Season 4 Podcast 31 Milton’s Paradise Lost Bk X, Pt XXXV, “The Fall Pt VII”

Season 4 Podcast 31 Milton’s Paradise Lost Bk X, Pt XXXV, “The Fall Pt VII”  In the prologue to Book X, Milton writes.[Eve] persists, and at length appeases him; then, to evade the curse likely to fall on their offspring, proposes to Adam violent ways, which he approves not; but, conceiving better hope, puts her in mind of the late promise made them, that her seed should be revenged on the Serpent; and exhorts her with him to seek peace of the offended Deity, by repentance and supplication. One of the reasons that Eve agreed to eat the forbidden fruit is that she wanted children. That was her greatest desire. She knew that without eating the fruit of knowledge of good and evil they could not have children. Now, however, in her grief, she offers a strange solution. Since sin and death await to devour their children, she suggests they remain childless. Milton addresses in a straightforward manner the age-old question, ‘Should we bring children into such a wicked world?’ It is interesting to follow Milton’s solution. Keep in mind that during the writing of Paradise Lost the black plague is claiming the lives of half the people in Europe. Milton himself is in exile in the country to avoid the plague ravaging London. Milton is not speaking in the abstract.If care of our descent perplex us most,Which must be born to certain woe, devouredBy Death at last, and miserable it isTo be to others cause of misery,Our own begotten, and of our Loins to bringInto this cursed World a woeful Race,That after wretched Life must be at lastFood for so foul a Monster, in thy powerIt lies, yet ere Conception to preventThe Race unblest, to being yet unbegot.Childless thou art, Childless remain:So Death shall be deceived his glut, and with us twoBe forced to satisfy his Ravenous Maw.But Eve is not finished. She suggests that they go to an even greater extreme. She suggests that they both commit suicide and prevent any children from ever coming into the world. At this point Eve has not grasped that the entire purpose of the fall is to bring children into the world and to let them exercise their agency. Milton, a true Biblical scholar, is actually writing Paradise Lost to “justify the ways of God to man.” Milton is defending the plan of salvation. He is defending the fall of man. He is defending the fact that Satan, Sin, and Death are necessary attributes of this fallen world to give all the spirit children of God the opportunity to come to earth, to gain a physical body, and to be exposed to the enticements of both Christ and Satan in order to have agency. Milton understands the far-reaching atonement of Christ and the necessity of the resurrection. It is enlightening to see how Milton answers the dilemma. This is the theme of Book X. Eve’s solution suggests that she is still under the influence of Satan. Adam, who was taught daily by Gabriel, steps forward and presents God’s solution. First Adam listens patiently as Eve urges Adam to enter into a suicide pact with her.But if thou judge it hard and difficult,Conversing, looking, loving, to abstainFrom Loves due Rites, Nuptial embraces sweet,And with desire to languish without hope,Before the present object languishingWith like desire, which would be miseryAnd torment less than none of what we dread,Then both ourselves and Seed at once to freeFrom what we fear for both, let us make short,Let us seek Death, or he not found, supplyWith our own hands his Office on ourselves;Why stand we longer shivering under fears,That shew no end but Death, and have the power,Of many ways to die the shortest choosing,Destruction with destruction to destroy.