<준비되고 쉬운 길>: 자유공화국을 위한 밀턴의 마지막 제안과 절규 (The Readie and Easie Way: Milton’s Final Proposal and Jeremiad for a Free Commonwealth)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국고전중세르네상스영문학회
· 수록지 정보 : 고전중세르네상스영문학 / 20권 / 2호 / 245 ~ 264페이지
· 저자명 : 송홍한

초록

Though Milton’s Civil Power and Hirelings (1659) can be understood in the line of his antiprelatical pamphlets written in the 1640, The Readie and Easie Way (1660) focuses on the survival of republicanism and his jeremiad for the English people. Its very topic sounds ironical, though, because it was written right before the restoration of Charles 2. The main purpose of the pamphlet is to suggest a way to establish a free commonwealth and give his final warning against the restoration of monarchy. On the one hand, he provides a balance between grand council and small regional councils, though he seems not to believes its possibility. On the other hand, he wanted to leave his final Jeremiad for the English people.
The political system of a free commonwealth proposed by Milton anticipated a modern democratic regime whose power is balanced between federal and local governments. In a modern democratic regime, power is not concentrated on its central government but spread out to its local governments all over the nation. The degree of power balance between cental and local governments indicates how much democratized a nation is. In this sense, Milton’s proposal for a free commonwealth went far ahead of his time. But he did not believe that it could be really fulfilled in contemporary England, but he only wanted to inform the English people that there was once a ready and easy way to establish a free commonwealth. Therefore, his proposal of a federalist free commonwealth is closely related to his jeremiad for the English people who are losing the last chance to establish a free commonwealth. While Milton wrote this tract out of a prophet poet’s duty for his nation, his Jeremiad for the free commonwealth in jeopardy as well as his last proposal of the “readie and easie way” was only a blind poet’s meaningless outcry to the English people.

영어초록

Though Milton’s Civil Power and Hirelings (1659) can be understood in the line of his antiprelatical pamphlets written in the 1640, The Readie and Easie Way (1660) focuses on the survival of republicanism and his jeremiad for the English people. Its very topic sounds ironical, though, because it was written right before the restoration of Charles 2. The main purpose of the pamphlet is to suggest a way to establish a free commonwealth and give his final warning against the restoration of monarchy. On the one hand, he provides a balance between grand council and small regional councils, though he seems not to believes its possibility. On the other hand, he wanted to leave his final Jeremiad for the English people.
The political system of a free commonwealth proposed by Milton anticipated a modern democratic regime whose power is balanced between federal and local governments. In a modern democratic regime, power is not concentrated on its central government but spread out to its local governments all over the nation. The degree of power balance between cental and local governments indicates how much democratized a nation is. In this sense, Milton’s proposal for a free commonwealth went far ahead of his time. But he did not believe that it could be really fulfilled in contemporary England, but he only wanted to inform the English people that there was once a ready and easy way to establish a free commonwealth. Therefore, his proposal of a federalist free commonwealth is closely related to his jeremiad for the English people who are losing the last chance to establish a free commonwealth. While Milton wrote this tract out of a prophet poet’s duty for his nation, his Jeremiad for the free commonwealth in jeopardy as well as his last proposal of the “readie and easie way” was only a blind poet’s meaningless outcry to the English people.

참고자료

· 없음