1. Автор: Манько В.А., учитель англ. мови Будянського технологічного ліцею Харківської районної ради Харківської області

2. LIFE. CHILDHOOD. Was born in Bread Street, London, on December 9, 1608, in D. Milton’s father, John Milton, was a prosperous Blue plague in Bread Street scrivener, a composer, mother in London, where he was born Sarah Jeffrey– “a woman of incomparable virtue and goodness”. John was little interested in games and outdoor amusements. His father took care of his education. From the early childhood John learned to love music and books; he read and studied so intensely that at the age of twelve he had already formed the habit of working until midnight.

3. EDUCATION At first Milton attended St.Paul’s school. His progress in every department of knowledge was very rapid, and at the age of 16 he went to the University of Cambridge. He obtained his “Bachelor” degree in 1629, and his “Master of Arts” in 1632. On graduating Milton was asked to remain at the University as an instructor, but he refused because this meant he would have to take Holy Orders (to become a clergyman of the Church of England). He left the University and retired to his father’s country place, Horton, in Buckinghamshire, where he gave himself up to study and poetry.

4. POETRY AND TRAVEL Milton had long wished to complete his education by travelling. He longed to visit Italy. Having obtained his father’s consent, Milton left England for a European tour. He visited Paris and the cities of Nice, Genoa and Florence. Poet spent much time in the library of the Vatican. In Italy he visited and talked with great Galileo. Milton succeeded in getting into the house where Galileo was kept. After visiting Naples he wanted to go to Sicily, but news of the state of affairs in England hasted his return in 1639.

5. CIVIL WAR, PROSE TRACTS and MARRIAGE On returning to England Milton began to write prose tracts against episcopacy, in the service of the Puritan and Parliamentary cause. Milton's first foray into polemics was Of Reformation touching Church Discipline in England (1641), followed by Of Prelatical Episcopacy, the two defences of Smectymnuus (a group of presbyterian divines named from their initials: the "TY" belonged to Milton's old tutor Thomas Young), and The Reason of Church-Government Urged against Prelaty. Though supported by his father’s investments, at this time Milton became a private schoolmaster, educating his nephews and other children of the well-to-do. This experience, and discussions with educational reformer Samuel Hartlib, led him to write in 1644 his short tract, Of Education, urging a reform of the national universities. At the age of 34 Milton married Mary Powell, but soon his young wife sought permission to visit her parents and didn’t return to Milton for 4 years.

6. First page of the 1644 edition of Areopagitica

7. His life seems to have revolted around three great decisions. At the University he gave up the idea of taking orders in the Anglican Church. However, he always remained religious, and poetry was a sacred calling for him. In 1640s Milton was forced to take a second decision – his role in the Civil War. He joined the Puritans in Parliament and began to write pamphlets on the Church reform. He also became Oliver Cromwell’s Latin secretary. He took his third decision when he was faced with the threat of blindness. If he had given up his political work, he would not have lost his eyesight. But the call of duty was powerful.

8. At the age 0f 44 John Milton went completely blind. During the last 10 years of his life Milton completed his great long poems:”Paradise Lost” and “Paradise Regained”. He often dictated them to his daughters. The poem “Paradise Lost” (1658, published in 1667) is the most famous of his poems. It tells in 12 books the Biblical story of the temptation and fall of Man in the hands of Satan.

9. Paradise Lost Milton’s magnum opus, the blank-verse epic poem Paradise Lost, was composed by the blind and impoverished Milton from 1658 to 1664 (first edition) with small but significant revisions published in 1674 (second edition). As a blind poet, Milton dictated his verse to a series of aides in his employ. It reflects his personal despair at the failure of the Revolution, yet affirms an ultimate optimism in human potential. Milton encoded many references to his unyielding support for the "Good Old Cause".

10. Milton Dictates the Lost Paradise to His Three Daughters, c. 1826. Artist: Eugène Delacroix

11. 4. The omission of words not necessary to the sense 3. Inversion of the natural order of words and phrases 5. Parenthesis and opposition 2. Sonorous, orotund voice 6. The use of one part of speech for another 1. Dignity, reserve and stateliness 8. The introduction into a short passage of proper comparatively names in number, not necessary to the sense, but adding richness, color, and imaginative suggestiveness 9. Unusual compound epithets

12. Poetic and Dramatic Works 1631: L'Allegro 1631: Il Penseroso 1634: A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634 commonly known as Comus (a masque) 1638: Lycidas 1645: Poems of Mr John Milton, Both English and Latin 1655: On the Late Massacre in Piedmont 1667: Paradise Lost 1671: Paradise Regained 1671: Samson Agonistes

13. ВИКОРИСТАНІ ДЖЕРЕЛА: 1. Гордєєва Н.М. Англійська література: Навч. посібник для шкіл з поглибл. вивч. англ. мови. – К.: Равлик. 1998. –286 с. 1. Гордєєва Н.М. Англійська література: Навч. посібник для шкіл з поглибл. вивч. англ. мови. – К.: Равлик. 1998. –286 с. Малюнки та зображення: http://www.lentatv.ru/69916 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Milton