WORKS
Book I of Paradise Lost
BOOK I OF PARADISE LOST
“This first Book proposes, first in brief, the whole Subject, Man’s disobedience, and the loss thereupon of Paradise wherein he was plac’t: Then touches the prime cause of his fall, the Serpent, or rather Satan in the Serpent; who revolting from God, and drawing to his side many Legions of Angels, was by the command of God driven out of Heaven with all his Crew into the great Deep. Which action past over, the Poem hastes into the midst of things, presenting Satan with his Angels now fallen into Hell, describ’d here, not in the Centre (for Heaven and Earth may be suppos’d as yet not made, certainly not yet accurst) but in a place of utter darkness, fitliest call’d Chaos: Here Satan with his Angels lying on the burning Lake, thunder-struck and astonisht, after a certain space recovers, as from confusion, calls up him who next in Order and Dignity lay by him; they confer of thir miserable fall. Satan awakens all his Legions, who lay till then in the same manner confounded; They rise, thir Numbers, array of Battle, thir chief Leaders nam’d, according to the Idols known afterwards in Canaan and the Countries adjoining. To these Satan directs his Speech, comforts them with hope yet of regaining Heaven, but tells them lastly of a new World and new kind of Creature to be created, according to an ancient Prophecy or report in Heaven; for that Angels were long before this visible Creation, was the opinion of many ancient Fathers. To find out the truth of this Prophecy, and what to determine thereon he refers to a full Council. What his Associates thence attempt. Pandemonium the Palace of Satan rises, suddenly built out of the Deep: The infernal Peers there sit in Council.”
— John Milton, “The Argument,” Book I of Paradise Lost (1674 edition)
Satan Summoning His Legions
Date
1796–97
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Height: 431.8 cm
Width: 274.3 cm
Location
Royal Academy of Arts, London
PL Lines
“…on the Beach
Of that inflamed Sea, he stood and call’d
His Legions.…
He call’d so loud, that all the hollow Deep
Of Hell resounded.…
Awake, arise, or be for ever fall’n.”
(Paradise Lost, Book I, 299–301, 314–15, 330)
Preparatory study for Satan Summoning His Legions
Date
ca. 1796–97
Medium
Pencil on wove paper
Dimensions
Height: 32.5 cm
Width: 9.3 cm
Location
Royal Academy of Arts, London
PL Lines
“…on the Beach
Of that inflamed Sea, he stood and call’d
His Legions.…
He call’d so loud, that all the hollow Deep
Of Hell resounded.…
Awake, arise, or be for ever fall’n.”
(Paradise Lost, Book I, 299–301, 314–15, 330)
Satan and Beelzebub
[Preparatory study for Satan Summoning His Legions]
Date
ca. 1795–97
Medium
Black chalk, white highlights on brown paper
Dimensions
Height: 104 cm
Width: 67.4 cm
Location
The Louvre, Paris
PL Lines
“…on the Beach
Of that inflamed Sea, he stood and call’d
His Legions.…
He call’d so loud, that all the hollow Deep
Of Hell resounded.…
Awake, arise, or be for ever fall’n.”
(Paradise Lost, Book I, 299–301, 314–15, 330)
Satan as the Fallen Angel
Date
ca. 1797
Medium
Red, black and white chalk
Dimensions
Height: 24.5 cm
Width: 20.4 cm
Location
Private collection
[See Sotheby’s]
[See also Olga’s Gallery]
PL Lines
“Is this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime,
Said then the lost Arch-Angel, this the seat
That we must change for Heav’n, this mournful gloom
For that celestial light? Be it so.…
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.…
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n.”
(Paradise Lost, Book I, 242–45, 254–55, 261–63)
The Fallen Angels
Engraver
William Say, after Thomas Lawrence
Date
1796–97
Medium
Mezzotint
Dimensions
Height: 19.3 cm
Width: 18.4 cm
Location
National Portrait Gallery, London
PL Lines
“Is this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime,
Said then the lost Arch-Angel, this the seat
That we must change for Heav’n, this mournful gloom
For that celestial light? Be it so.…
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.…
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n.”
(Paradise Lost, Book I, 242–45, 254–55, 261–63)