Life of John Milton | Page 2

wife's relatives under his roof; death of
his father, March, 1647; he writes "The Tenure of Kings and
Magistrates," February, 1649; becomes Latin Secretary to the
Commonwealth, March, 1649.
CHAPTER V.
104

Milton's duties as Latin Secretary; he drafts manifesto on the state of
Ireland; occasionally employed as licenser of the press; commissioned
to answer "Eikon Basilike"; controversy on the authorship of this work;
Milton's "Eikonoklastes" published, October, 1649; Salmasius and his
"Defensio Regia pro Carolo I."; Milton undertakes to answer Salmasius,
February, 1650; publication of his "Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio,"
March, 1651; character and complete controversial success of this work;
Milton becomes totally blind, March, 1652; his wife dies, leaving him
three daughters, May, 1652; his controversy with Morus and other
defenders of Salmasius, 1652-1655; his characters of the eminent men
of the Commonwealth; adheres to Cromwell; his views on politics;
general character of his official writings: his marriage to Elizabeth
Woodcock, and death of his wife, November, 1656-March, 1658; his
nephews; his friends and recreations.
CHAPTER VI.
128
Milton's poetical projects after his return from Italy; drafts of "Paradise
Lost" among them; the poem originally designed as a masque or
miracle-play; commenced as an epic in 1658; its composition speedily
interrupted by ecclesiastical and political controversies; Milton's
"Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes," and "Considerations
on the likeliest means to remove Hirelings out of the Church"; Royalist
reaction in the winter of 1659-60; Milton writes his "Ready and Easy
Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth"; conceals himself in
anticipation of the Restoration, May 7, 1660; his writings ordered to be
burned by the hangman, June 16; escapes proscription, nevertheless;
arrested by the Serjeant-at-Arms, but released by order of the
Commons, December 15; removes to Holborn; his pecuniary losses and
misfortunes; the undutiful behaviour of his daughters; marries
Elizabeth Minshull, February, 1663; lives successively in Jewin Street
and in Artillery Walk, Bunhill Fields; particulars of his private life;
"Paradise Lost" completed in or about 1663; agreement for its
publication with Samuel Symmons; difficulties with the licenser; poem
published in August, 1667.

CHAPTER VII.
152
Place of "Paradise Lost" among the great epics of the world; not
rendered obsolete by changes in belief; the inevitable defects of its plan
compensated by the poet's vital relation to the religion of his age;
Milton's conception of the physical universe; his theology;
magnificence of his poetry; his similes; his descriptions of Paradise;
inevitable falling off of the later books; minor critical objections mostly
groundless; his diction; his indebtedness to other poets for thoughts as
well as phrases; this is not plagiarism; his versification; his Satan
compared with Calderon's Lucifer; plan of his epic, whether in any way
suggested by Andreini, Vondel, or Ochino; his majestic and unique
position in English poetry.
CHAPTER VIII.
173
Milton's migration to Chalfont St. Giles to escape the plague in London,
July, 1665; subject of "Paradise Regained" suggested to him by the
Quaker Ellwood; his losses by the Great Fire, 1666; first edition of
"Paradise Lost" entirely sold by April, 1669; "Paradise Regained" and
"Samson Agonistes" published, 1671; criticism on these poems;
Samson partly a personification of Milton himself, partly of the English
people; Milton's life in Bunhill Fields; his daughters live apart from
him; Dryden adapts "Paradise Lost" as an opera; Milton's "History of
Britain," 1670; second editions of his poems, 1673, and of "Paradise
Lost," 1674; his "Treatise on Christian Doctrine"; fate of the
manuscript; Milton's mature religious opinions; his death and burial,
1674; subsequent history of his widow and descendants; his personal
character.
INDEX 199

LIFE OF MILTON.
CHAPTER I.
John Milton was born on December 9, 1608, when Shakespeare had
lately produced "Antony and Cleopatra," when Bacon was writing his
"Wisdom of the Ancients" and Ralegh his "History of the World,"
when the English Bible was hastening into print; when, nevertheless, in
the opinion of most foreigners and many natives, England was
intellectually unpolished, and her literature almost barbarous.
The preposterousness of this judgment as a whole must not blind us to
the fragment of truth which it included. England's literature was, in
many respects, very imperfect and chaotic. Her "singing masons" had
already built her "roofs of gold"; Hooker and one or two other great
prose-writers stood like towers: but the less exalted portions of the
edifice were still half hewn. Some literatures, like the Latin and the
French, rise gradually to the crest of their perfection; others, like the
Greek and the English, place themselves almost from the first on their
loftiest pinnacle, leaving vast gaps to be subsequently filled in. Homer
was not less the supreme poet because history was for him literally an
old song, because he would have lacked understanding for Plato and
relish for Aristophanes. Nor were Shakespeare and the translators of the
Bible less at the head of European