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John Milton, Cryptographer.(Critical Essay)(Brief Article)

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From: ANQ
Date: 20000101
Author:HUNTER, WILLIAM B.

Readers of John Shawcross's edition of Milton's poetry will recognize the significance of the appearance of Death at line 666 of book 2 of Paradise Lost, for that is the mysterious and threatening number of the Beast in Revelation. As a significant parallel, Adam falls in book 9 on its inverse line, 999. In such hidden details Milton seems to be communicating silently with alert readers.

In a similar way he sometimes uses acrostics. In book 9, as Satan leads Eve to the Tree of Knowledge, the initial letters of lines 510-14 spell out his name in capitals, surely no mere ...

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