Milton's Epic and Pope's Satyr Play: Paradise Lost in The Dunciad in Four Books

An appetite for ambivalence: Pope studies in the twenty‐first century

“…The same can be said for the less radical exercise, already in progress, of positioning Pope more frequently alongside his literary forebears and successors, putting him in dialogue with earlier and later literary periods, whether through the planning of curricula or in works of scholarly analysis. His ambivalent relationship to the legacy of John Milton has been engagingly explored by the likes of Valerie Rumbold () and Sophie Gee (); David Fairer () has discussed his inheritance from the Elizabethans; and the situation of his Essay on Criticism within a history of literary commentary has been clarified in painstaking work by Philip Smallwood () and others (Peti, ). But I am if anything even more enthused by recent scholarly work that has explored Pope's literary afterlives and shown how the ambivalences implicit in his poetry contribute to, or are effaced by, later perceptions of him.…”

“…Milton has been engagingly explored by the likes of Valerie Rumbold (2004) and Sophie Gee (2010); David Fairer (2007) has discussed his inheritance from the Elizabethans; and the situation of his Essay on Criticism within a history of literary commentary has been clarified in painstaking work by Philip Smallwood (2011) and others (Peti, 2012). But I am if anything even more enthused by recent scholarly work that has explored Pope's literary afterlives and shown how the ambivalences implicit in his poetry contribute to, or are effaced by, later perceptions of him.…”