The Complete Poems

by John Milton

  298. asphaltic slime bitumen, pitch. Cp. i 729 and xii 40–44.

  300. mole massive pier or bridge.

  302. wall the hard outer shell of the universe (see ii 1023–33).

  305. inoffensive free from obstacles (Latin inoffensus), with a play on fenceless (303).

  307–11. Xerxes… waves In 480 BC King Xerxes of Persia built a bridge of ships over the Hellespont so that his army could invade Greece. He ordered the sea to be whipped when it destroyed this bridge. As his army passed over a second bridge, Xerxes wept at the thought that all his soldiers would be dead within a hundred years (Herodotus vii 46). Cp. i 620n. Quint (7) traces M.’s simile to Lucan, who compares Caesar’s causeway over the port of Brindisi to Xerxes’ bridging of ‘Europe and Asia’ (Pharsalia ii 672–7). Quint also notes a pun on Hellespont as ‘Hell’s pont’.

  308. Susa the biblical Shushan, winter palace of the Persian kings – Memnonian because the mythical Prince Memnon lived there, and its acropolis was called the Memnonium (Strabo XV iii 2). On Memnon see II Penseroso 18n.

  313. Pontifical *bridge-building (OED 6), with a pun on ‘papal’ (OED 2) or ‘episcopal’ (OED 1). The Pope’s title Pontifex was taken to mean that he was a bridge-builder between this world and the next. See below, 348n.

  314. vexed turbulent.

  321. confines boundaries.

  322. the left the ‘sinister’ evil side. Cp. ii 755, x 886 and Matt. 25. 33.

  323. three several ways the stair linking the universe to Heaven, the bridge joining the universe to Hell, and the passage through the universe down to the earth (iii 526–39).

  327. Satan… bright Cp. II Cor. 11.14: ‘Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light’.

  328. Betwixt the Centaur and the Scorpion If the Centaur is Sagittarius, Satan is steering his way through Anguis, the Serpent constellation. If the Centaur is Centaurus, Satan is steering through Lupus, the Wolf. M. likens Satan to a wolf at iv 181–3.

  332. unminded unnoticed.

  334. sequel consequence.

  335. unweeting unaware.

  337. covertures garments (see ix 1110–15), concealments (OED 7), justifications (OED 8; see x 115–17).

  342–5. list’ning… future time refers to Adam’s recollection of the curse on Satan (x 1030). Thus x 720–1104 precedes x 345–609 in chronological time. See further below, 716n.

  344. understood (he) understood.

  347. foot the end of the slope of the bridge (OED 18b).

  348. *pontifice bridge (OED sb2, sole instance), coined from Latin pons on the model of ’edifice’ - but ‘pontifice’ (OED sb1) already existed as a variant of ‘Pontifex’ meaning ‘Bishop’ or ‘Pope’. In this sense, Satan himself is the wondrous pontÍfice.

  359. Still always.

  364. consequence relationship of cause to effect.

  366. *unvoyageable.

  370. fortify grow strong (OED 16) and erect fortifications (the bridge).

  371. portentous marvellous (OED 2) and ominous (OED 1).

  372. virtue manliness, courage, valour (OED 7), the only virtue Satan’s followers recognize.

  374. odds advantage, profit.

  375 foil defeat (OED sb2). A ‘foil’ in wrestling was ‘a throw not resulting in a flat fall’ (OED sb2 1), so Sin punningly hints that Satan’s ‘foil’ was not a ‘Fall’. ‘Foil’ could also mean ‘tread under foot’ (OED v1 1) and so anticipate Satan’s ultimate fate (cp. x 175–81).

  378. doom Judgement.

  381. quadrature Cp. Rev. 21. 16, where the New Jerusalem is ‘foursquare’. The sphere was thought to be more perfect than the cube, so Sin’s antithesis between God’s square and Satan’s orbicular realm implies a ‘subtle sneer’ (Fowler). Heaven was ‘undetermined square or round’ at ii 1048.

  382. try find by experience to be (OED 13).

  386. Satan… the name This is the first and only time that Satan speaks his name in PL.

  387. Antagonist ‘Satan’ means ‘enemy’, ‘adversary’ or ‘antagonist’. The latter word originally signified a competitor in athletic games (as in SA 1628), so Satan might be looking back to Sin’s word ‘foil’ (375) and boasting of his prowess as a wrestler.

  390. Triumphal… triumphal Sin and Death celebrate Satan’s triumph by building a triumphal arch. Cp. PR iv 37.

  397. these] Ed II; those Ed I.

  404. Plenipotent having full power.

  408. prevail] Ed I; prevails Ed II.

  409. No detriment echoing the formula by which the Roman Senate would give dictatorial power to two Consuls: ne quid respublica detrimenta capiat (‘that the state suffer no harm’).

  go and be strong So Moses tells Joshua to take possession of the Promised Land: ‘Be strong and of a good courage: for thou must go with these people’ (Deut. 31.7).

  412. bane poison, destruction.

  blasted stricken by malignant astral influences (OED 1).

  413. planet-strook stricken by the malign influence of an adverse planet (OED); suggesting also a physical collision. Cp. vi 310–15.

  real eclipse not just an obscuration by an intervening body, but a diminution of light at its source.

  415. causey causeway, arched viaduct (OED 2c).

  420. those Sin and Death.

  425. Lucifer the morning star. Cp. v 760, vii 131.

  allusion metaphor (OED 3).

  426. paragoned compared (OED 1).

  427. the grand ’the grand infernal Peers’ (ii 507).

  428. solicitous anxious (OED 1).

  431–3. Tartar… Retires The simile implies Satanic cunning, since Tartars were famous for shooting arrows to the rear while feigning retreat. Cp. Spenser, FQU II xi 26, and Phineas Fletcher, The Purple Island (1633): ‘As when by Russian Volga’s frozen banks / The false-back Tartars fear with cunning feign, / And posting fast away in flying ranks, / Oft backward turn, and from their bows down rain / Whole storms of darts; so do they flying fight: / And what by force they lose, they winne by sleight’ (xi 48).

  432. Astrakhan a Tartar khanate on the lower Volga annexed by Ivan the Terrible in 1556. Astrakhan was a mere remnant of the once mighty Golden Horde, so the name implies the devils’ decline. But they remain a threat. In 1571 the Tartars ‘broke into Russia’ and ‘burnt Mosco to the ground’ (M.’s History of Muscovia, YP 8. 515).

  433. Bactrian Sophy Persian Shah.

  433–4. horns… crescent referring both to the Turkish battle formation and emblem.

  435. realm of Aladule Armenia (Aladule being the last Persian ruler before the Turkish conquest).

  436. Tauris Tabriz, in north-west Persia.

  Casbeen Kazvin, north of Teheran.

  438. reduced led back (OED 2), drawn together (OED 25), and diminished.

  439. metropolis including ‘parent state of a colony’ (OED 3). Satan will soon provide foreign worlds to colonize (441).

  441–55. he… returned Satan’s invisible entry, his remaining unseen, and his sudden blazing as from a cloud are taken from Tasso, Gerus. Lib. x 32–50, where the Sultan Solimano enters a Saracen council of war concealed in a cloud, and ‘Unseen, at will did all the prease behold’ (x 35). When morale is at its lowest, Solimano tears the cloud ‘like a veil’ and ‘amid the press he shined’ (x 49). M.’s whom they wished beheld (454) directly echoes Fairfax’s translation of Solimano’s first words on becoming visible: ‘Of whom you speake behold the Soldan here’ (x 50). Cp. also Homer, Od. vii 37–145 and Virgil, Aen. i 411–14, 579–94.

  444. *Plutonian infernal, from Pluto, god of the underworld.

  445. state canopy.

  451. permissive permitted (by God).

  453. Stygian Styx, the river of hate in Hades. Cp. ii 506, 577.

  457. Divan Turkish Council of State. Satan was a ‘Sultan’ at i 348 and he has just appeared in the manner of Tasso’s Sultan Solimano.

  458. *Congratulant saluting (OED ’congratulate’ 5).

  458–9. with hand I Silence Cp. Lucan’s hero-villain Caesar com
manding his legions’ attention before leading them into revolt: dextraque silentia iussit, ’with his right hand commanded silence’ (Pharsalia, i 298).

  460–62. Thrones… of right Satan’s distinction between right and possession accords with seventeenth-century notions of ruling de jure (by law) or de facto (by possession). Thus Charles II claimed to rule de jure throughout the Interregnum, but did not rule de facto until 1660. See v 773n for Satan’s fallacy in arguing from angelic titles.

  471. unreal formless (Chaos has matter but not form).

  475. uncouth strange and desolate (OED 2b, 5).

  477. *unoriginal having no origin, uncreated (OED 1, sole instance in this sense).

  477–8. Chaos… opposed Critics object that Chaos and Night did not oppose Satan, and ‘Chaos even helped him’ (Fowler). But Chaos the place was a formidable obstacle (ii 910–50).

  480. Protesting both ‘appealing to’ (OED 6) and ‘protesting against’. Satan equivocates as to whether Fate was for him or against him.

  481–2. fame… foretold See i 651–6, ii 345–76.

  487. an apple Satan alone speaks of ‘apples’ in PL. Cp. ix 585. The poem’s good characters speak of ‘fruit’, which relates actions to consequences. Cp. i 1, iii 67, etc.

  496–7. that… enmity This is the nearest Satan ever comes to naming himself to the other devils. The Hebrew word translated as ‘enmity’ at Gen. 3. 15 is not etymologically related to ‘Satan’, but see x 1030–34 and note.

  503. bliss Satan’s last word in the poem is answered with a rhyming hiss (508, 518).

  511–14. His visage… prone Cp. the serpent metamorphoses in Ovid, Met. iv 572–603 (alluded to at ix 506) and Dante, Inf. xxiv and xxv.

  513. supplanted tripped up (OED 1) and made to fall from power (OED 2). Adam and Eve were often said to have been ‘supplanted’ by Satan. See Ricks, Milton’s Grand Style, 64 and cp. PR iv 607n.

  515. Reluctant struggling, writhing.

  517. doom judgement (the curse of x 175–81).

  521. riot rebellion.

  523. complicated *composite (OED 4), tangled (OED 2).

  524. amphisbaena Greek ‘going both ways’: a mythical snake with a head at either end of its body (Lucan, Pharsalia ix 719).

  525. Cerastes a snake with four horns. The hydrus and ellops are mythical water snakes.

  526. dipsas a mythical snake whose bite caused raging thirst. Lucan describes how one of Cato’s soldiers, bitten while crossing the Libyan desert, searched for water deep in the sand, drank sea-water (‘but there was not enough’), and finally opened his veins so as to drink blood (Pharsalia ix 737–60). Cp. the devils’ scalding thirst (556).

  526–7. soil… Gorgon When Perseus flew over Libya, drops of blood falling from Medusa’s severed head became snakes. Lucan and Ovid cite the story to explain why snakes are so abundant in Libya (Pharsalia ix 620–732, Met. iv 617–20).

  528. Ophiusa Greek ‘full of snakes’. The name was anciently given to several islands.

  529. dragon Cp. Rev. 12. 9. In Joost van den Vondel’s Lucifer (1654), Lucifer becomes a dragon at the moment of his expulsion from Heaven (Kirkconnell 414). Cp. also Phineas Fletcher, The Purple Island (1633) vii 10–11.

  529–31. the sun… Python The monstrous serpent Python, slain by Apollo, was born of the slime deposited by Deucalion’s flood (Ovid, Met. i 438–40). The Pythian vale is Delphi.

  535. in station at their posts.

  in just array on parade.

  536. Sublime *exalted in feeling, elated (OED 3b).

  540. sympathy both ‘compassion’ and ‘corresponding condition’.

  546. *exploding OED’s earliest participial instance. The sense includes ’hoot (an actor) off the stage’, ‘reject with scorn’, ‘expose the hollowness of and ‘drive out air’ (OED 1, 2, 3, 4).

  550. penance punishment (OED 5).

  fair fruit] Ed I; fruit Ed II.

  560. Megaera one of three snaky-haired Furies, goddesses and avengers of crime. Cp. ii 596.

  562. bituminous lake the Dead Sea, identified as the site of Sodom on the authority of II Esdras 5.7. Josephus claimed that fruit growing near the Dead Sea contained Sodom’s ashes and would dissolve into ashes when plucked (De Bellis IV viii 4). M. alludes to this story in Eikonoklastes, where he compares King Charles’s rhetoric to ‘the Apples of Asphaltis’ that look appealing to the eye, ‘but touch them, and they turne into Cinders’ (YP 3. 552). Cp. Deut. 32. 32: ‘their vine is of the vine of Sodom… Their wine is the poison of dragons, / And the cruel venom of asps’.

  565. gust relish.

  568. drugged *nauseated (OED 2b).

  572. triumphed triúmphed over.

  once both ‘as soon as’ (man fell) and ‘a single time’ (in contrast to the devils’ oft-repeated error).

  575. some say No source has been found for M.’s story of an annual metamorphosis.

  579. purchase both ‘plunder’ (OED 8) and ‘annual return or rent from land’ (OED 10), ‘alluding to the annual punishment of the devils’ (Fowler). See lines 575–6.

  581. Ophion with Eurynome the first king and queen of Olympus, overthrown by Saturn and Ops (Cronus and Rhea), who were ousted in their turn by Jove (Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica i 503–9). Ophion means ‘serpent’ and Eurynome means ‘wide-ruling’ (though wide-Encroaching suggests ‘wide of the law’). Claudian describes Ophion as a serpent and includes him among the Giants who fought against Jove (De Rapt. Pros, iii 332–56). The association with Satan was traditional.

  584. Dictaean Zeus was raised in Crete, either on Mount Dicte or in the Dictaean cave in Mount Ida (see i 515).

  587. actual ’Actual sin’ is a theological term for sin that is freely chosen (as opposed to ‘original sin’, which is inherited).

  in body physically present (Sin’s body) and habitually rooted (in all other bodies).

  590. pale horse Cp. Rev. 6. 8: ‘behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him’.

  593. travail labour and travel.

  595. Unnamed Sin had named Death at ii 787, but the name has hitherto been an empty sound in Paradise. See iv 427n.

  599. ravin prey.

  601. *unhidebound OED’s sole instance. A ‘hidebound’ animal is one that is so emaciated as to have the ‘skin clinging closely to the back and ribs’ (OED 1). Death is so ravenous that he can never fill his skin.

  611. *unimmortal The neologism implies that mortality is not a natural state but a privation.

  616–17. dogs… havoc Cp. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar III i 273: ‘Cry ”Havoc” and let slip the dogs of war’. ‘Havoc’ was the signal permitting a victorious army to pillage.

  624. conniving shutting one’s eyes to a thing that one dislikes but cannot help (OED ’connive’ 1).

  627. quitted all handed everything over (OED ’quit’ 5b). Cp. iii 307, where God praises the Son for having ‘quitted (i.e. “renounced”, “redeemed”, “remitted”) all’.

  630. draff dregs.

  633. at one sling Cp. I Sam. 25. 29: ‘The souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling’.

  638. heav’n and earth renewed II Pet. 3. 7–13.

  640. precedes both ‘takes precedence’ and ‘goes before’.

  642. hallelujah, as the sound of seas Rev. 19. 6.

  644. Righteous are thy decrees Rev. 16. 7.

  645. extenuate disparage, diminish in honour (OED 5).

  651. sorted suited.

  656. blank white, pale (OED 1).

  658. aspécts astrological positions (OED 4).

  sextile, square, trine, and opposite are positions of 60, 90, 120, and 180 degrees respectively.

  661. synod astrological conjunction.

  fixed fixed stars.

  664. tempestuous productive of storms. Cp. i 305–6.

  668–78. Some say… seasons M. imagines that the earth’s equator had coincided with the ecliptic, producing the prelapsarian ‘eternal spring’. He g
ives both a heliocentric and a geocentric explanation to account for the loss of this pristine state. Copernican astronomers assume that the earth’s axis is now tilted (668–71); Ptolemaic astronomers assume that the plane of the sun’s orbit is tilted (671–8). M. typically declines to choose between the two systems.

  671. centric globe the earth (pivoted on its centre).

  672. equinoctial road the earth’s equator.

  673. Like distant breadth a like declination (23.5°).

  673–7. Taurus… Capricorn The sun had been in Aries. Now it travels through the zodiac. In spring and summer, it passes through Taurus (which includes the Pleiades or sev‘n I Atlantic Sisters), Gemini (the Spartan Twins), and Cancer (the Tropic Crab), where it reaches the summer solstice. In late summer and autumn, it moves through Leo, Virgo (the Virgin), Libra (the Scales), eventually reaching the winter solstice in Capricorn.

  675. amain at full speed.

  679. vernant flourishing in spring.

  682. *unbenighted not overtaken by the darkness of night.

  686. Estoliland northern Labrador.

  687. Magellan the straits at the tip of South America.

  688. *Thyestean banquet Thyestes seduced the wife of his brother Atreus. In revenge, Atreus killed one of Thyestes’ sons and served him to Thyestes as food. The sun turned from the banquet in horror (Seneca, Thyestes 776–8).

  693. sideral blast malign stellar influence.

  694. exhalation vapour productive of meteors (see i 710–12).

  695. pestilent See ix 180n for the tradition that mists carried the plague.

  696. Norumbega northern New England and maritime Canada.

  Samoed north-eastern Siberia.

  697. brazen dungeon the cave in which Aeolus imprisoned the winds (Virgil, Aen. i 50–59).

  698. flaw sudden squall.

  699–700. Boreas, Caecias, Argestes, and Thrascias are winds from the N, NW and NE; opposing them are Notus (S) and Afer (SW), while blowing across (thwart) them are Eurus (ESE), Zephyr (W), Sirocco (SE) and Libecchio (SW).

  703. Serraliona Sierra Leone (on the west coast of Africa).

  704. levant… ponent east and west (lit. ‘rising’ and ‘setting’). In the Mediterranean, a ‘levant’ (or ‘levanter’) was a strong easterly wind from the Levant.