9 December 1608 A.D. John Milton
Born—Anglican-Turn-Presbyterian-Turn-Independentist; Author of Paradise
Lost (1667), Paradise Regained (1671),
Samson Agonistes (1671)
John Milton
John Milton was
born in London on December 9, 1608, into a middle-class family. He was educated
at St. Paul’s School, then at Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he began to
write poetry in Latin, Italian, and English, and prepared to enter the clergy.
After university,
however, he abandoned his plans to join the priesthood and spent the next six
years in his father’s country home in Buckinghamshire following a rigorous
course of independent study to prepare for a career as a poet. His extensive
reading included both classical and modern works of religion, science,
philosophy, history, politics, and literature. In addition, Milton was
proficient in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish, and Italian, and obtained
a familiarity with Old English and Dutch as well.
During his period
of private study, Milton composed a number of poems, including "On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity," "On Shakespeare,"
“L’Allegro," “Il Penseroso," and the pastoral elegy "Lycidas.” In May of 1638,
Milton began a 13-month tour of France and Italy, during which he met many
important intellectuals and influential people, including the astronomer
Galileo, who appears in Milton’s tract against censorship, “Areopagitica.”
In 1642, Milton
returned from a trip into the countryside with a 16-year-old bride, Mary
Powell. Even though they were estranged for most of their marriage, she bore
him three daughters and a son before her death in 1652. Milton later married
twice more: Katherine Woodcock in 1656, who died giving birth in 1658, and
Elizabeth Minshull in 1662.
During the English
Civil War, Milton championed the cause of the Puritans and Oliver Cromwell, and
wrote a series of pamphlets advocating radical political topics including the
morality of divorce, the freedom of the press, populism, and sanctioned
regicide. Milton served as secretary for foreign languages in Cromwell’s
government, composing official statements defending the Commonwealth. During
this time, Milton steadily lost his eyesight, and was completely blind by 1651.
He continued his duties, however, with the aid of Andrew Marvell
and other assistants.
After the
Restoration of Charles II to the throne in 1660, Milton was arrested as a
defender of the Commonwealth, fined, and soon released. He lived the rest of
his life in seclusion in the country, completing the blank-verse epic poem Paradise
Lost in 1667, as well as its sequel Paradise Regained and the
tragedy Samson Agonistes both in 1671. Milton oversaw the printing of a
second edition of Paradise Lost in 1674, which included an explanation
of “why the poem rhymes not," clarifying his use of blank verse, along
with introductory notes by Marvell. He died shortly afterwards, on November 8,
1674, in Buckinghamshire, England.
Paradise Lost, which chronicles Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve and their expulsion
from Eden, is widely regarded as his masterpiece and one of the greatest epic poems in world
literature. Since its first publication, the work has continually elicited
debate regarding its theological themes, political commentary, and its
depiction of the fallen angel Satan who is often viewed as the protagonist of
the work.
Selected
Bibliography
Poetry
Lycidas (1638)
Poems (1645)
Paradise Lost (1667)
Paradise Regained (1671)
Samson Agonistes (1671)
Drama
Arcades (1632)
Comus (1634)
Non-Fiction
Of Reformation
Touching Church Discipline in England (1641)
The Reason of Church Government Urged Against Prelaty (1642)
The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643)
Areopagitica (1644)
Of Education (1644)
The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649)
A Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes (1659)
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