John Milton was a genius poet of the Jacobean Age. He was the first modern writer to employ unrhymed verse outside of the theatre or translations. Under the Government of Oliver Cromwell, Milton did a civil servant job and supported the commonwealth. Milton is closely associated with the English Civil War (1642 – 1651) and the political and social turmoil of his time.
John Milton was a Puritan poet. Puritan poets were poets who belonged to the Puritan religious movement, which was prominent in England and the American colonies during the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritans were known for their strict religious beliefs and moral values. Some other Puritan poets include Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor. Milton is described as the “greatest English author” by biographer William Hayley. Milton was revered by poets such as William Blake, William Wordsworth, and Thomas Hardy.
John Milton was born in London on December 9, 1608, in Bread Street. His parents were John Milton and Sarah Jeffrey. John Milton Sr. was renowned for his musical compositions, instilling in his son a deep love for music and fostering friendships with musicians like Henry Lawes. Milton’s journey began with the writing of pamphlets, which had significant political and historical implications.
Following his private education, Milton enrolled at St. Paul’s School in London, studying Latin and Greek. The influence of these classical languages can be seen in both his English poetry and prose. Additionally, Milton was proficient in Latin and Italian. At the age of 15, John Milton authored two religious’ songs, a fact documented in the contemporary source “Brief Lives” by John Aubrey. Milton was given the nickname “Lady of Christ’s College” owing to his fair complexion.
In 1629, John Milton earned a BA degree from the University of Cambridge. At that time, he was preparing to pursue a career as an Anglican priest. He chose to remain at Cambridge, where he successfully completed his MA degree on July 3, 1632. Milton faced suspension in his first year due to a dispute with his tutor, Bishop William Chappell and he was back in London during the Lent Term of 1626. It was during this period that he composed his first Latin elegy, “Elegia Prima,” addressed to his friend Charles Diodati.
At Cambridge, Milton enjoyed a close friendship with Edward King, to whom he later dedicated his poem “Lycidas.” Milton tutored Anglo-American Roger Williams in Hebrew while receiving lessons in Dutch from him and formed a connection with the dissident and theologian Williams. He often felt distant from his peers during his time at Cambridge. He once witnessed his fellow students performing comedy on the college stage and commented, “They thought themselves gallant men, and I thought them fools.” Milton did not like the college atmosphere.
After receiving his MA, Milton moved to Hammersmith, his father’s new home in 1632 and undertook six years of self-directed private study. Before pursuing a career as a poet, John Milton read a lot of old and new books on various subjects like religion, philosophy, history, politics, stories, and science. He kept a kind of scrapbook called a commonplace book, which is now in the British Library. This shows how he developed his thinking over time. Because of his intense reading and learning, people consider him one of the most knowledgeable English poets.
In addition to his private study, Milton was really good with languages. He could speak and write in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish, and Italian and learned to speak Dutch pretty quickly too. Knowing all these languages helped him understand and use a wide range of ideas and sources in his writing. Arcades, Comus, and Lycidas poems are preserved in Milton’s poetry notebook, known as the Trinity Manuscript, because it is now kept at Trinity College, Cambridge.
In 1638, John Milton set off on a journey to France and Italy and stayed until the following year, 1639. This trip was not only a break from his studies but also a way to gain firsthand experiences of different artistic and religious traditions. He encountered Roman Catholicism, and he even had the chance to meet the renowned astronomer Galileo, who was under house arrest in Arcetri. During his travels, Milton also wrote a political work titled “Defensio Secunda.” Originally, he had plans to continue his journey from Naples to Sicily and then on to Greece, but he decided to return to England in 1639.
When John Milton came back to England, the country was facing the Bishops’ Wars. At that time, he started writing essays against the leadership of the Church of England, supporting the Puritans and the Parliament. He strongly criticized the High Church group within the Church of England. To support himself, Milton worked as a private school teacher. During this time, he talked with an educational reformer named Samuel Hartlib, and these discussions inspired him to write a short essay in 1644 called “Of Education.” In this essay, he argued for changes in the national universities to make education better.
In 1642, when John Milton was 34 years old, he visited Forest Hill in Oxfordshire and got married to Mary Powell, who was 17 years old. However, their marriage did not begin well because Mary had difficulty adjusting to Milton’s strict way of living. Soon after the wedding, Mary went back to her parents’ home and didn’t return until 1645 and was partly due to the outbreak of the Civil War.
After the Parliament won the Civil War, John Milton used his writing to support the idea of a republic, where the people have the power. He was chosen to be the Secretary for Foreign Affairs in March 1649. Milton wanted to change the way people saw King Charles I, who had been executed. So, in October 1649, he wrote a book called “Eikonoklastes,” where he defended the decision to remove the king from power. Then, on February 24, 1652, Milton published another book called “First Defence,” which made him famous in Europe. In 1654, he wrote the “Second Defence,” which made many personal attacks on him. In this book, he praised Oliver Cromwell, who was a powerful leader in England at the time.
In 1652, John Milton completely lost his eyesight. Because of his blindness, he couldn’t write his poems and essays himself anymore. Instead, One of his assistants Andrew Marvell, wrote them down for him, who also became a famous poet. One of Milton’s well-known sonnets is called “When I Consider How My Light is Spent.” It’s referred to as “On His Blindness” because John Newton an editor later gave it that title.
In 1658, the death of Oliver Cromwell led to the collapse of the English Republic, resulting in conflicts between different military and political groups. However, during this tumultuous time in 1659, John Milton published a work titled “A Treatise of Civil Power.” In this work, he criticized the idea of a state-controlled church, known as Erastianism, and also spoke out against corrupt practices within church leadership and governance.
After Restoration in May 1660, Milton, fearing for his life, went into hiding, while a warrant was out for his arrest, and his writings were being burned. Eventually, when a general pardon was issued, he came out of hiding. However, he was arrested and spent a short time in prison. After his release, Milton wrote his famous work “Paradise Lost.” Later, in 1663, he got married for the third and final time to Elizabeth Minshull, who was 24 years old and from Wistaston, Cheshire. For the last ten years of his life, Milton lived quietly in London.
Milton passed away in November 1674 due to kidney failure. 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
- In 1656, Milton was married to Katherine Woodcock and She died in 1658, less than four months after giving birth to her daughter Katherine, who also died.
- Milton married for a third time to Elizabeth Mynshull or Minshull (1638–1728. Despite a 31-year age gap, the marriage seemed happy, according to John Aubrey, and lasted more than 12 years until Milton’s death.
- His nephews, Edward and John Phillips (sons of Milton’s sister Anne), were educated by. John acted as a secretary, and Edward was Milton’s first biographer.
Poetry:
- On Shakespeare (1630)
- Comus in 1637
- Lycidas in 1638
- Paradise Lost 1667. Most famous epic poem. He was blind when he wrote it, so he sold the publication rights for Paradise Lost to publisher Samuel Simmons. Also wrote its sequel Paradise Regained, which was published alongside the tragedy Samson Agonistes in 1671. Both of these works also reflect Milton’s post-restoration political situation. Once Paradise Lost was published, Milton’s stature as an 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 Blake 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.
William Wordsworth wrote the sonnet “London, 1802” which was dedicated to John Milton.
John Keats exclaimed that “Miltonic verse cannot be written but in an artful or rather artist’s humour.” Keats felt that Paradise Lost was a “beautiful and grand curiosity”.