Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

It should be noted at the outset that John Milton thought of himself primarily as a poet, one who wrote prose, as he put it, with his “left hand,” reserving the right for his chosen calling (1.808; all quotations are from Milton 1953–82 [CPW]). Milton's first prose works were his Prolusions, performed as school exercises during his studies at Cambridge. During his mature years, the English press, released from strict government control, experienced an explosion of printing, and he joined in the lively debate over his country's fortunes, publishing both as a private citizen and a public servant. Much of his mature prose could well serve as a chronicle of two turbulent decades of English history, the 1640s and 1650s. Milton entered into public print with tracts that ranged widely over issues of his day, publications that, for the purpose of discussion, can be roughly divided into two categories, the religious and the political.Milton's seventeenth-century contemporaries looked upon these two spheres of human concern as intimately intertwined: political actions were seen as profoundly influencing the fate of their immortal souls. The poet's prose works identify him as very much a man of his age since religion is always close to the surface of his political works and politics ever a factor in his vision of religion. But he was ahead of his time in his insistence on the separation of ... log in or subscribe to read full text