FROM AGE OF CHAUCER

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

displayed than in the early poems, in L’Allegro,
Penseroso, Comus, and Lycidas. They have all the
freshness and charm of youth, and exhibit tho lighter
and more fanciful side of Milton’s genius.

With this sense of beauty is combined a
stateliness of manner which gives a high dignity to
Milton’s poetry, that has never been surpassed, and
rarely equalled in our literature.Milton “strengthens
blank verse without cramping it; he gives it grace,
and rounds off with finished care the single line
without ever sacrificing the organic unity of the
entire poem. He is like a great organist who, while
never losing sight of the original melody, adorns it
with every conceivable variation which serves to
exhibit, in place of obscuring, the freshness and
sweetness of the simple theme”.

3.2 Milton’s Life and Works

Milton was born on December 9, 1608 at Black

spread Eagle Court, in the Bread Street. In 1641

Milton married Mary Powell, the seven-teen-year-old

daughter of a Cavalier gentleman residing in

Oxford shire. This marriage was not a happy one

from the first ; the change from a life of youthful

gaiety to that of the companionship of an austero

Puritan student so many years her senior was not

congenial to this young girl, and on visiting her

father’s house shortly after their marriage she

refused to rejoin her husband. Milton, was

pursuing divorce however, in 1645 a reconciliation,

took place, and seven years later his wife died,

51

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

leaving him with three small daughters. In 1656

he married Katharine Woodcock, who died the

following year. His third wife, Elizabeth

Minshull, chosen for him by his friend Dr. Paget, was

but twenty-five when she linked her life with that of

the blind poet in 1663, and lived for fifty-three

years after his death.

In 1645 Milton found a more spacious dwelling in
Barbican, which two years later he leaves for a small
house in High Holborn, near Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
During the whole of tho period from 1639 to 1649 he
devoted himself almost entirely to politics, and what
he believed to be the call of duty to his country.
Then, in 1649, came the offer of the Latin
Secretaryship.

Milton’s chief duty was to translate foreign

despatches into “ dignified Latin.” At first

he had rooms in Whitehall, but subsequently moved to

another “ pretty garden house “in West-minster. This

house became No. 19 York Street, and is associated

also with the names of Bentham, , James Mill, and

Hazlitt. It no longer exists, having been

demolished in 1877. Blindness made his duties

difficult, and rendered assistance imperative. Among

those who helped him in the discharge of his duties

was Andrew Marvell. Milton served through the

Protectorate.

At the Restoration he was arrested, but
subse-quently released on “ paying his fees.” He
lived quietly and frugally at Artillery Walk, Bunhill

52

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

Fields—blind, infirm, and weary, but unchanged in
resolution formed years before. The resolution found
expression in Paradise. Lost, begun in 1638, finished
in 1604, and published three years later. Milton was
offered by his publisher the munificent sum of “ five
pounds down, five pounds more upon the sale of each
of the first three editions.” Ten pounds in all
came into the poet’s hands in 1669. After his
death the copyright was sold by his, widow
for about eight pounds more.

Paradise Regained was published also the same
year. Among his many other works may be mentioned
those relating to The Doctrine and Discipline of
Divorce, 1643 ; The Four Chief Places of Scripture
which treat of Marriage, 1645 ; in 1644, his great
prose work, A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed
Print-ing : previous to this, while living at Horton,
near Windsor, he wrote L’Allegro and II Penseroso,
1632; Arcades, 1633; Comus, 1634; and Lycidas, 1637.
In addition to hia blindness he suffered from chronic
gout. After months of ill-health, “ the gout struck
in.” He died on November 8, 1674, and lies buried in
St. Giles’, Cripplegate, beside his father.

3.3 THE THEME OF PARADISE LOST
The problem of Evil is handled in Paradise Lost

in traditional Christian terms. God has created some
men and angles free to choose or not to choose his
service. When they do choose, they choose what is
also their own highest good; when they do not they
choose something less and anything less is evil.

53

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

For evil in Christian thought lacks positive
existence; it is simply a falling below the highest
good. This is what Milton’s Satan and other rebels
have done. They to turn away from God’s will, their
highest good, to seek their own will, a lesser good.

Satan and his followers have forgotten that
they’re only creatures and aspiring to rule they
tried to become like God. Inevitably they land up in
hell because what they have done is precisely, in a
spiritual sense, the Christian definition of hell.
The preference of one’s own will to God’s.
Inevitably, too, their own will does not prevail.
The only change is that now they serve God’s purposes
involuntary instead of freely.

One thing, however they can do, and that is to
seduce some other creature who enjoys the liberty of
choosing between God’s will and his own to choose the
latter and join them in their ruin. Hence they set
to work on man.

Even here the triumph is short lived, for
though they can make man fall, God, to defeat and
disappoint the frustrates them by Himself becoming a
man who does not fall but rise. The sin of Adam,
with the inheritance of evil is made good by Christ,
who, though he is tempted like Adam, resists and
though he dies like Adam is resurrected.

Paradise Lost proves that inspite of Adam’s
fall man can still be saved by Christ. The original
temptation in the Garden to includes the whole of
human history till the day of Judgement.

54

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

3.4 OUT LINE OF PARADISE LOST

Milton is conscious of his more important

subject, man’s disobedience to God, and his more

noble purpose, to justify the ways of God to man.

The subject of Paradise Lost is announced at the

beginning of Book I; it is “Man’s first disobedience”

and the consequent loss of Paradise. In the first

twenty-six lines Milton states his whole subject

matter and asks the aid of the heavenly Muse, who

gave Moses the Ten Commandments and inspired him,

Milton thought, to write part of the Old Testament.

Milton’s subject is man’s disobedience to God and the

consequent loss of Eden. It is man’s first

disobedience, implying that others are to come, and

it is a serious wrong, because it is disobedience to

God’s command.

Milton invokes his heavenly Muse, the
same Holy Spirit that gave Moses the Ten Commandments
on Mt. Sinai, to help him rise above pagan epic poets
of the past and justify the ways of God to man. The
prime cause of man’s fall is Satan, formerly an
angel, whose pride caused him to war against god and
to be thrown out of Heaven and whose envy of man and
desire for revenge on God caused him to deceive Eve
and help bring about the fall of Adam and Eve.

Having stated his subject quickly,
Milton follows the classical epic formula of
beginning in what he calls “the midst of things” and
turns our attention immediately to Satan, who is

55

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

pictured soon after he has been thrown out of Heaven
with the other rebel angels because of his revolt
against God. Milton knows that evil is attractive
and, Satan the fallen angel, still has some of the
qualities and virtues of Heaven, except that they
have all been perverted. Most of what he says are
lies, a fact which a good Christian reader of
Milton’s era should be have known, but which
frequently deceives the modern reader. God h a s
created Satan, but Satan has revolted against his
creator, and hence cut himself off from God; before
he revolted he exercised free will; now he acts only
by God’s permission (210 – 220)

Satan is seen just after he his fellow
rebel angels have been hurled down into Hell, a place
of fiery torment but no light. Chained on the
burning lake, he speaks to his next highest comrade,
Beelzebub, lying beside him. Satan is struck by the
horrible changes is Beelzebub’s appearance caused by
the Fall, but he still defies God and refuses to
repent. He even claims to have shaken the throne of
God, which we find out later is a lie. (I, 105; VI,
834; VII, 585-586). He refuses to serve God, whom he
calls a tyrant. But while he boasts in this way, the
poet says, he is inwardly tortured by his own
despair.

Beelzebub asks Satan what they should
do against God’s all-powerful force, and Satan
answers proudly that they should be do everything
within their ability to pervert God’s will. Having
been permitted by God to “Heap on himself damnation,”

56

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

and having been allowed to move, Satan flies by means
of his wings from the burning lake to plain,
believing he is doing so on his own power. Surveying
the doleful surroundings, Satan decides it is “Better
to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.” Although the
other fallen angels lie “groveling and prostrate” on
the lake of fire, Satan calls them to arms,
addressing them by their angelic titles. They come,
looking like the biblical plague of locusts.

Among them are Moloch, who later became
a pagan god to whom children were sacrificed, and
other heathen gods and goddesses such as Astarte,
Orus, Dagon, Isis and Osiris. Belial, a lewd and
grossly sensual devil, is last among them. Satan
rallies them with high sounding words and they appear
to be a large and glorious army. Satan feels a huge
pride in his troops of demons, which makes him forget
for the moment of despair, he addresses, them,
calling them to war, if not against, God, then
against God’s new creation, man.

A council of war should be called, he says.
They respond with a shout of defiance against God.
Mammon then leads a group of fallen angels to dig
into a volcanic hill for molten metal and erect
suddenly and by magic what looks like a temple, but
is really Pandemonium, the capitol of Hell, designed
by the demonic architect, Mulciber. With their
rustling wings the devils appear from a distance to
be like a swarm of bees as they go into Pandemonium
to consult over the method of war against God.

57

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

3.5 General Characteristics of Milton’s Poetry

The supreme quality of Milton’s poetry is

sublimity which is characterised by dignity and

stateliness. His poetry exercises an elevating

influence on the mind of the reader. The subject

matter is sublime dealing with God, Satan and other

serious themes. In Comus he presents sublime

thoughts concerning virtue. In Paradise Lost and

Paradise Regained he has dealt with sublime themes on

God and religion. The chief characteristic features

of Milton’s poetry is his profound love of beauty.

He is deeply sensitive to the beauty of eternal

nature. With this sense of beauty, is combined a

stateliness of manner which gives a high dignity to

his poetry. The poet never stoops down at any stage

just to satisfy the tastes of the lower public.

The subject that he chooses for his composition
are stately. The treatment that he gives them equally
in conformity with the subject matter common objects
doubt form the subject matter common objects do not
form the subject of his poetry. His themes are far
removed from the trivialities of life. The problems
are of external interest and his genius can find full
scope in dealing with grand themes, such as the
problem of man, the redemption of humanity by Christ
and of the way of God to man.

M i l t o n w r ites as a conscientious artist.
‘Poetry has been by far are the greatest artistic
achievement and Milton is by far the greatest poetic
artist.

58

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

Milton’s imagination is noteworthy. Only a man
of Milton’s imagination create could have a world of
heaven and hell which could be been possibly only by
his imagination. He soars above time and space.
Milton’s poetry proves his suggestive power.

Lander is of the opinion that Milton is the
noblest specimen in the world of eloquence, harmony,
and genius. Arnold thinks that Milton’s blank verse
is the flawless perfection of rhythm and diction.
In loftiness of thought, splendour and dignity of
expression and rhythmic felicities, Milton has peers
but no superior.

3.6 Style and Versification
Paradise Lost is a poetic rendering of the

story of the fall of man No epic poet was a master
of such a variety of styles as Milton, and the
variety with which he could use the English heroic
verse without rhyme. The variety controlled by the
steady persistent momentum of his paragraph, the
means of sound, and the refines of temper above all,
that sense of fidelity, to an immediate experience
which occasionally springs to action in scientific
things are done so effortlessly and aptly. Clarity,
force, and simplicity are some of the characteristics
of his poetry. The diction, the prosody and the
syntax, the subtle cooperation of the meaning and
music are all of them tokens of an underlying
permanence. The seven of the grand style as C.S.
Lewis puts it, of Great there is no where better

59

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

momentum which is no were better displayed than in
the stately progress of Milton’s more immemorable
similies.

“Paradise Lost” says Dr. Johnson is a poem when
considered with respect to design, may cla i m t h e
first place, and with respect to performance, the
second among the productions of the human mind.”
These characteristic features raise Miltonts great
height.

The use of Rhythm visual imagination and form,
are three note worthy characteristics Milton’s
continuous effort at the sublime, the exceptional
vivid pictures fill his poetry.

The placing of the pauses, the rise and fall of
the emotion, the high emotional charge in which the
poet’s sense of dedication and of communion with the
great biblical figures of the old testament is
communicated, the supplecatory cadence of the appeal
to have his darkness illumined and his mind elevated
and the fine, powerful simplicity of the concluding
statement of his purpose – all these represent poetic
art of high order.

The devices which Milton uses for sustaining
the flow of his great opening passage are worth
careful examination. It begins emphatically with
simplicity, and amplitude of man’s to I disobedience.
Which is developed, extended, modified, qualified,
reconsidered in a great variety of ways, by the
subordination of clauses, and the adroit use of
conjunctions, prepositions and relative pronouns him

60

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

to place the object of this opening sentence, the
theme of the poem, which most at the beginning, the
main verb does not come until the sixth line and when
it does come it rings out the tremendous emphasis.
Sing, heavenly music.

Milton’s similies are heroic. He uses them to
illustrate a familiar, universally accepted system of
facts which external and prior to the mode of
presentation. The thing said is not changed by the
way of saying it, though when Milton has said what he
intends to say, it is difficult to think of its being
said better.

Milton’s similies are sometimes digressive.
This device, characteristically Homeric is used very
specifically by Milton. Moreover when he introduces
such similies, they usually serve to accentuate by
contrast the superhuman grandeur of the events.

The simile of the ‘Angels thick as autumnal
leaves’ follows an epic description of Satan’s spear
and shield. When the audience at the infernal
council are compared to elves, the reader is better
convinced of the stature of “the great seraphic lords
and cherubim” huge “in their own dimensions like
themselves. This tendency to heroic aggrandizement
of the fallen angels is further straightened by
Milton’s spacing the use of ‘Lowely imaging and by
the comparative form of many of his similies”. What
of was thought but never so well expressed perhaps
the nine words that can be said of paradise lost.

Paradise lost is a rich, profound and matured

61

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

epic. It is a rendering of the story of fall
illuminating some of the central paradoxes of the
human situation and the tragic ambiguity of man as a
moral being. No epic poet was a master of such a
variety of styles as Milton and the variety with
which he could use English heroic verse without
rhyme.

Paradise lost shows Milton as a Christian

humanist using all the resources of the European

literary tradition, that came down to him Biblical,

classical, medival, Renaissance, pagan, jewish and

Christian. Imagery from classical fable, and

medieval Romance, allusion to myths, legends and

stories of all kinds, geographical imagery and ideas

from Milton’s own fascination with books of travel

and echoes of the Elizabethan excitement. The new

discoveries Biblical, history and doctrinal, and

Rabbinical and patristic learning are found in this

great synthesis of all that the western mind was

stored with by the middle of the 1700.

3.7 CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF AN EPIC
This narrative poem involves heroic, even

supernatural actions and characters sustained by
tradition, implicated in the life and ways of people
and enveloped in the aura of the unusual, the awful
and the sublime, it narrates great actions and
depicts characters in a great way. “It is a
dispassionate poem recited in dignified rhythmic

62

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

narrative of a momentous theme or action of fulfilled
by heroic characters and supernatural agencies under
the control of a sovereign destiny.

“ T h e e pic as a narrative poem organic in
structure, dealing with great characters and great
actions in a style commensurate with the Lordliness
of the theme which tends to idealize these characters
and actions and to sustain and embellish its subject
by means of episode in amplification.”

The epic celebrates in the form of a continuous
narrative, the achievements of one or more passages
of history or tradition. The subject matter is
generously derived from the “deeds of captains and
kings and of fearful wards” According to Horace it
is mainly concerned with the achievements of heroes.
Sometimes as in the case of Milton, the epic poet
concentrates on the edification of the readers.
Milton considers olidictism as part of epic theme and
so his epic poems convey ethical truths and exalts
moral purpose. Milton is paradise lost justifies the
ways of God to men. High seriousness is a part of the
epic poem. Milton “was always conscious of himself
as a chosen one destined to produce a mighty work
which future generations would not willingly let die.

The action of an epic is usually spacious and
is worked out into majestic proportions. The epic
plot is characterized by greatness of scope and
majesty of incident. Because the epic is long, there
is room for very great variety, the tragic, the
instructive, the descriptive touches of humanity. It
has plenty of time for digressions and descriptions.

63

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

Milton’s description of the appearance and the shield
and spear of Satan can be cited as an example.

Unity is another feature of an epic. There
must be organic action in epic as in tragedy. “There
is always a single action in the epic poem though the
poet is allowed to introduce innumerable episodes.
Epic poetry in a sense is public poetry because of
the choice of quality. The poet is not only writing
to express his own thought and feelings but the
thoughts and feelings of some large group or
community.

The theme of the epic is stated in the first
few lines and followed by a prayer to the muse.
Milton’s paradise lost begins with a clearly defined
propositions and an invocation. W.J. Long remarks
“It will be seen that this is classic epic not of a
man or a hero but the whole race of man.

According to Raliegh “Paradice Lost concerns
itself with the fortunes, not of a city, or an expire
but of the whole human race, is with that particular
event in the history of the race which has moulded
all its destinies. This epic theme has been
presented by Milton in a stately manner. The
splendors of heaven, the horrors of hell, the serve
beauty of Paradise, the sun and planets suspended
between celestial light and gross darkness are
pictured with a lofty imagination.

The poem rings with echoes from the memorable
passages of the Bible, traverses the secret places of
Heaven and Hell, and ransacks marvelous abstractions

64

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

like sin and death. It attempts things unattempted
in prose or rhyme.

It is the grand style that Milton uses in the

epic and “the language of the poem is the

elaborated outcome of all the best words, of all

antecedent poetry, the language of ode which lives in

the companionship of the great and wise of all ages.

The Homeric similie is used by, all epic poets

and especially Milton. Satan’s comparison to a

Leviathan can be quoted as an example. As an epic,

Paradise Lost contains a number of thrilling

episodes such as the mustering of troops, battles,

devils, wanderings and ordeals. Like any other epic

the poem is divided into many books.

In every epic, a long and dangerous journey is

made by the hero. Satan’s journey through the space

(in Book II) is recalled here. As an epic story, it

begins in the middle of the action. An epic poem

devotes much space to the discussion of probability.

Like a drama it should have probability, and within

its larger bounds, things less probable can be made

to appear probable. Thus in epic, we have probable

impossibilities” rather than “improbable

possibilities”.

C.M . Bowra remarks that Milton made his epic
theological. According to Herbet the story of the
fall is merely the kernel around which Milton
elaborates. This Paradise Lost, proves to be a great
epic poem because it develops in artistic unity one
great conception and abounds through out its course

65

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

in daring flights of fancy into unknown regions. He
proves the statement of Dryden that “epic is
undoubtedly the greatest work which the soul of man
is capable to perform.”

3.8 PARADISE LOST AS AN EPIC

Paradise Lost is by common consent an epic poem. The
beginning of the epic shows the fallen angels in Hell
beginning to recover from their defeat and
prostration. Satan had tried to be like the most
High because of which he was brought down to Hell.

The speeches of Satan and his followers are
magnificent in their way, “Miltonic” in the popular
sense of the word; and they represent the
attractiveness of plausible evil. If evil was never
attractive there would be no problem for man. The
descriptions of Satan’s regal state Book I is a
magnificent evocation of all the barbaric splendour.

As for the supposed nobility of Satan, it does
not take a very close reading of his speeches to see
that a self frustrating spite is his dominant
emotion. Of course there are traces of true heroism
in him. Milton is trying to point out that the best
when corrupted, becomes the worst.

Though, until very recently, critics have paid
scant attention to the motivation of Satan’s
rebellion, it must be clear that this motivation is
of cardinal importance to Paradise Lost. A proper
understanding of the rebellion of Satan is likewise
essential to the whole philosophic meaning of the

66

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

epic. When Satan summons his followers to council in
the North, evil enters the cosmos. Satan’s action
initiates the whole sequence of the expulsion of the
rebel angels, the creation of man to take their
place, the temptation and fall of man, and finally
his regeneration by grace. So much depends on the
motivation of Satan’s rebellion.

After his expulsion from Heaven his sense of
injured pride turns into hatred for those who, as he
thinks, have humbled him and for all connected with
him. It becomes his driving motive and takes on
heroic air when it strengthens his will in defeat and
makes him insist on carrying on the war. His plan
for the corruption of man rises from his “deep
malice”, and this grows greater when he sees the
happiness of Adam and Eve and finds in it a “sight
hateful, sight tormenting”. Satan knows that revenge
recoils on him, but he is prepared to face it. His
heroic spirit has finally disappeared and never again
shows itself. Just as his appearance decays, so does
his character, until he becomes wholly loathsome and
even contemptible.

The character of Satan is pride and sensual
indulgence and also exhibits all the restlessness,
temerity and cunning. Milton has carefully marked in
his Satan the intense selfishness, the alcohol of
egotism, which would rather reign in Hell than serve
in Heaven. To place this lust of self in opposition
to denial of self or duty, and to show what exertions
it would make, and what pains endure to accomplish
its end, is Milton’s particular object in the

67

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

character of Satan.

Around this character he has thrown a
singularity of daring, a grandeur of sufferance and
a ruined splendour, which constitute the very height
of poetic sublimity.

3.9 CHARACTER OF SATAN

Satan is, of course, an important character in

the epic. Sir Walter Raleigh, remarked that

Satan’s “very situation as the fearless antagonist of

Omnipotence makes him either a fool or a hero, and

Milton is far indeed from permitting us to think him

a fool.

Satan was the first of created beings, who for
endeavouring to be equal with the highest, and to
divide the empire of heaven with the Almighty, was
hurdled down to hell. His aim was no less than the
throne of the universe; his means, myriads of angelic
armies bright, the third part of the heavens, whom he
lured after him with his countenance, and who durst
defy the omnipotent in arms.

The ambition of Satan was the greatest and his
punishment was the greatest; but not so his despair,
for his fortitude was a great as his sufferings. His
strength of mind was matchless as his strength of
body; the vastness of his designs did not pass the
firm, inflexible determination with which he
submitted to his irreversible doom, and final loss of
all good.

68

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

Milton stresses his enormous stature, his
courage in defeat, his panoply and armaments and the
music of his defeat, of his army. In this company
Satan is a commanding and eminent figure. When he
holds his “great consult”, he sits like an oriental
potentate on his royal throne and controls the
proceedings with masterful ability. Milton admits
that he deserves his position; “Satan exalted sat, by
merit raised to that bad eminence” (Book II, II 5-6)
He is huge in size

…… his other parts besides
Prone on the Flood, extended long and large
Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge
As whom the Fables name of monsterous size

(Book I, II 194 – 7)

The shield of Satan is as big as the largest
round object imaginable like the moon, seen through
the clarity of an Italian night-sky, and enlarged by
a telescope. Elsewhere in Book I Satan is described
as being like a Tower and like the Sun. With this
last image, we can see the process of deterioration;
He still carries traces of his former glories.

…. nor appeared
Less than Arch-angel ruined, and th’ excess
of glory obscured.

(Book I, 11 592-4)

He is still like the Sun seen through morning
mist “Shorn of his Beams”.

69

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

In the first two books Milton presents Satan
as a war monger and a politician. His spacious
arguments and diabolical urges to be active and
militant rouse the fallen angels from their stupor.
“Awake, arise or be forever fallen”, the terrific war
cry of Satan goes like a clarion call to the benumbed
angels and stirs them to action.

In a clever and strategic manner he whips
Beelzebub into rage telling him that” …. to be weak
is miserable/ Doing or suffering” (Book I 11 157-
58). Emphatically he utters that their mission is to
create evil out of good. He has “a mind not to be
changed by place or Time”. When he says “The mind is
its own place, and in itself, / can make a Heaven of
Hell, a Hell of Heaven. One is tempted to agree with
him. When Satan says “Better to reign in Hell than
serve in Heaven” (Book I 11263) one is forced and
tempted to agree with him. When Satan says “Better
to reign in hell than serve in Heaven” (Book I
11263) one is forced to admire the love of liberty in
him. Though Satan may be “vaunting aloud” in pain,
his fiery utterance “what though the field…/ ….
courage never to submit or yield” (Book I 11105 – 8)
has often been equated with heroic temper and is oft
quoted with characteristic admiration of him.

Milton portrays Satan as a ruined Cathedral or

a tower that still retains about it certain signs of

past glory. These may look imposing even in their

ruins. The glory is obscured, not altogether

departed. He is like the Sun “new arisen” not

possessing all that radiance, or like the sun in an

70

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

eclipse. The archangel shines above all others even
in the fallen state. He is full of dauntless
courage. He is like the forest oaks and mountain
tope stately but with their tops burnt. The picture
t h a t M i l t o n gives of Satan in this passage is a
mixture of brightness and darkness.

One can find miss his intellect, reason and
even sympathetic imagination, Satan confesses that
God “upbraided none; nor was his service hard” but
the disdained subjection and wanted to be rid of the
burden of serving God. The obligation of being
grateful to God was burdensome; He did not realize at
that time that a grateful mind by owing did not owe
anything at all.

Very soon the realization comes to Satan that there
is no redemption for him and that he is Hell. Hell
is within him, around him and everywhere he goes.
There is no escape from it. He bids farewell to the
little good still lurking in him. “So farewell Hope,
and with Hope farewell Fear / Farewell remorse all
good to me is lost.

3.10 LET US SUM UP

You have so far understood John Milton’s life
and works, the Gest of Paradise Lost, general
characteristics, style and verification of Milton
poetry, features of an epic and paradise lost as an
epic.

3.11 LESSON – END ACTIVITIES

1. Write an essay on the Paradise Lost as an Epic

71

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

2. Comment on the style and versification of Milton
3. Sketch the character of Satire

72

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

3.12 REFERENCES

Milton John Milton Poetical Works, ed. Doughlas Bush. London:
Oxford University Press, 1966

Barker, E. Arthur Ed. Milton : Modern Essays in Criticism 1965; rpt
London : Oxford University Press, 1968.

Blamires, Harry Milton’s Creation: A guide through Paradise Lost
London : Methuen & Co. Ltd. 1971.

Daiches, David Milton. London : Hutchinson University, 1957.

Lewis, C.S. A Preface to Paradise Lost. 1942, rpt London:
Oxford University Press, 1975.

Rudrwn Alan A Critical Commentary on Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’
London : Mac Milan, 1966.

Thorpe, James Ed. Milton Criticism: Selections from four centuries.
London: Routledge & Keganpaul Ltd. ,1965

73

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

UNIT – II
LESSON 4
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
DR. FAUSTUS
Contents
4.0 Aims and Objectives
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Out Line of the Play
4.3 Dr. Faustus as a Renaissance Play
4.4 Dr. Faustus as Tragedy
4.5 Mephistophilis
4.6 The Comic Episodes In Faustus
4.7 Let Us Sum Up
4.8 Lesson – End Activities:
4.9 References

4.0 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The main aim of this lesson is to introduce the Christopher

Maslowe’s play Dr. Faustus with its outline and to project this play
as a renaissance play, and as tragedy play besides explaining the
comic episodes found in Dr. Faustus.
4.1 INTRODUCTION:

Marlowe is the father of the English drama, for he was the
first to perceive the capacities for noble art inherent in Drama and
he adapted it to high purpose by his practice. He saw that the drama,
of the people, had a great future before it, and so devoted h i s
energies to its perfection. Drama resulted from the fusion of most
diverse elements. It was often confused and incoherent. He used the
blank verse suggested to him by the classical drama, and by his
practice of it made it a suitable medium for dramatic expression. He
thus transfigured the form of the English drama. He was the first to

74

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

construct a coherent plot.

In Marlowe we find for the first time character-development.
Faustus is a one-man play, in Edward II we find interplay of
character. “Under his touch dialogue moved with spirit; men and women
spoke and acted with the energy and spontaneity of nature.” He, for
the first time gave, life-like characters who are not mere puppets,
but who live their own lives.,

Marlowe raised the subject matter he drama to a higher level.
He provided big subjects that appealed to the imagination. The
insatiable spirit of adventure ideals of beauty; the .greatness and
littleness of human life : were his subjects. Marlowe “took the blank
verse of the Classical School, hard and unflinching as a rock, and
struck it with his rod till the waters of human emotion gushed
forth”. He gave a unity to the drama, hitherto lacking. Plays before
had been formless : a succession, of isolated scenes often with no
proper connecting link. He glorified the matter of the drama, by his
sweep of imagination. He vitalised the manner and matter of the
drama, by his energising power. He clarified and gave
coherence to the drama.

4.2 OUT LINE OF THE PLAY

Doctor Faustus story is a dramatized story of the life and
death of a medieval scholar, who sells his soul to the devil, in
return for a life of, power and pleasure. The condition is that he
should get sovereign power and sovereign knowledge by binding himself
to the Devil, and thus be able to satisfy his appetites for twenty-
four years. This power and knowledge are used by Faustus in playing
practical jokes on the great ones of his day, the pope and the
cardinals, and to make poor wretches • the butt of his magic. But the
twenty-four years come to an end and Faustus has to keep his bargain
with Lucifer. He tremblingly awaits death and hell. Till now Faustus
has never called upon God, inspite of being begged over and over
again by the good angel. But now in his last days, he^remembers God
and cries in wail. It is too late now and Faustus' soul is taken away
by the devils to hell. This is the tragical history of Dr. Faustus!

Faustus, in his lust for power and knowledge, aspires to
become a magician who would have everything at his command. He
hires the services of Mephistophills, who is an agent of the devil,
and is prepared to part with his soul to the devil, if and only if he

75

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

will be the supreme one no this earth, if and only if he will be the
supreme one on this earth and the sole possessor of all knowledge.
He undertakes the most dangerous step of signing the bond with the
evil powers for the supreme knowledge and sovereign power by which he
could satisfy his appetites for the period of twenty four years. He
knows fully well that eternal damnation will fall on him, but he
cares only for the present life and does not even believe about the
life hereafter.

Faustus' manner and use of the magical power, to a great
extent, reflect his transformed attitude toward power itself. He
never gets the power he had ventured for. He deals with the "shadows,
not substantial" things, to use his own description of the feat he
performs. Faustus does not and cannot forget that he has no "real
power", only shadow power. He does not "wall Germany with brass" or
c l o t h e s c h o o l boys in "silk". T h e p l a y comic scenes further
reinforces and proves his knowledge that the Devil, will not impart
'omnipotence' to man. He will be damned without having gained even as
much power as the Devil's. The certainty and imminence of approaching
death is known to remove its fear from such suffering souls.

The tragic fall of Faustus gains more intensity with the close
of the twenty-four years contract with the devil, each time he
remembers God or thinks of repentance the devil threatens him with
dire consequences. As eleventh hour of the last day strikes, he is
in a state of extreme horror. He pleads with Christ to have mercy
on him and wash him with at least half a drop of His precious blood
shed on Calvary cross. But his heart is too hard to sincerely repent
because he had deliberately sold his soul to the devil; it is mere
remorse or sorrow for sin in view of the impending punishment. He
regrets but does not repent. He is finally dragged away from this
world in a state of deep anguish. Only the mangled remains of his
body are gathered by a few young scholars of Wittenberg.

For him, as for Marlowe, lowly birth is no bar to a university
education, and as he sits alone in his study reading from the Latin
text books he is linked in a common language with scholars from
Oxford, Cambridge and all over the civilized world. Rhetoric,
jurisprudence and medicine have trained a mind apt for questioning
eager for learning, and reluctant to take on trust even the most
elementary facts, let alone those hypothesis incapable of empirical
proof. Faustus who refuses to accept from Mephistopheles the

76

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

evidence for hell’s existence is true to type. His pitiful short
sightedness is all too evident, but there is also a determination to
believe only what he himself can prove.

Marlowe’s hero Dr. Faustus is a man of humble birth who, has
already established himself in the world of learning through his
native abilities. This opening chorus is a cunningly contrived piece
of stagecraft for it not only gives us in a nut shell the form of
Faustus fortune good or bad but with that that freedom of movement
through space and time which was second nature to the Elizabethan
dramatist, concludes by zooming down on Faustus, at this moment, with
the fateful choice still before him – ‘And this the man who in his
study sits. This shuffling together of past, present and future
gives some sense of the inevitability of Faustus progress to
damnation while preserving inviolate the hero’s capacity to choose.

By signing the bond with its ominous first clause Faustus is
not all off from forgiveness. Yet the effects of sin in turning away
from God, make it virtually impossible for him to accept the offered
mercy. Repentance is all that is needed, yet to his dismay, he finds

“My threat’s so hardened I cannot repeat [II, ii, 18)

The devils are adept at picking the bubbles of human self-
glorification, and Faustus’ pride is punctuated in his first
encounter with Mephistopheles. Soaring, as he thinks, to the height
of his power as conjurer laureate, he is jolted shapely back to earth
by the friends casual admission that the conjuring was of no real
import.

“I came now hither of mine own accord”. [I, iii, 44]

Repeated questioning of Mephistopheles brings no satisfaction.
The devil can tell him only what he already know and, forbidden to
speak the praise of God, cannot give him the answer he wants to hear.

Faustus : “Now tell me who made the world?”

Mephistophiles : “I will not” [II, ii, 67-8]

His pride dashed, Faustus becomes increasingly aware of the
emptiness of his bargain and the reality of damnation. The pride
corned his human nature and aspired to become ‘a mighty god’ leads
inevitably to its opposite despair.

77

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

The play ends where it began, in the solitude of Faustus’

study. It is here that Faustus damns himself finally and

irrevocably. He is never closer to repentance than in the moments

after the Old Man’s speech with its renaissance. The man who has

adjuced the scriptures, forsaken God, trafficked with the devil can

still” call for mercy, and avoid despair [v,i, 61] But hell’s present

physical tortures terrify him more than the thought of future

damnation, and instead of withstanding the momentary agony he

requests, instead the comfort of

“That heavenly Helen which I saw of late,

Whose sweet embracing’s may extinguish clean

Those thoughts that do dissuade me from my vow [v,I, 90-92]

Helen of Troy, twice passing over the stage, pausing for one
brief moment yet speaking nothing, is the key figure in Dr. Faustus.
For this Faustus has sold his soul. All the glory that was Greece,
was embodied, for the Renaissance, in this woman; her story was the
story in brief of another world, superhuman and immoral.

Faustus, Marlowe combines medieval and Renaissance thoughts.
The dramatist believes with Dante that the pursuit life has a
bearing because it determines what eternal life will be. Faustus
possesses a robust and experience personality. Marlowe builds the
main tension of the play from the clash between Faustus’ Renaissance
desire for the acquisition of unlimited knowledge and power and
medieval dogma of the retribution which is inevitable to one who
adopt evil means to gain such ends.

Self-confidence is another trait in Dr. Faustus, as he has
confidence in himself that he has the ability to master necromancy
and achieve his goal. Once he has started, there is no coming back,
only going forward to achieve his ambition. The others characters
such as Valdes and Cornelius only strengthen Faustus’ confidence.

Marlow has pictured Fausutus’ impatience with earthly
limitations in the first soliloquy. Dr. Fausutus is impatient with
the limitations of the branches of his study and this leads him to
the study of magic and ultimately to his contract with the unearthly
Mephistophilis.

The spirit of adventure – both psychological and physiological

78

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

led the inquiring mind of Faustus to the distant corners of the earth
with the aid of Mephistophilis. Throughout the play the characters
focus on the importance they attached to the worldly life. Faustus’s
zest for life is brought out by Marlowe by his last minute acceptance
of God in the face of damnation. “…………. A world of profit and
delight, of power, of honour, of omnipotence” and to him, “a sound
magician in a mighty God” And it was this element of Romanticism
that.. a word derived from the word “Rome” – which meant “newness of
i d e a s ” -- that enkindled curiosity, traveling, adventures and
exploration in the age. These elements moulded themselves into a
dominant passion in the character of Faustus.

To sum up, it can be said that as the whole play has its axis,
the figure of Faustus, it is through him that in the play was
introduced the Renaissance element.

79

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

4.3 DR. FAUSTUS AS A RENAISSANCE PLAY

The Renaissance heralded the birth of a new age in Europe. It
tolled the death knell of the middle ages and unheard in a new era of
bright hopes and rosy aspiration. The faint flickering rays of the
Renaissance became visible in Europe quite early in the sixteenth
century. It took time for the Renaissance spirit to reach England.
But when the new light came, it cleared off the old colowels of
ignorance and superstition and made the way clear for the diffusion
of new thoughts and new ideals. Although the great Renaissance
period, of ten somewhat inexactly called the Elizabethan age, came to
be markedly original, its literature had its raise among a multitude
of ancient and foreign influences.

The Renaissance writers portrayed in their work all that was

atheistically immoral and corrupt under the influence of

Machiavelli. They persecuted man as being divine to find free and

feel expansion of his thoughts. Marlowe’s heroes are after power that

knows no limits and they seek it in different ways. Tamberline

resorts to conquests, Faustus to black magic. Barabas to power that

money can give, and Edward II to unhealthy pattern.

Boundless in its aspirations, increasing in its complexions,
the Renaissance mind is the theme of all Malow’s plays. Dr. Faustus
although he is the first figure on the English stage who deserves to
be called a character, is still less an individual than the epitome
of renaissance aspiration. He has all the divine discontent the
unwearied and unsatisfied striving after knowledge that marked the
age in which Marlowe wrote. An age of exploration, its adventurers
were not only the merchants and sea-men who sailed around the world,
but also the scientists, astronomers, who surveyed the leavers with
their optic glass and those scholars who traveled in the realism of
gold to bring back tales of a mighty race of gods and heroes in
ancient Greece and Rome.

The diverse Renaissance elements that “Dr. Faustus” is filled
in are individualism, self confidence, impatience with earthly
limitations, a spirit of revolt, a love of beauty, enjoyment the
object of life, the spirit of adventure both mental and physical,
humanism, patriotism, awakening of people’s mind i.e. spirit of
freedom, zest for life, romanticism, reformation, the measure of
blankverse, and above all the longing for power and knowledge that
may be considered the principle element.

80

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

When the play opens Faustus stands at the frontiers of
knowledge. The whole of Renaissance learning is within his grasp,
but on closer scrutiny of the parts the whole crumbles away and he is
left with nothing but a handful of dust.

Faustus takes his first step along the primrose path when he
s e t s m a t e r i a l benefits before spiritual blessings. Contemplating
magic, anticipating its rewards with Valdes and Cornelius, he
promises himself all the glory and riches of the Renaissance world.
From Mephistopheles he demands to “live in all voluptuousness” even
before succumbs to the line of magic, his mind has been tempted by
thoughts of wealth.

“Be a physician, Faustus, heap up gold” [I, ii, 14]. Yet
although this obsession with luxury is a flaw in the nature of one
dedicated to the search for knowledge, its seriousness must not be
magnified until it obscures the real issues. In the first soliloquy
Faustus rejects the study of law, leaning it to the “……….. mercenary
drudge who aims at nothing but eternal trash” All the gold that the
doctor can heap [I, i, 34 – 5] up will not reconcile him to the
limitations of medical skill, through whose aid he can restore only
health, not life. And when, in an early agony of indecision, he
weighs the profit and the loss, it is not riches that he puts into
the opposite scale :

“Have not I made blind Homer sing to me

Of Alexander’s love, and Demon’s dealth?

And hath not he, that built the walls of Thebes

With ravishing sound of his melodious harp,

Made music with my Mephistophilis?

With the help of magic, he has gained entry into another
world, a world, later to be incarnate in Helen of Troy, which for
exceeds the riches of all the Venetian argosies, Indian gold and
Orient pearl.

If the Renaissance mind was a flame with thoughts of the
splendor of life and of the knowledge and power which were the means
to its realization, it was also imbued with the knowledge that there
flames were the flames of hell and that Faustus would have done
better merely to wonder at unlawful things as the epilogue says, than

81

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

to be enticed,

“To practice magic and concealed acts” [I, I, 103]

What is certainly far from easy but what can atleast be
pointed to are the range and immediacy, the complexity and precision,
of the local habitation. This tendency to identify the prophecies of
astrology with astronomy, the realization of the pagan and sensuous
delights of Helen and cussida with the empirical methods of
investigating the natural world, was common enough in the Renaissance
world.

Renaissance was leased on the principle of ‘emancipation from
the bondage of theology’ also. And Dr. Faustus in the play
voluntarily frees himself from “the heavenly matters of theology,”
says, “Divinity adieu” and turns his attention to “the metaphysics of
magicians”.

The Renaissance ideal dominated all the form plays of Marlowe.
He presented ordinary men, whom he endowed with prodigious desires,
almost impossible to achieve. They were dominated by a single
passion, and the Marlowian heroes put up a tremendous struggle
against adverse forces and fell fighting alone. And Marlowe’s Dr.
Faustus is a typical Marlowian hero who stands alone.

Another Renaissance element is portrayed through Dr. Faustus’
character as he, towards the end of the play requests Mephistophilis
that he should see, the heavenly Helen. The sight of her fills him
with wonder. He remarks,

“Was this the face that launched a thousand ships

And burnt the topless the towers of Ilium?”

The very act or his wish to see, the face of Helen of Troy
brings out the Renaissance love of beauty. Enjoyment is considered
to be the object of life as Faustus himself uses the twenty four year
span of his life, with the help of necromancy to enjoy his life to
the full. All his actions were based upon this principle. Even the
minor characters seemed to be intent upon enjoyment of life (e.g.
Ralph and Robin) There is no moral code that governs them.

Another features of Renaissance is the spirit of freedom, and
as a result the writers of the age took liberties with grammar and
syntax. And Marlowe’s plays are examples of the “blank verse, a

82

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

speech rhythm, the mighty line of Marlowe”, which was perfected by
him. Moreoever the play is persecuted directly in “soliloquy , a
Renaissance theatrical convention. A feature of the Renaissance can
also be seen in not introducing women characters.

Faustus has the genuine Renaissance passion for ‘knowledge
infinite’.

Faustus is completely devoured by the desire to enlarge his
knowledge and go beyond the limits of the human mind and thus also
exercise his power and authority everywhere. He desires for something
greater than mortal knowledge and power and these cravings could only
be satisfied through Black magic. He has a passion for omnipotence.
With the newly acquired power of the magical art and with the
devil’s agent waiting for him to obey his commands, helping him to
meet his doom, much earlier, he assumes complete power over the world
and its ‘Common people’. This sort of strong contempt for the ‘man
of the Earth’ with his limited abilities was one of the main
characteristics of the Renaissance man. Faustus is of humble birth,
he also means to raise himself in life by sheer power of his
knowledge. He craves for supreme knowledge and in order to gain it,
he sells his soul to the devil for twenty four years of absolute
power on this earth. His main aim is to practise more than what
heavenly power permits. He aspires to become higher than anyone else
and to gain complete mastery over God’s universe. He is so obsessed
with the thought of grasping knowledge which is above human limits
that it drives him to a sort of madness urging him to commit the
grave error of signing the bond with the devil.

Love for power makes him set material before spiritual
blessings. Besides his maddening passion for knowledge infinite,
there is in him, a lust for riches and pleasure and power. He wants
to live luxuriously, lavishly, grandly and splendidly. With the help
of the spirit he says: “I’ll have them fly to India for gold, Ransck
the ocean for Orient Peal, and search all corners of the newfound
world, For pleasant fruits and princely delicacies”. He has in him,
the Renaissance love of beauty too. He is not satisfied with any
ordinary woman but Helen is the one he would like to have. Helen is
to him, a ‘paragon of perfection and excellence’, whose ‘face had
launched a thousand ships’. He pays a glowing tribute to her beauty
when her apparition rises before his eyes. He finds her form perfect
and flawless. He wishes to gain a vision of this perfect face and

83

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

pleads the vision to make him immortal with a kiss.

Like the typical Renaissance man, Faustus has the intense
awareness of the splendour of power, knowledge and sensation, and
lives in a world, as did the Renaissance man, in which it was not
possible to remain for ever unaware of the fact that there are more
things in heaven and earth than what philosophy dreams of. Faustus
was so intensely in love with the things of the world that he was
willing to sacrifice his immortal soul to devil fully realizing that
he was incurring eternal damnation upon himself.

The first soliloquy is no man reckoning of accounts but an
inventory of the Renaissance mind Faustus is one of the new Marlowe
figures of the Renaissance ideals. His heroes are attached to beauty
and unlimited power and knowledge. They appear brave and boastful
endowed with aspiring power for good or evil. They are great rebels
in their own right, as their creator himself was. His heroes are
after power that knows no limit and they week it in different ways.
Under the impact of Renaissance enthusiasm, Marlowe chooses imperial
conquest as the most striking theme.

4.4 DR. FAUSTUS AS TRAGEDY

Marlowe had thus endowed .tragedy with a conception of
character, and, in a more general way,, with the suggestion of
unending possibilities of achievement. H i s conception of tragedy
lies in this; his heroes-fight on to reach their goal of success :
but in their attempt they fail and though they are killed, the main
interest of the plays lies in watching them fight heroically. His
conception of tragedy can be best found in his prol o g u e t o
'Tamburlaine' :

The character and personality of Dr. Faustus, his struggle to
escape from damnation which he incurs as the price for his quest of
knowledge, power, pleasure, and beauty which begins to acquire a
tremendous interest of its own as the play advances, give a singular
unity to the play.

Faustus’ quest of his life is knowledge and power that knowledge
gives. But he is not satisfied with all that he has won. He is now
attracted to necromancy. He assets that this will give him power he
aspires and mastery over all forces, material and spiritual. It is a
damnable practice. And he is well aware of the risk he runs. But he

84

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

desires mastery of the world above everything else, whatever the cost.
This recklessness of spirit cannot but command admiration. It is the
result of his liberated will and intelligence.

The last scene is the most poignant scene in any drama. There
is no escape for him now. He is frantic with despair. The first scene
and the last scene are equally effective—and the last scene is most
impressive. And there is nothing preposterous about the conclusion.
The despair and final surrender of a human soul that defies sin in
its quest of knowledge and power could not have been more tragically
painted. The final solution is reached on the line of Christian
theology. Marlowe has been true to the age in which he lived.

Faustus explains the contract to the scholars. He passes his
last night on earth alone, and goes to hell at midnight Frightened
and regretful', Faustus greets his friends the scholars, explaining
that he must shortly go to hell. He rejects their suggestions that he
should repent, claiming that invisible devils hold his tongue and
hands. The scholars withdraw to the next room to pray for him through
the night. Faustus's long closing monologue concludes the scene,
acting out the intense emotions of the last hour of his life in an
anguished sequence of emotions and thoughts. These include: a desire
for time to stand still; plans to call on God, frustrated by
Lucifer's attacks; a fruitless desire to hide from divine anger and a
list of places to hide; and a wish that he had not been born with a
soul.

In a paroxysm of fear in the face of the doubled vision of
God's rejection and Lucifer's ferocious welcome, Faustus is escorted
to hell. The hesitations about belief that have dominated the rest of
the play are now completely cleared, and Faustus is well aware of the
consequences of his contract. He no longer holds that 'hell's a
fable' (Scene 5, line 127), or that only a comfortable pagan
afterlife awaits him ('This word damnation terrifies not him, / For
he confounds hell in Elysium' - Scene 3, lines 59-60). The pre-
Christian thinkers whose words he earlier trusted are now seen as
inaccurate: 'Ah, Pythagoras' metempsychosis - were that true, / This
soul should fly from me' (Scene 13, lines 99-100). Extraordinarily,
he is still divided over whether to repent or to follow Lucifer.

Yet should there hover in their restless heads One thought, one grace, one wonder, at the least,
Which into words, no vertue can digest.” This love of beauty is also a Renaissance feature. So we find

85

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

this first tragedy by Marlowe, saturated with the spirit of the Renaissance,

4.5 MEPHISTOPHILIS acts as the agent of Satan. Faustus has direct
dealings with Mephistophilis. When he signs away his soul to Satan,
Mephistophilis is entirely-at the service of Faustus. All the wonderful
things that are wrought by Faunus, are due to the help of Mephis-
tophilis. The development of the action then partly depends on
Mephistophilis.

After Faustus has signed the bond Mephistophilis has got to

defend the interests of his master. He serves Faustus all right

and executes all his orders. Now the bond Faustus has signed,

cuts both ways. Faustus commands the services of Mephistophilis,

and that by virtue of the " pact; but the pact also gives

Mephistophilis power over Faustus. Wherever Faustus rebels against

Satan, Mephistophilis becomes his master at once and chains him down

at once to obedience to Satan.

4.6 THE COMIC EPISODES IN FAUSTUS

The comic episodes in no way detract from the theme of the
play Dr. Faustus Nor do they demean or damage Faustus as the
protagonist of the play. The problems they cause are technical and
artistic and need closer examination. "We have to agree that the
"middle scenes of the play lack tragic and poetic intensity."
However, they are part of the convention which mixed kings and clowns
and sought to provide comic relief. In •this play, the comic episodes
do not relate to the design of the play and are definitely a concession
to the populist sentiment of the groundlings.

The comic scenes of 'Dr. Faustus' deserve particular

attention. The first comic scene which we come across with in

the play, is where Wagner, Faustus's servant, meets a Clown The

clown in the scene puns on words. The humorous element here is

also supplied by the o f t h e cl o w n w h e n he tries to fly from the

devils critics reeardthe scene as an interpolation are the best

evidence that Marlowe had to consider the groundlings, whose palates

had to be pleased in this manner.

The appearance of the Seven Deadly Sins-in Scene is also

meant to serve as a comic relief. The scene all along is in a

serious tone. But Marlowe was keen on deversifying the serious

element by bringing in comic scenes.

86

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

Such as the one where he where he expresses his contempt for
the papal dignitaries and the churchmen. He makes Faustus play
tricks on them and tries to evoke amusement. This scene is rather an
expression of the satirical vein in Marlowe's mind. Such a spirit of
satire was fostered by the Renaissance, which had liberated the minds
of people, exposed the shams and hypocrisy of the priests, and
enabled them to attack them. The portrayal of the realistic characters
in Ralph and Robin is, however, significant. Another comic scene;
where Faustus tracts the horse-courser. The pulling off of the leg of
Faustus and other such incidents supply very cheap jokes. They can
only please the groundlings.

Robert Ornstein provides an insight into the synthesis of the
comic and the tragic in Doctor Faustus : "Here is travesty of a high
order ! ...the mighty Faustus parodies his own highvaulting thoughts
and ambitions as Wagner and the Clown had parodied them earlier. Or
more correctly, as Faustus changes shape the tragic-comic contrast
begins to coalesce. Scene by scene the opposing images approach one
another until at last we discover beneath the exalted appearance of
the fearless rebel the figure of the fool. When, Faustus steals the
Pope's cup and Robin steals the Vintner's goblet the tragic and comic
images nearly merge. The difference between hero and clown is one of
degree, not of kind."

However, to equate the Clown's mocking about selling his soul
for a "mutton roast" with Faustus' epicureanism would be stretching
the point too far even though Faustus does spend, his last days in
"belly-cheer" carousing with his students. What .integrates the comic
scenes depicting Faustus' buffoonery with the tragic parts ultimately,
I believe, is Faustus' own "'consciousness" that he has been cheated
of a great time of his life by the Devil; that he had sought to be a
superman overreaching the Devil but he has been befooled.

Faustus does not find these flaws beyond defence and traces
the degeneration and drooping of spirits that sets in, within the
comic section also. He is aware of his tragic dimension as well as
comic or foolish aspects of his-failed venture. According to Steane,
these middle scenes, "illustrate the growing emptiness of the way of
life Faustus has chosen." The wonder in Faustus' European travel, his
enjoyment in the Vatican at the cost of the Pope "degeneiate" in the
scenes with the Emperor, the fun being at its. lowest with the Horse-
courser and without life in the Vanholt scenes.

87

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

The play would have stopped at this point, so far as the
tragic part is concerned, had Faustus, the Good Angel, and Marlowe
himself shared Lucifer’s opinion as to the irrevocability of the
compact. But there is still hope in the Good Angels comforting.

“Fastus repent, yet God will pity thee”. [II, ii, 12]

The appearance of the Seven Deadly Sins-in Scene is also

meant to serve as a comic relief. The scene all along is in a

serious tone. But Marlowe was keen on deversifying the serious

element by bringing in comic scenes.

Such as the one where he where he expresses his contempt for
the papal dignitaries and the churchmen. He makes Faustus play
tricks on them and tries to evoke amusement. This scene is rather an
expression of the satirical vein in Marlowe's mind. Such a spirit of
satire was fostered by the Renaissance, which had liberated the minds
of people, exposed the shams and hypocrisy of the priests, and
enabled them to attack them. The portrayal of the realistic characters
in Ralph and Robin is, however, significant. Another comic scene;
where Faustus tracts the horse-courser. The pulling off of the leg of
Faustus and other such incidents supply very cheap jokes. They can
only please the groundlings.

4.7 LET US SUM UP

Marlowe has been justly called, “the father of The.. English
Drama’, “The Morning star...of the English Drama”, for he marks the
end of the first period in the history of drama, and the beginning of
the second over which he presides. His advent marks the end of
medieval drama and the birth of the great Renaissance plays. He did a
wonderful job for the development of English Drama. No wonder his
contributions were great.

4.8 LESSON – END ACTIVITIES:
1. Write an essay on Dr. Faustus as a Renaissance Play.
2. What is the significance of the Comic episodes in Dr. Faustus?
3. Comment on the last scene of Dr. Faustus.

88

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

4.9 REFERENCES

Marlowe, Christopher Doctor Faustus. Ed. Roma Gill et al., London
: Ernest Benn Ltd., 1965 rpt., 1967

Baugh, Albert C. ed. A Literary History of England Vol. II. London :
Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1967.

Farnham, Willard. ed. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Doctor
Faustus. London: Prentice – Hall, 1969.

Jump, John D. ed. Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe. New Delhi
: B.I. Publications. 1975.

Gill, Roma Doctor Faustus, London Ernest Bean Limited, 1965.

Legouis, Emile et. al., A History of English Literature. London :
J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1926 rpt., 1965.

Sharma, J.K. Christopher Marlowe. Doctor Faustus : A Criticism.
New Delhi: Sterling Publications Private Ltd.,
1985.

89

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

LESSON - 5

JOHN DRYDEN

All FOR LOVE

Contents

5.0 Aims and Objectives
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Dryden’s Life & Works.
5.3 Plot-Construction In “All For Love”
5.4 Theme
5.5 Mark Antony
5.6 Cleopatra
5.7 Octavia
5.8 Ventidius
5.9 Dolabella
5.10 Alexas
5.11 Style And Technique

5.12 Features of Heroic Play

5.13 All For Love as a Herioc Play
5.14 High Tragedy
5.15 Shakespeare and Dryden
5.16 Let Us Sum Up
5.17 Lesson-End Activities
5.18 References

5.0 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

This lesson is devoted for detailing all things about the “All
for Love”; a classical work of John Dryden.

5.1 Introduction

The change from the romantic to the classical manner was

already in evidence before Dryden was born. Dryden saw which way

the literary wind was blowing, and set his craft cheerfully in the

same direction. He gauged its possibilities and did brilliant

things. He saw what kind of verse the people of his day wanted, and

made it his business to give it them. It is quite clear from a study

of his plays, how surely he was developing the qualities of ease,

flexibility, and lucidity that he brought into English verse,

particularly the satire. Then, at the age of fifty, after a

90

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

prosperous career as a serious poet, and a dramatist, he suddenly
became famous in the direction, where, after all, lies his especial
claim on future generations, the field of satire.

5.2 Dryden’s Life & Works.

Born in 1631, in the little village of Aldwinkle in

Northamptonshire, John was the son of its rector, the Rev. Erasmus

Dryden, and Mary Pickering his wife, both of whom belonged to old

county families with strong Puritan tendencies. There is

scant record of his boyhood ; his early schooling appears to have

been more solid than that usually imparted in country villages, for

in writing to a friend a few years before his death he speaks of the

pleasure with which he had read an English translation of the works

of the Greek historian Polybius “ before he was ten years of age,”

and that “ even then he had some dark notions of the prudence with

which he wrote. Essay on Dramatic Poetry.

Trinity College, Cambridge, has the honour of being his Alma
Mater, which he entered in 1650, but two years later came into
conflict with the Vice-Master for “ disobedience and contumacy in
taking his punishment “—of the form of punishment we are left in
ignorance. At Cambridge he also wrote some not very memorable verse.

On leaving Cambridge in 1657, he came to London as secretary to
Sir Gilbert Pickering, a kinsman of his mother’s and chamberlain to
Oliver Cromwell, and we may imagine the young man was glad of the
opportunity of adding somewhat to the small in-come of £40 a year
which came to him on the death of his father three years before. His
marriage in 1664 to Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the Earl of
Berkshire, brought another £100 a year to the family exchequer, but
not a corresponding amount of happiness, the Lady Elizabeth lacking
that strong and purposeful character so character-istic of her
husband.

Up to this time Dryden had done little to establish the great
reputation that was subsequently to be bis. He had written some
purely official verses in 1659, on the death of the Protector, which
contrast oddly with his eulogy of Charles the Second on his
coronation, in Astrcea Redux, the following year. His best efforts
are shown unmistakably in hia early verses addressed to Dr. Charlton
in 1663.

91

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

The Wild Gallant (1663), The Rival Ladies (1664) Mac-

Flecknoe, 1682 and Absalom and Achitophel are some of his works.

Dryden’s literary significance is threefold, and is expressed in his

prose, his dramas, and his verse. In this section we are dealing

exclusively with Dryden the poet.

5.3 PLOT-CONSTRUCTION IN “ALL FOR LOVE”

In All for Love the scene is laid in Alexandria and does not
shift elsewhere ; the action does not go beyond a single day. Within
such limits he has to develop the theme of the play. The theme is a
contest between love and honour in Antony. The preliminary talk of
Serapion and Alexas in the opening scene forms the exposition.

Antony is the theme of the conversation in the opening scene.
The portents and prodigies to which Serapion refers seem to
foreshadow the future developments which can only be disastrous to
Antony. The Roman army is stationed in Alexandria, to be in action at
any moment. It is a threat to Egypt. Antony has betaken, himself to
the temple of Isis, and is a prey to black despair, and seems t o b e
shunning Cleopatra. With the presence of the Roman army in Alexandria
and the seeming concurrence of Antony in the situation, since there
is no activity on his part, there is immediate danger to Egypt—it may
be converted into a Roman province any day.

Octavia, Antony’s wife, is trying to seek revenge, and Dolabella,
once his friend, bent on accomplishing Antony’s ruin. Alexas asserts
that Cleopatra still dotes on Antony, when she could saved herself
and her kingdom by discarding Antony, and seems to be very much
worried about the state of things. It appears as though nothing could
be done to shape the destiny of Egypt. So, all the information that
is needed to follow the action of the play is supplied in the opening
dialogues.

Ventidius is introduced as the man who has a strong hold upon
Antony. Though Antony will receive no visitor, Ventidius presents

92

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

himself before him. Ventidius proceed very cautiously and tactfully,
reproaching him for his passive submission and indolence. He offers
him the services of twelve legions so that he may fight again to
recover his position. None but Ventidius could have handled him.
Antony realizes that he has degraded himself by his sensual love for
Cleopatra, and Ventidius is pleased to hear that he is even willing
to leave Cleopatra. The sooner he does it the better. It is not yet
too late to retrieve the position.

The first Act opens with the dialogue between Serapion and
Alexas, who prepare the audience for the future action of the play.
The action of the play is confined to a single day and focuses on
Antony who has sunk into despair, to rouse himself and fight his
enemy at the door. Ventidius, Antony’s general, is brought in without
delay into the presence of Antony; it is now only Ventidius who can
draw him out of his inaction, and rescue him from his enslavement to
dishonourable love.

Alexas informs Cleopatra that Antony will have nothing more to do
with her, but is going to fight and not even see her again. She is
naturally upset. Losing Antony and i s t h e greatest calamity to her.
She is reproached by Alexas for her weak passion which is unbecoming
of a queen. And she replies that she is no queen when she is besieged
by the Roman Army, and when her country may be reduced to slavery at
any moment.

Absents weighs most heavily upon her. She is most unhappy because
Antony would not see her again. Charmion whom she sends to Antony,
returns to tell her that Antony is in the midst of his soldiers, and
that he received her though Ventidius frowned at it, and that Antony
would not rather see her if he could, and sends his respects to her.
Alexas, Cleopatra’s adviser, Alexas next brings Antony a message from
Cleopatra. It is an appeal to Antony’s men to stand by him and

93

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

protect him from all dangers ; and with the message comes the gift of
a bracelet for Antony. Ventidius is unable to check Antony.

Alexas now sends an attendant to bring in Cleopatra. Antony when
he sees Cleopatra again, remarks that hard fates are separating them.
He charges her with having been obsessed with Caesar, while she was
in love with him ; and reproaches himself for having wasted his time
in lascivious love for her, for his infatuation for the raising of
war by his wife, Fulvia, in Italy, and her subsequent death. He
regrets his marrying Octavia to gain the friendship of Octavius and
his repudiation of her for the sake of Cleopatra, his defeat at the
battle of Actium at sea, for which he holds her mainly responsible,
as she advised him to fight at sea while he wanted to fight by land.

In fact, Antony blames Cleopatra for all that has happened in his
life since his association with her Cleopatra replies to all these
charges in effective and unambiguous, and at last produces a letter
from Octavius, in which she is offered Egypt as well as Syria if she
supports him. She has refused a kingdom for him; but that is not
much. She will readily part with her life for him. Antony makes a
complete surrender to Cleopatra:

“Give, your gods, Give to your boy, your Caesar, This rattle of a
globe to play, withal, This gewgaw world, and put him cheaply off.
I’ll not be pleased with less than Cleopatra.”

In the contest between love and honour, love routs honour. In the
first Act when Ventidius argues with Antony, honour prevailes against
love. To quote :

Our men armed: Unbar the gate that looks to Caesar’s camp: I
would revenge the treachery he meant me.

At this stage, in him there is a conflict between l o v e a n d
honour. He explores if he can uphold his honour and redeem himself

94

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

from degradation to which he has sunk by his infatuated and
illegitimate’love for Cleopatra.

The third Act introduces the celebration of Antony’s victory over
the forces of Octavius. He is aware of the fact that Octavious will
try his best to bring about his ruin and destruction. Ventidius is
sure that Antony cannot redeem his position until he extricates
himself from Cleopatra, so he brings in Dolabella. Antony still
remembers Dolabella as estranged from him because he has betrayed his
passion for Cleopatro. But he esteems him as his friend. Ventidius
firmly believes that with the help of Dolabella he will be able to
wean Antony away from the sinister influence of Cleopatra.

Ventidius conceives, that there is no other way of saving Antony
and restoring his honour which he has so miserably jeopardized by his
surrender to the voluptuous love of Cleopatra.

According to Dolabella, Antony betrays his sense of shame at his
self-degradation, but he would deprecate any charge being made
against the Queen (Cleopatra). One of the charges being that she had
anything to do with the death of Dolabella’s brother. Antony refers
to Dolabella being smitten with love for Cleopatra. Dclabella
reiterates that Antony’s infatuation has cost him his legions, his
honour and half the world he once ruled. He hints also that
honourable terms have been settled for him with Octavius. This is
f o l l o w e d b y Ventidius bringing in Octavia and her two little
daughters.

So it is Octavia who has settled honourable terms to restore the
honour of Antony. She convinces Antony that by the terms agreed upon,
his honour remains unimpeached and his freedom remains unconditional,
that he is even free to abandon his wedded wife Octavia. Octavia
tells him that all that her brother seeks is Antony’s friendship, and
.that if he likes, he may discard her, and she will not complain.

95

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

Antony has no scruples about accepting that offer, when it seems to
be dictated by Octavia’s duty, and not love as she does not mind
being dropped by Antony if he is so inclined. Antony is not willing
to be obliged to Octavia who does not love him.

Octavia offers, her duty inspite of being injured and denied
love. She says,

Therefore, my lord,
I should not love you, and adds, And therefore I should leave
you, if I could.
As result of a conflict in Antony, he is more than half inclined
to yield to Octavia. He is torn between Cleopatra and Octavia. For
his heart is overwhelmed with pity for both of them. Antony has a
sorely distracted mind. At last, he cries out:
I am vanquished: take me,
Olivia, take me, children: share me well.
I’ve been a thriftless debtor to your loves,
And run out much, in riot, from your stock:
But all shall be amended.

This leads to the climax of the play.

In the following interview between Cleopatra and Octavia in Act
three, Cleopatra claims that her beauty attracted Antony who must
have come to her after having grown weary of dull, tame domesticity.

Octavia asserts that she is model of a virtuous modest wife set
against the lasciviousness of a mistress. Cleopatra replies that she
has no reason to be ashamed of charms that may please the bravest
man, and claims that she loves Antony better, and deserves him more.
And Octavia censures her for having been his ruin, and made him
scorned abroad, and betrayed him at Actium. Cleopatra’s reply is:

Yet she, who loves him best, is Cleopatra.

If you have suffered, I have suffered more. And she has lost her
honour, degraded her royal house—all to bear the branded name of

96

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

mistress. Cleopatra puts up her ptea as strongly as Octavia.

In the fourth Act Antony, instead of making his farewell to
Cleopatra personally, sends Dolabella to do it for him. Alexas who
bears a hand in all the affairs of Cleopatra, now sees that Cleopatra
is going to lose Antony, suggests a plan to her. While Dolabella
comes to say farewell to her on behalf of Antony, she should rekindle
love in him who has a weakness’ for her, and thus she can win back
Antony by rousing his jealousy. To this plan, Cleopatra agrees rather
reluctantly. With a hint of encouragement from Cleopatra, Dolabella
pours out his passion for her, and rather overdoes his part in
misreporting Antony’s callous cruelty to her, and Cleopatra is very
much upset. Then Dolabella goes down on his knees and recants, and
speaks fairly of Antony and his attitude to her. He confesses:

I, traitor as I was, for love of you.
(But what can you not do, who made me false ?)
I forged that lie, for whose forgiveness kneels
This self-accused, self-punished criminal.

Then he takes her hand—and it is all the reward he claims for the
service he is going to render her. The scene is watched by Ventidius
and Octavia. Ventidius misinterprets it to Octavia, as an exchange of
love between Dolabella and Cleopatra.

This is reported to Antony who will not at first believe it. When
Alexas turns up, Ventidius catches hold of him, and tells him that he
overheard Cleopatra making love to Dolabella and demands of him
Alexas that he must not conceal the truth. Alexas’s confession is
rather ambiguous. He first defends Cleopatra’s love for Antony, for
when her beauty has attracted kings from far and near, she had chosen
a Roman for’her love, and that Roman is Antony. Then he points out
that due regard of honour now disposes her to renounce her claim for
Octavia, though her heart may not have wholly altered. Then he
defends his mistress if she were to turn her love to Dolabella.

97

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

Antony bursts out in his passion when he hears this, and Octavia
chafes within “for this extreme concernment for an abandoned,
faithless prostitute.” Antony bids •Octavia to leave him. Octavia
retorts:

Wherein have I offended you, my lord,
That I am bid to leave you ? Am I false,
Or infamous ? Am I a Cleopatra ?
Were I she,
Base as she is, you would not bid me leave you:
But hang upon my neck, take slight excuses,
And fawn upon my falsehood.

Now it appears that Octavia grows as jealous of Cleopatra as
Antony of Dolabella. This is followed by the final break-off between
Octavia and Antony. She leaves him never to return. She refuses to
have a share in him with Cleopatra. Her last words are:

So, take my last farwell, for I despair
To have you whole, and scorn to take your half.

This is again the end of Ventidius’s hope ever to rescue Antony
from his enslavement to Cleopatra. And this works the anticlimax.

Antony seems to be bemused by jealousy. The frankness and
sincerity of both Dolabella and Cleopatra has no effect on Antony.
Dolabella confesses that to his loving Cleopatra is a sin in him, but
avows Cleopatra’s innocence, and Cleopatra confesses her inciting in
Dolabella to win back Antony’s love.

It is for Antony a farewell to love and friendship, and he cannot
forgive them while he can forgive a foe. In this scene in which
Antony dismisses his mistress and his friend, he shows himself at his
worst, while Cleopatra shows herself at her best. Antony feels like
relenting for a moment, but honour, he thinks now, triumphs: “I have

98

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

a fool within me takes my part; But honour stops my e a r s . ” I t i s
jealousy that blinds him, when honour is out of question.

The fifth Act, o p e n s w i t h Cleopatra, Charmion and Iras, soon
joined by Alexas. Cleopatra curses herself, for doting on him, Antony
which she cannot rid herself of even now. She brings out her dagger
to kill herself but she is restrained. But she can, as she tells
them, die inward, and her soul seems to struggle with all the agonies
of love and rage. Then seeing Alexas she vents her wrath upon him. He
diverted her from the path of plain and open love—and the result is
her banishment and the removal of Octavia. She makes Alexas
responsible for the calamity that has come upon her. Alexas still
flatters her with hopes of winning back Antony’s love when Octavia is
gone and Dolabella is banished, for jealousy with which he is now
visited is the secret nourisher of love. He reports an engagement
between the Egyptian fleet and Octavius’s which Antony has been
watching at the moment.

Serapion now enters and delivers the news that the Egyptian fleet
has gone over to the enemy, and that Antony cannot but think that he
has been betrayed, and warns Cleopatra to keep out of his way. Alexas
offers to go to Caesar, and negotiate her safety. Clelopatra spurns
this offer for it would be but betraying Antony. She would now listen
to Serapion and not to Alexas. They leave Alexas, and he is anxious
now to save his own life, and to think no more of Cleopatra or Egypt.

Antony questions Alexas who tells him that Cleopatra had nothing
to do with the desertion of the Egyptian fleet and that she had
retired to her monument, and killed herself. Now, Antony fully
believes in her innocence.

Ventidius again urging him to fight, is of no avail. Antony
replies that when his queen is dead and that he has valued his power
and empire for her. Now that she is dead, let Octavius take the

99

This watermark does not appear in the registered version - http://www.clicktoconvert.com

world. Rather than be captured by Octavius. Antony desires to die
like a Roman, ie., kill himself. Ventidius offers to follow him to
death. Antony desires him to live after him, and report him fairly,
and then suggests that he would better kill him and recommend himself
to Octavius by the merit of this act. Ventidius is hurt by this
proposal At last the pact is made that he should kill Antony first
and then himself. But Ventidius plunges the sword into himself. He
prefers to die perjured rather than kill his friend. Antony next
throws himself upon his sword, but it misses his heart. Fortune seems
to have let him down.

At this moment Cleopatra enters, followed by Charmion and Iras.
There is a mutual understanding now. The dying Antony is placed in a
chair ; he has but few moments to live, and he is comforted when she
tells him that her fleet betrayed him and her; and that she is going
to die with him. He seals his love for her with a dying kiss. Now she
claims to be his wife, and she loved a Roman, and she is going to die
like the wife of a Roman. She will not submit to Octavius to grace
his triumph in Rome. She first crowns Antony’s head with a laurel
wreath and then she decks herself in her jewels like a bride, and
sits beside him ; then she puts the asp on her arm, and death slowly
creeps upon her.

Next it is the turn for Iras and Charmion to die by the bite of
the asp. Then enter Serapion, two priests, Alexas in chains and
Egyptians, and they behold the tragic scene—the lovers sitting in
state together, a smile still flickering on the lips of Cleopatra.
Serapion pays them this tribute:

And fame to late posterity shall tell,
No lovers lived so great, or died so well.
The last line of the play is:
No lovers lived so great, or died so well.

5.4 THEME

100