We begin with the famous line from Milton’s Paradise Lost:
That to the height of this great argument,
I may assert Eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to men.
To which A.E. Housman replied, in A Shropshire Lad [1]:
And malt does more than Milton can
To justify God’s ways to man.
Apropos of a situation in which snark was required, Colin tweeted out a gender-neutral version of Milton’s line. I replied with a couplet of which I am inordinately proud:
You’d need a vat of malt, enough to swim in,
To justify the ways of God to women.
Yes, I did just put myself in that list. Seriously, though, you have to click that link for Paradise Lost – it’s an e-book version created to look as much like a Renaissance English text as possible, and it is delightful.
[1] Housman, A.E., A Shropshire Lad, 1896.[back]
tom hillman
That is a worthy addition to the conversation.
Joe
Only because it’s so well footnoted.
Shawn M
Thanks for that Paradise Lost link. It’s a very cool presentation.
I always thought that the poet Terence in that Housman poem was of two conflicting opinions. The lines above are frequently quoted by people I know in beer enthusiast circles, but the pro-beer argument in those lines is pretty strongly countered by the rest of the poem, so maybe he’s just being sarcastic.
But your contribution has revealed a third possible reading to me: “You have to be drunk to make sense of this world.”
Tom Hillman
Houseman was renowned for being caustic. The story goes that when he died, bottom drawers of desks flew open revealing long hidden manuscripts that his fellow classicists had been afraid to publish because he might review them.
Joe
That’s funny.
tom hillman
Here’s a good article on Housman in what purports to be a review of this collected letters:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n13/frank-kermode/nothing-for-ever-and-ever
Joe
A 1930’s book of cocktail recipes that I encountered in my youth was my inspiration. A footnote to the “Fallen Angel” said, “It is unclear whether this drink is to be offered to the angel before or after the fall; whether as an inducement or a consolation.”
Joe
Housman wrote a humorous parody of a Greek tragedy. Count that day lost in which nothing is learned. I’m glad to hear that he wrote light verse, too – living in shropshire-lad mode all the time would crush anyone’s spirit.