Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Illustrations of Paradise Lost 3

wikipedia
Paradise Lost 3
William Blake

Christ offers to Redeem Man
"Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sit'st"
(The Image suggests that the Light of God is reflected by Christ) 
Angels on each side "cast Their Crowns before him" (them?)(Book 3;351-2)
Satan is down below with his spear in his right arm; his left arm is wearing a shield.
His face has a sad expression.
From William Blake at the Huntington, by Robert N. Essick, #44:

From Paradise Lost Book Three:
John Milton  
"From the pure Empyrean where he sits
High Thron'd above all highth, bent down his eye,
His own works and their works at once to view:
About him all the Sanctities of Heaven [ 60 ]
Stood thick as Starrs, and from his sight receiv'd
Beatitude past utterance; on his right
The radiant image of his Glory sat,
His onely Son; On Earth he first beheld
Our two first Parents, yet the onely two [ 65 ]
Of mankind, in the happie Garden plac't,
Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love,
Uninterrupted joy, unrivald love
In blissful solitude; he then survey'd
Hell and the Gulf between, and Satan there [ 70 ]
Coasting the wall of Heav'n on this side Night
In the dun Air sublime, and ready now
Eternal King; thee Author of all being,
Fountain of Light, thy self invisible [ 375 ]

Thron'd inaccessible, but when thou shad'st
The full blaze of thy beams, and through a cloud
Drawn round about thee like a radiant Shrine,
Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appeer, [ 380 ]
Yet dazle Heav'n, that brightest Seraphim"


and/or that Christ (in the N.T. is beginning to replace the 
'Light' of the Father (O.T.) (In life the 'father' is replaced 
by the Son, and many tycoons want their son to take their place.)

"Coasting the wall of Heaven .....,"

Christ at the Atonement   in the posture of the Crucifixion. 
Christ stands before God the Father 'High Thron'd but bent Down' (358)

"Now had the Almighty Father from above,
Thee Father first they sung Omnipotent",
Immutable, Immortal, Infinite,
(immortal invisible)

God sits bent over in a 'rectilinear' throne, his face is bent and 
hidden from the Son in front of him.

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