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Mrs Milton preferred the society of her father's house to that of her husband; for within a month after the marriage she desired to visit her relations, and Milton consented, requiring only that she should return at Michaelmas. That season, however, came and went without her reappearance; Milton wrote letter after letter inviting her back, but received no answer, and at length sent a messenger, who was insulted and dismissed. In any circumstances, a young lady accustomed to successive rounds of gaiety cannot be expected to like frugal housekeeping and studious quiet; and in those times the union of a royalist's daughter with a Puritan champion must have been peculiarly liable to disturbance from the violent political animosities which divided their respective families. Still no justification can be found for Milton's wife refusing to return to him, nor can any one take exception to his indignant anger when all his invitations were contemptuously neglected. As if searching for a remedy, he now applied his mind to the consideration of matrimony and divorce, and soon came to the conclusion that divorce was lawful in cases like his own. fearlessness with which he maintained this view is highly characteristic of Milton and his age, for they were both heroic. In 1644 he published his "Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce," as also the "Judgment of Martin Bucer concerning Divorce;" and in the following year his "Tetrachordon," an examination of the four chief passages in Scripture which treat of marriage. When these works issued from the press, the Westminster Assembly of Divines was sitting, and they called the attention of the House of Lords to the strange doctrine they contained. Milton was in consequence summoned to appear before their Lordships, but was almost immediately dismissed. The Presbyterian party, which prevailed in the Assembly, became obnoxious to him from this time; and he himself, reducing theory to practice, commenced paying his addresses to an accomplished young lady, as if he had actually obtained a divorce. News of this probably induced the Powells to attempt a reconciliation between Milton and his wife, which was effected by the latter suddenly appearing in his presence, when in the house of a relation, and imploring his forgiveness on her

knees. He did not withstand her entreaties long; and from 1647, when their reunion took place, they lived together till 1652, when she died in childbed. Milton consoled himself for her loss, if indeed he needed consolation, by marrying soon after Catharine, daughter of Captain Woodcock of Hackney; but within the year this lady died too, and, like the former, in childbed. It is pleasing to observe that, if Milton was capable of resentment, he could also heartily extend forgiveness. His first wife's relations, if they did not instigate her to leave him, at all events encouraged her in refusing to return to him; yet he sheltered her father and brothers in his house, when they with other royalists were in danger, and used all his influence with the republican government in their behalf.

Deeply interesting as from his personal concern in them Milton's speculations on divorce must have been to him, they did not engross all his time and attention during the four years of separation from his wife. To this period belong his letter on Education, also his "Areopagitica, a speech for the liberty of unlicensed printing," published in 1644; and a collection of his poems, Latin and English, published in 1645. When his wife rejoined him, he was living in a house in Holborn, the back of which looked into Lincoln's Inn Fields, and here he remained in studious retirement till 1649, when the clamour of the Presbyterians about the decapitation of Charles I. provoked him to bring before the public what may be called a defence of regicide, under the title "Tenure of Kings and Magistrates." This work was followed by "Remarks on the articles of peace between Ormond and the Irish rebels."

About this time Milton was appointed Latin Secretary to the Council of State, at a salary of £200 a year; and in this capacity he carried on the correspondence of the Government with Foreign powers till the restoration. To be nearer the Government Offices he removed from Holborn to Scotland Yard, and afterwards to a handsome house overlooking St James' Park. Besides discharging his official duties with singular ability, Milton constituted himself the literary champion of the commonwealth. When that affecting book, the "Eikon Basilike," i.e., Royal Image or Portrait, began to stir up the regrets of the

people for their late king, Milton quickly produced his "Eikonoklastes," or Image-breaker, to neutralize it: when Salmasius, a learned professor of Leyden, at the request of Charles II., published his defence of that prince's father, and of monarchy in general, Milton undertook to answer it, though warned that such application would cost him his eyesight, and in 1651 completed his "Defence of the People of England," for which the then government presented him with £1000; and again when the "Cry of Royal Blood to Heaven,' by Peter du Moulin, afterwards prebendary of Canterbury, appeared, Milton immediately commenced a "Second Defence," which was published in 1654.

Being completely blind, Milton from this time preferred seclusion to the bustle of official life. That he should now have turned his thoughts to the composition of a grand epic, in fulfilment of early aspirations, is not surprising, as his isolation from the visible world might even contribute to the vastness and sublimity of his poetic imaginings; but that he should have set himself to continue and prepare for the press a history of England, and a Latin Thesaurus, without being able himself to consult authorities, is almost incredible, and tempts the remark, that his courage outran his discretion. His History of England, brought down to the Norman Conquest, was printed in 1670, and his Latin Thesaurus, which was not in a sufficiently forward state for publication as he left it, was embodied in the Cambridge Dictionary that appeared in 1693.

Had the commonwealth remained secure, Milton would probably never have re-entered the arena of controversy; but, knowing it to be imperilled by the weak administration of Richard Cromwell, and imagining that his advice might arrest the popular reaction, he published successively in 1659, and in the early part of 1660, a treatise on "Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes," "Considerations touching the likeliest means to remove hirelings out of the Church," a "Ready and easy way to establish a free commonwealth," and a critique on a sermon entitled "The fear of God and the King." Thus resolutely did Milton lift up his voice to the last for that cause to which he had devoted his life: but the inevitable 29th May 1660 came, and Charles II. was restored. Upon this Milton secreted himself in

a friend's house in Bartholomew's Close, and it is even said that, to screen him more effectually from the vengeance of the triumphant royalists, a report was circulated of his death, and the pomp of his supposed funeral gone through. It is certain that, within a month after the king's return, it was ordered by the House of Commons that his Majesty be humbly moved to suppress Milton's "Eikonoklastes " and " Defence of the People of England," and that the attorney-general be instructed to proceed by indictment against the author, who, for that purpose, should be given in custody to the sergeant-at-arms attending the House. Accordingly, on the 27th August 1660, the two publications above mentioned were burned by the common hangman at the Old Bailey; and, though the time when Milton was taken into custody is uncertain, we find an order of the House of Commons for his release, on payment of certain fees, bearing date 15th December 1660. He raised objections to the amount of these fees, and a committee was appointed to examine his complaint, which proves at once the sturdy independence of his own bearing, and the deference shown him by his old adversaries now in power. If any purpose of revenge was ever entertained against Milton by the royalist party, it must have been speedily abandoned, for his name was not on the excepted list in the "Act of Oblivion" passed in August 1660, and by this omission his safety was publicly guaranteed. According to some, this indemnity was chiefly owing to the influence at court of Sir William Davenant, for whose release, when taken prisoner in 1650, Milton effectually interceded. Independently of this, however, Charles II., with all his faults, was a man more likely to compassionate than to persecute an adversary already disabled by nature.

Having lost with the secretaryship his handsome residence overlooking St James' Park, Milton now a second time took a house in Holborn, from which he soon removed to Jewin Street, leading into Aldergate Street, where he had established himself twenty years before on returning from the Continent. He had three daughters living with him, but on account of their mother's early death, and their father's blindness, their education had been neglected, and they were consequently as unfit

as they are said to have been unwilling, with the exception of Deborah the youngest, to perform the irksome service required from them by Milton, that, viz., of reading to him in various languages, and writing from his dictation. Accordingly in 1661 he married, as his third wife, Elizabeth Minshull, of a genteel family in Cheshire, and related to his friend Dr Paget, who indeed recommended her to him. This lady, who survived him in a state of widowhood fifty-five years, nursed him with assiduous care, but never won the affections of his daughters; so that, though thrice married, Milton seems to have enjoyed throughout life but little domestic happiness.

Completely retired from the arena of politics, Milton bent all his powers to the completion of Paradise Lost, which he is supposed to have begun in 1655 after the publication of his "Second Defence," and when he had become totally blind. It would appear from verses presented to the Marquis of Villa by Milton, before leaving Naples, that he had once thought of making the renowned King Arthur the hero of a great poem ; and it is certain from manuscripts preserved at Cambridge that, after selecting Paradise Lost for his theme, he had at first intended an allegorical drama, in the manner of the so-called mysteries or miracle plays which abounded in England about the time of the Reformation. Whether he worked at all upon these outlines, and when he ultimately decided on the epic form is not known; but the spectacle of Milton hesitating and groping his way, like other purblind mortals, is recommended to the attention of those, who, because genius is often impulsive, conclude that it is independent of labour, experience, and forethought.

As he could not himself use the pen, Milton was in the habit of composing in his mind twenty or thirty lines at a time, which he then dictated to his wife, or any other person who might be with him capable of acting as his amanuensis. The whole was completed in 1665; but the agreement for its sale to Mr Symons the publisher bears a much later date, 27th April 1667. According to this document Milton was to receive £5 on handing over the manuscript, and the same sum on the sale of 1300 copies of each of the first three impressions, none of which

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