Notes to Chapter 1
Notes
Chapter 1 “The Childhood Shews the Man” 1608–1625
1 British Library Add Ms 32310. Milton made this entry much later, on the occasion of
the birth of his first child Anne (1646). At that same time he also recorded the birth of
his brother Christopher (1615) but not of his older sister Anne, who may have died c.
- He also recorded the ages of her sons, then living and studying with him.
2 Registers of All Hallows, Bread Street, Harleian Society, XLIII (London, 1913), 16; in LR
I, 2.
3 John Stow, A Survey of London (London, 1603), 348, 346–53. The building was owned
by Eton College and leased to a prominent merchant and alderman of the City of
London, Sir Baptist Hicks. By 1632 and perhaps much earlier Milton senior also held a
lease on a house called The Red Rose, on the opposite side of Bread Street.
4 Registers of All Hallows, 18; LR I, 11.
5 LR I, 4–5, 7–9, and Chronology, 9–10.
6 EL 1. His affiliation with Christ Church is not confirmed by college records, but
his subsequent musical activities indicate that he had substantial musical training in
youth.
7 The story is reported by Aubrey and in more detail by Milton’s nephew, Edward Phillips
(EL 50–1). Parker II, 675–87, 693–6 analyses the records pertaining to Milton’s pater-
nal and maternal ancestors.
8 EL 51–2. For Milton senior’s business affairs and musical activities in these years see LR
I, 3–102; Parker II, 687–93, and J. Milton French, Milton in Chancery (New York,
1939). He had several apprentices, among them Richard Milton (probably a relative)
and Thomas Bower, who became his partner in 1625.
9 EL 6. Another early biographer, Jonathan Richardson (1734), heard that “he did well
on the Organ and Bas-Viol” (EL 204).
10 EL 51. Aubrey states that Milton senior presented the In Nomine to a Polish prince –
probably a mistake for the the Landgrave of Hesse who visited England in 1611 – and
that he was rewarded with a gold medal and chain.
