'The Childhood Shews the Man'

On 9th December 1608, Milton was born in Cheapside, London. His father, John Milton senior, was a scrivener by profession and a respected amateur composer. The Milton family home resounded with his madrigals and psalm settings, combining an atmosphere of Puritan sobriety with considerable culture.

On turning twelve, Milton began his schooling at St Paul’s, one of the finest grammar schools in the country. Under the tutelage of headmaster Alexander Gil, Milton laid a foundation in classical and biblical learning that would underpin his mature poetry. Thanks to Gil, in addition to the standard humanist curriculum of Latin and Greek, Milton gained an intimacy with the greatest English poets of the previous generation.

Click on the thumbnail images below for more details.

	Alexander Gil, the Elder (1565–1635) Logonomia Anglica. Qua Gentis sermo facilius addiscitur …Second edition. (London: John Beale, 1621).
	Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) The faerie queen...together with the other works of England's arch-poet, Edm. Spenser: collected into one volume, and carefully corrected. (London: Matthew Lownes, 1611).

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