[From the Introduction by Edward Le Comte]
"All that is known of her up to her last days ... points to her having made a satisfactory wife (though not a good step-mother - perhaps it was impossible to be both)."
[From Paradise Lost]
"[He] who overcomes by force hath overcome but half his foe."
"I made him just and right, sufficient to have stood, though free to fall."
"They themselves ordained their fall, the first sort by their own suggestion fell, self-tempted, self-depraved; Man falls, deceived by the other first; Man therefore, shall find grace, The other, none; in mercy and justice both, Trough Heaven and Earth, shall my glory excell, but mercy, first and last, shall brightest shine."
"Night would invade; but there the neighbouring Moon (So call that opposite fair star) her aid Timely interposes, and, her monthly round still ending, still renewing, through mid-heaven, with borrowed light her countenance triform hence fills and empties to enlighten the Earth, and her pale dominion checks the night."
"While they adore me ... The lower still I fall, only supreme misery - such joy ambition finds!"
"Never can true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep - which would but lead me to a worse relapse and heavier fall."
"So farewell hope, and with hope, farewell fear, farewell remorse! All good to me is lost; Evil, be thou my Good."
"Not equal, as their sex not equal seemed; for contemplation he and valour formed, for softness she and sweet attractive grace; He for God only, she for God on him."
"Were it toilsome, yet with thee were sweet."
"He, in delight both of her beauty and submissive charms, smiled with superior love, as Jupiter on Juno smiles when he impregns the clouds that shed May flowers, and pressed her matron lip with kisses pure."
"Knowledge forbidden? Suspicious, reasonless. Why should their Lord envy them that? Can it be a sin to know? Can it be death? And do they only stand by ignorance? Is that their happy state, the proof of their obedience and their faith?"
"Happier though thou art, happier thou may'st, worthier canst not be."
"In those hearts love unlibidinous reigned, no jealousy was understood, the injured lover's hell."
"Heaven is for thee too high to know what passes there. Be lowly wise; think only what concerns thee and thy being; dream not of other worlds, what creatures there live, in what state, condition, or degree, contented that thus far hath been received not of Earth only, but of highest Heaven."
"Freed from intricacies, taught to live the easiest way, nor with perplexing thoughts to interrupt the sweet of life, from which God hath bid dwell far off all anxious cares, and not molest us, unless we ourselves seek them with wandering thoughts, and notions vain!"
"She deserts thee not if thou dismiss not her."
"That higher in her society thou find'st attractive, human, rational, love still: In loving thou dost well, in passion not, wherein true love consists not. Love refines the thoughts, and heart enlarges, hath his seat in Reason, and is judicious, is the scale by which to heavenly love thou may'st ascend, not sunk in carnal pleasure."
"To love thou blam'st me not, for Love, thou say'st leads up to Heaven, is both the way and guide."
"Go; for thy stay, not free, absents thee more."
"Adorned she was indeed, and lovely, to attract thy love, not thy subjection."
"If thou well observe the rule of Not Too Much, by temperance taught in what thou eat'st and drink'st, seeking from thence due nourishment, not gluttonous delight, till many years over thy head return; So may'st thou live, till, like ripe fruit, thou drop into thy mother's lap, or be at ease gathered, not harshly plucked, for death mature; This is old age; but then thou must outlive thy youth, they strength, thy beauty, which will change to withered, weak, and grey; Thy senses then obtuse, all taste of pleasure must forgo to what thou hast; And, for the air of youth, hopeful and cheerful, in thy blood will reign a melancholy damp of cold and dry to weigh thy spirits down, and last consume the balm of life."
[From Samson Agonistes]
"'Agonistes' in Greek means a contestant in the games."
"'Agonize' in the seventeenth century meant to 'play the champion' and had nothing to do with inner torment."
"Blind among enemies, O worse than chains, dungeon, or beggary, or decrepit age! Light, the prime work of God, to me is extinct, and all her various objects of delight annulled, which might in part my grief have eased."
"Nothing of all these evils hath befallen me but justly; I myself have brought them on; sole author I, sole cause."
"To break all faith, all vows, deceive, betray, then, as repentant, to submit, beseech, confess, and promise wonders in her change, nor truly penitent, but chief to try her husband."
"If weakness may excuse, what murderer, what traitor, parricide, incestuous, sacrilegious, but may plead it? All wickedness is weakness.".
"Love seeks to have love."
"In vain thou striv'st to cover shame with shame, or by evasions thy crime uncover'st more."
"'Let me approach at least, and touch thy hand.'
"'Not for thy life, lest fierce remembrance wake my sudden rage to tear thee joint from joint. At distance I forgive thee; go with that.'"
[Preface to Lycidas]
"Nature is a haunted house; Art is a house that tries to be haunted." -Emily Dickinson
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