Life of John Milton

Life of John Milton

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Title: Life of John Milton
Author: Richard Garnett
Release Date: September 26, 2005 [EBook #16757]
Language: English
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"Great Writers." EDITED BY PROFESSOR ERIC S. ROBERTSON,
M.A.
* * * * *

_LIFE OF MILTON._

LIFE
OF
JOHN MILTON
BY
RICHARD GARNETT, LL.D.

LONDON WALTER SCOTT, 24, WARWICK LANE 1890 (_All
rights reserved._)

NOTE.
The number of miniature "Lives" of Milton is great; great also is the
merit of some of them. With one exception, nevertheless, they are all
dismissed to the shelf by the publication of Professor Masson's
monumental and authoritative biography, without perpetual reference
to which no satisfactory memoir can henceforth be composed. One
recent biography has enjoyed this advantage. Its author, the late Mark
Pattison, wanted neither this nor any other qualification except a keener
sense of the importance of the religious and political controversies of
Milton's time. His indifference to matters so momentous in Milton's
own estimation has, in our opinion, vitiated his conception of his hero,
who is represented as persistently yielding to party what was meant for
mankind. We think, on the contrary, that such a mere man of letters as
Pattison wishes that Milton had been, could never have produced a
"Paradise Lost." If this view is well-founded, there is not only room but
need for yet another miniature "Life of Milton," notwithstanding the
intellectual subtlety and scholarly refinement which render Pattison's
memorable. It should be noted that the recent German biography by

Stern, if adding little to Professor Masson's facts, contributes much
valuable literary illustration; and that Keighley's analysis of Milton's
opinions occupies a position of its own, of which no subsequent
biographical discoveries can deprive it. The present writer has further
to express his deep obligations to Professor Masson for his great
kindness in reading and remarking upon the proofs--not thereby
rendering himself responsible for anything in these pages; and also to
the helpful friend who has provided him with an index.

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
11
Milton born in Bread Street, Cheapside, December 9, 1608; condition
of English literature at his birth; part in its development assigned to him;
materials available for his biography; his ancestry; his father;
influences that surrounded his boyhood; enters St. Paul's School, 1620;
distinguished for compositions in prose and verse; matriculates at
Cambridge, 1625; condition of the University at the period; his
misunderstandings with his tutor; graduates B.A., 1629, M.A., 1632;
his relations with the University; declines to take orders or follow a
profession; his first poems; retires to Horton, in Buckinghamshire,
where his father had settled, 1632
CHAPTER II.
35
Horton, its scenery and associations with Milton; Milton's studies and
poetical aspirations; exceptional nature of his poetical development; his
Latin poems; "Arcades" and "Comus" composed and represented at the
instance of Henry Lawes, 1633 and 1634; "Comus" printed in 1637; Sir
Henry Wootton's opinion of it; "Lycidas" written in the same year, on
occasion of the death of Edward King; published in 1638; criticism on

"L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso," "Lycidas" and "Comus"; Milton's
departure for Italy, April, 1638.
CHAPTER III.
57
State of Italy at the period of Milton's visit; his acquaintance with
Italian literati at Florence; visit to Galileo; at Rome and Naples; returns
to England, July, 1639; settles in St. Bride's Churchyard, and devotes
himself to the education of his nephews; his elegy on his friend Diodati;
removes to Aldersgate Street, 1640; his pamphlets on ecclesiastical
affairs, 1641 and 1642; his tract on Education his "Areopagitica,"
November, 1644; attacks the Presbyterians.
CHAPTER IV.
83
Milton as a Parliamentarian; his sonnet, "When the Assault was
intended to the City," November, 1642; goes on a visit to the Powell
family in Oxfordshire, and returns with Mary Powell as his wife, May
and June, 1643; his domestic unhappiness; Mary Milton leaves him,
and refuses to return, July to September, 1643; publication of his
"Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce," August, 1643, and February,
1644; his father comes to live with him; he takes additional pupils; his
system of education; he courts the daughter of Dr. Davis; his wife,
alarmed, returns, and is reconciled to him, August, 1645; he removes to
the Barbican, September, 1645; publication of his collected poems,
January, 1646; he receives his