"Powers and dominions, deities of heaven! More glorious and more dread than from no fall, Me, though just right, and the fixed laws of heaven, With what besides in council or in fight Yielded with full consent. The happier state 15 20 25 30 35 So used repeatedly in Shakes.-11. Powers. See note, Book I. 128.-12. For; i. e., I say 'deities of heaven,' because, etc. Lines 12-17 inclusive are parenthetic ? - 15. Virtues (Lat. vir, man; virtus, manhood). Powers? powerful beings? Or heroic qualities? See I. 320.-18. Me. A classical order of words, adopted for emphasis? Syntax? Note the grounds of his leadership; 'just right,' 'fixed laws,' 'free choice,' and meritorious achievements. Any others? 24. Happier, etc. The argument is ingenious. Express it in your own words. Meaning of 'state' ?-28. Thunderer. Repeatedly (as in Book I. 92, 93, 258) he ascribes the victory to the thunder, as of a Jupiter Tonans. -33. Precedence. Observe the acccent. None; i. e. there To claim our just inheritance of old, Surer to prosper than prosperity Could have assured us; and by what best way, We now debate. Who can advise, may speak." He ceased; and next him Moloch, sceptred king, : Went all his fear of God, or hell, or worse, 66 Contrive who need, or when they need; not now. at once is none. 41. Open . . . . covert. See note, Book I. 662. .... 40 45 50 55 60 Spenser (F. Q. What of the rhe "There is a decided manly tone II. XI. 7) has 'T' assail with open force or hidden guile.' torical fitness of Satan's utterances ? - 42. in the argument and sentiments, an eloquent dogmatism, as if each person - 43. Next. Beside? or next spoke from thorough conviction." Hazlitt. after? Moloch. See note, I. 392. Why should he speak next? Sceptred. 'Sceptre-bearing,' Gr. σênπтoûxos, is the Homeric epithet with king. — 46. Trust. Stronger than hope'? Was. When? 48. Cared. Subject nom. ? 50. Recked, cared. So found repeatedly in Shakes. Thereafter, therefore, accordingly? "Moloch's speech is a masterpiece of furious eloquence." Ross. Analyze it to ascertain its rhetorical and poetic merit. -51. Sentence (Lat.' sententia), opinion, decision, vote. -52. Unexpert than in open war? or than` others? Irony here? -55. Stand. They were not disbanded yet. See II. 522, 523.61. All, instead of dividing forces, or leaving any inactive. At once, O'er heaven's high towers to force resistless way, Against the torturer; when, to meet the noise Mixed with Tartarean sulphur and strange fire, When the fierce foe hung on our broken rear 65 70 75 now, instead of further delay. Burke suggested that 'all at once' ought to be Insulting, and pursued us through the deep, Our stronger, some worse way his wrath may find 80 Fear to be worse destroyed! What can be worse 85 Than to dwell here, driven out from bliss, condemned Where pain of unextinguishable fire Must exercise us without hope of end, The vassals of his anger, when the scourge 90 Inexorably, and the torturing hour Calls us to penance? More destroyed than thus, What fear we then? what doubt we to incense 95 His utmost ire? which, to the highth enraged, And cannot cease to be, we are at worst 100 wrath burnt after them to the bottomless pit." VI. 864, 865, 866. — 82–84. Should we... destruction. Moloch puts this into the mouth of a second objector, and then answers it? Supply the implied words. — 85. Worse destroyed than now? -87. Utter. Extreme? or outer, i. e. outside of heaven? I. 72.89. Exercise (Lat. exercere, drive, plague), harass. 90. Vassals. Bentley would read vessels, quoting Rom. ix. 22; but 'vassals' is better. See 252. (Welsh gwas, a youth, a page, a servant.) Milton uses the words, 'vassals of perdition,' in one of his earliest prose works. 91. Torturing hour is Shakespearian. Hamlet, I. 5; Mid. N. Dream, V. 1. Milton believed the punishment of the devils, like the remorse of bad men, to be more intense at some times than at others. We should look beneath the surface for these analogies. -92. More; i. e. if more. Thus. As we now are?-93. Abolished, annihilated. 94. What doubt we. On account of what? why? (Lat. quid dubitamus, what, i. e., why, hesitate we?) So repeatedly in Shakes., as Jul. Cæs. II. 1. 123, "What need we any spur?" -97. Essential, essence. Adjective for subst., as often in Shakes. ; e. g. caviare to the general.' Ham. II. 11. 458.-98. Miserable, etc. In misery On this side nothing; and by proof we feel To less than gods. peers, "I should be much for open war, 105 110 115 I 20 to have eternal being?-100. At worst, in the worst possible condition?-104. Fatal, sustained by fate? Does Milton seemingly attribute to the devils the origin of the idea of fate as a power separate from Deity? Fate (Lat. fatum, spoken, fr. furi, to speak) is that which is spoken or decreed by Deity? Classical idea of fate?-105. Revenge. How much is compressed into this one ringing word! What passions and sentiments are uppermost in him? See the description of him in Book I. -106. Denounced (Lat. denuntiāre, to announce threateningly), threatened. 109. Belial, etc. The stormy Moloch is followed by Belial, as the wrathful Achilles (Iliad, I. 247, etc.) was followed by the 'mild-voiced Nestor,' from whose lips flowed words sweeter than honey.' Act. Behavior? or deeds? or gesture? Humane (Lat. humanus), polished, cultured. 113. Dropt manna. 'Drop manna in the way of starved people.' Shakes. Mer. Venice, V. 1. (Heb. manna, a gift. The taste was 'like wafers made with honey.' (Exod. xvi. 31.) Make the worse, etc. This was the business of the sophists, according to Plato, who uses the exact original of these words. 114. Reason. Meaning? To, so as to? Dash, confound, strike down. - 117. Pleased, etc. Contrast his speech with Moloch's. See description of Belial in Book I. Does he comply with the rhetoricians' rule that the exordium should conciliate the audience?- 120. Hate. The key-note? Which |