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Milton's Visionary Obedience

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Milton's Visionary Obedience University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Open Access Dissertations 9-2011 Milton's Visionary Obedience Timothy Irish Watt University of Massachusetts Amherst, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Watt, Timothy Irish, "Milton's Visionary Obedience" (2011). Open Access Dissertations. 495. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations/495 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MILTON’S VISIONARY OBEDIENCE A Dissertation Presented by TIMOTHY IRISH WATT Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY September 2011 English © Copyright by Timothy Irish Watt 2011 All Rights Reserved MILTON’S VISIONARY OBEDIENCE A Dissertation Presented by TIMOTHY IRISH WATT Approved as to style and content by: ___________________________________________ Joseph L. Black, Chair ___________________________________________ Arthur F. Kinney, Member ___________________________________________ Brian W. Ogilvie, Member _________________________________________ Joseph Bartolomeo, Department Head English DEDICATION To Atis. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisor, Joseph L. Black, for his commitment, guidance and selfless attention to my development, and to this project. Thanks are also due to Arthur F. Kinney for his continued support, and for all that he has taught me about the profession. I am fortunate in my mentors. Together, Joseph Black and Arthur Kinney have been, and will continue to be, the standard I aspire to. My gratitude also to Brian Ogilvie for his good cheer and exemplary willingness to serve as the third reader, and for the clarity of thought and critical acumen he brings to the committee. The Renaissance dissertation group provided much needed collegiality over the last year, and my thanks are extended to all its members, most especially to Philip S. Palmer and Young-Jin Chung for their rigorous and sympathetic reading of my chapters. My appreciation for both friendship and inspiration to members of the English faculty not officially associated with this project: Stephen J. Harris, John Hennessy, and Sabina Murray. I would also like to indicate my debt of gratitude to Wanda Bak, Secretary to the Director of Graduate Studies. Her administrative expertise is matched by the warmth and attention with which she dispatches that expertise. This dissertation would not have been completed without the strong love and support of my wife, Amity, my son, Atis, my parents, Ellen, Bob, and Ted, and my mother-in-law, Austra. Thank you all. You are my blessing. v ABSTRACT MILTON’S VISIONARY OBEDIENCE SEPTEMBER 2011 TIMOTHY IRISH WATT, B.A., HOBART COLLEGE M.F.A., BROWN UNIVERSITY Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Joseph L. Black This dissertation is a study of the work of John Milton, most especially of his late poems, Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. The early poetry, the prose tracts, and Christian Doctrine are considered in their developmental relation to those late poems. The question my study addresses is this: What does Milton mean by obedience? The critical approach used to address the question is as much philosophical-theological as it is literary. My project seeks to understand the shaping role of Milton’s theology on his poetry: that is, to attempt to recreate and understand Milton’s thinking on obedience from Milton’s perspective. To this end, I focus on providing contextualized, attentive readings of key poetic moments. The contexts I provide are those derived from the two great heritages Milton had at his disposal—the Classical and Christian traditions. The poetic moments I attend to are most usually theologically and conceptually difficult moments, moments in which Milton is working out (as much as reflecting on or demonstrating or poeticizing) his key theological concerns, chief among them, obedience. vi Milton’s concept of obedience is not just an idea developed within given interpretive frameworks, Classical, Christian, and a specific historic context, England in the seventeenth century. It is a strangely practical structure of being intended by Milton to recollect something of the disposition of Adam and Even before the fall. In other words, Miltonic obedience is multifaceted and complex. To address the complexity and nuance of what Milton means by obedience, I suggest that Milton’s idea of obedience may be understood as a concept. The definitional source of Milton’s concept of obedience is the Bible, and various texts of the Classical tradition. The necessary mechanism of the concept is Milton’s idea of right timing, derived from the Greek idea of kairos. The necessary condition of Miltonic obedience is unknowing. With Milton’s concept of obedience fully established, the dissertation concludes by suggesting connections between Milton’s religious imagination and his political engagements. If Milton’s paramount value was obedience, it was so because his paramount concern was liberty, for himself and for his nation. vii TEXTUAL NOTE/ABBREVIATIONS All quotations of Milton’s poetry are taken from John Milton, The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton, ed. William Kerrigan, John Rumrich and Stephen M. Fallon (New York: Modern Library, 2007). All quotations of Milton’s prose are taken from John Milton, Complete Prose Works of John Milton, ed. Don M. Wolfe et al., 8 vols. in 10 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1953-1982). Abbreviations Milton The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton MLM Complete Prose Works of John Milton Yale A Masque Presented at Ludlow Castle Masque “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity” “Nativity Ode” Paradise Lost PL Paradise Regained PR Samson Agonistes SA An Apology for Smectymnuus Apology Areopagitica Areop A Defense of the English People 1Def The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce DDD The Reason of Church Government Urged Against Prelaty RCG Second Defense of the English People 2Def The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates TKM Bible All biblical quotations are taken from the Authorized Version (King James Version). Classical Works Classical works are abbreviated in the standard fashion, e.g., Od. for Odyssey, Aen. for Aeneid. Reference Works Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. OED Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ODNB Catalogues (see bibliography for full information) A.W. Pollard and G.R. Redgrave, et al., A Short-title Catalogue STC Thomason Tracts Thomason Donald Wing, et al., Short-Title Catalogue, rev. ed. Wing viii Critical Works (see bibliography for full information) Stanley Fish, How Milton Works HMW Barbara K. Lewalski, The Life of John Milton: A Critical Biography Life Gordon Teskey, Delirious Milton DM ix CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................v ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... vi TEXTUAL NOTE/ABBREVIATIONS .......................................................................... viii INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1. LAW, CONSCIENCE, PURITY ............................................................................13 Mosaic Law ............................................................................................................19 Pauline Conscience ................................................................................................39 Miltonic Purity .......................................................................................................55 2. KNOWLEDGE BEFORE THE FALL ...................................................................62 From the Divine Point of View ..............................................................................67 Foreknowledge and Predestination ........................................................................92 From the Human Point of View ...........................................................................104 3. THE TIMING OF CHRIST .................................................................................112 Waiting, Hearing, Stepping..................................................................................113 Kairos ...................................................................................................................130 The Pinnacle.........................................................................................................152 4. SAMSON’S VIOLENT PRAYER ......................................................................161 The Interpretive Dilemma ....................................................................................166 Apophasis .............................................................................................................187 Threshold Poetry: Prayer and Act ........................................................................196 CONCLUSION: THE USES OF DARKNESS ...............................................................205
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