Milton and the Epic Epithalamium

ABSTRACT In Paradise Lost Milton alludes to conventions of the classical epithalamium both to praise the wedding of Adam and Eve and, ironically, to adumbrate its desecration. Book IV shows his positive imitation of images and plot from Catullus 61, undoubtedly the most influential lyric epithalamium revived in the Renaissance. For his epideictic style, however, Milton draws upon traditions of the epic epithalamium whose topics of “proemium,” “praise of the love that rules the world,” and “praise of the nuptial couple” he develops to elevate proper marital virtues. Comparison of Milton's epithalamium for Adam and Eve with others composed by hexameral poets such as Du Bartas, Andrew Ramsey, and Jacob Cats reveals how Milton's version follows Christian humanists’ qualification of certain topics found in secular epithalamia. Especially significant is the humanists’ dispraise of material splendor and their substitution of a new topic glorifying the natural simplicity manifested in the Edenic setting for Adam and Eve's wedding. A final qualification of the pagan genre is located in Michael's presentation of the fallen world in Book XI. Here Adam is shown a pagan wedding in progress so that he may learn how it desecrates Christian marital virtues.