Wife to Mr. Milton

Robert Graves

• Publisher: RosettaBooks
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN:
  9780795336959
• Topic: Littérature
• Subtopic: Littérature générale

"[A] penetrating study of one of the strangest marriages in history . . . Robert Graves, author of I, Claudius, has the gift for fleshing the bare bones of history ( Kirkus Reviews).
 
The famous poet John Milton, author of Paradise Lost, had a wife, and their story is both strange and tumultuous. Consummate historical novelist and poet Robert Graves tells the story from the perspective of the wife, Marie Powell, a young woman who married the poet to escape a debt.
 
From the start, the couple proves mismatched; Milton is a domineering and insensitive husband set on punishing Marie for not providing the promised dowry. John Milton and his young wife are both religiously and temperamentally incompatible, and this portrait of their relationship is spellbinding, if not distinctly unflattering to Milton. It also provides fascinating accounts of the political upheavals of the time, including the execution of Charles I. This book is an excellent read for fans of historical fiction.
 
"Vivid, rich and forthright." — The Sunday Times

Glossary

abecedarian	one who is still learning his A B C
account	period of pregnancy
acrimonious	acrid
aegilops	ulcer in the inner corner of the eye
Anabaptists	a sect that considered it necessary to be re-baptized
anothergates	Otherwise
antics	grotesque figures imitating the antique
anti-Scripturists	a sect that denied the final authority of the Scripture
armiger	entitled to a coat-of-arms
atlasses	Eastern silk-satins
Auriga	charioteer
avence	herb bennet
Aqua-Mirabilis	“The wonderful water prepared of cloves, galangals, cubebs, mace, cardamums, nutmegs, ginger and spirit of wine, digested 24 hours, then distilled”
bagnio	a Turkish-bath establishment which was also a brothel
battle	battalion
Bezoartis	a preparation against poison, made from the livers and hearts of vipers, etc.
blind buzzard	a wilfully ignorant person
brawl	a sort of cotillon
breeching	beating on the breeches
brown-bill	a halberd or battle-axe with the blade stained brown, usually with ox-blood
budge	stiffly grave
buff-coat	a soldier’s coat of stout buff-coloured leather
buffle-head	a person as stupid as a buffalo
butt	tree-trunk with its branches lopped off
buzz	rumour
camp-fever	typhus, complicated by relapsing fever
cashiered	paid off from the Army. (Not necessarily discharged with ignominy)
cat-in-pan, to turn	to be a political turn-coat
caudle	warm spiced gruel, mixed with wine or ale
chaldron	36 bushels
to cheek	to grasp the pike by the cheeks, or side-pieces, and bring it to the ready, as if about to lunge
Chiliasts	a sect that “expected the Millennium any day soon”
the claps...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• FOREWORD
• I. THE LAST DAY OF CHRISTMAS, 1641
• II. AN ALARM OF THE PLAGUE
• III. A SIGHT OF ROYALTY, AND OF ANOTHER
• IV. LIFE AT FOREST HILL
• V. MUN BECOMES A SOLDIER
• VI. I FALL INTO PIETY AND OUT AGAIN
• VII. A STRANGE TALE OF SYMPATHY
• VIII. I FALL INTO DISGRACE
• IX. AN ACCOUNT OF MR. JOHN MILTON
• X. I AGREE TO MARRIAGE
• XI. MR. MILTON’S COURTSHIP
• XII. MY MARRIAGE
• XIII. I AM TAKEN TO LONDON
• XIV. I SAY FAREWELL TO MY FAMILY
• XV. I COME BACK TO FOREST HILL
• XVI. THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR
• XVII. MY HUSBAND SENDS FOR ME
• XVIII. I AM PERSUADED TO RETURN TO MY HUSBAND
• XIX. I AM GOT WITH CHILD; AND MY FATHER IS RUINED
• XX. MY CHILD IS BORN; AND MY FATHER DIES
• XXI. I SPEAK WITH MUN AGAIN
• XXII. I WATCH THE KING’S EXECUTION
• XXIII. EVIL NEWS FROM IRELAND
• XXIV. MY HUSBAND BUYS FAME AT A HIGH PRICE
• EPILOGUE
• APPENDIX
• GLOSSARY
• Endnotes