PARADISE REGAINED 4

Fitzwilliam Museum
Milton's Paradise Regained
Mary's lamentation for Christ

Paradise Regained, Book 2

"Thus they out of their plaints new hope resume
To find whom at the first they found unsought:
But to his Mother Mary, when she saw [ 60 ]
Others return'd from Baptism, not her Son,
Nor left at Jordan, tydings of him none;
Within her brest, though calm; her brest though pure,
Motherly cares and fears got head, and rais'd
reminisences Some troubl'd thoughts, which she in sighs thus clad. [ 65 ]
...
Thus Mary pondering oft, and oft to mind [ 105 ]
Recalling what remarkably had pass'd
Since first her Salutation heard, with thoughts
Meekly compos'd awaited the fulfilling:
The while her Son tracing the Desert wild,
Sole but with holiest Meditations fed, [ 110 ]
Into himself descended, and at once
All his great work to come before him set;"

Milton used the reminiscences of Jesus' mother to recount the birth and childhood of Jesus. Mary recalls everything contained in the gospels about Jesus up to the time of his baptism. In his illustration Blake shows Mary sitting in a shelter similar to that pictured in On the Morning of Christ's Nativity. Mary is alone, she is seated on stone steps with a spindle near at hand. With his picture Blake has introduced doubts about Mary's ability to understand her son - his level of consciousness and the struggle to which he is called. Blake used the symbol of the physical side of man being transmitted through the Mother, and the spiritual side through the Father. The spindle is symbolic of the process through which spirits receive bodies when they are born into the material world. Blake's poem To Tirzah is his clearest statement of the attitude that mortality is represented by the advent of the feminine.

Songs of Experience, Song 52, (E 30) 
"To Tirzah    

Whate'er is Born of Mortal Birth,
Must be consumed with the Earth
To rise from Generation free;
Then what have I to do with thee?

The Sexes sprung from Shame & Pride
Blow'd in the morn: in evening died
But Mercy changd Death into Sleep;
The Sexes rose to work & weep.

Thou Mother of my Mortal part.
With cruelty didst mould my Heart. 
And with false self-decieving tears,
Didst bind my Nostrils Eyes & Ears.

Didst close my Tongue in senseless clay
And me to Mortal Life betray:
The Death of Jesus set me free,  
Then what have I to do with thee?

[text on illustration: It is Raised a Spiritual Body]"

If the physical nature of humanity is represented by Mary, the spiritual nature finds expression in the angels whose bodies seem to form the enclosure in which Mary sits. The pondering of Mary is her attempt to reconcile the two natures. She watches as the child becomes a man without being able to fully comprehend the internal development of the boy whose consciousness is directed to a world beyond the scope of her comprehension.

Luke 2
[15] And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
[16] And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
[17] And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
[18] And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
[19] But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
...
[42] And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.
[43] And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it.
[44] But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day's journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance.
[45] And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him.
[46] And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.
[47] And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.
[48] And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.
[49] And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?
[50] And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them.
[51] And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.
[52] And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

Thel, Plate 5, (E 5)
"But he that loves the lowly, pours his oil upon my head.
And kisses me, and binds his nuptial bands around my breast.

And says; Thou mother of my children, I have loved thee.
And I have given thee a crown that none can take away
But how this is, sweet maid, I know not, and I cannot know,       
I ponder, and I cannot ponder; yet I live and love.

The daughter of beauty wip'd her pitying tears with her white veil,
And said. Alas! I knew not this, and therefore did I weep:
That God would love a Worm I knew, and punish the evil foot
That wilful, bruis'd its helpless form: but that he cherish'd it 
With milk and oil, I never knew; and therefore did I weep," 

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