“Higher Argument”: Paradise Lost 1665–1669Milton stages the Nimrod episode as an overt statement of republican principles,
with absolute monarchy on earth equated with tyranny, since it involves a man
usurping over his equals dominion belonging only to God. In his prophecy of the
biblical history to come, Michael reports that Nimrod subjected men to his empire
by force, and explains the epithet accorded him, “mightie Hunter,” in terms asso-
ciating him with Charles I’s claims of divine-right kingship and denunciation of
Puritan rebels: “from Heav’n claiming second Sovrantie; / And from Rebellion
shall derive his name, / Though of Rebellion others he accuse” (12.35–7). Adam’s
fierce castigation reiterates the republican theory of Tenure:
O execrable Son so to aspire
Above his Brethren, to himself assuming
Authoritie usurpt, from God not giv’n:
He gave us onely over Beast, Fish, Fowl
Dominion absolute; that right we hold
By his donation; but Man over men
He made not Lord; such title to himself
Reserving, human left from human free. (12.64–71)That natural republicanism is reinforced in Michael’s account of the Israelites using
their sojourn in the wilderness to found a republic: “there they shall found / Thir
government, and thir great Senate choose / Through the twelve Tribes, to rule by
Laws ordaind.” By contrast, Michael offers a hasty and dismissive summary of the
Israelite kings from David to Christ: “Part good, part bad, of bad the longer scrowle,
/ Whose foul Idolatries, and other faults / Heapt to the popular summe, will so
incense / God, as to leave them.”^123
Michael commends Adam for “justly” abhorring Nimrod the first king, but re-
minds him – in terms reminiscent of many Milton tracts – that outward liberty
depends on inner liberty, the product of reason and virtue, and that the Fall allows
“upstart Passions” to “catch the Government / From Reason, and to servitude
reduce / Man till then free” (12.83–90). That analysis can explain the Stuart Resto-
ration, England’s colonial rule in Ireland, and absolute monarchy wherever it exists:
inner servitude, either of itself or as a punishment from God, leads to deprivation of
outward freedom by “violent Lords.” Michael concludes that “Tyrannie must be, /
Though to the Tyrant thereby no excuse” (12.95–6), not as a justification for the
status quo, but as a natural consequence of human failure.
Milton’s epic also probes the politics of empire and colonization. Language relat-
ing to those enterprises came readily to Milton, given its contemporary currency.^124
Eden is described in terms often used of the New World: lush, beautiful, prodi-
giously prolific, needing to be cultivated and tamed; and regarded as a satellite
colony by both God and Satan.^125 However, God’s relation to Eden is not that of an
imperialist to his colony. The epithet “sovran Planter” might associate him with the
plantation of settlements, but in context it identifies him as the gardener who planted