfounded Deep, and through the void 
 
 immense 
 To search with wandering quest a place foretold sso 
 Should be — and by concurring signs, ere now 
 Created vast and round — a place of bliss 
 In the purlieus of Heaven ; and therein placed 
 A race of upstart creatures, to supply 
 Perhaps our vacant room, though more removed, sss 
 Lest Heaven, surcharged with potent multitude, 
 Might hap to move new broils. Be this, or aught 
 Than this more secret, now designed, I haste 
 To know; and, this once known, shall soon return, 
 And bring ye to the place where thou and Death 840 
 Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen 
 Wing silently the buxom air, embalmed 
 With odors : there ye shall be fed and filled 
 Immeasurably ; all things shall be your prey. ' 
 
 He ceased ; for both seemed highly pleased, and 845 
 
 Death 
 Grinned horrible a ghastly smile, to hear 
 His famine should be filled, and blessed his maw 
 Destined to that good hour. No less rejoiced 
 His mother bad, and thus bespake her sire ; — 
 
PARADISE LOST 143 
 
 850 'The key of this eternal pit, by due 
 
 And by command of Heaven's all-powerful 
 
 King, 
 I keep, by Him forbidden to unlock 
 These adamantine gates ; against all force 
 Death ready stands to interpose his dart, 
 
 855 Fearless to be o'ermatched by living might. 
 But what owe I to His commands above, 
 Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me down 
 Into this gloom of Tartarus profound, 
 To sit in hateful office here confined, 
 
 860 Inhabitant of Heaven and Heavenly -born, 
 Here in perpetual agony and pain, 
 With terrors and with clamors compassed round 
 Of mine own brood, that on my bowels feed? 
 Thou art my father, thou my author, thou 
 
 865 My being gav'st me; whom should I obey 
 
 But thee? whom follow? Thou wilt bring me soon 
 To that new world of light and bliss, among 
 The gods who live at ease, where I shall reign 
 At thy right hand voluptuous, as beseems 
 
 870 Thy daughter and thy darling, without end. ' 
 Thus saying, from her side the fatal key, 
 Sad instrument of all our woe, she took ; 
 And, towards the gate rolling her bestial train, 
 Forthwith the huge portcullis high up-drew, 
 
 875 Which but herself not all the Stygian Powers 
 
 Could once have moved; then in the key-hole 
 turns 
 
 855. — Might; the third edition reads wight. 
 
144 PARADISE LOST 
 
 The intricate wards, and every bolt and bar 
 
 Of massy iron or solid rock with ease 
 
 Unfastens : on a sndden open fly, 
 
 With impetuous recoil and jarring sound, 880 
 
 The infernal doors, and on their hinges grate 
 
 Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook 
 
 Of Erebus. She opened; but to shut 
 
 Excelled her power : the gates wide open stood, 
 
 That with extended wings a bannered host, 885 
 
 Under spread ensigns marching, might pass 
 
 through 
 With horse and chariots ranked in loose array ; 
 So wide they stood, and like a furnace-mouth 
 Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame. 
 Before their eyes in sudden view appear 890 
 
 The secrets of the hoary Deep, a dark 
 Illimitable ocean, without bound, 
 Without dimension; where length, breadth, and 
 
 highth, 
 And time, and place, are lost; where eldest 
 
 Night 
 And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold 895 
 
 Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise 
 Of endless wars, and by confusion stand. 
 
 879-83. — Contrast the description of the opening of the 
 gates of Heaven, Bk. vii, 205 ff : 
 
 Heaven opened wide 
 Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound 
 On golden hinges moving. 
 
PARADISE LOST 145 
 
 For Hot, Cold, Moist, and Dry, four champions 
 
 fierce, 
 Strive here for mastery, and to battle bring 
 
 900 Their embryon atoms ; they around the flag 
 Of each his faction, in their several clans, 
 Light -armed or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift, or slow, 
 Swarm populous, unnumbered as the sands 
 Of Barca or Cyrene's torrid soil, 
 
 90s Levied to side with warring winds, and poise 
 
 Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere, 
 He rules a moment ; Chaos umpire sits, 
 And by decision more embroils the fray r 
 By which he reigns ; next him, high arbiter, 
 
 910 Chance governs all. Into this wild Abyss, 
 The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave, 
 Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire, 
 Bat all these in their pregnant causes mixed 
 Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight, 
 
 915 Unless the Almighty Maker them ordain 
 His dark materials to create more worlds — 
 Into this wild Abyss the wary Fiend 
 Stood on the brink of Hell and looked awhile, 
 Pondering his voyage ; for no narrow frith 
 He had to cross. Nor was his ear less pealed 
 
 898. — These are the four properties which were the 
 basis of the four "elements"; Air, Earth, Water and 
 Fire. These qualities were also supposed to enter com- 
 bined in pairs, into the four "humours" of the human 
 body : the Blood was hot and moist ; the Bile, hot and 
 dry; the Phlegm, cold and moist; and the Black Bile, 
 cold and dry. On the proper balance of these humours 
 depended the health of the body. 
 
 9-10 
 
146 PARADISE LOST 
 
 With noises loud and ruinous (to compare 
 
 Great things with small) than when Bellona storms 
 
 With all her battering engines, bent to rase 
 
 Some capital city ; or less than if this frame 
 
 Of Heaven were falling, and these elements 925 
 
 In mutiny had from her axle torn 
 
 The steadfast Earth. At last his sail-broad vans 
 
 He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke 
 
 Uplifted spurns the ground ; thence many a league, 
 
 As in a cloudy chair, ascending rides 930 
 
 Audacious ; but, that seat soon failing, meets 
 
 A vast vacuity; all unawares, 
 
 Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb-down he drops 
 
 Ten thousand fathom deep, and to this hour 
 
 Down had been falling, had not by ill chance 935 
 
 The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud, 
 
 Instinct with fire and nitre, hurried him 
 
 As many miles aloft : that fury stayed — 
 
 Quenched in a boggy Syrtis, neither sea, 
 
 Nor good dry land — nigh foundered, on he fares, 940 
 
 Treading the crude consistence, half on foot, 
 
 Half flying ; behoves him now both oar and sail. 
 
 As when a gryphon through the wilderness 
 
 With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale, 
 
 Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth 945 
 
 Had from his wakeful custody purloined 
 
 The guarded gold : so eagerly the Fiend 
 
 O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or 
 
 rare, 
 With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, 
 
PARADISE LOST 147 
 
 950 And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. 
 At length a universal hubbub wild 
 Of stunning sounds and voices all confused, 
 Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear 
 With loudest vehemence. Thither he plies 
 
 955 Undaunted, to meet there whatever Power 
 Or Spirit of the nethermost Abyss 
 Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask 
 Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies 
 Bordering on light ; when straight behold the throne 
 
 960 Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread 
 
 Wide on the wasteful Deep ! With him enthroned 
 Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things, 
 The consort of his reign ; and by them stood 
 Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name 
 
 965 Of Demogorgon ; Eumor next and Chance, 
 And Tumult and Confusion all embroiled, 
 And Discord with a thousand various mouths. 
 To whom Satan, turning boldly, thus: — 'Ye 
 Powers 
 And Spirits of this nethermost Abyss, 
 
 970 Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy, 
 With purpose to explore or to disturb 
 The secrets of your realm ; but, by constraint 
 Wandering this darksome desert, as my way 
 Lies through your spacious empire up to light, 
 
 975 Alone and without guide, half lost, I seek 
 
 What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds 
 Confine with Heaven ; or if some other place, 
 From your dominion won, the Ethereal King 
 
148 PARADISE LOST 
 
 Possesses lately, thither to arrive 
 
 I travel this profound. Direct my course : 980 
 
 Directed, no mean recompense it brings 
 
 To your behoof, if I that region lost, 
 
 All usurpation thence expelled, reduce 
 
 To her original darkness and your sway 
 
 (Which is my present journey), and once more 985 
 
 Erect the standard there of ancient Night. 
 
 Yours be the advantage all, mine the revenge!' 
 
 Thus Satan ; and him thus the Anarch old, 
 With faltering speech and visage incomposed, 
 Answered: — 'I know thee, stranger, who thou art: 990 
 That mighty leading Angel, who of late 
 Made head against Heaven's King, though over- 
 thrown. 
 I saw and heard ; for such a numerous host 
 Fled not in silence through the frighted deep, 
 With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout, 995 
 
 Confusion worse confounded; and Heaven-gates 
 Poured out by millions her victorious bands, 
 Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here 
 Keep residence ; if all I can will serve 
 That little which is left so to defend, 1000 
 
 Encroached on still through our intestine broils 
 Weakening the sceptre of old Night : first Hell, 
 Your dungeon, stretching far and wide beneath ; 
 
 1001. — Our; some editors read your, but Masson 
 explains that the Anarch here used ' 'a form of speech 
 which implicated all existing beings, and none par- 
 ticularly." 
 
PARADISE LOST 149 
 
 Now lately Heaven and Earth, another world 
 
 1005 Hung o'er my realm, linked in a golden chain 
 To that side Heaven from whence your legions fell. 
 If that way be your walk, you have not far ; 
 So much the nearer danger. Go, and speed! 
 Havoc, and spoil, and ruin, are my gain.' 
 
 1010 He ceased ; and Satan stayed not to reply, 
 But, glad that now his sea should find a shore, 
 With fresh alacrity and force renewed 
 Springs upward, like a pyramid of fire, 
 Into the wild expanse, and through the shock 
 
 1015 Of fighting elements, on all sides round 
 Environed, wins his way ; harder beset 
 And more endangered, than when Argo passed 
 Through Bosporus betwixt the justling rocks ; 
 Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunned 
 
 1020 Charybdis, and by the other whirlpool steered: 
 So he with difficulty and labor hard 
 Moved on : with difficulty and labor he ; 
 But, he once passed, soon after, when Man fell, 
 Strange alteration! Sin and Death amain, 
 
 1025 Following his track (such was the will of Heaven) 
 Paved after him a broad and beaten way 
 Over the dark Abyss, whose boiling gulf 
 Tamely endured a bridge of wondrous length, 
 
 1004. — Heaven; not the Empyrean, as in 1. 1006, but 
 the Ptolemaic spheres. 
 
 1020.— The other whirlpool is Scylla. Cf. 1. 660. 
 
 1028. — The building of this bridge is described in Bk. 
 x, 11. 282-323. 
 
150 PARADISE LOST 
 
 From Hell continued, reaching the utmost orb 
 
 Of this frail World; by which the Spirits perverse 1030 
 
 With easy intercourse pass to and fro 
 
 To tempt or punish mortals, except whom 
 
 God and good Angels guard by special grace. 
 
 But now at last the sacred influence 
 Of light appears, and from the walls of Heaven 1035 
 Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night 
 A glimmering dawn. Here Nature first begins 
 Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire, 
 As from her outmost works, a broken foe, 
 With tumult less and with less hostile din ; 1040 
 
 That Satan with less toil, and now with ease, 
 Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light, 
 And, like a weather-beaten vessel, holds 
 Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn ; 
 Or in the emptier waste, resembling air, 1045 
 
 Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold 
 Far off the empyreal Heaven, extended wide 
 In circuit, undetermined square or round, 
 With opal towers, and battlements adorned 
 Of living sapphire, once his native seat ; 1050 
 
 And, fast by, hanging in a golden chain, 
 This pendent World, in bigness as a star 
 Of smallest magnitude close by the moon. 
 Thither, full fraught with mischievous revenge, 
 Accurst, and in a cursed hour, he hies. 1055 
 
 1030. — World; not the earth, but the Ptolemaic Uni- 
 verse. So in 1, 1052. 
 
GLOSSARY 
 
 Note.— Some of Milton's allusions to Greek and Roman mythology, 
 which should be familiar, are not entered here: others are explained 
 very briefly. It is assumed that the student has access to a classical, as 
 well as to an ordinary English dictionary. 
 
 Abbreviations.— Cf. {confer) compare, ff. following, passim, else- 
 where, q. v. {quod vide) which see. s. v. {sub verbo) under the word. 
 
 Abhorred, abhorrent; ii, 659. 
 
 Abject, prostrate (Lat. abjectus) ; 
 i, 312, 322. 
 
 Abortive gulf, chaos— " abortive," 
 because Nature there " breeds, 
 Perverse, all monstrous, all pro- 
 digious things" (ii, 624-5); ii, 
 441. 
 
 Abrupt; usedasauoun; ii, 409. 
 
 Abused, deceived; i, 479. 
 
 Acheron, ii, 578. See Styx. 
 
 Act, bearing, behavior; ii, 109. 
 
 Adamantine; adamant is an im- 
 aginary metal, excessively hard 
 and tough, employed symbolically 
 in poetry (Gr. <iSa/u.a?, " the un- 
 conquerable"); i, 48. Cf. ii, 436, 
 646, 853. 
 
 Admire, wonder (Lat. admirari) ; i, 
 690. Cf. ii, 677-8. 
 
 Adria, the Adriatic; i, 520. It will 
 be noted that the gods flee west- 
 ward. 
 
 Advanced, upraised; i, 536. Cf. ii, 
 682. 
 
 Adverse, unnatural ; ii, 77. 
 
 Advise, consider; ii, 376. 
 
 Afflicted powers, our forces struck 
 down (Lat. ajjlictus); i, 186. Cf. 
 " Heaven's afflicting thunder," 
 ii, 166. 
 
 Affront, insult, though the mean- 
 ing "confront" is possible; i, 390. 
 
 Alcairo, Cairo, though Milton 
 doubtless had in mind ancient 
 Memphis, the site of which is not 
 far from Cairo; i, 718. 
 
 Alchymy, trumpets made of al- 
 chymy, or alchemy, an alloy con- 
 taining brass; ii, 517. 
 
 Alcides, Hercules. The allusion is 
 to his death as related by Ovid, 
 Metamorphoses, ix ; ii, 542. 
 
 Alp; ii, 620. Used in the general 
 sense of "high mountain." 
 
 Amazement of, utter bewilder- 
 ment arising from; i,3l3. Cf. 1. 
 281. 
 
 Amerced of, deprived of (by way 
 of penalty); i, 609-10. 
 
 Ammiral, admiral, or chief ship 
 (It. ammiraglia) ; i, 294. 
 
 Amram's son, Moses; i, 339. For 
 the allusion, see Exod. x, 12-15. 
 
 Aonian Mount, Helicon — in the 
 usual figurative sense; i, 15. The 
 Heavenly, or sacred Muse, in- 
 spires to loftier flights than the 
 profane Muse of classical litera- 
 ture. 
 
 Arbitress, witness (as in Horace, 
 Epodes. v, 50) ; i, 785. 
 
 151 
 
152 
 
 GLOSSARY 
 
 Argo, the vessel in which Jason's 
 expedition sailed on their quest 
 for the golden fleece; ii, 1017. 
 
 Argues, proves (Lat. arguere); ii, 
 234. 
 
 Argument, subject (Lat. argumen- 
 tum) ; i, 24. 
 
 Arimaspian; the Arimaspians are 
 described by Herodotus (iii, 116) 
 as a one-eyed race who steal gold 
 from the gryphons, or griffins; ii, 
 945. See Gryphon. 
 
 Armoric, of Armorica, or Brittany, 
 a country associated with the Ar- 
 thurian romances; i, 581. 
 
 Ashtaroth; plural of As(h)toreth, 
 q. v.; i,422. 
 
 Assert, vindicate (Lat. asserere); i, 
 25. 
 
 Astonished, stunned; i,266; ii, 423. 
 Cf. " astounded 1 ', i, 281; "astonish- 
 ment", i, 317. See the New Eng- 
 lish Dictionary, s. v. astone. 
 
 Astoreth, " whom the Phoenicians 
 called Astarte " ; a moon-goddesa, 
 the chief female deity of the 
 Phoenicians and Canaanltes; i, 
 438. Cf . Nativity Ode, 200. 
 
 Attempted, assailed (Lat. attempt- 
 are) ; ii, 357. So, perhaps, in 1. 44. 
 
 Ausonian land, Italy; i. 739. 
 
 Awful, full of awe, not, "inspiring 
 awe"; ii. 478. 
 
 Azazel; Milton may have taken 
 this name from the marginal 
 reading of Lev. xvi, 8— Authorized 
 Version; i,534. 
 
 Baalim; a plural form, used col- 
 lectively of the various manifesta- 
 tions of Baal, the chief male 
 deity of the Phoenicians and Ca- 
 naanites; i, 422. 
 
 Barca...Cyrene, cities in northern 
 Africa; ii,904. 
 
 Beelzebub, or Baal-zebub, " Lord 
 of Flies", .Satan's lieutenant (cf. 
 i, 238); i, 81, 271; ii, 299, 378. In 
 
 II Kings, i, 2, 3 this god is said to 
 have beeu worshiped at Ekron, a 
 city of the Philistines, in Pales- 
 tine. Cf. Matt, xii, 24. 
 
 Belial; strictly speaking not a 
 proper noun, but a word meaning 
 "lawlessness". Milton makes 
 Belial a god typifying sensuality; 
 i, 490,502; ii, 109, 226. 
 
 Bellona, Goddess of War ; ii, 922. 
 
 Belus, or Bel, an Assyrian god 
 identified with the Phoenician 
 Baal; i, 720. 
 
 Bengala, Bengal; ii, 638. 
 
 Bestial gods, deities in the form of 
 beasts, like the Egyptian gods 
 mentioned in 11. 478-482; i, 435. 
 
 Books of Life, "And I saw the 
 dead, small and great, stand be- 
 fore God; and the books were 
 opened: and another book was 
 opened, which is the book of life: 
 and the dead were judged out of 
 those things which were written 
 in the books, according to their 
 works" (Bev. xx, 12) ; i, 363. 
 
 Bossy, carved in relief; i, 716. 
 
 Briareos. See JSneid x, 565-568, 
 where the hundred-handed iEgae- 
 on -= Briareos; i, 199. 
 
 Brigad; Milton's spelling of " bri- 
 gade " in the general sense of a 
 large body of troops; i, 675. 
 Cf. ii, 532. Note that the accent 
 falls on the first syllable. 
 
 Brooding; the Hebrew word ren- 
 dered in the Author. "Vers, of 
 Gen. i, 2 " moved", means prop- 
 erly either " hovered," or 
 '•hatched"; i, 21. 
 
 Bullion dross, scum arising from 
 the bullion, or crude ore; i, 704. 
 
 Busiris, an apocryphal Egyptian 
 king identified by Milton, for 
 some unknown reason, with the 
 Pharaoh who perished in the Bed 
 Sea (Exod. xiv) ; i,307. 
 
 Buxom, yielding; ii, 842. 
 
GLOSSARY 
 
 153 
 
 Celtic [fields], Prance; 1,521. 
 
 Centre, probably tbo earth itself, 
 conceived as the centre of the uni- 
 verse; i, 686. 
 
 Cerberean; the allusion is to Cer- 
 berus, the three-headed watch- 
 dog of Hades; ii, 655. 
 
 Chaos, the "vast abyss" (i, 21) , or 
 "hoary deep" (ii, 891) separating 
 the Empyrean and Hell; the raw 
 material out of which Hell and 
 our Universe are constructed; i, 
 10 and passim. See Introduction; 
 also the "Anarch old" (ii, 988) 
 who rules over this region; ii, 233 
 and passim. 
 
 Charybdis, a monster dwelling on 
 the rocky rim of a whirlpool in 
 the Straits of Messina; ii, 1020. 
 See Scylla. For the allusion 
 to Ulysses, see Odyssey, xii. 
 
 Cheinos, " the abomination of 
 Moab" (I Kings, xi, 7), really 
 identical with Moloch, q. v. ; i, 406. 
 " Peor his other name, when he 
 enticed Israel in Sittim" (i, 412-3) ; 
 see Numb, xxv, 1-3. The places 
 where he is represented in 11. 407- 
 411 as being worshiped, are in the 
 district occupied by the tribe of 
 Reuben, east of the Dead Sea ("the 
 Asphaltic Pool", 1. 411). 
 
 Cherub, i. 157, 324, 534. Cherubim 
 (pi. of Cherub), i, 387, 665,794; ii, 
 516. See Seraphim. 
 
 Chivalry; the same word etymo- 
 logically as " cavalry". Probably 
 here used loosely for "troops"; 
 i, 307, 765. 
 
 Clime, climate; i, 242, 297; region; 
 ii, 572. 
 
 Close, secret; i, 646,795; ii, 485. 
 
 Cocytus, ii, 579. See Styx. 
 
 Combustion; probably here used 
 literally, not, as some editors say, 
 figuratively for "destruction"; i. 
 46. 
 
 Compose, adjust advantageously; 
 li, 281. 
 
 Confer, discuss (used transitively— 
 Lat. conferre) ; i, 774. 
 
 Confine with, border on; ii, 977. 
 
 Confounded, put to utter confu- 
 sion; i, S3. Cf. ii, 996. 
 
 Conjured, sworn together (Lat. 
 conjurare) ; ii, 693. 
 
 Considerate, considering; i,603. 
 
 Consult, secret meeting; i, 798. 
 
 Converse, associate (Lat. conver- 
 sari) ; ii, 184. 
 
 Convex, convexity; ii, 434. Satan 
 takes the point of view of one 
 looking down on Hell from the 
 outside. 
 
 Cope, cover, roof ; i,345. 
 
 Couch; ii. 536. To "couch" a spear 
 was to fix the butt in the "rest"— 
 a projection on the right side of 
 the breast-plate— ready for the 
 charge. 
 
 Counsels different, internal dis- 
 sensions; i, 636. 
 
 Cressets, lamps in which solid sub- 
 stances (in this case" asphaltus") 
 were burned; i, 728. 
 
 Cry, pack; ii,654. 
 
 Dagon, the fish-god of the Philis- 
 tines; i, 462. See I Sam. v, 1-4. In 
 11. 464-6 he is represented as being 
 worshiped in the five chief 
 cities of the Philistines men- 
 tioned in I Sam. vi, 17. Azotus = 
 the Biblical Ashdod ; Ascalon 
 = Askelon; Accaron = Ekron. 
 
 Damp, depressed; i. 523. 
 
 Danaw, the Danube (Germ. Donau) ; 
 i, 353. 
 
 Deceive, beguile, as in " to beguile 
 the time" ; ii, 461. 
 
 Deform, shapeless (Lat. deforinis) ; 
 ii, 706. 
 
 Delphian cliff, Parnassus; i, 517. 
 
 Demogorgon, one of the deities of 
 Hell mentioned by late Latin and 
 
154 
 
 GLOSSARY 
 
 Italian writers. Spenser {Fairy 
 Queen IV, ii, 47, 6-9) makes him 
 warden of Chaos; ii, 365. The 
 phrase " Dreaded name of Demo- 
 gorgon" (i. e. D. himself) has its 
 analogy in the Scriptures and in 
 the classics. Here the phrase 
 heightens the general sense of 
 awe and mystery. 
 
 Denounced, threatened (Lat. de- 
 nuntiare) ; ii, 106. 
 
 Determined, settled; ii, 330. 
 
 Discover, reveal; i, 64,724. 
 
 Dodona, in Epirus— the seat of an 
 oracle of Zeus; i,518. 
 
 Dorian mood, a grave and strenu- 
 ous style of Greek music; i,550. 
 
 Drench, soaking— not "draught"; 
 ii. 73 
 
 Earth-born, probably the Giants, 
 who, like the Titans, had Ge 
 (Earth) for a mother; i, 198. 
 
 Element, sky; ii, 490. Elements, 
 appropriate surroundings; ii, 275. 
 There is a suggestion here, per- 
 haps, of the mediaeval theory 
 that each of the four "ele- 
 ments"— air, earth, fire, and 
 water— is controlled by some par- 
 ticular demon. Verity (in his Ap- 
 pendix C) points out that Hooker 
 identified these elemental demons 
 with the fallen angels. 
 
 Elevate, elevated; ii, 558. 
 
 Eli's sons; i, 495. The allusion is 
 to I Sam. ii, 12-17. 
 
 Emblazed, emblazoned, decorated 
 with heraldic designs ("Seraphic 
 arms" 1 ); i, 538. Cf. emblazonry, ii, 
 513. 
 
 Empyreal, fiery; i, 117; ii, 430, 
 1047. 
 
 Empyrean, Heaven (Gr. e^irvpo?, 
 " burning"') ; ii, 771. 
 
 Engines, contrivances; i, 750. The 
 " almighty engine" mentioned 
 in ii, 65 is the war chariot of 
 
 God, described in Bk. vi, 749 ff. 
 
 827 ff. 
 Erected, erect, with a suggestion of 
 
 "upright" in the moral sense; i, 
 
 679. 
 Erst, formerly; i, 360; ii, 470. 
 Essence, substance; i, 425; ii, 215. 
 
 Essences, i, 138. 
 Essential, substance; ii, 97. See 
 
 Essence. 
 Ethereal sky, the Empyrean ; i, 45 . 
 Ethiopian; "the wide Ethiopian," 
 
 the Indian Ocean; ii, 641. "The 
 
 Cape " is the Cape of Good Hope. 
 Event, result; i,624; ii, 82. 
 Exercise, torment (Lat. exercere); 
 
 ii, 89. 
 Expatiate, walk about (Lat. 
 
 spatiari) ; i, 774. 
 
 Fact, feat (Lat. factum) ; ii, 124. Cf. 
 
 ii, 537, and the French fait d' annex. 
 Fail; "If I fail not," if I mistake 
 
 not (Lat. nifallor) ; i, 167. 
 Fall, befaU; ii, 203. 
 Fame, report; i,651; ii, 346. 
 Fast by, close by; i, 12. 
 Fatal, securely established (by 
 
 fate) ; ii, 104. 
 Field, battle; i, 105 ; ii, 292. Fields, 
 
 ii, 768. 
 Flown, flushed; i,502. 
 Forgetful lake, the lake which 
 
 makes one forget; ii, 74. Cf. " ob- 
 livious pool ,"i, 266. 
 Founded, melted (Lat. fundere) ; i, 
 
 703. 
 Frequent, crowded (Lat. frequens) ; 
 
 i, 797. 
 Front, brow (Lat. from); ii, 302. 
 Fronted, confronting; ii, 532. 
 Frore, frosty (Anglo-Saxon froren, 
 
 frozen); ii, 595. 
 
 Gibeah; i,504. See Judges xix. 
 Globe, a compact, ring-like mass 
 (Lat. globus) ; ii, 512. 
 
GLOSSARY 
 
 155 
 
 Gorgons... Hydras. ..Chimaeras, are 
 
 mentioned in JEneid, vi, 287-9 as 
 beasts of Hell. The Gorgons 
 were snaky-haired monsters with 
 wings and brazen claws; Hydras 
 were many-headed water-drag- 
 ons; Chimaeras had the heads of 
 lions, the bodies of goats, and the 
 tails of serpents; ii, 628. 
 
 Goshen, the district in Egypt 
 temporarily occupied by the Is- 
 raelites (Gen. xlvii, 27) ; i, 309. 
 
 Grand; "our grandparents", our 
 original progenitors; i, 29. Cf. 
 Lat. grandts, aged. 
 
 Gross, large; ii, 570. 
 
 Grunsel, ground-sill, threshold; i, 
 460. 
 
 Gryphon, or Griffin; a monster, 
 part eagle and part lion, whose 
 business it was to guard treasure; 
 ii, 943. See Arimaspian. 
 
 Happy Isle, the Ptolemaic Uni- 
 verse, suspended in Chaos by a 
 golden chain; ii, 410. Cf. ii, 1051-2. 
 
 Ilaralds, heralds (It. araldi); i, 752. 
 Harald's; ii, 518. 
 
 Hard by, close by; i, 417. 
 
 Harpy-footed; ii, 596. The Harpies 
 (fabulous loathsome birds; are de- 
 scribed in JEneid, iii, 211-18. 
 
 Hesperian fields, Italy; i, 520. 
 
 Highth, Milton's spelling of 
 " height "; i, 24 and passim. 
 
 Hill of scandal; i, 416. See Oppro- 
 brious Hill. 
 
 Hinnom, " Tophet thence And 
 black Gehenna called, the type 
 of Hell " ; i, 404. See Jer. vii, 31, 
 32. Because of its association 
 with the worship of Moloch, 
 Josiah made Hinnom a depository 
 for the waste and filth of Jerusa- 
 lem. Gehenna, Greek for Qe Hin- 
 nom, Valley of Hinnom, is several 
 times translated Hell in the New 
 Testament. 
 
 Holds, makes for; ii, 1043. 
 Horrent, bristling; ii, 513. 
 Horrid; used sometimes with a 
 
 suggestion of the Lat. horridm, 
 
 bristling; i, 503; ii, 63, 710. Cf. 
 
 " horrent," ii, 513. 
 Humane, polite (Lat. humanus) ; ii, 
 
 109. 
 
 Impaled, fenced in; ii, 647. 
 
 Impious, unfilial (Lat. impius); i, 
 686. 
 
 Incense, kindle (Lat. incendere) ; ii, 
 94. 
 
 Incomposed, discomposed (Lat. 
 incompositus) ; ii, 989. 
 
 Ind, India; ii, 2. 
 
 Indian Mount, perhaps Imaus 
 (cf. Bk. iii, 431), an ancient name 
 for apart of the Himalayas; 1,781. 
 See Infantry. 
 
 Infantry; "that small infantry 
 Warred on by cranes," the Pyg- 
 mies—see Iliad, iii, 6. They were 
 supposed by Pliny (Natural History 
 vii, 2) and others to dwell in India 
 (cf. i, 780-1); i,575. 
 
 Influence, inflowing; ii, 1034. In 
 astrology the word was applied in 
 a technical sense, here suggested, 
 to the direct control over human 
 destiny attributed to the stars. 
 Sacred is explained by Bk. iii, 1-6. 
 
 Instinct, inflamed; ii, 937. 
 
 Intend, consider (cf. Lat. intendere 
 animum) ; ii, 457. 
 
 Intrenched, furrowed; i, 601. 
 
 Invests, clothes (Lat. investire); i, 
 
 Javan, grandson of Noah (Gen. x. 
 2), said to have been the progeni- 
 tor of the Greek (" Ionian ") race; 
 i, 508. 
 
 Ken; " as far as Angels ken," as far 
 as Angels see. It may be, how- 
 ever, that we should read with 
 
156 
 
 GLOSSARY 
 
 Masson and others, " as far as 
 Angel's ken," i.e. as far as an 
 angel's vision reaches. The first 
 edition reads " as far as Angels 
 kenn"; but since the apostrophe 
 is not printed with the possessive 
 in this edition, it is doubtful 
 whether ken is a verb or a noun; 
 i, 59. 
 
 Laboring, suffering eclipse (Lat. 
 
 laborare, cf. Juvenal, vi, 442; Virg. 
 
 Georgics, ii, 478) ; ii, 665. 
 Laid, quieted; i, 172. 
 Landskip, landscape; ii, 491. 
 Lethe, ii, 583. Lethean sound, ii, 
 
 604. See Styx. 
 Leviathan; a Hebrew term for a 
 
 vaguely conceived sea monster; 
 
 i, 201. See Ps. civ, 26; Job xli. 
 Libyan, African; i, 355. 
 Lore, lesson; ii, 815. 
 Luxurious, probably " lustful," as 
 
 inShakspere; i, 498. 
 
 Mammon; not strictly a proper 
 noun ; Milton makes him the per- 
 sonification of wealth; i, 678; ii, 
 228, 291. 
 
 Mansion, abiding place (Lat. man- 
 ere); i,268; ii, 462. 
 
 Marie; used loosely for "soil;" i,296. 
 
 Medusa, one of the three Gorgons, 
 q.v.\ 11,611. 
 
 Memphian, Egyptian, from Mem- 
 phis ; i, 307. " The works of Mem- 
 phian Kings," the pyramids; i, 
 694. 
 
 Michael, one of the archangels who 
 warred against Satan; ii, 294. The 
 havoc wrought by his sword is de- 
 scribed in Bk. vi, 250 ff., 320 ff. 
 
 Middle, middling; or perhaps Mil- 
 ton is thinking of the "middle 
 air," or the region of cloud which 
 the Olympian deities looked upon 
 as the " highest heaven" (i, 517), 
 not being aware of the region of 
 
 pure ether lying above it. Be- 
 sides these, mediaeval authorities 
 recognized a third division of the 
 Heavens— a substratum of hot, 
 moist air close to the earth; i, 14. 
 
 Mixed with; ii, 69. Probably 
 "thrown into confusion by", a 
 meaning derived from the Lat. 
 miscere. 
 
 Moloch, written Molech in the Scrip- 
 tures, "the abomination of the chil- 
 dren of Ammon " (I Kings xi, 7) ; 
 i, 392, 417; ii, 43. Sandys, Relation 
 of a Journey Begun A.D.1610, Lond., 
 1615, p. 186, describes Moloch as a 
 hollow brass idol filled with fire. 
 Children were laid as sacrificial 
 offerings in the extended arms of 
 the image and " seared to death 
 with his burning embracements." 
 Cf . II Kings, xxiii, 10. Of the places 
 associated (i, 397-9) with his wor- 
 ship, Kabba was the capital of the 
 Ammonites; "watery plain" is 
 explained by II Sam. xii,27; Argob 
 was a district of Basan or Bashan, 
 really outside the territory of the 
 Ammonites ; the river Arnon sep- 
 arated Moab from the territory of 
 the Amorites. 
 
 Mortal, producing death; i, 2, 766; 
 ii, 729. 
 
 Motion, method of moving, ii, 75; 
 power to act, ii, 151. Motions, 
 proposals; ii, 191. 
 
 Mould, substance; ii, 139, 355. 
 
 Mulciber, Hephsestus; i, 740. His 
 fall is described in Iliad, i, 591 ff. 
 
 Nathless, nevertheless (Anglo- 
 Saxon wa thy ices) ; i, 299. 
 
 Night-foundered, overtaken by the 
 night and hidden from view, as if 
 sunk in darkness; i, 204. 
 
 Nightly, by night; i, 440; ii, 642. 
 
 Obdured, hardened; ii, 568. 
 Oblivious, causing to forget (Lat. 
 
GLOSSARY 
 
 157 
 
 obliviosus); 1, 266. Cf. "forgetful 
 lake," ii, 74. 
 
 Obscure, obscurity, darkness; ii, 
 406. Cf. Exod. x, 21. 
 
 Observed, heeded (Lat. observare)\ 
 i,588. 
 
 O'erwatched, worn out with watch- 
 ing; ii, 288. 
 
 Offend, do violence to (Lat. offen- 
 dere), not merely " displease "; i, 
 187. 
 
 Offensive mountain, i, 443. See 
 Opprobrious hill. 
 
 Ophiuchus, " the serpent holder," a 
 northern constellation; ii, 709. 
 
 Opinion, public opinion, reputa- 
 tion; ii, 471. 
 
 Opposition; two heavenlv bodies 
 are said to be in opposition when 
 their longitudes differ by 180°. Mil- 
 ton means that Death was sitting 
 opposite Sin, on the other side of 
 the gate; ii, 803. 
 
 Opprobrious hill, the Mount of 
 Olives, called the " Mount of Cor- 
 ruption" and " Mount of Offense," 
 because Solomon worshiped idols 
 there (I Kings xi, 7; II Kings 
 xxiii, 13); i, 403. Cf. "hill of 
 scandal," 1. 416, and " offensive 
 mountain," 1. 443. 
 
 Optic glass, telescope; i, 288. 
 
 Oracle of God, the temple on 
 Mount Moriah (I Kings vi, 16; 
 viii,6); i, 12. 
 
 Orb, orbit; ii, 1029. 
 
 Orcus ..Ades, names for Pluto, God 
 of Hell; ii, 964. 
 
 Ordered, a military word used as 
 in the modern command " order 
 arms"; i, 565. 
 
 Oreb, or.. .Sinai, i,7; "Milton, con- 
 trasting Exod. xix, 20, with Deut. 
 iv, 10, does not decide whether the 
 mountain where Moses received 
 the Law should be called ' Oreb or 
 Sinai.' The accounts can be har- 
 
 monized easily: Horeb was the 
 whole range, Sinai its lower part." 
 — Verity. 
 
 Orient, brilliant; 1,546. The adjec- 
 tive was first applied in this sense 
 to oriental pearls, which were sur- 
 passingly lustrous. In ii, 399, the 
 more familiar meaning is also 
 suggested. 
 
 Original, parent (Adam); ii, 375. 
 
 Ormus, an island in the Persian 
 Gulf, called by Howell (Familiar 
 Letters, Jacobs's ed., p. 157) " the 
 greatest Mart in all the Orient for 
 all sorts of Jewels : " ii, 2. 
 
 Osi ris, Isis, Osus, Egyptian dei ties ; 
 i, 478. 
 
 Pandemonium, Hall of all the 
 Demons (Gr. irav + 5ai>wi>) ; i, 756. 
 
 Paramount, chief ; ii, 508. 
 
 Partial, i.e., to themselves; they 
 smoothed over their own guilt; 
 ii, 552. 
 
 Passion, strong emotion, not anger; 
 i, 605; ii, 564. 
 
 Paynim, Pagan ; i, 765. 
 
 Pealed, dinned; ii, 920. 
 
 Pelorus, the ancient name for Cape 
 Faro, the northeast promontory of 
 Sicily; i,232. 
 
 Pennons, pinions (Lat. pennce); ii, 
 933. 
 
 Peor, i, 412. See Chemos. 
 
 Pernicious, destructive; i,282. 
 
 Phlegethon, ii, 580. See Styx. 
 
 Phlegra; " the giant brood Of 
 Phlegra", the Giants, who, ac- 
 cording to Pindar (First Nemean 
 Ode, 67 ) ,"warred on Jove" (1. 198) 
 in the plain of Phlegra, supposed 
 to have been situated in Cam- 
 pania; i, 577. 
 
 Pitch, height: ii, 772. 
 
 Poise, give weight to; ii, 905. 
 
 Power, a military force; i, 103. Cf. 
 1. 186. 
 
 Prevented, forestalled (Lat. prce- 
 
158 
 
 GLOSSARY 
 
 venire) ; ii, 467 ; with a suggestion 
 of the modern meaning "checked" 
 which appears in ii, 739. 
 
 Prick, spur— often used of riding in 
 general; ii, 536. 
 
 Prime, foremost; i,506; ii, 423. 
 
 Proffer, volunteer; ii, 425. 
 
 Proper, natural (Lat. proprius) ; ii, 
 75. 
 
 Pygmean, race; i, 780. See Infan- 
 try. 
 
 Pythian fields; the allusion is to 
 the games near Delphi in honor of 
 Pythian Apollo; ii, 530. 
 
 Recess, retirement; i, 795. 
 
 Recked, cared; ii, 50. 
 
 Recorders, musical instruments 
 
 similar to the flageolet; i, 551. 
 Redounding, abundant (Lat. re- 
 
 dundare); ii, 889. 
 Reign, realm (Lat. regnum); i, 543. 
 Religions, religious ceremonials; 
 
 i, 372. 
 Reluctance; "untamed reluctance 1 ', 
 
 untamable or unconquerable re- 
 sistance; ii, 337. 
 Remorse, pity, as often in Shak- 
 
 spere; i,605. 
 Rhene, the Rhine (Lat. Ehenus); i, 
 
 353. 
 Rimmon, a Syrian god worshiped 
 
 at Damascus; i, 467. 
 Rout, rabble; i, 747; overthrow; 
 
 ii, 770, 995. 
 Royalties, royal honors; ii, 451. 
 Ruin, heavy fall (Lat. ruina); i, 46; 
 
 ii, 995. 
 
 Satan, in Hebrew, " adversary" or 
 " enemy"; i, 82 and passim. Cf. ii, 
 629. 
 
 Scope, mark; ii, 127. 
 
 Scylla, described in Mneid, iii, 424 ff. 
 as a monster living in a whirlpool 
 on the Italian (" Calabrian M ) side 
 of the Straits of Messina. On the 
 opposite Sicilian (" Trinacrian "; 
 
 shore, dwelt Charybdis (ii, 1020); 
 ii, 660. 
 
 Seat, abode (Lat. sedes); i, 5 and 
 passim. 
 
 Secret, retired, secluded (Lat. se- 
 cretus), with perhaps a suggestion 
 of the mysteries associated with 
 the burning bush (Exod. iii) and 
 the giving of the Law (Exod. 
 xix ff;; i, 6. 
 
 Sensible, sense; ii, 278. Cf. " this 
 essential", 1. 97. 
 
 Sentence, opinion (Lat. sententia); 
 ii,51,291. 
 
 Senteries, sentries; ii, 412. 
 
 Seon, i, 409, same as Sihon: "For 
 Heshbon was the city of Sihon the 
 king of the Amorites " (Numb. 
 xxi,26). 
 
 Seraph; i, 324. Seraphic; i, 539, 794. 
 Seraphim; i, 129; ii, 512, 750. Ac- 
 cording to the treatise on the celes- 
 tial hierarchies formerly ascribed 
 to Dionysius the Areopagite, the 
 nine angelic orders were as fol- 
 lows, beginning with the highest 
 in rank: Seraphim, Cherubim, 
 Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, 
 Powers, Principalities, Archan- 
 gels, Angels. Milton employs 
 these terms, but not consistently. 
 
 Serapis, an Assyrian god identified 
 with the Greek Hades; i, 720. 
 
 Serbonian bog, the treacherous 
 Lake Serbonis, in Lower Egypt, 
 described by Herodotus, iii, 5. 
 Damiata is a city near the mouth 
 of the Nile; ii, 592. 
 
 Severing, separating; i, 704. 
 
 Sidonian; Sidon was a city of the 
 
 Phoenicians; i, 441. 
 Siloa's brook, the pool (Siloam) 
 with its outlet, lying in the valley 
 between Zion and Mount Moriah, 
 the hills on which stood the tem- 
 ple (" oracle of God') ; i, 11. 
 Sion hill, better known as Zion, 
 one of the hills of Jerusalem; i. 
 
GLOSSARY 
 
 159 
 
 10. Here was the residence of 
 David the Psalmist— heuce the 
 allusion. 
 Slip, let slip; i, 178. 
 Sluiced, conducted in sluices; i, 702. 
 Sodom, see Gen. xix; i,503. 
 
 Soldan, Sultan (It. soldano); i, 764. 
 The allusion is to the duels de- 
 scribed in the romances of chiv- 
 alry as fought between the 
 Christians and the Saracens in 
 Palestine, either to the death 
 ("mortal combat") or for pur- 
 poses of exhibition (" career with 
 lance"), the Sultan acting as um- 
 pire. This is another instance of 
 Milton's interest in mediaeval ro- 
 mance. Cf. 11. 582 ff. 
 
 Sovran, Milton's spelling of sov- 
 ereign (It. sovrano) ; i, 246, 753; ii, 
 244. Cf . Sovranty, ii, 446. 
 
 Starve, cause to perish (Anglo- 
 Saxon steorfan, to die); ii, 600. 
 Formerly the word was not re- 
 stricted, in its application, to death 
 from lack of food. 
 
 States, parliamentary representa- 
 tives; ii, 387. 
 
 Stations, guards (Lat. stationes); ii, 
 412. 
 
 Still, always; i, 68 and passim. 
 
 Study, zealous pursuit (Lat. studi- 
 urri); i,107. 
 
 Style, title; ii,312. 
 
 Styx (Gr. a-rvyelv, to hate), Acher- 
 on (axos, pain), Cocytus(/cw/cuTos, 
 wailing), Phlegethon ($A.eye'<W, 
 flaming), Lethe (A^f. forget- 
 fulness), the five rivers of Hell; 
 ii, 576-85. 
 
 Sublime, aloft (Lat. sublimis); ii, 
 528. 
 
 Sublimed; sublimation is the proc- 
 ess of vaporizing a solid by the 
 action of heat. We are to sup- 
 pose that the hot subterranean 
 wind which tears open Pelorus or 
 .rfEtna, is aided in its work of de- 
 
 struction by the explosive mineral 
 
 vapors engendered by its contact 
 
 with the combustible contents of 
 
 the mountain; i,235. 
 Success, used by Milton, as by 
 
 Shakspere, for " outcome," good 
 
 or bad; ii, 9, 123. 
 Suffice, satisfy (Lat. sufflcere); i, 
 
 148. 
 Suspended, held in suspense, held 
 
 spellbound; ii, 554. 
 Suspense, in suspense (Lat. sus- 
 
 pensus); ii, 418. 
 Swage, assuage (Lat. suavis); i, 556. 
 Syrtis, quicksand; from the two 
 
 gulfs anciently so called, on the 
 
 northern coast of Africa; ii, 939. 
 
 Tantalus; punished in Hell, ac- 
 cording to classical mythology, 
 by continual thirst. He was placed 
 in the midst of a lake, the water 
 of which receded whenever he 
 tried to reach it; ii, 614. 
 
 Temper; used concretely for the 
 thing tempered. Ethereal here 
 means, as usual, heavenly; i, 285. 
 Cf.ii, 812-3. 
 
 Tempt, try; ii, 404. 
 
 Ternate and Tidore, two of the 
 Spice Islands in the Malay Archi- 
 pelago; ii, 639. 
 
 Thammuz,a Phoenician god, said to 
 have been slain by a boar in Leba- 
 non, and identified with the Greek 
 Adonis. The fact that in the late 
 spring the river Adonis runs red 
 with the soil washed down from 
 Lebanon, gave rise to the belief 
 that Thammuz came to life and 
 died again once a year, his blood 
 staining the river. Annual re- 
 ligious festivals were established 
 in commemoration of this event: 
 i, 446. For Ezekiel's vision, 1. 455, 
 see Ezek. viii, 14. 
 
 Thereafter, in conformity— consist- 
 ently with these sentiments; ii,50. 
 
160 
 
 GLOSSARY 
 
 Titanian; the Titans were the re- 
 bellious offspring of Uranus and 
 Ge, conquered by Zeus; i, 198. Cf. 
 i, 510-14. 
 
 Took, charmed, as often in Shak- 
 spere; ii, 554. 
 
 Torments, ii, 274; see Tortures. 
 
 Tortures, used of the torturing 
 "Hell-flames and fury"; ii, 63. 
 Cf. "torments, 1 ' ii, 274, for " that 
 which torments." 
 
 Tuscan artist, generally under- 
 stood to refer to Galileo; i, 288. 
 Fesole is a hill near Florence. 
 Valdarno = a valley of the river 
 Arno in which Florence lies. 
 
 Typhoean, ii, 539; see Typhon. 
 
 Typhon, or Typhosus, a hundred- 
 headed monster described by Pin- 
 dar, Pyth. i, 16-17, and ^Eschylus, 
 P.V. 359, as living in a den 
 of Cilicia, the capital of which was 
 Tarsus; i,199. 
 
 Tyranny, i, 124 ; used probably with 
 all its present evil suggestion, 
 rather than in the earlier sense of 
 "monarchy." Cf. 1. 42, where Mil- 
 ton is speaking in his own person. 
 
 Uncouth, unknown, unfamiliar 
 (Anglo-Saxon uncuth) ; ii, 407, 827. 
 
 Understood, secret, that is, under- 
 stood only among the devils; i, 
 662. Cf. ii, 187. 
 
 Unenvied, unenviable; ii, 23. 
 
 Unessential, without substance; ii, 
 439. Cf. Essence. 
 
 Unfounded, bottomless ; ii, 829. 
 
 Unmoved, collected; or perhaps "of 
 
 his own accord " j ii, 429. 
 Unnumbered, innumerable; ii , 903. 
 Urges, afflicts (Lat. urgere) ; i, 68. 
 Uther's son, Arthur, son of Uther 
 
 Pendragon; i, 580. For Milton's 
 
 early interest in this British hero, 
 
 see Introd.,p, 26. 
 Utmost Isles, the farthest isles, i.e., 
 
 Britain; 1,521. 
 Utter, outer; i, 72. 
 
 Vallombrosa, a wooded valley near 
 Florence; i, 303. 
 
 Van, vanguard (Fr. avant-garde); 
 ii, 535. 
 
 Vans, wings (It. vanni) ; ii, 927. 
 
 Virtue, valor (Lat. virtus) ; i, 320. 
 
 Vision beatific, visio beatifica, the 
 sight of God; in Milton's lines On 
 Time he translates the phrase into 
 " happy making sight" ; i,684. 
 
 Voluminous, coiling (Lat. volu- 
 men) ; ii, 652. 
 
 Wafts, floats; ii, 1042. 
 
 Want, be wanting; ii, 341. 
 
 Warping, flying with an undulating 
 motion; i,341. 
 
 Weighs, balances; ii, 1046. 
 
 What doubt we, Why do we hesi- 
 tate? (Lat. Quid dubilamus?) ; ii, 94. 
 Cf. ii, 329. 
 
 What time, at the time when ; i, 36. 
 
 Witnessed, bore witness to, not 
 " observed"; i, 57. 
 
 Wont, were wont to; i, 764. 
 
\\CN 
 
 V 
 
 \W* 
 
 Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
 Neutralizing Agent: Magnesium Oxide 
 Treatment Date: 
 
 MAY 1999 
 BBKKEEFER 
 
 PRESERVATION TECHNOLOGIES, LP. 
 
 b 111 Thomson Park Drive 
 Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
 (724)779-2111