Read The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems Online
Authors: John Milton,Burton Raffel
Tags: #Fiction, #General, #Literary Collections, #Poetry, #Classics, #English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, #English poetry
Dusk faces with white silken turbants
7098
wreathed.
From Gallia,
7099
Gades,
7100
and the British west,
Germans, and Scythians, and Sarmatians
7101
north
Beyond Danubius to the Tauric pool.
7102
All nations now to Rome obedience pay,
To Rome’s great Emperor, whose wide domain,
In ample territory, wealth and power,
Civility
7103
of manners, arts and arms,
And long renown, thou justly may’st prefer
Before the Parthian. These two thrones except,
The rest are barbarous, and scarce worth the sight,
Shared among petty kings too far removed.
7104
These having shown thee, I have shown thee all
The kingdoms of the world, and all their glory.
“This Emperor
7105
hath no son, and now is old,
Old and lascivious, and from Rome retired
To Capri,
7106
an island small but strong
On the Campanian
7107
shore, with purpose there
His horrid lusts in private to enjoy,
Committing to a wicked favorite
7108
All public cares, and yet of him suspicious—
Hated of all, and hating. With what ease,
Endued with regal virtues as thou art,
Appearing, and beginning noble deeds,
Might’st thou expel this monster from his throne,
Now made a sty, and in his place ascending,
A victor-people free
7109
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.
Aim, therefore, at no less than all the world.
Aim at the highest: without the highest attained
Will be for thee no sitting, or not long,
On David’s throne, be prophesied what will.”
To whom the Son of God, unmoved, replied:
“Nor doth this grandeur and majestic show
Of luxury, though called magnificence,
More than of arms, before, allure mine eye,
Much less my mind, though thou should’st add to tell
Their sumptuous gluttonies, and gorgeous
7110
feasts
On citron
7111
tables or Atlantic stone
7112
(For I have also heard, perhaps have read),
Their wines of Setia, Cales, and Falerne,
7113
Chios and Crete,
7114
and how they quaff in gold,
Crystal, and myrrhine cups embossed with gems
And studs
7115
of pearl—to me should’st tell, who thirst
And hunger still. Then embassies thou show’st
From nations far and nigh! What honor that?
But tedious waste of time, to sit and hear
So many hollow compliments and lies,
Outlandish
7116
flatteries. Then proceed’st to talk
Of the Emperor, how easily subdued,
How gloriously. I shall, thou say’st, expel
A brutish monster. What if I withal
Expel a Devil who first made him such?
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, conquered well,
But govern ill the nations under yoke,
Peeling
7117
their provinces, exhausted all
By lust and rapine—first ambitious grown
Of triumph, that insulting
7118
vanity,
Then cruel, by their sports to blood inured
Of fighting beasts, and men to beasts exposed,
Luxurious
7119
by
7120
their wealth, and greedier still,
And from
7121
the daily scene
7122
effeminate.
7123
What wise and valiant man would seek to free
These, thus degenerate, by themselves enslaved,
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 overshadowing all the earth,
Or as a stone that shall to pieces dash
All monarchies besides
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throughout the world,
And of my kingdom there shall be no end.
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,
7125
replied:
“I see all offers made by me how slight
Thou valu’st, because offered and reject’st.
Nothing will please the difficult and nice,
7126
Or nothing more than still
7127
to contradict.
On th’ other side, know also thou that I
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),
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?”
Whom thus our Savior answered with disdain:
“I never liked thy talk, thy offers less,
Now both abhor, since thou hast dared to utter
Th’ abominable terms, impious condition.
But I endure
7128
the time, till which expired
Thou hast permission
7129
on me. It is written,
The first of all commandments, ‘Thou shalt worship
The Lord thy God, and only Him shalt serve. ’
7130
And dar’st thou to the Son of God propound
7131
To worship thee, accursed? Now more accursed
For this attempt, bolder than 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 usurped.
Other donation
7132
none thou canst produce.
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
As offer them to me, the Son of God—
To me my own, on such abhorrèd pact,
That I fall down and worship thee as God?
Get thee behind me! Plain thou now appear’st
That Evil One, Satan, forever damned.”
To whom the fiend, with fear abashed, replied:
“Be not so sore offended, Son of God—
Though Sons of God both Angels are and men—
If I, to try
7133
whether in higher sort
7134
Than these thou bear’st that title, have proposed
What both from men and Angels I receive,
Tetrachs
7135
of fire, air, flood, and on the earth
Nations besides, from all the quartered winds—
7136
God of this world invoked,
7137
and world beneath.
Who then thou art, whose coming is foretold
To me so fatal, me it most concerns.
The trial
7138
hath endamaged thee no way—
Rather more honor left, and more esteem—
Me naught advantaged, missing what I aimed.
Therefore let pass, as they are transitory,
The kingdoms of this world. I shall no more
Advise thee. Gain them as thou canst, or not.
“And thou thyself seem’st otherwise inclined
Than to a worldly crown, addicted
7139
more
To contemplation and profound dispute,
As by that early action may be judged,
When slipping from thy mother’s eye, thou went’st
Alone into the Temple. There wast found
Among the gravest
7140
rabbis disputant
On points and questions fitting Moses’ chair,
7141
Teaching, not taught.
7142
The childhood shows the man,
As morning shows the day. Be famous, then,
By wisdom. As thy empire must extend,
So let extend thy mind o’er all the world
In knowledge, all things in it comprehend.
All knowledge is not couched
7143
in Moses’ law,
The Pentateuch,
7144
or what the prophets wrote.
The gentiles
7145
also know, and write, and teach
To admiration,
7146
led by Nature’s light,
And with the gentiles much thou must converse,
Ruling them by persuasion, as thou mean’st.
Without their learning, how wilt thou with them,
Or they with thee, hold conversation meet?
7147
How wilt thou reason with them, how refute
Their idolisms, traditions, paradoxes?
Error by his own arms
7148
is best evinced.
7149
“Look once more, ere we leave this specular
7150
mount,
Westward, much nearer by south-west. Behold
Where on th’ Aegean shore a city stands,
Built nobly, pure the air and light the soil—