xvPrefacegestions, and enthusiastic response at several stages, and the copy-editor Jack Mes-
senger, who tidied up many loose ends. Several former and present graduate stu-
dents provided research assistance at various stages: Susan Thornberg, Douglas Trevor,
Wendy Hyman, and Sarah Wall. Any remaining errors are my own.
Parts of some chapters have appeared, in substantially different form, in journals
and collections. I thank their editors as well as the Cambridge University Press and
the Duquesne University Press for permission to use material from these essays:
“How radical was the Young Milton,” in Heretical Milton, eds. John Rumrich and
Stephen Dobranski, reprinted with the permission of Cambridge University Press,
1998; “Milton’s Comus and the Politics of Masquing,” in The Politics of the Stuart
Court Masque, eds. David Bevington and Peter Holbrook, Cambridge University
Press, 1998; and “Educational Projects and Epic Paedeia: Milton and the Hartlib
Circle,” in Literary Milton: Text, Pretext, Context, eds. Diana Benet and Michael
Lieb, Duquesne University Press, 1994. I also thank the editors and the University
of Pittsburgh Press for permission to use materials from the following essays: “Milton’s
Samson and the ‘New Acquist of True [political] Experience,’ ” is from Milton Stud-
ies 24, ed. James D. Simmonds, © 1989 by University of Pittsburgh Press; “Milton:
Divine Revelation and the Poetics of Experience,” Milton Studies 28: Riven Unities:
Authority and Experience, Self and Other in Milton’s Poetry, guest eds. Wendy Furman,
Christopher Grose, William Shullenberger, © 1992 by University of Pittsburgh
Press; “Milton and De Doctrina Christiana: Evidences of Authorship,” is from Milton
Studies 36, Albert C. Labriola, Ed., © 1998 by University of Pittsburgh Press; and
“Paradise Lost and Milton’s Politics” is from Milton Studies 38: John Milton: The
Writer in his Works, Albert C. Labriola and Michael Lieb, eds., © 2000 by Univer-
sity of Pittsburgh Press. Material from these articles is used by permission of the
University of Pittsburgh Press.
Acknowledgments