ment or information against Milton and Goodwyn in respect of their books, and that they themselves should be sent for in custody of the Serjeant at Arms attending the House. On Wednesday, June 27th, an order of Council was made agreeable to the order of the House of Commons for a proclamation against Milton's and Goodwyn's books; and the proclamation was issued the 13th of August following, wherein it was said that the authors had fled or did abscond*: and on Monday, August 27th, Milton's, and Goodwyn's books were burnt according to the proclamation at the Old Bailey by the hands of the common hangman". On Wed

* See the proclamation printed at length in Kennet's Register and Chronicle, 1728, p. 189. Todd. Or in Toland's Life of Milton, 8vo. 1761, p. 113. E.

y Milton's prose was to suffer another disgrace. Twenty-seven Propositions gathered from the writings of our author, Buchanan, Hobbes, Baxter, John Goodwin, Knox, Owen, and others, were

proscribed by the University of Oxford, July 21, 1683, as destructive both to Church and State; and ordered to be burnt in the court of the Schools. See the Decree of the University, in Somers's Tracts, iii. 223. This transaction is celebrated in a

poem of the Musa Anglicana, called "Decretum Oxoniense,' 1683. vol. ii. p. 180, 181. edit. 1714. I transcribe some of the

lines with abhorrence,

Hæ tibi sint laudes immortalesque triumphi,

O dea, Bellositi sacras quæ protegis arces!

Quamquam o, si simili quicunque hæc scripserit auctor

But by what follows, the writer does not seem to have been insensible to the beauties of Milton's poetry.

Milton is said to have been a

chief founder of the Calves' Head Club, a festival which began to be held on the thirtieth of January during the usurpation, in opposition to Bishop Juxon, Dr. Hammond, and other divines of the Church of England, who met privately to celebrate that day with fasting and a form of prayer. See Secret History of the Calves' Head Club, by one who seems to be well acquainted with anecdotes of those days. Lond. 1703. Harl. Misc. vi. 554. For such provocations alone, it was natural for the restored powers to retaliate. He, however, escaped, yet not without difficulty. I was told by Mr. Tyers,

nesday, August 29th, the Act of Indemnity was passed, which proved more favourable to Milton than could well have been expected; for though John Goodwyn, Clerk, was excepted among the twenty persons, who were to have penalties inflicted upon them, not extending to life, yet Milton was not excepted at all, and consequently was included in the general pardon". We find indeed that afterwards he was in custody of the Serjeant at Arms; but the time when he was taken into custody is not certain. He was not in custody on the 12th of September, for that day a list of the prisoners in custody of the Serjeant at Arms was read in the House, and Milton is not among them; and on the 13th of September the House adjourned to the 6th of November. It is most probable therefore that after the Act of Indemnity was passed, and after the House had adjourned, he came out of his concealment, and was afterwards taken into custody of the Serjeant at

R. Lives of the Poets, ed. 1794.

As to the calumny which Warton discovered in the Harleian Miscellany, it is not only improbable in itself, but rests upon no authority. It comes through two nameless individuals to an anonymous pamphleteer, who appears evidently disposed to libel Milton. E.

Philips says expressly, that Milton was excepted, and disqualified from bearing any office. But I find Goodwin and Ph. Nye the minister excepted in the Act, but Milton not named. However, he obtained a special pardon in December, 1660, which passed the privy seal, but not the great seal. Malone.

Arms by virtue of the former order of the House of Commons: but we cannot find that he was prosecuted by the Attorney General, nor was he continued in custody very long: for on Saturday the 15th of December, 1660, it was ordered by the House of Commons, that Mr. Milton now, in custody of the Serjeant at Arms should be forthwith released, paying his fees; and on Monday the 17th of December, a complaint being made that the Serjeant at Arms had demanded excessive fees for his imprisonment, it was referred to the committee of privileges and elections to examine this business, and to call Mr. Milton and the Serjeant before them, and to determine what was fit to be given to the Serjeant for his fees in this case; so courageous was he at all times in defence of liberty against all the encroachments of power, and though a prisoner, would yet be treated like a freeborn Englishman. This appears to be the matter of fact, as it may be collected partly from the Journals of the House of Commons, and partly from Kennet's Historical Register: and the clemency of the government was surely very great towards him, considering the nature of his offences; for though he was not one of the King's judges and murderers, yet he contributed more to murder his character and reputation than any of them all: and to what therefore could it be owing, that he was treated with such lenity, and was so easily pardoned? It is certain, there was not wanting powerful intercession for him both in Council and in Parliament. It is said that Secretary Morrice and Sir Thomas Clargis greatly favoured him, and exerted their interest in his behalf; and his old friend Andrew Marvel, member of Parlia

ment for Hull, formed a considerable party for him in the House of Commons; and neither was Charles the Second (as Toland says) such an enemy to the Muses, as to require his destruction. But the principal instrument in obtaining Milton's pardon was Sir William Davenant, out of gratitude for Milton's having procured his release, when he was taken prisoner in 1650. It was life for life. Davenant had been saved by Milton's interest, and in return Milton was saved at Davenant's intercession. This story Mr. Richardson relates upon the authority of Mr. Pope; and Mr. Pope had it from Betterton the famous actor, who was first brought upon the stage and patronized by Sir William Davenant, and might therefore derive the knowledge of this transaction from the fountain".

Milton having thus obtained his pardon, and being set at liberty again, took a house in Holborn near Red Lion Fields; but he removed soon into Jewen-street near Aldersgate-street: and while he lived there, being in his fifty-third or fifty-fourth year, and blind and infirm, and wanting somebody better than servants to tend and look after him, he employed his friend Dr. Paget to choose a proper consort for him; and at his recommendation married his third wife, Elizabeth Minshul, of a gentleman's family in Cheshire, and related to Dr. Paget. It is said that an offer was made to Milton, as well as to Thurloe, of holding the same place of Secretary under the King, which he had dis

charged with so much integrity and ability under Cromwell; but he persisted in refusing it, though the wife pressed his compliance; "Thou art in the right," says he; "you, as other women, would ride in your "coach; for me, my aim is to live and die an honest "man"." What is more certain is, that in 1661 he published his Accidence commenced Grammar, and a tract of Sir Walter Raleigh entitled Aphorisms of State; as in 1658 he had published another piece of Sir Walter Raleigh entitled the Cabinet Council discabinated, which he printed from a manuscript, that had lain many years in his hands, and was given him for a true copy by a learned man at his death, who had collected several such pieces: an evident sign, that he thought it no mean employment, nor unworthy of a man of genius, to be an editor of the works of great authors. It was while he lived in Jewen-street, that Elwood the quaker (as we learn from the history of his life written by his own hand) was first introduced to read to him; for having wholly lost his sight, he kept always somebody or other to perform that office, and usually the son of some gentleman of his acquaintance, whom he took in kindness, that he might at the same time im

The fact is mentioned by Richardson; and rests upon authority which seems to be decisive. Richardson received it from Henry Bendyshe, (a grandson I believe of the Protector's,) who was an inmate in Milton's house, and who had heard it mentioned by his family. Symmons.

It is observed by Mr. Malone, that Milton's publication of an Accidence at this period gives

some countenance to a tradition, recorded by Yelden in his continuation of Langbaine's account of the Dramatic Poets, 8vo. 1693, that Milton, after the Restoration, kept a school at or near Greenwich. But the remarkable care, with which his biographers have mentioned the houses in which he successively resided, seems to make this tradition very improbable. E.