The Earliest Life of ]\Iilton. 5 



manuscript, sometimes quoting it vcrhaiim, then again quali- 

 fying its assertions, omitting some passages and adding others 

 of his own composition to make an impression opposite to 

 that produced by the manuscript itself, is highly entertaining. 

 But, more than this, the manuscript throws light upon several 

 interesting questions in Milton's biography. It adds confir- 

 mation to the theory of Joseph Hunter and Professor ]\Iasson 

 that the poet's grandfather lived at Stanton St. John, in 

 Oxfordshire — a conjecture which was proved to be correct by 

 Hyde. Clarke's examination of the records of the Scriveners' 

 Company. By stating the amount of Richard Milton's in- 

 come the manuscript makes it evident how he could pay the 

 excessive fines imposed upon him for recusancy. The manu- 

 script is closely related to Richardson's life of Milton. It 

 confirms Richardson's report of ]\Iilton's relations with Sir 

 "William Davenant, and mentions, what Richardson also re- 

 ports, the request of the government of Charles II that Mil- 

 ton should become its Latin secretary, as he had been Crom- 

 well's. Moreover the manuscript has the double distinction 

 of being, first, the earliest biography of Milton ever written,^^ 

 and, secondly, the one seventeenth-centuiy biography of the 

 poet in which he is treated with entire sympathy. 



Edward S. Parsons. 



The Life of Mr^^ John jMilton. 



To write the Lives of Single Persons is then a commend- 

 able Undertaking, when by it some j\Ioral benefit is design 'd 

 to INIankind. Hee who has that in aim, will not imploy his 

 time or Pen, to record the history of bad men, how successful 

 or great soever they may have bin; unless by relating thir 

 Tragical ends (which, through the just Judgment of the 

 Almighty, most commonly overtakes them) or by discrim- 

 inating, with a due note of Infann', whatever is criminal in 

 thir actions, hee warn the Reader to flee thir example. 



" Aubrey's life of Milton (in the Brief Lives), even if written 

 earlier, cannot be strictly called a biography; it is merely a collection 

 of biographical jottings. 



"The title is ah ays used \vl en tlie poet's name is mentioned in 

 the manuscript. 



