John Milton

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Standard Name: Milton, John
Head-and-shoulders engraving of John Milton, 1670 or later. He wears bands at his neck, and shoulder-length hair.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Birth Anne Grant
As a girl she wished for a little sister whom she could teach to enjoy Milton .
Grant, Anne. Memoirs of an American Lady. Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme, 1808, 2 vols.
2: 153
Cultural formation Ephelia
If this was Ephelia, she grew up in an extremely wealthy, noble family and an incomparably privileged environment, with King James I her honorary grandfather as well as her godfather, and with fine literature produced...
Cultural formation Frances Arabella Rowden
FAR came from the English middle class. She was an Anglican in religion. Mary Russell Mitford represents her as a young teacher taking a relaxed attitude to religious ideas in literary contexts (her students were...
Cultural formation Lucy Hutton
She was born into the English professional class: its upper ranks, if the motto on her published title-page is a family one. As befitting her marriage to a clergyman, she was a strong member of...
Dedications Hannah Cowley
One early performance drew bigger crowds than Drury Lane, although the rival theatre that night featured Sarah Siddons on stage and the king and queen in the audience. More Ways Than One was published on...
Education Elizabeth Inchbald
In the early 1780s she was reading such challenging authors as Milton , Plato , Plutarch , and Aristotle .
Manvell, Roger. Elizabeth Inchbald: England’s Principal Woman Dramatist and Independent Woman of Letters in 18th Century London. University Press of America, 1987.
29
Education Maria Theresa Kemble
In later life she said she could never enjoy reading Milton because to her Paradise Lost was a lesson-book for learning English from.
Kemble, Fanny. Records of a Girlhood. Henry Holt, 1879.
96
Education Matilda Betham-Edwards
Because of her mother's early death, MBE , she said later, was largely self-educated, her teachers being plenty of the best books.
Black, Helen C. Notable Women Authors of the Day. D. Bryce, 1893.
124
Apart from the family library, a half-guinea annual subscription to the Ipswich Mechanics' Institution
Education Kathleen Raine
KR wrote that she grew up reading the Bible daily and memorising passages from it. Her mother could recite long passages from Milton and other English poets, besides Scottish poems and ballads. She was glad...
Education Anna Swanwick
At home her mother had read to her daughters, while they sewed, Greek and Roman history, and writers like Pope , and Cowper . At four Anna could recite long passages from Milton 's L'Allegro...
Education Toru Dutt
TD and Aru were briefly enrolled at a boarding school in Nice where they studied French.
Rao, Raja, and Toru Dutt. “Aru and Toru”. Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan, Writers Workshop, 1972.
After moving to England they continued their studies and attended the Higher Lectures for Women series begun by Henry Sidgwick
Education Anna Seward
Anna's education was largely overseen by her parents. Before she was three she could recite passages from Milton 's L'Allegro and by nine the first three books of Paradise Lost.
Ashmun, Margaret. The Singing Swan. Yale University Press; H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1931.
8
She was later...
Education Anne Carson
Following her passion for classics, AC enrolled in St Michael's College at the University of Toronto in 1968. However, for the first few years of her undergraduate degree she was not contented with her studies...
Education Edna St Vincent Millay
Three years after her highschool graduation, doors suddenly opened for ESVM to go to college, although her preparation had not reached the standard generally demanded. Donors offered to support her at Vassar College (through Caroline B. Dow
Education Anna Swanwick
Poetry was always important to her. She said that Dante 's Paradiso had changed her life.
Bruce, Mary Louisa. Anna Swanwick, A Memoir and Recollections 1813-1899. T. F. Unwin, 1903.
123-4
Her friend Rev P. H. Wicksteed reported that she found Milton 's Comus an intense and enduring delight.
qtd. in
Bruce, Mary Louisa. Anna Swanwick, A Memoir and Recollections 1813-1899. T. F. Unwin, 1903.
124

Timeline

8 November 1623: Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies,...

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8 November 1623

Shakespeare 's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies, collected (with one or two omissions) and posthumously published this year in a handsome large-format edition (the First Folio) were registered with the Stationers' Company .
Dobson, Michael. “Whatever you do, buy”. London Review of Books, 15 Nov. 2001, pp. 8-10.
8-9
Kay, Dennis. Shakespeare: His Life, Work, and Era. William Morrow, 1992.
12
Lea, Richard. “Shakespeare’s First Folio fetches ¥2.8m”. Guardian Unlimited, 13 July 2006.
Smith, Emma. Shakespeare’s First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book. Oxford University Press, 2016.
2-3, 16, 56

Christmas Day 1629: John Milton finished his ode On the morning...

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Christmas Day 1629

John Milton finished his ode On the morning of Christ's Nativity. It was his first religious poem in English.
Campbell, Gordon, and John Milton. “Introduction and Notes”. The Complete Poems, edited by Bernard Arker Wright and Bernard Arker Wright, New Edition, J. M. Dent and Sons, 1980, p. xv - xxix, passim.
xi
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

29 September 1634: Milton's masque later known as Comus was...

Writing climate item

29 September 1634

Milton 's masque later known as Comus was performed at Ludlow Castle with music by Henry Lawes , to mark the installation of Lord Bridgewater as Lord President of Wales.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Milton

Late 1638: Milton's pastoral elegy Lycidas appeared...

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Late 1638

Milton 's pastoral elegy Lycidas appeared in a volume of Cambridge poems published in memory of Edward King , who had died by drowning.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Milton

By 31 May 1641: Milton entered (anonymously) the ideological...

National or international item

By 31 May 1641

Milton entered (anonymously) the ideological battle surrounding episcopacy (government of the Church of England by bishops) with the first of his five anti-prelatical pamphlets, Of Reformation touching Church Discipline in England.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Milton

1 August 1643: Milton published The Doctrine and Discipline...

Building item

1 August 1643

Milton published The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, a pamphlet arguing that divorce ought to be easier (for a husband).
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Milton

23 November 1644: John Milton published Areopagitica, which...

Writing climate item

23 November 1644

John Milton published Areopagitica, which has become one of his most famous prose tracts because of its subject-matter: a condemnation of censorship, or (stretching its original position slightly) even a defence of freedom of...

2 January 1646: According to collector George Thomason, this...

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2 January 1646

According to collector George Thomason , this was the publication date of Poems of Mr. John Milton , both English and Latin. Compos'd at several times, which was dated 1645. It included the paired...

13 February 1649: Following the king's execution, Milton published...

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13 February 1649

Following the king 's execution, Milton published The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, a pamphlet designed to enforce the general point that a tyrant may be lawfully got rid of.
English Short Title Catalogue. http://estc.bl.uk/.
The pamphlet collector George Thomason

3 March 1660: Milton published The Readie and Easie Way...

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3 March 1660

Milton published The Readie and Easie Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth, a pamphlet designed to sway public opinion against the restoration either of the monarchy or of rule by any single individual.
English Short Title Catalogue. http://estc.bl.uk/.
The...

October 1667: John Milton published his epic poem Paradise...

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October 1667

John Milton published his epic poem Paradise Lost, which he had begun dictating before the Restoration and entered in the Stationers' Register in August.
Cox, Michael, editor. The Oxford Chronology of English Literature. Oxford University Press, 2002, 2 vols.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Borne Back Daily. 2001, http://borneback.com/ .
20 August 2009

May 1671: John Milton published, together, Paradise...

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May 1671

John Milton published, together, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes: a small-scale religious epic and a blank-verse tragedy.
Cox, Michael, editor. The Oxford Chronology of English Literature. Oxford University Press, 2002, 2 vols.
Johnson, Samuel. The Lives of the Poets. Editor Lonsdale, Roger, Clarendon Press, 2006, 4 vols.
1: 400n144

November 1681: John Dryden published his political satire...

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November 1681

John Dryden published his political satire Absalom and Achitophel, at Charles II 's personal suggestion, just a week before the first Earl of Shaftesbury 's trial for treason.
Sherburn, George, and Donald F. Bond. The Restoration and Eighteenth Century. 2nd ed., Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1967.
725-6

By late 1697: John Dryden published by subscription his...

Writing climate item

By late 1697

John Dryden published by subscription his verse translation of Virgil 's Works; it was the first time a literary work by a living author had been published by this means.
Watson, George, and Ian Roy Wilson, editors. The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. Cambridge University Press, 1969, 5 vols., http://U of A, HSS Ruth N Flr 1 Ref.

20 May 1707: Jacob Tonson the elder signed the first of...

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20 May 1707

Jacob Tonson the elder signed the first of two copyright agreements giving him sole right in Shakespeare 's plays.
Nichol, Donald W. “Warburton (Not!) on copyright: Clearing up the Misattribution of An Enquiry into the Nature and Origin of Literary Property”. Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol.
19
, No. 2, 1996, pp. 171-82.
172
Bernard, Stephen. Whig Literary Culture and the Canon: the Legacy of the Tonsons. Oxford University Press, 2015.

Texts

Milton, John. Areopagitica. 1644.
Campbell, Gordon, and John Milton. “Introduction and Notes”. The Complete Poems, edited by Bernard Arker Wright and Bernard Arker Wright, New Edition, J. M. Dent and Sons, 1980, p. xv - xxix, passim.
Milton, John. Lament for Damon. Translator Waddell, Helen, Privately printed, 1943.
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Peter Parker, Robert Boulter, and Matthias Walker, 1667.
Milton, John. “Paradise Lost (1667)”. University of Virginia Library: Electronic Text Center, Scolar Press.
Milton, John. Paradise Regain’d. John Starkey, 1671.
Milton, John. Poems. Editor Wright, Bernard Arker, J. M. Dent; E. P. Dutton, 1959.
Milton, John. Poems of Mr. John Milton. Humphrey Moseley, 1645.
Milton, John. The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce. Printed by T. P. and M. S., 1643.