"Great Writers."
EDITED BY
PROFESSOR ERIC S. ROBERTSON, M.A.
LIFE
OF
JOHN MILTON
BY
RICHARD GARNETT, LL.D.
LONDON
WALTER SCOTT, 24, WARWICK LANE
1890
(All rights reserved.)
NOTE.
The number of miniature "Lives" of Milton is great; great also is themerit of some of them. With one exception, nevertheless, they are alldismissed to the shelf by the publication of Professor Masson'smonumental and authoritative biography, without perpetual reference towhich no satisfactory memoir can henceforth be composed. One recentbiography has enjoyed this advantage. Its author, the late MarkPattison, wanted neither this nor any other qualification except akeener sense of the importance of the religious and politicalcontroversies of Milton's time. His indifference to matters so momentousin Milton's own estimation has, in our opinion, vitiated his conceptionof his hero, who is represented as persistently yielding to party whatwas meant for mankind. We think, on the contrary, that such a mere manof letters as Pattison wishes that Milton had been, could never haveproduced a "Paradise Lost." If this view is well-founded, there is notonly room but need for yet another miniature "Life of Milton,"notwithstanding the intellectual subtlety 6and scholarly refinementwhich render Pattison's memorable. It should be noted that the recentGerman biography by Stern, if adding little to Professor Masson's facts,contributes much valuable literary illustration; and that Keighley'sanalysis of Milton's opinions occupies a position of its own, of whichno subsequent biographical discoveries can deprive it. The presentwriter has further to express his deep obligations to Professor Massonfor his great kindness in reading and remarking upon the proofs—notthereby rendering himself responsible for anything in these pages; andalso to the helpful friend who has provided him with an index.
Milton born in Bread Street, Cheapside, December 9, 1608;condition of English literature at his birth; part in itsdevelopment assigned to him; materials available for hisbiography; his ancestry; his father; influences that surroundedhis boyhood; enters St. Paul's School, 1620; distinguished forcompositions in prose and verse; matriculates at Cambridge, 1625;condition of the University at the period; his misunderstandingswith his tutor; graduates B.A., 1629, M.A., 1632; his relationswith the University; declines to take orders or follow aprofession; his first poems; retires to Horton, inBuckinghamshire, where his father had settled, 1632.
Horton, its scenery and associations with Milton; Milton's studiesand poetical aspirations; exceptional nature of his poeticaldevelopment; his Latin poems; "Arcades" and "Comus" composed andrepresented at the instance of Henry Lawes, 1633 and 1