John Milton Prose: Major Writings on Liberty, Politics, Religion, and Education

Regarded by many as the equal of Shakespeare in poetic imagination and expression, Milton was also a prolific writer of prose who explored, with great acuity and originality, his frequently dissenting and controversial views on religion, politics, and liberty. This new and extensively annotated edition of his major prose works presents them in their original language, spelling, and punctuation, and demonstrates Milton’s continued relevance. It shows why Milton’s rich, varied prose works are justly reckoned among his greatest achievements, analyzing such major topics as freedom of the press, religious toleration and liberty of conscience, gender, marriage, the dangers of tyranny, and the significance of political debate and dissent. The exhaustive notes compiled for this edition illuminate the complexities of the shifting contemporary political and religious contexts in which Milton wrote and published his major prose works, even as they elucidate the wealth of Milton’s biblical, classical, and topical allusions. Most crucially for contemporary readers, his prose writings address the meanings and consequences of different kinds of liberty: religious, political, domestic, and individual.

Note on This Edition and Abbreviations viii Acknowledgements ix List of Illustrations x Chronology xi Introduction xvi MILTON′S PROSE TEXTS 1. Prolusions: 1 Prolusion VI 3 Prolusion VII 13 2. Of Reformation 22 3. The Reason of Church–Government Urg′d against Prelaty (selections) 61 4. An Apology Against a Pamphlet (selections) 92 5. The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce 103 6. Of Education 170 7. Areopagitica; A Speech of Mr. John Milton 181 8. Tetrachordon (selections) 214 9. The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates 243 10. Eikonoklastes (selections) 275 11. A Second Defence of the English People 319 12. A Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes 377 13. Considerations Touching the Likeliest Means to Remove Hirelings out of the Church 398 14. The Readie and Easie Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth 426 15. Of True Religion, Hæresie, Schism, and Toleration 448 16. Selections from Milton′s Private Letters 459 17. De Doctrina Christiana (selections) 470 18. The Life of Mr. John Milton by Edward Phillips 558 Select Bibliography 573

David Loewenstein is Helen C. White Professor of English and the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA. His books include Representing Revolution in Milton and his Contemporaries: Religion, Politics, and Polemics in Radical Puritanism (2001), which received the Milton Society of America’s James Holly Hanford Award for Distinguished Book. He is the author of Treacherous Faith: The Specter of Heresy in Early Modern English Literature and Culture (2013). He has co–edited The Cambridge History of Early Modern English Literature (2002), Early Modern Nationalism and Milton’s England (2008), and The Complete Works of Gerrard Winstanley (2009). He is an Honored Scholar of the Milton Society of America.

“Each of these texts has its advantages, and no one should be disappointed by either. Both will make teaching Milton more pleasurable and inventive.”  ( Milton Quarterly , 19 May 2014) "Milton′s extraordinary prose, extensively represented in David Loewenstein′s ambitious edition, has gained many new readers in recent years, and it may be true that some students, at least in British schools and universities, read Tenure of Kings and Magistrates before, or even instead of, the great poetry." Times Literary Supplement (June 14 2013)