Who was Edward King, the subject of Milton’s Lycidas?

Edward King was a contemporary of John Milton at the University of Cambridge and a fellow student who was preparing for a career as a clergyman. He died in August 1637 when he drowned in a shipwreck while crossing the Irish Sea.12

Milton commemorated King in his pastoral elegy titled "Lycidas," which was published in 1638 in a collection of elegies by Cambridge students titled Justa Edouardo King Naufrago ("Obsequies in Memory of Edward King"). In the poem, Milton uses the name Lycidas—a traditional shepherd's name—to represent King, mourning him as a virtuous and promising young man whose premature death prevented him from fulfilling his potential as both a poet and a minister. Many scholars suggest that Milton viewed King as an alter ego, using the poem to reflect on the fragility of life and the interruption of personal aspirations.12