55 Fun Facts About Paradise Lost

How does the famous boast in Book 1 of Paradise Lost, 'Better to reign in Hell, than...', end?

Serve in Heaven ends the line: looking over Hell for the first time, the rebel leader talks himself round, reasoning that 'here at least we shall be free'.

Which king's 1660 return ended Milton's government career?

Charles II returned in 1660; Milton, who had defended the execution of the king's father, went into hiding and was briefly jailed before Paradise Lost appeared in 1667.

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; in his note on the verse, Milton hailed it as 'ancient liberty' recovered from 'the troublesome and modern bondage of rhyming'.

In the opening invocation of Paradise Lost, Milton says his aim is to do what?

'Justify the ways of God to men' closes the opening invocation at Book 1, line 26; Alexander Pope later borrowed the line, promising to 'vindicate the ways of God to man'.

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, 'the least erected spirit that fell from Heav'n', leads the crew that mines ore for Hell's capital?

Mammon leads the band that rifles a hill for gold to build the palace; even in Heaven his looks 'were always downward bent' on the riches of its pavement (Book 1).

Mulciber, architect of Hell's capital in Paradise Lost, shares his name with which Roman god?

Vulcan, the Roman smith god, was also called Mulciber; Milton says the old tale of Jove hurling him out of heaven is a garbled memory of the angel's real fall.

What name does Paradise Lost give Satan as he was in Heaven before his fall?

Lucifer, the morning star's name, is given to him only 'by allusion': Adam is told that Satan's former name 'is heard no more in Heaven'.

On the second day of Milton's War in Heaven, what new weapon do Satan's rebels unveil?

Cannon, cast overnight from ore dug out of Heaven's own soil, bowl the loyal angels over by the thousand until they tear up whole hills and bury the guns.

After two days of deadlocked fighting, who alone drives the rebel angels out of Heaven in Paradise Lost?

The Son rides out alone in his Father's chariot, uses only half his strength, and herds the rebels to the edge of Heaven, where they throw themselves into the abyss.

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 sits down to dinner with Adam and Eve and explains that angels really do eat and digest their food.

Milton gives the archangel who visits Adam and Eve six wings, the traditional mark of which order of angels?

Seraphim have six wings in Isaiah's vision, and Milton's 'Seraph winged' follows suit: one pair mantles his shoulders, one girds his waist and one shades his heels.

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, then tells the rest aloud in Book 12 because Adam's mortal sight is failing.

When Satan calls for revolt, what does the angel Abdiel alone do?

Defies him: Abdiel walks out through the jeering host, 'among the faithless, faithful only he', and next day 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?

A toad is the shape Satan takes, squatting 'close at the ear of Eve' to plant a troubling dream that she tells Adam about the next morning.

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).

Which angel commands the night watch over Eden and sends Ithuriel and Zephon to hunt for Satan?

Gabriel, chief of the guard, sends the pair out; when they march Satan back, he and Gabriel square up to fight until God hangs a pair of scales in the sky and Satan flees.

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'; he and Satan are about to fight when the gatekeeper reveals they are father and son.

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

In a lake: Eve wakes beside it 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'.

How does Milton's serpent tell Eve it learned to speak?

It ate the fruit, the serpent lies: if the fruit lifted a beast to human sense, it argues, it will lift Eve to godhead.

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

They are all turned into snakes: Satan waits for applause and hears 'a dismal universal hiss' instead, then the whole crowd bites into fruit that turns to bitter ashes.

In Paradise Lost, what disguise does Satan put on to ask the archangel Uriel the way to Earth?

A young cherub is his disguise, and it works: Milton says neither man nor angel can see through hypocrisy, 'the only evil that walks invisible, except to God alone'.

How do Milton's Adam and Eve leave Eden?

Hand in hand is how they go, 'with wandering steps and slow', after an angel hurries them to the gate and a flaming sword bars the way back.

In Paradise Lost, the newly created world hangs from Heaven by what?

A golden chain links the new universe to Heaven; from the edge of Chaos the whole cosmos looks 'in bigness as a star of smallest magnitude', and Satan heads straight for it.

Whom does Milton invoke for inspiration at the opening of Paradise Lost?

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).

Delacroix painted Milton dictating Paradise Lost to whom?

His daughters take down the verse in Delacroix's painting; the blind Milton really did dictate the whole poem aloud, to a series of scribes.

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

Milton got £5 up front from his printer, with £5 more due once the first printing sold; sales began so slowly that the printer reissued the poem under a string of new title pages.

In Paradise Lost, what does Satan say 'is its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell'?

The mind, Satan boasts, can make 'a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven'; he proves the second half in Book 4, groaning in sight of Eden that 'which way I fly is Hell'.

Milton likens Satan, stretched out on Hell's burning lake, to which sea beast that sailors mistake for an island?

Leviathan, 'hugest that swim', sleeps so soundly in Milton's simile that a benighted sailor anchors in its scaly rind, thinking it land.

What is the title of Milton's 1671 sequel to Paradise Lost?

Paradise Regained (1671) is said to answer a Quaker friend, Thomas Ellwood, who read the first epic in manuscript and asked what Milton had to say 'of Paradise found'.

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

The temptation of Christ in the wilderness is the sequel's whole subject: Milton has paradise won back there, by Jesus refusing every offer Satan makes, rather than at the Crucifixion.

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, as his reason why Milton 'wrote in fetters' of angels and God but 'at liberty' of devils and Hell.

Which 1818 novel opens with an epigraph taken from Paradise Lost?

Frankenstein's epigraph is Adam's 'Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay / To mould me man?'; the creature later reads the poem as true history and sees himself as both Adam and Satan.

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

The Creation began as an English libretto drawn from Genesis and Milton that Haydn carried home from London in 1795; Baron van Swieten then recast it in German for him.

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

Krzysztof Penderecki's Paradise Lost was commissioned by Lyric Opera of Chicago for America's 1976 Bicentennial but ran two years late, reaching the stage in November 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) borrows Satan's boast of having fought 'in dubious battle on the plains of Heaven' for the story of a fruit pickers' strike in California.

In Book 1 of Paradise Lost, the flames of Hell give 'no light, but rather' what?

Darkness visible is all the fire gives: just enough, Milton says, 'to discover sights of woe', so the damned can see their prison and nothing to hope for.

Which surrealist made a suite of colour etchings for Paradise Lost in 1974?

Salvador Dalí's suite joined a long line of artists drawn to the poem; Henry Fuseli painted enough Milton scenes to open a gallery of his own, which proved a commercial failure.

At Cambridge, Milton's fair looks are said to have earned him what nickname?

The Lady of Christ's College was the full nickname; Milton was no meek student, though, and seems to have been sent home for a time after clashing with his tutor.

Which famous astronomer did Milton say he visited during his travels in Italy?

Galileo, 'grown old, a prisoner to the Inquisition', is how Milton recalled him in Areopagitica; the astronomer's telescope later turns up in the similes of Paradise Lost.

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

Areopagitica attacks pre-publication censorship, the 1643 order that books be licensed before printing, arguing that it is 'as good almost kill a man as kill a good book'.

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

As Secretary for Foreign Tongues, Milton put the republic's letters to foreign states into Latin and wrote its official defences; once he was blind, Andrew Marvell served as his assistant.

What does the horrified Adam drop in Paradise Lost when Eve confesses she has broken God's command?

A garland of roses, which he had woven to greet her, slips from his slack hand; Milton has the roses fade and shed as it falls.

In Paradise Lost, Adam is 'not deceived' when he joins Eve in disobeying God, so why does he?

To share her fate: Adam decides at once that he cannot live without her, 'flesh of flesh, bone of my bone', and eats 'against his better knowledge'.

In Paradise Lost, on which tree does Satan perch 'like a cormorant' and sit 'devising death'?

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 speaks first, 'My sentence is for open war': at worst, he reasons, God will destroy them outright, which he would prefer to suffering in Hell for ever.

What does the Hebrew name of Milton's angel Abdiel mean?

Servant of God is the Hebrew sense (abd, servant, plus El, God), and Milton plays on it: in Book 6 a voice from the throne greets the angel with 'Servant of God, well done'.

How does the vast crowd of fallen angels fit inside Hell's new council hall in Paradise Lost?

They shrink: giants a moment before, the devils become 'less than smallest dwarfs' and swarm in like bees, while their leaders sit full-size in an inner chamber.

On the morning of the Fall in Paradise Lost, what do Adam and Eve disagree about?

Working apart: Eve argues they would get more gardening done, Adam reluctantly lets her go, and Satan finds her alone among the flowers.

In one account Milton gives of the Fall's aftermath, what do angels do to the Earth to bring harsh seasons?

Tilt its axis: 'some say', Milton reports, that God bade his angels push the poles 'twice ten degrees and more' askew, ending Eden's perpetual spring.

Which Romantic poet abandoned an epic of his own, complaining that it sounded too much like Milton?

John Keats gave up his epic Hyperion in 1819, telling a friend it had 'too many Miltonic inversions' and that he wished to give himself up 'to other sensations'.