Grace (@GraceJackson) and Alex (@Alecks_Guns) join Matt once again to discuss John Milton as a polemicist over John Milton as a poet.

Milton's family background. Charles Deodati. Anti-Popery; the Gunpowder Plot, The Fatal Vespers. Virginity. The Trip to Italy. The English civil war and censorship/openness. Epic Poet tradition. Divorce Tracts. Areopagitica. The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (ie Yes, We Should Actually Execute the King). Eikonoklastes (ie No, God Is Not Mad We Killed the King). The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a New Commonwealth (ie I Can't Believe We Are Going To Do Monarchy Again).

References:

Full Text of Areopagitica.

OpenYale Milton Lectures Areopagitica episode.

Bernstein, Eduard. 2000. Cromwell and Communism: Socialism and Democracy in the Great English revolution. Nottingham: Spokesman.

Hill, Christopher. 1978. Milton and the English Revolution. New York: Viking Press.

Milton, John, and David Loewenstein. 2013. John Milton Prose: Major Writings on Liberty, Politics, Religion, and Education. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.

McDowell, Nicholas. 2020. Poet of Revolution: The Making of John Milton. Princeton University Press.