The Crystalline Sphere and the “Waters Above” in Paradise Lost

Abstract

Since 1695, when Patrick Hume, Milton's first annotator, published by subscription The Poetical Works of Mr. John Milton, the editors of Paradise Lost have consistently held that the “waters above the firmament” in the Miltonic cosmology are synonymous with or are contained in the crystalline sphere. I propose to demonstrate that in spite of their accord Milton's editors have been mistaken; that in the geocentric universe of Paradise Lost the crystalline sphere has only the functional role originally assigned to it in the thirteenth century by the astronomer-king Alphonso of Spain; and that the “waters above,” derived from theological rather than scientific sources, were located by the poet outside the primum mobile and never by him confused or identified with the crystalline sphere. This view, contrary to the tenor of historic scholarship, was put forth by the Jonathan Richardsons, father and son, early and sometimes disparaged commentators on Milton. In their Explanatory Notes and Remarks on Milton's Paradise Lost (London, 1734), they explicate P.L. VII.269 thus: “as Moses Gen. i. 7. says there were Waters above and Under the Firmament, Milton Supposes a Chrystalline Ocean, a Sea Clear as the Purest Chryslal, flowing round the New Creation, a Fence (beside the Wall, III, 721) against Chaos. But this is not the Chrystalline mention'd III.482. That was a Sphere, and for a Different use, nor is it a part of Milton's System.” Apparently no serious attention hitherto has been paid to this lone dissenting opinion. It is hoped that this study will encourage a fresh examination of several passages in Paradise Lost and that it will contribute to the understanding of Milton's cosmology as a whole.