Stoicism, Politics and Literature in the Age of Milton
War and Peace Reconciled

This 1998 book examines key seventeenth-century writers in the context of their common interest in the philosophical tradition of Stoicism.

Andrew Shifflett (Author)

9780521592031, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 August 1998

188 pages, 5 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.45 kg

"Stoicism, Politics, and Literature in the Age of Milton is a strong addition to seventeenth-century studies. This relatively slim volume offers a fresh understanding of Stoicism that has the potential to illuminate many more literary texts than are actually discussed here." Modern Philology

This 1998 book offers an examination of key seventeenth-century writers in the context of their common interest in the republican, libertarian and oppositional potential of the philosophical tradition of Stoicism. The Stoic ethos embraced several paradoxical moral and political concepts, notably 'constancy' accompanied by a fascination with violence, 'indifference' that mirrors extremities of anger and 'retirement' that involves quests for honour and authority. Indeed, Stoicism in England involved not actual withdrawal from society but an intense kind of literacy - reading and writing focused on Seneca, Tacitus, Lucan and Lipsius as they could be seen to comment on contemporary political situations and ideological problems. Through subtly nuanced close readings of Marvell, Katherine Philips and Milton, Andrew Shifflet shows that these writers had more in common than previous philosophical, political and aesthetic categories have allowed, both in their keen Stoic interests and in the struggle to wrest this tradition from absolutist interpretations.

Introduction
1. Conflict and constancy in seventeenth-century England
2. Andrew Marvell: the Stoicism of nature, war and work
3. Katherine Philips: the Stoicism of hatred and forgiveness
4. Jonson, Marvell, Milton: the Stoicism of friendship and imitation
5. John Milton: the Stoicism of history and providence
Notes
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD]