Milton and the “stage‐work” of Charles I

Abstract

The recently observed three hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Charles I's execution affords an opportunity to revisit the contested site to which this social drama was transferred: the politicized/theatricalized arena of print. In examining the significance of Charles's tragic performance, this article focuses in the role of the king's book in England's political history and in the material culture of the period. Commissioned to champion Parliament's cause, John Milton unsheathes his pen to demystify the king's “Stage‐work” and thereby disenchant the consumers of Eikon Basilike and its numerous incarnations. The battle between political opponents of the time is ultimately a battle both over the control of the press, which now “acts” in the “silence of the Stage,” and over the politics of reading through which the terms of authority are established and challenged