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. |
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Page 12
... Reading the Romans in their original tongue remained instrumental , first and last , to Milton's purposes . Milton's innovative program , in other words , used readings in the classics to help train students to develop practical skills ...
... Reading the Romans in their original tongue remained instrumental , first and last , to Milton's purposes . Milton's innovative program , in other words , used readings in the classics to help train students to develop practical skills ...
Page 14
... reading poetry was vital to the health of the Roman state . The same conviction under- lies the work of our English poet - teacher . Of course , by filling his tutorial with readings in accom- plished writers and poets , Milton served ...
... reading poetry was vital to the health of the Roman state . The same conviction under- lies the work of our English poet - teacher . Of course , by filling his tutorial with readings in accom- plished writers and poets , Milton served ...
Page 115
... reading of 1 Corinthians 7.9 , in which Paul allows that " it is better to marry than to burn , " as recommending marriage to prevent one from burning in lust . Why this ur- gency " only to remedy a sublunary and bestial burning " ( 269 ) ...
... reading of 1 Corinthians 7.9 , in which Paul allows that " it is better to marry than to burn , " as recommending marriage to prevent one from burning in lust . Why this ur- gency " only to remedy a sublunary and bestial burning " ( 269 ) ...
Contents
Reading the Romans | 1 |
ONE Conning the Creature | 35 |
Two Careful Plowing | 54 |
Copyright | |
2 other sections not shown
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Adam and Eve Adam's Aeneid agricultural allusion amaranth ancient angels architects architectural argues argument Astronomica authors biblical Cambridge University Press careful Plowman Cato Christopher Hill classical Columella Comenius Creation creatures culture curriculum describes Diggers dise Lost divine Doctrine Dury Earth in Paradise edition Education English Eve's Fall figure fruit Genesis God's Greek Hartlib heaven heavenly human imitation insists John Milton knowledge language Latin tutorial learning Literary Lucretius Lucretius's Mammon Manilius Manilius's Marcus Manilius metaphor Milton's epic Milton's poetic Milton's tutorial Milton's view mother narrative natural astrology notion Ophiuchus Pandaemonium Paradise Lost Paradise Regained passage personification Phillips philosophy Pliny Pliny's Pliny's Natural History poet poetry quae Raylor readers reading Reformation Renaissance rerum natura Rhetoric Roman Rome Rustica sacred Samuel Hartlib Satan scene Scripture seed sense serpent simile Spirit stars stellar influence Stoic Studies teaching theological things thir tion Varro Vergil verse Vitruvian Vitruvius wound