Famous 15th Century writer Milton probably lost his sight due to Galaucoma
Does anyone else ever wonder how some of the tests that opticians do work? I was baffled at my last visit there by a machine that blew blasts of air into my eye. However, after some Googling, it seems that this is designed to measure the pressure in the eye, to help detect glaucoma, one of the most common causes of blindness worldwide.
Glaucoma is a serious condition that affects the optic nerve (the nerve that carries visual information from the eye to the brain). It can be classified in a number of ways; one of the most important distinctions is between acute and chronic glaucoma. Acute glaucoma is an ophthalmological emergency, because sufferers can lose their sight very quickly. Chronic glaucoma, which is probably what John Milton suffered from, also leads to blindness if left untreated. It has an insidious onset, with sufferers gradually losing their sight from the periphery inwards. The causes are uncertain: although most cases of glaucoma are believed to be linked to raised pressure in the eye, this does not account for all instances.
Although glaucoma is now treatable if detected early enough, four hundred years ago, sufferers would inevitably lose their sight. John Milton, most famous for Paradise Lost, experienced the beginnings of visual loss in 1644, which he described as “a mist appearing in the left part of the left eye”. By 1652, he was almost completely blind.
For Milton, this was a personal tragedy. He relied on friends and relatives to help him live and work. In seventeenth century England, blindness was considered to be a punishment from God. Milton’s political enemies tried to use his disability as a means to discredit him. However, he did come to accept his condition, writing “To be blind is not miserable; not to be able to bear blindness, that is.” Milton believed that blindness allowed him to ‘see’ political and moral truth more clearly. He felt it was his duty to write and share this truth with others – that he might “see and tell / Of things invisible to mortal sight.” (Paradise Lost III 54-55)
It is a testament to Milton’s personal strength and the support that he received from those around him that he was able to continue to work and write, despite his blindness, at a time when those who were disabled often ended up in extreme poverty.
Story by: Emily Smith
Source: Varsity
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