Than all this globous earth in plain outspread,
650 (Such are the courts of God !) the angelic throng
Dispersed in bands and files, their camp extend
By living streams among the trees of life,
[Pavilions numberless !] and sudden reared,
Celestial tabernacles] where they slept

655 Fanned with cool winds; save those, | who, in their course,
Melodious hymns about the sovran throne
Alternate all night long. | But not so waked
Satan; (so call him now; his former name
Is heard no more in Heaven ;) he, of the first,
660 If not the first archangel, great in power,
In favour, and pre-eminence, yet fraught
With envy against the Son of God,—that day
Honoured by his great Father, and proclaimed
Messiah, King anointed,-could not bear

665 Through pride that sight, and thought himself impaired.
Deep malice thence conceiving, and disdain,)
Soon as midnight brought on the dusky hour
Friendliest to sleep and silence, he resolved
With all his legions to dislodge, and leave
670 Unworshipped, unobeyed, the throne supreme, |
Contemptuous ;) and, his next subordinate
Awakening, thus to him in secret spake :]

"Sleep'st thou, companion dear? What sleep can close Thy eyelids and remember'st what decree

interpolation, according to his practice of rejecting everything as spurious which he considers unworthy of Milton.

649. The expression, this glorious earth in plain outspread, Bentley thinks would not have instructed but puzzled Adam. This is true, but if Raphael had been confined to the few notions which Adam could form in Paradise, the greater part of his narrative must have been left out. In this speech alone, the following words must have been utterly unintelligible to the first of men :-Thrones, dominations, princedoms.

Son, anoint, vicegerent, pearl, diamond, gold, bands, files, camp, pavilions, tabernacles, pyramids, towers, and many more. But the fact is, Adam must tacitly be allowed to have had an extensive knowledge of things he could not know from experience; for what is addressed nominally to Adam is really intended for the reader. Yet, in spite of this explanation, we cannot find much to admire in a pedantic allusion to Mercator's projection.

660. If not the first.-See note on v. 569. 672. Subordinate.-Beelzebub. See I. 84.

675 of yesterday, so late, hath passed the lips

Of Heaven's Almighty? Thou to me thy thoughts
Wast wont, I mine to thee was wont, to impart.
Both waking we were one; how then can now
Thy sleep dissent ? New laws thou seest imposed;

680 New laws from him who reigns new minds may raise
In us who serve-new counsels, to debate
What doubtful may ensue more in this place
To utter is not safe. Assemble thou

Of all those myriads) which we lead | the chief ;) 685 Tell them,] that by command,) ere yet dim night Her shadowy cloud withdraws, I am to haste,) And all) who under me their banners wave, | Homeward, with flying march,) where we possess The quarters of the north; there to prepare 690 Fit entertainment to receive our King,

The great Messiah, and his new commands ;)
Who speedily through all the hierarchies
Intends to pass triumphant, and give laws.' |
"So spake the false archangel, and infused
695 Bad influence into the unwary breast
Of his associate he together calls,

Or several one by one, the regent powers,
Under him regent ;| tells,] as he was taught, |
That the Most High commanding, now) ere night,-]
700 Now) ere dim night had disencumbered Heaven, |
The great hierarchal standard was to move ;)
Tells the suggested cause,] and casts between
Ambiguous words and jealousies, to sound
Or taint integrity] but all obeyed

679. Dissent=cause difference.

679. New is said with a feeling of indignation and reproach, as novus is often in Latin. It is one of the "ambiguous words" alluded to 703.

680. Minds, i.e., opinions.

684. The chief of myriads must be myriads. The sense requires the alteration

H

of chief into chiefs. The alteration is borne out by 697.

689. The north is supposed to be the particular quarter where Satan resided. This notion is perhaps based on Isaiah xiv. 12

696. The sense is, He calls by a general summons, or severally (i.e. by name), the powers who commanded under him.

705 The wonted signal, and superior voice

Of their great potentate; for great indeed
His name,] and high was his degree in Heaven :|
His countenance, as the morning star) that guides
The starry flock, | allured them ;) and with lies
710 Drew after him the third part of Heaven's host!]
"Meanwhile the Eternal Eye, whose sight discerns
Abstrusest thoughts, from forth his holy mount,
And from within the golden lamps that burn
Nightly before him, saw without their light
715 Rebellion rising-saw in whom-how spread
Among the sons of morn- -what multitudes
Were banded to oppose his high decree;
And, smiling, to his only Son thus said:
"Son! thou in whom my glory I behold
720 In full resplendence, heir of all my might!
Nearly it now concerns us to be sure

Of our omnipotence; and with what arms
We mean to hold what anciently we claim
Of deity or empire: such a foe

725 Is rising, who intends to erect his throne

Equal to ours, throughout the spacious north;
Nor so content, hath in his thought to try,
In battle, what our power is, or our right.
Let us advise, and to this hazard draw
730 With speed what force is left, and all employ

708. It is the evening star, as Bentley observes, not the morning star, that guides the starry flock.

709. The lies are not merely a deceitful expression of countenance, but the false motive given for the march, 689, ff., viz., to prepare fit entertainment in the north to receive the Messiah. It is, therefore, bold poetic language to say, that Satan's "countenance with lies drew after him the third part of Heaven's host."

712. Abstruse, in the sense of the Latin abstrusus, hidden, secret.

718. Strictly analysed the sentence is,the Eternal Eye (711) saw and said. The reader has to evolve the subject he from "the Eternal Eye" for the predicate said, as in 710 he must be supplied as lying suggested in "his countenance," 708.

720. Heir.-See Heb. i. 2, 3.

721. In putting cutting irony into the mouth of God, Milton no doubt considered himself justified by passages in Scripture, as Psalm ii., "Why do the heathen rage? He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision."

In our defence; lest unawares we lose
This our high place, our sanctuary, our hill.'

"To whom the Son, with calm aspéct and clear,
Lightning divine, ineffable, serene,

735 Made answer: Mighty Father, thou thy foes
Justly hast in derision, and, secure,

Laugh'st at their vain designs, and tumults vain ;]
Matter to me of glory!] whom their hate
Illustrates, when they see all regal power
740 Given me to quell their pride; | and in event
Know] whether I be dexterous to subdue

Thy rebels, or be found the worst in Heaven.']
"So spake the Son: but Satan, with his powers,
Far was advanced on wingèd speed; an host
745 Innumerable as the stars of night,

Or stars of morning-dew-drops, which the sun
Impearls on every leaf and every flower.

Regions they passed, the mighty regencies
Of Seraphim, and Potentates, and Thrones,
750 In their triple degrees; (regions to which
All thy dominion, Adam, is no more

Than what this garden is to all the earth,
And all the sea, from one entire globose
Stretched into longitude ;) which having pass'd,

755 At length into the limits of the north
They came; and Satan to his royal seat,

High on a hill, far blazing, as a mount
Raised on a mount, with pyramids and towers
From diamond quarries hewn, and rocks of gold;

760 The palace of great Lucifer; (so call

That structure in the dialect of men

784. Lightning, i.e., shining divinely, ineffably, serenely.

736. See note on 721.

739. Illustrate, in the sense of the Latin illustrare, to make illustrious.

744. Host is in Apposition with powers; and dew-drops with stars of morning.

750. Threefold instead of triple would improve the rhythm.

752. All the earth into longitude.-See note on 649.

756. And Satan, scil. came.

758. Pyramids are a strange feature in a royal palace.

Interpreted,) which, not long after, he,
Affecting all equality with God,

In imitation of that mount whereon
765 Messiah was declared in sight of Heaven,
The Mountain of the Congregation called;
For thither he assembled all his train,
Pretending so commanded, to consult
About the great reception of their King
770 Thither to come; and with calumnious art
Of counterfeited truth thus held their ears:

[“Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers!] If these magnific titles yet remain

Not merely titular, since, by decree,

775 Another now hath to himself engrossed

All power, and us eclipsed, under the name
Of King anointed ;] for whom all this haste
Of midnight march, and hurried meeting here,
This only to consult,] how we may best,)
780 With what may be devised of honours new, |
Receive him coming to receive from us

Knee-tribute, yet unpaid-prostration vile!).
Too much to One! but, double, how endured,
To One, and to his image now proclaimed !
785 But what if better counsels might erect

Our minds, and teach us to cast off this yoke?
Will ye submit your necks, and choose to bend
The supple knee? Ye will not, if I trust
To know ye right, or if ye know yourselves
790 Natives and sons of Heaven, possessed before
By none; and if not equal all, yet free-

766.The mount of the congregation in the sides of the north."-Isaiah xiv. 13. 768. Join"Pretending to come thither, (being) so commanded, to consult," &c.

771. Held.-Occupied, engaged. 772. This line serves as the principal sentence, as if it read, you are Thrones, &c. 783. The sense is,-This is too much to

be paid to any one; but how can it be endured to pay it double, once to himself and once to his representative?

788. If I trust, i.e., if I may trust, if I may be sure.

790. Heaven, which was possessed by none before you, and therefore belongs properly to you.