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.
Christopher Ricks
- Published in print:
- 1978
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198120902
- eISBN:
- 9780191671289
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198120902.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Milton Studies
Milton's Grand Style has been vigorously attacked in the 20th century and beyond, and this book is an attempt to refute Milton's detractors by showing the delicacy and subtlety which is to be found ...
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Milton's Grand Style has been vigorously attacked in the 20th century and beyond, and this book is an attempt to refute Milton's detractors by showing the delicacy and subtlety which is to be found in the verse of ‘Paradise Lost’.Less
Milton's Grand Style has been vigorously attacked in the 20th century and beyond, and this book is an attempt to refute Milton's detractors by showing the delicacy and subtlety which is to be found in the verse of ‘Paradise Lost’.
Anne Marie Oliver and Paul F. Steinberg
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195305593
- eISBN:
- 9780199850815
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305593.003.0039
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This chapter describes the photographs, hints of the “before” of Abu–Surur. Abu–Surur, called “Hamza” by everyone who knew him, was something of a dandy. He liked to dress up and wear cologne. He was ...
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This chapter describes the photographs, hints of the “before” of Abu–Surur. Abu–Surur, called “Hamza” by everyone who knew him, was something of a dandy. He liked to dress up and wear cologne. He was shiny and reflective, like the white suit that he bought for himself. He was also religious. However, he drove his mother crazy with his talk of Paradise.Less
This chapter describes the photographs, hints of the “before” of Abu–Surur. Abu–Surur, called “Hamza” by everyone who knew him, was something of a dandy. He liked to dress up and wear cologne. He was shiny and reflective, like the white suit that he bought for himself. He was also religious. However, he drove his mother crazy with his talk of Paradise.
Anne Marie Oliver and Paul F. Steinberg
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195305593
- eISBN:
- 9780199850815
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305593.003.0048
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
The family home of Muhammad Rushdi is located in al–'Arub, a little village not far from Bethlehem. After Muhammad's death, his brother said, the family had been besieged with visitors wanting to ...
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The family home of Muhammad Rushdi is located in al–'Arub, a little village not far from Bethlehem. After Muhammad's death, his brother said, the family had been besieged with visitors wanting to offer their condolences. Everyone had heard of Muhammad 'Aziz Rushdi and they printed as many as twenty thousand martyr cards as mementoes for the mourners. For Muslims, the greatest thing that one can wish for is to be in Paradise. Rushdi wanted this all the time. It was also a common charge made by Islamists that the Jews and Christians had changed their scriptures to hold back the advance of Islam.Less
The family home of Muhammad Rushdi is located in al–'Arub, a little village not far from Bethlehem. After Muhammad's death, his brother said, the family had been besieged with visitors wanting to offer their condolences. Everyone had heard of Muhammad 'Aziz Rushdi and they printed as many as twenty thousand martyr cards as mementoes for the mourners. For Muslims, the greatest thing that one can wish for is to be in Paradise. Rushdi wanted this all the time. It was also a common charge made by Islamists that the Jews and Christians had changed their scriptures to hold back the advance of Islam.
Henry Chadwick
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199264575
- eISBN:
- 9780191698958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199264575.003.0039
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History, Early Christian Studies
This chapter discusses the debate about purgatory. To normal Latin view immediately on death souls received their reward, the damned to hell, the just to paradise, the imperfect to purification in ...
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This chapter discusses the debate about purgatory. To normal Latin view immediately on death souls received their reward, the damned to hell, the just to paradise, the imperfect to purification in Purgatory. Discussions and its circulation precipitated reactions on the subject of disagreement between Latin and Greek churches. The report of the debate about purgatory which survived from the Otranto meeting gives the Greek side, but a Latin account went at once to Rome.Less
This chapter discusses the debate about purgatory. To normal Latin view immediately on death souls received their reward, the damned to hell, the just to paradise, the imperfect to purification in Purgatory. Discussions and its circulation precipitated reactions on the subject of disagreement between Latin and Greek churches. The report of the debate about purgatory which survived from the Otranto meeting gives the Greek side, but a Latin account went at once to Rome.
David Quint
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691161914
- eISBN:
- 9781400850488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691161914.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter looks at book 3 of Paradise Lost, which sets apart an invisible God and heaven from the visible universe, divine light from sunlight. Book 3 points to a contrast between the internal ...
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This chapter looks at book 3 of Paradise Lost, which sets apart an invisible God and heaven from the visible universe, divine light from sunlight. Book 3 points to a contrast between the internal illumination invoked by the blind poet and an Apollonian solar inspiration that motivates the poetry of paganism. In the episode of the Paradise of Fools, the book further criticizes—with a particular eye toward Catholic practice—the tendency of men and women to read back through analogy from God's and their own visible works to the invisible Creator, and to confuse the two. Yet, in distinguishing God's lower works from God and his heaven, Milton knows that he risks unlinking creation from Creator altogether, as do the book's alchemical philosophers, and as Satan does when he later suggests to Eve that the sun, not God, is the power source that gives life, as well as light, to the universe.Less
This chapter looks at book 3 of Paradise Lost, which sets apart an invisible God and heaven from the visible universe, divine light from sunlight. Book 3 points to a contrast between the internal illumination invoked by the blind poet and an Apollonian solar inspiration that motivates the poetry of paganism. In the episode of the Paradise of Fools, the book further criticizes—with a particular eye toward Catholic practice—the tendency of men and women to read back through analogy from God's and their own visible works to the invisible Creator, and to confuse the two. Yet, in distinguishing God's lower works from God and his heaven, Milton knows that he risks unlinking creation from Creator altogether, as do the book's alchemical philosophers, and as Satan does when he later suggests to Eve that the sun, not God, is the power source that gives life, as well as light, to the universe.
Sharon Achinstein
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199295937
- eISBN:
- 9780191712210
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199295937.003.0012
- Subject:
- Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
The chapter explores how Milton's epic poems express a vision of tolerance that is critical of secularism. Though committed to a procedural principle of toleration, the imaginative visions of ...
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The chapter explores how Milton's epic poems express a vision of tolerance that is critical of secularism. Though committed to a procedural principle of toleration, the imaginative visions of tolerance in Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained are limited in scope when compared with English and Continental contemporaries. Through literary and linguistic analysis, the chapter looks to Milton's various representations of topics relevant to toleration thinkers (e.g., community, the natural world, Satan, debate, freedom of conscience, the Divine), and judges Milton's epics to be interested in freedom of thought or tolerance not as goals in themselves, but as means to an ultimate end: belief and the triumph of the invisible church.Less
The chapter explores how Milton's epic poems express a vision of tolerance that is critical of secularism. Though committed to a procedural principle of toleration, the imaginative visions of tolerance in Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained are limited in scope when compared with English and Continental contemporaries. Through literary and linguistic analysis, the chapter looks to Milton's various representations of topics relevant to toleration thinkers (e.g., community, the natural world, Satan, debate, freedom of conscience, the Divine), and judges Milton's epics to be interested in freedom of thought or tolerance not as goals in themselves, but as means to an ultimate end: belief and the triumph of the invisible church.
Maggie Kilgour
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199589432
- eISBN:
- 9780191738500
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199589432.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Chapter 3 argues that the failure of the Revolution deepened Milton's reading of Ovid. In Paradise Lost, the act of revision enables Milton to approach the problem of political change. By working ...
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Chapter 3 argues that the failure of the Revolution deepened Milton's reading of Ovid. In Paradise Lost, the act of revision enables Milton to approach the problem of political change. By working within traditions, with stories and figures whose fates are already well known, Milton is able to explore the limits of freedom and change. The use of the figure of Ovid's Narcissus especially demonstrates the problem of free will and determination. While critics have noted the presence of Narcissus as a subtext for the stories of Sin and Eve, Ovid's episode is central to the poem as a whole. Showing first that Ovid's story is a central statement about the nature of desire and creativity, this chapter follows its adaptation in Elizabethan literature, and then shows how Narcissus and related stories, such as those of Daphne and Pomona, help Milton understand creativity and its relation to change.Less
Chapter 3 argues that the failure of the Revolution deepened Milton's reading of Ovid. In Paradise Lost, the act of revision enables Milton to approach the problem of political change. By working within traditions, with stories and figures whose fates are already well known, Milton is able to explore the limits of freedom and change. The use of the figure of Ovid's Narcissus especially demonstrates the problem of free will and determination. While critics have noted the presence of Narcissus as a subtext for the stories of Sin and Eve, Ovid's episode is central to the poem as a whole. Showing first that Ovid's story is a central statement about the nature of desire and creativity, this chapter follows its adaptation in Elizabethan literature, and then shows how Narcissus and related stories, such as those of Daphne and Pomona, help Milton understand creativity and its relation to change.
James Carter
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195398854
- eISBN:
- 9780199894413
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195398854.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
Attracted by Tanxu’s work in Yingkou and other Manchurian cities, government leaders in Harbin invited Tanxu there to construct a Buddhist temple. The motivations were, as elsewhere, both religious ...
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Attracted by Tanxu’s work in Yingkou and other Manchurian cities, government leaders in Harbin invited Tanxu there to construct a Buddhist temple. The motivations were, as elsewhere, both religious and political, aiming to bring Buddhism to a city that lacked a major temple, but also to use the architecture and location of the temple to promote Chinese nationalism in a city that had until recently been a Russian semi-colony, and retained a Russian identity in much of its population and infrastructure. Tanxu continued his work in Harbin, while also travelling throughout the region and even Japan as part of the East Asian Buddhist Conference, until 1932, when Japanese armies invaded Harbin and established the state of Manchukuo as a Japanese protectorate. Although insistent that he was not a guerrilla in the Japanese resistance, Tanxu’s patron, General Zhu Qinglan, attracted the attention of Japanese spies and police, and Tanxu soon fled to Xi’an.Less
Attracted by Tanxu’s work in Yingkou and other Manchurian cities, government leaders in Harbin invited Tanxu there to construct a Buddhist temple. The motivations were, as elsewhere, both religious and political, aiming to bring Buddhism to a city that lacked a major temple, but also to use the architecture and location of the temple to promote Chinese nationalism in a city that had until recently been a Russian semi-colony, and retained a Russian identity in much of its population and infrastructure. Tanxu continued his work in Harbin, while also travelling throughout the region and even Japan as part of the East Asian Buddhist Conference, until 1932, when Japanese armies invaded Harbin and established the state of Manchukuo as a Japanese protectorate. Although insistent that he was not a guerrilla in the Japanese resistance, Tanxu’s patron, General Zhu Qinglan, attracted the attention of Japanese spies and police, and Tanxu soon fled to Xi’an.
David Quint
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691161914
- eISBN:
- 9781400850488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691161914.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter shows how book 1 of Paradise Lost metaphorically depicts the role of the devil in raising the rebel angels out of their “bottomless perdition,” an act of poetic creation analogous to the ...
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This chapter shows how book 1 of Paradise Lost metaphorically depicts the role of the devil in raising the rebel angels out of their “bottomless perdition,” an act of poetic creation analogous to the divine creation of the universe described in the invocation—“how the heavens and earth/Rose out of chaos.” The chief devils described in the catalog that occupies the center of book 1 and organizes its poetic figures and symbolic geography—Carthage, Sodom, Egypt, Babel-Babylon, Rome—are precisely those who will come to inhabit the pagan shrines that human idolatry will build next to or even inside the Jerusalem temple, profaning God's house. This catalog—whose traditional epic function is to size up military force—instead suggests the force of spiritual falsehood, and it corresponds to the defeated devils' own reluctance to pursue another direct war against God; they would rather resort to satanic fraud.Less
This chapter shows how book 1 of Paradise Lost metaphorically depicts the role of the devil in raising the rebel angels out of their “bottomless perdition,” an act of poetic creation analogous to the divine creation of the universe described in the invocation—“how the heavens and earth/Rose out of chaos.” The chief devils described in the catalog that occupies the center of book 1 and organizes its poetic figures and symbolic geography—Carthage, Sodom, Egypt, Babel-Babylon, Rome—are precisely those who will come to inhabit the pagan shrines that human idolatry will build next to or even inside the Jerusalem temple, profaning God's house. This catalog—whose traditional epic function is to size up military force—instead suggests the force of spiritual falsehood, and it corresponds to the defeated devils' own reluctance to pursue another direct war against God; they would rather resort to satanic fraud.
David Quint
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691161914
- eISBN:
- 9781400850488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691161914.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter focuses on book 2 of Paradise Lost. In book 2, Milton continues the story of the demilitarization of the fallen angels and of his epic more generally when he bases all of its action ...
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This chapter focuses on book 2 of Paradise Lost. In book 2, Milton continues the story of the demilitarization of the fallen angels and of his epic more generally when he bases all of its action around the figure of Ulysses, the hero of eloquence and fraud, whose own epic comes in the aftermath of the Trojan War. The chapter demonstrates that the Odyssey, imitated and parodied in Satan's voyage through Chaos to God's newly created universe in the book's last section, is just one of the classical stories about the career of Ulysses that Milton evokes as models for its different episodes. The various parts of book 2 are held together by this pattern of allusion, as well as by the Odyssean figures of Scylla and Charybdis, the emblem of bad choices, or of loss of choice itself.Less
This chapter focuses on book 2 of Paradise Lost. In book 2, Milton continues the story of the demilitarization of the fallen angels and of his epic more generally when he bases all of its action around the figure of Ulysses, the hero of eloquence and fraud, whose own epic comes in the aftermath of the Trojan War. The chapter demonstrates that the Odyssey, imitated and parodied in Satan's voyage through Chaos to God's newly created universe in the book's last section, is just one of the classical stories about the career of Ulysses that Milton evokes as models for its different episodes. The various parts of book 2 are held together by this pattern of allusion, as well as by the Odyssean figures of Scylla and Charybdis, the emblem of bad choices, or of loss of choice itself.
David Quint
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691161914
- eISBN:
- 9781400850488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691161914.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This concluding chapter examines the structure of the composite books 11 and 12, in which the prophesied destruction of Eden corresponds, antithetically, to the building of Pandaemonium at the ...
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This concluding chapter examines the structure of the composite books 11 and 12, in which the prophesied destruction of Eden corresponds, antithetically, to the building of Pandaemonium at the beginning of Paradise Lost in book 1. After the Fall, Eden might become a temple, oracle site, a grove of pagan rites, goal of pilgrimage—it has already, at the moment that Satan invades it in book 4, been compared to the sheepfold of the Church, prey to thieves, a Church too rich to escape corruption. In books that predict the rise of empires, God dissociates his cult from power and wealth, closing down and eventually washing away Eden, lest it become another Pandaemonium—a haunt of foul spirits.Less
This concluding chapter examines the structure of the composite books 11 and 12, in which the prophesied destruction of Eden corresponds, antithetically, to the building of Pandaemonium at the beginning of Paradise Lost in book 1. After the Fall, Eden might become a temple, oracle site, a grove of pagan rites, goal of pilgrimage—it has already, at the moment that Satan invades it in book 4, been compared to the sheepfold of the Church, prey to thieves, a Church too rich to escape corruption. In books that predict the rise of empires, God dissociates his cult from power and wealth, closing down and eventually washing away Eden, lest it become another Pandaemonium—a haunt of foul spirits.
Craig Kallendorf
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199212361
- eISBN:
- 9780191707285
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199212361.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This book tells the story of how a classic like the Aeneid can say different things to different people. As a school text it was generally taught to support the values and ideals of a succession of ...
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This book tells the story of how a classic like the Aeneid can say different things to different people. As a school text it was generally taught to support the values and ideals of a succession of postclassical societies. But between 1500 and 1800, a number of unusually sensitive readers responded to cues in the text that call into question what the poem appears to be supporting. This book focuses on the literary works written by these readers to show how they used the Aeneid as a model for poems that probed and challenged the dominant values of their society, just as Virgil had done centuries before. Some of these poems are not as well known today as they should be, but others, like Milton's Paradise Lost and Shakespeare's The Tempest, are; in the latter case, the poems can be understood in new ways once their relationship to the ‘other Virgil’ is made clear.Less
This book tells the story of how a classic like the Aeneid can say different things to different people. As a school text it was generally taught to support the values and ideals of a succession of postclassical societies. But between 1500 and 1800, a number of unusually sensitive readers responded to cues in the text that call into question what the poem appears to be supporting. This book focuses on the literary works written by these readers to show how they used the Aeneid as a model for poems that probed and challenged the dominant values of their society, just as Virgil had done centuries before. Some of these poems are not as well known today as they should be, but others, like Milton's Paradise Lost and Shakespeare's The Tempest, are; in the latter case, the poems can be understood in new ways once their relationship to the ‘other Virgil’ is made clear.
Thomas Austin
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719076893
- eISBN:
- 9781781701775
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719076893.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Screen documentary has experienced a marked rise in visibility and popularity in recent years. What are the reasons for the so-called ‘boom’ in documentaries at the cinema? How has television ...
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Screen documentary has experienced a marked rise in visibility and popularity in recent years. What are the reasons for the so-called ‘boom’ in documentaries at the cinema? How has television documentary met the challenge of new formats? And how do audiences engage with documentaries on screen? Watching the world extends the reach of documentary studies by investigating recent instances of screen documentary and the uses made of them by audiences. This book focuses on the interfaces between textual mechanisms, promotional tactics and audiences' viewing strategies. Key topics of inquiry are: film and televisual form, truth claims and issues of trust, the pleasures, politics and ethics of documentary. Case studies include Capturing the Friedmans, Etre et Avoir, Paradise Lost, Touching the Void and wildlife documentaries on television.Less
Screen documentary has experienced a marked rise in visibility and popularity in recent years. What are the reasons for the so-called ‘boom’ in documentaries at the cinema? How has television documentary met the challenge of new formats? And how do audiences engage with documentaries on screen? Watching the world extends the reach of documentary studies by investigating recent instances of screen documentary and the uses made of them by audiences. This book focuses on the interfaces between textual mechanisms, promotional tactics and audiences' viewing strategies. Key topics of inquiry are: film and televisual form, truth claims and issues of trust, the pleasures, politics and ethics of documentary. Case studies include Capturing the Friedmans, Etre et Avoir, Paradise Lost, Touching the Void and wildlife documentaries on television.
Craig Kallendorf
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199212361
- eISBN:
- 9780191707285
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199212361.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter considers three key assaults on the Ancien Régime: those of Oliver Cromwell in the 17th century; the American colonies at the end of the 18th; and the French citizenry, from the assault ...
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This chapter considers three key assaults on the Ancien Régime: those of Oliver Cromwell in the 17th century; the American colonies at the end of the 18th; and the French citizenry, from the assault on the Bastille to the rise of Napoleon. In each case, an imitation of the Aeneid develops into an effort to come to terms with rapid political and social change. In the case of Paradise Lost, John Milton produced a poem that reveals all the complexities of the Restoration and his efforts to find a place within it, while in the case of the Columbiad, the production and revision of the poem show how Joel Barlow succeeded in creating an epic that articulates the values of a new revolutionary society. The third poem, the little-known Virgile en France of Victor Alexandre Chrétien Le Plat du Temple, makes the Aeneid, traditionally seen as a pro-imperial poem, into an allegory of the establishment of the French republic.Less
This chapter considers three key assaults on the Ancien Régime: those of Oliver Cromwell in the 17th century; the American colonies at the end of the 18th; and the French citizenry, from the assault on the Bastille to the rise of Napoleon. In each case, an imitation of the Aeneid develops into an effort to come to terms with rapid political and social change. In the case of Paradise Lost, John Milton produced a poem that reveals all the complexities of the Restoration and his efforts to find a place within it, while in the case of the Columbiad, the production and revision of the poem show how Joel Barlow succeeded in creating an epic that articulates the values of a new revolutionary society. The third poem, the little-known Virgile en France of Victor Alexandre Chrétien Le Plat du Temple, makes the Aeneid, traditionally seen as a pro-imperial poem, into an allegory of the establishment of the French republic.
Blair Worden
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264706
- eISBN:
- 9780191734557
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264706.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Milton Studies
In 1660, upon the Restoration of Charles to the English throne, John Milton went into hiding. His treatises Eikonoklastes and Defensio were condemned and burned. Milton faced the prospect of public ...
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In 1660, upon the Restoration of Charles to the English throne, John Milton went into hiding. His treatises Eikonoklastes and Defensio were condemned and burned. Milton faced the prospect of public execution, but escaped with a brief imprisonment. Three-quarters of a century later, the Milton once vilified for his political polemics was embraced by the public for his verses, which had risen high in England's favour. This chapter discusses Milton's purposes and priorities. The ideal of teaching is, according to Milton, through the ‘delight’ of poetry; for him poetry must function to deplore the general Relapses of Kingdoms and States from justice and God's true worship. Just as with poetry, he looked at prose to instruct the readers by affording them delight, and by calming the perturbation of mind that can impede their reception of truth. Milton believed that just as poetry can impart virtue through charm and smoothness of sounds, prose draws on eloquence to charm the multitude to love what is truly good. In his writings, he pursued the conception of liberty, the strife between good and evil, the principle of free choice, and the sinfulness of the popery. Milton tailored his Restoration poems as bulwarks against the wickedness of the court and nation. His poems served as sharp checks and sour instructions, in the absence of which, many people would have been lost if they were not speedily reclaimed. Some of Milton's works of enlightenment and corrections were Paradise Lost, The Reason of Church Government, and History of Britain.Less
In 1660, upon the Restoration of Charles to the English throne, John Milton went into hiding. His treatises Eikonoklastes and Defensio were condemned and burned. Milton faced the prospect of public execution, but escaped with a brief imprisonment. Three-quarters of a century later, the Milton once vilified for his political polemics was embraced by the public for his verses, which had risen high in England's favour. This chapter discusses Milton's purposes and priorities. The ideal of teaching is, according to Milton, through the ‘delight’ of poetry; for him poetry must function to deplore the general Relapses of Kingdoms and States from justice and God's true worship. Just as with poetry, he looked at prose to instruct the readers by affording them delight, and by calming the perturbation of mind that can impede their reception of truth. Milton believed that just as poetry can impart virtue through charm and smoothness of sounds, prose draws on eloquence to charm the multitude to love what is truly good. In his writings, he pursued the conception of liberty, the strife between good and evil, the principle of free choice, and the sinfulness of the popery. Milton tailored his Restoration poems as bulwarks against the wickedness of the court and nation. His poems served as sharp checks and sour instructions, in the absence of which, many people would have been lost if they were not speedily reclaimed. Some of Milton's works of enlightenment and corrections were Paradise Lost, The Reason of Church Government, and History of Britain.
Christopher Tilmouth
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264706
- eISBN:
- 9780191734557
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264706.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Milton Studies
Although poetry's morally instructive purpose was a Renaissance commonplace, Milton developed a detailed conception of what it meant. He argued that poems have the power to ‘inbreed in the great ...
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Although poetry's morally instructive purpose was a Renaissance commonplace, Milton developed a detailed conception of what it meant. He argued that poems have the power to ‘inbreed in the great people the seeds of virtue and public civility, to allay the perturbation of mind, and set the affections in right tune’. Milton was a moralizing poet who was sensitive to the challenge of knowing oneself and staying true to the proper rational ideas. His epics and poems were pegged on the ethic of rational choosing. This chapter examines the kinds of moral knowledge upon which free choice must hang and the capacity of Milton's Adam and Eve to make rational choices. It examines Milton's theodicy, which argued that possession of rational powers enables people to choose between good and evil. The chapter assesses how experience influences the capacity of man for self-determination and choice according to Milton's theodicy. In it, three of Milton's poems, which sum up his moral imagination, are examined: Paradise Lost, Reason of the Church Government, and Areopagitica.Less
Although poetry's morally instructive purpose was a Renaissance commonplace, Milton developed a detailed conception of what it meant. He argued that poems have the power to ‘inbreed in the great people the seeds of virtue and public civility, to allay the perturbation of mind, and set the affections in right tune’. Milton was a moralizing poet who was sensitive to the challenge of knowing oneself and staying true to the proper rational ideas. His epics and poems were pegged on the ethic of rational choosing. This chapter examines the kinds of moral knowledge upon which free choice must hang and the capacity of Milton's Adam and Eve to make rational choices. It examines Milton's theodicy, which argued that possession of rational powers enables people to choose between good and evil. The chapter assesses how experience influences the capacity of man for self-determination and choice according to Milton's theodicy. In it, three of Milton's poems, which sum up his moral imagination, are examined: Paradise Lost, Reason of the Church Government, and Areopagitica.
Rosanna Cox
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264706
- eISBN:
- 9780191734557
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264706.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Milton Studies
This chapter investigates the seventeenth-century cultural and historical context of Milton's portrayal the relationship of Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost. This approach aims to bring the ...
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This chapter investigates the seventeenth-century cultural and historical context of Milton's portrayal the relationship of Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost. This approach aims to bring the intellectual, doctrinal, and political debates with which he engaged in his portrayal of the relationship between the sexes. The chapter examines Milton' understanding of the ideas of woman, womanhood, and the cultural debates about the relationship of man and woman in marriage and in the household, and the ways in which these conceptions formed his political and theological outlook. Milton's thoughts on gender and marriage, which were grounded in reformation and seventeenth-century Puritan teachings, in political debates on family and political obligation, and in the ideological and imaginative relationships between politics and gender, formed his prose and poetry on the relationship of man and woman.Less
This chapter investigates the seventeenth-century cultural and historical context of Milton's portrayal the relationship of Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost. This approach aims to bring the intellectual, doctrinal, and political debates with which he engaged in his portrayal of the relationship between the sexes. The chapter examines Milton' understanding of the ideas of woman, womanhood, and the cultural debates about the relationship of man and woman in marriage and in the household, and the ways in which these conceptions formed his political and theological outlook. Milton's thoughts on gender and marriage, which were grounded in reformation and seventeenth-century Puritan teachings, in political debates on family and political obligation, and in the ideological and imaginative relationships between politics and gender, formed his prose and poetry on the relationship of man and woman.
David Fairer
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264706
- eISBN:
- 9780191734557
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264706.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, Milton Studies
According to Joseph Wittreich, Romantic poets empowered Milton by making him whole again through their readings of his poetry in the future tense, so that poems emerging from one moment of crisis ...
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According to Joseph Wittreich, Romantic poets empowered Milton by making him whole again through their readings of his poetry in the future tense, so that poems emerging from one moment of crisis could reflect upon and explain another crisis in history when, once again, terror and tyranny overruled. In the Romantic period, it became a commonplace to link the prophetic Milton to the Romantic poets. This chapter discusses Milton and the Romantics. It examines the Romanticist readings of Paradise Lost and its influence in the writings of the Romantic poets. The chapter examines his tradition of prophecy and oppositional rhetoric, which found its way into the works of the Romantics.Less
According to Joseph Wittreich, Romantic poets empowered Milton by making him whole again through their readings of his poetry in the future tense, so that poems emerging from one moment of crisis could reflect upon and explain another crisis in history when, once again, terror and tyranny overruled. In the Romantic period, it became a commonplace to link the prophetic Milton to the Romantic poets. This chapter discusses Milton and the Romantics. It examines the Romanticist readings of Paradise Lost and its influence in the writings of the Romantic poets. The chapter examines his tradition of prophecy and oppositional rhetoric, which found its way into the works of the Romantics.
John Casey
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195092950
- eISBN:
- 9780199869732
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195092950.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This chapter explores the development of ideas of the afterlife amongt the ancient Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and Jews, including accounts of ascents to heaven. The Mesopotamian earthly paradise ...
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This chapter explores the development of ideas of the afterlife amongt the ancient Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and Jews, including accounts of ascents to heaven. The Mesopotamian earthly paradise (“Dilmun”) and its difference from the Jewish paradise is described. The philosophical Judaism of Philo of Alexandria is outlined. There follows discussion of images of heaven in the sayings and parables of Jesus, and in particular the idea that heaven is within us. St. Paul's account of the spiritual, risen body is discussed, and St. John's account of the descent of the heavenly Jerusalem.Less
This chapter explores the development of ideas of the afterlife amongt the ancient Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and Jews, including accounts of ascents to heaven. The Mesopotamian earthly paradise (“Dilmun”) and its difference from the Jewish paradise is described. The philosophical Judaism of Philo of Alexandria is outlined. There follows discussion of images of heaven in the sayings and parables of Jesus, and in particular the idea that heaven is within us. St. Paul's account of the spiritual, risen body is discussed, and St. John's account of the descent of the heavenly Jerusalem.
