Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T13:09:58.443Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Clustering and Curling Locks: The Matter of Hair in Paradise Lost

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Stephen B. Dobranski
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In Paradise Lost Milton introduces Adam and Eve by lingering on their appearance, but instead of presenting a detailed catalog of the couple's physical attributes, he focuses on their hair. This essay challenges earlier readings of Adam and Eve's locks by examining Milton's imagery in the context of hair's cultural and spiritual value. Comparing depictions of hair in sixteenth-century sonnets and cavalier seduction poetry reveals how Milton appropriates the early modern aesthetic of sprezzatura to convey Adam and Eve's unique innocence. The essay shows that Milton's description is not merely superficial, nor even merely symbolic. Rather, when read in relation to early modern theories of hair's etiology and to Milton's own animist materialism, hair in Paradise Lost literally embodies Adam and Eve's prelapsarian love. Their clustering and curling locks enact the couple's amorous reciprocity and signify the paradoxical strength and fragility of their Edenic marriage.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 125 , Issue 2 , March 2010 , pp. 337 - 353
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Ariosto, Lodovico. Orlando Furioso. Trans. Harrington, John. Ed. Hough, Graham. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1962. Print.Google Scholar
Aubrey, John. “Minutes of the Life of Mr. John Milton.” The Early Lives of Milton. Ed. Darbishire, Helen. London: Constable, 1932. 1–15. Print.Google Scholar
“Beard, v.” Def. 3. Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford UP, 2008. Web. 23 Sept. 2008.Google Scholar
Belsey, Catherine. John Milton: Language, Gender, Power. Oxford: Blackwell, 1988. Print.Google Scholar
Berg, Charles. The Unconscious Significance of Hair. London: Allen, 1951. Print.Google Scholar
Bernheimer, Richard. Wild Men in the Middle Ages: A Study in Art, Sentiment, and Demonology. New York: Octagon, 1970. Print.Google Scholar
Bryer, Robin. The History of Hair. London: Wilson, 2000. Print.Google Scholar
Burton, Robert. The Anatomy of Melancholy. Ed. Shilleto, A. R. Vol. 3. London: Bell, 1893. Print. 3 vols.Google Scholar
Carey, John, ed. John Milton: Complete Shorter Poems. 2nd ed. London: Longman, 1997. Print.Google Scholar
Castiglione, Baldesar. The Book of the Courtier. Trans. Singleton, Charles S. Ed. Javitch, Daniel. New York: Norton, 2002. Print.Google Scholar
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. The Riverside Chaucer. Ed. Benson, Larry D. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1989. 3–328. Print.Google Scholar
Constable, Henry. Diana. London, 1594. Facsim. ed. Menston: Scolar, 1973. Print.Google Scholar
Corson, Richard. Fashions in Hair: The First Five Thousand Years. London: Owen, 2001. Print.Google Scholar
Dalton, O. M. Franks Bequest: Catalogue of the Finger Rings, Early Christian, Byzantine, Teutonic, Mediaeval and Later Bequeathed by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks. London: Longmans, 1912. Print.Google Scholar
Daniel, Samuel. Delia. The Complete Works in Verse and Prose of Samuel Daniel. Ed. Alexander B. Grossart. 1885–96. Vol. 1. New York: Russell, 1963. 19–77. Print. 4 vols.Google Scholar
Demetz, Peter. “The Elm and the Vine: Notes toward the History of a Marriage Topos.” PMLA 73.5 (1958): 521–32. JSTOR. Web. 9 Oct. 2006.Google Scholar
Dobranski, Stephen B. “Seizures, Free Will, and Hand-Holding in Paradise Lost.” Milton, Rights, and Liberties. Ed. Tournu, Christophe and Forsyth, Neil. Bern: Lang, 2007. 269–82. Print.Google Scholar
Donne, John. “The Funeral.” John Donne. Ed. Carey, John. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1990. 127. Print.Google Scholar
Donne, John. “The Relic.” John Donne. Ed. Carey, John. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1990. 130. Print.Google Scholar
Empson, William. Some Versions of Pastoral. New York: New Directions, 1974. Print.Google Scholar
“Excrement.” Def. 2, sb. 1; def. 1, sb. 2. Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford UP, 2008. Web. 26 June 2008.Google Scholar
Farnell, Lewis Richard. The Cults of the Greek States. Vol. 4. New Rochelle: Caratzas, 1977. Print. 5 vols.Google Scholar
Fish, Stanley. Surprised by Sin: The Reader in Paradise Lost. 1967. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1997. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fowler, Alastair, ed. Paradise Lost. By John Milton. 2nd ed. London: Longman, 1998. Print.Google Scholar
Frye, Roland Mushat. Milton's Imagery and the Visual Arts. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1978. Print.Google Scholar
Galen. On the Usefulness of the Parts of the Body. Trans. Tallmadge, Margaret May. Vol. 2. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1968. Print. 2 vols.Google Scholar
Gilbert, Sandra M., and Gubar, Susan. The Madwoman in the Attic. New Haven: Yale UP, 1979. Print.Google Scholar
Gitter, Elisabeth G. “The Power of Women's Hair in the Victorian Imagination.” PMLA 99.5 (1984): 936–54. JSTOR. Web. 26 Sept. 2006.Google Scholar
Gray, Erik. “Severed Hair from Donne to Pope.” Essays in Criticism 47.3 (1997): 220–39. Oxford Journals. Web. 9 Oct. 2006.Google Scholar
Guillory, John. “From the Superfluous to the Supernumerary: Reading Gender into Paradise Lost.” Soliciting Interpretation: Literary Theory and Seventeenth-Century English Poetry. Ed. Harvey, Elizabeth D. and Maus, Katharine Eisaman. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1990. 68–88. Print.Google Scholar
Halkett, John. Milton and the Idea of Matrimony. New Haven: Yale UP, 1970. Print.Google Scholar
Hall, James. The Sinister Side: How Left-Right Symbolism Shaped Western Art. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008. Print.Google Scholar
Herrick, Robert. “Art about Nature, to Julia.” Hesperides. London, 1648. Q6v. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herrick, Robert. “Delight in Disorder.” Hesperides. London, 1648. C6v. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heuscher, Julius E. A Psychiatric Study of Myths and Fairy Tales: Their Origin, Meaning, and Usefulness. Springfield: Thomas, 1974. Print.Google Scholar
Holweck, F. G. A Biographical Dictionary of the Saints. 1924. Detroit: Gale, 1969. Print.Google Scholar
The Holy Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1966. Print. Eng. Standard Vers.Google Scholar
Homer. Iliad. Trans. Fagles, Robert. New York: Penguin, 1990. Print.Google Scholar
Homer. Odyssey. Trans. Fitzgerald, Robert. New York: Vintage, 1989. Print.Google Scholar
Hunt, Leigh. The Poetical Works of Leigh Hunt. Ed. Milford, H. S. London: Oxford UP, 1923. Print.Google Scholar
Hunt, Leigh. “The Wishing-Cap. No. 1.” Tait's Edinburgh Magazine Jan. 1833: 435–42. Print.Google Scholar
Irwin, M. Eleanor. “Odysseus' ‘Hyacinthine Hair’ in Odyssey 6.231.” Phoenix 44.3 (1990): 205–18. JSTOR. Web. 6 July 2008.Google Scholar
John, Lisle Cecil. The Elizabethan Sonnet Sequence. New York: Columbia UP, 1938. Print.Google Scholar
John Milton Poems Reproduced in Facsimile from the Manuscript in Trinity College, Cambridge. Menston: Scolar, 1970. Print.Google Scholar
Jonson, Ben. “Still to be neat, still to be dressed.” Ben Jonson. Ed. Donaldson, Ian. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1985. 491. Print.Google Scholar
Kanter, Laurence B., and Boehm, Barbara Drake. Painting and Illumination in Early Renaissance Florence, 1300–1450. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994. Print.Google Scholar
Krouse, F. Michael. Milton's Samson and the Christian Tradition. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1949. Print.Google Scholar
Lehnhof, Kent. “‘Nor Turnd I Weene’: Paradise Lost and Pre-lapsarian Sexuality.” Milton Quarterly 34.3 (2000): 67–83. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lieb, Michael. Milton and the Culture of Violence. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1994. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lovelace, Richard. “To Althea. From Prison.” Lucasta: Epodes, Odes, Sonnets, Songs, &c. London, 1649. H1r-v. Early English Books Online. Web. 7 Oct. 2006.Google Scholar
Lovelace, Richard. “To Amarantha, That She Would Dishevel Her Hair.” Lucasta: Epodes, Odes, Sonnets, Songs, &c. London, 1649. B3v-4r. Early English Books Online. Web. 7 Oct. 2006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luxon, Thomas. Single Imperfection: Milton, Marriage, and Friendship. Pittsburgh: Duquesne UP, 2005. Print.Google Scholar
McColley, Diane Kelsey. Milton's Eve. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1983. Print.Google Scholar
Miller, J. Hillis. “How Deconstruction Works.” Theory Now and Then. Durham: Duke UP, 1991. 293–94. Print.Google Scholar
Milton, John. Ad Patrem. Carey 154–60.Google Scholar
Milton, John. L'Allegro. Carey 136–44.Google Scholar
Milton, John. Eikonoklastes. Complete Prose Works of John Milton. Don M. Wolfe, gen. ed. Vol. 3. New Haven: Yale UP, 1962. 337–601. Print. 8 vols. 1953–82.Google Scholar
Milton, John. Lycidas. Carey 243–56.Google Scholar
Milton, John. Mansus. Carey 263–70.Google Scholar
Milton, John. A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle. Carey 178–234.Google Scholar
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Ed. Fowler, Alastair. 2nd ed. London: Longman, 1998. Print.Google Scholar
Milton, John. Samson Agonistes. Carey 355–413.Google Scholar
Newman, Robert D. “Entanglement in Paradise: Eve's Hair and the Reader's Anxiety in Paradise Lost.” Interpretations 16.1 (1985): 112–25. Print.Google Scholar
Newton, Thomas, ed. Paradise Lost. By John Milton. 4th ed. Vol. 1. London, 1757. Print. 2 vols.Google Scholar
Ogle, M. B. “The Classical Origin and Tradition of Literary Conceits.” American Journal of Philology 34.2 (1913): 125–52. JSTOR. Web. 11 Jan. 2007.Google Scholar
Ovid. Metamorphoses. Trans. Miller, Frank Justus. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. New York: Putnam's, 1921. Print. 2 vols.Google Scholar
Petrarch. The Canzoniere. Trans. and ed. Musa, Mark. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1996. Print.Google Scholar
Prynne, William. Histrio-Mastix. London, 1633. Print.Google Scholar
Prynne, William. The Unlovelinesse, of Lovelockes. London, 1628. Early English Books Online. Web. 27 Feb. 2009.Google Scholar
Rebhorn, Wayne. Courtly Performance: Masking and Festivity in Castiglione's Book of the Courtier. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1978. Print.Google Scholar
Revard, Stella P. Milton and the Tangles of Neaera's Hair: The Making of the 1645 Poems. Columbia: U of Missouri P, 1997. Print.Google Scholar
Ricks, Christopher. Milton's Grand Style. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1963. Print.Google Scholar
Robinson, Henry. A Moderate Answer to Mr. Prins Full Reply. London, 1645. Print.Google Scholar
Rogers, John. “Transported Touch: The Fruit of Marriage in Paradise Lost.” Milton and Gender. Ed. Martin, Catherine Gimelli. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004. 115–32. Print.Google Scholar
Sammons, Todd H. “‘As the Vine Curls Her Tendrils’: Marriage Topos and Erotic Countertopos in Paradise Lost.” Milton Quarterly 20.4 (1986): 117–27. Print.Google Scholar
Samuel, Irene. “Paradise Lost as Mimesis.” Approaches to Paradise Lost: The York Tercentenary Lectures. Ed. Patrides, C. A. London: Arnold, 1968. 15–29. Print.Google Scholar
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. Jenkins, Harold. London: Routledge, 1994. Print.Google Scholar
Shakespeare, William. Love's Labour's Lost. Ed. Woudhuysen, H. R. Nashville: Nelson, 1998. Print.Google Scholar
Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. Ed. Mahood, M. M. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1987. Print.Google Scholar
Shakespeare, William. Much Ado about Nothing. Ed. Mares, F. H. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988. Print.Google Scholar
Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. Ed. Warren, Roger and Wells, Stanley. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.Google Scholar
Sleeman, Margaret. “Medieval Hair Tokens.” Forum for Modern Languages 17.4 (1981): 322–36. Print.Google Scholar
The Soundheads Description of the Roundhead. London, 1642. Early English Books Online. Web. 9 Apr. 2007.Google Scholar
Spenser, Edmund. Amoretti. Amoretti and Epithalamion: A Critical Edition. Ed. Larsen, Kenneth J. Tempe: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1997. 67–104. Print.Google Scholar
Taylor, John. Heads of All Fashions. London, 1642. Early English Books Online. Web. 9 Apr. 2007.Google Scholar
Trapp, J. B. “The Owl's Ivy and the Poet's Bays: An Enquiry into Poetic Garlands.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 21.3–4 (1958): 227–55. JSTOR. Web. 28 Feb 2009.Google Scholar
Ungerer, Gustav. “Sir Andrew Aguecheek and His Head of Hair.” Shakespeare Studies 16 (1983): 101–33. JSTOR. Web. 9 Oct. 2006.Google Scholar
Van Dyck, Anthony. Charles I, King of England, from Three Angles. 1636. Oil on canvas. Royal Collection, Windsor Castle, Berkshire.Google Scholar
Van Dyck, Anthony. Five Children of King Charles I. 1637. Oil on canvas. Natl. Portrait Gallery, London.Google Scholar
Vicary, Thomas. The Anatomie of the Bodie of Man, Part I. 1577. Ed. Frederick J. Furnivall and Percy Furnivall. 1888. Millwood: Kraus, 1975. Print. Early English Texts Ser. 53.Google Scholar
“Wanton, a. and sb.” Defs. A.2, 3.c, 7.b. Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford UP, 2008. Web. 26 June 2008.Google Scholar
Whigham, Frank. Ambition and Privilege: The Social Tropes of Elizabethan Courtesy Theory. Berkeley: U of California P, 1984. Print.Google Scholar
Wilding, Michael. “‘Thir Sex Not Equal Seem'd’: Equality in Paradise Lost.” Of Poetry and Politics: New Essays on Milton and His World. Ed. Stanwood, P. G. Binghamton: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1995. 171–85. Print.Google Scholar
Wright, B. A. “Note on Paradise Lost, IV.310.” Notes and Queries 5th ser. 203 (1958): 341. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar