[Milton-L] New to list - Epic Simile question/Paradise Lost

[Nancy Charlton]

--- On Sat, 9/27/08, susan allison <jbase484 at gmail.com> wrote:

If the carpenter's square is not just measurement but also "code of conduct" then
Satan not only veers "away" from the code but actually subsumes it, is
beyond a code of conduct, hence morally outrageous. Milton pushes the
envelope in both directions. 


or so it seems to me.

Then Milton must have doubly sure of the carpenter's rule, "measure twice, cut once" and had Satan reverse it. Michael pins his ears back in Book VI:

 “‘Author of Evil, unknown till thy revolt,
Unnamed in Heaven, now plenteous as thou seest
These acts of hateful strife—hateful to all,
Though heaviest, by just measure, on thyself        265
And thy adherents—how hast thou disturbed
Heaven’s blessed peace, and into Nature brought
Misery, uncreated till the crime
Of thy rebellion!

(courtesy of Bartleby.com)

Nancy Charlton

Till old experience do attain
To something like prophetic strain. 




      
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