Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1859-04-08
MAsSoN's LIFE or MILTON.

which he used his pen against Despotism in
both Church and State and in behalf of the
rights Ct tho people, no less than for his
great learning and wonderful poetical genius,
his memory ought to BE- held, and always will
be held in reverence by the lover of human
ity and by the generously minded scholar
We commend to our readers the following
ample notice of the LIST volume Of Prof. Mas
sons learned work, lltely re-published in
Boston by GOULD 6 LINCOLN from the Eng
lish Edition.
Tho Life Of John Milton. narrated in connection
wit the Political, Eoclc.iastical, and Literary
History Of his time, by David Mason, Prof Of
English Literature in University College. Lon
don, with Portraits, and Specimens of his Hand
writing Mt iferent Periods Vol. /. Mncmil.
Ian & Co.. Cambridge aud London. Goud l.
Lincoln, Boston.
Though the biographies OF John Milton DO lie.
zion, for in l5il Mr. Reed enumerated no less
than t,esn'y. fvs, and four more nre known to the
writer to have appeared since, besides Mr. Hunt
or's Tract "Miton," The Milton Papers" pub.
and Prefaccs to new editions of Millions works in
Poetry aud Prosc,-of which there have been
great number Prof. Mason has by no means per.
formed work Of supe-crogation in tho work above
announced. lie has, We trust, from the survey we
have been able to give his work, supplied to
good degree, the dcsdcratum in our Literature
Mr.. Southcy come years ago spoke of,--"n Life Of
Milton"
All former biographcrs of Milton have failcd on
vital point,-tho childhood, youth, and carly
manhood Of the great poet. Of all those things
we arc so eager to know in this forming period
and mp to his thirty-sccond year, their accounts
arc very mcagrc. Aubrey and Wood tell us but
little more ufthis time than when Milton was BORN
md who his first :choolmasters were. Edward Phil
lips gives but four five pages Of his modest yet
invaluable narrative to this period Of his Uncle.
life. Toland is oven more brief johnson hur.
ries over Aiilton's youth to get at his manhood
that he may have mark worthier Of his sturdy
tn usts. Newton is equally brief syinmons re.
lation is here somewhat longer drawn out but
"his increase Of bulk is not" as Milford says
compensated by proportionatc accession Of in
formation" Todd has collected not few particu-
lars of information concerning this period but left
them scattered about in -'apparent rari an
les, gugritc udsto" Milford followed in the foot.
steps OF ilustrious predecessors. And so We ght
60 on to the end bringing upon Thos. Keightley,
who proves that "thc last shall be first" for he
makes little advances beyond the earlier biogra.
pliers in bringing out this part of Millions life.
ut is surely not consistent with proper ideas of
biography" as Prof Mason says, Chat such Il
man as Milton should be whirled on to the thirty
second year Of his life in the course of few pa.
ges, the more especially when, in that period Of
his life, he had already done much that VIC now as.
sociatc with lis name, and had shown himself 20.
tontiaily all that he ever to be-" According xiv
Prof Mason has devoted much time and patient
study to this period. Tho first vol Of his work.
a volume Of COS pages-(Eng Edition $50 pages,
falls wi lin this period There is much here that
is new and invaluable, and the old is better ar.
ran cd, so that we sec more clearly what it was
that gave direction, stimulus, md strength to the
youthful mind and heart Of y ilton, and how truly
the child was father to the man.
Prof. Mason devotes one chapter-;he first, Of
twenty-three pages, to the "ancestry md kindred,
Of Milton; the second, Of about the same number,
to the house and home in which Milton was born
and bred, -" The Spread Eagle, Bread street, Old
London" He brings this, with its surroundings,
and the influences to which the infancy and carly
Of tho susceptible boy was subjected,
wildly before us, raising even for this purpose,
. ha II Al. 1 Il
the air." around That vcneratod spot
Bread Street. very much in the heart Of Old
London, was in Millions childhood, one Of the most
respectable streets Of the city, "wholly inhabited
by rich merchants" 1t boosted Of two parish
church 5, and "divers fair inns for good receipt of
carriers ind other travellers" There was Ger
rards Hail." one Of tie greatest curiosities in all
London, where the giant is said to have dwelt,
whose staii,-yhe one "he used in the wars to run
withnl, IA large fr-pole and the ladder used to
ascend TO the top Of tho staff, were shown when
Stow wrote his survey in 1908. In the same street
too, or hard by, was the MERMAID Tavern, ;" where
Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, Beaumont, and Fletcher
and other wits and celebrities Of those days used
to resort.
\ few PAGES from the Spread Eagle, in Bread
street might be seen the whole Of that great
where the trade and traffic and hustle
Of the city always busiest and thickest, whore
too the professions and pagcnntry Of London wcro
sure to come. In short tho celebrities Of the Old
London were thickly clustered around the home of
ohm Milton to furnish excitement for his childish
Imagination, and food for his carly thought. All
hes1 things are we'll conceived and finely brough
out in Prof Masson's chapter on "The Spread Ea.
slo' and its environs. He says as if to justify of
give the reason fths, "a great part of the educa.
ion Of every child consists Of those impressions.
Usual and other, which the senses Of the little
'eing arc taking in busily, though unconsciously
'nd the scenes Of their first exercise; aud though
III sorts Of mon are born in all sorts of places
'oets in towns, and prosaic men amid fields and
soody solitudes-yot consistently with this, it is
lso true that much Of tho original capital on
which all men trade intellectually through life, |
onslsts f that mass Of miscellaneous fact and i'm
gerry which they have acquired imperceptibly by
he observation Of their early years"
Prof. Nasson's next chapter, of thirty two pages,
5 Of the Schools Of London, their character and |
ondition, with that Of their teachers and pupils
lilton's first masters and sohool.companions, par
icaarly ST. Paul's, to which young Milton was
st. Pauls, under the very domo of that
athedral most renowned in the chronicles Of tho
'orld' Here, also, he i, equally at homo, and
lakcs us feel SO, too.
Then follows the chapter, of nearly twohundred
ages, devoted to Cambridge and Milton. course
lere. BY bringing before us Cambridge and its
ollcges, with their Professors, Fellows and Stu.
ents, and their studies practices and pastimes, he
It's us into tho inner life of Milton so that we sec
ow and where he gained his vast knowledge, and
reOter strength. Generally serious, thoughtful
nd earnest, occasionally he unbends and talk.
I'd laughs and jcsti and frolcs, as other youth