John Milton was the second oldest child born to the union of senior John Milton and Sara Jeffrey. He was born December 9, 1608 in London. Milton lived with his family in a home located very near to St. Paul’s Cathedral. John Milton Sr. was able to afford a private tutor for John because he acquired some wealth through his work as a legal secretary. Milton’s father prepared and notarized legal documents, was a loan officer, and served as a real estate broker. Milton Sr.’s income allowed him to provide Milton with an education in the classical languages (Joiken).
Milton was taught at home until he was twelve years old. He was admitted to a college in Cambridge five years later where he was suspended after a year for an altercation with his tutor (Joiken). Milton spent the next six years at home self-studying a postgraduate course (Kermode 1206). It was during this time and absence from Cambridge that he began to write poetry. Milton earned his bachelor’s degree from Christ’s College (Kermode). He eventually received his master’s degree from Cambridge in 1632 (Joiken)
Milton married Mary Powell in 1642 and was separated after only three months of marriage. She returned three years later, but died while giving birth. Their marriage lasted ten years (Kermode 1207). Milton then married Katherine Woodcock four years after his first wife died. They remained married for two years until her death four months after their infant daughter’s, Katherine’s, death. In 1663, Milton married his third wife, Elizabeth Minshull. They remained married until his death (Shawcross x-xi).
To support the family, Milton opened a school in London to give private lessons. Initially, he only had two students who were his nephews (Kermode 1207). Milton’s listene...
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...ons. Lines 11-14 strongly suggest that Milton strained his eyes and used all of their power to write his literary works, but reminded us that he is “content, though blind” with following the will of God.
Works Cited
Hollander, John, and Kermode, Frank. The Literature of Renaissance England. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973.
Joiken, Anniina. "Life of John Milton." Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature. 21 June 2006. .
Kermode, Frank, and John Hollander, eds., ed. The Oxford Anthology of English Literature. The Middle Ages through the Eighteenth Century. Vol. 1. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973. 2 vols.
McDonnell, Helen, et al. ENGLAND in Literature. Medallion ed. Glenview: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1982.
Shawcross, John T. The Complete Poetry of John Milton. New York: Doubleday, 1963.
Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907–21; New York: Bartleby.com, 2000
Sargent, Michael G. “Mystical Writings and Dramatic Texts in Late Medieval England.” Religion & Literature , Vol. 37, No. 2 (Summer, 2005), pp. 77-98
Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907–21; New York: Bartleby.com, 2000
Speech was perhaps the most important medium for Milton. As a blind poet, his lack of visual faculties was augmented by a renewed importance on auditory paths to enlightenment, especially the communicative. Therefore, contemplation of dialogue in Paradise Lost becomes an essential tool for developing a correct understanding of the characters, as Milton would have intended. Nowhere is this truer than with the character of Satan. Throughout the text, his rhetoric exists as a window to the nature of his being, and thus evil itself. Milton, through his depictions of Satan's communications with his comrades, the newly formed humans, and even himself (through soliloquy), shows us that evil, as incarnate in the character of Satan, cannot pursue truth, but rather must always focus on deception.
Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907–21; New York: Bartleby.com, 2000 http://www.bartleby.com/215/0816.html
Pope, Alexander. "An Essay on Man." in Eighteenth-Century English Literature. Eds. Geoffrey Tillotson, Paul Fussell, Jr. and Marshall Waingrow. New York: Harcourt, 1969. 635-51.
Reichert, John. Milton's Wisdom: Nature and Scripture in Paradise Lost. Ann Arbor, The University of Michigan Press. 1992
Williamson, George. ed. Milton: Formal Essays and Critical Asides. Cleveland: Case Western Reserve Univ. Press, 1970.
Loewenstein, David A Student Guide: Milton-Paradise Lost, 2nd Edition Cambridge University Press, 1993, Second Edition 2004.
Milton: Modern Essays in Criticism. Ed. Arthur E. Barker, b. 1875. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965. 205-217.
...thor his fate is in the hands of God, and it is Him that chooses the way Milton has to follow. The author has no other choice except to become a poet. He must not worry about the other poets who till now have produced many works, and the only thing he has to do is to follow God.
Milton, John. ‘Paradise Lost.’ 1674. Norton Anthology of English Literature. 7th ed. 2 vols. New York: Norton, 2000, 1: 1817-2044.
In conclusion, Paradise Lost can be seen through a historically contextual lens that allows us to see the parallels between Milton’s life and experiences during the reign of Charles I, and the predominant themes in his epic poem. Many of the themes in Paradise Lost, from the broader situational occurrences to the behavior of individual character’s and their attitudes toward the situations in which they find themselves can be seen as directly influenced by Milton’s time as a Parliamentarian in 17th century England.
John Milton's great epic poem, Paradise Lost, was written between the 1640's and 1665 in England, at a time of rapid change in the western world. Milton, a Puritan, clung to traditional Christian beliefs throughout his epic, but he also combined signs of the changing modern era with ancient epic style to craft a masterpiece. He chose as the subject of his great work the fall of man, from Genesis, which was a very popular story to discuss and retell at the time. His whole life had led up to the completion of this greatest work; he put over twenty years of time and almost as many years of study and travel to build a timeless classic. The success of his poem lies in the fact that he skillfully combined classic epic tradition with strongly held Puritan Christian beliefs.
Guibbory, Achsah. "Milton and English Poetry." A Companion to Milton. Thomas N. Corns, ed. Blackwell Publishing, 2003.