The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1878-02-14
ENGLISH LITERATURE.

I@sS0e a. WI
/ Ellington, by the
Editor Of the
Advance.
LECTURI W.
MILTON.
+ We have probably devoted more time
| already to the EliZabetlan Era than
the limits of this course will properly
allow. We must therefore hasten on to
the great names Of other eras and
schools of literature. And we shall
find, after the Elizabethan Era, that
there is no break in the line or chain of
great literary names. The Apostolical
literary succession is kept up-from
Shakspeare's time to our own. Before
the Elizabethan age. you will remem-
Der, there were immense gaps, two GEN.
turtles elapsing between Chaucer and
Spenser. But after the reign of Eliza
beth, as fast as one great poet dropped
his mantle there were shoulders provitl-
ed on which it fell, and thus the chain
from that time to this is unbroken.
OF course, the links are various and of
different qualities, but there is no break
in the chain. Those who read Shaw
have noticed that there were a number
of miner poets, in the reigns of Eliza
beth and James, whose works are not
read in our day, but who were famous
then and who exerted quite an inhu-
ence TN their time and Oh succeeding
poets. Among the most conspicuous
Of these, were Waller and Cowley.
Cowley especially, had very marked
influence upon Dryden and Pope and
the literature of Queen AIMS time,
more especially influencing the style of
that period. Frequent mention is made
of CoW!ey in the Spectator and by the
poets OF that age.
We now leave the great eliminating
age, and pass OH to the turbulent times
OF Cromwell and the Civil Wars. A.
bove this period, in almost solitary
grandeur, stands the sublime figure Of
John Milton. linked on the one hand to
Shakespeare and his times and on tile 9TH
er to Dryden, Pope and their times. Rob-
eftson said it was all honor to belong
to the same race with man like St.
Paul, and we might say the same of
Milton. Cleveland puts him ut the
head Of the human race. Some one
calls him tile "greatest of great men. :"
tie certainly had the sublimest imagi-
nation and the purest character of any
poet the rtEe has produced. Do not
conf0und: fills with what we have said
OF SllakS 1eare, who was said to have
had the most robust mind and the
largest soul of fanny poet, ancient OF mod
ern: But for s.ablimity of mind, for
purity OF character and vast learning.
John Milton stands without a peer.
This great Poet and Profound Think
er was born in London in 1GOS. He had
thorough education given him, and
from boy was 4 marvellous student.
After completing his education, he
spent several years in retirement at his
fathers house, during which time he
wrote some of his most beautiful po-
ems, the prelude to the sublime poem
which has placed his name forever by
the side of Homer's, and, as many
think, above it. Among these poems
are Colnus, I4ycidas, II Allegro, II Pen
seroso, and Arcades. The Hymn on the
Nativity was written at 81, as a college
exercise, and need hardly say that as
a college effort it has no rival in the
world.
At 80, Milton travelled on the conti-
nent. lie intended visiting the orient,
but he was called home by the civil
war, for, as he says himself, II thought
it base to be travelling for amusement a.
broad, while my fellow -citiZens wen.
fighting for liberty 1T home.''
From the time of his returM, The
stormy part of his career began. He
| espoused ut once the cause of the Puri-
talls and the Round heads, and became
| one Of tire mightiest champions of hu-
man liberty that ever fought with pen
or sword. Some one says that civil and
religious liberty in England, and large
ly in America, are due to the pen of
John Milton and the sword of Oliver
Cromwell. John Milton was to that
Civil War very much what Greeley and
all the great newspaper editors of our
time were to our late Civil War. He
became the montll-piece and mighty de-
fender of Liberty, Civil, Religious and
Personal. So that in estimating Mil
ton: iC is necessary to consider his prose
as well as his poetical works. Shaw
divides his writings into three periods:
those of his youth, Astounding in beau
tiful poetry; ~ those of his manhood,
consisting of his prose works and con-
troversial writings; and, (3), those of his
ripper manhood, when he returned a.
gain to poetry. and gave the world Par
adise Lost, Paradise Regained and
Sampson Agonistes.
Milton was married three times.
His first marriage was not 4 happy one
rs lie married lady of uncongenial
taste, who left him and returned to her
parents. Milton took prompt steps to
obtain divorce and wrote his several
treatises on that theme, maintaining
that ''indisposition, unfitness. or con.
trariety Of mind, arising from a cause
in nature, Interchangeable hindering and
ever likely to hinder the main benefits
Of conjugal society, which are solace
and peace" was Il greater reason .fol
divorce than the scr:ptural reason.
This brought his wife back and she fell
on her knees and begged to be received
again. Milton took her back and they
lived together until her death. He also
took care OF her parents, who belonged
to the Royalist Party and reeded thu
protection of u Puritan while the Pro
tectorate was triumphant. Three
daughters were the issue of this mar:
riage, and, to their everlasting reproacl
be it said, they treated their fathe,
harshly in his age and blindness, and
combined to cheat him out of q portion
Of the proceeds of his works. Among
1.ear's three daughters there was one
Cordelia, but none among Milton's 3, and
he fn,n6 sthoxv r,uo1, cl,orro, thop q