The Milton Encyclopedia

In the past Milton was regarded as second only to Shakespeare in conventional literary opinion. Some doubts on this elevation of Milton were expressed now and then, particularly by T.S. Eliot and F.R. Leavis in the twentieth century (though Dr Johnson had expressed some reservations in the eighteenth century). The various critical attitudes towards him are surveyed in Critical Tradition in Milton Studies, one of the articles in this encyclopedia. But ever since he wrote his poetry and prose in the seventeenth century his stature has never seriously been questioned. Academics, students and readers in general need to know his...