A New Companion to Milton (eBook)

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.

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

"A New Companion to Milton, edited by Thomas N. Corns, is a veritable compendium. With sections on The Cultural Context, Politics and Religion, Texts, Influence and Impact, and Chronology, and almost forty chapters, this is an impressive tome in every way."
--George E. Haggerty, SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, Volume 57, Number 3, Summer 2017

"A New Companion to Milton updates the award-winning Blackwell Companion from 2001 by providing revisions of all but one of its original essays and by supplementing them with nine new essays on subjects ranging from Milton's sonnets and Latinity to his epic precursors and global reach. Particularly noteworthy are reports on the poet's afterlife in the Arabic-speaking world, Spanish-speaking America, China, India, Korea, and Japan."
--Edward Jones, The Milton Quarterly

"The first edition of A Companion to Milton has long been an invaluable resource for students of Milton, and after 15 years, the expansion and reworking of the essays brings scholarship and critical thinking up to date. Thomas Corns has once again done a splendid job of assembling a team of scholars who can write accessibly and engagingly about Milton."
--Gordon Campbell, University of Leicester

"A New Companion to Milton - a revised, updated, and enlarged edition of the outstanding first Blackwell's Companion - will prove indispensable for all students and scholars of Milton and his works. The range of essays is formidable, and the new section on Milton's global impact is particularly welcome"
--Karen Edwards, University of Exeter