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From: Ross Clark <benlizro@ihug.co.nz>
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: John Milton born (9/12/1608)
Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2024 22:13:18 +1300
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
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All these literary figures I feel utterly unqualified to speak of.

I have (almost) finished reading _Paradise Lost_. It's taken me maybe 3 
years. I keep the book in the car, for moments when I have some empty 
time and want something to read. It's an old college edition from the 
1930s, with quite interesting footnotes, especially about Milton's world 
view/cosmology. (Copernicus and Galileo were still overturning 
Bible-based ideas, and Milton was trying to make up his mind.)
Like everybody says, Satan is the most interesting character.
The battle scenes with the rebel angels are like _Star Wars_ or _Lord of 
the Rings_ -- equally tiresome after a short while.
 From time to time I would come across a phrase and think: Ah! So that's 
where it comes from! JM's not up there with Shakes or Bib, but he does 
produce quite a few [reaches for dictionary of quotations]:

Justify the ways of God to men
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n
....could make the worse appear the better reason.
Confusion worse confounded
....all hell broke loose

and phrases that have made book titles I remember:
Darkness Visible
Precious Bane

Crystal says JM has about 500 first-citations in OED, and I'm willing to 
believe him without cross-examination. Apart from the excellent 
"pandemonium", they are all pretty straightforward compounds or derived 
words using the existing stock of English words and affixes: awestruck, 
complacency, ecstatic, etc.