by John Milton
As lightly from his grassy Couch up rose
Our Saviour, and found all was but a dream,
Fasting he went to sleep, and fasting wak’d.
285
Up to a hill anon his steps he rear’d,
From whose high top to ken the prospect round,
If Cottage were in view, Sheep-cote or Herd;
But Cottage, Herd or Sheep-cote none he saw,
Only in a bottom saw a pleasant Grove,
290
With chaunt of tuneful Birds resounding loud;
Thither he bent his way, determin’d there
To rest at noon, and enter’d soon the shade
High rooft and walks beneath, and alleys brown
That open’d in the midst a woody Scene,
295
Natures own work it seem’d (Nature taught Art)
And to a Superstitious eye the haunt
Of Wood-Gods and Wood-Nymphs; he view’d it round,
When suddenly a man before him stood,
Not rustic as before, but seemlier clad,
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As one in City, or Court, or Palace bred,
And with fair speech these words to him address’d.
With granted leave officious I return,
But much more wonder that the Son of God
In this wild solitude so long should bide
305
Of all things destitute, and well I know,
Not without hunger. Others of some note,
As story tells, have trod this Wilderness;
The Fugitive Bond-woman21 with her Son
Out cast Nebaioth, yet found he relief
310
By a providing Angel; all the race
Of Israel here had famish’d, had not God
Rain’d from Heav’n Manna,22 and that Prophet23 bold
Native of Thebez wandring here was fed
Twice by a voice inviting him to eat.
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Of thee these forty days none hath regard,
Forty and more deserted here indeed.
To whom thus Jesus; what conclud’st thou hence?
They all had need, I as thou seest have none.
How hast thou hunger then? Satan reply’d,
320
Tell me if Food were now before thee set,
Would’st thou not eat? Thereafter as I like
The giver, answer’d Jesus. Why should that
Cause thy refusal, said the subtle Fiend,
Hast thou not right to all Created things,
325
Owe not all Creatures by just right to thee
Duty and Service, nor to stay till bid,
But tender all their power? nor mention I
Meats by the Law unclean, or offer’d first
To Idols, those young Daniel could refuse;
330
Nor proffer’d by an Enemy, though who
Would scruple that, with want opprest? behold
Nature asham’d, or better to express,
Troubl’d that thou shouldst hunger, hath purvey’d
From all the Elements her choicest store
335
To treat thee as beseems, and as her Lord
With honour, only deign to sit and eat.
He spake no dream, for as his words had end,
Our Saviour lifting up his eyes beheld
In ample space under the broadest shade
340
A Table richly spred, in regal mode,
With dishes pil’d, and meats of noblest sort
And savour, Beasts of chase, or Fowl of game,
In pastry built, or from the spit, or boyl’d,
Gris-amber-steam’d; all Fish from Sea or Shore,
345
Freshet, or purling Brook, of shell or fin,
And exquisitest name, for which was drain’d
Pontus and Lucrine Bay,24 and Afric Coast.
Alas how simple, to these Cates compar’d,
Was that crude Apple that diverted Eve!
350
And at a stately side-board by the wine
That fragrant smell diffus’d, in order stood
Tall stripling youths rich clad, or fairer hew
Then Ganymed or Hylas,25 distant more
Under the Trees now trip’d, now solemn stood
355
Nymphs of Dianas train, and Naiades
With fruits and flowers from Amalthea’s horn,26
And Ladies of th’ Hesperides,27 that seem’d
Fairer then feign’d of old, or fabl’d since
Of Fairy Damsels met in Forest wide
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By Knights of Logres, or of Lyones,
Lancelot or Pelleas, or Pellenore,28
And all the while Harmonious Airs were heard
Of chiming strings, or charming pipes and winds
Of gentlest gale Arabian odors fann’d
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From their soft wings, and Flora’s29 earliest smells.
Such was the Splendour, and the Tempter now
His invitation earnestly renew’d.
What doubts the Son of God to sit and eat?
These are not Fruits forbidd’n, no interdict
370
Defends30 the touching of these viands pure,
Thir taste no knowledge works, at least of evil,
But life preserves, destroys life’s enemy,
Hunger, with sweet restorative delight.
All these are Spirits of Air, and Woods, and Springs,
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Thy gentle Ministers, who come to pay
Thee homage, and acknowledge thee thir Lord:
What doubt’st thou Son of God? sit down and eat.
To whom thus Jesus temperately reply’d:
Said’st thou not that to all things I had right?
380
And who withholds my pow’r that right to use?
Shall I receive by gift what of my own,
When and where likes me best, I can command?
I can at will, doubt not, as soon as thou,
Command a Table in this Wilderness,
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And call swift flights of Angels ministrant
Array’d in Glory on my cup t’ attend:
Why shouldst thou then obtrude this diligence,
In vain, where no acceptance it can find,
And with my hunger what hast thou to do?
390
Thy pompous Delicacies I contemn,
And count thy specious gifts no gifts but guiles.
To whom thus answer’d Satan malecontent:
That I have also power to give thou seest,
If of that pow’r I bring thee voluntary
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What I might have bestow’d on whom I pleas’d,
And rather opportunely in this place
Chose to impart to thy apparent need,
Why shouldst thou not accept it? but I see
What I can do or offer is suspect;
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Of these things others quickly will dispose
Whose pains have earn’d the far-fet31 spoil. With that
Both Table and Provision vanish’d quite
With sound of Harpies wings, and Talons heard;
Only the importune Tempter still remain’d,
405
And with these words his temptation pursu’d.
By hunger, that each other Creature tames,
Thou art not to be harm’d, therefore not mov’d;
Thy temperance invincible besides,
For no allurement yields to appetite,
410
And all thy heart is set on high designs,
High actions; but wherewith to be atchiev’d?
Great acts require great means of enterprise,
Thou art unknown, unfriended, low of birth,
A Carpenter thy Father known, thy self
415
Bred up in poverty and streights at home;
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Lost in a Desert here and hunger-bit:
Which way or from what hope dost thou aspire
To greatness? whence Authority deriv’st,
What Followers, what Retinue canst thou gain,
420
Or at thy heels the dizzy Multitude,
Longer then thou canst feed them on thy cost?
Money brings Honour, Friends, Conquest, and Realms;
What rais’d Antipater the Edomite,
And his Son Herod plac’d on Juda’s Throne;
425
(Thy throne) but gold that got him puissant friends?
Therefore, if at great things thou wouldst arrive,
Get Riches first, get Wealth, and Treasure heap,
Not difficult, if thou hearken to me,
Riches are mine, Fortune is in my hand;
430
They whom I favour thrive in wealth amain,
While Virtue, Valour, Wisdom sit in want.32
To whom thus Jesus patiently reply’d;
Yet Wealth without these three is impotent,
To gain dominion or to keep it gain’d.
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Witness those antient Empires of the Earth,
In highth of all thir flowing wealth dissolv’d:
But men endu’d with these have oft attain’d
In lowest poverty to highest deeds;
Gideon and Jephtha, and the Shepherd lad,33
440
Whose off-spring on the Throne of Juda sat
So many Ages, and shall yet regain
That seat, and reign in Israel without end.
Among the Heathen (for throughout the World
To me is not unknown what hath been done
445
Worthy of Memorial) canst thou not remember
Quintius, Fabricius, Curius, Regulus?34
For I esteem those names of men so poor
Who could do mighty things, and could contemn
Riches though offer’d from the hand of Kings.
450
And what in me seems wanting, but that I
May also in this poverty as soon
Accomplish what they did, perhaps and more?
Extol not Riches then, the toyl35 of Fools,
The wise mans cumbrance if not snare, more apt
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To slacken Virtue, and abate her edge,
Then prompt her to do aught may merit praise.
What if with like aversion I reject
Riches and Realms; yet not for that a Crown,
Golden in shew, is but a wreath of thorns,
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Brings dangers, troubles, cares, and sleepless nights
To him who wears the Regal Diadem,
When on his shoulders each mans burden lies;
For therein stands the office of a King,
His Honour, Vertue, Merit and chief Praise,
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That for the Publick all this weight he bears.
Yet he who reigns within himself, and rules
Passions, Desires, and Fears, is more a King;
Which every wise and vertuous man attains:
And who attains not, ill aspire to rule
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Cities of men, or head-strong Multitudes,
Subject himself to Anarchy within,
Or lawless passions in him which he serves.
But to guide Nations in the way of truth
By saving Doctrine, and from errour lead
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To know, and knowing worship God aright,
Is yet more Kingly, this attracts the Soul,
Governs the inner man, the nobler part,
That other o’re the body only reigns,
And oft by force, which to a generous mind
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So reigning can be no sincere delight.
Besides to give a Kingdom hath been thought
Greater and nobler done, and to lay down
Far more magnanimous, then to assume.
Riches are needless then, both for themselves,
485
And for thy reason why they should be sought,
To gain a Scepter, oftest better miss’t.
* * *
1 Elijah; see 2 Kings ii.
2 Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she would bear a son.
3 Herod.
4 Luke ii. 34–35.
5 Luke ii. 42–49.
6 nonplused.
7 crowded state.
8 tested.
9 The profligate Belial is described in PL I, 490–501.
10 the demon lover in Tobit iii, vi, who killed Tobias’ wife’s first seven husbands.
11 demonic seducer.
12 temperament.
13 magnet.
14 See 1 Kings xi. 1–8.
15 Alexander the Great.
16 Scipio Africanus.
17 Venus’ ornamented girdle which Juno wore to charm Jove (Iliad, XIV, 214–18).
18 See Son. 9, n. 2.
19 The accounts of Elijah here are found in 1 Kings xvii. 3–7, xix. 4–8.
20 peas, lentils, or beans; Dan. i. 8–16.
21 Hagar (Gen. xxi. 14–19). However, her son was Ishmael; his son was Nebaioth.
22 See Exod. xvi.
23 Elijah.
24 the Black Sea and the bay near Naples.
25 See El. 7, n. 2, 3.
26 horn of plenty.
27 the guardians of the golden tree; see Mask, ll. 981–83.
28 English geographic areas or knights, all connected with King Arthur.
29 goddess of flowers.
30 forbids. Satan dissembles, as Michael Fixler pointed out (MLN, LXX, 1955, 573–77), for certain meats and shellfish (ll. 342–45) were proscribed.
31 far-fetched.
32 Compare the last lines of Sonnet 15.
33 David; see Judges vi–viii, xi–xii, and 1 Sam. xvi–xvii.
34 important early military leaders of Rome.
35 snare.
BOOK III
So spake the Son of God, and Satan stood
A while as mute confounded what to say,
What to reply, confuted and convinc’t
Of his weak arguing, and fallacious drift;
5
At length collecting all his Serpent wiles,
With soothing words renew’d, him thus accosts.
I see thou know’st what is of use to know,
What best to say canst say, to do canst do;
Thy actions to thy words accord, thy words
10
To thy large heart give utterance due, thy heart
Conteins of good, wise, just, the perfect shape.
Should Kings and Nations from thy mouth consult,
Thy Counsel would be as the Oracle
Urim and Thummim,1 those oraculous gems
15
On Aaron’s breast: or tongue of Seers old
Infallible; or wert thou sought to deeds
That might require th’ array of war, thy skill
Of conduct would be such, that all the world
Could not sustain thy Prowess, or subsist
20
In battel, though against thy few in arms.
These God-like Vertues wherefore dost thou hide?
Affecting private life, or more obscure
In savage Wilderness, wherefore deprive
All Earth her wonder at thy acts, thy self
25
The fame and glory, glory the reward
That sole excites to high attempts the flame
Of most erected Spirits, most temper’d pure
Ætherial, who all pleasures else despise,
All treasures and all gain esteem as dross,
30
And dignities and powers all but the highest?
Thy years are ripe, and over-ripe, the Son
Of Macedonian Philip had e’re these
Won Asia and the Throne of Cyrus2 held
At his dispose,
young Scipio had brought down
35
The Carthaginian pride, young Pompey quell’d
The Pontic King3 and in triumph had rode.
Yet years, and to ripe years judgment mature,
Quench not the thirst of glory, but augment.
Great Julius, whom now all the world admires
40
The more he grew in years, the more inflam’d
With glory, wept that he had liv’d so long
Inglorious: but thou yet art not too late.
To whom our Saviour calmly thus reply’d.
Thou neither dost perswade me to seek wealth
45
For Empires sake, nor Empire to affect
For glories sake by all thy argument.
For what is glory but the blaze of fame,
The peoples praise, if always praise unmixt?
And what the people but a herd confus’d,
50
A miscellaneous rabble, who extol
Things vulgar, and well weigh’d, scarce worth the praise,
They praise and they admire they know not what;
And know not whom, but as one leads the other;
And what delight to be by such extoll’d,
55
To live upon thir tongues and be thir talk,
Of whom to be disprais’d were no small praise?
His lot who dares be singularly good.
Th’ intelligent among them and the wise
Are few, and glory scarce of few is rais’d.
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This is true glory and renown, when God
Looking on th’ Earth, with approbation marks
The just man, and divulges him through Heav’n
To all his Angels, who with true applause
Recount his praises; thus he did to Job,
65
When to extend his fame through Heav’n and Earth,
As thou to thy reproach mayst well remember,
He ask’d thee, hast thou seen my servant Job?
Famous he was in Heav’n, on Earth less known;
Where glory is false glory, attributed
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To things not glorious, men not worthy of fame.