The Critical Response to John Milton's Paradise Lost
Edited by Timothy C. Miller
Critical Responses in Arts and Letters, Number 26 Cameron Northouse, Series Adviser
Greenwood Press Westport, Connecticut • London Contents
Series Foreword by Cameron Northouse xiii
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction 1
I. SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY CRITICAL RESPONSES
"The Verse" John Milton 25 The Transproser Rehears 'd: or the Fifth Act of Mr. Bayes 's Play [Richard Leigh] 25 "On the Paradise Lost of the Top Poet John Milton" Samuel Barrow 26 "On Paradise Lost" Andrew Marvell • 28 Theatrum Poetarum, or a Compleat Collection of the Poets... Edward Phillips 29 "The Authors Apology for Heroique Poetry; and Poetique Licence." The State of Innocence, and Fall of Man: An Opera John Dryden 29 The Life of Milton John Aubrey 30 "An Essay on blanc Verse out of the 6th. Book of Paradise lost" Earlof Roscommon [Wentworth Dillon] 30 "Preface." Sylvae: or, the Second Part of Poetical Miscellanies John Dryden 31 viii Contents The Lives of the most Famous English Poets... William Winstanley 31 "Epigram" John Dryden 31 "Preface." The Passion ofByblis, Made "English " [John] Dennis 32 "Dedication." The Satires ofDecimus Junius Juvenalis... John Dryden 32 "An Account of the Greatest English Poets." The Annual Miscellany: For the Year 1694... Joseph Addison 33 "To Mr. T. S. in Vindication of Mr. Milton's Paradise lost" Miscellaneous Letters and Essays... [Charles Gildon] 34 Letters of State, Written by Mr. John Milton... [Edward Phillips] 35 "The Preface, Being an Essay on Heroic-Poetry." The Life of Our Blessed Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ... Samuel Wesley 36 Annotations on Milton's "Paradise Lost"... Pfatrick] H[ume] 37 Remarks on a Book entituled, "Prince Arthur, An HeroickPoem... " [John] Dennis 47 "The Preface." The History of Sin and Heresie Attempted... [Charles Leslie] 48 The Life of John Milton... [JohnToland] 49
II. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CRITICAL RESPONSES
"Preface." Fables Ancient and Modern John Dryden 53 The Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry John Dennis 53 The Grounds of Criticism in Poetry John Dennis 56 "Preface." Britannia Trimphans John Dennis 64 The Spectator, Numbers 262, 267, 273, 279, 285, 291, 297 Joseph Addison 66 The History of the Life of Thomas Ellwood... Thomas Ellwood 85 Contents ix An Essay Upon the Civil Wars of France...And also Upon the Epick Poetry of the European Nations... Francois-Marie Arouet de Voltaire . 85 Explanatory Notes and Remarks on Milton's "Paradise Lost" Jonathan Richardson, Father and Son 92 "Epistle I of Horace" Alexander Pope 100 The Divine Legation of Moses Demonstrated William Warburton 100 A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful Edmund Burke 101 The Lives of the English Poets Samuel Johnson 103 Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres Hugh Blair 114 The Marriage of Heaven and Hell William Blake 117 The Life of Milton, in Three Parts... William Hayley 118 "Conjectures on the Origin of Paradise Lost." The Life of John Milton, in Three Parts... William Hayley . 120
III. NINETEENTH-CENTURY CRITICAL RESPONSES
The Poetical Works of John Milton... Henry John Todd 123 "London, 1802" William Wordsworth 131 "Milton" Samuel Taylor Coleridge 131 "Lecture III. On Shakespeare and Milton" William Hazlitt 136 ["Notes on Milton's 'Paradise Lost'"] John Keats 143 Personal Letters John Keats 146 "On the Devil, and Devils" Percy Bysshe Shelley 148 A Defence of Poetry Percy Bysshe Shelley 149 "Milton" Thomas Babington Macaulay 152 x Contents "Dr. Samuel Parr..." Thomas De Quincey 157 "Table Talk," September 4, 1833 Samuel Taylor Coleridge 158 Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus Mary Shelley 158 "Oxford" Thomas De Quincey 159 "Milton" [Ralph Waldo Emerson] 160 "Southey and Landor." Imaginary Conversations Walter Savage Landor 164 "Milton verses Southey and Landor" Thomas De Quincey 169 "The Poetry of Pope" Thomas De Quincey 170 "Milton" Alcaics Alfred Lord Tennyson 171 History of English Literature H. A.Taine 171 "John Milton, " Literary Studies Walter Bagehot 176 The Life of John Milton David Masson 182 Milton MarkPattison 187 "Milton," Essays in Criticism Matthew Arnold 189 The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton William Vaughn Moody 192
IV. TWENTIETH-CENTURY CRITICAL RESPONSES
Milton Sir Walter Raleigh 197 Milton's Astronomy: The Astronomy of "Paradise Lost" Thomas N. Orchard 202 "Milton and the Return to Humanism" James Holly Hanford 203 The Epic: An Essay Lascelles Abercrombie 208 Milton E. M. W. Tillyard 211 Contents xi "Milton and the Telescope" Marj orie Nicolson 217 Revaluation: Tradition & Development in English Poetry F. R. Leavis 224 A Preface to "Paradise Lost" C. S. Lewis 228 "Paradise Lost" in Our Time Douglas Bush 233 "Paradise Lost" and Its Critics A. J. A. Waldock . 237 Poets of the English Language W. H. Auden and Norman Holmes Pearson 243 Answerable Style: Essays on "Paradise Lost" Arnold Stein 243 Milton and Science Kester Svendsen 245 Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays Northrop Frye " 249 Romantic Image Frank Kermode 251 Paradise Lost as "Myth " Isabel Gamble MacCaffrey 252 English Literature in the Earlier Seventeenth Century 1600-1660 Douglas Bush . 256 The Muse's Method: An Introduction to "Paradise Lost" Joseph H. Summers 263 Milton and the Christian Tradition C. A. Patrides 269 Milton: A Biography William Riley Parker 272 "Discovery as Form in Paradise Lost" Stanley Eugene Fish 276 Asimov's Annotated 'ParadiseLost' Isaac Asimov 285 Milton's Eve Diane Kelsey McColley 289 Milton: Poet of Exile Louis L. Martz 295 "How Deconstruction Works" J. Hillis Miller 296 A History of English Literature Alastair Fowler 297 "Radical Christian Humanism in Paradise Lost" Joan S. Bennett 300 xii Contents "John Milton and Raymond Williams: Dominant, Residual, Emergent, Immanent" Keith W. F. Stavely 310
V. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SELECTIONS
The Reason of Church Government Urged Against the Prelaty 321
An Apology for Smectymnuus 324
Selected Bibliography 327
Index 333