Me1 though just right, and the fix'd laws of Heaven, Did first create your leader; next, free choice, With what besides in counsel or in fight Hath been achiev'd of merit; yet this loss Thus far at least recover'd, hath much more Establish'd in a safe unenvied throne,
Yielded with full consent. The happier state In Heaven, which follows dignity, might draw Envy from each inferior; but who here Will envy whom the highest place exposes Foremost to stand against the Thunderer's aim, Your bulwark, and condemns to greatest share Of endless pain? Where there is then no good For which to strive, no strife can grow up there2 From faction; for none sure will claim in Hell Precedence, none3 whose portion is so small Of present pain, that with ambitious mind Will covet more. With this advantage then To union, and firm faith, and firm accord, More than can be in Heaven, we now return To claim our just inheritance of old, Surer to prosper than prosperity
Could have assur'd us; and, by what best way, Whether of open war, or covert guile,
We now debate; who can advise, may speak."
SPEECH OF BELIAL IN THE DEBATE.
Belial, in act more graceful and humane : A fairer person lost not Heaven; he seem'd For dignity compos'd, and high exploit: But all was false and hollow; though his tongue Dropt manna, and could make the worse appear The better reason,5 to perplex and dash Maturest counsels: for his thoughts were low; To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds Tim'rous and slothful: yet he pleas'd the ear, And with persuasive accent thus began:
"I should be much for open war, O peers, As not behind in hate; if what was urg'd,
1 Compare the compact and classical composition of this sentence with that in Book i. "Him the Almighty power," &c.-See p. 192.
2 The placing of the relative clause first is a classical construction, often productive of great force and beauty.
3 The second none requires another verb than shall claim: this species of zeugma is a favourite with Milton.
4 See note 5, p. 197. These introductory lines have been admired for "the justness of the thought, and the propriety of the expression, the art of the composition, and the variety of the versification."-Monboddo.
5 Word for word from the known profession of the ancient sophists."-Bentley. See Aristoph. Nub. 98, 99, and 112-115.
Main reason to persuade immediate war, Did not dissuade me most, and seem to cast Ominous conjecture1 on the whole success; When he, who most excels in fact of arms, In what he counsels, and in what excels, Mistrustful, grounds his courage on despair And utter dissolution, as the scope
Of all his aim, after some dire revenge.
First, what revenge? The towers of Heaven are fill'd With armed watch, that render all access Impregnable: oft on the bordering deep Encamp their legions; or, with obscure wing, Scout far and wide into the realm of night, Scorning surprise. Or could we break our way By force, and at our heels all Hell should rise With blackest insurrection, to confound Heaven's purest light: yet our great enemy, All incorruptible, would on his throne Sit unpolluted; and the ethereal mould," Incapable of stain, would soon expel Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire, Victorious. Thus repuls'd, our final hope Is flat despair: we must exasperate The almighty victor to spend all his rage, And that must end us; that must be our cure, To be no more. Sad cure! for who would lose, Though full of pain, this intellectual being," Those thoughts that wander through eternity, To perish rather, swallow'd up and lost In the wide womb of uncreated night,
Devoid of sense and motion? And who knows, Let this be good, whether our angry foe Can give it, or will ever? how he can, Is doubtful; that he never will, is sure. Will he, so wise, let loose at once his ire, Belike through impotence, or unaware, To give his enemies their wish, and end Them in his anger, whom his anger saves To punish endless? Wherefore cease we then? Say they who counsel war, we are decreed, Reserv'd, and destin'd to eternal woe; Whatever doing, what can we suffer more, What can we suffer worse? Is this then worst, Thus sitting, thus consulting, thus in arms?
2 In the literal Latin sense, deed or achievement.
3 From imprenable (French); prehendere (Lat.); not to be taken: the verb impreg nate is from in-prægnans (Lat.)
4Alluding to Moloch's threat of mingling the divine throne with Tartarean sulphu ́. Book ii 69. 5 Soil.
Compare Gray's Elegy in a country churchyard-" For who to dumb forgetfulness," 7 Want of control over his wrath.
What, when we fled amain, pursued, and struck With Heaven's afflicting thunder, and besought The deep to shelter us!-this Hell then seem'd A refuge from those wounds; or when we lay Chain'd on the burning lake !-that sure was worse. What if the breath, that kindled those grim fires, Awak'd, should blow them into sevenfold rage, And plunge us in the flames? or, from above, Should intermitted vengeance arm again His red1 right hand to plague us? What if all Her stores were opened, and this firmament Of Hell should spout her cataracts of fire, Impendent horrors, threatening hideous fall One day upon our heads; while we perhaps, Designing or exhorting glorious war, Caught in a fiery tempest shall be hurl'd Each on his rock transfix'd, the sport and prey Of wrackings whirlwinds; or for ever sunk Under yon boiling ocean, wrapt in chains; There to converse with everlasting groans, Unrespited, unpitied, unrepriev'd,
Ages of hopeless end? This would be worse. War, therefore, open or conceal'd, alike
My voice dissuades; for what can force or guile
With him, or who deceive his mind, whose eye
Views all things at one view? He from Heaven's height
All these our motions vain sees, and derides;5
Not more almighty to resist our might
Than wise to frustrate all our plots and wiles.
Shall we then live thus vile, the race of Heaven
Thus trampled, thus expell'd to suffer here
Chains and these torments? better these than worse, By my advice; since fate inevitable
Subdues us, and omnipotent decree, The victor's will. To suffer, as to do," Our strength is equal, nor the law unjust That so ordains: this was at first resolv'd, If we were wise, against so great a foe Contending, and so doubtful what might fall. I laugh, when those who at the spear are bold And venturous, if that fail them, shrink and fear What yet they know must follow, to endure Exile, or ignominy, or bonds, or pain,
1 Red, from the lightning being its weapon, or alluding perhaps to Is. Ixiii, 1—4. 2 Compare Aen. i. 45.
In etymology the same with rack, wreck, wreak; "Blow wind, come wrack."Macbeth, see p. 106.
The auxiliaries are sometimes used in their generic sense without specific verbs. 5 Psalm ii. 4.
Absolute qualities are sometimes compared for poetical effect. So Milman-" Almighty to avenge, almightiest to redeem." Fall of Jerusalem, (concluding line.) Compare Satan's expression, Book i. 158.
The sentence of their conqueror: this is now Our doom; which if we can sustain and bear, Our supreme foe in time may much remit His anger; and perhaps, thus far remov'd, Not mind us not offending, satisfied
With what is punish'd; whence these raging fires Will slacken, if his breath stir not their flames. Our purer essence then will overcome Their noxious vapour; or, inur'd, not feel; Or, chang'd at length, and to the place conform'd In temper and in nature, will receive
Familiar the fierce heat, and void of pain; This horror will grow mild, this darkness light; Besides what hope the never-ending flight
Of future days may bring, what chance, what change Worth waiting; since our present lot appears For happy, though but ill, for ill, not worst, If we procure not to ourselves more woe."
Thus Belial, with words cloth'd in reason's garb, Counsell'd ignoble ease, and peaceful sloth.
SATAN, IN HIS EXPEDITION TO THE UPPER WORLD, MEETS SIN AND DEATH.
MEANWHILE, the adversary of God and man, Satan, with thoughts inflam'd of highest design, Puts on swift wings, and towards the gates of Hell Explores his solitary flight: sometimes
He scours the right hand coast, sometimes the left; Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars Up to the fiery concave towering high. As, when far off at sea, a fleet descried Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds Close sailing from Bengala, or the isles
Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring Their spicy drugs; they, on the trading flood, Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape,
Ply stemming nighly toward the pole : so seem'd
Far off the flying fiend. At last appear
Hell bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof,
And thrice threefold the gates; three folds were brass,
Three iron, three of adamantine rock
Impenetrable, impal'd with circling fire,
Yet unconsum'd. Before the gates there sat On either side a formidable shape;4
1 For, viewed as: the meanings of this preposition are subtle and various. The name Satan implies adversary, as does fiend.
For the theory of this simile's construction, see note 8, p. 192.
4 The critics find fault with the introduction of the abstractions Sin and Death as personages in an epic poem. Whether this objection be true or not, the episode, viewed as a separate poem, is a noble allegory. For its interpretation, see James i. 15.
The one seem'd woman to the waist and fair; But ended foul in many a scaly fold Voluminous and vast; a serpent arm'd
With mortal sting: About her middle round A cry of Hell-hounds, never ceasing, bark'd With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung A hideous peal; yet, when they list,1 would creep, If aught disturb'd their noise, into her womb, And kennel there; yet there still bark'd and howl'd, Within unseen. Far less abhorr'd2 than these Vex'd Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore :3 Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when, call'd In secret, riding through the air she comes, Lur'd with the smell of infant blood, to dance With Lapland witches, while the labouring Moon Eclipses at their charms. The other shape, If shape it might be call'd that shape had none Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb; Or substance might be call'd that shadow seem'd, For each seem'd either: black it stood as night, Fierce as ten furies, terrible as Hell,
And shook a dreadful dart; what seem'd his head The likeness of a kingly crown had on.5 Satan was now at hand, and from his seat The monster moving onward came as fast With horrid strides; Hell trembled as he strode. The undaunted fiend what this might be admir'd, Admir'd, not fear'd; God and his Son except, Created thing naught valued he, nor shunn'd; And with disdainful look thus first began:
"Whence and what art thou, execrable shape, That dar'st, though grim and terrible, advance Thy miscreated' front athwart my way To yonder gates? through them I mean to pass, That be assur'd, without leave ask'd of thee: Retire, or taste thy folly, and learn by proof Hell-born, not to contend with spirits of Heaven." To whom the goblin full of wrath replied:
"Art thou that traitor-angel, art thou he,
1 Chose; see note 3, p. 199.
2 Supple monsters; see Hom. Od. xii. 85; Ovid, Met. xiv. 51-67. "Cerberean mouths" is taken from the latter passage.
3 Sicily is called Trinacria from the three capes formed by its triangular shape. 4 Here is a mixture of classical and demonological learning. Compare Eschylus, Eumenid. 246, ed. Schutz; and Wierus, de Lamlis, 4to, 1582, Coll. 240, 241.-Todd. "The ancients believed the moon greatly affected by magical practices; and the Latin poets call the eclipses of the moon labores lunæ.'"-Richardson
$ Death is the most successful of Milton's personifications of abstract ideas. This species of grammatical or rather logical error occurs more than once in Milton. Miscreated and misbegotten are applied to physical attributes; miscreant is always applied to moral attributes. The figure synalpha occurs frequently in Milton's versification; it is not uncommon also in Chaucer. If the vowel be retained in pronunciation it gives a freedom and liveliness to the rhythm.
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