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

Sat Jun 20 09:30:09 EDT 2009

It would be worth checking both Abraham Cowley and John
Evelyn on gardens for further contemporary views.

Stella Revard

Quoting "Schwartz, Louis" <lschwart at richmond.edu>:

> Thank you to everyone for the suggestions about landscapes and gardens!  I'll
> pass the recommendations along, and I'm sure he'll find them useful.
>
> All the best,
>
> Louis
>
> ===========================
> Louis Schwartz
> Associate Professor of English
> University of Richmond
> Richmond, VA  23173
> (804) 289-8315
> lschwart at richmond.edu<mailto:lschwart at richmond.edu>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: milton-l-bounces at lists.richmond.edu
> [mailto:milton-l-bounces at lists.richmond.edu] On Behalf Of Michael Gillum
> Sent: Friday, June 19, 2009 2:14 PM
> To: milton-l
> Subject: Re: [Milton-L] Milton and Gardens: queries on JM's aesthetics
>
> Carl,
>
> I make a few observations about the bower in a short article about roses in
> PL (ANQ, Winter 2007).
>
> The obvious pertinence of "wrought mosaic" is that the design of flowers
> covers the interior wall of the bower just as a fresco or mosaic would
> decorate a man-made structure. Similarly, the floor is a "rich inlay" of
> flowers (4.701). However, I'd think the overtones of fussy artifice that you
> correctly detect are somewhat ironic. Like the design of the whole garden and
> God's art in general, the mosaic and inlay would have been "not nice," but
> rich, abundant, and informal in structure.
>
> The bower is emphatically an enclosure within the larger enclosure of the
> Garden. The roof is "of thickest covert," shrubs "fenced up the verdant
> wall," it is "sacred and sequestered," "in close recess" (4. 690-710). The
> language obviously echoes the description of Satan's approach to the Garden
> (4. 130-145). The bower guards the secret/sacred quality of A&E's sexual
> relation while enhancing that relation aesthetically with falling rose
> petals, etc. As a focal structure within the larger focal structure of the
> Garden's enclosure, perhaps it suggests that the sexual relation is somehow
> central to the whole project.
>
> As to why the whole Garden needs to be fenced off from the rest of the world,
> that's an interesting question.
>
> Michael
>
>
> On 6/18/09 2:49 PM, "Carl Bellinger" <bcarlb at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> > [[ sorry for previous empty email. ]]
> >
> > 1) In PL the gardens designed and planted by God the "sovran Planter" are
> > "sacred & sequestered," "enclosed," "covert," "walled," fenced," and so
> > forth. Is this an identifiably Hebrew ideal --beyond the obvious fact that
> > Adam&Eve were thrown out of a place which at that point, necessarily,
> became
> > a place sequestered from them-- or simply a Classical one?
> >
> > 2) At PL 4.700 God's patterned design (alternating patches of Iris & Roses
> &
> > Gessimin) has "wrought Mosaic."
> >
> >         What's the skinny on "mosaic?" As an aesthetic ideal of artificial
> > design is it associated essentially with Classical, or Roman (& ??
> > Renaissance) culture, or could Milton have located its origins in Hebrew
> > scriptures? In asking this I have in mind how crucial it seems to Milton
> > that he assert that the sources of song aesthetics and rhetorical eloquence
> > are in the Hebrew tradition and are merely  "ill imitated" in Classical
> > culture.
> >
> > 3)   Do Puritan lights of Milton's period sport an identifiable aesthetic
> of
> > some ilk? If so, did they acknowledge it?
> >
> > Carl
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "JD Fleming" <jfleming at sfu.ca>
> > To: "John Milton Discussion List" <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
> > Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2009 11:09 AM
> > Subject: Re: [Milton-L] Milton and Gardens
> >
> >
> >> Louis, my article "Meanwhile, Medusa" (in ELH some years ago) has a bunch
> >> of stuff on gardens and garden theory in it, including references. (I
> >> guess this offers yet another pun on "plug.") yrs, JD Fleming
> >>
> >> ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: "Hannibal Hamlin" <hamlin.hannibal at gmail.com>
> >> To: "John Milton Discussion List" <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
> >> Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2009 7:59:09 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
> >> Subject: Re: [Milton-L] Milton and Gardens
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> You might also want to think about this topic by way of Genesis 1-3, which
> >> was of course a preoccupation of Milton's, but which also greatly
> >> influenced thinking on gardens and horticulture. There is an armful (at
> >> least) of books on Milton and Genesis. On gardens in particular, which I
> >> happen to have been reading about recently, see Terry Comito's The Idea of
> >> the Garden in the Renaissance , and Rebecca Bushnell's Green Desire:
> >> Imagining Early Modern English Gardens . These are about earlier gardens,
> >> of course, but would be useful on where Milton is coming from (rather than
> >> where others are taking him). James Turner's The Politics of Landscape is
> >> also important.
> >>
> >> Hannibal
> >>
> >>
> >> On Thu, Jun 18, 2009 at 10:44 AM, Joshua Scodel < jscodel at uchicago.edu >
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Dear Louis,
> >>
> >>
> >> I think John Dixon Hunt is your man: lots of books and articles on the
> >> 18th-century landscape gardening, including one in Milton Studies
> >> specifically on Milton's influence.
> >>
> >>
> >> Best,
> >>
> >>
> >> Josh
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Jun 18, 2009, at 9:32 AM, Schwartz, Louis wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> To the list:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> I have a colleague over in the Philosophy Dept. who is doing some work on
> >> the aesthetics of the landscape, and as you can imagine has been coming
> >> across many references to Milton, especially in respect to the 18 th
> >> Century. Since I haven't done much thinking or work on the subject, I was
> >> hoping the list might offer some suggestions about what to read on Milton
> >> and the development of landscape painting and gardening or landscaping in
> >> the 18 th Century and after.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Thanks in advance!
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Louis
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> ===========================
> >>
> >> Louis Schwartz
> >>
> >> Associate Professor of English
> >>
> >> University of Richmond
> >>
> >> Richmond, VA 23173
> >>
> >> (804) 289-8315
> >>
> >> lschwart at richmond.edu
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
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> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Joshua Scodel
> >> Chair, Department of Comparative Literature
> >> Helen A. Regenstein Professor in Comparative Literature, English, and the
> >> College
> >> Resident Master, Burton-Judson Courts
> >> University of Chicago
> >> office: Classics 402
> >> phone: 773-702-5101
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >>
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> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Hannibal Hamlin
> >> Associate Professor of English
> >> The Ohio State University
> >> 164 West 17th Ave., 421 Denney Hall
> >> Columbus, OH 43210-1340
> >> hamlin.22 at osu.edu/
> >> hamlin.hannibal at gmail.com
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >>
> >> Milton-L web site: http://johnmilton.org/
> >>
> >> --
> >> James Dougal Fleming
> >> Associate Professor
> >> Department of English
> >> Simon Fraser University
> >>
> >> "das Fragwuerdige zu sehen"
> >>
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> >
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