Milton, Invocation

Primary and secondary epic

C. S. Lewis in the preface to Paradise Lost introduced the term “primary epic” and “secondary epic”, which means that the first flourished in oral culture. The latter belongs to the written culture, such as “Paradise Lost”

Epic should deal with a great epic question, concerning many people or the entire mankind – an epic magnitude. Characters are heroes, gods, supernatural.

The difference is how we convey the exceptional quality of the epic. The primary epic was chronological, events followed chronologically. The language was simple, because it was to be understood by people, easy to listen to. If the language is simple, where do we get the atmosphere? Solempne is the mood of pathetic and extraordinary solemnity, with the stress on extraordinary, exceptional, and excluding the meaning “sad” and its connotations. Solempne was created by means of celebration, part of which was the recitation of the epic. There was a feast, then a break followed, a bard came, waited for inspiration, and started performing.

The secondary epic is different, belongs to the written structure. It begins in media res, in the middle of the things. Notice that the book one is about the consequences of the rebellion, which itself is described later. And, because the epic is a written epic, people read it in an armchair, the only way to create the solempne is through the language.

Milton uses iambic pentameter, blank verse. Milton wrote a preface to the work, according to which the rhyme belongs to the barbarous age and low poetry. Rhyme is not used in works of a serious subject matter, and works that aspire to high Christian matters.

Milton uses enjambments, run-on lines, epic similes. He uses Latin grammatical contructions to dissimiliarize the language,, and lines ending with long vowels.

The Invocation, book one.

The epic theme: Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruitOf that forbidden tree whose mortal tasteBrought death into the World, and all our woe,With loss of Eden, till one greater ManRestore us, and regain the blissful seat,

The fruit of that forbidden tree – the consequence.

One greater Man – Jesus Christ.

The epic question: say first what cause

Moved our grand parents, in that happy state,Favoured of Heaven so highly, to fall offFrom their Creator, and transgress his willFor one restraint, lords of the World besides.Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?

Remember that Milton was a puritan and he sided with Cromwell, so he was against the king. People have right to rebel against the king if the king does not care for them. Notice how judgemental is “seduced to that foul revolt”

The function is to justify the ways of God to men, to justify his behaviour.

This shepherd is Moses – Mojżesz.

That shepherd who first taught the chosen seedIn the beginning how the heavens and earthRose out of Chaos:

The first idea of Milton was to write an epic about king Arthur, but he wanted something more real, that is why he choose Bible.

Who is the muse of Milton? It is Urania, the Heavenly Muse.

Urania is the muse of astronomy. Why did Milton choose Urania (muse of astronomy, sky) instead of Calliope (muse of epic), so he needed muse that is closer to Heaven (Urania – heavenly muse)

“I invoke thy meaning, not thy name”, he connects her to the Christian meaning of the Holy Spirit. He writes how she is higher than the Greek gods. He wants her meaning, and through this meaning he connects with the Holy Spirit. (Urania)

The author wants to be morally uplifted, transformed.

In the Book Nine – the story is more tragic and heroic, because it affects the whole of mankind. More heroic, because it is true, unlike the stories about Achilles etc.

The events, as depicted in the Bible, are true for Milton.

He asks again his celestial patroness (again, belonging to the stars and Heaven), he asks her for a suitable style, proper for his narrative.

The muse dictated the verse to him during night, he was inspired.

When he was blind, he could actually see deeper, not being fooled by the surface of things, such is the ideology behind it.

Satan as an epic villain – a monster in the book one, and the most subtlest and treacherous of animals, serpent, in the book nine. His punishment is memory, because in his mind he is a renaissance fallen angel, even though he looks like a monster. So he remembers what he lost.

According to Satan, God created Heaven and then he created Earth (the Paradise). Which is not true, Satan lost the understanding of God, he is far from God and from Truth. Not understanding has consequences, Satan is not aware of the omniscience of God.

Satan fell because of his pride, pride which is defined (according to St. Augustine) as a perversion of humility. Pride is when a being is more interested in itself than in God. A conscious creature. The first was Satan, and the second was Eve. The moment she wanted to part with Adam, she sinned with pride. Another example: she looks at her reflection in water and is so fascinated, that it takes God to make her go to Adam.

Eve was fascinated by something that was not true, because it was not the thing, just a reflection. It was believeing in something that was fundamentally not true,.

The point is that Satan never regrets his sin against God “But neither here seek I, no nor in Heaven To dwell, unless by mastering Heaven’s Supreme;”So he will not return to Heaven unless he becomes the master of Heaven. Romantic poets were fascinated with this Miltonian vision of Satan. Satan justifies his choice and tries to prove that this is what they wanted.

“We will wage eternal war against God” – he is an idiot, he does not make sense and contradicts himself very often. An eternal war is not to be won.

“Why did we loose” – “Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven”

“We lost because God had a secret weapon” – it were thunders, and so they failed because God did not fight according to the fair play.

“Wherever I fly is Hell”, “But I will never admit it openly and I will never serve God” – so even though he realizes that he cannot win, he cannot repent and will wage word for his lost cause.

One of his means is to seduce men.

Satan thinks that God created people – in order to spite, to mock him.

The first time Satan saw Eve “he became stupidly good” – without thinking, because he could not think about anything wrong, being stunned with Eve’s beauty. Why Eve – because she was less intelligent.

He appeals to her vanity, comparing her to goddess.

She wants to be supreme to Adam, and then she decides to share her sin with Adam in order to involve him, because it would be worse to lose Adam to another woman after her death.

“O Woman” – he reminds her of her position, he obeys God, she obeys him.

Within man, the danger lies. Free will as the source of fallibility of people. Arminianism – free will.

Reason is given to man to protect him from doing wrong. Adam knows that Satan will come and tempt them. But, one can be tempted and fail. Adam sees, Even sees not, so she does not see. Adam, undeceived, knew the consequences, but overcame by the woman’s charm, ate the fruit. So it was his love to Eve that brought him to sin.

After Adam tells her what a free will is, and lets her go, she falls prey to the deception of Satan. He should not let her go and expose her to Satan and her inferior understanding.

Eve exerted her own her free will, and refusing to stay with Adam, she acted against her free will. It was Adam’s duty to take care of her, and he did not.

All the humours were in balance, and there was no illness and no death. but the moment Eve ate the apple, an imbalance of humours was created. And it is the source of death and old age.

They see their nakedness, they burn with desire, they go into the bushes, and start quarrelling.

The long range effect of their deed – men will labour, and women will give birth in pains.