Far off and fearless, nor with cause to boast, 15 His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom stir 20 Of what he was, what is, and what must be 25 30 Sometimes tow'rds Heav'n and the full-blazing Sun, 35 40 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 Heav'n against Heav'n's matchless King: Ah wherefore! he deserved 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 proved ill in me, And wrought but malice; lifted up so high, I sdeign'd subjection, and thought one step higher Would set me high'st, and in a moment quit The debt immense of endless gratitude, 45 51 24. Memory is here used in the sense of reflection or conside. ration. 32. Milton first thought of writing a tragedy on the Loss of Pa radise, and the first ten lines of this speech formed its opening. 50. Sdeign'd, for disdad, from the Italian, sdegnare. 55 60 So burdensome still paying, still to owe, 65 70 Nay, cursed be thou; since against his thy will Chose freely what it now so justly rues. Me miserable! which way shall I fly Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell; While they adore me on the throne of Hell! In misery! such joy ambition finds. 75 80 85 55. Understood not, to be connected with the preceding verts. By act of grace my former state, how soon 94 100 Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep: 105 So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear, 110 By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign; For heav'nly minds from such distempers foul Each perturbation smooth'd with outward calm, 120 That practised falsehood under saintly show, Yet not enough had practised to deceive Uriel once warn'd; whose eye pursued him down 125 He mark'd and mad demeanour, then alone, As he supposed, all unobserved, unseen. 130 135 Access deny'd; and over head up grew, 140 145 151 Of stateliest view. Yet higher than their tops 155 160 [league Of Araby the Blest; with such delay That drove him, though enamour'd, from the spouse 151. The description which Milton has given of Paradise is similar to those of Homer, Spenser, and Tasso, in their accounts of the gardens in which the scene of their poems sometimes lies. To these may be added Ariosto's and Marino's, it being generally allowed, that though Milton's is superior to any other, that the Italian come nearest in beauty and perfection. 158. An imitation is here observed of Shakspeare in the Twelfth Night, or of Ariosto, Orlan. Fur. 6. 34. st. 51. 162. Mozambique is an island on the eastern coast of Africa. As the north-east wind blows contrary to those, who have doubled the Cape, they are nence obliged to slack their course.Sabean from Saba, a city and province of Arabia Felix 168. See Tobit viii. BOOK IV. Of Tobit's son, and with a vengeance sent 175 180 Now to th' ascent of that steep savage hill Satan had journey'd on, pensive and slow; But further way found none, so thick intwined, As one continued brake, the undergrowth Of shrubs and tangling bushes had perplex'd All path of man or beast that pass'd that way: One gate there only was, and that look'd east On th' other side; which when th' arch-felon saw, Due entrance he disdain'd, and in contempt, At one slight bound high overleap'd all bound Of hill or highest wall, and sheer within Lights on his feet. As when a prowling wolf, Whom hunger drives to seek new haunt for prey, Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve In hurdled cots amid the field secure, Leaps o'er the fence with ease into the fold: Or as a thief bent to unhoard the cash Of some rich burgher, whose substantial doors, Cross-barr'd and bolted fast, fear no assault, In at the window climbs, or o'er the tiles: So clomb this first grand thief into God's fold; So since into his church lewd hirelings climb. Thence up he flew, and on the tree of life, The middle tree and highest there that grew, Sat like a cormorant; yet not true life Thereby regain'd, but sat devising death To them who lived; nor on the virtue thought Of that life-giving plant, but only used For prospect, what well used had been the pledge Of immortality. So little knows Any, but God alone, to value right The good before him, but perverts best things To worst abuse, or to their meanest use. 186 190 195 201 Beneath him, with new wonder, now he views 205 To all delight of human sense exposed In narrow room Nature's whole wealth, yea more, A Heav'n on Earth: for blissful Paradise 183. A wolf is a frequent subject of comparison in the poets, but for the whole of this, see John x. 1 193. Lewd, impious or wicked. 195. Gen. ii. 9 In the midst, signifies the excellency as well as the situation of the tree. |