I.
King Lear final class
A. 3:10—3:15
2.
unaccommodated man, bare forked animal, the thing itself,
stripping; Lear gets naked in storm
B. Lear and Gloucester 3:15--3:20 4.6b—5 minutes line 145 3:45 minutes in
C. 3:30—3:40 4.7 –7minutes Cordelia—goodness
2.
what about Nature and Darwin
D. 3:40-45 5.3d at
4 minutes in (3 minutes)Élines 350-365
II. Paradise
Lost—Introduction—20 minutes
A. Biggest Book—grand
epic, in style of Beowulf; first half about war and military hero and those
heroic virtues; a war setting—the war in heaven
1.
Tells the whole story of the Bible—start to end of
human history in the context of the larger story of God and the Devil; incorporating both Pagan Classical and
Judaeo--Christian mythology
2.
Christian Humanist
B. Conceives of himself as prophet, divinely inspired; the
style and the scope is appropriate; inspiration is the classical muses and the
holy spirit;
C. it will take something of a heroic effort to read it and
enjoy it; the language is Latinate and often obscure; the sentences incredibly
long; the characterization complex; the speeches requiring interpretation to see
beyond what the characters are saying to what they are thinking—and itÕs
really long. IÕve cut out some big
chunks, but youÕll want to break it up your reading into daily two hour
chunks. That should get you
prepared for next weekÕs quiz.
1.
Check syllabus
D. But if you read it aloud and let the rhythm of the blank
verse carry you, youÕll find like many other students whoÕve been forced to
make their way through it, that the rhythm of the verse will carry you along
like a fast current pulling you down a river in a canoe, and along the way youÕll
be enjoying the grandeur of the scenery and the tension of the drama.
E.
The rhythm is blank verse; the same as
the grand speeches in King Lear—close to prose, but very different in
sound and feeling; ten-syllable/five stress, iambic pentameter line, often
without pauses at the end—enjambment—and with pauses in the middle—caesura.
F.
Long sentences—look where they end
up;
G. Read 1-16—Invocation of the Muse
H. introduces the overall story: asks the muses and the spirit
that inspired Moses, the reputed author of the first five books of the bible,
to inspire him to tell the story of the Fall and the Redemption; adam and eve
vs. jesus. Remember the reference
to this in Lear: Cordelia Òredeems
nature from the general curse that twain have brought her to.Ó In Lear thereÕs at best a doubtful and
partial redemption; here it eventually becomes complete but only in the
foreshadowing narrative of Book 12.
Most of the work, like Lear, is the tragedy of fall—SatanÕs fall
and humanityÕs fall.
1.
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme
a)
Love
the line
I.
Second invocation: Lines 17—26—read
aloud
1.
I may assert Eternal Providence
2.
And justify the ways of God to Man
a)
Theodicy
b)
Comfort
c)
Illumine
darkness—he is blind; he dictated the lines to his wife
(1)
Blindness forced him to compose orally, rendering him
entirely reliant upon amanuenses (casual copyists among his friends and family
circle) to whom he gave dictation. He composed the poem mostly at night or in
the early morning, committing his composition to memory until someone was
available to write down his words. He revised as his text was read back to him,
so that a day's work amounted to twenty lines of verse.
3.
Failure of the revolution—puritan and democratic; civil war
victory but faction and disfunction brought back the monarchy; Milton was
condemned