Page 19 of Paradise Lost


  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