l. 20. Henry Lawes (1596-1662), who wrote the music for _Comus_, and
to whom Milton addressed one of his sonnets:
_Harry_ whose tuneful and well measur'd Song
First taught our English Musick how to span
Words with just note and accent,...
To after age thou shalt be writ the man,
That with smooth aire couldst humor best our tongue.
This sonnet was prefixed to Lawes's _Choice Psalmes_ in 1648; his
_Ayres and Dialogues for One, Two, and Three Voices_ appeared in three
books from 1653 to 1658.
56.
The Life of That Reverend Divine, and Learned Historian, Dr. Thomas
Fuller. London, 1661. (pp. 66-77.)
This work was twice reissued with new title-pages at Oxford in 1662,
and was for the first time reprinted in 1845 by way of introduction to
J.S. Brewer's edition of Fuller's _Church History_. It is the basis of
all subsequent lives of Fuller. But the author is unknown.
The passage here quoted from the concluding section of this _Life_ is
the only contemporary sketch of Fuller's person and character that is
now known. Aubrey's description is a mere note, and is considerably
later: 'He was of a middle stature; strong sett; curled haire; a very
working head, in so much that, walking and meditating before dinner,
he would eate-up a penny loafe, not knowing that he did it. His
naturall memorie was very great, to which he had added the _art of
memorie_: he would repeate to you forwards and backwards all the
signes from Ludgate to Charing-crosse' (ed. A. Clark, vol. i, p. 257).
Page 187, l. 20. _a perfect walking Library_, Compare p. 171, l. 19,
note.
Page 191, ll. 3 ff. Compare Aubrey. But Fuller disclaimed the use of
an art of memory. 'Artificiall memory', he said, 'is rather a trick
then an art.' He condemned the 'artificiall rules which at this day
are delivered by Memory-mountebanks'. His great rule was 'Marshall thy
notions into a handsome method'. See his section 'Of Memory' in his
_Holy State_, 1642, Bk. III, ch. 10; and compare J.E. Bailey, _Life of
Thomas Fuller_, 1874, pp. 413-15.
57.
Bodleian Library, MS. Aubrey 8 foll. 63, 63 v, 68.
The text is taken direct from Aubrey's manuscript, such contractions
as 'X'ts coll:' and 'da:' for daughter being expanded. For the
complete life, see _Brief Lives_, ed. A. Clark, vol. ii, pp. 62-72.
There is no character of Milton. We have again to be content with
notes for a character.
Page 192, l. 7. Christ's College, Cambridge, which Milton entered in
February 1625, aged sixteen.
ll. 15-18. Milton had three daughters, by his first wife--Anne, Mary,
and Deborah. Mary died unmarried. Deborah's husband, Abraham Clarke,
left Dublin for London during the troubles in Ireland under James II:
see Masson's _Life of Milton_, vol. vi, p. 751. He is described by
Johnson as a 'weaver in Spitalfields': see _Lives of the Poets_, ed.
G.B. Hill, vol. i, pp. 158-60.
Page 193, ll. 2-4. _Litera Canina_. See Persius, _Sat_. i. 109
'Sonat hic de nare canina littera'; and compare Ben Jonson, _English
Grammar_, '_R_ Is the _Dogs_ Letter, and hurreth in the sound.'
ll. 11, 12. But the Comte de Cominges, French Ambassador to England,
1662-5, in his report to Louis XIV on the state of literature in
England, spoke of 'un nommé Miltonius qui s'est rendu plus infâme par
ses dangereux écrits que les bourreaux et les assassins de leur roi'.
This was written in 1663, and Cominges knew only Milton's Latin works.
See J.J. Jusserand, _A French Ambassador at the Court of Charles the
Second_, 1892, p. 58, and _Shakespeare en France_, 1898, p. 107.
l. 19. _In toto nusquam_. Ovid, _Amores_, i. 5. 18.
Page 194, l. 4. Milton died November 8: see Masson, _Life of Milton_,
vol. vi, p. 731.
58.
Letters of State, Written by Mr. John Milton, To most of the Sovereign
Princes and Republicks of Europe. From the Year 1649 Till the Year
1659. To which is added, An Account of his Life.... London: Printed in
the Year, 1694. (p. xxxvi.)
'The Life of Mr. John Milton' (pp. i-xliv) serves as introduction to
this little volume of State Papers. It is the first life of Milton.
Edward Phillips (1630-96) was the son of Milton's sister, and was
educated by him. Unfortunately he failed to take proper advantage of
his great opportunity. The Life is valuable for some of its details,
but as a whole it is disappointing; and it makes no attempt at
characterization. The note on Milton in his _Theatrum Poetarum, or a
Compleat Collection of the Poets_, 1675, is also disappointing.
59.
Explanatory Notes and Remarks on Milton's Paradise Lost. By J.
Richardson, Father and Son. With the Life of the Author, and a
Discourse on the Poem. By J.R. Sen. London: M.DCC.XXXIV. (pp. iii-v;
xciv; c; cxiv.)
Jonathan Richardson (1665-1745) was one of the chief portrait-painters
of his time. There are portraits by him of Pope, Steele, and
Prior--all now in the National Portrait Gallery; and his writings on
painting were standard works till the time of Reynolds. His book on
Milton was an excursion late in life, with the assistance of his son,
into another field of criticism. His introductory life of Milton
(pp. i-cxliii) is a substantial piece of work, and is valuable as
containing several anecdotes that might otherwise have been lost.
Those that bear on Milton's character are here reproduced. The
typographical eccentricities have been preserved.
Page 194, ll. 28 ff. Edward Millington's place of business was 'at the
Pelican in Duck Lane' in 1670; from Michaelmas, 1671, it was 'at the
Bible in Little Britain' (see Arber's _Term Catalogues_, vol. i, pp.
31, 93). It was about 1680 that he turned auctioneer of books, though
he did not wholly abandon publishing. 'There was usually as much
Comedy in his "Once, Twice, Thrice", as can be met with in a modern
Play.' See the _Life and Errors of John Dunton_, ed. 1818, pp. 235-6.
He died at Cambridge in 1703.
Page 196, l. 4. Dr. Tancred Robinson (d. 1748), physician to George I,
and knighted by him.
l. 10. Henry Bendish (d. 1740), son of Bridget Ireton or Bendish,
Cromwell's granddaughter: see _Letters of John Hughes_, ed. John
Duncombe, vol. ii (1773), pp. x, xlii.
l. 14. John Thurloe (1616-68), Secretary of State under Cromwell.
Compare No. 38 note.
l. 25. 'Easy my unpremeditated verse', _Paradise Lost_, ix. 24.
60.
The Works of M'r Abraham Cowley. Consisting of Those which were
formerly Printed: and Those which he Design'd for the Press, Now
Published out of the Authors Original Copies. London, 1668.--'Several
Discourses by way of Essays, in Verse and Prose,' No. II. (pp. 143-6.)
Cowley's Essays were written towards the close of his life. They were
'left scarce finish'd', and many others were to have been added to
them. They were first published posthumously in the collected edition
of 1668, under the superintendence of Thomas Sprat (see No. 61).
This edition, which alone is authoritative, has been followed in the
present reprint of the eleventh and last Essay, probably written at
the beginning of 1667.
Page 198, l. 1. _at School_, Westminster.
ll. 19 ff. The concluding stanzas of 'A Vote', printed in Cowley's
_Sylva_, 1636. Cowley was then aged eighteen. The first stanza
contains three new readings, 'The unknown' for 'Th' ignote', 'I would
have' for 'I would hug', and 'Not on' for 'Not from'.
Page 199, l. 15. _out of Horace_, _Odes_, iii. 29. 41-5.
Page 200, l. 4. _immediately_. The reading in the text of 1668 is
'irremediably', but 'immediately' is given as the correct reading in
the 'Errata' (printed on a slip that is pasted in at the conclusion of
Cowley's first preface). The edition of 1669 substitutes 'immediately'
in the text. The alteration must be accepted on Sprat's authority, but
it is questionable if it gives a better sense.
ll. 6-10. Cowley was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, as a
Westminster scholar on June 14, 1637. He was admitted Minor Fellow
in 1640, and graduated M.A. in 1643. He was ejected in the following
year as a result of the Earl of Manchester's commission to enforce the
solemn League and Covenant in Cambridge. See _Cowley's Pure Works_,
ed. J.R. Lumby, pp. ix-xiii, and Johnson's _Lives of the Poets_, ed.
G.B. Hill, vol. i, p. 5.
ll. 9, 10. _Cedars ... Hyssop_. I Kings, iv. 33.
l. 12. _one of the best Persons_, Henry Jermyn, created Baron Jermyn,
1643, and Earl of St. Albans, 1660, chief officer of Henrietta Maria's
household in Paris: see Clarendon, vol. iv, p. 312. As secretary
to Jermyn, Cowley 'cyphcr'd and decypher'd with his own hand, the
greatest part of all the Letters that passed between their Majesties,
and managed a vast Intelligence in many other parts: which for some
years together took up all his days, and two or three nights every
week' (Sprat). He told Sprat that he intended to dedicate all his
Essays to St. Albans 'as a testimony of his entire respects to him'.
Page 201, l. 10. _Well then_. The opening lines of 'The Wish',
included in _The Mistress_, 1647 (ed. 1668, pp. 22-3).
ll. 14 ff. At the instance of Jermyn, Cowley had been promised by both
Charles I and Charles II the mastership of the Savoy Hospital, but the
post was given in 1660 to Sheldon, and in 1663, on Sheldon's promotion
to the Archbishopric of Canterbury, to Henry Killigrew: see W.J.
Loftie, _Memorials of the Savoy_, 1878, pp. 145 ff., and Wood, _Fasti
Oxonienses_, ed. Bliss, part I, col. 494. In the _Calendar of State
Papers_, Domestic Series, 1661-2, p. 210, there is the statement of
the case of Abraham Cowley, 'showing that the place may be held by a
person not a divine, and that Cowley ... having seen all preferments
given away, and his old University companions advanced before him, is
put to great shame by missing this place'. He is called 'Savoy missing
Cowley' in the Restoration _Session of the Poets_, printed in _Poems
on State Affairs_.
l. 21. _Thou, neither_. In the ode entitled 'Destinie', _Pindarique
Odes_, 1656 (ed. 1668, p. 31, 'That neglected').
l. 28. _A Corps perdu_, misprinted _A Corps perdi_, edd. 1668, 1669,
_A Corpus perdi_, 1672, 1674, &c.; _Perdue_, Errata, 1668.
Page 202, l. 1. St. Luke, xii. 16-21.
ll. 3-5. 'Out of hast to be gone away from the Tumult and Noyse of the
City, he had not prepar'd so healthful a situation in the Country, as
he might have done, if he had made a more leasurable choice. Of this
he soon began to find the inconvenience at _Barn Elms_, where he was
afflicted with a dangerous and lingring _Fever_.... Shortly after his
removal to _Chertsea_ [April 1665], he fell into another consuming
Disease. Having languish'd under this for some months, he seem'd to
be pretty well cur'd of its ill Symptomes. But in the heat of the last
Summer [1667], by staying too long amongst his Laborers in the Medows,
he was taken with a violent Defluxion, and Stoppage in his Breast, and
Throat. This he at first neglected as an ordinary Cold, and refus'd
to send for his usual Physicians, till it was past all remedies; and
so in the end after a fortnight sickness, it prov'd mortal to him'
(Sprat). In the Latin life prefixed to Cowley's _Poemata Latina_,
1668, Sprat is more specific: 'Initio superioris Anni, inciderat in
_Morbum_, quem Medici _Diabeten_ appellant.'
l. 6. _Non ego_. Horace, _Odes_, ii. 17. 9, 10.
ll. 11 ff. _Nec vos_. These late Latin verses may be Cowley's own, but
they are not in his collected Latin poems. Compare Virgil, _Georgics_,
ii. 485-6. 'Syluæq;' = 'Sylvæque': 'q;' was a regular contraction for
_que_: cf. p. 44, l. 6.
61.
The Works of Mr. Abraham Cowley, 1668.--'An Account of the Life and
Writings of M'r Abraham Cowley'. (pp. [18]-[20].)
Thomas Sprat (1635-1713), author of _The History of the
Royal-Society_, 1667, afterwards Bishop of Rochester, 1684, was
entrusted by Cowley's will with 'the revising of all his Works that
were formerly printed, and the collecting of those Papers which he had
design'd for the Press'; and as literary executor he brought out in
1668 a folio edition of the English works, and an octavo edition of
the Latin works. To both he prefixed a life, one in English and the
other in Latin. The more elaborate English life was written partly in
the hope that 'a Character of Mr. _Cowley_ may be of good advantage to
our Nation'. Unfortunately the ethical bias has injured the biography.
In Johnson's words, 'his zeal of friendship, or ambition of eloquence,
has produced a funeral oration rather than a history: he has given the
character, not the life of Cowley; for he writes with so little detail
that scarcely any thing is distinctly known, but all is shewn confused
and enlarged through the mist of panegyrick.' Similarly Coleridge asks
'What literary man has not regretted the prudery of Sprat in refusing
to let his friend Cowley appear in his slippers and dressing-gown?'
(_Biographia Literaria_, ch. iii). His method is the more to be
regretted as no one knew Cowley better in his later years. His
greatest error of judgement was to suppress his large collection
of Cowley's letters. But with all its faults Sprat's Life of Cowley
occupies an important place at the beginning of English biography of
men of letters. It is the earliest substantial life of a poet whose
reputation rested on his poetry. Fulke Greville's life of Sir Philip
Sidney was the life of a soldier and a statesman of promise; and to
Izaak Walton, Donne was not so much a poet as a great Churchman.
In the edition of 1668 the life of Cowley runs to twenty-four folio
pages. The passage here selected deals directly with his character.
Page 203, ll. 25-7. It is evidently the impression of a stranger at
first sight that Aubrey gives in his short note: 'A.C. discoursed very
ill and with hesitation' (ed. A. Clark, vol. i, p. 190).
62.
A Character of King Charles the Second: And Political, Moral and
Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections. By George Savile, Marquis of
Halifax. London: MDCCL.
Halifax's elaborate and searching account of Charles II was first
published in 1750 'from his original Manuscripts, in the Possession
of his Grand-daughter Dorothy Countess of Burlington'. It consists
of seven parts: I. Of his Religion; II. His Dissimulation; III. His
Amours, Mistresses, &c.; IV. His Conduct to his Ministers; V. Of
his Wit and Conversation; VI. His Talents, Temper, Habits, &c.; VII.
Conclusion. Only the second, fifth, and sixth are given here. The
complete text is reprinted in Sir Walter Raleigh's _Works of Halifax_,
1912, pp. 187-208.
For other characters of Charles, in addition to the two by Burnet
which follow, see Evelyn's _Diary_, February 4, 1685; Dryden's
dedication of _King Arthur_, 1691; 'A Short Character of King Charles
the II' by John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, Duke of Buckingham,
'Printed from the Original Copy' in _Miscellaneous Works Written by
George, late Duke of Buckingham_, ed. Tho. Brown, vol. ii, 1705, pp.
153-60, and with Pope's emendations in _Works_, 1723, vol. ii, pp.
57-65; and James Welwood's _Memoirs Of the Most Material Transactions
in England, for the Last Hundred Years, Preceding the Revolution_,
1700, pp. 148-53.
For Halifax himself, see No. 72.
Page 208, l. 12. An allusion to the Quarrel of the Ancients and
Moderns, which assumed prominence in England with the publication
in 1690 of Sir William Temple's _Essay upon the Ancient and Modern
Learning_. Compare Burnet, p. 223, l. 11 and note.
PAGE 209, l. 29. _Ruelle_. Under Louis XIV it was the custom for
ladies of fashion to receive morning visitors in their bedrooms; hence
_ruelle_, the passage by the side of a bed, came to mean a ladies'
chamber. Compare _The Spectator_, Nos. 45 and 530.
Page 211, l. 2. _Tiendro cuydado_, evidently an imperfect recollection
of the phrase _se tendrá cuydado_, 'care will be taken', 'the matter
will have attention': compare _Cortes de Madrid_, 1573, Peticion
96,... 'se tendrá cuidado de proueher en ello lo que conuiniere'.
Page 212, ll. 7, 8. Compare Pepys's _Diary_, May 4, 1663: 'meeting the
King, we followed him into the Park, where Mr. Coventry and he talking
of building a new yacht out of his private purse, he having some
contrivance of his own'. Also, Evelyn's _Diary_, February 4, 1685:
'a lover of the sea, and skilful in shipping; not affecting other
studies, yet he had a laboratory and knew of many empirical medicines,
and the easier mechanical mathematics.' Also, Buckingham, ed. 1705,
p. 155: 'the great and almost only pleasure of Mind he seem'd addicted
to, was _Shipping_ and _Sea-Affairs_; which seem'd to be so much his
Talent for _Knowledge_, as well as _Inclination_, that a War of that
Kind, was rather an _Entertainment_, than any _Disturbance_ to his
Thoughts.' Also Welwood, _Memoirs_, p. 151. Also, Burnet, _infra_, p.
219.
Page 213, l. 10. According to Pepys (_Diary_, December 8, 1666),
the distinction between Charles Stuart and the King was drawn by Tom
Killigrew in his remonstrance to Charles on the very ill state that
matters were coming to: 'There is a good, honest, able man, that I
could name, that if your Majesty would employ, and command to see all
things well executed, all things would soon be mended; and this is one
Charles Stuart, who now spends his time in employing his lips about
the Court, and hath no other employment; but if you would give him
this employment, he were the fittest man in the world to perform it.'
Page 217, ll. 11 ff. Compare Welwood's _Memoirs_, p. 149.
63.
Bishop Burnet's History of His Own Time. Vol. i. From the Restoration
of King Charles II. to the Settlement of King William and Queen Mary
at the Revolution. London: 1724. (pp. 93-4.)
Burnet began his _History of His Own Time_ in 1683, after the
publication of his _History of the Reformation_. In its original form
it partook largely of the nature of Memoirs. But on the appearance
of Clarendon's History in 1702 he was prompted to recast his entire
narrative on a method that confined the strictly autobiographical
matter to a section by itself and as a whole assured greater dignity.
The part dealing with the reign of Charles II was rewritten by August
1703. The work was brought down to 1713 and completed in that year.
Two years later Burnet died, leaving instructions that it was not to
be printed till six years after his death.
The _History_ was published in two folio volumes, dated 1724 and 1734.
The first, which contains the reigns of Charles II and James II, came
out at the end of 1723 and was edited by Burnet's second son, Gilbert
Burnet, then rector of East Barnet. The second volume was edited
by his third son, Thomas Burnet, afterwards a Judge of the Court
of Common Pleas. The complete autograph of the History, and the
transcript which was prepared for the press under the author's
directions, are now both in the Bodleian Library.
The original form of the work survives in two transcripts (one of them
with Burnet's autograph corrections) in the Harleian collection in
the British Museum, and in a fragment of Burnet's original manuscript
in the Bodleian. The portions of this original version that differ
materially from the final printed version were published in 1902 by
Miss H.C. Foxcroft under the title _A Supplement to Burnet's History_.
Much of the interest of the earlier version lies in the characters,
which are generally longer than they became on revision, and
sometimes contain details that were suppressed. But in a volume of
representative selections, where the art of a writer is as much our
concern as his matter, the preference must be given to what Burnet
himself intended to be final. The extracts are reprinted from the two
volumes edited by his sons. There was not the same reason to go direct
to his manuscript as to Clarendon's: see notes p. 231, l. 26; p. 252,
l. 10; and p. 255, l. 6.
64.