Notes to Chapter 1an autograph list of contents. Of Reformation and DDD 2 contain a few verbal correc-
tions, probably in Milton’s hand. The 1645 Poems did not arrive, and Milton sent a
second copy a few months later: see p. 209.
45 Rouse may have had parliamentary sympathies, but in any case he was interested in the
pamphlet materials. In 1645, while Oxford was still in the king’s hands, he obtained
copies of Milton’s DDD 1 and Areopagitica, and asked for the rest. He also acquired “a
great fraught” of books from the bookseller George Thomason in 1650. See Edmund
Craster, “John Rouse,” Bodleian Library Record 5 (1955), 130–46.
46 See J. Milton French, Milton in Chancery: New Chapters in the Lives of the Poet and his
Father (New York and London, 1939), passim, and Parker, II, 932–4. Forest Hill was
mortgaged to Sir Robert Pye for 31 years in 1640, and taken over by Laurence Farre, a
servant of Pye, in May or June, 1646. This may have been a stratagem to secure the
property; Powell named “his loving friend” Pye as an overseer to aid the executor of his
will. Powell’s household goods had been sold and the town of Banbury seized the
timber on his estate. He was allowed to compound for and regain possession of his
property at Wheatley, but it had been mortgaged to Edward Ashworth for £400 in
1632, with £300 and some accrued interest yet owed. Powell reported to the Commit-
tee on Composition that his losses and debts amounted to some £3,000; they set his
fine at £180, which he could not pay.
47 Milton’s bond from 1627 was for £300; the overdue interest amounted to about £1,372.
Powell also owed Milton £1,000 for Mary’s marriage portion. Skinner’s Life cites Mary’s
comment (EL 22), which may of course have been a convenient excuse.
48 The first several entries in the Bible were made at this time. The birth of his first child
evidently prompted Milton to set up his immediate (male) family tree. Those first en-
tries record his birth and that of Christopher “about a month after Christmass at 5 in the
morning 1615,” and note the ages of Edward and John Phillips, then members of his
household: “Edward Phillips was 16 year old August 1645”; “John Phillips is a year
younger about Octob.”
49 EL 67. She is described as “lame and almost helpless” in the court proceedings incident
to Milton’s oral will (LR V, 212–15). Edward Phillips notes that she was excused from
reading to her blind father “by reason of her bodily infirmity, and difficult utterance of
Speech” (EL 77).
50 The Phillips nephews, Skinner, and a few other pupils seem to have remained. Thomas
Gardiner was admitted to Emmanuel College, Cambridge on July 11, 1646.
51 Edward Phillips claims that this Thesaurus Linguae Latinae was planned “according to the
manner of Stephanus,” and that it was “a work he had been long since Collecting from
his own Reading, and still went on with it at times, even very near to his dying day”
(EL 72). See Leo Miller, “Lexicographer Milton Leads Us to Recover His Unknown
Works,” MQ 24 (1990), 58–62. See chapter 14, p. 507 and n. 93.
52 Accidence Commenc’t Grammar (London, 1669). Anthony à Wood claimed that Milton’s
Grammar was first published in 1661, but no such edition has been found (LR IV, 359).
With the exception of James Shirley’s Via ad Linguam Latinam Complanata (London,
1649), all the grammarians from whom he draws illustrative examples were published
before 1647. The preface, which redirects the work to mature students, was probably
added just before publication. See chapter 14, p. 490.
53 For Lily’s Grammar, see chapter 1, note 38.
Notes to Chapter 7