John Milton

MILTON, John. b. London, 9 December 1608; d. London, November 1674 (buried 12 November). He was the son of a prosperous scrivener and notary, John Milton, the elder*, a musician who contributed three harmonizations to Thomas Ravenscroft*’s The Whole Book of Psalms (1621). The younger John Milton was educated privately and at St Paul’s School; then at Christ’s College, Cambridge (BA 1629, MA 1632). Dissatisfied with Cambridge, he embarked on a life of study at his father’s house, first at Hammersmith, near London, and then at Horton, Buckinghamshire (1631-38), followed by travel on the continent (1638-39). His words for the masque Comus (acted in 1634, published in 1637) were written for...