Folio 9v

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John Milton
1608–1674

Paradise Lost.

Manuscript of Book I, in the hand of an amanuensis, ca. 1665.

Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1904

MA 307
Transcription: 

And powers that earst in Heaven sat on thrones;
Though of thir names in heavenly records now
Be no memoriall, blotted out and raz'd,
By thir rebellion, from the books of life.
Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve
Got them new names, till wandring ore the earth,
Through Gods high sufferance for the trial of man,
By falsities and lyes the greatest part
Of Mankind they corrupted to forsake
God thir Creator and th' invisible
Glory of him that made them to transform
Oft to the image of a brute, adorn'd
With gay religions full of pomp and gold
And divells to adore for deities:
Then were they known to men by various names,
And various Idolls through the heathen world.
Say, Muse, thir names then known, who first, who last,
Rous'd from the slumber, on that fiery couch,
At thir great Emperours call, as next in worth
Came singly where hee stood on the bare strand,
While the promiscuous croud stood yet aloof.
The cheife were those who from the pit of Hell
Roaming to seek thir prey on earth, durst fix
Their seats, long after, next the Seat of God,