What might have else to human race been hid;
The discord which befell, and war in Heav’n
Among th’ angelic powers, and the deep fall
Of those too high aspiring, who rebelled
With Satan,900 he who envies now thy state,
Who now is plotting how he may seduce
Thee also from obedience, that with him
Bereaved of happiness thou may’st partake
His punishment, eternal misery;
Which would be all his solace and revenge,
As a despite done against the Most High,
Thee once to gain companion of his woe.
But listen not to his temptations, warn
Thy weaker909; let it profit thee to have heard
By terrible example the reward
Of disobedience; firm they might have stood,
Yet fell; remember, and fear to transgress.”
1. dreadless angel: Abdiel, fearless and without a doubt (see 5.899–905).
2. champaign: (1) wide expanse of open countryside; (2) common land (“The least turf of hallowed glebe is with God himself of more value than all the champaign of common possession,” Jeremy Taylor, 2.34); (3) a plain as a battlefield (see l. 15).
2–11. Morn … Heav’n: Like Book 5, Book 6 begins with an allusion to the best-known Homeric personification, rosy-fingered Dawn. Milton’s Dawn is distinctively awakened by the Hours in the circling configuration of a clock (cp. 4.267). Unlike Hesiod, who puts the abode of alternating day and night in the abyss (Theog. 744–54), Milton elevates their perpetual round to Heaven’s most sacred site, fast by (near) God’s throne. Milton grew up in a household with its own clock, at a time when it first became possible for wealthier citizens to own one.
10. Obsequious: obedient, sequent; like one observing rites of mourning (cp. Lyc headnote; SA 1732).
19. in procinct: from the Latin in procinctu, “girded up, prepared for battle.”
29–30. “Well done, thou good and faithful servant”(Matt. 25.21); “fight the good fight” (1 Tim. 6.12).
33–35. for the testimony … violence: “For thy sake I have borne reproach” (Ps. 69.7). Cp. Spenser: “Evil deeds may better than bad words be bore” (FQ 4.4.4).
42. Right reason: Scholastic theologians adapted the concept of an a priori faculty of moral judgment from the recta ratio of Stoic philosophy. Milton cites Cicero (Philippics 11.12.28): “Right reason [is] derived from divine will which commands what is right and forbids what is wrong” (1Def, Yale 4:1.383; cp. Brief Notes, Yale 7:479). See Hoopes.
44. Michael: “Who is like God?” (Hebr.). He is named as Satan’s opponent in Revelation, Milton’s main source for the War in Heaven (12.7). Milton transfers to Christ many of the distinctions traditionally accorded Michael, including credit for vanquishing Satan.
46. Gabriel: “man of God” (Hebr.). See 4.549n.
49. Equal: Equality is a slippery concept in the epic. As Satan later acknowledges, “most” (two-thirds) of the angels remain loyal to God (l. 166; cp. l. 156, 2.692, 5.710).
54. Tartarus: Hell; see 2.69n.
55. chaos: Fowler glosses this usage as indicating the uncreated realm of primordial matter, but God uses the term in its primitive sense of “yawning gulf, chasm” (OED 1; cp. ll. 871–75).
56–60. Editors note that smoke, fire, and trumpet signal God’s presence when he gives Moses the Ten Commandments (Exod. 19.18–19). The typological structure of the narrative suggests that Milton alludes primarily to Hebrews 12, however, in which St. Paul localizes the Exodus account to insist on the apocalyptic transcendence and universality of Christ’s kingdom: “For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet.… But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels” (18–22). Cp. 833–34n.
58. reluctant: struggling (of the fire working through smoke); cp. 4.311. The OED does not cite an example of the modern sense before the eighteenth century.
60. gan: began to.
62. stood for Heav’n: maintained loyalty to God (in contrast to the Apostate; cp. l. 100).
63–65. Of union irresistible … harmony: Cp. the quiet calm of the fallen angels, marching in squared formation to the sound of flutes playing Dorian music (1.549–61). “Homer thus marches his Grecians silent and sedate” (Todd; Il. 3.8).
69. obvious: standing in the way.
73–76. Their nimble tread … thee: Cp. Gen. 2.20.
78. terrene: earthly (referring back to province).
79–83. horizon … shields: The full extent of the northern horizon is filled with Satan’s troops, whose armor shines with fiery light. For Satan’s association with the north, see 5.689.
125–26. reason … reason: playing on the distinction between the principle or faculty of reason (capitalized in early editions) and reason as the rationale or explanation for an outcome (lowercase).
84. argument: design, subject (cp. 1.24, 9.13, Damon 189).
86. expedition: speed, aggressiveness; weened: thought, expected.
90. fond: foolish, conceited.
91. In the mid way: little-used idiom, meaning “halfway through,” e.g., one’s life (11.631; cp. Mary Herbert’s translation of Ps. 102.24). In other words, Satan and his army fall well short of their intended goal. Fowler suspects numerological resonance because the Son ascends the chariot to defeat the rebels halfway through the epic (l. 762). Cp. 129n.
93. hosting: battle, from the noun host, “army” (see l. 104), but with a play on “entertain hospitably”; wont: were used.
100. Apostate: Greek apo (from, off), stat (stand).
107. cloudy van: the front line (van) of an army massed for battle and thus resembling a threatening cloud, as Milton’s simile at 2.533–38 indicates. On Satan’s proclivity for the front line or edge of battle, see 1.276–77.
115. realty: reality, sincerity.
118. boldest: most insolent, presumptuous.
120. tried: proved, judged after trial.
129. prevention: obstruction, in the literal sense of “coming before.” Abdiel stops Satan “in the mid way” (cp. l. 91).
130. securely: confidently.
131. Proud: continuing the evasion of Satan’s previous name, Abdiel names him according to his dominant trait.
137–39. Who … folly: “God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things which are: that no flesh should glory in his presence” (1 Cor. 1.27–29).
147. sect: body of followers or adherents; a term applied by contemptuous episcopal loyalists to all dissenters (“sectaries”), Milton among them. Cp. Eikon: “I never knew that time in England when men of truest religion were not counted sectaries” (MLM 1066).
149. askance: a facial tic that becomes characteristic of Satan (cp. 4.504).
153. assay: endeavor, trial.
156. synod: assembly; during the seventeenth century, often used of ecclesiastical assemblies (especially Presbyterian) and astrological conjunctions (see 10.661). Shakespeare in his later plays also applies synod to meetings of gods, presumably because of the mythological identification of gods and heavenly bodies (see, e.g., ANT 3.10.4, COR 5.2.68–69). Cp. 2.391.
161. success: what follows; as elsewhere, in ironic play with its more usual positive sense (see 2.9).
163. Unanswered … boast: i.e., lest Abdiel boast that Satan had no reply. How Abdiel will boast after the destruction threatened him is not addressed.
166–68. Scripturally, angels are deemed “ministers” and carry out executive duties as God’s agents or representatives (Matt. 4.11, Heb. 1.14). Raphael on his mission to Paradise is thus called “empyreal minister” (5.640). Satan exploits the shared Latin root with minstrel to deride t
he obedient angels as servile entertainers, a theme he revisits at 4.941–45. Cp. Lear’s condemnation of the thundering elements as “servile ministers” (LR 3.2.21), and Nashe’s anticipation of the wordplay: “What a stir he keeps against dumb ministers, and never writes nor talks of them, but he calleth them minstrels” (8).
169. Servility with freedom: slaves with free angels (abstract for concrete).
174. deprav’st: disparage.
176–78. God … governs: “God being the author of nature, her voice is but his instrument” (Hooker 1.3). The same assumption of agreement between divine and natural law underlies Milton’s concession in Tetrachordon that a wife would properly govern her husband if superior to him in reason (see MLM 993).
182. lewdly: wickedly, basely; cp. 4.193.
183–84. Reign … blest: Satan voices his contrary preference at 1.263 (see n).
194. bended knee: Cp. the knee-tribute previously disdained (5.782, 787–88).
195–98. as if … pines: Raphael’s simile recalls the narrator’s resort to seismic pressures to convey the phenomena of Hell (see, e.g., 1.230–37). Mountains appear immovable, but Milton deems faith sufficient to move them, as 1 Cor. 13.2 implies (see ll. 649–50; cp. 4.987, SA 1647–48).
199. rebel Thrones: A single angelic order stands for all (synecdoche). Leonard remarks that the choice of Thrones is “politically suggestive” (see 12.36).
210. madding: manic. The diction is odd, but the general point is clear; the jarring sounds and sights of war produce insane frenzy.
213–14. The local conditions anticipate the environment of Hell, complete with a dome of fire produced by thick volleys of flaming arrows and the prophetic sound of their dismal hiss (cp. 1.298, 10.508).
216. battles main: central bodies of the armies.
222–23. These elements … regions: Raphael refers to the four elements that constitute Adam’s world—earth, air, fire, and water—each predominating in its region.
225. combustion: tumult, wild commotion.
229–36. though numbered … war: “Each legion was in number like an army, each single warrior was in strength like a legion, and, though led in fight, was as expert as a commander-in-chief. So that the angels are celebrated first for their number, then for their strength, and lastly for their expertness in war” (Newton).
236. ridges: ranks (per close in l. 235); the reference is probably agricultural (furrows), despite Lewis’s objection (135).
239. moment: determining influence, that which tips the balance.
243. main: powerful.
244. Tormented: disturbed, stirred.
248. No equal: The phrase has long stirred critical controversy because it seems to contradict the scene in which Satan is foiled by Abdiel (l. 200). Newton explains that Abdiel’s moment of triumph was accidental and that if the combat had continued, Satan would have “prov’d an overmatch for Abdiel.” A. H. Gilbert cites the inconsistency as evidence that the combat with Abdiel is a late insertion to a battle narrative that originally adhered more closely to a Homeric model, “in which the leaders of the hosts fight” (1947, 5). For Fish, the apparent inconsistency is a didactic trap set by the narrator to undermine Abdiel’s “sense of justice” and “military pretensions” (1967, 187). Those “pretensions” seem justified at lines 369–71, however, and the present editors take no equal to imply only that Abdiel is inferior to Satan in rank or hierarchical position. The primary sense of the noun equal signifies “one that is very similar to another in rank or position.” The significance and dramatic impact of Abdiel’s noble stroke is, if anything, underscored by his social inferiority.
250. sword of Michael: The Archangel’s grand weapon is a telling point of reference in Milton’s depiction of Satan (2.294–95, 11.247–48), though it has no basis in Scripture. Some regard it as the “two-handed engine” of Lycidas.
254–56. rocky orb … circumference: Satan’s shield, vast as the moon’s orb (1.287), is made of a mythical, impenetrable stone (adamant) ten layers thick.
259. Intestine war: civil war, but intestine also applies literally (e.g., ll. 587–88).
262–71. Author … false: Michael’s rage and wonder seem genuine, not merely rhetorical. In light of his princely status and angel’s characteristic imperturbability, this reaction is a striking measure of what Satan has wrought by his rebellion.
276. Thy offspring: perhaps an allusion to Sin (see 2.743–60).
282. Adversary: translates “Satan.”
284–88. Hast thou … hence?: i.e., “Have you turned the weakest in my army to flight, or have any fallen failed to rise again undefeated, that you should hope to deal (transact) so easily with me as to chase me away with imperious threats?” Satan’s speeches here and before his clash with Abdiel are incoherent.
288. Err not that: “don’t erroneously suppose.”
290. The strife of glory: Cp. the Son’s interpretation of the conflict (5.738–39).
296. parle: parley; addressed: prepared, but in play with parle and unspeakable.
297–98. tongue/Of angels: recalls St. Paul’s insistence on the emptiness of oratory without charity (1 Cor. 13.1), a fitting transition from talking to fighting.
299. conspicuous: “perceivable,” modifies things. In asking what could lift / Human imagination to such highth / Of godlike power, Raphael seeks an aesthetic of the sublime.
303. empire: command, control.
306–7. while expectation stood/In horror: The personification of expectation conveys the angels’ alarm; cp. Shakespeare, ANT 3.6.47, where expectation is “faint” from lack of satisfaction, and H5 2.Prol.8: “Now sits Expectation in the air.”
310–15. Fowler notes the passage’s ironic anticipation of the fallen world, when celestial order is deliberately altered so that malignant opposition between planets becomes a regular astrological occurrence (10.657–61). Here, however, cosmic concord is imagined not simply as altered for the worse but as broken, and the planets not merely in aspect malign but rushing toward each other “in mere oppugnancy,” as Shakespeare’s Ulysses says in a precedent passage (TRO 2.111). The sublimely horrifying prospect of Michael and Satan’s imminent combat dwarfs (great things by small) that of planets hurtling toward each other on a collision course.
318–19. determine … once: decide the outcome and not need to be repeated because it lacked the necessary power to finish the fight in itself (at once). The common gloss of as not of power—“because so powerful a blow could not be repeated”—is unconvincing.
320. prevention: anticipation.
321. armory of God: mentioned in Jer. 50.25. Cp. the irresistible sword given Arthegall by Astraea, goddess of justice: “Wheresoever it did light, it thoroughly sheared” (FQ 5.1.10).
323–27. Nor solid might … side: Though hardly Homeric in his dissection of battle, Raphael is careful to relate how Satan’s wound occurs. Michael’s sword descending cuts Satan’s sword sheer in two; then Michael executes a swift wheel reverse (a backhand upstroke) that cuts off (shared) Satan’s entire right side. Satan’s left (Lat. sinister) side remains.
328. convolved: rolled together; coiled up. Satan’s reaction to the pain prefigures his metamorphosis into a serpent (10.511ff).
329. griding: slashing, piercing; discontinuous: gaping; “in allusion to the old definition of a wound that it separates the continuity of the parts” (Newton).
332–33. nectarous … bleed: Celestial spirits bleed a bodily fluid, or humor, whose sanguine color owes to the “rubied nectar” they drink (5.633); cp. Homer’s similar treatment of divine bleeding, Il. 5.339–42.
335–36. was run/By angels: Latinate syntax (cursum est) indicating that his troops ran to aid him. Such scenes occur frequently in Homer (e.g., Il. 14.428–32).
345–53. On the versatile homogeneity of angels, see 1.425n. Kerrigan notes how enviable such a physiology would be for a man with defective eyes (1983, 215–16, 227–28, 257–62; cp. SA 93–97).
346. reins: kidneys.
347. annihilating: Whether or not existence is escapable for angels is an open question; see 2.92–93, 151–54. In Milton’s monist theory of creation ex deo, certainly no created being can, in the literal sense of annihilation, become “nothing.” The closest to annihiliation a creature can come is dissolution into constituent atoms, or as Belial puts it, “swallowed up and lost/In the wide womb of uncreated Night” (2.149–50).
353. likes: pleases; an instance of the ethical dative; condense or rare: thick or thin in density.
356. ensigns: standards or banners of military units, here also the units themselves.
357. Moloch: “The name is not supposed to exist until after man’s Fall (see 1.364–65). Raphael might foreknow the names of future devils (cp. 12.140), but to name them here implies the failure of his mission. He had withheld ‘Beëlzebub’ from Bk. 5 … but now allows many devils’ names to infiltrate Bk. 6” (Leonard). Like the narrator in Books 1 and 2, however, Raphael does not have many options. The original names of the fallen angels have been erased, and fallen humanity has not yet supplied them with new ones. 359–60. nor … blasphemous: “Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? … the Holy One of Israel” (2 Kings 19.22).
362. uncouth: unfamiliar.
363. Raphael refers to himself in the third person, which may owe to the historian’s objectivity or indicate that Adam and Eve do not know the name of their guest.
364. in a rock of diamond: Cp. Sonnet 6, 7–8.
365. Adramelec and Asmadai: Adramelec was idolized by the Sepharvites in Samaria under Assyrian dominion (2 Kings 17.31). Worshiped as a sun god, he is defeated by Uriel, “regent of that orb” (3, Argument). Asmadai (Asmodeus) is vanquished by Raphael, his captor in the apocryphal Book of Tobit (see 4.168–71n).
371–72. Ariel and Arioch … Ramiel: The meaning of Ariel is uncertain, though it is often glossed as “lion of God.” It is the proper name of a man as well as a poetic name for Jerusalem (e.g., Isa. 29.1–2). Milton would also have remembered Shakespeare’s character (TMP). Arioch (lion-like) is the scriptural name of two kings and a captain (Gen. 14.1, 9; Judg. 1.6; Dan. 2.14). More pertinently, Rabbinical sources identify the king from Genesis with Antiochus Epiphanes (176–64 B.C.E.), King of Syria and perpetrator of “the Abomination of Desolation,” in which a statue of Zeus was erected in the temple and Jews forced to worship it (1 Macc. 1.11–6.16). Ramiel, the most obscure reference, means “thunder of God”; Milton may have known the name from an extant fragment of the apocryphal Book of Baruch, which centers on the destruction of Jerusalem. If so, the three angels defeated by Abdiel are associated with apostasy and destruction in the holy city.