Nation and archipelago

Maley, W. (2017) Nation and archipelago. In: Lee, J. (ed.) A Handbook of English Renaissance Literary Studies. Series: Wiley-Blackwell critical theory handbooks. Wiley-Blackwell: Oxford, pp. 173-189. ISBN 9781118458785 (doi: 10.1002/9781118458747.ch12)

Abstract

This chapter explores John Milton's Observations upon the Articles of Peace with the Irish Rebels (1649), a 25,000-word treatise that is a touchstone text for a turning point in British and Irish history, a telling account of the tensions between colonialism and republicanism, and a tipping point in Milton's thinking around Archipelagic interdependence – the tied fates of the nations that make up the emerging British state. This multi-authored work, exemplary in its many-sided depiction of a pivotal point in the history of the three Stuart kingdoms of England, Ireland, and Scotland, depicts different national and religious communities responding to the execution of Charles I on January 30, 1649. Milton's commission was to address the “complication of interests” in Ireland in the wake of the killing of the king. His protean polemic captures the contradictions of a poet against empire countering a challenge to metropolitan government from a complex planter society.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Keywords: John Milton, Ireland, 1649.
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Maley, Professor Willy
• Authors: Maley, W.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Literature
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• ISBN: 9781118458785
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2017 Wiley-Blackwell
• First Published: First published in A Handbook of English Renaissance Literary Studies: 173-189
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced with the permission of the publisher.