Paradise Lost.
Manuscript of Book I, in the hand of an amanuensis, ca. 1665.
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1904
Pendant by su[ ]e magic many a row
Of Starry lamps and blazeing cressets fed
With Naphtha and Asphaltus yielded light
As from a sky. The hasty multitude
Admiring enterd, and the work some praise
And some the Architect: his hand was known
In heav'n by many a towred structure high
Where scepter'd Angels held thir residence,
And sat as princes, whom the supreme King
Exalted to such power, and gave to rule,
Each in his hierarchy the orders bright.
Nor was his name unheard or unador'd
In ancient Greece; and in Ausonian land
Men call'd him Mulciber; and how he fell
From heav'n, they fabl'd, thrown by angry Jove
Sheere o're the chrystall battlements: from Morn
To Noon he fell, from Noon to dewy eeve
A summers day; and with the setting sun
Dropt from the zenith like a falling starr,
On Lemnos th' Ægæan ile: thus they relate,
Erring; for he with this rebellious rout
Fell long before; nor aught avail'd him now
To have built in heav'n high Towers; nor did he scape
By all his engins, but was headlong sent
With his industrious crew to build in hell.
Paradise Lost. Manuscript of Book I, in the hand of an amanuensis, ca. 1665.