The Life of the Author: John Milton. Richard Bradford

The Life of the Author: John Milton - Richard  Bradford


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erudition of many he was aware that exchanges on such fundamental issues as religious belief were sometimes a dangerous undertaking, especially in Rome. ‘I would not indeed begin a conversation about religion, but if questioned about my faith would hide nothing, whatever the consequences’ (CPW, II, p. 794). He never had to endure the ‘consequences’ but he was aware that such a licence to relative free speech was granted to him because he was a foreigner. Citizens of what were once the pioneering states of the Renaissance could now only ‘bemoan’ their ‘servil condition’ and do so largely in private.

      Fifteen years after his visit he reflected on how he felt about his time in Italy, specifically Florence.

      In that city, which I have always admired above all others because of the elegance, not just of its tongue, but also of its wit, I lingered for about two months. There I at once became the friend of many gentlemen eminent in rank and learning, whose private academies I frequented – a Florentine institution which great praise not only for promoting humane studies but also for encouraging friendly intercourse. Time will never destroy my recollection – ever welcome and delightful – of you Jacopo Gaddi, Carlo Dati, Frescobaldi, Coltellini, Buonmatthei, Chimentelli, Francini and many others.

      (CPW, 1V 1, pp. 615–17)

      This is from his Second Defence written in support of Cromwell’s government after the execution of Charles I. The academies and young men to which he refers were part of an environment that resembled Oxford and Cambridge but only superficially. Florence’s ‘private academies’ were informal gatherings of scholars and thinkers willing to exchange unconventional ideas on art, literature, politics and philosophy; there were few if any restrictions of the nature of opinions, unlike the prescriptive regimes of contemporary universities. Milton seems to have deliberately omitted any mention of the fact that each of the figures he recalls with such affection was Roman Catholics, implying that in Florence in 1638 such differences were overlooked by individuals sufficiently impressed by each other’s intellectual capabilities. And while one would not doubt his commitment to the Cromwellian Protectorate there is also a sense that during his ‘Defence’ of it he allows himself a moment to look back to a time when, albeit briefly, he experienced an earthly paradise so different from the intolerance and brutality of the years that would follow.

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