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BIOGRAPHY JONATHAN BATE IS A LONELY CELEBRANT AT JOHN MILTON'S 400TH ANNIVERSARY Milton: Poet, Pamphleter and Patriot BY ANNA BEER BLOOMSBURY, pounds 20, 458 pp T pounds 18 ( pounds 1.25 p&p) 0870 428 4115

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From: The Sunday Telegraph London
Date: 20080120
Author:JONATHAN BATE

In 1964, the quartercentenary of

Shakespeare's birth was marked with festivals, commemorative stamps and a flood of publications. This year, John Milton reaches the 400 mark. In 1708, 1808 and 1908, it would have been fairly widely agreed that, as Shakespeare was our national dramatist, so Milton was our national poet.

'Milton! Thou shouldst be living at this hour: England hath need of thee!' wrote William Wordsworth, one of his greatest admirers, just before his 200th birthday. Anna Beer has published this new biography early in his 400th year, but there do not seem to be plans for festivals ...

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