История литературы / 16. John Milton

He was an English poet & political writer.Secretary of foreign languages and foreign affairs. Human being for him is the center of everything, very versatile, educated, new foreign languages=true Renaissance man. Obedience to strict Puritan rules = Restoration. His most popular work is “Paradise Lost”, which was written in 1667 & revised in 1674. Then in 1671 he wrote “Paradise regained” & “Samson Agonistes”, which were published in one volume. Milton is the most dramatic figure in all the English literature. The revolution he lived through changed every aspect of English life. When he was born in 1608, Shakespeare was still alive and Queen Elizabeth was only five years dead. Her influence was still felt. She had been an absolute monarch who regarded Parliament as a necessary evil in order to get money for her projects. Milton's circumstances changed drastically during his life. His family was reasonably well-to-do. They lived in London. His father was a scrivener (bank+finance, нотариус), who was wealthy enough to afford private tutors for his son, then schooling at St. Paul's and Christ's College, Cambridge University. Perhaps just as important for Milton's development was the fact that his father was a musician and composer. One of the most attractive features of Milton's poetry is its marvelous musical qualities. Some people have said that Milton was one of the most learned men England has ever known. He wrote poetry in Latin, Greek, and Italian, and read almost all the literature surviving from the Greek and Roman periods. He even read the Bible in Hebrew. Just before the religious and political quarrels in England came to a head, Milton went abroad for fifteen months, meeting and talking with learned and famous men all over Europe. He met Galileo and looked through his telescope, a fact Milton mentions more than once in Paradise Lost. Critics call him “the battling Milton”, because his life was “a drama of 3 acts”. His soul was divided between 2 great aspirations & that was his tragedy. It was a wrestle between his pure poetic genius, which is clearly seen in his early writings & the puritan spirit of righteousness that was fully summoned in him by the Civil war. He dedicated himself to the cause he considered to be just. He suppressed poetry in his veins until the cause was lost. His life was a drama in 3 acts: the 1^st one discovers Milton in the calm & peaceful retirement in his father’s home at Horton, where he wrote beautiful poems, full of elegant metaphors, & poetic expressions: “L’allegro”, “Il Penseroso”. The 2^nd act is the foul atmosphere of Civil war, the atmosphere of hatred that he breathed. The Civil War deeply affected his personal relations. Milton married into a Royalist family in 1642. He goes to participate in the war on the side of puritans & acted as Cromwell’s secretary. At that time wrote political pamphlets, trying to defend the nation. He summoned all his talent to prove that a nation has a right to execute Charles I and this was considered as a murder by the rest of the world. The blind & friendless he writes his “Paradise lost”, “Paradise regained” & “Samson Agonistes”. His wife left him soon & it was quite a blow for him, because of his puritan vision of life. This was followed by the fierce pamphlets on divorce, addressing to the parliament. His wife’s comeback & their reconciliation seem to be described in the “Paradise lost”, where the repentant Eve seeks comfort & forgiveness from Adam. Milton worked hard for Cromwell’s party & under Cromwell he wrote several pamphlets to defend the idea of revolution & the choice of English people. These works were written in Latin & to this period of time we can attribute Milton’s sonnets & these sonnets may also serve as a memorial of the time. But the devastating times were coming (1^st marriage – unhappy, 2^nd marriage was blighted by the death of his wife). The 3d marriage was comfortable, but it was too late for sweetness. Loss of sight, the overthrow of the puritan party, the captivity of practically all his friends, final retirement in loneliness were the influences that changed his attitude to life & gave him this promethean grander of the poet, who rose up alone against the foreign world. He wanted to write a play about the nature of original sin. As a Renaissance man, he wanted to investigate the issue,to prove that Adam and Eve had no choice. Paradise Lost (1667) is the culmination of his life's work. It took place between the Restoration period and The Great plague. His early poems secure him a place among the finest English poets. But it is Paradise Lost which makes it impossible for you to ignore Milton. He wrote Paradise Regained afterward, but it has nothing like the stature of Paradise Lost. It has never lost its status as a classic, and it has never stopped being a source of controversy. The poem has retained its interest because it deals with subjects that will always concern us-good, evil, freedom, responsibility. Promethean: traced pass to other writers, tortures, blind, alone, crush.