"SUCH PROMPT ELOQUENCE": LANGUAGE AS AGENCY AND CHARACTER
IN MILTON'S EPICS

Leonard Mustazza
Penn State University

This work traces in Milton's epics the characters' uses of words and analyzes the ways in which language leads the reader to a very precise understanding of the agents in the poems. Through discussion of the verbal conflicts, it demonstrates how Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained are of a piece. Contents:

1. Introduction
2. Satanic Language and the Fall of the Rebel Angels
3. Satanic Language and the Fall of Man
4. Human Language Before the Fall
5. Human Language After the Fall
6. Divine Language-Paternal, Filial, and Angelic
7. Language as Weapon in Paradise Regained

170 pages + Index Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press; London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1988. ISBN: 0š8387š5121š0 $32.50