Arcades was written for a portion of an entertainment given to the Countess of Derby at her residence at Harefield, not far from Horton. Comus is a masque composed in honor of an actual event, and was written soon after Arcades, and for the same family.*

Milton's early life was enriched by the warm friendship of two of his classmates, Charles Diodati† and Edward King.‡ In 1637 King died-was drowned on his passage home to Ireland. Milton mourned his death in the celebrated elegy, Lycidas, the last of his so-called early poems.?

In 1638 the poet set out for a tour on the Continent. His genius attracted the attention of the learned men abroad, and on all sides compliments were heaped upon him; but as soon as news of England's distress reached his ears, nothing could induce him to protract his stay. "For," said he,

"I thought it base that I should be travelling at my ease abroad, even for the improvement of my mind, while my fellow-citizens were fighting for their liberty at home."

And, accordingly, we find him, as in the opening of the chapter, advocating liberal views, justice, and humanity. He took no active part in the affairs of government, however, until after the execution of the King.

Milton's life, in reference to his literary works, may be divided into three periods. The first, including his college days, and the five quiet years spent at Horton, when he wrote his Early Poems; the second, comprising the best years of his

The Countess of Derby's son-in-law, the Earl of Bridgewater, lived at Ludlow Castle, near Horton. His two sons and his daughter, Lady Alice Egerton, had lost their way in passing through Haywood Forest. Several interesting incidents had occurred on their journey, and upon these events Milton was requested to write a Masque to be performed at the Castle.

+ Charles Diodati was of Italian parentage, but lived most of his time in London. The acquaintance of Milton and Diodati dates from their childhood, when, as boys, they studied together at St. Paul's School. Their intimacy ripened into the rarest friendship, which ended only with the death of Diodati.

Edward King was the son of Sir John King, Secretary for Ireland. Milton's acquaintance with him began at Cambridge.

"Lycidas" was the name of a shepherd in one of Virgil's Eclogues; and, signifying whiteness and purity, Milton, under this name, embalmed the memory of his friend.

life, when, from the age of thirty-two to fifty-two, from 1640 to 1660, he gave to his country time, talents, and the boon of sight. This may be called the Period of his Prose Works. The third period embraces the last few years of his life, in which he wrote his grand epic, Paradise Lost, and the classical drama Samson Agonistes.

Returning from the Continent, where he had spent fifteen happy months, Milton engaged at once in the great controversy then raging between Episcopacy and Puritanism.* His first pamphlet was of Reformation touching Church Discipline in England. In this work he shows that the Reformation, begun in the time of Henry VIII., failed in its purpose so long as Popish ceremonies were retained in the Church of England, and so long as bishops retained "irresponsible power," for although they denied the Pope, they "hugged the popedom,” he said, “and shared the authority among themselves."

In 1643 Milton married Mary Powell, the daughter of a Royalist; but the simple home of the Puritan poet was little in accordance with her gayer tastes, and after a month's residence with her husband in London, she left and for some time refused to return. Milton hereupon wrote his two books or pamphlets on the Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce.t

While still engaged upon his pamphlets on divorce, Milton wrote another essay or letter on Education. In this work, after dwelling with some minuteness on the errors of the day in methods of imparting knowledge, he says:

"I shall detain you now no longer in the demonstration of what we

*In 1641, Bishop Hall, urged by Laud, whose sole aim was to secure church uniformity, wrote "An Humble Remonstrance" to the high court of Parliament, urging the divine rights of Episcopacy. An answer to this was written by "Smectymnuus." This name was composed of the initial letters of the five Puritan divines who were the joint authors of the work-Stephen Marshall, Edmund Calamy, Thomas Young, Matthew Newcomen, and William (Uuilliam) Spurstow. The answer by Smectymnuus to Bishop Hall called forth a confutation by Archbishop Usher, to which Milton replied, in a treatise entitled Of Prelatical Episcopacy. Hall then published a Defence of the Humble Remonstrance, and to this Milton replied in a pamphlet entitled Animadversions upon the Remonstrant's Defence against Smectymnuus. Milton's fifth pamphlet, An Apology for Smectymnuus, was the last of his treatises on prelatical government.

This was followed by two other pamphlets upon the same subject, entitled Tetrachordon and Colasterion. These were replies to objections to his doctrine of divorce.

should not do, but straight conduct you to a hillside, where I will point out the right path of a virtuous and noble education; laborious indeed, at the first ascent, but else so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospects and melodious sounds on every side, that the harp of Orpheus was not more charming. I doubt not but ye shall have more ado to drive our dullest and laziest youths, our stocks and stubs, from the infinite desire of such a happy nurture, than we have now to hale and drag our choicest and hopefullest wits to that asinine feast of sow thistles and brambles, which is commonly set before them, as all the food and entertainment of their tenderest and most docile age."

In the same year (1644) Milton published the most important work he had yet written. It was entitled Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing, addressed to the Parliament of England. The year previous, Parliament, fearful of the influence of free speech uttered through the press, had instituted a censorship " to prevent all publications which inveighed against churchmen, or contained any insinuations against the measures of government." Milton made no delay in opposing this tyrannous measure, in which he saw the attempted strangling of free speech. He says:

"Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple. Who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter? . . . For who knows not that Truth is strong next to the Almighty; she needs no policies, no stratagems, no licensings, to make her victorious; those are the shifts and defences that error uses against her power."

Soon after the execution of Charles, there appeared a work entitled Eikon Basilikē (The Royal Image); the True Pourtraicture of his Sacred Majesty in his Solitudes and Sufferings. It was believed by most to have been written by the King during his imprisonment. Appearing when it did, it produced the most profound impression. Tinctured with a vein of piety, of which Charles was not destitute, it called upon the sympathies of the masses, and so universal was the sentiment of pity and indignation it excited, that the Council of State, to which body Milton had been appointed secretary, urged him to write a reply. So to Eikon Basilike (The Royal Image) Milton opposed his Eikonoclastes (Image Breaker) :

"I opposed," says he, "the Iconoclast to the Ikon, not, as is pretended, in insult to the departed spirit of the King, but in the persuasion that Queen Truth ought to be preferred to King Charles."

Again, in the same year, the Council of State called upon Milton to answer an antagonist upon the Continent. This was Salmasius, a celebrated professor at Leyden, who sought to inflame the prejudices of other nations against the English for the murder of their king. The work was addressed to the legitimate heir, Charles II. In reply Milton wrote his celebrated Defence of the People of England.

Salmasius did not attempt another encounter. A less powerful writer did in an article called, "The Cry of Royal Blood to Heaven against the English Parricides." To this Milton replied in a Second Defence for the People of England. He had now lost the sight of both eyes. In a Sonnet to his friend and former pupil, Cyriac Skinner, he says, in reference to the loss of his eyes:

"What supports me, dost thou ask?

The conscience, friend, to have lost them overplied

In Liberty's defence, my noble task,

Of which all Europe rings from side to side.

This thought might lead me through the world's vain masque
Content, though blind, had I no better guide."

The Commonwealth ended, and the Stuart line restored, the supporters of Cromwell became in many instances the flatterers of Charles II. Milton, on the other hand, refused to become Secretary to the Council of State under Charles II., preferring honest poverty to royal favors won at the expense of conscience.

The period of Milton's life which we are now approaching constitutes the Third Period, or that of his Later Poems. When at last his long life-dream is to be realized-after his best days have been spent in the warfare for truth and liberty, and when total blindness is his portion-full of confidence in his ability to cope with his mighty theme--Paradise Lost-he begins by invoking the aid of the "heavenly muse" in his "adventurous song:"

"That with no middle flight intends to soar.
And chiefly thou, oh spirit, that dost prefer
Before all temples the upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for thou knowest.

What in me is dark

Illumine; what is low raise and support;
That to the height of this grand argument
I may assert eternal Providence,

And justify the ways of God to men."

His reference to the baseness of his own times is frequently evident. All the fallen angels are princes and potentates, most of them representing some false religion or idolatry which had crept into a purer worship. Mammon is described as

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the least erected spirit that fell

From heaven; for e'en in heaven his looks and thoughts

Were always downward bent, admiring more

The riches of heaven's pavement, trodden gold,

Than aught divine or holy."

The whole poem breathes aspirations for the highest. Even these fallen enemies of good aspire to a better condition.

The fourth book contains some of the finest passages. The descriptions of night and morning are scarcely excelled by Shakespeare:

"Now came still evening on, and twilight gray
Had in her sober livery all things clad."

"Now morn, her rosy steps in the eastern clime
Advancing, sow'd the earth with Orient pearl."

No English writer has ever had such complete mastery of the language. What noise of conflict in these words:

"Arms on armor clashing bray'd

Horrible discord, and the madding wheels

Of brazen chariots rag'd."

And what harmony in these:

"Heaven open'd wide

Her ever during gates, harmonious sound,

On golden hinges moving."