MILTON'S SATAN;

A STUDY OF
HIS ORIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE

by

KATIE SIEMENS

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT

OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARTS

in the Department
of
English

We accept this thesis as conforming to the

standard required from candidates for the
degree of MASTER OF ARTS

M ^ r i b ^ ^ o f the Department of
English

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

April, 1953
 ABSTRACT

on the thesis

MILTON1S SATAN; A STUDY OF HIS ORIGIN AM) SIGNIFICANCE

My thesis i s a study of the poetic origin of Milton's Satan

and his significance apart from his dramatic function in Paradise Lost

and Paradise Regained.

I have tried to establish Satan's poetic origin by investigat-

ing the studies of a number of prominent c r i t i c s , Miltoh's own prose

works, such as the Eikonoklastes and his Second Defence, and also the

correspondences between Satan's speeches and the words of King Charles

I in his Eikon Bazilike. From these studies I have drawn the conclusion

that Milton used King Charles I as he appears i n the Eikon Bazilike as

his model for Satan. Since Milton hated the King for his tyranny,

Milton's emotional involvement and the human model resulted i n the por-

trayal of a Satan, whose vividness and realism make him one of the most

towering Satans in world literature.

Satan's true significance lies in his revelation of Milton's

personality. He reflects Milton's thoughts, his political and religious

philosophy, his attitudes towards contemporary events, and his personal-

ity traits. Milton's development of Satan's personality reveals his

unsurpassed craftsmanship as a poetic a r t i s t . As we follow Satan's

career we discover a new Milton, differing enormously from the generally

accepted conception of a stern Puritan. The Milton revealed in Satan's
action has a keen appreciate of a l l that is beautiful in the universe,
besides moral values. He has a sense of humour and a capacity for
friendship, hitherto found incompatible with Milton's retiring character.
Paradise Lost also shows us Milton's hope for the future. In man's
regeneration he looks forward to an England liberated from the tyranny
of kings, while his spiritual vision embraces the realization of God's
initial purpose when he created man; namely, that "Earth be changed to
Heaven, and Heaven to Earth."
 CONTENTS

Page
Introduction

Chapter I The Conception of Satan as the Source of Evil 1

II The Argument over Milton's Poetical Conception 4
of Satan

III Satan as a Counterpart of the Eikon in the 14

Eikon Bazilike
N IV The Magnificence of Satan Based upon His Own 22
Demonstration and Allegation
N
V Twentieth-Century Theories of Satan's Greatness 32
in Paradise Lost
V TT An Objective Study of Satan to Assess His True 39
Nature

VII The Poetic Unity of Satan in Hell, on Mount 59

Niphates, and in Eden

VIII The Background of Satan's Rebellion 75

IX The Rebellion 89

X Satan, the Rebel of Heaven 94

-XI Satan and the Fall of Man 104

' XII Satan and the Crisis of Paradise Lost 124

XIII Satan and the Second Adam 132

XIV The Significance of Milton's Satan 143

XV Satan and Milton's Poetic Art 159
XVI Conclusion 164

Bibliography 169
 INTRODUCTION

Paradise Lost is considered Milton's most outstanding poetic

work and Satan his greatest artistic achievement in character portrayal.
However, besides presenting his readers with a magnificent work of art,
Milton has left posterity an insoluble enigaa in the figure of Satan.

How did Milton conceive such dynamic force, such realistic

emotions? What is Satan's function in Paradise Lost? What does
Milton consciously or unconsciously express through Satan? Why does
the Satan on Mount Niphates differ from the Satan of Books One and Two?
These questions have preoccupied the minds of literary critics during
the last two centuries and have given rise to numerous controversies on
the subject of Satan.

To understand Satan a knowledge of Milton's time and of

Milton himself as the man, the thinker, and the philosopher is a prime
requisite. It is also necessary to get a clear picture of his state
of mind at the time of the composition of Books One and Two. Con-
sequently, I have based my conclusions about Satan upon the investigat-
ion of Milton's prose works, such as the Eikonoklastes, the Second
Defence, the Tenure of Kings, Of Education, Reason of Church Government;
on contemporary history; the Fd.kon Bazilike; and on Miltonic criticism.

A large number of Miltonic critics believe that Milton created

Satan in his own image. Guided by the discovery of many correspondences
 ii

i
between the Eikon in the Eikon Bazilike and Satan in Paradise Lost and
by the consideration of Milton's state of mind at the time of the
Restoration, I believe that Milton drew upon his hatred and estimation
of Charles I in the Eikonoklastes for his origin of Satan.

This inference invalidates the conception that Milton admired

his Satan, and indicates that he meant him to appear spurious. dice
this is established, the alleged dualism in Satan's characterization
disappears, and the much-deplored split in Paradise Lost becomes non-
existent.

The eating of the apple has been considered the crisis in

Paradise Lost by most of its readers. This has been responsible for
the difficulty in determining the hero of the epic. Dr. Tillyard has
shifted the climax to the reconciliation scene between Adam and Eve.
By advancing this to their repentance, which becomes the turning point
for the destiny of the whole race, the action of man's positive at-
titude and Satan's humiliation coincide. This proves that Adam is the
hero as he rises from his Fall towards a brighter future for mankind.

Satan's significance in the action of the epic lies in his

role as seducer of man. Milton, in accordance with his conception of
the poet as instructer, warns man of Satan's continuing powers of
seduction through which he " s t i l l destroys". To the twentieth-century
reader Satan represents the embodiment of the powers of rebellion
against a l l order and a l l positive values, the dictator type who sub-
verts everything to the realization of his own ends. Moreover, Satan
reflects Milton's time, his personality, his religious and political
philosophy.
 iii

In conclusion I should like to point out that, though my

statements may sound rather too positive, they are not intended to be
dogmatic, since I am fully aware of the weakness of some of my arguments.
I am fully convinced that I have by no means dissipated the mystery and
exploited the wealth of Satan's personality. My endeavour amounts to
nothing more than an honest attempt to pierce the secret that shrouds
Milton's conception of Satan and to help establish the unity of the
author's art, his l i f e , and his thinking.
 Chapter I

THE CONCEPTION OF SATAN AS THE

SOURCE OF EVIL

The existence of evil has been rendered axiomatic

by i t s universal manifestation i n human experience. The
seven cardinal sins with their numerous amplifications have
been the motivating elements i n the shaping of human history,
and continue to direct the destiny of mankind and the fate of
the individual. Consequently, the persistence of evil has
always occupied a dominant place i n the field of philosophical
and theological thinking and, during the twentieth century, is
receiving major attention i n psychological investigation.

Many theories have been evolved as a result of this

preoccupation with the problem of e v i l . The earliest records
of theological speculation place the most feasible, though by
no means rational, solution to this problem i n the realm of
the supernatural by conceiving of evil as a supernatural
force. This early concept remains predominant i n a l l subse-
quent thinking until i t reaches the ultimate i n the Middle
Ages in a fully developed doctrine of Satan at the head of a
 - 2 -

hierarchial realm. This medieval conception i s founded upon

Hebrew demonology and New Testament doctrine. Satan i s a
fallen angel and is responsible for the F a l l of Man and a l l
evil upon earth.

Popular notion invests Satan with fanciful, dis-

torted characteristics, which make him both grotesque and
bizarre. The Reformation modifies these ideas only partially.
Nor are they held by the vulgar alone, for we learn on good
authority^" that Luther ascribes various noises to the devil
and feels his corporeal presence to such an extent that he
throws his Inkstand at him.

Jacob Boehme gives expression to the generally -

accepted orthodox view of the seventeenth century i n ;
Lucifer envied the Son his glory;
his own beauty deceived him
and he wanted to place himself
on the throne of the Son,
and stresses the fact that woe was brought into the world
through Lucifer's malice and envy. The numerous literary
works of this century, such as Hugo Grotius' Adamus Excel,
Andreini's L'Adamo. Lope de Vega Caspio's Greacion del mnndo
y primera culpa de hombre. Lancetta's La scena tragica
d'Adamo ed Eva, Salandra's Adamo Caduto, Vondel's Lucifer
and Adam i n Ballings-chap* and Milton's Paradise Lost and

1 Schaff, D. S., "Devil", in Jackson, Samuel Macauley, ed.,

The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge,
Funk and Wagnalls Co., 1918, v o l . I l l , p. 416.
2 Loc. c i t .
 - 3 -

Paradise Regained, attest to an extreme preoccupation with the

mystery of e v i l and the character of Satan,

It appears that the degree of interest i n e v i l and

Satan i n any one age corresponds to the intensity of pessimism
resulting from p o l i t i c a l , s o c i a l , or religious perplexities
which assume cataclysmic proportions, e.g., the twentieth-
century threat of atomic warfare. Werblowsky, In his
"Preface" to Lucifer and Prometheus, voices this opinion with
respect to a new awareness of the appalling consequences of
e v i l when he states that:

It i s not the writers who have reintroduced the

d e v i l , but i t i s our present world which has forced
them to take notice of him again.... We are l i v i n g
through times where e v i l has manifested i t s e l f with
an almost revelation-like obtrusiveness and power.
... I t i s understandable therefore that books on the
d e v i l have been on the increase l a t e l y . Edward
Langton c a l l s the l a s t chapter of his study 'The
Return of Satan', giving as a recent example Pro-
fessor C . E. M. Joad's God and E v i l . We may add
C. S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters, Denis de Rougemont's
La Part du Diable and others. The Carmelite
Fathers i n France have edited a remarkable symposium
on Satan. The analytical psychology of Jung has
already long insisted on bringing the d e v i l and the
problem of the shadow to the fore; mainly i n
connection with analytical treatment, but, also,
more recently, i n theoretical research. It suffices
here to mention Professor Jung's essay on the T r i n i t y
and Miss Scharf's s t i r r i n g study on the Old Testament
Satan.... Novelists too are returning to the habit
of introducing the d e v i l , and using him as a
dramatis personae. I t may therefore be excused i f
one of the greatest and most towering Satans of 3
l i t e r a t u r e i s made the new subject of a new study.

3 Werblowsky, R. J . Zwi, "Preface", Lucifer and Prometheus,

London, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., 1952, p. XVI.
 Chapter II

THE ARGUMENT OVER MILTON'S POETICAL

CONCEPTION OF SATAN

In Paradise Lost Milton has l e f t to the world a

profound enigma i n this, "one of the greatest and most towering
Satans of literature," that hitherto has defied the penetrative
analysis of many outstanding thinkers and literary critics of
several centuries. The crux of the problem l i e s In the per-
sistence of divergences i n opinion with regard to the person-
ality and function of Satan.

To Milton's contemporaries Satan evidently presented

no special problem. Predisposed by their orthodoxy, they
regarded Paradise Lost as a purely religious poem and Satan as
the archfiend of mankind.
As for the great Satanic defiances,
they would have admired them for their strength
and deplored them for their perversity. 4
This idea predominated throughout the greater part of the eight-
eenth century. The absence of characteristics ascribed to
Satan by popular notion and manifested i n an especially bizarre
fashion in Dante's Inferno as he depicts Satan thus:

4 Rajan, B., Paradise Lost and the Seventeenth-Century

Reader, London, Chatto and Windus, 1947, p. 95.
 - 5-

At six eyes he wept; the tears

Adown three chins distilled with bloody foam
At every mouth his teeth a sinner champ'd
Bruised as with ponderous engine; so that three
Were in his guise tormented, 5
was attributed to Milton's respect for the aesthetic feelings
and religious perceptions of his readers. Both Newton i n :
A devil a l l made up of wickedness would
be too shocking to any reader, 6
and Addison i n his essays on Paradise Lost pay tribute to
Milton for his consideration.

The romantic school of Miltonic criticism veered

drastically from any preceding idea by imputing Promethean
qualities to Milton's Satan. Blake, who originated this idea,
and Shelley represent the ultimate i n Romantic thought. In
his Marriage of Heaven and Hell Blake becomes the protagonist
of a fascinating and inspiring Satan i n Paradise Lost and
ascribes Milton's conception of such to the fact that Milton
7
"was a true poet and of the Devil's party without knowing it!'

5 Welsh, Henry C , editor, Dante's Inferno, translated from

the original of Dante Alighieri by H. F. Cory, Philadelphia,
Henry Altemus, p. 160.
6 Newton's note to Paradise Lost II . 4 8 3 , i n Werblowsky
Zwi, Lucifer and Prometheus, p. 3-
7 Blake, "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell", Poetical Works,
ed. Sampson (Oxford, 1914) p. 249, cited i n Denis Saurat,
Milton: Man and Thinker, London, J . M. Dent and Sons Ltd., 1946,
PTTYT.
 - 6 -

Shelley looks upon Milton's Satan as a refutation of orthodox

teaching when he argues that:
Nothing can exceed the energy and magnificence
of the character of Satan as expressed i n
Paradise Lost. It i s a mistake to suppose
that he could ever have been intended for the
popular personification of e v i l . Implacable
hate, patient cunning, and a sleepless refine-
ment of device to i n f l i c t the extremest anguish
on an enemy, these things are e v i l , and although
venial in a slave, are not to be forgiven i n a
tyrant; although redeemed by much that enobles
his defeat i n one subdued, are marked by a l l
that dishonours his conquest i n the victor.
Milton's devil as a moral being is as far super-
ior to his God, as one who perseveres i n some
purpose which he has conceived to be excellent
in spite of adversity and torture, i s to one who
in the cold security of undoubted triumph i n f l i c t s
the most horrible revenge upon his enemy, not from
any mistaken notion of inducing him to repent of
a perseverance i n enmity, but with the alleged
design of exasperating him to deserve new torments.
Milton has so far violated the popular creed ( i f
this shall be judged to be a violation) as to have
alleged no superiority of moral virtue to his God
over his Devil." 8

Shelley, apparently, attributes to Milton the intentional glor-

ification of Satan; and this conception, though in less extreme
form, persisted throughout the nineteenth century.

A new approach to Milton's works added impetus to the

interest in the Miltonic criticism of the twentieth century.
Led by Denis Saurat, a great many literary critics have recently
attempted "to reveal the unity of the man himself" by linking
"Milton's art to his thought, and both art and thought to his >
l i f e , one i n i t s e l f , varied i n its expression, p o l i t i c a l ,

8 Shelley, P. B., "A Defence of Poetry" i n Campbell, Pyre

and Weaver, ed. Poetry and Criticism of the Romantic Movement,
New York, London, Century-Crofts, Inc., 1 9 3 2 , p. 513•
 - 7 -

private, philosophical or a r t i s t i c . " 7 Paradise Lost, on the

whole, and the towering personality of Satan^in particular,
provide the critics with the widest scope for investigation.

With regard to Satan, criticism has divided Miltonic

scholars largely into two camps, Satanists and Anti-Satanists,
each of them by no means a unanimous entity. The Satanists
accept the Satan in Books One and Two ab face value: he is
admirable; he was meant to be admirable. Moreover, they try
to assert that Milton, consciously or unconsciously, poured
into the personality of Satan his own "powerful feeling of
10
egotism and pride." To a l l of them, in various degrees,
Satan represents Milton. The anti-Satanists refuse to accept
Satan on f i r s t impressions. Keeping forever in mind the pre-
conceived orthodox notion about Satan's character, they prefer
to see under the grandiose veneer his hollownees and repulsive-
ness. Some, such as Mr. C. S. Lewis, have explored this
attitude to the point where Satan appears ludicrous.
The protagonists of the Satanist theory are Mr.
Hamilton, Professor S t o l l , Professor Waldock and Mr. D. Saurat.
Messrs. C. Williams, C.S.Lewis, and Professor Musgrove are
exponents of the anti-Satanist view. Dr. Tillyard^in his
Milton, expresses Satanist tendencies when he states that
"Milton did partly ally himself with Satan, that unwittingly

9 Saurat, Denis, Milton: Man and Thinker, Introduction,

London, J . M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1946, p. XII.
10 Ibid., p. XIII .
he was led away by the creature of his own imaglnation."1"1-
However, he has recently shifted his position In Studies on
Milton (1951)< when he definitely takes his stand as an anti-
Satanist and refutes his own error.

Although no two critics agree in their Interpretation

of Satan, a l l are unanimous in according Milton's Satan
unsurpassed excellence as a work of poetic art. The romantics
do not quarrel with Shelley's tribute, "Nothing can exceed the
energy and magnificence of the character of Satan as expressed
12
in Paradise Lost." Nor do the twentieth-century writers
disagree with A. Gardner who assesses the Satan In Paradise Lost
as"a figure of heroic magnitude and heroic energy, developed
by Milton with dramatic emphasis and dramatic intensity."-^
The question arises why Satan's grandeur i s not
matched poetically by God, the Messiah, and the Heavenly Host.
Milton approaches these characters with diffidence and evident-
ly anticipates d i f f i c u l t i e s , evidenced by his plea that the
"Celestial Light":
"Shine inward, and the mind through a l l her power
Irradiate; there plant eyes; a l l mist from thence
Purge and disperse, that I may see and t e l l
Of things invisible to mortal sight." 14

11 Tillyard, E. M. W., Milton, London, Chatto and Windus,

1946, p. 277.
12 Shelley, A Defense of Poetry, p. 513.
13 Gardner H., "Milton's Satan and the theme of Damnation in
Elizabethan Tragedy", i n Wilson, E.P., ed. English Studies,
London, John Murray, Albermarl St. W., 1948, vol. 1, p. 49.
14 Milton, John,"Paradise Lost" in Paradise Lost and Selected
Prose and Poetry, New York, Toronto, Mnehart & Co. 1951, I I I ,
51-54'
 - 9 -

In dealing with heavenly characters, Milton is largely thrown

upon his own imagination, especially in his characterization of
God, for whom heathen mythology presents Inadequate counter-
parts and Hebrew teaching and Christian theology insufficient
scope for poetic elaboration. Satan, too, belongs to the
realm of the supernatural. Yet he presents no difficulties to
Milton. Throughout the epic there is no sense of hesitation.
On the contrary, Milton's sponteniety of deliniation and his
psychological penetration strike the reader as uncanny and
vividly demonstrate the author's profound familiarity with his
subject.

Hence arises the assumption of many of his critics

that Milton expressed his own ruling passions of boundless
pride, unyielding nature, and intellectual arrogance; and,
greatly self-opiniated, admired his own image in Satan. Saurat
asserts emphatically that:
Satan's f i r s t speeches are pure Miltonic
lyricism.... Here we have the rage and
defiance Milton himself felt when he saw
the Restoration coming, and which we have
seen him expressing in prose in his Ready
and Easy Way? 15
and that:
Milton had Satan in him and wanted to drive
him out. He had felt passion, pride, and
sensuality. 16

However, Mr. Saurat .seems to invalidate his theory of

the poetic derivation of Satan by his evaluation of Milton's

15 Saurat, Milton: Man and Thinker, p. 179.

16 Ibid., p . 184.
 - 10 -

character. He commences with, "The very centre of Milton's

personality seems to me to consist In a powerful feeling of
egotism and pride, i n the fullest self-consciousness of a
17
tremendous individuality." Then he modifies his statement
by explaining that Milton looked upon himself as a representa-
tive man and, therefore, "His high opinion of himself is also
-j o
a high opinion of man." He adds that Milton manifested a
"noble humility" in remembering that he was the servant of his
people, in sacrificing his literary ambition to a cause, when
he "gave up his throne of poetical glory, and eagerly became
19
an obscure workman In the service of God." '
Some Satanists base their argument for the identifica-
tion of Milton with Satan on the assumption that the great
regicide against the Stuarts is hurling, through Satan, defiance
against God's providence in the failure of the Revolution. But
we must not ignore Milton's conception of leadership. Accord-
ing to his political principles the Stuarts had incurred their
own downfall, for:
When Kings or Rulers become blasphemers of
God, oppressions and murderers of their subjects,
they ought no more to be accounted Kings or
lawful Magistrates, but as privat men to be
examin'd, accus'd, condemn'd and punisht by the
law of God.... 20.
17 Saurat, Denis, Milton: Man and Thinker, Introduction, pXIII.
18 Loc. c i t .
19 Saurat, op_. c i t . , p. 21.
20 Milton, John,"The Tenure of Kings,"in The Works of John
Milton, vol. V, New York, 1932, Columbia University Press, p. 50.
 - 11 -

Hence I t was not o n l y l e g i t i m a t e , but imperative f o r the

subjects t o r e j e c t t h e i r r u l e . Yet God's p r e r o g a t i v e to Man's

obedience M i l t o n never q u e s t i o n s . Even during the c a t a s t r o -

phic days o f the R e s t o r a t i o n he J u s t i f i e s God's way by p l a c i n g

the blame f o r the f a i l u r e o f the R e v o l u t i o n on the E n g l i s h

people f o r t h e i r d e f e c t i o n i n c h a r a c t e r . He expresses t h i s

c o n v i c t i o n i n Paradise Lost i n :

"Yet sometimes nations w i l l d e c l i n e so low

From v i r t u e , which i s reason, that no wrong,
But j u s t i c e and some f a t a l curse annexed,
Deprives them o f t h e i r outward l i b e r t y ,
T h e i r inward lost."21

Mr. Lewis, as a n t i - S a t a n l s t , r e j e c t s the i d e a that

M i l t o n i d e n t i f i e d h i m s e l f with Satan. He a s c r i b e s the p o e t i -

c a l e x c e l l e n c e o f Satan to the f a c t that i t i s e a s i e r to draw

a bad character than a good one because o f the author's as

w e l l as the reader's inner d e p r a v i t y . "The Satan i n M i l t o n

enables him to draw the character w e l l , j u s t as the Satan i n

22
us enables us to r e c e i v e it."

Dr. T i l l y a r d , i n h i s M i l t o n , agrees with Mr. Saurat

when he w r i t e s that "Satan i s the very essence o f M i l t o n ' s

23
J
nature" and that the l a t t e r admired him because "Satan

21 M i l t o n , Paradise L o s t , XII, 97-101-

22 Lewis, C.S., A Preface to Paradise L o s t , London: New York:
Toronto, Oxford U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s , 1946, p . 99.

23 T i l l y a r d , E.M.W., M i l t o n , p . 2 7 7 .
 - 12 -

24
expresses heroic energy in what Milton believed very strongly?
However, a few years later Dr. Tillyard revokes his earlier
avowals i n no uncertain terms by stating that:
... we now see that Milton did not sympathise
with Satanic pride, but that recognizing the
temptation to pride In himself, he passionately
embraced and expressed the ethics of Christian
humility. Indeed the very structure of Paradise
Lost is an ironic exposure of the weakness of
Satanic pride (for a l l the reverberant protests
of i t s power) when matched with the smallest
manifestation of sincere and regenerate human
feeling. 25
And he goes on to say:
You might as well argue that the author of the
Book of Samuel was really on the side of Goliath
against David.... More than ever i t is certain
that Milton was on the side of Christian
humility against pride. 26
Considering Milton's religious orthodoxy, according
to which Satan was the archfiend of humanity, causing a l l evil
and a l l woe, a deliberate identification with the enemy of
mankind and his personal antagonist seems inconceivable. On
the basis of his political convictions Milton would have
rejected the analogy which the Satanists are trying to draw
between Satan, the outlaw rebel, and Milton, the defeated
regicide. Satan was cast out of Heaven because of a defection
in character. He rebelled against his superior in virtue.
Milton opposed a dynasty which had forfeited its right to rule
through i t s decadence. Satan was motivated by pride and

24 Loc. c i t .
25 Tillyard, E.M.W., Studies in Milton, London, Chatto and
Windus, 1951, p. 6.
26 Ibid., p. 51v
 - 13 -

selfishness. Milton acted under the duress of duty and sacri-

ficed his eyesight and his poetic ambition to the service of
his fellow men. At no time during the catastrophe did Milton
question God's justice. Consequently, It Is d i f f i c u l t to
assume that even unconsciously he imputed his own feelings to
Satan. Therefore, throughout this thesis, I shall regard the
identification of Milton with Satan as an erroneous conception.
 Chapter III

SATAN AS A COUNTERPART OF THE EIKON IN

THE EIKON BAZILIKE

Dr. Tillyard does not investigate the possible

sources for the poetic conception of Milton's Satan. Yet i n
his statement/'That Milton should have depicted such potential-
ities in Satan argues not his covert approval but his sound
knowledge of the dictator type," 2 ^ he gives the clue. In the
Tenure of Kings Milton investigates the regimes of a l l times.
Political and religious developments throughout Europe and
especially in England are forcing the characteristics of
tyrants upon Milton and his collaborators in personal experience.
Moreover,
Milton's pen accompanied the whole Puritan
revolution from the modest constitutional
opposition in which i t commenced, through
its unexpected triumph, to i t s crushing overdo
throw by the royalist and clerical reaction. 0
As Secretary for the Commonwealth his duty lay, to a great
extent, in refuting the accusations and defamations directed
against the regicides by the royalists and their continental

27 Tillyard, E.M.W., Studies in Milton, p. 6.

28 Pattison, Mark, Milton, London, MacMilland and Co.Ltd.,
1932, p. 72.
 - 15 -

supporters. This he could do effectively only hy exploring

every intricacy of the manifold and voluminous literature in
order to explode the v e i l of casuistry and thus disabuse the
English mind from the effects of i t s propqganda.

In the Eikon Bazilike Milton was challenged by the

self-portrayal of Charles I as
the saint and martyr, the man of sorrows,
praying for his murderers; the King, who
renounced an earthly kingdom to gain a
heavenly, 29
to dissipate the illusion which the book imposed upon the g u l l i -
ble populace. The tone of the Eikonoklastes, through which
Milton attempted to expose the King's sophistry, reveals a
bitter personal antagonism for a tyrant whose rule had been a
constant negation of his profession i n the Eikon Bazilike.
This hostile attitude grew i n intensity during the years "when
his tower of dreams for England's salvation crumbled to deso-
30
late ruin," and when the "New Israel" rejected God's providence
for idolatrous king-worship. L'Estrange states that Milton
"had done more to keep him [Charles if) out, and had attacked
him and his more ferociously, more relentlessly, and more
31
successfully, than any other living."-^ He also comments on

29 Pattison, Mark, Milton, p. 101.

30 Wolfe, Don M., Milton in the Puritan Revolution, New York,
Thomas Nelson and Sons, 194-1, p . 37/.
31 Masson, David, The Life of John Milton, London, MaeMillan
and Co., 1877, vol. V, p. 693-
 - 16 -

Milton's power of penetration in "... your piercing malice

enters into the private agonies of his [Charles f] struggling
soul...." 3 2

A l l this indicates Milton's intense hatred of king-

ship and his profound understanding of the nature of a tyrant.
Moreover, he needed l i t t l e imagination to portray his Satan
during the early days of the Restoration, when the "apocalypti
beast let loose" became a reality in his experience. He
sensed Satan's fury i n the frenzied rejoicings of the rioting
mobs. He became aware of his cataclysmic violence in the mar
tyrdom of his friends, whose fortitude, expressed in Harrison'
dying words?
By God I have leaped over a Wall, by God I
have runn'd through a Troop, and by my God
I w i l l go through this death, and he will
make i t easie to me5 33
34

and demonstrated by Vane, who "dyed like a Prince," did not

abate the diabolic malice. Overshadowed by e v i l , in constant
jeopardy of his own l i f e , out of the bitterness of his soul }
Milton brought forth his "towering" Satan in conformity with
orthodoxy, yet with King Charles as his psychological prototyp
It is natural that Milton, having analyzed the King's thoughts

32 Masson, Life of John Milton, p. 694.

33 Wolfe, Milton in the Puritan Revolution, p. 338.
34 Ibid.. p. 340.
 - 17 -

and nature In the Eikon Bazllike in minutest detail, should

turn to i t for his characterization of Satan. Moreover, the
numerous correspondence? in the Eikon and Paradise Lost are
ample evidence that Milton deliberately identified his Satan
with the king. At times the analogy i s so close that Satan's
statements strike the reader as the poetic paraphrase of
Charles's arguments.

Both trace the provocation of their opposition to

injured merit. The king in his complaint against the curtail-
ment of his powers states,
God knows, though I had then a sense of
Injuries; 35
while Satan admits that the rebellion was caused by his
"... sense of injured merit, ->6
That with the Mightiest raised me to contend."
Both boast of the invincibility of their soul; the king in
But I have a soul invincible ... -
here I am sure to be Conquerour, ^ '
and again:
...here I am and ever shall be
fixt and resolutej 38
and Satan to Beelzebub:
" A l l is not lost - the unconquerable w i l l ,
and study of revenge, immortal hate,

35 Almack, Edward, ed., Eikon Bazilike, London, The De La

Mare Press, 1904, p. 30.
36 Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 97-98.
37 Almack, op_. c i t . , p. 5 6 , 1.8
38 Ibid. ; P. 40, 1. 4.
 - 18 -

and courage never to submit or y i e l d . n ^

The king expresses his determination to persist i n

his defiance, for he considers i t :
better for me to die enjoying the Empire of
my soul, ... then live with the Title of King,
i f i t shall carry such vassalage with i t , as
not to suffer me to use My Reason and Conscience,
in which I declare as a King, to like or dis-
l i k e . 40.
Satan incites his follower:
"To wage by force or guile eternal war,
Irreconcilable to our grand Foe,*^

The king tries to rationalize his predicament by

derogating the success of his opponents, because
They have no great cause to triumph,
that they have got my Person into their
Power; since my Soule is s t i l l my own;
nor shall they ever gaine my Consent
against my Conscience ... the greatest
injuries my enemies seek to i n f l i c t upon 4 2
me, cannot be without my own consent.
Satan similarly extols the sovereignty of his soul through the
superiority of mind over matter when he persuades himself that
" The mind is i t s own place, and in i t s e l f 40
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."

39 Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 106-108.

40 0p_. c i t . , p. 33, 1. 2 f f .
41 Ibid., I, 121-122.
42 Eikon Bazilike, p. 211, 1. 19ff.
43 Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 254-255.
 - 19 -

Both try to find comfort i n the theory that true greatness is

not contingent upon material circumstances. The king asserts
that:
I shall never think my self lesse than my
self while I am able thus to preserve the
Integrity of my Conscience. 44
Satan tries to reassure himself, in the very centre of Hell,
with
"What matter where, i f I be s t i l l the same,
And what I should be ... " 45

The king expresses his self-deception and arrogance

by a false optimism for a future when
my reputation shall like the Sun (after Owles
and Bats have had their freedome i n the night
and darker times) rise and recover i t s e l f to
such a degree of splendour, as those ferall
birds shall be grieved to behold, and unable
to bear. For never were any Princes more
glorious, than those whom God hath suffer'd
to be tried i n the fornace of a f f l i c t i o n , by
their injurious Subjects. 46
Satan's argument;
"I give not Heaven for lost: from this descent
Celestial Virtues rising w i l l appear 47
More glorious and more dread than from no f a l l /
is equally vainglorious.

The king presents himself as a martyr in a great

44 Milton, Paradise Lost. I, p. 209, 1. 3 f f .

45 Ibid., p. 256-7.
46 Eikon Bazilike. p. 140, 1. 13 f f .
47 Milton, op_. c i t . , I I , 14-16.
 - 20 -

cause, because!
I would but defend My self so far, as to be
able to defend my good Subjects from those
mens violence and fraud. 48
Satan, by a similar perversion of truth^gains the acclaim of
the fallen angels, as:
... Towards him they bend
With awful reverence prone, and as a God
Extol him equal to the Highest in Heaven.
Nor failed they to express how much they praised.
That for the general safety he despised
His own.^9
A metaphor, i n which the Sun represents the king and the moon
parliament, and which the king uses to describe his deposition

occasioned by the Interposition and shadow

of that body, which as the Moone receiveth
its chiefest light from Me, 50
is successfully exploited i n Paradise Lost to give a vivid
picture of the fallen Satan,
... as when the sun new-risen
Looks through the horizontal misty air
Shorn of his beam$ or, from behind the moon,
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds
On half the nations ... 51

In his Eikonoklastes Milton endeavors to shatter the

Eikon the king has created of himself. By revealing the king's
power of dissimulation, his hypocrisy, his false pride, and

48 F.ikon Bazilike, p. 72, 1. 12 ff-

49 Milton, Paradise Lost, I I , 477 - 4-82.
f f
50 Milton, op_. c i t . , p. 74-, 1. H '
51 Milton, op_. c i t . , I, 594 f f .
 - 21 -

mental perversion, Milton makes him the embodiment of the

orthodox Satan. In Paradise Lost he reverses the process in
making Satan the adumbration of the king as he sees him In the
Eikon Bazilike. Moreover, his hatred of the Prelacy causes him
to impute also to his Satan the evils he execrates i n the
Bishops.

Thus the Satan of Paradise Lost is not Milton, but

Is deliberately created in the image of Charles. The use of
a human model results i n a humanized Satan and produces the
startling realism so lacking in God, the Son, and the Heavenly
Host. Moreover, the immediacy of the experience and Milton's
intense emotional involvement lend his characterization a
dramatic force which renders the Satan of Paradise Lost unsur-
passed in the literature of the world.
 Chapter IV

THE MAGNIFICENCE OF SATAN BASED UPON HIS OWN

DEMONSTRATIONS AND ALLEGATIONS

The epic convention permits Milton to start "in

medlas res" and present his Satan to the reader before working
out an exposition and thus conditioning him for the encounter.
In the introduction Milton effectively reveals his plot i n
epigrammatic form. Satan's part he sums up thus:
Th1 infernal Serpent; he i t was whose guile,
Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived
The mother of mankind, what time his pride
Had cast him out from Heaven, with a l l his Host
Of rebel Angels, by whose aid, aspiring
To set himself i n glory above his peers,
He trusted to have equalled the Most High,
If He opposed, and with ambitions aim
Against the throne and monarchy of God,
Raised impious war in Heaven and battle proud,
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
Hurled headlong flaming from th* ethereal sky,
With hideous ruin and combustion, down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal f i r e , 52
Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms.

In these few lines the poet apprises the reader of

his personal attitude towards Satan. He stigmatizes him as
"th 1 infernal Serpent," f i l l e d with "envy and revenge," dis-
rupting the natural order by aspiring "above his peers." He
calls him "impious", "proud", "a rebel", the seducer of "the

52 Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 34-4-9.

 - 23 -

mother of mankind." He depicts him in the ludicrous, un-

heroic state of heing
Hurled headlong flaming from th 1 ethereal sky.^3
There i s a note of satisfaction over God's punishing of him>
54

Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms,

as Milton goes on to describe without a vestige of compassion:
The dismal situation waste and wilde.
A dungeon horrible, on a l l sides round,
As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames
No light; but rather darkness visible
Served only to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to a l l , . . . 55
Satan's predicament does not mitigate Milton's abhorence for
56
the "horrid crew ... rolling in the fiery gulf" nor for their
leader, whose "baleful eyes" instead of remorse over his sinful
ambition, show only "steadfast hate."
Having thus clarified his own feelings, Milton
exposes the reader directly to the influence of Satan's demon-
strations and allegations. He lets Satan speak for himself,
even as Charles I spoke i n the Eikon Bazilike. Through the
realistic description of hell as:
... a fiery deluge, fed 57
With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed

53 Milton, Paradise Lost. I, 45.

54 Ibid., I, 49.
55 Ibid., I, 60-67.
56 Ibid., I, 52.
57 Ibid., I, 68. -67.
 - 24 -

and the fallen angels;

... o•erwhelmed
With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire
... weltering by his side ; 58
Milton successfully stimulates the imagination and incites
curiosity to learn from Satan the cause of such deep a f f l i c -
tion, for which there is l i t t l e Biblical explanation. Where
groans and self pity would have been quite i n order, Satan
voices an admirable courage i n :
"All is not lost, - the unconquerable w i l l ,
And courage never to submit or yield:
And what i s else not to be overcome?"59
His determination and optimism i n the face of such recent
calamity causes his rationalizing:
"Since, through experience of this great event
In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced,
We may with more successful hope resolve
To wage by force or guile eternal war,
Irreconcilable to our grand Foe,"60
to lose i t s ludicibusness. The contagion of his invincibility
communicates i t s e l f to Beelzebub, who at f i r s t challenges
Satan's optimism by questioning:
"What can i t then avail though yet we feel
Strength undiminished, or eternal being
To undergo eternal punishment?" 61
His leadership l i f t s a numerous army from utter despair, where:

58 Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 86 - 88.

59 Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 106 * 108.
60 Ibid., I. 118-122.
61 Ibid., I. 150-152.
 - 25 -

Abject and l o s t , lay these, covering the flood,

Under amazement of their hideous change. 62
His high reputation makes his military discipline effective
even i n H e l l , for:
They heard, and were abashed, and up they sprung
Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch
On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread,
Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake.
Nor did they not perceive the evil plight
In which they were, or the fierce pain not feel;
Yet to their General's voice they soon obeyed
Innumerable. 63
From his point of vantage on the burning land, Satan surveys
his predicament undismayed, yet with the f u l l realization of
its cataclysmal nature. He accepts the situation defiantly:
64
"Be i t so." But he i s convinced of the superiority of his
mind over matter and Is determined to impose his w i l l upon his
environment, upon Hell i t s e l f , for
"The mind i s i t s own place, and in i t s e l f ^
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven"
Since the glories of Heaven left him unhappy, there will be
more inner satisfaction for him "to reign in Hell, than serve
in Heaven."^ His over-bearing self-confidence is heightened
by the success of his f i r s t overt defiance of God's punishment
as he and Beelzebub shake off their chains and rise:
As Gods, and by their own recovered strength,
Not by the sufferance of supernal Power. 67

62 Milton, Paradise Lost. I, 313-314.

63 I M i . , I, 331-338.
64 Ibid.. I, 245.
65 Iold.. I, 254 - 255.
66 Ibid., I, 263.
67 Ibid., I, 240-241.
 - 26 -

Satan's heroic qualities are matched by his grandiose

figure. His
... eyes .
That sparkling blazed ... °8
are fascinating as they mirror the Intensity of his emotions.
The vagueness in the description of his figure as.*
... long and large,
... i n bulk as huge ,Q
as whom the fables name of monstrous size,, '
leaves the imagination free to conjecture up a picture of an
incomparable Titan.

His armour bears tribute to his great physical

strength and his courage.
... his ponderous shield,
... massy, large, and round.
The broad circumference 7 Q
Hung on his shoulders like a moon^
gives, by i t s battered appearance, ample evidence of many an
intercepted blow and many an adversary valorously met.
Under the impact of so much physical vigour and intel-
lectual energy any preconceived notion about Satan gives way
to a sense of respect and admiration. His dramatic force
completely eclipses Milton's interspersed maledictions, such as
"unblest feet"''1, "the superior Fiend,"?2 "bad angels,"^

68 Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 193 - 194.

69 Ibid., I, 195 - 197.
70 Ibid., I, 284 - 291-
71 Ibid., I, 238.
72 Ibid., I, 283.
73 Ibid., I, 344.
 - 27 -

74
and "Sultan" — "a name hateful in Milton's day to a l l Euro-
peans both as freemen and as Christians."^ Even the extensive
analogy to Leviathan, whom:
the pilot of some small night-foundered s k i f f ,
Deeming some island, o f t , as seamen t e l l ,

finds a treacherous counterfeit, interferes l i t t l e with the

reader's predisposition in favour of Satan.

The impressiveness of his companion chiefs,

... - godlike Shapes, and Forms
Excelling human; princely Dignities ,
And Powers that erst i n Heaven sat on thrones,'"
77
augments the grandeur of "their great Commander." Milton's
subsequent description of these epic companions sounds a note
of caution. They seem also to lack the heroic lustre of their
chief. But
Courage i n a gangster is s t i l l y
courage and therefore good '
is Mr. Waldock's opinion. Moreover, the display of a mighty
army, the Dorian music creating an atmosphere of steadfastness
and sublimity, quickly dissipates the unpleasant impression, as
Satan again projects his powerful personality into the

74 Milton, Paradise Lost. I , 348. ,

75 Lewis, C. S., A Preface to Paradise Lost, p. 77, 11.9,10-
76 Milton, Paradise Lost, I . 358r360.
77 Loc. c i t .
78 Waldock, A. J . H., Paradise Lost and Its C r i t i c s , Cambridge,
The University Press, 1947, 76, line 22.
 - 28 -

foreground, against a dramatic background of;

Th'imperial ensign; which, f u l l high advanced,
Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind,
With gems and golden lustre rich emblazed,'°
and
Ten thousand banners ...
With orient colours waving,
and
A forest huge of spears; and thronging helms
... , and serried shields in thick array
of depth immeasurable. 80
Satan, who
... above the rest
In shape and gesture proudly eminent
Stood like a tower, 81
has grown to such heroic proportions and magnificence at this
point that Milton's appeals to the reader's reason, such as his
reference to Satan's speech :
... high words, that bore o d
p

Semblance of worth not substance,

pass henceforth unheeded.

Moreover, the emotional factor enters pre-eminently

at this point as the loyalty of;
Millons of Spirits for his fault amerced 33
Of Heaven, and from eternal splendours flung 7

79 Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 536-538.

80 Ibid., I, 545-550.
81 Ibid., I, 589.
82 Ibid., I, 528-29.
8
3 Ibid., I, 609-10.
 - 29 -

and Satan's "Tears such as Angels weep"^ appeal to the reader's

sympathy and add to the hitherto purely militaristic heroism
the gentler qualities of devotion, remorse, and compassion.

Satan's further speeches portray him as the success-

ful demagogue and shrewd psychologist. He convinces his
followers that, i n spite of failure, their
«
... s t r i f e , „gc; v
Was not inglorious, though th'event was dire_,
thus ensuring continued cooperation. He arouses their optim-
ism hy his affirmation that;
"... this infernal pit shall never hold
Celestial Spirits in bondage, nor th' Abyss
Long under darkness cover," 86
and sustains i t by action in the building of Pandemonium. The
abject despair of failure completely disintegrates with the
rising of the counterpart of his former capital,
87
... those proud towers to swift destruction doomed.
The re-establishment of the hierarchial order and procedure
restores the lost sense of security and their confidence that
a l l will be well i n the end.
In the "Great Consult" Satan adds diplomatic s k i l l
to his other qualities. He keeps the situation at a l l times

84 Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 620.

85 Ibid., I, 623.
86 Ibid., I, 667-69.
87 Ibid., V, 997-
 - 30 -

well under control and seizes upon the right moment to carry
his point. His daring plan, artfully presented, focuses the
minds of the fallen angels on the future; while his self-
sacrifice in undertaking the dangerous exploit personally,
captivates their loyalty with a more intense abandonment as;
... towards him they bend
With awful reverence prone; and as a God
Extol him equal to the Highest in Heaven.
Nor failed they to express how much they praised
That for cyti
the general safety he despised
His own.
A provident statesman, Satan makes provision to sustain the
climate, which he has worked up laboriously, during his absence.
His command:
"... intend at home
While here shall be our home, what best may ease
The present misery, and render Hell
More tolerable; i f there be cure or charm
To respite, or deceive, or slack the pain
Of this i l l mansion, "89
sends the angels in pursuit of occupations that w i l l provide an
opiate for their woes t i l l their "great chief return."9°

In his encounter with Sin, Death, and Chaos Satan

rises effectively to unexpected situations. The fact that he
identifies himself with lust and passion under the most
horrible circumstances causes, no doubt, some of the readers
to pause and wonder. Yet, on the whole, Satan at this point

88 Milton, Paradise Lost, I I , 477-4-82.

89 Ibid., II, 457-463-
90 Ibid., I I , 527.
 - 31 -

has succeeded i n impairing a l l logical reasoning and appears as

M
a figure of heroic magnitude and heroic energy", encouraging
the despairing, l i f t i n g up the fallen, jeopardizing his l i f e in
a Promethean attempt to elevate his followers to a higher level
of existence.

Thus the reader of Paradise Lost may he easily

induced to conceive an admiration and sympathy for Satan on the
basis of his rhetorical charm and his actions, without paying
due regard to Milton's running commentary. He may yield to
the influence of a masterful demagogue who is making capital
out of the misery of his followers as well as the g u l l i b i l i t y
of the careless reader.

91 Gardener, H., Milton's Satan and the Theme of Damnation

in Elizabethan Tragedy, p. 59.
 Chapter V

TWENTIETH-CENTURY THEORIES OF SATAN'S GREATNESS

IN PARADISE LOST

The question arises, naturally, why Milton has given

such preponderance to Satan's demonstration over his own
commentary. Literary criticism has advanced various theories
for this apparently Promethean complex in the conception of
Satan, his grandeur and magnificence. Mr. Saurat speaks for
92
the Satanists in his explanation that "Milton admires him."
Mr. Wolfe prefers a contrary opinion i n ;
Had Satan revolted against a ruler
inferior to himself, Milton would have
acclaimed him; but since Satan rebelled
against One supreme i n spiritual attainment,
Milton has him undergo eternal pain. 93
If Milton's own argument in the Eikonoklastes can be accepted
as a criterion for his attitudes in Paradise Lost, the solution
is near at hand. To the king's
94
But I have a soul Invincible,
Milton states sarcastically;
'But he had a soul invincible,* What praise i s
that? The stomach of a Child is ofttimes

92 Saurat, Denis, Milton: Man and Thinker, p. 189, line 32.

93 Wolfe, Don M., Milton in the Puritan Revolution, p. 346,
line 21 f f .
94 Eikon Bazilike, p. 56, line 10.
 - 33 -

invincible to a l l correction. The un-

teachable man hath a soule to a l l reason
and good advice invincible; and he who i s
intractable, he whom nothing can persuade,
may boast himself invincible; whenas in some
things to be overcome i s more honest and
laudable then to conquer. 95
To the King's second statement:
Is there no way left to make me a
glorious King but by my sufferings?^ 0
Milton replies:
A glorious 'King he would be,'
though 'by his sufferings•: But
that can never be to him whose 97
sufferings are his own doings.
Mr. Waldock's assertion that:
What we feel most of a l l , I suppose
in his Satan's refusal to give in -
just that. How can Milton help
sympathizing with qualities such as
these?.QObviously he sympathizes with
them, 9o
is inconsistent with Milton's attitude towards the same "quali-
ties" i n the king. Satan boasts of an equally "invincible"
soul where submission would have been more "laudable," and his
sufferings "are of his own doings", too. If one accepts Mr.
Pattison's estimate of Milton that the latter i s :
... not one of the false prophets, who
turn round and laugh at their own enthusiasm,
who say one thing in their verses, and another
thing over their cups. What he writes i n his
poetry i s what he thinks, what he means, and

95 Milton, Eikonoklastes, p. 151, line 8.

96 Eikon Bazilike, p. 56, lines 23-25.
97 Milton, OP. c i t . , p; 152, lines 17-19.
98 Waldock, A. J . H., Paradise Lost and Its C r i t i c s , p. 71,
lines 14-17.
 - 34 -

99
what he w i l l do,
one may feel justified in assuming that Milton did not admire
Satan. Why then did he create him great?
Mr. Lewis tries to simplify the problem by assuming
that when Milton:
... put the most specious aspects of Satan
at the very beginning of his poem he was
relying on two predispositions i n the minds
of his readers, which in that age, would have
guarded them from our later misunderstanding.
Men s t i l l believed that there really was such
a person as Satan and, that he was a l i a r . The
poet did not foresee that his work would one
day meet the disarming simplicity of critics
who take for gospel things said by the father 3.00
of falsehood in public speeches to his troops.

But Mr. Lewis is not justified i n placing such utter confidence

in the good sense of Milton's contemporaries. Milton denoun-
ces their g u l l i b i l i t y when the insidiousness of the Eikon
Bazilike causes themJ
... to f a l l flat and give adoration to the
Image and Memory of this man, who hath
offer'd at more cunning fetches to undermine
our Liberties, and putt Tyranny into an Art,
then any British King before him. 101

Mr. Rajan shares his supposition with other critics

that the aggrandizement of Satan is necessary to emphasize the
magnitude of the struggle and give preponderance to the victor-
ious s i d e . 1 0 2

99 Pattison, Mark, Milton, p. 14-7, lines 16-20.

100 Lewis, C. S., A Preface to Paradise Lost, p. 88, lines 1-9-
101 Milton, Eikonoklastes, p. 69.
102 Rajan, B., Paradise Lost and the Seventeenth-Century
Reader, p. 99•
 - 35 -

Mr. Werblowsky settles the Satanic predicament satisfactor-

i l y for himself by questioning Milton's efficiency as poet.

He J_ Satan_J simply does not do what he was

intended to do, and is he not then,
according to that very criterion, a bad
piece of workmanship?-^

he enquires. Yet, Mr. Saurat's tribute to Milton's workmanship:

Milton, unlike Blake, is a clear and precise

poet, perfectly in command of his ideas and
art, who says what he wants to say, all he
wants to say and no more, 20/^

completely contradicts Mr. Werblowsky's criticism.

Since Milton's other works show him as a well-disciplined

artist, i t seems incredible that in Paradise Lost, his most ambitious
literary project and the product of a lifetime, the character of
Satan should have gotten out of hand. Hence, I believe that
Satan is what Milton meant him to be.

The assumption that Milton creates the Satan in

Paradise Lost in the image of the Eikon seems, at first thought
to complicate the Satanic problem. Milton knew from bitter
experience the tremendous impact the Eikon Bazilike had upon
the minds of the English people. The king's professions of
courage, loyalty to his followers, affection for his subjects,
and concern for their liberty "served to make the appeal of the
103 Werblowsky, R- J. Zwi, Lucifer and Prometheus, p. 14, lines
11-12.
104 Saurat, Denis, Milton: Man and Thinker, p. 175-
 - 36 -

Eikon irresistible to the multitude of king-revering English-

105
men," and rendered a l l attempts to explode the deception
ineffectual. Moreover, i t s influence became more potent with
the years and served as the most powerful propaganda weapon to
bias the minds of the people i n favour of the Restoration.
Yet i n the very days when the success of the royalists proves
its potency, Milton, having been for years quite aware of its
fascination and seductiveness, subjects his readers i n the
Satan of Paradise Lost to the same "Sophistry flashing with
106
Rhetorieke."
The logical conclusion seems that Milton creates
Satan deliberately and purposely in the image of the Eikon.
He intends him to be great and fascinating in order to achieve
the same result. Satan has deceived the fallen angels with
107
"that boast so vain" ' that a l l Is not lost. He has deceived
Chaos and Night with his promise to "reduce To her original
darkness and your sway" the new world, which he i s deter-
mined to conquer for his own ends. Later on, disguised as a
spirit of light, through
Hypocrisy - the only evil that walks
Invisible, except to God alone, 109
he deceives Uriel.

105 Wolfe, Don, Milton in the Puritan Revolution, p. 219 •

106 Ibid., p. 221 .
107 Milton, Paradise Lost, IV, 87.
108 Ibid., I I , 983.
109 Ibid., i n , 683-684.
 - 37 -

So far he seems triumphant In

his strength, and might well
deceive not only himself but
the readers of Paradise Lost into
thinking him a dauntless hero, 110
states Mss Wood h u l l . The large number of Satan's admirers
attests to the success of the deception, and this is a tribute
to Milton's craftsmanship of effecting the desired emotive
response in his readers. To Milton pity for Charles amounts to
"a carnal admiring of that wordly pomp and greatness" from
whence he had f a l l e n . 1 1 1 Sympathy and admiration for Satan,
aroused by giving too much credence to him, is idolatry and
constitutes the f a l l of the reader i n the same measure as Eve's
f a l l was conditioned by a similar weakness. No doubt, a less
powerful Satan would have been effective enough to ensnare the
average twentieth century reader, whose sensibilities to the
orthodox conception of Satan are atrophied. But Milton was
writing for men of his own age, fortified by a religious tradi-
tion by which:
... the angels and devils of the Jewish
Scripture were more real beings, and
better vouched, than any historical
personages could be. 112
This should explain Mr. Werblowsky's query why such "insistence
and obstrusiveness of the Promethean element" and why "Milton
selected i t with a l l i t s 'charge'."113

110 Woodhull, Marianna, The Epic of Paradise Lost, New York

and London, G.P.Putnam's Sons, 1907, p. 2 6 9 .
111 Hutchinson, F.E., Milton and the English Mind, London,
The English Universities Press, 1950, p. 7 4 .
112 Pattlson, Mark, Milton, p. 1 8 5 .
113 Werblowsky, Zwi, Lucifer and Prometheus, p. 1 9 .
 - 38 -

In bringing his reader toafall, Milton achieves

several ends. He conforms to the epic convention by involving
the reader emotionally in such a way as to make him feel a
participant in the action. He conditions him for a wider
sympathy for Adam and Eve as they f a i l to resist Satan's temp-
tation and thus bring woe upon the world. In his function as
poet, he impresses upon his readers the fact that Satan " s t i l l
114
destroys

Thus, the Satan in Books One and Two of Paradise Lost

is conceived by Milton, not in his own image, but modelled on
the Eikon of the Eikon Bazilike. Milton does not admire him,
but he endows him with a spurious magnificence to subject the
reader to his deception and thus condition him for a more sym-
pathetic participation i n the action of the epic. In faith-
fulness to the role of the poet, Milton warns the reader of
Satan's everlasting enmity towards God and man.

The reader's emotional response to Satan inhibits the

clarity of his reasoning powers. He accepts Satan on the
authority of the latter's highly subjective and biased state-
ments. Only through an intelligent and objective analysis of
a l l circumstances, including Satan's demonstrations, his alleg-
ations, and Milton's commentary, can the true nature of Satan
in Paradise Lost be accurately comprehended.

114 Milton, Paradise Lost, III, 301.

 Chapter VI

AN OBJECTIVE STUDY OF SATAN TO ASSESS

HIS TRUE NATURE

Mr. Waldock criticizes Milton's technique of dealing

with Satan on two different levels: the level of demonstration,
and the level of commentary. Moreover, he is greatly annoyed
at the inconsistences between the two levels, as "Milton's
commentary clashes with Satan's demonstration."112

The d i f f i c u l t y lies in the fact that Paradise Lost

suffers "from superficial reading rather more generally than
113
any other masterpiece of English literature." Readers seem
to become immediately absorbed by Satan's demonstration; i.e.,
his performance and eloquence, while they completely disregard
Milton's commentary. Mr. Waldock decides to ignore the latter
deliberately and accept only the demonstration of Satan as
117
valid. ' Moreover, many readers go beyond their preference
for Satan's allegations when they identify Milton with Satan
and take him for Milton's mouthpiece.
115 Waldock, A.J.R., Paradise Lost and Its C r i t i c s , p. 78.
116 Woodhull, Marianna, The Epic of Paradise Lost, p. 1.
117 Waldock, H. J . A., op^. c i t . , p. 81.
 - 40 -

The technique in Paradise Lost follows the basic

pattern of the Eikonoklastes. in which each statement of the
king i s elucidated by Milton's commentary to reveal the decep-
118
tion lest "these may happly catch the People, as was intended."
A great deal of confusion can be avoided by discarding the
idea of the identification between Milton and Satan, and by
regarding Milton's commentary as the expression of his sincere
beliefs.
In his effort to procure the desired emotive response,
Milton, knowing man's nature, bases his presentation of Satan
upon the human weakness of predisposition to the spectacular.
He, no doubt, expects, as in the Eikonoklastes, that those
"whom perhaps ignorance without malice, or some error, less
than f a t a l , has for the time misledd, on this side Sorcery or
abduration, may find the grace and good guidance to bethink
119
themselves, and recover."

Mr. Waldock argues that the demonstration must be

accorded the higher v a l i d i t y . Even i f the reader has disre-
garded Milton's commentary throughout the scene in H e l l , his
sympathy and admiration must receive a shock when he learns
from Sin that Satan, while aspiring to divine leadership i n
Heaven, has secretly indulged in lust. He is neither repent-
ant nor appalled when confronted with the horrible consequence

118 Milton, John, Eikonoklastes, p. 308.

119 Milton, John, Eikonoklastes. p. 309-
 41 -

of his passion. He does not recoil from the "execrable Shape,"

120
"the grisly Terror," nor the "yelling monsters", a l l of which
attest to his shameful guilt. Instead of evincing remorse,
he accepts the relationship, recollects i t s pleasures, and
provides for its continuance in:
"Dear daughter - since thou claim'st me for thy sire,
And my fair son here show'st me, the dear pledge
Of dalliance had with thee in Heaven, and joys
Then sweet, now sad to mention, through dire change
Befallen us unforseen, unthought of — know,
From out this dark and dismal house of pain
Both him and thee, and a l l the heavenly host
Of spirits that, in our just pretences armed,
F e l l with us from on high.

And bring ye to the place where thou and Death

Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen
Wing silently the buxom a i r , embalmed
With odours. There ye shall be fed and f i l l e d , 2 ,
Immeasurably; a l l things shall be your prey."
If this passage i s treated as symbolical, the close association
of Sin and Satan persists and the issue remains unaltered.
Therefore, i n either case this event causes a feeling of mis-
giving as to. the validity of claim to the sovereignty of
Heaven by the progenitor of Sin and Death, no matter how heroic
his other qualities may be. The reader must begin to surmise
that his admiration has been based upon deception, which would
have been avoided had he given the commentaries more attention.

It appears, consequently, of utmost importance that

the commentary be considered of at least equal significance

120 Milton, John, Paradise Lost, I I , 681 f f .

121 Ibid., I I , 817.
 - 42 -

with the demonstration i n order to get an all-comprehensive,

realistic picture of Satan. This will greatly facilitate a
reassessment. Milton's commentary does not begin, as Mr.
122
Waldock has stated, after Satan's f i r s t speech, which capti-
vates the reader's Imagination, but precedes Satan's appearance
in Hell. As stated in Chapter One, Milton in no uncertain
terms expresses his unmitigated hostility towards "the infernal
Serpent," envious, proud, revengeful, and impious. He depicts
Satan in the unheroic position of being
123
Hurled headlong flaming from th 1 ethereal sky
and lying for "nine" days
Prone on the flood, extended long
and large, 124
before he i s ready with a rationalization for his defeat to
save his face before his followers.

His glorious speech loses i t s impressiveness when we

realize that his vaunted courage lies i n a determination to
persevere i n evil not for the achievement of good, but that by
it
«... ofttimes may succeed so as perhaps
Shall grieve him /J}od7, i f I f a i l not, and disturb
His inmost counsels from their destined aim." 125
First of a l l , he disclaims a l l responsibility for the partici-
pation of the other fallen angels who, he alleges, from the

122 Waldock, A.J.H., Paradise Lost and Its Critics, p. 78 .

123 Milton, John, Paradise Lost, I, 45.
124 Ibid., I, 195-
125 Ibid., I, 166 .
 - 43 -

same "sence of injured merit," "durst d i s l i k e his God's

reign," and joined the r e b e l l i o n . In this Milton's Satan
i s the counterpart of Vondel's L u c i f e r , who treacherously-
instigated the rebellion through his companion chiefs, then
upon apparent persuasion accepted the leadership, as he
explains to Raphael:

I s h a l l maintain the holy Right, compelled

By high necessity, thus urged at length,
Though much against my w i l l , by the complaints
And mournful groans of myriad tongues. l2 7

In juxtaposition to Beelzebub's rational evaluation of the

situation:
"Too well I see and rue the dire event
That, with sad overthrow and foul defeat,
Hath lost us Heaven," 128
Satan's blind fury seems to have completely perverted his

judgement as he rationalizes the "foul defeat" into an exper-

ience through which,

"In arms not worse, i n foresight much advanced,
We may with more successful hope resolve
To wage by force or guile eternal war,
Irreconcilable to our grand Foe." 129

As we consider the speeches of his companion, i t

becomes evident that Satan's i n t e l l e c t i s darkened, for he
completely ignores circumstances which are referred to by the
others as established f a c t s . He c a l l s upon H e l l to receive

126 Milton, John, Paradise Lost, I , 102.

127 Vondel, J . L u c i f e r , (translated by Van Noppen), North
Carolina, 1917, Chas. L. Van Noppen, IV, 2 5 0 .
128 Milton, John, OP. c i t . , I, 134.
129 I b i d . , I , 119-123.
 - 44-

its "proud possessor" and gives i t preference to Heaven

/ 130
because "Here at least / We shall be free," while Beelzebub
professes his knowledge of God's omnipotence and sarcastically
reprimands the fallen host for foolishly hoping to establish
an empire i n Hell:
"... for so the popular vote
Inclines - here to continue and build up here
A growing empire; doubtless! while we dream,
And know not that the King of Heaven hath doomed
This place our dungeon, not our safe retreat
Beyond his potent arm, to live exempt
From Heaven's high jurisdiction, in new league
Banded against his throne, but to remain
In strictest bondage, though thus far removed,
Under th' inevitable curb, reserved
His captive multitude. For he, be sure,
In height or depth, s t i l l first and last will reign
Sole king, and of his kingdom lose no part
By our revolt, but over Hell extend
His empire, and with iron sceptre rule ^1
Us here, as with his golden those in Heaven.'

Again, while Satan is planning

"1^2
"To work i n close design, by fraud or guile, -*
Belial opposes such intention, for
"... what can force or guile
With him £GodJ, or who deceive his mind, whose eye
Views a l l things at one view, He from Heaven's height
A l l these our motions vain sees and derides,
Not more almighty to resist our might
Than wise to frustrate a l l our plots and wiles,
thus fully recognizing God's omniscience. Beelzebub

130 IHt©n J? Paradise Lost, I, 258.

131 Ibid., I I , 313-328.
132 Ibid., I, 646.
133 Ibid., I I , 188-193.
 - 45 -

134
acknowledges God as "Heaven's p e r p e t u a l King," while Satan

represents him as a usurper,

"Who now triumphs, and i n t h excess of joy ^ 1

Sole r e i g n i n g holds the tyranny o f Heaven. ? 3

Beelzebub's s i n c e r e concern f o r

"... a l l t h i s mighty host, »1^6

In h o r r i b l e d e s t r u c t i o n l a i d thus low, J

evokes no compassion f o r the prone multitude i n Satan. His

eye remains cruel. L a t e r , when they stand before him:

T h e i r g l o r y withered: as, when heaven's f i r e

Hath scathed the f o r e s t oaks or mountain p i n e s ,
With singed top t h e i r s t a t e l y growth, though bare,
Stands on the b l a s t e d heath, 137

his remorse makes more the impression o f the r e a c t i o n of the

f a l l e n angels when they see t h e i r " g l o r i o u s c h i e f " t u r n i n t o

a serpent; and, consequently,

... Horror on them f e l l ,

And h o r r i d sympathy, f o r what they saw

They f e l t themselves now changing, 138

than repentant r e g r e t . T h e i r degradation mirrors h i s own

true s t a t e . The potency of h i s opponent i s , no doubt,

f o r c i b l y brought home to him through the l o y a l t y of h i s mighty

host, whose v a l o u r and f a i t h f u l n e s s under h i s g l o r i o u s

134 M i l t o n , John, Paradise L o s t , I, 131.

135 Ibid., I, 125-126, (the i t a l i c s are my own)
136 IMd., I , 136-137.
137 Ibid., I, 612-615.
138 I b i d . , X, 537.
 - 46 -

leadership could not prevail against the

139
"Ministering Spirits, trained up In feast and song,"

and, allegedly, serving "through sloth" alone. The loyalty

of his fallen angels does not convict him of his own disloyal-
ty. His subsequent speech expresses no concern for them,
but is again a refusal to accept the situation and the
responsibility for their dilemma. , He calls the sad victims
of his false ambition:
" for me, be witness a l l the host of Heaven,
If counsels different, or danger shunned
By me, have lost our hopes. " 140
In default of another v i l l a i n , he finally pins the blame on

God, for He,

11
... his strength concealed - ( ...
Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our f a l l . 1
Surely, this last reasoning is a convincing truth that Satan's
/ 142
"high words ... bore / Semblance of worth, not substance."
In his analagies and metaphors; e.g., calling Satan
Sultan14"-^- a name hateful to a l l contemporaries of Milton -
Milton stimulates hostility and reinforces i t by Satan's
144
opposition towards a l l accepted ideas and values. Satan
is blaspheming God by calling Him the "Potent Victor i n his
rage." In his repudiation of repentance he rejects the
140 Milton, John, Paradise Lost, I, 635-636.
141 Ibid., I, 641-642.
142 Ibid., I, 528
143 Lewis, C. S., A Preface to Paradise Lost, p. 77-
144 Bush, Douglas, Paradise Lost i n Our Time, p. 58.
 - 47 -

tenets of Christian teaching. His ambition is not a zeal for

the establishing of righteousness and justice, but for personal
advancement with an utter disregard for the issues of good and
evil involved. His boundless pride permeates his whole
demonstration, and Milton frequently refers to i t in his
commentary. In the introduction we learn that
his pride
Had cast him out, from Heaven, with a l l his host
of rebel Angels. 145
In Hell his "obdurate pride" 14 "^ prevents him from seeking
grace "with suppliant knee"14'' At the sight of his army he, as
... his heart
Distends with pride, and, hardening in his strength,
Glories,, 148
is blinded to the fact that a l l this force at his command
avails him nothing in Hell. Pandemonium, "the high capital
Of Satan and his peers," 1 4 ^ is the symbol of his consummate
arrogance.
In the Great Consult Satan arrogates to himself
sovereign pre-eminence by the very "fixed laws of Heaven,"
which he has decried; and arbitrarily establishes a hierarch-
i a l order, against which he revolted in Heaven. Moreover,
his followers are enslaved from the beginning by fear and awe
150
of "Hell's dread Emperor", for they:

145 Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 36-39-

146 Ibid., I, 5 8 .
147 Ibid., I, 112.
148 Ibid., I, 571-573 .
149 Ibid., I, 7 5 6 .
150 Ibid., I I , 510 .
 - 48 -

Dreaded not more the adventure than his voice

Forbidding; and at once with him they rose

... Towards him they bend

With awful reverence prone, and as a God
Extol him equal to the Highest in Heaven.151

The most profound admiration for Satan must fade at

the proposal of his diabolic plan for revenge through man:
"By sudden onset - either with Hell-fire
To waste his whole creation, or possess
A l l as our o\<m, and drive, as we were driven,
The puny habitants; or, i f not drive,
Seduce them to our party, that their God
May prove their foe, and with repenting hand
Abolish his own works. " 152
Milton's denunciation of i t leaves no room for doubt about his
attitude. This
... devilish counsel-first devised
By Satan, and i n part proposed: for whence,
But from the author of a l l i l l , could spring
So deep a malice, to confound the race
Of mankind i n one root, and Earth with Hell
To mingle and involve, done a l l to spite
The great Creator, 153-
he bitterly satirizes as the "bold design," and thus communic-
ates to the reader his utmost scorn of these:
... godlike Shapes, and Forms
Excelling human; princely Dignities;
And Powers that erst in Heaven sat on thrones.

151 Milton, Paradise Lost, II 474-479*

152 Ibid., I I , 364-370.

153 Ibid., I I , 379-385.

154 Ibid., I, 351.
 - 4-9 -

Satan's highly commended self-sacrifice appears

doubtful in the light of Milton's commentary on Moloch. Just
when Satan has emphasized the "union, and firm faith, and firm
155
accord" in Hell, Milton introduces Moloch into the debate
as:
... - the strongest and the fiercest Spirit
That fought in Heaven, now fiercer by despair.
His trust was with th' Eternal to be deemed
Equal in strength, and rather thanbe less
Cared not to be at a l l ; with that care lost
Went a l l his fear: of God, or Hell, or worse,
He recked not.... 156
Although Satan may not have known his secret ambition, he must
have been aware of Moloch's antagonism when Moloch disdain-
fully opposed his idea of regaining Heaven through "covert
guile", by these words:
"My sentence is for open war. Of wiles,
More unexpert, I boast not: them let those
Qontrive who need, or when they need; not now,
For, while they sit contriving, shall the rest -
Millions that stand in arms, and longing wait
The signal to ascend - sit lingering here,
Heaven's fugitives, and for their dwelling-place
Accept this dark approbrious den of Shame,
The prison of his tyranny who reigns
By our delay? " 1 5 7
The intense urgency for action to assuage the inner agony
vents i t s e l f further in:
"... No I let us rather choose,
Armed with Hell-flames and fury, a l l at once,
O'er Heaven's high towers to force resistless way,
Turning our tortures into horrid arms
Against the Torturer; "158

155 Milton, Paradise Lost, I I , 36.

156 Ibid., I I , 44-50.
157 Ibid., I I , 91-100.
158 Ibid., I I , 60-64.
 - 50 -

and might have e a s i l y induced Moloch t o v o l u n t e e r f o r the

dangerous a d v e n t u r e . Thus, Satan's h e r o i c f e a t appears more

l i k e d i p l o m a t i c expedience than t r u e courage.

"What matter where, i f I be s t i l l the same,
And what I should be," 159
i s Satan's s e l f - a s s u r a n c e under the "mournful gloom " o f H e l l ,

as he i s t r y i n g t o convince h i m s e l f o f the s u p e r i o r i t y o f h i s
mind over m a t t e r , which s h a l l enable him t o "make a Heaven o f
160
H e l l , a H e l l of Heaven."

I n the i n t e n s e a c t i v i t y o f the b u i l d i n g of Pandemon-

ium and t h e p l a n n i n g o f an e r u p t i o n , the r i g o u r s o f H e l l seem
to have l o s t t h e i r a c u i t y . While Satan i s on h i s way, the
f a l l e n a n g e l s are g r e a t l y humanized through t h e i r pursuance o f
various earthly occupations. T h i s d i m i n i s h e s the sense o f
p h y s i c a l s u f f e r i n g and the l u r i d n e s s of H e l l . Satan h i m s e l f
appears l e s s odious as he wanders through the cosmos i n s e a r c h
of the new w o r l d . The r e a d e r shares w i t h him h i s c u r i o s i t y
and i s eager t o view the marvels o f the u n i v e r s e . When Satan
finally
... a s t r i p l i n g Cherub he appears,
Not o f the p r i m e , y e t such as i n h i s f a c e
Youth s m i l e d c e l e s t i a l , and t o every l i m b
S u i t a b l e grace d i f f u s e d ; ...
Under a coronet h i s f l o w i n g h a i r
I n c u r l s on e i t h e r cheek p l a y e d ; wings he wore
Of many a c o l o u r e d plume s p r i n k l e d w i t h g o l d ,
His h a b i t f i t f o r speed s u c c i n c t , and held
B e f o r e h i s decent steps a s i l v e r wand, l 6 l

159 M i l t o n , P a r a d i s e L o s t , I, 256.
160 I b i d . , I, 255-
161 I b i d . , I l l , 636-644.
 - 51 -

Satan makes more the impression of a mischievous Ariel than a

potent power for e v i l . However, as at the beginning, Milton
stands on guard with warning epithets, such as "The Fiend",
"the spirit malign", "the spirit impure."1^2 Through his
disguise as cherub Satan1s power to deceive the very elect is
manifested. In Hell his deceitfulness prevails upon the
fallen angels because i t lends a tinge of hope to their desper-
ate situation. Chaos and Night do not connote brilliance of
intellect. But to deceive with such ease
The sharpest-sighted Spirit of a l l in Heaven,
must needs accord him the pre-eminence of the father of a l l
164
liars. As the "stripling Cherub" radiantly bright, in
keeping with his outward appearance, Satan, for the f i r s t time,
speaks the truth in his reference to God as one,
"Who justly has driven out his rebel foes
To deepest Hell, and, to repair that loss,
Created this new happy race of men 265
To serve him better; wise are a l l his ways."
The irony lies in that he resorts to this truth i n order to
deceive. He thus reveals another evil trait in being a master
in the exercise of
Hypocrisy - the only evil that walks
Invisible, except to God alone. 166

162 Milton, Paradise Lost, I I I , 498-630.

163 Ibid., I I I , 691 .

164 Bible, John 8 : 44.
165 Milton, Paradise Lost, I I I , 676-679 .
166 Ibid.., I l l , 683-684.
 - 52 -

Considering Satan's whole course, the Promethean

analogy becomes impossible. Satan's rebellion is motivated
by ambition to equal the "Most High." Prometheus' opposition
to Zeus is based on
... the love that I loved man's seed withal,
The love unabated. 167
Satan rebels against the Almighty, his superior; while
Prometheus rises against Zeus, whom he has established on his
throne. Satan is determined to drive "the puny habitants" out of
earth to spite his God. Prometheus
... saved the sons of men
8
From passing thunder-blasted down to Hades.
Satan reduces man to the vassalage of Sin and, while yet i n
Heaven, degrades himself and his followers to ever lower levels;
while Prometheus leads man to exalted levels by giving him
fire,
... which to mortals shone revealed ]_69
Their teacher of a l l arts, invention's crown,
and by teaching him to use his reason.

On looking at Satan's chief companions through

Milton's eyes we realize that they, too, entertained various
lusts before the rebellion, while s t i l l in Heaven. Moloch,
as stated before, shared Satan's ambition "with th' Eternal to

167 Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound, London, 1907, MaeMillan and

Company Limited, p. 11, lines 121-122.
168 Ibid., p. 15, lines 236-237-
169 Ibid., p. 10, lines 110-111 .
 - 53 -

be deemed/ Equal in strength."

Mammon, the least erected Spirit that f e l l
Brom Heaven; for even in Heaven his looks and
thoughts
Were always downward bent, admiring more
The riches of Heaven's pavement, trodden gold,
Than ought divine or holy else enjoyed
In vision beatific, 170
is the epitome of avarice.

Of Belial we learn:
... than whom a Spirit more lewd
F e l l not from Heaven, or more gross to love
Vice for i t s e l f . 171
During the Great Consult his hypocrisy is revealed i n Milton's
commentary:
A fairer person lost not Heaven; he seemed
For dignity composed, and high exploit.
But a l l was false and hollow; though his tongue
Dropt manna, and could make the worse appear
The better reason, to perplex and dash
Maturest counsels: for his thoughts were low-
To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds
Timorous and slothful. 172
Beelzebub seems the least depraved of them a l l . However, in
lending himself as Satan's mouthpiece and i n submitting on a l l
occasions to his influence, he exhibits a great lack of w i l l -
power.

In their deliberations they differ greatly in their

proposals, but a l l are unanimous in that none suggests a

170 Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 679-684.

171 Ibid., I, 490-492.
172 Ibid.? II5 110-117.
 - 54 -

positive action to re-establish themselves in God's grace.

Milton is pointing this out when he comments on Belial's
173
speech in:
Thus Belial with words cloath'd i n reason's garb
Counsel'd ignoble ease and peaceful sloth,
Not peace, 174
rather than deliberately derogating him, as Dr. Waldock inter-
prets this criticism when he defends Belial and berates
Milton thus:
But Milton dislikes B e l i a l . To 'low thoughts'
of this sort he much prefers (although he will
not say so) dashing v i l l a i n y . . . . Belial's
words are not only 'cloath'd in reasons garb':
they are reasonable.... Milton's perfectly brazen
object, i n short, i s to discredit B e l i a l . What
he gives with one hand he takes away with the
other. Having permitted his character to speak
well and wisely he then says that he has spoken
meanly and foolishly. What he has just
affirmed (through a demonstration) he now denies
(in a comment). 175

In any case, i t is quite evident that Heaven has

become untenable for these chief companions because of their
inner degradation. However, i n fairness to Satan the
"tyranny of Heaven" which he holds responsible for this revolt,
remains to be investigated.

Besides keeping a proper balance between demonstra-

tion and commentary, i t is important to follow the sequence
of events as presented by Milton. Satan's denunciation of

173 Lewis, C. S., A Preface to Paradise Lost, p. 102.

174 Milton, Paradise Lost, I , 226-228.
175 Waldock, A.J.H., Paradise Lost and Its Critics, p.79-80.
the "Potent victor", who "in his rage" has inflicted abject
misery upon millions of spirits, leaves a certain bias i n the
reader's attitude towards such arbitrary disposition. However,
Milton disabuses our minds by depicting the "Potent victor"
as
About him a l l the Sanctities of Heaven
Stood thick as stars, and from his sight received
Beatitude past utterance, 177
and as
Beyond compare the Son of God was seen
Substantially expressed; and in his face
Divine compassion visibly appeared, o
Love without end, and without measure grace. 1 '
In juxtaposition to this harmony, utmost f e l i c i t y , and sacri-
f i c i a l love, the recollection of Hell's passions and Satan's
demoniac hatred grow more lurid and repulsive. His accusa-
tions of the Almighty pale in credibility.

Evidently the basis of Heaven's hierarchy is well

understood by the angels, for they sing of "Thee, Father,
first", "Thee next ... of a l l created f i r s t / Begotten Son,"
through whom "He Heaven of Heavens, and a l l the Powers therein
... created. 1 ^ The Heavenly Host, moreover, is in perfect
accord with its ruler and there i s no feeling of duress as
The multitude of Angels, with a shout
Loud as from numbers without number, swell
* As from blest voices, uttering joy, Heaven rung

177 Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 95*

178 Ibid., III, 138-141.
179 Ibid., III, 372 f f .
 - 56 -

With jubilee, and loud hosannas filled

Th' eternal regions. 1 8 0

While Satan's followers "Dreaded ... his voice for-

bidding" and "towards him they bend / With awful reverence
181
prone," The Heavenly Host,
... Lowly reverent
Towards either throne they bow, and to the ground
With solemn adoration down they cast
Their crowns .... 182.
Submission i n Hell is based upon arbitrary compulsion and fear
service in heaven, upon love and free w i l l , for God tells the
Sons
11
Such I created a l l th' ethereal Powers
And Spirits both them who stood and them who failed;
Freely they stood who stood, and f e l l who f e l l . " 1 8 3
Through Satan's rebellion the whole Host of Heaven has been
subjected to the test of loyalty, and two-thirds have given
/ 184
proof "sincere / Of true allegiance, constant faith, or love,
this casting a doubt on the validity of Satan's denunciation
of the "tyranny of Heaven."

The revelation of the element of free will precludes

any speculation as to the possibility of Satan's f a l l having
been predestined. It also leads to the assumption that evil

180 Milton, Paradise Lost, III, 345,349.

181 Ibid., I I , 4 7 4 f f .
182 Ibid., I l l , 349-352 .
183 Ibid., I l l , 100-102.
Ibid•> 1 1 1 1 0 4
184 » -
 - 57 -

and goodness as forces co-exist in Heaven. " E v i l " , as

expounded later by Adam,
"... into the mind of God or Man
May come and go, so unapproved, and leave
No spot or blame b e h i n d 1 8 5
In Heaven i t is f i r s t approved by Satan in his rebellion
against God and thus generated into an overt experience.

In witnessing the perfect f e l i c i t y in Heaven, we

find an explanation for Satan's words:
"... If then his providence R ,
Out of our evil seek to bring forth good.
Satan's disobedience, though deplorable in i t s e l f , accorded
God an opportunity to rid Heaven of a l l i t s dross.

The reader, guided by Milton's commentary and his

picture of Heaven, takes a soberer view of Satan. What
appears, on the basis of demonstration, heroic and admirable,
reveals i t s e l f as diabolic and destructive. Satan's terrify-
ing power i s emphasized even i n that he is able, i n his
demonstration, to make that appear desirable which, apart from
the force of his personality, would be regarded as detestable
and abominable.

Thus, i n the light of his own allegations and his

demonstration, Satan appears to the reader as he wishes to

185 Milton, John, Paradise Lost, V, 117-

186 Ibid., I, 162.
 - 58 -

appear to his fallen angels except in the encounter with Sin

and Death, where demonstration and commentary harmonize and
apprise the reader that he has been deceived: partly, because
of Satan's speciousness, but mainly, through superficial
reading. A Satan and his companions, committed i n Heaven to
envy, pride, and lust} blasphemous, perverted in judgment,
and obdurate i n the rejection of a l l accepted values of virtue,
compassion, and responsibility, hardly necessitates the
degrading process, which Mr. Waldock so bitterly denounces and
a l l Satanists deeply deplore.

For orientation and easy reference i t may be advis-

able to sum up the conceptions presented in this chapter.
There seems to be l i t t l e development in the character of Satan
in Hell: the passions which originated in Heaven are the
passions which animate him i n Hell. The angels in Heaven and
Hell are aware of God's omnipotence and omniscience manifested
in Christ. Satan in his denunciation of "Heaven's tyranny"
does not differentiate between the Father and the Son. Milton
informs the reader that the Son is
... of a l l creation f i r s t , ^.87
Begotten Son, Divine Similitude,
188
and that the "Heaven of Heavens, and a l l the Powers therein"
were created by Him.

187 Milton, John, Paradise Lost, I I I , 383-384.

188 Ibid., I l l , 390.
 Chapter VII

THE POETIC UNITY OF MILTON'S SATAN IN HELL,

ON MOUNT NIPHATES, AND IN EDEN

The NIphates speech introduces a d i f f i c u l t problem

i f the conception of Satan i s based entirely upon his own
demonstration and allegation i n Books One and Two, by which,
of necessity, he must be accepted as the epic hero. The
Satan of the Niphates speech provides no counterpart to a
figure of genuine heroic proportions. Consequently, a dual-
ism appears which, Mr. Werblowsky asserts, results from
Milton's presentation of Satan, f i r s t , as "bright and glorious
and, later, as "implacable i n his hate, and e v i l , and fhe like
and from making "these beliefs poetically so real, that they
189
simply upset a l l balance!" Mr. Werblowsky assumes further
that the seventeenth-century reader,
under the influence of his spiritual climate,
really saw the Satan Milton intended to write,
sharing Milton's own ignorance as to what he
actually had written. 190
Such supposition does not tally with the tribute paid by

189 Werblowsky, R.J.Zwi, Lucifer and Prometheus, p. 19.

190 Ibid., p. 26.

 - 60 -

numerous critics to Milton's mastery of literary art.

In deference to Milton's reputation as a disciplined

artist and upon the consideration that character-revelation
in soliloquy was a seventeenth-century convention, i t seems
logical to accept Satan at this point as the product of
deliberate planning, rather than as the failure of poetic
inefficiency. In his self-revelation Satan amply corroborates
the reader's conception of him, as based on a close study of
demonstration and commentary in the preceding books. Under
these circumstances the dualism, or s p l i t , is non-existent.
Moreover, i t becomes clear that Satan is not being deliberately
degraded by Milton, but that he manifests his inner depravity
in overt experience. Anti-social principles and immoral
attitudes are never so objectionable in theory as they appear
in practice. We must study the Satan dn Mount Niphates step
by step, as we have studied the Satan i n Hell.

Satan's sprightllness i n his disguise as a cherub

and Uriel's address of "fair Angel" create the impression that
Satan is able to simulate a heavenly nature at w i l l . Yet, at
the very moment he alights on Niphates and when he is within
reach of his objective, instead of joy,
... Horror and doubt distract
His troubled thought, and from the bottom stirs
The hell within him; for within him Hell
He brings, and round about him, nor from Hell
One step, no more than from himself, can f l y
By change of place. 191 , .
191 Milton, Paradise Lost, IV, 18-23.
 - 61 -

When Satan defies God's judgment in refusing to accept the

rigour of the punishment, because
"The mind is i t s own place, and i n i t s e l f
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven, " 2
he l i t t l e realizes that his vaunt will recoil on him in a vast
irony.193 He means to Impose his feelings at will on any
environment and achieve f e l i c i t y in the midst of horror. In
view of Heaven and surrounded by the magnificent splendour of
the new world, he feels the mental hell persist within his
soul and inure him to a l l aesthetic stimuli. In vain does he
subject himself to the appeal of his glorious environment as:
Sometimes towards Eden, which now in his view
Lay pleasant, his grieved look he fixes sad;
Sometimes towards Heaven and the full-blazing,^
sun,1^
thus trying to evoke his former responses to beauty and b l i s s .
But this test of his inner self only
... wakes the bitter memory
Of what he was, what i s , and what must be 195
Worse; of worse deeds worse sufferings must ensue.
The remainder of the soliloquy reveals the raging turmoil of a
mind which realizes i t s own degradation, yet refuses to accept
the responsibility for i t . His hatred bursts out against the
sun, which fails to revive his deadened faculties to their

192 Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 254-255.

193 Tillyard, E. M. W., Studies in Milton, p. 3 5 .
194 Milton, Paradise Lost, IV, 27-29.
195 Ibid., IV, 23 - 25.
 - 62 -

former appreciation of aesthetic values, and thus brings out

glaringly the contrast of "what he was" and "what i s . "
Unrestrained by the presence of his fallen angels and the
expediency of dissimulation, he momentarily throws aside a l l
pretence, confesses that "pride and worse ambition" 1 ^ are
responsible for his downfall, and vindicates God of any
provocation in:
"... He deserved no such return
From me, whom he created what I was
In that bright eminence, and with his good
Upbraided none, nor was his service hard.
What could be less than to afford him praise,
The easiest recompense, and pay him thanks,
How duel" 197.
He also admits that God created him. However, his sincerity
seems but the flash of sanity of a darkened intellect, which
immediately seeks an escape in the invention of a provocation.
He blames his high position as the source of an insatiable
ambition for pre-eminence, which makes him a counterpart of
Cassius i n that
such (men) as he be never at heart's ease - . Q O
While they behold a greater than themselves.'
He seeks a plausible excuse in the burden of his gratitude
and in the f a l l i b i l i t y of God's judgment when elevating him to
his exalted position instead of creating him "some inferior
Angel." 1 "

196 Milton, Paradise Lost, TV, 40.

197 Ibid., IV, 42-48.
iqo Shakespeaie, William, "Julius Caesar" in Shakespeare., ed.
by Harrison G.B., New York, 1948, Harcourt, Brace and
Company, p. 529, I, i i , 208 - 209-
199 Milton, Ibid., IV, 59-
 - 63 -

However, his own reason refutes his arguments: his burden of

gratitude was an illusion; his high state was no snare, for:
"... other Powers as great
F e l l not, but stand unshaken, from within
Or from without to a l l temptations armed$"200
a lower rank would not have protected him from treason, as
"... Some other Powers
As great might have aspired, and me, though mean,
Drawn to his part." 201.

In deliberate self-deception he turns against God's

benevolence and justice, which
"... Heaven's free love dealt equally to a l l , ' ^ 2
and which created him with free will to stand or f a l l . There
is deep irony in this denunciation of liberty by one who
recently has rebelled against the "tyranny of Heaven." His
curse of God's love, his self-accusation do not solve his
dilemma, and his agony breaks forth in:
"Me miserable I which way shall I f l y
Infinite wrath and infinite despair?
Which way I f l y is Hell; myself am Hell;
And in the lowest deep, a lower deep
S t i l l threatening to devour me opens wide, 2 0 ^
To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heaven.^ ^
Like Macbeth, he i s at bay. But Macbeth could rush out and
die a soldier's death. The Romans committed suicide. Satan
is cursed with immortality; his only prospect is intensified

201 Milton, Paradise Lost, IV, 61-63

202 Ibid., IV, 68.
203 Ibid., IV, 73 - 78.
 - 64 -

suffering. Pride has locked the door to repentance, his only

way to pardon; neither agony nor despair can break its power.

In his refusal to accept the responsibility for the

f a l l , and i n his deliberate self-deception, the Satan of
Mount Niphates is Identical with the Satan in Hell. His dis-
dain for submission remains unabated. He refers to i t as
/ 204
"that word y Disdain forbids me." Likewise, his attitude
towards evil is unaltered. In Hell he i s determined "out of
205
good s t i l l to find means of evil." Here he invokes i t
with:
"Evil be thou my good: by thee at least
Divided empire with Heaven's King I holdr
The passions of " i r e , envy, and despair, / Which marred his
207
borrowed visage" are but the continuation of his temper in
Hell.
If obdurate pride, a determination to persevere in
e v i l , refusal to accept responsibility for one's own action,
and lack of humility are meritorious qualities, then the Satan
of Mount Niphates is as admirable as the Satan in Hell. He
may be considered even more so, as here he maintains those

204 Milton, Paradise Lost, IV, 81.

205 Ibid•, I, 165.
206 Ibid., IV, 10-11 .
207 Ibid., IV, 115-
 - 65 -

attitudes in the f u l l realization of his dilemma, while in

Hell he kept up the self-deception of " a l l is not lost."
There is irony in the fact that he has forged his own fetters;
but also pathos, which might easily induce sympathy for his
abject despair.

Consequently,the Niphates speech does not present a

different Satan. His basic characteristics of pride, envy,
and egotism remain static. The only additional aspect
appears not as a development, but as a revelation: in his f a l l
he has lost not only his outward brightness, but his heavenly
sensibilities as well. Moreover, the features of Satan's
model, so easily detectable on a comparison of Satan i n Hell
and the Eikon In Eikon Bazilike and Milton's Eikonoklastes.
persist here. Satan's obdurate pride closes his only avenue
to readmission into Heaven. He recognizes this fact,
examines i t , and rejects i t in a few words:
"O, then, at last relent I Is there no place
Left for repentance, none for pardon left?
None left but by submission; and that word
Disdain forbids me...." 208
Of the king Milton says:
This however would be remember'd and
well noted, that while the K. instead
of that repentance which was in reason
and in conscience to be expected from
him, without which we could not lawfully
readmit him, persists here to maintain and 209
justifie the most apparent of his evil doings.

208 Milton, Paradise Lost, IV, 79-82.

209 Milton, Eikonoklastes, p. 72-
 - 66 -

Thus Milton i s successful i n maintaining the poetic

unity of his Satan in Hell and his Satan on Mount Niphates.
Nor does he break this unity by attempting to degrade Satan
deliberately i n his use of such similes as "prowling wolf," 2 1 0
"cormorant," and "toad," the employment of which Mr. Waldock
decries i n : "It was mean of Milton to use his Satan so."
To the seventeenth-century reader such comparisons were no
more derogatory than the oriental epithets applied to Satan
in Hell.

Milton, moreover, conforms to the epic convention

when he reverts from elaborate analogies to homely imagery in
order to bring the action closer to the reader's experience.
We have seen him at work in this previously when Satan's
"Princes, Potentates, j Warriors, the Flower of Heaven" rise
from the burning lake like "a pitchy cloud of locusts, warping
212
on the eastern wind;" and also when they flock to the Great

Consult:
... As bees
In spring-time, when the Sun with Taurus rides,
Pour forth their populous youth about the hive
In clusters; they among fresh dews and flowers
Fly to and fro.... 213
Such technique is a l l the more important at this point,

210 Milton, op_i c i t . , IV, 183 f f .

211 Waldock, Paradise Lost and Its C r i t i c s , p. 87.
212 Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 315-
213 Ibid., I, 768 - 771-
 - 67 -

because he is preparing the stage for the Introduction of the

human element in Adam and Eve.

A l l these comparisons, except that of the bees

which i s from V i r g i l , are drawn from the Bible, and in their
various connotations predict — again i n conformance with
epic convention —- the course of the action. These connota-
tions were well-known to Milton's contemporaries through their
thorough familiarity with the Bible. The "wolf" becomes the
symbol of persecution in.*
Her princes in the midst thereof are
like wolves ravening the prey, to
shed blood, and to destroy souls,
to get dishonest gain, 214
and causes the reader to anticipate man's a f f l i c t i o n . The
"cormorant" connotes desolation, as i n ;
But the cormorant and the bittern
shall possess i t fwasted land]; the
owl also and the raven shall
dwell in i t : and he shall stretch
out upon i t the line of confusion
and the stones of emptiness; 215
and presages the desolation of Paradise after the P a l l . The
"toad," or frog, as the embodiment of evil spirits, 2 3 -^ fore-
shadows man's subjection to the influence of the powers of
darkness.

214 The Bible, Ezekiel 22 : 27-

215 Ibid., Isaiah 34 : 11.
216 Ibid., Revelations 16 : 13*
 - 68 -

Through these b i b l i c a l a l l u s i o n s M i l t o n solves

another problem. The reader, i n h i s preoccupation with

Satan's demonstrations I n H e l l and h i s search f o r a new world,

for which there i s no orthodox background, can e a s i l y l o s e

the sense of a s s o c i a t i o n between the Satan of Paradise Lost

and the Satan of the B i b l e . By a p p l y i n g well-known b i b l i c a l

e p i t h e t s to h i s Satan, M i l t o n immediately e s t a b l i s h e s the

connection. Thus he e f f e c t s a smooth t r a n s i t i o n from f i c t i o n

to orthodox t r a d i t i o n and from the f a l l o f the angels to the

f a l l o f Man. But t h i s i s not a degrading process. It i sa

f e a t o f p o e t i c a r t that few w r i t e r s handle as e f f e c t i v e l y .

Satan's c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s , as observed i n H e l l and on

Mount Niphates and i n t e r p r e t e d on the b a s i s of demonstration

and commentary, p e r s i s t d u r i n g h i s f i r s t experiences i n the

Garden o f Eden. H i s a e s t h e t i c impotence, revealed f i r s t on

Mount Niphates, i s again apparent as he surveys "undelighted

217

a l l delights" o f the newly created world. H i s powers o f

deception are unimpaired. I n s p i t e o f the f a c t that man i s

to s u f f e r through him, he impresses some of h i s readers,

among them Mr. Waldock, as being " r e a l l y sad, r e a l l y r e g r e t -
01 ft
ful" because f o r Adam and Eve
"... a l l these d e l i g h t s
W i l l v a n i s h , and d e l i v e r ye to woe -

217 M i l t o n , Paradise L o s t , IV, 286.

218 Waldock, Paradise Lost and I t s C r i t i c s , p. 89-

 - 69 -

More woe, the more your taste is now of loy.'2*^

220
The profession that he "could love" man for his"divine
resemblance" is sheer mockery, for he knows that he has no
capacity for love. In his defiance of God he has forfeited
both his moral and intellectual being. In his profession
of charitable responses he refuses to accept his inner dilemma
in the same way as he rejected a rational appraisal of his
physical predicament. He once more puts the responsibility
for his diabolic actions on God inj
"Thank him who puts me, loath, to this revenge 221
On you, who wrong me not, for him who wronged."

His genuine reaction:

«0h HellI what do mine eyes with grief behold?
Into our room of bliss thus high advanced
Creatures of other mold, " 222
expresses his envy, now directed against man. His thirst
for revenge and his sadism, which were to find satisfaction in
an effort to "succeed so as perhaps j Shall grieve him [Godf^
are again quite apparent. Mr. Waldock, too, admits the
brutal irony in Satan's words:
"... League with you I seek,
And mutual amity, so strait, so elose,

219 Milton, op_. c i t . , IT, 367-369-

220 Ibid., IV, 363.
221 Milton, Paradise Lost, IV, 386-387.
222 Ibid., IV, 358 - 360.
223 Ibid., I, 166.
 That I with you must dwell, or you with me,
Henceforth. My dwelling, happly may not please,
Like this fair Paradise, your sense; yet such
Accept your Maker's work; he gave i t me,
Which I as freely give," 224
which "makes him seem to l i c k his lips as he looks at the
225
pair," in eager anticipation of their sufferings when
"... Hell shall unfold,
To entertain you two, her widest gates,
And send forth a l l her kings."226
The "tyrant plea" of Satan:
"Honour and empire with revenge enlarged
By conquering this new World - compels me now ? p „
To do what else, though damned, I should abhor, '
shows once more that Milton consistently draws his portrait
from the Eikon Bazilike. in which the king again and again
justifies his evil deeds and obdurate resistance to parliament
OO Pi
by the expediency of public safety and public f e l i c i t y .

Later Satan's eavesdropping and his attempt to

introduce evil desires into Eve's imagination are the Initial
steps in the execution of his plan in Book One, where he
proposed:
"To work in close design, by fraud or guile,
What force effected not." 229
In Hell he imputes to God his own passion in:

224 Milton, Paradise Lost, IV, 375-381.

225 Waldock, p. 89 .
226 Milton, op_, c i t . , IV, 381-383-
227 Ibid., IV, 390-392.
228 Eikon Bazilike, pp. 72,73.
229 Milton, op^ c i t . , I, 646-647.
 - 71 -

" ... th' Almighty hath not built

Here for his envy." 230
He does the same in Eden when, at the intelligence of God's
prohibition to man, the question immediately arises in his
mind:
" ... Why should their Lord
Envy them that?" 231
In a l l three places he manifests a profound nostalgia for
the loss of aesthetic values. In Hell he betrays his longing
by:
"Is this the region, this the s o i l , the clime,
this the seat
That we must change for Heaven? - this mournful
gloom
For that celestial light?" 232
On Mount Niphates the sudden consciousness of the loss of his
aesthetic receptivity "wakes Despair j That slumbered."2^
Adam's and Eve's mutual love and f e l i c i t y remind him of the
234
horrors of H e l l , "where neither joy nor love" is found.
He realizes that the Imposition of his w i l l upon his environ-
ment will never make for happiness. His w i l l to propogate
evil has recoiled on himself and has become his fate.
The assumption that Satan's deterioration in outward

230 Milton, Paradise Lost, Ibid., I, 259-260.

231 Ibid., IV, 93-94.
232 Ibid., I, 242-244.
233 Ibid., IV, 23.
234 Ibid., IV, 309-
 - 72 -

splendour takes place mainly after his descent from Heaven

is based upon Milton's commentary,*
... His form had yet not lost
a l l her original brightness, nor appeared
Less than Archangel ruined, and th 1 excess
Of glory obscured, 235-
and our disregard of the changed appearance of the other
angels i n Hell. Satan immediately comments upon Beelzebub's
impairment in brightness, which is so striking that he ques-
tions the identity of his former close associate:
"If thou beest he - but 0 how fallen! how changed
From him who, in the happy realms of light
Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine
Myriads, thou bright!" 236
Zephon's rebuke of Satan:
"Think not, revolted S p i r i t , thy shape the same,
Or undiminished brightness, to be known
As when thou stood'st in Heaven upright and pure
That glory then, when thou no more wast good,
Departed from thee...," 237
informs us that Satan lost his magnificence when he lost his
virtue, while s t i l l in Heaven. The inconsistency of the
f i r s t statement with the other evidence may be Milton's poetic
device of understatement, not uncommon in his works; i t may
be irony, for any angel "ruined" could hardly retain heavenly
characteristics. However, I shall discuss the problem of
Satan's outward deterioration more fully in a later chapter.

235 Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 591-594.

236 Ibid., I, 84-87.
237 Ibid., 17, 821 f f . (The italics are my own)
 - 73 -

It present i t is quite evident that the glorious

" . . . chief of many throned Powers
That led th' embattled Seraphim to war " 238
turns up i n Hell immediately after his defeat in Heaven an
"Archangel ruined."

In Zephon Satan for the first time has to face

reality without finding an avenue of escape.
... Abashed the Devil stood ,
And felt how awful goodness is and saw
Virtue in her shape how lovely - saw, and pined
His loss 239
The remorse for his fallen state which he thought to dismiss
almost flippantly with "Farewell remorse!"24'0 has become
inalienable from his nature.

Milton sums up Satan's character traits from the day

he f a l l s , through Gabriel, who accuses him of treason in
breaking his "Allegiance to th' acknowledged Power supreme,"
of dissimulation, of disobedience, guile, and, f i n a l l y , of
hypocrisy:
"And thou, sly hypocrite, who now wouldst seem
Patron of liberty; who more than thou
Once fawned, and cringed, and servilely adored
Heaven's awful Monarch." 241
It i s true that Satan pays hypocritical lip-service to God

238 Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 138-140.

239 Ibid., IV, 846 - 849.
240 Ibid., IV, 109-
241 Ibid., IV, 947-950.
 - 74 -

in his encounter with Uriel. But the picture of a fawning,

cringing, servilely-adoring figure is Incompatible with our
earlier conception of Satan as openly defiant and freely
avowing his profound hostility. Therefore, at this point
Gabriel's accusation can be accepted only as a poetic device
to sustain the reader's interest, i n causing him to look
forward to i t s justification.

In a general survey of Satan's characteristics there

appears l i t t l e development from his f i r s t appearance in Hell
t i l l his meeting with a Heavenly Host in Eden. A l l the basic
elements of his nature remain unmodified. How adamant he is
in his evil is effectively brought out in the failure of the
rigours of Hell to induce him to submission. In outward
appearance, too, he remains unaltered. But we know that he
once was a glorious angel. Consequently, there remains no
alternative but to assume that his development, or deteriora-
tion, took place i n Heaven.

The persistence of his characteristics vouch for

Satan's poetic unity and invalidate Mr. Werblowsky's assertion
that lack of unity in Milton's conception of Satan's character
is "one of the reasons which to us make Paradise Lost a
242
failure."

242 Werblowsky, Lucifer and Prometheus, p. 104.

 Chapter VIII

THE BACKGROUND OF SATAN'S REBELLION

In the f i r s t books of Paradise Lost Satan has

hurled defiant charges of usurpation and tyranny against God
in:
"Who now triumphs, and i n th' excess of joy
Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heaven."24-3
However, this accusation i s refuted by the heavenly chorus
when they hail the Father as;
"Immutable, Immortal, Infinite, ll?
Eternal King; Thee, Author of a l l being. 4 4

Satan himself recants his calumny in his Niphates speech when

245
he calls God "Heaven's matchless King", confesses His good-
Upbraided none," - and
admits that God created him. Milton's representation of
Heaven, where
About him a l l the Sanctities of Heaven
Stood thick as stars, and from his sight received
Beatitude past utterance, 247

243 Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 123-124.

244 Ibid., I I , 373-374.
245 Ibid., IV, 41.
246 Ibid., IV, 44-45.
247 Ibid., I I I , 6 O - 6 3 .
 - 76 -

conveys the atmosphere of f e l i c i t y , which is incompatible with

tyranny. Moreover, Raphael by his statement:
"... freely we serve,
Because we freely love, as i n our will
To love or not," 248
l i f t s the relationship of God and the angels from autocratic
benevolence to mutual congeniality. Harmony and devotion
are quite apparent as the Heavenly Host under standards,
"... that bear emblazed
Holy memorials, acts of zeal and love
Recorded eminent," 249
congregate on the sacred h i l l of
"... the Father infinite
By whom i n bliss embosomed sat the Son.

Thus the anthem of the angels around God's throne,

Satan's confession, and Milton's commentary a l l bear testimony
to the Father's goodness.

However, the Satanists, having based their i n i t i a l

conception of Satan entirely upon his demonstrations in the
f i r s t two books, refuse to accept him at face value on Mount
Niphates, because they regard his speech as Milton's deliberate
2 51
y
attempt at "hitting Satan below the belt." Mr. Waldock
voices their discontent with Milton's "technique of degrada-
tion" and refuses to change his high opinion of Satan, based

248 Milton, Paradise Lost, III, 5 3 8 - 5 4 0 .

249 Ibid., V, 592-594 •
250 Ibid., V, 5 9 6 - 5 9 7 •
251 Werblowsky, Lucifer and Prometheus, p. 8.
 - 77 -

entirely on the latter's demagogy. He simply declines "to

play when the trump ^Milton's commentary] has appeared too
2 2
obviously from Milton's sleeve." 5

With the Niphates speech conveniently discarded, Mr.

Waldock announces:
We cannot with any reasonableness talk of
Satan's 'wrong*. In theory, at least, there
are no wrongs, and we know so l i t t l e about the
facts of the matter that we are not in a
position to dispute the theory. The back-
ground of Satan's revolt i s , so to say, non-
existent; we cannot argue from i t , because i t
is not there. 253

Mr. Waldock, evidently, Ignores the fact that no

writer ever throws a l l his cards on the table at once. Not
the event i t s e l f , but i t s presentation - the when and how - is
of utmost importance i n an epic, because the readers are well
acquainted with the basic plot, and the poet must sustain their
interest entirely by his poetic art and technique. We must
remember, also, that Milton's presentation in non-chronological
order i s no accident, but designed to secure the greatest par-
ticipation i n the action on the part of the reader, and to
establish in his mind certain predispositions and conceptions,
in the light of which the succeeding events assume the desired
proportions. Thus, no doubt, Milton laboured to have the
reader participate i n the events of the rebellion with a strong

252 Waldrock, Paradise Lost and Its Critics, p. 81.

253 Ibid., P. 72.
 - 78 -

p r e d i l e c t i o n f o r the Father and the Son, comparable to h i s own

adoration i n :

Beyond compare the Son o f God was seen

Most g l o r i o u s ; i n him a l l h i s Father shone
S u b s t a n t i a l l y expressed; and i n h i s face
D i v i n e compassion v i s i b l y appeared, 254
Love without end, and without measure grace.

L i k e w i s e , he has provided the reader w i t h the c o r r e c t

connotation o f the word "begot" i n God's d e c r e e ,

" T h i s day I have begot whom I d e c l a r e

My only Son..." 255

That the word has a d u a l meaning M i l t o n explains i n The C h r i s t -

ian D o c t r i n e as f o l l o w s :

... f o r though the Father he said i n S c r i p t u r e

to have begotten the Son i n a double sense,
the one l i t e r a l , with reference t o the produc-
t i o n o f the Son, the other m e t a p h o r i c a l , w i t h
reference to h i s e x a l t a t i o n . . . . Certain,
however, i t i s . . . that the Son existed i n the
beginning, under the name of the logos or word,
and was the f i r s t o f the whole c r e a t i o n , by
whom afterwards a l l other things were made both
i n heaven and e a r t h . 256

In Paradise Lost the reader forms the concept o f the primacy

'of the Son i n c r e a t i o n through:

Thee next they sang, o f a l l c r e a t i o n first,

Begotten Son, 257

which, as part o f the a n g e l s ' hymn.conveys the f e e l i n g that

t h i s i s t r a d i t i o n a l knowledge with them.

254 M i l t o n , Paradise L o s t , I I I , 138-142.

255 I b i d . , V, 603-$04 .
256 Milton,"of C h r i s t i a n Doctrine," i n the Works o f John
M i l t o n , New York, Columbia U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s , 1932, vol.XIV,p.
257 M i l t o n , Paradise L o s t , I I I , 383-384.
 - 79 -

In spite of this endeavour to establish the right

attitude, Milton makes i t possible to trace the background of
Satan's revolt, apart from any consideration of what has gone
before. If we pay close attention to Raphael's recapitulation
of the events and apply Shakespeare's criterion of plot devel-
opment, we soon see the background take shape.

God's decree:
" 'Hear, a l l ye Angels, Progeny of Light,
Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers,
Hear my decree, which unrevoked shall standi
This day I have begot whom I declare
My only Son, and on this holy h i l l
Him have anointed, whom ye now behold
At my right hand. Your head I him appoint,
And by myself have sworn to him shall bow
A l l knees i n Heaven, and shall confess him Lord.
Under his great viceregent reign abide,
United as one individual soul,
For ever happy. Him who disobeys
Me disobeys, breaks union, and, that day,
Cast out from God and blessed vision, falls
Into utter darkness, deep ingulfed, his place
Ordained without redemption, without end,'*1258
comes as a startling surprise i n the midst of apparent concord
and peace. At this time, when the Heavenly Host i s unanimous-
ly demonstrating overt obedience and loyalty by appearing in
answer to the imperial summons, such command sounds, indeed,
259
"domineering, provocative and dictatorial." One i s almost
prepared to join Mr. Werblowsky i n his estimate of the situa-
tion:
As Professor Wilson Knight has bluntly
expressed i t , i t really Is Messiah who starts
a l l the trouble. Why God's threat and challenge
258 Milton, Paradise Lost, V, 600-615.
259 Werblowsky, Lucifer and Prometheus, p. 8.
 - 80 -

•where nothing but God's courteous considera-

tion for his faultless subject was needed?' 260
However, before accepting this as the final judgment, i t Is
imperative to investigate the reaction of the Heavenly Host
to God's decree and determine whether His stern injunction is
it
indeed directed towards "faultless subjects without any provo-
cation.
Raphael gives the i n i t i a l response in a few terse

words?
"So spake the Omnipotent, and with his words
All seemed well pleased; a l l seemed, but ,
were not a l l . " ^ 1
Through repetition Milton focuses our attention on " a l l
seemed". He thus indicates that no angel betrays the least
sign of disapprobation, while some are genuinely pleased.
Outwardly, perfect accord persists, when
"That day, as other solemn days, they spent
In song and dance about the sacred h i l l . " 262
So indiscernable is the dissimulation of the antagonists to
the decree that there appears not the least dissonance i n the
mystic dance of the angels, but
"... in their motions harmony divine
So smooths her charming tones that God's own ear
Listens delighted." 263

260 Werblowsky, Lucifer and Prometheus, p. 8.

261 Milton, Paradise Lost, V, 616-617. (Italics are my own)
262 Ibid., V, 618-619.
263 Ibid., V, 625-627.
 - 81 -

The reader, too, ignores easily the deep implication of " a l l

seemed", because he becomes completely absorbed, f i r s t , i n the
intricate mazes of the dance and, later, i n the exotic
banquet, as
a
Tables are set, and on a sudden piled
With Angel's food; and rubied nectar flows
In pearl, in diamond, and massy gold, "264
Fruit of delicious vines, the growth of Heaven.
This physical delectation and the beatitude of spiritual union
and fellowship, expressed i n :
"They eat, they drink, and in communion sweet
Quaff immortality and joy ...
... before th' all-bounteous King, who showered
With copious hand, rejoicing in their joy^'2o5
diffusei a climate of heavenly b l i s s , which precludes a l l sus-
picion of subversive elements.

Yet, as darkness deepens, Satan manifests his true

feelings and reveals himself as one of those who "seemed, but
were not" pleased. A l l day he has beguiled his fellow-angels
by hiding his
"... envy against the Son of God, that day
Honoured by his great Father, and proclaimed
Messiah, King Anointed," 2 6 6
under hypocritical worship. In the light of this development

264 Milton, Paradise Lost, 7. 632-635'

265 Ibid., 7, 637-640.
266 Ibid., 7, 662-665.
 - 82 -

Gabriel's accusation,
"And thou, sly hypocrite who now would at seem
Patron of liberty, who more than thou
Once fawned, and cringed, and servilely adored
Heaven's awful Monarch?" 267
finds i t s justification and i s neither the "high-handed piece
of unsupported calumny," the "undocumented assertion", Milton's
268
"literary cheating", nor an unjust rebuke of Satan "for his
pre-lapsarian virtues." 2 *^
So far Satan's hostility seems to be his response
to God's provocative speech; and we have the uneasy feeling
that perhaps God has made a mistake, and that His "courteuus
consideration" for his apparently "faultless" angels might
have saved His most glorious servant and a host of angels
from eternal damnation.

However, Satan's words to Beelzebub:

" 1 Sleep'st thou, companion dear? what sleep can close
Thy eyelids? and rememb'rest what decree,
Of yesterday, so late hath passed the lips
Of Heaven's Almighty? Thou to me thy thoughts
Was wont, I mine to thee was wont to impart,
Both waking we were one; how then can now
Thy sleep dissent?' " 270
make i t immediately evident that a l l the angels are not fault-
less. A concourse for the exchange of secret thoughts i s

267 Milton, Paradise Lost, IV, 957-960.

268 Waldock, Paradise Lost and Its C r i t i c s , p. 81.
269 Werblowsky, Lucifer and Prometheus, p. 10.
270 Milton, Paradise Lost, V, 673-679.
 - 83 -

suggestive of treasonous inclinations, and Satan's "both

waking we were one" indicates plotting and consent between the
two. This shows that Satan's hostility is not rooted i n the
exaltation of the Son, but has i t s origin in an earlier situa-
tion. Moreover, his disloyalty is confirmed by his bitter
sense of abasement i n worshipping God with "prostration vile."
He openly confesses this revulsion to his followers with
biting sarcasm:
"'This only to consult, how we may best,
With what may be devised of honours new,
Receive him [the Son] coming to receive from us
Knee-tribute yet unpaid, prostration v i l e !
Too much to one I but double, how endured -
To one and to his image now proclaimed I"271
It becomes amply evident that his primary hatred is directed
against God, "the one"; and that the Son's exaltation is pro-
viding the ostensible motive for open defiance. With the
astuteness of one of God's highest creatures, Satan has fully
realized the f u t i l i t y of trying to gain accomplices to a
conspiracy against God, the Almighty. Hence, the exaltation
of the Messiah, though intensifying his hatred, presents him
with a welcome subterfuge under which to aspire to the suprem-
acy of God, since the angels can be incited against a new
power, whose potency is as yet untried.

In this we find a close correspondence between Satan

and Vondel's Lucifer.

271 Milton, Paradise Lost, V, 778-783- (The Italics are

my own)
 - 84 -

I shall have care this purpose to prevent

Let not a power inferior thus dream
To rule the Powers above, 272
is Lucifer's open defiance of the exaltation of man. Yet,
in the same breath his real ambition finds vent im
Now swear I by my crown, upon this chance
To venture a l l , to raise my seat amid
The firmament, the spheres, the splendor of
The stars above. The Heaven of Heavens shall then
My palace be, the rainbow be my Throne. 273

Consequently, a l l the angels are not "faultless"

subjects; i t is not the "Messiah, who starts a l l the trouble";
and God's "courteous consideration" for the angels is not
efficacious enough to extinguish the passions of "pride and
274
worse ambition" which alone are responsible for Satan's
revolt. This then is the background to the revolt as far as
Satan i s concerned.
After Satan reveals his antagonism towards God the
Father, the analogy to Macbeth forces itself upon the reader.
In both Macbeth and Paradise Lost antagonism seems to arise
out of the exaltation of a son. God's decree of the exalta-
tion of the Messiah finds a ready parallel in King Duncan's
words,
We will establish our estate upon
Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter
The Prince of Cumberland. 275

272 Vondel, Lucifer (translated by Van Noppen), I I , 282-284

273 Ibid., II, 286-290 .
274 Milton, Paradise Lost, IV, 39.
275 Shakespeare, William, Macbeth i n Harrison, G.B.,ed.,
Shakespeare, Major Plays and the Sonnets.H e w York, Harcourt
Brace and Company, 1948, p. 833, I, Sc. V, 37-39-
 - 85 -

In their respective hierarchies Macbeth and Satan enjoy an

equally enviable reputation, based upon merit and devotion to
their kings. The response to the decrees is similar. Both
hide their chagrin, but both are stimulated into action.
The Prince of Cumberland $ That is a step
On which I must f a l l down or else o'erleap,
For i n my way i t l i e s , 276
Is Macbeth's feeling towards this new obstacle to the realiza-
tion of his ambition. Satan's revelation of an earlier
antagonism finds i t s counterpart i n the indication through
Lady Macbeth*s exclamation:
What beast was't then
That made you break this enterprise to me?
... Nor time nor place
Did then adhere ..., 277
that they had planned Duncan's murder long before the contin-
gency of Malcolm's succession had arisen, Macbeth, however,
is not Satan's equal i n powers of dissimulation. While
Macbeth's face
is as a book where men 278
May read strange matters,
Satan lives up expertly to Lady Macbeth's injunction:
Look like the innocent flower 2 7 9
But be the serpent under i t .

However, there i s one great discrepancy between God

276, Shakespeare, Macbeth, op. c i t . , I, Sc.V, 49-51-

277, Ibid., I, Sc. VII, 47-50-
278 Ibid., I, Sc. V, 63-64.
279 Ibid., I, Sc. V, 66-65 -
 - 86 -

and King Duncan. The latter goes to his destruction because

,to mortals
There's no art o
? n

To find the mind's construction in the face;

while God through His omniscience, which Milton has continu-
ally emphasized, discerns the Innermost thoughts of a l l
creatures in Heaven, on Earth, and in Hell. Belial refers
to i t in Hell as well-known to a l l angels:
" ... for what can force or guile
With him, or who deceive his mind, whose eye
Views a l l things at one view? He from Heaven's
height o. ?

A l l these our motions vain sees and derides."

Milton stresses i t in his commentary:
Now had the Almighty Father from above,
From the pure Empyrean where he sits
High throned above a l l height, bent down his eye
His own works and their works at once to view.

... On earth he f i r s t beheld

Our two f i r s t parents....
He then surveyed
Hell and the gulf between, and Satan there 2 g 2
Coasting the wall of Heaven on this side Night.
Consequently, the reader i s quite prepared for the information:
"Meanwhile, th' Eternal eye, whose sight discerns
Abstrusest thoughts, from forth his holy Mount,
And from within the golden lamps that burn
Nightly before him, saw without their light

280 Shakespeare, Macbeth, I, Sc. IV, 12-13-

281 Milton, Paradise Lost, II,~l88-191-
282 Ibid., I l l , 56-65.

•
 - 87 -

Rebellion rising - saw i n whom, how spread

Among the Sons of Morn, what multitudes
Were banded to oppose his high decree,"
which signifies God's awareness of Satan's disobedience and
of his innermost thoughts from their very inception.

Satan is not the only one in dalliance with Sin.

As stated before, Moloch is fostering like ambitions. Others
as stated by Sin:
" ... recoiled afraid
At f i r s t , and called me Sin, and for a sign
Portentous held me; but familiar grown,
I pleased, and with attractive graces won
The most averse." 284
However, God cannot tolerate evil anywhere in the Heavenly
universe; f o r , with his omnipotence inviolable, He may find
Himself in the end a ruler of a kingdom of darkness. Conse-
quently, the exaltation of the Son is His strategic move to
bring a l l secret thoughts into the open, to cause the loyal
angels to reaffirm their "true allegiance, constant faith,
or love"; while of his antagonists the
" ... hard he harden'd, blind be blinded more,
That they may stumble on, and deeper f a l l . " 285
Thus "God, even as He helps the good i n their virtue, will
286
help the wicked in their evil," making the individual's
w i l l his fate.
283 Milton, Paradise Lost, V, 711-717-
284 Ibid., I I , 759-
285 Ibid., V, 699-700.
286 Saurat, Milton, Man and Thinker, p. 151.
 - 88 -

Satan is given the opportunity to seduce the Heavenly

Host: as an angel of light on the pretense of acting under
287
the "Most High commanding;" as a demagogue, who
" ... casts between
Ambiguous words and jealousies, to sound
Or taint integrity;" 288
and as the open importunate solicitor, who
" ... with calumnious art 2ftQ
Of counterfeited truth thus held their ears." '

God withdraws in order not to Interfere with the

angels' exercise of free choice, for:
"Not free, what proof could they have given sincere
Of true allegiance, constant faith, or love,
Where only what they needs must do appeared,
Not what they would? What praise could they receive,
What pleasure I, from such obedience paid,
When Will and Reason (Reason also is choice)
Useless and vain, of freedom both dispoild,
Made passive both, had served necessity,
Not me?" 290

In Abdiel, Milton represents the repudiation of evil

by the loyal element of Heaven. When he arrives before the
throne, he finds
"Already known what he for news had thought
To have reported." 291

287 Milton, op_. c i t . , V. 699.

288 Ibid., V, 702-703.
289 Ibid., V, 770-771-
290 Milton, Paradise Lost, III, 103-U1.
291 Ibid., VI, 20.
 - 89 -

In this, Milton points out that the whole Heavenly Host Is

facing the issue, and that Heaven's wide open borders, which
admit Abdiel, will not close upon anyone wishing to depart.
Only after the segregation is complete does God appear again
upon the scene.
God, knowing a l l innermost thoughts, could have
routed the disloyal angels from Heaven one by one. However,
Milton i s trying to justify God's ways and, consequently, lets
the evil become apparent before God takes action. The fact
that so many readers are incensed by God's decree of the exal-
tation of the Son, which is pronounced without an immediate
explanation, proves that, had God condemned the scheming
rebels without revealing their inner wickedness, the same
readers would have placed Him among the foremost tyrants of
history.
Thus the exaltation of the Son i s a poetic as well
as moral necessity: i t brings Satan's evil into the open and
satisfies the reader that God's attitude towards Satan is
based upon right reason and not upon passion. It also serves
to bring good out of evil in that, being the pretext for the
revolt, i t serves for the ingathering of a l l rampant passions,
that through one action Heaven might be cleansed of its dross
and restored to i t s pristine purity.
 Chapter IX

SATAN'S REVOLT

Satan's rebellion against God begins long before any overt

action takes place. As an angel of the highest hierarchy, his duty,

aptly described in Vandel's Lucifer as

/

...of Seraphim
And Cherubim, and Thrones, the highest, they
Who form God's inmost Council and confirm
AH His commands,

is grievous to him, especially where expressions of devotion and sub-

mission are involved. His pride revolts against "Knee tribute...

prostration v i l e J " ^ ^ Beelzebub, his "companion dear", equally shares

his revulsion: "Both waking we were one."2% Using the Son's exalt-

ation for a subterfuge, they immediately initiate the open revolt in

Satan's decision:

"With a l l his legions to dislodge and leave

Unworshipped, unobeyed, the Throne supreme."2^

The gravity of such act can be understood best in the light of Milton's

292 Vandel, Lucifer, I, 293-296.

293 Milton, Paradise Lost, V, 730.
294 Ibid., V, 673 ff-
295 Ibid., V, 668-669-
 - 91 -

denunciation, in the Eikonoklastes, of the King's withdrawal from the

Parliament at Westminster:

...when Richard the Second departed but from a

Gommittie of Lords, who sat preparing_matter for the
Parlament not yet assembl'd, .../they/ coming up to
London with a huge Army, requir'd the King...to come
to Westminster. Which he refusing, they told him
flatly, that unless he came, they would choose
another. So high a crime it was accounted then,
for Kings to absent themselves, not from Parlament,
which none ever durst, but from any meeting of his
Peeres and Counselors, which did but tend towards a
Parlament-

If such was the severity of the offence in a king, how much more
reprehensible would be the withdrawal of a subordinate!
Through lying, hypocrisy, and guile Satan succeeds in drawing
297
after him "the third part of Heaven's host." All the angels -who
have been unknowingly involved in the initial step of disobedience by
withdrawing with Satan, except Abdiel, yield him henceforth unquestion-
ing obedience and seem to take no cognizance of the weakness of his
argument against Abdiel.
The combat is related as an epic narrative. There is the
movement of two huge opposing armies. There is the Homeric combat of
epic heroes in the fight of Satan, Abdiel, and Michael, and the long
speeches of the champions in the midst of strife and bloodshed. How-
ever, Milton conveys more to the reader than merely the events of war-
fare. In Abdiel's denunciation of Satan we find the criterion for
superiority, the qualifications for kingship, and the definition of

296 Milton, Eikonoklastes, p. 126.

297 Milton, Paradise Lost, V, 709-
 - 92 -

Christian liberty:

"...God and Nature bid the same.

When he who rules is worthiest, and excels
Them whom he governs. This is servitude -
To serve th'unwise, or him who hath rebelled
Against his worthier, as thine now serve thee,
Thyself not free, but to thyself enthralled. "2%

Thus, superiority rests upon inner merit, and Christian liberty upon the
subjugation of passion to right reason. In the defeat of Satan Milton
demonstrates the triumph of good over evil and the confounding of mighty
powers by humility and virtue. In the end he points out through Raphael
that the account of the rebellion expresses the truth only symbolically,
"measuring things in Heaven by things on earth, "299 to make them com-
prehensible to human understanding.
Milton, similarly, throughout the epic drops to the level of
the experiences of his contemporaries. In Satan's feats of war he tries
to bring out the latter's prodigious prowess as well as his diabolic
perspicacity for the invention of destructive devices. The introduction
of the invention of gunpowder by the rebels strikes the twentieth-century
reader as gross, and is decried by Mr. Saurat as "a scandal to true
believers."300 However, Milton draws here upon the tradition of cannon
as "infernal," connoting the devastating power of Hell which dashes "to
pieces" a l l that i t encounters. Moreover, he turns to a recent
political event; namely, the massacre of the Parliamentarian army
through superior cannon introduced by the royalists from Holland.

298 Milton, Paradise Lost. VI, 176-181.

299 Ibid., VI, 893-
300 Saurat, Milton, Man and Thinker, p. 173-
301 Ranke, Leopold von, A History of England, Oxford at the Claren-
don Press, 1878, vol.Ill, p.367-
 - 93 -

With the horrors of that incident s t i l l fresh before him, the contem-
porary reader becomes, no doubt, emotionally involved in the conflict,
and the glory of the Messiah's victory is thus correspondingly enhanced.
 Chapter X

SATAN, THE REBEL OF HEAVEN

In Raphael's account of the rebellion as well as in Paradise

Lost on the whole, we do not meet the Lucifer of orthodox conception in
his state of early perfection, as found in the adumbration of the King
of Tyre:

Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and

perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the
Garden of God; every precious stone was thy
covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond,
the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire,
the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the
workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was
prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I
have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain
of Godj thou hast walked up and down in the midst
of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy
ways from the day thou was created t i l l iniquity
wast found in thee •0 ^

Lucifer is described here as created perfect in his entire being. His

kingdom is called Eden, but is distinguished from man's Eden in that i t
is a mineral kingdom. The magnificence of his abode is given in:
"every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the
diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the
emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold." "The workmanship of thy tabrets
302 Ezekiel, 28: 12-15, Bible, in Cooper, D.L., What Men Mast
Believe, California, Biblical Research Society, 1943, P- 240 f f .
 - 95 -

and thy pipes was prepared in thee...," shows that Satan was a master
musician, besides being the designer and builder of his crystal towers.
"Thou art the anointed cherub" indicates Lucifer's exalted position in
Heaven. Thus, Lucifer is depicted in every way as God's perfect
creation, exalted above many others, with access to God's holy mountain.
Vondel brings out more than Milton Satan's pre-lapsarian
glory in his Lucifer, when Raphael addresses the rebel thus:

...God hath his seal

And image stamped upon thy hollowed head
And forehead, where all beauty seemed out-poured,
With wisdom and benevolence and a l l
That flows in streams unbounded from the fount
Of every precious thing. In Paradise,
Before the countenance of God's own sun,
Thou shon'st from clouds of dew and roses fresh;
Thy festal robes stood stiff with pearl, turquoise,
And diamond, ruby, emerald, and fine gold;
'Twas thy right hand the weightiest sceptre held;
And as soon as thou didst mount into the light,
Throughout the blazing firmament and through
These shining vaults the sounds began to roll
Of trumpet and of drum.^03

However, there i s a number of references in Paradise Lost, from which we

are able to draw a fairly dear picture of Satan's pre-lapsarian person-
ality. As to his status in the hierarchial order, Raphael accords him
pre-eminence over most, i f not a l l , of the angels when he introduces him
as:

"...He of the first,

If not the first Archangel, great in power,
In favour and pre-eminence."„n.

303 Vondel, Lucifer, IV, 179-193-

304 Milton, Paradise Lost, V, 659-661.
 - 96 -

By virtue of such exalted condition his influence over the Host of

Heaven under his control is shown as correspondingly potent by the
angels' obedience to

"The wonted signal, and the superior voice

Of their great Potentate, for great indeed
His name, and high was his degree in Heaven."
305

His regal state is indicated by the magnificence of his capital,

"...his royal seat

High on a h i l l , far blazing, as a mount
Raised on a mount, with pyramids and towers -
From diamond quarries hewn and rocks of gold -
The palace of great Lucifer, "^Q^,

and the immensity of his army,

" ...an host

Innumerable as the stars of night,
Or stars of morning, dew drops which the sun
Impearls on every leaf and every flower."^Qy

The biblical allusion of the morning star in:

"His countenance, as the morning star that guides

The starry flock, allured them...,"^^

shows the power of his glorious appearance over the minds of the angels.
This radiance is emphasized by references to his shining armour and"his
sun-bright chariot."3°9

305 Milton, Paradise Lost, V, 704-706.

306 Ibid., V, 756-760.
307 Ibid., V, 744-747-
308 Ibid., V, 78-79-
309 Ibid., 71, 100.
 - 97 -

Yet, the picture of his pre-lapsarian magnificence grows pallid

under the impact of his diabolic personality from the very opening of the
scene in Heaven. Only God's early statement that He has created man and
310
"all th'ethereal Powers" "just and right," prevents the assumption
that Satan represents essential evil. His former wisdom, subverted to
evil, makes him the crafty contriver who shuns no means to accomplish
his wicked designs.
His acute powers of dissimulation and his profound hypocrisy
deceive the very elect of the heavenly hierarchies as he spends the day
with them "in song and dance about the sacred hill."-*1"'" His pride and
envy, first, of God and, later, of the Messiah pervert his reasoning
powers and sweep him headlong into the revolt. He lacks the loyalty of
a leader for his faithful subjects when, instead of enlisting their
support by fair means, he commits them to disobedience to God through
his fraudulent order:
"1...Assemble thou
Of all those myriads which we lead the chief;
Tell them that, by command /_of Gody7, ere yet dim
night
Her shadowy cloud withdraws, I am to haste
And a l l who under me their banners wave
Homeward with flying march where we possess
The quarters of the North, there to prepare
Fit entertainment to receive our King,
The Great Messiah, and his new commands,
Mho speedily through all the Hierarchies
Intends to pass triumphant, and give laws,"' , ?

and thus involves them in his initial overt transgression in leaving

310 Milton, Paradise Lost, III, 98.

311 Ibid., V, 619-
312 Ibid., 683-693-
 - 98 -

"unobeyed" the precincts of Heaven, while they are under the impression
of obeying God's order. His lies, his insinuation, his casting

".. .between
Ambiguous words and jealousies, to sound
Or taint integrity",^

are worthy of an Iago.

In the palace of great Lucifer, the crafty demagogue insinuates
into the minds of his followers his own grievance and thus provides them
with a personal motive to oppose the Almighty:

"'Will ye submit your necks, and choose to bend

The supple knee? Te will not, i f I trust
To know ye right, or i f ye know yourselves
Natives and Sons of Heaven possessed before
By none, and, i f not equal a l l , yet free'"
314
However, in his presentation of the issues i t becomes quite evident that
his inordinate ambition is perverting his right reason. He aspires to
equality with God, but denies such to his followers. He is determined
to destroy God's hierarchial order "'to cast off this yoke, '"^^ y e t
claims that,

"1...orders and degrees

Jar not with liberty, but well consist.'"^^

He rejects Abdiel's argument that

" 'the mighty Father made

313 Milton, Paradise Lost. V, 702-704-
314 Ibid., V, 7S7-791-
315 Ibid., V, 786.
316 Ibid., V, 792-793-
 - 99 -

All things, even thee, and all the Spirits of

Heaven _
By him /Son/ created in their bright degrees,'"
317

by

"1...Strange point and new

Doctrine which we would know whence learned! Who
saw
When this creation was? Remember'st thou
Thy making, while the Maker gave thee being?
We know no time when we were not as now;
Know none before us, self-begot, self-raised
By our own quickening power when fatal course
Had circled his f u l l orb..., "'^g

thus denying both the creation by the Son and by God and trying to im-

press his host with utter folly.

Mr. Waldock, however, does not find these rejoinders silly

and rallies to Satan's defence:

The point must be new, or he could not in full

assembly say i t was. We are not told why i t is
that Abdiel is so exceptionally well informed;
for some reason he is, just as for some reason
the rebel angels appear to have been kept in the
dark about a number of other facts that good
angels kaow.^o.

As stated before, Milton presents his events in inverted chronological

order to establish certain conceptions in the light of which later
developments become clear. The creation by the Son has been emphasized
as being Heaven's tradition. Consequently, Satan's statements are
ludicrous. The fact that he voices them "in full assembly" does not
make them more credible or rational than his harangue for and against

317 Milton, Paradise Lost, V, 836-838.

318 Ibid., V, 855-S62.
319 Waldock, Paradise Lost and Its Critics, p. 71.
 - 100 -

equality and the hierarchial orders, which, too, occurs "in full assembly"
without meeting with any opposition except Abdiel's.
Satan's complete loss of emotional response to goodness is
apparent in his defiant rejection of God's pardon. That pardon, offer-
ed to Satan even after his overt opposition to God, is the manifestation
of His

Divine compassion...,
Love without end, and without measure grace.^20

There is no hesitation in his refusal, no inner conflict, but obdurate

pride and boundless self-reliance. For Vondel's Lucifer this last

offer of God's grace is the climax, because i t involves a tremendous

conflict, as expressed in his bitterness:

What creature else so wretched is as I?

On the one side flicker feeble rays of hope,
While on the other yawns a flaming horror.
But 'tis too late, no cleansing for my stain
Is here. All hope is past.-321

But Satan is already completely alienated from his former godly nature

as Abdiel pronounces judgment upon him:

"'0 alienate from God. 0 Spirit accursed,

Forsaken of a l l good! I see thy fall
Determined, and thy hapless crew involved
In this perfidious fraud, contagion spread
Both of thy crime and punishment •1 xx

He has also lost a l l capacity for seeing things objectively. His own

320 Milton, Paradise Lost, III, 141-

321 Vandal, Lucifer, IV, 385 ff•
322 Milton, op.cit., V, 877-881.
 - 101 -

thoughts and actions are law unto himself and those around him. There
is a deep irony in his words objecting to the enforcement of laws "on
us, who without law / Err not,"-^ uttered as they are in the midst of
rebellion.

In the encounter with the Heavenly Host Satan's powers of

seduction are emphasized by Gabriel thus:

"1...how hast thou instilled

Thy malice into thousands, once upright
And faithful, now proved false1'"224

325
By calling Abdiel "seditious A n g e l , S a t a n projects his own faults
onto others. His two humiliating defeats in single combat do not
shake his overbearing self-confidence. The demonstration of "prodig-
ious power"326 unfailing courage and the ingenious invention of
gunpowder attest to the fact that Satan's positive qualities are
invariably channeled into the pursuance of evil and destruction. An
epic hero in his performance on the battlefield, he yet lacks a l l the
characteristics of moral greatness, such as honour, truth, and justice.
Even at this early stage he and his associates are determined
"... by force or fraud
... to prosper, and at length prevail
Against God and Messiah."^gy

His envy is emphasized by his reaction to the glory of the Son:

323 Milton, Paradise Lost, V, 798-799-

324 Ibid., V I , 269-271.
325 Ibid., VI, 152.
326 Ibid., VI, 247-
327 Ibid., VI, 794-797-
 - 102 -

"They, hardened more by what might most reclaim,

Grieving to see his glory, at the sight
Took envy, and, aspiring to his height,
Stood re-embattled fierce."-^g

As to Satan's appearance, there is sufficient evidence to just-

ify the assumption that his secret inner degradation does not impair his

outward magnificence. In the congregation around the sacred h i l l he is

apparently unchanged. His beauty,

"...as the morning star that guides

The starry flock allured them, and with lies
Drew after him the third part of Heaven's host."

Even when he confronts God's host his lustre remains impressive, as:

"High in the midst, exalted as a God

Th'Apostate in his sun-bright chariot sat,
Idol of majesty divine, enclosed
With flaming Cherubim and golden shields."^^

Abdiel deplores the persistence of Satan's grandeur as incompatible

with his inner depravity:

"'0 HeavenJ that such resemblance of the Highest

Should yet remain, where faith and realty
Remain not 1'"331

However, during the battle ominous portents and signs of external impair-
ment of glory appear. First, Satan's armour, " erewhile so bright",
is stained with his own blood. Next, the spirits find i t difficult to

328 Milton, Paradise Lost, VI, 791-794•

329 Ibid., V, 708-710.
330 Ibid., VI, 99-102.
331 Ibid., VI, 114-116.
 - 103 -

extricate themselves from underneath the rocks because:

"...though Spirits of purest light,

1
Purest at first, now gross by sinning grown.'
332
In the end, when the Messiah meets than on their own terms of violence

" '...since by strength

They measure a l l , of other excellence
Not emulous, "'333

the puissance of the stars of morning is shattered. Those fierce and

vaunting champions now

"...all resistance lost,

All courage; down their idle weapons dropped;"
334

Satan, who so recently has borne "such resemblance of the Highest,"

becomes undlstinguishable among the "Thrones and mighty Seraphim

335
prostrate;n-JJJ and, merely one of the "exhausted, spiritless, afflicted,

fallen," 3 3 ^ is driven disdainfully headlong "down from the verge of

Heaven."337

Even though Milton does not describe the sudden metamorphosis

by which Vondel's Lucifer

Even as bright day to gloomy night is changed,
Whene'er the sun forgets his golden glow,
So in his downward fall his beauty turned
To something monstrous and most horrible,
Into a brutish snout his face, that shone

332 Milton, Paradise Lost, VI, 660-661.

333 Ibid., VI, £20-322.
334 Ibid., VI, 838-839-
335 Ibid., VI, 841-
336 Ibid., VI, 852
337 Ibid., VI, 865.
 - 104 -

So glorious; his teeth into large fangs,

Sharpened for gnawing steel; his hands and feet
Into four various claws; into a hide
Of black that shining skin of pearl...

...His beauteous form

Is now a monster execrable, by God
And spirit and man e'er to be cursed,
338

he definitely implies an outward deterioration in his analogies in Hell

339
between Satan and "whom the fables name of monstrous size Tibanian"
and Briareos, a fearful monster. Beelzebub comments on "all our glory
extinct;"340 the angels l i e
Abject and lost...covering the flood,
Under amazement of their hideous change;
341

and Milton refers to them as "a pitchy cloud."3^2 Satan, "Darkened

343

so, yet shone above them all" in Hell. But any brightness he assumes

in disguise is only "permissive glory."344

Thus Satan at the point of his expulsion from Heaven appears

as the procreator of sin and the epitome of a l l passions characteristic

of orthodox tradition. All his heavenly attributes have been replaced

by diabolic qualities. Hence, his character is complete, and this

excludes the possibility of any further development. Events in Hell

and on Earth reveal these changes, of some of which he himself is not

immediately aware. Milton's statement about the other fallen angels,

338 Vandel, Lucifer, V, 306 f f .

339 Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 198.
340 Ibid., I, 141-
341 Ibid., I, 3H-312.
342 Ibid., I, 340.
343 Ibid., I, 599-
344 Ibid., I, 451'
 - 105 -

...neither do the Spirits damned

Lose a l l their virtue, o i r
345

may be preferred as an argument against the assertion of Satan's utter

degradation. However, i t must be remembered that their disobedience to
God is entirely based upon their loyalty to their chief. Their offence
consists in giving too much credence to Satan's words. But they do not
share his other passions and, consequently, will deteriorate with time
under his leadership. Milton indicates Satan's deeper degradation by:

High on a throne of royal state...

• * • * •

Satan exalted sat, by merit raised

To that bad eminence...01c

345 Milton, Paradise Lost, I I , 482-483-

346 Ibid., II, 1 f f .
 Chapter XI

SATAN AND THE FALL OF MAN

The Satan who finally appears in Paradise is confirmed in

evil. Milton stresses this by placing the recapitulation of the Fall
of the Angels immediately before the Fall of Man. Satan's sophistry
in Hell might have easily deceived a l l readers. The Mount Niphates
speech might have left them puzzled as to his true nature. But here
is no ambiguity, no contradiction of commentary and demonstration.
He is "the author of evil",- 3 ^ the "forsaken of a l l good",-^ who has

" '...disturbed
Heaven's blessed peace and into Nature brought
Misery, uncreated t i l l the crime
Of thy /Satan1sj rebellion J ' " ^

He has also

"'...instilled
...malice into thousands, once upright
And faithful, now proved false, "'^CJQ

351
"Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers""^ have fallen a
prey to his glozing words. In a physical conflict God himself alone
347 Milton, Paradise Lost, VI, 262..
348 Ibid., V, 878.
349 Ibid., VI, 266-269-
350 Ibid., VI, 269-272.
351 Ibid., V, 772.
 - 107 -

through the Messiah has been able to overcome him as an adversary.

A conflict between this sinister force and Adam and Eve, the
"puny" inhabitants of Earth, appears so incongruous that Milton's attempt
to "justify the ways of God to men"352 s e e l n s to break down in the very
anticipation of such unequal struggle. However, the incongruity arises
out of our misconception of the first Man, as expressed by Mr. Lewis:

I had come to the poem associating innocence with

childishness. I had also an evolutionary back-
ground which led me to think of early men, and
therefore a fortiori of the first men, as savages.
The beauty I expected in Adam and Eve was that of
the primitive, the unsophisticated, the naif. I
had hoped to be shown their inarticulate delight
in a new world which they were spelling out letter
by letter, to hear them prattle.

Yet, as we pay closer attention to Milton's presentation of Adam and

Eve:

Two of far nobler shape, erect and t a l l ,

God-like erect, with native honour clad
In naked majesty, seemed lords of a l l ,
And worthy seemed; for in their looks divine
The image of their glorious Master shone,
Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure -
Severe, but in true, f i l i a l freedom placed,
Whence true authority in men...

For contemplation he and valour formed,

For softness she and sweet attractive grace;
He for God only, she for God in him.
His fair large front and eye sublime declared
Absolute rule,^t;^

to Raphael's deference to Eve, and the revelation of Adam's intellectual

352 Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 26.

353 Lewis, A Preface to Paradise lost, p. 112.
354 Milton, op.cit., IV, 288.
 - 108 -

capacities, Satan's preponderance appears greatly diminished in juxta-

position to man who possesses all the attributes of the true image of

God. Moreover, Raphael,

The affable Archangel, had forewarned

Adam, by dire example, to beware
Apostasy, by what befell in Heaven
To those apostates, lest the like befall
In Paradise to Adam or his race,0__

and God has created him with powers to

" Stand fast; to stand or f a l l

Free in thine own abitrement i t lies
Perfect within, no outward aid require.

Nevertheless, Satan remains a redoubtable enemy. Milton

never lets the reader lose sight of this. As Satan enters Paradise to

vent his evil tendencies in action, he once more reveals a l l his former

characteristics in soliloquy.

"But neither here seek I, no, nor in Heaven,

To dwell, unless by mastering Heaven's Supreme,"357

expresses the ambition and hatred he has fostered in Heaven. His

"evil, be thou my good""^ finds its counterpart in:

"To me shall be the glory sole among

The infernal Powers, in one day to have marred
What he, Almighty styled, six nights and days
Continued making, and who knows how long
Before had been contriving?".^

355 Milton, Paradise Lost, VII, 41• '

356 Ibid., V, 640-642.
357 Ibid., IX, 124-125.
358 Ibid., IV, 110.
359 Ibid., IX, 135-138.
 - 109 -

His deliberate self-deception is evident in his rationalization of the

Fall of the Angels:

"...I in one night freed

From servitude inglorious well-nigh half
Th'angelic name, and thinner left the throng
Of his adorers, "^Q

Again he attributes his own malignity to God,

" He to be avenged
...or to spite us more -
Determined to advance into our room
A creature formed of earth...." ,
361
His envy against God and man persists as he pours his spite out on him

•...who next
Provokes my envy, this new favorite
Of Heaven, this Man of clay, son of despite.

The loss of his intellectual being is also apparent, as once again the
nostalgia for his lapsed aesthetic perceptions overpowers him at the
sight of Paradise, as seen from his exclamation:

"With what delight could I have walked thee round.

If I could joy in aught - sweet interchange
Of h i l l and valley, rivers, woods, and plains,
Now land, now sea, and shores with forest crowned,
Rocks, dens, and caves! But I in none of these
Find place or refuge; and the more I see
Pleasures about me, so much more I feel
Torment within me, as from the hateful siege
Of contraries; a l l good to me becomes
Bane, and in Heaven much worse would be my state." ^

360 Paradise Lost, IX, 140-143-

361 Ibid., IX, 143-149-
362 Ibid., IX, 174-176
363 Ibid., IX, 114-123-
 - 110 -

Thus, Satan manifests the same fundamental characteristics of inordinate

ambition, hatred, envy, self-deception, wherever we encounter him: in
Heaven, in Hell, on Mount Niphates, in Paradise. All his transgressions
are rooted in his one initial trespass against God - disobedience.

As Satan conceives his plan of attack upon man, we find him

by virtue of experience more astute in strategy. The failure of his
army

"With furious expedition...

That self-same day, by fight or by surprise,
To win the Mount of God, and on his throne
To set the envier of his state, the proud
Aspirer," ^

has taught him discretion. Man's destruction he plans for "the space
365
of seven continued nights;" and, finally, attempts i t not haphazard-
ly, but with "meditated fraud and malice."-^ "His mounted scale
aloft" has revealed to him that the loss of his physical prowess during
the war in Heaven, when
"...shot forth pernicious fire
Amongst th'accursed, that withered all their
strength,
And of their wonted vigour left them drained,
Exhausted, spiritless, afflicted fallen,

is final and irretrievable. Although in his encounter with Gabriel's

host
His stature reached the sky, and on his crest
364 Milton, Paradise Lost. VI, 86-90.
365 Ibid.. IX, 64-
366 Ibid., IX, 55- (The italics is my own.)
367 Tbid., VI, 849-852.
 - Ill -

Sat Horror plumed; nor wanted in his grasp

What seemed both spear and shield, ,
368
he becomes aware of the hollowness behind this display of might through

that

"...celestial_signA
Where thou /Satan/ art weighed, and shown how light,
how weak
If thou resist."369

Consequently, fraud and guilt must be his weapons in the attack upon
man. Ithuriel's touch of the spear has broken his disguise and has
restored him to his proper shape, imparting to him a hitherto unknown
truth; namely, that

.•.no falsehood can endure

Touch of celestial temper, but returns
Of force to its own likeness. ^

371
Since Adam and Eve are "to heavenly Spirits bright / Little inferior",

Satan will not jeopardize the success of his attempt by appearing before

them as a changeling. As a result of this consideration

The serpent subtlest beast of a l l the field
...his final sentence chose
Fit vessel, fittest imp of fraud, in whom
To enter, and his dark suggestions hide
From sharpest sight.^72

368 Milton, Paradise Lost, IV, 988-990.

369 Ibid., IV, 1011 - 1013-
370 Ibid., IV, 811-813•
371 Ibid-, IV, 361-362.
 - 112 -

Thus, as Satan appears on the human stage, he is no less than

essential evil. The evil which he originated in Heaven, was purged
thence with his expulsion as seen from:

"•Hence, then, and evil go with thee along,

Thy offspring.'"

With the complete forfeiture of a l l goodness, he becomes the e^odiment

of a l l passions hitherto unknown in God's cosmos. Through his seduction
of Man evil is generated into the universe.

As Satan views the new world and its two inhabitants, his des-
pite is intensified by the realization that in the creation of man God
has already accomplished the initial step of his plan:

"Good out of evil to create - instead

Of Spirits malign, a better race to bring
Into their vacant room, and thence diffuse
His good to worlds and ages infinite,"' ,

by forming such god-like beings. Consequently, the success of his

counter-purpose:

"...to pervert that end,

And out of good s t i l l to find means of evil, "^y^

is of paramount importance.
During his first appearance in Eden he has tainted Adam's and
Eve's imagination in the hope that eventually i t will get the better of
their right reason. His insinuations in Eve's dream:

373 Milton, Paradise Lost, VI, 275-276-

374 Ibid., VII, 188-191.
375 Ibid., I, 164-165-
 - 113 -

"'And why not gods of men, since good, the more

Communicated, more abundant grows,
The author not impaired, but honoured more?"' ,
376

are such as to force speculation upon the human mind. Adam, who hither-
to has known good alone, now gives evidence of a theoretical knowledge
of evil in: 377

"Best image of myself, and dearer half

The trouble of thy thoughts this night in sleep
Affects me equally; nor can I like
This uncouth dream - of evil sprung, I fear. 1 '.,
i to

Eve's sudden independence, emerging in her desire to work separately i s ,

no doubt, the unconscious outgrowth of Satan's words in her dream:

"•Taste this, and be henceforth among the gods

Thyself a goddess.'"279

The appearance of the Tempter,

"One shaped and winged like one of those from

Heaven
By us oft seen; his dewy lips distilled
Ambrosia,"^gQ

causes her to ascribe to Satan the nobility of their heavenly guests,

which precludes the possibility that "A foe so proud will first the
weaker seek." The boundless self-reliance expressed in, "So bent

376 Milton, Paradise Lost, V, 71-73•

377 Bailey, Milton and Jacob Boehme, p. 154-
378 Milton, op.cit., V, 95-98.
379 Ibid., V, 77-78.
380 Ibid., V, 55-56.
 - 114 -

the more shall shame him his repulse,"-^ in one "for softness" formed
"and sweet attractive g r a c e " , a r i s e s from her conviction that Satan
can only tempt her in the angelic form of her dream; and shall, there-
fore, be easily recognized. Satan's extreme subtlety is also manifest-
ed herein.
The whole action of the temptation is pregnant with irony.
Eve is the least prepared for the test when her self-confidence is the
greatest. While she ascribes heroic qualities to Satan, "he wished
his hap might find / Eve separate."^^ Satan attempts to pervert
God's good to evil, but is, indeed, God's agent in testing man's
obedience. The moment of Satan's greatest triumph seals his ultimate
doom; and man's self-abasement is the key to his eternal l i f e .
When Satan first meets Eve, his evil passions are momentarily
arrested as he

...for the time remained

Stupidly good, of enmity disarmed,
Of guile, of hate, of envy, of revenge.^g^

Some critics would see in this a redeeming quality in Satan. However,

Mr. Diekhoff gives an explanation more in keeping with the Satanic
nature:

At the moment when he hesitates here in the

presence of Eve, his hesitation is not an
impulse toward virtue, but merely a moment
of abstraction during which the activity of

381 Milton, Paradise Lost, IX, 383-

382 Ibid., IY, 298.
383 Ibid., IX, 421-
384 Ibid., IX, 464-466.
 - 115 -

his intellect and of his will is interrupted.ortr

385
Moreover, Satan, in his attempt to avoid Adam,

"Whose higher intellectual more I shun,

And strength, of courage haughty, and of limb
Heroic built, though of terrestrial mould;
Foe not informidable, exempt from wound,"^g^

proves the speciousness of his former demonstrations of courage and this

stamps him as a human villain of the lowest order. No heroic elements
enter into the execution of his plan, which is based entirely upon the
exercise of "meditated fraud."

In his incarnation of the serpent, a familiar beast in the

Garden, Satan has eliminated a l l hazards to himself. Through the
influence of her dream Eve's mind has become fertile ground for his
second appeal to her imagination. In his seduction he practises every
tactic which has proved successful in committing the heavenly powers to
the revolt against God. There his natural beauty allured the angels.
Consequently, he appears before Eve with his head

Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes;

With burnished neck of verdant gold, erect
Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass
Floated redundant. Pleasing was his shape
And lovely.^gy

His specious devotion to God as he partakes in the worship around the

sacred mount, he duplicates here in his profession of a similar sentiment

for Eve, as

385 Diekhoff, Milton's Paradise Lost, p. 42.

386 Milton, Paradise Lost, IX, 483-486.
387 Ibid., IX, 500-504-
 - 116 -

Oft he bowed
His turret crest and sleek enamelled neck;
Fawning, and licked the ground whereon she trod.^gg

In both events he cunningly impairs the mental alertness of his victims

through flattery. The angels fall for his words:

" 'Will ye submit your necks, and choose to bend

The supple knee? Ye will not, i f I trust
To know ye right, or i f ye know yourselves
Natives and Sons of Heaven possessed before
By none, and, i f not equal a l l , yet free.'"^g^

Eve, with Adam's reproach:

"Wouldst thou approve thy constancy, approve

First thy obedience; th'other who can know
Not seeing thee attempted, who attest?"^^

s t i l l fresh in her mind must, of necessity, feel exalted by the imput-

ation to her of superior qualities implied in "Thy awful brow, more
awful thus retired"-^! and openly advanced in:

"...who shouldst be seen

A Goddess among Gods, adored and served
By Angels numberless, thy daily train."

Thus, Satan's experience in Heaven has rendered him indeed improved in

fraud and malice.

In the account of his transformation, during the process of
which he claims to have acquired the "Language of Man" and "human

388 Milton, Paradise Lost, IX, 524-526.

389 Ibid., V, 787-791.
390 Ibid., IX, 367-369-
391 Ibid., IX, 536.
392 Ibid., IX, 537-539-
 - 117 -

sense,"393n e takes into consideration every aspect of their situation

to appeal the more effectively to Eve's senses. Since the time

approaches noon, he vividly describes the "savoury odour", and the

"sharp desire"he felt" of tasting those fair apples". ^ He plays

upon man's inherent longing for the unattainable by depicting the

difficulty of obtaining the miraculous fruit and the frustration of

other beasts:

"For, high from ground, the branches would require

Thy utmost reach, or Adam's: round the tree
All other beasts that saw, with like desire
Longing and envying stood, but could not reach."395

He dwells upon the virtue of the fruit as an intellectual stimulant

through which:

"Thenceforth to speculations high or deep

I turned my thoughts, and with capacious mind
Considered a l l things visible in Heaven,
Or Earth, or Middle, a l l things fair and good,"-^

and thus stirs Eve's curiosity to see the tree. Although Eve fully

trusts in the veracity of the serpent, she unhesitatingly takes a

definite stand of obedience to God's command on recognizing the for-

bidden tree:

"Serpent, we might have spared our coming hither,

Fruitless to me, though fruit be here to excess."

However, Eve i s no match for Satan's sophistry. As he

393 Milton, Paradise Lost, IX, 553•

394 Ibid-, IX, 579 f f .
395 Ibid., IX, 590-593-
396 Ibid., IX, 602-605-
397 Ibid-, IX, 647-648-
 - 118 -

"presents the prospect of evil as though i t were the highest good; and
his voice, even in the act of temptation, is impassioned with his 'zeal
of right',"398 g v e gradually loses ground. Moreover, his persuasion
carries the conviction of factual evidence:

"Ye shall not die.

How should ye? By the fruit? i t gives you life
To knowledge. By the threatener? look on me,
Me who have touched and tasted, yet both live,
And life more perfect have attained than Pate
Meant me, by venturing higher than my l o t . " . ^

He stresses the importance of knowing evil, "since easier shunned"

and he advances his own interpretation of God's threat as implying not
physical death, but the dying of ignorance in the assuming of godly
qualities:

"So shall ye die perhaps, by putting off

Human, to put on Gods."^,^

The rapidity of his movements from argument to argument

prevents Eve from discovering their inconsistency and speciousness.

And gradually

...his words, replete with guile,

Into her heart too easy entrance won.^.

However, at no time is Eve overwhelmed to the extent that she loses her

398 Sewell, A., Satan, p. 57-

399 Milton, Paradise Lost, IX, 685-670.
400 Ibid., IX, 699-
401 Ibid-, IX, 713-714-
402 Ibid., IX, 731-732.
 - 119 -

reasoning power. But her reason misinforms her, because her argument
is based on two faulty premises; namely, that i t is the serpent who is
speaking, and that his transformation into a reasonable beast is due to
the virtue of the fruit. But she is not overpowered by passion like
the Eve in Vondel's Lucifer, described at the same point of the tempt-
ation:

"Forthwith begins the heart of the fair bride

To burn and to enkindle, t i l l she flames
To see the praised fruit, which first allures
The eye: the eye the mouth, that sighs to taste,
Desire doth urge the hand, a l l quivering to pluck.n

On the contrary, after she has overcome a l l mental reservations by what

appears clear logic, her action is quite deliberate as

Forth-reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ©at.^Q^

Nor does Adam f a l l as the victim of a sweeping passion, because

...He scrupled not to eat,

Against his better knowledge, not deceived,
But fondly overcome with female charm..„t

Various theories have been advanced to ascertain the emotion

which led to Eve's f a l l . Mr. Williams suggests "injured merit". Mr.
Lewis decides that "Eve fell through P r i d e , s i n c e the serpent stirs
up her vanity through his praise, makes her feel impaired because there
is no-one but Adam to admire her beauty, and, consequently, arouses her

403 Vondel, Lucifer, V, 500-504-

404 Milton, Paradise Lost, IX, 781•
405 Ibid.-., IX, 997-999-
406 Lewis, A Preface to Paradise Lost, p. 121.
 - 120 -

ambition to attain to a position worthy of her qualities. However,

a l l this precedes their arrival at the site of the tree, at which
instant Milton states that Eve was "yet sinless."^ 07
Just before the f a l l takes place, Milton focuses the reader's
attention through repetition on the word forbids, uttered by Eve:

"In plain then, what forbids he but to know?

Forbids us good, forbids us to be wise!
Such prohibitions bind not."^^

Consequently, i t seems clear that Eve's transgression is her deliberate

disobedience of God's command. She fails to trust his veracity

blindly in the face of factual evidence to the contrary. Adam fore-

casts the cause of her fall in:

"But bid her /reason/ well beware, and s t i l l erect,

Lest, by some fair appearing good surprised,
She dictates false, and misinforms the Will
To do what God expressly hath forbid."^QQ

Adam himself prefers his conjugal love to his love and loyalty for God.
Satan's disobedience to God's decree introduces sin into Heaven. Adam
and Eve, similarly, through their disobedience to God's command are
responsible for sin upon earth, with one difference,

"The first sort by their own suggestion f e l l ,

Self-tempted, self-depraved; Man falls, deceived
By the other f i r s t . " ^ Q

Evil, once liberated into the world by Satan and approved by

407 Milton, Paradise Lost. IX, 659- '

408 Ibid., IX, 758-760. (The italics is my own.)
409 Ibid., IX, 353-356.
410 Ibid., I, 129-131-
 - 121 -

man, immediately appears in its multiple forms. Eve commits idolatry

in her veneration of the tree:

So saying, from the tree her step she turned,

But first low reverence done, as to a Power
That dwelt within, whose presence had infused
Into the plant sciental sap, derived
From nectar, drink of Gods.^-|

She questions God's omniscience in assuming that He may never learn of

her trespass because

"Heaven is high -
High, and remote to see from thence distinct
Each thing on Earth.

She, who a few hours ago joined nature in adoration and worship, now

refers to God sacriligeously as

"Our great Forbidder, safe with a l l his spies

About him.''^2

Her ambition grows from a desire for intellectual equality with the
Gods to an aspiration to superiority over Adam. In relating her
experience and trespass, she reflects Satan's guile and hypocrisy as
she presents her disobedience as committed "for thee / Chiefly,"^ 1 '
and in turn becomes Adam's seducer. Together they try to rationalize
their offence through deliberate self-deception. Their own relation-
ship is degraded by the awakening of carnal desires and lasciviousness, which
breaks down their mutual respect. When the first wave of their false

411 Milton, Paradise Lost, IX, 834-838.

412 Ibid., IX, 811-813.
413 Ibid., IX, 815-816.
414 Ibid., IX, 877-
 - 122 -

enthusiasm finally subsides, they find themselves animated by

...high passions - anger, hate, _

Mistrust, suspicion, discord - /which7 shook sore
Their inward state of mind, calm region once
And full of peace, now tost and turbulent.

Thus man, created in the image of God and endowed with heavenly attri-
butes, is perverted by Satan, who, having contaminated his victims with
a l l his evil passions, "back to the thicket slunk."^"^

However, the reader of Paradise Lost cannot l i f t an accusing

finger against the fallen Adam and Eve. Fore-warned by Milton's
commentary and armed by the orthodox conception of Satan, he has failed
to recognize Satan's speciousness in the opening books of the epic
In his admiration and sympathy for Satan he has committed himself to a
similar f a l l . Thus Milton has prepared us for a sympathetic under-
standing of the dilemma of our First Parents.

In this chapter man is revealed not as the "puny" inhabitant

whom Satan is determined to drive out, but as perfect and in every way
a match for Satan. But man falls because he permits Satan to under-
mine his faith in the absolute veracity of God's word. As soon as
his faith is destroyed, his right reason is perverted and misleads him
into disobedience. God's providence in giving man power to stand,
besides creating him with a free will, makes man's offence his own.
Satan's basic characteristics, revealed in Heaven, in Hell,
and on Mount Niphates, persist in Eden. Milton thus preserves the
unity of his character throughout Paradise Lost. hi the seduction of

415 Milton, Paradise Lost, 32, 1123-1126.

416 Ibid., IS, 785-
 - 123 -

man Satan has accomplished his revenge against God and has conquered a
new kingdom for the host in Hell. In doing this, he generates evil
into the world, and this, henceforth, becomes innate in man's nature.
Thus Satan's guile and man's surrender to his temptation
are responsible for the origin of evil on Earth.
 Chapter XII

SATAN AND THE CRISIS IN

PARADISE LOST

Adam's Fall has been generally considered as the crisis of

Paradise Lost. In determining the climax, i t is essential to consider
God's initial purpose in the creation of man:

'...out of one man a race _ _

Of men innumerable, there /Earth/ to dwell,
Not here, t i l l by degrees of merit raised,
They open to themselves at length the way
Up hither, under long obedience tried.
And Earth be changed to Heaven, and Heaven to
Earth,
One kingdom, joy and union without end. ' " n 7

Adam's disobedience definitely vitiates this purpose. Man has existed

in perfect harmony with God- If his turning against God is the climax,
then the estrangement must be final: the relationship has to deterior-
ate until man reaches his ultimate doom presaged in, "God has pronounced
i t death to taste that Tree."^"^ But men are to "open to themselves at
length the way / Up hither," is God's decree, which in the light of his
assertion, "And what I will is fate,"^1-^ becomes immutable. Moreover,

417 Milton, Paradise Lost. VII, 155-161-

418 Ibid, IV, 427-
419 Ibid., VII, 173-
 - 125 -

God, foreseeing man's Fall, has made provision for his restoration:

"...Once more I will renew

His lapsied powers, though forfeit, and enthralled
By sin to foul exorbitant desires:
Upheld by me; yet once more he shall stand
On even ground against his mortal foe.'^Q

Consequently, the crisis must occur at a point which indicates the u l -

timate realization of God's purpose, rather than its vitiation, as the
Fall does.

Since God's and Satan's plans run forever counter one to the
other, i t is evident that the rising action in one is coincident with the
falling action in the other; e.g., man's felicity is Satan's despair;
man's f a l l , his victory. Consequently, i t is possible to determine the
climax in Paradise Lost by following Satan's further movements. Milton
himself points the way by developing the crisis in Satan's career prior
to man's.

After Eve's seduction Satan slinks into the wood, re-assumes

his shape, makes sure of Adam's Fall, and, finally, learns of God's
421
judgment upon him "not Instant, but of future time", by eavesdropping.
Since he interprets the Fall in terms of its immediate importance;
namely, the achievement of his revenge and the conquest of a kingdom,
he recks not what the future may hold in store for him. The greatness
of his achievement overwhelms him at the sight of the prodigious bridge
by which Sin and Death have effected

420 Milton, Paradise Lost, 711, 173-

421 Ibid., X, 345-
 - 126 -

"...one realm
Hell and this World - one realm, one continent
Of easy thoroughfare,"^22

making a vast irony of God's purpose that

"'...Earth be changed to Heaven, and Heaven to Earth,

One kingdom, joy and union without end.1,1

On the appointment of Sin and Death:

"There dwell, and reign in bliss; thence on the

Earth
Dominion exercise and in the air,
Chiefly on Man, sole lord of a l l declared;
Him first make sure you thrall, and lastly k i l l .
My substitutes I send ye, and create
Plenipotent on Earth, of matchless might
Issuing from ^ J " ^ ^

Satan creates a hierarchy upon Earth, a close parody of the heavenly

order, with a trinity - Satan, Sin, and Death - at its head. However,
again God uses evil for His own ends. Sin and Death are

"My Hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth

Which Man's polluting sin with taint hath shed
On what was pure^'j^,

Satan, re-instated dramatically on his throne in Hell the

morning after the seduction,

...as from a cloud, his fulgent head

And shape star-bright appeared, or brighter, clad
With what permissive glory since his f a l l

422 Milton, Paradise Lost, X, 391-

423 Ibid., X, 399-405.
424 Ibid., X, 630-632.
 - 127 -

Was left him, or false glitter,

425
gives a boastful, specious account of his journey in order to enhance
his prestige. In his tale of the seduction he holds God's might up to
ridicule because he has overcome His providence "with an apple." He
makes light of the Messiah's judgment:

"True i s , me also he hath judged; or rather

Me not, but the brute Serpent, in whose shape
Man I deceived. That which to me belongs
Is enmity, which he will put between
Me and Mankind: I am to bruise his heel;
His seed - when is not set - shall bruise my
headl
A world who would not purchase with a bruise,
Or much more grievous pain?"^->£

However, the judgment Satan has so disparagingly brushed aside,

commences at the very moment he glories in his vile success. Under

various disguises he has worked his deceit upon angels, man, and animals,

let, as

...down he f e l l ,
A monstrous serpent on his belly prone,
Reluctant, but in vain,^7

he, for the first time, is subjected to a disguise he has not chosen
and which he cannot shake off at will. Having been free to execute
his evil designs, he suddenly feels God's hand upon himself. His sense
of physical abasement is intensified in the bitter realization that a l l
his actions have been executed under permissive control. By God's

425 Milton, Paradise Lost. X, 449-452

426 Ibid yg, 494-501-
427 Ibid., X, 513-515-
 - 128 -

permission has he left Hell; by God's permission has he seduced man and

has conquered the new world. In the light of this truth, how vain his

vaunts, boasts and defiances do appear, how deserving of God's derision

and even ridiculeI

The tree, to which he fraudulently imputed supernatural qualities

to induce Eve to disobedience, is at his disposal. In self-delusion

and despair he blindly reaches for its fruit, only to be brought low "to

ashes upon the earth in the sight of a l l them that behold thee /Satan/"^2

together with a l l his host,

To dash their pride, and joy for Man seduced.

And this i s , unmistakably, the crisis in Satan's career.

From this crisis Milton turns to the development of events in
the Garden of Eden. As observed before, instead of repentance,

...high passions - anger, hate,

Mistrust, suspicion, discord

have taken possession of man's mind, "calm region once / And full of
peace."^-30 Adam in his complaint:

"Did I request thee, Maker from my clay

To mould me Man? Did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me, or here place
In this delicious garden? As my will
Concurred not to my being, i t were but right
And equal to reduce me to my dust,
Desirous to resign and render back

428 Ezekiel, 28 : 18.

429 Milton, Paradise Lost, X, 577-
430 Ibid., IX, 1123 ff-
 - 129 -

All I received, unable to perform

Thy terms too hard, by which I was to hold
The good I sought not, to the loss of that,
Sufficient penalty, why hast thou added
The sense of endless woe?1'

which Satan, "returned / By night, and listening",^ 2 recognizes as the

cnlmination of his success hoped for when planning his revenge in Hell;

"...This would surpass

Common revenge, and interrupt his joy
In our confusion, and our joy upraise
In his disturbance; when his darling sons,
Hurled headlong to partake with us, shall curse
Their frail original,
Faded so soon .'"2^3

However, Satan has based this conclusion upon the premise of

his own obdurate nature. When he observes sin work in man the evil
passions which precluded his own reconciliation with God, he entirely
over-looks man's capacity for repentance. Thus, while he is deriding
God, His judgment and power, Adam and Eve,

...forthwith to the place

Repairing where he /God/ judged them prostrate
fell
Before him reverent, and both confessed
Humbly their faults, and pardon begged, with
tears
Watering the ground, and with their sighs the
air
Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign
Of sorrow unfeigned and humiliation meek,.01

fulfilling the condition for salvation determined before the creation

431 Milton. Paradise Lost, X, 743-754>

432 Ibid., X, 341-
433 Ibid., II, 370-376.
434 Ibid., X, IO98-IIO4.
 - 130 -

of the world:

"Man shall not quite be lost, but saved who will,"

435

and corroborated by God's promise:

"To prayer, repentance, and obedience due,

Though but endeavoured with sincere Intent,
Mine ear shall not be slow, mine eye be shut."^6

On the very morning Satan appears on his throne in Hell, an-

nouncing his conquest of man, God initiates his plan of Salvation and
sets the stage for Satan's judgment and final defeat. The dreadful
metamorphosis,

Yearly enjoined, some say, to undergo

This annual humbling certain numbered days
To dash their pride and joy for Man seduced, ^7

turns his victory into bitterness in the realization of impending doom.

All are brought low before God at the same time. But, while
Satan is s t i l l attempting to rise in his own power through seeking the
•virtue of the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve are "prostrate" in sub-
mission. Their repentance invalidates Satan's victory: i t leads to
reconciliation with God and foreshadows the ultimate realization of
God's purpose for man. Hence, i t is the crisis of Paradise Lost.
Dr. Tillyard sees the crisis of Paradise Lost in the reconcil-
iation of Adam and Eve, ^8 since that involves a positive action -

435 Milton, Paradise Lost. I l l , 63.

436 Ibid., III, 191-193-
437 Ibid-, 2, 575-577-
43S Saurat, Studies in Milton, p. 40.
 - 131 -

their first after the f a l l . However, since their minds are s t i l l under
the control of passion and i l l will towards God, they might have con-
tinued in their defiance of God, even as Satan and his companions. The
close correspondence in time and action of the two humiliation scenes:
one, the rising action for man, the other, the falling action for Satan
and his hellish crew, establishes the two crises at the same point and
makes one contingent upon the other.
Mr. Waldock describes the transformation scene as "the technique
of the comic cartoon."4-39 j_t ±s true that the scene is grotesque. But
Milton makes the scene deliberately impressive that the effect may be
carried over to the scene of man's repentance and considered in juxta-
position to i t . As Mr. Lewis has stated:

...the location of the reader is of the highest moment

for understanding the construction of the poem; for
the centre of importance will be where the reader
imagines himself to be situated and not necessarily
where the action is taking place.^n

In this case the reader is expected to be in two places simultaneously.

Hence, Milton's attempt to achieve this through the grotesque may not
be as reprehensible as Mr. Waldock indicates. Moreover, humiliation
in ashes is of orthodox origin and is applied especially to the Fall of
Satan.h ^ L

439 Waldock, Paradise Lost and Its Critics, p. 91-

440 Lewis, A Preface to Paradise Lost.
441 Ezekiel, 28 : 18.
 Chapter XIII

SATAN AND THE SECOND ADAM

The first Adam has succumbed to the wiles of Satan. Like the
Heavenly Host, God created him

"... just and right

Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall."
442

Through their Fall both angels and man have lost their power for good;
i.e., their power to withstand evil. Consequently, they become
11 3
immediately "enthralled / By sin to foul exorbitant desires." But
because "man falls deceived / By the other f i r s t , G o d ' s promise i s :
"Once more I will renew
His lapsed powers..."^^

Accordingly, man will b e restored eventually to his original nature,

having again the power to will both good and evil. Man's will for good
will restore his lost faith, his virtue, temperance, and love and thus
create "A Paradise within"^ 1 him. God's initial purpose to people

442 Milton, Paradise Lost, III, 9 8 .

443 Ibid., I l l , 176.
444 Ibid., III, 1 3 0 .
445 Ibid., I l l , 1 7 5 - 1 7 6 .
446 Ibid., XII, 5 8 7 -
 - 133 -

Heaven by man from this state "under long obedience t r i e d , w h i c h has

been frustrated by Satan's seduction, will find its ultimate fulfilment.
However, since man is completely enthralled by Satan, he can
neither set himself free nor offer an expiation for his trespass. Con-
sequently, through the Son's incarnation a new Adam will be created, who,
in his defeat of Satan will open the way for man's return to his pre-
lapsarian state. Moreover, the sinless Messiah will be an acceptable
expiation and will, through His death

"...bruise the head of Satan, crush his strength

Defeating Sin and Death, "/^g

In Paradise Regained Milton deals not with man's regeneration

through the atonement, but with the restoration of man's power to will
good and, consequently, his liberation from Satan's absolute thralldom.

Since Satan's victory over the first Adam was accomplished

through argument, his defeat must be brought about in a similar way.
Consequently, there is no great dramatic struggle. The heroic Son
has given way to a humanized Messiah, in nature the very essence of the
First Adam; while Satan is no longer "the proud archangel, but the
crafty councellor with the experience of half a myriad of years; a
Satan Machiavel, a gray dissimulation. "449
The Satan who confronts the Second Adam is the same Satan who
caused the Fall of the First. It is true that he has lost his former

447 Milton, Paradise Lost, VII, 159-

448 Ibid., XII, 430.
449 Dowden, Edward, Puritan and Anglican, London, Kegan Paul, Trench,
Trubner and Co., Ltd., 1901, p. 188.
 - 134 -

bombast through the humiliation when at the height of his exaltation

"down he f e l l / A monstrous serpent," realizing that "a greater power /

Now ruled him"^° within the very, confines of Hell, of which he had

boasted: "Here at least / We shall be free I "^1 God's curse upon him,

"Her seed shall bruise thy head, thou bruise his heel,"^ 2 which he

then dismissed with a jest:

"True i s , me also he has judged: or rather

Me not, but the brute Serpent, in whose shape
Man I deceived,"^53

suddenly assumes its full sinister significance. The day of his victory
over man is followed by endless days of fearful anticipation of God's
wrath. He no longer tries to deceive his fallen angels, but shares his
fears with them:

"With dread attending when that fatal wound

Shall be inflicted, by the Seed of Eve
Upon my head....".r .
454
However, his nature shows no change. As in his former enter-
prises, he relies upon "well couch't fraud, well woven snares"455 in
his temptation of the Messiah. He s t i l l refuses to admit the loss of
his aesthetic perceptions; in his fawning upon Christ he reveals his
old hypocrisy; he envies man, because "Man fall'n shall be restor'd, I

450 Milton, Paradise Lost, X, 513 ff-

451 Ibid-, I, 258.
452 Ibid., X, 181.
453 Ibid., X, 494-496.
454 Milton, Paradise Regained, in The Poetical Work of John Milton,
London, New York, Toronto, Oxford University Press, 1950, I, 53-
455 Ibid-, I , 97-
 - 135 -

never more."^-^ Christ's pronouncement, "For lying is thy sustenance,

thy food, "^7 shows him the incorrigible liar; while his powers of
delusion are effectively brought out in "For God hath justly giv'n the
Nations up / To thy Delusions. Thus the new Adam is tempted by a

Satan whose powers for evil are unimpaired and whose zeal for destruc-
tion is intensified by his urge for self-preservation.
His strategy of attack, too, is unaltered and planned with
the utmost care to his disguise and procedure. As the brilliance of
the Serpent harmonized with the splendour of Paradise, so the

...aged man in Rural weeds,

Following, as seem'd, the quest of some stray
Eve,
Or wither'd sticks to gather...

blends perfectly with the "pathless Desert, dusk with horrid shades.
Satan's first temptation is an attempt to destroy the Messiah's

faith in God: that He

"Who brought me hither

Will bring me hence.. '"^^

However, the Son's reply:

"Why dost thou then suggest to me distrust,

Knowing who I am, as I know who thou a r f c ?"^£2

456 Milton, Paradise Regained, I, 406.

457 Ibid., I, 429.
458 Ibid., I, 442-
459 Ibid., I, 314-316.
460 Ibid., I, 296.
461 Ibid., I, 335-
462 Ibid., I, 356.
 - 136 -

frustrates this attempt immediately and reveals the deep discernment so

lacking in Eve. He also repudiates Satan's fawning flattery:

"What can be then less in me than desire

To see thee and approach thee, whom I know
Declar'd the Son of God, to hear attent
Thy wisdom, and behold thy God-like deeds?"^

He announces the termination of Satan's absolute rule upon Earth:

"But this thy glory shall be soon retrend'd;

No more shalt thou by oracling abuse
The Gentiles,"^

and the restoration of freedom from the thralldom of evil because

"God hath now sent his living Oracle

Into the World, to teach his final will,
And sends his Spirit of Truth henceforth to
dwell
In pious Hearts, an inward Oracle
To a l l truth requisite for men to know."
465

In the realization that pretence has no chance against the discernment

of the Son,

...Satan bowing low

His gray dissimulation, disappear'd
Into thin Air diffus'd,"^

knowing that the weapons which gave him victory over man in Eden are

463 Milton, Paradise Regained, I, 3#3-386.

464 Ibid., I, 454-456.
465 Ibid., I, 460-464-
466 Ibid., I, 497-499-
 - 137 -

ineffective here. He, too, has discernment, and recognizes the superior
strength of the Second Adam, though weakened by fasting.
Consequently, Satan completely changes his tactics. Instead
of accepting Belial's advice based on an appeal to passion:

"Set women in his eye and in his walk,

Among daughters of men the fairest found,"^^^

his decision is:

"...With manlier objects must we try

His constancy, with such as have more shew
Of worth, of honour, glory, and popular praise."^g

His next attempt is an offer to minister to the Son's legitimate need

of hunger by spreading before him a sumptuous feast. However, God has
imposed this fast and to break i t by any other means except by His dis-
pensation is disobedience.
Satan next offers his assistance in realizing the Son's youth-
ful aspirations when

"...victorious deeds
Flam'd in my heart, heroic acts, one while
To rescue Israel from the Roman yoke,
Thence to subdue and quell o'er all the earth
Brute violence and proud tyrannick pow'r, 11
T i l l truth were freed, and equity restor'd, ^

by offering him wealth, military power, and diplomatic skill to overthrow

the decadent Roman Empire, subdue the Parthians, and achieve for himself

467 Milton, Paradise Regained, II, 153-154-

468 Ibid., 225-227-
469 Ibid., I, 215-220.
 - 138 -

"The fame and glory, glory the reward

That sole excites to high attempts the flame
Of most erected Spirits."

However the Son's preference for that

" ... glory and renown, when God

Looking on Earth, with approbation marks
The just man, and divulges him through Heaven
To a l l his Angels...,"

and his reference to Satan's Fall through an inordinate aspiration to

glory, completely vanquish Satan's argument.
The Son's concluding words:

"Yet so much bounty is in God, such grace,

That who advance his glory, not their own,
Them he himself to glory will advance, "4/72

provide the astute Tempter immediately with a new basis for argument.

"If Kingdom move thee not, let move thee Zeal,

And Duty...;
Zeal of thy Father's house, Duty to free
Thy country from her Heathen servitude;
So shalt thou best fullfil, best verifie
The Prophets old, who sung thy endless raign,
The happier raign the sooner i t begins."._0

Thus he insists on the Son's obligation to pursue with greater diligence

the realization of God's plan to establish His Kingdom upon Earth.
Satan completes his offer of temporal greatness by trying to commit the
Savior to idolatry through offering him the gift of all the kingdoms of

470 Milton, Paradise Regained, III, -60-62.

471 Ibid., I l l , 6O-63.
472 Ibid., I l l , 142-144.
473 Ibid., I l l , 171-176.
 - 139 -

the world in return for knee-tribute.

Satan's last offer is the glory of wisdom and intellectual
achievement, represented by the knowledge and fame of Athens, attributes
most congenial to a person who comments upon his own childhood thus:

"When I was yet a child, no childish play

To me was pleasing, a l l my mind was set
Serious to learn and know...."

But i t finds s t i l l no acceptance because, unlike the First Adam who

f e l l through his preference of the lesser good, the Second Adam preserves
the integrity of his reason and to the end exalts the highest good: his
love for God and his unswerving obedience.

Satan, exasperated, finally turns to violence. Transferring

his scene of action to the Temple,

There on the highest Pinacle he set

The Son of God,
475

trusting that this precarious perch will break his passive resistance

and force him to take action on his own behalf, rather than continue to

wait for what

"The Father in his purpose hath decreed,

He in whose hand a l l times and season roul." ^

However, to Satan's amazement the Saviour retains his calm and serenity
under the control of reason, and empowered by his inner rectitude

474 Milton, Paradise Regained, I, 201-203-

475 Ibid., IV, 549-
476 Ibid., I l l , 186-187-
 - 140 -

"Tempt not the Lord thy God, he said and stood,"^77

safely in his "uneasy station," while Satan,

...smitten with amazement fell

Fell whence he stood to see the Victor fall.^73

In this triumph of reason over passion the Second Adam has

avenged

"Supplanted Adam, and by vanquishing

Temptation, has(t) regain'd lost Paradise
And frustrated the conquest fraudulent."^7o.

Herein God's purpose,

"Once more I will renew

His lapsed powers...,"^gQ

has been accomplished. Man is no longer the helpless victim of evil;

but, through the Second Adam, has regained his lost power to will good
and, consequently, once more possesses his pre-lapsarian nature of free
choice, which, as God states i t , is

"Sufficient to have stood, though free to

^11. " 4 8 1

God's ultimate purpose to provide men with an opportunity to "open to

themselves at length the way / Up hither,"^ 2 shall find its realization

477 Milton, Paradise Regained. IV, 561.

478 Ibid., iTT562 lf7^
479 Ibid., XV, 607-609.
4S0 Milton, Paradise Lost. I l l , 175-176.
481 Ibid., I l l , 99.
482 Ibid.. VII, 158.
 - 141 -

in Christ's atonement,

"...the death thou /Joan/ shouldst have died,

In sin for ever lost from life,"

when His heel

"Shall bruise the head of Satan, crush his

strength,
Defeating Sin and Death, his two main arms."^^

Satan's final condemnation is forecast in:

"But thou, Infernal Serpent, shalt not long

Rule in the Clouds: like an Autumnal Star
Or Lightning thou shalt fall from Heav'n
trod down
Under his feet."^^

Thus, in Paradise Regained God has conquered evil by the

triumph of reason over passion. He has confounded the great through
the humble and weak. He has used evil to bring forth good.

In Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained Milton has traced the

existence of Satan and, consequently, the existence of evil from the
very origin to the ultimate doom. Satan, originally a glorious Angel,
originates evil in Heaven through his aspiration to God's power. God,
aware of the existence of evil, brings i t into the open through the
exaltation of the Son, for "Law can discover sin."^^ Satan's dis-
obedience to the decree results in the expulsion of a l l reprobate
angels and evil from Heaven.

483 Milton, Paradise Lost, XII, 428 f f .

484 Milton, Paradise Regained, IV, 618-621.
485 Milton, Paradise Lost, XII, 290.
 - 142 -

In Hell Satan's speciousness and his powers of dissimulation

become apparent as he casts his spell upon the reader and, in spite of
orthodox pre-conception, stimulates admiration and sympathy.
Satan is primarily responsible for introducing evil into the
world. However, since man has the power to stand or f a l l , his failure
to abide in obedience to God's command places the responsibility for the
procreation of evil upon earth solely upon him. In his Fall man loses
his faculty to strive for goodness and his prerogative to external l i f e .
Through Christ's defeat of Satan in the wilderness man's capacity for
goodness is restored and Satan's power upon Earth impaired. Christ's
atonement opens the gates of Heaven once more to man and provides for
Satan's ultimate doom and the cessation of a l l evil. When the latter
is accomplished man's dual nature, his capacity for good and evil, will
disappear in a complete union with the goodness of God,

"'And Earth be changed to Heaven, and Heaven

to Earth
One Kingdom, joy and union without end."'

486 Milton, Paradise Lost, VII, l60-l6l.

 Chapter XIV

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MILTON'S SATAN

The assessment of Satan on the basis of his demonstration

alone in Books One and Two has made him in the opinion of many readers
and critics the hero of Paradise Lost. If Satan is accepted as the
hero, then the Fall of the Angels and the subsequent developments
centred in their actions must be the theme of the epic
But Milton announces his theme:

Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit

Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the World, and a l l our woe,
With loss of Eden, t i l l one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat.^gy

If from Homer's announcement, "The Wrath of Achilles is my theme,"488

we accept Achilles as the hero of the Iliad, which indeed he i s , then,
in recognition of the fact that Milton takes over a l l conventional
features from the classical epic, we feel compelled to assign to Man
the role of hero in Paradise Lost and consider the human action the main
theme. Moreover, this theme is introduced in Book One and is continued
throughout the epic long after Satan has dropped out.

487 Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 1-6-

488 Homer, The Iliad, Rieu, E.V., translator, Boston, D.C Heath and
Co., p. 1.
 - 144 -

In no one action in both Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained

can Satan be recognized as a true epic hero. In the war in Heaven
Christ remains the victor. On Earth Satan's victory over man is
invalidated by man's repentance and Christ's sacrificial love. In
Paradise Regained Christ, the Second Adam, is again the victor. From
the very beginning of theepic Satan's actions are circumscribed by God's
permissive control. He has lost his free will through his disobedience
against God and has no capacity for positive action. His evil powers
are constantly used by God to effect good. Adam's realization of this
truth is evincedin his exclamation:

"0 Goodness infinite, Goodness immense,

That a l l this good of evil shall produce,
And evil turn to good."^g^

Thus, throughout the poem Satan represents the antithesis of a l l good-

ness, which in the end is triumphant.

The human action, though very subdued in juxtaposition to
Satan's spectacular demonstration, is pervaded with the manifestation
of God's creative power, His omnipotence and omniscience, the immut-
ability of His purpose, His justice and love. Adam, who, on super-
f i c i a l observation, appears a poor counterpart for the dramatic,
"towering" Satan, possesses innate qualities that make for positive
action and that enable him to bring his will into conformity with God's
plans. In his repentance, in his submission to God's judgment, and the
acceptance of his changing situation, as expressed in his courageous
words:

489 Milton, Paradise Lost, XII, 469-471-

 - 145 -

"With labour I must earn

My bread; what harm? Idleness had been worse;
My labour will sustain me,". Q A

he turns the tide of his defeat into channels of ultimate victory and
thus becomes the hero of the human race.

However, in his role of epic antagonist Satan is of the utmost

significance in the development of the plot. The scene in Hell provides
Milton with an appropriate point to start in epic convention in medias
res at the lowest point, in this case the point farthest away from
Heaven and God. His thirst for revenge provides an easy transition to
the human action and demands Divine interference. His revolt in Heaven
serves as an apt warning for Adam, while Its recapitulation by Raphael
provides the digression from the main theme, which is an epic convention.
Satan's main function is to serve as seducer of man. Through this,
God's purpose for man is revealed as i t unfolds itself to its ultimate
fulfilment when through Christ, the Second Adam, the loss is repaired
and man is restored to his original "blissful seat."

However, there is a far greater significance in the figure of

Satan in both Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained than a l l the importance
of the role of an epic antagonist can lend to i t . Paradise Lost and
Paradise Regained, besides being works of poetic art, are mirrors which
effectively reflect Milton, the man, in his private l i f e , in his politic-
a l , and philosophical thinking. Satan is one of the outstanding
characters of Milton's writings, through whom he reveals his conceptions
of religion, political ideas, social structure, and various aspects of

490 Milton, Paradise Lost, X, 1054-1056.

 - 146 -

the universe as a whole. In the choice of his characters and the

portrayal of the incidents Milton's experiental background is paramount.
The very choice of the epic form is the result of Milton's
"encyclopaedic range of knowledge to be derived from the study of the
classics"^ 1 ^ his need for a poetic vehicle in which he can syn-
thesize his religious, political, philosophical, and scientific ideas.
His preference for a religious theme arises out of his own orthodoxy,
which predisposes him in favour of such subject as being the most
authentic, real, and most revelatory of divine truth.
The struggle of the Commonwealth, its defeat, and the
Restoration are amply mirrored in Milton's Works and in no small degree
through Satan in Paradise Lost. The pattern of Milton's commonwealth
principles finds its counterpart in the hierarchial order in Heaven
against which Satan revolts; again in Hell, where he arrogates leader-
ship to himself because "orders and degrees / Jar not with liberty, but
well consist;"^ 2 and, finally, in the relationship of Adam and Eve,
which, when upset by Satan, results in a catastrophe for the race.
Moreover, Milton's hierarchial order i s neither based on succeeded power,
nor "upheld by old repute, consent, or custome," but is conditioned
solely by inner merit as expressed throughout the action, but voiced
most directly by Abdiel in his rebuke of Satan:

11
'God and Nature bid the same,
When he who rules is worthiest, and excells
Them whom he governs' ."^3

491 Milton, Introduction to Paradise Lost and Selected Poetry and

Prose, p. XVI.
492 Milton, Paradise Lost, V, 792-793-
493 Ibid., VI, 176-178.
 - 147 -

In Hell Satan becomes the leader as the most depraved of the degenerate
host and occupies the throne "by merit raised / To that bad eminence."494
In the home, Milton claims that the more virtuous and intelligent of the
pair must rule; and, since in his opinion the husband is as a rule
superior to the wife, he must be the master. When, in Paradise Lost,
Eve through the influence of Satan's dream demands independence of
action, she falls to Satan's delusion.

However, Milton's philosophy of leadership transcends outward

political structures or human relationships in that i t is applicable
to psychology as well, and thus determines man's inner happiness.
Satan sinks from the highest position of outer and inner bliss to the
lowest level of human villainy because he violates this principle of
government by the superior in his revolt against God. He also disturbs
the hierarchial order within his soul by giving passion precedence over
reason. This concept in Paradise Lost is based directly on Milton's
personal experience when the English people through failure to "learn
obedience to reason and the government of yourselves" are "judged unfit,
both by God and mankind, to be entrusted with the possession of liberty
and the administration of government,"495 gi v e n over to their

idolatrous worship of kingship and their thralldom. Satan and his

host become the slaves of their own evil passions, which cause their
disobedience to God and the loss of their outward liberty. Michael
explains the process to Adam with regard to fallen humanity:

"Yet sometimes nations will decline so low

494 Milton, Paradise Lost, II, 5-6.

495 Milton, Second Defence, in Paradise Lost and Selected Poetry
and Prose, p. 536-
 - 148 -

From virtue, which is reason, that no wrong,

But justice and some fatal curse
Deprive them of their outward liberty
Their inward lost... . " ^ 6

Milton's personal hatred for the Stuart dynasty and the

cavaliers becomes evident through his creation of Satan, the tyrant,

in the image of the Eikon in the Eikon Bazilike - which has been dis-

cussed in the opening chapter of this thesis - and in his denouncement

of the dissolute court of the Restoration:

In courts and palaces he (Belial) also reigns,

And in luxurious cities, where the noise
Of riot ascends their loftiest towers,
And injury and outrage; and, when night
Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons
Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.^7

His experiences in four revolutions have convinced Milton of

the vanity of achieving the ideal State by means of violence. The

Commonwealth has gone to ruin because of the people's defection in

character. Milton traces all failures in Paradise Lost to the same

source. Consequently, in Paradise Regained he emphasizes his idea of

the purpose of education which he first expounds in Of Education as

being:

"to repair the ruins of our first parents by

regaining to know God aright, and out of that
knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be
like him, as we may the nearest, by possessing
our souls of true virtue, which, being united
to the heavenly grace of faith, makes up the
highest perfection.

496 Milton, Paradise Lost, XII, 97-101-

498 Milton,^Education, in Paradise Lost and Selected Poetry and
Prose, p. 439-
 - 149 -

It has been alleged that Milton repudiates a l l learning except the Hebraic

in Paradise Regained. However, this interpretation is altogether incon-

sistent with Milton's delight in classical literature. His words:

...who reads
Incessantly, and to his reading brings not
A spirit and judgment equal or superior,
Uncertain and unsettled s t i l l remains,
Deep verst in books and shallow in himself,
Crude or Intoxicate, so collecting toys
And trifles for choice matters,^99

seem to indicate more the need for a deep discernment of lesser and

higher goods, than an outright repudiation of all non-religious values.

The higher values alone can achieve within each individual the inner

perfection, which is Milton's last hope for re-establishing liberty

upon earth, and which Michael holds up before Adam as a remedy for his

fallen state:

''.. .add faith,

Add virtue, patience, temperance; add love,
By name to come called charity, the soul
Of all the rest: then wilt thou not be loath
To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess
A Paradise within thee, happier far.1' m

Thus, instead of the realization of liberty through a few

leaders, which has proved a failure, Milton advocates the regeneration

of the individual, for

"What wise and valiant man would seek to free

These, thus degenerate, by themselves enslaved
Or could of inward slaves make outward free?1'

499 Milton, Paradise Regained, IV, 322-328.

500 Milton, Paradise Lost, XII, 582-587-
501 Milton, op.cit., IV, 143-145-
 - 150 -

His endorsement of violence in his defence of the execution

of Charles I and Cromwell's iron rule undergoes a radical change. Out

of the bitterness and heartbreak over the ruination of his cherished

dream for England, Milton emerges with the realization that God's

purposes do not reach their ultimate consummation through spectacular

opposition, but

"...with good
S t i l l overcoming evil, and by small
Accomplishing great things - by things deemed
weak
Subverting worldly-strong and worldly-wise
By simply meek."/^

The Restoration, which to Milton spelled at first the defeat of Christ-

ianity and the frustration of God's plan to establish His kingdom upon

earth, assumes under the above-stated illumination the aspect of Satan's

permissive eruption from Hell that God may use evil to bring forth good

and establish his kingdom

"Not by destroying Satan, but his works,

In thee and in thy seed."^^

Thus, as Mr. Wolfe states:

"It was inevitable, too, that both the tone and

the idea of his great epic should reflect not only
the intense political thinking of his twenty years
of pamphleteering, but also his interpretation of
the place of Restoration in the scheme of cosmic
justice. 5 0 4

502 Milton, Paradise Lost, XII, 565-569-

503 Ibid., XII, 394-395-
504 Wolfe, Milton in the Puritan Revolution, p. 342-
 - 151 -

Milton's religious philosophy finds an even wider expression

in Satan and the action advanced by his function in the epic It is in
the introduction of Milton's religious attitudes that we find the great-
est fusion of his thinking, experience, and art. His poetry is
stimulated by his zeal to serve God in leading men to higher levels of
spiritual perception and by his conviction that his artistic performance
is conditioned by the visitation of the "Heavenly Muse" and the illum-
ination of the "inner light", which has the power to "shine inward, and
the mind through a l l her powers / /toj Irradiate."^^
To enter upon the manifold intricacies of Milton's theology,
which find their echoes in his characterization of Satan and in his
action, and which have been minutely expounded by Mr. Saurat in his
Milton, Man and Thinker, is beyond the limits of this thesis. A few
references, however, will establish the influence of his religious con-
victions upon his work.
Milton accepts unreservedly the orthodox conception of the
Fall of the Angels, the origin of evil, the Fall of Man, and the
Redemption through Christ. His conception of God as an abstract power
Milton expresses at the gathering of the heavenly hierarchies thus:

"Thus when in orbs

Or circuit inexpressible they stood,
Orb within orb, the Father Infinite,
By whom in bliss embosomed sat the Son,
Amidst, as from a flaming mount, whose top
Brightness had made invisible...'"^Q^

505 Milton, Paradise Lost, 52

506 Ibid., V, 594-599-
 - 152 -

The Son is created by God, and, consequently is inferior to Him. The

507

Holy Spirit is the comforter "who shall dwell.. .within men"; but, who,
being subservient to God, cannot be his equal. In Paradise Regained
God's reference to the intellectual debate between Satan and the
Messiah:
"He /Satan/ now shall know I can produce a man
Of female seed, far abler to resist
All his solicitations, and at length
All his vast force; and drive him back to Hell
Winning by conquest what the first man lost
By fallacy surpriz'd,"^Qg

depicts Christ as just another man, only endowed with a greater portion
of the divine. A l l creatures and things in Heaven and upon Earth are
created out of the essence of God, as expressed in God's plan of creat-
ion after the Fall of the Angels:

"...one Almighty i s , from whom-*

All things proceed, and up to him return
If not depraved from good, created a l l
To such perfection; one first matter a l l ,
Endued with various forms, various degrees
Of substance, and, in things that live, of
life.«5Q9

Therefore, because God is good, matter must be good also.

In Paradise Lost the origin of evil is definitely attributed

to Satan in having Sin appear from his head,

"...on the left side opening wide,

Likest to thee in shape and countenance
bright."5 10

507 Milton, Paradise Lost. XII, 4 8 7 -

508 Milton, Paradise Regained, I, 1 5 0 - 1 5 5 '
509 Milton, op.cit., V, 4 6 9 - 4 7 4 -
510 Ibid., II, 7 5 5 - 7 5 6 -
 - 153 -

He i t i s , too, who generates sin into the world by seducing Adam and
Eve. In Satan's method of bringing about man's fall Milton reveals his
conception of the importance of the imagination. In this he is one
with Boehme/who states that "we apprehend the divine essence through the

imagination. ,,511 Milton justifies God's permission of evil by his

conviction that He uses evil as a tool to create good. Thus the Fall
of the Angels results in the creation of man, because God in His

...wisdom had ordained

Good out of evil to create." 512

Milton's obsession with liberty finds its expression in his

definition of Christian liberty through Adam as he warns Eve of the

danger of encountering Satan:

"But God left free the Will; for what obeys

Reason Is free;1'

He completely refutes the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination when

God predicts the Fall of Man:

"They, therefore, as to right belonged,

So were created, nor can justly accuse
Their Maker, or their making, or their fate,
As i f predestination overruled
Their will, disposed by absolute decree
Or high foreknowledge,1' ,.

and reflects on i t humorously in Satan's claim:

511 Bailey, Milton and Jacob Boehme, p. 153.

512 Milton, Paradise Lost. VII, 187-188.
513 Ibid., IX, 351-352.
514 Ibid., I l l , 111-116.
 - 154 -

"The Son of God I also am, or was,

And i f I was, I am; relation stands."^2.5

Although Milton deals with a physical Hell and Heaven in his

epic, he emphasizes his belief in a Hell as well as a Paradise within

man. Satan, exemplifies the former in his agonized cry:

"Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell J" ^ 6

Micha el promises the latter to Adam after his seduction by Satan:

"...but shalt possess

A Paradise within thee, happier far."
517

Milton's antagonism to the imposition of church ordinances

breaks forth again and again in his epic. He rails against the
hypocrisy of the church, and holds up to ridicule the non-biblical
doctrines by which they hope to ascend to Heaven, but which lands them
in the "Paradise of F o o l s . 1 1 H e advocates the freedom of the inter-
pretation of the Gospel as against

"...teachers, grievous wolves,

Who a l l the sacred mysteries of Heaven
To their own vile advantage shall turn, "52.9

and opposes the union of Secular and Spiritual authority, his lifelong

grievance.
Milton expresses his opposition to war in his juxtaposition

515 Milton, Paradise Regained, IV,•518-519-

516 Milton, Paradise Lost, IV, 75-
517 Ibid., I l l , 586.
518 Ibid., 475 f f .
519 Ibid., XII, 508-510.
 - 155 -

of the concord of the fallen angels in Hell to the disagreements of men,

Of creatures rational, though under hope

Of heavenly grace, and, God, proclaiming peace,
Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife
Among themselves, and levy cruel wars
Wasting the earth, each other to destroy,

Raphael's introduction to the account of the Rebellion in

Heaven:

"...what surmounts the reach

Of human sense I shall delineate so,
By likening spiritual to corporal forms,
As may express them best - though what i f
Earth
Be but the shadow of Heaven, and things
therein
Each to other like, more than on Earth is
thought,"

reveals Milton's belief that certain Gospel truths are presented to man

in terms of his own environment in order to make them accessible to his

finite mind.

In his Christian Doctrine Milton abrogates a l l laws for the

true believer. In Paradise Lost he gives an exposition of this in

revealing the purpose of laws as

"Law can discover sin, but not remove"^^

and demonstrates the application of laws to reveal Satan's iniquity in

Heaven and Adam's and Eve's tainted Imagination upon Earth. God's
object in decreeing laws is to reveal evil at an early stage so that,
in the case of Satan, it may not contaminate the whole host of Heaven;

520 Milton, Paradise Lost. II, 498-502-

521 Ibid., V, 571-576.
522 Ibid., XII, 290.
 - 156 -

and, with Adam and Eve, not perpetuate in a race through the subsequent
eating of the fruit off the Tree of Life. Since believers are free
from sin, laws are ineffectual to them.
In Christ's rejection of Satan's ministration to His legitimate
needs of hunger in his reply, "Thereafter as I like / Thee gives, "523
to Satan's query, "Tell me i f Food were now before thee set,/Would'st
thou not eat?" 524- Milton shows that evil is relative.
Thus Milton's whole religious background, both experiental -
his struggle against the various churches - and doctrinal plays a large
part in the action of Satan and the poems as a whole. How permeated
Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained are with Milton's theology is
evidenced by the fact that "in the English-speaking world, the Christian
mythology of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries came from the study
of Milton, rather than the study of the Bible."525

Milton's invocation and commentaries contain direct biograph-

ical references. The Fall of Man and the introduction of evil into
the universe remind him of his own sufferings in an evil world to which
he gives expression in:

On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues,

In darkness, and with dangers compassed round,
And solitude.

He refers to his outer blindness,

523 Milton, Paradise Regained. II, 321-322.

524 Ibid.. II, 320.
525 Bailey, Milton and Jaeob Boehme, p. 176.
526 Milton, Paradise Lost. VII, 26-27-
 - 157 -

...but thou
Revisit'st not these eyes, that role in vain
To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn

in juxtaposition to the "celestial Light," which can

Shine inward, and the mind through a l l her

powers
Irradiate.

Thus Milton brings himself ostensibly into his epic.

In his theme of Satan and the origin of evil Milton does full
justice to his ideal of a poet in that he "employs his imagination to
make a revelation of truth, truth which the poet himself entirely
believes."-^ In depicting his "towering" Satan, he brings before
his readers Satan's profound speciousness and his powers of seduction,
through which he " s t i l l destroys." The Fall of Man is brought so
close to the reader's level that i t appears as a prototype of the fall
recurring in every individual's life and frequently, as in the f a l l of
the Commonwealth, on a national scale. Milton's constant emphasis on
the control of passion by reason approaches evangelistic fervour;
while by his final admonition:

"Only add
Deeds to thy knowledge answerable; add faith;
Add virtue, patience, temperance; add love,
By name to come called charity, the soul
Of all the rest,"eon

he once more places before a l l men the choice of virtuous action which

527 Milton, Paradise Lost, III, 22-24.

528 Ibid., I l l , 52-53-
529 Pattison, Milton, p. 198.
530 Milton, op.cit., XII, 581-585-
 - 158 -

is the condition for a "Paradise within thee"; and which, i f achieved

by a whole nation, will result in a Utopia that will forever obliterate
man's struggles, errors, and defects.
Thus, the true significance of Satan lies not in his function
as one of the most important characters in a religious epic, but in the
vast scope his personality and action provide for the revelation of the
unity of Milton's actual experiences, his philosophy of religion and
politics, and his aspirations and hopes for mankind.
 Chapter XV

SATAN AND MILTON'S POETIC ART

Milton's reputation as poetic artist rests to a great extent

upon his creation of Satan's"towering" personality. However, the
canvas Milton has painted for his readers in his delineation of Satan
and the portrayal of his vast spheres of action is more than a poet's
objective elaboration of an orthodox conception. Milton's art is
never dissociated from himself. It is the mirror of his real person-
ality.
From the very beginning of the epic Milton's craftsmanship
reveals long years of self-discipline and rigid schooling. His
perfection in diction, rhythm, and structure give evidence of a conscious
and conscientious striving for art throughout the entire epic and prove
his perseverance and devotion to his self-assigned task. The use of
classical mythology, biblical knowledge, geography, science, and
literature in depicting his supernatural characters and their abodes
gives evidence of his ability to assimilate his learning into an artistic
whole through his creative energy. The proper development of his theme
through the infinity of time - from eternity to eternity - and the
immensity of space, embracing a l l the natural and supernatural cosmogeny,
attests to his correct logical sense in his evaluation of the relative
 - 160 -

importance of events.
Milton's poetic genius comes to the fore in his description
of the supernatural . By the use of suggestive instead of definite
detail he appeals to the imagination of the reader.

He begins in Baroque style with the dynamic action of:

Him the Almighty Power

Hurled headlong flaming from th'ethereal sky,
With hideous ruin and combustion, down
To bottomless perdition...

This reveals his psychological penetration: he secures the reader's

fascinated attention and gives i t direction in following the rapid
downward movement "to bottomless perdition." In contrast to Dante's
fragmentary and departmentalized Hell, Milton's Hell is vast, indeter-
minate, overwhelming in its total effect of "darkness visible..., /
With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed"-^2 and its demon angels "thick
533
bestrown, / Abject and lost,...covering the flood."
In his description of Satan's view of the new world Milton
manifests almost uncanny powers of sensibility, especially striking in
the light of the fact that, when he spreads the glorious panorama out
before his readers, he has been blind for at least ten years. There
is no vagueness in his portrayal of the splendour of the universe as he
seems to seize eagerly upon the myriad forms of beauty, which many of
us behold daily, but fail to apprehend. The sense appeal to the
readers in: the "ambrosial fragrance"5^ which fills all Heaven; the
531 Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 44-47-
532 Ibid., I, 63 ff-
533 Ibid., I, 311-312.
534 Ibid., I l l , 135-
 - 161 -

"Angels1 food and rubied nectar" that flows

"In pearl, in diamond, and massy gold,

Fruit of delicious vines, the growth of
Heaven, " ^ 5

...the gentle gales,

Fanning their odoriferous wings

537
and the "melodious hymns about the sovereign throne"^' reveals Milton's

own keenness of perception, his alertness, and his vigorous energy.

Milton's keen appreciation of harmony in action and rhythm
and of music is reflected in his melodious verse. This he effects
through changes of the caesura in his lines; the change of metre from
the rising iambic:
"On high; who into glory Him received"^ 8

to the falling trochaic:

"Down from the urge of Heaven: eternal wrath

Burnt after them to the bottomless pit; "^9

by varying the number of syllables in the line, or the addition of an

unaccented syllable at the close of the line or after its chief pause;
and through his arrangement of vowel sounds. Milton's "flutes and
soft recorders'*^0 in Hell, "the choir / Of creatures wanting v o i c e " ^

535 Milton, Paradise Lost,

536 Ibid., IV, 156-157
537 Ibid., V, 656.
538 Ibid., VI, 891.
539 Ibid., VI, 864-865.
540 Ibid., I, 551-
541 Ibid., IX, 198-199-
 - 162 -

on Earth, and the sacred music of Heaven, together with his appreciation
of nature, depict him not as the stern Puritan, but as a lover of a l l
that is beautiful in the universe.
In his representation of Satan Milton uses four scenes and
thus avoids the tediousness which is apt to arise from a long literary
description. Our first glimpse of Satan gives us a very general im-
pression of his appearance and mood, as:

Round he throws his baleful eyes,

That witnessed huge affliction and dismay,
Mixed with obdurate pride and steadfast hate.,.^

Through epic similes of remote classical giants further information

gives a clearer, but by no means precise picture. As Satan moves
towards solid ground Milton, through the use of metaphor, stimulates
our imagination in presenting him as the warrior. Finally, he cul-
minates a l l suggestive imagery in a comparison with his chiefs as:

He, above the rest

In shape and gesture proudly eminent,
Stood like a tower.c,0
543
In Satan's activity in Hell Milton shows his acute understanding of
the machinations of a specious nature. It is through the effective-
ness of the portrayal of Satan's diabolical nature that Milton achieves
his "towering" Satan. Milton relies to a great extent on disproportion
to bring out Satan's character. Against Satan as the derivation of
hatred and egoism, Milton poses Christ as the derivation of love and

542 Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 56.

543 Ibid., I, 589-591.
 - 163 -

sacrifice. Where Satan destroys, Christ creates. His own hatred of

Satan is expressed in his derogatory epithets and his evident rejoicing
over his predicament.
Milton never loses sight of his reader. After flights into
classical mythology and ancient history, he suddenly drops down to a
homely simile, such as:

As bees
In springtime, when the Sun with Taurus rides,
Pour forth their populous youth about the hive
In cluster; they among fresh dews and flowers
Fly to and fro,^ y

and thus brings the action right to the level of the reader's experienc

Milton's revulsion against passions and sin is evidenced by

his gross picture of Sin and Death; while his love of virtue is

expressed in his description of Christ and the angels, who oppose

Satan because he is evil.

His capacity for friendship and love of social intercourse is

revealed in his record of the heavenly congregation as:

"They eat, they drink, and in communion sweet

Quaff immortality."^

Milton's keen sense of humour, which adds to the appeal of

the otherwise stern epic, is revealed in his description of the
"Paradise of Fools", whose members, while at the point of entering
Heaven,
. . . l i f t their feet, when, loi

544 Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 768-722.

545 Ibid., V, 637-638.
 - 164 -

A violent cross wind from either coast

Blows them traverse ten thousand leagues away,
Into the devious a i r . ^ ^

It appears as effectively in Paradise Regained when Satan relates his

first meeting with Christ:

"...I among the rest,

Though not to be Baptiz'd, by voice from
Heav'n
Heard thee pronounc'd the Son of God belov'd."^7

The humour arises out of the incongruity of the mere suggestion that
Satan might seek baptism.
The spell of Milton's personality permeates his poetry and
exerts its power over the reader. Only a writer animated by intense
religious ardour and prophetic zeal could have produced such epic,
unsurpassed in its vast scope and sublimity.
Thus, Milton's description of Satan and of his career in the
propagation of evil gives us more than the most "towering" Satan of a l l
ages: i t gives us a clear picture of Milton himself as poet, as
religious and political philosopher, as humanist, and as prophet and
seer.

546 Milton, Paradise Lost. I l l , 486-490.

547 Milton, Paradise Regained, IV, 511-513- (The italics is my own.)
 Chapter XVI

CONCLUSION

The purpose of my thesis is not to prove Milton's absolute

perfection as a poetic genius, but to assess, and where possible to
clarify, some of the difficulties that have arisen from his literary
conception of Satan and that have assumed new proportions under the
twentieth-century approach to Milton's works. That there are flaws
in Paradise Lost no one will try to deny, who realizes the scope of
the epic - infinite in time, and infinite in space - one of the
greatest endeavours in English literature.

In investigating the literary criticism of Satanists and

anti-Satanists alike, I find that none of them except Mr. Gilbert
takes serious cognizance of the fact that Paradise Lost in its present
arrangement of books does not represent Milton's composition in
chronological order. When Mr. Waldock exerts himself to decry
Milton's "theory of degradation," he takes i t for granted that "the
first book of Paradise Lost is the work of John Milton fresh at his
task and Book XII his product when he was worn down by much writing."^'
Mr. Gilbert tries to rectify this conception of Milton's
methodical writing by examining the drafts for his early tragedies, the

548 Gilbert, Allan H., On the Composition of Paradise Lost, Chapel

H i l l , the University of North Carolina Press, 1947, p. 4-
 - 166 -

parts of which were later incorporated into his epic. In none of them
does Satan appear in Hell at the beginning. Moreover, "Satan bemoaning
himself"549 occurs in one of the earlier drafts for a tragedy. Con-
sequently Satan's speeches in Hell were not composed until Milton
settled on the epic form. This places the composition of Satan's
Niphates speech anterior to his speech in Hell. Therefore, the
Niphates speech could not have been planned by Milton to degrade Satan
who had become too great for his role. This seems to corroborate my
earlier assumption that we must assess the Satan of Books One and Two,
guided by Milton's running commentary instead of accepting him at face
value as Mr. Waldock does. He then deplores the result that there are
parts in Paradise Lost "that do not make sense."550

On a superficial reading of the first two books of Paradise

Lost, I share Mr. Waldock's admiration for Satan, although I am unable
to discern the superabundance of "Promethean charms"551 with which Mr.
Werblowsky endows him.

However, when Sin and Death check our admiration, i t is not

difficult to discover Satan's spuriousness on a reassessment of his
demonstration. If we follow Satan systematically from book to book,
the constant reappearance of his fundamental evil qualities become so
obtrusive that they completely dissipate the impression of grandeur
which Satan's specious rhetoric has made at the beginning.
In trying to establish Satan's unity, I have followed his
progress faithfully from book to book, since I suspected that Milton's

549 Gilbert, On the Composition of Paradise Lost, p. 152.

550 Waldock, Paradise Lost and Its Critics, p. 143•
551 Werblowsky, Zwi, Lucifer and Prometheus, p. 3-
 - 167 -

laborious re-arrangement of the books is not without significance. As

a result there appears a great deal of over-lapping in my characteriz-
ation of Satan as I compare his attitudes while he proceeds from Hell to
Mount Niphates, thence to Eden, and as he appears in the Revolt of
Heaven. If we remember that Milton is a precise and well-disciplined
poet, we readily recognize that in his frequent repetition of Satan's
evil tendencies he had a definite purpose in view.

The influence of this technique on us is entirely lost unless

we f a l l in line with Milton and expose ourselves to this repetition.
Satan's obstrusiveness in contrast to Christ's restraint, his gentleness
and meekness, becomes more and more objectionable, while we are attracted
by the serenity and calm of Heaven. Thus the qualities we admired so
much at the beginning of the epic, become positively repulsive when
Satan, upon his return to Hell, once more assumes his former attitude.
Milton does not try to degrade Satan; i t is on us that he works
quietly and assiduously.

In my thesis I have given perhaps a disproportionately large

amount of space to my theory of Milton's poetic origin of Satan.
However, since my argument seems to be a venture in a new direction, I
felt compelled to explore i t as far as I could possibly go within the
confines of such work and also desired to make my statements quite clear.

Much more is left to be said about Satan's significance in

conveying to us various information about Milton's character, his atti-
tudes, and thinking. His poetic art, too, provides a vast source for
the assessment of his character, which I have by no means exhausted.
Because of the loftiness of his ideals and aspirations Milton has been
 - 168 -

considered cold and unsympathetic. In his artistic conception of

Satan we find his true nature, his love of beauty, his capacity for
friendship, his enjoyment of social intercourse.
All lovers of Milton will agree with Mr. Thompson that

...all phases of his truly great work bespeak

the same character behind It. His style is
pure and sublime because his thoughts are sound
and his ideals high. Nowhere in that great
work is his mode of expression inadequate to
express the thought; nowhere is the thought
unworthy of the noble style. He is the arch-
idealist of English letters, a worshipper of
purity, justice, liberty, and truth.

552 Thompson, Elbert N.S., Essays on Milton, London, Oxford

University Press, 1914, p. 214-
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