[Milton-L] Milton and Gardens: queries on JM's aesthetics

[Horace Jeffery Hodges]

Michael Gillum asks:
 
"As to why the whole Garden needs to be fenced off from the rest of the world, that’s an interesting question."

Jeffery Hodges remarks:
 
Yes, it is interesting. I'd never thought about it before and may be forgiven some brainstorming.
 
There is a rabbinical principle known as "fencing the Torah," i.e., (roughly) setting up additional regulations around the Torah to safeguard its laws from being broken. There is a law in the Garden: "Do not eat of the tree in the midst of the Garden, etc." Neither Adam nor Eve would think of breaking this commandment, but Satan would, so the fence is a reminder to Satan to stay away --  fencing the commandment, so to speak. But I think this brainstorming point to have resulted in a somewhat weak analogy.
 
But it has focused my thoughts on one central point. The wall is intended to remind Satan that he is overstepping a boundary -- as he did in breaking out of Hell. The passage in PL 4.172ff shows Satan in his contempt for limits and describes his actions in terms reminiscent of John 10:1ff, for in both passages, the one breaking in is described as a thief who breaks into the fold rather than coming in by the right entrance. The point is, partly, that gradations of sacred space should be marked with boundaries (even if these can be easily bounded over). This might be a motivation behind Milton's erection of a wall.
 
But -- to brainstorm a bit further -- I think that one would need to investigate the possibility that a fenced-in Paradise might have been a convention going back to the Medieval period, or even further. Milton may have sources for this. I've not looked, but somebody on this list might know.
 
Okay, I've taken too much of people's time already without offering much of substance, so I'll now take my leave instead.
 
Jeffery Hodges
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