by John Milton
75. admire marvel.
78. quaint ingenious (OED 1a).
wide wide of the mark.
80. calculate predict the motions of (OED 2), frame (OED 5).
wield direct, guide, hold in check (OED 4).
82. save appearances reconcile hypotheses with observed facts. To ‘save (or salve) the appearances’ was a scholastic term, borrowed from the Greeks. It need not be pejorative. See OED ‘salve’ v2 1, ‘save’ 12a.
83. centric and eccentric orbits with the earth (or sun) at the centre or off-centre respectively.
84. epicycle a smaller orbit whose centre corresponds to a fixed point on the circumference of the main orbit. A planet had a forward motion when on the outer part of the epicycle, and a retrograde motion when on the inner part. Both the Ptolemaic and Copernican systems had epicycles.
91. infers implies (OED 4).
99. officious attentive, dutiful (OED 1, 2a).
100. speak bespeak (but cp. Ps. 19. 1: ‘The heavens declare the glory of God’).
102. line… far Cp. Job 38. 5, where God asks, about the earth: ‘Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?’
108. numberless incalculable (swiftness) and innumerable (circles, stellar orbits).
110. Speed almost spiritual the speed of angelic Intelligences (cp. ‘the speed of thought’).
122. advantage including ‘place of vantage, elevation’ (OED 3).
123. world universe.
other stars another hint (cp. vii 364) that the sun might be one of many stars. Raphael develops the idea in lines 148–58.
124. attractive virtue power of attraction. Kepler had theorized that the sun attracted the planets by magnetism. See iii 582–3n.
125. rounds circles and circular dances.
126. wand’ring ‘Planet’ is derived from Greek , ‘wanderer’.
127. retrograde See above, 84n.
128. six Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the moon. In Ptolemaic astronomy, the seventh planet is the sun; in Copernican, the earth.
130. three different motions The first two are daily and yearly. Editors disagree about the third. If Raphael refers to the precession of the equinoxes, he does so proleptically, for there was no precession before the Fall (see x 668f.). Fowler therefore identifies the third motion with Copernicus’s ‘motion in declination’, whereby the earth’s axis was thought to swivel so as to point always in the same direction.
131. several spheres Even with his epicycles, Ptolemy was obliged to posit a ninth sphere beyond the fixed stars. Aristotle had imagined fifty-six spheres.
132. thwart obliquities oblique paths that cross each other. There may be a pun on ‘obliquity of the ecliptic’ (OED 1), referring to the inclination of the equator to the ecliptic. The pun would have to be proleptic, for equator and ecliptic coincided before the Fall.
134. rhomb Greek ‘wheel’ or ‘spinning top’. Raphael is referring to the primum mobile, which revolved around the universe in twenty-four hours, carrying the lower spheres with it. Copernicus dispensed with this first-moved sphere.
142. terrestrial moon both ‘earth’s moon’ and ‘earth-like moon’.
144–8. if land… there Cp. i 290–91, iii 460–62 and v 418–22.
148. other suns Nicholas of Cusa had conjectured that the fixed stars were suns with planetary systems, and that suns, planets, and moons were inhabited. Kepler rejected the idea, but Bruno and Descartes were among those who accepted it. M. imagines that stars might be inhabited at iii 566–71, 606–12, vii 621–5. See also i 650 and note.
149. moons any satellites (including planets) attendant on a sun. Cp. Wilkins, The Discovery of a World in the Moon (1638) Proposition xi: ‘as their world is our Moone, so our world is their Moone’.
150. male and female original and reflected. Raphael associates gender with light, not specific heavenly bodies, so it is misleading to speak of ‘male suns and female moons’ or to invoke Apollo and Diana. Moons (planets) exchange female light reciprocally (140–44), and they also have some ‘peculiar’ light of their own (vii 368). Even suns might borrow some female light from their stellar neighbours (vii 364–9). See vii 368n.
151. animate the world endow the universe with life (by sustaining life on neighbouring heavenly bodies).
152. Stored including ‘provide for the continuance of a race or breed’ (OED ‘store’ 2a).
157. this habitable imitating a phrase used by the Greeks to distinguish their world from barbarian lands. Since it occurs in the context of what is obvious (open) to dispute, Raphael might hint that other worlds are civilized.
164. inoffensive unobstructed (Latin inoffensus) and harmless (OED 1).
sleeps *spins with imperceptible motion (OED 3c, used of spinning tops, earliest instance 1854).
167. Solicit disturb, disquiet (OED 1), with an etymological play on ‘put the whole in motion’ (Latin sollus, ciere).
168. Leave… fear ‘Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man’ (Eccles. 12. 13).
181. Intelligence angelic spirit.
187. wand’ring thoughts Cp. Belial’s ‘thoughts that wander through eternity’
(ii 148).
194. fume something unsubstantial, transient, imaginary (OED 5), something which goes to the head and clouds the reason (OED 6). Cp. ix 1050.
195. fond impertinence foolish irrelevance.
197. still to seek always searching.
198. pitch summit.
202. sufferance (divine) permission.
209. Fond foolish.
218. Nor are thy lips ungraceful Cp. Ps. 45. 2: ‘Grace is poured into thy lips: Therefore God hath blessed thee’.
*ungraceful The OED also credits M.’s nephew, Edward Phillips, with the earliest instance of‘ungracefulness’.
225. fellow servant When St John tried to worship an angel, the angel said: ‘I am thy fellow servant’ (Rev. 22. 9).
228. equal love Contrast Beëlzebub’s jealous claim that men are ‘favoured more’ than angels (ii 350). Cp. also i 651.
229–40. For… obedience Raphael’s explanation does not reflect well on God. A God who would mar Creation in a fit of temper or go out of his way to disappoint his angels seems neither omnipotent nor good. See Empson (110).
230. uncouth strange, desolate, unpleasant.
239. state ceremony.
inure strengthen by exercise.
243–4. Noise… rage Cp. Aeneas outside the gate of Tartarus, hearing cries of torment (Virgil, Aen. vi 557–9); also Astolfo listening to the howls of the damned (Ariosto, Orl. Fur. xxxiv 4).
246. sabbath ev’ning the evening that began the seventh day. Following Hebrew custom, Milton reckons days from sunset to sunset.
251. who himself beginning knew Cp. v 859–63. Like Satan, Adam cannot remember his origins, but where Satan takes this as proof that he was not created, Adam infers the existence of a Maker (278).
256. reeking steaming (OED 2), without unpleasant associations. OED’s earliest instance of the sense ‘smell unpleasantly’ is from 1710 (OED 3).
263. lapse *gliding flow (OED 6), with proleptic overtones of ‘the Fall’ (OED 2b), as in ‘thy original lapse’ (xii 83).
268. went walked.
269. as] Ed I; and Ed II.
272. readily could name Adam’s ability to intuit true names indicates his native wisdom (see below, 352–3n).
276. live and move Cp. Acts 17. 28: ‘For in him we live, and move, and have our being’.
282. happier than I know Cp. iv 774–5: ‘O yet happiest if ye seek / No happier state, and know to know no more’. Both statements imply that to know one’s happiness is to lose it. Cp. also ix 1070–73, and contrast vii 631–2: ‘thrice happy if they know / Their happiness’.
288. oppression weighing down.
292. stood at my head a dream Homer’s Oneiros (‘Dream’) stands at Agamemnon’s head while falsely promising speedy victory (Il. ii 20).
M. had earlier associated Dream with Satan (see v 38, 642, 673 and notes). Cp. PR iv 407.
296. mansion dwelling-place. Gen. 2. 8 and 2. 15 make clear that Adam was created outside Paradise, which he received as a gift, not a birthright.
300–314. by the hand… divine Cp. Eve’s dream of flying (v 86–93). Adam’s flight is real (310) and his guide (312) does not abandon him. Contrast v 91: ‘My guide was gone’.
311. lively vividly (OED 4).
316. Whom… I am Cp. God’s reply when Moses asks for his name: ‘I AM that I AM.… Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you’ (Exod. 3. 14).
320. till and keep In the A.V. Adam’s task was to ‘dress’ the garden (Gen. 2. 15). God commands him to ‘till the ground’ (Gen. 3. 23) after the Fall. M. follows the Hebrew, Greek (LXX) and Latin versions, which dignify work by using the same word in both verses.
324. Knowledge… ill M. follows Gen. 2. 17 in making God, not Satan, author of the Tree’s name. See iv 423–4n, ix 1072n.
331. From that day mortal a traditional solution to Gen. 2. 17, where God tells Adam that he will die on ‘the day’ he eats. (Adam lived to be 930.)
332. lose Fowler and Campbell retain the Ed I and Ed II spelling ‘loose’ because it indicates ‘violate’ (OED 8) or ‘break up, do away with’ (OED 7a) as well as ‘lose’. But ‘lose’ must be dominant when God warns Adam about the loss of Paradise in a poem called Paradise Lost. ‘Lose’ could in any case include ‘destroy, be the ruin of (OED 2a). Cp. viii 553, ix 959.
334. interdiction prohibition.
337. purpose conversation (OED 4).
350. two and two The animals had been created in ‘broad herds’ (vii 462). Now as Adam names them they shrink to more manageable proportions. Cp. Gen. 7. 9 (‘two and two unto Noah into the ark’).
351. stooped bowed to a superior authority (OED 2a).
350. cow’ring the quivering of young hawks, who shake their wings, in sign of obedience to the old ones (OED 1b).
352–3. named… nature Cp. Tetrachordon (1645): ‘Adam who had the wisdom giv’n him to know all creatures, and to name them according to their properties, no doubt but had the gift to discern perfectly’ (YP 2. 602); also CD i 7: ‘he could not have given names to the animals in that extempore way, without great intelligence’ (trans. Carey, YP 6. 324). The idea that Adam had named things ‘rightly’ (439) was supported by Gen. 2. 19 (‘whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof) and by Plato’s Cratylus. Cp. also Bacon, Of the Interpretation of Nature: ‘when man shall be able to call the creatures by their true names he shall again command them’.
354. sudden extempore (OED 7), of mental faculties: quick, sharp (OED 4b).
355. found not Cp. Gen. 2. 20: ‘for Adam there was not found an help meet’. M. takes Genesis to mean that Adam (not God) failed to find what he was looking for.
357. O by what name Cp. Moses’ question at Exod. 3. 13 (‘What is his name?’) and God’s reply (cit. above, 316n). Cp. also Prov. 30. 4: ‘What is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?’ Lieb (172) cites CD i 5: ‘the giving of a name is always acknowledged to be the function of a superior, whether father or lord’ (trans. Carey, YP 6. 261).
371. Replenished abundantly stocked (OED 1).
373. Their language Hughes and Fowler cite the pseudepigraphal Book of Jubilees, which states that animals spoke in Paradise (3. 28). But M.’s animals were created ‘mute to all articulate sound’ (ix 557). Language here means ‘inarticulate sounds used by the lower animals’ (OED 1c). God is testing Adam’s appreciation of human language, which was made for rational conversation. Adam would not deserve Eve if he were to be content with animals’ language.
379–80. Let… speak Cp. Abraham’s plea at Gen. 18. 30: ‘Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak’.
383–4. Among unequals what… delight Adam requests an equal, and God promises to give him his ‘wish exactly’ (viii 451). But Raphael, the Son, and M. himself (both in PL and in his prose) deny that Eve was Adam’s equal. See iv 296n.
384. sort suit, fit, be in harmony (OED 18).
387. intense… remiss taut… slack. The image is of strings in a musical instrument. Man’s string is too taut and that of the animals too slack for there to be harmony between them.
390. participate share with others (OED 2).
392. consort both ‘spouse’ and ‘harmonious music’ (OED sb2 3b).
396. converse associate familiarly (OED 2) and have sexual intercourse (OED 2b). Adam has not yet asked for the ‘meet and happy conversation’ that M. saw as the ‘noblest end of mariage’ (DDD, YP 2. 246), and God will not grant his request until he does so. The entire episode is a test of Adam’s ability to give ‘conversation’ its fully human meaning. See lines 412, 418, 432.
399. nice fastidious, with overtones of ‘lascivious’ (OED 2).
402. in pleasure including ‘in Eden’ (Eden being Hebrew for ‘pleasure’).
406–7. none… less Cp. Horace’s Jove, who ‘has created nothing greater than himself, nor alike, nor second’ (Odes I xii 17–18). M. substitutes equal for ‘greater’.
417. But in degree except relatively (Adam is a perfect man, but does not have God’s absolute perfection).
419. solace *alleviate, assuage (OED 1c).
421. through all numbers absolute perfect in all parts (OED ‘absolute’ 4, Latin numerus) and complete in all numbers (OED ‘absolute’ 5b). ‘The divine monad contains all other numbers’ (Fowler). Critics disagree as to whether Adam is conversing with the Father or the Son. The present line implies that the distinction is unimportant for unfallen man. Contrast x 55–6.
423. single imperfection imperfection of being single.
426. Collateral mutual (lit. ‘side by side’). Cp. iv 741: ‘Straight side by side were laid’.
427. secrecy retirement, seclusion (OED 2b).
427–8. alone… accompanied echoing Cicero’s famous description of Scipio Africanus: Numquam minus solum, quam cum solus (‘never less alone than when alone’), De Officiis III i 1.
433. complacence pleasure, delight, satisfaction (OED 2).
435. Permissive allowed.
445. Knew… alone Cp. Gen. 2. 18: ‘And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone’.
450. thy fit help, thy other self M. expands Gen. 2. 18 (‘an help meet for him’) in accordance with his own gloss in Tetrachordon: ‘The originall here is more expressive then other languages word for word can render it… God as it were not satisfy’d with the naming of a help, goes on describing another self, a second self, a very self it self’ (YP 2. 600). Other self translates Greek and Latin terms for intimate friends.
453. earthly earthly nature. Cp. Dan. 10. 17: ‘For how can the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord? for as for me, straightway there remained no strength in me, neither is there breath left in me’.
454. stood under been exposed to (OED 77b).
460. Mine eyes he closed Contrast the open-eyed trance at Num. 24. 4: ‘He… saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open’.
461. Fancy Cp. Adam’s account of Fancy’s role in dreams (v 102–9).
462. Abstráct withdrawn, removed (OED 2).
462–82. methought… dream alluding to M.’s own Sonnet XIX (‘Methought I saw my late espousèd Saint’), in which the blind poet awakens to dark, loss, and despair (‘I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night’). Adam wakes to behold Eve Such as I saw her in my dream.
465. left side The Bible does not specify from which side Eve was taken (Gen. 2. 21), but the left was a traditional inference, since that was the side nearest Adam’s heart (cp. iv 484). See ii 755 and x 884–8 for the ‘sinister’ implications.
466. cordial spirits vital spirits from the heart.
471–3. so lovely… summed up Fowler hears an ominous echo of Marino’s description of Helen: ‘So well does beauty’s aggreg
ate / In that fair face summed up unite, / Whatever is fair in all the world / Flowers in her’ (L’Adone ii 173).
476. air mien, look (OED 14a), breath (OED 9), inspiration (OED 10), as in ‘a kind of divine ayre informing men of their truth’ (1660).
476–7. inspired / The spirit including ‘breathed the breath’.
481–520. See iv 440–491 for Eve’s version of these events.
481. When out of hope when I had given up hope.
484. amiable lovely.
494. enviest give reluctantly (OED v 3).
495–9. Bone… soul Cp. Gen. 2. 23–4: ‘And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh’. M. adds one heart, one soul in accordance with his view that marriage is more than a fleshly union. Cp. Tetrachordon, YP 2. 605–14.
502. conscience internal conviction (OED 1a).
504. obvious bold, forward (OED 2).
*obtrusive forward, unduly prominent (OED 2).
508. she what was honour knew Cp. Heb. 13. 4: ‘Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled’.
509. obsequious compliant with the will of a superior (OED 1).
511. blushing like the Morn Lewis (124) objects to unfallen Eve’s ‘female bodily shame’ and finds it ‘most offensive’ that her blush should be ‘an incentive to male desire’. But not all blushes signify shame. See line 619. M.’s syntax even leaves open ‘some tender possibility… that Adam too is blushing’ (Christopher Ricks, Keats and Embarrassment, 1974, 22).
513. influence See Nativity 71n. Stars will not shed bad influence until after the Fall. See x 661–4.
514. gratulation rejoicing and congratulation. Cp. Homer, Il. xiv 347–51, where the earth puts forth flowers as Zeus and Hera make love.
515. gales winds.
airs breezes and melodies. Cp. iv 264.
518. amorous bird of night the nightingale.
519. ev’ning star Hesperus (Venus), whose rising was the traditional sign for lighting the bridal lamp and bringing the bride to the bridegroom. Cp. xi 588–91, Catullus, Carmina lxii and Spenser, Epithalamion 286–95.