WORKS
Book I of Paradise Lost
Book II of Paradise Lost
Book III of Paradise Lost
Book IV of Paradise Lost
Miscellaneous
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 Rising from the Burning Lake
Engraver
Francesco Bartolozzi, after Thomas Stothard
Date
1792
Medium
Etching with engraving and stipple
Dimensions
Height: 24.7 cm
Width: 38.1 cm
Locations
British Museum, London
British Museum (2)
British Museum (3)
PL Lines
“Forthwith upright he rears from off the Pool
His mighty Stature…”
(Paradise Lost, Book I, 221–22)
Satan Summoning His Legions
Date
ca. 1790
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Height: 33.02 cm
Width: 26.67 cm
Location
Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University
PL Lines
“…on the Beach
Of that inflamed Sea, he stood and call’d
His Legions, Angel Forms, who lay intrans’t
Thick as Autumnal Leaves that strow the Brooks
In Vallombrosa.…
He call’d so loud, that all the hollow Deep
Of Hell resounded.…
Awake, arise, or be for ever fall’n.
They heard, and were abasht, and up they sprung…”
(Paradise Lost, Book I, 299–303, 314–15, 330–31)
BOOK II OF PARADISE LOST
“The Consultation begun, Satan debates whether another Battle be to be hazarded for the recovery of Heaven: some advise it, others dissuade: A third proposal is preferr’d, mention’d before by Satan, to search the truth of that Prophecy or Tradition in Heaven concerning another world, and another kind of creature equal or not much inferior to themselves, about this time to be created: Thir doubt who shall be sent on this difficult search: Satan thir chief undertakes alone the voyage, is honor’d and applauded. The Council thus ended, the rest betake them several ways and to several employments, as thir inclinations lead them, to entertain the time till Satan return. He passes on his Journey to Hell Gates, finds them shut, and who sat there to guard them, by whom at length they are op’n’d, and discover to him the great Gulf between Hell and Heaven; with what difficulty he passes through, directed by Chaos, the Power of that place, to the sight of this new World which he sought.”
— John Milton, “The Argument,” Book II of Paradise Lost (1674 edition)
The Council in Pandemonium
Engraver
Francesco Bartolozzi, after Thomas Stothard
Date
1792
Medium
Etching with engraving and stipple
Dimensions
Height: 24.8 cm
Width: 38.4 cm
Locations
British Museum, London
British Museum (2)
PL Lines
“Powers and Dominions, Deities of Heav’n,
For since no deep within her gulf can hold
Immortal vigor, though opprest and fall’n,
I give not Heav’n for lost. From this descent
Celestial Virtues rising, will appear
More glorious and more dread than from no fall
And trust themselves to fear no second fate…”
(Paradise Lost, Book II, 11–17)
Sin and Death
Engraver
Francesco Bartolozzi, after Thomas Stothard
Date
1792
Medium
Etching with engraving and stipple
Dimensions
Height: 24.8 cm
Width: 38.4 cm
Location
British Museum, London
PL Lines
“…Before the Gates there sat
On either side a formidable shape;
The one seem’d Woman to the waist, and fair,
But ended foul in many a scaly fold
Voluminous and vast, a Serpent arm’d
With mortal sting.…
…The other shape,
If shape it might be call’d that shape had none
Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb,
Or substance might be call’d that shadow seem’d,
For each seem’d either; black it stood as Night,
Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell,
And shook a dreadful Dart; what seem’d his head
The likeness of a Kingly Crown had on.”
(Paradise Lost, Book II, 648–53, 666–73)
Preparatory study for Satan, Sin and Death
Date
ca. 1792
Medium
Pen and black ink
Dimensions
Height: 23.36 cm
Width: 22.86 cm
Location
British Museum, London
PL Lines
“So spake the grisly terror, and in shape,
So speaking and so threat’ning, grew tenfold
More dreadful and deform: on th’ other side
Incens’t with indignation Satan stood
Unterrifi’d, and like a Comet burn’d.…
So frown’d the mighty Combatants, that Hell
Grew darker at thir frown, so matcht they stood;
For never but once more was either like
To meet so great a foe: and now great deeds
Had been achiev’d, whereof all Hell had rung,
Had not the Snaky Sorceress that sat
Fast by Hell Gate, and kept the fatal Key,
Ris’n, and with hideous outcry rush’d between.
O Father, what intends thy hand, she cri’d,
Against thy only Son? What fury O Son,
Possesses thee to bend that mortal Dart
Against thy Father’s head?”
(Paradise Lost, Book II, 704–08, 719–30)
Preparatory study for Satan, Sin and Death
Date
ca. 1792
Medium
Pen on paper
Dimensions
Height: 23.36 cm
Width: 22.86 cm
Location
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
PL Lines
“So spake the grisly terror, and in shape,
So speaking and so threat’ning, grew tenfold
More dreadful and deform: on th’ other side
Incens’t with indignation Satan stood
Unterrifi’d, and like a Comet burn’d.…
So frown’d the mighty Combatants, that Hell
Grew darker at thir frown, so matcht they stood;
For never but once more was either like
To meet so great a foe: and now great deeds
Had been achiev’d, whereof all Hell had rung,
Had not the Snaky Sorceress that sat
Fast by Hell Gate, and kept the fatal Key,
Ris’n, and with hideous outcry rush’d between.
O Father, what intends thy hand, she cri’d,
Against thy only Son? What fury O Son,
Possesses thee to bend that mortal Dart
Against thy Father’s head?”
(Paradise Lost, Book II, 704–08, 719–30)
Satan flying towards the World
Engraver
Francesco Bartolozzi, after Thomas Stothard
Date
1793
Medium
Etching with engraving and stipple
Dimensions
Height: 24.6 cm
Width: 38.7 cm
Locations
British Museum, London
British Museum (2)
PL Lines
“But now at last the sacred influence
Of light appears, and from the walls of Heav’n
Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night
A glimmering dawn; here Nature first begins
Her fardest verge, and Chaos to retire
As from her outmost works a brok’n foe
With tumult less and with less hostile din,
That Satan with less toil, and now with ease
Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light
And like a weather-beaten Vessel holds
Gladly the Port, though Shrouds and Tackle torn;
Or in the emptier waste, resembling Air,
Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold
Far off th’ Empyreal Heav’n, extended wide
In circuit, undetermin’d square or round,
With Opal Tow’rs and Battlements adorn’d
Of living Sapphire, once his native Seat;
And fast by hanging in a golden Chain
This pendant world, in bigness as a Star
Of smallest Magnitude close by the Moon.
Thither full fraught with mischievous revenge,
Accurst, and in a cursed hour he hies.”
(Paradise Lost, Book II, 1034–55)
BOOK III OF PARADISE LOST
“God sitting on his Throne sees Satan flying towards this world, then newly created; shows him to the Son who sat at his right hand; foretells the success of Satan in perverting mankind; clears his own Justice and Wisdom from all imputation, having created Man free and able enough to have withstood his Tempter; yet declares his purpose of grace towards him, in regard he fell not of his own malice, as did Satan, but by him seduc’t. The Son of God renders praises to his Father for the manifestation of his gracious purpose towards Man; but God again declares, that Grace cannot be extended towards Man without the satisfaction of divine Justice; Man hath offended the majesty of God by aspiring to Godhead, and therefore with all his Progeny devoted to death must die, unless some one can be found sufficient to answer for his offense, and undergo his Punishment. The Son of God freely offers himself a Ransom for Man: the Father accepts him, ordains his incarnation, pronounces his exaltation above all Names in Heaven and Earth; commands all the Angels to adore him; they obey, and hymning to thir Harps in full Choir, celebrate the Father and the Son. Meanwhile Satan alights upon the bare convex of this World’s outermost Orb; where wand’ring he first finds a place since call’d The Limbo of Vanity; what persons and things fly up thither; thence comes to the Gate of Heaven, describ’d ascending by stairs, and the waters above the Firmament that flow about it: His passage thence to the Orb of the Sun; he finds there Uriel the Regent of that Orb, but first changes himself into the shape of a meaner Angel; and pretending a zealous desire to behold the new Creation and Man whom God had plac’t there, inquires of him the place of his habitation, and is directed; alights first on Mount Niphates.”
— John Milton, “The Argument,” Book III of Paradise Lost (1674 edition)
Uriel and Satan
Engraver
Francesco Bartolozzi, after Thomas Stothard
Date
1795
Medium
Stipple and etching
Dimensions
Height: 48 cm
Width: 38.3 cm
Location
British Museum, London
PL Lines
“That spot to which I point is Paradise,
Adam’s abode, those lofty shades his Bow’r.
Thy way thou canst not miss, me mine requires.
Thus said, he turn’d, and Satan bowing low,
As to superior Spirits is wont in Heav’n,
Where honor due and reverence none neglects,
Took leave, and toward the coast of Earth beneath,
Down from th’ Ecliptic, sped with hop’d success,
Throws his steep flight in many an Aery wheel,
Nor stay’d, till on Niphates’ top he lights.”
(Paradise Lost, Book III, 733–42)
BOOK IV OF PARADISE LOST
“Satan now in prospect of Eden, and nigh the place where he must now attempt the bold enterprise which he undertook alone against God and Man, falls into many doubts with himself, and many passions, fear, envy, and despair; but at length confirms himself in evil, journeys on to Paradise, whose outward prospect and situation is described, overleaps the bounds, sits in the shape of a Cormorant on the Tree of Life, as highest in the Garden to look about him. The Garden describ’d; Satan’s first sight of Adam and Eve; his wonder at thir excellent form and happy state, but with resolution to work thir fall; overhears thir discourse, thence gathers that the Tree of Knowledge was forbidden them to eat of, under penalty of death; and thereon intends to found his Temptation, by seducing them to transgress: then leaves them a while, to know further of thir state by some other means. Meanwhile Uriel descending on a Sun-beam warns Gabriel, who had in charge the Gate of Paradise, that some evil spirit had escap’d the Deep, and past at Noon by his Sphere in the shape of a good Angel down to Paradise, discovered after by his furious gestures in the Mount. Gabriel promises to find him ere morning. Night coming on, Adam and Eve discourse of going to thir rest: thir Bower describ’d; thir Evening worship. Gabriel drawing forth his Bands of Night-watch to walk the round of Paradise, appoints two strong Angels to Adam’s Bower, lest the evil spirit should be there doing some harm to Adam or Eve sleeping; there they find him at the ear of Eve, tempting her in a dream, and bring him, though unwilling, to Gabriel; by whom question’d, he scornfully answers, prepares resistance, but hinder’d by a Sign from Heaven, flies out of Paradise.”
— John Milton, “The Argument,” Book IV of Paradise Lost (1674 edition)
[Satan, Ithuriel and Zephon]
Engraver
?, after Thomas Stothard
Date
1816
Medium
Etching and engraving, printed on chine collé
Dimensions
Height: 16.5 cm
Width: 10.2 cm
Location
British Museum, London
PL Lines
“Him thus intent Ithuriel with his Spear
Touch’d lightly; for no falsehood can endure
Touch of Celestial temper, but returns
Of fore to its own likeness: up he starts
Discover’d and surpris’d. As when a spark
Lights on a heap of nitrous Powder, laid
Fit for the Tun some Magazin to store
Against a rumor’d War, the Smutty grain
With sudden blaze diffus’d, inflames the Air:
So started up in his own shape the Fiend.
Back stepp’d those two fair Angels half amaz’d
So sudden to behold the grisly King…”
(Paradise Lost, Book IV, 810–21)
MISCELLANEOUS MILTONIC ILLUSTRATIONS
Satan (a god flying away)
Engraver
William Blake, after Thomas Stothard
Date
1790
Medium
Etching and engraving
Dimensions
Height: 14.5 cm
Width: 10.3 cm
Location
British Museum, London