These essays throw new light on the complex relations between science, literature and rhetoric as avenues to discovery in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds examine the agency of early modern poets, playwrights, essayists, philosophers, natural philosophers and artists in remaking their culture and reforming ideas about human understanding. Analyzing the ways in which the works of such diverse writers as Shakespeare, Bacon, Hobbes, Milton, Cavendish, Boyle, Pope and Behn related to contemporary epistemological debates, these essays move us toward a better understanding of interactions between the sciences and the humanities during a seminal phase in the emergence of modern Western thought.

These essays throw new light on the complex relations between science, literature and rhetoric as avenues to discovery in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds examine the agency of early modern poets, playwrights, essayists, philosophers, natural philosophers and artists in remaking their culture and reforming ideas about human understanding. Analyzing the ways in which the works of such diverse writers as Shakespeare, Bacon, Hobbes, Milton, Cavendish, Boyle, Pope and Behn related to contemporary epistemological debates, these essays move us toward a better understanding of interactions between the sciences and the humanities during a seminal phase in the emergence of modern Western thought.

A team of leading international scholars addresses Milton's treatment of millennial and apocalyptic ideas, topics of major importance in the religious and philosophical thought of his day. With wide-ranging ramifications for the interpretation of Milton's poetry and prose, his speculations on the ends of time played a vital part in shaping the Miltonic quest and vision. This collection provides a broad range of approaches to studying Milton, including the visual arts, politics and theology, and science.

In Milton and the Ends of Time, a team of leading international scholars addresses Milton's treatment of millennial and apocalyptic ideas, topics of major importance in the religious and philosophical thought of his day. The subject has wide-ranging ramifications for the interpretation of Milton's poetry and prose, as his speculations on the ends of time played a vital part in shaping the Miltonic quest and vision. This collection thinks critically about Milton's eschatology by arguing that Milton expressed radical millenarian views after the Restoration and by demonstrating the pervasiveness of apocalyptic ideas in Milton's thought. It also provides a broad range of disciplinary and theoretical perspectives; approaches include Milton and the visual arts, Milton's politics and theology, Milton and science and comparative poetics. This volume will be of interest to literary, religious and political historians of the seventeenth century, as well as Milton specialists.