The Idea of Satan as the Hero of "Paradise Lost"

Transcription

The Idea of Satan as the Hero of "Paradise Lost"
Author(s): John M. Steadman
Source: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 120, No. 4, Symposium on
John Milton (Aug. 13, 1976), pp. 253-294
Published by: American Philosophical Society
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THE IDEA OF SATAN AS THE HERO OF PARADISE LOST
JOHN M. STEADMAN
Senior Research Associate, Henry E. HuntingtonLibrary; Professorof English,
Universityof California at Riverside
(Read November14, 1975, in theSymposiumon John Milton)
"GIVE the Devil His Due," a leading Miltonist
exhortedhis colleagues more than a quarter of
a centuryago. Five yearslaterhe added a timely
reminder:an extensive"Postscriptto 'Give the
Devil His Due.'" The substanceof Professor
Stoll's plea is stillvalid today,when the case for
the devil seems so generallydiscreditedthat its
affectiveand persuasiveforce is likewiseundermined-when readersare so consciousof Satan's
absurditiesthat they forgethis cunningand his
power,so alertto thefallaciesunderlying
his pretensionsthat these lose their aestheticvalue as
probable (or apparentlyprobable) illusions.
The appeal to equity is a familiartopos in
criticismof Milton'sSatan and understandably
so.
Though Milton had raised questions of divine
justice only to answer them the more emphatically, readers have sometimesfound the questions more plausible than the poet's answers.
More thana fewhave dismissedhis epic theodicy
as logicallyand poeticallyunconvincing.His answers (theyobjected) were assertionsratherthan
valid solutions; they dependedon divine revelation or poetic inspiration,on the testimonyof
Scriptureor the authorityof thepoet,ratherthan
on demonstrated
proofs; and the fundamental
issues still remainedunresolved. Milton had expressly endeavoredto "justifythe ways of God
to men," but what of God's ways with fallen
angels? the dispensationsof "eternalProvidence"
with regard to Lucifer and his legions? or the
ways of thepoet himselfwithGod, man,and devil
alike? The problemof Satan involvedprinciples
of equityas well as epic decorum. It was no less
a legal thanan aestheticproblem;and in attempting to solve it, criticsfrequentlyresortedto the
techniquesof judicial rhetoric. They became,in
effect,forensicorators.
For roughlythreecenturies,readers have demandedjustice for Satan; and the validityof his
titleas hero has been the oldest,and possiblythe
mostpersistent,
of manycontroversies
over ParaPROCEEDINGS
OF THE
AMERICAN
PHILOSOPHICAL
SOCIETY,
dise Lost. Like Jarndyceversus Jarndyce,the
case of the Prince of Hell versus his Creator,
against Milton or Milton's God, appears to have
draggedon interminably,
accumulatingshelfloads
of evidence to the profitof bibliographers,the
pleasure of graduatestudentsin search of a dissertationtopic,and the dismayof college librarians. With changing critical perspectives,the
groundsof debate have shiftedcontinually-from
rules of genre to politicalinspiration,fromtheological orthodoxyto rhetoricalanalysis. "The
case is altered,"not once but manytimes,and in
this postscriptto ProfessorStoll's postscriptwe
shallconsidera fewofits Proteanmetamorphoses.
In several instances,the critic's claim to the
impartiality
of a judge may seem purelyetymological. His instinctivetaste (it may appear) is
fortheprofessionofbarrister;he is apt to assume,
altogethertoo easily,the role of devil's advocate
or devil's accuser. (Neither is a very attractive
role. The formersometimesvergeson blasphemy;
the lattercarriesan awkwardofficialtitle: diabolus diaboli.) Though there are few confirmed
"Satanists" or "anti-Satanists"among us, we
neverthelessveer towardsextremesof veneration
or execration. We extol the devil beyondreason
or vilifyhimbeyondmercy;we applaud thefallen
demigod or jeer at the stumblingclown. The
formalitiesof our literarytribunalsand Parnassian assizes become ritualformulas:the liturgies
of a hero-cult,or an exorcismwith bell, book,
and candle.
Like the author of Paradise Lost, Miltonists
have generallywelcomedcontroversy;and to a
disinterested
observerthe arcana of theirprofession may seem like "The secrets of the hoary
deep" itself-a "dark IllimitableOcean without
bound," where "time and place are lost," and
where "Championsfierce"contendfor mastery,'
1 Except where otherwise indicated,all quotations from
Milton's poetry and prose are taken from John Milton,
VOL.
120,NO. 4, AUGUST 1976
253
254
JOHN M. STEADMAN
[PROC. AMER. PHIL.
SOC.
. . . and to battlebring
his rulingmightprovehazardousto lifeand limb.
Atoms;theyaroundtheflag
Thirembryon
For, in Milton'sown words,
Of each his Faction,in thirseveralClans,
or heavy,sharp,smooth,swiftor slow,
Light-arm'd
... ChaosUmpiresits,
as theSands....
Swarmpopulous,unnumber'd
And bydecisionmoreimbroilsthefray....
To whomthesemostadhere,
Hee rulesa moment....
Among these warringfactions-some hot, some
The problemof Satan has been complicatedby
cold, a few moist,and very many dry-a nonterminology. Precisely what do we
ambiguous
different
several
combatant would distinguish
schools. (He would forgiveme, I hope,formen- mean by hero? The termitselfis equivocal. It
meaningsfor a Homeric
tioningonlya few of themhere.) There are the possesses very different
expertsin nuclear fusionor nuclear fissionwho criticand a Christiantheologian,a culturalanand a schoolboynurturedon filmsof
attemptto demonstratethe coherenceor the in- thropologist
The
and Arizona cattle-rustling.
space-pioneering
hisis
the
There
coherenceof the Satanic image.
torical school which stresses the devil's resem- heroicvirtuesof the theosophicalPlatonistor the
blances to Xerxes or Charles I or Oliver Crom- Aristotelianmoralistbear littleresemblanceto the
schoolwhich martial valor celebratedin heroic verse. The
well. There is theliterary-historical
emphasizeshis similaritiesto Achilles and Odys- arms of the epic warriorare rarelythose of the
seus, Lucan's Caesar and Virgil's Turnus, or the Christianknight. What (we ask ourselves) could
defianthero of Aeschylus'sPrometheusBound. theviolenceand fraudof theancientpagan heroes
schoolwhichasso- possiblymean to the Renaissance religiouspoet?
There is the military-historical
ciates his flyingsquadronsand airborneartillery What use could JohnMiltonmake of the classical
withRenaissancebattleplans. There is the bio- epics he had been taughtto revereas models of
and style? What had thewrathofAchilgraphical school which sometimesidentifiesthe structure
devil withMiltonhimself. There are the psycho- les and thewilesof Odysseusto do withtheheroic
analyticschools which have successfullyplucked faithand patienceof the martyr,the heroiccharout the heart of the "mysteryof iniquity,"diag- ityof the saint? What (to adapt Tertullian) had
nosed Satan's maladyas acute paranoia,rearmed Troy to do with Paradise? or the fall of Ilium
himin an impressivepanoplyofFreudiansymbols, withthe fall of man?
and isolatingthe differor reducedhimto a collageof Jungianarchetypes. Only by distinguishing
heroic virtue,and by
and
heroism
of
senses
ent
There is a legalisticschool whichinsiststhat the
in which Milton deways
various
the
examining
Father of Lies should be taken at his own word
meaningsagainst
different
these
played
liberately
is
untilcaughtin an out-and-outperjury. There
a Pyrrhonistschool which,conversely,insistson one anothercan we modernsapproacha solution
he says untilprovendemon- to the basic issues underlyingthe so-called "Sadoubtingeverything
theprecisesensesin whichthe
strablytrue. There is a Tom-o'-Bedlamschool tanist"controversy:
God is trulyand not just
Milton's
of
Adversary
whichinvokesthe divinityof Miltonand devoutly
the
and
(more significantly)
heroic;
superficially
club
a
There
is
sporting
defiesthe foul fiend.
whichcries "Foul play!" and insiststhatthe devil degreeto whichtheentireportraitis a consciously
as underdogshould be given a reasonablehandi- fabricatedillusion-an image of an eidolon, a
cap, a decentchanceto win. There is a sock-and- pseudo-hero. The process of moral self-determibuskinclub whichadmireshis sublimityas tragic nation-the driving urge toward self-definition
as comicactor: alternatively that we normally recognize in the heroes of
heroor his versatility
eiron,alazon, and buffoon-villain.There is even Homeric epic-is equally operative in Milton's
a Gnosticsocietywhich endorseshis pharmaceu- Satan, yet (as readers of Saint Augustinewill
tical discoveriesand the transcendentalwisdom recall) this very preoccupationwith self, along
withthe cravingfordominionand the hungerfor
extends.
he magnanimously
The issues are far more complexthan the sim- glory,formsthe cornerstoneof the infernalcity.
ple antinomy-Satanist or anti-Satanist-would The Satanic image,as Milton presentsit, is (to
suggest. We need an arbiter,surely,even though a degree) thedevil'sown creation. It is an aspect
and as
of the hero's e'lan toward self-definition;
sometimes
it
a
fallen
of
artifice
intelligence,
the
Y.
Complete Poems and Major Prose, ed. Merritt Hughes
wavers between conscious and unconsciousde(New York, 1957).
VOL. 120, NO. 4, 1976]
SATAN AS THE HERO OF PARADISE
LOST
255
lusion. Like Pandaemoniumitself,it is the art ply an illusionbut a perversionof true heroism.
of the devil,a "vain imagination."
Many of the apparentlyheroic qualitiesthat the
In part at least, the image of the Satanic hero devil displays-contemptof danger,fortitudeof
is conscious pretense. Like his subsequentdis- mind and body, prudenceas adventurerand as
guises as striplingcherub,cormorant,toad, and leader-are, in fact,morallyneutral;theycan be,
serpent,it is an illusion deliberatelyfosteredby and oftenhave been,exercisedforbothgood and
the fatherof lies; and Satan himselfis partly evil ends. In anothercontext,theycould have
aware of his own deception. In a larger sense, been associated with genuine heroic virtue; the
however,the validityof this image depends on example of the faithfulangels is a case in point.
our own definition
of the heroic,a definition
that Through Satan's alienationfromgood, these pomay,or may not,coincidewithMilton'sown. By tentiallylaudablequalitieshave becomedepraved;
certaincriteria,traditionalin epic poetryand lit- and this depravityis impliciteven in his earliest
erary theory,Satan's title to heroic eminence speeches. His subsequentdegradationmay inwould seem eminentlyjustified. These are not deed surpriseus (as Milton intendedit to do),
the standards that Milton himselfregarded as but it is nevertheless
bothprobableand necessary.
valid or final,but he expectedus to be aware of
The power of the Satanic image lies partlyin
them,and to comparethemwithotherand higher its ambiguity,and this springslargelyfromthe
criteria,just as he expected us to compare the ambiguityof heroic virtue itself. Aristotlehad
respectivemeritsof Satan and Adam and Christ: definedit as an eminentand extraordinary
degree
his major heroic paradigms. In his portraitof of virtue,Neoplatonistsas the virtuesof the purithe heroic Archfiendhe evoked these standards fiedsoul, Christiantheologiansin termsof sancpartlyforthe sake of epic decorum,invitingcom- tity. By these definitions'Ihe fallen archangel
parisonwitholder heroicpoetry,but primarilyin must,of course, forfeithis claim. Nevertheless
orderto discreditthem. By such norms (he was he could (as he in factdoes) boast the privileges
suggesting) the devil himselfmight seem more of his superiormetaphysical
status. The heroesof
praiseworthythan the greatestconquerorscele- Thebes and Troy were demigods;in the classical
brated in historyand legend. (In actuality,of schemathey usually rankedwell below such sucourse,the criteriathemselveswere fallacious,as perior breeds as gods and demons. The fallen
illusoryas the devil's own pretensionsto divinity, angels not only surpass in their"imbodiedforce"
and theirfalsitycould best be demonstrated
by a the entire "Heroic Race . . . That foughtat
reductioad absurdum: the paradox of the devil Thebesand Ilium"; theyare also theoriginalsand
as hero,the oxymoronof a "godlike"fiend.)
prototypesof the pagan divinities. By natureas
The substanceof Milton'scritiqueof epic hero- well as in strengthSatan outranksthe demigods
ism was neithernew nor unfamiliarto his con- of the Greek heroic age. (Most of these, of
temporaries. The same classical worthies and course, were notable rather for their martial
their exploits had been alternatelyextolled as prowessthan forthe highervirtues. The heroes
quasi-divineor defamedas diabolical. The classi- of Thebes exercisedtheirvalor-as did Satancal moraliststhemselveshad anticipatedChristian in a civil war; in one of the besiegingleadersdenunciationsof Achilles,Alexander,and Caesar Capaneus, notoriousfor his pride and his conas heroized manslayersand deifiedpirates. To temptof deity-scholars have recognizeda protheologiansof a later age, the highestvirtuesof totypeof Milton'sSatan.)
the ancientsoftenseemedlittlemorethansplendid
The questionsraisedby Milton'sSatanic image
vices; the fametheyhad achievedwas, in fact,an have been furthercomplicated,paradoxically,by
apotheosisof villainy. In a fallenworld,men of oversimplification.
The issues,as severalgenerastrengthhad sought fame throughinfamy;and tions of critics have defined them, are often
men of eloquence had glorifiedingloriousdeeds. phraseddisjunctively,
in an either-orpatternthat
The noveltyof Milton'scriticismconsistedchiefly invites debate rather than impartial inquiry.
in its methodratherthanin its content.
(They remindone of the questions debated in
Perhaps the salient featureof Milton's Satan scholasticdisputations-or of Hobson's choice.)
is that he is not merelya pseudo-hero,praise- Is Paradise Lost a heroicpoem or a divinepoem?
worthyonly in the eyes of a fallenworld and by Are its principalcharactersto be judged in terms
the standardsof a false and secular heroism,but of literaryprecedentsor by ethicalnorms? Are
a corruptedhero. The Satanic image is not sim- they, in short,poetic heroes or moral heroes?
256
JOHN M. STEADMAN
[PROC. AMER. PHIL.
SOC.
Should poetic heroism be categoricallydistin- singleprotagonist.Since thetraditionalepic arguguishedfromethicalheroism? Is Satan theactual ment centeredupon warfare-successfulwarfare
heroof Milton'sepic,or does thiseminencebelong -the conventionalepic virtuesnormallyinvolved
ratherto Christor Adam? Is the Satanic image martialprowess. The epic heromustdemonstrate
a projectionof Milton himself? Is the so-called his heroismthroughhis military'strengthand
"heroic"Satan oftheearlierbooks consistentwith skill. Physicalfortitude
was thusa sine qua non,
the "degraded" fiendof the later books? Does thoughit mightbe combinedwithotherand more
the archangel"deteriorate"in the course of the amiable qualities: strengthof mind as well as
action, or is he arbitrarily"degraded" by the body, prudence,magnanimity,temperance,and
piety.
poet? Is Satan, in fact,heroor fool?
marMost of these questions are sophistical; they
Miltonexplicitlyrejectedthe conventional
call for categoricalanswers; but such repliesare tial subjectin favorof thethemeof spiritualcomin theimaglikelyto be inaccurateand misleading,and any bat: theinternalwarfareconventional
valid responsemustbe hedgedabout withqualifi- eryof St. Paul and Prudentiusand elaboratedby
cations. If theseissues stillremaincontroversial, St. Gregory,Erasmus, and Downame. The core
the
it is because theyhave been radicallyoversimpli- of thepoem is a traditionaltemptation-ordeal,
fied and partial truthscan still be advanced as spiritualagon celebratedin Christianmoralityargumentson both sides. Instead of attempting plays and in the epic (or drama) of Job. In a
to answer them directly,I shall concentratein- well-knownpassage in Book Nine, the poet destead on the functionsof the Satanic image in fends his unorthodoxchoice of subject and exParadise Lost and its relationshipto the roles of presseshis personaldistastefora militarytheme:
Adam and Christin the poem. If we can underNot sedulousby Natureto indite
standmoreclearlythe role of Satan in the structheonlyArgument
Wars,hitherto
ture of the plot, in the delineationof contrasting
to dissect
Heroicdeem'd,chiefmaistry
Withlongand tedioushavocfabl'dKnights
ideals of heroicvirtue,and in the critiqueof the
In Battlesfeign'd;the betterfortitude
epic traditionitself,the questionsought,I think,
Of Patienceand HeroicMartyrdom
to answer themselves.
Unsung;...
He has selected(he claims) a higherargumentas.
forHeroic Song . . ." -a theme
The problemof Satan originatedin criticalper- "Subject
answered
plexity. Paradise Lost simultaneously
Not less butmoreHeroicthanthewrath
and violatedthe expectationsof its audience. In
Of sternAchilleson his Foe pursu'd
ThriceFugitiveaboutTroyWall; or rage
observedthe convencertainrespectsit faithfully
Of TurnusforLavinia disespous'd,
tions of classical epic as Renaissance criticsconOr Neptune'sire or Juno'sthatso long
disreto
it
in
other
appeared
ways
ceived them;
Perplex'dthe Greekand Cytherea'sSon; . . .
gard them altogetheror indeed to invertthem.
some of his critMilton's earliest readers were understandably Despite Milton'sprotestations
puzzled,and some of themdisagreedviolentlyon ics dismissedhis "Subject for Heroic Song" as
such crucial issues as the genre of his poem, its flagrantlyunsuitablefor heroic poetry. Others
hero, and its fidelityto the rules of epic poetry. doubtedthatParadise Lost was a heroicpoem at
A fewof themapproachedhis workwiththe min- all; the title page had describedit, innocuously
gled admirationand dismay a Homeric scholar and ambiguously,as "A Poem." Several commightexperienceon firstopeningJoyce'sUlysses. mentatorsdebated the identityof the hero and
withthe rules of epic narFor the majorityof Milton's contemporaries, the poem's conformity
an ethicalintentwas implicitin the very defini- rative. Milton's"subject is not thatof an heroic
tion of the epic genre. The primaryfunctionof poem, properly so called," Dryden protested.
the heroicpoet was to delineateheroicvirtue-to "His design is the losing of our happiness; his
and thereby eventis not prosperous,like thatof all otherepic
depictthe aristeia of a pattern-hero
move an audience (usually of martialand aristo- works; his heavenlymachinesare many,and his
craticbackground)to admirationand emulation. humanpersonsare but two." Miltonwould have
Theoreticallythe highervirtues,whethermoral, had a "betterplea" as heroic poet "if the Devil
intellectual,or theological,might be distributed had not been his hero, instead of Adam; if the
heroesor else unitedin a giant had not foiledthe knight,and drivenhim
amongseveraldifferent
II
VOL. 120, NO. 4, 19761
out of his stronghold,to wander throughthe
world with his lady errant; and if therehad not
been more machiningpersonsthan human in his
poem."2
John Dennis acclaimedParadise Lost "as the
mostlofty,but mostirregularPoem, thathas been
produc'd by the Mind of Man." Milton desired
to "give the World somethinglike an Epick
Poem; but he resolv'dat the same timeto break
thro' the Rules of Aristotle." The "Devil is
properlyhis Hero, because he bests the better."3
Moreover,the "mostdelightfull
and mostadmirable" part of the poem is that "which relatesthe
Rebellionand Fall of theseEvil Angels,and their
dismal Conditionupon theirFall, and theirConsult for the recoveryof their native Mansions,
and theirOriginalGlory." In order"to introduce
his Devils with success," Milton realized that he
must "give them somethingthat was allied to
Goodness."4 No passage in Homer (Dennis declared) equalled in sublimityMilton'slineson the
LOST
257
dissolutionof the StygianCouncil:
Midstcametheirmighty
and seem'(d
Paramount,
Aloneth' Antagonist
of Heav'n.5
Addison,on the otherhand, endeavoredto examineParadise Lost "by theRules ofEpic Poetry,
and see whetherit falls short of the Iliad or
Aeneid, in the Beauties which are essential to
that Kind of Writing." Contentto demonstrate
its conformity
with the principlesof this genre,
he waived discussionof the questionwhetherit
"may be called an Heroic Poem." Critics who
deniedit thistitlemightcall it "a Divine Poem."
The heathencould formno highernotion of a
poem than the heroic,but "WhetherMilton's is
not of a sublimerNature" Addison did not presume toidetermine.6
Replyingto Dryden'sreflection
"thatthe Devil
was in realityMilton's Hero" and to the correlative objectionconcerningAdam, that "the Hero
in the Paradise Lost is unsuccessful,and by no
Means a Match for his Enemies," Addison cautiously suggestedthat both of these objections
2 JohnDryden,Of DramaticPoesy and OtherCritical
were irrelevantbecauseParadise Lost was not,in
Essays, ed. George Watson (London and New York,
1962) 2: pp. 84, 233. For discussionof the criticismof fact,heroicpoetry. It was "an Epic, or a NarraMilton'sSatan, see Douglas Bush,Paradise Lost in Our tive Poem, and he that looks for an Hero in it,
Time: Some Commentts
(Ithaca and London, 1945); searches for that which Milton never intended."
Bush,"RecentCriticism
of Paradise Lost,"Philol. Quart. If one insistedon findinga hero, however,this
18 (1949): pp. 31-43; Arthur E. Barker, "'. . . And on
His Crest Sat Horror': EighteenthCenturyInterpreta- was surelythe Messiah. Milton'sChristwas the
tions of Milton's Sublimityand His Satan," Univ. of actual hero "both in the PrincipalAction,and in
TorontoQuart. 11 (1942): pp. 421-436; Calvin Hucka- the chiefEpisodes."7
bay, "The SatanistControversy
of the NineteenthCenNeverthelessMilton'sportraitofthefallenarchtury,"Studies in English Renaissance Literature,ed. angel was sublime.
Satan's entirerole was filled
Waldo F. McNeir (Baton Rouge, 1962), pp. 197-210;
KennethA. Bruffe,"Satan and the Sublime:The Mean- with incidentsthat could elevate and terrifythe
ing of the RomanticHero," Northwestern
Univ. diss., imagination of the reader. His sentiments
1964; E. H. Visiak, The Portentof Milton: Some As- (thoughts) in the firstbook befittedhis nature
pects of His Genius (London, 1958); Sister M. Thecla and his character:"a createdBeing of the most
Jamison,"The Twentieth-Century
Criticsof Miltonand exalted and most depravedNature." The openthe Problemof Satan in Paradise Lost," CatholicUniv.
ing passages of the second book admirablydediss., 1952; Mina Urgan,"Satan and His Critics,"Engpicted
his "superiorGreatness"and his "Mocklish DepartmentStudies,Istanbul Univ. 2 (1951): pp.
Majesty."
In the magnitudeof his voyage,the
61-81; JosephA. Wittreich,
Jr.,The Romanticson Milmultitude
of
his wiles, and the variety of his
ton: Formal Essays and CriticalAsides (Clevelandand
London,1970); MerrittY. Hughes,"Satan Hero?" in: shapes and semblances,he surpassed Homer's
JohnMilton,CompletePoems and Major Prose (New Ulysses.
York, 1957), pp. 177-179;Milton: A Collectionof CritiIn his emphasison the "Absurdity"of Satan's
cal Essays,ed. Louis L. Martz (EnglewoodCliffs,N. J., rhetoricand its "Semblance of Worth,not Sub-
1966), pp. 6-9; JohnC. Taylor,"A CriticalHistoryof
MiltonicSatanism,"Tulane Univ. diss., 1966. See also
the summariesin Calvin Huckabay,JohnMilton: An
AnnotatedBibliography,1929-1968 (revised ed., Pittsburgh,Pa., and Louvain,1969).
3 Milton: The CriticalHeritage,ed. JohnT. Shawcross (New York, 1970), pp. 128-129.
4 Shawcross,pp. 112-113.
5 Shawcross,p. 239.
Addisondid not consistently
emphasizethistechnical
distinction
betweenepic and heroicpoetry. Like themajorityof Renaissancecritics,he generallyemployedthem
as synonyms;cf. his references
to "the Language of an
Heroic Poem" and "theLanguageof an Epic Poem."
7 Shawcross,pp. 147,158-159,165-166.
6
258
JOHN M. STEADMAN
[PROC. AMER. PHIL.
SOC.
stance,"8Addison anticipatedtheviews of Charles dour, which constitutethe very heightof poetic
11
Williams, C. S. Lewis, and other twentieth-cen-sublimity."
turycritics. Yet he also foreshadowedthe obTo Hazlitt,Satan seemed"themostheroicsubjectionsthatC. H. Herfordand A. J. A. Waldock ject that ever was chosen for a poem; and the
would advance concerningthe poet's deliberate executionis as perfectas the designis lofty."The
scene "firstof createdbeings,"Satan aspiredto nothing
degradationof Satan in the transformation
of Book X. Recognizingthat his plot was more less "than the throneof the universe.. . . His
appropriatefor tragedythan heroic poetry,Mil- ambitionwas the greatest,and his punishment
by was the greatest; but . . . his fortitudewas as
ton had attemptedto remedythis imperfection
the devil upon his returnto great as his sufferings. His strengthof mind
publiclymortifying
hell.9
was matchlessas his strengthof body. . . . His
For several later critics,Richard Blackmore, power of actionand of suffering
was equal." He
Voltaire,JonathanRichardson,Samuel Johnson, was "not the principleof malignity,
or of the abthe hero of Paradise Lost was Adam himself,the stract love of evil-but of the abstractlove of
principalcharacterin the epic.10
power, of pride, of self-willpersonified." His
deformity
was evident"only in the depravityof
to exciteour
his
he
will;
has no bodilydeformity
III
loathingor disgust. . . . Milton was too magFor theneoclassicalcriticstheproblemof Satan nanimousand open an antagonistto supporthis
was inextricablyinterinvolvedwith questionsof argumentby the bye-tricks
of a humpand cloven
of genre,unity foot."12
formalregularity-considerations
of the epic hero. Many
of action,and the identity
Though both of these criticsextolledthe granof themhad caughtthe contagiousenthusiasmof deur of Milton'sSatanic image,theydid not allow
Longinus, however; and in their emphasis on theiradmirationto obscuretheirmoraljudgment.
Milton's originalgenius and theiradmirationfor Landor likewisefoundgreaterforceof energyand
the energyand sublimityof his Satanic portrait "greater force of poetry" displayed in Milton's
theyforeshadowedseveralof the major themesof devil than in Adam, the main characterof Pararomanticcriticism. Satan came intohis own with dise Lost. Nevertheless,therewas "neithertruth
the romanticpoets,but the way had been partly nor wit . . . in sayingthat Satan is hero of the
clearedby the neoclassicalcriticsthemselves.
piece,unless. . . he is the greatestherowho gives
Like Addison, several of the romanticsper- the widestsway to the worstpassions."13
ceived the underlyingdualityof Satan's characThe case fortheallegedSatanismof the romanter; they recognizedits depravityas well as its tics must rest, therefore,on differentevidence,
sublimity. For Coleridge,Milton was the "most notablythataffordedby Blake and Shelley. The
interestingof the Devil's Biographers,"and his suggestionthatMiltonhimselfwas an instinctive,
quali- though unconscious, citizen of Pandaemonium
Satanic portraitdepictedthe characteristic
ties of the politicianwritlarge: the "restlessness, firstoccurredin a controversial
note in The Marand cunningwhichhave markedall the riage of Heaven and Hell: "The reason Milton
temerity,
mightyhuntersof mankindfromNimrodto Na- wrotein fetterswhenhe wroteof Angels & God,"
poleon." Carefullynoting"the intenseselfishness, Blake declared,"and at libertywhen of Devils &
the alcohol of egotism,whichwould ratherreign Hell, is because he was a true poet and of the
in hell than serve in heaven," Milton had delib- Devil's partywithoutknowingit."14
eratelysoughtto "place thislust of selfin opposiMore than a few Miltonistshave taken this
tion to denial of self or duty,and to show what passage at face value, as a kindof personaltestaexertionsit would make, and what pains endure ment, and accordinglydirected their righteous
to accomplishits end," but he had also managed wrath against romanticheresies in general and
of dar- Blake in particular. Yet beforeconsigninghim
to investthischaracterwith"a singularity
and a ruinedsplen- to the flamesand ice of Milton'shell as an accesing,a grandeurof sufferance,
soryafterthefact,we mightrecallhis own warn8 Shawcross,pp. 153,170-174.
9 Shawcross,pp. 165-166.
10 Shawcross,pp. 227-228,256; Milton Criticism:SelectionsfromFour Centuries,ed. JamesThorpe (New
York, 1969), pp. 56-57,75-76.
Wittreich,
p. 161; Thorpe,p. 95.
Thorpe,pp. 107-109.
13 Thorpe,p. 368.
14 Wittreich,p. 35.
li
12
VOL. 120, NO. 4, 1976]
LOST
259
which,in theHero ofParadiseLost,
ing againstmistakingthevoice of a dramatisper- aggrandizement,
with
the
interest.The characterof Satan
interfere
sona for the author'sown voice: "You mightas
engendersin the minda perniciouscasuistrywhich
well," he declares, "quote Satan's blasphemies leads us to weighhis faultswithhis wrongs,and to
fromMilton& give themas Milton'sOpinions."15 excusetheformer
becausethelatterexceedall measAs ProfessorJosephWittreichobserved,Blake's ure.'9
commentson Miltonas devil'sdiscipleare uttered
Byron ridiculedthe demonicartilleryof Milby the devil himself,who "speaks as erroneously
ton's war in heaven; but, like Dryden, he reas the priestswhose sacred codes he is assaultgarded Satan as the real hero of Paradise Lost.
ing. ..." 16 In Harold Bloom's opinion,Blake
The contextof his remarks,however,was frewas actuallytracing"the decliningmovementof
quentlyapologeticor polemical. He appealed to
creativeenergyin Paradise Lost." He was offerMilton'sprecedent,as to the example of Aeschying "an aestheticcriticism"of the poem, "not a
to clear his own poetry (notablythe drama
lus,
17
readingof Milton'sintentions."
on Cain) fromchargesof blasphemy:"Are these
In a treatiseOn the Devil, and Devils Shelley
people more impiousthan Milton's Satan? or the
contrastedthe grandeurand energyof Milton's
Prometheusof Aeschylus?" Milton "certainly
of evil
Satan with "the popular personification
excites compassionfor Satan, and endeavoursto
malignity." As a moralbeing Milton'sdevil was
makehimout an injuredpersonage-he gives him
"as far superiorto his God, as one who persehuman passions too, makes him pity Adam and
veres in some purposewhichhe has conceivedto
Eve, and justify himselfmuch as Prometheus
be excellent,in spite of adversityand torture,is
does. Yet Miltonwas neverblamedforall this."
to one who in the cold securityof undoubted
"If Cain be blasphemous,'Paradise Lost' is blastriumphinflicts
themosthorriblerevengeuponhis
20
phemous."
enemy... ." The devil owed "everything
to MilOn the whole,the accusationof Satanism levton. Dante and Tasso presentus with a very
gross idea of him: Miltondivestedhimof a sting, eled against the romanticcriticsappears to have
been exaggerated. In ProfessorWittreich'sopinhoof,and horns; clothe[d] him with the sublime
ion, "The Satanist position . . . is causally . . .
grandeur of a gracefulbut tremendousspiritrelated
to the neglect"of romanticcriticismas a
and restoredhim to the society." Milton "gives
whole.21 Neither Blake nor Shelley expressed
the Devil all imaginableadvantage: and the arguments with which he exposes the injustice and consistentor unreservedadmirationfor Milton's
impotentweakness of his adversary" would, if devil; and in differentcontextsthey expressed
opinions. Each was "forcedto make an
printedin other than dramaticform,have been different
ethical
distinction,
and in doing so each judge[d]
answered by persecution. The cruel ruler of
22
Satan
to
be
unheroic."
heavenhad made the devil's own "benevolentand
That
the
romantics
were not all of the devil's
amiabledisposition"theinstrument
of his revenge,
party
is
self-evident,
and
perhaps rhetoricalconturningSatan's "good intoevil" and inspiringhim
an
vention
on synecdocheexcessive
reliance
"withsuchimpulses,as . . . irresistibly
determined
him to act what he most abhorred,. . . for ever has been largelyresponsiblefor placing some of
torturedwith compassionand affectionfor those themthere. Miltonistshave been too careless (it
would seem) in substitutingthe whole for the
whomhe betraysand ruins."18
In the Preface to PrometheusUnbound,how19 Wittreich, p. 531.
ever, Shelley emphasizedthe defectsof Satan in
20 Wittreich,pp. 522-523.
comparisonwithhis own poetichero:
The onlyimaginary
beingresembling
in any degree
Prometheus,
is Satan; and Prometheusis, in my
a morepoeticalcharacterthanSatan,bejudgment,
cause in additionto courage,and majesty,and firm
and patientopposition
to omnipotent
force,he is susceptibleof beingdescribed
as exemptfromthetaints
of ambition,
envy,revenge,and a desireforpersonal
15 Wittreich, p. 34.
Wittreich,p. 98.
Wittreich,p. 98.
18 Wittreich,pp. 534-536.
16
17
21Wittreich, p. 5; cf. pp. 6-9.
22Wittreich,p. 27. For Blake's views on Milton and
the Satan of Paradise Lost, see Wittreich, "The 'Satanism' of Blake and Shelley Reconsidered," Studies in Philology 65 (1968): pp. 816-833; T. A. Birrell, "The Figure
of Satan in Milton and Blake," in: Satan, ed. Bruno de
Jesus-Marie (London, 1951), pp. 379-393. In William
Godwin's Political Justice, Roger Sharrock recognized
probably "the first manifesto of the Satanist school";
"Godwin on Milton's Satan," Notes and Queries, n.s., 9
(1962): pp. 463-465. See also Benjamin T. Sankey, Jr.,
"Coleridge on Milton's Satan," Philol. Quart. 41 (1962):
pp. 504-508.
260
JOHN M. STEADMAN
part, and in confusinga distributedwith an undistributedterm. Neverthelessthe Satanism attributedto the romanticcritics is an indirect
of theiroriginality.Many of the
acknowledgment
centralissues in the Miltonscholarshipof the late
centurieswere first
and earlytwentieth
nineteenth
or at least foreshadowed,by the roformulated,
manticsthemselves. The chief concernof most
"anti-Satanists"was not to providea critiqueof
romanticism,but to refutea widely established
view held by their own contemporaries. The
heresymust (they assumed) have had a genealogy; and,in accordancewiththehistoricalmethod,
theyendeavoredto trace it to its originin Byron,
Blake, and Shelley. For Hanford,Blake's "proposition" represented"somethingnew in Milton
in its
interpretation.It is really quite different
implicationsfromDryden's statementthat Satan
is the hero of Paradise Lost, forDrydenis thinking in termsof epic technique,while Blake is declaring that passion and rebellion,typifiedin
Satan, are the vital motives of Milton's poetic
inspiration.In so doing,he keenlyanticipatesthe
trendof a good deal of subsequentcriticism,"includingthatof Sir Walter Raleigh.23 "Since the
[PROC. AMER. PHIL.
SOC.
to
criticismof his heroicenergy. His superiority
the grotesquefiendsof medievaland Renaissance
tradition-a point that had engaged MacaulayimpressedHerford and other twentieth-century
commentators.Comparisonwith classical heroic
has remaineda commonplaceof Milton
prototypes
criticismsince Addison. The problem of the
relationshipbetweenthe poeticcharacterand the
personalityof the author-the questionas to how
much of his own feelingsand aspirationsMilton
consciouslyor unconsciouslyprojected into his
creation-originatedwiththeromanticcritics;and
it has remaineda centralissue in the "Satanist"
ever since.
controversy
IV
On the whole,criticismof the Satanic hero has
tendedto oscillatebetweenextremes. For many
neoclassicalcriticstheproblemwas essentiallyone
of narrativestructureand rhetoric. Those who
regardedSatan as the hero of the poem did so
because the conceptionand executionof the victoriousenterprisewere his; he was the hero because he was successful. Those who hailed him
as sublimeusually based theirargumentson the
romantic age . . . ," Douglas Bush observed, "it altitudeof thoughtand expressiondisplayed in
has been conventionalto regardSatan as the real his various speeches,the magnitudeof the great
hero of Paradise Lost. We can readily under- "ideas" that distinguishedMilton's portraitof
stand how revolutionarypoets like Blake and him. Several of the romantics,in turn,and many
Shelley could make over Milton in their own of their successors shiftedthe grounds of conimage; what is less understandableis the per- troversyfromnarrativerole to moral character.
sistenceof thatattitude."24 For Marjorie Nicol- Satan was the hero of the poem because of his
and
son, it was "with Blake, Shelley, Byron, [that] strenuouspursuitof liberty,and his fortitude
the 'Satanic School' of Miltoncriticismbegan to constancyagainst overwhelmingodds. For rodevelop." The "Romanticists,rebels in various manticand neoclassicalcriticsalike, Satan's reof classical anways, . . . sympathizedwiththe factthat Milton, semblanceto the heroicprototypes
commonplace.
a
become
had
the
tiquity
too, had been a rebel, allying himselfwith
For many of the moderns,finally,the central
partythatput a king to death."25
have been the consistencyof the Satanic
issues
the
probcentury
eighteenth
the
of
By the end
lem of Satan as epic hero, technicallyheroic be- portraitand Milton'scommandof narrativetechcause he successfullyaccomplisheshis enterprise, niques. In certainscenesthedevilappearsheroic,
was already obsolescent. The admirationthat in othersridiculous. Which is the true SatanAddison and Dennis had feltforhis sublimityas the characterthat Milton consciouslyor uncona poetic characterfound a sympatheticecho in sciouslyintended? Will the real Prince of DarkHazlitt and Coleridge; it still persistsin recent ness please stand up? "Is the devil an ass?" inquired Musgrove. "Hero or fool?" demanded
G. R. Hamilton. Sir Walter Raleigh had raised
23 James Holly Hanford, A Milton Handbook (fourth
the same questiondecades earlierand had leftno
ed., New York, 1947), p. 343.
doubtthatin his own eyes (and probablyin Mil24 Douglas Bush, "Characters and Drama," in: Milton:
ton's
as well) the devil was anythingbut a fool.26
A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. Louis L. Martz
(Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1966), p. 111; from Paradise
Lost in OutrTime (Ithaca, 1945).
25 Marjorie Nicolson, John Milton: A Reader's Guide
to His Poetry (New York, 1963), p. 186.
26
G. R. Hamilton, Hero or Fool? A Study of Milton's
Satan (London, 1944). S. Musgrove, "Is the Devil an
Ass ?" Review of English Studies 21 (1945): pp. 183-
VOL. 120, NO. 4, 1976]
LOST
261
In the opinion of a later school of critics,con- of laborious misunderstanding,"
27
Charles Wilversely, he was anythingbut a hero. Like liams challengedthe tendencyto confuseSatan's
theiropponents,these "anti-Satanists"sometimes views with those of the poet himself. Because
blurredthe distinctionbetween literaryanalysis Satan felta sense of injuredmerit,so ("it is asand polemics; but they effectively
challengeda serted") did Milton. "Perhaps," Williams comstereotypethat many of their predecessorshad mented,"but if he did, then he certainlyalso
accepted withoutquestion. To their successors, thoughtit foolishand wrong." Like Coleridge,
in turn,theyleftthe more onerousburdenof de- Williamsemphasizedthedevil'segotism,his sense
fending,revising,or refutingtheirposition. The of "self-admiration,"
his "self-lovingspirit." He
influenceof both parties has varied (it would also noted the ironyunderlyingSatan's descripseem) in inverse ratio to their reticenceand tion of himselfin the firsttwo books and, above
understatement.
all, the inaccuracyof his boasts: "Hell is always
Recent criticismhas centered,in large part,on inaccurate."28
the artisticintegrityand coherenceof Milton's
In 1942 Lewis himselfjoined fire. In his opinSatanic image-on the consistencyof the heroic ion, the Satanic predicament-thedevil's sense of
portraitin the early scenes with complementaryinjured merit-came perilouslyclose to comedy:
or contradictory
images: the tragicdespairvoiced
He thoughthimselfimpairedbecause Messiah had
in the soliloquy on Mount Niphates, the comic been
pronounced
Head oftheAngels. Theseare the
braggadocioof his boasts to unseatthe Almighty, "wrongs"whichShelleydescribedas "beyondmeasthe heroic (or mock-heroic)rough-and-tumble
of ure." . . . No one had in fact done anything to
nor over-tasked,
nor rehis skirmisheson theplains of heaven,theprefer- Satan; he was not hungry,
fromhis place,nor shunned,nor hated-he
ence for fraudover forcein politicaland martial moved
onlythoughthimselfimpaired.
strategy,the bestial disguises, the ignominious
metamorphosis
intoa serpent. Several criticssee Satan "lies about everysubjecthe mentions,"and
to "distinguishhis consciouslies
the devil as ridiculousthroughoutthe poem; his it was difficult
apparentheroismis, in theireyes, a facetof the fromthe blindnesswhichhe has almostwillingly
illusion and inaccuracyof hell. Others regard imposedon himself." He had, in fact,"become
him as an originallyheroicfigurewho gradually morea Lie thana Liar, a personified
self-contradegenerateseither through his own voluntary diction." In Milton'sdevil,Lewis recognized"the
commitment
to evil or throughthe consciousmal- horribleco-existenceof a subtleand incessantinice of the poet himselfand the poet's God. For tellectualactivitywithan incapacityto understand
some, the soliloquy of Book IV discreditsthe anything." Moreover,his "progressivedegradaheroicimage of the earlierbooks; forothers,the tion" had been "carefullymarked"-from "hero
reverseis true. For some,the comictransforma- to general,fromgeneralto politician,frompolitition in Book X appears logical and inevitable;it cian to secretserviceagent,and thenceto a thing
is the condignpunishment
for Satan's crime. In that peers in at bedroomor bathroomwindows,
the opinionof othercritics,it bears no relation- and thenceto a toad,and finallyto a snake."
The success of this portrait (Lewis argued)
ship whatsoeverto the heroic archangel of the
was largely due to one's own fallen nature; it
openingscenes in hell.
The firstlarge-scaleoffensiveagainst the Sa- was much easier to project onself into an evil
tanistpositionbegan shortlyafterthe firstgun- characterthan into a good one: "The Satan in
fireof the Second World War. In a prefacethat Milton enables him to draw the characterwell
C. S. Lewis hailed as "the recoveryof a true just as the Satan in us enablesus to receiveit...
criticaltraditionaftermore than a hundredyears A fallenman is verylike a fallenangel."29
199, detected the symptomsof intellectual decay even in
the early books, in spite of the devil's superficialmagnificence. See William Empson, Milton's God (London,
1961), pp. 30-37, for discussion of the views of Musgrove
and Raleigh. Raleigh's Milton first appeared in 1900.
Earlier still (1859), Walter Bagehot had complained that
Milton's "Satan was to him, as to us, the hero of the
poem"; Patrick Murray, Milton: The Modern Phase: A
Study of Twentieth-Century Criticism (New York,
1967), p. 105.
27 C.
S. Lewis, A Preface to Paradise Lost (New
York, 1961), pp. v-vi.
28 Charles
Williams, "An Introduction to Milton's
Poems," in: Thorpe, pp. 258-259; from The English
Poems of John Milton (London, 1940).
29 Lewis, pp. 94-101. E. E. Stoll attacked
Lewis's interpretationof Satan, in "Give the Devil His Due: A
Reply to Mr. Lewis," Review of English Studies 20
(1944): pp. 108-124 and "A Postscript to 'Give the Devil
His Due,'" Philol. Quart. 28 (1949): pp. 167-184. Allan
262
JOHN M. STEADMAN
Helen Gardnerrespondedto theviews of Lewis
and Williams by stressingthe tragicratherthan
the comicaspectsof the Satanic predicament.As
"one re-readsthe poem," she suggested,"the exH. Gilbert,on the other hand, defended Lewis's point of
view: "Critics of Mr. C. S. Lewis on Milton's Satan,"
South Atlantic Quart. 47 (1948): pp. 216-225. In
"Satan is a Problem. The Problem of Milton's 'Satanic
Fallacy' in ContemporaryCriticism," Franciscan Studies
17 (1957): pp. 173-187, Father Amadeus P. Fiore argued
that Satan was, in fact, a fool throughoutthe poem.
In recent years Satan's characterization and his function in the epic narrative have been examined from a
variety of angles. Lawrence A. Sasek, "Satan and the
Epic Hero: Classical and Christian Tradition," Harvard
Univ. diss., 1953, reexamined his role in the light of epic
conventions. In "Satan and the Narrative Stru^ture of
Paradise Lost," in If By Your Art (Pittsburgh, 1948),
pp. 15-26, Putnam F. Jones argued that the basis of the
Satanist controversy was to be found in the narrative
structureof Milton's epic. Calvin Huckabay maintained
that,despite Satan's dominantposition in the early books,
the poem is clearly focused on man as its central figure;
"Satan and the Narrative Structure of Paradise Lost:
Some Observations," Studia Neophilologica 33 (1961):
pp. 96-102. In "The Satan of Milton," Hudson Review
12 (1960): pp. 33-59, William Empson reexamined the
narrative pattern of Satan's tragedy. Whereas Empson
saw Milton's devil as a tragic figure,Jane F. Ford regarded him as a personificationof wickedness: "Satan as
an Exemplar of Evil in Paradise Lost," Univ. of Pittsburgh diss., 1934. Arnold Stein published an essay on
"Satan: The Dramatic Role of Evil," Publ. Mod. Lang.
Assn. 65 (1950): pp. 221-231. Robert C. Fox traced
the motivationof his actions to three dominant passions:
pride, envy, revenge; "Satan's Triad of Vices," Texas
Studies in Language and Literature 2 (1960): pp. 261280. Roger Lejosne saw him as a republican; "Satan
Republicain," in: Le Paradis Perdu: 1667-1967, ed.
Jacques Blondel (Paris, 1967), pp. 87-103. Arnold Williams reconsidered "The Motivation of Satan's Rebellion
in Paradise Lost," Studies in Philology 42 (1945): pp.
253-268.
Several scholars reexamined the sequence of Satanic
disguises: Thomas Kranidas, "Satan's First Disguise,"
English Language Notes 2 (1964): pp. 13-15; Jackson I.
Cope, "Satan's Disguises: Paradise Lost and Paradise
Regained," Modern Language Notes 73 (1958): pp. 911; Raymond B. Waddington, "Appearance and Reality
in Satan's Disguises," Texas Studies in Language and
Literature 4 (1962): pp. 390-398; William Scheuerle,
"Satan the Cormorant," Thoth 3 (1962): pp. 18-23. In
"O Foul Descent! Satan and the Serpent Form," Studies
in Philology 62 (1965): pp. 188-196, Mother Mary
ChristopherPecheux contrasted his reluctant incarnation
in serpentformwith the Son's voluntaryIncarnation. In
"Satan Now Dragon Grown (Paradise Lost, X, 529) ,"
etudes anglaises 20 (1967): pp. 356-369, Merritt Y.
Hughes reinterpretedthe transformationscene of Book
X in the light of the symbolicmetamorphosesin classical
poetry.
In "Milton's Critique of Heroic Warfare in Paradise
Lost V and VI," Studies in English Lit. 7 (1967): pp.
[PROC. AMER. PHIL.
SOC.
posureof Satan's maliceand meannessseemscuriously irrelevant. There remains always, untouchedby the argument,the image of enormous
pain and eternalloss." The "terribledistinction
betweendevils and men lay in the irreversibility
of the fall of the angels." They were incapable
of repentanceand could have no hope of pardon.
Though Satan was "in no sense the hero of the
epic as a whole,"he remainednonethelessa "figure of heroicmagnitudeand heroicenergy." In
the realityof his damnationand in his monomaniacal self-concernhe resembled the tragic
heroes of the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage.30
119-139, Stella Revard recognized an emphasis on the
problemof the origin of evil as well as a revaluationof the
epic conventionsof heroic combat. In the opinion of G. H.
Rigter, Milton's Satanic image and his account of the fall
of man revealed an innerconflictwithinMilton himselfbetween reason and emotion; "Milton's Treatment of Satan
in Paradise Lost," Neophilologus 42 (1958) : pp. 309-322.
Ann Lodge diagnosed Milton's devil as a paranoiac;
"Satan's Symbolic Syndrome, A Psychological Interpretation of Milton's Satan," Psychoanalytic Review 43
(1956): pp. 411-422. E. H. Visiak, "Milton's Magic
Shadow," Nineteenth Century 134 (1943): pp. 135-140,
perceived in Milton's Satan a projection of the poet's own
disillusionmentwith his formerideals.
30 Helen Gardner, "Milton's 'Satan' and the Theme of
Damnation in Elizabethan Tragedy," in: Milton: Modern Essays in Criticism, ed. Arthur E. Barker (New
York, 1965), pp. 205-217; from English Studies, n.s., 2
(1948). Grant McColley, "Macbeth and Paradise Lost,"
South Atlantic Bull. 13 (1938): pp. 146-150 and E. E.
Kellett, "Macbeth and Satan," London Quart. and Holborn Review (July, 1939), pp. 289-299, detectedanalogies
between Shakespeare's tragic hero and Milton's devil.
In "Milton's Satan and the Elizabethan Stage Villain,"
Duke Univ. diss., 1957, Calvin C. Smith likewise stressed
Renaissance dramatic parallels. Robert M. Boltwood compared Satan's role with that of Virgil's Turnus in the
Aeneid; "Turnus and Satan as Epic Villains," Classical
Jour. 47 (1952): pp. 183-186. In Milton's account of the
archangel's vast size, D. T. Starnes perceived a similarity
to a rebellious Titan of Greek mythology; "Tityos and
Satan," Notes and Queries 197 (1952): pp. 379-380.
In "Satan's Persian Expedition," Notes and Queries,
n.s., 5 (1958): pp. 389-392, Manfred Weidhorn pointed
out analogies between Milton's Satan and Herodotus's account of Xerxes. In Chariot of Wrath (London, 1942),
G. Wilson Knight argued that Milton's Satanic image
reflectedthe poet's attitudestoward Charles I and Oliver
Cromwell. In Ten Perspectives, pp. 172-176, Hughes
questioned these identifications:"Topical historical allegory gives way altogether when Charles and the Cromwellian force which destroyed him are both seen as ectypes of Milton's Satan." Indeed, the "attributionof any
topical political intention to Milton's epic involves irreconcilable hypotheses." Other historical analogies have
been noted by William Blisset, who perceived similarities
between Milton's archangel and Julius Caesar; "Caesar
and Satan," Jour. History of Ideas 18 (1957): pp. 221232.
VOL.
120, NO. 4, 1976]
LOST
263
The Satanist position,as Douglas Bush para- in the openingbooks of the epic,thistechniqueof
phrased it, was "in brief that, since God is so degradationwas apparent: There was "hardlya
unpleasantand Satan is a being of such magnifi- greatspeechof Satan's," Waldock protested,that
cent vitality,Milton, in spite of his consciously Miltondid not deliberately
attemptto correct,"to
different
purpose, must have put his heart and damp down and neutralize." "Each great speech
soul intotheprojectionof Satan." The "common liftsSatan a littlebeyondwhat Milton reallyinfallacy,"he observed,"begins with a basic mis- tended,so he suppresseshim again (or triesto)
apprehension"of Satan's firstaddress to his fol- in a comment." Even in the earlybooks the poet
lowers. Yet the speech itselfwas "a dramatic had betrayedsignsofnervousness,
and in delineatrevelationof nothingbut egoisticpride and pas- ing the subsequentdevelopmentof this character
sion, of complete spiritual blindness." In this Milton had introduced,in effect,a different
passage therewas "no antinomy. . . betweenMil- Satan: "It is not merelythatthe Satan of thefirst
ton's intention
and theresult." Though Satan un- two books re-entersaltered:the Satan of the first
doubtedlypossessed heroicqualities,so did Mac- two books to all intentsand purposesdisappears;
beth; and in thecourseof theactionthearchangel and I do not thinkthatin any truesense we ever
degeneratedinto "a very human villain," a de- see himagain." Althoughthesoliloquyon Mount
monicRichard III.31
Niphates was a masterpiece,it was nonetheless
With the polemicsof Lewis and Williams the specious; "the Satan who now begins to unsay
Satanist controversy
became somethingof an ex- all thatthe otherSatan said . . . is a Satan that
ercise in Christianapologetics,but not without we have not feltbefore. . . And now thathe is
justification. At stake were not only Milton's put beforeus we stillcannotsee the connection."
theologicaland ethicalprinciplesbut his artistry The true degenerationlay not in Satan himself
itself,his consciouscontrolover the materialsand but in thepoet's method. In depictingthe angel's
design of his poem and over the conductof its final transformation
into a serpent,Milton had
characters. Nevertheless,the antidiabolistshad stoopedto "the techniqueof the comic cartoon."
oversimplified
the issue. Althoughtheysuccess- Of course,the scene was amusing,but it proved
fullyturnedtheflankof the Satanistposition,they absolutelynothingabout Satan himself.34The
were vulnerableto the Parthianshotsof theirretreatingfoe. Two of the hardiestrefusedcate34Martz, pp. 77-96. The problem of Satan's degradagoricallyto retreat. A. J. A. Waldock directed tion had engaged C. H. Herford several decades prior to
his attackagainstthe poet's craftsmanship.Mil- Waldock's study. In his eyes the inherentcontradictions
ton's own "inexperiencein the assessmentof nar- in the poetic character sprang from inner conflictswithin
rativeproblems"(he implied) was primarilyre- the poet himself. In Satan and his companions-"human
warriors and counsellors of the grandest type"-Milton's
sponsible for the strikinginconsistenciesin his "classic humanism" had found "magnificent,
and triumSatanic image.32 William Empson, on the other phant expression." Nevertheless the poet's humanistic
hand, argued that Satan's characterwas consist- tastes clashed with his Christian convictions. Fearful
ent, plausible,and ethicallysuperiorto Milton's lest the devil "be taken for the hero of his great poem,"
Milton had stripped his glorious Satan of his "noble
God. Like theiropponents,both of these critics human
form,"turnedhim into a serpent,and pursued him
pressed theirattackstoo boldlyand too far; and throughthe later books "with fierceabuse and reproof";
few Miltonistshave dared to followeitherargu- Herford, Dante and Miltont (Manchester, 1924), pp.
mentto itsperilousconclusion. For Waldock,the 34-35.
For comparison between Milton's Satan and Dante's
epic was a failurebecause it was not a good novel.
Lucifer, see Irene Samuel, Dante anidMilton: The ComFor Empson, it was a success because it lacked media and Paradise Lost (Ithaca, 1966); Anne
Paolucci,
a good God.
"Dante's Satan and Milton's 'Byronic Hero,'" Italica 41
In rejoinderto Lewis and Williams,A. J. A. (1964): pp. 139-149. For criticismof Milton's Satan in
Waldock maintainedthat the changes in Satan's comparison with other literary or theological images of
the devil, see David Masson, The Three Devils: Luther's,
character did "not generate themselves from Milton's
and Goethe's, with Other Essays (London,
within:they [were] imposedfromwithout.Satan 1874); Enrico Spadala, Tre i principidei diavoli: Lucifer
does not degenerate:he is degraded."3 Even di Dante, Plutone di Tasso, Satana di J. Milton (Ragusa,
31 Martz, pp. 111-116.
A. J.A. Waldock,"Satan and theTechniqueof Degradation,"in: Martz,p. 77; fromParadise Lost and Its
Critics(Cambridge,1947).
32
33 Martz, p. 89.
1937); S. H. Gurteen, The Epic of the Fall of Maws: A
Comparative Study of Caedmon, Dante, and Miltos
(New York, 1896); Maximilian Rudwin, The Devil in
Legend and Literature (Chicago, 1931); Edgar F. Daniels, "The SeventeenthCentury Conception of Satan with
Relation to the Satan of Paradise Lost," Stanford Univ.
diss., 1952; Max Milner, "Le Satan de Milton et l'epopee
264
JOHN M. STEADMAN
[PROC. AMER. PHIL.
SOC.
heroicarchangelof the earlybooks completelyin- emptyvaunts,he discoveredevidenceof thedevil's
validatedthedespondentmonologuistof Book IV. sincerityand plausibility. Satan's thoughtand
Waldock drove a wedge betweenthe poet as actions (he suggested) were not as a rule ridicudramatistand the poet as glossator. "Milton's lous in themselves;theywere logical in the conhe ob- text of his limitedand uncertainknowledgeconallegationsclash withhis demonstrations,"
jected, and "in any work of imaginativelitera- cerningthenatureand powersofhisidivineenemy.
. . . thathas the
In sharpcontrastto Lewis and Williams,Empture . . . it is the demonstration
that
us
informs
Milton
When
arguedthatSatan's revoltagainstan omniposon
validity."
higher
theapostateangel was "racktwithdeep despare," tent creatorwas not per se absurd; for in the
we must reject his comment,for therehas been devil's own eyes the divine adversarywas not
very little despair in the speech we have "just almighty. Satan doubtednot only that God had
Mil- createdtheangels,butthatHe could in factcreate
been listeningto." 35 Like Dr. Frankenstein,
ton was apparentlyunableto controlthe powerful anything. From the verybeginningof the poem
figurehe had created. Waldock's method,in- the devil sincerelybelievesthathe has disproved
genious thoughit was, precludedany directin- God's omnipotence.37Not until he questions
trusionof thepoet or thepoet's God intothe story
37 The issue of Satan's heroism or folly in warring
into
of Satan; in his handsthepoem disintegrated
against an invinciblefoe had (as Empson observed) been
crumblingaway like an raised by Sir Walter Raleigh: his "very situation as the
a collectionof fragments,
jar.
ill-fired
fearless antagonist of Omnipotence makes him either a
Empson's criticismof Milton's devil cannotbe fool or a hero, and Milton is far indeed from permitting
William Empson, Milton's God
dissociatedfromhis views on Milton'sGod. His us to think him a p.fool";
37. Williams, on the other hand,
(London, 1961),
book by thatname appeared in 1961, but he had found in Satan's allusions to his revolt against the Alalready reached many of his conclusionsnearly mighty clear evidence of the essential "inaccuracy" of
three decades earlier-several years before the Hell: Satan "goes on to say of the Omnipotencethat he
apotropaeicritualsof Williams and Lewis. In a and his followers 'shook his throne'; it is only afterwards
we discover that this is entirely untrue. Milton
critique of Bentley's emendationsto Paradise that
knew as well as we do that Omnipotence cannot be
Lost, he had questionedthe coherenceof the Sa- shaken; thereforethe drama lies not in that foolish effort
tanic image. Milton's devil was not a "complex but in the terror of the obstinacy that provoked it, and
he suggested,but "one plain charac- in the result; not in the fightbut in the fall;" Thorpe,
personality,"
p. 258. Waldock, in turn, objected that Williams had
ter superimposedon anotherquite separatefrom completely
missed "the narrative impressionsthat Milton
it." Empson also raised the questionof precisely is strivingafter in these books." Certainly Milton knew
how muchSatan reallyknewconcerningthe crea- that Omnipotencecould not be shaken; "and for that very
tion of the angels: If the devil honestlyregarded reason he must do his best as a narrative poet . . . to
must try . . . to instil into us
God as no more than a "usurpingangel," there make us forget the fact,
the temporaryillusion that Omnipotence can be shakendiabolism"
would (he declared) be "no romantic
until such time, at least, as he has his poem properly
in giving him one's whole-heartedadmiration.36moving and Satan securely established in our imaginaIn Milton's God Empson not only revised his tions as a worthy Antagonist of Heaven"; Martz, pp.
earlier condemnationof the Satanic image as a 78-79.
Empson's criticism,in turn, shiftedthe grounds of the
"dramaticfailure,"but producedseveralnew and controversy
to Satan's doubts concerning God's omnipoingeniousargumentsfor its consistency. In pas- tence. More recently,William B. Hunter, Jr. noted that
sages that other criticshad dismissedas lies or "throughoutParadise Lost Satan does not really believe
romantiquefrangaise,"in: Le Paradis Perdu: 1667-1967,
ed. Jacques Blondel (Paris, 1967), pp. 219-240; Ursula
Muller, Die Gestalt Lucifers in der Dichtung vom Barock
bis zur Romantik (Berlin, 1940); Edward Langton,
Satan, a Portrait. A Study of the Character of Satan
Through All the Ages (London, 1946; New York, 1947);
Roland Mushat Frye, God, Man, and Satan: Patterns of
Christian Thought and Life in Paradise Lost, Pilgrim's
Progress, and the Great Theologians (Princeton, 1960).
35 Martz, p. 86.
36 William Empson, "Milton and Bentley: The Pastoral of the Innocence of Man and Nature," in: Martz,
pp. 28-30; from Empson, Some Versions of Pastoral
(1935).
in God's omnipotenceand bows before him only because
he has been beaten in battle." Moreover, all of his acts
"imply denial of God's omnipresenceand omniscience as
well"; "The Heresies of Satan," in Th' Upright Heart
and Pure: Essays on John Milton Commemorating the
of the Publication of Paradise Lost, ed.
Tercenttentary
Amadeus P. Fiore, O.F.M. (Pittsburgh, 1967), p. 26.
In fomentingthe angelic rebellion of Book V (Empson
maintained) Satan was "talking standard republican theory." Milton employedthe parallel not to "to make republicans absurd, but to make Satan more plausible." Although the poet was "conscious of the danger of tyranny
from a politician who starts off like Satan," he nevertheless portrayed the angel as "a deeply conscientious republican"; Empson, Milton's God, pp. 74-77.
VOL. 120, NO. 4, 19761
SATAN AS THE HERO OF PARADISE LOST
265
Uriel about the creationof the world,does Satan
In the crossfirebetweenthe devil's partyand
realize that he is not self-generated(as he had the servantsof Milton'sGod, the readermay well
formerly
believed) and thathe is opposingan all- wonderwhat has happenedto the unityand copowerfuladversary.
herenceof the poem. Can it survivethis siege
In Empson's opinion,the successivechangesin of contraries;or will it, like heaven itself,go to
Satan's characterconstitutedone of the principal rack and ruin in the civil conflictsof warring
meritsof the poem. Though criticshad erredin Angels? For all its magnitude,the epic seems
regardinghim as completelyevil fromthe start, altogethertoo small to accommodate Milton's
theyhad correctlyrecognizedhis moral absurdity Satan and Miltonhimself,and far too narrowto
and his progressivedegeneration. These, how- containboth the devil and Milton's God. Fortuever, redoundedless to Satan's dishonorthan to nately,the majorityof recentcriticshave been
the discreditof the deitywho had ruthlesslyde- unwillingto reduce Satan to a simpleformulahero or fool,comic or tragic-and theyhave usugraded him.38
With Empson, as with Lewis and Williams, ally attemptedto mediate between the extreme
the routine maneuvers of literarycontroversy positionsof Lewis and Waldock. Some of them
served to disguise the realitiesof a more basic have explored the contrastingideals of heroism
conflict:a holy war in which the essentialissue implicitin the characterand the verystructureof
was theologicaldoctrineratherthan literaryfic- the poem. In the antitheticalroles of Satan and
tion. At stake was religiousratherthan poetic the Messiah theyrecognizean ideological(as well
betweensecularand divine
faith. (Milton's Satan, as ProfessorLewis saw as a historical)conflict
him,would not have seemed out of place in The criteriaof the heroic. Others have analyzedthe
Screwtape Letters or The Great Divorce. One mixtureof truthand falsehood,logic and sophismight easily picture the assiduous Wormwood try,in the rhetoricof hell. Since the earlierdetakingdown the great infernalharanguesin sul- bates over the "inaccuracy"of the fallenangels,
have usuallyinvolved
phuricshorthand.) Like Luther,C. S. Lewis and problemsof characterization
his partycould hurl defianceand inkpotsat the questionsof logicalcoherenceand style. Increasdevil with greater vehemencebecause they be- inglyskepticalof ethicalgeneralitiesand formulas,
scholarshiptendsto avoid categorilieved their adversaryto be safely leashed and contemporary
of Satan's characterand to extetheredby a higherpower. Empson's admira- cal redefinitions
tionfor Milton'sdevil,on the otherhand, sprang plore insteadthe implicitambiguitiesof the text.
largelyfromhis strongdislikefor Milton's God; Nevertheless,as Patrick Murray observed in a
and this in turn reflecteda personal antipathy surveyof recentstudiesof Paradise Lost, "Much
towardthedeityof orthodoxtheologicaltradition.39of thecriticismof Milton'sSatan is stronglyreminiscentof the Shakespeareancriticismof Bradley,
For thetheologicalconceptsunderlying
Milton'sSatan, who tendedto examinethe charactersof Shakesee Robert H. West, Milton and the Angels (Athens, speare's plays as if theirexistencewere indepenGeorgia,1955); Donald R. Howard,"Milton'sSatan and dentoftheworksin whichtheyappeared." When
the AugustinianTradition,"Renaissance Papers (Co- "isolated from his
backgroundin the epic and
lumbia,S. C., 1954), pp. 11-23; Allan H. Gilbert,"The
TheologicalBasis of Satan's Rebellionand the Function viewed as an independententity,"Satan may
"arouse admiration";but if seen, "as Milton acof Abdiel in Paradise Lost," Modern Philology 40
(1942): pp. 19-42; C. A. Patrides,"Miltonand His Con- tuallypresentshim,againstthebackgroundof the
temporaries
on the Chainsof Satan," ModerntLanguage whole poem, then his heroic qualities,presented
Notes 73 (1958): pp. 257-260; Patrides,"The Salvation
40
of Satan," Jour. of the History of Ideas 28 (1967) : pp. in theirevil context,appear farless admirable."
Milton Miller41 called attentionto the "double
467-478.
38Empson, Milton's God, pp. 36-90.
For Empson's
views on the attitudesof Blake and ShelleytowardMilton'simagesof God and Satan, see pp. 13, 17-24.
39 See Empson,Milton'sGod, p. 251. In this context
Empson'sslogan "Back to Shelley" (p. 17) is not inappropriate;for in both instancesthe sympathetic
admirationforthe Satan of Paradise Lost was partlyconditionedby hostilitytowardSatan's divineadversaryas
Christianorthodoxy-as well as JohnMilton-had depicted Him. Observingthat "The writerwho would
have attributed
majestyand beautyto the characterof
victoriousand vindictive
omnipotence"
mightbe "a good
Christian"but never "a great epic poet," ShelleyquestionedwhetherMiltonwas, in fact,"a Christianor not,
at the periodof compositionof Paradise Lost"; Wittreich,p. 535.
40 Patrick Murray,Milton: The Modern Phase. A
Study of Twentieth-Century
Criticism (New York,
1967), p. 112.
41 MiltonMiller,"Paradise Lost: The Double Standard,"Univ.of TorontoQuart.20 (1951): pp. 183-199.
266
JOHN M. STEADMAN
[PROC. AMER. PHIL.
SOC.
standard" of heroism implicitin the poem and gelic revoltwas directed"to the same ends as the
contrastedthe heroic virtue of the fallen angels revolt of a false humanism" and consequently
role of the Messiah,a role "displaysall the ironyof the humanistdilemma,
withthe self-sacrificial
"above heroic." W. B. C. Watkins noted the wherebythose who have rebelledin the name of
"imageryof fear and horror"with which Milton a misconceivedlibertyend by denyingthat they
investedthe figureof the archfiend.As he jour- have any freedomof action."45
In contrastto Waldock, B. A. Wrightemphaneyed"abouttheuniverse,tarnishedbut stillmagnificent,"Satan carried with him the terrible sized the consistencyof Milton's Satanic image.
secret of his own incestuousoffspring,Sin and The soliloquy on Mount Niphates provided "a
Death and theirbroodof hellhounds. In the early momentof truth,"bringinginto "focus all that
hero-villain," has happened"and enablingus to "view it in true
books he had been "a magnificent
but Miltonhad "alreadymade clear a plannedde- perspective." The qualityof Satan's heroismwas
terioration." The soliloquyon Mount Niphates apparentin his choice of evil as good; like Macrepresenteda "suprememomentof self-recogni- beth, the devil recognizedhis situationbut did
tion" ratherthan a contradictionin character.42 "notrelent." As epic farcethebattleoftheangels
In the opinionof Marjorie Nicolson,the great- ridiculedwarfarein generalas well as the tradiness of Milton's Satanic portraitlay "not only- tional epic ideal of winningglorythrougharms.
indeednot primarily-inthe depictionof the ma- While Milton'sown view of Satan and his angels
jesticcharacterof Books I and II, but in the slow remainedessentiallyunchanged,he nevertheless
and steady degenerationof an angel who once alteredthepointsofview fromwhichhe presented
stood nextto God Himselfin Heaven." Milton's them. It was not "that the heroic figureof the
basic techniquein portrayingthis process of de- earlier Books is deliberatelydegraded by the
generationwas "a subtle change in figuresof poet . . . but thathis mindand characterare unspeech,mutationof the imagesto whichSatan is foldedmore and more fullyby being seen in difpointsof
compared."43 Distinguishingbetween "Satan's ferentcircumstancesand fromdifferent
"46
view.
character(his moralbent) and Satan as a characFor MerrittY. Hughes, Satan appearedheroic
ter (as an agent in a story)," John S. Diekhoff
recognizedthe devil's energyand magnificence,only in the firsttwo books of the epic. Even in
but also stressedhis activelyperversewill: "Mil- these scenes, however,Milton had depictedthe
ton undertakesto prove that Satan is responsible devil as an archetypaltyrantthroughskillfulalluof evil intotheworldand that sion to stereotypesof Asiatic despotism. The
fortheintroduction
he is hatefulbecause he is evil." In Diekhoff's weakness of the Satanic portraitwas indeed its
view, Satan's portraitis convincingand carries verygreatness:"its powerto fool readersinto its
"the illusionof reality":"As an agentin Paradise own delusionof power and make themsay that
thatpartof theactionwhichthe Milton's Satan is a noble anticipationof the
Lost he performs
storyimposesupon him withoutapparentincon- Nietzscheansuperman."
John Peter called attentionto the "incoherent
sistencyof character." His "actionsaccord with
his ethos"; Satan "was a very bad angel, and logic" of Satan's openingspeechand brandedhis
John
48
rhetoricas "opaque and self-deluding."
Miltonknewit."44
a
"vacuous
him
as
orator"
censured
Shawcross
To M. M. Mahood, the Renaissance "problem of heroism"was essentially"an intensificationand a "caricatureof the pompousbraggart."The
of the humanistdilemma,"and in the Satan of devil's "glorious" speeches exhibited"the false
Paradise Lost she recognizedan exemplar not highstyle"ofthe"dissemblerand buffoon." Satan
only of false heroismbut also of that "self-sufficient humanismwhich pervertedthe mind from 45 M. M. Mahood,Poetryand Humanism(New York,
attainingits true heroic magnitude"and which 1970), pp. 211-225;firstpublishedin 1950.
46 B. A. Wright,Milton's Paradise Lost (London,
enteredthe worldwiththe fall of man. The anpp. 126-127,129,131,145.
42W.
B. C. Watkins,"Creation,"in: Martz,pp. 139-
145; fromAn Anatomy of Milton's Verse (1955).
43Nicolson,pp. 186-187.
44John S. Diekhoff,Milton's Paradise Lost: A Commentaryon the Argument (New York, 1963), pp. 28-48;
firstpublishedin 1946.
1962),
47 MerrittY. Hughes, "Satan and the 'Myth' of the
Tyrant," in: Ten Perspectives on Milton (New Haven
and London,1965), pp. 165-195;JohnMilton,Complete
Poems and Major Prose, ed. Merritt Y. Hughes (New
York, 1957), pp. 177, 179.
48
John Peter, A Critique of Paradise Lost (New
York, 1960), p. 43.
VOL. 120, NO. 4, 19761
implicitlydenied the divine omnipotence,and a
"comic element"was apparentin his very selfdeception.49 Harold Toliver commented that
"Satan's 'high words' in Book I reveal a typical
confusionof heavenlyand infernalvalues as they
substitutepolitical style for genuine homage to
truth,yet draw upon that homage at strategic
momentsforthe satanicsense of an epic program
welding a nation of heroes." Satan's language
rendered"all apparentrealitiesin a literalmanner and yet is inaccurateand veiled"; it substireatutes"shadowymotivesforthe self-sufficient
LOST
267
commonin literarytradition:
Put simply,Satan is a trimorph,
or threerelatedbut
distinguishable
personages:a highlyplaced Archangel,the grislyPrince of Hell, and the deceitful,
serpentine
Tempter.. . . Usuallythe rolesare unifiedby a singleconsciousness,
butit is by no means
uncommon
to findthe rolesseparatedintodistinctly
separatecharacters.
In the light of this tradition(Kastor believes)
"the perceptionof different
levels and kinds of
characterizationin Milton's Satan by Waldock
and theothersseems entirelyaccurate."53
Although psychoanalyticalapproaches to the
son oftheLogos."50
Stanley Fish stressedthe role of the Satanic problemof Satan fall outside the mainstreamof
image in compellingthe reader to redefinehis Milton criticism,they provide some of its more
eddies and counter-currents.In 1934
own preconceptions
of the heroic; because Satan's interesting
''courage is never denied . . . while his virtue Maud Bodkin reexaminedthe devil's epic image
and goodnessare . . . , the readeris led to revise against the backgroundof Jungiantheory. Alhis idea of whata trueherois." In "an important thoughshe did not directlyraise the problemof
she nevertheless
way epic heroism,of whichSatan is a noteworthy consistencyin characterization,
archetypes.At
instance,is the antithesisof Christianheroism, recognizeda patternof conflicting
of the poem (she suggested)
and a large part of the poem is devotedto distin- the commencement
guishingbetweenthe two and showing the su- the reader views the Satanic portrait"under the
periorityof the latter."51 The devil's false hero- devil archetypeas enemy of group values," reism (Fish suggested) "draws fromthe reader a gardinghim abstractlyand withabhorrencefrom
response that is immediatelychallengedby the without. Yet withina fewlines the detachedand
epic voice, who at the same time challengesthe initiallyhostileaudiencebecomes "one in aspiraconcept of heroism in which the response is tion with Satan, the hero." In the earlierbooks
rooted." The characterof Satan did "not change of the poem "Satan appears as a Prometheanfigat all" betweenBooks I and VI, and his alleged ure. The themeof his heroic struggleand endegradationwas merelya "criticalmyth." On duranceagainsthopelessodds wakensin poet and
the contrary,it was the "reader's capacityto see reader a sense of his own state as against the
him" that actually changed, even though that odds of destiny." In the latterbooks, however,
Satan is "no longerPrometheanhero,"but, once
52
changewas "gradual and fitful."
Frank Kastor, in a recentbook,approachedthe more,the "abhorredenemyof God and man, inproblemof Milton's consistencyfroma different sultedand humiliatedby the poet." In
angle-the "patternof Satanic characterization" the figureof Satan as hero,. . . an objectiveform
is givento the selfof imaginative
aspiration,
or to
thepower-craving,
whiletheoverthrow
of Satan,and
49John T. Shawcross, "The Style and Genre of Parahis humiliation
as infernal
serpentsatisfies
thecoundise Lost," in: New Essays on Paradise Lost, ed. Thomas termovement
of feelingtowardthesurrender
of perKranidas (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 1971), pp. 15- sonal claimsand the mergingof the ego withina
33; firstpublished in 1969. Tracing the "basis of the so- greaterpower.
called Satanic interpretation"to critical assumptions that,
since the poem is an epic, it must necessarily contain "a
hero of noble status or virtue" and depict heroic achievements, Shawcross argued that there was, in fact, "no
hero in the poem although Adam and Eve constitutea
protagonist as representativesof Mankind in the drama
of life."
50 Harold E. Toliver, "The Splinter Coalition," in:
Kranidas, pp. 34-57.
51Stanley E. Fish, Surprised by Sin: The Reader in
Paradise Lost (London and New York, 1967), pp. 48-49,
162.
52 Fish, "Discovery as Form in Paradise Lost," in:
Kranidas, pp. 1-14.
Like Lascelles Abercrombie(1922), Miss Bodkin regardedSatan as a "supernaturalhero,"who
(like the "superhuman"hero of epic tradition)
neverthelesssymbolizedhuman existence. For
Abercrombie,
Satan's unyieldingagonyhad epitomized the "antinomny
of modernconsciousness"the conflictbetweenirresistibledestinyand the
unbrokenhumanwill. Miss Bodkin,on the other
53Frank S. Kastor, Milton anzdthe LiterarySatan
(Amsterdam, 1974), pp. 15, 72.
268
JOHN M. STEADMAN
[PROC. AMER. PHIL.
SOC.
hand, perceivedin Milton's devil an underlying The majorityof our own contemporaries
are
and re- neither"Satanists" nor "anti-Satanists." As a
"conflictbetweenpassionateself-assertion
ligious loyalty"-a conflictthat dominatedthe rule they professfar more respectfor Milton's
in his artistrythan many of their predecessors; and
poet's own mind,and, "findinga reflection
poem," activated "the same factors in a like- theyare muchmorelikelyto emphasizethe inner
mindedreader." Under one aspect
coherence and consistencyof his characterizaSatan expressesthe spiritof man resoluteagainst tion-its unityin variety-than its discontinuity.
mightof Destiny,in the otherhe They generallytake Milton'scontrolof his narratheoverwhelming
symbolof lustand hate, tive for granted; he knew what he was really
appearsas infernalserpent,
values feltas both humanand divine. about. Instead of a techniqueof fission,they
threatening
of sympathy
and aversionthatthe
The alternations
seeking
securesforthecentralfigureof usuallyprefera methodof reconciliation,
poem'sconstruction
larger
conceptual
frameworks
capable
of
syntheaspectsof the image,
Satan determine
corresponding
sizing the contrastingimages of Satan and the
withinthepoem,of God, Satan'santagonist.54
In an essay "The Devil and Dr. Jung"Robert disparate levels of demonstrationand comment
contrastswithinthe
Martin Adams stressed the weaknesses in the withothermorefundamental
epic. The apparentdiscrepanciesin Satan's charJungianapproachto Milton'sdevil. Nevertheless
acterbelong,in theirview,to a morebasic pattern
he recognizedMiss Bodkin's distinctivecontriof conflict.
bution to the problem of Satan's consistency.
Where earliercriticsperceivedinadvertent
conLike other critics she had accepted "the traditradictions,the "moderns" usually recognize a
tional divisionbetween'thesplendidfigureof the
carefullycalculated dialectic of contraries. Infirsttwo books and the degraded villain of the
stead of inconsistenciesin characterization,
they
later books"; but (unlike most of her predecesgenerallystresscomplementary
modes of presensors) she had arguedthat"preciselythisvariance,
tationor perception,deliberatecontrastsbetween
this transitionfrom high to low estate" made
appearanceor reality,or the interactionbetween
Satan a tragichero. Unfortunately
(Adams obdivine and human perspectives. Their primary
jected) this argumentblurredthe importantdisconcernis the quest fora criticalframeof refertinctionbetweenprimaryand secondarycharacence which can include, without manifestdisters. From the same premisesone could just as
comfort,the poet and his persona, his dramatic
easily demonstratethat Hamlet's uncle was the
characters-and the indispensablereader.
tragichero of Shakespeare'splay. Claudius was
not, of course,"centralto the drama,as a tragic
V
hero shouldbe. And so withany readingof MilAs the most recentphase of the Satanist conton's epic whichputs Satan at the centerof it."
troversyhas centeredprimarilyon characterizain WerAdams likewise perceiveddifficulties
tion,especiallyconsistencyin character,and only
blowsky'sviews on the Satan-Prometheusparal- secondarilyon narrativerole,56it would be
helpful
betweenthesefiglel. In actualitythe similarities
to recall the successiveimages of the devil in the
ures amountedto little"more thanthis,thatthey order in which Milton presentsthem. Satan is
are antagonistsof the reigningdeitywho excitea not only the firstdramatic
speakerin the poem;
measure of admiration. Their enmityfor the he is also a
superborator,and the power of his
deity is founded on differentmotives and ex- oratoryhas shaped the course of Miltoncriticism
ways."55
pressed in different
no less thanthedestiniesof thefallenangels. Behim into the scene,however,the
foreintroducing
54Maud Bodkin, Archetypal Patternisini Poetry: Psychological Studies of Imagination (London, 1963), pp.
232-246; first published in 1934. See also Lascelles
Abercrombie, The Epic: An Essay (London, 1922), pp.
101, 105.
55 Robert Martin Adams, Milton and the Modern Critics (Ithaca, 1966), pp. 35-59; firstpublished in 1955. Cf.
R. J. Zwei Werblowsky, Lucifer and Pronmetheus:A
Study of Milton's Satan (London, 1952) ; Robert R.
Pelletier, "Satan and Prometheus in Captivity," Notes
anid Queries, n.s., 7 (1970): pp. 107-108. Werblowsky's
book contained an introductionby Carl Jung himself. In
addition to analogues in Greek tragedy, one should also
note affinitiesbetween Satan's character and that of Seneca's tragic personages. In contrast to Greek tragedy,
where "there are no villains" (Moses Hadas suggested),
the "Senecan villains are sinful,for they know the better
and do the worse. And the sins are not a thing destined
in the order of the universe but in defianceof that order";
Moses Hadas, Hellenistic Culture: Fusion anid Diffusion
(New York, 1972), p. 56.
56 In hailing Satan as hero of Milton's epic, Dryden
based his argument largely on the devil's role in the
narrative structure; Shelley, on Satan's moral character.
VOL. 120, NO. 4, 1976]
LOST
269
poet has brieflyrelatedin his own voice the story poet reaffirmsthe overrulingcontrol of proviof the Adversary'srevolt and fall-a voice in- dence:
spiredby the Heavenly Muse. The firstmention
outhugein lengththeArch-fiend
So stretcht
lay
not in theproposiof thedeviloccurssignificantly
Chain'don theburningLake,noreverthence
tion of the epic (there the poet's emphasisfalls
Had ris'nor heav'dhis head,butthatthewill
And highpermission
of all-ruling
on the contrastingroles of the First and Second
Heaven
Lefthimat largeto his owndarkdesigns,
Adams) but in responseto a questionMiltonhas
That withreiterated
crimeshe might
demandedof his celestialpatroness: What cause
Heap on himself
whilehe sought
damnation,
had moved Adam and Eve to disobey? "Who
Evil to others,and enrag'dmightsee
first seduc'd them to that foul revolt?" The
How all his maliceserv'dbutto bringforth
Infinite
goodness,graceand mercyshown
Muse's answer,of course,is Satan:
On Man byhimseduc't,buton himself
Trebleconfusion,
wrathand vengeancepour'd.
Serpent;hee it was,whoseguile
Th' infernal
Stirr'dup withEnvyand Revenge,deceiv'd
The Satan of the firstbook is a spiritedcomThe MotherofMankind;whattimehis Pride
mander who successfullyrallies his defeated
Had casthimoutof Heav'n,withall his Host
Of RebelAngels,by whoseaid aspiring
troops, restores them to militarydiscipline by
To set himself
in Gloryabovehis Peers,
puttingthemon parade,and overseesthe foundaHe trustedto have equall'dthemostHigh,
tion of a new kingdomand the constructionof
aim
If he oppos'd;and withambitious
a new capital. In the second book he is simulRais'dimpiousWar inHeav'nandBattleproud
Withvainattempt.
taneouslymonarchand parliamentarian,
strategist
of Satan in the and space explorer. He alone has plottedthe
This is thefirstcharacterization
epic,and it is Milton'sown. While it emphasizes overthrowof man; he alone undertakesthe perisuch motivesas ambitionand pride,envyand re- lous voyage "In search of this new world"; and
venge,thereis no perceptiblesuggestionof Satan's in the course of his expeditionhe has presenceof
heroism. The next descriptionof character- mind to formstrategicalliances withthe sinister
again in the poet's own voice-stresses the fallen forceshe encounterson the way: Sin and Death,
archangel's "obdurate pride and steadfasthate" Chaos and ancient Night. These will become
and dismay." At tragicallyoperativein the fallenworld.
in spite of his "huge affliction
In the thirdbook he assumes the firstof his
himself
beginsto speak
Satan
however,
thispoint,
tactical
disguises; in seekingdirections,he poses
and act; and, formanyreaders,this image of the
as
a
"stripling
Cherub" intenton glorifyingthe
heroic Satan contradictsnot only the earlier
Creator
in
His
works. Like Odysseus, Satan is
characterization
but also the Satanic imagesof the
no
less
clever
at
impersonation
thanat espionage;
laterbooks. The "fixtmind,"the "unconquerable
Will," the "courage never to submitor yield"- and he readilyadapts "cover-story"and disguise
theseare clearlyheroictopoi; but,if one examines to the needs of the occasion. Once he is within
select
theircontextclosely,one will findthemassociated the walls of Paradise, he will appropriately
animal
forms.
Though
his
critics
usually
regard
Milton
with the very motivesand passions that
had stressed in his earlier summaryof Satan's these bestial disguisesas symbolsof his progressive degeneration,57
theyare also evidenceof his
character.
The dominantimpressionthat most readers
57 In advancing this interpretation,
C. S. Lewis overhave receivedfromthis portraitis the image of
a virtu'above heroic:thereassertionofa seemingly looked the primaryobjection that could be urged against
it-that after sinking from angel to toad to serpent in
unconquerableenergyin thoughtand speech and prosecutinghis revenge, Satan
once again resorts to anaction. In the larger context of these scenes, gelic shapes for his journey back to Pandaemonium. Sin
of Milton's and Death encounter him disguised "in likeness of an
however-the providentialframework
narrative-one recognizesthe limitationsof Sa- Angel bright" steering between Sagittarius and Scorpio.
Subsequentlyhe makes his way secretlythroughhis own
tan's activity. Only by divine permissionis he infernal
metropolis"In shew plebeian Angel militant...."
allowed to play this active role; except for the He selects animal disguises in Eden, where they will
"sufferanceof supernal Power" he would have attract less attentionthan angelic forms; but reverts to
remainedchainedforeveron theburninglake; and angelic shapes after quitting the earthly Paradise. His
at all to choice of disguises is motivated by practical considerathere would have been no opportunity
tions, though they also possess a
significanceof
exercise heroic energyor initiateheroic enter- which he is not always aware; symbolic
cf. Waddington, supra.
prises. In the midstof theseheroicorations,the In revertingto angelic shapes and ultimatelyto his own
270
JOHN M. STEADMIAN
prudence,and his fraud. Disguised as an angel
of light,he is no less "the fraudulentImpostor
foul" than when he is masqueradingas lion or
cormorant,serpentor toad.
The Satan of the fourthbook is sometimesrecharacteraltogether,or else
garded as a different
as the real Satan, strippedof his pseudo-heroic
mask. In his openingsoliloquyhe acknowledges
thatthe truemotivesof his rebellionwere "Pride
and worse Ambition." He confessesthat he has
vainlyboastingthat he
seduced his fellow-rebels,
could "subdue/Th' Omnipotent." In contrastto
thathe had disthe Stoic constancyand fortitude
played in hell:
The mindis itsownplace,and in itself
Can makea Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n[,]
he realizes thathe has broughthis dungeonwith
him:
Whichway I flyis Hell; myselfam Hell;
Andin thelowestdeepa lowerdeep
to devourme openswide,
Still threat'ning
seemsa Heav'n.
To whichtheHell I suffer
In theeyesof manycriticsthe Satan of thissoliloquy is a tragic figure,but no longer the heroic
archangelof the earlierbooks.
Ironicallythe devil's firstglimpseof mankind
and the earthlyParadise (in Book IV) does inspire him with admiration;contraryto his own
expectations,the pretextof the false cherubwho
had lied to the sharp-sightedUriel becomes,to
this extent,real. Even at this point he is still
capable of feelingcompassionforhis victims,and
he excuses himselfwith a Machiavelliantopospoliticalnecessity,the tyrant'splea:
[PROC. AMER. PHIL.
SOC.
heaven itself,he recognizesthe limitationsof his
strengthand the decay of his visibleglory. For
the firsttimesince his expulsionfromheaven,he
takes flight. The two followingbooks relatethe
story of the revolt of the angels as a "terrible
Example" of the "reward/ Of disobedience."
Thinking himself"impair'd" by the Messiah's
elevationas "King anointed,"the archangelsuccessivelyplotsrebellion,poses as "Idol of Majesty
Divine," skirmisheswithAbdiel and Michael,and
inventsthe cannon. In the course of battlehe is
wounded and-now gross with sinning-experiences pain forthe firsttime. Finally,afterhurling puns and linked thunderboltsand wooded
hillsat theirenemies,the rebelhostslose courage,
and resistancebeforethevictoriousprogstrength,
ress of the Messiah and throw themselvesdesperatelyintothe abyss.
In these scenes criticshave perceivedfurther
evidenceof Milton's degradationof Satan, and it
is still debatablewhetherthe angelic battleswere
intendedto be heroicor mock-heroic.For Addison, these skirmisheswere a conscious imitation
of combatsin classical epic; in the eyes of later
critics,theyare rathera critiqueofheroicwarfare.
The "jaculation dire" of hills encounteringhills
echoes Hesiod's account of the battle between
Titans and giants,but it has also suggestedthe
slapstickof custard pies. The sardonicjests of
the angelic combatantsrecall those of Homeric
warriors,yet to many readers theyseem merely
comic; Addisonand Pope werenot alone in scoffing at Milton's puns.58 On the plains of Troy
58 Shawcross, p. 158; E. E. Kellett, "The Puns in Milton," London Quart. and Holborn Review 159 (1934):
pp. 469-476. Lord Byron and W. L. Bowles shared the
distaste that earlier critics-Voltaire, John Clarke,
Charles Leslie-felt for Milton's introductionof artillery
into heaven; Wittreich,pp. 520, 527; Shawcross, pp. 117,
255-256, 264. Despite his disapproval of the angelic puns,
Addison praised Milton's fidelityto the grandeur of his
subject, and Dennis regarded the scene as infinitelymore
sublime than Homer's battle of gods and heroes; Shawcross, pp. 191-195, 237-239. Like Voltaire, modern readers have tended to view Milton's battle of the angels
much as Addison regarded Claudian's fragmentarygiform, Satan has not managed (as he had expected) to gantomachia: certain "Ideas" therein savored "more of
put off the serpentaltogether; the shape in which he had Burlesque than of the Sublime"; Shawcross, p. 192.
sinned follows him back to hell. Though he regards his Whereas Voltaire and other neoclassical arbiters usually
bestial disguises as temporaryexpedients-and transfor- attributedMilton's apparent lapses from both taste and
grandeur as accidental, recent critics have regarded them
mation itself as a process easily reversible at will-he
cannot discard the serpent'sskin altogether. Either phys- as intentional. Arnold Stein has argued that the episode
is an "epic comedy"-"Milton's War in Heaven-An Exically or spiritually,it has become a part of himself. His
predicament is roughly analogous to that of a Renais- tended Metaphor," English Literary History 18 (1951):
sance warlock unexpectedlytrapped in his animal shape pp. 201-220-and B. A. Wright (supra) has labeled it an
and unable to repossess at will his original human form. "epic farce."
And shouldI at yourharmlessinnocence
Melt,as I do,yetpublicreasonjust,
Honor and Empirewithrevengeenlarg'd,
thisnewWorld,compelsme now
By conquering
To do whatelse thoughdamn'dI shouldabhor.
It is in this book that,disguisedas a toad, he
makes his firstassault on Eve, poisoning her
dreams with hunger for forbiddenknowledge.
Detected by the angelic guard and warned by
VOL. 120, NO. 4,1976]
271
... clad
theconventionof epic ridicule-the grimsarcasms
Withwhatpermissive
glorysincehis fall
directedat dyingmen-can becometerrible;it is
Was lefthim,or falseglitter:...
"black humor," the humor of the Galgenlieder.
are Afterreportinghis victoryhe awaits the "univerOn theplainsof heaven,wherethe contestants
immortals,one is apt to overlookits potentially sal shoutand high applause" of his audience,but
tragic aspects. The angelic battles seem mock- to his own amazementhe hears,instead,
heroic primarilybecause theyare essentiallyand
On all sides,frominnumerable
tongues
consistentlyironic; they conclude inevitably(as
A dismaluniversalhiss,thesound
Milton's deityhimselfhad intended) in a staleOf publicscorn;. . .
mate unforeseenby eitherthe faithfulor unfaithThe infernalcapital is now a snake pit, and its
ful troops.
house of peers a societyof serpents. Satan finds
Though neitherparty is aware of their true
littleleisure to wonderat this change,however;
nature,the combatsare in realitya kind of war
into a "monstrousSerpent,"he has
transformed
game, a militaryexercise; and theiractual purgreatercause to marvelat his own alteration:a
pose is no less moral than martial education.
''greaterpower" has punishedhim "in the shape
Providingoccasionsfor illustrating
heroicvirtues
he sinn'd,/Accordingto his doom."
as well as valor.
or splendidvices,theytestfidelity
This is our last directview of Satan and his
Otherwisetheyare vain; and indeedthe primary
enterprise. Not untilthe finallines of the poem
of these battlescenes lies in theirinsignificance
will Adam learnthefullmeaningof thejudgment
conclusiveresults. Through their very futility,
pronouncedcrypticallyand obliquelyon his foe.
their obvious vanity,they serve, by contrast,to
At his firstadvent,Christthe Second Adam-the
glorifythe power of the Father in the Son. In
woman's seed-"Shall bruisethe head of Satan,"
thisepisode,as in themainplotof his epic,Milton
and "crushhis strength,"
defeatingSin and Death
deliberatelyjuxtaposes the meritsof the creature
by his passion and resurrection. Ascending to
with those of the Creator; and this comparison
heaven,he will surprise
is scarcelyless significant
formenthanforangels.
The celestialwar is more than an exemplum of The Serpent,
Princeofair,and dragin Chains
leave; . ..
disobedience;it reinforces
by analogythe doctrine Throughall hisRealm,andthereconfounded
of the "vanityof humanmerits." Yet in the con- Finally, at the very end of time, he will come
text of Milton's own milieu, the backgroundof again in glory "to dissolve/Satan with his perthe English civil wars and the eventual failure vertedWorld."
of the Good Old Cause, the episode may suggest
VI
other implications:recognitionof the ultimate
vanityof the fratricidalreligiouswars and a reMilton'stechniqueof characterization
is essenaffirmation
of apocalyptichopes in the Second tiallykaleidoscopic:a sequenceof dramaticimages
Coming, the Messianic advent in glory and of the devil in counselor action,interspersed
with
power.59
prolepticor retrospective
allusionsand withmoral
In the Ninth Book Satan returnsto Paradise, commentary. Insofar as these Protean images
hidden in mist,conceals himselfin the sleeping introduceseeminglyinconsistent
aspects of Satan,
serpent,and, in a masterlyoration,persuadesEve theycompellthe readerto undertakethe arbiter's
to disobeythe divinecommand. In the following burden of comparisonand revaluation:to reinbook he overhears,but does notfullycomprehend, terprettheimaginative
visionsin thelightof sober
the sentenceof doom pronouncedliterallyon the judgment. The characterof the devil assumes
serpentand allegoricallyon himself. After ap- different
aspects in the eyes of his followersand
pointingSin and Death as plenipotentiaries
and in thoseof the loyal angels,in his own sightand
vicegerentsover the fallen world, he returnsto in thatof God.60 They also vary,however,with
hell in disguise,and reveals himselfto his peers,
59 For the apocalpytic element in Milton's poetry see
Michael Fixler, Milton and the Kingdoms of God (London, 1964) ; Fixler, "The Apocalypse within Paradise
Lost," in: New Essays on Paradise Lost, ed. Thomas
Kranidas (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1969), pp. 131178; Leland Ryken, The Apocalyptic Vision in Paradise
Lost (Ithaca, 1970).
60 From the beginning
of his revoltSatan appearsridiculousin theeyes of God and His Messiah; but in the
eyes of Michael,the greatestof the loyal angels,he has
causedtoo muchmiseryto be merelya subjectforlaughter. The resolution
of thetensionsbetweencomic,tragic,
and heroic elementsin the celestialwar dependsultimatelyon theantithesisbetweentotaland partialvision,
JOHN M. STEADMAN
272
[PROC. AMER. PHIL.
SOC.
thedemandsof theplot,theprimaryresponsibility reader may easily mistakea shiftin tactics-a
forcovert
resortto animaldisguises,a preference
of the poet.
deof
moral
evidence
force-as
open
over
guile
Insofaras the epic action must seem probable generation,
or vsceversa.
or necessary,springingdirectlyfrom the charIn the finalpages of this studywe shall reconacterand thoughtof the dramaticpersonaethem- sider the natureof Satan's roles as antagonistof
selves, Milton's problemin characterizingSatan immortalGod and mortalman; thecontinuity
bewas one of motivatingthe devil's attemptagainst tween these roles in characterand motivation;
man and somehow making the transitionfrom analogies with classical and Renaissance protothe archangelwho had soughtequalitywith God typesof the hero; and (lastly) the interrelationto the serpentinetempterof Eve seem poetically ships betweenheroicimage and theologicalethos,
and logicallyconsistent. The innercoherenceof betweenthe virtu'and energyof the fleshand the
the Satanic image dependsnot onlyon the plausi- internalrealityof spiritualdeath.
bilitywith whichthis transitionis described,but
of motivationand heroicimage.
also on continuity
VII
As adversaryof God and man, Satan plays comstressesthe causal
explicitly
Milton
Although
plementarybut frequentlycontrastingroles. In
the fall of the
between
relationships
thematic
and
were
thefinalanalysis,theapparentcontradictions
strikingdiare
there
man,
of
fall
the
and
angels
implicitin Milton'ssubjectmatter,in the Biblical
Satan's
between
parallels
as
well
as
vergences
and exegeticaltraditionshe was exploiting;but
wars
he
heaven
In
occasions.
two
the
on
roles
in a poetic fable that aspired to epic unitythey
himto
superior
infinitely
adversary
an
might easily suggest discontinuityin character. against
selects
he
in
Eden
wisdom;
and
in
strength
self
Milton could rationalizethem,could endeavorto
his offensive
opponents,idirecting
make themappear probable or necessary,either morevulnerable
but against
archangels
and
angels
against
not
throughstressingSatan's internal degeneration
himselfin
to
inferior
patently
primitives
naked
altered
afterhis fall or thoughemphasizingthe
his
focusing
ultimately
and
intellect
and
strength
externalsituationof the fallenangels and its inThe
woman.
unsuspecting
single
on
a
attack
fluenceon changes in the devil's strategyand
fallenangel has apparentlylost whateverscruples
tactics. Althoughthe fall affectsSatan's charheld concerningthe conventions
for success- he had formerly
acter,it also alters his opportunities
and the choice of a worthy
combat
honorable
of
The
fulactionand his choiceof ends and means.
antagonist. (Ironically,in a differentsense of
the word, it is Satan ratherthan Adam or Eve
antagonist. In the stateof
the inevitable discontinuitybetween the Creator's view who is the unworthy
and that of his creatures.
latter
possess a native worthand
innocencethe
In Raphael's narrative of the angelic war, Satan's role
and wiseradversaryhas
that
stronger
their
virtue
becomes identifiedwith the origin of discord, rebellion,
Satan is deceivedby
occasion
first
On
the
lost.)
of
civil war-and (more specifically) with the invention
hope (hybris); on the secthat "devilish engine" the cannon. Michael rebukes him his own presumptuous
as the cause of evil and destroyerof peace:
ond he is idrivenby despair. Earlier he had
warredby force; subsequentlyby fraud. In the
Author of evil, unknown till thy revolt,
Unnam'd in Heav'n, now plenteous,as thou seest
firstinstancehe incursignominiousdefeat;in the
These acts of hatefulstrife,hatefulto all,
second,he wins a dishonorablevictory.
. . . how hast thou disturb'd
The Satan of the firstbooks of Paradise Lost
Heav'n's blessed peace, and into Nature brought
is, in a sense, a transitionalfigurebetweenthe
Misery, uncreated till the crime
rebel againstGod and the sly seducerof
aspiring
Rebellion?
Of thy
Miltonhas lefthimmuchof his original
mankind.
The primaryemphasis in this episode, however, falls on
and his originalarchangelicform;and
brightness
reand
evil
to
expel
the inability of the faithfulangels
store peace and order to heaven. Michael's threat re- in characterand rhetoric,as well as in external
mains unfulfilleduntil the advent of the Messiah:
shape, he bears a closer resemblanceto the hybristic Lucifer of the celestial war than to the
. . . But thinknot here
Mafia figurehe will subsequentlybecome. RheTo trouble Holy Rest; Heav'n casts thee out
From all her Confines. Heav'n the seat of bliss
toricallySatan continuesto exhorthis troopsto
Brooks not the works of violence and war.
war againstGod, even thoughhe adapts his arguHence then,and evil go with thee along,
mentsto their changed situation. He continues
to the place of evil, Hell...
Thy offspring,
VOL. 120, NO. 4, 1976]
to glory in his role as antagonistof deity; and
this part will lead logicallyand inevitablyto his
laterrole as adversaryof man. The ambitionand
envythathe has displayedin heavenare constants
in his enterpriseagainst man. Other motivesin
his assault on man-the implacablehatred and
cravingforrevengeexhibitedin the firstspeeches
in hell-spring directlyfromthe humiliatingdefeatof his earlierenterprise. The Satan of Book
I is essentiallythe fallen Lucifer,the archangel
ruined;by theend of Book I one can alreadyperceive in the heroic leader the lineamentsof the
futureserpent.
Through all the changingimages of the archangel, whetherhybristicor desperate,there remains one controllingmotive (and it is vital for
his narrativerole in the epic action): the unshakablewill to gloryand dominion,even though
the pursuitof glory may involveacts of infamy
and though the quest for dominionmay entail
positiveenslavementto his own evil will. Associatedwithprideand envy,and subsequently
with
revenge,it spurs Satan's revoltagainst the Messiah and his enterpriseagainst man. The ambition that promptedhis rebellionin heaven still
goads him in hell:
Here we mayreignsecure,and in mychoice
To reignis worthambition
thoughin Hell:
Betterto reignin Hell, thanservein Heav'n.
and in his soliloquyon Mount Niphates:
Evil be thoumyGood; bytheeat least
DividedEmpirewithHeav'n'sKing I hold
By thee,and morethanhalfperhapswill reign;
As Manerelong,andthisnewWorldshallknow.
In both instancesthe drivingambitionis not
the less real for its associationwith despair nor
for Satan's condemnationof his own rulingpassion. Hithertohe has disguisedhis desperation
with eloquence; but in his solitudeon Niphates
he gives vent for the firsttime to his private
thoughts. In a sense he is a more impressivefigure at this momentof tragicself-recognition
than
in the heroicdefianceof the initialscenes in hell;
indeed it is only in the lightof the soliloquythat
one clearlyperceivesthe real greatnessof his performanceon earlier occasions-the strengthof
character required to create and maintain the
publicimageof an undauntedleader,unshakenby
defeat. The Satanic persona of the early books
was a heavymask indeed,and no less an actoror hypokrites-thanan archangelcould wear it.
The greatnessof the soliloquyon Niphatesbelongs to a different
order; it is the pitilessinsight
273
of the fallenarchangelinto his own nature,and
into the true causes of his fall,thatenables us to
realizethemagnitudeof his tragedy,admiringthe
nobilityof theangelicintelligence
even in its ruin.
Thrice in the course of this speech Satan alludes
to his own ambition:
... howgloriousonceabovethySphere;
Till Prideand worseAmbition
threwme down
Warringin Heav'n againstHeav'n's matchless
King: ...
0 had his powerful
Destinyordain'd
Me someinferior
Angel,I had stood
Then happy;no unbounded
hopehad rais'd
Ambition.
Whiletheyadoreme on theThroneof Hell,
WithDiademand Sceptrehighadvanc'd
The Lower stillI fall,onlySupreme
In misery;suchjoy Ambitionfinds.
Denied grace and unwillingto sue forit, deprived
of hope,of fear,of remorse,of "all Good," Satan
has nothingleft except the ambitionthat had
ruinedhim. His pursuitof a new kingdomis the
ambitionof a desperado.
The Satanic portraitis consistentnot only in
motivationand in the moral judgmentsthat the
poet or his divine personae pronounceon this
character,but also in the continuityand coherence of the heroicmask itself. The heroicvaunt,
the concealmentof fear or despair,the sense of
injuredmerit,the pursuitof revenge,the resentmentof superiorauthority,
the jealousy of rivals
-these are familiartraitsin manyof the heroes
of classical and Renaissance epics. "Love and
Ambition,"in Davenant's opinion,
are too oftenthe ragingFeavers of greatmindes.
Yet Ambition(if the vulgaracceptionof the Word
werecorrected)wouldsignifieno morethanan extraordinary
liftingof the feetin the roughways of
Honor,over the impediments
of Fortune;and hath
a warmth(till it be chaf'dintoa Feaver) whichis
necessary
foreveryvertuousbreast.
Ambitionis indeed"a fault,"Hobbes replied,but
it nevertheless"has somewhat Heroique in it,
and thereforemust have place in an Heroique
Poem." 61
61Sir William Daveniant's Gondibert, ed. David F.
Gladish (Oxford, 1971), pp. 13, 50. In Novum Organum
(Dick, p. 539) Bacon distinguishedthree kinds or grades
of ambition in mankind: Those who "desire to extend
their own power in their native country" exhibit a "vulgar and degenerate" kind of ambition. Those who "labour to extend the power of their country and its dominion among men" possess "more dignity, though no
less covetousness." Nobler and more wholesome is the
274
JOHN M. STEADMAN
Achilles was "not a perfecthero," Dryden observed, "nor so intendedby the poet." Nevertheless he was "perfectin the strengthof his
body, and the vigor of his mind. Had he been
less passionate,or less revengeful,the poet well
foresawthat Hector had been killed, and Troy
taken,at the firstassault." His "cholerand obstinatedesire of vengeance"were indubitablyvicious, but it was his courage that the epic presented for imitation,"not his pride and disobedienceto his general,nor his brutalcrueltyto his
dead enemy,nor the selling of his body to his
father." Homer had characterizedhis hero not
only as foremostamong the Greeks in strength
and courage but also as a man "of so fierya
temper,so impatientof an injury"thathe openly
insultedhis king and general. Tasso's Rinaldo
was a "man of the same temper." "You see,"
Drydenconcluded,
[PROC. AMER. PHIL.
SOC.
of his victory:"But what will not Ambitionand
Revenge/Descend to? . . . Revenge,at firstthough
sweet,/ Bitter ere long back on itselfrecoils."
The love of glory and dominionand the study
of revengeare too deep-seated,however,to be
eradicatedevenby thissense of presentand future
bemisery;and the Adversary'snew self-hatred
comes inextricablyinterwovenwith his old selflove.
VIII
Although Satan has sufferedmiserieson the
throneof hell,he has notlosthis lustfora throne.
his doIn endeavoringto extendand strengthen
minionby annexingthe newlycreatedworld,he
not only undertakesheroic labors-the voyage
throughchaos, the espionage missionacross the
frontiersof light,the penetrationof enemyterritoryunder constantsurveillanceand patrol-but
how littlethesegreatauthorsdid esteemthe point voluntarilystoops to roles that seem in his own
of honour,so muchmagnified
by theFrench,and so eyes ignominiousand humiliating. The bestial
aped by us. They made theirheroes disguisesseem ignoble,but theyare (he believes)
ridiculously
menof honour;butso as notto divestthemquiteof the only means of avoidingdetection. His flight
themhumanpassionsand frailties,
theycontented
selvesto showyou whatmenof greatspiritswould fromGabriel may look like cowardice,but it is
notwhatthey also good sense if he really intendsto complete
do whentheywereprovoked,
certainly
wereobligedto do bythestrictruleofmoralvirtue.62 his enterprisesuccessfully. Having read his lot
futilityof
Miltondoes, to be sure,portraythe devil's dis- in the celestial scales, he knows the
Flight
and
force.
by
decisive
victory
seeking
a
withhis ownrulingmotive.". . . such
illusionment
feasible
the
only
being,
the
time
are,
for
fraud
joy Ambitionfinds,"he declares on Mount Nirecourse.
phates. And again, on choosingthe instrument
Despite the gradual shiftin tactics fromviolence to cunning,Satan's controllingmotiveand
ambition (if it may be truly called such) "to establish his granddesignremainessentially
unaltered;and
and extend the power and dominion of the human race on his second advent he is successful. Having
itself over the universe," restoring "the empire of man
over things" through the arts and sciences. Satan's am- failed on a formeroccasion to overcomean ombition would fall under the firsttwo categories; but it is nipotentadversaryby force,he has apparently
with an ambition roughly analogous to the third that he scoreda victoryagainstan omniscient
foe through
seduces Eve.
he has completedthe first
Singlehandedly
guile.
As an incentive to great achievements,ambition could
worldconquestwithno otherarmamentsthanan
be greatly evil as well as greatly good. Bodin found in
the love of glory a stimulus that might compel a man apple, and with no wounds or casualties except
to acts of destructionbut that could also lead him beyond the threatof a futurebruise. In comparisonwith
these deeds of violence to nobler pursuits: "the more the exploits of later conquerorsand destroyers,
noble each man is, the furtherhe disassociates himself
his achievementswould seem "above heroic,"in
from the level of the beasts, and little by little he is carhe has chosen.
spite of the base instruments
may
he
that
so
ried forward by eagerness for glory,
The Satanic image is, to be sure, the portrait
eclipse the rest. From this comes the lust for domination
and the violence inflictedupon the weak. Hence, also, of a false heroism,an eidolon of the true heroic
come the discords, wars, slavery,and massacres. But this virtues. The seeminglyheroic constancywith
kind of life is turbulent and full of danger, an empty
whichthe devil prosecuteshis enterprisesprings
glory which cannot satisfy a man of lofty soul; as a
result a man naturally well endowed is gradually carried (as his own oratoryreveals) from a renewed
over to activities of moral and intellectual excellence, dedicationto evil. Like the infernalkingdomitwhich earn true praise and lasting fame"; Jean Bodin, self,his strategyis foundedon unrelenting
oppoMethod for the Easy Comprehensionof History, tr. Beaa
of
the
it
is
divine
to
the
dynamic
sition
part
will;
trice Reynolds (New York, 1966), pp. 29-30.
interplayof contraries-goodand evil, order and
62 Watson 1: pp. 163-165; 2: pp. 185-186, 228.
VOL. 120, NO. 4, 1976]
LOST
275
disorder,lightand darkness-that the deitywill invokethisformulain theircounsels.) In heaven
exploit in the interestsof his own providential itselfSatan resortsto guile as well as to violence,
dialecticand that Milton himselfwill utilizeboth inventinga pretextto withdrawhis forcesto his
in structuring
his plotand in developingits moral own idomain,openinghis artilleryfireunderpreimplications. The Satanic hero is both anti-hero text of truceand concealinghis new weapons to
and pseudo-hero:a foilto the heroismof the Son hide the fraud. In hell he conceals his despair;
of God, but also thearchetypeof a familiarsecular and on Mount Niphates-"Artificerof fraud"heroismthatthe poet will condemnas spurious.63 he maskshis passionsunder"saintlyshew." HyThe aesthetic,as well as the didactic,value of the pocrisyand guile are latent,and frequently
patent,
Satanic eidolon depends,in part at least, on its in his characterfromthe beginning. He enters
consistency. It is both traditionaland false,and Paradise as a spy, and here external circumthe poet mustrepresentit consistently
underboth stancesalone make his resortto ruse and disguise
lights,juxtaposingthe authorityof divine judg- both probableand necessaryif he is to complete
ment with the authorityof human tradition,the the missionforwhichhe has volunteered.
testimonyof the eternalWord withthe poetryof
His passage fromthe infernalcapital to Eden
the ancientGentiles.
necessarilyentails a shiftin roles, fromthe unThough the contrastingfacets of the Satanic daunted leader to the wily spy; but he has, in
image, the ambitiousarchangel,the subtle ser- effect,merelyexchangedone heroicmask foranpent, were implicitin Milton's Biblical sources, other. The sense of injuredmeritand the pride
he was compelledto fuse theminto a consistent in his own strengthare reminiscentof Achilles
and coherentcharacterand to make the transition and Ajax and Turnus. The address reminding
fromone aspect to anotherseem probableor nec- his warriorsof theirformerprowessrecalls Caeessary. In the openingscenes in hell, forceand sar's harangue to his troops on invadingItaly.
fraud are both presentedas viable alternatives. Both Aeneas and Odysseus had displayedsimilar
(The formulaaut z4 aut dolo had long been a concernfor the sufferingsof their companions;
commonplacein militaryand politicaltheoryas and theformerhad, like Satan, endeavoredto find
well as in poetic and historicalliterature,and it new territoriesfor theirsettlement.Afterquitis hardlysurprisingthatthe fallenangels should ting Pandaemonium,however, Satan's role becomes increasinglysuggestiveof the Odyssean
model,as he adapts his behaviorand his persona
63 Cf. Cornelius
Agrippa's judgment of the heroes of
ancient history,in De incertitudineet vantitatescientiarum to new and perilous situations. At Hell-gate,
et artium: "as for those who so much extol . . . Hercules, open defianceof the infernalwarders yields to
Achilles, Hector, Theseus, Epamino[n]das, Lysander, wily blandishments.During a voyage more hazThemistocles, Xerxes, Cyrus, Darius, Alexander, Pyr- ardous thanthose
of Odysseusand theArgonauts
rhus, Hannibal, Scipio, Pompey, and Caesar-what have
they done but described the greatest and most furious he fileshis tongueto win the favorof the dangerthieves and robbers in the world? True, they were great ous powersof thevoid. Like Odysseushe undergenerals: yet, they were the worst and wickedest of takes a mission of espionage,penetrateshostile
men"; Renaissance Philosophy, ed. and tr. Herman Shaterritoryin ignominiousdisguises,and plots the
piro and Arturo B. Fallico (New York, 1969) 2: p. 78.
fall
of a kingdomby trickery.
Davenant declared that the sanctityof the ancient pagans
Like Odysseus,he is also a skillfulorator; and,
was honor, "and their Honor only an impudentcourage
or dexterityin destroying"; Gladish, p. 10. In Book IV,
as the Odyssean mask graduallymergesthrough
Milton juxtaposes the heroic motif of ambition and the
successiveanimal disguises into that of the serpastoral commonplace of content, by first presenting
pent,
the craft of the sophisticrhetoricianand
Adam and Eve to us through Satan's eyes. In this scene
he not only undercuts the topos of heroic ambition by the guile of the snake becomeone. The insinuatassociating it with the devil, but also undercuts common ing braid of the serpentforeshadowsthe oblique
notions of high and base condition,hero and swain. The
insinuatiowith which the tempterbegins his setrue heroic virtue belongs to the primitivegardeners conduction
of Eve.64 Althoughetymological
speculatented with their rural seat. In sharp contrast to Mil-
ton, Davenant represented contentmentitself as a vice
(Gladish, pp. 13-14): "good men are guilty of too little
appetite to greatnesse, and it either proceeds from that
they call contentednesse (but contentednesse when examin'd doth meane something of Lasynesse as well as
moderation) or from some melancholy precept of the
Cloyster."
64 In The Advancement of Learning
Bacon refers to
"Imaginative or Insinuative Reason" as the subject of
rhetoric; Selected Writings of Francis Bacon, ed. Hugh
G. Dick (New York, 1955), pp. 330-331. For insinuatio
(the oblique or "subtle" approach) as one of the two
kinds of exordium in classical rhetoric,see Ad C. Heren-
276
JOHN M. STEADMAN
tion concerningthe heroic status of oratorsand
sophistscould reinforcethe devil's pretensionsto
heroism,his role is (of course) an ironicperversion of the idealizedconceptionsof the oratorand
his art as expressedby Cicero and Quintilianand
elaboratedby Renaissancehumanists: 65 theorator
as vir bonus and public benefactor;and the art
of rhetoricitselfan instrument
of ethicsand politics, a means for securingthe public good and
[PROC. AMER. PHIL.
SOC.
preservingthe public safety. The strikingcontrastbetweenthe humanisticideal of oratoryand
the devil's abuse of rhetoricin the cause of tyrannyis implicitin Milton'sallusionto the orators
of "Athensor freeRome."
Satan's literaryaffinities
are not,of course,restrictedto Homer and Virgil. He has been compared with the Capaneus of Statius and Dante,
withLucan's Caesar,66withAriosto'sRodomonte
nium De Ratione Dicendt, tr. Harry Caplan (Cambridge,
Mass. and London, 1954), pp. 11-13, 21, 29, 169; Cicero,
De Inventione, tr. H. M. Hubbell (London and Cambridge, Mass., 1949), pp. 42-51; The Institutio Oratoria
of Quintilian, tr. H. E. Butler (4 v., London and New
York, 1921) 2: pp. 27-33. According to De Inventione,
"Insinuation is an address which by dissimulation and
indirectionunobtrusivelysteals into the mind of the auditor"; it should be used when "there is somethingscandalous in the case" ("si aut inest in ipsa causa quaedam
turpitudo"). By the "Direct Opening" (principium),
according to the Rhetorica ad Herennium, the orator
makes his audience "well-disposed or attentive or receptive" by straightforwardmethods; by the insinuatio or
"subtle approach" he effects "all these results covertly,
through dissimulation." In scandalous cases ("in turpi
causae genere"), according to Quintilian, certain rhetoricians "would have the orator on such occasions insinuate
himselflittle by little into the minds of his judges, especially when the features of the case which meet the eye
are discreditable,or because the subject is disgraceful or
such as to meet with popular disapproval, or again if the
outward circumstancesof the case are such as to handicap
it or excite odium."
In his first description of the serpent (in Book IV),
Milton had juxtaposed two differentdenotations of insinuatio-physical and moral-utilizing the former sense
as the vehicle or emblem of the latter:
lent temptation,"with a Proem that likewise follows the
subtle rather than the direct approach-obliquely suggesting ratherthan immediatelyasserting the false miracle
and laying the foundation for his victory over Eve by
implanting the notion of godhead in her thought. The
serpentinetangles which make "intricate seem straight"
are emblematicof the devil's oratory as well as his characteristic guile. His oblique exordium to his principal
harangue-the powerful exhortation in lines 679-732is all the more effectivefor the rhetorical pretense that
there has been no exordium at all: that the serpent is
carried away by righteous indignation and begins, like
some ancient orator, in the height of passion, "as no
delay/ Of Preface brooking through his Zeal of Right."
(For indignatio as "a passage which results in arousing
great hatred against some person, or violent offence at
some action," see De Inventione,pp. 151-157.)
65 See Joseph A. Wittreich,Jr., "'The Crown of Eloquence': The Figure of the Orator in Milton's Prose
Works," in: Achievemeentsof the Left Hand: Essays on
the Prose of John Milton, ed. Michael Lieb and John T.
Shawcross (Amherst, 1974), pp. 3-54; John Steadman,
Milton's Epic Characters: Image and Idol (Chapel Hill,
1968), pp. 258-259, 322. Bodin regarded oratory as one
of the four pillars of the state (Method, p. 32): "Human
society is held together chieflyby the arts of a general,
by jurisprudence,by oratory,and by faith." Sallust had
praised the pursuit of glory and patriotic duty through
words as well as arms: "It is glorious to serve one's
countryby deeds; even to serve her by words is a thing
. . .close the Serpent sly
not to be despised; one may become famous in peace as
Insinuating,wove with Gordian twine
well as in war." Since man is linked with the gods
His braided train, and of his fatal guile
through his mind, and with brutes through his body, in
Gave proof unheeded . .
seeking glory and renown he ought to "employ the
In the scene of Eve's temptationhe continues to inter- resources of the intellect rather than those of brute
weave the two senses, but he reinforces them with the strength"; Sallutst, tr. J. C. Rolfe (London and New
rhetorical sense of insinuatio. The temptationbegins, in York, 1920), pp. 3, 7.
66 Though Satan's ambition and insatiable pursuit of
fact, with the mute rhetoric of gesture, proceeds with a
"Proem" celebrating Eve's "Celestial Beauty" and the glory through war resemble Lucan's characterization of
divine worship it merits,continues with a false explana- Julius Caesar, the analogy applies rather to the leader of
tion of the serpent's miraculous speech, and--only after the angelic rebellion (who, unlike Caesar, is unsuccessfurtheracrobatic and verbal insinuations-continues with ful) and to the "heroic" archangel of Books I and II
a direct challenge to the divine command: "Queen of this than to the fraudulentseducer of mankind. In his expertise at dissimulationthe later Satan bears a closer reUniverse, do not believe/ Those rigid threats of Death;
semblance to Tiberius Caesar than to Julius. Cf. Lucan's
ye shall not Die." Satan insinuates himself into Eve's
description of Julius Caesar: "Caesar could no longer
favor by subtletyof movementas well as of words. To
attract her attention,he moves with "tract oblique/ At endure a superior. . . . [H]is energy could never rest,
first,as one who sought access, but fear'd/ To interrupt." and his one disgrace was to conquer without war. He
Having "of his tortuous Train/ Curl'd many a wanton was alert and headstrong; his arms answered every sumwreath in sight of Eve,! To lure her Eye," he stands mons of ambition or resentment; he followed up each
before her "as in gaze admiring" and fawns upon her success and snatchedat the favour of Fortune, overthrowwith flatteringbut mute gestures. After this silent in- ing every obstacle on his path to supreme power, and
sinuatio he proceeds to the verbal stage of his "fraudu- rejoicing to clear the way before him by destruction";
VOL.
120, NO. 4, 1976]
LOST
277
and withEuropean stereo- he plays a role analogous to that of the Percys
and Tasso's Argante,67
typesof the Orientaldespot.68 As rebelliouspeer and other intriguingbarons in the Yorkist-Lancastrianconflicts.In character,however,he bears
a closer resemblanceto anotherarch-conspirator,
Lucan, The Civil War, tr. J. D. Duff (Cambridge, Mass.
and London, 1969), p. 13.
the courageousand insidiousCataline.69 As unLucan's condemnationof Caesar and Alexander as am- scrupulousinvaderand
destroyer,
he sharestraits
bitious blood-letters and destroyers of freedom, his indictmentof civil war as an unnatural crime, and his dis- withthe CarthaginiangeneralHannibal as Silius
praise of martial valor exercised in a guilty cause fore- Italicushad describedhim:
shadow Milton's representationof a false heroism, his
image of superhuman strengthand cunning perverted to
an evil end. In Book I of the Pharsalia, Nigidius Figulus the astrologer prophesies "the madness of war"; the
"power of the sword shall violentlyupset all legality,and
atrocious crime shall be called heroism." ("Inminet armorum rabies, ferrique potestas/ Confundet ius omne
manu, scelerique nefando/ Nomen erit virtus"; Lucan,
pp. 50-51.) In Book II Nature reverses "the laws and
ordinances of life" and, "while the hurly-burlybred monsters, proclaimed civil war" ("Indixitque nefas") ; Lucan,
pp. 56-57. In contrast to Pompey's reluctance (Book
VII) to join battle and precipitate a "day of universal
destruction"and his awareness that "The act of fighting
will never bring either reproach or glory to me" ("Pompei nec crimenerit nec gloria bellum"), Caesar stakes the
question of guilt or justice on the actual outcome of the
battle. In a bloodthirstyharangue he foresees "rivers of
blood," "nations weltering in unlimited carnage," and a
glorious destiny for himself: "I am the man, who, when
the fightingis over, will have power to give away all
that now belongs to nations and kings"; Lucan, pp. 374391):
In describing the aristeia of Scaeva, a soldier in Caesar's army (Book VI), Lucan develops the motifof solitary valor-the "one-man" topos subsequentlyelaborated
in the heroic poetry of Milton and Dryden: "But though
Fortune with a thousand squadrons combined and all
Caesar's might could not make good the post, one man
snatched it from the conquerors and forbade its capture."
"Fortune sees a new pair meet in combat-a man against
an army." (At the conclusion of the angelic war Milton
converts this motif into a theophany,as the Son of God
singlehandedly vanquishes the rebel host. Elsewhere,
however, he adapts it to less martial contexts: to the
verbal polemics of the loyal angel Abdiel and to the
"one just man" in successive scenes from Old Testament
history,defending the cause of truth against a perverse
world.) Nevertheless, for all his courage, Scaeva is
fightingin an unjust cause; and, like Satan, he is a vicious hero: "ready for any wickedness, he knew not that
valour in civil war is a heinous crime" (Lucan, pp. 314319):
Pronus ad omne nefas et qui nesciret, in armis
Quam magnum virtus crimen civilibus esset.
And here, finally, is Lucan's verdict on that "Felix
praedo" Alexander of Macedon, "that fortunate freebooter, cut off by a death that avenged the world"
(Lucan, pp. 590-593):
The limbs that should have been scattered over the
whole earth they laid in a hallowed shrine; Fortune
spared his dead body, and the destiny of his reign
endured to the last. For if Freedom had ever made
men their own masters again, his body would have
By nature he was eager for action and faithlessto
his plightedword, a past master in cunning,but a
strayerfromjustice. Once armed he had no respect
for Heaven; he was brave for evil and despised the
glory of peace, and a thirstfor human blood burned
in his inmostheart.70
been preserved for mockery-a man who was born
to teach this bad lesson to the world, that so many
lands may obey one lord. . . . he was a pestilence to
earth, a thunderboltthat struck all peoples alike, a
comet of disaster to mankind.
Or, in Milton's own words, one of the manslayers lauded
as great conquerors, gods and patrons of mankind, but
"Destroyers rightliercalled and Plagues of men."
67 For analogies between Satan and Argante (or Argantes), see Edward Weismiller, "Materials Dark and
Crude: A Partial Genealogy for Milton's Satan," Huntington Library Quart. 31 (1967): pp. 75-93.
68 Cf. Hughes, "Satan and the Myth of the Tyrant,"
cited supra.
69 For Cicero's denunciation of Catiline's furor and
effrenata... .audacia, see Selected Orations and Letters of
Cicero, ed. Harold W. Johnston (Chicago, 1892), p. 79.
For the historyof Catiline's conspiracy and Cicero's role
in suppressing it, see pp. 21-39. In The War with Catiline, Sallust acknowledges the conspirator's heroic qualities as well as his depravity: "Lucius Catilina, scion of
a noble family had great vigour both of mind and of
body [magna vi et animi et corporis], but an evil and
depraved nature. From youth up he revelled in civil
wars, murder,pillage, and political dissension. . . . His
body could endure hunger, cold and want of sleep to an
incredibledegree; his mind was reckless, cunning,treacherous, capable of any form of pretence or concealment.
Covetous of others' possessions, he was prodigal of his
own; he was violent in his passions. He possessed a
certain amount of eloquence, but little discretion. His
disordered mind ever craved the monstrous, incredible,
gigantic [Vastus animus immoderata, incredibilia, nimia
alta semper cupiebat]"; Sallust, pp. 8-11.
In The Advancement of Learning (Dick, p. 372),
Bacon refersto Catiline's "protestation. . . to set on fire
and trouble states, to the end to fish in droumy waters,
and to unwrap their fortunes: Ego si quid in fortunis
meis excitatum sit incendium,id non aqua sed ruina restinguam."
70 Silius Italicus, Punica, tr. J. D. Duff (London and
Cambridge, Mass., 1934) 1: pp. 6-9, "Ingenio motus avidus fideique sinister/is fuit,exsuperans astu, sed devius
aequi./ armatus nullus divum pudor; improba virtus/ et
pacis despectus honos; penitusque medullis/ sanguinis
humani flagrat sitis."
278
JOHN M. STEADMAN
[PROC. AMER. PHIL.
SOC.
The splendidvices that Satan shares with the the true.74 In the contextof the revolt of the
kingsand warriorsof classical epic and history71 angels and the seductionof Eve, Bacon's experi75 acquire ironicimalso linkhim withotherconqueringheroeswhose mentaluciferaand fructifera
pretensesto heroic virtue were far more ques- plications,thoughone is not altogetherconvinced
tionable: men of violence like the glory-seeking thatMiltonintendedthem.
of Cain, and ambigiantsamong the idescendants
On the whole,most of the literaryor historical
tious tyrantslike Nimrod.72 Yet he also bears a parallels to Milton's archangel are significant
clear,thoughlimited,resemblanceto morebenign ratheras typesthanas specificsourcesor as conmodelsof the hero: to foundersof citiesand em- sciouslyintendedallusions. As typesthev recur,
pires, to voyagersand discoverersof new lands, moreover,even more frequentlyin politicalhisand inventorsof arms and arts. tory than in epic literature,and a systematic
to culture-heroes
As the discovererof gunpowderand inventorof search for such parallels would surely be selfthe cannon,he anticipatesdiscoveriesthat Bacon defeating. The mask of the idevilis composite,
im- and the Satanic image is, on the whole, sui geand LeRoy would regardas of revolutionary
portance; and perhaps he mightqualifyfor the
74 Bacon frequentlyutilized heroic topoi in order to
divinehonorsthat antiquitybestowed (as Bacon
observed) upon the "authors of inventions." elevate the inventorand scientistabove more conventional
types. According to the Proemium of his De InIn this case also, however,the heroicstandardis heroic
terpretationeNaturae (Dick, pp. 150-151) primitivemanambiguous,and Milton subvertsit by applyingit kind had bestowed divine honors on "the authors of rude
of destructionratherthan pro- inventionsand discoveries." Whereas the "good effects
to an instrument
duction,and to an inventorwho is a malefactor wrought by foundersof cities, law-givers, fathers of the
people, extirpers of tyrants,and heroes of that class" are
ratherthan a benefactorof mankind. In an epic confined
to brief periods of time and to narrow space, the
centeredon forbiddenknowledge,Baconian im- "work of the Inventor . . . is felt everywhere and lasts
ages and commonplacescould reinforceMilton's for ever." Nobler still, however, is the man who sucportraitsof the false intellectualhero as well as ceeds not merely in discovering some particular invention
71 In the eyes of Renaissance humanists, both history
and poetry provided moral and political exempla that
served as instrumentsof persuasion as well as instruction. In Bodin's opinion, the greatest "benefitof historical books" was that "some men, at least, can be incited to
virtue and others can be frightenedaway from vice";
Bodin, p. 9. In his Discourses on the First Ten Books of
Titus Livius (tr. Christian E. Detmold), Machiavelli
protestedthat, although the moderns were willing to pay
great prices to artists to imitate the statues of the ancients, they failed signally to imitate the virtue and wisdom of antiquity as recorded in ancient history: "when
we see, on the other hand, the wonderfulexamples which
the history of ancient kingdoms and republics presents
to us, the prodigies of virtue and of wisdom displayed
by the kings, captains, citizens, and legislators who have
sacrificed themselves for their country,-when we see
these . . . more admired than imitated,or so much neglected that not the least trace of this ancient virtue remains, we cannot but be . . . as much surprised as afflicted"; Niccol6 Machiavelli, The Prince and the Discourses, introd. by Max Lerner (New York, 1950), p.
104.
72 See Robert H. West, "Milton's 'Giant Angels,"'
Modern Language Notes 67 (1952): pp. 21-23; Hughes,
"Satan and the Myth of the Tyrant," cited supra; Steadman, Milton's Epic Characters, pp. 177-193.
73 See Novum Organum in Dick, pp. 537-538; cf.
Steadman, "Beyond Hercules: Bacon and the Scientist as
Hero," Studies in the Literary Imagination 4 (1971)
pp. 3-47.
but in "kindling a light in nature." Suzh a man would
indeed be the "benefactor . . . of the human race"-as
"propagator of man's empire over the universe," as
"champion of liberty," and as "conqueror and subduer
of necessities." Comparisons of intellectual discovery to
new geographical voyages of exploration are likewise
frequent in Bacon's writings; cf. Dick, p. 525, "that
New Continent." In his scientificutopia, his ideal research foundationaims at "the knowledge of Causes, and
secret motions of things" and at the "enlarging of the
bounds of Human Empire"; New Atlantis, in Dick, p.
574.
75 In Novum Organum (Dick, p. 517)
Bacon contrasts experimenta fructifera (which aim at immediate
practical results) with experimenta lucifera (which "are
of no use in themselves, but simply serve to discover
causes and axioms"). Cf. Preface to Magna Instauratio
(Dick, p. 433): "all industryin experimentinghas begun
with proposing to itself certain definiteworks to be accomplished, and has pursued them with premature and.
unseasonable eagerness; it has sought . . . experiments.
of Fruit, not experimentsof Light; not imitatingthe divine procedure,which in its firstday's work created light
only." Experience (Bacon asserts in Novur Organum)
is by far "the best demonstration. . . , if it go not beyond
the actual experiment"; p. 488. In Paradise Lost Eve is
misled both by her own experimentand by the serpent's
false report of his experience with the forbidden fruit;
afterher fall she acknowledges "Experience"-next to the
tree of knowledge itself-as her best guide. Strictlyspeaking, Lucifer's invention of cannon and gunpowder is a
"fructiferous" rather than a "luciferous" experiment;
the forbidden fruit, on the other hand, involves a "luciferous" experiment, experience of the wisdom of the
gods and the knowledge of causes.
VOL. 120, NO. 4, 1976]
neris: it does not consistentlyfollow any single
poeticor historicalprototype.Yet beforeleaving
the subject we should recall two furtheranalogies: Satan's markedresemblanceto the Machiavellian prince,and his own parodic imitationof
the royaland redemptiveroles of Christ.
Ix
In undertakingthe long and dangerousvoyage
to discoverand conquer a new world, expelling
or enslavingits innocentinhabitants,Satan foreshadows the exploitsof the Renaissancevoyagers
and conquistadores.76Althoughdrivenby envy
and revenge,he is also inspired (like the conquerors of the West Indies) with love of honor
and empire. He is the archetypalimperialistas
well as the archetypaltyrant;and his conquest
of Eden parallelsthe destructionof a new-world
paradise, as certain Renaissance humanistssaw
it. In their eyes, the new world was another
7 6 The paradisal imagery applied
to the New World
and its inhabitants represented only one facet-and at
times a minor one-of the Renaissance conception of
America. Like idyllic images of the primitiveconditionof
mankind,it was oftencomplementedand sometimesovershadowed by more pejorative views. The antithesis between the primitiveand civilized states of society served
as a topos for contraryarguments: the freedomand simplicity of man's natural condition-or the advantages of
a political order; the classical ideal of life according to
nature-or the glory of arts and sciences. This antithesis is apparent in the contrast between the splendid
civilization of hell (the glitteringcreation of an infernal
renaissance) and the Arcadian simplicity of Eden. In
its ambition, its arms and arts, and its political order,
Pandaemonium foreshadows the civilization of the children of Cain and the worldly glories of the Augustinian
civitas terrena. In the description of Eden Milton exploits the conventional primitivisticand pastoral topoi;
but he neverthelesshedges them about with qualifications.
The paradisal life and the glories of man's primitive
state belong to a prelapsarian world and they perish with
Adam's fall. External nature is altered as well as the
nature of man. His postlapsarian existence will be far
from idyllic; and only through primitive skills-agriculture and the use of fire-will he and his posterity
survive.
As anti-Hispanic propaganda, the so-called leyenda
negra of Spanish crueltyderived much of its material and
many of its arguments from Spanish officialswho had
denounced the maltreatmentof the natives by soldiers of
fortune,or from Spanish clergymenwho had maintained
that the Indians could be convertedto the Christian faith
more effectivelyby persuasion and good example than by
violence. In the eyes of other nations,the rulers of Spain
had disguised theirpursuitof wealth and dominionunder a
cloak of religious zeal. For these and related issues, see
the forthcomingProceedings of the International Conference on First Images of America: The Impact of the
New World on the Old, held at the University of California at Los Angeles in February, 1975.
279
Eden, and the life of its inhabitantsrecalledthe
paradisal existence of men in the golden age.
Noble primitives,
naked as truthherselfand clad
only in their native innocenceand virtue,they
lived in peace and contentin theiroriginalstate
of nature,guided by naturallaw and rejoicingin
their native liberties. For these, the European
conquestwas a disaster,corruptingtheiroriginal
simplicity,
destroyingtheircontent,and enslaving
themphysicallyand spiritually.
In justifyinghis conquestof "this new world,"
Satan pleads the excuse of politicalnecessityand
raison d'etat.77 These are Machiavellian topoi,
implicitin the writingsof the Florentinehimself
and subsequentlyelaboratedby his disciplesand
his critics; theyevoke the image of the Machiavellianprince. Satan's affinities
withthe Machiavellianhero are not exhausted,however,by this
single allusion to "public reason just." To a
certain extent,the image of the Machiavellian
ruler,seekingnew dominionsby his own native
abilities(virti') and conqueringby forceor fraud,
gives unityand coherenceto the varietyof heroic
masks with which the poet investshis aspiring
(and descending)arch-rebel. As heroicformula,
it unitsthe disparateimagesof the wilydeceiver,
77 For Milton's knowledge of Machiavelli's
Discorsi
and his Dell' Arte della Guerra, see Ruth Mohl, John
Milton and His Commonplace Book (New York, 1969).
From Machiavelli he drew argumentsconcerningtyranny
(p. 211), republican and monarchical government (pp.
252, 277), rebellion (pp. 280-281), and similar topics.
From the French Protestant Andre Rivet, Milton quoted
a "denunciation of injustices sanctioned by political expedience." Attacking the political "sagacity of the age,"
Rivet protested that "what they consider useful they do
not hesitate to choose rather than the honorable; what
they judge to be useful, they consider necessary, and
what is necessary is permissible." Ten years before enteringthis passage in his Commonplace Book, Milton had
described "the masterpiece of a modern politician" in
similar terms: "how rapine may serve it selfe with the
fair, and honourable pretences of publick good, how the
puny Law may be brought under the wardship, and controul of lust and will; in which attemptif they fall short,
then must a superficialcolour of reputationby all means
direct or indirect be gotten to wash over the unsightly
bruise of honor"; Mohl, pp. 40, 284. According to Friedrich Meinecke, Machiavellism: The Doctrine of Raisons
d'etat and Its Place in Modern History, tr. Douglas
Scott (New York and Washington, 1965), pp. 46-47n,
ragione di stato began to become a catchphrase in "the
third decade of the 16th century,"but the theoreticaldiscussion of this concept was "initiatedby Botero in 1589."
See also Joseph A. Bryant,Jr., "A Note on Milton's Use
of Machiavelli's Discorsi," Modern Philology 47 (1950):
pp. 217-221; and the discussion by Merritt Hughes, in:
Complete Poetry and Major Prose and related editions.
280
JOHN M1. STEADMAN
theaudaciouswarlord,theprudentleader,and the
pattern:a typethat
tyrantin a single,intelligible
was clearlyrecognizablefor the poet's contemporaries and possessed both political and spiritual
relevanceforhis age.
Satan's moral ambiguity-heroand villain,republicanand tyrant-is reinforcedby the uneasy
tensionbetweenethicaland politicalvalues in The
Prince. Though Machiavellistressesthe distinctionbetweenthoseprinceswho have acquirednew
dominionsby villainy(Agathocles,Oliverottoda
Fermo) and those who have acquired their dominionsby theirown armsand ability(Francesco
Sforza) or else by fortuneor the power of others
(Cesare Borgia), the categoriesare not clearly
drawn. Despite his courage and greatness of
soul, Agathocles'crueltybars him fromthe hall
of fame;78 yet an effectiveprincemust on occasion risk the accusationof crueltyin pursuitof
his political goals. (The differenceappears to
be largelya matterof degree.) A princeshould,
if possible, keep good faith; yet he should not
hesitateto break it when expediencydictates.
Though Satan may be a villain in the sightof
heavenas well as liar ab initio,he retainsthroughout the greaterpart of the fablea familylikeness
to the Machiavellianprince; if he could have read
II Principe,one suspectsthathe mighthave recognizedhis own featuresthere. Though quick to
offeredhim,
seize the occasions or opportunities
he acquires his realms throughhis own virtz>in
defianceof "fortune"and divinewill. Achieving
he rivals
new dominionsagainstgreat difficulties,
Cesare Borgia in "great courage and high ambition,"in resolutionto conquerby forceor fraud,
and in abilityto commandreverenceand obedience from his troops. Like the Machiavellian
prince,he is an expert on problemsof war and
its discipline,can be cruel in the pursuitof political goals, can break faithwhen he deems it exhe knows
pedient. In prosecutinghis enterprise,
how to act the beast,to imitatethe fox79 in guile
[PROC. AMER. PHIL.
SOC.
as well as the lion in violence. He achieves his
goal by astutenessand he excuses his choice of
meansby its end. Finally,his concernwithmere
appearances, especially evident in the "heroic"
scenes of the early books, and his skill in disguising his real passions and his actual motives
under the masks of pretendedvirtues associate
him with the Machiavelliantradition.80In the
80 "The desire to acquire possessions," Machiavelli had
argued in The Prince, "is a very natural and ordinary
thing,and when those men do it who can do so successfully,they are always praised and not blamed"; Vincent,
p. 41. The great men who acquired new dominions by
their own arms and ability (virtPu) "owed nothing to
fortune but the opportunitywhich gave them matter to
be shaped into what form they thought fit." Though
in making their way"
such men encounter"great difficulty
and must overcome dangers by their own abiiities, their
success insures them veneration; and once they have
"suppressed those who envied them, they remain powerful and secure, honoured and happy"; Vincent, pp. 49-50.
Francesco Sforza became duke of Milan throughhis own
great abilities, whereas the fortunes of Cesare Borgia,
despite his great virtlt.,were linked with those of his
father. Nonetheless Borgia was "an example to be imitated by all who by fortuneand with the arms of others
have risen to power. For with his great courage and
high ambition he could not have acted otherwise. Whoever, therefore,deems it necessary in his new principality
to secure himself against enemies, . . . to conquer by
force or fraud, . . . followed and reverenced by the soldiers, . . . such a one can find no better example than
the actions of this man"; Vincent, pp. 52-58.
One may also become a prince throughvillainy, as did
Agathocles and Oliverotto da Fermo. Agathocles' virtues "in braving and overcomingperils, and his greatness
of soul in supporting and surmountingobstacles" place
him among "the most renowned captains," but his "barbarous cruelty and inhumanity"exclude him from the
ranks of the most famous men. One "cannot attribute
to fortune or virtue that which he achieved without
either"; Vincent, pp. 59-60.
The prince should "have no other aim or thought
but war and its organisation and discipline, for that is
the only art . . . necessary to one who commands"; Vincent, p. 81. He should not "mind the charge of cruelty
for the purpose of keeping his subjects united and faithful"; Vincent, p. 89. If necessary,he should break faith;
in these days princes "have done great things who have
78 See Meinecke, p. 33, on Agathocles; Niccol6 Machihad little regard for good faith, and have been able by
avelli, The Printce,tr. Luigi Ricci, rev. E. R. P. Vincent astuteness to confuse men's brains, and who have ulti(New York, 1952), p. 60: "It cannot be called virtue to mately overcome those who have made loyalty their
kill one's fellow-citizens,betray one's friends,be without foundation." He must know how "to use both the beast
faith, without pity, and without religion; by these meth- and the man," to fightby force as well as by law. Knowing "how to act as a beast," he must "imitate the fox and
ods one may indeed gain power, but not glory."
the lion," breaking faith when it no longer serves his
79 Though Machiavelli censured the "brutta cupidita di
regnare," he neverthelesspraised "la voglia e la necessita interest. He should endeavor to "seem merciful,faithful,
dello acquistare," and he believed that the prince should humane, sincere, religious, and also to be so"; but when
know how "to make use of the brute as well as the necessary he must "be able to change to the opposite
The prince who did not want to be ruined qualities, . . . able to do evil if constrained." "Let a
man...."
"must behave like a fox among foxes, vulpinari curnvul- prince thereforeaim at conquering and maintaining the
state, andl the means will always be judged honourable
pibus"; Meinecke, pp. 41-45.
VOL.
120, NO. 4, 1976]
"glorious Enterprise"in heaven, to be sure, he
violates the firstprincipleof the Machiavellian
code and he loses. In the more modestobjective
he sets forhis secondenterprise,
he is successful;
and, by Machiavellianstandards,he may justly
expecthonorand applause.
Satan's political tergiversation-in heaven a
scourgeof monarchy,in hell a monarchhimselfis paralleledby the tensionbetweenMachiavelli's
republicansympathiesand his programfor the
Renaissance prince.81 The revoltingangel can
appeal to Machiavellianprinciplesto justifyhis
and praised by every one, for the vulgar is always taken
by appearances and the issue of the event"; Vincent, pp.
92-94.
Finally, "Nothing causes a prince to be so mu^h esteemed as great enterprisesand giving proof of prowess."
Ferdinand of Aragon became famous throughhis military
power. Moreover, in order "to be able to undertake
greater enterprises,and always under the pretext of religion, he had recourse to a pious cruelty,driving out the
Moors from his kingdom and despoiling them. No more
miserable or unusual example can be found. He also
attacked Africa under the same pretext"; Vincent, p. 110.
Cf. Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Rentaissan1ce in Italv, tr. S. G. C. Middlemore (New York,
1950), p. 93, on Machiavelli's criticism of earlier historians of Florence: "'They erred greatly and showed
that they understood little the ambition of men and the
desire to perpetuatea name. How many who could distinguishthemselvesby nothingpraiseworthy,strive to do
so by infamous deeds!'"
Serious writers (Burckhardt
continued) traced the motivationof political conspiracies
and assassinations to the "burning desire" to achieve
"something great and memorable." In the History of
Florenice and of the Affairs of Italy (New York, 1960),
p. 295, Machiavelli described Stefano Porcari's conspiracy
against the pope as the action of a man eager to win
glory by attempting "something worthy of memory."
Porcari had resolved to "deliver his country from the
hands of the prelates, and restore the ancient form of
government; hoping . . . to be considered a new founder
or second father of the city." One of the assassins of
Galeazzo Sforza (Machiavelli, History, p. 355) died with
a Latin epigram on his lips: "Mors acerba, fama perpetua, stabit vetus memoria facti."
81 In Meinecke's opinion (p. 43), "The contrast between the monarchist bias in the Principe and the republican tinge of the Discorsi is only apparent. The
quantityof virtu',which existed in a people, was the factor that decided whether a monarchy or a republic was
the more suitable. So it was only consistent that, for
his disjointed times, he demanded a monarchical despot
and took him to be a necessity of State." The spiritual
and political condition of the fallen angels parallels that
of fallen man; having lost their inner freedom, they
forfeittheir external libertyto a tyrant. In Satan's shift
from republican arguments in heaven to a monarchical
role in hell one may perceive perhaps a realistic, "Machiavellian" response to the diminished virti'tof his fallen
legions.
LOST
281
rebellionagainst an alleged tyrant;the monarch
of hell can exploit other Machiavelliancounsels
to establishand extend his kingdom. The ambiguities that surround the Satanic image as
statesmanand as conqueror-the resemblanceto
classical heroes,the mixtureof publicand private
ends, the equivocal natureof his heroicvirtuerecall the image of the Machiavellianleader as
he appears eitherin the writingsof the Florentine
himselfor in thoseof laterpoliticaltheorists.
Satan himselfclaims to have undertakenhis
enterprisefor the public good, the salus populi.
It is a matterof "public moment,"and his followerspraise himforplacingthe "generalsafety"
beforehis own. When detectedby Gabriel'sangelic guard, he argues the responsibilityof a
faithfulleader; and at his firstglimpseof his intendedprey he pleads the excuse of "public reason." In Milton's eyes, conversely,he is a thief
and a homicide. The antithesiswas traditional
not only in Renaissance critiques of Machiavellism but in patristicattacks on the abuse of
political expendiency. The works of Tacitus
(Meinecke observed) "are steepedin the idea of
raison d'etat," such as the statementin the Annals: "Habet aliquid ex iniquo omne magnum
exemplum,quod contrasingulos,utilitatepublica
rependitur." For Saint Augustine,however,an
unjustreignwas merelya grandioseformof robbery: "Remotajustitiaquid suntregnanisi magna
latrocinia?" In contrastto pagan antiquity,the
ChristianMiddle Ages was painfullyaware of
the conflictbetweenraison d'etat and the principlesof law and morality;"ruthlessraison d'etat
is really sinful,a sin against God and divine
82
standards."
This antithesisbetweenclassical and Christian
points of view was revived in the Renaissance
(Meinecke suggested) by Machiavelli: "at heart
a heathen," saturated with the "spirit of antiquity." Dazzled by the grandeurof the ancient
world and its ideals of secularglory,the Florentine had "wanted to bring back once again that
unitedstrength
of senseand intellectin thenatural
genuineman, where grandezza d'animo and fortezza del corpo combinedtogetherto createheroism." Even in Agathocles"he recognized. . . a
real virtitand grandezza dell' animo, i.e. great
virtuesin a ruler." In Milton'sruinedarchangel
theclassicalideal is stillrecognizable,even though
thegrandezzad'animois a ruinedgreatness. Es82 Meinecke, pp. 25-29.
JOHN M. STEADMAN
282
[PROC. AMER. PHIL.
tablishinghis realmthroughmurderand betrayal
and in defianceof loyalty,piety, and religion,
Satan resemblesAgathocles(the villainas prince)
more closely than the true Machiavellianhero;
and, like Agathocles,he achieves masteryrather
than true glory.83
Machiavelli'sdistinctionbetweentwo types of
virtH't-thecommoncivicvirtuesand "the wisdom,
energyand ambitionofthegreatfoundersand rul-
SOC.
therewill be also, and necessitacan bringus to
many things,which reason is not strongenough
to drive us to." In order to maintainthe state
(he declared elsewhere), a prince "is oftenobliged (necessitato) to act withoutloyalty,without mercy,withouthumanity,and withoutreligion." If necessary,the ruler "must have the
courage to save the State even con ignominia."
While the argumentfromnecessityservesto justo Milton's tifythe unscrupulousmeans Satan electsto proseers of States"84jiS likewiserelevant
Satan. Indeed it is the tension between them cute his politicalgoals, the stimulusof necessity
of the infernalstate.
underliestheveryfoundation
thatruinshim:
The astonishingpoliticaland militaryrecoveryof
Destinyordain'd
0 had his powerful
of an
the fallenangels is a dramaticfulfillment
Angel,I had stood
Me someinferior
ideal that Meinecke believed to be the "central
Thenhappy....
of
idea in Machiavelli'slife: . . . the regeneration
Unable to brooka superior,the archangelcannot
by means of the virtilof a tyrant,
fallen
people
a
obeylikea "good citizen"of heaven; and the very and by the means of the leveringpower of all the
virtz' that would elevate a Sforza and a Borgia
measuresdictatedby necessita."85
destroyshim.
forMilton'scharacterization
No less significant
The tensionsbetweenvirtu',fortuna,and necesof Satan as "archetypaltyrant,"however,were
sita also recur in the Satanic rhetoric;theyare
the questionsraised by early opponentsor disciimplicitin what Lewis has termed"the Satanic ples of Machiavelli. Della Casa objectedthatthe
predicament." In boastinghis constancyin ad- notionUtileragiondi statoblurredthe distinction
versity,the devil exploits a Stoic commonplace, betweentyrantsand kings,menand beasts. Writof virtueto adversefortune. As- ing afterthe Massacre of St. Bartholomew,the
the superiority
sociatingvirtuewith natural strength,he argues Huguenot Gentilletprotestedthat the law of nathat hell itselfcannot contain"Immortalvigor," ture"forbadeone to followthe advice of Machiaand that "Celestial Virtues rising,will appear/ velli and drivethe inhabitants
out of a conquered
More gloriousand moredread thanfromno fall." country"-a policyechoedin Beelzebub'sproposal
(In reality,like fallenman, he has been shornof to "drive,as we were driven,/The puny inhabihis virtue; and, subsequentlybeholding"Virtue tants,or ifnot drive,/Seduce themto our party."
in her shape how lovely,"he will grieve at his GentilletrecognizedMachiavelli's scheme as an
own loss.) He will be adept at seizingthe occa- effortto establisha despotism. Bodin insisted
sions for positiveaction that fortune(i.e. provi- thatthe rulershouldaim at the salus populi,and
dence) offershim,but will otherwise(in his own he rejected a "boundlesslyambitiouspolicy of
view) owe nothingelse to fortune. He glories powerand conquest." Nevertheless(like Machiin escaping the burninglake throughhis own avelli) he demandeda "typeof resolution,which
Not by the
virti", his own "recover'dstrength,/
will overcomeany irrationallimitationsdue to a
of supernalPower." Later (in his own sense of honour"; in his opinion,"Nothing can
sufferance
eyes) he conquers a world by his own virtz' appear contemptible,
whichis bound up with the
ratherthanby fortune'said. (In fact,of course, safetyof the State."86
he has been indirectlyruled by providence,and
Boccalini, in turn, declared that self-interest
he has achievedhis conquest-his only conquest- "tyrannizesover the souls of tyrants"and even
less throughvirtuethan throughvillainy.)
over otherprinces. When "ambitionentersthe
Excusing "his devilishdeeds" with"necessity,/ soul of a prince,thenhe is no longera protector
The Tyrant's plea," he again invokesa Machia- of men,no longera viceroyof God on earth; he
vellian topos. Necessitywas not onlythe source changesintoa dragon,a Lucifer." "The interest
of morality,accordingto Machiavelli; it was also of the State is exactlylike a hound of Actaeon,
usefulfor humanactionsand oftenled to glory: it tears out the entrailsof its own master. Hell
"The morenecessitafthereis, . . .themorevirti'
83
84
Meinecke, pp. 31-33.
Meinecke, p. 32.
85
86
Meinecke, pp. 37, 40-41, 60.
Meinecke, pp. 47-48, 53, 55, 60.
VOL. 120, NO. 4, 1976]
has no terrorwhichcould frighten
the heartthat
is filledwith the passion for ruling." "The desire to governis a daemonwhicheven holywater
will not drive out." The historyof Rome provided a spectaclenot of greatnessbut of robberies
and worldwidedevastation. The gloryof a Tiberius and the greatestvirtu'of a ruler sprang
fromthe dark and gloomy"depthsof the soul,"
the "cupezza dell 'animo."87
Later theoristsdistinguished
betweengood and
bad reasons of state. In Chiaramonti'sopinion,
the evil ragione di stato was "rooted in an excessive strivingfor domination." Whereas "the
good kind was directedtowardsthe generalwellbeing and happiness,by methodsacceptable to
moralityand religion,"the "bad kindmade use of
impermissible
methods,and was aimed at the special and personaladvantageof the rulers." Machiavelli's doctrine amounted (Chiaramonti protested) to positive "adoration of the ruler"; it
made him "the measureof all acts, the source of
all justiceand moralgoodness,"and endowedhim
"with divine attributes." Ludovico Settola, on
the otherhand, believedthat the real aim of the
ragione di stato was not the public welfarebut
the welfareof "thosewho were at the head of the
State." Frachettaobjectedthat "the principleof
vincere con fraude" was "opposed to genuine
valourand detractedfromthegloryof thevictor."
Even though Clapmar condemned"the immoral
Machiavellism,theflagitadominationis,"
he neverthelessadmittedthat "deceptionwas an indispensable methodin statecraft."From Tacitus he iderived a theoryconcerningthe utilityof political
illusions-simulacraimperiiseu libertatis;having
87 Meinecke, pp. 75-77.
Though Milton had read Boccalini's Ragguagli di Parniaso, he could not have seen
La bilanicia politica (a commentaryon Tacitus), which
was not published until 1678. He had, however, read
widely in Tacitus himself,and in the latter's portrait of
Tiberius as arch-dissemblerhe would have found another
classical prototype for his characterization of Satan as
a Machiavellian prince, an accomplished master at the
vulpine art of dissimulation. Observing that "Boccalini
felt himselfto be in the middle of a centuryof the most
profound wickedness," Meinecke contrasted his political
and ethical views with those of Machiavelli: though Boccalini "showed an increased moral sensitivityin respect
of the methods of statecraft,"he had lost "the vigorous
radicalism of Machiavelli which, in spite of all the wickedness of his methods, had nevertheless concealed a
strong power of belief." Boxalini "felt that the republican asylum, which he eventually sought in Venice, was
an asylum ringed round by the robber-dens of the
princes"; Meinecke, pp. 71-73. For Milton's knowledge
of Boccalini and Tacitus, see Mohl, passim.
LOST
283
deprivedhis subjectsof theirreal rightsand freedoms,the rulerpresentedtheminsteadwithmere
"illusionsof justiceand freedom."
88
The Renaissance debate over ragioni di stato
provided topoi that could be deployedboth for
and against the politics of Machiavelli. They
were two-edgedblades thatcut eitherway. Miltoncouldutilizethemsimultaneously
to strengthen
and to undercuthis image of the devil as Machiavellian hero. As tyrant,Satan regeneratesa
fallen people, politicallyand militarily,through
false hopes; but he cannot confertrue spiritual
regeneration. This belongs exclusivelyto his
arch-rivalthe Messiah. He pursueshis own selfinterest,his own ambition,as well as the public
safety;89 and he is punished (in imagerythat
88 Meinecke, pp. 119, 120, 123-125, 132-133.
Cf. Francis Bacon's references(in The Advancementof Learnintg)
to such Machiavellian doctrines as the political utilityof
force and fraud, the merits of cultivatingthe appearance
rather than the reality of virtue,and the value of knowing the evil arts; Dick, pp. 246, 330-331, 372. It "belongethto the education and discipline of princes to know
how to play the part of the lion in violence and the fox
in guile, as of the man in virtue and justice." "As for
evil arts, if a man would set down for himselfthat principle of Machiavel, that a man seek not to attainivirtue
itself,but the appearance only thereof; because the credit
of virtue is a help, but the use of it is cumber; certainly
with these dispensationsfrom the laws of charityand integrity the pressing of a man's fortune may be more
hasty and compendious." Nevertheless "the shortestway
is commonlythe foulest." Transferringto Machiavellian
realism the Biblical image of the wise serpent, Bacon
argued that knowledge of "deceits and evil arts" is the
best protection against them. Expressing gratitude "to
Machiavel and others, that write what men do and not
what they ought to do," Bacon observed that "it is not
possible to join serpentine wisdom with the columbine
innocency,except men know exactly all the conditionsof
the serpent; his baseness and going upon his belly, his
volubilityand lubricity,his envy and sting, and the rest;
that is, all formsand natures of evil." In the same treatise Bacon remarked (p. 168) that "men bred in learning
are perhaps to seek in points of convenience and accommodatingfor the present,which the Italians call ragioni di stato, whereof . . . Pius Quintus could not hear
spoken with patience,termingthem inventionsagainst religion and the moral virtues."
89 In undertakingthe perilous
adventure through space
Satan himselfdefineshis motive as the responsibilitiesof
a ruler. In a passage reminiscentof Sarpedon's speech
to Glaucus in the Iliad, he argues that he ought to "accept
as great a share/ Of hazard as of honor . . . ," the honors
accorded a king. Milton's own comment,however, indicates that the devil is seeking additional honors-the renown of a hero-earning "high repute . . . throughhazard." Precisely how much Satan is actually concerned
for "the general safety" is left purposelyambiguous. The
284
JOHN M. STEADMAN
providesstrikingparallelswiththatof Boccalini)
by transformation
into a dragon. (The hounds
thatrendhis symbolicdaughter,Sin, may remind
us of anotherBoccalinianmetaphor.) Again, he
cannottrulyachievethe salus populi; the officeof
spiritualsalvation belongs solely to the Son of
God. The ambiguityof the Machiavellianrulerking or tyrant?-underliesthe very foundations
of Satan's own throne;he is notonlya despot,but
a typeof the specifically
Orientalbrandof despotism,worshipedas a god and affecting
divineattributes. The polityof hell is foundedon simulacra imperiiet libertatis,
illusionsof freedomand
empirethatdisguisethe realitiesof moralslavery.
In pursuingreasons of state, Satan is driven
by an excessivedesirefordomination,
and he implementshis policyby fraud. Like Ferdinandof
Aragon, he knows how to idisguisehis ambition
for conquest under the pretextof devotionand
zeal. He deceives the regent of the sun, the
"sharpest-sightedSpirit of all in Heav'n," by
feigningan "unspeakabledesireto see, and know"
God's works. He deceives Eve "with show of
Zeal and Love/ To Man, and indignationat his
wrong." In seekingto save the stateand to extend its sovereigntythroughdeceptionand con
ignominia,he discardsthe image of man,literally
for thatof the beast, exas well as symbolically,
of his
changingthe idealized anthropomorphism
archangelicshape fortheriomorphic
disguises. Instead of "foxingit with the foxes," however,he
concludesby creepingand hissingwith the serpents.
In Satan's enterprise,as Milton portraysit,
raison d'etat appears much as the Renaissance
anti-Machiavelliansconceived it, as an offense
against honor and true glory and a sin against
God. Neverthelessit has fulfilleda primarydemand of the Machiavellianscheme-success. The
ends-honor, empire, revenge-have seemingly
justifiedthe ingloriousmeans wherebythe hero
secured them: means that the devil himselfre"Spirits damn'd" do not "Lose all thir virtue," Milton
comments,
... lest bad men should boast
Thir specious deeds on earth, which glory excites,
Or close ambition varnisht o'er with zeal.
Cf. Machiavelli's observations on Ferdinand of Aragon's
policy of cloaking his militaryambitions with piety (note
80, supra), and Rohan's argument that "the prestige of
Spain really rested on the fact that she concealed her
plans under a cloak of piety and of great zeal"; Meinecke, p. 173.
[PROC. AMER. PHIL.
SOC.
gards as shameful. For the "anti-Machiavels"
this would be "honor dishonorable,"glory attainedthroughinfamy.90
In Machiavelliantheory,
however,the ignominywould soon be forgotten;
the honorand the empirewould remain.
Satan wins throughMachiavellianstrategyand
tactics,but his victorycan bringhim neitherinternalpeace nor happiness. The Stygiancupezza
d'animo and the hounds of Actaeon remainwith
himstill. Like otherMachiavelliandespots,he is
victorious,vicious,and damned.
Justas the classical details in Milton's Satanic
portraitobliquelycensurethe heroic worthiesof
the ancients as more devilish than godlike, its
Machiavellianfeaturesevoke an image of familiar
Renaissancepoliticalideal only to subvertit. It
constitutes,in effect,a reductioad absurdumof
the evil ragione di stato. Like the stereotypeof
thecannonas an "infernalmachine,"Machiavelli's
90Like the craving for glory, the dread of shame is a
traditional heroic attribute,and it remains a constant in
Satan's character. To "sue for grace," he declares to
Beelzebub, in his firstspeech in the poem, would be "an
ignominy and shame/ Beneath this downfall . . ." On
Mount Niphates he confesses that disdain and his "dread
of shame/ Among the Spirits beneath" forbidhim to seek
pardon by submission. He dons his serpentinedisguise
with reluctance ("O foul descent!"), but promptly rationalizes his action in a passage that parodies the Machiavellian victorythroughignominiousmeans, but also suggests his own despair and disillusionment:
But what will not Ambition and Revenge
Descend to? who aspires must down as low
As high he soar'd, obnoxious firstor last
To basest things.
Condemnationof the pursuit of glory through ignominious means or in a vicious cause occurs frequentlyin both
of Milton's epics. Refusing to name the greater part of
the rebel host, Raphael explains that
... strengthfrom Truth divided and from Just,
Illaudable, naught merits but dispraise
And ignominy,yet to glory aspires
Vain-glorious, and through infamyseeks fame: . . .
Michael censures the giant "men of high renown" as
mere "Destroyers . . . and Plagues of men," and their
glorious victories as manslaughter. Such crimes win renown in a perverted world, while "what most merits
fame" remains hidden in silence. Milton offersa further
critique of earthlyglory and martial conquest in Paradise
Regained, Book III. Cf. Bodin's remarks on the topos
of infamyand fame (Bodin, Method, pp. 9-10): "What
Trogus Pompey reported about Herostratus and Titus
Livy about Manlius Capitolinus is not true, not even
probable, I think-that they were more eager for great
fame than for good fame. I believe that despondencyand
madness impelledthe former; the other was led by a hope
of increased prestige through ruling his fellow citizens."
VOL. 120, NO. 4, 19761
LOST
285
est Dwarfs. . . ." The infernalpeerage,on the
other hand-the "great Seraphic Lords and
Cherubim"-retain their own vast dimensions.
The politicalorder of Pandaemoniumis patently
"elitist,"and parliamentary
representation
is restrictedto a unicameralHouse of Lords.
As a caricatureof thepoliticalritualsof Renaissance Europe-the ceremonialspeech from the
throne,and the formalitiesof parliamentary
debate-the scene in Pandaemoniumsimultaneously
exhibitsthe strengthand weaknessof the infernal
state. In contrastto theirearlierconfusion,the
fallenangelshave restoredpoliticalas well as militarydisciplineand establishedan orderlyand stable
government. This they owe primarilyto Satan
himself;not only are they effectively
united in
the
shadow
of
his
safe,
unenvied
throne,
but it is
x
his own proposal (as presentedthroughBeelzeAs Machiavellianhero the devil altershis pubbub) that reconciles their political conflicts.
lic characterand his policies as expediencydicThanks to his politicalskills,"Devil with Devil
tates; what appears to be an inconsistencyin
damn'd/Firmconcordholds." On theotherhand,
characterizationmay be little more than a dethe debatehas exposed the strategicvulnerability
liberateexchangeof masks,as he adapts his policy
of theirposition. For all theirstrengthand saand his public image to altered circumstances.
gacity,theirpoliticaland militarycapabilitiesare
Thus his apparently "republican" oratory in
strictly
limited,and theirlibertyof actionseverely
heavenis in largepartintentionally
deceptive;and
curtailed,by the factthat theyare, and must rehis transition
fromrebelliouspeer to infernalking,
main, under the iron rule of an omniscientand
fromanti-monarchist
to monarchhimself,involves
omnipotent
enemy. Moreover, they have forrathera changein rhetoricalstance91than in mofeited (though they do not yet realize the fact)
tivation. In heaven he exhortshis followersto
their moral freedomthroughsin. Finally, like
revolution-in the name of libertyand equality,
fallen man, they have surrenderdtheir natural
arguingfromthe etymological
sense of peers (i.e.
libertiesto a usurper: the firstof a long line of
equals or pares) ; but the paritythat he actually
despots. Enthroned in Pandaemonium,Satan
aspires to is equality with the king of heaven
consciouslyimitatesthe majesty of the king of
himself. In hell Satan achieveskingshipthrough
heaven; yethe also bears an ironicresemblanceto
a bloodless coup d'etat-an easy transitionfrom
a Renaissance king in parliament. The Satanic
general to monarch; after reassertinghis auimage is a portraitof the kingas tyrant,and Milthorityas militarycommanderhe enthroneshimton reinforcesits anti-royalist
implicationsby alself withoutoppositionas emperorof hell. In
lusion
to
other
despotic
parallels:
the Roman dicmarkedcontrastto his own exaltation,the comtator
or
imperator
in
consult
with
an obsequious
mons are reducedto physical,and political,insigan
Senate;
Oriental
Sultan
in
his
divan.92
nificance:"smallestforms"and "less than smallassociationwith the secretariatof hell was proverbial. Milton convertedboth of these cliches
into poetryby associatingthem with the author
of evil himself. In Paradise Lost the inventorof
that"devilishEnginry"is literallythe devil. The
archetypeof the Machiavellianprinceis literally
the Prince of Hell.
Condemnationof the Machiavellianpatternis
implicitin the infernaloriginthatMiltonascribes
to it. Yet this oblique rebuttalis not enough. A
directrefutationis required,and it demandsthe
intervention
of a deus ex machina. By an act of
divine judgmentthe triumphsecured con ignominia is rewardedwith ignominy;the fraudulent
tempterconvertedintothe shape of fraud.
92
Cf. Hughes, "Satan and the Myth of the Tyrant,"
In commenting
on Satan'spoliticalrhetoric,
Miss cited supra. See also Ruth Mohl, Studies in Speiser,
Mahoodcompared
thedevil'srhetorical
appealsto liberty Milton and the Theory of Monarchy (New York, 1949).
withroyalist
and anti-royalist
propaganda
on thesame The image of Satan as monarch, for all its barbaric
theme.In hisargument
thathe andhisfollowers
should splendor, is undercut by the absurdity of a Whitehall in
be exempt
fromlaw andedictsince"without
law" they Newgate, where a condemned traitor reigns as rival of
"errenot,"she foundan "implicit"
analogywith"the the very power that has immuredhim there. Sovereignty
Stuartpretension
to DivineRight." Hencethedevil's in hell, ruled as it is by the iron scepter of heaven, is
speechshouldbe correctly
interpreted
notas a liberator'sillusoryand can be appropriatelyclaimed only by illusions
protest
againsttyranny
but"rather
as thetyrant's
assault and phantasms: the devil as eidolon of divine majesty
uponliberty's
safeguard,
thelaw." His "revoltagainst and the lethal specter at the gate of hell. While Satan's
thehierarchical
orderofHeavenis . . . rootedinhisown authorityas monarchof hell is justly challenged by Death
prideratherthanin a genuine
desireforequality"(pp. as "Thy King and Lord, the pretensionsof the infernal
212-213).
warder to lordship are, in turn, refuted by his mother
91
286
JOHN M. STEADM'IAN
As a false image of divine majesty, Satan is
pseudo-godand pseudo-king.His
simultaneously
portraitforeshadowspoliticalas well as religious
just as his oratoryanticipatesthe idolidolatry,93
isms of sophisticrhetoric. For Milton,the three
were virtuallyinseparable,for they were an afand difrontto divineunity,divine sovereignty,
vine truth;therecould be but one God, one supremeking,one Logos. As eidolon the Satanic
image discreditsa conventionalpoliticalideal as
well as a traditionalconceptof heroicvirtue. To
discreditthe latter,Miltonelevatesthe devil into
archetypalconqueror;to discreditthe former,he
king. In bothcases
depictsthedevilas tyrannical
he can exploitthe toposof divineresemblanceexplicitin the Biblicalaccountof Lucifer'srebellion.
Heroic virtue was commonlyextolled as "godlike" or "divine," and the ancientheroes themselves had been honoredas demigodsor as gods.
A similar divinitysurroundedthe Renaissance
king in the eyes of manypoliticaltheorists. As
he was the image of divine
God's own vicegerent,
majesty and ruled by divine sanction; to rebel
against him was to contemndivine authority,to
Sin: he is merely the "drudge" of the king of heaven.
It is a tribute to Satan's mastery of statecraft,perhaps,
that he can persuade Death (who is in fact his master)
to serve as his vicegerent.
93 Both as anti-royalist and as royal sovereign himself, Satan is consistently the adversary of the "sole
King" of the universe. As a rebel against the monarchy
of heaven, he not only aspires to "Divided Empire with
Heav'n's King," but in fact introduces polytheism. Idolatry enters hell when his own followers worship him as
a god. Idolatry enters Eden when Eve bestows divine
honors on the forbidden tree. Polytheism enters the
world when his host of angels receive adoration as gods
and become known as "various Idols" throughout the
heathen world. This is one mode of idolatry,the adoration of devils as deities; but there is also another mode,
as the Milton who wrote Eikonoklastes was well aware:
the adoration of a prince as an image of God on earth.
The giants of the heroic age-"Destroyers rightliercall'd
and Plagues of men"-assume such magnific titles as
"Patrons of Mankind, Gods, and Sons of Gods." Usurping authority and dominion, Nimrod achieves an "Empire tyrannous":
A mighty Hunter thence he shall be styl'd
Before the Lord, as in despite of Heav'n,
Or from Heav'n claiming second Sovranty;
And from Rebellion shall derive his name,
Though of Rebellion others he accuse.
Cf. Edwin Hatch, The Influenceof Greek Ideas on Christiantity(New York, 1957), pp. 206-207, on the older
sense of divine Monarchy as signifying"the sole government of the one God" in contrastto "governmentof many
gods."
[PROC. AMER. PHIL.
SOC.
revoltagainstGod. The Scripturesthemselves(as
royalistdivines hastenedto point out) accorded
the titleof "gods" to princesand judges.94 Finally,Hobbes himselfdescribeshis ideal commonwealth-the union of the multitudein "one Perby thesovereignpoweror prince
son" represented
-as "that great LEVIATHAN, or rather. . .
that Mortall God, to which wee owe under the
ImmortallGod,our peace and defence."95
Satan consistentlyaddresses his fallen angels
as "gods," and it is as gods thathe and his com94 In the controversyover the divine right of kings as
God's vicegerentson earth, both royalist and anti-royalist
propagandists were compelled to reckon with Biblical
allusions to princes and magistrates as "gods." According to Exodus 22: 28 (AV), "Thou shalt not revile the
gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people"; in t'ne Geneva
version, "Thou shalt not raile upon the Judges." In
commentingon Psalm 82: 1, "God standethin the assembly of gods; he judgeth among gods," the Geneva headnote and gloss explain that "The Prophet declaring God
to bee present among the Judges and Magistrates . . .
Reprooveth their partialitie . . ." and that "The Prophet
sheweth, that if princes and judges do not their duetie,
God, whose authoritieis above them,will take vengeance
on them." Another passage in the same psalm (82: 6),
"I have said, Yee are gods," is echoed in John 10 :34.
If these texts seemed to give aid and comfortto the royalists, their opponents might counter with 1 Corinthians
8: 5-6 (Geneva), "For though there be that are called
gods, whether in heaven, or in earth (as there be many
gods, and many lords) Yet unto us there is but one
God . . .: and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all
things,and we by him."
For the polemical exploitation of Biblical referencesto
Prose Works of John Miltont
kings as gods, see Comnplete
3 (1962), ed. Merritt Y. Hughes, pp. 165-166, 197, 202,
204, 307-308, 435. In The Tentureof Kintgs antdMagistrates, Milton protested that "if the King feare not
God, ... we hold then our lives and estates, by the tenure
of his meer grace and mercy,as froma God, not a mortal
Magistrate, a position that none but Court Parasites or
men besotted would maintain." In Observations upont
the Articles of Peace he demanded by "what expressed
Law" the king "should sit himselfe like a demigod in
lawlesse and unbounded antarchy,"making "himself a
God, exalted above Law." In Eikontoklastes,he condemned an allusion to Charles's "Acts of grace" as
"proud, and unself-knowingwords in the mouth of any
King, who affectsnot to be a God." As Hughes points
out, James I declared that the king is "Gods Lieutenant
in earth" and that "Kings are called Gods" by King
David "because they sit upon God his Throne in the
earth." In the Eikon Basilike, Charles I is represented
as condemning those who rail against kings, the "shadows of God," and honored by Scripture itself with the
"name of 'Gods.'" Robert Weldon endeavored "to prove
that the title of anointed ones, or Christs,or . . . Elohim,
or gods, belonged of right to all Christian kings."
95 Hobbes' Leviathan Reprinttedfromnthe Edition of
1651 (Oxford, 1909), p. 132.
VOL. 120, NO. 4, 1976]
panion (as theybelieve) have escaped the burning lake. The title would have been legitimate
forthe faithful
angels as official
messengersof the
deity,but in the case of the fallenangels it has
been invalidated(like theirothercelestialtitles)
by theirrevoltagainstGod. The same argument
could be evokedagainstearthlyprincesand magistrateswho rebelledagainst deity by assuming
divine prerogativesor by directlydisobeyingdivine law. The termitself(as Miltonrecognized
in his ChristianDoctrine) is equivocal;9 and in
the politicalcontextof hell it may carryseveral
differentbut complementary
implications:direct
rivalrywith the one true God, the monarchof
heaven; vain assertionof an angelictitlethatis no
longervalid; a foreshadowing
of thefutureadoration that the fallenangels will receive as deities
among the heathen;97 a foreshadowing
of the divine or quasi-divine honors sought by mortal
kings and tyrants. (In this last sense Milton's
Satanic image could be interpreted,
as it sometimeshas been,bothas anti-Stuartand anti-papal
propaganda;but it would be difficult
to findgenuine prooffor eitherof these interpretations.In
the transformation-scene
in Book X and in Milton's use of the conventionalSatan-Leviathan
image in Book I, one could conceivablyrecognize
an oblique attack on the absolutistdoctrineof
Hobbes; but this too would be hard to substantiate. As Miltonmusthave been aware,the word
Leviathanbore a varietyof sensesover and above
its familiaruse as a synonymfor the whale. It
had been interpreted
etymologically
as "societyof
LOST
287
serpents"-a readingsymbolically
appropriatefor
the public catastrophethat overtakesthe infernal
state; and in Renaissance dictionariesit carries
thespecifically
politicalsensesretainedby Hobbes:
society,union, king or prince. As a competent
Hebraist,Miltonwould,one feels,have recognized
in Hobbes's Leviathana directsuccessorto Machiavelli'sII Principe.) 98
XI
More significant
thanthe classicaland Machiavellian featuresof Milton's pseudo-herois the
parodic relationshipbetweenSatan's role in the
poem and that of the divine Father and Son.
Vainly aspiringto be like the Most High, Satan
becomesan ape of deity,a simiaDei.99 In "affecting all equalitywithGod," he calls his royal seat
in thenorth"The Mountainof the Congregation,"
in direct"imitationof thatMountwhereon/Messiah was declar'd in sight of Heav'n." On the
battlefield
he appears "exaltedas a God" an "Idol
of Majesty Divine,enclos'd/With FlamingCherubimand golden Shields. . . ." His "Sun-bright
Chariot" is a shadow of the realityhe will encounterlater: the Son of God mountedin the
chariot of paternal deity. The thunderof the
devil'sartillerymocksthe divinethunderthatwill
shortlydestroyhim:
... eternalmight
To matchwiththirinventions
theypresum'd
So easy,and of his Thundermadea scorn....
The same patternof parodic imitationrecurs
in Moloch's proposal to oppose "InfernalThunder" to God's "AlmightyEngine" and "Black fire
and horror" against His lightning. Mammon
similarlyproposes to "imitate" the divine light
throughthe gold and gems of hell. Finally,as
"Hell's dread Emperor" Satan makes his exit
fromthe Stygianconclave"withpomp Supreme,/
And God-likeimitatedState" in the midst of a
"Globe of fierySeraphim inclos'd/With bright
imblazonry,
and horrentArms."
Otherfacetsofthe Satanicimageprovidea grotesque parodyof theologicaldoctrine,thoughthe
devil is usuallyunawareboth of the analogyand
of the distortion. In the infernaltriad-Satan,
Sin, and Death-Rajan'00 recognizeda parodyof
96 Milton himselfcites the texts from 1 Corinthiansand
the Gospel of John in Book I, Chapter 5 of the Christian
Doctrine; The Prose Works of John Milton 4 (Bohn
Library, London, 1870): pp. 105-109. He maintains that
"The name of God seems to be attributedto angels because as heavenly messengers they bear the appearance of
the divine glory and person, and even speak in the very
words of the Deity." Similarly, "The name of God is
ascribed to judges, because they occupy the place of God
to a certain degree in the administrationof judgement."
See Theodore H. Banks, "The Meaning of Gods in Paradise Lost," ModertnLanguage Notes 54 (1939): pp. 450454; J. C. Maxwell, "'Gods' in Paradise Lost," Notes
and Quieries 193 (1948): pp. 234-236, 242.
97 Merritt Y. Hughes, "Devils to Adore for Deities," in
Studies in Honior of DeWitt T. Starnes, ed. Thomas P.
Harrison et al. (Austin, 1967), pp. 241-258. Satan's
98 Cf. Steadman, "Leviathan and Renaissance
"Synod of gods" are pseudodeities who (like the despotic
Etymolkings of the fallen world) have forfeitedtheir ambiguous ogy," Jour. History of Ideas 28 (1967): pp. 575-576.
99 Cf. Maximilian Rudwin, "Diabolus Simia Dei," Open
title as "gods" through their rebellion against God himself. As eidola of divine majesty, they are analogous to Court 43 (1929): pp. 602-611.
earthly tyrants as objects of a false and superstitious
100Balachandra Rajan, Paradise Lost and the Sevenworship.
teenth-CenturyReader (London, 1947), p. 50; Hughes,
288
JOHN M. STEADMAN
[PROC. AMER. PHIL.
SOC.
the Trinity. The birthof Sin and Death has in- Antagonistof Heav'n's AlmightyKing," he seeks
vited comparisonwith the generationof the Son gloryboth as reigningking and conqueringhero
as Logos and the processionof the Holy Spirit. througha strategyof directmoralcontradiction.103
As the Father confersuniversalvicegerencyon If God wills what is good, His Adversarymust
the Son, Satan appoints his own offspringas will thecontrary:
over a fallen universe. In Saplenipotentiaries
. . .but of thisbe sure,
tan's reluctanceto seek incarnationin a brute,
To do aughtgoodneverwillbe ourtask,
Mother Mary ChristopherPecheux perceivedan
But everto do ill our sole delight,
to his highwill
As beingthecontrary
ironiccontrastwith the voluntaryincarnationof
we
resist.
Whom
the son.101 The devil seduces mankindby stooping to conquer; Messiah saves humanityand tri- If God seeks to bringgood out of evil, the Adumphsover Satan throughhis humiliation.Satan versarymust labor "to pervertthat end,/ And
professesto seek the generalsafety,while despis- out of good still to findmeans of evil." If God
ing his own; Christaccomplisheshis work of sal- has manifestedhis glory in the creationof the
vation, the true salus populi, throughhis own world,the Adversarymust achieve gloryby dedeath. As the heads of warringkingdomscom- stroyingit:
mittedto contrarypolicies of good or evil both
To meeshallbe theglorysole among
heroes contend for ghostly dominion over the
Powers,in one day to have marr'd
Th'infernal
humansoul, both hazard theirlives in volunteer- Whathe Almighty
styl'd,six Nightsand Days
ing to enterthe world,both conquerthroughenmaking,and whoknowshowlong
Continu'd
Beforehad beencontriving....
duringshame,bothreturnto theirthronesin trito the celestial
umph. The infernalcounterpoint
The nature of Satan's role is definedby his
thepatternof moraland name itself,and as Adversaryhe combinessevthemenotonlyreinforces
spiritualoppositionimplicitin the narrativestruc- eral variant aspects of the traditionalepic antureof the poem but also heightensthe antithesis tagonist. Usually in classical heroic poetryand
between truth and illusion. Hell is a pseudo- in Renaissance chivalric epic, warriors on opheaven, an illusoryimitationof the kingdomof posing sides may be more or less evenlymatched
God, just as the princeof hell is a pseudo-deity, in strengthand skill. These are "worthy"opa caricatureof the Lord and his Anointed. As in ponents,who have accumulatedfame and honor
a distortingmirror,where values like directions throughtheir past victories; and a hero wins
are reversed,we can recognizein the devil and honor-in facta veritablesweepstakeof honorshis angels not only a faithfulprototypeof the in vanquishingthem. (Thus Hector is a worthy
fallen world but a shadow of the heaven they antagonist for Achilles, and Turnus for Aehave lost.102
neas.)104 Ethicallythe epic antagonistmay differ
As epic antagonist-"Adversaryof God and littlefromthe epic hero himself,both servingas
Man"-Satan's role is definedand shaped by his exemplarsof a commonheroic ethos. In other
own adversaries. Envy of Messiah's glory pro- instances,however,theymay be sharplydifferengoads tiated in characterand piety,and the antagonist
vokes his revoltin heavenand subsequently
him on to attempta desperate "final Battle." may becomethe spiritualas well as the physical
Envy ofthehappinessof man inciteshimto man's adversary of the hero: choleric tyrant,defiant
destruction.Gloryingin,thenameof "Satan ....
atheist,valiantinfidel,or bold villain. In a psychomachia,in turn-a battleofvirtuesand vicestheantagonistbecomes,ofcourse,a moralabstracRajan,
Complete Poems, cited supra, p. 252n. See also
"The Cunning Resemblance," in Milton Studies, ed. Altion: the logical contraryof a victoriousvirtue..
bert C. Labriola and Michael Lieb (Pittsburgh, 1975) 7:
This patterncould, moreover,be superimposed
pp. 29-48, for a reassessment of the "importance of parody as a continuingelement in the structureof Milton's
poems."
101Pecheux, "O Foul Descent !" cited supra; Pecheux;
"The Second Adam and the Church in Paradise Lost,"
English Literary History 34 (1967): pp. 173-187.
102 Miss Mahood (p. 187) sees Milton's hell as "the
concave mirror of Heaven, a Heaven-through-the-Looking-Glass, where good things are not excluded, but perverted and renderedtopsy-turvy."
103 Cf. John G. Demaray, "The Thrones of Satan and
God: Backgrounds to Divine Opposition in Paradise
Lost," Huntington Library Quart. 31 (1967): pp. 21-33.
104Though incited by an infernalFury to war against
Aeneas (and a fortiori against the divine destiny of
Rome), Turnus is rather a counter-herothan an "epic
villain"; Boltwood, cited supra, sees Turnus as "primarily heroic" and Satan as "primarily villainous."
VOL.
120, NO. 4, 1976]
LOST
289
upon older epics and romancesby readingthem
Satan is the Adversary,moreover,not only of
as moral allegories; and it becomes fairlycom- the principalpersonagesin the poem itself,but
mon in the Renaissance epic tradition. Finally, also of the poet and his "fit"audience,the Christhereare more sinisterantagonists:the monsters tianuslectorwho is bornin the image of the Old
-giants, dragons,and chimaeras-that the hero Adam and must be rebornin the image of the
mustovercomeas benefactor,
winningdeliverance New. Though it is unseemlyto speak of Paraforhis people and gloryforhimselfby destroying dise Lost as propaganda,it was nonethelessdea publicbane.
signedas an instrument
of psychologicalwarfare,
Satan clearlyregardshimselfas a "worthy"an- the combatof the churchmilitantagainstthe intagonistof deity; and in the firstbooks he almost fernaltriad: the world,the flesh,and the devil.
appears to be such: "and seem'd/Alone th' An- The image it presentsof Satan-a redoubtable
tagonistof Heav'n." He is certainlya formi- but not invinciblefoe-belongs to a familiarcatedable opponentfor man. The ideal of a worthy gory: the "know-your-enemy"
literature. (John
antagonist,however, leads to a comparisonof Donne had deliveredthe same martialadmonition
merits; and in a theologicalepic the criterionof in his Third Satire: "Know thyfoes,"the "foule
merit must be theological. In their seemingly Devill," the world,the flesh.) In thisportraitof
helpless innocenceAdam and Eve possess a na- the arch-enemy-hisdefeatby the Son of God in
tive worth-and the minorangels Zephon, Ithu- the apocalypticSixth Book, his easy victoryover
riel,Abdiel a nativevirtue-that the fallenLuci- mankindeven in its originalstateof perfectionferhas irremediably
lost. The meritsof the loyal Milton's audience could recognizenot only the
angels are real, but (as the battlein heaven re- strengthand cunningof its Adversary,and its
veals) theyare inadequateto expel the forcesof own vulnerabilityand frailty,but the means of
evil. The meritsof fallenman are vain, but he grace wherebythe enemymightbe ignominiously
may still hope to defeathis infernalAdversary routedeven by thecommonsoldieryof thechurch
throughthe meritsof the Messiah. To raise the militant.
questionof "worth"in Paradise Lost is to comThe patternof oppositionbetweenSatan and
pare the meritsof theidevilwiththoseof unfallen Messiah, the eidolonand the trueimageof divine
man, and those of fallenman with those of the majesty,is maintainedin thetransformation
scene
Son of God. The image of Satan as worthyan- of Book X. The metamorphosis
itselfrepresents
tagonistmergesgraduallyinto that of the valiant a partialexecutionof the sentencepronouncedby
pagan, into those of tyrantand liar and robber the Messiah himselfas divinejudge; and as agent
and homicide,and finallyintoa dragonand a sym- of the Father's will it is probablyhe himselfwho
bol of fraud. The eschatologicalstage is set for inflictsthis penaltyon his Adversary. Punished
theadventof the Messianicheroas dragon-slayer, in the shape in whichhe sins, the devil recapituvictoriousover the infernalserpentand its mon- lates the sin of Adam and Eve; but his shape
strousprogenySin and Death.
also recallsthe symbolism
of theobscureprophecy
As Satan's role is shapedand reshapedthrough concerninghis enmitywiththewoman'sseed. He
his oppositionto God and man,it acquiresclearer has sufferedone article of his punishment,and
definition(though he does not clearlyrealize it) he can now await furtherretribution;he will reas a counter-image
of the incarnateWord. The ceive the deadlybruisesoonerthanhe expects.
Adversaryof God and Man, in endeavoringto
As the delivererand restorerof his people,
spite God throughMan, has precipitatedhis own Satan parodies the mediatorialofficeof the Son,
imminentdefeat by God-in-Man, by one who even thoughhis "acts of benefit"are, in the final
unitesin a singlepersonSatan's divineand human analysis,spurious. He deliversthemfromhell;
antagonists. His conquerorin heaven and his but, like theirliberator,theycannottrulyescape
victimon earth,separatedas theyare by the en- their dungeon and must bear hell withinthem
tire hierarchyof angelic intelligencesand the in- wherevertheyfly. Satan cannotrestoretheinner,
finite gulf between Creator and creature, are spirituallibertytheyhave lost nor can he restore
neverthelessunited in the theanthropos
or God- themto heaven. Similarly,the regeneration
that
man. The patternof contrariesis completedby he accomplishesso effectively
in the earlybooks,
the union of Satan's infinitely
disparaterivals in reviving the morale of his fallen companions
a single individual,the personof Christthe Sec- throughkindlingfalse hopes of regainingheaven,
ond Adam.
is specious; it is a travestyof the true regenera-
290
JOHN M. STEADMAN
[PROC. AMER. PHIL.
SOC.
tion,the supernaturalrenovationthatthe Messiah changeablemind may disguise the full realityof
the "hideous change" he and his fellows have
alone can effect.105
he has exFinally,Satan's role is definedby the analogies suffered,the spiritualtransformation
and contrastsit presentsto that of fallen man. perienced through his rebellion is irreversible.
and
of strength
and unrepentant, What appearsto be a regeneration
Deprived of grace,unregenerate
of
he becomesthetypeof thereprobate,the"pattern- courage is in realityan effectof degeneration,
hero" (so to speak) of thebrutishconquerorsand progressivehardeningof the heart; like the detyrantsof the fallenworld. Though he appears spair thathe so carefullyconceals,it is a convento stand at the crossroads,there is in fact only tional sign of damnation.
one directionopen to him, and that is downXII
wards. Unable to experiencetrue regeneration,
he can only degenerate. The contrastthat he
In theircriticismsof the Satanic image, Milpresentsto fallenAdam-and fallen Samson-is tonistshave (as we have seen) divergednot only
all the more impressivefor his suppressionof in their judgmentsof its heroismbut in their
despair and for his refusalto admit spiritualde- opinions of its formalcoherence. To one, the
feat. We see no "faintings,swoonings of de- devil is consistently
absurd.
evil and consistently
spair." We hear open defianceof heaven rather To another,the devil is progressivelyevil and
than complaintsof heaven's desertion. We en- essentiallytragic. To others,the portraitis a
counter no me miserumuntil the soliloquy on mosaic of complementary
or incompatiblequaliMount Niphates. The Manoa of Samson Ago- ties; and the originof thesereal or apparentconnistes may lamenthis son's "miserablechange," tradictionsis to be found in conflictswithinthe
and the Chorusa "changebeyondreport,thought, poet's own personality,in a failurein narrative
or belief"; but the Satan of Paradise Lost pub- technique,in the "tripartite"devil of theological
licly refusesto admit that the tragic reversalis tradition,or in the consciousalternationbetween
anythingbut external:the mind and the will re- different
literarymodes: comicand tragic,heroic
main inalterable.
and mock-heroic.For some readers,the characAt the beginningof Samson's tragedyof re- ter of Satan is fixedfromthe startand remains
generationthe Chorus is astonishedto find"That essentiallyunaltered;the changelies in the shiftHeroic, that Renown'd . . . Samson" so incredi- ing perspectivesthat the poet offersthe reader,
bly changed. At thebeginningof Satan's tragedy the varyingpointsof view fromwhichwe behold
of degenerationone is no less astonishedto find the ruinedarchangel. For others,the devil does
the fallen archangel seeminglytnchanged-and change; and his alterationis consistently
for the
more startledperhaps to see him presentedas worse, a progressivedegeneration. For still anapparently"Heroic." NeverthelessAdam and other group, he does not really degenerate;the
Samson, for all their expressions of misery poet degradeshim.
and near-despair,are progressivelyregenerated. The answer (I believe), like Milton's own alSatan, on the other hand, for all his boasts of legoryof the dismemberedand scatteredbody of
an unalteredspiritand for all his success in re- truth,is dispersedamongthesediverseand seemgeneratingthe moraleof his followers,remainsa inglyinconsistent
insights. Milton did (as Profallen creature. Even in his opening speeches fessor Kastor has effectively
argued) inherita
the rhetoricof heroicconstancyreveals the char- tripartitefiend-aspiring Lucifer, infernalking,
acteristicethos of reprobation:the obduratere- and subtleserpent-but he also attemptedto give
fusal to repent. Though his boast of an un- this compositeimage credibilityand consistency,
to make the transitionfromone role to another
105 In "'Paradise
Lost': The Relevance of Regenera- appear probable and necessary. The poet does
tion," Paradise Lost: A Tercentenary Tribute, ed. Bala(as other critics have recognized) present the
chandra Rajan (Toronto, 1969), pp. 48-78, Arthur E.
throughdiverse literarymodes and
Adversary
Barker recognized in the "perverse Satanic recovery of
a
the two opening books" a gigantic parody of "the recov- from differentpoints of view; nevertheless
fundaa
not
in
the
does
preclude
actions
of
the
through
perspective
men
change
fallen
to
open
ery that is
Mediator," a caricature of the "pro-ess through which mentalchange in character. Satan does in fact
Similarly
we may be restored by 'one greater man.''
degenerate,and he is also, in the end, deliberately
Satan's "ascent into created light" parodies the "experidegraded. He degenerates,moreover,because he
every
that
lighteth
light
the
through
ence of illumination
cannot do otherwise,because he is denied the
man that cometh into the world."
VOL. 120, NO. 4, 19761
LOST
291
grace to be regenerated. Having fallenonce, the Adam and Eve, his returnto the garden, his
fallen angel must continue to fall (he is not glimpseof Eve among the roses-he can experimerely an archangel ruined, but an archangel ence twingesof conscienceand disparagehis own
ruining); and his way downwardis accelerated fell intent. (Apparentlygoodness can enterthe
by theverypowerthat,at themomentof apparent mindof fiendor archfiend-likeevil in the mind
triumph,suddenlydegrades him. The laws of of god or man-and, unapproved,leave no stain
for
inertia apply no less in the moral than in the behind.) Each of theseapparentopportunities
physicaluniverse.
repentance-apparentonly,forhe cannotrepentThere is "motionin corruption,"
wroteDonne; proves an occasion for sin, and he rededicates
wavering,
and his observationis relevantfor the kind of himselfanew to evil. The momentary
motionand alterationthatwe perceivein Milton's the temporary thaw in his resolve, merely
his resolutionby hardeninghis heart.
anti-hero. Satan's characterdoes not "develop" strengthens
(in the literal sense of the word) ; the changes In these scenes we encounter,in a less terrifying
we recognizeare symptomsnot of moral growth form,the same obduracy,the same obstinacyin
but of decay. Though theymay resemblea pro- evil,thathad provokedtherebelangelsto contend
cess of development-theprogressivematuration against the Son: "hard'n'd more by what might
of the firstworld-conqueror-they
are, in fact,a most reclaim." (In hardeningthe heart and
developingperfectionin non-being: a growing blindingthe understanding-as Milton explains
maturityin "privatives,"evil and misery and in his theologicaltreatise-God employsmethods
death. Self-corrupted
and corrupting
others,seek- that "oughtratherto softenthe heartsof sinners
ing ease and reliefthroughdestroying,Satan is than to harden them.") Technically,these are
powerlessto generatetruebeing; whathe appears ''evil temptations''since they are "occasions of
to generate proves (paradoxically) to be cor- sin" and involve the denial of divine grace, the
ruption. He begets Sin and Death (both priva- hardeningof the heart, and (to a degree) the
tives) ; he establisheshis empireon evil (a priva- blindingof the understanding.
"The hardeningof the heart,"Milton declares,
tive) and the securityof his throneon misery
is usually the last punishmentinflictedon
(also a privative). The "Universeof death"over
whichhe rules as captive-kingis a pseudo-reality inveteratewickednessand unbeliefin this life."
where all true values-and even the processesof In Satan, who has been deniedgrace,this sign of
generationand corruption-are inverted,a realm reprobationappears comparativelyearly in his
career, immediatelyprior to his expulsion from
of oxymoronand unresolvedparadox:
heavenand again immediately
afterhis regaining
Whereall lifedies, deathlives,and Naturebreeds, consciousnessin hell. The fixed mind and unPerverse,all monstrous,
all prodigiousthings....
conquerablewill are (as we have seen) characSatan is, in fact,a sort of moral zombie; he is teristicsigns of reprobation. Soon after,beholdspirituallydead, his "rightreason" darkenedand ing the mightand multitudeof his troops,he is
his libertyof will enslaved by sin. If one may again hardened,gloryingin his strength. These
judge by analogy with the fall of man, the "life evidencesof his reprobationserveto fixhis charof theunderstanding"
and the lifeof the will have acter at the beginningof the poem,to cast doubt
bothperishedat the momentof his apostasy; the bothon the realityof his heroicethosand on the
renewedenergy,the revivedstrengthhe displays validityof his rhetoric,and to foreshadowhis
in the openingscenes are ironicallyundercutby furtherdegeneration. Satan has clearly been
the realityof his spiritualdeath. He continues, given over to "a reprobatemind"; and, in the
of course, to reason, to will, and to act; but he light of seventeenth-century
theology,a reader
is no longer able to "discernthe chiefgood" or mightlogicallyexpect to see the reprobate'shyfree to choose and enact the good. Confronted pocrisy unmasked (as on Mount Niphates) or
successivelyby occasions for choice-moral or punishedwith"strongdelusion" (as in the transpoliticalalternatives,
and strategicor tacticalide- formationscene of Book X). Finally,the image
cisions-he chooses; but he could scarcelychoose of Satan as archetypalreprobatereinforceshis
otherwise. The early dedicationto evil ("Evil role as arch-tyrant
and the specificanalogieswith
be thou my Good") is inevitableforone who can Pharaoh, Nimrod, and other rulers of a fallen
no longer elect the good. On successive occa- world. For God "oftenhardensin a remarkable
sions-his firstsight of Eden, his firstview of manner the powerfuland rebelliousprinces of
292
JOHN M. STEADMAN
[PROC. AMER. PHIL.
SOC.
this world,in order that throughtheirinsolence contemptiblein comparisonwith open force.107
and haughtinesshis glory may be magnified In comparisonwithhis defianceof an enemyinamong the nations."
finitelysuperiorto himself,Satan's sneak attack
and his rebellion on a foe notablyinferiorto himselfin nativeinSatan's doom is irreversible,
unredeemable. He can only prosecutehis rebel- telligenceand strengthseems unworthyof the
lion by new and more devious means. The re- antagonistof heaven. The devil appears most
deemerof fallenman mustbe the destroyerof the heroic (as the majorityof readersconfess) when
fallenangel. Unable to elect the good, the devil he is hurlingepic boasts and blasphemiesat his
has little freedomof action even in evil. The divineenemyfromthe oppositecornerof the uni"sovereigndisposer of all things" still "inclines verse, not when he is bombardingthe faithful
and biasses" Satan's depravedand pervertedwill angels with cannon balls and puns in frontalatover Eve by guile. Though
"in this or thatdirection,or towardsthis or that tack or triumphing
object" in accordancewith a divine plan, influ- these heroic formulasare illusory,most of them
encing it in such a way "that out of its own have precedentsin classical and Renaissanceepic
maintainsthe false
wickednessit eitheroperatesgood for others,or or history. Satan consistently
appearance of heroism,but (in the eyes of the
punishmentfor itself."106
The characterof Satan changes or "develops" reader and to a degreein his own view) the sein muchthesame sense thatthe characterof Mac- quence of heroicmasks-general to kingto spyless heroic.
beth (a tragic hero in Milton's own dramatic seems progressively
Machiavelliandisciple (or preceptor) that he
sketches) develops. One beholdsthe moral ruin
of a once valiant thane throughambitionfor a is, Satan discards the virtue and justice of the
kingdom-an ambitionthat leads successivelyto man at the verybeginningof his rebellionto imitheacquisitionof dominionby villainy,to govern- tate the lion in violenceand the fox in cunning;
to an inabilityto escape the vi- and, by a delayedsymbolicjustice,he eventually
mentby tyranny,
cious circle of his own creation,and finallyto loses his "godlike"human,or superhuman,form.
tediumvitae and disgust. It is a wearyand des- In this respect his apparent "degeneration"as
perate Satan whomwe reencounteron the eve of heroic image is the externalreflectionof his inas archetypalrephis conquest,just as it is a tired and desperate evitablespiritualdeterioration
Macbeth whom we encounterbeforeand during robate. Since he has alreadylost thedivineimage
internally,
his "godlike" shape is merelyan illuhis finalbattle.
and
the spiritual reality underlyingthis
sion;
As heroiceidolon,Satan embodiesa falsestandheroic
facade
is progressivelymanifestedboth
ard of heroic virtue from the moment of his
revolt; and it would be sophistical,perhaps,to throughphysical deformityand throughdimininquire whetherthe heroic illusion literallyde- ished glory. For the imageryof light had been
generates. As pseudo-herohe wears a succession conventionallyassociated with the hero. Phaifromone heroicformula dimos (shiningor famous) had been a common
of heroicmasks,shifting
another
as expediencydictates; but (with one epithetof the Homeric warrior; and the Renaisto
108
exception) the formulasthemselvesare, by Mil- sance hero was, by definition,"illustrious."
himself
shows
the
at
When
Achilles
to
Trojans
ton's standards,either morallyneutral or false.
a
moment
Book
Athena
critical
(Iliad,
XVIII),
(The one exceptionis the devil'sconsciousor unencircleshis head witha goldennimbusand kinconsciousmimicryof the Son of God; in this indles a flamelike a flare. Venus does no less for
stance,the heroic standardis valid, but the Ad- her son Aeneas when he firstappears to Dido
versarypervertsit.) Some of theseformulasim- (Aeneid, Book I), surrounding
his faceand shoulpress the reader as more "heroic" than others; ders with sudden radiance. Piccolominidefines
and to classical heroes like Neoptolemus and heroic virtuein such termsas splendorand fulRhesus, Odysseus's policyof covertguile seemed gor.109 Davenant praised Tasso for reviving
106 See Milton's Christian Doctrine, Book I, Chapters
8 and 12; Prose Works, ed. St. John (1970), pp. 200-209,
264-265. See also Mary Anne Nevins Radzinowicz,
"Eve and Dalila: Renovation and the Hardening of the
Heart," in: Reasoni and the Imaginationt,ed. J. A. Mazzeo (New York, 1962), pp. 155-181.
107Milton's Epic Characters, pp. 204-205.
Like illuistris,phaidimos bears the related senses of
(1) shining and (2) famouis or glorious; Liddell and
Scott, An l Internmediate
Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford,
1889).
109Milton's Epic Characters, pp. 26-27; cf. p. 325.
108
VOL. 120, NO. 4, 1976]
LOST
293
the "Heroick flame."110 Hobbes perceived "in respect also, the ravages of spiritualdeath are
IPrinces,and menof conspicuouspower (anciently reflectedexternallyin the degenerationand final
upontherest degradationof the heroicimage.
calledHeroes) a lustreand influence
Satan exhibitsthe firstrecognizable"Image of
of men,resemblingthatof the Heavens." 111Dryden extolledthe "shiningqualityof an epic hero" Heroique vertue" in Paradise Lost; but it is
Like "eminence,"lusterbelongs (alas) neither"venerable"nor "amiable."114 The
and his virtues.112
these superficial"acto the traditionalconceptionof heroicvirtue; and spiritualrealitiesunderlying
in Milton's repeated allusions to Satan's emi- cidents" of heroismare apparentfromthe very
nence and the vestiges of his formerglory one beginningof the poem in spite of (or indeed
recognizes the deliberateevocation of a heroic through) the devil's own words. In the course
commonplace. The devil will lose his proud emi- of the action these realitiesare progressively
denence in "shape and gesture"-metamorphosed finedthroughthe developmentof characterand
into a creeping serpent-but he will also be plot,and repeatedlyemphasizedthroughexternal
the "Original physicalsigns. Finally,theyare representedemstrippedof anotherheroicattribute,
brightness"that still investshis form.113In this blematicallyand symbolically
throughthe kind of
moralizedmetamorphosis
that any reader of the
11 Gladish, p. 5.
RenaissanceOvid could clearlyunderstand. Like
111 Gladish, p. 109.
the decay of Satan's visibleglory,his transforma112 Watson2: p. 228.
fromgodliketo brutishshape is a reflection
tion
113 In Book I of Paradise Lost, Milton describes Satan
of
the
alterationin his character; it involves a
as standing "above the rest/ In shape and gesture proudly
eminent. . .; his formhad not yet lost/ All her Original dramaticchangefromthe symbolicformof heroic
brightness,nor appear'd/ Less than Arch-Angel ruin'd;
virtueto the symbolicformof its contraryvice.
and th' excess/ Of Glory obscured." Although "Dark'n'd"
Neverthelessmore than the mere pretenseof
like an eclipsed sun, "yet shone/ Above themall th' Archheroism
has been lost; and more than the heroic
Angel." In Book II we see him exalted to the "bad
eminence" and bejeweled splendor of a Sultan's throne. image has been destroyed. The darkeningof
fromLuciferto luciIn Book IV he learns with indignation and grief that originalluster,the transition
even in his "own shape," he is no longer recognizable:
fuge,and the metamorphoses
fromarchangelicto
bestial form-these involvea positivereversalof
Think not, revolted Spirit, thy shape the same,
the originalorder of creation: the productionof
Or undiminishtbrightness,to be known
As when thou stood'st in Heav'n upright and pure;
lightout of darkness,and of peace out of discord.
That Glory then,when thou no more wast good,
In the alterationsin Satan's character,and in his
Departed fromthee, and thou resembl'stnow
external
form,we encounterthe exact reverseof
Thy sin and place of doom obscure and foul.
theseprocesses. We see not onlythe transformaRecognizing the "awful" power of goodness and the tion of apparentheroicvirtueinto
its logical conbeauty of virtue "in her shape," Satan "pin'd/ His loss;
but chieflyto find here observ'd/ His lustre visibly im- trary, but (more significantly)a progressive
moral annihilation,a spiritualdecreation.115 In
We next see him through Gabriel's eyes:
pair'd...."
a figure "of Regal port,/ But faded splendor wan; who
by his gait/ And fierce demeanor seems the Prince of
Hell. . . ."
In Book X, shortlybefore his humiliation,he emerges
(like Aeneas) from invisibilityin a blaze of light:
At last as from a Cloud his fulgenthead
And shape Star-brightappear'd, or brighter,clad
With what permissiveglory since his fall
Was left him, or false glitter: All amaz'd
At that so sudden blaze the Stygian throng
Bent their aspect ...
The stellar imagery is an appropriate comparison for the
formerLucifer, whose countenance was "as the Morning
Star"; but it also recalls the star-similes (ominous in
the case of Hector and Achilles, less baleful in the case
of Diomedes) in the Iliad. See Cedric H. Whitman,
Homer anid the Heroic Tradition (New York, 1965), pp.
128-153, on the imagery of fire,lightning,starlight,mist,
and other natural phenomena in the Iliad. Milton transfers the ominous associations of Homer's star-imageryto
the simile of a solar eclipse. In a complementarysimile
he compares the witheredglory of Satan's legions not to
fire but to forest trees scathed by lightning ("Heav'n's
Fire").
Immediately thereafter,however, the "sudden
blaze" of their flaming swords "Far round illumin'd
hell."
114 Gladish, p. 50.
115 If the fate of Satan is
essentially a tragedy of reprobation, we should recall that for seventeenth-century
readers this would be the tragedy of their greatest Adversary and archenemyand that its tragic effectswould
probably be correspondinglylimited. It would be unduly
charitable to expect the descendants of fallen Adam to
feel excessive pity for the demon who had firstbeguiled
their common ancestor and was actively seeking their
own eternal damnation. Satan's tragedy might (as in
Raphael's narration to Adam) provide a "terrible Example" of the "reward/ Of Disobedience" and arouse a
comparable "fear to transgress,"but it is difficultto imagine either Milton or his contemporariesfeeling the kind
294
JOHN M. STEADMAN
[PROC. AMER. PHIL.
SOC.
Satan's degenerationwe recognize the gradual
fulfillment
of Abdiel's prophecy:
Then who created thee lamentinglearn,
When who can uncreate thee thou shalt know.
of sympathywith the devil that an audience would experience toward the kind of tragic hero proposed by
Aristotle's Poetics. For readers who genuinely believed
in the devil's reality,the very harshness of the fate Milton assigns him could be not merely an admonition but
a theme for reassurance; the strict justice allotted the
devil would, by contrast,heightentheir awareness of the
universal grace vouchsafed to man. In Milton's system,
only the rebel angels are, in the strictest sense, "reprobate," that is, explicitlyexcluded fromgrace. In contrast
to the severe justice accorded to the devils, freeand infinite
grace is extended to all men, and even the so-called
"reprobate" among them possess the power and ability to
repent. The example of Satan may serve as a warning
to the unrepentant,depicting the fate that awaits them if
they remain obstinate; but, unlike the devil, they are not
excluded from grace. According to the Christian Doctrine (Prose Works, ed. St. John, Vol. IV, p. 70) no
man is excluded by divine decree "from the pale or repentance and eternal salvation, unless it be after the contempt and rejection of grace, and that at a very late
hour." The opportunitiesare markedly differentin the
case of the fallen angels.

The Idea of Satan as the Hero of "Paradise Lost"

Transcription

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