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Welcome back to The Invisible College, my series of literature courses for paid subscribers. The introduction to and schedule for the 2025 season is here. The 2024 archive is here. This episode, of which the first 10 minutes are free, is the first in a four-week sequence on the works of John Milton. It concerns his biography, historical context, and early achievement in three different genres: the masque Comus, the pastoral elegy Lycidas, and the prose polemic Areopagitica. The political paradoxes of his Puritanism and concern for liberty, and their implications for the present, and for his status as second only to Shakespeare in the canon of English poetry, are considered throughout. Please like, share, comment, and subscribe! The slideshow corresponding to the episode can be downloaded behind the paywall: