John Milton UK

John Milton (1608-1674) is arguably one of England's greatest poets. Born in London, he attended St. Paul's School and Christ's College, Cambridge, where he started to write poetry. Comus was completed and first performed in the period after he left university. A supporter of the Puritan cause and a minister in Cromwell's government during the period of the Commonwealth, Milton was forced to withdraw from society after the Restoration and lived the rest of his life in seclusion, completing his master-pieces Paradise Lost and Samson Agonistes only a few years before his death.