What is the contemporary equivalent of this passage?

Question

"I am not, indeed, sure whether it is not true to say that the Milton who once seemed not unlike a seventeenth-century Shelley had not become, out of an experience ever more bitter in each year, more alien [sic] to the founder of that Jesuit sect which nothing could induce him to tolerate."

Answer 1

Try taking out every two negative words!  : )  

To put this wrirter's thoughts more simply, I'd say, "I believe that Milton, who once seemed something of a seventeenth-century Shelley, became more bitter and hardened over the years toward the Jesuits and their founder."

And what pedant tortured the language that way?!  >:(

Answer 2

Maybe Brittany Spears -- a talent rich person who declines into drugs, alcohol and parental negligence, to the point that she is no longer a viable performer?

Or another possibility might be someone who became a political candidate and became well known for an entirely different field than originally famous for -- like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

But neither of these quite fit the comparison, since your quoted text seems to indicate that Milton went from being a budding superstar as a novelist, to a bitter religious person who was very anti-Jesuit church.

Sorry. Hope this helps.