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. |
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... Mazarin . In keeping with tradition , when Louis reached the age of thirteen in 1651 , he ended the regency ; and he celebrated his coronation three years later . During all of these years , however , save for some months of exile ...
... queen regent and her chief minister as something more than official . Kleinman dismisses the conjecture that the two were married , though this was not an impossibility as Mazarin was never ordained . Certainly , any 6 Divided Empire.
... Mazarin , Kleinman is persuaded that “ she loved him , ” and his to her are equally suggestive.3 As a consequence , Kleinman concludes , " the relationship created a strong spiritual bond , the equivalent of a family bond , between Mazarin ...
... Mazarin as her chief minister exercised that power and the boy king served largely as a ceremonial figure . As he grew to same word but a few lines earlier , however , where there would seem to be no ambiguity about its meaning : Adam ...
... Mazarin's authority remained relatively constant , as he adroitly adjusted his office to changing circumstances , at first serving the queen regent and later the king , who remained devoted to him . 12 All the while the three remained a ...
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 |