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To tempt or punish mortals, except whom
God and good angels guard by special grace.
But now at last the sacred influence
Of light appears, and from the walls of Heaven
Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night

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A glimmering dawn. Here Nature first begins
Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire,
As from her utmost works, a broken foe,
With tumult less, and with less hostile din ;
That Satan with less toil, and now with ease,
Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light;
And, like a weather-beaten vessel, holds

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Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn ;
Or in the emptier waste, resembling air,

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Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold.
Far off the empyreal Heaven, extended wide
In circuit, undetermined square or round,
With opal towers and battlements adorned
Of living sapphire, once his native seat;
And fast by, hanging in a golden chain,
This pendent world, in bigness as a star

Of smallest magnitude close by the moon.

Thither, full fraught with mischievous revenge,

Accursed, and in a cursèd hour, he hies.

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1034. The sacred influence of light. The words are singularly apt after so much fiery gloom and dark turbulence.

1049. Opal towers. Perhaps a far-away recollection of the description of the New Jerusalem, Rev. xxi. 10–21.

1052. This pendent world. Not the Earth, but the whole universe as described in the Introd., p. xxxvii. In bigness as a star close by the moon; i. e., it looked very small in the im

mensity of Chaos.

ADDITIONAL NOTES FOR MORE

DETAILED STUDY

IN studying a poem, or anything else for that matter, we want to appreciate it as a whole, and also to understand each separate part. Of these two necessities the first would probably be reckoned of the greater importance. But it happens with most poems that we cannot gain the first point without having passed the second that is, the best appreciation of the poem as a whole comes from the understanding of each separate part; so the second point is of the first importance. Really, the two things are so dependent on each other, that it is not wise to say that one is more important than the other. We could not well get along without either.

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For the best appreciation of Paradise Lost, one must have much minute understanding of minor things. Not that this minute understanding is the best appreciation; but it is a necessary factor in it.

These notes are for the purpose of directing such particular and minute study as will result in a better appreciation of the whole. They concern a number of small points; each one of them, by itself, may seem insignificant and uninteresting; all together they will form a background of half-conscious recollection, that will be both interesting and significant.

BOOK I.

It is a thing of importance to know the subject-matter thoroughly. In reading a piece of narrative poetry that is not short and simple, it is useful to make a careful analysis, or to compare such an analysis with the poem. Without some such work, one is likely to slip from part to part, without a good idea of the relation of one thing to another, or sometimes without an appreciation of the real character of what one is at the moment reading. The danger of such work is that one may get the idea that

it is in itself a thing of importance. We must always remember that its only value is as a help to a good understanding and appreciation of the poem itself.

I. Introductory lines.

ANALYSIS OF THE BOOK.

1. Invocation. 1-16, 17-26, proposing the whole subject, the Fall and Redemption of Man.

2. The prime cause of his fall touched, 27–49.

II. The Narrative. With 50 "the poem hastens into the midst

of things."

1. Satan arouses himself after his fall.

Satan on the burning lake, 50-83.

Satan to Beelzebub, 84-124.

Answer of Beelzebub, 128-155.

Reply of Satan, 157-191.

Satan moves ashore, 192-241.
Speech of Satan, 242-270.
Answer of Beëlzebub, 271-282.

2. He musters his powers.

Satan calls the Fallen Angels, 283-330.
They also rise from the lake, 331-375.
Enumeration of their chiefs, 375-521.
a. The Gods who tempted Israel.
Moloch, 392-405.

Chemos, 406-418.

Diverse male and female, 419-437.
Astoreth, 437-446.

Thammuz, 446-457.

Dagon, 457-466.

Rimmon, 467-476.

The Gods of Egypt, 476–489.

Belial, 490-505.

b. The Gods of Greece, 506–521.

The muster of the Fallen Angels, 522–567.

3. He summons his followers to consult.

Satan reviews his host, 567-621.

He addresses them, 622-662.

The building of Pandemonium, 663–751.
The coming to the council, 752–798.

THE ARGUMENT.

The prime cause, the first cause.

Not in the centre; i. e., of the earth, according to the common notion embodied in such phrases as "He descended into Hell." The Hell of Paradise Lost was elsewhere. See the Introduction, p. xxxvii.

Not yet made. Elsewhere it would appear that it had been made though not accursed. Milton means by heaven and earth the universe. Now from the account of the Creation in Book vii. it would seem (see ll. 130-173) that the purpose of the Creation is announced as the Son returns from casting Lucifer out of Heaven. He proceeds at once to do the Father's will, and the Six Days of Creation follow. But the poem begins on the eighteenth day after Satan had been cast out, for he fell nine days, and lay nine days on the fiery lake. So when Satan (i. 651) and Beëlzebub (ii. 348) speak of the World, they speak of what had for some time been in existence.

Of their miserable fall. The words on and of, in the sense of concerning, were used well-nigh interchangeably.

To be created. As above, really created already.

THE TEXT.

1. Fruit. Only in one passage of Paradise Lost (x. 483) does Milton speak of the fruit as an apple, and then in the contemptuous account given by Satan on his return to Pandemonium. In Paradise Regained (ii. 349), however, he speaks of it himself, as "that crude apple that diverted Eve." Many other writers from Cadmon down speak of the apple, and of course the popular tradition is very old. In older English, however, the word "apple" was often used with the general meaning "fruit."

3. Death into the world. Namely, by the introduction of sin. "Therefore, as through one man, sin entered into the world, and death through sin” (Rom. v. 12, and see also James i. 15). The idea is presented in the poem in two-fold wise; first in allegory, and then, as we may say, actually. The allegorical or symbolical representation we have in ii. 648-883. Sin, born of Satan, representing unbridled desire, conceives and brings forth Death, and these two creatures follow Satan to the earth, making

as they go a perpetual pathway from Hell to the Universe (ii. 1024). But also we have Death threatened by the Almighty as a punishment of disobedience (v. 542-546), and afterward we have the Sin of Adam and Eve in disobeying the command of God, and the anticipation of Death (x. 814.) That Milton was aware of the inconsistency, if such it be, is obvious from x. 585 :

"Meanwhile in Paradise the Hellish pair

Too soon arrived-Sin, there in power before
Once actual, now in body, and to dwell
Habitual habitant; behind her Death,

Close following pace for pace, not mounted yet
On his pale horse."

One greater man. "For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous (Rom. v. 19, and see also 1 Cor. xv. 22).

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6. Note the accent on the first syllable instead of on the second as usual. The more unusual the inversion of accent, the more marked or emphatic the word on which the accent falls. This particular inversion is common; still it serves for slight emphasis on the word Sing. So in l. 10 Rose; in 1. 21 Dove-like; in 1. 87 Myriads; in l. 197, Prone, and in many other places.

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Secret. Bentley, who made a good many emendations to Paradise Lost to correct supposed misprints, changed this word to sacred. The change may seem at first to be to the point, and yet the difference, though slight, does much to give an idea of the real Miltonic quality. The expression "sacred top "' is on the whole conventional; if it suggest anything, it is merely the idea "holy." Secret," however, may not at once give any meaning at all; but on a moment's thought we begin to see that it implies all the remoteness, mysteriousness, and awfulness, perhaps even sacredness too, of the great mountain where Moses went apart from the people to talk with God. And when once established in meaning, the word becomes one of those truly poetical words, which by themselves do much to create an emotional atmosphere.

9. Heavens. In our ordinary sense; not the abode of God and the angels, which is usually called, not the Heavens, but Heaven or the Heaven of Heavens. (With perhaps one or two exceptions, e. g., vi. 567.)

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