THE MOSAIC VOICE IN "PARADISE LOST"

Abstract

ABSTRACT A limited perception of Moses' relation to the epic narrator in Paradise Lost derives from the tendency to regard his brief role as hierophant in an early draft of a tragedy as a paradigm of his role in the great epic. Placing Moses within an exclusively neo-Platonic perspective and elevating him to virtually godlike status obscure the human features of the imperfect Minister of the Law. In fact, two distinct Moses traditions—the neo-Platonic and the typological—help to define Milton's epic voice. If the transition from Edenic perfection to sin in Paradise Lost is attended by a shift from predominantly neo-Platonic to predominantly typological symbolism, then these shifts might be assisted by our recognition of a changed emphasis upon the character of Moses. Though lines ought not be drawn too sharply, it is generally true that the epic voice depends on the neo-Platonic tradition of Moses as poet-illuminator in passages that describe a prelapsarian world. When the Fall of Man is evoked, the epic narrator exploits a complex typological conception of Moses as at once a symbol of Old Testament obscurity and a mediator who leads to Christ.