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 One
of the greatest poets in the English language, best known for his
epic poem PARADISE LOST (1667). Milton's powerful rhetoric prose
and the eloquence of his poetry had an immense influence especially
on the 18th-century verse. Besides poems, Milton published pamphlets
defending civil and religious rights.
"Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden
tree whose mortal taste Brought death into the world, and all
our woe, With loss of Eden."
(from Paradise Lost)
John Milton was born in London. His mother Sarah Jeffrey was the
daughter of a merchant sailor, and his father had risen to prosperity
as a scrivener or law writer - he also composed music. The family
was wealthy enough to afford a second house in the country. Milton
was educated at St Paul's School and then at Christ's College, Cambridge
(1625-32). During his Cambridge period, while considering himself
destined for the ministry, he began to write poetry in Latin, Italian,
and English. He was expelled for a term after starting a fistfight
with his tutor.
On leaving Cambridge Milton had given up his original plan to become
a priest. He adopted no profession but spent six years at leisure
in his father's home, writing during that time L'ALLEGRO, IL PENSEROSO
(1632), COMUS (1634), and LYCIDAS (1637). In 1635 the Miltons moved
to Horton, Buckinghamshire, where John pursued his studies in Greek,
Latin, and Italian. He travelled in France and Italy in the late
1630s, meeting in Paris the jurist and theologian Hugo Grotius and
astronomer Galileo Galilei in Florence - there are references to
Galileo's telescope in Paradise Lost. His conversation with
the blind scientist Milton recorded in AREOPAGITICA, which attacked
censorship. Milton returned to London in 1639, and set up a school
with his nephews and a few others as pupils. The Civil War silenced
his poetic work for 20 years. War divided the country as Oliver
Cromwell fought against the king, Charles I.
Concerned with the Puritan cause, Milton wrote a series of pamphlets
against episcopacy (1642), on divorce (1643), in defence of the
liberty of the press (1644), and in support of the regicides (1649).
He also served as the secretary for foreign languages in Cromwell's
government. After the death of Charles I, Milton published THE TENURE
OF KINGS AND MAGISTRATES (1649) supporting the view that the people
had the right to depose and punish tyrants.
 In
1651 Milton became blind. After the Restoration of Charles II in
1660, he was arrested as a noted defender of the Commonwealth, but
was soon released. Besides public burning of EIKONKLASTES and the
first DEFENSIO in Paris and Toulouse, Milton escaped from more punishment
after Restoration, but he became a relatively poor man. In the 1660s
Milton moved with his third wife to what is now Burnhill Row. He
spent there the remaining years of his life, apart from a brief
visit to Chalfont St Giles in 1665, to avoid the plague. His late
poems were dictated to his daughter, nephews, friends, disciples,
and paid amanuenses.
Milton was married three times (Mary Powell, 1642; Katherine Woodcock,
1656; Elizabeth Minshull, 1662). His marriages were unhappy. Mary
Powell grew bored with the life of a poet soon after the honeymoon
was over and went back home where she stayed for three years. Milton
wrote his famous essays on divorce. In THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE
OF DIVORCE (1643) Milton argued that a true marriage was of mind
as well as of body, and that the chaste and modest were more likely
to find themselves 'chained unnaturally together' in unsuitable
unions than those who had in youth lived loosely and enjoyed more
varied experience. Though Milton was Puritan, morally austere and
conscientious, some of his religious beliefs were unconventional
to the point of heresy, and came into conflict with the official
Puritan stand.
"By labor and intent study (which I take to be my portion
in this life), joined with the strong propensity of nature, I
might perhaps leave something so written to after-times, as they
should not willingly let it die."
(from The Reason of Church Government, 1641)
Milton died from 'gout struck in' on November 8, 1674 in Chalfont,
St. Giles, Buckinghamshire. He was buried beside his father in St
Giles', Cripplegate. Many writers believe that Milton's grave was
desecrated when the church was undergoing repairs. All the teeth
and 'a large quantity of the hair' were taken as souvenirs by grave
robbers. As a writer, Milton's towering figure was recognized early,
but his personality and works have continued to arouse discussion.
Even T.S. Eliot has attacked the author and described him as one
whose sensuousness had been 'withered by book-learning.' Eliot claimed
that Milton's poetry 'could only be an influence for the
worse.'
 The
theme of Fall and expulsion from Eden in PARADISE LOST had been
in Milton's mind from 1640s. His ambition was to compose an epic
poem to rival the works of ancient writers, such as Homer and Virgil.
The poem was originally issued in 10 books in 1667, and in 12 books
in the second edition of 1674. The troubled times, in which Milton
lived, left their mark on his theme of religious conflict.
Paradise Lost tells a biblical story of Adam and Eve, with
God, and Lucifer (Satan), who is thrown out of Heaven to corrupt
humankind. Milton created a powerful and sympathetic portrait of
Lucifer. This view influenced deeply Romantic poets William Blake
and Percy Bysshe Shelley, who saw Satan as the real hero of the
poem and a rebel against the tyranny of Heaven. In The Marriage
of Heaven and Hell Blake stated that Milton as 'a true Poet,
and of the Devil's party without knowing it.' Many other works of
art have been inspired by Paradise Lost, among them Joseph
Haydn's oratorio The Creation, Alexander Pope's The Rape
of the Lock and The Dunciad, John Keat's poem Endymion,
Lord Byron's The Vision of Judgment, satanic Sauron in J.R.R.
Tolkien's saga The Lord of the Rings.
For further reading: The Miltonic Setting by E.M.W. Tillyard
(1938); The Living Milton, ed. by F. Kermode (1960); Milton's
Grand Style by C. Ricks (1963); Milton and the English Revolution
by C. Hill (1977); also full biographies by D. Masson (1859-94)
and W.R. Parker (1968); John Milton, a Literary Life by Cedric
C. Brown (1995); Divided Empire: Milton's Political Imagery by
Robert Thomas Fallon (1996); Milton Unbound by John P. Rumrich
(1966); Eden Renewed: The Public and Private Life of John Milton
by Peter Levi (1997); John Milton: The Prose Works by Thomas N.
Corns (1998); John Milton: A Comprehensive Research and Study
Guide, ed. by Harold Bloom (1999) - Note: Milton appears
himself in William Blake's visionary Milton (c. 1814) and in Rober
Graves's Wife to Mr Milton (1944) - Note: Alastair Fowler's
annotated edition of Paradise Lost is considered among the best
guides to Milton's poem - first edition in 1968, second edition
in 1998.
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