Love was not in their looks, either to God My voice thou oft hast heard, and hast not fear'd, So dreadful to thee? That thou art naked, who To whom thus Adam sore beset replied: O heaven! in evil strait this day I stand Before my Judge; either to undergo Whose failing, while her faith to me remains, I should conceal, and not expose to blame By my complaint; but strict necessity 115 120 125 130 Subdues me, and calamitous constraint; Lest on my head both sin and punishment, However insupportable, be all Devolved; though, should I hold my peace, yet thou 135 Wouldst easily detect what I conceal. This woman, whom thou mad'st to be my help, And gav'st me as thy perfect gift, so good, So fit, so acceptable, so divine, That from her hand I could suspect no ill; To whom the Sovran Presence thus replied: Thou didst resign thy manhood, and the place 157. In few: That is, in few words. 140 145 150 155 100 Bold or loquacious, thus abash'd replied:. The serpent me beguiled, and I did eat. Which when the Lord God heard, without delay To judgment he proceeded on the accused The guilt on him who made him instrument 165 Concern'd not man, (since he no further knew,) 170 Though in mysterious terms, judged as then best: Because thou hast done this, thou art accursed Above all cattle, each beast of the field: 175 Between thee and the woman I will put Enmity; and between thine and her seed: 180 Her seed shall bruise thy head, thou bruise his heel. When Jesus, son of Mary, second Eve, Saw Satan fall, like lightning, down from heaven, 185 Prince of the air; then, rising from his grave, 190 195 On Adam last thus judgment he pronounced: 2.0 I charged thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat thereof; So judged he man, both Judge and Saviour sent; 169. More to know, &c. That is, it did not concern man to know that the ser 205 pent was but the instrument of the Devil. And the instant stroke of death, denounced that day, 210 Their nakedness with skins of beasts, or slain, In glory, as of old: to him appeased, 215 220 225 All, though all-knowing, what had pass'd with man Meanwhile, ere thus was sinn'd and judged on earth, O son, why sit we here each other viewing For Death from Sin no power can separate. 214. See Phil. ii. 7, and John xiii. 5. 217. Or slain: That is, either slain for sacrifice, or they shed their coats, like snakes, and were repaid with new ones: A notion," says Newton, "which we may presume he borrowed from some commentator, rather than advanced of himself." 230 235 240 245 250 222. Robe of righteousness. Isa. lxi 10. 229. Ere thus was sinn'd. Two impersonals: before man had thus sinned, and God had thus judged him, Sin and Death sat in counterview within the gates of Hell:-Sin thus began. Adventurous work, yet to thy power and mine Over this main from hell to that new world, Whom thus the meagre shadow answer'd soon: 255 260 Go, whither fate, and inclination strong, 265 Leads thee; I shall not lag behind, nor err The way, thou leading; such a scent I draw Of carnage, prey innumerable, and taste The savour of death from all things there that live; 270 So saying, with delight he snuff'd the smell Where armies lie encamp'd, come flying, lured For death, the following day, in bloody fight: Sagacious of his quarry from so far. 275 280 Then both from out hell gates, into the waste Wide anarchy of Chaos, damp and dark, Flew diverse; and with power (their power was great) Hovering upon the waters, what they met 285 Solid or slimy, as in raging sea Tost up and down, together crowded drove, From each side shoaling towards the mouth of hell: As when two polar winds, blowing adverse Upon the Cronian sea, together drive 290 Mountains of ice, that stop the imagined way Beyond Petsora eastward, to the rich 260. Intercourse: Passing frequently backward and forward. Transmigration: Quitting Hell once for all, to inhabit the new creation: they were uncertain which their lot should be.-RICHARDSON. 289. As when, &c. Sin and Death, flying into different parts of Chaos, and driving all the matter they meet there in shoals toward the mouth of hell, are compared to two polar winds, north and south, blowing adverse upon the Oronian Sea. the northern frozen sea, and driving together mountains of ice, that stop the 295 imagined way, the north-east passage, as it is called, beyond Petsora eastward, the most north-eastern province of Muscovy, to the rich Cathaian coast. Cathay, or Catay, a country of Asia, and the northern part of China.-NEWTON. 296. The rest: That is, the slimy parts, as distinguished from the solid or soil. Gorgonian rigour; or rigour such as the Gorgons, who turned all persons on whom they looked into stone. Beach, shore. Bound with Gorgonian rigour not to move; 300 305 Came to the sea; and, over Hellespont Bridging his way, Europe with Asia join'd, 310 And scourged with many a stroke the indignant waves. Now had they brought the work by wondrous art Pontifical, a ridge of pendent rock, Over the vex'd abyss, following the track 315 Of this round world: with pins of adamant And chains they made all fast; too fast they made 320 The confines met of empyréan heaven, And of this world; and, on the left hand, hell With long reach interposed; three several ways Upon her husband; saw their shame that sought 325 330 335 308. Memnonian. Susa is called Memnonia by Herodotus. 313. Pontifical: "Bridge-making," from pons, a bridge; and facio, to make. The word may also be interpreted popish; and Dr. Johnson thinks that Milton here intended an equivocal satire on popery, implying that the Roman priesthood were as ready to make the way easy to Hell, as Sin and Death did. 328. Betwixt the Centaur. Satan, to avoid being discovered (as he had been before, iv. 509) by Uriel, regent of the sun, takes care to keep at as great dis tance as possible, and therefore, while the sun rose in Aries, he steers his course directly upward betwixt the Centaur and the Scorpion, two constellations in the opposite part of the heavens."-NEW TON. |