In 1()43, during the brief superiority of the Cavaliers, Milton, now in his thirty-fifth year, hastily married Mary Powell, a gay, thoughtless, pretty girl of seven- teen— "the daughter of Kichard Powell, Esq., of For- rest Hill, near Shotover, Oxfordshire, an active royal- ist." The match was a singular and ill-assorted union. It was unhappy. It could scarcely have been other- wise. The fair malignant, in her young beauty, could not endure the gloomy yoke of her sedate Puritan hus- band. After the honeymoon Avas over, she visited her father, and remained all summer, heedless of the en- treaties, remonstrances, and commands of her grim lord. He turned to his books, and to the examination of nice points of theological ethics. He studied the nature and obligations of marriage, and soon arrived at the foregone conclusion to divorce his recalcitrant bride. The result of his eager inquiries was The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, restored to the Good of both Sexes — published anonymously in 1644. Another fruit of his studies and experiences was his undisguised contempt for women. Before concluding his inquiries, he proceeded to the practice of his theory' by paying his addresses to an- other fascinating young lady. Jlrs. Milton, after a year's absence, sought a reconciliation, entreated for- giveness on her knees, Avas pardoned, and returned to her repellent home. She died in 1G53, leaving three daughters, the only children of the poet, Avho grew up Avithout culture or companionship. The husband, Avho took back the Avife, did not put aAvay his scandalous doctrine, Avhich Avas earnestly denounced. He enforced it in three other Avorks: The Judgment of Martin Bucer concerning Divorce ; Tetrachordon, a consideration of his four chief texts of Scripture on the subject; and Colasterion, a bitter castigation of an illiterate and anon- ymous opponent. The Colasterion is Jlilton's solitarj-^ attempt at humor— and very questionable humor it is, except as ill-humor. In the same year Avith The Doc- trine of Divorce appeared the Tractate on Education, addressed to "Master Samuel Hartlib," and the noble A reopagitica, or Speech for the Liberty of unlicensed Printing. The Areopagitica is the finest of Milton's prose compositions in subject, treatment, spirit, and ex- pression. It is the earliest of the grand English argu- ments for the liberty of the press. Written Avith the forms of Greek oratory, and in imitation of the orations of Isocrates, its stiff, stately, and sonorous periods roll on Avith involved Hellenistic phrase, but are distin- guished by fervor of feeling, breadth and truth of con- ception, and radiant utterance. Leckey {Rationalism in Europe, ii, 80) says, " The Paradise Lost is, indeed, scarcely a more glorious monument of the genius of Jlilton than the Areopagitica.'"
Milton's prose style is not in general either good or attractive. It is not merely intricate and cumbrous, but it is prolix, vagabond, and Avearisome. Its high _ reputation has been derived from the A i-eopagitica, and from rare bursts of rhetorical brilliancy in other Avrit- ings. Only a small part of the prose Avorks merits the eulogies bestoAved upon the glorious "purple patches;" and even these are more Avorthy of admiration than of unrestricted praise.
On March 15, 1G49— six Aveeks after the execution of Charles I— Milton Avas apjiointed secretary for ibr- eign tongues to the Council of State. He had probably gained the favor of the Republican authorities by his Tenure of Kings and Observations on the A rficles of Peace in Ireland. He held the position till a short time before the Restoration ; but the salary Avas reduced by
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nearlj' one half after 1G55 ; and after 1G52, when he be- came blind, the duties were discharged, first, by Philip Meadowes, and afterwards by Andrc^v Marvell. Tlie appointment called him away from his preijarations for his Arthurian ei)ic, which was published towards the close of his life as a llUtorie of Britanie.
His lirst task under liis political taskmasters was Ei- kmodasles, in answer to the Icon Basilike— the political testament ascribed to Charles I, and bequeathed by him on the scaffold to his people. Jlilton's reply is bold, defiant; breathing all the exhilarating airs of sanguine freedom, but coarse, vituperative, passionate, and ungen- erous. It was a suitable prelude for the Latin "Apolo- gies f(jr the People of England"' {Defensio pro Populo Anijlicano, Prima et Secunda), composed in 1G51 and 1054 as a refutation of the celebrated scholar Salmasius. In his various " Letters of State"— extending from Aug. 10, 1019, to May 15, 1G59— including the "Manifesto of the Lord Protector" in lGo5, there are many lofty senti- ments and sounding jieriods ; but it would be scarcely fair to transfer to the secretary the praise for sagacious or audacious policy, which may belong exclusively to the Keiniblican councillors, or to the great Republican sovereign. Cromwell was not a man to borrow his pol- icy from a subordinate, and from a subordinate awed into unscrupulous homage by his resolute character.
In the composition of the Defence for the People of Eiifjlund Milton's sight gave way. As early as 1044 it had been seriously imjiaircd by much study, frequent vigils, and constant writing, lie became totally blind in 1G52. He was warned by his physicians to abstain from literary labor. He refused to spare his eyes by the renunciation of what he conceived to be a high pa- triotic duty. He studied and wrote for his party and country till " the drop serene" totally darkened his vi- sion. The assertion of his lofty resolve is imbedded in his Second Defence for the People of Em/land, and a touching account of the advancing stages of his blind- ness is given in a letter to a (Jreek friend, which is much less known than his pathetic allusions to his great pri- vation in the Paradise Lost, the Sanison Af/onistes, and two of his sonnets.