Notes to Chapter 1discharge this debt. Pye, in possession of the manor at Forest Hill, brought a suit in
Chancery in February to make Milton disclose his claim; his answer described his bond
and noted that it antedated Pye’s mortgage. See note 46.
67 See discussion in Parker, I, 306–11 and II, 932–4; French, Milton in Chancery, 294–315;
LR III, 10. That Milton allowed her to live there rent-free is suggested (though not
proved) by the fact that subsequent records document the rental of the other cottages
and lands, but not of the house and messuage.
68 The Oxfordshire court noted on that date that she “exists in full life at Wheatley” (LR
II, 198).
69 The poem was first published in 1673. The manuscript copy, in a fine scribal hand, is at
the Bodleian (Ms Lat. Misc. d.77, kept at Arch F.d.38), as is the presentation volume
(8o M.168. Art, kept at Arch G.f.17).
70 The inscription is undated, but the contents indicate that it was bound sometime after
March 4, 1645. Young did not deposit the collection in the King’s Library as Milton no
doubt hoped, and it eventually came to Trinity College, Dublin (shelf mark R.dd.39).
It contained the same tracts as the Rouse volume except for Of Education.
71 G. H. Turnbull, Hartlib, Dury, and Comenius: Gleanings from Hartlib’s Papers (London,
1947), 39. Hall wrote first on December 17, indicating that he has had “a loving and
modest express from worthy Mr. Milton” and asking if Hartlib thinks Milton would
entertain “a constant correspondence.” On December 21 he wrote again indicating
that he was “ambitious of the acquaintance of Mr Milton,” the author of the Education
treatise. On January 4 he informs Hartlib that he plans to “address” himself to Milton
next week, and on January 8 asks Hartlib for an introduction. In letters to Hartlib of
February 7 and March 22 Hall refers ambiguously to some denial on Milton’s part: “I
am sorry Mr. Milton dos [is] abundare suo sensu” (“fully persuaded in his own mind”)
(Hartlib 60/14/3a–6b; 9a–12b, 18a–19b, 39a–40b).
72 EL 4,10 (Aubrey). The exact day of his death is not recorded.
73 Milton senior’s will has not been found, but Skinner’s Life makes several references
to an inheritance (EL 31–3): “The moderate Patrimony his Father left him”; “His
moderate Estate left him by his Father”; “By the great fire in 1666 he had a house in
Bread street burnt: which was all the Real Estate hee had.” That house was not
Milton’s boyhood home but a large house called The Red Rose on the west side of
Bread Street. Milton held a 21-year lease to this property, arranged by his father; it
began in March, 1632 and was renewed in 1649 for another 24 years. See chapter 8,
n. 37.
74 CPW II, 759–65. Milton states that he gave the letter to “Bookseller James [Allestreye],
or to his master, my very familiar acquaintance.” A holograph manuscript – evidently
the copy sent to Dati – is in the New York Public Library. Milton’s letter is dated
“Pascatis feriâ tertiâ MDCXLVII,” that is, on the third day of Easter week 1647, i.e.
April 20. In his Letters (1674) he dated it “Londino, Aprilis 21, 1647,” probably because
he transcribed his own copy the following day and dated it accordingly. For Dati, see
chapter 4, pp. 93, 102–3.
75 See chapter 4, p. 105.
76 Milton’s divorce tracts were denounced, for example, in a draft of the Westminster
Assembly’s proposed Confession of Faith, The Humble Advice, 41 (London, 1646, c.
December 7); a broadside, These Trades-men are Preachers in and about the City of London.
Notes to Chapter 7