In Divided Empire, Robert T. Fallon examines the influence of John Milton"s political experience on his great poems: Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. This study is a natural sequel to Fallon"s previous book, Milton in Government, which examined Milton"s decade of service as Secretary for Foreign Languages to the English Republic. Milton"s works are crowded with political figures--kings, counselors, senators, soldiers, and envoys--all engaged in a comparable variety of public acts--debate, decree, diplomacy, and warfare--in a manner similar to those who exercised power on the world stage during his time in public office. Traditionally, scholars have cited this imagery for two purposes: first, to support studies of the poet"s political allegiances as reflected in his prose and his life; and, second, to demonstrate that his works are sympathetic to certain ideological positions popular in present times. Fallon argues that Paradise Lost is not a political...