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From Sowthistles and Brambles to a More Humanistic Response
Author(s) -
Ames Kenneth J.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
milton quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.101
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 1094-348X
pISSN - 0026-4326
DOI - 10.1111/j.1094-348x.1978.tb00068.x
Subject(s) - trilogy , joke , humanism , mythology , poetry , humanity , philosophy , literature , aesthetics , history , art , theology
When Marjorie Nicolson, some thirteen years ago, outlined certain problems facing the teacher of Milton, she was pointing up a trilogy of obstacles that seem today, if anything, even more impenetrable and adamantine than they were when she was writing her helpful little guidebook before the liberating Sixties. 1 Now, as then, one confronts the inadequacy of background in fields of particular importance to Milton study (to use Nicolson's divisions): lack of background in the Bible, lack of background in classical mythology, and lack of background in languages. Of course, it is still true, as Nicolson says, that “To know the poetry of John Milton is indeed to have a liberal, a generous, education” (p. xiii), but, sadly, a prior necessity for such a liberal education is a grounding, some kind of primer (or “prerequisite” as we might say now) which in most undergraduates is just not there. It's like the old joke: we'd have some ham and eggs if we had any ham‐but we're all out of eggs!