John Milton was born in 1608. The son of a scrivener (a notary and money-lender), he was educated by private tutors and attended St Paul's School and Christ's College, Cambridge. He left Cambridge in 1632 and spent the next six years in scholarly retirement. A Masque and Lycidas belong to this period. Following his Italian journey (1638-9), he took up the cause of Presbyterianism in a series of hard-hitting anti-prelatical pamphlets (1641-2).
His divorce pamphlets (1643-5), written after his first wife had temporarily deserted him, earned him much notoriety and contributed to his breach with the Presbyterians. In 1649 he took up the cause of the new Commonwealth. As Secretary for Foreign Tongues to the Council of State, he defended the English revolution both in English and Latin — and sacrificed his eyesight in the process. He risked his life by publishing The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth on the eve of the Restoration (1660).
His great poems were published after this political defeat. A ten-book version of Paradise Lost appeared in 1667, and Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes were published together in 1671. An expanded version of his shorter poems (first published in 1646) was brought out in 1673, and the twelve-book Paradise Lost appeared in 1674, the year of his death. John Leonard has taught at the universities of Cambridge, Ottawa and Western Ontario.
He has published widely on Milton, and his book Naming in Paradise (Clarendon Press, 1990) was a co-winner of the Milton Society's James Holly Hanford Award. He also won the Hanford Award for best article on Milton published in 2001. He is a Professor of English at the University of Western Ontario, where he has taught since 1987.
His divorce pamphlets (1643-5), written after his first wife had temporarily deserted him, earned him much notoriety and contributed to his breach with the Presbyterians. In 1649 he took up the cause of the new Commonwealth. As Secretary for Foreign Tongues to the Council of State, he defended the English revolution both in English and Latin — and sacrificed his eyesight in the process. He risked his life by publishing The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth on the eve of the Restoration (1660).
His great poems were published after this political defeat. A ten-book version of Paradise Lost appeared in 1667, and Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes were published together in 1671. An expanded version of his shorter poems (first published in 1646) was brought out in 1673, and the twelve-book Paradise Lost appeared in 1674, the year of his death. John Leonard has taught at the universities of Cambridge, Ottawa and Western Ontario.
He has published widely on Milton, and his book Naming in Paradise (Clarendon Press, 1990) was a co-winner of the Milton Society's James Holly Hanford Award. He also won the Hanford Award for best article on Milton published in 2001. He is a Professor of English at the University of Western Ontario, where he has taught since 1987.
