POET

John Milton (1608 - 1674)

BIOGRAPHY

John Milton's career as a writer of prose and poetry spans three distinct eras: Stuart England; the Civil War (1642-1648) and Interregnum, including the Commonwealth (1649-1653) and Protectorate (1654-1660); and the Restoration. When Elizabeth I, the so-called Virgin Queen and the last of the Tudors, died, James VI, King of Scots, was enthroned as Britain's king. Titled James I, he inaugurated the House of Stuart. His son and successor, Charles I, continued as monarch until he lost the Civil War to the Parliamentarians, was tried on charges of high treason, and was beheaded on 30 January 1649. For eleven years thereafter England was governed by the military commander and later Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, who was succeeded by his son, Richard. By 1660 the people, no longer supportive of the Protectorate, welcomed the Restoration, the return of the House of Stuart in the person of Charles II, son of the late king.

Milton's chief polemical prose was written in the decades of the 1640s and 1650s, during the strife between the Church of England and various reformist groups such as the Puritans and between the monarch and Parliament. Designated the antiepiscopal or antiprelatical tracts and the antimonarchical or political tracts, these works advocate a freedom of conscience and a high degree of civil liberty for humankind against the various forms of tyranny and oppression, both ecclesiastical and governmental. In line with his libertarian outlook, Milton wrote Areopagitica (1644), often cited as one of the most compelling arguments on the freedom of the press. In March 1649 Milton was appointed secretary for foreign tongues to the Council of State. In that capacity his service to the government, chiefly in the field of foreign policy, is documented by official correspondence, the Letters of State, first published in 1694. In that capacity, moreover, he was a vigorous defender of Cromwell's government. One of his assignments was to counteract the erosion of public support of the Commonwealth, a situation caused by the publication of the Eikon Basilike (1649) or King's Book, which had widespread distribution after Charles I's execution. Believed to have been written by the king himself—though composed chiefly by an episcopal divine, Dr. John Gauden, who later became a bishop—the work sought to win public sympathy by creating the image of the monarch as a martyred saint. Eikonoklastes (1649), or Imagebreaker, is Milton's refutation, a personal attack on Charles I which likened him to William Shakespeare's duke of Gloucester (afterward Richard III), a consummate hypocrite. As a result Milton entered into controversy with Claude de Saumaise, a French scholar residing in Holland and the polemicist who wrote on behalf of Charles I's son in exile in France.

The symptoms of failing eyesight did not deter Milton , who from an early age read by candlelight until midnight or later, even while experiencing severe headaches. By 1652 he was totally blind. The exact cause is unknown. Up to the Restoration he continued to write in defense of the Protectorate. After Charles II was crowned Milton was dismissed from governmental service, apprehended, and imprisoned. Payment of fines and the intercession of friends and family, including Andrew Marvell, Sir William Davenant, and perhaps Christopher Milton, his younger brother and a Royalist lawyer, brought about Milton's release. In the troubled period at and after the Restoration he was forced to depart his home which he had occupied for eight years in Petty-France, Westminster. He took up residence elsewhere, including the house of a friend in Bartholomew Close; eventually, he settled in a home at Artillery Walk toward Bunhill Fields. On or about 8 November 1674, when he was almost sixty-six years old, Milton died of complications from gout.

While Milton's impact as a prose writer was profound, of equal or greater importance is his poetry. He referred to his prose works as the achievements of his "left hand." In 1645 he published his first volume of poetry, Poems of Mr. John Milton , Both English and Latin, much of which was written before he was twenty years old. The volume manifests a rising poet, one who has planned his emergence and projected his development in numerous ways: mastery of ancient and modern languages—Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Italian; awareness of various traditions in literature; and avowed inclination toward the vocation of poet. The poems in the 1645 edition run the gamut of various genres: psalm paraphrase, sonnet, canzone, masque, pastoral elegy, verse letter, English ode, epigram, obituary poem, companion poem, and occasional verse. Ranging from religious to political in subject matter, serious to mock-serious in tone, and traditional to innovative in the use of verse forms, the poems in this volume disclose a self-conscious author whose maturation is undertaken with certain models in mind, notably Virgil from classical antiquity and Edmund Spenser in the English Renaissance.

Like the illustrious literary forebears with whom he invites comparison, Milton used his poetry to address issues of religion and politics, the central concerns also of his prose. Placing himself in a line of poets whose art was an outlet for their public voice and using, like them, the pastoral poem to present an outlook on politics, Milton aimed to promote an enlightened commonwealth, not unlike the polis of Greek antiquity or the cultured city-states in Renaissance Italy. When one considers that the 1645 volume was published when Milton was approximately thirty-seven years old, though some of the poems were written as early as his fifteenth year, it is evident that he sought to draw attention to his unfolding poetic career despite its interruption by governmental service. Perhaps he also sought to highlight the relationship of his poetry to his prose and to call attention to his aspiration, evident in several works in the 1645 volume, to become an epic poet. Thus, the poems in the volume were composed in Stuart England but published after the onset of the English Civil War. Furthermore, Milton may have begun to compose one or more of his mature works—Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes—in the 1640s, but they were completed and revised much later and not published until after the Restoration.

This literary genius whose fame and influence are second to none, and on whose life and works more commentary is written than on any author except Shakespeare, was born at 6:30 in the morning on 9 December 1608. His parents were John Milton , Sr., and Sara Jeffrey Milton , and the place of birth was the family home, marked with the sign of the spread eagle, on Bread Street, London. Three days later, at the parish church of All Hallows, also on Bread Street, he was baptized into the Protestant faith of the Church of England. Other children of John and Sara who survived infancy included Anne, their oldest child, and Christopher, seven years younger than John. At least three others died shortly after birth, in infancy or in early childhood. Edward Phillips, Anne's son by her first husband, was tutored by Milton and later wrote a biography of his renowned uncle, which was published in Milton's Letters of State (1694). Christopher, in contrast to his older brother on all counts, became a Roman Catholic, a Royalist, and a lawyer.

Milton's father was born in 1562 in Oxfordshire; his father, Richard, was a Catholic who decried the Reformation. When John Milton, Sr., expressed sympathy for what his father viewed as Protestant heresy, their disagreements resulted in the son's disinheritance. He left home and traveled to London, where he became a scrivener and a professional composer responsible for more than twenty musical pieces. As a scrivener he performed services comparable to a present-day attorney's assistant, law stationer, and notary. Among the documents that a scrivener executed were wills, leases, deeds, and marriage agreements. Through such endeavors and by his practice of money lending, the elder Milton accumulated a handsome estate, which enabled him to provide a splendid formal education for his son John and to maintain him during several years of private study. In "Ad Patrem" (To His Father), a Latin poem composed probably in 1637-1638, Milton celebrated his "revered father." He compares his father's talent at musical composition, harmonizing sounds to numbers and modulating the voices of singers, to his own dedication to the muses and to his developing artistry as a poet. The father's "generosities" and "kindnesses" enabled the young man to study Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, and Italian."

Little is known of Sara Jeffrey, but in Pro Propulo Anglicano Defensio Secunda (The Second Defense of the People of England, 1654) Milton refers to the "esteem" in which his mother was held and to her reputation for almsgiving in their neighborhood. John Aubrey, in biographical notes made in 1681-1682, recorded that she had weak eyesight, which may have contributed to her son's similar problems. She died on 3 April 1637, not long before her son John departed for his European journey. Her husband died on 14 March 1647."

In the years 1618-1620 Milton was tutored in the family home. One of his tutors was Thomas Young, who became chaplain to the English merchants in Hamburg during the 1620s. Though he departed England when Milton was approximately eleven years old, Young's impression on the young pupil was long standing. Two of Milton's familiar letters, as well as "Elegia quarta" (Elegy IV), are addressed to Young. (The term elegy in the titles of seven of Milton's Latin poems designates the classical prosody in which they were written, couplets consisting of a verse of dactylic hexameter followed by a verse of pentameter; elegy, when used to describe poems of sorrow or lamentation, refers to Milton's meditations on the deaths of particular persons.) Also dedicated to Young is Of Reformation (1641), a prose tract; and the "TY" of the acronym SMECTYMNUUS in the title of Milton's antiprelatical tract of 1641 identifies Young as one of the five ministers whose stand against church government by bishops was admired by Milton."

From 1620 until 1625 Milton attended St. Paul's School, within close walking distance of his home and within view of the cathedral, where almost certainly he heard the sermons of Dr. John Donne, who served as dean from 1621 until 1631. The school had been founded in the preceding century by John Colet, and the chief master when Milton attended was Alexander Gill the Elder. His son, also named Alexander and an instructor at the school, did not teach Milton . Some of Milton's familiar letters are addressed to the elder and the younger Gills, with whom he maintained contact, chiefly to express gratitude for their commitment to learning and to communicate to them his unfolding plans and aspirations. During his years at St. Paul's, Milton befriended Charles Diodati, who became his closest companion in boyhood and to whom he wrote "Elegia prima" (Elegy I) and "Elegia sexta" (Elegy VI). They maintained their friendship even though Diodati attended Oxford while Milton was at Cambridge."

On 9 April 1625 Milton , then sixteen years of age, matriculated at Christ's College, Cambridge, evidently in preparation for the ministry. For seven years he studied assiduously to receive the bachelor of arts degree (1629) and the master of arts degree (1632). With his first tutor at Cambridge, the logician William Chappell, Milton had some sort of disagreement, after which he may have been whipped. Thereafter, in the Lent term of 1626, Milton was rusticated or suspended, a circumstance to which he refers in "Elegia prima." After his return to Cambridge later that year and for the remainder of his years there he was tutored by Nathaniel Tovey. At Cambridge Milton was known as "The Lady of Christ's," to which he refers in his sixth prolusion, an oratorical performance and academic exercise that he presented in 1628. While the reasons for the sobriquet are uncertain, one suspects that Milton's appearance seemed feminine to some onlookers. In fact, this theory is supported by a portrait of Milton commissioned by his father when the future poet was ten years old. The delicate features, pink-and-white complexion, and auburn hair, not to mention the black doublet with gold braid and the collar with lace frills, project a somewhat feminine image. Another portrait, painted while he was a student at Cambridge, shows a handsome youth, appearing somewhat younger than his twenty-one years. His long hair falls to the white ruff collar that he wears over a black doublet. His dark brown hair has a reddish cast to it, and his complexion is fair. Apart from his appearance, Milton may have been called "The Lady of Christ's" because his commitment to study caused him to withdraw from the more typical male activities of athletics and socializing."

By 1632 Milton had completed a sizable body of poetry. At St. Paul's he had translated and paraphrased Psalms 114 and 136 from Greek into English. Throughout his Cambridge years he composed many of the poems in the 1645 volume: the seven Latin elegies (three verse letters, two funeral tributes, a celebration of spring, and an acknowledgment of the power of Cupid), other Latin verse, seven prolusions, six or seven sonnets (some in Italian), and numerous poems in English. The works in English include "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity," "The Passion," "On Shakespeare," the Hobson poems, "L'Allegro," and "Il Penseroso."

The circumstances of composition of Milton's Nativity poem, classified as an ode, are recounted in "Elegia sexta," a verse letter written to Diodati in early 1630. To his close friend Milton confided that the poem was composed at dawn on Christmas day in December 1629. In "Elegia sexta" Milton summarizes the poem, which, he says, sings of the "heaven-descended King, the bringer of peace, and the blessed times promised in the sacred books." Likewise, the Christ child "and his stabling under a mean roof" are contrasted with the "gods that were suddenly destroyed in their own shrines" (translation by Merritt Y. Hughes). "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity" is divided into two sections, the induction and the hymn. The induction is composed of four stanzas in rime royal, a seven-line stanza of iambic pentameter; the hymn consists of twenty-seven stanzas, each eight lines long, combining features of rime royal and the Spenserian stanza. The poem develops thematic opposition between the pagan gods--associated with darkness, dissonance, and bestiality--and Christ--associated with light, harmony, and the union of divine and human natures."

In addition to the contrasting themes, the poem addresses two of the major paradoxes or mysteries of Christianity: the Virgin Birth and the two natures of Christ. By using oxymoron or succinct paradox--"wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother"--to describe Mary, the poet suggests the mystery of the Virgin Birth, whereby Mary retains her purity and chastity despite impregnation by the godhead. To describe the combination of two natures in Christ, the poet resorts to biblical allusion, particularly Paul's letter to the Philippians (2:6-11), which recounts how the Son emptied himself of his godhead in order to take on humanity. Paul states that the Son having assumed the form of a servant or slave was obedient unto death on the cross. In the Nativity poem Milton indicates that the Son, while customarily enthroned "in Trinal Unity," has "laid aside" his majesty to undergo suffering. By such biblical allusion Milton interrelates the Incarnation and Redemption. Paradoxically, Milton affirms that the heroism of the Son is attributable to his voluntary humiliation, so that, in effect, his triumph over the pagan gods is anticlimactic. Significantly, in a poem about the birth of the Savior, Milton foreshadows the death of Jesus, the consummate gesture of voluntary humiliation. The manger is described as a place of self-sacrifice, where the light from the star overhead and the metaphoric reference to the fires of immolation converge: "secret altar touched with hallowed fire."

Not to be overlooked is Milton's use of mythological allusions to dramatize the effect of Christ's coming. Thus, the Christ child is characterized as triumphant over his pagan adversaries, one of whom, Typhon, is "huge ending in snaky twine." Typhon, the hundred-headed serpent and a leader of the Titans, rebelled against Zeus, who cast a thunderbolt against him. After his downfall he was incarcerated under Mount Aetna and tormented by the active volcano. Such myths were typically related to the Hebraic-Christian tradition in numerous ways: in illustrated Renaissance dictionaries and encyclopedias, editions of Ovid's Metamorphoses, and other lexicons known to Milton . Indeed, early biographers report that Milton himself was planning a similar compilation and interpretation of myths, though this work was never completed. Traditionally, Typhon, his revolt against Zeus, and his subsequent punishment are analogues of Satan's rivalry of the godhead, of his downfall thereafter, and of his everlasting torment in the fires of Hell. Thus, the triumph in the Nativity poem looks backward to the War in Heaven while anticipating the final conquest over Satan foretold in the Apocalypse. The appearance of Typhon as a multiheaded serpent is further correlated by Renaissance commentators with the biblical figure of Leviathan, the dragonlike monster associated with Satan in interpretations of the Hebraic and Christian scriptures. At the same time, the Christ child is likened to the infant Hercules, who overcame the serpent that attacked him in his cradle. The foregoing examples typify how Milton's erudition and literary imagination enabled him to pursue and synthesize a wide range of mythological and biblical allusions."

Illustrated Renaissance lexicons, along with manuals of painting, which guided artists and authors in the use and significance of visual details, may be employed to interpret other allegorical figures in the Nativity poem. Thus, at the birth of the Savior, the poem recounts how "meek-eyed Peace" descends, "crowned with Olive green," moved by "Turtle wing," and "waving wide her myrtle wand." Such visual details suggest the peace and harmony between the godhead and humankind when the dove returned with the olive branch after the Deluge and when the Holy Spirit, figured as a dove, descended at the baptism of the Lord."

A dominant feature of the Nativity poem is the frequent reference to pagan gods, many of whom are included in the epic catalogue in book 1 of Paradise Lost (1667). One such figure is Osiris, whose shrine in the Nativity poem is described: "with Timbrel'd Anthems dark / the sable-stoled Sorcerers bear his worshipt Ark." This description suggests a funeral procession, thereby dramatizing the causal relationship between the birth of Christ and the death of the pagan gods. Additionally, the phrase "worshipt Ark" calls attention to the ark of the Covenant, associated with the tablets of law from the Old Dispensation. Christ, however, rewrites the law in the hearts of humankind, a process to which Milton's poem alludes. The Chosen People of the Old Dispensation thus anticipate the faithful Christian community centered on Jesus. The poem presents the first such community when the holy family, shepherds, angels, and narrator unite in their adoration of the Christ child. The narrator endeavors to join his voice to the chorus of angels so that his sacred song and devotional lyrics are harmonized with theirs. He also informs us of the imminent arrival of the Magi, who will enlarge the community of worshipers and chorus of praise. Characteristically, the poem highlights unity and harmony between humankind and the godhead, earth and Heaven, the Old and New Dispensations."

What also emerges from the Nativity poem is an overriding awareness of Christian history, which is both linear and cyclical. As time unfolded, Old Testament events were fulfilled in Christ's temporal ministry. Thereafter, the faithful community looks toward the Second Coming. Along this linear disposition of time there are recurrent foreshadowings and cyclical enactments of triumphs over God's adversaries. Like the Apocalypse, the Nativity poem foresees that the ultimate defeat of Satan, having been prefigured in numerous ways, will be one of the climactic events of Christian or providential history."

Despite its early date of composition, the Nativity poem foreshadows many features of Milton's major works: the allusions to mythology and their assimilation to the Hebraic-Christian tradition, the conflict between the godhead and numerous adversaries, the emphasis on voluntary humiliation as a form of Christian heroism, the paramount importance of the redemptive ministry of the Son, and the Christian view of history."

Probably intended as a companion piece to the Nativity poem, "The Passion" was written at Easter in 1630. Only eight stanzas in rime royal were composed, presumably as the induction. Appended to the unfinished work is a note indicating that the author found the subject "to be above the years he had, when he wrote it, and nothing satisfied with what was begun, left it unfinished." The eight stanzas clarify Milton's unfulfilled intent: to dramatize more fully the humiliation of the Son, "sovereign Priest" who "Poor fleshly Tabernacle entered."

"On Shakespeare," Milton's first published poem, was composed in 1630 and printed in the Second Folio (1632) of Shakespeare's plays, where it was included with other eulogies and commendatory verses. Milton's poem, a sixteen-line epigram in heroic couplets, was included perhaps because of the intercession of his friend and eventual collaborator Henry Lawes, a musician and composer, who wrote the music for Milton's Comus (1637) and probably for the songs of "Arcades" in Milton's 1645 Poems. Milton celebrates his friend's musical talent in Sonnet XIII. Milton's poem echoes a prevalent opinion evident in other commendatory verses--that Shakespeare, the untutored genius with only a grammar-school education, was a natural poet whose "easy numbers flow" in contrast to "slow-endeavoring art." Perhaps the implied contrast is between the spontaneity of Shakespeare and the more deliberate and learned composition of Ben Jonson. The foregoing contrast is explicit in "L'Allegro," where Shakespeare's plays, the products of "fancy's child" who composes his "native Wood-notes wild," are contrasted with Jonson's "learned Sock." The reference to Jonson calls attention to the sock or low shoe worn by actors during comedy, as well as to the learned imitation of classical dramaturgy practiced by Jonson, who had a university education. Ironically, Jonson's commendatory poem on Shakespeare, included in the First Folio (1623) and republished in the folios thereafter, is the most renowned of the lot. It cites the excellence and popularity of Shakespeare as a dramatist despite his "small Latin, and less Greek," an allusion, no doubt, to his lack of education beyond grammar school. More to the point, Jonson used the metonymy of the sock to appraise Shakespearean comedy as nonpareil: "when thy socks were on / Leave thee alone." Therefore, Milton may have appropriated but adapted the allusion in order to contrast the learned and spontaneous playwrights, respectively Jonson and Shakespeare."

Central to the poem is Milton's recognition that an erected monument, possibly even the Stratford burial site with its bust of Shakespeare, is unsuitable to memorialize the playwright's unique genius. Ultimately, Milton argues that Shakespeare alone can and does create a "livelong Monument": his readers transfixed by wonder and awe. So long as his works are read, his readers will be immobilized when confronting his transcendent genius. To be sure, the inadequacy of stone or marble monuments to perpetuate one's memory is one major theme in Shakespeare's sonnets; a complementary theme is the permanence of literary art despite the mutability and upheaval in the human condition. Milton integrates both themes from Shakespeare's sonnets into his poem, perhaps to emphasize that the unique achievement of Shakespeare must be memorialized by the words and ideas of none other than the master poet and dramatist himself. Despite his admiration for Shakespeare, Milton in his prose and poetry explicitly referred to the playwright only three times: in Shakespeare "L'Allegro," and Eikonoklastes. Despite the paucity of explicit reference, commentators have, nonetheless, sought to identify verbal parallels between the works of Shakespeare and Milton . Though such parallels or apparent echoes abound, they are inadequate to establish source or influence. Virtually identical similarities may be adduced between the works of Milton and the writings of other Elizabethans. It seems unlikely that Milton , having prepared himself to be an author of religious and biblical poetry, relied heavily on Shakespeare, whose dramatic works are vastly different in conception and subject matter."

Two of the most amusing poems of the Cambridge years were written about Thomas Hobson, the coachman who drove the circuit between London and Cambridge from 1564 until shortly before his death on 1 January 1631. Several of Milton's fellow students also wrote witty verses. In Milton's first poem, "On the University Carrier," Death is personified; his attempts to claim Hobson have been thwarted in various ways. Hobson, for instance, is described as a "shifter," one who has dodged Death. In effect, his perpetual motion made him an evasive adversary until he was forced to discontinue his trips because of the plague; then Death "got him down." The allusion is to a wrestling match, Hobson having been overthrown. Death is personified, in turn, as a chamberlain, who perceives Hobson as having completed a day's journey. He escorts the coachman to a sleeping room, then takes away the light. The second poem, "Another on the Same," is more witty as it elaborates a series of paradoxes. Thus, "an engine moved with wheel and weight" refers at once to Hobson's coach--the means of his livelihood--and to a timepiece. The circuit of the coachman is likened to movement around the face of a timepiece, motion being equated with time. The assertion that "too much breathing put him out of breath" refers to the interruption of his travel caused by the plague. While idle, in other words, he himself took ill and died. Furthermore, the poem likens his former travel to the waxing and waning of the moon, a reciprocal course of coming and going. These playful poems that treat the topic of death may be contrasted with Milton's lamentations, such as his funeral tributes, "Elegia secunda" (Elegy II) and "Elegia tertia" (Elegy III), and the later renowned pastoral elegies: "Lycidas," which memorializes Edward King, and "Epitaphium Damonis" (Damon's Epitaph), which mourns the loss of Charles Diodati."

Probably in 1631, toward the end of his stay at Cambridge, Milton composed "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso," companion poems. They may have been intended as poetic versions or parodies of the prolusions, the academic exercises at Cambridge that sometimes involved oppositional thinking. Clearcut examples include Milton's Prolusion I ("Whether Day or Night Is the More Excellent") and Prolusion VII ("Learning Makes Men Happier than Does Ignorance"). The correspondences and contrasts between "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso"--in themes, images, structures, and even sounds--are innumerable. Essentially, Milton compares and contrasts two impulses in human nature: the active and contemplative, the social and solitary, the mirthful and melancholic, the cheerful and meditative, the erotic and Platonic. Some commentators have identified Milton with the personality type of "Il Penseroso" and Diodati with that of "L'Allegro." Though the poems anatomize each personality type and corresponding life-style apart from the other, the overall effect may be to foster the outlook that a binary unit, which achieves a wholesome interaction of opposites, is to be preferred. While it is difficult to assess the autobiographical significance of the companion poems or to develop a serious outlook when Milton himself may have composed them playfully, "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso" graphically demonstrate the dialectic that distinguishes much of Milton's poetry, particularly the dialogues and debates between different characters in various works, including the Lady and Comus in Comus, the younger and elder brothers in the same work, Satan and Abdiel in Paradise Lost, Adam and Eve, Samson and his visitors, and the Christ and the tempter in the wilderness of Paradise Regained (1671)."

Having spent seven years at Cambridge, Milton entered into studious leisure at his parents' home in Hammersmith (1632-1635) and then at Horton (1635-1638). Perhaps he was caring for his parents in their old age because his sister and brother were unable to do so. Anne had become a widow in 1631 and had two young children. Probably in 1632 she married Thomas Agar, a widower who had one young child. Milton's younger brother, Christopher, was a student at Christ's College. The situation with his parents may explain why Milton , after Cambridge, did not accept or seek a preferment in the church. Although he may still have intended to become a minister, it seems likely that the prevailing influence of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, who established and enforced ecclesiastical and religious regulations, deeply affected Milton's outlook. The most concise but cryptic explanation for his eventual rejection of the ministry as a career is provided by Milton himself, who in one of his prose treatises, The Reason of Church-governement (1642), comments that he was "church-outed." An undated letter to an unidentified friend, a document surviving in manuscript in the Trinity College Library at Cambridge, sheds further light on Milton's view of the ministry as a career. Some commentators speculate that Thomas Young is the addressee. Another influential factor in Milton's decision may have been his long-standing inclination to become a poet, evident in poems written in his Cambridge years and published in the 1645 edition. One of the most self-conscious, though ambiguous, statements concerning Milton's sense of vocation is Sonnet VII ("How soon hath time"). Unfortunately, it cannot be accurately dated, though 1631-1632 seems likely. In the poem he refers to the rapid passing of time toward his "three and twentieth year." His "hastening days fly on with full career," though the direction of movement, toward the ministry or poetry, goes unidentified. In any case, he contends that his process of development toward "inward ripeness" continues under the all-seeing eye of Providence."

Milton's course of study in his leisure is outlined in Prolusion VII, which was influenced by Francis Bacon's Advancement of Learning (1605). History, poetry, and philosophy (which included natural science) are celebrated as important to individual growth and to civic service. Milton's Of Education (1644), an eight-page pamphlet written in the early 1640s, elaborates on many of the ideas in Prolusion VII and cites specific authors to be read. Autobiographical statements in various forms emerge from Milton's period of private study, which enabled him to supplement extensively his education at Cambridge and to read numerous authors of different eras and various cultures. In a 23 November 1637 letter to Charles Diodati, Milton indicated the progress of his study, particularly in the field of classical and medieval history, involving the Greeks, Italians, Franks, and Germans. At this time, moreover, Milton kept two important records of his reading and writing. The "Trinity Manuscript" or "Cambridge Manuscript," so called because it is kept in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, includes works such as "Arcades," Comus, the English odes, "Lycidas," "At a Solemn Music," and other later, but short, poems. Also in the manuscript are sketchy plans and brief outlines of dramas, some of which were eventually transformed and assimilated to Paradise Lost. For some of the poems, the "Trinity Manuscript" includes various drafts and states of revision. The second record kept during this period is the commonplace book (now in the British Library), which lists topics under the threefold Aristotelian framework of ethics, economics, and political life, topics that aroused Milton's interest and that were later incorporated into his prose works. The entries include direct quotations or summaries, with sources cited, so that one learns not simply what books Milton read but also what editions he used."

Two important works that Milton wrote during the years of studious leisure include A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle and "Lycidas." The masque was first performed on 29 September 1634, as a formal entertainment to celebrate the installation of John Egerton, Earl of Bridgewater, as lord president of Wales. The performance was held in the Great Hall of Ludlow Castle in Shropshire, close to the border of Wales. The composer of the music was Lawes, also the music tutor of the Egerton children. The three children--Alice (fifteen), John (eleven), and Thomas (nine)--enacted the parts of the Lady, the elder brother, and the younger brother. Lawes himself was the Attendant Spirit, named Thyrsis. Other characters include Comus, a tempter, by whose name the masque has been more commonly known, at least since the eighteenth century, and Sabrina, a nymph of the Severn River. Because the earl of Bridgewater had taken up his viceregal position without his family having accompanied him, a reunion was planned. To honor the earl of Bridgewater and to use the occasion of family reunion so that his children could act, sing, and dance under his approving eye are other purposes of the masque."

While Comus may be examined in relation to masques of the same era, most notably the collaborations of Jonson and Inigo Jones, the remoteness of Ludlow prevented Milton and Lawes from mounting the sort of spectacle with elaborate scenery, complicated machinery, and astounding special effects that Jones and Jonson produced. Nor were trained dancers and singers transported from London. Nevertheless, Comus does have scenery, chiefly for its allegorical significance; singing, especially by individuals, such as the Lady, Sabrina, and Thyrsis; and dancing, both the riotous antimasque of Comus and his revelers and the concluding song and dance of triumph featuring the three children and others referred to as "Country-Dancers," all under the direction of Lawes in his role as the Attendant Spirit. The three major settings of the masque are the "wild Wood" at the outset, actually a location indoors decorated with some foliage (more imaginatively depicted by vivid language); the palace of Comus, in which the tables are "spread with all dainties"; and the outdoors, near the lord president's castle and within view of the town of Ludlow. These elements of spectacle are incorporated into a plot severely limited by the circumstances of the celebration and by the fact that only six notable players, three of them children of the earl of Bridgewater, participated."

Within these limitations Milton wrote a masque--actually, it is more a dramatic entertainment--that develops the theme of temperance and its manifestation in chastity. The theme evolves against the three major settings and by reference to the character of the Lady. From the outset of the masque, the Lady is separated from her two brothers in the "wild Wood," which suggests the mazes and snares that confuse and entrap unwary humankind. Allegorically, the topography signifies the vulnerability of humankind to misdirection, the result of having pursued intemperate appetites rather than the dictates of right reason, or the consequence of having been deceived by an evil character who professes "friendly ends," the phrase used by Comus in his plans to entrap the Lady. Misled by Comus, who appears to be a "gentle Shepherd" and innocent villager, the Lady travels to his "stately Palace set out with all manner of deliciousness," where she, while "set in an enchanted chair," resists the offer to drink from the tempter's cup. Thereafter, she sits "in stony fetters fixed and motionless" though continuing to denounce the tempter and his blandishments. Despite her immobility, she affirms the "freedom of my mind." Her brothers "rush in with Swords drawn," so that Comus is put to flight; and Sabrina, "a Virgin pure" and "Goddess" of the Severn River, sprinkles drops of water on the breast of the Lady to undo the spell of the enchanter. When liberated, the Lady and her brothers "triumph in victorious dance / Over sensual folly and Intemperance."

The suspense, adventure, and dramatic rescue enhance the conflict between the tempter and his prospective victim. Typically, Milton uses classical analogues to cast light on the situation. The Lady is likened to the goddess of chastity, Diana, who frowned at suggestions of lasciviousness and whose role as huntress made her a formidable adversary, one whose virtue was militant, not passive. The Lady is also likened to Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, on whose shield is pictured one of the Gorgons, whose look would turn one to stone. By analogy, the Lady's disapproving glance casts dread into lustful men. The classical analogues of the enchanter are best explained by his parentage, Bacchus and Circe. His father is the god of wine and revelry; his mother is the sorceress who turned Ulysses' mariners into swine when they imbibed the drink that she proffered. In fact, the journey of Ulysses and the temptations encountered by him and his men provide a context in which to understand the travel of the Lady through adversity, her endeavor to withstand temptation, and the reunion that she anticipates."

These classical analogues and others like them call attention to a moral philosophy that contrasts the lower and higher natures of humankind. Degradation or sublimation, respective inclinations toward vice or virtue, are the opposite impulses adumbrated in the masque. Accordingly, Comus's followers, having yielded to the vice of intemperance, are degraded so that they appear "headed like sundry sorts of wild Beasts." They were imbruted when, "through fond intemperate thirst," they drank from Comus's cup. Their "foul disfigurement" is a defacement of the "express resemblance of the gods" in the human countenance. With his charming rod in the one hand and the glass containing the drink in the other, Comus is indeed akin to his mother, Circe. Like her, he has attracted a rout of followers, whose antimasque revelry, both in song and dance, suggests a Bacchanal, the sensualistic frenzy associated with his father. Before, during, and after her encounter with Comus, the Lady has a "virtuous mind," and she is accompanied by "a strong siding champion Conscience," enabling her to see "pure-eyed Faith," "white-handed Hope," and the "unblemished form of Chastity." In this series of three virtues chastity is substituted for charity, which typically appears along with faith and hope. Milton therefore suggests that chastity and charity are interrelated. Chastity is a form of self-love, not vanity but a wholesome sense of self-worth that enables one to value the spirit over the flesh and to affirm the primacy of one's higher nature. When viewed from this perspective, chastity is the necessary prerequisite to one's love of God, not to mention one's neighbor."

The moral philosophy of Comus reflects the imprint of Neoplatonism. In the Renaissance, particularly between 1450 and 1600, the works of Plato were reinterpreted and the central ideas emphasized. Beginning in Italy at the Platonic Academy of Florence, Renaissance Neoplatonism eventually spread throughout the Continent and entered the intellectual climate of England. The Renaissance version of Platonism synthesized the ideas of Plato and Plotinus with elements of ancient mysticism, all of which were assimilated, in turn, to Christianity. The fundamental tenet of Renaissance Neoplatonism asserted by Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), one of the foremost intellectuals of the Florentine Academy, is that "the soul is always miserable in its mortal body." The soul, having descended from the realm of light, strives to return homeward. While on earth, the soul is immersed in the darkness of the human condition and imprisoned in the human body. In effect, the soul and the body are in a state of tension, the one thriving at the other's expense. When the appetites are denied virtue prevails, and the soul is enriched. When, on the other hand, the appetites of the flesh are indulged, vice predominates, and the soul suffers. The term psychomachia, which means "soul struggle," designates the inner conflict that one experiences as virtue and vice contend for dominance. The foregoing paradigm is typical of certain Renaissance paintings of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Several works of Perugino and Andrea Mantegna, having been influenced by Neoplatonic philosophy, depict the contention between ratio and libido, or reason and desire. These paintings show classical gods and goddesses whose allegorical significance was established. Venus and Cupid embody desire and its attendant vices; Diana and Minerva, to whom the Lady of Comus is likened, signify reason and its accompanying virtues."

Another tradition that may have contributed to Comus is the morality drama of the late Middle Ages, which uses allegorical characters to present the conflict between the virtues and vices. Furthermore, Edmund Spenser's allegorical treatment of temperance and chastity in The Faerie Queene (1590, 1596) is pertinent to an understanding of Milton's work. After all, Milton in Areopagitica refers to the "sage and serious poet Spenser," whom he calls "a better teacher than Scotus and Aquinas, describing true temperance under the person of Guyon." Much as Sir Guyon's temperance in book 2 of Spenser's epic anticipates the Lady's virtue in Comus, so too Britomart, the female knight in book 3, by her chastity foreshadows the Lady's heroism. While the depiction of the natural setting in Comus, such as the maze of woods in which the Lady is lost, resembles at times the topography in The Faerie Queene, both English and Continental pastoral dramas of the Renaissance also provide analogues, including John Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess (1610) and Torquato Tasso's Aminta (1573)."

Within the dynamic conflict between virtues and vices, the role of reason, particularly in maintaining one's inner liberty, is crucial. If right reason, or recta ratio, enables one to see the light of virtue, then the Lady has a rational and imaginative vision of the Platonic ideals of faith, hope, and chastity, for which she is the earthly embodiment. But when reason is misled by the appetites, it is no longer effective. Upstart appetites gain control of a person in whom the legitimate predominance of reason has been subverted. Such a person in whom right reason no longer functions is enslaved by vice. Inward servitude having been permitted, enslavement by an external captor becomes a sign of one's loss of self-government. The congruence of inner and outer thralldom is emphasized by Milton in various works, ranging from The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649), an antimonarchical tract in which he argues that "bad men" are "all naturally servile," to Paradise Lost, where in book 12 the archangel Michael explains to Adam that Nimrod has tyrannized others under the sufferance of God, who permits "outward freedom" to be enthralled as a sign and consequence that one is enslaved by "inordinate desires" and "upstart Passions," which create a condition of effeminacy. Thus, Neoplatonism may be combined with moral philosophy and Christian theology in order to contrast the rational or virtuous freedom of the Lady in Comus with the enslaved state of the enchanter's followers. Renaissance faculty psychology is also involved because it highlights the interaction of sensory perception, the appetites or passions, reason, and the will."

Milton himself may be used as a commentator on the contest between virtue and vice in Comus. His private exposition of Christian theology, De Doctrina Christiana (The Christian Doctrine), which was discovered in the nineteenth century and published in 1825, includes a section in which he defines and classifies virtues and vices, then cites scriptural passages, called proof-texts, to substantiate his views. Temperance is "the virtue which prescribes bounds to the desire of bodily gratification." Under it are "comprehended sobriety and chastity, modesty and decency." Chastity "consists in temperance as regards the unlawful lusts of the flesh." Opposed to chastity is effeminacy, which licenses the appetites and promotes sensual indulgence. De Doctrina Christiana may also be used to distinguish the two kinds of temptation at work in Comus: evil and good. In De Doctrina Christiana Milton explains that a temptation is evil "in respect of him who is tempted." Having yielded to temptation, one suffers the evil effects, enslavement to upstart passions and at times external thralldom, precisely what befall the enchanter's victims in Comus. A good temptation, on the other hand, is directed at the righteous "for the purpose of exercising or manifesting their faith or patience," a definition that aptly pertains to the Lady in Comus. Biblical examples, particularly Abraham and Job, are cited in De Doctrina Christiana. The results of good temptation are described as "happy issue," an assertion supported by a biblical proof-text, James 1:12: "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life." In Comus, phrases such as "happy trial" and "crown of deathless praise" are succinct references to the good temptation undergone by the Lady and the heavenly reward for her Christian heroism."

When the rich and diverse contexts surrounding Comus are thus recognized, Milton's composition becomes more meaningful. Seemingly minor details, including references to birds, fit into the overall design. Snares are mentioned, such as "lime-twigs," which result from the application of a glutinous substance that prevents a bird from flying away. A bird thus trapped signifies a foolish person enslaved to his or her passions. The virtuous Lady, on the other hand, is described by her elder brother in another way: "She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings." Her freedom to elude Comus's temptations is signified by her readiness to fly. Flight also connotes her sublimated and rarefied ascent from the human condition. Other verbal images are auditory but at times may involve actual music. Comus and his followers when performing the antimasque revelry create "barbarous dissonance," whereas verbal imagery suggests that the Lady's "Saintly chastity" causes "Angels" to communicate with her: "in clear dream and solemn vision" she learns "of things that no gross ear can hear."

The characterization of the Lady as an exemplar of temperance and chastity and the definition of her Christian heroism acquire focus in two debates, one between the two brothers, the other between the Lady and Comus. The younger brother stresses the pathos of his sister's situation: she is helplessly and hopelessly lost in the woods and vulnerable to threats from beasts and mankind alike. The elder brother counters his younger brother's anxieties, arguing that their "sister is not defenceless left" but armed with "a hidden strength," chastity. In his unfolding exposition of the strength afforded by chastity, the elder brother alludes to Neoplatonism, moral philosophy, Christian theology, faculty psychology, and the other contexts in which the Lady's defense against the wiles of Comus is more clearly understood."

In the Lady's debate with the enchanter the theoretical exposition of the elder brother is translated into action. The debate, reminiscent of Milton's prolusions at Cambridge, pits the sophistry of Comus against the Lady's enlightened reasoning, which is informed by her commitment to virtue, specifically temperance and chastity. Comus's palace, with "all manner of deliciousness" and "Tables spread with all dainties," is intended to arouse the Lady's appetites. The intricacies of the debate are manifold, but the essence of Comus's argument is simply stated: that appetites are naturally licit and innocent when gratified. Having exhibited "all the pleasures" in his palace, Comus alleges that such plenitude or bounty was provided by Nature for the use and consumption of humankind--in particular, to "sate the curious taste." The Lady, on the other hand, perceives that overindulgence or even exquisite indulgence is unnatural. To pursue one's appetites without rational self-control is to degrade human nature. Such rebuttal is accompanied by the Lady's external rejection of the "treasonous offer" of the cup, which signifies licensed passions that would overthrow the predominance of reason. As the debate intensifies, Comus resorts to a form of sophistry in which he reasons by analogy, likening the Lady's beauty to a coin or comparing her to a "neglected rose." Much as coins are to be used, so also the Lady's beauty should be put into circulation. A rose is to be admired, and the Lady likewise is to be appreciated. A corollary of Comus's argument is that the Lady's beauty, comparable to a rose, is ephemeral, an allusion to a prevalent theme--"carpe diem," or seize the day--in seventeenth-century poetry. Comus strives to engender a sense of urgency in the Lady so that she will respond affirmatively and immediately to his overture."

While Comus's sophistical arguments and the Lady's compelling counterarguments are more subtle than the foregoing account suggests, the upshot is that the Lady's virtue, right reason, and wariness enable her to affirm her "well-governed and wise appetite" while she refutes and debunks the "false rules pranked in reason's garb" and "dear Wit and gay Rhetoric" of her would-be seducer. The Lady's "freedom" of mind is manifested while she is physically restrained in the enchanted seat, where she remains immobilized even after her brothers enter with drawn swords to disperse Comus and his followers. When Sabrina, the nymph who is invoked by the Attendant Spirit, emerges from the Severn River and sprinkles drops on the breast of the Lady, the Attendant Spirit's comment--"Heaven lends us grace"--interprets Sabrina's presence and gesture as divine assistance, which may be explained theologically. In De Doctrina Christiana Milton comments that natural virtue is elevated to supernatural status only with an infusion of grace from above. Such, indeed, may be the case with the Lady, whose heroism is rewarded by divine approval and whose joyous reunion with her father at the end of the masque anticipates the relationship of the sanctified soul and the Lord in the heavenly hereafter."

In Areopagitica Milton comments that he "cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary." Rather, he extols virtue that has undergone "trial ... by what is contrary," then triumphed. In line with this view, Comus, a theatrical presentation in the Marches or border region between England and Wales, may advance the Lady as an exemplar of the virtue and moral rectitude, not to mention civility, that the lord president seeks to establish in his jurisdiction. As the seat of both the council and the court of the Marches, Ludlow Castle was the central location from which administrative and judicial policy and decisions were issued. Accordingly, the corruptions among the people in the border region--drunkenness, gambling, sexual immorality, witchcraft, and occultism--may suggest the sociopolitical context in which Milton's masque was composed and the relation of the work to the local populace."

Despite the early date of composition, Comus is a sophisticated foreshadowing of Milton's later poetry. The contention between virtue and vice is reenacted in "Lycidas," Paradise Lost, Samson Agonistes, and Paradise Regained. Though each poem presents the archetypal conflict somewhat differently, long expositions and debates, or certainly meditations, are crucial in all the works, especially the later ones."

The second important work written during Milton's studious leisure is "Lycidas," a pastoral elegy commemorating Edward King, a fellow student of Milton's at Christ's College, Cambridge, who died on 10 August 1637 when a vessel on which he was traveling capsized in the Irish Sea. King, like Milton , was a poet who intended to enter the ministry. Milton's poem was included in a collection of thirty-five obsequies, Justa Edouardo King (1638), mostly in Latin but some in Greek and English. Justa refers to justments or the due ceremonies and rites for the dead. By writing a pastoral elegy that is heavily allegorical, Milton taps into an inveterate tradition of lament, one that dates back at least to the third century B.C., when poets in Greek Sicily, like Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, presumably initiated the genre. From the pre-Christian era through the Renaissance in Italy, France, and England, pastoral elegies were written by notable authors, including Virgil, Petrarch, Mantuan, Baldassare Castiglione, Pierre de Ronsard, and Spenser. Of the works by these poets, the fifth and tenth eclogues of Virgil's Bucolics and Spenser's Shepheardes Calender (1579) were exceptionally influential. As the literary tradition of the pastoral elegy unfolded, certain conventions were established, creating a sense of artificiality that amuses or antagonizes, rather than edifies, some readers, including Samuel Johnson in the eighteenth century. Some of the major conventions include the lament by a shepherd for the death of a fellow shepherd, the invocation of the muse, a procession of mourners, flower symbolism, satire against certain abuses or corruptions in society and its institutions, a statement of belief in immortality, and the attribution of human emotions to Nature, which, in effect, also mourns the loss of the shepherd."

Through the use of such conventions Milton recounts his association with Edward King at Cambridge, likening himself and his friend to fellow shepherds together from early morning, through the afternoon, and into nightfall. Because of their friendship Milton , through the narrator, expresses an urgency, if not compulsion, to memorialize his friend. As a simple shepherd, he will fashion a garland of foliage and flowers to be placed at the site of burial. Allegorically, the garland signifies the flowers of rhetoric woven together into a pastoral elegy. The narrator also expresses modesty and humility concerning his talent to memorialize his friend: "with forced fingers rude" he may "shatter" the leaves of the foliage that he strives to fashion into a garland. The allegorical significance relates to the daunting challenge of crafting a pastoral elegy. The three kinds of foliage cited by the narrator--laurels, myrtles, and ivy--are evergreens, which symbolically affirm life after death. At the same time they are associated with different mythological divinities. The laurel crown of poetry was awarded by Apollo; the love of Venus was reflected in the myrtle; and Bacchus wore a garland of ivy. Signified thereby is the poetry written at Cambridge by King and Milton in imitation of classical Greek and Latin literature. Later in "Lycidas," when the narrator mentions the "oaten flute" and its "glad sound," to which "rough satyrs danced" while accompanied by "fauns with cloven heel," he is alluding to the erotic and festive poetry, perhaps Ovidian, that King and Milton composed as students under the supervision of a tutor at Cambridge."

Despite the conventions that Milton assimilates to his poem and the artificiality of his pose as a naive shepherd, "Lycidas" is still an outlet for earnest sentiment. The poem is Milton's endeavor to write a pastoral elegy in order to test his talent, to manifest his proficiency in a genre associated with the most reputable poets, and to signal his readiness to progress to other challenges. But King, who died before he fulfilled his potential as a poet and priest, no doubt reminds Milton of his own mortality. By implication in "Lycidas" and explicitly in other poems, Milton registered concern that his unfolding career as a poet might be interrupted not only by early death but by the failure to progress in his development as a poet or because of failed inspiration. Milton , in short, may be alluding to himself when he complains that Lycidas, who equipped himself "to scorn delights, and live laborious days," died without having achieved the fame as a poet to which he aspired. While the allusions recount King's abstemiousness and strict regimen of study, they glance, as well, at Milton's similar habits. But lament turns to bitterness, so that the narrator in the allegorical framework of the poem impugns God's justice: "the blind Fury with th'aborred shears" cuts "the thin spun life." Some critics suggest that Milton erred in his reference to the Furies, whose keen sight--they are by no means "blind"--enables them to serve as agents of divine vengeance. From this vantage point, Milton should have alluded to the Fates--Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos--who spin the thread of life. In particular, Atropos, whose name means "inflexible," is equipped with shears to cut the thread. The more likely explanation is that Milton conflates the Furies and Fates into one allusion in order to heighten the narrator's bitterness, which emerges from his misperception that vengeance was misdirected and, therefore, that justice is blind. The narrator's bitterness is also aroused because he associates the death of Lycidas with that of Orpheus, who was dismembered by the Thracian women. The mythological figure's remains scattered on the Hebrus River and in the Aegean Sea suggest the route of King's travel from the River Deva to the Irish Sea."

Appropriately, Apollo, the classical patron of poetry who intervenes to rectify the shortsightedness of the narrator, distinguishes "broad rumor" from "fame." Although Lycidas did not achieve earthly renown through "broad rumor," he was elevated much earlier into the hereafter, where an eternal reward, "fame," will be conferred on him under the eyes of the godhead. Apollo's speech, which some critics perceive as a digression, is integral to the poem because it affirms that the godhead is both clear-sighted and just."

Balancing Apollo's commentary on the role and reward of the poet is Saint Peter's perspective on the priesthood. For Milton , King was the ideal clergyman, whose pastoral ministry would have been exemplary. King's premature death at first appears to be another example of injustice, for the corrupt clergymen and bishops of the Church of England continue to prosper. Against the clergy and most notably the bishops, Milton issues a virtual diatribe, a poetic counterpart of his enraged denunciation of them in the antiprelatical or antiepiscopal tracts. The speaker of the diatribe is "the pilot of the Galilean lake," Saint Peter. As the principal Apostle, Saint Peter is perceived, in effect, as the first bishop. As the one who wields the keys--"The golden opes, the iron shuts amain," images that signify, respectively, access to Heaven and incarceration in Hell--Saint Peter functions as the sharp-sighted judge. Inveighing against the bishops as "Blind Mouths!," Saint Peter thus likens them to tapeworms that infest the sheep. Later they are equated with infectious diseases tainting the flock. Saint Peter's stern tone anticipates his eventual use of the "two-handed engine at the door," an instrument of divine justice that he wields in judgment against reprobates. His message, in sum, is that corrupt clergy and bishops may thrive in the present life, but justice will be exacted in the hereafter. In his prose treatises Milton uses the odious term "hireling," derived from the Gospel of John, to describe a venal clergyman. In John's Gospel the "hireling" is contrasted with the Good Shepherd, whose faithful service would have been reembodied in King."

Across the panorama of the poem, the narrator undergoes a change in outlook. At first sorrowful and depressed, he projects his mood onto the landscape. The flowers that he enumerates in a virtual catalogue manifest the human emotion of grief, as well as the ritualistic appearance and gestures of mourning--"Cowslips ... hang the pensive head"; "every flower ... sad embroidery wears"; and "Daffadillies fill their cups with tears." Later in the poem, when the narrator comes to recognize that Lycidas has been elevated into the heavenly hereafter, his outlook and tone change noticeably. Whereas Lycidas's "drooping head" has sunk into the waves, the narrator likens this downfall to the sunset, followed by sunrise. Lycidas, like the sun, "tricks his beams" and "flames in the forehead of the morning sky," enhanced by the sheen of the water. Both fire and water bring about baptismal cleansing so that Lycidas enters Heaven, where he "hears the unexpressive nuptial song," the intimate union of the sanctified soul and the Lord celebrated in the Book of Revelation. Like the resurrected Christ, Lycidas is finally triumphant and glorified. At the end of the poem most of the biblical allusions that celebrate joy after sorrow are from Revelation."

Despite its brevity (only 193 lines), "Lycidas" anticipates a recurrent theme in Milton's major poems: the justification of God's ways to humankind. In Paradise Lost, for example, the downfall of Adam and Eve and the introduction of sin and death into the human condition are interpreted from a providential perspective. From this vantage point, the deity is not vengeful but merciful, not misguided or blind but instrumental in humankind's ultimate triumph. In Samson Agonistes (1671), the downfall of the protagonist results in bitterness toward God. Samson, having been chosen by God to liberate the Israelites from the tyranny of the Philistines, is himself enslaved. By the end of the dramatic poem Samson and others who have impugned God's justice come to recognize that the "unsearchable dispose" or providential intent is very different from what they had alleged."

As a capstone to his education at Cambridge and to the years of private study, the twenty-nine-year-old Milton, with an attendant, traveled abroad for fifteen months in 1638-1639, to France but chiefly through Italy. The principal source of information about the grand tour is Milton's Defensio Secunda. Despite his vocal opposition to Roman Catholicism, while he was abroad Milton fraternized with numerous Catholics, including Lucas Holstenius, the Vatican librarian; presumably Cardinal Francesco Barberini; and Giovanni Battista Manso, the patron of both Giambattista Marini and Tasso. In his poem "Mansus," Milton , who recognizes the importance of patrons such as Manso, yearns for such friendship and support in order to write a poem about King Arthur. Milton did not compose an Arthuriad, probably because his concept of heroism was very different by the time that he wrote Paradise Lost. In Italy, moreover, Milton viewed numerous works of art that depicted biblical episodes central to his later works--Paradise Lost, Samson Agonistes, and Paradise Regained. The relationship of the works of art to the visual imagery in the major poems is the subject of much critical commentary. During his stay in Florence, Milton visited the aged and blind Galileo. Having suffered through the Inquisition, Galileo was under virtual house arrest in his later years. In Paradise Lost Milton refers to Galileo's telescope and to the view of the heavens that it provided. As a victim of persecution, Galileo became for Milton a symbol of the adversity that a spokesperson of the truth underwent. Also in Florence, Milton read his Italian poetry at the academies, where he elici

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634 [Comus] (London: Printed for Humphrey Robinson, 1637).
• Epitaphivm Damonis. Argvmentvm (London: Printed by Augustine Mathewes?, 1640?).
• Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavses that hitherto have hindered it (London: Printed for Thomas Underhill, 1641).
• Of Prelatical Episcopacy, and Whether it may be deduc'd from the Apostolical times by vertue of those Testimonies which are alledg'd to that purpose in some late Treatises: One whereof goes under the Name of Iames' Archbishop of Armagh (London: Printed by R. O. & G. D. for Thomas Underhill, 1641).
• Animadversions upon the Remonstrants Defence, against Smectymnvvs (London: Printed for Thomas Underhill, 1641).
• The Reason of Church-governement Urg'd against Prelaty (London: Printed by E. G. for Iohn Rothwell, 1641 [i.e., 1642]).
• An Apology Against a Pamphlet Call'd A Modest Confutation of the Animadversions upon the Remonstrant against Smectymnuus (London: Printed by E. G. for Iohn Rothwell, 1642).
• The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce: Restor'd to the Good of Both Sexes, From the bondage of Canon Law, and other mistakes, to Christian freedom, guided by the Rule of Charity (London: Printed by Thomas Payne & Matthew Simmons, 1643; second edition, "revis'd and much augmented," London, 1644).
• Of Education: To Master Samuel Hartlib (London: Printed for Thomas Johnson, 1644).
• The Ivdgment of Martin Bucer, Concerning Divorce. Writt'n to Edward the sixt, in his second Book of the Kingdom of Christ. And now Englisht (London: Printed by Matthew Simmons, 1644).
• Areopagitica: A Speech of Mr. John Milton For the Liberty of Vnlicenc'd Printing, To the Parlament of England (London, 1644).
• Colasterion: A Reply to A Nameless Answer Against the Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (London: Printed by Matthew Simmons, 1645).
• Tetrachordon: Expositions Upon The foure chief places in Scripture, which treat of Mariage, or nullities in Mariage (London: Printed by Thomas Payne & Matthew Simmons, 1645).
• Poems of Mr. John Milton, Both English and Latin, Compos'd at Several Times. Printed by His True Copies. The Songs were Set in Musick by Mr. Henry Lawes (London: Printed by Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Moseley, 1645).
• The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (London: Printed by Matthew Simmons, 1649; second edition, enlarged, 1650).
• 'EIKONOKLA'TE. in Answer to a Book Intitl'd 'EIK'N BAIAIKE, The Portraiture of his Sacred Majesty in His Solitudes and Sufferings (London: Printed by Matthew Simmons, 1649; second edition, enlarged, London: Printed by T. N. & sold by Tho. Brewster & G. Moule, 1650).
• Joannis Miltoni Angli Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio Contra Claudii Anonymi, alias Salmasii, Defensionem Regiam (Londini: Typis DuGardianis, 1651).
• Joannis Miltoni Angli Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio Secunda. Contra infamen libellum anonymum cui titulus, Regii sanguinis clamor ad cælum adversus parricidas Anglicanos (Londini: Typis Neucomianis, 1654).
• Joannis Miltoni Angli pro se Defensio contra Alexandrum Morum Ecclesiasten, Libelli famosi, cui titulus, Regii sanguinis clamor ad cælum adversuçs Parricidas Anglicanos, authoren recteç dictum (Londini: Typis Neucomianis, 1655).
• Considerations Touching The likeliest means to remove Hirelings out of the church. Wherein is also discourc'd of Tithes, Church-fees, Church-revenues; and whether any maintenance of ministers can be settl'd by law (London: Printed by T. N. for L. Chapman, 1659).
• A Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes: Shewing That it is not lawfull for any power on earth to compell in matters of Religion (London: Printed by Tho. Newcomb, 1659).
• The Readie & Easie Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth, and the Excellence thereof Compar'd with The inconveniences and dangers of readmitting kingship in this nation (London: Printed by T. N. & sold by Livewell Chapman, 1660; second edition, "revis'd and augmented," London: Printed for the author, 1660).
• Brief Notes Upon a late Sermon, titl'd, The Fear of God and the King; Preachd, and since Publishd, By Matthew Griffith, D. D. And Chaplain to the late King (London, 1660).
• Paradise lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books by John Milton (London: Printed & sold by Peter Parker, Robert Boulter, and Matthias Walker, 1667).
• Accedence Commenc't Grammar, Supply'd with Sufficient Rules, For the use of such as, Younger or Elder, are desirous, without more trouble then needs, to attain the Latin Tongue; the elder sort especially, with little teaching, and their own industry (London: Printed by S. Simmons, 1669).
• The History of Britain, That part especially now call'd England. From the first Traditional Beginning, continu'd to the Norman Conquest (London: Printed by J. M. for James Allestry, 1670).
• Paradise Regain'd. A Poem In IV Books. To Which Is Added Samson Agonistes. The Author John Milton (London: Printed by J. M. for John Starkey, 1671).
• Joannis Miltoni Angli, Artis Logicæ Plenior Institutio, Ad Petri Rami Methodum concinnata (Londini: Impensis Spencer Hickman, 1672).
• Of True Religion, Hæresie, Schism, Toleration, and what best means may be us'd against the growth of Popery (London, 1673).
• Poems, &c. upon Several Occasions. By Mr. John Milton: Both English and Latin, &c. Composed at several times. With a small Tractate of Education To Mr. Hartlib (London: Printed for Tho. Dring, 1673).
• Joannis Miltoni Angli, Epistolarum Familiarum Liber Unus: Quibus Accesserunt, Ejusdem, jam olim in Collegio Adolescentis, Prolusiones Quædam Oratoriae (Londini: Impensis Brabazoni Aylmeri, 1674).
• A Declaration, or Letters Patents of the Election of this present King of Poland John the Third, Elected on the 22d of May last past, Anno Dom. 1674, translated by Milton (London: Printed for Brabazon Aylmer, 1674).
• Paradise Lost. A Poem in Twelve Books. The Author John Milton. The Second Edition Revised and Augmented by the Same Author (London: Printed by S. Simmons, 1674).
• Literæ Pseudo-Senatûs Anglicani, Cromwellii, Reliquorumque Perduellium nomine ac jussu conscriptæ (Amsterdam: Printed by Peter & John Blaeu, 1676).
• A Brief History of Moscovia: and of Other Less-Known Countries Lying Eastward of Russia as far as Cathay. Gather'd from the Writings of Several Eye-witnesses (London: Printed by M. Flesher for Brabazon Aylmer, 1682).
• Letters of State, Written by Mr. John Milton, to most of the Sovereign Princes and Republicks of Europe. From the Year 1649. Till the Year 1659. To Which Is Added, an Account of His Life. Together with Several of His Poems (London, 1694).
• Joannis Miltoni Angli De Doctrina Christiana libri duo posthumi, quos ex schedis mauscripts deprompsit et typis mandari primus curavit C. R. Sumner (Cantabrigiae: Typis Academicis excudit Joannes Smith, 1825).
• A Common-place Book of John Milton, and a Latin Essay and Latin Verses Presumed To Be by Milton, edited by A. J. Horwood, Camden Society Publications, new series 16 (Westminster: Printed for the Camden Society, 1876; revised, 1877).
• A Common-Place Book of John Milton. Reproduced by the Autotype Process from the Original Manuscript in the Possession of Sir Frederick J. U. Graham.... With an Introduction by A. J. Horwood (London: Privately printed at the Chiswick Press, 1876).

EDITIONS

• The Poetical Works of Mr. John Milton. Containing Paradise Lost, Paradise Regain'd, Sampson Agonistes, and His Poems on Several Occasions. Together with Explanatory Notes on Each Book of the Paradise Lost and a Table Never before Printed, with notes to Paradise Lost by David Hume (London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, 1695).
• The Works of Mr. John Milton (London, 1697).
• A Complete Collection of the Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous Works of John Milton, both English and Latin; with som Papers Never Before Publish'd, 3 volumes (Amsterdam [i.e. London], 1698).
• The Poetical Works of Mr. John Milton, 2 volumes (London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, 1705).
• Paradise Regain'd. A Poem in Four Books. To Which is Added Samson Agonistes: and Poems on Several Occasions.... From the text of Thomas Newton, D.D. (Birmingham: Printed by John Baskerville for J. & R. Tonson, London, 1758).
• Paradise Lost. A Poem, in Twelve Books.... From the Text of Thomas Newton D.D. (Birmingham: Printed by John Baskerville for J. & R. Tonson, London, 1758).
• Poems upon Several Occasions, English, Italian and Latin, With Translations by John Milton.... With Notes Critical and Explanatory and Other Illustrations, edited by Thomas Warton (London: Printed for J. Dodsley, 1785).
• The Poetical Works of John Milton. With a Life of the Author, by William Hayley, 3 volumes (London: Printed by W. Bulmer for John & Josiah Boydell & George Nicol, 1794-1797).
• Latin and Italian Poems of Milton Translated into English Verse, and a Fragment of a Commentary on Paradise Lost, translated by William Cowper, edited by William Hayley (London: Printed by J. Seagrave for J. Johnson & R. H. Evans, 1808).
• The Poetical Works of John Milton, with Notes of Various Authors. To Which are added Illustrations, and Some Account of the Life and Writings of Milton.... Second edition, with considerable additions and with a Verbal Index to the whole of Milton's poetry, 7 volumes, edited by H. J. Todd (London: Printed for J. Johnson by Law & Gilbert, 1809).
• Milton's Life and Poetical Works with Notes by William Cowper.... With Adam, a Sacred Drama, 4 volumes, edited by Hayley (Chichester: Printed by W. Mason for J. Johnson, London, 1810).
• The Poetical Works of John Milton.... with Imaginative Illustrations by J. M. W. Turner, 6 volumes, edited by Sir Egerton Brydges (London: J. Macrone, 1835).
• The Prose Works of John Milton, 5 volumes, edited by J. A. St. John, Bohn's Standard Library (London: Bell, 1848-1881).
• The Works of John Milton in Verse and Prose, Printed from the Original Editions with a Life of the Author, 8 volumes, edited by John Mitford (London: Pickering, 1851).
• The Poems of John Milton, 2 volumes, edited by Thomas Keightley (London: Chapman & Hall, 1859).
• English Poems by John Milton, 2 volumes, edited by R. C. Browne (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1870; revised, 1873).
• The Poetical Works of John Milton, 3 volumes, edited by David Masson (London: Macmillan, 1874; revised, 1890).
• The Cambridge Milton for Schools, 10 volumes, edited by A. Wilson Verity, Pitt Press series (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1891-1896; revised edition of Comus, 1909; revised edition of Paradise Lost, 1910).
• The Poetical Works of John Milton, Edited after the Original Texts, edited by H. C. Beeching (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900).
• The Poetical Works of John Milton, edited by William Aldis Wright (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1903).
• The Poems of John Milton, 2 volumes, edited by H. J. C. Grierson (London: Chatto & Windus, 1925).
• Milton's Prose, edited by Malcolm W. Wallace (London: Oxford University Press, 1925).
• Areopagitica and Other Prose Works (London: Dent, 1927; New York: Dutton, 1927).
• The Student's Milton, Being the Complete Poems of John Milton, with the Greater Part of His Prose Works, Now Printed in One Volume, Together with New Translations into English of His Italian, Latin and Greek Poems, edited by Frank Allen Patterson (New York: Crofts, 1930; revised, 1933).
• The Works of John Milton, 18 volumes in 21, edited by Patterson (New York: Columbia University Press, 1931-1938).
• Paradise Regained, the Minor Poems and Samson Agonistes, Complete and Arranged Chronologically, edited by Merritt Y. Hughes (New York: Odyssey Press, 1937).
• The English Poems of John Milton, from the Edition of H. C. Beeching Together with an Introduction by Charles Williams, and a Reader's Guide to Milton Compiled by Walter Skeat (London: Oxford University Press, 1940).
• The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton, edited by Harris Francis Fletcher (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1941).
• John Milton's Complete Poetical Works, Reproduced in Photographic Facsimile, 4 volumes, edited by Fletcher (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1943-1948).
• John Milton: Prose Selections, edited by Hughes (New York: Odyssey Press, 1947).
• The Poetical Works of John Milton, 2 volumes, edited by Helen Darbishire (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952-1955); republished with Latin poems edited by H. W. Garrod and Italian poems edited by John Purves (London & New York: Oxford University Press, 1958).
• Complete Prose Works of John Milton, 8 volumes in 10, edited by Don M. Wolfe and others (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1953-1982).
• Poems, edited by B. A. Wright (London: Dent / New York: Dutton, 1956).
• Complete Poems and Major Prose, edited by Hughes (New York: Odyssey Press, 1957).
• The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton, edited by Douglas Bush (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965; London: Oxford University Press, 1966).
• The Prose of John Milton, edited by J. Max Patrick (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1967).
• The Poems of John Milton, edited by John Carey and Alastair Fowler (London: Longmans, Green, 1968).
• The Complete Poetry of John Milton, revised edition, edited by John T. Shawcross (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1971).
• Selected Prose of John Milton, edited by C. A. Patrides (Harmondsworth, U.K.: Penguin, 1974).
• John Milton: The Complete Poems, edited by Wright, with an introduction by Gordon Campbell (London: Dent / New York, Dutton, 1980).
• John Milton, edited by Stephen Orgel and Jonathan Goldberg (Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).

OTHER

• "An Epitaph on the admirable Dramaticke Poet, W. SHAKESPEARE," in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies, Second Folio (London: Printed by Tho. Cotes for Robert Allot, 1632).
• "Lycidas," in Justa Edovardo King, naufrago, ab Amicis moerentibus, amoris & eis khai (Cantabrigiæ: Apud Thomam Buck & Rogerum Daniel, 1638); part 2: Obsequies to the Memorie of Mr. Edward King, Anno Dom. 1638 (Cambridge: Printed by Th. Buck & R. Daniel, 1638), pp. 20-25.
• Sonnet to Henry Lawes, in Choice Psalmes, Put into Musick for Three Voices, by Henry and William Lawes (London: Printed by James Young for Humphrey Moseley, 1648).
• "Observations on the Articles of Peace," in Articles of Peace, made and concluded with the Irish Rebels, and Papists, by James Earle of Ormond, for and in behalfe of the late King, and by vertue of his Autoritie (London: Printed by Matthew Simmons, 1649).
• The Cabinet-Council: Containing the Chief Arts of Empire, and Mysteries of State ... By ... Sir Walter Raleigh, published by Milton from a manuscript (London: Printed by Thomas Newcomb for Thomas Johnson, 1658).

Milton materials are scattered around the world, but most of the important collections of manuscripts and early printed editions are in Britain and the United States. In Britain, the important depositories are the British Library in London, the Bodleian Library in Oxford, and the Trinity College Library in Cambridge. In the United States the important depositories are the New York Public Library, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Henry E. Huntington Library, the Yale University Libraries, the University of Kentucky Libraries, the Columbia University Library, the Union Theological Seminary Library, the University of Illinois Library, and the Princeton University Library.

FURTHER READINGS

• David H. Stevens, A Reference Guide to Milton from 1800 to the Present Day (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1930).
• Harris F. Fletcher, Contributions to a Milton Bibliography, 1800-1930 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1931).
• Calvin Huckabay, John Milton: An Annotated Bibliography, 1929-1968, revised edition (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1969).
• James Holly Hanford and William A. McQueen, Milton, second edition, Goldentree Bibliographies (Arlington Heights, Ill.: AHM, 1979).
• John T. Shawcross, Milton: A Bibliography for the Years 1624-1700 (Binghamton, N.Y.: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1984).
• David Masson, The Life of John Milton: Narrated in Connexion with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of His Time, 7 volumes (Cambridge & London: Macmillan, 1859-1894; volume 1 revised, 1881; index, 1894).
• Helen Darbishire, ed., The Early Lives of Milton (London: Constable, 1932).
• James Holly Hanford, John Milton, Englishman (New York: Crown, 1949).
• Joseph Milton French, ed., The Life Records of John Milton, 5 volumes (New Brunswick, N. J.: Rutgers University Press, 1949-1958).
• William Riley Parker, Milton: A Biography, 2 volumes (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968).
• A. N. Wilson, The Life of John Milton (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983).
• Robert M. Adams, Ikon: John Milton and the Modern Critics (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1966).
• Arthur Barker, ed., Milton: Modern Essays in Criticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).
• Joan S. Bennett, Reviving Liberty: Radical Christian Humanism in Milton's Great Poems (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989).
• Boyd M. Berry, Process of Speech: Puritan Religious Writing and Paradise Lost (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976).
• Harry Blamires, Milton's Creation: A Guide Through Paradise Lost (London: Methuen, 1971).
• Francis C. Blessington, Paradise Lost and the Classical Epic (London: Routledge, 1979).
• C. M. Bowra, From Virgil to Milton (London: Macmillan, 1945).
• John B. Broadbent, Some Graver Subject: An Essay on Paradise Lost (London: Schocken, 1967).
• Archie Burnett, Milton's Style (London: Longman, 1981).
• Douglas Bush, Paradise Lost in Our Time: Some Comments (New York: P. Smith, 1957).
• Jackson I. Cope, The Metaphoric Structure of Paradise Lost (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1962).
• Roy Daniells, Milton, Mannerism, and Baroque (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1963).
• Dennis Danielson, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Milton (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).
• Helen Darbishire, Milton's Paradise Lost (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1951).
• Stevie Davies, Images of Kingship in Paradise Lost (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1983).
• John G. Demaray, Milton and the Masque Tradition (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1968).
• Demaray, Milton's Theatrical Epic: The Invention and Design of Paradise Lost (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1980).
• John S. Diekhoff, Milton's Paradise Lost: A Commentary on the Argument (New York: Humanities Press, 1958).
• T. S. Eliot, "Milton I," in his On Poetry and Poets (London: Faber & Faber, 1957).
• William Empson, Milton's God, revised edition (London: Chatto & Windus, 1965).
• J. M. Evans, Paradise Lost and the Genesis Tradition (London: Oxford University Press, 1968).
• Anne Davidson Ferry, Milton's Epic Voice: The Narrator in Paradise Lost (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963).
• Stanley Fish, Surprised by Sin: The Reader in Paradise Lost (New York: Macmillan, 1967).
• Michael Fixler, Milton and the Kingdoms of God (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1964).
• Harris F. Fletcher, The Intellectual Development of John Milton, 2 volumes (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1956, 1962).
• Northrop Frye, The Return of Eden: Five Essays on Milton's Epics (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1965).
• Roland Mushat Frye, Milton's Imagery and the Visual Arts: Iconographic Tradition in the Epic Poems (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1978).
• Helen Gardner, A Reading of Paradise Lost (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965).
• Christopher Grose, Milton's Epic Process: Paradise Lost and Its Miltonic Background (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1973).
• Christopher Hill, Milton and the English Revolution (New York: Viking, 1977).
• John Spencer Hill, John Milton, Poet, Prophet, Priest (London: Macmillan, 1979).
• E. A. J. Honigmann, Milton's Sonnets (New York: St. Martin's, 1966).
• Merritt Y. Hughes, Ten Perspectives on Milton (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965).
• G. K. Hunter, Paradise Lost (London: Allen & Unwin, 1980).
• William B. Hunter, Jr., C. A. Patrides, and J. H. Adamson, Bright Essence: Studies in Milton's Theology (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1971).
• Hunter, gen. ed., A Milton Encyclopedia, 9 volumes (Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press, 1978-1983).
• John R. Knott, Jr., Milton's Pastoral Vision: An Approach to Paradise Lost (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971).
• Burton O. Kurth, Milton and Christian Heroism: Biblical Epic Themes and Forms in Seventeenth-Century England (Hamden, Conn.: Shoe String Press, 1966).
• Jon S. Lawry, The Shadow of Heaven: Matter and Stance in Milton's Poetry (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1968).
• Edward S. Le Comte, Milton and Sex (New York: Columbia University Press, 1978).
• J. B. Leishman, Milton's Minor Poems (London: Hutchinson, 1969).
• Barbara Kiefer Lewalski, Milton's Brief Epic: The Genre, Meaning, and Art of Paradise Regained (Providence: Brown University Press, 1966).
• C. S. Lewis, A Preface to Paradise Lost, revised edition (London & New York: Oxford University Press, 1960).
• Michael Lieb, Poetics of the Holy: A Reading of Paradise Lost (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1981).
• Lieb, The Sinews of Ulysses: Form and Convention in Milton's Works (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1989).
• Anthony Low, The Blaze of Noon: A Reading of Samson Agonistes (New York: Columbia University Press, 1974).
• Isabel G. MacCaffrey, Paradise Lost as Myth (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1959).
• William G. Madsen, From Shadowy Types to Truth: Studies in Milton's Symbolism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968).
• Louis L. Martz, Poet of Exile: A Study of Milton's Poetry (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980).
• Diane McColley, Milton's Eve (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983).
• Anna K. Nardo, Milton's Sonnets and the Ideal Community (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1979).
• C. A. Patrides, Milton and the Christian Tradition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966).
• Patrides, ed., Milton's Lycidas: The Tradition & the Poem, second edition (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1983).
• Elizabeth M. Pope, Paradise Regained: The Tradition and the Poem (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1947).
• Mary Ann Radzinowicz, Toward Samson Agonistes: The Growth of Milton's Mind (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1978).
• Balachandra Rajan, The Lofty Rhyme: A Study of Milton's Major Poetry (London: Routledge, 1970).
• Rajan, Paradise Lost and the Seventeenth-Century Reader (London: Chatto & Windus, 1947).
• Stella P. Revard, The War in Heaven: Paradise Lost and the Tradition of Satan's Rebellion (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1980).
• Christopher Ricks, Milton's Grand Style (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963).
• William G. Riggs, The Christian Poet in Paradise Lost (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972).
• Murray Roston, Milton and the Baroque (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1980).
• John T. Shawcross, Paradise Regain'd: Worthy T'Have Not Remain'd So Long Unsung (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1988).
• Shawcross, With Mortal Voice: The Creation of Paradise Lost (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1982).
• Shawcross, ed., Milton 1732-1801: The Critical Heritage (London: Routledge, 1972).
• John M. Steadman, Epic and Tragic Structure in Paradise Lost (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976).
• Steadman, Milton and the Renaissance Hero (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967).
• Arnold Stein, Answerable Style: Essays on Paradise Lost (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1953).
• Stein, The Art of Presence: The Poet and Paradise Lost (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977).
• Joseph H. Summers, The Muse's Method: An Introduction to Paradise Lost (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1962).
• Edward Tayler, Milton's Poetry: Its Development in Time (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1980).
• James Thorpe, John Milton: The Inner Life (San Marino, Cal.: Huntington Library, 1983).
• E. M. W. Tillyard, Milton, revised edition (London: Chatto & Windus, 1966).
• James Grantham Turner, One Flesh: Paradisal Marriage and Sexual Relations in the Age of Milton (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987).
• Rosemond Tuve, Images and Themes in Five Poems by Milton (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1957).
• A. J. A. Waldock, Paradise Lost and Its Critics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1947).
• Joan M. Webber, Milton and the Epic Tradition (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1979).
• Joseph A. Wittreich, Jr., Feminist Milton (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1987).
• Wittreich, Visionary Poetics: Milton's Tradition and His Legacy (San Marino, Cal.: Huntington Library, 1979).
• Don M. Wolfe, Milton in the Puritan Revolution (New York: Humanities Press, 1963).