Milton's Private Study & 'Paradise Lost' - Quest for Freedom, Summaries of Voice

Download Milton's Private Study & 'Paradise Lost' - Quest for Freedom and more Summaries Voice in PDF only on Docsity! JOHN MILTON 1608-1674 'A'hen he was rhtrtv, lohn Milton £~oclaime(lhimself the future au!hQ.r_g!~~t .English epic. He promised a poem devoted to the glory of the nation, centering around the deeds of King Arthur or some other ancient hero. When Milton finally published his epic thirty years later. readers found instead a poem set in Heaven, Hell, and the .garden of Eden. in which traditional heroism is denigrated and England not once mentioned. What lay between the youthful promise and the eventual fulfillment was a career marked by private tragedy and public controversy. Milton tells us much about both these experiences in his works, which combine an intense self-scrutiny and concern with authorship with urgent intervention in the great questions of his time. It is scarcely possible to treat Milton's career separately from the history of England in his lifetime, not only because he was an active participant in public affairs but also because l,1_ehimself refused. to distinguish between his private life and affairs of~~h and state. When he signed himself, as he often did, ...J01i'ilNhlton, En~," he did not srmply mean an Englishman. As England's self-appointed prophetic bard. Milton saw himself as spokesman for the nation as a whole, even when he found himself in a minority of one. Mtlrcn was a man who devoted his life to public causes, but whose understanding of those causes often arose out of the most personal con- cerns. The young Milton self-consciously set out to follow the steps of the ideal poetic career beginning ,dth-pastoral an-d eilcling "with ~£-mQ;lel.e:iLoxi:i!iiLPLthe Roman poet VirgiL In this ~proacfitOliiS'~o~;:~;hestood at the0EP.~ite el!~ __~J the specffum from su~,fi Gavali~_~._contemporaries ~_ Su.~IiU_IJg.~_IJ~:t.&~~elace,_ who turned to verse with an.~ of studied c-arelessness-.t\Iiltonbegan bywritlflg occaslonaf poems in Latin and several English poems in the pastoral mode: lyrics, the masque Comus (1634), and the pastoral elegy Lycidos (1683). These are extraordinary works in their own right. which crown and transform their respective genres, but Milton also undertook them as preparation fo!_!-!"t~~ater g_~nres of tragedy and epic. He was embarking on a road previously trBveled byTcfffiUnd Spense;:-,'Vhom'he c'ilTed "a better teacher than Scotus or Aquinas ....Milton resembles Spenser in certain ways, above all in his constant use of myth and archetype. alluding to and juxtaposing biblical and cIassicaJ stories. But Milton's learning was greater than Spenser's. As part of his preparation for a poetic career, he undertook a sfx-vear p'ro.m of self..cfirected readingm a~SIent_~~~dern iheo~~~~~~_~~p,~,~~l~!?'cy:-sci'"e~~:.p Jitics,~and literature. His co~.~~.!?!!~~~.ag~ ~~.cIu~~d Latin,_ Greek, Hebr:ejy_~nd its dialects; tralian, French, ·Spanish. and Dutch. The sum of the western literary and intellectUal heritage fmPInged on hIS ,,\:ritfng'& immediatel..- and directly as the circumstances of his own life. but he continually reconceived the ideas. lite~n' forms. and values of this heritage to make them relevant to himself and his age.' . For Milton to devote six years of his adult life to an obscure course of private study 1772 I _YOHi'\: ;\IILTO~ required exrraordinery confidence in the service he hoped to perform for God and country. It also. of course, required money. which was provided bv his father, who was a' successful scrh~._9nn.tJin~t1<!'l!__qL~olici.~o! .. in"~~tment adviser, ana- !!lQney lender. Although Milton enjoyed the company of some aris~ocrats and ~as profoundly grateful that his father spared him from the grubby business of making money. he belonged to the London bourgeoisie. His father's business dealings and loans 'at interest paid for private tutors in his youth, for his education at St. Paul's, one of the finest schools in the land, for his seven years at Cambridge and the six years of reading that followed. and for his "grand [QUI''' of France. Italy, and Switzer- land at the age of thirty. Yet Milton's connection with the class that stood to ~enefit most directlv from Europe's first bourgeois revolution does not account for hIS pas- sionate political views. His brother, Christopher, fought on the royaI~st s~.fgr the Milton brothers. as for most of.their c~'!t~l'!:!P<?~r_i.~~r_~~£!~1!~'..':a.~~Id~l!.'?!-,~~~ a controntation of class interes'rs:' b"irt-a-s ~ c~nfJict between .~d!c~JI!-_~iffuri~IUh~~~~s ~~;~ta-~~r~~fi:[email protected]· , From the outbreak of the conflict until his death. Milton was allied \lith the Puntan. cause. Yet hIS religtous opinions developed throughout his life. from r~lati\'e ortho- dcxv in hjs youth to ever more heretical positions in his later years. Milton went up to Cambridge in 162; with every intention of taking orders in the Church of England. In the hindsight of 1642. he blamed the lack of reformation and the corruption in the English Church under Archbishop Laud for forcing him to abandon that goal, proclaiming himself "church-outed by the Prelates." Milton's change of direction must also have been linked to the fastidious contempt he ex-pressed for the ignorant and clownish clergymen-in-making who were his fellow students at Cambridge: "They thought themselves gallant men, and I thought them fools:' Those fellow students dubbed Milton 'The Lady of Christ's College." Above all. Milton came to believe that he was destined to sen'e his language, his country, and his God as a wet, In his first major English poem, the hymn On the Alonung of Christ's Nativity (written at the age of twenty-one)! Milton had already begun to construct himself as a prophetic hard. His sense of poetic mission grew over the next decade, accompanied by growing disillusion with the Church of England. Both are present in Lycidas (I638), written to lament the untimely death of his Cambridge contemporary Edward King. The figure of King recedes in the poem nexr to Mi}ran's anxious contemplation of poetry as a vocation and his furious diatribe against the corrupt Anglican clergy who leave their charges prey to the "grim wolf" of Catholicism. Yet while he was in Italy on the Grand Tour (1638-39). i\Iilton delighted in exchanging verses and learned ccmpll- ments with various Catholic intellectuals and men of [etters. some of whom became friends. Milton could always maintain friendships and family relationships across ideological divides. Upon his return to England. Milton opened a school and was soon involved in Presbyterian efforts to depose the bishops and reform Church liturgy, writing five "Antipreladcal" tracts denouncing and satirizing bishops. These were the first in @ remarkable ~_~ties_~f'po1itical i~~_~:~I'!TJQ!l~.\y__l:t!.c;h9~ upied i\:m!2!!..fu~,:th~.!L~_!'5:~~ vears, untIl the disaster tEar him} of the Restoration, He wrote successively on church g;:emment~ divorce, education, freedom of the press. regicide, and republicanism. He also served as Latin Secretary to the Commonwealth Government (1649-;3) and to Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate (1654-;8). writing the official letters-mostly in Latin-to foreign governments and heads of state. Yet Milton was the very opposite of a faceless spokesman for a party line, From the beginning to the end of his polem- ical career. his publications show an extraordinary courage and independence of thought. In his tracts ad\-'ocating divorce on the grounds of i~~~..2.1!.~_i~~and wit~ the right to remam', he ado ted and vigorously defendeaaposirion almost unheard of at e time. one which require a 0 y anti If¤fiil'rearungof1liegdSels."ln reopagitica, e put forwar an impassione e ense 0 a ee pressagainst a Parlia- ment determined to restore effective censorship. And just as he was among the first Paradise Lost The setting of ~lilton's great epic encompasses Hea\·en.~Hen, primordial Chaos, ~~ Jh~.J~I~et Earth, It.features battles among immortal spirits, voyages through space, ana lakes of fire. Yet its protagonists are a married couple living in a garden, and its climax consists in the eating of a piece of fruit, Paradise Lost is ultimatelv about the human condition, the Fall that caused "all our woe," and the promise and means of restoration. It is also about kno\\"ing and choosing, about ~.ln the opening passages of Books 1, 3, 7. and 9.l'-liltonhighlights the choices and difficulties he faced in creating his poem. His central characters-Satan. Beel- zebub. Abdfel. Adam, and E\"e-are confronted with hard choices under the pressure of powerful desires and sometimes devious temptations, ;\lilton's readers, too, are 50ntinuaUv challenged to choose and to reconsider their~most 6aslc_~:~_~~~~~.~s 1816 I Jam" MILTO" about freedom. heroism. work. pleasure. language. nature. and lovefn,~ great the~es of Paradise Lost are intimately linked to the political questions at stiKe In the En~hsh Revolution and Restoration. but the connection is by no means simple or straight- forward. This is a poem in which Satan leads a revolution against an absolute m~narch and i which questions of tyranny, servitude, and liberty are debated in a P~rliame~t in Herui\'Iilton' 5 readers are hereby challenged to re~ink .th~e ~opics and, like Abdtel debating with Satan in Books 5 and 6, to make crucial dis~ncnons. . . . In Milton's time. the conventions of epic poetry compnsed a familiar recipe. The action should begin in medias res lin the middle of things), follo\\ing the poet's stats- ment of his theme and invocation of his Muse. The reader coUld expect grand battles and love affairs, supernatural Intervention, a descent into the underworld, catalogs of warriors, and epic similes. Milton had absorbed the epic tradition in its entir:ety, and his poem abounds with echoes of Homer and Virgil. the fifteenth-century ~talians Tasso and ..Anosro, and the English Spenser, But in Paradise Lost he at once heightens epic conventions and values and utterly transforms them. This is the epic to end all epics, Milton gives us the first and great~~n \,,"-an (between God ..~d S~) and the first and greatest of love affairs (between Adam and Eve), His theme is the destiny of the entire human race, caught up in the temptation and FaIl of our first "grand parents," Milton challenges his readers in Paradise Lost, at once fulfilling and defying all of our expectations. Nothing in the epic tradition or in biblical interpretation can prepare us for the Satan who hurtles into view in Book 1~with his awesome energy and defiance, incredible fortitude, and, above all, magnificent rhetoric. For some readers, including Blake and Shelley, Satan has been the true hero of the poem, But Milton is engaged in a radical re-evaluation of epic values. and Satan's version of heroism must be contrasted with those of the 10~'3]Ahdie1 and the Son of God. Moreover, the poem's truly epic action takes place not on the battlefield but in the moral and domes- tic arena, Milton's Adam and E"e are not conventional epic heroes. but neither are they the conventional Adam and EYe. Their state of innocence is not childlike, tran- quil, and free of sexual desire. instead, the first couple enjoy sex. experience tension and passion, make mistakes of judgment, and grow in knowledge. Their task is to prune what is unruly in their own natures as they prune the vegetation in their garden, for both have the capacity to grow wtld. Their relationship exhibits gender hierarchy, but Milton's early readers may have been surprised by the fullness and complexity of Eve's character and the centrality of her role. not only in the Fall but in the promised restoration, We expect in epics a grand style. and Milton's style engulfs us from the outset with its energy and power, as those rushing, enjambed, blank-,'erse lines propel us along with only a few pauses for line endings or grammar (there IS only one full- stop in the first twenry-six lines), The elevated diction and complex syntax, the sonorities and patternings, make a magnificent music. But that music is an entire orchestra of tones, including the high political rhetoric of Satan in Books 1 and 2, the evocative sensuousness of the descriptions of Eden, the deiicacv of Eve's love lyric to Adam in Book 4, the relatively plain speech of God in B~ok 3, and the speech rhythms of Adam and Eye's marital quarrel in Book 9. This majestic achievement depends on the poet's rejection of heroic couplets, the nann for epic and tragedy in the Restoration. \igo~r defended by Dryden, but denounced by Milton in his note on "The Verse." [The choice of verse form was, like so many other things in ~lilton's life, in part a question of politics, Milton's terms associate the "troublesome and modem bondage of rhymmg" with Restoration monarchy and repression of dissidents and present his use of unrhymed blank verse as a recovery of "ancient Hberty,"( The first editiotlO667} presented Pamdise Lost in ten books; the second (1674) recast it into twelve ~after the Vlrgilian model, splitting the original Books 7 and 10. - Name Period Paradise Lost Opinions 1. I believe that God exists. Agree Disagree 2. I believe that the devil/Satan exists. Agree Disagree 3. I believe the devil/Satan is an actual being, not just a force. Agree Disagree 4. I believe God is in control of all things, and therefore more powerful than Satan. Agree Disagree 5. Humans are essentially good. Agree Disagree 6. We are supposed to understand why God does what He does. Agree Disagree 7. Hell is an actual place. Agree Disagree 8. Evil serves a purpose in this world. Agree Disagree 9. God cannot be fully understood, so we shouldn’t try to explain Him. Agree Disagree 10. Evil, though powerful, is still subject to God’s control. Agree Disagree 11. God allows evil to exist in order to make good come from it. Agree Disagree 12. I’d rather live in prison as the warden and be able to make the rules, than be a servant in a beautiful place for a demanding master. Agree Disagree 13. I’d rather be strongly wrong than weakly right. Agree Disagree 14. You can decide to be happy, no matter the circumstances. Agree Disagree 15. Weakness is the worst flaw of all. Agree Disagree 16. I have thought about many some none of these statements before today. HEAVEN OR THE EMPYREAN Name Period Harris, English IV H ----------lines 50-83---------- 7. (a) What is the “thought of loss happiness” that Satan must suffer? (b) What is the “lasting pain [that] torments him”? 8. According to Milton in lines 61-69, what is hell like? 9. (a) With whom does Satan begin to talk? (b) Where does he rank compared to Satan? ----------lines 84-124---------- 10. Satan tells Beelzebub that he (Beelzebub) has “changed.” What did he used to look like? 11. Satan explains why he tried to fight God. Now that the war is over, has Satan’s attitude toward God changed any? Quote the lines that support your answer. 12. Satan says, “All is not lost.” What does he still have left? 13. What “glory never shall [God] / Extort from [him]”? On other words, what does Satan boast he will never do? 14. Why does Satan say they may hope to wage “eternal war” against God “with more successful hope” this time? ----------lines 125-155---------- 15. How does Beelzebub say that God’s “high supremacy” was upheld? 16. Why does he now “believe [God is] almighty”? Name Period Harris, English IV H 17. Beelzebub feels that it is pointless to continue to resist God now. Rather, what type of “service” or “errands” does he fear God has left the rebels alive to perform for Him? ----------lines 156-191---------- 18. As Satan replies to Beelzebub, what does he reveal will be their “task” from now on? 19. Along similar lines, what must their “labor” be? 20. Describe the “plain” that Satan points out to Beelzebub. 21. Before they fly over to this plain, where had they been? In other words, what type of surface were they on? 22. From what may the rebels gain “reinforcement”? From what may they gain “resolution”? ----------lines 192-220---------- 23. To whom is Satan compared? Name three different figures. What do all three have in common? 24. Why does “all-ruling Heaven” permit Satan to become unchained and fly away to the plain? 25. What does God plan to bring forth out of Satan’s efforts to make evil? 26. How does Satan plan to counteract God’s plan? Name Period Harris, English IV H ----------lines 221-241---------- 27. Describe the “dry land / He lights.” 28. How is Satan’s flying and landing similar to “thundering Etna”? See footnote. 29. Why are Satan and Beelzebub pleased that they were able to escape the “Stygian flood”? ----------lines 242-270---------- 30. To what does Satan bid “farewell” as he greets the “horrors” of Hell? Quote the lines. 31. How does Satan describe his mind? Quote the lines. 32. How does Satan use his mind to rationalize his predicament? 33. Why does Satan say that it is “better” for him to be in Hell than in Heaven? 1972 I JOHN MILTON Her husband, for I view far round, not nigh, Whose higher intellectual more I shun, And strength, of courage haughty," and of limb 485 Heroic built, though of terrestrial" mold, Foe not informidable, exempt from wound, I not; so much hath Hell debased, and pain Enfeebled me, to what I was in Heav'n. She fair, divinely fair, fit love for gods, 490 Not terrible," though terror be in love And beauty, nota approached by stronger hate, Hate stronger, under show of love well feigned, The way which to her ruin now I tend." So spake the Enemy of mankind, enclosed 495 In serpent, inmate bad, and toward Eve Addressed his way, not with indented" wave, Prone on the ground, as since, but on his rear, Circular base of rising folds, that tow'red Fold above fold a surging maze, his head 500 Crested aloft, and carbuncle" his eyes; With burnished neck of verdant gold, erect Amidst his circling spires," that on the grass Floated redundant:" pleasing was his shape, And lovely, never since of serpent kind 505 Lovelier, not those that in Illyria changed Hermione and Cadmus, or the god In Epldaurus." nor to which transformed Ammonian Jove, or Capitoline was seen, He with Olympias, this with her who bore 510 Scipio, the height of Horne.' With tract" oblique At first, as one who sought access, but feared To interrupt, sidelong he works his way. As when a ship by skilful steersman wrought Nigh river's mouth or foreland, where the wind 515 Veers oft, as oft so steers, and shifts her sail; So varied he, and of his tortuous train Curled many a wanton" wreath in sight of Eve, To lure her' eye, she busied heard the sound Of rustling leaves, but minded not, as used 520 To such disport before her through the field, From every beast, more duteous at her call, Than at Circean" call the herd disguised. He bolder now, uncalled before her stood; .. But as in gaze admiring: oft he bowed 525 His turret crest, and sleek enameled" neck, Fawning, and licked the ground whereon she trod. His gentle dumb expression turned at length exalted earthly terrihing unless zigzag deep red coils iu swellhtg waves course luxuriant, sportive multicolored 2. The legendary founder of Thebes, "Cadrnus," and his wife Harmonia (Milton's "Hermione") were changed to serpents when they went to "lIIyria" in old age; Aesculapius, god of healing, sometimes came forth as a serpent fron his temple in "Epidaurus." 3. Jupiter Ammon ("Ammonian Jove") made love to "Olympias" in the form of a snake, and sired Alexander the Great; the Jupiter worshipped in Rome ("Capitoline") also in serpent form, sired Scipio Africanus, the savior and great leader ("height") of Rome. 4. Circe, in the Odyssey, transformed men to beasts and was attended by an obedient herd. PARADlSE LOST, BOOK 9 I 1973 The eye of Eve to mark his play; he glad Of her attention gained, with serpent tongue o Organic, or impulse of vocal air," 53 . His fraudulent temptation thus began. *5+0 r "wonder not, sovran mistress, if perhaps Thou canst, who art sale wonder, much less arm Thy looks, the heav'n of mildness, with disdain, Displeased that I approach thee thus, and gaze Insatiate, I thus single, nor have feared Thy awful brow, more awful thus retired; Fairest resemblance of thy Maker fair, Thee all things living gaze on, all things thine By gift, and thy celestial beauty adore With ravishment beheld, there best beheld Where universally admired; but here : In this enclosure wild, these beasts among, Beholders rude, and shallow to discern Half what in thee is fair, one man except, Who sees thee? (and what is one?) who shouldst be seen A goddess among gods, adored and served By angels numberless, thy daily train."~ So glozed" the Tempter, and his proem" tuned;' Into the heart of Eve his words made way, Though at the voice much marveling; at length Not unamazed she thus in answer spake. "What may this mean? Language of man pronounced By tongue of brute, and human sense expressed? The first at least of these I thought denied To beasts: whom God on their creation-day Created mute to all articulate sound: The latter I demur," for in their looks -t- Much reason, and in their actions oft appears. 560 'Thee, serpent, subtlest beast of all the field -I knew.but not with human voice endued:" Redouble then this miracle, and say; How cam'st thou speakable" of mute, and how -To me so friendly grown above the rest Of brutal kind, that daily are in sight? Say, for such wonder Claims attention due." , To whom the guileful Tempter thus replied: "Empress of this fair world, resplendent Eve, Easy to me it is to tell thee all - What thou command'st, and right thou shouldst be obeyed: I was at first as other beasts that graze ' The trodden herb, of abject thoughts and low, As was my food, nor aught but food discerned Or sex, and apprehended nothing high: Till on a day roving the field, I chanced A goodly tree far distant to behold 535 540 550 5" 570 flattered/prelude hesitate about endowed able to speak 5. Satan either used the actual tongue of the ser- pent or impressed the air with his own voice. 6. Satan's entire speechts cOllched in the cxtrav- agant praises of the Petrarchan love convention. 1978 / JOHN MILTON OUf inward freedom? In the day we eat Of this fair fruit, our doom is, we shall die. How dies the serpent? He hath eat'n and lives, 765 And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discerns, Irrational till then. For us alone Was death invented? Or to us denied This intellectual food, for beasts reserved? For beasts it seems: yet that one beast which first 770 Hath tasted, envies" not, but brings with joy The good befall'n him, author urisuspect," Friendly to man, far from deceit or guile. What fear I then, rather what know to fear Under this ignorance of good and evil, 775 Of God or death, of law or penalty? Here grows the cure of all, this: fruit divine, Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste, Of virtue" to make wise: what hinders then To reach, and feed at once both body and mind?" 780. {\*So saying, her rash hand in evil hour . '>(,&;' Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she eat.' Earth felt the" wound, and nature from her seat Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe, That all was lost. Back to the thicket slunk 785 The guilty serpent, and well might, for Eve Intent now wholly on her taste;' naught else Regarded, such delight till then, as seemed, In fruit she never tasted, whether true Or fancied so, through expectation high 790 Of knowledge, nor was Godhead from her thought. Greedily she engorged without restraint, And knew not eating death:' satiate at length, And heightened as with wine, jocund" and boon," Thus to herself she pleasingly began: 795 "0 sovran, virtuous, precious of all trees In Paradise, of operation blest To sapience, hitherto obscured, infamed," And thy fair fruit let hang, as to no end Created; but henceforth my early care, 800 Not without song, each morning, and 'due praise Shall tend thee, and the fertile burden ease Of thy full branches offered free to all; Till dieted by thee I grow mature In knowledge, as the gods who all things know; B05 Though others envy what they cannot give, For had the gift been theirs, I it had not here Thus grown. Experience, next to thee lowe, Best guide; not following thee, I had remained begrudges power merry/jolly 6. An authority or informant beyond suspicion. 7. Ate: an accepted past tense, pronounced et. 8. l.e., she is eating death and doesn't know it, or experience it yet, but also, punning, death is eating her too. 9. Slandered. "Sapience": both knowledge and lasting (Latin, sapere). I. Like Satan, Eve now conflates gods and God, ascribing envy but also lack of power to "them." ,