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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] John Milton Biography MILTON, John (1608–74). An English poet. He was born in Bread Street, London, Dec. 9, 1608. His father, also named John Milton, belonged to a Roman Catholic family of yeomen living in Oxfordshire. The elder John Milton was converted to Protestantism while a student at Oxford, and as a result was promptly disinherited by his father, Richard Milton. The poet's father settled in London, where he prospered as a scrivener. The younger John Milton received instruction from his father in music, was taught by a private tutor, and was sent to St. Paul's School (about 1620), where he learned Latin, Greek, French, Italian, and some Hebrew, and read English literature. Spenser's Faerie Queene and Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas, which came into his hands at this time, exerted much influence on the formation of his style. In February, 1625, he proceeded to Christ's College, Cambridge. He was of less than the middle height, yet well made, with light brown or auburn hair. In bearing he was courteous and stately, though sometimes sarcastic. Owing to a quarrel with his first tutor he was rusticated for a short time in 1626, but he returned and completed the course, graduating B.A. in 1629 and M.A. in 1632. From childhood Milton had been destined for the Church, but the policy of Laud led him first to postpone taking orders and then to abandon all thought of it. He retired to his father's estate at Horton, Buckinghamshire, where he passed nearly six years (1632–38) in reading the classics and writing at intervals his choicest poems. Believing that he had it in him to write something that would live, he set out for Italy in April, 1638, wishing to fit himself still more for his future work. Probably at Bologna, which he visited in 1639, Milton wrote in excellent Italian five sonnets and a canzone wherein he expresses love for a beautiful lady of Bologna. For some time he stayed in Florence, where he visited in prison the blind Galileo. Thence he went on to Rome and Naples. As he was about to pass over to Sicily and from there to Greece, news reached him of "the civil commotions in England." He turned homeward, reaching England towards the end of July, 1639. He took a house in Aldersgate Street, London, where he received as pupils two nephews, children of an elder sister, and occupied his leisure with plans for future poems. From these pursuits he was drawn into ecclesiastical controversies, writing pamphlet after pamphlet. In June, 1643, he married, after a brief courtship, Mary Powell, then only 17 years old, the daughter of an Oxfordshire squire and Royalist. After a month the bride returned to her father's house. In the summer of 1645 they were reconciled, and he moved to the Barbican, a more commodious house for the increasing number of his pupils. His wife died in 1652, after bearing four children, of whom the one son died in infancy. A fortnight after the execution of Charles I (Jan. 30, 1649) Milton issued a memorable defense of the deed, and this led to other pamphlets which gave him European fame as a controversialist. On the establishment of the Commonwealth Milton was appointed Latin secretary to the Council of State (March 15, 1649). For this office, involving the duty of turning into Latin all foreign dispatches, he was eminently fitted. In 1652 he lost his eyesight, already long impaired, but with the aid of assistants—one of whom was Andrew Marvell—he performed the duties of his post till the abdication of Richard Cromwell (1659). In the meantime (November, 1656) he had married a Catharine Woodcock, who died in February, 1658. She was honored by one of Milton's most beautiful sonnets (xxiii). The Restoration put an end to his active career. In 1661 he settled in Jewin Street, Aldersgate, from which he removed about two years later to a house in Artillery Walk, Bunhill Fields, his last residence. Here he fulfilled the literary task he had long ago planned and since begun. In 1663 he married a third wife, 30 years his junior, named Elizabeth Minshull. His relations with his daughters were most unhappy. Brought up in ignorance, they revolted from the service that he demanded of them—reading to him Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, which of course they could not understand. Towards the end Milton stood aloof from religious sects and services. He died Nov. 8, 1674, and was buried in St. Giles's, Cripplegate. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XV (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 699-700. |