Milton, John. English poet. Born in 1608. Son of a London crivener of some culture, who sent him to St. Paul's school and Cambridge (Christ's College), after leaving which he lived with his father in Buckinghamshire, and then traveled in France and Italy. In 1644, he published "Areopagitica," a speech for the liberty of unlicensed printing, among his other prose works being "Eikonoklastes" and "Defensio pro Populo Anglicano" (in answer to Salmasius), this last work being the immediate cause of his loss of sight. He was appointed foreign secretary to the Council of State in 1649, and some years after became blind. "Allegro," "Penseroso," "Comus," "Lycidas," etc., were written in his early days. His greatest work, "Paradise Lost," was published in 1667, and "Paradise Regained" in 1671. He was married three times. Died 1674.

---