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BOOK IV.

THE ARGUMENT.

Satan now in prospect of Eden, and nigh the place where he must now attempt the bold enterprise which he undertook alone against God and Man, falls into many doubts with himself, and many passions, fear, envy, and despair; but at length confirms himself in evil, journeys on to Paradise, whose outward prospect and situation is described, overleaps the bounds, sits in the shape of a cormorant on the Tree of Life, as highest in the garden, to look about him. The garden described; Satan's first sight of Adam and Eve; his wonder at their excellent form and happy state, but with resolution to work their fall; overhears their discourse, thence gathers that the Tree of Knowledge was forbidden them to eat of under penalty of death; and thereon intends to found his temptation by seducing them to transgress: then leaves them awhile, to know further of their state by some other means. Meanwhile Uriel descending on a sunbeam warns Gabriel, who had in charge the gate of Paradise, that some evil spirit had escaped the Deep, and passed at noon by his sphere in the shape of a good angel down to Paradise, discovered after by his furious gestures in the mount. Gabriel promises to find him ere morning. Night coming on, Adam and Eve discourse of going to their rest: their bower described; their evening worship. Gabriel drawing forth his bands of night-watch to walk the round of Paradise, appoints two strong angels to Adam's bower, lest the Evil Spirit should be there doing some harm to Adam or Eve sleeping; there they find him at the ear of Eve, tempting her in a dream, and bring him, though unwilling, to Gabriel; by whom questioned, he scornfully answers, prepares resistance, but, hindered by a sign from Heaven, flies out of Paradise.

OH for that warning voice, which he who saw
The Apocalypse heard cry in Heaven aloud,
Then when the Dragon, put to second rout,
Came furious down to be revenged on men,

3. to second rout. The first was the expulsion from Heaven narrated in this poem.

1.

"Oh for a muse of fire." Hen. V., Prol.-N.

"Oh for a falconer's voice." Rom. & Jul. ii. 2.-N.

Woe to the inhabitants on earth! that now,

While time was, our first parents had been warned
The coming of their secret foe, and scaped,
Haply so scaped, his mortal snare.

For now

Satan, now first inflamed with rage, came down,
The tempter ere the accuser of mankind,

To wreak on innocent frail Man his loss
Of that first battle, and his flight to Hell.
Yet not rejoicing in his speed, though bold
Far off and fearless; nor with cause to boast,
Begins his dire attempt, which nigh the birth
Now rolling boils in his tumultuous breast,
And like a devilish engine back recoils
Upon himself. Horror and doubt distract
His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom stir
The hell within him; for within him hell

He brings, and round about him, nor from hell
One step, no more than from himself, can fly

By change of place. Now conscience wakes despair,
That slumbered, wakes the bitter memory

Of what he was, what is, and what must be

9. now first. See the passage of Revelation below.

10. the accuser. In Greek diaßóλos, whence devil. Alaßóλos for Satan occurs first in the Apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon ii. 24; it is frequent in the New Testament.

11. wreak, i.e. avenge. A.-S. ppecan; rächen, Germ. It is quite incorrect to say, as we so commonly do, wreak vengeance. In the original editions it is spelt wreck.

25. Of what, etc. Pointed thus in the original editions and in Todd's :—

"Of what he was, what is, and what must be

Worse; of worse deeds worse sufferings must ensue."

5. "Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you having great wrath." Rev. xii. 12.

10. "For the accuser of our brethren is cast down." Ib. 10.—N.

12. "And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought, and his angels, and prevailed not." Ib. 7. "For 't is the sport to have the engineer

17.

20.

Hoist with his own petar." Ham. iii. 4.-Mitford. "Swift from myself I run, myself I fear,

Yet still my hell within myself I bear."

Fairfax, Godf. xii. 77.— T.

"Within me is a hell." K, John, v. 7.—T.

Worse; of worse deeds worse sufferings must ensue.
Sometimes toward Eden, which now in his view
Lay pleasant, his grieved look he fixes sad;
Sometimes toward heaven and the full-blazing sun,
Which now sat high in his meridian tower;
Then much revolving thus in sighs began:

"O thou, that, with surpassing glory crowned,
Lookest from thy sole dominion, like the God
Of this new world; at whose sight all the stars
Hide their diminished heads; to thee I call,
But with no friendly voice, and add thy name,
O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams,
That bring to my remembrance from what state
I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere;
Till pride and worse ambition threw me down,
Warring in Heaven against Heaven's matchless King.
Ah, wherefore? he deserved no such return
From me, whom he created what I was,
In that bright eminence, and with his good
Upbraided none; nor was his service hard.
What could be less than to afford him praise,
The easiest recompense, and pay him thanks?
How due! Yet all his good proved ill in me,
And wrought but malice. Lifted up so high
I'sdeined subjection, and thought one step higher
Would set me highest, and in a moment quit
The debt immense of endless gratitude,
So burdensome still paying, still to owe;
Forgetful what from him I still received,
And understood not that a grateful mind

30

40

50

50. 'sdeined, i.e. disdained, sdegnò, It. The Italians thus in general reject the di in Latin words compounded with dis.

51. quit, i.e. take away, relieve from. This is the sense of the Spanish quitar, which seems, like some other words of this language, to have been adopted in English.

25. "Dum, vice mutata, qui sim fuerimque recordor." Ov. Tr. iv. 1, 99.-T. 30. "Igneas æthereas jam sol penetrarat in arces." Virg. Cul. 41.-R. 55. "Gratiam autem et qui retulerit habere, et qui habeat retulisse." Cic. De Off. ii. 20.-B. "Since when I have been debtor to you for courtesies, which I will be ever to pay and yet pay still." Cymb. i. 5.-K.

By owing owes not, but still pays, at once
Indebted and discharged; what burden then?
Oh! had his powerful destiny ordained
Me some inferior Angel, I had stood
Then happy; no unbounded hope had raised
Ambition. Yet why not? some other Power
As great might have aspired, and me though mean
Drawn to his part. But other Powers as great
Fell not, but stand unshaken, from within
Or from without, to all temptations armed.
Hadst thou the same free will and power to stand?
Thou hadst. Whom hast thou then or what to accuse,
But Heaven's free love dealt equally to all?
Be then his love accursed, since, love or hate,
To me alike it deals eternal woe.

Nay, cursed be thou; since against his thy will
Chose freely what it now so justly rues.-
Me miserable! which way shall I fly
Infinite wrath and infinite despair?
Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell;
And, in the lowest deep, a lower deep
Still threatening to devour me opens wide,
To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heaven.
Oh, then, at last relent! Is there no place
Left for repentance, none for pardon left?—
None left but by submission; and that word
Disdain forbids me, and my dread of shame
Among the Spirits beneath, whom I seduced
With other promises and other vaunts
Than to submit, boasting I could subdue
The Omnipotent. Ay me! they little know
How dearly I abide that boast so vain,
Under what torments inwardly I groan.

60

70

80

79. relent. This, the critics say, is addressed by Satan to himself. We rather think that it and what follows is addressed to God. None left,' etc. (v. 81), would be then his correction and recall of what precedes: comp. v. 93 seq.

79. "For he found no place of repentance." Heb. xii. 17.—G.

While they adore me on the throne of Hell,
With diadem and sceptre high advanced,
The lower still I fall, only supreme
In misery; such joy ambition finds.-
But say I could repent, and could obtain

By act of grace my former state-how soon

Would highth recall high thoughts! how soon unsay
What feigned submission swore! Ease would recant
Vows made in pain, as violent and void-
For never can true reconcilement grow

Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep-
Which would but lead me to a worse relapse
And heavier fall; so should I purchase dear
Short intermission bought with double smart.
This knows my Punisher; therefore as far
From granting he, as I from begging, peace.
All hope excluded thus, behold in stead
Of us outcast, exiled, his new delight,
Mankind created, and for him this World!
So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear,
Farewell remorse! all good to me is lost.
Evil, be thou my good; by thee at least
Divided empire with Heaven's King I hold,

By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign;

As Man ere long, and this new World shall know."

Thus while he spake, each passion dimmed his face,

89. While, etc. We have conformed to the punctuation of the poet's editions. 111. Divided empire, etc., i.e. if God had Heaven, he had Hell, and he hopes to gain the World; so that he would reign over two of the three realms that existed out of Chaos.

114. each passion, i.e. each of the three following passions.-dimmed, i.e. deprived of its lustre.

108.

111.

Ἐῤῥέτω αἰδὼς,

Ἐῤῥέτω ἀγλαΐη. Αp. Rh. iii. 785.-Τ.

"Not so, quoth she, but sith that heaven's king
From hope of heaven hath thee excluded quite,
Why fearest thou, that canst not hope for thing,
And fearest not that more thee hurten might ?"

F. Q. i. 5, 43.-T. "Divisum imperium cum Jove Caesar habet." Virg.-Greenwood.