home of art, culture, and song. After about fifteen months abroad, hearing that his countrymen were on the VISIT OF MILTON TO THE BLIND GALILEO AT THE VILLA D'ARCETRI NEAR FLORENCE IN 1638 verge of civil war, he returned home to play his part in the mighty tragedy of the times. Milton's "Left Hand." In 1642 the Civil War broke out between the Royalists and the Puritans. He took sides in the struggle for liberty, not with his sword, but with his pen. During this time he wrote little but prose. He regretted that the necessity of the time demanded prose, in the writing of which, he says, "I have the use, as I may account it, but of my left hand." With that "left hand" he wrote much prose. There is one common quality running through all his prose works, although they treat of the most varied subjects. Every one of these works strikes a blow for fuller liberty in some direction, for more liberty in church, in state, and in home relations, for the freedom of expressing opinions, and for a system of education which should break away from the leading strings of the inferior methods of the past. His greatest prose work is the Areopagitica: A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing. Much of his prose is poetic and adorned with figures of rhetoric. He frequently follows the Latin order, and inverts his sentences, which are often unreasonably long. Sometimes his "left hand" astonishes us by slinging mud at his opponents, and we eagerly await the loosing of the right hand which was to give us Paradise Lost. His Blindness. The English government from 1649 to 1660 is known as the Commonwealth. The two most striking figures of the time were Oliver Cromwell, who in 1653 was styled the Lord Protector, and John Milton, who was the Secretary for Foreign Tongues. One of the greatest of European scholars, a professor at Leyden, named Salmasius, had written a book attacking the Commonwealth and upholding the late king. The Council requested Milton to write a fitting answer. As Зов mein his eyes were al- From his application to wed Elizabeth Minshull, Feb. 11, 1663. ready failing him, FACSIMILE OF MILTON'S SIGNATURE IN THE ELEVENTH he was warned to YEAR OF HIS BLINDNESS rest them; but he said that he would willingly sacrifice his eyesight on the altar of liberty. He accordingly wrote in reply his Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio, a Latin work, which was published in 1651. This effort cost him his eyesight. In 1652, at the age of forty-three, he was totally blind. In his Paradise Lost, he thus alludes to his affliction: -7 "Thus with the year Seasons return; but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, Life after the Restoration. In 1660, when Charles II. was made king, the to flee for their lives. A MASKE PRESENTED At Ludlow Caftle, 1634 On Michaelmaffe night, before the leaders of the Commonwealth had Some went to America for safety, while others were caught and executed. The body of Cromwell was taken from its grave in Westminster Abbey, suspended from the gallows, and left to dangle there. Milton was concealed by a friend until the worst of the storm had blown over. Then some influential friends interceded for him, and his blindness probably won him sympathy. RIGHT HONORABLE, Eheu quid voles mifero mihi? ficribus auft: LONDON, Printed for HVMPHREY ROBINSON, COMUS TITLE PAGE During his old age his literary work was largely dependent on the kindness of friends, who read to him, and acted as his amanuenses. His ideas of woman having been formed in the light of the old dispensation, he had not given his three daughters such an education as might have led them to take a sympathetic interest in his work. They accordingly resented his calling on them for help. During this period of his life, when he was totally blind, he wrote Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. He died in 1674, and was buried beside his father in the chancel of St. Giles, Cripplegate, London. Minor Poems. - In 1629, while Milton was a student at Cambridge, and only twenty-one years old, he wrote a fine lyrical poem, entitled On the Morning of Christ's Nativity. These 244 lines of verse show that he did not need to be taught the melody of song any more than a young nightingale. Four remarkable poems were written during his years of studious leisure at Horton,-L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, Comus, and Lycidas. L'Allegro describes the charms of a merry social life, and Il Penseroso voices the quiet but deep enjoyment of the scholar in retirement. These two poems have been universal favorites. Comus is a species of dramatic composition known as a Masque, and it is the greatest of its class. It far surpasses any work of a similar kind by Ben Jonson, that prolific writer of Masques (p. 201). Some critics, like Taine and Saintsbury, consider Comus the finest of Milton's productions. Its 1023 lines can soon be read; and there are few poems of equal length that will better repay careful reading. Comus is an immortal apotheosis of virtue. While in Geneva in 1639, Milton was asked for his autograph and an expression of sentiment. He chose the closing lines of Comus: -if Vertue feeble, were Calun non animu̸ muto du frans mare Curro. ! Joannes Misternis Juny 10. 1439 Written in an album at Geneva. MILTON'S MOTTO FROM COMUS, WITH AUTOGRAPH Lycidas, one of the world's great elegies, was written on the death of Milton's classmate, Edward King. Mark Pattison, one of Milton's biographers, says: "In Lycidas we have reached the high-water mark of English poesy and of Milton's own production." He is one of the four greatest English sonnet writers. Shakespeare alone surpasses him in this field. Milton numbers among his pupils Wordsworth and Keats, whose sonnets rank next in merit. Paradise Lost; Its Inception and Dramatic Plan. Cambridge University has a list, written by Milton before he was thirty-five, of about one hundred possible subjects for the great poem which he felt it was his life's mission to give to the world. He once thought of selecting Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table; but his final choice was Paradise Lost, which stands first on this special list. There are in addition four separate drafts of the way in |