Paradise Lost (Modern Library Classics) (52 page)

Rising, the crumbled earth above them threw

In hillocks; the swift stag from under ground

Bore up his branching head: scarce from his mold

Behemoth
⁴⁷¹
biggest born of earth upheaved

His vastness: fleeced the flocks and bleating rose,

As plants: ambiguous between sea and land

The river horse
⁴⁷⁴
and scaly crocodile.

At once came forth whatever creeps the ground,

Insect or worm
⁴⁷⁶
; those waved their limber fans

For wings, and smallest lineaments exact

In all the liveries decked of summer’s pride

With spots of gold and purple, azure and green:

These as a line their long dimension drew,

Streaking the ground with sinuous trace; not all

Minims
⁴⁸²
of nature; some of serpent kind

Wondrous in length and corpulence involved
⁴⁸³

Their snaky folds, and added wings. First crept

The parsimonious emmet
⁴⁸⁵
, provident

Of future, in small room large heart
⁴⁸⁶
enclosed,

Pattern
⁴⁸⁷
of just equality perhaps

Hereafter, joined in her popular tribes
⁴⁶⁵

Of commonalty: swarming next appeared

The female bee
⁴⁹⁰
that feeds her husband drone

Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells

With honey stored: the rest are numberless,

And thou their natures know’st, and gav’st them names
⁴⁹³
,

Needless to thee repeated; nor unknown

The serpent subtlest beast of all the field,

Of huge extent sometimes, with brazen eyes

And hairy main
⁴⁹⁷
terrific, though to thee

Not noxious
⁴⁹⁸
, but obedient at thy call.

Now heav’n in all her glory shone, and rolled

Her motions, as the great First Mover’s hand

First wheeled their course; Earth in her rich attire

Consummate lovely smiled; air, water, earth,

By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swum, was walked

Frequent
⁵⁰⁴
; and of the sixth day yet remained;

There wanted yet the master work, the end
⁵⁰⁵

Of all yet done; a creature who not prone

And brute as other creatures, but endued

With sanctity of reason, might
⁵⁰⁸
erect

His stature, and upright with front
⁵⁰⁹
serene

Govern the rest, self-knowing
⁵¹⁰
, and from thence

Magnanimous
⁵¹¹
to correspond with Heav’n,

But grateful to acknowledge whence his good

Descends, thither with heart and voice and eyes

Directed in devotion, to adore

And worship God supreme, who made him chief

Of all his works: therefore th’ omnipotent

Eternal Father (for where is not he

Present) thus to his Son audibly spake.

   “ ‘Let us make
⁵¹⁹
now man in our image, man

In our similitude, and let them rule

Over the fish and fowl of sea and air,

Beast of the field, and over all the earth,

And every creeping thing that creeps the ground.’

This said, he formed thee, Adam, thee O man

Dust of the ground, and in thy nostrils breathed

The breath of life; in his own image he

Created thee, in the image of God

Express
⁵²⁸
, and thou becam’st a living soul.

Male he created thee, but thy consort

Female for race; then blessed mankind
⁵³⁰
, and said,

‘Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the Earth,

Subdue it, and throughout dominion hold

Over fish of the sea, and fowl of the air,

And every living thing that moves on the Earth.’

Wherever thus created, for no place

Is yet distinct by name, thence, as thou know’st

He brought thee into this delicious
⁵³⁷
grove,

This garden, planted with the trees of God,

Delectable both to behold and taste;

And freely all their pleasant fruit for food

Gave thee, all sorts are here that all th’ Earth yields,

Variety without end; but of the tree

Which tasted works knowledge of good and evil,

Thou may’st not; in the day thou eat’st, thou di’st;

Death is the penalty imposed, beware,

And govern well thy appetite, lest Sin

Surprise thee, and her black attendant Death.

Here finished he, and all that he had made

Viewed, and behold all was entirely good;

So ev’n and morn accomplished the sixth day:

Yet not till the Creator from his work

Desisting, though unwearied
⁵⁵²
, up returned

Up to the Heav’n of Heav’ns his high abode,

Thence to behold this new created world

Th’ addition of his empire, how it showed

In prospect from his throne, how good, how fair,

Answering his great idea
⁵⁵⁷
. Up he rode

Followed with acclamation and the sound

Symphonious
⁵⁵⁹
of ten thousand harps that tuned

Angelic harmonies: the Earth, the air

Resounded, (thou remember’st, for thou heard’st)

The heav’ns and all the constellations rung,

The planets in their stations list’ning stood,

While the bright pomp
⁵⁶⁴
ascended jubilant.

‘Open, ye everlasting gates,’ they sung,
⁵⁶⁵

‘Open, ye Heav’ns, your living doors; let in

The great Creator from his work returned

Magnificent, his six days’ work, a world;

Open, and henceforth oft; for
⁵⁶⁹
God will deign

To visit oft the dwellings of just men

Delighted, and with frequent intercourse

Thither will send his wingèd messengers

On errands of supernal grace.’ So sung

The glorious train ascending: he through Heav’n,

That opened wide her blazing portals, led

To God’s eternal house direct the way,

A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold

And pavement stars, as stars to thee appear,

Seen in the galaxy, that Milky Way
⁵⁷⁹

Which nightly as a circling zone thou seest

Powdered with stars. And now on Earth the seventh

Ev’ning arose in Eden, for the sun

Was set, and twilight from the east came on,

Forerunning night; when at the holy mount

Of Heav’n’s high-seated top, th’ imperial throne

Of Godhead, fixed forever firm and sure,

The Filial Power arrived, and sat him down

With his
⁵⁸⁸
great Father, for he also went

Invisible, yet stayed (such privilege

Hath omnipresence) and the work ordained,

Author and end of all things, and from work

Now resting, blessed and hallowed the sev’nth day,

As resting on that day from all his work,

But not in silence holy kept
⁵⁹⁴
; the harp

Had work and rested not, the solemn pipe,

And dulcimer
⁵⁹⁶
, all organs of sweet stop,

All sounds on fret
⁵⁹⁷
by string or golden wire

Tempered soft tunings, intermixed with voice

Choral or unison
⁵⁹⁹
: of incense clouds

Fuming from golden censers hid the mount.

Creation and the six days’ acts they sung,

‘Great are thy works, Jehovah, infinite

Thy power; what thought can measure thee or tongue

Relate thee; greater now in thy return

Than from the giant angels
⁶⁰⁵
; thee that day

Thy thunders magnified; but
⁶⁰⁶
to create

Is greater than created to destroy.

Who can impair thee, mighty king, or bound

Thy empire? Easily the proud attempt

Of spirits apostate and their counsels vain

Thou hast repelled, while impiously they thought

Thee to diminish, and from thee withdraw

The number of thy worshippers. Who seeks

To lessen thee, against his purpose serves

To manifest the more thy might: his evil

Thou usest, and from thence creat’st more good.

Witness this new-made world, another Heav’n

From Heaven gate not far, founded in view

On the clear hyaline
⁶¹⁹
, the glassy sea;

Of amplitude almost immense, with stars

Numerous, and every star perhaps a world
⁶²¹

Of destined habitation
⁶²¹
; but thou know’st
⁶²²

Their seasons
⁶²²
: among these the seat of men,

Earth with her nether ocean
⁶²⁴
circumfused,

Their pleasant dwelling place. Thrice happy men,

And sons of men, whom God hath thus advanced,

Created in his image, there to dwell

And worship him, and in reward to rule
⁶²⁸

Over his works
⁶²⁸
, on earth, in sea, or air,

And multiply a race of worshippers

Holy and just: thrice happy if they know
⁶³¹

Their happiness
⁶³¹
, and persevere
⁶³²
upright.’

   “So sung they, and the empyrean rung,

With hallelujahs: thus was Sabbath kept.

And thy request think now fulfilled, that asked

How first this world and face of things
⁶³⁶
began,

And what before thy memory was done

From the beginning, that posterity

Informed by thee might know; if else thou seek’st

Aught, not surpassing human measure, say.”

1.
Descend from Heav’n
: evoking Horace’s
descende caelo … Calliope
(
Odes
4.1.2);
Urania:
the Muse of astronomy in Roman times, but transformed into the Muse of Christian poetry by du Bartas in
La Muse Chrestiene
(1574).

3.
above th’ Olympian hill
: Cp. 1.15.

4.
Pegasean wing
: The winged horse Pegasus ascended to the heavens of Greek mythology, but Milton has risen incomparably higher, to the Heaven of the Christian God.

5.
The meaning, not the name
:
Urania
means “heavenly one” in Latin, but Milton calls upon a power found in the Christian Heaven.

9.
Wisdom
: Wisdom was born “before the hills,” before all Creation, in Prov. 8.24–31. Milton identified her as a personification of the Father’s wisdom (
CD
1.7 in
MLM
1199).
converse:
live in company with (Lat.
conversari
).

13.
Heav’n of Heav’ns
: the supreme Heaven (an English version of the Hebrew superlative).

15.
Thy temp’ring
: “made suitable by thee for an earthly guest.”

17–20.
Milton defines his hapless condition without the Muse’s aid by reference to the fate of
Bellerophon
, who tried unsuccessfully to ride Pegasus (see l. 4) to heaven and fell upon the
Aleian field
(
land
of wandering), where he died
erroneous
(i.e., in a state of distraction). According to some, his fall blinded him (Conti,
Mythologiae
9.4).

18.
clime
: region.

21–22.
Save for episodes in Books 10 and 11, the remaining action of the poem takes place on Earth.

22.
visible diurnal sphere
: the visible universe, which appears to rotate around the Earth on a daily basis.

23.
rapt
: transported;
pole:
the highest spot in the universe, at which it is chained to Heaven (2.1051–52). Milton went
above the pole when
representing the divine council at the opening of Book 3.

25.
hoarse
: In
RCG
, Milton ruefully noted that pamphlets were “a troubled sea of noises and hoarse disputes” (
MLM
. 843).
mute:
probably alludes to the silencing of many Puritan authors during the Restoration. Milton’s point is that his poem has suffered neither of the common fates (becoming
hoarse or mute
) of Puritan pamphleteers.
evil days:
After the restoration of the English monarchy in May 1660, an order was issued for Milton’s arrest. He was in fact arrested after hiding out for some weeks, and released in December. During this time some of his books were burned.

26.
evil tongues
: Among the many authors who reviled Milton during the Restoration were Roger L’Estrange, George Starkey, David Lloyd, Thomas Ford, Robert South, and Samuel Parker.

27.
darkness
: blindness, from which Milton had suffered since 1652.

28–30.
while thou … east:
Biographers report that Milton composed either at night or early in the morning (Darbishire 33, 291). Cp. 3.29–32; 9.21–24.

32.
barbarous dissonance
: The phrase also appears in
Masque
(l. 550).

33–37.
the race … voice:
The poet Orpheus was torn to pieces by the Maenads, female followers of Bacchus, after he rejected the love of women. His mother, the epic Muse Calliope, could not save him, as Milton also stresses in
Lyc
58–63. But Urania, a higher Muse, can protect her inspired poet.

46.
touch
: “Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die” (Gen. 3.3); cp. 9.651.

47.
sole command
: The singularity of the commandment has already been stressed (1.32; 4.421, 423–24, 428).

50.
wand’ring
: innocently curious wandering at this point, but the word does have the fallen sense of “going astray, losing one’s moral bearings,” as perhaps in line 20.
consorted:
espoused.

52.
admiration
: wonder;
muse:
meditation.

57.
redounded
: recoiled.

59.
repealed
: recalled.

63.
conspicuous
: visible.

72.
Divine interpreter
: “Mercury, who is the president of language, is called
deorum hominumque interpres
” (Jonson,
Discoveries
, in Herford et al. 8:621). Raphael is the Christian Mercury. See also 3.656–57.

79.
end
: purpose.

83.
seemed
: seemed good.

85.
avail us known
: prove valuable to us when known.

88.
yields or fills
: Air “yields space to all bodies, and … fills up the deserted space [when the bodies move]” (Richardson).

94.
Absolved
: finished;
unforbid:
unforbidden.

97.
magnify
: glorify. “Remember that thou magnify his work, which men behold” (Job 36.24).

98.
yet wants
: still has to.

99.
suspense
: attentive, hanging.

100.
he hears
: The sun or
great light of day
in line 98 is here personified.

103.
unapparent deep
: no longer perceptible Chaos.

106.
will watch
: will stay awake. Sleep (personified) is the subject of this verb.

107.
his
: Sleep’s.

116.
infer
: render.

120.
Of knowledge within bounds
: On this theme, cp. 8.173–97.

121.
inventions
: speculations;
hope:
hope for.

124.
in Earth or Heaven
: The passage has apparently been calling attention to the bounds on human knowledge, but now we learn that the bounds in question limit angelic knowledge as well.

132.
So call him
: In classical Latin, Lucifer (from Gk. for “light-bringer”) refers to Venus, the morning star. The Christian Fathers called Satan by the name of Lucifer, perhaps in reference to his original brightness. In Milton’s four drafts for a tragedy on the fall of man in the
CMS
, the character is referred to as Lucifer, not Satan. Cp. 5.760, 10.425.

136.
saints
: angels.

143.
fraud
: The word has its usual meaning of dishonesty and deception, but also the sense of Latin
fraus
(crime, injury). Satan not only drew his followers into deceit; he ruined them.

144.
their place knows here no more
: a scriptural idiom (Ps. 101.16, Job 7.10); cp. 11.50–57.

145.
the greater part
: Cp. 2.692n.

146.
station
: post, duty.

150–55.
Empson concludes that God creates us “to spite the devils.” The passage says as much; but God also stresses that the Creation was not necessitated by the defection of the rebel angels.

152.
fondly
: foolishly.

156.
men innumerable
: A finite number of angels were created; they do not reproduce. The breeding race of men, by contrast, is
innumerable
(unnumbered). See Augustine,
City of God
22.1. Thomas Browne wrote of “the fertility of Adam, and the magic of that sperm that hath dilated into so many millions” (
Religio Medici
1.48).

162.
inhabit lax
: “dwell at ease” (having vanquished the rebels) and “dwell at large” (having more of Heaven to yourselves).

165.
The Son creates the world, but using the
Spirit and might of
the Father. This combination of agency and service is typical of Milton’s Arian Christology (see 3.169–72, 384–96; 6.680–83).

168–71.
Boundless … goodness:
The passage is highly compressed. The
deep
(uncreated Chaos) will not be any less
boundless
because of Creation. It is infinite because filled by an infinite God, who can nonetheless, and also with no loss of infinity,
retire
from it.

171.
free
: “In God a certain immutable internal necessity to do good, independent of all outside influence, can be consistent with absolute freedom of action” (
CD
1.3 in
MLM
1155). It is crucial to Milton that God be free to put forth his goodness in Creation, or
not
.

172.
necessity and chance
: a philosophical binary that the Christian God was often said to transcend (Augustine,
City of God
5.1.8–10, on necessity; Boethius,
The Consolation of Philosophy
4.1–2, on chance). In Milton, Chance rules only embryonic atoms (2.907), and necessity is “the tyrant’s plea” (4.394).

173.
what I will is fate
: “Fate
or fatum
is only what is
fatum
, spoken, by some almighty power” (
CD
1.2 in
MLM
1146). Paradoxes would seem to be on the horizon: if God wills our will to be free, then freedom is fate. But Milton tried to keep divine and human freedom at a distance from such dialectical cleverness. Theologically, politically, and aesthetically, liberty was his most cherished concept.

175.
the filial Godhead
: the Son.

176.
Immediate are the acts of God
: Augustine maintained that the six days of Creation in Genesis symbolize one instantaneous act (
De Genesi
1.1–3).

178.
process of speech
: the successive acts that constitute speech.

179.
earthly notion
: human understanding.

180–83.
The passage is based on Job 38.7 and Luke 2.14.

188.
Good out of evil
: remembering 1.162–63 and anticipating 7.613–16 and 12.469–78.

194.
Girt
: armed.

197.
poured
: crowded together; not arranged in an orderly fashion.

200.
armory of God
: “The Lord hath opened his armory” (Jer. 50.25). See 6.321.

201.
Four chariots are seen between two mountains in Zech. 6.1.

202.
Against
: in readiness for.

203–5.
now … Lord:
See the animated chariot of 6.845–50.

205.
opened wide
: Cp. the self-opening gate of 5.254–55, derived from Ps. 24.7.

206.
ever-during
: everlasting.

212.
Outrageous
: immense, unrestrained;
wasteful:
desolate.

217.
omnific
: all-creating. We have replaced the colon at the end of this line in 1667 with a period and sacrificed an effect: as the colon would have suggested,
omnific Word is
the subject of the next syntactical unit’s verbs (
stayed, uplifted, rode
).

224.
fervid
: glowing (from motion).

225.
compasses
: Wisdom declares in Prov. 8:27, “I was there: then he set a compass upon the face of the depth.” Cp. Dante,
Par
. 19.40–42.

226.
circumscribe
: mark out the limits of.

231.
just
: exact.

233.
Matter unformed and void
: “The earth was without form, and void” (Gen. 1.2).

235.
brooding wings
: See 1.20–22.

236.
vital virtue
: the stuff of life.

238.
tartareous
: hellish.

239.
founded
: usually glossed as “laid the foundation,” but Leonard’s “attached” fits the context perfectly. The word has biblical precedent (Ps. 89.11; Prov. 3.19).
conglobed:
gathered into separate spheres.

241.
Disparted
: separated in different directions.

242.
self-balanced
: Cp.
Nat Ode
117–24;
her center:
See 4.1000–1001; 5.578–79.

243–52.
Milton’s version of Gen. 1.3–5.

244.
Since the sun and other heavenly bodies are not created until the fourth day, commentators had somehow to distinguish ordinary celestial light from the light of Gen. 1.3. Milton identifies the primal light with ether, a fifth element (
quintessence
) thought to be ubiquitous above the sphere of the moon.

248.
tabernacle
: dwelling. “He set a tabernacle for the sun” (Ps. 19.4).

252.
ev’n and morn
: The Hebrew day was measured from evening to evening, though the meaning of
evening
was disputed. According to Fowler, “Milton clearly followed Jerome in reckoning from sunset” (Introduction, 30).
Ev’n
here must therefore mean “sunset.”

254.
orient
: bright, eastern.