CHAPTER V.

The Fall of the Rebel Angels.

HE action of the epic of Paradise Lost opens

THE

abruptly, as we have already seen, with the

awakening of the rebel Archangel amid

whirlwinds of tempestuous fire,

whither he had been

Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky,

To bottomless perdition.

Here, as he raises his giant form, still half-stupefied by his fall through

hideous ruin and combustion,

he casts his gaze around upon his "horrid crew" as they

Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf,
Confounded, though immortal.

At this point, the poet gives no detailed account of the treason of the rebel host, or of the wars in

Heaven, reserving these cardinal points in the epic to be related by the Archangel Raphael in the Fifth and Sixth Books of the poem.

Cadmon, however, more naturally, and more in accordance with classical models, (though not with such strong dramatic effect), presents these incidents more in their ideal, chronological order, and opens this part of his narrative with an account of the origin of the ten Angel tribes:

Of old,

The King Eternal by His sovereign Might,
Ordained ten Angel tribes, of equal rank,
With beauty, power, and wisdom richly dower'd
And in this host Angelic, whom in Love
He moulded in His own similitude,

He evermore reposed a holy trust
To work His Will in loving loyalty,

And added of His grace, celestial wit
And bliss unspeakable.

We do not find, in Milton, any such numerical exactitude in his description of the angelic tribes as in Cædmon, but he gives us to understand that there

were

mighty regencies

Of Seraphim and Potentates and Thrones
In their triple degrees.

Moreover, he depicts the Almighty Himself, when

calling together the heavenly hierarchy to hear His decree with regard to the Messiah, addressing them

as,

all ye Angels, Progeny of Light,

Thrones, Dominions, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers ;

and similarly, Satan is represented as addressing his assembled host under the same titles,

"Thrones, Dominions, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers," so that in Milton's imagination these were, unquestionably, the main divisions of the angelic hierarchy. In both versions, however, the authors, following the lines of ancient tradition, have brought into unenviable prominence, either as hero of the Epic, or as chief instigator of the rebellion in Heaven, one of an exclusive caste of Archangels, pre-eminent for his gifts, both physical and intellectual. Cædmon depicts one of this favoured few as,

endowed with peerless might
And arch intelligence. To him alone
The Lord of Hosts gave undisputed sway
O'er all the Angel tribes, exalted high
Above all Principalities and Powers
That next to God Omnipotent he stood,
O'er all created things, lone and supreme.
So heavenly fair and beauteous was his form,
Fashioned by God Himself, that by compare
Less glorious spirits grew dim; e'en as the stars