“To Him Dominion Given, Worthiest to Reign”: Religio-Political Merit, Ireland and the Paradox of Rebellion in Paradise Lost

This paper examines the Milton's apparently paradoxical definition of merit in Paradise Lost in relation to contemporary Anglo-Irish politics. Using Sinfield's theory of faultlines and a dual reading of representations of Ireland in the poem and Milton's Observations Upon the Articles of Peace, this paper reveals the way in which Milton's understanding of all merit, including political merit, is always already religious.