Milton and Religious Controversy: Satire and Polemic in Paradise LostCambridge University Press, 2000 M06 22 - 227 pages Religious satire and polemic constitute an elusive presence in Paradise Lost. John N. King shows how Milton's poem takes on new meaning when understood as part of a strategy of protest against ecclesiastical formalism and clericalism. The experience of Adam and Eve before the Fall recalls many Puritan devotional habits. After the Fall, they are prone to 'idolatrous' ritual and ceremony that anticipate the religious 'error' of Milton's own age. Vituperative sermons, broadsides and pamphlets, notably Milton's own tracts, afford a valuable context for recovering the poem's engagement with the violent history of the Civil Wars, Commonwealth and Restoration, while contemporary visual satires help to clarify Miltonic practice. Eighteenth-century critics who attacked breaches of decorum and sublimity in Paradise Lost alternately deplored and ignored a literary and polemical tradition deployed by Milton's contemporaries. This important study, first published in 2000, sheds light on Milton's epic and its literary and religious contexts. |
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Page ix
... Appendix : transcriptions from satirical broadsheets Select Bibliography Index page x xiii xvii XX I 23 44 69 89 109 133 153 167 189 196 206 222 Illustrations I Edmund Spenser , Calendarium Pastorale , translated by ix Preface.
... Appendix : transcriptions from satirical broadsheets Select Bibliography Index page x xiii xvii XX I 23 44 69 89 109 133 153 167 189 196 206 222 Illustrations I Edmund Spenser , Calendarium Pastorale , translated by ix Preface.
Page x
... broadsheet . Old Rome's New Church of Knaves and Fools ( 1689 ) . Reproduced by permission of the Department of Prints and Drawings , British Museum , 1868-8-8-3318 . 5 Broadsheet woodcut . A Discovery of the Jesuits ' Trumpery , Newly ...
... broadsheet . Old Rome's New Church of Knaves and Fools ( 1689 ) . Reproduced by permission of the Department of Prints and Drawings , British Museum , 1868-8-8-3318 . 5 Broadsheet woodcut . A Discovery of the Jesuits ' Trumpery , Newly ...
Page xi
... broadsheet . Samuel Ward , To God , In Memory of his Double Deliverance from the Invincible Navy and the Unmatchable Powder Treason ( Amsterdam , 1621 ) . Reproduced by permission 51 of the Department of Prints and Drawings , British ...
... broadsheet . Samuel Ward , To God , In Memory of his Double Deliverance from the Invincible Navy and the Unmatchable Powder Treason ( Amsterdam , 1621 ) . Reproduced by permission 51 of the Department of Prints and Drawings , British ...
Page xii
... broadsheet . The Fruits of Faith in these Five Famous Men , Scripture Worthies Heb . XI ( 1656 ) . Reproduced by permission of the Department of Printed Books , British Library , 669.f.20 ( 38 ) . 118 119 139 140 174 Preface This study ...
... broadsheet . The Fruits of Faith in these Five Famous Men , Scripture Worthies Heb . XI ( 1656 ) . Reproduced by permission of the Department of Printed Books , British Library , 669.f.20 ( 38 ) . 118 119 139 140 174 Preface This study ...
Page xiii
... broadsheets , and belligerent pamphlets of the mid - seventeenth century , notably Milton's own antiprelatical tracts , afford a rich context for recovering the poem's engagement with the violent history of the era of the Civil Wars ...
... broadsheets , and belligerent pamphlets of the mid - seventeenth century , notably Milton's own antiprelatical tracts , afford a rich context for recovering the poem's engagement with the violent history of the era of the Civil Wars ...
Contents
Controversial merriment | xvii |
Milton reads Spensers May Eclogue | 19 |
Satan and the demonic conclave | 40 |
Miltons Den of Error | 65 |
The Paradise of Fools | 85 |
Laughter in heaven | 105 |
Miltonic transubstantiation | 129 |
Common terms and phrases
Abel Adam and Eve Adam's affords allegory allusion altar antiformalistic antiprelatical tracts Archangel Archbishop Laud associated attack begat bishops Book broadsheet Christ Christian Church of Rome clerical Communion concerning conclave contemporary controversy corruption Death demonic Devil disguise divine doctrine ecclesiastical Eclogue Edmund Spenser Empson England English engraving epic episcopacy Eve's Eye of Providence Faerie Queene faith fallen angels false Father Figure friars Gunpowder Plot hell holy hypocrisy idolatry images Jesuits Jesus John Milton King Laud Laudian laughter in heaven Limbo Locusts London Lycidas Mary Mass Michael narrator's pamphlets Pandaemonium Paradise Lost Paradise of Fools parody passim pastoral Peter Plowman's Tale poem poem's Poetics polemical Pope Popish prayer prelates priests proleptic Protestant puns Puritan Raphael's readers recalls Reformation religion religious Reproduced by permission Roman Catholic Roman-rite sacramental Satan scriptural sermons seventeenth-century sexuality SPART Spenser Spenserian spiritual Thomas Warton tion transubstantiation true trumpery vols Warton Whore William worship