Publisher's Synopsis
This collection of classic John Milton poems includes the following: Preface Outlines of the Life of Milton TEXT: On the Morning of Christ's Nativity On Shakespeare L'Allegro Il Penseroso Arcades At a Solemn Music Comus Lycidas Sonnets: I. To the Nightingale II. On his having arrived at the Age of Twenty-three VIII. When the Assault was intended to the City IX. To a Virtuous Young Lady X. To the Lady Margaret Ley XIII. To Mr. H. Lawes on his Airs XV. On the Lord General Fairfax, at the Siege of Colchester XVI. To the Lord General Cromwell, May, 1652 XVII. To Sir Henry Vane the Younger XVIII. On the Late Massacre in Piedmont XIX. On his Blindness XX. To Mr. Lawrence XXI. To Cyriack Skinner XXII. To the Same XXIII. On his Deceased Wife Notes.John Milton was born in Bread Street, London on 9 December 1608, the son of composer John Milton and his wife Sarah Jeffrey. The senior John Milton (1562-1647) moved to London around 1583 after being disinherited by his devout Catholic father Richard "the Ranger" Milton for embracing Protestantism.[5] In London, the senior John Milton married Sarah Jeffrey (1572-1637) and found lasting financial success as a scrivener.[6] He lived in and worked from a house on Bread Street, where the Mermaid Tavern was located in Cheapside. The elder Milton was noted for his skill as a musical composer, and this talent left his son with a lifelong appreciation for music and friendships with musicians such as Henry Lawes.[7]Milton's father's prosperity provided his eldest son with a private tutor, Thomas Young, a Scottish Presbyterian with an M.A. from the University of St. Andrews. Research suggests that Young's influence served as the poet's introduction to religious radicalism.[8] After Young's tutorship, Milton attended St Paul's School in London. There he began the study of Latin and Greek, and the classical languages left an imprint on both his poetry and prose in English (he also wrote in Italian and Latin).Milton's first datable compositions are two psalms done at age 15 at Long Bennington. One contemporary source is the Brief Lives of John 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."[9]In 1625, Milton began attending Christ's College, Cambridge. He graduated with a B.A. in 1629, [10] ranking fourth of 24 honours graduates that year in the University of Cambridge.[11] Preparing to become an Anglican priest, Milton stayed on and obtained his Master of Arts degreeon 3 July 1632Milton may have been rusticated (suspended) in his first year for quarrelling with his tutor, Bishop William Chappell. He was certainly at home in London in the Lent Term 1626; there he wrote his Elegia Prima, a first Latin elegy, to Charles Diodati, a friend from St Paul's. Based on remarks of John Aubrey, Chappell "whipt" Milton.[9] This story is now disputed, though certainly Milton disliked Chappell.[12] Historian Christopher Hill cautiously notes that Milton was "apparently" rusticated, and that the differences between Chappell and Milton may have been either religious or personal.[13] It is also possible that, like Isaac Newton four decades later, Milton was sent home because of the plague, by which Cambridge was badly affected in 1625. In 1626, Milton's tutor was Nathaniel Tovey.At Cambridge, Milton was on good terms with Edward King, for whom he later wrote "Lycidas". He also befriended Anglo-American dissident and theologian Roger Williams. Milton tutored Williams in Hebrew in exchange for lessons in Dutch
