"Fame", John Milton once wrote, "is no plant that grows on mortal soil". Even the great poet himself, however, might have struggled to imagine the global scale on which his achievements are being celebrated four centuries later.

Today (Tuesday, December 9th), is the 400th anniversary of Milton's birth; an event which his former Cambridge University College, Christ's, commemorated over the weekend with a concert of music from his time and readings of his poetry and prose. It marks the finale in a year-long programme of performances, lectures and exhibitions that has attracted attention not just in Cambridge, but around the world.

Over the last 12 months, tens of thousands of people have visited exhibitions displaying rarely-seen papers and drafts written by Milton himself, attended performances of some of his best-known works, tuned in online to the first ever live internet reading of his great epic, Paradise Lost, or visited and used new web resources designed both for dedicated Milton scholars, and for those who have never encountered his work before.

Now, as the emphasis begins to shift from the poet's quatercentenary to the University of Cambridge's own 800th anniversary in 2009, organisers hope that they have not just inspired a new wave of enthusiasm for Milton's work, but paid tribute to him by leaving a lasting legacy of materials for future readers.

"The year has been a phenomenal success", Dr Gavin Alexander, a fellow at Christ's College and Director of the Milton 400 celebrations, said. "Milton is still being taught in schools at the moment, but he is increasingly marginalised in favour of more modern literature and he is often perceived as 'difficult' by teachers. Hopefully, we have shown not just how important he is, but how exciting he is as well."

Milton himself spent seven years at Cambridge, entering Christ's College in 1625, when he was 16. The experience was crucial in his intellectual formation, and before he left he had been recognised by his tutors and fellow-students (who dubbed him "the Lady of Christ's" by virtue of his feminine looks) as a poet in the making. Scholars now consider him one of the most significant writers of all time, and both Paradise Lost and his treatise condemning censorship - Areopagitica - are regarded as some of the finest examples of their forms.

One of the chief aims of the anniversary programme has been to show Milton as the "complete humanities figure": a man who wrote in a range of genres, in several languages, and on an extraordinary range of subjects. His greatest works left their mark on literature and the arts, but Milton also introduced hundreds of new words to the English language, and produced influential and powerful political tracts on issues such as religious freedom and republicanism that inspired later generations.

Tributes to those and other achievements will remain after the 400th anniversary celebrations have ceased in the form of two websites in particular. The Milton 400 site (https://www.christs.cam.ac.uk/milton400/), provides resources including a biography and annotated bibliography of Milton's work, essays on his polymathic influence, podcasts from the 400th anniversary lectures given by leading academics, and audio files from the 12-hour Paradise Lost reading, which can be downloaded book by book.

A second site, Darkness Visible (https://www.christs.cam.ac.uk/darknessvisible/), has been put together by students at Christ's College itself and aims to provide school pupils, students and others new to Milton with a complete guide to Paradise Lost. Users can find out about the author, take a virtual tour of the college in the 17th century, discover more about Milton's influences, and investigate how his poem has continued to inspire works of literature, art and film ever since.

Between them the two web resources have already attracted 55,000 individual visitors. Other Milton events during 2008 have proved similarly successful - with more than 5,000 tuning in live for the Paradise Lost performance, thousands more visiting exhibitions both in the University Library at Cambridge and the Old Library at Christ's itself, and full houses for each of the anniversary lectures.

English lecturers from Cambridge took part in the 2008 Prince's Teaching Institute residential course for about 50 English teachers, where a lecture and seminar on Milton illustrated the continued importance of teaching him in schools. Groups of sixth formers have also visited Christ's College, where they participated in study sessions on Milton with current undergraduates, and had a chance to inspect the college's own collection of "Miltoniana" first-hand.

"Many of the teachers we have spoken to have felt inspired to teach Milton as a result, and in that sense perhaps traditional perceptions about him are starting to change" Dr Alexander added. "Time will tell if this year's affirmation of his importance and centrality to the study of literature and history have gained him a new following, but we think it has certainly helped to make a difference."

Links to both Milton websites can be found to the right of this page.
 

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