Milton and the Restoration

     Today in class, the question Doug left us with was, "how does Milton's portrayal of the fall parallel the English Restoration?"  This was a very intriguing question to me, so I thought I would struggle through my notes and readings to piece together an answer to Doug's question.

     According to Doug Sugano's history lecture on 17th century England, after the death of Charles I, Milton become the Latin Secretary to Cromwell in 1649 .  Milton's loyal service to Cromwell shows his support to the "Lord Protector" Cromwell and to the Puritan regime as a whole.  Knowing that Milton is a follower of the political Puritan movement, causes his works to favor a puritanical perspective.  Therefore, in Milton's work, Paradise Lost, the Puritan Regime and the reign of Cromwell may represent The Garden of Eden as an allegorical element.
      After Cromwell's death, this puritan regime was succeeded by Cromwell's son Richard, who proved to be an ineffective leader of England (Sugano).  Richard's unsuccessful example of authority perhaps caused people to distrust the Puritan regime, ultimately causing it to fail.  In 1660, however, the Stuart line was restored through Charles II, which is referred to as the English Restoration (Sugano).  Since there is evidence that Milton supports the Puritan regime, he probably saw this English Restoration of the monarch Charles II as a corruption of the good republic instituted by Cromwell. 
     This falling out of the Puritans and the restoration of the Stuarts is parallel to Milton's portrayal of Genesis' Garden of Eden and the fall of humanity in his work Paradise Lost.  In his depiction of The Fall, Milton sets up Adam and Eve's failure similarly to the Puritan regime.  Milton's argument is that through the death of Cromwell and poor leadership of Richard, the once perfect paradise of a republic, under the reign of the Puritans, is now a corrupted state of monarchy, under the reign of Charles II. Thus, Milton sees England as a fallen state after the English Restoration of 1660.


Works Cited:
Sugano, Doug. "17th Century English History." British Literature Before 1800. Whitworth University, Hendrick Hall, Spokane. 5 Nov. 2013. Lecture.