Life of milton by samuel johnson. Johnson's Life Of Milton Quotes by Samuel Johnson 2022-10-08
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The life of John Milton, one of the greatest poets in the English language, was marked by both personal and political struggles. Born in London in 1608, Milton was the son of a prosperous scrivener and was educated at St. Paul's School and Christ's College, Cambridge. From a young age, he showed a prodigious talent for languages and literature, and he began writing poetry while still in school.
Milton's early work was heavily influenced by the Classical tradition, and he wrote several Latin poems and translations during this time. However, he also began to develop a strong interest in theology and the political climate of his time. The English Civil War and the execution of King Charles I had a profound impact on Milton, and he became a vocal advocate for the Commonwealth and the Puritan cause.
In the 1640s, Milton began to write more openly about his political beliefs, and he published several pamphlets and tracts arguing for the rights of the individual and the need for a just and democratic society. These works brought him to the attention of the new Commonwealth government, and he was appointed to several official positions, including that of Latin secretary.
During this time, Milton also produced some of his most famous works, including "Paradise Lost" and "Paradise Regained." These epic poems, which explored themes of freedom, temptation, and redemption, were highly influential and cemented Milton's reputation as one of the greatest poets in the English language.
Despite his successes, Milton's later years were marked by personal tragedy and hardship. He went blind in 1652 and was forced to dictate his works to assistants. He also lost several of his children to illness, and his wife died in childbirth. Despite these setbacks, Milton continued to write and publish, and he remained a prominent figure in English literature until his death in 1674.
In conclusion, the life of John Milton was one of great achievement and enduring legacy. His poetry and political writings continue to be studied and admired to this day, and he remains a towering figure in the history of English literature.
John Milton
Milton, though he intituled Paradise Lost only a "poem," yet calls it himself "heroick song. As human passions did not enter the world, before the fall, there is, in the Paradise Lost, little opportunity for the pathetick; but what little there is has not been lost. It was his labour to turn philosophy from the study of nature to speculations upon life; but the innovators whom I oppose are turning off attention from life to nature. In the mean while, the chorus entertains the stage, and is informed by some angel the manner of the fall. The remedy against these evils is to punish the authors; for it is yet allowed that every society may punish, though not prevent, the publication of opinions, which that society shall think pernicious: but this punishment, though it may crush the author, promotes the book; and it seems not more reasonable to leave the right of printing unrestrained, because writers may be afterwards censured, than it would be to sleep with doors unbolted, because by our laws we can hang a thief. This is the period of his life from which all his biographers seem inclined to shrink.
Only three thousand were sold in eleven years; for it forced its way without assistance; its admirers did not dare to publish their opinion; and the opportunities now given of attracting notice by advertisements were then very few; the means of proclaiming the publication of new books have been produced by that general literature which now pervades the nation through all its ranks. To Satan, as "the most exalted and most depraved, being" — Spectator No. But one language cannot communicate its rules to another; where metre is scanty and imperfect, some help is necessary. The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together; nature and art are ransacked for illustrations, comparisons, and allusions; their learning instructs, and their subtlety surprises; but the reader commonly thinks his improvement dearly bought, and, though he sometimes admires, is seldom pleased. Every Sunday was spent upon theology; of which he dictated a short system, gathered from the writers that were then fashionable in the Dutch universities. Well-constructed plots, should therefore neither begin nor end at an arbitrary point" 7.
All his wives were virgins; for he has declared that he thought it gross and indelicate to be a second husband: upon what other principles his choice was made cannot now be known; but marriage afforded not much of his happiness. The shepherd likewise is now a feeder of sheep, and afterwards an ecclesiastical pastor, a superintendent of a Christian flock. As a series of lines, therefore, it may be considered as worthy of all the admiration with which the votaries have received it. Splendid passages, containing lessons of morality, or precepts of prudence, occur seldom. For there are thoughts, as he justly remarks, which no observation of character can justify, because no good man would willingly permit them to pass, however transiently, through his own mind. In this poem there is no nature, for there is no truth; there is no art, for there is nothing new.
This being necessary was therefore defensible; and he should have secured the consistency of his system by keeping immateriality out of sight, and enticing his reader to drop it from his thoughts. These are very imperfect rudiments of Paradise Lost; but it is pleasant to see great works in their seminal state, pregnant with latent possibilities of excellence; nor could there be any more delightful entertainment than to trace their gradual growth and expansion, and to observe how they are sometimes suddenly advanced by accidental hints, and sometimes slowly improved by steady meditation. Poetry may subsist without rhyme, but English poetry will not often please; nor can rhyme ever be safely spared but where the subject is able to support itself. The man of chearfulness , having exhausted the country, tries what towered cities will afford, and mingles with scenes of splendor, gay assemblies, and nuptial festivities; but he mingles a mere spectator, as, when the learned comedies of Jonson, or the wild dramas of Shakspeare, are exhibited, he attends the theatre. The lives range in length from a few pages to a full volume. He can be critical of Milton's work, as Johnson often is of seventeenth century figures it seems common for writers to criticize those of the century preceding them but at the same time is filled with a sometimes grudging admiration for his greatest achievements. Both Mirth and Melancholy are solitary, silent inhabitants of the breast that neither receive nor transmit communication; no mention is therefore made of a philosophical friend or a pleasant companion.
Ignorance, } Fear, } Death, } Faith. He drank little strong drink of any kind, and fed without excess in quantity, and in his earlier years without delicacy of choice. He had so much either of prudence or gratitude, that he forbore to disturb the new settlement with any of his political or ecclesiastical opinions, and, from this time, devoted himself to poetry and literature. King, the son of Sir John King, secretary for Ireland in the time of Elizabeth, James, and Charles. When Cowley tells of Hervey, that they studied together, it is easy to suppose how much he must miss the companion of his labours, and the partner of his discoveries; but what image of tenderness can be excited by these lines? But the passions are moved only on one occasion; sublimity is the general and prevailing quality in this poem — sublimity variously modified, sometimes descriptive, sometimes argumentative. All his wives were virgins, for he has declared that he thought it gross and indelicate to be a second husband: upon what other principles his choice was made cannot now be known, but marriage afforded not much of his happiness. Atterbury, who succeeded him, being author of the inscription, permitted its reception.
It contains the history of a miracle, of creation and redemption; it displays the power and the mercy of the supreme being; the probable, therefore, is marvellous, and the marvellous is probable. They deserve not any particular criticism; for of the best it can only be said that they are not bad, and perhaps only the eighth and the twenty-first are truly entitled to this slender commendation. Dryden, when he wrote this poem, seems not yet fully to have formed his versification, or settled his system of propriety. It was reserved for Dryden to fix the limits of poetical liberty, and give us just rules and examples of translation. At other times he would dictate perhaps forty lines in a breath, and then reduce them to half the number. Throughout the whole the figures are too bold, and the language too luxuriant, for dialogue.
Johnson's Life Of Milton: With Introduction And Notes by Samuel Johnson
Its perusal is a duty rather than a pleasure. In his youth he studied late at night; but afterwards changed his hours, and rested in bed from nine to four in the summer, and five in the winter. Every man, that has ever undertaken to instruct others, can tell what slow advances he has been able to make, and how much patience it requires to recall vagrant inattention, to stimulate sluggish indifference, and to rectify absurd misapprehension. Milton was not a man who could become mean by a mean employment. All his wives were virgins, for he has declared that he thought it gross and indelicate to be a second husband: upon what other principles his choice was made cannot now be known, but marriage afforded not much of his happiness.
In 1750, April 5, Comus was played for her benefit. It is justly Of the machinery, so called from Of episodes , I think there are only two, contained in Raphael's relation of the war in heaven, and Michael's prophetick account of the changes to happen in this world To the compleatness or integrity of the design nothing can be objected; it has distinctly and clearly what Aristotle requires, a beginning, a middle, and an end. Their love is pure benevolence and mutual veneration; their repasts are without luxury and their diligence without toil. That of Milton is not the destruction of a city, the conduct of a colony, or the foundation of an empire. He pursued his studies, or his amusements, without persecution, molestation, or insult. The use of it by adaptation was innocent; and they who could so noisily censure it, with a little extension of their malice could contrive what they wanted to accuse. A writer who obtains his full purpose loses himself in his own luster.
Johnson's Life Of Milton: With Introduction And Notes by Samuel Johnson
Whatever be his subject, he never fails to fill the imagination. Milton's acquaintance with the Italian writers may be discovered by a mixture of longer and shorter verses, according to the rules of Tuscan poetry, and his malignity to the Church by some lines which are interpreted as threatening its extermination. We know that they never drove a field, and that they had no flocks to batten; and though it be allowed that the representation may be allegorical, the true meaning is so uncertain and remote that it is never sought because it cannot be known when it is found. The garden of Eden brings to his mind the vale of Enna, where Proserpine was gathering flowers. He had once designed to celebrate King Arthur, as he hints in his verses to Mansus; but "Arthur was reserved," says Fenton, "to another destiny. Why a writer changed his bookseller a hundred years ago I am far from hoping to discover.
How does Samuel Johnson describe the life of John Milton in his Lives of the Poets?
He had once designed to celebrate King Arthur, as he hints in his verses to Mansus; but "Arthur was reserved," says Fenton, "to another destiny. Ariosto's pravity is generally known; and, though the Deliverance of Jerusalem may be considered as a sacred subject, the poet has been very sparing of moral instruction. It was his labour to turn philosophy from the study of nature to speculations upon life, but the innovators whom I oppose are turning off attention from life to nature. . Sic tu spontanea bonorum omnium et animitus missa voce salutaris. King, the son of Sir John King, secretary for Ireland in the time of Elizabeth, James, and Charles. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind, unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.
