Timeline

• 1608, December 9th - Milton was born in London under the rule of James 1.

• 1620-25 - He attends St Paul’s school, London.

• 1625 - Charles 1 is crowned King.

• 1625-32 - He studies at Christ’s College, Cambridge.

• 1634 - Comus is performed.

• 1637 - Milton’s mother dies.

• 1638-9 - Milton travels to France and Italy.

• 1639 - Milton returns to London and starts tutoring boys including his nephews, Edward and John Phillips.

• 1641 - Milton begins to write pamphlets (tracts) on Church government.

• 1642 - Marries Mary Powell, who returns to her parents in Oxford 2 months later.

• 1643-5 - Publishes Divorce Tracts.

• 1644 - Publishes Areopagitica.

• 1645 - Mary returns to Milton and he publishes Poems.

• 1646 - Royalists surrender. Milton’s first daughter, Anne, is born.

• 1647 - Milton’s father and father-in-law, Richard Powell, die.

• 1648 - Milton’s second daughter, Mary, is born.

• 1649 - Charles 1 is executed, Milton becomes Secretary for Foreign Tongues to the Commonwealth, he publishes political writings including ‘On the Tenure of Kings and Magistrates‘.

• 1651 - His son, John, died in mysterious circumstances.

• 1652 - Milton becomes fully blind, likely due to glaucoma. Powell dies due to childbirth complications while giving birth to his third daughter, Deborah.

• 1653 - Milton partially retires from public life.

• 1656 - Marries Katherine Woodcock.

• 1658 - Katherine Woodcock dies with her baby. Milton begins writing Paradise Lost.

• 1659 - Publishes ‘A Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth‘, causing his brief imprisonment a year later.

• 1660 - Charles 1 is restored.

• 1663 - Marries Elizabeth Minshull.

• 1667 - Publication of Paradise Lost edition 1.

• 1671 - Publication Samson Agonistes and Paradise Regained.

• 1974 - Publication of Paradise Lost edition 2, Milton dies of gout at 66.

Milton’s life

Family

• Milton had a happy childhood.

• His parents were Catholics, and he became a Puritan.

• He only had two siblings make it to adulthood, his older sister Anne and younger brother Christopher.

Marriage

• Milton married Mary Powell in 1642.

  • He scarcely knew her, and this was not a happy marriage - she was back to her parents in Oxford within a few months.

    • Her family were royalists, and Oxford was their headquarters.

    • Her exact reasons for leavings are unknown, but it may have been due to disagreements with Milton personally or politically, or safety.

  • They reconciled after 3 years, when his friends engineered a meeting, where she begged for reconciliation.

  • Within a year of her return, her entire family had moved in. This is likely due to Charles 1 losing the war, and the Powells being ejected from Oxford.

  • She then bore him four children.

  • She died in 1652 during childbirth complications.

• He then married Katherine Woodcock in 1656.

  • He loved her passionately, and she is the wife who most closely aligns with his view of marriage written in his Divorce Tracts.

    • This attitude, of the value of family life and marriage outside of dominance and submission, was shared by many 17th century writings and King Charles 2 himself.

  • She died in 1658 with her baby, after 15 months of marriage.

• Milton’s friends found him his third wife, Elizabeth Minshull, to look after him. They married in 1663.

  • He grew to love her, and she helped him write Paradise Lost.

Other writings

• Milton was dedicated to his muse, who he said inspired him the same way God inspired Moses, meaning his poetry generally has some moral or ethical purpose.

General

• He wrote lots of poetry before his heavy involvement in politics:

  • Comus - a poetic play or masque in 1634.

  • Lycidas - a memorial to a deceased poet, Edward King who died in a boating accident, was written in 1638. It was part of a collection made by his Cambridge classmates, and originally untitled. It was the final poem in the collection.

  • A poetry collection in 1646, titled Poems and containing Lycidas, Comus and “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity“.

• After his blinding in 1652 he left public life, and after the restoration he dedicated himself to writing, including:

  • Paradise Lost.

    • This was published in 1667, and had completed him 7 years to complete as he preferred to work in the early morning and autumn and winter.

    • It was originally in 10 books, but due to considerable success a second edition was published with 12 books in 1674.

  • Paradise Regained.

  • Samson Agonistes, a History of Britain - a tragedy.

  • On Christian doctrine - a religious treatise.

• He dictated these to his daughters, and then to his third wife in 1663.

Divorce pamphlets

• Milton wrote the Divorce Tracts (1643-5) during his time separated from his first wife.

  • The first one, The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643) was even condemned directly by Parliament as a wicked book.

    • ‘restore the much wrong’d and over-sorrow’d state of matrimony‘

    • ‘to that serene and blissful condition it was at the beginning‘ - this is referring to Adam and Eve.

    • He says the purpose of marriage is to be ‘against the evil of a solitary life‘, when could refer to Eve wishing to leave Adam.

    • ‘the souls’ union and commixture of intellectual delight‘

    • Milton invokes the Christian Emperors, labelling them the ‘wisest and gravest‘.

      • This refers to emperors from Constantine - Justiniae, who were Christian rulers of Rome.

      • In Rome, marriage was viewed as civil and not religious.

      • Divorce was granted in any case, such as incompatibility.

    • He also refers to the Church’s limiting of divorce as ‘Canonical tyranny‘, as Moses approved of divorce as long as a divorce certificate was provided, the foundation of Jewish divorce law.

  • The second edition invoked the principle of male domination, using St Paul to attack female pride, saying:

    • ‘Who can be ignorant that woman was created for man, and not man for woman?‘

  • This is key, as many feminists, such as Esther Soheman during this period arguing that man could not be superior to woman, as woman was made second:

    • ‘for what God, after better, worse would build‘

    • Satan said this in Paradise Lost, showing Milton’s attitudes towards this.

• These earned him the nickname ‘Milton the divorcer‘ for the next 20 years.

Theology

• Milton believed that freedom was humanity’s inheritance from Adam.

• His religious writings made it impossible for him to work within the Anglican church, as he was too much of a reformed Protestant.

• Religious ideas on the Fall:

  • St Paul believed that all of Adam’s and Eve’s descendants were condemned to hell, which was altered by the death of Jesus which redeemed this original sin.

  • Catholics believed the Fall was caused by the Devil, and the effects of Christ’s redeeming blood are carried through via sacraments such as baptism, mass and penance and administered via priests.

  • Reformed Protestant sects, founded around the 16th century, such as Baptists - championed by Cromwell - and Levellers followed Calvin’s teachings that the Fall was desired by him to make humankind dependent on Christ’s salvation.

    • This is known as Calvin’s horrible consequence - God wanted this to happen.

    • They also believed individual faith gave access to salvation over priestly sacraments, and therefore demonstrated faith via pure living, therefore became known as Puritans.

  • Anglicans believed in a compromise between the two ideas, close to what Martin Luther believed - it recognises the importance of priests and sacraments alongside individual faith.

• Milton himself did not belong to a certain sect, although he did accept a part of Calvinist creed.

  • He believed in God’s power alongside human freedom.

• His belief in the Devil is unknown, but within Paradise Lost the Devil is presented in a Catholic way in attempting to usurp God and then causing the Fall.

  • In book 3 of Paradise Lost, however, God explains that he knew both Satan and Adam would Fall, but did not ensure or determine this would happen - which aligns with Calvinist teachings.

• Milton also strongly believed that human freedom was necessary, as humans had to prove their love for God by choosing good over evil.

  • This is key, as although God knew they would Fall, he did not ensure it, meaning if the Angels or Adam and Eve blame God they are incorrect.

• In the 1650s, he worked on De Doctrina Christiana, where he tried to formally state all his political views.

Governmental

• He wrote Of Reformation, Of Prelatical Episcopacy and Animadversions in 1641.

• He wrote The Reason for Church Government in 1642.

  • Milton sided with the idea that the Church needed purification, and this reform could not take place with a Church so closely connected to the King.

• He wrote On Education and Areopagitica in 1644, Areopagitica supporting freedom of the press. Both works centred around the need for individual liberty.

  • This was important as at the time books had to be licensed by a government body known as the Star Council Chamber.

  • He argued that evil was allowed into the world so good could be recognised via contrast, and virtue was exercised by rejecting it.

    • ‘knowledge of good is … interwoven with the knowledge of evil.‘

  • It opens praising Parliament, and argues that those it seeks to limit with these rules will publish anyway, but it will instead ‘discouragement of all learning, and the stop of Truth‘.

  • This shows Milton believes knowledge and learning are good, which could present him as ‘of the devil’s party without knowing it‘ (Blake), or perhaps he changed his mind after the Roundhead usurpation failed and the monarchy was renewed.

    • This is because Adam and Eve fall for obtaining knowledge via the tree of knowledge, presenting knowledge as evil.

    • Or perhaps, as Adam and Eve sinned and every person after them is a sinner, we are permitted to learn as it is the only way to overcome sin.

  • He uses classical evidence to support his point, ‘Of other sects and opinions … they took no heed.‘

    • This refers to how in Athens, only blasphemous and libelous books were punished, and all else was allowed.

• This led him to write ‘On the Tenure of Kings and Magistrates‘ during Charles 1’s trial, which supported the revolutionary act of regicide, even though it was considered treason by some.

• Milton believed that abolishing kingshop was a step towards the original freedom of Adam.

  • ‘all men naturally were born free … born to command and not to obey‘

• Milton served as Secretary for Foreign Tongues in the new Commonwealth, as he was a master of Latin letters and this was the lingua franca of the day.

  • His job was to explain and justify decisions of the new Council of State to critics home and abroad, from 1649-53.

  • He wrote propaganda, but also communicated with heads of states and secretaries.

  • He wrote Eikonoklastes in response to Eikon Basilike, which is believed to have been written by Charles 1 the night before his execution.

  • He wrote Defensio pro populo Anglicano in response to Salmatius’ Defensio Regia.

  • Due to his sight declining, he had fellow poet Marvell as an assistant, was allowed to cut back on official labours and use an amanuensis (human dictator) as an aide.

• In 1659, Milton wrote ‘A Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth‘, right before Charles 2 arrived from France.

  • He argued the English people had feebly given away their recovered freedom.

  • Milton was forced into hiding at a friend’s house, and his Eikonoklastes and Defensio pro populo Anglicano were publically burned.

  • He remained in hiding until the Acts of Oblivion were passed, pardoning most who had opposed Charles 2.

  • In October 1659, he had a short stay in prison, and his life was saved by his blindness and intervention by fellow poet Marvell allowing him to retire quietly and write poetry. He was released in December.

Influences

• In 1638, Milton met Hugo Grotius, a Dutch famed legal scholar and theologian in Paris. His ideas on natural and positive law influenced Milton’s political writings.

• Milton likely met Galileo in Florence, who was under house arrest by the Inquisition for his heliocentric views (the sun is the centre of the universe) of the solar system.

  • Milton himself had a fascination with science and scientific discovery, and he references his planetary knowledge in book 9 of Paradise Lost.

• Milton also attended an opera with Cardinal Francesco Barberino in Italy.

  • Milton’s knowledge and love for music shows up in his poetry, and Paradise Lost can be seen as operatic poetry.

• Also in Italy he met Giovanni Batista, who was the biographer of the great Italian epic poet, Torquato Tasso.

  • Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered was an influence on Milton’s epic poetry.

  • Batista may have also been an influence - Milton wrote the poem Mansus in his honour.

Cavalier poets

• Conceptually opposite to Milton, as they supported the King and opposed Parliament.

• ‘Cavalier‘ originally meant a soldier on horseback, but became an insult meaning careless, dismissive and disdainful.

• Cavaliers were often courtiers, and their works were often political.

• They wrote poems that:

  • Glorified and promoted the King.

  • Alluded to classical ideas.

  • ‘Carpe diem‘, which means to seize the day.

  • Physical beauty, and the concept of beauty.

  • Love, usually physical love of women. Usually described this as a religious experience.

  • Drinking.

  • Honour, which is not often defined.

  • Socialising with friends.

  • Material wealth.

  • They used rhyme often, which Milton referred to as ‘jingling of like endings‘ and hated.

• Examples of poets include:

  • Herrick ‘TO THE KING, UPON HIS COMING WITH HIS ARMY INTO THE WEST‘.

    • Praises the King’s power as he enters to war, says ‘A deal of courage in each bosom springs by your access‘.

    • Could be compared to Adam saying ‘from the influence of thy looks receive access in every virtue‘ (109-310) in reference to Eve.

    • Comes from Plato’s symposium, which stated that an army of lovers would be invincible, as they wouldn’t want to act shamefully in front of one another.

  • Suckling ‘Sonnet 2‘.

    • This poem discusses the concept of beauty and enjoyment of sex, saying ‘Tis not the meat, but ‘tis the appetite Makes eating a delight‘.

    • This discusses lust, which Milton would have seen as inherently sinful, as discussed after Adam and Eve eat the apple and have sex ‘of their mutual guilt the seal‘.

  • Suckling ‘Against Fruition‘.

    • He argues against having children, saying ‘Knowing too much long since lost paradise‘, meaning that ignorance is bliss, and recommending avoidance of knowledge.

      • This links to Milton, as lost paradise refers to Adam and Eve, who wanted to know more than they should have.

      • Additionally, Milton believes that knowledge and learning are good in Areopagitica.

    • Also says ‘what need we plow?‘ referring to poor people having children to keep humanity going. Links to ‘carpe diem‘, as this idea makes no sense considering royalty and aristocracy.

      • Milton believed the Puritan idea that working was a method to serve God, and also the Classical idea that work makes things more satisfying, and that fun is the opposite of work, negotium/otium. As Eve says ‘hour of supper comes unearned‘, showing rewards need earning.

    • Also says ‘Heaven were not heaven, if we knew what it were‘, meaning the mystery of heaven is what makes it exciting to Suckling. Additionally, it means children are exciting until you have them, showing he does not agree with ‘be fruitful and multiply‘.

      • Milton wrote ‘and Eden were no Eden thus exposed‘, using antanaclasis to compare their home Eden and the conception of Eden. Eve argues that if Eden becomes unhappy, then it is no longer Eden, therefore she should not be fearful.

  • Fane ‘A happy life‘.

    • Describes a life of drinking, sex, socialising and avoidance of death as positive - ‘carpe diem‘.

    • Milton believes a life of working and serving God is good.

Changes in government

• The ‘eleven years’ tyranny‘ (1629-4) was followed by the Civil War (1642-9).

• This ended when Charles 1 was beheaded in 1649.

• Oliver Cromwell then took charge of the new commonwealth.

  • He was just as unwilling to share power with parliament as Charles 1 had been, meaning abolishment of king meant nothing.

• Upon his death in 1658, MPs asked Charles 1’s son to return to England as King Charles 2, which he accepted.

• This was largely rejoiced by the people of England.

Paradise Lost

• Milton wrote in English for two reasons:

  • He wanted it to be accessible to English commoners - ‘to justify the ways of God to man‘.

  • He wanted to be like Homer and Virgil.

    • These were classical poets, with the Roman Virgil writing the Aeneid (told the story of Italy’s foundation) and the Greek Homer writing the Iliad (Trojan war story) and the Odyssey (the story of a man’s return home after cursing the sea, takes 10 years).

    • He wanted to avoid rhyme, referring to it as ‘the jangling of like endings‘

• He wrote in iambic pentameter, as it fits better in English than the Latin dactylic hexameter.