What were John Milton's daily reading habits?
score:3
We can't really say for sure what his daily reading habits are like (and he almost surely maintained different schedules over the course of his life - certainly blindness must have had a significant impact).
In this case, however, I suspect your professor was referring to Milton's reading of the bible, which he could do in the original Hebrew and Greek. Milton is known to read the bible every morning, a habit he retained even after losing his eyesight:
He was an early rise (sc. at 4 o'clock mané) yea, after he lost his sight,. He had a man to read to him. The first thing he read was the Hebrew bible, and that was at 4 h. mané, 1/2 h. plus. Then he contemplated.
Aubrey, John. "Minutes of the Life of Mr. John Milton." The Early Lives of Milton. Ed. Helen Darbishire. London: Constable 15 (1932).
The same source goes on to say, the reading resumed at 7am and continued (in conjunction with writing) until dinner. Beyond this, however, we don't really have too much much details on his daily habits - except that he must have read extremely extensively, in all likelihood far more than the three hours per day.
We can gleam some sense of Milton's beliefs on how much to read from the curriculum he prescribes for his pupils:
Parker tries to give an idea of the disciplined rhythm of life in [Milton's] house, conjecturing form evidence in Of Education and An Apology: reading form five or six in the morning, until the mind was saturated; some exercise or perhaps music around lunchtime, to set the mind back in receptive frame; more bookwork in the afternoons; a plain supper, and expounding scripture until bedtime.
Brown, Cedric C. John Milton: a literary life. Springer, 1995.
The prime source for Milton's own reading is his Commonplace Book, which Milton maintained for several decades after graduating from Cambridge. A commonplace book is essentially a kind of scrapbook, and Milton filled his with notes and quotes from his readings. This has provided later scholars with some picture of how extensively he read, as well as how many languages he read in.
The readings contained in Milton's Commonplace Book is already formidable, but it isn't a complete documentation of all his readings. Several books he purchased and annotated survives, which don't doesn't appear in the manuscript. Moreover, other readings can be inferred from references that has appeared in his writings.
Given the vast amounts of literature he is known to have consumed, Milton must have read for many hours on most days.
More post
- 📝 Why did the start of the Roman consular year move?
- 📝 Did the Germans fuel the general's purge?
- 📝 Troy: How could a city be built on top of an older one?
- 📝 Can anybody help identify this uniform ? Circa WW1
- 📝 Was there self-censorship in private correspondence in the early 19th Century?
- 📝 Why was Salzburg called „Stadt der Lebensforschung“ by the Nazis?
- 📝 Virtus romana vs h*m*sexuality
- 📝 What is this pin?
- 📝 Identify this two mast one funnel side paddle-steamer boat circa 1900
- 📝 What stopped the British from granting independence to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands?
- 📝 Who advised FDR on foreign policy before and during WWII?
- 📝 How would British counterfeiting efforts in the revolutionary war have inflated the American currency?
- 📝 What did people die of in 1665 London?
- 📝 What is a "tar shower?"
- 📝 Why have wheat and rice been consumed in different forms?
- 📝 Did indentured servants in British North America have job security?
- 📝 What was the internal Soviet reaction to the moon landing?
- 📝 Flag flying dynamics
- 📝 Symbol of the San-colottes
- 📝 In the Middle Ages - 18th century, how long would it take for a blacksmith forge a regular farming scythe to a war scythe?
- 📝 Why is the USA the world's strongest country?
- 📝 How does one wash with sand?
- 📝 What were the circumstances surrounding Forrest's injury at Shiloh?
- 📝 What's the history of the source of the slogan "power to the people"?
- 📝 What is this "d-mac" device?
- 📝 How did schoolgirls dress in Japan in the 1930s/40s?
- 📝 Where is it recorded that Spartan common meals were followed by a recounting of noble deeds?
- 📝 Can anybody identify this uniform?
- 📝 Why did the Emperors leave Rome?
- 📝 Why did the Allied Forces choose Normandy as their geographic point of invasion?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What were John Milton's daily reading habits?
- 📝 What were John Profumo's responsibilities as the Secretary of State for War in Macmillan's government?
- 📝 What were paper airplanes called before there were real airplanes? (i.e. untethered winged flyers, not kites or balloons)
- 📝 What drugs were used in England during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 What were the reasons for the Renaissance / scientific revolution in Europe?
- 📝 Was murdering a slave illegal in American slavery, and if so, what punishments were given for it?
- 📝 What were Hitler's religious beliefs?
- 📝 What were the acceptance criteria in universities of medieval Europe?
- 📝 What were Germany's long-term aims in World War I?
- 📝 What language(s) were spoken within the Holy Roman Empire?
- 📝 What were the reasons for making Prohibition a constitutional amendment?
- 📝 What were the main causes of successful take over of India by Britain?
- 📝 What disruptions were brought about by Islam that the Arabians saw so many victories?
- 📝 Were there any Germans in Japan after the surrender of Germany in May, 1945 and if so, what happened to them?
- 📝 In what way were Renaissance battles like chess matches?
- 📝 Are there any documented examples of wooden ships which were in active service for 100 years or more? If not, what is the longest?
- 📝 What were sandbags used for in medieval duels?
- 📝 What were the logistics of whaling in the 1800s?
- 📝 What were the reasons that the British colonies in North America rebelled but not others?
- 📝 In WWII, what were the major differences in tank combat on the eastern and western fronts?
- 📝 What kind of ink was used by medieval scribes in Iceland, given that there were no plant galls for iron-gall ink?
- 📝 Third Reich? What were the other two?
- 📝 What were birthdays like in Medieval times?
- 📝 What were the Allies' plans if they caught Hitler alive?
- 📝 What were the EMP effects, if any, of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
- 📝 What made the Russian Navy suspect Japanese torpedo boats were in North Sea in 1904?
- 📝 What were the post World War 2 effects on Germany?
- 📝 What were shoe soles made from in previous ages?
- 📝 What East German laws and regulations were extended to the West after unification?
- 📝 What were the 52 kinds of victims persecuted by the Nazis?