Milton, John

Milton, John (1608–74). Milton was intended for the ministry by his father, a well‐to‐do London scrivener, and was educated at St Paul's School and Christ's College, Cambridge. He became increasingly dedicated to poetry, however, nurturing a vocation to write a great Christian epic. But he put this aside soon after the Long Parliament met, because he believed that England was on the brink of a great new reformation and that he must serve it with his pen, in prose. Areopagitica (1644), a plea for a free press, presented a vision of England as ‘a noble and puissant Nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks’. The establishment of the Commonwealth brought him fresh hope, however, and his Tenure of Kings and Magistrates eloquently justified the trial of Charles I. Gratefully, the Council of State appointed him as its secretary for foreign tongues. Besides various diplomatic duties, this entailed writing (with the last of his eyesight) lengthy defences of the Commonwealth in both English and Latin. He eulogized Cromwell's Protectorate too, but gradually turned against its ecclesiastical policies and monarchical tendencies. He was briefly imprisoned at the Restoration, but was spared to complete the epic masterpieces Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes, whose composition he had postponed for so long.