on a whim,
that Master of the Poem?’
she’d shrugged with the coyest of smiles,
‘for then
I would have intimately known
 |
| Blind Milton dictating Paradise Lost to his Daughter by Eugène Delacroix (circa 1826). |
Miltonic Homophones Make Mischief.
In emulation of Milton’s daughter, Miss Dickinson transcribed correctly line 344 of Book 1 of Paradise Lost, in countless editions falsely rendered thus:
So numberless were those bad Angels seen
Hovering on wing under the Cope of Hell
for she recognised, unlike most – if not all – Miltonian scholars, that this dictated masterpiece contains many homophones and bad angels for bade angels is surely an example of the grave pitfalls that lie in wait for orality in versification.
Even a fair reading of the transcript by Milton’s daughter would not necessarily have singled out the fault, however acute the blind task-master’s ear. And she . . . ? Well, Milton’s daughter – as Emily suspected – may have allowed the error to stand to colour this stern, forbidding, Epic Voice with her own mischievous girlish descant.
Blind Milton: The meaning’s not mistaken, child?
Meek Daughter: Bade angels, bade as bidden, Father.
Do you doubt Emily’s insights; those of a preeminent bardic practitioner? Consider Milton’s verses some forty lines earlier, a narrative in which Satan arises from the fiery deep to issue rousing orders, bidding his Fallen Angels in a call to arms.
On Hell’s. . .
. . . inflamed sea he stood, and called
His legions, Angel forms, who lay entranced . . .
Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen . . .
. . . Yet to their general’s voice they soon obeyed
Innumerable. [In other words, Bade Angels.]
After all, for every Production Line worker (in this case, over 10,000 lines!) there are bound to be a few moments for a little idle diversion.
Empress of Calvary.
Though, it has to be added, anyone who personifies themselves as ‘Empress of Calvary’ is perhaps in an invidious position when presuming to find a bum note in one of Christendom’s authentic God-given masterpieces. Except, maybe, after all, an Empress of Calvary should command Bad Angels, for they would certainly deserve to be at her impious imperious bidding.
Or is that exactly what Emily meant?
Satan calling up his legions
by William Blake
(tempera and gold, circa 1800 - 1805)
For Great Dictators: Henry James, Joseph Conrad, Barbara Cartland, Edgar Wallace and Co. . . . see . . .
http://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2012/09/great-dictators-henry-james-joseph.html
•
http://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/sister-morphine.html
