Notes to Chapter 1labors and human action, even the greatest.” Milton also revises Fairfax’s motives for
retirement, which stemmed, as he knew, from Fairfax’s strong objection to the execu-
tion of Charles and the invasion of Scotland. Milton suggests rather that he retired for
ill health and only because he had firm confidence in his successor, Cromwell, as a
“strong and faithful” defender of liberty and English interests (669–70).
128 Anthony à Wood reports that Milton presented a copy (now lost) to the Bodleian on
June 11, 1654 (Bodleian Wood Ms F.47, fol. 626).
129 CPW IV.2, 863–5. Marvell also refers to other letters now lost: Milton’s initial letter
to Marvell giving him these commissions, Milton’s letter to Bradshaw, and Marvell’s
first letter to Milton to which this is a follow-up, offering a more complete account. If
Milton answered this letter, it also is lost. With the comment about the recommenda-
tion, Marvell may be hinting that he would still like to have a post in the government
secretariat.
130 CPW IV.2, 865–7. These Oldenburg letters have not been found. The two men
became closer friends and exchanged several later letters. See chapter 10, pp. 336–45.
131 He begins graciously by apologizing for not writing before, and by inviting Oldenburg
to write in English if he wants to hone his skills, since he uses it “more accurately and
successfully than any other foreigner I know” (CPW IV.2, 866).
132 In Thomas Washbourne’s Divine Poems (London, 1654), c. July 28.
133 LR III, 407, 411–12. Vlacq’s editions have a somewhat altered title: Joannis Miltoni
Angli Defensio Secunda Pro Populo Anglicano. The first carries a false imprint (London:
Newcomb, 1654), the second his own imprint (The Hague: Vlacq, 1652) as well as an
exculpatory preface defending himself as one who acted even-handedly in the More/
Milton quarrel, motivated only by commercial profit.
134 Two letters (June 29) are to the Count of Oldenburg: the first assures him that his
Safeguard will be confirmed by the Protector’s authority; the second thanks him for a
gift of horses delivered by his son (CPW V.2, 667–70). A letter of July 25 to the King
of Portugal is the usual recreditif praising the departing Portuguese ambassador with
whom a treaty has just been concluded (673–4). Another (September 4) to the Spanish
prime minister acknowledges the appointment of a new ambassador to replace Cardenas
and offers polite expressions of friendship (677). A letter of August 29 congratulates
Charles Gustavus, who has just ascended the Swedish throne at Queen Christina’s
abdication, and assures him that the recently signed treaty will remain in force (675–6).
A letter, c. July 18 to the governor of the Spanish Netherlands is about a private matter:
property seized from an Englishman there by another Englishman as satisfaction for a
debt claimed (671–2).
135 Masson, IV, 639.
136 See chapter 6, p. 181, and chapter 8, pp. 251, 259–60.
137 See chapter 3, p. 60.
138 For example, Psalm 27:14: “Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and he shall
strengthen thine heart.” Also Psalm 37:7; Isaiah 33:2; Luke 12:36–7.
139 See Haskin, Milton’s Burden of Interpretation, 113.
140 Cf. Spenser’s “Hymne of Heavenly Love” (ll. 64–8) for a parallel with the angels’
service: “There they... / About him wait, and on his will depend, / Either with
nimble wings to cut the skies, / When he them on his messages doth send, / Or on his
owne dread presence to attend” (Variorum II.2, 466–7).
Notes to Chapter 9