Milton's 400th

This day marks the 400th anniversary of the birth of John Milton in 1608. Milton was a famous poet whose Paradise Lost is one of the seminal works of the English religious literature canon. In a literary sense, he was a precursor to Shakespeare; whereas Shakespeare was the first writer to consistently give his characters psychological dimensionality (intention, motivation, character and complexity), Milton did give it a shot, especially in his diabolical exegesis of the character of Satan.

But Milton isn't literature that every student of English comes across in this day and age, although I am sure many traditionalists would prefer it. It is sadly far more likely that the advice given to the unknown Terence should hold true:

Oh many a peer of England brews
Livelier liquor than the Muse,
And malt does more than Milton can
To justify God’s ways to man.
Ale, man, ale’s the stuff to drink
For fellows whom it hurts to think:
Look into the pewter pot
To see the world as the world’s not.
And faith, ’tis pleasant till ’tis past:
The mischief is that ’twill not last.

One wonders, however, if seeing "the world as the world's not" would do us any lasting mischief – or whether a little bit of fantasy might indeed be a useful coping strategy, profitably deployed as we build castles in the air as templates for an ideal future.