by John Milton
588. observed: heeded, reverenced. Though it exceeds the greatest historical and legendary human armies combined, Satan’s army acknowledges the still greater excellence of its leader.
594. glory: a coronalike brilliance; see 141n.
596. Shorn: an allusion to Samson, whose name derives from the Hebrew word for “sun.”
596–99. from … monarchs: Charles II’s censor objected to these lines, presumably because the king himself had been born on the day of an eclipse in 1630, a coincidence later construed “as a portent of the interregnum” (Leonard).
599. Perplexes: torments, a stronger term in seventeenth-century usage than now; see, e.g., OTH 5.2.346.
601. intrenched: cut into.
603. considerate: thoughtful, deliberate.
605. passion: suffering or affliction, in contrast with cruel, disposed to inflict suffering.
609. amerced: from the French for “at the mercy of”; a law term meaning “fined at the court’s discretion.” Milton’s unidiomatic construction suggests that he had in mind a similar Greek verb used by Homer to explain the blindness of the bard Demodokos: “Of his sight [the Muse] deprived [ámerse] him” (Od. 8.64).
615. blasted heath: Cp. MAC 1.3.77.
620. Tears … forth: According to Raphael, angels digest food and make love. Here it seems that they also have the capacity to shed tears after their fashion (cp. 5.407–39, 8.622–29, 10.23–25). It was commonly supposed that males weep because they are born of women. Milton rejects this theory (see 10.1101–2, 11.494–97) and had precedent for presenting angels capable of weeping; see, e.g., Shakespeare, MM 2.2.879, OTH 3.3.371. In context, Satan’s tears suggest those of the Persian tyrant Xerxes before his invasion of Greece. Reviewing his vast army, he was overcome by consciousness of his soldiers’ mortality “at the time when he was hastening them to their fate, and to the intended destruction of the greatest people in the world, to gratify his own vain glory” (Newton). Cp. 10.307–11.
624. event: outcome.
632. puissant: powerful.
641. still: invariably.
642. tempted our attempt: Milton’s propensity for paronomasia—close repetition of similar-sounding words distinct in meaning—has long been derided as “jingling”: “like marriages between persons too near of kin, to be avoided” (Hume). It is a figure distinctive of Hebrew Scripture, however, and one found in late Latin writers and Renaissance Italian poets. Milton often uses it in expressions of derision; see lines 666–67, 4.286, 5.869, 9.11, 9.648, 11.627, 12.78.
646. close: covert.
650. Space may produce: a notably active construction for a state commonly regarded as a passive locale or empty setting. By worlds Milton means what we would call “universes.” The one that Satan proceeds to mention is our own, which “may be supposed as yet not made” (Argument; cp. 8.229–36).
651. fame: rumor; cp. 2.345–53, 830–35, 10.481–82.
653. generation: race; choice regard: selective estimation or judgment. Regard may also mean “purpose” or “intention,” as in the description of Shakespeare’s Henry V: “The King is full of grace, and fair regard” (1.2.22).
656. eruption: outbreak; the diction seems suggestive of “hell’s volcanoes” (Leonard), but according to the OED the association of eruption with volcanic activity is not current in England until well into the eighteenth century.
672. scurf: any incrustation upon the surface of a body (especially diseased or scabbed skin); here a sulfurous deposit.
673. womb: belly or cavity.
674. work of sulfur: “the offspring and production of sulfur, … the subterranean fire [that] concocts and boils up the crude and undigested earth into a more profitable consistence, and by its innate heat, hardens and bakes it into metals” (Hume).
676. pioneers: soldiers who do demolition or construction for siege or defense.
678. Mammon: like Belial, a common noun. Derived from the Arabic for “riches,” it means “wealth”; cp. Matt. 6.24. By medieval times, Mammon had been personified as a Christian version of Pluto. See Spenser, FQ 2.7.
679. erected: upright in posture, lofty in character.
682. Heav’n’s pavement: see Rev. 21.21.
684. vision beatific: literally, the “happy-making sight” (On Time 18); viewing God.
686. center: the earth’s interior.
686–88. impious … hid: a commonplace that originates in Ovid’s account of a maternally abusive degeneration from the original “golden” age of justice and temperance (Met. 1.137–40). See Spenser, FQ 2.7.16, for a similar association of Mammon with such impiety. Cp. Comus’s reversal of the theme, 718–36.
688–90. Soon … gold: The diction anticipates the production of Eve at 8.463ff.
690. ribs: veins of ore; admire: wonder.
694. The Tower of Babel (see 12.43–62) and the Egyptian pyramids.
700–704. The massy ore (gold is dense) extracted by the pioneers is melted (founded) in prepared cells heated from below by a second group of fallen angels, who use liquid fire conveyed from the burning lake in sluices (Sluiced). Smelting the metals separates (severing) the heavy gold from the less dense matter (dross), which rises to the top and is skimmed off (scummed), leaving pure gold in the cells. In line 703, 1674 prints found out instead of founded (1667).
705–9. A various mold (hollow form or matrix) has been shaped by yet another crew, which fills it with molten gold transported from the cells by strange conveyance. This process is compared to an intricate musical composition taking audible form from one blast of wind into an organ.
710. fabric: fabrication.
711–12. Structural principles of music (e.g., Pythagoras’ golden section) were deemed basic to architecture and other plastic arts, including, as Milton later presents it, cuisine (see 5.333–49). Athenians played music at the dedication of temples like the Parthenon.
711. exhalation: vapor emitted by the earth.
713–17. Built … gold: The edifice looks like a pagan temple, with features that recall the Roman Pantheon (e.g., golden roof), though the satirical Milton presumably also has St. Peter’s Basilica in mind.
713. pilasters round: square columns built into the wall; round modifies set.
714. Doric: the least ornamented style of Greek column; like the laconic music of line 550.
715. architrave: the “master beam” or basis of the upper section of a classical temple; it sits on top of the columns (hence overlaid).
716. Cornice or frieze: The frieze is a band that sits on the architrave and is often, as in the case of the Parthenon, decorated with sculptures that stand out in relief, as if embossed (bossy). The cornice caps the frieze and is also often ornamented.
717. fretted gold: gold wrought with ornamental designs, as in the Pantheon.
718. Alcairo: Memphis, ancient capital of Egypt, near modern Cairo.
720. Belus: name for Baal in Babylon, where he had a celebrated temple, described by Ralegh (1621, 183); Serapis: Ptolemaic amalgamation of Hades and Osiris, with splendid temples in Memphis and Alexandria.
722–23. ascending pile / Stood fixed: After rising like a vapor out of the ground, the magnificent building achieved its finished state.
728. cressets: iron baskets suspended from the ceiling, containing flaming pitch (asphaltus).
729. naphtha: liquid pitch, supplies the lamps.
739. Ausonian land: Greek name for a district of Italy.
740–48. Men … before: Homer’s Hephaestus tells how Zeus threw him from Olympus to punish him for siding with Hera (Il. 1.591–95). Milton closely imitates that account but then corrects it.
740. Mulciber: smelter; another name for Vulcan, Roman counterpart to the Greek Hephaestus, god of fire and crafts. Homer mentions palaces he erects on Olympus (Il. 1.605–8), and Hesiod says he forged Pandora (cp. 688–90n; 4.714–19n).
745. zenith: (1) upper region of the sky, where vaporous meteorological phenomena such as falling stars were thought to ignite; (
2) the highest point above the observer’s horizon attained by a celestial body (the sun in this case).
750. engines: contrivances (it shares a common Latin root with invention); cp. 4.17.
756. Pandaemonium: Greek for “place of all the demons.”
759. By place or choice: by virtue of rank or election.
764. Wont: were wont (accustomed) to; soldan’s: sultan’s (see 348n).
765. paynim: pagan.
766. career: short gallop at full speed, as in jousting.
767–75. swarmed … affairs: Bee similes occur frequently in classical literature, and the phrasing here variously echoes precursors (cp. Homer, Il. 2.87–90; Vergil, Aen. 1.430–36; 6.707–9, and especially Georg. 4.149–227). Bees are usually presented as exemplary creatures, beneficial to humanity. Milton bends the tradition so that the inaugural scene of state affairs in Satan’s palace anticipates the final one, when the fallen angels are straitened into swarms of hissing serpents (cp. 10.508ff). Note the predominance of sibilants in both passages. When Milton was in Rome, the seemingly ubiquitous insignia of Pope Urban VIII was a bee, and his followers were called bees.
769. Taurus: The sun stays in the astrological sign of Taurus from April 20 till May 20, the period immediately after Aries, the sign under which the world was created and would have persisted had the Fall not occurred.
774. expatiate: (1) walk about; (2) speak at length. Bees communicate by moving their legs in view of other bees, relaying directions to the best sites for pollen. Although such entomological discoveries are relatively recent, beekeepers have long recognized that allowing bees to “walk about” each other augments the harvest of honey; hence the “suburban” plank laid outside the hive for that purpose.
778. Earth’s giant sons: See 198–200n.
780–81. Throng … mount: The legendary Pygmies were commonly thought to live beyond the Ganges in secluded mountainous regions where the Cranes that they battle lay their eggs (cp. 575n).
783–84. belated … he sees: The phrasing is generally taken as a borrowing from Vergil, when Aeneas thinks he glimpses Dido’s shade. But vacillation between seeing and dreaming and mention of a belated peasant make reminiscence of MND equally likely (4.1.204–14).
785. arbitress: observer and judge.
795. close recess: enclosed, secluded place; conclave: literally, “lockable room”; in the Catholic Church, it denotes the meeting held to select a new pope, so called from the secure room in which the meeting occurs.
797. Frequent: numerous.
798. consult: In seventeenth-century usage, the term is associated with secret meetings for plotting insurgency.
BOOK II
THE ARGUMENT
The consultation begun, Satan debates whether another battle be to be hazarded for the recovery of Heaven: some advise it; others dissuade. A third proposal is preferred, mentioned before by Satan: to search the truth of that prophecy or tradition in Heaven concerning 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 entertain 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.
High on a throne of royal state, which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormus2 and of Ind,
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand
Show’rs on her kings barbaric4 pearl and gold,
“High on a throne of royal state …” (2.1). (illustration credit 2.1)
Satan exalted sat, by merit5 raised
To that bad eminence; and from despair
Thus high uplifted beyond hope, aspires
Beyond thus high, insatiate to pursue
Vain war with Heav’n, and by success9 untaught
His proud imaginations thus displayed.
“Powers and Dominions11, deities of Heav’n,
For since no deep within her gulf can hold
Immortal vigor, though oppressed and fall’n,
I give not Heav’n for lost14. From this descent
Celestial Virtues15 rising, will appear
More glorious and more dread than from no fall,
And trust themselves to fear no second fate.
Me18 though just right, and the fixed laws of Heav’n
Did first create your leader, next, free choice,
With what besides, in counsel or in fight,
Hath been achieved of merit, yet this loss
Thus far at least recovered, hath much more
Established23 in a safe unenvied throne
Yielded with full consent. The happier state24
In Heav’n, which follows dignity25, might draw
Envy from each inferior; but who here
Will envy whom the highest place exposes
Foremost to stand against the Thunderer28’s aim
Your bulwark, and condemns to greatest share
Of endless pain? Where there is then no good
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
To union, and firm faith, and firm accord,
More than can be in Heav’n, we now return
To claim our just inheritance of old,
Surer to prosper than prosperity
Could have assured us; and by what best way,
Whether of open war or covert guile,
We now debate; who can advise, may speak.”
He ceased, and next him Moloch43, sceptered king,
Stood up, the strongest and the fiercest spirit
That fought in Heav’n, now fiercer by despair.
His trust was with th’ Eternal to be deemed
Equal in strength, and rather than be less
Cared not to be at all; with that care lost
Went all his fear: of God, or Hell, or worse
He reck’d50 not, and these words thereafter spake.
“My sentence51 is for open war. Of wiles,
More unexpert52, I boast not: them let those
Contrive who need, or when they need, not now.
For while they sit contriving, shall the rest,
Millions that stand in arms and longing wait
The signal to ascend, sit ling’ring here
Heav’n’s fugitives, and for their dwelling place
Accept this dark opprobrious den of shame,
The prison of his tyranny who reigns
By our delay? No, let us rather choose60
Armed with Hell flames and fury all at once61
O’er Heav’n’s high tow’rs to force resistless way,
Turning our tortures into horrid63 arms
Against the Torturer; when to meet the noise
Of his almighty engine65 he shall hear
Infernal thunder, and for lightning see
Black fire and horror shot with equal rage
Among his angels; and his throne itself
Mixed with Tartarean69 sulfur, and strange fire,
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 drench73
Of that forgetful74 lake benumb not still,
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
Insulting79, and pursu’d us through the deep,
With what compulsion and laborious flight
We sunk81 thus low? Th’ ascent is easy then;
Th’ event82 is feared. Should we again provoke
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
Than to dwell here, driv’n out from bliss, condemned
In this abhorrèd deep to utter woe;
Where pain of unextinguishable fire
Must exercise us without hope of end
The vassals of his anger, when the scourge
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 we94 to incense
His utmost ire? Which to the highth enraged,
Will either quite consume us and reduce
To nothing this essential97, happier far
Than miserable to have eternal being:
Or if our substance be indeed divine,
And cannot cease to be, we are at worst
On this side nothing100; and by proof101 we feel
Our power sufficient to disturb his Heav’n,
And with perpetual inroads to alarm,
Though inaccessible, his fatal104 throne:
Which if not victory is yet revenge.”
He ended frowning, and his look denounced106
Desperate revenge, and battle dangerous
To less than gods. On th’ other side up rose108
Belial109, in act more graceful and humane;
A fairer person lost not Heav’n; he seemed
For dignity composed and high exploit:
But all was false and hollow; though his tongue
Dropped manna113, and could make the worse appear
The better reason, to perplex and dash
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.
