The Complete Poems

by John Milton

  707–8. Discord… Daughter of Sin The classical Discordia (Eris) was Death’s sister. She was depicted with serpents wreathed about her head.

  716. Already in part Adam has not yet witnessed the miseries of lines 650–715. He first sees animals pursue each other at xi 185–90. Sin and Death have not yet entered our universe, and Satan has not yet left it. Satan is still in Paradise, eavesdropping, at the end of book x. See above, 342–5n.

  718. troubled sea Cp. Isa. 57. 20: ‘The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt’. Cp. i 304–6, iv 19.

  729. propagated handed down from one generation to another (OED id), extended (OED 4), increased and multiplied (OED 2).

  738. own own curses.

  bide upon stick to (OED 2b).

  739. redound flow back (OED 4) and cast opprobrium (OED 8b).

  740. light both ‘alight’ and ‘not heavy’. Light I heavy is a paradox. According to Aristotelian science (still current in M.’s day), heavy objects lost their heaviness, and their tendency to move, once they reached their natural centre, the centre of the earth. The curses of Adam’s descendants should therefore become light once they reach Adam. Instead, Adam will continue to feel them as heavy.

  743. Did I request… from my clay Cp. Isa. 45. 9: ‘Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say unto him that fashioneth it, What makest thou?’

  748. equal equitable, just.

  758. Thou Adam himself. In lines 743–55 thou referred to God.

  760–64. what if… proud excuse Cp. Isa. 45. 10: ‘Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou?’

  764. election choice.

  778. mother’s lap Cp. Spenser, FQ V vii 9: ‘mother Earths deare lap’. Adam’s desire is more poignant for the fact that earth is his only mother.

  782–14. Yet… perpetuity Adam considers three possibilities: (1) the soul will survive the body (782–89), (2) body and soul will both die (789–808), (3) body and soul will survive in endless misery (808–16). Editors often confuse (2) with M.’s ‘mortalist heresy’, which held that body and soul died together, and were resurrected together on the last day (CD i 13). Adam intuits the first part of this doctrine, but fails to imagine resurrection or damnation. Even when he speaks of endless misery (810), it is misery in Paradise that daunts him. Adam has forgotten (or blocks out) Raphael’s warning about ‘eternal misery’ in Hell (vi 904).

  783. all I all of me.

  795. be it even if it is.

  804–8. that… sphere Adam employs a scholastic argument, which held that the action of any agent is limited by the recipient’s powers to be acted upon. So while God’s anger might be infinite, man (as a finite creature) cannot suffer infinitely.

  814. revolution recurrence.

  815–16. Death and I / Am Adam’s ungrammaticalv Am reflects his realization that he and death are incorporate, ’united in one body’ (OED 1).

  827. they then] Ed II; they Ed I.

  831. conviction both ‘proof of guilt’ and *’the condition of being convinced of sin’ (OED 8). See above, 84n.

  832. me, me only Adam echoes the Son’s offer to die for man: ‘Behold me then, me for him’ (iii 236). See also x 936.

  834. So might the wrath ’would that the wrath were so confined’.

  836. world universe.

  842–4. abyss… plunged Cp. Satan’s descent into the ‘lower deep’ of an internal Hell (iv 75–9).

  847. black air Cp. Satan as a pestilent ‘black mist’ (ix 180).

  853. denounced proclaimed as a threat or warning.

  860–62. O woods… other song Adam recalls the morning hymn of v 153— 208 (see esp.1 203–4).

  867. thou serpent Clement of Alexandria and Eusebius had claimed that ’Eve’ aspirated means ‘serpent’. See D. C. Allen, MLN 74, 1959, 681–3. Elsewhere in PL M. follows a rival tradition which took ‘Eve’ to mean ’life’. See iv 474–5n, v 385–7n, xi 159–61n. Adam now invents a bad pun and a misogynistic tradition. Cp. ix 1067, where Adam puns on ‘Eve’ and ’evil’. See further, Leonard 229–30.

  869. wants is missing.

  872. pretended held in front as a cover (OED 1), with overtones of ‘feigned’.

  878–9. him… overreach overconfidently thinking that you could outwit him.

  884–5. rib / Crooked by nature a commonplace of misogynistic diatribes. Cp. Joseph Swetnam, The Araignment of Lewd, idle… women (1615): ‘a ribbe is a crooked thing… and women are crooked by nature’ (1).

  886. siníster left side (with evil overtones). Cp. Sin’s birth from ‘the left side’ of Satan’s head (ii 755).

  887. supernumerary Calvin and other commentators believed that Adam had been created with an extra rib for the purpose of forming Eve.

  888–95. O why… Mankind echoing the misogyny of Euripides’ Hippolytus (Hippolytus 616–19) and Ariosto’s Rodomonte (Orl. Fur. xxvii 120).

  890. Spirits masculine M. in his own voice has told us that Spirits assume ‘either sex… or both’ (i 424).

  891. defect / Of nature Aristotle had called the female a defective male.

  898. strait close, intimate, hard-pressing, tightly-drawn (used of bonds and embraces, OED 2). The Ed I and Ed II spelling ‘straight’ plays on ‘honest, free from crookedness’ (OED 6a) to contrast honest men with Crooked women (885).

  conjunction union, including ‘marriage’, ‘sexual union’ (OED 2a, 2b).

  910–13. tears… plaint Cp. Mary Magdalene washing Jesus’s feet with her hair and tears (Luke 7. 38). Cp. v 130–31.

  917. deceived perhaps including a pun on ‘dis-Eved’. Cp. i 35, ix 904, and PR 1 52 (‘Eve / Lost Paradise deceived’). Adam has just wrenched ‘Eve’ from ‘life’ to ‘serpent’ (x 867).

  917–18. Eve acts like a suppliant in Greek epic or tragedy, clasping Adam’s knees in a plea for protection.

  926. doom the judgement at x 175–81. It is fitting that Eve bring this up, since the enmity was to be ‘between the woman and the serpent’ (Fowler). Eve does not yet recognize her foe, but her words open the way for Adam’s recognition in line 1034.

  931. God… and thee Cp. iv 299: ‘He for God only, she for God in him’.

  936. Me me only Eve’s cry combines Adam’s guilt (‘On me, me only’, x 832) with the Son’s love (‘Behold me then, me for him’, iii 236). Cp. Abigail’s plea for her husband: ‘Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be’ (I Sam. 25. 24). Cp. also the plea of Nisus for Euryalus (Virgil, Aen. ix 427).

  965. derived passed on by descent.

  969. event outcome.

  976. extremes extremities, hardships.

  978. As in our evils considering our afflictions.

  979. descent descendants.

  perplex torment.

  987. prevent forestall, cut off in advance.

  989–90. Childless… two So the first five editions. Most subsequent editions move So Death back to the previous line. Fowler argues that the metrical irregularity may ‘be intended to mime first the deficiency of childlessness (line 989 defective), then the glut denied to Death (line 990 hypermetrical)’.

  990. deceived cheated out of.

  991. forced including ‘fattened, crammed with food’ (OED v3 2).

  993. Conversing cohabiting, with overtones of ‘have sexual intercourse’ (OED 2b) even though this is what Eve proposes to abstain from.

  996. the present object Eve herself.

  1000. make short lose no time.

  1009. dyed] ‘di’d’ Ed I, Ed II, with an obvious pun.

  1027. contumácy wilful disobedience, contempt of a court of law.

  1028. make death in us live M.’s voice behind Adam is referring to eternal damnation, mors aeterna. Cp. ‘living death’ (788).

  1030–34. calling… Satan Recovering his insight of ix 904–6 and ix 1172–3, Adam at last names Eve’s tempter. He owes his recognition partly to Eve, who at x 925–7 reminded
him of their ‘one enmity / Against a foe by doom express assigned us, / That cruel serpent’. Adam now matches Foe with Satan and with the curse of enmity on the serpent. Justin Martyr and Irenaeus had interpreted Satan as Sata-nas, ‘apostate serpent’. See Leonard (231) and L. W. Barnard, Justin Martyr: his Life and Thought (1967), 108.

  1045. Reluctance resistance, struggling against (OED 1).

  1051–2. Pains… joy Adam unwittingly prophesies the Second Coming. Cp. Christ’s metaphor at John 16. 20–21: ‘ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world’.

  1053. Fruit of thy womb another unwitting allusion to the Son. Cp. Luke 1. 42.

  1058. *unbesought.

  1061. to pity incline Cp. iii 402, 405.

  1066. shattering scattering, causing to fall.

  1068. shroud shelter.

  cherish keep warm (OED 6).

  1069. this diurnal star the sun. The thought that our sun is a star now implies man’s insignificance. Cp. ‘other suns’ (viii 148), where the emphasis is on God’s glory.

  1071. sere dry.

  foment heat, with a play on Latin fomes, ‘kindling wood’.

  1073. attrite ground down by friction.

  1075. Tine ignite.

  thwart slanting.

  1078. supply serve as a substitute for.

  1081–2. of grace / Beseeching him both ‘asking him for grace’ and ‘beseeching him, having been given the grace to do so’.

  1086–1104. to the place… meek The repetition of 1086–92 in 1098–1104 is a Homeric formula (cp. Il. ix 122–57, 264–99), but M. does not repeat 1093–6 and so refrains from presuming that God will relent and turn from his displeasure. Adam and Eve have yet to be expelled from Paradise.

  1103. Frequenting filling.

  BOOK XI

  1. stood Adam and Eve were ‘prostrate’ at x 1099, but now their port is not of mean suitors (9). They had stood to pray at iv 720.

  2. mercy-seat the golden covering of the ark of the Covenant (Exod. 25. 17–22) - a type of divine intercession.

  3. Prevenient grace grace that is antecedent to human will (theological term).

  4. stony… flesh Cp. Ezek. 11. 19: ‘I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh’.

  6. Unutterable… prayer Cp. Rom. 8. 26: ‘we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered’.

  8–9. port… important Both words are from Latin portare, ‘to carry’.

  12. Deucalion the Greek Noah. He and his wife Pyrrha survived a universal flood by building an ark. They then prayed to Themis, goddess of justice, who told them to restore mankind by throwing stones behind them. The stones became men and women. Notice stony and made new flesh (4).

  15. envious malicious, spiteful (OED 2).

  17. *Dimensionless without physical extension (OED 1a).

  18. incense Rev. 8. 3.

  28. manuring cultivating (OED 2).

  33–4. advocate I And propitiation Cp. I John 2. 1: ‘We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins’.

  35. ingraft Rom. 11. 16–24. Cp. iii 293n.

  44. Made… one Cp. John 17. 22–3: ‘that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me’.

  52. purge him off Cp. ii 141, where Belial predicts that Heaven would ‘purge off the baser fire’ of Hell (ii 141).

  53. distemper imbalance of the four humours (OED 3) resulting in death and decay.

  55. dissolution death, with overtones of ‘dissolute living’.

  59. fondly foolishly.

  65. renovation renewal of the body at the resurrection (OED 1b).

  67. synod assembly.

  70. peccant sinning.

  74. trumpet… Oreb A trumpet sounded on Mount Horeb when God delivered the Ten Commandments (Exod. 19. 19).

  76. general doom the Last Judgement. See Matt. 24. 31,1 Thess. 4. 16 and I Cor. 15. 52: ‘the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible’.

  78. *amarantine See iii 352n.

  86. defended forbidden (OED 3).

  91. motions stirrings of the soul (OED 9b). Cp. PR i 290, SA 1382.

  93. Self-left if left to itself.

  93–8. Lest… taken Cp. Gen. 3. 22–3: ‘And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken’. M.’s addition dream at least to live implies that Adam could not have cheated God.

  102. Or… or either… or.

  in behalf of man Empson2 (165) cites the phrase as evidence of Satan’s altruism, but it might mean ‘with regard to man’ (OED ‘behalf 1d) or ‘in man’s name’ (OED 2a) rather than ‘for man’s benefit’ (OED 2b).

  102–3. invade / Vacant possession encroach on untenanted property.

  105. remorse pity, compassion (OED 3a).

  106. denounce announce.

  108. faint lose heart.

  111. excess violation of law (OED 4), intemperance in eating (OED 5b).

  126. *Archangelic.

  128–30. four faces… eyes more numerous Ezek. 1. 18.

  129. double Janus Janus, the Roman god of gateways, had two faces. Janus Quadrifrons had four faces corresponding to the four seasons and four quarters of the earth.

  131. Argus a hundred-eyed giant. Juno set him to watch Io, whom Jove had disguised as a heifer. Mercury (Hermes) killed him after charming him to sleep with his pipe and sleep-inducing wand (opiate rod). See Ovid, Met. i 568–779.

  135. Leucothea Roman goddess of the dawn. See A Masque 875n.

  144. prevalent potent, influential.

  157–8. Assures… past echoing the last words of Agag, King of the Amalekites, spoken just before Samuel cut him to pieces: ‘surely the bitterness of death is past’ (I Sam. 15. 32). Like Agag, Adam has ‘spoken too soon’ (Fowler), but his hope that Eve’s seed will bring eternal life is not groundless.

  158. hail to thee anticipating ‘the holy salutation used / Long after to blest Mary, second Eve’ (v 386–7).

  159–61. Eve… all things live Cp. Gen. 3. 20: ‘And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living’. ‘Eve’ (Hebrew Chava) is cognate with chai, ‘life’. The biblical Eve is not so named until after the Fall. Before then she was ‘the woman’. M.’s Adam had named Eve at iv 481. He now affirms that the name was rightly given. See iv 474–5n, v 385–7n.

  185. bird of Jove, stooped the eagle, having swooped.

  tow’r lofty flight.

  187. beast… woods lion.

  188. brace pair.

  196. too secure overconfident.

  205. orient both ‘bright’ and ‘eastern’. The latter sense is paradoxical, for Michael’s squadron appears in yon western cloud. Cp. Raphael appearing as ‘another morn’ in the east of Paradise (v 310), and Satan’s army arising as a ‘fiery region’ on Heaven’s northern horizon (vi 79–82).

  208. by this by this time.

  209. lighted both ‘alighted’ and ‘shone’ (OED v2 1).

  210. made halt came to a halt (military term).

  214. Mahanaim Hebrew ‘armies’, ‘camps’ (hence pavilioned). Jacob gave the name to the place where he saw an army of angels (Gen. 32. 1–2).

  216–20. flaming… unproclaimed The Syrian king besieged the city of Dothan in an attempt to capture Elisha (One man). When Elisha’s servant expressed fear at the Syrian ‘horses and chariots’, Elisha prayed to God, asking him to open the servant’s eyes ‘that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire’ (II Kings 6. 17).

  221. stand station (mili
tary term).

  powers army.

  227. determine make an end.

  237. thou retire Contrast v 383 where Eve ‘Stood to entertain her guest from Heaven’; but even before the Fall Eve ‘sat retired’ while Adam and Raphael conversed (viii 41).

  240. Clad to meet man Raphael had been covered by his wings, but had not worn clothes (v 277–85).

  lucid bright.

  242. Meliboean The Thessalian town of Meliboea was famous in antiquity for its purple dye.

  243. Sarra Tyre, also famous for its dye (grain).

  244. Iris… woof Cp. the Attendant Spirit’s ‘sky-robes, spun out of Iris’ woof’ (A Masque 83).

  247. zodiac belt of constellations.

  249. state stateliness of bearing.

  254. Defeated of cheated of (OED 7).

  his seizure what he had seized.

  256–7. one… cover Cp. I Peter 4. 8: ‘for charity shall cover the multitude of sins’.

  264. gripe spasm or pang of grief (OED sb1 2a).

  267. Discovered revealed.

  retire withdrawal.

  270. native soil Unlike Adam, Eve was created in Paradise.

  272. respite delay, extension (OED 1).

  277. gave ye names Eve’s naming of the flowers, like Adam’s naming of the animals, implies special knowledge (see viii 352–3n). M. here departs from traditional interpretations of Gen. 2. 19, where Adam alone gives names.

  283. to compared with.

  293. by this by this time.

  damp stupefied condition (OED 4).

  298. Prince among princes Cp. Dan. 10. 13: ‘Michael, one of the chief princes’.

  309. can both ‘knows’ (OED 1) and ‘can perform’.

  316. from… hid Cp. Cain’s response to his curse: ‘from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth’ (Gen. 4. 14).

  323. grateful both ‘pleasing’ and ‘expressing gratitude’. Patriarchs built altars where God had spoken to them. See e.g. Gen. 12. 7.

  331. promised race the human race, whose ‘promised Seed’ will bruise Satan’s head (xi 155, xii 623).

  336. Not this rock only Cp. Jesus’s warning to the woman of Samaria not to localize worship ‘in this mountain’ (John 4. 21).

  338. Fomented nurtured, cherished.