Paradise Lost (Modern Library Classics) (18 page)

583–84.
Aspramont … Trebisond:
Fighting against the Saracens, Roland wins honor at the castle of
Aspramont
, an episode often mentioned in Italian epic (see Ariosto,
OF
17.14).
Montalban
is the site of the castle of Rinaldo, the hero to whom Tasso assigns victory in the battle for Jerusalem (GL).
Damasco, Marocco
, and
Trebisond
are also sites associated with great warriors and battles between Christian and Saracen.

585.
Biserta
: Tunisian seaport from which Saracens embarked to invade Spain.

586–87.
Charlemagne … Fontarabia:
According to the Spanish Jesuit historian and noted advocate of tyrannicide Juan de Mariana (1536–1624),
Charlemagne
fell—that is, suffered ruinous defeat—at
Fontarabia
(1699). The historical incident is the basis for the epic tale of the death of Roland and his twelve paladins at nearby Roncesvalles.

588.
observed
: heeded, reverenced. Though it exceeds the greatest historical and legendary human armies combined, Satan’s army acknowledges the still greater excellence of its leader.

594.
glory
: a coronalike brilliance; see 141n.

596.
Shorn
: an allusion to Samson, whose name derives from the Hebrew word for “sun.”

596–99.
from … monarchs:
Charles II’s censor objected to these lines, presumably because the king himself had been born on the day of an eclipse in 1630, a coincidence later construed “as a portent of the interregnum” (Leonard).

599.
Perplexes
: torments, a stronger term in seventeenth-century usage than now; see, e.g.,
OTH
5.2.346.

601.
intrenched
: cut into.

603.
considerate
: thoughtful, deliberate.

605.
passion
: suffering or affliction, in contrast with
cruel
, disposed to inflict suffering.

609.
amerced
: from the French for “at the mercy of”; a law term meaning “fined at the court’s discretion.” Milton’s unidiomatic construction suggests that he had in mind a similar Greek verb used by Homer to explain the blindness of the bard Demodokos: “Of his sight [the Muse] deprived [
ámerse
] him” (Od. 8.64).

615.
blasted heath
: Cp.
MAC
1.3.77.

620.
Tears … forth
: According to Raphael, angels digest food and make love. Here it seems that they also have the capacity to shed tears after their fashion (cp. 5.407–39, 8.622–29, 10.23–25). It was commonly supposed that males weep because they are born of women. Milton rejects this theory (see 10.1101–2, 11.494–97) and had precedent for presenting angels capable of weeping; see, e.g., Shakespeare,
MM
2.2.879,
OTH
3.3.371. In context, Satan’s tears suggest those of the Persian tyrant Xerxes before his invasion of Greece. Reviewing his vast army, he was overcome by consciousness of his soldiers’ mortality “at the time when he was hastening them to their fate, and to the intended destruction of the greatest people in the world, to gratify his own vain glory” (Newton). Cp. 10.307–11.

624.
event
: outcome.

632.
puissant
: powerful.

641.
still
: invariably.

642.
tempted our attempt
: Milton’s propensity for paronomasia—close repetition of similar-sounding words distinct in meaning—has long been derided as “jingling”: “like marriages between persons too near of kin, to be avoided” (Hume). It is a figure distinctive of Hebrew Scripture, however, and one found in late Latin writers and Renaissance Italian poets. Milton often uses it in expressions of derision; see lines 666–67, 4.286, 5.869, 9.11, 9.648, 11.627, 12.78.

646.
close
: covert.

650.
Space may produce
: a notably active construction for a state commonly regarded as a passive locale or empty setting. By
worlds
Milton means what we would call “universes.” The one that Satan proceeds to mention is our own, which “may be supposed as yet not made” (Argument; cp. 8.229–36).

651.
fame
: rumor; cp. 2.345–53, 830–35, 10.481–82.

653.
generation
: race;
choice regard:
selective estimation or judgment.
Regard
may also mean “purpose” or “intention,” as in the description of Shakespeare’s Henry V: “The King is full of grace, and fair regard” (1.2.22).

656.
eruption
: outbreak; the diction seems suggestive of “hell’s volcanoes” (Leonard), but according to the
OED
the association of
eruption
with volcanic activity is not current in England until well into the eighteenth century.

672.
scurf
: any incrustation upon the surface of a body (especially diseased or scabbed skin); here a sulfurous deposit.

673.
womb
: belly or cavity.

674.
work of sulfur
: “the offspring and production of sulfur, … the subterranean fire [that] concocts and boils up the crude and undigested earth into a more profitable consistence, and by its innate heat, hardens and bakes it into metals” (Hume).

676.
pioneers
: soldiers who do demolition or construction for siege or defense.

678.
Mammon
: like
Belial
, a common noun. Derived from the Arabic for “riches,” it means “wealth”; cp. Matt. 6.24. By medieval times, Mammon had been personified as a Christian version of Pluto. See Spenser, FQ 2.7.

679.
erected
: upright in posture, lofty in character.

682.
Heav’n’s pavement
: see Rev. 21.21.

684.
vision beatific
: literally, the “happy-making sight” (
On Time
18); viewing God.

686.
center
: the earth’s interior.

686–88.
impious … hid:
a commonplace that originates in Ovid’s account of a maternally abusive degeneration from the original “golden” age of justice and temperance (
Met
. 1.137–40). See Spenser,
FQ
2.7.16, for a similar association of Mammon with such impiety. Cp. Comus’s reversal of the theme, 718–36.

688–90.
Soon … gold:
The diction anticipates the production of Eve at 8.463ff.

690.
ribs
: veins of ore;
admire:
wonder.

694.
The Tower of Babel (see 12.43–62) and the Egyptian pyramids.

700–704.
The
massy ore
(gold is dense) extracted by the pioneers is melted (
founded
) in prepared
cells
heated from below by a second group of fallen angels, who use
liquid fire
conveyed from the burning lake in sluices (
Sluiced
). Smelting the metals separates (
severing
) the heavy gold from the less dense matter (
dross
), which rises to the top and is skimmed off (
scummed
), leaving pure gold in the cells. In line 703, 1674 prints
found out
instead of
founded
(1667).

705–9.
A various mold
(hollow form or matrix) has been shaped by yet another crew, which fills it with molten gold transported from the cells
by strange conveyance
. This process is compared to an intricate musical composition taking audible form from on
e blast of wind
into an organ.

710.
fabric
: fabrication.

711–12.
Structural principles of music (e.g., Pythagoras’ golden section) were deemed basic to architecture and other plastic arts, including, as Milton later presents it, cuisine (see 5.333–49). Athenians played music at the dedication of temples like the Parthenon.

711.
exhalation:
vapor emitted by the earth.

713–17.
Built … gold:
The edifice looks like a pagan temple, with features that recall the Roman Pantheon (e.g., golden roof), though the satirical Milton presumably also has St. Peter’s Basilica in mind.

713.
pilasters round
: square columns built into the wall;
round
modifies
set
.

714.
Doric
: the least ornamented style of Greek column; like the laconic music of line 550.

715.
architrave
: the “master beam” or basis of the upper section of a classical temple; it sits on top of the columns (hence
overlaid
).

716.
Cornice or frieze
: The
frieze
is a band that sits on the architrave and is often, as in the case of the Parthenon, decorated with sculptures that stand out in relief, as if embossed (
bossy
). The
cornice
caps the frieze and is also often ornamented.

717.
fretted gold
: gold wrought with ornamental designs, as in the Pantheon.

718.
Alcairo
: Memphis, ancient capital of Egypt, near modern Cairo.

720.
Belus
: name for Baal in Babylon, where he had a celebrated temple, described by Ralegh (1621, 183);
Serapis:
Ptolemaic amalgamation of Hades and Osiris, with splendid temples in Memphis and Alexandria.

722–23.
ascending pile / Stood fixed:
After rising like a vapor out of the ground, the magnificent building achieved its finished state.

728.
cressets
: iron baskets suspended from the ceiling, containing flaming pitch (as
phaltus
).

729.
naphtha
: liquid pitch, supplies the lamps.

739.
Ausonian land
: Greek name for a district of Italy.

740–48.
Men … before:
Homer’s Hephaestus tells how Zeus threw him from Olympus to punish him for siding with Hera (
Il
. 1.591–95). Milton closely imitates that account but then corrects it.

740.
Mulciber
: smelter; another name for Vulcan, Roman counterpart to the Greek Hephaestus, god of fire and crafts. Homer mentions palaces he erects on Olympus (
Il
. 1.605–8), and Hesiod says he forged Pandora (cp. 688–90n; 4.714–19n).

745.
zenith
: (1) upper region of the sky, where vaporous meteorological phenomena such as
falling stars
were thought to ignite; (2) the highest point above the observer’s horizon attained by a celestial body (the sun in this case).

750.
engines
: contrivances (it shares a common Latin root with
invention
)
;
cp. 4.17.

756.
Pandaemonium
: Greek for “place of all the demons.”

759.
By place or choice
: by virtue of rank or election.

764.
Wont
: were wont (accustomed) to;
soldan’s:
sultan’s (see 348n).

765.
paynim
: pagan.

766.
career
: short gallop at full speed, as in jousting.

767–75.
swarmed … affairs:
Bee similes occur frequently in classical literature, and the phrasing here variously echoes precursors (cp. Homer,
Il
. 2.87–90; Vergil,
Aen
. 1.430–36; 6.707–9, and especially
Georg
. 4.149–227). Bees are usually presented as exemplary creatures, beneficial to humanity. Milton bends the tradition so that the inaugural scene of
state affairs
in Satan’s palace anticipates the final one, when the fallen angels are straitened into swarms of hissing serpents (cp. 10.508ff). Note the predominance of sibilants in both passages. When Milton was in Rome, the seemingly ubiquitous insignia of Pope Urban VIII was a bee, and his followers were called bees.

769.
Taurus
: The sun stays in the astrological sign of Taurus from April 20 till May 20, the period immediately after Aries, the sign under which the world was created and would have persisted had the Fall not occurred.

774.
expatiate
: (1) walk about; (2) speak at length. Bees communicate by moving their legs in view of other bees, relaying directions to the best sites for pollen. Although such entomological discoveries are relatively recent, beekeepers have long recognized that allowing bees to “walk about” each other augments the harvest of honey; hence the “suburban” plank laid outside the hive for that purpose.

778.
Earth’s giant sons
: See 198–200n.

780–81.
Throng … mount:
The legendary Pygmies were commonly thought to live beyond the Ganges in secluded mountainous regions where the Cranes that they battle lay their eggs (cp. 575n).

783–84.
belated … he sees:
The phrasing is generally taken as a borrowing from Vergil, when Aeneas thinks he glimpses Dido’s shade. But vacillation between seeing and dreaming and mention of a
belated peasant
make reminiscence of
MND
equally likely (4.1.204–14).

785.
arbitress
: observer and judge.

795.
close recess
: enclosed, secluded place;
conclave:
literally, “lockable room”; in the Catholic Church, it denotes the meeting held to select a new pope, so called from the secure room in which the meeting occurs.