Paradise Lost (Modern Library Classics) (39 page)

930–33.
But … Leader:
Gabriel’s remarks, says Satan, reveal his ignorance about how a dedicated leader ought to proceed after arduous undertakings and failures.

930.
at random
: without discrimination.

939.
afflicted
: struck down (cp. 1.186).

940.
mid-air
: After the Fall, Satan rules the middle region of the air, which extends as high as the mountaintops (1.516–17). See
PR
1.39–47, 2.117; Eph. 2.2, 6.12.

942.
gay
: ebullient, showy, self-indulgent; a pointed retort to Zephon (ll. 838–40).

945.
practiced distances
: applies both to courtly protocol (
cringe
) and martial training, especially swordplay (
fight
).

949.
Replying to Satan at lines 930–34.

958–60.
Gabriel’s reply allows that Heaven is a realm of groveling toadies (Empson 1965, 111). Fowler counters that the response simply conforms to Satan’s insulting tenor (ll. 942–45). Cp. Prometheus’ scornful words to Zeus’s followers: “Worship, adore, and fawn upon … thy lord” (Aeschylus,
Prom
. 937).

962.
aread
: advise, order;
avaunt:
begone; diction used especially for expulsion of evil spirits.

965–67.
With Gabriel’s threat to
drag
a
chained
Satan to the pit and
seal
him there (note the emphatic present tense), Milton returns to the apocalyptic context evoked at lines 1–12 (Rev. 20.1–3).

967.
facile
: easily negotiated; the diction implies negligence, as does
too slightly barred
, though again Gabriel may only be responding in Satan’s scornful terms (ll. 898–99).

971.
limitary
: stationed at a border or boundary; of limited authority (in reply to l. 964).

974.
Ride on thy wings
: “He rode upon a Cherub and did fly” (Ps. 18.10).

975–76.
Satan refers to God’s chariot (6.750ff); cp. Ezek. 1, 10, 11.22.

976.
progress
: royal tour.

980–83.
With … them:
The comparison of a group of warriors to a windswept field of grain is common in epic, beginning with Homer (
Il
. 2.147–50). Leonard argues that the simile, commonly used of demoralized troops (like a field of grain flattened by wind), implies the good angels’ weakness. Milton’s simile departs from its precedents, however. Gabriel’s troops, spears ported, form a thick semicircle around Satan. Viewed together, the shafts of their spears would appear to slant in several directions, like stalks in a field of grain
waving
in the uncertain wind that precedes a storm.

978–80.
sharp’ning … spears:
Taken in their most specific military senses,
phalanx
and
ported
are inconsistent. Troops in a classical Greek
phalanx
interlock shields in a square formation and carry their spears projecting forward.
Ported spears
are held diagonally, across the body, spearhead at the left shoulder. The movement into a crescent shape (
sharp’ning in moonèd horns
) suggests that
phalanx
here is used in its more general sense of a group moving closely together.

981.
Ceres
: goddess of grain, mother of Proserpine (cp. 268–72n).

983–85.
the careful plowman … chaff:
The subject conveyed by
the careful plowman
is not clear. Satan seems an unlikely candidate in light of line 985. The identification of God as the plowman is more likely in light of literary precedent, the designation of God in this book as the planter of the Garden, and the scriptural imagery of sheaves and chaff, which fits the apocalyptic role of God. The choice attributed to the plowman is also consistent with subsequent imagery of God’s scales.

986.
dilated
: enlarged, owing to spirits’ ability to shrink or swell at will (cp. 1.428–29).

987.
Teneriffe or Atlas unremoved
: The summit of Mount
Teneriffe
(two miles high, in the Canary Islands) was in Milton’s century estimated at “fifteen miles” (Hume).
Atlas:
cloud-capped mountain in Libya on which the sky was imagined to rest, per the myth of Atlas.
unremoved:
Latinate past participle meaning immovable (cp. l. 493). The usage is likely ironic. Faith can move mountains (1 Cor. 13.2), as angels provoked by Satan amply demonstrate (6.645–49).

988.
His stature reached the sky
: Homer’s description of Discord and Vergil’s of Rumor are usually adduced (
Il
. 4.443;
Aen
. 4.177), but the rendition of Passover night in the apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon is a more apt precedent for the configuration of the scene: “Night in her swift course was half spent, when thy almighty Word leapt from thy royal throne in heaven into the midst of that doomed land like a relentless warrior … and stood and filled it all with death, his head touching the heavens, his feet on earth” (14–16).

992.
cope
: vault; see 776–77n. The threat seems overstated given God’s authority over creatures: he curbs angelic muscle to preserve the landscape during the War in Heaven (6.225–29), and Gabriel will soon claim that his strength has been doubled (ll. 1006–10).

997.
golden scales
: translates Homer’s phrase for the balance in which Zeus weighs destinies of opposed armies or warriors (
Il
. 8.69, 22.209). Here it refers to the constellation Libra (the
scales
) between
Astrea and the Scorpion sign
.

998.
Astrea
: the constellation of Virgo (the Virgin).
Astrea
, goddess of justice, resided on earth during the Golden Age, but human iniquity drove her up to heaven, where she became this constellation (Ovid,
Met
. 1.149ff
)
.

999–1001.
Wherein … counterpoise:
Weight is a crucial quality in Scripture, where God as creator and judge is repeatedly depicted as using a scale (Job 28.24ff, Isa. 40.12, 1 Sam. 2.3).

1001.
ponders
: weighs, deliberates.

1012.
In Homer and Vergil, the loser’s balance sinks; the victor’s ascends. But Milton follows scriptural precedent: “Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting” (Dan. 5.27). Gabriel’s reading seems inconsistent with the claim that God weighs
the sequel each of parting and of fight
(l. 1003). The outcome is nevertheless consistent with Gabriel’s threat to apprehend Satan only if he refused to depart (ll. 965–67).

1014.
nor more
: nor (said) more.

1015.
Cp. the final lines of Vergil’s
Aen
.

Now Morn her rosy steps in th’ eastern clime

Advancing, sowed the earth with orient pearl,

When Adam waked, so customed, for his sleep

Was airy light, from pure digestion bred,

And temperate vapors bland
⁵
, which th’ only sound

Of leaves and fuming rills
⁶
, Aurora’s fan,

Lightly dispersed, and the shrill matin song

Of birds on every bough; so much the more

His wonder was to find unwakened Eve

With tresses discomposed, and glowing cheek,

As through unquiet rest: he on his side

Leaning half-raised, with looks of cordial love

Hung over her enamored, and beheld

Beauty, which whether waking or asleep,

Shot forth peculiar
¹⁵
graces; then with voice

Mild, as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes
¹⁶
,

Her hand soft touching, whispered thus. “Awake
¹⁷

My fairest, my espoused, my latest found,

Heav’n’s last best gift, my ever new delight,

Awake, the morning shines, and the fresh field

Calls us; we lose the prime
²¹
, to mark how spring

Our tended plants, how blows
²²
the citron grove,

What drops the myrrh, and what the balmy reed
²³
,

How nature paints her colors, how the bee

Sits on the bloom extracting liquid sweet.”

   Such whispering waked her, but with startled eye

On Adam, whom embracing, thus she spoke.

   “O sole in whom my thoughts find all repose,

My glory, my perfection, glad I see

Thy face, and morn returned, for I this night,

Such night till this I never passed, have dreamed,

If dreamed, not as I oft am wont, of thee,

Works of day past, or morrow’s next design,

But of offense and trouble, which my mind

Knew never till this irksome night; methought

Close at mine ear one called me forth to walk

With gentle voice, I thought it thine; it said,

‘Why sleep’st thou Eve?
³⁸
Now is the pleasant time,

The cool, the silent, save where silence yields

To the night-warbling bird, that now awake

Tunes sweetest his love-labored song; now reigns

Full orbed the moon, and with more pleasing light

Shadowy sets off the face of things; in vain,

If none regard; heav’n wakes with all his eyes
⁴⁴
,

Whom to behold but thee, nature’s desire,

In whose sight all things joy, with ravishment

Attracted by thy beauty still
⁴⁷
to gaze.’

I rose as at thy call, but found thee not;

To find thee I directed then my walk;

And on, methought, alone I passed through ways

That brought me on a sudden to the tree

Of interdicted knowledge: fair it seemed,

Much fairer to my fancy than by day:

And as I wond’ring looked, beside it stood

One shaped and winged like one of those from Heav’n

By us oft seen; his dewy locks distilled

Ambrosia; on that tree he also gazed;

And ‘O fair plant,’ said he, ‘with fruit surcharged,

Deigns none to ease thy load and taste thy sweet,

Nor god
⁶⁰
, nor man; is knowledge so despised?

Or envy, or what reserve
⁶¹
forbids to taste?

Forbid who will, none shall from me withhold

Longer thy offered good, why else set here?’

This said he paused not, but with vent’rous arm

He plucked, he tasted; me damp horror chilled
⁶⁵

At such bold words vouched with
⁶⁶
a deed so bold:

But he thus overjoyed, ‘O fruit divine,

Sweet of thyself, but much more sweet thus cropped,

Forbidden here, it seems, as only fit

For gods, yet able to make gods of men:

And why not gods of men, since good, the more

Communicated, more abundant grows,

The author not impaired, but honored more?

Here, happy creature, fair angelic Eve,

Partake thou also; happy though thou art,

Happier thou may’st be, worthier canst not be:

Taste this, and be henceforth among the gods

Thyself a goddess, not to Earth confined,

But sometimes
⁷⁹
in the air, as we, sometimes

Ascend to Heav’n, by merit thine, and see

What life the gods live there, and such live thou.’

So saying, he drew nigh, and to me held,

Even to my mouth of that same fruit held part

Which he had plucked; the pleasant savory smell

So quickened appetite, that I, methought,

Could not but taste. Forthwith up to the clouds

With him I flew, and underneath beheld

The Earth outstretched immense, a prospect wide

And various: wond’ring at my flight and change

To this high exaltation; suddenly

My guide was gone, and I, methought, sunk down,

And fell asleep; but O how glad I waked

To find this but a dream!” Thus Eve her night

Related, and thus Adam answered sad
⁹⁴
.

   “Best image of myself and dearer half,

The trouble of thy thoughts this night in sleep

Affects me equally; nor can I like

This uncouth
⁹⁸
dream, of evil sprung I fear;

Yet evil whence? In thee can harbor none,

Created pure. But
¹⁰⁰
know that in the soul

Are many lesser faculties that serve

Reason as chief; among these Fancy next

Her office holds; of all external things,

Which the five watchful senses represent,

She forms imaginations, airy shapes,

Which reason joining or disjoining, frames

All what we affirm or what deny, and call

Our knowledge or opinion; then retires

Into her private cell
¹⁰⁹
when nature rests,

Oft in her absence mimic Fancy wakes

To imitate her; but misjoining shapes,

Wild work produces oft, and most in dreams,

Ill matching words and deeds long past or late.

Some such resemblances methinks I find

Of our last evening’s talk
¹¹⁵
, in this thy dream,

But with addition strange; yet be not sad.

Evil into the mind of god or man

May come
¹¹⁸
or go, so unapproved, and leave

No spot or blame behind: Which gives me hope

That what in sleep thou didst abhor to dream,

Waking thou never wilt consent to do.

Be not disheartened then, nor cloud those looks

That wont to be
¹²³
more cheerful and serene

Than when fair morning first smiles on the world,

And let us to our fresh employments rise

Among the groves, the fountains, and the flow’rs

That open now their choicest bosomed smells

Reserved from night, and kept for thee in store.”

   So cheered he his fair spouse, and she was cheered,

But silently a gentle tear let fall

From either eye, and wiped them with her hair;

Two other precious drops that ready stood,

Each in their crystal sluice, he ere they fell
¹³³

Kissed as the gracious signs of sweet remorse

And pious awe, that feared to have offended.

   So all was cleared, and to the field they haste.

But first from under shady arborous roof,

Soon as they forth were come to open sight

Of day-spring, and the sun, who scarce up risen

With wheels yet hov’ring o’er the ocean brim,

Shot parallel to the Earth his dewy ray,

Discovering in wide landscape all the east

Of Paradise and Eden’s happy plains,

Lowly they bowed adoring, and began

Their orisons, each morning duly paid

In various
¹⁴⁶
style, for neither various style

Nor holy rapture wanted
¹⁴⁷
they to praise

Their Maker, in fit strains pronounced or sung

Unmeditated, such prompt eloquence

Flowed from their lips, in prose or numerous
¹⁵⁰
verse,

More tuneable than needed lute or harp

To add more sweetness, and they thus began.

   “These are
¹⁵³
thy glorious works, parent of good,

Almighty, thine this universal frame,

Thus wondrous fair; thyself how wondrous then!

Unspeakable, who sit’st above these heavens

To us invisible or dimly seen

In these thy lowest works, yet these declare

Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine:

Speak ye who best can tell, ye sons of light,

Angels, for ye behold him, and with songs

And choral symphonies, day without night,

Circle his throne rejoicing, ye in Heav’n,

On Earth join all ye creatures to extol

Him first,
¹⁶⁵
him last, him midst, and without end.

Fairest of stars
¹⁶⁶
, last in the train of night,

If better thou belong not to the dawn,

Sure pledge of day, that crown’st the smiling morn

With thy bright circlet, praise him in thy sphere

While day arises, that sweet hour of prime.

Thou sun, of this great world both eye and soul,

Acknowledge him thy greater, sound his praise

In thy eternal course, both when thou climb’st,

And when high noon hast gained, and when thou fall’st.

Moon, that now meet’st the orient sun, now fli’st

With the fixed stars, fixed in their orb that flies,

And ye five other wand’ring fires that move

In mystic dance not without song
¹⁷⁸
, resound

His praise, who out of darkness called up light.

Air, and ye elements the eldest birth

Of nature’s womb, that in quaternion
¹⁸¹
run

Perpetual circle, multiform, and mix

And nourish all things, let your ceaseless change

Vary to our great Maker still new praise.

Ye mists and exhalations that now rise

From hill or steaming lake, dusky or gray,

Till the sun paint your fleecy skirts with gold,

In honor to the world’s great author rise;

Whether to deck with clouds the uncolored sky,

Or wet the thirsty earth with falling showers,

Rising or falling still advance his praise.

His praise ye winds, that from four quarters blow,

Breathe soft or loud; and wave your tops, ye pines,

With every plant, in sign of worship wave.

Fountains and ye that warble as ye flow

Melodious murmurs, warbling tune his praise.

Join voices all ye living souls, ye birds,

That singing up to heaven gate ascend,

Bear on your wings and in your notes his praise;

Ye that in waters glide, and ye that walk

The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep;

Witness if I be silent, morn or even,

To hill, or valley, fountain, or fresh shade

Made vocal by my song, and taught his praise.

Hail universal Lord, be bounteous still
²⁰⁵

To give us only good; and if the night

Have gathered aught of evil or concealed,

Disperse it, as now light dispels the dark.”

   So prayed they innocent, and to their thoughts

Firm peace recovered soon and wonted calm.

On to their morning’s rural work they haste

Among sweet dews and flow’rs; where any row

Of fruit trees over-woody reached too far

Their pampered
²¹⁴
boughs, and needed hands to check

Fruitless embraces
²¹⁵
: or they led the vine

To wed her elm; she spoused about him twines

Her marriageable arms, and with her brings

Her dow’r th’ adopted clusters, to adorn

His barren leaves. Them thus employed beheld

With pity Heav’n’s high King, and to him called

Raphael
²²¹
, the sociable spirit, that deigned

To travel with Tobias, and secured

His marriage with the seven-times-wedded maid.

   “Raphael,” said he, “thou hear’st what stir on Earth

Satan from Hell scaped through the darksome gulf

Hath raised in Paradise, and how disturbed

This night the human pair, how he designs

In them at once to ruin all mankind.

Go therefore, half this day as friend with friend

Converse with Adam, in what bow’r or shade

Thou find’st him from the heat of noon retired,

To respite his day-labor with repast,

Or with repose; and such discourse bring on,

As may advise him of his happy state,

Happiness in his power left free to will,

Left to his own free will, his will though free,

Yet mutable; whence warn him to beware

He swerve
²³⁸
not too secure: tell him withal

His danger, and from whom, what enemy

Late fall’n himself from Heav’n is plotting now

The fall of others from like state of bliss;

By violence, no, for that shall be withstood,

But by deceit and lies; this let him know,

Lest willfully transgressing he pretend

Surprisal, unadmonished, unforewarned.”

   So spake th’ eternal Father, and fulfilled

All justice: nor delayed the wingèd saint

After his charge received, but from among

Thousand celestial ardors
²⁴⁹
, where he stood

Veiled
²⁵⁰
with his gorgeous wings, up springing light

Flew through the midst of Heav’n; th’ angelic choirs

On each hand parting, to his speed gave way

Through all th’ empyreal
²⁵³
road; till at the gate