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Lot Essay
Milton was born on 9 December 1608 in Bread Street, Cheapside, the third son of John Milton, a scrivener and composer. He was educated by a private tutor, Thomas Young, who gave him a fine grounding in the classics, and then at St Paul's School. His earliest poems, English paraphrases of psalms 114 and 136, were composed when he was fifteen, and he wrote poetry in Italian, Latin and English throughout his years at Christ's College, Cambridge. He graduated with a Masters in the summer of 1632 and returned to live with his father who had retired to a house at Horton, Buckinghamshire, at which time he wrote his lyrical poems, Il Pensero and L'Allegro and the masque, Comus (1634) which was performed for John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater, in Ludlow. His last important early poem was written in 1637 in memory of his fellow at Christ's College, Edward King, Lycidas, in which he registers his growing disaffection with the Caroline church, the greed of the clergy and the power of the bishops in particular, themes to which he was to return to in his polemical tracts of 1641 and 1642.
In April of 1638 Milton travelled to the continent and visited France, Italy and Switzerland before returning to England fifteen months later where he took a house in Aldersgate Street, London, and began taking pupils. In 1643 he married Mary, eldest daughter of Richard Powell near Shotover, Oxfordshire, however the marriage was not a success and she returned to her father within the month, prompting Milton to write (1643-1645) arguing for more leniency in the grounds for the divorce. The notoriety that these pamphlets occasioned led to attacks on Milton from various clerics, and also parliament, who sought to suppress his writings which had been published without license, which in turn led to his publication of Areopagitica (1644) advocating tolerance towards unlicensed printing. In 1645, Milton's estranged wife returned to him and he reluctantly took her back and by her had three daughters, Anne, Mary and Deborah.
During the trial of King Charles II in January of 1649, Milton wrote his Tenure of Kings and Magistrates and declared on the title page that 'it is lawful ... for any who have the power to call to account a Tyrant or wicked King and after due conviction, to depose, & put him to death', sentiments which may have prompted the republican parliament to appoint him Secretary for Foreign Tongues and authorised him to rebuff a number of pamphlets sympathetic to the Royal cause that appeared after the King's execution.
By 1652 he had entirely lost his sight, probably due to glaucoma, and was assisted in his duties for the Council of State by the metaphysical poet, Andrew Marvell, and continued his secretaryship during the protectorate of Richard Cromwell. In 1658 he began writing his most celebrated work, Paradise Lost which he completed in 1663, and which was greatly admired by his contemporaries, John Dryden and Andrew Marvell. Following the Restoration he was briefly arrested. In 1662 he took a third wife, Elizabeth Minshull, who kept his house in Artillery Walk, Bunhill Fields. The plague in 1665 drove Milton to retire to a cottage in Chalfont St. Giles, Buckinghamshire, where he wrote his final great poems, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes (published in 1671). He died on 8 November 1674 and was buried alongside his father in St. Giles's Cripplegate.
Jonathan Richardson senior came across a copy of Paradise Lost in the studio of the artist, John Riley, and became a fervent admirer of Milton's poetry. He sought to emulate Milton's lyricism in his own verse and saw the aesthetic achievement of the poem as a model for artists and writers alike, advocating what he perceived as Milton's artistic principals in his books, Two Discourses and An Essay on the Theory of Painting. Milton is the author most cited by Richardson with reference to his theory of the 'sublime' and he offers Milton as an example of why artists should not be afraid of borrowing ideas from other artists. Furthermore he agreed with many of Milton's theological concepts and admired Milton's character and moral stance, defending Milton from what he saw as slurs in his character. In particular Richardson tried to explain Milton's attitude to women in general and treatment of his daughters who he taught to read (but not understand) foreign languages so that they could read to him and whose allowance he stopped following his third marriage, arguing that no one could comprehend the personal situation, and that Milton was himself wronged and maligned by his daughters.
This admiration culminated in the publication by Richardson and his son, Jonathan Richardson, in 1734 of Explanatory Notes and Remarks on Milton's 'Paradise Lost'. This commentary seems to have grown out of a reaction to errors Richardson perceived in Richard Bentley's corrected edition of Paradise Lost, 1732, and consists of a biography of Milton followed by a general discussion of the poem by Richardson, senior.
Modern literary scholars regard Richardson's text as one of the most significant early biographies of Milton.
In April of 1638 Milton travelled to the continent and visited France, Italy and Switzerland before returning to England fifteen months later where he took a house in Aldersgate Street, London, and began taking pupils. In 1643 he married Mary, eldest daughter of Richard Powell near Shotover, Oxfordshire, however the marriage was not a success and she returned to her father within the month, prompting Milton to write (1643-1645) arguing for more leniency in the grounds for the divorce. The notoriety that these pamphlets occasioned led to attacks on Milton from various clerics, and also parliament, who sought to suppress his writings which had been published without license, which in turn led to his publication of Areopagitica (1644) advocating tolerance towards unlicensed printing. In 1645, Milton's estranged wife returned to him and he reluctantly took her back and by her had three daughters, Anne, Mary and Deborah.
During the trial of King Charles II in January of 1649, Milton wrote his Tenure of Kings and Magistrates and declared on the title page that 'it is lawful ... for any who have the power to call to account a Tyrant or wicked King and after due conviction, to depose, & put him to death', sentiments which may have prompted the republican parliament to appoint him Secretary for Foreign Tongues and authorised him to rebuff a number of pamphlets sympathetic to the Royal cause that appeared after the King's execution.
By 1652 he had entirely lost his sight, probably due to glaucoma, and was assisted in his duties for the Council of State by the metaphysical poet, Andrew Marvell, and continued his secretaryship during the protectorate of Richard Cromwell. In 1658 he began writing his most celebrated work, Paradise Lost which he completed in 1663, and which was greatly admired by his contemporaries, John Dryden and Andrew Marvell. Following the Restoration he was briefly arrested. In 1662 he took a third wife, Elizabeth Minshull, who kept his house in Artillery Walk, Bunhill Fields. The plague in 1665 drove Milton to retire to a cottage in Chalfont St. Giles, Buckinghamshire, where he wrote his final great poems, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes (published in 1671). He died on 8 November 1674 and was buried alongside his father in St. Giles's Cripplegate.
Jonathan Richardson senior came across a copy of Paradise Lost in the studio of the artist, John Riley, and became a fervent admirer of Milton's poetry. He sought to emulate Milton's lyricism in his own verse and saw the aesthetic achievement of the poem as a model for artists and writers alike, advocating what he perceived as Milton's artistic principals in his books, Two Discourses and An Essay on the Theory of Painting. Milton is the author most cited by Richardson with reference to his theory of the 'sublime' and he offers Milton as an example of why artists should not be afraid of borrowing ideas from other artists. Furthermore he agreed with many of Milton's theological concepts and admired Milton's character and moral stance, defending Milton from what he saw as slurs in his character. In particular Richardson tried to explain Milton's attitude to women in general and treatment of his daughters who he taught to read (but not understand) foreign languages so that they could read to him and whose allowance he stopped following his third marriage, arguing that no one could comprehend the personal situation, and that Milton was himself wronged and maligned by his daughters.
This admiration culminated in the publication by Richardson and his son, Jonathan Richardson, in 1734 of Explanatory Notes and Remarks on Milton's 'Paradise Lost'. This commentary seems to have grown out of a reaction to errors Richardson perceived in Richard Bentley's corrected edition of Paradise Lost, 1732, and consists of a biography of Milton followed by a general discussion of the poem by Richardson, senior.
Modern literary scholars regard Richardson's text as one of the most significant early biographies of Milton.