There's a book on labyrinths (aka mazes) by Penelope Doob, isn't
there? The best Renaissance maze may be Mary Wroth's. But my
attention has been wandering, and maybe all this has been said. I
like the suggestion about what to call Milton--although the Puritans,
not least when observing maypoles, were even break-dancers, I guess.
Anne Prescott.
On May 21, 2007, at 11:58 AM, Sean Gordon Henry wrote:
> The first maze-like moment I can think of in the FQ is, of course,
> the "wandring wood" of 1.1, which Sp calls a labyrinth. William
> Blissett has an article on mazes in the Sp Encyc., if I remember
> correctly. What I'm now wondering is the connection between this
> dance in Milton and the dance on Mount Acidale.
>
> (and if Blake disapproves of what he sees as Milton's place in the
> dance, does this make him a break-dancer?)
>
> Sean.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: John Leonard <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Monday, May 21, 2007 7:05 am
> Subject: Mazes and murmurs in Milton's Heaven (was Re: Metempsychotic)
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> > Kevin Farnham writes:
> >
> >
> > <SNIP>
> > > In Blake's "Milton" Book the First:
> > >
> > > "Say first! what move'd Milton, who walkd about in Eternity
> > > One hundred years, pondring the intricate mazes of Providence
> > > Unhappy tho in heav'n, he obey'd, he murmur'd not, he was silent."
> > >
> > > The question is so sarcastic. And did Milton consider
> > Providence to
> > > consist of mazes? Or are mazes found in, and created by, sin?
> > And, Milton
> > > "murmur'd not, he was silent"?
> > >
> > > This is not the Milton I read. I hear a thundering voice when
> > I read
> > > Milton. So, what was Blake reading, in hearing no murmurs in
> > Milton? He
> > > thinks Milton's thundering was silence because it was passive
> > obedience to
> > > Heaven's dictates.
> > <SNIP>
> >
> > Kevin asks: "Did Milton consider Providence to consist of
> > mazes?" Well,
> > yes, there are mazes in Milton's heaven, and Blake alludes to
> > them in the
> > lines Kevin quotes. Specifically, Blake is alluding to
> > Paradise Lost 5
> > 616f, where Raphael describes the angels' response to God's
> > command that
> > they worship the newly begotten Son:
> >
> > So spake th' Omnipotent, and with his words
> > All seed well pleas'd, all seem'd, but were not all.
> > That day, as other solemn dayes, they spent
> > In song and dance about the sacred Hill,
> > Mystical dance, which yonder starrie Sphear
> > Of Planets and of fixt in all her Wheels
> > Resembles nearest, mazes intricate,
> > Eccentric, intervolv'd, yet regular
> > Then most, when most irregular they seem.
> >
> > Miltonists often quote these lines as a celebration of Heaven's
> > harmony,
> > forgetting that Satan too takes part in this maze dance.
> > He does not rebel
> > as soon as God issues his command. He sings and dances--
> > for a whole day,
> > seeming "well pleas'd", though he (and maybe other angels) is
> > not pleased at
> > all. Blake puts Milton in Satan's position, so that it is
> > Milton who walks
> > (not dances) through heaven's "intricate mazes," trying hard to
> > appear (and
> > maybe even sincerely trying to be) pleased: "he obey'd, he
> > murmur'd not".
> > But in truth Satan--any maybe Milton--seethes on the
> > inside. The absence of
> > any murmurs is not, I believe, I sign of complacent consent and
> > obedience.
> > Blake's Milton does not openly complain, but neither does he
> > sing ("he was
> > silent"). Blake's point, I believe, is that Milton was not
> > truly happy with
> > the "Providence" he thought he was celebrating. Kevin calls this
> > "passive
> > obedience," and in some ways it is that, but it is also passive
> > aggression.
> > To my mind, Blake perfectly captures the state of mind of
> > Milton's Satan on
> > that first day, and a case might be made that he also captures
> > Milton's true
> > state of mind too. Blake is not expressing "disdain" for
> > Milton (Kevin's
> > word), but trying to release what he sees as the true Milton
> > from the
> > confining mazes of Christian orthodoxy.
> >
> > I'd be interested to learn whether Spenser or Sidney have any
> > confining
> > mazes of this kind.
> >
> > John Leonard
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > As though Milton created nothing new!
> > >
> > > Then there is the criticism of Milton's (and Shakespeare's)
> > "Monotonous
> > > Cadence" in the "To the Public" statement at the start of
> > "Jerusalem.">
> > > If Blake had Milton's soul inside him, he surely rejected it...
> > >
> > > In a way, isn't the posited Chaucer to Spenser to Milton to
> > Blake
> > > succession of souls simply a list of the succession of the
> > greatest poets
> > > in the English language? Shakespeare is excluded because he
> > was a
> > > dramatist and hence his abode is within a different soul
> > material stream.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > James C. Nohrnberg wrote:
> > >> Chaucer --> Spenser: FQ IV.ii.34: "...through infusion
> > sweet..." (with
> > >> Sh. Cal. envoi, "match thy pype with Tityrus his style");
> > >> Spenser/Chaucer --> Milton: Il Penseroso 103-19: "...call up
> > him that
> > >> left half told / The story of Cambuscan bold...";
> > >> + Dryden on Spenser being Milton's original, and Milton on
> > Spenser being
> > >> a better teacher than Aquinas, but contra PL IX, 30-31: "long
> > and tedious
> > >> havoc fabl'd Knights / In battels feign'd" and XII, 386f,
> > "Dream not of
> > >> thir fight, / As of a duel";
> > >> [Gray, The Bard / Progress of Poesie];
> > >> Milton --> Blake: _Milton_ Bk. II: "Then first I saw
> > him in the Zenith
> > >> as a falling star / Descending perpendicular, swift as the
> > swallow or
> > >> swift: / And on my left foot falling on the tarsus
> > [=Saul of Tarsus
> > >> becoming a Christian], enter'd there: ...". -- 'Not
> > Milton, but Milton
> > >> in me,' Blake could say (after Galatians 2:20).
> > >>
> > >
> > > --
> > > Kevin Farnham
> > > Lyra Technical Systems, Inc.
> > > http://www.LyraTechnicalSystems.com
> > >
> >
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> Sean Gordon Henry
> Doctoral Candidate, Department of English
> The University of Western Ontario
> London, Ont., Canada
>
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