1. In which city was Milton?

a)Norwich
b)York
c)London
d)Canterbury


2. When was John Milton born?

a) 22 April 1600
b) 19 August 1604
c) 6 June 1606
d) 9 December 1608


3. Which school did Milton attend?

a)St Paul's
b)Christ's Hospital
c)Merchant Taylors'
d)Westminster


4. Milton continued his studies at Cambridge. Which college of the university did he attend?

a) Pembroke College
b) Trinity College
c) Christ’s College
d) St. Xavier’s College

5. Edward King, a minor poet and a contemporary of Milton's at Cambridge, was drowned at sea in 1637. Milton wrote an elegy for him. What was the title of this poem?

a)lycidas
b)Paradise Lost
c)Il penseroso

6. In 1638 and 1639 Milton traveled abroad. In which country did he spend most of the time?

a)Germany
b)France
c)Italy
d)Spain

7. How many times did Milton marry?

a)2
b)0
c)1
d)3

8. John Milton was 34 when he married Mary Powell. How old was she?

a) 48
b) 34
c) 22
d) 17


9. Milton was a royalist?

True or False


10. Which of the following works was NOT written by John Milton?

a)'L'Allegro'
b)'Lycidas'
c)'Il Penseroso'
d)'Absolom and Achitophel'


11. In 1634 Milton wrote a masque. What's the name of that masque?

a)'Il Penseroso'
b)'Lycidas'
c)'Comus'
d)'The Masque of Blackness'


12. Which of these words or usages did Milton NOT coin?

a)Space – used to mean “outer space”
b)Unaccountable
c)Pandemonium
d)Blatant

13. Following parliament’s victory in the civil war, Milton was appointed to a position in Cromwell’s government in 1649. What was his title?
a)Heresy tsar
b)Poet laureate
c)Secretary to the Admiralty
d)Secretary for Foreign Tongues


14. As well as poetry, Milton published extensively on politics, philosophy and religion. Which of the following was NOT one of his works?

a)Of Prelatical Episcopacy
b)The Likeliest Means to Remove Hirelings from the Church
c)Of Practical Exorcisme
d)Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce


15. When did John Milton die?

a) 4 February 1702
b) 2 June 1700
c) 17 April 1688
d) 8 November 1674


16. "Milton, thou should'st be living at this hour. England hath need of thee." Indeed. But who was it, summoning his ghost?

a)Horatio Herbert Kitchener
b)William Blake
c)William Wordsworth
d)John Keats


17. The 20th century has been less kind to his memory. TS Eliot found his imagery distracting, and considered his work “not serious poetry”, but it was another critic who accused him of “callousness to the intrinsic nature of English”. Who?

a)FR Leavis
b)Harold Bloom
c)William Empson
d)Mariella Frostrup





1)c
2)d
3)a
4)c
5)a
6)c
7)d
8)d
9)False
10)d
11)c
12)d
13)d
14)c
15)d
16)c
17)a