Shawn D. Rossiter and Dr. O. Glade Hunsaker, English
My project came about as a result of a computer database of Yale’s edition of Milton’s Prose being constructed by the Brigham Young University English Department. The completion of the database has been delayed, however, and consequently I was compelled to shift the object and approach of my study. Originally, I had planned to make an analysis of the development of Milton’s religious thought over time by tracing his use of significant words. Instead, for the ORCA project I have completed a thorough reading of Milton’s prose with an attempt to formulate an informative hypothesis for why the prose was important to Milton and how it can be important for us. The report that follows is a very brief presentation in layman’s terms of my conclusions. Meanwhile, I continue to work with the English Department on the Milton database.
John Milton’s prose is neglected or passed over quickly for various reasons. First of all there is just so much of it. Most of it is written directly to issues relating to Milton’s own time and country and the political and social turmoil which gripped it. Furthermore, we know Milton as the great epic poet of the English language, and this interest overshadows any we might find for his works in prose. When we do turn our gaze to Milton’s prose, the prose in general and not merely the better known and studied pieces like Aeropagitica, it is usually with a passing glance. This glance, often, is not a complimentary one. We wonder what Milton could have produced in poetry if he had not spent so much time in as a pamphleteer. For, we often feel his prose beneath him, is vulgar and vehement speech not worthy of the poet we revere. It has been quipped that the Second Apology was definitely not worth his eyesight. Milton’s time spent in his prose may be lamentable to the scholar in an ivory tower who desires to study the poetry, who desires to mold Milton the man into the poet they want to revere, someone who should not have steeped as low as he did in his prose. Yet, in this we fail to understand Milton. We fail to do so not only because as eminent and powerful a scholar as Milton might have been, a driving belief of his was that he could not remain in an ivory tower with his books, but also because much of Milton the man is revealed to us in his prose, a man not revealed in his poetry. The personality, the strength, the vitality and the depth we love Milton for in his poetry is what drove him home to England in 1641 to join the republican cause.
We know that Milton cut short his European, and especially Italian, tour because he felt it important to return to his island and employ his pen in the cause of freedom which was then waging. It was precisely that trip to Italy which engraved on Milton’s mind the need to return home and fight for his country. Galileo is often cited as one of the people Milton visited while in the southern nation, and the astronomer’s own struggle surely was an example to Milton. Above all though, Milton was a poet and his sojourn in Italy was a literary one. In the Italian poets that Milton studied while there, he found strong examples for the need of a man like himself to be involved in the political struggles in his country. Dante had suffered political exile and composed the Divine Comedy during this period.
Petrarch was willing to give up the vocation of poet for a time in order to become a pamphleteer in an attempt to establish a Roman republic. Milton’s historical interests also rested in the predecessors to these Medieval poets, the Romans, and once again poets like Virgil provided strong examples for the necessity of involvement in contemporary political situations. The other great literary influence on Milton was the Bible, and the Protestant penchant for the Old Testament provided ample sources for poets in politics.
Milton’s own upbringing also influenced his decision. In his pamphlet Animadversions we see Milton arguing against a paid clergy and believing that Christians should willingly dedicate their talents to the Lord’s use, which was precisely what he did with his own thorough education. In the same pamphlet, he provides a reason for his use of his “vulgar” language. He tells us that in normal circumstances a Christian should refrain his tongue, but when he employs speech not in personal frays but in the service of true religion it is necessary to loose his tongue because the fight is so serious. Though Milton was surely guided by a sense of being a soldier of Christ in writing his pamphlets, he was also finding satisfaction in scholarly debate. Also, he could not stand to see those less learned aping scholarly abilities, speaking as if they had them, especially when they used them for the devil’s cause.
Milton saw the Catholic church as the proponent of this cause and felt a particular disdain for their monastic orders. He felt it a shame to lock oneself up and waste away one’s time. More importantly, though, he felt that retirement to a monastery by a political official was treason to his country and God for it caused many problems for the people for the selfish purposes of the individual man. In his History Of the Britons this became an important subject which reappeared throughout the work. In it he chides kings who left the throne in pursuit of their own personal salvation in a monastery. This aspect of Milton’s thought represents a change in the society which took place after the Renaissance in which salvation was sought within the society not outside of it.
The elements which were fused in the furnace of Milton’s soul to produce the fine metal of his poetry were the same elements which created the pamphleteer. Milton’s literary interests all provided examples of poets involved in politics. He had grown up in a society where politics could not be ignored and in which religious freedom had become a core issue. The religion and the state, along with his literature, were the prime interests for Milton and during the Interregnum his role as pamphleteer and historian were the best means to satisfy those interests. Reading Milton’s prose we see a man involved in his own society, not simply a poet writing of the higher realms. His anger, his passion and his wit all come shining through his prose in such a way that we better understand one of the leading poets of the English language.