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 1641-42
A 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 CHURCH
Of 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 iːˈniːəs
Homer ˈhəʊməʳ
Virgil ˈvɜː.ʤɪl
Hesiod ˈhiː.siəd
Chaos 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.diːz
Cherubim ˈʧer.ə.bɪm
Cherub ˈʧer.əb
Raphael angel: ˈræfeɪəl
Gabriel ˈgeɪ.bri.əl
Belial ˈbiː.li.əl
Moloch ˈməʊ.lɒk
Abdiel ˈæb.dɪəl
Preceded by
Including
Followed by
Leader(s)
Third English Civil War
Second English Civil War
•Third English Civil War
•The Protectorate
Restoration
•Oliver Cromwell (1653–58)
•Richard Cromwell (1658–59)
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.
ARMINIANISM
A 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.
STYLE
Seeking 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 patternings
that 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.