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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... epic and its literary and religious contexts . " King has recovered for our time a style of reading and a religio - historical context that enrich our understanding of Paradise Lost . Essential reading for Milton scholars , this book ...
... epic and its literary and religious contexts . " King has recovered for our time a style of reading and a religio - historical context that enrich our understanding of Paradise Lost . Essential reading for Milton scholars , this book ...
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... epic and its literary and religious contexts . John N. King is Professor of English at the Ohio State University . His books include English Reformation Literature : The Tudor Origins of the Protestant Tradition ( 1982 ) , Tudor Royal ...
... epic and its literary and religious contexts . John N. King is Professor of English at the Ohio State University . His books include English Reformation Literature : The Tudor Origins of the Protestant Tradition ( 1982 ) , Tudor Royal ...
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... epic , one recovered by teasing out sly hints , sarcastic innuendoes , and deeply embedded typological pat- terns . Ardent sermons , fiery broadsheets , and belligerent pamphlets of the mid - seventeenth century , notably Milton's own ...
... epic , one recovered by teasing out sly hints , sarcastic innuendoes , and deeply embedded typological pat- terns . Ardent sermons , fiery broadsheets , and belligerent pamphlets of the mid - seventeenth century , notably Milton's own ...
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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