CHAPTER XVIII.
JOHN MILTON, AND THE ENGLISH COMMONWEALTH.
Historical Facts. Charles I. Religious Extremes. Cromwell. Birth and
Early Works. Views of Marriage. Other Prose Works. Effects of the
Restoration. Estimate of his Prose.
HISTORICAL FACTS.
It is Charles Lamb who says "Milton almost requires a solemn service to be
played before you enter upon him." Of Milton, the poet of _Paradise Lost_,
this is true; but for Milton the statesman the politician, and polemic,
this is neither necessary nor appropriate. John Milton and the
Commonwealth! Until the present age, Milton has been regarded almost
solely as a poet, and as the greatest imaginative poet England has
produced; but the translation and publication of his prose works have
identified him with the political history of England, and the discovery in
1823, of his _Treatise on Christian Doctrine_, has established him as one
of the greatest religious polemics in an age when every theological sect
was closely allied to a political party, and thus rendered the strife of
contending factions more bitter and relentless.
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