Paradise Lost (Modern Library Classics) (69 page)

965.
derived
: passed down by descent. Adam’s return to the question of seed prompts Eve’s next speech.

969.
event
: outcome, with a rueful pun on her name.

978.
As in
: considering.

979–1006.
Adam has been lamenting at length his forthcoming infamy, but Eve cuts to the chase. Dread of our seed comes down to this: we can either abstain from the sexual act and have no seed, or, if such frustration seems unendurable, we can kill ourselves and again leave no seed. The speech seems to lift a veil from Adam’s mind, reminding us that, as Milton emphasized at 9.1187–89, fallen men discern mistakes in others that they do not mark in themselves.

989.
In early editions the words “so Death” were placed at the beginning of line 990. This is most likely an error, since otherwise 989 would be the only tetrameter line, and 990 the only hexameter line, in the poem.

990.
deceived
: cheated of.

994.
sweet
: The reintroduction of this key word in unfallen eroticism (4.298, 311, 641–56; 5.296; 8.603; 9.238, 407) suggests how severe the pangs of frustration would be and deftly reminds Adam of their mutual pleasures.

997–98.
Satan has already verified that sexual frustration is “not the least” of Hell’s torments (4.509–11).

1030–40.
Again the protevangelium revives and guides.

1053.
Fruit of thy womb
: anticipating Luke 1.41–42;
aslope:
Adam’s curse (to earn his bread with labor) glanced off him and hit the ground (l. 201:
Cursed is the ground
) more directly than it hit him. Earlier, when he was in despair (ll. 720–42), his blessings seemed curses. Now that he is reinvigorated, his curse seems a blessing.

1062.
by what means
: The entire future of peaceful technology is anticipated here.

1066.
shattering
: shaking, breaking into pieces, as in
Lyc
5, where leaves are also the verb’s object.

1068.
shroud
: shelter.

1071.
foment
: heat.

1073.
attrite
: rubbed at.

1075.
Tine
: ignite. On the theological and philosophical implication of Adam’s invention of fire, see Hoerner 1995.

1086–1104.
Another of the poem’s many mirroring effects, this one being the only imitation in Milton’s work of the extensive formulaic repetition found in Homer (e.g.,
Il
. 9.122–57, 264–99). (Lines 1093–96 are not repeated because Adam and Eve’s punishment will eventually include expulsion from Paradise.) Tayler 1979, 84 remarks that “not only do the narrator’s words place a doctrinal seal upon this stage in the process of repentance” but they also create “a moment of stasis in which we all [Adam and Eve, the narrator, the reader] see things the same way”: this is indeed the best thing to say, the best thing to do.

Thus they in lowliest plight repentant stood
¹

Praying, for from the mercy-seat
²
above

Prevenient grace
³
descending had removed

The stony from their hearts, and made new flesh
⁴

Regenerate grow instead, that sighs now breathed
⁵

Unutterable, which the spirit of prayer

Inspired, and winged for Heav’n with speedier flight

Then loudest oratory: yet their port
⁸

Not of mean suitors, nor important less

Seemed their petition, than when th’ ancient pair
¹⁰

In fables old, less ancient yet than these,

Deucalion and chaste Pyrrha to restore

The race of mankind drowned, before the shrine

Of Themis stood devout. To Heav’n
¹⁴
their prayers

Flew up, nor miss’d the way, by envious winds

Blown vagabond or frustrate: in they passed

Dimensionless
¹⁷
through Heav’nly doors; then clad

With incense
¹⁸
, where the golden altar fumed,

By their great Intercessor, came in sight

Before the Father’s throne: them the glad Son

Presenting, thus to intercede began.

   “See Father, what first fruits on Earth are sprung

From thy implanted grace in man, these sighs

And prayers, which in this golden censer, mixed

With incense, I thy priest before thee bring,

Fruits of more pleasing savor from thy seed

Sown with contrition in his heart, than those

Which his own hand manuring
²⁸
all the trees

Of Paradise could have produced, ere fall’n

From innocence. Now therefore bend thine ear

To supplication, hear his sighs though mute;

Unskillful with what words to pray, let me

Interpret for him, me
³³
his advocate

And propitiation, all his works on me

Good or not good ingraft
³⁵
; my merit those

Shall perfect, and for these my death shall pay.

Accept me, and in me from these receive

The smell of peace toward mankind, let him live

Before thee reconciled, at least his days

Numbered, though sad, till death, his doom (which I

To mitigate thus plead, not to reverse)

To better life shall yield him, where with me

All my redeemed may dwell in joy and bliss,

Made one
⁴⁴
with me as I with thee am one.”

   To whom the Father, without cloud, serene.

“All thy request for man, accepted Son,

Obtain, all thy request was my decree:

But longer in that Paradise to dwell,

The law I gave to nature him forbids:

Those pure immortal elements that know

No gross, no unharmonious mixture foul,

Eject him tainted now, and purge him off

As a distemper
⁵³
, gross to air as gross,

And mortal food, as may dispose him best

For dissolution
⁵⁵
wrought by sin, that first

Distempered all things, and of incorrupt

Corrupted. I at first with two fair gifts

Created him endowed, with happiness

And immortality: that fondly
⁵⁹
lost,

This other
⁶⁰
served but to eternize woe;

Till I provided death; so death becomes

His final remedy, and after life

Tried in sharp tribulation, and refined

By faith and faithful works, to second life,
⁶⁴

Waked in the renovation of the just,

Resigns
⁶⁶
him up with heav’n and Earth renewed.

But let us call to synod all the blest

Through Heav’n’s wide bounds; from them I will not hide

My judgments, how with mankind I proceed,

As how with peccant angels late they saw;

And in their state, though firm, stood more confirmed.”

   He ended, and the Son gave signal high

To the bright minister that watched; he blew

His trumpet, heard in Oreb
⁷⁴
since perhaps

When God descended, and perhaps once more
⁷⁵

To sound at general doom. Th’ angelic blast

Filled all the regions: from their blissful bow’rs

Of amarantine
⁷⁸
shade, fountain or spring,

By the waters of life, where’er they sat

In fellowships of joy: the sons of light

Hasted, resorting to the summons high,

And took their seats; till from his throne supreme

Th’ Almighty thus pronounced his sov’reign will.

   “O Sons, like one of us man is become

To know both good and evil, since his taste

Of that defended
⁸⁶
fruit; but let him boast

His knowledge of good lost, and evil got,

Happier, had it sufficed him to have known

Good by itself, and evil not at all.

He sorrows now, repents, and prays contrite,

My motions
⁹¹
in him; longer than they move,

His heart I know, how variable and vain

Self-left
⁹³
. Lest therefore his now bolder hand

Reach also of the Tree of Life, and eat,

And live forever, dream at least to live

Forever, to remove him I decree,

And send him from the garden forth to till

The ground whence he was taken, fitter soil.

   “Michael, this my behest have thou in charge,

Take to thee from among the Cherubim

Thy choice of flaming warriors, lest the fiend

Or in behalf of man, or
¹⁰²
to invade

Vacant possession, some new trouble raise:

Haste thee, and from the Paradise of God

Without remorse drive out the sinful pair,

From hallowed ground th’ unholy, and denounce
¹⁰⁶

To them and to their progeny from thence

Perpetual banishment. Yet lest they faint
¹⁰⁸

At the sad sentence rigorously urged,

For I behold them softened and with tears

Bewailing their excess
¹¹¹
, all terror hide.

If patiently thy bidding they obey,

Dismiss them not disconsolate; reveal

To Adam what shall come in future days,

As I shall thee enlighten, intermix

My cov’nant in the woman’s seed renewed;

So send them forth, though sorrowing, yet in peace:

And on the east side of the garden place,

Where entrance up from Eden easiest climbs,

Cherubic watch, and of a sword the flame

Wide-waving, all approach far off to fright,

And guard all passage to the Tree of Life:

Lest Paradise a receptacle prove

To spirits foul, and all my trees their prey,

With whose stol’n fruit man once more to delude.”

   He ceased; and th’ archangelic power prepared

For swift descent, with him the cohort bright

Of watchful Cherubim; four faces each

Had, like a double Janus
¹²⁹
, all their shape

Spangled with eyes more numerous than those

Of Argus
¹³¹
, and more wakeful than to drowse,

Charmed with Arcadian pipe, the pastoral reed

Of Hermes, or his opiate rod. Meanwhile

To resalute the world with sacred light

Leucothea
¹³⁵
waked, and with fresh dews imbalmed

The Earth, when Adam and first matron Eve

Had ended now their orisons, and found

Strength added from above, new hope to spring

Out of despair, joy, but with fear yet linked;

Which thus to Eve his welcome words renewed.

   “Eve, easily may faith admit, that all

The good which we enjoy, from Heav’n descends;

But that from us aught should ascend to Heav’n

So prevalent
¹⁴⁴
as to concern the mind

Of God high-blest, or to incline his will,

Hard to belief may seem; yet this will prayer,

Or one short sigh of human breath, upborne

Ev’n to the seat of God. For since I sought

By prayer th’ offended Deity to appease,

Kneeled and before him humbled all my heart,

Methought I saw him placable and mild,

Bending his ear; persuasion in me grew

That I was heard with favor; peace returned

Home to my breast, and to my memory

His promise, that thy seed shall bruise our foe;

Which then not minded in dismay, yet now

Assures
¹⁵⁷
me that the bitterness of death

Is past, and we shall live. Whence hail to thee
¹⁵⁸
,

Eve rightly called
¹⁵⁹
, Mother of all Mankind,

Mother of all things living, since by thee

Man is to live, and all things live for man.”

   To whom thus Eve with sad demeanor meek.

“Ill-worthy I such title should belong

To me transgressor, who for thee ordained

A help, became thy snare; to me reproach

Rather belongs, distrust and all dispraise:

But infinite in pardon was my judge,

That I who first brought death on all, am graced

The source of life; next favorable thou,

Who highly thus to entitle me vouchsaf’st,

Far other name deserving. But the field

To labor calls us now with sweat imposed,

Though after sleepless night; for see the morn,

All unconcerned with our unrest, begins

Her rosy progress smiling; let us forth,

I never from thy side henceforth to stray,

Where’er our day’s work lies, though now enjoined

Laborious, till day droop; while here we dwell,

What can be toilsome in these pleasant walks?

Here let us live, though in fall’n state, content.”

   So spake, so wished much-humbled Eve, but fate

Subscribed not; nature first gave signs, impressed

On bird, beast, air, air suddenly eclipsed

After short blush of morn; nigh in her sight

The bird of Jove
¹⁸⁵
, stooped from his airy tour,

Two birds of gayest plume
¹⁸⁶
before him drove:

Down from a hill the beast that reigns
¹⁸⁷
in woods,

First hunter then, pursued a gentle brace
¹⁸⁸
,

Goodliest of all the forest, hart and hind;

Direct to th’ eastern gate was bent their flight.

Adam observed, and with his eye the chase

Pursuing, not unmoved to Eve thus spake.

   “O Eve, some further change awaits us nigh,

Which Heav’n by these mute signs in nature shows

Forerunners of his purpose, or to warn

Us haply too secure
¹⁹⁶
of our discharge

From penalty, because from death released

Some days; how long, and what till then our life,

Who knows, or more than this, that we are dust,

And thither must return and be no more.

Why else this double object in our sight

Of flight pursued in th’ air and o’er the ground

One way the selfsame hour? Why in the east

Darkness ere day’s mid-course, and morning light

More orient
²⁰⁵
in yon western cloud that draws

O’re the blue firmament a radiant white,

And slow descends, with something Heav’nly fraught.”

   He erred not, for by this
²⁰⁸
the Heav’nly bands

Down from a sky of jasper lighted
²⁰⁹
now

In Paradise, and on a hill made halt
²¹⁰
,

A glorious apparition, had not doubt

And carnal fear that day dimmed Adam’s eye.

Not that more glorious, when the angels met

Jacob in Mahanaim
²¹⁴
, where he saw

The field pavilioned
²¹⁵
with his guardians bright;

Nor that
²¹⁶
which on the flaming mount appeared

In Dothan, covered with a camp of fire,

Against the Syrian king, who to surprise

One man, assassin-like had levied war,

War unproclaimed. The princely hierarch

In their bright stand
²²¹
, there left his powers to seize

Possession of the garden; he alone,

To find where Adam sheltered, took his way,

Not unperceived of Adam, who to Eve,

While the great visitant approached, thus spake.

   “Eve, now expect great tidings, which perhaps

Of us will soon determine
²²⁷
, or impose

New laws to be observed; for I descry

From yonder blazing cloud that veils the hill

One of the Heav’nly host, and by his gait

None of the meanest, some great potentate

Or of the Thrones above, such majesty

Invests him coming; yet not terrible,

That I should fear, nor sociably mild,

As Raphael, that I should much confide,

But solemn and sublime, whom not to offend,

With reverence I must meet, and thou retire.”

He ended; and th’ archangel soon drew nigh,

Not in his shape celestial, but as man

Clad to meet man; over his lucid
²⁴⁰
arms

A military vest of purple flowed

Livelier than Meliboean
²⁴²
, or the grain

Of Sarra, worn by kings and heroes old

In time of truce; Iris had dipped the woof
²⁴⁴
;

His starry helm unbuckled showed him prime

In manhood where youth ended; by his side

As in a glistering zodiac hung the sword,

Satan’s dire dread, and in his hand the spear.

Adam bowed low, he kingly from his state

Inclined not, but his coming thus declared.