Milton's languages : the impact of multilingualism on style
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 first 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
Print Book, English, 1997
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K., 1997
xv, 245 pages ; 24 cm
9780521583534, 9780521022378, 0521583535, 0521022371
35636895
Introduction: Milton's languages in the context of renaissance multilingualism
pt. 1. 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 to part one: multilingualism in Milton's Latin prose
pt. 2. 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. translating Milton's Latin poems into English
Author is Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Otago
Digitally printed first pbk. version 2005