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Milton

41

Milton

original sources are: Life in Wood's Fasti (Bliss), i. 480-6 (first published in 1691-2). Wood's information came chiefly from Aubrey, whose memoir was published in the Lives (1813). A copy from the original manuscripts is appended to Godwin's Lives of E. and J. Phillips (1815), and another in Stern (i. 337-44). The life by Edward Phillips, which is the most valuable, was originally prefixed to the Letters of State, 1694, and is reprinted in Godwin's Lives of the Phillipses, and in the Poems, 1826. Toland's sketch was originally prefixed to the Prose Works of 1698, and appeared separately in 1699 and 1761. A brief life by Elijah Fenton [q. v.] was prefixed to an edition of the Poems in 1725, and to many later editions. The Explanatory Notes on Paradise Lost, by Jonathan Richardson, Father and Son, 1734, contain a life of Milton by the father, who collected a few original facts. A life by Thomas Birch was prefixed to the Prose Works of 1738 and 1753. Peck's New Memoirs of the Life … of Mr. John Milton, 1740. is a ‘silly medley of odds and ends’ (Masson). The life by Newton, prefixed to Works in 1749, adds a fact or two from Milton's widow and granddaughter. The famous life by Johnson first appeared in 1779 in the collection of English Poets. An edition, edited by Mr. C. H. Firth, was published in 1891. The evidence taken upon the will was first published in the second edition of the Minor Poems by T. Warton in 1791. H. J. Todd's life was first prefixed to the ‘Variorum’ edition of 1801. In a third edition (1826) Todd first made use of the records of Milton's official career, preserved in the State Paper Office. The notes to the ‘Variorum’ edition contain most of the accessible information. A life by Charles Symmons forms the seventh volume of the Prose Works of 1806. Other lives are by Sir Egerton Brydges (Poems of 1835), by James Montgomery (Poems, 1843), by C. R. Edmonds (1851), specially referring to Milton's ecclesiastical principles, and by Thomas Keightley (Life, Opinions, and Writings of Milton, 1855). The standard life previous to Professor Masson was that by J. Mitford, prefixed to Works, 1851. Milton und seine Zeit, in 2 pts. 1877-9, by Alfred Stern, is an independent and well-written, though less comprehensive, work on the same lines. See also the short but admirable lives by Pattison in the Men of Letters series, and by Dr. Garnett in the Great Writers series. Among special publications are Ramblings in Elucidation of the Autograph of Milton, by Samuel Leigh Sotheby, F.S.A., imperial 4to, 1861; Papers connected with Milton and his Family, by John Fitchett Marsh, in Chetham Society Miscellanies (vol. xxiv. of Publications). 1851; A Sheaf of Gleanings, by Jeseph Hunter, 1850; and Original Papers illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Milton, with an Appendix of Papers relating to his connection with the Powell Family, by W. Douglas Hamilton (Camden Soc.), 1859.]

L. S.

MILTON, JOHN (fl. 1770), painter, was a descendant of Sir Christopher Milton [q. v.] brother of the poet. He worked in the neighbourhood of London, first at Charlton, and later at Peckham, exhibiting with the Free Society from 1768 to 1774, and with the Society of Artists in 1773 and 1774. Milton chiefly painted sea-pieces, with an occasional landscape, and some animal subjects; he excelled in the representation of dogs. His ‘Strong Gale’ was finely mezzotinted by R. Laurie, and his ‘English Setter’ was engraved by J. Cook and S. Smith as a companion plate to Woollett's ‘Spanish Pointer,’ after Stubbs. He was the father of Thomas Milton, the landscape engraver, who is noticed in a separate article.

[Nagler's Allgemeines Kunstler-Lexicon; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists.]

F. M. O'D.

MILTON, JOHN (d. 1805), medallist, worked from about 1760 to 1802. He was an assistant engraver at the Royal Mint from 1789 to 1798, and was also medallist to the Prince of Wales (George IV). He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1785 to 1802. At the close of the eighteenth century he executed the dies of the following provincial tokens, all of which are creditable works of their kind: Anglesey penny (Pye, Provincial Copper Coins, pl. 28, 3); Hackney penny, 1795, with a view of Hackney Church, made for Mr. D. A. Rebello, a coin collector (ib. pl. 34, 1); Richardson's lottery tokens, London (Sharp, Chetwynd Coll. p. 68); Ipswich penny (ib. p. 89); Wroxham (Norfolk) 3d. token, 1797 (ib. p. 3). He also made the Isle of Man penny, 1786 (ib. p. 240); the Barbados penny and halfpenny (Pye, pl. 19, 2, 4; Sharp, p. 242), and the set of Scottish patterns, with the head of Prince George (IV), executed for Colonel Fullerton in 1799 (Crowther, Engl. Pattern Coins, p. 46). Milton's medals are not numerous or important. The following may be mentioned: Matthew Prior (bust only), probably an early work (Hawkins,Med. Illustr. ii. 456); Winchester College prize medal (ib. i. 11); John Hunter and George Fordyce (Cochran-Patrick, Catal. of Scott. Med. p. 110, pl. xxi. 3; cp. p. 115, No. 46); medal of university of Glasgow (ib. p. 151).

Milton, who was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries 24 May 1792, died on 10 Feb. 1805, leaving one son and two daughters. His coins and medals were sold by Leigh & Sotheby 30 May 1805 (cf. Sale Cat.)

His usual signature is J. MILTON. George Valentin Bauert of Altona was his pupil, and

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