“Seeing Foreign Parts” 1638–1639Before Milton left Naples, Manso presented him with gifts – probably two of his
own books^53 – and also a distich to which Milton gave pride of place among the
commendations in his 1645 Poems. It wittily applies to Milton the pun attributed by
Bede to Gregory the Great:
Joannes Baptista Mansus, Marquis of Villa, Neapolitan, to John Milton, EnglishmanIf your mind, form, grace, features, and manners were equalled by your religion,
Then, by Hercules, you would be no “Angle” but a very angel.^54Not only does Manso’s little distich voice a reservation about Milton’s religion, it
also says nothing about him as a poet. So Milton put his powers on show in Mansus
(discussed on pages 112–14), an elegant Latin verse epistle in which he gratefully
acknowledges gestures of friendship from Manso, and, modestly but confidently,
places himself in the line of poets who celebrated Manso as patron. The headnote
addresses him as “a man particularly famous among Italians for the glory of his
genius and his literary studies,” who has honored him during his stay at Naples
“with the greatest kindness and conferred on him many humane services.”^55 He
states that he sent the poem to Manso before leaving Naples, “in order that he
might not appear ungrateful.”
Milton states in the Defensio Secunda that he had intended to travel on to Sicily
and Greece, but changed his plans when the English merchants in Naples passed
along “sad tidings of civil war from England” (CPW IV.1, 618–19). That tour
extension may have been rather nebulous, since such a trip was off the course of
the usual “Grand Tour,” but Milton’s strong interest in things Greek probably
led him to make at least tentative plans and then revise them. The First Bishops’
War with the Scots was not proclaimed officially until February 27, 1639, but
Milton might have heard about levies of money, the mustering of troops, and the
deposition of the Scottish bishops in November, all signs of trouble ahead.^56 In
Naples also he might have received the sad news of Charles Diodati’s death late
in August, 1638.^57 If so, the loss of this oldest and dearest friend likely prompted
him to plan a considerable stay again with those amiable new friends in Florence,
and arrange to spend some time in Geneva with Diodati’s uncle. Milton inti-
mates that he hastened home after hearing news of war, but in fact the return
journey to England took more than seven months. The reasons for urgency were
much less obvious in late 1638 than they seemed in retrospect in 1654, when
Milton summarized his travels as part of an apologia for himself. He also reports
receiving a warning from those same English merchants in Naples about a plot
against him should he return to Rome: “As I was on the point of returning to
Rome, I was warned by merchants that they had learned through letters of plots
laid against me by the English Jesuits, should I return to Rome, because of the
freedom with which I had spoken about religion” (CPW IV.1, 619). He prob-