Paradise Lost.
Manuscript of Book I, in the hand of an amanuensis, ca. 1665.
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1904
A numerous brigad hasten'd. As when bands
Of pioners with spade and pickaxe arm'd
Forerun the royall camp, to trench a field,
Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them on,
Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell
From heav'n, for even in heav'n his looks & thou[ ]
Were alwayes downward bent, admiring more
The riches of Heav'ns pavement, trod'n gold,
Then aught divine or holy else enjoy'd
In vision beatific: by him first
Men also, and by his suggestion taught
Ransack'd the center, and with impious hands
Rifl'd the bowells of thir mother Earth
For treasures better hid. Soon had his crew
Op'n'd into the hill a spacious wound
And dig'd out ribs of gold. Let none admire
That riches grow in hell; that soyle may best
Deserve the precious bane. And here let those
Who boast in mortall things, and wondring tell
Of Babell, and the works of Memphian kings,
Learne how thir greatest monuments of fame,
And strength and art are easily outdon
By spirits reprobate, and in an houre
What in an age they with incessant toyle
And hands innumerable scarce perform.
Nigh on the plain in many cells prepar'd
Paradise Lost. Manuscript of Book I, in the hand of an amanuensis, ca. 1665.