THE EARLIEST LIFE OF MILTON. 



By Professor Edward S. Parsons. 



The following life of Milton, now printed for the first 

 time, was found in 1889 by the Rev. Andrew Clark, LL.D., 

 in a volume of Anthony AYood's papers in the Bodleian 

 Library,- but, owing to the pressure of other work, he had 

 no time to examine it. To his suggestion I owe the privilege 

 of bringing it to public notice. The manuscript consists of 

 five sheets (12 by 7^ in.), written on both sides, except the 

 last, which is three-quarters filled on one side and on the 

 other has only five lines of Avriting, carefully crossed out^ 

 which contain a first draft of a passage in the manuscript 

 itself.^ The handwriting is of a type not uncommon in the 

 latter part of the seventeenth century.* The corrections are 

 of such a sort as make it evident that the penman was the 

 composer of the matter, or else that he was an amanuensis 

 who, as he wrote, corrected according to the dictation of the 

 one for whom he worked. It has not been possible as yet to 

 discover the author.^ The manuscript was evidently written 



' Reprinted from The English Historical Review, January, 1902. 



2 Wood MS. D. 4. 



« See p. 19, note 92. 



* A facsimile of a page of the manuscript is given on p. 3. 



' To relieve future students of this problem from unnecessary labour, 

 the following list is given of contemporaries of Milton, known to be 

 interested in him for one reason or another (with one or two others 

 mentioned by Aubrey), ivho did not xcrite the manuscript (according 

 to the theory that penman and author are one) : Aubrey, William 

 Joyner (suggested by the antiquary Lovedale as Wood's 'friend': see 

 Bliss's ed. of the Fasti, i. col. 480, note 5), Edward Phillips, Andrew 

 Marvell, Daniel Skinner, Cyriack Skinner, Samuel Hartlib, Henry Olden- 

 burg, Nathan Paget, M.D., Bishop Samuel Parker, Thomas EUwood, 

 John Thurlow, Abraham Hill, Philip Meadows, Richard Jones (first 

 earl of Ranelagh), Edward Millington, Moses Pitt, Andrew Allam. The 



