Hello and welcome to Episode 25 of Read Paradise Lost with me, Jane Davis, a podcast and Substack newsletter about my project to read all of Paradise Lost by John Milton, aloud, and with a sometimes word-by-word, sometimes line-by-line discussion. This is a one-take recording with no editing, so forgive noise of seagulls, my coughing, or sound of men drilling next door. Rough and ready reading is what you get.
See Episode 1 for an introduction to the project.
Last week, we saw Satan fly to the top of Hell (think of a half a ball upside down…) where he found two horrid figures, one, female to the waist, but then a mass of serpentine folds, the other, male, shadowy and hard to see but wearing a crown. Satan told him, rather aggressively, to get out of the way:
Retire, or taste thy folly, and learn by proof,
Hell-born, not to contend with Spirits of Heav'n
Which didn’t go down well, as we’ll now see. We’re reading 46 lines this week, and I’m doing it in three sections.
To whom the Goblin full of wrauth reply'd,
Art thou that Traitor Angel, art thou hee,
Who first broke peace in Heav'n and Faith, till then [ 690 ]
Unbrok'n, and in proud rebellious Arms
Drew after him the third part of Heav'ns Sons
Conjur'd against the highest, for which both Thou
And they outcast from God, are here condemn'd
To waste Eternal dayes in woe and pain? [ 695 ]
And reck'n'st thou thy self with Spirits of Heav'n,
Hell-doom'd, and breath'st defiance here and scorn
Where I reign King, and to enrage thee more,
Thy King and Lord? Back to thy punishment,
False fugitive, and to thy speed add wings, [ 700 ]
Least with a whip of Scorpions I pursue
Thy lingring, or with one stroke of this Dart
Strange horror seise thee, and pangs unfelt before.
This is a change! It looks as if this ‘Goblin’, as Milton calls him, is provoked by Satan’s use of the epithet ‘Hell-born’.
We’ve been noticing the fallen angels persistent desire to see themselves as heavenly creatures but now there’s a new perspective and Satan’s sense of himself as a spirit of Heaven seems laughable to this creature. This is the first time we have heard Satan described as a traitor; in fact, it is the first time we’ve had any but Satan’s view. Not only does he dispute Satan’s right to call himself heavenly, but also claims he (the Goblin) is the King of Hell. (Remember in Book 1 Satan consoling himself with the thought ‘better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven’ ? It seems he didn’t know there was already a ruler here.)
So spake the grieslie terror, and in shape,
So speaking and so threatning, grew tenfold [ 705 ]
More dreadful and deform: on th' other side
Incenst with indignation Satan stood
Unterrifi'd, and like a Comet burn'd,
That fires the length of Ophiucus huge
In th' Artick Sky, and from his horrid hair [ 710 ]
Shakes Pestilence and Warr. Each at the Head
Level'd his deadly aime; thir fatall hands
No second stroke intend, and such a frown
Each cast at th' other, as when two black Clouds
With Heav'ns Artillery fraught, come rattling on [ 715 ]
Over the Caspian, then stand front to front
Hov'ring a space, till Winds the signal blow
To join thir dark Encounter in mid air:
So frownd the mighty Combatants, that Hell
Grew darker at thir frown, so matcht they stood; [ 720 ]
For never but once more was either like
To meet so great a foe: and now great deeds
Had been achiev'd, whereof all Hell had rung,
Interesting how something you didn’t think was much becomes hugely frightening as you begin to realise what a threat it is - thinking about the sound of someone walking behind you in the dark, where you might be a bit nervous, but when their hand touches your shoulder, it is terrifying. Or a small brown spot on the top of your arm - nothing! - turns out to be skin cancer.) So here, the ‘grieslie terror’ who at first had seemed nothing, or not much, a shapeless thing with something like a crown, now, after telling Satan how much he knows and how differently he sees his story, he has become a huge threat. And Satan’s response to a huge threat?
Incenst with indignation Satan stood
Unterrifi'd, and like a Comet burn'd,
And suddenly we are in an elemental battle, with two gigantic, enraged combatants:
Each at the Head
Level'd his deadly aime; thir fatall hands
No second stroke intend, and such a frown
Each cast at th' other, as when two black Clouds
With Heav'ns Artillery fraught, come rattling on [ 715 ]
Over the Caspian, then stand front to front
Hov'ring a space, till Winds the signal blow
To join thir dark Encounter in mid air:
So frownd the mighty Combatants, that Hell
Grew darker at thir frown, so matcht they stood;
Our adrenalin as readers is surely pumping here, and it is certain an epic fight would have ensued but we are required to take our terrors in a different direction, as the female presence comes between them:
the Snakie Sorceress that sat
Fast by Hell Gate, and kept the fatal Key, [ 725 ]
Ris'n, and with hideous outcry rush'd between.
I wonder if it’s useful to note the mention of ‘the fatal key’ here? This is one of those details that a reader can easily pass over – we can’t notice everything, can we? – but as it is the key to Hell’s triple locked door, it may be worth noticing. More of this another time.
What she has to say is as terrifying, in its different way, as any physical fight could have been:
O Father, what intends thy hand, she cry'd,
Against thy only Son? What fury O Son,
Possesses thee to bend that mortal Dart
Against thy Fathers head? and know'st for whom; [ 730 ]
For him who sits above and laughs the while
At thee ordain'd his drudge, to execute
What e're his wrath, which he calls Justice, bids,
His wrath which one day will destroy ye both.
I need to understand these relationships, said a reader. You surely do. ‘O Father,’ is addressed to Satan, and next week, when we read on, we will learn that this female/serpent is Sin, born of Satan as Athena was of Zeus, from his head. And who is the son? Ah, this is Death, born of Sin following Satan’s secret incestuous relations with her.
The head-to-head fighting, epic though it may be, seems to be to suddenly shrink to nothing compared to the violence of the story Sin has to tell. And I see that Satan’s view, the fallen view, of God is back in force in her. God is:
him who sits above and laughs the while
At thee ordain'd his drudge,
So, Satan is here to do God’s work, and Death, it seems, is fully committed to God’s view, while Sin keeps on hating him.
Yikes. Can’t wait to read on and understand more, but that’s enough for today.
More next week.
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