[Milton-L] Milton and Verse Composition

[Derek Wood]

As Dr. Creaser notes, Richardson says he would compose "many perhaps forty lines, as it were in a breath, and then reduce them to half the number." He got out of bed ar 4.00 a.m. in summer and his amanuensis arrived at 7.00. If the scribe was late, M complained he "wanted to be milked," according to the anonymous biographer.
There we might leave it but for this: the numerologists make a strong case for a structure patterned symmetrically around the centre. In Ed.I, the central line of the entire epic is PL vi.761-2 where the Son ascends into his triumphal chariot. Satan enters the universe in Bk III and leaves three books from the end; Bk. IV has the first temptation and the second is four books from the end &c. There is much more, of course: see Fowler's intro. on numerology for a start. So, as in the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, there is a very strict formal, symmetrical framework containing and restraining vast cosmic  movements, tension and energy.  Did he know in Bk VI how many lines the finished poem would contain? And how to explain the effect on the structure of the polishing process Richardson describes?
dw.
 
 
 
 
Derek N. C. Wood,
Senior Research Professor and Shastri Fellow,,
St. Francis Xavier University,
ANTIGONISH,    NS,
Canada,    B2G 2W5
 
e-mail: dwood at stfx.ca
phone: 902-867-2328 (w)
           902-863-5433 (h)
fax:      902-867-5400
web:     http://www.stfx.ca/people/dwood <http://www.stfx.ca/people/dwood/Welcome.html> /Welcome.html 

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