To sit indulgent, and with him partake
Rural repast, permitting him the while
Venial discourse unblam'd: I now must change
Those notes to tragic; foul distrust, and breach
Disloyal on the part of man, revolt,
And disobedience: on the part of heaven
Now alienated, distance and distaste,
Anger, and just rebuke, and judgment given, That brought into this world a world of woe, Sin and her shadow death, and misery Death's harbinger: sad task, yet argument Not less but more heroic than the wrath Of stern Achilles on his foe pursu'd Thrice fugitive about Troy wall; or rage Of Turnus for Lavinia disespous'd, Or Neptune's ire or Juno's, that so long Perplex'd the Greek and Cytherea's son : If answerable style I can obtain Of my celestial patroness, who deigns Her nightly visitation unimplor'd, And dictates to me slumbering, or inspires Easy my unpremeditated verse : Since first this subject for heroic song Pleas'd me, long choosing and beginning late;
Not sedulous by nature to indite
11 world] Atterbury proposed reading
That brought into this world (a world of woe),'
Wars, hitherto the only argument Heroic deem'd, chief mastery to dissect With long and tedious havock fabled knights In battles feign'd; the better fortitude Of patience and heroic martyrdom Unsung; or to describe races and games, Or tilting furniture, emblazon'd shields, Impresses quaint, caparisons and steeds; Bases and tinsel trappings, gorgeous knights At joust and tournament; then marshal'd feast Serv'd up in hall with sewers, and seneshals;
The skill of artifice or office mean, Not that which justly gives heroic name To person or to poem. Me of these Nor skill'd nor studious higher argument Remains, sufficient of itself to raise That name, unless an age too late, or cold Climate, or years, damp my intended wing Depress'd, and much they may, if all be mine, Not hers who brings it nightly to my ear.
The sun was sunk, and after him the star
Of Hesperus, whose office is to bring Twilight upon the earth, short arbiter
41 of these] The construction adopted by Milton occurs in Harrington's Ariosto, c. iv. st. 42.
'As holy men of humane manners skill'd.' Todd.
45 years] Grief, want, wars, clime, or say, years. Bentl. MS. 50 arbiter] Sydney, in his Arcadia, calls the sun, about the time of the Equinox,
'An indifferent arbiter between the night and the day.'
Twixt day and night, and now from end to end Night's hemisphere had veil'd the horizon round : When Satan who late fled before the threats
Of Gabriel out of Eden, now improv'd In meditated fraud and malice, bent
On man's destruction, maugre what might hap Of heavier on himself, fearless return'd. By night he fled, and at midnight return'd From compassing the earth, cautious of day,
Since Uriel regent of the sun descry'd
His entrance, and forewarn'd the cherubim That kept their watch; thence full of anguish driven,
The space of seven continu'd nights he rode
With darkness, thrice the equinoctial line
He circled, four times cross'd the car of night
From pole to pole, traversing each colure; On the eighth return'd, and on the coast averse From entrance or cherubic watch by stealth
Found unsuspected way. There was a place, Now not, though sin, not time, first wrought the
Where Tigris at the foot of paradise Into a gulf shot under ground, till part Rose up a fountain by the Tree of Life: In with the river sunk, and with it rose
59 compassing] Sylv. Du Bartas, p. 896, of Satan, 'I come, said he, from walking in, and out,
And compassing the earthlie ball about.' Todd.
66 colure] See Lisle's Du Bartas, p. 155,
The second is, and call'd the nigh equall colure.'
Satan involv'd in rising mist, then sought Where to lie hid; sea he had search'd and land From Eden over Pontus, and the pool Mæotis, up beyond the river Ob, Downward as far Antarctick; and in length West from Orontes to the ocean barr'd At Darien; thence to the land where flows Ganges and Indus: thus the orb he roam'd With narrow search; and with inspection deep Consider'd every creature, which of all Most opportune might serve his wiles, and found The serpent subtlest beast of all the field. Him after long debate, irresolute Of thoughts revolv'd, his final sentence chose Fit vessel, fittest imp of fraud, in whom
To enter, and his dark suggestions hide From sharpest sight: for in the wily snake Whatever sleights none would suspicious mark, As from his wit and native subtilty Proceeding, which in other beasts observ'd Doubt might beget of diabolic power Active within beyond the sense of brute. Thus he resolv'd, but first from inward grief His bursting passion into plaints thus pour'd.
O earth, how like to heaven, if not preferr'd
75 mist] Hom. Ι. i. 359, ἀνέδυ πολιῆς ἁλος, ἠὔτ ̓ ὀμιχλή, and Hymn Mercur. v. 141. Newton.
80 Orontes] Euphrates. Bentl. MS.
99 earth] Consult Heylin's note on this passage; who considers that there is an inconsistency between this speech of Satan and b. iii. 566.
More justly, seat worthier of gods, as built With second thoughts, reforming what was old! For what God, after better, worse would build ? Terrestrial heaven, danc'd round by other heavens That shine, yet bear their bright officious lamps, Light above light, for thee alone, as seems, In thee concentring all their precious beams Of sacred influence. As God in heaven
Is centre, yet extends to all, so thou
Centring receiv'st from all those orbs: in thee, Not in themselves, all their known virtue appears 110 Productive in herb, plant, and nobler birth
Of creatures animate with gradual life
Of growth, sense, reason, all summ'd up in man. With what delight could I have walk'd thee round, If I could joy in aught, sweet interchange Of hill and valley, rivers, woods, and plains, Now land, now sea, and shores with forest crown'd, Rocks, dens, and caves! but I in none of these
Find place or refuge; and the more I see
Pleasures about me, so much more I feel Torment within me, as from the hateful siege
Of contraries; all good to me becomes
Bane, and in heaven much worse would be my state. But neither here seek I, no nor in heaven
To dwell, unless by mast'ring heaven's Supreme ;
Nor hope to be myself less miserable
By what I seek, but others to make such
As I, though thereby worse to me redound:
For only in destroying I find ease
« PreviousContinue » |