Paradise Lost Context (AO3)

When was Paradise Lost published?

1667

What famous line does Milton give in Book 1 that outlines the purpose of the Epic?

‘Justify the ways of God to men’

What religion did Milton follow?

Protestantism

What was Paradise Lost?

A reworking of part of the Bible, the book of Genesis, which Milton’s contemporaries would have been familiar with

When did the English Civil War start and end?

1642-51

What is the Divine Right of Kings? What did Milton think of it?

Religious doctrine asserting that a monarch’s authority to rule comes directly from God.

Milton rejected this belief.

Why did conflict arise between the Crown and Parliament? (3 main reasons)

• Charles favoured Catholicism and married a Catholic women

• Charles acted unilaterally in matters of foreign policy

• In the face of criticism he dissolved parliament

What was Milton’s Areopagitica? When was it written?

1644

A prose polemic in response to the 1643 Licensing Order which required authors to have a licence approved by government before their work could be published.

This prose defends a right to freedom of speech and expression.

What did Milton say about the role of church officials in Areopagitica?

Milton objected to the role of Church officials interpreting the bible yet invested in the idea that husbands act as intermediaries for wives in Paradise Lost

What year was Charles I executed?

1649

What is ‘The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates’? When was it written?

1649

A book in which Milton defends the right of people to execute a guilty sovereign whether tyrannical or not.

What was Milton’s role in the Common Wealth government?

In March 1949, he was appointed Secretary for Foreign Tongues where he was in charge of propaganda and censorhip.

What is Eikonoklastes? When was it written?

1649

Milton’s defence of Cromwell’s government and a personal attack on Charles I who Milton likened to Shakespeare’s, duke of Gloucester

What happened to Milton when Charles II came to power?

Milton was dismissed from governmental service, apprehended and imprisoned. He was then released through the work of his friends and the payment of fines.

What happened to books by John Milton in 1660?

They were banned.

What was Milton’s Doctrine of Divorce? When was it written?

1644

Milton promotes the legality of divorce for reasons of incompatibility not just adultery which the laws stipulated was the only reason for divorce in that period.

Who influenced Milton’s Doctrine of Divorce?

Mary Powell, Milton’s wife who he married in 1642 and who returned to live with her mother for the first 3 years of their marriage. Mary’s family were also royalists.

What were the duties of husbands and wives according to Gouge’s treatises (1622)?

Both husband and wife should remain loyal to each other with the wife remaining submissive and the husband dominant.

When were the Poetics of Aristotle written? What genre did they establish?

384-322 BC

Tragedy

Which characters can be seen as fitting the aristotelian archetype of a tragic hero?

Both Eve and Satan in some respects.

How was Milton influenced by other Epic Poems?

Milton wanted to redefine the English Epic and what it meant to be heroic.

What is the De Doctrina Christiana?

A theological treaty composed by Milton that lays out his puritan religious views and particularly his rejection of the Holy Trinity.

How does Adam refer to his sin in Book XII?

‘felix culpa’

In what book did God make Eve for Adam?

In Book VIII God readily makes a mate to keep Adam company at Adam’s request

What happened to Galileo in 1614?

Galileo was accused of heresy for his support of the Copernican theory that the sun was at the centre of the solar system, not the Earth

When and where did Milton and Galileo meet?

Milton met Galileo when he was 30 and on his grand tour of Europe in Florence. The meeting had a profound impact on Milton’s writing

What personal loss did Milton experience?

Milton also knew what it was to experience terrible personal loss with his blindness in 1653 alongside the death of his wife and only son in the same year