“Cambridge... for Seven Years” 1625–1632Shortly before Milton began his first official term (Easter term, 1625) he would
have heard of the death of King James (March 27); the university held solemn
ceremonies marking the king’s funeral (May 7). His pastor at All Hallows, Richard
Stock, died April 20, and Milton just possibly encountered his successor, the noted
collector of travel narratives, Samuel Purchas, whose work he later used extensively
in his History of Moscovia.^19 During Milton’s second term the university was virtually
closed down by plague. It hit London in April, 1625, soon claiming some 35,000
victims – one-sixth of the population. By August Cambridge was so badly stricken
that all public occasions at the university ceased, to resume only in December.
Milton may have spent these months in London or at some rural retreat with his
family.^20
Lent and Easter terms, 1626, were eventful for Milton. In March he evidently
had a serious altercation with his tutor Chappell which resulted in a brief rustication
at home. While the time of this conflict is uncertain, I suspect it happened at this
early stage in Milton’s university career, before he learned how to cope with a
milieu he found frustrating.^21 We can only speculate as to the offense given to or
perceived by Chappell. Insubordination, perhaps – arising from Milton’s impa-
tience with scholastic logic-chopping, staged debates, and the repetitious review of
materials he had already mastered, and with a tutor too busy and important to give
him much personal attention? Theology, perhaps – Milton was still a Calvinist
predestinarian and Chappell was said to have “Arminianized” many of his students.
A personality conflict, perhaps – with Chapell (unlike Young and Gil) failing to
recognize that he had to do with a prodigious talent and Milton bristling to find his
gifts undervalued? Politics, perhaps – with Milton offering unguarded expressions
of anti-Laudian or anti-court sentiments? John Aubrey alludes ambiguously to the
Chapell incident, citing as authority Milton’s younger brother Christopher:
[Milton] was a very hard student in the University, & p[er]formed all his exercises
there wth very good Applause. His lst Tutor there was Mr. Chappell, from whom
receiving some unkindnesse, *whip’t him* he was afterwards (though it seemed /
[symbol for “contrary to”] ye Rules of ye College) transferred to the Tuition of one
Mr. Tovell [Nathaniel Tovey], who dyed Parson of Lutterworth. (EL 10)The words whip’t him are inserted above the line, perhaps indicating informa-
tion Aubrey picked up later and it may be from a less reliable source: whipping was
common enough for younger boys though not for 17-year-olds, and not by tu-
tors.^22 But Milton changed tutors at his return, an unusual procedure indicating that
something serious had happened. And a later letter from Bishop John Bramhall
claims (evidently on Chappell’s authority) that Milton was “turned away by him as
he well deserved to have been both out of the University and out of the society of
men.”^23
From London Milton wrote a Latin verse letter (Elegy I) to his dearest friend