The Modern in a Classical Perspective
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Ghent University Faculty of Arts and Philosophy The Modern in a Classical Perspective An Analytic Study of the Relation Between Character and Rhetorical Development in the Speeches of Milton’s Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained in Comparison to Virgil’s Aeneid Paper submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of "Master in de Taal- en Letterkunde: Engels-Latijn" Matthias Devreese Academic year 2015-2016 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Wim Verbaal Likewise Rhetoric captures the minds of men and so pleasantly draws them after her in chains those who are enticed, that at one time she is able to move to pity, at another to transport into hatred, again to kindle to warlike ardor, and then to exalt to contempt of death. - John Milton, transl. by Bromley Smith ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis in written in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of "Master in de Taal- en Letterkunde: Engels-Latijn". However, before diving deeper into the research part of it, I would like to extend my sincere thanks and appreciation to a number of people for their support and motivation while writing this thesis. Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisor, Prof. Dr. Wim Verbaal, for providing background knowledge and general guidance throughout this year. His supervision was most helpful in adjusting the content of this paper where adjustment was needed. His feedback and overall advice have given me the opportunity to enhance both my writing and research skills, and to improve this thesis to its current state. Secondly, I would like to express gratitude to my friends and fellow students, Joram Van Acker and Steffie Van Neste, for rereading this paper and improving its comprehensibility. Their many encouragements were most welcome at all times. Many thanks also go to Anouk Gorris and Benjamin De Vos, who have tried their best to answer any questions I confronted them with, and to Frederik De Loose for providing me with many a source that could improve the argument at hand. Finally, my sincerest thanks go to all my friends and family who, throughout the past year, have shown unwavering patience in listening to my many lamentations and complaints. Their support has encouraged me to keep writing, and, at the same time, provided the necessary distraction when needed the most. A special thanks must go to my parents, who, throughout my university years, have provided me with the necessary financial and emotional support, for which I am eternally grateful. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 9 MODELS FOR COMPARISON: AN INVESTIGATION OF ST. PAUL’S SCHOOL, OF EDUCATION AND THE PROLUSIONES 16 THE IMPORTANCE OR INSIGNIFICANCE OF CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: LOOKING FOR EVOLUTIONS IN A RHETORICAL FRAMEWORK 25 SATAN’S FALL AS A RHETORICAL THRESHOLD 25 SATAN’S SECOND THRESHOLD: REGAINING WHAT WAS LOST? 37 STAGNATING VOICES: THE RHETORIC OF THE FATHER AND THE SON 47 MILTON’S SPEECH MODELS: THE INFLUENCE OF CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT ON RHETORICAL DEVELOPMENT IN CLASSICAL LATIN LITERATURE 58 THE STATUS OF CLASSICAL RHETORIC AND ITS ORATORS IN SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND 58 RHETORICAL DEVELOPMENT IN MILTON’S SPEECH MODELS: A CASE STUDY OF VIRGIL’S AENEAS 67 MILTON’S SPEECH MODELS AND THE LANGUAGE OF THE GODS 81 CONCLUSION 96 BIBLIOGRAPHY 101 (34.972 words) The Modern in a Classical Perspective Devreese 9 INTRODUCTION As when of old some orator renowned In Athens or free Rome, where eloquence Flourished, since mute, to some great cause addressed, Stood in himself collected, while each part, Motion, each act won audience ere the tongue, Sometimes in height began, as no delay Of preface brooking through his zeal of right. So standing, moving, or to height upgrown The tempter all impassioned thus began.1 The above given excerpt is taken from the well-known scene of John Milton’s Paradise Lost where Satan tempts Eve into eating the forbidden fruit. Commencing his final speech of temptation, Satan is compared to “some orator renowned / In Athens or free Rome, where eloquence / Flourished”, and, consequently, Eve is compared to the abiding crowd awaiting his speech. It is no coincidence that such comparison takes place where Satan reaches his highest potential as a rhetorical craftsman. The speech that follows is filled with repetitions, anaphora’s, tricola, and rhetorical questions, more than any other speech he delivers. Very interestingly, it is only here, when Satan reaches that full potential, that a reference to ancient Greece and Rome can be found. Never before in his series of speeches meant to tempt Eve does a similar reference to the eloquence of Greece and Rome occur. It should not come as a surprise, then, that many before me have attempted to uncover the influence of classical rhetoric upon Milton’s own rhetoric. It is, after all, no secret that classical rhetoric – and of more use for this thesis: Roman rhetoric in particular – has withstood the test of time and left its mark on both present-day rhetorical theories and present-day speeches, be it for political, literary or other objectives. Apart from the well-studied importance of classical rhetoric, Milton’s attempt to situate Paradise Lost, and by extension Paradise Regained, into an epic tradition including Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid, has repeatedly been subjected to extensive research as well. Virgil has, after all, never left the schoolbooks ever since the incorporation of his Bucolics and 1 Paradise Lost, IX.670-678. The Modern in a Classical Perspective Devreese 10 Georgics in the Roman educational system in 26 B.C.2 His Aeneid was added to the canon few years later, and has since then inspired countless authors. That Milton is one of those many authors seems undeniable. In more than one way, Paradise Lost takes up the role of being the last part of a triptych consisting of both Homer’s and Virgil’s epics. It has, for example, often been read next to the famous opening lines of the Aeneid, “tantaene animis caelestibus irae?”3 – “can there be such anger in the minds of the gods?”4 – to which Milton answers that his epic is meant to “justify the ways of God to men”.5 Fowler points out that, in doing so, Milton counterpoints Adam’s deeds with those of classical heroes, with that contrast that, in pagan epic, it is the anger of the gods that needs explanation.6 A comparative study, then, between, on the one hand, Milton’s epics, and, on the other, Virgil’s Aeneid, which was written roughly seventeen centuries earlier, is validated by these and other attempts of Milton to inscribe his own works in a much larger tradition. Yet, although both the connection between Milton and classical rhetoric – and thus indirectly between Milton, on the one hand, and Cicero and Quintilian on the other – as well as the connection between Milton’s epics and Virgil’s Aeneid have been examined extensively during the past decades, some parts of this field of research have remained under the radar. One of those is the inquiry into how character development influences rhetorical development in Milton’s Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, and into how this differs from the influence of character development upon rhetorical development in classical literature and, more specifically, in Virgil’s Aeneid. Such inquiry builds on the premise that rhetoric – i.e. every form of spoken language use – reflects or can reflect, in itself, the character of the speaker. This premise is confirmed by Professor Koen De Temmerman, who lists “speech” as one of six characterising attributes underlying a metonymical characterisation, i.e. a characterisation that draws upon a relation of contiguity between the characterised person and the characterising attribute.7 Hence, a change of character, for example caused by a certain life changing event, is likely to result in a change of speech of that particular character. In this thesis, I shall therefore examine the influence of character development on rhetorical development in Milton’s 2 Praet 2001, 107-108. Praet describes it as the introduction of Virgil’s works in the “school curriculum”, but such curriculum was, most likely, not yet fully determined. Rather, the educational “systems” were private operations, and the content of it was based on the choices and preferences of a private instructor. 3 Aeneid, I.11. 4 Kline 2002, 13. 5 Paradise Lost, I.26. 6 Milton and Fowler 2007, 60; note 27-49. 7 De Temmerman 2010, 29. The Modern in a Classical Perspective Devreese 11 Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, as well as in Virgil’s Aeneid. However, my intentions for doing so are double: on the one hand, this investigation is meant to provide insight into the relation between the characterisation and the rhetoric of a specific character in both Milton’s and Virgil’s epics separately; on the other hand, it looks deeper into how this relation in Milton’s epics differs from the one in Virgil’s Aeneid, in order to investigate in how far Milton’s epics follow that of Virgil when it comes to rhetorical languages use. In doing so, I shall build on an earlier study in which the inquiry into a comparative approach as a valuable tool to provide insight in the rhetoric of both Milton’s and Virgil’s epics was focused on, and refer to it when necessary.8 As I have mentioned before, this first intention of examining the relation between characterisation and rhetoric has largely remained under the radar. While the study of Milton’s rhetoric, especially in Paradise Lost, has flourished throughout the past century with studies such as John Milton at St. Paul’s School: A Study of Ancient Rhetoric in English Renaissance Education (1948) by Donald Lemen Clark, George William Smith Jr.’s “Iterative Rhetoric in Paradise Lost” (1976), and, more recently, Daniel Shore’s Milton and the Art of Rhetoric (2012), the influence of characterisation on rhetoric has only recently gained popularity.