885

By thy example, but have power and right
To question thy bold entrance to this place;
Employed, it seems, to violate sleep, and those
Whose dwelling God hath planted here in bliss?"
To whom thus Satan with contemptuous brow ;·
"Gabriel, thou hadst in Heaven th' esteem of wise,
And such I held thee; but this question asked
Puts me in doubt. Lives there who loves his pain?
Who would not, finding way, break loose from Hell,
Though thither doomed? Thou wouldst thyself, no doubt,
And boldly venture to whatever place
Farthest from pain, where thou mightst hope to change
Torment with ease, and soonest recompense

Dole with delight, which in this place I sought;

891

To thee no reason, who knowest only good,
But evil hast not tried; and wilt object

895,

His will who bound us? let him surer bar

His iron gates, if he intends our stay

In that dark durance: thus much what was asked.

The rest is true, they found me where they say;

900

But that implies not violence or harm."

Thus he in scorn. The warlike angel moved,
Disdainfully, half-smiling, thus replied.
"O loss of one in Heaven, to judge of wise,
Since Satan fell, whom folly overthrew,
And now returns him from his prison 'scaped

gress.] i.e. who do not choose to transgress, following thy example.

886. The esteem of wise.] i. e. the character of being wise.

887. This question asked.] A Latinism, that we have had many instances of, equivalent to "the asking of this question."

893. And soonest recompense dole with delight.] The alliteration here is beautiful. Dole, from the Latin dolor, grief, cause of affliction. Compare Shakspeare:

"With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in
marriage,

In equal scale weighing delight and dole."
Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 2.

896. And wilt object his will who bound us?] Satan foresees that Gabriel, though ready to allow that there is some force in what has been said,

905

will object that it ought to go for nothing in opposition to the command and will of God, and he as good as says:- "Know you not that I have already defied the will of God, and am prepared to do so again? I owe him no obedience; let him bar more securely his gates of iron if he wishes to keep me in."

904. To judge of wise.] i. e. to judge who is wise and who foolish, or, in the abstract, to judge of "wisdom." In the Latin the neuter of adjectives is often used as a noun, and our author imitates that idiom.

Gravely in doubt whether to hold them wise
Or not,, who ask what boldness brought him hither,
Unlicensed, from his bounds in Hell prescribed;
So wise he judges it to fly from pain
However, and to escape his punishment.

So judge thou still, presumptuous! till the wrath,
Which thou incurrest by flying, meet thy flight
Sevenfold, and scourge that wisdom back to Hell,
Which taught thee yet no better, that no pain
Can equal anger infinite provoked.

But wherefore thou alone? wherefore with thee
Came not all Hell broke loose? is pain to them
Less pain-less to be fled? or thou than they
Less hardy to endure? Courageous Chief,
The first in flight from pain, hadst thou alleged
To thy deserted host this cause of flight,

910

915

920

Thou surely hadst not come sole fugitive."

To which the Fiend thus answered frowning stern;

925

"Not that I less endure, or shrink from pain,
Insulting Angel! well thou knowest I stood
Thy fiercest, when in battle to thy aid
The blasting volleyed thunder made all speed,
And seconded thy else not dreaded spear.
But still thy words at random, as before,
Argue thy inexperience what behoves,
From hard assays and ill successes past
A faithful leader, not to hazard all
Through ways of danger by himself untried:

914. Sevenfold is meant to apply to "wrath" in 1. 912., "till the wrath sevenfold," i. e. augmented seven times what it was when you fled from it already.

916. Can equal.] i. e. either be a match for it, or can equal in pain the suffering inflicted by the anger of God. 920-923. Courageous chief] We have here a mixture of the figures Irony and Sarcasm. The former expresses a sense contrary to what is meant. Courageous must be here interpreted by its opposite "cowardly." Sarcasm -a flaying of the skin. is a keen reproachful expression, uttered with scorn and contempt.

930

gests the fiercest-pain being understood, but thy fiercest is quite in accordance with Milton's general practice of using an adjective as a noun, and certainly it is much more expressive. Bentley's emendations of the text of Milton are the greatest failures that are to be found in our literature. For conceit and absurdity they have never been equalled.

931. Argue thy inexperience what behoves.] i. e. show thy ignorance as to what is right and proper; an ignorance not to be wondered at, seeing you have had no opportunity of becoming wise by the best of teachers-experience. Milton generally uses the verb argue in the classical sense of "to prove

927. I stood thy fiercest.] "Opponent understood. Dr. Bentley sug- "to convict."

or

I therefore, I alone first undertook
To wing the desolate abyss, and spy

This new-created world, whereof in Hell
Fame is not silent, here in hope to find
Better abode, and my afflicted Powers
To settle here on earth, or in mid-air;
Though for possession put to try once more
What thou and thy gay legions dare against;

Whose easier business were to serve their Lord

High up in Heaven, with songs to hymn his throne,
And practised distances to cringe, not fight."
To whom the warrior-angel soon replied;
"To say and straight unsay, pretending first
Wise to fly pain, professing next the spy,
Argues no leader, but a liar traced,
Satan! and couldst thou faithful add?
O sacred name of faithfulness profaned!
Faithful to whom? to thy rebellious crew?
Army of Fiends, fit body to fit head.

O name,

Was this your discipline and faith engaged,
Your military obedience, to dissolve

Allegiance to th' acknowledged Power supreme?
And thou, sly hypocrite, who now would seem
Patron of liberty, who more than thou
Once fawned and cringed, and servilely adored
Heaven's awful Monarch? wherefore but in hope
To dispossess him, and thyself to reign?

But mark what I arrede thee now - Avaunt!
Fly thither whence thou fledst: if from this hour
Within these hallowed limits thou appear,
Back to the infernal pit I drag thee chained,

957-961. And thou, sly hypocrite.] Compare the following:

With pleasing tales his Lord's vain ears he
fed,

A flatterer, a pick thank, and a liar ;
Curst be a state got with so many a crime,
Yet this is oft the stair by which men climb."
FAIRFAX'S Tasso.

962. But mark what I arrede thee
now-Avaunt !] i. e. pay attention
to my counsel, if you are wise, and be-
gone. Milton has the same word in
his prose works, and I am not sorry for
an apology to quote the passage.
"He
who shall endeavour the amendment of
any old neglected grievance in church

935

940

945

950

955

960

965

or state, or in the daily course of life, if he be gifted with abilities of mind that may raise him to so high an undertaking, I grant he hath already much whereof not to repent him, yet let me arreed (sic) him, not to be the foreman of any misjudged opinion, unless his resolutions be firmly seated in a square and constant mind, not conscious to itself of any deserved blame, and regardless of groundless suspicions."-MILTON On Divorce.

965. I drag thee.] The present tense is here used instead of the future. He speaks as if he were already in the

And seal thee so, as henceforth not to scorn
The facile gates of Hell too slightly barred."

So threatened he; but Satan to no threats
Gave heed, but waxing more in rage, replied-
"Then when I am thy captive talk of chains,
Proud limitary Cherub, but ere then
Far heavier load thyself expect to feel
From my prevailing arm, though Heaven's King
Ride on thy wings, and thou, with thy compeers,
Used to the yoke, draw'st his triumphant wheels
In progress through the road of Heaven star-paved."
While thus he spake, the angelic squadron bright
Turned fiery red, sharpening in moonéd horns
Their phalanx, and began to hem him round
With ported spears, as thick as when a field

970

975

980

Of Ceres ripe for harvest waving bends

Her bearded grove of ears, which way the wind

Sways them; the careful ploughman doubting stands,

Lest on the threshing-floor his hopeful sheaves
Prove chaff. On the other side Satan alarmed,
Collecting all his might, dilated stood,
Like Teneriff or Atlas unremoved:
His stature reached the sky, and on his crest

act of doing what he is to do under
certain conditions. It is thought to be
more lively than the regular future,
and indicates, as it were, the threat
already in execution.

At

971. Proud limitary Cherub.] line 964. the angel had warned Satan not again to appear within these "hallowed limits," and limitary is probably used by way of taunt, as if the good angel were occupying a mean post in prescribing bounds to other angels.

987. Dilated stood, like Teneriff or Atlas unremoved.] "The word dilated expresses very strongly the attitude of an eager and undaunted combatant, whose fury not only seems to erect and enlarge his stature, but expands, as it were, his whole frame and extends every limb."-THYER. "Unremoved" is here used in the sense of unremovable; and it may here be noticed that the instances of the past participle being used instead of the corresponding participial adjective are exceedingly nu

985

merous. Spenser and Shakspeare often use the same idiom. It is now obsolete. This use of the past participle is quite common in Virgil, and indeed the whole passage seems imitated from him:

66

Quantus Athos, aut quantus Eryx, aut ipse, coruscis

Cum fremit ilicibus, quantus, gaudetque nivali

Vertice, se attollens pater Apenninus ad auras. "En. xii. 701.

Spenser has a picture to much the same effect;

"Sterne was his looke, and full of stomacke
vayne;

His portaunce terrible, and stature tall,
Far passing th' hight of man terrestriall;
Like an huge gyant of the Titan's race
That made him scorn all creatures great
and small;

And with his pride all others powre deface;
More fit emongst black fiendes than men to
have his place."

988. On his crest sat horror plumed.] "As it was necessary that a king, lord, or knight, should be known to his followers in battle, they adopted two ways of distinguishing themselves. The

Sat horror plumed; nor wanted, in his grasp

What seemed both spear and shield. Now dreadful deeds Might have ensued, nor only Paradise

991

In this commotion, but the starry cope

Of Heaven perhaps, or all the elements,

At least had gone to wrack, disturbed and torn
With violence of this conflict, had not soon
Th' Eternal, to prevent such horrid fray,
Hung forth in Heaven his golden scales, yet seen
Betwixt Astrea and the Scorpion sign,
Wherein all things created first he weighed,
The pendulous round earth with balanced air
In counterpoise, now ponders all events,
Battles and realms: in these he put two weights,
The sequel each of parting and of fight:
The latter quick up flew, and kicked the beam;
Which Gabriel spying, thus bespake the Fiend.

66

995

1000

1005

Satan, I know thy strength, and thou know'st mine, Neither our own, but given; what folly then To boast what arms can do? since thine no more

one was by a crest, that is, a figure of
some kind or other, as a lion, a wolf, a
hand holding a sword, or some such
decoration, which they wore on the top
of the helmet, as we talk of a cock's
comb being the crest of that bird.
But, besides this mark of distinction,
these warriors were accustomed to paint
emblematical figures, sometimes of a
very whimsical kind, upon their shields."
SCOTT's Tales of a Grandfather.
989. In his grasp.]
This is con-
cisely, but still very finely expressed.
He not only held the spear and shield,
but held them firmly so as to use either
as opportunity might arise.

990-1004. Now dreadful deeds.] Compare Iliad, viii. 83-92:

"Long as the morning beams increasing bright
O'er heaven's clear azure spread the sacred
light,

Commutual death the fate of war confounds,
Each adverse battle gored with equal wounds.
But when the sun the height of heaven
ascends,

The sire of gods, his golden scale suspends
With equal hand; in these explored the fate
Of Greece and Troy, poised the mighty
weight.

Pressed with its load the Grecian balance
lies

Low sunk on earth, the Trojan strikes the skies."

998. Betwixt Astrea and the Scorpion sign.] Libra, or the Scales, one of the zodiacal constellations-the seventh in order, beginning with Aries. It comes between Astrea or Virgo, and the Scorpion.

1003. The sequel each of parting.] God put in the scales two weights, the one to represent the sequel or consequence of Satan's parting from them, the other to represent the consequence of his fighting with them. The latter scale turned out to be the lighter, and showed Satan the folly of appealing