from public trust is a punishment which the power of government can commonly inflict without the help of a particular law, it required no great interest to exempt Milton from a cenfure little more than verbal. Something may be reafonably afcribed to veneration and compaffion; to veneration of his abilities, and compaffion for his diftreffes, which made it fit to forgive his malice for his learning. He was now poor and blind; and who would purfue with violence an illuftrious enemy, depreffed by fortune, and difarmed by nature? The publication of the act of oblivion put him in the fame condition with his fellow-fubjects. He was, however, upon fome pretence now not known, in the cuftody of the ferjeant in December; and, when he was released, upon his refufal of the fees demanded, he and the ferjeant were called before the House. He was now fafe within the fhade of oblivion, and knew himfelf to be as much out of the power of a griping offi cer, as any other man. How the question was deter◄ mined is not known. Milton would hardly have contended, but that he knew himself to have right on his fide. He then removed to Jewin-ftreet, near Alderfgateftreet; and being blind, and by no means wealthy, wanted a domeftick companion and attendant; and therefore, by the recommendation of Dr. Paget, married Elizabeth Minfhul, of a gentleman's family in Cheshire, probably without a fortune. All his wives were virgins; for he has declared that he thought it grofs and indelicate to be a fecond hufband: upon what other principles his choice was made, cannot now be known; but marriage afforded not much of his happinefs. The first wife left him in difguft, and was brought back only by terror; the fecond, indeed, feems to have been more a favourite, but her life was fhort. The third, as Philips relates, oppreffed his children in his life-time, and cheated them at his death. "man, Soon after his marriage, according to an obfcure ftory, he was offered the continuance of his employ ment; and being preffed by his wife to accept it, anfwered, "You, like other women, want to ride in your coach; my wifh is to live and die an honeft If he confidered the Latin fecretary as exercifing any of the powers of government, he that had fhared authority, either with the parliament or Cromwell, might have forborn to talk very loudly of his honesty; and if he thought the office purely ministerial, he certainly might have honeftly retained it under the king. But this tale has too little evidence to deferve a difquifition; large offers and sturdy rejections are among the most common topicks of falfehood. He had fo much either of prudence or gratitude, that he forbore to disturb the new fettlement with any of his political or ecclefiaftical opinions, and from this time devoted himfelf to poetry and literature. Of his zeal for learning in all its parts, he gave a proof by publishing, the next year (1661), Accidence commenced Grammar; a little book which has nothing remarkable, but that its author, who had been lately defending the fupreme powers of his country, and was then writing Paradife Loft, could defcend from his elevation to refcue children from the perplexity of grammatical confufion, and the trouble of leflons unneceffarily repeated. About About this time Elwood the quaker, being recommended to him as one who would read Latin to him, for the advantage of his converfation, attended him every afternoon, except on Sundays *. Milton, who, in his letter to Hartlib, had declared, that to read. Latin with an English mouth is as ill a bearing as Law French, required that Elwood should learn and practise the Italian pronunciation, which, he faid, was neceffary, if he would talk with foreigners. This feems to have been a task troublesome without ufe. There is little reafon for preferring the Italian pronunciation to our own, except that it is more general; and to teach it to an Englishman is only to make him a foreigner at home. He who travels, if he speaks Latin, may fo foon learn the founds which every native gives it, that he need make no provifion before his journey; and if frangers vifit us, it is their business to practife fuch conformity to our modes as they expect from us in their own countries. Elwood complied with the directions, and improved himself by his attendance; for he relates, that Milton, having a curious ear, knew by his voice when he read what he did not understand, and would ftop him, and open the most difficult paffages. * This fingular perfon was a neighbour of Milton's father in the country, and alfo of Waller, and had the confidence of the latter, as appears by the life of that poet prefixed to fome editions of his works. He was an ingenious man, and a scholar, and wrote a life of himself, published in 8vo, 1714. In it are related his fudden converfion to quakerifm, the refentment of his father for his refufing to be uncovered before him, his fufferings for the truth by imprifonment, and other feverities, his deliverance from ali his troubles, and laftly his marriage to an amiable young woman of his own profeffion, one of the Penn family, whom he had courted both in profe and verfe, with all that fimplicity of ftyle and fincerity of expreffion which then diftinguished that inoffenfive people. In a fhort time he took a house in the Artillery Walk, leading to Bun ill Fields; the mention of which concludes the register of Milton's removals and habitations. He lived longer in this place than in any other. He was now bufied by Paradife Loft. Whence he drew the original defign has been variously conjectured by men who cannot bear to think themselves ignorant of that which, at laft, neither diligence nor fagacity can discover. Some find the hint in an Italian tragedy. Voltaire tells a wild and unauthorised story of a farce feen by Milton in Italy, which opened thus: Let the Rainbow be the Fiddlestick of the Fiddle of Heaven. It has been already fhewn, that the firft conception was a tragedy or myftery, not of a narrative, but a dramatick work, which he is fuppofed to have begun to reduce to its present form about the time (1655) when he finished his difpute with the defenders of the king. He long had promised to adorn his native country by fome great performance, while he had yet perhaps no fettled defign, and was ftimulated only by fuch expectations as naturally arofe from the furvey of his attainments, and the confcioufnefs of his powers. What he fhould undertake, it was difficult to determine. He was long chufing, and began late. While he was obliged to divide his time between his private ftudies and affairs of state, his poetical labour muft have been often interrupted; and perhaps he did little more in that bufy time than conftruct the narrative, adjust the epifodes, proportion the parts, accumulate images and fentiments, and treafure in his memory, or preferve in writing, fuch hints as books or meditation would fupply. Nothing particular is known of his intellectual operations while he was a ftatefian M for for, having every help and accommodation at hand, he had no need of uncommon expedients. Being driven from all publick ftations, he is yet too great not to be traced by curiofity to his retirement ; where he has been found by Mr. Richardfon, the fondeft of his admirers, fitting before his door in a grey coat of coarfe cloth, in warm jultry weather, to enjoy the fresh air; and fo, as well as in his own room, receiving the vifits of people of diftinguished parts as well as quality. His vifitors of high quality muft now be imagined to be few; but men of parts might reasonably court the converfation of a man fo generally illuftrious, that foreigners are reported, by Wood, to have vifited the houfe in Bread-street where he was born. According to another account, he was feen in a small house, neatly enough dreffed in black cloaths, fitting in a room bung with rufty green; pale but not cadaverous, with chalkstones in his hands. He faid, that if it were not for the gout, his blindness would be tolerable. In the intervals of his pain, being made unable to ufe the common exercises, he used to fwing in a chair, and fometimes played upon an organ He was now confeffedly and visibly employed upon his poem, of which the progress might be noted by thofe with whom he was familiar; for he was obliged, when he had compofed as many lines as his memory would conveniently retain, to employ fome friend in writing them, having, at least for part of the time, no Milton's father, as has been mentioned in a preceding note, was well skilled in mufic; and we are told by Aubrey, that he taught it to his fon, who, as Wood adds, befides that he could play on the organ, was able to bear a part in vocal and inftrumental music, an accomplishment which, in his time, it was deemed difgraceful for perfons well educated to want. regular |