[Milton-L] Kincaid's Lucifer

[John Geraghty]

Could be from Book II 1688 ff 

 

Illustrations:

 

http://www.johngeraghty.com/Literature/Texts/Milton/P_Lost_1688/PL_1688_27-I
llus_II.jpg

 

http://www.johngeraghty.com/Literature/Texts/Milton/P_Lost_1688/PL_1688_BOOK
E_II_img.jpg

 

http://www.johngeraghty.com/Literature/Texts/Milton/P_Lost_1691/102_3680.JPG

 

 

-John

 

 

SOUL of the (st)age! 

 

A Lost Soul, A rising Sol  (Advanced and made a constellation there!)

 

A nd shake a stage; or, when thy socks were on, 
L eave thee alone for the comparison 
O f all that insolent Greece or haughty Rome 
S ent forth, or since did from their ashes come.
T riumph, my Britain; thou hast one to show 
   To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe.

 

 Bay Laurel Ben-Crowned by the Laureate (for the laurel he may gain a scorn)

 

B  ut antiquated and deserted lie, 
A s they were not of Nature's family. 
Y et must I not give Nature all; thy Art,

 

The other Wit   (As, since, she will vouchsafe no other wit.)

T  his Figure, that thou here seest put,

 I  t was for gentle Shakespeare cut;

W herein the Grauer had a strife

   WIT h Nature, to out-doo the life

O, could he but haue drawne his WIT

 

 

  The SOUL grows clotted by contagion,

    Imbodies, and imbrutes, till she quite loose

T he divine property of her first being.

S uch are those thick and gloomy shadows damp 

O ft seen in charnel-vaults and sepulchres,

L ingering and sitting by a new-made grave,

A s loth to leave the body that it loved,

 

 

 

 

 

 

From: milton-l-bounces at lists.richmond.edu [mailto:milton-l-bounces at l

ists.richmond.edu] On Behalf Of Neil Forsyth
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 1:34 AM
To: John Milton Discussion List
Subject: [Milton-L] Kincaid's Lucifer

 

Dear Colleagues

 

In her novel Annie John, Ch 6, Jamaica Kincaid refers to a painting of young
Lucifer. The context makes it clear this a reference to Paradise Lost. In an
interview, she says the following:

 

My feeling of how wrong my own punishment was, was very much in my small
   mind as I was [copying out pages of Paradise Lost]. So ... this story
about
   the powerless and the powerful is very much connected with my feelings of
   powerlessness. And I think it is very connected to justice and injustice,
   whatever Milton intended.... My version [of Paradise Lost] had a painting
   of Lucifer. His hair was snakes, all striking. Oh it was fabulous! I was
   the wrong person to give it to. Milton's work, Kincaid says, "left me
with
   this feeling of articulating your own pain, as Lucifer did, that it
seemed
   too that if you couldn't say what was wrong with you then you couldn't
   act.... I felt quite aggrieved as a child.... I did feel that I was cast
   out of only own paradise. (Simmons interview)

 

Can anyone help by identifying the edition?

 

 

-- 


Neil Forsyth
Professor of English
University of Lausanne
CH-1015 Lausanne
Switzerland
+41 21 692 29 88
FAX: +41 21 692 29 35
e-mail: Neil.Forsyth at unil.ch
http://www2.unil.ch/angl/staff_forsyth.html

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