“Higher Argument”: Paradise Lost 1665–1669ment, the first year brought naval disasters, bungled forays, diplomatic isolation,
and near financial collapse for the government.^41 In January, 1666 France and Den-
mark entered the war on the Dutch side, and that summer a four-day naval battle
was fought in the English Channel (June 1–4) with enormous losses on both sides.
On August 8–10 the English set fire to about 160 Dutch merchantmen in harbor as
well as the chief town on the island of Schelling, a strike celebrated, Pepys reports,
by bonfires and celebrations throughout London.^42
Sometime that summer Milton received a letter, dated May 27/June 6, from
his acquaintance Peter Heimbach, who had sought his recommendation in 1657
for an appointment as secretary to the diplomatic envoy to The Hague.^43
Heimbach, now state councillor to the Elector of Brandenburg, had heard rumors
of Milton’s death and wrote to express his pleasure that the news was false. As in
his earlier letter, Heimbach’s Latin is awkward and often incorrect and his style is
even more fulsome and fawning. Also, his sentiments are inept: among the pot-
pourri of virtues for which he praises Milton he emphasizes “policy” as well as
piety and immeasurable erudition, and suggests that Milton, like old Simeon
who was ready to die upon seeing the infant Messiah (Luke 2:29), now desires
nothing more than to be taken to his heavenly patria.^44 Milton’s response, dated
August 15, is his last known letter to any correspondent. He graciously attributes
Heimbach’s remarks about his rumored death to concern for his welfare, recalls
that he knew Heimbach “as a youth of exceptional promise,” and congratulates
him on the honor and favor he has earned. But he also pokes witty fun at
Heimbach’s bad Latin and bad taste.^45 Wryly commenting on how Heimbach
“embellishes” his compliments, he underscores the inappropriateness of the Simeon
allusion: “I am both alive and well. Let me not be useless, whatever remains for
me in this life.” He also takes playful issue with the term “Policy”; he would
prefer “Patriotism,” which, he puns, “having allured me by her lovely name, has
almost expatriated me.” And he makes clear that he is not ready yet for the heav-
enly patria: “One’s Patria is wherever it is well with him.”^46 The letter also pro-
vides a revealing insight into Milton’s difficulties with amanuenses, this one
unschooled in the classics:
If you should find here anything badly written or not punctuated, blame it on the boy
who wrote this down while utterly ignorant of Latin, for I was forced while dictating- and not without some difficulty – to completely spell out every single letter. (CPW
VIII, 4)
Heimbach might, but probably did not, read this as a rebuke to his own awkward
Latin diction and style, laboring under no such difficulties. Milton must often have
had such anxieties about having to trust his words and thoughts to anyone available.
Sometime after his second stint in prison ended on June 25, 1666, Thomas Ellwood
visited Milton again and was shown Paradise Regained: