E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Milton, John
(b. London, December 9th, 1608; d. London, November 8th, 1674). Written before 1632:—First four “Familiar Epistles;” “Prolusiones quædam Oratoriæ” first seven pieces in “Elegiarum Liber;” first six of “Sylvarum Liber;” “On the Death of a Fair Infant” (1626); “Vacation Exercise” (1628); “Hymn on the Nativity” (1629); “On the Passion;” “On Time;” “On the Circumcision;” “At a Solemn Musick” (1630); “Song on May Morning” (1630); “On Shakespeare” (1630); “On the University Carrier;” “Another on the same;” “Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester;” “Sonnet on Twenty-third Birthday” (1631). Between 1632 and 1637:—Three of “Familiar Epistles;” “Sonnet to the Nightingale;” “L’Allegro;” “Il Penseroso;” “Arcades” (1633); “Comus” (1634); “Lycidas” (1637). After travels abroad (1637):—“Of Reformation;” “Of Prelatical Episcopacy;” “The Reason of Church Government urged against Prelacy;” “Animadversions against the Remonstrant’s Defence;” “Apology against a Pamphlet called ‘A Modest Confutation,’” etc. After marriage with Mary Powell (1643):—“Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce” (1644); “Judgment of Martin Bucer touching Divorce” (translated extracts); “On Education;” “Areopagitica” (1644); “Tetrachordon” (1645); “Colasterion” (1645), “Tenure of Kings and Magistrates;” “Observations on Articles of Peace” (1649); “Ikonoclastes” (1649); “Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio” (1651); “Defensio Secunda” (1654); “Authoris pro se Defensio contra Alexandrum Morum;” “Ecclesiasten;” “Authoris ad Alexandri Mori Supplementum Responsio” (1655). His twenty years of polemical writing close with “A Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes;” “Considerations touching the Means to Remove Hirelings out of the Church;” “Letter to a Friend concerning Ruptures of the Commonwealth;” “Ready Way to Establish a True Commonwealth;” “Brief Notes upon a Late Sermon entitled, ‘The Fear of God and the King.’” After his pardon by the Oblivion Act, and his third marriage (1664):—“Accidence Commenc’t Grammar;” “History of Britain;” “Artis Logicæ Plenior Institutis;” “Of True Religion;” “Epist. Fam. Liber Unus;” “Brief History of Moscovia;” “Literæ Senatus Anglicani;” “De Doctrina Christiana;” “Paradise Lost” (1667); “Paradise Regained” (1671); “Samson Agonistes” (1671); translation of “Declaration of the Poles on the Election of Sobieski,” with “Epist. Fam.” and “Acad. Exercises” (1674). He edited two MSS. of Raleigh’s—“The Cabinet Council” (1658) and “Aphorisms of State” (1661). A Commonplace Book and a Latin Essay and Latin Verses, presumed (on almost conclusive proofs) to be by Milton, edited for Camden Society (1876).
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More than 150 editions of Milton published. Concordances by Prendergast (Madras, 1857–59), Cleveland (London, 1867), and Dr. John Bradshaw (1895). See Masson’s “Life of Milton” (5 vols., 1858–59), his accurate edition of Milton’s Poetical Works (1874); “Milton und seine Zeit,” by Stern (Leip.); Stopford Brooke’s “Milton” (“Classical Writers”) (1879); the monograph in Men of Letters, by Pattison (1879); Dr. R. Bridges’ “Milton’s Prosody” (1893), etc. Facsimile of “Paradise Lost,” by Elliot Stock (1877). See also the “Dictionary of National Biography.”
