Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2007

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Leeds, John

Abstract

Many scholars agree that portions of Paradise Lost show the influence of mystery and morality plays from the Middle Ages, yet it is difficult to establish the availability of these plays for John Milton. He wrote the poem during the Puritan Revolution in seventeenth-century England when medieval drama was suppressed and suspect because of its Catholic origins and content. As a Puritan propagandist, Milton might have been expected to share the Protestant distrust of medieval Catholic culture. However, he evinced his broadmindedness both by holding theological views that were nearer to Catholic than to Calvinist orthodoxy, and by making substantial literary use of medieval sources. Although the revolution of which he was a part made it difficult for him to access medieval biblical drama, there were avenues through which these plays were available, in texts or performances, to Milton as he composed Paradise Lost.

Extent

72 p.

Comments

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2007.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters

Identifier

FA00000911

Format

pdf

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