Aubrey

Clark in his edition of Aubrey's Brief Lives. Anthony Wood himself based his Life of Milton in the Fasti Oxonienses (1692) chiefly on the material furnished by Aubrey and on the manuscript of the anonymous biographer. He, therefore, does not rank as a first-hand wit

ness.

Of the later biographers two, John Toland and Jonathan Richardson, contribute a few new items from their own recollection. With them the personal tradition ends. There remain, however, the various records entries of the births, marriages, and deaths of the Milton family; transfers of property, minutes of the Council of State, etc., which give documentary information on essential points. Much of this was brought to light in the eighteenth century and is contained in Todd's edition, but the great work of collecting and weighing it was done by David Masson. The materials discovered since his time have been mere gleanings. There is finally a considerable amount of manuscript in Milton's hand or in that of his amanuenses, including, besides the text of his minor poems, a Commonplace Book made up of citations from his reading, his literary plans, marginalia in books from his. library, a few of his letters, etc. This material was minutely described by the bookseller Sotheby in his bulky Ramblings in Elucidation of the Autograph of Milton, and the most important items are noted in their proper connection in this volume.

Since Milton and his early biographers are often incomplete, and sometimes inaccurate, in their statements, it will be well to give here, at the risk of some repetition, a chronological summary of the most important facts of his outward life as they have been ascertained by modern

scholarship. Fuller detail regarding the composition, publication, and reception of his works will be found in later chapters, and three passages of importance as revelations of his inner life and thought about himself are quoted in the Appendix.

John Milton, son of John Milton, Scrivener, was born in Bread Street, Cheapside, London, December 9, 1608. He had an elder sister, Anne, afterward wife of Edward Phillips, senior. His brother Christopher, who later became a baronet and a somewhat distinguished lawyer, was born in 1615. After being tutored at home by Thomas Young, Milton was sent, not later than 1620, to St. Paul's School. On February 12, 1625, he was admitted as a pensioner of Christ's College, Cambridge, and matriculated April 9 of the same year. He kept every term at the University, taking the degree of B.A. March 26, 1629, and that of M.A. July 3, 1632.

After graduation Milton settled at Horton, where his father had retired in 1632 and remained there most of the time until April, 1638, when he set out for the Continent. Traveling by way of Paris he reached Florence probably by August and stayed there two months. He was in Rome during October and November, visited Naples, and was back at Florence before March, 1639. He was at Geneva on his way home by July 10, 1639, and back in England before the end of the month. Milton took up lodgings in St. Bride's Churchyard, London, and shortly after engaged a house in Aldersgate Street. From 1640 to 1647 he was more or less engaged in teaching, having at first his two nephews, John and Edward Phillips, and after 1643 other pupils as members of his household.

His first controversial work, Of Reformation, appeared in May, 1641, and others followed in rapid succession throughout the period of the Revolution and the Commonwealth. His first volume of poems was published in 1645.

In 1643 Milton married Mary Powell, daughter of Richard Powell, a Cavalier of Forest Hill, Oxfordshire, with whom Milton had had financial dealings. She left him shortly after but returned in 1645, in which year Milton moved to a larger house in the Barbican. His first child, Anne, was born on July 29, 1646; his second, Mary, on October 25, 1648; his third, John, who died in infancy, on March 16, 1651; and his last daughter, Deborah, on May 2, 1652. His wife died in the same year. The surrender of Oxford in 1646 had ruined the Powell family and they took refuge with the Miltons for a short time. After the death at this time of Richard Powell legal difficulties arose between his widow and Milton. John Milton senior died March 15, 1647. In that year Milton gave up his teaching and moved to a smaller house in High Holborn.

As a result of his services to the cause of the Commonwealth, and particularly of the writing of The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, Milton was appointed Latin Secretary to the Council of State and sworn into that office March 15, 1649, at a salary of £289 14s. 41⁄2d. a year. He was allowed chambers in Whitehall, but was deprived of them in 1652 and forced to move to a house in Petty Fraunce, Westminster. His blindness, which had been increasing for some time, became complete in that year and he was granted assistance in his office. In 1655 his salary was reduced and he no longer attended meetings

of the Council, but he continued to serve through the Protectorate and was not dismissed from office until 1660.

On November 12, 1656, he married Katharine Woodcock, who gave birth to a daughter, October 19, 1657. Both mother and child died in the February following.

At the Restoration in 1660 Milton was concealed for a time in a friend's house in Bartholomew Close. He was arrested during the summer of that year but ordered released on payment of his fees. On February 24, 1663, he married his third wife, Elizabeth Minshull, a woman thirty years younger than himself. Shortly afterward he moved to a house in Artillery Walk, Bunhill Fields, and lived there the rest of his life, except for a short period during the plague of 1665 when he resided at Chalfont St. Giles, Buckinghamshire, in a house which is still preserved. Paradise Lost, begun before the Restoration, was published in 1667, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes in 1671. A second edition of his early poems was issued in 1673. Milton died of gout November 8, 1674, and was buried in St. Giles, Cripplegate, beside his father. His three daughters and his widow survived him, the latter dying in 1727. The last of Milton's known descendants was Elizabeth Foster, daughter of Deborah Milton. She died in 1754.

HOME ENVIRONMENT AND EARLY SCHOOLING

(1608-1625)

MILTON'S STATEMENT. I will now mention who and whence I am. I was born at London, of an honest family; my father was distinguished by the undeviating integ

rity of his life; my mother, by the esteem in which she was held, and the alms which she bestowed. My father destined me from a child to the pursuits of literature; and my appetite for knowledge was so voracious, that, from twelve years of age, I hardly ever left my studies, or went to bed before midnight. This primarily led to my loss of sight. My eyes were naturally weak, and I was subject to frequent headaches; which, however, could not chill the ardour of my curiosity, or retard the progress of my improvement. My father had me daily instructed in the grammar-school, and by other masters at home. He then, after I had acquired a proficiency in various languages, and had made a considerable progress in philosophy, sent me to the University of Cambridge. -Second Defence of the English People.

EDWARD PHILLIPS' ACCOUNT. He was born in London, in a house in Bread Street, the lease whereof, as I take it, but for certain it was a house in Bread Street, became in time part of his estate, in the year of our Lord 1606. His father John Milton, an honest, worthy, and substantial citizen of London, by profession a scrivener; to which he voluntarily betook himself, by the advice and assistance of an intimate friend of his, eminent in that calling, upon his being cast out by his father, bigoted Roman Catholic, for embracing, when young, the protestant faith, and abjuring the popish tenets. For he is said to have been descended of an ancient family of the Miltons, of Milton near Abingdon in Oxfordshire,* where they had been a long time seated, as appears by

3 Error for 1608.

4 Milton's immediate ancestors lived at Stanton St. John, Oxfordshire. See Masson I, 13 ff.