Areopagitica

Areopagitica: A speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England



John Milton was celebrated and denounced in his own time both as a poet and as a polemicist. Today he is remembered first and foremost for his poetry, but his great epic Paradise Lost was published very late in his life, in 1667, and in his own time most readers more readily recognised Milton as a writer of prose. This superbly annotated new book is an authoritative edition of Milton's major prose works, including Of Education, The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates and the Divorce tracts, as well as the famous 1644 polemical tract on the opposing licensing and censorship, Areopagitica.In 1644, as Cromwell's Civil War was raging in England, the celebrated poet John Milton published his Areopagitica,



Areopagitica: A speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England



a polemical tract arguing for the freedom of speech and an unlicensed press.



Areopagitica: A speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England



The essay's title, “Areopagitica,” was derived from the name of a speech written by the ancient Greek orator Isocrates, Areopagitikos.



Areopagitica: A speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England



Addressed to the Parliament of England, the Areopagitica draws on a number of classical and biblical sources to support Milton's cause for the freedom of the press. One of the most obvious examples that the author uses is that of the Areopagus, a judicial council which, in ancient times, had investigated corruption in Athens.



Areopagitica: A speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England



In modern times, the Areopagitica is principally appreciated as a cornerstone in the argument for the freedom of speech. Areopagitica: A speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England is John Milton's famous tract against censorship. Named after a speech by Isocrates, a fifth century BC Athenian orator, the work is counted as one of the most influential and inspired defenses of the right to freedom of expression in history. It is also a personal issue for Milton who was submitted to censorship himself when he tried to publish his defenses of divorce, radical works for the time that gained no quarter with censors. Distributed as a pamphlet, Milton's powerful arguments against 1643's Licensing Order note that classical Greek and Roman society was never subjected to such censorship, and he uses many classical and biblical references to reinforce his argument.



Areopagitica: A speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England