A Blake Dictionary by Damon S. Foster Eaves Morris
Author:Damon, S. Foster, Eaves, Morris [Damon, S. Foster, Eaves, Morris]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Dartmouth College Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00
M
* * *
MACHPELAH was a double-chambered cave in western Hebron, which Abraham bought for a family burial place.
Ragan’s web of war drops “with crimson gore with the Loves of Albion & Canaan, opening along the Valley of Rephaim, weaving over the Caves of Machpelah” (J 64:37).
MACPHERSON. See OSSIAN.
MADRID is one of the cities of the nations in which the voice of the wandering Reuben is heard (J 84:14).
MAGDALEN. See MARY MAGDALENE.
MAGGOTS were supposed to generate spontaneously in rotting flesh; therefore “the tender maggot” is an “emblem of Immortality” (FZ ix:759; Mil 27:16).
MAGOG. See GOG.
MAHALALEEL was the fifth in the line of Adam; he is one of the nine “Giants mighty, Hermaphroditic” who constitute the first section of the Twenty-seven Heavens (Mil 37:36; J 75:11).
MAHANAIM was east of the Jordan, about eighty miles north of the Arnon. Here Milton met Urizen, where they strove “among the streams of Arnon, even to Mahanaim” (Mil 19:6).
MAHOMET (570–632) was the founder of the Moslem religion and the author of the Koran. As he was traditionally descended from Ishmael, Blake placed “Mahomed” just beneath Ishmael in his picture of the Last Judgment (K 607; see Illustrations, “LJ” No. 80).
George Sale, in his Preliminary Discourse (1734), noted “the opinion of some learned Arabians, who would have the Koran so named, because it is a collection of the loose chapters or sheets which compose it” (London, 1825 ed., p. 79). As Christians were shocked at the inclusion of sex among the joys of Paradise, Sale carefully refuted the error that there were no spiritual pleasures as well (133–35). Blake believed that Mahomet’s attitude was a reaction against the Christian ideal of celibacy, which threatened the continuance of the human race: “Antamon [the male seed] call’d up Leutha [sex as sin] from her valleys of delight, and to Mahomet a loose Bible gave” (SoL 3:28).
According to the Koran, the General Resurrection shall be followed immediately by a period of “mutual retaliation,” when “every creature will take vengeance one of another, or have satisfaction made them for the injuries which they have suffered” (Sale, 119). Blake incorporated this idea into The Four Zoas (ix:19–23, 146–77).
In the Koran also is to be found the original of the tale in Thomas Parnell’s The Hermit, to which Blake referred on December 10, 1825: “Who shall say what God thinks evil? That is a wise tale of the Mahometans—of the Angel of the Lord that murdered the infant. . . . Is not every infant that dies of disease in effect murdered by an angel?” (CR 260, 291).
MAKUTH was a son of Tiriel, named in a deleted line (Tir iv:73).
MALAH (“disease”) was the oldest of the five daughters of Zelophehad, who left no son; consequently his daughters were allowed to inherit, by special legislation, thus marking a date in the emancipation of women.
To Blake, therefore, the daughters were manifestations of the Female Will. Rahab and the five daughters are equated with Milton’s three wives and three daughters (Mil 17:11). Tirzah, singing of the triumphs of the female sex, bids Malah “come forth from Lebanon” (FZ viii:316; J 68:4).
Download
A Blake Dictionary by Damon S. Foster Eaves Morris.mobi
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
African | Asian |
Australian & Oceanian | Canadian |
Caribbean & Latin American | European |
Jewish | Middle Eastern |
Russian | United States |
4 3 2 1: A Novel by Paul Auster(11754)
The handmaid's tale by Margaret Atwood(7415)
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin(6770)
Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking by M. Neil Browne & Stuart M. Keeley(5328)
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert(5318)
Ego Is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday(4910)
On Writing A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King(4645)
The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson(4552)
Ken Follett - World without end by Ken Follett(4424)
Bluets by Maggie Nelson(4239)
Adulting by Kelly Williams Brown(4208)
Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy(4124)
Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K Hamilton(4094)
White Noise - A Novel by Don DeLillo(3810)
The Poetry of Pablo Neruda by Pablo Neruda(3794)
Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock(3718)
Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read(3711)
The Book of Joy by Dalai Lama(3662)
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald(3602)
