INTRODUCTION.

JOHN MILTON was born in London in 1608. He was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1632. While yet a student, he wrote several of his shorter poems, and the hymn "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity." Between 1632 and 1638 he wrote "Arcades," "Comus," "Lycidas,” "L'Allegro," and "Il Penseroso."

In 1638 he visited France

and Italy, returning to England in the following year. From that time until after the restoration of Charles II., in 1660, he published no poetry, but was actively engaged in political controversy, or occupied with his official duties as Latin secretary to Cromwell. His greatest work, “Paradise Lost," begun in 1658, was published in 1665. "Paradise Regained" and Samson Agonistes" were both published in 1671. Milton died in 1674.

In the four poems comprising this volume we have the best of the earlier works of John Milton. No criticism of them has been more widely accepted than the statement that they proved, upon their first appearance, that another true poet had arisen in England. Written between the years 1632 and 1638, when great questions of Church and State were disturbing the minds of the English people, and preparing the way for the Puritan Revolution which very soon followed, they naturally reflect in some

3

measure the spirit of the times. In the heroic age of Elizabeth, which had just passed away, each subject had seemed to feel that he must uphold the honor of the English name at any cost. The influence of the spirit of chivalry had bound men together in the common ties of loyalty and national pride, and was apparent not more in the heroic achievements of Raleigh and of Drake than in the immortal works of Shakespeare and of Spenser. But now, under the tyranny of Charles I., and amid the rapid growth of commercial influences, the ennobling sentiments which had formerly shaped men's actions were being gradually stifled. The bonds of unfaltering loyalty and unquestioning obedience were being forced asunder by the opposition which royal despotism had aroused; and every thinking mind was being swayed by religious unrest, or was seeking refuge in dogmatic assertion and ecclesiastical authority. ent; "for a reaction had taken place from poetical impulse and heroic achievement to prosaic weariness and worldly wisdom." In order, therefore, to understand the deeper import and meaning of these early poems of Milton, one should enter upon their study with some knowledge of the conditions of life and thought and purpose which prevailed at the time of their composition, and should bear in mind the influence which these must have had upon the poet and his utterances.

Even in literature a great change was appar

John Milton graduated from Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1632, when twenty-four years of age. During the six years which followed, he remained in his father's home at Horton, Buckinghamshire; and it was there that he wrote these poems. One might have supposed that the courtly manners of his early home, his musical tastes, and the teachings of his father would have bred in him a disinclination for the strict, self-denying life

of Puritanism.

But he could not be oblivious to the underlying excellence of the Puritan doctrines, or neglectful of the demands of the times. To him, Duty was ever the stern daughter of the voice of God."

66

In "L'Allegro" (The Cheerful Man) and "Il Penseroso " (The Thoughtful Man) Milton presents, for his own contemplation and ours, pictures of the two paths which seemed at that time to open before him,—the life of a Courtier or Cavalier, and the life of a Puritan. He gives Italian titles to these poems, perhaps because there are no English equivalents which are exactly applicable to his ideals. In the first instance, to say “A Mirthful Man" would suggest a character too shallow or too frivolous, while the expression "A Cheerful Man" would fail to convey his entire meaning; in the other case, to write of "A Thoughtful Man" would call up the image of a student or a philosopher, and lead to a hasty misjudgment of the intent of the poem.

Each poem describes the pursuits and pleasures of twelve hours. L'Allegro is introduced to us at the first peep of dawn, listening to the cheerful song of the lark, the cockcrowing, and the music of the huntsman's horn; then the fieldworkers are observed at their various tasks; the landscape, with its ever changing beauties, delights the eye; the humble cottage and the lordly castle each contributes a picture to the scene; and when the day's duties are at an end, the evening is spent in social delights, in story-telling, in the reading of Jonson's comedies or Shakespeare's "wood-notes wild," or in listening to soft strains of music,