Milton (JOHN born on Dec in London)

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

JOHN, born on Dec. 9, 1608, 1608, in London. His father, a distinguished musician, made a of scrivener, and was wise enough to comfortable living from his profession recognize the genius of his son and to give him . Milton was sent to St. Paul's School a most careful education in 1620, where he became acquainted اور JOHN MILTON with the work of Chaucer, Spenser, and other English poets as well as with the of classical antiquity. Both great names of school and home life, therefore, stimulated his instinct for poetry, music, and philosophy, all master passions of his life. In 1625 he entered Christ's College, Cambridge, securing the degree of B. A. in 1629 and of M. A. in 1632. He planned at first to go into the Church, but during the period of five years of quiet study at Horton, his father's rural place, he determined instead to devote himself to literature and learning. In this period he covered the whole field of classical literature, Italian literature, philosophy, and English writers . Meantime he was producing a small but exquisite body of original verse. He had already, as a university student, written a hymn, "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity" (1629), which blended pagan and Christian elements in its perception of the beauty land " ( of the old religious faiths put to flight of the by the coming of Christ and a the theme of " Paradise Lost. " During which has the Horton period he wrote " L'Allegro " autobiographical and "Il Penseroso" (1634) 4) contrasted moods, representing what were partly, tho to him the two sides of a well - propor- the treatise tioned life. Less elaborate than S first work, the " Shepheards Calender, " education these two poems were not less definitely cation " the prologue to a new poetic achievement. spiring This impression was deepened by other Horton work, notably "Comus" (1634), a pastoral masque showing indebtedness to Spenser and subtly promising an end of the court party under the rising tide s" (1637), of Puritanism; and "Lycidas" ostensibly a pastoral dirge in memory of of Spenser a Cambridge acquaintance, but really adaptation prophecy once more of coming change. summarized All these poems are learned in poetic of the tradition, but the learning is concealed Christian by the infinite variety of their melodies, 1645 he by the assured individuality of their edition thought, and by their promise of greater osophical things to come. In 1638 Milton went to Italy. Here face of he met men of letters and learning, Puritan among them probably the aged Galileo. became He wrote little - a few Italian sonnets, few years together with some further examples of his skill in Latin verse (he had written six Latin elegies while a Cambridge student). This series of Latin poems he brought to an end, soon after his return to England, in a pastoral dirge in memory of his friend Diodati ("Epitaphium Damonis), a marvelously beautiful poem significant also for the indications it gives of his plan for writing a great epic, something that the world would "not willingly let die." The Italian journey was cut short by the increasing tension in English affairs. He afterward remarked, "I thought it base to be travelling for amusement abroad, while my fellow citizens were fighting for liberty at home." The remark is deeply signficant of his characwas marked by intense ter, which patriotism and an equally intense love of liberty. In the twenty years next following he wrote no poetry except a few sonnets. His time was divided between his duties as Latin Secretary under Cromwell, which involved not only carrying on the government correspondence with European powers but also the various defenses of the Commonwealth; and a series of prose works in which he set forth his political and ethical philosophy. Of the first of these occupations there is no space here to treat. His more significant prose work was ushered in by "Of Reformation in Eng- 1641), a treatise on government Church, and was followed by anticipated "Reason of Church Government" (1642) additional value because of passages. His first , studies in marriage, in 1643, was unhappy. This though not wholly, accounts for on Divorce ( 1643). He was Spenser's interested in humanist conceptions of , and his tractate " Of Edu- ( 1644) is an eloquent and intreatment of the subject. In the same year appeared his finest prose work, "Areopagitica," a plea for freedom of thought marked by eloquence, high philosophical purpose, and the passion for liberty that is a keynote of his life. In this work he bore witness to the influence upon him, and Spenser's of Plato and Aristotle, here by Milton, supplied much philosophy that is blended with dogma in " Paradise Lost. " In published the first collected of his poems. Literary and philinterests of this kind, however, were carried on with difficulty in the the increasing demands of the party on his time. In 1645 he Latin Secretary and in the next published eleven pamphlets, mainly controversial, and sacrificed his sight to the Puritan cause. The sincerity of his devotion is marked not only by the continuance of this work when it became certain that blindness would result, but also by his publication in 1660, when the cause was lost, of his tract on "A Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth," a book that brought him into peril of his life. The youthful purpose to write a great epic poem he had never abandoned. The prevailing view of most of Milton's biographers that the long period from his return from Italy to the beginning of active work on "Paradise Lost" were wasted and that he gave his best years to work that a less gifted man might have done is in error. "Paradise Lost" would not be the poem that he made it had it not been for his experience with men and affairs, his saturation with an enormous body of thought, and the constant planning and ripening of mind that prepared him to write. A part of the poem was probably written during the Protectorate; with the Restoration he carried forward the great project to such purpose that it was complete by 1663, though not published until 1667. Before the publication he had already begun work on "Paradise Regained," which was published in 1671, when "Samson Agonistes," his last important work, also appeared. The three great poetical works Vol. VI-Cyc-P are closely linked. "Paradise Lost," like Dante's great poem, sums up an epoch. The sacred dramas of the Middle Ages had dealt with the scheme of salvation, the rebellion of Lucifer, the temptation and fall of man, the coming of the Christ who was to make atonement. In the 16th and 17th centuries every country in Europe produced dramas and epics upon the theme. To this theme Milton added a profound philosophy, the fruit of many years of study. He cast his poem on Vergilian lines. He used in it, besides the conventional elements of the story, his knowledge of the classical literature and philosophy; it was colored by his experience with life, his idea of the relation between liberty and discipline, and his interest, characteristic of the time, in the relation of man to nature. His purpose, "to justify the ways of God to Man," is thus seen to be not merely theological; it includes the whole mystery of man's relation to God, to his fellows, and to external nature. The twelve books of which it is composed may thus be studied as the high water mark of Renaissance epic, as a summary of thought and philosophy for centuries, and as the revelation of one of the most powerful personalities the world has produced. The blank verse in which it is written, different from Shakespeare's, but not less flexible, the sublimity of the imagination of an action carried on throughout a universe, the characterization of titanic personages, the descriptions, the similes, the lists of charmed names, the loftiness of the style-all combine to place the poem securely in the small list of the world's immortals, immortals, with Homer and Vergil and Dante, and in the very highest rank of poetry in the English tongue. "Of "Paradise Regained" and "Samson Agonistes" it must suffice to say that though in widely different ways they illustrate the same transcendent power. The first, an epic in four books, completes the theme of "Paradise Lost" by showing how the "Greater Man" is to bring salvation. The second, a tragedy cast in Greek mold, treats the Biblical story in the massive style of Sophocles. After these supreme expressions of his genius Milton did little more. A few revisions, leading to new editions of his minor poems, and a few more prose pieces, notably a "History of Britain," complete the story. He died Nov. 8, 1674, and was buried in St. Giles' Church, Cripplegate.