FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106  
107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   >>   >|  
of rebel angels far exceeds those "That fought at Thebes and Ilium, on each side Mixed with auxiliar gods; and what resounds In fable or romance of Uther's son, Begirt with British and Armoric knights; And all who since, baptized or infidel, Jousted in Aspramont or Montalban, Damasco, or Marocco or Trebisond, Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore, When Charlemain with all his peerage fell By Fontarabbia." So, in another of his returns to those tales and fancies of the Middle Age which, in spite {169} of his intellectual and moral rejection of their falsity, yet always moved him to unusual beauty of verse, he compares the dwarfed rebels of Hell to the "faery elves, Whose midnight revels, by a forest side Or fountain, some belated peasant sees, Or dreams he sees, while overhead the Moon Sits arbitress, and nearer to the Earth Wheels her pale course; they, on their mirth and dance Intent, with jocund music charm his ear; At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds." So Eve at her gardening recalls Pales, or Pomona or "Ceres in her prime, Yet virgin of Proserpina from Jove." And so, in an earlier book, the beauty of Paradise itself, too great to be directly told, is, like the splendour of Pandemonium, conveyed to us by the most perfect of those negative similes which, forced upon Milton by the narrow bounds of his story, are perhaps the most distinctive of all the glories of _Paradise Lost_. It is too long to quote in full: but a few lines may be given: and they must include the first four, one of which has just {170} been quoted, verses of such amazing beauty that, if Milton could be represented by four lines, these might well be the chosen four-- "Not that fair field Of Enna, where Proserpin gathering flowers. Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis Was gathered, which cost Ceres all that pain To seek her through the world; nor that sweet grove Of Daphne by Orontes, and the inspired Castalian spring, might with this Paradise Of Eden strive." But it is time to leave Milton's similes, though similes play a more important part in _Paradise Lost_ than in any other epic. Indeed their necessary absence is a great element in the comparative dulness of the books given over to the discourses of Raphael and Michael. A single chapter in a little book of this kind can only deal with one or two aspects of so great a subject as _P
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106  
107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Paradise
 

similes

 

Milton

 

beauty

 

represented

 
include
 
quoted
 

verses

 
amazing
 

forced


aspects

 

narrow

 
negative
 

subject

 
conveyed
 

perfect

 
bounds
 
chosen
 

distinctive

 

glories


Michael

 

Castalian

 

inspired

 

spring

 

strive

 

important

 

absence

 

element

 

comparative

 

dulness


discourses

 
Indeed
 

Raphael

 

Orontes

 

Daphne

 
Herself
 

flowers

 
fairer
 

flower

 
gloomy

gathering
 

Proserpin

 
Pandemonium
 
chapter
 

single

 

gathered

 
Charlemain
 

peerage

 
Biserta
 

Damasco