File:The epic of the fall of man; a comparative study of Caedmon, Dante and Milton (1896) (14783076025).jpg

Identifier: epicoffallofmanc00gurtuoft (find matches)
Title: The epic of the fall of man; a comparative study of Caedmon, Dante and Milton
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Gurteen, Stephen Humphreys Villiers, 1840-1898
Subjects: Caedmon Milton, John, 1608-1674 Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321 Fall of man
Publisher: New York G.P. Putnam's sons
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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om the abyss, if thus I mightPerform Gods holy Will. No heart have IFor worship, now that I have forfeited,Beyond retrieve, the favour of our King.But let us hasten into yonder woldAnd sit within the groves protecting shade,For naked as we are it is not meetTo tarry longer here. Departing thenceThey sought the shelter of the grateful woldWith deepest grief oppressed, and sat apart,Awaiting now whatever righteous doomHeaven might inflict for guilty faithlessnessTo that high trust which God had erst imposed.Then sheltered by the forests inmost shadeThey plucked the leaves and clothed themselves therewith,(For they were destitute of other garb) ;And every morn they knelt in solemn prayerThat God, the Mighty, Ruler of the WorldWould not forget them in their great distressBut graciously reveal how they thenceforthShould live their ruined lives. Some years before Milton had composed the epicof Paradise Lost, he had taken the public into hisconfidence, and in a pamphlet published in 1641, he
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Awaked as ive are it is not meetTo tarry lotr^t-r here. The Tcniptalion and VaW of Man 241 had spoken of his future poem as being a worknut to bo raised from the heat of youth, or thevapours of wine, Hke that which flows at wastefrom the pen of some vulgar amorist, or thetrencher-fury of a riming parasite, nor to be ob-tained by the invocation of Dame Memory and herSiren daughters, but by devout prayer to that Eter-nal Spirit who can enrich with all utterance andknowledge, and sends out his Seraphim with thehallowed fire of his altar to touch and purify thelips of whom he pleases. As we read Miltons narrative of the conduct ofAdam and his Spouse after the departure of theArch-Encmy from the Garden, we fail to see anyevidence of the purifying touch of the EternalSpirit, or of any Seraphic fire ; on the contrary,many passages in this part of his epic savour toomuch of the vulgar amorist to be pleasant oreven agreeable reading. Who can read without afeeling of repugnance such a passage a

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