MILTON. 
 
 A SHEAF OF GLEANINGS 
 
 AFTER HIS 
 
 BIO&EAPHEES AND ANNOTATOES : 
 
 I. GENEALOGICAL INVESTIGATION. 
 II. NOTES ON SOME OF HIS POEMS. 
 
 BY JOSEPH HUNTER. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JOHN EUSSELL SMITH, 
 
 4, OLD COMPTON STREET, SOHO SQUARE. 
 MPCCCI*. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. GENEALOGICAL INVESTIGATION. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1. HlS PATERNAL ANCESTRY . . 1 
 
 2. THE POET'S FATHER . . .10 
 
 3. MILTON'S MOTHER . . 18 
 
 4. MlLTON INTENDED FOR THE LAW . 21 
 
 5. THE POET'S TRAYELS . . 23 
 
 6. His SETTLEMENT IN LONDON . . 24 
 
 7. MILTON'S FIRST MARRIAGE THE POWELS 27 
 
 8. MILTON'S SECOND MARRIAGE . . 35 
 
 9. His THIRD MARRIAGE THE MINSHULS 36 
 
 10. SIR CHRISTOPHER MILTON . . 42 
 
 11. MILTON'S LAST LONDON RESIDENCE . 43 
 
 II. NOTES ON SOME OF THE POETICAL WORKS. 
 
 1. COMUS . . . .44 
 
 2. LTCIDAS . , . 46 
 
 3. EPITAPH ON THE MARCHIONESS OF WINCHESTER 52 
 
 4. ODE ON THE NATIVITY . . 53 
 
 5. L' ALLEGRO . . . ,53 
 
 6. IL PENSEROSO ... 54 
 
 7. PARADISE LOST 54 
 
 M609939 
 
MILTON. 
 
 I. OENEALOaiCAL INVESTIGATION. 
 
 I. His PATERNAL ANCESTRY. In a well-known passage 
 of the Defensio Secunda, Milton claims for himself that he 
 was of generous descent : " Londini sum natus, genere ho- 
 nesto." Yet no proof of this has been given either by his 
 earlier or later biographers, and we should apply in vain to 
 the ordinary sources of information of this kind, for any 
 thing that could support such a claim, if the phrase is to be 
 taken in any of the higher senses which belong to it. 
 
 For any thing beyond the father the little that has been 
 transmitted to us is comprised in the following statement in 
 Mr. Archdeacon Todd's Life of the Poet : " The grand- 
 father was Under-ranger or Keeper of the forest of Shotover 
 near Halton in Oxfordshire. He was a bigotted Papist, 
 and disinherited his son, the poet's father, because, when a 
 member of Christ Church, Oxford, he became a Protestant.'* 
 I have discovered evidence which enables me to give a 
 little more of precision and authority to some part of this 
 statement. 
 
 There exists among the Records of the Exchequer a series 
 of Eolls known by the name of the Recusant Rolls, on which 
 was entered year by year an account of- the fines levied on 
 those persons who had not acquiesced in the Reformation, 
 recently effected, for non-attendance at their parish churches, 
 or of compositions made by them. 
 
 B 
 
2 MILTON. 
 
 Each county is treated apart, and in the Eoll for Oxfordshire 
 of the forty-third year of Queen Elizabeth, 1601, we find 
 the name of " Eichard Milton of Stanton St. John, yeoman." 
 On the 13th of July 1601, this person was fined in the sum 
 of 60 for not having resorted to his parish church for the 
 three months following the 6th of December, 1600. This 
 was ruinous work to a family of but slender fortunes : but 
 he was not subdued by it, for a second fine of the same 
 amount was imposed upon him soon after for not having 
 attended church from the 13th of July, 1601, to the 4th of 
 October following, nor having made his submission, nor pro- 
 mised to be conformable, pursuant to the statute of the 23rd 
 of Elizabeth. Another inhabitant of the parish of Stanton 
 St. John, named Thomas Stacey, was subjected to the same 
 penalty. 
 
 Stanton St. John is one of the townships which form the 
 Hundred of Bullington, one of the Hundreds of Oxfordshire. 
 In this Hundred is Shotover, parcel of the forest of Bern- 
 wood, and Stowe-wood, the former being of the extent of 
 811 acres, and the latter of 485, according to a survey made 
 in the 9th of Elizabeth. Shotover bounded on another 
 wood called St. John's Wood, which belonged to Magdalene 
 College, and a wood and lease of pasture belonging to Cor- 
 pus Christi College, which wood and lease were known by 
 the name of Pirial Plain, " and so continueth forth by the 
 lordship of Horspath to the lordship of Whately in the east, 
 and to the lordship of Forest-Hill and Stanton St. John 
 north-east."* We have, therefore, found a Milton living on 
 the borders of Shotover Forest, a man of a certain substance, 
 and so zealously attached to the ancient form and order of 
 
 * Forest Documents in the Exchequer. 
 
the English Church, that he ventured to incur the severe 
 and extreme penalties that were imposed upon him : and 
 since he lived at the close of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 
 which is the chronological period of the grandfather of the 
 poet, it can hardly be doubted that in this Richard Milton 
 of Stanton St. John we have found the poet's grandfather, 
 by whom his father is said to have been disinherited. "We 
 may add that though in the Hundred of Eullington there 
 were many other Roman Catholics, yet there is no trace to 
 be found of any other Milton being of that profession there 
 or in any other part of Oxfordshire. The most considerable 
 of the Roman Catholic families of the Hundred of Bullington 
 were the Powels of Sandford, who remained stedfast Ca- 
 tholics to the time of their extinction early in the last 
 century. 
 
 The quality of Richard Milton is that designated by the 
 term "yeoman :" and though the yeoman of those days may 
 have been relatively superior to the yeoman of the present 
 day, it seems as if it scarcely bore out the claim which the 
 poet makes to be " genere honesto," in any of its higher 
 senses. If it could be proved that he held an office under 
 the Crown, even were it only as an Under-Ranger or Keeper 
 of one of the Royal Forests, this might be considered by his 
 descendant as conferring upon him the rank and position of 
 a gentleman, or after all the "yeoman" of the Recusant 
 Roll being written, we may suppose by no friendly hand, 
 may not quite have come up to the quality which actually 
 belonged to a man who sent his son to Christ Church. 
 Much, however, as I have seen of documentary evidence 
 relating to Shotover at that period, such as Presentments 
 
MILTON. 
 
 and Accounts, which are the kind of documents in which we 
 might expect to find the name, I have seen no mention of 
 any Milton having held any office in the Forest, but only 
 having transactions with those who did hold such offices ; 
 and the only other evidence concerning this Richard Milton 
 of Stanton that has fallen under my notice, is that he, or at 
 least a person of that name, was assessed to the Subsidy of 
 the 19th of Elizabeth, 1577, amongst the inhabitants of 
 Stanton. He is not charged on lands, but on goods only, as 
 if he had no lands, and the goods were assessed on an an- 
 nual value of Three Pounds. These sums in the Subsidy 
 Rolls afford however only a criterion of the relative, not the 
 actual importance, of the person against whose names they 
 stand. There is in these Rolls of the 19th of Elizabeth a 
 very long list of the assessed inhabitants within the County 
 of Oxford, and the only Milton is this Richard of Stanton 
 St. John. We have here, as in so many instances, to regret 
 that the early Parish Registers of Stanton St. John are lost. 
 The carelessness with which evidence of this kind has been 
 treated is for ever depriving us of the means of obtaining 
 exact information concerning even our most eminent men, 
 and transactions most important in their consequences. 
 
 Contemporary with him, though a little later, were two 
 other Miltons, whose residence was in the vicinity of Shot- 
 over. At Beckley lived a Rowland Milton, who is described 
 as a " husbandman." He is not found holding any office in 
 the Forest, but rather as a troublesome neighbour to those 
 who did so ; for in the 33rd of Elizabeth, 1591, he was sub- 
 jected to a small fine for having cut down a cart-load of 
 wood, without license, in the Queen's Wood called Lodge 
 
GENEALOGICAL INVESTIGATION. 5 
 
 Coppice.* Five years before lie had bought certain ash-trees 
 of the Regarders of Stow- wood. This person was living in 
 1599. 
 
 Near to Stanton and Beckley, and close to Shotover Forest, 
 is a place called Elfield, where, about the same time, lived 
 one E/obert Milton, to whom and his companions, the officers 
 of the Forest, paid forty shillings for hedging Beckley Cop- 
 pice, and for gates and iron-work. The document is without 
 a date. 
 
 Such is the best, and indeed the only account that I am 
 able to give of the Miltons, who, in the reign of Elizabeth, 
 were living in the parts of Oxfordshire which border on the 
 Shotover district, nor have I been able to trace them at all 
 in that district before the time when Richard of Stanton 
 must have lived. "We must not, however, while looking to 
 contemporary evidence, in questions of this kind the best of 
 all, entirely overlook later testimonies, of which perhaps we 
 may not be able to estimate the value truly. I add, there- 
 fore, that we find in a Manuscript in the Ashmolean Library, 
 written after the time when the Poet could be spoken of as 
 " the eminent writer," that he was a son of John Milton, of 
 Halton, by Sarah Bradshaw his wife, and grandson of John 
 
 Milton, of Halton, by a daughter of Jeiferies. To 
 
 what credit any part of this statement is entitled, I am 
 unable to say. Halton it must be observed is a member of 
 the Hundred of BulliDgton, and therefore near to Shotover ; 
 but we have no Milton in any known list of the inhabitants 
 
 * This was an offence which was often committed. In a Presentment 
 of 1591 we find the Church- Wardens of Headington charged with having 
 cut down " custom-boughs at Whitsuntide for the Church." The Church- 
 Wardens of Forest -Hill had done the same. 
 
6 MILTON. 
 
 there ; and that his mother was a Bradshaw is at variance 
 with the testimony of his nephew Philips. 
 
 The descendants of the family claimed to themselves that 
 their ancestors had been " Milton of Milton," and that the 
 family had been ruined in the wars of the two houses. 
 This has an imposing sound, and true it is that there is a 
 place called Milton, very near the borders of Shotover 
 Forest, though separated from it by the river Tame, and 
 it is a not unreasonable presumption, that the Miltons of 
 whom we have spoken, may have derived their surname from 
 fc that village. But that there was ever any race of persons 
 who answer to the idea called up by the phrase, " Milton of 
 Milton," cannot, I conceive, be shewn with any evidence. 
 We have nothing of them in any Inquisition, nor I believe 
 has any proof ever been given of the existence of such a 
 race. 
 
 Yet that there were Miltons, persons of good repute in 
 the counties of Oxford and Buckingham, though not de- 
 scribed as of Milton, is proved by two pieces of evidence of 
 the reign of King Henry the Sixth. In the 15th of that 
 reign, a R/oger Milton was the Collector of the Fifteenths 
 and Tenths in the county of Oxford : and in an Inquisition 
 taken at Stanwell, in Middlesex, before John May, the Es- 
 cheator, on the 1st of July, in the 6th of that reign, after 
 the death of Richard Wyndesore, Esquire, among persons 
 holding lands of his manor of Stanwell, is John de Milton, 
 who held the manor of Burnham in Buckinghamshire, by 
 the service of half a knight's fee. This is the best proof 
 existing of the original gentility of what may have been the 
 Poet's family. And with this may be connected the well- 
 ascertained fact, that when the father of the poet had esta- 
 
GENEALOGICAL INVESTIGATION. 
 
 Wished himself in London, in his profes- 
 sion of a scrivener, he placed over his 
 office door the device of an eagle displayed, 
 an heraldic ensign, apparently challenging 
 it as his hereditary right. This figure and 
 the crest, hereafter mentioned, appear also 
 on a seal still existing, which on very 
 sufficient evidence, is said to have formerly 
 belonged to the poet. On what authority 
 the elder Milton depicted this figure on his 
 sign is not known ; but it is a remarkable 
 fact that the eagle displayed is the armorial 
 insignia of Mitton, a Shropshire family, 
 whose name is radically different from Milton, though 
 approaching so near to it in its orthography. See for 
 Mitton' s claim to parti per pale azure and gules, an eagle 
 displayed with two heads or, the Visitation of London 
 of 1633 and 1634. Yet still the Miltons seem to have 
 had an authentic claim to this bearing, since in the 
 volume of Sir William Segar's Grants, which has been lately 
 obtained for the British Museum, is a notice of a grant, 
 recognition or confirmation, for it does not appear which it 
 was, that argent a double-headed eagle displayed gules, 
 beaked and membered azure, is the coat of Mylton of the 
 county of Oxford, with the crest, out of a wreath a lion's 
 gamb couped and erect argent, grasping an eagle's head 
 erased gules. There is no date in the manuscript, but 
 Sir "William Segar held the office of Grarter from 1616 
 to 1632, nor is any thing said of the person at whose 
 instance the recognition took place, but it can hardly be 
 
8 MILTON. 
 
 doubted that it was at the instance of the father of the 
 poet.* 
 
 These details, if they fail in establishing the truth re- 
 specting the origin of this great poet, and leave it still in a 
 degree of obscurity, establish however the fact, how ex- 
 tremely difficult it is in this country to recover genealogical 
 truth respecting families who were not of the class of those 
 who appeared at the Heralds' Visitations, though they might 
 be but just below many who did so appear and entered 
 themselves on record, thus evincing the extreme importance, 
 if it is thought an object of importance at all to hand down 
 accurate information on such a subject as this to our pos- 
 terity, of not trusting to the possible chance of discovering 
 the truth by the search of parish registers, wills, and the 
 other assistance in genealogical investigations, but seizing 
 the opportunity which is always open to every one of enter- 
 ing the facts of this kind which can be proved in the books 
 of the Heralds. 
 
 What has now been said seems to be all that comes legi- 
 timately within the scope of this inquiry, and yet I am 
 induced to trespass further in bringing forward a few facts 
 respecting other persons of the name of Milton living in the 
 forest-country, who may seem to be in some kind of connec- 
 tion with the family which boasts this eminently illustrious 
 name. 
 
 There was living in the latter part of the reign of Queen 
 Elizabeth, and in the reign of King James the First, near to 
 
 * This MS. of Segar's Grants is among the manuscripts called " Ad- 
 ditional," No. 12,225, and the entry respecting the arms of Milton may 
 be found at f. 162. 
 
GENEALOGICAL INVESTIGATION. 9 
 
 the Hundred of Bullington, but not within it, a Nicholas 
 Milton, to whose name we find the addition of " Gentle- 
 man/' and who may therefore be assumed to have been a 
 Milton who claimed a right to coat -armour. This Nicholas 
 resided at Appleton in Berkshire, a place about equally 
 distant from Abington and Oxford. He was living there in 
 the 31st, 32nd and 39th of Elizabeth, when his assessments 
 were upon goods of the annual value of dBlO. He was living 
 as late as the 10th of James I. at which time he was owner 
 of lands at Appleton. A Nicholas Milton, who was certainly 
 the same person, was assessed at Natley-Scures, in the Hun- 
 dred of Basingstoke, in 1590 and 1599, and at Mettingham, 
 in the Hundred of Blackheath, in 1598 and 1607. He was 
 evidently a person of a better condition than the Miltons of 
 the immediate neighbourhood of Shotover. 
 
 One Thomas Milton was a " Sworn R/egarder and Pre- 
 servator of all the Queen's Majesty's Woods within BattelPs 
 Bailiwick, parcel of the Park of Windsor." He and his two 
 associates make answer to certain articles given them in 
 charge by John Norris and Richard Stafferton, Esquires, 
 verdurers of the said Forest of Windsor, dated March 10, 
 1571. Sonning-hall Park, Folie-John Park, and Cranburn 
 Chace were within their division. In 1576 this Thomas 
 Milton had a grant of a tenement called La Eolfe, with two 
 gardens, in New Windsor. In 1624 there was a Robert 
 Milton of Sonning Hall, who had lands in Windsor Forest. 
 
 Further, in 1523 there was a William Milton among the 
 inhabitants of Oxford : in 1559 a person of the same name 
 living at Newbury in Berkshire, and a Richard Milton at 
 Warfield. In the reign of Philip and Mary there was a 
 William Milton, a Collector of Customs in the Port of 
 
 B 2 
 
10 MILTOff. 
 
 London. There was a Somerset family of the name who 
 were farmers of the tithe of Upton, and several Miltons in 
 the Hundred of Brexon in Cheshire, to which county some 
 persons have sought to trace the poet's ancestry. 
 
 II. THE POET'S FATHEB. If Aubrey is here to be de- 
 pended upon, who says that he w r as able to read without spec- 
 tacles at eighty- four, and that he died about 1647, he could 
 not be born later than 1563, so that he must have been 
 between thirty and forty when Richard Milton of Stanton 
 was so severely fined for his recusancy, and forty-five at the 
 time when his son the poet was born. But Aubrey may 
 have represented him as older than he really was. 
 
 We are told that he was sent by his father to Christ 
 Church, but no trace of him as a member of that house is 
 now to be found ; and if any such trace existed it could 
 hardly have escaped the research of two such men as Anthony 
 Wood and Dr. Philip Bliss. He was settled as a Scrivener 
 in Bread Street, near Cheapside, before the close of the 
 reign of Elizabeth. This is proved by the copy of a bond 
 for the payment of money to John Sanderson, an eminent 
 Turkey merchant, in the manuscript book of his transactions 
 now at the Museum.* The date of the bond is March 4, 
 1602 : the money being to be paid on May 5 following, " at 
 the new shop of John Milton, scrivener, in Bread Street, 
 London." He was a witness to the signature of the persons 
 who gave the bond, namely, Thomas Heigheham, of Bethnal 
 Green, Esquire, and Eichard Sparrow, citizen and goldsmith 
 of London. He had thus early in his career respectable 
 clients. 
 
 * Lansdowne MSS. No. 241. 
 
GENEALOGICAL INVESTIGATION. 11 
 
 This it is believed is the earliest date that has hitherto 
 been discovered in the life of the poet's father. It was a 
 " new shop/' as if then only lately opened by him. Some 
 time must have been passed in the practice of the profession 
 before that date ; some time also in preparation for it, and 
 yet there seems to be several years to be accounted for be- 
 tween his leaving the University and engaging in this pro- 
 fession ; and to those years when he was living without any 
 definite plan of life before him is to be referred his cultiva- 
 tion of his musical talent, and some, if not most, of the com- 
 positions which are attributed to him. Morley's " Oriana," 
 to which he was one of the contributors, was published as 
 early as 1601. As the other known contributors to the 
 Oriana were nearly all musicians by profession, it seems but 
 a reasonable conjecture that the elder Milton might have 
 once thought of taking up music as a profession. 
 
 Other musical , compositions of his are, however, to be 
 found in later collections, as in Sir "William Leighton's 
 " Tears of a Sorrowful Soul," 1614, and Slatyer's Psalms, 
 1643. Probably everything has been collected on this sub- 
 ject by Warton, Hawkins, and Burney. Warton's conjecture, 
 that he was the John Melton, author of a book printed in 
 1609, entitled " A Six-fold Politican," requires better proof. 
 
 No other literary composition in print has ever, I believe, 
 been attributed to him ; and that he had much regard for 
 literature is not quite so apparent as Mr. Todd would have 
 us suppose : " Of whose attachment to literature, the Latin 
 verses of his son, addressed to him with no less elegance 
 than gratitude, are an unequivocal proof." I own they do 
 not appear to me to support this opinion. It is true that 
 they shew the father permittin his son to forsake the law, 
 
 A 
 
12 MILTON. 
 
 and follow the bent of his genius ; but they seem to me as 
 if there were conveyed in them something approaching 
 almost to the language of gentle and respectful reproach for 
 neglecting literature too much, and confining himself so 
 exclusively to music. If anything could raise a probability 
 that the Six-fold Politician is the work of the elder John 
 Milton, it would be the tone of the chapter in that work on 
 " Poets," when it is compared with the language of this 
 Epistle. 
 
 It is indeed sufficiently apparent that the father had but 
 small literary power, and acted very wisely when, as joint 
 sons of Apollo, he left the nobler province to his son. The 
 Biographers and Editors of Milton have in this respect dealt 
 gently, shall I say generously, with his memory. Yet it is 
 something to know what kind of person the father of so great 
 a man was, and therefore I venture to place upon this page 
 that which is perhaps the only specimen which remains of 
 attempts in verse by the elder Milton ; for he who could 
 write the lines which follow could never have attained to the 
 delicacy of the Madrigal in Oriana, to which his music was 
 set. The lines are a complimentary sonnet addressed to 
 Lane John Lane, the " fine old Queen Elizabeth's gentle- 
 man" of Philips' " Theatrum Poetarum." They were ad- 
 dressed to him on his poem, entitled Gruy Earl of Warwick, 
 which he finished in 1621. This poem no one has thought 
 it worth his pains to draw from its obscurity of a manu- 
 script life, and indeed it does not deserve the pains. It may 
 be found in the Museum by those who desire to consult it.* 
 
 * Had. 6243. The manuscript has the appearance of an author's 
 autograph, and seems to have been intended for the press, having an im- 
 primatur, dated July 13, 1617, signed John Taverner. 
 
GENEALOGICAL INVESTIGATION . 13 
 
 If virtue this be not, what is ? tell quick ! 
 
 For childhood, manhood, old age, thou dost write 
 Love, war, and lusts quelled by arm heroic, 
 
 Instanced in Guy of Warwick, knighthood's light. 
 Heralds, records, and each sound antiquary 
 
 For Guy's true being, life, death, eke hast sought, 
 To satisfy those which prcevaricari ; 
 
 Manuscript, Chronicle, if might be bought, 
 Coventry's, Winton's, Warwick's monuments. 
 
 Trophies, traditions delivered of Guy, 
 With care cost pain, as sweetly those presents, 
 
 To exemplify the flower of chivalry 
 From cradle to the saddle and the bier, 
 
 For Christian imitation, all are here. 
 
 I believe I am the first and shall be the last who prints 
 these lines, which prove, beyond all dispute, that the elder 
 Milton formed a just conception of his own powers, when he 
 contented himself with " Melody's unmeaning notes, with- 
 out the sense of words." 
 
 Mr. Todd, without any show of probability, would relieve 
 the memory of the elder Milton from the burden of these 
 verses, and lay them on John Melton, the worthy author of 
 the book called " The Astrologaster ;" but the John Melton 
 (Milton) who wrote these lines was a citizen of London, 
 while the author of the Astrologaster was a lawyer, and dates 
 the dedication of his very curious and useful book from 
 his chamber, Milton addresses Lane as his friend, and the 
 passage in the Theatrum of Philips, who was grandson of 
 the elder Milton, to which we have already adverted, is plain 
 evidence that there was a private intimacy and friendship 
 between the families of Milton and Lane, else we should 
 never have found even the qualified praise which, in that 
 treatise, is bestowed on one who is surely among the least in 
 
4 MILTOK. 
 
 the Muses train. But if more were wanting to prove the inti- 
 macy which existed between Lane and the Miltons, and to 
 fix on the elder Milton the verses above transcribed, it 
 would seem to be supplied by a passage in Lane's poem 
 on- the Twelve Months. "When, speaking of music, he 
 names no other English composer but Milton, whom he calls 
 Meltonus. 
 
 Accenting, airing, curbing, ordering 
 Those sweet, sweet parts Meltonus did compose 
 As wonder's self amazed was at the close, 
 Which in a counter-point maintaining hielo 
 'Can all sum up thus : Alleluiah Deo. 
 
 Lane is the only writer of verse with whom, on grounds of 
 high probability, Milton can be supposed to have become 
 acquainted before he left his father's house for the Univer- 
 sity, and there appears to have been a kindly recognition of 
 him in Milton's mind, when he wrote 
 
 Call up him who left half told 
 The story of Cambuscan bold ; 
 Of Cambal and of Algarsife, 
 And who had Canace to wife. 
 
 For Lane took the adventurous step of completing Chaucer's 
 Squire's Tale* There was a copy of this attempt in posses- 
 sion of Dr. Farmer, with the date 1616, and there is now 
 another copy in the Ashmolean Library, with the date 1630, 
 both in manuscript, for no one has ventured to commit it to 
 the press,* 
 
 * See Black's Catalogue of the Ashmolean Manuscripts, No. 53, and 
 Catalogue of Dr. Richard Farmer's Library, No. 8047. Lane's con- 
 nection with the Miltons gives him a claim to attention, to which nothing 
 
GENEALOGICAL INVESTIGATION. 15 
 
 The precise time when the elder Milton retired from 
 London has not been determined. Mr. Todd says that he 
 had left London in 1632, when his son also took leave of 
 
 of his own could entitle him. His Guy of Warwick contains notices 
 of Sidney, Spenser, Daniel, Rowland, and Brown ; but I cannot bring 
 myself to quote more from Lane's manuscript. Another poem of his, 
 of considerable length, is entitled " Triton's Triumph to the Twelve 
 Months, husbanded and moralized." It is partly georgical and partly 
 moral. There is a copy with the date 1621, in the Royal Manuscripts, 
 at the Museum, 17 B. xv., and in the Library of Trinity College, Cam- 
 bridge, is another copy, which belonged to Prince Charles, O. ii. 68. 
 He has prefixed an address to all lovers of the Muses, in which he 
 writes in a strain of despondency, as an old man who had survived most 
 of his friends. He speaks of his earlier poetical compositions, his Guy 
 of Warwick, Squire's Tale, and Poetical Visions. He names again 
 several of the older poets, and has more about Spenser than any other. 
 Chaucer, Lydgate, Sidney, Daniel are there, together with poets of less 
 note, as Hugh Holland. 
 
 And Hugo Holland, who my lines did chide, 
 For he an ill-made verse could ne'er abide. 
 
 And this explains a passage in the " Theatrum," where Philips says, 
 speaking of Holland, that " he is thought worthy by some to be men- 
 tioned with Spenser, Sidney, and others, the chief of English Poets." 
 Lane names also Sandford, a poet of still smaller fame : 
 
 But first old Sanford call and Daniel fet, 
 Two sweetly singing swans of Somerset. 
 
 Lane was himself of that county, or at least of some county in the West 
 of England, for he writes thus : 
 
 So here ends Eastern Tusser's Husbandry, 
 Repeated by Lane's Western poetry. 
 
 Of his Poetical Vision and Alarm to Poets, two other poems named by 
 Philips, I have yet found no trace. 
 
16 MILTON. 
 
 the University and joined him. The place to which he re- 
 tired was Horton in Buckinghamshire, near the point at 
 which the river Colne joins the Thames. We see that when 
 he sought a country residence his mind turned towards the 
 beechy groves of Buckinghamshire and the forest scenery of 
 his native Oxfordshire. "While here he lost his wife : she 
 died on the 3rd of August, 1637, as appears by an inscrip- 
 tion which is or was over her grave in the church of Horton, 
 in the most ordinary style of such compositions.* 
 
 According to Aubrey he did not end his days at Horton. 
 " He died 1647, and was buried in Cripplegate Church from 
 his house in the Barbican :" and with this agrees what is 
 said by Mr. Todd, that he came to live with his son the 
 poet, after the surrender of Beading to the Earl of Essex 
 in 1643. His son Christopher lived at Eeading. Milton's 
 house would, it is to be feared, not be at that time the quiet 
 abode which suited a person who had now it is supposed 
 numbered eighty years, for it was in that year that Milton 
 married the wife who so soon deserted him, an event which 
 appears to have wrought up his mind to a state of high ex- 
 asperation at the time, and to have brought dark shades of 
 habitual discontentment over a mind originally perhaps 
 light and cheerful, which were never wholly dispersed. 
 And this leads me to a very painful part of my subject, one 
 that I have hesitated much about the propriety of intro- 
 ducing at all, but seeing how many hard things are said of 
 
 * "Here lyeth the body of Sara Milton, the wife of John Milton, who 
 died the 3rd of August, 1637." I give it as communicated to the Gentle- 
 man's Magazine, vol. Ivii. p. 779, without any other voucher of its au- 
 thenticity. 
 
 4 
 
 t""7 
 
GENEALOGICAL INVESTIGATION. 17 
 
 Milton in public writings, and how many charges against 
 him have been entertained, examined, and disposed of by 
 former writers of his life, I shall proceed with a charge 
 which has not, I think, been noticed by any of his biogra- 
 phers. I find it in the Life of Lord Keeper "Williams, by 
 Bishop Hacket, a work belonging to the highest rank of 
 English literature for its historical information, its political 
 wisdom, its vast compass of learning, and the eloquence 
 with which every thing is enunciated. But Hacket was a 
 strong party man, and he had an especial hatred of Milton. 
 His work was not printed till 1693, but it was written as 
 early as 1657, while the party in the State to which Milton 
 belonged was in the ascendant.* I give the passage in his own 
 words : " What a venomous spirit is in that serpent Milton, 
 that black -mouthed Zoilus that blows his viper's breath upon 
 those immortal Devotions, from the beginning to the end ! 
 This is he that wrote with all irreverence against the 
 Fathers of our Church, and shewed as little duty to his 
 father that begot him : the same that wrote for the Pha- 
 risees that it was lawful for a man to put away his wife for 
 every cause ; and against Christ for not allowing divorce ; 
 the same, O horrid! that defended the lawfulness of the 
 greatest crime that ever was committed, to put our thrice 
 excellent King to death : a petty school-boy scribbler that 
 durst grapple in such a cause with the prince of learned 
 men of his age Salmasius," &c. p. 161. In this strain he 
 
 * This appears by what he has written, part ii. p. 229, "That which 
 my prayers and studies have long endeavoured, the dispatch of this labour, 
 is come to pass by the good hand of God this seventeenth of February , 
 1657," &c. 
 
8 MILTOtf. 
 
 proceeds, writing with a virulence which is not surpassed 
 even by the Iambics of Du Moulin. But I refer back to 
 the special charge that he was deficient in his duty to his 
 father. My copy of Hacket's work came from the library 
 of some unknown but curious person living near the time 
 of the publication of the book, who has written various 
 pencil notes in the margin. He has underscored these 
 words and written against them, " Milton justly reflected 
 on." After all, however, the only foundation for this odious 
 charge may have been that the poet did not conform to his 
 father's wishes respecting the choice of a profession. We 
 pass to another subject. 
 
 III. MILTON'S MOTHER. It seems extraordinary that 
 we should have no certain information concerning the mo- 
 ther to whom England owes this one of the noblest of its 
 sons. I mean in respect of the family to which she be- 
 longed, for her son has enabled us to judge what kind of 
 person she was, when, in the passage in the Second De- 
 fence from which we have already quoted, after speaking of 
 his father as a man of high integrity, he adds, " Matre pro- 
 batissima et eleemosynis per viciniam potissimum nota." 
 She was the kind hospitable wife of a man of easy fortune, 
 who scattered blessings around her, especially amongst those 
 of her neighbours who were poor and unfortunate. No- 
 thing we see is said of her birth, her beauty, her attain- 
 ments, or her genius, but we are called to admire her bene- 
 volent spirit and her extensive charities. Milton was 
 twenty-eight when she died, but he who so eminently 
 excelled in elegiac strains, has not honoured her memory, or 
 
GENEALOGICAL ItfYESTIGATIOK. 19 
 
 indeed his father's, in that particular manner. When his 
 father died he had forsworn the Muses, and become the 
 ecclesiastical and political controversialist, but when the 
 mother died he was living in the inspiring shades of 
 Horton. 
 
 There is the greatest uncertainty and contradiction in the 
 authorities on this subject concerning the family to whom 
 she belonged. Philips, her grandson, says, that she was a 
 Caston of a genteel family, originally from Wales. Wood 
 says, that he heard from one who had it from Milton him- 
 self, or his near relations, that she was of the ancient family 
 of the Bradshaws. He means Aubrey, unless Aubrey is to 
 be considered as a second testimony, for A.ubrey certainly 
 says, that her original name was Bradshaw.* But this 
 does not assist in the identification, for the families bearing 
 this name are not a few. President Bradshaw left Milton 
 a legacy, but it may be presumed to have been a gift 
 arising out of their political connection rather than any 
 kindredship, for there is no place for the wife of Milton 
 in the well-laboured pedigree by Mr. Ormerod of the Brad- 
 shaws of Marple, to whom the President belonged. If we 
 go to Bradshaw of the Haigh in Lancashire, or Bradshaw of 
 Eyam in Derbyshire, the search will be equally in vain ; yet 
 the genealogy of those families has been investigated with 
 some assiduity. Peck the antiquary has another story. 
 According to information received from Mr. Roger Com- 
 
 * Wood's article on Milton is chiefly from information given him by 
 Aubrey, but there are things which he did not derive from him : and this 
 gives countenance to the statement of Mr. Loveday, that Wood received 
 part of his information respecting Milton from - Joyner, a Fellow of 
 
 one of the Colleges at Oxford. 
 
20 MILTON. 
 
 berbach of Chester in 1736, there had been in the possession 
 of Mrs. Milton, the widow of the Poet, who was then 
 lately deceased, a painting which was said to be of the arms 
 of the father and mother of Milton. Under the husband's 
 coat was written, " Milton of Com. Oxon." and under the 
 wife's "Haughton of Haughton Tower, in Com. Lane." 
 Hence it was concluded, that the lady of whom we are in 
 search, was of the family of Hoghton of Lancashire, the 
 second family in England admitted into the Order of 
 Baronets. But here the same difficulty presses. No trace 
 of any such connection can be found in any of the Hoghton 
 pedigrees. Besides, bringing with it, as such a marriage 
 would have done, so many powerful connections, we should 
 certainly have found some trace of it in the life or writings 
 of the poet : or if not there, in the writings of the Philips'. 
 On the whole, I am compelled to leave the question, with 
 thus presenting the three opposed statements, and repeating 
 the remark, how extremely difficult it is to recover genealo- 
 gical facts which past generations have left unrecorded. 
 
 She was the mother of five children. The baptism of Anne 
 the eldest, has not been found, but the others occur in the 
 Register of All Hallows, Bread Street : viz. John, baptized 
 December 20, 1608; Sarah, July 15, 1612; Tabitha, 
 January 30, 1613 ; and Christopher, December 3, 1615. 
 The same Register informs us, that Sarah was buried in the 
 Church in August 1612.* Anne married, 1, Edward 
 Philips, Secondary of the Crown Office, by whom two 
 
 memorable sons, John and Edward ; and 2, Agar, by 
 
 whom, Mary, who died young, and Anne who was alive in 
 1654. Of Tabitha nothing more appears to be known. 
 * Malcolm's Londinium Redivivum, vol. ii. p. 10. 
 
GENEALOGICAL INVESTIGATION. 21 
 
 IV. MILTON INTENDED TOR THE LAW. When Milton 
 left Cambridge he joined his father at Horton ; and then 
 came the question to what course of life he should be 
 devoted. This was likely to open a subject on which father 
 and son might be expected not to accord. " It is certain," 
 says Mr. Todd, " that he declined the Law, and also that he 
 declined the Church." Dr. Newton thinks that he had too 
 free a spirit to be limited and confined ; that he was for 
 comprehending all sciences and professing none. His con- 
 duct, however, on these occasions is a proof of the sincerity 
 with which he had resolved to deliver his sentiments : " For 
 me I have determined to lay up as the best treasure and 
 solace of a good old age, if God vouchsafe it me, the honest 
 liberty of free speech from my youth." 
 
 That it was intended he should take up the Law as a 
 profession, rests at present mainly upon the interpretation 
 of a passage in the verses " Ad Patrem," which I shall 
 present in Mr. Strutt's translation. 
 
 O Father, sure that hatred is but feigned 
 With which thou entertainest the gentle Muse 
 For thou didst never to my choice commend 
 Those paths of action that to speedy wealth 
 Lead with alluring hope ; nor did thy will 
 Condemn me to the tedious law's pursuit, 
 Nor chain my ear to client's idle tongues ; 
 But more desirous to enrich my mind, 
 Far from the haunts of men, my willing youth 
 Thou ledst apart to silent pensive shades, 
 By wild Aonia's streams ; and there didst leave 
 Thy grateful son companion to the Muse. 
 
 This scarcely goes so far as to prove a settled and mature 
 design that Milton should enter upon the study of the 
 
2 MILTOtf, 
 
 Law, and this gives an importance to the fact I am 
 about to mention, in its bearing on this critical period of the 
 poet's life, and which seems to leave unquestionable, that 
 the poet did at one time seriously intend to enter upon the 
 study in a formal and regular manner. 
 
 There exists a copy of Fitz -Herbert's " Natura Brevium," 
 the edition of 1584, in the title page of which is written iu 
 Milton's beautiful hand- writing 
 
 Johes Milton : me possidet, 
 
 And on a fly-leaf at the beginning in the same hand 
 Det Christus studiis vela secunda meis. 
 
 But this is not all, for a little lower on the same page we 
 find, in another hand, 
 
 Det Christus studiis vela secunda tuis. 
 
 We can hardly doubt that this was written by the father, 
 with whose hand-writing I am not acquainted. 
 
 It is remarkable, that this copy of Eitz-Herbert appears 
 to have been in the possession of another poet of the time, 
 these words appearing on a later 'fly-leaf, " John Marston 
 oeth this book." 
 
 Tin's interesting volume is still in its original binding of 
 dark brown calf, with an ornament impressed in the centre. 
 The hand-writing of Milton authenticates itself: but the 
 volume has a^ satisfactory pedigree. In 1830, it was the 
 property of the Itev. Dr. Stedman, son of the Rev. Mr. 
 Stedman, Vicar of St. Chad's, Shrewsbury, to whom it had 
 been presented as a curiosity by Mr. Joshua Eddowes, a 
 bookseller and printer of that town, who was born in 1724, 
 and who informed Mr. Stedman that it came to him out of 
 
GENEALOGICAL TNTESTIGATIOK. 23 
 
 books which had belonged to Mrs. Milton, the poet's 
 widow, who died in 1727 at Nantwich, where Mr. Eddowes 
 had relations living at the time of her death. 
 
 V. THE POET'S TEAYELS. "When all idea of placing 
 him in a profession was abandoned, his father allowed him to 
 travel abroad. Of this period of his life the accounts which 
 have been given are too general, that is, they are too defi- 
 cient of specific notes of time and place. It does not appear 
 that more letters than two exist which were written by him 
 during the time he was abroad. All that is said respecting 
 him is, that he set out in 1638 ; yet dates give a feeling of con* 
 fidence in the statement of facts, so that it will not be wholly 
 without its use to future writers on the life of this eminent 
 person, to say that there exists evidence which seems to 
 shew that he was at Geneva on June 10, 1639. The kind 
 of evidence is like that which we have just adduced for 
 another fact. It is his own hand- writing in an Album 
 which was brought to England a few years ago and sold by 
 public auction. It had. belonged to the Cardouins, a 
 Neapolitan family settled at Geneva, where they taught the 
 Continental languages to Englishmen staying in that city. 
 Milton writes thus : 
 
 If virtue feeble were 
 Heaven itself would stoop to her. 
 
 Coelum, non animum, muto, dum trans mare curro. 
 Junii 10, 1639. Joannes Miltonius Anglus. 
 
 It would seem that he was on his return to England, 
 
 where he is said to have arrived in the month of August 1639. 
 
 Nearly half the names in this album are of Englishmen. 
 
24 MILTON. 
 
 Amongst them are Thomas Wentworth, who was afterwards 
 Earl of Stratford ; Lord Cranburn, 1609, Henry Clifford, Sir 
 Andrew Kniveton, who writes as if he were an unwilling 
 exile from his native land ; George Thomason, probably the 
 person who collected what are called the King's Pamphlets 
 in the Museum ; Daniel Boughfcon, who inscribed his name 
 on the day following that on which Milton inscribed his. 
 
 VI. His SETTLEMENT IK LONDON. Milton had by this 
 time reached his thirty -second year, and had probably begun 
 to perceive that his life was too purposeless to be either use- 
 ful or happy, and that the state of the fortunes of his family 
 would not justify him in keeping himself free from the re- 
 straints which necessarily attend regular and gainful employ- 
 ment. He had been so far in life apparently his own master, 
 devoted to desultory reading, study, and the Muse, and 
 to whatever might gratify his taste or feed his imagination. 
 He had already produced many short poems of exquisite 
 finish and beauty. We may wish that there were more of 
 them. He saw, moreover, at this period of his life, that 
 evil times were coming, when there would be no ear 4 to 
 listen to even the sweetest warblings, and when no writings 
 but those of political and religious controversy would be 
 heeded. He now, therefore, looked abroad for gainful em- 
 ployment, and the course which seemed at first best open to 
 him was the instruction of youth. And with this purpose, 
 soon after his return to England, he took a lodging in St. 
 Bride's Churchyard, Fleet Street, and began with his two 
 nephews, John and Edward Philips, sons of a sister who was 
 older than himself, and who both shewed themselves in after 
 life not unworthy pupils of so eminent a master. Doubtless 
 
GENEALOGICAL INVESTIGATION. 25 
 
 much was to be learned from him, though there is probably 
 sufficient ground for the strong objections which have been 
 taken to his system of education. He did not continue 
 long near that great thoroughfare, and when he removed it 
 was to a house which appears to have been, in point of 
 situation at least, well adapted to his purpose, a Garden- 
 house in Aldersgate Street, near to the gardens and those 
 open spaces which had formed the precincts of the Charter 
 House. 
 
 Ths exact time of his removal to this house is not shewn 
 by his biographers, and all that I am able to do is to fix a 
 period before which he must have become an inhabitant of 
 his Garden-house. This I am able to do from a record in 
 the Exchequer, entitled " A Book of the Names and Sur- 
 names, Degrees, Ranks and Qualities of all the Inhabitants 
 of the "Ward of Aldersgate, London, July, 1641." It was 
 made for the purpose of levying the poll-tax of that year. 
 We find Milton in the part which relates to what is called 
 " The Second Precinct of St. Botolf parish," and the reader 
 may not be displeased to see in this contemporary notice, 
 Milton with his small establishment of one maid-servant, 
 and the names also of the families who occupied the houses 
 on the right and left of his. 
 
 Bichard Musckle and his wife, a weaver. 
 
 Bichard Dawson, an attorney. 
 
 Mrs. Pallavicini, widow. 
 
 John Welsford and his wife, parish-clerk. 
 
 Prosper Bainsford, gentleman. 
 
 Jo. MILTON, gent. 
 
 Jane Tates, his servant. 
 
 Jokay Mathewes and his wife, gent, with 4 servants. 
 
26 MILTON. 
 
 Justinian Povey and wife, Auditor ; Ann Povey, his 
 daughter, and 4 servants. 
 
 Jo. Birch and his wife, gent. 
 
 Sir Thomas Cecil, out of town. 
 
 j) r> Alexander Gill, who had formerly been Master of St. 
 Paul's School, the renowned foundation in which Milton 
 studied, lived in the same second precinct, as did also Mr. 
 Yernon, a counsellor, so that Milton's house was situated 
 in what in modern phrase would be called a genteel part 
 of the town. 
 
 Milton did not pay the tax at the time when it was ex- 
 pected from him, for in another paper entitled " The names 
 of those who have not paid us of the Gentry in the Second 
 Precinct," we find his name as well as the names of Dr. 
 Gill and Mrs. Pallavicini. Gill is a known friend of Milton, 
 and the Pallavicinis were connected with the Cromwells by 
 thr-aa several marriages. 
 
 He had also another near neighbour at this period of his 
 life, whose name is often mentioned in connection with that 
 of Milton Theodore Deodati, a Doctor of Physic. He did 
 not live in the same precinct with Milton, being an inhabit- 
 ant of Little Saint Bartholomew. He also, like Milton, is re- 
 turned as one of those who had not paid their poll-tax in 1641. 
 
 We find not, indeed, the name of Milton, for the record 
 is damaged in that place, and yet enough remains, when 
 compared with the list before given, to shew that Milton is 
 there intended, in another list of inhabitants of that Second 
 Precinct, made in January the next year. It is a list of 
 those who contributed to the " Collection for Ireland." 
 Milton's contribution was four pounds, a large sum when 
 compared with the contributions of his neighbours : and this 
 contribution may be taken as some proof of the zeal with 
 
GENEALOGICAL INVESTIGATION. 27 
 
 whicli he entered at the beginning of the struggle into poli- 
 tical affairs : this contribution being really a strong mani- 
 festation against the King. The persons whose names follow 
 his, Mr. Matthews and Auditor Povey, contributed only 1. 
 each, nor did the contribution of any person in the whole 
 precinct except his exceed 2. 
 
 VII. MILTON'S FIRST MAKRIAGE. THE POWELS. 
 He was an inhabitant of this Garden-house when he mar- 
 ried. He went into the country, was absent a month, and, 
 to the surprise of his friends, returned home, bringing with 
 him a wife. This was at Whitsuntide, 1643. Whitsuntide 
 was in that year very early, not later than the 14th of May. 
 It was during the height of the Civil Wars, and though Mil- 
 ton had already appeared as a champion of the party who 
 sought Church-reform, the family with whom he thus con- 
 nected himself were of different sentiments from his, both 
 political and ecclesiastical. Such marriages are not unusually 
 amongst the most happy, and the unhappiness which at first 
 attended this connection is attributable to other causes 
 than to the want of community of opinion on public ques- 
 tions. Nor is it difficult to account for Milton's introduc- 
 tion to the family of the Powels. They were principal per- 
 sons in the vicinity of Shotover, living at Forest Hill, and 
 we can hardly conceive of Milton having had so little of the 
 love of the natal soil of his family, as not to have sometimes 
 visited the neighbourhood of Shotover while he lived at 
 Horton, if there may not even have been persons still resid- 
 ing there to whom he was linked by ties of consanguinity. 
 There is, I fear, no solid basis of fact to sustain the agree- 
 able speculations in Sir William Jones's letter to Lady 
 
 
28 MILTOK. 
 
 Spencer. The speculations, however, are very pleasing, and 
 pleasingly presented to us. 
 
 The latest of the biographers of Milton has devoted many 
 leaves of his work to the Powels and their affairs ; and 
 rightly, since their history is closely bound up with the 
 history of the poet's life. I shall supply a few additional 
 particulars. 
 
 All the biographers concur in representing Eichard 
 Powel, whose daughter Milton married, as a Justice of the 
 Peace for the county of Oxford, and as residing at Forest 
 Hill, in the vicinity of Shotover. Of this there is ample 
 proof in innumerable contemporary documents. But when, 
 as hath been sometimes the case, it is added that he was 
 Powel of Sandford, there is a confusion and an error ; and 
 if it be said that he was of the family seated at Sandford, 
 that would, it is believed, be a statement which could not 
 be supported by evidence, however probable it may appear, 
 considering that Sandford is but three or four miles distant 
 from Forest Hill, and that Powel is a rare name in that 
 part of the country. The Powels of Sandford, however, 
 were a Eoman Catholic family, which the Powels of Forest 
 Hill were not ; and the Powels of Sandford were of superior 
 rank, better wealth, and better alliance than the Forest Hill 
 family. Their pedigree will be found on record in Philipot's 
 Visitation of Oxfordshire, 1634. In that Visitation there 
 is no account of the Powels of Forest Hill. There is some 
 peculiarity, and perhaps some mystery about this. We find 
 the following note made by the Heralds : " Memorandum, 
 that Bic. Powel, of Forest Hill, in Com. Oxon. Justice of 
 the Peace in Com. predict, being upon business in that 
 quality, when he should have appeared at Oxford, sent the 
 
GENEALOGICAL INVESTIGATION. 29 
 
 King of Arms' fee, desiring respit to perfect those matters 
 that concern his arms and descent at the Herald's Office, in 
 Michaelmas Term next, which was granted at Tame, 21 
 August, 1634." There are not many such entries in the 
 Heralds' books, else they would go far to determine the 
 question whether absence from the Visitation Books is to be 
 taken as decisive evidence of the want of gentility in fami- 
 lies not found in them. He had then been living fourteen 
 years, at least, at Forest Hill, for we find him assessed there 
 in 1620. 
 
 He became a person of principal sway and influence in 
 the Forest country, in virtue of the provisions of an inden- 
 ture which bears date July 8, 1636, which gave him the 
 entire management and controul of the Forest affairs of 
 Shotover and Stow- wood, upon easy terms. The indenture 
 contains some interesting particulars, beside throwing light 
 on the position in his country of Milton's father-in-law and 
 his family, and may therefore admit of a somewhat extended 
 notice. It is made between the King, on the one part, and 
 John Bancroft, D.D. Bishop of Oxford, Bryan Duppa, D.D. 
 Dean of Christ Church, Henry King, John King, and 
 Gilbert Sheldon, Doctors of Divinity of the University of 
 Oxford, and Richard Powel of Forest Hill, Esquire, on the 
 other ; and recites in the preamble that his Majesty had 
 been informed that the coppices in his Forest of Shotover 
 and Stow-wood have been much spoiled and decayed, and 
 many of t$b stems and stowells dead and worn out, so that 
 in truth they did not bear the name of coppices, but were 
 generally very thin and mean shere-wood, and had of late 
 years received much detriment by reason of ill fences and 
 the daily trespasses of the keepers and by the fall of trees 
 and other abuses, so that thev will not be fit to be fallen 
 
30 MILTOK. 
 
 again this eight or ten years at least, and that during that 
 , time it will be a great charge to repair and preserve the 
 woods and fences thereof; and also that his Majesty had 
 taken notice that the Eishop of Oxford, considering that 
 there was no house at all belonging to the said bishoprick 
 for the residence of the Bishop, hath built a fair house of 
 stone at Cuddesden, five miles from Oxford, and but half-a- 
 mile from the said forest of Shotover, with garden and out- 
 houses, suitable to the dignity of a bishop, and had expended 
 2,400 at least, his intention being that the house should 
 be appropriated to the bishoprick for the residence of the 
 Bishop and his successors ; and that his Majesty for the 
 better enabling the Bishop to bear the charge of the said 
 work, gave unto him 50 ton of timber out of the said 
 forest of Shotover, which was employed in and about the 
 said building, and had remitted to him the first-fruits, which 
 amounted to 343. 7s, llgd. ; and, still further, that a pro- 
 position had been lately made to his Majesty in behalf of 
 the said Bishop and the said Richard Powel, that his Majesty 
 should grant to the Bishop and his successors a lease of the 
 said decayed coppices for 60 years, paying for the first 10 
 years no rent at all, and for the residue of the term 100 a 
 year, and Powel should forthwith take a lease from the Bishop 
 of the premises for 59 years of the said term, paying after 
 the expiration of the first ten years 100 a year to the 
 Bishop, over and above the 100 a year to the King, and 
 that he would also quicksett the mounds of the said cop- 
 pices, having stake-bdote, gate-boote, and stile-boote allowed 
 nim, and the keeper being prohibited from intermeddling 
 with the underwood. His Majesty does therefore grant 
 such a lease to Duppa, King, King and Sheldon, persons 
 nominated and trusted therein for the benefit of the Bishop 
 
GENEALOGICAL IN YE STI GAT ION. 31 
 
 and his successors, reserving all great trees, timber trees, 
 and all mines, the first payment of the rent to be at Michael- 
 mas, 1646. The coppices are 17 in number, and in area 
 1474 acres 1 rood. 
 
 This indenture was surrendered, and another with the 
 same recitals and with variations in the provisions, not mate- 
 rial, was entered into on March 30, 1637, and enrolled on 
 the 10th of June following. 
 
 It is some confirmation of the deranged state of the 
 affairs of Mr. Powel at the time of his decease, concerning 
 which we hear so much in Mr. Todd's Life of Milton, that 
 in the accompts of the Receiver General for the County of 
 Oxford ending at Michaelmas, 1649, it is returned that 
 three years and a half of this rent of 100 to the King 
 was then due and unpaid. It was ordered, therefore, that 
 process should issue against his heirs. 
 
 Mr. Todd has probably, in the opinion of those who do 
 not advert to the circumstance how much the Powels had 
 to do with the private history of the poet's life, said enough 
 and perhaps more than enough concerning the affairs of 
 Eichard Powel, his father-in-law. Yet I shall venture to 
 add one other document to those which Mr. Todd has 
 printed, illustrative of the state of the family at the period 
 of which we are speaking. It is taken from a MS. book 
 entitled " The Certificate of the Solicitor for Sequestration 
 in the County of Oxford," and is as follows : 
 
 Richard Powel of Forest Hill, Esq. his estate sequestered for Delin- 
 quency, 17th June 1646. 
 The Goods, besides the Crop and Tithe, with .100 in Mr. Elridge's 
 
 hands, valued at ^410. 
 Sold the Goods and Timber (except that in Mr. Elridge's hands, and 
 
32 MILTON. 
 
 32 silver pieces, 4 yards of gold and silver galoon, and a silver sugar- 
 spoon) to Mr. Matthew Apletre, of London by the said Collectors 
 Webb, Vivers, and King, for 335. viz. 
 
 One parcel of Hops about one hundred weight 200 
 
 One little Bull . . . 1 10 
 
 A Clock and Bell . . .200 
 
 14 quarters of Maslin . . . 14 
 
 5 quarters of Malt . . .500 
 
 6 bushels of Wheat . . . 120 
 Divers parcels of household stuff . 68 8 
 Four Carts, 1 Wain, 2 old Coaches, 1 mare Colt, 
 
 4 Hoggs, 2 Sheep, 4 parcels of deal boards, 
 240 pieces of timber, 100 butts of timber, a 
 parcel of tyer wood . . . 241 
 
 After sale of the said goods, upon appointing collectors for every division, 
 the said collectors Lester, Apletre, and Churchill being appointed col- 
 lectors for that hundred before delivery of the said goods did enter upon 
 the same by warrant from the Committee. 
 
 Before delivery of the said goods the timber was disposed of by ordinance 
 of Parliament for the building of a minister's house, a gaol, and to be 
 employed for other uses in the town of Banbury. 
 
 The corn was eat up and spent by the soldiers. 
 
 The rest of the goods to be accounted for by the buyer thereof. 
 
 The crop of corn growing upon the ground and all the estate was entered 
 upon by Sir Robert Pye, who did produce a title unto the same, which, 
 not being then entered, is necessary to be enquired into.* 
 
 The said pieces of silver arid lace sold by the said collectors Webb and 
 Vivers for 2. 0*. 6rf. 
 
 We collect from this document something of the style in 
 which Mr. Powel had lived, and at the same time we see 
 how severely the then dominant party had dealt with him. 
 
 * The title was a mortgage which Sir Robert afterwards assigned to 
 John Pye 
 
GENEALOGICAL USTYESTIGATIOK. 33 
 
 He lived not quite six months after these proceedings, dying 
 at the house of his son-in-law Milfcon, on or about the first 
 of January, L646-7. 
 
 He left a widow Anne Powel, with eight children. She 
 had brought him 3000 fortune, and was now left al- 
 most penniless. For what Milton did to serve her I must 
 refer the reader to Mr. Todd's collection of documents. But 
 it may be added that she was the daughter of Robert Moul- 
 ton of Honyborne, in the County of Worcester, Grentleman,* 
 by Mary his wife, daughter of Bichard Archdale of Whatley, 
 in the neighbourhood of Shotover. This appears in the 
 Visitation of London, 1634, where her four brothers, John, 
 Abraham, Cyprian, and Virgil Archdale are mentioned. A 
 sister of Mary Archdale married John Stampe of Halton, 
 gentleman. Matthew Archdale of Wycombe, who headed 
 the soldiers when they broke up the meeting held by Milton's 
 friends the Quakers, Pennington, Elwood, and others at ? ** 
 Wycomb, was of this family. See for the particulars Elwood' s ^* w * 
 
 account of his own life. *?* , 
 
 w sL*-*' 
 Sir Robert Pye was living at Forest Hill, at Christinas, * 
 
 1647, as was also dame Ursula "Whorwood. But the Powels g, 
 seem to have returned, for in the roll of persons contri- 
 buting to the Hearth Tax in 1665, the principal person at 
 Forest Hill is a Bichard Powel, probably a brother-in-law 
 of Milton, who was charged for seven hearths. t 
 
 " Perhaps it was in 1653 that Milton lost his first wife." 
 It is remarkable that neither the precise time of her death 
 nor the place of her interment has been discovered. It is 
 
 * William Moulton and Milicent his wife were living at Todenham, co. 
 Gloc in the 42nd of Elizabeth, where they assign tythe at Church Hony- 
 borne to William Bond of London, Esquire. 
 
 c 3 
 
34 MILTON. 
 
 said that she died in child-bed, and if so it seems that it 
 must have been at the birth of his daughter Deborah on 
 the 2nd of May, 1652. She is the youngest child whose 
 birth is entered by Milton, in a family Bible, of which we 
 have the following valuable notice by Dr. Birch : 
 
 Additional MSS. in the Museum 4244 f. 53." 1749-50, January 6. 
 I visited Mrs. Foster, grand-daughter to Milton, who keeps a chandler's 
 shop in Cock Lane near Shoreditch Church, where she told me she had 
 lived about a year, having lived about seven years in Lower Holloway, 
 after removing from Pelham Street, Spital Fields, where I saw her in Fe- 
 bruary 1737-8. Her brother, Mr. Clarke, died at her house at Lower 
 Holloway, as did likewise, at above ninety years of age, her cousin Mrs. 
 Milton, niece of Milton and daughter of his brother Sir Christopher 
 Milton. I presented her five guineas from Mr. Yorke. She shewed me her 
 grandmother's Bible in octavo, printed by Young in 1636, on a blank 
 leaf of which Milton has entered with his own hands the births of his 
 children as follows : 
 
 Anne, my daughter, was born July the 29th, the day of the Monthly 
 Fast, between six and seven, or about half-an-hour after six : she living 1646. 
 
 Mary, my daughter, was born on Wednesday October 25 on the Fast 
 Day, in the morning about six o'clock, 1645. 
 
 My son John was born on Sunday, March the 16th, at about half-an- 
 hour past nine at night, 1650. 
 
 My daughter Deborah was born the 2nd of May, being Sunday, some- 
 what before three of the clock in the morning, 1652. 
 
 In his wife's writing, I am the book of Mary Milton. 
 Dr. Newton had been with her and given her a guinea sometime ago : 
 Mr. Lauder lately, arid Dr. Foster within these four days. She told me 
 that her great-uncle Sir Christopher Milton had, besides his two daughters 
 who died unmarried and had lived at Highgate for many years, another 
 who was married to Mr. Pendlebury, a clergyman." 
 
 Probably the age of the mother, Milton's first wife, did 
 not much exceed thirty. 
 
GENEALOGICAL INVESTIGATION. 35 
 
 VIII. MILTON'S SECOND MARKIAGE. While so much 
 labour has been bestowed in inquiries respecting the 
 Powels and Minshuls, the families from whom Milton re- 
 ceived his first and his third wife, very little inquiry has 
 ever been bestowed on the family connections of Catherine 
 "Woodcock, the second wife, who died his "late-espoused 
 saint," in February, 1657-8, and was buried at St. Mar- 
 garet's, Westminster, on February 10. She is said to have 
 died in child-bed, and the child, a daughter, is said to have 
 soon followed her. Of her family, all that has been told us 
 is that she was the daughter of a Captain "Woodcock of 
 Hackney, to which Mr. Todd annexes a conjecture that she 
 was probably related to Francis Woodcock, one of the 
 Assembly of Divines. 
 
 But if conjecture so loose as this is to be admitted in 
 biographical writing, it might with greater plausibility be 
 said that she was probably related to Thomas Woodcock, 
 another Puritan divine of the time, because this Thomas 
 Woodcock, who in the Commonwealth time had the living 
 of St. Andrew Undershaft, when he returned from Holland, 
 to which he had retired, settled at Hackney, and appears to 
 have continued there till his death.* The only Captain 
 Woodcock of the Civil war times with whose name I am 
 acquainted, is a Captain John Woodcock, who on Oct. 6, 
 1653, gives a receipt for 13/. 8s. to the Treasurer-at-War 
 on the disbanding of his troop : and this person may seem 
 to have a good claim to be the father of Milton's second 
 wife. 
 
 * Calamy's " Account of the Ejected and Silenced Ministers," 8vo f 
 1713, p. 44. 
 
36 MILTON. 
 
 There was a Thomas "Woodcock, a scrivener in London, 
 who died in February, 1623. He was a grandson of John 
 Cawood the stationer, and had two sons named Thomas and 
 John.* 
 
 IX. MILTON'S THIRD MARRIAGE. THE MIKSHULS. 
 The poet's third wife was Mrs. Elizabeth Minshul, a 
 Cheshire lady, related to Dr. Paget, a physician, one of 
 Milton's most intimate friends. So much has been always 
 known respecting her, but the particular family of Minshul 
 fo which she belonged has been unknown, and in the ab- 
 sence of knowledge, mistaken conjectures have been pro- 
 pounded, and she has been represented as being of the 
 Minshuls of Stoke, a family of the higher kind of gentry, 
 and connected with many of the best families of the County 
 of Chester, an honour to which she had no pretension. t 
 
 In 1834, there appeared in a Catalogue of Manuscripts, 
 issued by Mr. Pickering, a description of a collection of 
 Legal Instruments, relating to the affairs of Mrs. Milton, 
 
 * See London Pedigrees, in Harl. 1444, f. 13. Thomas Woodcock 
 the divine is said by Calamy to have been born in Rutlandshire. 
 
 f Mr. Todd declares without reserve that she was a daughter of Sir 
 Edward Minshul of Stoke, near Nantwich. If so, she would have been 
 descended of the Fittons of Gawsworth, and connected with the Main- 
 warings, by several marriages. Besides, Sir Edward was not born before 
 1628, and in 1649 had only two children, Edward his son and heir, and 
 a daughter Mary. If a daughter Elizabeth had been born to him in 1650, 
 she would have been barely fifteen when she married the blind poet. 
 Further, what evidence we have guides us to another family of the name. 
 Mr. Todd's work, however, is a most admirable one, both in the biogra- 
 phical part of it, and where he appears in the character of Editor and 
 Annotator. 
 
GENEALOGICAL INVESTIGATION. 37 
 
 one of which is described as being " Bichard Minshul's (bro- 
 ther of Elizabeth Milton) agreement with Elizabeth Milton, 
 for a house at Nantwich, 1680." This document is much 
 more fully described in the Athenaeum, of September 22, 
 1849, by a correspondent who writes from Warrington, sub- 
 scribing himself J. F. M., in whose possession the papers 
 in question now are, as a Bond, dated June 4, 1680, from 
 Richard Minshul of Wisterson, in Com. Cestr. frame- work 
 knitter, to Elizabeth Milton, of the City of London, widow, 
 reciting that he had surrendered a certain messuage, <fce. at 
 Brenley, &c. 
 
 Now this guides us at once to the particular family of 
 Minshul to which the third wife of Milton belonged : a 
 family which had been seated, on a small estate at Wistaston, 
 near Nantwich, from the time of Queen Elizabeth, but of a 
 very different rank from the Minshuls of Stoke. There was 
 a relationship between this family and the Randal Holmes 
 of Chester, and this led to inquiries from the second Randal 
 Holme, of Richard Minshul, concerning his descent and 
 family, and these inquiries led to the two following letters, 
 which are preserved among the Holmes' Manuscripts at the 
 Museum in Harl. 2039, f. 163 and 164 : 
 
 " Deare and Loveing Sonne, 
 
 " My love & best respects to you & to my daughter 
 tendered w th trust of yo r health. I have reaceived Mr. 
 Alderman Holmes his letter, together w th yo rs , wherin I 
 understand that you desire to know what I can say con- 
 cerning our coming out of Minshull house. I can say but 
 little, but what I have heard from my Grandfather, Randall 
 Minshull his owne mouth, w ch was this, he tould me his 
 
38 MILTON. 
 
 father came out of Minshull house, and that his name was 
 John Minshull, he married Robert Couper his younger 
 daughter, who then lived at Wistaston house. This Couper 
 had no sonne, but two daughters, and he devided his lande 
 equallie betweene them. Now John Minshull, my great 
 Grandfather, did builde upon that moitie, and halfe parte w ch 
 did falle to him, the w rh , he himselfe, Randall Minshull my 
 Grandfather, and Thomas Minshull my father, and I Eichard 
 Minshull, have enjoyed and doe enjoy the same unto this 
 p'sent. This is all I can say, soe I comitt you to God, and 
 
 ever Eest 
 
 " Yo r loveing Father, 
 
 " May 3, 1656. " Eic. MINSHFLL. 
 
 "For my deare and loveing Sonne Richard Minshull at Chester" 
 
 " D r & loveing Cosin, 
 
 " my true love, and best respects tendred, w th trust of 
 yo r health, I have reaceived yo r letter, wherin I understand, 
 that you desire to be certefied whose daughter my Grand- 
 mother was, alsoe whose daughter my Mother was ; more- 
 over, what unckles or Auntes or great unckles I had. JSTow, 
 for yo r better satisfaction herin, my Grandmother was Eaw- 
 linson his daughter of Crew, my mother was Grouldsmyth 
 his daughter of Namptw oh ; and as for unckle or unckles, I 
 never had any that I did knowe, but I had two Auntes, one 
 married Crew of Audlim, the other married Aston of Heds- 
 ford, neare Leichfield. JSToe more for p r sent, soe I remayn 
 yo r ever loveing freund and kinsman, 
 
 " EICHAED MINSHULL. 
 " Wistaston, 20 May, 1656. 
 
 " For his Loving Cosin Mr. Alderman Holmes at Chester 
 these dd." 
 
GENEALOGICAL INVESTIGATION. 39 
 
 To those who are acquainted with the manuscripts of the 
 [Randal Holmes, which were bought by the Earl of Oxford, 
 and therefore know what an immense multitude of very 
 minute facts are preserved by those most industrious col- 
 lectors, it will appear extraordinary that they should have 
 permitted the subject to rest here, and not have entered. in 
 some part of their collections other information which 
 might easily have been obtained by them respecting the 
 Minshuls of Wistaston : and perhaps it is equally extraordi- 
 nary, considering the consequence the name had obtained, 
 both by the verse and the political conduct and writings of 
 Milton, and the connection which he had formed with a 
 member of a family allied to their own, that we search in 
 vain in this vast collection of Cheshire evidence for any 
 special notice of the Miltons of that county, who, though 
 not persons of the first consideration, were yet of superior 
 note and position to many families of whom they have left 
 very particular and valuable notices. The Pagets also who 
 were connected with Elizabeth Minshul, who, herself a young 
 woman, married the poet in his declining age and his state 
 of blindness, are equally passed over by them. Possibly 
 however the fact they have preserved that John Paget, a 
 preacher at Amsterdam, 1612, married Bridget, daughter of 
 Richard Maisterson of Nantwich,* may be the origin of 
 the relationship between Elizabeth Minshul of Wistaston 
 and Dr. " Paget, who introduced her to Milton, and recom- 
 mended her to him for his wife. There was a Dr. Paget, a 
 
 * Harl, 2142. The mother of Mrs. Paget was a daughter of Sir 
 Thomas Grosvenor, of Eaton ; and Mrs. Paget had a sister, wife of Sir 
 John Gibson, LL.D 
 
40 MILTON, 
 
 doctor in physic, occupying a tenement aft Hammersmith in 
 1651, who was doubtless Milton's friend. 
 
 The tradition at Nantwich that the poet was born there, 
 noticed in Partridge's history of that town, has no other 
 foundation than that there were persons of the name of 
 Milton living at Nantwich in the seventeenth century, and 
 that Elizabeth, the poet's widow, returned to Nantwich to 
 end her days there, which is sufficiently explained by the fact 
 that her own relatives were of that neighbourhood. A 
 " Mr. Milton" occurs among the tenants of the Wheten- 
 halls at Nantwich in 1654, and a Humphrey Milton of JSTant- 
 wich and Stapeley occurs in Holmes' pedigree of the Hodg- 
 sons of Minshul-Vernon, 1705, as father of Alice, who 
 towards the close of the preceding century, married Joseph 
 Hodgson of that place.* Humphrey was Receiver- General 
 of the County of Chester in the time of the Commonwealth. 
 
 The disputes in the family of the poet after his decease, 
 on which so much light has been let in by his latest and 
 best biographer, may well be supposed to have ended in a 
 perpetual estrangement between the widow and the children. 
 The children appear to have been left very poorly provided 
 for, to struggle with a world which was not over-kind to 
 them, while the widow retired to the district in which her 
 first breath was drawn, to live amongst the remains of her 
 own family, and at her death, by a will which is singularly 
 deficient of any thing of the least interest, she gives what- 
 ever she had to her nephews and nieces at JXTantwich, without 
 even calling any of them by their names. The date, accord- 
 ing to the writer in the Athenaeum for Sept. 29, 1849, is 
 August 27, 1727, who further says that it was proved before 
 * Harl. 2142. 
 
GENEALOGICAL INVESTIGATION. 41 
 
 the Bural Dean of Nantwich on the 10th of October fol- 
 lowing. It would appear from this that she died between 
 those two periods ; and yet in the printed copy of a sermon 
 preached at her funeral by Isaac Kimber, it is said that it 
 was preached on March ,10, 1726. 
 
 Whatever may have been the exact time of her death, it 
 appears that she must have survived her husband the long 
 term of fifty-two or fifty-three years. She died at Nant- 
 wich where she was a member of a congregation of Ana- 
 baptists, one of three which only in her time existed in the 
 County of Chester. That she belonged to this religious 
 community is the more remarkable, inasmuch as it was at 
 ]N~antwieh that the family of Major- General Harrison lived, 
 the first person put to death for his share in the death of 
 King Charles the First, and the chief political leader of the 
 sect of Anabaptists. It would appear from this, that she 
 had imbibed some of the peculiarities of her husband in 
 respect of outward religious ministrations, for if she could 
 not conform to the Church, there was a Presbyterian con- 
 gregation with a very learned and pious minister in the 
 town ready to receive her. She made the minister of her 
 own congregation, Samuel Acton, one of her executors. 
 The other was John Alcock, who alone proved the will.* 
 The effects were sworn to be under forty pounds. 
 
 * Isaac Kimber who preached the Funeral Sermon was assistant to Mr. 
 Acton, for three years, 1724-1727, when he left Nantwich in some dis- 
 gust. See Memoirs of his Life written by his son, Edward Kimber, and 
 prefixed to ''Sermons on the most interesting Religious, Moral and 
 Practical Subjects, by the late Reverend and Learned Mr. Isaac Kimber," 
 London, 8vo. 1756, the volume which contains the Funeral Sermon for 
 Mrs. Milton. Both the Kimbers were writers for the public press. 
 
42 MILTON. 
 
 X. SIR CHEISTOPHER MILTON, the Poet's brother. - 
 Christopher Milton, of Reading, Esquire, and William 
 Keeeh of Fleet Street, goldbeater, became bound, September 
 24, 1646, for the payment of ^840. composition money with 
 delinquents at Goldsmith's Hall, on the 24th of December 
 next ensuing, " with such other sums of money as the 
 Honourable House of Commons shall impose as a further 
 fine for the said Christopher Milton his delinquency." 
 The device on the seal is a lion rampant : but there can be 
 no doubt that this is the brother of the poet, who lived at 
 that time at Reading. 
 
 Le Neve, who never scruples to tell disagreeable truths in 
 the plainest terms, says of him, that " he was a lawyer in 
 Suffolk, not a considerable one, but being a Papist was 
 promoted at this time," 1686 : in which year he was made 
 a Baron of the Exchequer, and knighted at "Whitehall on 
 the 25th of April, Sir John Powel of Broadway receiving 
 the honour at the same time. Le Neve gives us this 
 further information respecting him, that he lived at Rush- 
 more and at Ipswich : that his wife was Thoinasine, daughter 
 of William Webber of London, who died before he was 
 made a Baron : and that they were both buried in St. 
 Nicholas' Parish, Ipswich. He says nothing of the three 
 daughters of whom Dr. Birch speaks, but names his son 
 Thomas Milton, Esquire, Deputy Clerk of the Crown in 
 Chancery. This Thomas married Martha, daughter of 
 
 There is an engraved portrait of the elder Kimber, who died in 1755, at 
 the age of 61. With his turn for biographical and historical writing, it is 
 remarkable that he should have said nothing in the sermon concerning 
 Mrs. Milton, on whose decease he descants only on " the vanity and 
 uncertainty of Human Life/' from James iv. 14. 
 
GENEALOGICAL INVESTIGATION. 43 
 
 Charles Fletewood, of the town of Northampton, who out- 
 lived him and became the wife of William Coward, M.D. of 
 London and Ipswich. These particulars are from Le Neve's 
 Knight's Pedigrees, Harl. 5802. 
 
 XI. MILTON'S LAST LONDON KESIDENCE. This, as is 
 well known, was in Artillery "Walk or Artillery Wall, as the 
 name is written in a record I am about to quote. It is an 
 account of the Hearth-money of the County of Middlesex 
 for the year ending at Lady Day 1674, where we find 
 Milton among his neighbours in Artillery Wall arranged 
 thus, and inhabiting a house with four hearths. 
 
 Mr. Becke, 6 hearths. 
 
 Samuel Kindall, 4 hearths. 
 
 Widow Bowers, 4 hearths. 
 
 JOHN MELTON, 4 hearths. 
 
 Richard Hardinge, 6 hearths. 
 
 Mr. Howard, 5 hearths, 
 
 Milton died in this house on Sunday the 8th of Novem- 
 ber, 1674. It may assist in determining the precise site of 
 the house if we add, that his is the ninth house as they are 
 set down in the roll. 
 
II. NOTES ON SOME OF THE POETICAL WOEKS. 
 
 (I.) COMUS > After the masterly and almost complete In- 
 troduction to this Poem by the united labours of Warton 
 and Todd, I feel alarmed and almost ashamed at the thought 
 of standing forth to offer the few notices which follow, some 
 of them, possibly, purposely left behind by them. In an 
 obscure corner of historical literature may be found some 
 particulars respecting the state of the castle and town of 
 Ludlow, as they were just before the time when Comus was 
 represented in the Great Hall, which no one has yet noticed. 
 It is in the life of Eichard Baxter, written by himself, and 
 published in 1696 in a folio volume. Baxter was born in 
 November, 1615, and when he was of age to proceed to the 
 University, which may have been about 1630, his father was 
 dissuaded from the design of sending him thither and in- 
 duced to place him with one Mr. Eichard "Wickstead, who 
 was Chaplain to the Council of the Marches, and who was 
 allowed to have a youth with him for instruction in Univer- 
 sity learning. Baxter remained with him at Ludlow, a dis- 
 satisfied pupil, for a year and a half, which brings us pretty 
 nearly to 1634, the year of the performance of Comus. He 
 describes the Castle as being a great house, " there being 
 four Judges, the King's Attorney, the Secretary, the Clerk 
 of the Fines, with all their servants, and all the Lord Presi- 
 dent's servants, and many more," and the town as full of 
 temptations through the multitude of persons, councillors, 
 attornies, officers and clerks, and " much given to tipling 
 
NOTES ON HIS POEMS. 45 
 
 and excess ;" and he attributes to one friend, whose name he 
 does not reveal, that he was saved from what he regarded the 
 evil influences of the place, by which influences, however, 
 he tells us his friend at last himself fell. This is the view 
 given by a Puritan of the state of Ludlow at this period. 
 
 It appears as if this kind of dramatic entertainment con- 
 stituted part of the established recreations of the Court of 
 the Marches ; since Aubrey informs us that, in 1637, a Pas- 
 toral w^as acted at Ludlow, which he calls " an exquisite 
 piece," and he tells us that the author was Groodwin, 
 who was an officer of the Court, "a general scholar, and had 
 a delicate wit, was a great historian and an excellent poet ;" 
 and he further tells us that he was the real author of " The 
 Journey into France," which is printed among the Poems 
 of Bishop Corbet. " When he sat in Court he was wont to 
 have Thuanus or Tacitus before him ; he w r as as fine a 
 gentleman as any in England, though now forgot." Nor 
 has any body, as far as I know, since thought of calling to 
 remembrance one who thus dared to place himself in a kind 
 of rivalry with Milton in his best days. Comparing further 
 what Aubrey says, that he married a daughter of Sir Walter 
 Long, of Draycot, with the very complete tabular view of 
 the Longs, prepared by Mr. C. E. Long, it appears that his 
 name was Ralph Groodwin, which seems to identify him with 
 the " R. Groodwin" who has commendatory verses on Ben 
 Jonson. We may well believe, from the way in which 
 Aubrey speaks of him, that he is one of the many English- 
 men quite forgotten, yet well deserving to be remembered. 
 
 Another poet of those times was also connected with the 
 Court at Ludlow, and it may reasonably be presumed lent 
 his aid in the elegant amusements at the Castle. This was 
 
46 MILTON. 
 
 Abraham France, a better known name than Goodwin, on 
 account of his having published various works in the early- 
 period of his life. His career as an author can be traced by 
 his published works only from 1587 to 1592, and his subse- 
 quent life is not well accounted for by the writers on the 
 poets of those times ; but I have seen an Epithalamium 
 which he wrote on the marriage of Sir G-ervase Cutler with 
 the Lady Magdalene Egerton, daughter of the Earl of Bridge- 
 water, the Lord President, and one of the sisters of the 
 three young Egertons who were the original performers of 
 Comus.* This proves that France was alive in 1633. In 
 a prose address to Sir G-ervase Cutler, which is prefixed, he 
 says, that he had paid the same compliment to all the Earl's 
 other daughters on their marriages. He speaks also of the 
 Earl as his " Lord," meaning that he held office under him 
 at Ludlow. This is perhaps the latest notice which is known 
 of France. 
 
 (II.) LYCIDAS. The unhappy event which gave occa- 
 sion to thismost perfect of elegies is familiar to every one ; 
 but, though much has been written on the subject, the im- 
 pression is not so clear and distinct as might be desired of 
 the person on whose death it was composed. Edward King, 
 then, was a younger son of Sir John King, who went to 
 Ireland in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and being much 
 employed by the G-overnment acquired there considerable 
 wealth. From his eldest son, Sir Robert King, descends 
 the present Earl of Kingston and Baron Kingsborough. 
 
 * It is a manuscript very beautifully written, preserved among the 
 collections of Dr. Nathaniel Johnston, the physician and antiquary of 
 Pontefract, preserved at Campsall, in Yorkshire. 
 
NOTES ON HIS POEMS. 47 
 
 Edward King was of gentle blood by his mother, who was 
 a Drury, niece of Sir "William Drury, the Lord Deputy. 
 
 "Warton and Todd have given a list of poems, of which 
 Edward King was the author, to which some additions are 
 made in the Miscellany Poems collected by the late Mr. 
 John Nichols, vol. vii, p. 76, &c. 
 
 The wreck in which he perished occurred on August 10, 
 1637. 
 
 Cursory criticism. Observe the beautiful manner in 
 which the poet unfolds the circumstances of the fate of his 
 "Triend : He ^s " dead" " dead ere his prime." But more 
 remains to be told. See how he postpones the melancholy 
 fact, irijherpoaing the^amiable character of his friend, who 
 was " young" unequalled and, above all, himself a poet. 
 Then comes the sad truth, he was drowned and the body 
 had not been recovered. \ " Sable shroud," in line 22. This 
 has always been a templing epithet to the poets, and yet 
 the propriety may be doubted when we know it to be so 
 opposed to the practice. I submit whether it is proper 
 to disjoin the next line 
 
 For we were nursed upon the self- same hill, &c. 
 
 so far from the line preceding as to begin a new paragraph 
 with it. It expresses the reason why he, the poet, should 
 be so earnest with the Muse, so indecently earnest, as he 
 would seem, had he not such a plea as this, that they had 
 studied together, formed a firm friendship, and had a common 
 love of poesy, which he represents under pastoral imagery. 
 The new paragraph should begin at " Together," in the 
 25th line. In the 27th line there should be a longer pause 
 at " a-field," than is indicated by a comma, for there ends 
 
48 MILTON. 
 
 their morning labours, and then passing over mid-day he 
 goes to their evening work. Line 53, he presents us with 
 the scene of the calamity, near the mouth of the Dee, 
 " where Deva spreads her wizard stream," widens, opens, 
 as if approaches the sea. The precise scene of the calamity 
 is no where more distinctly pointed out than in this poem. 
 Line 65, " shepherds' trade," poetry. The affectation of 
 calling poets shepherds, ran through much of the poetry of 
 the ElizabethaiTperiod, but it is~h"ere less offensive than in 
 some other cases, the whole turn of the Elegy being pastoral. 
 Lme 67, to hve~iii Epicurean eaye: Line 715, ~ cr slits" seems 
 a word of questionable propriety. Line 76. Here begins 
 bold daring of the poet, to put words in the mouth of 
 Apollo, and the word " trembling," " and touched my 
 trembling ears," seems to be intended to indicate that the 
 poet felt that something of apology was required of him. 
 He again virtually apologizes for this daring : 
 
 That strain I heard was of a higher mood ; 
 But now my oat proceeds. 
 
 The simplest and humblest of all musical instruments : 
 there is an emphasis on the word " my." Line 105, " In- 
 wrought wifh-figures dim." It-is a personification of Cam- 
 bridge, not as a town, but as a University, a seat of science, 
 so that the figures on the robe or bonnet of Cauius may be 
 geometric diagrams, just as we see in old G-erman prints of 
 Grammar and Arithmetic, the dress of the figures embroidered 
 with letters of the alphabet or the Arabic numerals. Line 
 106, " Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe." 
 The Hyacinth. Line 108, to this assembly over the dead 
 body of Lycidas, Triton, ^Eolus, Camus, is now added St. 
 
FOTES ON HIS POEMS. 49 
 
 Peter; and "Last came/' &c. should^ej^e j fcjeginning--of &- 
 new paragraph. The whole of this passage grates harshly 
 nn fhA par, and is not in keeping with .the preceding por- 
 tions of the Elegy ; even if it be thought that there is a 
 mistake in imagining that the poet contemplated at the 
 moment the particular fate which w r as to fall on the then 
 Archbishop. Yet Milton was fully aware of the severity of 
 these lines, and perhaps of their incongruous character ; and 
 at line 132 he recalls the softer, the " Sicilian Muse." Line 
 135, place the comma after " flowrets," not after " bells," 
 bell-shaped flowers as well as others being of various hues. 
 Line 136, " where the mild whispers use." " Use" is em- 
 ployed by prose writers as well as poets, for inhabit, as by 
 Leland, " He used Calais," dwelt there. Linejjig, " Let 
 our frail thoughts dally with false surmise." Let us for a_ 
 moment deceive ourselves with the thought that we may 
 have it in our power to pay this honour to the dead body of 
 our friend ; and he then goes on in a strain of noble poetry 
 to speak of the drifting of the body they knew not whither 
 northward beyond the Hebrides, or southward to the coast 
 oFT?3rnwall. Warton's note on the " Great vision of the 
 guarded mount," has long been admired as an instance of very 
 elegant annotation, and yet it leaves the criticism incomplete. 
 Line 177, " blest kingdoms," query " kingdom ?" Line 
 184, " in thy large recompense." It shall be a part only of 
 that vast recompense which will be thine, that thou shalt be 
 the Genius of the Elood, acting perpetually under the 
 promptings of thy own benevolent spirit. In the last para- 
 graph Milton designates himself modestly as " the- micouth 
 swain." Line 188, " the tender stops of various quills," 
 shews that he was sensible ..of ^gh&^jnigh&J&e supposed a 
 
iHP MILTON. 
 
 want of harmony in the several portions of his poem, and a 
 want of unity among the characters introduced by him. 
 He intimates also, perhaps, that it was the production of a 
 single day. The close is graceful. He has fulfilled his 
 duties to his lost friend. To-morrow he must attend to 
 cither duties. 
 
 I have ventured to say of the celebrated note of Thomas 
 Warton, that it still leaves the criticism on the passage 
 incomplete. It is not in the part in which he shew r s us 
 what is meant by "the great vision of the guarded mount/' 
 but in the succeeding clause, " looks towards Namancos 
 arid Bayona's hold." Namancos is a place as little known to 
 most readers of Milton as was before his time the " guarded 
 mount" on the coast of Cornwall; and though " Bayona's 
 hold" suggested to most readers Bayonne, which does not 
 satisfy the condition^ inasmuch as it is not a place which 
 might be discovered over the ocean, with no land inter- 
 vening, if an eye on the top of Mount St. Michael could 
 reach so far, and to better informed readers, the Spanish 
 Bayona in Galicia, against which however the same objection 
 lies, though with less force. Tet "Warton had not told us 
 what places the poet really intended ; so that there was 
 room for the supplementary note of Mr. Todd, who tells us 
 that, " a literary friend had directed him to Mercator's Atlas, 
 edit. fol. Amst. 1623, and again in 1636, where in the map 
 of Galicia, near the point Cape Finisterre, the desired 
 place occurs, thus written, " Namancos T." This is very 
 good for Namancos. Mr Todd proceeds " In this map the 
 Castle of Bayona makes a very conspicuous figure ;" but this 
 leaves room for a note supplementary to his supplement, for 
 it is not quite clear what Mr. Todd means by the Castle of 
 
NOTES ON HIS POEMS. 51 
 
 Bayona. If it is some castle near to the Spanish Bayona, 
 which is a probable interpretation, then would the poet lie 
 open to the charge of having sacrificed geographical correct- 
 ness to some poetical necessity ; for the Bayona in Gralicia, 
 no more than the Bayonne of France, would be discovered 
 by an eye looking from Mount St. Michael across the 
 waves or in other words, a line drawn from the Cornish 
 mountain to that Bayona, would have to traverse a consi- 
 derable tract of land, and not pass over sea only, which was 
 what Milton obviously intended. So that the geographical 
 illustration of this celebrated passage requires for its com- 
 pleteness something more. 
 
 That something I flatter myself that I am able to add. 
 I believe that Milton did not by " Bayona' s hold" intend 
 ^ either Bayonne in Prance, or Bayona in Spain, though they 
 both lie in the direction in which the Angel must be 
 understood to look, but another place called by the Dutch 
 sailors " Cork Bayonne," which lay near the extreme point 
 of Cape Pinisterre, and therefore near to JSTamancos, and 
 within ken (if he could see so far) of a person looking over 
 sea without intervening land from the neighbourhood of 
 our own Land's End, the Cape Finisterre of England. This 
 place is not in the ordinary maps : but it is found in 
 the map of the coast of Gralicia in the rare book of Pilotage, 
 printed at Amsterdam in 1662, and again in 1676, with the 
 title "The Lightening Column or Sea-Mirrour." In one of 
 the maps near the extreme point of Cape Pinisterre is " Corco 
 Bayona," which is thus spoken of in the text of the work 
 " About a league to the eastward of Cape de Pinisterre on 
 the south side, lyeth the haven of Seche or Corcovia, and 
 is called by the Dutch shipmasters Corck Bay one." 
 
MILTON. 
 
 " Bayona's hold" ought, I think, to be printed "Bayona's 
 Hold." 
 
 (III.) EPITAPH ON THE MABCHIONESS OF WIN- 
 CHESTER, The expression 
 
 A Viscount's daughter, an Earl's heir 
 
 has not been explained by the Commentators, and yet it 
 needs explanation ; the sense usually given to the words, as 
 if the lady were at once the daughter of a Viscount and the 
 heir of an Earl, being not accordant with the fact. It was 
 the Viscount, not his daughter, who was heir to an Earl. 
 
 Sir Thomas Savage, of Eock Savage, was created Viscount 
 Savage on November 4, 1626, a creation to a dignity, it 
 may be observed, which Sir "William Dugdale appears to 
 have overlooked. On the same day Thomas Lord Darcy, 
 -*.t~ of Chich A was created Earl Eivers, with remainder failing 
 < r -~ male issue to the said Viscount Savage, who had married 
 Elizabeth Darcy, the eldest daughter and co-heir of the 
 newly created Earl Eivers. Viscount Savage died November 
 20, 1635, before his father-in-law, so that he never became 
 Earl, the title on the death of Darcy Earl Eivers on the 
 21st of February, 1639, descending to John, second Viscount 
 Savage, the eldest son of the former Viscount Savage. The 
 Marchioness of Winchester was one of many children, 
 sons and daughters, of the first Viscount Savage by Elizabeth 
 Darcy, so could not with propriety be designated the heir 
 to the Earl, though her father was so. 
 
 If this Epitaph was written near the time of the Mar- 
 chioness' death, and if the date of her death is rightly given 
 in a contemporary collection of Peers' Pedigrees in my 
 
KOTES Otf HIS POEMS. 53 
 
 possession, 1661, it must have been one of the very earliest 
 compositions of Milton* 
 
 (IV.) ODE ON THE NATIVITY. On this I shall only 
 just remark, that the story of the voice announcing? the 
 death of Pan seems to have been a favourite one among the 
 learned of Milton's age. It is found in Sir Bichard 
 Berkley's Summum Bonum, 1598, and at large in the Travels 
 of George Sandys. Also that the beautiful picture of the 
 Shepherds "simply chatting in a rustic row," seems to owe 
 its origin to Warner, who has these lines in his Albion's 
 England. 
 
 Then choose a shepherd : with the sun he doth his flock unfold, 
 And all the day, on hill or plain, he merry chat can hold. 
 
 (Y.) L' ALLEGED. Apropos of shepherds. Milton's 
 idea of a shepherd's life is that of a very happy one, which 
 favours the interpretation of the 
 
 Every shepherd tells his tale 
 Under the hawthorn in the dale, 
 
 which every one must wish to be the true one, though the 
 love of novelty and startling conjecture has inclined many 
 to accept a more frigid interpretation. 
 
 Milton was a great reader of poetry, and a great number 
 of passages lay deeply imbedded in his mind. His 
 
 To many a youth and many a maid 
 seems to have had its origin in Chaucer. 
 
 And many an hart and many an hynde. The Dream ^ 
 
54 MILTON. 
 
 (VI.) IL PENSEROSO. There is no note on 
 
 What worlds or what vast legions hold 
 The immortal mind that hath forsook 
 Her mansion in this fleshly nook 
 
 but it seems as if it might be proper to point out that there 
 is an opposition between " worlcL' and " vast regions ; " the 
 one the peopled, the other empty, spaces. 
 
 Nor can I withhold myself from observing that the Com- 
 mentators have left unnoticed a probable origin of the fine 
 passage 
 
 Oft on a plat of rising ground, 
 I hear the far-off curfew sound, 
 Over some wide-watered shore, 
 Swinging slow with sullen roar ; 
 
 in Constable's Third Sonnet of the Fifth Decade of his 
 Diana. 
 
 Or like the echo of a passing bell, 
 
 Which sounding on the water seems to howl : 
 
 So rings my heart a fearful heavy knell, 
 And keeps all night in concert with the owl. 
 
 (VII.) PABADISE LOST. 
 
 Book L, 1. 61. 
 
 A dungeon horrible on all sides round, 
 
 As one great furnace flamed ; yet from those flames 
 
 No light ; but rather darkness visible 
 
 Served only to discover sights of woe : 
 
 Regions of sorrow, doleful shades. 
 
 Whoever has been in the interior of one of the great 
 foundries at a time when the melted metal is let off into the 
 ducts, will be at no loss for the realization of this picture 
 
NOTES ON HIS POEMS. 55- 
 
 drawn by Milton. The strong bright light, too intense 
 almost to be looked upon, does not illuminate the expanse, 
 but really only serves to bring into view the remote ob- 
 scurity ; while the human beings, on whom as they move 
 about light may casually fall, may be well mistaken for 
 beings suffering the penalty of guilt. Milton has more 
 exactly described one of these foundries in the present 
 Book,!. 700-709. 
 
 Book L, 1. 81. 
 
 To whom the Arch-Enemy, 
 And thence in heaven called SATAN. 
 
 This Milton's Hebrew reading would easily supply : 
 "7 tain?, adversari; odio habere" Buxtorf. We are not 
 to understand the poet as meaning to say that Satan had 
 this name in heaven before his revolt, a word perfectly in- 
 congruous to the heavenly society, but that he was so called 
 in heaven after his fall, and his having taken the lead of 
 the revolting host : and to this the poet calls attention 
 in the Fifth Book, 1. 658, where he makes Raphael say to 
 Adam 
 
 Satan, we call him now, his former name 
 Is heard no more in Heaven, 
 
 Book I., 1. 123. 
 
 And, in the excess of joy, 
 Sole reigning, holds the TYRANNY of Heaven. 
 
 The rule, the sole authority : but Satan is skilfully made 
 to select a word which, while it expressed the true sense, 
 had so fallen into ill-repute, that it would call up ideas of 
 the unjust exercise of the authority, without actually daring 
 to make such a charge. 
 
MILTOK. 
 
 Book I., 1. 203. 
 
 Him, haply, slumbering on the Norway foam, 
 The pilot of some small NIGHT-FOUNDERED skiff, 
 Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell, 
 With fixed anchor in his scaly rind, 
 Moors by his side under the lea, while night 
 Invests the sea, and wished for morn delays. 
 
 " Night-foundered" here, and in the lines of Comus, in 
 which it occurs, / 
 
 Either some one, like us, night-foundered here, 
 
 means simply surprised by the coming on of night, over- 
 taken by the darkness. 
 
 Book I, I. 287. 
 
 Like the moon, whose orb 
 Through optick glass the Tuscan Artist views 
 At evening from the top of Fesole, 
 Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, 
 Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe. 
 
 Fesole was one of the twelve ancient cities of Etruria, 
 situated on one of the peaks of the Apennine range. It 
 had fallen into great decay before the time of Milton. " Ho- 
 die hujus vestigia tantum cernuntur extra Florentiam, hand 
 procul in Apennini colle," says the author of the " Parvum 
 Theatrum Mundi," Franc. 4to., 1595, p. 187. If it could be 
 shewn that Galileo was accustomed to resort to this emi- 
 nence for the purpose of his celestial observations, it would 
 go far to determine the question, whether, by " Tuscan 
 Artist," Milton intended G-alileo, whose name would be 
 endeared to him on many accounts, and when he wrote this 
 
NOTES ON HIS POEMS, 57 
 
 poem by having been joint sharers in the calamity of blind- 
 ness ; or used the expression more generally for any disciple 
 or follower of Galileo who resorted to Fesole for the pur- 
 pose of observation. A device of the " Tuscan Artist," 
 with his telescope in hand, and surrounded by various astro- 
 nomical instruments, continued till the present century to 
 be one of the ornaments of the Florentine Almanac, and 
 the costume seems to carry us back to the age of Galileo. 
 
 Milton in his Fifth Book, L 202, introduces Galileo by 
 name in connection with his glass : 
 
 As when by night the glass 
 Of Galileo, less assured, observes 
 Imagined lands and regions in the moon. 
 
 Book I., 1. 303. 
 
 Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks 
 In VALLAMBROSA. 
 
 The question is about the orthography of this word which 
 Mr. Todd has printed as here exhibited, recalling what was 
 Milton's own orthography. Yet both etymology and au- 
 thority seem to be against it. 
 
 The monastery is said to have been founded in A. D. 1070. 
 "A. D. 1070, Secta Monachorum Yallis Umbrosae incipit." 
 Epitome Historiarum by Perminius, 12mo. 153 P. 
 
 Book L, 1. 467. 
 
 Him followed Rimmon, whose delightful seat 
 Was fair Damascus, on the fertile banks 
 Of Abbana and Pharpar, lucid streams. 
 
 Mr. Todd shews after Mr. Dunster that Tasso had applied 
 the epithet "bel" to Damascus, buthe might have added 
 
 3)2 
 
68 MltTON. 
 
 that the world had agreed to regard Damascus as Queen of 
 Cities for beauty. See how Ariosto enlarges upon it in the 
 17th book of the Orlando. 
 
 Book I., 1. 508. 
 The Ionian Gods 
 
 Milton could not well omit all mention of these : but we 
 may observe his art in passing them slightly over as cha- 
 racters not in harmony with the Syrian and Egyptian Deities, 
 and not intended by him to take any prominent part in the 
 conduct of the poem. 
 
 Book I., 1. 594. 
 
 As when the sun .... 
 . . . from behind the moon 
 In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds 
 On half the nations, and with fear of change 
 Perplexes monarchs 
 
 A good illustration of this, as respects English opinions, 
 is afforded by " Samuel Gibbon Phileremus," who in his 
 Gardeners' Almanac, 1682, cautions people not to " graft, 
 set, sow, or plant anything that day whereon there hap- 
 yeneth an eclipse either of sun or moon." Historical au- 
 thority might, no doubt, easily be found for the minds of 
 tyrants being perplexed by an unlocked for withdrawal of 
 the sun's beams. 
 
 Book II,, 1. 9. 
 
 And by SUCCESS untaught. 
 
 " Success" is here used in what may be regarded its primitive 
 sense, that which succeeds, follows upon, without regard to 
 
NOTES ON HIS POEMS. 59 
 
 whether it be auspicious or the contrary. Milton uses it 
 again in the same way in 1. 123 of this book : 
 
 And seem to east 
 Ominous conjecture on the whole success, 
 
 and Shakespeare once uses it in the same manner, 
 
 And doubt not but success 
 Will fashion the event in better shape 
 Than I can lay it down in likelihood, 
 
 Much Ado, Act iv. sc. 1 . 
 
 Book IL, 1. 438. 
 
 There passed, if any pass, the void profound 
 Of UNESSENTIAL night receives him next. 
 
 There is a much finer meaning in the word " unessential" 
 than Hume, the only commentator who remarks on this 
 passage, perceived " Unessential, void of being ; darkness 
 approaching nearest to, and being the best resemblance of 
 non-entity." But "unessential" means here, wanting all 
 those things which are of the very essence of being, as ap- 
 pears by comparing a passage further on in the same book, 
 where the word is in effect expanded by the poet himself, 
 
 Before their eyes in sudden view appear 
 
 The secrets of the hoary deep ; a dark 
 
 Illimitable ocean, without bound, 
 
 Without dimension ; where length, breadth, and height, 
 
 And time and place are lost ; where eldest Night 
 
 And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold 
 
 Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise 
 
 Of endless wars, and by confusion stand. 
 
 Book II., 1. 495. 
 
 The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds 
 Attest their joy, that hill and valley RINGS. 
 
60 MILTOtf. 
 
 There are critics who would say that here Priscian is a 
 little scratched; but in truth our great Masters lived in a 
 region above such persons, and looked to the philosophical 
 not the merely grammatical nominative. "Hill" and 
 " valley," coalesce and form but one something, whence the 
 verb is rings not ring. So in Horace " Quod vult manus et 
 mens." 
 
 Book III., 1. 1. 
 
 Hail holy Light, offspring of Heaven first born 
 The Commentators should out of regard to the older poet 
 have continued the quotation from Sylvester, two lines 
 farther 
 
 God's eldest daughter ; Oh how thou art full 
 Of grace and goodness ! Oh ! how beautiful. 
 
 Book III., 1. 45. 
 
 But cloud instead, and ever- during dark 
 Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men 
 Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair 
 Presented with a universal blank 
 Of Nature's works to me expunged and rased 
 And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out. 
 
 Amidst the general excellence of the annotation in the 
 latest edition of the works of Milton, whether that by Mr 
 Todd himself, or that which with so much taste and judgment 
 he has selected from former commentators, the notes on these 
 lines appear to little advantage. They perplex instead of 
 enlightening, they make difficulties where the author has 
 made none ; they set up the rules of puny grammaticasters 
 against the authority of one of the greatest and most exact 
 of our writers. If any thing is wanting to the complete 
 
NOTES ON HIS POEMS. 61 
 
 evolution of the idea in the mind of the author, it is a 
 comma after " Nature's works." 
 
 Book III., 1. 349. 
 
 Lowly reverent 
 
 Towards either throne they bow, and to the ground 
 With solemn adoration down they cast 
 Their crowns inwove with AMARANT and gold ; 
 Immortal AMARANT, a flower which once 
 In Paradise, fast by the tree of life, 
 Began to bloom ; but soon for man's offence 
 To Heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows, 
 And flowers aloft, shading the fount of life, 
 And where the river of bliss through midst of heaven, 
 Rolls o'er Elysian flowers her amber stream. 
 With these that never fade the Spirits elect 
 Bind their resplendent locks. 
 
 It is to be regretted that the commentators should have 
 bestowed so little attention on a passage of such transcen- 
 dent beauty, and that some part of what little they do say 
 should be so wide of the mark, for it is nothing to trace out 
 in books of modern gardening plants called the Amaranth 
 or the Everlasting. It is a high poetical conception, having 
 no relation in any respect to any plant in an earthly garden, 
 a plant which grew in heaven, and was for a while permitted 
 to grow in Paradise, till " man's offence" occasioned its 
 removal back to the fair fields which it had originally 
 adorned. It is made also a symbol of immortality, and 
 hence its name, allusive, as hath been remarked, and is 
 indeed obvious enough, to the amaranthine inheritance and 
 the amaranthine crown of glory which the Apostle Peter 
 holds out before his true Christian followers. 
 
 So much is sufficiently evident : but for the perfect illus- 
 
62 MILTON. 
 
 tration of such a passage as this, the question ought to be 
 asked and answered : Was this a purely original conception 
 of the mind of Milton : Had any one before him imagined a 
 plant of heavenly growth, bestowed on it the name of Ama- 
 ranth, and represented it as having been transplanted to the 
 earthly Paradise, and there to have remained as long as 
 Paradise was the scene of innocence. I propose it as a 
 theme for others, not as a question which I can pretend to 
 set at rest. Eut it appears to me that Milton was in part 
 indebted for the conception to two passages in the third 
 Book of the Fairy Queen, a poem in which he may be for 
 .ever traced. 
 
 Eternal God in His Almighty power, 
 To make example of His heavenly grace, 
 In Paradise whylom did place this flower, 
 Whence he it fetched out of her native place, 
 And did in stock of earthly flesh enrace. 
 
 Book III. Canto v. St. 52. 
 
 He does not, indeed, here find the word Amaranth : but in 
 the 45th stanza of the succeeding Canto he would find a 
 flower so denominated and connected with immortality : 
 
 Sad Amaranthus, made a flower but late, 
 
 Sad Amaranthus, in whose purple gore 
 
 Meseems I see Amyntas' wretched fate 
 
 To whom sweet poet's verse hath given endless date. 
 
 Book III., 1. 405, 
 
 Into a limbo large and broad, since called 
 The Paradise of Fools. 
 
 Milton, no doubt, whose reading was very extensive, 
 became acquainted with this conceit of the Schoolmen by 
 the perusal of their writings : but we seem to owe its intro- 
 
ffOTES Off HIS POEMS. 63 
 
 duction in this poem to his acquaintance with Ariosto, in 
 the thirty-fourth book of whose Orlando we have much the 
 same account of this limbo. It is from this book that the 
 two passages are translated, which in some editions of Mil- 
 ton's Works are united so as to form one continuous piece 
 of verse. Moreover, though printed as being Milton's, the 
 first four lines are literally Harington's translation, and the 
 other four are Harington's with exceedingly slight variations. 
 
 Book IV., 1. 161. 
 
 As when to them who sail 
 Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past 
 Mozambick, oft at sea north-east winds blow 
 Sabean odours from the spicy shore 
 Of Araby the blest ; with such delay 
 Well pleased they slack their course, and many a league 
 Cheered with the grateful smell old Ocean smiles. 
 
 The origin of this passage is probably to be found in the 
 Travels of Sir Thomas Herbert, who visited the Eastern 
 part of the world in the year 1626. In the account of his 
 voyage from Groa to G-ambroon, he says : " Having coasted 
 India and Arabia, where the sweetest spices and gums do 
 grow, we found that the spirits issuing from their flowers so 
 perfume the air when gently blowing towards passengers, 
 as they have discovered whereabouts they were when no 
 land was in sight." p. 102. Milton was a great reader of 
 books of travels. 
 
 " Araby" has the sanction of Harington : 
 
 The states of Media, Persia and Armenia, 
 With Arabia will keep you with the menie. 
 
 Orl. xl. 27. 
 
64 MILTOff. 
 
 Book IY., 1. 449. 
 
 That day I oft remember, when from sleep 
 I first awaked, and found myself reposed 
 Under a shade ON flowers. 
 
 This is one of the few instances in which the first and 
 second editions of this poem differ from each other. This 
 is the reading of the first edition, and is adopted by Mr. 
 Todd. The second edition has 
 
 Under a shade of flowers. 
 
 Mr. Todd's judgment is entitled to the greatest respect ; 
 but considering with what minute attention the second 
 edition was conducted through the press in the author's 
 life-time, and how much the now of the line is improved, I 
 give the preference to it. The sense is nearly the same ; 
 a beautiful sense whichever reading we adopt. 
 
 Book IY., 1. 640. 
 
 All seasons and their change, all please alike. 
 This most delicious portion of the most pleasing book in 
 the whole poem deserves the minutest illustration it can 
 receive. I therefore remark, that there is in this line a 
 resemblance, deserving notice, to a line in Hudson's Trans- 
 lation of Du Bartas' Judith, 
 
 Who made days, years, all seasons and their primes. 
 
 Book Y., 1. 146. 
 
 For neither various tyle 
 Nor holy rapture wanted they to praise 
 Their Maker in fit strains pronounced, or sung 
 Unmeditated. 
 
 Milton is here declaring his preference for the outpour- 
 
NOTES 01ST HIS POEMS. G5 
 
 ings of the heart in devotion to the use of previously com- 
 posed forms: and when he speaks of "various style," he 
 alludes to a favourite expression amongst persons accus- 
 tomed to be present at these out-pourings, when they 
 would commend the speaker, that " he had great variety in 
 prayer." 
 
 Book V., 1. 163. 
 Ye in Heaven. 
 
 I wish to enter a gentle but decided protest against the 
 period which Mr. Todd has placed at " Heaven," contrary 
 to the authority of the earlier copies, which have only a 
 comma, and injurious, as seems to me, both to the versifica- 
 tion and to the sense. The creatures on earth are invited 
 to join with those in heaven in this great song of praise. 
 
 Book Y., 1. 396. 
 
 No fear lest dinner cool. 
 
 Nothing in the whole poem so much offends as these few 
 words. They seem to be abandoned by the critics to their 
 fate, not a word being said to defend or excuse them. The 
 cause of offence is a familiarity not only unsuitable to the 
 dignity of the epic, but closely neighbouring on vulgarity. 
 
 Book Y., 1. 574. 
 
 Though what if Earth 
 
 Be but the shadow of Heaven, and things therein 
 Each to other like, more than on earth is thought. 
 
 I believe that the Astrologers, with, whom Milton some- 
 times condescended to associate, held this notion, and that 
 it is to this that Milton alludes, though he had doubtless 
 
G6 MILTON. 
 
 also in his mind the words of St. Paul, " The invisible 
 things of Grod are clearly seen, being understood by the 
 things that are made, even the Creator's Eternal Power and 
 Grodhead." Slichting, in his comment on John xx. 31, 
 speaking of the "life" mentioned in the text, observes, 
 " cujus respectu mortalis vita umbra verius est vita3, quam 
 vita." 
 
 Book VII., 1. 106. 
 And Sleep, listening to thee, will WATCH. 
 
 "Watch" is "wake," to spend the night attentively 
 without sleep. They are verba ardentia, and need no vindi- 
 cation. 
 
 Book VII., 1. 425. 
 
 Part loosely wing the region, part more wise 
 In common, ranged in figure wedge their way. 
 
 The wild geese fly arranged in resemblance of the figure 
 7, the angular point in advance : hence " wedge their way." 
 
 Book VII., 1. 463. 
 
 The grassy clods now CALVED. 
 
 The word is still used in some parts of England for the 
 earth opening in fissures, as it sometimes does after long 
 drought, which gives a better meaning than the common 
 word calve. 
 
 Book VIII., 1. 38. 
 
 So spake our Sire, and by his countenance seem'd 
 Entering on studious thoughts abstruse ; which Eve 
 Perceiving, where she sat retired in sight, 
 With lowliness majestic from her seat, 
 And grace that won who saw to wish her stay, 
 Rose, and went forth among her fruit and flowers. 
 
NOTES Off HIS POEMS. 67 
 
 The remarks of Bishop Newton on Eve's withdrawing 
 when the conversation between the Angel and Adam was 
 turning to subjects more abstruse, are just and beautiful : 
 but he has omitted to notice that the action is in accordance 
 with intimations in the Fourth Book, such as 
 
 My Author and Disposer, what thou bidst 
 
 Unargued I obey : so God ordains : 
 
 God is thy law, thou mine : to know no more 
 
 Is woman's happiest knowledge and her praise. I. 638. 
 
 Here the principle is laid down : in the Eighth Book 
 we have the corresponding action. 
 
 Book IX., 1. 11. 
 
 That brought into this world, a world of woe. 
 Critics of great name have suggested the placing the 
 " world of woe" in a parenthesis ; but though the line is 
 not the happiest in the whole poem, it is probably what 
 Milton wrote, in whose ear may have been sounding this 
 line of Harington's 
 
 And brought upon them all a world of woe. 
 
 Or/, xi. 2. 
 and compare P. L. xi. 627. 
 
 Book IX., 1. 218. 
 
 In yonder spring of roses intermix 'd 
 With myrtle. 
 
 " Spring" is in use in many parts of England for small 
 groves, or plantations of young trees. 
 
 Book IX., 1. 832. 
 
 So dear I love him, that with him all death 
 I could endure, without him live no life. 
 
68 MILTON, 
 
 Bishop Newton remarks, " How much stronger and more 
 pathetic is this than that of Horace, Od. III. ix. 24, < Tecum 
 vivere amem tecum obcam libens/ " in which he is clearly in 
 the right : but he might have found in our own poetry a 
 much more pertinent passage with which to have compared 
 it. I mean of course Shakespeare's : 
 
 Bat there where I have garnered up my heart, 
 Where either I must live, or bear no life.- 
 
 Othello, Act iv. Sc. 2. 
 
 Book IX., 1. 1140. 
 
 Let none henceforth seek needless cause to approve 
 The faith they owe ; when earnestly they seek 
 Such proof, conclude they then begin to fail. 
 
 Yet the Apostle says " Prove all things." In fact we 
 have here antagonistic principles, and duties arising out of 
 them, which probably never will be reconciled. 
 
 Milton shews on another occasion in this Poem his sense 
 of the wisdom of laying some restraint ou the desire for / 
 knowledge, which even if insatiable is surely excusable/ even M 
 if it is unwise and hazardous. / * 
 
 But knowledge is as food, and needs no less 
 Her temperance over appetite. Book VII. L 26. 
 
 It may be doubted whether twenty years before he would 
 have thus discouraged the search after truth, for that is the 
 real tendency of both these passages. I do not, however, 
 mean to say that it may not be the part of the " Highest 
 Wisdom" to bear these cautions in mind, when the mind is 
 engaged on subjects where demonstration is unattainable. 
 
 Book X., 1. 279. 
 So scented the grim FEATURE. 
 
XOTES OX HIS POEMS. 69 
 
 There is no note on this certainly very singular and highly 
 poetical use of the word ; but the reader will find a long 
 dissertation on it in Mr. Holt White's edition of the Areo- 
 pagitica. Hacket uses it in as strange a manner: "But 
 this young feature, like an imperfect embryo, was mortified 
 in the womb by Star Chamber vexation." Life of Williams, 
 ii. 40. It is here equivalent to project. 
 
 Book X., 1. 656. 
 
 To the blanc moon 
 
 Her office they prescribed : to the other five 
 Their planetary motions, and aspects, 
 In sextile, square, and trine, and opposite, 
 Of noxious efficacy, and when to join 
 In synod unbenign, and taught the flx'd 
 Their influence malignant when to shower, &c. 
 
 On this Mr. Thyer remarks " If an unnecessary osten- 
 tation of learning be, as Addison observes, one of Milton's 
 faults, it certainly must be an aggravation of it, when he 
 not only introduces, but countenances, such enthusiastic 
 unphilosophical notions as this jargon of the Astrologers is 
 made up of." 
 
 But there is reason to think that Milton was not averse 
 from these studies, if so they deserve to be called ; for there 
 exists in one of the miscellaneous volumes of the Ashmolean 
 Library, Milton's own horoscope in the hand as is supposed 
 of G-adbury, a principal practitioner in the art. * It was not 
 prepared for him when he was a child, but at a time of life 
 later than the publication of his Iconoclastes ; so probably 
 at his own request. See Mr. Black's Catalogue of the Ash- 
 molean Manuscripts, No. 436, Art. 57. 
 
70 MILTOtf. 
 
 Book XI., 1. 1. 
 
 Thus they in lowliest plight, repentant STOOD 
 Praying 
 
 The commentators do not accept Dr. Bentley's proposal to 
 substitute "kneeled" for " stood," but they are agreed that 
 there is no peculiar meaning in the use of " stood," and 
 that in fact it is the same as if the poet had said they were 
 praying. I do not agree with them. That Milton intended 
 to indicate that particular posture is to me evident from 
 what he afterwards says, 
 
 Yet their port 
 Not of mean suitors. 
 
 That is neither kneeling nor prostrate. In fact, he has here, 
 as in so many other passages of the poem, his eye on one of 
 the points in controversy at that time, the proper position 
 in prayer, which many dissidents from the practice of the 
 Church, contended to be standing, founding themselves 
 upon the example of divers holy men in Scripture his- 
 tory. In the same spirit we find him at 1. 836 of this 
 book, taking up the controversy about the holiness of places, 
 and deciding it in favour of the same persons who contended 
 for the standing posture in prayer. 
 
 Book XI., 1. 387. 
 
 From the destined walls 
 Of Cambalu, seat of Cathaian Can, &c. ' 
 
 Here follows a long enumeration of places which the critics 
 have set down to the account of the poet's supposed ostenta- 
 tion of learning. But surely without reason. One book, Hey- 
 
NOTES OK HIS POEMS. 71 
 
 lyn's Cosmography, would supply him with nearly all the 
 learning requisite for forming such a catalogue. Beside the 
 nature of this portion of his poem required the interposition 
 of such a passage as this for the reader's refreshment in 
 the beautiful images it successively calls up. It is an evidence 
 of the Poet's art not his ostentation. It may, however, be 
 admitted, as Mr. Hallam justly remarks, that " the ear of 
 Milton pursued almost to excess the pleasure of harmonious 
 names" Literature of Europe, i. 315. 
 
 This passage may be compared with a similar one in 
 Paradise Eegained, Book III., 1. 316, to see how finely the 
 same theme is varied. 
 
 Book XI., 1. 409. 
 
 And yet unspoiled 
 
 Guiana, whose great city Geryon's sons, 
 Call Eldorado. 
 
 It is quite clear that Milton had in his mind Sir Walter 
 Ealeigh's tract on the discovery of Guiana, 4to. 1596, having 
 used almost the very words of his title. Tor " Spaniards" 
 he substitutes " Greryon's sons," to which he might be invited 
 by Spenser. See Fairy Queen, V. x. 9. 
 
 Book XII., 1. 628. 
 
 The Cherubim descended ; on the ground 
 Gliding meteorous, as evening mist 
 Risen from a river o'er the marish glides, 
 And gathers ground fast at the labourer's heel 
 Homeward returning. 
 
72 MILTON. 
 
 Mists of the kind here spoken of by the poet are sometimes 
 actually impressed with the forms of horsemen and footmen 
 by the popular mind, large armies like what we may imagine 
 the cherubim to have been. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 G. NORMAN, PRINTER, MAIDEN LANE, COVfcNT GARDLN. 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 REC'D LD 
 
 HOV 12 '63-11 AM 
 
 REC'D LD 
 
 MAR 19h/ 
 
 
 1-tB 21 bb 
 
 cH^ 
 
 MAR2 '65-lPM 
 
 LD 2lA-50m-8,'61 
 (C1795slO)476B 
 
 General Library 
 University of California