1. Milton: Week 2 Poems 1645 and the civil wars

2. COURSE OUTLINE Course outline 1.Sonnets and biography 2.Poems 1645 and presentations 3.Contemporaries and presentations + JRUL visit 4. Areopagitica/ TKM and presentations 5. CW pamphlet culture [no class] 6.Reading Week [no class] 7. Of Education/ Divorce and presentations 8. Paradise Lost 1 9.Milton’s Reception 10. Paradise Lost 2 and led discussion 11. PL 3 and PR and led discussion 12.Samson Agonistes and portfolio discussion JdG office hours: 12-1, Weds, Sam Alex S1.16

3. Assessment Two substantial blog postings, c.750 words each: – Report on a text from the JRUL (assigned) – Report on Milton’s textual transmission Final portfolio submission, 6000 words, consists: – Narrative/ reflective log - 5-750 words (not more than 10% of your mark) – Blog postings (reworked) – 1-1500 words – Essay/s – 4500 words, questions circulated in week 3 – one piece of work or 2-3 essays based on work you do for your presentations (you can write your own question/s, too) – For all of your assessed work – presentations, blog reports, essays – you may wish to submit non-traditional pieces of work in non-traditional media

4. Feedbackand one2one Peer and JdG feedback on presentations within the week JdG feedback on blog postings from week 1 within the week JdG and peer feedback on Reports within 2 weeks Meetings with JdG Week 5, Week 9 and Week 12 to discuss Reports and Portfolio

5. Presentations and led discussion Three presentation groups, three presentations each, with peer feedback blogged: – Poems 1645 3 presentations – Contemporaries 2 presentations – Areopagitica 2 presentations – Of Education/ Divorce 2 presentations Led discussion two groups: – Week 10 – Week 11

6. Today Try to locate Milton as a writer in the 1640s Try to think about his self-conception Try to think about what he considers ‘writing’ to be, its purpose, its value

7. Milton’s key theme: political engagement in verse If men within themselves would be govern’d by reason, and not generally give up thir understanding to a double tyrannie, of Custom from without, and blind affections within, they would discerne better, what it is to favour and uphold the Tyrant of a Nation. But being slaves within doors, no wonder that they strive so much to have the public State conformably govern’d to the inward vitious rule, by which they govern themselves. For indeed none can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but licence – The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates

8. The wars, 1642-1649 Literature was part of the crisis and the revolution, and was at its epicentre. Never before in English history had written and printed literature played such a predominant role in public affairs, and never before had it been felt by contemporaries to be of such importance. There had never been anything before to compare with this war of words. It was an information revolution Nigel Smith, Literature and Revolution (Yale University Press, 1994), p. 1.

9. Civil wars – raw facts 1640-52 100,000 men died in battle in England and Scotland (plus around 140,000 of war- related problems such as starvation and disease) Irish campaign/ genocide (see Cromwell) rises to 540,000 Death toll = 7% of the three kingdoms (England lost 3%, Scotland 6%, Ireland 15- 20%) Comparator: in the First World War military fatalities were 1.6% of the population

10. 1640s: some things for today Public Sphere Collapse of censorship Opening up of discourse News Print Identity Poetry and printing as active and political processes – engagement Challenge to royal authority Instability Women newly empowered Law

11. Effects of the wars Printing of the common law 1641, first time anyone has the chance to define themselves. Leads to a number of writers using the law in thoughtful, aggressiveways to support their actions (Lilburne, Prynne) collapse of censorship leads to opening up of information (cf internet) and printing leads to open political understanding (Milton slide)

12. Effects of the wars war and social upheaval leads to increased opportunities for women, particularly in public – preaching, action (Quakers) uprisings around the country focus upon the importance of individual in relation to state Hobbes – man is naturally ‘savage’ and we institute laws to control this – beginning of a particular type of cynical political theory, but also a recognition that political systems are simply ways of ordering the state