• J 9. Literature ournalism

The political struggle, involving broad masses of England’s population, favoured the development of political literature and laid the basis forjournalism. People took a lively interest in all kind of information about the political events of the time. There appeared leaflets with information (the so-called ‘relations’) as well as periodical press. As a result of the rapid spread of literacy and the improvement in printing techniques, the first newspapers appeared in the 17^th century. (In fact, the first newspaper was issued to announce the defeat of the Spanish Armada.) The newspaper was a new way of spreading ideas – scientific, political, religious and literary. The social revolution brought about a turn from poetry to prose because it was easier to write about social and political events in prose rather than in verse.

• John Milton (1608-1674)

The greatest of all publicists of the Puritan Revolution was John Milton. He was born to a prosperous family on December 9, 1608. Milton’s father, who had received a good education, was an admirer of music and a composer. The poet’s mother is said to have been ‘a woman of incomparable virtue and goodness’.

Milton’s childhood was very different from that of other children. He was little interested in games and outdoor amusements. His father took care of his early education. John learned to love music and books. Milton attended St. Paul’s school. He read and studied so intensely that at the age of 12 he had already developed a habit of working till midnight. At the age of 16 he went to Cambridge University where he got a Bachelor’s and then a Master’s degree. Upon graduation, Milton was asked to remain at the University as an instructor. But he refused, because for him that meant taking Holy Orders – that is becoming a clergyman. He left Cambridge and retired to his father’s country-place Horton, in Buckinghamshire. There, he gave himself up to studies and poetry. Many of Milton’s poems were written in Horton. They form the first period in his creative work.

Milton had always wished to complete his education by travelling, as was the custom of the time. He longed to visit Italy, and his mother’s death, John got his father’s consent to go on a European tour. He visited Paris, Genoa and Florence. The latter won his enthusiastic admiration. The city itself and the language fascinated him. The men of literature, whom he met in Florence, gave him an opportunity to satisfy his thirst for knowledge. Rome, where he went after Florence, made a great impression on him. Milton knew the Italian language to perfection. He spent whole days in the Vatican library. In Italy, he visited and talked to the great Galileo, who was no longer a prisoner of the Inquisition, but was still under the supervision of the Church. Milton’s meeting with the great Martyr of Science is mentioned in Paradise Lost, and in an article about the freedom of the press. After visiting Naples, he wanted to continue his travels, but the news from home hastened his return. Milton considered it wrong to be travelling abroad for personal enjoyment, while his countrymen were fighting for freedom. He returned to England in 1639. For some time, he had to do some teaching. The result of it was a treatise on education.

At the age of 34, Milton married Mary Powell, the daughter of a wealthy royalist. The union proved to be unhappy. She was a young and lively girl, little fitted to be the companion of such a serious man. They had only been married a month, when the young wife got Milton’s permission to visit her parents, and did not come back. It turned out that her relatives had agreed to her marriage to a Republican, when their party seemed to be losing power. They changed their mind when a temporary success of the Royalists revived their hopes. Milton did not see his wife for four years. During that time, he reflected much on marriage and divorce. He also wrote a treatise on divorce. In it, without mentioning his own drama, Milton regarded marriage and divorce as a social problem. An unexpected turn in the political situation of the country brought about a reconciliation of the couple, and Mary returned.

Milton kept a keen eye on the public affairs of the time. The years between 1640 and 1660 were the period of his militant revolutionary journalism. His views on civil and religious liberty served the interests of the revolutionary party, and Milton became the most prominent publicist of the Revolution.

When a Republican government was established in 1649, Milton was appointed Latin Secretary of the Council of State. He translated diplomatic papers from Latin and into Latin. He also continued writing pamphlets and treatises. In his excellent pamphlets The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, Defence of the People of England and Image Breaker, he made Europe realize that the Revolution was not just a great rebellion, as the Royalists insisted, but that it was the only force that could give the people rights and freedom. The execution of Charles I was not just the cruel bloodshed, but the only means by which the people could free themselves from the monarchy. He explained that the King was not a martyr, but the worst reactionary in the cause of liberty.

During the years of his work as Latin Secretary and journalist, Milton wrote only a few sonnets, one of them was To the Lord General Cromwell.

Milton had had poor eyesight even as a child, and now doctors warned him that unless he stopped reading and writing entirely, he would lose eyesight. To this Milton replied that he had already sacrificed poetry and was now ready to sacrifice his eyesight for the liberty of his people. He lost his sight in 1652. In the same year, his wife died in childbirth. Milton was left with three young daughters. Four years later, he married Catherine Woodcock, the daughter of a Republican this time, but that happiness did not last long. Catherine died within a year of their marriage.

The death of Cromwell in 1660 was followed by the restoration of monarchy, and Milton was discharged from his office. The work of all his lifetime was destroyed. All his famous pamphlets were burnt by the hangmen. But Milton’s spirit was not crushed. With his family, he retired to a small house in the suburbs of London where he began to write poetry again.

The years of Milton’s retirement became the third period in his literary career. During that period, he created the things that made him one of the greatest poets of England. These were Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. Unfortunately, two of his daughters refused to help him in his work. Only his youngest daughter Deborah was willing to read Latin books to her blind father. With the help of a few loyal friends, Milton completed Paradise Lost in 1663.

The characters of the poem are God the Almighty, Satan, three guardian-angels and the first man and woman, Adam and Eve. This epic poem written in 12 parts is a revolt against God who autocratically rules the universe. The revolutionary spirit is shown in Satan, who revolts against God and is driven out of Heaven. Though banished from Paradise, Satan is glad to get freedom. Milton gives Satan human qualities. His Satan is determined to go on with his war against God. Milton’s Adam and Eve are not just Biblical characters, but Man and Woman who are full of energy, who love each other and who are ready to face whatever the earth has in store for them, rather than part.

The revolutionary poets of the 19^th century said that Milton was the first poet who refused to accept the conventional Bible story, but turned Adam and Eve into human beings.

When Milton’s fame reached the Court of Charles II, the King’s brother (the future King James II) paid a visit to the blind poet and asked if he did not regard the loss of his eyesight as a judgment inflicted by God for what he had written against the late King Charles I. Milton replied: ‘If your Highness thinks that the calamities which befall us here are indications of the anger of God, in what manner are we to account for the fate of the King, your father? The displeasure of God must have been much greater against him than me, for I have lost my eyes, but he lost his head.’

Milton’s third wife was Elizabeth Minshel. She was not very well educated, but she willingly assisted her blind husband, and he dictated his last works to her. Milton died on November 8, 1674, and was buried in London. Many years afterwards, a monument to his memory was erected in Westminster Abbey.

Milton’s works form a bridge between the poetry of the Renaissance and the poetry of the classicists of a later period. He was attracted by the poetry of ancient mythology and drama, like the writers and poets of the Renaissance. At the same time, he was a champion of the revolutionary cause and thought that only a Republican government could provide a foundation for freedom.

DO YOU KNOW THAT
Charles II’s nickname was the Merry Monarch – he was pleasure-seeking and disloyal to his wife and ministers. Charles’s wife had no children but he acknowledged at least 12 illegitimate children by various mistresses. Many 17th-cecntury newspapers included advertisements, once Charles II advertised for the loss of his dog. Women appeared on the English stage only in the 17th century.	?