Copyright © 1997 Roy C. Flannagan and the Johns
Hopkins University Press. All rights reserved. This work may be used, with
this header included, for noncommercial
purposes within a subscribed
institution. No copies of this work may be distributed electronically
outside of the subscribed institution, in whole or in part, without express
written permission from the JHU Press.
It is an irony that one of the most distinctively Christian virtues, peacemaking, has probably been neglected or ignored as much within the Christian tradition as out of it. Milton, as we know, voiced an objection that until his time "Wars" had been "the only Argument / Heroic deemed," while "the better fortitude / Of Patience and Heroic Martyrdom" remained "Unsung" (PL, 9.28-33). In Paradise Lost he did something to right the imbalance, taking as hero not the military commander Satan but the Prince of Peace, the Son of God, as well as the pastoral Eve and Adam. The poem contains more than the attack on war described in James Freeman's Milton and the Martial Muse. In Surprised by Sin Stanley Fish insight fully celebrates "standing only" as Christian heroism, but there is an initiating element of peacemak ing--active reconciliation, more than mere loyalty and an attitude of obedience--that characterizes the heroism of the Son and of Eve. 1 In fact, Milton pic tures such reconciling as a notable aspect of redemption.
Joseph Summers calls attention to the important turning point at which Eve, in Book X, initiates the [End Page 124] reconciliation with Adam; and both he and Broadbent remark how the language (especially the repetition of the long e vowel) likens Eve to the Son, at the point in Book III where he offers himself to save mankind. Broadbent suggests that she (like Adam elsewhere in the poem) is drawing on the Son's "spring of self-sacrifice." 2 Georgia B. Christopher has challenged such readings, correctly asserting that it is divine grace that restores Adam and Eve after the Fall, but failing to grant that such grace could work more than incidentally by means of Eve's initiative. 3 In dealing with the same passage Cheryl H. Fresch stresses Eve's penitence, not heroism, by likening her to the sinner of Luke 7 washing Jesus' feet with her tears. While making good points, both Christopher and Fresch needlessly undercut Eve's achievement. 4 And Diane McColley in what is otherwise a most splendid treatment of Eve seems swayed by Christopher in saying, "Eve's part as the first to repent and seek reconciliation is the one act for which she is generally given her due, if not more" [emphasis added]. 5
A key passage in Ephesians describes Christ's self-sacrifice as making peace by effecting reconciliation to God and breaking down barriers between people:
now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both [Jews and Gentiles] one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity ... ; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby; And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
(2:13-17, emphasis mine)
Christ is here presented as a heroic mediator and reconciler; and thus the one who pronounced a blessing on peacemakers (Matt. 5:9) is himself shown to be the supreme example. Although the Ephesians passage speaks of the ending of conflict or "enmity," it must be understood that in the Scriptures peace is not a merely negative word to indicate lack of conflict. Instead, the Hebrew "shalom" and its Greek equivalent "eirene" denote concord, well-being, wholeness--really, aspects of salvation. And in Para dise Lost, Book X, too, Eve's action helps initiate not just the end of strife, but the restoration of wholesome relationships between humans and with God.
In this paper I am claiming that Milton's Eve is in deed a heroic peacemaker in somewhat the way that Christ is in the Scriptures. And although Milton's assertion that the better fortitude has remained unsung is generally true, I will also cite some patterns of peacemaking that the poet could draw on: the biblical characters Abraham, Moses, and Abigail; Spenser's Medina in The Faerie Queene, Book II; and the Sabine women.
At the end of Book IX, the fallen state of Adam and Eve is evident in their mutual hostility, in which they level largely correct accusations against each other, but each is unwilling to accept any blame. By the end of Book X, the deadlock has been broken, a good relationship between the two has been restored, and they are ready to approach their judge and redeemer in repentance. Humanly speaking, 6 the main credit for the change must go to Eve, who, when Adam sternly repelled her, calling her "thou Serpent,"
Not so repulsed, with Tears that ceas'd not
flowing,
And tresses all disorder'd, at his feet
Fell humble, and embracing them, besought
His peace ...
(10.867, 910-13)
Usually we think of a peacemaker as a third party intervening between two people or two groups in conflict, but in the special circumstances of Eden, Eve plays more than one role (as does Christ when he reconciles God and humankind).
Implicitly the poem likens Eve to the Son of God, though not in any way implying equality. She is always purely human, and specifically at this point she is a sinner, with motives that can be taken to include guilt and fear. Nevertheless, like Christ, Eve acts out of a humility powered by love, the very opposite of the pride and hate characteristic of Satan (3.298). It is the Son's "immortal love / To mortal men" (3.267-68) that makes him willing to be accounted man, and put off his heavenly glory (238-40)--Milton's lines here recalling Philippians 2--and in a sense Eve has [End Page 125] the "mind" of the Son, who "made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant" (5, 7). Eve is not, like the Son, offering up her life, but she is placing herself at risk, at the very least hazarding the cruel rebuff from Adam that she has every reason to expect. In one respect perhaps more like the Christ of the Gospels than like Milton's Son of God in heaven, Eve appears weak even as she is inwardly strong, 7 her tears recalling (only in a gen eral way) Christ's over Jerusalem or in Gethsemane. Although the victory that results is not showy, as in military conquests, it is far-reaching in its effects, opening the way to reconciliation with God and a new lease on life for Adam, Eve, and the human race.
Eve's heroism is highlighted by a parallel, but a greater contrast, with Adam. It is true that Adam too has redemptive thoughts when he wishes he himself could use up the whole curse on the human race (in a way as Christ eventually will), leaving none to his sons (10.818-20, 832-34). However, Adam does not act on this impulse, and specifically he does not apply it to the human who is present with him, Eve. Instead, when she appears, he curses her with the name of serpent (867-73), and relapses from his previous gesture toward repentance ("first and last / On mee, mee only, as the source and spring / Of all corruption, all the blame lights due," 831-33) to the unproductive, accusatory attitude that marked the seemingly hopeless end of Book IX. It is highly ironic (and surely part of the poet's--or poem's--intent) that Eve takes the heroic initiative immediately after the most misogynist comments in the whole poem, spoken by an unrepentant Adam (874-908). Unlike Adam, and unlike herself at the end of Book IX (but like Christ, I suggest) she can now see the good, and the potential for good, in her spouse. She does not pretend his innocence ("both have sinn'd, 930"), but she avoids misnaming him, as he had her. (On the significance of naming in Paradise Lost, see Leonard.)
To look at it from a somewhat different perspective, Eve here acts to restore love as a "giving and receiving" reciprocity, enabling a return in some measure to the mutuality (rather than hierarchy) that Peczenik sees in the unfallen relationship of Adam and Eve. 8 Paradoxically, Eve accomplishes this partly by what looks like submission to hierarchy, in her humility; but in fact she stirs up a reciprocal response in Adam, and thus helps make it possible for the poem to end with the two hand in hand.
In Paradise Lost, peacemaking efforts combine actions with words to explain or appeal. (Some readers may feel that Book III is too wordy, but the Crucifixion cannot take place in Heaven.) Reasoning is a natural part of peacemaking, and it is not "school-divinity" that has the Son appeal to the Father, pointing out the undesirable consequences of a failure to make peace (3.144-66). Instead, this is like Abraham's appeal to God on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah, citing possible results that would seem out of keeping with God's righteous character: "That be far from thee ..., to slay the righteous with the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen. 18:25)--a passage that Milton echoes closely (3.153-55). Eve too points to the loss should she be permanently estranged from Adam (10.918-22), and constructively appeals to Adam's character: "thy gentle looks, thy aid, / Thy counsel in this uttermost distress, / My only strength and stay" (919-21). While the Son's self-offering ("on mee let thine anger fall," 3.237) is paralleled by Moses' willingness to die for the sins of his people (Exod. 32:32), the language in which the Son expresses himself is taken from a woman peacemaker of the Old Testament, Abigail. In 1 Samuel 25:24, seeking to appease David for her husband's churlish conduct, this courageous and judicious woman says, "Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be." This is the repeated "me" that is echoed first by the Son (3.236-37) and then by Eve (10.933-36). 9 Here, and in the other parallels that Milton exploits, he is not making simple equations, but enriching his poem with suggestions that involve the discerning reader, and invite careful weighing of differences as well as similarities. The Abigail story seems not a very important one, but by indirectly treating this woman as a virtual type of Christ in her self-sacrificing initiative, Milton is subtly undermining chauvinistic attitudes toward heroism.
In a posture like Eve's, 10 Abigail "fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, And fell at his feet" (23-24); but Milton pictures the Son in heaven, not Christ in Gethsemane. For physical depictions of peacemakers--women peacemakers at that--Milton could go to at least two non-biblical [End Page 126] stories: Medina in The Faerie Queene, Book II, and the Sabine women in Livy.
We can be sure that Milton read with care Spenser's great poem, which features both notable heroines and (among all its fighting scenes) passages that exalt peacemaking. 11 Medina's situation is quite different from Eve's, but there are some parallels in their successful efforts at reconciliation. In The Faerie Queene, Book II, Canto II, the conflict is a complex one, with Sans-loy and Sir Huddibras attacking Sir Guyon, the newly-arrived guest, and each other as well. 12 Like Eve, Medina is an impassioned peace maker:
The faire Medina with her tresses torne
And naked brest, in pitty of their harmes,
Emongst them ran, and falling them beforne
Besought them
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Their deadly cruell discord to forbeare . . .
(II.ii.27)
Both Eve and Medina have tresses in a state of disar ray--hair that has previously been described as attractively "golden" in each case (PL, 4.305; FQ, 2, II.ii.15). 13 In both instances the disarray is not only forgivable, but commendable, for it is a sign that mere appearance is being subordinated to vigorous action in an important cause. Another common element in the two accounts is the prostration that signifies humility--an essential element in biblical peacemaking.
The visual appearance of Eve and of Medina as peacemakers invites a comparison to the picture of the Sabine women's intervention in Livy 1.13. Having been taken forcibly as wives by the Romans, the Sabine women now had double loyalties, to their new husbands and to their parents. When the war ensued which their "rape" had precipitated, "with loosened hair and torn garments, their woman's timidity lost in a sense of their misfortune, [they] dared to go amongst the flying missiles, and rushing in from the side, to part the hostile forces and disarm them of their anger" (1.47-49). Here again disordered hair is a sign of disregard for mere outward appearance. "Torn garments" corresponds in a general way to Medina's "naked brest"--Milton says nothing about Eve's newly-acquired clothing (10.215-20) being awry. Torn garments are of course also a frequent biblical symbol of inward distress. Livy notes the daring and the purposiveness of the Sabine women's action: it is a deliberate as well as an impassioned act of making peace.
Medina abases herself, "falling them beforne," but even more clearly Eve and the Sabines are self-sacrificial in their peace efforts. Eve's posture turns out to be a sign of her willingness to take all the blame on herself:
Both have sinn'd, but thou
Against God only, I against God and thee,
And to the place of judgment will return,
There with my cries importune Heaven, that all
The sentence from thy head remov'd may light
On me, sole cause to thee of all this woe,
Mee mee only just object of his ire.
(10.930-36)
Similarly, the Sabines (though unlike Eve they themselves are innocent, having been wronged as much as their parents) are willing to take the blame--and the punishment--upon themselves: "If you regret" [they say to their warring fathers and husbands] "the relationship that unites you, if you regret the marriage-tie, turn your anger against us: we are the cause of war, the cause of wounds, and even death to both our husbands and our parents."
In all the situations the peacemaking women (Abigail too) combine cogent words 14 with their passionate actions. Ironically, war or conflict often destroys the very thing the combatants claim they care about, and usually more. The Sabines argue, "It will be better for us to perish than to live, lacking either of you, as widows or as orphans." Medina upbraids the fighters in her castle with working their own "wilfull smarts": "[W]ere it not better," she asks, to "accord" a "rightful cause of difference"
Then with bloud guiltinesse to heape offence,
And mortall vengeaunce ioyne to crime abhord?
(II.ii.29,30)
She goes on to praise "most sacred peace" for its constructiveness, and (in an anticipation of Milton) speaks of the true Christian warfare, true heroism:
Brave be her [peace or concord's] warres, and
honorable deeds,
By which she triumphes ouer ire and pride,
And winnes an Oliue girlond for her meeds....
(II.ii.31)
Eve, like the Sabines, argues for reconciliation on a more personal basis than Medina, but still suggesting the futility of continued conflict and the need to [End Page 127] make common cause against their spiritual foe: 15 "Be tween us two let there be peace" (10.924).
In each of the stories the peacemaking, while involving real risk, is effective in bringing results. In Eve's case, we are told, Adam is moved to "Commiseration" by her "lowly plight, / Immovable till peace obtain'd" (10.937-38)--the words I have empha sized suggest that Eve's persistence helps bring about this preliminary result. 16 Other factors are at work here, including the love relationship that Summers has celebrated, but Eve's humility ("at his feet submissive in distress," 942) is part of the effective peacemaking that results in Adam's relenting and being "disarm'd" (940, 945). In Medina's situation it is mainly her "pitthy words," also described as "gracious" (28, 32), that are said to produce peace, though it is obvious that they would not have been heard or heeded if she had not physically interposed herself into the struggle.
In the Roman-Sabine conflict, the results of the peacemaking bring long-lasting consequences:
It was a touching plea, not only to the rank and file, but to their leaders as well. A stillness fell on them, and a sudden hush. Then the leaders came forward to make a truce, and not only did they agree on peace, but they made one people out of the two.
Anyone as familiar with the Scriptures as Milton was might well here be reminded of the passage in Ephesians cited earlier, that deals with Christ's work of reconciliation, including the breaking down of the barrier of hostility between Jew and Gentile, making "both one": "For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us: Having abolished in his flesh the enmity ...: for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace" (2:14,15). But the reconciliation Eve helps initiate, reflecting and participating in that of Christ, and having effects on the whole human race, is more far-reaching in its consequences than the significant achievement of the Sabines.
The making of true peace (not "peace at any price," and certainly not the "peace, peace, where there is no peace," of Jer. 6:14), has always been important, and has likely always been underrated, while war making and conflict have often been glorified (Freeman, 4, 16-25, 61). Though Paradise Lost can be read as in some ways debunking war, this paper does not claim that Milton is an out-and-out pacifist, in the sense of being opposed to physical war per se. His Nativity Ode celebrates the coming of the Prince of Peace, but the angels declaring peace in that poem surprise some readers by being clad in armour. "Of Education" is concerned with fitting students for all the offices of peace or war.
But Milton knows that the really important battles are spiritual ones, in which "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Eph. 6:18). It is with such forces only that peacemaking is not possible, or desirable, as John Donne recognizes. 17 In fact, such conflict, in the case of Christ the foretold crushing of the serpent's head at the Crucifixion, was the very occasion of the peacemaking between God and people.
Biblical writers often (and most effectively, perhaps) convey views and points by embodying them in stories rather than in theoretical discourses. Jonah's bigotry, the good Samaritan's lack of prejudice, require no direct comment. Milton may not overtly proclaim the blessedness of peacemakers, but he hints at it in some sonnets. He urges General Fairfax,
O yet a nobler task awaits thy hand;
For what can War, but endless war still breed,
Till Truth and Right from Violence be freed....
and he reminds Cromwell that "much remains / To conquer still; peace hath her victories . . . " (159-60). In Paradise Lost his revaluation of heroism goes beyond showing Abdiel's obedience and firm resistance to evil to an embodiment of active, redemptive peacemaking, first in the Son of God, then in Eve in Book X.
In fact, what sets Eve's peacemaking off from the other human patterns I have cited is that it specifically mirrors and even embodies divine reconciliation. True, Milton could find literary patterns to parallel Eve's reconciling initiative in the Old Testament characters Abraham, Moses, and Abigail, in Spenser's Medina, and even in the old Roman story of the peacemaking by the Sabine women. But Eve's action is more momentous in its consequences, contributing in a significant way to human redemption. While Eve, according to a story detail that Milton could not change, was the first to sin, the poet created a fully human Eve who was nevertheless heroic like Christ in taking a self-humbling, redemptive [End Page 128] initiative that brought about reconciliation and peace, and helped pave the way for salvation.
University of New Brunswick
1. For "standing only," see ch. 4, especially 182, 184, and 195-96; for suggestions of Eve's heroic action in Book X, see 272-74.
2. Summers, 176-79; Broadbent, 151-52. Both follow the lead of Tillyard, esp. 39-44. See also Gilbert, 259-60.
3. Christopher 163-74 perceptively focuses on Adam's recollection of the divine promises as a key to the restoration of Adam and Eve. However, she misrepresents Stanley Fish, who immediately after the words she quotes, adds "(and by Eve we are to understand the Holy Spirit working through her)" (273--see also Fish 275 at n. 1). Christopher is sound in adducing Reformation writers, but overstates the contrast with medieval Christianity in not recognizing that the Crucifixion continues to be important for Protestants; she also seems unduly concerned that any attention to Eve's initiative will detract from a proper emphasis on divine grace (163-64).
4. Eve obviously is penitent and has reason to be so; but to recognize this does not cancel out the significant initiative that she takes here to restore the relationship with Adam. That she acts without "manifesting faith in divine forgiveness" (265-66) does not mean she is unbelieving, since she is responding to what she recalls God has told them. Fresch allows the forgiving Adam some likeness to Christ, but is grudging in her description of Eve (264-67); and Christopher gives Eve a most unsympathetic reading (165-66).
5. McColley 210; later, the same paragraph alludes to an earlier version of Christopher's treatment mentioned in my notes 4 and 5 above. See also McColley 32 and note 37.
6. In this part of Book X, Milton's poem is speaking hu manely; in the next book we become aware that these events were divinely enabled: I take "Prevenient grace descending had removed / The stony from their hearts" (11.3-4) to refer to the whole process of Adam and Eve's restoration.
7. Christopher 165 suggests Eve acts wildly and out of des peration, but surely a sympathetic reader (or even a non-judgmental one) is bound to recognize her courage.
8. In this stimulating and insightful article, Peczenick does not consider Eve's restorative action in Book X.
9. See Fowler 969, note on X, 832. Fowler also finds a parallel in Nisus' action and words, Virgil, Aeneid, ix, 427.
10. Fresch 264-66, with some plausibility, compares Eve's posture with that of the woman in Luke 7:38; here emphasis, unlike mine, is on Eve's penitence.
11. A passage similar to the one involving Medina portrays the intervention of Cambina in IV, III, 37-52. The latter
downe on the bloody plaine
Her selfe . . threw, and teares gan shed amaine;
Amongst her teares immixing prayers meeke,
And with her prayers reasons, to restraine
From blouddy strife, and blessed peace to seeke ...
12. For a fuller discussion, see my entry "Medina, Elissa, Perissa, " in the Spenser Encyclopedia, 464.
13. Eve's tresses even previously were "Disheveled," but in a kind of "wanton" order befitting Milton's idea of the unfallen state of paradise, whereas Medina's
. . . golden lockes she roundly did vptye
In breaded tramels, that no looser heares
Did out of order stray about her daintie eares.
(II. ii. 15)
14. Eve's speech makes more sense than Fish says it does (274); if it is "foolish," some of its foolishness is precisely that of the "preeching of the cross" (1 Cor. 1:18), as Fish himself hints by asking "does one ever deserve a pardon," and by faulting Eve's desire to take another's punishment on herself.
15. Biblical peacemaking is, of course, completely compat ible with the kind of spiritual warfare described in Ephe sians 6.
16. "What turns Adam around and in effect saves him from despair is "sad" Eve's magnificent "Immovable" perseverance"--Canfield.
17. John Donne, Sermons, ed. G.R. Potter and E. M. Simpson (Berkeley: U of California P, 1953-62), IV, 192-94.
Broadbent, J. B. Some Graver Subject: An Essay on Paradise Lost. London: Chatto & Windus, 1960.
Canfield, J. Douglas. "Blessed are the Merciful: The Understanding of the Promise in Paradise Lost." Milton Quarterly 7 (1973): 43-46.
Christopher, Georgia B. Milton and the Science of the Saints. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1982.
Donne, John. Sermons. Ed. G. R. Potter and E. M. Simp son. Berkeley: U of California P, 1953-62.
Fish, Stanley. Surprised by Sin. Berkeley: U of California P, 1971.
Fowler, Alastair, ed. Paradise Lost. The Poems of John Milton. Ed. John Carey and Alastair Fowler. London: Longman, 1968.
Freeman, James A. Milton and the Martial Muse: Paradise Lost and European Traditions of War. Princeton: Prince ton UP, 1980.
Fresch, Cheryl H. "Human and Divine Reconciliation in Paradise Lost, X-XI: The Strategy of Milton's Structure." Praise Disjoined: Changing Patterns of Salvation In 17th-Century English Literature Ed. William P. Shaw. New York: Peter Lang, 1991. 259-71.
Gilbert, Allan H. "Milton on the Position of Woman." MLR 15 (1920): 259-60.
Leonard, John. Naming in Paradise: Milton and the Lan guage of Adam and Eve. Oxford: Clarendon, 1990.
Livy. Livy, with an English Translation. Vol. 1. Loeb Classical Library. Tr. B. O. Foster. London: Heinemann, 1919. 14 vols., 1919-59.
McColley, Diane K. Milton's Eve. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1983.
Milton, John. Complete Poems and Major Prose. Ed. M. Y. Hughes. New York: Odyssey, 1957.
Peczenik, F. "Fit Help: The Egalitarian Marriage in Paradise Lost." Mosaic 17:1 (1984): 29-48.
Spenser, Edmund. The Faerie Queene. Ed. A. C. Hamilton. London: Longman, 1977.
The Spenser Encyclopedia. Gen. ed. A. C. Hamilton. To ronto: U of Toronto Press, 1990.
Summers, Joseph. The Muse's Method. London: Chatto & Windus, 1962.
Tillyard, E.M.W. "The Crisis of Paradise Lost." Studies in Milton. London: Chatto & Windus, 1951. 8-52.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/milton_quarterly/v031/31.4doerksen.html