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.
Goldstein,Gary. "The Life of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford (1550-1604)" Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature. Anniina Jokinen, 3rd of June 1999. Web. 25th of April 2014.
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
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
Milton establishes himself as the legitimate teller of the tale – and this tale will take us beyond the mythology of the Greeks’Aonian Mount and inoculate us against Hell’s prodigiousness. He is taking us beyond mythological or explanatory pictures of ourselves, to an area where we may bask in a greater comfort:
Abrams, M.H., et al. ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. 2 Vols. New York: Norton, 1993.
The subject, the drama, and the importance of Paradise Lost is grand. The epic represents what can be accomplished with the English language as sounds and syntax are carefully crafted. But the work is not shallow, because Milton argues forcefully the wisdom and justice of God Almighty for His dealings with mankind. In the words of Samuel Johnson, Milton attempts to show "the reasonableness of religion."
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.
May, Robert. “Lesson 6: The Early Modern Period.” English 110S Course Notes. Queen’s University. Kingston. Summer 2010. Course Manual.
Raffel, Burton. and Alexandra H. Olsen Poems and Prose from the Old English, (Yale University Press)Robert Bjork and John Niles,
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
Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 34, No. 2, Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama (Spring, 1994), pp. 341-356 Published by: Rice University http://www.jstor.org/stable/450905
There is no reason to apply modern theories to Milton if we do not care whether Milton remains alive. However, if we wish him to be more than a historical artifact, we must do more than just study him against the background of his time. We must reinterpret him in light of the germane thought of our own age.-James Driscoll
Tucker, Martin- ed. Moulton’s Library of Literary Criticism… Vol. I- The Beginnings to the Seventeenth Century New York, Frederick Publishing Co. 1966:
Carey, John. “Milton’s Satan.” The Cambridge Companion to Milton. Ed. Dennis Danielson. ???. 1989. 131-145. Print.
...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.