Publisher Description

In "Paradise Lost", Milton produced a poem of epic scale, conjuring up a vast, awe-inspiring cosmos and ranging across huge tracts of space and time. And yet, in putting a charismatic Satan and naked Adam and Eve at the centre of this story, he also created an intensely human tragedy on the Fall of Man. Written when Milton was in his fifties - blind, bitterly disappointed by the Restoration and briefly in danger of execution - "Paradise Lost" has an apparent ambivalence towards authority which has led to intense debate about whether it manages to "justify the ways of God to men", or exposes the cruelty of Christianity.

Back Cover

'Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n ...' In Paradise Lost Milton produced a poem of epic scale, conjuring up a vast, awe-inspiring cosmos and ranging across huge tracts of space and time. And yet, in putting a charismatic Satan and naked Adam and Eve at the centre of this story, he also created an intensely human tragedy on the Fall of Man. Written when Milton was in his fifties - blind, bitterly disappointed by the Restoration and briefly in danger of execution - Paradise Lost's apparent ambivalence towards authority has led to intense debate about whether it manages to 'justify the ways of God to men' or exposes the cruelty of Christianity.

Author Biography

John Milton (1608-1674) spent his early years in scholarly pursuit. In 1649 he took up the cause for the new Commonwealth, defending the English revolution both in English and Latin - and sacrificing his eyesight in the process. He risked his lifeby publishing The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth on the eve of the Restoration (1660). His great poems were published after this political defeat.John Leonard is a Professor of English at the University of Western Ontario.

Review

"In this landmark edition, teachers will discover a powerful ally in bringing the excitement of Milton's poetry and prose to new generations of students."--William C. Dowling, Rutgers University "This magnificent edition gives us everything we need to read Milton intelligently and with fresh perception."--William H. Pritchard, Amherst College

Review Quote

"In this landmark edition, teachers will discover a powerful ally in bringing the excitement of Milton's poetry and prose to new generations of students."--William C. Dowling, Rutgers University

Promotional "Headline"

Paradise Lost's apparent ambivalence towards authority has led to intense debate about whether it manages to 'justify the ways of God to men' or exposes the cruelty of Christianity.

Excerpt from Book

PARADISE LOST the printer to the reader Courteous Reader, there was no argument at first intended to the book, but for the satisfaction of many that have desired it, I have procured it, and withal a reason of that which stumbled many others, why the poem rhymes not. S. Simmons The Verse The measure is English heroic verse without rhyme, as that of Homer in Greek, and of Vergil in Latin; rhyme being no necessary adjunct or true ornament of poem or good verse, in longer works especially, but the invention of a barbarous age, to set off wretched matter and lame meter; graced indeed since by the use of some famous modern poets, carried away by custom, but much to their own vexation, hindrance, and constraint to express many things otherwise, and for the most part worse than else they would have expressed them. Not without cause therefore some both Italian and Spanish poets of prime note have rejected rhyme both in longer and shorter works, as have also long since our best English tragedies, as a thing of itself, to all judicious ears, trivial and of no true musical delight; which consists only in apt numbers, fit quantity of syllables, and the sense variously drawn out from one verse into another, not in the jingling sound of like endings, a fault avoided by the learned ancients both in poetry and all good oratory. 1. The defense of blank verse and the prose arguments summarizing each book "procured" by Milton''s printer, Samuel Simmons, were inserted in bound copies of the first edition beginning in 1668, with this brief note. This neglect then of rhyme so little is to be taken for a defect, though it may seem so perhaps to vulgar readers, that it rather is to be esteemed an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty recovered to heroic poem from the troublesome and modern bondage of rhyming. Book I The Argument This first book proposes, first in brief, the whole subject, man''s disobedience, and the loss thereupon of Paradise wherein he was placed: then touches the prime cause of his fall, the serpent, or rather Satan in the serpent, who revolting from God, and drawing to his side many legions of angels, was by the command of God driven out of Heaven with all his crew into the great deep. Which action passed over, the poem hastes into the midst of things, presenting Satan with his angels now fallen into Hell, described here, not in the center (for heaven and earth may be supposed as yet not made, certainly not yet accursed) but in a place of utter darkness, fitliest called Chaos. Here Satan with his angels lying on the burning lake, thunder-struck and astonished, after a certain space recovers, as from confusion, calls up him who next in order and dignity lay by him. They confer of their miserable fall. Satan awakens all his legions, who lay till then in the same manner confounded; they rise, their numbers, array of battle, their chief leaders named, according to the idols known afterwards in Canaan and the countries adjoining. To these Satan directs his speech, comforts them with hope yet of regaining Heaven, but tells them lastly of a new world and new kind of creature to be created, according to an ancient prophecy or report in Heaven; for that angels were long before this visible creation was the opinion of many ancient Fathers. To find out the truth of this prophecy, and what to determine thereon, he refers to a full council. What his associates thence attempt. Pandaemonium the palace of Satan rises, suddenly built out of the deep. The infernal peers there sit in council. Of man''s first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater man Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, Sing Heav''nly Muse, that on the secret top Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed, In the beginning how the heavens and earth Rose out of Chaos: or if Sion hill Delight thee more, and Siloa''s brook that flowed Fast by the oracle of God, I thence Invoke thy aid to my advent''rous song, That with no middle flight intends to soar Above th'' Aonian mount, while it pursues Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer Before all temples th'' upright heart and pure, Instruct me, for thou know''st; thou from the first Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread Dove-like sat''st brooding on the vast abyss And mad''st it pregnant: what in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and support, That to the highth of this great argument I may assert eternal providence, And justify the ways of God to men. Say first, for Heav''n hides nothing from thy view Nor the deep tract of Hell, say first what cause Moved our grand parents in that happy state, Favored of Heav''n so highly, to fall off From their Creator, and transgress his will For one restraint, lords of the world besides? Who first seduced them to that foul revolt? Th'' infernal serpent; he it was, whose guile Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived The mother of mankind, what time his pride Had cast him out from Heav''n, with all his host Of rebel angels, by whose aid aspiring To set himself in glory above his peers, He trusted to have equaled the Most High, If he opposed; and with ambitious aim Against the throne and monarchy of God Raised impious war in Heav''n and battle proud With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power Hurled headlong flaming from th'' ethereal sky With hideous ruin and combustion down To bottomless perdition, there to dwell In adamantine chains and penal fire, Who durst defy th'' Omnipotent to arms. Nine times the space that measures day and night To mortal men, he with his horrid crew 1. The first line''s introduction of an exemplary man recalls the epics of Homer and Vergil. Milton''s theme, however, is neither martial nor imperial but spiritual: humanity''s disastrous failure to obey God counterpoised by the promise of redemption. Of man''s: The proper name Adam is also the Hebrew word for generic man or humankind. He is both an individual male and, with Eve, the entire species: "so God created man . . . ; male and female he created them" (Gen. 1.27). Of man translates the Hebrew for "woman" (Gen. 2.23). fruit: Its dual meanings (outcome, food) are put in play by enjambment, a primary formal device by which Milton draws out sense "from one verse into another" (The Verse). 4. one greater man: Jesus, second Adam (1 Cor. 15.21-22; Rom. 5.19). Cp. PR 1.1-4. 5. blissful seat: translates Vergil''s epithet for Elysium, Aen. 6.639. 6. Sing Heav''nly Muse: the verb and subject of the magnificently inverted sixteen-line opening sentence. By invoking a Muse, Milton follows a convention that dates from Homer. Yet Milton''s Muse is not the muse of classical epic (Calliope) but the inspiration of Moses, David, and the prophets (cp. 17-18n). secret: set apart, not common. When the Lord descends to give Moses the law, thick clouds and smoke obscure the mountaintop, and the people are forbidden on pain of death to cross boundaries around the mountain (Exod. 19.16, 23). 8. shepherd: The vocation of shepherd is a key vehicle for Milton''s integration of classical and scriptural traditions. Moses encounters God while tending sheep on Mount Horeb (Oreb) and later receives the law on Sinai, a spur of Horeb (Exod. 3; 19). (Or the doubling of names may simply acknowledge the inconsistency of Exod. 19.20 and Deut. 4.10.) 9. In the beginning: opening phrase of Genesis and the Gospel of John. 10. Chaos: classical term for the primeval state of being out of which God creates, also referred to as "the deep" (as in Gen. 1.2) and "the abyss" (as in l. 21). Sion hill: Mount Zion, site of Solomon''s Temple, "the house of the Lord" (1 Kings 6.1, 13). Adding to the persistent doubleness of the invocation, Milton requests inspiration from two scriptural sites associated with God''s presence and prophetic inspiration. Both sites receive dual designations: Mount Horeb/Sinai and Mount Zion/Siloa''s brook. 11-12. Siloa''s brook . . . God: spring whose waters flowed through an underground aqueduct, supplied a pool near (Fast by) Solomon''s Temple, and irrigated the king''s lush garden (cp. 4.225-30). Jerome says it ran directly beneath Mount Zion (A. Gilbert 1919, 269). Scripturally, it symbolizes David''s monarchical line (Isa. 7-8, esp. 8.6). In opening the eyes of the man born blind, Jesus sends him to wash his eyes with its waters (John 9). Cp. 3.30-31. oracle of God: the holiest place in the Temple, the tabernacle of the Ark of the Covenant (1 Kings 6.19). The classical Muses haunt a spring (Aganippe) on Helicon (cp. 15n), "the sacred well, / That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring" (Lyc 15-16). In identifying the spring near the "Holy of Holies" as similarly a site of inspiration, Milton again links scriptural and classical prophetic and poetic traditions. 14. no middle flight: Milton will go beyond middle air, whose upper boundary is as high as the peaks of tall mountains, and soar to the highest Empyrean, the abode of God. His soa

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