Naming in Paradise: Milton and the Language of Adam and Eve by John Leonard (review)

HUMANITIES 131 John Leonard. Naming in Paradise: Milton and the Language of Adam and Eve Oxford University Press. viii, 304· $75.00 In this study oflanguage in Paradise Lost,John Leonard makes a stimulating contribution to our understanding of the remarkable unity and coherence of Milton's epic. Leonard's primary concern is naming, which he believes to be integral to Milton's poem as well as implicit in its subject. While his analysis frequently draws on literary analogies and allusions, on English usage, and on etymology, his attention is centred on the language of Paradise Lost itself, and the naming process is understood in terms of the epic's narrative method and its plot. Both the giving and the withholding of names are found to besignificant. An example of the former is the naming of Eve, which occurs when Adam calls out to her at their first encounter (IV, 481). Milton here departs from Genesis, where the woman is not called 'Eve' until after the Fall, a view echoed by most seventeenth-century commentators. By claiming prelapsarian status for Eve's name, Milton redeems it from the slur expressed in fallen Adam's malicious pun ('0 Eve, in evil hour), and prepares for Adam's final recognition that it is a fitting name for the 'Mother of all mankind.' An example of the withholding of names occurs in connection with the fallen host. Leonard points out that no rebel angel ever addresses another by name in Paradise Lost, for their original names have been blotted out and they are quiteunaware of the names given to them by the poet, who draws upon the history of their later activity on earth. Satan presents a more complex case, one in which there is both a giving and a withholding of names. While he is called 'Satan' in heaven, this name came into existence only after he proved foe to God, thereby forfeiting his original name, now 'heard no more' (v, 659). 'Lucifer' is only a substitute for that other lost and glorious name, an interpretation of it. Leonard convincingly displays the psychological drama of Satan's development into a full awareness of his new identity, a process completed when he utters his new name for the first and only time as he glories in his triumph over mankind. This compelling analysis might lead one to ask why the importance of naming in the poem has not been fully recognized before.The answer must lie partly in the way the major characters in the action are known to us from the outset, so that phrases such as 'the infernal Serpent: 'our general Mother: and 'our first Father draw us at once into acts of naming. The narrator is in any case quick to remind us of the identities of the speakers. This is particularly obvious with respect to the lesser figures, who are inSistently named by the poet himself (Thus Belial ...: 'Thus Beelzebub ...'). Even after our eyes are opened by Leonard's lucid explication, we must make an effort not to relapse into a passive acceptance of the dramatis 132 LEITERS IN CANADA 1990 personae provided by the narrator. The imaginative difficulty of remembering that the fallen angels are nameless is brought out by the fact that even Raphael seems to forget this as he recounts the story of the war in heaven. Leonard recognizes the problem, and struggles valiantly with it, but with uncertain success. Raphael's instructions were to tell Adam of the past. Is it probable that he has a detailed knowledge of future history like that which is only available to Michael through divine enlightenment? In any case, Raphael's narrative mingles the names of the rebels with those of the faithful angels - Uriel and Abdiel with Adramelech, Aroch, and Asmadai - and this tends to blur the distinction between true names and substitute ones. A crucial position in Leonard's study is established during his discussion of Adam's naming of the animals. 'I nam'd them, as they pass'd' observes Adam, 'and understood / Thir Nature, with such knowledge God endu'd / My sudden apprehension' (VllI, 352-4). God endows Adam and Eve with the rational ability...