O Night, and by the spirits that preside over thee
In all conventional mythologies Night is a figure of discord and threat.
As she appears in Book I of Spenser's Faerie Queene, she is
represented as "griesly Night, with visage deadly sad" (I.5.172), testifying that "I the mother
bee/ Of falshood" (I.5.240-41). The
eldest of divinities, she has unimpeded access to the depths of Hell. In
Paradise Lost Night dwells with Chaos in the "dark/ Illimitable
ocean without bound" (II.891-92) from
which God creates Hell. Whatever Victor thinks he is doing by solemnly
invoking Night to aid him in his revenge, it is clear, by all traditional
associations, that no good will come of it.
The observant reader may recall that the Creature invoked figures
associated with the daytime in swearing before Victor that, if he were
given a partner, he would never trouble his maker again (see 2.9.5).
