Milton, John, among the brightest glories of the rich and varied literature of England, one of the four master-singers of the I^nglish Helicon, has taken rank with Homer and Virgil and Dante. Dryden's eulogy was well-merited, though too epigrammatic. In splen-
dor of conception and in majesty of language, he is without a peer. Gray recognises in him no inferiority to Shakespeare. John Wilson, a graceful poet himself, and an appreciative critic, concludes that England has produced but one perfect poem, and that that poem is Milton's Paradise Lost. Poetry, however, was not the exclusive occupation of Milton's life. He was also a laborious and prolific writer of prose, and was long en- gaged in religious polemics and political controversy. His wreath of immortality was woven of poetic flowers; but his distinction in his own day was more largely due to his writings as a publicist and theological disputant. Milton is even more remarkable in the phases and cir- cumstances of his life than in the brilliancy of his genius. His mature years coincided with that turbu- lent period when civil dudgeon first grew high, and passed into the turmoil and strife which constitute at once the shame and the glory of English history. The evening glories of the Elizabethan age lingered along the horiziui at the commencement of his career; the se- rener but fainter radiance of the a;ra of queen Anne was prognosticated before his death. In the wide interval, one name of eminent renown in literature stretches its single and unbroken line of light across the darlcened heavens. That name is the name of John Milton. His birth was amid the glories that had ennobled the reign of the maiden queen; he gathered strength for the stern and shifting duties of life throughout the reign of James; he illustrated the early rule of Charles I by strains that seemed echoes from the fairy land behind ; he dignified the times of civil warfare and theological contention by prose compositions which occasionally united the grand cathedral harmonies of Hooker with the yet unanticipated magnificence of Burke. In pov- erty and depression, and blindness and age, he sought consolation from his music on that sacred harp, whose melting and piercing melodies no hand could ever awak- en but his own. In character, and in the vicissitudes of his career, he was the true representative of the strug- gle which fills the seventeenth century. He bridges over the vast abyss between Shakespeare and Dryden, and marks the changing phases of the revolution in Church and State. Hence the consideration of his works can scarceh' be severed from the notice of his life, which di^■ides itself into four sharply-defined and well-con- trasted periods.
L Period 1608-1629.— Infancy, and education till he attains his majority, from the fifth year of James I to the fifth year of Charles I.
IL Period 1629-1689.— Completion of education at the university, in retirement and by foreign travel. From his majority to his return from the Continent.
III. Period 1639-1660.— Participation in the turmoil of the times. Active and public life.
IV. Period 1660-1674. — jNIilton's age, and blindness and seclusion. Production of his great poems.
Milton's Life and Worlcs. I. Period 1G08-1629.— John Blilton, the illustrious son of obscure but reputable par- ents, was born at the sign of " the Spread lilagle," in Bread Street, in the parish of All-hallows, London, on the 9th of December, 1608. His father, of the same name, was a scrivener, who had been disinherited by his Roman Catholic parents for adopting the Protestant faith. His exertions in pursuit of a livelihood had se- cured comfort, if not wealth, and had not repressed his tastes for literature and art. Thus may be explained the conjunction of Puritan principles, of romantic fan- cies, of chivalrous sentiments, of literary and artistic sensibilities, so strangely, and not always congruously, exhibited in the poetry of his son.
That son received the tenderest care and the most sed- ulous instruction from his hopeful and appreciative sire. He was of frail constitution, and was, in consequence, educated at first at home. From his instructor — the eminent scholar and zealous Puritan, Thomas Young — he imbibed his taste for poetry, as he gratefully acknowl- edged. At the age of thirteen he was sent to St. Paul's
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School, I^ndon, and after two years was transferred to Christ Church, Cambridge, where he remained, with some iiiterriijjtions, over eight years, lie carried with him to c(jlkge great proficiency in the classic tongues, and had added to them an aciiuaintance with Hebrew, French, and Italian, and some skill in music and fenc- ing. These liberal pursuits he continued to prosecute at the university with unusual diligence and with ad- mirable results. Indications of his progress are supplied by his Latin and English poems, by notices in his po- lemical writings, and by his college exercises, whicli Mr. Jlasson lias reclaimed from oblivion. From these sources we learn that he was exceedingly handsome, though of slight frame and moderate stature, and was skilled in all manly exercises. He is said to have been called '• the lady of his college," not less for the purity of his cliaracter than for his delicate beauty.
Along with his extensive acquirements, Milton bore with him to Cambridge the germs of all his future tastes, the beginnings of all his future accomplishments. In his boyhood he had been "smit with the love of sa- cred song." Aubrey states that he was a poet at ten years of age. The love of the Muse grew strong with his growth. His devotion to his native tongue was early displayed. He soon aspired to the production of a poem which " future ages would not willingly let die." He was already consecrating himself to his high vocation, and disciplining his young genius with patient diligence. In this calm and industrious tenor of life, Milton ripened to his majority.