The Legal Epic : "Paradise Lost" and the Early Modern Law / Alison A. Chapman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chapman, Alison A., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Milton, John, 1608-1674. Paradise lost.

Milton, John.

Milton, John, 1608-1674--Knowledge--Law.

Law in literature.

Religion and law.

Law and literature--England--History--17th century.

Law and literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, [2017]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

The seventeenth century saw some of the most important jurisprudential changes in England's history, yet the period has been largely overlooked in the rich field of literature and law. Helping to fill this gap, The Legal Epic is the first book to situate the great poet and polemicist John Milton at the center of late seventeenth-century legal history. Alison A. Chapman argues that Milton's Paradise Lost sits at the apex of the early modern period's long fascination with law and judicial processes. Milton's world saw law and religion as linked disciplines and thought therefore that in different ways, both law and religion should reflect the will of God. Throughout Paradise Lost, Milton invites his readers to judge actions using not only reason and conscience but also core principles of early modern jurisprudence. Law thus informs Milton's attempt to "justify the ways of God to men" and points readers toward the types of legal justice that should prevail on earth. Adding to the growing interest in the cultural history of law, The Legal Epic shows that England's preeminent epic poem is also a sustained reflection on the role law plays in human society.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

On Texts

1. Introduction

2. Law and Religion in Milton's World

3. The Traitors of Heaven and Earth

4. The Arch-Felon

5. The Sole Propriety of Adam and Eve

6. Acts of Possession

7. The Mortal Sentence

8. Begging Pardon

9. Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2017.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 22. Okt 2019)

ISBN:

9780226435275

022643527X

OCLC:

970659213