John Milton (1608–1674) was an English poet and pamphleteer, the author of Paradise Lost, the great epic of the Fall. A defender of the English Republic and of the freedom of the press, he composed his masterpiece after losing his sight, dictating it line by line.
Works
Paradise Lost, Poems
A scholar's youth
Milton was born in London on 9 December 1608, the son of a scrivener who was also a composer. He studied at St Paul's School and at Christ's College, Cambridge, where his delicate looks earned him the nickname 'the Lady of Christ's'.
He then spent some six years reading at his father's house outside London, writing L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, the masque Comus and the elegy Lycidas. In 1638–1639 he travelled in France and Italy, where he met the astronomer Galileo, then under house arrest near Florence.
Pamphlets and the Republic
During the Civil War Milton wrote prose in support of the Parliament's cause. Areopagitica (1644), an argument against censorship before publication, remains a classic of the defence of free speech. He also wrote, after an unhappy marriage, in favour of divorce.
After the execution of Charles I in 1649 he became Latin secretary to the Council of State under Oliver Cromwell, writing the Republic's letters to foreign governments and defending it before Europe. By 1652 he was completely blind.
Paradise Lost
At the Restoration of 1660 he was arrested and briefly imprisoned; friends, among them the poet Andrew Marvell, helped to save him. Blind and out of favour, he dictated Paradise Lost to his daughters and to helpers, and it was published in ten books in 1667, then in twelve in 1674.
Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes followed in 1671. Milton died in London in November 1674. His blank verse and his portrait of Satan deeply influenced later poets, from Blake and Wordsworth to the Romantics.
Anecdotes
Ten pounds for an epic
Milton sold the rights of Paradise Lost to the printer Samuel Simmons in 1667 for five pounds, with five more due after each of the first editions sold out. He and his widow received about eighteen pounds in all.
A visit to Galileo
In Areopagitica, Milton recalls having visited 'the famous Galileo grown old, a prisoner to the Inquisition' during his journey in Italy. Galileo is the only contemporary named in Paradise Lost, where he appears as the 'Tuscan artist' with his telescope.
Frequently asked questions
What is Paradise Lost about?
It tells the rebellion of Satan against God, his fall from Heaven, and his temptation of Adam and Eve, which leads to their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
Was Milton blind when he wrote Paradise Lost?
Yes. He had lost his sight by 1652 and composed the poem in his head, dictating it to whoever could write it down.
What is Areopagitica?
A pamphlet of 1644 in which Milton argued against the licensing of books before publication. It is one of the founding texts of the freedom of the press.