《失乐园》作者约翰·弥尔顿传记

Biography of John Milton, Author of Paradise Lost

The English author wrote much more than his iconic epic poem

John Milton (December 9, 1608 – November 8, 1674) was an English poet and intellectual who wrote during a period of political and religious turmoil. He’s best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost, which depicts the fall of Lucifer and the temptation of mankind.约翰·米尔顿（1608年12月9日至1674年11月8日）是一位英国诗人和知识分子，他在政治和宗教动荡时期写作。他最出名的是他的史诗《失乐园》，描写了路西法的堕落和人类的诱惑。

Fast Facts: John Milton

• Full Name: John Milton

• Known For: In addition to his epic poem Paradise Lost, Milton produced a considerable amount of poetry, as well as major prose works defending republican virtues and some degree of religious tolerance during the English Civil War.

• Occupation: Poet and author

• Born: December 9, 1608 in London, England

• Died: November 8, 1674 in London, England

• Parents: John and Sarah Milton

• Spouses: Mary Powell (m. 1642-1652), Katherine Woodcock (m. 1656-1658), Elizabeth Mynshull (m. 1663-1674)

• Children: Anne, Mary, John, Deborah, and Katherine Milton

• Education: Christ's College, Cambridge

Early Life

Milton was born in London, the eldest son of John Milton, a skillful composer and professional scrivener (a professional who wrote and copied out documents, as literacy was not widespread), and his wife Sarah. Milton’s father was estranged from his own father, since the older generation was Catholic and Milton Sr. had become a Protestant. As a boy, Milton was privately tutored by Thomas Young, a well-educated Presbyterian whose influence was likely the beginning of Milton’s radical religious views.米尔顿出生于伦敦，他是约翰·米尔顿的长子，他是一位技艺高超的作曲家和专业的写作家（一位专业人士，因为识字率不高，所以他写和复制文件）和他的妻子莎拉。弥尔顿的父亲和他自己的父亲疏远了，因为老一代是天主教徒，老弥尔顿也成了新教徒。小时候，弥尔顿是由托马斯·杨私下辅导的，他是一位受过良好教育的长老会教徒，他的影响很可能是弥尔顿激进宗教观点的开端。

After leaving private tutoring behind, Milton attended St. Paul’s, where he studied classical Latin and Greek, and eventually Christ’s College, Cambridge. His first known compositions are a pair of psalms written when he was only fifteen years old. Although he had a reputation for being especially studious, he came into conflict with his tutor, Bishop William Chappel. The extent of their conflict is disputed; Milton did leave the college for a time—either as punishment or because of widespread illness—and when he returned, he had a new tutor.在离开私人家教后，弥尔顿进入圣保罗大学学习古典拉丁语和希腊语，最后进入剑桥基督学院。他最早知道的作品是他十五岁时写的一对诗篇。尽管他以特别好学而闻名，但他却与他的导师、主教威廉·查佩尔发生了冲突。他们之间的冲突程度是有争议的；弥尔顿离开学院有一段时间不是因为惩罚，就是因为疾病广泛，当他回来时，他有了一个新的导师。

In 1629, Milton graduated with honors, ranking fourth in his class. He intended to become a priest in the Anglican church, so he stayed at Cambridge to get his master’s degree. Despite spending several years at the university, Milton expressed a fair bit of disdain for university life—its strict, Latin-based curriculum, the behavior of his peers—but did make a few friends, including the poet Edward King and the dissident theologian Roger Williams, better known as the founder of Rhode Island. He spent some of his time writing poetry, including his first published short poem, "Epitaph on the admirable Dramaticke Poet, W. Shakespeare.”1629年，弥尔顿以优异成绩毕业，在班上排名第四。他打算成为圣公会的牧师，所以他留在剑桥大学攻读硕士学位。尽管在大学里呆了几年，弥尔顿还是表达了对大学生活——严格的、以拉丁语为基础的课程、同龄人的行为——的蔑视，但确实交了一些朋友，包括诗人爱德华·金和持不同政见的神学家罗杰·威廉姆斯（Roger Williams），他们被称为罗德岛的创始人。他花了一些时间写诗，包括他出版的第一首短诗《关于令人钦佩的戏剧诗人莎士比亚的墓志铭》

Private Study and European Travel

After acquiring his M.A., Milton spent the next six years in self-guided study and, eventually, travel. He read extensively, both modern and ancient texts, studying literature, theology, philosophy, rhetoric, science, and more, mastering several languages (both ancient and modern) as well. During this time, he continued to write poetry, including two masques commissioned for wealthy patrons, Arcades and Comus.在获得硕士学位后，米尔顿花了六年时间自学，最后，他去旅行了。他广泛阅读现代和古代的书籍，学习文学、神学、哲学、修辞学、科学等等，并掌握了几种语言（古代和现代）。在这期间，他继续写诗，包括为富有的赞助人委托的两个面具，拱廊和科玛斯。

In May 1638, Milton began traveling through continental Europe. He traveled through France, including a stop in Paris, before moving on to Italy. In July 1683, he arrived in Florence, where he found welcome among the intellectuals and artists of the city. Thanks to his connections and reputation from Florence, he was also welcomed when he arrived in Rome months later. He intended to continue on to Sicily and Greece, but in the summer of 1639, he instead returned to England after the death of a friend and increased tensions.1638年5月，弥尔顿开始穿越欧洲大陆。他周游了法国，包括在巴黎停留，然后前往意大利。1683年7月，他来到佛罗伦萨，在那里他受到了佛罗伦萨知识分子和艺术家的欢迎。多亏了佛罗伦萨的人脉和声誉，他在几个月后抵达罗马时也受到了欢迎。他本打算继续前往西西里岛和希腊，但在1639年夏天，他在一位朋友去世后返回英国，并加剧了紧张局势。

Upon returning to England, where religious conflicts were brewing, Milton began writing tracts against episcopacy, a religious hierarchy that places local control in the hands of authorities called bishops. He supported himself as a schoolmaster and wrote tracts advocating for the reform of the university system. In 1642, he married Mary Powell, who, at sixteen, was nineteen years his junior. The marriage was unhappy and she left him for three years; his response was to publish pamphlets arguing for the legality and morality of divorce, which brought him some major criticism. Ultimately, she did return, and they had four children together. Their son died in infancy, but all three daughters lived to adulthood.回到英国，那里正酝酿着宗教冲突，弥尔顿开始写一些反对主教制的文章，主教制是一种将地方控制权交给主教的权威机构的宗教等级制度。他自立为一名校长，并写了许多鼓吹大学制度改革的文章。1642年，他嫁给了玛丽·鲍威尔，后者16岁，比他小19岁。婚姻不幸福，她离开他三年；他的反应是出版小册子，主张离婚的合法性和道德性，这给他带来了一些重大批评。最终，她回来了，他们一起生了四个孩子。他们的儿子在婴儿时期就死了，但三个女儿都活到了成年。

Political Posting and Pamphleteer

During the English Civil War, Milton was a pro-republican writer and defended the regicide of Charles I, the right of citizens to hold a monarchy accountable, and the principles of the Commonwealth in multiple books. He was hired by the government as Secretary for Foreign Tongues, ostensibly to compose government correspondence in Latin, but also to act as a propagandist and even a censor.在英国内战期间，弥尔顿是一位支持共和党的作家，他在多本书中为杀害查理一世的君主、公民有权要求君主政体负责以及英联邦的原则辩护。他被政府聘为外国语言事务局局长，表面上是用拉丁语撰写政府信函，但同时也是宣传者，甚至是审查员。

In 1652, Milton’s defense of the English people, Defensio pro Populo Anglicano, was published in Latin. Two years later, he published a pro-Oliver Cromwell follow-up as a rebuttal to a royalist text that also attacked Milton personally. Although he had published a collection of poems in 1645, his poetry was largely overshadowed at the time by his political and religious tracts.1652年，弥尔顿的《保卫英国人民》以拉丁文出版。两年后，他发表了一篇支持奥利弗·克伦威尔的后续文章，作为对保皇派文章的反驳，这篇文章也攻击了弥尔顿。尽管他在1645年出版了一本诗集，但当时他的诗歌在很大程度上被他的政治和宗教所掩盖。

That same year, however, Milton became almost entirely blind, mostly likely due to bilateral retinal detachment or glaucoma. He continued to produce both prose and poetry by dictating his words to assistants. He produced one of his most famous sonnets, “When I Consider How My Life Is Spent,” during this era, musing on his loss of sight. In 1656, he married Katherine Woodcock. She died in 1658, months after giving birth to their daughter, who also died.但同年，米尔顿几乎完全失明，很可能是因为双侧视网膜脱离或青光眼。他通过向助手听写自己的话，继续创作散文和诗歌。在这个时代，他创作了一首最著名的十四行诗《当我想到我的生命是如何度过的》时，他沉思着自己失明的情形。1656年，他与凯瑟琳·伍德考克结婚。她于1658年去世，在生下女儿几个月后，她也去世了。

The Restoration and Final Years

In 1658, Oliver Cromwell died and the English Republic fell into a mess of warring factions. Milton stubbornly defended his ideals of republicanism even as the country shifted back towards a monarchy, denouncing the concept of a church dominated by the government and the very concept of monarchy.1658年，奥利弗·克伦威尔（Oliver Cromwell）去世，英格兰共和国陷入了一片交战的混乱之中。米尔塔甚至把君主制的观念转向了君主制的国家，甚至是在他极力反对君主制的国家理念的基础上。

With the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Milton was forced into hiding, with a warrant out for his arrest and orders for all his writings to be burned. Eventually, he was pardoned and was able to live out his final years without fear of imprisonment. He remarried once more, to 24-year-old Elizabeth Mynshull, who had a strained relationship with his daughters.1660年，随着君主制的恢复，弥尔顿被迫躲藏起来，并下令将他所有的著作烧毁。最终，他被赦免，并得以在最后的岁月里不必担心入狱。他又改嫁了一次，嫁给了24岁的伊丽莎白·明希尔，她和女儿的关系很紧张。

During this final period of his life, Milton continued writing prose and poetry. The majority was not overtly political, save for a few publications arguing for religious toleration (but only between Protestant denominations, excluding Catholics and non-Christians) and anti-absolute monarchy. Most crucially, he finished Paradise Lost, an epic poem in blank verse narrating the fall of Lucifer and of mankind, in 1664. The poem, considered his magnum opus and one of the masterpieces of the English language, demonstrates his Christian/humanist philosophy and is famous—and, occasionally, controversial—for portraying Lucifer as three-dimensional and even sympathetic.在他生命的最后阶段，弥尔顿继续写散文和诗歌。大多数人并没有公开的政治色彩，只有少数出版物主张宗教宽容（但仅限于新教徒教派之间，不包括天主教徒和非基督徒）和反绝对君主制。最关键的是，1664年，他完成了一首以空白诗句叙述路西法和人类灭亡的史诗《失乐园》。这首诗被认为是他的代表作，也是英语的杰作之一，它展示了他的基督教/人文主义哲学，并因将路西法描绘成立体的、甚至是富有同情心的形象而闻名于世，偶尔也会引起争议。

Milton died of kidney failure on November 8, 1674. He was buried in the church of St Giles-without-Cripplegate in London, after a funeral attended by all of his friends from intellectual circles. His legacy lives on, influencing generations of writers who came after (especially, but not solely, due to Paradise Lost). His poetry is as revered as his prose tracts, and he is often considered, alongside writers such as Shakespeare, to be up for the title of the greatest English writer in history.弥尔顿于1674年11月8日死于肾衰竭。在一场葬礼之后，他被安葬在伦敦的圣吉尔斯教堂，而他的所有知识分子朋友都参加了葬礼。他的遗产永垂不朽，影响了后来的几代作家（尤其是，但不仅仅是因为《失乐园》）。他的诗歌和他的散文集一样受人尊敬，他经常被认为与莎士比亚等作家并驾齐驱，有望成为历史上最伟大的英国作家。

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