951–54. universal hubbub … vehemence: Cp. the curse of Babel, 12.53–62.
954. vehemence: mindlessness; plies: alters course, tacks (see 637–42n).
960–61. Of Chaos … deep: “He made darkness pavilions round about him, dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies” (2 Sam. 22.12; cp. Ps. 18.11).
961. wasteful: vast, desolate. Milton is prone to repetition of initial w sounds, and especially to alliterative compounds with wide. See 1.3, 2.1007, 6.253, 8.467, 11.121, 487; Nat Ode 51, 64; Il Pens 75, Lyc 13; Sonnet 192.
962. sable-vested Night: translates Euripides’ epithet for Night, Ion 1150 (literally, “black-robed Night”). She and Chaos preside over a court of accessory personifications.
964. Orcus and Ades: Latin and Greek for the underworld and its ruler (the Greek word is usually spelled Hades).
965. Demogorgon: Boccaccio copied the dreaded name from a medieval manuscript’s gloss of an allusion in Statius (Thebiad 4.516). The reference is to a deity whose name alone terrifies infernal powers. Boccaccio applied it to the primeval deity in his Genealogy of the Gods. Subsequent authors followed suit and often made Demogorgon master of the Fates. See, e.g., Spenser, FQ 1.1.37, 4.2.47. Cp. Milton’s Prolusion 1 in MLM 787.
967. Milton transfers to Discord a trait ordinarily found in personifications of fame or rumor, as when Shakespeare has Rumor “painted full of tongues” speak the prologue to 2H4. In PL, rumor seems to originate in God and is aligned with prophecy, though it does inspire conflict (see, e.g., ll. 345–53, 831, 1.651, 10.481–82).
977. Confine with: border on.
980. this profound: the deep (adj. for noun). The punctuation and dodgy syntax of lines 980–86 suggest that Satan is improvising as he speaks.
982. behoof: advantage.
982–87. if I … revenge: Satan is setting up a double cross. Cp. 10.399–418.
988. Anarch: anarchy’s head of state.
989. incomposed: without composure or orderly arrangement; cp. “increate” (3.6).
993–98. I saw … Pursuing: Cp. 6.871–74.
1001. our: In light of lines 908–9, some editors substitute “your,” construing our intestine broils as a reference to the War in Heaven rather than to the constitutional strife of chaos. Cp. Henry IV’s account of the “intestine shock / And furious close of civil butchery” involving opponents “all of one nature, of one substance bred” (1H4 1.1.11–13).
1004. heaven: not the abode of God and the angels, as in line 1006, but the sky. The world of which Chaos speaks is in modern usage called the “universe.”
1005. golden chain: Homer’s Zeus boasts that the combined strength of the other gods could not prevent him from pulling them and the world up to heaven by a golden chain (Il. 8.18–27). Milton endorsed the traditional interpretation of this chain as a symbol of cosmic design and order (Prolusion 2, Yale 1:236).
1007. walk: distance to be covered; course of conduct or action.
1008. danger: As with much of what Chaos says, the meaning is difficult to pin down. Is Satan approaching danger, or is danger, in the person of Satan, approaching the world?
1013. “The pyramid is the solid which is the original element and seed of fire” (Plato, Timaeus 56b). In sharp contrast to the anarchy of embryon atoms (l. 900), Satan through sheer force of will launches himself toward creation in the atomic form of his own element (Kerrigan 1983, 138–39).
1017. Argo: the ship of Jason and his crew (Argonauts). They encounter the clashing (jostling) rocks of the Bosporos (the Strait of Constantinople) (Apollonius 2.552–611).
1019. larboard: left side of a vessel, port.
1020. Charybdis: dreaded whirlpool in the Strait of Messina, just opposite man-eating Scylla (see 659–61n). Ulysses avoided the total destruction that Charybdis threatened by sailing nearer to Scylla (Homer, Od. 12.234–59).
1024–30. Sin … world: For construction of this broad and beaten way (cp. Matt. 7.13), see 10.293–305.
1024. amain: in full force, numbers.
1033. special grace: Cp. 3.183–84. See Masque 36–42, 216–20, 453–63.
1034. sacred influence: Light is inseparable from God himself (3.1–6). Its influence, whether sunlight or starlight, is the chief agent of creative growth; see 4.661–73, 6.476–81, 9.107, 192.
1039. her outmost works: Nature’s works are fortifications against the tumult of chaos.
1043. holds: maintains heading for.
1044. shrouds and tackle: rigging on a sailing ship; cp. SA 198–200, 717.
1046. Weighs: holds steady.
1048. undetermined: The expanse of Heaven is so vast that one cannot tell whether it is circular or square.
1050. living: in its native condition and site, unlike Satan, whose connection with his native seat and the source of his being lies irretrievably in the past. The walls are also, like everything in Heaven, living in the literal sense (6.860–61, 878–79).
1052. pendant world: the entire universe, hanging like a jewel on a chain.
1055. hies: hastens. “Milton begins Book 3 with the same alliteration” (Leonard).
BOOK III
THE ARGUMENT
God sitting on his throne sees Satan flying towards this world, then newly created; shows him to the Son who sat at his right hand; foretells the success of Satan in perverting mankind; clears his own justice and wisdom from all imputation, having created man free and able enough to have withstood his tempter; yet declares his purpose of grace towards him, in regard he fell not of his own malice, as did Satan, but by him seduced. The Son of God renders praises to his Father for the manifestation of his gracious purpose towards man; but God again declares that grace cannot be extended towards man without the satisfaction of divine justice; man hath offended the majesty of God by aspiring to Godhead, and therefore with all his progeny devoted to death must die, unless someone can be found sufficient to answer for his offense, and undergo his punishment. The Son of God freely offers himself a ransom for man: the Father accepts him, ordains his incarnation, pronounces his exaltation above all names in Heaven and Earth, commands all the angels to adore him. They obey, and hymning to their harps in full choir, celebrate the Father and the Son. Meanwhile Satan alights upon the bare convex of this world’s outermost orb; where wandering he first finds a place since called the Limbo of Vanity; what persons and things fly up thither; thence comes to the gate of Heaven, described ascending by stairs, and the waters above the firmament that flow about it: his passage thence to the orb of the sun; he finds there Uriel the regent of that orb, but first changes himself into the shape of a meaner angel; and pretending a zealous desire to behold the new creation and man whom God had placed here, inquires of him the place of his habitation, and is directed; alights first on Mount Niphates.
Hail holy light1, offspring of Heav’n first-born,
Or of th’2 Eternal coeternal beam
May I express3 thee unblamed? Since God is light,
And never but in unapproachèd light4
Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence6 of bright essence increate.
Or hear’st thou rather7 pure ethereal stream,
Whose fountain who shall tell8? Before the sun,
Before the heavens thou wert, and at the voice
Of God, as with a mantle didst invest10
The rising world of waters dark and deep,
Won from the void and formless infinite12.
Thee I revisit now with bolder wing,
Escaped the Stygian pool14, though long detained
In that obscure sojourn15, while in my flight
Through utter and through middle darkness16 borne
With other notes17 than to th’ Orphean lyre
I sung of Chaos and eternal Night,
Taught by the Heav’nly Muse19 to venture down
The dark descent, and up to reascend,
Though hard and rare20: thee I revisit safe,
And feel thy sov’reign vital l
amp; but thou
Revisit’st not these eyes, that roll23 in vain
To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;
So thick a drop serene25 hath quenched their orbs,
Or dim suffusion26 veiled. Yet not the more
Cease I to wander where the Muses haunt27
Clear spring, or shady grove, or sunny hill,
Smit with the love of sacred song; but chief
Thee Sion30 and the flow’ry brooks beneath
That wash thy hallowed feet, and warbling flow,
Nightly I visit: nor sometimes forget
Those other two equaled with me in fate,
So were I equaled with them in renown,34
Blind Thamyris35 and blind Maeonides,
And Tiresias36 and Phineus prophets old.
Then feed on thoughts, that voluntary move37
Harmonious numbers38; as the wakeful bird
Sings darkling39, and in shadiest covert hid
Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year
Seasons return, but not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of ev’n or morn,
Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer’s rose,
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;
But cloud instead, and ever-during dark
Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men
Cut off, and for the book of knowledge47 fair
Presented with a universal blank48
Of Nature’s works to me expunged and razed49,
And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.
So much the rather thou celestial light
Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers
Irradiate, there plant eyes, all mist from thence
Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell
Of things invisible to mortal sight.
Now had th’56 Almighty Father from above,
From the pure empyrean where he sits
High throned above all highth, bent down his eye,
His own works and their works at once to view:
About him all the sanctities60 of Heaven
Stood thick as stars, and from his sight received
Beatitude past utterance; on his right62
The radiant image of his glory sat,
His only Son; on Earth he first beheld
Our two first parents, yet the only two
Of mankind, in the happy Garden placed,
Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love,
Uninterrupted joy, unrivaled love
In blissful solitude; he then surveyed
Hell and the gulf between, and Satan there
Coasting the wall of Heav’n on this side Night71
In the dun air sublime72, and ready now
To stoop with wearied wings and willing feet
On the bare outside of this world74, that seemed
Firm land embosomed without firmament,
Uncertain which, in ocean or in air.
Him God beholding from his prospect high,
Wherein past, present, future he beholds,
Thus to his only Son foreseeing spake.
“Only begotten Son, seest thou what rage
Transports81 our Adversary, whom no bounds
Prescribed, no bars of Hell, nor all the chains
Heaped on him there, nor yet the main abyss83
Wide interrupt84 can hold; so bent he seems
On desperate revenge, that shall redound
Upon his own rebellious head. And now
Through all restraint broke loose he wings his way
Not far off Heav’n, in the precincts of light,
Directly towards the new-created world,
And man there placed, with purpose to assay90
If him by force he can destroy, or worse,
By some false guile pervert; and shall pervert;
For man will hearken to his glozing93 lies,
And easily transgress the sole command,
Sole pledge of his obedience: so will fall
He and his faithless progeny: whose fault?
Whose but his own? Ingrate, he had of me
All he could have; I made him just and right,
Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.99
Such I created all th’ ethereal Powers
And spirits, both them who stood and them who failed;
Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.
Not free, what proof could they have giv’n sincere
Of true allegiance, constant faith or love,
Where only what they needs must do, appeared,
Not what they would? What praise could they receive?
What pleasure I from such obedience paid,
When will and reason (reason also is choice108)
Useless and vain, of freedom both despoiled,
Made passive both, had served necessity,
Not me. They therefore as to right belonged,
So were created, nor can justly accuse
Their Maker, or their making, or their fate,
As if predestination overruled
Their will, disposed by absolute decree
Or high foreknowledge; they themselves decreed
Their own revolt, not I: if I foreknew,
Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault,
Which had no less proved certain unforeknown119.
So without least impulse120 or shadow of fate,
Or aught by me immutably foreseen,
They trespass, authors to themselves in all
Both what they judge and what they choose; for so
I formed them free, and free they must remain,
Till they enthrall themselves: I else must change
Their nature, and revoke the high decree
Unchangeable, eternal, which ordained
Their freedom; they themselves ordained their fall.
The first sort129 by their own suggestion fell,
Self-tempted, self-depraved: man falls deceived
By the other first: man therefore shall find grace,
The other none: in mercy and justice both,
Through Heav’n and Earth, so shall my glory excel,
But mercy first and last shall brightest shine.”
Thus while God spake, ambrosial fragrance135 filled
All Heav’n, and in the blessèd spirits elect
Sense of new joy ineffable diffused:
Beyond compare the Son of God was seen
Most glorious, in him all his Father shone
Substantially140 expressed, and in his face
Divine compassion visibly141 appeared,
Love without end, and without measure grace,
Which uttering143 thus he to his Father spake.
“O Father, gracious was that word which closed
Thy sov’reign sentence, that man should find grace;
For which both Heav’n and Earth shall high extol
Thy praises, with th’ innumerable sound
Of hymns and sacred songs, wherewith thy throne
Encompassed shall resound thee ever blest.
For should man finally be lost, should man
Thy creature late so loved, thy youngest son
Fall circumvented152 thus by fraud, though joined
With his own folly? That be from thee far,153
That far be from thee, Father, who art judge
Of all things made, and judgest only right.
Or shall the Adversary thus obtain
His end, and frustrate thine, shall he fulfill
His malice, and thy goodness bring to naught,
Or proud return though to his heavier doom,
Yet with revenge accomplished and to Hell
Draw after him the whole race of mankind,
By him corrupted? Or wilt thou thyself
Abolish thy creation, and unmake,
For him, what for thy glory thou hast made?
So should thy g
oodness and thy greatness both
Be questioned and blasphemed166 without defense.”
To whom the great Creator thus replied.
“O Son, in whom my soul hath chief delight,168
Son of my bosom, Son who art alone
My Word170, my wisdom, and effectual might,
All hast thou spoken as my thoughts are, all
As my eternal purpose hath decreed:
Man shall not quite be lost, but saved who will,
Yet not174 of will in him, but grace in me
Freely vouchsafed; once more I will renew
His lapsèd powers, though forfeit and enthralled
By sin to foul exorbitant desires;
Upheld by me, yet once more he shall stand
On even ground against his mortal foe,
By me upheld, that he may know how frail
His fall’n condition is, and to me owe
All his deliv’rance, and to none but me.
Some I have chosen of peculiar grace183
Elect above the rest; so is my will:
The rest shall hear me call, and oft be warned
Their sinful state, and to appease betimes186
Th’ incensèd187 Deity, while offered grace
Invites; for I will clear their senses dark,
What may suffice, and soften stony hearts189
To pray, repent, and bring obedience due.
To prayer, repentance, and obedience due,
Though but endeavored with sincere intent,
Mine ear shall not be slow, mine eye not shut.
And I will place within them as a guide
My umpire conscience, whom if they will hear,
Light after light well used they shall attain,
And to the end persisting197, safe arrive.
This my long sufferance and my day of grace
They who neglect and scorn, shall never taste;
But hard be hardened, blind be blinded more,200
That they may stumble on, and deeper fall;
And none but such from mercy I exclude.
But yet all is not done; man disobeying,
Disloyal breaks his fealty204, and sins
Against the high supremacy of Heav’n,
Affecting Godhead, and so losing all,
To expiate his treason hath naught left,
But to destruction sacred and devote208,
He with his whole posterity must die,
Die he or Justice must; unless for him
Some other able, and as willing, pay