Milton’s God (Norfolk, CT: New Directions, 1961), 231.ģ At first glance, Paradise Lost might seem an odd choice with which to illustrate the primacy of human love and choice, over the imperious demands of authority that even the most arbitrary of dictates be unquestioningly obeyed. Milton and the English Revolution (London: Faber and Faber, 1977), 3. In the case of those who choose incorrectly, those who disobey, the necessary and enjoyable response for the ruler is to inflict punishment, up to and including death: Subjects without choice, without free will, or with wills so broken as to be no longer functional, offer this kind of sublimely sadistic ruler no satisfaction: what pleasure I, from such obedience paid? The pleasure is precisely in the sensation of an active and functioning will submitting to your own. Choice in the ruled, which includes by design the possibility of choosing not to obey, enhances the pleasures of power for the ruler. Useless and vain, of freedom both despoil’d,Ģ From this perspective, however, the key function of choice is to elicit praise-praise for one’s obedience, delivered by the authority figure who takes pleasure in being obeyed.

When Will and Reason (Reason also is choice) What pleasure I, from such obedience paid, Not what they would? What praise could they receive? Where only what they needs must do appear’ d, Of true allegiance, constant Faith, or Love, Not free, what proof could they have giv’n sincere

Paradise lost book 5