57 Fun Facts About Paradise Lost

Who wrote Paradise Lost?

Milton lived from 1608 to 1674 and had gone completely blind more than a decade before the poem appeared.

In what year was Paradise Lost first published?

Paradise Lost first appeared in 1667, seven years after the Restoration of Charles II had ended Milton's career as a republican pamphleteer.

Which poet does Milton name as 'Maeonides' with Thamyris, Tiresias and Phineus in Book 3?

Milton names 'blind Maeonides' — Homer — alongside Thamyris, Tiresias and Phineus in the Book 3 invocation to Light, ranking his own blindness with theirs.

What poetic form is Paradise Lost written in?

Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter; Milton defended his 'ancient liberty' from 'the troublesome and modern bondage of rhyming' in a note added to the 1668 printing.

According to the opening invocation, Milton's stated aim in the poem is to do what?

'Justify the ways of God to men' ends the opening invocation at Book 1, line 26, framing the whole epic as a theodicy.

What is the name of the capital city of Hell in Paradise Lost?

Pandæmonium, Milton's coinage from Greek for 'all the demons', rises in Book 1 'like an exhalation'; 'pandemonium' later became the everyday word for uproar.

Which fallen angel is Satan's second-in-command in Paradise Lost?

Beelzebub, 'one next himself in power, and next in crime' (Book 1), closes the Book 2 council by proposing Satan's own plan to corrupt new-made Man.

Which fallen angel leads the building of Hell's capital, 'the least erected spirit that fell from Heav'n'?

Mammon leads the band that rifles the hill for gold to raise Pandæmonium; even in Heaven his looks 'were always downward bent' on its golden pavement (Book 1).

Which fallen angel is named as the architect of Hell's capital?

In Roman religion Mulciber was another name for Vulcan, the smith god who was himself thrown from heaven.

What was Satan's name before his fall, according to the poem?

Milton has him rebel out of pride and envy after God proclaims the Son as anointed.

Over how many days do the battles of the War in Heaven take place?

On the final day the Son single-handedly drives the rebel legions out of Heaven.

Who defeats the entire rebel army at the final battle of the War in Heaven?

Michael leads the loyal host on the earlier days, but the decisive victory belongs to the Son alone.

Which archangel narrates the War in Heaven to Adam and warns 'lest Passion sway thy Judgment'?

Raphael's visit fills Books 5 to 8; he dines with Adam and Eve, explains that angels digest food, and recounts the War in Heaven and the Creation.

How many wings does Milton give the archangel who visits Adam and Eve in Eden?

The visiting archangel wears six wings in Book 5: a pair mantling his shoulders 'with regal ornament', a pair girt at his waist, and a third shadowing his heels 'with feathered mail'.

Which archangel shows Adam a vision of the future of mankind before the expulsion from Eden?

Michael, sent to expel them, shows Adam history as far as the Flood from a hilltop in Book 11, then narrates the rest, down to Christ, in Book 12.

Which lone angel in Satan's audience refuses to join the rebellion and reports it to God?

Abdiel alone defies Satan in Book 5, 'among the faithless, faithful only he', and in Book 6 he strikes the first blow of the war.

Two angels find Satan in Eden crouched by the sleeping Eve's ear in the form of what creature?

Satan sits 'squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve', working on her dreams, when the two guardian angels find him in Book 4.

What object does the angel Ithuriel use to force Satan back into his true form?

Ithuriel touches the crouching Satan lightly with his spear — 'no falsehood can endure touch of celestial temper' — and he starts up in his own shape (Book 4).

Who is Ithuriel's partner in the search for Satan in the Garden of Eden?

Zephon, sent with Ithuriel by Gabriel, who commands the guard on Paradise, rebukes the unmasked intruder: 'Think not, revolted Spirit, thy shape the same' (Book 4).

Which allegorical character in Paradise Lost is Satan's daughter, born from his head, and keeper of Hell's gates?

Sin springs from Satan's head in Heaven, like Athena from Zeus, and bears him Death; she holds the key to Hell's gate (Book 2).

How does Milton describe the appearance of Death when Satan meets him at the gates of Hell?

Milton makes Death a shapeless black shadow — 'if shape it might be called that shape had none' — black as Night, shaking a dart, with the likeness of a crown (Book 2).

Where does Eve first see and admire her own reflection immediately after she is made?

Eve wakes beside a lake in Book 4, gazes at her own reflection and is drawn to it until a voice leads her to Adam, whom she first finds 'less fair'.

In what disguise does Satan finally tempt Eve to eat the forbidden fruit?

Satan enters a sleeping serpent and, speaking through it, flatters Eve as 'a goddess among gods' before leading her to the Tree.

What happens to Satan and his followers when he returns to Hell to boast of his triumph?

Milton has them share the serpent's punishment because they shared the serpent's guilt.

A passage describing the tempter of Eve forms an acrostic spelling out what word?

The first letters of five consecutive lines of the temptation scene, as the tempter sidles toward Eve, spell SATAN; the pattern was first pointed out in print in 1977.

What is the final word of Paradise Lost?

The poem ends: 'They hand in hand with wandering steps and slow, / Through Eden took their solitary way' — its last word is 'way'.

According to the poem's cosmology, Earth hangs from Heaven by what?

Satan sees the created universe 'hanging in a golden chain' from Heaven at the close of Book 2, 'in bigness as a star of smallest magnitude'.

Whom does Milton invoke for inspiration at the opening of Paradise Lost, in place of the classical muses?

Milton calls on the 'Heavenly Muse' that inspired Moses on Sinai and 'chiefly thou, O Spirit' — the Christian God's own Spirit — rather than any classical muse (Book 1).

In what year did Milton become totally blind?

Milton was totally blind by 1652, aged 43; he composed Paradise Lost in his head and dictated it, a scene later painted by Fuseli and Delacroix.

What down payment did Milton receive for the copyright of Paradise Lost?

Milton got £5 on signing the contract with his printer, with £5 more due as each edition of up to 1,500 copies sold out; he collected only one such payment.

Which printer registered Paradise Lost at the Stationers' Company for publication?

Samuel Simmons, whose mother Mary had run the family press since his father Matthew's death in 1654, entered Paradise Lost in the Stationers' Register and printed its first edition.

How long did the first edition of Paradise Lost take to sell out?

The first impression sold out in about eighteen months: in April 1669 Milton collected the second payment his contract tied to that milestone.

Milton's sequel, published in 1671, was titled what?

Paradise Regained appeared in 1671 in one volume with the closet drama Samson Agonistes, its title page reading 'to which is added Samson Agonistes'.

The sequel to Paradise Lost deals primarily with which biblical episode?

The sequel retells the temptation of Christ in the wilderness, following Luke's order of the three temptations, across just four books — Barbara Lewalski's 'brief epic'.

Which Quaker friend prompted the sequel by asking Milton 'what hast thou to say of Paradise found?'

Milton reportedly 'sat some time in a muse' before changing the subject, then later showed him a new manuscript.

Which poet wrote that Milton 'was a true Poet and of the Devil's party without knowing it'?

William Blake wrote it in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (c. 1790); Philip Pullman has said he is of the Devil's party 'and knows it'.

Which 1818 novel opens with an epigraph from Paradise Lost and has its creature read the poem?

Frankenstein's epigraph is Adam's 'Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay / To mould me man?'; the creature finds the poem with Plutarch's Lives and The Sorrows of Werter.

Philip Pullman's trilogy His Dark Materials takes its title from which book of Paradise Lost?

'His dark materials to create more worlds' is Book II, line 916, describing the raw stuff of Chaos that Satan crosses on his way to the new-made world.

Which Haydn oratorio built its libretto largely on Paradise Lost, alongside biblical texts?

Baron van Swieten was among those who shaped the German text, Die Schöpfung, first heard in 1798.

Which Polish composer wrote an opera based on Paradise Lost in the late 1970s?

Krzysztof Penderecki's Paradise Lost, a 'sacra rappresentazione' with a libretto by Christopher Fry, was premiered by Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1978.

Satan's soliloquy at the start of Book 4 is addressed to which heavenly body?

Satan's Book 4 soliloquy opens 'O thou that with surpassing glory crowned', addressed to the Sun, whose light reminds him of the state from which he fell.

Which John Steinbeck novel takes its title from Book 1 of Paradise Lost?

In Dubious Battle (1936) takes its title from Satan's 'in dubious battle on the plains of Heaven' (Book 1, line 104); Buechner's A Long Day's Dying comes from Book 10.

Which fourth edition of Paradise Lost was the first illustrated, with an engraving before each book?

The 1688 folio, published by Jacob Tonson with Richard Bentley, was the first illustrated edition, its twelve plates designed mainly by John Baptist Medina.

Which surrealist executed a set of ten colour engravings inspired by Paradise Lost in 1974?

Salvador Dalí's 1974 suite of ten colour drypoints for Paradise Lost joins a long line of illustrators, from John Martin's vast 1820s mezzotints of Pandæmonium onward.

At which Cambridge college did Milton's fair complexion earn him the nickname 'the Lady'?

At Christ's College, Cambridge (1625-32), Milton's looks and fastidiousness earned him the name 'the Lady of Christ's'; his early notebook is nonetheless the Trinity Manuscript, for where it is kept.

Which famous astronomer, then under house arrest, did Milton meet on his Italian journey?

Milton wrote in Areopagitica that in Florence he 'found and visited the famous Galileo grown old, a prisoner to the Inquisition'; the 'Tuscan artist' also appears in Book 1.

Milton's 1644 pamphlet Areopagitica is a celebrated attack on what?

Areopagitica (1644) argues against Parliament's Licensing Order of 1643 — pre-publication censorship — and remains a foundational defence of press freedom.

What government post did Milton hold under the Commonwealth from 1649?

As Secretary for Foreign Tongues from March 1649, Milton turned the republic's correspondence with foreign states into Latin; Andrew Marvell joined him as assistant in 1657.

Where is Milton buried?

Milton lies in St Giles-without-Cripplegate, London, beside his father; a monument was added at Westminster Abbey only in 1737, decades after his death in November 1674.

Which contemporary biographer dated the writing of Paradise Lost to 1658-1663?

John Aubrey's Minutes of the Life of Mr John Milton record that he began the poem about two years before the Restoration and finished about three years after it.

On which tree does Satan perch 'like a cormorant' after leaping into Eden in Book 4?

Satan sits 'like a cormorant' on the Tree of Life, 'the middle tree and highest there that grew', using it only for prospect, not for life (Book 4).

Which fallen angel argues for open war in the council of Book 2?

Moloch, 'the strongest and the fiercest spirit that fought in Heaven', speaks first in the Book 2 council: 'My sentence is for open war'.

What does the Hebrew name Abdiel mean?

Abdiel means 'servant of God' (Hebrew abd, servant, plus El, God); God greets his return from the rebel camp with 'Servant of God, well done' (Book 6).

Which classical myth does Eve's fascination with her own reflection allude to?

Eve's gazing at her own reflection echoes Ovid's Narcissus, who pined for his own image in a pool; unlike him she is led away from it to Adam.

Where in the poem is the domestic debate over working apart that leaves Eve alone?

The separation debate opens the action of Book 9: Eve proposes dividing their labours, Adam reluctantly consents, and Satan finds her alone among the roses.

Which engraver cut the plates for the first illustrated edition of Paradise Lost?

Michael Burghers, a Dutch-born engraver working in Oxford, cut the plates after designs mainly by John Baptist Medina for the folio issued by Tonson and Bentley.

Which Romantic poet complained that he relied too heavily on Milton's style?

Alexander Pope's final, unfinished work was also meant to be in Miltonic blank verse; Samuel Johnson mocked the bad imitators.