JOHN MILTON (1608-1674) PARADISE LOST THE VERSE The Measure is English Heroic Verse without Rime, as that of Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin; Rime being no necessary Adjunct or true Ornament of Poem or good Verse, in longer Works especially, but the Invention of a barbarous Age, to set off wretched matter and lame Meeter; grac't indeed since by the use of some famous modern Poets, carried away by Custom, but much to thir own vexation, hindrance, and constraint to express many things otherwise, and for the most part worse than else they would have exprest them. Not without cause therefore some both Italian and Spanish Poets of prime note have rejected Rime both in longer and shorter Works, as have also long since our best English Tragedies, as a thing of it self, to all judicious eares, triveal and of no true musical delight; which consists only in apt Numbers, fit quantity of Syllables, and the sense variously drawn out from one Verse into another; not in the jingling sound of like endings, a fault avoyded by the learned Ancients both in Poetry and all good Oratory. This neglect then of Rime so little is to be taken for a defect, though it may seem so perhaps to vulgar Readers, that it rather is to be esteem'd an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty recover'd to Heroic Poem from the troublesom and modern bondage of Rimcing. BOOK I THE ARGUMENT OF THE FIRST BOOK The first Book proposes first in brief the whole Subject, Man's disobedience, and the loss thereupon of Paradise where in he was plac't: Then touches the prime cause of his fall, the Serpent, or rather Satan in the Serpent; who revolting from God, and drawing to his side many Legions of Angels, was by the command of God driven out of Heaven with all his Crew into the great Deep. Which action past over, the Poem hasts into the midst of things, presenting Satan with his Angels now fallen into Hell, describ'd here not in the Center (for Heaven and Earth may be suppos'd as yet not made, certainly not yet accurst) but in a place of utter darknesse, fitliest call'd Chaos: Here Satan with his Angels lying on the burning Lake, thunder-struck and astonisht, after a certain space recovers, as from confusion, calls up him who next in Order and Dignity lay by him; they confer of thir miserable fall. Satan awakens all his Legions, who lay till then in the same manner confounded; They rise, thir Numbers, array of Battel, thir chief Leaders nam'd, according to the Idols known afterwards in Canaan and the Countries adjoyning. To these Satan directs his Speech, comforts them with hope yet of regaining Heaven, but tells them lastly of a new World and new kind of Creature to be created, according to an ancient Prophesie or report in Heaven; for that Angels were long before this visible Creation, was the opinion of many ancient Fathers. To find out the truth of this Prophesie, and what to determin thereon, he refers to a full Councell. What his Associates thence attempt. Pandemonium the Palace of Satan rises, suddenly built out of the Deep: The infernal Peers there sit in Counsel. Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, Sing, Heav'nly Muse, that on the secret top Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed In the beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth 10 Rose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flow'd Fast by the oracle of God, I thence Invoke thy aid to my adventrous song, That with no middle flight intends to soar Above th' Aonian mount,' while it pursues Things unattempted yet in prose or rime. And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer Before all temples th' upright heart and pure, Instruct me, for thou know'st; thou from the first Wast present, and, with mighty wings. outspread, 20 Th' infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile Stir'd up with envy and revenge, deceiv'd The Mother of Mankind, what time his pride Had cast him out from Heav'n, with all his host Of rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring To set himself in glory above his peers, He trusted to have equal'd the Most High, If he oppos'd; and with ambitious aim 41 Against the throne and monarchy of God Rais'd impious war in Heav'n and battle proud, With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power Hurl'd headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky, With hideous ruin and combustion, down To bottomless perdition; there to dwel! In adamantine chains and penal fire, Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms. Nine times the space that measures day and night 50 In utter darkness, and their portion set, As far remov'd from God and light of Heav'n As from the center thrice to th' utmost pole. Oh how unlike the place from whence they fell! There the companions of his fall, o'erwhelm'd With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire, He soon discerns; and, weltring by his side, One next himself in power, and next in crime, Long after known in Palestine, and nam'd Beelzebub. To whom th' Arch-Enemy, 81 And thence in Heav'n call'd Satan, with Nor what the potent Victor in his rage Can else inflict, do I repent or change, Though chang'd in outward lustre, that fixt mind, And high disdain from sense of injur'd merit, That with the Mightiest rais'd me to contend, ΙΟΙ And to the fierce contention brought along His utmost power with adverse power oppos'd In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven, And shook his throne. What though the With suppliant knee, and deify his power Who, from the terror of this arm, so late Doubted his empire-that were low indeed; That were an ignominy and shame beneath This downfall; since by fate the strength of gods And this empyreal substance cannot fail; Since, through experience of this great event, In arms not worse, in foresight much advanc't, We may with more successful hope resolve To wage by force or guile eternal war, 120 Who now triumphs, and in th' excess of joy Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heav'n." |