John Milton 1608-1674

John Milton was born in Cheapside in London in 1608. His father, John Milton sr., was a scrivener and a composer of music. His father’s good income allowed Milton to receive a good education and to make a “grand tour” through Europe. In 1620 he went to St. Paul’s School in London, one of the best schools in the country at that time. In 1625 he entered Christ College at Cambridge University, where he studied until 1632. He was one of the best students. His nickname at university was “The Lady of Christ’s”¹ (het meisje van het Christus College). This is probably because he did not spend as much time on social and athletic activities as the other students did.

Milton, just like Edmund Spenser, wanted to become a great English poet. He “came to believe that he was destined to serve his language, his country and his God as a poet.”² And so he prepared himself very well for his poetic career. After his time in Cambridge he spent 6 years educating himself by studying theology, philosophy, history, science, politics and literature. The languages he knew were Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, French, Spanish and Dutch. He followed the steps of the ideal poetic career. In that time, this was a career like that of the Roman poet Virgil, in which you started with writing pastoral poetry and worked your way up to writing an epic. His volume of collected poetry, Poems, was published in 1645.

When looking back to Milton’s life, it is important to look at his career within the historical background of his lifetime. Milton had a very active public career and he refused to make a distinction between his private life and things that had to do with the state and the church. After all, he had decided to devote his life to God and his country. Originally, he wanted to make a career in the Church of England. However, his Puritan opinions differed from those of the church leaders and he accused them of corruption. In several treatises he expressed his opinions on political and religious matters.

Milton lived in a turbulent time. In 1642 a civil war broke out because several groups of people protested against the absolute reign of Charles I, who had come to the throne in 1625. Milton was among those people who protested. In 1649 King Charles I was executed and Oliver Cromwell, the military commander, became Lord Protector of the English Commonwealth. Milton worked as Latin Secretary from 1649 until 1658. In 1652, his wife Mary Powell died in childbirth. The same year he became entirely blind. Two months before the monarchy was restored (in 1660, Charles II became king) Milton still defended the idea of a Commonwealth. Because he kept protesting against the restoration of the monarchy he was imprisoned for a while. His friend and colleague Andrew Marvell helped him to get his freedom back.

In 1663 Milton married his third wife, Elizabeth Minshull. His life in this period was not easy. He was totally blind, he was ill very often and he needed others to help him with his writing. Moreover, the plague broke out again in 1665 and in 1666 a large part of London, where he lived, was damaged by the great fire. Despite all these setbacks he managed to finish his life’s work, his epic Paradise Lost, in 1667. Until his death in 1674, he continued to write. He wrote A History of Britain and Christian Doctrine in which he promoted a lot of radical and unorthodox ideas .