Paradise Lost (Modern Library Classics) (30 page)

Stood ruled, stood vast infinitude confined;

Till at his second bidding darkness fled,

Light shone, and order from disorder sprung:

Swift to their several quarters hasted then

The
⁷¹⁵
cumbrous elements, earth, flood, air, fire,

And this ethereal quintessence of heav’n

Flew upward, spirited with
⁷¹⁷
various forms,

That rolled orbicular
⁷¹⁸
, and turned to stars

Numberless, as thou seest, and how they move;

Each had his place appointed, each his course,

The
⁷²¹
rest in circuit walls this universe.

Look downward on that globe whose hither side

With light from hence, though but reflected, shines;

That place is Earth the seat of man, that light

His day, which else as th’ other hemisphere

Night would invade, but there the neighboring moon

(So call that opposite fair star) her aid

Timely interposes, and her monthly round

Still ending, still renewing, through mid-heav’n;

With borrowed light her countenance triform
⁷³⁰

Hence
⁷³¹
fills and empties to enlighten th’ Earth,

And in her pale dominion checks the night.

That spot to which I point is Paradise,

Adam’s abode, those lofty shades his bow’r.

Thy way thou canst not miss, me mine requires.”

Thus said, he turned, and Satan bowing low,

As to superior spirits is wont in Heav’n,

Where honor due and reverence none neglects,

Took leave, and toward the coast of Earth beneath,

Down from th’ ecliptic
⁷⁴⁰
, sped with hoped success,

Throws his steep flight in many an airy wheel,

Nor stayed, till on Niphates
⁷⁴²
’ top he lights.

1–55.
This passage of transition from Hell and Chaos to Heaven, known as “the invocation to light,” is at once the most speculative and intimate of the poem’s four invocations (at the openings of Books 1, 3, 7, and 9). The meaning of the light addressed has often been debated. Some identify
holy light
with physical light, the first of created things (Kelley 91–94), while others think that light here symbolizes some aspect of the Godhead, usually the Son (Hunter et al., 149–56). In the second case, however, Milton in lines 1–8 would be uncertain whether the Son was created in time, whereas elsewhere in the poem (3.384, 5.603), as in his prose (CD 1.5), he is definite on the Son’s created-ness. See 6n.

2.
Or the beam coeternal with the Father (and therefore not
first-born
).

3.
express
: describe, invoke;
unblamed:
without being judged blasphemous or improper;
God is light:
quoted from 1 John 1.5.

3–6.
Since … increate:
These lines expand on the likelihood that light, being the dwelling of God, is eternal.

4.
unapproachèd light
: See 1 Tim. 6.16. Even angels shade their eyes with their wings when approaching the
dazzling
Father (ll. 375–82).

6.
effluence
: flowing out;
essence:
deity, the divine essence of the Father;
increate:
uncreated, without origin.

7.
hear’st thou rather
: do you prefer to be called;
ethereal:
composed of ether, the lightest and most subtle element, ubiquitous in the heavens; see 7.244n.

8.
Whose fountain who shall tell
: whose beginning is unknown and unknowable; see Job 38.19.

10.
invest
: clothe, wrap; see Ps. 104.2.

12.
void and formless infinite
: Chaos is void of form, not matter; on its infinity, see 7.168–71n.

14.
Stygian pool
: classical synecdoche for Hell;
long detained:
for Book 1 and nearly all of Book 2.

15.
sojourn
: place of temporary stay.

16.
utter … middle darkness
:
Utter darkness
is Hell;
middle darkness
is Chaos.

17.
other notes
: Orpheus sang before Pluto in order to secure his wife’s release from death. Milton’s song is not Orphean because he has not sought to charm or bargain with the ruler of Hell. Milton might also be deflating the obscure, pseudomystical night worship found in a poem (“Hymn to Night”) often ascribed to Orpheus.

19.
Heav’nly Muse
: See 1.6, 7.1, 9.21.

20–21.
up … rare:
another echo of the Sybil’s advice to Aeneas in
Aen
. 6.126–29; see 2.432–33n.

23–24.
roll … ray:
Milton told his Athenian correspondent Leonard Philaras that “upon the eyes turning” he saw in the mist of his blindness “a minute quantity of light as if through a crack” (
MLM
780).

25.
drop serene
: an English translation of the Latin
gutta serena
, a medical term for complete blindness whose cause is not visible to the physician’s eye. It was thought to result from normally airy spirits and humors congealing into obstructing tumors in the optical nerves. A main cause of the congealing was the body’s inability to rid itself of vapors produced by digestion. See Banister, sec. 9, chap. 1.
quenched:
put out the sight of; in Milton’s case, the spirits necessary for sight could not, because of the tumors, pass through his eyes.
orbs:
eyeballs.

26.
dim suffusion
: translates the Latin
suffusio nigra
or
obscura
, another medical term for blindness.

27.
where the Muses haunt
: Mount Helicon, here a symbol of classical literature itself.

30.
Sion
: the biblical equivalent of Helicon, and a symbol of Hebrew poetry. See
PR
4.346–47 on the preference for Hebrew poetry.

34.
“Would that I were their equal in fame.”

35.
Thamyris
: A Thracian poet mentioned in Homer,
Il
. 2.594–600. After he boasted that he could outsing the Muses, they blinded him and deprived him of the ability to sing.
Maeonides:
Homer; his father’s name was Maeon.

36.
Tiresias
: the blind Theban sage, best known from
Oedipus Rex
. Among the explanations for his blindness is the anger of Athena, whom he spied bathing.
Phineus:
Thracian king blinded for revealing the gods’ will in accurate prophecies.

37.
voluntary move
: of themselves utter (without a further act of volition). The idea is that these thoughts need not be turned into poetry because they
are
poetry and naturally arrange themselves in harmonious verse.

38.
numbers
: verse;
wakeful bird:
the nightingale, who appears often in Milton’s early poetry and also in
PL
(4.602–3, 7.435–36).

39.
darkling
: in the dark. The word, become poetic diction, appears in Keats’s “Ode on a Nightingale,” Arnold’s “Dover Beach,” and Hardy’s “The Darkling Thrush.”

47.
book of knowledge
: the book of Nature. “There are two books from whence I collect my divinity; besides that written one of God [the Bible], another of his servant Nature, that universal and public manuscript that lies expansed unto the eyes of all” (Browne, 1.16)—but not to the blind eyes of Milton.

48.
blank
: a white or blank page.

49.
expunged and razed
: “The Romans
expunged
writing on wax tablets by covering it with little pricks, or
razed
it by shaving the tables clean” (Leonard).

56–417.
The dialogue between Father and Son is comparable to the “Parliament in Heaven” scene found in medieval mystery and morality plays (Lewalski 1985, 118–21). The four “daughters of God” (Mercy, Truth, Righteousness, and Peace) debated the fate of sinful man, with Truth and Righteousness opposing Mercy and Peace. After a thorough search to find a substitute for man, the Son’s offer to redeem mankind resolved the debate in favor of Mercy and Peace.

60.
sanctities
: angels.

62.
on his right
: as in Heb. 1.2–3.

71.
this side Night
: the side of Chaos (the realm of Night) closest to Heaven.

72.
dun air sublime
: Satan is
sublime
(aloft) in the
dun
(dusky) air between Chaos and our world.

74.
this world
: not Earth but all creation.

74–76.
seemed … air:
Viewed from the outside, the universe appeared to be a solid sphere with no sky, surrounded by either air or water.

81.
Transports
: both “drives” and “bears.”

83.
main abyss
: Chaos.

84.
Wide interrupt
: widely breached. Editors usually construe
interrupt
as a past participle rather than as a noun made from a verb; it indicates the interval between Hell and the realms of light.

90.
assay
: test.

93.
glozing
: falsely flattering.

99.
As Satan admits at 4.63–68. See also 5.525–43;
CD
1.3.

108.
reason also is choice
: “For reason is but choosing” (
Areop
in
MLM
944). Cp. Aristotle,
Ethics
3.2.

119.
had … unforeknown
: because foreknowledge, “since it exists only in the mind of the foreknower, has no effect on its object” (CD 1.3 in
MLM
1175). Leonard’s description of the passage as inconsistent with
Christian Doctrine
and symptomatic of a breakdown in Milton’s theodicy is confused.

120.
impulse
: instigation.

129.
The first sort
: the rebel angels;
suggestion:
temptation; see 5.702.

135.
fragrance
: synesthesia; God’s words smell rather than resound.

140.
Substantially
: In
CD
1.5, Milton argues that the Father transferred “divine substance,” but not “the whole essence,” to the Son.

141.
visibly
: See 6.681–82.

143.
uttering
: making exterior, bringing out (as in the
utter
—exterior—darkness of line 16).

152.
circumvented
: entrapped.

153–54.
See Abraham’s plea for the Sodomites (Gen. 18.25).

166.
blasphemed
: defamed.

168.
Cp. Matt. 3.17.

170.
My Word
: In the New Testament “word” (Gk.
logos
, Lat.
verbum
) is a title of the Son (Rev. 19.13);
effectual might:
the means by which the Father exercises power, as at the Creation; see John 1.1–3.

174.
This line might seem to state the Calvinist position that people cannot contribute to their salvation, but see lines 187–90, 302.

183.
peculiar grace
: grace given uniquely to some extraordinary souls. See S. Fallon 1998, 95–97.

186.
betimes
: in time.

187–90.
The language carefully indicates that God’s
offered grace
is not irresistible. It only
invites
, and
may suffice
rather than “will suffice.” The Protestant belief in conditional election and resistable grace is called Arminianism, after the Dutchman Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609), who tried to introduce free will into Calvin’s deterministic theology.

189.
stony hearts
: See Ezek. 11.19.

197.
persisting
: remaining steadfast;
safe arrive:
attain salvation in the end.

200–202.
In
CD
1.8, Milton argues that when God blinds or hardens a sinner, “he is not the cause of sin” (
MLM
1213).

204.
fealty
: allegiance.

208.
sacred and devote
: absolutely doomed; the words are near synonyms, with
sacred
meaning “dedicated to a deity for destruction” and
devote
meaning “given to destruction as by a vow.”

212.
The idea that the Atonement satisfied justice originated with Anselm’s
Cur Deus Homo
1.11–16, 19–21.

215.
just
: in that he is “able” and “willing” to “pay / The rigid satisfaction, death for death” (ll. 211–12). 219.
Patron:
advocate.

221.
ransom set
: put down the ransom price, which is a life. 224.
doom:
judgment.

226.
mediation
: One of the Son’s traditional titles is mediator between God and man (and in Milton’s poem, between God and angel as well).

231.
unprevented
: unanticipated (that is to say, not prayed for).

233.
dead in sins
: See Col. 2.13.

234.
meet
: adequate.

236–38.
me … me … me … me:
The self-emphasis of the repetition is perhaps balanced by the humility of
me
being in all four cases an unstressed syllable.
Me
is both repeated and stressed in the battlefield oration of 6.812–18.

241.
on me
: Here at last
me
occurs in the stressed position (see previous note);
wreck:
give vent to.

244.
Cp. John 5.26.

247–49.
“Thou will not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” (Ps. 16.10).

253.
his mortal sting disarmed
: 1 Cor. 15.55: “O death, where is thy sting?” See 12.432.

255.
maugre
: in spite of;
show:
to the Father.

258.
ruin
: hurl down.

259.
Death last
: 1 Cor. 15.26: “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”
glut the grave:
gratify to the full the appetite of the grave. For the commonplace metaphor of the hungry grave, see Shakespeare’s
ROM
5.3.45–48.

270.
attends
: awaits.

271.
Admiration
: wonder.

276.
complacence
: pleasure.

281–82.
“Therefore join your nature to the nature of those whom only you can redeem.”

285.
room
: place, stead.

287–88.
“As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15.22).

290–91.
thy merit/Imputed:
Christ’s merit is imputed, “attributed vicariously,” to saved human beings. Cp. 12.407–10;
CD
1.22.

299.
Giving
: submitting.