Milton Among the Romans: The Pedagogy and Influence of Milton's Latin CurriculumIn the 1640s, John Milton led a group of students through an extensive curriculum of ancient Latin authors. Together, they read works by ten Roman authors, including the four major agricultural writers (Cato, Varro, Columella, and Palladius), the naturalist Pliny, the architect Vitruvius, and the epic poets Lucretius and Manilius. While scholars have long known about Milton's academy, no one, until now, has undertaken to thoroughly examine the implications of its curriculum for our understanding of Milton's poetry. Here, Richard J. DuRocher provides the first such scholarly study of Milton's Latin tutorial. DuRocher's analysis works on at least two levels. First, this study establishes the pedagogical innovation of the curriculum itself. DuRocher argues that Milton's choice of the Roman texts indicated his emphasis on teaching practical skills, such as how to raise crops or build dwellings. However, at the same time, Milton followed the Romans in subordinating technical training to an encompassing moral vision, most notably of respect for the living Earth. Moreover, Milton's curriculum supported his twin educational aims as set forth in Of Education: to prepare students for lives of public service, and to lead them to knowledge of the divine by "orderly conning over" discreet elements of Creation. Second, Milton Among the Romans uncovers fresh sources and contexts for passages--many of them crucial ones--in Milton's own writings. For example, Roman agricultural manuals illuminate Milton's baffling depiction of the undying heavenly flora, "immortal Amaranth," in Paradise Lost. Reading Vitruvius may account for the surprisingly positive architectural features of the demonic temple, Pandemonium. Astrological metaphors drawn from Manilius's neglected epic, the Astronomica, provide heavenly precedents for both divorce in Milton's divorce tracts and for the mysterious spiritual marriage of Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost. Drawing upon this previously unexamined evidence from Milton's classical curriculum, Milton Among the Romans takes a genuinely new approach to Milton as a teacher, scholar, and poet. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 29
Page 77
... Pandaemonium requires a reading of its double possibility akin to the hermeneutic Milton focused on the tower imagery in The Readie and Easie Way . To put it simply , Pandaemonium is designed to stand as an image of both good and bad ...
... Pandaemonium requires a reading of its double possibility akin to the hermeneutic Milton focused on the tower imagery in The Readie and Easie Way . To put it simply , Pandaemonium is designed to stand as an image of both good and bad ...
Page 78
... Pandaemonium , William Riley Parker best summarizes the satiric reading of the scene . Parker links the account of Pandaemonium directly to Milton's visit to Rome in 1638 : " Standing at last in St. Peter's , Milton must have felt it to ...
... Pandaemonium , William Riley Parker best summarizes the satiric reading of the scene . Parker links the account of Pandaemonium directly to Milton's visit to Rome in 1638 : " Standing at last in St. Peter's , Milton must have felt it to ...
Page 83
... Pandaemonium . When we hear next in Milton's narrative how Pandaemo- nium arose on its site , Vitruvian doctrine and demonic prac- tice unfold inseparably . Describing the distinctive features ... Pandaemonium is not Building Pandaemonium 83.
... Pandaemonium . When we hear next in Milton's narrative how Pandaemo- nium arose on its site , Vitruvian doctrine and demonic prac- tice unfold inseparably . Describing the distinctive features ... Pandaemonium is not Building Pandaemonium 83.
Contents
Reading the Romans | 1 |
ONE Conning the Creature | 35 |
Two Careful Plowing | 54 |
Copyright | |
2 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
according Adam Adam's agricultural ancient angels appears architectural argues argument astrology authors beginning body building Cambridge century chapter claims classical Creation creatures culture describes discussion divine early Earth edition Education England English epic Eve's example Fall figure fruit God's heaven History human influence insists Italy John knowledge language Latin learning lines Literary living Lucretius Manilius Manilius's matter means Milton's mother narrative nature notion observed opening Pandaemonium Paradise Lost passage perhaps Plowman poem poet poetic poetry points political positive practice precedent present proem question readers reading reason references reflects Reformation remains Renaissance Rhetoric Roman Rome sacred Satan scene Scripture seed sense serpent shows simile Spirit stands stars Studies suggests takes teaching things tion tradition true tutorial University Press Vitruvius wound writes