Eric B. Song
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801451850
- eISBN:
- 9780801468094
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801451850.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Milton Studies
This book offers a reading of John Milton's major writings, finding in them a fundamental impasse that explains their creative power. According to the book, a divided view of creation governs ...
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This book offers a reading of John Milton's major writings, finding in them a fundamental impasse that explains their creative power. According to the book, a divided view of creation governs Milton's related systems of cosmology, theology, art, and history. For Milton, any coherent entity—a nation, a poem, or even the new world—must be carved out of and guarded against an original unruliness. Despite being sanctioned by God, however, this agonistic mode of creation proves ineffective because it continues to manifest internal rifts that it can never fully overcome. This dilemma is especially pronounced in Milton's later writings, including Paradise Lost, where all forms of creativity must strive against the fact that chaos precedes order and that disruptive forces will continue to reemerge, seemingly without end. The book explores the many ways in which Milton transforms an intractable problem into the grounds for incisive commentary and politically charged artistry. This argument brings into focus topics ranging from Milton's recurring allusions to the Eastern Tartars, the way Milton engages with country house poetry and colonialist discourses in Paradise Lost, and the lasting relevance of Anglo-Irish affairs for his late writings. The book concludes with a new reading of Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes in which it shows how Milton's integration of conflicting elements forms the heart of his literary archive and confers urgency upon his message even as it reaches its future readers.Less
This book offers a reading of John Milton's major writings, finding in them a fundamental impasse that explains their creative power. According to the book, a divided view of creation governs Milton's related systems of cosmology, theology, art, and history. For Milton, any coherent entity—a nation, a poem, or even the new world—must be carved out of and guarded against an original unruliness. Despite being sanctioned by God, however, this agonistic mode of creation proves ineffective because it continues to manifest internal rifts that it can never fully overcome. This dilemma is especially pronounced in Milton's later writings, including Paradise Lost, where all forms of creativity must strive against the fact that chaos precedes order and that disruptive forces will continue to reemerge, seemingly without end. The book explores the many ways in which Milton transforms an intractable problem into the grounds for incisive commentary and politically charged artistry. This argument brings into focus topics ranging from Milton's recurring allusions to the Eastern Tartars, the way Milton engages with country house poetry and colonialist discourses in Paradise Lost, and the lasting relevance of Anglo-Irish affairs for his late writings. The book concludes with a new reading of Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes in which it shows how Milton's integration of conflicting elements forms the heart of his literary archive and confers urgency upon his message even as it reaches its future readers.
Melissa E. Sanchez
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199754755
- eISBN:
- 9780199896912
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199754755.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies, Milton Studies
This book demonstrates that if we treat sixteenth- and seventeenth-century erotic literature as part of English political history, both fields of study will look rather different. This important new ...
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This book demonstrates that if we treat sixteenth- and seventeenth-century erotic literature as part of English political history, both fields of study will look rather different. This important new book traces some surprising implications of two early modern commonplaces: first, that love is the basis of political consent and obedience, and second, that suffering is an intrinsic part of love. Rather than dismiss such commonplaces as mere convention, the book uncovers the political import of early modern literature’s fascination with erotic violence. Focusing on representations of masochism, sexual assault, and cross-gendered identification, the book re-examines the work of politically active writers from Philip Sidney to John Milton. It argues that political allegiance and consent appear far less conscious and deliberate than traditional historical narratives allow when Sidney depicts abjection as a source of both moral authority and sexual arousal; when Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare make it hard to distinguish between rape and seduction; when Mary Wroth and Margaret Cavendish depict women who adore treacherous or abusive lovers; when court masques stress the pleasures of enslavement; or when Milton insists that even Edenic marriage is hopelessly pervaded by aggression and self-loathing. The book shows that this literature constitutes an alternate tradition of political theory that acknowledges the irrational and perverse components of power and thereby disrupts more conventional accounts of politics as driven by self-interest, false consciousness, or brute force.Less
This book demonstrates that if we treat sixteenth- and seventeenth-century erotic literature as part of English political history, both fields of study will look rather different. This important new book traces some surprising implications of two early modern commonplaces: first, that love is the basis of political consent and obedience, and second, that suffering is an intrinsic part of love. Rather than dismiss such commonplaces as mere convention, the book uncovers the political import of early modern literature’s fascination with erotic violence. Focusing on representations of masochism, sexual assault, and cross-gendered identification, the book re-examines the work of politically active writers from Philip Sidney to John Milton. It argues that political allegiance and consent appear far less conscious and deliberate than traditional historical narratives allow when Sidney depicts abjection as a source of both moral authority and sexual arousal; when Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare make it hard to distinguish between rape and seduction; when Mary Wroth and Margaret Cavendish depict women who adore treacherous or abusive lovers; when court masques stress the pleasures of enslavement; or when Milton insists that even Edenic marriage is hopelessly pervaded by aggression and self-loathing. The book shows that this literature constitutes an alternate tradition of political theory that acknowledges the irrational and perverse components of power and thereby disrupts more conventional accounts of politics as driven by self-interest, false consciousness, or brute force.
Cedric C. Brown
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- December 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198790792
- eISBN:
- 9780191833434
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198790792.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature, Milton Studies
Cedric C. Brown combines the study of literature and social history in order to recognize the immense importance of friendship bonds to early modern society. Drawing on new archival research, he ...
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Cedric C. Brown combines the study of literature and social history in order to recognize the immense importance of friendship bonds to early modern society. Drawing on new archival research, he acknowledges a wide range of types of friendship, from the intimate to the obviously instrumental, and sees these practices as often co-terminous with gift exchange. Failure to recognize the interconnected range of a friendship spectrum has hitherto limited the adequacy of some modern studies of friendship, often weighted towards the intimate or gender-related issues. This book focuses both on friendships represented in imaginative works and on lived friendships in many textual and material forms, in an attempt to recognize cultural environments and functions. In order to provide depth and coherence, case histories have been selected from the middle and later parts of the seventeenth century. Nevertheless many kinds of bond are recognized, as between patron and client, mentor and pupil, within the family, within marriage, in courtship, or according to fashionable refined friendship theory. Both humanist and religious value systems are registered, and friendships are configured in cross-gendered and same-sex relationships. Theories of friendship are also included. Apart from written documents, the range of ‘texts’ extends to keepsakes, pictures, memorials, and monuments. Figures discussed at length include Henry More and the Finch/Conway family, John Evelyn, Jeremy Taylor, Elizabeth Carey/Mordaunt, John Milton, Charles Diodati, Cyriac Skinner, Dorothy Osborne/Temple, William Temple, Lord Arlington, Sir Orlando Bridgeman, and Katherine Philips and her circle, especially Anne Owen/Trevor and Sir Charles Cotterell.Less
Cedric C. Brown combines the study of literature and social history in order to recognize the immense importance of friendship bonds to early modern society. Drawing on new archival research, he acknowledges a wide range of types of friendship, from the intimate to the obviously instrumental, and sees these practices as often co-terminous with gift exchange. Failure to recognize the interconnected range of a friendship spectrum has hitherto limited the adequacy of some modern studies of friendship, often weighted towards the intimate or gender-related issues. This book focuses both on friendships represented in imaginative works and on lived friendships in many textual and material forms, in an attempt to recognize cultural environments and functions. In order to provide depth and coherence, case histories have been selected from the middle and later parts of the seventeenth century. Nevertheless many kinds of bond are recognized, as between patron and client, mentor and pupil, within the family, within marriage, in courtship, or according to fashionable refined friendship theory. Both humanist and religious value systems are registered, and friendships are configured in cross-gendered and same-sex relationships. Theories of friendship are also included. Apart from written documents, the range of ‘texts’ extends to keepsakes, pictures, memorials, and monuments. Figures discussed at length include Henry More and the Finch/Conway family, John Evelyn, Jeremy Taylor, Elizabeth Carey/Mordaunt, John Milton, Charles Diodati, Cyriac Skinner, Dorothy Osborne/Temple, William Temple, Lord Arlington, Sir Orlando Bridgeman, and Katherine Philips and her circle, especially Anne Owen/Trevor and Sir Charles Cotterell.
Paul Hammond and Blair Worden (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264706
- eISBN:
- 9780191734557
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264706.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Milton Studies
This volume offers a series of fresh explorations of the life, writing, and reputation of John Milton. The ten papers take us inside Milton's verse and prose, into the context of the events and the ...
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This volume offers a series of fresh explorations of the life, writing, and reputation of John Milton. The ten papers take us inside Milton's verse and prose, into the context of the events and the intellectual debates within which they were written, and into the later worlds within which his reputation evolved and fluctuated. Key topics discussed include: his political beliefs and career; the characteristics of his poetry – especially Paradise Lost; the literary influences upon his verse; his perception of women; and the ways he has been seen since his death.Less
This volume offers a series of fresh explorations of the life, writing, and reputation of John Milton. The ten papers take us inside Milton's verse and prose, into the context of the events and the intellectual debates within which they were written, and into the later worlds within which his reputation evolved and fluctuated. Key topics discussed include: his political beliefs and career; the characteristics of his poetry – especially Paradise Lost; the literary influences upon his verse; his perception of women; and the ways he has been seen since his death.
Blair Worden
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199230822
- eISBN:
- 9780191696480
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199230822.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature, Milton Studies
This book takes a fresh approach to the literary biography of the two great poets of the Puritan Revolution, John Milton and Andrew Marvell. The book reconstructs the political contexts within which ...
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This book takes a fresh approach to the literary biography of the two great poets of the Puritan Revolution, John Milton and Andrew Marvell. The book reconstructs the political contexts within which Milton and Marvell wrote, and reassesses their writings against the background of volatile and dramatic changes of public mood and circumstance. Two figures are shown to have been prominent in their minds. First there is Oliver Cromwell, on whose character and decisions the future of the Puritan Revolution and of the nation rested, and whose ascent the two writers traced and assessed, in both cases with an acute ambivalence. The second is Marchamont Nedham, the pioneering journalist of the civil wars, a close friend of Milton and a man whose writings prove to be intimately linked to Marvell's. The high achievements of Milton and Marvell are shown to belong to a world of pressing political debate, which Nedham's ephemeral publications helped to shape. The book follows Marvell's transition from royalism to Cromwellianism. In Milton's case the profound effect on his outlook brought by the execution of King Charles I in 1649; his difficult and disillusioning relationship with the successive regimes of the Interregnum; and his attempt to come to terms, in his immortal poetry of the Restoration, with the failure of Puritan rule.Less
This book takes a fresh approach to the literary biography of the two great poets of the Puritan Revolution, John Milton and Andrew Marvell. The book reconstructs the political contexts within which Milton and Marvell wrote, and reassesses their writings against the background of volatile and dramatic changes of public mood and circumstance. Two figures are shown to have been prominent in their minds. First there is Oliver Cromwell, on whose character and decisions the future of the Puritan Revolution and of the nation rested, and whose ascent the two writers traced and assessed, in both cases with an acute ambivalence. The second is Marchamont Nedham, the pioneering journalist of the civil wars, a close friend of Milton and a man whose writings prove to be intimately linked to Marvell's. The high achievements of Milton and Marvell are shown to belong to a world of pressing political debate, which Nedham's ephemeral publications helped to shape. The book follows Marvell's transition from royalism to Cromwellianism. In Milton's case the profound effect on his outlook brought by the execution of King Charles I in 1649; his difficult and disillusioning relationship with the successive regimes of the Interregnum; and his attempt to come to terms, in his immortal poetry of the Restoration, with the failure of Puritan rule.
Ryan Netzley
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780823263479
- eISBN:
- 9780823266630
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823263479.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Milton Studies
John Milton’s and Andrew Marvell’s lyrics attempt to render the experience of apocalyptic change in the present. In this respect, they take seriously the Reformation’s insistence that eschatology is ...
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John Milton’s and Andrew Marvell’s lyrics attempt to render the experience of apocalyptic change in the present. In this respect, they take seriously the Reformation’s insistence that eschatology is not merely a spiritual allegory, but an historical phenomenon. Yet these poets are also embroiled in the revolutionary events surrounding the Regicide and, as a result, their works explore very modern questions about the nature of events. Ultimately, Milton’s and Marvell’s lyrics depict events as the earnest affirmation of possibility, not as crises calling for measured solutions. In this respect, both poets imagine the apocalypse as something more hopeful and interesting than the vengeful settling of old scores or even the moderating resolution of anxiety and struggle. Milton’s and Marvell’s lyrics challenge any retrospective understanding of events, including one built on a theory of revolution, for such a notion mistakenly imagines an end as a vantage point from which one could review history. Instead, these poems—all of which respond to specific historical or personal occasions—show that there is no “after” to the apocalypse, that if we are going to talk about change, then we should do so in the present, when there is still time to do something about it. Lyric, then, a genre inclined toward immediacy, acts as a mechanism for imagining present, and not just deferred, revelation. It also allows us, finally, to imagine an apocalyptic event that would be both hopeful and new.Less
John Milton’s and Andrew Marvell’s lyrics attempt to render the experience of apocalyptic change in the present. In this respect, they take seriously the Reformation’s insistence that eschatology is not merely a spiritual allegory, but an historical phenomenon. Yet these poets are also embroiled in the revolutionary events surrounding the Regicide and, as a result, their works explore very modern questions about the nature of events. Ultimately, Milton’s and Marvell’s lyrics depict events as the earnest affirmation of possibility, not as crises calling for measured solutions. In this respect, both poets imagine the apocalypse as something more hopeful and interesting than the vengeful settling of old scores or even the moderating resolution of anxiety and struggle. Milton’s and Marvell’s lyrics challenge any retrospective understanding of events, including one built on a theory of revolution, for such a notion mistakenly imagines an end as a vantage point from which one could review history. Instead, these poems—all of which respond to specific historical or personal occasions—show that there is no “after” to the apocalypse, that if we are going to talk about change, then we should do so in the present, when there is still time to do something about it. Lyric, then, a genre inclined toward immediacy, acts as a mechanism for imagining present, and not just deferred, revelation. It also allows us, finally, to imagine an apocalyptic event that would be both hopeful and new.
Blair Hoxby
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300093780
- eISBN:
- 9780300129632
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300093780.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Milton Studies
The commercial revolution of the seventeenth century deeply changed English culture. This book explores what that economic transformation meant to the century's greatest poet, John Milton, and to the ...
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The commercial revolution of the seventeenth century deeply changed English culture. This book explores what that economic transformation meant to the century's greatest poet, John Milton, and to the broader literary tradition in which he worked. The book places Milton's work—as well as the writings of contemporary reformers like the Levellers, poets like John Dryden, and political economists like Sir William Petty—within the framework of England's economic history between 1601 and 1724. It demonstrates how literary history swerved in this period, as a burgeoning economic discourse pressed authors to reimagine ideas about self, community, and empire. It shows that, contrary to commonly held views, Milton was a sophisticated economic thinker. Close readings of Milton's prose and verse reveal the importance of economic ideas in a wide range of his most famous writings, from Areopagitica to Samson Agonistes to Paradise Lost.Less
The commercial revolution of the seventeenth century deeply changed English culture. This book explores what that economic transformation meant to the century's greatest poet, John Milton, and to the broader literary tradition in which he worked. The book places Milton's work—as well as the writings of contemporary reformers like the Levellers, poets like John Dryden, and political economists like Sir William Petty—within the framework of England's economic history between 1601 and 1724. It demonstrates how literary history swerved in this period, as a burgeoning economic discourse pressed authors to reimagine ideas about self, community, and empire. It shows that, contrary to commonly held views, Milton was a sophisticated economic thinker. Close readings of Milton's prose and verse reveal the importance of economic ideas in a wide range of his most famous writings, from Areopagitica to Samson Agonistes to Paradise Lost.
Noam Reisner
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199572625
- eISBN:
- 9780191721892
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199572625.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Milton Studies, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
This book offers a comprehensive reassessment of Milton's poetic oeuvre in light of the literary and conceptual problem posed by Milton's sustained attempt to put into words that which is unsayable ...
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This book offers a comprehensive reassessment of Milton's poetic oeuvre in light of the literary and conceptual problem posed by Milton's sustained attempt to put into words that which is unsayable and beyond representation. The struggle with the ineffability of sacred or transcendental subject matter in many ways defines Milton's triumphs as a poet, especially in Paradise Lost, and goes to the heart of the central critical debates to engage his readers over the centuries and decades. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this study sheds fresh light on many of these debates by situating Milton's poetics of ineffability in the context of the intellectual cross-currents of Renaissance humanism and Protestant theology. The book plots an ongoing narrative in Milton's poetry about silence and ineffable mystery, which forms the intellectual framework within which Milton continually shapes and reshapes his poetic vision of the created universe and the elect man's singular place within it. From the free paraphrase of Psalm 114 to Paradise Regained, the presence of the ineffable insinuates itself into Milton's poetry as both the catalyst and check for his poetic creativity, where the fear of silence and ineffable mystery on the one hand, and the yearning to lose himself and his readers in unspeakable rapture on the other, becomes a struggle for poetic self-determination and, finally, redemption.Less
This book offers a comprehensive reassessment of Milton's poetic oeuvre in light of the literary and conceptual problem posed by Milton's sustained attempt to put into words that which is unsayable and beyond representation. The struggle with the ineffability of sacred or transcendental subject matter in many ways defines Milton's triumphs as a poet, especially in Paradise Lost, and goes to the heart of the central critical debates to engage his readers over the centuries and decades. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this study sheds fresh light on many of these debates by situating Milton's poetics of ineffability in the context of the intellectual cross-currents of Renaissance humanism and Protestant theology. The book plots an ongoing narrative in Milton's poetry about silence and ineffable mystery, which forms the intellectual framework within which Milton continually shapes and reshapes his poetic vision of the created universe and the elect man's singular place within it. From the free paraphrase of Psalm 114 to Paradise Regained, the presence of the ineffable insinuates itself into Milton's poetry as both the catalyst and check for his poetic creativity, where the fear of silence and ineffable mystery on the one hand, and the yearning to lose himself and his readers in unspeakable rapture on the other, becomes a struggle for poetic self-determination and, finally, redemption.
Gordon Campbell, Thomas N. Corns, John K. Hale, and Fiona J. Tweedie
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199296491
- eISBN:
- 9780191711923
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199296491.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Milton Studies
This book presents an account of the provenance of De Doctrina Christiana, with a history of the manuscript, a reconstruction of the way it was assembled and revised, and an assessment of its place ...
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This book presents an account of the provenance of De Doctrina Christiana, with a history of the manuscript, a reconstruction of the way it was assembled and revised, and an assessment of its place in the interpretation of other works by John Milton. It resolves issues relating to its place in Milton's canon, thus concluding a controversy that has recently been central to Milton studies.Less
This book presents an account of the provenance of De Doctrina Christiana, with a history of the manuscript, a reconstruction of the way it was assembled and revised, and an assessment of its place in the interpretation of other works by John Milton. It resolves issues relating to its place in Milton's canon, thus concluding a controversy that has recently been central to Milton studies.
Paul Hammond
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199682379
- eISBN:
- 9780191789465
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199682379.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Milton Studies, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
Who are ‘the people’ in Milton’s writing? They figure prominently in his texts from early youth to late maturity, in his poetry and in his prose works; they are invoked as the sovereign power in the ...
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Who are ‘the people’ in Milton’s writing? They figure prominently in his texts from early youth to late maturity, in his poetry and in his prose works; they are invoked as the sovereign power in the state and have the right to overthrow tyrants; they are also, as God’s chosen people, the guardians of the true Protestant path against those who would corrupt or destroy the Reformation. They are entrusted with the preservation of liberty in both the secular and the spiritual spheres. And yet Milton is uncomfortably aware that the people are rarely sufficiently moral, pure, intelligent, or energetic to discharge those responsibilities which his political theory and his theology would place upon them. When given the freedom to choose, they too often prefer servitude to freedom. This book traces the twists and turns of Milton’s terminology and rhetoric across the whole range of his writings, in verse and prose, as he grapples with the problem that the people have a calling to which they seem not to be adequate. Indeed, they are often referred to not as ‘the people’ but as ‘the vulgar’, as well as ‘the rude multitude’, ‘the rabble’, and even as ‘scum’. Increasingly his rhetoric imagines that liberty or salvation may lie not with the people but in the hands of a small group or even an individual. An additional thread which runs through this discussion is Milton’s own self-image: as he takes responsibility for defining the vocation of the people, and for analysing the causes of their defection from that high calling, his own role comes under scrutiny both from himself and from his enemies.Less
Who are ‘the people’ in Milton’s writing? They figure prominently in his texts from early youth to late maturity, in his poetry and in his prose works; they are invoked as the sovereign power in the state and have the right to overthrow tyrants; they are also, as God’s chosen people, the guardians of the true Protestant path against those who would corrupt or destroy the Reformation. They are entrusted with the preservation of liberty in both the secular and the spiritual spheres. And yet Milton is uncomfortably aware that the people are rarely sufficiently moral, pure, intelligent, or energetic to discharge those responsibilities which his political theory and his theology would place upon them. When given the freedom to choose, they too often prefer servitude to freedom. This book traces the twists and turns of Milton’s terminology and rhetoric across the whole range of his writings, in verse and prose, as he grapples with the problem that the people have a calling to which they seem not to be adequate. Indeed, they are often referred to not as ‘the people’ but as ‘the vulgar’, as well as ‘the rude multitude’, ‘the rabble’, and even as ‘scum’. Increasingly his rhetoric imagines that liberty or salvation may lie not with the people but in the hands of a small group or even an individual. An additional thread which runs through this discussion is Milton’s own self-image: as he takes responsibility for defining the vocation of the people, and for analysing the causes of their defection from that high calling, his own role comes under scrutiny both from himself and from his enemies.
1895
A.S. Byatt
Abandoned in the Heartland
Abandoned to Ourselves
Abandoning Historical Conflict?
The Abbe Gregoire and the French Revolution
Abigail and John Adams
Abominable Science!
Aboriginal Slavery on the Northwest Coast of North America
