Introduction

Abstract

In 1991, the Milton Society of America named Stanley E. Fish an “Honored Scholar,” and at the conclusion of his acceptance speech, Fish described an encounter with a waitress in a local restaurant. After giving her his credit card:¹

[She] asked, “are you Stanley Fish the Miltonist?” Not, “are you Stanley Fish, the guy who believes that words mean anything you want them to mean?”; not, “Are you Stanley Fish, the person who is destroying Western civilization?”: but, “Are you Stanley Fish the Miltonist?” … I gave with pleasure the answer I give now, “Yes, I am Stanley Fish, the Miltonist.”

“I am Stanley Fish, the Miltonist.”