영국의 고유성에 관한 밀턴의 인식 -밀턴의 제1차 『변호』(Defence)를 중심으로- = Milton`s Concept of Englishness -An Analysis of Milton`s First Defence-

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Research on John Milton`s ideological influence on English intellectual history is an emerging area in historiography of English or British studies with new approach to Englishness or Britishness. In this article, Milton`s concept of Englishness, an unexplored area up-to-date, is thoroughly analyzed based on his A Defence of the English People (1651). Milton wrote his Defence in unique situation; a response to Defensio Regia by Salmasius, one of the most renowned scholars at the time in Europe, was urgently needed and Milton was the right person to do this job for his government position, the Secretary for Foreign Tongues to the Council of State. Milton criticized Salmasius work with his concept of traditional English liberty in his first Defence. He explained why the English Revolution was legitimate and his evidence was from his knowledge of classical works and the Bible. Milton`s method of proof implied that he was saying truths to all human beings regardless of races, nations or time. He, however, did not use the term `Englishness`, even though his concept was same to the meanings of the term currently adopted by many scholars in this field. Milton limited the boundary of a nation with metaphysical concept. A nation had been a domain of the king and, after the revolution, the national boundary was set by the jurisdiction of law, not by the king, which guaranteed liberty of the people. A nation was also a unit to determine the existence of liberty. For example, the English had freedom and the French was unfree. To him, a nation was initially established by people, the people trusted their rights to rule to the king on a condition that he should never become a tyrant, and then they retrieved their rights from the king when Charles I became a tyrant. With the revolution, English liberty was resumed and the boundary to which freedom dominated was understood as England. Milton did not urge that only the English had ability to enjoy freedom. He never mentioned any of racial differences in the Defence. In opposite, all the people in this world had innate ability to acquire freedom, although most of them suffered from serfdom under monarchy. Only difference that the English showed in history was that only the English bravely fought to retrieve their freedom from the tyrant under the wise guidance of a righteous minority in England. This was the distinctive characteristic of the English which we now call Englishness. The English achieved their freedom after the revolution. The other peoples, including miserable French people, could also have lived with their liberty, if they would have bravely resisted to their kings and possessed a group of righteous leaders. If the other nations had the characteristics of Englishness, all human beings would have been free. According to Milton`s concept of Englishness, most of all the people in the world who live under democratic system with liberty now possess the main characteristics of Englishness. Thus all those people are the English in a sense.