“Higher Argument”: Paradise Lost 1665–1669two together. Or perhaps he was relieved that the press run he contracted for had
sold out, and thought Milton’s poem would not have much more life in it.^97
In 1669 or 1670 Milton’s daughters left home. His brother Christopher testified
in December 1674, at the proving of Milton’s will, that his daughters had lived
apart from their father “fowr or five yeares last past,” and that Milton on his death-
bed claimed they were “undutifull and unkind to him” (LR V, 3–4). The domestic
tensions had apparently reached a breaking point. Edward Phillips hints that the
daughters’ duty of reading to Milton in languages they did not understand led them
by degrees to open rebellion:
The irksomeness of this imployment could not always be concealed, but broke out
more and more into expressions of uneasiness; so that at length they were all (even the
Eldest also) sent out to learn some Curious and Ingenious sorts of Manufacture, that
are proper for Women to learn, particularly Imbroideries in Gold or Silver. (EL 77–8)Much later, Thomas Birch heard from Milton’s granddaughter, Elizabeth Foster,
that their departure was due to the “severities” of Milton’s third wife, Elizabeth
Minshull, toward her stepdaughters,
the two eldest of whom she bound prentices to Workers in Gold-Lace, without his
knowledge, & forc’d the younger to leave his Family. Mrs. Foster confess’d to me,
that he was no fond Father, but assur’d me that his Wife’s ill Treatment of his Chil-
dren gave him great Uneasiness; tho’ in his State of Health & Blindness he could not
prevent it.^98This account as reported is dubious. Elizabeth Minshull could not make appren-
ticeship arrangements, which would require an outlay of funds, without Milton’s
knowledge and consent, though the idea of settling the daughters elsewhere to
relieve the domestic discord may well have originated with her. Milton alludes to
such an outlay – “what I have beside don for them” – while explaining that he
intended to leave his entire estate to his wife. His maidservant heard him say, more
explicitly, that “hee had made provision for his Children in his life time and had
spent the greatest part of his estate in provideing for them” (LR V, 82, 91). The
apprenticeship seems intended to assure them a livelihood outside the family. Eliza-
beth Foster also told Birch that about this time her mother, Milton’s youngest
daughter Deborah, became a companion to an Irish aristocrat, one Lady Merian:
Her mother... meeting with very ill treatment from Milton’s last Wife, left her
Father, and went to live with a lady, whom she called lady Merian. This lady going
over to Ireland, and resolving to take Milton’s daughter with her, if he would give his
Consent, wrote a Letter to him of her Dessign, and assured him, that as Chance had
throwne his Daughter under her care, she would treat her no otherwise than as his Daughter and
her own Companion. She lived with that Lady, till her Marriage.^99