1903.
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tarn
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ffA jSlt'x,i, Unf tor. cK of emlt-
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1 ,?iy.'tc'tr,wffvv r-.
a c) b a
v (DeCfinber 9.) Born
on Bread street.
Clieapside, London, to
John tSenlorl, a srrivenpr, who wrote
realms as well as legal documents,
scttfn;r them to music
Tutored by Thomas Young, a Puri
tan divine.
lKO-IS At St. Paul's School, studying
langungo and philosophy.
ISiVE In "the studious cloisters pale"
of Christ's College. Cambridge, devoting
himself to the classics, abstrue mathe
matics, music as a science, theology and
logu Took both B. A. and M. A. de
Krees; receiving an M. A. from Oxford
In '35.
ltSK-37 At his father's home, at Horton.
Bui'kinphamshire. "letting his winga
grow' for poes", having decided he could
not enter the church. His mother died at
tim close of '37.
liSi-; On the Continent, meeting Gro
Tlus in Paris and Galileo In Italy. Dropped
nil plans for further travel and returned
liome, on the news of the outbreak of t.ie
Scotch Covenanters against King
Charles I.
Itii9 (August 1.) Began tutoring and
pamphlet writing In a rented bouse In St.
Bride's Churchyard. (Lived In later years
In many London iecalities, Alderzgate,
eic).
ltfll Execution of Thomas Wentworth,
Earl of Strafford. ("ThoroughX').
1642 Outbreak of war between the Roy
alists and Parliamentarians. ' -
13 Man-led Mary Powell, daughter of
an Oxfordshire Justice of the Peace; "A
bit of pink-and-white protoplasm, aged
17." A few months later she left him,
returning to live with her father.
lbli Reunited to liis wife, who lived
witii hiin till '53; there were three
daughters born to the union Anne. Mary
and Icborah.
WW Charles I surrendered to the
Scotch, who old him to the English.
It It) (January H. Execution of King
Charles.
li4! (March J.. Made "Secretary for
Foreign Tongues," in the Cromwell Cab
inet, all diplomatic correspondence being
then carried on in Latin.
Jtfv3 Cromwell, made Lord Protector,
appoints Milton his Latin Secretary.
ItiH His blindness became total.
ltii (November). Retired from public
life and married Catherine Woodcock,
who died 15 months later.
loTh Restoration. Two of Mil
ton's books publicly burned (June 16) by
the hangman, and a proclamation issued
for his arrest. He lay hid in St. Bar
tholomew's Close tilt the Act of Indem
nity appeared.
Irtl Married Elizabeth Minshull.
lM55-rTrlvn from the city by the
plague, hrt resided several months at
C'halfont St. Giles, . Buckinghamshire.
lwi-Took up residence in Artillery
Walk, Buuhill Fields. London, where he
livid for the eipht years remaining to
liim.
1674 (November S) Died, at tho age
of "departing so peacefully from his
citiwdcd life that those in tho room with
him knew not the moment uf his pa'ss
nf." He was buried In St. Giles' Church
yard, Crlpplegate, where he had attend
ed service (and where his master, Crom
well, had been married.)
Milton's family became extinct Just a
century later (1770) with the deatb. In
i'ire!"t poverty, of the poet's great-grand-d.itigh'or.
Mrs. Elizabeth Foster.
LI K 1 0 SOMK IMTRIAltClI OP
OLI A I'STKR K, PIKE
.VXD IAI XTLKSS.
1,N' his university years. Milton's looks
of unocratio refinement and Ilia gen
tle manner, won hiin the name of "The
Jidv of Christ's." Tie waa under mid
dle height, with the oval face and fair
complexion; his nose was delicately
arched, his Hps full, his dark gray eyes
kindly and soft, his hair long and au
burn. "But there was whipcord fibre in
tho makeup of the youth who united the
toughness of a Calvin to the tenderness
i f ari Erasmus1." -
The earnest unselfishness of the young
man whose boyish ambition had been
"to be myself a true poem" that he
might "write well of laudable things,"
appeared in '3S. when hu who loved the
beautiful turned back from Italy to a
life of austerity and harshness; "when
he who had chosen to be a poet went
home to write himself blind over parti
san tracts."
"Milton was not a Puritan. He was
"at
not a free-thinker. He was not a Roy
alist. In his character the noblest qual
ities of every fiarty were combined in
harmonious union. From the Parliament
and from the court, from the conventl
ele and from the Gothic cloister, from
the gloomy and sepulchral circles of the
Roundheads and from the Christmaa
revel of the cavalier, his nature selected
and drew to Itself whatever was great
and good, while It rejected all which
was base and pernicious." T. B. Mac
aulay. Compound of Puritan and the scholar,
he was essentially of the austere type,
with no tenderness In his mind, no
intimacies In Ilia life. "From the first,"
wrote Lowell, "he looked upon himself
as a man dedicated and set apart," and
Wordsworth said of him:
"Thy soul was like a star that dwelt
apart."-?
Impracticable and IdealUtic, he yet was
one of the two men of the time of gen
uine heroic mould Cromwell Was the
other. "Of firm convictions and daunt
less In pursuit of their fulfillment; stub
bornly honest and pure in life, grandeur
Ie the prime characteristic of the man
whom we yet admire rather than love."
Cloaked la sry threadbare poverty, and
blind.
Ace-weak, and desolate, and beloved of
!od;
Hifh-heartediieia to lonr repulse resigned,
Vol beating nut one 3ot of hope, he trod
The sua and vkylesa streets he could not
see ;
By those falni (set made sacrosanct to me
F. T. PAU!RAVE.'
KLEVKX TITLES IX irXDER
LYIXG VERSE; MORE Ol'
STATELY, .MASSIVE PROSE.
16i'5 (The year he left St. Paul's
School) Poetio paraphrases of the 114th
and 136th Psalms.
IKS "An Ode on the Morning of
Christ's Nativity," which Hallam cnlled
"The .finest ode in the English lang
uage." 1613 "Arcades," a masoue in honor of
tho Countess of Derby; "the first of his
poems to make a noise in the world."
1634 "Coraus'V the best of masques
in a period when masques were at their
best." First acted in Ludlow Castle on
Michaelmas Night.
1635 "L' Allegro," The Day of "The
Cheerful Man." "There is In it a certain
Doric delicacy whereunto I must plalnly
confess to have seen yet nothing paral
lel in our language." Sir Henry Wotton.
1636 "II Penseroso," The Day of "The,
Though ful Man." "In its sphere It is
unexcelled; it is as attar of roses com
pared with ordinary rose-water." T. B.
Macau lay. ,
3637 "Lycidas'; a pastoral elegy in
memory of Edward King, a college-mate
of the poet's, h ho had been drowned in
the Irish Channel. "Unmatched In the
wholo rans i of EngliPh poetry and never
again equaled by Milton himself; it
leavea all criticism behind. . . . It
marks the point of transition frum the
early Milton of masque and idyl to the
quito other Milton who, after 20 years
of hot party struggle, returned to poe
try in another vein." Mark .rattison.
1641 "Of tho Reformation in England
end the Causes that hitherto Have Hind
ered It." This, with two other attacks
upon Episcopacy, in tho same year, wa&
the first of Milton's prose. "His earlier
prose has fire and violence and elo
quence, but it Is too diffuse." Stopford
Brooke. .
1644 "The Doctrine and Discipline of
Divorce, restored to the Good of Both
Sexes." In this, and three other works
on the same subject, written just after
his wife had left him, Milton anticipated
every one of today's radical arguments
for divorce, even to "probationary mar
riages." 1644 "Areopagetica: A Speech for the
Liberty of 1'nlicensed Printing." Jtself
unlicensed, it Is Milton's most brilliant
piece of prose. "It is a perfect field of
cloth of gold; stiff with gorgeous em
broidery." T. B. Macaulay.
1644 "A Tractate on ' Education." "A
Utopian curriculum of heroic mould."
1616 (January I). The minor poems
first published together, including most
of his Latin verse (the, best ever com
posed by an 'Englishman) and ten of the
sonnets.
1649 (February 13) "The Tenure of
Kings and Magistrates'" upholding
the act of the Council in putting
Charles to death. Following the ex
ecution by only a fortnight, it pro-
TO BE HONQRED THST WEK
BT THE EWGUJH lTPEAKBSTO
WORLD AS kfTANDING FOR
.AIZ,TIMEi NEXT TOIMMORT
JliAKBvTPSARE
V
ww,
4 Sfair-Ci2sT2Vts, .ay .
cured him prompt recognition at the
hands of the new state.
1649 (October) " EikdVioklastes "
("The Image Breaker"), in answer to a
Continental Royalist work, "Eikou
Baslleke." ("The Royal Image").
1651 "Pro populo Anglicauo De
fenslc contra almaei Defensionam
ltcRium." in answer to SalmasiiiH de
fense or royalty. "Literature knows
no more masterly a piece of contro
versial writing: tho commonwealth
owed its standing In Europe as much
to Milton's tracts aa to Cromwell's
sword."
1654 (May) "Defensio Secunda." A
largely autobiographic reply to an at
tack upon himself.
1658 The 23 sonnets, completed;
"Soul-animating trains, alas too few!"
was Wordsworth's comment upon
them, though Dr. Johnson remarked In
their connection: "His was a genius
that could hew a colossus out of a
rock, but could hot carve heads on
cherry stones."
166" (April) "Paradise Lost" (which
Clianning called "Perhaps the loftiest
monument of human genius"), sold to
Samuel Simmons for f5, another' 5 to
be paid if 1300 copies were sold. The
Idea of the poem had come to the
author when he was tutoring youths
in St. Bride's Churchyard, but actual
work upon it had been postponed till
'58.. Then, dropping the idea of traglo
form, as he bad at first planned, he
worked upon it something more than
five years, dictating it to" his (unwill
ing!) daughters and a young Quaker
friend, Thomas Ellwood. A second
edition ,was put put in '74 and a third
in '78; the first Illustrated edition
bears date of 1688. "It is, not the
greatest epic only because it is not the
flrot." Samuel Johnson. "It speaks to
us of feeling, character, understand
ing, learning, poetical and oratorical
genius. ... It will maintain its
place triumphantly In virtue of the'
majestice personality which It reveals."
Goethe.
167a--A history
famous for the
which prefaces it.
1671 "Paradise
of Britain, mainly
Fajthurne portrait
Regained"
and
I III !
1
"Samson Agonistes." The former, a
telling of the temptations of, Jesus in
the wilderness, is "poorer" than the
'Paradise Lost' in that error, sin, and
defeat had burned more strongly than
redemption Into the Puritan life." The
latter, a dramatic paraphrase of the
16th chapter of the Book of Judges,
is a powerful poem, much in the Greek
manner..
SOME IMMORTAL JIILTOX
IC FRAGMENTS, OFTEX
QUOTED IX LETTERS AXJJ
LI EE.
"From Paradise Lost."
Flown with insolence and wine.
VJnrespited, unpltled, unreprievd.
The reign of Chaos and Old Night.
Qorgons and Hydras and VThimaeras dire.
Death grinned norrfbl a ghastly smile.
Tears, such as angels weep, burst forth.
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.
Better to reign in hell than serve in
heaven.
And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or
flies.
Thick as Autumnal leaves that strow the
hrookp
In Vallombrosa.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
mm
-- ... J
5w Mmjmm
A
3
i .-'..s... .
21E7V
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.
Of man's first disobedienoe, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree w ho mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our
woes.
From morn
To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve.
A Summer's day: and with the setting sun
Dropp'd from the Zenith like a falling star.
. Deep on his front engraven
Deliberation sat, and public care:
And princely counsel in his face yet shone,
Mejcstic though, in ruin.
High on a throne of royal state, which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind.
Or where the gorgeous east with richest
hand
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and
gold.
Satan exalted sat, by merit raised
To that bad eminence.
From "Paradise Regained":
As children gathering pebbles on the shore.
Of whom te i be dlsprais'd were no small
praise. '
Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts
and eloquence.
From Samson Agonistes":
For evil news rides post, while good news
waits.
What boots it at one gate to make defense.
And at another to let in the foe?
From ,"Lycidaa"c
Tomorrow to fresh woods and pastures new.
And strictly meditates the thankless Muse.
To sport with Amaryllis in the shade.
Or with th tangles of Neaera's hair.
From "L'Allegro": -Linked
sweetness, long drawn out.
The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty.
Come and trip' it as ye go.
On the light, fantastic toe.
Such sights as youthful poets dream,
On- Summer eves by haunted stream.
From "II Penseroso":
Casting axdlm religious light. " ,
Y
a.
Where more is meant than meets the ear.
Where glowing embers through a room
Teach light to counterfeit a gloqm.
Peace hath her victories, , no less re
nown'd than war. To Lord Cromwell,
They also serve who only stand and
wait. Sonnet on his blindness.
As good almost kill a man as kill a
good book. Areopagetic.
TRIBUTES OF POETS AXI
CRITICS TO THE CARD OF
REPUBLICAXISM. T
I think it would" take many Newtons
to make one Milton. S. T. Coleridge.
The third among the sons of light. P.
B. Shelley..
Milton almost requires a solemn service
of music to be played before you enter
upon him. Charles Lamb.
In Homer's craft Jack Milton thrives.
Robert Burns.
Milton, who was the stair, or liigh table
land, to lead down the English genius from
the summits of Shakespeare. Ralph
Waldo Emerson.
That mighty orb of song, divine Milton.
W. Wordsworth.
He piit new life into the masque, the"
song, the sonnet, the descriptive lyric,
the elegy, the choral drama; and lie cre
ated the epi- in England. Stopford
Brooke. .
Milton's mind
Shall dwell with us, an Influence and a
power. Itobert Southey.
If Milton resembled a Roman Republi
can in the severe and stoic elevation of
his character, i.e also shared the aristo
cratic intellectualism of the classical
type. Mark Pattlson.
O miRhty-moiit hed invenlor of harmonies.
The White
THEKB is Hearing completion
White House at Washington
the most interesting historical
in the
one of
collec-
tions to be found in the country,
writes Abhy (3. Baiter in the Century, it
Is a collection of Presidential ware
largely composed of pieces of china, but
also containing a few pieces of plate be
gun by Mrs. Koosevclt soon after she be
came mistress of the famous, old mansion.
The inception of the collection was al
most by accident. While General Theo
dore A. Bingham, now Police Commis
sioner of Greater New York, was super
intendent of public 'buildings and grounds
at Washington, a position which entails
supervision ot the White House he
found that there warf comparatively little
of the china or the plate left which had
been used through the administrations of
the various Chief Executives, r
Before his appointment as superintend
ent hu had served as military aide to our
American embassies at both Berlin and
Rome, and while there hud noted
veneration anil care heel owed upon
royal residences and their belongings
the
tho
. It
the
did not take him long to discover
painful lack in that regard in
the Presi-
dent's house. Meetin
the. writer of tins
article one day in the early Summer of
1901, he asked her why she did not write
a "story" on the Presidential china in the
White House and awaken an interest in
it that would lead to its preservation.
"If somebody does not do that pretty
sooii," he added energetically. "there
won't be any left to preserve.''
When the article was published Presi
dent Roosevelt and his family occupied
the White House and Colonel Thomas W.
Svmons had succeeded as superintendent
of public buildings and grounds. The
article, however, came under- his notice
and he called it to the attention of the
President's wife.
Mrs. Roosevelt has always, taken the
greatest Interest in everything pertaining
to American history, and she saw that It
lay within her power to preserve at least
specimens of the historic ware. She de
signed two cabinets and had them placed
in the lower east corridor of the mansion;
where they could be inspected by all vis
itors, and then asked the writer to come
O skilled to sing of Time anil Eternity,
Ood-gited organ voice of England,
Miltoti, a; name to resound for t,K-5.
LORD TENNYSON.
All he wrote is eloquent in hU plea for
human liberty. He advocated the catiso
of the rights of mankind with the enthus
iasm that afterwards characterized, to a
still greater degree, tho utterances of
Shelley. Edmund Clarence Stedmau.
Chief nf organic number!
Old scholar o the spheres!
Thy '.spirit never Hlilinliers,
But rolls about our cars
Forever and forever.
JOHN KEATS.
He was a man whom England ncvef
produced another more worthy of her
pride: a man raised by his .endowments
almost above the level and lot of human
ity. In whom a genius that resembled
inspiration, and attainments which might
have teen thought too various and ex
tensive for human rapacity, wore sancti
fied by the graco of God. ami devoted t
the freedom, the advancement and tho
happiness of num. C. R. Edmonds.
Milton's, the prince of ports so e say:
A littlo heavy, but no less dlvlno:
An Independent being In his day
Learn'd, pluus, temperato In love and wins.
LOUD 13YKON.
In our race are thousands of readers,
presently there will be millions, who
know not a word of Greek and Latin and
will never learn those languages. If this
host of readers is ever to gain any senso
of the power and charm of tho great
poets of antiquity,' their way lo gain It
is not through translations of the ancients
but Ahrotigh the original poetry of Milton,
who-has the like power and charm, be
cause -he lias the like great style. Mat
thew Arnold.
In nuijestie cadence rise and fall
The mighty undulations uf thy seng,
O sightless lytrd, Knxland's Maeonides!
And ever and anon, high over all
Vplifted, a ninth wove, superb and strong.
Floods all the soul with Its melodious seas.
LONilFKI.LOW.
He has none of the intellectual sub
tlety of Donne, none of the psychological
intensity of Pope, none of the spiritual
tenderness of. Words worth; i.is merits de
pend almost entirely upon a factuliy of
lofty and grandiose vein coupled with
a complete mastery or the resources of
verbal sound. His Imagination, within its
own province, was supreme; but It was, so
to speak, a material imagination, per
petually concerned with objects which,
however, vast and however splendid, still
remained objects of sense. Augustine
Birrell.
Three poets, in three distance ages horn.
Oreeee. Italy and England did adorn.
The tlrM ill leftinops of thought siupa.s'd ;
The next In majesty; in both the last.
TIih force of nature could no further go:
To niaj'e a third she joined tho fi rmer two.
j JOHN lUlVDUX.
There arc some of us who don't like,'
Milton. We dare not say so. in so many
words, anil we try to pretend we have
read the "Paradise. Lost" quite through.
But when, in our secret hearts, we admit
the truth to our most confidential selves,
let us remember that it is not always wise
to find fault with tho treasures of the
past, merely because we Cannot see treas
ures in thein today. It is Just as possible
the fault may lie not with Milton. Pro
fessor Saintshury.
House China
to the -White House and select the pieces
of china which should be placed In the
cabinets.
While tills work was being done the new
slate dlnl.ig set which llr.. RooBCVRlt had
ordered for the White Houre arrived anrl,
including the pieces rhosen from It, eight
shelves were filled with china which wai
used during tlic administrations of Lin-i-oln.
Grunt. Hayes. Arthur, Har,rimin.
Cleveland. McKlnley and Roosevelt a
shelf to each administration.
The china selected by Mm. Roosevelt
for the state dining set could not he in
better taste. It is Wedgewood and is deco
rated in a simple Colonial pattern in gold,
with ihc obverse of the great seal enam
eled In colors on each dish. Tere are
over 1 LHiO pieces In the pet, anil lo accom
pany It sho ordered 114 pieces of glass
ware. A dinner platter, dinner, breakfast,
tea and eoup plates, with a tea cup and
a coffee ciip ami the saucers, were select
ed from this set for the collection.
Neither Mrs. McKlnley nor Mrs. Clove
land ordered much china for the Execu
tive Mansion, but plates and cups and
saucers -uf their selection were placed, in'
tlic cabinets.
Mrs. Harrison wan very artistic in her
tastes, as well as patriotic, ami ehe great
ly desired to have the goldenrod adopted
as the National flower. When she found
that she would have to order some new
china she designated the decoi Mt ion for
it. combining the gohlenmd ami lent Willi
the Indian corn and stalk, fin each piece
this design, witli the coat-ot'-arni.s of the
United States and a rim of golden stars,
was emblazoned. In addition she selected
many pieces of cut i-'lass. '
Through the public press it was made
known that the collection had been start
ed and in order to secure their co-operation
wherever it was possible the descend
ants of the Presidents were corresponded
with or keen personally, and a number of
invaluable contributions were secured in
that way. From the first Mrs. Roosevelt
desired that the collection should be patri
otic, and that the pieces for it should bo
either given or loaned rather than pur
chased. While this lias sometimes added
to the difficulty of obtaining tho ware, it
has made the collection of vastly more
worth.