ch
no subsequent biographical discoveries can deprive it. The present
writer has further to express his deep obligations to Professor Masson
for his great kindness in reading and remarking upon the proofs--not
thereby rendering himself responsible for anything in these pages; and
also to the helpful friend who has provided him with an index.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. 11

Milton born in Bread Street, Cheapside, December 9, 1608;
condition of English literature at his birth; part in its
development assigned to him; materials available for his
biography; his ancestry; his father; influences that surrounded
his boyhood; enters St. Paul's School, 1620; distinguished for
compositions in prose and verse; matriculates at Cambridge, 1625;
condition of the University at the period; his misunderstandings
with his tutor; graduates B.A., 1629, M.A., 1632; his relations
with the University; declines to take orders or follow a
profession; his first poems; retires to Horton, in
Buckinghamshire, where his father had settled, 1632

CHAPTER II. 35

Horton, its scenery and associations with Milton; Milton's studies
and poetical aspirations; exceptional nature of his poetical
development; his Latin poems; "Arcades" and "Comus" composed and
represented at the instance of Henry Lawes, 1633 and 1634; "Comus"
printed in 1637; Sir Henry Wootton's opinion of it; "Lycidas"
written in the same year, on occasion of the death of Edward King;
published in 1638; criticism on "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso,"
"Lycidas" and "Comus"; Milton's departure for Italy, April, 1638.

CHAPTER III. 57

State of Italy at the period of Milton's visit; his acquaintance
with Italian literati at Florence; visit to Galileo; at Rome and
Naples; returns to England, July, 1639; settles in St. Bride's
Churchyard, and devotes himself to the education of his nephews;
his elegy on his friend Diodati; removes to Aldersgate Street,
1640; his pamphlets on ecclesiastical affairs, 1641 and 1642; his
tract on Education his "Areopagitica," November, 1644; attacks the
Presbyterians.

CHAPTER IV.