''Colasterion'' (from the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
word for "instrument of punishment" or "house of correction") was published by
John Milton with his ''
Tetrachordon'' on 4 March 1645. The
tract
Tract may refer to:
Geography and real estate
* Housing tract, an area of land that is subdivided into smaller individual lots
* Land lot or tract, a section of land
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...
is a response to an anonymous pamphlet attacking the first edition of ''The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce''. Milton makes no new arguments, but harshly takes to task the "trivial author".
Background
Milton married in Spring 1642, and shortly after, his wife
Marie Powell, left him and returned to live with her mother. The legal statutes of England did not allow for Milton to apply for a
divorce
Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...
and he resorted to promoting the lawfulness of divorce. Although the laws did not change, he wrote four
tracts on the topic of divorce, with ''The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce'' as his first tract. The first tract was created during a time of humiliation, and Milton was motivated towards writing on the topic after reading the work of
Martin Bucer on divorce. Although it is impossible to know why exactly Powell separated from Milton, it is possible that Powell's family, a strong
royalist
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governm ...
family, caused a political difference that was exacerbated by the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
.
During the time of composing the tracts, Milton attempted to pursue another woman known only as Miss Davis, but this resulted in failure. He continued to pursue the topic until his wife returned to him and they were to reconcile. This reconciliation could have come in part from the failure of the royalists, including Powell's family, to prevail during the English Civil War and lacking justification to further distance themselves from Milton. According to George Thomason, an early collector of English Civil War tracts, ''Colasterion'' was published on 4 March 1645 along with ''Tetrachordon''.
Tract
''Colasterion'' is a personal response to the anonymous pamphlet ''An Answer to a Book, Intituled, The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, or, A Pleas for Ladies and Gentlewomen, and all other Married Women against Divorce'' (1644). The work contains many insults against the anonymous author, including "wind-egg", "Serving-man", and "conspicuous gull". In the tract, Milton promotes an idea of separation, and, in his situation, a separation from his previous wife.
[Patterson 2003 pp. 289–290]
Notes
References
* Miller, Leo. ''John Milton among the Polygamophiles''. New York: Loewenthal Press, 1974.
* Milton, John. ''Complete Prose Works of John Milton'' Vol II ed. Don Wolfe. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959.
* Patterson, Annabel. "Milton, Marriage and Divorce" in ''A Companion to Milton''. Ed. Thomas Corns. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2003.
{{Authority control
Works by John Milton
1645 books
Tracts (literature)
Books about divorce