Regarded by many as the equal of Shakespeare in poetic imagination and expression, Milton was also a prolific writer of prose, applying his potent genius to major issues of domestic, religious and political liberty.  This superbly annotated new publication is the most authoritative single-volume anthology yet of Milton's major prose works.Uses Milton's original language, spelling and punctuationFreshly and extensively annotatedNotes provide unrivalled contextual analysis as well as illuminating the wealth of Milton's allusions and referencesWill appeal to a general readership as well as to scholars across the humanities

David Loewenstein is Helen C. White Professor of English and the Humanities at the University of WisconsinMadison, USA. His books includeRepresenting Revolution in Milton and his Contemporaries: Religion, Politics, and Polemics in Radical Puritanism (2001), which received the Milton Society of Americas James Holly Hanford Award for Distinguished Book. He is the author ofTreacherous Faith: The Specter of Heresy in Early Modern English Literature and Culture (2013). He has co-editedThe Cambridge History of Early Modern English Literature (2002),Early Modern Nationalism andMiltons England (2008), andThe Complete Works of Gerrard Winstanley (2009). He is an Honored Scholar of the Milton Society of America.

Note on This Edition and Abbreviations viii

Acknowledgements ix

List of Illustrations x

Chronology xi

Introduction xvi

MILTON'S PROSE TEXTS

1. Prolusions: 1

Prolusion VI 3

Prolusion VII 13

2.Of Reformation 22

3.The Reason of Church-Government Urg'd against Prelaty (selections) 61

4.An Apology Against a Pamphlet (selections) 92

5.The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce 103

6.Of Education 170

7.Areopagitica; A Speech of Mr. John Milton 181

8.Tetrachordon (selections) 214

9.The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates 243

10.Eikonoklastes (selections) 275

11.A Second Defence of the English People 319

12.A Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes 377

13.Considerations Touching the Likeliest Means to Remove Hirelings out of the Church 398

14.The Readie and Easie Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth 426

15.Of True Religion, Hæresie, Schism, and Toleration 448

16. Selections from Milton's Private Letters 459

17.De Doctrina Christiana (selections) 470

18.The Life of Mr. John Milton by Edward Phillips 558

Select Bibliography 573