[Milton-L] Re: Satan's rhetoric

[Carol Barton]

Yes, Salwa: there was a difference between "knowledge for its own sake" (of
the kind that Marlowe's Faustus sought) and knowledge necessary to live life
(being "lowly wise") or to glorify one's Maker--and in Renaissance thinking,
the acquisition of knowledge for its own sake (also the pastime of the
devils in pandemonium) is never a positive thing.

Forgive me if I'm repeating what someone else has said (I haven't been
following this thread), but what Satan wants to know is information that
will help him separate himself even further from God (I am self-created), or
help him thwart God's plan--and what he and Faustus engage in is therefore a
perversion of scholarly research--but worse, in Satan's case, since his is a
quest for knowledge to serve malevolent ends.

Best to all,

Carol Barton