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Paradise Lost: Astronomy, Scepticism, Perspective, Yanxiang Wu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Recent breakthroughs in Milton studies have demonstrated that the cosmological frame of Paradise Lost is not the Ptolemaic cosmos but most likely the infinite multiverse, and critics were wrong to think that Milton had chosen the geocentric model to accommodate his Christian epic. My thesis builds on this new understanding of Milton’s cosmology and re-examines three interpretational problems in Paradise Lost. Two of them are from the astronomical dialogue in book eight: God’s derisive laughter at astronomers who endeavor to “save appearances” and Raphael’s admonishment to Adam that he “be lowly wise.” The third concerns a group of Milton’s …