BOOK I.

1608-1625.

I. MILTON'S ANCESTRY AND Kindred.

II. THE SPREAD EAGLE, BREAD STREET, OLD London.

III. EDUCATION AT HOME AND AT ST. PAUL'S SCHOOL.

VOL. I.

THE LIFE OF JOHN MILTON,

WITH THE

HISTORY OF HIS TIME.

CHAPTER I..

ANCESTRY AND KINDRED.

JOHN MILTON was born, in his father's house, in Bread Street, i the City of London, on Friday, the 9th of December, 1608, at half-past six in the morning. The year of his birth was the sixth of the reign of the Scottish king, James I., in England.

Milton's father, who was also named John, was by profession a "scrivener." He is found settled, in the exercise of that profession, in Bread Street, early in 1603. In a

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1 Aubrey and Wood. In Aubrey's MS. the circumstance is entered in a manner which vouches for its authenticity. Aubrey had first left the date blank thus: He was born Ao Dni the day of about o'clock in the -"; adding a little farther on in the MS. these words: "Q. Mr. Chr Milton to see the date of his bro. birth " Then, farther on still, at the top of a new sheet of smaller size than the rest. there are written in a clear hand, which is certainly not Aubrey's, these words: "John Milton was born the 9th of December, 1608, die l'eneris, half an hour after six in the morning." It is to be concluded

that Aubrey had, in the interval, seen Christopher Milton, and procured from him the date he wanted. Possibly, indeed, Christopher wrote down the words himself. They look as if they had been taken from the Family Bible. Wood in his Fasti makes the time of Milton's birth" between six and seven o'clock in the morning"; but in a MS. of his which I have seen, containing brief notes for biographies of eminent persons (Ashm. 8519), he adheres to the more exact statement "half an hour after six." The note about Milton in this MS. contains nothing but the dates and places of his birth and death.