Give a brief Life-Sketch of JOHN MILTON.

Ans.

JOHN MILTON (1608-1674)

Birth and Parentage: John Milton who was the eldest son of John Milton, was born on December 9, 1608, in Bread Street, London. His father was a scrivener or law writer. Milton’s grandfather Richard Milton, was an ardent Roman Catholic. His grandfather had disinherited his son, the poet’s father, for turning Protestant. The poet’s father settled down in London and gradually established himself as a prosperous scrivener, law stationer and moneylender. Milton’s mother is described by Milton himself as noted in the neighborhood for piety and good works. There were two other children : an elder sister, Anne and a younger brother Christopher.

His Education: Milton was sent to St. Paul School for the primary education about the year 1620. Here he studied not merely Greek and Latin, but also Italian, French and Hebrew. The young Milton thrived at St. Paul’s and always looked back to his years with pleasure. He was much attached to one of the tutors, Alexander Gill, son of the distinguished head master of the school. The severe humanistic curriculum satisfied his instinct for genuine literary and scholarly cultivation.

His Marriages: In 1643, he married Marry Powell, the young daughter of a royalist, but the union proved most unhappy one. Early in 1653 a terrible calamity overtook him, his sight; which had long been failing, was now ruined entirely by over stress of work, and he became totally blind. Three years later he married again, but his wife. Catherine Woodcock, died within fifteen months. She gave birth to a daughter on October 19, 1657: She died with the child. His third wife was Elizabeth Minshull, a lady thirty years younger than himself.

His Death: Milton had long been a patient of gout. In his sixty-sixth year it took a serious turn and proved fatal. On the 10th of November 1674, he quietly passed away at his house at Bunhill Fields. He was buried in the chancel of St. Giles, Cripplegate, London, besides his father’s tomb. His funeral was splendidly and numerously attended. No memorial was erected to his memory at the moment. An epitaph was, however, put upon his grave towards the end of the Victorian Age. A monument was also erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey.