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 himself to be as much out of the power of a griping officer, as any other man. How the question was determined 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 Aldersgate-street; and, being blind and by no means wealthy, wanted a domeftick companion and attendant; and therefore, by the recommendation of Dr. Paget, married Elizabeth Minshul, 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 husband: upon what other principles his choice was made cannot now be known; but marriage afforded not much of his happinefs. The firft 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.

Soon after his marriage, according to an obfcure ftory, he was offered the continuance of his employment, and, being preffed by his wife to accept it, answered, "You, like other women, want to "ride in your coach; my wifh is to live and die an "honeft man." If he confidered the Latin fecretary as exercifing any of the powers of government, he that had shared authority, either with the Parliament or Cromwell, might have forborn to talk very

loudly

loudly of his honefty; and if he thought the office purely minifterial, 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 difturb the new fettlement withany 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 leffons unneceffarily repeated.

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 fhould learn and practife the Italian pronunciation, which, he faid, was neceflary, if he would talk with foreigners. This feems to have been a tafk troublefome 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

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 ftrangers 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 stop him, and open the most difficult paffages.

In a fhort time he took a house in the Artillery Walk, leading to Bunhill Fields; the mention of which concludes the register of Milton's removals and habitations. He lived longer in this place than any other.

He was now bufied by Paradife Loft. Whence he drew the original defign has been varioufly conjectured by men who cannot bear to think themselves ignorant of that which, at laft, neither diligence nor fagacity can difcover. Some find the hint in an Italian tragedy. Voltaire tells a wild and unauthorised ftory 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 mystery, not of a narrative, but a dramatick work, which he is fuppofed to have begun to reduce to its prefent form about the time (1655) when he finished his difpute with the defenders of the King.

He long before had promifed 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

of his attainments, and the consciousness of his powers. What he should 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 must have been often interrupted; and perhaps he did little more in that bufy time than conftruct the narrative, adjuft the epifodes, proportion the parts, accumulate images and fentiments, and treasure in his memory, or preferve in writing, such hints as books or meditation would fupply. Nothing particular is known of his intellectual operations while he was a ftatefman; for, having every help and accommodation at hand, he had no need of uncommon expedients.

Being driven from all publick stations, he is yet too great not to be traced by curiofity to his retirement; where he has been found by Mr. Richardson, the fondeft of his admirers, fitting before his door in a grey coat of coarse cloth, in warm fultry weather, to enjoy the fresh air; and fo, as in his own room, receiving the vifits of the 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 conversation of a man fo generally illuftrious, that foreigners are reported, by Wood, to have vifited the house in Bread-street where he was born.

According to another account, he was feen in a fmall house, neatly enough dreffed in black cloaths, fitting in a room hung with rufty green; pale but not cadaverous, with chalkftones in his hands. He faid,

that

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 exercifes, he used to swing in a chair, and fomet mes played upon an organ.

He was nv confeffedly and vifibly employed upon his poem, of which the progress might be noted by thofe with whom he was familiar; fore was blged, when he had compofed as many lines as his memory would conveniently retain, to employ fome friend in writing them, having, at leaft for part of the time, no regular attendant. This gave opportunity to obfervations and reports.

Mr. Philips obferves, that there was a very remarkable circumftance in the compofure of Paradife Loft, "which I have a particular reafon," fays he, "to remember; for whereas I had the perufal of it "from the very beginning, for fome years, as I "went from time to time to vifit him, in parcels of <6 ten, twenty, or thirty verfes at a time (which, "being written by whatever hand came next, might poffibly want correction as to the orthography "and pointing), having, as the fummer came on, 66 not been fhewed any for a confiderable while, " and defiring the reafon thereof, was anfwered, "that his vein never happily flowed but from the "Autumnal Equinox to the Vernal; and that what"ever he attempted at other times was never to his "fatisfaction, though he courted his fancy never fo "much; fo that, in all the years he was about this << poem, he may be faid to have ipent half his time "therein."