Who first broke peace in Heaven, and faith, till then Unbroken; and in prond rebellious arms
Drew after him the third part of Heaven's sons Conjur'd' against the Highest; for which both thou And they, outcast from God, are here condemn'd To waste eternal days in woe and pain?
And reckon'st thou thyself with spirits of Heaven, Hell-doom'd, and breath'st defiance here and scorn, Where I reign king, and, to enrage thee more, Thy king and lord? Back to thy punishment, False fugitive, and to thy speed add wings, Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue
Thy lingering, or with one stroke of this dart Strange horror seize thee,2 and pangs unfelt before." So spake the grisly terror, and in shape, So speaking and so threatening, grew tenfold More dreadful and deform. On the other side, Incens'd with indignation, Satan stood Unterrified, and like a comet burn'd, That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge In the arctic sky, and from his horrid hair Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head Levell'd his deadly aim; their fatal hands No second stroke intend; and such a frown Each cast at the other, as when two black clouds, With Heaven's artillery fraught, come rattling on Over the Caspian," then stand front to front, Hovering a space, till winds the signal blow To join their dark encounter in mid air: So frown'd the mighty combatants, that Hell
Grew darker at their frown; so match'd they stood; For never but once more was either like
To meet so great a foe:8 and now great deeds Had been achiev'd, whereof all Hell had rung,
Had not the snaky sorceress, that sat
Fast by Hell-gate, and kept the fatal key, Ris'n, and with hideous outcry rush'd between.
From her side the fatal key,
Sad instrument of all our woe, she took;
And, towards the gate rolling her bestial train, Forthwith the huge portcullis high up drew, Which but herself, not all the Stygian powers Could once have mov'd; then in the key-hole turns
1 Used in its Latin sense of Conspired. See note 7, p. 35.
An English form of the Latin adjective “deformis.” Or Serpentarius, the serpent-bearer, a conspicuous constellation in the northern he misphere.
Besides the circumstance that the Caspian is remarkable for its storms, the localization of the simile gives it distinctness and force.
7 Johnson has turned this splendid thought against Milton himself" Such is his malignity, that hell grows darker at his frown." 8 The Messiah.
The intricate wards, and every bolt and bar Of massy iron or solid rock with ease Unfastens. On a sudden open fly,
With impetuous recoil and jarring sound, The infernal doors, and on their hinges grate Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook Of Erebus.1 She open'd, but to shut
Excell'd her power; the gates wide open stood, That with extended wings a banner'd host, Under spread ensigns marching, might pass through With horse and chariots rank'd in loose array; So wide they stood, and like a furnace mouth Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame. Before their eyes in sudden view appear The secrets of the hoary deep; a dark Illimitable ocean, without bound,
Without dimension, where length, breadth, and height, And time, and place, are lost; where eldest Night And Chaos, ancestors of Nature,3 hold
Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise
Of endless wars, and by confusion stand.
For Hot, Cold, Moist, and Dry, four champions fierce, Strive here for mastery, and to battle bring
Their embyron5 atoms; they around the flag Of each his faction, in their several clans,
Light-arm'd or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift, or slow." Swarm populous, unnumber'd as the sands
Of Barca or Cyrene's torrid soil,
Levied to side with warring winds, and poise
Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere, He rules a moment: Chaos umpire sits, And by decision more embroils the fray, By which he reigns: next him high arbiter Chance governs all. Into this wild abyss, The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave,? Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire, But all these in their pregnant causes mix'd Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight, Unless the Almighty Maker them ordain His dark materials to create more worlds; Into this wild abyss the wary fiend
Stood on the brink of Hell, and look'd a while, Pondering his voyage: for no narrow frith
1 These lines have been noticed as an admirable example of the figure echo to the
2 Milton's pleonasms are never merely tautological; they are pregnant with imagery. 3 See Hesiod's Theogony, 116;-Keightley, 41. See Ovid's Chaos, Met. i. 7—20.
5 Original, and productive of future forms.
This atomic philosophy is that of Epicurus and Lucretius.
The theory of a succession of worlds by alternate destruction and reproduction is a favourite both with poetry and science; and, possibly, is sanctioned by revelation.
Hail, holy Light, offspring of Heaven, first-born, Or of the Eternal coeternal beam,
May I express thee unblam'd?1 since God is light, And never but in unapproached light
Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee, Bright effluence of bright essence increate. Or hear'st thou rather, pure etherial stream,2 Whose fountain who shall tell? Before the Sun, Before the Heavens thou wert, and at the voice Of God, as with a mantle, didst invest The rising world of waters dark and deep, Won from the void and formless infinite. Thee I revisit now with bolder wing,
Escap'd the Stygian pool, though long detain'd In that obscure sojourn, while, in my flight, Through utter and through middle darkness borne, With other notes than to the Orphéan lyre, I sung of Chaos and eternal Night;
Taught by the heavenly Muse to venture down The dark descent, and up to re-ascend, Though hard and rare: thee I revisit safe, And feel thy sovran vital lamp: but thou Revisit'st not these eyes, that roll in vain To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn; So thick a drop serenes hath quench'd their orbs, Or dim suffusion veil'd. Yet not the more Cease I to wander, where the Muses haunt Clear spring, or shady grove, or sunny hill,9 Smit with the love of sacred song; but chief Thee, Sion, and the flowery brooks beneath, That wash thy hallow'd feet, and warbling flow, Nightly I visit:10 nor sometimes forget Those other two, equall'd with me in fate So were I equall'd with them in renown, Blind Thamyris, and blind Mæonides,
And Tiresias, and Phineus,11 prophets old:
1 Viz. for presumption. "God is light."-1 John i. 5.
2 He addresses light first as an essential attribute of Deity; then as a physical substance evoked into existence by the Divine power. See Job xxxviii. 19.
He applies the same epithet to the Dead Sea; "Asphaltic pool." Book i. 411.— See p. 195. 5 Utter darkness, Hell; middle darkness, Chaos. 6 Orpheus visited the infernal regions to regain his wife Eurydice. Virg. Aen. vi. 129.
See note 3, p. 191. "Almost all the mountains, grots, and wells from which they (the Muses) have derived their appellations are in Macedonia, Thessaly, or Beotia (Aonia). Such are Pimpla, Pindus, Helicon, Hippocrene. Aganippe, Leibethron, Parnassus, Castalia, and the Corycian cave."-Keightley's Mythology, pp. 147, 148.
19 From his youth Milton loved above all inspiration that of the poetry of the Bible."Flowery brooks,"-Kedron and Siloam.
Thamyris, a Thracian poet, struck blind by the Muses for presumption in rivalling
Then feed on thoughts, that voluntary move Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird Sings darkling,1 and in shadiest covert hid, Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year Seasons return; but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;2 But cloud instead, and ever-during dark Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair Presented with a universal blank
Of Nature's works, to me expung'd and ras'd, And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out. So much the rather thou, celestial Light,
Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers Irradiate: there plant eyes, all mist from thence Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell Of things invisible to mortal sight.3
THE ANGELIC WORSHIP.
No sooner had the Almighty ceas'd, but all The multitude of angels, with a shout
Loud as from numbers without number, sweet As from blest voices, uttering joy, Heaven rung With jubilee, and loud Hosannas fill'd
The eternal regions: lowly reverent
Towards either throne they bow, and to the ground With solemn adoration down they cast1
Their crowns inwove with amarant and gold; Immortal amarant, a flower which once
In Paradise, fast by the tree of life,
Began to bloom; but soon for man's offence
To Heav'n removed where first it grew, there grows,
And flowers aloft shading the fount of life,
And where the river of bliss through midst of Heaven Rolls o'er Elysian flowers her amber stream:
them.-I. ii. 594. Mæonides, an appellation of Homer, from Mæonia (Lydia), one of the regions that aspired to the honour of his birth. Tiresias, a celebrated Theban prophet. Phineus, a king of Thrace or Bithynia, struck with blindness for rashly prying into futurity.
1 This is one of Milton's picture words.
2 Compare Sam. Agon. 67-82, 151-163: Compare also the sonnet to Cyriac Skinner"Cyriac, this three years day," &c.
3 This celebrated complaint deserves all the praises which have been given it, though it may rather be looked on as an excrescence than an essential part of the poem." ddison.
From a priv. and maraino (Gr.) I wither; an unfading flower; typical in the lines low of the perpetual youth supposed to have accompanied immortality in our first parents. Adj. amaranthine. The word is also applied to a vivid red colour. Amaranthus occurs in Lycidas; see p. 190. He has Elysian flowers" in L'Allegro, see p. 186.
With these that never fade the spirits elect
Bind their resplendent locks inwreath'd with beams; Now in loose garlands thick thrown off, the bright Pavement, that like a sea of jaspar shone, Impurpled with celestial roses smil'd.
Then, crown'd again, their golden harps they took, Harps ever tun'd, that glittering by their side Like quivers hung, and with preamble sweet Of charming symphony they introduce Their sacred song, and waken raptures high; No voice exempt, no voice but well could join Melodious part, such concord is in Heaven.1
SATAN'S SOLILOQUY ON MOUNT NIPHATES IN SIGHT OF PARADISE. O thou, that, with surpassing glory crown'd, Look'st from thy sole dominion like the God Of this new world; at whose sight all the stars Hide their diminish'd heads; to thee I call, But with no friendly voice, and add thy name, O Sun! to tell thee how I hate thy beams, That bring to my remembrance from what state I fell; how glorious once above thy sphere, Till pride and worse ambition threw me down Warring in Heaven against Heaven's matchless king: Ah, wherefore! he deserv'd no such return From me, whom he created what I was In that bright eminence, and with his good Upbraided none; nor was his service hard. What could be less than to afford him praise, The easiest recompense, and pay him thanks, How due! yet all his good prov'd ill in me, And wrought but malice; lifted up so high I 'sdain'd subjection, and thought one step higher Would set me highest, and in a moment quit The debt immense of endless gratitude, So burthensome still paying, still to owe; Forgetful what from him I still receiv'd, And understood not that a grateful mind By owing owes not, but still pays, at once Indebted and discharg'd; what burthen then? O had his powerful destiny ordain'd Me some inferior angel, I had stood
Then happy; no unbounded hope had rais'd
The Apocalypse supplies the scenery of this passage.
2 "Compare the opening speech in the Phænisse of Euripides; where Porson has remarked, that Milton had once intended to have written a tragedy, not an epic, and to have commenced it with this address to the sun."- Brydges. Porson's remark was made on the authority of Edward Philips, quoted by Sir E. Brydges.
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