MILTON ABBEY 



5422 



MILWAUKEE 



obscurity and left him an im- 

 poverished man. In his loneliness 

 and sorrow he now turned to the 

 poetic work which he had planned 

 so many years before.- Paradise 

 Lost, " the epic of a lost cause," 

 was published in 1667 ; Paradise 

 Regained and Samson Agonistes in 

 1671. The principal prose works 

 of these last years were a History 

 of Britain, 1670 ; and a treatise Of 

 True Religion, 1673. In 1663 he 

 took as his third wife Elizabeth 

 Minshull, whose affectionate care 

 was some compensation for the 

 undutiful conduct of the three 

 daughters of his first marriage. 

 Milton died in his house in Artillery 

 Walk, Bunhill Fields, London, 

 Nov. 8, 1674, and was buried in 

 S. Giles's, Cripplegate. His widow 

 survived him until 1727. 



Milton has been described as 

 " not only the highest, but the 

 completest type of Puritanism," 

 but while this may be true in 

 respect of his personal character, 

 as a poet he far transcended the 

 limitations of his sect, for with the 

 Puritan's zeal for righteousness he 

 combined the scholar's love of 

 knowledge and the artist's devo- 

 tion to beauty. He was indeed a 

 child of the Renaissance ; his 

 genius was inspired and enriched 

 by its classic culture ; and in form 



AfterW.Faithorne 



But while Milton's art and 

 learning connect him with the 

 Renaissance they are turned by 

 him to the service of a Puritan 

 philosophy of life ; as notably in 

 Paradise Lost, which, technically 

 the finest example of the classic 

 epic in modern European litera- 

 ture, has as its avowed purpose 

 " to justify the ways of God to 

 men." His supremacy among 



Milton Abbey, Dorsetshire. The abbey church, restored in 1865, and the 

 mansion erected on the site of the old monastic buildings 



By courtety of Country Life 



his work belongs to the great Re- 

 naissance traditioa; for Comus is 

 a masque of the kind which Italian 

 influences had made popular in 

 the aristocratic circles of the time ; 

 Lycidas, a pastoral elegy in the 

 manner of Theocritus and Bion ; 

 Paradise Lost, an epic fashioned 

 closely on the models of Greek and 

 Latin antiquity ; Samson Ago- 

 nistes, a tragedy of the severe 

 Attic type. 



English poets is beyond dispute ; 

 in intellect, imagination, and crea- 

 tive and constructive power he is 

 without a rival ; he is our greatest 

 master of sublimity and the 

 " grand style " ; and if his Puri- 

 tanism often makes him harsh and 

 narrow, in loftiness of moral spirit 

 he is still unsurpassed. See Chalfont 

 St. Giles ; English Language and 

 Literature; Paradise Lost. 



W, H. Hudson 



Bibliography. Poetical Works of 

 J. M., ed. D. Masson, 3 vols., 1874, 

 new ed. 1890 ; Life of M., narrated 

 in connection with the Political, 

 Ecclesiastical, and Literary History 

 of His Time, 6 vols., D. Masson, 

 1859-80 ; Lives, M. Pattison, 1879 ; 

 S. A. Brooke, 1879 : R. Garnett, 

 1890 ; W. Raleigh, 1894. 



Milton Abbey. Name of a 

 mansion and a church in Dorset- 

 shire, England. Situated about 7 

 m. from Blandford, the mansion 

 occupies the site of a 10th century 

 Benedictine abbey and of the 

 ancient town of Milton or Middle- 

 ton. In 1752 the property was 

 bought by Joseph Darner, later 

 earl of Dorchester, who destroyed 

 the town, transferring the inhabi- 

 tants to the present Milton Abbas, 

 pulled down the monastic build- 

 ings, except the abbey church and 

 the monks' refectory, a large hall 

 with a roof of Irish oak, and built 

 the existing mansion in 1771 on 

 the site of the abbey, from designs 

 by Sir W. Chambers. The old town 

 had a grammar school, at which 

 Masterman Hardy, Nelson's cap- 

 tain, was a scholar. 



The abbey church is a superb 

 12th-14th century structure, with 

 Perpendicular tower, flying but- 

 tresses, and many beautiful win- 

 dows. It has a 15th century altar 

 screen, an oak tabernacle, and 

 some ancient paintings and fine 

 sculptures. Milton Abbey is the 

 Middleton Abbey of Thomas 

 Hardy's The Woodlanders. On an 

 eminence near by is the little 

 Norman chapel of S. Catherine, 

 now restored as a place of worship. 



Milvian Bridge, BATTLE OF 

 THE. Fought Oct. 27, A.D. 312, at 

 the bridge of that name, sometimes 

 called the Mulvian Bridge, across 

 the Tiber, between the forces of Con- 

 stantine and those of Maxentius. 

 Some time before the battle Con- 

 stantine, it is said, had a vision, in 

 which he saw in the sky the cross of 

 Christianity, with the inscription : 

 By this conquer. There is no reli- 

 able evidence as to the date when 

 Constantino resolved to adopt a 

 liberal policy towards Christianity, 

 but it is certain that in the battle 

 his soldiery fought with the Chris- 

 tian monogram as their badge. The 

 battle resulted in the complete de- 

 feat of Maxentins, who himself was 

 drowned in the Tiber. Constantino 

 thus became master of the Western 

 empire, and was able to promul- 

 gate in bis dominions the policy of 

 toleration towards Christianity. 



Milwaukee. City and port of 

 entry of Wisconsin, U.S.A., the co. 

 seat of Milwaukee co. The largest 

 city of the state, it stands on the 

 W. shore of Lake Micb ; gan, 85 m. 

 N. of Chicago, and is served by the 

 Chicago and North- Western and 



