ABSTRACT
The essay tries to evaluate Milton's paraphrastic techniques in his adaptation of the biblical account of the Creation in Paradise Lost, Book VII. The structure of PL VII, 216-632 and Milton's way of distributing the quotations from the Bible among additions and amplifications are reassessed. His use of various Bibles emerges from a meticulous comparison between the quotations and possible sources. Milton prefers the Authorized Version over the Geneva Bible by a ratio of approximately 2:1. He also consults the Vulgate and adapts the glosses of the English Bibles. Milton modifies the sources considerably in order to express his view of the Creation as a dynamic and logically structured process. He avoids repetitions, employs idiosyncratic and poetic diction, emphasizes significant words through position, and connects distant passages by verbal echoes. The syntax evinces a marked tendency toward extended units not contained in the Bibles. Milton fuses and condenses different biblical verses, notably in his adaptation of the creation of man, where he lets Raphael address Adam directly for the first time. Milton's techniques of transforming his sources by synthesizing, poeticizing, and imposing his own style upon the account of the Creation are illustrated by tables.
