Culture Literature in the 17th Century: John Milton and Aphra Behn John Milton John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet. He wrote at a time of religious flux and political upheaval, and is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), written in blank verse. - William Hayley's 1796 biography called him the "greatest English author", and he remains generally regarded "as one of the preeminent writers in the English language" John Milton's poetic style The poetic style of John Milton, also known as Miltonic verse, Miltonic epic, or Miltonic blank verse, was a highly influential poetic structure popularized by Milton. Although Milton wrote earlier poetry, his influence is largely grounded in his later poems: Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained Although Milton was not the first to use blank verse, his use of it was very influential and he became known for the style. When Miltonic verse became popular, Samuel Johnson mocked Milton for inspiring bad blank verse, but he recognized that Milton's verse style was very influential. Poets such as Alexander Pope, whose final, incomplete work was intended to be written in the form, and John Keats, who complained that he relied too heavily on Milton, adopted and picked up various aspects of his poetry. In particular, Miltonic blank verse became the standard for those attempting to write English epics for centuries following the publication of Paradise Lost and his later poetry. Milton talked about liberties "the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties“ and of these liberties is divorce. • Milton wrote The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce in 1643, at the beginning of the English Civil War. In August of that year, he presented his thoughts to the Westminster Assembly of Divines (a council of divines (theologians) and members of the English Parliament appointed from 1643 to 1653 to restructure the Church of England), which had been created by the Long Parliament to bring greater reform to the Church of England. The Assembly convened on 1 July against the will of King Charles I. • Milton's thinking on divorce caused him considerable trouble with the authorities. works Poetry and drama • 1629: On the Morning of Christ's Nativity • 1630: On Shakespeare • 1631: On Arriving at the Age of Twenty-Three • 1632: L'Allegro • 1632: Il Penseroso • 1634: A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634, commonly known as Comus (a masque) • 1637: Lycidas • 1645: Poems of Mr John Milton, Both English and Latin • 1652: When I Consider How My Light is Spent (Commonly referred to as "On his blindness", though Milton did not use this title)[a] • 1655: On the Late Massacre in Piedmont • 1667: Paradise Lost • 1671: Paradise Regained • 1671: Samson Agonistes • 1673: Poems, &c, Upon Several Occasions • Arcades: a masque. (date is unknown). • On his Deceased wife, To The Nightingale, On reaching the Age of twenty four. Prose • Of Reformation (1641) • Of Prelatical Episcopacy (1641) • Animadversions (1641) • The Reason of Church-Government Urged against Prelaty (1642) • Apology for Smectymnuus (1642) • Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643) • Judgement of Martin Bucer Concerning Divorce (1644) • Of Education (1644) • The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649) • Defensio pro Populo Anglicano [First Defence] (1651) • Defensio Secunda [Second Defence] (1654) • A Treatise of Civil Power (1659) • The Likeliest Means to Remove Hirelings from the Church (1659) • The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth (1660) • Brief Notes Upon a Late Sermon (1660) • Accedence Commenced Grammar (1669) • The History of Britain (1670) • Artis logicae plenior institutio [Art of Logic] (1672) • Of True Religion (1673) • Epistolae Familiaries (1674) • Prolusiones (1674) • De Doctrina Christiana (1823) For more information: Read this article: https://www.britannica.com/biography/John- Milton/Early-translations-and-poems Aphra Behn • Aphra Behn, (born 1640- died April 16, 1689, London), English dramatist, fiction writer, and poet who was the first Englishwoman known to earn her living by writing. • She broke cultural barriers and served as a literary role model for later generations of women authors. Rising from obscurity, she came to the notice of Charles II, who employed her as a spy in Antwerp. Upon her return to London and a probable brief stay in debtors' prison, she began writing for the stage. She belonged to a coterie of poets and famous libertines such as John Wilmot, Lord Rochester. She wrote under the pastoral pseudonym Astrea. During the turbulent political times of the Exclusion Crisis, she wrote an epilogue and prologue that brought her into legal trouble; she thereafter devoted most of her writing to prose genres and translations. • Her origin remains a mystery, in part because Behn may have deliberately obscured her early life. One tradition identifies Behn as the child known only as Ayfara or Aphra who traveled in the 1650s with a couple named Amis to Suriname, which was then an English possession. She was more likely the daughter of a barber, Bartholomew Johnson, who may or may not have sailed with her and the rest of her family to Suriname in 1663. She returned to England in 1664 and married a merchant named Behn; he died (or the couple separated) soon after. Her wit and talent having brought her into high esteem, she was employed by King Charles II in secret service in the Netherlands in 1666. Unrewarded and briefly imprisoned for debt, she began to write to support herself. • Behn’s early works were tragicomedies in verse. In 1670 her first play, The Forc’d Marriage, was produced, and The Amorous Prince followed a year later. Her sole tragedy, Abdelazer, was staged in 1676. However, she turned increasingly to light comedy and farce over the course of the 1670s. Many of these witty and vivacious comedies, notably The Rover (two parts, produced 1677 and 1681), were commercially successful. The Rover depicts the adventures of a small group of English Cavaliers in Madrid and Naples during the exile of the future Charles II. The Emperor of the Moon, first performed in 1687, presaged the harlequinade, a form of comic theatre that evolved into the English pantomime • Though Behn wrote many plays, her fiction today draws more interest. Her short novel Oroonoko (1688) tells the story of an enslaved African prince whom Behn claimed to have known in South America. Its engagement with the themes of slavery, race, and gender, as well as its influence on the development of the English novel, helped to make it, by the turn of the 21st century, her best-known work. Behn’s other fiction includes the multipart epistolary novel Love- Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister (1684–87) and The Fair Jilt (1688). • Behn’s versatility, like her output, was immense; she wrote other popular works of fiction, and she often adapted works by older dramatists. She also wrote poetry, the bulk of which was collected in Poems upon Several Occasions, with A Voyage to the Island of Love (1684) and Lycidus; or, The Lover in Fashion (1688). Behn’s charm and generosity won her a wide circle of friends. Plays • The Forc'd Marriage (1670) Works • The Amorous Prince, or, The Curious Husband (1671) • The Dutch Lover (1673) • The Town Fop or, Sir Timothy Tawdry (1676) • The Rover, Part 1 (1677) and Part 2 (1681) • Sir Patient Fancy (1678) • The Feigned Courtesans (1679) • The Young King (1679) • The False Count (1681) • The Roundheads or, The Good Old Cause (1681) • The City Heiress (1682) • Like Father, Like Son (1682) • Prologue and Epilogue to Romulus and Hersilia, or The Sabine War (November 1682) • The Luckey Chance, or an Alderman's Bargain (1686) • The Emperor of the Moon (1687) Novels • The Fair Jilt • Agnes de Castro, or, the Force of Generous Love (1688) • Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister, in three parts (1682–1687) • Oroonoko (1688) Short stories/Novellas • The History of the Nun: or, the Fair Vow-Breaker (1688) • The History of The Servant • Poetry collections • Poems upon Several Occasions, with A Voyage to the Island of Love (1684) • Lycidus; or, The Lover in Fashion (1688) .