Paradise Lost Book IX Milton as a 3rd person

Book IX

Milton as a 3^rd person

NO more of talk where God or Angel Guest
With Man, as with his Friend, familiar us'd
To sit indulgent

I now must change [ 5 ]
Those Notes to Tragic; foul distrust, and breach
Disloyal on the part of Man, revolt,
And disobedience

That brought into this World a world of woe,
Sin and her shadow Death, and Misery
Deaths Harbinger

Now from end to end
Nights Hemisphere had veild the Horizon round

Now improv'd
In meditated fraud and malice, bent [ 55 ]
On mans destruction, maugre what might hap
Of heavier on himself, fearless return'd.

There was a place,
Now not, though Sin, not Time, first wrought the change, [ 70 ]
Where Tigris at the foot of Paradise
Into a Gulf shot under ground, till part
Rose up a Fountain by the Tree of Life;
In with the River sunk, and with it rose
Satan involv'd in rising Mist, then sought [ 75 ]
Where to lie hid

Consider'd every Creature, which of all
Most opportune might serve his Wiles, and found [ 85 ]
The Serpent subtlest Beast of all the Field.
Him after long debate, irresolute
Of thoughts revolv'd, his final sentence chose
Fit Vessel, fittest Imp of fraud

In whom
To enter, and his dark suggestions hide [ 90 ]
From sharpest sight

For in the wily Snake,
Whatever sleights none would suspicious mark
As from his wit and native subtlety
Proceeding, which in other Beasts observ'd
Doubt might beget of Diabolic pow'r [ 95 ]
Active within beyond the sense of brute.

Satan to himself

12. Earth, how like to Heav'n, if not preferred
More justly, Seat worthier of Gods, as built [ 100 ]
With second thoughts, reforming what was old!
For what God after better worse would build?

13. Terrestrial Heav'n, danc't round by other Heav'ns
That shine, yet bear their bright officious Lamps,
Light above Light, for thee alone, as seems, [ 105 ]

14. As God in Heav'n
Is Center, yet extends to all, so thou
Centring receav'st from all those Orbs

15. all their known virtue appears [ 110 ]
Productive in Herb, Plant, and nobler birth
Of Creatures animate with gradual life
Of Growth, Sense, Reason, all summed up in Man.

16. I in none of these
Find place or refuge; and the more I see
Pleasures about me, so much more I feel [ 120 ]
Torment within me

17. All good to me becomes
Bane, and in Heav'n much worse would be my state.

18. For only in destroying I find ease
To my relentless thoughts

19. To me shall be the glory sole among [ 135 ]
The infernal Powers, in one day to have marr'd
What he Almighty styl'd, six Nights and Days
Continu'd making, and who knows how long
Before had bin contriving

20. A Creature form'd of Earth, and him endow,
Exalted from so base original, [ 150 ]
With Heav'nly spoils, our spoils: What he decreed
He effected; Man he made, and for him built
Magnificent this World, and Earth his seat,

21. Him Lord pronounc'd, and, O indignity!
Subjected to his service Angel wings, [ 155 ]

22. wrapt in mist
Of midnight vapor glide obscure, and pry
In every Bush and Brake, where hap may finde [ 160 ]
The Serpent sleeping, in whose mazie foulds
To hide me, and the dark intent I bring.

23. foul descent! that I who erst contended
With Gods to sit the highest, am now constrained
Into a Beast, and mixed with bestial slime, [ 165 ]

24. That to the height of Deity aspir'd;
But what will not Ambition and Revenge
Descend to? who aspires must down as low
As high he soared, obnoxious first or last [ 170 ]
To basest things.

25. Revenge, at first though sweet,
Bitter ere long back on it self recoils;

Milton as 3^rd person

26. The Serpent: him fast sleeping soon he found
In Labyrinth of many a round self-rowed,
His head the midst, well stored with subtle wiles:

27. forth came the human pair
And joined their vocal Worship to the Quire
Of Creatures wanting voice, that done, partake
The season, prime for sweetest Sents and Aires

28. Then commune how that day they best may ply
Their growing work

Milton as a 3^rd person

from her Husbands hand her hand [ 385 ]
Soft she withdrew,

Oft he to her his charge of quick return
Repeated, she to him as oft engag'd [ 400 ]
To be returned by Noon amid the Bower,
And all things in best order to invite
Noontide repast, or Afternoons repose.
He sought them both, but wish'd his hap might find
Eve separate, he wish'd, but not with hope

Satan to himself

Thoughts, whither have ye led me, with what sweet
Compulsion thus transported to forget
What hither brought us, hate, not love

Nor hope [ 475 ]
Of Paradise for Hell, hope here to taste
Of pleasure, but all pleasure to destroy,

Then let me not let pass
Occasion which now smiles, behold alone [ 480 ]
The Woman, opportune to all attempts,
Her Husband, for I view far round, not nigh,
Whose higher intellectual more I shun,

Milton as a 3^rd person

So varied hee, and of his tortuous Traine
Curled many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve,
To lure her Eye; she busied heard the sound
Of rustling Leaves

Satan to Eve

In this enclosure wild, these Beasts among,
Beholders rude, and shallow to discern
Half what in thee is fair

Milton as a 3^rd person

So glozed the Tempter, and his Proem tuned;
Into the Heart of Eve his words made way

Eve to Serpent (Satan)

What may this mean? Language of Man pronounced
By Tongue of Brute, and human sense exprest?
To Beasts, whom God on their Creation-Day
Created mute to all articulate sound;
Thee, Serpent, subtlest beast of all the field [ 560 ]
I knew, but not with human voice endu'd;
How cam'st thou speakable of mute, and how
To me so friendly grown above the rest
Of brutal kind, that daily are in sight?

Satan to Eve

Empress of this fair World, resplendent Eve,
Easy to me it is to tell thee all
What thou commandst and right thou shouldst be obeyed

I was at first as other Beasts that graze
The trodden Herb, of abject thoughts and low,
As was my food, nor aught but food discern'd
Or Sex, and apprehended nothing high:
Till on a day roaving the field, I chanc'd [ 575 ]
A goodly Tree far distant to behold
Loaden with fruit of fairest colours mixt,
Ruddy and Gold

I nearer drew to gaze;
When from the boughes a savorie odour blow'n,
Grateful to appetite, more pleas'd my sense, [ 580 ]
Then smell of sweetest Fennel or the Teats
Of Ewe or Goat dropping with Milk at Eevn,
Un sucked of Lamb or Kid, that tend their play.
To satisfy the sharp desire I had
Of tasting those fair Apples, I resolv'd [ 585 ]
Not to defer; hunger and thirst at once,
Powerful persuaders

Quickened at the scent
Of that alluring fruit, urg'd me so keen.

where plenty hung
Tempting so nigh, to pluck and eat my fill [ 595 ]
I spar'd not, for such pleasure till that hour
At Feed or Fountain never had I found.
Sated at length, ere long I might perceive
Strange alteration in me, to degree
Of Reason in my inward Powers, and Speech [ 600 ]
Wanted not long, though to this shape retain'd.
I turned my thoughts, and with capacious mind
Considered all things visible in Heav'n,
Or Earth, or Middle, all things fair and good;

Eve to serpent

Serpent, thy overpraising leaves in doubt [ 615 ]
The virtue of that Fruit, in thee first prov'd

where grows the Tree, from hence how far?

Satan to Eve

To whom the wily Adder, blithe and glad. [ 625 ]
Empress, the way is ready, and not long,
Beyond a row of Myrtles, on a Flat,
Fast by a Fountain, one small Thicket past
Of blowing Myrrh and Balme; if thou accept
My conduct, I can bring thee thither soon

Milton as a 3^rd Person

He leading swiftly rolled
In tangles, and made intricate seem strait,
Led Eve our credulous Mother, to the Tree
Of prohibition, root of all our woe;

Eve to Satan(Serpent)

57. But of this Tree we may not taste nor touch;
God so commanded, and left that Command
Sole Daughter of his voice; the rest, we live
Law to our selves, our Reason is our Law.

Satan(serpent) to Eve

58. To whom the Tempter guilefully repli'd. [ 655 ]
Indeed? hath God then said that of the Fruit
Of all these Garden Trees ye shall not eat,
Yet Lords declar'd of all in Earth or Aire?

Eve to Satan(Serpent)

59. To whom thus Eve yet sinless. Of the Fruit
Of each Tree in the Garden we may eate, [ 660 ]
But of the Fruit of this fair Tree amidst
The Garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eate
Thereof, nor shall ye touch it, least ye die.

Serpent(satan) to Eve

Sacred, Wise, and Wisdom-giving Plant,
Mother of Science

Now I feel thy Power [ 680 ]
Within me cleere, not onely to discerne
Things in thir Causes, but to trace the wayes
Of highest Agents, deemd however wise.

Queen of this Universe, doe not believe
Those rigid threats of Death;

; ye shall not Die: [ 685 ]
How should ye? by the Fruit? it gives you Life
To Knowledge, By the Threatner, look on mee,
Mee who have touch'd and tasted, yet both live,
And life more perfet have attaind then Fate
Meant mee, by ventring higher then my Lot.

Shall that be shut to Man, which to the Beast
Is open? or will God incense his ire
For such a petty Trespass

whatever thing Death be, [ 695 ]
Deterred not from achieving what might leade
To happier life, knowledge of Good and Evil

Of evil, if what is evil
Be real, why not known, since easier shunned?
God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just; [ 700 ]
Not just, not God; not feared then, nor obeyed

That ye should be as Gods, since I as Man

I of brute human, yee of human Gods.

So ye shall die perhaps, by putting off
Human, to put on Gods

who enclos'd
Knowledge of Good and Evil in this Tree,

71. Goddess humane, reach then, and freely taste.

Milton as a 3^rd Person

his words replete with guile
Into her heart too easie entrance won

Fixt on the Fruit she gaz'd, which to behold [ 735 ]
Might tempt alone

Eve to herself

Great are thy Vertues, doubtless, best of Fruits.

Though kept from Man, and worthy to be admir'd,
Whose taste, too long forborn, at first assay
Gave elocution to the mute, and taught
The Tongue not made for Speech to speak thy praise

Conceales not from us, naming thee the Tree
Of Knowledge, knowledge both of good and evil
In plain then, what forbids he but to know,
Forbids us good, forbids us to be wise?
Such prohibitions binde not.

In the day we eate
Of this fair Fruit, our doom is, we shall die.
How dies the Serpent? hee hath eat'n and lives,
And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discerns, [ 765 ]
Irrational till then.

For us alone
Was death invented? or to us deni'd
This intellectual food, for beasts reserv'd?
For Beasts it seems: yet that one Beast which first
Hath tasted, envies not, but brings with joy [ 770 ]
The good befall'n him

Here grows the Cure of all, this Fruit Divine,
Fair to the Eye, inviting to the Taste,
Of virtue to make wise: what hinders then
To reach, and feed at once both Body and Mind?

Milton as a 3^rd person

So saying, her rash hand in evil hour [ 780 ]
Forth reaching to the Fruit, she pluck'd, she eat:
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat
Sighing through all her Works gave signs of woe,
That all was lost.

Eve to herself

Sovran, vertuous, precious of all Trees

But to Adam in what sort
Shall I appear? shall I to him make known
As yet my change, and give him to partake
Full happiness with me

or rather not,
But keep the odds of Knowledge in my power [ 820 ]
Without Copartner?

but what if God have seen
And Death ensue? then I shall be no more,
And Adam wedded to another Eve,
Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct;
A death to think.

Confirm'd then I resolve, [ 830 ]
Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe:
So dear I love him, that with him all deaths
I could endure, without him live no life.

Eve to Adam

Thee I have missed, and thought it long, depriv'd
Thy presence, agony of love till now
Not felt

This Tree is not as we are told, a Tree
Of danger tasted

Adam to himself

How art thou lost, how on a sudden lost

The strict forbiddance, how to violate
The sacred Fruit forbidd'n! some cursed fraud
Of Enemy hath beguil'd thee, yet unknown

And me with thee hath ruined, for with thee
Certain my resolution is to Die;

How can I live without thee, how forgo
Thy sweet Converse and Love so dearly joyn'd,
To live again in these wilde Woods forlorn?

Should God create another Eve, and I
Another Rib afford, yet loss of thee
Would never from my heart

95. no no, I feel
The Link of Nature draw me: Flesh of Flesh,
Bone of my Bone thou art, and from thy State [ 915 ]
Mine never shall be parted, bliss or woe.

Adam to Eve

Bold deed thou hast presum'd, adventrous Eve
And peril great provok't, who thus hath dar'd
Fickle their State whom God
Most Favors, who can please him long; Me first
He ruined, now Mankind; whom will he next?

98. if Death
Consort with thee, Death is to mee as Life;
So forcible within my heart I feel [ 955 ]
The Bond of Nature draw me to my owne,
My own in thee, for what thou art is mine;
Our State cannot be severd, we are one,
One Flesh; to loose thee were to loose my self.

Eve to Adam

Direct, or by occasion hath presented
This happy trial of thy Love, which else [ 975 ]
So eminently never had bin known.

Taste so Divine, that what of sweet before
Hath touched my sense, flat seems to this, and harsh.

101. On my experience, Adam, freely taste,
And fear of Death deliver to the Winds.

Milton as a 3^rd person

As with new Wine intoxicated both
They swim in mirth, and fancies that they feel
Divinities within them breeding wings

Carnal desire enflaming, he on Eve
Began to cast lascivious Eyes, she him
As wantonly repaid; in Lust they burne

Adam to Eve

Eve, now I see thou art exact of taste,
And elegant, of Sapience no small part,
Much pleasure we have lost, while we abstain'd
From this delightful Fruit, nor known till now
True relish, tasting; if such pleasure be
In things to us forbidden, it might be wish'd, [ 1025 ]
For this one Tree had bin forbidden ten.

106. For never did thy Beauty since the day
I saw thee first and wedded thee, adorn'd [ 1030 ]
With all perfections, so enflame my sense
With ardor to enjoy thee, fairer now
Then ever, bounty of this virtuous Tree.

Milton as a 3^rd person