I would be remiss if I did not note that today is the 400th anniversary of the birth of John Milton.
I have nothing much to say about his work, however. Despite the fact that I studied it extensively in college, that was better than 20 years ago and I have not returned since. Certainly I still believe Paradise Lost to be THE epic poem of the entire English language, in part because of the scale and the drama of the work, in part because of the fact that Milton had an ear the equal of or better than those of either Shakespeare or Keats. (This is reflected pretty consistently throughout the rest of his poetry as well.)
On the other hand, I’d walk a long way in tight shoes to avoid having to read the man’s essays, treatises and political pamphlets. Not only are they long-winded, tedious and superior, I also cannot forgive him his alliance with Cromwell and his crew. Sanctimonious Puritans. Jeezum Crow.
No, I think that I will simply take this opportunity to thank Mr. Milton for coining one of my favorite words in the language, Pandemonium.
While most people associate the word with random chaos or confusion these days, I still adhere to its original definition, the capital of Hell.
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December 10, 2008 at 12:32 am
ScurvyOaks
I disagree strongly re Areopagitica, which I’m reading currently. A couple high points:
“Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?”
“It was from out of the rind of one apple tasted, that the knowledge of good and evil as two twins cleaving together leaped forth into the world. And perhaps this is that doom which Adam fell into of knowing good and evil, that is to say of knowing good by evil. As therefore the state of man now is; what wisdom can there be to choose, what continence to forbear without the knowledge of evil? He that can apprehend and consider vice with all her baits and seeming pleasures, and yet abstain, and yet distinguish, and yet prefer that which is truly better, he is the true warfaring Christian. I can not praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.”
Bear in mind that Milton was writing to the Puritan-dominated long Parliament, trying to convince them of the error of his ways, so he wasn’t always an ally of Cromwell and crew.
December 10, 2008 at 12:41 am
ScurvyOaks
Now I’ll really throw down the gaunlet: you’re being unfair to the Puritans. A little J.I. Packer for what ails you:
“I maintain that the delights of work and leisure, of friendship and family, of eating and mating, of arts and crafts, of playing and watching games, of finding out and making things, of helping other people, and all the other noble pleasures that life affords, are doubled for the Christian; for, as the cheerful old Puritans used to say (no, sir, that is not a misprint, nor a Freudian lapse; I mean Puritans – the real, historical Puritans, as distinct from the smug sourpusses of last-century Anglo-American imagination), the Christian tastes God in all his or her pleasures, and this increases them, whereas for other people pleasure brings with it a sense of hollowness which reduces it.”
December 10, 2008 at 2:14 am
ChrisN
“Don’t write this down, but I find Milton probably as boring as you find Milton. Mrs. Milton found him boring too. He’s a little bit long-winded, he doesn’t translate very well into our generation, and his jokes are terrible.”
I’m pleased to find a Milton thread on the same page as the “Fat, drunk, and stupid” link, and disappointed you didn’t manage to tie them!