Paradise Lost (Modern Library Classics)

by Milton, John

  553. Nor love thy life, nor hate: from Martial, Epigrams, 10.47.

  556–97. Adam’s third vision, concerning the descendants of Cain, derives from Gen. 4.19–22, 6.2–4.

  561. volant: rapid, flying.

  562. Instinct: instinctively.

  563. fugue: from the Latin fuga (flight). A “skilful organist” plays fugues in Of Ed (MLM 979).

  573. Fusile: shaped by means of melting.

  586. amorous net: Cp. PR 2.161–62; nets were conventional in erotic contexts.

  593. interview: a mutual viewing as well as a verbal exchange; event: outcome.

  595. attached: seized. Adam too readily warms to the sight of youthful pleasure not lost.

  607. tents: Jabal was the father of tent dwellers (Gen. 4.20).

  619. appetence: desire.

  620. troll: wag; note the flashy rhyme with roll.

  622. Sons of God: See 5.446–48n.

  624. trains: tricks, stratagems.

  626. Erelong to swim at large: Michael anticipates the Flood, the forthcoming punishment for this swimming in lewd joy.

  631. mid way: Cp. 6.91n.

  632–33. man’s woe … woman: Adam turns man’s woe into “woe-man,” an old misogynistic joke.

  638–73. The fourth vision is based on Gen. 6.4, with touches drawn from Homer’s description of the shield of Achilles (Il. 18.478–540) and Vergil’s imitation of it in Aen. 8.626–728.

  642. bold emprise: martial enterprise; also found in Masque 610.

  643. curb the foaming steed: Cp. 2.531n.

  644. ranged: arranged.

  654. ensanguined: blood-soaked.

  656. battery, scale, and mine: The sieging army can break through the walls of the city (battery), climb over them (scale = ladder), and dig underneath them (mine).

  665. one rising: Enoch, the first of several forthcoming examples of solitary, Abdiel-like heroism (see 5.897–903).

  669. Exploded: silenced with mockery, hissed.

  687–88. “There were giants in the earth in those days” (Gen. 6.4).

  700. the sev’nth from thee: See Jude 14.

  707. receive: Enoch is one of only two men in the Bible to be received into Heaven without dying. The other is Elijah (see 2 Kings 2). For Milton’s interest in this phenomenon, and its relation to the mortalist heresy, see Kerrigan 1975, 127–44.

  712–53. The fifth vision concerns the Flood and the corruption that preceded it (Gen. 6–9).

  715. luxury: lust.

  717. passing fair: both “women passing by” and “surpassing beauty.”

  719. reverend sire: Noah. Cp. Lyc 103.

  730. cubit: a unit of length (the distance from the elbow to the fingertips); for the dimensions of the ark in cubits, see Gen. 6.15.

  734. insect: Commentators often excluded insects from Noah’s ark because they were thought to reproduce without coupling.

  735. sevens and pairs: The ark contained seven pairs each of all clean animals and only one pair each of unclean animals (Gen. 7.2).

  738–53. This passage draws from the description of Deucalion’s flood in Ovid, Met. 1.262–347.

  740. supply: assistance.

  741. exhalation dusk: dark mist.

  753. bottom: boat.

  755–56. The end … Depopulation: See Matt. 6.34.

  766. dispensed: portioned out (so much evil for this age, so much for that age, et cetera).

  777. Man is not whom: No one remains.

  797–807. In both his poetry and his prose, Milton often states his belief that moral corruption and the loss of political liberty go hand in hand. See SA 268–71.

  808. One man: Noah.

  815. denouncing: proclaiming.

  821. devote: consecrated to utter destruction, doomed.

  835. orcs: whales; sea-mews: gulls; clang: shrill cry.

  836–37. to place/No sanctity: One sign of the lack of sanctity for locality is the virtual absence of place names in Book 11. Indeed, even proper names are withheld, as if cults of personality were as false and distracting as cults of location.

  840–69. Adam’s sixth and final vision focuses on God’s turn to peace and reconciliation after the judgmental wrath of the Flood.

  840. hull: drift.

  845. of the fresh wave largely drew: Cp. the thirsty sun of 5.422–26.

  847. tripping: softly flowing.

  851. some high mountain: “The Ark rested … upon the mountains of Ararat” (Gen. 8.4).

  856. the surer messenger: surer, because the dove represents peace.

  866. three listed colors: stripes formed from the primary colors, red, yellow, and blue.

  867. cov’nant new: The covenant, as explained in lines 892–901, that God will never again flood the earth, which will instead be renewed by a purging fire.

  880. Distended: expanded or loosened, as opposed to a brow contracted in anger.

  881. verge: border, hem.

  885–87. So willingly … heart: based on Gen. 6.6–7, a passage central to Milton’s discussion of metaphor in the biblical representation of God (CD 1.2 in MLM 1147).

  886–901. Here Milton weaves together Gen. 6.6, 9, 11–12; 8.22; 9.11–17; 2 Pet. 3.12–13.

  BOOK XII

  THE ARGUMENT

  The angel Michael continues from the Flood to relate what shall succeed; then, in the mention of Abraham, comes by degrees to explain who that seed of the woman shall be which was promised Adam and Eve in the Fall; his incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension; the state of the church till his second coming. Adam greatly satisfied and recomforted by these relations and promises descends the hill with Michael; wakens Eve, who all this while had slept, but with gentle dreams composed to quietness of mind and submission. Michael in either hand leads them out of Paradise, the fiery sword waving behind them, and the Cherubim taking their stations to guard the place.

  As one1 who in his journey bates at noon,

  Though bent on speed, so here the Archangel paused

  Betwixt the world destroyed and world restored,

  If Adam aught perhaps might interpose;

  Then with transition sweet new speech resumes.

  “Thus thou hast seen one world begin and end;

  And man as from a second stock7 proceed.

  Much thou hast yet to see, but I perceive

  Thy mortal sight to fail; objects divine

  Must needs impair and weary human sense:

  Henceforth what is to come I will relate11,

  Thou therefore give due audience, and attend.

  This second source of men, while yet but few,

  And while the dread of judgment past remains

  Fresh in their minds, fearing the Deity,

  With some regard to what is just and right

  Shall lead their lives, and multiply apace,

  Laboring the soil, and reaping plenteous crop,

  Corn, wine and oil; and from the herd or flock,

  Oft sacrificing bullock, lamb, or kid,

  With large wine-offerings poured, and sacred feast,

  Shall spend their days in joy unblamed, and dwell

  Long time in peace by families and tribes

  Under paternal rule; till one shall rise24

  Of proud ambitious heart, who not content

  With fair equality, fraternal state,

  Will arrogate dominion27 undeserved

  Over his brethren, and quite dispossess

  Concord and law of nature from the Earth;

  Hunting30 (and men not beasts shall be his game)

  With war and hostile snare such as refuse

  Subjection to his empire tyrannous:

  A mighty hunter thence he shall be styled

  Before the Lord, as in despite34 of Heav’n,

  Or from Heav’n claiming second sov’reignty;

  And from36 rebellion shall derive his name,

  Though of rebellion others he accuse.

  He with38 a crew, whom like ambition joins

&nbs
p; With him or under him to tyrannize,

  Marching from Eden towards the west, shall find

  The plain41, wherein a black bituminous gurge

  Boils out from under ground, the mouth of Hell;

  Of brick, and of that stuff they cast to build

  A city and tow’r, whose top may reach to Heav’n;

  And get themselves a name, lest far dispersed

  In foreign lands their memory be lost,

  Regardless whether good or evil fame.

  But God who oft descends to visit men

  Unseen, and through their habitations walks

  To mark their doings, them beholding soon,

  Comes down to see their city, ere the tower

  Obstruct Heav’n tow’rs, and in derision52 sets

  Upon their tongues a various spirit to raze53

  Quite out their native language, and instead

  To sow a jangling noise of words unknown:

  Forthwith a hideous gabble rises loud

  Among the builders; each to other calls

  Not understood, till hoarse, and all in rage,

  As mocked they storm; great laughter was in Heav’n

  And looking down, to see the hubbub60 strange

  And hear the din; thus was the building left

  Ridiculous, and the work Confusion named62.”

  Whereto thus Adam fatherly displeased.

  “O execrable son so to aspire

  Above his brethren, to himself assuming

  Authority usurped, from God not giv’n:

  He gave us only over beast, fish, fowl

  Dominion absolute; that right we hold

  By his donation; but man over men

  He made not lord; such title to himself

  Reserving, human left from human free.

  But this usurper his encroachment proud

  Stays not on man; to God his tow’r intends

  Siege and defiance. Wretched man! What food

  Will he convey up thither to sustain

  Himself and his rash army, where thin air

  Above the clouds will pine his entrails gross,

  And famish him of breath, if not of bread?”

  To whom thus Michael. “Justly thou abhorr’st

  That son, who on the quiet state of men

  Such trouble brought, affecting to subdue

  Rational liberty82; yet know withal,

  Since thy original lapse, true liberty

  Is lost, which always with right reason84 dwells

  Twinned, and from her hath no dividual85 being:

  Reason in man obscured, or not obeyed,

  Immediately inordinate desires

  And upstart passions catch the government

  From reason, and to servitude reduce

  Man till then free. Therefore since he permits

  Within himself unworthy powers to reign

  Over free reason, God in judgment just

  Subjects him from without to violent lords;

  Who oft as undeservedly enthrall

  His outward freedom: tyranny must be,

  Though to the tyrant thereby no excuse.

  Yet sometimes nations will decline so low

  From virtue, which is reason, that no wrong,

  But justice, and some fatal curse annexed

  Deprives them of their outward liberty,

  Their inward lost: witness th’ irreverent son

  Of him who built the ark, who for the shame

  Done to his father, heard this heavy curse103,

  ‘Servant of servants,’ on his vicious race104.

  Thus will this latter, as the former world,

  Still tend from bad to worse, till God at last

  Wearied with their iniquities, withdraw

  His presence from among them, and avert

  His holy eyes, resolving from thenceforth

  To leave them to their own polluted ways;

  And one peculiar nation111 to select

  From all the rest, of whom to be invoked,

  A nation from one faithful man113 to spring:

  Him on this side Euphrates yet residing,

  Bred up in idol-worship115; O that men

  (Canst thou believe?) should be so stupid grown,

  While yet the patriarch117 lived, who scaped the Flood,

  As to forsake the living God, and fall

  To worship their own work in wood and stone

  For gods! Yet him God the Most High vouchsafes

  To call by vision from his father’s house,

  His kindred and false gods, into a land

  Which he will show him, and from him will raise

  A mighty nation, and upon him shower

  His benediction so, that in his seed

  All nations shall be blest; he straight obeys,

  Not knowing to what land, yet firm believes:

  I see him, but thou canst not, with what faith

  He leaves his gods, his friends, and native soil

  Ur130 of Chaldea, passing now the ford

  To Haran131, after him a cumbrous train

  Of herds and flocks, and numerous servitude132;

  Not wand’ring poor, but trusting all his wealth

  With God, who called him, in a land unknown.

  Canaan he now attains, I see his tents

  Pitched about Sechem136, and the neighboring plain

  Of Moreh; there by promise he receives

  Gift to his progeny of all that land;

  From Hamath139 northward to the desert south

  (Things by their names I call140, though yet unnamed)

  From Hermon east to the great western sea,

  Mount Hermon, yonder sea, each place behold

  In prospect, as I point them; on the shore

  Mount Carmel; here the double-founted stream

  Jordan, true limit eastward; but his sons

  Shall dwell to Senir, that long ridge of hills.

  This ponder, that all nations of the Earth

  Shall in his seed be blessed; by that seed

  Is meant thy great Deliverer, who shall bruise

  The serpent’s head; whereof to thee anon

  Plainlier shall be revealed. This patriarch blest,

  Whom ‘faithful Abraham’ due time shall call,

  A son153, and of his son a grandchild leaves,

  Like him in faith, in wisdom, and renown;

  The grandchild with twelve sons increased, departs

  From Canaan, to a land hereafter called

  Egypt, divided by the river Nile;

  See where it flows, disgorging at seven mouths

  Into the sea: to sojourn in that land

  He comes invited by a younger son160

  In time of dearth, a son whose worthy deeds

  Raise him to be the second in that realm

  Of Pharaoh: there he dies, and leaves his race

  Growing into a nation, and now grown

  Suspected to165 a sequent king, who seeks

  To stop their overgrowth166, as inmate guests

  Too numerous; whence of guests he makes them slaves

  Inhospitably, and kills their infant males:

  Till by two brethren (those two brethren call

  Moses and Aaron) sent from God to claim

  His people from enthralment, they return

  With glory and spoil back to their promised land.

  But first the lawless tyrant, who denies173

  To know their God, or message to regard,

  Must be compelled by signs and judgments dire175;

  To blood unshed the rivers must be turned,

  Frogs, lice and flies must all his palace fill

  With loathed intrusion, and fill all the land;

  His cattle must of rot and murrain179 die,

  Botches180 and blains must all his flesh emboss,

  And all his people; thunder mixed with hail,

  Hail mixed with fire must rend th’ Egyptian sky

  And wheel on t
h’ earth, devouring where it rolls;

  What it devours not, herb, or fruit, or grain,

  A darksome cloud of locusts swarming down

  Must eat, and on the ground leave nothing green:

  Darkness must overshadow all his bounds,

  Palpable darkness188, and blot out three days;

  Last with one midnight stroke all the first-born

  Of Egypt must lie dead. Thus with ten wounds

  The river-dragon tamed at length submits

  To let his sojourners depart, and oft

  Humbles his stubborn heart, but still as ice

  More hardened after thaw, till in his rage

  Pursuing whom he late dismissed, the sea

  Swallows him with his host, but them lets pass

  As on dry land between two crystal walls,

  Awed by the rod of Moses so to stand

  Divided, till his rescued gain their shore:

  Such wondrous power God to his saint will lend,

  Though present in his angel, who shall go

  Before them in a cloud, and pillar of fire,

  By day a cloud, by night a pillar of fire,

  To guide them in their journey, and remove

  Behind them, while th’ obdurate king pursues:

  All night he will pursue, but his approach

  Darkness defends207 between till morning watch;

  Then through the fiery pillar and the cloud

  God looking forth will trouble all his host

  And craze210 their chariot wheels: when by command

  Moses once more his potent rod extends

  Over the sea; the sea his rod obeys;

  On their embattled ranks the waves return,

  And overwhelm their war214: the race elect

  Safe towards Canaan from the shore advance

  Through the wild desert, not the readiest way216,

  Lest ent’ring on the Canaanite alarmed217

  War terrify them inexpert, and fear

  Return them back to Egypt, choosing rather

  Inglorious life with servitude; for life

  To noble and ignoble is more sweet

  Untrained in arms, where rashness leads not on.

  This also shall they gain by their delay

  In the wide wilderness, there they shall found

  Their government, and their great senate225 choose

  Through the twelve tribes, to rule by laws ordained:

  God from the mount of Sinai, whose gray top

  Shall tremble, he descending, will himself

  In thunder, lightning, and loud trumpet’s sound

  Ordain them laws; part such as appertain

  To civil justice, part religious rites

  Of sacrifice, informing them, by types232