Quotes

• "I now must change / Those notes to tragic; foul distrust"


  Milton's narrator announcing the shift into a more tragic mode as we begin book 9, setting up all of the sin
• "Her nightly visitation unimplored, / And dictates to me slumbering"


  Milton referring to Urania who inspires the poet nightly
• "When Satan, [...] bent / On Man's destruction, [...] fearless returned"


  Satan circling the earth under the cover of darkness returning to Eden
• "Satan, involved in rising mist"


  Satan entering the garden as a 'rising mist'
• "Considered every creature"


  Satan choosing which creature to disguise himself as
• "The Serpent subtlest of all the field"


  Chooses the serpent to disguise himself as
• "but first from inward grief"


  Satan feeling a sense of anguish
• "But I in none of these / Find place or refuge"


  Satan resenting his exclusion from Paradise
• "the more i see / Pleasures about me, so much more i feel / Torment within me"


  Satan's resentment towards his exclusion from paradise
• "For only in destroying I find ease"


  Satan's desire to destroy anything pleasurable due to his envy, true nature, unlike the earlier Satan, corruption of a political figure (Cromwell)
• "freed / From servitude"


  Satan lamenting on is exclusion, he no longer serves God
• "to be avenged"


  Satan planning his revenge
• "him endow, [...] / With heavenly spoils, our spoils"


  Satans resentment of man, desire for revenge, man taking what is rightfully his, like Ferdinand obsessed with the ideal lineage
• "Oh indignity!"


  Satan is furious, envious of man, it is wrong that angels serve lesser beings
• "serpent sleeping"


  the fact that the serpent is sleeping when he is used as a disguise, makes us questions God's judgement
• "To hide me, and the dark intent i bring"


  Disguise, hide evil nature Satan
• "Oh foul descent!"


  Satan exclaiming the anguish of lowering himself into the lower being
• "am now constrained / Into a beast"


  Satan (alike Bosola "I am your creature"), has been lowered to a mortal body
• "The devil entered; and his brutal sense"


  the possession of the snake, disguise, unconscious
• "send silent praise / To the Creator"


  peaceful description of Eden, what Satan wishes to destroy, everything naturally praises God
• "Let us divide our labours"


  Eve causing them to split, the argument, kick starts the sin, gives Satan an opportunity to get her alone, sign of more domestic drama/contemporary theatre, Woman taking charge of the relationship (Duchess + Antonio) (Comparison with Cardinal + Julia)
• "Compare above all living creatures dear"


  Adam's love for Eve, alike Antonio's love for the Duchess
• "How we might best fulfil the work which here, God hath assigned us"


  Adam rebutting what Eve said with the point that they should do as God instructed them
• "nothing lovelier can be found / In woman, than to study household good"


  Domestic sphere of love, Adam saying Eve should stick to her household duties, role of women, God gives roles we should stick to them
• "good works in her husband promote"


  Eve should promote hard work within Adam and good morals, role of women
• "He made us"


  Adam's argument, God made us we should listen to him, role of Adam and Eve as a couple
• "till younger hands"


  Waiting for children to help with the work, role of women to have children
• "lest harm / Befall thee severed from me"


  Adam is worried for Eve if they should separate, love, Antonio and Duchess
• "been warned us, what malicious foe / Envying our happiness"


  Milton making sure that it is known that Adam and Eve were warned and are aware that it is wrong/dangerous so they can justly be punished
• "The wife [...] Safest and seemliest by her husband stays"


  Adam saying why Eve shouldn't leave his side, it is safer, asking her to remain under his protection, role of the husband
• "being such / As we, not capable of death or pain"


  Eve reassuring Adam that it will be fine because they can't die or be hurt
• "my firm faith and love / Can by his fraud be shaken or seduced"


  Eve wondering why Adam doubts her ability to not be tempted, reassuring that she will be fine
• "to avoid / The attempt itself"


  Adam reassuring Eve that he doesn't think she is weak but that it is better to avoid the temptation all together as not to risk it
• "what is faith, love, virtue, unassayed / Alone, without exterior help sustained?"


  Eve responding to Adam, asking what use is faith etc. if it is untested
• "best are all things as the will / Of God ordained them"


  Adam's faith in God's creation and decisions
• "But God left free the will; for what obeys / Reason, is free; and Reason he made right"


  Adam talking about free will, Milton making it clear they chose to disobey, what is free will? justify punishment later, 'we are able to decide whether to do right or wrong'
• "Go in thy native innocence, rely"


  Adam relenting and letting Eve go, she has out-reasoned him
• "Soft she withdrew"


  Eve letting go of Adam's hand, leaving to work alone
• "but desiring more her stay"


  Adam wishing Eve didn't want to work alone, loves her, doesn't want to leave her
• "Oh much deceived, much failing, hapless Eve"


  The narrator warns of what is to come, sense of foreboding