Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Areopagitica, Milton's tract in favor of a free press, was a key resource in the crafting of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.18
Milton met the astronomer Galileo during his post-university tour of Europe.19
Milton wrote poetry in Latin and Italian as well as in English.20
Some scholars have argued that the light sabers used in Star Wars are actually a play on the "flaming swords" Milton describes in Paradise Lost. George Lucas has yet to weigh in.21
Four hundred years after his death, Milton is still causing political controversy. On the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the United States, Milton scholar John Carey published a controversial op-ed arguing that Milton's poem "Samson Agonistes" was sympathetic to terrorism and should perhaps be removed from libraries.22
Milton's daughters were so opposed to his third marriage to Elizabeth Minshull that Mary Milton allegedly claimed that she'd rather have her father die than go through with the marriage.23