WEBVTT 00:02.060 --> 00:04.220 Professor John Rogers: It's been said that if 00:04.219 --> 00:05.749 Samson Agonistes didn't exist, 00:05.750 --> 00:09.770 then we could say with something like perfect 00:09.774 --> 00:14.994 confidence that John Milton could never have chosen Samson 00:14.988 --> 00:18.368 for a hero. There's very little in the 00:18.367 --> 00:22.997 Samson story that makes sense in terms of the larger thematic 00:23.000 --> 00:28.020 patterns of Milton's major poems as we have come to know them. 00:28.020 --> 00:29.050 Think about Paradise Lost. 00:29.050 --> 00:32.740 In Paradise Lost, Milton struggled to justify 00:32.741 --> 00:34.231 the ways of God to men. 00:34.230 --> 00:37.390 He attempted to make his religion, his faith, 00:37.390 --> 00:41.770 as justifiable and as rational in a lot of ways as he possibly 00:41.772 --> 00:45.442 could.In Paradise Regained Milton rewrote 00:45.436 --> 00:47.156 Christian history. 00:47.160 --> 00:50.250 He went even further, rewriting Christian history to 00:50.247 --> 00:53.997 scrub it clean of the primitive and violent notion of sacrifice 00:54.001 --> 00:56.121 in the form of the crucifixion. 00:56.120 --> 00:58.440 Fallen man was redeemed, we remember, 00:58.441 --> 01:01.601 not because Christ was sacrificed on the cross but 01:01.601 --> 01:05.281 because of a much more rational and arguably a justifiable 01:05.276 --> 01:09.016 cause: man was redeemed quite simply because the Son of God 01:09.016 --> 01:12.366 was able to resist the temptations of Satan. 01:12.370 --> 01:16.950 Man was redeemed because the Son was able to behave 01:16.948 --> 01:22.628 rationally and obediently -- and an unstated corollary here for 01:22.625 --> 01:27.015 Paradise Regained is that we can all. 01:27.019 --> 01:29.919 We're all in a position to redeem ourselves, 01:29.917 --> 01:33.887 and I think this is why Milton so scrupulously and carefully 01:33.893 --> 01:37.063 refers to Jesus either as Jesus or the Son, 01:37.060 --> 01:41.030 the Son of God, and never in Paradise 01:41.027 --> 01:43.567 Regained as Christ. 01:43.569 --> 01:47.129 Of course, we can't aspire to the status of Christ, 01:47.125 --> 01:50.105 which is the Greek word for messiah, 01:50.112 --> 01:53.102 which merely means "the anointed one." 01:53.099 --> 01:57.559 That's something that we can't be, but as Satan knows, 01:57.562 --> 01:59.922 all of us are sons of God. 01:59.920 --> 02:04.300 We all have the capacity to do pretty much what the Son of God 02:04.295 --> 02:08.235 had accomplished in Paradise Regained.Now, 02:08.240 --> 02:11.820 when we approach Samson Agonistes, we realize 02:11.822 --> 02:15.282 pretty quickly that we have to toss aside immediately any 02:15.282 --> 02:18.682 expectation that Milton will be writing a theodicy, 02:18.680 --> 02:20.990 an attempt to justify the ways of God. 02:20.990 --> 02:26.870 It's impossible to imagine the justice or the rationality 02:26.870 --> 02:31.280 behind the primary actions of this poem. 02:31.280 --> 02:35.460 The first question that I think we have to ask ourselves is what 02:35.462 --> 02:38.912 could possibly [laughs] have possessed Milton to have 02:38.914 --> 02:42.344 chosen Samson, that famous biblical hero, 02:42.343 --> 02:45.353 for the subject of his final work. 02:45.349 --> 02:49.269 I'm just going to ask you for a moment to think about Samson as 02:49.267 --> 02:52.677 he appears in the Old Testament, the book of Judges. 02:52.680 --> 02:57.700 I think all biblical scholars agree that the story of Samson 02:57.698 --> 03:02.888 had its origins in a primitive and savage folk tale.Samson 03:02.886 --> 03:07.306 was a giant who slayed Philistines with a jawbone and 03:07.309 --> 03:12.409 who attached firebrands to the tails of foxes in order to set 03:12.413 --> 03:14.883 whole cities on fire. 03:14.879 --> 03:17.309 The writer of the Judges version of this tale -- which 03:17.312 --> 03:18.692 comes much later, of course, 03:18.689 --> 03:23.099 than the original tale itself, because it's a folk tale -- the 03:23.104 --> 03:27.234 Judges version has done very little to cleanse the tale of 03:27.229 --> 03:31.209 what we can think of as its savagery or to transform the 03:31.209 --> 03:35.409 tale into anything that we might think appropriate for holy 03:35.407 --> 03:38.357 scripture. If the Old Testament Samson can 03:38.360 --> 03:41.560 be said to possess any virtues that we would feel comfortable 03:41.555 --> 03:45.565 recognizing as virtues, it would have to be Samson's 03:45.573 --> 03:48.493 complete abstinence from wine. 03:48.490 --> 03:53.480 It goes without saying that we all applaud Samson's 03:53.482 --> 03:57.712 abstemiousness. Surely this abstinence from 03:57.708 --> 04:03.228 wine isn't in and of itself a sufficient cause for Milton to 04:03.234 --> 04:08.574 turn what is essentially a terrorist ogre into an orthodox 04:08.572 --> 04:12.602 hero fit for a Christian poem.Now, 04:12.599 --> 04:14.739 look at the front of the handout. 04:14.740 --> 04:19.100 This is where I reproduced the end of the Judges version of the 04:19.104 --> 04:22.394 Samson story, and so according to the Hebrew 04:22.393 --> 04:25.973 Bible these are Samson's climactic actions at the 04:25.967 --> 04:28.347 Philistine Festival of Dagon. 04:28.350 --> 04:31.000 You'll remember that Samson has been blinded, 04:31.000 --> 04:34.010 he's been humiliated, and he's being forced to make 04:34.012 --> 04:38.792 sport for the Philistines; it's a side show for the main 04:38.794 --> 04:40.854 show. Samson called unto the Lord and 04:40.845 --> 04:42.685 said: O Lord God, 04:42.685 --> 04:44.815 remember me, I pray thee, 04:44.823 --> 04:47.503 and strengthen me, I pray thee, 04:47.497 --> 04:51.787 only this once, O God, that I may be at once 04:51.792 --> 04:56.282 avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. 04:56.279 --> 04:58.919 And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon 04:58.918 --> 05:01.588 which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, 05:01.593 --> 05:04.573 of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his 05:04.574 --> 05:07.094 left. And Samson said, 05:07.088 --> 05:09.738 Let me die with the Philistines. 05:09.740 --> 05:12.020 And he bowed himself with all his might; 05:12.019 --> 05:16.219 and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people 05:16.216 --> 05:20.716 that were therein. Now, Samson prays to God -- 05:20.716 --> 05:23.686 yes, it's true: he prays to God, 05:23.686 --> 05:26.556 but look what he prays for. 05:26.560 --> 05:28.770 He's praying for vengeance. 05:28.770 --> 05:31.520 "Only this once… let me be avenged upon the 05:31.519 --> 05:33.489 Philistines," Samson prays. 05:33.490 --> 05:36.580 In an act that can only be called a suicide, 05:36.579 --> 05:40.459 and it has been called a suicide for thousands of years 05:40.459 --> 05:43.189 now, Samson brings the house down. 05:43.190 --> 05:47.060 The dominant impulses here are suicide and revenge, 05:47.059 --> 05:51.469 and by any ethical standard available to Milton this story 05:51.471 --> 05:56.271 has to be seen as morally and ethically repugnant.Now, 05:56.269 --> 06:00.019 it's true that Milton does make some efforts to clean the story 06:00.022 --> 06:03.592 up, to purge the story of some of its most morally offensive 06:03.593 --> 06:06.013 elements. I think that's perhaps one of 06:06.012 --> 06:09.112 the reasons why you have all of that violent rhetoric, 06:09.110 --> 06:12.440 that language of purgation, that I talked about in the last 06:12.444 --> 06:14.104 lecture. Nonetheless, 06:14.100 --> 06:19.500 we simply can't deny the fact that Samson does commit suicide 06:19.504 --> 06:24.824 and that the suicide has the singularly satisfying effect of 06:24.817 --> 06:28.417 avenging the loss of Samson's eyes. 06:28.420 --> 06:32.150 What is so amazing about this poem is that Samson's final 06:32.154 --> 06:35.894 action -- an action that any right-thinking Christian, 06:35.889 --> 06:39.809 any right-thinking anyone, would have to find ethically 06:39.812 --> 06:43.302 repellant -- this final action is approved of. 06:43.300 --> 06:48.210 It's sanctioned by God, Samson's murderous feelings, 06:48.214 --> 06:51.494 his unseemly desire to get even. 06:51.490 --> 06:59.760 All of these questionable motives are given a vast divine 06:59.756 --> 07:03.536 blessing. It's a shocking expression of 07:03.536 --> 07:06.506 what Freud would call wish fulfillment. 07:06.509 --> 07:09.969 This final work of Milton seems from a theological point of 07:09.966 --> 07:12.286 view, from the religious perspective, 07:12.290 --> 07:14.810 to counter just about everything of Milton's that 07:14.813 --> 07:16.393 we've read up to this point. 07:16.389 --> 07:21.069 That's because here every wish, every desire -- all of those 07:21.068 --> 07:25.588 passionate instincts that the other works were laboring so 07:25.588 --> 07:30.348 hard to suppress -- all of these wishes just get fulfilled in 07:30.346 --> 07:34.006 this poem.Now, I'm not at all suggesting that 07:34.013 --> 07:37.193 Samson Agonistes is wholly unrelated to Milton's 07:37.188 --> 07:39.608 other works. That would be the last thing I 07:39.609 --> 07:40.789 would want to suggest. 07:40.790 --> 07:45.570 Milton's obviously imagining the final action of this poem in 07:45.565 --> 07:49.935 relation to the climactic actions of his other two major 07:49.944 --> 07:52.614 works, and he draws all three of his 07:52.605 --> 07:56.465 final works together by placing their central actions at high 07:56.465 --> 07:59.785 noon, at mid-day. 07:59.790 --> 08:03.420 In Paradise Lost, Eve falls at noon and Milton 08:03.419 --> 08:07.109 told us simply -- this is on the handout but it's also on the 08:07.111 --> 08:11.111 board -- Milton tells us with exquisite economy "she plucked, 08:11.110 --> 08:16.600 she eat." With this extraordinary 08:16.598 --> 08:20.418 concision, Milton narrated that act on earth that initiates the 08:20.423 --> 08:23.943 history of fallen man.In Paradise Regained, 08:23.939 --> 08:27.619 Milton describes the action that works really to undo 08:27.621 --> 08:29.341 the effects of Eve's fall. 08:29.339 --> 08:33.839 That's the Son's resistance to Satan's temptation, 08:33.836 --> 08:38.146 as opposed to his giving in to it as Eve had. 08:38.149 --> 08:40.789 In narrating this event, Milton alludes to the 08:40.785 --> 08:44.295 grammatical structure of that narrative crux from Paradise 08:44.298 --> 08:48.018 Lost, and he employs another sentence 08:48.016 --> 08:52.976 of four monosyllabic words, two of them active verbs: 08:52.976 --> 08:55.166 "he said and stood." 08:55.169 --> 09:00.219 What was a transgressive action in Paradise Lost is 09:00.224 --> 09:05.374 redeemed through what could be seen as the Son's motionless 09:05.367 --> 09:08.397 inaction, his resistance to action, 09:08.398 --> 09:12.908 or at least his resistance to any form of heroic action as it 09:12.905 --> 09:17.065 is typically conceived.Now, in Samson Agonistes, 09:17.068 --> 09:20.388 Milton simply can't resist the opportunity to complete this 09:20.391 --> 09:22.001 triad of momentous actions. 09:22.000 --> 09:25.560 He can't resist this opportunity to remind his 09:25.557 --> 09:29.507 readers, us, of his other two great major poems. 09:29.509 --> 09:32.239 So when Samson pulls down the pillars of the temple, 09:32.244 --> 09:34.924 Milton describes that action with a closely related 09:34.924 --> 09:37.234 grammatical construction -- four words, 09:37.230 --> 09:42.470 two of them verbs: "he tugg'd, he shook." 09:42.470 --> 09:47.370 I want you to pause just for a moment and to think about how -- 09:47.370 --> 09:52.430 when we consider this sequence, how shocking that sentence is. 09:52.429 --> 09:57.499 With this final catastrophic action Milton seems to take back 09:57.497 --> 10:02.647 everything that the Son of God had accomplished in Paradise 10:02.650 --> 10:07.380 Regained -- this has to be one of the most regressive 10:07.380 --> 10:11.350 conclusions in all of English literature. 10:11.350 --> 10:15.000 The Son of God had devoted all four books of Paradise 10:14.997 --> 10:18.507 Regained to resisting action, to resisting vulgar, 10:18.511 --> 10:20.701 militaristic, violent action. 10:20.700 --> 10:23.400 He simply did nothing, and he was so adamant in his 10:23.395 --> 10:26.325 resistance that Satan was led, you'll remember, 10:26.326 --> 10:29.116 to cry out with complete exasperation, 10:29.116 --> 10:31.676 "What dost thou in this world?" 10:31.679 --> 10:34.719 The answer to the question was that the Son does absolutely 10:34.721 --> 10:38.501 nothing in this world, or he does absolutely nothing 10:38.495 --> 10:43.175 except obey the will of God.But at his climactic, 10:43.179 --> 10:47.109 high-noon action Samson seems -- it's amazing. 10:47.110 --> 10:50.530 Samson seems also to be obeying the will of God, 10:50.533 --> 10:54.393 but his action has a much stronger resemblance to that 10:54.393 --> 10:57.383 transgressive act of the willful Eve. 10:57.380 --> 10:59.310 Eve had followed her own desire. 10:59.309 --> 11:03.379 She had followed her own instinct when she made the fatal 11:03.376 --> 11:05.406 decision to eat the fruit. 11:05.409 --> 11:10.539 Here at the end of Milton's career, it's as if Milton were 11:10.539 --> 11:15.039 allowing himself to rethink perhaps the theological 11:15.039 --> 11:18.009 implications of Eve's action. 11:18.009 --> 11:23.329 It's as if Eve's act were being re-imagined this time as a 11:23.327 --> 11:26.987 heroic one. In this remarkable exercise in 11:26.994 --> 11:30.514 wish fulfillment, Samson gets to perform his 11:30.512 --> 11:34.812 Eve-like transgression, but with a big difference: 11:34.810 --> 11:38.650 with the magical blessing of divine sanction. 11:38.649 --> 11:42.349 "He tugg'd, he shook": he performs an action at least 11:42.348 --> 11:46.078 as transgressive as Eve's, but it's not followed by any of 11:46.084 --> 11:49.184 the hideous consequences of Eve's plucking and eating. 11:49.179 --> 11:54.659 It's as if Milton were saying to God, "Only this once, 11:54.662 --> 12:00.762 only this once let an action as bold as Eve's meet with your 12:00.764 --> 12:06.974 approval."Look at Milton's description of the destruction 12:06.971 --> 12:12.081 of the temple. This is line 1643 of Samson 12:12.081 --> 12:17.561 Agonistes and it's at the bottom of page 590 of the 12:17.556 --> 12:24.346 Hughes. According to the messenger who reports the event, 12:24.350 --> 12:31.270 Samson tells the assembled Philistines in the huge theater: 12:31.269 --> 12:34.979 "Now of my own accord such other trialI mean to 12:34.978 --> 12:39.298 show you of my strength, yet greater;As with amaze 12:39.300 --> 12:43.340 shall strike all who behold."This utter'd, 12:43.335 --> 12:48.445 straining all his nerves he bow'd;As with the force of 12:48.447 --> 12:53.197 winds and waters pentWhen Mountains tremble, 12:53.200 --> 12:57.960 those two massy PillarsWith horrible convulsion to and 12:57.958 --> 13:00.378 froHe tugg'd, he shook, 13:00.379 --> 13:03.879 till down they came, and drewThe whole roof 13:03.880 --> 13:07.610 after them, with burst of thunder… 13:07.610 --> 13:10.500 Milton's language here of this thunderous trembling, 13:10.501 --> 13:13.621 this horrible convulsion, is essentially the language of 13:13.619 --> 13:16.609 apocalypse. He's imagining the scene of 13:16.609 --> 13:21.129 destruction as if it were something akin to the end of the 13:21.126 --> 13:23.376 world, and the destruction of the 13:23.379 --> 13:26.989 temple functions here as if it were a type, or a forerunner, 13:26.990 --> 13:30.820 of God's final destruction of the world at the end of 13:30.823 --> 13:35.033 time.Now the Samson story from the Old Testament is an 13:35.025 --> 13:38.705 event that clearly occurred before the Son of God's 13:38.710 --> 13:43.280 redemption of man from the New Testament that Milton depicts in 13:43.281 --> 13:47.631 Paradise Regained; but there's some remarkable 13:47.630 --> 13:51.680 sense in which this text describes an event in Christian 13:51.684 --> 13:57.144 history that happens after the events of Paradise Regained. 13:57.139 --> 14:00.639 In a strange and inverted kind of way, Samson Agonistes 14:00.636 --> 14:03.526 describes the fulfillment, the culmination, 14:03.528 --> 14:07.628 of the events that were laid out in Paradise Regained. 14:07.629 --> 14:10.839 You can see that the last three works seem to sketch in 14:10.835 --> 14:14.395 something like chronological order -- even though the stories 14:14.396 --> 14:17.716 they tell themselves are not in chronological order, 14:17.720 --> 14:20.760 they sketch in chronological order the outlines of Christian 14:20.755 --> 14:22.185 history. "She plucked, 14:22.188 --> 14:25.578 she ate": we have a representation of the Fall. 14:25.580 --> 14:27.840 "He said and stood": we have a representation of the 14:27.843 --> 14:30.333 redemption. "He tugg'd, he shook": 14:30.334 --> 14:34.254 we have something like a representation of the 14:34.251 --> 14:37.531 apocalypse. Samson Agonistes in some 14:37.525 --> 14:41.435 ways is imagining itself in terms of the closure of a larger 14:41.437 --> 14:44.617 thematic pattern in Milton's literary career, 14:44.620 --> 14:50.290 and the astonishing thing about this final action is that it's 14:50.288 --> 14:55.678 so completely transgressive from any ethical or theological 14:55.678 --> 14:59.208 perspective.Look at line 1643, 14:59.210 --> 15:02.450 the first line I just read at the scene of the temple. 15:02.450 --> 15:07.060 This is Samson: "Now of my own accord such 15:07.061 --> 15:12.351 other trial / I mean to show you of my strength, 15:12.347 --> 15:16.237 yet greater." Samson is in no way here 15:16.242 --> 15:21.122 attributing -- as we think he should -- he's not attributing 15:21.115 --> 15:25.405 any of his strength or any of his actions to God. 15:25.409 --> 15:28.679 You remember the Son of God was always hungering to do the 15:28.681 --> 15:31.711 Father's will. He was attributing everything, 15:31.705 --> 15:33.735 and rightly so, to the Father, 15:33.740 --> 15:37.670 but Samson doesn't credit Jehovah with anything here. 15:37.669 --> 15:42.689 He's not even claiming to perform this action for the 15:42.691 --> 15:48.681 greater glory of God.I think it is possible to read this as 15:48.677 --> 15:52.537 an entirely personal act of revenge, 15:52.539 --> 15:56.519 and I'm personally convinced that Milton is alluding in these 15:56.516 --> 16:00.686 lines to that magnificent speech that Satan had made just before 16:00.691 --> 16:02.151 the war in heaven. 16:02.149 --> 16:05.889 This is the speech right after Satan had claimed to Abdiel that 16:05.893 --> 16:09.093 he was "self-begot," self-made, "by our own quick'ning 16:09.093 --> 16:12.913 power…" Satan had said to Abdiel: 16:12.914 --> 16:18.604 "Our puissance is our own, our own right hand / shall 16:18.601 --> 16:24.281 teach us highest deeds…" In claiming to make a show of 16:24.280 --> 16:28.200 strength solely of his own accord, Milton's Samson in a lot 16:28.200 --> 16:31.310 of ways seems to be echoing Milton's Satan. 16:31.309 --> 16:34.349 He's reasserting Satan's sublime but, of course, 16:34.346 --> 16:38.286 completely disastrous bid for something like an absolute self- 16:38.286 --> 16:40.996 sufficiency. But there's a difference, 16:40.999 --> 16:43.889 and the [laughs] difference is that Samson's 16:43.889 --> 16:47.319 claim to be entirely self-sufficient just meets with 16:47.315 --> 16:49.125 all of God's approval. 16:49.130 --> 16:50.610 It's the damnedest thing. 16:50.610 --> 16:55.470 At certain moments it almost seems as if the character of 16:55.467 --> 17:00.667 Samson is the character of Satan simply rewritten as the good 17:00.672 --> 17:03.212 guy.Now, in reading Samson 17:03.210 --> 17:06.380 Agonistes, we're witnessing something like an 17:06.375 --> 17:09.425 incredible release from all of the laws and all of the 17:09.425 --> 17:12.585 constraints and all of the divine ordinances that Milton 17:12.589 --> 17:16.329 had been representing for us throughout the earlier works. 17:16.329 --> 17:21.349 The other poems from Comus on are all about the 17:21.351 --> 17:25.521 importance of the obedience to divine law, 17:25.519 --> 17:29.989 but Samson Agonistes is all about God's special 17:29.990 --> 17:32.690 dispensation to break the law. 17:32.690 --> 17:34.640 Think about it: Samson is permitted to break 17:34.642 --> 17:37.232 the divine law forbidding the marriage to a Philistine. 17:37.230 --> 17:39.220 He does this twice. 17:39.220 --> 17:42.900 He's permitted to break the law that forbids the presence of 17:42.900 --> 17:45.770 Hebrews at the Philistine festival of Dagon. 17:45.769 --> 17:52.289 Samson's actions simply break through every conceivable legal 17:52.292 --> 17:56.752 and moral constraint and all of -- why? 17:56.750 --> 17:57.600 Why does he get to do that? 17:57.599 --> 18:00.469 All of Samson's behavior, I think, has ultimately to be 18:00.468 --> 18:03.188 laid at the door of God, and in this case, 18:03.194 --> 18:07.314 it's an unjustifiable or an irrational or inscrutable 18:07.306 --> 18:11.096 God.Look at Samson's explanation of his first 18:11.102 --> 18:14.182 marriage. He was married before the 18:14.177 --> 18:18.817 marriage to Dalila and this was his marriage to the woman of 18:18.821 --> 18:21.361 Timna. Look at line 219 of 18:21.362 --> 18:25.222 Samson, this is page 557. 18:25.220 --> 18:30.010 The Hebrews had a law against marrying outside of the tribe -- 18:30.005 --> 18:33.295 still a big deal, many people would say. 18:33.299 --> 18:40.029 The chorus asks Samson why it is he doesn't marry a Hebrew 18:40.033 --> 18:42.543 wife. [laughs] I love this question. 18:42.539 --> 18:45.069 The chorus asks, "Why thou shouldst wed 18:45.073 --> 18:46.943 Philistian women…?" 18:46.940 --> 18:49.930 Samson responds -- this is line 219: 18:49.930 --> 18:53.610 The first I saw at Timna, and she pleas'dMee, 18:53.611 --> 18:56.271 not my Parents, that I sought to wed, 18:56.269 --> 19:00.869 The daughter of an Infidel: they knew notThat what I 19:00.866 --> 19:04.356 motion'd was of God; I knewFrom intimate 19:04.356 --> 19:08.136 impulse, and therefore urg'dThe Marriage on; 19:08.140 --> 19:11.490 that by occasion henceI might begin Israel's 19:11.493 --> 19:15.353 Deliverance… I think we are being invited to 19:15.352 --> 19:19.152 ask, "Well, how did Samson know that he was motioned of God to 19:19.154 --> 19:20.904 marry the woman of Timna? 19:20.900 --> 19:25.060 By what sign did God make this approval known?" 19:25.059 --> 19:30.779 Samson answers our question and his response is an important 19:30.775 --> 19:34.645 one: "I knew / from intimate impulse." 19:34.650 --> 19:38.960 Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could answer questions [laughs] 19:38.963 --> 19:42.713 like that with such an answer, "I knew / from intimate 19:42.710 --> 19:45.880 impulse"? It's important because this 19:45.878 --> 19:50.958 phrase, "intimate impulse," surely implies a sexual passion, 19:50.960 --> 19:54.460 a sexual impulse, as readily as it does anything 19:54.460 --> 19:59.080 like a mysterious impulsion from God.The big question still 19:59.078 --> 20:02.428 remains: how can you tell the difference? 20:02.430 --> 20:07.130 Samson Agonistes is the only one of Milton's last works 20:07.129 --> 20:12.059 to imagine a world in which God is neither visible or audible. 20:12.059 --> 20:14.279 On some level he had been visible in Paradise Lost, 20:14.284 --> 20:16.344 he was no longer visible but he was audible in 20:16.340 --> 20:19.870 Paradise Regained, and now he's none of those 20:19.868 --> 20:22.968 things. The deity simply doesn't assert 20:22.966 --> 20:26.656 himself anywhere authoritatively in this text, 20:26.660 --> 20:30.290 and of course that's one of the reasons why Milton chose to 20:30.293 --> 20:32.803 write this piece in a theatrical form, 20:32.799 --> 20:35.799 a dramatic form, in which God couldn't possibly 20:35.799 --> 20:37.429 be seen as a character. 20:37.430 --> 20:41.900 The only evidence we have for the presence of a divine will at 20:41.898 --> 20:46.218 all is the extremely equivocal evidence of Samson's intimate 20:46.220 --> 20:48.770 impulse. Milton won't let us know 20:48.766 --> 20:52.446 absolutely whether Samson is really inspired by God to 20:52.446 --> 20:56.126 destroy the Philistines or whether he's crazy and just 20:56.125 --> 21:00.355 thinks he's inspired by God to kill the Philistines.Milton 21:00.361 --> 21:04.461 knows that there's nothing like incontrovertible evidence to 21:04.457 --> 21:09.037 prove that Samson is a divinely inspired freedom fighter, 21:09.039 --> 21:13.079 a freedom fighter rather than a terrorist, or what seems at the 21:13.075 --> 21:16.325 end of the poem to be something -- I don't know. 21:16.329 --> 21:20.129 We would have to call him something like a suicide bomber. 21:20.130 --> 21:23.570 This is why the critical controversies surrounding 21:23.566 --> 21:27.976 Samson Agonistes -- a set of controversies that have been 21:27.984 --> 21:32.124 surrounding the poems for about twenty years now -- why they 21:32.122 --> 21:36.192 really came to a head almost immediately after 9/11. 21:36.190 --> 21:40.330 That Milton could be seen to sanction a single man's 21:40.333 --> 21:43.343 destruction of thousands of people, 21:43.339 --> 21:46.039 an act that might only be imagined to be divinely 21:46.039 --> 21:49.249 authorized when there's no evidence in the text that it is 21:49.246 --> 21:51.586 absolutely, definitively divinely 21:51.591 --> 21:55.741 authorized, had come to seem more troubling than ever after 21:55.738 --> 21:57.348 9/11. Of course, 21:57.353 --> 22:01.003 Milton is not anywhere sanctioning mass slaughter, 22:01.004 --> 22:04.954 but he is insisting that there's never anything in the 22:04.953 --> 22:10.023 world like definitive proof of God's authorization of anything. 22:10.019 --> 22:15.009 We just have to believe in our authorization. 22:15.009 --> 22:19.899 It's Milton's amazing reticence in this regard that set off, 22:19.895 --> 22:24.445 after 9/11, a kind of panic among certain Miltonists. 22:24.450 --> 22:27.750 John Carey, the distinguished Miltonist at Oxford, 22:27.750 --> 22:31.730 the Miltonist at Oxford -- and you know this from the 22:31.725 --> 22:35.695 piece that was included in the packet -- John Carey had been 22:35.699 --> 22:39.839 pushed to a -- I don't know, I think a risible, 22:39.836 --> 22:45.066 maybe even a hysterical, critical stance toward this 22:45.069 --> 22:51.229 text by Milton's unwillingness to proclaim on the question of 22:51.226 --> 22:56.966 Samson's authority to kill so many people.In Milton's 22:56.972 --> 23:01.542 other poems -- and, it goes without saying, 23:01.542 --> 23:06.672 in the real world of all of our everyday lives -- one is simply 23:06.670 --> 23:11.380 not permitted to act upon all of one's inmost impulses and 23:11.384 --> 23:14.204 desires. We're constantly being called 23:14.204 --> 23:17.694 upon to be rational and to resist those temptations for the 23:17.693 --> 23:20.343 greater goal of the obedience to the law. 23:20.339 --> 23:24.229 The Son in Paradise Regained was able to begin his work 23:24.226 --> 23:27.536 of Israel's deliverance by suppressing his hunger, 23:27.539 --> 23:31.009 by suppressing his passion, and by suppressing even his 23:31.011 --> 23:34.291 interest in the beauty of classical civilization; 23:34.289 --> 23:38.819 but Samson, who certainly in this text something like a type 23:38.816 --> 23:42.956 of Christ, begins Israel's deliverance by acting on his 23:42.959 --> 23:46.439 hungers, by acting on his passions and 23:46.444 --> 23:49.174 desires. The intimate stirring of his 23:49.167 --> 23:53.227 loins might be one of those things energizing his actions. 23:53.230 --> 23:57.430 Milton gives us in this poem a powerful alternative, 23:57.427 --> 24:01.487 a scandalous alternative, to the traditional obligation 24:01.487 --> 24:04.527 to subordinate one's desire to the will of God, 24:04.529 --> 24:07.999 and in this play, in this text, 24:07.997 --> 24:13.077 one's deepest, one's darkest desire turns out 24:13.083 --> 24:19.323 in fact to be the will of God.That's as shocking as 24:19.324 --> 24:23.374 anything else it seems to me. 24:23.370 --> 24:24.300 Think of Paradise Lost. 24:24.299 --> 24:26.569 Milton's great achievement in Paradise Lost, 24:26.565 --> 24:28.695 and it really was a magnificent achievement, 24:28.695 --> 24:30.685 was to structure the poem as a theodicy. 24:30.690 --> 24:34.380 He took what he took to be the irrational God of the 24:34.376 --> 24:38.996 Judeo-Christian tradition and he remade him into a reasonable and 24:39.002 --> 24:43.842 justifiable embodiment of law, to a large extent. 24:43.839 --> 24:47.439 By the time we get to Samson Agonistes, it's almost as if 24:47.442 --> 24:50.662 you could feel Milton's relief, a sigh of relief, 24:50.657 --> 24:54.947 now that he's been released from the pressure to write a 24:54.954 --> 24:56.944 theodyicy. "Thank God!" 24:56.940 --> 24:57.720 you can hear Milton saying. 24:57.720 --> 24:59.520 "I don't have to write a theodicy anymore. 24:59.519 --> 25:02.819 I don't have to justify God anymore!" 25:02.819 --> 25:07.109 Here at the end of Milton's career, you have something like 25:07.108 --> 25:11.618 an extraordinary release from all of the strictures of justice 25:11.619 --> 25:15.909 and all of the strictures of reason that Milton had set for 25:15.908 --> 25:19.158 himself and that Milton had submitted himself 25:19.161 --> 25:23.821 to.According to the Aristotelian theory of tragedy, 25:23.819 --> 25:29.029 the climax of a tragedy is supposed to be cathartic for the 25:29.030 --> 25:33.880 viewer, or perhaps for the reader -- originally for the 25:33.881 --> 25:37.191 viewer. It's supposed to purge or to 25:37.190 --> 25:41.750 release all of those pent-up passions in the audience. 25:41.750 --> 25:45.520 But I think there's a way in which the climax of Samson 25:45.515 --> 25:49.545 Agonistes functions as much as a catharsis for the poet as 25:49.546 --> 25:51.326 it does for the reader. 25:51.329 --> 25:58.769 Look again at page 591 -- this is line 1647. 25:58.769 --> 26:03.319 I think we have an image here of this cathartic release as it 26:03.322 --> 26:07.872 has been inscribed by Milton into the poem itself within that 26:07.874 --> 26:10.534 passage that we just looked at. 26:10.529 --> 26:13.699 At the very moment that Samson acts of his own accord and 26:13.703 --> 26:17.503 brings the massive pillars down, here at line 1647, 26:17.498 --> 26:23.618 "As with the force of winds and waters pent / when Mountains 26:23.624 --> 26:28.084 tremble," and then "he tugg'd, he shook." 26:28.079 --> 26:33.169 When Samson pulls the pillars down it's as if a dam were 26:33.171 --> 26:36.131 breaking. The force of winds and waters 26:36.127 --> 26:40.267 that have been pent or penned up have suddenly been released, 26:40.269 --> 26:43.079 and you can see an emblem, I think, for the powerful 26:43.081 --> 26:46.611 release that Milton is allowing his own religious imagination. 26:46.609 --> 26:51.899 Milton's water has broken and it's as if he were giving birth 26:51.895 --> 26:56.775 to yet another fantasy theology, this theology just being that 26:56.779 --> 27:00.169 much more fantastic than anything he had come up with 27:00.168 --> 27:02.688 before. This is essentially a theology 27:02.687 --> 27:06.357 that Milton's contemporaries would have called antinomian. 27:06.359 --> 27:11.999 He's generated a text in which divine will isn't ever opposed 27:11.998 --> 27:16.418 to human desire; God's will and man's will are 27:16.424 --> 27:22.274 simply the same thing -- nice work if you can get it.Now, 27:22.269 --> 27:26.829 there has been another release in the Miltonic imagination as 27:26.828 --> 27:29.828 well. In Samson's show of strength at 27:29.828 --> 27:33.808 the festival of Dagon, you have an act of sacrifice 27:33.811 --> 27:38.511 that saves the Hebrews from their Philistine oppressors. 27:38.509 --> 27:42.139 Samson's sacrifice at the temple has to readers for a long 27:42.139 --> 27:45.639 time now -- and I think this seems unmistakable -- has a 27:45.642 --> 27:48.892 resemblance to Christ's sacrifice on the cross. 27:48.890 --> 27:51.610 A lot of biblical commentators, in fact, in Milton's time 27:51.611 --> 27:54.681 agreed that Samson's action, because his arms are 27:54.684 --> 27:57.354 outstretched, was something like a 27:57.349 --> 28:00.659 prefiguration of Christ's crucifixion. 28:00.660 --> 28:04.450 There is something like a sense in which Milton in this poem is 28:04.446 --> 28:08.046 allowing himself -- and he's really allowing himself for the 28:08.050 --> 28:11.710 first time here near the end of his life -- to represent this 28:11.714 --> 28:14.284 pivotal moment in Christian history, 28:14.280 --> 28:18.480 the crucifixion. Milton, like the Bible, 28:18.479 --> 28:23.779 has Samson's arms outstretched on the massive pillars as if in 28:23.783 --> 28:29.003 direct imitation of Christ's posture on the cross.Look at 28:29.000 --> 28:32.130 the very beginning of the poem. 28:32.130 --> 28:35.270 Actually, look at the little place before the very beginning 28:35.265 --> 28:37.835 of the poem. This is Milton's note on the 28:37.839 --> 28:40.909 form of tragedy. It's on page 549 of the 28:40.914 --> 28:46.294 Hughes. This note starts to explain why Milton has chosen 28:46.294 --> 28:50.494 this genre, the genre of dramatic tragedy, 28:50.490 --> 28:52.490 for his final work. 28:52.490 --> 28:57.230 So Milton is laboring here to justify his decision to write a 28:57.229 --> 29:01.499 tragedy, and he cites others who have written tragedies 29:01.495 --> 29:04.805 themselves. This is a little over halfway 29:04.810 --> 29:08.410 down -- no, this is near the bottom of page 549. 29:08.410 --> 29:13.170 Milton invokes Augustus Caesar: "Augustus Cesar also had begun 29:13.167 --> 29:16.177 his Ajax [his tragedy, Ajax] 29:16.176 --> 29:21.856 but unable to please his own judgment with what he had begun, 29:21.857 --> 29:23.937 left it unfinisht." 29:23.940 --> 29:25.250 Look a couple of sentences down. 29:25.250 --> 29:28.660 Milton invokes a tragedian, Gregory Nazianzen, 29:28.663 --> 29:32.763 Gregory Nazianzen who was able to finish a tragedy: 29:32.759 --> 29:35.519 Gregory Nazianzen, a Father of the Church, 29:35.522 --> 29:39.112 thought it not unbeseeming the sanctity of his person to write 29:39.107 --> 29:42.487 a Tragedy, which he entitl'd Christ 29:42.494 --> 29:46.204 Suffering. I think it's clear that Milton 29:46.200 --> 29:49.340 is thinking of the genre of tragedy here as the literary 29:49.335 --> 29:52.465 form best suited to the subject of Christ's passion, 29:52.470 --> 29:56.270 Christ's suffering on the cross. 29:56.269 --> 29:59.729 Milton, of course, we know had tried to represent 29:59.734 --> 30:02.914 Christ suffering on the cross once before. 30:02.910 --> 30:07.050 But just like Augustus Caesar who wasn't able to finish his 30:07.045 --> 30:10.125 tragedy, Ajax, the young Milton had left 30:10.130 --> 30:13.710 his initial attempt at the story of the Passion unfinished. 30:13.710 --> 30:17.770 Perhaps you'll remember the little note that Milton had 30:17.766 --> 30:21.116 appended to that early poem, "The Passion," that we 30:21.120 --> 30:22.600 read at the beginning of the semester. 30:22.599 --> 30:25.509 The poem just ends abruptly, you'll remember, 30:25.510 --> 30:28.290 and Milton writes: "This Subject the Author 30:28.288 --> 30:30.998 finding to be above the years he had, 30:31.000 --> 30:35.330 when he wrote it, and nothing satisfied with what 30:35.332 --> 30:38.222 was begun, left it unfinisht." 30:38.220 --> 30:43.520 Well, here at the end of his life, Milton's finally able to 30:43.519 --> 30:48.479 finish the unfinished poem, "The Passion." Samson 30:48.481 --> 30:52.821 Agonistes ends with that magnificent line, 30:52.816 --> 30:56.666 "and calm of mind all passion spent." 30:56.670 --> 31:00.180 That line speaks on one level to the fact -- it speaks on many 31:00.182 --> 31:03.462 levels, but on one level it speaks to the fact that Milton 31:03.464 --> 31:06.634 has finished "The Passion," that Milton has finally 31:06.630 --> 31:09.210 acquitted himself of the debt that he incurred when he left 31:09.214 --> 31:11.614 that earlier poem, "The Passion," 31:11.612 --> 31:16.262 unfinished.Now, we're left to wonder why Milton 31:16.257 --> 31:21.247 is able finally to represent an act of sacrifice not unlike 31:21.247 --> 31:24.427 Christ's sacrifice on the cross. 31:24.430 --> 31:28.880 Why suddenly is this heretofore unrepresentable event 31:28.880 --> 31:31.860 representable? I think Milton's able to 31:31.855 --> 31:35.795 complete this representation of the crucifixion because he's 31:35.802 --> 31:39.952 been able entirely to re-imagine the dynamics of sacrifice. 31:39.950 --> 31:42.880 Now in the New Testament in the Gospel of John, 31:42.882 --> 31:46.642 we're told that God so loved the world that he gave his only 31:46.644 --> 31:48.944 begotten son to save that world. 31:48.940 --> 31:53.970 The Father willingly sacrificed the Son, but in Samson 31:53.974 --> 31:57.934 Agonistes the hero sacrifices himself. 31:57.930 --> 32:00.530 Samson sacrifices himself of his own accord, 32:00.530 --> 32:02.950 as he tells us, in fulfillment of his own 32:02.950 --> 32:06.290 private motives, in fact, and it's only once 32:06.287 --> 32:10.937 Milton can supply the act of sacrifice with something like a 32:10.936 --> 32:14.716 complete sense of self-determination that finally 32:14.718 --> 32:19.528 he can admit it into his poetic canon.I think this poem is 32:19.525 --> 32:24.325 completely overwhelmed by events that had previously been left 32:24.332 --> 32:29.062 unfinished or suppressed in Milton's earlier works. 32:29.059 --> 32:32.909 If I'm right about that, we shouldn't be surprised to 32:32.908 --> 32:37.128 see the resurfacing of another desire that had so consumed 32:37.127 --> 32:40.307 Milton at earlier stages in his career, 32:40.310 --> 32:44.590 and that is the desire for fame. 32:44.589 --> 32:47.999 You remember what Milton had written to his friend, 32:48.003 --> 32:49.303 Diodati, in 1637. 32:49.299 --> 32:51.879 Milton had written: "You asked me what I am 32:51.880 --> 32:54.240 thinking of? So help me God, 32:54.240 --> 32:59.740 an immortality of fame," the young, twenty-nine-year-old 32:59.740 --> 33:05.040 Milton had written, but he soon corrected himself. 33:05.039 --> 33:07.979 In "Lycidas" fame was denigrated as "that last 33:07.984 --> 33:11.164 infirmity of the noble mind," and in Paradise Regained 33:11.155 --> 33:13.245 it's denigrated even further. 33:13.250 --> 33:17.110 Fame was a temptation offered by Satan to the Son of God that, 33:17.109 --> 33:20.339 of course, the Son of God was able to reject without 33:20.336 --> 33:23.686 wincing.But here at the end of Samson, 33:23.690 --> 33:27.830 the prospect of earthly fame -- I'm talking about good, 33:27.825 --> 33:31.755 old-fashioned secular fame -- is granted the dead Samson and 33:31.761 --> 33:35.231 is granted to him without the slightest apology. 33:35.230 --> 33:40.210 It's Samson's earthly father, Manoa, who labors to ensure his 33:40.210 --> 33:42.540 son's fame. Look at the last page of the 33:42.541 --> 33:47.361 poem. This is page 593. 33:47.359 --> 33:51.189 Manoa says at the top of the page: 33:51.190 --> 33:56.200 [I w]ill send for all my kindred, all my friendsTo 33:56.203 --> 33:59.863 fetch him ["him" is the dead body of Samson] 33:59.857 --> 34:03.847 hence and solemnly attendWith silent obsequy 34:03.851 --> 34:09.461 and funeral trainHome to his Fathers house… 34:09.460 --> 34:13.050 I'll interrupt myself here just for a moment because I'm going 34:13.048 --> 34:16.398 to ask you to think of the possible counterpoint that that 34:16.401 --> 34:19.641 line that I've just read has with the end of Paradise 34:19.637 --> 34:23.677 Regained, "Home to his Mother's house 34:23.681 --> 34:26.131 private" he "return'd." 34:26.130 --> 34:28.690 Manoa continues: [T]here will I build 34:28.688 --> 34:31.288 himA Monument, and plant it round with 34:31.287 --> 34:35.407 shadeOf Laurel ever green, and branching Palm,With all 34:35.412 --> 34:38.622 his Trophies hung, and Acts enroll'dIn copious 34:38.624 --> 34:42.904 Legend, or sweet Lyric Song. 34:42.900 --> 34:46.180 Now, the "shade / Of Laurel ever green" is not an honor 34:46.175 --> 34:49.325 typically bestowed upon the great biblical heroes, 34:49.329 --> 34:52.809 but it is an honor bestowed upon great poets -- at least, 34:52.808 --> 34:54.608 in the classical tradition. 34:54.610 --> 34:57.560 That's why we have the phrase poet laureate. 34:57.559 --> 35:01.569 You have in this incredibly moving tribute that Manoa has 35:01.574 --> 35:05.664 given Samson the promise of eternal fame that has been the 35:05.660 --> 35:10.320 desire of great poets as long as there have been great poets. 35:10.320 --> 35:13.860 The monument built for Samson here is something like a 35:13.856 --> 35:16.856 displaced version of Milton's own monument. 35:16.860 --> 35:20.710 Maybe this is a moment that can compete with the "livelong 35:20.706 --> 35:24.416 monument" that Milton had imagined that was the monument 35:24.417 --> 35:27.167 of Shakespeare, Shakespeare's tomb, 35:27.167 --> 35:31.717 of which the young Milton had written in his first published 35:31.724 --> 35:34.844 poem.Now, as you can see from the bottom 35:34.836 --> 35:37.706 of the handout, from the passage taken from one 35:37.713 --> 35:41.223 of the earliest biographies of Milton -- and this is also 35:41.216 --> 35:44.716 included in the Hughes -- "Milton at his death was buried 35:44.718 --> 35:48.658 at the churchyard at Cripplegate where about thirty years before 35:48.659 --> 35:53.419 he had, by chance, also interred his 35:53.421 --> 35:57.571 father." Like Samson's body at the time 35:57.566 --> 36:01.476 of his death, the body of John Milton was 36:01.480 --> 36:06.570 returned, as it were, home to his father's house. 36:06.570 --> 36:10.330 Now we're told here very carefully that this happened by 36:10.331 --> 36:14.371 chance, but it's surely not a leap to assume that Milton was 36:14.366 --> 36:18.196 himself responsible for the instructions for his place of 36:18.196 --> 36:22.366 burial and that he was thinking on some level of the burial of 36:22.368 --> 36:26.268 Samson when he arranged to have himself buried next to his 36:26.267 --> 36:28.427 father, or near his father. 36:28.429 --> 36:31.689 It's as if by returning to the father's house, 36:31.694 --> 36:35.904 Milton could guarantee for himself the promise of fame that 36:35.901 --> 36:39.601 had been bestowed upon Samson.Look at the middle 36:39.601 --> 36:41.851 quotation on the handout. 36:41.849 --> 36:45.379 As John Aubrey wrote in his Life of Milton, 36:45.380 --> 36:49.780 Milton had during his lifetime achieved a considerable measure 36:49.775 --> 36:52.965 of fame; he didn't have to wait for 36:52.967 --> 36:55.687 after his death. According to Aubrey, 36:55.691 --> 36:58.571 for several foreigners -- and I love this detail, 36:58.573 --> 37:02.063 it's wild to imagine -- for a lot of foreigners coming over 37:02.057 --> 37:04.757 into England in the seventeenth century, 37:04.760 --> 37:09.460 the only inducement to make the trip was to see John Milton. 37:09.460 --> 37:12.350 More specifically, the inducement for foreigners 37:12.347 --> 37:15.967 to come to England was to see the house and chamber where he 37:15.971 --> 37:18.521 was born. It's like a tourist attraction. 37:18.519 --> 37:23.449 This is, of course, the father's house, 37:23.452 --> 37:29.552 and in his life, the Milton home had become this 37:29.553 --> 37:35.913 Mecca just like the one that Manoa is planning for 37:35.914 --> 37:40.434 Samson.Now, one of the reasons, 37:40.431 --> 37:46.091 I think, for which we love or for which we hate the poetry or 37:46.088 --> 37:51.458 anything about John Milton involves the degree to which he 37:51.462 --> 37:53.822 wrote about himself. 37:53.820 --> 37:56.550 Milton, I think, more than any other poet -- 37:56.547 --> 37:59.907 certainly any other poet before him -- has invited, 37:59.909 --> 38:05.169 I think, a unique fascination with the intimate habits of his 38:05.170 --> 38:11.200 mind and for some of us, even a unique fascination in 38:11.197 --> 38:14.407 his daily life at home. 38:14.409 --> 38:18.849 I think the desire of Milton's readers, or a lot of Milton's 38:18.854 --> 38:23.454 readers, to imagine the poet at home is an interesting one. 38:23.449 --> 38:26.919 At least, that's one way to explain the strange, 38:26.919 --> 38:31.049 and for me the wonderful, artifact that I photocopied for 38:31.053 --> 38:34.083 you on the other side of the handout. 38:34.079 --> 38:37.799 This is a document that I used to receive -- it's a version of 38:37.803 --> 38:41.103 a document that I used to receive every couple of years 38:41.098 --> 38:44.698 from the Friend's of Milton's Cottage group in America. 38:44.699 --> 38:47.219 It's the form letter representing the now 38:47.224 --> 38:51.074 long-standing movement to raise funds in order to restore what 38:51.073 --> 38:55.053 is the only surviving house that Milton actually lived in -- and 38:55.049 --> 38:58.519 its website is something like miltonscottage.com. 38:58.519 --> 39:02.909 You can find information about how to get there and so on and 39:02.910 --> 39:06.130 so forth if you're interested.This is the 39:06.130 --> 39:07.810 cottage at Chalfont St. 39:07.814 --> 39:12.354 Giles that Milton had moved to in the 1660s when the plague was 39:12.351 --> 39:14.621 sweeping through London. 39:14.619 --> 39:18.469 The organization dedicated to restoring this house is known as 39:18.472 --> 39:20.622 The Friends of Milton's Cottage. 39:20.619 --> 39:23.619 The president of this group, as you can see, 39:23.615 --> 39:27.995 was -- I don't believe he's the president anymore -- was one Dr. 39:28.003 --> 39:30.513 Ronald G. Shafer, and he used to send 39:30.511 --> 39:34.831 Miltonists just this fundraising letter every few years. 39:34.829 --> 39:39.109 I mention this curious artifact not at all because I'm asking 39:39.111 --> 39:43.461 you to give to the cause -- I think the cottage is probably in 39:43.464 --> 39:47.894 good shape at this point -- but I offer it to you to give you a 39:47.888 --> 39:52.098 sense of the peculiar impact that John Milton has had on his 39:52.098 --> 39:55.158 readers. I think that impact can be 39:55.159 --> 39:58.999 measured by something like the almost pagan desire to 39:59.000 --> 40:02.840 memorialize the physical presence of this heroic poet 40:02.840 --> 40:06.680 that has seized so many of his readers.Now, 40:06.679 --> 40:09.059 of course the ostensible project here, 40:09.062 --> 40:12.412 as you can see from the handout, is simply to restore 40:12.410 --> 40:15.980 Milton's home, but I'm convinced that there's 40:15.983 --> 40:20.573 something profounder going on, and it's the deeper project 40:20.568 --> 40:25.718 informing a labor of love like a restoration project such as this 40:25.716 --> 40:28.356 one. I think that the underlying 40:28.359 --> 40:32.549 desire really behind such a project is -- and of course this 40:32.554 --> 40:36.684 would only be unconscious or it's a kind of fantasy project 40:36.677 --> 40:40.727 -- but it's the desire to return Milton to his home. 40:40.730 --> 40:44.730 The Friends of Milton's Cottage are just like the friends that 40:44.730 --> 40:47.880 Manoa mentions in that final speech at line 1730: 40:47.878 --> 40:50.238 I "will send for all my kindred, 40:50.239 --> 40:53.179 all my friends / to fetch him hence… 40:53.179 --> 40:56.579 / …home to his Father's house." 40:56.580 --> 41:01.230 It chokes me up. There's something so moving 41:01.226 --> 41:04.916 about Manoa's plea and there's something, for me, 41:04.916 --> 41:06.836 moving about Dr. Ronald G. 41:06.839 --> 41:10.449 Shafer's plea.The relation, for me at least, 41:10.453 --> 41:13.993 is that there's something about Milton, 41:13.989 --> 41:19.249 just as there's something about Samson, that resists ascension 41:19.252 --> 41:23.912 and resists transcendence -- just by all of the talk of 41:23.910 --> 41:29.690 heaven the actual corporeal body seems so stubbornly to remain. 41:29.690 --> 41:33.370 You remember that that was the case in "Lycidas" to a 41:33.373 --> 41:36.123 large extent, and it's this case in the final 41:36.120 --> 41:38.930 poem as well, written thirty years later. 41:38.929 --> 41:43.479 I think there's something profoundly Miltonic about our 41:43.484 --> 41:46.694 own materialist interests in Milton, 41:46.690 --> 41:50.200 an interest that keeps coming back to the bodily facts of his 41:50.204 --> 41:53.314 life and his home and his everyday surroundings but -- 41:53.308 --> 41:56.818 more generally than that and more importantly than that -- an 41:56.822 --> 42:01.442 interest in the material facts, the fact of materiality of 42:01.443 --> 42:04.843 everyone's life and of life itself. 42:04.840 --> 42:07.950 The importance, the value and the beauty of the 42:07.949 --> 42:11.059 physical is one of the things that we learn, 42:11.059 --> 42:15.039 that we get from a reading of John Milton.Now, 42:15.036 --> 42:19.816 if I have been unorthodox in some of these lectures -- and I 42:19.824 --> 42:24.864 would be deeply ashamed to think that I haven't been at least a 42:24.855 --> 42:28.425 little [laughs] unorthodox -- it's been in my 42:28.425 --> 42:33.455 sharing with you my fascination with Milton's life and Milton's 42:33.457 --> 42:36.267 biography. Well, actually, 42:36.271 --> 42:40.481 I think it's my interest in Milton's own extraordinary 42:40.482 --> 42:43.662 tendency to write autobiographically. 42:43.659 --> 42:47.549 There's an unparalleled self-absorption at the heart of 42:47.545 --> 42:49.915 Milton's writing, and this sublime 42:49.920 --> 42:53.660 self-absorption, I think, of so many of these 42:53.657 --> 42:58.827 texts demands something like an equally passionate absorption in 42:58.825 --> 43:03.005 the life of the person who authored those texts. 43:03.010 --> 43:05.450 Like the foreigners who traveled to England during 43:05.453 --> 43:07.953 Milton's own lifetime, I have found myself pursuing 43:07.946 --> 43:10.486 Milton with a kind of -- and maybe it's creepy, 43:10.490 --> 43:13.280 maybe it's not; you can decide -- but with a 43:13.282 --> 43:14.582 certain voyeurism. 43:14.579 --> 43:18.179 Something in me has always wanted to peer in to Milton's 43:18.179 --> 43:21.259 house and chamber, or at least to think of these 43:21.256 --> 43:24.656 poems in some way as Milton's house and chamber. 43:24.659 --> 43:28.959 If I've managed to arouse in you even the slightest tendency 43:28.955 --> 43:31.645 to this sort of critical voyeurism, 43:31.650 --> 43:36.190 then on some level I feel that I will have accomplished 43:36.190 --> 43:38.330 something. And so I want to end this 43:38.327 --> 43:41.207 semester by thanking you for the enormous efforts that you've put 43:41.213 --> 43:43.423 into this class. For a lecture class, 43:43.420 --> 43:46.190 I know that this requires a lot of work. 43:46.190 --> 43:50.220 I want to thank you more generally for the work that you 43:50.219 --> 43:53.519 have performed, and I take this work to be the 43:53.516 --> 43:57.906 intellectual equivalent of the restoration project undertaken 43:57.913 --> 43:59.013 by Dr. Ronald G. 43:59.012 --> 44:02.752 Shafer: the work that you performed in restoring the 44:02.748 --> 44:06.558 greatest -- if not the home, then the greatest of all 44:06.558 --> 44:09.048 English poets himself. 44:09.050 --> 44:13.470 So I will see you all at the exam, but before I sign off, 44:13.470 --> 44:17.730 we have to thank our two perfectly magnificent teaching 44:17.732 --> 44:20.542 fellows, whom I am going to embarrass by 44:20.535 --> 44:23.765 asking them to stand up just so we can applaud them and 44:23.767 --> 44:26.097 acknowledge them: David Currell and Matt 44:26.102 --> 44:27.002 Valdiviez.