Unlicens'd Printing to the Parlament {sic} of England (1644) [an oration advocating freedom of the press from government censorship], Poems of Mr. John Milton (1645, during the English Civil War) [containing "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity," "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso"], Of the Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649, during the trial of Charles I) [a republican argument that monarchs can rule only with their subjects' consent], Eikonoklastes (The Image Breakers) (1649) [a defense in Latin of the execution of the king, entrusted when Milton was secretary to the Council of State under Oliver Cromwell; he continued in his post until the restoration of the monarchy (1660), when he was imprisoned and fined and then allowed to retire], Paradise Lost (1667), Paradise Regained (1671), Samson Agonistes (1671) Other Authors Views on the Work of John MiltonJohn Spencer Hill wrote this, When Milton began the composition of Paradise Lost, probably in 1658 but perhaps earlier in the decade, the need to admonish his fellow countrymen of their high calling and to impress upon them their covenantal responsibility was a matter of immediate and pressing concern. By the time the Protectorate was established in 1653 the national mission as Milton conceived it had been abandoned by the Presbyterians on the theological right and by many of the sects on the Puritan left; the national destiny lay precariously in the hands of Oliver Cromwell and his dwindled remnant of advisers and supporters -- a remnant which shrank yet further in the years between 1653 and 1658. After the Lord Protector's death in September 1658, the political situation became acute, then desperate and, finally, hopeless.Throughout this period of national disintegration, as the shadows of returning night lengthened over the wan face of his departing dream, Milton labored tirelessly -- but in vain -- to rouse the consciences of his countrymen or at least the sensible and ingenuous among...
