God, Satan, and King Charles: Milton's Royal Portraits

Author(s): Joan S. Bennett

Source: PMLA, Vol. 92, No. 3 (May, 1977), pp. 441-457
Published by: Modern Language Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/461707
Accessed: 22-03-2016 22:48 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Modern Language Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to PMLA.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Tue, 22 Mar 2016 22:48:44 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 JOAN S. BENNETT

God, Satan, and King Charles: Milton's Royal Portraits

M ILTON'S CONCEPTION, in Paradise ture Charles as a Christlike martyr-king. Con-

cerned to counteract the great popular impact of

Lost, of the fall of Lucifer has always

the Eikon, Milton recognized that what moved

been recognized as political in nature.

the people in the royalist work was not any

Because of Milton's twenty years' service to the

power of logical argument or historical ac-

English revolutionary cause, readers of his poems

have sought to understand what relationship curacy but a fictional character with an emo-

Milton saw between human and demonic revolu- tional rhetorical appeal. Milton suggests this fact

tion and rule, and what aspects of the prose when he pauses at one point in Eikonoklastes to

career were shared by the poetic. Romantic at- respond to the Eikon's style:

tempts to link Milton's God with Charles I as

The Simily wherwith he begins I was about to have

monarchs and Satan with Cromwell and Milton

found fault with, as in a garb somwhat more Poeti-

as revolutionaries1 are now generally recognized

cal then for a Statist: but meeting with many straines

as having been mistaken. Merritt Hughes, in his

of like dress in other of his Essaies, and hearing him

edition of Paradise Lost and in his article "Satan

reported a more diligent reader of Poets, then of

and the 'Myth' of the Tyrant,"2 pointed out the

Politicians, I begun to think that the whole Book

many allusions in the poem that associate Satan,

might perhaps be intended a peece of Poetrie. The

not with revolutionaries, but with the notorious

words are good, the fiction smooth and cleanly.4

tyrannical rulers of human history. Hughes was

Accordingly, to answer the Eikon's interpreta-

wary of making a comparison between King

tion of the king's role in the civil war, Milton

Charles and Satan because of the danger of

drew his own character study of the king, based

turning Paradise Lost into a roman a clef. While

on this historical plot; not, indeed, as a Christian

it is true, however, that Paradise Lost is no poli-

martyr, but as a tyrant and usurper of divine

tical allegory, Charles was the tyrant with whose

authority. This task required that-unlike Eikon

ways Milton was most familiar, whose actions

Alethine, the other well-known parliamentary

and motivations he had devoted crucial years to

answer to the King's Book5-Milton's reply

depicting and analyzing. In the following essay,

regard Charles as the Eikon's real author and

I would like to demonstrate the consistency that

that, unlike the parliamentary historians from

exists between Milton's interpretation of the

whom he drew his factual information, Milton

monarchy of Charles i and his portrayal of the

assign full responsibility for all the royalist ac-

tyranny of Satan. Because the prose and poetry

tions to the king himself.

are both informed by the same political vision

and by the same dramatic imagination, we can, George W. Whiting notices the different stress

in the treatments by Milton and the parliamen-

without seeking allegorical keys to literal history,

find in the prose works a valuable literary gloss tary historian Thomas May of responsibility for

on the poetry. the events of the war. Typical are the contrasting

It is important to realize, first of all, the extent discussions of the royalist plot to free the Earl of

to which the King Charles of the prose pam- Strafford, condemned by Parliament for treason,

phlets was Milton's own literary creation. The from the Tower of London and then to invade

tract in which Milton began Charles's character England with a French and Irish army. Whereas

development in a sustained way is Eikonoklas- May's History goes at length into all the con-

tes.3 It was Milton's answer to the royalist spirators' roles, Milton's treats the plot as the

Eikon Basilike, a publication appearing shortly king's. The king, Milton says, was "soon after

after Charles's execution that attempted to pic- found to have the chief hand in a most detested

441

This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Tue, 22 Mar 2016 22:48:44 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 442
God, Satan, and King Charles: Milton's Royal Portraits

conspiracy against the Parlament and Kingdom seventeenth-century royalists argued that the

... that his intention was to rescue the Earle of

English king was a representative of God's

Strafford, by seizing on the Towre of London." power, Milton argued that the man Charles was,

Compare May's description, which begins in the

like Satan, a usurper of that power. The com-

passive voice-"For to prevent the Earle of

parison occurs, for example, when Milton criti-

Strafjords death, an escape for him out of the

cizes Charles's violations of religious liberty:

Tower was contrived. To further which . . . a

"He [King Charles] calls the conscience Gods

great conspiracy was entred into by many Gen-

sovrantie, why then doth he contest with God

tlemen of ranke and quality,"-and which goes

about that supreme title . . . usurping over spir-

at length into all the conspirators' roles, saying

itual things, as Lucifer beyond his sphere"

of the king's role only that he was "privy to this

(Eikonoklastes, pp. 501-02). Though Charles

conspiracy," not that he directed it. May was

had not possessed the full strength of Satan, the

writing a general history; Milton was exposing a

king had been in Milton's view a servant of the

central character.6 And thus Milton explains in

arch-rebel. When a state is governed tyranni-

his Preface: "what is properly his own guilt, not

cally, Milton argued, "those in authority are

imputed any more to his evil Counsellors, (a

both human and fiendish." "Thus," he said, "the

Ceremony us'd longer by the Parlament then he

fiend is termed prince of this world; and in Rev-

himself desir'd) shall be laid heer without cir-

elation 13 the Dragon gave the beast his own

cumlocutions at his own dore" (p. 341).

dominion and throne and mighty power" (A De-

What we have, then, in Eikonoklastes, Mil-

fence, CPW, iv, Pt. i, 384). While the beast was

ton's "Idol-breaker," is a study of the true na-

not equal to the Dragon in magnitude or com-

ture of a character already, in Milton's view,

plexity, the imitator shared traits with his model;

fictionalized, either by the king himself or by a

and a tyrant like Charles was for Milton literally

royalist author, for the purpose of carrying on a

an imitator and servant of the devil. Thus we

real tyranny in life. But to tackle the problem in

should not be surprised to find parallels between

this way was to write another fiction; not, to be

Milton's prose treatment of Charles and his

sure, to tell a lie-the "plot" in each account

poetic portrait of Satan. Just as Milton turned

was literally true-but to reveal the leading

the literal devil into a literary character, so also

character's nature in a depth that could be

did he subject the historical king to the power of

known only by his creator. Because Milton's

his artist's imagination. It is my contention that

treatment of Charles as a fictional character

an understanding of the parallels between the

originates in the confines of pamphlet debates

tyrants of prose and poetry can sharpen our per-

that require answering one's opponent point by

ception of the appropriateness of certain details

point, it occurs in pieces as a sketch containing

in the poem-in imagery and in characterization

some direct dramatization and considerable ab-

-and that it can further illuminate Milton's

stract analysis. Though the character study is

thematic conception of true political liberty in

not sustainedly worked out, it achieves moments

the archetypal revolutions that the poem drama-

of depth, very valuable as answers to what was

tizes. The two following sections of this paper

for Milton, if not for his political colleagues, a

treat these two areas of comparison.

question at the core of the controversies: Who is

a tyrant? What motivates him? confuses him?

II

perverts him? strengthens him? gives him his

power over others? Developed in Eikonoklastes,

In his portraits of both Satan and Charles,

the sketch that answers these questions is ex-

Milton uses imagery to reveal and comment on

tended in Milton's Defences of the English Peo-

aspects of their characters. One such image, pos-

ple; and these prose works provide an illuminat-

sessing complex and powerful associations for

ing gloss on the role of Satan and of tyranny in

the character of a ruler, is the sun. The sun has a

Milton's poem.

specific and controversial symbolism in seven-

The fundamental similarity between Charles

teenth-century political writing. Believers in the

and Satan is to be understood by an analysis of

divine right of kings argued by analogy from the

their claims to a divine right to power. Whereas

chain of being that, as one God rules absolutely

This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Tue, 22 Mar 2016 22:48:44 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Joan S. Bennett 443

or such like, could swell up Caligula to think him-

over heaven, one father over a family, and one

self a God. (p. 467)

sun over the planets, so one king should rule

absolutely over England.7 Milton, however, ex-

In response to the king's attempted use of the

plaining that the royalists were employing a false

royalist sun symbol to claim that there will fol-

analogy, argued from the same chain of being,

low for the people "much horror and bad influ-

but by a more complex logic, as follows: The

ence after his [own] ecclips," Milton assigns the

right to exercise power, he said, belongs to those

sun a different meaning, one that removes from

whom nature has given power to exercise. God,

Charles's character a false symbolic prop and

since he created and sustains the universe, natu-

that judges him:

rally has power over it; the sun by its nature

He speakes his wishes: But they who by weighing

imparts life-giving influence on the earth and so

prudently things past, foresee things to come, the

naturally controls her fertility; nature has given

best Divination, may hope rather all good success

a father power to beget sons. But no one man

and happiness by removing that darkness which the

can create or has been created as essential to the

mistie cloud of his prerogative made between us

life of all other men; and a king does not have

and a peacefull Reformation, which is our true Sun

the power to create his subjects. In fact, just the

light, and not he, though he would be tak'n for

opposite occurs: The people, by virtue of the

our sun it self. (p. 455)

power of self-government in creatures made ra-

And when the Eikon's Charles envisions his fu-

tional in God's image, together create a governor

ture glory, foreseeing "much honour and reputa-

whose power is lent him as custodian of the law,

tion that like the Sun shall rise and recover it self
not inherent in his person or absolute, a gov-

to such a Splendour," Milton insists that "those

ernor who is the people's servant and natural

black vailes of his own misdeeds" will "keep his

inferior-natural according to the true and logi-

face from shining" (p. 502).

cal operation of the chain of being.8

Holding in mind Milton's prose use of the

When the king, then, claimed divine right, he

sun's political significance to reveal the tyranni-

was, in Milton's view, claiming absurdly to

cal character of Charles, his mania for power,

break the chain of being itself, to act as only one

and his warped analogical reasoning, we may

with divine perfection could, to think himself

turn to Book I of Paradise Lost, where the fallen

God. Thus, when the Eikon Basilike had Charles

Satan is described as an eclipsed sun in a simile

compare his royal prerogative to the sun's light,

that refers us to the fate of earthly rulers. Satan

Milton drew the analogy out ad absurdum to

stands before his troops, "As when the Sun . . .

point out the overwhelming egotism of the man

from behind the Moon / In dim Eclipse disas-

whose reasoning about his prerogative could be

trous twilight sheds / On half the Nations, and

led so far astray by his desire for power: If

with fear of change / Perplexes Monarchs" (11.

Charles were, as the Eikon claimed, the sun and

594-99). Charles n's censor, presumably read-

father, and Parliament, his coruler, were the

ing the poem with the royalist king/sun sym-

earth receiving his influence, then this mixture of

bolism in mind, is said to have taken these lines

metaphors would have to be reconciled with

as a threat to the new king, veiled in the tradi-

Parliament's genuine role as the king's mother,

tional interpretation of an eclipse by monarchs

since the people, whom she represents, out of

who think of themselves as ruling on earth as the

their own inherent power of self-government

create the king: sun rules the heavens. However, the political

references to the sun that Milton provides in

And if it hath bin anciently interpreted the presag-

the poem actually develop a concept of govern-

ing signe of a future Tyrant, but to dream of copul-

ment's relationship to the chain of being that is

ation with his Mother, what can it be less then

more literal and logical than the simple cor-

actual Tyranny to affirme waking, that the Parla-

respondence assumed by seventeenth-century

ment, which is his Mother, can neither conceive or

royalists and by Milton's Charles and his Satan.

bring forth any autoritative Act without his Mas-

In Book ii, lines 488-95, Milton again com-

culine coition: Nay that his reason is as Celestial

pares Satan to the sun, this time the setting sun,

and life-giving to the Parlament, as the Suns influ-

ence is to the Earth: What other notions but these, which gives temporary, but "false presumptuous

This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Tue, 22 Mar 2016 22:48:44 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 444 God, Satan, and King Charles: Milton's Royal Portraits

his, and then claiming an analogous power for

hope" (1. 521). In Book III, after Satan has con-

firmed his intention never to submit to the rule his human rule over earth, Adam's right reason-

of God, Milton abandons the traditional analogy ing about his own role as God's creature leads

entirely and describes Satan as a spot or blemish him to recognize the sun for what it literally is:

on the surface of the literal sun (11. 588-90). the creation of a divine ruler, the vehicle for

Thus, in the first three books, Milton leads us light created and given by God, who, as source

away from a false analogy between the physical of all, is the only holder of "sole Dominion":

power of the sun and the governing power of a

Thou Sun, of this great World both Eye and

rational creature: A false ruler, he implies, can

Soul,

be compared (like the Charles of Eikonoklas-

Acknowledge him thy Greater, sound his

tes) to a sun that fails to shine with the light

praise

given it; but a true ruler is genuinely comparable

In thy eternal course, both when thou

to the slhining sun only if he does not claim abso- climb'st,

And when high Noon hast gain'd, and when

lute power (the claim of "prerogative" is what

thou fall'st.

darkens the sun)-just as the literal sun has no

absolute power over earth apart from its physi-

... resound

cal light. The ruler's "light," like the sun's,

His praise, who out of Darkness call'd up

comes from God, whose vehicle he is; and the

Light. (v.171-79)

light originates not in the personal character of

the ruler but in God's law and spirit (in "a

In this passage, Adam's words "Acknowledge

peacefull Reformation"). Once we are aware of

him thy Greater . . . when thou climb'st" as well

the use Milton made of the controversial sun

as "when thou fall'st" may be read as the poem's

symbolism in his prose sketch of Charles, we can

actual political admonition, based on a true

recognize an invitation from the poet for us to

analogy between the sun and a human ruler. It is

compare the fallen Satan's and the unfallen

a comparison that fundamentally undermines, as

Adam's addresses to the sun in Books iv and v.

the censor feared, the Stuart claim to rule-not

As Lucifer in heaven, while he kept God's

by threatening to revive the civil war, but by

law, Satan had shone as the brightest star,

denying the validity of the doctrine of the divine

crowned with "surpassing Glory." When he de-

right of kings.

fied divine law, which his personal abilities were

Turning now from metaphor to characteriza-

created to execute, and claimed instead a right

tion, we may inquire what Milton saw in the

to "sole Dominion," Satan removed the grounds

makeup of a ruler that leads the ruler to claim

for a genuine sun/ruler analogy and substituted

the right to absolute power. In the portraits of

instead Charles's royalist basis for comparison,

both Charles and Satan, we may discover behind

in which the ruler is like a god. In his confes-

the false idea of a governor a corrupted idea of

sion of despair at the beginning of Book iv,

heroism: The power gotten by such a hero, who

Satan cannot remove the royalist analogy from

seeks personal glory rather than service to God,

his tortured mind, even when he is forced by his

is employed, once it has been gained, in a wrong

defeat to recognize that he himself can no longer

sort of rule over others. Four prose passages in

stand as the object of even this comparison:

which Milton exposes the false heroism of King

Charles serve as commentary on this issue in

0 thou that with surpassing Glory crown'd,

Paradise Lost, where Satan's false heroism,

Look'st from thy sole Dominion like the God

Of this new World; at whose sight all the Stars rightly understood, is, like Charles's, criminality.

Hide thir diminisht heads . . .

What gives the appearance of courage is really

a "hardened heart"; it is the despair resulting

... I hate thy beams

from a total commitment to ambition, from a

That bring to my remembrance from what

perversion of God-given strength to self-service.

state

Thus, although deeds of great daring are under-

I fell. . . . (11. 32-39)

taken, it is ambition and then despair, but never

By contrast, instead of attributing absolute

courage, that overcome the fear attending risk.

power to the sun in its realm, "like the God" in

The resulting appearance of heroism, however,

This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Tue, 22 Mar 2016 22:48:44 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Joan S. Bennett 445

can easily deceive an unwary judge of character, angels; and in fact the issue comes full circle as

as in Book I of Paradise Lost. the poem, speaking of Satan's bravery, refers us

There, recognizing that Satan after his fall back to the world of men:

from heaven is in a state of spiritual death (see

for neither do the Spirits damn'd

Milton's definition in the Christian Doctrine,

Lose all thir virtue; lest bad men should boast

CPW, iv, 393-98, of the first two degrees of

Thir specious deeds on earth, which glory ex-

death), we can sharpen our awareness of Satan's

cites,

spiritual state by comparing his rousing of his

Or close ambition varnisht o'er with zeal.

troops, often admired by readers of Paradise

(II.482-85)

Lost, with the following discussion of Charles's

The sin-based courage that supplies the

behavior, also admired, at his trial and execu-

strength for the aspiring tyrant's "specious

tion. For both Satan and Charles, when they

deeds" in battle has a counterpart in his be-

faced judgment and death at the hands of their

havior in defeat. The coin of false heroism that

enemies, a true courage should result in confes-

has on the one side the indomitable warrior has

sion and repentance. What Milton portrays in

on its other side the equally dangerous power-

each, however, is a false courage which results

seeking image of the great sufferer. "The mind

in the donning of a self-righteous dramatic

and spirit remains / Invincible" (I.139-40) was

mask. Milton interprets the psychology of the

Beelzebub's response to Satan's vaunt "What

king's fake courage in this passage from A De-

though the field be lost? / All is not lost: the

fence:

unconquerable Will, / And study of revenge,

immortal hate, / And courage never to submit or

Do not pay too much heed to that presence of mind

so often manifested by the commonest criminals at yield" (i.105-08). The same had been boasted

their death; frequently desperation or a hardened

by the English royalists of their leader: "he had

heart gives, like a mask, an appearance of courage,

a soule invincible." Milton answered, however:

as dullness does of peace. In death as in life, even

But he had a soule invincible. What praise is that?

the worst of men wish to seem good, fearless, inno-

The stomach of a Child is ofttimes invincible to all

cent, or even holy, and, in the very hour of execu-

correction. The unteachable man hath a soule to all

tion for their crimes, they will, for the last time,

reason and good advice invincible; and he who is

display as showily as possible their fraudulent pre-

intractable, he whom nothing can perswade, may

tence, and, like the most tasteless of writers or

boast himself invincible; whenas in some things to

actors, strive madly for applause as the curtain

be overcome is more honest and laudable then to

falls. (CPW, iv, Pt. i, 508)

conquer. (Eikonoklastes, p. 434)

Like this disguised desperation at judgment,

Charles was, in Milton's portrait of him, the

such criminals' heroic mask in battle has been

projected not by a true courage ready for self- "unteachable man" and Satan the unteachable

angel (see Paradise Lost ii.9). And when

sacrifice but by ambition's deluded hopes for

Charles's defenders resorted to the other side of

personal glory. With this distinction between the

their hero's image to claim for him tragic stature,

appearance and the reality in mind, recall the

"acts of oblivion" of God in the war in heaven saying, "A glorious King he would be, though

by which the feats of war performed by the rebel by his sufferings" (Eikonoklastes, p. 435), Mil-

angels were not recorded; then consider the ex- ton offered a counter interpretation of Charles's

planation that such acts were done "to give the sufferings, which applies equally to Satan, who

World an example, that glorious deeds don to claims his right to rule by his willingness to en-

ambitious ends, find reward answerable, not to dure the "Greatest share / Of endless pain"

thir outward seeming, but to thir inward ambi- (n.29-30) and who must win "the high repute"

tion." The latter judgment refers actually to the "through hazard huge" (ii.472-73). The gen-

uine glory of a tragic sacrifice, Milton argued

case of the Hothams (father and son), who,

under great risk, betrayed the parliamentary against such claims, "can never be put to him

cause to the king, and were caught and executed whose sufferings are his own doings" (Eikon-

oklastes, p. 435).
by Parliament for treason (Eikonoklastes, pp.

429-30). But it applies readily to the ambitious The point becomes even clearer when we see

This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Tue, 22 Mar 2016 22:48:44 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 446
God, Satan, and King Charles: Milton's Royal Portraits

how each tyrant tries to use his own suffering, Busiris and his Memphian Chivalry,

While with perfidious hatred they pursu'd

the very punishment for his crimes, as proof not

The Sojourners of Goshen, who beheld

only of greatness but of innocence. Thus, when

From the safe shore thir floating Carcasses

Charles disclaimed guilt for the devastation

And broken Chariot Wheels; so thick

wrought by the Irish rebellion "because he hath

bestrown

the greatest share of loss and dishonour by what

Abject and lost lay these. (I.305-12)

is committed," Milton treated that fact as an

irony of the plot; far from proving Charles's

Seen with the eyes of truth, Satan and the fallen

innocence, he said, it proved only this about the

angels are abject and lost; but, guided by perfidi-

nature of evil-that it cannot stop, though it

ous hatred of that truth, they seek in hell and the

knows it will suffer:

newly created world the mastery they could not

gain in heaven.

Who is there that offends God or his Neighbour, on

The false core of both Milton's tyrants' seem-

whom the greatest share of loss and dishonour lights

not in the end? But in the act of doing evil, men ing bravery in battle and defeat reveals itself

use not to consider the event of thir evil doing: or

also in the covert means each will use in his

if they doe, have then no power to curb the sway

quest for power. This is the method of treachery

of thir own wickedness. So that the greatest share

and appears-like the false valor in battle-

of loss and dishonour to happ'n upon themselves,

disguised in a heroic mask as a kind of nobility

is no argument that they were not guilty.

designed to retain the loyalty and submission of

(Eikonoklastes, p. 478)

the tyrant's followers. Both Satan and Charles

The same evaluation of the criminal's suffering

move in their plan of attack "from violence to

underlies Gabriel's answer to Satan at the end of

craft." Satan, after his martial defeat in heaven,

Book iv, where the fallen angel-flaunting his

has Beelzebub propose the "easier enterprise" of

suffering in an effort to belittle the "inexperi-

corrupting the "puny habitants" of earth.

ence" of the loyal host-claims by having haz-

Charles praised his own action in seeking ne-

arded all, through ways of danger, to have been

gotiations after battle as "retiring from bestial

"a faithful leader":

force to human reason"; but Milton insisted, in

interpreting Charles's act and self-defense, that

0 sacred name of faithfulness profan'd!

"men may Treat like Beasts as well as fight" and

Faithful to whom? to thy rebellious crew?

that false negotiating "hath no more commenda-

Army of Fiends, fit body to fit head;

tion in it then from fighting to come to under-

Was this your discipline and faith ingag'd,

mining, from violence to craft, and when they

Your military obedience, to dissolve

can no longer doe as Lions, to doe as Foxes"

Allegiance to th' acknowledg'd Power supreme?

(Eikonoklastes, pp. 520-21). And, indeed, as

(iv.951-56)

Milton, creating a symbol from the imagery of

For a historical case parallel to Charles's,

the historical setting, went on to point out, after

Milton chose that, which he and other Puritans

Charles had promised for treaty's sake not to

often repeated, of Pharaoh, who for the pur-

advance farther,

ported welfare of his people persecuted the Is-

taking the advantage of a thick Mist, which fell

raelites, but in the end incurred for his people

that evening, weather that soon invited him to a

and himself the greatest suffering (Eikonoklas-

designe no less treacherous and obscure; he follows

tes, p. 516). In the language of Scripture, Mil-

at the heels of those Messengers of Peace with a

ton explained the psychology of sin: "But whom

traine of covert Warr. (Eikonoklastes, p. 522)

God hard'ns, them also he blinds." That Satan,

like Charles, calls down on himself his own suf-

"That perfidious mist" (p. 528) which in Mil-

fering is implied by the simile in Book I de-

ton's prose invited Charles to a scheme no less

scribing the fallen legions scattered afloat on the

treacherous and obscure than its own physical

burning lake, like sedge

nature has the same appropriateness in its use

for Satan's entry into the Garden of Eden. In

Afloat, when with fierce Winds Orion arm'd

Hath vext the Red-Sea Coast, whose waves Book ix we see him appear from the under-

o'erthrew
ground river "involv'd in rising Mist" (1. 75)

This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Tue, 22 Mar 2016 22:48:44 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Joan S. Bennett 447

and watch him search for the serpent "through selves from its influence. But does not this pas-

each Thicket Dank or Dry, / Like a black mist sage sound like a paraphrase of the passage in

low creeping" (11. 179-80). The mist in the Book x of Paradise Lost where Satan returns

poem is a symbolic and a literal cover for victorious from a fallen Eden to his "Deifying

hypocrisy as Satan tries to hide from the guard- friends" in hell? There the fallen angels gather

ian angels: with a great hunger for words of glory and ful-

fillment and are offered instead "Fruitage fair to

Of these the vigilance

sight, like that which grew / Near that bitumi-

I dread, and to elude, thus wrapt in mist

nous Lake where Sodom flam'd" (11. 561-62).

Of midnight vapor glide obscure.

The fruit replaces Satan's words, now hisses

(11. 157-59)

("shame / Cast on themselves from thir own

Perhaps he, like Charles, "thought that mist mouths," 11. 546-47), with their material equiva-

could hide him from the eye of Heav'n as well as lent: fruit beautiful in form, but rotten in sub-

stance. So, too, Milton describes Charles's fair-

of Man" (Eikonoklastes, p. 528).

Milton has both tyrants further reveal the sounding words as resembling the apples of

baseness and intensity of their real motive for Sodom: "These pious flourishes and colours

seeking power as they willingly degrade them- examin'd throughly, are like the Apples of

selves in order to defend their purported glory. Asphaltis, appearing goodly to the sudden eye,

Of Charles's abortive and humiliating attempt to but look well upon them, or at least but touch

surprise and arrest five members of the House of them, and they turne into Cinders" (Eikonoklas-

Commons, Milton explains, "it discover'd in him tes, p. 552).10

an excessive eagerness to be aveng'd on them Such resemblances as we have just noted in

that cross'd him; and that to have his will, he metaphor and characterization between Milton's

stood not to doe things never so much below portrayal of Charles and his portrayal of Satan

him" (Eikonoklastes, p. 379). Satan himself suggest that we should seek a comparison of the

understands this aspect of his own psychology two characters on the fundamental thematic

when he acknowledges to himself the baseness issue of their beliefs about the governing power

of his attack on man: "But what will not Ambi- they seek. What, then, does Milton reveal to be

tion and Revenge / Descend to?" (ix.168-69). the philosophical fault underlying this image of

Of very great importance to both of Milton's the invincible, suffering hero. "To be weak is

character portraits is the conclusion, in which miserable / Doing or Suffering," Satan asserts;

the false core of all the bravery and eloquence of and the strength of the hero, "doing or suffer-

each of his subjects is revealed unequivocally to ing," is what both sides of the false heroic image

his audience as being not only terrible but offer for admiration, even though, as Milton ar-

laughable. In a concerted effort to counteract the gues in his own voice, "in some things to be

martyr image of Charles projected by the Eikon, overcome is more honest and laudable then to

Milton urged that it could hardly "be thought conquer." The rebel angels' strength-worship is

upon (though how sad a thing) without som pointed out by Christ when, entering the battle

kind of laughter . . . that he who had trampl'd in heaven, he tells the loyal angels that though

over us so stately and so tragically should leave they have proved their moral virtue in battle, the

the world at last so ridiculously in his exit, as to Father has assigned the rebels' doom to him:

bequeath among his Deifying friends that stood

about him such a pretious peece of mockery to

That they may have thir wish, to try with mee

be publisht by them, as must needs cover both

In Battle which the stronger proves, they all,

his and their heads with shame and confusion" Or I alone against them, since by strength

(Eikonoklastes, p. 364). This is a reference to They measure all, of other excellence

Not emulous, nor care who them excels.

the plagiarized "Pamela prayer" of Eikon Ba-

(vi.818-22)

silike and reveals why Milton wanted to make

such an issue of it:9 Evil in a character must

eventually expose itself to ridicule, so that we With this reference to an unnatural separation of

finally see it for what it is and distance our- "strength" from "other excellence" we are at

This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Tue, 22 Mar 2016 22:48:44 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 448 God, Satan, and King Charles: Milton's Royal Portraits

what Milton reveals to be the heart of both re- had, until the war in heaven, unfairly kept his

bellions against the power of God. power hid: "till then as one secure / Sat on his

Milton held the divine right argument to be Throne . . . but still his strength conceal'd, /

false not only when it compared rulers' natural Which tempted our attempt" (I.638-42). Oth-

rights to govern but also when it compared the ers, reasoning that Satan must have known of

way an absolute monarch may govern with the God's omnipotence without having seen it, have

way God governs-which is not absolutely, by found Satan's original motivation to revolt im-

arbitrary will, but justly, by subjecting both him- plausible.

self and the governed to law. The royalists urged Now, although it is true that God had never,

philosophical acceptance of a paradox whereby before Satan's revolt, revealed to the angels his

all men are created in God's image and yet one

power to destroy, it is not true that the angels

man with absolute power is set by God over the had no evidence of God's greatest power-that

others as a king whose service, like God's, is

which distinguishes him from any human or

"perfect freedom."" Milton believed, however,

angelic ruler-the power to create. Satan him-

that such a "paradox" was simple injustice, im-

self, the angels, and heaven are all evidence of

possible to believe of the Christian God, and creation; and the rebels are trying to defend their

was, in fact, to be resolved as follows: The mis-

moral as well as their military position when,

take in the royalists' belief in the king's absolute during the course of their rebellion, they claim

power lay in assuming God's omnipotence to be

that they are "self-begot" (v.860) and that they

his primary attribute, to which his justice must

will reascend "self-rais'd" (I.634) to heaven.

be mysteriously reconciled. Milton claimed, on Because they do not, however, feel the creative

the contrary, that God's primary attribute is force within them, they find themselves positing

goodness, which demands that all other attri- an external, more powerful force at work, some

butes, including strength, be reconciled to it. "fatal course" (v.861), "Chance," "Fate," or

Thus arguments from "divine" right in support

even "Space" or the "Pit."12 But, while the true

of human tyranny, Milton said, revealed no creator is, in fact, "stronger" than Satan, the

Christian faith at their base, but the same "bar- point is not the sheer greatness, which he does

barism" he had heard reported of Indians who not employ against the rebels, but the different

"worship as gods malevolent demons whom they quality of his strength. When Christ enters the

cannot exorcise" (Second Defence, CPW, IV, Pt. war in heaven, there is no battle to provide a test

I, 551). Such demonic powers would be fearful, of physical strength: The Creator, the source of

but they would not be worthy of either obedi- their own strength and being, simply appears

ence or emulation; and the superstitious ac- before the rebel angels, who "astonisht all re-

ceptance by Charles's followers of God as such a sistance lost, / All courage; down thir idle

deity is what enables them to make an idol in weapons dropp'd" (vi.838-39). A vision of

this world-as a third of heaven did once-of a divinity "wither'd all thir strength, /And of thir

being that seems to share the prized attribute of wonted vigor left them drain'd, /Exhausted,

power. If men worship a God because of his spiritless, afflicted, fall'n" (vi.850-52). Though

omnipotence, they have no defense against later in the poem, older in their spiritual decline,

human tyranny. If they worship God because of the angels slip back into admitting God as their

his justice, however, they have no excuse for creator,13 the hardness of their hearts blinds

accepting human tyranny. them more than before to that reality's signifi-

In Paradise Lost we are witnessing the orig- cance. It would be impossible for them to admit

inal of this mistaken faith in sheer, undefined that they were at war with the one above them in

strength, first tested in Satan's fatal effort "to set the chain of being and still remain in revolt; they

himself in Glory above his Peers." The false must therefore cling to the belief that their dif-

premises of Satan's strength-worship have mis- ference from their adversary is merely one of

led critics of the poem in two ways. On the one strength, that to be "weak," not wrong, is miser-

hand, it has been said in attempted defense of able.

Satan's morality that Milton showed him to have Since rightness, justice, is the essence of God's

been right in attempting revolution because God ordering power manifested in creation, only a

This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Tue, 22 Mar 2016 22:48:44 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Joan S. Bennett 449

betrayal of the laws of creation, a denial of the

suppose the same idea of God's nature, Satan,

natural order, can justify revolution in heaven or

unlike Charles, is openly rebelling against that

on earth. It would follow, therefore, that, if the

God. But that is a small difference. Charles, in

governor of heaven were not the creator, were

Milton's depiction of him, holds that, if God

an impostor tyrant, or if the creator himself had

rules thus in his absolute power over all crea-

abrogated his natural right to rule by abusing the

tion, he, being great in power, can rule thus over

law of creation, then, indeed, Satan should-like

England. Satan holds first that, if God can rule

Milton-have fought whether he had the

heaven thus, he, if he gathers enough strength,

strength to win or not: A rational being should

can rule heaven thus. This belief changes only in

not worship a demon, however powerful. But if,

scope after the war in heaven: Satan holds that,

on the contrary, Satan rebels against the creator

if God can rule heaven thus, he, being only

out of jealousy and ambition then the psycho-

slightly weaker than God and yet stronger than

logical truth for Milton would be that he would

his followers and man, can rule hell and the new

rebel regardless of God's power; for "in the act

world thus-can break the chain of being and

of doing evil, men [or angels] use not to consider hold divided empire.

the event of thir evil doing: or if they doe, have

What matter where, if I be still the same,

then no power to curb the sway of thir own

And what I should be, all but less than hee

wickedness." He would find a way to justify his

Whom Thunder hath made greater? Here at

rebellion.

least

Though it is not until Book v that we are

We shall be free. (I.256-59)

given Satan's arguments for rebellion as they

were first presented, we may discern his original

It remains for us to examine the actual nature of

and continuing motivation in his self-justification

the "freedom" the usurpers substitute for their

after the fall in Book i. "To bow and sue for

subjection to the law of God.

grace / With suppliant knee, and deify his

power / . . . that were low indeed": These

III

words might have come on the eve of the Stuart

restoration from Milton himself, who would not

That Satan's rebellion against fundamental

deify anyone's sheer power. However, when we

law entails the corruption and extinction of true

include the omitted phrase that modifies "his

liberty in himself and his followers has been rec-

power"-"Who from the terror of this Arm so

ognized by many critics of Paradise Lost. How-

late / Doubted his Empire" (I. 111-14)-Satan's

ever, there remains a lively movement among

intent is seen to be exactly opposite to Milton's.

contemporary critics for contrary readings; and

Satan's question is, "Whose power shall we deify,

the basis for such readings can always be traced

that of his arm or mine?" Its presupposition is,

to a mistaken impression of Milton's own his-

"The greatest strength merits worship." The

torical role as a revolutionary. A study of the

fallen angels on Satan's advice accept their

relationship between law and liberty, which Mil-

residence in hell by reasoning from the premise

ton argued in his prose works and to which he

that strength can determine the use to which

gave dramatic focus in his accounts of Charles

morality is put, that might makes right: "since

and Satan and their followers, will not only cor-

he / Who now is Sovran can dispose and bid/

rect misleading historical assumptions but also

What shall be right" (I.245-47).

sharpen our awareness of the political dynamics

Now this is the argument for the divine right

of the poem, among the fallen angels and within

of kings: that a king or tyrant, whoever cur-

the mind of Satan. The meaning of freedom em-

rently holds power over a people, whether just

bodied in Milton's account of Charles and his

or unjust according to any heretofore accepted

followers, particularly in the Defences, directly

national or natural law, can rightly by virtue of

informs Milton's picture of Satan's career and is

his strength control his subjects' behavior. This

there given the dramatic scope that could not be

royalist belief presupposes such a God as Satan

fully worked out within the constraints of the

here describes. While the ambition of both Satan

political debate.

and Charles, in Milton's view, leads them to pre-

When Satan reasons that the fallen angels will

This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Tue, 22 Mar 2016 22:48:44 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 450
God, Satan, and King Charles: Milton's Royal Portraits

finally be "free" in hell simply because "th' Al-

The same is Christ's judgment upon Satan,

mighty. . . will not drive us thence" (I.259-60),

"Rebel to all Law" (x.83). Satan, too, at the

he is shown by Milton to be deceiving himself

beginning of his bid for power calls an assembly

both about the angels' civil liberties and about

of the angels who are his subjects under God as

the philosophical basis of political liberty in gen-

England was Charles's subject. At each as-

eral. For, while the rebels' claim to have "endan-

sembly-historical and poetical-two wrongs

ger'd Heav'n's perpetual King" is literally untrue

are committed by each ruler. The first in each

and they reside in hell at God's sufferance, their

case involves merely a factual lie: Charles ar-

more important claim to have sought liberty by

gued falsely to Parliament that his Scottish war

putting "to proof his high Supremacy, / Whether

was the most pressing threat to the nation and

upheld by strength, or Chance, or Fate" (I.131-

Satan falsely informs the angels that Christ has

33) is a more fundamental falsehood because it

commanded them to prepare an unjustified trib-

reveals their revolution to have been no valid test

ute. But the second wrong is the attempt by each

of God's supremacy and hence to have had no

to use the factual lies to do away entirely with

justification. A true revolution, like that against

the existing order of things, which is the only

Charles i in England, challenges, not the force

legitimate source of all particular laws and

that upholds the ruling power, but the right;

which stands in the way of his ambition. The

valid revolution tests whether supremacy is ac-

great importance of Charles's coronation oath

countable to law, which alone has the power to

lay, for Milton, in its protection against this ul-

liberate and which Satan's rebellion defies. Like

timate abuse of liberty. Charles had sworn, as

King Charles, Satan has become fatally confused

had every English monarch, to "grant those just

about the nature of liberty. "As for the Philo-

laws which the people shall choose" (A Defence,

sophical Libertie which in vaine he talks of," as

CPW, IV, Pt. I, 482; cf. Eikonoklastes, pp. 530,

Milton said of Charles in Eikonoklastes (p.

592-93). When Parliament's laws on such mat-

501), "we may conclude him very ill train'd up

ters as just taxation did not fulfill his wants, he

in those free notions, who to civil Libertie was

tried to reinterpret his oath so that it would fit

so injurious."
into his idea of his divine right to rule "above"

Milton's analysis of Charles's claim in the

those laws he did not like. "Which is the greater

Eikon that he had been a defender of the peo-

criminal," Milton demanded in the face of this

ple's liberties is paralleled in his portrayal of

abuse, "he who sins against the law or he who

Satan's claim to have revolted against God in

attempts to make the law itself his accomplice in

order to gain freedom for his angel followers;

crime, and even does away with the law to avoid

and it shows the relationship between civil and

the appearance of crime?" (A Defence, CPW,

philosophical liberty. Evidence offered in

iv, Pt. I, 529). The tyrant, who denies the law,

Charles's case had been his calling the Long Par-

is far worse than the criminal who simply breaks

liament. Far, however, from seeking the welfare the law.

of the people whom Parliament represented,

Satan, like Charles, seeks to do "away with

Milton pointed out, Charles had wanted only to

the law to avoid the appearance of crime." The

use the people's resources for his own cause; he

obvious falsehood in his speech before the as-

had needed tax money to carry out his war to

sembled host is that God intends to "introduce /

subjugate Scotland. When civil war began in the

Law and Edict on us . . ."; but the falsehood

wake of Parliament's refusal, it was the English

that Abdiel identifies as "blasphemous" is con-

king, Milton said, who was in rebellion against

tained in the words "on us, who without law /

Parliament, and not the other way around. The

Err not" (v. 11. 797-99), which deny that there

king had found the laws enforced by Parliament

ever was a law. Before the fall of Lucifer, there

in behalf of the people hindrances to his own

had been, of course, no need for a "positive"

ambitions (see Eikonoklastes, pp. 350-60). So

law such as church and state had afterward on

Parliament justly opposed the king as "a rebell

earth; but the reason that there was none was

to Law, and enemie to the State" (Tenure of

that all prelapsarian life was a natural enactment

Kings and Magistrates, CPW, III, 230; cf. Eikon-

of the law of unfallen reason. This is why Milton

oklastes, p. 529).
could define fallen human law as "reason ab-

This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Tue, 22 Mar 2016 22:48:44 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 451
Joan S. Bennett

the questions once they are raised: ordain'd by

stracted as much as might be from personal er-

rors" (Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, CPW, the law of their creator, God, to govern by the

III, 200) and why, when Charles tried to claim law themselves and their fellow angels, to serve

legal precedents for his "breaking" parliaments, God and fellow angels by the same law. Obedi-

Milton insisted that such trumped up laws could ence to the law of right reason is the condition

not uphold an indefensible practice: "I hold rea- for holding the titles that God decreed.

son to be the best Arbitrator, and the Law of When we see the angels accept Satan's irra-

Law it self" (Eikonoklastes, p. 403). That, he tional argument that "Titles," rather than laws,

repeated in his Defence, is the "basic precept of assert their right to govern, we are witnessing the

our law . . . by which nothing contrary to the first and archetypal instance of the necessary

laws of God or to reason can be considered law, separation, by law, of power from the persons

any more than a tyrant can be considered a king, who hold it. That "Majesty is inseparable from

or a servant of the Devil a servant of God" the person,"14 that a "title" asserts not an office,

(CPW, iv, Pt. i, 492). but a being, was at the heart of the royalist argu-

The tyrant's goal is to replace government by ment for divine right; this was the position held

rational law with government by arbitrary by Charles in the Eikon where, in refusing to

power; and, unlike the ordinary criminal, the obey the laws of Parliament, he argues that he

tyrant seeks not obscurity, which could hide his will not "part with . . . his honour as a King."

crime, but fame. A successful tyrant must there- Milton, however, exposes the conflict between

fore, Milton knew, be a master of rhetoric; for Charles's rhetorical use of a royal title and his

rhetoric is the tool he can employ against the actual abuse of a royal oath to uphold the law,

reason of the law to disguise his crime. When explaining that "when a King setts himself . . .

Charles wrote in the Eikon Basilike of "the ra- against the . . . residence of all his Regal power,

tionall soverantie of his soule, and liberty of his he then, in the single person of a Man, fights

will," Milton warned the people against such against his own Majesty and Kingship, and then

rhetoric, "Which words, of themselves, as farr as indeed sets the first hand to his own deposing"

they are sense, good and Philosophical, yet in (Eikonoklastes, pp. 524-25). Likewise, the

the mouth of him who to engross this common "residence" of all the rebel angels' "Regal

libertie to himself, would tred down all other power" is in the law of God, which they have

men into the condition of Slaves and beasts, they denied.

quite loose thir commendation" (Eikonoklastes,

Satan's argument for the angels' right from

p. 412). And further, there is often in such lan- title and against law resulted, as did the histori-

guage the appearance rather than the substance cal argument for the divine right of kings, in a

of right reason, as when the King "insists upon vast false analogy between the government of

the old Plea of his Conscience, honour, and heaven and that of a fallen world. Readers have

Reason; using the plausibility of large and in- noticed that Satan's rival kingdom in hell seems

definite words, to defend himself at such a dis- in many ways to be a parody of God's kingdom;

tance as may hinder the eye of common judge-

and that parody is, in fact, the archetypal acting

ment from all distinct view & examination of his

out of the royalists' false analogy.

reasoning" (Eikonoklastes, pp. 456-57).

Though a tyrant will try to look like a true

With "all distinct view and examination of his king, Milton said in answer to Salmasius, we

reasoning" is the way a reader of Paradise Lost, must always distinguish the person from his title;

like the angels Abdiel and Gabriel, ought like- for "a tyrant, like a king upon the stage, is but

wise to approach the rhetoric of Satan. We

the ghost or mask of a king, and not a true king"

should examine, then, Satan's reasoning about (A Defence, CPW, iv, Pt. I, 310). The glory of

what he offers the angels in place of law as the

the true King, Christ, as he appears before the

basis for their freedom: "those Imperial Titles angels, is an external manifestation of the spir-

which assert / Our being ordain'd to govern, not itual essence of the Father, who is too radiant

to serve" (v.801-02). We must demand, like

for angels' eyes to behold; the purpose of the

Gabriel: "ordain'd by whom? to govern whom? Son's "great Vice-gerent Reign" (v.609) is to

serve whom?" But the answers are implicit in make the unapproachable radiance of divinity

This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Tue, 22 Mar 2016 22:48:44 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 452
God, Satan, and King Charles: Milton's Royal Portraits

more accessible to finite creatures: "in him

argument against a people's right to revolt that a

all his Father shone / Substantially express'd"

people had sold themselves to their king as men

(ii. 139-40). But Satan, not content with the

used to sell themselves as slaves (A Defence,

glory that is rightfully his under the vice-

CPW, IV, Pt. I, 461). Their "freedom" consisted

gerency of Christ, turns true glory into mockery.

in the king's freedom to exercise his will for

His royal seat in heaven, whose splendor had of

them, just as all men's freedom ultimately con-

itself been sufficient to stand for the greatness of

sisted in their submission to God's will. Milton's

his rule, Satan tries to make hold greater signifi-

answer to Salmasius was that God himself does

cance than his reality can sustain. The result is

not remove his subjects' ability to will their own

to turn a great seat of power into a hollow stage

actions and obedience; that their freedom con-

property "in imitation of that Mount whereon /

sists in their constant ability to obey or disobey

Messiah was declar'd in sight of Heav'n" his law.

(v.764-65). Though the fallen Satan continues

But Milton's answer went further than the

to maintain himself as king of hell in "God-like

assertion that liberty is impossible to one en-

imitated State" (II.511), the essence of his abil-

slaved: The devils' belief, like Salmasius', in the

ity to rule is gone, and the title of "king" is

liberty of the enslaver is also a delusion. Indeed,

empty. When he abandoned the law seeking

as Milton admonished even Cromwell, "it has so

power, he gave up forever his ability to preserve

been arranged by nature that he who attacks the

the liberty of himself or his subjects. Like

liberty of others is himself the first of all to lose

Charles, he set himself "against the . . . resi-

his own liberty and learns that he is the first of

dence of all his Regal power" and fought

all to become a slave" (Second Defence, CPW,

"against his own Majesty and Kingship." IV, Pt. I, 673).

Having led his followers to defeat in the war

That the fallen angels will retain no liberty-

in heaven, Satan retains his tyranny over them

neither true liberty based in law nor false liberty

by means of his rhetorically effective, but false,

based in power-in the exercise of their titular

reasoning about liberty. Even though he has as-

"rights" can be predicted from the illogic of the

sumed absolute dictatorship over them in hell,

political argument Satan offers urging rebellion

he convinces his subject angels that they will find

and from the argument he uses to retain his

their liberty in turn as possessors of human sub-

power over them once fallen. The first, as is his

jects on earth:
later temptation of Eve, is based on a self-

contradictory argument for proportion. The an-

Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues,

gels are, he says,

Powers,

For in possession such, not only of right,

if not equal all, yet free,

I call ye and declare ye now . . .

Equally free; for Orders and Degrees

Jar not with liberty, but well consist.

... Now possess,

(v.791-93)

As Lords, a spacious World, to our native

Heaven

For orders and degrees to consist well with lib-

Little inferior, by my adventure hard

erty, however, they must receive their definition

With peril great achiev'd. (x.460-69)

in relation to a freedom-giving, absolute source

Mankind, as Satan has his followers view

of power; and what the angels' titles measure is

them, are the spoils of a dynastic war; they are

the degree of their likeness to God. But, because

the objects won and ruled. Of course, when a

Satan wants to retain his position of command,

rational being is changed from a subject to an

he urges the angels to believe that there can be a

object of government, to a "possession," then he

chain of being that will not fall though it hang

has become a slave. As the idea of a people's

from nothing. The basis for his argument is the

slavery is not an unacceptable means to Satan

same lie that denies the Creator.

for achieving his own "right," so it was also

True proportion forms the basis of the judg-

taught in Milton's day as part of the doctrine of

ment of Satan by Abdiel, the only angel origi-

divine right to be acceptable, if the enslavement

nally under Satan's command to revolt against

be to one high enough. Thus it was Salmasius'

the incipient tyranny of the archangel, the true

This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Tue, 22 Mar 2016 22:48:44 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Joan S. Bennett 453

They heard, and were abasht, and up they

Miltonic revolutionary, prototype for "the peo-

sprung
le [who] with God's approval judge their guilty

Upon the wing; as when men wont to watch

rulers" (A Defence, CPW, iv, Pt. I, 359). His

On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread,

argument is from the chain of being, the fore-

Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake.

most law of both God and Nature:

(I.331-34)

This is serviture,

To serve th' unwise, or him who hath rebell'd

They are a defeated army; that they have been

Against his worthier, as thine now serve thee,

led, not to victory, but to great suffering should

Thyself not free, but to thyself enthrall'd.

raise doubt in their minds about the tenability of

(vi. 178-81)

their original cause for following Satan in rebel-

The angels who capitulate to Satan's argu- lion. Satan had argued that God's apparent

ment, on the other hand, are Milton's poetical power would not prove superior to their own

archetypes of that effeminacy of a people that and that it therefore merited challenging. This

Milton feared and finally came to witness in promise has proved false. When rereading the

England: poem, we should realize that at this point the

remainder of Satan's earlier arguments for rev-

Unless you expel avarice, ambition, and luxury

olution, lodged in the memories of the angels he

from your minds . . . you will find at home and

led to war, should reasonably be turned against

within that tyrant who, you believed, was to be

him. "Who," he had challenged, "can in reason

sought abroad and in the field-now even more

then or right assume / Monarchy over such as

stubborn. In fact, many tyrants, impossible to en-

live by right / His equals, if in power and splen-

dure, will from day to day hatch out from your

dor less, / In freedom equal?" (v.794-97).

very vitals.

Though Satan's challenge to Christ's monarchi-

(Second Defence, CPW, iv, Pt. I, 680-81)

cal power could not apply to the rule of unfallen

Nisroch is his example in the war in heaven: He

heaven, its message is very true in a fallen con-

finds newly experienced pain "hard / For Gods"

text where the only difference between the fallen

who follow Satan's ambition for freedom to

angels is in "power and splendor." In Book xi,

enjoy their divine rights. Pain, once Nisroch dis-

in fact, after the fall of man, the archangel

covers it, becomes "the worst / Of evils"-

Michael repeats the essence of Satan's egali-

worse even than the tyranny that Satan had con-

tarian statement to Adam. Echoing Raphael's

vinced him was held by God (vi.451-68).

hint in Book v that God might gradually have

Book vi reveals a less attractive view of the

raised man, "found obedient," to a higher state,

fallen angels, which is withheld from readers of

he explains the postlapsarian impossibility of a

the poem until well after the powerful opening

"patriarchal" government by divine right:

books have had their effect. However, the de-

scription even in Books i and II-if we read

Eden . .. had been

them as critically as a militant Gabriel would-

Perhaps thy Capital Seat, from whence had

spread
"argues no Leader, but a Liar trac't / Satan."

All generations, and had hither come

Gabriel's argument had been that once Satan

From all ends of th' Earth, to celebrate

had broken his loyalty to God, he had simul-

And reverence thee thir great Progenitor.

taneously broken faith with his subjects; and

But this preiminence thou hast lost,

that they, by allowing themselves to be used in

brought down

the rebellion, became nothing more than an

To dwell on even ground now with thy

"Army of Fiends." And, indeed, the emotions

Sons. (xi.341-47)

the rebel angels show toward one another in-

volve not respect but, on the one side, pride and,

That preeminence was lost by Satan in his fall as

on the other, fear.

well. Yet now, as the fallen angels are led into

The first reaction of the angels to their com-

another audience before Satan, they have not the

mander after their fall is a fear that elicits un-

freedom of mind to conquer their mental and

questioning obedience. When Satan summoned

emotional torment-"anguish and doubt and

them from the burning lake,

fear"-by facing its cause; they succumb instead

This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Tue, 22 Mar 2016 22:48:44 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 454
God, Satan, and King Charles: Milton's Royal Portraits

to the effects of the Dorian war music offered

fixt Laws of Heav'n / Did first create your

them, which
Leader" (II. 18-19). A subject whose will and

reason retained any spark of freedom would

instead of rage

have to realize that laws that are right and fixed

Deliberate valor breath'd, firm and unmov'd

would now have to banish the individual from

With dread of death to flight or foul retreat,

the office he betrayed. But they do not question

Not wanting power to mitigate and swage

With solemn touches, troubl'd thoughts, and his argument. "Next," Satan reminds them, they

chase
followed him out of their own "free choice."

Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and

This again is true; and this, again, after what

pain

they have witnessed of his false "merit" "in

From mortal or immortal minds.

counsel or in flight" is the point at which their

(I.553-59)

mistaken consent should be withdrawn. Yet now

We may read the following description of the Satan is right when he announces that they have

assembled hosts from two points of view-one is again "yielded with full consent" to his leader-

the tyrant Satan's and the other is that of the ship. We have indeed been watching the process

revolutionary Milton. We look at Satan's face: of their final yielding: how "troubled thoughts"

were mitigated and swaged into "fixed thought,"

cruel his eye, but cast

how "for his fault" "yet faithful . . . they stood."

Signs of remorse and passion to behold

Their consent was fully, but not freely, given;

The fellows of his crime, the followers rather

they were already slaves of their own fear and

(Far other once beheld in bliss) condemn'd

cowardice. Satan assures their continued loyalty

For ever now to have thir lot in pain,

Millions of Spirits for his fault amerc't by reminding them of what has made them

Of Heav'n, and from Eternal Splendors flung cowards:

For his revolt, yet faithful how they stood,

but who here

Thir Glory wither'd.

Will envy whom the highest place exposes

(1.604-12; my italics)

Foremost to stand against the Thunderer's aim

The tone in these lines is, from Satan's point of

Your bulwark, and condemns to greatest share

Of endless pain? (II.26-30)

view, a kind of gratification; from Milton's point

of view, it is that scorn in which such servility

Now, at the last moment in which a moral deci-

deserves to be held. The angels' governor has led

sion might be possible, Satan takes care to re-

them, "followers," into "crime," for which they

move forever the chance of a moral "Faction"

now suffer terrible punishment as his fellows.

by removing the concept of morality. Nisroch's

They are now truly "his Peers" (I.618), his

discovery in war that pain was for him the

equals. If they had been deceived by his argu-

"greatest evil" is now solidified into demonic

ments for liberty before the fall, they can be so

policy. "Good" means not righteousness but

no longer. Now, in order to prove themselves

pleasure; "evil" is not lawlessness but pain:

worthy of any chance for liberty that might re-

main to them, they must rise in revolt against the

where there is then no good

leader who has betrayed them: "The people . . . For which to strive, no strife can grow up there

From Faction; for none sure will claim in Hell

do with God's approval judge their guilty rulers"

Precedence, none, whose portion is so small

-"yet faithful how they stood."

Of present pain, that with ambitious mind

The very nature of the appeal of Satan's

Will covet more. (II.30-35)

speech to the angels in which he lays claim to

the throne of hell reveals their servility. He gives

In this speech Satan removes at one stroke the

a factual account of their condition; those facts

possibility for moral or immoral revolution

clearly betray the wrong of their position and his

among the angels in hell.

falseness to them; and yet they passively accept

The officers whose advice is allegedly sought

Satan and his claim. When he persuaded the

are no less slaves than the masses. They are fi-

angels to rebel, Satan had convinced them that

nally, of course, manipulated by Satan and his

they had been living "without Law"; now he

spokesman Beelzebub to agree to Satan's plan;

says truthfully that "Mee . . . just right and the

but first by their own counsel they reveal their

This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Tue, 22 Mar 2016 22:48:44 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Joan S. Bennett 455

all his most abandoned followers. Tyrants then are

self-enslavement. Moloch and Belial are com-

the meanest of slaves; they are slaves even to their

plex developments of the two royalist types that

own slaves.

Salmasius had held up for admiration because of

(Second Defence, CPW, iv, Pt. i, 562-63)

their reaction to Charles's fall. Salmasius'

"bravely spirited" who, like Moloch, "burned

This message is embodied in the confrontation

with such a flame of indignation that they could

in Book ii between Satan and his allegorical off-

scarce control themselves" Milton had labeled

spring Death, who belies the tyrant's claim to

"madmen" whose threats are easily "put to flight

control hell, "where," as Death rightly claims, "I

with that true courage which is master of itself."

reign King, and to enrage thee more, / Thy King

Among Salmasius' second type Milton had in-

and Lord" (11. 698-99). The "execrable shape"

cluded Salmasius himself: "little women of the

must be called "my fair son" and promised food

court . . . or some others yet more effeminate"

so that its power will bend to Satan's goal.

attempting, like Belial, "to draw the strength

The poet then dramatizes the same message in

from manly hearts" (A Defence, CPW, iv, Pt. I,

Satan's journey to the new world. As Milton had

312-13).
shown Charles giving his followers bishoprics

Satan in his role in the council displays the

and lands so that to keep their rewards they

tyrant's full awareness of his subjects' servile

"knew it thir best cours to have dependence

character. His suspicion that some one of his

onely upon him" (Eikonoklastes, p. 511), so he

followers might fake an offer to explore the way

shows Satan forced to seek in Eden "a spacious

to the new world, thus "winning cheap the high

World" for his followers to "possess / As Lords"

repute / Which he through hazard huge must

(x.460-67) so that their titles can believably

earn" (II.472-73), has a parallel in Milton's

stand for something. But in order for Satan to

explanation of the behavior of the lesser tyrant

get possession and for Charles to keep bish-

Charles, who had tried to defend his integrity,

oprics, innocent people had to suffer. With

when accused of fomenting the Irish rebellion,

Charles this suffering had come in the form of

by stressing that "he offer'd to goe himself in

religious persecution: "Thus when both Interests

person upon that expedition [against the reb-

of Tyrannie and Episcopacie were incorporat

els]." The fact was, Milton pointed out, that

into each other, the King [was] . . . fatally

Charles knew his offer would not be accepted:

driv'n on" to "extirpating" innocent protestants

"But [he] mentions not that by his underdealing

(Eikonoklastes, p. 511 ).

... he had brought the Parlament into so just a

Though he did not live to see the effects of

diffidence of him, as that they durst not leave the

his intended extirpation of his religious enemies,

Public Armes to his disposal, much less an army

Charles nevertheless took the occasion in Eikon

to his conduct" (Eikonoklastes, pp. 480-81).

Basilike to imagine their suffering and claim that

Although Charles was a tyrant of a lesser de-

he "cannot but observe this . .. yet with sorrow

gree than Satan, he shared, in Milton's portrait

and pitty" (Eikonoklastes, p. 567). Satan, too,

of him, that fundamental element of tyranny

at first feels himself to be "loath to this revenge /

which is self-enslavement. "Every bad man is a

On you who wrong me not" and to "melt" "at

tyrant," Milton said, explaining the position of

your harmless innocence" (iv.386-89). He

Charles, "each in his own degree." And "to the

finds, however, that, beyond his own wish for

degree that he is the greatest of all tyrants, to

vengeance, his "dread of shame / Among the

that same degree is he the meanest of all and

Spirits beneath" (iv.82-83) drives him fatally

most a slave." This, Milton explained, is because

on. And he lulls to impotence his last spark of

the evil man in public power is a slave not only

genuine freedom of conscience, revealed by his

to his own ambition and despair but to his fol-

revulsion from his own intended action, with the

lowers' as well: Dorian war music of his own rhetoric:

Other men willingly serve only their own vices; he yet public reason just,

is forced, even against his will, to be a slave, not Honor and Empire with revenge enlarg'd,

only to his own crimes, but also to the most By conquering this new World, compels me now

grievous crimes of his servants and attendants, and To do what else though damn'd I should abhor.

he must yield a certain share of his despotism to (iv.389-92)

This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Tue, 22 Mar 2016 22:48:44 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 456
God, Satan, and King Charles: Milton's Royal Portraits

Satan and Charles, in Milton's two portraits out, though in fragmentary form, fundamental

of the tyrant, enslave their followers and them- elements of the character, action, underlying

selves in a "mistie cloud" of rhetoric that sub- philosophy and influence of this minor tyrant,

stitutes "prerogative" for the sunlight of God's elements that find full dramatization in his right

law, the only basis for a portrait of genuine roy- hand's portrait of Satan's epic struggle for power.

alty. In his version of the story of King Charles,

University of Delaware
a drama not of Christian martyrdom but of

Newark
tyrannous rebellion, Milton's left hand worked

Notes

from Parliament, agreed to Strafford's execution. The

] For a full statement of such an attempt, see S. B.

Eikon Alethine solves (albeit unconvincingly) the con-

Liljegren, Studies in Milton (1918; rpt. New York: Has-

tradiction between the king's attitude at Strafford's trial

kell House, 1969) and two books by Paul Phelps-

and that in the Book by claiming that while Charles

Morand, De Comus t Satan: L'CEuvre poetique de

had been sincere in condemning the guilty Strafford,

Jolhn Milton expliquee par sa vie (Paris: Didier, 1939)

thus performing a righteous act, the "forger" of the

and The Effects of His Political Life upon John Milton

Eikon was villainously laying "innocent blood" on the

(Paris: Didier, 1939).

king's head by saying the king had thought Strafford

2 In Essays in English Literature from the Renaissance

innocent (p. 11). Milton, on the contrary, accepts both

to the Victorian Age Presented to A. S. P. Woodlhouse,

attitudes as the king's and views the contradiction as

ed. Millar MacLure and F. W. Watt (Toronto: Univ.

revealing of his character and dilemma as a tyrant:

of Toronto Press, 1964), pp. 125-48.

: Hughes considered Eikonoklastes as a source for

No marvel then, if being as deeply criminous as the

Milton's Satan, but concluded: "The experience of

Earle himself, it stung his. conscience to adjudge to

writing Eikonoklastes could contribute but little to the

death those misdeeds whereof himself had bin the

creation of Milton's Satanic eikon basilike" ("Milton's

chiefe Author. . . . That mind must needs be irrecover-

Eikon Basilike," in Calm of Mind: Tercentenary

ably deprav'd, which either by chance or importunity

Essays on Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes in

tasting but once of one just deed, spatters at it, and

Honor of John S. Diekliofj, ed. Joseph A. Wittreich, Jr.,

abhorrs the relish ever after. (pp. 372-74)

Cleveland: Case Western Reserve Univ. Press, 1971,

p. 1). While I do not think it necessary to argue that

7 For a representative statement of this view see

Milton turned back to Eikonoklastes or the Defences

Robert Weldon, The Doctrine of the Scriptures concern-

as a literal source for his Satan, I believe it important

ing the Originals of Dominion (1648).

for us to realize that the political experience and vision

s William J. Grace, in his "Preface to A Defence of

informing the prose and the poetry are the same.

the People of England," CPW, IV, Pt. I, 287, fails to

4 Coimnplete Prose Works of John Milton, ed. Don M.

understand how Milton's argument at this point is

Wolfe (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1958- ), III,

based upon a logical interpretation of the chain of

406: Merritt Y. Hughes edited this volume. This work

being and thus finds his view of Old Testament politics

is hereafter cited as CPW. All page references to

"narrow, private, or quaint." Grace is assuming the

Eikonoklastes are from this edition.

royalist principle of correspondences when he finds

The anonymous author of Eikon Alethine (1649)

irony in Milton's interpretation of the Book of Samuel:

sought to discredit Eikon Basilike by calling it a for-

"Amusingly enough," he says, "God in support of

gery; and he claimed that his purpose, besides vindicat-

Israel's republican principles appears rather royalistic

ing the parliamentary cause, was to protect the memory

and absolute." "Republican principles," however, are

of the king from the charge of damnable hypocrisy

not held by Milton in the abstract for their own sake,

that would be due him if the book were really his: "it
but for the sake of the higher religious principles dis-

is not infamy to say a man hath erred, obstinacy therein

cussed here; and there is no inconsistency involved.

onely brands him: It is not I then that reproach the

9 For a discussion of the "Pamela prayer" contro-

late King by enumerating some of his late errors; but

versy, see Merritt Hughes's chapter on the "Date, Oc-

he [the forger of Eikon Basilike] that makes the late

casion, and Method of Eikonoklastes" in CPW, in,

King justifie himselfe in them, adding impenitency and

150-61.

obstinacy to make them Heresies and Crimes" (Folger

10 Cf. Eikon Alethine's urging the people to distrust

Library copy, Cat. No. E267, pp. 1-2).

the rhetoric of the King's Book: "Bee not cheated out

6 Milton's Literary Milieu (Chapel Hill: Univ. of

of your innocency by this subtill Serpent with an Apple

North Carolina Press, 1939), Ch. xiii, "The Writing of

of Sodom, which at the touch of truth will fall to

Eikonoklastes," pp. 336-37. Also revealing of Milton's

ashes" ("The Epistle to the Reader: To the Seduced

purpose is a comparison of Eikon Alethine's view of

People of England").

this issue with Eikonoklastes'. The Eikon Basilike por-

11 Modeling his statement about the king after the

trays Charles as repenting that he had, under pressure

Prayer Book invocation of a God "whose service is

This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Tue, 22 Mar 2016 22:48:44 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 457
Joan S. Bennett

perfect freedom," Sir Robert Filmer had claimed: "The (I.650); "this infernal Pit [instead of God] shall never

greatest liberty in the world (if it be duly considered) hold / Celestial Spirits" (I.657-58).

is for a people to live under a monarch" (Patriarcha: 13 Satan speculates on the creation of man: "Whether

A Defense of the Natural Power of Kings against the such virtue spent of old now fail'd / More Angels to

Unnatural Liberty of the People [1680], ed. T. P. R. Create, if they at least / Are his Created" (ix.145-47).

Laslett, Oxford Univ. Press, 1949, p. 55). 14 Claudius Salmasius, Defensio Regia, Pro Carolo II

12 "Space [instead of God] may produce new Worlds" (1649), quoted in CPW, iv, Pt. I, 310, n. 23.

This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Tue, 22 Mar 2016 22:48:44 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions