Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Milton

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Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Milton Page 56

by John Milton


  585

  The Soul of Man, or passion in him move.

  What higher in her societie thou findst

  Attractive, human, rational, love still;

  In loving thou dost well, in passion not,

  Wherein true Love consists not; love refines

  590

  The thoughts, and heart enlarges, hath his seat

  In Reason, and is judicious, is the scale

  By which to heav’nly Love thou maist ascend,

  Not sunk in carnal pleasure, for which cause

  Among the Beasts no Mate for thee was found.

  595

  To whom thus half abash’t Adam repli’d.

  Neither her out-side formd so fair, nor aught

  In procreation common to all kinds

  (Though higher of the genial37 Bed by far,

  And with mysterious reverence I deem)

  600

  So much delights me as those graceful acts,

  Those thousand decencies that daily flow

  From all her words and actions mixt with Love

  And sweet compliance, which declare unfeign’d

  Union of Mind, or in us both one Soul;

  605

  Harmonie to behold in wedded pair

  More grateful then harmonious sound to th’ ear.

  Yet these subject not; I to thee disclose

  What inward thence I feel, not therefore foild,

  Who meet with various objects, from the sense

  610

  Variously representing; yet still free

  Approve the best, and follow what I approve.

  To love thou blam’st me not, for love thou saist

  Leads up to Heav’n, is both the way and guide;

  Bear with me then, if lawful what I ask;

  615

  Love not the heav’nly Spirits, and how thir Love

  Express they, by looks onely, or do they mix

  Irradiance, virtual or immediate touch?

  To whom the Angel with a smile that glow’d

  Celestial rosie red, Loves proper hue,

  620

  Answer’d. Let it suffice thee that thou know’st

  Us happie, and without Love no happiness.

  Whatever pure thou in the body enjoy’st

  (And pure thou wert created) we enjoy

  In eminence, and obstacle find none

  625

  Of membrane, joynt, or limb, exclusive barrs:

  Easier then Air with Air, if Spirits embrace,

  Total they mix, Union of Pure with Pure

  Desiring; nor restrain’d conveyance need

  As Flesh to mix with Flesh, or Soul with Soul.

  630

  But I can now no more; the parting Sun

  Beyond the Earths green Cape and verdant Isles38

  Hesperean39 sets, my Signal to depart.

  Be strong, live happie, and love, but first of all

  Him whom to love is to obey, and keep

  635

  His great command; take heed least Passion sway

  Thy Judgement to do aught, which else free Will

  Would not admit; thine and of all thy Sons

  The weal or woe in thee is plac’t; beware.

  I in thy persevering shall rejoyce,

  640

  And all the Blest: stand fast; to stand or fall

  Free in thine own Arbitrement it lies.

  Perfet within, no outward aid require;

  And all temptation to transgress repel.

  So saying, he arose; whom Adam thus

  645

  Follow’d with benediction. Since to part,

  Go heav’nly Guest, Ethereal Messenger,

  Sent from whose sovran goodness I adore.

  Gentle to me and affable hath been

  Thy condescension, and shall be honour’d ever

  650

  With grateful Memorie: thou to mankind

  Be good and friendly still, and oft return.

  So parted they, the Angel up to Heav’n

  From the thick shade, and Adam to his Bowr.

  * * *

  1 Compare Milton’s rendering of Ps. 8, 9–11.

  2 carry out their duty (of supplying); see also “officious,” l. 99.

  3 dark.

  4 small and fixed in space (like a point).

  5 regard with wonder.

  6 immeasurable.

  7 procession.

  8 mild of manner.

  9 far from the truth.

  10 invent theories to explain astronomical phenomena, such as the rotation of a sphere with the earth as center or not as center of the universe, moving in full orbit of itself or in a small circle whose center lay on the circumference of a large circle (orbit within an orbit).

  11 magnetic attraction.

  12 imperceptibly; the three motions are rotation, revolution around the sun, and polar rotation around the ecliptic (the apparent path of the sun).

  13 the angles between the planes of the planets’ equators and their orbits; each sphere’s obliquity intersects another sphere’s. That is, the movements of the spheres are transverse.

  14 the primum mobile.

  15 of the sun (direct) and of the moon (reflected).

  16 evidently disputable (since there are so many and they give off so little light).

  17 unimpeded.

  18 (which come) as a result of.

  19 unknown.

  20 make (obedience) a habit.

  21 walked.

  22 The description of Eden (through l. 499) is drawn from Gen. ii. 8–9, 15–24.

  23 had shown a vision which seemed real.

  24 submissive.

  25 agency.

  26 explained by ll. 331–32.

  27 be in harmony, be suitable.

  28 the one deeply concerned (taut), the other always careless (slack).

  29 discriminating.

  30 in all things perfect.

  31 (nature).

  32 spirits of the heart.

  33 compliant.

  34 the nightingale.

  35 perfect.

  36 self-esteem.

  37 procreative.

  38 Cape Verde (“green”) and the islands of the same name.

  39 in the West.

  BOOK IX

  THE ARGUMENT

  Satan having compast the Earth, with meditated guile returns as a mist by Night into Paradise, enters into the Serpent sleeping. Adam and Eve in the Morning go forth to thir labours, which Eve proposes to divide in several places, each labouring apart: Adam consents not, alledging the danger, lest that Enemy, of whom they were forewarn’d, should attempt her found alone: Eve loath to be thought not circumspect or firm enough, urges her going apart, the rather desirous to make tryal of her strength; Adam at last yields: The Serpent finds her alone; his subtle approach, first gazing, then speaking, with much flattery extolling Eve above all other Creatures. Eve wondring to hear the Serpent speak, asks how he attain’d to human speech and such understanding not till now; the Serpent answers, that by tasting of a certain Tree in the Garden he attain’d both to Speech and Reason, till then void of both: Eve requires him to bring her to that Tree, and finds it to be the Tree of Knowledge forbidden: The Serpent now grown bolder, with many wiles and arguments induces her at length to eat; she pleas’d with the taste deliberates awhile whether to impart thereof to Adam or not, at last brings him of the Fruit, relates what perswaded her to eat thereof: Adam at first amaz’d, but perceiving her lost, resolves through vehemence of love to perish with her; and extenuating the trespass eats also of the Fruit: The Effects thereof in them both; they seek to cover thir nakedness; then fall to variance and accusation of one another.

  No more of talk where God or Angel Guest

  With Man, as with his Friend, familiar us’d

  To sit indulgent, and with him partake

  Rural repast, permitting him the while

  5

  Venial1 discourse unblam’d: I now must
change

  Those Notes to Tragic; foul distrust, and breach

  Disloyal on the part of Man, revolt,

  And disobedience: On the part of Heav’n

  Now alienated, distance and distaste,

  10

  Anger and just rebuke, and judgement giv’n,

  That brought into this World a world of woe,

  Sin and her shadow Death, and Miserie

  Deaths Harbinger: Sad task, yet argument

  Not less but more Heroic then the wrauth

  15

  Of stern Achilles on his Foe pursu’d2

  Thrice Fugitive about Troy Wall; or rage

  Of Turnus for Lavinia disespous’d,

  Or Neptun’s ire or Juno’s, that so long

  Perplex’d the Greek and Cytherea’s Son;

  20

  If answerable style I can obtain

  Of my Celestial Patroness,3 who deignes

  Her nightly visitation unimplor’d,

  And dictates to me slumbring, or inspires

  Easie my unpremeditated Verse:

  25

  Since first this Subject for Heroic Song

  Pleas’d me long choosing, and beginning late;

  Not sedulous by Nature to indite

  Warrs, hitherto the onely Argument

  Heroic deem’d, chief maistrie to dissect

  30

  With long and tedious havoc fabl’d Knights

  In Battels feign’d; the better fortitude

  Of Patience and Heroic Martyrdom

  Unsung; or to describe Races and Games,

  Or tilting Furniture,4 emblazon’d Shields,

  35

  Impreses5 quaint, Caparisons and Steeds;

  Bases6 and tinsel Trappings, gorgious Knights

  At Joust and Torneament; then marshal’d Feast

  Serv’d up in Hall with Sewers,7 and Seneshals;

  The skill of Artifice or Office mean,

  40

  Not that which justly gives Heroic name

  To Person or to Poem. Mee of these

  Nor skill’d nor studious, higher Argument

  Remains, sufficient of it self to raise

  That name, unless an age too late,8 or cold

  45

  Climat,9 or Years damp my intended wing

  Deprest, and much they may, if all be mine,

  Not Hers who brings it nightly to my Ear.

  The Sun was sunk, and after him the Starr

  Of Hesperus, whose Office is to bring

  50

  Twilight upon the Earth, short Arbiter

  Twixt Day and Night, and now from end to end

  Nights Hemisphere had veild th’ Horizon round:

  When Satan who late fled before the threats

  Of Gabriel out of Eden, now improv’d

  55

  In meditated fraud and malice, bent

  On mans destruction, maugre what might hap

  Of heavier on himself, fearless return’d.

  By Night he fled, and at Midnight return’d

  From compassing the Earth, cautious of day,

  60

  Since Uriel Regent of the Sun descri’d

  His entrance, and forewarnd the Cherubim

  That kept thir watch; thence full of anguish driv’n,

  The space of seven continu’d Nights10 he rode

  With darkness, thrice the Equinoctial Line

  65

  He circl’d, four times cross’d the Carr of Night

  From Pole to Pole, traversing each Colure;

  On th’ eighth return’d, and on the Coast averse

  From entrance or Cherubic Watch, by stealth

  Found unsuspected way. There was a place,

  70

  Now not, though Sin, not Time, first wraught the change,

  Where Tigris at the foot of Paradise

  Into a Gulf shot under ground, till part

  Rose up a Fountain by the Tree of Life;

  In with the River sunk, and with it rose

  75

  Satan involv’d in rising Mist, then sought

  Where to lie hid; Sea he had searcht and Land

  From Eden over Pontus,11 and the Pool

  Mæotis, up beyond the River Ob;

  Downward as farr Antartic; and in length

  80

  West from Orontes12 to the Ocean barr’d

  At Darien,13 thence to the Land where flows

  Ganges and Indus: thus the Orb he roam’d

  With narrow search; and with inspection deep

  Consider’d every Creature, which of all

  85

  Most opportune might serve his Wiles, and found

  The Serpent suttlest Beast of all the Field.

  Him after long debate, irresolute

  Of thoughts revolv’d,14 his final sentence chose

  Fit Vessel, fittest Imp of fraud, in whom

  90

  To enter, and his dark suggestions hide

  From sharpest sight: for in the wilie Snake,

  Whatever sleights none would suspicious mark,

  As from his wit and native suttletie

  Proceeding, which in other Beasts observ’d

  95

  Doubt might beget of Diabolic pow’r

  Active within beyond the sense of brute.

  Thus he resolv’d, but first from inward grief

  His bursting passion into plaints thus pour’d:

  O Earth, how like to Heav’n, if not preferr’d

  100

  More justly, Seat worthier of Gods, as built

  With second thoughts, reforming what was old!

  For what God after better worse would build?

  Terrestrial Heav’n, danc’t round by other Heav’ns

  That shine, yet bear thir bright officious Lamps,

  105

  Light above Light, for thee alone, as seems,

  In thee concentring all thir precious beams

  Of sacred influence: As God in Heav’n

  Is Center, yet extends to all, so thou

  Centring receav’st from all those Orbs; in thee,

  110

  Not in themselves, all thir known vertue appeers

  Productive in Herb, Plant, and nobler birth

  Of Creatures animate with gradual15 life

  Of Growth, Sense, Reason, all summ’d up in Man.

  With what delight could I have walkt thee round,

  115

  If I could joy in aught, sweet interchange

  Of Hill and Vallie, Rivers, Woods and Plains,

  Now Land, now Sea, and Shores with Forrest crownd,

  Rocks, Dens, and Caves; but I in none of these

  Find place or refuge; and the more I see

  120

  Pleasures about me, so much more I feel

  Torment within me, as from the hateful siege

  Of contraries;16 all good to me becomes

  Bane, and in Heav’n much worse would be my state.

  But neither here seek I, no nor in Heav’n

  125

  To dwell, unless by maistring Heav’ns Supream;

  Nor hope to be my self less miserable

  By what I seek, but others to make such

  As I, though thereby worse to me redound:

  For onely in destroying I find ease

  130

  To my relentless thoughts; and him destroyd,

  Or won to what may work his utter loss,

  For whom all this was made, all this will soon

  Follow, as to him linkt in weal or woe,

  In wo then; that destruction wide may range:

  135

  To mee shall be the glorie sole among

  Th’ infernal Powers, in one day to have marr’d

  What he Almightie styl’d, six Nights and Days

  Continu’d making, and who knows how long

  Before had bin contriving, though perhaps

  140

  Not longer then since I in one Night freed
/>   From servitude inglorious welnigh half

  Th’ Angelic Name, and thinner left the throng

  Of his adorers: hee to be aveng’d,

  And to repair his numbers thus impair’d,

  145

  Whether such vertue spent of old now faild

  More Angels to Create, if they at least

  Are his Created, or to spite us more,

  Determin’d to advance into our room

  A Creature form’d of Earth, and him endow,

  150

  Exalted from so base original,

  With Heav’nly spoils, our spoils: What he decreed

  He effected; Man he made, and for him built

  Magnificent this World, and Earth his seat,

  Him Lord pronounc’d, and, O indignitie!

  155

  Subjected to his service Angel wings,

  And flaming Ministers to watch and tend

  Thir earthy Charge: Of these the vigilance

  I dread, and to elude, thus wrapt in mist

  Of midnight vapor glide obscure, and prie

  160

  In every Bush and Brake, where hap may find

  The Serpent sleeping, in whose mazie foulds

  To hide me, and the dark intent I bring.

  O foul descent! that I who erst contended

  With Gods to sit the highest, am now constraind17

  165

  Into a Beast, and mixt with bestial slime,

  This essence to incarnate and imbrute,

  That to the hight of Deitie aspir’d;

  But what will not Ambition and Revenge

  Descend to? who aspires must down as low

  170

  As high he soard, obnoxious18 first or last

  To basest things. Revenge, at first though sweet,

  Bitter ere long back on it self recoils;

  Let it; I reck not, so it light well aim’d,

  Since higher I fall short, on him who next

  175

  Provokes my envie, this new Favorite

  Of Heav’n, this Man of Clay, Son of despite,

  Whom us the more to spite his Maker rais’d

  From dust: spite then with spite is best repaid.

 

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