Milton, Marvell, and the Dutch Republic

The tumultuous relations between Britain and the United Provinces in the seventeenth century provide the backdrop to this book, striking new ground as its transnational framework permits an overview of their intertwined culture, politics, trade, intellectual exchange, and religious debate. How the English and Dutch understood each other is coloured by these factors, and revealed through an imagological method, charting the myriad uses of stereotypes in different genres and contexts. The discussion is anchored in a specific context through the lives and works of John Milton and Andrew Marvell, whose complex connections with Dutch people and society are investigated. As well as turning overdue attention to neglected Dutch writers of the period, the book creates new possibilities for reading Milton and Marvell as not merely English, but European poets.

Esther van Raamsdonk is a British Academy Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, University of Warwick, examining the politics of biblical narrative in the Dutch Republic and England. She previously worked on the digital humanities project Networking Archives, and completed a Ph.D. on Milton and Marvell at the University of Exeter. She has published articles on Milton's and Marvell's poetry, Dutch language acquisition, demonology, and travelogues.

Introduction: Milton, Marvell, and the Dutch Republic 1. Pamphlets and Propaganda: The Dutch Stereotype 2. Milton's Defences and Dutch Printing Culture 3. Paradise Lost, Upon Appleton House, and the works of Vondel and Huygens 4. Arminian Toleration 5. Predestination and Grace in Milton's Samson Agonistes and Marvell's Remarks 6. Samson's Revolution 7. The Anglo-Dutch Wars, Empire, and Anxiety Epilogue