Paradise Lost (Modern Library Classics) (73 page)

457.
fact
: crime.

469.
his grim cave
: Cp. the cave to the underworld in
Aen
. 6.237, 273–94.

479.
lazar-house
: hospital for those with infectious diseases, especially the dreaded leprosy;
lazar
comes from the name of the beggar in Luke 16.20. There were a number of lazar houses in England (Wilson 1963, 81).

481.
qualms
: faintings.

485–87.
These lines were added in 1674.

487.
Marasmus
: consumption.

488.
Dropsies
: morbid retentions of fluid;
rheums:
mucous discharges.

496.
Though not of woman born
: Although the phrasing evokes
MAC
4.1.80 and 5.3.13, Milton draws on Shakespeare’s association between a man’s tears and his internalized mother in
H5
4.6.30–32 and
TN
2.1.35–38.

497.
best of man
: manliness, normally impervious to tears. But Milton’s Adam, apparently no exponent of tearless masculinity, weeps on his own here, and at lines 675, 754–58, and 12.372–73; Eve weeps on her own at 5.130–35, 9.990–91, and 10.910; they cry together at 9.1121, 10.1101–2, and 12.645.

502–507.
Better … peace:
A commonplace of both classical literature (Sophocles,
Oedipus at Colonus
1224–26; Theognis of Megara,
Maxims
, 425–28; Seneca
, Ad Marciam: De Consolatione
22.3) and Renaissance literature (
2H4
3.1.45–56; Jonson, “To the Immortal Memory … Sir. Lucius Cary and Sir H. Morison,” 1–20).

519.
Inductive
: traceable.

531.
The rule of
not too much:
“Nothing too much” was inscribed on the temple of Apollo at Delphi (Plato,
Protagoras
343B; see also Aristotle,
Nichomachean Ethics
2.2.16).

535–37.
The comparison stems from Cicero,
De Senectute
19; cp. Donne, “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning”: “As virtuous men pass mildly away.…”

544.
damp
: Cp. 293; 9.45.

551–52.
The first edition had only one line here: “Of rend’ring up. Michael to him replied.”

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
int
o
“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.

As one
¹
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 stock
⁷
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 relate
¹¹
,

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 rise
²⁴

Of proud ambitious heart, who not content

With fair equality, fraternal state,

Will arrogate dominion
²⁷
undeserved

Over his brethren, and quite dispossess

Concord and law of nature from the Earth;

Hunting
³⁰
(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 despite
³⁴
of Heav’n,

Or from Heav’n claiming second sov’reignty;

And from
³⁶
rebellion shall derive his name,

Though of rebellion others he accuse.

He with
³⁸
a crew, whom like ambition joins

With him or under him to tyrannize,

Marching from Eden towards the west, shall find

The plain
⁴¹
, 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 derision
⁵²
sets

Upon their tongues a various spirit to raze
⁵³

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 hubbub
⁶⁰
strange

And hear the din; thus was the building left

Ridiculous, and the work Confusion named
⁶²
.”

   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 liberty
⁸²
; yet know withal,

Since thy original lapse, true liberty

Is lost, which always with right reason
⁸⁴
dwells

Twinned, and from her hath no dividual
⁸⁵
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 curse
¹⁰³
,

‘Servant of servants,’ on his vicious race
¹⁰⁴
.

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 nation
¹¹¹
to select

From all the rest, of whom to be invoked,

A nation from one faithful man
¹¹³
to spring:

Him on this side Euphrates yet residing,

Bred up in idol-worship
¹¹⁵
; O that men

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

While yet the patriarch
¹¹⁷
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

Ur
¹³⁰
of Chaldea, passing now the ford

To Haran
¹³¹
, after him a cumbrous train

Of herds and flocks, and numerous servitude
¹³²
;

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 Sechem
¹³⁶
, and the neighboring plain

Of Moreh; there by promise he receives

Gift to his progeny of all that land;

From Hamath
¹³⁹
northward to the desert south

(Things by their names I call
¹⁴⁰
, 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 son
¹⁵³
, 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 son
¹⁶⁰

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 to
¹⁶⁵
a sequent king, who seeks

To stop their overgrowth
¹⁶⁶
, 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 denies
¹⁷³

To know their God, or message to regard,

Must be compelled by signs and judgments dire
¹⁷⁵
;

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 murrain
¹⁷⁹
die,

Botches
¹⁸⁰
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 th’ 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 darkness
¹⁸⁸
, 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 defends
²⁰⁷
between till morning watch;

Then through the fiery pillar and the cloud

God looking forth will trouble all his host

And craze
²¹⁰
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 war
²¹⁴
: the race elect

Safe towards Canaan from the shore advance

Through the wild desert, not the readiest way
²¹⁶
,

Lest ent’ring on the Canaanite alarmed
²¹⁷

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 senate
²²⁵
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 types
²³²

And shadows, of that destined seed to bruise

The serpent, by what means he shall achieve

Mankind’s deliverance. But the voice of God

To mortal ear is dreadful; they beseech

That Moses might report to them his will,

And terror cease; he grants what they besought

Instructed that to God is no access

Without mediator, whose high office now

Moses in figure bears
²⁴¹
, to introduce

One greater, of whose day he shall foretell,

And all the prophets in their age the times

Of great Messiah shall sing. Thus laws and rites

Established, such delight hath God in men

Obedient to his will, that he vouchsafes

Among them to set up his tabernacle
²⁴⁷
,

The Holy One with mortal men to dwell:

By his prescript a sanctuary is framed

Of cedar, overlaid with gold, therein

An ark, and in the ark his testimony,

The records of his cov’nant, over these

A mercy-seat of gold between the wings

Of two bright Cherubim; before him burn