Following my earlier post the other half of my pleasant Sunday morning Milton lie-in came courtesy of an Intelligence Squared video - Shakespeare vs Milton: The Kings of English Literature Debate. In one sense it's a spurious debate in the sense that both are deserving of their classic status. However, this isn't Eurovision and the format works well to highlight the two writers' individual strengths.
Apart from a few theatre trips long ago, I've not interacted much with Shaekspeare's work outside of required school readings and I really should change that. However, this video reinforces the importance of performance in enjoying these works. I think this applies to Paradise Lost as well. One of my recommendations for people new to Milton's epic poem is to hear it first and from an enjoyment perspective I'm coming to the same opinion.
There are a couple of reasons for this but when deconstructing them it all comes down to my inner reading voice. I've never actually spoken to anyone about this as it's only just occurred to me but I am interested to learn if this applies to other people or whether it's just me being weird!
My inner reading voice is essentially a rapid text-to-speech equivalence amazingly quick and effective with most prose and strangely doesn't remove emotive context. However it does lack tempo and performance, Both attributes are essential to a proper appreciation of a poem or play in my opinion. There are downsides of course, for example, it's slightly more inconvenient when encountering a new word or phrase to pause the play (especially if live!) to quickly look it up. In this case, I make a mental note as if it's something you end up enjoying overall then you'll listen to it again.
Getting back on topic not only does the video reinforce the performance element they are incredible performances and I wish there'd been more for both cases. I'd have enjoyed seeing a bit more actual debate but the points raised were mostly interesting and informative. In particular, I appreciated the take on Milton's apparent lack of humour and salaciousness. In sum, it's an excellent watch and highly recommended.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IskEx0tgoo4
