Paradise Lost (Modern Library Classics) (43 page)

445.
crowned
: filled to the top.

446–48.
if ever … sight:
Milton alludes to Gen. 6.2: “The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives.” Most exegetes took “sons of God” to refer to men, but some thought them to be fallen angels. Milton is saying that if angels ever were attracted to earthly women, the desire would in this instance have been excusable, since it would have arisen in response to Eve’s innocence, not her sexual wiles.

449–50.
All three, in other words, loved without sexual desire, and Adam did not feel jealous.

467.
yet what compare?
: “Yet what comparison can there possibly be between heavenly and earthly feasts?” Adam asks for a comparison, a metaphor, joining Earth and Heaven, and in reply will be given the literal basis for all such metaphors: matter.

469.
O
: A speech about the circular journey of matter begins appropriately with a typographical circle.

472.
one first matter all
: A remarkable conjunction of major philosophical words. In
CD
1.7, Milton argues that the world was created not out of nothing but rather out of preexistent matter, the realm of Chaos visited by Satan in 2.951–1022.

478.
bounds
: both “limits” and “leaps” (Leonard).

483–85.
Raphael adopts the language of Galenic physiology, in which food is elevated or
sublimed
into
vital spirits
, which reside in the heart and are the vehicles of passion, and
animal
spirits, which reside in the brain and are the vehicles of rational thought. No source has ever been adduced for
intellectual
spirits, which Milton postulates, it would seem, in order to supply a material basis for the intuitive capacities of men and angels.

490.
The epic’s definitive statement on the ontological relationship of man to angel, Earth to Heaven, matter to spirit; that the phrase was in common use can be inferred from its appearance in the verse of Katherine Philips: “The same in kind, though diff’ring in degree” (“On Controversies in Religion”). She died in 1664, three years before the publication of Milton’s epic, and was not likely to have seen it in manuscript.

497.
Cp.
Masque
, 558–61.

498.
tract
: a stretch or lapse.

499–500.
Utopias are often criticized for their stasis. Here Raphael introduces the possibility of dynamic improvement into Edenic life.

505.
incapable
: unable to contain.

509.
scale of nature
: The
scale
or ladder of Nature, by which the mind may ascend from particularity to unity or Earth to Heaven, is a commonplace image in philosophy and theology. It was often linked with Jacob’s vision in Gen. 28.12 and with the golden chain connecting heaven and earth in Homer’s
Il
. 8.19 (Macrobius,
Commentary on the Dream of Scipio
, 1.14.15).

538.
surety
: ground of certainty, guarantee of secure possession.

547.
Cherubic songs
: See 4.680–88.

552.
yet
: also.

557.
sacred silence
: echoing Horace,
Odes
2.13.29–32.

566.
remorse
: pity.

571.
dispensed
: made lawful.

573.
lik’ning spiritual to corporal forms
: But as we know from the discussion that arose over Raphael’s eating, spiritual and corporal forms differ only in degree; metaphor has ontological sanction.

575–76.
The idea of Earth being the shadow of Heaven is sometimes meant to stress the difference, but Milton clearly thinks of them as being alike, analogical.

576.
more than on Earth is thought
: The only time that an earthling thought heavenly things too little like earthly things was when Adam assumed that Raphael could not eat earthly food. The error will be multiplied in the future: not everyone is a spiritual materialist, and even Adam took some convincing.

580–82.
For time … future:
On the unconventional idea that time precedes the Creation, see Milton’s
CD
1.7 (
MLM
1204). On the idea that time is the measure of motion, see Aristotle,
Physics
4.2.219, and lines 7–8 of Milton’s second epitaph on Hobson.

583.
Heav’n’s great year
: On Earth a
great year
is the time required for the fixed stars to complete a full revolution, computed by Plato at 36,000 years (
Timaeus
39D); we are left to imagine what Heaven’s analogue of this cycle would be.

589.
gonfalons
: banners hung from cross-pieces affixed to standards, as to this day in religious ceremonies.

601.
The line names five of the traditional nine orders of angels. Satan, obviously impressed by this aspect of divine rhetoric, repeats the sonorous roll call of titles throughout his career (1.315–16, 2.11, 2.430, 5.772;
PR
2.121). He thinks they signify the inalienable right to rule Heaven (ll. 800–802).

603.
This day I have begot
: Considering Gen. 22.16, Ps. 2.6–7, and Heb. 1.5, Milton argued in
CD
1.5 that the begetting of the Son was a metaphor for his exaltation above the angels. The passage dramatizes that interpretation.

607.
by myself have sworn
: the formula of God’s vowing found in Gen. 22.16, Isa. 45.23, Heb. 6.13–19; see Donne, “A Hymn to God the Father,” l. 15.

609.
vicegerent
: the representative of a ruler.

610.
individual
: indivisible.

611.
him who disobeys
: whoever disobeys him.

618.
solemn days
: days set aside for religious ceremonies.

621.
fixed
: fixed stars.

623.
Eccentric
: In the Ptolemaic system, an eccentric is a planetary orbit of which the Earth is not the center; these eccentric centers revolve about the earth.
intervolved:
interlocked, like the two centers of an eccentric orbit.

627.
now
: added in 1674.

636–40.
These lines revise and expand Editon 1, which reads, “They eat, they drink, and with refection sweet/Are filled, before th’ all bounteous King, who show’red.”

637.
communion
: fellowship.

652.
streams among the trees of life
: See Rev. 22.2.

658.
former name
: his original, prerebellion name, now blotted out from the heavenly records (1.362–63). One tradition, derived from Isa. 14.12, took the former name to be Lucifer, but Raphael does not confirm this directly until 5.760.

664.
Messiah
: Hebrew, meaning “anointed.”

669.
dislodge
: break camp.

671.
subordinate
: His fallen name is Beëlzebub (1.81).

673.
Sleep’st thou
: An epic formula for awakening someone, found in Homer (
Il
. 2.560), Vergil (
Aen
. 4.560, 7.421), and Milton’s
On the Fifth of November
, 92.

680.
minds
: purposes.

685.
by command
: a lie, since God has not commanded their departure.

689.
north
: where Satan’s throne was traditionally located (Isa. 14.13).

695.
Bad influence
: perhaps with an astrological undertone.

700.
Night’s removal of darkness and the stars is made to seem an echo of Satan moving his troops.

710.
the third part
: See Rev. 12.4.

712.
Abstrusest
: most secret.

718.
smiling
: alerting us to the mocking tone of the forthcoming speech, where the omnipotent Father speaks as a Shakespearean monarch alarmed by the threat of rebellion.

721.
Nearly
: “closely,” “intimately,” as in Shakespeare’s “something nearly that concerns yourselves” (
MND
1.1.126).

725–26.
Cp. Isa. 14.12–13.

736.
Justly hast in derision
: Ps. 2.4: “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: The Lord shall have them in derision.”

739.
Illustrates
: makes illustrious (by defeating them in battle).

740.
in event
: by the outcome.

741.
dextrous
: both “skillful” and “right-handed” (the Son sits on God’s right hand [1. 606], and is, so to speak, his right-hand man).

746.
Or stars of morning, dewdrops
: The sudden shift of magnitude from stars to dewdrops recalls the similes of Book 1.

748.
regencies
: dominions.

750.
triple degrees
: The nine orders of angels were often arranged in three groups of three; see Spenser’s “trinal triplicities” in FQ 1.39.

750–54.
regions … longitude:
Again the issue is magnitude: the planet Earth, spread on a flat plane, is to the regions traversed by the rebel angels as Eden is to the entire earth.

758.
pyramids
: Milton’s association of pyramids with pomp and immortal longings can be discerned as early as
On Shakespeare
. See also
RCG
(Yale 1:790).

763.
Affecting
: aspiring to, making an ostentatious display of.

764.
that mount
: referring to the mount of line 598.

766.
Mountain of the Congregation
: See Isa. 14.13.

775.
engrossed
: monopolized.

786.
this yoke
: Christ maintains that his yoke is “easy” in Matt. 11.29–30.

799.
this
: this entity placed over us only by improper law and edict.

805.
Abdiel
: Hebrew meaning “Servant of God.” Milton’s most important addition to the traditional cast of Judeo-Christian angels; see West 154 on the origins of the name.
zeal:
a trait admired by Protestants and by Milton, who defined it as “an eager desire to sanctify the divine name, together with a feeling of indignation against things which tend to the violation or contempt of religion” (CD 2.6 in
MLM
1146; see also
Apology
in Yale 1:900–901).

821.
unsucceeded
: without successor, unending.

835–40.
Based on Col. 1.16–17: “By him were all things created, … whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.”

842–45.
But … own:
“The argument seems to be that Christ, by becoming the head of the angels, became in a measure one of them, and so ennobled their nature” (Verity). Such, of course, is precisely the effect of his Incarnation on humankind.

856–58.
See Augustine’s
Confessions
1.6 on how we do not remember our beginnings but cannot suppose that we fabricated ourselves, and therefore honor our Maker. Adam at his awakening follows this line of thought (8.270–82). Milton might have derived the idea of the rebel angels denying their creation from Dante,
Par
. 29.58–60.

860.
self-begot, self-raised
: The sudden eruption of the word
self
recalls Shakespeare’s
R3
, 5.3.183–204, and glances at the despairing hell of selfhood at 4.73–113.

864.
own right hand
: as opposed to God’s (see 741n). Cp. Ps. 45.4.

868.
Address
: dutiful approach, with also a military sense of skillful engagement.

869.
Beseeching or besieging
: Out of supplication comes, treacherously, a new way of approaching the throne of God;
besieging
only sounds like
beseeching
. Cp. 1.642n.

883.
those indulgent laws
: alluding to the laws of line 693.

890.
devoted
: doomed.

899.
Similar effects with the prefix
un-
occur at 2.185, 3.231. In describing Abdiel’s solitary steadfastness, Milton may also have had in mind his own position at the Restoration.

906.
retorted scorn
: Abdiel’s physical gesture of scornfully turning his back on the scornful rebel angels enacts the etymology of
retorted
, from the Latin
retortus
, “turned back.”