Resumo de Paradise Lost

Notes : His life included the period of the Civil War 1640-9, and he supported and wrote extensively for Parliament and Cromwell against the monarchists (King Charles I was executed Jan. 30, 1649) and was for church reform sweeping away papist influences and the dominance of the C of England. He met Galileo while the old scientist was under house arrest. By 44 he had become completely blind. He was arrested 1660 after the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II but somehow escaped execution, presumably because of the high regard for his literary works. P.L. was first published 1667 when he was 58 y.o. P.L. is in 12 Books written in English heroic verse without rhyme, each prefaced with a prose Argument (summary) added by Milton after the first edition proved to be hard reading. Milton in P.L attempts to tell the biblical story of man in the style of epic poetry (like Aeneid and Homer), adding much that is not actually contained in the Bible. It is written in a difficult not-truly-English Latinate style, which brought Samuel Johnson to comment, PL is one of those books which the reader admires and lays down and forgets to take up again. None ever wished it longer than it is... and Keats, [PL] though so fine is a corruption of our language... Although Milton was strongly religious, he opposed the Church of England and the Catholic church on many issues and acted as a de facto church of one. The theology in PL is idiosyncratic and the work cannot be used as a standard religious source. Many, including Blake, were offended that Satan (along with Eve) seems to get the best lines and appears to be the epic hero for much of the work--also that A&E seemed to enjoy sexuality so much even in prelapsarian Paradise. Milton's theology is unorthodox, particularly in the private voice of the poem. Eve (women) is portrayed as weaker and less rational than Adam.
concepts in Paradise Lost.: The outer spherical shell of the universe (whole turning, i.e., the world including the earth) is created by God out of a region of chaos (or abyss bottomless) using a pair of golden compasses--the shell of the universe is suspended from heaven by a golden chain. A flight of retractable stairs goes down to it from heaven. Hell was a separate enclosure within chaos. According to traditional medieval ideas of cosmology (to which Milton partly subscribed), in the space between the center of the universe (which may either be the earth or the sun--Milton does not assume a geocentric universe) and the outer shell of the universe are ten concentric transparent and immaterial spheres: comprising the moon, 5 planets, sun [or earth], fixed stars, crystalline sphere, and the primum mobile or rhomb (which moved all the spheres within). The primordial waters were separated into two concentric spheres, the inner furnishing nourishment for earth and the outer chrystalline waters forming a cover for the universe to protect it from chaos. Between the earth's surface and the shell of the universe were two main divisions: the sublunar region (which included the moon and earth) consisted of earth, air, fire, and water, but what was beyond the moon's sphere was made of a fifth, heavenly, substance called quintessence or ether. Angels are made of this quintessence. They can assume any size, shape, or sex and can travel at great speed.

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