[Milton-L] Milton and Verse Composition

[Carl Bellinger]

Dear Derek,

     Fowler and others make a good case, I agree, for PL specifically. And 
then more broadly, Fowler's book-length study on Elizabethan poetry 
"Triumphal Forms" [I wish I could afford a copy] is essential, I would say, 
to the discussion of [what Curtius, addressing medieval Latin literature, 
calls] "numerical composition."

     As to the usefulness of Richardson for countering Fowler et al, both 
Johnson [c. 1790] and Masson [c. 1880] are quite skeptical of Richardson's 
anecdotes concerning how Milton composed PL; I've copied, below, some bits 
from each.

     From the Johnson bits we may note that by the time he has finished with 
Richardson, a "lover of wonder" and eager "to find Milton discriminated from 
other men", Johnson concludes that we can safely say only that Milton 
(1)composed at night or in the wee hours, and (2) that, later, if a scribe 
was at hand, the blank verse poured out with great fluency.

     Masson, on the point most key to the question <Might Milton have 
counted every line in PL for structural & symbolic purposes?>, flatly 
rejects Richardson on Milton's reducing 40 lines to 20, says Masson, "[this] 
I cannot conceive to have ever been his habit."
      And note that Masson goes out of his way to observe: "Milton probably 
retained all that he had composed in his memory, and could have dictated the 
whole of it afresh if necessary."

Cheers,

Carl

_______________________________
Johnson writes (1792):
http://books.google.com/books?id=FrqkfjmOPPMC&pg=PA132&lpg=PA132&dq=

%22forty+lines%22+breath+half+number&source=web&ots=2VAGEng7qg&sig=u

6sH1A8opAo5xCebBN3RIwbQGEA&hl=en#PPA133,M1

Richardfon, who feems to
have been very diligent in his enquiries, but dis-
covers always a wish to find Milton discriminated
from other men, relates, that " he would fome- "
times lie awake whole nights, but not a verfe could "
he make; and on a fudden his poetical faculty "
would rufh upon him with an impetus or aestro, "
and his daughter was immediately called to fecure "
what came. At other times he would dictate "
perhaps forty lines in a breath, and then reduce "
them to half the number."

Thefe burfts of light, and involutions of darknefs,
thefe tranfient and involuntary excurfions and retro-
ccffions of invention, having fome appearance of
deviation from the common train of Nature, are
eagerly caught by the lovers of a wonder. Yet
fomething of this inequality happens to every man
in every mode of exertion, manual or mental. The
mechanick cannot handle his hammer and his file at
all times with equal dexterity; there are hours, he
knows not why, when "his hand is out." By Mr.
Richardfon's relation, cafually conveyed, much regard
cannot be claimed. That, in his intclle&ual
hour, Milton called for his daughter tofecure what
came, may be queflioned; for unluckily it happens
to be known that his daughters were never taught
to write; nor would he have been obliged, as is
univerfally confefled, to have employed any cafual
vifitor in difburthening his memory, if his daughter
could have performed the office.

The ftory of reducing his exuberance has been
told of other authors, and, though doubtlefs true of
every fertile and copious mind, feems to have been
gratuitoufly transferred to Milton.

What he has told us, and we cannot now know
more, is, that he compofed much of his poem in the
night and morning, I fuppofe before his mind was
difturbed with common bufinefs; and that he poured
out with great fluency his unpremeditated verfe.


________________________________
And Masson writes (1880 Life..):

Richardson, who professes not to omit the least circumstance he had
been told, adds that then " he would dictate many, perhaps "
forty lines, as it were in a breath, and then reduce them to "
half the number,"-which last I cannot conceive to have
ever been his habit. . . . . Milton probably retained
all that he had composed in his memory, and could have
dictated the whole of it afresh if necessary.
http://books.google.com/books?id=qdwNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA466&lpg=PA466&dq=22forty+lines22+breath&source=web&ots=oNtsjkEoZE&sig=hjFRpwVvr7G6WyNvay69sjIJBFo&hl=en
____________________________________


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Derek Wood" <dwood at stfx.ca>
To: "John Milton Discussion List" <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 5:02 PM
Subject: [Milton-L] Milton and Verse Composition


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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