The force of those dire arms? Yet not for those, 95 Nor) what the potent Victor in his rage Can else inflict, do I repent) or change, That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring, 105 And shook his throne.] What] though the field be lost ? | All is not lost; the unconquerable will, And study of revenge, immortal hate, Since, through experience of this great event, 94. The order is:-Yet not for those [arins], nor for that,)) which the potent victor in his rage can else inflict, | do I repent,)) or, though changed in outward lustre, change that fixed mind, and high disdain, [flowing] from sense of injured merit,]] that raised me to contend with the mightiest, and brought along [with me] to the contention [an] innumerable force of armed spirits that durst [dared to] dislike his reign, and preferring me, opposed his utmost power with adverse power in dubious battle on the plain of heaven,] and shook his throne.] 106. The unconquerable will... to be overcome All in apposition with that glory. 111. To bow and sue, &c.-Infinitives in appos. with that, in line 114. 113. This. We use the demonst. pronouns like the Latin hic, in the sense of the Possessive Pron. of the first person. This arm is therefore equivalent to my arm; as this country means our country. Comp. this, I. 117. 116. Since by fate, &c.-These are adverbial sentences to that were an ignominy, showing the reason why. 117. Empyreal-Pure as fire or light, not gross as our bodies are. In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced, 125 Who now triumphs, | and, in the excess of joy So spake the apostate Angel, though in pain, [O Prince! O Chief of many throned Powers,] Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate ;] Though all our glory extinct,] and happy state But what) if he our Conqueror) whom I now 145 Than such could have o'erpowered such force as ours | 121. Tyranny, in its Greek sense of usurped supreme power. 129. The antecedent to that is Powers, not Chief. This line is grammatically only an interjection, though it furnishes the antecedent to the following Adj. Sentences. 131 Perpetual.-The fallen angel grudges the Almighty the epithet eternal. 133. The notion of Fate as a mysterious power, to which even the gods must bend, is borrowed from the Greek mythology, and entirely foreign to the Old as well as New Testament. In how far Milton was justified by poetical or theological motives to introduce it into his poem, is a very difficult and delicate question. 138. Adverbial adjunct to "low"-how low? 141. Supply is. 144. Take no less than such, as Subj., and such force as ours, as Obj. Strongly to suffer and support our pains,) Or do him mightier service, as his thralls 155 To undergo eternal punishment? | Whereto with speedy words the Arch-Fiend replied. | As being the contrary to his high will] Back to the gates of Heaven | the sulphurous hail, The fiery surge, that from the precipice Of Heaven received us falling; and the thunder, 175 Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage, Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now 180 Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild, Save what the glimmering of these livid flames 190 What reinforcement we may gain from hope ; | Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate 200 By ancient Tarsus held ; | or that sea-beast 176. His is used for the Neuter as well as Mascul. gender. The pronoun its rarely occurs in Milton, and never in the English Bible. It is of comparatively recent introduction. See Trench, English Past and Present; Craig, The English of Shakspere. 177. Vast and boundless.-The attribute boundless, coming immediately after vast, destroys all the specific power of the latter. 192. Supply spake after Satan. 194. His other parts besides-A pleonasm. 195. Prone means properly lying forward on one's front; the opposite is supine. 197. The relative whom has Titanian, or Earth-born, for its antecedent, an order borrowed from the Latin. 199. Briareos or Typhon.-One of the Titans. 201. Leviathan, which.-Leviathan is here of the neuter gender, but v. 203, it is masculine. Thus, with reference to ship, we use she and which, E Created hugest that swim the ocean stream: | Moors by his side under the lee,) while night So stretched out huge in length the Arch-Fiend lay, Left him at large to his own dark designs; | 215 Heap on himself damnation, while he sought 225 Then with expanded wings he steers his flight That felt unusual weight; | till on dry land 202. Hugest must be read as a monosyllable to suit the verse, just as highest, ii. 30. 202. The ocean of the early Greek poets was a river flowing round the flat circular earth. 204. Night founder'd.-Foundered is here not the naval term, meaning filled and sinking, but it means, stopped, overtaken by the night, prevented from proceeding, as it occurs in Comus, 488, Either some one like us night-foundered here. Con 205. Deeming governs him, 203. strue, Deeming him an island, the pilot moors by his side. 211. But-Prep. governing the Noun Sent. following. 220. Supply might see. 224. Horrid vale.-Bentley very properly asks, Why should the vale be horrid ? and suggests gaping instead. |