pened to thee, whether good or bad, in the dwellings of men."

6

1. 12, History of Poetry. "Tractatulus de Carmine Dramatico Poetarum Veterum," by Edward Philips (1670). Cunningham remarks that "Johnson derived his knowledge of this little volume from Warton's Essay on Pope,' i. 203, 4to ed." Lowndes ("Bibliographer's Manual," iii. 1853) mentions some nine or ten other works by Edward Philips, including his "Theatrum Poetarum, or Complete Collection of the Poets (1675), which is supposed to contain criticisms on Shakespeare and Marlowe by Milton himself. This last mentioned work calls Milton" the exactest of heroic poets," and says that he has "revived the majesty and true decorum of heroic poesy and tragedy" (pp. 113, 114). See Mrs. Napier's important note, Johnson's "Lives," Bohn, i. 110, 111.

By calling the "Tractatulus " "its only genuine product (1.12) Johnson apparently wishes to indicate his doubts as to the authenticity of the other works which were attributed to Edward Philips.

1. 21, fashionable in the Dutch universities. Dutch may mean German as well as Dutch. The writers mentioned by Philips are "Amesius, Wollebius, etc." (Godwin, "Lives," p. 364). Dr. William Ames (Amesius) was a Puritan clergyman, who, finding his position in the English Church untenable, went abroad and became minister to an English Puritan congregation at Rotterdam, and died in 1633. He wrote "Puritanismus Anglicanus" (1610), a "Medulla Theologiæ," and other works now forgotten. Milton refers to Ames in the "Tetrachorda ("Prose Works," Bohn, iii. 343). John Wolleb (Wollebius) was a Swiss divine, who died in 1626. 1. 27, treatise of "Reformation." land and the Causes that hitherto "Prose Works," Bohn, ii. 363, seq.

"Of Reformation in Enghave hindered it."

See

1. 31, Hall. Joseph Hall (1574-1656), Bishop of Exeter, and afterwards Norwich, poet, and divine. He was illegally imprisoned by the Commons in 1641, for protesting against the validity of pretended statutes passed during the enforced absence of the bishops from the House of Lords; he was then heavily fined and his property pillaged, while he was deprived of his see and its income. His best poetry is his "Virgidemiarum, libri VI.," greatly admired by Pope; his "Mundus Alter et Idem " is an ethical work in the form of the narrative of a fanciful journey; he also wrote sermons and controversial works. He was a very moderate theologian, and was suspected by Laud on account of his sympathy with Puritanism, while he was persecuted by the Puritans because he was a bishop.

His "Humble Remonstrance to the High Court of Parliament" was published in 1640.

1. 33, six ministers. Really only five, Stephen Marshall, Edmund Calamy, Thomas Young (Milton's tutor, who was now Vicar of Stowmarket in Suffolk), Matthew Newcomen, and William Spurstow.

p. 13, 1. 2, Usher. James Usher, "the greatest luminary of the Irish Church" (1581-1656), became Professor of Divinity at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1607, Bishop of Meath in 1623, and two years later Archbishop of Armagh. Like Hall he was a very moderate Episcopalian, and proposed a scheme (not published till after his death) for "The Reduction of Episcopacy to the Forms of Synodical Government received in the Ancient Church." He was buried in Westminster Abbey, and (by special permission of the Lord Protector) with the burial office of the Anglican Church. He is chiefly remembered by his " Annales Veteris et Novi Testamenti" (1650-1654) which fixed the accepted chronology of our reference Bibles. His reply to Smectymnuus was entitled, "The Judgment of Dr. Rainolde's touching the Original of Episcopacy more largely confirmed out of Antiquity" (1641).

1. 3,

"Of Prelatical Episcopacy" "Prose Works," Bohn,

ii. 421-437.

1. 10, savageness of manners. Milton's controversial manners were exceptionally savage for a scholar of eminence, even in that age. Compared with such men as Hall and Usher, not to speak of Taylor and Chillingworth, Milton is remarkable for his bitterness of tone and his narrowness of outlook. He is determined to see only one side of the case, to acknowledge no grain of truth on the part of his opponents. "If ye can find, after due search, but only one good thing in prelaty, either to religion or civil government, to king or parliament, to prince or people, to law, liberty, wealth, or learning, spare her, let her live, let her spread among ye till with her shadows all your dignities and honours, and all the glory of the land be darkened and obscured. But, on the contrary, if she be found to be malignant, hostile, destructive to all these, as nothing can be surer, then let your severe and impartial doom imitate the divine vengeance; rain down your punishing force upon this godless and oppressive government, and bring such a dead sea of subversion upon her, that she may never in this land rise more to afflict the holy reformed Church, and the elect people of God" ("Reason of Church Government," Bohn, ii. 508).

It is curious to think that Milton has been held up for admiration as the champion of toleration and liberal culture, while those he attacked have been represented as the slaves of super

stition and authority. As a matter of fact, even Laud showed himself far more tolerant of opposing beliefs than Milton. Laud was the patron and friend not only of High Churchmen, but of Jeremy Taylor, and such latitudinarians as Chillingworth and Hales. Moreover Milton indulged in a bitterness and intensity of invective which is all his own. At times he seems to foam at the mouth with the fury of his denunciation. This is how he speaks of the Anglican prelates, under the veil of a decent, though unambiguous, periphrasis: "But they, contrary, that by the impairing and diminution of the true faith [as accepted by Milton and the Calvinist party], the distresses and servitude of their country, aspire to high dignity, rule, and promotion here, after a shameful end in this life (which God grant them), shall be thrown eternally into the darkest and deepest gulf of hell, where, under the despiteful control, the trample, and spurn of all the other damned, that in the anguish of their torture shall have no other ease than to exercise a raving and bestial tyranny over them as their slaves and negroes, they shall remain in that plight for ever, the basest, the lowermost, the most dejected, most underfoot, and downtrodden vassals of perdition " (" Of Reformation in England," Bohn, ii. 419).

1. 11, 66 The Reason of Church Government." See Bohn, ii. 439-508. It was published late in 1641, or in the January or February, 1642. See Masson, "Life of Milton," ii. 361-362, note.

1. 16, says he. The whole of the introduction to the second book of "The Reason of Church Government "has considerable autobiographical interest. It is written in Milton's most lofty and harmonious prose. The passage quoted by Johnson will be found on p. 481 of Bohn's edition of the "Prose Works," vol. ii.

1. 27, two more pamphlets. These were "Animadversions upon the Remonstrant's Defence against Smectymnuus" (1641); and "An Apology against a pamphlet called A Modest Confutation of the Animadversions,' ," etc. They are perhaps the most boisterous and abusive of all Milton's controversial productions. The second was, of course, a rejoinder to the opponent (Robert Hall, son of Bishop Hall), who had attacked the "Animadversions." It is usually cited as "An Apology for Smectymnuus." It was published at the beginning of 1642. "Prose Works," Bohn, iii. 42 seq., 93 seg. See Masson's "Life," ii. 257, 398-409. Even Dr. Garnett is obliged to allow that these five pamphlets on Episcopacy, "considered as argumentative compositions are exceedingly weak."

1. 28, one of his antagonists. The above-mentioned Robert

Hall, whose pamphlet, "A Modest Confutation, etc.," is full of slanderous abuse of Milton.

1. 29, he answers. "Prose Works," Bohn iii. 111 seq.

p. 14, 1. 1, to obtain with me, to get the better of me.

Ĩ. 3, she and her sister, the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford.

1. 5, kecking, retching.

1. 6, queasy, inclined to vomit.

1. 20, tries to be humorous. Milton's humour is noisy and artificial, and not always too delicate. Here is a mild specimen from the "Animadversions: ""A man would think you had eaten over liberally of Esau's red porridge, and from thence dream continually of blushing; or, perhaps, to heighten your fancy in writing, are wont to sit in your doctor's scarlet, which through your eyes infecting your pregnant imaginative with a red suffusion, begets a continual thought of blushing; that you thus persecute ingenious men all your book, with this one over-tired rubrical conceit still of blushing but if you have no mercy upon them, yet spare yourself lest you bejade the good galloway, your own opiniative wit, and make the very conceit itself blush with spur-galling" (Bohn, iii. 86).

:

over

The passage quoted by Johnson will be found in the "Prose Works," Bohn, iii. 135.

1. 21, some chaplain in hand.

"Some petty subordinate who is being trained up for the priesthood" (Deighton). More probably, as I think, some chaplain entirely dependent on the favour of his patron.

1. 22, some squire of the body, some personal attendant.

1. 23, court cupboard. A movable cabinet or sideboard, used for the display of plate during a meal. Compare Shakespeare, "Romeo and Juliet," I. v. 8.

1. 25, ptisical mottoes, feeble and ineffective maxims. "Ptisical" for " phthisical" from the Greek peios, consumption, decay.

1. 25, wherever he had them. A scornful reference, which implies that their origin was not anything to be proud of.

1. 26, hopping short. "Which fail to reach the point at which they aim, just as some poor wretch, racked with convulsive fits, fails to make his way to the point to which he would guide his steps; in the measure is probably used in a twofold sense, (1) according to the manner and method, (2) with a sarcastic reference to the word in the sense of the stately dance" (Deighton).

=

1. 29, thumbring posies. A posy was a motto engraved in a ring. In the middle ages rings were often worn on the thumb.

H

1. 29, this section. This section of the pamphlet.

1. 32, that "hell grows darker." "Paradise Lost," ii. 718,

719.

1. 33, after Reading was taken. Earl of Essex in April, 1643.

Reading was taken by the

p. 15, 1. 2, Mr. Powel. Richard Powell was a debtor of the poet's father, who had lent him £500. Possibly the poet went down to Oxfordshire to bring back the annual interest, which had been paid for sixteen years to his father. Mary Powell was about seventeen; whether he had previously made her acquaintance is not known. "If not, his was the most preposterously precipitate of poets' marriages; for a month after leaving home he presented a mistress to his astounded nephews and housekeeper (Garnett, “Life,” p. 86).

1. 6, as Philips relates. "Life," Godwin, p. 366. Johnson's quotation is not verbally exact. Aubrey, thinking of Mary Milton's Cavalier bringing up, says shrewdly, "Two opinions do not well on the same bolster" ("Collection for Life of Milton," Godwin, p. 345).

1. 14, Lady Margaret Leigh. Properly Ley. She was the daughter of Sir James Ley, first Earl of Marlborough, and successively Lord High Treasurer and President of the Council, who died in 1629. "This lady, being a woman of great wit and ingenuity had a particular honour for him [Milton], and took much delight in his company, as likewise her husband, Captain Hobson, a very accomplished gentleman" (Philips, "Life," Godwin, p. 367).

Milton's tenth sonnet is addressed to her. Globe, p. 547. Aldine, i. 99.

1. 29, "The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce." Bohn, iii. 169-273. The first edition was issued, not in 1644, as Johnson says, but in 1643. And Professor Masson has shown that it was probably published as early as August 1, 1643; so that it must have been written in July, a few weeks after the poet's marriage, and before Mrs. Milton's visit to her old home. If this view be "that

66

correct, we have to suppose,' as Mark Pattison says, Milton was occupying himself with the composition of a vehement and impassioned argument in favour of divorce for incompatibility of temper, during the honeymoon." And the husband was thirty-five, the bride only seventeen. See Pattison's "Life," p. 58.

1. 30, The Judgement of Martin Bucer." Bohn, iii. 274314. This is a translation of part of a treatise by Bucer, "De Regno Christi," addressed to King Edward VI. in 1557.

Martin Bucer (1491-1551), a German, once a Dominican friar, embraced Protestantism in 1521. He took up an intermediate