Book contents
- Frontmatter
- 1 Milton's social life
- 2 Milton's Ludlow Masque
- 3 Lycidas
- 4 Poems 1645
- 5 Milton's politics
- 6 Milton's prose
- 7 Milton's sonnets and his contemporaries
- 8 The genres of Paradise Lost
- 9 Language and knowledge in Paradise Lost
- 10 The Fall and Milton's theodicy
- 11 Milton's Satan
- 12 Milton and the sexes
- 13 Milton and the reforming spirit
- 14 How Milton read the Bible
- 15 Reading Samson Agonistes
- 16 Milton's readers
- 17 Milton's place in intellectual history
- 18 Milton's works and life
- Index
3 - Lycidas
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2006
- Frontmatter
- 1 Milton's social life
- 2 Milton's Ludlow Masque
- 3 Lycidas
- 4 Poems 1645
- 5 Milton's politics
- 6 Milton's prose
- 7 Milton's sonnets and his contemporaries
- 8 The genres of Paradise Lost
- 9 Language and knowledge in Paradise Lost
- 10 The Fall and Milton's theodicy
- 11 Milton's Satan
- 12 Milton and the sexes
- 13 Milton and the reforming spirit
- 14 How Milton read the Bible
- 15 Reading Samson Agonistes
- 16 Milton's readers
- 17 Milton's place in intellectual history
- 18 Milton's works and life
- Index
Summary
On 10 August 1637 a pious young Cambridge graduate called Edward King was drowned in the Irish Sea when the ship carrying him to Ireland to visit his family struck a rock off the Welsh coast and sank. The author of some rather undistinguished Latin verses, King had intended to take Holy Orders and pursue a career in the church, but in 1637 he was still a fellow at Milton's old college, Christ's, which he had entered when Milton was in his second year. He was evidently a well respected and popular figure in the University community, so much so that when the news of his death reached Cambridge a group of his friends and colleagues decided to organize a volume of memorial verses in his honour. Although Milton does not appear to have been a particularly close friend of King's, he was nevertheless invited to contribute to the collection. Published in 1638 under the title Justa Edouardo King naufrago, the volume contained thirty-six poems in all, twenty-three in Greek or Latin followed by thirteen in English. Milton's contribution, the last in the collection, was Lycidas.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Milton , pp. 39 - 53Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999