Paradise Lost and The Blazing World: Knowledge of Knowledge that is Bes

enlightenment Lost and The Blazing World Knowledge of Knowledge that is Best Left Unknown toilet Milton set out to lay aside heaven Lost in order to justify the miens of God to men (1.26). To achieve this grand goal, Milton relies on his readers capability to shine a degree of personal revelation within the school text. Many scholars have noted Miltons reliance on personal discovery throughout Paradise Lost Stanley Eugene Fish points out that discovery operates in Paradise Lost in a way that is analogous to that of the Mosaic Law because it invokes a aim of interaction with the reader that is able to bring us to the righteousness of Christ (526-7). This idea of discovery differs from genre because the readers personal experiences within the text frame the guiding principles for the readers self-education. In The Blazing Word, Margaret Cavendish utilizes discovery as a means to instruct her reader in a way that closely resembles that used by Milton in Paradise Lost. In addi tion, Cavendish makes use of one of its main themes Be lowly wise (Milton 8.173). Although the idea that Cavendish and Milton would both underline personal discovery in their texts may not be all that earth-shattering, it seems rather implausible that Margaret Cavendish, a woman who was a stanch opponent to puritan values, (Ankers 306) as well as an devoted royalist, could have possessed a conception of the nature of knowledge that was virtually indistinguishable from the one held by John Milton, a devout Puritan and Cromwell supporter. Furthermore, our current conceptions of these two writersMargaret Cavendish as a pioneering feminist writer and John Milton as a conservative Christian tropeseem to further undermine any notion that these two autho... ...ary Criticism 9.1,2 (2000) 301-15.Cavendish, Margaret. The Blazing World. The Blazing World & Other Writings.Ed. Kate Lilley. London Penguin, 1994. 117-202.Fish, Stanely Eugene. Discovery as trunk in Paradise Lost. Paradise Lo st An Authoritative Text Backgrounds and SourcesCriticism. 2nd ed. Ed. Scott Elledge. New York Nortan, 1993. 526-36.Lilley, Kate. Introduction. The Blazing World & Other Writings.Ed. Kate Lilley. London Penguin, 1994. ix-xxxii. Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Paradise Lost An Authoritative Text Backgrounds and Sources Criticism. 2nd ed. Ed. Scott Elledge. New York Nortan, 1993. 1-304.Wood, Caroline Tanya. The Fall and Rise of Absoluteism Margaret Cavendishs Manipulation of Masque Conventions in The Claspe Fantasmes Masqueand The Blazing World. in-between Essays & Studies in Literary Criticism 9.1,2 (2000) 287-99.