fatigue, and suffering. Even thus mankind went through a period of happiness, in Paradise, and then grew up and was condemned to know good and evil, work and childbearing.* The divine will, in Adam's own interest, had forbidden him to acquire the knowledge of good and evil. By remaining in the blessed ignorance of childhood, mankind might have remained in a state of perpetual happiness. But man disobeyed. He wished to become as the gods, knowing good and evil. Pride possessed him; and God was obliged to put down his pride by sending him tribulation. This idea is one of the most frequent themes of the prophets: "And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." On the whole, then, the sufferings of life are the price paid for knowledge; and the price is worth paying. Anyhow, man chose his lot, against God's will and warning. What did Milton know of the old texts that might have allowed him to get into contact with the primitive ideas of the Hebrews? He had at his disposal the Polyglot Bible published by Walton in 1657. He seems even to have known Walton personally; Walton had been curate in Milton's native street, Bread Street, in 1624, and it seems probable that it was on Milton's initiative that the Council of State voted money to help him with his publication. A particular friend of Milton's, one of his former pupils, was one of Walton's collaborators. In 6 4 Cf. Bousset, Die Religion des Jundentums in neutestamentlichen Zeitalter, Ch. XX, especially p. 466; R. M. Charles, The Book of Enoch (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1912), pp. civ ff. Even in this comparatively recent text, "moral evil is not brought into causal connection with the transgression of Adam, save in one passage." 5 Isaiah 2: 17. 6 Masson, VI, 417. Walton's recension appeared the great commentaries of Onkelos and Jonathan the Targoum. Milton knew them before this, however, for he speaks of them in 1649, in the Apology for Smectymnuus. He had therefore access to sufficient sources. The constant communion with the Bible in which he lived seems to have allowed him to catch more of the old meanings than subsists of them in orthodox interpretation. Thus he came to the conclusion that the ancient Hebrews did not believe in the survival of the soul after death, in spite of the general opinion before and around him. He was also in sympathy with the old beliefs in thinking that, after all, the price paid for knowledge had not been too much," and he saw advantages in the Fall.10 He was equally ready to profit by the naïve primitiveness of Bible folk, who saw nothing wrong in it, to justify legitimate sensuality: As saints and patriarchs used. 8 II. THE FALL OF THE ANGELS The first record of Hebrew speculations on the fall of 'the angels is in Genesis 6:1-5: And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. . . . There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them. . . . God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. ... 7 Prose Works, III, 131. 8 See above, p. 146, and Prose Works, IV, 271-72; cf. Bousset, p. 460. 9 See Areopagitica, in Prose Works, II, 67-68. 10 P. L., XII, 474 ff. In this primitive form of the myth, it is important to note that (1) the fall of the angels comes later than that of man; (2) the cause of the angels' fall is sensuality; (3) the origin of evil is in the fall of the angels and not in that of man. The legends of the Fall, based on these three fundamental ideas, were developed in the course of history, and gathered, about the second or first century B.C., in the Book of Enoch. In the time of Milton all that was known of this book was a rather long fragment preserved by the Byzantine historian, Georgius Syncellus, in his Chronographia. This book was published by Goar in Paris in 1657. Professor Hanford, in his article on the Chronology of Milton's Private Studies," ""1 gives a list of the Byzantine historians that were in Milton's library in 1658, and Syncellus is in the list under his other name of Georgius Monachus.12 Besides, in his letter XXI, Milton asks his correspondent to send him Theophanes's book, which is a sequel to Syncellus's - a fair proof that he had read the latter. 11 We find in Paradise Lost a passage which proves that Milton knew that part of the Book of Enoch contained in Syncellus: Then straight commands that at the warlike sound His mighty standard; that proud honour claim'd Azazel as his right, a Cherub tall; Who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurl'd With gems and golden lustre rich emblaz'd.13 11 Publications of the Modern Language Association, XXXVI (1921), 284, note. 12 There is another Georgius Monachus; that Syncellus is meant is proved by letter XXI. See Prose Works, III, 513. 13 P. L., I, 531-38. Azazel has always been a hard angel to explain with Milton's commentators. Newton, who is perhaps the most qualified to speak on such questions, writes, "The name is used for some demon or devil by several ancient authors," and translates the Hebrew as a sneer—" brave in retreating." But Milton certainly never thought of his devils as cowards. Now, it is only in the Book of Enoch that Azazel is mentioned as one of the leaders of the fallen angels.1 The word is in Leviticus 16:8, but is rendered by "scapegoat." Jonathan and Raschi in Walton's Bible make of Azazel the name of a place in the desert where the goat is sent. Milton, had he thought about the subject at all, would probably have adopted either sensebut for the Book of Enoch.15 I suggest, therefore, that Milton got his Azazel from the Book of Enoch. One special phrase in the Miltonic text that has particularly exercised the commentators is "as his right." Milton must have meant it, to risk the inelegant jingle, “ Azazel as his right." Now we have, an Enoch (in Goar's text): 16 el [the name is variously given as "Azael," "Azalzel "] qui gladios, thoracas, et omne bellicum instruerræ metalla conflare, aurum quoque et argentum qua e mulienem mundum compositiori adimverint; qua 1, et electis lapidibus nitorem adjicerent, et colores ⚫uxit. ently was the chemist, jeweller, and goldsmith nal band; he dealt in women's ornaments, but 's weapons. So I suggest further that he was clopedia Biblica and Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, art. (Haer. I, 12) and Origen (Cels. VI, 305) render Azazel as does not fit in with Milton either. ebted to Mr. F. A. Pompen, of Heerlen, Holland, for a corext as I gave it in 1920 in La Pensée de Milton, p. 239. the maker of the "imperial ensign," and that this was the reason why he carried it "as his right." Note that With gems and golden lustre rich emblaz'd follows Goar's "et electis lapidibus nitorem . . . et colores. The point is of interest because the fragment known to Milton" and more generally, the Book of Enoch, insist on a part of the myth which Milton used, against orthodox tradition: sensuality as a motive in the angel's fall. Not that Milton derived the idea from there; I have shown the importance of it in his scheme, and shall come back to it; but he would naturally be in sympathy with texts that bore him out. It may be thought also that the five verses from Genesis quoted above are a slender basis for more than one hundred lines in Book XI of Paradise Lost, in which Enoch, who is but scantily referred to in the Old Testament,18 and given no prophetic part in the trouble period, plays a noble rôle 18 till at last, Of middle age one rising, eminent Had not a cloud descending snatch'd him thence, Proceeded, and oppression, and sword-law, Through all the plain, and refuge none was found.19 17 In Syncellus (Dindorf edition, Bonn, 1829, pp. 20-24 and 42-47). For modern versions see Ad. Lods, Le livre d'Hénoch (Paris, Leroux, 1892), pp. 72-76; and R. M. Charles, The Book of Enoch, pp. 13-25. It comprises 6:1 to 10:14 of Enoch, the two fragments of Syncellus being consecutive in the text. 18 Jude 14 may also have helped Milton to his conception. 19 XI, 660-69. |