This dissertation has been microiihned exactly as received 67-11,478 PURNELL, Rosentene Bennett, 1933- JOHN MILTON AND THE DOCTRINE OF SYMPATHY; DEONTOLOGY AND AMBIANCE. The University of Oklahoma, Ph.D„ 1967 Language and Literature, general University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan © Rosentene Bennett Purnell 1967. All Rights Reserved THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE JOHN MILTON AND THE DOCTRINE OF SYMPATHY: DEONTOLOGY AND AMBIANCE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY ROSENTENE BENNETT PURNELL Norman, Oklahoma 1967 JOHN MILTON AND THE DOCTRINE OF SYMPATHY: DEONTOLOGY AND AMBIANCE APPROVED BY DISSERTATION COMMITTEE 5o mij éetoved parents ^M,r. and <SKrs. Utorace benjam in 'Bennett to ivfiom S owe ai( that S am or ever iiope to ée and Uke ’^partner oj mif iije/ ¥rank '"Deiano Ÿurneit ACKNOWLEDGMENT My debts are great, as is my gratitude, for the generous help proffered from many sources during my doctoral study at the University of Oklahoma, and specifically, during the preparation of this dissertation. To Dr. David S. Berkeley, Oklahoma State University, I am grateful for the beginning and deepening of my interest in Milton. His en­ thusiasm and encouragement inspired me to pursue further the idea of sympathy in Milton, the inception of which was in his Milton course here at the University of Oklahoma. I wish to thank.the entire Department of English for its many contributions to my growth, both as a student and as a member of the staff. To the members of my committee: Dr. Brison D. Gooch, History Department, Doctors Roy R. Male, Rudolph 0. Bambas, and David P. French, English Department, I am deeply grateful for guidance, encouragement, for painstaking and perceptive ciriticism, and for the benefit of previous scholarship in my area of interest during the preparation of this dissertation. My debt to my chairman. Dr. James H. Sims, I can hope to express but inadequately. I shall ever be grateful to him for all his scholarly suggestions, for his patience and iv cooperation, for his rare combination of competence and kindness. His help has been invaluable. With my entire committee it has been equally a pleasure and a privilege to work. Their contributions have made this a better work than it else had been. Any inaccuracies remaining in this study are wholly my own. I am grateful to the Southern Education Foundation and its University of Oklahoma representative, Dr. Claude Kelley, for providing a fellowship, 1964-66, for my doctoral study at this university. I am also grateful to Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, for a scholarship, 1964-65. My greatest debt for interest and encouragement goes to my family, my grandparents, my sisters and brothers. Finally, to my wonderful parents and, above all, to my husband Frank, I am eternally grateful for spiritual and material contributions. This debt is recognized where it should be— in the dedication. V TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENT....................................... iv INTRODUCTION......................................... 1 Chapter I. THE PHILOSOPHICAL BACKGROUND................. 19 II. THE LITERARY PERSPECTIVE..................... >+7 III. THE POET HIMSELF A P O E M ..................... 69 IV. THE WORLD A POEM: TOWARDS THE HOLY COMMUNITY................................... 125 V. THE TRINAL POEM: A WORLD OF THREE IN ONE. I6l CONCLUSION............................................. 2>+1 NOTES ................................................. 2^6 BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................... 2?2 VI MILTON AND THE DOCTRINE OF SYMPATHY; DEONTOLOGY AND AMBIANCE INTRODUCTION The sympathetic impulse has engaged man throughout the ages. This intuitive awareness of a harmonious unity in the existential world is "as old as the mind of man, and doubtless as permanent."”' Cognizant of an elemental symbio­ sis, man seems to have instinctively perceived a relationship among himself, his environment, and a materia prima. Such intuitive reality is a "motif of primitive myth and saga, surviving in classical mythology and speculative philos­ ophy.By and large, the idea of sympathy nucleates man's evolving systems of ecclesiastical and civil polity. Al­ though in the modern age the sympathetic impulse has been checked by the inimical forces of scientism, it remains a living idea. A.Z. Butler notes its recent appearance "in the conclusions of the analytical psychologists of Vienna and Zurich— notably in the imagery and symbolism of Dr. Jung's 'Collective Unconscious.'"^ Sympathy, then, as a transcendental vision of the oneness of things is common to all ages. More or less instinctive in its manifestations, 1 2 it is elemental to man’s spirituality, his sense of com­ munity and of selfhood. Poets, philosophers, and scientists alike have exer­ cised themselves in the quest for a precise delineation of this bond uniting created things and the Creator. Litera­ ture, by its very nature, has always been compatible with the idea of sympathy; but literature can hardly be divorced from its philosophical and scientific backgrounds. Holding almost undisputed sway over the mind of humanity in all times and places, the idea of world cohesion based on sym­ pathy declined in emphasis in the Western world only with the triumph of the modern scientific spirit.^ Accordingly, literature and philosophy reflect a spiritual cleavage be­ tween man and man and man and nature— ultimately, an aliena­ tion from the primal source of his being. Thus man's per­ ception of the essence and extent of his relatedness to himself, his God, and his world is the key to his sense of responsibility. As a true Christian humanist, John Milton had a large vision of life in its relatedness: the sympathetic im­ pulse is pervasive in his life and art. The idea of sympa­ thy, it seems, made appeals both conscious and unconscious to the personal and subliminal in Milton. On the elementary level, Milton was more than a little exercised by the notion of climatic influence which inheres in a real or supposed affinity between man and nature. Hi's works contain numerous 3 references to the potentially adverse effect of England's climate on his genius and that of his fellow countrymen. Phrases like "frozen North" and England's "cold climate"^ usually occur to indicate the poet's anxiety both about his destined fame and about his responsibility to overcome any obstacle which might frustrate this end. Milton, in the History of Britain, cites the northern climate as a cause of the intellectual shortcomings of his countrymen: "For the sunn, which we want, ripens witts as well as fruits."^ Per­ haps the poet also had in mind the essential unity of things when he, reflecting on his mission to write the eternal work through the aid of the "instinct of nature," expresses the concern that possibly something "advers in our climat, or the fate of the age"^ might prevent him. But Milton had earlier testified to the relationship and responsibility be­ tween the Creator and the created in "Naturam non Pati Senium" when in opposition to the hylozoistic fallacy he as­ serted that the earth shall not die because the spirit of God was in created matter. Such too may be taken as a statement of implicit faith in the moral base of the uni­ verse. One last bit of evidence for Milton's more than usual concern for universal affinities needs to be cited here. Discussing the attraction of like for like in Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce. Milton considers possible causes: ". But what might be the cause, whether each ones alotted Genius or proper Starre, or whether the sup email influence of Schemes and angular aspects or this elementall Crasis . , whether all these jointly or singly meeting friendly, or unfriendly in either party."® Allegorical and eclectic, Milton expresses this vision of oneness in many forms; but he never allows the form to take precedence over the substance. Milton's whole life, I suggest, was devoted, among other things, to _an examination, a refinement, and an application of the doc­ trine of sympathy and its extensions in his ceaseless en­ deavor to "present [his] true account." Thus the concept of sympathy is inextricably bound to his religion, his deon­ tology, and his ambiance. It is the animating principle of his concepts of right reason and its adjuncts of Chris­ tian liberty and the law of nature, of his peculiar use of the ideas of the chain of being, the harmony of the spheres, patterns of hierarchy in the microcosm, the geocosm, and the macrocosm. Furthermore, I suggest that the sympathetic im­ pulse underlies Milton's monistic views, especially as they influence his notions on God and the creation. Many shaping influences contributed to Milton's world view. Since Marvell's adulatory lines on Paradise Lost first noted the richness of Milton's eclecticism, numerous books and articles have appeared ostensibly chart­ ing the labyrinthine paths of Milton's sources and ideas. The volume and scope of such works testify to the acuity of this early critical review. Of Milton's use of "fable and 5 old song," Marvell declared: Thou hast not miss'd one thought that could be fit, And all that was improper dost omit. That Majesty which through thy Work doth Reign Draws the Devout, deterring the Profane. And things divine thou treatst of in such state As them preserves, and Thee inviolate.° But, of course, the study of Milton's ideas has since spanned his entire canon, resulting in a fuller appreciation of the genius of the poet. Such studies have noted the regular re­ currence of certain themes throughout Milton's works,and more recently the permanence or universality of the poet's prevailing motifs. The redirection of criticism towards the timeless­ ness of Milton's ideas probably received its greatest impetus from such catalytic studies as E.M.W.