On April 27, 1667, poet John Milton sells the
copyright to his masterpiece Paradise Lost (1667) for a mere 10 pounds. Milton
was born on December 9, 1608 in London, England. He was raised the indulged son
of a prosperous London businessman. He excelled at languages in grammar school
and at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he took a bachelor's and a master's,
which he completed in 1632. He then decided to continue his own education,
spending six years reading every major work of literature in several languages.
He published an elegy for a college classmate, Lycidas, in 1637 and went
abroad in 1638 to continue his studies. In 1642, Milton married 17-year-old
Mary Powell, who left him just weeks later. He then wrote a series of pamphlets
arguing for the institution of divorce based on incompatibility. The idea,
however mild it seems today, was scandalous at the time, and Milton experienced
a vehement backlash for his writing. Milton's wife returned to him in 1645, and
the pair had three daughters. However, he continued espousing controversial
views. He supported the execution of King Charles I, he railed against the
control of the church by bishops, and he upheld the institution of Cromwell's
commonwealth, for which he became secretary of foreign languages. In 1651, he
lost his sight but fulfilled his government duties with the help of assistants,
including poet Andrew Marvell. His wife died the following year. He remarried in
1656, but his second wife died in childbirth. Four years later, the
commonwealth was overturned, and Milton was thrown in jail, saved only by the
intervention of friends. He married for a third time in 1663. Blind, impoverished,
and jobless, he began to dictate his poem Paradise Lost to his family.
When the poem was ready for publication, he sold it for 10 pounds. Once
printed, Paradise Lost was
immediately hailed as a masterpiece of the English language. In 1671, he wrote Paradise Regained, followed by Samson Agonistes. Milton died on
November 8, 1674 and was buried at St. Giles-without-Cripplegate Church in
London.
Michael Thomas
Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends.
The book can be purchased at Amazon through the following links:
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