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submitted, with less reluctance, to the necessity of going into a smaller house, because the last sickness of his father, who came to live with him in 1649, had driven away his Forest Hill relations, and left him in little need of a larger.

As literature must be silent amidst the noise of arms, we hear nothing more of our author for the two succeeding years. The Roundheads had now

up the rear of the foot, and quarter-men marched after the horse.-Perfect Summary, &c. Aug. 7, 1647.'

Cromwell is now gone to the Isle of Wight: it is thought that his honour will not take it as it hath done. Colonel Hammond is governor thereof; he should have continued, and he may; nay, he will; only Master Cromwell is Dominus fac totum: yet it is a jealousy that Master Cromwell, being marched south, will hardly nose about.-Mercurious Melancholicus, Sept. 4 to 12, 1647.'

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Cromwell's nose was a frequent topic of merriment in some of the journals of the day. The Pragmatic Mercury, for January 11, 1647-8, in giving an account of a debate, says, that Mr. Cromwell stood up, and the glow worm glistening in his beak, he began to spit fire.' Cromwelliana, p. 38. In the same paper of August 1, 1648, we have an account of the expedition against the Scots. Nolt Cromwell is fallen into a bog at Monmouth;' and, notwithstanding the exhortations of his best gifted commanders,' his shoeless myrmidons will not budge a foot northward.' They had a large promise of shoes, stockings, and money; but the devil a foot will these saints stir. They have as little mind to look northward, as Noll's nose hath to turn eastward towards Westminster," Ibid. p. 42. In the number for March 5th, an account is given of the dissentions in the army. Henry Martin and some others were struggling for the command; insomuch that Ruby Nose drew his dagger in the house on Saturday, and clapping it in the seat by him, expressed great anger against Harry and his levelling crew. Ibid. p. 53. In November, of the preceding year, the house had ordered this wicked journal to be suppressed. Ibid. p. 36. It kicked, on this occasion, for the last time. In the Mercurius Eleuticus, for February 28, of the same year, Cromwell is frequently called a brewer; and is said to have stroked the duke of Gloucester's head, and asked him, sirrah, what trade do you like best? The duke told him, that, being a king's son, he hoped the parliament would allow him some means out of his father's revenue, to maintain him like a gentleman, and not put him apprentice like a slave.' Nose Almighty makes answer, boy you must be an apprentice, for all your father's revenue will not make half satisfaction for the wrong he hath done the kingdom, and so Nose went blowing out.' Ibid. p. 53. So in the Parliamentary Porter, August 28, 1648. nothing is heard now amongst the brethren but triumph and joy,' says the editor, singing and mirth for their happy success, (thanks to the Devil first, and next to Noll Cromwell's nose,) &c. Ibid. p. 45.

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brought Charles I. to London; and the commissioners from the lords and commons began to treat with him for a composition. On the 12th of November, 1647, at twelve o'clock at night, the speaker read a letter from Cromwell, in which he gave an account of the king's escape from Hampton Court, the place of his residence, or rather, of his confinement. Cromwell had frighted him with an anonymous letter; and, at nine o'clock, of the preceding evening, he slunk out by the back stairs to the water side.* About the first of January, 1647, 1648, the commons resolved to hold no further communion with his majesty; and to continue the powers of the committee of twenty-one, sitting at Derby house. It was on this occasion, that Cromwell 'spit fire;' quoted the scriptural passage, Thou shalt not suffer an hypocrite to reign;' and concluded his speech by laying his hand upon the hilt of his sword. As the king was now down, the next blow was aimed at the lords; and, in order to bring the subject to a discussion, Cromwell alarmed them, also, with an anonymous letter.† This, and the order B for the king's trial, had the desired effect. The lords agreed to dissolve themselves, and go home.‡

The king was at length taken; and, after a series of indignities and sufferings, was, as all know, tried as a traitor,-condemned,-and executed.§

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It was now Milton's province to justify these proceedings; and he accordingly wrote a treatise upon the Tenure of Kings and Magistrates; proving (the title page says) that it is lawful, and hath been held so through all ages, for any, who hath 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

Cromwelliana, p. 36. + Ibid. pp. 37, 38. Ibid. pp. 50, 51, § Jan. 30th, 1649. Hume. ch. lix.

much condemn deposing, are the men that did it themselves.' The Independents were delighted with the zeal of their defender; and, when he published, in the same year, Animadversions on the Presbytery at Belfast, and Observations on the Peace concluded between Charles I. and the Irish Papists,* the council of state rewarded him with the appointment of Latin secretary. The Independents had determined to correspond in this learned language, in pure spite to the French; which, as it was the language of monarchists, might, they were afraid, be the means of introducing monarchical ideas.

But Milton was obliged to serve his new masters in other things besides foreign correspondence. A few days after the death of the king, a work was published, under his name, called the Icon Basilikè, or a Portraiture of his Sacred Majesty in his Solitudes and Sufferings. Hume says, it was reprinted fifty times in a twelvemonth;† and Milton compares its effects upon his countrymen to those of Cæsar's will upon the Romans. The Icon must, therefore, be broken, and, in 1649, there was published, by authority,' Iconoclastes, or the Image Breaker, by John Milton. It was not then doubted, that Charles was the real author of his own portraiture; nor was it till 1686, that the sale of the earl of Anglesea's library disclosed a manuscript note on a leaf of his copy; in which he says, upon the authority of the duke of York, that 'this was none of the said king's compiling, but made by Dr. Gauden, bishop of Exeter.' The discovery gave rise to a great deal of controversy; and the proofs brought to evince that the work is or is not the king's, (says Hume) are so convincing, that, if an impartial reader peruse any one side apart, he will think it impossible, that

In the second article of the treaty, the king promises the re peal of those acts, which forbid the Irish to burn oats in the straw. and to plough with horses by the tail. Tol. p. 81.

Hist. Eng. ch. lix.

arguments could be produced, sufficient to counterbalance so strong an evidence."* He is inclined to think, however, that the royalists have the better of the dispute; and his opinion is founded solely on the internal evidence of the book itself. The style, in his opinion, resembles that of the king much more than that of Dr. Gauden;† though it is a little remarkable, that, according to Dr. Walker, the relation of Gauden, there occur many expressions in the book, which were habitual to the bishop of Exeter.

Milton had next to meet an antagonist more formidable than either King Charles, or Bishop Gauden. Charles, prince of Wales, now an exile in Holland, persuaded Salmasius, a professor of polite learning in the university of Leyden, to write a defence of his father, and of regal government. Salmasius was then in the pay of the Dutch administration; and, if we had not been told, that he received a hundred jacobuses for his work, we might wonder, how a pensioner of a republic should be writing a treatise in favour of monarchy. The Defensio Regia was published in Holland, in 1649; and, as soon as it crossed the channel, the council of state directed their Latin secretary to draw up an answer. Defensio pro Populo Anglicano appeared in 1651; and, so completely did it answer the expectations of the author's employers, that Hobbes is said to have declared, he knew not, of the two antagonists, whose language was the best, or whose arguments the worst. Salmasius was a great critic; and Milton did not forget to pick barbarisms in his Latinity. This question must be left to the schoolmasters; for Milton falls upon Salmasius, and Johnson falls upon Milton.

Hist. Eng, ch. lix.

† Id. ibid.

The

Tol. p. 75. Toland is the great champion of this side. See Amyntor at the end of the volume.

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-Some polemics use to draw their swords
Against the language only and the words;
As he who fought at barriers with Salmasius
Engag'd with nothing but his style and phrases,
Mov'd to assert the murder of a prince,
The author of false Latin to convince ;-
And counted breaking Priscian's head a thing
More capital than to behead a king.

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Butler.

The question in dispute concerned every government in Europe; and the champion of monarchy reigned almost absolute over the literature of the times. An answer to such a writer, upon such a question, could not fail to find readers. It was soon known throughout the continent. Milton received visits and compliments from all the foreign ambassadors; was tempted, by the offer of great preferments, to go into France and Italy; and the only inducement of several foreigners that came over into England,' says Aubrey, was chiefly to see O. Protector, and Mr. J. Milton.' They would see,' he adds, the house and chamber where he was born.** His book was burnt by the hands of the common hangman at Paris and Toulouse; nor is it any thing but a testimony to his powers, that the same earl of Bridgwater, who had acted a part in Comus, wrote in the title page of his own copy, Liber igne, Author furca dignissimi. Salmasius had been invited to Sweden, by Christiana; who treated him with so much attention, that, when he was sick, she would sit by his bed side, and listen to his conversation. Milton's Defence is supposed, by some, to have occasioned his expulsion from court, with circumstances of indignity and contempt; but others tell us, that he was dismissed with marks of honour, and a train of attendance almost regal.‡ He died in

* Aub. ap. Godw. p. 338. + Tod. vol. i. p. 77, note. Dr. Johnson was, we believe, the first to mention this fact. Phillips, and almost all the others, have been willing to believe the other story.

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