Radical Reform and Political Persuasion in the Life and Writings of Thomas More

section are related to and strengthen the structure of the poem and the configuration of image.As in his earlier discussions, especially that of Comus, nature and grace at times afford a stimulating underpinning for Woodhouse's remarks-but no reviewer can really suggest the rich variety of both learning and artistic sensitivity that this chapter, particu- larly though not uniquely in the book, leans upon in its progress.As the critic goes through the text, the sub-theme of each section is shown in control, for its moment of the poem, of Milton's delicately evolving world of structure, image, and prosodie ampli- fication of idea.The reader may long for more development of Woodhouse's suggestion that the patterns of verse that emerge from this interaction, especially those of tone and rhythm, in some degree compensate for the lack of stanza and rhyme as organizational elements in Paradise Lost.It is, however, the reaction, perhaps, of a glutton, since what Woodhouse has offered is one of the most helpfully provocative and inclusive guides to Milton's epic and its roots in literary, intellectual, and religious tradition, just as the con- cluding chapters will do, though on a suitably more limited scale, for Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes.One may, of course, have a momentary objection in spots, though it is soon dimmed by the light of what is being accomplished.The seams transforming individual pieces into a book would doubtless have been less apparent in places, had Woodhouse lived, though even as they stand they are no seriously distracting factor.And it seems rather rigid to assert, as Woodhouse does, that Dalila cannot be based on Mary Powell, since Milton's fault as a husband was not that of uxoriousness: surely, at least in art, all parts of an

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• Polemik im Dialog des Renaissance-Humanismus

  Uwe Baumann, Marc Laureys•Polemik im Dialog des Renaissance-H…•2015

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