by John Milton
Let us seek Death, or he not found, supply
With our own hands his Office on our selves;
Why stand we longer shivering under feares,
That shew no end but Death, and have the power,
1005
Of many ways to die the shortest choosing,
Destruction with destruction to destroy.
She ended heer, or vehement despair
Broke off the rest; so much of Death her thoughts
Had entertaind, as di’d her Cheeks with pale.
1010
But Adam with such counsel nothing sway’d,
To better hopes his more attentive mind
Labouring had rais’d, and thus to Eve repli’d.
Eve, thy contempt of life and pleasure seems
To argue in thee somthing more sublime
1015
And excellent then what thy mind contemns;
But self-destruction therefore saught, refutes
That excellence thought in thee, and implies,
Not thy contempt, but anguish and regret
For loss of life and pleasure overlov’d.
1020
Or if thou covet death, as utmost end
Of miserie, so thinking to evade
The penaltie pronounc’t, doubt not but God
Hath wiselier arm’d his vengeful ire then so
To be forestall’d; much more I fear least Death
1025
So snatcht will not exempt us from the pain
We are by doom to pay; rather such acts
Of contumacie will provoke the highest
To make death in us live: Then let us seek
Som safer resolution, which methinks
1030
I have in view, calling to mind with heed
Part of our Sentence, that thy Seed shall bruise
The Serpents head; piteous amends, unless
Be meant, whom I conjecture, our grand Foe
Satan, who in the Serpent hath contriv’d
1035
Against us this deceit: to crush his head
Would be revenge indeed; which will be lost
By death brought on our selves, or childless days
Resolv’d, as thou proposest; so our Foe
Shall scape his punishment ordain’d, and wee
1040
Instead shall double ours upon our heads.
No more be mention’d then of violence
Against our selves, and wilful barrenness,
That cuts us off from hope, and savours onely
Rancor and pride, impatience and despite,
1045
Reluctance90 against God and his just yoke
Laid on our Necks. Remember with what mild
And gracious temper he both heard and judg’d
Without wrauth or reviling; wee expected
Immediate dissolution, which we thought
1050
Was meant by Death that day, when lo, to thee
Pains onely in Child-bearing were foretold,
And bringing forth, soon recompenc’t with joy,
Fruit of thy Womb: On mee the Curse aslope
Glanc’d on the ground, with labour I must earn
1055
My bread; what harm? Idleness had bin worse;
My labour will sustain me; and least Cold
Or Heat should injure us, his timely care
Hath unbesaught provided, and his hands
Cloath’d us unworthie, pitying while he judg’d;
1060
How much more, if we pray him, will his ear
Be open, and his heart to pitie incline,
And teach us further by what means to shun
Th’ inclement Seasons, Rain, Ice, Hail and Snow,
Which now the Skie with various Face begins
1065
To shew us in this Mountain, while the Winds
Blow moist and keen, shattering the graceful locks
Of these fair spreading Trees; which bids us seek
Som better shroud, som better warmth to cherish
Our Limbs benumm’d, ere this diurnal Starr
1070
Leave cold the Night, how we his gather’d beams
Reflected, may with matter sere foment,
Or by collision of two bodies grind
The Air attrite91 to Fire, as late the Clouds
Justling or pusht with Winds rude in thir shock
1075
Tine92 the slant Lightning, whose thwart flame driv’n down
Kindles the gummie bark of Firr or Pine,
And sends a comfortable heat from farr,
Which might supplie the Sun: such Fire to use,
And what may else be remedie or cure
1080
To evils which our own misdeeds have wrought,
Hee will instruct us praying, and of Grace
Beseeching him, so as we need not fear
To pass commodiously this life, sustain’d
By him with many comforts, till we end
1085
In dust, our final rest and native home.
What better can we do, then to the place
Repairing where he judg’d us, prostrate fall
Before him reverent, and there confess
Humbly our faults, and pardon beg, with tears
1090
Watering the ground, and with our sighs the Air
Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign
Of sorrow unfeign’d, and humiliation meek.
Undoubtedly he will relent and turn
From his displeasure; in whose look serene,
1095
When angry most he seem’d and most severe,
What else but favor, grace, and mercie shon?
So spake our Father penitent, nor Eve
Felt less remorse: they forthwith to the place
Repairing where he judg’d them prostrate fell
1100
Before him reverent, and both confess’d
Humbly thir faults, and pardon beg’d, with tears
Watering the ground, and with thir sighs the Air
Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign
Of sorrow unfeign’d, and humiliation meek.
* * *
1 perfectly equipped.
2 succeed.
3 the force which tends to produce motion.
4 remains.
5 transferred.
6 illuminate.
7 proved guilty.
8 that is, neither shall be bound to Satan as penalty.
9 border, surrounding area.
10 descent.
11 duty to meet me.
12 easily seen.
13 role.
14 Dust is, ironically, what constitutes Man; see l. 208.
15 Lines 175–81 derive from Gen. iii. 14–15. Note that only bruising is involved, but its consequence for Satan will be more momentous than for the Son as man.
16 because of you (since also Adam is made of the dust).
17 The skins come from beasts slain for that purpose or those recovered by new skins after shedding the old, like the snake.
18 did not object to.
19 attractive power.
20 movement back and forth between, as opposed to “transmigration” (passage to one place only).
21 making into a shoal.
22 the Arctic Ocean.
23 the supposed passage to the east (Cathay) along the Siberian shore where flows the Pechora.
24 one of the Cyclades in the Aegean Sea created by Neptune with his trident and firmly fixed in place by Zeus.
25 petrifying.
26 the outer shell of the created universe.
27 both unenclosed (wide-extending) and defenseless.
28 without impediments.
29 the biblical Shushan, founded by Memnon’s father Tithonus.
30 pertaining to building bridges, and punning on “papal.”
31 Th
e bridge to Hell joins the passage between Heaven and Earth (III, 510).
32 Aries, under whose sign the Sun (Uriel) rises, lies opposite to Scorpio, near which is Centaurus; that is, Earth is placed between Satan and Uriel. Compare IV, n. 65. At this point, as Albert R. Cirillo shows (ELH, XXIX [1962], 372–95), the Sun (Son) and Satan each has reached his opposite noon / midnight; that is, at the Sun’s rising has come Satan’s fall (compare PR III, 201–2). The vernal equinox begins the year anew yielding hope and rebirth, and creating a metaphoric perpetual noon that is an image of eternity.
33 unawares.
34 the coverings of fig leaves.
35 the bridge from hell.
36 mutual dependence.
37 Concepts of squareness and circularity are fallaciously contrasted: male, female; imperfect, perfect; justice, mercy. Heaven was a square according to Rev. xxi. 16.
38 prove.
39 Three meanings are intended: achievement; action for one’s own advantage; and “unfolding” of his serpentine form at the temptation.
40 unfavorably affected (as the planets themselves were considered to influence men).
41 that is, of the Sun (Son), as at the crucifixion.
42 causeway.
43 compared.
44 (his command).
45 an outpost on the Volga.
46 king of Persia.
47 Tauris (Tabriz) and Casbeen were Persian cities ruled by Aladule.
48 led back.
49 canopy.
50 council.
51 unknown.
52 “unoriginated,” since nothing existed before it.
53 in parody of Ps. ii. 4; see II, 191 and n.
54 tripped.
55 revolt.
56 twisted together. Among the fabulous serpents which follow are the amphisbaena, which had a head at both ends, the hydrus (a watersnake), the ellops (probably a swordfish), and the dipsas, whose bite provoked thirst. Serpents sprang from the blood of Medusa, and Ophiusa (“full of snakes”) is one of the Balearic islands. Python was killed by Apollo at Delphi.
57 upraised.
58 one of the Furies.
59 the Dead Sea. The fair apples of Sodom were but ashes inside.
60 gusto, great relish.
61 sickened.
62 a Titan whose name means “serpent”; his wife was Eurynome, whose name means “wide-encroaching.” Jove, son of Saturn and Rhea (Ops), had a shrine at Mount Dicte in Crete.
63 from Rev. vi. 8.
64 originally “to die.”
65 not bound by his hide.
66 shutting the eyes.
67 Rev. xv. 3: “And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord, God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints.”
68 disparage.
69 harmonized.
70 (planets).
71 The planets are unbenign when their conjunction (“synod,” l. 661) is at angles of 60 degrees, 90 degrees, 120 degrees, and 180 degrees.
72 The tilting of the earth 23.5 degrees from the sun’s course, which was the same as the celestial equator (Copernicus), or the alteration of the sun’s course a like amount (l. 673; Ptolemy) created winter. The sun moves upward to the Tropic of Cancer (through the Bull and the Pleiades and then through Gemini) in Jan.–June, and southward to the Tropic of Capricorn (through Leo, Virgo, and Libra) in July–Dec.
73 Labrador. “Magellan” means the Straits of Magellan.
74 Atreus served his brother Thyestes his sons as food at a banquet of revenge.
75 malign influence from the stars.
76 New England. The “Samoed shore” is Siberia.
77 burst of wind.
78 Boreas, Caecias, Argestes, and Thrascias were winds from the north; Notus and Afer (l. 702) from the south; Eurus (l. 705) from the east (“Levant”), and Zephyr from the west (“Ponent”); Sirocco (l. 706) from the southeast and Libecchio from the southwest.
79 opposition.
80 flow back.
81 Gen. iii. 19.
82 The potentiality of matter is limited by that to which it is united; that is, God will not make man’s punishment infinite though he himself is infinite.
83 “Heva” was said to mean serpent, being an aspirated sound plus “Eve.”
84 a mottled, dull green.
85 held before as a disguise.
86 a pun of “left” side and “evil.” Eve was traditionally considered morally defective because she was created from this bent rib.
87 Compare IV, 299: “Hee for God only, shee for God in him.”
88 in evils such as ours.
89 Eve.
90 struggle.
91 The air is thought of as being “rubbed” by the collision, causing fire from friction.
92 kindle.
BOOK XI
THE ARGUMENT
The Son of God presents to his Father the Prayers of our first Parents now repenting, and intercedes for them: God accepts them, but declares that they must no longer abide in Paradise; sends Michael with a Band of Cherubim to dispossess them; but first to reveal to Adam future things: Michaels coming down. Adam shews to Eve certain ominous signs; he discerns Michaels approach, goes out to meet him: the Angel denounces thir departure. Eve’s Lamentation. Adam pleads, but submits: The Angel leads him up to a high Hill, sets before him in vision what shall happ’n till the Flood.
Thus they in lowliest plight repentant stood
Praying, for from the Mercie-seat1 above
Prevenient Grace2 descending had remov’d
The stonie3 from thir hearts, and made new flesh
5
Regenerat grow instead, that sighs now breath’d
Unutterable, which the Spirit of prayer
Inspir’d, and wing’d for Heav’n with speedier flight
Then loudest Oratorie: yet thir port
Not of mean suiters, nor important less
10
Seem’d thir Petition, then when th’ ancient Pair
In Fables old, less ancient yet then these,
Deucalion and chaste Pyrrha to restore
The Race of Mankind drownd, before the Shrine
Of Themis4 stood devout. To Heav’n thir prayers
15
Flew up, nor miss’d the way, by envious winds
Blow’n vagabond or frustrate: in they pass’d
Dimentionless through Heav’nly dores; then clad
With incense, where the Golden Altar fum’d,
By thir great Intercessor, came in sight
20
Before the Fathers Throne: Them the glad Son
Presenting, thus to intercede began.
See Father, what first fruits on Earth are sprung
From thy implanted Grace in Man, these Sighs
And Prayers, which in this Golden Censer, mixt
25
With Incense, I thy Priest before thee bring,
Fruits of more pleasing savour from thy seed
Sow’n with contrition in his heart, then those
Which his own hand manuring5 all the Trees
Of Paradise could have produc’t, ere fall’n
30
From innocence. Now therefore bend thine ear
To supplication, hear his sighs though mute;
Unskilful with what words to pray, let mee
Interpret for him, mee his Advocate
And propitiation, all his works on mee
35
Good or not good ingraft, my Merit those
Shall perfet, and for these my Death shall pay.
Accept me, and in mee from these receave
The smell of peace toward Mankind, let him live
Before thee reconcil’d, at least his days
40
Numberd, though sad, till Death, his doom (which I
To mitigate thus plead, not to reverse)
To better life shall yeeld him, where with mee
&n
bsp; All my redeemd may dwell in joy and bliss,
Made one with me as I with thee am one.
45
To whom the Father, without Cloud, serene.
All thy request for Man, accepted Son,
Obtain, all thy request was my Decree:
But longer in that Paradise to dwell,
The Law I gave to Nature him forbids:
50
Those pure immortal Elements that know
No gross, no unharmoneous mixture foul,
Eject him tainted now, and purge him off
As a distemper, gross to air as gross,
And mortal food, as may dispose him best
55
For dissolution wrought by Sin, that first
Distemperd all things, and of incorrupt
Corrupted. I at first with two fair gifts
Created him endowd, with Happiness
And Immortalitie: that fondly lost,
60
This other serv’d but to eternize woe;
Till I provided Death; so Death becomes
His final remedie, and after Life
Tri’d in sharp tribulation, and refin’d
By Faith and faithful works, to second Life,
65
Wak’t in the renovation of the just,
Resignes him up with Heav’n and Earth renewd.
But let us call to Synod all the Blest
Through Heav’ns wide bounds; from them I will not hide
My judgments, how with Mankind I proceed,
70
As how with peccant Angels late they saw;
And in thir state, though firm, stood more confirmd.
He ended, and the Son gave signal high
To the bright Minister that watch’d, hee blew
His Trumpet, heard in Oreb6 since perhaps
75
When God descended, and perhaps once more
To sound at general Doom.7 Th’ Angelic blast
Fill’d all the Regions: from thir blissful Bowrs
Of Amarantin8 Shade, Fountain or Spring,
By the waters of Life, where ere they sate
80
In fellowships of joy: the Sons of Light
Hasted, resorting to the Summons high,
And took thir Seats; till from his Throne supream