John Milton was born in 1608 into the family of a London notary. Milton's father, convinced Puritan, raised his son in Calvinist traditions. Elementary education and Milton received his first literary impressions at the school at St. Paul in London, which was in the hands of zealous Puritans - the Gills, who had a strong influence on the formation of the worldview and literary tastes of the teenager.

Then 16-year-old John Milton, like most sons from wealthy Puritan families, ended up in Cambridge - already in those years a nest of Puritan freethinking and anti-monarchical sentiments, which often aroused the wrath of Kings James I and Charles I Stuart. At Cambridge, Milton studied ancient classical literature and wrote poetry in English and Latin (ode “On the Morning of the Nativity of Christ,” 1629).

At Cambridge, young Milton became embroiled in a struggle between students sympathetic to Parliament (Milton was one of them) and supporters of aristocracy and monarchism, who were in the minority here. Due to some political clash with a teacher, Milton was even temporarily expelled from the university, but this did not prevent him from completing the course with honors. In 1624 John Milton received the title of bachelor, and in 1632 master of liberal arts.

John Milton. Portrait ca. 1629

By this time, Milton's father had acquired the Gorton estate near London. After graduating from the university, Milton spent five years here in hard study, studying the classics and Shakespeare. Obviously, during these years he was preparing for the profession of a priest, which he later abandoned, saying that, as a supporter of the “republican” Calvinist church system, he did not want to be a slave of the Anglican bishops. During his life with his father, John Milton wrote the allegorical play “Comus”, “Arcadia” (1637), the elegy “Lycidas” (1637), the poems “Thoughtful” (“Il penseroso”) and “Merry” (“Allegro”). In “Allegro” he sings of the beauty of the earth, the joys of life, and in “Il penseroso” - the highest happiness of a thinker studying the universe.

In 1638, Milton made a long trip to Europe. He visited France, stayed for a long time in Italy, where he significantly expanded his knowledge in the field of classical philology and Italian literature. Having received news of the approaching English revolution, Milton returned home from Italy. He took part in the political struggle on the side of the revolutionaries and opposed King Charles I and Anglicanism with a number of political pamphlets: “Prelatical episcopacy”, “Reason of church government”, etc. Milton’s unhappy marriage to Mary Powell, a girl, dates back to this time. brought up in royalist beliefs and could not stand the Puritan oppression of her husband.

Milton soon came into close contact with independents, but the hostile theme initially took over in the revolution Presbyterian the consignment. The Presbyterians, who had previously angrily condemned the “royal tyranny,” having seized power, far surpassed the Stuarts in intolerance, demanding restrictions on freedom of the press. John Milton spoke out against them with his famous speech: “Areopagitica” (1644), his best prose work, where he expressed the idea that “the destruction of a book kills the mind.” From 1645 – 1649 Milton wrote a history of England in the Anglo-Saxon era. He published it in 1669 under the title: "History of Britain".

At the end of the 1640s, the Independents - Milton's party - pushed the Presbyterians out of power, but even surpassed them in despotism. Leader of the Independents Oliver Cromwell, achieved executions King Charles I was defeated in the civil war and England was formally declared a republic. But under the guise of “freedom”, Cromwell introduced a “protectorate” regime in the country - sole power. Your political and religious enemies independent "republic" suppressed with much greater cruelty than the Stuarts had previously. The rigoristic Puritan Milton, who had previously ardently condemned the “oppression” of the monarchy and the Presbyterians, now completely justified the dictatorship of the Independents. Being in close contact with the Independent leaders, from the late 1640s he became the direct executor of their instructions. In the 1650s, John Milton performed the enormous work of the Independent Republic's "Latin Secretary" - a consultant on international politics. Milton lost his sight from overwork, but continued his intense activity.

The fall of the Independent regime after the restoration of 1660 placed Milton in difficult conditions. The monarchists, who returned to power with the support of the majority of the people, persecuted the main leaders of the revolution. John Milton was at one time threatened with the death penalty; the indemnity ruined him. His essay "Defense of the English People" ( desk book Puritans) by order of Parliament was burned by the hand of the executioner. Milton himself was arrested for a time, but was soon released. He now had to live in poverty with three daughters who did not understand their father and did not know how to serve him. IN last years he completely fell away from the mainstream church and leaned towards the teaching Quakers.

Milton dictates Paradise Lost to his daughters. Artist M. Munkacsy, 1877-1878

However, personal suffering did not break the strong spirit of the great poet, and in this era of grief and poverty, John Milton created his greatest work - the epic “Paradise Lost” and later, its sequel, “Paradise Regained”, which created for him a huge, unfading glory. "Paradise Lost" tells about the origin of the first people, about the tragic struggle between heaven and Satan. Here Milton expresses his basic idea that freedom of belief should not be subject to dogma. No matter how great this work is in terms of the boldness of the conceived plan, it must be admitted that the pictures in it are too drawn out, and the ideas presented make one see in Milton more of a scientist than a poet. But the magnificent eloquence of Satan, as well as the poetic images of God the Father and God the Son, make an indelible impression. “Paradise Lost” was published only in 1667. The 2nd edition appeared in 1674, and the 3rd after the author’s death. In 1749 Newton published it again; it became popular only at the beginning of the 18th century and made an impression throughout Europe, causing a lot of translations.

Epic " Paradise Regained", which tells about the temptation of Christ in the desert, ranks lower than "Paradise Lost" due to the dryness and coldness of the presentation. Milton's last work, tragedy " Samson the fighter"(1671), can be called his best complete lyrical work.

John Milton died in 1674. Until the end of his life, he continued to maintain faith in the ultimate triumph of the republican system.

MILTON, MILTON JOHN - English poet, dramatist, publicist, statesman and political figure.

Son of no-ta-riu-sa and com-po-zi-to-ra-lu-bi-te-la of Joe-na Mil-to-na. He studied at St. Paul's school (1620-1625) in London, then at Christ's College of Cambridge University (1625 -1632). He took an active part in the English revolution of the 17th century, and held the post of the La-Tin-sec-re-ta-rya in pra-vi-tel-st-ve O. Krom-ve-lya (led the inter-people's re-write).

Early ethical experiences include Latin elegies, Italian pas-toral sons, para-phrases of psalms (114 and 136 ), the poem “On the death of a fair infant”, 1628 - under-ra-zha- nie E. Spen-se-ru; ode “On the morning of Christ’s nativi-ty” (“On the morning of Christ’s nativi-ty”, 1629), na-pi-san-naya seven-mi-line- Noah, the so-called Ko-ro-lev-skaya, stanza, introduced by J. Cho-se-rum; ethical dip-tych “L'Allegro” and “Il Penseroso” (between 1631 and 1633, formed the basis of G.F. Gen-de-la’s ora “Ve” -sely, thoughtful and moderate”, 1740), where two states of a person are pro-ti-in-post-tav-le-ny Czech soul; plays “Zhi-te-li Ar-ka-dii” (“Arcades”, 1632) and “Ko-mus” (“Comus”, 1634), built on cut-com con-tra-ste sin-ha and good-ro-de-te-li. The best pro-iz-ve-de-ni-em of this per-rio-da st-la tra-ur-naya elegy “Ly-ci-das” (“Ly-cidas”, 1638) , written by Milton on the occasion of gi-be-li during the co-slavery of his friend and one-cough of E. King. In the ele-gy, the theme of death is closely intertwined with thoughts about the meaning of this.

In 1638-1639, Milton embarked on a journey through France and Italy, having become acquainted with G. Ga-li-le-em. During the years of the revolution, Milton, who accepted a hundred in-de-pen-den-tov, turned to publication : tract-ta-you “About the Re-formation in England and the pri-chi-nahs that have held it until now” (“Of the Reformation touching church discipline in England and the causes that hitherto have hindered it”, 1641), “The reason of church government. ..”, 1642) - against the English-li-kan church in defense of pre-svi-te-ri-an, etc. In 1642, Milton married de-vush-ke from the Roy-li-st-family of M. Powell, who soon left Milton for the Ro-di-te-lyam (returned to Milton in 1645, died in 1652). This co-existence served as a basis for the creation of tracts in which Milton left the right to sup-ru -gov for once: “Doc-tri-na and rya-dok once-a-da” (“The doctrine and discipline of divorce”, 1643), etc.; you called the bo-le-mi-ku. In the same years, Milton created the Latin treatise “On the Christian Doctrine” (“De Doctrina Christiana”), in which, recognizing the importance baptism, he believed that only adults should receive him; He rectified the remaining 6 sacraments, as well as any church hierarchy. Fearing the disturbance that might entail the establishment of a trak-ta-ta, Milton from -hall from his publication (published in 1825). The best known is the tracts of 1644 “On Education” (“Of Educa-tion”) in the spirit of re-carrying sans-no-go gu-ma-niz-ma and “Are-o-pa-gi-ti-ka” (“Areopagitica”, Russian translation of 1905), in which Milton you-stepped into for freedom of speech.

In 1645, Milton published the first collection of ethics, “Sti-ho-tvo-re-niya.” In the tract “Iko-no-bo-rets” (“Eikonoklastes”, 1649) and the Latin tracts “For the protection of the English na-ro-da” ( “Pro populo Anglicano de-fen-sio”, 1650 and 1654) Milton, championing the idea of ​​a republic, op-ed the execution of Charles I. In 1652, Milton os -lep. Milton's ti-ra-no-bor-che-structures clearly appeared in the tract “A quick and easy path to the establishment of a new free republic” (“The ready and easy way to establish a free commonwealth”, 1660). After Charles II came to power (1660), Milton was arrested and imprisoned; bla-go-da-rya for-step-no-st-vu influential friends of os-vo-bo-z-day. In 1667, the first edition (in 10 books; later - in 12 books) of Milton’s master was published - the epic poem “Po-the-ryan” paradise” (“Paradise Lost”, Russian translation of 1777), on which Milton worked for more than 10 years.

For-we-sat down on the Biblical plot of the gree-ho-pa-de-niya that Milton had in his youth. Milton knew plays by J. van den Von-de-la on the same plot - “Lucifer” (1654) and “Adam in Exile” ( 1664). Po-ema, long-living tradition of epic poetry an-tich-no-sti (Ho-mer, Virgil, Ovid) and Voz-ro-zh-de -niya (Dan-te, T. Tas-so), na-pi-sa-na in the genre of Christian scientific epic; it also includes the genres of shes-tod-ne-va (tales about the creation of the world), masks, odes, gym- na, ek-lo-gi, etc.

In “Paradise of the Land” there are characters from the biblical story: God the Father, God the Son (Messiah), Sa-ta -na, Adam and Eve, etc., as well as the al-le-gorical figures invented by Milton: the daughter of Sa-ta-na - Sin, her son - Death, etc. . Po-ema for-du-ma-na as theo-di-cea: the goal of the author is “the good-guest of Pro-vi-de-nya to-show, / the Creator’s path before creature-ryu op-rav-dav” (translation by A.A. Stein-berg). Once upon a time, the image of Sa-ta-na, created by Milton, rebelling against God and the destruction of my God’s love -re-re-tion - a man, with his power and artistic persuasiveness, he made many critics, and before all this ro-man-ti-kov (W. Blake, P.B. Shelley), see in him the main hero of the poem. Subsequently, such a trak-tov-ka was subjected to a sharp criticism by K.S. Lewis in the book “Pre-word to “In Paradise”” (1942).

The long-lasting “Para-dise regained”, 1671, Russian translation 1778), which Milton worked on from 1665 to 1670. If the tra-di-tsi-on-but the plot about the returned paradise as-so-tion-ro-val-sha with the image-bra-same-n-the Passion of Christ- hundred, with His creative sacrifice, then with Milton things are different: at the center of his poem is research For Christ's sake, you're not. Milton introduced from-me-no-niy into the Gospel story, adding to the three can-no-nic art-ku-she-ni-yams the fourth - art-ku- she-nie an-tich-noy kul-tu-roy and fi-lo-so-fi-ey. Christ, after all, repudiates all the trials, and Sa-ta-na does not understand what is happening before him -st-vi-tel-but Spa-si-tel of the world.

In the depiction of Christ in both poems, Milton's anti-three-ni-tar views appeared. So, in “Paradise of the Land,” God the Father crowns the Messiah, as if separating him from himself. In “Paradise Returned,” Christ does not remember his glory in heaven before his incarnation in the world; he has no gender, but you have everything.

After-him, about-from-we-de-ni-em Milton became a heroic tragic story based on the Biblical plot “Sam-son-bo-retz” (“ Samson Agonistes”, 1671; ora-to-ria of Gen-de-la, 1743), which also has an op-de-la-bio-graphic subtext. He has lost physical vision, the hero of the tragedy has matured spiritually, he will save at the cost of his own life. Tra-ge-dia pre-po-sla-but pre-word “About that kind of dramatic poetry, which is called -Xia tra-ge-di-ey”, in which Milton lived his views, close to the class-si-cy-stic es-te-ti-ke: once-de- the division of genres into “high” and “low”, limited time for action in one day , 5-act member, principle of rights-to-be-to-beat. Milton, in contrast to B. Johnson and J. Dryden and after the Italian drama-tours, did not consider Rome to be the model of the genre -skaya, but ancient Greek tragedy. “Sam-son-bo-rets” presents the so-called drama for reading and writing, like both poems, in white verse, up to Milton is used as a key in drama (K. Marlo, W. Shakespear, etc.). Milton created the rhyme, seeing in it “the invention of the bar-bar-century,” and used blank verse in the under- ra-zha-nie not knowing the rhyme of an-tic poetry.

In the historical work “The History of Britain”, 1670, where the -but before the conquest of England by Nor-man-na-mi (1066), Milton’s views on history as an implementation in the will of God. Milton cast doubt on many legends, firmly rooted in the consciousness of English, including the gen-du about the ko-ro-le Ar-tu-re. Milton also wrote a com- pi-la-tive work, “A Brief History of Moscovia...”, published in 1682 ; Russian translation entitled “Mos-co-via of John Mil-to-na”, 1875) - one of the few English books about Russia in the 2nd half of the 17th century.

In the work of Milton, connecting the era of the Renaissance and the class of civilization, the ideas of re-ness-sens were united. but gu-ma-niz-ma and chri-sti-an-sko-go Middle-ne-ve-ko-vya. Class-si-ci-sty tse-ni-li in it with-che-ta-nie re-li-gi-oz-no-mo-ra-li-za-tor-sko-go na-cha-la with strict form; his ti-ra-no-bor-che-sky pa-phos was close to ro-man-ti-kam.

In Russia, the work of Milton has been known since the 18th century in translations from German and French. A.S. Push-kin called Milton this “exquisite-scan-and-simply-soul-spirited, dark, za-pu-tan-ny, vy-crea-tive, his -moral and courageous, even to the point of senselessness" (article "About Mil-to-n and Sha-tob-ria-nov-vom-re-vo-de" Po-te-ryan -no-go paradise”, 1836).

Essays:

Works. N. Y., 1931-1940. Vol. 1-20;

Poe-tical works. Oxf., 1952-1955. Vol. 1-2;

Lost heaven. Paradise returned. Other related pro-iz-ve-de-tions / Ed. under-go-vi-li A.N. Gor-bu-nov, T.Yu. Sta-mo-va. M., 2006.

The name of John Milton (John Milton, 1608–1674), poet, thinker and publicist, who inextricably linked his fate with the events of the great English revolution, is rightfully considered a symbol highest achievements literature of England of the 17th century. His work had a lasting, profound influence on the development of European social thought and literature of subsequent eras.

Milton was born into the family of a wealthy London notary close to Puritan circles. The poet's father, a man of varied interests, a keen connoisseur of art, managed to give his son an excellent education. After graduating from one of the best London schools, Milton entered Cambridge University. In 1629 he received a bachelor's degree, and three years later a master of arts. The young man spent the next six years on his father's estate in Gorton, devoting himself entirely to poetry and scientific studies. He was fluent in Latin and Italian, read Greek and Hebrew authors in the original, and had a good knowledge of the literature of antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

In 1638–1639 Milton visited Italy. A deep knowledge of the country’s culture and language contributed to the poet’s rapprochement with Italian writers and scientists. The meeting with the great Galileo made an indelible impression on him. Milton also thought about traveling to Greece, but news of the brewing civil war in England prompted him to rush home. “I believed,” he wrote later, “that it would be low on my part to carelessly travel abroad for the sake of personal intellectual development while at home my countrymen fought for freedom.”

First period creative activity Milton, which includes the years of “study and wandering,” coincides with the pre-revolutionary decades (20–30s). During this period, the formation of a poet occurs, his tastes and beliefs are formed. Milton tries his hand at lyrical and dramatic genres: he writes poetry “on occasion,” solemn elegies in Latin, sonnets, poems on religious themes, and small mask plays.

The main feature of the work of young Milton is the combination of motifs from the cheerful, colorful poetry of the Renaissance with Puritan seriousness and didactics. In Puritanism, he was attracted by the preaching of asceticism, spiritual fortitude, criticism of the licentiousness of the court and royal tyranny. However, the hostility of the Puritans towards art and theater was alien to Milton. In the poem “To Shakespeare,” he praises the genius of the great playwright, thereby emphasizing his spiritual connection with his legacy.

The influence of the traditions of the Renaissance and at the same time the duality of perception of the world and man, not typical of Renaissance artists, are clearly manifested in the “twin” poems - L’Allegro (“The Cheerful”) and Il Penseroso (“Thoughtful”). In this philosophical and lyrical diptych, Milton contrasts two states of mind and, more broadly, two ways of human life. “L’Allegro” depicts a cheerful and carefree young man who enjoys the pleasures of rural and city life equally. The young man’s soul is full of desires, he longs to feel the fullness and joy of being.

“Il Penseroso” paints an image of a serious, solitary person who is drawn to the thorny path of knowledge. He is ready to devote his whole life to the study of sciences and arts. The author of the diptych seems to be at a crossroads, pondering which of the two ways of life to give preference to. The young, cheerful spirit of “L’Allegro” is not alien to Milton, but his inner mood is closer to the thoughtful and serious attitude to life of “Il Penseroso”.

By the end of the 30s, Puritan tendencies were noticeably increasing in Milton's work; At the same time, his works acquire important social implications. In the masque play Comus (1637), the author praises the virtue typical of the moral rigor of the Puritans. The evil spirit Comus tries in vain to seduce a young Lady lost in the forest. The forest in the play symbolizes the intricacy of human life. Comus represents vice. The Lady, the embodiment of chastity, firmly resists the Temptations and charms of Comus and emerges victorious from the duel.

In the image of Comus one can discern that primordial vitality that was inherent in the poetic element of the Renaissance. But the author’s sympathies in the play belong not to Comus, but to the Lady. Contrasting strict morality with an unbridled thirst for pleasure, Milton opposes what the Renaissance ideal in noble society practically degenerated into, becoming a justification for crude sensuality and contempt for moral values. The theme of "Comus" is the theme of the test of virtue, the eternal rivalry between good and evil - with new strength sounds in the poet's later works.

In the last major work of the first period - the elegy "Lisndas" (1638) - Milton, grieving the untimely death of his friend, Edward King, reflects on the frailty of life and his fate - the fate of a man who chose the difficult path of a poet. Sadness for the deceased is combined in an elegy with an invective: into the mouth of the Apostle Peter, who accepts King’s soul into heaven, the author puts an angry philippic against the Episcopal Church, which can serve as a kind of epigraph to his treatises of the 40s.

The moral pathos of Milton's works, his inherent didacticism, the severity of the ideals he put forward, the classical clarity of verse, significantly distinguish his early poetry from the sophisticated and complicated mystical works of the “metaphysicians” and from the thoughtlessly hedonistic poetry of the “cavaliers”; they allow us to speak about the predominance of classicism tendencies in him during this period.

In the second period of his work, covering the 1640s–1650s, Milton, almost abandoning poetry dear to his heart, acted as a revolutionary publicist. After England was declared a republic, he was appointed Latin Secretary of the Council of State. In this post, for several years he conducted diplomatic correspondence with foreign powers. Milton's vision weakened from intense work, and in 1652 he became completely blind. But even blind, the writer continues to serve the republic, dictating his works.

All of Milton's treatises and pamphlets are permeated by the idea of ​​freedom. The author distinguishes three main types of freedom - religious, private and civil life. In his first journalistic works (“On the Reformation”, “On the Episcopate”, etc.), written in 1641–1642, Milton declares war on the Church of England, advocates for freedom of faith and conscience, and for the separation of church and state. Even James I, emphasizing the inextricable connection between the episcopate and the monarchy, succinctly remarked: “If there is no bishop, there is no king.” The overthrow of the authority of bishops and the debunking of the dogma of the divine origin of church power in Milton's pamphlets dealt a serious blow to church-based absolutism.

Milton devotes the next group of pamphlets to the problems of freedom in privacy, including in the range of issues under consideration “the conditions of marriage, raising children and the free publication of thoughts.” In a series of treatises on divorce (1643–1645), decisively departing from the sanctimonious morality of the Puritans, the author puts forward an unheard-of provision for his time on the right of spouses to divorce if there is no love and harmony in the marriage.

In his treatise “On Education” (1644), speaking out against the “uneradicated scholastic ignorance of barbarian ages,” Milton reflects on ways to educate a virtuous, comprehensively developed personality, capable of “performing properly, skillfully and with all his soul any duties - both personal and public, both peaceful and military.” Pedagogical system Milton has many similarities with the teachings of the outstanding Czech teacher John Amos Comenius, who visited London in 1641. The treatise “On Education” is an important milestone in the history of humanistic pedagogy.

A special place among Milton's pamphlets is occupied by Areopagitica (1644) - a brilliant speech in defense of freedom of speech and the press. According to the deep conviction of the writer, knowledge is not capable of desecrating true virtue; virtue, which must be protected from bad books, is worth little. Even the danger of the publication of Catholic and atheistic literature does not justify in the eyes of the author the existence of the institution of preliminary censorship. “Killing a book,” he writes, “is the same as killing a person... He who destroys good book, kills the very mind..."

Development revolutionary events in England at the end of the 40s entailed a deepening of the radical sentiments of the thinker. All of Milton's journalistic speeches of this time were devoted to the problems of political power. In the pamphlet “The Rights and Duties of Kings and Governments” and in “The Iconoclast” he defends the ideas of the revolution, substantiates the theory of the “social contract” and the right of the people to tyrannicide. Debunking the feudal doctrine of the divine origin of royal power, Milton argues that power originally belongs to the people, who vest it in a certain person under certain conditions. If the social contract is not respected, if the monarch, "ignoring the law and the common good, rules only in his own interests and in the interests of his clique," he is a tyrant. The people have the right to judge, depose and execute a tyrant.

During the years of the fierce pamphlet war unleashed by supporters of the monarchy after the defeat, Milton’s famous treatises “Defense of the English People” (1650) and “The Second Defense of the English People” (1654) were born. Both treatises are written in Latin and addressed to the entire educated world. In them, reflecting the attacks of enemies on the policies of the republican government, the writer develops the ideas of democracy and expresses the belief that the English republic will show others the path to freedom. Exalting the people of England, Milton likens them to Samson, who has risen from an age-old sleep, next to whom the authors of slanderous works look like insignificant and pitiful pygmies. In the XVIII–XIX centuries. Milton's combat pamphlets more than once inspired leaders of European revolutions in their struggle against absolutism.

Cromwell's dictatorship thoroughly shook the hopes that Milton had placed in him, which he had associated with the young republic. In the sonnet “To Lord General Cromwell” and in both “Defences,” the author glorified the leader of the Independents as a talented commander and statesman, but, anticipating the impending changes, warned him against encroaching on his hard-won freedom. Convinced that his admonitions were in vain, the writer became silent and in subsequent years did not utter a word about Cromwell.

Only after the death of the Lord Protector did Milton again take up the pen of a publicist. IN last group pamphlets created on the eve of the Restoration, he appeals to his compatriots to join forces in the fight for the republic. The author is convinced that the restoration of the monarchy will lead to the revival of tyranny and will deprive the people of their democratic gains. “A free republic without a king and a house of lords,” he writes, “is the best form of government.”

Milton's journalism cannot be comprehended without the author's living connections with the era, with its freedom-loving spirit. The contradictions of the ideology of the new class were reflected in the writer’s mind with extraordinary vividness. On the one hand, he led a nationwide movement against the monarchy, against the cruelties of the feudal world order, on the other, he was limited by the religious ideas of his time and sought in the Holy Scriptures a theoretical justification for the fight against absolutism.

Social and political thought of England of the era bourgeois revolution rested largely on the interpretation of the Bible in the spirit of the ideals of early Christianity: it was seen as preaching the equality of people before God, a protest against despotism in any form. Milton, as an ideologist of independence, was close to the iconoclastic pathos of Protestant teaching. However, the dogmatism and fanaticism of the most ardent champions of Puritanism remained alien to the writer. His religiosity was akin to the religiosity of the great scientists of the Renaissance - Erasmus of Rotterdam and Thomas More, who embodied the ideas of so-called “Christian humanism” in their work.

Combining religious beliefs with humanistic ones, Milton, like More and Erasmus, was never a blind adherent of church dogma, he fought against scholasticism and for new methods of education. Like them, he refused to take every word on faith Holy Scripture, believing that a person, through reason, must himself determine what is true and what is false in scripture. Finally, following the humanists, Milton put forward his practical activity as the main criterion for assessing a person and could not come to terms with the condemnation of a person, supposedly predetermined by heaven. Rejecting the Calvinist dogma of absolute predestination, the writer insisted that man, endowed with reason and free will, is the master of his own destiny.

At the end of the 50s, Milton made an attempt to present his religious, philosophical and ethical views, his understanding of the Bible, in the form of an integral, complete system. This is how the treatise “On Christian Doctrine” appeared - an extensive theological and ethical work in Latin, first published only in 1825. The author’s worldview was not consistent and did not form a coherent system. On the one hand, as a religious man, Milton believed that God created the world and life, and proclaimed him to be an absolute, infinite and unknowable being, on the other hand, moving closer to pantheism, he declared the whole world material and was ready to recognize matter as part of the divine substance .

The ideological roots of the writer’s worldview stretch to the spontaneous materialism of the Renaissance. Materialistic tendencies are clearly evident in Milton's understanding of human nature. Disagreeing with medieval thinkers, he argues that man "was not created or composed of two separate or distinct elements of nature, such as soul and body." Recognizing the unity of spiritual and material substances and believing that everything that comes from the hands of the creator is perfect, Milton thereby comes to the rehabilitation of the flesh and sensual nature of man. However, feelings, in his opinion, must be unconditionally subordinated to reason: the dominance of passions is the source of all evil in the world.

The second book of the treatise “On Christian Doctrine” is devoted to ethical problems. It is characteristic that in constructing his ethics, Milton relies not only on the authority of the Bible, but also on the philosophy of antiquity, which once again demonstrates his commitment to the ideas of humanism. The main task of morality for Milton is to curb evil passions and cultivate virtues. He sees the duty and happiness of a Christian not in passive humility, but in active service to the public good.

This work by Milton testifies to the painful fluctuations in the religious and philosophical thought of the author, who contradictorily combined spontaneous materialism with elements of idealism, adherence to Puritan beliefs with fidelity to the ideals of the Renaissance, devout faith in biblical wisdom and an inquisitive spirit of research, knowledge of the laws governing the Universe.

Milton's prose occupies an important place in his creative heritage. It helps to better understand the historical uniqueness of the religious and political struggle of his time, to understand the most important features his best poetic creations. Over a twenty-year period, from 1640 to 1660, Milton, caught up in the turbulent flow of political events, created only 16 sonnets and set several psalms into verse. But these years were by no means in vain for Milton the poet: the experience of a publicist, participant historical battle era, was of great importance for him and was reflected in a unique form in the artistic works of the third, final period of his work.

The restoration of the monarchy in 1660 was perceived by Milton as a disaster. “Evil days” came for him: many of his comrades were executed, others languished in prison; he himself was persecuted and subjected to a large fine; the most daring of his pamphlets were consigned to the flames. However, Milton's spirit was not broken. Persecuted and blind, in the last fourteen years of his life he created works that have glorified his name for centuries: the poems “Paradise Lost” (1667), “Paradise Regained” (1671) and the tragedy “Samson the Fighter” (1671).

Everything Milton wrote over half a century, despite his undoubted mastery, pales next to his masterpiece - the poem “Paradise Lost”. Even during his student years, the poet decided to create an epic work that would glorify England and its literature. Initially he intended to sing in the epic legendary king Arthur. However, at a time of fierce struggle against the monarchy, the concept of “Arturiad” became unacceptable to him.

The author drew the plot of “Paradise Lost,” as well as two later works, “Paradise Regained” and “Samson the Fighter,” from the Bible. Milton’s very appeal to the source from which the English people borrowed “language, passions and illusions” for their bourgeois revolution was filled with deep meaning: in the context of a victorious reaction, the poet seemed to be declaring that the spirit of the revolution had not died, that its ideals were alive and well. indestructible.

The Old Testament myth of the fall of the first people, which forms the basis of Paradise Lost, attracted writers even before Milton. The same myth was used in their writings by the French Protestant poet Du Bartas, the Dutch author Hugo Gretius, and the famous Dutch writer Joost van den Vondel. All of them influenced the English poet to one degree or another.

But no matter how much Milton owed to his predecessors, his majestic epic poem was an undeniably original phenomenon: it was the product of a different era, different historical conditions; The tasks, artistic, moral, social, that the poet set for himself were different, and his talent was different. “Paradise Lost” summed up the author’s many years of thoughts about religion and philosophy, about the fate of the homeland and humanity, about the ways of its political and spiritual improvement.

What is striking first of all is the cosmic grandeur of Milton's poem. The dramatic events of Paradise Lost are played out against the backdrop of the vast expanses of the Universe. Its theme is sacred history, and its heroes are God, the Devil, the Messiah, Adam and Eve. The whole world and human history appear in the epic as the arena of a centuries-old struggle between Good and Evil, as a lists of divine and satanic principles. In the poem, Milton paints impressive scenes of the battles of the heavenly legions and glorifies the victory of God over the Devil, narrates the fall of Adam and Eve and the temporary triumph of Satan, prophesies about the future salvation of people and their difficult but steady path to perfection. Thus, using “language, passions and illusions borrowed from Old Testament", he comes to an optimistic conclusion about the inevitable triumph of Good in the world, a conclusion that is especially relevant in the “evil days” of the Restoration.

Milton's plan formally corresponded to the biblical legend, according to which the futile litigation between Satan and God should end in the complete defeat of Satan.

The executor of the good plans of the Lord of the World is, in Milton’s depiction, God the Son. The hero appears in the poem in a variety of guises: he is the angry Messiah, casting the rebellious angels into Hell, he is the creator of the beautiful world, he is the intercessor of Man before God the Father, and, finally, he is the God-Man, the son of God and Man, the king of the universe . Each of the acts of God the Son should reveal some new facet of his appearance. It embodies certain moral principles that were dear to the poet: submission to the will of God the Father, mercilessness towards enemies, mercy towards the lost, readiness for self-sacrifice. The overt didactic orientation of the image, its schematism and declarative nature significantly reduce its artistic merits.

Satan is also the son of God, but a son who chose the path of evil, rebelled against the will of his father and is therefore rejected. Milton traditionally explains the spiritual death of the once beautiful Lucifer-Satan by his exorbitant pride. Pride is interpreted by the poet as an unjustified desire of an individual to violate the boundaries set for him by nature, to rise above his allotted place in the great chain of being. Pride blinds, subjugates the mind, and then base passions, freed from shackles, enslave the personality, forever depriving it of freedom and peace. Satan is destined to carry eternal hell in his soul.

An unquenchable thirst for power and compassion for the angels who fell through his fault, hatred of God, a thirst for revenge and attacks of repentance, envy of people and pity for them torment the tormented soul of the rebellious Devil. Hell is everywhere. “Hell is myself,” Satan confesses. According to Milton, the mighty mind of Satan, blinded by pride, is doomed to eternally serve vice and destruction. The mind of God creates the World and Man, the mind of Satan erects Pandemonium, invents artillery, and tells him how to seduce the first people.

It is quite obvious that in " Paradise Lost“Milton, in accordance with religious ideals, intended to sing of submission to a good and merciful God and condemn Satan. However, for more than two hundred years now, critics have discovered elements in the poem that clearly prevent it from being an expression of an orthodox religious point of view. “Milton’s poem,” Shelley wrote in “A Defense of Poetry,” “contains a philosophical refutation of the very dogmas for which it ... was supposed to serve as the main support. Nothing can compare in power and splendor with the image of Satan in Paradise Lost... Milton so distorts the generally accepted beliefs (if it can be called a distortion) that he does not attribute to his God any moral superiority over Satan.

Indeed, the image of the Devil in Milton’s epic, contrary to its biblical interpretation, looks so majestic and attractive that next to him all the other characters in the poem become lost and dim. The titanic passion of Satan's nature, his proud and rebellious spirit, love of freedom and strong will, courage and stoicism almost invariably aroused the admiration of readers and critics. On the other hand, God, called to become the embodiment of Reason and Good, appears in the poem as an insidious and vengeful monarch, who, according to Satan, “alone reigns like a despot in heaven.”

Witness and participant in a grandiose social revolution, Milton, creating epic poem, inspired by the atmosphere civil war, which, in his opinion, was a reflection of the universal collision of Good and Evil. Painting scenes of a fierce battle between the forces of Heaven and Hell, the poet used the colors that the era of revolutionary disruption supplied for his palette, and, willingly or unwillingly, filled the poem with its heroic spirit. This so transformed his original plan, so undermined its very foundation, that the entire edifice of the author's conscientious religious abstractions tilted dangerously. “Milton’s poetry,” Belinsky wrote, “is clearly a product of his era: without suspecting it, he, in the person of his proud and gloomy Satan, wrote the apotheosis of rebellion against authority, although he was thinking of doing something completely different.”

Working on the epic during the years of reaction, Milton considered it necessary to depict the Evil that destroyed the revolution in all its royal splendor and dangerous attractiveness: a caricature of the Evil Spirit as a repulsive and weak creature, distorting the truth, could, in the poet’s opinion, harm the reader’s virtue.

According to Milton, Satan, who dared to oppose the omnipotent God, could not help but be a titanic figure. Wanting to paint a vivid and convincing portrait of Satan, the poet relied on the tradition of depicting tragic heroes - “villains with a powerful soul” - characteristic of the Elizabethan playwrights, Marlowe and especially Shakespeare. Like the humanists of the Renaissance, Milton believed that Good and Evil are so closely intertwined that they are sometimes difficult to distinguish from each other. This also influenced the characterization of the Archenemy, whose greatness so insidiously obscures the Evil embodied in him.

It would be wrong, of course, to see in Paradise Lost an allegorical history of the English bourgeois revolution, to draw direct parallels between the revolt of the fallen angels in Milton's poem and the “great rebellion” of the Puritans. In accordance with Christian ideals, Milton conceived the poem as a justification of the ways of God, but the letter of biblical teaching caused him, like the best representatives of his class, certain doubts; It was they who led to the fact that Satan, who rebelled against God, although condemned by the author, is not deprived of his sympathy and absorbs the features of a brave Protestant against the world order. Paradise Lost is the work of a great rebellious spirit. It could not help but express a man who devoted his whole life to the fight against despotism.

There is no doubt that it was psychologically easier for the revolutionary poet, who experienced the bitterness of defeat during the Restoration, to “get used to” the role of a defeated angel rather than the image of a victorious God. Drawing the appearance of a lost battle, but not a conquered Spirit, the author sometimes endowed him with traits - and, moreover, the best - of his own nature. Is it not because the speech of Satan addressed to his comrades in the poem sounds so heartfelt because the thoughts and feelings of the hero were well known to his creator?

...We are unsuccessful

They tried to shake his throne

And they lost the fight. So what?

Not everything died: the fuse was preserved

Indomitable will, along

With immense hatred, thirst for revenge

And courage - not to give in forever.

The presence of a rebellious principle, rebellious to despotism in Milton’s worldview, the humanistic traditions in his work, colored by the political experience of his turning point, allowed him, instead of the conventional figure immortalized by biblical tradition, to create in the person of Satan a bright and living individuality, in which, at the same time, the typical features of his contemporaries were unmistakably discerned poet. The militant individualism of Milton's hero had something undeniably beneficial on its flip side: an unwillingness to blindly obey authority, seething energy, an eternal search and dissatisfaction.

Another part of the Old Testament legend, dedicated to the first people, also acquired a new, unusual sound under the artist’s pen. The myth of Adam and Eve serves as Milton's starting point for philosophical and poetic reflections on the meaning of life, the nature of man, his desire for knowledge, his place under the sun.

Man is depicted in Paradise Lost as a being standing at the center of the universe: on the “ladder of Nature” he occupies a middle position between the sensory, animal world and the world of angels. He is the highest of earthly beings, God’s deputy on earth, he brings together the lower and higher spheres of existence. A bright path of spiritual elevation opens before Adam and Eve, while a dark abyss opens up behind them, threatening to swallow them if they betray God. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, growing in the heart of Eden, is a symbol of the freedom of choice granted to the first people. Its purpose is to test people's faith in the Creator.

Organically included in the general indestructible order, Man becomes a point of refraction of opposing influences emitted by powerful cosmic forces. The poet places his heroes - both spatially and in life-ethical terms - in the very center of the Universe, halfway between the Empyrean and Hell. According to Milton, people themselves are responsible for their own destiny: endowed with reason and free will, they must choose every moment of their lives between God and Satan, good and evil, creation and destruction, spiritual greatness and moral baseness.

According to the poet, Man is initially beautiful. It was created by an all-good and wise deity; there are no and cannot be flaws in it. Adam is the embodiment of strength, courage and profundity, Eve - feminine perfection and charm. The love of Adam and Eve is the perfect combination of spiritual intimacy and physical attraction. The life of the first people in the earthly Paradise is simple, abundant and beautiful. Generous nature abundantly gifts them with everything they need. Only by violating God's commandment by eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve are deprived of the immortality and bliss given to them at creation, and doom the human race to severe trials.

It is easy to see that the images of the first people were conceived by Milton as the embodiment of a religious and humanistic ideal, that is, as ideal images of people, since they appear as inhabitants of paradise obedient to God. However, in the end, in the poet’s portrayal, they turn out to be more humane, closer to the humanistic norm, precisely after the Fall and expulsion from the heavenly abode.

The serene picture of the existence of the first people in paradise is expressively contrasted in the poem with the picture of a stormy, confused, dramatically shocked world. Adam and Eve, in the role of sinless inhabitants of Eden, are unknown to contradictions, enmity, and mental torment. They do not know the burden of overwork and death. But their bliss is based on submission to the will of God, involves the rejection of the temptations of knowledge and is inextricably linked with the limitations of the heavenly idyll. The idyllic world collapses as soon as Satan invades it.

In the tempting speeches of Satan and in Eve’s doubts regarding the sinfulness of knowledge, echoes of the author’s own doubts are heard:

What did he prohibit? Knowledge! Banned

Good! Forbade us to gain

Wisdom…

...What's the point?

Our freedom?

Milton, a humanist thinker, was convinced of the benefits of knowledge and could not reconcile the biblical legend with his attitude towards knowledge: for him it is not a sin, but a blessing, although sometimes one has to pay a high price for it.

Notable in the poem are the motives for the first people’s disobedience to the right hand of God: Eve’s insatiable thirst for knowledge prompts her to taste the forbidden fruit. Adam takes the fatal step out of compassion and love for Eve, although he is aware that by his action he places the “human” above the “divine.” No less selflessly, Eve, after Adam’s fall, offers to fully take upon herself the punishment that threatens the two of them. The first people are truly great at that moment when, on the eve of the tragic changes that await them, in splendid isolation they confront all the forces of Heaven and Hell. While depicting the scene of the Fall with sympathy, Milton comes close to justifying the actions of his heroes, which are not consistent with the church concept.

Adam is not afraid of the trials that await him in a new, unknown life. His image is undoubtedly heroic. But unlike the epic poets of the past, who portrayed warrior heroes, Milton depicts on the pages of his poem a hero who sees the meaning of life in work. Labor, hardships and trials must, according to the poet, atone for the “original sin” of man.

Before the expulsion of the first people from the paradise monastery, Archangel Michael, at the behest of God, shows Adam the future of humanity. Pictures unfold before the shocked hero human history- needs, disasters, wars, disasters. However, as Michael explains to Adam, the atoning sacrifice of Christ will open the path to salvation for people, the path to spiritual perfection. Man can ultimately become even better than he was before the Fall.

Through the mouth of Adam, an unwitting spectator of the formidable “film of the centuries” (V. Ya. Bryusov), Milton condemns the social disasters that corrupt the human soul: wars, despotism, feudal inequality. Although the poet, describing the prophetic visions of the hero, formally remains within the framework of biblical legends, he essentially develops latest books the poem's concept of the historical process - a spontaneous process, filled with tragedy and internal contradictions, but steadily making its way forward.

Milton puts his philosophy into a religious form, but this should not obscure from us the novelty and historical and literary significance of his concepts: the poet was the closest predecessor of the Enlightenment in glorifying work as the main purpose of human existence, and in defending the rights of reason and the pursuit of knowledge, and in affirming the ideas of freedom and humanity. For many generations of readers, “Paradise Lost” has become a philosophical and poetic summary of the dramatic experience of a person who, in agony, finds his true nature and moves, among disasters and catastrophes, towards spiritual enlightenment, towards the cherished ideals of freedom and justice.

Milton's poem was the largest and perhaps the most talented of the numerous attempts of writers of the 16th–17th centuries. to revive the epic in its classical form. The epic poets of antiquity - Homer and Virgil - served as the highest example for Milton. Following them, the author sought to paint a universal picture of existence in “Paradise Lost”: battles that decide the fate of nations, the sublime faces of celestial beings and human faces, as well as various everyday details. The poet scrupulously reproduces the composition of ancient examples, widely uses the techniques of hyperbolization characteristic of epic, constant epithets, and extended comparisons.

The grandeur of the plot corresponds to the sublime structure poetic speech. The poem is written in blank verse, which sounds sometimes melodious and smooth, sometimes energetic and passionate, sometimes stern and gloomy. Milton gives his speech the solemn intonations of a rhapsodist and at the same time the pathos of a biblical prophet.

“Paradise Lost” was created in an era separated by many centuries from the “childhood of human society,” along with which the spontaneity of the worldview characteristic of the creators of the ancient epic, their sincere, unreasoning belief in the otherworldly, irrevocably receded into the past. Having decided to glorify the events of the Old Testament legend in the form of a heroic epic, Milton deliberately doomed himself to insurmountable difficulties. “Such a poem,” according to Belinsky, “could only have been written by a Jew of biblical times, and not by a Puritan of the Cromwellian era, when a free mental (and, moreover, purely rational) element entered into belief.” This “rational element” determined the artificiality of Milton’s religious epic.

We must not forget, however, that the same “free mental element” gave Milton’s work a philosophical depth and scope inaccessible to the epic of antiquity. We must not forget that when creating “Paradise Lost”, the poet was inspired not only by literary examples, but also by the heroic atmosphere of his turning point - the time when the edifice of the feudal monarchy, which had been built over centuries, was thrown into the dust.

Unlike his teachers, Homer and Virgil, the poet wanted to create a work that was not limited to specific historical themes, but had a universal, universal scale. In this regard, Milton's plan was consonant with the plan of his other predecessor - the great Dante, like him, who worked at the turn of two eras, who, like him, devoted his life to struggle and poetry. Like the author " Divine Comedy", the poet sought to give his work the character of a comprehensive symbolic image suitable for all times of what was, is and will be.

Features of the so-called “literary” epic and glimpses of a philosophical poem are combined in Paradise Lost with elements of drama and lyricism. The very plot of the poem is dramatic, as is the nature of its numerous dialogues and monologues. Also noteworthy is the lyricism manifested in the introductions to the books that make up the poem: in them the personality of the poet himself emerges, blind and persecuted, but even in the “evil days” he retained the inflexibility of his soul. Although the epic beginning is predominant in Paradise Lost, it appears in a complex relationship with the dramatic and lyrical; Thus, Milton's poem in terms of genre is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon.

The creative method underlying the poem is no less complex and original. Its versatility reflects the diversity of artistic and aesthetic trends in English literature of the 17th century. The author's attraction to the rationalistic regulation of poetic form, the desire for harmony and orderliness, and a stable orientation towards the ancient heritage unmistakably testify to Milton's classicist sympathies. On the other hand, the author’s passion for depicting dramatic collisions, for dynamics, the abundance of contrasts and dissonances in the poem, the antinomy of its figurative structure, emotional expressiveness and allegorical nature bring “Paradise Lost” closer to Baroque literature.

The poem thus combines baroque and classicist tendencies. It is their synthesis, and not one of these that dominated in the 17th century. artistic systems, was most adequate to Milton’s creative needs and mindset in the difficult years for him, preceding and contemporary with the writing of the poem. The poet's synthesizing literary method, formed during the period of revolutionary disruption, most fully corresponded to the spirit of the era that gave birth to it. The cosmic scope of Paradise Lost, its monumentality and philosophy, civic spirit and heroic spirit, tragic pathos and optimism, dynamics and severity of form, richness and brightness of colors testify to the effectiveness of the author’s creative principles.

Milton's second major creation - the poem "Paradise Regained" (1671) - is to some extent related to the themes of the previous poem, but differs unfavorably from it in its abstractness and religious-moralistic intonations. The titanic heroism that inspires Paradise Lost is almost absent here. The poem is based on the Gospel legend about the temptation of Christ by Satan, according to which the duel between the heroes ends with the complete defeat of Satan: Christ without hesitation rejects the honors, power and wealth that the insidious tempter promises him.

Satan in Milton's new poem only vaguely resembles the proud rebel from Paradise Lost; his image loses its former attractiveness. The interest is centered on the person of Christ; his appearance embodies the author’s ideas about an ideal human citizen who, despite loneliness and general misunderstanding, finds the strength to resist the evil reigning in the world and does not deviate one step from his principles. In this sense, the story of the temptations of Christ is a parallel to the position of Milton himself and his associates, who remained faithful to republican ideals during the years of reaction.

Paradise Regained makes clear Milton's disappointment not in the revolution, but in the people who, in his opinion, betrayed the revolution by easily reconciling themselves with the Stuart restoration. “The tribes languishing in chains,” he concludes bitterly, “subjected themselves to this voluntarily.” After the collapse of the republic, the poet comes to the conclusion that the path to freedom runs through long-term spiritual improvement, and sets as his goal

Conquer people's hearts with words

And to enlighten their lost souls,

Who don't know what they're doing.

(Trans. O. Chumina)

While asserting the need for painstaking educational work to prepare people for new, intelligent forms of life, Milton by no means renounces tyrant-fighting ideas. A remarkable confirmation of this is the tragedy “Samson the Fighter” (1671) - the poet’s last creation, which with exceptional strength of passion expressed the freedom-loving spirit of Milton the fighter, his hatred of despotism.

The tragedy of Samson is to a certain extent autobiographical: like Milton, his hero, blind, alone in the camp of enemies, having been defeated, does not lose courage. He fights to the end and, dying, takes revenge on his oppressors. Along with personal motives, the image of the mighty Samson rising “to tame the rulers of the earth” embodied the hopes that Milton had long placed on the English people. The image of a heroic people awakening from an age-old sleep had previously appeared in his pamphlets. Now, after the defeat of the revolution, the poet again turns to biblical symbolism in order to loudly declare that the spirit of the revolution has not died.

Imbued with tyrant-fighting pathos, Milton's tragedy was an example of highly civic art and opposed the flow of dramatic works of the Restoration era, which were emphatically entertaining in nature. Of great interest are those formulated in brief preface to "Samson the Wrestler" Milton's views on dramatic art. In his understanding of tragedy, the author relies on Aristotle. Proclaiming the tragic genre as “the most serious, moral and useful of all other genres,” Milton was the first English writer to put forward Greek tragedy as a model and call Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides his teachers. Referring to them, the author introduces a chorus into the tragedy, commenting on what is happening, and strictly observes the unity of time, place and action, although, paying tribute to Puritanism, he does not intend his drama for stage implementation.

Milton's creative path - from Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained and then to Samson the Wrestler - is characterized by the author's gradual departure from the principles of Baroque art. As the poet manages to overcome the mental crisis he experienced during the years of the collapse of the republic, his works become less controversial and at the same time lose the universal scale, epic scope and emotion characteristic of his masterpiece. And yet, inferior to Paradise Lost, Milton's last works remain significant phenomena in literary life England. Glorifying the spiritual steadfastness of Christ, as well as the military struggle of Samson, who at the cost of his own life delivered the people from the yoke of the Philistines, the poet, as before, calls for heroism in the name of truth and freedom.

In two latest works Milton's baroque tendencies, under the pressure of classicist restrictions, recede into the background. Strict adherence to classical canons in “Paradise Regained” and especially in “Samson the Fighter” allows us to speak of the predominance of “civil” classicism tendencies in these works in its specific national English form.

Milton had a truly lasting influence on the development of English literature. Classical writers (Addison, Pope, etc.) especially appreciated in his poetry the combination of stern didacticism with the grace of poetic form. In Paradise Lost they saw a role model almost as perfect as the epic poetry of antiquity. Sentimentalist poets also imitated Milton.

However, Milton's most significant influence was on Romantic literature. Almost all romantics felt themselves to be his spiritual heirs. Coleridge declared Milton a romantic. Wordsworth creatively assimilated his artistic principles. Keats learned from him the art of being a citizen poet. Blake, Byron and Shelley were especially close to the iconoclastic spirit of Milton's poetry. The family ties between Byron's Lucifer (“Cain”) and Milton's Satan are quite obvious. The gloomy grandeur of the mystery "Heaven and Earth" would be impossible without Milton's epic. Milton's example inspired Shelley to create the lyrical drama Prometheus Unchained.

Milton's influence spread to the literature of other countries. In France, Vigny and Lamartine experienced his influence, in Germany - the author of the Messiah, Klopstock.

Milton's significance for Russian literature is great. The poet's moral height, his hatred of tyranny, and admiration for the heroism of the liberation struggle found warm sympathy among Russian writers. The poem “Paradise Lost” enjoyed constant popularity in democratic circles of Russian society. Radishchev mentioned the name of Milton next to the names of “Omir (Homer) and Shakespere.” Pushkin repeatedly spoke with admiration about Milton in his articles and notes.

John Milton is one of England's greatest poets, a major publicist and figure in the Great English Revolution.

Milton got very a good education- first at home and at the school of St. Paul, and then at Cambridge University (1632, Master of Arts). After completing the course, he spent five years with his parents in the small town of Gorton (near London), immersed in self-education and self-improvement. This first youthful period of Milton's life ended in 1637 with a trip to Italy and France, where he met Galileo, Hugo Grotius and other famous people of that time.

Unlike most great men, Milton spent the first half of his life surrounded by spiritual harmony; suffering and spiritual storms darkened his mature age and old age.

The bright mood of young Milton corresponds to the character of his first poems:

* “L’Allegro” (“Merry”) and “Il Penseroso” (“Thoughtful”), where Milton paints a person in two opposite moods, joyful and contemplative-sad, and shows how nature is colored for the contemplator with the change of these moods. Both short poems are imbued with direct feeling and a special gracefulness that characterizes the lyrics of the Elizabethan era and is no longer found in Milton himself.
* "Lycidas" ("Lycidas") gives subtle descriptions of idealized rural life, but the mood itself is deeper and reveals the patriotic passions hidden in the poet's soul; the fanaticism of the Puritan revolutionary is strangely intertwined here with melancholic poetry in the spirit of Petrarch.
* "Comus" ("Comus"). This is one of the most brilliant dramatic pastorals for which fashion had not yet passed.

From 1639 to 1660 the second period in life and activity lasts. Returning from Italy, he settled in London, raised his nephews and wrote a treatise "On Education" ("Tractate of Education, to Master Samuel Hartlib"), which has a mainly biographical interest and shows Milton's aversion to any routine.

In 1643 he married Mary Powell - and this marriage turned his previously serene existence into a series of domestic disasters and material adversities. His wife left him in the first year of his life, and with her refusal to return, she drove him to despair. Milton extended his own unsuccessful experience of family life to marriage in general and wrote a polemical treatise, The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce.

In his old age, Milton found himself alone in the close circle of his family - his second wife (the first died early, returning to her husband’s house several years before her death), completely alien to his spiritual life, and two daughters; He forced the latter to read aloud to him in languages ​​they did not understand, which aroused in them an extremely unfriendly attitude towards him. For Milton, complete loneliness came - and at the same time, time greatest creativity. This last period of his life, from 1660 to 1674, was marked by three brilliant works: “Paradise Lost”, “Paradise Regained” and “Samson Agonistes”.

Milton and politics

Having joined the ranks of the "Independent" party, Milton devoted a whole series of political pamphlets to various issues of the day. All these pamphlets testify to the strength of the poet's rebellious soul and the brilliance of his imagination and eloquence. The most remarkable of his defenses of popular rights is devoted to the demand for freedom for printed word(“Areopagitica” - “Areopagitica: A Speech for the Liberty of unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England”).

Of the remaining 24 pamphlets, the first ("Of Reformation touching Church Discipline in England and the Causes that hitherto have hindered it") appeared in 1641, and the last - "A ready and easy way to establish a free Commonwealth" in 1660 ; thus, they cover the entire course of the English revolution.

With the advent of parliamentary rule, Milton took the place of government secretary for Latin correspondence. Among the other commissions Milton carried out during his secretaryship was a response to the anonymous royalist pamphlet "Eikon Basilike", which appeared after the execution of Charles I. Milton wrote the pamphlet "The Iconoclast" (“Eikonoklastes”), in which he wittily defeated the arguments of the anonymous author. Less successful was Milton's polemics with other political and religious opponents, Salmasius and Morus.

In 1652, Milton went blind, and this had a serious impact on his material resources, and the Stuart restoration brought him complete ruin; The defeat of his party was even more difficult for Milton.

John Milton (1608-1674) - the greatest English poet, public and political figure, author of many works of art, as well as treatises, pamphlets, philosophical and theological articles.

Full of loud historical events and complex life turns, the biography of John Milton is a vivid and impressive example of serving his people.

First lessons of childhood

John was born on December 9, 1608 in London, into an intelligent family. His father was a notary. Boy with youth received a good home upbringing: in his house they played music, organized literary evenings, he was taught to read early. In addition to home lessons, John received lessons at St. Paul's School.

At the age of sixteen, J. Milton went to Cambridge to enter Christ's College. In 1625 he began his studies and successfully completed the program. According to the traditions that have developed in closed educational institutions in England, parents or guardians of students receive letters from the school several times a year about the success or, conversely, failure of students. The father could not get enough of his son’s intelligence, talent and diligence. A little more, and John would complete the course, receive a Master of Arts degree, plus he would be ordained... But it turned out differently.

An unexpected collision arose. The first student of the class and school categorically refused a church career. And if so, then he must leave college. And J. Milton, without thinking twice, leaves Cambridge. He does not compromise with his conscience.

On his native estate

John spends the next six years on his father's estate Horton (Buckinghamshire), where he continues to study - only on his own, and tries to write. The first poetic experiments showed that it was not a fledgling youth who took up them, but actually a mature master. According to critics and researchers of J. Milton’s work, his very first literary works worthy of forever bringing the author's name into the history of English and world literature.

Among the works written in the early period of the author’s work, the poems “Joyful”, “Thoughtful”, “Comus” stand out. These are the most interesting examples of poetry by an aspiring writer. J. Milton contrasts the purity of thoughts with temptations and vices, thinks about the nature of feelings, about a person’s struggle with himself.

Travel and first treatises

In 1638, J. Milton went on a two-year trip to Europe. The notary father pays for it and agrees to the trip. John gets acquainted with France and Italy, he is fascinated by the beauty of these countries, their exquisite architecture, monuments, palaces, cheerful, cheerful people. After prim England, it was as if he had arrived on another planet!

In Italy he will get to meet Galileo Galilei himself! But what is surprising here? The widely educated Englishman was drawn to people like himself - scientists, purposeful, talented. But the journey is suddenly interrupted: England is unsettled, a civil war is brewing, and we must return home.

Supporters of the Stuarts, represented by King Charles 1, are opposed to young forces - the emerging “republicans” represented by parliamentarians. Which side is John Milton on? An enlightened person, of course, is on the side of the young, healthy, strong. On the side of the republic.

John writes pamphlets “Discourse on the Government of the Church”, “On the Reformation in England”, in which he shows himself to be a worthy citizen and a mature personality.

For his brother's sons, Milton opens a private educational institution. He wants Edward and John to grow up interested in more than just horse racing and reading gossip columns. He wants to see his nephews politically active, influencing what is happening to the best of their strength and abilities. What was never in him was indifference, lack of curiosity and inertia. He does not accept these traits in those closest to him.

Family life

Returning from a holiday on the outskirts of Oxford, the young man introduced his fiancée, Mary Powell, to his loved ones. Unfortunately, family life did not work out right away. The young wife soon left her husband and went to visit her relatives... And she stayed there for several years. The reason for family disagreements could also be that John took a wife from the “nest of royalists,” while he himself was always a staunch opponent of the monarchy.

End of the civil war and victory of parliament

The royal troops failed to protect Charles 1, and on one January day in 1649 he was executed. J. Milton came out with a treatise “The Duties of Sovereigns and Governments,” in which he substantiated the regularity of the act carried out. Soon he receives an invitation to work as a correspondence secretary in the State Council.

At the same time, a pamphlet written by an anonymous royalist entitled “The Image of the King, a Portrait of His Sacred Majesty in Solitude and Suffering” is being circulated. J. Milton wittily mocks the author with his response essay “The Iconoclast”; his arguments are impeccable. But Europe is seething, outraged by the execution of the monarch. Milton writes in Latin "Defence of the English People", "Re-Defense" and "Justification for Self". It was an act of civil courage: to publicly, clearly, convincingly, boldly and confidently defend the position taken by Parliament, to proclaim the goals and objectives of the English Revolution.

Troubles and misfortunes

Alas, the second half of the life of the brilliant poet and politician is full of adversity. At the beginning of 1652, John goes blind. Almost immediately his wife dies from childbirth. In the summer of the same year, his only son passed away, having never set foot on the ground. Milton is shocked by the series of misfortunes that have befallen him. To top it all off, the revolution in which he believed so much and whose arrival he so awaited degenerated into a dictatorship. Chaos is brewing in the country, the church has split... Among the people and among the elite, there is more and more talk about the restoration of the reign of the Stuarts.

Despite his blindness, J. Milton did not leave his duties in the secretariat until 1655. He dictated pamphlets, letters, and orders. “A Treatise on the Participation of Civil Power in Church Affairs” and “A Quick and Easy Path to the Establishment of a Free Republic” were published in 1559-1660.

The accession of Charles II to the English throne was a shock for Milton and his personal tragedy. The poet ended up in prison, from where, through the efforts of his friends and like-minded people, he was released with great difficulty.

"Lost heaven"

One of the pinnacles of English poetry, a philosophical poem with a biblical plot, “Paradise Lost.” was written by J. Milton in 1667

Long before God created the earth and people, Satan rebelled against the Almighty and managed to attract some of the angels to his side. God sent the entire camarilla to hell: that’s where they belong. But the archons did not calm down. They discuss an impending event: as if God will soon create new creatures and settle them on one of the planets. And he will love them just like angels...

Since Satan has no place in heaven, he can try to take over the new world. The enemy of the Creator flies across the Universe in search of people. At first he turns into a cherub. They point him to the planet Earth, and Satan, taking the form of a raven, dives to the top of the Tree of Knowledge. Having overheard a conversation between Adam and Eve, he learns that they are forbidden to eat the fruit from this tree. And then a plan is born at the center of evil. It is necessary to awaken people's thirst for knowledge, to force them to violate the prohibition of the Almighty.

The poem is deeply metaphorical, it is written in a high style and, ultimately, proclaims the human right to freedom of choice. Everyone has the right to live according to their conscience. Readers are captivated by the mystical power of the song in Paradise Lost, when the defeated Satan sends curses against the Creator. Byron and other romantic poets subsequently fell under the impression of these lines.

Contrasted with “demonic” poetry is the description of paradise, where the first people lived and from where they were subsequently expelled. J. Milton masterfully, with a sharp pen, draws bucolic pictures that take your breath away, they are so poetic, so visible.

The poem “Paradise Regained” is not a continuation, but quite independent work. She talks about the temptation of the Son of God by the forces of evil.

The poem-drama “Samson the Fighter” contains pessimistic notes. Blind, seriously ill, having lost his loved ones, having lost the political struggle together with his party, but energetic and unyielding, a brilliant poet - sums up his life.

John Milton is a titan of English and world literature, the pride of the freedom-loving people of England and all humanity. A crater on the planet Mercury is named after the poet.

Please note that the biography of Milton John presents the most important moments from his life. This biography may omit some minor life events.