Notes to Chapter 1in the whole body of the people adhering to the cause “and by them derived unto their
successive Representatives” (15); and that religious liberty must be secured as a funda-
mental with which magistrates may not meddle, but rather content themselves with
“dealings in the things of this life between man and man” (6).
76 [Nedham] The Excellencie of a Free-State: Or, The Right Constitution of a Common-Wealth
(London, 1656, c. June 29). See Blair Worden, “Marchamont Nedham and the Begin-
nings of English Republicanism,” in David Wootten, ed., Republicanism, Liberty, and
Commercial Society, 1649–1776 (Stanford, Calif., 1994), 45–81. Also, Worden, “Milton
and Marchamont Nedham,” in David Armitage, Armand Himy, and Quentin Skinner,
eds, Milton and Republicanism (Cambridge, 1995), 156–80.
77 Nedham, Excellencie of a Free-State, 242. He critiques what he sees as present or immi-
nent dangers in the Protectorate: a Council of State not constantly subject to parliament
threatens to become a tyranny; an elective monarchy (proposed for Cromwell) will
soon turn into a hereditary one; and an army not subject to the people’s representatives
will impose on liberty.
78 Page 18. Some advantages he lists are: that the people are the best keepers of their own
liberties and the best judges of their own interests; that republics nourish virtue, pro-
mote liberty, and discourage the vice and luxury that lead to tyranny; and that free states
make nations prosperous, as England may see from the commercial success of the United
Provinces.
79 Ibid., 245.
80 Harrington, The Common-Wealth of Oceana (London, 1656). It was entered in the Sta-
tioners Register September 19, and Mercurius Politicus for October 29 to November 6,
1656 advertises it as “newly published.” Harrington’s preface states that he distributed
the book among three presses to get it out while parliament was sitting and might
revamp the government. We do not know when Skinner became interested in
Harrington, but in 1659 he was a member of Harrington’s political club, the Rota.
81 See Blair Worden, “Harrington and ‘The Commonwealth of Oceana,’ ” and
“Harrington’s ‘Oceana,’ ” in David Wootton, ed., Republicanism, Liberty, and Commer-
cial Society, 82–138; also James Harrington, Political Works, ed. J. G. A. Pocock (Cam-
bridge, 1977), 6 n.
82 Harrington also implied a criticism of Cromwell’s blue laws being enforced by the
major-generals: “to tell men that they are free, and yet to curb the genious of a people
in a lawfull Recreation unto which they are naturally inclined, is to tell a tale of a Tub”
(205).
83 Harrington devises a tombstone for Olphaeus Megaletor, implicitly urging Cromwell
to seek such titles instead of a royal title: “Lord Archon and sole Legislator of Oceana,
Pater Patriae, the Greatest of Captaines, the Best of Princes, the happiest of Legislators,
the most Sincere of Christians.”
84 For a penetrating analysis of the ambiguities surrounding Nayler’s gesture, see Leo
Damrosch, The Sorrows of the Quaker Jesus (Cambridge, Mass., 1996).
85 He did intervene to lighten Nayler’s sufferings in Bridewell.
86 Cromwell, Writings and Speeches, ed. Allen, IV, 417–18.
87 This is the plausible speculation of Smart (Sonnets, 121–4), who discovered most of
what is known about Katherine Woodcock. The family were supported by wealthy
relatives and lived rent-free in Hackney, in Vyner’s picturesque Elizabethan mansion.
Notes to Chapter 10