The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)

by John Milton

  378. Hatching vain empires Cp. God’s Spirit brooding on the abyss (i 20–22, vii 233–40).

  383. one root Adam and Eve (root of our family tree) and the forbidden Tree, ‘root of all our woe’ (ix 645).

  387. States dignitaries, nobles (OED 24). Editors infer a reference to the three Estates of the Realm (Lords, Clergy, Commons), but Pandaemonium has no Commons. See i 792n.

  391. Synod assembly (usually of clergy, so Synod of gods is satirical, cp. vi 156).

  404. tempt attempt (Satan will also ‘tempt’ God by testing how far he can go).

  405. abyss Greek, ‘bottomless’.

  406. obscure *darkness (OED B 1, adj. as noun). Palpable obscure recalls Exod. 10. 21: ‘darkness which may be felt’ (Junius-Tremellius: palpare possit tenebras).

  407. uncouth unknown.

  409. abrupt *precipice (OED B, earliest instance of the adj. used as a noun). Corns (88) sees these coinages as reflecting the ‘abortive gulf (ii 441) of Chaos: ‘readers too are left groping for some familiar substantive to fix upon: we find instead the shaky premise of a new noun’.

  410. happy isle The first of a series of ‘metaphors and similes in which Satan is a voyager or trader, and earth an island’ (Fowler). Cp. ii 636–42, 1043–4, iv 159–65, ix 513–16. The phrase also hints at the Fortunate Isles of Greek myth (cp. iii 568–70 and note).

  412. senteries sentries.

  415. Choice in our suffrage care in our vote (which never takes place).

  418. suspense attentive, in suspense, hanging (OED a 1, 2, 4).

  420. all sat mute So ‘all stood mute’ when God called for a volunteer to die for man (iii 217). Most critics see Satan’s heroic offer (ii 426–66) as a parody of the Son’s (iii 222–65). Cp. Homer, Il. vii 92–3, where Hector challenges any Greek to single combat, and all sat ‘silent, / ashamed to refuse him, and afraid to accept his challenge’.

  425. proffer volunteer (oneself) and offer (the voyage) to someone else (and so be seen to decline it).

  432–3. long… light Another echo of the Sibyl’s warning to Aeneas (see above, 81n). Cp. also Dante, Inf. xxxiv 95 (‘long is the way, and arduous the road’).

  435. Outrageous to devour violently destructive.

  436. gates… adamant Cp. the adamantine gates of Virgil’s Tartarus (Aen. vi 552). On adamant, see i 48n.

  439. unessential *possessing no essence (OED 1). Cp. ‘uncreated Night’ (ii 150) and ‘unsubstantial’ night in PR iv 399.

  441. abortive Chaos is a ‘womb’ (ii 150, 911, x 476) containing embryon atoms (ii 900) and pregnant causes (913). Satan may also think of Chaos ‘as a miscarrying womb… from which the traveller may never be born, or which may render him as if unborn’ (Fowler).

  444. escape.] Ed I, Ed II, Ed III; escape? Ed IV. The earlier pointing admits no doubt about the magnitude of the dangers Satan is facing.

  445. Peers nobles (cp. i 757, ii 507), but with overtones of ‘companions’, ‘equals’ (OED 3, 1). Satan had ‘set himself in glory above his peers’ (i 39), so he is naturally evasive as to whether Hell’s Peers are equal to each other or to him. M. and Salmasius had debated the precise meaning of ‘Peer’ (Latin, parem). See Defensio (YP 4. 463).

  450–56. Wherefore… honoured sits? Cp. the heroic speech of Homer’s Sarpedon: ‘Glaukos, why is it you and I are honoured before all others / with pride of place, the choice meats and the filled wine cups / in Lykia…? Therefore it is our duty in the forefront of the Lykians / to take our stand, and bear our part in the blazing of battle’ (Il. xii 310–16).

  452. Refusing ‘if I refuse’.

  457. intend occupy yourselves with (OED 12). Go invites a pun on ‘start on a journey’ (OED ‘intend’ 6b), contrasting Satan’s heroic voyage with the passive adventurism of those who intend at home.

  461. deceive wile away (OED 5).

  467. prevented pre-empted.

  468. raised made bold.

  478. reverence bow (OED 2).

  prone bending forward and downward (OED 1). Fowler understands ‘grovelling’ (OED 4), and contrasts the good angels’ obeisance (iii 349). But Towards him they bend need not imply prostration. Even good angels bow ‘low’ to ‘superior Spirits’ (iii 736–8).

  485. close secret.

  varnished speciously tricked out.

  488–95. As when… rings Cp. Ariosto’s lovely simile likening Olimpia’s tearful face to sunlight after a shower, when birds sing in ‘beams of light’ (Orl. Fur. xi 65).

  490. louring element threatening sky.

  496–7. Devil with devil damned I Firm concord holds Cp. Matt. 12. 25–6: ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation… if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?’

  504. enow enough.

  507. Peers nobles, Peers of the Realm.

  508. Paramount Lord paramount, supreme ruler.

  509. Antagonist translating ‘Satan’, which means ‘enemy’, ‘adversary’ or ‘antagonist’. Cp. x 386–7.

  512. globe body of soldiers (Latin globus). Flying angels might also adopt a spherical formation. Cp. vi 399, PR iv 581, and Fletcher, CV(1610) iv 13: ‘A globe of winged Angels’.

  fiery Seraphim Seraphs were associated with fire on account of Hebrew saraph, ‘to burn’. Cp. v 807.

  513. *emblazonry heraldic devices.

  *horrent bristling.

  515. result outcome of deliberations (OED 3a).

  517. alchemy brass (trumpets).

  520. *acclaim shout of applause (coined from the verb).

  521. raised encouraged.

  522. rangèd powers armies drawn up in ranks.

  526. entertain while away (OED 9b).

  527. his] Ed I; this Ed II.

  528–55. Part… audience Athletic games and musical contests are frequent in classical epic. Cp. Homer, Il. ii 774–9, xxiii 262ff., Od. viii 100ff., Virgil, Aen. v 104ff., Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica ii 1ff., Statius, Thebaid vi 255ff. M.’s infernal games most closely resemble Aen. vi 642–59.

  528. sublime raised aloft (OED 1) and elated (OED 3b).

  530. Pythian fields The Pythian games (supposedly instituted by Apollo after he had killed the serpent Python) took place at Delphi.

  531. shun the goal swing tight around the turning-pole in a chariot race. Cp. Homer, Il. xxiii 318–41.

  532. fronted confronting each other (in mock battle).

  533–8. to warn… burns Armies appeared in the sky above Jerusalem before it fell to Antiochus (II Mace. 5. 1–4), and again before it fell to the Romans (Josephus, De Bellis VI v 3). Armies were also seen fighting in England’s skies in 1640, 1643, 1648, 1659, 1660 and 1661. M.’s nephew, Edward Phillips, recalled that the Civil War had been portended by battles ‘in the Ayre’. Radical pamphlets saw such battles as a warning against the Restoration. Mirabilis Annus (1661) likens airy battles over London to those preceding Jerusalem’s fall. Patrick Hume in 1695 recognized that M. was alluding to ‘our Civil Wars’. See John Leonard, ‘ “To Warn Proud Cities”: a Topical Reference in Milton’s Airy Knights Simile’, Renaissance and Reformation 19 (1995) 63–71.

  536. Prick spur.

  couch lower to the attack position.

  538. welkin sky.

  539. *Typhoean See i 197–200n. Typhoeus’s name was associated with ‘typhoon’ and meant whirlwind (541).

  540. ride the air torment the air (cp. vi 244) by riding on whirlwinds. Cp. Ps. 18. 10 and Shakespeare, Macbeth, ‘Cherubins, hors’d / Upon the sightless couriers of the air’ (I vii 22–3).

  542–6. Alcides… Euboic Sea Hercules (Alcides) had killed the centaur Nessus by shooting him with an arrow dipped in the Hydra’s poisonous blood. Mortally wounded, Nessus told Hercules’ wife, Deianeira, that she should soak a robe in his blood. The robe, he said, would revive Hercules’ love. Not suspecting treachery, Deianeira soaked a robe in the now envenomed blood, and presented it to Hercules after he returned from another victory at Oechalia. Tormented by the robe’
s corrosive touch, Hercules threw his friend Lichas (who had innocently brought the robe) from the top of Mount Oeta in Thessaly into the Euboean Sea. See Ovid, Met. ix 134f., Sophocles, Trachiniae, and Seneca, Hercules Furens.

  550. complain compose a musical lament (OED ib) and grumble.

  552. partial both ‘polyphonic’ and ‘prejudiced’.

  554. Suspended riveted the attention of (OED 5a) and deferred. The parenthesis ‘suspends as it were the event’ (Newton).

  took captivated, charmed.

  557. retired ‘in Thought, as well as from the Company’ (Richardson).

  561. in wand’ring mazes lost echoing Virgil, Aen. v 590 (on the Cretan labyrinth) and Ariosto, Orl. Fur. xiii 50 (on the maze palace of Atlante). Mazes are a recurrent image in PL. Cp. iv 239, v 620–24, ix 499, x 830.

  564. apathy the Stoic virtue of freedom from passion.

  568. obdurèd hardened, especially ‘in wickedness or sin’ (OED 1). Cp. vi 785.

  570. gross massed.

  575–81. The epithet attached to each river translates its Greek name.

  591. pile massive building.

  592. Serbonian bog Lake Serbonis, on the Egyptian coast. Diodorus Siculus tells how ‘whole armies’ had been engulfed in its quicksands, ‘for as the sand is walked upon it gives way but gradually, deceiving with a kind of malevolent cunning those who advance upon it’ (I xxx 5–7). Apollonius Rhodius tells how the monster Typhon was whelmed beneath Serbonis after warring against Zeus (Argonautica ii 1210–15). For other bog similes, see ii 939 and ix 634–45.

  594. parching withering with cold (OED ‘parch’ 2b).

  595. frore frozen. Hell’s icy torments were traditional. Cp. Dante, Inf. xxxii.

  596. Harpy-footed taloned. Harpies (monsters with women’s faces) carried souls off to the avenging Furies (Homer, Od. xx 77, Virgil, Aen. iii 21 if). haled] hailed Ed I, Ed II. This is a region of hail (589), so the early spelling may be a pun.

  600. starve die by freezing.

  604. Lethean sound Lethe, river of forgetfulness. Virgil’s dead, after suffering for a thousand years, are permitted to drink from Lethe before being reincarnated (Aen. vi 748–51). M.’s devils have no second chance.

  611. Medusa the snaky-haired Gorgon whose look turned men to stone.

  613. wight person.

  614. Tantalus was ‘tantalized’ in Hades by being set in a pool from which he could not drink, and under trees whose fruit he could not eat (Homer, Od. xi 582–92). Cp. x 556–77.

  628. Gorgons, Hydras… Chimeras The Hydra was a venomous serpent with nine heads, the Chimera a fire-breathing monster. For Gorgons, see above, 61 in. Aeneas is threatened by the shades of Gorgons and the Chimera in Virgil’s hell (Aen. vi 288–9).

  631. toward] Ed I; towards Ed II.

  632. Explores makes proof of (a Latinism).

  634. shaves barely escapes touching.

  637. Hangs in the clouds Ships seen in a mirage appear to fly. The simile suits the master of illusions who burdens the air with ‘unusual weight’ (i 227).

  equinoctial at the equator.

  638. Close sailing sailing close to the wind.

  Bengala Bengal. The ships are sailing south and west from India around the Cape of Good Hope (641). At iv 159–65 Satan is likened to ships sailing in the opposite direction.

  639. Ternate and Tidore Spice Islands in the Moluccas.

  640. spicy drugs any spice or medicinal substance.

  641. Ethiopian Indian Ocean.

  642. Ply beat up against the wind (OED v2 II 6). stemming holding course (OED v3 ie).

  645. thrice threefold overgoing the ‘threefold’ bronze wall encircling Hesiod’s Tartarus (Theog. 726–33).

  647. impaled fenced in.

  650–9. seemed woman… unseen Phineas Fletcher in The Apollyonists (1627) depicts ‘Sin’ (Satan’s daughter by Eve) as half woman, half serpent, and makes her ‘Porter to th’ infernall gate’ (i 10–12). Cp. also Phineas Fletcher’s Hamartia in The Purple Island (1633) xii 27–31, Virgil’s Scylla (Aen. iii 424–8), Ovid’s Scylla (Met. xiv 59–67), and Spenser’s Errour (FQ I i 14f.). M. does not name Sin until line 760.

  652. Voluminous consisting of many coils (OED 1).

  654. cry pack.

  655. Cerberean From Cerberus, the many-headed watchdog of hell.

  660. Scylla a once beautiful nymph, whose lower parts were changed into a ring of barking dogs when Circe poured poison into the bay where she bathed (Ovid, Met. xiv 50–74). Scylla then preyed on sailors (see below, ii 1019n). Chrysostom had likened Sin to Scylla in Homily on I Corinthians ix 9. See M. J. Edwards, N&Q n.s. 42 (December 1995) 448–50.

  661. Trinacrian Sicilian.

  662. night-hag Hecate, Scylla’s mother and goddess of witchcraft. Her approach was signalled by howling dogs.

  Lapland famous for witchcraft.

  665. labouring eclipsed (OED 3b), but suggesting also pains of childbirth (womb, infant). Lucan (Pharsalia vi 499–506, 554–8) describes witches causing lunar eclipses (labores) and drinking infant blood.

  677. admired wondered.

  679. Created thing The heretical implication that God and his Son were creatures shocked Bentley, but M. did believe the Son was created. See CD i 5 (esp. YP6. 211).

  683. miscreated front misshapen face. Cp. the ‘miscreated mould’ of Spenser’s monster Disdayne (FQ II vii 42). Guyon is about to fight Disdayne, when Mammon ‘did his hasty hand withhold, / And counseld him abstaine from perilous fight: / For nothing might abash the villein bold’. Sin offers similar advice to Satan (810–14).

  686. taste know.

  proof experience.

  688. goblin evil spirit.

  692. Drew… the third part Cp. Rev. 12. 4: ‘[the dragon’s] tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth’. Cp. v 710.

  693. Conjúred sworn together (OED 1), constrained by oath (OED 3), bewitched (OED 7).

  694. God Death’s readiness to name God sets him apart from the devils, who call God anything but ‘God’ (see i 93n). Death has not yet committed himself to Satan, but his own claim to rule Hell (698) implicitly defies God (see ii 327).

  701. whip of scorpions Cp. Rehoboam’s threat to Israel: ‘my father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions’ (I Kings 12. 11). A ‘scorpion’ was thought to be a studded whip.

  708–11. comet… war Cp. Tasso’s simile likening Argantes to a comet that brings death ‘To mighty lords, to monarchs, and to kings’ (Gerus. Lib. vii 52, trans. Fairfax). Cp. also Virgil, Aen. x 272–5 and Spenser, FQ III i 16, where Aeneas’s plumed helmet and Florimell’s hair are likened to comets. Comets were bad omens. One appearing in Ophiucus in 1618 was thought to have presaged the Thirty Years War (Fowler).

  709. Ophiucus The constellation of the Serpent Bearer in the northern sky. Cp. Satan as ‘Infernal Serpent’ raising rebellion in the North (i 34, v 689).

  710. horrid bristling (Latin horridus).

  hair playing on the etymology of ‘comet’ (Greek koμήτηç, ‘long-haired’).

  714–16. two black clouds… Caspian Boiardo likens Orlando and Agricane to clashing thunderclouds (Orl. Inn. I xvi 10). Tasso likens Argantes to thunderclouds over the Caspian (Gerus. Lib. vi 38).

  722. foe the Son of God (see Heb. 2. 14 and I Cor. 15. 26).

  735. pest plague.

  752–61. All… me Sin’s birth from Satan’s head is modelled on Athene’s birth from the head of Zeus, which theologians had compared to God’s generation of the Son.

  755. left side Eve was created from Adam’s left (or ‘sinister’) side (viii 465, x 886).

  758–9. amazement seized I All th’ host of Heav’n echoing Hesiod, Theog. (588), where ‘amazement seized’ men and gods as they beheld the first woman, whom Hephaestos had made to punish men for stealing fire. Cp. Eve as Pandora (iv 714).

  760. Sign portent (OED 9) and mere semblance (OED 8b). The paronomasia suggests that Sin received her name because she was a
portentous sign.

  772. pitch summit.

  778–87. my womb… Death Cp. James 1. 15: ‘Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death’.

  809. so Fate pronounced Cp. CD i 2: ‘fate or fatum is only what is fatum, spoken, by some almighty power’ (trans. Carey, YP 6. 131).

  813. dint blow from a weapon.

  825. pretences claims (OED 1), with overtones of the modern sense (cp. vi 421).

  829. unfounded bottomless.

  833. purlieus outskirts (OED 3).

  836. surcharged overpopulated (OED 5c).

  842. buxom yielding (OED 2). The phrase the buxom air echoes Spenser. Spenser’s dragon, wounded by Redcrosse, whips ‘the buxome aire’ with his tail (FQ I xi 37), and Spenser’s Jove, disguised as an eagle, spreads ‘wide wings to beat the buxome ayre’ (III xi 34).

  embalmed balmy, fragrant (with ominous overtones of death and decay).

  850. due just title.

  869–70. right hand… without end Sin parodies the Nicene creed: ‘We believe in… Jesus Christ… who sitteth on the right hand of the Father, and… of whose kingdom there shall be no end’.

  875. powers armies.

  877. wards the ridges inside a lock and the incisions on a key corresponding to them.

  883. Erebus hell.

  885. *bannered.

  889. redounding billowing.

  890–1039. In CD i 7 M. argues that God created the universe out of primal matter (not nothing). This matter ‘was good, and it contained the seeds of all subsequent good’ (trans. Carey, YP 6.308). Many critics have nevertheless doubted whether Chaos is good in PL. Schwartz (22–4) sees ‘Hell and Chaos’ as ‘allied’ against God. Adams (76) sees Chaos as the common enemy of God and Satan. M.’s Chaos seems hostile partly because it continues to exist after the Creation (ii 911, iii 418–26). Contrast Ovid, Met. i igf., where Chaos is all used up. See A. B. Chambers, ‘Chaos in Paradise Losf’, JHI 24 (1963) 55–84 (p. 83). See further, v 472n.

  891. secrets secret places (OED B 5), with a hint of ‘secret parts’, sexual organs (OED B 6). Chaos is a ‘womb’ (ii 150, 911).

  hoary ancient (OED ic) and hory (‘foul, filthy’). At Job 41.32, Leviathan surges through the sea so that ‘one would think the deep to be hoary’ (greyish white).