John Milton

John Milton (December 9, 1608 – November 8, 1674) was an English poet, most famous for his blank verse epic Paradise Lost. He is also remembered for authoring the brief epic Paradise Regained, the closet drama Samson Agonistes, the monody Lycidas, and Areopagitica, a prose work that condemns pre-publishing censorship.

Milton, Secretary of Foreign Tongues

The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649), announced his commitment to the cause of the Commonwealth, and on March 13 of the same year he was invited to be Secretary for Foreign Tongues by the Council of State, and was appointed to the post two days later. Though Milton's main job description was to compose the English Republic's foreign correspondence, his initial activity seems to resemble that of a modern press secretary. His first assignment was to 'make some observations' on John Liliburne's Italic textEngland's New Chain's DiscoveredItalic text and he was also required to produce papers for those 'designers against peace of the Commonwealth.' However, Milton only published Observations upon the Articles of Peace in the ensuing months and chose to remain silent about Lilburne's and the Leveller's literature. Despite Milton's probable reservations about attacking Liliburne's polemic, by October of 1649 he published Eikonoklastes (1649), in reply to the Eikon Basilike, a work popularly attributed to Charles I, and a work that was also a phenemonal best-seller and which portrayed the King as peaceful, pious, and above all Christian ruler. A month after Milton had tried to break this powerful image of Charles I, (the literal translation of Eikonklastes is 'the image breaker'), the exiled Charles II and his party successfully published a defence of Monarchy, Defensio Regia Pro Carolo Primo, a work they had commissioned months earlier, and that was written by one of Europe's most renowned orators and scholars, Claudius Salmasius. By January of the following year, Milton was ordered to write a defence of the English people by the Council of State. Given the European audience and the English Republic's desire to establish diplomatic and cultural legitamacy, Milton worked much slower than usual, as he drew upon the vast array of learning marshalled throughout his years of study to compose a suitably withering riposte. On February 24 1652 Milton published his Latin defence of the English People, Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio, to great acclaim across Europe. Some measure of Milton's comprehensive rebutall of Salmasius' work can be found through Issac Disraeli's observation, writing in 1859, that 'all Europe took a part in the paper-war of these two great men' in which 'the answer of Milton...perfectly massacred Salmasius.'{{fn|a}} Milton's pure Latin prose and evident learning, exemplified in Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio, quickly made him the toast of all Europe. In 1654 he would completed a second defence of the English nation in Defensio secunda. In addition to these literary defences of the Commonwealth, Milton translated various State letters into latin that were intended for the foreign governments of Europe.

Related Topics:
The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates - 1649 - ''Observations upon the Articles of Peace'' - Eikonoklastes - Eikon Basilike - Charles I - Eikonklastes - Charles II - ''Defensio Regia Pro Carolo Primo'' - Claudius Salmasius - Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio - Defensio secunda

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~