Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/30

Milton was admitted to the Company of Scriveners. About 1600 he started business for himself in Bread Street, Cheapside, at the sign of the Spread Eagle, the family arms; and about the same time married Sarah, daughter of Paul Jeffrey, merchant taylor of St. Swithin s, London; she was about nine years his junior. Aubrey's statement that her maiden name was Bradshaw, and her grandson Edward Phillips's remark that she was ‘of the family of the Castons,’ were disproved by Colonel Chester the genealogist (cf., Milton und seine Zeit, i. 345-8). Milton's business prospered rapidly, and in the end he had a ‘plentiful estate’. He died in March 1647, and was buried 15 March at St. Giles's, Cripplegate. Of six children, three survived infancy, viz. Anne—by whose first husband, Edward Phillips, she was mother of (1630-1698) [q. v.] and of (fl. 1700) [q. v.] [q. v.], and [q. v.] the judge. The poet says that his mother was well known in her neighbourhood for her charities (Defensio secunda); she died on 3 April 1637.

Milton, who was a man of high character and a fair scholar, had a special faculty for music, to the practice of which he devoted his leisure. He had an organ and other instruments in his house. His musical abilities are celebrated by his son in a Latin poem, ‘Ad Patrem.’ To Morley's ‘Triumphes of Oriana,’ London, 1601 (reprinted by William Hawes 1815), he contributed a six-part madrigal (No. 18), ‘Fayre Oriana in the Morne;’ and to Leighton's ‘Teares or Lamentacions of a Sorrowfull Soule,’ London, 1614, four motets, specimens of which are printed by Hawkins and Burney. Ravenscroft's ‘Whole Booke of Psalmes,’ London, 1621, contains, among other melodies ascribed to him, the common-metre tune ‘York,’ once immensely popular (see ) and still widely used. The melody is, however, probably not his own invention. The tunes in Ravenscroft are described as being ‘composed into four parts’—i.e. harmonised—and as 'York' was so treated by one Simon Stubbs, as well as by Milton, the former might share the authorship (cf. ). He is said to have composed an ‘In nomine’ in forty parts, for which he received a gold chain and medal from a Polish prince, to whom he presented it. A sonnet in his honour, written by John Lane [q. v.] (Harl. MS. 5243), is printed by Masson and others.

 MILTON, JOHN (1608–1674), poet, born 9 Dec. 1608 at the house of his father, John Milton [see under, the elder], scrivener, in Bread Street, Cheapside. The child was christened at Allhallows Church, destroyed in the fire of 1666. A tablet to commemorate the fact, erected in the present century in the new church, was removed, upon the demolition of that church in 1876, to Bow Church, Cheapside. Milton was a beautiful boy, as appears from a portrait taken when he was ten years old, and soon showed remarkable literary promise. His father (who himself instructed him in music, and, according to Aubrey, made him a skilful organist) had him taught by a private tutor, [q. v.], a Scottish clergyman, afterwards a well-known presbyterian divine, who became in 1644 master of Jesus College, Cambridge. Milton was also sent to St. Paul's School, not later than 1620. the elder [q. v.] was head-master, and his son, the younger [q. v.], became assistant-master in 1621. Milton took to study passionately. He seldom left his lessons for bed till midnight, a practice which produced frequent headaches, and, as he thought, was the first cause of injury to his eyes. Besides Latin and Greek, he appears to have learnt French, Italian, and some Hebrew (see his Ad Patrem), and had read much English literature. He was a poet, says Aubrey, from the age of ten. Spenser's ‘Faery Queen’ and Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas were among his favourites. Two paraphrases of Psalms were written when he was fifteen. He became intimate with the younger Gill, and made a closer friendship with Charles Diodati, a schoolfellow of his own age, son of a physician of Italian origin, and a nephew of John Diodati, a famous theologian at Geneva. With Charles Diodati, who entered Trinity College, Oxford, in February 1622-3, Milton kept up an affectionate correspondence.

Milton was admitted as a pensioner of Christ's College, Cambridge, on 12 Feb. 1624-5, and was matriculated on 9 April following. His tutor was [q. v.], famous for his skill in disputation, who was afterwards promoted by Laud's favour to the bishopric of Cork. Milton's rooms at Christ's College are still pointed out on the first floor of the western staircase on the north side of the great court. Wordsworth