John Milton (1608-1674),Life Background Works Quotes,,约翰·弥尔顿（John Milton,1608～1674）英国诗人、政论家，民主斗士弥尔顿是清教徒文学的代表，他的一生都在为资产阶级民主运动而奋斗，代表作《失乐园》是和《荷马史诗》、《神曲》并称为西方三大诗歌60年，王朝复辟，弥尔顿被捕入狱，不久又被释放从此他专心写诗，为实现伟大的文学抱负而艰苦努力，在亲友的协助下，共写出3首长诗：《失乐园》(1667)，《复乐园》(1671)和《力士参孙》(1671)1674年11月8日卒于伦敦《失乐园》(1667)长约一万行，分十二卷，故事取自《旧约》夏娃和亚当因受撒旦引诱，偷吃善恶树上的禁果，违背了上帝旨令，被逐出乐园 《复乐园》(1671)四卷，根据《新约·路加福音》描述耶稣被诱惑的故事 《力士参孙》(1671)是一出悲剧，取材于《旧约·士师记》参孙是以色列民族英雄，被妻子大利拉出卖给非利士敌人，眼珠被挖掉，每日给敌人推磨英国文学中的古典主义因素早在文艺复兴时期已经存在，从弥尔顿的作品中也可以看到古代文学的影响但古典主义作为一个流派则是随复辟王朝从法国回来之后才形成的。
英国古典主义流派依附反动封建王朝，从一开始就具有保守倾向他的创始者是约翰·德莱顿(1631-1700)他是复辟王朝的桂冠诗人，信仰天主教，他站在保守立场写了一些政治讽刺诗、宗教论争诗和剧本他的文学评论如《论剧诗》(1668)和许多作品的序言，强调理性和规律，指出悲剧中三一律的重要性，主张形式完美他推崇古希腊、罗马作家，但也肯定乔叟、斯宾塞、莎士比亚的成就他观察敏锐，对作家的评论时有灼见，超出前人和同时代的评论家他的大量古典主义创作，系统的古典主义理论，他的讽刺诗的技巧，他的翻译，他的准确平易的散文，都对18世纪英国古典主义文学有很大影响John Milton was born on December 9, 1608 on Bread Street in Cheapside, London, England to a scrivener and his wife. Milton's parents had six children, and Milton was one of the three who survived. And at age 16 Milton entered Christ's College, Cambridge. Perhaps the finest student in his class, Milton received his B.A. in 1629 and M.A. in 1632.,Milton was proficient in Latin, Greek, French, Italian, and Hebrew, and was an excellent swordsman. Milton had gone to Cambridge to become a clergyman, but he was dissuaded from this occupation due to “tyranny“ in the church. So, Milton spent the 6 years after getting his M.A. reading the Greek and Latin classics, and studying mathematics and music.,On the day before his 66th birthday, November 8, 1674, Milton died of gout-fever. He was buried in the Church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, beside his father.,The Political Climate of Milton's Day,,The mid seventeenth-century was a time of great social and cultural turmoil. A series of political and military conflicts, now known as the English Civil War or the English Revolution, was waged intermittently between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 to 1651.,The Political Climate of Milton's Day,,There were many factors contributing to the tensions between the Crown and Parliament, including Charles' marriage to the Catholic princess, Henrietta-Maria of France, and his desire to be involved in European wars.,But the most interesting were the ideological questions being raised about the nature of government and authority.,,The Political Climate of Milton's Day,In the seventeenth century, the Crown played a much greater role in the running of the country than it does today.,Parliament's power was growing, but before the Civil War, it was called and dissolved at the will of the monarch, and used mostly to issue taxes when the king needed money.,The Political Climate of Milton's Day,Charles I believed in the 'divine right of kings' and ruled fairly autonomously, but much of Parliament believed that the king had a contractual obligation to the people to rule without tyranny.,Parliamentarians were angry that Charles refused to call a Parliament for most of the 1630s, during which time he tried to levy what were considered to be illegal taxes.,The Political Climate of Milton's Day,With Archbishop Laud, he tried to take the Church in the direction of High Anglicanism, which aroused suspicion that he was trying to revert the country to Catholicism.,In 1649, after years of various political manoeuvres and bouts of fighting, King Charles I was executed for treason. For the next decade England had no monarch. Initially, a Commonwealth was formed,and England was ruled by a republican government, but in 1653 Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector, essentially a military dictator.,The Political Climate of Milton's Day,He was succeeded by his son Richard in 1658, but because of faction fighting and Richard's lack of popularity as a leader, the republic failed. Charles II, the executed monarch's son, was declared King in the Restoration of 1660.,Paradise Lost” is Minton’s masterpiece .It is a long epic in 12 books, written in blank verse. The story were taken from the Old Testament: the creation of the earth and Adam and Eve, the fallen angels in hell plotting against God, Satan’s temptation of Eve, and the departure of Adam and Eve from Eden .,Satan and his followers are banished from heaven and driven into hell, but even here in hell, mist flames and poisonous fumes, Satan and his adherents are not discouraged. The poem ,as we are told at the outset, was “to justify the ways of God to man”,ie to advocate submission to the Almighty.,Of all Milton’s great works, Paradise Lost is the most complicated and most profound one, It deals with revolt from God, with sin and fall, and with the possible salvation. It presents the author’s views in an allegoric religious form, and readers will easily discern its basic idea—the heroic revolt against God’s authority and “ justify the ways of God to men”.,It is the reflection of the reactionary forces of Milton’s time and the passionate appeal for freedom.,Milton’s Quotes,1.The mind can make a heaven out of hell or a hell out of heaven.,。