With terrors and with clamours compassed round 865 870 875 Could once have moved; then in the key-hole turns 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, 880 The infernal doors, and on their hinges grate Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook Excelled her power; the gates wide open stood, That with extended wings a bannered host, 885 Under spread ensigns marching, might pass through 890 875. Stygian powers. Stygian used as Tartarean. 883. Erebus. The name is from Greek mythology, in which it stands for the mysterious darkness under the Earth, born of Chaos. 891. We now come to the Deep so often mentioned already. Milton borrowed the word from the Bible, where it is the synonym of Chaos, Gen. i. 2. In Paradise Lost the place is called "the Deep; " Chaos is a personage, ii. 895. Illimitable ocean, without bound, Without dimension; where length, breadth, and highth, And time, and place, are lost; where eldest Night And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, 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 895 Their embryon atoms; they around the flag Light-armed or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift, or slow, 900 Of Barca, or Cyrene's torrid soil, Levied to side with warring winds, and poise 905 Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere And by decision more embroils the fray next him high arbiter By which he reigns; Into this wild abyss, Chance governs all. 910 915 Stood on the brink of Hell and looked a while, Pondering his voyage; for no narrow frith He had to cross. Nor was his ear less pealed 920 Great things with small), than when Bellona storms, 895. Ancestors of Nature, for the world had been formed from Chaos. Cf. ii. 911, "the womb of Nature." 904. Barca, Cyrene, cities of northern Africa. 922. Bellona, goddess of war. Some capital city; or less than if this frame 925 The steadfast earth. At last his sail-broad vans Uplifted, spurns the ground; thence many a league, 930 Audacious; but, that seat soon failing, meets Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb down he drops Down had been falling, had not, by ill chance, The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud, 935 940 945 O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, 950 927. Vans, i. e., fans, here used for wings. The sails of the windmill are still sometimes called vans. 939. Syrtis, a gulf; in fact, there were two places of this name in northern Africa, famous for quicksands. 942. Behoves him, he needs. 943. The gryphon was a mythical creature whom the Arimaspian wronged as in the text. The legend is Greek (Herod. iii. 116), but does not exactly belong to Greek mythology. The Arimaspi were vaguely held to live in the north of Europe; i. e., beyond the parts known to the ancients. At length a universal hubbub wild 955 Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies Bordering on light; when straight behold the throne 960 Wide on the wasteful Deep. With him enthroned The consort of his reign; and by them stood Of Demogorgon; Rumour next and Chance, 965 And Tumult and Confusion all embroiled, And Discord with a thousand various mouths. To whom Satan, turning boldly, thus: "Ye Powers, And Spirits of this nethermost abyss, Chaos and ancient Night! I come no spy, 970 With purpose to explore or to disturb The secrets of your realm; but, by constraint Wandering this darksome desert, as my way 975 954. Plies; to ply means "to pursue steadily" as in "he plies his trade," or "to labor at," as "he plies the oar." Here the meaning would seem a combination of the two. 956. Nethermost, lowest. 964. Orcus and Ades (more commonly Hades) are names for the God of the Underworld in the classic mythology, the former Latin, the latter Greek. Both names were used for the place as well as its ruler. 965. Demogorgon, a vague and terrible being represented by poets and others, fated to be the conqueror of Jove. The ancients avoided even the mention of his name. 980 Confine with Heaven; or if some other place, I travel this profound. Direct my course. 66 Answered: "I know thee, stranger, who thou art; 985 990 Made head against Heaven's King, though overthrown. 995 Confusion worse confounded; and Heaven-gates 1000 1005 977. Confine, are bounded by. The verb in this sense is obsolete; we still have the noun in the plural. Cf. march, marches. 988. Anarch. The word, coined or borrowed by Milton, is used like Monarch, tetrarch. A ruler over a State whose constitution is such that rule is impossible, is not an easy conception to realize. But the word brings up a strong sentiment. 1002. Hell and the Universe had been successively separated out of the Kingdom of Chaos. See Introd., p. xxvi.-xxxix. |