have, he was by the Act of Indemnity only incapacitated for any public
employment. This is a notorious mistake, though Toland, the bishop of
Sarum, Fenton, &c, have gone into it, confounding him with Goodwin;
their cases were very different, as I found upon enquiry. Not to take
a matter of this importance upon trust, I had first recourse to the
Act itself. Milton is not among the excepted. If he was so
conditionally pardoned, it must then be, by a particular instrument.
That could not be after he had been purified entirely by the general
indemnity, nor was it likely the King, who had declared from Breda, he
would pardon all but whom the Parliament should judge unworthy of it,
and had thus lodged the matter with them, should, before they came to
a determination, bestow a private act of indulgence to one so
notorious as Milton. It is true, Rapin says, several principal
republicans applied for mercy, while the Act was yet depending, but
quotes no authority; and upon search, no such pardon appears on
record, though many are two or three years after, but then they are
without restrictions; some people were willing to have a particular,
as well as a general pardon; but whatever was the case of others,
there was a reason besides what has been already noted, that no such
favour would be shewn to Milton. The House of Commons, June 16, 1660,
vote the King to be moved to call in his two books, and that of John
Goodwin, written in justification of the murder of the King, in order
to be burnt, and that the Attorney General do proceed against them by
indictment. June 27, an Order of Council reciting that Vote of the
16th, and that the persons were not to be found, directs a
Proclamation for calling in Milton's two books, which are here
explained, to be that against Salmasius, and the Eikon Basilike, as
also Goodwin's book; and a Proclamation was issued accordingly, and
another to the same purpose the 13th of August: as for Goodwin he
narrowly escaped for his life, but he was voted to be excepted out of
the Act of Indemnity, amongst the twenty designed to have penalties
inflicted short of death, and August 27, these books of Milton and
Goodwin were burnt by the hangman. The Act of Oblivion, according to
Kennet's Register, was passed the 29th. It is seen by this account,
that Milton's person and Goodwin's are separated, tho' their books are
blended together. As the King's intention appeared to be a pardon to
all but actual regicides, as Burnet says, it is odd, he should assert
in the same breath, almost all people were surprized that Goodwin and
Milton escaped censure. Why should it be so strange, they being not
concerned in the King's blood? that he was forgot, as Toland says,
some people imagined, is very unlikely. However, it is certain, from
what has been shewn from bishop Kennet, he was not. That he should be
distinguished from Goodwin, with advantage, will justly appear
strange; for his vast merit, as an honest man, a great scholar, and a
most excellent writer, and his fame, on that account, will hardly be
thought the causes, especially when it is remembered Paradise Lost was
not produced, and the writings, on which his vast reputation stood,
are now become criminal, and those most, which were the main pillars
of his fame. Goodwin was an inconsiderable offender, compared with
him; some secret cause must be recurred to in accounting for this
indulgence. I have heard that secretary Morrice, and Sir Thomas
Clarges were his friends, and managed matters artfully in his favour;
doubtless they, or some body else did, and they very probably, as
being powerful friends at that time. But still how came they to put
their interest at such a stretch, in favour of a man so notoriously
obnoxious? perplexed, and inquisitive as I was, I at length found the
secret. It was Sir William Davenant obtained his remission, in return
of his own life, procured by Milton's interest, when himself was under
condemnation, Anno 1650. A life was owing to Milton (Davenant's) and
it was paid nobly; Milton's for Davenant, at Davenant's intercession.
The management of the affair in the house, whether by signifying the
King's desire, or otherwise, was, perhaps by those gentlemen named.'
This account Mr. Richardson had from Mr. Pope, who was informed of it
by Betterton, the celebrated actor, who was first brought upon the
stage by Sir William Davenant, and honoured with an intimacy with him,
so that no better authority need be produced to support any fact.
Milton being secured by his pardon, appeared again in public, and
removed to Jewin street, where he married his third wife, Elizabeth,
the daughter of Mr. Minshul of Cheshire, recommended to him by his
friend Dr. Paget, to whom he was related, but he had no children by
her: soon after the restoration he was offered the place of Latin
secretary to the King, which, notwithstanding the importunities of his
wife, he refused: we are informed, that when his wife pressed him to
comply with the times, and accept the King's offer, he made answer,
'You are in the right, my dear, you, as other women, would ride in
your coach; for me, my aim is to live and die an honest man.' Soon
after his marriage with his third wife, he removed to a house in the
Artillery Walk, leading to Bunhill-fields, where he continued till his
death, except during the plague, in 1665, when he retired with his
family to St. Giles's Chalfont Buckinghamshire, at which time his
Paradise Lost was finished, tho' not published till 1667. Mr. Philips
observes, that the subject of that poem was first designed for a
tragedy, and in the fourth book of the poem, says he, there are ten
verses, which, several years before the poem was begun, were shewn to
me, and some others, as designed for the very beginning of the
tragedy. The verses are,
O thou that with surpassing glory crown'd
Look'st from thy sole dominion like the god,
Of this new world; at whose sight all the stars
Hide their diminish'd heads; to thee I call,
But with no friendly voice, and add thy name,
O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams,
Which brings to my remembrance, from what state
I fell; how glorious once above thy sphere,
'Till pride, and worse ambition, threw me down,
Warring in Heaven, 'gainst Heav'ns matchless King.
Mr. Philips further observes, that there was a very remarkable
circumstance in the composure of Paradise Lost, which, says he, 'I
have particular reason to remember, for whereas I had the perusal of
it from the very beginning, for some years, as I went from time to
time to visit him, in a parcel of ten, twenty, or thirty verses at a
time, which being written by whatever hand came next, might possibly
want correction, as to the orthography and pointing; having, as the
summer came on, not been shewn any for a considerable while, and
desiring the reason thereof, was answered, that his vein never happily
flowed but from the autumnal equinox to the vernal, and that whatever
he attempted at other times, was never to his satisfaction, though he
courted his fancy never so much; so that in all the years he was about
his poem, he may be said to have spent but half his time therein.'[3]
Mr. Toland imagines that Mr. Philips must be mistaken in regard to the
time, since Milton, in his Latin Elegy upon the Approach of the
Spring, declares the contrary, and that his poetic talent returned
with the spring. This is a point, as it is not worth contending, so it
never can be settled; no poet ever yet could tell when the poetic vein
would flow; and as no man can make verses, unless the inclination be
present, so no man, can be certain how long it will continue, for if
there is any inspiration now amongst men, it is that which the poet
feels, at least the sudden starts, and flashes of fancy bear a strong
resemblance to the idea we form of inspiration.
Mr. Richardson has informed us, 'that when Milton dictated, he used to
sit leaning backwards obliquely in an easy chair, with his legs flung
over the elbows of it; that he frequently composed lying a-bed in a
morning, and that when he could not sleep, but lay awake whole nights,
he tried, but not one verse could he make; at other times flowed easy
his unpremeditated verse, with a certain Impetus as himself used to
believe; then at what hour soever, he rung for his daughter to secure
what came. I have been also told he would dictate many, perhaps 40
lines in a breath, and then reduce them to half the number.' I would
not omit, says Mr. Richardson, the least circumstance; these indeed
are trifles, but even such contract a sort of greatness, when related
to what is great.
After the work was ready for the press, it was near being suppressed
by the ignorance, or malice of the licenser, who, among other trivial
objections, imagined there was treason in that noble simile, b. i. v.
594--
--As when the sun new ris'n
Looks thro' the horizontal misty air,
Shorn of his beams; or from behind the moon,
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds
On half the nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes monarchs.
The ignorance of this licenser, in objecting to this noble simile, has
indeed perpetuated his name, but it is with no advantage; he, no
doubt, imagined, that _Perplexes Monarchs_ was levelled against the
reigning Prince, which is, perhaps, the highest simile in our
language; how ridiculously will people talk who are blinded by
prejudice, or heated by party. But to return: After Milton had
finished this noble work of genius, which does honour to human nature,
he disposed of it to a Bookseller for the small price of fifteen
pounds; under such prejudice did he then labour, and the payment of
the fifteen pounds was to depend upon the sale of two numerous
impressions. This engagement with his Bookseller proves him extremely
ignorant of that sort of business, for he might be well assured, that
if two impressions sold, a great deal of money must be returned, and
how he could dispose of it thus conditionally for fifteen pounds,
appears strange; but while it proves Milton's ignorance, or
inattention about his interest in this affair, it, at the same time,
demonstrates the Bookseller's honesty; for he could not be ignorant
what money would be got by two numerous editions. After this great
work was published, however, it lay some time in obscurity, and had
the Bookseller advanced the sum stipulated, he would have had reason
to repent of his bargain. It was generally reported, that the late
lord Somers first gave Paradise Lost a reputation; but Mr. Richardson
observes, that it was known and esteemed long before there was such a
man as lord Somers, as appears by a pompous edition of it printed by
subscription in 1688, where, amongst the list of Subscribers, are the
names of lord Dorset, Waller, Dryden, Sir Robert Howard, Duke, Creech,
Flatman, Dr. Aldrich, Mr. Atterbury, Sir Roger L'Estrange, lord
Somers, then only John Somers, esq; Mr. Richardson further informs us,
that he was told by Sir George Hungerford, an ancient Member of
Parliament, that Sir John Denham came into the House one morning with
a sheet of Paradise Lost, wet from the press, in his hand, and being
asked what he was reading? he answered, part of the noblest poem that
ever was written in any language, or in any age; however, it is
certain that the book was unknown till about two years after, when the
earl of Dorset recommended it, as appears from the following story
related to Mr. Richardson, by Dr. Tancred Robinson, an eminent
physician in London, who was informed by Sir Fleetwood Sheppard, 'that
the earl, in company with that gentleman, looking over some books in
Little Britain, met with Paradise Lost; and being surprized with some
passages in turning it over, bought it. The Bookseller desired his
lordship to speak in its favour, since he liked it, as the impression
lay on his hands as waste paper. The earl having read the poem, sent
it to Mr. Dryden, who, in a short time, returned it with this answer:
This man cuts us all, and the ancients too.'
Critics have differed as to the source from which our [author] drew
the first hint of writing Paradise Lost; Peck conjectures that it was
from a celebrated Spanish Romance called Guzman, and Dr. Zachary
Pearce, now bishop of Bangor, has alledged, that he took the first
hint of it from an Italian Tragedy, called Il Paradiso Perso, still
extant, and printed many years before he entered on his design. Mr.
Lauder in his Essay on Milton's Use and Imitation of the Moderns, has
insinuated that Milton's first hint of Paradise Lost, was taken from a
Tragedy of the celebrated Grotius, called Adamus Exul, and that Milton
has not thought it beneath him to transplant some of that author's
beauties into his noble work, as well as some other flowers culled
from the gardens of inferior genius's; but by an elegance of art, and
force of nature, peculiar to him, he has drawn the admiration of the
world upon passages, which in their original authors, stood neglected
and undistinguished. If at any time he has adopted a sentiment of a
cotemporary poet, it deserves another name than plagiary; for, as
Garth expresses it, in the case of Dryden, who was charged with
plagiary, that, like ladies of quality who borrow beggars children, it
is only to cloath them the better, and we know no higher compliment
could have been paid to these moderns, than that of Milton's doing
them the honour to peruse them, for, like a Prince's accepting a
present from a subject, the glory is reflected on him who offers the
gift, not on the Monarch who accepts it. But as Mr. Lauder's book has
lately made so great a noise in the world, we must beg leave to be a
little more particular.
Had Mr. Lauder pursued his plan of disclosing Milton's resources, and
tracing his steps through the vast tracts of erudition that our author
travelled, with candour and dispassionateness, the design would have
been noble and useful; he then would have produced authors into light
who were before unknown; have recommended sacred poetry, and it would
have been extreamly pleasing to have followed Milton over all his
classic ground, and seen where the noblest genius of the world thought
proper to pluck a flower, and by what art he was able to rear upon the
foundation of nature so magnificent, so astonishing a fabric: but in
place of that, Mr. Lauder suffers himself to be overcome by his
passion, and instead of tracing him as a man of taste, and extensive
reading, he hunts him like a malefactor, and seems to be determined on
his execution.
Mr. Lauder could never separate the idea of the author of Paradise
Lost, and the enemy of King Charles. Lauder has great reading, but
greater ill nature; and Mr. Douglas has shewn how much his evidence is
invalidated by some interpolations which Lauder has since owned. It is
pity so much classical knowledge should have been thus prostituted by
Lauder, which might have been of service to his country; but
party-zeal seldom knows any bounds. The ingenious Moses Brown,
speaking of this man's furious attack upon Milton, has the following
pretty stanza.
The Owl will hoot that cannot sing,
Spite will displume the muse's wing,
Tho' Phoebus self applaud her;
Still Homer bleeds in Zoilus' page
A Virgil 'scaped not the Mævius' rage,
And Milton has his Lauder.[4]
But if Lauder is hot and furious, his passion soon subsides. Upon
hearing that the grand-daughter of Milton was living, in an obscure
situation in Shoreditch, he readily embraced the opportunity, in his
postscript, of recommending her to the public favour; upon which, some
gentlemen affected with the singularity of the circumstance, and
ashamed that our country should suffer the grand-daughter of one from
whom it derives its most lasting and brightest honour, to languish
neglected, procured Milton's Comus to be performed for her benefit at
Drury Lane, on the 5th of April, 1750: upon which, Mr. Garrick spoke a
Prologue written by a gentleman, who zealously promoted the benefit,
and who, at this time, holds the highest rank in literature.
This prologue will not, we are persuaded, be unacceptable to our
readers.
A PROLOGUE spoken by Mr. GARRICK, Thursday, April 5, 1750. at the
Representation of COMUS, for the Benefit of Mrs. ELIZABETH FOSTER,
MILTON's Grand-daughter, and only surviving descendant.
Ye patriot crouds, who burn for England's fame,
Ye nymphs, whose bosoms beat at Milton's name,
Whose gen'rous zeal, unbought by flatt'ring rhimes,
Shames the mean pensions of Augustan times;
Immortal patrons of succeeding days,
Attend this prelude of perpetual praise!
Let wit, condemn'd the feeble war to wage
With close malevolence, or public rage;
Let study, worn with virtue's fruitless lore,
Behold this theatre, and grieve no more.
This night, distinguish'd by your smile, shall tell,
That never Briton can in vain excel;
The slighted arts futurity shall trust,
And rising ages hasten to be just.
At length our mighty bard's victorious lays
Fill the loud voice of universal praise,
And baffled spite, with hopeless anguish dumb,
Yields to renown the centuries to come.
With ardent haste, each candidate of fame
Ambitious catches at his tow'ring name:
He sees, and pitying sees, vain wealth bestow:
Those pageant honours which he scorn'd below;
While crowds aloft the laureat dust behold,
Or trace his form on circulating gold.
Unknown, unheeded, long his offspring lay,
And want hung threat'ning o'er her slow decay.
What tho' she shine with no Miltonian fire,
No fav'ring muse her morning dreams inspire;
Yet softer claims the melting heart engage,
Her youth laborious, and her blameless age:
Hers the mild merits of domestic life,
The patient suff'rer, and the faithful wife.
Thus grac'd with humble virtue's native charms
Her grandsire leaves her in Britannia's arms,
Secure with peace, with competence, to dwell,
While tutelary nations guard her cell.
Yours is the charge, ye fair, ye wife, ye brave!
'Tis yours to crown desert--beyond the grave!
In the year 1670 our author published at London in 4to. his History of
Britain, that part, especially, now called England, from the first
traditional Beginning, continued to the Norman Conquest, collected out
of the ancientest and best authors thereof. It is reprinted in the
first volume of Dr. Kennet's compleat History of England. Mr. Toland
in his Life of Milton, page 43, observes, that we have not this
history as it came out of his hands, for the licensers, those sworn
officers to destroy learning, liberty, and good sense, expunged
several passages of it, wherein he exposed the superstition, pride,
and cunning of the Popish monks in the Saxon times, but applied by the
sagacious licensers to Charles IId's bishops. In 1681 a considerable
passage which had been suppressed in the publication of this history,
was printed at London in 4to under this title. Mr. John Milton's
character of the Long Parliament and Assembly of Divines in 1651,
omitted in his other works, and never before printed. It is reported,
and from the foregoing character it appears probable, that Mr. Milton
had lent most of his personal estate upon the public faith, which when
he somewhat earnestly pressed to have restored, after a long, and
chargeable attendance, met with very sharp rebbukes; upon which, at
last despairing of any success in this affair, he was forced to return
from them poor and friendless, having spent all his money, and wearied
all those who espoused his cause, and he had not, probably, mended his
circumstances in those days, but by performing such service for them,
as afterwards he did, for which scarce any thing would appear too
great. In 1671 he published at London in 8vo. Paradise Regained, a
Poem in four Books, to which is added Sampson Agonistes: there is not
a stronger proof of human weakness, than Milton's preferring this Poem
of Paradise Regained, to Paradise Lost, and it is a natural and just
observation, that the Messiah in Paradise Regained, with all his
meekness, unaffected dignity, and clear reasoning, makes not so great
a figure, as when in the Paradise Lost he appears cloathed in the
Terrors of Almighty vengeance, wielding the thunder of Heaven, and
riding along the sky in the chariot of power, drawn, as Milton greatly
expresses it, 'with Four Cherubic Shapes; when he comes drest in awful
Majesty, and hurls the apostate spirits headlong into the fiery gulph
of bottomless perdition, there to dwell in adamantine chains and penal
fire, who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms.'
Dr. Newton has dissented from the general opinion of mankind,
concerning Paradise Regained: 'Certainly, says he, it is very worthy
of the author, and contrary to what Mr. Toland relates, Milton may be
seen in Paradise Regained as well as Paradise Lost; if it is inferior
in poetry, I know not whether it is inferior in sentiment; if it is
less descriptive, it is more argumentative; if it does not sometimes
rise so high, neither doth it ever sink below; and it has not met with
the approbation it deserves, only because it has not been more read
and considered. His subject indeed is confined, and he has a narrow
foundation to build upon, but he has raised as noble a superstructure,
as such little room, and such scanty materials would allow. The great
beauty of it is the contrast between the two characters of the tempter
and Our Saviour, the artful sophistry, and specious insinuations of
the one, refuted by the strong sense, and manly eloquence of the
other.' The first thought of Paradise Regained was owing to Elwood the
Quaker, as he himself relates the occasion, in the History of his own
Life. When Milton had lent him the manuscript of Paradise Lost at St.
Giles's Chalfont, and he returned it, Milton asked him how he liked
it, and what he thought of it? 'which I modestly and freely told him
(says Elwood) and after some further discourse about it, I pleasantly
said to him, thou hast said much of Paradise Lost, but what hast thou
to say of a Paradise Found? He made me no answer, but sat some time in
a muse, then broke off that discourse, and fell upon another subject.'
When Elwood afterwards waited upon him in London, Milton shewed him
his Paradise Regained, and in a pleasant tone said to him, 'this is
owing to you, for you put it into my head by the question you put me
at Chalfont, which before I had not thought of.'
In the year 1672 he published his Artis Logicæ plenior Institutio ad
Rami methodum concinnata, London, in 8vo. and in 1673, a Discourse
intitled, Of True Religion, Heresy, Schism, Toleration, and what best
Means may be used against the Growth of Popery, London, in 4to. He
published likewise the same year, Poems, &c. on several Occasions,
both English and Latin, composed at several times, with a small
Tractate of Education to Mr. Hartlib, London, 8vo. In 1674 he
published his Epistolarum familiarium, lib. i. & Prolusiones quædam
Oratoriæ in Collegio Christi habitæ, London, in 8vo and in the same
year in 4to. a Declaration of the Letters Patent of the King of
Poland, John III. elected on the 22d of May, Anno Dom. 1674, now
faithfully translated from the Latin copy. Mr. Wood tells us[5], that
Milton was thought to be the author of a piece called the Grand Case
of Conscience, concerning the Engagement Stated and Resolved; or a
Strict Survey of the Solemn League and Covenant in reference to the
present Engagement; but others are of opinion that the stile and
manner of writing do not in the least favour that supposition. His
State Letters were printed at London 1676 in 12mo. and translated into
English, and printed 1694, as his Brief History of Muscovy, and of
their less known Countries, lying Eastward of Russia, as far as
Cathay, was in 1682 in 8vo. His Historical, Poetical, and
Miscellaneous Works were printed in three volumes in folio 1698 at
London, though Amsterdam is mentioned in the title page with the life
of the author, by Mr. Toland; but the most compleat and elegant
edition of his prose works was printed in two volumes in folio at
London 1738, by the rev. Mr. Birch, now secretary to the Royal
Society, with an Appendix concerning two Dissertations, the first
concerning the Author of the [Greek: EIKÔN BASILIKÊ], the Portraiture
of his sacred Majesty in his solitude and sufferings; and the prayer
of Pamela subjoined to several editions of that book; the second
concerning the Commission said to be given by King Charles I. in 1641,
to the Irish Papists, for taking up arms against the Protestants in
Ireland. In this edition the several pieces are disposed according to
the order in which they were printed, with the edition of a Latin
Tract, omitted by Mr. Toland, concerning the Reasons of the War with
Spain in 1655, and several pages in the History of Great Britain,
expanged by the licensers of the press, and not to be met with in any
former impressions. It perhaps is not my province to make any remarks
upon the two grand disputations, that have subsisted between the
friends and enemies of Charles I. about the author of the Basilike,
and the Commission granted to the Irish Papists; as to the last, the
reader, if he pleases, may consult at the Life of Lord Broghill, in
which he will find the mystery of iniquity disclosed, and Charles
entirely freed from the least appearance of being concerned in
granting so execrable a commission; the forgery is there fully
related, and there is all the evidence the nature of the thing will
admit of, that the King's memory has been injured by so base an
imputation. As to the first, it is somewhat difficult to determine,
whether his Majesty was or was not the author of these pious
Meditations; Mr. Birch has summed up the evidence on both sides; we
shall not take upon us to determine on which it preponderates; it will
be proper here to observe, the chief evidence against the King in this
contention, is, Dr. Gauden, bishop of Exeter, who claimed that book as
his, and who, in his letters to the earl of Clarendon, values himself
upon it, and becomes troublesomely sollicitous for preferment on that
account; he likewise told the two princes that the Basilike was not
written by their father, but by him; now one thing is clear, that
Gauden was altogether without parts; his Life of Hooker, which is the
only genuine and indisputed work of his, shews him a man of no extent
of thinking; his stile is loose, and negligently florid, which is
diametrically opposite to that of these Meditations. Another
circumstance much invalidates his evidence, and diminishes his
reputation for honesty. After he had, for a considerable time,
professed himself a Protestant, and been in possession of an English
bishopric, and discovered an ardent desire of rising in the church,
notwithstanding this, he declared himself at his death a Papist; and
upon the evidence of such a man, none can determine a point in
disputation; for he who durst thus violate his conscience, by the
basest hypocrisy, will surely make no great scruple to traduce the
memory of his sovereign.