Paradise Lost: Bk I

[WildCityWoman]

That explains everything.

[Saffron]

I've now listened to Bk I about 3 1/2 times through. It is amazing how helpful getting used hearing it out loud is. I also found a connection to one of my favorite book! Mary Webb's Precious Bane takes it's name from PL, Bk I:

"Let none admire that riches grow in Hell; that soyle may best deserve the pretious bane."

Now I just have to figure out what that means....help!

Edit added in:
Okay, a quick trip over to Wikipedia got me this:

It refers to the love of money, which, as Prue records, blights love and destroys life.

Now, how to get from the Milton quote to the piece I pulled from Wikipedia. I see that if riches grow in hell, they must be bad. Someone help me with the Precious Bane part. I do know that bane means: cause of harm, ruin, or death. Does soyle = soil?

[Thomas Hood]

"Let none admire that riches grow in Hell; that soyle may best deserve the pretious bane."

Now I just have to figure out what that means....help!

Jewels and precious metals are taken out of the earth, so riches grow in Hell. All money in Milton's time was such metals, I think. The main business of Milton's father and Milton himself (again, I think) was money lending, and they prospered. His income gave him the liberty to write. "That soil deserves the pretious bane" because matter opposes spirit. Noted that the devils in Hell mined gold and made Pandemonium of it.

Tom

[Saffron]

Thank you, Tom. Your answer hit the spot, fully illuminating the answer to my question.

[DWill]

I see we're back in business. "Precious Bane" is another of Milton's oxymorons. Here with us (he says to his readers) riches cause a good part of our misery, so it's perfectly logical that Heaven would be stocked with them. I think Milton's father began as a scrivener, did well and went into real estate. He sent John to college on his money. I'm not aware that Milton was in business as well.

[Saffron]

I think Milton's father began as a scrivener, did well and went into real estate. He sent John to college on his money. I'm not aware that Milton was in business as well.

It seems both Tom & DWill are correct about the occupations of Milton's father. The following is copied from www.luminarium.org

John Milton Sr. worked as a scrivener, a legal secretary whose duties included preparation and notarization of documents , as well as real estate transactions and moneylending. Milton's father was also a composer of church music,

[jerseyucf]

The film Se7en inspired me to read this book!