John Milton (1608-1674)

STUDY KEYWORDS

JACOBEAN ʤækəʊ ˈbiːən

Of or pertaining to the reign or times of James I of England (James VI of Scotland) (1603-1625)

REGICIDE (ˈrɛdʒɪsaɪd) • 1 One of those who took part in the trial and execution of King

Charles I ()

• 2 The killing of a king

THE COMMONWEALTH (1649-1660)

The republican government established in England between the execution of King Charles I in 1649 and the Restoration in 1660.

Oliver Cromwell (1653–58)Richard Cromwell (1658–59)

Also The Republic/The Protectorate

THE PROTECTORATE• spec. in Eng. Hist. the period (1653–9) during which

Oliver and Richard Cromwell held the title of Lord Protector of the Commonwealth.

And LORD PROTECTOR• The official title of the head of the executive during

part of the period of the Commonwealth; in full Lord Protector of the Commonwealth: borne by Oliver Cromwell 1653–8, and by his son Richard 1658–9.

RUMP PARLIAMENT(A small, unimportant, or contemptible remnant or remainder of a body of persons)

b.3.b Hist. The remnant of the Long Parliament (restored in May, 1659) which was dissolved by Monk in Feb. 1660; also (esp. in later use) the earlier remnant of the same Parliament from the time of Pride's Purge (Dec. 1648) to its dissolution by Cromwell in April, 1653.

CAVALIERS 1641-42A name given to those who fought on the side of Charles I in the war between him and the Parliament; a 17th c. Royalist.

Originally reproachful, and applied to the swash-bucklers on the king's side, who hailed the prospect of war;

Also ROYALISTS

ROUNDHEADS (1641)A member or adherent of the Parliamentary party in the Civil War of the 17th century, so called from their custom of wearing the hair close cut.

An officer named David Hide, who (app. on 27 Dec. of 1641) threatened to ‘cut the Throat of those Round-headed Dogs that bawled against Bishops’.

ALSO PARLAMENTARIANS

THE FALL

Theol. the fall, the fall of man: the sudden lapse into a sinful state produced by Adam's transgression.

LATINATE (ˈlætɪnət)

Of, pertaining to, or derived from Latin; having a Latin character

1962 W. Nowottny Lang. Poets Use i. 23 Latinate syntax is important to Milton because it provides him with more ways of devising contrasts.

ANGLICAN CHURCHOf or peculiar to the English ecclesiastically; of the reformed Church of England, and other churches in communion therewith.

PRESBYTERIANISM (1641)• Pertaining to, or characterized by, government by presbyters or

presbyteries; applied to a form or system of church polity (see below); belonging to or maintaining this system.

• In Presbyterian Churches no higher order than that of presbyter or elder is recognized, the ‘bishop’ and ‘elder’ of the N.T. being held to be identical. All elders are ecclesiastically of equal rank; but, in their function in the church, while some are ‘ruling and teaching elders’ or ‘ministers’, others are only ‘ruling elders’ (popularly called ‘lay elders’, but erroneously, since all elders are ordained or ‘in orders’). Each congregation is governed by its session, consisting of the minister and the other elders (see kirk-session, also consistory 9); the sessions are subordinate to the presbytery (see also classis), the presbyteries to the synod, and (in most Presbyterian Church

PRONUNCIATION

Aeneid iːˈniːɪd, Aeneas iːˈniːəsHomer ˈhəʊməʳVirgil ˈvɜː.ʤɪlHesiod ˈhiː.siədChaos ˈkeɪɒs

LUCIFER

(ˈl(j)uːsɪfə(r))

• [L. lūcifer adj., light-bringing; used as proper name of the morning star; f. lūc(i)-, lūx light + -fer bearing. Cf. the equivalent Gr. ϕωσϕόρος, after which it was prob. formed.

SATAN (ˈseɪtən) • [a. L. Satān (Vulg., only in the O.T.) = Gr. Σατάν or Σατᾶν (once in the LXX and once in the

N.T.), a. Heb. ṣāṭān adversary, one who plots against another, f. ṣāṭan to oppose, plot against.

• In the Old Testament the Heb. word ordinarily denotes a human adversary, but in some of the later portions (Job, Chron., Zech., Ps. cix) it occurs (chiefly with definite article) as the designation of an angelic being hostile to mankind, who tempts men to evil and accuses them to God. In both applications the ordinary rendering of the LXX is διάβολος slanderer (see devil n.); the more accurate ἐπίβουλος (plotter) occurs once; the one instance in which the Heb. word is retained (1 Kings xi. 14) relates clearly to a human enemy, but may have been misapprehended. In the Gr. N.T. the ordinary form is Σατανᾶς(once only Σατᾶν), which is followed by the Vulgate and hence by Wyclif (see Satanas); but the English versions from Tindale onwards (including the Rheims N.T.) all substitute the Heb. form Satan. Cf. OF. Sathan, Satan, Fr., Sp., It., G. Satan.

• The pronunciation (ˈsætən), which is mentioned disapprovingly by Walker (1828), and is ignored in later Dictionaries, was still not uncommon in British liturgical and pulpit use c 1900.]

Hades ˈheɪ.diːzCherubim ˈʧer.ə.bɪmCherub ˈʧer.əbRaphael angel: ˈræfeɪəlGabriel ˈgeɪ.bri.əlBelial ˈbiː.li.əlMoloch ˈməʊ.lɒkAbdiel ˈæb.dɪəl

Third English Civil War

Preceded by Second English Civil War

Including •Third English Civil War•The Protectorate

Followed by Restoration

Leader(s) •Oliver Cromwell (1653–58)•Richard Cromwell (1658–59)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_English_Civil_Warhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_English_Civil_Warhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protectoratehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoration_(England)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Cromwellhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Cromwell

MONISM (ˈmɒnɪz(ə)m) [ad. mod.L. monism-us, f. Gr. µόνος single: see -ism.]

1.1 Philos. A metaphysical system based on the assumption of a single ultimate principle or kind of being instead of two or more: opposed to dualism and pluralism in various applications. a.1.a The doctrine that only one being exists.

A general name for those theories which deny the duality (i.e. the existence as two ultimate kinds of substance) of matter and mind.

Thus materialism and idealism or spiritualism are both species of monism; the name, however, is often applied specifically to a third variety, viz. the doctrine that physical and psychical phenomena are alike manifestations of a reality which cannot be identified with either matter or mind.

ARMINIANISMA adj. Of, belonging to, or following the doctrine of, James Arminius or Harmensen, a Dutch Protestant theologian, who put forth views opposed to those of Calvin, especially on predestination. Arminius died in 1609; in 1618–19 his doctrines were condemned by the synod of Dort; but they spread rapidly, and were embraced, in whole or part, by large sections of the Reformed Churches.

THEODICY θiːˈɒdɪsɪ

[ad. F. théodicée, the title of a work of Leibniz (1710), f. Gr. θεό-ς God + δίκη justice.]

The, or a, vindication of the divine attributes, esp. justice and holiness, in respect to the existence of evil; a writing, doctrine, or theory intended to ‘justify the ways of God to men’. Cf. optimism 1.

ENJAMBEMENT e/ɪnˈʤæmb .mənt, The continuation of a sentence beyond the second line of a couplet. Now also applied less restrictedly to the carrying over of a sentence from one line to the next.

Enjambed (ɒnˈʒɒmd)

CAESURA sɪˈzjʊə.rə, -ˈʒʊə- səˈzʊr.ə, -ˈʒʊr-• [a. L. cæsūra ‘cutting, metrical pause’, f. cæs- ppl. stem of cædĕre to

cut. The earlier form was immediately from French césure. (Some writers appear to have erroneously associated it with cease.)]

• 1.1 In Greek and Latin prosody: The division of a metrical foot between two words, especially in certain recognized places near the middle of the line.

PARADISE LOST (1667-1674)

Barbara Lewalski

In a series of treatises written over two decades he addressed himself to the fundamental reforms he thought would advance the liberties of Englishmen. Many of those reforms were far more radical than most of his compatriots could accept: removal of bishops from state and church office, church disestablishment, wide religious toleration, separation of church and state, unlicensed publications and the free circulation of ideas, reformed education along humanist lines, divorce on grounds of incompatibility, the abolition of monarchy, regicide when warranted, and republican government.

INGREDIENTS

Milton poured into his epic all that he had learned and thought and experienced, about life, love, artistic creativity, religious faith, work, history, politics, man and woman, God and nature, liberty and tyranny, monarchy and republicanism, learning and wisdom.

KNOWLEDGE

Milton's epic is pre-eminently a poem about knowing and choosing - for the Miltonic Bard, for his characters, and for the reader.

EDUCATION

Unlike any other literary or theological treatment of the Fall story, almost half the poem is given over to the formal education of Adam and Eve, by Raphael before and by Michael after the Fall. God himself takes on the role of educator as he engages in dialogue with his Son about humankind's fall and redemption (3.80-265) and with Adam over his request for a mate (8.357-451). Adam and Eve's dialogues with each other involve them in an ongoing process of self-education about themselves and their world. Milton educates his readers by exercising them in imaginative apprehension, rigorous judgment, and choice. By setting his poem in relation to other great epics and works in other genres he involves readers in a critique of the values associated with those other heroes and genres, as well as with issues of politics and theology.

STATIC vs DYNAMIC

He does not conceive of ideality as static perfection but associates it rather with challenge, choice, and growth.

ISSUES

Milton's epic also dramatizes political issues long important to him - monarchy, tyranny, idolatry, rebellion, liberty, republicanism, separation of church and state.

STYLESeeking an "answerable style” for his "great Argument,” Milton produced rushing, enjambed, blank-verse lines that propel us along with few pauses for line endings or full stops, marked by elevated diction and complex syntax and by sonorities and sound patterningsthat make a magnificent music. He was clearly at pains to create an epic language suited to his exalted subject, a sublime high style of remarkable range whose energy and power will engulf us from the beginning. This style is created in part by dense allusiveness to classical myths, to biblical, historical, and literary names and stories, and to geographical places, ancient and contemporary, which import into the poem our associations with all those literary and physical worlds.