SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF BRITISH POET JOHN MILTON (1608-1674)

1.Milton and his daughters (ca. 1800): the stern old poet versus rebellious females---a primary, probably greatly overstated, detail of Milton's domestic life. According to English domestic lore, the daughters were angry at being forced to take dictation from their blind poet-father, especially in languages they did not understand ("one tongue is enough for a woman" is how the poet purportedly explained his failure to teach his daughters foreign languages---languages which were the basis of contemporary education). The daughters either "heartlessly" (according to Byron) or spunkily (according to many feminists) ran away. Most versions emphasize the role of the new wife (#3, less than half his age) in driving off the rout of daughters. The jubilant poet, freed from the daughters, makes the wife his primary legatee in his will, announcing, "Your cooking deserves this reward." Actually, the widow inherits little, as the once-wealthy poet lost most of his money with the collapse of the revolutionary government, in whose stocks Milton had invested heavily.

2. Milton---young and old.

3. A fictional representation of Milton's mother.

4. A representation of Pandemonium (ca. 1840), the devils' magnificent palace.

5. William Hogarth's representation (ca. 1735-40) of Satan, Sin (his daughter, paramour), and Death (their son).

6. Another Milton domestic item: the outraged---then conciliated---poet and his runaway---then repentant---wife (wife #1). The details of this affair---available in most encyclopedias---have been, unhappily, a favorite theme of English domestic art and the overheated English domestic mind. There also is a novel, by Robert Graves. Mary Powell Milton is probably the "saint" of Milton's sonnet "On My Late Espoused Saint" (written after her death). Apparently they were separated by the politics of the then-raging English Civil War (the Powells were royalists). Milton not only happily receives back his wife, but takes in the numerous Powell family, who had lost their estate to the victorious Puritans. Milton and his father were rebels; Milton's brother Christopher, to whom brother and father remained close, was a royalist. Milton's only other sibling, Ann, died as a young adult.

7. Another View of the Baroque. Officially Milton would have disliked this: it's idolatrous.

8. For illustrations of Paradise Lost, visit Prof. George Klawitter's internet site at St. Edward's University.