Milton's Languages
The Impact of Multilingualism on Style

Full-length study of Milton's use of languages and the impact of his multilingualism on his major poems.

John K. Hale (Author)

9780521583534, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 August 1997

264 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.56 kg

"This is then a thoughtful, learned, and judicious book, carefully argued and supported by a wealth of convincing detail. It is refreshingly free from jargon...There is a very useful index of Milton passage sited. This book can be warmly recommended to all students of Milton." Modern Philology

Milton's poetry is one of the glories of the English language, and yet it owes everything to Milton's widespread knowledge of other languages: he knew ten, wrote in four, and translated from five. In Milton's Languages, John K. Hale first examines Milton's language-related arts in verse-composition, translations, annotations of Greek poets, Latin prose and political polemic, giving all relevant texts in the original and in translation. Hale then traces the impact of Milton's multilingualism on his major English poems. Many vexed questions of Milton studies are illuminated by this approach, including his sense of vocation, his attitude to print and publicity, the supposed blemish of Latinism in his poetry, and his response to his literary predecessors. Throughout this full-length study of Milton's use of languages, Hale argues convincingly that it is only by understanding Milton's choice among languages that we can grasp where Milton's own unique English originated.

Introduction: Milton's languages in the context of Renaissance multilingualism
Part I. Milton's Exercising of his Languages: 1. The multilingual self presented in Milton's poems (1645)
2. The development and quality of Milton's multilingual verse
3. The Italian journey (1638–9) and language-choice
4. Milton's arts of language: translating and philology
5. Milton's Latin prose
Conclusion
Part II. Multilingualism and the Major English Poems: 6. Latin and Milton's other languages in the style of Paradise Lost
7. Milton's languages and the voices of Paradise Lost
8. Multilingualism and epic
9. Multilingualism and the style of temperance in Paradise Regained
10. Hebrew meets Greek in Samson Agonistes
11. The impact of Milton's languages upon his mature English verse styles
Appendix: on translating Milton's Latin
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]