Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

JOHN DICKS, 313, STRAND; AND ALL BOOKSELLERS.

1870.

280. j. 250.

[blocks in formation]

JOHN MILTON, the most distinguished of English poets, and one whose exertions in the cause of civil and religious liberty must ever entitle him to the grateful regards of his countrymen, was born in Bread Street, December 9, 1608, and received his early education at St. Paul's School. Young Milton was removed at the age of seventeen to Christ's College, Cambridge, and soon distinguished himself by the purity and elegance of his Latin compositions as well as for his general classical attainments.

On leaving college he repaired to his father's residence in Buckinghamshire, where he spent five years in the most diligent study of the Greek and Latin classics; and during this interval he appears to have produced both his exquisite Masque of Comus," which is stated in the title to have been performed at Ludlow Castle, in 1634, before the Earl of Bridgewater, and some of the principal of his minor poems, of which we may especially notice his Lycidas," the character of which is pastoral.

[ocr errors]

In 1638, Milton left England for the purpose of completing his education by foreign travel; and visited in succession Paris, Nice, Genoa, Pisa, Florence, Rome, and Naples. Honours from both the learned and the great waited upon the accomplished Englishman wherever he appeared. The state of his native country, however, worn by dissensions, and manifestly on the eve of a great convulsion, appealed too strongly to his patriotic ardour to suffer him to protract his stay abroad and returning by the way of Geneva, he again reached home, after an absence of about fifteen months. He did not now resume his residence with his father. He probably considered that for the unsettled times which were apparently at hand the fit preparation, which it behoved every man to make, was the adoption of some way of earning his bread by his own independent exertions: and hiring a house in St. Bride's church-yard, he opened a seminary for the instruction of youth in the classic languages. The school turning out very successful, he shortly afterwards removed to a house in Aldersgate Street, and in 1641 he published a treatise in favour of the Puritans.

In 1673, Milton married a daughter of Mr. Powell, of Forrest Hill, Oxfordshire, a firm Royalist. This marriage, in its early stage, seemed very inauspicious; for, either influenced by family considerations, or from want of congeniality in sentiments and feelings, they had only been married a month when his wife deserted him, and returned to her friends. She made no reply to the repeated letters and remonstrances

B

of her husband; which so incensed him, that he formed the resolution to receive her no more; and to justify this resolution, he published several pieces on the subject of divorce. He even proceeded so far as to pay his addresses to a young lady with the design of marrying her. Whilst this marriage was negotiating he was surprised by a visit from his wife, who implored pardon and reconciliation on her knees. This awakened his tenderest affection, and he received her with kindness to his bosom.

Milton's political principles agreeing with the republican spirit of these times, he strongly supported the cause of the Commonwealth and the destruction of kingly government by several publications on the subject.

In 1645 he published a collection of Latin and English poems. Soon after the death of the King he was advanced by Cromwell to the station of Latin secretary to himself and the parliament; and he continued to hold the latter office till the restoration of Charles II. In 1649, Salmasius, a professor of polite learning at Leyden, and a man of extraordinary literary attainments, produced his "Defensio Regis," to which Milton replied in so forcible a manner that it became difficult to determine whose language was best. After this Milton resided for some time with his family in Whitehall; but his ill health obliged him to take lodgings in the neighbourhood of St. James's Park; where his wife died, leaving him three daughters. This painful occurrence was soon succeeded by another still more distresssing-his own deprivation of sight. these melancholy circumstances he directed his attention to another object, and was married to the daughter of a Captain Woodcock, of Hackney. She died within a year, from the same cause as the former wife. Milton has honoured her memory in his eighteenth sonnet.

In

On the King's restoration, he found it necessary to conceal himself till the storm against him was blown over, and the interest of his friends had got him included in the general amnesty. He now retired from the busy scenes of the world, and devoted himself to the completion of his grand poem. For, although his circumstances had suffered by the Restoration, his independent spirit refused to accept any public employment. and he lived in the greatest simplicity in the neighbourhood of Bunhill Fields, where we are told he used to sit in a gray coarse cloth coat at the door in the summer, to enjoy the fresh air and receive the visits of persons of distinguished rank and learning.

He had now reached his forty-seventh year;

« PreviousContinue »