“I... Steer Right Onward” 1654–1658later. Milton’s family Bible records these events together: “Katherin my daughter,
by Katherin my second wife, was borne the 19th of October, between 5 and 6 in
the morning, and dyed the 17th of March following, 6 weeks after hir mother, who
dyed the 3rd. of Feb. 1657 [1658].”^135 I think it a near certainty that Milton wrote
his poignant sonnet, “Mee thought I saw my late espoused saint,” sometime during
the difficult weeks following Katherine’s death,^136 recording his love and grief for
the wife whose face he had never seen and whose loss plunged him again into
darkness and loneliness. It is discussed on pages 355–6.
Milton was reading widely and boldly during these months as he worked on, or at
least collected more materials for, De Doctrina Christiana. A note by Hartlib to Robert
Boyle on February 2, 1658 indicates that Milton had obtained a copy of the Collo-
quium Heptaplomeres by Jean Bodin, which circulated only in manuscript and was
risky to own.^137 Conceived in the tradition of the symposium, it is an interchange
among seven learned men who represent a wide spectrum of religious opinion – a
Catholic, a Jew, a philosophic naturalist, a Lutheran, a Moslem, a Calvinist, and a
Skeptic. All their positions are given informed and sophisticated presentation; despite
their differences these men exemplify how to live together in charity and toleration,
defending their beliefs ultimately by the integrity and sanctity of their lives. Of par-
ticular interest and force are arguments for anti-Trinitarianism and divorce by the
Jew and the natural philosopher, which parallel some that Milton develops in De
Doctrina. Milton may also have been working periodically on Paradise Lost: John
Aubrey reports from Edward Phillips that he began to do so “about 2 yeares before
the K. came-in, and finished about 3 yeares after the K’s Restauracion” (EL 13).
In May Milton published an edition of The Cabinet Council, a book of political
maxims derived from Bodin, Guicciardini, Lipsius, and especially Machiavelli, that
was generally though erroneously attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh.^138 Milton’s brief
preface claims that some “Learned Man at his Death” gave the work to him, and
that he, “finding it lately by chance among other Books and Papers,” determined
that the work of this notable author should be published. His decision to do so at
just this moment is more than happenstance. As Martin Dzelzainis argues, this work
invites some comparison with the ironic writings of Nedham, Harrington, and
Vane during this period, as it also offers a covert critique of the Protectorate in the
form of political advice offered as by Raleigh, not Milton himself.^139 That this is
Milton’s purpose is suggested by the fact that his tracts had often heaped scorn upon
the ‘aphorisming pedantry” of all the tribe of “Aphorismers, and Polticasters,” and had
emphasized the dangers of “Cabinet Councels,” which in the reign of Charles I
invaded the rights of parliament.^140 The implication is that this is the mode of
political discoure appropriate to the times. Some maxims set forth worthy princi-
ples. One defines an ideal for the counselors of rulers – “liberty of speech and
magnanimous uttering of what is good and fit” – that Milton long sought to fulfill
but seems to think no longer possible. Political maxims in the name of another man
are a far cry from Areopagitica. Another, about the dangers of vesting power for long