Henry Hart Milman

Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868). Portrait by George Frederic Watts (1817-1904), circa 1863. Courtey Wikimedia Commons.

Rev. Henry Hart Milman (10 February 1791 - 24 September 1868) was an English poet, historian, and ecclesiastic.

Life

Overview

Milman, son of Sir Francis Milman, a distinguished physician, was educated at Eton and Oxford. Taking orders he became in 1835 rector of St. Margaret's, Westminster, and in 1849 Dean of St. Paul's. He also held the professorship of Poetry at Oxford, 1821-1831. Among his poetical works may be mentioned Fazio (drama) (1815), Samor (epic) (1818), The Fall of Jerusalem (1820), The Martyr of Antioch (1822), and Anne Boleyn (1826). It is, however, on his work as an historian that his literary fame chiefly rests, his chief works in this department being his History of the Jews (1830), History of Christianity (1840), and especially The History of Latin Christianity (6 volumes 1854-1856), which is 1 of the most important historical works of the century, characterised alike by literary distinction and by learning and research. Milman also brought out a valuable edition of Gibbon's Decline and Fall, and wrote a History of St. Paul's Cathedral.

Youth and education

Milman was the 3rd son of Sir Francis Milman, physician to George III. He was educated under Dr. Burney at Greenwich, and subsequently at Eton and Brasenose College, Oxford, where his career was remarkably brilliant. He matriculated 25 May 1810, and earned a B.A. in 1814, an M.A. in 1816, and a B.D. and D.D. 1849.

In 1814 Milman was elected a fellow of Brasenose, and in 1816 was awarded the chancellor's prize for an English essay on "A Comparative Estimate of Sculpture and Painting."

Career

Milman was an early and intimate friend of Reginald Heber for whose Hymnal he wrote "By thy birth and early years," "Brother, thou art gone before us," "When our heads are bowed with woe," and other hymns, which have acquired and retain high popularity.

He took holy orders in 1816, and was in 1818 presented to the important living of St. Mary's, Reading.

On 11 March 1824 he married Mary Ann, daughter of Lieutenant William Cockell, by whom he had 4 sons and 2 daughters.

In 1827 Milman was selected to deliver the Bampton lectures, and took as his subject the evidence for Christianity derived from the conduct and character of the apostles. The treatment was no more original than the theme.

Milman was highly esteemed in society, and his intimate friends included Macaulay, Hallam, Sydney Smith, Lockhart, and his publisher, John Murray. Mr. Lecky has eulogised him unstintedly, and has described the harmony and symmetry of his mind and its freedom from eccentricity or habits of exaggeration.

In 1835 Sir Robert Peel took advantage of his brief tenure of office to make Milman canon of Westminster and rector of St. Margaret's, Westminster, dignities invariably conferred on men of special eminence.

In 1849, Lord John Russell advanced Milman to the deanery of St. Paul's. No position in the church could have better become him than the charge of a great historical cathedral, and he speedily obtained the general recognition which his talents and accomplishments had always merited.

The remainder of Milman's life was principally occupied in the discharge of the duties of his office, where his intellectual superiority acquired for him the designation of "the great dean." To him were due several innovations calculated to make the services at St. Paul's popular and accessible. On Advent Sunday, 28 November 1858, he inaugurated evening services under the dome. He bequeathed, moreover, such a memorial to his cathedral as few deans would have been able to bequeath, in his delightful history of the edifice, completed and published by his son after his death in 1868.

Milman died on 24 Sept. 1868 at a house near Ascot which he had taken for the summer. He was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.

Writing

Although Milman was far from contemptible as a poet, his reputation must rest on his historical work. "That such a writer," writes Mr. Lecky, "should have devoted himself to the department of history, which, more than any other, has been distorted by ignorance, puerility, and dishonesty, I conceive to be one of the happiest facts of English literature" (European Morals, Pref. p. x). His intellect may have lacked originality, but he was a pioneer in the study of Sanscrit poetry and in the application of criticism to Jewish history.

Fazio

His first poetical publication was a drama, Fazio, composed at Oxford, and described by the author as "an attempt at reviving the old national drama with greater simplicity of plot." Though "written with some view to the stage," it was published in book form in 1815 (2nd edit. 1816).

It was first acted at the Surrey Theatre, without the author's knowledge, under the title of The Italian Wife. Having succeeded there and at Bath, it was appropriated by the managers of Covent Garden, who astonished Milman by the request that Charles Kemble might be allowed to read the part of Fazio to him. The imperfection of the law of copyright would have frustrated any objections that he might have entertained, but, though protesting, he was flattered by the compliment, and the play was performed for the first time in London on 5 Feb. 1818, with triumphant effect, mainly owing to the acting of Miss O'Neill (who had seen the piece before publication and had then discouraged Milman from anticipating for it any success on the stage).

Fanny Kemble subsequently played the part of Bianca with great effect, both in England and America, while Madame Ristori, when at the height of her fame in 1856, had it translated into Italian and appeared with much success as Bianca both in London and abroad. The plot, indeed, which is taken from a story in Varieties of Literature (reprinted in 1795 by the Annual Register, where Milman saw it), is powerful, and much the most effective element in the play. The diction is florid, and full of the false taste which had come in by perhaps inevitable reaction from the inanimate style of the 18th century.

Poetry

Milman's next publication, Samor: The lord of the bright city’ (1818; 2nd edition, same year), an epic of the class of Southey's Madoc and Landor's Gebir, though not recalling the manner of either of these poets, had been begun at Eton, and nearly finished at Oxford. The subject is the Saxon invasion of Britain in Vortigern's days. The "bright city" is Gloucester. The poem contains much fine writing in both senses of the term, and the author in after life subjected it to a severe revision.

Southey, in criticising the poem, suggested that Milman's powers were "better fitted for the drama than for narration" (Southey, Corresp. chap. xii.), and he told Scott that Samor was "too full" of power and beauty.

Milman's next works were more mature in thought and independent in style, and the vital interest of their subjects almost raised him to the rank of an original poet. In The Fall of Jerusalem, a dramatic poem (1820), the conflict between Jewish conservatism and new truth is forcibly depicted (Corresp. of John Jebb and Alex. Knox, ii. 434-44). In The Martyr of Antioch, another dramatic poem (1822), a no less effective contrast is delineated in the struggle between human affections and fidelity to conviction. The description of Jerusalem put into the mouth of Titus has been greatly admired, and with reason, but is unfortunately too fair a sample of the entire work. Belshazzar, also a dramatic poem (1822), is chiefly remarkable for its lyrics; and Anne Boleyn (1826), a poor performance, terminated Milman's career as a dramatist.

Translations

But he was still to render an important and an unprecedented service to English poetry by his translations from the Sanskrit. These he was led to make by having exhausted the subjects which he had prescribed to himself for his lectures as Oxford Professor of Poetry. Having gained some acquaintance with Indian poetry from the works of foreign scholars, he taught himself to a certain extent Sanskrit, whose resemblance to Greek delighted him, and, with the assistance of Professor H.H. Wilson, produced some very creditable versions of passages from the Indian epics, especially the pathetic story of Nala and Damayanti. These were published in 1835. They have been long superseded, but the achievement was none the less memorable.

At a later period (1849) he published an elegant edition of Horace, and in 1865 excellent translations of the Agamemnon and the Bacchæ.

Historical writing

The historical character of Milman's mind was shown by the principal literary labours of his later years. In 1838 he had edited Gibbon, a task which hardly admits of satisfactory performance. So vast is the theme so enormous the amount of illustration supplied by recent research, that either the editor's labours must appear inadequate, or the text must disappear beneath the commentary. Milman chose the former alternative, but his edition, with the reinforcement of Guizot's notes, is still, perhaps, the standard one, though this is not a position which it can ultimately retain. In 1839 he published the Life of E. Gibbon, Esq., with Selections from his Correspondence and Illustrations.

History of the Jews

In 1830 a book appeared from his pen, to which, though not in itself of extraordinary merit, the epithet "epoch-making" might be applied with perfect propriety: his History of the Jews (1830), written for Murray's Family Library. In this unpretending book for the 1st time "an English clergyman treated the Jews as an oriental tribe, recognised sheiks and emirs in the Old Testament, shifted and classified documentary evidence, and evaded or minimised the miraculous."

Consternation, which the author had not anticipated, spread among the orthodox; the sale of the book was not only stopped, but the publication of the series in which it appeared ceased. Bishop Mant and Dr. Faussett were among the more conspicuous of his assailants, and a greater man, John Henry Newman, who reviewed it in the British Critic so late as January 1841, has recorded in his ‘Apologia’ the unfavourable impression it produced upon him at the time.

It was, however, well reviewed in the Gentleman's Magazine (1830, i. 134-7) as an "excellent work," "written upon those enlightened principles which alone will be regarded in modern times," while some representative Jews presented Milman with a piece of plate in recognition of his liberal treatment of their history.

The book was republished in 1863 and again in 1867, with great improvements, and an able introduction, in which Milman clearly defined his own position. This he further illustrated in his university sermon on Hebrew prophecy, preached in 1865.

History of Latin Christianity

After The History of the Jews he was regarded with distrust and dislike, and when his History of Christianity under the Empire appeared in 1840, it was, said Lord Melbourne, as completely ignored as if the clergy had taken a universal oath never to mention it to anyone.

There followed in 1855 his own great historical work, The History of Latin Christianity down to the Death of Pope Nicholas V. Milman here selected a subject on which libraries might be written, but the necessity for a comparatively brief general survey will always exist, and Milman's book, while meeting this want, is at the same time executed on a scale and in a style answerable to the dignity of history. Macaulay deemed the substance "excellent," although the style was, in his opinion, "very much otherwise." The call for a 2nd edition in 1856 was described by Macaulay as "creditable to the age" (Life, 626.).

The task was 1 for which the cast of Milman's mind and the tenor of his studies fully qualified him. The shortcomings and minor inaccuracies are amply compensated by qualities till then rare in ecclesiastical historians — liberality, candour, sympathy, and catholic appreciation of every estimable quality in every person or party — which not only contributed an especial charm to the work, but may be said to have permanently raised the standard of ecclesiastical history.

Milman also possessed the fine sense of historical continuity, and the power of endowing institutions with personality, so necessary to the historian of an august corporation like the Latin church. The fundamental distinctions between Latin and Greek or oriental Christianity and the parallelisms between Latin and Teutonic Christianity are admirably worked out. His great defect is the one visible in his dramas the lack of creative imagination, which prevented him from drawing striking portraits of the great company of illustrious men who passed under his review.

Miscellaneoous

In 1859 he had written, for the Transactions of the Royal Society, a memoir of his friend Macaulay, which was prefixed to later editions of the historian's works. Some of his articles in the Quarterly Review, to which in his early days he was a constant, and in later years an occasional contributor, including essays on "Erasmus" and "Savonarola," were collected and published by his son in 1870.

Recognition

In 1812 he won the Newdigate Prize with an English poem on the Apollo Belvidere, which was considered by Dean Stanley the most perfect of Oxford prize poems.

In 1821 he was elected Oxford Professor of Poetry, serving until 1831.

A monument to him was erected by public subscription in St. Paul's Cathedral, in the south aisle of the choir.

A portrait by G.F. Watts belonged to his eldest son, Rev. W.H. Milman. An engraving by W. Holl is prefixed to the 4th edition of the History of Latin Christianity.

Publications

Poetry

• Samor, Lord of the Bright City: An heroic poem. London: John Murray, 1818; New York: C. Wiley, 1818.
• The Fall of Jerusalem: A dramatic poem. London: John Murray, 1820.
• Belshazzar: A dramatic poem / The Martyr of Antioch: A dramatic poem.. London: John Murray, 1822.
• Anne Boleyn: A dramatic poem. London: John Murray, 1826.
• The Poetical Works. (3 volumes), London: John Murray, 1839.

Play

• Fazio; or, The Italian wife: A tragedy. Oxford, UK: S. Collingwood, 1816.

Non-fiction

• The character and conduct of the apostles considered as an evidence of Christianity: In eight sermons. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press for John Murray, 1827.
• The History of the Jews: From the earliest period down to modern times. (3 volumes), London: John Murray, 1829, 1866; New York: J. & J. Harper, 1830; London: Dent / New York: Dutton, 1943. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III
• The History of Christianity: From the birth of Christ to the abolition of paganism in the Roman Empire. London: John Murray, 1840.
• History of Latin Christianity: Including that of the Popes, to the pontificate of Nicolas V]. (9 volumes), London: John Murray, 1854. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III, Volume IV, Volume V, Volume VI, Volume VII, Volume IX
• Life of Quintus Horatius Flaccus. London: John Murray, 1854.
• Church Extension in the British Colonies and Dependencies: A sermon. London: John Murray, 1860.
• Life of Thomas a Becket. New York: Sheldon, 1860.
• Annals of St Paul's Cathedral. London: John Murray, 1861
  • revised as Handbook to the Cathedrals of England: St. Paul's. London: John Murray, 1879.
• Savonarola, Erasmus, and other essays. London: John Murray, 1870.

Translated

• Nala and Damyanti, and other poems. Oxford, UK: D.A. Talboys, 1835; Allahabad, Pakistan: Panini Office, 1914.

• Nalopākhyānam = Story of Nala: An episode of the Mahā-Bhārata (translated with M.A. Monier-Williams). Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1849.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of British poets

Preceded by John Josias Conybeare

Oxford Professor of Poetry 1821-1831

Succeeded by John Keble

• List of English-language hymnists

WINCHESTER NEW-RIDE ON,RIDE ON,IN MAJESTY

References

•  Garnett, Richard (1894) "Milman, Henry Hart" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 38 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 1-4 . Wikisource, Web, Feb. 24, 2017.
• Archibald Campbell Tait, Sermon in Memory of H.H. Milman (London, 1868)
• Arthur Milman, H.H. Milman (London, 1900)
• Memoirs of R. Milman, bishop of Calcutta, by his sister, Frances Maria Milman (1879)
• W.M. Parker, 'Dean Milman and the Quarterly Review', Quarterly Review, 293 (1955), 30–43.

External links

Poems

• Milman in A Victorian Anthology, 1837-1895: "Hymn for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity," "Burial Hymn," "Ride on in Majesty"
• Henry Hart Milman at Poetry Nook (5 poems)

Hymns

• Henry Hart Milman at CyberHymnal (4 hymns)
• Henry Hart Milman at Hymnary (profile & 26 hymns)

Books

• Works by Henry Hart Milman at Project Gutenberg
• Henry Hart Milman at the Online Books Page
• Henry Hart Milman at Amazon.com

About

• Milman, Henry Hart in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Milman, Henry Hart in the Dictionary of National Biography