The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (150 page)

Dusk faces with white silken turbants
⁷⁰⁹⁸
wreathed.

From Gallia,
⁷⁰⁹⁹
Gades,
⁷¹⁰⁰
and the British west,

Germans, and Scythians, and Sarmatians
⁷¹⁰¹
north

Beyond Danubius to the Tauric pool.
⁷¹⁰²

All nations now to Rome obedience pay,

To Rome’s great Emperor, whose wide domain,

In ample territory, wealth and power,

Civility
⁷¹⁰³
of manners, arts and arms,

And long renown, thou justly may’st prefer

Before the Parthian. These two thrones except,

The rest are barbarous, and scarce worth the sight,

Shared among petty kings too far removed.
⁷¹⁰⁴

These having shown thee, I have shown thee all

The kingdoms of the world, and all their glory.

“This Emperor
⁷¹⁰⁵
hath no son, and now is old,

Old and lascivious, and from Rome retired

To Capri,
⁷¹⁰⁶
an island small but strong

On the Campanian
⁷¹⁰⁷
shore, with purpose there

His horrid lusts in private to enjoy,

Committing to a wicked favorite
⁷¹⁰⁸

All public cares, and yet of him suspicious—

Hated of all, and hating. With what ease,

Endued with regal virtues as thou art,

Appearing, and beginning noble deeds,

Might’st thou expel this monster from his throne,

Now made a sty, and in his place ascending,

A victor-people free
⁷¹⁰⁹
from servile yoke!

“And with my help thou may’st. To me the power

Is giv’n, and by that right I give it thee.

Aim, therefore, at no less than all the world.

Aim at the highest: without the highest attained

Will be for thee no sitting, or not long,

On David’s throne, be prophesied what will.”

To whom the Son of God, unmoved, replied:

“Nor doth this grandeur and majestic show

Of luxury, though called magnificence,

More than of arms, before, allure mine eye,

Much less my mind, though thou should’st add to tell

Their sumptuous gluttonies, and gorgeous
⁷¹¹⁰
feasts

On citron
⁷¹¹¹
tables or Atlantic stone
⁷¹¹²

(For I have also heard, perhaps have read),

Their wines of Setia, Cales, and Falerne,
⁷¹¹³

Chios and Crete,
⁷¹¹⁴
and how they quaff in gold,

Crystal, and myrrhine cups embossed with gems

And studs
⁷¹¹⁵
of pearl—to me should’st tell, who thirst

And hunger still. Then embassies thou show’st

From nations far and nigh! What honor that?

But tedious waste of time, to sit and hear

So many hollow compliments and lies,

Outlandish
⁷¹¹⁶
flatteries. Then proceed’st to talk

Of the Emperor, how easily subdued,

How gloriously. I shall, thou say’st, expel

A brutish monster. What if I withal

Expel a Devil who first made him such?

Let his tormentor, conscience, find him out.

For him I was not sent, nor yet to free

That people, victor once, now vile and base,

Deservedly made vassal—who, once just,

Frugal, and mild, and temperate, conquered well,

But govern ill the nations under yoke,

Peeling
⁷¹¹⁷
their provinces, exhausted all

By lust and rapine—first ambitious grown

Of triumph, that insulting
⁷¹¹⁸
vanity,

Then cruel, by their sports to blood inured

Of fighting beasts, and men to beasts exposed,

Luxurious
⁷¹¹⁹
by
⁷¹²⁰
their wealth, and greedier still,

And from
⁷¹²¹
the daily scene
⁷¹²²
effeminate.
⁷¹²³

What wise and valiant man would seek to free

These, thus degenerate, by themselves enslaved,

Or could of inward slaves make outward free?

“Know, therefore, when my season comes to sit

On David’s throne, it shall be like a tree

Spreading and overshadowing all the earth,

Or as a stone that shall to pieces dash

All monarchies besides
⁷¹²⁴
throughout the world,

And of my kingdom there shall be no end.

Means there shall be to this, but what the means

Is not for thee to know, nor me to tell.”

To whom the Tempter, impudent,
⁷¹²⁵
replied:

“I see all offers made by me how slight

Thou valu’st, because offered and reject’st.

Nothing will please the difficult and nice,
⁷¹²⁶

Or nothing more than still
⁷¹²⁷
to contradict.

On th’ other side, know also thou that I

On what I offer set as high esteem,

Nor what I part with mean to give for naught.

All these, which in a moment thou behold’st,

The kingdoms of the world, to thee I give

(For, giv’n to me, I give to whom I please),

No trifle; yet with this reserve, not else—

On this condition, if thou wilt fall down

And worship me as thy superior Lord

(Easily done), and hold them all of me.

For what can less so great a gift deserve?”

Whom thus our Savior answered with disdain:

“I never liked thy talk, thy offers less,

Now both abhor, since thou hast dared to utter

Th’ abominable terms, impious condition.

But I endure
⁷¹²⁸
the time, till which expired

Thou hast permission
⁷¹²⁹
on me. It is written,

The first of all commandments, ‘Thou shalt worship

The Lord thy God, and only Him shalt serve. ’
⁷¹³⁰

And dar’st thou to the Son of God propound
⁷¹³¹

To worship thee, accursed? Now more accursed

For this attempt, bolder than that on Eve,

And more blasphemous, which expect to rue.

The kingdoms of the world to thee were giv’n!

Permitted, rather, and by thee usurped.

Other donation
⁷¹³²
none thou canst produce.

If given, by whom but by the King of kings,

God over all supreme? If giv’n to thee,

By thee how fairly is the giver now

Repaid? But gratitude in thee is lost

Long since. Wert thou so void of fear or shame

As offer them to me, the Son of God—

To me my own, on such abhorrèd pact,

That I fall down and worship thee as God?

Get thee behind me! Plain thou now appear’st

That Evil One, Satan, forever damned.”

To whom the fiend, with fear abashed, replied:

“Be not so sore offended, Son of God—

Though Sons of God both Angels are and men—

If I, to try
⁷¹³³
whether in higher sort
⁷¹³⁴

Than these thou bear’st that title, have proposed

What both from men and Angels I receive,

Tetrachs
⁷¹³⁵
of fire, air, flood, and on the earth

Nations besides, from all the quartered winds—
⁷¹³⁶

God of this world invoked,
⁷¹³⁷
and world beneath.

Who then thou art, whose coming is foretold

To me so fatal, me it most concerns.

The trial
⁷¹³⁸
hath endamaged thee no way—

Rather more honor left, and more esteem—

Me naught advantaged, missing what I aimed.

Therefore let pass, as they are transitory,

The kingdoms of this world. I shall no more

Advise thee. Gain them as thou canst, or not.

“And thou thyself seem’st otherwise inclined

Than to a worldly crown, addicted
⁷¹³⁹
more

To contemplation and profound dispute,

As by that early action may be judged,

When slipping from thy mother’s eye, thou went’st

Alone into the Temple. There wast found

Among the gravest
⁷¹⁴⁰
rabbis disputant

On points and questions fitting Moses’ chair,
⁷¹⁴¹

Teaching, not taught.
⁷¹⁴²
The childhood shows the man,

As morning shows the day. Be famous, then,

By wisdom. As thy empire must extend,

So let extend thy mind o’er all the world

In knowledge, all things in it comprehend.

All knowledge is not couched
⁷¹⁴³
in Moses’ law,

The Pentateuch,
⁷¹⁴⁴
or what the prophets wrote.

The gentiles
⁷¹⁴⁵
also know, and write, and teach

To admiration,
⁷¹⁴⁶
led by Nature’s light,

And with the gentiles much thou must converse,

Ruling them by persuasion, as thou mean’st.

Without their learning, how wilt thou with them,

Or they with thee, hold conversation meet?
⁷¹⁴⁷

How wilt thou reason with them, how refute

Their idolisms, traditions, paradoxes?

Error by his own arms
⁷¹⁴⁸
is best evinced.
⁷¹⁴⁹

“Look once more, ere we leave this specular
⁷¹⁵⁰
mount,

Westward, much nearer by south-west. Behold

Where on th’ Aegean shore a city stands,

Built nobly, pure the air and light the soil—