Shakespeare or Milton--whom do you prefer?

[DerekG]

These really are the two giants of Western literature, so I was interested to know if DUers have a prefer one over the other.

I adore Macbeth, King Lear and 1 Henry IV, but I think Milton's epic poem, Paradise Lost, trounces any single Shakespeare play. I find the imagery to more indelible, the language easier to digest, and the plot unfathomably operatic. And I've never wept while reading Shakespeare.

"So farewell Hope, and with Hope farewell Fear,
Farewell Remorse: all Good to me is lost;
Evil be thou my Good; by thee at least
Divided Empire with Heav'n's King I hold
By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign;
As Man erelong, and this new World shall know."

---Satan (Book IV 108-113)

[mikehiggins]

1. Shakespere

I think Milton is an overrated elitist.

Shakespere knew the people and what made them live and breathe. He was undoubtedly the absolute greatest playwright in the history of the English language.

If he was running for President I'd back him over Clark.

[greatauntoftriplets]

2. Brush up your Shakespeare,

and they'll all kowtow!!! (Guess who?)

[mobuto]

3. Well, now its Shakespeare

ever since that bastard Stanley Fish made it impossible for me to look at Milton's Devil as the hero.

[supernova]

4. Shakespeare if I had to choose

though I think they both have their place in the Western canon.

Shakespeare because he articulates so well the whole panoply of human behavior: scoundrels and rapscallions, gravdiggers and witches, princesses, kings and dukes, in verse no less.

Milton irks on one level, because it's largely from him and Dante that we get the modern notions of Satan as the purveyor and keeper of all things profane and obscene, though most people -- especially conservatives -- don't see that.

Shakespeare understood what would be accessable to all people, Milton was writing an amusement for the educated classes solely.

[Shakespeare]

5. I'll give you one guess...

:D

Seriously, it's a tough choice. For the poster who said Milton is an overrated elitist--you're just wrong. Sorry.

What I get the biggest kick out of regarding Milton is that most fundies take their concept of hell from Paradise Lost, and not from the bible, and they don't even realize it. There was also a healthy amount of sex in PL, and some absolutely stunning flights of poetry. Beyond PL, There's Lycidas, the twin poems, the excellent treatise on free speech, Areopagitica....and on and on.

They're different writers doing different things--it's not quite fair to quantify them in this way and choose one over the other.

I'm just delighted we've got them both, along with Dante and Wordsworth and Keats and Steinbeck (etc., etc., etc.).

[nuxvomica]

6. Sir, that was a fine post

Excellent note about Fundie mythology. The ultimate test of Shakespeare's superiority is that "This is the end of zombie Milton" would not be as funny.

[On the Road]

7. Never Read Milton

I'm afraid to say. But I love Shakespeare (or rather, the works usually attributed to Shakespeare), especially the sonnets.

[MrScorpio]

8. The Bard is da' BOMB!!

My heart isn't dark enough to vote any other way

[southerngirlwriter]

9. Gotta go with Shakespeare....

Sonnet 29, which I read at the age of 8, was my first glimpse into the true power of language.

[Interrobang]

10. Shakespeare, hands down

Although I liked Areopagitica, those pages-long extended metaphors in Paradise Lost get to me. After that, I was sort of going, "Okay, okay, enough already!" Then again, I'm not too keen on The Bard's historicals, either...

Honestly, I'd rather read Chaucer or some of the earlier English writers (the Wakefield Playwright, the Gawain Poet) than either of them... :) I'd also rather read some of the later English poets -- I love my X-rated 18th C. and Restoration smut verse (John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester has some of the best raunchy lines ever penned in English!).