Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Paradise Lost (with an Introduction by M. Macmillan)
    Paradise Lost (with an Introduction by M. Macmillan)
    Paradise Lost (with an Introduction by M. Macmillan)
    Ebook404 pages5 hours

    Paradise Lost (with an Introduction by M. Macmillan)

    By John Milton

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    English poet John Milton’s 17th century epic poem, “Paradise Lost,” is the work for which he is best known and which would solidify his reputation as one of the greatest poets of all time. A classic retelling of Biblical legend, the poem relates the stories of the war in heaven, the fall of man, and the temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. First depicted in Revelation, Milton portrays the angel Lucifer’s denial of God’s authority over him and the failed rebellion that he leads as a consequence of this belief. Lucifer is cast out of Heaven and into Hell by God for his betrayal. The temptation of Adam and Eve by Satan and their subsequent fall from innocence forms the other major narrative arc in “Paradise Lost.” As described in the work by Milton his purpose in writing this epic masterpiece was to “justify the ways of God to men.” Milton’s work is one of sublime and extraordinary beauty which has inspired readers and been analyzed by critics ever since its original publication in 1667. This edition includes an introduction by M. Macmillan.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDigireads.com Publishing
    Release dateJan 1, 2017
    ISBN9781420953312
    Paradise Lost (with an Introduction by M. Macmillan)
    Author

    John Milton

    John Milton was a seventeenth-century English poet, polemicist, and civil servant in the government of Oliver Cromwell. Among Milton’s best-known works are the classic epic Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, considered one of the greatest accomplishments in English blank verse, and Samson Agonistes. Writing during a period of tremendous religious and political change, Milton’s theology and politics were considered radical under King Charles I, found acceptance during the Commonwealth period, and were again out of fashion after the Restoration, when his literary reputation became a subject for debate due to his unrepentant republicanism. T.S. Eliot remarked that Milton’s poetry was the hardest to reflect upon without one’s own political and theological beliefs intruding.

    Read more from John Milton

    Related to Paradise Lost (with an Introduction by M. Macmillan)

    Related ebooks

    Poetry For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Self-publishing Satisfaction

      Jul 7, 2022

      ‘I took up creative writing during the lockdown to give myself a sense of purpose,’ writes subscriber Elizabeth Kelly. ‘Right away, I was hooked. I joined an online course, started with short stories and then progressed to completing an historical no

      1 min read

    • Article

      A Clockwork Jihadi

      May 27, 2021

      A Clockwork Jihadi
      12 min read

    • Article

      Minaret In The Mountains

      Aug 15, 2019

      Minaret In The Mountains
      9 min read

    • Article

      Classical Corner

      Jan 28, 2021

      Classical Corner
      5 min read

    • Article

      Paradise Dimmed

      Jun 29, 2023

      In 1868, the writer John William De Forest coined the term “The Great American Novel” to describe an epic in prose that would “paint the American soul”, capture national ideals and manners, and help unify the United States after the Civil War. He hop

      8 min read

    • Article

      A 350th-Anniversary ‘Paradise Lost’ Reading List

      Feb 6, 2018

      Before John Milton could be a visionary writer, first he had to be a visionary reader. All poetry is supported by the accumulated scaffolding of tradition and defines itself in part by subverting that tradition. Milton was simultaneously partisan for

      16 min read

    • Article

      History Comes Home

      Mar 11, 2020

      THE appearance of a new book by Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall, Bring up the Bodies and now The Mirror and the Light, has become a literary event. To a nation possibly about to self-isolate against corona-virus, a third novel about the Tudors com

      2 min read

    • Article

      Why Read John Milton?

      Aug 3, 2023

      You should read John Milton because he will take your fucking head off. The post Why Read John Milton? appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Marvelous Mutable Marvell

      Mar 31, 2021

      Marvell's own dwindling fame is a beautiful aesthetic pronouncement, a living demonstration of time's winged chariot, and the buzzing of the wings of oblivion forever heard as a distant hum. The post Marvelous Mutable Marvell appeared first on The Mi

      13 min read

    • Article

      The Waste Land turns 100

      Oct 19, 2022

      The Waste Land turns 100
      5 min read

    • Article

      Belfast’s Best-kept Secret

      Aug 26, 2021

      Belfast’s Best-kept Secret
      6 min read

    • Article

      From The Trojan War To Conflict In Ukraine

      Nov 30, 2023

      THE YEAR 2023 HAS BEENrich in works composed in tempore belli. The most impressive is Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine (William Collins, £26) by General David Petraeus and the historian Andrew Roberts. This is an ambitious and

      6 min read

    • Article

      Write What You Know? Identity Politics and Fiction

      Oct 11, 2017

      If it weren’t so illustrative of the loaded identitarian schism at the heart of leftist politics, it would make for the perfect right-wing conspiracy: not only have well-meaning liberals become too PC, they are now roundly dismissed as blinkered by t

      14 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Matt Seidel

      Dec 9, 2017

      I tend to buy used books in bunches, which means the haul from some expeditions stays buried for weeks, months, years even. For this entry, I highlight three finds that, breaking custom, I bought and read almost immediately this year: Hugo Charteris’

      6 min read

    • Article

      Oldies Make The Best Holiday Companions

      Jul 28, 2022

      ON THE PENETRATING QUESTION of what fiction to take on holiday, this year The Critic offers a novel approach. Why heft around the Dolomites the bulk of an untested hardback, by a wet-behind-the-ears author who isn’t even dead yet, when you can halve

      6 min read

    • Article

      Ten Ways to Lose Your Literature

      Jan 25, 2021

      Just as all literature is haunted by the potential of oblivion, so all lost books are animated by the redemptive hope of their rediscovery. The post Ten Ways to Lose Your Literature appeared first on The Millions.

      28 min read

    • Article

      Classical Corner

      Mar 24, 2022

      Classical Corner
      7 min read

    • Article

      What The Thunder Said

      Sep 14, 2022

      ON Margate Sands./I can connect/ Nothing with nothing.’ Thomas Stearns (T. S.) Eliot crafted these short lines that form a part of his fractured epic The Waste Land in October 1921, as he sat in the inauspicious Nayland Rock Shelter (granted Grade II

      4 min read

    • Article

      Cormac McCarthy Remembered: ‘His Work Will Sing Down The Centuries’

      Jun 14, 2023

      British writer and fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Among the thousand things I could praise in McCarthy’s astonishing body of work – written over 60 years – I want to speak of his prose rhythms. His books proclaimed themselves in the mind’s ear

      6 min read

    • Article

      Declassified

      Dec 1, 2022

      Declassified
      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Paradise Lost (with an Introduction by M. Macmillan)

    4/5

    1,776 ratings39 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Formidabel kosmisch epos, met vooral in de eerste helft grote scheppende kracht, maar daarna “verworden” tot een uitgebreide navertelling van Genesis. Nochtans zijn de delen over het scheppingverhaal en de menselijke zondeval (vooral de interactie tussen Adam en Eva is meest poëtisch). Weinig actie, behalve in de strijdtaferelen, de tweede helft is vooral verhalend
    • 3/5
      I wasn't exactly sure what I was getting myself into, but this telling of the creation and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise was entertaining even though the writing was a bit different from what I am used to.I found it amusing that according to Milton Sin and Death were the offspring of Satan and that Chaos' consort is Night with Confusion and Discord along for the ride.The manner of using words as names for creatures was very inventive.Rarely, do I like Classics this old, but this one worked f or me.
    • 5/5
      There's all this debate over why Satan is so appealing in Paradise Lost. Did Milton screw up? Is he being cynical, or a double-secret atheist? And why is God such a dick?

      No one ever asks that about Iago, though, to whom I think Milton's Satan owes a debt. No one asks whether Shakespeare screwed up in making Iago so much fun; they just give him credit for, y'know, writing an awesome villain. And that's all Milton's doing. Satan is tempting for us because Satan is tempting for us. That's the point of Satan! If Milton didn't make him as appealing as possible, he'd be doing Satan a disservice. And Eve, for that matter.

      Similarly, God's a dick because God's a dick. You've read the Old Testament. He's not exactly all flowers and hugs there either. Again, Milton's just being true to his characters, and writing a great story while he's at it.

      There’s slightly more to it than that, yeah. For example: it's hinted, albeit obtusely, that God sets Satan up to fall. He gives a stern warning that anyone who disobeys him or his son will be cast out of Heaven. But since there's no sin or evil at the time of his speech, why give the warning? Isn't that like saying "Don't touch these cookies while I'm gone" to a kid who didn't realize there were cookies until you pointed them out? I get why people spend their entire careers arguing over this thing.

      Here’s my advice to people considering reading Paradise Lost: read the first two books. It starts with a bang, and it’s pretty amazing for a while. It slows down a bit in books III - VII, so if you’re not totally sold in the first two books (I was), you can either quit altogether with a fair idea of what Milton sounds like, or skip to books IX and X. IX is the actual temptation and fall (especially fun if you’re a misogynist), and X is an astonishing sequence where Adam and Eve contemplate suicide:

      "Why am I mocked with death, and lengthened out
      To deathless pain? How gladly would I meet
      Mortality my sentence...
      his dreadful voice no more
      Would thunder in my ears." (Adam, X.774 - 780)

      “We’ve totally mucked this up, and our kids are gonna justifiably hate us because we got kicked out of Paradise, and maybe we should just quit while we’re behind.”

      But really, the whole thing is worth it. Took me a while – it’s intense stuff, so I found that I had to read a book and then chew on it for a while to process it before moving to the next one – but it’s cool.

      In book VIII, if you’re cosmologically minded, Milton lays out the whole universe. Like Giordano Bruno, he understands that our earth is a tiny speck in the universe, and he gets that all the stars are suns like ours, and therefore could have planets like ours around them. He also thinks they might be inhabited; our species might not be God's only experiment. Elsewhere, other Adams and Eves may have faced the same test of the Tree of Knowledge - and they might have passed it. Isn't that an amazing thought?

      In books XI and XII, Michael tells Adam sortof all the rest of the stories in the Old Testament, which of course boil down to:

      “So shall the world go on,
      To good malignant, to bad men benign,
      Under her own weight groaning.” (XII 537 – 539)

      That’s your fault there, Adam. Nice work.

      He rushes through them though, and it makes me wonder whether Milton had originally intended to retell the entire Old Testament but got bored or intimidated or something. That would’ve been remarkable. Certainly Paradise Lost is better literature than the Old Testament is, and significantly more coherent.

      It’s also better literature than almost everything else. It’s pretty awesome. Probably the second-best poem by a blind guy ever. I give it two thumbs up.
    • 5/5
      This was very powerful. I am not the most religious person in the world, but I found the subject matter intensely interesting. The poetic beauty of Milton words captivated me throughout the course of the work. Sadly, I tried "Paradise Regained" but I did not get far into the read before I became disinterested. I guess we are fascinated more by evil than goodness. Sad. I may retry "Paradise Regained" but I fail to see how it can be as moving as "Paradise Lost."
    • 4/5
      I'd be lying if I said I understood and enjoyed every word of Paradise Lost, but there's no getting around the fact that it's beautiful and terrifying and provoking. It's definitely a book that requires many rereadings.
    • 5/5
      This epic poem is stunning; a magnificent read all the way. I loved it.
    • 4/5
      We had read selections of this book in my AP Lit class in high school, but as always, selections don't tell the whole story. I love reading religious literature, and this being one of the most famous epic poems in that genre, I quite enjoyed it. As an interesting aside, I did, however, find Lucifer/Satan to be far more sympathetic than he comes across in the Bible. I don't know if this was intentional on Milton's part, or simply something that was a result of describing his motivations.
    • 4/5
      I expected to have more trouble reading Milton's Paradise Lost than I actually did, mostly because it's written in blank verse. As a matter of fact, that didn't matter much. It flows wonderfully and it's great to read aloud. The rhythms and the way the words were strung together were just lovely -- my synaesthesia just pretty much regarded it as a feast! I also enjoyed the classical sort of structure, which reminded me of the Aeneid.

      I didn't so much enjoy the characterisation of Eve or the angels, and it doesn't fit with my view of Christianity, but that didn't keep from enjoying reading it.
    • 4/5
       This was somewhat slow going, but worth the effort to persevere with it. I had the oxford Classics verison, which phas an essay at the beginning to put the poem into context, which was helpful. it also had footnotes for references in the text to classical legends and diffiocult worrds or phrasings, which was very useful!

      The text concerns the biblical acocunt of creaction and the expulsion of Adam & Eve from paradise - hence the title. Regardless of if you believe, it makes for a really good read, but takes a little effort to get into it each time. The text has a hypnotic flow and rhythm to it. Tthe language is sometimes a little obscure, but not excessively so, it isn't like every line requires serious explanation. There are also a large number of legends worked into the text, all building this into a complex mass of intertwined threads, rather than a straightforward retelling of the same story. It is also one of those works that you realise has been referenced in other books you've read - the number of times I found myself thinking "I've read something like that before" and realising that it was a reference to Milton that I'd not known at the time. It was excellent, but I'm going for something a little lighter next time!
    • 5/5
      How can I even write a review of John Milton and perhaps one of the ultimate works in the English language? You don’t. I’ll only say that after completing “Paradise Lost,” I wrote a huge amount of discordant information in my personal journal and reread enormous sections of the book. The introduction and notation provided in the Barnes & Noble edition of “Paradise Lost” by David Hawkes was invaluable to my enjoyment and understanding. And the ending comments provided in this edition from such noted authors as Thomas Gray, William Blake and Wordsworth brought about a level of appreciation and understanding I did not anticipate.
    • 4/5
      Although this is not a light read and will require thought and maybe some research (on my part at least) to fully understand milton's meanings, this book is at very least profound. Milton's writing style has yet to be matched by any I've seen.
    • 4/5
      Seeing as I took a class - an entire class, an entire semester dedicated to the reading of this single novel, I was praying I was going to enjoy it. And what heavy metal fan couldn't enjoy the battle of God vs. Satan? The fall of Satan from heaven is a brilliantly written tale and there is so much meaning within every stanza of this epic book. There has to be, I spent 3 months reading it and I think I even got a B in this class.
    • 4/5
      Milton gets extra points for scope and ambition, but I have to admit that he tends toward the preachy (rather than allowing his characters to illustrate their own morals), plus some of his theology struck me as a bit simple-minded. That said, the descriptions of hell remain both beautiful and terrible -- unparalleled in the English language.
    • 5/5
      Certainly one of the best poems ever written in English!
    • 5/5
      This one definitely makes the short list of must reads. It's great poetry and I enjoyed the effect of its having originally been in English. It's also a great interpretation of the creation story; I observed a number of new ideas as well as some that I myself have posited and refuted. More than anything else I've read, Milton does a superb job of bringing out the essence of the situation, the passions that were felt, and the reason for each event.
    • 5/5
      I originally read this in response to finishing The Golden Compass series. Pullman spoke about Paradise Lost as one of the main inspirations for some of his thinking. Though I did study literature, I never had any intention of reading this work. I am so glad that I did. There are lines in there that move the heart and mind of course, the imagery gave me bad dreams, and it the experience is something that I will keep forever.Talk about closure, the last lines gave me so much hope and made me feel electric.
    • 5/5
      I read this many years ago and thought that it was actually a very fascinating read compared to other literature of its day. I loved the style and language in which it was written, and I think that makes me enjoy it all the more. I am sure that I will read it again very soon.
    • 5/5
      Quite a read for a poet! My first journey with an epic poem in its entirety, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Too many lines of good verses to name--phrases that inspired me for their deft command of language--and a great amount of passages that left me feeling triumphant. One of the simplest lines I liked the most, spoken to the Son: "Two days are therefore pass'd, the third is thine"; and a favorite passage, sung to the Creator: "Who seeks To lessen thee, against his purpose serves To manifest the more thy might: his evil Thou usest, and from thence creat'st more good."I was impressed with what creativity the characters' experiences and emotions were developed. Story-wise, my favorite character is the Son, the unmatched warrior amid all the hosts of heaven who compassionately serves as intercessor for fallen humankind. This classic presents a challenge to me, both as a poet and as a novelist.
    • 5/5
      A grand sprawling epic. I can't possibly say anything good about it that has not already been repeated.

      I am fortunate enough to have a brand new edition with lots of annotations and references. Layers upon layers of allegory and myth and history and religion and fable. Deserves infinite rereadings.
    • 5/5
      Milton cria um diabo carismático e persuasivo, que clama: "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven".
    • 5/5
      As this was my first epic read, I cannot profess to be well-trained as to the vastness of other works, but the beauty of this work lies in its broad overview of Scripture, character, and life. Not merely striking the main points of Eden, as I was expecting, but surveying large portions of history. It felt huge without being overly laborious to read.The wording was not nearly as stilted as I was lead to believe it would be, though at times the footnotes were indispensable--I am still rather ignorant of many of his references.A wonderful work that I hope to reread in time.
    • 4/5
      Another one of those freshman English assigments I cribbed my way through. When I reread it finally as an adult I was astonished. I returned to it because of Mike Carey's Lucifer and Steven Brust's To Reign in Hell, contemporary fantasy on the same themes. And I was surprised and delighted to find depth of character and excitement in a Stuffy Old Classic.
    • 5/5
      This book was fantastic, but wasn't quite as good as Dante's work. Still, one of my favorites.
    • 4/5
      861 Paradise Lost, by John Milton (read 24 Jul 1966) I read this in full and felt it was good to have read it. From it I extracted one of my favorite sayings: "The mind is its own place, and in itselfCan make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n." This is in Book I, line 253.
    • 5/5
      Read many years ago, but still amazes at every re-perusal. Shows that even for a person of Milton's erudition, devotion and great idealism Adam, Eve, and Satan are easier to portray than God. But his ardent and humble invocations of the divine Spirit did not , in my opinion, go completely unanswered!
    • 3/5
      A 17th century epic of the Genesis account with references to classical mythology throughout. From the beginning formations of the earth to the design of paradise to the creation of Adam and Eve to the Fall. The idea behind the verse is that paradise is lost but hope still remains through Christ who will save the offspring of our first parents who sinned. Adam is shown a vision when his hope is diminished that encompasses all of humanity from Noah to Abraham to Joseph of Egypt to David and up through Christ’s birth and death. The world is corrupt but there is hope for all in the end. Very difficult but interesting to read; there are notes to help through all the references to the mythology and other passages that we today are unfamiliar with.
    • 3/5
      Even though I don't hold with religious belief, that didn't stop me from adoring Dante's Divine Comedy and I've loved Homer's epic poems. Yet I can't say that Milton's Paradise Lost spoke to me. Much of the poem felt repetitive and bloated with discourses on such matters as heliocentric theory. His recapitulation of Genesis is part plagiarism, part bizarre twisting. (Among other things, according to Milton, "God the Son" who would become Jesus was really the Creator.) Unlike Dante, who never lost the human even when dealing with the divine, in Paradise Lost so much is focused on God, Satan, and their angelic allies. Only Adam and Eve are human--and the depiction of Eve gave me no end of problems. And unlike others Milton is compared to such as Homer, Dante, Chaucer and Shakespeare, if Milton has a sense of humor, I completely missed it.I did recognize passages of beauty and grandeur in Paradise Lost, but rather disconcertingly they were almost always spoken by Satan. "The Mind is its own place and itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven." "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven." Ironically, according to the introduction to the edition I read, Milton was himself a rebel. He supported Cromwell's republic which executed a anointed monarch and argued against censorship in his treatise Areopagitica. It seems incongruous that in Paradise Lost he seeks to "justify the ways of God to men" by making disobedience and a desire for knowledge the root of all evil. So maybe it's not that surprising that Romantics such as Shelley and Blake would see Satan as the hero of Milton's epic. Especially since Milton's God has all the hallmarks of a despot. Milton describes God as a "sov'reign King;" the purpose of angels and humans is to praise (flatter) him, he's arbitrary, capricious and rigid in his commands, jealous of his power, willing to sacrifice others for his ends and decrees "torture without end."I found it hard not to gag at the depiction of Eve from the start who says to Adam, "God is thy law, thou mine." It's not all negative. It's through Eve that Milton depicts humans arriving at self-awareness and Milton is sex positive. He insists the unFallen Adam and Eve had sex for instance and he supports marriage. But Milton emphasizes Eve's subordination, inferiority and centrality to the human tragedy throughout. Says Adam:Of Nature her the inferior, in the mindAnd inward faculties, which most excel;In outward also her resembling lessHis image who made both, and less expressingThe character of that dominion givenO'er other creatures. God sends a warning through the Angel Raphael to Adam--not Eve--merely telling him "to warn thy weaker." Eve succumbs because of flattery and vanity. Adam disobeys God out of love, joining her in sin because he fears otherwise they'd be divided. So woman is weak in herself--man only if and when he's weakened by woman. "Sin" is also female with parallels to Eve--a grotesque demoness who is the daughter of Satan and through an incestuous union with him the mother of Death. Both Sin and Eve are in league with Satan and bring death into creation.Unlike the case with Homer, I can't blame an initial negative reaction to Milton as the result of being forced to read him in school, a lack of maturity or a bad translation. Milton wrote in English and I've read Paradise Lost only recently for the first time. However, Milton greatly influenced the Romantic poets and even how many Christians see the story of Adam and Eve and Satan. Because of that I'm glad I read the poem and do encourage others to read it. Besides the glints of beauty, many of Milton's religious views are, well, unique. The glimpse of his political views are interesting too--almost libertarian.He gave us only over Beast, Fish, FowlDominion absolute; that right we holdBy his donation; but Man over menHe made not Lord; such title to himselfReserving, human left from human free.Nevertheless, unlike Homer or Dante, I can't by any means see Paradise Lost as a favorite or a work I'd ever reread nor am I tempted to read the sequel, Paradise Regained.
    • 2/5
      I read this in college and really enjoyed it. But, I think that was because I had a wonderful professor who loved Milton and her energy was infectious. Reading it now, I found it very misogynistic. The poetry was beautiful and I enjoyed the metaphors, but I couldn't take Milton's contempt against women very easily. Oh well, I guess I won't be continuing on with Paradise Regained.
    • 4/5
      Okay, I only read part of it, and it was for college. It was incredibly well written and entertaining. My only issue is the complete lack of biblical credibility. It's LOOSELY based on the three little chapters that it covers in the Bible and takes A LOT of artistic license. In doing so, it tells a few outright lies.

      I take comfort in that I doubt anyone takes their biblical knowledge from it.
    • 4/5
      The parts I understood were lovely, lol.

    Book preview

    Paradise Lost (with an Introduction by M. Macmillan) - John Milton

    cover.jpg

    PARADISE LOST

    By JOHN MILTON

    Paradise Lost

    By John Milton

    Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-5330-5

    eBook ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-5331-2

    This edition copyright © 2016. Digireads.com Publishing.

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

    Cover Image: A detail of Pandemonium: The Bridge Over Chaos (pencil & w/c on paper), Gandy, Joseph Michael (1771-1843) / Private Collection / Photo © Christie's Images / Bridgeman Images.

    Please visit www.digireads.com

    CONTENTS

    Introduction

    Book I

    Book II

    Book III

    Book IV

    Book V

    Book VI

    Book VII

    Book VIII

    Book IX

    Book X

    Book XI

    Book XII

    Introduction

    In Milton’s life Paradise Lost may be regarded as the great central point, to which everything else is subordinate. All through his youth and his prime of manhood he was consciously or unconsciously preparing himself to write a great epic poem. Very slowly his great purpose assumed definite shape in his mind. The poems in which he first showed his poetic genius were lyric and dramatic, but early in life he had conceived the idea of rivaling the fame of Homer and Virgil, and becoming the epic representative of his native land and of modern Christendom. At first he meditated a national epic, based upon the legends of prehistoric England. In his youth his mind was attracted by the picturesque pageantry of chivalry and romance. I betook me, he writes in the Apology for Smectymnus among those lofty fables and romances which recount in solemn cantos the deeds of knighthood. The poet’s wanderings in the fields of old romance have left their traces distinctly in some of the most gorgeous passages of his epic poetry. At one time they seemed likely to determine his ultimate choice. Milton was inclined to follow the example of Spenser and take the mythical King Arthur as his hero, in which case the

    "Tilting furniture, emblazoned shields,

    Impresses quaint, caparisons and steeds,

    Bases and tinsel trappings, gorgeous knights

    At joust and tournament,"

    instead of being the occasional ornaments of his verse would have been its continual subject matter. However, this project, though seriously entertained for the time, was not of very long continuance. When once the Great Rebellion had broken out under leaders animated by determined hostility against the feudalism of the middle ages, it was not likely that a zealous partisan of Puritanism and Republicanism, such as Milton was, should have devoted his genius to the celebration of the exploits in war or love of fictitious knights. To have done so while the strife was raging, or during the period when the leaders of the republican party were maintaining with difficulty their hard won supremacy, would have appeared frivolous in the extreme, and to have reverted to such a task during the dark days of the Restoration would have been an insult to himself and his fallen party, betokening a callous indifferentism, which was far from being a characteristic of the poet. Indeed, as long as his genius could more directly serve the great cause of political and religious liberty, he seems to have regarded all poetry as a matter of very secondary importance. It was however a great sacrifice to forego the inspirations of his poetical genius, and divert all his literary powers to the uncongenial task of writing despatches and controversial pamphlets on the burning questions of the day, in the composition of which he had to lower himself to the level of his pedantic opponents. We know from his own writings that, if he had consulted his own taste, he would have kept out of the controversial fray. In his Reason of Church Government, published in 1642, after revealing in detail his high ambition to devote his whole heart and soul and life to the composition of such a poem as posterity should not willingly let die, he informs his readers that he would not have disclosed so much beforehand, but that he trusted thereby to make it manifest with what small willingness he interrupted the pursuit of no less hopes than those, and left a calm and pleasing solitariness, fed with cheerful and confident thoughts, to embark in a troubled sea of noises and hoarse disputes; from beholding the bright countenance of truth in the quiet and still air of delightful studies to come into the dim reflection of hollow antiquities sold by the seeming bulk, and there be fain to club quotations with men whose learning and belief lay in marginal stuffings. However, in spite of his aversion to the taskwork that duty dictated, he devoted himself to it with a thoroughness that necessitated a long postponement of his most cherished designs. In the whole period between his return from Italy in 1639 and the death of Cromwell in 1658, Milton gave the world no original poetry except a few sonnets, many of which were directly suggested by the stirring events of the day. Nevertheless his great purpose, though its completion was indefinitely deferred, was never entirely banished from his mind. In such leisure as his busy life afforded, he was still trying to determine the subject of his great work and the form in which it was to be composed. Out of the many possible subjects that seemed suitable to his genius he at last chose Paradise Lost. Even after the theme of the poem had been settled, it still remained to determine the form. At first the poet was inclined to write a drama upon the subject he had chosen, and Satan’s address to the Sun, in the beginning of the fourth book, was originally intended to be the commencement of a tragedy. But, as time went on, he changed his mind, and came to the conclusion that an epic poem would be the best means of delivering to his contemporaries and posterity all the higher and brighter ideas that had not ceased to revolve in his brain all the time during which he seemed wholly given up to the vituperation of his religious and political adversaries. Thus, finally, he determined to write a great epic poem on the subject of the loss of Paradise, which he commenced in 1658, at a time when the appointment of Andrew Marvell as joint-secretary made it no longer appear imperatively necessary for him to devote all his energies to his official work.

    A great deal has been written to show that Milton in the construction of Paradise Lost borrowed so much as seriously to detract from his claim to the credit of originality. The best answer to each particular charge of this kind is to show how very widely the critics disagree with one another in their attempts to trace the plot to previous authors. Almost every commentator has his own candidate to bring forward for the honor of having been copied by Milton, and is therefore inclined to disallow the similar claims put forward in favor of others by rival critics. Voltaire, writing in 1727, declares that the idea of Paradise Lost was derived from a comedy called Adamo, written by one Andreini, a player, which Milton saw performed at Florence. The subject of the play was the fall of man; the actors, God, the Devils, the Angels, Adam, Eve, the Serpent, Death, and the seven mortal Sins. Milton, according to Voltaire, pierced through the absurdity of that performance to the hidden majesty of the subject, which, being altogether unfit for the stage, yet might be (for the genius of Milton and his only) the foundation of an epic poem. He took from that ridiculous trifle the first hint of the noblest work which human imagination has ever attempted, and which he executed more than twenty years after. In spite of Dr. Johnson’s decision that Voltaire’s story is wild and unauthorized, a comparison of the plot of Paradise Lost with the contents of the play of Andreini seems to show that the great English poet did not altogether disdain to borrow from the work of this rather obscure Italian playwright. Besides a general resemblance between the principal incidents and the characters represented, there are some traces of imitation in detail. Thus, from Mr. Hayley’s analysis of the Adamo, we learn that in Act IV. Scene III. of Andreini’s poem, Infernal Cyclops, summoned by Lucifer, make a new world at his command, and it is natural to suppose that this suggested to Milton the building of Pandemonium by Mammon. Besides Andreini’s Adamo there were, as Mr. Hayley shows, several other poems published in Italy before or about the time of Milton’s visit to that country, the subjects of which were the wars of the Angels and the fall of Adam. Among these was a poem called the Angeleida, in which the invention of artillery is attributed to the fallen angels. This hint not improbably suggested to Milton the chief incident of his second heavenly battle, and he may have incurred similar obligations to some other of the Italian poems mentioned by Mr. Hayley. However, as of most of them only the names survive, it can only be said with certainty that the subject of Paradise Lost was a favorite theme in Italy at the time of Milton’s visit there, and it is likely that, when he had once conceived the idea of writing a great poem on the loss of Paradise, he would have taken note of any incidents or ideas likely to be useful, that might be suggested by the Italian writers who had chosen the same subject, and not only by Italian writers but by writers in all the many continental languages with which Milton was acquainted. Two modern critics, Mr. Gosse and Mr. Edmundston, find the chief original of Paradise Lost not in Italy, but farther north in Holland. Vondel, who is considered the greatest of Dutch poets, published in 1654, four years before the date usually assigned to the commencement of Paradise Lost, a fine drama called Lucifer. As Vondel had already become famous by his previous works, and as the treaty of alliance concluded between England and Holland in 1654 had renewed friendly relations between the two republics, it is likely that Vondel’s poem may have been known to Milton soon after its publication. Mr. Gosse declares that the great resemblance between Vondel’s Lucifer and Milton’s Paradise Lost can hardly be accounted for as the result of accident. Mr. Edmundston finds among Vondel’s plays the original not only of Paradise Lost but also of Samson Agonistes. On the other hand, it must be remembered that, though Paradise Lost may not have been regularly commenced in its present form before 1658, the plan of the poem had been thought out many years earlier, and also, that Vondel’s Lucifer only covers a small part of the subject matter of Paradise Lost, namely, the rebellion of Satan and his war with the faithful angels. These facts are strong evidence against the belief that Paradise Lost as a whole can be founded upon Vondel’s drama. As for resemblance in individual passages, the same evidence adduced to show that Milton borrowed from Vondel would probably, if accepted, lead us to believe that Vondel was in like manner indebted to previous writers. Thus Milton’s well-known line,

    Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven,

    is very like two lines of Vondel’s. But this proves little; it may be paralleled not only in Vondel, but also in Fletcher and Crashaw, and very closely in Stafford’s Niobe, a prose work quoted by Todd, in which Satan declares that God drove him to hell, in order that he who could not obey in heaven might command in hell. Stafford’s Niobe was published in 1611, and so, if close similarity of language and thought in a later writer is enough to prove literary obligation, Vondel’s verse must be indebted to the prose of Stafford. It is, of course, not impossible that Milton may have consciously borrowed this and other ideas from Vondel in the same way as he has deliberately borrowed from Homer and Virgil; but such obligations are very hard to establish, unless the poet chooses himself to manifest them beyond doubt by the words he employs.

    Among the English writers whom Milton is supposed to have imitated, the first in order of time and importance is Caedmon. This Anglo-Saxon poet composed, in the seventh century, a poem in which is described the fall of the angels, the creation, and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. The poem was printed at Amsterdam in 1655, and must have been known before that date in its MS. form to the learned in England. As Milton wrote a history of England down to the time of the Norman Conquest, it is probable that he was familiar with Anglo-Saxon literature, and he can hardly be supposed to have entirely overlooked Caedmon’s poem, which from the character of its subject matter would naturally be very interesting to him. No one can read Caedmon’s poetry without being continually reminded of Paradise Lost. Let anyone refer to the extracts given from his poem by Mr. Turner in his History of the Anglo-Saxons, or even to the short extract quoted at the commencement of Chambers’s English Literature, and he will see reason to believe that Milton owes much to his Anglo-Saxon predecessor. In fact, the two poets, though born in distant ages and at very different stages of civilization, are not entirely unlike one another. If we could take away from Paradise Lost the melodious flow of verse and the rich variety of illustrations culled from all past literatures, there would still be left a narrative of great power which would read very like the poetry of Caedmon. Therefore it is difficult to help thinking that Milton’s mind was thoroughly saturated with the spirit of that early poet, and that to this Anglo-Saxon original Milton was to a considerable extent indebted for the frame-work of his epic. The chief fact that militates against this conclusion is that Milton never appears to have mentioned Caedmon’s name in the whole range of his writings. Whether this omission was due to the practice of an age in which literary men were not in the habit of going far out of their way to acknowledge obligations to previous writers, or whether Milton thought he really owed no more to Caedmon than to the host of intermediate writers who had told the story of the beginning of the world, or whether after all Milton was totally unacquainted with Caedmon’s works, is a question that will probably never be decided. All that we can say is that, as far as the uncertain evidence of close similarity in treatment and thought can be trusted, Paradise Lost owes more to Caedmon’s poem than to any other original. So much can hardly be said in favor of the claims put forward in behalf of the Locustae, a Latin poem by Phineas Fletcher, published in 1627. The speech of Lucifer in this poem undoubtedly contains several ideas that recur in the speeches of Milton’s fallen angels, and the striking language of one passage seems to be distinctly imitated (see ii. 624). But this is far from being enough to make us accept the unconfirmed story that Milton "ingenuously confessed that he owed his immortal work of Paradise Lost to Mr. Fletcher’s Locustae." Dunster tries to show that Sylvester’s translation of a poem on Creation by the French poet, Du Bartas, contributed more to the production of Paradise Lost than any other work. As this translation was very popular when Milton was a boy, and was published in the street in which his father lived, it is natural to assume that Milton in his childhood may have known it well, and that many of Sylvester’s thoughts and expressions may have been deeply impressed on his mind and reproduced afterwards. It is also possible that Sylvester’s poem may have first distinctly suggested to him the idea of writing a great poem on a religious subject. This however is mere conjecture. Even if Sylvester had never translated Du Bartas, Milton’s choice of subject could be sufficiently accounted for by his own character, the theological spirit of the age, and the practice of an immense number of his literary predecessors in England, Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal. There seems to have been in the many poems treating of the fall of man so much similarity in the arrangement of the incidents that it is difficult to establish Milton’s indebtedness to any particular author, while it is perfectly evident that he studied the various works on the subject written in different languages, that he followed generally their traditional treatment of the plot, and, whenever he found it worth his while, borrowed their ideas and expressions without scruple. Since the days of Homer epic poets have regarded borrowing as their peculiar privilege, and rather prided themselves on their skill in utilizing the ideas of earlier poets. Milton avails himself of this epic privilege as freely as Virgil, and yet neither of these two great poets thereby forfeits his claim to originality. Both of them have deliberately justified their practice in this respect. Virgil, being reproached for his continual imitations of Homer, replied, Let my detractors try to steal for themselves, as they say I have stolen for myself, and they will find that it is easier to rob Hercules of his club than to rob Homer of a single verse. Milton probably intended to defend himself against detraction on the same ground when he asserted that to borrow and better in the borrowing is no plagiary. He has told us himself that he considered that industrious and select reading was the chief means by which he trained himself to become a great poet, and it was impossible for him not to reproduce in his own verses the fruits of his extensive study. It is however a mistake to dwell too much on parallelism between individual passages, and confidently assert that Milton borrowed this idea from Vondel, and that from Sylvester. It is always possible that Milton and the writer from whom he is supposed to have borrowed may be both equally indebted to some still earlier writer known to both, or more probably to some traditional treatment of the story of the beginning of the world handed down from generation to generation by the mystery and morality plays of the middle ages. In the more general attempt to determine what English poet chiefly attracted Milton’s admiration and gave the spur to his imaginative genius, we are least likely to err if we give credence to his own statement as reported by Dryden, to whom he declared that Spenser was his original.

    Milton’s poetry is a mirror in which the writer’s character is very clearly reflected. The most rapid survey of the subjects of his various poems is enough to remind us of the deep veneration for religion and morality which formed the chief element in his character. He unswervingly acted up to the high ideal he had conceived of the qualifications essential to a true poet. In Milton’s opinion, he who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things, ought himself to be a true poem, that is, a composition and pattern of the best and honourablest things; not presuming to sing high praises of heroic men or famous cities, unless he have in himself the experience and the practice of all that which is praiseworthy. It was imperatively necessary, he thought, that the poet should prepare himself for his high calling by hard study, a pure life, and devout prayer to that Eternal Spirit who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and sends out His seraphim with the hallowed fire of His altar to touch and purify the lips of whom He pleases. Milton had conscientiously set himself to satisfy the intellectual and moral tests laid down by himself. All the best works of Hebrew, Greek, Roman, and contemporary writers had been carefully studied by him, and he could proudly declare, like Matthew Arnold’s Mycerinus, that,

    "Rapt in reverential awe,

    He sat obedient in the fiery prime

    Of youth self-governed at the foot of law."

    Having undergone the required discipline, and being conscious of his great genius, he had no doubt that God had vouchsafed to inspire him, as He inspired the prophets of the Old Testament, that he might fulfill his duty as a poet and be able to inbreed and cherish in a great people the seeds of virtue and public civility; to allay the perturbations of the mind, and set the affections in right tune; to celebrate in glorious and lofty hymns the throne and equipage of God’s almightiness, and what He suffers to be wrought with high providence in His church; to sing victorious agonies of martyrs and saints, the deeds and triumphs of just and pious nations doing valiantly through faith against the enemies of Christ; to deplore the general relapses of kingdoms and states from justice and God’s true worship. His life and writings show how steadfastly he devoted himself to the service of religion and morality. There is no doubt that his religious and moral zeal, though it supplied his verse with that earnestness which is an indispensable element in all poetry of the highest rank, at the same time often betrayed him into undignified asperity of language in his political and religious pamphlets. But his occasional outbursts of polemical violence, though we may condemn them as errors of judgment, are failings arising from enthusiasm for the great causes that his conscience approved, and will not prevent even those, who find it more easy to admire than love him for his transcendent virtue, from acknowledging that Milton was one of the noblest characters that England ever produced.

    Next to his zeal for religion and virtue, the most prominent feature in Milton’s character was his love of philosophy, literature, music, architecture, and the other fine arts. This characteristic was seldom found in the members of the political and religious party, to which Milton adhered in the struggle of the Great Rebellion. The spirit of Puritanism was on the whole decidedly opposed to all kinds of culture, so that poets, architects, painters, and musicians naturally looked to Charles I. and his court for protection and patronage. On this account Milton must always have been conscious of a wide contrast between himself and the party to which he belonged. Such Italian tours as he took in his youth were regarded as morally pernicious by the Puritans, who regarded the Italy of those days as a hot-bed of vice, in which the rich young cavaliers of the time received instruction in all kinds of immorality. When Milton’s enthusiasm for religion and morality urged him to write religious and moral poetry, he felt himself thoroughly in harmony with his own party in the state; but his admiration for the beauties of literature and the fine arts, which he shared with Charles I. and many of his courtiers, must have been looked upon with suspicion by his austere political associates. In his L’Allegro he not only glorifies the old Greek drama, but also mentions with approval the learned sock of Ben Jonson and the wild wood-notes of Shakespeare. But the Puritans, caring nothing for all the glories of the Elizabethan stage, condemned the whole drama indiscriminately as a school of immorality. In many fine passages of Milton’s poetry evidence of his love of music may be found (see note, P. L., I., 708), and we know that his favorite relaxation was to play on the organ. The Puritans had so little appreciation for music that they objected to its use in the service of God. Milton admired the beauties of ecclesiastical architecture (Penseroso, 155-166), which the Republican leaders allowed or encouraged their followers to deface. In a word, while Milton could appreciate everything beautiful in literature and art, those who professed the same religion and the same principles as himself confined their reading to the Bible, and included the innocent pleasures of literature, philosophy, and the fine arts in the same condemnation as the license and irreligion with which they appeared, from the standpoint of fanaticism, to be inextricably connected. Thus an important part of Milton’s character tended to alienate him from the political party to which he belonged. Before the outbreak of the civil war the hostility between culture and religious Puritanism was less distinctly manifest. At the time when Milton was a young man, England had not yet been split up into two great irreconcilable divisions, between which an absolute choice had to be made. It was thus possible for him to indulge then to the full his love of beauty in art and literature without feelings of self-reproach. But as he increased in austerity with advancing years, he became unable to remain entirely superior to the prevalent narrow-mindedness. There is good reason, from the internal evidence afforded by his poems, to believe that his attitude towards human learning was gradually affected by the influence of Puritan surroundings, until in old age he himself came to regard Greek philosophy and profane literature generally as either unprofitable or even pernicious.

    Milton was undoubtedly a sincere patriot, but in times of civil war patriotism is in danger of being confounded with party spirit. In Milton’s case religious zeal and republican enthusiasm rather tend to throw into the shade his affection for his native country. We have seen that in his youth he conceived the project of writing on the Arthurian legend a patriotic poem which would have celebrated the glories of England as the Aeneid celebrates the history of Rome. In this poem Arthur was to have visited the under-world, where, like Virgil’s Aeneas, he would have seen visions of the future triumphs in war and peace to be won by his descendants and successors in distant ages. But the carrying out of such a project was rendered impossible for Milton by the Great Rebellion. A republican poet could not celebrate the glories of his national history when all its past triumphs were indissolubly connected with the names of kings and great barons. Thus it became impossible for Milton to make the glorification of his native land the main subject of his epic poem. There was however one means left by which he could express his patriotism without appearing to be unfaithful to his political principles. At first he seems to have contemplated writing his great poem in Latin, the language in which many of his earlier poems were composed. This he was tempted to do in order that his

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1