A Return to the Familiar

IMS 13 was the first conference I have attended in person since IMS 12 in Strasbourg four years ago. It was delightful to see the faces of so many dear friends again, even though some were covered by masks. Those who took that precaution were not unwise. Covid is still very much with us, as I discovered to my cost in September when it burst through all six of my vaccinations. In one form or another, the virus will likely be with us for the foreseeable future, even though academic life is finally returning to something like normalcy. For many North American Miltonists, Toronto was the perfect place to reassemble after the pandemic. Both the venue and the wider urban setting were comfortably familiar to anyone who has attended past gatherings of the Canada Milton Seminar, which has met at Victoria College almost every year since 2005. Sadly, the British and European presence at IMS 13 was smaller than in past international Milton symposiums. It is hard to say whether this was due to distance, anxiety about Covid, or both. On the positive side, the number of young scholars in attendance seemed to be larger than in previous symposia. No doubt the cost of traveling overseas prevented many younger North American Miltonists from attending IMS in Britain and France, not to mention Japan. Even in Toronto, travel disruptions necessitated some last-minute rescheduling of plenaries, but the efficient organizing team ensured that everything went smoothly. The plenaries themselves were splendid, covering a wide range of topics, including Lycidas and Stuart maritime policy (Feisal Mohamed), island nation fiction (Lorna Hutson), epic and exodus (David Quint), imperial cartography (Su Fang Ng), and the current rise of Christian nationalism (Achsah Guibbory). My personal favorite (due to the detailed close readings) was Nicholas McDowell's opening talk on “Milton's Virtue Politics.” All six were superbly delivered and excited keen discussion. Like previous IMS gatherings (I have been a regular attendee since 1988), IMS 13 had multiple concurrent panels. There were twelve sessions over five days, each containing five, six, or seven panels. Most panels took the familiar form of three 20-minute papers followed by questions, though there were also a few roundtable discussions. This format presented attendees with a rich menu of options—and the attendant difficulty of choosing between them. The very first session offered five appealing panels: “Shakespearean Tragedy and Paradise Lost”; “Worlds, New Worlds, and Science Fiction”; “From Theology to Philosophy”; “Empire and Slavery in the Late Poems”; “Oppositional Rhetorics in Milton's Prose.” For this session I chose “Shakespearean Tragedy,” and I do not regret it, even though a part of me repines for the panels I had to miss, especially “From Theology to Philosophy” (where James Nohrnberg enticed me with “Satan and Abdiel as Rival Theologians”) and “Worlds, New Worlds and Science Fiction” (where Sim Ong allured me with “Dream not of other worlds”). With topics as appealing as this, it is impossible to dream not of other panels even when one is happy where one is. Most of the panels I attended had a healthy mix of established and younger scholars, and it was gratifying to hear new voices alongside those of senior Miltonists. The papers worked well together in all the panels I attended. In “Shakespearean Tragedy,” to give but one example, Paul Stevens, Gardner Campbell, and Seth Lobis all offered magnificent close readings of Miltonic allusions to Shakespeare. Stevens found traces of Hamlet throughout Milton's poetry and prose, Lobis connected Adam's grief at Abel's murder (“Though not of woman born,” “quelled his best of man”) to Macbeth, while Campbell argued that “Indeed?” the guileful interrogative with which the serpent casts aspersions on God's command, is all the more mocking for carrying “a toxic echo” of Iago's use of the same word to sow doubt in Othello's mind. I found all three arguments entirely convincing. The panels and roundtables offered many other high points. Some of my favorites were “Defamiliarizing the Family in Paradise Lost” (Lynne Greenberg, Ágnes Bató, Eun Kyung Min), “The Theologies of Paradise Regained” (Amber Bird, George Ramos, David Urban), “Human and Divine in Paradise Lost” (Yanxiang Wu, Nicholas George, Caitlin Rankin-McCabe), and “Milton, Matter, Monism” (Cassie Gorman, Stephen Fallon, Deseree Cipollone, Dennis Kezar). Gorman's research on Milton and Henry More reinforces my belief that More exercised a strong influence on Milton's cosmological poetics. Unfortunately, attending these panels meant I had to miss others. Like everyone else, I had to make difficult choices. I have only one negative comment to make about the panels and it does not reflect in any way on the quality of the papers. The acoustics in Victoria College 112 were very poor, even with a microphone. On Tuesday morning I attended the panel on “Milton and Liberty” and (from the back of the room) found all three presenters to be barely audible. I avoided that room thereafter, even though it meant missing some excellent panels (including “Milton: 1644” with Sharon Achinstein, Nicholas von Maltzahn, and Nigel Smith). Perhaps the problem was partly my aging self, but I don't think so. Younger Miltonists told me that they too had difficulty with the acoustics in this room. I do not remember this being a problem in previous years with the Canada Milton Seminar. I hope the technical issues with this room can be fixed by next spring. Unlike previous symposia in Italy, Britain, Japan, and France, IMS 13 did not include a free day with afternoon excursions. Perhaps it was felt that Toronto offers limited options for exciting adventure. But on Wednesday evening the organizers made up for this lack by providing a wonderful concert, Harmonious Milton: An Evening of Voice and Verse at the Church of the Redeemer on Bloor Street. The program opened with selections from G. F. Handel (Samson and L'Allegro and Il Penseroso), then moved to songs by Henry Lawes and John Milton Sr., then two contemporary Torontonian composers, Robert Busiakiewicz and Stephanie Martin, before concluding with Hubert Parry's “Blest Pair of Sirens.” Some compositions were more familiar to me than others, but all were beautiful and flawlessly performed. I was most excited by “When David Heard” and “Fair Orian, in the Morn,” the two songs composed by Milton's father. I had heard of these songs but had never heard them. So far as I am aware, there are no commercial recordings. They are glorious. Hearing them performed sent shivers down my spine. As Lynne Greenberg said to me after the performance, the songs have probably been performed very rarely since Milton heard them. It was a great privilege to hear them in Toronto. The entire concert was recorded and is now available on the IMS 13 website, on this page: https://crrs.ca/ims13/. All Miltonists should listen to this wonderful performance.

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