by John Milton
326. The field… brown Plutarch describes the Parthians at Carrhae ‘blazing in helmets and breastplates’ (Crassus 24). Brown means ‘burnished, glistening’ (OED 4).
327. clouds of foot translating Homer, Il. iv 274 and Virgil, Aen. vii 793. horn wing of an army (OED 19).
328. Cuirassiers heavy armoured cavalry.
329. endorsed *carrying on their backs (OED 3a).
330. pioneers military engineers.
334. bridges… yoke perhaps alluding to Xerxes’ bridge of ships over the Hellespont, which Aeschylus (Persians 71–2) and M. (PL x 307) had called a ‘yoke’.
338–43. Agrican… Charlemagne See Boiardo’s romantic epic Orlando Innamorato I x-xiv. The Tartar King Agrican brought an army of 2,200,000 men to besiege Albracca, the fortress of Gallaphrone, King of Cathay. Agrican loved Gallaphrone’s daughter Angelica. Many paladins of Charlemagne, including Orlando, were drawn into the conflict.
342. prowest most valiant.
343. paynim pagan: a favourite word of Spenser’s.
344. chivalry army, host (OED 2).
347–9. I seek not… thy safety ‘It is not my aim to stir up your valour without taking every precaution for your safety’; but the double negative (not… On no slight grounds) admits a Satanic ambiguity as to how much protection Satan is offering. At best, Satan offers only slight protection, and he might offer none at all. Cp. Jesus’s condemnation of Satan’s dark ambiguities in i 434–5.
347–8. engage / Thy virtue exhort thy manliness (OED ‘engage’ 8a, ‘virtue’ 7), but ‘engage’ could also mean ‘ensnare’ (OED 11), and Satan does mean to ensnare Jesus’s moral virtue.
358. opposite hostile (OED 4a).
359. Samaritan or Jew Samaritans and Jews had been enemies since the Jews had returned from captivity in Babylon (Ezra 4). Satan’s implication that Jesus might reconcile them is calculated to appeal to the Jesus who will tell the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10. 25–37) and preach to Samaritans (John 4. 5–42).
365–7. invasion… bound The Parthians invaded Judaea in about 40 BC and carried off the Judaean King Hyrcanus II, who was an ally of Rome. But Satan errs in saying that Hyrcanus’s nephew Antigonus was led captive. Antigonus allied himself to the Parthians, who made him king. He reigned for three years before Herod and Mark Antony defeated and crucified him (Josephus, Antiquities xiv 13–16). Satan might be rewriting history so as to exaggerate Parthian power, or M. might simply be in error.
365. annoy injure, harm.
368. Maugre in spite of.
373–80. David’s… deliver David ruled all twelve tribes of Israel, but the kingdom was divided after Solomon’s death (933 BC). The two southern tribes remained loyal to Solomon’s son Rehoboam and formed the kingdom of Judah. The ten northern tribes followed Jeroboam and formed the kingdom of Israel (I Kings 12. 12–20, PL i 484). Shalmaneser of Assyria led the ten tribes into captivity (see above, 278n), from which they never returned (hence lost, 377).
376. Habor a tributary of the Euphrates near which the King of Assyria placed the ten lost tribes (II Kings 17. 6).
377. Ten… Joseph The ten tribes are all descended from Jacob, and two of them (Ephraim and Manasseh) are also descended from Jacob’s son Joseph.
384. From Egypt to Euphrates Cp. God’s covenant with Abraham: ‘Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates’ (Gen. 15. 18). Cp. also I Kings 4. 21.
387. fleshly arm Cp. II Chron. 32. 8 (on the King of Assyria): ‘With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles’; also Jer. 17. 5: ‘Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm’. Cp. also Spenser, FQ III iv 27: ‘So feeble is the powre of fleshly arme’.
391. policy political cunning.
393. Plausible winning public approval (OED 2a).
395. *unpredict Sole instance in OED.
396–7. My time… yet come Cp. John 7. 6: ‘My time is not yet come’.
401. Luggage baggage of an army (OED 1) and encumbrance (OED 2a), as in ‘Those uncountable multitudes… are… rather a luggage than an aid’ (1614).
410. numb’ring Israel Cp. I Chron. 21. 1–15: ‘Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel… And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel’. The ensuing plague killed ‘seventy thousand men’.
414–15. captive tribes… captivity The ten tribes in Assyria were led captive as a punishment for idolatry (II Kings 17. 7–18).
416–17. calves… Egypt Jeroboam instituted the worship of calves in Israel. See I Kings 12. 28–9 and PL i 482–6.
417. Baal… Ashtaroth See PL i 422n, Nativity 200n.
425. circumcision vain Cp. Rom. 2. 25: ‘if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision’.
428. patrimony heritage (OED 1c), i.e. the idolatrous religions of the corrupt kings of Israel.
436. Assyrian flood the Euphrates. Jesus is recalling Isaiah’s prophecy of the delivery of the ten lost tribes: ‘the Lord shall… shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod. And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt’ (Isa. 11. 15–16). Cp. also Rev. 16. 12 and II Esdras 13. 40–46.
438. See Exod. 14. 21–2 for the cleaving of the Red Sea, and Josh. 3. 14–17 for the cleaving of Jordan.
THE FOURTH BOOK
1. Perplexed sorely distressed.
success outcome.
5. sleeked rendered smooth with flattering speech (OED 3b).
6–7. Eve… deceived See i 51–2n and cp. ii 141–2.
7. This Jesus.
who Satan (referring back to his). Cp. the ambiguous syntax at iv 581f.
15–17. flies… humming sound Spenser (FQ II ix 51) compares ‘idle thoughts’ to buzzing flies, Homer (II. ii 469–71, xvi 641–3) likens warriors to flies swarming over milk pails, and Ariosto (Orl. Fur. xiv 109) likens Moors attacking Christians to flies attacking ripe grapes. M.’s wine-press is also proleptic of Christ as vine (John 15. 1).
16. must new wine.
18–20. surging waves… bubbles end The simile of rock and waves is common in epic. Cp. Homer, Il. xv 618–22, Virgil, Aen. vii 586–90, Tasso, Gerus. Lib. ix 31. Vida (Christiad iv 634–6) and Giles Fletcher (CV iii 23) apply it to Christ resisting Satan’s temptations. Cp. also Matt. 7. 24–5 (the house built upon a rock).
23. desperate despairing.
27. Another plain Latium (Lazio).
29. ridge of hills the Apennines.
31. Septentrion blasts north winds (named from the seven stars of the Great Bear).
32. a river the Tiber.
36. Porches porticos.
37. trophies spoils of war.
arcs arches.
40. parallax an apparent change in the position of an object.
41. multiplied magnified optically.
42. telescope Cp. Fletcher, CV (1610) ii 58–60, where Pangloretta tempts Christ by showing him ‘all the world’ in a ‘hollowe globe of glasse’, and Christ shatters the ‘optique glasses’. ‘Optic glass’ was a term for ‘telescope’ (cp. PL i 288).
curious unduly inquisitive.
47. the Capitol the smallest of Rome’s seven hills, on which stood the temple of Jove, Juno, and Minerva.
49. Tarpeian rock the steep cliffs of the Capitoline hill.
50. Mount Palatine another of the seven hills.
51. imperial palace the Domus Tiberiana, on the west corner of the Palatine. M. had seen the ruins of Domitian’s palace on the hill’s centre.
54. Roman palaces may have had terraces, but the turrets and spires owe more to English architecture.
57. microscope See above, 42n.
59. hand handiwork.
63. Praetors Roman magistrates acting as provincial governors in the year following their term of o
ffice at Rome. There were about sixteen praetors in Tiberius’s time.
proconsuls governors of senatorial provinces.
65. Lictors attendants on a magistrate. They walked before him carrying rods (fasces) as a symbol of his power.
66. legion the largest unit in the Roman army, with a nominal strength of 6,000 infantry.
cohort a tenth part of a legion.
wings cavalry formations flanking the infantry. A turm was a tenth part of a wing, about thirty in number.
68. Appian road the Via Appia, Rome’s principal road to south Italy, running from Rome to Brundisium.
69. Aemilian the Via Aemilia, leading north from Rome.
70. Syene modern Aswan in Egypt, the southernmost limit of the Roman Empire.
where the shadow both way falls i.e. at the equator, where shadows fall to the south in summer and to the north in winter.
71. Meroë the capital of Ethiopia, on a peninsula in the Nile, bounded by the Nile, the Atbara, and the Blue Nile.
72. realm of Bocchus ancient Mauretania (modern Morocco and coastal Algeria). Bocchus (Jugurtha’s father-in-law) was King of Mauretania at the time of the Jugurthine War (111–106 BC).
Blackmoor sea the Mediterranean off Morocco, by the Barbary coast.
74. golden Chersoness a region east of India, sometimes identified with the Malay peninsula. The usual spelling is ‘Chersonese’ (cp. PL xi 392); M. may be avoiding a rhyme with these.
75. Tapróbanè an island in the far east (Pliny, Natural History VI xxiv 81–91), in M.’s time identified with Ceylon or Sumatra.
77. Gallia Gaul.
Gades Cadiz.
British west Armorica (Brittany). Britain itself was not yet conquered.
78. Scythians See iii 301n.
Sarmatians a barbarian tribe related to the Scythians. Inhabiting what is now Poland, they were never subject to Rome.
79. Danubius the Danube, the north-eastern border of the Roman Empire in Jesus’s time.
Tauric pool Sea of Azov.
90. This emperor Tiberius (42 BC–AD 37) reigned from AD 14. He had no son because his sons were dead by AD 23. In AD 26 he retired from active government and took up residence on the isle of Capri (Capreae). Suetonius, De Vita Caesarum iii 43–5, and Tacitus, Annales vi 1, describe his horrid lusts there.
95. wicked favourite Sejanus. He was executed in AD 31 after Tiberius denounced him to the Senate.
103–4. to me the power / Is given Cp. Luke 4. 6: ‘And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it’.
115. citron tables Citrus wood was famed for its hardness and the beauty of its grain.
Atlantic stone marble from the Atlas Mountains.
117. Setia, Cales, and Falerne famous wine-growing districts south of Rome.
118. Chios and Crete Aegean islands famous for wine.
119. Crystal and myrrhine cups Pliny xxxiii 2, and Juvenal vi 155–6, mention cups of crystal and myrrhine as luxuries prized by the Romans. Myrrhine was probably Chinese porcelain imported from Parthia.
130. Conscience Tacitus, Annales vi 6, testifies that Tiberius was tortured by guilt.
132. That people victor once the Romans, who had been free and victorious under the Republic, but were now vassals of the emperors.
133. Deservedly made vassal M. believed that external enslavement was the inevitable punishment of those who became slaves to their own passions. Cp. PL xii 82–104.
136. Peeling plundering, pillaging.
138. insulting exulting proudly or contemptuously.
139. sports gladiatorial combats.
142. scene theatrical performance (OED 3a). Plato, the Christian Fathers, and the Puritans thought that the theatre was morally corrupting. M. defends tragedy in his preamble to SA, so Jesus is probably not condemning all drama. M. might be alluding to the Restoration theatre.
147. like a tree Jesus sees himself as the fulfilment of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a tree that ‘reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth’ (Dan. 4. 10–12). Daniel had interpreted the tree as a sign of Nebuchadnezzar, but Christian exegesis made it a symbol of Christ’s Church (Lewalski 277–8). Cp. the parable of the mustard seed (Matt. 13. 21–2).
149. as a stone Jesus refers to Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a stone that smashed an idol and then became a mountain (Dan. 2. 31–5). Daniel saw the stone as a sign of God’s kingdom that would break all other kingdoms and ‘stand for ever’ (Dan. 2. 44). Christian exegesis interpreted the stone as Christ or his kingdom (Lewalski 279).
151. kingdom… no end Luke 1. 33.
152–3. Means there shall be Jesus never does tell Satan what the means to his kingdom will be. Rushdy (237) thinks that he is referring to ‘the “paradise within”’, but Jesus has just referred to his kingship over all the earth (148). One means to this, as yet unsuspected by Satan, is the Crucifixion (see PL iii 333–42, xii 386–465). Satan will soon read Jesus’s death in the stars (iv 382–93), but he nowhere imagines that this will be the means whereby Jesus will fulfil his kingship.
157. nice fastidious, difficult to please.
158. still always.
164. giv’n to me Allan H. Gilbert, in JEGP 15 (1916) 606, points out that Satan does not include Athens among the gifts under his personal control. See also Pope (67).
166–7. if… lord Cp. Matt. 4. 9: ‘All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me’.
175–7. It is written… serve Cp. Luke 4. 8: ‘Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve’. Jesus is referring to the first of the Ten Commandments (Exod. 20. 3, Deut. 6. 13). Cp. Matt. 4. 10.
184. donation bestowal of property (OED 1).
185. King of kings The title could be used either of God (I Tim. 6. 15) or Christ (Rev. 17. 14, 19. 16). Jesus here uses it of the Father, but he also makes his own implicit claim in calling Satan’s kingdoms my own (191).
193. Get thee behind me Luke 4. 8 (cit. above, 175–7n).
194. That Evil One, Satan Jesus had recognized Satan at i 356, but this is the first and only time that he addresses him by name. The name declares the enmity that Satan has so far denied or tried to conceal (see i 387, ii 330). Satan will not admit to being Jesus’s enemy until iv 525–7.
197. Sons of God both angels are and men Angels (including Satan) are called sons of God at Job 1. 6 and 2. 1. John 1. 12 and Rom. 8. 14 state that men may become sons of God. Cp. also Ps. 82. 6: ‘I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High’. Many critics take Satan at his word when he professes not to know how Jesus bears the title. See i 91, iv 517 and notes.
199. proposed presented to view (OED 1), handed to someone for him to take (OED 3a).
201. Tetrarchs subordinate rulers, rulers of a fourth part (OED 2a). The Roman province of Judaea was divided into four tetrarchies (Luke 3. 1). Satan applies the term to demonic rulers of the four elements (201) and rulers of all human nations from the quartered winds (202).
203. God of this world Satan’s title in II Cor. 4. 4.
215. that early action See i 209–14n.
217. wast] was 1671. The emendation has been widely adopted since the eighteenth century.
218. *disputant engaged in controversy (OED’s earliest adjectival instance).
219. fitting Moses’ chair regarding the law. Cp. Matt. 23. 2: ‘The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat’. Moses ‘sat to judge the people’ in Exod. 18. 13–16.
225. couched comprised, included (OED v1 14).
226. Pentateuch the first five books of the O.T.
228. To admiration in an excellent manner (OED 2b).
231. Without their learning Satan assumes that a man brought up as a carpenter must be ignorant of Greek philosophy, but Jesus soon shows himself to be conversant with it (iv 286–321). Thus Satan’s offer is not so much ‘rejected’ a
s it is shown to be redundant.
234. idolisms *fallacies (OED 3) or idolatries. Sylvester had coined the word in DWW (1592–1608), The Decay (1608), where it means ‘idolatries’ (491, 507). Satan might be punning.
paradoxes used by the Stoics to teach moral philosophy.
235. evinced confuted (OED 2b).
236. specular *affording an extensive view (OED 7). Cp. ‘top / Of speculation’ (PL xii 588–9).
239. pure the air Plato and Cicero attributed the Athenians’ intelligence to the clear air of their city (Timaeus 24C, De Fato iv 7). Cp. PL ix 44–5 and note.
240. the eye the seat of intelligence or light (OED 3e). Athens and Sparta were anciently described as the ‘eyes’ of Greece (see e.g. Aristotle, Rhetoric III x 7).
242. recess place of retirement.
244. Academe an olive grove and gymnasium west of Athens, near the hill of Colonus. Plato established his school there.
245. Attic bird the nightingale. Colonus was the home of many nightingales (Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 671).
247. Hymettus a range of hills to the south-east of Athens, famous for honey.
249. Ilissus a small river flowing from Hymettus through the Attic plain to the sea. Plato’s Phaedrus is set there.
251. who Aristotle, Alexander’s tutor.
253. Lyceum a grove and gymnasium where Aristotle taught. M. errs in placing it within the walls; it lay to the east of Athens, near the Ilissus. painted Stoa the northern colonnade of the Athenian market-place, decorated with frescoes. Zeno taught there, and his followers were known as ‘Stoics’.
255. numbers groups of notes (OED 18).
257. Aeolian charms songs in the Aeolic dialect (e.g. the lyric poems of Sappho and Alcaeus).
Dorian lyric odes Pindar, Alcman and Stesichorus wrote odes in the Doric dialect.
258. his who gave them breath Homer, anciently seen as the origin of all poetry.
259. Melesigenes a name sometimes applied to Homer in allusion to his alleged birthplace near the banks of the river Meles in Ionia.
thence from his blindness. According to an ancient etymology, ‘Homer’ was the Cumaean word for ‘blind’.
260. challenged laid claim to (OED 5). Apollo claims authorship of Homer’s poems in an epigram in The Greek Anthology ix 455.
