Continuing our perusal of “Jack’s Bookshelf”, today David interview co-host of “Classical Stuff You Should Know”, Graeme Donaldson, about the author of Paradise Lost, John Milton.
S6E34: “Jack’s Bookshelf – John Milton” (Download)
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Show Notes
Introduction
Drop-In
Quote-of-the-week
The first qualification for judging any piece of workmanship from a corkscrew to a cathedral is to know what it is what it was intended to do and how it is meant to be used. After that has been discovered the temperance reformer may decide that the corkscrew was made for a bad purpose, and the communist may think the same about the cathedral. But such questions come later. The first thing is to understand the object before you: as long as you think the corkscrew was meant for opening tins or the cathedral for entertaining tourists you can say nothing to the purpose about them. The first thing the reader needs to know about Paradise Lost is what Milton meant it to be.
C.S. Lewis, Preface to Paradise Lost
Biographical Information
Graeme Donaldson has been sneaking literature into the minds of students since 2011. He watches Project Runway with his wife Amanda, who wears kimonos (she insists they are yukatas, or “summer kimonos”) at home. Still Canadian at heart, Graeme watches hockey when he isn’t reading… and he is co-host of the wonderful podcast, Classical Stuff You Should Know.
Guest Biographical Information
Chit-Chat
- Graeme had just finished his school year at Veritas Academy
Toast
- David was drinking a brown ale called Bumble Bear
- His guest was drinking substandard coffee from the teacher’s lounge
Discussion
01. “Milton 101”
Q. Who was John Milton? When did he live? What did he write?
- John Milton (English, 1606 – 1674)
- Classical Stuff You Should Know episodes:
- Works:
02. “Encountering Milton”
Q. How did you first encounter Milton?
- Romanticism
- A Preface to Paradise Lost by C.S. Lewis
03. “Teaching Paradise Lost”
Q. Do you teach “Paradise Lost” to your students?
–
04. “Milton’s Influences”
Q. What authors and works influenced Milton?
–
05. “Influence on CSL”
Q. What influence did Milton have on C.S. Lewis?
–
06. “Getting into Milton”
Q. How would you recommend for someone to get into Milton? Would you recommend beginning with “Paradise Lost”?
OF Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
John Milton, Paradise Lost (1st Sentence)
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,
Sing Heav’nly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,
In the Beginning how the Heav’ns and Earth
Rose out of Chaos: Or if Sion Hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa’s Brook that flow’d
Fast by the Oracle of God; I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th’ Aonian Mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime.
- The Major Works (Oxford World’s Classics)
- Paradise Lost: A Norton Critical Edition (Norton Critical Editions)
07. “Why so popular?”
Q. Given that it is a difficult text, why has it been so popular and influential?
… What in me is dark
John Milton, Paradise Lost (2nd Sentence)
Illumin, what is low raise and support;
That to the highth of this great Argument
I may assert Eternal Providence,
And justifie the wayes of God to men.
08. “Popular Theology”
Q. How did “Paradise Lost” influence popular theology?
09. “Theodicy”
Q. What arguments does Milton use to justify allowing the fall? How does he “justify the way of God to man”?
“Me miserable! Which way shall I fly
John Milton, Paradise Lost (Satan)
Infinite wrath and infinite despair?
Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell;
And in the lowest deep a lower deep,
Still threat’ning to devour me, opens wide,
To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven.”
This having learnt, thou hast attained the sum
John Milton, Paradise Lost (Michael)
Of Wisdom; hope no higher, though all the Stars
Thou knew’st by name, and all th’ ethereal Powers,
All secrets of the deep, all Nature’s works,
Or works of God in Heav’n, Air, Earth, or Sea,
And all riches of this World enjoy’dst,
And all the rule, one Empire: only add
Deeds to thy knowledge answerable, add Faith,
Add Virtue, Patience, Temperance, add Love,
By name to come called Charity, the soul
Of all the rest: then wilt though not be loth
To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess
A paradise within thee, happier far.
…existence, intelligence and will are in themselves good. Therefore he must be getting them from the Good Power: even to be bad he must borrow or steal from his opponent. And do you now begin to see why Christianity has always said that the devil is a fallen angel?
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book II, Chapter 2)
The better stuff a creature is made of—the cleverer and stronger and freer it is—then the better it will be if it goes right, but also the worse it will be if it goes wrong. A cow cannot be very good or very bad; a dog can be both better and worse; a child better and worse still; an ordinary man, still more so; a man of genius, still more so; a superhuman spirit best—or worst—of all.
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book II, Chapter 3)
“Then those people are right who say that Heaven and Hell are only states of mind?”
“Hush,” said he sternly. “Do not blaspheme. Hell is a state of mind-ye never said a truer word. And every state of mind, left to itself, every shutting up of the creature within the dungeon of its own mind-is, in the end, Hell. But Heaven is not a state of mind. Heaven is reality itself. All that is fully real is Heavenly. For all that can be shaken will be shaken and only the unshakable remains.”
C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (Chapter 9)
