(_Agostino_): a Florentine advocate; founder of an academy under the
name of the Apatisti (the Indifferents). 'Such were the attractions of
this academy, and so energetic was Coltellini in its behalf, that within
ten or twenty years after its foundation it had a fame among the Italian
academies equal, in some respects, to that of the first and oldest, and
counted among its members not only all the eminent Florentines, but most
of the distinguished _literati_ of Italy, besides cardinals, Italian
princes and dukes, many foreign nobles and scholars, and at least one
pope.'—_Masson._ _Bonmattei_, or _Buommattei_ (_Benedetto_): an eminent
member of various Florentine and other academies; author of various
works, among them a commentary on parts of Dante, and a standard
treatise, _Della Lingua Toscana_; by profession a priest. _Chimentelli_
(_Valerio_): a priest; professor of Greek, and then of Eloquence and
Politics, in Pisa; author of an archæological work, entitled _Marmor
Pisanum_. _Francini_ (_Antonio_): Florentine academician and poet.
_Lucas Holstenius_ (in the vernacular, Lukas Holste, or Holsten),
secretary to Cardinal Barberini, and one of the librarians of the
Vatican. _Manso_: author of a Life of Tasso, 1619. Milton, just before
leaving Naples, addressed to him his Latin poem, _Mansus_.
P. 22. _so little reserve on matters of religion_: here it appears that
he did not make Sir Henry Wotton's prudential maxim his rule of conduct.
P. 22, 23. _the slandering More_ (Lat. _Morus_), Alexander: a Reformed
minister, then resident in Holland, and at one time a friend of
Salmasius. He had formerly been Professor of Greek in the University of
Geneva. The real author of the _Regii Sanguinis Clamor_ was the Rev. Dr.
Peter Du Moulin, the younger, made, 1660, a prebendary of Canterbury.
More was, indeed, the publisher of the book, the corrector of the press,
and author of the dedicatory preface in the printer's name, to Charles
II. Milton fully believed when he wrote the Second Defence that More was
the author of the _R. S. C._, having received convincing assurances that
he was. _Diodati_ (Dr. Jean, or Giovanni), uncle of Milton's friend,
Carolo Diodati. He made the Italian translation of the Scriptures, known
as Diodati's Bible, published in 1607. _at the time when Charles_, etc.:
Milton's return to England was not, as he himself (by a slip of memory,
no doubt) states, 'at the time when Charles, having broken the peace
with the Scots, was renewing the second of those wars named Episcopal,'
but exactly a twelvemonth previous to that time, and about eight months
before the meeting of the Short Parliament.—_Keightley._
P. 24. _two books to a friend_: 'Of Reformation in England, and the
causes that hitherto have hindered it. 1641.' _two bishops_: Dr. Joseph
Hall (1574-1656), Bishop of Exeter, afterward Bishop of Norwich; and Dr.
James Usher (1580-1656), Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland.
_Concerning Prelatical Episcopacy_: the full title is, 'Of prelatical
episcopacy, and whether it may be deduced from the apostolical times, by
virtue of those testimonies which are alleged to that purpose in some
late treatises; one whereof goes under the name of James, Archbishop of
Armagh. 1641.' _Concerning the mode of ecclesiastical government_: 'The
reason of church government urged against prelaty. 1641.'
P. 24. _Animadversions_: 'Animadversions upon the remonstrant's defence
against Smectymnuus. 1641.'
P. 24. _Apology_: 'An apology for Smectymnuus.' 1642. The pamphlet by
Smectymnuus was published with the following title, which is
sufficiently descriptive of its character: 'An Answer to a Book
entituled "An Humble Remonstrance" [by Bishop Hall], in which the
originall of Liturgy [and] Episcopacy is discussed and quæres propounded
concerning both, the parity of Bishops and Presbyters in Scripture
demonstrated, the occasion of their unparity in Antiquity discovered,
the disparity of the ancient and our modern Bishops manifested, the
antiquity of Ruling Elders in the Church vindicated, the Prelaticall
Church bounded: Written by Smectymnuus.' 1641. The pamphlet was the
joint production of five Presbyterian clergymen, Stephen Marshall,
Edmund Calamy, Thomas Young, Matthew Newcomen, and William Spurstow, but
written for the most part by Thomas Young, Milton's former tutor. The
name Smectymnuus was made up from the several authors' initials: S. M.,
E. C., T. Y., M. N., U. U. (for W.) S.
P. 24. _the domestic species_: the titles of the pamphlets on marriage
and divorce are: 'The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce,' 1643, 1644;
'The Judgment of Martin Bucer concerning Divorce,' 1644; 'Tetrachordon:
expositions upon the four chief places in Scripture which treat of
marriage, or nullities in marriage,' 1644; 'Colasterion: a reply to a
nameless answer against the Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce,' 1645.
P. 25. _Selden_ (_John_), 1584-1654, celebrated English lawyer,
statesman, and political writer. His 'Table Talk' was long famous,
'being his sense of various matters of weight and high consequence,
relating especially to religion and state.'
P. 25. _an inferior at home_: many passages in Milton's works, poetical
and prose, indicate, on his part, an estimate of woman which may be
attributed, in some measure, at least, to his unfortunate first
marriage. His own opinions of what should be the relation of wife to
husband he, no doubt, expressed in the following passages in the
'Paradise Lost,' Book iv. 635-638, x. 145-156, xi. 287-292, 629-636; and
in the 'Samson Agonistes,' 1053-1060. But no one can read the several
treatises on Divorce without being impressed with the loftiness of
Milton's ideal of marriage, and his sense of the sacred duties
appertaining thereto. The only true marriage with him was the union of
_souls_, as well as of bodies, souls whom _God_ hath joined together
(Matt. xix. 6, Mark x. 9), not the priest nor the magistrate.
P. 25. _the principles of education_: 'Of Education. To Master Samuel
Hartlib.' 1644. Hartlib was nominally a merchant in London, a foreigner
by birth, the son of a Polish merchant of German extraction, settled in
Elbing, in Prussia, whose wife was the daughter of a wealthy English
merchant of Dantzic. He was a reformer and philanthropist, and an
advocate of the views of the educational reformer, Comenius.
P. 25. '_Areopagitica_: a speech for the liberty of unlicensed printing,
to the Parliament of England.' 1644.
P. 26. _what might lawfully be done against tyrants_: in his pamphlet
entitled, 'The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates: proving that it is
lawful, and hath been held so through all ages, for any, who have the
power, to call to account a tyrant or wicked king, and, after due
conviction, to depose, and put him to death, if the ordinary magistrate
have neglected, or denied to do it; and that they who of late so much
blame deposing are the men that did it themselves. The author J. M.
1649,'
P. 27. _history of my country_: 'The History of Britain; that part
especially now called England. From the first traditional beginning
continued to the Norman Conquest.'
P. 27. _I had already finished four books_: _i.e._ in 1648; the work was
not published till 1670. It contained the fine portrait of Milton, by
William Faithorne, for which he sat in his 62d year.
P. 27. _A book . . . ascribed to the king_: ten days after the king's
death, was published (9 Feb. 1649), 'Ἑἰκὼν Βασιλική: The True
Portraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and
Sufferings.—_Rom._ viii. _More than conquerour_, &c.—_Bona agere et
mala pati Regium est._—MDCXLVIII.' The book professed to be the king's
own production, and Milton answered it as such, tho' it appears he had
his suspicions as to its authorship. It was universally regarded, at the
time, as the king's; but it was before long well known (though the
controversy as to the authorship was long after kept up) to have been
written by Dr. John Gauden, Rector of Bocking, and, after the
Restoration, Bishop of Exeter, and, a short time before his death,
Bishop of Worcester. Milton's reply, published 6th of Oct., 1649, is
entitled 'ἙΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ in Answer To a Book Intitl'd ἘΙΚῺΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΉ,
The Portrature of his Sacred Majesty in his Solitudes and Sufferings.
The Author I. M.
Prov. xxviii. 15, 16, 17.
15. As a roaring Lyon, and a ranging Beare, so is a wicked
Ruler over the poor people.
16. The Prince that wanteth understanding, is also a great
oppressor; but he that hateth covetousnesse shall prolong his
dayes.
17. A man that doth violence to the blood of any person, shall
fly to the pit, let no man stay him.
Salust. Conjurat. Catilin.
Regium imperium, quod initio, conservandæ libertatis, atque
augendæ reipub. causâ fuerat, in superbiam, dominationemque se
convertit.
Regibus boni, quam mali, suspectiores sunt; semperque his
aliena virtus formidolosa est.
Quidlibet impunè facere, hoc scilicet regium est.
Published by Authority.
London, Printed by Matthew Simmons, next dore to the gilded Lyon in
Aldersgate street. 1649.'
P. 27. _Salmasius then appeared_: that is, with his _Defensio Regia pro
Carolo I._
_To Charles Diodati_
P. 28. _Chester's Dee_: the old city of Chester is situated on the Dee
(Lat. _Deva_).
P. 28. _Vergivian wave_ (Lat. _Vergivium salum_): the Irish Sea.
P. 28. _it is not my care to revisit the reedy Cam_, etc.: this was the
period of his rustication from Christ's College, Cambridge, due, it
seems, to some difficulty which Milton had with his tutor, Mr. Chappell.
P. 28. _the tearful exile in the Pontic territory_: Ovid, who was
relegated (rather than exiled) to Tomi, a town on the Euxine.
P. 28. _Maro_: the Latin poet, Publius Virgilius Maro.
P. 29. _or the unhappy boy . . . or the fierce avenger_: as Masson
suggests, the allusions here may be to Shakespeare's Romeo and the Ghost
in _Hamlet_.
P. 29. _the house of Pelops_, etc.: subjects of the principal Greek
tragedies.
P. 29. _the arms of living Pelops_: an allusion to the ivory shoulder of
Pelops, by which, when he was restored to life after having been served
up at a feast of the gods, given by his father Tantalus, the shoulder
consumed by Ceres was replaced.
P. 30. _thy own flower_: the anemone into which Adonis was turned by
Venus, after his dying of a wound received from a wild boar during the
chase.
P. 30. _alternate measures_: the alternate hexameters and pentameters of
the Elegy.
_To Alexander Gill, Jr._ (_Familiar Letters_, No. III.)
P. 30. _Alexander Gill, Jr._: Gill was Milton's tutor in St. Paul's
School, of which his father, Alexander Gill, was head-master. Milton was
sent to this school in his twelfth year (1620), and remained there till
his seventeenth year (1625). He was entered very soon after at Christ's
College, Cambridge, beginning residence in the Easter term of 1625.
_To Thomas Young._ (_Familiar Letters_, No. IV.)
P. 31. _Thomas Young_: Young had been Milton's tutor before he entered
St. Paul's School, and later; he was one of the authors of the
Smectymnuan pamphlet; was appointed Master of Jesus College, Cambridge,
in 1644.
P. 31. _Stoa of the Iceni_ (Lat. _Stoam Icenorum_): a pun for Stowmarket
in Suffolk, the Iceni having been the inhabitants of the parts of Roman
Britain corresponding to Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, etc.—_Masson._ Their
queen was Boadicea, who led their revolt against the Romans.
P. 31. _Zeno_: Greek philosopher (about 358-260 B.C.), father of the
Stoic philosophy, so called from his teaching in the _Stoa Pœcile_,
in Athens, in which were the frescoes of Polygnotus (about 480-430
B.C.).
P. 31. _Serranus_: an agnomen, or fourth name, given to L. Quinctius
Cincinnatus; Roman consul 460 B.C.; in 458 called from the plough to the
dictatorship, whence called by Florus, _Dictator ad aratro_; the agnomen
is said to have been derived from _serere_, to sow; 'Quis te, magne
Cato, tacitum, aut te, Cosse, relinquat? . . . vel te sulco, Serrane,
serentem' (Who can leave thee unmentioned, great Cato, or thee,
Cossus? . . . or thee, Serranus, sowing in the furrow).—_Æneid_, vi.
844.
P. 31. _Curius_: M'. Curius Dentatus, noted for his fortitude and
frugality; consul B.C. 290; a second time 275, when he defeated Pyrrhus,
king of Epirus; consul a third time, 274; afterward retired to his small
farm, which he cultivated himself.
_To Charles Diodati, making a Stay in the Country_
P. 32. _Erato_: the muse of erotic poetry.
P. 32. _the fierce dog_: Cerberus.
P. 32. _the Samian master_: Pythagoras, who was a native of Samos.
P. 32. _Tiresias_: the Theban prophet, deprived of sight by Juno;
Jupiter, in compensation, bestowed upon him the power of prophecy.
P. 32. _Theban Linus_: the singer and philosopher.
P. 32. _Calchas the exile_: a famous soothsayer, who accompanied the
Greeks to Troy.
P. 32. _Orpheus_: the fabulous Thracian poet and musician.
P. 32. _Circe_: See Comus, 50-53.
P. 33. _the heavenly birth of the King of Peace_: his ode _On the
Morning of Christ's Nativity_, composed on and just after Christmas,
1629.
_Ad Patrem_
P. 35. 1. _Pieria's_: used for Pierian, from Pierus, a mountain of
Thessaly sacred to the muses.
P. 36. 18. _Clio_: the Muse of History, 'inasmuch,' says Masson, 'as
what he is to say about his Father is strictly true.'
P. 36. 22. _Promethean fire_: the fire which Prometheus brought down
from heaven.
P. 37. 44. _Ophiuchus_: _i.e._ a serpent holder (ὄφις + ἔχειν); a
constellation in the northern hemisphere, the outline of which is
imagined to be a man holding a serpent; called also Anguitenens and
Serpentarius, which have the same meaning; Ophiuchus is the translator's
word; the original is _sibila serpens_, the hissing serpent.
P. 37. 45. _Orion_: a constellation with sword, belt, and club; 'Orion
arm'd.'—_P. L._, i. 305.
P. 37. 50. _Lyæus_: an epithet of Bacchus as the deliverer from care
(Gk. λυαίος).
P. 37. 53. _proposed_: set forth.
P. 37. 55. _to imitation_: _i.e._ for imitation, to be imitated, _i.e._
the character of heroes and their deeds.
P. 38. 92. _Streams Aonian_: so called as if the resort of the muses.
P. 39. 120. _the boy_: Phaëthon.
P. 40. 141-148. _Ye too, . . . my voluntary numbers_: it does not seem
to me improbable that these six lines [115-120 of the original] were
added to the poem just before its publication in the volume of 1645. The
phrase '_juvenilia carmina_' seems to refer to that volume as containing
this piece among others. Anyhow, it was a beautiful ending and
prophetic.—_Masson._
_An English Letter to a Friend_
P. 40. _English letter to a friend_: this letter of which there are two
undated drafts in Milton's handwriting in the Library of Trinity
College, Cambridge, must have been written in 1632 or 1633. In the
second draft (which is given in the text), Milton is content, for the
first few sentences, with simply correcting the language of the first;
but in the remaining portion he throws the first draft all but entirely
aside, and rewrites the same meaning more at large in a series of new
sentences. Evidently he took pains with the letter.—_Masson._
P. 41. _tale of Latmus_: _i.e._ of Endymion's sleeping upon Mount
Latmus, and of his being visited by Selene (the moon).
P. 42. 5. _Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth_: _i.e._ he
appears younger than he really is. In his Second Defence, he says,
'though I am more than forty years old, there is scarcely any one to
whom I do not appear ten years younger than I am.'
P. 42. 8. _timely-happy_: happy, or fortunate, in the matter of inward
ripeness.
P. 42. 10. _it_: 'inward ripeness.'
P. 42. _it shall be still_: Milton very early regarded himself as
dedicated to the performance of some great work for which he had to make
adequate preparation, in the way of building himself up; _even_: equal,
in proportion to, in conformity with.
P. 43. _Your true and unfeigned friend, etc._: see penultimate sentence
of the passage given, p. 65, from 'The Reason of Church Government urged
against Prelaty.'
_To Alexander Gill, Jr._ (_Familiar Letters_, No. V.)
P. 43. _this ode_: Psalm cxiv.
_To Charles Diodati._ (_Familiar Letters_, No. VI.)
P. 44. _To Charles Diodati_: Milton's schoolfellow at St. Paul's, and
his dearest friend; he died in August, 1638, while Milton was on his
Continental tour; on his return he wrote the _In memoriam_ poem,
_Epitaphium Damonis_.
_To Benedetto Bonmattei of Florence._ (_Familiar Letters_, No. VIII.)
P. 46. _To Benedetto Bonmattei_: mentioned by Milton among his
Florentine friends, in the autobiographical passage in the Second
Defence; see note, p. 247.
_Mansus_
P. 47. _our native kings_: the ancient kings of Britain.
P. 47. _stirring wars even under the earth_: King Arthur, after his
death, was supposed to be carried into the subterraneous land of Faerie,
or of Spirits, where he still reigned as a king, and whence he was to
return into Britain, to renew the Round Table, conquer all his old
enemies, and reëstablish his throne. He was, therefore, _etiam movens
bella sub terris_, still meditating wars under the earth. The impulse of
his attachment to this subject was not entirely suppressed; it produced
his History of Britain. By the expression _revocabo in carmina_, the
poet means, that these ancient kings, which were once the themes of the
British bards, should now again be celebrated in verse.—_Warton._
Warton renders _bella moventem_ [v. 81 of the Latin] _meditating wars_,
but that is not the true sense; it is waging wars, and Arthur is
represented as so employed in Fairy-land in the romances.—_Keightley._
P. 47. _Paphian myrtle_: the myrtle was sacred to Venus; Paphos was an
ancient city of Cyprus, where was a temple of Venus.
_Areopagitica_
P. 48. _Galileo_: b. 1564, d. 1642; he was seventy-four years old when
Milton visited him in 1638; whether he was actually imprisoned at the
time is somewhat uncertain; he may have been, as Hales suggests, _in
libera custodia_, _i.e._ 'only kept under a certain restraint, as that
he should not move away from a specified neighborhood, or perhaps a
special house.'
P. 48. _never be forgotten by any revolution of time_: _i.e._ as Hales
explains, caused to be forgotten.
P. 48. _other parts_: _i.e._ of the world.
P. 48. _in time of parliament_: there was no parliament assembled from
1629 to 1640.
P. 48. _without envy_: without exciting any odium against me.—_Hales._
P. 48. _he whom an honest quæstorship_: Cicero, 75 B.C.
P. 48. _Verres_: pro-prætor in Sicily, 73-71 B.C. Cicero's Verrine
orations were directed against his extortions and exactions.
_To Lucas Holstenius._ (_Familiar Letters_, No. IX.)
P. 49. _Lucas Holstenius_: see note, p. 21.
P. 49. _Alexander Cherubini_: Roman friend of Milton, 'known in his
lifetime as a prodigy of erudition, though he died at the early age of
twenty-eight.'
P. 49. _Virgil's 'penitus convalle virenti'_: Virgil's 'souls enclosed
within a verdant valley, and about to go to the upper light.'
P. 49. _Cardinal Francesco Barberini_: b. 1597, d. 1679; librarian of
the Vatican, and founder of the Barberini Library.
_Epitaphium Damonis_
P. 50. In the British legends of Geoffrey of Monmouth and others, the
mythical Brutus, before arriving in Britain with his Trojans, marries
Imogen, daughter of the Grecian king Pandrasus; Brennus and Belinus are
two legendary British princes of a much later age, sons of King Dunwallo
Molmutius; Arvirach or Arviragus, son of Cunobeline, or Cymbeline,
belongs to the time of the Roman conquest of Britain; the "Armorican
settlers" are the Britons who removed to the French coast of Armonica to
avoid the invading Saxons; Uther Pendragon, Igraine, Gorlois, Merlin,
and Arthur are familiar names of the Arthurian romances.—_Masson._
_Of Reformation in England_
P. 52. _their damned designs_: the restoration of Papacy and
ecclesiastical despotism.
P. 53. _antichristian thraldom_: he would seem to allude to the
invasions of England by the Romans, Saxons, Danes (twice), and Normans,
and the War of the Roses, followed by the partial reformation under
Henry VIII.—_Keightley._
P. 53. _Thule_: some undetermined island or other land, regarded as the
northernmost part of the earth; called in Latin _Ultima Thule_; often
used metaphorically for an extreme limit.
P. 53. _that horrible and damned blast_: Keightley understands this as
referring to the Gunpowder plot.
P. 53. _that sad intelligencing tyrant_: Philip IV., King of Spain from
1621 to 1665.
P. 53. _mines of Ophir_: used in a general sense for gold mines.
P. 53. _his naval ruins_: an allusion to the destruction of the Spanish
armada, in 1588, in the reign of his grandfather, Philip II.
P. 54. _in this land_: when Milton wrote this, he must still have been
meditating a poem to be based on British history.
_Animadversions upon the Remonstrant's Defence, etc._
P. 56. _and thou standing at the door_: see introductory remarks on
Lycidas.
_The Reason of Church Government urged against Prelaty_
P. 57. _Slothful, and ever to be set light by_: thou slothful one, and
ever, etc.
P. 57. _infancy_: not speaking.
P. 58. _preventive_: going before, forecasting, anticipative.
P. 58. _equal_: impartial, equitable; Lat. _æqualis_.
P. 58. _the elegant and learned reader_: him only Milton addressed, not
the common reader. He was no demagogue.
P. 58. _anything elaborately composed_: he had his meditated great work
in mind.
P. 59. _another task_: poetical composition.
P. 59. _empyreal conceit_: lofty conceit of himself.
P. 59. _envy_: odium; Lat. _invidia_.
P. 60. _Ariosto_ (_Lodovico_): Italian poet; b. 1474, d. 1533; author of
the _Orlando Furioso_.
P. 60. _Bembo_ (_Pietro_): b. 1470, d. 1547; secretary to Pope Leo X.;
Cardinal, 1539; famous as a Latin scholar.
P. 60. _wits_: geniuses.
P. 61. _Tasso_ (_Torquato_): Italian poet; b. 1544, d. 1595; author of
the _Gerusalemme Liberata_ (Jerusalem Delivered).
P. 61. _a prince of Italy_: Alfonso II., Duke of Ferrara?
P. 61. _Godfrey's expedition against the Infidels_: the subject of
Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered; Godfrey of Bouillon, leader of the first
crusade; b. about 1058, d. 1100.
P. 61. _Belisarius_: a celebrated general, in the reign of Justinian; b.
about 505 A.D., d. 565.
P. 61. _Charlemagne_ (or Charles the Great): b. 742, d. 814; Emperor of
the West and King of the Franks.
P. 61. _doctrinal and exemplary_: instructive and serving for example.
P. 61. _Origen_: Christian Father, of Alexandria (185-254).
P. 61. _Pareus_ (_David_): b. 1548, d. 1622; a Calvinist theologian,
Professor of Theology, University of Heidelberg.
P. 62. _Pindarus_: Greek lyric poet, about 522-442 B.C.
P. 62. _Callimachus_: Greek poet and grammarian, about 310-235 B.C.
P. 62. _most an end_: 'almost uninterruptedly, almost always, mostly,
for the most part.'—_Murray's New English Dictionary_, _s.v._ 'an end.'
The phrase occurs again in Chap. III. Book II. of this same pamphlet:
'the patients, which most an end are brought into his [the civil
magistrate's] hospital, are such as are far gone,' etc. Vol. II. p. 491,
of the Bohn ed. of the P. W.
P. 63. _demean_: conduct; O. Fr. _demener_.
P. 63. _such (sports, etc.) as were authorized a while since_: _i.e._ in
the Book of Sports. Proclamation allowing Sunday sports, issued by James
I.
P. 63. _paneguries_: same as panegyrics.
P. 64. _Siren daughters_: the Muses, daughters of Memory or Mnemosyne.
P. 65. _gentle apprehension_: a refined faculty of conception or
perception.
_Apology for Smectymnuus_
P. 66. _Solon_: Athenian statesman and lawgiver, about 638-558 B.C.
'According to Suidas it was a law of Solon that he who stood neuter in
any public sedition, should be declared ἄτιμος, infamous.'
P. 66. _doubted_: hesitated; or, perhaps, in the sense of feared.
P. 66. _most nominated_: most frequently named, most prominent.
P. 66, 67. _my certain account_: the account which I shall certainly
have to render.
P. 67. _tired out almost a whole youth_: see the extract given from 'The
Reason of Church Government urged against Prelaty.'
P. 67. _this modest confuter_: Dr. Joseph Hall, Bishop of Exeter,
afterward of Norwich; the reference is to his 'Modest Confutation' of
Milton's 'Animadversions.'