page 1 note * Aubrey, Life of Milton.

page 1 note † Under the title “Literse Pseudo-Senatûs Anglicani, Cromwellii, Reliquorumque Perduellium, nomine ac jussu conscriptæ à Joanne Miltono. Impressæ anno 1676.” In his preface the anonymous publisher excuses himself for so rash an act by saying he had long been in doubt whether he should consign these papers to the flames or to the press, “Cum primum ad manus nostras hse chartæ pervenerunt dubitavi diu utrum Mas prælo potius, aut flainmis, committerem.”

page 2 note * Several emendations have been supplied from the official copy of this letter, preserved in the State Paper Office, Foreign Corresp. Savoy.

page 2 note † The classic name for the people of Savoy, Dauphinè and Vivarais,

page 4 note * Governor of Belleisle-en-Mer, a small island of France, in the Bay of Biscay, on the south coast of Britany; before the Revolution it had a separate governor, but now forms, with the adjoining islets of Houat and Hoedio, a canton in the department of Morbihan.

page 4 note † This alludes to the Treaty of Westminster, concluded on the 3 Nov. 1655. (Traitez de Paix, ii. p. 681.)

page 4 note ‡ The ship “Nightingale.”

page 6 note * It had long been the aim of the English government to render this country the securest refuge for religious and political refugees, who, it had been found, brought with them a knowledge of the arts and manufactures of their native lands.

page 7 note * After the Restoration Dunkirk was sold by Charles II. in 1662 to France for 5,000,000 florins, when it was made by Louis XIV. one of the strongest places in Europe. It was subsequently stipulated by the peace of Utrecht that all the fortifications should be demolished and the harbour filled up, and so it continued till after the peace of 1783, when the harbour was again cleared and the fortifications repaired.

page 7 note † See Articles of Surrender; Traitez de Paix, iii. p, 735.

page 8 note * Traitez de Paix, iii. p. 709 ; and Biographie Universelle, art. Mazarin.

page 8 note † Sir William Lochart, councillor of Scotland, sent ambassador to Louis XIV. in 1658.

page 10 note * This note is subjoined by Daniel Skinner: “Ne imprimantur hæ quinque lineæ, ostendunt enim tantum undecim sequentes literas esse suo ordine inserendas.

“Sequentes undecim literæ quæ Parlamenti nomine conscriptæ sunt, quia tempus quo dabantur subscriptum non habent, inserendæ sunt ad finem libri primi, post illas quæ scriptionis tempus conscriptum habent, eâque serie quam numerus demonstrat.”

page 11 note * The “Welcome” of London.

page 11 note † Leghorn in Tuscany.

page 12 note * In 1626, June 8, there is a letter from the Commissioners of the Navy to Edw. Nicholas, secretary to the Duke of Buckingham, praying him to procure the duke's warrant for Mr. Limbery's present employment.

page 12 note † The “Happy-Entrance “of London.

page 14 note * Riga was at this time in the possession of the Swedes, having been taken by Gustavus Adolplius: it was besieged by the Russians in 1656, but without effect, and did not finally surrender till 1710, when Peter the Great annexed it to the Russian empire.

page 14 note † Sic in MS. lege quibus jam.

page 17 note * The correspondence relative to Lee's embassy is extant in the State Paper Office, Hamburgh Correspondence, 1649.

page 19 note * Attestation of Thomas Guiot, surgeon, and Francis Pra, touching the boiling and eating of the brains of some of the poor Protestants during the heat of the massacre in the year 1655, made 7 Oct. 1655. Sir Samuel Morland's History of the Evangelical Churches in Piedmont, p. 336, in which book several other instances of cannibalism and revolting cruelties practised on the Protestants of the Alpine valleya are related.

page 21 note * Order Books of the Council of State.

page 21 note † Mr. Theodore Haak, a well-known scholar and Fellow of the Royal Society, translated the first six books of the Paradise Lost into German in 1728.

page 21 note ‡ Original State Letters, &c, preserved by Milton, p. 87.

page 21 note § Holland Correspondence, 1652.

page 22 note * Ambassador from the Duke of Parma to Louis XIV. an Athenian by birth,

page 22 note † State Paper Office, Dom. Corr., 1653. This letter has been printed by Todd, but omitting name.

page 23 note * Anthony Aseham sent ambassador to Philip IV. of Spain from the English Commonwealth. Milton's Letters of State, 4 Feb. 1649–50.

page 23 note † Notes and Queries, Second Series, No. 123, p. 372.

page 23 note ‡ First Series, vol. xli. No. 1298.

page 24 note * Mem. p. 633, ed. 1682.

page 24 note † Tom. iii. p. 694.

page 27 note * This entry from the Order Book of the Council of State is given by Todd, p. 137, but so imperfectly that it fails to convey the meaning of the original.

The following entries are also entirely omitted by him:

“1649, Apr. 20. Ordered, That the letters brought in by Mr. Watkins be viewed by Mr. Frost or Mr. Milton to see if any of them conteyne anything concerning the exportation of any prohibited goods.”

“1649–50, Jan. 29. Ordered, That Mr. Milton doe prepare a letter to be sent unto the governour of Tituan in answer to his letter to the couneell.”

“1651–2, Jan. 26, Monday. Ordered, That Mr. Milton doe translate into Latine the answer of the Councell to the first paper of the Lord Ambassadors of the United Provinces conteyning three Articles.” (Order Books of the Council of State.)

page 28 note * Wood, Athen. Oxon.

page 28 note † Dom. Interreg. 1653, S. P. O.

page 29 note * Daniel Skinner, merchant, of the parish of St. Olave, Hart-street, which parish comprises a considerable part of Mark-lane. He is mentioned in the Order Books of the Council of State, under date 1651–2, Jan. 14, where it is ordered, That the Petition of Daniel Skinner and Thomas Skinner, merchants., be referred to the Judges of the Admiralty, who are to examine the matter of fact Iayd downe in the said Petition, and to state the same and to certifie it to the Councell, together with their opinion whether their case be ready for letters of reprisall.

That the Petition of Daniel Skinner, merchant, be referred to the Judges of the Admiralty, who are to examine the matter of fact layd downe in the said Petition, and to state the same and to certifle it to this Councell. (Order Books of the Council of State, No. 5.) There are also two letters of his preserved in the State Paper Office, one dated from Calais,

Oct. 1635, to Sir John Coke, Secretary of State, another in the French Correspondence, bearing date

Oct. 1626, which, as they have not been noticed by the biographers of Milton, I have printed in the Appendix.

page 30 note * Paradise Lost, book i. 1. 594.

page 30 note † Sir Joseph Williamson was at this time Secretary of State, to which office he was appointed in 1674. He had previously been Keeper of State Papers, and in 1665 was made Under-Secretary, shortly after which he was knighted. On his retirement from office in 1678 he was made President of the Royal Society, and died in 1701, having served in several parliaments.

page 31 note * There were five learned printers of this name: Lewis of Leyden, Bonaventure, Abraham, Lewis, and Daniel. The last who is here designed died in 1680.

page 31 note † State Paper Office, Holland Correspondence.

page 33 note * lege sûr.

page 34 note * Secretary to the Admiralty and author of the well-known Diary.

page 35 note * Afterwards “British Resident at the Hague.”

page 35 note † Sir Leoline Jenkins, appointed Plenipotentiary at Nimeguen 1675, ob. 1685.

page 36 note * Daniel Elsevier, see p. 31.

page 36 note † The advertisement announcing this edition will be found at p. 33, at the end of Elsevier's letter to Daniel Skinner, senior.

page 39 note * See ante, p. 31.

page 39 note † This shows that the ordinary time for the post to travel from London to Holland was four days, and that it was weekly, as in the time of Charles I. See the return of the Postmaster- General, De Questor, in the S. P. O. Domestic Corresp. 1628.

page 40 note * Mr. Todd has shown that Daniel Skinner had been educated in Westminster School, which he left for the University in 1670.

page 41 note * Dr. Sumner's Introduction to Milton's Treatise De Doctrinâ Christiana, p. xi

page 42 note * De Doetrinâ Christianâ, Pref. p. xiv.

page 43 note * James Colbron was not admitted to the freedom of the Scriveners' Company till 1st April, 1595, so that Mr. Clarke suggests that Milton could not have been originally apprenticed to him, but must have been a “turnover.”

page 43 note † There is a letter of Samuel Woodcock, bearing date 21 Feb. 1677, amongst the Conway Papers lately transmitted to the State Paper Office; but, as it is dated from Alcester, in Warwickshire, I have not been able to ascertain whether he were of the same family as Captain Woodcock, of Hackney, whose daughter Milton married as his second wife.

page 43 note ‡ Dom. Series, vol. lxvii. No. 75.

page 44 note * There is some doubt as to the maiden name of Milton's mother : Wood (Fasti Oxon. i, 262) who acquired his information from Aubrey, the friend and biographer of Milton, says she was Sarah Bradshaw; Peck says, the family name was Haughton ; but this is clearly a mistake for his grandmother; and Phillips in his life of Milton says, “She was a Caston, of a genteel family, derived originally from Wales.”

page 44 note † For this information I am indebted to the researches of Mr. Hyde Clarke.

page 44 note ‡ Milton Gleanings, No. iii. p. 10.

page 44 note § Domestic Series, James I. vol. cxlv. No. 36.

page 45 note * S. P. O. Dom. Papers (1628 ?)

page 47 note * The wife of Richard Powell was Anne Moulton, daughter of Robert Moulton, of Honyborne, in the county of Worcester, gentleman, by Mary his wife, daughter of Richard Archdale of Whatley, in the neighbourhood of Shotover. This appears in the Visitation of London, 1634, where her four brothers, John, Abraham, Cyprian, and Vigil Archdale are mentioned.

page 48 note * See Appendix, Nos. xxix. and XLV.

page 48 note † Royalist Composition Papers, First Series, vol. xli. p. 923 (Todd, p. 82).

page 50 note * Comp. Papers, First Series, vol 1. p. 547. Todd, p. 88.

page 51 note * In the Receiver General's Report for the county of Oxford, ending at Michaelmas, 1649, it is returned, that three years and a half of Mr. Powell's rent of 1001. to the King was then due and unpaid; it is ordered, therefore, that process should issue against his heirs. (Hunter, Critical and Hist. Tracts, No. III.)

page 51 note † Royaliat Composition Papers, First Series, vol. xli. p. 925.

page 52 note * See Appendix, No. xxxvii.

page 52 note † Composition Papers, First Series, vol. 1. p. 597.

page 53 note * This is denied by the Commissioners, who say the thirds were “prayed, but not granted.”

page 53 note † “a small occasion” had previously been written, but crossed through.

page 54 note * See Petition of John Milton, p. 51.

page 54 note † Appendix, No. XXXVII.

page 54 note ‡ See Appendix, Nos, XVII. and XVIII.

page 54 note § Vossius, Heinsius, and all who have left us any account of the life of Milton, agree that he was affable and instructive in conversation, of equal and cheerful temper; and Richardson, recording the words of the poet's youngest daughter Deborah, says, “He was delightful company, the life of the conversation, and that on account of a flow of subject, and an unaffected cheerfulness and civility.”

page 55 note * Appendix, No. LII.

page 55 note † Appendix, No. XLV.

page 55 note ‡ Appendix, No. LV.

page 55 note § Composition Papers, First Series, vol. xlix. p. 517.

page 57 note * Commons Journal, vol. viii. p. 66. This entry has strangely been overlooked by all Milton's previous biographers.

page 58 note * Council Register, Car. II. vol. i. p. 46.

page 58 note † Coll. Proc. Car. II. p. 14. S. P. O.

page 61 note * Commons' Journal, vol. viii. p. 209.

page 61 note † Capt. ‘Winiam Powell, one of the sons, attained the rank of Captain Lieutenant in the Parliamentary forces under Lieutenant-General Monk, and was killed in Scotland in the service of the Parliament. (See Appendix No. xliv.)

page 62 note * Comp. Papers, Second Series, vol. xiv. p. 193. Todd, p. 257.

page 62 note † Order Bock G. p. 390.

page 62 note ‡ Appendix No. LXIII.

page 63 note * S.P.O. Letter Book X. p. 434.

page 63 note † Ibid. p. 14.

page 64 note * In the charter granted by Charles II. to the town of Ipswich, Sir Christopher was constituted the first and new deputy-recorder of it. He also conducted several important suits against the Government during the Commonwealth. “Exchequer Chamber, Westm. Wednesday, the 9th of March, 1652. By the Commissioners appointed for Reliefe upon Articles of Warr. Upon motion of Mr. Milton of councell with Nicholas Borlase, Esq. plt. in this Court, and upon consideration of the answer of Mr. Samuell Kecwich and Mr. Francis Courtney, two of ye Commissioners for Sequestration,” &c. (Composition Papers, First Series, vol. ix. p. 806. See also Appendix No. LV.)

page 64 note † Sir Christopher Milton was buried in the parish church of St. Nicholas, 22 March, 1692. The baptism of his daughter Mary is entered in the register March 29, 1656. Besides another daughter, Catherine, he appears, from the researches of Professor Masson in the Horton register, to have had an infant son, who was buried March 26, 1639, and a daughter, Sarah, who was baptized Aug. 11, 1640.

page 64 note ‡ Milton had three daughters.

page 64 note § The date is left blank, with the following note: “Ask docter Coward about it.”

page 67 note * See Examination of William Grinkin, M.A. of Jesus Coll. Oxon. in Domestic Correspondence, Car. I. vol. cxviii. No. 77.

page 68 note * Those who wish to investigate this matter more fully, will find the Examination of Alexander Gill in the State Paper Office, Domestic Series, Car. I. vol. cxvi. No. 56.

page 69 note * Probably Charles Diodati, on whom Milton wrote the Latin elegy, as he was of the same college with Gill.

page 70 note * See his Examination, Domestic Correspondence, Car. I. vol. cxvii. No. 73.

page 71 note * It will be found in Domestic Correspondence, Car. I. vol. cxviii. No. 77.

“Alexander Gill, that was censured this day sennight to lose his ears, &c. being a minister and bachelor of divinity, will, as is thought, for his coat's sake, escape that disgraceful punishment.” (Letter of Mr. Pory to Rev. Joseph Mead, Nov. 14, 1628.)

page 71 note † Zouch Townley, a minister of rare parts, that should have come into the Star Chamber ore teams, for writing of verses “to his confined friend, Mr. Felton,” is got safe over to the Hague, where some say he will print an apology for the fact (Letter from Mr. Pory to the Rev. Joseph Mead. Court and Times of Charles I. vol. i. p. 427.)

page 71 note ‡ There is a letter in the State Paper Office, bearing date 8 Nov. 1605, from the poet to the Earl of Salisbury, in which Ben states that he had done his best to procure a fitting person to perform a certain business (to betray the actors in the plot), but many are removed and concealed ; some say they must consult the arch-priest; thinks “they are all so enweaved in it as it will make 500 gent. lesse of the religion within this weeke;” offers his own services if a better person cannot be found. Dom. Cal. James I. 1605, vol. i. p. 245.

page 72 note * Printed in Court and Times of Charles I. vol. i. p. 427.

page 72 note † He took his degree of Master of Arts on June 14, 1621, and was several times chosen deputy orator of the university of Oxford. In 1624 he delivered his famous oration in memory of Camden. See Dr. Thos. Smith, Life of Camden ; Wood, Fasti Oxon.

page 74 note * Composition Papers, First Series, vol. xlix. 869.

page 74 note † Ibid. vol. lxxxiv. p. 337.

page 74 note § Composition Papers, First Series, vol. xxvi. pp. 649, 661.

page 74 note ‡ MS. Harl.4778.

page 74 note ║ Ibid. vol. xlviii. 982.

page 74 note ¶ Ibid. vol. cxi. pp. 513, 515.