Milton's Ireland: Royalism, Republicanism, and the Question of Pluralism [Hardcover]

The first book on Milton's engagement with Ireland, tracing paradoxical resonances of Milton's republicanism in Ireland to this day.This first book devoted to Milton's engagement with Ireland reveals an Ireland before the Cromwellian Conquest and traces the paradoxical resonances of Milton's republicanism in Ireland to this day. Lee Morrissey sheds new light on Milton's political development, exposing the persisting influence of Anglocentric scholarly interpretations.This first book devoted to Milton's engagement with Ireland reveals an Ireland before the Cromwellian Conquest and traces the paradoxical resonances of Milton's republicanism in Ireland to this day. Lee Morrissey sheds new light on Milton's political development, exposing the persisting influence of Anglocentric scholarly interpretations.In this first book devoted to Milton's engagement with Ireland, Lee Morrissey takes an archipelagic approach to his subject. The study focuses on the period before the Cromwellian Conquest, explaining Milton's emergence as a public figure because of Ireland and tracing the paradoxical resonances of Milton's republicanism in Ireland to this day. Informed by developments in Irish history but foregrounding a lucid discussion of Milton's governmental prose works, Morrissey explores the tension between Milton's long-established image as a proto-Enlightenment, democratic figure, and the historical reality of his association with a Protestant invading force. Milton's Ireland incisively negotiates this complex subject, addressing clear absences in Milton scholarship, in the history of Ireland, and in the fraught relationship between Ireland and England.Introduction: John Milton and the Irish Crises; 1. 16411642: Milton's anti-prelatical tracts and the ulster rising; 2. The 1645 poems: spenser's 'colin clouts come home againe' and (the revisions of) Milton's 'Lycidas'; 3. Early 1649: the execution of Charles I and Milton's 'observations' in the articles of peace; 4. Later 1649:l‰