372 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°'i S. V, 123., May 8. '58. 



even of sovereign rank, and under any pretext, pre- 

 tension, and title whatever, attempt in any manner to 

 compel him, before he shall himself desire to make such a 

 manifestation, declaration, and explanation, wholly or in 

 part, in that case we appoint, declare, and institute him- 

 self our universal proprietary heir, with full liberty to 

 enjoy and to dispose of our inheritances, moveable and 

 real goods, rights, as above-named, and without any con- 

 dition or restitution whatever. We will, moreover, and 

 ordain that if there shall be found annexed to the present 

 disposition, or on (or near) our person, or in our palaces 

 of Rome and Frascati, or with our above-named fiduciary 

 (or trustee) other papers signed by us, thej' are to be 

 considered as forming a substantive part of the present 

 disposition, and our said fiduciarj- heir shall give full exe- 

 cution to their contents with the greatest punctuality 

 and exactitude, and we doubt not, but, on the contrary, 

 we feel assured, that he will conform to, and execute 

 them. 



" We moreover declare that in consideration of the 

 great losses we have suffered at the period of the revolu- 

 tion in Rome (1798), not only in our funded property and 

 the furniture of our palaces, plate, and other valuable things, 

 and on account of other applications we were previously 

 bound to make of our jewels and other effects in order to 

 assist the Government, at the request of the Sovereign 

 Pontiff, it has not been in our power to follow in this 

 fiduciary disposition, as it was our desire, the impulses of 

 our heart in those things concerning ourselves and our in- 

 heritance, and the persons in our service, and those like- 

 wise who might deserve our regard. 



" Finally, it is our intention to renew here, and to con- 

 sider as expressly inserted in it, our protest * deposited 

 in the acts of the notary Cataldi, on the 27th of January, 

 1764, and published on the 30th of January, 1788, at the 

 death of our most serene brother, relative to the trans- 

 mission of our rights of succession to the throne and 

 crown of England in behalf of the Prince on whom thej' 

 devolve by right (dejwre), by proximity of blood, and by 

 rights of succession ; we declare to transmit these rights 

 to him in the most explicit and solemn form. Such is our 

 last will and testamentary disposition, dictated word by 

 word (de verba ad verbum). It is our will that it have 

 perpetual validitj-, and the best and most valid title com- 

 petent to us (to give it). 



"Given at our residence in Frascati, on the 15th day of 

 July, 1802. " Henry Roi." 



William John Fitz-Patrick. 



* It appears that in this protest the succession is thus 

 eventually regulated. It reascends to Henriette Anne of 

 England, daughter of Charles I., born the 16th June, 1644, 

 and married the 31st March, 1661, to Philippe of France, 

 Duke of Orleans, brother of Louis XIV. (the celebrated 

 " Madame " of Bossuet's " Funeral Orations "). This 

 princess had by Philippe, a prince, who died at a tender 

 age; Maria Louisa, wife of Charles II., King of Spain, 

 who died childless; and Anne Maria of Orleans. This 

 last married the 10th April, 1684, Victor- Amadeus-Fran- 

 cis, Duke of Savoy, afterwards King of Sardinia, in 1720. 

 His successor, Charles Emanuel HI., gave existence to 

 Victor-Amadeus III., who reigned in 1788 (the period of 

 the publication of the above protest), and who, according 

 to the Anglo-Catholic laws, was called to the throne of 

 England for the Stuarts, as representing Anne Maria of 

 Orleans, daughter of Henriette Anne of England, and 

 grand-daughter of the unfortunate Charles I. — Note of 

 the Chevalier de Berardi. 



MILTON S BLINDNESS. 



In some of his earlier bionraphies I have seen 

 it stated that he had weakness of the eyes from 

 childhood, which was aggravated by midnight 

 studies, an infirmity inherited by his daughter 

 Deborah, who is reported to have been obliged to 

 resort to spectacles at the early age of eighteen. 



The date of total blindness is fixed by some at 

 about the time of his answering Salmasius, or two 

 or three years preceding his second marriage. 



Wilmott, in his Lives of the Poets, says, — 



" Soon after the summer of 1651, after his removal from 

 his apartments at Whitehall to a house in Petty France, 

 Westminster, he was suffering under almost total blind- 

 ness, being entirely deprived of the sight of one eye, yet con- 

 tinued to discharge his office with the assistance of his 

 nephew Edward Phillips. In the following year his sight 

 was completely gone." 



To some extent, and perhaps with the exclusion 

 of the last paragraph, this is probably correct, but 

 it is not quite evident that total darkness came 

 upon him till 1654. 



On Feb. 22, 1652, he addressed a letter to the 

 Lord Bradshaw, recommending Mr. Marvel for 

 some employment, wherein he writes, — 



" If the council shall think y* I need any assistance 

 in y" performance of my place upon the death of Mr. 

 Wakerle^', tho' for my part I find no encumbrance of 

 that w"'' belongs to me, except it be in point of attend- 

 ance at conference w* Ambassadors, w'i> I confess in my 

 condition 1 am not fit for." 



This letter (probably holograph) is preserved 

 amongst our national records, and doubtless al- 

 ludes to the gradual impairment of his vision. 

 His sight had been growing feeble since 1644, as 

 we learn from the translation of his own epistle to 

 his friend Leonard Philaras, Ambassador from the 

 Duke of Parma at Paris, under date of 1654, 

 Sept. 28 : — 



" It is about 10 years since, I think, since I perceived my 

 sight to grow weak and dim. Early in the morning, if I 

 began to read as usual my eyes immediatel}' suffered 

 pain, but after some moderate bodily exercise were re- 

 freshed ; whenever I looked at a candle I saw a sort of 

 iris around it. Not long afterwards, on the left side of my 

 left eye, which began to fail some years before the other, a 

 darkness arose whiah hid from me all things on that side ; 

 if I chanced to close my right eye, whatever was before 

 me seemed diminished. In the last three years, as my re- 

 maining eye failed by degrees, some months before my sight 

 was utterly gone, all things that I could discern, tho' I 

 moved not myself, appeared to fluctuate, now to the right, 

 now to the left ; obstinate vapours seem to have settled 

 all over my forehead and temples, overwhelming my eyes 

 with a sort of sleepy heaviness, especially after food, till 

 the evening, so that I frequently recollect the condition 

 of the prophet Phineas in the Argonautics : — 



' Him vapours dark 

 Enveloped, and the earth appeared to roll 

 Beneath him, sinking in a lifeless trance.' 



But I should not omit to say, that while I had some little / 

 sight remaining, as soon as I went to bed and reclined on 

 either side, a copious light used to dart from my closed 



