Hello and welcome to Episode 61 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.
This week we begin Book 5, and our portion is 95 lines, which I’ll read all through, so you get the run of the verse, before beginning to pick some parts out for thinking on.
Now Morn her rosie steps in th' Eastern Clime
Advancing, sow'd the earth with Orient Pearle,
When Adam wak't, so customd, for his sleep
Was Aerie light, from pure digestion bred,
And temperat vapors bland, which th' only sound [ 5 ]
Of leaves and fuming rills, Aurora's fan,
Lightly dispers'd, and the shrill Matin Song
Of Birds on every bough; so much the more
His wonder was to find unwak'nd Eve
With Tresses discompos'd, and glowing Cheek, [ 10 ]
As through unquiet rest: he on his side
Leaning half-rais'd, with looks of cordial Love
Hung over her enamour'd, and beheld
Beautie, which whether waking or asleep,
Shot forth peculiar graces; then with voice [ 15 ]
Milde, as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes,
Her hand soft touching, whisperd thus. Awake
My fairest, my espous'd, my latest found,
Heav'ns last best gift, my ever new delight,
Awake, the morning shines, and the fresh field [ 20 ]
Calls us, we lose the prime, to mark how spring
Our tended Plants, how blows the Citron Grove,
What drops the Myrrhe, and what the balmie Reed,
How Nature paints her colours, how the Bee
Sits on the Bloom extracting liquid sweet. [ 25 ]
Such whispering wak'd her, but with startl'd eye
On Adam, whom imbracing, thus she spake.
O Sole in whom my thoughts find all repose,
My Glorie, my Perfection, glad I see
Thy face, and Morn return'd, for I this Night, [ 30 ]
Such night till this I never pass'd, have dream'd,
If dream'd, not as I oft am wont, of thee,
Works of day pass't, or morrows next designe,
But of offense and trouble, which my mind
Knew never till this irksom night; methought [ 35 ]
Close at mine ear one call'd me forth to walk
With gentle voice, I thought it thine; it said,
Why sleepst thou Eve? now is the pleasant time,
The cool, the silent, save where silence yields
To the night-warbling Bird, that now awake [ 40 ]
Tunes sweetest his love-labor'd song; now reignes
Full Orb'd the Moon, and with more pleasing light
Shadowie sets off the face of things; in vain,
If none regard; Heav'n wakes with all his eyes,
Whom to behold but thee, Natures desire, [ 45 ]
In whose sight all things joy, with ravishment
Attracted by thy beauty still to gaze.
I rose as at thy call, but found thee not;
To find thee I directed then my walk;
And on, methought, alone I pass'd through ways [ 50 ]
That brought me on a sudden to the Tree
Of interdicted Knowledge: fair it seem'd,
Much fairer to my Fancie then by day:
And as I wondring lookt, beside it stood
One shap'd and wing'd like one of those from Heav'n [ 55 ]
By us oft seen; his dewie locks distill'd
Ambrosia; on that Tree he also gaz'd;
And O fair Plant, said he, with fruit surcharg'd,
Deigns none to ease thy load and taste thy sweet,
Nor God, nor Man; is Knowledge so despis'd? [ 60 ]
Or envie, or what reserve forbids to taste?
Forbid who will, none shall from me withhold
Longer thy offerd good, why else set here?
This said he paus'd not, but with ventrous Arme
He pluckt, he tasted; mee damp horror chil'd [ 65 ]
At such bold words voucht with a deed so bold:
But he thus overjoy'd, O Fruit Divine,
Sweet of thy self, but much more sweet thus cropt,
Forbidd'n here, it seems, as onely fit
For God's, yet able to make Gods of Men: [ 70 ]
And why not Gods of Men, since good, the more
Communicated, more abundant growes,
The Author not impair'd, but honourd more?
Here, happie Creature, fair Angelic Eve,
Partake thou also; happie though thou art, [ 75 ]
Happier thou mayst be, worthier canst not be:
Taste this, and be henceforth among the Gods
Thy self a Goddess, not to Earth confind,
But somtimes in the Air, as wee, somtimes
Ascend to Heav'n, by merit thine, and see [ 80 ]
What life the Gods live there, and such live thou.
So saying, he drew nigh, and to me held,
Even to my mouth of that same fruit held part
Which he had pluckt; the pleasant savourie smell
So quick'nd appetite, that I, methought, [ 85 ]
Could not but taste. Forthwith up to the Clouds
With him I flew, and underneath beheld
The Earth outstretcht immense, a prospect wide
And various: wondring at my flight and change
To this high exaltation; suddenly [ 90 ]
My Guide was gon, and I, me thought, sunk down,
And fell asleep; but O how glad I wak'd
To find this but a dream! Thus Eve her Night
Related…
Adam wakes having slept well, with excellent digestion, unlike Milton, who suffered badly from stomach troubles. Adam has slept the sleep of the innocent, but is concerned now to find Eve still asleep, and looking troubled. He gently awakes her but she brings her trouble with her into wakefulness, as with ‘startl'd eye’, she embraces Adam like a woman drowning;
O Sole in whom my thoughts find all repose,
My Glorie, my Perfection, glad I see
Thy face, and Morn return'd, for I this Night, [ 30 ]
Such night till this I never pass'd, have dream'd,
If dream'd, not as I oft am wont, of thee,
Works of day pass't, or morrows next designe,
But of offense and trouble, which my mind
Knew never till this irksom night; methought [ 35 ]
Close at mine ear one call'd me forth to walk
With gentle voice, I thought it thine;
Readers enjoyed seeing what Milton understood of dreams - moments from real life reassembled and replayed. But also, startled from our readerly peace in lovely Eden, we also remember that Satan had been found crouching like a toad at Eve’s ear as she slept. That whispering has passed into her dreaming consciousness;
Why sleepst thou Eve? now is the pleasant time,
The cool, the silent, save where silence yields
To the night-warbling Bird, that now awake [ 40 ]
Tunes sweetest his love-labor'd song; now reignes
Full Orb'd the Moon, and with more pleasing light
Shadowie sets off the face of things; in vain,
If none regard; Heav'n wakes with all his eyes,
Whom to behold but thee, Natures desire, [ 45 ]
In whose sight all things joy, with ravishment
Attracted by thy beauty still to gaze.
It is so troubling and realistic to see the beginning of ‘fall’ in the unconscious. By day Adam would be near, but by night, in the privacy of sleep, when Satan speaks Eve assumes it is Adam, picking on their previous conversation in which Eve had asked why the stars shine at night. The stars, say this voice, shine to behold thee/you are the one to behold them. Eve responds;
I rose as at thy call, but found thee not;
To find thee I directed then my walk;
And on, methought, alone I pass'd through ways [ 50 ]
That brought me on a sudden to the Tree
Of interdicted Knowledge: fair it seem'd,
Much fairer to my Fancie then by day:
And as I wondring lookt, beside it stood
One shap'd and wing'd like one of those from Heav'n [ 55 ]
By us oft seen; his dewie locks distill'd
Ambrosia; on that Tree he also gaz'd;
And O fair Plant, said he, with fruit surcharg'd,
Deigns none to ease thy load and taste thy sweet,
Nor God, nor Man; is Knowledge so despis'd? [ 60 ]
Or envie, or what reserve forbids to taste?
Forbid who will, none shall from me withhold
Longer thy offerd good, why else set here?
Satan has planted this dream in Eve’s mind, and though she finds it distressing, yet she is having an experience of approaching the tree. In modern parlance, this is ideation. And there is an apparently rational argument here to compound the vision - ‘is Knowledge so despised?’ We know that Eve has already questioned the edenic set-up. She is a troubling asker of questions. And this question - why shouldn’t we have knowledge, is the big one.
Eve’s dream Angel (‘One shap'd and wing'd like one of those from Heav'n/By us oft seen’) now gives her the visualisation of the revolutionary act;
This said he paus'd not, but with ventrous Arme
He pluckt, he tasted; mee damp horror chil'd [ 65 ]
At such bold words voucht with a deed so bold:
But he thus overjoy'd, O Fruit Divine,
Sweet of thy self, but much more sweet thus cropt,
Forbidd'n here, it seems, as onely fit
For God's, yet able to make Gods of Men: [ 70 ]
And why not Gods of Men, since good, the more
Communicated, more abundant growes,
The Author not impair'd, but honourd more?
Eve’s recounting of this dream, all the words tumbling out of her with the urgency of compulsion, rushes to this highlight of the frightening moment - ‘He pluckt, he tasted; mee damp horror chil'd’ ; a wonderfully accurate and compressed account of seeing someone do something terrifyingly bad. The poetic wonder of ‘damp’ - introducing the cold sweat of terror in one word - and even as that packed line passes our ears, the story must rush on, and the ‘damp horror’ is gone and instead, ‘he thus overjoyed.’
Here, happie Creature, fair Angelic Eve,
Partake thou also; happie though thou art, [ 75 ]
Happier thou mayst be, worthier canst not be:
Taste this, and be henceforth among the Gods
Thy self a Goddess, not to Earth confind,
But somtimes in the Air, as wee, somtimes
Ascend to Heav'n, by merit thine, and see [ 80 ]
What life the Gods live there, and such live thou.
What the Satanic vision does is manipulate Eve’s unconscious, drawing on what Satan learned of her character and inclinations when he secretly watched her and Adam in conversation. There is some narcissism there, a nascent desire to be and to know ‘more’, and these things Satan has noted well. He offers her that which he himself wanted, godhood. ‘be henceforth among the Gods/Thy self a Goddess…’
And now it gets intimate and physical;
So saying, he drew nigh, and to me held,
Even to my mouth of that same fruit held part
Which he had pluckt; the pleasant savourie smell
So quick'nd appetite, that I, methought, [ 85 ]
Could not but taste. Forthwith up to the Clouds
With him I flew, and underneath beheld
The Earth outstretcht immense, a prospect wide
And various: wondring at my flight and change
To this high exaltation;
Recalling Christ’s temptation by Satan in the desert, Eve’s view seems to offer her the whole earth -see Matthew 4.
Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
Christ rejects Satan’s offer, but Eve doesn’t have the chance to do that - she is woken suddenly by a falling sensation.
suddenly [ 90 ]
My Guide was gon, and I, me thought, sunk down,
And fell asleep; but O how glad I wak'd
To find this but a dream! Thus Eve her Night
Related…
Everyone surely knows the experience of relief on waking from a bad dream, and we feel for Eve mightily as she recounts her extraordinary experience. And we feel ‘damp horror’ no doubt, too, as we understand how close Satan has come to newly-created humanity, that he is, in fact, in Eve’s mind. That though she has now awoken, the fact is, the dream-seed is planted.
During the online reading group, we talked about how predators manipulate potential victims by - as we say ‘getting in their head’ - and how dream, or fantasy or online watching can help people normalise acts which may follow. Readers were appalled and horrified at the deliberate abuse by Satan of innocent, vulnerable, exploitable Eve.
*
An aside: a reader asked how many nights has Eve been alive? The group used the chronology in the Fowler edition, which begins with ‘Newton thought Milton “not very exact in the computation of time…” ’ though we have noticed quite a few exact descriptions of sunrise and sunset.
Fowler offers that ‘the creation of Man’ takes place on Day 19 of the poem’s chronology, and on Day 24 comes Eve’s first temptation via the dream. It’s not clear (to me) if days pass (and if so, how many) between the creation of Adam and the subsequent creation of Eve.
I would hazard a guess that Eve might have experienced 2-4 nights before the dream. But this is mythological time. She isn’t, as it were, simply four days old. She is, however, young, naive and untested. And she is uneducated, because she has had less contact than Adam with tutelary Angels, as we’ll see later, but, even so, she is here a fully-fledged adult.
More next week
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