© 2004 by Oxford University Press
Complications of Interest: Milton, Scotland, Ireland, and National Identity in 1649
Milton's first commissioned treatise for the commonwealth, Articles of Peace ... Upon all which are added Observations (1649), has attracted relatively little critical comment and fewer kind words. His attack on the Irish has been seen as a blueprint for the violence of Cromwell's reconquest of Ireland. Yet close contextualization in the politics of the archipelago, comparison among other polemics of this period, and juxtaposition with his other writings in 1649, suggest that in Observations Milton's real concerns lie not with the barbaric Irish, but with Scottish influence on English politics. He expresses misgivings about the civility of his own people that bring into question his patriotism, and he articulates anxiety about the stumbling progress of the revolution in government. The undistinguished work, which Milton never acknowledged, offers an insight into his republicanism, nationalism, and pragmatism at a critical moment in his literary career.
* Versions of this article were delivered at conferences and seminars in Aberdeen, Cambridge, Birmingham, and York in 1998–9; I should like to thank participants in these events for their interventions. I am particularly indebted to Sarah Barber, David Loewenstein, David Norbrook, Paul Stevens, and Austin Woolrych for discussions of the subject and comments on this piece. I am not merely iterating a commonplace when I note that they are not responsible for any of my shortcomings.