Paradise Lost

by John Milton

  And in embraces forcible and foul

  Engend’ring with me, of that rape begot

  These yelling795 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

  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,

  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 pronounced809.

  But thou O father, I forewarn thee, shun

  His deadly arrow; neither vainly hope

  To be invulnerable in those bright arms,

  Though tempered Heav’nly, for that mortal dint813,

  Save he who reigns above, none can resist.”

  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 sire,

  And my fair son here show’st me, the dear pledge

  Of dalliance had with thee in Heav’n, and joys

  Then sweet, now sad to mention, through dire change

  Befall’n us unforeseen, unthought of, know

  I come no enemy, but to set free

  From out this dark and dismal house of pain,

  Both him and thee, and all the Heav’nly host

  Of spirits that in our just pretenses825 armed

  Fell with us from on high: from them I go

  This uncouth errand sole827, and one for all

  Myself expose, with lonely steps to tread

  Th’ unfounded829 deep, and through the void immense

  To search with wand’ring quest a place foretold

  Should be, and, by concurring signs, ere now

  Created vast and round, a place of bliss

  In the purlieus833 of Heav’n, and therein placed

  A race of upstart creatures, to supply

  Perhaps our vacant room, though more removed,

  Lest Heav’n surcharged836 with potent multitude

  Might hap to move new broils837: 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

  Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen

  Wing silently the buxom842 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 Deat

  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.

  “The key of this infernal pit by due,

  And by command of Heav’n’s all-powerful King

  I keep, by him forbidden to unlock

  These adamantine gates; against all force

  Death ready stands to interpose his dart,

  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,

  Inhabitant of Heav’n, and Heav’nly-born,

  Here in perpetual agony and pain,861

  With terrors and with clamors compassed round

  Of mine own brood, that on my bowels feed:

  Thou art my father, thou my author, thou

  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 ease868, where I shall reign

  At thy869 right hand voluptuous, as beseems

  Thy daughter and thy darling, without end.”

  Thus saying, from her side the fatal key,

  Sad instrument of all our woe872, she took;

  And towards the gate rolling her bestial train,

  Forthwith the huge portcullis high up drew,

  Which but herself not all the Stygian powers

  Could once have moved; then876 in the key-hole turns

  Th’ intricate wards877, and every bolt and bar

  Of massy iron or solid rock with ease

  Unfastens: on a sudden open fly

  With880 impetuous recoil and jarring sound

  Th’ infernal doors, and on their hinges grate

  Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook

  Of Erebus883. She opened, but to shut

  Excelled her power; the gates wide open stood,

  That with extended wings a bannered host

  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 redounding889 smoke and ruddy flame.

  Before their eyes in sudden view appear

  The secrets891 of the hoary deep, a dark

  Illimitable ocean without bound,

  Without dimension, where length, breadth, and highth,

  And time and place are lost; where894 eldest Night

  And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold

  Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise

  Of endless wars, and by confusion stand.

  For Hot, Cold, Moist, and Dry898, four champions fierce

  Strive here for mast’ry, and to battle bring

  Their embryon atoms900; 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’s904 torrid soil,

  Levied to side with warring winds, and poise

  Their lighter wings. To whom these906 most adhere,

  He rules a moment; Chaos907 umpire sits,

  And by decision more embroils the fray

  By which he reigns: next him high arbiter

  Chance governs all. Into this wild abyss,

  The womb of Nature and perhaps911 her grave,

  Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire,

  But all these in their pregnant causes mixed

  Confus’dly, and which thus must ever fight,

  Unless th’915 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 a while,

  Pondering his Voyage; for no narrow frith919

  He had to cross. Nor was his ear less pealed920

  With noises loud and ruinous (to compare

  Great things with small) than when Bellona922 storms,

  With all her battering engines bent to raze

  Some capital city; or less than if this frame924

  Of heav’n were falling, and these elements

  In mutiny had from her axle torn

  The steadfast Earth. At last his sail-broad vans927

  He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke

  Uplifted spurns the ground, thence many a league

  As in a cloudy chair930 ascending rides

  Audacious, but that seat soon failing, meets

  A vast vacuity: all unawares

  Flutt’ring his pennons933 vain plumb down he drops

  Ten thousand fathom deep, and to this hour
>
  Down935 had been falling, had not by ill chance

  The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud

  Instinct with fire and niter hurried him

  As many miles aloft: that fury stayed,

  Quenched in a boggy Syrtis939, neither sea,

  Nor good dry land: nigh foundered on he fares,

  Treading the crude consistence, half on foot,

  Half flying; behooves him now both oar and sail942.

  As when a gryphon943 through the wilderness

  With wingèd course o’er hill or moory dale,

  Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth

  Had from his wakeful custody purloined

  The guarded gold: so eagerly the Fiend

  O’er bog948 or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,

  With head, hands, wings or feet pursues his way,

  And swims or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies:

  At length a universal hubbub951 wild

  Of stunning sounds and voices all confused

  Born through the hollow dark assaults his ear

  With loudest vehemence954: thither he plies,

  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

  Of Chaos960, and his dark pavilion spread

  Wide on the wasteful961 deep; with him enthroned

  Sat sable-vested Night962, eldest of things,

  The consort of his reign; and by them stood

  Orcus and Ades964, and the dreaded name

  Of Demogorgon965; Rumor next and Chance,

  And Tumult and Confusion all embroiled,

  And Discord967 with a thousand various mouths.

  T’ whom Satan turning boldly, thus. “Ye Powers

  And Spirits of this nethermost abyss,

  Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy,

  With purpose to explore or to disturb

  The secrets of your realm, but by constraint

  Wand’ring this darksome desert, as my way

  Lies through your spacious empire up to light,

  Alone, and without guide, half lost, I seek

  What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds

  Confine with977 Heav’n; or if some other place

  From your dominion won, th’ Ethereal King

  Possesses lately, thither to arrive

  I travel this profound980, direct my course;

  Directed, no mean recompense it brings

  To your behoof982, 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

  Erect the standard there of ancient Night;

  Yours be th’ advantage all, mine the revenge.”

  Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch988 old

  With falt’ring speech and visage incomposed989

  Answered. “I know thee, stranger, who thou art,

  That mighty leading angel, who of late

  Made head against Heav’n’s King, though overthrown.

  I saw993 and heard, for such a numerous host

  Fled not in silence through the frighted deep

  With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout,

  Confusion worse confounded; and Heav’n 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,

  Encroached on still through our1001 intestine broils

  Weak’ning the scepter of old Night: first Hell

  Your dungeon stretching far and wide beneath;

  Now lately heaven1004 and Earth, another world

  Hung o’er my realm, linked in a golden chain1005

  To that side Heav’n from whence your legions fell:

  If that way be your walk1007, you have not far;

  So much the nearer danger1008; go and speed;

  Havoc and spoil and ruin are my gain.”

  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 upward1013 like a pyramid of fire

  Into the wild expanse, and through the shock

  Of fighting elements, on all sides round

  Environed wins his way; harder beset

  And more endangered, than when Argo1017 passed

  Through Bosporus betwixt the jostling rocks:

  Or when Ulysses on the larboard1019 shunned

  Charybdis1020, and by th’ 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! Sin1024 and Death amain

  Following his track, such was the will of Heav’n,

  Paved after him a broad and beaten way

  Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf

  Tamely endured a bridge of wondrous length

  From Hell continued reaching th’ utmost orb

  Of this frail world; by which the spirits perverse

  With easy intercourse pass to and fro

  To tempt or punish mortals, except whom

  God and good angels guard by special grace1033.

  But now at last the sacred influence1034

  Of light appears, and from the walls of Heav’n

  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 works1039 a broken foe

  With tumult less and with less hostile din,

  That Satan with less toil, and now with ease

  Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light

  And like a weather-beaten vessel holds1043

  Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle1044 torn;

  Or in the emptier waste, resembling air,

  Weighs1046 his spread wings, at leisure to behold

  Far off th’ empyreal Heav’n, extended wide

  In circuit, undetermined1048 square or round,

  With opal tow’rs and battlements adorned

  Of living1050 sapphire, once his native seat;

  And fast by hanging in a golden chain

  This pendant world1052, in bigness as a star

  Of smallest magnitude close by the moon.

  Thither full fraught with mischievous revenge,

  Accursed, and in a cursèd hour he hies1055.

  2. Ormus: Hormuz, famously wealthy island town ideally situated in the Persian Gulf for trade in spices and jewels. Ships of the British East India Company helped the Dutch take it from the Portuguese in 1622. For acquiescing in the unauthorized aggression, King James and the Duke of Buckingham pocketed large bribes. Ind: India, celebrated for precious stones; cp. Masque 606.

  4. barbaric: Greek for “foreign,” primarily used of Asia or the gorgeous East. Classical authors depict Asian rulers as profligate despots; hence Vergil describes the doors of Priam’s palace as “proud with the spoils of barbaric gold” (Aen. 2.504).

  5. merit: desert, good or bad.

  9. success: outcome; like merit, ironically complicated by its more usual positive sense.

  11. Powers and Dominions: two kinds of angels (Col. 1.16).

  14. I … lost: “I refuse to concede the loss of Heaven.”

  15. Virtues: efficacious qualities (not moral virtues); also, members of a rank of angels.

  18–21. Me … merit: The tortuous syntax makes Stoic principles—just right and fixed laws—agents of Satan’s creation as leader. The direct object (Me) begins the clause. His created status, Satan says, has been confirmed by
the free choice of his followers and by his own deeds.

  89. exercise: a range of meanings applies, from “agitate” or “vex” to the more common “train” or “cause to undergo a physical regimen or ascetic discipline.”

  90. vassals: slaves (see PR 4.133).

  91. torturing hour: Shakespeare’s Theseus seeks entertainment “to ease the anguish of a torturing hour”—the time between the marriage rite and its consummation (MND 5.1.37). The fallen angels will also pursue diversions from pain (ll. 458–62, 523–27), not least that of endlessly frustrated desire (4.508–11).

  24–25. happier … dignity: Satan claims that in Heaven, the higher one’s rank, the happier one’s existence, and that in Hell the reverse holds true, which should deter envy and promote unity.

  28. Thunderer: classical epithet for Jove.

  43. Moloch: Hebrew for “king”; see 1.392n; sceptered king: translates Homer’s formulaic epithet for kings (e.g., Il. 1.279).

  50. reck’d: heeded; cared.

  51. sentence: judgment. Cp. line 291.

  52. More unexpert: less knowledgeable or experienced.

  243. hallelujahs: songs of praise; in Hebrew, hallelujah means “praise God.”

  244. breathes: exhales or emanates, as a fragrance; cp. 5.482.

  63. horrid: bristling (with Hell flames).

  65. engine: instrument of war (cp. 4.17); here, God’s lightning and thunder.

  69. Tartarean: infernal; horrible. Tartarus confines the rebellious Titans, according to Homer and Hesiod (Il. 14.278; 8.478–91; Theog. 713–45). strange fire: “Nadab and Abihu died because they offered strange fire before the Lord” (Num. 26.61; cp. Lev. 10.1). The Geneva Bible glosses strange fire as fire “not taken of the altar”—that is, unholy or illicit fire.

  73. drench: dose; douse. Cp. Animad (Yale 1:685).

  74. forgetful: causing a state of oblivion; cp. “oblivious pool” (1.266).

  79. Insulting: springing upon scornfully; trampling in triumph. Cp. 1.327.

  81. For Fowler, Moloch’s claim is “belied by the allusion to Aen. 6.126–29”: “easy is the descent to Avernus … but to recall thy steps and pass out to the upper air, this is the task, this the toil!” Cp. PL 2.432–33, 3.20–21. Unlike Aeneas, however, the rebels are spiritual beings: “bodies compounded and elemented of Earth do naturally descend; but to spirits, those divine, airy, agile beings, as our poet well observes, … all motion downward seems forced and contrary” (Hume).

  82. event: outcome.

  94. doubt we: makes us hesitate.

  97. essential: essence or being (adj. for noun). On the active disposition to suicide represented by Moloch, see 1.158n.

  100–101. we … nothing: “we could not be in a worse state than we are now.” Cp. PR 3.204–11.

  101. proof: experience, trial; also, testing artillery by firing a heavy charge (see 6.584–99).