Milton addresses Eve in his own voice at PL 9 404-7, partly to chide, but
mostly to express his pity for her bad decision to work alone:
O much deceived, much failing, hapless Eve,
Of thy presumed return! event perverse!
Thou never from that hour in Paradise
Found'st either sweet repast or sound repose.
Milton's apostrophe clearly imitates Homer, Iliad xvi 787, where the epic
bard addresses Patroklos: 'there, Patroklos, the end of your life was shown
forth'. Patroklos, like Eve, had asked to work alone. Achilles, like Adam,
had prayed for his safe return. Martin Mueller discusses the Milton - Homer
parallel in CLS 6 (1969). I do not recall that he mentions Spenser.
John Leonard
>Is Spenser's act in FQ 6.10.20 unique in literature, namely a poet entering
>into his fiction under his well-known persona to reprimand one of his own
>characters, so ticked off that he tells him to expect considerable
>unhappiness when the story continues. In the next stanza, he denies even
>knowing him. A.C. Hamilton
>
>A.C.Hamilton
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>Cappon Professor Emeritus
>Queen's University, Canada
>Phone & Fax: 613- 544-6759
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