Milton's Eve and Wisdom: The "Dinner-Party" Scene in Paradise Lost

Errata

In 1808 Hannah More wrote that

according to my notion of household good, which does not include one idea of drudgery or servility, but which involves a large and comprehensive scheme of excellence, I will venture to affirm, that let a woman know what she may, yet if she knows not this, she is ignorant of the most indispensible, the most appropriate branch of female knowledge. ¹

Hannah More writes of Eve in terms of wisdom. Eve’s wisdom is, to quote, “seen in its effects. Indeed it is felt rather than seen. It is sensibly acknowledged in the peace, the happiness, the virtue of the component parts; in the order, regularity, and beauty of the whole system, of which she is the moving spring” (Wittreich 163–64). ² The idea of Milton’s Eve as the moving spring of the paradisal system comes close to my own reading of her role in the epic. Eve brings about change, and the episode of the meal is a central example in the series of incidents where she is the principal actor.

The critical discussion on the angelic visitation usually privileges Raphael’s discourse with Adam. Eve’s contribution has been of less interest. ³ How ever, Eve’s more immediate means of knowing is achieved through the created things, and the implications of her domestic creativity warrant more extensive comment. The occasion of Raphael’s visit is of crucial importance to the investigation of Eve’s role in the pursuit of wisdom. I will argue that Eve, through her domestic ability, can be seen to mediate the message Raphael brings from on high.

It is intriguing that the meal, and particularly the details of Eve’s practical preparations, should be given such prominence in the text. The meal is attended by three major powers of good, and the occasion it accompanies spans the four central books in the epic. The account of the Creation itself is situated within the framework of Eve’s meal. Given that meals are usually mundane events, prompted by the need for survival, and that an elaborate meal takes place in prelapsarian Eden where survival is hardly an immediate problem, this episode is remarkable enough to warrant investigation of more than appearances alone. The meal and its context serve to illustrate some of the precepts of the epic as a whole, such as reciprocity and moderation. It facilitates knowledge of the ways of God, helping Raphael who has been sent for the purpose of making Adam aware of his predicament.

Raphael teaches about the War in Heaven and the Creation, and reinforces the epistemological bounds which are to circumscribe their existence. Complementing this, Eve shows her understanding of the “created things,” and her grasp of household manage ment. These are areas of importance which link closely with Raphael’s project by putting his teaching into practice, as I aim to show. Albert Fields, and more recently Lorna Hutson, have brought to our attention the Greek teacher Xenophon’s influence on early modern literature. Xenophon wrote in the Oeconomicus that “estate management is the name of a branch of knowledge, like medicine, smithing and carpentry . . . the business of a good estate manager is to manage his own estate well (Xenophone 363). ⁴ Milton’s Eve, in contrast to the unfortunate wife of Xenophon’s fictional character Isomachus, who relates that “she was vexed and blushed crimson, because she could not give me something from the stores when I asked for it” (Xenophon 429) manages her estate well. Milton’s Eve knows about store-keeping.

I will argue that Milton’s text re-mythologises the role of the “wife at home.” Eve is not only a purveyor of things to eat. Far from perpetuating the convention of Dod and Cleaver’s explicit delineation of spheres of responsibility (outdoors for husband, indoors for wife) and the idea that the “woman, as good wife, is merely the example of his [the husband’s] ability to govern” (Xenophon 21), Paradise Lost shows a creative autonomy in the actions of Eve that reduces the power of such...