became in 1835 Rector of St. Margaret's, Westminster, and in 1849 Dean of
St. Paul's. He also held the professorship of Poetry at Oxf. 1821-31.
Among his poetical works may be mentioned _Fazio_ (drama) (1815), _Samor_
(epic) (1818), _The Fall of Jerusalem_ (1820), _The Martyr of Antioch_
(1822), and _Anne Boleyn_ (1826). It is, however, on his work as an
historian that his literary fame chiefly rests, his chief works in this
department being his _History of the Jews_ (1830), _History of
Christianity_ (1840), and especially _The History of Latin Christianity_
(6 vols. 1854-56), which is one of the most important historical works of
the century, characterised alike by literary distinction and by learning
and research. M. also brought out a valuable ed. of Gibbon's _Decline and
Fall_, and wrote a _History of St. Paul's Cathedral_.

MILNES, R. MONCKTON, (_see_ HOUGHTON).

MILTON, JOHN (1608-1674).--Poet, was _b._ 9th December 1608 in Bread
Street, London. His _f._, also John, was the _s._ of a yeoman of
Oxfordshire, who cast him off on his becoming a Protestant. He had then
become a scrivener in London, and grew to be a man of good estate. From
him his illustrious _s._ inherited his lofty integrity, and his love of,
and proficiency in, music. M. received his first education from a Scotch
friend of his father's, Thomas Young, a Puritan of some note, one of the
writers of _Smectymnuus_. Thereafter he was at St. Paul's School, and in
1625 went to Christ's Coll., Camb., where for his beauty and his delicacy
of mind he was nicknamed "the lady." His sister Anne had _m._ Edward
Phillips, and the death of her first child in infancy gave to him the
subject of his earliest poem, _On the death of a Fair Infant_ (1626). It
was followed during his 7 years' life at the Univ., along with others, by
the poems, _On the Morning of Christ's Nativity_ (1629), _On the
Circumcision_, _The Passion_, _Time_, _At a Solemn Music_, _On May
Morning_, and _On Shakespeare_, all in 1630; and two sonnets, _To the
Nightingale_ and _On arriving at the Age of Twenty-three_, in 1631. In
1632, having given up the idea of entering the Church, for which his _f._
had intended him, he lived for 6 years at Horton, near Windsor, to which
the latter had retired, devoted to further study. Here he wrote
_L'Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_ in 1632, _Arcades_ (1633), _Comus_ in
1634, and _Lycidas_ in 1637. The first celebrates the pleasures of a life
of cheerful innocen