John Milton

John Milton was born in London in 1608, the son of a scrivener who was also a composer. He studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, and then spent years in private study, writing poems such as the masque Comus and the elegy Lycidas. He toured Italy in 1638–1639, where he met the astronomer Galileo. During the English Civil War he wrote prose pamphlets supporting the Puritan and republican cause, defending divorce, and, in Areopagitica (1644), arguing against the licensing of books before publication. After the execution of King Charles I he served the Commonwealth government as Secretary for Foreign Tongues and defended the king's execution in print. By 1652 he had gone completely blind; his sonnet 'On His Blindness' reflects on this. After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 he was briefly arrested. Working by dictation, he completed Paradise Lost, an epic poem about the fall of Satan and of Adam and Eve, published in 1667. It was followed by Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes in 1671. He died in London in 1674.

John Milton is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: A Protestant whose grandfather adhered to the old Roman Catholic religion. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911) (via Wikisource)