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Milton andAreopagiticaLecture (02/03/2012)

Milton allows freedom of expression to groups such as his own, but restricts it from othergroups, such as Catholics, and similarly undesirable groups. Importance of building rhetoricon the basis of understood consensus.

Pamphlet was a seminal document type not printed terribly quickly, but it reached a secondedition in the mid seventeenth century as ideas criticising regimes began to bubble up.

UK Bill of Rights the right to petition parliament without fear; freedom of speech withinparliament; US Bill of Rights, limiting what central governments could do and command oftheir citizens.Declaration of the Rights of Man.

Violence of the French Revolution puts a cap on freedom of expression legislation, placing iton the backburner until... After WWII some opening up UN Declaration on Human Rights (1948). Freedom ofexpression regardless of medium or frontier.

What doesAreo do, what does it achieve, and how does it affect rhetoric?

Common strands to early modern speeches: importance of ethos (rhetorical persona) instirring an audience. The ways in which speeches are constructed Quintilian and Cicero.Meaning is negotiated in partnership with the medium of reception it matters that audienceand speaker are connected by a common strand.

What survives of James and Elizabeths speechesis some sort of echo of the moment of oraldelivery. With Milton the situation is more complex. Milton is writing at the beginning of themodern media age; the beginning of a news revolution; politics and public affairs affected byprinting. Milton aware of how rhetoric operates in print as how it operates in an oral/auralcontext. He can frame himself as a virtual speaker within a virtual auditorium amidst a virtualaudience. Contrast his view of parliamentary rhetoric in PL. Here, he is hopeful that speeches

can steer people to good aims.

PL published during the restoration; during the Commonwealth he was involved with politics.While he was never enfranchised, he does try to use print to shape a virtual parliamentarycamera outside of the formal conditions of the chamber itself. He tries to spread politicalresponsibility among the people making citizens out of subjects (men; certain types of men;intellectual requirements). At this period England has a heavily centred print industry. By1642, control had loosened leading to 1156 non-governmental pamphlets being printed. Newopportunities for independent thinkers to shape thought.

Before the Civil War he is the unemployed graduate, going down from university in 1632. In1640 his political writing takes off. In 1649 he is appointed Secretary of Foreign Tongues acrucial post in persuading the rest of Europe that England remains a valid nation.

Extraordinarily capable linguist. Presents himself as learned and highly polished.

So why did this man not become a clergyman, and why did he not become a parliamentarian?He was too far removed in terms of belief to be ordained in the Church of England. He wasseemingly bullied at Universityperhaps didnt have an impressive speaking voice a clearstumbling block at a time where speaking was so important.

Miltons first marriage ran into difficulties, and within a very short number of weeks she left.He was a parliamentarian, she was a royalist. He published a series of tracts arguing fordivorce if there were grounds of irreconcilable difference. Normal controls were breakingdown alarm at the growth of wild religious groups. Faced with a burgeoning world offreedom, Parliament issued a licensing order (1642) that decreed that all books should bepassed by a Board of Censors who would approve the texts or otherwise. In 1644 the Company

of Stationers ask parliament to supress all unlicensed books. In Nov 1644, Milton issues Areo addressed to the parliament of England.

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As in his divorce pamphlets, it is advertised as a speech. For Milton, however, this is an act ofdeliberate rhetoric designed to shape rhetoric. The title refers to the original democraticdebating chamber of ancient Athens, and the content is an appeal for the freedom to write inaccordance with ones own conscience. (Clearly over long for oral delivery.) It positionsMilton in a position of being a modern Athenian. Persona of Isocrates (who happened to havea weak speaking voice). Epigram taken from Euripides, taken from the foundation of

democratic principles on Athens (by Theseus). This is theparatextwhich sets up a frame forthe rest of the rhetoric. Milton places Britain at a similar watershed. Milton was, perhaps,playing to an educated elite. Milton is inferring that censored books is like slaughteredchildren (submerged female identity?).

The pamphlet follows the structure of classical speeches:

ExordiumHe starts by establishing his ethos as a plain-speaking free man, using the historical trope ofimpersonation. He places himself in the company of others (who have been permitted toaddress parliament), using parallel devices to line himself up with others (extract B). Thiswould have read as a tactful way in, establishing his right to speak. [Mixed emotions.] Goes onto praise parliaments for its achievemnts to that point (with Gods help). Protests that only

freedom of speech shows what has been done to be sincere, and what he is doing to be sincere.

NarratioThe facts of the matter. Lays out his argument for the freedom of the press (extract C). Now heuses a voice to think about books an equivilancy is built up between humans and books.Suggests that books and their content have a type of surrogate life. (Habermass theory ofPublic / Private Sphere look at a whole political nation depends on the growth of a printculture where people could have the sense of a shared reading community that went beyondtheir own friends. Milton to some extent anticipating Habermass?) For M., books are not deadthings prosopopeia. Mixed metaphors (knowingly) Egyptian process of the transmutationof souls. Fragmentation of metaphor. (BooksTruth) this is an example of syllogism. Reasonis the image of God in man (commonplace idea). Importance of life over killing.

Makes use of historical precedence to add weight to his argument. Catholic Church is singledout for criticism: the suppression of literature (not allowed to print as they dont believe in thefreedom of speech). Writing for an audience which believes in Biblical truth weight ofargumentation.

Extract D comes within a discussion of a living biblical text. Odd folding of Christian churchonto the Egyptian myth of how Osiris operates. An example of a fable negotiating the gapbetween the history of the Bible and reality.

DivisionProofRefutationPeroration

Flatters his readers as being at a crucial point in English nationhood. Also an exhortation torise from the sleep of ignorance. Peculiar use of sight imagery, suggesting potentialdifficulties. Metaphor is fragmented, because truth is not singular, but rather had lots ofdifferent forms. Handing power back to parliament; to those empowered to do somethingabout it.

The lasting message of the pamphlet was that political writing had a life beyond that of itsauthor. [Vincent Blas, Yale Law School].