Notes to Chapter 1hardly have been written during the hopeful weeks after the king’s execution, which
Milton so vigorously defended in Tenure. I do not, however, accept Woolrych’s argu-
ment that the Digression dates from February or March, 1660. The specific evils it
castigates pertain to the 1640s, there were other things to complain of in 1660, and at
that point Milton’s energy was directed to preventing the king’s return, by whatever
means.
110 See von Maltzahn, Milton’s History of Britain, 118–40. Milton read Gildas in Jerome
Commelin’s Rerum Britannicarum (Heidelburg, 1587). See Commelin, pp. 115–16;
CPW V.1, 132–3.
111 From 1642 onwards parliament solicited voluntary loans of money, plate, and horse
on the surety of the “public faith” and promise of repayment at 8 percent interest;
assessments on both individuals and political groups promised similar terms. The term
“public faith” was often spoken with contempt, and it was freely said that parliament
men helped themselves from such levies. See C. V. Wedgwood, The King’s War,
1641–1647 (London, 1655), 196–7.
112 Page 445. The nation was not legally bankrupt, but substantially so, Milton suggests,
by reason of the constant need for new assessments.
113 Since the History was likely revised before and after publication, it is probable that the
final despairing summary sentences of the Digression were added when Milton was
readying that segment for possible publication in a reissue of the work in 1671. C. H.
Firth, “Milton as a Historian,” Essays Historical and Literary (Oxford, 1938), 102, sup-
posed that at least the final sentence must have been added in 1670. See chapter 14, pp.
494–5 and n. 37.
114 See John Goodman, Right and Might Well Met (London, 1649, c. January 2).
115 See the Whitehall Debates in Woodhouse, Puritanism and Liberty, 125–78.
116 The Levellers published their own unadulterated Agreement of the People on De-
cember 15: Foundations of Freedom or An Agreement of the People (London, 1648).
117 CPW II, 774–5. The letter is dated December 4 (November 24, English style); the
holograph is BL Add Ms 5016*, fols 9–10v. Dati had been appointed to the chair and
lectureship of the Florentine Academy, and had recently given the funeral oration for
the uncle of the Grand Duke. He also reports that Chimentelli had been chosen as
Professor of Greek Literature at Pisa.
118 A Complete Collection of State Trials, eds. William Cobbett and T. S. Howell, 33 vols
(London, 1809–26), IV, cols 1,070–1.
119 Ibid., col. 1,121.
120 CPW III, 242. Though Prynne published several speeches and pamphlets during these
weeks, his Briefe Memento to the Present Unparliamentary Junto (London, 1649, January 4)
is the specific target of Milton’s reference to “new apostolic scarecrows who, under
show of giving counsel, send out their barking monitories and mementos” (194).
Milton also scoffs at royalist petitions and letters such as John Gauden’s Religious and
Loyal Protestation (London, 1649, January 5) and Henry Hammond’s To the Lord Fairfax
and his Councell of Warre (London, 1649, January 15), terming them “the unmaskuline
Rhetorick of any puling Priest or Chaplain, sent as a friendly Letter of advice... and
forthwith publisht by the Sender himself” (195). The tracts subscribed by lists of min-
isters are: A Serious and Faithful Representation of the Judgements of Ministers of the Gospel
within the Province of London (London, 1649) and A Vindication of the Ministers of the
Notes to Chapter 7