Introduction: Johnson and Milton; Part I. Johnson the Reader/Writer: Appropriating Milton's Texts: 1. Summoning Milton's ghost: Miltonic allusion in the periodical essays; 2. 'No Miltonian fire'? Miltonic allusion in Johnson's poetry; 3. Rasselas: a rewriting of Paradise Lost?; 4. 'Licence they mean when they cry liberty': the 1770s tracts; Part II. Johnson the Critic: Assessing Milton's Achievement: 5. 'Phantoms which cannot be wounded': the Lauder affair; 6. Cutting a colossus: Johnson's criticism of Paradise Lost; 7. Cherry-stones: Johnson on Milton's shorter poems; Part III. Johnson the Biographer: Constructing Milton's Character: 8. 'An acrimonious and surly republican': Milton as political subject; 9. 'Domestick privacies': Milton as private subject; 10. Conclusion: 'what other author ever soared so high?'; Bibliography; Index.