380
This offer sets before thee to deliver.
These if from servitude thou shalt restore
To thir inheritance, then, nor till then,
Thou on the Throne of David in full glory,
From Egypt to Euphrates and beyond
385
Shalt raign, and Rome or Caesar not need fear.
To whom our Saviour answer’d thus unmov’d.
Much ostentation vain of fleshly arm,
And fragile arms, much instrument of war
Long in preparing, soon to nothing brought,
390
Before mine eyes thou hast set; and in my ear
Vented much policy,31 and projects deep
Of enemies, of aids, battels and leagues,
Plausible32 to the world, to me worth naught.
Means I must use thou say’st, prediction else
395
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;33
When that comes think not thou to find me slack
On my part aught endeavouring, or to need
400
Thy politic maxims, or that cumbersome
Luggage of war there shewn me, argument
Of human weakness rather then of strength.
My brethren, as thou call’st them, those Ten Tribes
I must deliver, if I mean to raign
405
David’s true heir, and his full Scepter sway
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 his Tempter34 to the pride
410
Of numbring 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
415
Who wrought their own captivity, fell off
From God to worship Calves, the Deities
Of Egypt, Baal next and Ashtaroth,35
And all th’ Idolatries of Heathen round,
Besides thir other worse then heathenish crimes;
420
Nor in the land of their captivity
Humbled themselves, or penitent besought
The God of their fore-fathers; but so dy’d
Impenitent, and left a race behind
Like to themselves, distinguishable scarce
425
From Gentils, but by Circumcision vain,36
And God with Idols in their worship joyn’d.
Should I of these the liberty regard,
Who freed, as to their antient Patrimony,
Unhumbl’d, unrepentant, unreform’d,
430
Headlong would follow; and to thir Gods perhaps
Of Bethel and of Dan? no, let them serve
Thir enemies, who serve Idols with God.
Yet he at length, time to himself best known,
Remembring Abraham by some wond’rous call
435
May bring them back repentant and sincere,
And at their passing cleave th’ Assyrian flood,
While to their native land with joy they hast,
As the Red Sea and Jordan once he cleft,
When to the promis’d land thir Fathers pass’d;
440
To his due time and providence I leave them.
So spake Israel’s true King, and to the Fiend
Made answer meet, that made void all his wiles.
So fares it when with truth falshood contends.
* * *
1 See Lev. viii. 8, and compare PL VI, 762.
2 king of Persia, defeated by Alexander the Great.
3 Mithridates; Pompey was then (66 B.C.) forty years old.
4 Alexander was known as the son of Jove Ammon; Romulus, the son of Mars.
5 Scipio.
6 unfaithful.
7 violation of the Holy of Holies by Pompey.
8 See 1 Macc. i.
9 Judas Maccabeus, born in Modin, won the throne of David after a long struggle with Antiochus.
10 referring to Eccl. iii.
11 Saul; see 1 Sam. ix–x.
12 The rudiments to be discharged through Satan’s help emphasize the word’s connotation of ignorance in contrast to the Son’s true rudiments (I, 157). The same misunderstanding of meaning lies in Satan’s reference to “regal Mysteries” (l. 249).
13 the Tigris and Euphrates.
14 soil.
15 an Armenian river flowing into the Caspian. Satan surveys cities and provinces in the Persian, Mesopotamian, and Armenian complex.
16 desert.
17 Shalmaneser IV of Assyria captured the Israelites in 726 B.C. (see 2 Kings xvii. 3–4).
18 Nebuchadnezzar; see Dan. iv. 30.
19 king of Persia; see 2 Chron. xxxvi. 22–23.
20 referring to Seleucus, general to Alexander the Great.
21 Parthia formed an empire from conquests of Assyria, Persia, and later Seleucia. The Parthian method of fighting (ll. 305 ff.) was to turn one’s horse swiftly upon discharging an arrow.
22 seat of the Seleucid empire in Syria.
23 an ancient people situated around the Black Sea, famed for savagery in battle; Sogdiana was a province of Persia.
24 an area in the Caucasus, not Spain.
25 punning on the Latin word for “back” and referring to howdahs.
26 king of Tartary and lover of Angelica, for whom he besieged Albracca, fortress of her father Gallophrone, king of Cathay. At the court of Charlemagne, she had won the hearts of Orlando, Rinaldo, and others, both Christians and pagans (“paynim”). (See Boiardo, Orlando Innamorato, I, x.)
27 gallantest.
28 who were generally opposed to each other.
29 The Parthians helped Antigonus gain Judaea from Hyrcanus II, who had Roman aid, in 40 B.C. But note that Satan’s advice for the Son to align himself with Parthia is specious since Parthia had already begun to decline after its defeat by Ventidius in 39–38 B.C.
30 See 2 Kings xvii. 6; the “two of Joseph” (l. 377) were the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.
31 governmental shrewdness.
32 worthy of applause.
33 John vii. 6: “Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come.”
34 See 1 Chron. xxi.
35 deities of the Phoenicians.
36 worthless and futile because the meaning of this great covenant has been lost; see Circumcision, n. 6. Compare also ll. 433–35 below.
BOOK IV
Perplex’d and troubl’d at his bad success
The Tempter stood, nor had what to reply,
Discover’d in his fraud, thrown from his hope,
So oft, and the perswasive Rhetoric
5
That sleek’t his tongue, and won so much on Eve,
So little here, nay lost; but Eve was Eve,
This far his over-match, who self deceiv’d
And rash, before-hand had no better weigh’d
The strength he was to cope with, or his own:
10
But as a man who had been matchless held
In cunning, over-reach’t where least he thought,
To salve his credit, and for very spight
Still will be tempting him who foyls him still,
And never cease, though to his shame the more;
15
Or as a swarm of flies in vintage time,
About the wine-press where sweet moust is powr’d,
Beat off, returns as oft with humming sound;
Or surging waves against a solid rock,
Though all to shivers dash’t, th’ assault renew,
20
Vain battry, and in froth or bub
bles end;
So Satan, whom repulse upon repulse
Met ever; and to shameful silence brought,
Yet gives not o’re though desperate of success,
And his vain importunity pursues.
25
He brought our Saviour to the western side
Of that high mountain, whence he might behold
Another plain,1 long but in bredth not wide;
Wash’d by the Southern Sea, and on the North
To equal length back’d with a ridge of hills
30
That screen’d the fruits of th’ earth and seats of men
From cold Septentrion2 blasts, thence in the midst
Divided by a river, of whose banks
On each side an Imperial City stood,
With Towers and Temples proudly elevate
35
On seven small Hills, with Palaces adorn’d,
Porches and Theatres, Baths, Aqueducts,
Statues and Trophees, and Triumphal Arcs,
Gardens and Groves presented to his eyes,
Above the highth of Mountains interpos’d.
40
By what strange Parallax3 or Optic skill
Of vision multiply’d through air, or glass
Of Telescope, were curious to enquire:
And now the Tempter thus his silence broke.
The City which thou seest no other deem
45
Then great and glorious Rome, Queen of the Earth
So far renown’d, and with the spoils enricht
Of Nations; there the Capitol thou seest
Above the rest lifting his stately head
On the Tarpeian rock,4 her Cittadel
50
Th’ Imperial Palace, compass huge, and high
The Structure, skill of noblest Architects,
With gilded battlements, conspicuous far,
Turrets and Terrases, and glittering Spires.
55
Many a fair Edifice besides, more like
Houses of Gods (so well I have dispos’d
My Aerie Microscope) thou may’st behold
Outside and inside both, pillars and roofs
Carv’d work, the hand of fam’d Artificers
60
In Cedar, Marble, Ivory or Gold.
Thence to the gates cast round thine eye, and see
What conflux issuing forth, or entring in,
Pretors,5 Proconsuls6 to thir Provinces
Hasting or on return, in robes of State;
65
Lictors7 and rods the ensigns of thir power,
Legions and Cohorts,8 turmes of horse and wings:
Or Embassies from Regions far remote
In various habits on the Appian road,9
Or on th’ Æmilian,10 some from farthest South,
70
Syene,11 and where the shadow both way falls,
Meroe Nilotic Isle, and more to West,
The Realm of Bocchus to the Black-moor Sea;
From th’ Asian Kings and Parthian among these,
From India and the golden Chersoness,12
75
And utmost Indian Isle Taprobane,13
Dusk faces with white silken Turbants wreath’d:
From Gallia, Gades,14 and the Brittish West,
Germans and Scythians, and Sarmatians15 North
Beyond Danubius to the Tauric Pool.16
80
All Nations now to Rome obedience pay,
To Rome’s great Emperour, whose wide domain
In ample Territory, wealth and power,
Civility of Manners, Arts, and Arms,
And long Renown thou justly may’st prefer
85
Before the Parthian; these two Thrones except,
The rest are barbarous, and scarce worth the sight,
Shar’d among petty Kings too far remov’d;
These having shewn thee, I have shewn thee all
The Kingdoms of the world, and all thir glory.
90
This Emperour17 hath no Son, and now is old,
Old, and lascivious, and from Rome retir’d
To Capreæ an Island small but strong
On the Campanian shore, with purpose there
His horrid lusts in private to enjoy,
95
Committing to a wicked Favourite18
All publick cares, and yet of him suspicious,
Hated of all, and hating; with what ease
Indu’d with Regal Vertues as thou art,
Appearing, and beginning noble deeds,
100
Might’st thou expel this monster from his Throne
Now made a sty, and in his place ascending
A victor, people free 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.
105
Aim therefore at no less then all the world,
Aim at the highest, without the highest attain’d
Will be for thee no sitting, or not long
On David’s Throne, be propheci’d what will.
To whom the Son of God unmov’d reply’d.
110
Nor doth this grandeur and majestic show
Of luxury, though call’d magnificence,
More then of arms before, allure mine eye,
Much less my mind; though thou should’st add to tell
Thir sumptuous gluttonies, and gorgeous feasts
115
On Cittron tables or Atlantic stone;19
(For I have also heard, perhaps have read)
Their wines of Setia, Cales, and Falerne,
Chios and Creet,20 and how they quaff in Gold,
Crystal and Myrrhine21 cups imboss’d with Gems
120
And studs of Pearl, to me should’st tell who thirst
And hunger still: then Embassies thou shew’st
From Nations far and nigh; what honour that,
So many hollow compliments and lies,
125
Outlandish flatteries? then proceed’st to talk
Of the Emperour, how easily subdu’d,
How gloriously; I shall, thou say’st, expel
A brutish monster: what if I withal
Expel a Devil who first made him such?
130
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, conquer’d well,
135
But govern ill the Nations under yoke,
Peeling22 thir Provinces, exhausted all
By lust and rapine; first ambitious grown
Of triumph that insulting vanity;
Then cruel, by thir sports to blood enur’d
140
Of fighting beasts, and men to beasts expos’d,
Luxurious by thir wealth, and greedier still,
And from the daily Scene effeminate.
What wise and valiant man would seek to free
These thus degenerate, by themselves enslav’d,
145
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 over-shadowing all the Earth,
Or as a stone that shall to pieces dash
150
All Monarchies besides throughout the world,
And of my Kingdom there shall be no end:23
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 repli’d.
155
I see all off
ers made by me how slight
Thou valu’st, because offer’d, and reject’st:
Nothing will please the difficult and nice,24
Or nothing more then still to contradict:
On th’ other side know also thou, that I
160
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,
165
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?
170
Whom thus our Saviour answer’d with disdain.
I never lik’d thy talk, thy offers less,
Now both abhor, since thou hast dar’d to utter
Th’ abominable terms, impious condition;
But I endure the time, till which expir’d,
175
Thou hast permission on me. It is written
The first of all Commandments, Thou shalt worship
The Lord thy God, and only him shalt serve;25
And dar’st thou to the Son of God propound
To worship thee accurst, now more accurst
180
For this attempt bolder then 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 usurp’t,
Other donation none thou canst produce:
185
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,
190
As offer them to me the Son of God,
To me my own, on such abhorred pact,
That I fall down and worship thee as God?