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A Chronology for Paradise Lost
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Vicki Silver, UCI
Immediate are the acts of God, more swift
Than time or motion, but to human ears
Cannot without process of speech be told,
So told as earthly notion can receive. (VII.176-79)
Milton did not open his poem with an account of its chronology.
In the best "epic" tradition (and as a better man has pointed
out, "for artistic reasons of his own"), he began in medias
res, in the middle of things. The entire action takes thirty-one
days. The chronological order of key events is given below: the figures
on the left indicate the "day" of the incident, and those
at the right designate the book in which the action is either dramatized
or described in retrospect.
|
Day
|
Action
|
Book
|
|
1 |
The heavenly council: "exaltation" of
the Son; birth of Sin.
|
VI
(II) |
|
2-4 |
The battle in Heaven,
narrated by Raphael.
|
V-VI |
|
5-13 |
Satan
and his allies dropped into Chaos and Hell.
|
VI |
|
14-22 |
Satan
and his angels lie stunned on the fiery lake.
|
I |
|
[18] |
God
begins the six days of creation, narrated by Raphael.
|
VII |
|
23 |
The
sixth day of creation:
|
|
|
|
a. Creation
of Adam and Eve; their marriage.
|
VIII
(IV.444) |
|
|
b. The
council in Hell; Satan goes to Paradise.
|
II,
III, IV |
|
|
c. The
second "exaltation" of the Son; the Incarnation
revealed.
|
III |
|
|
d. Satan's
unsuccessful attempt to seduce the sleeping
Eve. |
II |
|
24 |
Raphael
warns Adam--by describing the War in Heaven and the creation
of the world.
|
VI-VIII
(V.224-45) |
|
30 |
The
temptation and fall; the arrival of Sin and Death; discord
in the heavens and throughout "nature."
|
IX-XI |
|
31 |
Michael
expels Adam and Eve from Paradise, having first revealed
future events and promised the "Messiah."
|
XI-XII |
|