Milton's Rival Hermeneutics: “Reason is But Choosing”

Contents

Contents A Tribute to Richard J. DuRocher, 1955–2010 vii Introduction xv Part One: Reading Violence 1. Inviting Rival Hermeneutics: Milton’s Language of Violence and the Invitation to Freedom 3 Susanne Woods 2. “A Table Richly Spread”: Nature, Place, and Choice in Milton’s Nativity Ode 17 Diane McColley 3. Dead Shepherd: Milton’s Lycidas 31 Gordon Teskey 4. Toward Latinitas: Revising the Defensio 57 Hugh Jenkins Part Two: Reading Paradise Lost 5. Interpreting God’s Word—and Words—in Paradise Lost 77 Barbara K. Lewalski 6. Sites of Contention in Paradise Lost: Scenes of Instruction, Lessons in Interpretation 101 Joseph Wittreich 7. Narrative, Judgment, and Justice in Paradise Lost 135 William Flesch Part Three: Reading Cruxes in Milton’s Major Poems 8. Rethinking “shee for God in him”: Paradise Lost and Milton’s Quaker Contemporaries 159 Teresa Feroli 9. Fame, Shame, and the Importance of Community in Samson Agonistes 183 Margaret Olofson Thickstun 10. Satan in Paradise Regained: The Quest for Identity 205 Stella P. Revard 11. Hermes’s Blessed Retreat: Rival Views of Learning in Paradise Regained 225 Richard J. DuRocher Notes 239 About the Contributors 265 Index 269 vi Contents ...