For loss of life and pleasure overloved.
Or if thou covet death, as utmost end
Of misery, so thinking to evade
The penalty pronounced, doubt not but God
Hath wiselier armed his vengeful ire than so
To be forestalled; much more I fear lest death
So snatched will not exempt us from the pain
We are by doom to pay; rather such acts
Of contumacy will provoke the Highest
To make death in us live: then let us seek
Some safer resolution, which methinks
I have1030 in view, calling to mind with heed
Part of our sentence, that thy seed shall bruise
The serpent’s head; piteous amends, unless
Be meant, whom I conjecture, our grand foe
Satan, who in the serpent hath contrived
Against us this deceit: to crush his head
Would be revenge indeed, which will be lost
By death brought on ourselves, or childless days
Resolved, as thou proposest; so our foe
Shall scape his punishment ordained, and we
Instead shall double ours upon our heads.
No more be mentioned then of violence
Against ourselves, and willful barrenness,
That cuts us off from hope, and savors only
Rancor and pride, impatience and despite,
Reluctance against God and his just yoke
Laid on our necks. Remember with what mild
And gracious temper he both heard and judged
Without wrath or reviling; we expected
Immediate dissolution, which we thought
Was meant by death that day, when lo, to thee
Pains only in child-bearing were foretold,
And bringing forth, soon recompensed with joy,
Fruit of thy womb1053: on me the curse aslope
Glanced on the ground, with labor I must earn
My bread; what harm? Idleness had been worse;
My labor will sustain me; and lest cold
Or heat should injure us, his timely care
Hath unbesought provided, and his hands
Clothed us unworthy, pitying while he judged;
How much more, if we pray him, will his ear
Be open, and his heart to pity incline,
And teach us further by what means1062 to shun
Th’ inclement seasons, rain, ice, hail and snow,
Which now the sky with various face begins
To show us in this mountain, while the winds
Blow moist and keen, shattering1066 the graceful locks
Of these fair spreading trees; which bids us seek
Some better shroud1068, some better warmth to cherish
Our limbs benumbed, ere this diurnal star
Leave cold the night, how we his gathered beams
Reflected, may with matter sere foment1071,
Or by collision of two bodies grind
The air attrite1073 to fire, as late the clouds
Justling or pushed with winds rude in their shock
Tine1075 the slant lightning, whose thwart flame driv’n down
Kindles the gummy bark of fir or pine,
And sends a comfortable heat from far,
Which might supply the sun: such fire to use,
And what may else be remedy or cure
To evils which our own misdeeds have wrought,
He will instruct us praying, and of grace
Beseeching him, so as we need not fear
To pass commodiously this life, sustained
By him with many comforts, till we end
In dust, our final rest and native home.
1086 What better1086 can we do, than to the place
Repairing where he judged us, prostrate fall
Before him reverent, and there confess
Humbly our faults, and pardon beg, with tears
Watering the ground, and with our sighs the air
Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign
Of sorrow unfeigned, and humiliation meek.
Undoubtedly he will relent and turn
From his displeasure; in whose look serene,
When angry most he seemed and most severe,
What else but favor, grace, and mercy shone?”
So spake our father penitent, nor Eve
Felt less remorse: they forthwith to the place
Repairing where he judged them prostrate fell
Before him reverent, and both confessed
Humbly their faults, and pardon begged, with tears
Watering the ground, and with their sighs the air
Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign
Of sorrow unfeigned, and humiliation meek.
10. Complete: fully equipped.
12. still: always.
16. manifold in sin: various in sin. On the multiplicity of the sin of the Fall, see CD 1.11 (MLM 1235–36); A. Williams 121–22.
29–31. Accountable … approved: “The guardian angels, accountable for their actions, hastily approached the throne to plead their vigilance, which God readily confirmed: the guards were not to blame.”
40. speed: be successful.
45. moment: the minimum weight necessary to disturb the equilibrium of a balance (the even scale of l. 47). Cp. 6.239, 245–46.
48. rests: remains.
53. Forbearance no acquittance: A debt is not settled just because payment has not yet been demanded; see Tilley F584.
54. “Man will not scorn my justice [for not being duly delivered] as he scorned my gift of Paradise.”
56–57. to thee … judgment: John 5.22.
78. illustrate most: show above all.
79. Them: justice and mercy. Cp. Nat Ode, stanza 15.
80. Attendance none shall need: “I will not need a retinue.”
82. the third: Satan.
83. Convict: convicted.
84. Conviction: both “proof of guilt” and “condition of being convinced of sin” (OED 8).
86. collateral: side by side.
90–91. the speed … winged: The implication is that time, however finely measured, contains no unit short enough to express the instantaneous speed of the Son.
92. cadence: falling.
106. obvious: The word, meaning (1) “plain” and (2) “coming in the way,” defines both the obviousness of the duty and the duty to be obvious before a visiting deity.
118. revile: reviling.
120. still: always, ever.
128. other self: See 8.450n.
135. Devolved: caused to fall upon (OED 3c).
137–43. Here Milton elaborates Gen. 3.12. Contrast Eve’s simple confession in lines 159–62, where he closely follows Gen. 3.13.
155–56. part/And person: role and character (in a play).
165–66. unable … instrument: The serpent is unable to transfer the guilt to Satan, who made the serpent his instrument.
173. mysterious: mystical, prefiguring.
175–81. A major passage in the design of the poem, in that these mysterious terms are progressively opened or dilated in the remaining books until they convey the entirety of the Christian revelation. At lines 504–17 the curse on the serpent is literally transferred to Satan and the devils. The mysterious terms are then gradually explicated in lines 1030–40; 11.115–16, 154–55; 12.327–30, 376–85, 429–35, 451–55, 620–23. Genesis 3.15, on which this passage is based, is sometimes termed a “protevangelium” or “first gospel.” Luther thought the first gospel was intended to console Eve, since second Eve (l. 183) will contribute humanity to Jesus, while Calvin insisted that “seed of the woman” meant all mankind. Milton presents both views. See Hunter et al., A Milton Encyclopedia, “Protevangelium.”
183. second Eve: an idea familiar in Christian “figural” interpretation of the Bible (see Auerbach 11–78), as is the corresponding notion of Jesus as second or “last” Adam (1
Cor. 15.45).
184. Satan fall like lightning: Luke 10.18–19.
185. Prince of the Air: a commonplace epithet for Satan (Eph. 2.2). Cp. PR 1.39–47.
195–96. thy husband’s … rule: Milton in CD 1.10 (MLM 1222) maintains that Adam’s authority over Eve is strengthened after the Fall, but there are intimations in the poem that postlapsarian Adam and Eve enjoy new equalities—equal in guilt, equal in their Christian enmity toward the serpent, equal in “one faith unanimous” (12.603).
210. denounced: announced as a calamity soon to occur.
215. See John 13.5.
217–18. or … Or: either … or. The skins of Gen. 3.21 had long been a provocation to exegetes, as Hume noted: “Interpreters torment the text … with their curious inquiries, ‘Who slew the beasts? Who flay’d ’em?’ ”
219. thought not much: thought it nothing to object to or hesitate to perform (OED 10d).
222. robe of righteousness: Isa. 61.10.
230. Sin and Death: Book 10 “has a greater variety of persons in it than any other in the whole poem. The author, upon the winding up of his action, introduces all those who had any concern in it, and shows with great beauty the influence which it had upon each of them. It is like the last act of a well-written tragedy” (Addison 157).
236. author: father.
241. like this: so well as this.
243–45. Methinks … deep: Since Adam and Eve feel wings growing on them soon after the Fall (9.1009–10), Sin’s similar illusion may appear at the same moment (Fowler). Sin lays claim to the “dominion” originally given to Adam and Eve (4.430–32), and extends that rule to include Adam, Eve, and their offspring.
249. conveyance: communication.
254–323. Leonard notes that prodigious feats of building are conventional in epic; Milton has already represented the raising of Pandaemonium (1.678–730), the invention of cannon (6.507–23), and the Creation.
257. main: Chaos’s ocean.
261. transmigration: permanent migration to Earth.
264. meager: emaciated.
272. snuffed: detected by means of its odor.
275. Against: in anticipation of.
277. designed: marked out for.
279. feature: shape, form.
280. murky: dark.
281. Sagacious: (1) quick of scent and (2) wise. “A fit comparison for the chief hell-hound” (Hume).
284. diverse: in different directions.
288. shoaling: crowding together.
290. Cronian Sea: Arctic Ocean (icebound).
291–93. th’ imagined way … Coast: the fabled northeast passage between Siberia—where the Pechora (Petsora) River is found; see Milton’s Muscovia in Yale 8:479—and China (Cathay) that explorers such as Henry Hudson only imagined, since the waters were blocked with ice.
293–98. The aggregated soil … slime: With his petrifying mace (scepter), Death fixes the cold and dry qualities, and isolates the hot and moist, which he turns into a mortar, using both asphalt and his Gorgon-like ability to turn the objects of his gaze to stone.
296. Delos: Neptune secured the floating island of Delos by chains to the bottom of the Aegean Sea so that Latona could safely give birth to Apollo and Diana.
300. mole: great causeway or bridge.
305. inoffensive: free from obstacles, with a punning glance back at fenceless in line 303.
307–11. Xerxes of Persia built a bridge of ships across the Hellespont in order to invade Greece and ordered the sea whipped when the bridge was destroyed.
308. Susa: the winter palace of Persian kings, called Memnonian after Memnos, legendary son of Tithonus and Aurora.
311. indignant: both “resentful” from the Latin indignans and “unworthy of punishment” from the Latin indignis (Fowler).
312–13. art/Pontifical: both “bridge-building art” and “popish art.” Eighteenth-century editors thought the pun in dubious taste (Todd).
314. vexed: storm torn.
321. confines: borders.
328–29. Betwixt … zenith: Satan flies between the Centaur (Sagittarius) and the Scorpion (Scorpio), where the constellation Anguis, the serpent held by Ophiucus, is located. Satan entered the universe at the head of the serpent, in Libra (3.556–61n), and now leaves it at the tail of the serpent, enacting in astrological terms his possession of the snake. See Fowler for details. His entrance and exit also participate in the root image systems of eating and digestion.
334. sequel: consequence.
342–45. list’ning … time: This can only refer to lines 1030–40, which imply that the entire turbulent night of lines 720–1104 takes place earlier in chronological time than the present encounter between Satan, Sin, and Death (Leonard).
344. which understood: which he understood.
364. consequence: of which Satan is the cause or author; evil’s consequence is established in the opening lines of the epic, in the “fruit” whose taste brings Death into the world, and again when Satan as “cause” is first named at 1.34.
371. portentous: marvelous and ominous.
378. doom: judgment; alienated: See 9.9 for the apparent truth of Sin’s claim; she does not yet understand the Incarnation, the countermovement to God’s alienation.
379. Sin implies the Manichaean idea of a universe divided between God’s and Satan’s empires; see 4.110–12.
381. His quadrature: “And the city [of God] lieth four-square, and the length is as large as the breadth” (Rev. 21.16). The bounds of Heaven are left undetermined at 2.1048.
386–87. The name Satan is Hebrew for “adversary.”
390. The triumphal arch of the bridge memorializes Satan’s triumph on Earth.
400. Here Satan parodies God, who gave “dominion” over Creation to Adam and Eve. See lines 243–45n.
404. Plenipotent: fully powerful.
408. prevails: 1674; the 1667 edition reads “prevail.”
409. No detriment need fear: alluding to the formula (Providere nequid respublica detrimenti accipiat) by which the Roman Senate conferred special powers on consuls (Newton); detriment: injury.
412. blasted: withered; an effect usually ascribed to ill wind or malignant astral influence.
413. planet-struck: struck by a malignant planet; real eclipse: not just apparently darkened, as in an eclipse beheld on earth, but really darkened.
415. causey: causeway, a raised and paved highway (OED 3).
416. Chaos, disparted (divided into parts) by the creation of the bridge, is enraged by Satan’s betrayal (see 2.981–87).
426. bright star: Lucifer, the morning star; see 5.760, 7.131; paragoned: compared.
427. the grand: the “grand infernal Peers” of 2.507.
428. solicitous: concerned.
431–36. As when … Casbeen: The Tartars retreat from their Russian conquerors near Astracan, the ancient Tartar capital. The Bactrian Sophy, or Shah of Persia, retreats from the crescent battle formations of the Turks (horns/Of Turkish crescent) to Tabriz (Tauris) and Kazvin (Casbeen), Iranian cities, laying waste to lands once under the rule of King Aladule. Leonard notes that both of these defeated enemies were still dangerous.
438. reduced: led back, drawn together, diminished.
441–55. Analogues in the epic tradition include Homer, Od. 7.35–145; Vergil, Aen. 1.579–94; and Tasso, GL, 10.32–50. See S. Fallon 1984.
445. state: canopy. See Arcades 14n.
451. permissive: permitted (by God); cp. the “high permission” of 1.212.
453. sudden blaze: Cp. Lyc 74, where the context is also a nurtured ambition ready to publicize its achievements and about to be thwarted; PR 3.47.
457. divan: council (OED 1b). The Turkish origins of the term fit with Satan as “sultan” (1.348). The military successes of King Suleiman I (1520–1566) in Hungary, Armenia, Persia, and Africa caused widespread alarm in Europe, and led to commonplace associations between Turks and devils.
458. Congratulant: expressing congratulation.
&n
bsp; 460. The Father, when exalting his Son, was the first to use these titles (5.601), the meaning of which Satan (5.772) and Abdiel (5.840) dispute. Satan now declares the titles to be theirs not only by right but by possession (of estates formerly controlled by God).
471. unreal: formless, the equivalent of unreality in Aristotelian metaphysics.
475. uncouth: strange, unusual.
477. unoriginal: without origin, uncreated.
477–78. Chaos … opposed: Though the journey through Chaos was difficult, Chaos and Night hardly opposed Satan (2.910–1009); but see Chaos’s indignation at lines 415–18.
480. Protesting fate supreme: Satan here identifies himself with supreme Fate, as usual parodying God (7.173).
481–82. fame … foretold: See 1.651–56, 2.345–76.
494–99. Like most of the biblical commentators (A. Williams 128), Satan supposes that the first part of the protevangelium (see 175–81n), condemning the serpent to grovel in the dust, applies only to the snake, whereas the second part, in which the seed of the woman will bruise the serpent in the head and be itself bruised in the heel, applies to him (Satan). He is about to be proven wrong. On the transformation of the devils into serpents, see Kerrigan 2004.
508–9. universal hiss … scorn: There is only one sound intelligible within the sign system of human language that both men and snakes can produce, and that is the hiss that greets a bad show. See Shakespeare’s “serpent’s tongue” (MND 5.1.433). On scorn, see Kerrigan 2000, 150–52.
509. wondered: ironically remembering Eve, who found the human speech of the serpent a “wonder” (9.566), as Satan now wonders at the serpentine hiss of his audience.
511–15. The passage imitates the serpent metamorphoses in Ovid, Met. 4.572–603, and Dante, Inf. 24, 25.
513. supplanted: tripped up, overthrown.
515. Reluctant: primarily in the sense of “writhing or struggling against” (Lat. reluctari).
517. doom: the judgment at lines 175–81.
524. amphisbaena: mythical snake with a head at both ends.
525. Cerastes horned: a snake with four horns; hydrus … ellops: water snakes.
526. dipsas: The bite of dipsas (from the Gk. word for “thirst”) caused scalding thirst (l.
528. Ophiusa: a Mediterranean island, from the Gk. “full of snakes.”
529. dragon Satan had long been identified with the “great dragon” of Rev. 12.9. Cp. Fletcher, The Purple Island 7.11.