were printed by W. Hayley in 1808. The most important of the
numerous later editions of Milton’s poetical works are by H. J. Todd
(6 vols., 1801); J. Mitford (“Aldine edition,” 3 vols., 1832); T.
Keightley (2 vols., 1859), whose notes are most original and interesting;
D. Masson (“Library” or “Cambridge” edition, 3 vols., 1874; of
which a new edition appeared in 1890, with memoir, introduction,
notes and an essay on Milton’s English and versification); John
Bradshaw (new “Aldine edition,” 2 vols., 1892); also a careful reprint
retaining the peculiarities of the earlier printed copies, by H. C.
Beeching (“Oxford edition,” 1904); and another, with variant
readings, by W. Aldis Wright (Cambridge University Press, 1903).
The prose works were first partially collected in 1697. They were
edited by J. Toland (3 vols., 1698), by C. Symmons (7 vols., 1806),
by Pickering (8 vols., 1851) with the poetical works, and by J. A.
St John for Bohn’s “Libraries” (5 vols., 1848–1853). There are
numerous annotated editions of separate works.
The earliest life of Milton is contained in Wood MS. D. 4 in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and was printed in the Eng. Hist. Review for January 1902, also by E. S. Parsons in Colorado College Studies, No. X (1903). The author, who sympathized with the poet’s political views, is unknown, but the name of Milton’s friend, Dr Nathan Paget, is suggested. His account formed the basis of the life given by Anthony à Wood in Fasti oxonienses (1691). Wood was also indebted to John Aubrey, whose Brief Lives were not printed until later. The life by his nephew Edward Phillips was prefixed to the Letters of State printed in 1694, and reprinted by William Godwin in his Lives of E. and J. Phillips (1815). Samuel Johnson’s famous Life of Milton (1779), which contains some valuable criticism, is written from a somewhat unfriendly standpoint. The records of Milton’s official life, available in the State Papers, were first made use of by H. J. Todd in a third edition (1829) of his Milton. All the available information was gathered in Professor Masson’s Life of John Milton; narrated in Connexion with the Political, Ecclesiastical and Literary History of his Time (6 vols., 1859–1880, with index, 1894; new ed. of vol. i., 1881) which contains ample reference to original authorities. Shorter works are Milton und seine Zeit (2 pts., 1877, 1879), by Alfred Stern; Milton (1879), by Mark Pattison in the “English Men of Letters” series, and Life of John Milton (1890) by Dr Richard Garnett in the “Great Writers” series, with a bibliography by J. P. Anderson.
The sources of Paradise Lost have given rise to much discussion. It has been supposed to owe something to Adamo, a comedy by Giovanni Battista Andreini (1578–1652), to the Paraphrase associated with the name of Caedmon which was printed at Amsterdam in 1655 by Francis Junius, and to the Lucifer and other plays of Joost van den Vondel. Parallelisms between Vondel and Milton were pointed out by Mr Edmund Gosse in Literatures of Northern Europe (1879), and the comparison was carried further in Mr G. Edmundson’s Milton and Vondel; A Curiosity of Literature (1885), a book which aroused much discussion. A valuable contribution to Miltonic criticism was made in 1893 by Mr Robert Bridges in an essay on Milton’s Prosody. This was reprinted in 1901, with some additional matter and an essay on “Classical Metres in English Verse” by W. J. Stone. Amongst other critical essays should be mentioned essays by Macaulay (Edinburgh Review, 1825); Walter Bagehot (Literary Studies, vol. i., 1879); S. T. Coleridge (Seven Lectures on Shakespeare and Milton 1856); Edward Dowden (Transcripts and Studies, 1888); Edmond Scherer (Études sur la litterature contemporaine, vol. vi., 1882); Augustine Birrell (Obiter dicta, second series 1887); Walter Raleigh (Milton, 1900); E. Allodoli, Giovanni Milton e l’Italia (Prato, 1907).
Concordances of Milton’s Poetical Works were compiled by G. L. Prendergast (Madras, 1856–1857); by C. J. Cleveland (1867), based on a verbal index used in an American edition 1853, of the Poetical Works; by John Bradshaw (1894), by L. E. Lockwood, Lexicon to the English Poetical Works of John Milton (New York, 1907).
The tercentenary of Milton’s birth was celebrated in 1908 in Cambridge, London and elsewhere. An exhibition of the portraits of Milton, authentic and supposed, with a great collection of valuable editions of the poet’s works, was held in June and July at Christ’s College, Cambridge. The catalogue of this exhibition, drawn up by Dr G. C. Williamson, forms a valuable bibliography and iconography of the poet. A collection of Milton autographs, early editions and portraits was also held in December at the British Museum, and the anniversary itself was celebrated by a special meeting of the British Academy, at which papers by Professors W. J. Courthope, Edward Dowden and others were read. There was a religious service at St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, and a banquet at the Mansion House.
MILTON, a township of N.E. Norfolk county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., about 7 m. S. of Boston, the Neponset river forming a large part of its N. and N.W. boundary. Pop. (1890), 4278; (1900), 6578 (1840 being foreign-born); (1905, state census), 7054; (1910) 7924. It is served by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway, and is primarily a residential suburb of Boston, with which it is connected by electric lines. The township covers an area of about 13 sq. m., and includes the villages of Milton, East Milton and Mattapan. The country is rolling and hilly, the Blue Hills (with the exception of a part included in Braintree in 1712 and now in Quincy) lying in Milton. On Great Blue Hill, the highest (635 ft. above tide-level), great fires were kindled at the news of the repeal of the Stamp Act, of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, and of the surrenders of Burgoyne and Cornwallis; beacon fires were burned during the American War of Independence; an “observatory” for tourists was built at an early date; and in 1885 the Blue Hill Observatory for meteorological investigation was established by Abbott Lawrence Rotch (b. 1861), who made important investigations concerning clouds, and attracted attention by his use of kites for obtaining meteorological data. Milton Academy (a non-sectarian school) was founded in 1798, opened in 1805, and suspended in 1867; a new academy was opened in 1885. There is a public library, which was opened in 1871, and in 1909 had more than 20,000 volumes. Cunningham Park is under the control of the trustees of a fund left for the benefit of the township, and contains a gymnasium, skating-pond, tennis courts, &c., open to townspeople only. Hutchinson Field, another public park, is a part of the estate of the last royal governor, Thomas Hutchinson; Governor Jonathan Belcher also lived in Milton for a time. There are two granite quarries in the township immediately north-west of the Blue Hills; the granite is of the “dark Quincy” variety—dark bluish grey in colour—and is used chiefly for monuments. Milton, originally a part of Dorchester, was first settled in 1640, and was called Uncataquissett. The township was separated from Dorchester and incorporated in 1662. It owes its name either to its early paper and grist mills (Milton being abbreviated from Milltown) or to Milton Abbey, Dorset, whence members of the Tucker family came, it is supposed, to Milton about 1662. In 1712 the Blue Hill lands were divided between Milton and Braintree, and in 1868 part of Milton was included in the new township of Hyde Park. In Milton, on the 9th of September 1774, at the house of Daniel Vose, a meeting, adjourned from Dedham, passed the bold “Suffolk Resolves” (Milton then being included in Suffolk county), which declared that a sovereign who breaks his compact with his subjects forfeits their allegiance, that parliament's repressive measures were unconstitutional, that tax-collectors should not pay over money to the royal treasury, that the towns should choose militia officers from the patriot party, that they would obey the Continental Congress and that they favoured a Provincial Congress, and that they would seize crown officers as hostages for any political prisoners arrested by the governor; and recommended that all persons in the colony should abstain from lawlessness.
See A. K. Teele, History of Milton, Mass., 1640 to 1887 (Milton, 1887).
MILTON, a borough of Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the Susquehanna river at the mouth of Limestone Run, about 66 m. N. of Harrisburg. Pop. (1890), 5317; (1900), 6175 (166 foreign-born); (1910), 7460. It is served by the Pennsylvania, and the Philadelphia & Reading railways, and is connected with Lewisburg and Watsontown by an electric line. Milton has an attractive public park, is in an agricultural region, and has various manufactures. It was founded in 1792, and incorporated as a borough in 1817. In 1880 it was in great part destroyed by fire.
MILWAUKEE, a city and the county-seat of Milwaukee county, Wisconsin, U.S.A., the largest city of the state, at the mouth of the Milwaukee river on the W. shore of Lake Michigan, about 85 m. N. of Chicago. Pop. (1900), 285,315; (1910), 373,857. The Milwaukee river entering the city from the north is joined about 12 m. from its mouth by the Menominee flowing from the west and a short distance from the lake by the Kinnikinnic flowing from the south. These rivers are navigable for lake traffic into the heart of the city. Milwaukee Bay, into which their combined waters empty, is an inlet of Lake Michigan, about 6 m. across. By the construction of extensive piers and breakwaters a fine harbour of refuge has been created; and its inner harbour is deep enough for the largest lake-steamers.
