The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (144 page)

Of other women, by the birth I bore—

In such a season born, when scarce a shed

Could be obtained to shelter him or me

From the bleak
⁶⁷¹¹
air. A stable was our warmth,

A manger his, yet soon enforced to fly

Thence into Egypt, till the murd’rous king
⁶⁷¹²

Were dead, who sought his life and, missing,
⁶⁷¹³
filled

With infant blood the streets of Bethlehem.

From Egypt home returned, in Nazareth

Hath been our dwelling many years, his life

Private, unactive, calm, contemplative,

Little suspicious to any king. But now,

Full grown to man, acknowledged, as I hear,

By John the Baptist, and in public shown,

Son owned
⁶⁷¹⁴
from Heav’n by his Father’s voice,

I looked for some great change. To honor? No,

But trouble, as old Simeon
⁶⁷¹⁵
plain foretold,

That to the fall and rising he should be

Of many in Israel, and to a sign

Spoken against—that through my very soul

A sword shall pierce, this my favored lot,

My exaltation to afflictions high!

Afflicted I may be, it seems, and blest!

I will not argue that, nor will repine.
⁶⁷¹⁶

“But where delays he now? Some great intent

Conceals him. When twelve years he scarce had seen,

I lost him, but so found as well I saw

He could not lose himself, but went about

His Father’s business. What he meant I mused,
⁶⁷¹⁷

Since understand: much more his absence now

Thus long to some great purpose he obscures.
⁶⁷¹⁸

But I to wait with patience am inured,

My heart hath been a storehouse long of things

And sayings laid up, portending strange events.”

Thus Mary, pondering oft, and oft to mind

Recalling what remarkably
⁶⁷¹⁹
had passed

Since first her salutation
⁶⁷²⁰
heard, with thoughts

Meekly composed awaited the fulfilling,
⁶⁷²¹

The while her son, tracing
⁶⁷²²
the desert wild,

Sole,
⁶⁷²³
but with holiest meditations fed,

Into himself descended, and at once

All his great work to come before him set—

How to begin, how to accomplish best

His end
⁶⁷²⁴
of being on earth, and mission high.

For Satan, with sly preface
⁶⁷²⁵
to return,

Had left him vacant,
⁶⁷²⁶
and with speed was gone

Up to the middle region of thick air,

Where all his Potentates in council sat.

There, without sign of boast, or sign of joy,

Solicitous and blank,
⁶⁷²⁷
he thus began:

“Princes, Heav’n’s ancient Sons, Ethereal Thrones—

Daemonian Spirits now, from the element

Each of his reign allotted, rightlier called,

Powers of fire, air, water, and earth beneath

(So may we hold our place and these mild seats

Without new trouble!)—such an enemy

Is ris’n to invade us, who no less

Threat’ns than our expulsion down to Hell.

I, as I undertook, and with the vote

Consenting in full frequence
⁶⁷²⁸
was empowered,

Have found him, viewed him, tasted
⁶⁷²⁹
him, but find

Far other labor to be undergone

Than when I dealt with Adam, first of men,

Though Adam by his wife’s allurement
⁶⁷³⁰
fell,

However to this man inferior far—

If he be man by mother’s side, at least,

With more than human gifts from Heav’n adorned,

Perfections absolute, graces divine,

And amplitude of mind to greatest deeds.

Therefore I am returned, lest confidence

Of my success with Eve in Paradise

Deceive ye to persuasion over-sure

Of like
⁶⁷³¹
succeeding here. I summon all

Rather to be in readiness with hand

Or counsel to assist, lest I, who erst

Thought none my equal, now be overmatched.”

So spoke the old serpent, doubting, and from all

With clamor was assured their utmost aid

At his command, when from amidst them rose

Belial, the dissolutest Spirit that fell,

The sensualest, and after Asmodai
⁶⁷³²

The fleshliest incubus,
⁶⁷³³
and thus advised:

“Set women in his eye and in his walk,

Among daughters of men the fairest found.

Many are in each region passing
⁶⁷³⁴
fair

As the noon sky, more like to goddesses

Than mortal creatures, graceful and discreet,
⁶⁷³⁵

Expert in amorous arts, enchanting tongues

Persuasive, virgin majesty with mild

And sweet allayed,
⁶⁷³⁶
yet terrible
⁶⁷³⁷
to approach,

Skilled to retire, and in retiring draw

Hearts after them tangled in amorous nets.

Such object hath the power to soft’n and tame

Severest temper,
⁶⁷³⁸
smooth the rugged’st brow,

Enerve
⁶⁷³⁹
and with voluptuous hope dissolve,
⁶⁷⁴⁰

Draw out with credulous desire, and lead

At will the manliest, resolutest breast,

As the magnetic
⁶⁷⁴¹
hardest iron draws.

Women, when nothing else, beguiled the heart

Of wisest Solomon, and made him build

And made him bow to the gods of his wives.”

To whom quick answer Satan thus returned:

“Belial, in much uneven
⁶⁷⁴²
scale thou weigh’st

All others by thyself. Because of old

Thou thyself doat’st on
⁶⁷⁴³
womankind, admiring

Their shape, their color,
⁶⁷⁴⁴
and attractive grace,

None are, thou think’st, but taken with such toys.
⁶⁷⁴⁵

Before the Flood, thou with thy lusty crew,

False titled sons of God, roaming the earth,

Cast wanton eyes on the daughters of men,

And coupled with them, and begot a race.

Have we not seen, or by relation
⁶⁷⁴⁶
heard,

In courts and regal chambers how thou lurk’st,

In wood or grove, by mossy fountain-side,

In valley or green meadow, to waylay

Some beauty rare? Callisto,
⁶⁷⁴⁷
Clymene,
⁶⁷⁴⁸

Daphne,
⁶⁷⁴⁹
or Semele,
⁶⁷⁵⁰
Antiopa,
⁶⁷⁵¹

Or Amymone,
⁶⁷⁵²
Syrinx
⁶⁷⁵³
—many more

Too long. Then lay’st thy scapes
⁶⁷⁵⁴
on names adored,

Apollo, Neptune, Jupiter, or Pan,

Satyr, or Faun, or Silvan!
⁶⁷⁵⁵
But these haunts
⁶⁷⁵⁶

Delight not all. Among the sons of men

How many have with a smile made small account

Of beauty and her lures, easily scorned

All her assaults, on worthier things intent?

“Remember that Pellean
⁶⁷⁵⁷
conqueror,

A youth, how all the beauties of the East

He slightly
⁶⁷⁵⁸
viewed, and slightly overpassed.

“How he surnamed of Africa
⁶⁷⁵⁹
dismissed,
⁶⁷⁶⁰

In his prime youth, the fair Iberian maid.
⁶⁷⁶¹

“For Solomon he lived at ease, and full

Of honor, wealth, high fare,
⁶⁷⁶²
aimed not beyond

Higher design
⁶⁷⁶³
than to enjoy his state,
⁶⁷⁶⁴

Thence to the bait of women lay exposed.

“But he whom we attempt is wiser far

Than Solomon, of more exalted mind,

Made and set wholly on the accomplishment

Of greatest things. What woman will you find,

Though of this age the wonder and the fame,

On whom his leisure
⁶⁷⁶⁵
will vouchsafe an eye

Of fond
⁶⁷⁶⁶
desire? Or should she, confident

As sitting queen adored on beauty’s throne,

Descend with all her winning charms begirt
⁶⁷⁶⁷

To enamor, as the zone
⁶⁷⁶⁸
of Venus once

Wrought that effect on Jove (so fables tell),
⁶⁷⁶⁹

How would one look from his majestic brow
⁶⁷⁷⁰

Discount’nance
⁶⁷⁷¹
her despised, and put to rout

All her array, her female pride deject,
⁶⁷⁷²

Or turn to reverent awe? For beauty stands

In th’ admiration only of weak minds

Led captive. Cease to admire, and all her plumes
⁶⁷⁷³

Fall flat and shrink into a trivial toy,
⁶⁷⁷⁴

At every sudden slighting
⁶⁷⁷⁵
quite abashed.
⁶⁷⁷⁶

“Therefore with manlier objects we must try

His constancy—with such as have more show

Of worth, of honor, glory, and popular praise

(Rocks whereon greatest men have oftest wrecked),

Or that which only seems to satisfy

Lawful desires of nature, not beyond.

And now I know he hungers,
⁶⁷⁷⁷
where no food

Is to be found, in the wide wilderness.