Unit Five Biblical Epic and John Milton.docVIP

Unit Five Biblical Epic and John Milton Warming-up 常识预习1. How much do you know about John Milton?2. Galileo is a famous scientist in history. What experiments did he do in Italy?3. There is a hero named Samson in the Bible. Do you know his story?4. What is the Garden of Eden called in Chinese? Do you know what happened in the Garden of Eden?5. Have you ever seen the movie Paradise Lost (not the Japanese one)?6. There is a famous sentence: “A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life”. Do you know who created this sentence?Lecturette专题讲座 Biblical Epic and John MiltonJohn Milton (1608 – 1674) is best known for his biblical epic Paradise Lost. And Milton, due to his hair, which he wore long, and his general delicacy of manner, was known as the “Lady of Christ’s”.We can situate both his major works of poetry and his politics historically. The phases of his life parallel major historical divisions of Stuart Britain. As well as English, he wrote in Latin and Italian, and had an international reputation during his lifetime. William Hayley’s 1796 biography called him the “greatest English author”. He remains generally regarded “as one of the preeminent writers in the English language and as a thinker of world importance.” Under the increasingly personal rule of Charles I and its breakdown in constitutional confusion and war, Milton studied (Milton received his M.A. at Cambridge in 1632. When he was young, he studied very hard and sat up very late, commonly till twelve or one o’clock at night.), traveled, wrote poetry mostly for private circulation, and launched a career as pamphleteer and publicist. Under the Commonwealth of England, from being thought dangerously radical and even heretical, the shift in accepted attitudes in government placed him in public office, and he acted as an official spokesman in certain of his publications. The Restoration of 1660 deprived Milton, now completely bli