Paradise Lost (Modern Library Classics)

by Milton, John

  By Eve, though all unweeting, seconded

  Upon her husband, saw their shame that sought

  Vain covertures; but when he saw descend

  The Son of God to judge them, terrified

  He fled, not hoping to escape, but shun

  The present, fearing guilty what his wrath

  Might suddenly inflict; that past, returned

  By night, and list’ning342 where the hapless pair

  Sat in their sad discourse, and various plaint,

  Thence gathered his own doom, which understood344

  Not instant, but of future time. With joy

  And tidings fraught, to Hell he now returned,

  And at the brink of Chaos, near the foot

  Of this new wondrous pontifice, unhoped

  Met who to meet him came, his offspring dear.

  Great joy was at their meeting, and at sight

  Of that stupendous bridge his joy increased.

  Long he admiring stood, till Sin, his fair

  Enchanting daughter, thus the silence broke.

  “O Parent, these are thy magnific deeds,

  Thy trophies, which thou view’st as not thine own;

  Thou art their author and prime architect:

  For I no sooner in my heart divined,

  My heart, which by a secret harmony

  Still moves with thine, joined in connection sweet,

  That thou on Earth hadst prospered, which thy looks

  Now also evidence, but straight I felt

  Though distant from thee worlds between, yet felt

  That I must after thee with this thy son;

  Such fatal consequence364 unites us three:

  Hell could no longer hold us in her bounds,

  Nor this unvoyageable gulf obscure

  Detain from following thy illustrious track.

  Thou hast achieved our liberty, confined

  Within Hell gates till now, thou us empow’red

  To fortify thus far, and overlay

  With this portentous371 bridge the dark abyss.

  Thine now is all this world, thy virtue hath won

  What thy hands builded not, thy wisdom gained

  With odds what war hath lost, and fully avenged

  Our foil in Heav’n; here thou shalt monarch reign,

  There didst not; there let him still victor sway,

  As battle hath adjudged, from this new world

  Retiring, by his own doom378 alienated,

  And henceforth379 monarchy with thee divide

  Of all things parted by th’ empyreal bounds,

  His quadrature381, from thy orbicular world,

  Or try thee now more dang’rous to his throne.”

  Whom thus the Prince of Darkness answered glad.

  “Fair daughter, and thou son and grandchild both,

  High proof ye now have giv’n to be the race

  Of Satan386 (for I glory in the name,

  Antagonist of Heav’n’s Almighty King)

  Amply have merited of me, of all

  Th’ infernal empire, that so near Heav’n’s door

  Triumphal390 with triumphal act have met,

  Mine with this glorious work, and made one realm

  Hell and this world, one realm, one continent

  Of easy thoroughfare. Therefore while I

  Descend through darkness, on your road with ease

  To my associate powers, them to acquaint

  With these successes, and with them rejoice,

  You two this way, among these numerous orbs

  All yours, right down to Paradise descend;

  There dwell and reign in bliss, thence on the Earth

  Dominion exercise400 and in the air,

  Chiefly on man, sole lord of all declared,

  Him first make sure your thrall, and lastly kill.

  My substitutes I send ye, and create

  Plenipotent404 on Earth, of matchless might

  Issuing from me: on your joint vigor now

  My hold of this new kingdom all depends,

  Through Sin to Death exposed by my exploit.

  If your joint power prevails408, th’ affairs of Hell

  No detriment need fear409. Go and be strong.”

  So saying he dismissed them, they with speed

  Their course through thickest constellations held

  Spreading their bane; the blasted412 stars looked wan,

  And planets, planet-struck413, real eclipse

  Then suffered. Th’ other way Satan went down

  The causey415 to Hell gate; on either side

  Disparted416 Chaos overbuilt exclaimed,

  And with rebounding surge the bars assailed,

  That scorned his indignation: through the gate,

  Wide open and unguarded, Satan passed,

  And all about found desolate; for those

  Appointed to sit there, had left their charge,

  Flown to the upper world; the rest were all

  Far to the inland retired, about the walls

  Of Pandaemonium, city and proud seat

  Of Lucifer, so by allusion called,

  Of that bright star426 to Satan paragoned.

  There kept their watch the legions, while the grand427

  In council sat, solicitous428 what chance

  Might intercept their Emperor sent, so he

  Departing gave command, and they observed.

  As when431 the Tartar from his Russian foe

  By Astracan over the snowy plains

  Retires, or Bactrian Sophy from the horns

  Of Turkish crescent, leaves all waste beyond

  The realm of Aladule, in his retreat

  To Tauris or Casbeen. So these the late

  Heav’n-banished host, left desert utmost Hell

  Many a dark league, reduced438 in careful watch

  Round their metropolis, and now expecting

  Each hour their great adventurer from the search

  Of foreign441 worlds: he through the midst unmarked,

  In show plebeian angel militant

  Of lowest order, passed; and from the door

  Of that Plutonian hall, invisible

  Ascended his high throne, which under state445

  Of richest texture spread, at th’ upper end

  Was placed in regal luster. Down awhile

  He sat, and round about him saw unseen:

  At last as from a cloud his fulgent head

  And shape star-bright appeared, or brighter, clad

  With what permissive451 glory since his fall

  Was left him, or false glitter: all amazed

  At that so sudden blaze453 the Stygian throng

  Bent their aspect, and whom they wished beheld,

  Their mighty chief returned: loud was th’ acclaim:

  Forth rushed in haste the great consulting peers,

  Raised from their dark divan457, and with like joy

  Congratulant458 approached him, who with hand

  Silence, and with these words attention won.

  “Thrones, Dominations,460 Princedoms, Virtues, Powers,

  For in possession such, not only of right,

  I call ye and declare ye now, returned

  Successful beyond hope, to lead ye forth

  Triumphant out of this infernal pit

  Abominable, accursed, the house of woe,

  And dungeon of our tyrant: now possess,

  As lords, a spacious world, to our native Heaven

  Little inferior, by my adventure hard

  With peril great achieved. Long were to tell

  What I have done, what suffered, with what pain

  Voyaged th’ unreal471, vast, unbounded deep

  Of horrible confusion, over which

  By Sin and Death a broad way now is paved

  To expedite your glorious march; but I

  Toiled out my uncouth475 passage, forced to ride

  Th’ untractable abyss, plunged in the womb

  Of
unoriginal477 Night and Chaos wild,

  That jealous of their secrets fiercely opposed

  My journey strange, with clamorous uproar

  Protesting fate supreme480; thence how I found

  The new created world, which fame in Heav’n481

  Long had foretold481, a fabric wonderful

  Of absolute perfection, therein man

  Placed in a Paradise, by our exile

  Made happy; him by fraud I have seduced

  From his Creator, and the more to increase

  Your wonder, with an apple; he thereat

  Offended, worth your laughter, hath giv’n up

  Both his beloved man and all his world,

  To Sin and Death a prey, and so to us,

  Without our hazard, labor, or alarm,

  To range in, and to dwell, and over man

  To rule, as over all he should have ruled.

  True is,494 me also he hath judged, or rather

  Me not, but the brute serpent in whose shape

  Man I deceived: that which to me belongs,

  Is enmity, which he will put between

  Me and mankind; I am to bruise his heel;

  His seed, when is not set, shall bruise my head:

  A world who would not purchase with a bruise,

  Or much more grievous pain? Ye have th’ account

  Of my performance: what remains, ye gods,

  But up and enter now into full bliss.”

  So having said, a while he stood, expecting

  Their universal shout and high applause

  To fill his ear, when contrary he hears

  On all sides, from innumerable tongues

  A dismal universal hiss, the sound

  Of public scorn; he wondered509, but not long

  Had leisure, wond’ring at himself now more;

  His visage drawn he felt to sharp and spare,511

  His arms clung to his ribs, his legs entwining

  Each other, till supplanted513 down he fell

  A monstrous serpent on his belly prone,

  Reluctant515, but in vain; a greater power

  Now ruled him, punished in the shape he sinned,

  According to his doom517: he would have spoke,

  But hiss for hiss returned with forkèd tongue

  To forkèd tongue, for now were all transformed

  Alike, to serpents all as accessories

  To his bold riot: dreadful was the din

  Of hissing through the hall, thick swarming now

  With complicated monsters head and tail,

  Scorpion and asp, and amphisbaena524 dire,

  Cerastes horned525, hydrus, and ellops drear,

  And dipsas526 (not so thick swarm’d once the soil

  Bedropped with blood of Gorgon, or the Isle

  Ophiusa528); but still greatest he the midst,

  Now dragon529 grown, larger than whom the sun

  Engendered in the Pythian vale530 on slime,

  Huge Python531, and his power no less he seemed

  Above the rest still to retain; they all

  Him followed issuing forth to th’ open field,

  Where all yet left of that revolted rout

  Heav’n-fall’n, in station stood or just array,

  Sublime536 with expectation when to see

  ln triumph issuing forth their glorious chief;

  They saw, but other sight instead, a crowd

  Of ugly serpents; horror on them fell,

  And horrid sympathy; for what they saw,

  They felt themselves now changing; down their arms,

  Down fell both spear and shield, down they as fast,

  And the dire hiss renewed, and the dire form

  Catched by contagion, like in punishment,

  As in their crime. Thus was th’ applause they meant,

  Turned to exploding hiss, triumph to shame

  Cast on themselves from their own mouths. There stood

  A grove hard by, sprung up with this their change,

  His will who reigns above, to aggravate

  Their penance, laden with fair fruit like that

  Which grew in Paradise, the bait of Eve

  Used by the Tempter: on that prospect strange

  Their earnest eyes they fixed, imagining

  For one forbidden tree a multitude

  Now ris’n, to work them further woe or shame;

  Yet parched556 with scalding thirst and hunger fierce,

  Though to delude them sent, could not abstain,

  But on they rolled in heaps, and up the trees

  Climbing, sat thicker than the snaky locks559

  That curled Megaera: greedily they plucked

  The fruitage fair to sight, like that which grew

  Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flamed;

  This more delusive, not the touch, but taste

  Deceived; they fondly thinking to allay

  Their appetite with gust565, instead of fruit

  Chewed bitter ashes, which th’ offended taste

  With spattering noise rejected: oft they assayed,

  Hunger and thirst constraining, drugged568 as oft,

  With hatefulest disrelish writhed their jaws

  With soot and cinders filled; so oft they fell

  Into the same illusion, not as man

  Whom they triumphed once lapsed. Thus were they plagued

  And worn with famine, long and ceaseless hiss,

  Till their lost shape, permitted, they resumed,

  Yearly enjoined, some say575, to undergo

  This annual humbling certain numbered days,

  To dash their pride, and joy for man seduced.

  However some578 tradition they dispersed

  Among the heathen of their purchase got,

  And fabled how the serpent, whom they called

  Ophion with Eurynome, the wide-

  Encroaching Eve perhaps, had first the rule

  Of high Olympus, thence by Saturn driv’n

  And Ops, ere yet Dictaean584 Jove was born.

  Meanwhile in Paradise the Hellish pair

  Too soon arrived, Sin there in power before,586

  Once actual, now in body586, and to dwell

  Habitual habitant; behind her Death

  Close following pace for pace, not mounted yet

  On his pale horse590: to whom Sin thus began.

  “Second of Satan sprung, all conquering Death,

  What think’st thou of our empire now, though earned

  With travail difficult, not better far

  Than still at Hell’s dark threshold to have sat watch,

  Unnamed, undreaded, and thyself half starved?”

  Whom thus the Sin-born monster answered soon.

  “To me, who with eternal famine pine,

  Alike is Hell, or Paradise, or Heaven,

  There best, where most with ravin I may meet;

  Which here, though plenteous, all too little seems

  To stuff this maw, this vast unhidebound601 corpse.”

  To whom th’ incestuous mother thus replied.

  “Thou therefore on these herbs, and fruits, and flow’rs

  Feed first, on each beast next, and fish, and fowl,

  No homely morsels, and whatever thing

  The scythe of Time mows down, devour unspared,

  Till I in man residing through the race,

  His thoughts, his looks, words, actions all infect,

  And season him thy last and sweetest prey.”

  This said, they both betook them several ways,

  Both to destroy, or unimmortal611 make

  All kinds, and for destruction to mature

  Sooner or later; which th’ Almighty seeing,

  From his transcendent seat the saints among,

  To those bright orders uttered thus his voice.

  “See with what heat these dogs of Hell advance

  To waste and havoc617 yonder world, which I

  So fair and good created, an
d had still

  Kept in that state, had not the folly of man

  Let in these wasteful Furies, who impute

  Folly to me, so doth the Prince of Hell

  And his adherents, that with so much ease

  I suffer them to enter and possess

  A place so Heav’nly, and conniving seem

  To gratify my scornful enemies,

  That laugh, as if transported with some fit

  Of passion, I to them had quitted627 all,

  At random yielded up to their misrule;

  And know not that I called and drew them thither

  My Hell-hounds, to lick up the draff630 and filth

  Which man’s polluting sin with taint hath shed

  On what was pure, till crammed and gorged, nigh burst

  With sucked and glutted offal, at one sling633

  Of thy victorious arm633, well-pleasing Son,

  Both Sin, and Death, and yawning grave at last

  Through Chaos hurled, obstruct the mouth of Hell

  Forever, and seal up his ravenous jaws.

  Then heav’n and earth renewed shall be made pure

  To sanctity that shall receive no stain:

  Till then the curse pronounced on both precedes640.”

  He ended, and the Heav’nly audience loud

  Sung hallelujah, as the sound of seas,

  Through multitude that sung: “Just are thy ways,

  Righteous are thy decrees on all thy works;

  Who can extenuate645 thee? Next, to the Son,

  Destined restorer of mankind, by whom

  New heav’n and earth shall to the ages rise,

  Or down from Heav’n descend.” Such was their song,

  While the Creator calling forth by name

  His mighty angels gave them several charge,

  As sorted best with present things. The sun

  Had first his precept so to move, so shine,

  As might affect the Earth with cold and heat

  Scarce tolerable, and from the north to call

  Decrepit winter, from the south to bring

  Solstitial summer’s heat. To the blank656 moon

  Her office they prescribed, to th’ other five

  Their planetary motions and aspects658

  In sextile659, square, and trine, and opposite,

  Of noxious efficacy, and when to join

  In synod661 unbenign, and taught the fixed

  Their influence malignant when to show’r,

  Which of them rising with the sun, or falling,

  Should prove tempestuous: to the winds they set

  Their corners, when with bluster to confound

  Sea, air, and shore, the thunder when to roll

  With terror through the dark aerial hall.

  Some say he bid his angels turn askance668

  The poles of Earth twice ten degrees and more

  From the sun’s axle; they with labor pushed