Divided Empire: Milton's Political ImageryIn Divided Empire, Robert T. Fallon examines the influence of John Milton's political experience on his great poems: Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. This study is a natural sequel to Fallon's previous book, Milton in Government, which examined Milton's decade of service as Secretary for Foreign Languages to the English Republic. Milton's works are crowded with political figures—kings, counselors, senators, soldiers, and envoys—all engaged in a comparable variety of public acts—debate, decree, diplomacy, and warfare—in a manner similar to those who exercised power on the world stage during his time in public office. Traditionally, scholars have cited this imagery for two purposes: first, to support studies of the poet's political allegiances as reflected in his prose and his life; and, second, to demonstrate that his works are sympathetic to certain ideological positions popular in present times. Fallon argues that Paradise Lost is not a political testament, however, and to read its lines as a critique of allegiances and ideologies outside the work is limit the range and scope of critical inquiry and to miss the larger purpose of the political imagery within the poem. That imagery, the author proposes, like that of all Milton's later works, serves to illuminate the spiritual message, a vision of the human soul caught up in the struggle between vast metaphysical forces of good and evil. Fallon seeks to enlarge the range of critical inquiry by assessing the influence of personal and historical events upon art, asking, as he puts it, "not what the poetry says about the events, but what the events say about the poetry." Divided Empire probes, not Milton's judgment on his sources, but the use he made of them. |
From inside the book
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... Deity , who in that sense constitutes the third person of the earthly triumvirate . God , it seems , plans to be an active member of the prelapsarian ruling body . Raphael promises that he will “ deign / To visit oft 12. As Batista Nani ...
... deity . " 16 The argument is persuasive , leaving the distinct impression that the third person of Milton's celestial Trinity is a female figure , sharing power with the two kings but not openly exercising it , in a manner similar to ...
... Deity , even to the political structures of human society . The Tudor monarchs adapted the scheme to their own political ends , most familiarly in the representation of 17. I am indebted to my manuscript editor , Andrew Lewis , who ...
... Deity ruling that " addition of his Empire " from his celestial throne , operating through his vicegerent creatures , Adam and Eve . When that order is shattered by Man's disobedience , it is quickly replaced by one of like design ...
... Deity . It is in the particulars of Milton's poetic triumvirates that one detects the influence on his imagination of the French arrangement : the co - rulers , the family relationship , the female presence , the balance of author- ity ...
Contents
1 | |
25 | |
To Reign in Hell | 55 |
Heaven and Hell | 83 |
The Lords of the Earth | 97 |
Divided Empire | 119 |
The Final Things | 143 |
Embattled Humanity | 161 |
Works Cited | 180 |
Index | 186 |