John Milton
| John Milton | |
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John Milton | |
| Activity (s) | Pamphleteer , poet , civil servant |
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| Birth | 9 December 1608 Cheapside , London , England |
| Deaths | 8 November 1674 (65) Bunhill, London |
| Writing language | English Latin |
| Major works | |
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John Milton ( 1608 - 1,674 ) is a poet and a pamphleteer English , famous for being, in particular, the author of several epic poems . and and also sonnets.
Born in London in 1608, he attended prestigious schools, St Paul's and Christ's College, Cambridge. However, he disagreed with his "tutor" (research director) makes his education, at first, tumultuous. In many respects, however, is an autodidact who never ceases to explore and deepen his knowledge of ancient and modern languages, philosophy, literature and theology.
At the victory of the Puritan Commonwealth in England , he was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign Languages, a position that led him to manage the image of the new regime from abroad. He published many pamphlets and treaties in Latin or English. His eyesight and inexorably, at age 40, he is completely blind. He receives the help of assistants, especially that of the poet Andrew Marvell.
During the Restoration , he was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London for a few weeks, but is seen rather quickly released. He devoted himself to writing his long epic poems, a History of England and also more intimate sonnets, including the famous "On His Blindness" ("On his blindness").
He died November 8, 1674. He is considered one of the giants of English poetry.
Summary |
Youth
The father of John Milton is a notary Puritan who wrote madrigals for Queen Elizabeth I. He moved to London around 1583 , for hiding his Protestantism because his own father, Richard Milton, wealthy owner of Oxford County and devout Catholic, was disinherited. By 1600, the poet's father and wife Sara Jeffrey John Milton was born December 9 1608 at Cheapside , London.
John Milton began writing at the age of ten years. Then he began his studies at the School of St Paul's in London. At that time, Milton is destined to the Anglican ministry and for this it is very diligent in his studies. He was admitted Feb. 12, 1625 at Christ's College in Cambridge. This period in Cambridge , from 1625 to 1632 , was rather tumultuous. It is profoundly disagree with his study director William Chappel, perhaps for being flogged by him. Milton is temporarily revoked ("rusticated") during a quarter, from January to March 1626. Upon his return, April 19 1626 , he assigned a new director of studies he keeps until the end of his college years. He graduated "cum laude", that is to say, with honors, 3 July 1632. During this period, Milton wrote many poems and letters in Latin prose, and teaches Hebrew at American theologian Roger Williams in exchange for Dutch lessons.
Clearly, the experiences of Milton to Cambridge have not been particularly successful and have contributed much to his views on education. After graduation, John Milton will live for six years, from 1632 to 1638 , in his parents' home in Hammersmith, and at Horton in a studious retirement. He furthered his knowledge in Greek and Latin but also in Hebrew, French, Spanish, Italian and Old English, and in ancient and modern disciplines such as theology, philosophy, history, politics, letters, science, preparing for his future career as a poet. He acquired a formidable erudition and wrote several important works in prose and poetry. He published his first poem in 1632. It was during this time that Milton will gradually abandon its priesthood and asserted its vocation as a poet.
After the death of his mother in April 1637, Milton intends, as it is then customary for young men of good family, you travel on the continent, France and Italy, then returning to London to continue his studies and give private lessons. So he embarked for France in early 1638 , passing through Paris and Nice , then arrived in Italy where he visited many cities, Genoa , Pisa , Florence , Siena , Rome , Naples , Venice , etc.. He met many famous and influential personalities, including Cardinal Francesco Barberini , but the astronomer Galileo 's conviction that reinforces the commitment that Milton is the religious liberties of his country. Milton, informed the beginnings of the civil war that rumbles in Britain, decided to return to first passing through Geneva.
Milton pamphleteer
Upon his return, Milton became the tutor of his nephews, but also of several children of the nobility. He also wrote a treatise on education in 1644. Alongside this activity, immersed in religious controversy, he wrote five pamphlets against the Church hierarchy that addresses a law allowing censorship instituted a year earlier , . Mary and John are reconciled in 1645 and the Powell family moved entirely within the couple. Mary gave birth to four children: Anne, Mary, John (died at age 15 months) and Deborah. Despite their initial separation, the agreement appears to have ruled in the family. Mary, however, died prematurely at the age of 26 in 1652. During this period also show delivery in Milton early signs of a weak eyes probably due to glaucoma that will progressively blind.
Commonwealth
Parliamentarian victory and the trial of King Charles I to the end of 1648 and early 1649 to give Milton the hope emerge more freedom. It supports a parliamentary system and arguments against the King in The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates ("The mandate of kings and magistrates"). This prose work is not advocating regicide but openly supports the implication. His political reputation and his erudition made him known in the parliament that appoints, 15 March 1649 , Secretary of State for Foreign Languages. He is responsible for correspondence with foreign powers and report on the communications ministry in parliament. Later, he also leads in duties of censor.
His position is important insofar as the young republic is to be recognized diplomatically in Europe. Milton also has the burden of writing works of propaganda in favor of the plan. The first command is written Eikonoklastes of 1649 that responds to a work for the King, "Eikon Basilike", whose popularity is growing concern to the State Council. Another command, Defensio Pro Populo Anglican ("In Defense of the English People"), written in 1651 , was drafted in response to the work of Claude Saumaise published by the royal family in exile, Defensio regia pro Carolo I. These works triggered many reactions in Europe and the defenders of the House of Stuart do not hesitate to say that blindness which affects Milton is a divine punishment due to his positions and his dissolute lifestyle.
Her blindness forced him to gradually decrease its activity and importance of his position is reduced. To assist in its work, it now enjoys assistants whose young poet Andrew Marvell. John Milton remains in office until the end of 1659 , after the death of Oliver Cromwell and the resignation of his son Richard. Faced with the deteriorating political situation and the emergence of a tendency to return to the monarchy, he wrote several works defending the cause of freedom and denouncing the dangers of a religious state.
Restoration
At the Restoration , despite the burning suffered his books, Milton is, initially, not concern. In October 1660 , however, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London where he remained until 15 December. His friends, including Andrew Marvell , a member of Parliament, intervened to secure his release.
His second wife, Katherine Woodcock, whom he married in 1656 , and their daughter die both at the beginning of the year 1658. Milton was living alone with three daughters from his first marriage until February 1663 when he married Elizabeth Minshull. In 1662 , solicitor having failed, he lost all his possessions. Milton is going to live his last years in a destitute, devoting his time to retreat dedicated to the study, and devotion to writing his most famous works. Milton saw his health deteriorate but remains intellectually active. He still receives visits to various foreign dignitaries, friends and acquaintances, but these meetings thin out more and more. He gets to read his works and dictates his assistants including his two younger daughters, Mary and Deborah.
His masterpiece, the epic poem Paradise Lost was published in 1667 but did not meet immediate success, it was not until 1688 , ten years after Milton's death, so that the poem is widely recognized. It also publishes in 1670 , his History of Britain (History of Britain ") then in 1671 Paradise Regained ("Paradise Regained") and even Samson Agonistes, all of the major poetic works. In 1674 appeared the second edition of Paradise Lost in twelve books. John Milton died on November 8 of that year.
Work, influences and style
Because of his blindness, Milton was required to memorize large sections of his works to continue the arrangement and also recite. This is a feat that can be measured in terms of their complexity.
Despite the breadth of scholarship of Milton, certain critical influences on his poetic creation can be detected. The Bible has been the first material, particularly Genesis, the Book of Job, Psalms, New Testament , the latter to Sonnets. Poets like Homer , Virgil and Lucan , the historian Sallust also appear implicitly in his verse. Moreover, if the classical culture of Milton remains predominant, found in him traces of his contemporaries, Edmund Spenser , Sir Philip Sidney , John Donne and William Shakespeare. Some commentators have suggested that he sought to revive in the conversations of Adam and Eve figures of speech used by poets such as knights, John Wilmot , Earl of Rochester and Sir John Suckling.
Milton's literary career has overshadowed the poetry of the eighteenth century and nineteenth centuries, so has often been preferred to all the great English poets, including Shakespeare. They include the epic of Lucy Hutchinson on the fall of humanity, "Order and Disorder," and the opera John Dryden , "The state of innocence and the fall of man," as examples of its immediate influence in the cultural field.
The unprecedented project of Paradise Lost portrays God to justify his actions. The poem also depicts the creation of the universe, earth, and humanity, and expresses the origin of sin, death and evil, imagined events in the kingdom of heaven, the Garden of Eden and sacred history of Israel, it addresses and discusses the political ideas of tyranny, freedom and justice, he defends the theological ideas of Milton on predestination, free will and salvation.
The influence of Milton on the romance was very deep. John Keats , however, was the yoke of his style too difficult to bear. He added that Paradise Lost was a beautiful and grand curiosity. He himself tried to type in Hyperion, but not really succeed in finding your original epic. Later in the century, George Eliot and Thomas Hardy were also inspired by Milton's example. However, the last century, sensitive to criticism from TS Eliot and Ezra Pound , saw a temporary decline in interest in Milton.
Milton's career has had an impact on the modern world in other areas, particularly that of language. Like Rabelais or the poets of the Pliade in France, Milton coined many words: Paradise Lost is full of neologisms like dreary, Pandaemonium, acclaim, rebuff, self-esteem, unaided, impassive, enslaved, jubilant, serried, solaced, satanic who remained in the English language. Finally, the writings of Milton Republicans, especially the Areopagitica , were consulted during the drafting of the constitution of the United States of America.
The sonnets of Milton
Circumstances of composition
In all, John Milton wrote sonnets twenty-three. These are moments of exception, in which he expresses his thoughts and feelings on specific events, historical or personal. Thus, the first is devoted to the nightingale sing (O Nightingale), as did most of the English poets, William Shakespeare , John Keats , in particular. The seventh said its entry into adulthood (On His Being Arrived At The Age Of 23 John Milton and the freedom to publish
John Milton was among the first advocates of press freedom in the British kingdom in the seventeenth century , and is also considered a precursor of liberalism . He wrote a manifesto entitled to the freedom to print without authorization or censorship ( Areopagitica ), where he expresses his first distances with government regulations.
A sonnet commented
This sonnet is chosen because it is the most famous and also because his comments can regain some of the attitudes philosophical, religious and literary puritan poet.
On His Blindness | On his blindness |
Commentary
Commentary sonnet On His Blindness by John Milton Analysis of the structure, sources, influences and versification. John Milton in this sonnet evokes his blindness. He attributed his illness to his eagerness to read and study. In Defensio Secunda, he wrote that from his twelfth year, he had left his lessons and never went to bed before midnight. In 1650, his left eye could not see. Disregarding the advice of his doctor, he deliberately sacrificed his sight rather than interrupt his intellectual and political activities. In the work cited above, he tells the dilemma he faced: "Before me stood the choice to abandon a supreme duty and losing sight, in the circumstances, it was my responsibility not to listen to the doctor. It appeared to me that many had acquired a far lesser price of a greater evil, they had given their lives to harvest only the glory, and what I determined to use what little vision I had the work that was mine for the noblest service that I could make open to the public good. " The sonnet on his blindness, of course, but also and above the merits or otherwise of the complaint. It's in the faith he soon found the answer to his query, transforming his misfortune into a source of courage and strength. In verse 1, the noun "light" (light) means "view" and the participle attribute Spent (depleted) evokes the transition to extinction. The following verse contains the preposition of time 'ere, now archaic synonym for "before" (before). The first word of the Nostradamus prophecy, fondly, often gives the opportunity to commit a false sense, "affectionately" or "with love", when in English of the seventeenth century, the "merits" always meant "fool" in the sense that employs Shakespeare in Julius Caesar: Be not the bottom ("Do not be stupid"). Two other words, "prevent" and "murmur", derived directly from Latin. The first, praevenire denotes prevention and not the warning, the second of murmur meaning "rumble" connotes rather vehement protest rather low and timid voice, hence the choice of "recrimination" that qualifies the adjective "unfortunate" to reflect the worsening expressed by the demonstrative "that". A quasi ptrarquienneThis sonnet is in compliance with the Italian tradition which requires two quatrains forming the octave and two triplets forming the Nostradamus prophecy. Between these two blocks, a break led to a reversal (the volta). The only difference with the shape ptrarquienne is that this volte-face is not located at the end of the second quatrain but slightly below, at the beginning of the eighth verse, with the phrase "I fondly ask" ("I Questioned foolishly "). This departure, usually in Milton, accuses the surprise and develops the argument with increased amplitude. Both parts of the poem are cemented by two assertions mirror, one interrogative and one affirmative ("light denied?" Works
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