12-16 Adam and Eve should have remembered that they were not to eat the fruit. They received the penalty of sin for disobeying.
17-31 The angelic guards return to heaven where they are approached by the other angels who want to hear what has happened. The guards go to the throne of God to show their vigilance and to be approved.
32-47 God tells the angels not to be troubled. The guards could not have prevented the fall. God knew this would happen and had said so earlier.
48-62 Man must be punished with death. God will send his Son to judge Adam and Eve. God combines mercy with justice because he is sending man's future Redeemer as his judge.
63-84 The Son says he will carry out God's will in order to please him. He will judge man mercifully.
85-97 The Son goes to earth. He is both "Judge and Intercessor" (1ine 96).
97-102 Adam and Eve hide when they hear God's voice in the garden.
109-24 Adam and Eve come out looking guilty and shameful. Adam says he hid because he was naked. God asks Adam who told him he was naked--asks if he ate from the tree of knowledge.
125-43 Adam says either he must face the punishment or else accuse Eve. He doesn't want to expose her, but he also does not want all the punishment. Tells God that Eve gave him the fruit, and he ate it.
144-56 God asks if Eve was the one he should have obeyed. Tells Adam that he resigned his manhood by following Eve.
157-58 God asks Eve what she has done.
159-62 She tells God that the Serpent tempted her and she ate.
163-92 God curses the Serpent to always crawl upon his belly. He puts enmity between the woman and the Serpent. "Her seed shall bruise thy head, thou bruise his heel" (181).
193-96 God curses the woman with pain in childbirth and places her under her husband's rule.
197-208 God curses Adam with the duty of tilling the ground that will now be full of thorns and thistles. He will have to labor hard for food until he dies.
209-28 God (Son) clothes Adam and Eve--outwardly with skins of animals and inwardly "with his robe of righteousness" (222). The Son then returns to the Father.
229-63 Sin and Death are sitting within the open gates of hell. Sin tells Death that she wants to go to earth. She proposes that they build a path from hell to earth.
264-81 Death answers that he will follow her lead because he is hungry for man.
282-326 The two go into Chaos where they build a bridge from hell to the world--a broad, smooth, easy way to hell. They follow the track that Satan had taken.
327-53 Satan appears. He had watched Eve seduce Adam from a hiding place in the woods but had left when he saw the Son coming. He sneaked back that night where he heard Adam and Eve discussing his punishment. He then returned to hell where he is happy to see Sin and Death.
354-82 Sin praises Satan for the freedom he has given them. She says Satan shall be a monarch in hell.
383-409 Satan sends Sin and Death to earth.
*410-22 They go to earth while Satan enters hell.
422-48 The fallen angels are holding council at Pandemonium. Satan slips in disguised as an angel of the lowest order. He then makes himself invisible and watches what is going on from his throne.
460-503 Satan tells the angels that he has returned to lead them out of hell to the world which they shall possess. He summarizes his adventure saying he went through Chaos to the world where he seduced man to fall. Now man is open to Sin and Death and to the demons. He also tells them he shall be cursed as a serpent.
504-47 Instead of applause Satan hears a loud hiss. He is turned into a huge serpent. He can't speak--can only hiss. All the fallen angels are changed into various kinds of serpents. Satan grows into a dragon--the most powerful. The fallen angels outside the palace are also changed into serpents.
*568-84 The serpents are plagued with hunger, but every time they eat the fruit their mouths are filled with ashes; after a long time they resume their former shapes.
585-613 Sin and Death arrive in Paradise. Sin advises her hungry son to eat plants and herbs first, then animals, fish, and birds, and then man lastly. They both set off to destroy.
641-48 The heavenly audience praises God.
649-67 God gives the sun, the moon, the planets, and the winds each their separate duties.
668-87 Seasons are introduced. Milton gives two possible ways that they came about: 1) the earth's axis is set at an angle to the ecliptic plane or 2) the center of the sun's orbit is shifted. Before there had only been one season.
687-706 The sun turned when Eve tasted the fruit. Now the weather is no longer perfect--there are extremes of heat and cold. The winds are listed.
707-19 Discord, Sin and Death are all upon the earth. Adam sees them and feels sad.
720-845 Adam speaks of his sadness. He hates that all mankind is cursed because of him. He welcomes his death -- wishes it would happen immediately. Milton has Adam speak of dying and sleeping in the grave. (Milton upheld the idea that the soul dies with the body until resurrection.) Adam wonders if death will be eternal. He realizes that he and Death are equals (line 816).
845-62 Adam lies on the ground and wishes for death.
863-908 Eve approaches Adam, but he tells her to leave. He blames her for the fall, asks why God created her. He says God should have created a world with only men.
909-36 Eve falls down at Adam's feet crying and asking him not to forsake her.
937-65 Adam forgives Eve.
966-1009 Eve suggests that they have no children so Death will only have her and Adam on which to feed. She suggests that they kill themselves if Death does not soon take them.
1010-1104 Adam says they should live and have children so that the curse upon the Serpent shall be fulfilled (they shall bruise his head). Suicide will only double their punishment. He suggests that they confess to God and beg for forgiveness. The book ends with their doing just that.
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