Sunday, November 28, 2021

Introduction to Milton's 'History of Britain'

Introduction by Thomas H. Luxon, Dartmouth College, to The History of Britain, by John Milton, at The John Milton Reading Room.

"John Milton was not the only English person of his day to lament the lack of a comprehensive and reliable history of Britain. Nicholas von Maltzahn details contemporary notices of that need, and identifies several attempts, other than Milton's, to address it. His 1991 book, Milton's History of Britain: Republican Historiography in the English Revolution, is the most reliable historical and critical treatment of this monumental project. Milton believed that any nation worthy of note deserved to have its history well recorded in elegant prose. What Livy did for Rome, Milton intended to do for his beloved Britain, especially England."

See Milton, "Minor English Poems", Paradise Lost, Samson Agonistes, and Areopagitica, in Great Books of the Western World (first edition, 54 Vol., 1952) volume 32, (second edition, 60 Vol., 1990) volume 29.

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