Plate no. 26 Book VI line 406 'Now Night her Course began..'

Now Night Her Course Began and Doré's Paradise Lost

Now Night Her Course Began is one of Gustave Doré's illustrations for John Milton's Paradise Lost, the epic poem that gave Doré one of his strongest literary series. The inherited title preserves a catalogue-style form: Plate no. 26 Book VI line 406, Now Night her Course began. For readers, the quoted line is the most useful title because it points directly to the moment Doré chose to picture.

The image belongs to Book VI of Paradise Lost, where Raphael tells Adam and Eve about the war in heaven. Utpictura18 identifies Doré's plate as Satan is Brought low, dated 1866, from John Milton's Paradise Lost edited by Robert Vaughan, and gives the textual anchor as Book VI, line 406.^[1]

Those records make the page more precise. This is not a generic dark figure from Doré's imagination. It is part of the Paradise Lost sequence: a wood-engraved literary image about Lucifer's defeat after the first day of battle.

At a Glance

• Readable titleNow Night Her Course Began
• Long inherited titlePlate no. 26 Book VI line 406, Now Night her Course began
• SeriesMilton's Paradise Lost, 1866 illustrated edition ^[2]
• Object routeUtpictura18: Satan is Brought low; Met: Now Night Her Course Began ^[1][3]
• Page roleParadise Lost / Milton corridor, linked to Illustrations and Engravings

Contents

1. The Paradise Lost Series
2. What Doré Shows
3. Book VI and the Fall of Pride
4. Wood Engraving and Printed Drama
5. Title and Numbering
6. Place in Doré's Work
7. Why the Image Still Matters

The Paradise Lost Series

Paradise Lost gave Doré a subject close to the scale of Dante and the Bible. Milton's poem moves through heaven, hell, Eden, rebellion, temptation and the fall of humankind. Doré's task was not simply to decorate the poem. He had to make invisible spiritual conflict visible in black-and-white images that could survive the pressure of book reproduction.

The Utpictura18 series page records 50 notices for the illustrated Paradise Lost and gives the title-page framing: Milton's Paradise Lost, illustrated by Gustave Doré, edited with notes and a life of Milton by Robert Vaughan, London, Cassell, Petter and Galpin. That matters because Doré's image belongs to a full printed project, not to an isolated print made later without context.^[2]

Now Night Her Course Began sits in the war-in-heaven sequence. Utpictura18 places it after the first day's battle, when Lucifer's forces have been routed and scattered. Doré chooses a moment of pause after violence rather than the peak of combat.^[1]

What Doré Shows

The composition is built around a winged figure in a rocky landscape. The figure is dark, heavy and close to the ground, while a brighter space opens in the distance. Doré turns the line about night into a visual condition. Darkness is not just the time of day; it is the atmosphere of defeat.

The foreground figure is best read through Milton's Book VI context. Utpictura18 describes Lucifer as humiliated and brought face to face with his own weakness after the battle. Doré does not need to show the whole army to make that defeat visible. The lowered body, craggy ground and gap between foreground darkness and distant light are enough.^[1]

The image is also a study in isolation. Doré often fills his largest scenes with crowds, bodies and architectural space. Here, the drama narrows. A single figure holds the weight of a larger war. The surrounding landscape becomes psychological: cliff, shadow and distance turn defeat into place.

Book VI and the Fall of Pride

Book VI is central to Milton's account of rebellion. Raphael narrates the angelic war to Adam and Eve, explaining how Lucifer's forces opposed heaven and were cast down. Now Night Her Course Began belongs to the aftermath of that conflict, not to Eden's later temptation.

This distinction matters for Doré's wider body of work. The image is more precise when kept as a Milton illustration rather than folded loosely into Bible illustration just because Paradise Lost draws on Christian tradition. Its nearest active companion is The Fall of the Rebel Angels. Together, the two works explain how Doré returned to angelic rebellion across literary illustration and religious painting.

The image also clarifies Doré's treatment of Satan. Doré does not present him only as a theatrical villain. In this scene, the figure is defeated, darkened and physically reduced. The landscape's emptiness makes the humiliation feel larger. The battle may have involved armies, but the aftermath is personal.

Wood Engraving and Printed Drama

The Metropolitan Museum of Art identifies Now Night Her Course Began as a wood engraving, engraved by Ad Ligny and published by Cassell, Petter and Galpin in 1866. Utpictura18 also identifies the image as a wood engraving and places its image origin with Gallica/BnF. Those details connect the work directly to Doré's printed-book practice.^[1][3]

Wood engraving was not a neutral container for Doré's ideas. It shaped the look of the finished image. The darkness around the figure, the gradation of distant light, the rock surfaces and the winged silhouette all depend on line, pressure and tonal translation. Doré's design became public through a collaborative print process.

That is why this page belongs with Engravings. It is an illustration, but it is also a print object. Its force comes from the way Milton's text, Doré's design and the engraver's execution meet on the printed page.

Title and Numbering

The title needs careful handling. The inherited wording uses Plate no. 26 Book VI line 406, while external records number the image in more than one way. Utpictura18 presents the image as notice 26 in a 50-notice series. The Met uses the title Now Night Her Course Began, plate 41 from Paradise Lost.^[1][3]

The safest public approach is to keep the canonical route and long inherited title, while making Now Night Her Course Began the readable artwork title. That preserves search continuity without forcing a disputed plate number into every sentence.

The line reference is stronger than the plate number. It tells readers where the image sits in Milton's poem and explains why the scene is dark, still and defeated. The title is therefore not decorative. It is the bridge between Doré's image and Milton's Book VI.

Place in Doré's Work

Now Night Her Course Began is the first active Paradise Lost / Milton page in the current Doré build sequence. It links back to the homepage, the Illustrations hub and the Engravings hub, then sideways to The Fall of the Rebel Angels and The Vision of Death.

The Fall of the Rebel Angels is the closest thematic companion because both pages involve rebellion, defeat and descent. The difference is useful: one route is a Miltonic wood engraving; the other is a religious painting/object route. Keeping that distinction clear makes Doré's public route stronger.

For readers, this page expands Doré beyond Bible scenes without breaking the religious and visionary thread. It shows the same artist moving from Genesis and Revelation into Milton's poetic universe, carrying with him a visual language of height, fall, darkness and supernatural bodies.

Why the Image Still Matters

Now Night Her Course Began matters because it shows Doré's ability to make aftermath dramatic. Many artists would choose the noise of battle or the spectacle of defeat. Doré chooses the moment when night begins and the defeated figure remains on the rocks.

The image is quiet, but not calm. Darkness gathers around the foreground, and the distant light makes the figure's isolation sharper. The scene feels like a pause in which the scale of defeat has finally become visible.

That makes the work an important literary counterpart to Doré's Bible images. The Creation of Light shows illumination entering the world. The Vision of Death shows revelation as terror. Now Night Her Course Began shows darkness after rebellion. Each image uses light and shadow differently, but all belong to Doré's larger project of making spiritual drama visible.

Related Pages

Use these pages to follow Doré through Milton, religious vision, literary illustration and printed-book production.

FAQ

References

1. Utpictura18, Satan is Brought low (Milton's Paradise Lost, 1866) - Gustave Doré, accessed 27 July 2026.
2. Utpictura18, John Milton, Paradise Lost, ed. Robert Vaughan, Londres [1866], accessed 27 July 2026.
3. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Now Night Her Course Began, plate 41 from Paradise Lost, accessed 27 July 2026.
4. Library of Congress, The Paradise lost, accessed 27 July 2026.