[Milton-L] A Feeble Apology

[Watt, James]

Dear Aleta:

I think the notion that perhaps J.M. used acrostics formed by initial letters of a line as an assist to his memory while waiting for his secretary is certainly plausible and an amusing addition to the work.  He must have been aware of the various kinds of acrostic and number studies attached to the scriptures by Jewish scholars and scribes, though I doubt he attached the same level of seriousness to them.  We know he loved music and had a generally cheerful disposition amongst his friends and that, too, supports your thesis.
  
I'm sorry if my screed against 'Da Vinci code' sorts of interpretation seemed directed at you.  As I told Jameela, I was only responding to another list member's question.  Probably much of what I said came out of the discoveries I made while writing my own thesis years ago on the part played in epic poetry of the prophecy to the hero of the deeds of his children. I had a whole sub-section (largely edited out of the final draft) on what is called 'Galfridian' [spelling may be wrong here, it's been too many years ago!] prophecy, the best known example of which are the short verses of Nostradamus.  The main characteristic of such utterances is their deliberately vague and double-edged nature which can, after the fact, be smoothly adapted to events local & distant, political & material, and both fortunate & unfortunate.

We all need reminding from time to time that J.M. was, after all, a man struggling to perform an angel's task. And the humor we find in the poem itself --especially his correlation of flatulence and self-importance-- suggests he might well have played with letters from time to time as your thesis suggests.  Good luck with it. 

Jim Watt
________________________________________
From: milton-l-bounces at lists.richmond.edu [milton-l-bounces at lists.richmond.edu] On Behalf Of Aleta Konkol [Aleta.Konkol at rentonschools.us]
Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 7:07 PM
To: John Milton Discussion List
Subject: RE: [Milton-L] A Feeble Apology

Awhile back, after a Milton seminar with Al Labriola, I began studying Milton's use of acrostics in Paradise Lost.  Al was ever supportive and had me contact Alastair Fowler with whom I exchanged several letters at the time. This graduate research for which I won first place in the Humanities turned into, what has become over the past 17+ years, a passion.  With only one chapter to go for the completion of my master's thesis on Milton's acrostics, I allowed my path to wonder in an alternative direction for the past few years.  One of the thoughts that I entertained was that perhaps the blind Milton anxiously awaiting the arrival of his amanuensis each morning used acrostics short and long as mnemonic devices during the night. At other times, I saw the use of some of the aforementioned acrostics as well as many, many others as simple textual correlatives emphasizing the content of the text.  Still at times, Milton seemed to use acrostics to almost make a narrative comment on !
 the textual content of the lines inclusive within the acrostic (TOAD). Perhaps I am naïve, but it seems to me entirely plausible that our Milton, who wanted to surpass Homer, would easily choose to employ yet one more literary technique.  Just sharing my thoughts.  Thanks for reading them.

Aleta Konkol
Renton High School

-----Original Message-----
From: milton-l-bounces at lists.richmond.edu [mailto:milton-l-bounces at lists.richmond.edu] On Behalf Of alan horn
Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 10:22 AM
To: John Milton Discussion List
Subject: Re: [Milton-L] A Feeble Apology

> As for my "shoddy work," rest assured, it was never my intention to prepare
> a scholarly article on these possible acrostics.

Emily Speller,

I'm sorry you misunderstood. It wasn't your hard work I was
criticizing. I know it must have been like finding needles in a
haystack.

It was Milton's work I was calling shoddy. Forming words with the
initial letters of consecutive lines is very easy to do. He could have
done a lot more with it had he been willing to put in the effort.
Instead we're left with little more than one would expect to occur by
chance in any string of 10,000 random characters.

Alan H.
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