Paradise Lost in 12 minutes
Reading Paradise Lost Aloud, by John K. Hale
To introduce people to the poem, or to have a change or get a crude overview,
it is fun to perform the poem in a short
form. This uses no words but the poet's, with minimal rearrangement,
and bypassing Milton's own prose summaries of 1669, in favour of
drastic excerpting. Instead of 12,000-plus lines and 11 hours. the reading
takes 200 lines and about 15 minutes. The script of my abridgement follows
here, after a quick rationale with remarks on how the script might be
realized.
Pedagogic Justifications
1. The orality of poetry. Poetry -- from Homer to Ginsberg --
cannot be appreciated, in fact understood, till it is heard: Milton's
poem illustrates this axiom, being oral in conception, execution, and
first reception; so why not also in a present-day reception?
2. Dramatization. Much of the poem is speech, by characters;
yet it is not fully drama: it helps teachers and students, all of us,
probe the boundaries between drama and narrated fiction.
3. The Narrating Persona. The epic voice of the poem does far
more than narrate: guiding, judging, yearning, grieving, it gives to
students poetry's more concentrated version of that authorial commentary
which is endemic to prose fiction.
4. Features of Verse. The poem takes to a high power all of
the features of verse, except rhyme: students can identify them, and
assess them in action, within this short abridgement, so as to transfer
that knowledge to other poems.
5. Features of Verse in a High Style. Some distinctive features
of this poem are not found in all poetry, but rather distinguish this
most highly valued of the genres, epic. A superb epic simile, for instance,
broadens the close of the poem, into a paradox of exile and homecoming,
Adam expelled like the peasant returning home, as Adam in a way does
return into the reader's known world.
6. Involvement of Group Members as listeners, and possibly also
as readers. But guest readers seem also to involve the class, as novelty
or specialty. (Guest readers never resent being asked to come and hear
the sound of their own voices, speaking -- for a change --immortal words.)
7. Taking it Further. Naturally, having done this with Milton,
similar readings can be done for other poems -- the students taking
an increasing role in reading, selecting, directing and scripting as
time goes on (whether or not these activities are built into assessment).
8. Taking it Further Elsewhere. When enthusiasm surges high,
and / or when a reading is done exceptionally well, a teacher or class
can perform the item again elsewhere, improving it in the process. This
is good PR for them all. I have found
such PR exciting, both in itself and as a means to an end, which thus
offers the teacher of English several further opportunities. Nor should
one underestimate the public's interest in Milton and Paradise
Lost. Whether from Genesis or Milton or both, people do know of
the Fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, or remember
it fondly from school long ago. Many will leap at the chance to hear
a class performance -- and the media love to talk about this crazy idea,
of a 'marathon' reading of a poem. Cash in on this interest.
Do Milton, and poetry, a favour.
The Method of Production
1. Teacher as Presenter. Depending on circumstances, the class
teacher may need to act as presenter to a slight extent. As compere,
for example, s/he would introduce the event, and the readers in their
roles (especially where there is doubling of parts). The teacher might
interject at the halfway mark to explain the omission of books V-VIII.
The essentials alone are excerpted. In Books I-IV Milton winds the spring.
In Book IX the spring unwinds, and repercussions speed forward to the
close.
2. Acting or Reading? The performers should agree how far to
act or to read. Unevenness will be a glaring fault in so short a text.
The limits of body language, and quasi-stage delivery, are felt quite
soon. To my mind, the part of the narrator is fundamental. Milton communicates
characters' emotions through the narrator's
voicing, more like a novelist (George Eliot, perhaps) than a dramatist.
3. Casting. Typecasting should be avoided. All actors, and all exhibitionists,
want to be Satan; but giving Satan more liberty than Milton does will
disadvantage all other characters. Once again, choosing the narrator
is crucial. This is not to repeat the old fallacy of 'letting the
verse do the work': the narrator must feel and convey Milton's
passionate identification with Adam and Eve. (Stanislavsky here?)
4. Blank Verse. Though each line has a rhythm somewhere near
to iambic pentameter, none should be read to bring out that metre at
the expense of meaning. The extreme instance proves this: lines where
Milton quotes the King James Bible even at the expense of metre.
These must be read for meaning, the authority of biblical speech-act,
the triple judgments of Book X.
5. Line-ends. At all costs readers must not pause automatically
at line-ends, since Milton took such pains to carry his meaning and
his syntax across them ('the sense variously drawn out from one
Verse into another', as he put it in 1669). Meaning dominates metre
here as well.
6. Enjoy! If the readers enjoy themselves, it is likely that
the listeners will too -- and want to become readers next time.
Paradise Lost, Post-Haste
John Milton's Epic Poem in Twelve Books
Distilled into Twelve Minutes for Educational Purposes,
by John K. Hale
[It may help if a symbolic fruit can be displayed somewhere throughout
the performance, preferably a pomegranate. This risks unseemly mirth,
or distracting facetiousness on the part of readers; on the other hand,
it would ensure visual focus, at the start and whenever mentioned, and
if used tactfully by the cast would mitigate both boredom and tension.
I myself did not use one, but my readers introduced it anyway, and to
appropriate effect.]
Book One
Narrator
Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe, . . .
Sing heavenly Muse . . .
Say first what cause
Moved our grand parents in that happy state,
Favoured of heaven so highly, to fall off . . .?
Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?
The infernal serpent, he it was, what time
His pride had cast him out from heaven . . .
Him the almighty Power
Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky
To bottomless perdition . . .But his doom
Reserved him to more wrath
Satan
What though the field be lost? All is not lost.
Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.
Book Two
Beelzebub
There is a place,
Another world, the happy seat
Of some new race called man: perhaps we may
Seduce the puny habitants of this new world,
That God, their foe, abolish his own works.
Satan
But first whom shall we send
In search of this new world, whom shall we find
Sufficient?
Narrator
This said, he sat; and expectation held
His look suspense, awaiting who appeared
To second or oppose or undertake
The perilous attempt; but all sat mute . . . [lift voice, teeing
up for speaker following -- this applies widely to Narrator from here
on]
Until at last, Satan, unmoved, thus spake:
Satan
Wherefore do I assume
These royalties, and refuse to reign,
Refusing to accept as great a share
Of hazard as of honour? Go therefore mighty powers,
Terror of heaven, though fallen, intend at home
What best may ease the present misery,
While I abroad
Through all the coasts of dark destruction seek
Deliverance for us all: this enterprise
None shall partake with me.
Book Three
Narrator
Now had the almighty Father from above
Thus to his only Son foreseeing said:
Father
Only begotten Son, seest thou what rage
Transports our Adversary . . . So will fall
Man and his faithless progeny: whose fault?
Whose but Man's own? I made him just and right.
Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.
Book Four
Narrator
Beneath him with new wonder Satan views
A heaven on earth, a paradise, all kind
Of living creatures new to sight or strange:
Two of far nobler shape erect and tall,
Godlike erect, with naked honour clad
In naked majesty seemed lords of all. . .
Adam the goodliest man of men since born
His sons, the fairest of her daughters Eve.
Adam [turn towards Eve, Eve to him, both gaze deeply]
Sole partner and sole part of all these joys,
Dearer thyself than all: needs must the Power
That made us, and for us this ample world,
Be infinitely good, and of his good
As liberal and free as infinite.
Then let us not think hard
One easy prohibition, who enjoy
Free leave so large to all things else. . .
Eve [as before, but now look adoring and respectful of his
great intellect]
O thou for whom
And from whom I was formed flesh of thy flesh
And without whom am to no end, my guide
And head, what thou hast said is just and right.
Narrator
Thus talking hand in hand alone they passed
On to their blissful bower. Sleep on,
Blest pair; and O yet happiest if ye seek
No happier state, and know to know no more.
[Presenter now explains the jump of five books of the poem.]
Book Nine
Narrator
Satan considered every creature, which
Most opportune to serve his wiles, and found
The serpent subtlest beast of all the field.
Beyond his hope Eve separate he spies.
Satan [to Eve]
Empress of this fair world, resplendent Eve,
I was at first as other beasts that graze
Till, on a day roving the field, I chanced
A goodly tree far distant to behold.
About the mossy trunk I wound me soon.
Amid the tree now got, where plenty hung
Tempting so nigh, to pluck and eat my fill
I spared not, for such pleasure till this hour
At feed or fountain I had never found.
Sated at length, ere long I might perceive
Strange alteration in me, to degree
Of reason in my inward powers, and speech
Wanted not long, though to this shape retained.
Thenceforth to speculations high or deep
I turned my thoughts. . .
Eve [to Tree, not repeat not to Satan]
Great are thy virtues, doubtless, best of fruits,
Though kept from man, and worthy to be admired:
Here grows the cure of all, this fruit divine,
Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste,
Of virtue to make wise: what hinders then
To reach, and feed at once both body and mind?
Narrator [whilst Eve plucks a fruit, actual or imaginary :
if possible, it should be above head-height, so as to require deliberate
upreaching. Milton imagines a voluntary choosing, not something casual
or accidental.]
So saying, her rash hand in evil hour
Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate:
Earth felt the wound, and nature from her seat
Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe,
That all was lost.
Eve [still to Tree, but new thoughts crowd in: keep
changing voice, stance. Her respectful attention to Adam has vanished,
she is thinking out a terrible and expanding dilemma]
O sovereign, virtuous, precious of all trees,
I grow mature in knowledge, as the gods:
And I, perhaps, am secret: heaven is high,
High and remote to see from thence distinct
Each thing on earth; and other care perhaps
May have diverted from continual watch
Our great Forbidder, safe with all his spies
About him. But to Adam in what sort
Shall I appear? Shall I to him make known
As yet my change, and give him to partake
Full happiness with me? or rather not,
But keep the odds of knowledge in my power?
But what if God have seen, and Death ensue?
Then I shall be no more:
And Adam wedded to another Eve
Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct . . . [now decisively:
Adam shall share with me, in bliss or woe.
Narrator
Adam's slack hand the garland wreathed for Eve
Down dropped, and all the faded roses shed:
Adam [About Eve more than towards her: speak above her head?]
O fairest of creation, last and best
Of all God's works, creature in whom excelled
Whatever can to sight or thought be formed
Holy, divine, good, amiable or sweet!
How art thou lost, how on a sudden lost,
Defaced, deflowered, and now to death devote?
Rather how hast thou yielded to transgress
The strict forbiddance, how to violate
The sacred fruit forbidden! Some cursed fraud
Of enemy hath beguiled thee, yet unknown, [move to passionate vehemence
somewhere hereabouts]
And me with thee hath ruined, for with thee
Certain my resolution is to die:
How can I live without thee, how forego
Thy sweet converse and love so dearly joined,
To live again in these wild woods forlorn?
Narrator [measured tones, to allow for stage action, and to
make sure the diagnosis in your last two lines gets heard]
She gave him of that fair enticing fruit
With liberal hand: he scrupled not to eat
Against his better knowledge, not deceived,
But fondly overcome with female charm.
Book Ten
Narrator
God through his Son sent judgment to the earth;
First on the snake he thus his curse let fall:
Son [here and in other speeches let the sense (not iambic
norms) govern your stress: Milton wants the biblical words of judgment
to be heard, authoritatively]
Because thou hast done this, thou art accursed
Above all cattle, each beast of the field;
Upon thy belly groveling thou shalt go,
And dust shalt eat all the days of thy life.
Narrator
Next to the woman thus his sentence turned:
Son
Thy sorrow I will greatly multiply
By thy conception; children shalt thou bring
In sorrow forth, and to thy husband's will
Thine shall submit, he over thee shall rule.
Narrator
On Adam last thus judgment he pronounced:
Son
Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife,
And eaten of the tree concerning which
I charged thee saying, 'Thou shalt not eat thereof',
Cursed is the ground for thy sake, thou in sorrow
Shalt eat thereof all the days of thy life;
Thorns also and thistles it shall bring thee forth
Unbid, and thou shalt eat th' Herb of the field,
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread
Till thou return unto the ground, for thou
Outof the ground wast taken. Know thy birth,
For dust thou art, and shalt to dust return.
Book Eleven
Narrator
From his high throne, to all the Sons of Light
The almighty thus pronounced his sovereign will:
Father
O Sons, like one of us Man is become
To know both good and evil, since his taste
Of that forbidden fruit; now I decree
To send him from the garden, forth to till
The ground whence he was taken, fitter soil.
Book Twelve
Narrator [Your big break here: take it slowly wherever you
feel this will aid expressiveness]
To their fixed station, all in bright array,
The cherubim descended; on the ground
Glided metéorous, as evening mist
Risen from a river o'er the marish glides
And gathers ground fast at the labourer's heel
Homeward returning. High in front advanced
The brandished sword of God before them blazed
Fierce as a comet; which with torrid heat
And vapour as the Libyan air adust
Began to parch that temperate clime; whereat
In either hand the hastening angel caught
Our lingering parents, and to th' eastern gate
Led them direct, and down the cliff as fast
To the subjected plain; then disappeared.
They looking back, all th' eastern side beheld
Of Paradise, so late their happy seat,
Waved over by that flaming brand, the gate
With dreadful faces thronged, and fiery arms.
Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon;
The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and providence their guide:
They hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way.
*The text comes from Merritt Y. Hughes, ed. John Milton. Complete
Poems and Major Prose (New York: Macmillan, 1957), except for some
changes of punctuation to make the reading aloud clearer or more forceful.
See also next note.
**Two lines here are not by Milton, but concocted by myself under the
exigencies of brevity. Can the reader identify them? To do so is a way
of identifying what is genuinely Miltonic as opposed to Miltonizing
pastiche, a further pedagogic point which the performance could introduce
or reinforce.
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