"Knots and Twirls": Conflictual Metaphors in 'Of Reformation'

The article discusses Milton’s politics of religion in his early prose works from the perspective of recent theories of metaphor analysis. Special attention is devoted to his first anti- prelatical tract, 'Of Reformation', Milton’s notoriously flamboyant and rough debut in the pamphlet war of the 1640s. Its rhetorical intensity and abusive language elicited a mixed critical opinion; its arguments, too, have puzzled scholars because they are so intricate as to challenge the reader’s understanding. The article tries to highlight some cognitive, imaginative, and affective implications of the tract’s luxuriant figurative language and their effects on the reader’s hermeneutic answer.