The Tree for the Forest: Eco-Typology and the Tree of Life
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THE TREE FOR THE FOREST: ECO-TYPOLOGY AND THE TREE OF LIFE IN JOHN MILTON’S PARADISE LOST A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY BRADLEY P. SPAULDING DISSERTATION ADVISOR: DR. FRANK FELSENSTEIN BALL STATE UNIVERSITY MUNCIE, INDIANA JULY 2013 For my beloved, Laura. You made this possible. Thank you. And for Hannah and Adam, Let’s go to Disney! ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Eco-typology and the Tree of Life in Milton’s Paradise Lost, 1-28 Chapter 2: The Matthew Bible, Eco-typology and the Tree of Life in Milton’s Eden, 29- 68 Chapter 3: The Geneva Bible, Eco-typology and the ‘Fruit of the Living Word’ in Paradise Lost, 69-116 Chapter 4: Speed’s “Genealogies,” the King James Bible, and the ‘Seed of Grace’ in the Later Books of Paradise Lost, 117-155 Chapter 5: Conclusion, 156-161 Works Cited: 162-179 End Notes iii TABLE OF FIGURES Chapter 1 Fig. 1.1 George Wither. “Ill. XXXV, book 1.” A Collection of Emblemes Ancient and Modern. (1635). pg. 28 Chapter 2 Fig. 2.1. Title Page. Matthew Bible. (1537). pg. 66 Fig. 2.2. Detail of Lignum vitae from Macklin Bible. (1800). pg. 67 Fig. 2.3. Title Page. King James Bible. (1611). pg. 68 Chapter 3 Fig. 3.1. Frontispiece to Genesis. Geneva Bible. (1583). pg. 116 Chapter 4 Fig. 4.1. John Speed. “Genealogies of the Holy Spirit.” A2. (1610). pg. 154 Fig. 4.2. John Speed. “Genealogies of the Holy Spirit.” 2. (1610). pg. 155 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe my deepest gratitude to Dr. Frank Felsenstein for introducing me to the riches of Milton’s Paradise Lost (and the rest of Milton’s poetry) in the fall of 2005. Thank you, Dr. Felsenstein, for putting up with me in five different courses, from Milton to Shakespeare and from the Restoration to eighteenth-century stereotypes. I have learned so much from your wealth of knowledge. Most of all, I wish to thank you for serving as the director of my major area and oral exams and now as the chair of my dissertation committee. Throughout the past eight years we have worked together, you have extended untold kindnesses to me in terms of academic advice, thoughtful criticism, and constant encouragement. You have been a profound mentor and a wonderful friend. I am so blessed to have had your leadership throughout the dissertation process, and I know I would not have made it through to the end without your help. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I also want to thank the other members of my dissertation committee who served along with Dr. Felsenstein: Dr. Adam Beach, Dr. Web Newbold, and Dr. Elizabeth Agnew. Thank you for thoughtfully reading my work (often more than once) and for providing timely and helpful comments and criticism. Dr. Beach, thank you particularly for your enthusiasm for this project and for your pragmatic approach to the dissertation process. To the many professors I have had at Ball State throughout my years in the Graduate Program, thank you: Dr. William T. Liston, Dr. Robert D. Habich, Dr. Rai Peterson, Dr. Mai Kuha, Dr. Linda Hanson, Dr. Will Stockton, Dr. Jackie Grutsch McKinney, and Dr. Patrick Collier. To the two assistant chairpersons who have directed the graduate program during my time at BSU: Dr. Deborah Mix, thank you for understanding my desire to learn Latin for my foreign language requirement—when I failed on my first attempt at the language translation exam, your patience and guidance were exemplary (thank you); Dr. Jill Christman, thank you for supporting my request for an extension to finish writing my dissertation—this meant the world to me. To the incomparable Shawna Sewell, Secretary to Academic Programs Directors, or as the graduate students know her—“the one who can give you answers to all of your v questions.” Thank you, Shawna, for doing your job so well when I had questions about registration, dissertating, or graduation. And thank you for being so kind in the process. I am blessed to have two academic families: one at Ball State and the other at Indiana Wesleyan University, where I have had the privilege to be employed while completing my degree from Ball State. It is to my family at IWU that I now turn. To Dr. Darlene Bressler, Vice President and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Dr. Craig Edwards, Associate Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities: I am very grateful for your generous support of my coursework and my dissertation. Thank you especially for a leave of absence in fall 2012. Without the leave of absence, I doubt I would have been able to complete the dissertation on time. Thank you also for release time in spring 2011 and again in spring 2013. You have done everything possible from an administrative position to help me achieve the completion of my terminal degree, and for that I am most grateful. To the three department chairpersons who have served the Division of Modern Language and Literature since the beginning of my coursework until these final days of dissertation writing: Dr. H. Michael Buck, Dr. Mary Brown, and Dr. Mary Alice Trent, thank you for being great leaders and supervisors. I have appreciated your continual support throughout the years, particularly for your willingness to schedule my teaching load around courses at BSU. Thank you to Mike and Mary for helping me make the transition to teaching and to serious scholarship during my early years at IWU. Mary Alice, thank you especially for “cheering me on” through these final two years. To my colleagues in MLL: I can’t imagine working with a more gracious and invigorating group of people. Thank you for encouraging me along this arduous path. Thank you for teaching overloads when I had release time or I was on leave. Thank you for taking over committee work and student advising for me during my leave. What more can I say about the goodness of you all: Mike Buck, Tim Esh, Robbi Henson, Jennifer Light, Paul Allison, Mary Brown, Anne Bruehler, Charles Bressler, Krista Bruenjes, Katie Karnehm, Muchun Yin, and Mary Alice Trent. Tammy Miller, MLL Division Secretary, thank you for all you do on our behalf. Thank you to the staff at Indiana Wesleyan University’s Jackson Library for extraordinary help by generously providing a research carrel, securing a mountain of interlibrary loan materials, and answering a lot of questions for me throughout the past several years: Director Sheila Carlblom, Alison Johnson, Bruce Brinkley, Laura Kelsey, Steve Brown, and Pam Childers. Thank you, also, for building Jackson Library’s holdings in ecocriticism, the English Bible, Renaissance women writers, Milton, Chaucer, and Restoration and eighteenth-century British writers and their works. I would also like to thank the staff at Ball State University’s Bracken Library, as well as John Straw, Assistant Dean for Digital Initiatives and Special Collections, and Stephen Jones, Archives Collections Specialist, at Bracken’s Archives and Special Collections. vi In the summer of 2011, I visited The Lilly Library at Indiana University to research within the Lilly’s Bible and Religious Holdings Collection. I am grateful to the staff in the Reading Room at The Lilly Library for patiently working with a neophyte in special collections research. I appreciate the willingness with which Ashley Chu, Director of Taylor University Archives, responded to my request to conduct research for my dissertation within the Bibles held in James DeWeerd Collection at the Taylor University Archives in the Zondervan Library. This hands-on bibliographic research during the summer of 2012 greatly enhanced my understanding of the Geneva Bible and its various print editions. Finally, I would like to thank Ruth Denning, Cataloguing Specialist, at Saint Meinrad Archabbey Library for accessing several Bibles from the Special Collections at the Archabbey Library, including a 1583 Geneva Bible (quarto), a 1614 KJV (quarto), and a 1639-40 KJV (folio). The Ohio State University Libraries’ The King James Bible Virtual Exhibit from the holdings of its Rare Books and Manuscripts Library has been an invaluable resource. This exhibit, titled “Translation . openeth the window to let in the light”: The Prehistory and Abiding Impact of the King James Bible, has provided me with unlimited access to a digitized copy of Speed’s “Genealogies of the Holy Spirit,” which has been such a boon to the work in my final chapter of the dissertation. I am grateful to Curator Eric J. Johnson for his fruitful work in disseminating digitized images from the editio pirnceps of the KJV. Finally, I must also acknowledge the fine digitized images available on the Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Image (SCETI), which is connected to the Horace Howard Furness Shakespeare Library. This fine collection made possible the best images of the 1583 Geneva Frontispiece and the 1611 KJV title page for publishing with my dissertation. My thanks to John H. Pollack at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania, for granting me permission to publish these materials. He also assisted me in securing a scanned image of the title page to the rare 1537 Matthew Bible held in the Van Pelt Rare Book Library at the University of Pennsylvania. I wish to thank Sharon Liberman Mintz, Curator of Jewish Art at the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary, and Senior Consultant/Judaica for Sotheby’s New York, for corresponding with me about the origination of the Hebrew term Atzei Hayyim, or “Tree of Life,” to refer to the Hebrew Scriptures.