Milton and the Ends of Time

by Edited by Juliet Cummins

• ISBN13: 9780521816656
• ISBN10: 0521816653
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-06-09
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

In Milton and the Ends of Time, originally published in 2003, a team of leading international scholars addresses Milton's treatment of millennial and apocalyptic ideas, topics of major importance in the religious and philosophical thought of his day. The subject has wide-ranging ramifications for the interpretation of Milton's poetry and prose, as his speculations on the ends of time played a vital part in shaping the Miltonic quest and vision. This collection thinks critically about Milton's eschatology by arguing that Milton expressed radical millenarian views after the Restoration and by demonstrating the pervasiveness of apocalyptic ideas in Milton's thought. It also provides a broad range of disciplinary and theoretical perspectives; approaches include Milton and the visual arts, Milton's politics and theology, Milton and science and comparative poetics. This volume will be of interest to literary, religious and political historians of the seventeenth century, as well as Milton specialists.

Table of Contents

List of contributors

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction: 'Those thoughts that wander through eternity' Juliet Cummins

Part I. Millennium: 1. Milton and the Millennium Barbara K. Lewalski

2. Mede, Milton and More: Christ's College Millenarians Sarah Hutton

3. Milton and Millenarianism: from the Nativity Ode to Paradise Regained Stella P. Revard

4. Astronomical signs in Paradise Lost: Milton, Ophiucus and the Millennial debate Malabika Sarkar

5. The Millennial moment: Milton vs. 'Milton' William B. Hunter

6. Confusion: the apocalypse, the millennium John T. Shawcross

Part II. Apocalypse: 7. John Martin's apocalyptic illustrations to Paradise Lost Beverley Sherry

8. The enclosed garden and the apocalypse: immanent versus transcendent time in Milton and Marvell Catherine Gimelli Martin

9. Matter and apocalyptic transformations in Paradise Lost Juliet Cummins

10. 'New heavens, new earth': apocalypse and the loss of sacramentality in the Postlapsarian books of Paradise Lost Claude N. Stulting, Jr.

11. The apocalypse in Paradise Regained Ken Simpson

12. Inspiration and melancholy in Samson Agonistes Karen Edwards

Afterword: 'The Time is Come' David Loewenstein.