The ambiguity of the preposition for allows the sonnet to continue its teetering

balance over the subject of the master-mistresss gender. The addressee was
either created for a womans ends and is thus a man, or was created to be a
woman. The enjambed meaning is solved in the next lines with the introduction of the creation myth. Although on the surface the solution would seem
to be that the master-mistress was created to be a woman, given the complete
story, the first option stays in play. Nature in the act of creation fell in love
with her creature and added a penis, the gender-bending extra unstressed half
-foot that has appeared in every line, thanks to the feminine rhymes.
Lest Shakespeares bemused or amused reader not understand the additional one thing, Shakespeare spells it out in a coarse pun (12): But since she
prickt thee out for womens pleasure, / Mine be thy love and thy loves use their
treasure (1314). The extra half-foot, a masculine addition to the unstressed
feminine rhyme, in each line, thus comes to have central importance to the
gender-bending of the sonnets point.
AMY D. STACKHOUSE, Iona College, New Rochelle, New York
Copyright 2007 Heldref Publications
KEYWORDS

gender, prosody, sexuality, Shakespeares sonnets

NOTES
1. I used the photostat of the original 1609 Quarto held at the Folger Shakespeare Library
(reprinted in Helen Vendlers The Art of Shakespeares Sonnets [Cambridge: Belknap-Harvard
UP, 1997] 127), but I have modernized the Elizabethan printers v where a modern reader expects
to see a u and the to the modern lower-case s.
2. The uniqueness of the feminine rhyme has been noted recently without comment by Helen
Vendler in her excellent The Art of Shakespeares Sonnets 129.
3. Charles Casey, Was Shakespeare Gay? Sonnet 20 and the Politics of Pedagogy, College
Literature 25.3 (1998): 3551.
4. For more on the puns in Sonnet 20, see Philip C. Kolin, Shakespeares Sonnet 20,
Explicator 45.1 (1986): 1011.
5. For extended discussion of mans hues, see Giorgio Melchiori, Loves Use and Mans
Hues in Shakespeares Sonnet 20, English Miscellany 23 (1972): 2138.

Eve as a Fair Defect in Miltons PARADISE LOST, BOOK 10

Facing adversity like a manhe blames his wife!Adam complains about
Eve in lines 88892 of book 10 of John Miltons Paradise Lost, Oh why did
God, / Creator wise, that peopled highest heaven / With spirits masculine, cre204

ate at last / This novelty on earth, this fair defect / Of nature [. . . ]? Before
the Fall has taken place, Adam describes to Raphael his dim memories of the
creation of Eve: a creature grew [under Gods hands], / Manlike, but different sex, so lovely fair, / That what seemed fair in all the world, seemed now /
Mean (8.47073).1 Then, after she tastes the fruit, Adam laments, O fairest
of Creation, [. . . ]. How art thou lost [. . .]! (9.896900). Now, after he, too,
has fallen, Adam sees Eve as a fair defect (10.891).
The phrase fair defect seems to be an oxymoron of the specific type Puttenham calls syneciosis or Crosse-couple, because it takes me two contrary
words, and tieth them as it were in a paire of couples, and so makes them
agree like good fellowes [. . .] (206). Certainly fair and defect appear to have
opposite connotations if we take fair to be an adjective meaning beautiful
(OED, def. 1), free from blemish or disfigurement (OED, def. 3), including
free from moral stain (OED, def. 9); and defect to be a noun meaning lack
or absence of something essential for completeness; deficiency (OED, def.
1) or shortcoming, or failure (OED, def. 2). Indeed, this range of meanings
for fair and defect appears to be taken for granted by most critics, who seem to
interpret the phrase to mean something like a beautiful deficiency (Hughes
427; Shawcross 473; Fowler 58788).
The usual explanation for fair defect, then, suggests defect is to be understood
primarily as some type of imperfection, which, in turn, critics usually read as
an example of Miltons supposed antifeminism, or, as Fowler notes, another
ancient antifeminist canard (588). Defect here is taken to refer to the idea that
woman is a defective male. In particular, Fowler references Aristotle, De Generatione 735a25, 767a35, 775a15 as well as Bartholomew Kekermann, Systema
Physica (1617), (are females monstrous, as involving a defect of nature? No:
women are common, monsters rare).2
Given Adams immediate circumstances, this interpretation of defect does
make some sense; however, there is also an alternate meaning for the word
that does not seem to have been noticed. Specifically, the OED cites for the
noun defect a political meaning of a falling away (from), defection (OED,
6). Although this is a rare usage for the noun form of the word, it is quite common for verb form, which often means to fall away from (a person, party, or
cause); to become a rebel or deserter (OED, def. 2). In this sense, then, Eves
conduct has involved her in a political defection; she is a defector from the
party of God and Adam and has gone over to the side of the rebel Satan.
Because the English word defect comes ultimately from the Latin defectio,
meaning both a process of falling short, deficiency (OLD, def. 1), as well as
the act of deserting (an allegiance, alliance), defection, revolt (OLD, def. 3),
we appear to have here a good example of one of Miltons favorite types of puns.
As Edward Le Comte has reminded us, by far the most frequent type of pun [in
Miltons poetry] is etymological. Most common are the usages that recall Latin
205

derivation while maintaining the modern meaning as well [. . .] (ix). Interestingly, the Ingram and Swain Concordance to Miltons poetry lists 10.891 as the
only example of Miltons use of defect in any form in the poem (defects is also
used once, as is defective [118]). By contrast, overtly political words such as
rebel, rebelled, rebellion(s), and rebellious are used repeatedly in Paradise Lost,
and almost always refer to Satan and his followers (Concordance 446). Because
defect, as we have already seen, can have several meanings, only one of which is
political, by punning on defect instead of the blatantly political word rebel, Milton suggests that, although Eve has her faults and has defected from the party of
God and Adam, this defection is not as obvious and permanent a sin as is Satans
rebellion. In other words, instead of violently and permanently condemning Eve,
the poet employs a more subtle approach, simultaneously criticizing her while
leaving open for her the possibility of a change of mind (Satan, of course, will
always remain a rebel). Moreover, the temporary nature of Eves rebellion is further strengthened by the adjective fair, which means not only beautiful, but also
of tolerable, though not highly excellent quality: pretty good (OED, def. 11)
and with good promise (OED, def. 14). Fair thus anticipates Eves repentance
and subsequent return to her proper political loyalties later in the poem.
ROBERT E. JUNGMAN, Louisiana Tech University
Copyright 2007 Heldref Publications
KEYWORDS

Eve, Fair defect, John Milton, Paradise Lost, puns

NOTES
1. See also Fletcher 2:177, Doyle 10710, and McColley 2334 for an extended discussion of
this idea.
2. Unless otherwise indicated, all citations from Milton are taken from Paradise Lost, ed.
Alastair Fowler, 2nd ed (London: Longman, 1998).
WORKS CITED
The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Oxford: Oxford UP, 1971.
Doyle, Charles Clay. Natures Fair Defect: Milton and William Cartwright on the Paradox of
Woman. English Language Notes 11 (1973): 10710.
Fletcher, Harris Francis. The Intellectual Development of John Milton. 2 vols. Urbana: U of
Illinois P, 195661.
Hughes, Merritt Y., ed. John Milton: Complete Poems and Major Prose. Indianapolis: Ingram,
William, and Kathleen Swain, eds. A Concordance to Miltons English Poetry. Oxford: Clarendon, 1972.
Le Compte, Edward. A Dictionary of Puns in Miltons English Poetry. New York: Columbia UP, 1981.
McColley, Diane Kelsey. Miltons Eve. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1983.
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Ed. Alastair Fowler. 2nd ed. London: Longman, 1998.
Shawcross, John, ed. The Complete Poetry of John Milton: Edited with an Introduction, Notes,
and Variants. New York: Anchor, 1971.

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