But, while the Fall consisted in Disobedience, it resulted, like Satan’s, from Pride (De. Civ. Dei, xiv, 13). Hence, Satan approaches Eve through her Pride: first, by flattery of her beauty (P. L. ix, 532-48) which “should be seen…ador’d and served by Angels” and, secondly (this is more important), by urging her selfhood to direct [...]
Archive for the ‘"Paradise Lost"’ Category
Augustine and Milton on the Fall of Man
Posted in "Paradise Lost", Augustine, C. S. Lewis, John Milton on September 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
John Milton’s Poem of the Fall
Posted in "Paradise Lost", C. S. Lewis on February 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The rebellion of Satan and the tyranny of a Nimrod or a Charles are wrong for the same reason. Tyranny, the rule over equals as if they were inferiors, is rebellion. And, equally, as Shakespeare’s Ulysses saw, rebellion is tyranny. All Milton’s hatred of tyranny is expressed in the poem: but the tyrant held up [...]
The Public Reception of “Paradise Lost”
Posted in "Paradise Lost", John Milton, Samuel Johnson on December 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
That in the reigns of Charles and James the Paradise Lost received no public acclamations is readily confessed. Wit and literature were on the side of the Court: and who that solicited favour or fashion would venture to praise the defender of the regicides? All that he himself could think his due, from evil tongues [...]
John Milton’s “Paradise Lost”
Posted in "Paradise Lost", Harry Blamires, John Milton on September 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
No doubt, all evil-doing creatures inhabit imaginary worlds. Perhaps it is only on the basis of a falsely conceived self inhabiting a falsely posited personal environment that evil can be plotted and executed. Certainly, Beelzebub is, at first, quick to enter the imaginary world fabricated by his former superior. He, too, reflects backward on the [...]
John Milton’s “Paradise Regained”
Posted in "Paradise Lost", "Paradise Regained", Harry Blamires, John Milton on September 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Paradise Regained is a remarkably superfluous poem in view of the vision of human redemption and the endless ages of new Heaven and new Earth prefigured at the conclusion of Paradise Lost. It concentrates on the temptation of Christ by Satan, which is not, in fact, capable of bearing the weight of a central significance [...]
C. S. Lewis on John Milton
Posted in "Paradise Lost", C. S. Lewis, John Milton on August 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Fortunately, there is a better way. Instead of stripping the knight of his armour, you can try to put his armour on yourself; instead of seeing how the courtier would look without his lace, you can try to see how you would feel with his lace; that is, with his honour, his wit, his royalism, [...]
A Short Biography
Posted in "Paradise Lost", John Milton, Short Biography on April 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Paradise Lost, an epic poem by Milton (q.v.) originally in ten books, subsequently rearranged in twelve, first printed in 1667.Milton formed the intention of writing a great epic poem, as he tells us, as early as 1639. A list of possible subjects, some of them scriptural, some from British history, written in his own hand [...]
