NOTABLE ANNIVERSARIES.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14222, 9 December 1911, Page 9

NOTABLE ANNIVERSARIES.

.— 1 ■ pECEHBEIt 9. Gustavus ' Adolphu. tho Great cf -wtden, tK.m .. .. / 1534 John iliii.n born .. .. '.'. 'leu. ait Anthony Yandyck, tain..., born .. l__i i'opo Clem .nt IX died- .. .. I6cy John Milton. —Fortunate in having a father who early r.cognised his genius, Milton's education was conducted in the most careful aftd hbortfl style. He provtd an apt and most laborious pupil, and at sixteen ho went to Cambridge, .vhcro ho produced two beautiful pcein_ 3r hymns—tho "Hymn on tho Nativity and "At a .-oleum Music. ' After ins term thero ho livod in siuuious retirement at his father's country house at fciorton, in Buckinghamshire, whero he -pent five years, still preparing himself for tho calling he felt to bo his —that ai a poet. To this period belong his works of ''Arcades" and "Comus," and those tvondorful poOms *'L' Allegro" and "11 Pcnseroso," of which Macaulay -ays that tho mechanism of language could be brought to no greater height. He alao produced thc noble elegy on the death of his college friend, Edward King, "Lycidas," which ranks anion.; the world's masterpieces. After this Milton travelled on tho Continent, but hastened back upon the outbreak of the Civil War, and soon took up his pen in the cause of freedom of religion, freedom in printing," and such question., as. education and marriage..'His hero was Cromwell.. He was appointed Lat n Secretary, a position he was well-quali-fied to fill, being the first Latinist uf hi. day, To this period belong his wonderful proeo works —his novel views on divorce, his "Areoragitiea, a Speech for tho Liberty of Unlicensed Printing," tbo "Tractate of Education," etc., which, if-for nothing else than for the language, would place him among tho immortals. ; Ho was commissioned by tho Protector to reply to the charges of, tho Frenchman, Sa'lraasius", accusing the English nation of regicide, and then commenced that, duel of words which rang through Europe. .Milton's "Pro Populo Ahglicano Defensio" was pronounced, even by thee© who condemned it, a ~reat controversial victory. This astonishing work is memorablo as the immediate occasion of the loss of his eyesight, deliberately yielded up by him in tho. cause of his.country, and few sentiments are more noblo than thcso contained in his eonnet "On His Blindness." After tho Restoration his potion, was somewhat precarious, but the great poet did not abato one.jot his uncompromising attitude. But to their credit, the Royalists left him unmolested, and ho retired to his little cottago in Bunhill Fields, to devote himself to the greatest purpose of his hfe—his ."Paradise Lost.""" This great work only occupied Milton for eomo three or four years. He is said to havo composed it mostly during tho night whilst-ho lay in his bed, dictating to an amanuensis, usually one of his daughters. This work ranks him among the supremo poets of the world. Milton

DECEMBER 10,

Llewflllyn, the last native Prince' of Waloi, killed .... . 1280 £ 1? f"^' 3 M «si~ippi Pchemo failed 1720 « 'A, o£ f lema > Ru&so-Turkish war .. 1877 Battle of Stormberg, South Africa .. 1899