John Milton Class (1)
Updated: 7 July 1997
Biographical Notes
- Born: Dec. 9, 1608, London
- Died: on Nov. 8, 1674 (prob. from gout)
- Married: Mary Powell (1642 or 1643) [Mary left him six weeks later, but rejoined 1645; their first daughter Anne b. 1646; second daughter Mary b. 1648; third daughter Deborah b. 1652; son John b. 1651, d. in infancy; wife Mary d. 1652, three days after Deborah was born], Katherine Woodcock (1656) [Katherine d. in childbirth in 1658; their daughter survived only a few months; cf. "Methought I saw my late espoused saint" (1658?)], Elizabeth Minshull (1663)
- Educated: at Christ's College, Cambridge; BA, 1629; MA, 1632
- Became completely blind: 1652. Cf. "When I consider how my light is spent" (1652?)
- Works published in his lifetime: Comus (performed 1634; published 1637) [masque], Lycidas (1638) [a pastoral elegy on the death of a fellow student, Edward King], Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (1641) [an antiprelatical tract], The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643) [a tract arguing for the legality of divorce], Areopagitica, A Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicens'd Printing to the Parlament {sic} of England (1644) [an oration advocating freedom of the press from government censorship], Poems of Mr. John Milton (1645, during the English Civil War) [containing "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity," "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso"], Of the Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649, during the trial of Charles I) [a republican argument that monarchs can rule only with their subjects' consent], Eikonoklastes (The Image Breakers) (1649) [a defense in Latin of the execution of the king, entrusted when Milton was secretary to the Council of State under Oliver Cromwell; he continued in his post until the restoration of the monarchy (1660), when he was imprisoned and fined and then allowed to retire], Paradise Lost (1667), Paradise Regained (1671), Samson Agonistes (1671)
- Germ of epic: As early as 1628, in a student exercise, Milton had avowed his intention to compose an epic poem in the English language, but contemporary events, stirring his deepest convictions, required that he temporarily forgo his poetic career. (Dayton Haskin)
Bibliography
- Bush, Douglas, John Milton (1964)
- Hill, Christopher, Milton and the English Revolution (1977)
- Griffin, D., Regaining Paradise: Milton and the 18th Century (1986)
- Hughes, Merritt Y., et al., eds., A Variorum Commentary on the Poems of John Milton, 5 vols. (1970- )
- Hunter, W. B., et al., eds., A Milton Encyclopedia, 8 vols. (1978)
- Martz, L.L., Poet of Exile, 2d ed. (1986)
- Milton, John, Complete Prose Works, ed. by Don M. Wolfe et al., 8 vols. (1953- ), and Poems, ed. by John Carey and Alastair Fowler (1968)
- Moore, Leslie E., Beautiful Sublime: The Making of "Paradise Lost" (1990)
- Parker, W. R., Milton: A Biography, 2 vols. (1968)
- Shawcross, J. T., ed., Milton: The Critical Heritage (1972)
- Schiffhorst, Gerald J., John Milton (1990)
- Simmonds, James D., ed., Milton Studies (1969-)
- Wilson, A.N., The Life of John Milton (1983)
- Wolfe, Don M., Milton and His England (1971)
I've compiled the above information referring to some standard reference materials, including The Oxford Companion to English Literature, Grolier Encyclopedia, etc.
Some explanatory texts are adapted from those by Dayton Haskin, copyright (c) 1995 by Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc.
Related Links
This was a preliminary matter designed for the course on John Milton's Samson Agonistes starting in April, 1996, on the Graduate Studies of Letters and on the Faculty of Letters, Kobe U, Japan.
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