MILTON
On the
Morning of
Christ’s
Nativity
(1629)
The Faerie Queene Nativity Ode, XVIII
And then at last our bliss
His haughtie helmet, horrid all with gold,
Full and perfect is,
Both glorious brightnesse, and great terrour bred; But now begins; for from this happy day
For all the crest a Dragon did enfold Th’old Dragon under ground
With greedie pawes, and ouer all did spred In straiter limits bound,
His golden wings: his dreadfull hideous hed Not half so far casts his usurped sway
And wrath to see his Kingdom fail,
Close couched on the beuer, seem'd to throw
Swindges the scaly Horrour of his foulded tail.
From flaming mouth bright sparkles fierie red,
That suddeine horror to faint harts did show;
And scaly tayle was stretcht adowne his backe full low.
– Edmund Spenser
"I wish you would unfold the folded tail for me, I do not like to meddle with it"
- Walter Savage Landor to Robert Southey
“ The long alexandrine at the close seems to
launch each stanza on towards its successor,
ripae iilterioris amore, or rather, with the desire
of fresh striking out in the unbroken though
waveswept sea of poetry. Each is a great stroke
by a mighty swimmer; it furthers the progress
for the next as well as in itself. And it is greatly
in this that the untiring character of The Faerie
Queene consists.”
- George Saintsbury
‘The Air such pleasure loth to lose,
With thousand echo’s still prolongs each heav’nly close’
- IX
‘Then was there heard a most celestiall sound,
Of dainty musicke, which did next ensew
Before the spouse: that was Arion crownd;
Who playing on his harpe, unto him drew
The eares and hearts of all that goodly crew,
That even yet the Dolphin, which him bore
Through the Aegean seas from Pirates vew,
Stood still by him astonisht at his lore,
And all the raging seas for ioy forgot to rore.’
– Edmund Spenser
‘She strikes a universall peace through Sea and Land’ (III)
‘And Kings sate still with awfull eye’ (IV)
‘While Birds of Calm sit brooding on the charmed wave.’ (V)
‘Stand fixt in stedfast gaze’ (VI)
‘Bright-harnest Angels sit in order serviceable’ (XXVII)
Eternity (‘nunc stans’)
a
Linear time
(‘in fluxu’)
b
c
‘His raign of peace upon the earth began’ (V)
‘Hell it self will pass away’ (XIV)
II
‘Only with speeches fair
She woo’s the gentle Air
To hide her guilty front with innocent Snow,
And on her naked Shame,
Pollute with sinfull blame,
The Saintly Vail of Maiden white to throw,
Confounded, that her Makers eyes
Should look so neer upon her foul deformities.’
Rodin- Eve after the Fall
Use of Military within
Nativity ODE
Where?
• “The helmed Cherubim
And sworded Seraphim
Are seen in glittering ranks with wings displaid” l.115 – Jesus is depicted as being surrounded by his
own armed army of angels.
• ‘His raign of peace upon the earth began” l.63
• Stanza IV: No War, or Battails sound
Was heard the World around:
The idle spear and shield were high up hung;
The hooked Chariot stood
Unstain'd with hostile blood,
The Trumpet spake not to the armed throng,
And Kings sate still with awfull eye,
As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by
Why?
• By depicting Jesus as a military figure, the poem puts itself forth as a
triumph over Paganism. Lower classes citizens are lowly portrayed in
stanza VIII.
• Differentiates itself from some ecclesial poetry of the time.
• The birth of Christ as a victory rather than a celebration for humanity.
• In Milton’s ‘Of Education’, he highlights the importance of military within
learning.
• Foresees Milton’s political stance attacking the episcopal form of church
leadership from 1641 onwards.
Milton’s contemporaries
• Ben Jonson (1572-1637): A Hymn
on the Nativity of My Saviour.
• Henry Vaughan (1621-1695): The
Nativity
• Richard Grashaw: A Hymn of the
Nativity
• Robert Southwell: The Nativity
Of Christ
Milton’s ‘The Passion’
•‘The Passion’ first published 1645. Considered a
poor poem by Milton and his contemporaries.
•Poem included in 1645 collection even though it
was unfinished. Thought that he included it
unfinished as an example of juvenilia to
demonstrate how his skills as a poet had
progressed from where they were at age 21.
•Poem written for the Easter of 1630, but not
published till 1645.
Possible Reasons for Poems Poor Reception and
Points for General Consideration
The ‘Heroe’ referred to is
Jesus but it is also a
comparison to Hercules. Is
there some sort of
diminution of Christ’s
divinity by comparing him
to a demi-god? Milton
In line 13 Milton writes: pointing out how Christ was
‘Most perfect Heroe, try’d both God and man, but
in heaviest plight compares him to a demi-
god who killed his wife and
Of labours huge and hard,
children. What do we make
too hard for human wight’
of this?
Comparison continued...
Furthermore, Hercules was born as What is the inference/significance of
a result of Zeus seducing a Greek the comparison between Mary and
princess whose fiancée was away Alcmene, who were both
avenging the deaths of her brothers. impregnated by deities whilst their
What do we make of the comparison fiancées were away, bearing in mind
of Christ to an illegitimate demi-god? Milton’s attitudes to women?
In line 17 Milton refers to Christ as the:
‘Poor fleshly Tabernacle’
Here Milton compares Christ to the
Ark of the Covenant!
I shall now demonstrate the
potential significance of this
comparison, using playing cards as
a visual learning aid.
Self-Knowledge
In
‘The Passion’
Milton’s Outlook
Fields argues that “self knowledge becomes
fundamental both to his theology and his ethics” and
that this mindset is taken from classical literature,
particularly Plato, and this reflects the mixture of
ideals Milton represents in ‘The Passion’ – the
apparent merging of Christian and classical morality.
We can see this through the mention of Phoebus, the
God of poetry and father of the muses, and the
undercurrent of that very Christian insistence upon
the corruption of man and of the physical world.
The Theory
• Milton’s view of man distinguished between
his rational part, or “self-like God”, and his
passional nature – the evil, satanic side.
• It is argued that Milton believed this knowledge
– that both aspects of character are inherent in all
men, enabled an individual to lead a more fulfilling
life as a self knowing person should enjoy life by
“wise choosing”, but he should realise that the
divine image within him, which empowers him
with rational choice, obligates him to be ‘tested’
for his ‘salvation’
For Example
We have his generous money making
and charity giving side, which represents
his very own self-like God, a concept I’m
sure he would agree with.
and we have everything else he has
ever done, which represents his
“latent evil within” – JLS, Britain’s
Got Talent, Amanda Holden etc.
Back to ‘The Passion’
• Interestingly, in the line “Godlike acts, and his
temptations fierce”, the word “his” is not capitalised,
as you would expect with it being written by a
religious man.
• Could we argue that this is Milton suggesting a more
general meaning of God?
• Is this an inference about an inner God in him, or
mankind?
• Also the use of the term “Godlike”, instead of God,
seems to infer a less literal meaning of Jesus.
More Evidence Please
•Therefore, can we see the “most perfect Heroe” as
representing Milton’s own ‘self-like God’ as well as Jesus?
•And can we read Jesus’s suffering, and the evil of those
punishing him “Of labours huge and hard, too hard for
human wight”, and the eventual “stroke of death he must
abide”, as the representation of our satanic side, the “latent
evil within”, something we must all suffer, understand, and
most importantly control, in order to enjoy a rational
existence?
The Classical/Christian Crossover
• We have seen already that Milton’s way of
thinking is heavily influenced by classical
morals, as well as Christian beliefs.
• In ‘The Passion’ Milton seems to suggest that
an individual must remain aware of his
responsibility to God, but never allow the
latent evil within to become active – for this
will prevent his salvation.
The Amendment
• “The subject the author finding to be above
the years he had, when he wrote it, and
nothing satisfi’d with what was begun, left it
unfinisht.”
• Perhaps Milton did not think that he had the
level of self-knowledge necessary to express
himself as he would have liked