JOHN MILTON. (1608-1674.)

JOHN MILTON was born December 9, 1608, in Bread Street, Cheapside, London. His literary life is divided into three periods. First period extends to 1640. Second period, 1640 to 1660. Third period, 1660 to his death in 1674. The writings of each period possess a character peculiar to themselves. First period Lyric; second period Prose; third period, Epic. "Comus" is the supreme product of the first period-a masterpiece of lyric poetry.

Milton married three times. First wife, Mary Powell, daughter of a Royalist, was carried from gaiety to the home of an austere Puritan. Second wife was very congenial and dearly beloved, but lived only a year. Third wife survived him.

"Paradise Lost "" was written at Bunhill Fields, after he was blind. Early in the morning he would have a chapter of the Hebrew Bible read to him and meditate on this chapter one whole hour. His three daughters were not educated, so frequently read aloud languages which they did not understand.

Milton

Some people live by impulses-others according to ideas. Some mix the two or vary the degree. lived according to one supreme idea. His aim was to unfold and develop within himself the ideal man. The following quotation is from his sonnet On His Blindness.

"God doth not need

Either man's work or his own gifts: who best
bear his mild yoke, they serve him best: His state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait."

YOUNG MILTON.

"EXCEPT perhaps in the case of Mozart, it is difficult to recall a similar instance of a child deliberately bred and confidently self-dedicated, as Milton was, to assured greatness. Jansen has depicted him for us at the age of eight as a beautiful, eager boy, his face animated with an almost leaping spirit of intelligence, balanced with a suggestion of strenuous, intellectual endeavor that must have made him the delight of teachers such as Young and Alexander Gill, and equally, perhaps, an object of suspicious dislike to any pompous college tutor whose learning was challenged by so brilliant a pupil.

A glance at Milton in what may be called the first period of his life-his college days and his five years at his father's country house at Horton (1632-1638)calls up one of the most delightful pictures imaginable. There is no suspicion of "pose" or of the priggishness about the "wondrous youth," as his friend Diodati calls him, who penned the classic orations delivered by request before the assembled audience of tutors and fellow students at Christ's, Cambridge. Reciting these, his face lighted from without by the torch of learning and his eyes shining from the fire of imagination that burned within, he must have appeared to his contemporaries as one not merely illumined, but wholly transcended by his glorious genius. All his letters of this period prove how he was bent on studious retirement, and that in his poetic seclusion he was meditating some literary expression of the great poetic impulses stirring within him.

Notes on the Study of Macauley's Essay on Milton. I. His Critics.

1. By most assigned the master place.

2. Many extol the poem and decry the poet.

3. Acknowledge works noble.

4. Will not rank them with ancients who are destitute of models.

5. Inherited-lived in an enlightened age.

II. His Difficulties.

1.

2.

Born " an age too late."

Understood the art better than the critic. 3. Knew his learning was no advantage. III. Civilization And Poetry Vary Inversely. 1. A great poem in a civilized age, wonderful. 2. The past and present proof.

IV. Progress of Ages.

1. Ages spent in collecting ages, in combining. Always something to add, alter, or reject.

2.

3. Each generation adds to hoard.

4. Thus in sciences, etc., ancients more praiseworthy. V. Not true of Poetry.

1. Language of poet best when rudest.

2. Nations first perceive, then abstract.

3. Hence language poetical-then philosophical. Effect of Change of Language.

VI.

1. Cause and effect of intellectual change.

2.

Generalization-necessary to knowledge-de

creases poetry.

3. Better theories and worse poetry.

4. The poet portrays, not dissects.

5. Contrast of Shakespeare and Mandeville. Poet's State of Mind.

VII.

1. Perhaps no sane person, a poet or lover of poetry. 2. Poetry, that arrangement of words which produces an illusion.

VIII. These Illusions.

1. Truth is essential but it is truth of madness.

2. Reasoning just, but premises false.

3. To grant premise requires deranged mind. 4. Imagination greatest in children.

IX. Uncultured Men Are Children.

1. Poetry highest in rude society.

2. Poetry lowest in enlightened age. 3. Men compare, not create.

4. Can not feel poetry as did ancients.

5. The Greek Rhapsodists,-the Mohawk,-Bards of Wales and Germany.

X. Poetry Like Magic Lantern Views.

1. Diminishes as light increases.

2. Clear discernment of truth and exquisite enjoyment of poetry incompatible.

XI.

Poet Must Be a Child.

1. Must unlearn much.

2. Difficulties proportional to proficiencies. 3. Knowledge makes him a modern ruin. XII. Milton's Triumph.

1. Was splendidly educated.

2. Mysteries of Rabbinical literature.

3. Modern languages.

4.

Excellence of Latin verses.

5. Incomparably better than Cowley and Petrarch. XIII. Versification in Dead Languages.

1. Sickly-far-fetched.

2. Soil not suited for anything else.

3. Not so with Milton.

4. Mimicry and originality.

5. His imagination triumphed over all obstacles.

XIV. Complete Examination not Attempted.

1. Public already agreed to merit of most remarkable passages.

2. In the fields of criticism.

(1) Innumerable reapers.

(2) Abundant harvest for straggling gleaners.

XV. The Most Striking Characteristics.

1. Remoteness of association acting on reader. 2. How effect is produced.

3. Homer.

4. Milton.-Reader must co-operate.

5. No finished picture.

6. He sketches-others fill up the outline. 7. Strikes the key-note.

XVI. The Magical Influence of Poetry.

1. Acts like an enchantment.

2. Merit in occult powers.

3. Mere word at a glance. Words of enchantment. 4. Past-Present.

5. New forms of beauty.

6. Change of structure of a sentence.

7. Cassim in the Arabian tale. "Open Wheat!" etc. 8. Dryden's failure.

XVII. Muster Roll of Mames.

1. Charmed names.

2. Links in the chain of associations.

3. Home of infancy.

4. Transports us back into history.

5. Into distant countries.

6. Evokes recollections of history. 7. Phantoms of chivalry.

XVIII. L'Allegro-II Penseroso.

1. Milton's peculiar manner happily displayed. 2. Exquisite perfections of language.

3. These poems differ from others as attar of roses from rose water.

4. Collection of hints.

XIX. Comus and Samson Agonistes.

1. Lyric poems in form of plays.

2. Lyrical opposed to dramatic poetry.

3. Dramatist keeps himself hidden.

4. Illusion broken.

5. Byron.

6. Newbury's pictures.

7. Inspiration of the ode, a species of egotism. XX. Attempt to Amalgamate Hostile Elements. 1. The Greek drama.