M I L T O N. 



Sll 



Milton, house of Stuart. Milton was employed to answer it, 

 """V" 1 *' and he performed his task in 16*1, by his celebrated 

 Defeiirio pro Pnpulo Anglicano. He was present when 

 the council of England enjoined him the task. Milton, 

 when he undertook it, was weak of body and dim of 

 sight, and his physicians predicted that it would cost 

 htm the loss of his eyes ; but he persevered, and finish- 

 ed a work, the eloquence and intellectual power of which 

 is only slightly disfigured by some sportive sallies of 

 wit, and some harsh personalities. The work was ap- 

 plauded by all Europe. Foreigners of the highest ta- 

 lent and erudition, and the ambassadors of crowned 

 heads, waited upon him, or wrote to him to express 

 their congratulations. The council of state made him 

 a pecuniary reward of a thousand pounds. 



On the 2d of May, 1652, his family was increased by 

 the birth of another daughter, Deborah, of whom his 

 wife died in child-bed. Meanwhile his sight was im- 

 paired by incessant study, so as to leave him probably 

 as early as this "same year nearly blind, at least one of 

 his adversaries about that time charitably upbraids him 

 with the calamity as a punishment from heaven, and 

 denominates him as a " montlrum horrendum cut lumen 

 ademptum." His fortitude under the event is admirably 

 expressed in his sonnet to Cyriac Skinner. 



The precise date of his second marriage, is not much 

 better ascertained than that of his confirmed blindness, 

 though probably both events took place about 165*. 

 His second matrimonial choice was Catharine, the 

 daughter of a Captain Woodcock of Hackney. She 

 was the object of his fondest affection ; but died with- 

 in a year after their marriage, like her predecessor, in 

 child-birth, and the daughter whom she bore to him 

 soon followed her to the tomb. His sonnet to her 

 memory mast be in every one's remembrance. Da- 

 ring this period his powers were again employed in 

 controversy De Moulin 1 * " Cry of Ike Royal Blood 

 to Heaven" published in 1652, poured forth the most 

 violent abuse against the English as a nation, and Mil- 

 ton as an individual. De Moulin, the son of an ob- 

 scure French satirist at Sedan, was the real author of 

 this work ; but Alexander More, a man of Scotch pa- 

 rentage, and a preacher of considerable celebrity, settled 

 in France, and Principal of the Protestant College of 

 Castre*, wrote a dedication of the Clamor Kegii San- 

 guinit to Charles II. and committed it to the Press ; 

 on him, therefore, Milton retaliated with a vengeance 

 which sufficiently/ exposed the impeaduble part of 

 More'* character. With his Second Offence of the 

 People of England, Milton closed for the present his 

 controversial labours; and probably endeavoured among 

 hi* studies to retire from the mortification and disap- 

 pointment which he felt from the exhibition of despotic 

 principles and conduct in the Protector. There is 

 reason to believe that he felt thn mortification. Like 

 Blake and Sir Matthew Hale, be might plead the em- 

 ployment of his country as lawful even under a t vrant, 

 and he might think a temporary usurpation on the 

 whole, preferable to the return of the unprincipled 

 royal exiles. But it would have been agreeable to 

 have had a more distinct declaration of his motives 

 from his own pen. He was engaged in 1656 in con- 

 tinuing the History of England, and a Latin diction- 

 ary, and had begun to frame his in. mortal epic poem. 

 The historical work, which is only a great fragment, 

 appeared in MiTO, mutilated by the licenser of some of 

 it* finest passage*. The materials of his Latin The- 

 saurus were left imperfectly digested, but are said to 

 "have been u* fully employed by the compilers of the 

 Cambridge Dictionary, to whom they were probably 

 give* by his ncphew'Phillips. In the same year be 

 2 



published a MS. of Sir Walter Raleigh's, consisting of Mili. 

 aphorisms on the txrt of government, and composed in T" 

 a strain of peculiar elegance the manifesto issued by 

 the Protector in justification of his war with Spain. 

 In the following year Cromwell finished his splendid 

 but criminal career, and his son Richard descended 

 with magnanimous innocence to the safe level of a pri- 

 vate station. When the fluctuations of government 

 threatened general anarchy, Milton was induced to 

 give his advice on civil and ecclesiastical topics, in 

 some short publications ; one of which was a ready 

 and easy way to establish a free commonwealth ; the 

 excellencies thereof compared with the inconveniences 

 and dangers of re-admitting monarchy. This appeared 

 but a short time before the restoration, so zealous and 

 sanguine was he to the very last with respect to his 

 political system. It waa in vain, however, to contend 

 with pamphlets against the national inclination. The 

 king returned in triumph; and Milton, discharged from 

 office, left his house in Petty France, and was secreted 

 under tie roof of a friend in St. Bartholomew's close, 

 near t '>At\, till t!ie act of oblivion, in the 



exceptions to which he wa not included, ascertained 

 hi* safety and reinstated him in sot 



All parties have agreed in paying this compliment 

 to Charles 1 1. Out it was owing to no weakness or 

 oversight of his, if Milton escaped. It is supposed 

 that his friend Andrew Marvell, the member for Hull, 

 made some interest ibrhim in the House of Commons; 

 and we arc told that Sit Thomas Clayes, and Secretary 

 Morris, made exertions for his preservation. But the 

 most earnest and grateful interposition seem) to have 

 been that of Sir William Davcnant, who had been 

 saved on a former occasion by the mediation of Milton. 

 But though his person was spared, his Iconoclailtt, and 

 the Defence of the People of England, were condemned 

 to be burnt by the hands of the hangman. Milton 

 might well smile at this vindictive shew of triumph. 

 No sentence, no hangman, no flames could destroy 

 the fame of the Defence of the people of England. He 

 might also console himself by reflecting, that those 

 who sentenced his book to be burnt, were the some 

 who dug up the body of Blake to be hung on a gib- 

 bet, and who brought back the punishment of env 

 bowelling on the scaffold, ere they were yet ilead, the 

 expiring victims for treason; a relic of barbarism 

 which lind been abolished during the republic. Mil- 

 ton was for some time in the custody of the Scrjeant- 

 at-Arms, but was discharged, and attention was even 

 paid to his complaint of the demand of excessive fees. 

 This attention, liowever, was paid to him by the par- 

 liament, and not the crown. 



Being now in reduced circumstances, and under thr 

 discountenance of power, he removed to .-. privat< 

 biUtion in the city, anil in order to alleviate his for- 

 lorn condi t to look 

 out fur a t!iir>l Jed a re- 

 lative of his own, Elizabeth Miuxhull, of a good family 

 in Cheshire, and the union took place in Milton's fifty- 

 third ur fitly- fourth year. About the time of his mar- 

 riage, or probably a lit:'. .t. he published a 

 short treatise, entitled Accidence Commenced Grammar, 

 intended to facilitate the first weak step of the juvenile 

 student, and remarkable only for its exhibition of 

 mighty mind stooping in digniiied condescension to 

 utility, hi 1655, he gave to the public another M>. 

 aC Sir Walter Raleigh's, containing aphorisms of State, 

 v. ith the title of the " Cabinet Council." That he was 

 offered from the court, and refused the post which he 

 had held under the former government, has beeu as- 

 serted, but with little probability, since his manners 



