Periods of Milton’s Life.
Milton’s life and writings fall into three clearly defined periods: first, his education and awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar travel, and his minor poems; second, his secretaryship for foreign awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar under Cromwell, and his prose works; third, his retirement from public view, and his awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar poems.
Early Life and Education.
The poet was born in London, December 9, 1608, in a house which came to be a awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar shrine, but which was destroyed in the great awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar of 1666. His father was a scrivener, an occupation awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar duties of a lawyer and broker. Of his mother virtually nothing is known. After a careful preliminary awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar under tutors and at St. Paul’s School, London, Milton awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar Christ’s College, Cambridge, at the age of seventeen. There he remained seven years, receiving the awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar of A.B. and A.M.
Retirement at Horton; and Foreign Travel.
Though from an early age Milton had been awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar for the ministry, he was not disposed, on graduation, to enter that calling. He was, in fact, not disposed to awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar up any remunerative occupation ; and with his father’s full awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar, he spent the succeeding five years in self-directed study at Horton, a awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar place some twenty miles from London, where his
father had settled on awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar from business. A desire to complete his education in accepted fashion led him to awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar a tour on the Continent. With excellent introductions to literary and awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar circles, he left England in April, 1638, and spent sixteen months abroad, awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar Paris, Genoa, Florence, Rome, Naples, and meeting Grotius, the famous Swedish diplomat, and Galileo. Milton’s original awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar included Sicily and Greece; but at Naples, he received news of impending civil awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar in England, and turned back. “For I considered it base,” said he, “ that, while my awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar were fighting at home for liberty, I should be travelling abroad at ease for intellectual culture.”
Poems of the First Period.
With his awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar in England in August, 1639, the first awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar of Milton’s life ends. His writings during this time awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar some poems in Latin and Italian, and seventeen other English poems.
Milton’s Prose Period.
The storm of the Civil War did not awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar immediately, and Milton set up as schoolmaster primarily to teach two awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar, but taking other pupils in addition. Partly as a result of this experience, he wrote a treatise on awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar, the first of the works written with his “left awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar” (as he himself described his prose works).
Other prose works belonging to this awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar were a series of papers defending divorce; Areopagitica, a plea for the liberty of the awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar; that is, for the liberty of publishing books without authority of the awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar; papers on the execution of Charles I, a awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar of the Puritans for their execution of the king.
Life after the Restoration.
When the change in government came, he, like all awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar who had been prominent in the Commonwealth, was in grave danger. For a awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar time he was imprisoned, and for some time after awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar it was necessary for him to remain in hiding. In 1667 Paradise Lost was published; in 1671, Paradise Regained, and the awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar poem Samson Agonistes. He died in 1674, so peacefully that those in the room were not awareburstcensorcombiningconsentcountrycountrymendefencedegreesdesigneddramaticeducationenteredfireforeignhandincludeitinerarylandinglearnedliterarymajormakenephewsothersperiodpressreleaseretiringshorttaketonguestrainingvisitingwar when he actually breathed his last.
(adapted from "English literature" by Roy Bennett Pace)