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,
Though changed in outward lustre, that fixed mind,
And high disdain, from sense of injured merit,]
That with the Mightiest raised me to contend, |
100 And to the fierce contention brought along
Innumerable force of Spirits armed,]

That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring,
His utmost power with adverse power opposed
In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven,]

105 And shook his throne.] What] though the field be lost ? | All is not lost; the unconquerable will,

And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield,
And, what is else, not to be overcome ;
110 That glory never shall his wrath or might
Extort from me. | To bow and sue for grace
With suppliant knee, and deify his power,)
Who, from the terrour of this arm so late
Doubted his empire; that were low indeed,)
115 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,

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,
120 We may with more successful hope resolve
To wage, by force or guile, eternal war,
Irreconcilable to our grand Foe, |

125

Who now triumphs, | and, in the excess of joy
Sole reigning, holds the tyranny of Heaven.]

So spake the apostate Angel, though in pain,
Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair :|
And him thus answered soon his bold compeer.

[O Prince! O Chief of many throned Powers,]
That led the embattled Seraphim to war
130 Under thy conduct, and, in dreadful deeds
Fearless, endangered Heaven's perpetual King,]
And put to proof his high supremacy,

Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate ;]
Too well I see and rue the dire event, |
135 That with sad overthrow, and foul defeat,
Hath lost us Heaven, and all this mighty host
In horrible destruction laid thus low,]
As far as Gods and heavenly essences
Can perish; for the mind and spirit remains
140 Invincible, and vigour soon returns,|

Though all our glory extinct,] and happy state
Here swallowed up in endless misery.]

But what) if he our Conqueror) whom I now
Of force believe Almighty, | since no less

145 Than such could have o'erpowered such force as ours |
Have left us this our spirit and strength entire

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,)
That we may so suffice his vengeful ire, |

Or do him mightier service, as his thralls
150 By right of war,) whate'er his business be |
Here in the heart of Hell to work in fire,
Or do his errands in the gloomy deep ;)
What can it then avail,) though yet we feel
Strength undiminished, or eternal being

155 To undergo eternal punishment? |

Whereto with speedy words the Arch-Fiend replied. |
[Fallen Cherub !] to be weak is miserable,
Doing or suffering | but of this be sure,
To do aught good never will be our task,|
160 But ever to do ill our sole delight,

As being the contrary to his high will]
Whom we resist. If then his providence
Out of our evil seek to bring forth good, |
Our labour must be to pervert that end,
165 And out of good still to find means of evil ;|
Which oft-times may succeed, so as perhaps
Shall grieve him,] if I fail not | and disturb
His inmost counsels from their destined aim.]
But see!] the angry Victor hath recalled
170 His ministers of vengeance and pursuit

Back to the gates of Heaven | the sulphurous hail,
Shot after us in storm, o'erblown, hath laid

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
To bellow through the vast and boundless deep.]
Let us not slip the occasion,] whether scorn,
Or satiate fury, yield it from our Foe. |

180 Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild,
The seat of Desolation, void of light,

Save what the glimmering of these livid flames
Casts pale and dreadful? | Thither let us tend
From off the tossing of these fiery waves ;]
185 There rest,] if any rest can harbour there ; |
And, re-assembling our afflicted Powers,
Consult] how we may henceforth most offend
Our Enemy; | our own loss how repair ;]
How overcome this dire calamity ;]

190 What reinforcement we may gain from hope ; |
If not,] what resolution from despair.]

Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate
With head up-lift above the wave, and eyes
That sparkling blazed ;] his other parts besides,
195 Prone on the flood, extended long and large,
Lay floating many a rood; in bulk as huge
As) whom the fables name of monstrous size, |
Titanian, or Earth-born,) that warred on Jove; |
Briareos or Typhon) whom the den

200 By ancient Tarsus held ; | or that sea-beast
Leviathan,) which God of all his works

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: |
Him, haply, slumbering on the Norway foam
The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff
205 Deeming some island, oft,) as seamen tell, |
With fixed anchor in his scaly rind

Moors by his side under the lee,) while night
Invests the sea, and wished morn delays :]

So stretched out huge in length the Arch-Fiend lay,
210 Chained on the burning lake | nor ever thence
Had risen,] or heaved his head,] but that the will
And high permission of all-ruling Heaven

Left him at large to his own dark designs; |
That with reiterated crimes he might

215 Heap on himself damnation, while he sought
Evil to others; and, enraged, might see]
How all his malice served but to bring forth
Infinite goodness, grace, and mercy, shown
On Man by him seduced; | but on himself
220 Treble confusion, wrath, and vengeance, poured.]
Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool
His mighty stature ; on each hand the flames,
Driven backward, slope their pointing spires, and rolled
In billows, leave i̇' the midst a horrid vale.]

225 Then with expanded wings he steers his flight
Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air,|

That felt unusual weight; | till on dry land
He lights, if it were land that ever burned
With solid,] as the lake with liquid fire :]

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.