A Protestant humanist

Milton started writing poetry early. As a student in Cambridge he wrote his first important work, Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nutivity, where the fusion of Christian and classica1 elements was already present. From 1632 to 1638 Milton lived at his father's country house, studying and conposing poetry, for example L'Allegvo and II Penseroso

twin compositions on the respective merits of day and night. Apart from their technical virtuosity, they display an unusual inspiration later appreciated by the Romantics.

Comus, a Masque also belongs to this first period of Milton's production. It is an allegorica1 masque in which a young girl, the impersonification of chastity, loses herself in a wood and is found by Comus, son of Bacchus and Circe, who tries to seduce her. In Comus Milton is still under the influence of the Renaissance neo-Platonism of Spenser's Faerie Queene and more generally of the conflict between sensual pleasure and

mora1 duty.

The same conflict is present in Lycidas, an elegy in memory of Milton's young and unfortunate friend Edward King. In the face of King's premature death, he wonders whether there is value in striving towards perfection, and finally concludes on a note of acceptance of life's sorrows in view of an afterlife: " 242h75c Fame is no plant that grows on

mortal soil" .

A Puritan polemist

Milton was in Italy in 1639 when news reached him that the Puritans and Royalists were fighting each other at home. He immediately went back to England and in a few years' time became actively involved in the Puritan cause. In 1649 he was appointed Latin Secretary of Cromwell's Council of State, a very important position equivalent to the of a modern Foreign Secretary.

Following the strict Puritan idealism for nearly twenty years Milton almost completely gave up writing poetry and devoted himself to the composition of politica1 and religious prose pamphlets.

Some of his prose writings had a direct relation to his own life, such as The Dottrine and Discipline of Divorce, an apology for divorce influenced by the failure of his first marriage. Others originate from contemporary politica1 events, such as the introduction of preventive book censorship in England, which he strongly opposed in his famous

Areopugitica.

But most of Milton's energies were given to the defense of the Puritan government in the eyes of the nations of Europe, especially after the execution of Charles 1 in 1649. He first wrote Eikonoklastes in English and then Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio, in Latin, to ensure a wider diffusion for the work than would have been possible in English.

Milton's activity in those years was frenetic, and his prose output, including foreign correspondence and papers of state, is astonishing. Such very hard work cost Milton the tota1 loss of his eye-sight.

The return of the Stuarts did not mean a public retraction of his former ideas for Milton, as it did for many. The ageing poet retired from public life to finally write his great epic poem.

The Christian epic

Milton had wanted to write an epic-Christian poem ever since he was young, but he began only after 1660.

Milton's Christian doctrine pervades his masterpiece in this field, Paradise Lost, which deals with the traditional Christian version of the story of the creation of the World and mankind, man's fa11 from the state of grace in Eden, God's mercy towards him, and man leaving Paradise.

WORKS

L'Allegro and Il Penseroso (1632), two poems describing in turn the delights of a merry

carefree life and the pleasures of the studious, meditative life.

Comus (1634), a masque contrasting pagan sensuousness with Puritan chastity in a pasto-ral setting.

Lycidas (1637), an elegy for the death of a college classmate.

Sonnets, the only poetry he wrote in the period 1637-57, on both politica1 and personal

subjects.

The Dottrine and Discipline of Divorce Of Education (1644), Areopugitica (16441,

examples of his polemica1 prose works.

Eikonoklustes and Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio (after 1649), defending the execution

of Charles 1 and supporting Cromwell's regime.

Paradise Lost (1667), an epic poem in twelve books in blank verse dealing with the biblical

tale of man's disobedience, his loss of Paradise and the promise of salvation.

Paradise Regained (1671), an epic poem in four books; it is a sequel to Paradise Lost and

deals with the temptation of Christ in the wilderness.

Sumson Agonistes (1671), a tragedy, modelled on Greek tragedies, telling the last phase

of the life of Samson, blind and prisoner of the Philistines.

SONNETS

Milton was the author of severa1 sonnets at a time when the form was no longer popular: His first sonnets date from the 1630's: they were written in both English and Italian. From Giovanni Della Casa, whose canzoniere Milton bought in 1629 he derives the mode1 of a sonnet in which the usual partition between octave and sestet is broken down and very few lines are end-stopped. The poem thus becomes a fourteen-line unit. Milton's best sonnets (there are in al1 24 of them, five in Italian) were written between 1647 and 1660.

Sonnet XVII: On His Blindness

This famous sonnet is very personal. Milton's sight began to fai1 in about 1644 and he was

completely blind by 1655, at t he age of 47. The metaphor around which this sonnet is developed

is the parable of the talents in Matthew, 18,23-35, in which the servant who buried the

money his master had given him was cast out into darkness. "That one talent" implies the

double meaning of a talent as a piece of money and as the talent for writing epic poetry,

which Milton believed God had given him.

Despite his tota1 devotion to the Puritan cause, for which he had abandoned poetry for twenty years. Milton here expresses his doubts: is he wasting his talent for poetry and

will God one day reproach him? Also, does a blind man have to serve God? The answer is in

true Puritan (and Protestant) spirit: man is not saved by 'works', or good actions (as far

Catholics) but by his faith and humility alone. Or, as Milton says: "They also serve who only

stand and wait".

When I consider how my light is spent,¹

Ere* half my days,² in this dark World and wide, before

And that one talent which is death to hide³

Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent* inclined, was willing

TO serve therewith⁴ my maker,⁵ and present

My true account,* lest* he, returning, chide,^{6   (rendiconto) / for fear that}

"Doth God exact day-labour,⁷ light denied?:'.⁸

I fondly* ask; but Patience, to prevent*  stupidly / stop, silence

That murmur, soon replies: "God doth not need

Either man's work or his own gifts; who best

Bear⁹ his mild yoke,* they serve him best; his state* (giogo)/ condition

Is kingly - thousands at his bidding* speed    command

And post* o'er land and ocean without rest: hurry

They also serve who only stand and wait".

1. spent: the light Milton has "spent" is his sight. It is

tempting here to see a pun on the Italian word 'spenta'.

given Milton's excellent knowledge of Italian. ' '

Ere... days: before the middle of my life. The traditional

duration of life according to the Bible was 70 years (see also

the beginning of La Divina Commedia: "Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita"

3. And.hide: and when I think of that talent it is a sin to conceal

4. therewith: in that way, that is with epic and religious poetry.

5. my maker: my Creator, God (see Dante's "divino

Fattore

6. he... chide: He reproaches me when He comes back on

Doomsday. In the parable of the talents, the master comes

back and asks his servants what use they have made of his

money.

7. Doth... day-labour: does God ask one to render an account

of one's life's work.

8. light denied: even if one is blind.

9. who best bear: those who patiently accept.

PARADISE LOST

A work of the past

Paradise Lost was composed in the early 166Os, after the poet's retirement from active politica1 life because of the fa11 of Cromwell's Commonwealth.

At that time Milton was already blind and had to dictate his poem, which was published in 1667. By that date it was already a work belonging to the past in the sense that the World it expressed, Christian and humanistic, was being replaced by the fundamentally skeptical, culturally French-oriented Restoration society.

The fusion of classica1 and Christian elements

Paradise Lost is the last and the greatest of the Renaissance epics: it is Protestant, in accordance with its author's religious beliefs, and is full of the spirit of Greek and Roman literature (Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid), given a Christian interpretation

in keeping with Northern Humanism.

The tradition of Christian epic poetry went back to Italian sixteenth-century writers. Torquato Tasso with his Gerusalemme Liberata - though not strictly speaking a Christian epic - became the mode1 for European writers, especially regarding his theory of the epic poem. He was Milton's mode1 too in many ways.

Paradise Post was written, in Milton's words, "to justify the ways of God to men", where "justify" means to explain, to make clear in their justness. It is thus primarily a theological work, but it is also historical, according to the Renaissance notion of history, in its presentation of man's present state and how it carne about. Milton praises man's reason

and his free will, but at the same time he warns against man's frailty and especially the

chief of sins, pride. It is pride that causes Satan's fall and, after that, brings Adam and Eve to ruin.

Milton's style

Milton's syntax can be difficult. This is because he uses words and constructs sentences in a manner that is quite un-English, and which is usually referred to as 'Latinate'. He uses:

- inversion of the natura1 order of the English sentence

(subject-verb-object);

- anticipation of a participial clause and, quite

often, its use as a self-contained unit of sense;

long sentences closely modelled upon Latin constructions.

Later writers used his blank verse, which he employed successfully in a number of dramatic situations and in a great variety of linguistic registers: the language of characters as different as Satan, Adam and Eve is given individuality partly through the rhythm of their speeches.

The contents of the poem

Paradise Post begins with Satan calling the fallen angels together. The devils decide to send Satan to find out about the new World and the new  race (man) created by God to replace the fallen angels. Satan attacks Adam's and Eve's innocence and purity, beginning with Eve, who is the weaker of the two. He first tempts her in a dream but the archangel Gabriel puts him to flight.

The centra1 part of the poem, from Book V to Book VIII, tells of Raphael, sent by God to re-veal to Adam the history of the fallen angels, the creation of the World and the pattern of the universe. In Book 1X Satan's plot succeeds: Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit and lose their innocence. Sin and Death make their dreadful appearance on earth, while God sends His son to judge Adam and Eve. Jesus success-fully intercedes for man, though God decrees that he must leave Eden.

The archangel Michael then shows Adam the world's history up to the Second Coming (described in the Revelation or ApocaIypse God's ways are thus explained to man, as far as he can understand them. Adam and Eve leave Paradise to begin their life on earth, where they will have the assurance that god has not deserted them.

Satan Takes Possession of He11

Christian history of mankind begins in heaven, in the sense that Adam's fa11 (the origina1 sin)

has a precedent in the fa11 of the angels who rebelled against God. Far both angels and men

the sin is the same, the greatest of all: 'pride', the ambition to become equa1 to God. It is because

of pride that Lucifer, the brightest of the angels, is thrown out of heaven down into a

dark and dismal region: hell.

Here Lucifer, who is now called Satan, gathers the other fallen angels around a lake of liquid

fire. He speaks bravely and beautifully. Milton gives Satan the rhetorical voice of a great

leader who has lost everything except his self-confidence. This quality of Milton's Satan was

admired by the Romantics, who saw him as the highest example of the dark solitary hero,

broken but not annihilated by the power of a society and a universe so much stronger than

him.

It should be noticed, however, that later in the poem, when he tempts Eve, Satan is quite a

different character: deceitful instead of strong and direct.

From Book 1

"Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,"*  country

Said then the lost* archangel, "this the seat* fallen / place

That we must change for heaven, this¹ mournful* gloom* sad/darkness

For that celestial light? Be it* so, since he*    Let it be / i.e. God

Who now is sovereign can dispose and bid* order

What shall be right: farthest from him is best,²

Whom reason hath equalled, force hath made supreme

Above his equals.³ Farewell, happy fields,*   i.e. heaven

50 Where joy for ever dwells:* hail,* horrors! hail,   lives / (ave, salve)

Infernal World! and thou, profoundest hell,

Receive thy new possessor: one who brings

A mind not to be changed by place or time.

The mind is its own place, and in itself

Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.⁴

What matter where, if 1 be* still the same, am

And what 1 should be, al1 but* less* than he    only/ less great

Whom thunder⁵ hath made greater? Here at least

We shall be free; the Almighty hath not built

:i L Here for his envy,⁶ will not drive us hence:* from here

Here we may reign secure, .and in my choice

TO reign is worth ambition, though in hell:

Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. 1.. .l"

1. this: notice Satan's rhetorical repetition ("this"... "this"): Satan always speaks with exaggerated rhetoric that later infects Adam and Eve in Book 1X.

2. farthest... best: the further from God the better.

3. Whom... equals: He is our equa1 in reason and only strength has made Him superior. Satan is blinded by pride and so believes he is God's equa1 in

4. The mind... heaven: these two lines together with line 263,

perhaps the best-known in Paradise Lost, express Satan's pride and his will to distinguish himself in any case.

5. thunder: here Milton attributes thunder to God, traditionally considered as an attribute of Jove.

6. the Almighty.. . envy: God will not envy us staying here.