ABSTRACT
At the end of Paradise Lost, Michael is sent to escort Adam and Eve out of Eden not in his 'shape celestial' but 'as a man clad to meet man' (PL XI 239).l He wears armour and he carries a spear and a sword as index and guarantee of valorous manhood. Before Adam and Eve begin their descent into the world, Michael takes Adam aside, and leads him off to the top of a hill to show him visions of a future ravaged by war. Notably, Eve is excluded. War is man's business, and the foreknowledge of a war-torn future is vouchsafed to Adam alone. From the panorama of fortified cities besieged by batteries, scaling ladders and mines, Michael indicates the strategic position of the enemy camp, just outside the city gates, an ever-present threat of renewed assault. The cities are guarded by 'a concourse in arms' - soldiers whose fierce faces threaten war. They are 'in array of battle ranged/Both horse and foot' (PL XI 640-57), ready to defend the city walls with arrows, spears, slings and firearms (PL XI 658). Men of war meet counsellors ('grey-headed men and grave') in a futile effort to put an end to violence, oppression and the law of the sword (PL XI 671-2).
