[Milton-L] Thanks for Help with terminology sought

[carl bellinger]

Hardiest thanks I must return to you, Professor Skulsky; and without 
afterthought. Your readings are close encounters always "of the interesting 
kind."

Thanks too for the kind, but erroneous, promotion to "Professor."

-Carl


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Harold Skulsky" <hskulsky at email.smith.edu>
To: "John Milton Discussion List" <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
Sent: Friday, August 24, 2007 2:12 PM
Subject: Re: [Milton-L] Thanks for Help with terminology sought


> Dear Professor Bellinger:
>
> "Erroneous there to wander and forlorne" (PL 7.20) is surely a hyperbaton 
> and epiphrasis, with the quasi-copulative verb "wander" inserted between 
> its two predicate complements "erroneous" and "forlorne" (NB: not 
> functional adverbs but out-and-out adjectives; this is a latinate 
> construction Milton is quite fond of); "and forlorne" comes in as an 
> afterthought.
>
> But does "wander" apply to its complements in the same sense? If so, then 
> we don't have zeugma of the interesting kind (figura sententiarum). Let's 
> see.
>
> The etymological sense of "erroneous" yields a redundancy ("to wander 
> wandering")--and hence readily gives way to the derivative sense "prone to 
> error."  The etymological sense of "forlorn" ("forsaken") is perfectly 
> right for the Bellerophon myth; Bellerophon's foiled (and vaguely Satanic) 
> plan of intruding on Olympus earns abandonment by Zeus. "Wandering" as 
> cognitive vulnerability ("erroneous") is one thing--and bad enough; 
> wandering as a (Cain-like) unlimited punishment ("forlorne") is quite 
> another--and infinitely worse.
>
> What the narrator fears is that his ambition to write cosmic history, 
> though it seems to be underwritten by Urania (Muse of Heaven = Holy 
> Spirit), may turn out to be a sin of presumption far worse than 
> Bellerophon's, and that he (the narrator) will be condemned to repeat that 
> sin by compounding the "error." In this context, I tend to think the 
> hyperbatic verb's relation to its two complements is Janus-faced (see 
> previous paragraph). So (with misgivings) I vote for zeugma in the 
> semantically interesting sense.
>
> So yes: hyperbaton, epiphrasis, zeugma. Unless I turn out to be . . .  in 
> error.
>
> (By the way, the "Aleian plain" that Bellerophon is condemned to roam in 
> is a Homeric pun on Gk. "alaomai" = "wander"; "be banished.")
>
> Cheers,
> HS
>
>
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