How Changed? Milton, Vida, Vergil, and a Network of Allusion

Abstract

Satan's first words in Paradise Lost (‘how changed | From him’) famously allude to Book 2 of the Æneid. Interpretations of Satan's character and of the relationship between Milton's epic and its precursor have been enriched through recognition of this arresting intertextual moment. Recent theoretical and methodological innovations can help to reveal yet more about these intertextual dynamics. Milton alludes in a way that takes account of prior links in an allusive chain, responding not only to the Æneid but also to mediating texts, including Vida's Christiad, whose wresting of the Vergilian phrase to fresh use Milton repeats with crucial changes. Milton's allusion should also be situated within an even broader and more generically variegated network of print diffusion. Vergil's phrase became a commonplace, but still ran within semantic circuits relevant to the allusive chain linking post-Vergilian epics. Milton's ‘how changed’ in turn established itself as a poetic formula.