John Milton's Paradise Lost
IN PLAIN ENGLISH
II-1. High on a Throne of Royal State, which far / Outshon the wealth of Ormus and of Ind, / Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand / Showrs on her Kings Barbaric Pearl and Gold, / Satan exalted sat,
II-1. Satan sat on his throne. It was fancier than the richest kings of Persia or India had.
II-5. by merit rais'd / To that bad eminence; and from despair
II-5.
He had become the king of evil.
II-7. Thus high uplifted beyond hope, aspires
II-7. It was more than he hoped for, and now he was greedy for more.
II-8. Beyond thus high, insatiate to pursue / Vain Warr with Heav'n, and by success untaught
II-8. Instead of learning from his defeat, he just wanted to fight God some more.
II-10. His proud imaginations thus displaid
II-10. So he began to tell his dream to the assembly.
II-11. Powers and Dominions, Deities of Heav'n, / For since no deep within her gulf can hold / Immortal vigor, though opprest and fall'n,
II-11. “Gods of Heaven!—I still call you that because no place, however deep and dark, can weaken immortal power.
II-14. I give not Heav'n for lost.
II-14. "I am not giving up on Heaven.
II-15. From this descent / Celestial vertues rising, will appear / More glorious and more dread then from no fall, / And trust themselves to fear no second fate:
II-15. "We will rise up more glorious and more feared than if we never fell, and not be afraid that we might lose again.
II-18. Mee though just right, and the fixt Laws of Heav'n / Did first create your Leader, next free choice, / With what besides, in Counsel or in Fight, / Hath bin achievd of merit,
II-18. "Heaven's law made me your leader. The rights of justice gave us free will. And our achievements gave us honor and glory.
II-22. yet this loss / Thus farr at least recover'd, hath much more / Establisht in a safe unenvied Throne / Yielded with full consent.
II-22. "Now we have it all back again, and in a much safer place. He willingly gave us this kingdom. Nobody would want to take it away from us.
II-24. The happier state / In Heav'n, which follows dignity, might draw / Envy from each inferior; but who here / Will envy whom the highest place exposes / Formost to stand against the Thunderers aim / Your bulwark, and condemns to greatest share / Of endless pain?
II-24. "The powers that rule in the comfort of Heaven might be envied, but who's going to envy whoever rules in Hell and is in constant pain and under constant threat of attack from above?
II-30. where there is then no good / For which to strive, no strife can grow up there / From Faction; for none sure will claim in Hell / Precedence, none, whose portion is so small / Of present pain, that with ambitious mind / Will covet more.
II-30. "Where there's nothing to steal, there are no thieves. Nobody wants to gain worse pain for himself than he already has.
II-35. With this advantage then / To union, and firm Faith, and firm accord, / More then can be in Heav'n, we now return / To claim our just inheritance of old, Surer to prosper then prosperity / Could have assur'd us;
II-35. "That makes us more firmly united. Now we can fight for what is rightly ours. We have a better chance of succeeding now than when we were in the comforts of Heaven.
II-40. and by what best way, / Whether of open Warr or covert guile, / We now debate; who can advise, may speak.
II-40. "Now it's just a matter of deciding how to go about it. Who wants to speak?”
II-43. He ceas'd, and next him Moloc, Scepter'd King / Stood up, the strongest and the fiercest Spirit / That fought in Heav'n; now fiercer by despair:
II-43. Moloch stood up. He was the strongest and fiercest angel in the war.
II-46. His trust was with th' Eternal to be deem'd / Equal in strength, and rather then be less / Care'd not to be at all;
II-46. He wanted to be as strong as God, otherwise to him life wasn't worth living.
II-48. with that care lost / Went all his fear: of God, or Hell, or worse / He reck'd not, and these words thereafter spake.
II-48. He was willing to risk everything.
II-51. My sentence is for open Warr:
II-51. “I vote for war,” he said.
II-52. Of Wiles, More unexpert, I boast not:
II-52. “I don't know anything about trickery.
II-53. them let those / Contrive who need, or when they need, not now.
II-53. Those of you who want to sit around conspiring, do it on your own time!
II-54. For while they sit contriving, shall the rest, / Millions that stand in Arms, and longing wait / The Signal to ascend, sit lingring here / Heav'ns fugitives, and for thir dwelling place / Accept this dark opprobrious Den of shame, / The Prison of his Tyranny who Reigns / By our delay?
II-54. What do you expect the rest of us to do—sit around and wait in this hell-hole while our warden sits above on his comfortable throne?
II-60. no, let us rather choose / Arm'd with Hell flames and fury all at once / O're Heav'ns high Towrs to force resistless way, / Turning our Tortures into horrid Arms / Against the Torturer; when to meet the noise / Of his Almighty Engin he shall hear / Infernal Thunder, and for Lightning see / Black fire and horror shot with equal rage / Among his Angels;
II-60. No! Let's take these damned hell-flames and attack his angels with them.
II-68. and his Throne it self / Mixt with Tartarean Sulphur, and strange fire, / His own invented Torments.
II-68. He invented these tortures. Let's return them to him and dump sulfur and black fire on his throne.
. . .
