“Higher Argument”: Paradise Lost 1665–1669(undated) Imprimatur, probably shortly before Milton signed his contract with
Simmons at the end of April, 1667.^73
During the spring and summer months, as printing got underway, Milton may
have had some continuing involvement through the agency of some scholarly friend
or friends. That summer also he surely shared the amazement, alarm, and indigna-
tion of all London when a fleet of 70 Dutch ships, intent on vengeance for the
firing of their fleet and the ravaging of Schelling the previous year, sailed up the
Medway, June 10–13, 1667. Everyone wondered whether they intended to pillage
the towns along the river or perhaps invade and sack London. Since peace over-
tures were underway, a good part of the English navy had been laid up in dock to
save expense, so there was little effective resistance. The Dutch set fire to all the
English ships in dock, leveled unfinished fortifications, and sailed away with the
half-burnt Royal Charles in tow – the ship that had brought the king back to Eng-
land at the Restoration. They also blockaded the Thames, depriving Londoners of
coal and other goods for several weeks. Popular indignation rose to fever pitch,
targeting the king, the court, and especially Clarendon, who was forced from office
at the end of August and in November fled to France to escape a treason trial.
Milton was surely pleased to hear about the downfall of the man associated with the
harsh laws repressing dissenters, the Clarendon Code. On June 24 Pepys recorded
a friend’s conviction that England would be undone, “there being nothing in our
power to do that is necessary for the saving us – a lazy prince – no council – no
money; no reputation at home or abroad... the King doth fallow the women as
much as ever he did.”^74 Milton may have heard, as Pepys did, unflattering compari-
sons of Charles to Cromwell, and savored the irony:
Everybody doth nowadays reflect upon Oliver and commend him, so brave things he
did and made all the neighbour princes fear him; while here a prince, come in with all
the love and prayers and good liking of his people, and have given greater signs of
loyalty and willingness to serve him with their estates than ever was done by any
people, hath lost all so soon.^75A peace treaty with the Dutch was signed at Breda on July 21, freeing people to
think about other things – including an epic poem that would soon appear.
Paradise lost, a Poem in tenne Bookes was registered with the Stationers by Simmons
on August 20, 1667: the entry names Tomkyns as licenser and the royalist Richard
Royston, publisher of Eikon Basilike, as attesting warden, but names the author only
by his initials, J. M.^76 Those initials would have identified Milton to many, but do
not flaunt his famous name; also, the designation “Poem,” here and on the title
pages, avoids claiming the work as epic. Milton, or Simmons, evidently decided
that an unassuming presentation would be wisest. The poem may have been pub-
lished and available at the booksellers a month or so after it was registered, though
the first documented notice of it is in a letter of November 18 from John Beale to