1934 KELLEY Paradise Lost, VII, 8-12,& the Zohar

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"Paradise Lost," VII, 8-12, and the "Zohar"Author(s): Maurice KelleySource: The Modern Language Review, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Jul., 1934), pp. 322-324Published by: Modern Humanities Research AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3715490

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322 Miscellaneous NotesMr Jackson also informs me of two books in the possession ofA. Ehrman, Esq., 38 Lowndes Street, S.W. 1, which once belonged toRichard Harvey, Gabriel's brother. They are1500 Formulare Instrumentorum,Cologne, 4to (the Barlow-Duff copy),and1521 Henry VIII Assertio, Pynson, 4to. G. C. MOORESMITH.

SKifJfrIfLD.

'PARADISELOST,' VII, 8-12, AND THE 'ZOHAR.'Before the Hills appeerd,or Fountain flow'dThou with Eternal wisdom didst converse,Wisdomthy Sister, and with her didst playIn presenceof th' Almightie Father, pleas'dWith thy CelestialSong.

The preceding lines, Professor Saurat1 would interpret thus:There were, therefore, plans to be fulfilled, plans that were shaped before theCreation,by Eternal Wisdom playing before the Supreme. Milton devotes sublimepassages to the state of the Deity before Creation. [Saurat then quotes the passagefrom ParadiseLost,given above, and certain portions of Tetrachordon, hich appear

below.] ...It was duringthis divine play that the plans of the worldwere made....And from these divine 'recreations'the creation came. Miltonascribesto these actswithin the bosom of divinity the sexual characterwhich is so well marked in theZohar; and that is the meaning of that terrible passage in Tetrachordon,n whichMilton invokes God'sown exampleto justify man in his need of woman: 'Godhimselfconceals us not his own recreations before the world was built: I was, saith theEternal Wisdom, daily his delight, playing always before him ...and [Solomon]sings of a thousand raptures between those two lovely ones far on the hither sideof carnalenjoyment.' No doubt Miltonis quoting sacredtexts; but he adds anpthertext: 'before the world was built,' and this is a relationshipof cause to effect in theZohar-the world is the outcome, the child, of sex-life within the divinity.Saurat'sconclusionswouldseem to be these. Miltonconsideredthe creationas the result of the sex life of God. His source for such a concept wasthe Zohar. Paradise Lost does not explicitly state this idea; but the linesunder examination have such a connotation, for the passage in Tetra-chordon,which is parallel, does express the belief found in the Zohar.Such an interpretation for these lines of the epic seems hardly tenable.The De doctrina,to begin with, does not so much as hint at such an idea;and in this work, moreover, Milton professes ignorance of the employ-ments of God before the creation.

Sed ante mundumconditum quid egerit Deus, insipiensnimis sit qui quaerat; necqui respondeatmulto sapientior...2.1 Denis Saurat, Milton: Man and Thinker,New York, 1925, pp. 132, 291-2. Thepassage from Tetrachordon,quoted by Saurat, may be found in The Prose Worksof JohnMilton(Bohnedition), n, 331.2 De doctrinaChristiana,Cambridge, 825,p. 124.

322 Miscellaneous NotesMr Jackson also informs me of two books in the possession ofA. Ehrman, Esq., 38 Lowndes Street, S.W. 1, which once belonged toRichard Harvey, Gabriel's brother. They are1500 Formulare Instrumentorum,Cologne, 4to (the Barlow-Duff copy),and1521 Henry VIII Assertio, Pynson, 4to. G. C. MOORESMITH.

SKifJfrIfLD.

'PARADISELOST,' VII, 8-12, AND THE 'ZOHAR.'Before the Hills appeerd,or Fountain flow'dThou with Eternal wisdom didst converse,Wisdomthy Sister, and with her didst playIn presenceof th' Almightie Father, pleas'dWith thy CelestialSong.

The preceding lines, Professor Saurat1 would interpret thus:There were, therefore, plans to be fulfilled, plans that were shaped before theCreation,by Eternal Wisdom playing before the Supreme. Milton devotes sublimepassages to the state of the Deity before Creation. [Saurat then quotes the passagefrom ParadiseLost,given above, and certain portions of Tetrachordon, hich appear

below.] ...It was duringthis divine play that the plans of the worldwere made....And from these divine 'recreations'the creation came. Miltonascribesto these actswithin the bosom of divinity the sexual characterwhich is so well marked in theZohar; and that is the meaning of that terrible passage in Tetrachordon,n whichMilton invokes God'sown exampleto justify man in his need of woman: 'Godhimselfconceals us not his own recreations before the world was built: I was, saith theEternal Wisdom, daily his delight, playing always before him ...and [Solomon]sings of a thousand raptures between those two lovely ones far on the hither sideof carnalenjoyment.' No doubt Miltonis quoting sacredtexts; but he adds anpthertext: 'before the world was built,' and this is a relationshipof cause to effect in theZohar-the world is the outcome, the child, of sex-life within the divinity.Saurat'sconclusionswouldseem to be these. Miltonconsideredthe creationas the result of the sex life of God. His source for such a concept wasthe Zohar. Paradise Lost does not explicitly state this idea; but the linesunder examination have such a connotation, for the passage in Tetra-chordon,which is parallel, does express the belief found in the Zohar.Such an interpretation for these lines of the epic seems hardly tenable.The De doctrina,to begin with, does not so much as hint at such an idea;and in this work, moreover, Milton professes ignorance of the employ-ments of God before the creation.

Sed ante mundumconditum quid egerit Deus, insipiensnimis sit qui quaerat; necqui respondeatmulto sapientior...2.1 Denis Saurat, Milton: Man and Thinker,New York, 1925, pp. 132, 291-2. Thepassage from Tetrachordon,quoted by Saurat, may be found in The Prose Worksof JohnMilton(Bohnedition), n, 331.2 De doctrinaChristiana,Cambridge, 825,p. 124.


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Miscellaneous NotesThe passage in Paradise Lost, therefore, more logically refers to the 'lessserious employments of the Deity before the creation of the worldl,' forboth passages speak of Wisdom playing before the Lord2, and theTetrachordonrefers to God's 'recreations.' When one considers the im-portance of creation in the divine plan, may not one doubt that Miltonintended this divine play to refer to the planning and production of theuniverse?

The passage from Tetrachordon,moreover, does not mirror the beliefof the Zohar. The 'terrible' passage is not terrible at all. It appears soonly because Saurat has tampered with Milton's reference. His methodof quotation indicates that 'those two lovely ones' refers to God andWisdom. In reality, the reference is to Christ and the Church. Miltonwrote as follows:

Whereof lest we should be too timorous, in the awe that our flat sages wouldform us and dress us, wisest Solomon among his gravest proverbs countenances akind of ravishment and erring fondness in the entertainment of wedded leisures; andin the Song of Songs, which is generally believed, even in the jolliest expressions, tofigure the spousals of the church with Christ, sings of a thousand raptures betweenthose two lovely ones far on the hither side of carnal enjoyment3.The context, moreover, does not bear out Saurat's interpretation.Milton is commenting on Genesis ii, 18: 'And the Lord said, It is not

good that man should be alone....' 'Alone' is to be interpreted as'alone from woman'; and to elevate the discussion above things of thebody, Milton insists that loneliness is not to be considered only in thesense of 'want of copulation.' All men, says Milton, need relaxationfrom labour. Even God conceals not from us that he partakes of recrea-tion. Man, therefore, may do likewise. Now the greatest recreation isto be found in the company of man's opposite, woman; and this recrea-tion consists in mental rather than bodily pleasure-in 'a peculiar com-fort in the married state beside the genial bed, which no other societyaffords4.' Throughout the passage, Milton strives to keep the discussionon a plane higher than that on which Saurat would interpret it. Neitherdoes passage or context permit Saurat's interpretation; and the belief ofthe Zohar, therefore, does not appear in Tetrachordon.Other alleged influences of the Zohar on the invocation to Urania(vii, 1-12) are likewise unconvincing. The De doctrina does not permit

1 So Sumner in his translation of the De doctrina, The Prose Wtorksof John Milton(Bohn edition), iv, p. 170.2 One should also observe that the lines do not permit Saurat's description of thematter: 'these acts within the bosom of divinity.' The texts merely say playing 'before'or 'in presence of' the Father.3 Saurat's most recent reproduction of the passage (Milton et le Materialisme Chrgtienen Angleterre,Paris, 1928, p. 88) is even more misleading, for there he indicates no omissions.4 The Prose Worksof John Milton (Bohn edition), iII, pp. 330-2.

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Miscellaneous Notesiscellaneous NotesSaurat's identification of Wisdom and the 'Creative Son1.' Of the portionof the Bible which lies behind these lines in the epic, Milton writes:

Ad illud autem Proverbiorumcap. viii. quod attinet, crediderim,non Filium Dei,sed sapientiam,more poetico, quasi personamillic induci.. 2.The equation of Urania with the Third Sephira, Intelligence, therefore,becomes too arbitrary for acceptance.The fact that Saurat's suggestion has not the support of the Dedoctrina, that the passage in Tetrachordons not in consonance with theZohar,and that other influences of the Zoharon the invocation of Book vIIhave not been proved, forces the rejection of Saurat's interpretation.We know only that Wisdom played in the presence of the Father, andthat this play was pleasing and recreative to Him. Beyond this, existingevidence does not permit us to go. MAURICEKELLEY.

PRINCETON,.S.A.CARLYLEON RAMSAYAND FERGUSSON.

Allan Ramsay and Robert Fergusson are mentioned only once inCarlyle's Essay on Burns, in which the Ayrshire bard is said to have had'no furtherance but such knowledge as dwells in a poor man's hut, andthe rhymes of a Fergusson or Ramsay for his standard of beauty.' Theabsence of any further reference is probably due to the writer's lack ofany serious interest in Burns's poetic predecessors. This virtual in-difference is illustrated by the following holograph letter, addressed to acorrespondent whose name has been carefully erased, and now published3from the Watson Collection (the property of the Scottish NationalPortrait Gallery, on permanent loan to the National Library of Scotlandsince September, 1930). Separate editions of Allan Ramsay's and ofRobert Fergusson's poetry appeared in 1851, but it is unlikely that theyhad any connexion with the edition which was projected five years earlierand for which Carlyle offered such sound advice 4.

CHELSEA,25 Novr, 1846Dear Sir,I am much afraid I shall not be able to assist you, by any contributionbut that of my good wishes, in your pious Enterprise. I have not readFergusson at all since the time of my boyhood; neither has Ramsay ever1 Saurat, op. cit., p. 291. 2 De doctrina, p. 127.8 By kind permission of the Director, Mr Stanley Cursiter.4 Was Carlyle'scorrespondent conceivably the precocious Grosart, who edited Fergussonin 1851, while still a student, and may have formed ambitious plans even at the age of 19,before he entered Edinburgh University? [Ed.]

Saurat's identification of Wisdom and the 'Creative Son1.' Of the portionof the Bible which lies behind these lines in the epic, Milton writes:Ad illud autem Proverbiorumcap. viii. quod attinet, crediderim,non Filium Dei,sed sapientiam,more poetico, quasi personamillic induci.. 2.

The equation of Urania with the Third Sephira, Intelligence, therefore,becomes too arbitrary for acceptance.The fact that Saurat's suggestion has not the support of the Dedoctrina, that the passage in Tetrachordons not in consonance with theZohar,and that other influences of the Zoharon the invocation of Book vIIhave not been proved, forces the rejection of Saurat's interpretation.We know only that Wisdom played in the presence of the Father, andthat this play was pleasing and recreative to Him. Beyond this, existingevidence does not permit us to go. MAURICEKELLEY.

PRINCETON,.S.A.CARLYLEON RAMSAYAND FERGUSSON.

Allan Ramsay and Robert Fergusson are mentioned only once inCarlyle's Essay on Burns, in which the Ayrshire bard is said to have had'no furtherance but such knowledge as dwells in a poor man's hut, andthe rhymes of a Fergusson or Ramsay for his standard of beauty.' Theabsence of any further reference is probably due to the writer's lack ofany serious interest in Burns's poetic predecessors. This virtual in-difference is illustrated by the following holograph letter, addressed to acorrespondent whose name has been carefully erased, and now published3from the Watson Collection (the property of the Scottish NationalPortrait Gallery, on permanent loan to the National Library of Scotlandsince September, 1930). Separate editions of Allan Ramsay's and ofRobert Fergusson's poetry appeared in 1851, but it is unlikely that theyhad any connexion with the edition which was projected five years earlierand for which Carlyle offered such sound advice 4.

CHELSEA,25 Novr, 1846Dear Sir,I am much afraid I shall not be able to assist you, by any contributionbut that of my good wishes, in your pious Enterprise. I have not readFergusson at all since the time of my boyhood; neither has Ramsay ever1 Saurat, op. cit., p. 291. 2 De doctrina, p. 127.8 By kind permission of the Director, Mr Stanley Cursiter.4 Was Carlyle'scorrespondent conceivably the precocious Grosart, who edited Fergussonin 1851, while still a student, and may have formed ambitious plans even at the age of 19,before he entered Edinburgh University? [Ed.]

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1934 KELLEY Paradise Lost, VII, 8-12,& the Zohar

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