The Complete Poems

by John Milton

  673. Sleep’st thou echoing many previous epics, where heroes and villains are roused from sleep by a voice which lures them into rash or adventurous acts. Cp. Dream waking Agamemnon (Homer, Il. ii 23), Mercury waking Aeneas (Virgil, Aen. iv 560), Allecto waking Turnus (Aen. vii 421), Ismeno waking Solimano (Tasso, Gerus. Lib. x 8) and Satan waking the Pope in M.’s Q Nov 92. Cp. also above, 38n, where Eve (unusually) does not wake when Satan asks ‘Why sleep’st thou?’

  680. minds purposes, intentions (OED II), esp. ‘the way in which one person is affected towards another’ (OED II 15b).

  681. debate both ‘discuss’ and ‘contend, fight for’ (OED 2).

  685. Tell them that by command Satan has received no command and he does not clearly say that he has. His own command (Tell them) arrogates the commanding voice of God. See below, 699n.

  689. North the traditional site of Lucifer’s throne (Isa. 14. 13).

  690. Fit entertainment a Satanic ambiguity, since ‘entertain’ could have the military sense ‘engage an enemy’s forces’ (OED 9c), as in: ‘Porus had prepared an Army to entertain [Alexander]’ (1654). Cp. iv 382, vi 611.

  695. Bad influence malignant astral ‘influences’. See Nativity 71n. Satan was associated with Lucifer, the morning star.

  699. the Most High God, but also Satan, who is commanding. Cp. Lucifer’s words at Isa. 14. 14: ‘I shall be like the most High’.

  702. suggested falsely imputed (OED 2) and insinuated (OED 4). The former sense refers to God’s supposed command, which Satan pretends to be obeying (v 768–9); the latter sense refers to Satan’s real motive of rebellion. The angels fall at ‘their own suggestion’ (iii 129) because they are free to hear the Ambiguous words (703) either as a genuine proposal to welcome the Messiah or as a call to rebellion. Abdiel hears only the innocent sense (v 883). See Leonard (149–59). ‘Suggest’ implies ‘seduce, tempt away’ (OED 2).

  703. jealousies including ‘suspicions, apprehensions of evil’ (OED 5).

  sound make trial of (OED v2 6b) and convey an impression of (OED v1 4). The subordinate conveys a false impression of his own integrity while sounding out others. Sound also implies ‘healthy, untainted’. Cp. II Tim. 1. 13: ‘hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me’.

  704. integrity including ‘innocence, sinlessness’ (OED 3), as in ‘Adam in his integritie should have wrought, but without wearinesse’ (1622).

  706. Potentate ruler, with overtones of angelic ‘Potentates’ or ‘Powers’ (Latin potestates). Cp. v 749.

  707. name fame (OED 6), but suggesting also Satan’s ‘former name’ (658).

  708. count’nance including ‘feigned appearance’ (OED 2b), ‘show of feeling towards another’ (OED 7), ‘repute in the world’ (OED 9), ‘position, standing, dignity’ (OED 10).

  morning star ‘Lucifer, son of the morning’ (Isa. 14. 12). Virgil likens Pallas to Lucifer the morning star in Aen. viii 589.

  710. Drew after him Marching in the van of his host, Satan acts like the evening star, not the morning star, which appears ‘last in the train of night’ (v 166). Bentley wanted to emend to ‘evening star’, but (as Empson2 185 notes) ‘the inversion acts as part of the conflict of feeling’. Lucifer-Satan leads his stellar angels ‘only towards night’. Cp. Nativity 74.

  third part Cp. Rev. 12. 4: ‘And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth’. Cp. ii 692.

  712. Abstrusest most secret.

  713. golden lamps Cp. Rev. 4. 5: ‘There were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God’. These lamps are perhaps identical with the seven angels of iii 648 or the seven planetary Intelligences (Empson2 184).

  716. sons of morn angels. Cp. Job 38. 7: ‘when the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy’.

  721. Nearly closely, particularly.

  724–5. foe / Is rising ‘Satan’ means ‘foe’ (see i 82n).

  725–6. erect his throne… North Cp. Isa. 14. 12–13: ‘How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer…! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will… exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north’.

  736–7. derision… Laugh’st Cp. Ps. 2. 4: ‘He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: / The Lord shall have them in derision’.

  739. Illustrates renders illústrious (OED 4).

  740. in event by the outcome.

  741. dextrous including ‘situated on the right side’ (OED 1), alluding to the Son’s position at God’s ‘right hand’ (iii 279, v 606, vi 892). Cp. ii 174 (‘His red right hand’).

  743. powers armies (OED 9) or angelic ‘Powers’, here standing for all angelic orders. Cp. vi 898.

  745–6. stars… dew-drops Cp. Rev. 12. 3–4, where Satan as dragon cast a third of ‘the stars of heaven’ to earth. Cp. also Hos. 6. 4: ‘O Judah… your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away’. Cp. also Marvell, ‘On a Drop of Dew’ (printed 1681).

  748. regencies *districts under the control of a regent (OED 4).

  750. triple degrees ‘Dionysius the Areopagite’ had distinguished nine orders in three groups of three: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones; Dominions, Virtues, Powers; Principalities, Archangels, Angels. M. uses these titles, but follows Protestant tradition in rejecting Dionysius’s strict hierarchy. Many of M.’s highest angels (including Michael and Satan) are ‘Archangels’, and some angels have more than one title.

  to in comparison with which.

  753–4. globose… longitude globe projected onto a flat plane.

  758. pyramids Cp. M.’s description of the ‘pyramidal figure’ of prelacy in RCG: ‘her pyramid aspires and sharpens to ambition… it is the most dividing, and schismaticall forme that Geometricians know of (YP 1.790).

  760. Lucifer the morning star. Raphael is not naming Satan’s ‘former name’, but using a metaphor to interpret it. See above, 658n, and cp. vii 131–3, x 425.

  761. dialect of men Homer also distinguishes human from divine names (Il. xiv 291, xx 74), but where Homer confidently names both (‘Xanthus to the gods, to men Scamander’), M. declines to intrude upon God’s mysteries.

  763. Affecting aspiring to (OED 1) and assuming a false appearance of (OED 6a).

  764. that Mount the ‘flaming mount’ of line 598.

  766. Mountain of the Congregation Cp. Lucifer’s boast at Isa. 14. 13: ‘I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation’. Isaiah’s Lucifer aspires to God’s own mountain; Satan claims the name.

  773. magnific titles Titles like ‘Power’ and ‘Domination’ might seem to support Satan’s argument, but Protestants understood angelic titles to refer to essences, not offices. See e.g. Thomas Heywood, The Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels (1635) 210. Satan therefore errs in inferring power from Powers.

  775. engrossed monopolized (OED 4).

  776. eclipsed Cp. i 597 and vii 364–8.

  778. *hurried OED’s earliest participial instance.

  786. yoke Cp. Matt. 11. 29–30: ‘Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and… my yoke is easy’.

  799. much less for this to be our Lord Satan’s contemptuous this pointedly withholds the name ‘Messiah’. Cp. Luke 19. 14: ‘We will not have this man to reign over us’.

  805. Abdiel Hebrew ‘Servant of God’. Abdiel is an angel in the Sepher Raziel (West 154).

  821. *unsucceeded with no successor.

  835–40. by whom… Powers Cp. Col. 1. 16–17: ‘By him [Christ] were all things created… whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things’. M. believed that God created the Son, who then created the angels. See above, 603n.

  839. Crowned… glory Cp. Ps. 8. 5: ‘Thou hast… crowned him [man] with glory’. This verse was taken as a prophecy of the Incarnation, so Abdiel might hint at an angelic Incarnation (One of our number). See Danielson (219–24).<
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  860. *self-begot Satan at iv 43 had admitted that God created him, but that speech is subsequent to this one in time, so we cannot conclude that Satan is now lying. Satan might genuinely doubt God’s claims until the Son expels him from Heaven. See Empson (64–5). Satan claims to be his own creator in Prudentius, Hamartigenia 171–2 (Evans 113).

  864. Our puissance is our own Cp. Ps. 12. 4: ‘Our lips are our own: who is lord over us?’

  864–5. right hand / Shall teach Cp. Ps. 45. 4: ‘Thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things’. Cp. also Virgil’s blasphemous Mezentius, whose only deity is his own right hand, dextra mihi (Aen. x 773).

  868. Address both ‘dutiful approach’ (OED 9) and (military) ‘skill, dexterity’ (OED 4), as in ‘His Royal Highness employs all his Address in alarming the enemy’ (1710).

  875. flaming Seraph Hebrew saraph, ‘to burn’.

  883. indulgent laws the laws of line 693 (which the Messiah has never threatened or promised).

  886–7. golden sceptre… iron rod See ii 327n.

  890. wicked tents So Moses warns the Israelites not to join Korah’s rebellion: ‘Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men… lest ye be consumed’ (Num. 16. 26). Cp. also Ps. 84.10: ‘I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness’.

  devoted doomed (OED 3), but the other sense ‘faithful, loyal’ attaches itself to I (889).

  903. single including ‘simple, honest’ (OED 14).

  906. retorted flung back (scorn) – with a play on Latin retortus, ‘turned back’ (his back he turned).

  907. swift destruction Cp. II Pet. 2. 1: ‘there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction’.

  BOOK VI

  1. dreadless angel Abdiel.

  2. champaign plain.

  3. Hours the Horae, goddesses of the seasons and gatekeepers of heaven (Homer, Il. v 749, Spenser, FQ VII vii 45).

  rosy hand the Homeric ‘rosy-fingered’ (Il. i 477).

  4. Unbarred the gates of light Cp. Ovid, Met. ii 112–14: ‘Aurora… opened wide her purple gates’. The allusion is proleptic of Satan’s defeat, for Ovid continues: ‘the stars all flee away, and Lucifer closes their ranks as, last of all, he departs from his watchtower in the sky’ (114–15).

  4–8. There is a cave… day and night Cp. Hesiod’s abysm where Day and Night hold alternate residence: ‘Night and Day approach and greet each other as they pass in and out over the great bronze threshold’ (Theog. 744–54). M. inverts Hesiod by placing the cave in Heaven, not Hell, and by describing it before, not after, the celestial battle. See Porter (60).

  8. Grateful vicissitude delightful change.

  10. Obsequious following dutifully.

  12. twilight Cp. Rev. 21. 25: ‘there shall be no night there’.

  15. Shot through variegated in colour; the military context also suggests ‘pierced’.

  orient resplendent.

  16. embattled set in battle array.

  19. in procinct ready for battle (Latin in procinctu). Cp. also Chapman’s Homer, Il. xi 89: ‘in all procinct of warre’.

  24. of so many myriads… one Cp. Ovid’s Deucalion and Pyrrha, survivors of the Greek flood (Met. i 325–6): ‘Jove saw that of so many thousands, one man was left; and of so many thousands, one woman’.

  29. Servant of God, well done echoing the parable of the talents: ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant’ (Matt. 25. 21). ‘Abdiel’ means ‘servant of God’.

  29–30. fought… fight Cp. I Tim. 6. 12: ‘fight the good fight’.

  33–4. borne… reproach Cp. Ps. 69. 7: ‘for thy sake I have borne reproach’.

  42. Right reason conscience, planted by God in all men.

  44. Michael Hebrew ‘Who is like God?’ See Rev. 12.7f. for Michael’s role in the war (and cp. Dan. 10. 13 and 12. 1). Following Jewish and patristic tradition, M. makes Michael prince of angels. Most Protestants identified him with Christ.

  49. Equal perhaps ‘at least equal’ (OED 1a). Only a third of the angels rebelled (ii 692, v 710), so Michael’s army might outnumber Satan’s two to one. Cp. Satan’s words at vi 166 (‘I see that most… had rather serve’) and see Empson (41).

  54. Tartarus hell.

  56–7. clouds… smoke Mount Sinai was covered with clouds and ‘altogether on a smoke’ when God issued the Ten Commandments (Exod. 19. 18).

  58. reluctant *writhing (OED 1). There may be a play on the modern sense, which M. also coined (OED 2b).

  60. gan began to.

  62. quadrate square formation.

  64–5. In silence… breathed Cp. the fallen angels marching silently to Dorian flute music (i 550–59). Both angelic armies are adapted from Plutarch’s Spartans (Lycurgus 22) and Homer’s Achaians (Il. iii 8). See i 550–59n, i 560–61n.

  69. obvious in the way.

  70. strait’ning hemming in.

  73–6. as when… of thee Similes comparing armies to birds are common in epic (see e.g. Homer, Il. ii 459f., Virgil, Aen. vii 699f), but Raphael chooses similes that fit Adam’s experience. See Gen. 2. 20: ‘And Adam gave names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field’. Cp. also viii 349–54.

  78. terrene *the earth (OED 5a).

  80. fiery region Cp. Homer, Il. ii 455–8: ‘As obliterating fire lights up a vast forest / along the crests of a mountain, and the flare shows far off, / so as they marched, from the magnificent bronze the gleam went / dazzling all about through the upper air to the heaven’.

  81. battailous warlike.

  82. beams The initial sense ‘rays of light’ changes to ‘shafts of spears’. Satan promises a new morning, but brings only war. (OED has no instance of ‘beam’ meaning ‘spear’, but cp. Spenser, FQ III vii 40 and I Sam. 17. 7.)

  84. argument heraldic devices.

  86. expedition warlike enterprise (OED 2a) and speed (OED 5).

  90. fond foolish.

  93. hosting hostile encounter (OED) and entertaining as guests (OED ‘host’ v2 1). Fierce hosting is an oxymoron when war is strange. Cp. ‘Fit entertainment’ (v 690).

  wont were accustomed.

  96. *Hymning OED’s earliest instance of the verb. The noun dates from Anglo-Saxon times.

  101–2. enclosed / With flaming Cherubim Satan enthroned is an Idol of the Father (see i 387n).

  107. cloudy gloomy, frowning (OED 6).

  108. edge line of battle (OED 5a). Cp. i 276n.

  115. realty sincerity, honesty (OED 2).

  118. to sight seemingly.

  120. tried proved by trial.

  129. prevention obstruction (OED 4).

  130. securely confidently.

  137–9. out of smallest things… armies echoing Matt. 3. 9 (‘God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham’) and Matt. 26. 53. Cp. also Cromwell’s assurance at Naseby ‘that GOD would do great things, by small means; and by things that are not, bring to nought things that are’ (Joshua Sprigge, Anglia Rediviva (1647) 43).

  141. *Unaided.

  147. sect a politically charged word in M.’s time, when it was used to smear Puritan schismatics. Like Abdiel, M. is proud of the designation. See Eikonoklastes (1649): ‘I never knew that time in England, when men of truest Religion were not counted Sectaries’ (YP 3. 348).

  153. assay attack, assault (OED 15).

  156. synod assembly (usually ecclesiastical, so a synod of gods is absurd). Cp. ii 391.

  161. success fortune (i.e. ill – but Abdiel will be more ‘successful’ than Satan expects).

  163. Unanswered… boast ’Lest you boast I was unable to answer you’.

  165. all one one and the same (OED ’all’ 5b).

  167–8. Minist’ring… minstrelsy Satan’s contemptuous pun brings out the common etymology: ministerium, ’office, service’. Cp. Heb. 1. 14: ‘Are they not all ministering spirits?’

  169.
Servility both ‘obsequiousness’ and ‘the condition of being in bondage’ (OED 1). Abdiel’s word servitude (175) ignores the charge of obsequiousness.

  174. deprav’st pervert the meaning of (OED 3), vilify (OED 4).

  182. lewdly wickedly (OED 2), ignorantly (OED 1).

  183–4. Reign… Heav’n Contrast Satan’s words at i 263: ‘Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n’.

  193. ruin including ‘swift descent’.

  196. Winds underground the supposed cause of earthquakes (cp. i 230–37).

  197. pushed a mountain from his seat Contrast Satan as an irremovable mountain at iv 985–7. Cp. also vi 643f.

  199. Thrones a synecdoche for all angelic orders. The oxymoron rebel Thrones is also politically suggestive. Cp. ‘rebel king’ (i 484) and Michael’s revelation that the first king derived his name from ‘Rebellion’ (xii 36).

  209. brayed made a loud harsh jarring sound (OED 3).

  210. madding furiously whirling.

  215. cope sky (OED sb1 7) and shock of combat (OED sb2).

  216. battles main the main bodies of the armies (as distinct from van and wings).

  222. These elements the earth and its atmosphere, realm of the four elements.

  223. regions divisions of the universe (OED 3a).

  225. combustion confusion, tumult (OED 5b).

  232–3. yet… chief ’yet each single warrior seemed like a commander-in-chief.

  234. sway force bearing its object in a certain direction (OED 3), as in ‘Push’d and yielding to superior sway… the Spartan ranks gave way’ (1757).

  236. ridges of grim war Probably ‘ranks’ (when to close), but cp. the Homeric phrase no;µuoio yΦupon (Il. iv 371, xi 160, etc.), which might refer to the space between two battle lines.

  239. moment moment of a balance (OED 5), hence ‘deciding factor’. Notice sway (234) and even scale (245).

  243. main strong, vigorous.

  244. Tormented agitated (OED 3).

  248. *attack OED’s earliest instance of the noun.

  254. orb circle (OED 1).

  255. adamant a mythical substance of impenetrable hardness, usually identified with diamond or steel. M. here imagines it to be a metal folded back on itself ten times (tenfold).