Milton, Jerome, and Apocalyptic Virginity
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Published:2019
Issue:1
Volume:72
Page:194-230
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ISSN:0034-4338
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Container-title:Renaissance Quarterly
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language:en
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Short-container-title:Renaiss. Q.
Abstract
Milton's youthful interest in virginity is usually regarded as a private eccentricity abandoned on his maturation. His “Mask” is often read, analogously, as charting the Lady's movement from temporary virginity to wedded chastity. This essay challenges those claims, arguing that Milton's understanding of virginity's poetic and apocalyptic powers comes from Saint Jerome, whose ideas he struggles with throughout his career. Reading “A Mask” alongside Jerome suggests that Milton endorses the apocalyptic potential of virginity without necessarily assigning those powers to the Lady herself. In later works, Milton modifies and adapts Jerome before finally producing the perfect eremitic hero of “Paradise Regain'd.”
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Subject
Literature and Literary Theory,Visual Arts and Performing Arts,History
Reference91 articles.
1. Pier Paolo Vergerio (The Elder) and the Beginnings of the Humanist Cult of Jerome;McManamon;Catholic Historical Review,1985
Cited by
3 articles.
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