Notes to Chapter 1Anglicani, Cromwellii. Another collection, with some differences among the letters, four
unpublished sonnets, a Life of Milton, and a catalogue of his works, was published by
Milton’s nephew Edward Phillips as Letters of State (London, 1694). These have been
supplemented by letters found in foreign chancelleries and English government depos-
its, and reported in various studies by Leo Miller. The best study is Robert T. Fallon,
Milton in Government (University Park, Pa., 1993), which analyzes the letters by country
and circumstance, and supplies a list, with provenance.
2 See chapter 7, p. 209.
3 See chapter 4, p. 89 for earlier expressions of Milton’s anti-French prejudice. Both
Latin and French were much used in diplomatic exchanges.
4 A Council Order of March 13 appointed a committee to offfer the position to him,
consisting of “Mr Whitlocke, Sr. Henry Vane, Lo. Lisle Earle of Denbigh, Mr. Martyn,
Mr. Lisle, or any two of them” (LR II, 234).
5 Georg Weckherlin had served in that post since 1644.
6 See chapter 6, pp. 172–3. The Shadow Secretariat also included René Augier and
Lewis Rosin; see Fallon, Milton in Government, 247–50.
7 Blair Worden, The Rump Parliament, 1648–1653 (Cambridge, 1974), passim.
8 Samuel R. Gardiner, History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1649–1660, 4 vols
(London and New York, 1894–1901), I, 6–7.
9 Moreover, the sale of confiscated property (dean and chapter lands, crown property,
and some estates of royalists who failed to compound) made it more difficult to recon-
cile former enemies to the new regime.
10 On February 19, 1651 the council ordered “That after ye Councell is set noe Minister
of the Councell shall be present at any debates but onely the Secretary [Gualter Frost]
and his Assistant [Gualter Frost, Jr.] without special order of the Councell” (PRO SP
25/66, p. 11). On February 10, 1651 the council ordered “That Mr. Milton the Secr
for forreigne languages be appointed to attend this committee [Foreign Affairs] at their
meetings” (PRO SP 25/17, p. 59). The order referred to the current meetings with the
Portuguese ambassador, but probably set the terms for many such sessions.
11 Fallon argues persuasively that Milton would likely have handled most or all of the
correspondence relating to a particular issue or problem and so was probably responsi-
ble for many more papers than are formally credited to him, some not now available;
they would include translations of many letters from foreign states into English for the
council. He was the only secretary engaged in the Hamburg correspondence (Milton in
Government, viii, 37, 42).
12 See Fallon, Milton in Government, 1–22, and J. Max Patrick, CPW V.2, 477. It is hard to
know how much leeway Milton was given, and when, but where several drafts exist it
is sometimes possible to trace contributions that add rhetorical force or precision, not
merely stylistic felicity. Edward Phillips in the introduction to Letters of State states that
he “is not thought to have written his own Selfe, but what was dictated to him by his
Superiors” (sig. A 3). But in 1694 Phillips was concerned to play down Milton’s re-
sponsibility for the then discreditable substance of the letters and offer them simply as
examples of elegant Latin style.
13 CPW V.2, 479–84. Milton presumably dictated both Latin drafts; both have correc-
tions in his hand. The letters were approved by the council on March 26, reported to
parliament which ordered a few changes, and sent out on April 2.
Notes to Chapter 8