Satiation in John Milton’s Paradise Lost and Margaret Cavendish’s Blazing World :: Paradise lost Blazing World

Satiation in arse Miltons Paradise broken and Margaret Cavendishs clamant WorldHell is huge but it isnt big enough. Within the text of Paradise Lost by John Milton, it is, A universe of death, which God by curse Created evil, for evil yet good,Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds,Perverse, all monstrous, all overblown things,Abominable, inutterable, and worse (II.622-6)There is no satiety in Hell. Eden, by comparison, is a relatively small place in Miltons epic poem, but it seems to be an environment replete with satisfaction. Or is it? We students of experiential literature owe Milton a debt of gratitude for helping us to experience our forebears, that is Adam and Eves, lack of satiation within a paradisiacal environment. This paper will explore the paper of satiety within that environment and, along the way, discuss the concept of mark found in Cavendishs Blazing World for comment upon that satiation.Milton begins at the middle of his epic with an appe al to music, a universal and fulfilling language, Restore us, and recover the blissful seat, Sing Heavenly Muse (I.5-6).He immediately places us after the fall and lets us beyond sentience with an invocation to a muse, entirely this muse is beyond all muses and this epic is above all epicsI thence Invoke thy aid to my adventrous song,That with no middle dodging intends to soarAbove th Aonian mount, while it pursues Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. (I.12-16)Milton establishes himself as the legitimate teller of the tale and this tale will take us beyond the mythology of the GreeksAonian Mount and inoculate us against Hells prodigiousness. He is taking us beyond mythological or instructive pictures of ourselves, to an area where we may bask in a greater cling toTaught by the Heavnly Muse to venture down The dark descent, and up to reascend,though hard and rare thee I revisit safe,And feel thy sovran vital lamp (III.19-22)In her note to the commentator in The Descrip tion of A New World, Called The Blazing World, it is evident that Margaret Cavendish seeks to take us beyond mere studious thoughts, to a place sated with fancyAnd this is the reason, why I added this piece of fancy to my philosophical observations, and joined them as two worlds at the ends of their polesboth for my own sake, to amuse my studious thoughts, which I employed in the contemplation thereof, and to delight the reader with variety, which is always pleasing.