ABSTRACT
Greece and Rome had been the model for England not only in their form of government but also in the arts, and John Milton’s lifelong ambition of rivalling their literary achievement was subject, he believed, to the same disadvantages as had already overcome his country. Milton’s constant assimilation of whatever he considered permanent and beautiful in classical and foreign literature links him with Spenser and other poets of the late Elizabethan age rather than with the literary fashions of his own time. Milton observes the unities of time, place and action in Samson not only to conform to the ideal of classical tragedy but also to emphasize the extent to which the hero’s consciousness is the unifying force in the play. Though Aristotle rated tragedy higher than epic, at the time when Milton wrote Paradise Lost it was generally believed that the epic poem was the highest form of literary composition.
