FROM a family and town of his name in Oxford .n * shire, our Author derived his descent; but he was born at London in the year 1608. The publisher of his works in profe, (on whofe veracity fome part of this narrative must entirely depend,) dates his birth two years earlier than this: but contradicting himself afterwards in his own computation, I reduce it to the time that Monfieur Bayle hath affigned; and for the same reason which prevailed with him to affign it. His father John Milton, by profeffion a fcrivener, ilved in a reputable manner on a competent mate, ཨ་ཙy ti!= tirely his own acquifition, having been early difinherited by his parents for renouncing the communion of the church of Rome, to which they were zealously devoted. By his wife Sarah Cafton he had likewife one daughter named Anna, and another fon, Christopher, whom he trained to the practice of the common law, who in the great rebellion adhered to the royal caufe; and in the reign of King James II. by too eafy a compliance with the doctrines of the court, both re-, ligious and civil, he attained to the dignity of being made a judge of the common pleas; of which he died divested not long after the Revolution. But John, the subject of the present effay, was the favourite of his father's hope, who, to cultivate the great genius which early displayed itself, was at the WOR 20JUN 3 4 expence of a domeftic tutor; whofe care and capacity his pupil hath gratefully celebrated in An. atat. 12. an excellent Latin elegy*. At his initiation he is faid to have applied himfelf to letters with fuch indefatigable industry, that he rarely was prevailed upon to quit his ftudies before midnight; which not only made him frequently fubject to fevere pains in his head; but likewife occafioned that weakness in his eyes, which terminated in a total privation of fight. From a domestic education he was removed to St Paul's fchool, to complete his acquaintance with the claffics, under the care of Dr Gill; and after a fhort ftay there, was An. atat. 15. tranfplanted to Chrift's college in Cambridge, where he distinguished himself in all kinds of academical exercifes. Of this fociety he continued a member till he commenced mafter of arts; and then, leaving the university, An. ætat. 23. he returned to his father, who had quitted the town, and lived at Horton in Buckinghamshire, where he purfued his ftudies. with unparalleled affiduity and fuccefs. After fome years spent in this ftudious retirement his mother died, and then he prevailed with his father to gratify an inclination he had long entertained of feeing foreign countries. Sir Henry WotAn. ætat. 30. ton, at that time provost of Eaton college, gave him a letter of advice for the direction of his travels; but by not obferving an excellent maxim in it †, he incurred great danger, by difputing against the Superftition of the church of Rome, within the verge of the vatican. Having employed his curiofity about two years ‡ in France and Italy, * See the fourth in his collection of poems. Et jam bis viridi furgebat culmus arifta, Epitaph, Dam Italy, on the news of a civil war breaking out in England, he returned, without taking a furvey of Greece and Sicily, as at his fetting out the fcheme was projected. At Paris * the Lord Viscount Scudamore, ambaffador from King Charles I. at the court of France, introduced him to the acquaintance of Grotius, who at that time was honoured with the fame character there by Christiana queen of Sweden. In Rome, Genoa, Florence, and other cities of Italy, he contracted a familiarity with those who were of highest reputation for wit and learning, feveral of whom gave him very obliging teftimonies of their friendship and efteem, which are printed before his Latin poems. The firft of them was written hy Manfo marquis of Villa, a great patron of Taffo, by whom he is celebrated in his poem on the conqueft of Jerufalemt. It is highly propable, that to his converfation with this noble Nccpolitan we owe the first defign which MILTON conceived of writing an epic poem; and it appears by fome Latin verses addreffed to the Marquis, with the title of Manfus, that he intended to fix on King Arthur for his hero; but Arthur was referved to another destiny. Returning from his travels, he found England on the point of being involved An. ætat. 32. in blood and confufion. It feems won derful that one of fo warm and daring a spirit, as his certainly was, fhould be reftrained from the camp in thofe unnatural commotions. I fuppofe we may impute it wholly to the great deference he paid to paternal authority, that he retired to lodgings provided for him in the city; which being commodious for the reception of his fifter's fons, and fome other young gentlemen, he undertook their education, and is faid to have formed them on the fame plan which he afterwards published, in a faort tractate, infcribed to his friend Mr Hartlib. In this philofophical course he continued without a A 3 Defenfio fecunda. Pag. 96. fol. Lib, 20. wife wife till the year 1643; when he marAn. ætat. 35. ried Mary, the daughter of Richard Powell of Forest-hill in Oxfordshire, a gentlemen of eftate and reputation in that county, and of principles fo very oppofite to his fon-in-law, that the marriage is more to be wondered at than the feparation which enfued, in little more than a month after the had cohabited with him in London. Her de-. fertion provoked him both to write several treatises concerning the doctrine and discipline of divorce, and alfo to make his addreffes to a young lady of great wit and beauty; but before he had engaged her affections to conclude the marriage treaty, in a vifit at one of his relations he found his wife proftrate before him, imploring forgiveness and reconciliation. It is not to be doubted but an interview of that nature, so little expected, must wonderfully affect him; and perhaps the impreffions it made on his imagination contributed much to the painting of that pathetic scene in Paradife Loft*, in which Eve addreffeth herself to Adam for pardon and peace. At the interceffion of his friends who were prefent, after a short reluctance, he gene-. roufly facrificed all his refentment to her tears: Soon his heart relented Towards her, his life fo late, and fole delight,. And after this re-union, fo far was he from retaining any unkind meniory of the provocations which he had received from her ill conduct, that when the king's. cayfe was entirely fuppreffed, and her father, who had been active in his loyalty, was expofed to fequeftration, MILTON received both him and his family to protection, and free entertainment, in his own house,, till their affairs were accommodated by his interest in the victorious faction. Mr MILTON was now grown famous by his polemical writings of various kinds, and held An. atat. 41. in great f r and efteem by those. who had p er to difpofe of all pre-. ferments Book X. line 9:9. |