The Legal Epic

Download or read book The Legal Epic written by Alison A. Chapman and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-02-15 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The seventeenth century witnessed some of the most important jurisprudential changes in England s history, yet it is relatively untouched territory in the rich field of literature and law. Alison Chapman s book fills this gap by situating the poet and polemicist John Milton in the center of late-seventeenth-century legal history. One of England s greatest poets, Milton was arguably also the most litigious, and he had an exceptionally wide and deep knowledge of law and judicial processes. While this book ranges widely across Milton s life and work, its primary focus is on the role that law plays in "Paradise Lost." Throughout "Paradise Lost," Chapman shows, Milton invites his readers to judge the ways of God both according to the dictates of reason and conscience and also according to prevailing ideas about legal justice. Law, Chapman argues, forms a crucial albeit unrecognized part of Milton s attempt in" Paradise Lost" to justify the ways of God to men. "