More of Talk: “Julian and Maddalo”

Abstract

ABSTRACT “Julian and Maddalo” is concerned to the point of preoccupation with the content, tone, and form of talk. Critics who have noted the importance of dialogue to the poem have done so by viewing it as a means of postulating abstract ideas or outlining the biographical features of the poem's supposed alter egos. We should be wary of thinking of these exchanges in such coded ways, especially if we recall that Julian is unsure of his memory (“I recall / The sense of what he said, although I mar / The force of his expressions”), that Maddalo is aware of speech's deceptions (“I think you might / Make such a system refutation- tight / As far as words go”), and that the maniac's first symptom is his “ever talking.” The opening of Paradise Lost, book 9—“No more of talk where God or Angel Guest / With Man, as with his Friend familiar used, / To sit indulgent”—marks the moment epic turns into tragedy (a tragedy brought about in part by a couple's inability to talk it over). Shelley conceives of “Julian and Maddalo” in Miltonic terms, and contrives a talk between friends familiar to judge the value of conversation.