P CHAPTER II PARADISE LOST I. MILTON IN PARADISE LOST ARADISE LOST is built round two great themes which are harmoniously balanced: the fall of the angels and the fall of man. The first books describe the state of the fallen angels; in contrast to this, after an interval in Heaven, the following books picture man before his fall, in Paradise; then comes the fall of the angels, and the creation of the world which compensates it; and finally, the fall of man and the history of the world which will make up for it. The dramatic interest in the first half is in Satan's efforts; in the second, in the human drama between Adam and Eve. The two parts are linked, Satan's efforts being the cause of the human drama. The scheme is simple, clear, and grand, and bears the imprint of Milton's mind. From the psychological and philosophical point of view we have taken in this work, Paradise Lost is first of all, as we have seen in Part II, the working out of Milton's ideas; but it is also and this remains to be studied a sort of transposition of his private and political experience. Milton has drawn upon his own life to depict situations similar to those he had known. Hence the false position he frequently puts himself into; for analogy in the events has driven him to take from himself or from his friends the traits wanted for the picture of the fallen angels. Thus Satan's character, as Milton presents it, cannot but inspire feelings of sympathy and admiration. The traditional motive of Satan's fall was pride. Milton had then to describe the pride of Satan. But, as we have seen, pride was the ruling passion in his own soul. Consequently, the character of Satan is drawn with a power unique in literature. In reality, Milton pours out his own feelings. Satan's first speeches are pure Miltonic lyricism. For, in addition, Milton's pride had known defeat, even as Satan's had. What matters failure and the triumph of the enemy if one is resolved not to submit? Here we have the rage and defiance which Milton himself felt when he saw the Restoration coming, and which we have seen him expressing in prose in his Ready and Easy Way.' Now, it must be pointed out that it was probably at the same time, since he began work on the epic about 1658, that he expressed the same feelings in verse: Yet not for those Nor what the potent victor in his rage Can else inflict, do I repent or change, Though changed in outward lustre, that fix'd mind What though the field be lost? All is not lost: th' unconquerable will, 1 See above, p. 99. And this empyreal substance cannot fail, Who now triumphs, and in th' excess of joy Sole reigning holds the tyranny of heav'n." No one is vanquished who remains strong in his own spirit. Fallen cherub, to be weak is miserable Milton, in hiding at the Restoration, sought for, and, in theory at least, in danger of death, remembering all his dreams of what the Kingdom of the Saints was to be, and seeing the reign of Belial in London itself In courts and palaces. he also reigns, Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine-4 Milton must have thought of the condition of the Elect somewhat in this strain: Is this the region, this the soil, the clime, Said then the lost Arch-Angel, this the seat That we must change for heav'n, this mournful gloom For that celestial light? Be it so, since he Who now is Sovran can dispose and bid What shall be right: farthest from him is best, Whom reason hath equall'd, force hath made supreme Above his equals. Farewell happy fields, Where joy for ever dwells: Hail horrors, hail Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell 2 P. L., I, 94-124. 3 I, 157-58. 4 I, 497-502. Receive thy new possessor; one who brings And when Beelzebub cries Invincible, The mind and spirit remains he expresses the invincible spirit of the great Puritans as it appears, for instance, in Harrison's speeches before his execution or at his trial. He told his judges, "My lords, this matter . . . was not a thing done in a corner," and argued to the end the case for the legality of the King's judgment. Like Vane, Hugh Peters, and all the friends of old, he was sentenced to be hanged, then drawn and quartered while still alive, and only after that, beheaded. And he told the people from the scaffold: If I had ten thousand lives, I could freely and cheerfully lay down them all to witness in this matter. By God I have leaped over a wall; by God I have run through a troup, and by God I will get through this death, and he will make it easy to me. However men presume to call it by hard names, there was more of God in it than men are now aware of." Miltonic speech this; and the rage of the fallen Puritans has gone into Satan's first speeches. 8 But Satan is not only pride. He is passion in general. He is, in particular, sensuality - and Milton gratuitously put this upon him. A sensual passion unites him to his daughter Sin, and their common ideal is to reach, as she says, To that new world of light and bliss, among Thy daughter and thy darling, without end." 5 I, 242-55. 6 I, 139-40. 7 See Masson, VI, 82, 95, 96. 8 See below, pp. 154-55. • II, 867-70. Envy and anger and all the passions are in him: he thus addresses the Sun: And O thou that with surpassing glory crowned O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams, That bring to my remembrance from what state I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere.10 Thus while he spoke, each passion dimmed his face, Dr. Johnson, in his wicked essay on Milton, charges the poet with these very vices; and for all his wickedness, Johnson was not deficient in penetration, and Sir Walter Raleigh's witticisms, true though they be in spiritMilton was not so bad as all that do not yet quite cover the case: It may, at least, be credited to Johnson for moderation, that he requires only four of the Seven Deadly Sins, to wit, Pride, Envy, Anger, and Sloth, to explain Milton's political tenets. Had he permitted himself another sentence, an easy place might surely have been made for Gluttony, Luxury, and Covetousness, the three whose absence cannot fail to be remarked on by any lover of thorough and detailed treatment in these intricate problems of human character.12 Last of all, there is no lack of sympathy on intellectual subjects between Satan and Milton. Satan is naturally a great heretic; his peculiar position gives him a liberty of mind which is rarely attained. Bishop Sumner accuses him of being a Manichean.13 At any rate, he sees faults 10 IV, 32-39. 12 Milton, p. 52. |