The Reformation and John Milton

Reformation

Thirty Years’ War

‘English Reformation’ (Church of England,

1532)

Puritans, Levellers, Independents, Diggers,

Quakers, Shakers, Presbyterians (Church

of Scotland, John Knox, 1560), Methodists

Religious context of life: witch-hunts, the

reality of the devil

Protestantism ‘Any man who wishes to be saved must

work out his beliefs for himself’ (Milton)

a personally felt religion

less emphasis on things between the individual and the word of God:

‘God hath revealed the way of eternal salvation only to the individual faith of every man’ (Milton);

‘God’s word alone is the rule of faith’ (Milton)

the idea of the Covenant

in Paradise Lost: the Spirit „doth prefer /

Before all Temples th’upright heart and pure”

(I. 17-8)

No mediators, no intercession: just the word

of God

Bible translations

Luther 1534; Geneva Bible 1560

Vizsolyi Biblia (Károli Gáspár, publ.

1590)

John Wyclif(fe), 1384 (from Latin);

William Tyndale 1525-37 (from

Hebrew and Greek)

Early 17th century: the King James

Bible (the „Authorized Version”)

John Milton (1608-1674)

Milton

Renaissance poet (poetry: a vocation)

poeta doctus

+Protestant sense of poetic mission

involved in religious and political debates;

many tracts (in Latin and English): theology,

government, freedom of speech and

censorship, divorce

justification of the Regicide

Munkácsy Mihály: A vak Milton műveit diktálja leányainak (1878)

Orlay Petrich Soma: A vak Milton (1862)

Paradise Lost (1667)

epic

new metre (unrhyming iambic pentameter: blank verse)

epic properties reworked for the new topic

the history of the universe (from Creation)

Paradise Lost

central event: the Fall (sin of disobedience)

‘to justify the ways of God to man’

Twofold context of the Fall:

(1) cosmic story

(2) the human story of Adam and Eve

Gustave Doré’s illustrations: Satan

Satan on his throne

Satan’s journey

Chaos: ‘The womb of

Nature, and perhapsher grave’

It will stay like thisunless God ordains‘his dark materials to

create more worlds’

Satan, Adam and Eve

William Blake:

Satan envious of Adam and Eve

‘imparadis’d in each other’s arms’

Satan, Adam and Eve

Paradise Lost as a political allegory

Anarchy – Chaos

Tyranny - Satan’s rule (lack of reason,

tyranny of passions)

God: perfect government

God foresees the Fall but does not decree

it

Paradise Lost

‘…they themselves decreed

Their own revolt, not I: if I foreknew,

Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault

…

They trespass, authors to themselves in all,

Both what they judge and what they choose; for so

I formed them free, and free they must remain

Till they enthrall themselves” (III. 117-124)

Satan in Paradise Lost

Satan as the epic hero

„Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven”

Sublime figure (figure of the sublime)

Satan

and the sublime

Satan in Paradise Lost Mock-creator

‘The mind is its own place, and in itself

Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven’

‘What matter where, if I be still the same’

‘Myself am hell’ (IV. 75)

Satan

A character with an inner life,doubts, torments

e.g. when watching Adam and Eve:

creatures ‘whom my thoughts pursue / With wonder, and could love’

Satan

Romantic view: Prometheus figure

Blake: ‘Milton is a true poet and of theDevil’s party without knowing it’