John Milton

Lore & Background

Milton was born in Bread Street, London, on 9 December 1608, the son of composer John Milton and his wife Sarah Jeffrey. The senior John Milton found lasting financial success as a scrivener, allowing his eldest son to obtain a private tutor, Thomas Young, a Scottish Presbyterian whose influence introduced Milton to religious radicalism. Milton attended St Paul's School in London, where he began the study of Latin and Greek. In 1625, he gained entry to Christ's College at the University of Cambridge, graduating with a BA in 1629, ranking fourth of 24 honours graduates that year. He received his MA on 3 July 1632. At Cambridge, he may have been rusticated for quarrelling with his tutor, Bishop William Chappell, though the plague may also have been a factor. He wrote early poems including 'On the Morning of Christ's Nativity', 'Epitaph on the admirable Dramaticke Poet, W. Shakespeare', *L'Allegro*, and *Il Penseroso*. After Cambridge, Milton undertook six years of self-directed private study in Hammersmith and Horton, reading ancient and modern works of theology, philosophy, history, politics, literature, and science. He wrote masques such as *Arcades* and *Comus* (performed in 1632 and 1634 respectively), and the pastoral elegy *Lycidas*. In May 1638, he embarked upon a 15-month tour of France and Italy. His travels supplemented his study with new experiences of artistic and religious traditions, especially Roman Catholicism. He later served as a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England. The Restoration of 1660 and his loss of vision deprived him of much of his public platform, but he used the period to develop many of his major works. By his death in 1674, he was impoverished and on the margins of English intellectual life but famous throughout Europe.

Reader's Guide

Milton's significance rests on his epic poem *Paradise Lost* (1667), written in blank verse and comprising 12 books, which addressed the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and God's expulsion of them from the Garden of Eden. The work elevated his reputation as one of history's greatest poets. His *Areopagitica* (1644) is a landmark defence of freedom of speech and press. Milton was the first modern writer to employ unrhymed verse outside the theatre or translations, and he introduced new words to the English language, coined from Latin and Ancient Greek. His reputation has oscillated, often due to his republicanism; Samuel Johnson praised *Paradise Lost* as 'a poem which ... with respect to design may claim the first place, and with respect to performance, the second, among the productions of the human mind', but described Milton's politics as those of an 'acrimonious and surly republican'. Milton was revered by poets such as William Blake, William Wordsworth, and Thomas Hardy, though T. S. Eliot drew criticism from notable figures. According to some scholars, Milton was second in influence to none but William Shakespeare. His life paralleled the major political divisions of Stuart England, and he contributed to a seismic shift in public opinion that elevated him to public office before the Restoration.

Did You Know?

• Milton's first datable compositions are two psalms written at age 15 at Long Bennington.
• At Cambridge, he was called 'the Lady of Christ's College' because his complexion was 'exceeding faire'.
• Milton's poetry notebook, known as the Trinity Manuscript, was discovered in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, as a packet of thirty loose and tattered folio leaves.
• He tutored theologian Roger Williams in Hebrew in exchange for lessons in Dutch.
• Milton may have been rusticated in his first year at Cambridge for quarrelling with his tutor, Bishop William Chappell.

A Life Shaped by Revolution

Milton's public career was inseparable from the violent political upheavals of Stuart England. He emerged as a pamphleteer and publicist during Charles I's increasingly autocratic rule, a period that saw Britain slide into constitutional chaos and ultimately civil war. His 1644 tract Areopagitica, a fierce condemnation of pre-publication censorship, stands as one of the most impassioned defenses of free speech and press liberty ever committed to paper. He went on to hold civil service positions for the Commonwealth, working under its Council of State and later directly under Oliver Cromwell. Once branded dangerously radical and heretical, Milton helped drive a seismic shift in public opinion that carried him into public office. The Restoration of 1660 stripped him of much of that platform, and his progressive loss of vision compounded his marginalization. By the time of his death in 1674, he was impoverished and pushed to the edges of English intellectual life, yet celebrated across Europe and utterly unrepentant for the political stances that had put him at odds with successive governing authorities.

Paradise Lost and the Reinvention of English Verse

Composed in blank verse across twelve books and published in 1667, Paradise Lost dramatizes the fall of humanity: Satan's temptation of Adam and Eve and God's expulsion of the pair from Eden. Written amid a period of profound religious and political flux, the epic cemented Milton's place among the greatest poets in history. His stylistic ambitions reached well beyond this single achievement. He was the first modern writer to deploy unrhymed verse outside the theatre or in translation, and his hunger for linguistic freedom led him to coin new English words drawn from Latin and Ancient Greek. The classical languages he mastered at St Paul's School and Cambridge left a permanent imprint on both his poetry and his prose, and he also composed in Latin and Italian. Samuel Johnson later captured the poem's emotional range, praising Milton's power of displaying the vast, illuminating the splendid, enforcing the awful, darkening the gloomy, and aggravating the dreadful—a description that still conveys the sweeping scale Milton brought to English letters.

A Contested Afterlife

Milton's standing in the literary canon has never been settled, often swinging with the political sympathies of his readers. His biographer William Hayley hailed him as the greatest English author, and he remains widely regarded as one of the foremost writers working in the English language. Some scholars rank his influence second only to Shakespeare's. Poets as diverse as William Blake, William Wordsworth, and Thomas Hardy revered him as a kindred spirit. Yet his republicanism made him a target for critics of other persuasions. Samuel Johnson, a committed Tory, conceded that Paradise Lost's design claimed first place among human productions while dismissing Milton's politics as those of an acrimonious and surly republican. Even T. S. Eliot, a towering voice of the twentieth century, found fault with his oeuvre. This persistent tension between deep admiration and political suspicion has kept Milton's critical afterlife as contested and vital as the turbulent era he inhabited.

Formation: Music, Radicalism, and Cambridge

Milton was born on 9 December 1608 in Bread Street, London, to a composer father and a mother from the Jeffrey family. His father, who had been disinherited by his own devout Catholic parent for embracing Protestantism, built lasting financial success as a scrivener in Cheapside. That prosperity allowed young Milton to receive a private tutor, Thomas Young, a Scottish Presbyterian whose influence first exposed the boy to religious radicalism. He then attended St Paul's School, where he began studying Latin and Greek—classical languages that would leave a permanent mark on his English writing. In 1625 he entered Christ's College, Cambridge, earning his BA in 1629 and his MA in 1632. His earliest datable compositions were two psalms written at fifteen. His brother Christopher recalled that he studied very hard and sat up late into the night, and his fair complexion earned him the nickname the Lady of Christ's College. His father's musical talent gave Milton a lifelong love of music and close friendships with musicians such as Henry Lawes.