John Milton
(1608-1674), PoetSitter associated with 72 portraits
Milton is regarded as one of the greatest English poets and a master of political pamphleteering. Forceful and idealistic, he served the Commonwealth as Latin Secretary but was arrested upon the restoration of Charles II. The tragic circumstances of his life – a difficult first marriage, the death of two wives, and his eventual blindness in 1652 – are reflected in the occasional melancholy of his work. Milton is best known for Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), an epic poem of Heaven, Hell, God, Satan, and angels: ‘Of things invisible to mortal sight’. Intense cultural interest in the nature of blindness meant that artists and writers continued to be fascinated by his experience of blindness in the Romantic and Victorian periods.
by Carl August Deis, after Frederick Newenham
mezzotint, mid 19th century
NPG D5685
by James Faed the Elder, published by Henry Graves & Co, after John Faed
mezzotint, published 20 June 1859
NPG D38838
Unknown man called John Milton
by Charles William Sherborn, after Samuel Cooper
etching, 1883
NPG D21194
published by Paul and Dominic Colnaghi & Co, after Samuel Cooper
etching, published 30 August 1883
NPG D19172
published by Photographische Gesellschaft, after Pieter van der Plas
photogravure, circa 1900
NPG D38840
after Unknown artist
photograph, 1961 (circa 1629)
NPG D38832
by John Simon, sold by Thomas Bowles Sr, and sold by John Bowles, after Robert White
mezzotint, circa 1725-1750
NPG D19747
by Jonathan Richardson, after a portrait attributed to William Faithorne
etching, 1734
NPG D19741
by Jacobus Houbraken, published by John & Paul Knapton
line engraving, 1741
NPG D20372
by George Vertue, after William Faithorne
engraving, published 1750
NPG D19543
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Tom Cook
25 August 2019, 12:22
The current bio is quite good, but maybe needs a touch of revision, as well as its punctuation correcting. Milton’s first marriage seems not to have been wholly unhappy; his first and second wives both died before him; his work is not generally despairing (though his version of Satan is), with Paradise Lost in particular being a grand reconciliation to humanity’s shortcomings; and finally, though Paradise Regained is an epic, it’s not nearly as well known as Paradise Lost, while Samson Agonistes isn’t an epic at all, but rather a verse drama. Feel free to use the following version if you think it reads nicely:
Milton is regarded as one of the greatest English poets and a master of political pamphleteering. Forceful and idealistic, he served the Commonwealth as Latin Secretary but was arrested upon the restoration of Charles II. The tragic circumstances of his life – a difficult first marriage, the death of two wives, and his eventual blindness in 1652 – are reflected in the occasional melancholy of his work. Milton is best known for Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), an epic poem of Heaven, Hell, God, Satan, and angels: ‘Of things invisible to mortal sight’. Intense cultural interest in the nature of blindness meant that artists and writers continued to be fascinated by his experience of blindness in the Romantic and Victorian periods.