permission to use in Chapters III., IV., and V. of Part II. considerable matter first employed in my edition of "L'Allegro" and other poems in their "English Classics," edited by my friend, Professor George R. Carpenter, whose consent has also been granted. Much of the matter in Chapters VIII. and IX. of Part II. will be found in the Protestant Episcopal Review for April and May, 1899; while the first part is expanded from an article published in the Sewanee Review for January, 1897. VI JOHN MILTON A Short Study of his Life and Works PART I.- LIFE CHAPTER I EARLY YEARS (1608–1639) THE fact that Milton was born in London on December 9, 1608, counts for not a little in his career. He was born early enough to catch much of the power and inspiration of the age of Elizabeth, but not early enough to catch its spirit of universal open-mindedness and freeheartedness. Thus it happens that some of the finest qualities of Shakspere, who epitomized the Elizabethans, are found in Milton in a state of arrested development, — for example, genial humor and, in a less degree, human sympathy. Had Milton been born twenty years earlier, it is possible that he might have surpassed Shakspere in totality of accomplishment, just |