This edition of Milton Studies contains nine articles, covering a mixture of Milton's prose and poetry. The articles on poetry discuss Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, Sonnet IX, and several other brief poems in lesser depth. Of Milton's prose, one article discusses Of Education, one explores Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce in relation to poetry, another discusses a mixture of Milton's prose (Areopagitica, The Reason of Church Government, etc.). Also, two explore contemporary scientific inquiry and others explore Milton's historical and biographical position.

David Urban's essay "The Lady of Christ's College, Himself A 'Lady Wise and Pure'" examines "parabolic self reference" by analyzing Milton's Sonnet IX in relation to Comus and Apology for Smectymnuus, as well as other assorted writings (2). Urban traces Milton's emphasis on virginity in his poetry and prose in order to argue that Milton actually is referring to his own construction as "The Lady of Christ's College" using Sonnet IX as a primary framework for his analysis. Urban especially discusses Milton's attempt to justify his virginity, prepare himself for marriage, and understand the purpose of such a union. Urban turns to the "wise and virginal" Lady of Comus, the relationship between Adam and Even in Paradise Lost, and Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce in order to establish a biographical precedent for the conflation of wisdom and virginity for Milton.

Julian Koslow's discussion of Milton's Of Education in "'Not a bow for every man to shoot': Milton's Of Education, Between Hartlib and Humanism" questions Milton's pedagogical values and gestures towards the ambiguities Milton held toward a humanist pedagogical agenda. Koslow analyzes Of Education as essentially a reformist document, but also one that attempted to negotiate and employ humanist rhetoric. Koslow also emphasizes the importance of recognizing paradoxes and tensions evident in Milton's pedagogical proposal and encourages scholars of Milton to search for other such tensions. Perhaps the only problem with this otherwise compelling article is a lack of reference to Sidney's Defense of Poesy which, in consideration of multiple references to Ascham and Spenser, seems to be quite an oversight in relation to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English humanism.

"Brotherhood of the Illuminati: Milton, Galileo, and the Poetics of Conspiracy" by Michael Lieb is an entertaining and persuasive discussion of the relationship between Milton and Galileo as produced. Lieb references moments in which Milton writes of meeting Galileo in Areopagitica, which Lieb argues has holes, or moments of silence -- specifically that Milton does not discuss Galileo's blindness, which had great importance for Milton. According to Lieb, such holes are part of a "coded discourse" that allow Milton to prophetically shape his own future (62). Lieb also analyzes the figure of Galileo in Paradise Lost, who appears to be "subtly satanic" yet not overtly condemned (73). Lieb borders on suggesting a sort of anti-intellectualism with his analysis of the conversation between Adam, likened to Galileo in his questioning of the workings of the world, and Raphael in book five of Paradise Lost, but reinforces that limited access of knowledge differs vastly from what should be known.

Lara Dodds invokes the "great versus small" paradigm from Richard Hooke's Micrographia in order to examine the Milton's use of metaphor and simile, and also to discuss how Adam engages with his world (97). Her article, "'Great Things to Small May be Compared': Rhetorical Microscopy in Paradise Lost," posits that Paradise Lost is a "mirror" to Micrographia, wherein Milton reconstructs what has been lost, or what cannot be seen by the human eye. Dodds discusses "amplification" as a useful term in order to understand the "great versus small" similes that occur throughout the poem, but also a way to reveal imperfections in representation (106). Dodds' exploration of the symbiotic relationship of like and unlike is a useful analysis, especially in her argument that analogy is a necessary framework for understanding the Raphael's attempt to relate the workings of heaven to earth.

Eric Song's "Nation, Empire and the Strange Fire of the Tartars in Milton's Poetry and Prose" investigates Milton's use of Tartars as a part of England's early pagan identity which threatens England's religious and political identity stability. Song argues for a "retroactive logic of the empire" in, primarily, Milton's A Brief History of Moscovia and The History of England in order to analyze Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained through a post-colonial lens (119). Specifically, Song invokes Said's Orientalism as a useful text to analyze representations of Tartars as negative, disordered, and subversive. Song's thesis that the representation of Tartars in Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained implies a need to impose order upon chaos is compelling, and a useful exploration of Milton's own attitudes toward empire.

"'Flowers worthy of paradise': Milton and the Language of Flowers" by Ruth Summar McIntyre revives past arguments, such as Don C. Allen's and Louis Martz's, about Milton's use of flowers in pre- and post-lapsarian Eden. McIntyre argues for a new way of interpreting the language of flowers in Paradise Lost, in that she situates Milton's representation of flowers within the larger genre of early modern poetry and prose. Additionally, she further complicates understandings of Eden as a "sacred space" through her analysis of flowers as animistic in relation to God, humans, and the Fall (155). McIntyre's article makes possible new, ecocritical methods of analyzing Milton's poem -- a valuable mode of interpretation for Paradise Lost.

Rachel Willie's "Spiritual Union and the Problem of Sexuality" addresses Milton's treatment of sexuality in marriage in his poetry and prose. Willie argues that Milton's stances on marriage and sex are ultimately difficult to reconcile, as Protestant views of sex do not easily fit with the Renaissance (neo-Platonic) values in which Milton purports to root his ideals. Willie also revisits an important argument for Milton scholars: whether or not Adam and Eve had a sexual relationship before the Fall. The sexual and marital relationship Adam and Eve may have had figures centrally in Willie's discussion, although her brief discussion of Margaret Cavendish's The Blazing World provides an interesting contrast to Milton.

David Loewenstein delivers a convincing argument in "The War against Heresy in Milton's England," in which he makes salient connections to current polemical language in America (Loewenstein highlights McCarthyism especially, although other his analysis could certainly extend elsewhere). Heresy, he posits, shifted from an external, continental threat to one of internal insurrection. Loewenstein paints a fresh picture of heresy during Milton's time, as well as discusses in detail how Milton engaged with contemporary representations of heresy. Primarily an exploration of Milton's prose, Loewenstein also occasionally invokes poetry -- notably Paradise Lost and "On the New Forcers of Conscience under the Long Parliament." The author's commentary about Milton's skepticism toward anathematic statements rings true and is a valuable commentary.

The final article of Milton Studies, Jeffrey Shoulson's "Milton and Enthusiasm: Radical Religion and the Poetics of Paradise Regained," outlines the seventeenth-century concept of "enthusiasm" and the discourses surrounding it, and uses that definition to discuss Milton's ambivalence toward religious and political enthusiasm through Paradise Regained. In representing both the positive and negative discourses surrounding "enthusiasm," Shoulson rearticulates a common theme of Milton's -- that the fragmentation of such discourses provides a fertile breeding ground for truth and wisdom -- but ultimately argues that Milton seems to balk at religious and political enthusiasm.

The essays in this collection, while diverse in content, are cohesive in their attempt to ensure Milton's relevance and continuing impact upon social discourses even in our modern context.