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My thesis is a study of the poetic origin of Milton's Satan and his significance apart from his dramatic function in Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. I have tried to establish Satan's poetic origin by investigating the studies of a number of prominent critics, Milton's own prose works, such as the Eikonoklastes and his Second Defence, and also the correspondences between Satan's speeches and the words of King Charles I in his Eikon Bazilike. From these studies I have drawn the conclusion that Milton used King Charles I as he appears in the Eikon Bazilike as his model for Satan. Since Milton hated the King for his tyranny, Milton's emotional involvement and the human model resulted in the portrayal of a Satan, whose vividness and realism make him one of the most towering Satans in world literature. Satan's true significance lies in his revelation of Milton's personality. He reflects Milton's thoughts, his political and religious philosophy, his attitudes towards contemporary events, and his personality traits. Milton's development of Satan's personality reveals his unsurpassed craftsmanship as a poetic artist. As we follow Satan's career we discover a new Milton, differing enormously from the generally accepted conception of a stern Puritan. The Milton revealed in Satan's action has a keen appreciate of all that is beautiful in the universe, besides moral values. He has a sense of humour and a capacity for friendship, hitherto found incompatible with Milton's retiring character. Paradise Lost also shows us Milton's hope for the future. In man's regeneration he looks forward to an England liberated from the tyranny of kings, while his spiritual vision embraces the realization of God's initial purpose when he created man; namely, that "Earth be changed to Heaven, and Heaven to Earth." / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

The thesis has two parts. Part One surveys the debate on how to define Christian obedience and Milton�s prose contributions to that discourse. In the century leading up to Milton�s prose writings there was much debate in England over how to define spiritual obedience. Civil authorities argued that matters of religion fell within state jurisdiction and that an individual�s spiritual obedience should be subject to outward scrutiny and external control; but these definitions were contested by Protestant reformers. Chapter One traces the issue up to Milton�s contributions. Chapter Two traces Milton�s thinking about obedience, spiritual and secular, through his own prose writings: Milton defines obedience as a responsible freedom which requires continual critical assessment of authority. In reaction to the political and ecclesiastical developments of his own time, Milton places increasing emphasis on the role of the individual in defining and expressing obedience to God by means of scriptural study and open discussion. Milton argues that liberty is a necessary pre-condition for giving true obedience to God, and this idea comes to the fore in the later prose tracts, which respond to political and ecclesiastical developments that Milton interpreted as threatening the individual�s liberty of conscience. Part Two examines Paradise Regained (1671), in which Milton advances his interpretation of obedience through his characterisation of the Son of God. Chapter Three shows how Milton links those forms of Christian obedience which he rejects in his prose writing to either Satan or satanic influence. Through his depiction of the Son�s responses to Satan, Milton indicates that Satan�s versions of obedience are designed to distract the Son, and any other believer, from giving proper obedience to God. Chapter Four traces how Milton�s depiction of the Son of God demonstrates his understanding of the right reasons for, and ways of, giving proper obedience to God. The Son�s firm obedience is a state of mind and comprises knowledge of God through scriptural study, conversation and meditation. This exemplary obedience is motivated by an appreciation for and desire to participate in God�s glory (ie., Creation), and Milton indicates that it is this appreciation of divine glory that enables the Son of God to successfully resist Satan�s temptations. Chapter Five examines Milton�s final episode, the pinnacle temptation, in terms of the obedience which he has approved throughout the poem. This chapter addresses Milton�s handling of the reader�s expectations for this scene, and the symbolic language and setting of the pinnacle episode. Unlike any other writers on the temptations in the wilderness, Milton invests the Son�s victory (and Satan�s defeat) on the pinnacle with symbolic power by depicting the Son standing in firm obedience to God. Thus Milton presents his reader with the definitive expression of humanity�s obedience to God: the Son�s stand is a symbolic return to the "Godlike erect" stance ascribed to prelapsarian humanity in Paradise Lost (PL, IV.289), and with this firm, upright obedience Milton shows the rest of humanity how to regain Paradise.

John Milton begins his Second Defence of the English People by stressing the universal importance of gratitude: "In the whole life and estate of man the first duty is to be grateful to God." Peter Medine has shown the prominence of gratitude in Paradise Lost, but scholars have not fully appreciated the role of this virtue elsewhere in Milton's writing. This thesis is an attempt to redress that oversight with reference to A Mask and Paradise Regained, while also answering a question that Medine raises but does not satisfactorily resolve: Why gratitude? Both texts have been read as responses to the early modern debate about the doctrine of things indifferent, or adiaphora, and I argue that this context helps explain Milton's interest in gratitude. The first section of this thesis accordingly reviews the historical and theological context of the adiaphora controversy, while the second examines Milton's more direct treatment of things indifferent and gratitude, primarily in De Doctrina Christiana. In the remaining sections, historical and literary analysis of A Mask and Paradise Regained illuminates how Milton addresses tensions in the doctrine of things indifferent by emphasizing gratitude. Of the commonly recognized criteria for directing the use of adiaphora—the rule of faith, the rule of charity, and the glorification of God, often through gratitude—gratitude toward God frequently receives less thorough attention, yet Milton gives it a prominent role in A Mask and allows it to overshadow the other guidelines in Paradise Regained. Although gratitude is itself sometimes subject to manipulation in these texts, both A Mask and Paradise Regained suggest that the requirement of God-ward gratitude can serve as a check against subtle distortions of the other guidelines. The effectiveness of this strategy stems from the fact that the vices gratitude guards against—self-indulgent ingratitude, stoical ingratitude, and idolatry—are the vices that underlie licentiousness and superstition, the primary abuses of the doctrine of things indifferent. Milton's privileging of gratitude thus provides a way of cross-checking appeals to the more contested criteria of faith and love, protecting the doctrine of things indifferent from perversions that would undermine Christian liberty.

The thesis has two parts. Part One surveys the debate on how to define Christian obedience and Milton�s prose contributions to that discourse. In the century leading up to Milton�s prose writings there was much debate in England over how to define spiritual obedience. Civil authorities argued that matters of religion fell within state jurisdiction and that an individual�s spiritual obedience should be subject to outward scrutiny and external control; but these definitions were contested by Protestant reformers. Chapter One traces the issue up to Milton�s contributions. Chapter Two traces Milton�s thinking about obedience, spiritual and secular, through his own prose writings: Milton defines obedience as a responsible freedom which requires continual critical assessment of authority. In reaction to the political and ecclesiastical developments of his own time, Milton places increasing emphasis on the role of the individual in defining and expressing obedience to God by means of scriptural study and open discussion. Milton argues that liberty is a necessary pre-condition for giving true obedience to God, and this idea comes to the fore in the later prose tracts, which respond to political and ecclesiastical developments that Milton interpreted as threatening the individual�s liberty of conscience. Part Two examines Paradise Regained (1671), in which Milton advances his interpretation of obedience through his characterisation of the Son of God. Chapter Three shows how Milton links those forms of Christian obedience which he rejects in his prose writing to either Satan or satanic influence. Through his depiction of the Son�s responses to Satan, Milton indicates that Satan�s versions of obedience are designed to distract the Son, and any other believer, from giving proper obedience to God. Chapter Four traces how Milton�s depiction of the Son of God demonstrates his understanding of the right reasons for, and ways of, giving proper obedience to God. The Son�s firm obedience is a state of mind and comprises knowledge of God through scriptural study, conversation and meditation. This exemplary obedience is motivated by an appreciation for and desire to participate in God�s glory (ie., Creation), and Milton indicates that it is this appreciation of divine glory that enables the Son of God to successfully resist Satan�s temptations. Chapter Five examines Milton�s final episode, the pinnacle temptation, in terms of the obedience which he has approved throughout the poem. This chapter addresses Milton�s handling of the reader�s expectations for this scene, and the symbolic language and setting of the pinnacle episode. Unlike any other writers on the temptations in the wilderness, Milton invests the Son�s victory (and Satan�s defeat) on the pinnacle with symbolic power by depicting the Son standing in firm obedience to God. Thus Milton presents his reader with the definitive expression of humanity�s obedience to God: the Son�s stand is a symbolic return to the "Godlike erect" stance ascribed to prelapsarian humanity in Paradise Lost (PL, IV.289), and with this firm, upright obedience Milton shows the rest of humanity how to regain Paradise.

The setting of Milton’s great sequel is puzzling, being called a desert and a “waste wild” (IV. 523) repeatedly and at the same time including descriptions of protective oaks and woody mazes. These conflicting descriptions conjure up several questions: In which environment does the epic take place? Because Milton is so detailed in his adaptations of biblical narrative the inclusion of trees is quite perplexing. While he does tend to expand biblical narrative quite frequently – e.g. Paradise Lost – he rarely initiates a change without just cause. The crux of this particular change centers on what this just cause could be. How does the addition of a few trees change the overall effect of Milton’s brief epic? This thesis thus attempts to find further meaning in Paradise Regained’s setting by exploring three possibilities for this just cause while uncovering what the concept of a tree/forest means in early modern England.

Discipline was an enduring concept in the works of John Milton (1608-1674), yet its meaning shifted over the course of his career: initially he held that it denoted ecclesiastical order, but gradually he turned to representing it as self-willed pious action. My thesis examines this transformation by analysing Milton’s complex engagement in two distinct periods: the 1640s and the 1660s-70s. In Of Reformation (1641), Milton echoed popular contemporary demands for a reformation of church discipline, but also asserted through radical literary experimentation that poetry could discipline the nation too (Chapter 1). Reflecting his dislike for intolerant Presbyterians in Parliament and the Westminster Assembly, the two versions of The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643 and 1644) reconsider discipline as a moral imperative for all men, rooted in domestic liberty (Chapter 2). Although written long after this period, the long poetry that Milton composed after the Restoration reveals his continued interrogation of the concept. The invocations of the term ‘discipline’ by Milton’s angels in Paradise Lost (1667) sought to encourage dissenting readers to faithfulness and co-operation (Chapter 3). Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes (1671) advance the concept in the language of ‘piety,’ emphasising that ‘pious hearts’ are the precondition for godly action in opposition to contemporary Anglican ‘holy living’ (Chapter 4). In analysing Milton’s shifting concept of discipline, my thesis contributes to scholarship by showing his sensitivity to contemporary mainstream religious ideas, outlining the Christian—as opposed to republican or Stoic—notions of praxis that informed his ethics, and emphasising the disciplinary aspect of his doctrinal thought. Overall, it holds that in discipline, as word and concept, Milton expressed his faith in the capacity of writing to change its reader, morally and spiritually.

In Book IV of Paradise Regained, Satan tempts Christ by offering him the learning of the Greek philosophers, poets, and orators. Christ's response is a vehement denigration of Greek literature, which seems to contradict the praise of the classics found in Milton's prose works of the 1640s. Interpreting the condemnation of Greek learning in Paradise Regained as a modification of the poet's early attitudes, the present study examines the biographical, political, theological, and scientific factors which influenced Milton's thought and altered his opinions on the value of classical literature.

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本論文以十七世紀英國千禧年思想為脈絡，從神學的角度檢視密爾頓千禧年思想的發展。千禧年思想在十六世紀時被斥為異端，但卻在十七世紀初興起，並於英國大革命時達到前所未有的高峰。密爾頓早年並未相信千禧年王國會降臨人世。從密爾頓1640年之前所寫的短詩中，我們發現他期待這個世界結束後，接續而來的是天國。然而隨著內戰爆發，密爾頓也受到當時盛行的千禧年思想所感染；因而在其反對聖公會神職制度文章中，密爾頓熱切企盼基督早日再臨人世，建立千禧年王國。唯此熱度很快就消退，直到1649年查爾斯一世戰敗後，密爾頓又重燃對千禧年王國的渴望。在為弒君辯護的文章中，密爾頓懇求基督速速降臨，在這個世界興起第五王國。但1652年眼睛全盲後，密爾頓對於忍耐有了更深刻的「洞視」，因而也重新調整他的千禧年思想。密爾頓終於體認到主的日子是無法預測的，人只能忍耐等候神。但他仍然持守對於千禧年王國的信仰。1660年當查爾斯二世即將復辟之時，密爾頓最後一次表達他的千禧年思想。他希望英國共和體制能延續到千禧年王國的來臨。然而這次他並未表達對千禧年王國的急切性。在密爾頓的兩部史詩──《失樂園》與《復樂園》──當中，我們看不到任何的千禧年思想。老詩人似乎重拾他早年的思想：天國的盼望。但同時密爾頓也鼓吹大家追求神在人內心創建的樂園；也就是說，神的國已經降臨：神的國並不是外在物質的邦國，而是內在屬靈的國度。 / This dissertation aims to discuss Milton in the context of seventeenth-century English millenarianism. The writer examines the development of Milton’s millenarian ideas through a theological lens. Millenarianism was condemned heretical in the sixteenth century, but it arose at the beginning of the seventeenth century and reached its zenith during the English Revolution. At first, Milton did not believe in the realization of an earthly millennial kingdom. In his early short poems written before 1640, we only find his hope for a kingdom of heaven after the end of the world. However, with the outbreak of the Civil War, Milton was influenced by the then widespread millenarianism, and in his anti-prelatical tracts he expected the imminent coming of Christ to inaugurate an earthly kingdom of God. But his fervency for millenarianism was soon quenched, and was not rekindled until the defeat of Charles I in 1649. In his regicide tracts, he urged the imminence of Christ’s Advent to usher in a terrestrial fifth monarchy. Yet his total blindness in 1652 gave him a deeper “insight” into the value of patience, causing him to readjust his attitude toward millenarianism. After two wrong guesses, Milton finally came to realize in terms of experience that the Day of the Lord was unpredictable, and that all he could do was to wait patiently for God’s time. But he still maintained his belief in the realization of an earthly kingdom of God. On the eve of the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, Milton for the last time uttered his millenarian hope. He wished the English Commonwealth would last until the arrival of God’s millennial kingdom. Only this time he did not urge its imminence. Millenarianism was absent in Milton’s two epics—Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. In them the old bard seemed to resume his earlier stance: anticipating a heavenly kingdom of God. But he also emphasized the importance of enjoying a paradise within heart—that is, the kingdom of God has already arrived, and it is not an external, physical monarchy, but an inward, spiritual realm.