Milton's Ireland

Lee Morrissey is Alumni Distinguished Professor of English at Clemson University, South Carolina. A former Fulbright Scholar at the University of Galway and Muriel McCarthy Research Fellow at Marsh's Library, Dublin, he is the author of several previous books, including, most recently, Milton's Late Poems: Forms of Modernity (Cambridge University Press, 2022).

• Introduction: John Milton and the Irish Crises; 1. 1641–1642: Milton's anti-prelatical tracts and the ulster rising; 2. The 1645 poems: spenser's 'colin clouts come home againe' and (the revisions of) Milton's 'Lycidas'; 3. Early 1649: the execution of Charles I and Milton's 'observations' in the articles of peace; 4. Later 1649: Milton's Eikonoklastes and Cromwell's invasion; 5. The early 1650s: defences after Cromwell's invasion; 6. The later 1650s: acts of settlement – varieties of English Republicanism; Afterword 'conflagrations of conviction': Irish Republicanism and English Royalist Nationalism; Index of names; Notes.

'The story of the Irish dimension of Milton's work, the decades of inter-island conflict unfolding before and during Milton's life, needs to be told, and Lee Morrissey tells it exceptionally well. Milton's Ireland makes valuable inroads into the study of early modern Ireland's cultural plurality, its complex relations to Britain, and the tensions operative in the British Isles (rather than the Atlantic archipelago). In this expertly researched and nuanced investigation, Morrissey also boldly demonstrates how Ireland challenges Milton's sense of Englishness.' Elizabeth Sauer, FRSC, Professor of English, Brock University, Canada