Awake The Courteous Echo

This Miltonic reference works is the third and final volume in a trilogy dealing with Miltonic analogues. It complements the author's previous compendia of analogues, The Celestial Cycle (on Paradise Lost) and That Invincible Samson (on Samson Agonistes). Thirty-seven years of research in the libraries of the world have unearthed on impressive array of analogues of Comus, Lycidas, and Paradise Regained; and the more important of these are now made available in Kirkconnell's English translation in Awake the Courteous Echo. The book includes 39 analogues of Comus, 102 of Lycidas, and 25 of Paradise Regained. These analogues range from the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh to those of Milton's contemporaries. Dr. Kirkconnell's initial concern is not with source hunting, but with analogues as analogues, the Jonsonian masque, the pastoral elegy, and the brief epic. The subtlety, complexity, and powerful originality of Milton's art are here for the reader to enjoy. The major analogues in languages other than English are translated in both verse and prose. Both specialists and students of Milton will find this a fascinating and valuable study.

This full and definitive treatment of the whole body of Milton's poetry, written by one of the country's most eminent Milton scholars, was originally published under the title Poet of Exile: A Study of Milton's Poetry. With a new title and an introduction developing the theme of exile, it is now issued in paperback for the first time. "The most important single study of Milton that has appeared in years.... For a long time to come, it will be the book from which Milton's oeuvre is reviewed and from which Milton criticism seeks renewal." -Joseph Wittreich, Modern Language Quarterly "Martz's pleasure in reading Milton is evident and he conveys that pleasure in his pages.... All of us will want to ponder and can expect to profit from a commentary on the text carried on with the educated understanding, tact, skill, and perceptiveness that are everywhere present in this book." -B. Rajan, Modern Philology "A work that is both rich and rewarding.... The background that Martz brings to his subject illuminates Milton's poetry in fresh and exciting ways." -Michael Lieb, Cithara "The strength of Martz's criticism arises from his style as well as his learning and good sense. Observations are made in a manner which both clears the mind and arouses the imagination. Commonplace facts, acknowledged but ignored, suddenly take on fresh significance, while the results of scholarly research are introduced with easy grace and relevance. No one writing of Milton today has a sharper eye for the illuminating detail." -Hugh Maccallum, University of Toronto Quarterly "Martz's sensitive, percipient comments on the interplay of styles in Milton's poems provide some overarching unity to these diverse essays." -Barbara Kiefer Lewalski, Journal of English and Germanic Philology "The best major study of Milton's whole poetic career in almost half a century." -Arnold Stein