John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...
and
intellectual
An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or a ...
. His 1667
epic poem
An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants.
...
''
Paradise Lost'', written in
blank verse
Blank verse is poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century", and Pa ...
and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political upheaval. It addressed the
fall of man
The fall of man, the fall of Adam, or simply the Fall, is a term used in Christianity to describe the transition of the first man and woman from a state of innocent obedience to God to a state of guilty disobedience.
*
*
*
* The doctrine of the ...
, including the temptation of
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. ...
by the
fallen angel
In the Abrahamic religions, fallen angels are angels who were expelled from heaven. The literal term "fallen angel" never appears in any Abrahamic religious texts, but is used to describe angels cast out of heaven"Mehdi Azaiez, Gabriel Said ...
Satan and
God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
's expulsion of them from the
Garden of Eden. ''Paradise Lost'' is widely considered one of the greatest works of literature ever written, and it elevated Milton's widely-held reputation as one of history's greatest poets.
He also served as a
civil servant for the
Commonwealth of England
The Commonwealth was the political structure during the period from 1649 to 1660 when England and Wales, later along with Ireland and Scotland, were governed as a republic after the end of the Second English Civil War and the trial and execu ...
under its Council of State and later under
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...
.
Writing in English,
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, and Italian, Milton achieved global fame and recognition during his lifetime; his celebrated ''
Areopagitica
''Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parlament of England'' is a 1644 prose polemic by the English poet, scholar, and polemical author John Milton opposing licensing and censorship. ''Are ...
'' (1644), written in condemnation of
pre-publication censorship, is among history's most influential and impassioned defences of
freedom of speech and
freedom of the press. His desire for freedom extended beyond his philosophy and was reflected in his style, which included his introduction of new words (coined from
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
) to the
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...
. He was the first modern writer to employ unrhymed verse outside of the theatre or translations.
Milton is described as the "greatest English author" by biographer
William Hayley
William Hayley (9 November 174512 November 1820) was an English writer, best known as the biographer of his friend William Cowper.
Biography
Born at Chichester, he was sent to Eton in 1757, and to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in 1762; his conne ...
, and he remains generally regarded "as one of the preeminent writers in the English language", though critical reception has oscillated in the centuries since his death often on account of his
republicanism
Republicanism is a political ideology centered on citizenship in a state organized as a republic. Historically, it emphasises the idea of self-rule and ranges from the rule of a representative minority or oligarchy to popular sovereignty. It ...
.
Samuel Johnson praised ''Paradise Lost'' as "a poem which...with respect to design may claim the first place, and with respect to performance, the second, among the productions of the human mind", though he (a
Tory
A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...
) described Milton's politics as those of an "acrimonious and surly republican".
Milton was revered by poets such as
William Blake
William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...
,
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication '' Lyrical Ballads'' (1798).
Wordsworth's ' ...
, and
Thomas Hardy.
Phases of Milton's life parallel the major historical and political divisions in
Stuart Britain
The Stuart period of British history lasted from 1603 to 1714 during the dynasty of the House of Stuart. The period ended with the death of Queen Anne and the accession of King George I from the German House of Hanover.
The period was plagu ...
at the time. In his early years, Milton studied at
Christ's College at the
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...
, one of the world's most prestigious universities, and then travelled, wrote poetry mostly for private circulation, and launched a career as
pamphleteer
Pamphleteer is a historical term for someone who creates or distributes pamphlets, unbound (and therefore inexpensive) booklets intended for wide circulation.
Context
Pamphlets were used to broadcast the writer's opinions: to articulate a poli ...
and
publicist
A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a company, a brand, or public figure – especially a celebrity – or for a work such as a book, film, or album. Publicists are public relations specialists who ...
under
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
's increasingly autocratic rule and Britain's breakdown into constitutional confusion and ultimately civil war. While once considered dangerously radical and heretical, Milton contributed to a seismic shift in accepted public opinions during his life that ultimately elevated him to public office in England. The
Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
of 1660 and his loss of vision later deprived Milton much of his public platform, but he used the period to develop many of his major works.
Milton's views developed from extensive reading, travel, and experience that began with his days as a student at Cambridge in the 1620s and continued through the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
, which started in 1642 and continued through 1651. By the time of his death in 1674, Milton was impoverished and on the margins of English intellectual life but famous throughout Europe and unrepentant for political choices that placed him at odds with governing authorities.
Early life and education
![John Milton portrait](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/John_Milton_portrait.jpg)
John Milton was born in
Bread Street
Bread Street is one of the 25 wards of the City of London the name deriving from its principal street, which was anciently the City's bread market; already named ''Bredstrate'' (to at least 1180) for by the records it appears as that in 1302, E ...
, London, on 9 December 1608, the son of composer
John Milton and his wife Sarah Jeffrey. The senior John Milton (1562–1647) moved to London around 1583 after being disinherited by his devout
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
father Richard "the Ranger" Milton for embracing
Protestantism
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
.
In London, the senior John Milton married Sarah Jeffrey (1572–1637) and found lasting financial success as a
scrivener
A scrivener (or scribe) was a person who could read and write or who wrote letters to court and legal documents. Scriveners were people who made their living by writing or copying written material. This usually indicated secretarial and ad ...
.
He lived in and worked from a house on Bread Street, where the
Mermaid Tavern
The Mermaid Tavern was a tavern on Cheapside in London during the Elizabethan era, located east of St. Paul's Cathedral on the corner of Friday Street and Bread Street. It was the site of the so-called "Fraternity of Sireniacal Gentlemen", a dr ...
was located in
Cheapside
Cheapside is a street in the City of London, the historic and modern financial centre of London, which forms part of the A40 London to Fishguard road. It links St. Martin's Le Grand with Poultry. Near its eastern end at Bank junction, where ...
. The elder Milton was noted for his skill as a musical composer, and this talent left his son with a lifelong appreciation for music and friendships with musicians such as
Henry Lawes
Henry Lawes (1596 – 1662) was the leading English songwriter of the mid-17th century. He was elder brother of fellow composer William Lawes.
Life
Henry Lawes (baptised 5 January 1596 – 21 October 1662),Ian Spink, "Lawes, Henry," ''Grove Musi ...
.
The prosperity of Milton's father allowed his eldest son to obtain a private tutor,
Thomas Young, a Scottish Presbyterian with a
MA from the
University of St. Andrews
(Aien aristeuein)
, motto_lang = grc
, mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best
, established =
, type = Public research university
Ancient university
, endowment ...
. Young's influence also served as the poet's introduction to religious radicalism. After Young's tutorship, Milton attended
St Paul's School in London, where he began the study of Latin and Greek; the classical languages left an imprint on both his poetry and prose in English (he also wrote in Latin and Italian).
Milton's first datable compositions are two psalms written at age 15 at
Long Bennington
Long Bennington is a linear village and civil parish in South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, just off the A1 road, north of Grantham and south of Newark-on-Trent. It had a population of 2,100 in 2014 and 2,018 at the 2011 Census.
...
. One contemporary source is ''
Brief Lives
''Brief Lives'' is a collection of short biographies written by John Aubrey (1626–1697) in the last decades of the 17th century.
Writing
Aubrey initially began collecting biographical material to assist the Oxford scholar Anthony Wood, who ...
'' of
John Aubrey
John Aubrey (12 March 1626 – 7 June 1697) was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He is perhaps best known as the author of the '' Brief Lives'', his collection of short biographical pieces. He was a pioneer archaeologist ...
, an uneven compilation including first-hand reports. In the work, Aubrey quotes Christopher, Milton's younger brother: "When he was young, he studied very hard and sat up very late, commonly till twelve or one o'clock at night". Aubrey adds, "His complexion exceeding faire—he was so faire that they called him the Lady of Christ's College."
[Dick 1962 pp. 270–275.]
In 1625, Milton gained entry to
Christ's College at the
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...
, where he graduated with a
BA in 1629, ranking fourth of 24 honours graduates that year in the University of Cambridge. Then preparing to become an
Anglican priest, Milton then pursued his
Master of Arts degree
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
at Cambridge, which he received on 3 July 1632.
Milton may have been
rusticated (suspended) in his first year at Cambridge for quarrelling with his tutor, Bishop
William Chappell. He was certainly at home in London in the Lent Term 1626; there he wrote ''Elegia Prima'', his first Latin
elegy
An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead. However, according to ''The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy'', "for all of its pervasiveness ... the 'elegy' remains remarkably ill defined: sometime ...
, to Charles Diodati, a friend from St Paul's. Based on remarks of
John Aubrey
John Aubrey (12 March 1626 – 7 June 1697) was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He is perhaps best known as the author of the '' Brief Lives'', his collection of short biographical pieces. He was a pioneer archaeologist ...
, Chappell "whipt" Milton.
[ This story is now disputed, though certainly Milton disliked Chappell. Historian Christopher Hill notes that Milton was apparently rusticated, and that the differences between Chappell and Milton may have been either religious or personal. It is also possible that, like ]Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a " natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...
four decades later, Milton was sent home from Cambridge because of the plague
Plague or The Plague may refer to:
Agriculture, fauna, and medicine
*Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis''
* An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural)
* A pandemic caused by such a disease
* A swarm of pe ...
, which impacted Cambridge significantly in 1625.
At Cambridge, Milton was on good terms with Edward King; he later dedicated "Lycidas
"Lycidas" () is a poem by John Milton, written in 1637 as a pastoral elegy. It first appeared in a 1638 collection of elegies, ''Justa Edouardo King Naufrago'', dedicated to the memory of Edward King, a friend of Milton at Cambridge who dro ...
" to him. Milton also befriended Anglo-American dissident and theologian Roger Williams. Milton tutored Williams in Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
in exchange for lessons in Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
. Despite developing a reputation for poetic skill and general erudition, Milton suffered from alienation among his peers during his time at Cambridge. Having once watched his fellow students attempting comedy upon the college stage, he later observed, "they thought themselves gallant men, and I thought them fools".
Milton also was disdainful of the university curriculum, which consisted of stilted formal debates conducted in Latin on abstruse topics. His own corpus is not devoid of humour, notably his sixth prolusion and his epitaphs on the death of Thomas Hobson Thomas Hobson may refer to
* Thomas Hobson (postal carrier) (c. 1544–1631), English postal carrier
* Thomas Hobson (actor) (born 1982), American actor
* Thomas Hobson (cricketer) (born 1994), South African cricketer
{{hndis, name=Hobson, ...
. While at Cambridge, he wrote a number of his well-known shorter English poems, including "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity", "Epitaph on the admirable Dramaticke Poet, W. Shakespeare" (his first poem to appear in print), ''L'Allegro
''L'Allegro'' is a pastoral poem by John Milton published in his 1645 ''Poems''. ''L'Allegro'' (which means "the happy man" in Italian) has from its first appearance been paired with the contrasting pastoral poem, '' Il Penseroso'' ("the me ...
'', and ''Il Penseroso
''Il Penseroso'' ("the thinker") is a poem by John Milton, first found in the 1645/1646 quarto of verses ''The Poems of Mr. John Milton, both English and Latin'', published by Humphrey Moseley. It was presented as a companion piece to ''L'Al ...
''.
Study, poetry, and travel
Upon receiving his M.A. in 1632, Milton retired to Hammersmith, his father's new home since the previous year. He also lived at Horton Horton may refer to:
Places Antarctica
* Horton Glacier, Adelaide Island, Antarctica
* Horton Ledge, Queen Elizabeth Land, Antarctica
Australia
* Horton, Queensland, a town and locality in the Bundaberg Region
* Horton River (Australia), ...
, Berkshire, from 1635 and undertook six years of self-directed private study. Hill argues that this was not retreat into a rural idyll; Hammersmith was then a "suburban village" falling into the orbit of London, and even Horton was becoming deforested and suffered from the plague. He read both ancient and modern works of theology, philosophy, history, politics, literature, and science in preparation for a prospective poetical career. Milton's intellectual development can be charted via entries in his commonplace book
Commonplace books (or commonplaces) are a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into books. They have been kept from antiquity, and were kept particularly during the Renaissance and in the nineteenth century. Such books are simi ...
(like a scrapbook), now in the British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
. As a result of such intensive study, Milton is considered to be among the most learned of all English poets. In addition to his years of private study, Milton had command of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish, and Italian from his school and undergraduate days; he also added Old English to his linguistic repertoire in the 1650s while researching his ''History of Britain'', and probably acquired proficiency in Dutch soon after.
Milton continued to write poetry during this period of study; his '' Arcades'' and ''Comus
In Greek mythology, Comus (; grc, Κῶμος, ''Kōmos'') is the god of festivity, revels and nocturnal dalliances. He is a son and a cup-bearer of the god Dionysus. He was represented as a winged youth or a child-like satyr and represents ana ...
'' were both commissioned for masques
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A masq ...
composed for noble patrons, connections of the Egerton family, and performed in 1632 and 1634 respectively. ''Comus'' argues for the virtuousness of temperance
Temperance may refer to:
Moderation
*Temperance movement, movement to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed
*Temperance (virtue), habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion
Culture
*Temperance (group), Canadian danc ...
and chastity
Chastity, also known as purity, is a virtue related to temperance. Someone who is ''chaste'' refrains either from sexual activity considered immoral or any sexual activity, according to their state of life. In some contexts, for example when ma ...
. He contributed his pastoral elegy
An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead. However, according to ''The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy'', "for all of its pervasiveness ... the 'elegy' remains remarkably ill defined: sometime ...
''Lycidas
"Lycidas" () is a poem by John Milton, written in 1637 as a pastoral elegy. It first appeared in a 1638 collection of elegies, ''Justa Edouardo King Naufrago'', dedicated to the memory of Edward King, a friend of Milton at Cambridge who dro ...
'' to a memorial collection for one of his fellow-students at Cambridge. Drafts of these poems are preserved in Milton's poetry notebook, known as the Trinity Manuscript because it is now kept at Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
, Cambridge.
In May 1638, accompanied by a manservant, Milton embarked upon a tour of France and Italy for 15 months that lasted until July or August 1639. His travels supplemented his study with new and direct experience of artistic and religious traditions, especially Roman Catholicism. He met famous theorists and intellectuals of the time, and was able to display his poetic skills. For specific details of what happened within Milton's "grand tour
The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tut ...
", there appears to be just one primary source
In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was created at the time under ...
: Milton's own ''Defensio Secunda
''Defension Secunda'' was a 1654 political tract by John Milton, a sequel to his '' Defensio pro Populo Anglicano''. It is a defence of the Parliamentary regime, by then controlled by Oliver Cromwell; and also defense of his own reputation agains ...
''. There are other records, including some letters and some references in his other prose tracts, but the bulk of the information about the tour comes from a work that, according to Barbara Lewalski
Barbara Josephine Lewalski (; February 22, 1931 – March 2, 2018)Roberts, Sam (March 29, 2018).. ''The New York Times''. nytimes.com. Retrieved 2018-03-30.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewalski, Barbara Kiefer
1931 births
2018 deaths
American academics o ...
, "was not intended as autobiography but as rhetoric, designed to emphasise his sterling reputation with the learned of Europe."
He first went to Calais and then on to Paris, riding horseback, with a letter from diplomat Henry Wotton
Sir Henry Wotton (; 30 March 1568 – December 1639) was an English author, diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1614 and 1625. When on a mission to Augsburg, in 1604, he famously said, "An ambassador is an honest gentlema ...
to ambassador John Scudamore. Through Scudamore, Milton met Hugo Grotius, a Dutch law philosopher, playwright, and poet. Milton left France soon after this meeting. He travelled south from Nice
Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...
to Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...
, and then to Livorno and Pisa. He reached Florence in July 1638. While there, Milton enjoyed many of the sites and structures of the city. His candour of manner and erudite neo-Latin poetry earned him friends in Florentine intellectual circles, and he met the astronomer Galileo who was under house arrest at Arcetri
Arcetri is a location in Florence, Italy, positioned among the hills south of the city centre.
__TOC__
Landmarks
A number of historic buildings are situated there, including the house of the famous scientist Galileo Galilei (called '' Villa Il Gi ...
, as well as others. Milton probably visited the Florentine Academy and the Accademia della Crusca along with smaller academies in the area, including the Apatisti and the Svogliati.
He left Florence in September to continue to Rome. With the connections from Florence, Milton was able to have easy access to Rome's intellectual society. His poetic abilities impressed those like Giovanni Salzilli, who praised Milton within an epigram. In late October, Milton attended a dinner given by the English College, Rome
The Venerable English College (), commonly referred to as the English College, is a Catholic seminary in Rome, Italy, for the training of priests for England and Wales. It was founded in 1579 by William Allen on the model of the English Colleg ...
, despite his dislike for the Society of Jesus
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
, meeting English Catholics who were also guests—theologian Henry Holden and the poet Patrick Cary Patrick may refer to:
* Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name
* Patrick (surname), list of people with this name
People
* Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint
*Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...
. He also attended musical events, including oratorios, operas, and melodramas. Milton left for Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
toward the end of November, where he stayed only for a month because of the Spanish control. During that time, he was introduced to Giovanni Battista Manso
Giovanni Battista Manso (1570- 28 December 1645) was an Italian aristocrat, scholar, and patron of the arts and artists.
Biography
Giambattista Manso was a wealthy nobleman and a prominent patron of the arts and letters in Naples during the late ...
, patron to both Torquato Tasso
Torquato Tasso ( , also , ; 11 March 154425 April 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem ''Gerusalemme liberata'' ( Jerusalem Delivered), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between ...
and to Giambattista Marino
Giovanni Battista was a common Italian given name (see Battista for those with the surname) in the 16th-18th centuries. It refers to "John the Baptist" in English, the French equivalent is "Jean-Baptiste". Common nicknames include Giambattista, Gi ...
.
Originally, Milton wanted to leave Naples in order to travel to Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
and then on to Greece, but he returned to England during the summer of 1639 because of what he claimed in ''Defensio Secunda'' were "sad tidings of civil war in England." Matters became more complicated when Milton received word that his childhood friend Diodati had died. Milton in fact stayed another seven months on the continent, and spent time at Geneva
, neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier
, website = https://www.geneve.ch/
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...
with Diodati's uncle after he returned to Rome. In ''Defensio Secunda'', Milton proclaimed that he was warned against a return to Rome because of his frankness about religion, but he stayed in the city for two months and was able to experience Carnival and meet Lukas Holste, a Vatican librarian who guided Milton through its collection. He was introduced to Cardinal Francesco Barberini who invited Milton to an opera hosted by the Cardinal. Around March, Milton travelled once again to Florence, staying there for two months, attending further meetings of the academies, and spending time with friends. After leaving Florence, he travelled through Lucca, Bologna, and Ferrara before coming to Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
. In Venice, Milton was exposed to a model of Republicanism, later important in his political writings, but he soon found another model when he travelled to Geneva. From Switzerland, Milton travelled to Paris and then to Calais before finally arriving back in England in either July or August 1639.
Civil war, prose tracts, and marriage
On returning to England where the Bishops' Wars presaged further armed conflict, Milton began to write prose tracts against episcopacy
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
, in the service of the Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...
and Parliamentary
A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...
cause. Milton's first foray into polemics was ''Of Reformation touching Church Discipline in England'' (1641), followed by ''Of Prelatical Episcopacy'', the two defences of Smectymnuus
Smectymnuus was the ''nom de plume'' of a group of Puritan clergymen active in England in 1641. It comprised four leading English churchmen, and one Scottish minister ( Thomas Young). They went on to provide leadership for the anti-episcopal forces ...
(a group of Presbyterian divines named from their initials; the "TY" belonged to Milton's old tutor Thomas Young), and '' The Reason of Church-Government Urged against Prelaty''. He vigorously attacked the High-church party of the Church of England and their leader William Laud
William Laud (; 7 October 1573 – 10 January 1645) was a bishop in the Church of England. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Charles I in 1633, Laud was a key advocate of Charles I's religious reforms, he was arrested by Parliament in 1640 ...
, Archbishop of Canterbury, with frequent passages of real eloquence lighting up the rough controversial style of the period, and deploying a wide knowledge of church history.
He was supported by his father's investments, but Milton became a private schoolmaster at this time, educating his nephews and other children of the well-to-do. This experience and discussions with educational reformer Samuel Hartlib
Samuel Hartlib or Hartlieb (c. 1600 – 10 March 1662)
M. Greengrass, "Hartlib, Samuel (c. 1600–1662)", ''Oxford D ...
led him to write his short tract ''Of Education
The tractate ''Of Education'' was published in 1644, first appearing anonymously as a single eight-page quarto sheet (Ainsworth 6). Presented as a letter written in response to a request from the Puritan educational reformer Samuel Hartlib, it r ...
'' in 1644, urging a reform of the national universities.
In June 1642, Milton paid a visit to the manor house at Forest Hill, Oxfordshire
Forest Hill is a village in Forest Hill with Shotover civil parish in Oxfordshire, about east of Oxford. The village which is about above sea level is on the northeastern brow of a ridge of hills. The highest point of the ridge is Red Hill, ...
, and, aged 34, married the 17-year-old Mary Powell. The marriage got off to a poor start as Mary did not adapt to Milton's austere lifestyle or get along with his nephews. Milton found her intellectually unsatisfying and disliked the royalist views she had absorbed from her family. It is also speculated that she refused to consummate the marriage. Mary soon returned home to her parents and did not come back until 1645, partly because of the outbreak of the Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
.
In the meantime, her desertion prompted Milton to publish a series of pamphlets over the next three years arguing for the legality and morality of divorce beyond grounds of adultery. ( Anna Beer, one of Milton's most recent biographers , points to a lack of evidence and the dangers of cynicism in urging that it was not necessarily the case that the private life so animated the public polemicising.) In 1643, Milton had a brush with the authorities over these writings, in parallel with Hezekiah Woodward, who had more trouble. It was the hostile response accorded the divorce tracts that spurred Milton to write '' Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parlament of England'', his celebrated attack on pre-printing censorship. In ''Areopagitica'', Milton aligns himself with the parliamentary cause, and he also begins to synthesize the ideal of neo-Roman liberty with that of Christian liberty. Milton also courted another woman during this time; we know nothing of her except that her name was Davis and she turned him down. However, it was enough to induce Mary Powell into returning to him which she did unexpectedly by begging him to take her back. She bore him two daughters in quick succession following their reconciliation.
Secretary for Foreign Tongues
With the Parliamentary victory in the Civil War, Milton used his pen in defence of the republican principles represented by the Commonwealth. ''The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates
''The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates'' is a book by John Milton, in which he defends the right of people to execute a guilty sovereign, whether tyrannical or not.
In the text, Milton conjectures about the formation of commonwealths. He comes u ...
'' (1649) defended the right of the people to hold their rulers to account, and implicitly sanctioned the regicide
Regicide is the purposeful killing of a monarch or sovereign of a polity and is often associated with the usurpation of power. A regicide can also be the person responsible for the killing. The word comes from the Latin roots of ''regis'' ...
; Milton's political reputation got him appointed Secretary for Foreign Tongues by the Council of State in March 1649. His main job description was to compose the English Republic's foreign correspondence in Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and other languages, but he also was called upon to produce propaganda for the regime and to serve as a censor.
In October 1649, he published ''Eikonoklastes
''Eikonoklastes'' (from the Greek εἰκονοκλάστης, " iconoclast") is a book by John Milton, published October 1649. In it he provides a justification for the execution of Charles I, which had taken place on 30 January 1649. The book' ...
'', an explicit defence of the regicide, in response to the ''Eikon Basilike
The ''Eikon Basilike'' (Greek: Εἰκὼν Βασιλική, the "Royal Portrait"), ''The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in His Solitudes and Sufferings'', is a purported spiritual autobiography attributed to King Charles I of England. ...
'', a phenomenal best-seller popularly attributed to Charles I that portrayed the King as an innocent Christian martyr
A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...
. A month later the exiled Charles II and his party published the defence of monarchy ''Defensio Regia pro Carolo Primo'', written by leading humanist Claudius Salmasius
Claude Saumaise (15 April 1588 – 3 September 1653), also known by the Latin name Claudius Salmasius, was a French classical scholar.
Life
Salmasius was born at Semur-en-Auxois in Burgundy. His father, a counsellor of the parlement of Dijon, se ...
. By January of the following year, Milton was ordered to write a defence of the English people by the Council of State
A Council of State is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head o ...
. Milton worked more slowly than usual, given the European audience and the English Republic's desire to establish diplomatic and cultural legitimacy, as he drew on the learning marshalled by his years of study to compose a riposte.
On 24 February 1652, Milton published his Latin defence of the English people ''Defensio pro Populo Anglicano
''Defensio pro Populo Anglicano'' is a Latin polemic by John Milton, published in 1651. The full title in English is ''John Milton an Englishman His Defence of the People of England.'' It was a piece of propaganda, and made political argument i ...
'', also known as the ''First Defence''. Milton's pure Latin prose and evident learning exemplified in the ''First Defence'' quickly made him a European reputation, and the work ran to numerous editions. He addressed his ''Sonnet 16'' to 'The Lord Generall Cromwell in May 1652' beginning "Cromwell, our chief of men...", although it was not published until 1654.
In 1654, Milton completed the second defence of the English nation ''Defensio secunda'' in response to an anonymous Royalist tract ''"Regii Sanguinis Clamor ad Coelum Adversus Parricidas Anglicanos"'' he Cry of the Royal Blood to Heaven Against the English Parricides a work that made many personal attacks on Milton. The second defence praised Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...
, now Lord Protector, while exhorting him to remain true to the principles of the Revolution. Alexander Morus
Alexander Morus (or Moir or More) (25 September 1616, Castres – 28 September 1670, Paris) was a Franco-Scottish Protestant preacher.
Biography
More's father, born in Scotland, was a rector at a Huguenot college in the town of Castres in Langue ...
, to whom Milton wrongly attributed the ''Clamor'' (in fact by Peter du Moulin
Peter du Moulin (1601–1684) was a French-English Anglican clergyman, son of the Huguenot pastor Pierre du Moulin and brother of Lewis du Moulin. He was the anonymous author of ''Regii sanguinis clamor ad coelum adversus paricidas Anglicanos'', ...
), published an attack on Milton, in response to which Milton published the autobiographical ''Defensio pro se'' in 1655. Milton held the appointment of Secretary for Foreign Tongues to the Commonwealth Council of State until 1660, although after he had become totally blind, most of the work was done by his deputies, Georg Rudolph Wecklein, then Philip Meadows, and from 1657 by the poet Andrew Marvell
Andrew Marvell (; 31 March 1621 – 16 August 1678) was an English metaphysical poet, satirist and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1659 and 1678. During the Commonwealth period he was a colleague and friend ...
.
By 1652, Milton had become totally blind; the cause of his blindness is debated but bilateral retinal detachment or glaucoma
Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that result in damage to the optic nerve (or retina) and cause vision loss. The most common type is open-angle (wide angle, chronic simple) glaucoma, in which the drainage angle for fluid within the eye rem ...
are most likely. His blindness forced him to dictate his verse and prose to amanuenses who copied them out for him; one of these was Andrew Marvell. One of his best-known sonnets, ''When I Consider How My Light is Spent
"When I Consider How My Light is Spent" (Also known as "On His Blindness") is one of the best known of the sonnets of John Milton (1608–1674). The last three lines are particularly well known; they conclude with "They also serve who only stand a ...
'', titled by a later editor, John Newton
John Newton (; – 21 December 1807) was an English evangelical Anglican cleric and slavery abolitionist. He had previously been a captain of slave ships and an investor in the slave trade. He served as a sailor in the Royal Navy (after forc ...
, "''On His Blindness''", is presumed to date from this period.
The Restoration
Cromwell's death in 1658 caused the English Republic to collapse into feuding military and political factions. Milton, however, stubbornly clung to the beliefs that had originally inspired him to write for the Commonwealth. In 1659, he published '' A Treatise of Civil Power'', attacking the concept of a state-dominated church (the position known as Erastianism
Thomas Erastus (original surname Lüber, Lieber, or Liebler; 7 September 152431 December 1583) was a Swiss physician and Calvinist theologian. He wrote 100 theses (later reduced to 75) in which he argued that the sins committed by Christians shou ...
), as well as ''Considerations touching the likeliest means to remove hirelings'', denouncing corrupt practises in church governance. As the Republic disintegrated, Milton wrote several proposals to retain a non-monarchical government against the wishes of parliament, soldiers, and the people.
* ''A Letter to a Friend, Concerning the Ruptures of the Commonwealth'', written in October 1659, was a response to General Lambert's recent dissolution of the Rump Parliament
The Rump Parliament was the English Parliament after Colonel Thomas Pride commanded soldiers to purge the Long Parliament, on 6 December 1648, of those members hostile to the Grandees' intention to try King Charles I for high treason.
"Rump" ...
.
* ''Proposals of certain expedients for the preventing of a civil war now feared'', written in November 1659.
* '' The Ready and Easy Way to Establishing a Free Commonwealth'', in two editions, responded to General Monck
George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle JP KG PC (6 December 1608 – 3 January 1670) was an English soldier, who fought on both sides during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A prominent military figure under the Commonwealth, his support was cruc ...
's march towards London to restore the Long Parliament
The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...
(which led to the restoration of the monarchy). The work is an impassioned, bitter, and futile jeremiad
A jeremiad is a long literary work, usually in prose, but sometimes in verse, in which the author bitterly laments the state of society and its morals in a serious tone of sustained invective, and always contains a prophecy of society's imminen ...
damning the English people for backsliding from the cause of liberty
Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom.
In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...
and advocating the establishment of an authoritarian rule by an oligarchy
Oligarchy (; ) is a conceptual form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people. These people may or may not be distinguished by one or several characteristics, such as nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate, r ...
set up by unelected parliament.
Upon the Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
in May 1660, Milton, fearing for his life, went into hiding, while a warrant was issued for his arrest and his writings were burnt. He re-emerged after a general pardon was issued, but was nevertheless arrested and briefly imprisoned before influential friends intervened, such as Marvell, now an MP. Milton married for a third and final time on 24 February 1663, marrying Elizabeth (Betty) Minshull, aged 24, a native of Wistaston
Wistaston is a civil parish and village in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, in North West England. It is approximately west of Crewe town centre and east of Nantwich town centre. It has a ...
, Cheshire. He spent the remaining decade of his life living quietly in London, only retiring to a cottage during the Great Plague of London
The Great Plague of London, lasting from 1665 to 1666, was the last major epidemic of the bubonic plague to occur in England. It happened within the centuries-long Second Pandemic, a period of intermittent bubonic plague epidemics that origi ...
— Milton's Cottage in Chalfont St. Giles, his only extant home.
During this period, Milton published several minor prose works, such as the grammar textbook ''Art of Logic'' and a ''History of Britain''. His only explicitly political tracts were the 1672 ''Of True Religion'', arguing for toleration
Toleration is the allowing, permitting, or acceptance of an action, idea, object, or person which one dislikes or disagrees with. Political scientist Andrew R. Murphy explains that "We can improve our understanding by defining "toleration" as ...
(except for Catholics), and a translation of a Polish tract advocating an elective monarchy. Both these works were referred to in the Exclusion
Exclusion may refer to:
Legal or regulatory
* Exclusion zone, a geographic area in which some sanctioning authority prohibits specific activities
* Exclusion Crisis and Exclusion Bill, a 17th-century attempt to ensure a Protestant succession in En ...
debate, the attempt to exclude the heir presumptive from the throne of England— James, Duke of York—because he was Roman Catholic. That debate preoccupied politics in the 1670s and 1680s and precipitated the formation of the Whig party and the Glorious Revolution.
Death
Milton died on 8 November 1674 and was buried in the church of St Giles-without-Cripplegate
St Giles-without-Cripplegate is an Anglican church in the City of London, located on Fore Street within the modern Barbican complex. When built it stood without (that is, outside) the city wall, near the Cripplegate. The church is dedicated to S ...
, Fore Street
"Fore Street" is a name often used for the main street of a town or village in Great Britain. Usage is prevalent in the south-west of England, with over seventy "Fore Streets" in Cornwall and about seventy-five in Devon, but it does also occur ...
, London.[Walter Thornbury, 'Cripplegate', in Old and New London: Volume 2 (London, 1878), pp. 229-245. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol2/pp229-245 ccessed 7 July 2020] However, sources differ as to whether the cause of death was consumption
Consumption may refer to:
*Resource consumption
*Tuberculosis, an infectious disease, historically
* Consumption (ecology), receipt of energy by consuming other organisms
* Consumption (economics), the purchasing of newly produced goods for curren ...
or gout
Gout ( ) is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by recurrent attacks of a red, tender, hot and swollen joint, caused by deposition of monosodium urate monohydrate crystals. Pain typically comes on rapidly, reaching maximal intens ...
. According to an early biographer, his funeral was attended by "his learned and great Friends in London, not without a friendly concourse of the Vulgar." A monument was added in 1793, sculpted by John Bacon the Elder.
Family
Milton and his first wife Mary Powell (1625–1652) had four children:
* Anne (born 29 July 1646)
* Mary (born 25 October 1648)
* John (16 March 1651 – June 1652)
* Deborah (2 May 1652 – 10 August 1727)
Mary Powell died on 5 May 1652 from complications following Deborah's birth. Milton's daughters survived to adulthood, but he always had a strained relationship with them.
On 12 November 1656, Milton was married to Katherine Woodcock at St Margaret's, Westminster
The Church of St Margaret, Westminster Abbey, is in the grounds of Westminster Abbey on Parliament Square, London, England. It is dedicated to Margaret of Antioch, and forms part of a single World Heritage Site with the Palace of Westminster ...
. She died on 3 February 1658, less than four months after giving birth to her daughter Katherine, who also died.
Milton married for a third time on 24 February 1663 to Elizabeth Mynshull or Minshull (1638–1728), the niece of Thomas Mynshull, a wealthy apothecary and philanthropist in Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
. The marriage took place at St Mary Aldermary
The Guild Church of St Mary Aldermary a contraction of St Mary Aldermanbury (or St Mary Elder Mary) is an Anglican church located in Watling Street at the junction with Bow Lane, in the City of London. Of medieval origin, it was rebuilt from 15 ...
in the City of London. Despite a 31-year age gap, the marriage seemed happy, according to John Aubrey
John Aubrey (12 March 1626 – 7 June 1697) was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He is perhaps best known as the author of the '' Brief Lives'', his collection of short biographical pieces. He was a pioneer archaeologist ...
, and lasted more than 12 years until Milton's death. (A plaque on the wall of Mynshull's House in Manchester describes Elizabeth as Milton's "3rd and Best wife".) Samuel Johnson, however, claims that Mynshull was "a domestic companion and attendant" and that Milton's nephew Edward Phillips
Edward Phillips (August 1630 – c. 1696) was an English author.
Life
He was the son of Edward Phillips of the crown office in chancery, and his wife Anne, only sister of John Milton, the poet. Edward Phillips the younger was born in Strand, L ...
relates that Mynshull "oppressed his children in his lifetime, and cheated them at his death".
His nephews, Edward and John Phillips (sons of Milton's sister Anne), were educated by Milton and became writers themselves. John acted as a secretary, and Edward was Milton's first biographer.
Poetry
Milton's poetry was slow to see the light of day, at least under his name. His first published poem was "On Shakespeare" (1630), anonymously included in the Second Folio
The Second Folio is the 1632 edition of the collected plays of William Shakespeare. It follows the First Folio of 1623. Much language was updated in the Second Folio and there are almost 1,700 changes.
The major partners in the First Folio had ...
edition of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's plays in 1632. An annotated copy of the First Folio
''Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies'' is a collection of plays by William Shakespeare, commonly referred to by modern scholars as the First Folio, published in 1623, about seven years after Shakespeare's death. It is cons ...
has been suggested to contain marginal notes by Milton. Milton collected his work in ''1645 Poems
Events
January–March
* January 3 – The Long Parliament adopts the '' Directory for Public Worship'' in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, replacing the Book of Common Prayer (1559). Holy Days (other than Sundays) are not ...
'' in the midst of the excitement attending the possibility of establishing a new English government. The anonymous edition of ''Comus'' was published in 1637, and the publication of ''Lycidas'' in 1638 in ''Justa Edouardo King Naufrago'' was signed J. M. Otherwise. The 1645 collection was the only poetry of his to see print until '' Paradise Lost'' appeared in 1667.
''Paradise Lost''
Milton's ''magnum opus
A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...
'', the blank-verse
Blank verse is poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century", and P ...
epic poem
An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants.
...
'' Paradise Lost'', was composed by the blind and impoverished Milton from 1658 to 1664 (first edition), with small but significant revisions published in 1674 (second edition). As a blind poet, Milton dictated his verse to a series of aides in his employ. It has been argued that the poem reflects his personal despair at the failure of the Revolution
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
yet affirms an ultimate optimism in human potential. Some literary critics have argued that Milton encoded many references to his unyielding support for the "Good Old Cause
The Good Old Cause was the name given, retrospectively, by the soldiers of the New Model Army, to the complex of reasons that motivated their fight on behalf of the Parliament of England.
Their struggle was against King Charles I and the Roya ...
".
On 27 April 1667, Milton sold the publication rights for ''Paradise Lost'' to publisher Samuel Simmons
Samuel Simmons (1640–1687) was an English printer, best known as the first publisher
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditional ...
for £5 (equivalent to approximately £770 in 2015 purchasing power), with a further £5 to be paid if and when each print run sold out of between 1,300 and 1,500 copies. The first run was a quarto
Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...
edition priced at three shillings per copy (about £23 in 2015 purchasing power equivalent), published in August 1667, and it sold out in eighteen months.
Milton followed up the publication ''Paradise Lost'' with its sequel ''Paradise Regained
''Paradise Regained'' is a poem by English poet John Milton, first published in 1671. The volume in which it appeared also contained the poet's closet drama ''Samson Agonistes''. ''Paradise Regained'' is connected by name to his earlier and ...
'', which was published alongside the tragedy ''Samson Agonistes
''Samson Agonistes'' (from Greek Σαμσών ἀγωνιστής, "Samson the champion") is a tragic closet drama by John Milton. It appeared with the publication of Milton's '' Paradise Regained'' in 1671, as the title page of that volume ...
'' in 1671. Both of these works also reflect Milton's post-Restoration political situation. Just before his death in 1674, Milton supervised a second edition of ''Paradise Lost'', accompanied by an explanation of "why the poem rhymes not", and prefatory verses by Andrew Marvell
Andrew Marvell (; 31 March 1621 – 16 August 1678) was an English metaphysical poet, satirist and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1659 and 1678. During the Commonwealth period he was a colleague and friend ...
. In 1673, Milton republished his ''1645 Poems'', as well as a collection of his letters and the Latin prolusions from his Cambridge days.
Views
An unfinished religious manifesto, '' De doctrina christiana'', probably written by Milton, lays out many of his heterodox theological views, and was not discovered and published until 1823. Milton's key beliefs were idiosyncratic, not those of an identifiable group or faction, and often they go well beyond the orthodoxy of the time. Their tone, however, stemmed from the Puritan emphasis on the centrality and inviolability of conscience. He was his own man, but he was anticipated by Henry Robinson in ''Areopagitica''.
Philosophy
While Milton's beliefs are generally considered to be consistent with Protestant Christianity, Stephen Fallon argues that by the late 1650s, Milton may have at least toyed with the idea of monism
Monism attributes oneness or singleness (Greek: μόνος) to a concept e.g., existence. Various kinds of monism can be distinguished:
* Priority monism states that all existing things go back to a source that is distinct from them; e.g., i ...
or animist materialism, the notion that a single material substance which is "animate, self-active, and free" composes everything in the universe: from stones and trees and bodies to minds, souls, angels, and God. Fallon claims that Milton devised this position to avoid the mind-body dualism of Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
and Descartes as well as the mechanistic
The mechanical philosophy is a form of natural philosophy which compares the universe to a large-scale mechanism (i.e. a machine). The mechanical philosophy is associated with the scientific revolution of early modern Europe. One of the first expo ...
determinism of Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5/15 April 1588 – 4/14 December 1679) was an English philosopher, considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book ''Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influe ...
. According to Fallon, Milton's monism is most notably reflected in ''Paradise Lost'' when he has angels eat (5.433–439) and apparently engage in sexual intercourse (8.622–629) and the ''De Doctrina'', where he denies the dual natures of man and argues for a theory of Creation ''ex Deo''.
Political thought
Milton was a "passionately individual Christian Humanist poet." He appears on the pages of seventeenth century English Puritanism, an age characterized as "the world turned upside down." He was a Puritan and yet was unwilling to surrender conscience to party positions on public policy. Thus, Milton's political thought, driven by competing convictions, a Reformed faith and a Humanist spirit, led to enigmatic outcomes.Milton’s apparently contradictory stance on the vital problems of his age, arose from religious contestations, to the questions of the divine rights of kings. In both the cases, he seems in control, taking stock of the situation arising from the polarization of the English society on religious and political lines. He fought with the Puritans against the Cavaliers i.e. the King’s party, and helped win the day. But the very same constitutional and republican polity, when tried to curtail freedom of speech, Milton, given his humanistic zeal, wrote ''Areopagitica'' . . . 'sic''ref name=":1">
![Areopagitica 1644bw gobeirne](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Areopagitica_1644bw_gobeirne.png)
''Areopagitica'' was written in response to the Licensing Order, in November 1644.
Milton's political thought may be best categorized according to respective periods in his life and times. The years 1641–42 were dedicated to church politics and the struggle against episcopacy. After his divorce writings, ''Areopagitica'', and a gap, he wrote in 1649–54 in the aftermath of the
execution of Charles I
The execution of Charles I by beheading occurred on Tuesday, 30 January 1649 outside the Banqueting House on Whitehall. The execution was the culmination of political and military conflicts between the royalists and the parliamentarians in E ...
, and in polemic justification of the regicide and the existing Parliamentarian regime. Then in 1659–60 he foresaw the Restoration, and wrote to head it off.
Milton's own beliefs were in some cases unpopular, particularly his commitment to
republicanism
Republicanism is a political ideology centered on citizenship in a state organized as a republic. Historically, it emphasises the idea of self-rule and ranges from the rule of a representative minority or oligarchy to popular sovereignty. It ...
. In coming centuries, Milton would be claimed as an early apostle of liberalism. According to James Tully:
A friend and ally in the pamphlet wars was
Marchamont Nedham
Marchamont Nedham, also Marchmont and Needham (1620 – November 1678), was a journalist, publisher and pamphleteer during the English Civil War who wrote official news and propaganda for both sides of the conflict.
A "highly productive propagand ...
.
Austin Woolrych considers that although they were quite close, there is "little real affinity, beyond a broad republicanism", between their approaches.
Blair Worden
Alastair Blair Worden, FBA (born 12 January 1945), usually cited as Blair Worden, is a historian, among the leading authorities on the period of the English Civil War and on relations between literature and history more generally in the early mod ...
remarks that both Milton and Nedham, with others such as
Andrew Marvell
Andrew Marvell (; 31 March 1621 – 16 August 1678) was an English metaphysical poet, satirist and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1659 and 1678. During the Commonwealth period he was a colleague and friend ...
and
James Harrington, would have taken their problem with the
Rump Parliament
The Rump Parliament was the English Parliament after Colonel Thomas Pride commanded soldiers to purge the Long Parliament, on 6 December 1648, of those members hostile to the Grandees' intention to try King Charles I for high treason.
"Rump" ...
to be not the republic itself, but the fact that it was not a proper republic. Woolrych speaks of "the gulf between Milton's vision of the Commonwealth's future and the reality". In the early version of his ''
History of Britain
The British Isles have witnessed intermittent periods of competition and cooperation between the people that occupy the various parts of Great Britain, the Isle of Man, Ireland, the Bailiwick of Guernsey, the Bailiwick of Jersey and the ...
'', begun in 1649, Milton was already writing off the members of the
Long Parliament
The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...
as incorrigible.
He praised
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...
as the Protectorate was set up; though subsequently he had major reservations. When Cromwell seemed to be backsliding as a revolutionary, after a couple of years in power, Milton moved closer to the position of
Sir Henry Vane, to whom he wrote a sonnet in 1652. The group of disaffected republicans included, besides Vane,
John Bradshaw,
John Hutchinson,
Edmund Ludlow
Edmund Ludlow (c. 1617–1692) was an English parliamentarian, best known for his involvement in the execution of Charles I, and for his ''Memoirs'', which were published posthumously in a rewritten form and which have become a major source ...
,
Henry Marten,
Robert Overton
Major-General Robert Overton 1609 to 1678, was a member of the landed gentry from Yorkshire, who fought for Parliament during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and reached the rank of Major General in 1652. A committed republican and religious In ...
,
Edward Sexby
Colonel Edward Sexby (or Saxby; 1616 – 13 January 1658) was an English Puritan soldier and Leveller in the army of Oliver Cromwell. Later he turned against Cromwell and plotted his assassination.
Biography
Sexby was born in Suffolk in 1616, ...
and
John Streater
John Streater (died 1687) was an English soldier, political writer and printer. An opponent of Oliver Cromwell, Streater was a "key republican critic of the regime" He was a leading example of the "commonwealthmen", one division among the English r ...
; but not Marvell, who remained with Cromwell's party. Milton had already commended Overton, along with
Edmund Whalley and
Bulstrode Whitelocke
Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke (6 August 1605 – 28 July 1675) was an English lawyer, writer, parliamentarian and Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England.
Early life
He was the eldest son of Sir James Whitelocke and Elizabeth Bulstrode, and was ...
, in ''
Defensio Secunda
''Defension Secunda'' was a 1654 political tract by John Milton, a sequel to his '' Defensio pro Populo Anglicano''. It is a defence of the Parliamentary regime, by then controlled by Oliver Cromwell; and also defense of his own reputation agains ...
''. Nigel Smith writes that
As
Richard Cromwell
Richard Cromwell (4 October 162612 July 1712) was an English statesman who was the second and last Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland and son of the first Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell.
On his father's deat ...
fell from power, he envisaged a step towards a freer republic or "free commonwealth", writing in the hope of this outcome in early 1660. Milton had argued for an awkward position, in the ''
Ready and Easy Way'', because he wanted to invoke the
Good Old Cause
The Good Old Cause was the name given, retrospectively, by the soldiers of the New Model Army, to the complex of reasons that motivated their fight on behalf of the Parliament of England.
Their struggle was against King Charles I and the Roya ...
and gain the support of the republicans, but without offering a democratic solution of any kind. His proposal, backed by reference (amongst other reasons) to the
oligarchical Dutch and Venetian constitutions, was for a council with perpetual membership. This attitude cut right across the grain of popular opinion of the time, which swung decisively behind the restoration of the Stuart monarchy that took place later in the year. Milton, an associate of and advocate on behalf of the regicides, was silenced on political matters as Charles II returned.
Theology
Milton was neither a clergyman nor a theologian; however, theology, and particularly English Calvinism, formed the palette on which John Milton created his greatest thoughts. John Milton wrestled with the great doctrines of the Church amidst the theological crosswinds of his age. The great poet was undoubtedly Reformed (though his grandfather, Richard "the Ranger" Milton had been Roman Catholic).
However, Milton's Calvinism had to find expression in a broad-spirited Humanism. Like many
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
artists before him, Milton attempted to integrate Christian theology with classical modes. In his early poems, the poet narrator expresses a tension between vice and virtue, the latter invariably related to Protestantism. In ''Comus'', Milton may make ironic use of the
Caroline court
masque
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A masq ...
by elevating notions of purity and virtue over the conventions of court revelry and superstition. In his later poems, Milton's theological concerns become more explicit.
His use of biblical citation was wide-ranging; Harris Fletcher, standing at the beginning of the intensification of the study of the use of scripture in Milton's work (poetry and prose, in all languages Milton mastered), notes that typically Milton clipped and adapted biblical quotations to suit the purpose, giving precise chapter and verse only in texts for a more specialized readership. As for the plenitude of Milton's quotations from scripture, Fletcher comments, "For this work, I have in all actually collated about twenty-five hundred of the five to ten thousand direct Biblical quotations which appear therein".
[ Milton's customary English Bible was the Authorized King James. When citing and writing in other languages, he usually employed the Latin translation by ]Immanuel Tremellius
Immanuel Tremellius ( it, Giovanni Emmanuele Tremellio; 1510 – 9 October 1580) was an Italian Jewish convert to Christianity. He was known as a leading Hebraist and Bible translator.
Life
He was born at Ferrara and educated at the University o ...
, though "he was equipped to read the Bible in Latin, in Greek, and in Hebrew, including the Targumim or Aramaic paraphrases of the Old Testament, and the Syriac version of the New, together with the available commentaries of those several versions".
Milton embraced many heterodox Christian theological views. He has been accused of rejecting the Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God th ...
, believing instead that the Son was subordinate to the Father, a position known as Arianism; and his sympathy or curiosity was probably engaged by Socinianism: in August 1650 he licensed for publication by William Dugard
William Dugard, or Du Gard (9 January 1606 – 3 December 1662), was an English schoolmaster and printer. During the English Interregnum, he printed many important documents and propaganda, first in support of Charles I and later of Oliver Cromw ...
the ''Racovian Catechism
The Racovian Catechism ('' Pol.'': Katechizm Rakowski) is a nontrinitarian statement of faith from the 16th century. The title ''Racovian'' comes from the publishers, the Polish Brethren, who had founded a sizeable town in Raków, Kielce County, ...
'', based on a non-trinitarian creed. Milton's alleged Arianism, like much of his theology, is still subject of debate and controversy. Rufus Wilmot Griswold
Rufus Wilmot Griswold (February 13, 1815 – August 27, 1857) was an American anthologist, editor, poet, and critic. Born in Vermont, Griswold left home when he was 15 years old. He worked as a journalist, editor, and critic in Philadelphia, New Y ...
argued that "In none of his great works is there a passage from which it can be inferred that he was an Arian; and in the very last of his writings he declares that "the doctrine of the Trinity is a plain doctrine in Scripture." In ''Areopagitica,'' Milton classified Arians and Socinians as "errorists" and "schismatics" alongside Arminians
Arminianism is a branch of Protestantism based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609) and his historic supporters known as Remonstrants. Dutch Arminianism was originally articulated in the ''Rem ...
and Anabaptists
Anabaptism (from Neo-Latin , from the Greek : 're-' and 'baptism', german: Täufer, earlier also )Since the middle of the 20th century, the German-speaking world no longer uses the term (translation: "Re-baptizers"), considering it biased. ...
. A source has interpreted him as broadly Protestant, if not always easy to locate in a more precise religious category. In 2019, John Rogers stated, "Heretics both, John Milton and Isaac Newton were, as most scholars now agree, Arians."
In his 1641 treatise, ''Of Reformation
''Of Reformation'' is a 1641 pamphlet by John Milton, and his debut in the public arena. Its full title is ''Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England''.
Background
This work was followed by four others, also related to church hierar ...
'', Milton expressed his dislike for Catholicism and episcopacy, presenting Rome as a modern Babylon, and bishops as Egyptian taskmasters. These analogies conform to Milton's puritanical preference for Old Testament imagery. He knew at least four commentaries on ''Genesis'': those of John Calvin, Paulus Fagius, David Pareus
David Pareus (30 December 1548 – 15 June 1622) was a German Reformed Protestant theologian and reformer.
Life
He was born at Frankenstein in Schlesien on 30 December 1548. At some point, he hellenized his original surname, ''Wängler'' (mean ...
and Andreus Rivetus.
Through the Interregnum, Milton often presents England, rescued from the trappings of a worldly monarchy, as an elect
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...
nation akin to the Old Testament Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, and shows its leader, Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...
, as a latter-day Moses. These views were bound up in Protestant views of the Millennium
A millennium (plural millennia or millenniums) is a period of one thousand years, sometimes called a kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting point (ini ...
, which some sects, such as the Fifth Monarchists
The Fifth Monarchists, or Fifth Monarchy Men, were a Protestant sect which advocated Millennialist views, active during the 1649 to 1660 Commonwealth. Named after a prophecy in the Book of Daniel that Four Monarchies would precede the Fifth or e ...
predicted would arrive in England. Milton, however, would later criticise the "worldly" millenarian views of these and others, and expressed orthodox ideas on the prophecy of the Four Empires
The four kingdoms of Daniel are four kingdoms which, according to the Book of Daniel, precede the " end-times" and the " Kingdom of God".
The four kingdoms
Historical background
The Book of Daniel originated from a collection of legends ci ...
.
The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660 began a new phase in Milton's work. In ''Paradise Lost'', ''Paradise Regained
''Paradise Regained'' is a poem by English poet John Milton, first published in 1671. The volume in which it appeared also contained the poet's closet drama ''Samson Agonistes''. ''Paradise Regained'' is connected by name to his earlier and ...
'' and ''Samson Agonistes
''Samson Agonistes'' (from Greek Σαμσών ἀγωνιστής, "Samson the champion") is a tragic closet drama by John Milton. It appeared with the publication of Milton's '' Paradise Regained'' in 1671, as the title page of that volume ...
'', Milton mourns the end of the godly Commonwealth. The Garden of Eden may allegorically reflect Milton's view of England's recent Fall from Grace, while Samson
Samson (; , '' he, Šīmšōn, label= none'', "man of the sun") was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution o ...
's blindness and captivity—mirroring Milton's own lost sight—may be a metaphor for England's blind acceptance of Charles II as king.
Illustrated by ''Paradise Lost'' is mortalism, the belief that the soul lies dormant after the body dies.
Despite the Restoration of the monarchy, Milton did not lose his personal faith; ''Samson'' shows how the loss of national salvation
Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its ...
did not necessarily preclude the salvation of the individual, while ''Paradise Regained'' expresses Milton's continuing belief in the promise of Christian salvation through Jesus Christ.
Though he maintained his personal faith in spite of the defeats suffered by his cause, the '' Dictionary of National Biography'' recounted how he had been alienated from the Church of England by Archbishop William Laud, and then moved similarly from the Dissenters
A dissenter (from the Latin ''dissentire'', "to disagree") is one who dissents (disagrees) in matters of opinion, belief, etc.
Usage in Christianity
Dissent from the Anglican church
In the social and religious history of England and Wales, an ...
by their denunciation of religious tolerance in England.
Writing of the enigmatic and often conflicting views of Milton in the Puritan age, David Daiches wrote convincingly,"Christian and Humanist, Protestant, patriot and heir of the golden ages of Greece and Rome, he faced what appeared to him to be the birth-pangs of a new and regenerate England with high excitement and idealistic optimism.”
A fair theological summary may be: that John Milton was a Puritan, though his tendency to press further for liberty of conscience, sometimes out of conviction and often out of mere intellectual curiosity, made the great man, at least, a vital if not uncomfortable ally in the broader Puritan movement.
Religious toleration
Milton called in the ''Areopagitica
''Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parlament of England'' is a 1644 prose polemic by the English poet, scholar, and polemical author John Milton opposing licensing and censorship. ''Are ...
'' for "the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties" to the conflicting Protestant denominations. According to American historian William Hunter, "Milton argued for disestablishment as the only effective way of achieving broad toleration
Toleration is the allowing, permitting, or acceptance of an action, idea, object, or person which one dislikes or disagrees with. Political scientist Andrew R. Murphy explains that "We can improve our understanding by defining "toleration" as ...
. Rather than force a man's conscience, government should recognise the persuasive force of the gospel."
Divorce
Milton wrote ''The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce'' in 1643, at the beginning of the English Civil War. In August of that year, he presented his thoughts to the Westminster Assembly of Divines
The Westminster Assembly of Divines was a council of divines (theologians) and members of the English Parliament appointed from 1643 to 1653 to restructure the Church of England. Several Scots also attended, and the Assembly's work was adopte ...
, which had been created by the Long Parliament
The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...
to bring greater reform to the Church of England. The Assembly convened on 1 July against the will of King Charles I.
Milton's thinking on divorce caused him considerable trouble with the authorities. An orthodox Presbyterian view of the time was that Milton's views on divorce constituted a one-man heresy
Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...
:
Even here, though, his originality is qualified: Thomas Gataker
Thomas Gataker (* London, 4 September 1574 – † Cambridge, 27 June 1654) was an English clergyman and theologian.
Life
He was born in London, the son of Thomas Gatacre. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge. From 1601 to 1611 he h ...
had already identified "mutual solace" as a principal goal in marriage. Milton abandoned his campaign to legitimise divorce after 1645, but he expressed support for polygamy
Crimes
Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is ...
in the '' De Doctrina Christiana'', the theological treatise that provides the clearest evidence for his views.
Milton wrote during a period when thoughts about divorce were anything but simplistic; rather, there was active debate among thinkers and intellectuals at the time. However, Milton's basic approval of divorce within strict parameters set by the biblical witness was typical of many influential Christian intellectuals, particularly the Westminster divines. Milton addressed the Assembly on the matter of divorce in August 1643, at a moment when the Assembly was beginning to form its opinion on the matter. In the Doctrine & Discipline of Divorce, Milton argued that divorce was a private matter, not a legal or ecclesiastical one. Neither the Assembly nor Parliament condemned Milton or his ideas. In fact, when the Westminster Assembly wrote the Westminster Confession of Faith they allowed for divorce ('Of Marriage and Divorce,' Chapter 24, Section 5) in cases of infidelity or abandonment. Thus, the Christian community, at least a majority within the 'Puritan' sub-set, approved of Milton's views.
Nevertheless, reaction among Puritans to Milton's views on divorce was mixed. Herbert Palmer, a member of the Westminster Assembly
The Westminster Assembly of Divines was a council of divines (theologians) and members of the English Parliament appointed from 1643 to 1653 to restructure the Church of England. Several Scots also attended, and the Assembly's work was adopt ...
, condemned Milton in the strongest possible language:
Palmer expressed his disapproval in a sermon addressed to the Westminster Assembly. The Scottish commissioner Robert Baillie described Palmer's sermon as one "of the most Scottish and free sermons that ever I heard any where."
History
History was particularly important for the political class of the period, and Lewalski considers that Milton "more than most illustrates" a remark of Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5/15 April 1588 – 4/14 December 1679) was an English philosopher, considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book ''Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influ ...
on the weight placed at the time on the classical Latin historical writers Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars.
The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...
, Livy
Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in ...
, Sallust
Gaius Sallustius Crispus, usually anglicised as Sallust (; 86 – ), was a Roman historian and politician from an Italian plebeian family. Probably born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines, Sallust became during the 50s BC a partisan ...
and Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...
, and their republican attitudes. Milton himself wrote that "Worthy deeds are not often destitute of worthy relaters", in Book II of his ''History of Britain''. A sense of history mattered greatly to him:
Legacy and influence
Once ''Paradise Lost'' was published, Milton's stature as epic poet was immediately recognised. He cast a formidable shadow over English poetry in the 18th and 19th centuries; he was often judged equal or superior to all other English poets, including Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
. Very early on, though, he was championed by Whigs, and decried by Tories
A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...
: with the regicide Edmund Ludlow
Edmund Ludlow (c. 1617–1692) was an English parliamentarian, best known for his involvement in the execution of Charles I, and for his ''Memoirs'', which were published posthumously in a rewritten form and which have become a major source ...
he was claimed as an early Whig, while the High Tory Anglican minister Luke Milbourne lumped Milton in with other "Agents of Darkness" such as John Knox, George Buchanan
George Buchanan ( gd, Seòras Bochanan; February 1506 – 28 September 1582) was a Scottish historian and humanist scholar. According to historian Keith Brown, Buchanan was "the most profound intellectual sixteenth century Scotland produced." ...
, Richard Baxter
Richard Baxter (12 November 1615 – 8 December 1691) was an English Puritan church leader, poet, hymnodist, theologian, and controversialist. Dean Stanley called him "the chief of English Protestant Schoolmen". After some false starts, he ...
, Algernon Sidney
Algernon Sidney or Sydney (15 January 1623 – 7 December 1683) was an English politician, republican political theorist and colonel. A member of the middle part of the Long Parliament and commissioner of the trial of King Charles I of Englan ...
and John Locke. The political ideas of Milton, Locke, Sidney, and James Harrington strongly influenced the Radical Whigs
The Radical Whigs were a group of British political commentators associated with the British Whig faction who were at the forefront of the Radical movement.
Seventeenth century
The radical Whigs ideology "arose from a series of political uphea ...
, whose ideology in turn was central to the American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
. Modern scholars of Milton's life, politics, and work are known as Miltonists: "his work is the subject of a very large amount of academic scholarship".
In 2008, John Milton Passage, a short passage by Bread Street into St Mary-le-Bow Churchyard in London, was unveiled.
Early reception of the poetry
John Dryden
''
John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate.
He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...
, an early enthusiast, in 1677 began the trend of describing Milton as the poet of the sublime. Dryden's ''The State of Innocence and the Fall of Man: an Opera'' (1677) is evidence of an immediate cultural influence. In 1695, Patrick Hume became the first editor of ''Paradise Lost'', providing an extensive apparatus of annotation and commentary, particularly chasing down allusions.
In 1732, the classical scholar Richard Bentley offered a corrected version of ''Paradise Lost''. Bentley was considered presumptuous, and was attacked in the following year by Zachary Pearce
Zachary Pearce, sometimes known as Zachariah (8 September 1690 – 29 June 1774), was an English Bishop of Bangor and Bishop of Rochester. He was a controversialist and a notable early critical writer defending John Milton, attacking Richard ...
. Christopher Ricks
Sir Christopher Bruce Ricks (born 18 September 1933) is a British literary critic and scholar. He is the William M. and Sara B. Warren Professor of the Humanities at Boston University (US), co-director of the Editorial Institute at Boston Un ...
judges that, as critic, Bentley was both acute and wrong-headed, and "incorrigibly eccentric"; William Empson
Sir William Empson (27 September 1906 – 15 April 1984) was an English literary critic and poet, widely influential for his practice of closely reading literary works, a practice fundamental to New Criticism. His best-known work is his first ...
also finds Pearce to be more sympathetic to Bentley's underlying line of thought than is warranted.
There was an early, partial translation of ''Paradise Lost'' into German by Theodore Haak
Theodore Haak (1605 in – 1690 in London) was a German Calvinist scholar, resident in England in later life. Haak's communications abilities and interests in the new science provided the backdrop for convening the " 1645 Group", a precursor of ...
, and based on that a standard verse translation by Ernest Gottlieb von Berge. A subsequent prose translation by Johann Jakob Bodmer
Johann Jakob Bodmer (19 July 16982 January 1783) was a Swiss author, academic, critic and poet.
Life
Born at Greifensee, near Zürich, and first studying theology and then trying a commercial career, he finally found his vocation in letters. In 1 ...
was very popular; it influenced Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock. The German-language Milton tradition returned to England in the person of the artist Henry Fuseli
Henry Fuseli ( ; German: Johann Heinrich Füssli ; 7 February 1741 – 17 April 1825) was a Swiss painter, draughtsman and writer on art who spent much of his life in Britain. Many of his works, such as '' The Nightmare'', deal with supernatu ...
.
Many Enlightenment thinkers of the 18th century revered and commented on Milton's poetry and non-poetical works. In addition to John Dryden, among them were Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...
, Joseph Addison
Joseph Addison (1 May 1672 – 17 June 1719) was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was the eldest son of The Reverend Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend Richar ...
, Thomas Newton
Thomas Newton (1 January 1704 – 14 February 1782) was an English cleric, biblical scholar and author. He served as the Bishop of Bristol from 1761 to 1782.
Biography
Newton was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and was subsequently elect ...
, and Samuel Johnson. For example, in ''The Spectator
''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world.
It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...
'', Joseph Addison wrote extensive notes, annotations, and interpretations of certain passages of ''Paradise Lost''. Jonathan Richardson, senior, and Jonathan Richardson, the younger, co-wrote a book of criticism. In 1749, Thomas Newton published an extensive edition of Milton's poetical works with annotations provided by himself, Dryden, Pope, Addison, the Richardsons (father and son) and others. Newton's edition of Milton was a culmination of the honour bestowed upon Milton by early Enlightenment thinkers; it may also have been prompted by Richard Bentley's infamous edition, described above. Samuel Johnson wrote numerous essays on ''Paradise Lost'', and Milton was included in his ''Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets
''Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets'' (1779–81), alternatively known by the shorter title ''Lives of the Poets'', is a work by Samuel Johnson comprising short biographies and critical appraisals of 52 poets, most of whom lived during th ...
'' (1779–1781). In ''The Age of Louis XIV
''The Age of Louis XIV'' (''Le Siècle de Louis XIV'', also translated ''The Century of Louis XIV'') is a historical work by the French historian, philosopher, and writer Voltaire, first published in 1751. Through it, the French 17th century becam ...
'', Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—es ...
said "Milton remains the glory and the wonder (''l'admiration'') of England."
Blake
William Blake
William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...
considered Milton the major English poet. Blake placed Edmund Spenser as Milton's precursor, and saw himself as Milton's poetical son. In his '' Milton: A Poem in Two Books'', Blake uses Milton as a character.
Romantic theory
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke (; 12 January NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS">New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS/nowiki>_1729_–_9_July_1797)_was_an_NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">N ...
was a theorist of the sublime, and he regarded Milton's description of Hell as exemplary of sublimity as an aesthetic concept. For Burke, it was to set alongside mountain-tops, a storm at sea, and infinity. In ''The Beautiful and the Sublime'', he wrote: "No person seems better to have understood the secret of heightening, or of setting terrible things, if I may use the expression, in their strongest light, by the force of a judicious obscurity than Milton."
The Romantic poets
Romantic poetry is the poetry of the Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. It involved a reaction against prevailing Enlightenment ideas of the 18t ...
valued his exploration of blank verse
Blank verse is poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century", and Pa ...
, but for the most part rejected his religiosity. William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication '' Lyrical Ballads'' (1798).
Wordsworth's ' ...
began his sonnet "London, 1802" with "Milton! thou should'st be living at this hour" and modelled ''The Prelude
''The Prelude or, Growth of a Poet's Mind; An Autobiographical Poem '' is an autobiographical poem in blank verse by the English poet William Wordsworth. Intended as the introduction to the more philosophical poem ''The Recluse,'' which Wordsw ...
'', his own blank verse epic, on ''Paradise Lost''. John Keats found the yoke of Milton's style uncongenial; he exclaimed that "Miltonic verse cannot be written but in an artful or rather artist's humour."[Leader, Zachary. "Revision and Romantic Authorship". Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. 298. .] Keats felt that ''Paradise Lost'' was a "beautiful and grand curiosity", but his own unfinished attempt at epic poetry, '' Hyperion'', was unsatisfactory to the author because, amongst other things, it had too many "Miltonic inversions".[ In '']The Madwoman in the Attic
''The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination'' is a 1979 book by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, in which they examine Victorian literature from a feminist perspective. Gilbert and Gubar draw th ...
'', Sandra Gilbert
Sandra M. Gilbert (born December 27, 1936) is an American literary critic and poet who has published in the fields of feminist literary criticism, feminist theory, and psychoanalytic criticism. She is best known for her collaborative critical wo ...
and Susan Gubar note that Mary Shelley
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also ...
's novel ''Frankenstein
''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ...
'' is, in the view of many critics, "one of the key 'Romantic' readings of ''Paradise Lost''."
Later legacy
The Victorian age witnessed a continuation of Milton's influence, George Eliot
Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...
and Thomas Hardy being particularly inspired by Milton's poetry and biography. Hostile 20th-century criticism by T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound did not reduce Milton's stature. F. R. Leavis
Frank Raymond "F. R." Leavis (14 July 1895 – 14 April 1978) was an English literary critic of the early-to-mid-twentieth century. He taught for much of his career at Downing College, Cambridge, and later at the University of York.
Leavis ra ...
, in ''The Common Pursuit'', responded to the points made by Eliot, in particular the claim that "the study of Milton could be of no help: it was only a hindrance", by arguing, "As if it were a matter of deciding ''not'' to study Milton! The problem, rather, was to escape from an influence that was so difficult to escape from because it was unrecognized, belonging, as it did, to the climate of the habitual and 'natural'." Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was described as "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking worl ...
, in ''The Anxiety of Influence
''The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry'' is a 1973 book by Harold Bloom. It was the first in a series of books that advanced a new "revisionary" or antithetical approach to literary criticism. Bloom's central thesis is that poets are hin ...
'', wrote that "Milton is the central problem in any theory and history of poetic influence in English ...
Milton's ''Areopagitica
''Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parlament of England'' is a 1644 prose polemic by the English poet, scholar, and polemical author John Milton opposing licensing and censorship. ''Are ...
'' is still cited as relevant to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws that regulate an establishment of religion, or that prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, the ...
. A quotation from ''Areopagitica''—"A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life"—is displayed in many public libraries, including the New York Public Library.
The title of Philip Pullman
Sir Philip Nicholas Outram Pullman (born 19 October 1946) is an English writer. His books include the fantasy trilogy '' His Dark Materials'' and '' The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ'', a fictionalised biography of Jesus. In 2008, ''T ...
's ''His Dark Materials
''His Dark Materials'' is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman consisting of '' Northern Lights'' (1995; published as ''The Golden Compass'' in North America), '' The Subtle Knife'' (1997), and '' The Amber Spyglass'' (2000). It follo ...
'' trilogy is derived from a quotation, "His dark materials to create more worlds", line 915 of Book II in ''Paradise Lost''. Pullman was concerned to produce a version of Milton's poem accessible to teenagers, and has spoken of Milton as "our greatest public poet".
Titles of a number of other well-known literary works are also derived from Milton's writings. Examples include Thomas Wolfe
Thomas Clayton Wolfe (October 3, 1900 – September 15, 1938) was an American novelist of the early 20th century.
Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels as well as many short stories, dramatic works, and novellas. He is known for mixing highly origin ...
's ''Look Homeward, Angel
''Look Homeward, Angel: A Story of the Buried Life'' is a 1929 novel by Thomas Wolfe. It is Wolfe's first novel, and is considered a highly autobiographical American coming-of-age story. The character of Eugene Gant is generally believed to be ...
'', Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems.
Born into the prominent Huxle ...
's '' Eyeless in Gaza'', Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler, (, ; ; hu, Kösztler Artúr; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was a Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria. In 1931, Koestler join ...
's ''Darkness at Noon
''Darkness at Noon'' (german: link=no, Sonnenfinsternis) is a novel by Hungarian-born novelist Arthur Koestler, first published in 1940. His best known work, it is the tale of Rubashov, an Old Bolshevik who is arrested, imprisoned, and tried ...
'', and William Golding
Sir William Gerald Golding (19 September 1911 – 19 June 1993) was a British novelist, playwright, and poet. Best known for his debut novel ''Lord of the Flies'' (1954), he published another twelve volumes of fiction in his lifetime. In 1980 ...
's '' Darkness Visible''.
T. S. Eliot believed that "of no other poet is it so difficult to consider the poetry simply as poetry, without our theological and political dispositions... making unlawful entry".
Literary legacy
Milton's use of blank verse
Blank verse is poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century", and Pa ...
, in addition to his stylistic innovations (such as grandiloquence of voice and vision, peculiar diction and phraseology) influenced later poets. At the time, poetic blank verse was considered distinct from its use in verse drama, and '' Paradise Lost'' was taken as a unique exemplar. Said Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts (17 July 1674 – 25 November 1748) was an English Congregational minister, hymn writer, theologian, and logician. He was a prolific and popular hymn writer and is credited with some 750 hymns. His works include "When I Survey the ...
in 1734, "Mr. Milton is esteemed the parent and author of blank verse among us". "Miltonic verse" might be synonymous for a century with blank verse as poetry, a new poetic terrain independent from both the drama and the heroic couplet
A heroic couplet is a traditional form for English poetry, commonly used in epic and narrative poetry, and consisting of a rhyming pair of lines in iambic pentameter. Use of the heroic couplet was pioneered by Geoffrey Chaucer in the ''Legend of ...
.
Lack of rhyme was sometimes taken as Milton's defining innovation. He himself considered the rhymeless quality of ''Paradise Lost'' to be an extension of his own personal liberty:
This pursuit of freedom was largely a reaction against conservative values entrenched within the rigid heroic couplet. Within a dominant culture that stressed elegance and finish, he granted primacy to freedom, breadth and imaginative suggestiveness, eventually developed into the romantic vision of sublime terror. Reaction to Milton's poetic worldview included, grudgingly, acknowledgement that of poet's resemblance to classical writers (Greek and Roman poetry being unrhymed). Blank verse came to be a recognised medium for religious works and for translations of the classics. Unrhymed lyrics like Collins
Collins may refer to:
People Surname
Given name
* Collins O. Bright (1917–?), Sierra Leonean diplomat
* Collins Chabane (1960–2015), South African Minister of Public Service and Administration
* Collins Cheboi (born 1987), Kenyan middle- ...
' ''Ode to Evening
An ode (from grc, ᾠδή, ōdḗ) is a type of lyric poetry. Odes are elaborately structured poems praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally. A classic ode is structured in three majo ...
'' (in the meter of Milton's translation of Horace's '' Ode to Pyrrha'') were not uncommon after 1740.
A second aspect of Milton's blank verse was the use of unconventional rhythm:
Before Milton, "the sense of regular rhythm ... had been knocked into the English head so securely that it was part of their nature". The "Heroick measure", according to Samuel Johnson, "is pure ... when the accent rests upon every second syllable through the whole line ... The repetition of this sound or percussion at equal times, is the most complete harmony of which a single verse is capable". Caesura
300px, An example of a caesura in modern western music notation
A caesura (, . caesuras or caesurae; Latin for " cutting"), also written cæsura and cesura, is a metrical pause or break in a verse where one phrase ends and another phrase begin ...
l pauses, most agreed, were best placed at the middle and the end of the line. In order to support this symmetry, lines were most often octo- or deca-syllabic, with no enjambed endings. To this schema Milton introduced modifications, which included hypermetric
In poetry, metre ( Commonwealth spelling) or meter ( American spelling; see spelling differences) is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of ...
al syllables (trisyllabic feet
The foot ( : feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg made ...
), inversion
Inversion or inversions may refer to:
Arts
* , a French gay magazine (1924/1925)
* ''Inversion'' (artwork), a 2005 temporary sculpture in Houston, Texas
* Inversion (music), a term with various meanings in music theory and musical set theory
* ...
or slighting of stresses, and the shifting of pauses to all parts of the line. Milton deemed these features to be reflective of "the transcendental union of order and freedom". Admirers remained hesitant to adopt such departures from traditional metrical schemes: "The English ... had been writing separate lines for so long that they could not rid themselves of the habit". Isaac Watts preferred his lines distinct from each other, as did Oliver Goldsmith, Henry Pemberton
Henry Pemberton (1694 – 9 March 1771) was an English physician and man of letters. He became Gresham Professor of Physic, and edited the third edition of ''Principia Mathematica''.
Life
Born in London, he received a general education in ...
, and Scott of Amwell
John Scott (January 9, 1731 – December 12, 1783), known as Scott of Amwell, was an English landscape gardener and writer on social matters. He was also the first notable Quaker poet, although in modern times he is remembered for only one anti ...
, whose general opinion it was that Milton's frequent omission of the initial unaccented foot was "displeasing to a nice ear". It was not until the late 18th century that poets (beginning with Gray
Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...
) began to appreciate "the composition of Milton's harmony ... how he loved to vary his pauses, his measures, and his feet, which gives that enchanting air of freedom and wilderness to his versification". By the 20th century, American poet and critic John Hollander would go so far as to say that Milton "was able, by plying that most remarkable instrument of English meter ... to invent a new mode of image-making in English poetry."
Milton's pursuit of liberty extended into his vocabulary as well. It included many Latinate neologism
A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...
s, as well as obsolete words already dropped from popular usage so completely that their meanings were no longer understood. In 1740, Francis Peck
Francis Peck (1692–1743) was an English priest of the Church of England and antiquary, best known for his ''Desiderata Curiosa'' (1732–1735).
Life
He was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire, England, the son of Robert, merchant, and baptised 4 Ma ...
identified some examples of Milton's "old" words (now popular). The "Miltonian dialect", as it was called, was emulated by later poets; Pope used the diction of ''Paradise Lost'' in his Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
translation, while the lyric poetry of Gray and Collins was frequently criticised for their use of "obsolete words out of Spenser and Milton". The language of Thomson Thomson may refer to:
Names
* Thomson (surname), a list of people with this name and a description of its origin
* Thomson baronets, four baronetcies created for persons with the surname Thomson
Businesses and organizations
* SGS-Thomson Mic ...
's finest poems (e.g. '' The Seasons'', ''The Castle of Indolence
''The Castle of Indolence'' is a poem written by James Thomson, a Scottish poet of the 18th century, in 1748.
According to the Nuttall Encyclopedia, the Castle of Indolence is ''"a place in which the dwellers live amid luxurious delights, to ...
'') was self-consciously modelled after the Miltonian dialect, with the same tone and sensibilities as ''Paradise Lost''. Following to Milton, English poetry from Pope to John Keats exhibited a steadily increasing attention to the connotative, the imaginative and poetic, value of words.[Saintsbury 1908 ii. 468.]
Musical settings
Milton's ode
An ode (from grc, ᾠδή, ōdḗ) is a type of lyric poetry. Odes are elaborately structured poems praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally. A classic ode is structured in three majo ...
''At a solemn Musick'' was set for choir and orchestra as '' Blest Pair of Sirens'' by Hubert Parry
Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet (27 February 18487 October 1918) was an English composer, teacher and historian of music. Born in Richmond Hill in Bournemouth, Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is be ...
(1848–1918), and Milton's poem ''On the Morning of Christ's Nativity'' was set as a large-scale choral work by Cyril Rootham
Cyril Bradley Rootham (5 October 1875 – 18 March 1938) was an English composer, educator and organist. His work at Cambridge University made him an influential figure in English music life. A Fellow of St John's College, where he was also or ...
(1875–1938). Milton also wrote the hymn Let us with a gladsome mind, a versification of Psalm 136. His 'L'Allegro' and 'Il Penseroso', with additional material, were magnificently set by Handel (1740).
Works
Poetry and drama
* 1629: ''On the Morning of Christ's Nativity
''On the Morning of Christ's Nativity'' is a nativity ode written by John Milton in 1629 and published in his ''Poems of Mr. John Milton'' (1645). The poem
describes Christ's Incarnation and his overthrow of earthly and pagan powers. The poem ...
''
* 1630: '' On Shakespeare''
* 1631: ''On Arriving at the Age of Twenty-Three
On, on, or ON may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* On (band), a solo project of Ken Andrews
* On (EP), ''On'' (EP), a 1993 EP by Aphex Twin
* On (Echobelly album), ''On'' (Echobelly album), 1995
* On (Gary Glitter album), ''On'' (Gary Glit ...
''
* 1632: ''L'Allegro
''L'Allegro'' is a pastoral poem by John Milton published in his 1645 ''Poems''. ''L'Allegro'' (which means "the happy man" in Italian) has from its first appearance been paired with the contrasting pastoral poem, '' Il Penseroso'' ("the me ...
''
* 1632: ''Il Penseroso
''Il Penseroso'' ("the thinker") is a poem by John Milton, first found in the 1645/1646 quarto of verses ''The Poems of Mr. John Milton, both English and Latin'', published by Humphrey Moseley. It was presented as a companion piece to ''L'Al ...
''
* 1634: '' A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634'', commonly known as ''Comus
In Greek mythology, Comus (; grc, Κῶμος, ''Kōmos'') is the god of festivity, revels and nocturnal dalliances. He is a son and a cup-bearer of the god Dionysus. He was represented as a winged youth or a child-like satyr and represents ana ...
'' (a masque
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A masq ...
)
* 1637: ''Lycidas
"Lycidas" () is a poem by John Milton, written in 1637 as a pastoral elegy. It first appeared in a 1638 collection of elegies, ''Justa Edouardo King Naufrago'', dedicated to the memory of Edward King, a friend of Milton at Cambridge who dro ...
''
* 1645: '' Poems of Mr John Milton, Both English and Latin''
* 1652: ''When I Consider How My Light is Spent
"When I Consider How My Light is Spent" (Also known as "On His Blindness") is one of the best known of the sonnets of John Milton (1608–1674). The last three lines are particularly well known; they conclude with "They also serve who only stand a ...
'' (Commonly referred to as "On his blindness", though Milton did not use this title)
* 1655: ''On the Late Massacre in Piedmont
"On the Late Massacre in Piedmont" is a sonnet by the English poet John Milton inspired by the Easter massacre of Waldensians in Piedmont by the troops of Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy in April 1655. Also known as Milton’s “Sonnet 18, ...
''
* 1667: '' Paradise Lost''
* 1671: ''Paradise Regained
''Paradise Regained'' is a poem by English poet John Milton, first published in 1671. The volume in which it appeared also contained the poet's closet drama ''Samson Agonistes''. ''Paradise Regained'' is connected by name to his earlier and ...
''
* 1671: ''Samson Agonistes
''Samson Agonistes'' (from Greek Σαμσών ἀγωνιστής, "Samson the champion") is a tragic closet drama by John Milton. It appeared with the publication of Milton's '' Paradise Regained'' in 1671, as the title page of that volume ...
''
* 1673: '' Poems, &c, Upon Several Occasions''
* Arcades: a masque. (date is unknown).
* On his Deceased wife, To The Nightingale, On reaching the Age of twenty four.
Prose
* ''Of Reformation
''Of Reformation'' is a 1641 pamphlet by John Milton, and his debut in the public arena. Its full title is ''Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England''.
Background
This work was followed by four others, also related to church hierar ...
'' (1641)
* '' Of Prelatical Episcopacy'' (1641)
* ''Animadversions
''Animadversions'' is the third of John Milton's antiprelatical tracts, in the form of a response to the works and claims of Bishop Joseph Hall. The tract was published in July 1641 under the title ''Animadversions upon The Remonstrants Defence ...
'' (1641)
* '' The Reason of Church-Government Urged against Prelaty'' (1642)
* ''Apology for Smectymnuus
''Apology for Smectymnuus'', or ''An Apology for a Pamphlet'', was published by John Milton in April 1642. It was the final of his antiprelatical tracts which criticize the structure of the Church of England.
Background
The '' Apology'' was publ ...
'' (1642)
* '' Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce'' (1643)
* ''Judgement of Martin Bucer Concerning Divorce
''Judgement of Martin Bucer'' by John Milton was published on 15 July 1644. The work consists mostly of Milton's translations of pro-divorce arguments from Martin Bucer's ''De Regno Christi''. By finding support for his views among orthodox write ...
'' (1644)
* ''Of Education
The tractate ''Of Education'' was published in 1644, first appearing anonymously as a single eight-page quarto sheet (Ainsworth 6). Presented as a letter written in response to a request from the Puritan educational reformer Samuel Hartlib, it r ...
'' (1644)
* ''Areopagitica
''Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parlament of England'' is a 1644 prose polemic by the English poet, scholar, and polemical author John Milton opposing licensing and censorship. ''Are ...
'' (1644)
* '' Tetrachordon'' (1645)
* '' Colasterion'' (1645)
* ''The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates
''The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates'' is a book by John Milton, in which he defends the right of people to execute a guilty sovereign, whether tyrannical or not.
In the text, Milton conjectures about the formation of commonwealths. He comes u ...
'' (1649)
* ''Eikonoklastes
''Eikonoklastes'' (from the Greek εἰκονοκλάστης, " iconoclast") is a book by John Milton, published October 1649. In it he provides a justification for the execution of Charles I, which had taken place on 30 January 1649. The book' ...
'' (1649)
* ''Defensio pro Populo Anglicano
''Defensio pro Populo Anglicano'' is a Latin polemic by John Milton, published in 1651. The full title in English is ''John Milton an Englishman His Defence of the People of England.'' It was a piece of propaganda, and made political argument i ...
'' 'First Defence''(1651)
* ''Defensio Secunda
''Defension Secunda'' was a 1654 political tract by John Milton, a sequel to his '' Defensio pro Populo Anglicano''. It is a defence of the Parliamentary regime, by then controlled by Oliver Cromwell; and also defense of his own reputation agains ...
'' 'Second Defence''(1654)
* '' A Treatise of Civil Power'' (1659)
* '' The Likeliest Means to Remove Hirelings from the Church'' (1659)
* '' The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth'' (1660)
* ''Brief Notes Upon a Late Sermon
Brief, briefs, or briefing may refer to:
Documents
* A letter
* A briefing note
* Papal brief, a papal letter less formal than a bull, sealed with the pope's signet ring or stamped with the device borne on this ring
* Design brief, a type of ed ...
'' (1660)
* '' Accedence Commenced Grammar'' (1669)
* '' The History of Britain'' (1670)
* '' Artis logicae plenior institutio'' 'Art of Logic''(1672)
* '' Of True Religion'' (1673)
* '' Epistolae Familiaries'' (1674)
* '' Prolusiones'' (1674)
* ''A brief History of Moscovia, and other less known Countries lying Eastward of Russia as far as Cathay, gathered from the writings of several Eye-witnesses'' (1682)
* '' De Doctrina Christiana'' (1823)
Notes
References
Sources
* Beer, Anna. ''Milton: Poet, Pamphleteer and Patriot''. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2008.
* Campbell, Gordon and Corns, Thomas. ''John Milton: Life, Work, and Thought''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
* Chaney, Edward, ''The Grand Tour and the Great Rebellion: Richard Lassels and 'The Voyage of Italy' in the Seventeenth Century'' (Geneva, CIRVI, 1985) and "Milton's Visit to Vallombrosa: A literary tradition", ''The Evolution of the Grand Tour'', 2nd ed (Routledge
Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law ...
, London, 2000).
* Dexter, Raymond. ''The Influence of Milton on English Poetry''. London: Kessinger Publishing. 1922
* Dick, Oliver Lawson. ''Aubrey's Brief Lives''. Harmondsworth
Harmondsworth is a village in the London Borough of Hillingdon in the county of Greater London with a short border to the south onto London Heathrow Airport. The village has no railway stations, but adjoins the M4 motorway and the A4 road (the ...
, Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...
: Penguin Books, 1962.
* Eliot, T. S. "Annual Lecture on a Master Mind: Milton", ''Proceedings of the British Academy'' 33 (1947).
* Fish, Stanley. ''Versions of Antihumanism: Milton and Others.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. .
*
* Gray, Thomas. ''Observations on English Metre''. "The Works of Thomas Gray". ed. Mitford. London: William Pickering, 1835.
* Hawkes, David, John Milton: A Hero of Our Time (Counterpoint Press: London and New York, 2009)
* Hill, Christopher. ''Milton and the English Revolution''. London: Faber, 1977.
* Hobsbaum, Philip. "Meter, Rhythm and Verse Form". New York: Routledge, 1996.
* Hunter, William Bridges. ''A Milton Encyclopedia''. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1980.
* Johnson, Samuel
Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...
. "Rambler #86" 1751.
* Johnson, Samuel. ''Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets
''Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets'' (1779–81), alternatively known by the shorter title ''Lives of the Poets'', is a work by Samuel Johnson comprising short biographies and critical appraisals of 52 poets, most of whom lived during th ...
''. London: Dove, 1826.
* Leonard, John. ''Faithful Labourers: A Reception History of Paradise Lost, 1667–1970''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
* Lewalski, Barbara K. ''The Life of John Milton''. Oxford: Blackwells Publishers, 2003.
*
* Masson, David. ''The Life of John Milton and History of His Time'', Vol. 1. Oxford: 1859.
* McCalman, Iain. et al., ''An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age: British Culture, 1776–1832''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
* Milner, Andrew. ''John Milton and the English Revolution: A Study in the Sociology of Literature''. London: Macmillan, 1981.
* Milton, John. ''Complete Prose Works'' 8 Vols. gen. ed. Don M. Wolfe. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959.
* Milton, John. ''The Verse'', "Paradise Lost". London, 1668.
* Peck, Francis. "New Memoirs of Milton". London, 1740.
* Pfeiffer, Robert H. "The Teaching of Hebrew in Colonial America", ''The Jewish Quarterly Review'' (April 1955).
* Rosenfeld, Nancy. ''The Human Satan in Seventeenth-Century English Literature: From Milton to Rochester''. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008.
* Saintsbury, George. "The Peace of the Augustans: A Survey of Eighteenth Century Literature as a Place of Rest and Refreshment". London: Oxford University Press. 1946.
* Saintsbury, George. "A History of English Prosody: From the Twelfth Century to the Present Day". London: Macmillan and Co., 1908.
* Scott, John. "Critical Essays". London, 1785.
*
* Sullivan, Ceri. ''Literature in the Public Service: Divine Bureaucracy'' (2013).
* Toland, John. ''Life of Milton'' in ''The Early Lives of Milton''. Ed. Helen Darbishere. London: Constable, 1932.
* von Maltzahn, Nicholas. "Milton's Readers" in ''The Oxford Companion to Milton''. ed. Dennis Richard Danielson, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
* Watts, Isaac. "Miscellaneous Thoughts" No. lxxiii. ''Works'' 1810
* Wedgwood, C. V. ''Thomas Wentworth, First Earl of Strafford 1593–1641''. New York: Macmillan, 1961.
* Wilson, A. N. ''The Life of John Milton''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983.
External links
*
*
*
*
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