Life Of John Milton, Richard Garnett [ebook offline txt] 📗

To The Scriveners' Company In 1599,

Where He Is Stated To Have Been Apprentice To James Colborn. Colborn

Himself Had Been Only Four Years In Business,  Instead Of The Seven Which

Would Usually Be Required For An Apprentice To Serve Out His

Indenture--Which Suggests That Some Formalities May Have Been Dispensed

With On Account Of John Milton's Age. A Scrivener Was A Kind Of Cross

Between An Attorney And A Law Stationer,  Whose Principal Business Was

The Preparation Of Deeds,  "To Be Well And Truly Done After My Learning,

Skill,  And Science," And With Due Regard To The Interests Of More

Exalted Personages. "Neither For Haste Nor Covetousness I Shall Take

Upon Me To Make Any Deed Whereof I Have Not Cunning,  Without Good Advice

And Information Of Counsel." Such A Calling Offered Excellent

Opportunities For Investments; And John Milton,  A Man Of Strict

Integrity And Frugality,  Came To Possess A "Plentiful Estate." Among His

Possessions Was The House In Bread Street Destroyed In The Great Fire.

The Tenement Where The Poet Was Born,  Being A Shop,  Required A Sign,  For

Which He Chose The Spread Eagle,  Either From The Crest Of Such Among The

Miltons As Had A Right To Bear Arms,  Among Whom He May Have Reckoned

Himself; Or As The Device Of The Scriveners' Company. He Had Been

Married About 1600 To A Lady Whose Name Has Been But Lately Ascertained

To Have Been Sarah Jeffrey. John Milton The Younger Was The Third Of Six

Children,  Only Three Of Whom Survived Infancy. He Grew Up Between A

Sister,  Anne,  Several Years Older,  And A Brother,  Christopher,  Seven

Years Younger Than Himself.

 

Milton's Birth And Nurture Were Thus In The Centre Of London; But The

London Of That Day Had Not Half The Population Of The Liverpool Of Ours.

Even Now The Fragrance Of The Hay In Far-Off Meadows May Be Inhaled In

Bread Street On A Balmy Summer's Night; Then The Meadows Were Near The

Doors,  And The Undefiled Sky Was Reflected By An Unpolluted Stream.

There Seems No Reason To Conclude That Milton,  In His Early Boyhood,

Enjoyed Any Further Opportunities Of Resort To Rural Scenery Than The

Vicinity Of London Could Afford; But If The City Is His Native Element,

Natural Beauty Never Appeals To Him In Vain. Yet The Influences Which

Moulded His Childhood Must Have Been Rather Moral And Intellectual Than

Merely Natural:--

 

   "The Starlight Smile Of Children,  The Sweet Looks

    Of Women,  The Fair Breast From Which I Fed,"

 

Played A Greater Part In The Education Of This Poet Than

 

   "The Murmur Of The Unreposing Brooks,

    And The Green Light Which,  Shifting Overhead,

    Some Tangled Bower Of Vines Around Me Shed,

    The Shells On The Sea-Sand,  And The Wild Flowers."

 

Paramount To All Other Influences Must Have Been The Character Of His

Father,  A "Mute" But By No Means An "Inglorious" Milton,  The Preface And

Foreshadowing Of The Son. His Great Step In Life Had Set The Son The

Example From Which The Latter Never Swerved,  And From Him The Younger

Chapter 1 Pg 7

Milton Derived Not Only The Independence Of Thought Which Was To Lead

Him Into Moral And Social Heresy,  And The Fidelity To Principle Which

Was To Make Him The Abdiel Of The Commonwealth,  But No Mean Share Of His

Poetical Faculty Also. His Mastery Of Verbal Harmony Was But A New Phase

Of His Father's Mastery Of Music,  Which He Himself Recognizes As The

Complement Of His Own Poetical Gift:--

 

   "Ipse Volens Phoebus Se Dispertire Duobus,

    Altera Dona Mihi,  Dedit Altera Dona Parenti."

 

As A Composer,  The Circumspect,  And,  As Many No Doubt Thought Prosaic

Scrivener,  Took Rank Among The Best Of His Day. One Of His

Compositions,  Now Lost,  Was Rewarded With A Gold Medal By A Polish

Prince (Aubrey Says The Landgrave Of Hesse),  And He Appears Among The

Contributors To _The Triumphs Of Oriana_,  A Set Of Twenty-Five Madrigals

Composed In Honour Of Queen Elizabeth. "The Teares And Lamentations Of A

Sorrowful Soule"--Dolorous Sacred Songs,  Professor Masson Calls

Them--Were,  According To Their Editor,  The Production Of "Famous

Artists," Among Whom Byrd,  Bull,  Dowland,  Orlando Gibbons,  Certainly

Figure,  And Three Of Them Were Composed By The Elder Milton. He Also

Harmonized The Norwich And York Psalm Tunes,  Which Were Adapted To Six

Of The Psalms In Ravenscroft's Collection. Such Performance Bespeaks Not

Only Musical Accomplishment,  But A Refined Nature; And We May Well

Believe That Milton's Love Of Learning,  As Well As His Love Of Music,

Was Hereditary In Its Origin,  And Fostered By His Contact With His

Father. Aubrey Distinctly Affirms That Milton's Skill On The Organ Was

Directly Imparted To Him By His Father,  And There Would Be Nothing

Surprising If The First Rudiments Of Knowledge Were Also Instilled By

Him. Poetry He May Have Taught By Precept,  But The One Extant Specimen

Of His Muse Is Enough To Prove That He Could Never Have Taught It By

Example.

 

We Have Therefore To Picture Milton Growing Up In A Narrow Street Amid A

Strict Puritan Household,  But Not Secluded From The Influences Of Nature

Or Uncheered By Melodious Recreations; And Tenderly Watched Over By

Exemplary Parents--A Mother Noted,  He Tells Us,  For Her Charities Among

Her Neighbours,  And A Father Who Had Discerned His Promise From The Very

First. Given This Perception In The Head Of A Religious Household,  It

Almost Followed In That Age That The Future Poet Should Receive The

Education Of A Divine. Happily,  The Sacerdotal Caste Had Ceased To

Exist,  And The Education Of A Clergyman Meant Not That Of A Priest,  But

That Of A Scholar. Milton Was Instructed Daily,  He Says,  Both At Grammar

Schools And Under Private Masters,  "As My Age Would Suffer," He Adds,  In

Acknowledgment Of His Father's Considerateness. Like Disraeli Two

Centuries Afterwards (Perhaps The Single Point Of Resemblance),  He Went

For Schooling To A Nonconformist In Essex,  "Who," Says Aubrey,  "Cut His

Hair Short." His Own Hair? Or His Pupil's? Queries Biography. We Boldly

Reply,  Both. Undoubtedly Milton's Hair Is Short In The Miniature Painted

Of Him At The Age Of Ten By,  As Is Believed,  Cornelius Jansen. A

Thoughtful Little Face,  That Of A Well-Nurtured,  Towardly Boy; Lacking

The Poetry And Spirituality Of The Portrait Of Eleven Years Later,  Where

The Long Hair Flows Down Upon The Ruff.

Chapter 1 Pg 8

 

After Leaving His Essex Pedagogue,  Milton Came Under The Private Tuition

Of Thomas Young,  A Scotchman From St. Andrews,  Who Afterwards Rose To Be

Master Of Jesus College,  Cambridge. It Would Appear From The Elegies

Subsequently Addressed To Him By His Pupil That He First Taught Milton

To Write Latin Verse. This Instruction Was No Doubt Intended To Be

Preliminary To The Youth's Entrance At St. Paul's School,  Where He Must

Have Been Admitted By 1620 At The Latest.

 

At The Time Of Milton's Entry,  St. Paul's Stood High Among The Schools

Of The Metropolis,  Competing With Merchant Taylors',  Westminster,  And

The Now Extinct St. Anthony's. The Headmaster,  Dr. Gill,  Was An

Admirable Scholar,  Though,  As Aubrey Records,  "He Had His Whipping

Fits." His Fitful Severity Was Probably More Tolerable Than The

Systematic Cruelty Of His Predecessor Mulcaster (Spenser's Schoolmaster

When He Presided Over Merchant Taylors'),  Of Whom Fuller Approvingly

Records: "Atropos Might Be Persuaded To Pity As Soon As He To Pardon

Where He Found Just Fault. The Prayers Of Cockering Mothers Prevailed

With Him As Much As The Requests Of Indulgent Fathers,  Rather Increasing

Than Mitigating His Severity On Their Offending Children." Milton's

Father,  Though By No Means "Cockering," Would Not Have Tolerated Such

Discipline,  And The Passionate Ardour With Which Milton Threw Himself

Into The Studious Life Of The School Is The Best Proof That He Was

Exempt From Tyranny. "From The Twelfth Year Of My Age," He Says,  "I

Scarcely Ever Went From My Lessons To Bed Before Midnight." The Ordinary

School Tasks Cannot Have Exacted So Much Time From So Gifted A Boy: He

Must Have Read Largely Outside The Regular Curriculum,  And Probably He

Practised Himself Diligently In Latin Verse. For This He Would Have The

Prompting,  And Perhaps The Aid,  Of The Younger Gill,  Assistant To His

Father,  Who,  While At The University,  Had Especially Distinguished

Himself By His Skill In Versification. Gill Must Also Have Been A Man Of

Letters,  Affable And Communicative,  For Milton In After-Years Reminds

Him Of Their "Almost Constant Conversations," And Declares That He Had

Never Left His Company Without A Manifest Accession Of Literary

Knowledge. The Latin School Exercises Have Perished,  But Two English

Productions Of The Period,  Paraphrases Of Psalms Executed At Fifteen,

Remain To Attest The Boy's Proficiency In Contemporary English

Literature. Some Of The Unconscious Borrowings Attributed To Him Are

Probably Mere Coincidences,  But There Is Still Enough To Evince

Acquaintance With "Sylvester,  Spenser,  Drummond,  Drayton,  Chaucer,

Fairfax,  And Buchanan." The Literary Merit Of These Versions Seems To Us

To Have Been Underrated. There May Be No Individual Phrase Beyond The

Compass Of An Apt And Sensitive Boy With A Turn For Verse-Making; But

The General Tone Is Masculine And Emphatic. There Is Not Much To Say,

But What Is Said Is Delivered With A "Large Utterance," Prophetic Of The

"Os Magna Soniturum," And Justifying His Own Report Of His Youthful

Promise:--"It Was Found That Whether Aught Was Imposed Me By Them That

Had The Overlooking,  Or Betaken To Of Mine Own Choice,  In English Or

Other Tongue,  Prosing Or Versing,  But Chiefly By This Latter,  The Style,

By Certain Vital Signs It Had,  Was Likely To Live."

 

Among The Incidents Of Milton's Life At St. Paul's School Should Not Be

Chapter 1 Pg 9

Forgotten His Friendship With Charles Diodati,  The Son Of A Genevese

Physician Settled In England,  Whose Father Had Been Exiled From Italy

For His Protestantism. A Friendship Memorable Not Only As Milton's

Tenderest And His First,  But As One Which Quickened His Instinctive Love

Of Italian Literature,  Enhanced The Pleasure,  If It Did Not Suggest The

Undertaking,  Of His Italian Pilgrimage,  And Doubtless Helped To Inspire

The Execration Which He Launched In After Years Against The Slayers Of

The Vaudois. The Italian Language Is Named By Him Among Three Which,

About The Time Of His Migration To The University,  He Had Added To The

Classical And The Vernacular,  The Other Two Being French And Hebrew. It

Has Been Remarked,  However,  That His Use Of "Penseroso," Incorrect Both

In Orthography And Signification,  Shows That Prior To His Visit To Italy

He Was Unacquainted With The Niceties Of The Language. He Entered As "A

Lesser Pensioner" At Christ's College,  Cambridge,  On February 12,  1625;

The Greatest Poetic Name