John Milton

John Milton was born in London, England (1608), to Sarah Jeffrey and his father, who was also named John. His mother was the daughter of a merchant sailor. His father was a law writer and also composed music. He inherited a love for art and music from his father.

By the time he was twelve he entered Christ’s college, Cambridge, where he wrote much religious poetry in Latin, Italian, and English. Milton was picked on often in the University, and he was expelled after starting a fist fight with his tutor. After that he spent six years at his father’s home, spending his days writing. During those six years he wrote: L'ALLEGRO, IL PENSEROSO (1632), COMUS (1634), and LYCIDAS (1637).

In 1635, John Milton and his family moved to Horton, Buckinghamshire, where he continued his studies in Greek, Latin, and Italian. He traveled to France and Italy in the late 1630s, meeting the theologian Hugo Grotius in Paris, France, and the astronomer Galileo in Florence, Italy. Milton returned to London in 1639, where he set up a school for his nephews. He did not write much, for he was silenced by the civil war for twenty long years.

Milton was concerned for the puritan cause, so during the civil war, he wrote a series of pamphlets against episcopacy (1642), on divorce (1643), in defense of the liberty of the press (1644), and in support of the regicides (1649). After the death of King Charles, Milton published THE TENURE OF KINGS AND MAGISTRATES (1649) sustaining the view that the citizens had the right to overthrow and punish tyrants. In 1951, he was faced with several unpleasant occurrences. He lost his eyesight for one, but even after that was put on trial for his controversial writings and political opinions. After the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, Milton was arrested as a noted defender of the Commonwealth, but was soon released. Milton paid a massive fine for his opposition.

Besides the publicly setting fire to his works EIKONKLASTES (1649) and the first DEFENSIO (1651) in Paris and Toulouse, Milton escaped from further penalty following Restoration, but he lost much of his money and became a reasonably poor man, although Paradise lost sold over 1,800 copies.