I found reading Milton’s epic poem much more relevant when I saw it as an allegory for his travails during the English Civil War. One can see why so many readers are surreptitiously attracted to the character of Satan. After all, Milton was a Cromwellian Puritan who felt betrayed by the restoration of the monarchy. Even without that background, the lyricism of the words on the page, as he spins the tale of mankind’s fall, is transcendent. In epic Greek fashion, Milton begins with a proem of sorts, “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 heavenly Muse….”
Satan, already banished in hell, gives a rousing speech to his minions about how he would rather stay there than be restored to heaven, forced to resubmit to God’s rule, “Suppose he should relent/ And publish grace to all, on promise made/ Of new subjection; with what eyes could we/ Stand in his presence humble, and receive/ Strict laws imposed, to celebrate his throne/ With warbled hymns, and to his Godhead sing/ Forced hallelujahs; while he lordly sits/ Our envied sovereign, and his altar breathes/ Ambrosial odours and ambrosial flowers,/ Our servile offerings? This must be our task/ In heaven, this our delight; how wearisome/ Eternity so spent in worship paid/ to whom we hate….” Satan’s scheme quickly turns to the corruption of man, “To waste his whole creation, or possess/ All as our own, and drive as we were driven,/ The puny habitants, or if not drive,/ Seduce them to our party, that their God/ May prove their foe, and with repenting hand/ Abolish his own works….” As Satan reconnoiters the Garden of Eden, he stumbles upon the weak link, “One fatal tree there stands of knowledge called,/ Forbidden them to taste: knowledge forbidden?/ Suspicious, reasonless. Why should their Lord/ Envy them that? Can it be sin to know,/ Can it be death? And do they only stand/ By ignorance, is that their happy state,/ The proof of their obedience and faith?”
Alone in the Garden of Eden, Satan comes upon Eve, in the form of the serpent, ready with his best arguments to tempt her, “Shall that be shut to man, which to the beast/ Is open? Or will God incense his ire/ For such a petty trespass, and not praise/ Rather your dauntless virtue, whom the pain/ Of death denounced, whatever thing death be,/ Deterred not from achieving what might lead/ To happier life, knowledge of good and evil;/ Of good, how just? Of evil, if what is evil/ Be real, why not known, since easier shunned?/ God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just;/ Not just, not God; not feared then, nor obeyed:/ Your fear it self of death removes the fear.” Adam, reunited with Eve, immediately senses all that has gone wrong, “O Eve, in evil hour thou didst give ear/ To that false worm, of whomever taught/ To counterfeit man’s voice, true in our fall,/ False in our promised rising; since our eyes/ Opened we find indeed, and find we know/ Both good and evil, good lost, and evil got,/ Bad fruit of knowledge, if this be to know,/ Which leaves us naked thus, of honour void,/ Of innocence, of faith, of purity….” Finally, the archangel Michael foretells mankind’s fate to Adam and gives him hope for the future, “This having learned, thou hast attained the sum/ Of wisdom; hope no higher, though all the stars/ Thou knew’st by name, and all the ethereal powers,/ All secrets of the deep, all nature’s works,/ Or works of God in heaven, air, earth, or sea,/ And all the riches of this world enjoyed’st,/ And all the rule, one empire; only add/ Deeds to thy knowledge answerable, add faith,/ And virtue, patience, temperance, add love,/ By name to come called Charity, the soul/ Of all the rest: then wilt thou not loath/ To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess/ A paradise within thee, happier far.”
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