A New Companion to Milton

by Corns, Thomas N.

• ISBN13: 9781119135012
• ISBN10: 111913501X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2023-07-03
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

A New Companion to Milton builds on the critically-acclaimed original, bringing alive the diverse and controversial world of contemporary Milton studies while reflecting the very latest advances in research in the field.

• Comprises 36 powerful readings of Milton's texts and the contexts in which they were created, each written by a leading scholar
• Retains 28 of the award-winning essays from the first edition, revised and updated to reflect the most recent research
• Contains a new section exploring Milton's global impact, in China, India, Japan, Korea, in Spanish speaking American and the Arab-speaking world
• Includes eight completely new full-length essays, each of which engages closely with Milton's poetic oeuvre, and a new chronology which sets Milton's life and work in the context of his age
• Explores literary production and cultural ideologies, issues of politics, gender and religion, individual Milton texts, and responses to Milton over time

Author Biography

Thomas N. Corns is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Bangor University. Together with Gordon Campbell, he is the General Editor of The Complete Works of John Milton. His recent publications include John Milton: Life, Work, and Thought (with Gordon Campbell, 2008), an edition of the complete works of Gerrard Winstanley (with Ann Hughes and David Loewenstein, 2009), and The Milton Encyclopedia (2012). He is currently working with David Loewenstein on a scholarly edition of Paradise Lost. Professor Corns is a Fellow of the British Academy and an Honored Scholar of the Milton Society of America.

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors ix

Preface xvii

Note on Editions Used xviii

List of Abbreviations xix

Part I The Cultural Context 1

1 Genre 3
Barbara K. Lewalski

2 The Classical Literary Tradition 22
John K. Hale

3 Milton on the Bible 37
Regina M. Schwartz

4 Literary Baroque and Literary Neoclassicism 55
Graham Parry

5 Milton and English Poetry 71
Achsah Guibbory

6 Milton's English 90
Thomas N. Corns

Part II Politics and Religion 107

7 The Legacy of the Late Jacobean Period 109
Cedric C. Brown

8 Milton and Puritanism 124
N. H. Keeble

9 Radical Heterodoxy and Heresy 141
John Rumrich

10 Milton and Ecology 157
Diane Kelsey McColley

11 The English and Other Peoples 174
Andrew Hadfield

12 The Literature of Controversy 191
Joad Raymond

Part III Texts 211

13 'On the Morning of Christ's Nativity,' 'Upon the Circumcision,' and 'The Passion' 213
Thomas N. Corns

14 The Poetic Promise of 'On the Morning of Christ's Nativity' 230
Noam Reisner

15 John Milton's Comus 241
Leah S. Marcus

16 'Lycidas' 255
Stella P. Revard

17 Milton's Sonnets 270
Ryan Netzley

18 Exact Latinity and Excellent English: Milton's Early Poetry 282
Sarah Knight

19 Early Political Prose 291
Elizabeth Skerpan-Wheeler

20 Milton, Marriage, and Divorce 308
Annabel Patterson

21 Republicanism 323
Martin Dzelzainis

22 Late Political Prose 338
Laura Lunger Knoppers

23 Milton in Intellectual History 356
Stephen M. Fallon

24 The Radical Religious Politics of Paradise Lost 376
David Loewenstein

25 Obedience and Autonomy in Paradise Lost 391
Michael Schoenfeldt

26 Paradise Lost and the Multiplicity of Time 408
Amy Boesky

27 Self-Contradicting Puns in Paradise Lost 421
John Leonard

28 A Paradise for Poets 439
Maggie Kilgour

29 Milton and his Epic Precursors: Overgoing and Recuperation 450
Tobias Gregory

30 'Nor vacuous the space': Milton's Chaos and the Vacuist–Plenist Controversy 460
Rachel Trubowitz

31 Samson Agonistes 475
Sharon Achinstein

32 Memorial, Performance, and Tragic Action in Samson Agonistes 493
Feisal G. Mohamed

33 Paradise Regained 503
Margaret Kean

34 Satan, the Son of God, and the Brief Epic 517
Thomas N. Corns

Part IV Influences and Impact 529

35 Reading Milton, 1674–1800 531
Kay Gilliland Stevenson

36 Milton: The Romantics and After 547
Peter J. Kitson

37 Milton's Global Impact 566

The Arabic-Speaking World 567
Islam Issa

China 570
Tianhu Hao

India 573
Malabika Sarkar

Japan 576
Hiroko Sano

Korea 579
Byung-Eun Lee

Spanish�]Speaking America 581
Mario Murgia

Part V Chronology 585

The Life and Times of John Milton: A Chronology 587
Thomas N. Corns

Consolidated Bibliography 602

Index 641