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Milton's “Ad Patrem” and the Poetics of Virgilian Sons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2022

Seth Lerer
Seth Lerer*
Affiliation:
University of California San Diego
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Abstract

This article relocates John Milton's Latin poem to his father (“Ad Patrem”) in the contexts of the young Milton's literary self-fashioning and the changing patterns of early modern Virgil reception. Here and in his prose epistles, Milton establishes the persona of a scholarly, questing filial figure, grounded in a reading of book 6 of the “Aeneid” and its drama of fathers and sons. He makes a case for poetry and scholarship as shared practices. This article reflects on a new archival turn in Milton studies and, in turn, how Milton himself invites the reader to become a questing scholar.

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Articles
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 75 , Issue 2 , Summer 2022 , pp. 508 - 541
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by the Renaissance Society of America

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Footnotes

It is my great pleasure to thank Jessica Wolfe and the readers for Renaissance Quarterly for their incisive critique, strong support, and thoughtful engagement with my work. Earlier versions of this material benefited immensely from the responses of Colin Burrow, A. E. B. Coldiron, Page DuBois, Timothy Hampton, Victoria Kahn, and Edward Kelting. For encouragement and access to materials, I thank Rhodri Lewis and William Poole. Throughout, all unattributed translations are my own.

References

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