The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Spenser, Circe, and the Civil War: the contexts of Milton’s ‘Captain or Colonel’

Spenser, Circe, and the Civil War: the contexts of Milton’s ‘Captain or Colonel’
Spenser, Circe, and the Civil War: the contexts of Milton’s ‘Captain or Colonel’
This article offers a new reading of John Milton’s ‘Sonnet VIII’ or ‘Captain or Colonel’ (1642). The modern critical consensus is that the poem is classical in its form and allusions, ironic in its address to an unknown Cavalier soldier, and best understood in the context of its original manuscript heading, which states that it was fixed to the door of Milton’s house in advance of a Royalist attack on London. This article argues, however, that the sonnet’s diction is demonstrably more Spenserian than classicist, that its narrative tracks that of the ‘Bowre of Blisse’ episode in Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene, and that the allusion to Pindar at the poem’s close may have been prompted by one of E. K.’s notes from the October eclogue of the Shepheardes Calender. In offering this fresh reading of the poem and its sources, this article for the first time situates Milton’s sonnet within his longer poetic trajectory, arguing that the poem must be read against Milton’s artistic predicament in the early 1640s, as a yet unrecognized poet and as an unpopular pamphleteer. Such an approach allows us to integrate this poem into Milton’s oeuvre in a new and surprising way.
0034-6551
876-894
Hawkins, Zoe
c0097ced-4232-4d10-867c-97e9e6698a26
Hawkins, Zoe
c0097ced-4232-4d10-867c-97e9e6698a26

Hawkins, Zoe (2015) Spenser, Circe, and the Civil War: the contexts of Milton’s ‘Captain or Colonel’. The Review of English Studies, 66 (277), 876-894. (doi:10.1093/res/hgv055).

Record type: Article

Abstract

This article offers a new reading of John Milton’s ‘Sonnet VIII’ or ‘Captain or Colonel’ (1642). The modern critical consensus is that the poem is classical in its form and allusions, ironic in its address to an unknown Cavalier soldier, and best understood in the context of its original manuscript heading, which states that it was fixed to the door of Milton’s house in advance of a Royalist attack on London. This article argues, however, that the sonnet’s diction is demonstrably more Spenserian than classicist, that its narrative tracks that of the ‘Bowre of Blisse’ episode in Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene, and that the allusion to Pindar at the poem’s close may have been prompted by one of E. K.’s notes from the October eclogue of the Shepheardes Calender. In offering this fresh reading of the poem and its sources, this article for the first time situates Milton’s sonnet within his longer poetic trajectory, arguing that the poem must be read against Milton’s artistic predicament in the early 1640s, as a yet unrecognized poet and as an unpopular pamphleteer. Such an approach allows us to integrate this poem into Milton’s oeuvre in a new and surprising way.

Text
876.full - Other
Restricted to Repository staff only
Request a copy

More information

e-pub ahead of print date: 12 July 2015
Published date: November 2015
Organisations: English

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 397454
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/397454
ISSN: 0034-6551
PURE UUID: e605687e-5d4c-48f8-b952-a089754f3be2

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 01 Jul 2016 10:31
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 01:14

Export record

Altmetrics

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×