[Milton-L] dictating PL

[Carl Bellinger]

Dear Prof. Fleming,

Congratulations on the publication of "Milton's Secrecy..." I'm eager to see 
it.

A few days back you noted my suggestion that Milton may have composed the 
whole of PL before beginning to dictate it.  You wrote:

>Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2:55 PM  Re: [Milton-L] dictating PL
>
>May I ask (a perhaps leading or obvious or even annoying question): why
>would one want to think that M had large parts of the poem "in his head"
>before speaking it?    JD Fleming

For myself I would not *want* to think that: my taste has always been for 
more modern stuff, poetry that at least seems to spring rather directly from 
nature and feeling and less from the contrivances of art; though I must say 
close study of Milton is starting to get to me in this matter...

You say your question is "perhaps leading or obvious." I don't know where 
you would want it to be leading, but I'll fly at it [like the French 
falconers] and propose that Milton is the man --obviously-- who would want 
every line and word memorized "in his head" before beginning to speak the 
masterwork. Why ever would he not?  Blind Homer did. Jason Kerr is surely 
right not to doubt M's capacity for the job. And doesn't the famous bit in 
CG sound much more, very much more, like a man who is definitely going to 
nail this down in his mind before committing it to aftertimes --or present 
times?

I should not write thus out of mine own season when I have neither yet 
completed to my mind the full circle of my private studies, although I 
complain not of any insufficiency to the matter in hand; or were I ready to 
my wishes, it were a folly to commit any thing elaborately composed to the 
careless and interrupted listening of these tumultuous times. Next, if I 
were wise only to my own ends, I would certainly take such a subject as of 
itself might catch applause,... and such a subject as the publishing whereof 
might be delayed at pleasure, and time enough to pencil it over with all the 
curious touches of art, even to the perfection of a faultless picture;

"Or were I ready to my wishes...," says he.  That almost sounds like a hint 
that he might be ready already.

-Carl


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <jfleming at sfu.ca>
To: <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 2:55 PM
Subject: Re: [Milton-L] dictating PL


> May I ask (a perhaps leading or obvious or even annoying question): why
> would one want to think that M had large parts of the poem "in his head"
> before speaking it? JD Fleming
>
> On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 14:01:07 -0400 milton-l at lists.richmond.edu wrote:
>> I too would like to know that number.  Was it "20" or so? dictated
>> each morning?
>>
>>      My own sense is that Milton _composed_ PL rather completely
>> before he began dictating it. It has been suggested [A. Fowler (and
>> perhaps others???)], based on internal evidence, that M may in fact
>> have had  both the 10 book AND the 12 book versions clearly in mind
>> from the 'get go.'
>>
>>      (I attempted, about 6 years ago in a post to Milton-l, to offer
>> an observation that could support the above view, but it was an
>> impossibly, yea unconscionably long & poorly written post which, I
>> believe --happily-- almost nobody read. )
>>
>>      If indeed Milton dictated roughly the same number of lines each
>> day, couldn't that be seen as supporting evidence for the view that
>> the poem was already finished and memorized in his mind? Else that
>> daily sum could vary greatly depending on any number of issues such as
>> the nature of the text at hand [a 10 line paragraph? a 55 line
>> invocation?, a 26 line invocation? a 78 line speech?] or, I suppose,
>> depending on Milton's mood on a given morning, his physical health,
>> the intensity of inspiration...
>>
>> "Still as I pulled, it came; and so I penned It down..." J. B.
>>
>> cheers,
>> Carl
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>>   From: Margaret Thickstun
>>   To: John Milton Discussion List
>>   Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 2:13 PM
>>   Subject: [Milton-L] dictating PL
>>
>>
>>   I'm sure I could find this information if I were to look in the
>> biographies, but this path seems easier.  My students asked, "about
>> how many lines of Paradise Lost did Milton compose on a given night?"
>> Does anyone on the list have a ballpark answer?
>>
>>   Thanks.--Margie
>>
>>   Margaret Thickstun
>>   Elizabeth J. McCormack Professor of English
>>   Hamilton College
>>   198 College Hill Road
>>   Clinton, NY 13323
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
> James Dougal Fleming
> Department of English
> Simon Fraser University
> (778)-782-4713
> cell: 778-865-0926
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