The Divorce Tracts of John Milton: Texts and Contexts

In a span of only 18 months—from August 1643 to March 1645—John Milton published five tracts on divorce: The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, a much enlarged edition of that tract, The Judgement of Martin Bucer, Tetrachordon, and Colasterion. The Divorce Tracts of John Milton: Texts and Contexts presents all five full-length pamphlets and documents in order to fully represent Milton’s views on divorce, liberty, gender, and social institutions.

Van den Berg and Howard also present Milton’s work in the context of his contemporaries by including four other publications that represent the first wave of engagement with Milton’s divorce tracts: the anonymously written An Answer to a Book, intituled, The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1644); William Prynne’s Twelve Considerable Serious Questions (1644); Herbert Palmer’s The Glasse of God’s Providence (1644); and Daniel Featley’s The Dippers Dipt (1645). The current volume is unique in that it is the first in the field to showcase Milton’s writings on divorce side by side with these related documents, and it provides the first modern transcription of An Answer.

Milton’s argument that divorce could be “to the good of both sexes” makes this often intimidating writer and his era accessible and compelling to contemporary readers. Indeed, his claim for divorce on the basis of mutual incompatibility established the groundwork for the justification of divorce in late twentieth century Anglo-American law. Milton’s rhetorical methods—from cogent advocacy to speculative commentary and poignant vignettes, from citation of authorities and carefully reasoned biblical exegesis to defensive vituperation—demonstrate the range of debate in seventeenth century pamphlet warfare.