John Milton (1608–1674) Areopagitica; a speech of Mr. John Milton for the liberty of unlicenc’d printing, to the Parlament of
Milton’s divorce tracts succeeded in alienating both the high and the low churches, making Milton himself a controversial figure. His second pamphlet on divorce, The Judgement of Martin Bucer (1644), sparked a government crackdown on unlicensed books, compelling the Stationer’s Company to attempt to suppress Milton’s tracts and others like them. This effort at censorship provoked Milton’s Areopagitica, his landmark defence of free speech. Its Greek title draws an analogy between the Athenian law-court, the Areopagus, and the English parliament. Written in the form of a classical oration, Areopagitica defends an author’s right to publish free of constraints.