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JOHN MILTON
'A'hen he was rhtrtv, lohn Milton £~oclaime(lhimself the future au!hQ.r_g!~~t
.English epic. He promised a poem devoted to the glory of the nation, centering around
the deeds of King Arthur or some other ancient hero. When Milton finally published
his epic thirty years later. readers found instead a poem set in Heaven, Hell, and the
.garden of Eden. in which traditional heroism is denigrated and England not once
mentioned. What lay between the youthful promise and the eventual fulfillment was a career marked by private tragedy and public controversy. Milton tells us much about
both these experiences in his works, which combine an intense self-scrutiny and
concern with authorship with urgent intervention in the great questions of his time. It is scarcely possible to treat Milton's career separately from the history of England in his lifetime, not only because he was an active participant in public affairs but also
because l,1_ehimself refused. to distinguish between his private life and affairs of ~~h
and state. When he signed himself, as he often did, ....J01i'ilNhlton, En~," he
did not srmply mean an Englishman. As England's self-appointed prophetic bard.
Milton saw himself as spokesman for the nation as a whole, even when he found
himself in a minority of one. Mtlrcn was a man who devoted his life to public causes,
but whose understanding of those causes often arose out of the most personal con- cerns. The young Milton self-consciously set out to follow the steps of the ideal poetic
career beginning ,dth-pastoral an-d eilcling "with ~£-mQ;lel.e:iLoxi:i!iiLPLthe
Roman poet VirgiL In this ~proacfitOliiS'~o~;:~;hestood at the 0EP.~ite el!~ __~J
the specffum from su~,fi Gavali~_~.contemporaries ~ Su.~IiU_IJg.~IJ~:t.&~~elace, who
turned to verse with an.~ of studied c-arelessness-.t\Iilton began by writlflg occaslonaf poems in Latin and several English poems in the pastoral mode: lyrics, the masque
Comus (1634), and the pastoral elegy Lycidos (1683). These are extraordinary works
in their own right. which crown and transform their respective genres, but Milton
also undertook them as preparation fo!!-!"t~~ater g~nres of tragedy and epic. He
was embarking on a road previously trBveled byTcfffiUnd Spense;:-,'Vhom'he c'ilTed "a
better teacher than Scotus or Aquinas ....Milton resembles Spenser in certain ways,
above all in his constant use of myth and archetype. alluding to and juxtaposing
biblical and cIassicaJ stories. But Milton's learning was greater than Spenser's. As part
of his preparation for a poetic career, he undertook a sfx-vear p'ro.m of self..cfirected
reading m a~SIent_~~~dern iheo~~~~~~_p,~,l~!?'cy:-sci'"e~~:.p~Jitics,~and
literature. His co~.~~.!?!!~~~.ag~ .cIud Latin,_ Greek, Hebr:ejy_~nd its dialects;
tralian, French, ·Spanish. and Dutch. The sum of the western literary and intellectUal
heritage fmPInged on hIS ,,:ritfng'& immediatel..- and directly as the circumstances of his own life. but he continually reconceived the ideas. lite~n' forms. and values of
this heritage to make them relevant to himself and his age.'.
For Milton to devote six years of his adult life to an obscure course of private study
1772 I _YOHi': ;\IILTO~
required exrraordinery confidence in the service he hoped to perform for God and country. It also. of course, required money. which was provided bv his father, who was a' successful scrh~._9nn.tJin~t1<!'l!_qL~olici.~o! .. in"tment adviser, ana- !!lQney lender. Although Milton enjoyed the company of some aris~ocrats and ~as profoundly grateful that his father spared him from the grubby business of making money. he belonged to the London bourgeoisie. His father's business dealings and loans 'at interest paid for private tutors in his youth, for his education at St. Paul's, one of the finest schools in the land, for his seven years at Cambridge and the six years of reading that followed. and for his "grand [QUI''' of France. Italy, and Switzer- land at the age of thirty. Yet Milton's connection with the class that stood to ~enefit most directlv from Europe's first bourgeois revolution does not account for hIS pas- sionate political views. His brother, Christopher, fought on the royaI~st s~.fgr the Milton brothers. as for most of.their c~'!t~l'!:!P<?~r_i.r£!~1!~'..':a.Id~l!.'?!-,~~~
a controntation of class interes'rs:' b"irt-a-s ~ c~nfJict between .~d!c~JI!-_~iffuri~IUh~~~~s
;~ta-r~~fi:relj@on.-· ,
From the outbreak of the conflict until his death. Milton was allied \lith the Puntan. cause. Yet hIS religtous opinions developed throughout his life. from r~lati'e ortho- dcxv in hjs youth to ever more heretical positions in his later years. Milton went up
to Cambridge in 162; with every intention of taking orders in the Church of England.
In the hindsight of 1642. he blamed the lack of reformation and the corruption in the English Church under Archbishop Laud for forcing him to abandon that goal,
proclaiming himself "church-outed by the Prelates." Milton's change of direction
must also have been linked to the fastidious contempt he ex-pressed for the ignorant and clownish clergymen-in-making who were his fellow students at Cambridge: "They thought themselves gallant men, and I thought them fools:' Those fellow students
dubbed Milton 'The Lady of Christ's College." Above all. Milton came to believe that
he was destined to sen'e his language, his country, and his God as a wet, In his first
major English poem, the hymn On the Alonung of Christ's Nativity (written at the age
of twenty-one)! Milton had already begun to construct himself as a prophetic hard. His sense of poetic mission grew over the next decade, accompanied by growing disillusion with the Church of England. Both are present in Lycidas (I638), written to lament the untimely death of his Cambridge contemporary Edward King. The figure of King recedes in the poem nexr to Mi}ran's anxious contemplation of poetry as a vocation and his furious diatribe against the corrupt Anglican clergy who leave
their charges prey to the "grim wolf" of Catholicism. Yet while he was in Italy on the
Grand Tour (1638-39). i\Iilton delighted in exchanging verses and learned ccmpll- ments with various Catholic intellectuals and men of [etters. some of whom became friends. Milton could always maintain friendships and family relationships across ideological divides. Upon his return to England. Milton opened a school and was soon involved in Presbyterian efforts to depose the bishops and reform Church liturgy, writing five "Antipreladcal" tracts denouncing and satirizing bishops. These were the first in @ remarkable ~~ties~f'po1itical i~:~I'!TJQ!l~.\y__l:t!.c;h9~cupied i:m!2!!..fu~,:th~.!L~!'5: vears, untIl the disaster tEar him} of the Restoration, He wrote successively on church g;:emment~ divorce, education, freedom of the press. regicide, and republicanism. He also served as Latin Secretary to the Commonwealth Government (1649-;3) and to Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate (1654-;8). writing the official letters-mostly in Latin-to foreign governments and heads of state. Yet Milton was the very opposite of a faceless spokesman for a party line, From the beginning to the end of his polem- ical career. his publications show an extraordinary courage and independence of thought. In his tracts ad-'ocating divorce on the grounds of i~~~..2.1!.~_i~~and wit~
the right to remam', he ado ted and vigorously defendeaaposirion almost unheard
of at e time. one which require a 0 y anti If¤fiil'rearungof1liegdSels."ln
reopagitica, e put forwar an impassione e ense 0 a ee pressagainst a Parlia-
ment determined to restore effective censorship. And just as he was among the first
1774 I JOHN MILTON
his youth, publishing works on grammar and logic chiefly written during his days as schoolmaster, a History afBritain (1670) from earliest times to the Nonnan Conquest, and a treatise urging toleration for Puritan dissenters (1673). He also continued work
on his Christian Doctrine, a Latin treatise which re'ea1s~\' far Milton had moved
from the orthodoxies of his day. The work denies the Trinity (making Christ and the
Holy Spirit much inferior to God the Father), insists upon free will (against Calvinist
predestination), and privileges the inspiration of the Spirit over the Scriptures and
the Ten Commandments. Such radical and heterodox positions could not be made
public in his lifetime, certainly not in the repressive conditions of the Restoration,
and Milton's C1nistiall Doctrine was lost to view for over 150 year5. In 1671 Mtlton published two poems which resonate with echoes of the harsh repression and the moral and political challenges Puritan dissenters faced after the Restoration. Paradise Regained, a brief epic in four hooks, treats Jesus' Temptation in the wtldemess as a hard intellectual struggle through which the hero comes to understand himself and his mission and defeats Satan by renouncing the whole pan- oply of false or faulty versions of the good life and of his kingdom. Samson Agonistes, a classical tragedy, is the more harrowing for the resemblances between its tragic hero and its author. The deeply flawed, pain-wracked, blind, and defeated Samson strug- gles, in dialogues with his visitors, to gain self-knowledge, discovering at last a des-
perate way to triumph over his captors and offer his people a chance to regain their
freedom. In these last poems, Milton sought to educate his readers in moral and
political wisdom and virtue. Only through such inner transformation, Milton now firmly believed, would men and women come to value-and so perhaps reclaim-s-the intellectual, religious, and political freedom he so vigorously promoted in his prose
and poetry.
Paradise Lost The setting of ~lilton's great epic encompasses Hea\·en.~Hen,
primordial Chaos, ~~ Jh~.J~I~et Earth, It.features battles among immortal spirits, voyages through space, ana lakes of fire. Yet its protagonists are a married couple
living in a garden, and its climax consists in the eating of a piece of fruit, Paradise
Lost is ultimatelv about the human condition, the Fall that caused "all our woe," and the promise and means of restoration. It is also about kno\"ing and choosing, about ~.ln the opening passages of Books 1, 3, 7. and 9.l'-liltonhighlights the choices and difficulties he faced in creating his poem. His central characters-Satan. Beel- zebub. Abdfel. Adam, and E"e-are confronted with hard choices under the pressure of powerful desires and sometimes devious temptations, ;\lilton's readers, too, are 50ntinuaUv challenged to choose and to reconsider their~most 6aslc_~:~_~~~~~.~s
1816 I Jam" MILTO"
about freedom. heroism. work. pleasure. language. nature. and lovefn,~ great the~es
of Paradise Lost are intimately linked to the political questions at stiKe In the En~hsh
Revolution and Restoration. but the connection is by no means simple or straight-
forward. This is a poem in which Satan leads a revolution against an absolute m~narch and i which questions of tyranny, servitude, and liberty are debated in a P~rliame~t in Herui'Iilton' 5 readers are hereby challenged to re~ink .th~e ~opics and, like Abdtel debating with Satan in Books 5 and 6, to make crucial dis~ncnons.... In Milton's time. the conventions of epic poetry compnsed a familiar recipe. The
action should begin in medias res lin the middle of things), follo\ing the poet's stats-
ment of his theme and invocation of his Muse. The reader coUld expect grand battles and love affairs, supernatural Intervention, a descent into the underworld, catalogs
of warriors, and epic similes. Milton had absorbed the epic tradition in its entir:ety,
and his poem abounds with echoes of Homer and Virgil. the fifteenth-century ~talians
Tasso and ..Anosro, and the English Spenser, But in Paradise Lost he at once heightens
epic conventions and values and utterly transforms them. This is the epic to end all epics, Milton gives us the first and great~~n ,,"-an (between God ..~d S~) and the first and greatest of love affairs (between Adam and Eve), His theme is the destiny of the entire human race, caught up in the temptation and FaIl of our first "grand parents,"
Milton challenges his readers in Paradise Lost, at once fulfilling and defying all of
our expectations. Nothing in the epic tradition or in biblical interpretation can prepare us for the Satan who hurtles into view in Book 1~ with his awesome energy and defiance, incredible fortitude, and, above all, magnificent rhetoric. For some readers, including Blake and Shelley, Satan has been the true hero of the poem, But Milton is engaged in a radical re-evaluation of epic values. and Satan's version of heroism must be contrasted with those of the 10~'3]Ahdie1 and the Son of God. Moreover, the poem's truly epic action takes place not on the battlefield but in the moral and domes- tic arena, Milton's Adam and E"e are not conventional epic heroes. but neither are they the conventional Adam and EYe. Their state of innocence is not childlike, tran- quil, and free of sexual desire. instead, the first couple enjoy sex. experience tension and passion, make mistakes of judgment, and grow in knowledge. Their task is to prune what is unruly in their own natures as they prune the vegetation in their garden, for both have the capacity to grow wtld. Their relationship exhibits gender hierarchy,
but Milton's early readers may have been surprised by the fullness and complexity of
Eve's character and the centrality of her role. not only in the Fall but in the promised restoration, We expect in epics a grand style. and Milton's style engulfs us from the outset with its energy and power, as those rushing, enjambed, blank-,'erse lines propel us
along with only a few pauses for line endings or grammar (there IS only one full-
stop in the first twenry-six lines), The elevated diction and complex syntax, the
sonorities and patternings, make a magnificent music. But that music is an entire
orchestra of tones, including the high political rhetoric of Satan in Books 1 and 2,
the evocative sensuousness of the descriptions of Eden, the deiicacv of Eve's love
lyric to Adam in Book 4, the relatively plain speech of God in B~ok 3, and the
speech rhythms of Adam and Eye's marital quarrel in Book 9. This majestic achievement depends on the poet's rejection of heroic couplets, the nann for epic and tragedy in the Restoration. \igo~r defended by Dryden, but denounced by Milton in his note on "The Verse." [The choice of verse form was, like so many other things in ~lilton's life, in part a question of politics, Milton's terms associate the "troublesome and modem bondage of rhymmg" with Restoration monarchy and repression of dissidents and present his use of unrhymed blank verse as a recovery of "ancient Hberty,"(
The first editiotlO667} presented Pamdise Lost in ten books; the second (1674)
recast it into twelve ~after the Vlrgilian model, splitting the original Books 7 and
Name Period
Harris, English IV H
----------lines 50- 83 ----------
7. (a) What is the “thought of loss happiness” that Satan must suffer? (b) What is the “lasting pain [that]
torments him”?
8. According to Milton in lines 61-69, what is hell like?
9. (a) With whom does Satan begin to talk? (b) Where does he rank compared to Satan?
----------lines 84- 124 ----------
1 0. Satan tells Beelzebub that he (Beelzebub) has “changed.” What did he used to look like?
11. Satan explains why he tried to fight God. Now that the war is over, has Satan’s attitude toward God
changed any? Quote the lines that support your answer.
12. Satan says, “All is not lost.” What does he still have left?
13. What “glory never shall [God] / Extort from [him]”? On other words, what does Satan boast he will
never do?
14. Why does Satan say they may hope to wage “eternal war” against God “with more successful
hope” this time?
----------lines 125- 155 ----------
15. How does Beelzebub say that God’s “high supremacy” was upheld?
16. Why does he now “believe [God is] almighty”?
Name Period
Harris, English IV H
17. Beelzebub feels that it is pointless to continue to resist God now. Rather, what type of “service” or
“errands” does he fear God has left the rebels alive to perform for Him?
----------lines 156- 191 ----------
18. As Satan replies to Beelzebub, what does he reveal will be their “task” from now on?
19. Along similar lines, what must their “labor” be?
20. Describe the “plain” that Satan points out to Beelzebub.
21. Before they fly over to this plain, where had they been? In other words, what type of surface were
they on?
22. From what may the rebels gain “reinforcement”? From what may they gain “resolution”?
----------lines 192- 220 ----------
23. To whom is Satan compared? Name three different figures. What do all three have in common?
24. Why does “all-ruling Heaven” permit Satan to become unchained and fly away to the plain?
25. What does God plan to bring forth out of Satan’s efforts to make evil?
26. How does Satan plan to counteract God’s plan?
1970 I JOHN MILTON
390 Though not as she with bow and quiver armed,
But with such gardening tools as art yet rude,
Guiltless of fire- had formed, or angels brought.
To Pales, or Pomona, thus adorned,
Likest she seemed' Pomona when she fled
Vertumnus, or to Ceres in her prime,
Yet virgin of Proserpina from Jove.
Her long with ardent look his eye pursued
Delighted, but desiring more her stay.
Oft he to her his charge of quick return
Repeated, she to him as oft engaged
To be returned by noon amid the bow'r, •
And all things in best order to invite
Noontide repast, or afternoon's repose.
o much deceived, much failing,O haples-s° Eve,
Of thy presumed return! event perverse]- '.f
Thou never from that hour in Paradise ;';rr,
Found'st either sweet repast, or sound repose:
Such ambush hid among sweet flow'rs and shades
Waited with hellish rancor Imminenr.'. I:!
To intercept thy way, or send thee back! - "
Despoiled of innocence, of faith; 'of bliss.
"* For now, and since first break of dawn the Fiend,
Mere serpent in appearance, forth was come," -
And on his quest, where likeliest he might find
The only two of mankind, but in them
The whole included race, his purposed prey.
In bow'r and field he sought, where any tuft
Of grove or garden-plot more pleasant lay,
Their ten dance or planration« for delight,
By fountain or by shady rivulet"
He sought them both, but wished his hap" might find
Eve separate; he wished, but not with hope
Of what so seldom chanced, 'when to his wish,
Beyond his hope, Eve separate, he' spies,
Veiled in a cloud of fragrance, where she stood,.:;
Half spied, so thick the roses bushing round :
About her glowed, oft stooping to support
Each flow'r of slender stalk, whose head though gay
Carnation, purple, azure, or specked with gold,
Hung drooping unsustained, them she upstays
Gently with myrtle band, mindless" the while,
Herself, though fairest unsupported flow'r
From her best prop so far, and storm so nigh.'
Nearer he drew, and many a walk traversed "
400
405
4' .n.
,
415
420
425
430
erring/unlucky
luck
heedless
- Having no experience of fire, not needed in Par- adise.'Miiton may be alluding to the guilt of Pro- metheus, who stole fire from heaven.
- These goddesses, like Eve, are associated with agriculture (lines 393-96)-Pales, with Ilocks and pastures; Pomona, with fruit 'trees, Ceres with har- vests-and the latter two foreshadow Eve's situa- tion: Pomona was' chased by the wood god
"Vertumn~'5;; 'in ma-~y g~ises ~ef~re' surrendering
. to him; Ceres was impregnateJ by Jove with Pro- serpina-Iater carried off to Hades by Pluto. 6. Le., which they had cultivated or planted for thcirplcasure .. ·. < "';. 1:1,: 7. The conceit of the' flower-gatherer who is her- self gathered evokes Ihe"story Of Proserplna, to whom it was applied in 4.269-71. '_-,.
470
, '" ~,
PARADISE LOST, BOOK 9 / 197 I
,,
Of stateliest covert, cedar, pine, or palm,
Then voluble" and bold, now hid, now seen
Among thick-woven arborets" and flow'rs
Embordered on each bank, the hand" of Eve,
Spot more delicious than those gardens feigned
Or of revived Adonis, or renowned
AJcinous, host of old Laertes' son,
Or that, not mystic, where the sapient king'
Held dalliance with his fair Egyptian spouse, S
Much he the place admired, the person more.
As one who long in populous city pent, Where houses thick and sewers annoy? the-air,
Forth issuing on a summer's morn to breathe
Among the pleasant villages and farms
Adjoined, from each thing -met concelves'rlelfght,.
The smell of grain, or tedded grass, or kine,' ,
Or dairy, each rural sight, each rural sound,'. If chance with nymph-like step fair.virgin.pass,
What pleasing seemed, foro her now pleases more,
She most, and in her look sums all delight.. i
Such pleasure took the Serpent to behold ' ", ;
This fIow'ry plat," the sweet recess'tof Eve Thus early, thus alone; her heav'nly form- Angelic, but more soft, and feminine,. Her graceful innocence, her every air" Of gesture or least action overawed His malice, and with rapine sweet' bereaved His fierceness of the fierce intent it brought: ' That space the Evil One abstracted" stood From his own evil, and for the time 'remained- Stupidly good," of enmity disarmed,' :,:,' Of guile, of hate, of envy, of revenge; .. ",.- But the hot hell that always in him burns, Though in mid-heav'rr, soon ended hisdelight.s.. And tortures him now more, the more he- sees - Of pleasure not for him ordained:' then .soon Fierce hate he recollects, and all his thoughts Of mischief gratulating," thus excites! "Thoughts, whither have ye led me, with what sweet Compulsion thus transported to forget What hither brought us, hate, not love, ncrhope. Of Paradise for Hell, hope here to taste Of pleasure, but all pleasure to destroy, Save what is in destroying, other joy, To me is lost. Then let me not-let pass Occasion which now smiles, behold alone The woman, opportune" to all attempts, (^) open
undulating small trees handiwork
445 make noisome, befoul
.
.',because-of .i, , 'plot/tetre~i
manner .
withdrawn , , (^465) -.good because stupefied
greeting
- The gatdens: of Adonis; were beauty spots named for the lovely youth loved by Venus, killed by a boer, "and subsequently revived; "Odysseus" ("Laertes' son") was entertained by ~Alcillous" in- his beautiful gardens; Solomon ("thesapientkirig") entertained his "fair Egyptian spouse," the Queen
of Sheba, in a' real garden {not "mystic," or "Feigned.vas the others were).
- Cattle. "Teddcd". spread out to dry, like hay. 1: From Latin+raperc," to seize, the root of both "rape" and "rapture," underscoring the paradox of the ravisher. (temporarily) ravished. ;L'~,'
PARADlSE LOST, BOOK 9 I 1973
The eye of Eve to mark his play; he glad
Of her attention gained, with serpent tongue
o Organic, or impulse of vocal air,"
- His fraudulent temptation thus began. * 5+0 r
"wonder not, sovran mistress, if perhaps
Thou canst, who art sale wonder, much less arm
Thy looks, the heav'n of mildness, with disdain,
Displeased that I approach thee thus, and gaze
Insatiate, I thus single, nor have feared
Thy awful brow, more awful thus retired;
Fairest resemblance of thy Maker fair,
Thee all things living gaze on, all things thine
By gift, and thy celestial beauty adore
With ravishment beheld, there best beheld
Where universally admired; but here :
In this enclosure wild, these beasts among,
Beholders rude, and shallow to discern
Half what in thee is fair, one man except,
Who sees thee? (and what is one?) who shouldst be seen
A goddess among gods, adored and served
By angels numberless, thy daily train."~
So glozed" the Tempter, and his proem" tuned;'
Into the heart of Eve his words made way,
Though at the voice much marveling; at length
Not unamazed she thus in answer spake.
"What may this mean? Language of man pronounced
By tongue of brute, and human sense expressed?
The first at least of these I thought denied
To beasts: whom God on their creation-day
Created mute to all articulate sound:
The latter I demur," for in their looks -t-
Much reason, and in their actions oft appears.
560 'Thee, serpent, subtlest beast of all the field
-I knew.but not with human voice endued:"
Redouble then this miracle, and say;
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?
Say, for such wonder Claims attention due." ,
To whom the guileful Tempter thus replied:
"Empress of this fair world, resplendent Eve,
Easy to me it is to tell thee all -
What thou command'st, 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 discerned
Or sex, and apprehended nothing high:
Till on a day roving the field, I chanced
A goodly tree far distant to behold
535
540
550
5"
570
flattered/prelude
hesitate about
endowed
able to speak
- Satan either used the actual tongue of the ser- pent or impressed the air with his own voice.
- Satan's entire speechts cOllched in the cxtrav- agant praises of the Petrarchan love convention.
1978 / JOHN MILTON
OUf inward freedom? In the day we eat
Of this fair fruit, our doom is, we shall die.
How dies the serpent? He hath eat'n and lives,
765 And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discerns,
Irrational till then. For us alone
Was death invented? Or to us denied
This intellectual food, for beasts reserved?
For beasts it seems: yet that one beast which first
770 Hath tasted, envies" not, but brings with joy
The good befall'n him, author urisuspect,"
Friendly to man, far from deceit or guile.
What fear I then, rather what know to fear
Under this ignorance of good and evil,
775 Of God or death, of law or penalty?
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?"
780. {*So saying, her rash hand in evil hour.
'>(,&;' Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she eat.'
Earth felt the" wound, and nature from her seat
Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe,
That all was lost. Back to the thicket slunk
785 The guilty serpent, and well might, for Eve
Intent now wholly on her taste;' naught else
Regarded, such delight till then, as seemed,
In fruit she never tasted, whether true
Or fancied so, through expectation high
790 Of knowledge, nor was Godhead from her thought.
Greedily she engorged without restraint,
And knew not eating death:' satiate at length,
And heightened as with wine, jocund" and boon,"
Thus to herself she pleasingly began:
795 "0 sovran, virtuous, precious of all trees
In Paradise, of operation blest
To sapience, hitherto obscured, infamed,"
And thy fair fruit let hang, as to no end
Created; but henceforth my early care,
800 Not without song, each morning, and 'due praise
Shall tend thee, and the fertile burden ease
Of thy full branches offered free to all;
Till dieted by thee I grow mature
In knowledge, as the gods who all things know;
B05 Though others envy what they cannot give,
For had the gift been theirs, I it had not here
Thus grown. Experience, next to thee lowe,
Best guide; not following thee, I had remained
begrudges
power
merry/jolly
- An authority or informant beyond suspicion.
- Ate: an accepted past tense, pronounced et.
- l.e., she is eating death and doesn't know it, or experience it yet, but also, punning, death is eating her too.
- Slandered. "Sapience": both knowledge and lasting (Latin, sapere). I. Like Satan, Eve now conflates gods and God, ascribing envy but also lack of power to "them." ,
