Humanities 3VI. The Last Epic

Lecture 26

Milton:Poetry and Politics

Outline

• The Meanings of ‘Freedom’• Milton’s Life and the English Revolution• What is an Epic?• Who’s the Hero?

Meanings of ‘Freedom’ (or ‘Liberty’)• Hobbes and Milton are both centrally

concerned with the scope of human freedom• Both also understand that different senses of

the word must be distinguished• It can refer to freedom of the will: a human

being’s capacity for unconstrained choice• Or political freedom: the freedom of action

that is protected under the laws of a state orsovereign

Hobbes• Minimizes the importance of freedom of the

will; he equates it with the physical freedomto move one’s body, if it is not constrained (ariver can be ‘free’ in this sense)

• In the state of nature, one’s freedom or ‘rightof nature’ is limited only by one’s power

• In a commonwealth, political freedom islimited to what is allowed by the sovereign’slaws, as well as the rights one does not cede tothe sovereign (life, bodily integrity, physicalmovement)

Milton• Takes the issue of freedom of will very

seriously; it is one of the axes on which PLturns

• He assumes that Satan and prelapsarianhuman beings have complete freedom ofchoice in relation to God’s commands

• Milton is an opponent of the unlimitedauthority of the sovereign and a strongdefender of political freedom, e.g. the rightto divorce and the right of freedom ofspeech

John Milton (1608-74)

• Poet from a veryyoung age

• Cambridge education(BA in 1629, MA in1632)

• 1638-9 tours Europe,visits Italy, Galileo

Charles I and the Civil War

• Charles I succeedsJames I in 1625

• Religiouscontroversies (1630s)

• 1642-8 English civilwar

• 1646 Charles Isurrenders

• 1649 Charles Ibeheaded

Milton’s Role in the Revolution• 1644 publishes Areopagitica, an attack on

government licensing of the press• 1649 defends Charles I’s beheading• 1650s works as secretary, pamphleteer for

Puritan government of Oliver Cromwell• 1660 publishes defense of republican ideas• By 1651, Milton is blind• 1667 Publication of Paradise Lost

What’s an Epic?

• Elevated, Latinate diction, multiple clauses (highstyle)

• Blank verse• Subject is war• Characters are divine• Aristocratic audience• Journey to underworld• Allusive• Often has national ambitions

Latinate diction

Latin is an inflected language = wordendings denote relationship of words insentences, making word order irrelevant

• Canis mordet hominem.• Mordet hominem canis.• Hominem canis mordet.

English doesn’t have word endings thatindicate relationship of words, so wordorder important is.

Amanda kicks William.William kicks Amanda.Amanda William kicks.

Damon, tell us of your first bicycle.

Of your first bicycle, tell us, Damon.

Of your first bicycle, and the scabbyKnees you got when you off fell, tell us, Damon.

Of your first bicycle, and the kneesScabby you got when off you fell,Which like hell hurtFor days and days, tell us, Damon.

Of your first bicycle, and the scabbyKnees you got when off you fell, which like hell hurtFor days and days, till your parent femaleBactine on them put, and better it all kissed,Tell us, Damon, whose office is in HSS,Or sometimes outdoors at Art of Espresso.

Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruitOf that forbidden tree, whose mortal tasteBrought death into the world, and all our woe,With loss of Eden, till one greater man,Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,Sing, Heav’nly Muse, that on the secret topOf Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspireThat shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed,In the beginning how the heav’ns and earthRose out of Chaos; or if Sion’s hillDelight thee more, and Siloa’s brook that flowedFast by the oracle of God; I thenceInvoke thy aid to my advent’rous song,That with no middle flight intends to soarAbove th’Aonian mount, while it pursuesThings unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.

Blank Verse“The measure is in English heroic versewithout rhyme . . . . This neglect of rhymeso little is to be taken for a defect, though itmay seem so to vulgar readers, that it ratheris to be esteemed an example set, the first inEnglish.” (Preface to Paradise Lost)

Epic Subject is War

IliadThe Odyssey

AeneidThe Lusiads

Orlando FuriosoJerusalem Liberated

All these poems treat of military subjects, warcouncils, single combats and mass attacks.

Characters of Epic are Divine, or Semi-Divine

Consider the main characters in thepreviously-mentioned poems. Note howmany derive from gods, or how often theactions of the gods drive the action of thepoems.

Audience of Epic is Aristocratic

• Heroes descended from gods, and manyaristocrats derived their lineage in similarfashion.

• Single combats and war councils are strictlythe province of the aristocratic class.

• Rhyme is for hoi polloi.

“…and fit audience find, though few” (7.30-1)

Journeys to the Underworld (books 1-2)

Allusions (1.376ff - muster of the fallenangels)

National ambitions

Who’s the Hero?“Nothing can exceed the energy and magnificence of thecharacter of Satan as expressed in Paradise Lost. It is amistake to suppose that he could ever have been intendedfor the popular personification of evil. Milton's Devil as amoral being is as far superior to his God.” - Shelley

“The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote ofAngels and God, and at liberty when of Devils and Hell, isbecause he was a true Poet and of the Devil's party withoutknowing it.” - Blake

Satan as Lousy Democrat?

Demonic Council:Moloch - unending warBelial - peaceful sloth

Mammon - make hell heavenBeelzebub - corrupt new creation

But then again…

• Speech to Beelzebub at 1.105-24

• Speech to Hell at 1.250-63

• Speech to fallen angels at 1.315-30

Things to consider as you read:

• Milton is the great poet of temptation—histemptation scenes are unrivalled.

• Milton is also the great English poet ofmarital love.