Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Milton composed Paradise Lost entirely blind. That means, he dictated it out loud! (Source)
Milton always looked sort of young and girlish. His Cambridge buddies nicknamed him the "Lady of Christ's [a college at Cambridge]." (Source)
Milton was married three times. (Source)
Milton (at the age of 34) married his first wife when she was only 17!! Her name was Mary Powell, and she left him a few months after their marriage. Don't worry, she came back to him a few years later. (Source)
During the 1640s Milton wrote several pamphlets about the legality of divorce (prompted in part by his sour marriage to Mary Powell). Divorce was still frowned upon at the time, and Milton got into a little bit of trouble for espousing such radical views. (Source)