The Fall of Adam and Eve: A Study of Repetition and Symbolism in Milton's 'Paradise Lost', Exercises of Law

Download The Fall of Adam and Eve: A Study of Repetition and Symbolism in Milton's 'Paradise Lost' and more Exercises Law in PDF only on Docsity! VERBAL REPETITION AND COMPOUND ALLUSION IN PARADISE LOST by JOHN HAMPTON LAUCK II, B.A. A THESIS IN ENGLISH Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS Approved Accepted August, 1982 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am deeply indebted to Dr. Ernest W. Sullivan II for his direction of this thesis and to Dr. Donald W. Rude for his helpful criticism. I am also deeply indebted to my parents, without whose support this work would not have been possible. 11 INTRODUCTION As Northrop Frye observes, Samuel Barrow asks a rhetorical question in the first two lines of his Latin poem in dedication to Paradise Lost: "When you read this wonderful poem, what do you read but the story of all things?" The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that through the use of verbal repetition and compound allusion--allusion with multiple references—Milton unifies the vast content of Paradise Lost. Studies of Milton's repetitions have been made before. Roma Bordelon's 1939 Louisiana State University Master's thesis sees verbal repetition as a structural device. Hugh C. Pritchard's 1942 University of North Carolina Master's thesis, "A Study of Repetition as an Archi­ tectonic Device in Paradise Lost," argues that Milton uses repetition 2 in accordance with the principles of architecture. Elaine Safer's 1967 Western Reserve University Doctoral dissertation, "The Use of Cross-Reference to Develop Polarities in Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained," tries to show the pervasiveness of the technique of cross reference in Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained and to point out how Milton uses this technique to achieve his poetic and didactic purpose. Cross references include the repetitive pattern of parallels and contrasts: verbal echoes, different narrative voices, reiteration of motifs, anticipatory scenes and The Return of Eden: Five Essays of Milton's Epics (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1965; rpt. 1975), p. 4. Both Bordelon's and Pritchard's theses are catalogued in Calvin Huckdbay, John Milton: An Annotated Bibliography, 1929-1968 (Pittsburgh Duquesne University Press, 1969). 1 reminiscences, and reiteration of image clusters. . . . In addition to systematically organizing cross references, this study details how they are used to develop tension in Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained.3 Edward S. Le Comte's book Yet Once More: Verbal and Psychological Pattern in Milton (New York: Liberal Arts Press, 1953) contains an extensive listing of Milton's repetitions, in both his poetry and his prose. Along with Bordelon and Pritchard, the present thesis acknowledges repetition as a key structural element in the poem. It differs generally from Safer's and Le Comte's works in that it focuses on Paradise Lost alone. Specifically, unlike Safer's dissertation, it deals solely with verbal repetition, and addresses the issues of polarity and tension in the poem only implicitly. Unlike Le Comte's book, it does not try to 4 "find the sum" of Milton's repetitions, nor does it seek a verbal and psychological pattern in the repetitions. Plainly stated, the thesis of the present work is that Milton uses verbal repetition to establish the themes which run throughout Paradise Lost, and he uses compound allusion to support those themes. For example, Milton establishes "obedience" as a key theme in the poem in Book III. The compound allusions in Book III, by stressing the perfect obedience of the Son of God support and strengthen that theme. The thesis also seeks to demonstrate the validity of Le Comte's observation that the repetitions "work, however inconspicuously, for the unity and solidity of the poem. There is bound to grow in us. ^ Dissertation Abstracts, 28 (1967), 2221A. Yet Once More, p. vii. 3 as we read, the feeling that we have been here and here before." For instance, in Book I, when a reader hears Satan's cry "Is this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime . . . this the seat / That we must change for Heav'n. . .?," and later hears Adam's question to Eve in Book IX "Is this the love, this the recompense / Of mine to thee, ingrateful Eve. . .?," he realizes that the echo is not only verbal, but also situational: Adam is in Hell emotionally. The allu­ sions, in supporting the repetitions, also work for the poem's unity, as the discussion in the text makes clear. Milton's editors over the last 25 years have made great progress in identifying the sources and significance of his allusions, especially the editors of the three editions of Paradise Lost to which this thesis is most heavily indebted: Complete Poems and Major Prose, ed. Merritt Y Hughes (Indianapolis: The Odyssey Press, 1957), from which all quota­ tions of the poem are taken; Paradise Lost, ed. Alastair Fowler (London: Longmans Group Limited, 1971); and Paradise Lost, ed. Scott El ledge (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1975). In addition, James H. Sims in The Bible in Milton's Epics (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1962) has done much to identify Milton's biblical allusions. Each of these men is cited by his last name in the thesis, and their names are cited together in the notes whenever more than one of them have references to a given passage. The thesis is organized into chapters, with subdivisions in each chapter for the repetitions and allusions. In the sections on ^ Yet Once More, pp. 46-47. or woe" to man (IX. 133). Satan's sense is so corrupted by his fall that he does not know whether his temptation of man, if it is success­ ful, will bring him happiness or only more misery. Interestingly, the fallen Eve has the same difficulty, vowing that "Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe" (IX.831); and moments before his fall, Adam resolves that from Eve he "never shall be parted, bliss or woe" (IX.916). The echoes suggest that the first thing sin does in rational creatures is to make it impossible to distinguish true happiness from misery. Adam and Eve regain a little of that happiness, however, when they move from Eve's individual responsibility for sin, "On me, sole cause to thee of all this woe" in X.935, to joint responsibility, when Adam calls their dilemma "our share of woe" in X.961. In "forlorn," Milton has chosen perhaps the perfect word to describe the condition of sinful beings. When Satan beholds the "dreary Plain, forlorn and wild" in 1.180, the word carries its literal meaning of being abandoned in a desolate place. When he gazes on Adam and Eve for the first time, however, and says, Happy, but for so happy ill-secur'd Long to continue, and this high seat your Heav'n 111 fenc't for Heav'n to keep out such a foe As now is enter'd; yet no purpos'd foe To you whom I could pity thus forlorn Though I unpitied (IV.370-75). "Forlorn" means "morally lost, abandoned, depraved, ruined, doomed to destruction"--entirely religious senses. On one reading of the passage, Satan is speaking of his own abandonment and doom, but he may also be ^ OED implying that Adam and Eve have been left forlorn by God. Twice he refers to how "ill secur'd" and "ill fenc'd" Eden is, and it is impossible to tell whether "forlorn" in IV.374 refers to "you" (Adam and Eve) or to Satan himself. Even this early in the poem, Satan may be trying to shift responsibility for his acts from himself to God. If Adam and Eve are not forlorn before the fall, they certainly are after Adam becomes aware of Eve's sin. He is spiritually lost as he contemplates life without Eve "in these wild Woods forlorn" in IX.910. Although he is still unfallen at this point, Adam's love for Eve and his fear of losing her will lead him into sin. Eve feels the same sense of loss as she cries to Adam, ". . . forlorn of thee, / Whither shall I betake me, where subsist?" (X.921-22). The word is especially appropriate for the fallen couple, because in Books IX and X they share, emotionally at least, Satan's Hell. "Wand'ring," according to Isabel MacCaffrey, is "a key word, summarizing the theme of the erring, bewildered human pilgrimage, and its extension into the prelapsarian world with the fallen angels." The narrator says the names of the fallen angels were blotted out of the Books of Life, and they did not get new names until they were sent "wand'ring o'er the Earth / Through God's high sufferance for the trial of man" (1.365-66). The trial of man begins when Eve succumbs to what Adam calls a "strange / Desire of wand'ring" (IX.1135-36), and goes off without him. Paradise Lost as "Myth" (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1959), p. 188. 8 Although both fallen angel and fallen man wander, "wand'ring" also distinguishes between them. As Stanley E. Fish points out, by the end of the poem, "wand'ring" signifies the movement of faith, the sign of o one's willingness to go out at the command of God. Adam sees this faith exemplified in his visions of Abraham leaving Ur "Not wand'ring poor, but trusting all his wealth / With God" (XII.133-34), and Solomon caring for the Ark of God "till then in Tents / Wand'ring" (XII.333-34). He and Eve show this faith themselves in the poem's final lines as they leave Eden at God's command, with "wand'ring steps and slow" (XII.648). Satan's cry upon first seeing Hell, "Is this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime . . . this the seat / That we must change for Heav'n . . .?" in 1.242-44 is echoed in Adam's incensed reply to Eve during their argument in IX.1163-64: "Is this the Love, is this the recompense / Of mine to thee, ingrateful Eve. . . ?" The echo is situational as well as verbal: at this moment, Adam is in an emotional hell because of his and Eve's failure to resist sin. Although the link between Satan and man is strong here, it is not eternal. Satan's reply to his rhetori­ cal question ". . . Be it so, since he / Who now is Sovran can dispose and bid / What shall be right? (1.245-47) contrasts sharply with Adam's humility in X.769: "Be it so, for I submit, his doom is fair." Both seem to be accepting God's plan, but the vital difference between the two is that Adam "submits" to God's will. Satan never does; he merely accepts Hell as the place from which he must carry on his hopeless fight. o Surprised by Sin: The Reader in Paradise Lost (Berkeley University of California Press, 1971), p. 141. 11 estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day"), and Revelation 20:1-2 ("And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, 13 and bound him up a thousand years"). Milton's references to "Adamantine Chains" and "penal Fire" suggest the misery and physical punishment of the rebellious angels, but the allusions in that line speak not only of the misery of the angels, but also of a coming day of judgment against them, an event which will even increase their agony. The misery of present and future defeat is further allusively emphasized in 1.221-28. The narrator is speaking of Satan: Forthwith upright he rears from off the Pool His mighty Stature; on each hand the flames Driv'n backward slope thir pointing spires, and roll'd In billows, leav 'i the' midst a horrid Vale. Then with expanded wings he steers his flight Aloft, incumbent on the dusky Air That felt unusual weight, till on dry land He lights. The passage recalls the episode in The Faerie Queene 1.11.18: Then with his waving wings displayed wide. Himself up high he lifted from the ground. And with strong flight did forcibly divide The yielding air, which nigh too feeble found Her flitting parts and element unsound To bear so great a weight. He cutting way With his broad sails, about him soar'd round; At last low stooping with unwieldy sway, 1^ Snatched up both horse and man to bear them quite away. ^^ Fowler, p. 45; Hughes, p. 212. Edmund Spenser, Books I and II of the Faerie Queene, the Muta­ bility Cantos, and Selections from the Minor Poetry, eds. Robert Kellogg and Oliver Steele (New York: The Odyssey Press, 1965), p. 209, 12 Harding observes of Milton's debt to the earlier work: The force of these borrowings from Spenser may hardly be said to contradict the central metaphorical tendency of the passage in which they appear. Many readers will already have recognized the context from which Spenser's stanza has been taken. He is describing the initial assault of the Dragon upon the Red Cross Knight.15 Of course, in the allegory, the Red Cross Knight defeats the Dragon, representing Christ's victory over Satan. But Satan's misery and defeat are more subtly alluded to in 1.221-24, lines which, according to Douglas 16 Bush, may contain a reference to the parting of the Red Sea. Compare Exodus 14:21: "And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and th-e waters were divided." If Bush is correct, then Milton is being ironic here. The Red Sea parted for the Israelites, but engulfed the heathen Egyptians. Satan has a "mighty Stature" in Hell, but his destruction is assured. A major difference between fallen man and fallen angel is that the one is redeemable, the other is not. Milton's narrator makes this point when he says of the demons, of thir Names in heav'nly Records now Be no memorial, blotted out and ras'd By thir Rebellion, from the Books of Life. (1.361-63) There are several references to the Book or Books of Life in both the Old and the New Testament. The verses closest to the Mil tonic passage ^̂ The Club of Hercules, p. 55. "Ironic and Ambiguous Allusion in Paradise Lost," JEGP, 60 (1961), 634. 13 are Psalm 69:28 "Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous"), where the anger of King David (who is himself a type of Christ) against his enemies is similar to God's wrath; and Revelation 21:27 "And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither he that worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they who are written in the Lamb's book of life"), which speaks of wickedness generally, but might refer, because of the King James translators' insertion of the phrase "he that," to Satan as well. Satan is certainly a worker of abomination to man and God, and he is the supreme Antichrist, forerunner of the one through whom, because of the world's unrighteousness, God will send "strong delusion, that they [non-Christians] should believe a lie" (II Thessalonians 2:11). Sims' citations of Psalm 9:5 ("Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name forever and ever"), and Revelation 3:5 ("He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white rainment; and I will not blot his name out of the book of life, 18 but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels") have general applicability to Milton's lines. In particular. Revelation 3:5 underscores the possible redemption of righteous men, in contrast to the wicked. Fowler notes Revelation 3:12 as relevant to the lines: "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out ^̂ Hughes, p. 220. ^̂ Sims, p. 260. 16 11.366-70 and, in context, helps reveal the demonic plan to attack Eden and drive as we were driven. The puny habitants, or if not drive. Seduce them to our Party, that thir God May prove thir foe, and with repenting hand Abolish his own works. "Hand" next appears carrying its sense of "relationship." Sin tells Satan that, once the task of destroying Eden is completed, "I shall Reign / At thy right hand voluptuous, as becomes / Thy daughter and thy darling without end" (11.868-70). As many critics have noted, these lines are a grossly sexual parody of Christ's relationship to God. Christ is seen at the right hand of the Father seven times in the epic, and does not act, much less reign, except at God's express ^ 21 command. It should also be emphasized that the relationship portrayed in 11.868-70 is a demonic one. Milton develops the "hand" much more fully in Books IV and IX as a specific symbol of human relationship. The Compound Allusions The compound allusions in Book II reinforce the idea that God's hand alone is the powerful one, and belie Satan's claim to any Divine power. Indeed, the allusions at every turn emphasize both God's power and the devils' lack of it. Despite Satan's assurances that they have the power to corrupt the new creation, the devils wonder if they are 2^ See III.279, V. 606, VI.747, VI.762, VI.892, X.64, and X.457. "Hand" is used 73 times in the poem; 20 in a neutral sense (e.g., "on either hand"), 9 in a creative sense, 23 to denote power, and 21 to denote relationship. 17 not still in God's hand and if they have not been "the Vassals of his anger" (11.90) as well as the doers of His will in spite of themselves. Hughes rightly sees a reference to "the Vassals of God's wrath, and slaves of sin," in Spenser's The Teares of the Muses, but Spenser was referring specifically to humans. Fowler notes an allusion to Romans 9:22 which describes more accurately the devils' plight: they are God's 22 vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. Belial, at least, senses the hopelessness of the situation. The devils cannot break out of Hell and challenge Heaven with fire because "the Ethereal mould / Incapable of stain would soon expel / Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire" (11.139-41). God Himself is called "a consuming fire" in Deuteronomy 4:24 and His angels "a flaming fire" in Psalm 104:4. As Fowler observes, God's very throne is "like the fiery flame" in Daniel 7:9.^^ Mammon suggests that the devils stay right where they are, saying, "Our torments also may in length of time / Become our elements, these piercing fires / As soft as now severe" (11.274-76). Hughes believes Milton is drawing upon Robert Burton's classification of the devils into Fiery Spirits, Aerial Spirits, Water Devils, Terrestrial and Sub- terrestrial devils in his Anatomy of Melancholy, I, ii, 1, 2. But considering the uneasiness and fear Belial and Mammon betray in their speeches, perhaps Fowler is right that Milton is actually alluding to ^̂ Hughes, p. 234; Fowler, p. 94. ^̂ Fowler, p. 96. 18 to St. Augustine's idea in De Civ. Dei XXI.10 that the devils are 24 bound to fires as if to bodies. Clearly, God cannot be fought directly; thus, Beelzebub mouths Satan's scheme to "drive out the puny habitants" quoted above. Christopher Ricks perceptively comments that "puny" means both "weak" and "late- born" (from the French puis ne, "born since"), and therefore reveals Beelzebub's reasons for hating them. They are new and they are weak. Part of the devils' reluctance to adopt Satan's plan is their admission that "long is the way / And hard, that out of Hell leads up to light" (11.432-33). Hughes and Fowler are undoubtedly correct in noting the similarity of the Sibyl's warning to Aneas in the Aenied VI.126-29 that the descent to Avernus is easy, and Virgil's warning to Dante in the Inferno XXXIV, 95 that the way up to Purgatory from Hell is hard, but there is a closer parallel to the human condition in Jesus' words, "strait is the gate,'and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matthew 7:14). Just as Satan comes up alone out of Hell to attempt man's destruction, so must individual man come up out of a personal hell to achieve salvation. 24 Hughes, p. 238; Fowler, p. 102. ^^ Mi l ton 's Grand Style (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1963), pp. 65-66. 26 Hughes, p. 242; Fowler, p. 110. 21 readers of Paradise Lost) as "that virtue whereby we propose to our­ selves the will of God as the paramount rule of our conduct, and serve 27 him alone." When Satan in the serpent explains to Eve how he can talk, he says, "Easy to me it is to tell thee all / What thou command'st and right thou should'st be obey'd" (IX.569-70, emphasis mine). Eve knows the obedience of the animals is Adam's responsibility (VI1.498), but the flattery is just enough to turn her mind, for the first time, toward the possibility of being obeyed rather than obeying God. But, to Milton, obedience is also the natural fulfillment of love 28 and, in a sense, identical with it. The Son embodies this fulfill­ ment perfectly when He says to God, ". . . on mee let thine anger fall; / Account mee man" (III.237-38). After the Son's offer, the narrator says. His words here ended, but his meek aspect Silent yet spake, and breath'd immortal love To mortal men, above which only shone Filial obedience. (III.266-69) As for whose fault the fall is, God blames man: ingrate, he had of mee All he could have; I made him just and right. Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall. (III.97-99) The Father calls man an "ingrate" in line 97, a thought Adam echoes in IX.1164 when he rails against "ingrateful Eve." Interestingly, God says man "had of mee / All he could have." Of course, by the time Adam ^̂ John Milton, The Works of John Milton, ed. Frank Allen Patterson, Vol. 17 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1934), p. 69. ^̂ Columbia Milton, Vol. 14, p. 25. 22 calls Eve "ingrateful," the fall ha^ occurred. Repetition of "ingrate" helps the alert reader to see that, although the two actions are separated by six books, God's anger and Adam's anger occur at nearly the same time; thus, Milton achieves unity of plot at two critical stages. God's justification for giving man freedom, "Not free, what proof could they have giv'n sincere / Of true allegiance, constant Faith or Love. . .?" (III.103-04) is echoed by Raphael in Book V when he says to Adam for how Can hearts, not free, be tri'd whether they serve Willing or no, who will but what they must By Destiny, and can no other choose? (V.131-34) Adam and Eve are fully aware, then, why they have freedom; yet, they deliberately choose to sin. As a result, according to God, the pair "hath naught left, / But to destruction sacred and devote" (III.208). Milton later puts an echo of God's words in the mouth of Adam (who is supposed to be Eve's head, or "God") when he confronts his wife, who is "Defac'd, deflow'r'd, and now to Death devote" in IX.901. The word "mortal" is repeated many times in the poem, beginning in Book III. Whenever it is used, it entails either spiritual death or physical death. God calls man's sin a "mortal crime" in III.215, 29 referring to Adam and Eve's spiritual death. Only through the sacri­ fice of the Son can man escape instant spiritual death because of sin 30 and the "mortal sting" (III.253) of physical death. ^̂ See VIII.331, IX.1003, X.48, X.796, XI.273, XI.366. ^° For "mortal" in the sense of physical death, see III.268, IV.8, VI.348, VI.434, VII.24, X.273, XI.54. 23 The Compound Allusions Most of the allusions of Book III are biblical rather than classi­ cal; they underscore the Sonship of Christ in all of its aspects and, by emphasizing the perfect obedience of the Son, they strengthen the theme of obedience Milton has established by repetition. The Father's exclamation, "0 Son, in whom my Soul hath chief delight" (III.168) calls to mind both Matthew 3:17, "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased," and John 1:18, in which Jesus is called "the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father. . ."*̂^ The narrator says in III.225 that the fullness of love divine dwells in the Son. In his note on this line, Hughes records Milton's belief (expressed in the Christian Doctrine's chapter on the Son) in John 3:35 as evidence for Christ's power as Redeemer ("The Father loveth the Son, 32 and hath given all things into his hand"). Why Hughes notes this bit of information for III.225 is very puzzling. Milton's line speaks of the fullness of the Son's love, not of His power as Redeemer. For one of the few times in his edition of Milton^s works, Hughes' comments bear little relationship to the line they are supposed to gloss. A more accurate reference for the fullness of the relationship between the Father and the Son is Colossians 2:9, where St. Paul says in Christ "dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."^"^ The Son becomes Christ the Redeemer when He realizes that man can never seek grace "once dead in sins and lost" (III.233). He becomes ^̂ Hughes, p. 262. ^̂ Hughes, p. 263. 33 Fowler, p. 155. 26 As God commands the angels to "Adore him, who to compass all this dies, / Adore the Son, and honor him as mee" in III.342-43, the book returns to the mission of Satan to find Eden and destroy it, but not without a final glimpse of the Son, and a reminder of His obedience which will destroy Satan in the end. BOOK IV The Repetitions In Paradise Lost, the word "hand" often represents the physical union of Adam and Eve. Less obviously, it represents their spiritual union as well: So pass'd they naked on, nor shunn'd the sight Of God or Angel, for they thought no ill: So hand in hand they pass'd, the loveliest pair That ever since in love's imbraces met. (IV.319-22) Clearly, the "handedness" of Adam and Eve indicates that they have a physical relationship. "They" in the second line, however, could refer to "God or Angel" (meaning God or Angels thought no ill). Thus, the passage indicates just as strongly that, by the approval of Heaven's powers, the handed union of Adam and Eve symbolically transcends the physical level. Kester Svendsen supports this view when he writes in Milton and Science, "Camerarius, for example, in The Living Librarie collects numerous examples of such symbolism from Alexander of Alexandria, Numa Pompilius, and others to show the joining of hands as a consecration of faith." Indeed, one must be careful not to overemphasize Adam and Eve's physical union. True, when Eve tells of her first meeting with Adam Milton and Science (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1956), p. 111. 27 28 she says, ". . . thy gentle hand / Seiz'd mine" (IV.488-89), but the word "seiz'd" could startle a reader enough to prevent him from seeing that Adam's hand is a "gentle" one and that his passion before the fall is love, not lust. The pair trust each other completely, "talk­ ing hand in hand alone" (IV.689), and going "handed" into their bower "without the troublesome disguises which wee wear" (IV.739-40). The trust represented by Adam and Eve's joined hands is something the couple loses after the fall, and they do not regain it until the poem's end, when they leave Eden "hand in hand with wand'ring steps and slow" (IXX.648). Later, Adam wakes Eve from her slumber not only by touching her hand (V.17), but also be calling to her. These last three examples show that, although touch plays an important part in Adam and Eve's relationship, the role often complements the other faculties with which God endowed the humans, notably, the mind and the voice. The physical and spiritual harmony of Adam and Eve, symbolized by their clasped hands, extends through all of creation. Preparing for Raphael's visit to the Garden, Eve "heaps with unspairing hand" the bounty God has provided (V.344). The lion dandles the kid in his paw (IV.344-45), and Autumn and Spring dance "hand in hand" (V.395). Another important word in Paradise is "taste." As Elledge observes, in Milton's time it meant "'to learn by proof, test or experience,' as well as 'to try, examine, or explore by touch,' 'to handle' and 'to have carnal knowledge of.' It also meant 'to perceive by the sense of taste or smell.'"^^ In Books IV and V, except for the prohibition of ^̂ John Milton, Paradise Lost, A Norton Critical Edition (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1975), p. 46. 31 might know, the cormorant was a traditional symbol of greedy men, and the bird is sitting upon the tree whose fruit is the reward of the faithful spoken of in Revelation 2:7: "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." But the image also foreshadows judgment on Satan, for "in the day of the Lord's vengeance . . . the land . . . shall become burning pitch. . . . But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it" (Isaiah 34:8-9, 11).^° When Satan first sights Adam and Eve, he describes them as "creatures of other mould, earth-born perhaps, / Not spirits, yet to heavenly spirits bright / Little inferior" (IV.360-62), recalling both Psalm 8:5 ("For thou hast made [man] a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor"), and Hebrews 2:7 ("Thou 51 madest him a little lower than the angels-. . . " ) . In spite of his wonder at the beauty of the couple, the fiend resolves to bring Hell to them, saying, my dwelling haply may not please Like this fair Paradise, your sense, yet such Accept your Maker's work; he gave it to me. Which I as freely give; Hell shall unfold. To entertain you two, her widest Gates And send forth all her Kings. (IV.378-83) In these lines, Satan blasphemously echoes Matthew 10:8 ("freely ye have received, freely give"), and anticipates Isaiah 14:9 ("Hell from ^̂ Hughes, p. 282. ^° Fowler, p. 203; Sims, p. 263. ^̂ Fowler, p. 217. 32 beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming ... it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations"). Perhaps, as Fowler suggests, there is another foreshadowing of judgment against Satan in the "distant resonance" of Romans 8:32: "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with 52 him also freely give us all things?" Even if Fowler's speculation is unlikely, Gabriel's warning speech at the close of Book IV leaves no doubt of future judgment and punish­ ment against Satan: But mark what I arede thee now, avaunt; Fly thither whence thou fled'st: if from this hour Within these hallow'd limits thou appear. Back to th' infernal pit I drag thee chain'd. And Seal thee so (IV.962-66). Clearly, the speech looks forward to Revelation 20:1-3: "And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up. . . ." Milton may have had in mind also Jude 6: "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved 53 in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." To prevent a second war between Satan and the angels which Gabriel's words nearly provoke, God ^̂ Hughes, p. 287; Fowler, p. 218. ^̂ Fowler, p. 250; Sims, p. 263. 33 Hung forth in Heav'n his golden Scales, yet seen Betwixt Astrea and the Scorpion sign. Wherein all things created first he weigh'd. The pendulous round Earth with balanc't Air In counterpoise, now ponders all events. Battles and Realms. (IV.997-1001) Hughes and Fowler correctly note Milton's debt to the Iliad and the Aenied for the scales, but they also note that the idea of God weighing events in a balance goes back to the Bible. For instance. Job 28:24-25 ". . . he looketh to the ends of the earth . . . he weigheth the waters by measure." Job 37:16 speaks of God's "balancing of the clouds." I Samuel 2:3 says, "The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed." Proverbs 16:2 asserts, "the Lord weigheth the spirits," and Isaiah 40:12 asks, "Who hath . . . weighed the mountains in scales, 54 and the hills in a balance?" Milton's reason for drawing in the scales of judgment from the Aeneid may be seen in the final lines of Book IV: The Fiend lookt up and knew His mounted scale aloft: nor more; but fled Murmurring, and with him fled the shades of night. (IV.1013-15) Harding believes Milton is alluding to the death of Turnus, whose soul passes down to the shades with groans. He says. The death of Turnus, as we have seen, did not have its complete meaning in itself. With him perished a whole creed, a whole outlook on life. Satan does not perish, but it is not only he who has been weighed in the balance and been found wanting. It is his code, the heroic values he incorporates, the principle of "what Arms can doe."55 ^̂ Fowler, p. 254, ^̂ The Club of Hercules, p. 50. 36 the world, aid and comfort for man will come from Heaven even more easily. Raphael greets Adam courteously, but to Eve he says, "Hail Mother of Mankind" (V.389), one of the formal titles of address Milton uses throughout the epic. After the archangel Michael reveals to him the birth of the Messiah in Book XI, Adam exclaims. Virgin Mother, Hail, High in the love of Heav'n, yet from my Loins Thou Shalt proceed, and from thy Womb the Son Of God most High; So God with man unites. (XII.379-82) Not only are Divine and human history united in the echoes of these speeches, but the movement of Milton's poems as well. The poet con­ stantly conveys a message of hope for mankind, both before and after the fall. The Compound Allusions The allusions in Book V give needed biblical and classical support for Milton's account of Raphael's mission from Heaven and the causes of Satan's rebellion. God sends the angel, saying, "Go therefore, half this day as friend with friend / Converse with Adam" (V.229-30). These lines have a basis in Exodus 33:11 ("And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend"), and James 2:23 ("And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteous: and he was called the Friend of 57 God"). A possible reason God spoke with Moses face to face and not ^'^ Fowler, p. 270; Sims, p. 264 37 face to face with Adam is that, in the wilderness, the people of Israel needed laws to govern their conduct. Adam and Eve live in Paradise under only one command of obedience, and need counsel against Satan's temptation, not statutes. As Milton's readers reflect on the opening of Heaven's gate in V.254-56, they may recall Peter's encounter in Acts 12:10 with an iron gate "which opened to them of his own accord," and the Iliad V. 749, CO "where the gates of heaven open automatically for Hera." By allusion, Milton supports what he has already suggested in the contrast between Sin's gate and Heaven's: the opening of Peter's gate to free the servants of God is expressly tied to the Divine will. The main source for Raphael's greeting to Eve in V.385-88 is Genesis 3:20 ("And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living"). As Hughes points out, however, "Hail is 59 the greeting of the Angel of the Annunciation to Mary (Luke 1.28)." Mary is the second Eve because she brings forth the Son who saves from sin the human race, which originated in Eve. Raphael then tells the couple of the event which triggered Satan's wrath, God's exhaltation of the Son, using the Father's words: This day I have begot whom I declare My only Son, and on this holy Hill Him have annointed, whom ye now behold At my right hand; your Head I him appoint; And by myself have sworn to him shall bow All knees in Heav'n, and shall confess him Lord. (V.603-608) ^̂ Fowler, p. 271. ^̂ Hughes, p. 311. 38 Milton has compressed several biblical allusions in these lines. The main one is Psalm 2:6-7, "Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me. Thou art my Son; this day I have begotten thee." Also in the background are God's command to Abraham in Genesis 22:2 to "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest . . . and offer him . . . for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." Psalm 110 says, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." Ephesians 4:15 speaks of Christ "which is the head" of all things. Colossians 2:10 assures Christians they are "complete" in Christ, who is "the head of all principality fin and power." In short, it was this manifestation of the Father's will for the Son, overlooking Satan, which causes the War in Heaven Raphael describes for the rest of Book V and Book VI. ^° Hughes, p. 316; Sims, p. 264- 41 mean "eagle," but cites no proof. If Hughes is correct, perhaps Leviticus 11:13 crossed Milton's mind when naming him: ". . . they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the fifi ossifrage, and the osprey." The compound allusions buried in the names of the fallen angels help clarify for the reader the idea that wickedness is being cast out by goodness, an idea which forms the main theme of Book VI. After two days of struggle, God the Father says to the Son, "Two days are therefore past, the third is thine" (VI.699), a line which Sims believes may be referring to Luke 13:32 (". . . and the third day I shall be perfected"), I Corinthians 15:4 (". . . he rose again the third day according to the scriptures"), and I Corinthians 15:57 ("But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus fi7 Christ"). That an allusion to Luke is present seems certain because the strength of the Son to overthrow the rebel angels ^i. made perfect in God's will, but Sims' citation of the verses in I Corinthians is puzzling. He discusses neither verse in the text of his book; he merely lists them in his index of biblical allusions in Paradise Lost. I Corinthians 15:4 is at variance with the immediate action of the poem, The Son is raised from the dead on the third day by the agency of the Father (compare Peter's words in Acts 3:15 about "the Prince of Life, whom God hath raised from the dead"), whereas, in Heaven, while the ^̂ Hughes, p. 334. ^̂ Sims, p. 265. ^̂ Sims, p. 265. 42 Son's acts are totally within the will of the Father, they are executed through the Son's agency. The context from which I Corinthians 15:57 is taken has to do with Christians overcoming physical death on Earth (e.g., St. Paul's cry in verse 55: "0 death, where is thy sting? 0 grave, where is thy victory?"). Thus, it does little to make clearer the Son's victory in Heaven. The Son responds to God: 0 Father, 0 Supreme of Heavenly Thrones, First, Highest, Holiest, Best, thou always seek'st To glorify thy Son, I always thee. As is most just; this I my Glory account. My exhaltation, and my whole delight. That thou in me well pleas'd, declar'st thy will Fulfill'd, which to fulfil is all my bliss. Sceptre and Power, thy giving, I assume. And gladlier shall resign, when in the end Thou Shalt be All in All, and I in thee For ever, in me all whom thou lov'st; (VI.723-33). This passage is perhaps the strongest indicator of both the harmony of wills between the Father and the Son, and how complete God's victory eventually will be over evil. It contains references to some of the most well-known verses in the Bible. "Thou always seek'st / To glorify thy Son, I always thee" reflects the opening of Christ's great prayer in John 17: "Father the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee." The Son's acknowledgement that God is "well- pi eased" with Him echoes the same knowledge that the human Christ will later receive from God, that "this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17, 17:5).^^ The lines ". . . in the end / Thou ^^ Hughes, p. 340, 43 shalt be All in All" may remind the reader of St. Paul's prophecy that "when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all."^^ The Son puts on a countenance "Gloomy as Night; under his burning Wheels / The steadfast Empyrean shook throughout" (VI.832-33). Milton's audience may have been reminded of Hector, "gloomy as Night" in the IIiad XI1.462. At the same time, however, they might remember Job's realization that, at God's wrath, "the pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at his reproof" (Job 26:11). Hector's anger is matched also by God's vow to "shake the heavens" in Isaiah 13:13. The Son's burning wheels may also be a reference to Daniel's vision of the wheels of the Almighty, which were like "burning fire" (Daniel 7:9). The classical reference followed by the biblical ones make it possible for a reader' to respond to the picture of Divine wrath no matter what he is most familiar with--mythology or scripture. Mythology and scripture are also the most authoritative sources Milton's audience would have had to check the believability of events no man has ever seen. The book closes with the Son triumphant and the angels proclaiming Him "worthiest to reign" (VI.888). Revelation 12:10 is in the background ("Now is come salvation . . . and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ; for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which ^^ Hughes, p. 340; Sims, p. 265. 70 Hughes, p. 343; Fowler, p. 351; Sims, p. 266 46 than the Being who made those things, the fall begins. For example, Satan in the serpent praises the forbidden tree, "0 Sacred, Wise, and Wisdom-giving Plant, / Mother of Science" in IX.679-80 where, as Hughes notes, "Science" keeps its Latin meaning of "knowledge."^^ Raphael, on the other hand, keeps his account of the creation focused on the Almighty. He recalls the angels praised "God and his works. Creator him they sung" in VII.258-59, and twice more within sixteen lines Raphael mentions ". . . the Creator from his work / Desisting" (VII.551-52), and "the great Creator from his work return'd" (VII.567). In his catalogue and description of the animals God made, the angel mentions last (and next to man) "the Serpent subtl'st Beast of all the Field" (VII-495), a title repeated exactly by the narrator in IX.86. Satan regrets being mixed with "bestial slime" (IX.165), but one must remember that the demonic perspective is always perverted; until Book IX, the serpent is merely part of God's good creation. Previous repetitions of "beast" contain no negative value judgements. The Compound Allusions Milton uses allusion in Book VII to underscore the enormity and often unfathomable mystery of God's creation, beginning with the division of the waters in VII.267-69: partition firm and sure. The Waters underneath from those above Dividing . . . The lines are based mostly on the matter-of-fact account of Genesis 1:7 ("And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were 17 Eve's attention is later turned by Satan toward yet another object: "Great are thy Virtues, doubtless best of Fruits" (IX.745). 47 under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so"). Although Milton does not quote Genesis exactly, the phrase "The Waters underneath from those above" reflects the biblical words, "waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament." Sims also cites Psalm 24:2, "For he hath founded it [the world] upon the seas, and established it upon the floods"; Psalm 104:3, which praises the God "who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters"; and Psalm 148:4, which commands the "waters that be above the heavens" to praise God. In their mention of "seas," "floods," and "waters," these scriptures parallel Milton's lines and also suggest the vastness of one of the principal elements of creation. Sims has perhaps gone too far, however, in suggesting Genesis 7:11 as a reference for VI 1.267-69: "... the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven 73 were opened." This verse is a specific reference to the Flood, not the Creation. Implied in the words "the great deep broken up" is the idea that God has disturbed part of His creation to destroy wicked man. God's command to ". . . let the Waters generate / Reptile with Spawn abundant, living Soul" (VII.387-88) goes back to Genesis 1:20 "And God said. Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life. . . " ) , but perhaps Milton also remembered Psalm 104:25 ("So is this great and wide and great sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts"). '^^ Sims, p. 266. Hughes, p. 355; Sims, p. 266 48 Raphael's mention of "the grassy Clods now Calv'd" in VII.463 calls to Sims's mind Psalm 29:9 ("The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve. . . " ) , and Job 39:1 ("Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? Or canst thou mark when the hinds do 75 calve?"). In the one reference, the reader sees God's omnipotence; in the other. His omniscience--both concepts beyond man's comprehension. Book VII closes as the angels praise God, the "Author and end of all things," who blesses and hallows the seventh day (VII.591-93). Hughes notes that the blessing of the Sabbath comes from Genesis 2:3 "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it"). Sims cites Hebrews 12:12, which identifies Jesus as "the author and finisher of 7fi our faith," but once again, his citation is troublesome. The verse in Hebrews identifies the Son in His specific role as Savior and sustainer of Christians, not in His role as the Creator. "Author and end of all things," Milton's phrase, is a more general title, emphasizing the Divine creative power. Its generality suggests that Milton is perhaps paraphrasing Revelation 22:13, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last," a verse which sums up the Almighty's power to exist, to create the universe, and to sustain it. 75 Sims, p. 267. Hughes, p. 361; Sims, p. 267. BOOK IX The Repetitions In Book IX, Milton continues his development of the relationship between Adam and Eve (now fully warned of Satan's plot) by repeating "hand," as he did in Book IV. As the couple renew their daily task of tending the Garden, they know they could best deal with Satan's threat by staying together. One must admit, however, that Eve's first reason for wanting to separate appears sound: the Garden jj^ growing fast, and dividing the labor of pruning it j_s a reasonable temporary measure until "more hands" can aid them (IX.207). Adam disagrees with Eve's reasoning, saying, our joint hands Will keep from Wilderness with ease, as wide As we need walk, till younger hands ere long Assist us (IX.244-47). He is thinking primarily of the literal wilderness surrounding them, 81 but if "wilderness" here means "wildness," as Hughes glosses, then Adam may be concerned not only with curbing the wild plants in Eden, but also with cautioning Eve against wild actions. In short, he sees their "joint hands" as essential to preserving both the physical and spiritual-intellectual harmony of Paradise for the "younger hands"-- the workers--of the next generation. oi Hughes, p. 384. 51 52 But, after discussing at length her second reason for wanting to separate—the God-given right to act independently—Eve departs, and Milton writes, "... from her Husband's hand her hand / Soft she withdrew" (IX.385-86). Significantly, Eve breaks contact, not Adam; since she is the one who wants to separate, she initiates the action. Eve's willful independence is emphasized further by the distinction "her hand." For the first time in her relationship with Adam, Eve's hand belongs solely to herself; previous repetitions make no such distinction: "So hand in hand they pass'd" (IV.321), and "Handed they went" (IV.739). Such a reading of IX.385-86, though, makes the separation of the pair seem harsher than Milton may have intended. Because the phrase "... from her Husband's hand her hand" has no punctuation, it is possible to read the line and conclude that, for Eve, Adam's hand jU her hand, in the strongest metaphorical sense. If this interpretation is correct, it helps the reader see two things. First, he senses the poignancy of the dramatic situation; the physical and spiritual union Adam and Eve have enjoyed to this point will last just one moment longer, and then Eve will withdraw her hand. Second, Milton's syntax is a perfect reflection of that dramatic situation. The closeness of the bond between the couple is represented in the unpunctuated flow of ". . . from her Husband's hand her hand," and the line break between 385 and 386 occurs precisely when Eve "breaks" from Adam to go her own way. After listening to the speeches of Satan in the serpent. Eve reaches with "rash hand" to pluck the forbidden fruit (IX.780-81). 53 The narrator believes Satan attacks Eve alone because of her weaker 82 intellect, but one must not suppose Milton actually believes Eve has no intellect at all. He carefully describes her hand as "rash," meaning, "of speech, actions, qualities, etc.: Characterized by, or proceeding from undue haste or want of consideration" (OED). The definition suggests that Eve falls, not because she does not think, but because she does not think enough; her weakness of intellect is a weakness of degree, not of kind. Having sinned. Eve carries "in her hand / A bough of fairest fruit that downy smil'd" (IX.850) for Adam. When he learns what she has done, his hand reflects his horror: "From his slack hand the Garland wreathed for Eve / Down dropp'd, and all the faded Roses shed" (IX.892.93). The separation of their hands has meant spiritual death for Eve; Adam's hand itself "dies" for a moment, and the flowers it holds become the first instance of physical death in the poem. Eve embraces him and gives him to eat of the fruit with "liberal hand" (IX.990, 997), and Adam scrupl'd not to eat Against his better knowledge, not deceiv'd. But fondly overcome with Female charm. (IX.997-999) Even though he knows the disastrous penalty for eating the forbidden fruit, Adam still cannot resist the touch of his wife and the offering in her hand. He reciprocates Eve's touch when 82 Satan shuns Adam's "higher intellectual" in IX.483. 56 intrudes to compare Eden to some mythological gardens and to an historical one where the Sapient King Held dalliance with his fair Egyptian spouse. Much hee the Place admir'd, the Person more. (IX.442-44) As Christopher Ricks points out, into the single line 444 Milton has compressed three references: (1) Solomon's uxoriousness toward his Egyptian wife; (2) Adam's excessive love for Eve; and (3) Satan's OC admiration for Eve. The reference to Solomon is clear enough to warrant no discussion. That Adam is as guilty of excessive love for his wife as Solomon will be is substantiated by Raphael's earlier warning. For what admir'st thou, what transports thee so. An outside? fair no doubt, and worthy well Thy cherishing, thy honoring, and thy love. Not thy subjection (VIII.567-70). The third allusion is possible simply because Milton provides no transi­ tion between the narrator's story of Solomon and Satan's observation of Eve. There is one other allusion in that line, however; an allusion to Satan's fall and its cause. The "voice" of line 444 has shifted from an external third person to an internal first person. In other words, Satan speaks not only to himself, but also of himself. He admires, at least for a while, every place he finds in Paradise Lost: Heaven, Hell, and the world; but the wretch admires his person much more, and pride leads to his fall. Solomon and Adam fall because they love their ^̂ Milton's Grand Style, pp. 135-37. 57 wives too much; Satan, because he loves himself. Thus, in one line, Milton has given the alert reader not only four allusions, but also in allusions (1), (2), and (4) clear indications of the reason for the fall that was, and the falls that will be. During Satan's lavish oratory, he tells Eve that God forbid the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge because he knows that in the day Ye eat thereof, your Eyes that seem so clear. Yet are but dim, shall perfectly be then Op'n'd and clear'd, and ye shall be as Gods. (IX.705-709) In these lines Satan is perversely misquoting and distorting God's warning in Genesis 2:17 ("But of the tree of the knowledge of 'good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof 87 thou shalt surely die"), but the fiend's words about Eve's eyes "that seem so clear, / Yet are but dim," suggest also St. Paul's comment in I Corinthians 13:12 ("For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know even as also I am known"). Any argument for an allusion to I Corinthians 13:12 here is tenuous at best, but the merging of the two references is possible on the grounds that, as humans, we "see through a glass darkly" because the results of Adam and Eve's efforts to open their own eyes without God are the sight they have of their nakedness and sin, and their immediate inability to see any way-out of the dilemma. We of the I am aware, of course, that the exact scriptural basis for IX.705-709 is Genesis 3:5 ("For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil"); I quote God's original warning to illustrate how utterly false Satan's statement is. 58 generations of men since Eden know God's plan imperfectly, know only in part because Adam and Eve once had the same difficulty. They "know in part" in the sense that they are aware that any sins they commit will have dire consequences for their descendants; exactly what those conse­ quences are they do not immediately understand. Milton's readers may understand the consequences of the fall, though, by noting carefully the allusions the poet has made in Adam's speech of despair in IX.1084-90: 0 might I here In solitude live savage, in some glade Obscur'd, where highest Woods impenetrable To Star or Sun-light, spread thir umbrage broad, And brown as Evening: Cover me ye Pines, Ye Cedars, with innumerable boughs Hide me, where I may never see them more. Into lines 1088-90, Milton has compressed references to Revelation 6:15-16 and Luke 23:28-30: And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond man, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks. Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. (Revelation 6:15-16) But Jesus turning unto them said. Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For behold, the days are coming, in which they shall say. Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains. Fall on us; and to the hills. Cover us. (Luke 23:28-30) The parallel between the effort of individual men at the end of days to hide from Christ's wrathful judgement and Adam's effort is ^airly BOOK X The Repetitions In Book IX Adam and Eve lose everything by sinning—all harmony with each other, with nature, and with God; Milton repeats the word "all" many times in Book X to remind his readers how complete the tragedy is, and how complete the couple's repentance must be to merit salvation. The totality of the tragedy is reflected in the narrator's comment that, in Heaven, "th' ethereal People ran, to hear and know / How all befell" (X.27, emphasis mine). The corrupted world is now ready for the entrances of Sin and Death. Satan tells his offspring that it is "all yours, right down to Paradise descend; / There dwell and Reign in bliss. . ." (X.398-99). As a result, the animals are no longer docile: "Beast now with Beast gan war, and Fowl with Fowl, / And Fish with Fish" (X.710-11). Plant life is affected as well; we have already seen the flowers start to die (IX.892-93). Adam realizes, however, that the fall's greatest effects will be on his descendants. Every sin and curse imaginable has fallen upon his head, but worse, "all from mee / Shall with a fierce reflux on mee redound" (X.738-39). After questioning the wisdom of his own creation, he wonders if it would not be right for God to "reduce me to my dust . . and render back / All I receiv'd" (X.748-50)-"all" being the love of Eve, the animals, the beauty of Eden, and the knowledge of God Himself. 61 62 Of his sin, Adam wishes he could "waste it all" and leave his descendants none (X.820), for he knows that otherwise, man will spring from him "all corrupt, / both Mind and Will deprav'd" (X.835). When he recognizes himself as the cause of all future sins of mankind, Adam absolves God of responsibility, "all Disputes" with Him ended (X.828), rejecting "all evasions vain" (X.829). Adam admits he is the "source and spring / Of all corruption," and on him "all the blame lights due" (X.832-33). His sin will cause him to bear a burden "than all the World much heavier" (X.836), and it is already destroying for him "all hope / Of refuge" (X.838-39), and rendering the misery of his life "beyond all past example and future" (X.840). William Empson comments, "... one can almost say that Milton uses oq alj[ whenever there is any serious emotional pressure." Certainly there is emotional pressure in Adam's soliloquy, and more comes through in his castigation of Eve. He imagined his wife was "wise, / Constant, mature, proof against all assaults" (X.881-82), and bitterly claims he did not understand "all was but a show / Rather than solid virtue, all but a Rib / Crooked by nature" (X.883-85). In his emotional state, Adam forgets that he asked for Eve to begin with, and the rib, crooked though it is, came from him. It is much to Eve's credit that she does not run away from Adam, but with "tresses all disorder'd" (X.911) falls crying at his feet and begs forgiveness. She asks Adam to stay with her until such time as she may return to the place of judgment, and there with her cries "importune Heaven, that all / The sentence from OQ The Structure of Complex Words (London: Chatto and Windus, 1951), p. 102. 63 thy head remov'd may light / On me" (X.933-35). This quality of self-sacrifice makes Eve the strongest character in Book X, and makes both Eve and Adam (from God's point of view) worth saving. She ends weeping, and Adam (to ] m credit) "as one disarm'd, his anger all he lost" (X.945), and the couple are reunited. Adam and Eve lose everything in Book X, but the last thing they lose--their anger--is the most crucial loss of all, for it allows them to pray sincerely and penitently--the first step toward salvation. The book closes with one of the loveliest examples of concentrated repeti­ tion in the poem. Adam, remembering the Divine promise that Eve's seed will bruise the serpent's head, suggests. What better can we do, than to the place Repairing where he judg'd us, prostrate fall Before him reverent, and there confess Humbly our faults, and pardon beg, with tears Watering the ground, and with our sighs the Air Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite in sign Of sorrow unfeign'd, and humiliation meek. • • • • So spake our Father penitent, nor Eve Felt less remorse: they forthwith to the place Repairing where he judg'd them prostrate fell Before him reverent, and both confess'd Humbly thir faults, and pardon begg'd with tears Watering the ground, and with thir sighs the Air Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign Of sorrow unfeign'd, and humiliation meek. (X.1086-92; 1097-1104) To Edward Le Comte, the poet repeats the lines "to stress the fallen 90 pair's didactically important repentance," but to state the matter so coldly is to do Milton an injustice. The lines act like a double ^^ Yet Once More, p. 29. 66 was usually taken to mean that the children of Israel had become 94 rotten to the core. Adam's burst of self-pity, "Did I request thee. Maker, from my Clay / To mould me Man. . . ?" in X.743-44 certainly recalls Isaiah's warning, "Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! . . . Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth, what makest thou?" (Isaiah 45:9), but it is reminiscent, too, of Job 33:6: "I also am formed out of the 95 clay." Both Adam and Job lose everything they have, both question the wisdom of their creation, and both eventually achieve a "Paradise within happier far" by trusting in the promises of God. 94 Fowler, p. 536. qs ^̂ Sims, p. 269. BOOK XI The Repetitions Man's sin has left God the Father no choice. He says. But longer in that Paradise to dwell. The law I gave to nature him forbids • • • to remove him I decree. And send him from the Garden forth to Till The Ground whence he was taken, fitter soil. (XI-48-49; 96-98) The archangel Michael's first task upon descending to Eden is to deliver God's decree. He does so, word for word: But longer in this Paradise to dwell Permits not, to remove thee I am come. And send thee from the Garden forth to till The ground whence thou wast tak'n, fitter soil (XI.259-62). The Father's decision to banish Adam and Eve from the Garden is the most solemn decision in the poem. (Even the Son's offer of Himself for man, solemn as it is, carries an undercurrent of joy.) For this reason, if for no other, Michael repeats God's words exactly, though with one conspicuous omission: he makes no reference to God's "law of nature"—a law broken by the fall. Perhaps he does not mention it to spare the couple more anguish over an obvious truth they probably know intuitively. Northrop Frye believes that man is excluded from 67 58 Paradise after he eats of the Tree of Knowledge not because God is jealous, but to prevent man from living forever in a fallen world.^^ In reality then, God blesses Adam and Eve by banishing them—a paradox almost as great as the fall itself. God shows them mercy, but a mercy accepted by the couple with a sadness that Eve feels deeply when she laments. Must I thus leave thee Paradise? thus leave Thee Native Soil, these happy Walks and Shades, Fit haunt of Gods? (XI.269-71) a passage which once again calls to mind Satan's vaunting cry. Is this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime . . . this the seat That we must change for Heav'n, this mournful gloom For that celestial light? (1.242-45) The echo is sitautional as well as verbal. Eve is closely associated with Satan many times in the epic, but never more poignantly than here. Both of them are aware that they have sacrificed a "fit haunt of Gods" to rebellion and sin, but Eve's hell becomes much easier to bear when Michael reminds her where her true "Native Soil" is: Thy going is not lonely, with thee goes Thy Husband, him to follow thou art bound; Where he abides, think there thy native soil. (XI.290-92) The Compound Allusions The significant compound allusions in Book XI set up the vision of history unfolded to Adam, and teach him that men must endure many 96 The Return of Eden, p. 81. BOOK XII The Repetitions The dominant word of Book XII (indeed, of each of the last three books of the epic) is "seed." Over and over again, Milton stresses the promise of man's salvation to come, in the fullness of time, through the "seed of Woman." The echoes of the promise begin in Book X, where despairing Adam remembers Christ's words that Eve's "Seed shall bruise / The Serpent's head" (X.1031-32). God instructs Michael to "intermix" within the vision of things to come "my Cov'nant in the woman's seed renew'd" (XI.116). Adam finds peace in prayer by remembering once more that Eve's "Seed" shall bruise our Foe (XI.155). As the vision of human history unfolds before Adam, the "promised seed" becomes a less general term of assurance, and is specifically identified with the forerunners of Christ. The first identification is with Abraham, who left his "native Soil" willingly (in contrast to Eve in XI.269-71), and of whom Michael says, " in his Seed all Nations shall be blest" (XII.125-26; 147-48). The next one is with Moses, who will preside over the Israelites' civil laws and religious rites of sacrifice, "informing them, by types / And shadows, of that destin'd Seed" (XII.232-33). David's line survives through years of apostacy and captivity to produce the Virgin Mother, Mary. When Adam sees her, he understands at last "why our great expectation should be call'd / 71 72 The seed of Woman" (XII.378-79). The undefiled maiden will give birth to the sinless Man, redeemer of the human race. Michael then explains what Adam does not yet understand, that Christ will accomplish His mission "not by destroying Satan, but his works / In thee and in thy Seed" (XII.394-95), by fulfilling that which Adam lacked: "Obedience to the Law of God, impos'd / On penalty of death" (XII.397-98). Christ, "the woman's seed" (XII.543), is thus the Lord and Savior of mankind, empowered by God to judge the living and the dead, and receive the faithful into earthly or Heavenly Paradise at the last day (XII.460-63). Fittingly, the last words in the poem are Eve's: "By mee the Promis'd Seed shall all restore" (XII.623), but just as fittingly, Milton returns to the word "hand," which symbolizes again the union Adam and Eve will have to maintain until the Promised Seed appears. For the last time, angel unites with man as Michael catches the lingering pair "in either hand" (XII.637) and leads them to the Eastern Gate, and out of Paradise. With all the world before them, there is nothing for Adam and Eve to do but go their solitary way through Eden. They go "hand in hand," sadder, but wiser than they were (XI1.648). The Compound Allusions Compound allusion in Book XII reinforces the promise of continuing Divine Providence established by the verbal repetition of "seed." Michael's words that Christ shall ascend The Throne hereditary, and bound his Reign With Earth's wide bounds, his glory with the Heav'ns (XII.369-71) 73 weave references to Isaiah 9:7 ("Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this"), Matthew 19:28 ("Verily I say unto you. That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel"), and Luke 1:32-33 (". . . and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever").^^^ Sims also lists for Milton's lines questionable references to Psalm 2:8 ("Ask of me and I shall give thee . . . the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession"), Daniel 7:13-22, in which the prophet has a very broad vision of the glory and dominion of God's kingdom, and Revelation 2:25-27 ("But that which ye have already hold fast till I come. And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works to the end, to him will I give power over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter they shall be broken to shivers: even as I 103 have received of my Father"). The verse in Psalms is questionable because the speaker promises to give his son possession of the earth; in XII.369-71 Christ possesses, strictly speaking, only His throne. Daniel's vision is couched in such vague language that it hardly seems applicable to Milton's passage. Only 7:13-14, which tells of "one like the Son of man" receiving "dominion, and glory and a kingdom," ^^^ Sims, p. 272. ^ ° ^ Hughes, p. 463. WORKS CITED Blessington, Francis C. Paradise Lost and the Classical Epic. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979. Bush, Douglas. "Ironic and Ambiguous Allusion in Paradise Lost." JEGP, 60 (1961), 631-40. DiCesare, Mario A. "Advent'rous Song: The Texture of Milton's Epic." In Language and Style in Milton: A Symposium in Honor of the Tercentenary of Paradise Lost. Eds. R. D. Emma and J. T. Shawcross New York: Frederick Ungar, 1967, pp. 1-29. Empson, William. The Structure of Complex Words. London: Chatto and Windus, 1951. Fish, Stanley E. 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