John Milton

1608 - 1674

About the Author

John Milton (1608-1674) ranks among the greatest poets of the English language. He is best known for the epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), but he also wrote prose works on history, religion, and contemporary politics. Although his academic talents marked him for a career in the Anglican church, Milton turned away from the Church of England at an early age and was a consistent supporter of the Puritan cause. He spent most of his life in academia or as a civil servant working for the Puritan Commonwealth.

For additional information about John Milton see the following:

• in the Forum: Timeline on the Life and Work of John Milton
• in the Forum: the Goodrich Seminar Room entry on John Milton
• in the Library: Topic on The English Revolution

In The Library:

• author: Areopagitica (Jebb ed.) (1664)
• author: The Poetical Works of John Milton (1900)
• author: The Prose Works of John Milton, 2 vols. (1847)
• author: The Prose Works of John Milton, vol. 1 (1847)
• author: The Prose Works of John Milton, vol. 2 (1847)
• author: Puritanism and Liberty, being the Army Debates (1647-9) from the Clarke Manuscripts with Supplementary Documents (1938)
• author: The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth (1660)
• author: The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649)

Quotations:

• John Milton believes men live under a “double tyranny” within (the tyranny of custom and passions) which makes them blind to the tyranny of government without (1649) (18 April, 2005)
• John Milton gave a speech before Parliament defending the right of freedom of speech in which he likened the government censors to an “oligarchy” and free speech to a “flowery crop of knowledge” (1644) (25 April, 2005)
• John Milton laments the case of a people who won their liberty “in the field” but who then foolishly “ran their necks again into the yoke” of tyranny (1660) (3 October, 2005)
• John Milton in Paradise Regained has Christ deplore the “false glory” which comes from military conquest and the despoiling of nations in battle (1671) (17 October, 2005)
• John Milton opposed censorship for many reasons but one thought sticks in the mind, that “he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself” (1644) (15 May, 2006)
• After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 John Milton was concerned with both how the triumphalist monarchists would treat the English people and how the disheartened English people would face their descendants (1660) (7 August, 2006)
• Milton warns Parliament’s general Fairfax that justice must break free from violence if “endless war” is to be avoided (1648) (8 March, 2010)
• Milton argues that a Monarchy wants the people to be prosperous only so it can better fleece them (1660) (8 June, 2010)
• Milton on the ease with which tyrants find their academic defenders (1651) (3 September, 2010)
• Milton on Eve’s discovery of the benefits of the division of labor in the Garden of Eden (1667) (14 December, 2012)