How Common Sense drew on Paradise Lost
A documented line of influence: Thomas Paine demonstrably engaged John Milton’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
Paradise Lost
John Milton · 1667
RenaissanceThe influenced
Common Sense
Thomas Paine · 1776
EnlightenmentRelevance
6/10
On Common Sense’s page
- Paine's case against reconciliation with Britain leans on Milton, quoted by name
- He lifts Satan's "never can true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep" (Paradise Lost IV.98–99) and turns it on the crown
- Knowing whose mouth that line is in — the unrepentant rebel angel's — gives Paine's borrowing its full charge
On Paradise Lost’s page
- A century after Milton, his Satan turned up in American revolutionary pamphlets
- Paine quotes Paradise Lost by name — Satan's "never can true reconcilement grow / where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep" (IV.98–99)
- He aims Milton's line at Britain: after the bloodshed, the colonies can no more make peace with the crown than the fallen angels with Heaven