Milton achieved fame and recognition during his lifetime. His celebratedAreopagitica (1644) condemningpre-publication censorship is among history's most influential and impassioned defences offreedom of speech andfreedom of the press. His desire for freedom extended beyond his philosophy and was reflected in his style, which included his introduction of new words to the English language, coined fromLatin andAncient Greek. He was the first modern writer to employ unrhymed verse outside of the theatre or translations.
Milton is described as the "greatest English author" by his biographerWilliam Hayley,[3] and he remains generally regarded "as one of the preeminent writers in theEnglish language",[4] though critical reception has oscillated in the centuries since his death, often on account of hisrepublicanism.Samuel Johnson praisedParadise 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", though he (aTory) described Milton's politics as those of an "acrimonious and surly republican".[5] Milton was revered by poets such asWilliam Blake,William Wordsworth, andThomas Hardy.
Phases of Milton's life parallel the major historical and political divisions inStuart England at the time. In his early years, Milton studied atChrist's College, Cambridge, and then travelled, wrote poetry mostly for private circulation, and launched a career aspamphleteer andpublicist underCharles I's increasingly autocratic rule and Britain's breakdown into constitutional confusion and ultimately civil war. He was once considered dangerously radical and heretical, but he contributed to a seismic shift in accepted public opinions during his life that ultimately elevated him to public office in England. TheRestoration of 1660 and his loss of vision later deprived Milton of much of his public platform, but he used the period to develop many of his major works.
Milton's views developed from extensive reading, travel, and experience that began with his days as a student at Cambridge in the 1620s and continued through theEnglish Civil War, which started in 1642 and continued until 1651.[6] By the time of his death in 1674, Milton was impoverished and on the margins of English intellectual life but famous throughout Europe and unrepentant for political choices that placed him at odds with governing authorities.
John Milton is widely regarded as one of the greatest poets in English literature, though his oeuvre has drawn criticism from notable figures, includingT. S. Eliot andJoseph Addison. According to some scholars, Milton was second in influence to none butWilliam Shakespeare. In one of his books, Samuel Johnson praised him for having the power of "displaying the vast, illuminating the splendid, enforcing the awful, darkening the gloomy and aggravating the dreadful".
John Milton was born inBread Street, London, on 9 December 1608, the son of composerJohn Milton and his wife Sarah Jeffrey. The senior John Milton (1562–1647) moved to London around 1583 after being disinherited by his devoutCatholic father Richard Milton for embracingProtestantism.[7] In London, the senior John Milton married Sarah Jeffrey (1572–1637) and found lasting financial success as ascrivener.[8] He lived in and worked from a house inCheapside at Bread Street, where theMermaid Tavern was located. The elder Milton was noted for his skill as a composer of music, and this talent left his son with a lifelong appreciation for music and friendships with musicians such asHenry Lawes.[9]
The prosperity of Milton's father allowed his eldest son to obtain a private tutor,Thomas Young, a Scottish Presbyterian with anMA from theUniversity of St Andrews. Young's influence also served as the poet's introduction to religious radicalism.[10] After Young's tutorship, Milton attendedSt Paul's School in London, where he began the study of Latin and Greek; the classical languages left an imprint on both his poetry and prose in English (he also wrote in Latin and Italian).
Milton's first datable compositions are two psalms written at age 15 atLong Bennington. One contemporary source isBrief Lives ofJohn Aubrey, an uneven compilation including first-hand reports. In the work, Aubrey quotes Christopher, Milton's younger brother: "When he was young, he studied very hard and sat up very late, commonly till twelve or one o'clock at night". Aubrey adds, "His complexion exceeding faire—he was so faire that they called him the Lady of Christ's College."[11]
In 1625, Milton gained entry toChrist's College at theUniversity of Cambridge, where he graduated with aBA in 1629,[12] ranking fourth of 24 honours graduates that year in the University of Cambridge.[13] Preparing, at that time, to become anAnglican priest, he stayed on at Cambridge where he received hisMA on 3 July 1632.
Milton may have beenrusticated (suspended) in his first year at Cambridge for quarrelling with his tutor, BishopWilliam Chappell. He was certainly at home in London in the Lent Term 1626; there he wroteElegia Prima, his first Latinelegy, to Charles Diodati, a friend from St Paul's. Based on remarks ofJohn Aubrey, Chappell "whipt" Milton.[11] This story is now disputed, though certainly Milton disliked Chappell.[14] HistorianChristopher Hill notes that Milton was apparently rusticated and that the differences between Chappell and Milton may have been either religious or personal.[15] It is also possible that, likeIsaac Newton four decades later, Milton was sent home from Cambridge because of theplague, which afflicted Cambridge in 1625.
At Cambridge, Milton was on good terms withEdward King; he later dedicated "Lycidas" to him. Milton also befriended theologianRoger Williams, tutoring Williams inHebrew in exchange for lessons inDutch.[16] Despite developing a reputation for poetic skill and general erudition, Milton suffered from alienation among his peers during his time at Cambridge. Having once watched his fellow students attempting comedy on the college stage, he later observed, "they thought themselves gallant men, and I thought them fools".[17]
Milton also was disdainful of the university curriculum, which consisted of stilted formal debates conducted in Latin on abstruse topics.[citation needed] His own corpus is not devoid of humour, notably his sixthprolusion and his epitaphs on the death ofThomas Hobson. While at Cambridge, he wrote some of his well-known shorter English poems, including "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity", "Epitaph on the admirable Dramaticke Poet, W. Shakespeare" (his first poem to appear in print),L'Allegro, andIl Penseroso.
It appears in all his writings that he had the usual concomitant of great abilities, a lofty and steady confidence in himself, perhaps not without some contempt of others; for scarcely any man ever wrote so much, and praised so few. Of his praise he was very frugal; as he set its value high, and considered his mention of a name as a security against the waste of time, and a certain preservative from oblivion.[18]
After receiving his MA, Milton moved toHammersmith, his father's new home since the previous year. He also lived atHorton, Berkshire, from 1635 and undertook six years of self-directed private study. Hill argues that this was not retreating into a rural idyll; Hammersmith was then a "suburban village" falling into the orbit of London, and even Horton was becoming deforested and suffered from the plague.[19] He read both ancient and modern works of theology, philosophy, history, politics, literature, and science in preparation for a prospective poetical career. Milton's intellectual development can be charted via entries in hiscommonplace book (like a scrapbook), now in theBritish Library. As a result of such intensive study, Milton is considered to be among the most learned of all English poets. In addition to his years of private study, Milton had command of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish, and Italian from his school and undergraduate days; he also added Old English to his linguistic repertoire in the 1650s while researching hisHistory of Britain, and probably acquired proficiency in Dutch soon after.[20]
Commemorative blue plaque 'John Milton lived here 1632–1638' at Berkyn Manor Farm,Horton, Berkshire
Milton continued to write poetry during this period of study; hisArcades andComus were both commissioned formasques composed for noble patrons, connections of the Egerton family, and performed in 1632 and 1634 respectively.Comus argues for the virtuousness oftemperance andchastity. He contributed hispastoralelegyLycidas to a memorial collection for one of his fellow students at Cambridge. Drafts of these poems are preserved in Milton's poetry notebook, known as the Trinity Manuscript, because it is now kept atTrinity College, Cambridge. It wasCharles Mason who made the extraordinary discovery, in the library of Trinity College, ofa packet of thirty loose and tattered folio leaves, almost covered with the handwriting of Milton.[21] It is thought that Mason recognised the nature of this material around 1735 and the loose-leaf sheets were bound for the first time in 1736; the Trinity Manuscript has been described as"the chief treasure of Trinity Library".[21]
In May 1638, accompanied by a manservant, Milton embarked upon a tour of France and Italy for 15 months that lasted until July or August 1639.[22] His travels supplemented his study with new and direct experiences of artistic and religious traditions, especially Roman Catholicism. He met famous theorists and intellectuals of the time and was able to display his poetic skills. For specific details of what happened within Milton's "grand tour", there appears to be just oneprimary source: Milton's ownDefensio Secunda. There are other records, including some letters and some references in his other prose tracts, but the bulk of the information about the tour comes from a work that, according toBarbara Lewalski, "was not intended as autobiography but as rhetoric, designed to emphasise his sterling reputation with the learned of Europe."[23]
He first went toCalais and then on to Paris, riding horseback, with a letter from diplomatHenry Wotton to ambassadorJohn Scudamore. Through Scudamore, Milton metHugo Grotius, a Dutch law philosopher, playwright, and poet. Milton left France soon after this meeting. He travelled south fromNice toGenoa, and then toLivorno andPisa. He reached Florence in July 1638. While there, Milton enjoyed many of the sites and structures of the city. His candour of manner and erudite neo-Latin poetry earned him friends in Florentine intellectual circles, and he met the astronomerGalileo who was underhouse arrest atArcetri, as well as others.[24] Milton probably visited the Florentine Academy and theAccademia della Crusca along with smaller academies in the area, including theApatisti and theSvogliati.
In [Florence], which I have always admired above all others because of the elegance, not just of its tongue, but also of its wit, I lingered for about two months. There I at once became the friend of many gentlemen eminent in rank and learning, whose private academies I frequented—a Florentine institution which deserves great praise not only for promoting humane studies but also for encouraging friendly intercourse.[25]
— Milton's account of Florence inDefensio Secunda
He left Florence in September to continue to Rome. With the connections from Florence, Milton was able to have easy access to Rome's intellectual society. His poetic abilities impressed those like Giovanni Salzilli, who praised Milton within an epigram. In late October, Milton attended a dinner given by theEnglish College, Rome, despite his dislike for theSociety of Jesus, meeting English Catholics who were also guests—theologianHenry Holden and the poetPatrick Cary.[26] He also attended musical events, including oratorios, operas, and melodramas. Milton left forNaples toward the end of November, where he stayed only for a month because of the Spanish control.[27] During that time, he was introduced toGiovanni Battista Manso, patron to bothTorquato Tasso and toGiambattista Marino.[28]
Originally, Milton wanted to leave Naples in order to travel toSicily and then on to Greece, but he returned to England during the summer of 1639 because of what he claimed inDefensio Secunda[29] were "sad tidings of civil war in England."[30] Matters became more complicated when Milton received word that his childhood friend Diodati had died. Milton in fact stayed another seven months on the continent and spent time atGeneva with Diodati's uncle after he returned to Rome. InDefensio Secunda, Milton proclaimed that he was warned against a return to Rome because of his frankness about religion, but he stayed in the city for two months and was able to experienceCarnival and meetLukas Holste, a Vatican librarian who guided Milton through its collection. He was introduced to CardinalFrancesco Barberini who invited Milton to an opera hosted by the Cardinal. Around March, Milton travelled once again to Florence, staying there for two months, attending further meetings of the academies, and spending time with friends. After leaving Florence, he travelled through Lucca, Bologna, and Ferrara before coming toVenice. In Venice, Milton was exposed to a model of Republicanism, later important in his political writings, but he soon found another model when he travelled to Geneva. From Switzerland, Milton travelled to Paris and then to Calais before finally arriving back in England in either July or August 1639.[31]
On returning to England where theBishops' Wars presaged further armed conflict, Milton began to write prosetracts againstepiscopacy, in the service of thePuritan andParliamentary cause. Milton's first foray into polemics wasOf Reformation touching Church Discipline in England (1641), followed byOf Prelatical Episcopacy, the two defences ofSmectymnuus (a group of Presbyterian divines named from their initials; the "TY" belonged to Milton's old tutor Thomas Young), andThe Reason of Church-Government Urged against Prelaty. He vigorously attacked the High-church party of the Church of England and their leaderWilliam Laud,Archbishop of Canterbury, with frequent passages of real eloquence lighting up the rough controversial style of the period, and deploying a wide knowledge of church history.
He was supported by his father's investments, but Milton became a private schoolmaster at this time, educating his nephews and other children of the well-to-do. This experience and discussions with educational reformerSamuel Hartlib led him to write his short tractOf Education in 1644, urging a reform of the national universities.
In June 1642, Milton paid a visit to the manor house atForest Hill, Oxfordshire, and, aged 34, married the 17-year-old Mary Powell.[32][33] The marriage got off to a poor start as Mary did not adapt to Milton's austere lifestyle or get along with his nephews. Milton found her intellectually unsatisfying and disliked the royalist views she had absorbed from her family. It is also speculated that she refused to consummate the marriage. Mary soon returned home to her parents and did not come back until 1645, partly because of the outbreak of theCivil War.[32]
In the meantime, her desertion prompted Milton to publisha series of pamphlets over the next three years arguing for the legality and morality of divorce beyond grounds of adultery. (Anna Beer, author of a 2008 biography of Milton, points to a lack of evidence and the dangers of cynicism in urging that it was not necessarily the case that the private life so animated the public polemicising.) In 1643, Milton had a brush with the authorities over these writings, in parallel withHezekiah Woodward, who had more trouble.[34] It was the hostile response accorded the divorce tracts that spurred Milton to writeAreopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parlament of England, his celebrated attack on pre-printing censorship. InAreopagitica, Milton aligns himself with theparliamentary cause, and he also begins to synthesize the ideal of neo-Roman liberty with that of Christian liberty. Milton also courted another woman during this time; we know nothing of her except that her name was Davis and she turned him down. However, it was enough to induce Mary Powell into returning to him which she did unexpectedly by begging him to take her back. They had two daughters in quick succession following their reconciliation.[35][36]
With the Parliamentary victory in the Civil War, Milton used his pen in defence of the republican principles represented by the Commonwealth.[37]The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649) defended the right of the people to hold their rulers to account, and implicitly sanctioned theregicide; Milton's political reputation got him appointed Secretary for Foreign Tongues by the Council of State in March 1649. His main job description was to compose the English Republic's foreign correspondence inLatin and other languages, but he also was called upon to produce propaganda for the regime and to serve as a censor.[38]
The back of no 19 York Street (1848). In 1651, Milton moved into a "pretty garden-house" inPetty France, Westminster. He lived there until the Restoration. Later it became No. 19 York Street, belonged toJeremy Bentham, was occupied successively byJames Mill andWilliam Hazlitt, and finally was demolished in 1877.[39]
In October 1649, he publishedEikonoklastes, an explicit defence of the regicide, in response to theEikon Basilike, a phenomenal best-seller popularly attributed to Charles I that portrayed the King as an innocent Christianmartyr. A month later the exiledCharles II and his party published the defence of monarchyDefensio Regia pro Carolo Primo, written by leading humanistClaudius Salmasius. By January of the following year, Milton was ordered to write a defence of the English people by theCouncil of State. Milton worked more slowly than usual, given the European audience and the English Republic's desire to establish diplomatic and cultural legitimacy, as he drew on the learning marshalled by his years of study to compose a riposte.
On 24 February 1652, Milton published his Latin defence of the English peopleDefensio pro Populo Anglicano, also known as theFirst Defence. Milton's pure Latin prose and evident learning exemplified in theFirst Defence quickly made him a European reputation, and the work ran to numerous editions.[40] He addressed hisSonnet 16 to 'The Lord Generall Cromwell in May 1652' beginning "Cromwell, our chief of men ...", although it was not published until 1654.[41]
In 1654, Milton completed the second defence of the English nationDefensio secunda in response to an anonymous Royalist tract"Regii Sanguinis Clamor ad Coelum Adversus Parricidas Anglicanos" [The Cry of the Royal Blood to Heaven Against the English Parricides], a work that made many personal attacks on Milton.[42] The second defence praisedOliver Cromwell, now Lord Protector, while exhorting him to remain true to the principles of the Revolution.Alexander Morus, to whom Milton wrongly attributed theClamor (in fact byPeter du Moulin), published an attack on Milton, in response to which Milton published the autobiographicalDefensio pro se in 1655. Milton held the appointment of Secretary for Foreign Tongues to the Commonwealth Council of State until 1660, although after he had become totally blind, most of the work was done by his deputies,Georg Rudolph Wecklein, thenPhilip Meadows, and from 1657 by the poetAndrew Marvell.[43]
By 1652, Milton had become totally blind;[44] the cause of his blindness is debated but bilateralretinal detachment orglaucoma are most likely.[45] His blindness forced him to dictate hisverse and prose toamanuenses who copied them out for him; one of these was Andrew Marvell. One of his best-known sonnets, "When I Consider How My Light is Spent," titled by a later editor,John Newton, "On His Blindness," is presumed to date from this period.[46]
Cromwell's death in 1658 caused the English Republic to collapse into feuding military and political factions. Milton, however, stubbornly clung to the beliefs that had originally inspired him to write for the Commonwealth. In 1659, he publishedA Treatise of Civil Power, attacking the concept of a state-dominated church (the position known asErastianism), as well asConsiderations touching the likeliest means to remove hirelings, denouncing corrupt practises in church governance. As the Republic disintegrated, Milton wrote several proposals to retain a non-monarchical government against the wishes of parliament, soldiers, and the people.[47][48]
A Letter to a Friend, Concerning the Ruptures of the Commonwealth, written in October 1659, was a response toGeneral Lambert's recent dissolution of theRump Parliament.
Proposals of certain expedients for the preventing of a civil war now feared, written in November 1659.
Upon theRestoration in May 1660, Milton, fearing for his life, went into hiding, while awarrant was issued for his arrest and his writings were burnt. He re-emerged aftera general pardon was issued, but was nevertheless arrested and briefly imprisoned before influential friends intervened, such as Marvell, now an MP. Milton married for a third and final time on 24 February 1663, marrying Elizabeth (Betty) Minshull, aged 24, a native ofWistaston, Cheshire. He spent the remaining decade of his life living quietly in London, only retiring to a cottage during theGreat Plague of London—Milton's Cottage inChalfont St. Giles, his only extant home.
During this period, Milton published several minor prose works, such as the grammar textbookArt of Logic and aHistory of Britain. His only explicitly political tracts were the 1672Of True Religion, arguing fortoleration (except for Catholics), and a translation of a Polish tract advocating an elective monarchy. Both these works were referred to in theExclusion debate, the attempt to exclude the heir presumptive from the throne of England—James, Duke of York—because he was Roman Catholic. That debate preoccupied politics in the 1670s and 1680s and precipitated the formation of theWhig party and theGlorious Revolution.
Milton died on 8 November 1674, just a month before his 66th birthday. He was buried in the church ofSt Giles-without-Cripplegate,Fore Street, London.[49] However, sources differ as to whether the cause of death wasconsumption orgout.[49][50] According to an early biographer, his funeral was attended by "his learned and great Friends in London, not without a friendly concourse of the Vulgar."[51] A monument was added in 1737 on Westminster Abbey in London, UK.
Mary Powell died on 5 May 1652 from complications following Deborah's birth. Milton's daughters survived to adulthood, but he always had a strained relationship with them.
On 12 November 1656, Milton was married to Katherine Woodcock atSt Margaret's, Westminster.[54] She died on 3 February 1658, less than four months after giving birth to her daughter Katherine, who also died.
Milton married for a third time on 24 February 1663 to Elizabeth Mynshull or Minshull (1638–1728), the niece of Thomas Mynshull, a wealthy apothecary and philanthropist inManchester. The marriage took place atSt Mary Aldermary in the City of London. Despite a 30-year age gap, the marriage seemed happy, according toJohn Aubrey, and lasted more than 12 years until Milton's death. (A plaque on the wall of Mynshull's House in Manchester describes Elizabeth as Milton's "3rd and Best wife".) Samuel Johnson, however, claims that Mynshull was "a domestic companion and attendant" and Milton's nephewEdward Phillips relates that Mynshull "oppressed his children in his lifetime, and cheated them at his death".[55]
His nephews,Edward andJohn Phillips (sons of Milton's sister Anne), were educated by Milton and became writers themselves. John acted as a secretary, and Edward was Milton's first biographer.
Milton's poetry was slow to see the light of day, at least under his name. His first published poem was "On Shakespeare" (1630), anonymously included in theSecond Folio edition ofWilliam Shakespeare's plays in 1632. An annotated copy of theFirst Folio has been suggested to contain marginal notes by Milton.[56] Milton collected his work in1645 Poems in the midst of the excitement attending the possibility of establishing a new English government. The anonymous edition ofComus was published in 1637, and the publication ofLycidas in 1638 inJusta Edouardo King Naufrago was signed J. M. Otherwise. The 1645 collection was the only poetry of his to see print untilParadise Lost appeared in 1667.
Milton Dictates the Lost Paradise to His Three Daughters, 1827 or 1828, byEugène Delacroix
Milton'smagnum opus, theblank-verseepic poemParadise Lost, was composed by the blind and impoverished Milton from 1658 to 1664 (first edition), with small but significant revisions published in 1674 (second edition). As a blind poet, Milton dictated his verse to a series of aides in his employ. It has been argued that the poem reflects his personal despair at the failure of theRevolution yet affirms an ultimate optimism in human potential. Some literary critics have argued that Milton encoded many references to his unyielding support for the "Good Old Cause".[57]
On 27 April 1667,[58] Milton sold the publication rights forParadise Lost to publisherSamuel Simmons for £5 (equivalent to approximately £770 in 2015 purchasing power),[59] with a further £5 to be paid if and when each print run sold out of between 1,300 and 1,500 copies.[60] The first run was aquarto edition priced at threeshillings per copy (about £23 in 2015 purchasing power equivalent), published in August 1667, and it sold out in eighteen months.[61]
Milton followed up the publicationParadise Lost with its sequelParadise Regained, which was published alongside the tragedySamson Agonistes in 1671. Both of these works also reflect Milton's post-Restoration political situation. Just before his death in 1674, Milton supervised a second edition ofParadise Lost, accompanied by an explanation of "why the poem rhymes not", and prefatory verses byAndrew Marvell. In 1673, Milton republished his1645 Poems, as well as a collection of his letters and the Latinprolusions from his Cambridge days.
An unfinished religious manifesto,De doctrina christiana, probably written by Milton, lays out many of his heterodox theological views, and was not discovered and published until 1823. Milton's key beliefs were idiosyncratic, not those of an identifiable group or faction, and often they go well beyond the orthodoxy of the time. Their tone, however, stemmed from the Puritan emphasis on the centrality and inviolability of conscience.[62] He was his own man, but he was anticipated byHenry Robinson inAreopagitica.[clarification needed]
While Milton's beliefs are generally considered to be consistent with Protestant Christianity, Stephen Fallon argues that by the late 1650s, Milton may have at least toyed with the idea ofmonism or animist materialism, the notion that a single material substance which is "animate, self-active, and free" composes everything in the universe: from stones and trees and bodies to minds, souls, angels, and God.[63] Fallon claims that Milton devised this position to avoid themind-body dualism ofPlato andDescartes as well as themechanisticdeterminism ofHobbes. According to Fallon, Milton's monism is most notably reflected inParadise Lost when he has angels eat (5.433–439)[clarification needed] and apparently engage in sexual intercourse (8.622–629)[clarification needed] and theDe Doctrina, where he denies the dual natures of man and argues for a theory of Creationex Deo.
Milton was a "passionately individual Christian Humanist poet."[64] He appears on the pages of seventeenth-century English Puritanism, an age characterized as "the world turned upside down."[65] He was a Puritan and yet was unwilling to surrender conscience to party positions on public policy. Thus, Milton's political thought, driven by competing convictions, a Reformed faith and a Humanist spirit, led to enigmatic outcomes.
Milton's apparently contradictory stance on the vital problems of his age, arose from religious contestations to the questions of the divine rights of kings. In both cases, he seems in control, taking stock of the situation arising from the polarization of the English society on religious and political lines. He fought with the Puritans against the Cavaliers i.e. the King's party, and helped win the day. But the very same constitutional and republican polity, when tried to curtail freedom of speech, Milton, given his humanistic zeal, wroteAreopagitica . . . [sic][66]
Title page of John Milton's 1644 edition ofAreopagitica
Areopagitica was written in response to the Licensing Order, in November 1644.[67]
Milton's political thought may be best categorized according to respective periods in his life and times. The years 1641–42 were dedicated to church politics and the struggle against episcopacy. After his divorce writings,Areopagitica, and a gap, he wrote in 1649–54 in the aftermath of theexecution of Charles I, and in polemic justification of the regicide and the existing Parliamentarian regime. Then in 1659–60 he foresaw the Restoration and wrote to head it off.[68]
Milton's own beliefs were in some cases unpopular, particularly his commitment torepublicanism. In the coming centuries, Milton would be claimed as an early apostle of liberalism.[69] According to James Tully:
... withLocke as with Milton, republican andcontraction conceptions of political freedom join hands in common opposition to the disengaged and passive subjection offered byabsolutists such asHobbes andRobert Filmer.[70]
A friend and ally in the pamphlet wars wasMarchamont Nedham.Austin Woolrych considers that although they were quite close, there is "little real affinity, beyond a broad republicanism", between their approaches.[71]Blair Worden remarks that both Milton and Nedham, with others such asAndrew Marvell andJames Harrington, would have taken their problem with theRump Parliament to be not the republic itself, but the fact that it was not a proper republic.[72] Woolrych speaks of "the gulf between Milton's vision of the Commonwealth's future and the reality".[73] In the early version of hisHistory of Britain, begun in 1649, Milton was already writing off the members of theLong Parliament as incorrigible.[74]
... John Streater, and the form of republicanism he stood for, was a fulfilment of Milton's most optimistic ideas of free speech and of public heroism [...][79]
AsRichard Cromwell fell from power, he envisaged a step towards a freer republic or "free commonwealth", writing in the hope of this outcome in early 1660. Milton had argued for an awkward position, in theReady and Easy Way, because he wanted to invoke theGood Old Cause and gain the support of the republicans, but without offering a democratic solution of any kind.[80] His proposal, backed by reference (amongst other reasons) to theoligarchical Dutch and Venetian constitutions, was for a council with perpetual membership. This attitude cut right across the grain of popular opinion of the time, which swung decisively behind the restoration of the Stuart monarchy that took place later in the year.[81] Milton, an associate of and advocate on behalf of the regicides, was silenced on political matters as Charles II returned.
John Milton was neither a clergyman nor a theologian; however, theology, and particularly English Calvinism, formed the palette on which he created his greatest thoughts. Milton wrestled with the great doctrines of the Church amidst the theological crosswinds of his age. The great poet was undoubtedly Reformed (though his grandfather, Richard "the Ranger" Milton had been Roman Catholic).[82][7] However, Milton's Calvinism had to find expression in a broad-spirited Humanism. Like manyRenaissance artists before him, Milton attempted to integrate Christian theology with classical modes. In his early poems, the poet narrator expresses a tension between vice and virtue, the latter invariably related to Protestantism. InComus, Milton may make ironic use of theCaroline courtmasque by elevating notions of purity and virtue over the conventions of court revelry and superstition. In his later poems, Milton's theological concerns become more explicit.
His use of biblical citation was wide-ranging; Harris Fletcher, standing at the beginning of the intensification of the study of the use of scripture in Milton's work (poetry and prose, in all languages Milton mastered), notes that typically Milton clipped and adapted biblical quotations to suit the purpose, giving precise chapter and verse only in texts for a more specialized readership. As for the plenitude of Milton's quotations from scripture, Fletcher comments, "For this work, I have in all actually collated about twenty-five hundred of the five to ten thousand direct Biblical quotations which appear therein".[83] Milton's customary English Bible was theAuthorized King James.[84] When citing and writing in other languages, he usually employed the Latin translation byImmanuel Tremellius, though "he was equipped to read the Bible in Latin, in Greek, and in Hebrew, including the Targumim or Aramaic paraphrases of the Old Testament, and the Syriac version of the New, together with the available commentaries of those several versions".[83]
Milton embraced many heterodox Christian theological views. He has been accused of rejecting theTrinity, believing instead that the Son was subordinate to the Father, a position known asArianism; and his sympathy or curiosity was probably engaged bySocinianism: in August 1650 he licensed for publication byWilliam Dugard theRacovian Catechism, based on a non-trinitarian creed.[85][86] Milton's alleged Arianism, like much of his theology, is still the subject of debate and controversy.Rufus Wilmot Griswold argued that "In none of his great works is there a passage from which it can be inferred that he was an Arian; and in the very last of his writings he declares that "the doctrine of the Trinity is a plain doctrine in Scripture."[87] InAreopagitica, Milton classified Arians and Socinians as "errorists" and "schismatics" alongsideArminians andAnabaptists.[88] A source has interpreted him as broadly Protestant, if not always easy to locate in a more precise religious category. In 2019, John Rogers stated, "Heretics both, John Milton and Isaac Newton were, as most scholars now agree, Arians."[89][90]
In his 1641 treatise,Of Reformation, Milton expressed his dislike for Catholicism and episcopacy, presenting Rome as a modernBabylon, and bishops as Egyptian taskmasters. These analogies conform to Milton's puritanical preference forOld Testament imagery. He knew at least four commentaries onGenesis: those ofJohn Calvin,Paulus Fagius,David Pareus andAndreus Rivetus.[91]
Through theInterregnum, Milton often presents England, rescued from the trappings of a worldly monarchy, as anelect nation akin to the Old TestamentIsrael, and shows its leader,Oliver Cromwell, as a latter-dayMoses. These views were bound up in Protestant views of theMillennium, which some sects, such as theFifth Monarchists predicted would arrive in England. Milton, however, would later criticise the "worldly" millenarian views of these and others, and expressed orthodox ideas on the prophecy of theFour Empires.[92]
The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660 began a new phase in Milton's work. InParadise Lost,Paradise Regained andSamson Agonistes, Milton mourns the end of the godlyCommonwealth. TheGarden of Eden may allegorically reflect Milton's view of England's recentFall from Grace, whileSamson's blindness and captivity—mirroring Milton's own lost sight—may be a metaphor for England's blind acceptance ofCharles II as king. Illustrated byParadise Lost ismortalism, the belief that the soul lies dormant after the body dies.[93]
Despite the Restoration of the monarchy, Milton did not lose his personal faith;Samson shows how the loss of nationalsalvation did not necessarily preclude the salvation of the individual, whileParadise Regained expresses Milton's continuing belief in the promise of Christian salvation through Jesus Christ.
Though he maintained his personal faith in spite of the defeats suffered by his cause, theDictionary of National Biography recounted how he had been alienated from the Church of England by Archbishop William Laud, and then moved similarly from theDissenters by their denunciation of religious tolerance in England.
Milton had come to stand apart from all sects, though apparently finding theQuakers most congenial. He never went to any religious services in his later years. When a servant brought back accounts of sermons fromnonconformist meetings, Milton became so sarcastic that the man at last gave up his place.
Writing of the enigmatic and often conflicting views of Milton in the Puritan age, David Daiches wrote,
"Christian and Humanist, Protestant, patriot and heir of the golden ages of Greece and Rome, he faced what appeared to him to be the birth-pangs of a new and regenerate England with high excitement and idealistic optimism."[64]
A fair theological summary may be that John Milton was a Puritan, though his tendency to press further for liberty of conscience, sometimes out of conviction and often out of mere intellectual curiosity, made the great man, at least, a vital if not uncomfortable ally in the broader Puritan movement.[66][82]
Milton called in theAreopagitica for "the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties" to the conflicting Protestant denominations.[94] According to American historian William Hunter, "Milton argued fordisestablishment as the only effective way of achieving broadtoleration. Rather than force a man's conscience, government should recognise the persuasive force of the gospel."[95]
Milton wroteThe Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce in 1643, at the beginning of the English Civil War. In August of that year, he presented his thoughts to theWestminster Assembly of Divines, which had been created by theLong Parliament to bring greater reform to the Church of England. The Assembly convened on 1 July against the will of King Charles I.
Milton's thinking on divorce caused him considerable trouble with the authorities. An orthodox Presbyterian view of the time was that Milton's views on divorce constituted a one-manheresy:
The fervently PresbyterianEdwards had included Milton's divorce tracts in his list inGangraena of heretical publications that threatened the religious and moral fabric of the nation; Milton responded by mocking him as "shallow Edwards" in the satirical sonnet "On the New Forcers of Conscience under the Long Parliament", usually dated to the latter half of 1646.[96]
Even here, though, his originality is qualified:Thomas Gataker had already identified "mutual solace" as a principal goal in marriage.[97] Milton abandoned his campaign to legitimise divorce after 1645, but he expressed support forpolygamy in theDe Doctrina Christiana, the theological treatise that provides the clearest evidence for his views.[98]
Milton wrote during a period when thoughts about divorce were anything but simplistic; rather, there was active debate among thinkers and intellectuals at the time. However, Milton's basic approval of divorce within strict parameters set by the biblical witness was typical of many influential Christian intellectuals, particularly the Westminster divines. Milton addressed the Assembly on the matter of divorce in August 1643,[99] at a moment when the Assembly was beginning to form its opinion on the matter. In theDoctrine and Discipline of Divorce, Milton argued that divorce was a private matter, not a legal or ecclesiastical one. Neither the Assembly nor Parliament condemned Milton or his ideas. In fact, when the Westminster Assembly wrote the Westminster Confession of Faith they allowed for divorce ('Of Marriage and Divorce,' Chapter 24, Section 5) in cases of infidelity or abandonment. Thus, the Christian community, at least a majority within the 'Puritan' sub-set, approved of Milton's views.
Nevertheless, the reaction among Puritans to Milton's views on divorce was mixed.Herbert Palmer, a member of the Westminster Assembly, condemned Milton in the strongest possible language:
If any plead Conscience ... for divorce for other causes than Christ and His Apostles mention; Of which a wicked booke is abroad and uncensured, though deserving to be burnt, whose Author, hath been so impudent as to set his Name to it, and dedicate it to your selves ... will you grant a Toleration for all this?
— The Glasse of God's Providence Towards His Faithfull Ones, 1644, p. 54.[100]
Palmer expressed his disapproval in a sermon addressed to the Westminster Assembly. The Scottish commissioner Robert Baillie described Palmer's sermon as one "of the most Scottish and free sermons that ever I heard anywhere".[101]
History was particularly important for the political class of the period, and Lewalski considers that Milton "more than most illustrates" a remark ofThomas Hobbes on the weight placed at the time on the classical Latin historical writersTacitus,Livy,Sallust andCicero, and their republican attitudes.[102] Milton himself wrote that "Worthy deeds are not often destitute of worthy relaters", in Book II of hisHistory of Britain. A sense of history mattered greatly to him:[103]
The course of human history, the immediate impact of the civil disorders, and his own traumatic personal life, are all regarded by Milton as typical of the predicament he describes as "the misery that has bin since Adam".[104]
OnceParadise Lost was published, Milton's stature as an epic poet was immediately recognised. He cast a formidable shadow over English poetry in the 18th and 19th centuries; he was often judged equal or superior to all other English poets, includingShakespeare. Very early on, though, he was championed byWhigs, and decried byTories: with the regicideEdmund Ludlow he was claimed as an early Whig,[105] while the High Tory Anglican ministerLuke Milbourne lumped Milton in with other "Agents of Darkness" such asJohn Knox,George Buchanan,Richard Baxter,Algernon Sidney andJohn Locke.[106] The political ideas of Milton, Locke, Sidney, andJames Harrington strongly influenced theRadical Whigs, whose ideology in turn was central to theAmerican Revolution.[107] Modern scholars of Milton's life, politics, and work are known as Miltonists: "his work is the subject of a very large amount of academic scholarship".[108]
In 2008, John Milton Passage, a short passage by Bread Street into St Mary-le-Bow Churchyard in London, was unveiled.[109]
Title page of a 1752–1761 edition of "The Poetical Works of John Milton with Notes of Various Authors by Thomas Newton" printed by J. & R. Tonson in the Strand
John Dryden, an early enthusiast, in 1677 began the trend of describing Milton as the poet of thesublime.[110] Dryden'sThe State of Innocence and the Fall of Man: an Opera (1677) is evidence of an immediate cultural influence. In 1695,Patrick Hume became the first editor ofParadise Lost, providing an extensive apparatus of annotation and commentary, particularly chasing down allusions.[111]
In 1732, the classical scholarRichard Bentley offered a corrected version ofParadise Lost.[112] Bentley was considered presumptuous and was attacked in the following year byZachary Pearce.Christopher Ricks judges that, as a critic, Bentley was both acute and wrong-headed, and "incorrigibly eccentric";William Empson also finds Pearce to be more sympathetic to Bentley's underlying line of thought than is warranted.[113][114]
There was an early, partial translation ofParadise Lost into German byTheodore Haak and based on that a standard verse translation by Ernest Gottlieb von Berge. A subsequent prose translation byJohann Jakob Bodmer was very popular; it influenced Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock. The German-language Milton tradition returned to England in the person of the artistHenry Fuseli.
Many Enlightenment thinkers of the 18th century revered and commented on Milton's poetry and non-poetical works. In addition to John Dryden, among them wereAlexander Pope,Joseph Addison,Thomas Newton, andSamuel Johnson. For example, inThe Spectator,[115] Joseph Addison wrote extensive notes, annotations, and interpretations of certain passages ofParadise Lost.Jonathan Richardson, senior, and Jonathan Richardson, the younger, co-wrote a book of criticism.[116] In 1749, Thomas Newton published an extensive edition of Milton's poetical works with annotations provided by himself, Dryden, Pope, Addison, the Richardsons (father and son) and others. Newton's edition of Milton was a culmination of the honour bestowed upon Milton by early Enlightenment thinkers; it may also have been prompted by Richard Bentley's infamous edition, described above. Samuel Johnson wrote numerous essays onParadise Lost, and Milton was included in hisLives of the Most Eminent English Poets (1779–1781). InThe Age of Louis XIV,Voltaire said "Milton remains the glory and the wonder (l'admiration) of England."[117]
Edmund Burke was a theorist of thesublime, and he regarded Milton's description of Hell as exemplary of sublimity as anaesthetic concept. For Burke, it was to set alongside mountaintops, a storm at sea, andinfinity.[119] InThe Beautiful and the Sublime, he wrote: "No person seems better to have understood the secret of heightening, or of setting terrible things, if I may use the expression, in their strongest light, by the force of a judicious obscurity than Milton."[120]
TheRomantic poets valued his exploration ofblank verse, but for the most part rejected his religiosity.William Wordsworth began his sonnet "London, 1802" with "Milton! thou should'st be living at this hour"[121] and modelledThe Prelude, his own blank verse epic, onParadise Lost.John Keats found the yoke of Milton's style uncongenial;[122] he exclaimed that "Miltonic verse cannot be written but in an artful or rather artist's humour."[123] Keats felt thatParadise Lost was a "beautiful and grand curiosity", but his own unfinished attempt at epic poetry,Hyperion, was unsatisfactory to the author because, amongst other things, it had too many "Miltonic inversions".[123] InThe Madwoman in the Attic,Sandra Gilbert andSusan Gubar note thatMary Shelley's novelFrankenstein is, in the view of many critics, "one of the key 'Romantic' readings ofParadise Lost."[124]
The Victorian age witnessed a continuation of Milton's influence.Thomas Carlyle declared him the "moral king of English literature,"[125] whileGeorge Eliot[126] andThomas Hardy were particularly inspired by Milton's poetry and biography. Hostile 20th-century criticism byT. S. Eliot andEzra Pound did not reduce Milton's stature.[127]F. R. Leavis, inThe Common Pursuit, responded to the points made by Eliot, in particular the claim that "the study of Milton could be of no help: it was only a hindrance", by arguing, "As if it were a matter of decidingnot to study Milton! The problem, rather, was to escape from an influence that was so difficult to escape from because it was unrecognized, belonging, as it did, to the climate of the habitual and 'natural'."[128]Harold Bloom, inThe Anxiety of Influence, wrote that "Milton is the central problem in any theory and history of poetic influence in English [...]".[129]
The title ofPhilip Pullman'sHis Dark Materials trilogy is derived from a quotation, "His dark materials to create more worlds", line 915 of Book II inParadise Lost. Pullman was concerned to produce a version of Milton's poem accessible to teenagers,[131] and has spoken of Milton as "our greatest public poet".[132]
T. S. Eliot believed that "of no other poet is it so difficult to consider the poetry simply as poetry, without our theological and political dispositions ... making unlawful entry".[134]
Milton's use ofblank verse, in addition to his stylistic innovations (such as grandiloquence of voice and vision, peculiar diction and phraseology) influenced later poets. At the time, poetic blank verse was considered distinct from its use in verse drama, andParadise Lost was taken as a unique exemplar.[135] SaidIsaac Watts in 1734, "Mr. Milton is esteemed the parent and author of blank verse among us".[136] "Miltonic verse" might be synonymous for a century with blank verse as poetry, a new poetic terrain independent from both the drama and theheroic couplet.
Lack of rhyme was sometimes taken as Milton's defining innovation. He himself considered the rhymeless quality ofParadise Lost to be an extension of his own personal liberty:
This neglect then of Rhime ... is to be esteem'd an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty recover'd to heroic Poem from the troublesom and modern bondage of Rimeing.[137]
This pursuit of freedom was largely a reaction against conservative values entrenched within the rigid heroic couplet.[138][full citation needed] Within a dominant culture that stressed elegance and finish, he granted primacy to freedom, breadth and imaginative suggestiveness, eventually developed into the romantic vision of sublime terror. Reaction to Milton's poetic worldview included, grudgingly, acknowledgement of the poet's resemblance to classical writers (Greek and Roman poetry being unrhymed). Blank verse came to be a recognised medium for religious works and for translations of the classics. Unrhymed lyrics likeCollins'Ode to Evening (in the meter of Milton's translation ofHorace'sOde to Pyrrha) were not uncommon after 1740.[139]
A second aspect of Milton's blank verse was the use of unconventional rhythm:
His blank-verse paragraph, and his audacious and victorious attempt to combine blank and rhymed verse with paragraphic effect in Lycidas, lay down indestructible models and patterns of English verse-rhythm, as distinguished from the narrower and more strait-laced forms of English metre.[140]
Before Milton, "the sense of regular rhythm ... had been knocked into the English head so securely that it was part of their nature".[141] The "Heroick measure", according toSamuel Johnson, "is pure ... when the accent rests upon every second syllable through the whole line ... The repetition of this sound or percussion at equal times, is the most complete harmony of which a single verse is capable".[142]Caesural pauses, most agreed, were best placed at the middle and the end of the line. In order to support this symmetry, lines were most often octo- or deca-syllabic, with noenjambed endings. To this schema Milton introduced modifications, which includedhypermetricalsyllables (trisyllabicfeet),inversion or slighting ofstresses, and the shifting of pauses to all parts of the line.[143] Milton deemed these features to be reflective of "the transcendental union of order and freedom".[144] Admirers remained hesitant to adopt such departures from traditional metrical schemes: "The English ... had been writing separate lines for so long that they could not rid themselves of the habit".[145] Isaac Watts preferred his lines distinct from each other, as didOliver Goldsmith,Henry Pemberton, andScott of Amwell, whose general opinion it was that Milton's frequent omission of the initial unaccented foot was "displeasing to a nice ear".[146] It was not until the late 18th century that poets (beginning withGray) began to appreciate "the composition of Milton's harmony ... how he loved to vary his pauses, his measures, and his feet, which gives that enchanting air of freedom and wilderness to his versification".[147] By the 20th century, American poet and critic John Hollander would go so far as to say that Milton "was able, by plying that most remarkable instrument of English meter ... to invent a new mode of image-making in English poetry."[148]
Milton's pursuit of liberty extended into his vocabulary as well. It included many Latinateneologisms, as well as obsolete words already dropped from popular usage so completely that their meanings were no longer understood. In 1740,Francis Peck identified some examples of Milton's "old" words (now popular).[149] The "Miltonian dialect", as it was called, was emulated by later poets; Pope used the diction ofParadise Lost in hisHomer translation, while the lyric poetry of Gray and Collins was frequently criticised for their use of "obsolete words out of Spenser and Milton".[150] The language ofThomson's finest poems (e.g.The Seasons,The Castle of Indolence) was self-consciously modelled after the Miltonian dialect, with the same tone and sensibilities asParadise Lost. Following to Milton, English poetry from Pope toJohn Keats exhibited a steadily increasing attention to the connotative, the imaginative and poetic, value of words.[151]
Milton'sodeAt a solemn Musick was set for choir and orchestra asBlest Pair of Sirens byHubert Parry (1848–1918), and Milton's poemOn the Morning of Christ's Nativity was set as a large-scale choral work byCyril Rootham (1875–1938). Milton also wrote the hymnLet us with a gladsome mind, a versification of Psalm 136. His 'L'Allegro' and 'Il Penseroso', with additional material, were magnificently set by Handel (1740).
A brief History of Moscovia, and other less known Countries lying Eastward of Russia as far as Cathay, gathered from the writings of several Eye-witnesses (1682)
^"When I consider how my light is spent" is one of the best known of Milton's sonnets. The last three lines (concluding with "They also serve who only stand and wait") are particularly well known, though rarely in context. The poem may have been written as early as 1652, although most scholars believe it was composed sometime between June and October 1655, when Milton's blindness was essentially complete.
^Skerpan-Wheeler, Elizabeth. "John Milton." British Rhetoricians and Logicians, 1500–1660: Second Series. Ed. Edward A. Malone. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 281. Literature Resource Center.
^Ann Hughes, 'Milton, Areopagitica, and the Parliamentary Cause',The Oxford Handbook of Milton, ed. Nicholas McDowell and Nigel Smith, Oxford University Press, 2009
^Blair Hoxby, 'Areopagitica and Liberty',The Oxford Handbook of Milton, ed. Nicholas McDowell and Nigel Smith, Oxford University Press, 2009
^Lindenbaum, Peter (1995). "Authors and Publishers in the Late Seventeenth Century: New Evidence on their Relations".The Library. s6-17 (3). Oxford University Press:250–269.doi:10.1093/library/s6-17.3.250.ISSN0024-2160.
^Darbishire, Helen (October 1941). "The Printing of the First Edition of Paradise Lost".The Review of English Studies.17 (68). Oxford University Press:415–427.doi:10.1093/res/os-XVII.68.415.JSTOR509858.
^See, for instance, Barker, Arthur.Milton and the Puritan Dilemma, 1641–1660. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1942: 338 andpassim; Wolfe, Don M.Milton in the Puritan Revolution. New York: T. Nelson and Sons, 1941: 19.
^Stephen Fallon,Milton Among the Philosophers (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991), p. 81.
^abDaiches, David (1960).A Critical History of English Literature, Vol. I. London: Seeker & Warburg. p. 457.
^Hill, Christopher (1984).The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution. London: Penguin.ISBN978-0140137323.[page needed]
^Nigel Smith,Popular Republicanism in the 1650s: John Streater's'heroick mechanics', p. 154, in David Armitage, Armand Himy, Quentin Skinner (editors),Milton and Republicanism (1998).
^Blair Worden,Literature and Politics in Cromwellian England: John Milton, Andrew Marvell and Marchamont Nedham (2007), Ch. 14,Milton and the Good Old Cause.
^Austin Woolrych, Last Quest for Settlement 1657–1660, p. 202, in G. E. Aylmer (editor), The Interregnum: The Quest for Settlement 1646–1660 (1972), p. 17.
^abShawcross, John T. (2004).The Arms of the Family: The Significance of John Milton's Relatives and Associates. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. p. 7.ISBN978-0813122915.
^Snobelen, Stephen D. (December 1999). "Isaac Newton, heretic: the strategies of a Nicodemite".The British Journal for the History of Science.32 (4):381–419.doi:10.1017/S0007087499003751.S2CID145208136.
^Williams, Arnold (March 1941). "Renaissance Commentaries on "Genesis" and Some Elements of the Theology of Paradise Lost".PMLA.56 (1):151–164.doi:10.2307/458943.JSTOR458943.S2CID164025552.
^Walter S. H. Lim,John Milton, Radical Politics, and Biblical Republicanism (2006), p. 141.
^John Rogers,The Matter of Revolution (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), p. xi.
^Hill, C. Milton and the English Revolution. Faber & Faber. 1977. pp. 155–157
^Hunter, William Bridges.A Milton Encyclopedia, Volume 8 (East Brunswick, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1980). pp. 71, 72.ISBN0838718418.
^John Milton,The Christian Doctrine inComplete Poems and Major Prose, ed. Merritt Hughes (Hackett: Indianapolis, 2003), pp. 994–1000; Leo Miller,John Milton among the Polygamophiles (New York: Loewenthal Press, 1974).
^Robert Middlekauff (2005),The Great Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789, Revised and Expanded Edition, Oxford University Press,ISBN978-0195315882, pp. 51, 136ff
^They included "self-same", "hue", "minstrelsy", "murky", "carol", and "chaunt". Among Milton's naturalized Latin words were "humid", "orient", "hostil", "facil", "fervid", "jubilant", "ire", "bland", "reluctant", "palpable", "fragil", and "ornate". Peck 1740 pp. 110–111.
Beer, Anna.Milton: Poet, Pamphleteer and Patriot. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2008.
Campbell, Gordon and Corns, Thomas.John Milton: Life, Work, and Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Chaney, Edward,The Grand Tour and the Great Rebellion: Richard Lassels and 'The Voyage of Italy' in the Seventeenth Century (Geneva, CIRVI, 1985) and "Milton's Visit to Vallombrosa: A literary tradition",The Evolution of the Grand Tour, 2nd ed (Routledge, London, 2000).
Dexter, Raymond.The Influence of Milton on English Poetry. London: Kessinger Publishing. 1922
Peck, Francis. "New Memoirs of Milton". London, 1740.
Pfeiffer, Robert H. "The Teaching of Hebrew in Colonial America",The Jewish Quarterly Review (April 1955).
Rosenfeld, Nancy.The Human Satan in Seventeenth-Century English Literature: From Milton to Rochester. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008.
Saintsbury, George. "The Peace of the Augustans: A Survey of Eighteenth-Century Literature as a Place of Rest and Refreshment". London: Oxford University Press. 1946.
Saintsbury, George. "A History of English Prosody: From the Twelfth Century to the Present Day". London: Macmillan and Co., 1908.
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