Wednesday
As Donald Trump will be doing his best tomorrow to transform our nation’s celebration of its founding ideas into a celebration of himself, I turn to another figure who is just as narcissistic. I’ve written in the past how both Satan and Trump are driven above all by spite. Today I focus on how both revel in self-promoting pageantry. The two of them enjoy presiding over the hoards that they can command to parade before them.
Opening Book II, Satan sits on a magnificent throne above his followers, whom he has just brought together for a counsel of war:
High on a throne of royal state, which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormus [Arabia] and of Ind,
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,
Satan exalted sat…
The gold has been mined in Hell, which has a lot of it.
Soon had his [Satan’s] crew
Opn’d into the Hill a spacious wound
And digged out ribs of gold. Let none admire
That riches grow in Hell; that soil may best
Deserve the precious bane.
So much for the reviewing stand. Now for Satan’s living quarters. With the precious metals, the fallen angels have built Hell’s version of Trump Tower. Both Trump and Satan like their living quarters gold-plated:
Built like a Temple, where pilasters round
Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid
With golden architrave; nor did there want
Cornice of frieze, with bossy sculptures grav’n
The roof was fretted gold. Nor Babylon
Nor great Al-Cairo such magnificence
Equaled in all their glories, to enshrine
Belus or Serapis their gods, or seat
Their kings, which Egypt with Assyria strove
In wealth and luxury. The ascending pile
Stood fixed her stately height , and straight the doors
Op’ning their brazen folds discover wide
Within her ample spaces, o’er the smooth
And level pavement: from the arched roof
Pendant by subtle magic many a row
Of starry lamps and blazing cressets fed
With naptha and asphaltus yielded light
As from a sky…
Finally, when he speaks, Satan elicits the kind of response that Trump would like to get from the troops parading before him (will this actually happen?). While Satan’s troops hurl defiance against God, Trump would like the assembled ranks to rage against Democrats:
He spake: and to confirm his words, outflew
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs
Of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze
Far round illumined hell: highly they raged
Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms
Clashed on their sounding shields the din of war,
Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heaven…
This is the July 4th of Trump’s imagination. Milton is not impressed but knows well how such displays can dazzle the masses.