Life Of John Milton, Richard Garnett [ebook offline txt] 📗
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- Author: Richard Garnett
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The Number Of Miniature "Lives" Of Milton Is Great; Great Also Is The
Merit Of Some Of Them. With One Exception, Nevertheless, They Are All
Dismissed To The Shelf By The Publication Of Professor Masson's
Monumental And Authoritative Biography, Without Perpetual Reference To
Which No Satisfactory Memoir Can Henceforth Be Composed. One Recent
Biography Has Enjoyed This Advantage. Its Author, The Late Mark
Pattison, Wanted Neither This Nor Any Other Qualification Except A
Keener Sense Of The Importance Of The Religious And Political
Controversies Of Milton's Time. His Indifference To Matters So Momentous
In Milton's Own Estimation Has, In Our Opinion, Vitiated His Conception
Of His Hero, Who Is Represented As Persistently Yielding To Party What
Was Meant For Mankind. We Think, On The Contrary, That Such A Mere Man
Of Letters As Pattison Wishes That Milton Had Been, Could Never Have
Produced A "Paradise Lost." If This View Is Well-Founded, There Is Not
Only Room But Need For Yet Another Miniature "Life Of Milton,"
Notwithstanding The Intellectual Subtlety And Scholarly Refinement
Which Render Pattison's Memorable. It Should Be Noted That The Recent
German Biography By Stern, If Adding Little To Professor Masson's Facts,
Contributes Much Valuable Literary Illustration; And That Keighley's
Analysis Of Milton's Opinions Occupies A Position Of Its Own, Of Which
No Subsequent Biographical Discoveries Can Deprive It. The Present
Writer Has Further To Express His Deep Obligations To Professor Masson
For His Great Kindness In Reading And Remarking Upon The Proofs--Not
Note Pg 2Thereby Rendering Himself Responsible For Anything In These Pages; And
Also To The Helpful Friend Who Has Provided Him With An Index.
Chapter 1 Pg 3
John Milton Was Born On December 9, 1608, When Shakespeare Had Lately
Produced "Antony And Cleopatra," When Bacon Was Writing His "Wisdom Of
Chapter 1 Pg 4The Ancients" And Ralegh His "History Of The World," When The English
Bible Was Hastening Into Print; When, Nevertheless, In The Opinion Of
Most Foreigners And Many Natives, England Was Intellectually Unpolished,
And Her Literature Almost Barbarous.
The Preposterousness Of This Judgment As A Whole Must Not Blind Us To
The Fragment Of Truth Which It Included. England's Literature Was, In
Many Respects, Very Imperfect And Chaotic. Her "Singing Masons" Had
Already Built Her "Roofs Of Gold"; Hooker And One Or Two Other Great
Prose-Writers Stood Like Towers: But The Less Exalted Portions Of The
Edifice Were Still Half Hewn. Some Literatures, Like The Latin And The
French, Rise Gradually To The Crest Of Their Perfection; Others, Like
The Greek And The English, Place Themselves Almost From The First On
Their Loftiest Pinnacle, Leaving Vast Gaps To Be Subsequently Filled In.
Homer Was Not Less The Supreme Poet Because History Was For Him
Literally An Old Song, Because He Would Have Lacked Understanding For
Plato And Relish For Aristophanes. Nor Were Shakespeare And The
Translators Of The Bible Less At The Head Of European Literature Because
They Must Have Failed As Conspicuously As Homer Would Have Failed In All
Things Save Those To Which They Had A Call, Which Chanced To Be The
Greatest. Literature, However, Cannot Remain Isolated At Such Altitudes,
It Must Expand Or Perish. As Homer's Epic Passed Through Pindar And The
Lyrical Poets Into Drama History And Philosophy, Continually Fitting
Itself More And More To Become An Instrument In The Ordinary Affairs Of
Life, So It Was Needful That English Lettered Discourse Should Become
Popular And Pliant, A Power In The State As Well As In The Study. The
Magnitude Of The Change, From The Time When The Palm Of Popularity
Decorated Sidney's "Arcadia" To That When It Adorned Defoe And Bunyan,
Would Impress Us Even More Powerfully If The Interval Were Not Engrossed
By A Colossal Figure, The Last Of The Old School In The Erudite
Magnificence Of His Style In Prose And Verse; The First Of The New,
Inasmuch As English Poetry, Hitherto Romantic, Became In His Hands
Classical. This "Splendid Bridge From The Old World To The New," As
Gibbon Has Been Called In A Different Connection, Was John Milton: Whose
Character And Life-Work, Carefully Analyzed, Resolve Themselves Into
Pairs Of Equally Vivid Contrasts. A Stern Puritan, He Is None The Less A
Freethinker In The Highest And Best Sense Of The Term. The Recipient Of
Direct Poetical Inspiration In A Measure Vouchsafed To Few, He
Notwithstanding Studies To Make Himself A Poet; Writes Little Until No
Other Occupation Than Writing Remains To Him; And, In General, While
Exhibiting Even More Than The Usual Confidence, Shows Less Than The
Usual Exultation And Affluence Of Conscious Genius. Professing To
Recognize His Life's Work In Poetry, He Nevertheless Suffers Himself To
Be Diverted For Many A Long Year Into Political And Theological
Controversy, To The Scandal And Compassion Of One Of His Most Competent
And Attached Biographers. Whether This Biographer Is Right Or Wrong, Is
A Most Interesting Subject For Discussion. We Deem Him Wrong, And Shall
Not Cease To Reiterate That Milton Would Not Have Been Milton If He
Could Have Forgotten The Citizen In The Man Of Letters. Happy, At All
Events, It Is That This And Similar Problems Occupy In Milton's Life The
Space Which Too Frequently Has To Be Spent Upon The Removal Of
Misconception, Or The Refutation Of Calumny. Little Of A Sordid Sort
Disturbs The Sentiment Of Solemn Reverence With Which, More Even Than
Chapter 1 Pg 5Shakespeare's, His Life Is Approached By His Countrymen; A Feeling
Doubtless Mainly Due To The Sacred Nature Of His Principal Theme, But
Equally Merited By The Religious Consecration Of His Whole Existence. It
Is The Easier For The Biographer To Maintain This Reverential Attitude,
Inasmuch As The Prayer Of Agur Has Been Fulfilled In Him, He Has Been
Given Neither Poverty Nor Riches. He Is Not Called Upon To Deal With An
Enormous Mass Of Material, Too Extensive To Arrange, Yet Too Important
To Neglect. Nor Is He, Like Shakespeare's Biographer, Reduced To Choose
Between The Starvation Of Nescience And The Windy Diet Of Conjecture. If
A Humbling Thought Intrudes, It Is How Largely He Is Indebted To A
Devoted Diligence He Never Could Have Emulated; How Painfully Professor
Masson's Successors Must Resemble The Turk Who Builds His Cabin Out Of
Grecian Or Roman Ruins.
Milton's Genealogy Has Taxed The Zeal And Acumen Of Many Investigators.
He Himself Merely Claims A Respectable Ancestry (_Ex Genere Honesto_).
His Nephew Phillips Professed To Have Come Upon The Root Of The Family
Tree At Great Milton, In Oxfordshire, Where Tombs Attested The Residence
Of The Clan, And Tradition Its Proscription And Impoverishment In The
Wars Of The Roses. Monuments, Station, And Confiscation Have Vanished
Before The Scrutiny Of The Rev. Joseph Hunter; It Can Only Be Safely
Concluded That Milton's Ancestors Dwelt In Or Near The Village Of
Holton, By Shotover Forest, In Oxfordshire, And That Their Rank In Life
Was Probably That Of Yeomen. Notwithstanding Aubrey's Statement That
Milton's Grandfather's Name Was John, Mr. Hyde Clarke's Researches In
The Registers Of The Scriveners' Company Have Proved That Mr. Hunter And
Professor Masson Were Right In Identifying Him With Richard Milton, Of
Stanton St. John, Near Holton; And Professor Masson Has Traced The
Family A Generation Further Back To Henry Milton, Whose Will, Dated
November 21, 1558, Attests A Condition Of Plain Comfort, Nearer Poverty
Than Riches. Henry Milton's Goods At His Death Were Inventoried At £6
19s.; When His Widow's Will Is Proved, Two Years Afterwards, The
Estimate Is £7 4s. 4d. Richard, His Son, Is Stated, But Not Proved, To
Have Been An Under-Ranger Of Shotover Forest. He Appears To Have Married
A Widow Named Jeffrey, Whose Maiden Name Had Been Haughton, And Who Had
Some Connection With A Cheshire Family Of Station. He Would Also Seem To
Have Improved His Circumstances By The Match, Which May Account For The
Superior Education Of His Son John, Whose Birth Is Fixed By An Affidavit
To 1562 Or 1563. Aubrey, Indeed, Next To Phillips And Milton Himself,
The Chief Contemporary Authority, Says That He Was For A Time At Christ
Church, Oxford--A Statement In Itself Improbable, But Slightly Confirmed
By His Apparent Acquaintance With Latin, And The Family Tradition That
His Course Of Life Was Diverted By A Quarrel With His Father. Queen
Mary's Stakes And Faggots Had Not Affected Richard Milton As They
Affected Most Englishmen. Though Churchwarden In 1582, He Must Have
Continued To Adhere To The Ancient Faith, For He Was Twice Fined For
Recusancy In 1601, Which Lends Credit To The Statement That His Son Was
Cast Off By Him For Protestantism. "Found Him Reading The Bible In His
Chamber," Says Aubrey, Who Adds That The Younger Milton Never Was A
Chapter 1 Pg 6Scrivener's Apprentice; But This Is Shown To Be An Error By Mr. Hyde
Clarke's Discovery Of His Admission
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