Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Milton
Page 60
So counsel’d hee, and both together went
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Into the thickest Wood, there soon they chose
The Figtree,79 not that kind for Fruit renown’d,
But such as at this day to Indians known
In Malabar or Decan spreds her Armes
Braunching so broad and long, that in the ground
1105
The bended Twigs take root, and Daughters grow
About the Mother Tree, a Pillard shade
High overarch’t, and echoing Walks between;
There oft the Indian Herdsman shunning heat
Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing Herds
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At Loopholes cut through thickest shade: Those Leaves
They gatherd, broad as Amazonian Targe,80
And with what skill they had, together sowd,
To gird thir waste, vain Covering if to hide
Thir guilt and dreaded shame; O how unlike
1115
To that first naked Glorie. Such of late
Columbus found th’ American so girt
With featherd Cincture, naked else and wild
Among the Trees on Iles and woodie Shores.
Thus fenc’t, and as they thought, thir shame in part
1120
Coverd, but not at rest or ease of Mind,
They sate them down to weep, nor onely Teares
Raind at thir Eyes, but high Winds worse within
Began to rise, high Passions, Anger, Hate,
Mistrust, Suspicion, Discord, and shook sore
1125
Thir inward State of Mind, calm Region once
And full of Peace, now tost and turbulent:
For Understanding rul’d not, and the Will
Heard not her lore, both in subjection now
To sensual Appetite, who from beneath
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Usurping over sovran Reason claimd
Superior sway: from thus distemperd brest,
Adam, estrang’d in look and alterd stile,
Speech intermitted thus to Eve renewd.
Would thou hadst heark’n’d to my words, and stai’d
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With me, as I besought thee, when that strange
Desire of wandring this unhappie Morn,
I know not whence possess’d thee; we had then
Remaind still happie, not as now, despoild
Of all our good, sham’d, naked, miserable.
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Let none henceforth seek needless cause t’ approve
The Faith they owe;81 when earnestly they seek
Such proof, conclude, they then begin to fail.
To whom soon mov’d with touch of blame thus Eve.
What words have past thy Lips, Adam severe,
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Imput’st thou that to my default, or will
Of wandring, as thou call’st it, which who knows
But might as ill have happ’n’d thou being by,
Or to thy self perhaps: hadst thou bin there,
Or here th’ attempt, thou couldst not have discernd
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Fraud in the Serpent, speaking as he spake;
No ground of enmitie between us known,
Why hee should mean me ill, or seek to harm.
Was I t’ have never parted from thy side?
As good have grown there still a liveless Rib.
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Being as I am, why didst not thou the Head
Command me absolutely not to go,
Going into such danger as thou saidst?
Too facil then thou didst not much gainsay,
Nay, didst permit, approve, and fair dismiss.
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Hadst thou bin firm and fixt in thy dissent,
Neither had I transgress’d, nor thou with mee.
To whom then first incenst Adam repli’d.
Is this the Love, is this the recompence
Of mine to thee, ingrateful Eve, exprest
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Immutable82 when thou wert lost, not I,
Who might have liv’d and joyd immortal bliss,
Yet willingly chose rather Death with thee:
And am I now upbraided, as the cause
Of thy transgressing? not enough severe,
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It seems, in thy restraint: what could I more?
I warn’d thee, I admonish’d thee, foretold
The danger, and the lurking Enemie
That lay in wait; beyond this had bin force,
And force upon free will hath here no place.
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But confidence then bore thee on, secure
Either to meet no danger, or to find
Matter of glorious trial; and perhaps
I also err’d in overmuch admiring
What seemd in thee so perfet, that I thought
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No evil durst attempt83 thee, but I rue
That errour now, which is become my crime,
And thou th’ accuser. Thus it shall befall
Him who to worth in Woman overtrusting
Lets her will rule; restraint she will not brook,
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And left t’ her self, if evil thence ensue,
Shee first his weak indulgence will accuse.
Thus they in mutual accusation spent
The fruitless hours, but neither self-condemning,
And of thir vain contest appeer’d no end.
* * *
1 unobjectionable.
2 referring to Iliad, XXII (Achilles’ fighting Hector), Aeneid, XII (Turnus’ competing with Aeneas), Odyssey, I (Neptune’s avenging himself on Ulysses), and Aeneid, I (Juno’s harassing Aeneas because of her anger and jealousy against his mother Venus).
3 Urania; see VII, n. 1.
4 furnishings.
5 devices on shields.
6 probably the lower parts of escutcheons; perhaps housings for horses.
7 butlers.
8 referring to the decay of nature; see Nature does not suffer decay.
9 The theory of the effects of cold climate is reviewed by T. B. Stroup in Modern Language Quarterly, IV (1943), 185–89; compare Z. S. Fink, MLQ, II (1941), 67–80.
10 consisting of three days’ flight around the equator and two days’ each around two meridians of longitude at right angles with each other (each colure).
11 the Black Sea; Lake Maeotis is the Sea of Azov, and the Ob flows to the Arctic Sea.
12 a river in Syria.
13 the Isthmus of Panama on the Atlantic Ocean.
14 wavering from mulling over thoughts; “his final sentence” is his decision to assume serpentine form.
15 referring to links in the chain of being, upward to man.
16 seat of conflicting feelings.
17 both “compressed” and “forced.”
18 liable.
19 harmful.
20 hidden.
21 cluster of new-blown roses.
22 innocent.
23 untouched.
24 accession, increase by addition.
25 forehead.
26 always watchful.
27 remind.
28 prove.
29 more confident.
30 Diana’s. An oread was a mountain nymph; a dryad, a tree nymph.
31 goddesses of flocks and herds, and of fruit. Vertumnus was god of the changing season, and Ceres, mother of Proserpina, taught men agriculture.
32 easily turning in and out.
33 handiwork.
34 Ulysses.
35 not mythological. The “sapient king” is Solomon, who married Pharaoh’s daughter (1 Kings iii. 1).
36 pollute.
37 grass spread out to make hay.
38 towered.
39 coils.
40 transformed (into serpents). When Pentheus revolted and acquired the rule of Thebes from Cadmus, his grandfather, Cadmus and his wife Harmonia (Hermione) were changed into
dragons and carried off to the Elysian Fields.
41 Aesculapius, depicted as a serpent (the caduceus being his symbol) in his temple in Epidaurus.
42 In the guise of a serpent Jove Ammon wooed Alexander the Great’s mother Olympias, and Roman Jove (Capitoline), Scipio’s mother (Sempronia).
43 Circe had turned Ulysses’ men into swine.
44 Satan spoke either by using the serpent’s forked tongue or by vibrating the air to create vocal sounds.
45 doubt.
46 How cam’st thou to be able to speak though otherwise incapable of human speech.
47 “of the nature of a beast,” with ironic overtones of the words’ opposing connotations.
48 the air.
49 embodying a spirit.
50 to the number of men provided for.
51 trustworthiness.
52 By this term (signifying a divine revelation) Eve makes the command less stringent.
53 Eve’s fall (through l. 781) is derived from Gen. iii. 1–6.
54 knowledge.
55 In the Art of Logic (Columbia, XI, 29), Milton defined a cause as: “that by the force of which a thing exists.” Following Ramus, he talks of efficient causes (those by which a thing exists or is brought about) and helping causes. Such discernment as Satan claims would recognize the slight dissent among things when they seem to exhibit affinity with consentanies (things in agreement). The “highest Agents” are those instruments (helping causes) through which divine testimony operates. But since the procatarctic cause (that from without) is powerless if there is no proegumenic cause (that from within), Eve cannot duplicate the actions of such agents. Satan persuades that he, as well as Eve if she partakes, has such power now within him from having eaten the fruit.
56 adds.
57 whom the penalty of death threatened.
58 probably meaning only “human,” since the received spelling is the common form for that word.
59 The concept that the Noonday Devil is the most dangerous explains the time of occurrence of Eve’s fall.
60 with no suspicion of his truthfulness.
61 the archaic preterite.
62 knew not that she was eating Death.
63 jovial.
64 The word is derived from the Latin for “taste.”
65 subjected to infamy.
66 having knowledge.
67 portending.
68 dismayed.
69 doomed.
70 resolved.
71 bind thee with a deed.
72 Gen. iii. 12: “And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.”
73 Adam falls at l. 999, inverse number of the sign of the beast of Revelation (666), assigned in book II to Death.
74 Since the word “savor” (“taste”) derives from “Sapience,” a pun is intended referring to the act of their disobedience.
75 efficacious, but ironically pointing to the lack of chastity exhibited by their tasting of it.
76 Prov. vii. 18: “Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.”
77 worst.
78 dark.
79 the banyan; its leaves are not broad (l. 1111), an error deriving from Pliny.
80 shield.
81 have.
82 shown to be unchangeable.
83 tempt.
BOOK X
THE ARGUMENT
Mans transgression known, the Guardian Angels forsake Paradise, and return up to Heaven to approve thir vigilance, and are approv’d, God declaring that the entrance of Satan could not be by them prevented. He sends his Son to judge the Transgressors, who descends and gives Sentence accordingly; then in pity cloaths them both, and reascends. Sin and Death sitting till then at the Gates of Hell, by wondrous sympathie feeling the success of Satan in this new World, and the sin by Man there committed, resolve to sit no longer confin’d in Hell, but to follow Satan thir Sire up to the place of Man: To make the way easier from Hell to this World to and fro, they pave a broad Highway or Bridge over Chaos, according to the Track that Satan first made; then preparing for Earth, they meet him proud of his success returning to Hell; thir mutual gratulation. Satan arrives at Pandemonium, in full assembly relates with boasting his success against Man; instead of applause is entertained with a general hiss by all his audience, transform’d with himself also suddenly into Serpents, according to his doom giv’n in Paradise; then deluded with a shew of the forbidden Tree springing up before them, they greedily reaching to taste of the Fruit, chew dust and bitter ashes. The proceedings of Sin and Death; God foretells the final Victory of his Son over them, and the renewing of all things; but for the present commands his Angels to make several alterations in the Heavens and Elements. Adam more and more perceiving his fall’n condition heavily bewails, rejects the condolement of Eve; she persists and at length appeases him: then to evade the Curse likely to fall on thir Ofspring, proposes to Adam violent wayes which he approves not, but conceiving better hope, puts her in mind of the late Promise made them, that her Seed should be reveng’d on the Serpent, and exhorts her with him to seek Peace of the offended Deity, by repentance and supplication.
Meanwhile the hainous and despightfull act
Of Satan done in Paradise, and how
Hee in the Serpent had perverted Eve,
Her Husband shee, to taste the fatall fruit,
5
Was known in Heav’n; for what can scape the Eye
Of God All-seeing, or deceave his Heart
Omniscient, who in all things wise and just,
Hinder’d not Satan to attempt the mind
Of Man, with strength entire, and free will arm’d,
10
Complete1 to have discover’d and repulst
Whatever wiles of Foe or seeming Friend.
For still they knew, and ought t’ have still remember’d
The high Injunction not to taste that Fruit,
Whoever tempted; which they not obeying,
15
Incurr’d, what could they less, the penaltie,
And manifold in sin, deserv’d to fall.
Up into Heav’n from Paradise in hast
Th’ Angelic Guards ascended, mute and sad
For Man, for of his state by this they knew,
20
Much wondring how the suttle Fiend had stoln
Entrance unseen. Soon as th’ unwelcome news
From Earth arriv’d at Heaven Gate, displeas’d
All were who heard, dim sadness did not spare
That time Celestial visages, yet mixt
25
With pitie, violated not thir bliss.
About the new-arriv’d, in multitudes
Th’ ethereal People ran, to hear and know
How all befell: they towards the Throne Supream
Accountable made haste to make appear
30
With righteous plea, thir utmost vigilance,
And easily approv’d; when the most High
Eternal Father from his secret Cloud,
Amidst in Thunder utter’d thus his voice.
Assembl’d Angels, and ye Powers return’d
35
From unsuccessful charge, be not dismaid,
Nor troubl’d at these tidings from the Earth,
Which your sincerest care could not prevent,
Foretold so lately what would come to pass,
When first this Tempter cross’d the Gulf from Hell.
40
I told ye then he should prevail and speed2
On his bad Errand, Man should be seduc’t
And flatter’d out of all, believing lies
Against his Maker; no Decree of mine
Concurring to necessitate his Fall,
45
Or touch with lightest moment3 of impulse
His free Will, to her own inclining left
In eevn scale. But fall’n he is, and now
Wh
at rests,4 but that the mortal Sentence pass
On his transgression, Death denounc’t that day,
50
Which he presumes already vain and void,
Because not yet inflicted, as he fear’d,
By some immediate stroak; but soon shall find
Forbearance no acquittance ere day end.
Justice shall not return as bountie scorn’d.
55
But whom send I to judge them? whom but thee
Vicegerent Son, to thee I have transferr’d
All Judgement, whether in Heav’n, or Earth, or Hell.
Easie it may be seen that I intend
Mercie collegue with Justice, sending thee
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Mans Friend, his Mediator, his design’d
Both Ransom and Redeemer voluntarie,
And destin’d Man himself to judge Man fall’n.
So spake the Father, and unfoulding bright
Toward the right hand his Glorie, on the Son
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Blaz’d forth unclouded Deitie; he full
Resplendent all his Father manifest
Express’d, and thus divinely answer’d mild.
Father Eternal, thine is to decree,
Mine both in Heav’n and Earth to do thy will
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Supream, that thou in mee thy Son belov’d
Mayst ever rest well pleas’d. I go to judge
On Earth these thy transgressors, but thou knowst,
Whoever judg’d, the worst on mee must light,
When time shall be, for so I undertook
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Before thee; and not repenting, this obtain
Of right, that I may mitigate thir doom
On me deriv’d,5 yet I shall temper so
Justice with Mercie, as may illustrate6 most
Them fully satisfied, and thee appease.
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Attendance none shall need, nor Train, where none
Are to behold the Judgement, but the judg’d,
Those two; the third best absent is condemn’d,
Convict7 by flight, and Rebel to all Law
Conviction to the Serpent none belongs.8
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Thus saying, from his radiant Seat he rose