It seems to me that John Guillory's first book offered an interesting way
to think about these things, insofar as it situated the emergence of
"poetic authority" within the emergence of a secular from a sacred culture.
Spenser to Milton was his trajectory, too. Doesn't it look like something
pretty significant happens in the early decades of the seventeenth century?
At 09:18 AM 2/12/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>----- Original Message -----
>From: <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2002 8:15 AM
>Subject: Re: palmers
>
>
>
> > . The idea of going on a pilgimage, so long as the motive is a
> > "true" desire to honour and seek God, well what Christian could or would
> > reject that?
>
>John Milton might. See PL 3.477, referring to the Limbo of Vanity (Paradise
>of Fools):
>
>Here pilgrims roam, that strayed so far to seek
>In Golgotha him dead, who lives in heaven.
>
>But then Milton's own Limbo of Vanity raises questions similar to that
>raised by Spenser's palmer. Miltonists have often wondered why Milton
>includes the Limbo in PL. It's not as if he really believed in it. Like
>David Miller, I'm intrigued by the palmer question, and don't have a ready
>answer.
>
>John Leonard
David Lee Miller
Professor of English
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY 40506-0027
(859) 257-6965
FAX (859) 323-1072
home: (859) 252-3680
|