Sales catalogue 536: Maggs Bros

Date:
1930
Reference:
WA/HMM/CM/Sal/13/91
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sales catalogue 536: Maggs Bros. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    103/542 (page 87)
    MILTON (John), 1608-1674. After Shakespeare the greatest English poet. Macaulay speaks of him as “ the poet, the stateman, the philosopher, the glory of English literature, the champion and the martyr of English liberty.” : John Milton was born in Bread Street, Cheapside, on December 9, 1608, the son of a prosperous scrivener, a Puritan, but a musical composer. At St. Paul’s School he distinguished himself as a scholar and poet. In 1625 he entered Christ's College, Cambridge, proceeding M.A. in 1632. H1s poetical genius had already been attested by the noble “‘ Hymn on the Nativity’’ and “ At a Solemn Music,” as well as much admurable Latin verse; and at Horton he produced the “ Allegro” and the _“ Penseroso,’ “ Comus,”’ and “ Lycidas.”” In 1638-39 he paid a fifteen months’ visit to Italy, where he was cordially received by the Italian literati. The Civil War long silenced his muse, except for an occastonal sonnet. The tracts which he poured forth during that period are as truly lyrical inspirations as any of his poems. In 1645 he published his most famous prose-work, “Areopagitica.”’ His defence of the execution of Charles I. (Jan., 1649), ‘‘ The Tenure of Kings,” was followed by his appointment as “ Secretary of Foreign Tongues.” His.“ Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio ”’ (1651), in reply to Salmasius, made him famous all over Europe, but cost him his eyesight. 6 The Restoration drove him into hiding, for few had more bitterly exasperated the Royalist party. The “ Defensio” was burnt by the hangman. “ Paradise Lost”’ was probably commenced some time before the Restoration, and completed about 1663, though not published till 1667. ‘‘ Paradise Regained” and “ Samson Agonistes” followed, the latter a splendid lament over the author's forlorn old age and the apostasy, as he deemed it, of his nation. He died November 8, 1674, and was buried in St. Giles’s, Cripplegate. Rave 1518 AN ApoLocy aGAINsT A PaMpHLerT call’d A Modest Confutation . of the Animadversions upon the Remonstrant against Smectymnuus. First Epition. Small 4to. London, Printed by E. G., 1642. Bound up with: A Vinpication of the Answer to the Humble Remonstrance, from the Unjust Imputations of Frivolousnesse and Falsehood; Wherein the cause of Liturgy and Episcopacy is further debated : By the same Smectymnuus. Small gto. 1641.