In my reading of Milton criticism I have discerned what I feel to be a major deficiency, a deficiency consequent upon a too narrow approach to Paradise Lost. Whether they are anti-Miltonists who claim that Paradise Lost offers little to the twentieth-century - except the first two books; or orthodox Christian critics: who read Paradise Lost with an extreme doctrinal bias; or critics favourable to Milton and not narrowly doctrinal - the major Milton scholars, by succumbing to Milton's stated intentions when those intentions come into conflict with the impressions of the poetry, have easily adopted the traditional attitude towards the action in Eden: they accept the dictum that Adam and Eve are not human, until! the Fall. They give Milton little credit for humour, for the creation- of domestic comedy. Professor A.J.A. Waldock (Paradise Lost and Its Critics)) has correctly noticed that Milton's statements of intention do not always match his performances. By reading the poem in the light of his thesis, I have in this paper -after my first chapter on Milton criticism - attempted to show how Milton the poet has transcended Milton the doctrinaire by creating In Eden a good deal of domestic comedy. It is my belief that Adam and Eve are individuals - and human - before the Fall, and that when we view them (and Raphael) as real people acting and interacting in character, we will see that the action in Paradise is instinct with the humour of domestic comedy. In the second chapter, although I have stressed the humour in the middle books, I have not neglected the pathos that accompanies this humour. In my third chapter I have tried to show how this reading of Eden - a reading which succumbs to the poetical impressions rather than to the doctrinal statements - has its effect on the poem as a whole, how it makes the poem rather a human tragedy than a divine comedy. The final chapter is summary impart; but in the last section: I endeavour to mitigate the impression- that the thesis might have created - that Paradise Lost is merely a tragedy of two individuals - by stressing the poetical power of the element of myth In the poem. This thesis is written in the belief that any approach to Paradise Lost which stresses - favourably or unfavourably -the doctrine of the poem as against the poetical impressions (when the two clash) will have little appeal to the non-orthodox reader, and will miss the vital humanity with which Milton has invested his epic. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this thesis is to isolate and examine aspects of Paradise lost which identify it as a myth. The problem involves two matters: how Milton's version of the creation and the fall differs from the Biblical and doctrinal accounts, and how Milton's poem reflects certain traits characteristic of mythologizing in general. The introductory first chapter establishes a working definition of "myth", based primarily upon Greek precedents. It also attempts to define the distinct kind of consciousness reflected by myths and mythic poets, a consciousness based upon an illusion of reality which is credited as accurate and factual. From this starting point, the four major figures of Paradise Lost are subsequently examined for evidence of how Milton's poem achieves a similar illusion and a clearly Puritan expression of the mysteries of life and death. Since the emphasis will be on Milton's myth and not on the development of mythologies or on Milton's place in Christian and classical traditions in English literature, discussion is limited to Paradise Lost itself, with only occasional and selected reference to the chief Greek mythic poets, Homer and Hesiod. In Chapters two through five, each of the four figures is discussed first from a logical point of view, to indicate in a negative way how they conform to the non-rational aspect typical of mythical thought. Each figure is then discussed in terms of the definition of myth laid down in chapter one to indicate how Milton adopts and expands upon non-rational and contradictory elements in order to achieve a new figure and to remake the mystery each figure embodies. The conclusion reached is that Paradise Lost is a myth in its own right, remodeled to suit Milton's particular purposes and expressive of Puritan consciousness. It is suggested that, once the key terms of Milton's myth ("Goodness," "Evil," "Disobedience," "Free Will) are understood as mysteries, not philosophical abstractions, and once it is understood how they complement and fulfill one another, the story of Paradise Lost becomes more comprehensive, valid, and pertinent. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

There exists a wide divergence of opinion as to whether Milton is an orthodox Christian. This thesis argues that upon examination Milton's alleged heresies come out quite clearly as transpositions of orthodox belief rather than as departures from it, and that Milton as the author of Paradise Lost emerges as an outstanding Christian apologist because he soared in his singing robes to present the orthodox Christian story of redemption with unsurpassed beauty and eloquence. This re-examination of the problem of Milton's relationship to orthodoxy centers upon Paradise Lost and The Christian Doctrine, in which there is doctrinal consistency. According to the poet's own terms of reference the appeal to Scripture as described in the Westminster Confession is the true criterion for orthodoxy. In the face of mainstream Christianity's claim that Milton's beliefs must be measured against the creedal statements, Milton holds that not only his beliefs but the creeds themselves must be weighed in the balance of Scripture. Milton's deviation from the established norm of the early creedal statements is seen to be negligible, but when he unequivocally disagrees with the Nicaean Creed which states definitively the Trinitarian position, he has been thought to put himself outside orthodoxy's circle. However, this thesis argues that Milton can only be charged with heresy if the question of his relationship to the Nicaean Creed is superficially regarded or grossly oversimplified. Accordingly, Milton's alleged heresies--his anti-Trinitarianism, materialism, and mortalism--are examined against the background not only of the content of the classical statements regarding these subjects but also of the fundamental conceptions that the statements of Athanasius, Augustine and others were intended radically to emphasize. Ultimately, the argument for Milton's orthodox imagination and intention depends upon a demonstration of the fact that Milton's theological deviations are not the result of the omission of any of creedal orthodoxy's vital elements but rather the result of emphasis of certain points. This proposition finds its crucial test in Milton's attitude toward the doctrine of the atonement. In Paradise Lost Milton uses several transpositions of orthodox belief rather than heresies and employs them to forward his poetic purposes. The process of selection and manipulation is seen to be governed not only by a powerful and positive religious sensibility, but also by an unerring sense of what is artistically appropriate. How Milton, the Puritan, achieved expression in the form of the epic is, in simple terms, the account of how his emphasis on will provides the momentum of the great argument, and how the elements of traditional Christianity are emphasized, subordinated, or transposed to suit the poet's driving purpose. Milton's announced purpose of justifying the ways of God to men is fulfilled in a strange but revealing manner. A God who is ipso facto beyond comprehension is subjected to rational analysis within the confines of epic convention. Some low moments and absurdities result. Yet, in spite of some logical impasses, Milton succeeds magnificently. Not all Adam's questions are answered but he experiences a Paradise within him, happier far. The consumation of Milton's argument and the resolution of the reader's doubt come with the realization, O goodness infinite, goodness immense! That all this good of evil shall produce, And evil turn to good; more wonderful Then that which by creation first brought forth Light out of darkness! (XII, 469-73) This ultimate triumph, so Miltonic and yet so entirely orthodox, so imaginatively satisfying and so in keeping with the whole structure of the poem, is the final proof that, doctrinally as well as poetically, we have here "nothing but well and fair". / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

This is a preliminary investigation of the empirical and formal conditions necessary to provide a full description of the metrical structure of Paradise Lost. My study is immediately concerned with the scansion of a corpus of 2018 lines of the poem. The centre of the study is the specification of a generative model set to provide structural descriptions, i.e., scansions. Some anomalies of this model are considered in the final chapter. A scansion is recorded for each line in the corpus. I provide an impressionistic survey of lexical and syntactic phenomena in the corpus, an analysis of equivalence-substitution metrical analysis, a taxonomy of elision by apocope in the corpus, a brief investigation of elision by syncope and a speculative analysis of caesura. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

On reading the biblical version of the Creation and Fall of Adam and Eve (Genesis ii-iii) we find that the presentation lends itself to two possible interpretations: on the one hand, we may regard the narrative as being a mere history of two lives; or, what is more likely, we may see in the report an attempt to explain the present state of the World through an allegorical account of the entrance of evil into the mind of Man and so into the Macrocosm. [...]

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The object of this study will be to call attention to the gradually developing interest in the poem and the varying interpretations of it.

The thesis pioneers a new methodology for the analysis of early modern literature: it embarks on a stylistic appreciation of Paradise Lost using early modern methods of interpretation and comprehension, specifically logic. In doing so it engages in the contest between historicist and stylistic criticism, providing a new methodology by which these two approaches are united to perform historically appropriate stylistic analysis of literary texts. Logic formed the bedrock of all early modern intellectual operations, including the literary, and it was the art used for all forms of analysis and interpretation. Yet in modern studies, logic has suffered from its own interdisciplinary dexterity: it is comparatively seldom studied, and when examined this tends to be in connection within a specific field of interest. As such there is a lack of a comprehensive developmental understanding of this subject in line with its original pragmatic purposes. This thesis addresses this quandary by examining a wide range of texts from the period to produce a syncretic appreciation of this art, similar to that acquired by early modern students. Having extrapolated the principles of early modern logic the second half of the thesis applies these in a practical way to analyse Milton’s style in Paradise Lost, reaching a new appreciation of the poem in accordance with the logical precepts that enabled its original production. The overarching aim of the thesis is to produce an innovative methodology enabling historically appropriate stylistic analysis of early modern texts, uniting the customarily disparate approaches of historicist and stylistic criticism in a literal and pragmatic way to open the possibility for future application of this methodology to other early modern literary texts.

In the grand invocation at the beginning of Book VII of his epic Paradise Lost, John Milton selects as his muse Urania, who is traditionally the Muse of Astronomy in classical texts. He immediately excludes that possible identification, however, when he writes that she is “Nor of the Muses nine.” By calling on her “meaning” rather than her “Name,” Milton relies on a multitude of precedents and traditions, repackaged for his own times and his own idiosyncratic purposes, that critics have consistently failed to recognize or investigate sufficiently. This dissertation looks diachronically at various occurrences of Uranian discourse in literature, historically both before and after Milton, to locate thematic similarities to his works and to help define his Urania accordingly. In spite of her explicit exclusion, the search begins with Urania as Muse of Astronomy because from her mythopoetic genesis in Ancient Greece, other myths are engrafted onto her, most notably Plato’s Uranian Aphrodite as defined in his Symposium. This transformed Urania appears in ancient and medieval cosmic journey and dream narratives and evolves by the Renaissance into an oddly Christianized muse. She becomes a vehicle for heavenly, divine truths that each devout Christian rightly senses in his conscience. In this capacity she promotes friendship and chastity, while she also opposes licentiousness, particularly the lusts of tyrants. In early myths, the Muses are victims of tyranny; but in later appearances, they often sell their patronage of the arts unscrupulously to wicked kings and the flattering poets who are paid by them. Urania’s patronage manages to distance itself from her sisters’ misallocations of inspiration, and parts of the Book VII invocation are clearly an indictment of royal excess. In conclusion, a small group of late-Victorian English poets, mainly from Oxford, call themselves the “Uranians.” Although they too draw from the same traditions as Milton and from Milton himself, they appropriate Urania to satisfy their own political and sexual agendas in a conscious and deliberate revision. / text

Jacques Derrida argued that a supplement "adds only to replace." Since the blind Milton dictated his epic to amanuenses, the text of Paradise Lost may be conceived as a supplement to an aural performance. This dissertation itself supplements another project, a digital "audiotext" or classroom edition of Paradise Lost on which I am collaborating with Professor John Rumrich and others. In the audiotext, we reassert the duality of the work as both a print text and an oral epic by integrating an audio recording with an electronic text of the poem. This pairing is informed by our own experiences teaching Paradise Lost as well as by cognitive research demonstrating that comprehension increases when students read and hear a text sequentially or simultaneously. As both a wellspring of the audiotext project and a meditation on its aims, this dissertation investigates the actual effects on readers of print and digital supplements putatively designed to enhance their appreciation or study of the work. The first two chapters examine the rationale and influence of the authorial and editorial matter added to early editions. The final two chapters explore the ways in which digital technology is changing how scholars and readers interact with Paradise Lost and other works of literature. I begin by examining why the first edition of Paradise Lost arrived in 1667 bearing no front matter other than a title page. In Chapter Two, I argue that critics have undervalued the interpretive significance of the prose summaries or Arguments that Milton appended to Paradise Lost and Samson Agonistes. Chapter Three relates the current emphasis on electronic textual encoding in editorial theory to the ideological dominance of Richard Bentley's conjectural approach in the early seventeenth century and of Fredson Bowers's copy-text approach in the 1960s and 70s. Chapter Four introduces the audiotext project and contrast its goals with those of other projects in the Digital Humanities. The audiotext's interface offers multiple viewing modes, enabling the user to display the reading text alone or in parallel with annotations and other supplements. Unlike prior editions and archives, therefore, it accommodates both immersive and analytical reading modes. / text