![]() ![]() In seventeenth-century France, for instance, Greek tragedy was honoured more than Greek comedy primarily for its influence on neoclassical drama – in particular on the plays of Racine, Corneille, and their followers. However, Aristophanes suffered under the burden of the comparison with the grand and ‘consistent’ style of tragedy as well. Aristophanes’ reputed knockabout comedy or his bômolochia (or aischrologia), his mixing of styles, and the perceived public role of his ridicule in Socrates’ conviction and death suffered under the weight of the comparison with his younger counterpart. Plutarch set the stage for many centuries of history and criticism in the same vein. It was most likely Plutarch himself who subjected both playwrights to an (unfair) comparison, and who fiercely condemned Aristophanes in favour of Menander (Moralia 853a–854d). The reception of Aristophanes and Menander may well be one of the oldest cases of ‘studied’. Imagine the Athenian who has just watched one of the comedies and who regales his neighbours and friends by replaying some of the jokes or scenes for them: ‘Stop me if you've heard this one already…’. The reception of Aristophanes and Menander may well be one of the oldest cases of ‘spontaneous’ reception. And by rooting his Satanic reading of Paradise Lost in Biblical and other sources, Forsyth retrieves not only an attractive and heroic Satan but a Milton whose heretical energies are embodied in a Satanic character with a life of his own. He is the great doubter who gives voice to many of the arguments that Christianity has provoked from within and without. It is Satan who questions and wonders and denounces. Satan emerges as the main challenge to Christian belief. ![]() He considers each of these as Milton introduces them: as Satanic subjects. Neil Forsyth argues that William Blake got it right when he called Milton a true poet because he was "of the Devils party" even though he set out "to justify the ways of God to men." In seeking to learn why Satan is so alluring, Forsyth ranges over diverse topics-from the origins of evil and the relevance of witchcraft to the status of the poetic narrator, the epic tradition, the nature of love between the sexes, and seventeenth-century astronomy. It reasserts the importance of Satan against those who would minimize the poem's sympathy for the devil and thereby make Milton orthodox. This book attempts to explain how and why Milton's Satan is so seductive. The Satan of Paradise Lost has fascinated generations of readers. ![]()
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