Random Notes on Milton’s “Masque”

“…so to lose virginity is to participate in the ultimate earthy degradation”

“A healthy, blissful marriage is to be aspired to.”

“Drunkenness –> misery = arrogance and ignorance”

“Lust leads to the pollution of the soul.”

Me, to Comus, as he tries to take the Lady’s virginity: “It’s special dude, not something she can just throw away” (and yes, I actually wrote this in the margin)

And, to sum it up: “After Comus sticks her to the chair (with semen??), she never speaks again”

I actually am taking useful notes on my legal pad, I’m sorry I’m not sharing all that. Maybe in a little while I’ll post something more substantive/helpful.

First I would argue that Satan’s entire argument is a fallacy of weak induction because it is an appeal to an unqualified authority. This is an argument from an authority in which the authority lacks credibility. A “real life” example of this fallacy we had in class was: “After examining the new mole on my neck, my hairstylist told me that it will get better by drinking herbal tea. Since she is a good stylist, my neck should get better if I drink herbal tea.” Since this is an example, it is fairly obvious to see the fallacy of the argument and why it’s not valid. In PL, Eve’s highest authority is God; she knows this. Satan asserts himself (as a talking serpent, no less) as an authority on something he has no way of knowing, and Eve falls for this appeal to an unqualified authority. “Look on me,/Me who have touched and tasted, yet both live” (IX, 687-688). This animal has no authority regarding the tree and the fruit, yet the argument appeals to Eve anyway. Eve should have known not to trust a lowly creature before trusting God, Adam and herself. Fallacies are really tricky, though. What also makes this entire scene interesting is that Satan is being hypocritical (he’s not really a serpent, he has never tasted the fruit, etc.) and Milton stated earlier (in Book III) that only God could discern hypocrisy.

I would also argue that Satan commits several fallacies of presumption too. He definitely utilizes complex questions, which is when multiple questions are hidden in a single question. The example from class was: “Does the president really believe that the American public is so naive that they will endorse large cuts in our Medicare benefits for seniors? He’d respond ‘No’, of course, so there should be no cuts.” I’m pretty sure every question Satan asks in loaded in this manner. “Look on me,/Me who have touched and tasted, yet both live,/And life more perfect have attained than fate/Meant me, by venturing higher than my lot./Shall that be shut to man, which to the beast/is open?” (IX, 687-692). Or perhaps: “And wherein lies/The offense, that man should this attain to know?/What can your knowledge hurt him, or this tree/Impart against his will is all be his?” (IX, 725-728). I’m not sure if those are perfect examples, but I think you can get the idea.

A second fallacy of presumption (this is the going around in circles one!!) is called begging the question, and I’m pretty sure it’s what Satan does here: “Of evil, if what is evil/ Be real, what not known, since easier shunned?/God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just; / Not just, not God; not feared then, nor obeyed: / Your fear of death itself removes the fear” (IX, 700-703). When using this fallacy, the arguer creates the illusion that inadequate premises are adequate by leaving out a key premise, by restating the conclusion as a premise pr by reasoning in a circle. The example from class was: “Everyone believes what Senator Henry says because he is the most credible member of the Senate. He is the most credible member of the Senate because everyone believes what he says.” I think Satan uses this fallacy much more complexly than the example; and I think it’s funny the definition is basically what we were saying in class about it!

Finally, I noticed one last fallacy in Satan’s argument, one towards the beginning, a fallacy of relevance. The red herring fallacy is committed when the arguer diverts the attention of the listener by changing the subject to a different but subtly related topic. The class example was: “The Civil Rights Initiative forbids discrimination on the grounds of race or sex. Bathrooms are segregated by sex. Ladies, do we want to use the same bathrooms as me? Obviously, we should not adopt this initiative.” Satan is so clever and subtle with this: “Queen of this universe, do not believe/Those rigid threats of death; ye shall not die:/How should ye? By the fruit? It gives you life/To knowledge. By the threatener? Look on me,/Me who have touched and tasted, yet both live” (IX, 684-688). While reading this all I could think was, Um GOD?! Does he not have something to do with this?! Isn’t he the one that has to do with your death is you eat this?! God and God’s law is the most relevant part of the argument, yet Satan diverts the attention away from him. And Eve falls.

Fallacies are really tricky to spot a lot of the time and many people win arguments based on faulty logic (i.e. Satan). So Eve can’t really be BLAMED but she is not totally innocent victim. All the verbal runaround made her lose her head. If, as Dr. C likes to talk about, she had actually caught on to Satan’s logical flaws, just imagine how much she would have grown intellectual and spiritually… Anyway, my totally amateur take on the whole thing.

But anyway, I liked how Eve is characterized throughout this book. “For I this night, / Such night till this I never passed, have dreamed, / If dreamed, not as I oft am wont, of thee / Works of day past, or morrow’s next design” (30-33). I LOVE that she dreams. She dreams like all the time, about her love and her days and the future. Aw, she’s a lot like me! That’s just such an exquisite idea; they are in paradise, in want of nothing, and still she dreams. I also like the description of the dream (35-70+) which reminded me of her account of her creation. She thinks the voice calling her is Adam (because who else would it be? that’s who it was the first time) and she trusts it this time, because she was wrong at the very beginning. This dream just seemed like an echo of her first awakening, and maybe Satan did that on purpose (he’s good and evil like that).

The last section that really told me something about Eve occurs in the lines 129 to 131, when Eve cries after Adam comforts her. Even though she is comforted (”she was cheered”) she still cries, which indicates a deep emotion. She seems older and wiser than Adam to me in this moment. She has had this horrible, unexplainable dream and she knows it’s scary even though it’s gone. Her character just has more depth in this moment, and definitely more emotional depth than Adam has. I liked Milton’s Eve in book V.

AND, when I was looking up some things for this post, I reread Book IV, lines 460 to 475 and discovered Eve’s relationship with God, and she has it before she even sees Adam!

As I bent down to look, just opposite,
A shape within the watery gleam appeared
Bending to look on me, I started back,
It started back, but pleased I soon returned,
Pleased it returned as soon with answering looks
Of sympathy and love; there I had fixed
Mine eyes till now, and pined with vain desire,
Had not a voice thus warned me, What though seest,
What there though seest fair creature is thyself,
With thee it came and goes: but follow me,
And I will bring thee where no shadow stays
Thy coming, and thy soft embraces, he
Whose image thou art, him thou shall enjoy
Inseparably thine, to him shalt bear
Multitudes like thyself, and thence be called
Mother of the human race: what could I do,
But follow strait, invisibly thus led?

What voice could Eve hear (my own emphasis) but God’s? Or perhaps an angel’s. But I would like to think of this voice that speaks to Eve as God’s, comforting her and explaining her purpose. So until I am told this is wrong, I feel a lot better about Eve’s relationship with God and to Adam. It’s still so complicated, but I am getting more satisfied with Paradise Lost’s treatment of Eve.

“…but when thou shad’st
The full blaze of thy beams, and through a cloud
Drawn round thee like a radiant shrine,
Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appear,
yet dazzle heaven, that brightest seraphim
Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes.”

I mean…come on! I can feel the radiant beams; I actually feel lighter while reading that passage. I know that’s not very useful interpretively, but I think it’s important to step back sometimes and consider how the words make you feel. It is a poem after all. Anyway, I love this part. The Father’s (or are they talking about the Son here, I can’t always tell, it’s really hard to tell who is being talked about sometimes) glory is so great it cannot be looked at directly (or seen at all unless He shows himself).

As I’ve been sitting here reading this passage over and I realized I had no idea what “that brightest seraphim” referred to. The angels? So I looked it up in the OED and it has several meanings, one being the name of an angel or a class of angels. In Biblical tradition they are supposedly the six-winged creatures that hover over God’s throne. The most interesting thing is that the word “seraphim” is etymologically related the meaning “fiery serpent.” Satan? Even if Milton was just referring to plain old angels, that relationship is really cool.

Book 2 is pretty amazing. It really made me think; I have a million questions. But, first of all, this book really reinforced the similarities that exist between Satan, the other fallen angels and human beings. As described by Milton, Satan’s faults are ones I have also suffered. He is vain and proud (”to pursue/vain war with heaven, and by success untaught/His proud imaginations thus displayed,” Book II, Lines 9-10) and his fallen colleagues are jealous (”he lordly sits/our envied sovereign,” Book II, Lines 243-244), and hateful (”how wearisome/Eternity so spent in worship paid to whom we hate,” Book II, Lines 248-249). They contemplate starting another war against heaven to get revenge against God for their fall, but decide that their vengeance will best be obtained by bringing harm to God’s new creation: man. They also like this option because it is easier than fighting again…basically, they are lazy! (”Thither let us bend all our thoughts, to learn/ What creatures there inhabit, of what mould,/or substance, how endured, and what their power,/ And where their weakness, how attempted best,/By force or subtlety” Book II, Lines 354-358). They didn’t get their way and now they want to get back at God, but because they are weaker they want to get back at him in an easier way. They are so passive aggressive! They want to hurt God by either controlling men or bringing them to their side against Him (”This would surpass/Common revenge, and interrupt his joy/ In our confusion, and our joy upraise/ In his disturbance; when his darling sons/…shall curse/ Their fair originals” (Book II, Lines 370-375). They actually remind me of children at their worst moments, because children haven’t really learned that the world isn’t always fair and that they won’t always get what they want. They don’t know that they need to obey their parents because the parents really do know what best… God here really is the father, and Satan and the other fallen ones have failed to stop having the tantrum. Kids will get tired out, eventually feel the need to be comforted by mom or dad; after all what they give you is always worth what they take away, at least when you’re six. But many adults feel these emotions too. Perhaps the best way to see Satan is as someone who let their emotions get the better of them…forever. Absolutely failing to let reason take over, hating himself so much that he cannot even give himself a rest by giving in. Talk about exhausting.

I also found it fascinating that Milton make Satan so attractive. I know we talked about this a little bit in class, but for me this came up again in book 2. For example, I am really drawn to Satan when Milton describes him like this: “And princely counsel in his face yet shone,/ Majestic though in ruin: sage he stood/ With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear/ The weight of mightiest monarchies; his look/Drew audience and attention still as night/Or summer’s noontide air, while thus he spoke” (Book II, Lines 304-309). I mean, I want to hear this guy talk too! Why does Milton do this? And why does Milton talk about Satan first, in Book 1 and Book 2? I like Satan….I begin PL with sympathies for this character (who I know, logically, is the villain, I’ve read the Bible, existed on Earth, etc.)! Milton! Ugh! He’s playing around with my emotions! Is Milton doing this on purpose? Is he actually mimicking the fall and redemption through his readers? Because right now I am pretty aware of being seduced by these unsavory characters…will I be redeemed later when Milton shows me God and Adam and Eve? Will I like them more? Will Satan actually do something that causes me to hate/fear/dislike/avoid him like I should? Is Milton messing with his readers’ minds? (The answer is yes for this reader, I’m fairly sure).

Another part that makes me go, “Um, Milton, what’s up with this?! Are you secretly rooting for Satan too?!” is lines 250 to 255. The fallen angels are looking for freedom, they think that they can best be free by having no one to be accountable to, by serving no one but themselves. Isn’t this what Milton most desires? Freedom to decide issues individually, without outside pressures restricting? He sort of says that this isn’t a good idea, what the fallen are suggesting here, but it’s not very convincing. He makes me so confused about how to feel about Satan and Hell, etc.

I think I’ll write a separate post about hell and Milton’s descriptions, because I thought they were really cool.

Mr. Hemingway said: “There’s a tendency in the public to want to endow all geniuses with some sort of madness, I think i must be envy on their part. I mean, to be a great writer…I mean, there’s three or four of them in every generation and people have to accept this, it’s not democracy.”

For some reason, this reminded me so much of Milton and the discussion we had on Monday. We are used to artists and writers having some sort of neuroses or mental illness (Freud’s view of art, as Professor Campbell said, this is what we’re accustomed to think in this century). That’s how great poems are written and how great art is made. It has to be a struggle. Milton must be sp arrogant because he is delusional, insecure - oh, he just has a superiority complex, that’s why he’s so great. But is Mr. Hemingway right? Are we just envious of Milton’s abilities and the security he find in them? Can’t we just accept that he’s just one of the greats and he was confident enough to recognize that for himself? I think we can. I feel like I’ve talked about this issue a lot, but it’s one that I keep coming back to, and this interview and Patrick Hemingway’s remarks just reminded me of it. It’s kind of fun to have everyday things remind me of Milton. He clearly has begun to infiltrate my subconscious.