780 Their state affairs: So thick the aery crowd 775 785 Intent, with jocund music charm his ear; 795 784 dreams] See Ap. Rhod. Arg. iv. 1479. Virg. Æn. vi. 453. Todd. 785 arbitress] v. Hor. Ep. v. 49. 'Non infideles arbitræ Nox et Diana.' Heylin. 36 PARADISE LOST. 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 High] Compare with this the opening of the second book of Ovid's Metam. 2 Ormus] See View of Ormus, in Buckingham's Travels in Assyria, p. 428, 4to. Show'rs on her kings Barbaric pearl and gold, To that bad eminence; and, from despair Vain war with heav'n, and by success untaught Powers and Dominions, Deities of heav'n, For since no deep within her gulf can hold Immortal vigor, though oppress'd and fall'n, I give not heav'n for lost: from this descent Celestial virtues rising will appear 5 10 15 20 More glorious and more dread, than from no fall, 25 + Barbaric] Lucret. lib. ii. 500. Barbaricæ vestes.' Euripid. Iph. Aul. 73. de Paride: χρυσῷ τε λάμπρος, βαρβάρῳ χλιδήματι. and Virg. Æn. ii. 504. Of endless pain? Where there is then no good so 35 Could have assur'd us; and by what best way, 40 Whether of open war or covert guile, We now debate; who can advise, may speak. He ceas'd; and next him Moloc, scepter'd king, Stood up, the strongest and the fiercest spirit. That fought in heav'n, now fiercer by despair: 45 His trust was with th' Eternal to be deem'd Equal in strength, and rather than be less Car'd not to be at all; with that care lost 38 our just inheritance] See Crashaw's Steps to the Temple, p. 64. (1646.) And for the never fading fields of light, My fair inheritance, he confines me here :' and Beaumont's Psyche, c. i. st. 24. 'Was't not enough against the righteous law Of primogeniture to throw us down, From that bright home which all the world does know 40 best way] Compare Spenser's F. Queen, vii. vi. 21. and ii. xi. 7. Todd. 51 55 Went all his fear of God, or hell, or worse, 60 65 54 sit contriving] See Milton's Prose Works, vol. ii. 380. iii. 24. But to sit contriving.' 67 Black fire] See Eschyli Prometheus, ver. 930. Ὃς δὴ κεραυνοῦ κρέισσον ἐυρήσει φλόγα, Βροντῆς θ' ὑπερβάλλοντα καρτερὸν κτύπον. and see Statii Theb. iv. 133. furiarum lampade nigra.' Silv. i. iv. 64. fulminis atri.' Lucan Ph. ii. 301. ignes atros.' 'I talk of flames, and yet I call hell dark; Flames I confess they are, but black.' See M. Stevenson's Poems (1654), p. 113, (A Guesse at Hell). |