The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (149 page)

Choose which thou wilt, by conquest or by league.
⁷⁰³⁹

By him thou shalt regain, without him not,

That which alone can truly reinstall thee

In David’s royal seat, his true successor—

Deliverance of thy brethren, those Ten Tribes

Whose offspring in his territory yet serve

In Habor,
⁷⁰⁴⁰
and among the Medes
⁷⁰⁴¹
dispersed:

Ten sons of Jacob, two of Joseph,
⁷⁰⁴²
lost

Thus long from Israel, serving as of old

Their fathers in the land of Egypt served,

This offer sets before thee to deliver.

These if from servitude thou shalt restore

To their inheritance, then, nor till then,

Thou on the throne of David in full glory,

From Egypt to Euphrates and beyond,

Shalt reign, and Rome or Caesar not need fear.”

To whom our Savior answered thus, unmoved:

“Much ostentation vain of fleshly arm

And fragile arms, much instrument of war,

Long in preparing, soon to nothing brought,

Before mine eyes thou hast set, and in my ear

Vented much policy,
⁷⁰⁴³
and projects deep

Of enemies, of aids, battles, and leagues,

Plausible
⁷⁰⁴⁴
to the world, to me worth naught.

Means I must use, thou say’st. Prediction else

Will unpredict, and fail me of the throne!

My time, I told thee (and that time for thee

Were better farthest off ), is not yet come.

When that comes, think not thou to find me slack
⁷⁰⁴⁵

On my part aught endeavoring, or to need

Thy politic
⁷⁰⁴⁶
maxims, or that cumbersome

Luggage of war there shown me, argument
⁷⁰⁴⁷

Of human weakness rather than of strength.

My brethren, as thou call’st them, those Ten Tribes,

I must deliver, if I mean to reign

David’s true heir, and his full scepter sway
⁷⁰⁴⁸

To just extent over all Israel’s sons!

But whence to thee this zeal? Where was it then

For Israel, or for David, or his throne,

When thou stood’st up
⁷⁰⁴⁹
his tempter
⁷⁰⁵⁰
to the pride

Of numbering
⁷⁰⁵¹
Israel, which cost the lives

Of threescore and ten thousand Israelites

By three days’ pestilence? Such was thy zeal

To Israel then, the same that now to me.

“As for those captive tribes, themselves were they

Who wrought their own captivity, fell off

From God to worship calves, the deities

Of Egypt, Baal next and Ashtaroth,

And all th’ idolatries of heathen round,

Besides their other worse than heathenish crimes.

Nor in the land of their captivity

Humbled themselves, or penitent besought

The God of their forefathers, but so died

Impenitent, and left a race behind

Like to themselves, distinguishable scarce

From gentiles but
⁷⁰⁵²
by circumcision vain,
⁷⁰⁵³

And God with idols in their worship joined.

Should I of these the liberty regard
⁷⁰⁵⁴

Who, freed, as to their ancient patrimony

Unhumbled, unrepentant, unreformed,

Headlong
⁷⁰⁵⁵
would follow,
⁷⁰⁵⁶
and to their gods perhaps

Of Bethel and of Dan? No, let them serve

Their enemies who serve idols with God.

Yet He at length, time to Himself best known,

Remembering Abraham, by some wondrous call

May bring them back, repentant and sincere,

And at their passing cleave th’ Assyrian flood,

While to their native land with joy they haste,

As the Red Sea and Jordan once He cleft

When to the promised land their fathers passed.

To His due time and providence I leave them.”

So spoke Israel’s true king, and to the fiend

Made answer meet,
⁷⁰⁵⁷
that made void all his wiles.

So fares it when with truth falsehood contends.

BOOK IV

Perplexed and troubled at his bad success

The Tempter stood, nor had what to reply,

Discovered in his fraud, thrown from his hope

So oft, and the persuasive rhetoric

That sleeked
⁷⁰⁵⁸
his tongue, and won so much on Eve,

So little
⁷⁰⁵⁹
here—nay lost! But Eve was Eve.

This far his over-match, who self-deceived

And rash, beforehand had no better weighed

The strength he was to cope with, or his own.

But as a man who had been matchless held

In cunning, over-reached where least he thought,

To salve
⁷⁰⁶⁰
his credit, and for very spite,

Still will be tempting him who foils
⁷⁰⁶¹
him still,

And never cease, though to his shame the more—

Or as a swarm of flies in vintage-time,

About the wine-press where sweet must
⁷⁰⁶²
is poured,

Beat off, returns as oft with humming sound—

Or surging waves against a solid rock,

Though all to shivers
⁷⁰⁶³
dashed, th’ assault renew

(Vain battery!
⁷⁰⁶⁴
) and in froth or bubbles end—

So Satan, whom repulse upon repulse

Met ever, and to shameful silence brought,

Yet gives not o’er, though desperate
⁷⁰⁶⁵
of success,

And his vain importunity pursues.

He brought our Savior to the western side

Of that high mountain, whence he might behold

Another plain,
⁷⁰⁶⁶
long, but in breadth not wide,

Washed by the southern sea, and on the north

To equal length backed with a ridge of hills

That screened the fruits of th’ earth and seats of men

From cold Septentrion
⁷⁰⁶⁷
blasts, thence in the midst

Divided by a river, off whose banks

On each side an imperial city
⁷⁰⁶⁸
stood,

With towers and temples proudly elevate

On seven small hills, with palaces adorned,

Porches
⁷⁰⁶⁹
and theaters,
⁷⁰⁷⁰
baths, aqueducts,

Statues and trophies,
⁷⁰⁷¹
and triumphal arcs,
⁷⁰⁷²

Gardens and groves, presented to his eyes

Above the height of mountains interposed

(By what strange parallax, or optic skill

Of vision, multiplied through air, or glass

Of telescope, were curious
⁷⁰⁷³
to enquire).

And now the Tempter thus his silence broke:

“The city which thou see’st no other deem

Than great and glorious Rome, queen of the earth

So far renowned, and with the spoils enriched

Of nations. There the capitol
⁷⁰⁷⁴
thou see’st,

Above the rest lifting his stately
⁷⁰⁷⁵
head

On the Tarpeian rock,
⁷⁰⁷⁶
her citadel

Impregnable, and there Mount Palatine,

Th’ imperial palace, compass
⁷⁰⁷⁷
huge, and high

The structure, skill of noblest architects,

With gilded battlements, conspicuous
⁷⁰⁷⁸
far,

Turrets and terraces, and glittering spires.

Many a fair edifice besides, more like

Houses of gods (so well I have disposed
⁷⁰⁷⁹

My airy microscope
⁷⁰⁸⁰
) thou may’st behold,

Outside and inside both, pillars and roofs

Carved work, the hand of famed artificers
⁷⁰⁸¹

In cedar, marble, ivory, or gold.

“Thence to the gates cast round thine eye, and see

What conflux
⁷⁰⁸²
issuing forth, or entering in:

Praetors,
⁷⁰⁸³
proconsuls
⁷⁰⁸⁴
to their provinces

Hasting, or on return, in robes of state,

Lictors
⁷⁰⁸⁵
and rods, the ensigns
⁷⁰⁸⁶
of their power;

Legions and cohorts,
⁷⁰⁸⁷
turms
⁷⁰⁸⁸
of horse and wings,

Or embassies from regions far remote,

In various habits,
⁷⁰⁸⁹
on the Appian road,
⁷⁰⁹⁰

Or on the Emilian,
⁷⁰⁹¹
some from farthest south,

Syene,
⁷⁰⁹²
and where the shadow both way falls,

Meroë,
⁷⁰⁹³
Nilotic isle, and more to west

The realm of Bocchus
⁷⁰⁹⁴
to the Blackmoor sea.
⁷⁰⁹⁵

From th’ Asian kings (and Parthian among these),

From India and the golden Chersoness,
⁷⁰⁹⁶

And utmost Indian isle, Taprobane,
⁷⁰⁹⁷