- Satan first expresses pity for his friend Beelzebub's change in condition but refuses to admit God's might. He is determined to wage eternal war against God due to a sense of injured merit. - In his second speech, Satan urges Beelzebub and the fallen angels to seize the opportunity now that God has withdrawn. He wants to consult how they can most offend God and repair their own loss. - In his third speech, Satan declares that for him Hell is as good as Heaven as his mind remains unchanged. He says it is better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven and rouses the fallen angels to try regaining Heaven or losing more in Hell.

1. Satan’s Speeches in "Paradise
Lost" Book-I

2. "If thou beest he--but O how fallen! how changed (you were best, but now fallen)
From him who, in the happy realms of light
Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine
Myriads, though bright!--if he whom mutual league, (you could outshine many)
United thoughts and counsels, equal hope
And hazard in the glorious enterprise
Joined with me once, now misery hath joined (you were so mighty and glorious)
(mourning Beelzebub’s condition now)
In equal ruin; into what pit thou seest(but now you have joined me in misery)
From what height fallen: so much the stronger proved (He is stronger)
He with his thunder; and till then who knew
The force of those dire arms? Yet not for those,
Nor what the potent Victor in his rage
Can else inflict, do I repent, or change,
Though changed in outward lustre, that fixed mind,
And high disdain from sense of injured merit,
(: Satan accuses God of having done an injustice to him by ignoring his just claim to
reward.)

3. • That with the Mightiest raised me to contend,
• And to the fierce contentions brought along
• Innumerable force of Spirits armed,
• That durst(dare) dislike his reign, and, me preferring,
• His utmost power with adverse power opposed
• In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven,
• And shook his throne. What though the field be lost?
• All is not lost--the unconquerable will,
• And study of revenge, immortal hate,
• And courage never to submit or yield:
• And what is else not to be overcome?
That their
defeat has
also
weakened
God’s throne

4. • That glory never shall his wrath or might
• Extort (force away) from me. To bow and sue for grace
• With suppliant (begging) knee, and deify his power
• Who, from the terror of this arm, so late
• Doubted his empire--that were low indeed;
• That were an ignominy (disgrace) and shame beneath
• This downfall; since, by fate, the strength of Gods,
• And this empyreal (heavenly) substance, cannot fail;
• Since, through experience of this great event,
• In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced,
• We may with more successful hope resolve
• To wage by force or guile (cunning) eternal war,
• Irreconcilable (opposed) to our grand Foe,
• Who now triumphs, and in th' excess of joy
• Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heaven."

5. First Speech
• Satan first takes pity on the change in his friend.
• Then he refers to their great friendship in heaven and
in their present misery.
• He is ashamed to admit the might of God.
• But he will not allow it to change his mind.
• He has nothing but contempt for God who insulted his
merits.
• It is a sense of injured merit that makes him wage war
against the tyrant of Heaven.
• As for the battle, it has been an equal match and the
issue uncertain.

6. • A single victory does not permanently ensure
God’s victory. For the present, they may have
lost the field, but that does not mean they
have lost everything.
• What though the field be lost?
All is not lost-the unconquerable will.
And study of revenge, immoral hate,
And courage never to submit or yield.
And what is else not to be overcome?

7. • The bow down before God is worse than
defeat. So he is determined to wage eternal
war by force or guile.

8. • "Fallen Cherub, to be weak is miserable,
• Doing or suffering: but of this be sure--
• To do aught good never will be our task,
• But ever to do ill our sole delight,
• As being the contrary to his high will
• Whom we resist. If then his providence
• Out of our evil seek to bring forth good,
• Our labour must be to pervert (change) that end,
• And out of good still to find means of evil;

9. • Which oft times may succeed so as perhaps
• Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb
• His inmost counsels from their destined aim.
• But see! the angry Victor (God) hath recalled (called back)
• His ministers (army) of vengeance and pursuit
• Back to the gates of Heaven: the sulphurous hail,
• Shot after us in storm, o'erblown hath laid
• The fiery surge (rush) that from the precipice
• Of Heaven received us falling; and the thunder,
• Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage,
• Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now
Thunder
ous
army of
heaven
has
fallen
back

10. • To bellow (roar) through the vast and boundless Deep.
• Let us not slip th' occasion, whether scorn
• Or satiate fury yield it from our Foe.
• Seest thou yon (over there) dreary plain, forlorn and wild,
• The seat of desolation (misery), void of light,
• Save what the glimmering of these livid flames
• Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend
• From off the tossing of these fiery waves;
• There rest, if any rest can harbour there;
• And, re-assembling our afflicted powers,
• Consult how we may henceforth most offend
• Our enemy, our own loss how repair,
• How overcome this dire calamity,
• What reinforcement we may gain from hope,
• If not, what resolution from despair."

11. • Second Speech. With his second speech, Satan sweeps off all
doubts from his friend’s mind. “To be weak is miserable, doing or
suffering.”
• If God attempts to turn evil into good, it must be the sacred duty of
the fallen angels to foil his attempts and turn all good to evil. God
has now withdrawn all his forces and is in a confounded state.
• They should not let this opportunity slip. It is imperative that all of
them should assemble and consult how they may hereafter most
offend their enemy, best repair their own loss.
• The audacity and superb self-confidence of Satan are well brought
out in these words.
• He seizes the opportunity to mobilize his forces once again,
conscious of the crushing defeat that he and his followers have
suffered. Satan is trying to infuse fresh courage into them. His
speech shows a heroic quality.

12. • "Is this the region, this the soil, the clime (climate),"
• Said then the lost Archangel, "this the seat
• That we must change for Heaven?--this mournful gloom
• For that celestial light? Be it so, since he
• Who now is sovereign can dispose and bid
• What shall be right: farthest from him is best
• Whom reason hath equalled, force hath made supreme
• Above his equals. Farewell, happy fields,
• Where joy for ever dwells! Hail, horrors! hail,
• Infernal world! and thou, profoundest Hell,
• Receive thy new possessor--one who brings

13. • A mind not to be changed by place or time.
• The mind is its own place, and in itself
• Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
• What matter where, if I be still the same,
• And what I should be, all but less than he
• Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least
• We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built
• Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:

14. • Here we may reign secure; and, in my choice,
• To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:
• Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.
• But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,
• Th' associatesand co-partners of our loss,
• Lie thus astonished on th' oblivious pool,
• And call them not to share with us their part
• In this unhappy mansion, or once more
• With rallied arms to try what may be yet
• Regained in Heaven, or what more lost in Hell?"

15. • Third Speech. After winning over Beelzebub and putting new courage in
him, Satan asks him whether they are forced to exchange this mournful
gloom for celestial light. Now that they have become avowed enemies of
God, the farther they are from him the better. So he welcome the dismal
horrors of the infernal world. For him Hell is as good a place as Heaven, for
his mind remains unchanged by place or time.
• The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
• In Hell they are free from servitude. It is “better to reign in Hell than serve
in Heaven.”
• “Farthest from him is best” is a statement of heroic defiance and of moral
alienation. Once again the appeal is to the law of nature and God’s
monarchy is presented to be based on force not on reason.
• The line “Receive thy new Possessor” is characteristic of the Satanic mind
and its passion for over lordship.