Published Author
His tour over, Milton within two years found roles and independence in teaching and controversy. By the summer of 1642, which also marked the outbreak of the First English Civil War, he felt ready to marry. Milton's early poetry, written from 1624 onwards, was eventually published in December 1645. This work contained both Milton's English poetry and his Latin poetry. Only three poems were not included, but they were eventually introduced into the 1673 edition of the poems. The frontispiece of the work, by William Marshall, depicted Milton at the age of 21.
Milton returned to England, in late 1639, in the interlude between the two Bishops' Wars. Rather than living with his father, he found accommodation of his own in London, and began tutoring. He lived for a year near St Bride's Church, and moved in 1640 a short way to Aldersgate, just outside the City proper. His first pupils were his young nephews, Edward Phillips and John Phillips, sons of his sister Anne and both later known as writers. Milton's 1644 intervention Of Education in debate on pedagogy is based on his practical experience, as well as stating his own relationship to humanist tradition. At this period he was casting around for a literary project, compiling long lists of possible Biblical and historical topics, abandoning the idea of an Arthurian work and considering subjects mainly in a dramatic light.
Political events now began to unfold rapidly; and controversial publications, particularly on episcopacy, sprang up in a pamphleteering battle. During his early years, Milton had been placed under Thomas Young for tutoring. Now 30 years later, Young was one of five clerics of presbyterian views who formed Smectymnuus. The group, titled after a combination of each contributor's initials, wrote on antiprelatical matters, and Young encouraged Milton to write his first prose work, Of Reformation (1641), to aid in their cause. In all, Milton's antiprelatical tracts amounted to five pamphlets written in the space of a year. Of these, only the fourth carried his name, but he took on easily the role of polemicist, both lofty and resorting to low gibes and scurrility.
At the same time as the final pamphlet of the series, May 1642, Milton married Marie Powell (see John Milton's relationships). The marriage was short-lived, as the First English Civil War broke out, for reasons not fully explained, but set off Milton's divorce tracts, another polemical series of pamphlets beginning in 1643. Milton's advocacy of divorce pushed him away from Puritan orthodoxy, and led on to Areopagitica of 1644 against censorship, his most lasting prose work.
Read more about this topic: Early Life Of John Milton
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