Paradise Lost Questions - Finally!

For our next class, we will be reading the first two books of Paradise Lost.

Some questions to consider:

1. How does the invocation function in the poem? How does it outline the 'plot' of the epic? What is that plot? And how does Milton figure time in these opening lines?

2. How does Milton conceive of his poem in relationship to antecedents? What precedent traditions is he invoking? How does Milton put himself into relationship to those traditions?

3. Why does the action - if such a term can be used in relation to Paradise Lost - begin in hell? How does Milton figure the satanic host? What metaphors or similes does he use to represent Satan? Are there particular passages which you find to be particulary useful in helping to understand Milton's attitude towards Satan? Finally, is Blake right: is Milton really of the devil's party without knowing it?

Watch this space for possible further updates.

Paradise Lost

In the end, we will have our next meeting on Paradise Lost a week from Monday, May 25.

Watch this space for guidance and questions.

Reason and Authority in Milton and Hobbes

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Packet of readings for our class can be found here. In reading Hobbes, concentrate in chapter 5 on the definition of reason; the discussion of wit and fancy in chapter 7 (as well as the discussion of inspiration at the end of the chapter); all of chapters 13 and 17 (we will look at important parts of chapters 14 and 18 together in class).

For next time we will continue our readings of Milton's prose. We will be reading from Milton's Tenure of Kings and Magistrates and Hobbes' Leviathan. Though I have placed texts on reserve, both works are available on the internet - so we will be working with those versions for the purposes of our class discussion. The internet text of Milton's work is unpaginated - we will be reading from the beginning through the paragraph which begins: 'But of these I name no more, lest it bee objected they were Heathen....' In Leviathan, we will be looking at Part I, chapters 5, 8, 13, 14; Part II, chapters 17 and 18 - available here. We may also look at the Putney Debates - discussions among radical groups on the nature of authority and government. Background to those debates are available here; the transcription of the debates here (take a look if you have the time). We also hope to read Andrew Marvell's Horatian Ode. For cool stuff about the trial and execution of Charles, check here.

Some questions:

1. Why does Milton write the Tenure? How does Milton explain that his countrymen are not pursuing the path of 'reformation'?

2. How do Milton, Hobbes and the Levellers of the Putney tracts constitute authority differently? How are the Hobbesian and Miltonic conceptions of authority related to their corresponding conceptions of reason? Do Hobbes and Milton share a conception of 'right reason'? In what ways are their conceptions different?

3. Following our discussion of Areopagitica, how do Milton and Hobbes differ in their relationship to multiplicity? Does the discussion of wit, fancy and judgment in chapter 8 have a bearing on the conception of political compact in chapters 17 and 18? How is the Hobbesian individual different from the Miltonic individual? Does Hobbes also entertain a notion of discordia concors? If so, how is it different from that of Milton?

4. How do different accounts of history lead to differing conceptions of authority?

Stay tuned for possible amplifications and revisions.

Areopagitica

For next time, we will be reading Milton's prose tract, Areopagitica.

Questions we will be asking:

1. What is the genre of Milton's prose tract? What was the occasion of its composition? For whom was it written? Why did Milton write the tract? What are the aims of the tract?

2. What were the particular contexts for Milton's composition? Given these contexts, what is strange about the frontispiece of the tract figured above?

3. Critics claim that Milton began the early modern challenge to censorship. Is this born out by a reading of his prose tract?

4. 'Milton was a liberal before his time.' Do you agree?

5. 'Milton's London was like Petrograd in 1945 and Havana in 1965, and Areopagitica was neither liberal or libertarian in its time; it is a militant and exclusivist revolutionary pamphlet.' Do you agree with this sentiment?

6. How does Milton represent difference in his prose tract? What does he think about - in his own terms - about sects and schisms?

7. Milton - as we saw in relationship to Lycidas - was attacked for his metaphysical temperament. Are there ways in which the sensibility that nourised - according to Dr. Johnson - discordia concors in his poetry is also present in Areopagitica?

A text of the tract - if not in your anthologies - is available here.

Lycidas

Some questions to think about for reading 'Lycidas':

1. What is the genre of 'Lycidas' and how does Milton approach it? Is his approach to the genre of 'Lycidas' parallel in some ways to his approach to 'Comus'?

2. Dr. Johnson wrote that in Milton's poem 'trifling fictions are mingled' with the 'most awful and sacred truths, such as ought never to be polluted with such irreverend combinations.' Is Johnson's critique justified?

3. A contemporary critic writes that 'Lycidas' criticism is “an effort to bind and clamp together a universe trying to fly off into separate bits.' Do you agree with this evaluation? What are the separate bits to which the critic refers? Does the poem have a discernible structure? Is there a progression from one part to the next? Or does Milton show himself unable to control the different materials of his poem?

Comus' Greatest Hits

Check out here for songs by Henry Lawes - including some from Comus.

Comus!

In our next meeting we will be reading Milton's Masque at Ludlow, more popularly known as Comus. As preparation for reading Comus, please read Ben Jonson's masque, Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue which is available as a pdf file on our documents site.

In preparing for our class, please think about the following questions:

1. What is a masque? Where was it performed? Is this particular literary genre associated with a social class? Marxist literary critics argue that genres are laden with certain ideological assumptions; is that true of the masque? If so, how does Milton make his peacce with writing the masque? Does he accommodate his poetic sensibility to the ideological underpinnings of the masque?

2. How does Milton deal with the more specific antecedent for Comus in Jonson's text. Does Milton entertain the reconciliation achieved in Jonson's mask - is there a possibility of the reconciliation of 'Pleasure' and 'Virtue' in Milton's text?

3. Does Milton continue to think about poetry as he did in the earlier companion poems? Are there forms of poetry which Milton embraces? forms of poetry which he rejects? if so, why?

4. Finally, why do you think the poem has come to be known by the name Comus?

Comments with links to helpful sites about the masque - images would be great! - are welcome.

These are some preliminary thoughts for the diligent among you. Check back after Pesach for possible further thoughts and guidance.