The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon, Nor great Alcairo, such magnificence 720 Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove In wealth and luxury. The ascending pile Stood fixed her stately height: and straight the doors, Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide Within, her ample spaces, o'er the smooth 725 And level pavement: from the arched roof, Sheer o'er the crystal battlements: from morn 730 735 740 building resting immediately on the pillars. Cornice, the uppermost and most prominent part of the entablature. Frieze, a flat space between the architrave and cornice, commonly adorned with sculptured figures. 1 Belus or Serapis.-The former, son of Nimrod, and the first man worshipped for a god, called Bel by the Chaldeans, and Baal by the PhoeniciSerapis, the same with Apis or Osiris. ans. 2 Ausonian, Italian. The poet had the choice of several names for Mulciber, but he has fitly chosen that which denoted his art as a founder. 3 From morn to noon he fell, &c.-Milton magnifies his fall by dividing its period into parts, and emphatically calling it a summer's day. A summer's day; and, with the setting sun, 745 To have built in Heaven high towers; nor did he scape By all his engines;1 but was headlong sent 750 Of Satan and his peers; their summons called To mortal combat, or career with lance,) Thick swarmed, both on the ground, and in the air, 1 Engines, devices, contrivances-an obsolete sense of the word. 760 765 770 2 Pandemonium, a word coined to express the resort of all the demons. 3 Covered field; i. e., inclosed for combat, the lists; to which, for extent, one single apartment of Pandemonium is compared. 4 Soldan, Sultan. Panim, borrowed from the old Norman form, paynim, for pagan. 5 Brushed with the hiss, &c.—The hissing sound of this line beautifully echoes the sense. • Taurus, one of the twelve constellations in the ecliptic, or sun's apparent course, which he enters about the latter third of the month of April. New rubbed with balm, expatiate, and confer Their state affairs: so thick the airy crowd 775 In bigness to surpass Earth's giant sons, Whose midnight revels, by a forest-side, 780 Or dreams he sees, while, over-head, the moon Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth3 785 Wheels her pale course: they, on their mirth and dance Intent, with jocund music charm his ear: At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds. Thus incorporeal spirits to smallest forms Reduced their shapes immense, and were at large, 790 795 1 Behold a wonder! &c.-The description already given (L 423-431) of the powers of transformation possessed by demons artfully prepares the mind for such surprising scenes as that introduced at this place, and elsewhere throughout the poem. 2 Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth, &c.—in allusion to the belief that witches and fairies had great power over the moon. Arbitress: Le. witness, spectatress. BOOK II. THE ARGUMENT. THE Consultation begun, Satan debates whether another battle be to be hazarded for the recovery of Heaven: some advise it, others dissuade. A third proposal is preferred, mentioned before by Satan, to search the truth of that prophecy or tradition in Heaven concerning another world, and another kind of creature, equal, or not much inferior, to themselves, about this time to be created: their doubt who shall be sent on this difficult search: Satan their chief undertakes alone the voyage, is honoured and applauded. The council thus ended, the rest betake them several ways and to several employments, as their inclinations lead them, to entertain the time till Satan return. He passes on his journey to Hell gates; finds them shut, and who sat there to guard them; by whom at length they are opened, and discover to him the great gulf between Hell and Heaven: with what difficulty he passes through, directed by Chaos, the Power of that place, to the sight of this new world which he sought. HIGH on a throne of royal state,—which far To that bad eminence: and, from despair Vain war with Heaven, and, by success3 untaught, 5 1 Ormus, a small island in the Persian Gulf, which was long held by the Portuguese, as a mart through which the wealth of India passed to Europe. 2 Showers on her kings, &c.-Not merely expressing the abundance of gold and precious stones in the East, but alluding to a practice, adopted at coronations, of throwing gold dust and seed pearl on the king's head. Barbaric, because found among nations foreign to the Greeks and Romans, who reckoned all but themselves barbarians. 8 Success.-The result or termination of his rebellion had not yet taught him his place. The term is used in the same way, 1. 123. His proud imaginations thus displayed :— 66 "Powers and Dominions, Deities of Heaven! 'For,1 since no deep within her gulf can hold "Immortal vigour, though oppressed and fallen, "I give not Heaven for lost. From this descent "Celestial virtues rising, will appear "More glorious and more dread than from no fall, "Me though just right and the fixed laws of Heaven "Yielded with full consent. The happier state 2 "Could have assured us; and by what best way, "Whether of open war or covert guile, "We now debate: who can advise, may speak." 1 For refers to the title, "Deities of Heaven;" he styles them so, for he gives not Heaven for lost, since no deep could hold them, &c. 2 None... covet more.-The clause is elliptical, and is most simply construed thus: [there are] none, whose portion of present pain is so small, that [they] will covet more. |