Is Milton Better than Shakespeare? by Nigel Smith (review)

132 CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURE to over-elaborate (as in several sections in the chapter on Lanyer). At times she proceeds by suggestion or mere assertion. For example, in discussing King James's disallowance of the Geneva Bible's marginal justification of the Hebrew midwives on the grounds that it '''allow[ed] disobedience to Kings;" DiPasquale claims, with no apparent textual basis, that Lanyer "would have approved both of the ancient midwives and of the modern gloss" (123). Examples could easily be multiplied. At times she presents the accidental as if it has evidential value, admits its inadequacy as evidence, but then lets it stand as assertion, as she does when she discusses variant spellings in Lanyer's account of the Queen of Sheba: "Such variations in spelling may well be the accidental products of a typesetter's erratic practice; but if so, accident has beautifully underscored a vision that is clearly the poet's own" (192). Again, examples could be multiplied. In a few places, DiPasquale seems to rely on shock appeal to carry a point, as when she claims that Lanyer's "passionate lines urge the addressee to direct all her erotic desire toward a God incarnate in flesh that is gloriously, specifically male, a God whose freely flowing blood is the ultimate ejaculation" (172). Finally,Lanyer seems to me to oversimplify,beyond the point of misrepresentation, the theology of the period, perhaps because she relies too heavily on a second-hand knowledge of the theologians. The book will repay careful reading but ought to be read with caution. William Tate Covenant College Is Milton Better than Shakespeare? By Nigel Smith. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-674-02832-6. Pp. xvii + 214. $22.95. With his unfortunately titled book Is Milton Better than Shakespeare? Nigel Smith, Professor of English at Princeton University, has made his contribution to the spate of scholarly works and popular considerations provoked by the fourhundredth anniversary of Iohn Milton's birth on December 9,1608. Smith answers the titular question unequivocally in the affirmative: due to Milton's persistent challenge to "the dominant moral, religious, and political orthodoxies of his time" and our own in both his prose and his poetry, "the reach of Milton's achievement is far greater than Shakespeare's" (7). This value judgment creates in the reader an expectation of a comparative study of the two great writers, culminating in a wellproven conclusion that, like the first Adam and the second in the opening lines of Paradise Lost, Shakespeare is a "great" writer but Milton is "greater;' probably the Christ-like greatest. But that expectation is not fulfilled. Far from weighing the value of each equally, Smith mentions Shakespeare only briefly in a smattering of references throughout his book. His argument is that Milton holds the preeminent BOOK REVIEWS 133 place in the literature, history, and political philosophy of not only British but also American and, in fact, all of Western culture. Is Milton Better than Shakespeare? is a compact but dense volume, with an introduction and seven chapters. Smith's organization is basically chronological, following the events of Milton's long and eventful life,both in public and in private, and the publication dates of his prose tracts. Chapters 1 through 6 are focused on key subjects and themes in Milton's prose works, which are discussed and quoted at some length, followed by extensive analysis of the ways in which these ideas are embedded in Milton's poetry, especially the major works: Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. The final chapter celebrates the man as well as the poet and reveals the impetus of Smith's book. In his introductory chapter, Smith argues that Milton is not only relevant to twenty-first century American society but also "still of use to us in our current predicaments" (5), particularly in America's struggle against the Islamic fundamentalist terror campaign of Al-Qaeda, which Smith likens to the "violent bigotry" (2) of the Puritans in Milton's time. Paradoxically, Smith notes, the Christian conservatives in America who support the war against terrorism because it threatens American liberties are also like the Puritans in their denial of...