John Milton: Liberty in his Prose and Poetry

This is a Reading List based upon a Liberty Fund Conference on “Liberty in the Poetry and Prose of John Milton.”

Liberty in the Poetry and Prose of John Milton

Topic

As John Alvis observes in his foreword to the new Liberty Fund edition of Areopagitica and Other Political Writings of John Milton, throughout his life "John Milton pursued the one paramount project of discovering ground for his love of liberty in laws of nature and of nature's God." More specifically, there is in Milton's prose and poetry alike "the unifying theme of preparing individuals to understand and cultivate that coordination of freedoms and responsibilities that Milton identified in the phrase "Christian liberty"-that is, the freedom to work out one's salvation won for all mankind by the Savior's intercession, example, and express teachings."

Guide to the Readings

Editions used:

• John Milton, Areopagitica, with a Commentary by Sir Richard C. Jebb and with Supplementary Material (Cambridge at the University Press, 1918).
• John Milton, The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth, edited with Introduction, Notes, and Glossary by Evert Mordecai Clark (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1915).
• John Milton, The Poetical Works of John Milton, edited after the Original Texts by the Rev. H.C. Beeching M.A. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900).

See also in the Online Library of Liberty:

• Collections: Political Thought
• Collections: Literature
• Collections: The English Civil War

For additional reading see:

• John Milton (1608-1674)
• Exploring Ideas: John Alvis's Introduction to the Politcial Thought of John Milton

Session I: Liberty of Thought in a Commonwealth

John Milton, Areopagitica, with a Commentary by Sir Richard C. Jebb and with Supplementary Material (Cambridge at the University Press, 1918).

• Areopagitica: a Speech of Mr John Milton For the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England

John Milton, The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth, edited with Introduction, Notes, and Glossary by Evert Mordecai Clark (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1915).

• The Readie and Easie way to establish a Commonwealth

Session II: Milton's Argument: Satan and God's Plan

Milton, Paradise Lost

• Book I and Book II

Session III: The Economy of Eden: Man and Woman Before the Fall

Milton, Paradise Lost

• Book III, Book IV, Book V, Book VI

Session IV: Satanic Liberty: Eve's Version of Liberty and Adam's Subsequent Choice

Milton, Paradise Lost

• Book VII, Book VIII, Book IX

Session V: Christian Liberty and Threats Against It

Milton, Paradise Lost

• Book X, Book XI, Book XII

Session VI: Liberty and Satan's Temptation of Christ: Understanding the Conditions of Freedom.

Milton, Paradise Regained

• Book I, Book II, Book III, Book IV