Childhood of john milton
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He grew up in a household that valued education and literary pursuits, greatly shaping his intellectual development. It was composed orally by dictation to an amanuensis (or scribe) over the next decade, and was published in 1667. On 29 April 1634, Milton's Comus, a masque celebrating chastity, was performed for the first time at Ludlow Castle.
His third and final marriage to Elizabeth Minsull occurred after his release from prison, marking a new chapter in his life.
Early Life and Education
John Milton was born in London on December 9, 1608, to John and Sara Milton, becoming the second of three surviving children in his family. In April 1637, his mother Sara died.
Milton's complex poem mourns the loss of one so young, but also sees a galvanization of intent for the poet to rise to greatness, spurred on by fear at the example of King, a man cut down in his prime before glory had been achieved. This loss profoundly affected Milton and coincided with his unfortunate loss of eyesight the same year.
In the 1920s, T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) criticized Milton's verse chiefly because of its influence.
The graceful thirties
After receiving bachelor of arts and master of arts degrees in 1629 and 1632, Milton lived in his family's suburban home in Hammersmith, England, and then at their country estate in Horton, Buckinghamshire, England.
Milton's body of work extends beyond poetry; he wrote extensively in prose, advocating for the abolishment of the Church of England and championing free speech and divorce rights. In 1656, four years after his first wife's death, Milton married Kathrine Woodcock. Milton wrote the poem Lycidas as an elegy for his friend.
There is a real sense of Milton as a lone but stalwart adherent to a greater truth rebelling against a false authority, much like the character Abdiel as portrayed in Book V of Paradise Lost.
When Charles II assumed control of the country in May 1660, Milton was in serious trouble. However his wife, Katherine Woodcock, died just two years later; she is the subject of the poignant 'Sonnet 23'.
Paradise Regained treats the rejection by Jesus of Satan's temptations. In the middle section of the poem Milton takes the opportunity of contemplating King's piety to level some heavy criticism against the church in the first sally of his long attack against the prelates (or bishops).
In 1638, still unknown in England, Milton embarked on a fifteen-month Grand Tour (a visit to major places in Europe), as many young middle- and upper-class men did after university.
It seems he was a bit of an outsider. Although Milton was motivated by a very high and pure ideal of marriage as an intellectual union, he was publicly attacked on all sides for libertinism. He also returned to the turmoil of a country on the verge of civil war. In 1625, at the age of sixteen, he enrolled at Christ's Church College at Cambridge University.