Notes to Chapter 1A letter (October 22) to the King of Sweden urges payment of the arrears owed a
professional soldier who has fought for Sweden. A letter to the King of France ( Janu-
ary? 1657) presses an earlier complaint about the seizure in Dunkirk of a ship belong-
ing to the former mayor of London, John Dethicke. A request to the King of Denmark
asks restoration of merchants’ goods improperly seized with a ship that refused to pay
tariffs (CPW V.2, 768–74, 780–1, 784–5).
99 This letter’s presence in the Columbia manuscript means Milton was the translator;
very likely he translated many incoming letters for which evidence is not available
(CPW V.2, 775–6).
100 The credentialling letter was dated April 10. Bradshaw, then envoy to Hamburg,
could not get official permission to enter Russia and so had to return. On April 10
also, Milton prepared a letter to Danzig to seek the release, or more lenient treatment,
of a captured Swedish general.
101 Probably he was not yet 21, since Milton addresses him as “adolescens” (CPW VII,
495).
102 The atlas Milton originally inquired about is not known: perhaps Jan Blaeu’s Geographia,
11 vols (Amsterdam, 1662), four volumes of which were advertised in 1650 for 150
guldens or Dutch florins. John Jansen’s Novus Atlas, 8 vols (Amsterdam, 1658), was
not complete until 1658. Individual volumes of both editions were on sale earlier.
103 LR IV, 138–9; EL 30. The man is William Spenser. He appealed to Cromwell, who
wrote on March 27 asking that the lands be restored, noting that William Spenser had
renounced the popish religion and referring to Edmund Spenser’s tract “touching the
reduction of the Irish to civility.” It is not clear what Milton’s good offices were:
perhaps a recommendation to Cromwell, perhaps a draft of Cromwell’s letter (the
Spenser reference sounds like Milton), perhaps some appeal through Lady Ranelagh
(Edmund Spenser’s wife was also a Boyle).
104 CPW IV.1, 485, 491.
105 The Byzantine histories are: Theophanes, Chronographia (a chronicle of events AD 284–
813); Codinus, Excerpta de Antiquitatbus Constantinopolitanis (treating the history, to-
pography and monuments of Constantinople); and Manasses, Breviarium Historicum
(the 7,000-line metrical history). All were published in sumptuous folios in Paris in
- He also asked for the Liber Pontificalis (Book of Popes) attributed to a ninth-
century chronographer Anastasius Bibliothecarius. In addition, he wanted, if they had
been published (they had not), the Annales of Michael Glycas (a history of the world
from the Creation to AD 1118), and the twelfth-century history by Johannas Sinnamus,
a continuation of the Alexiad by Anna Comnena. The books would be paid for and
dispatched through Thurloe’s agent, Jean Baptiste Stouppe.
106 A letter in August, 1657 to the French ambassador complained of the seizure of the
Speedwell and the sale of her cargo at Brest, and a second letter to him in October asked
for attention to a disputed claim over ownership of goods seized on the Maria (CPW
V.2, 791–2, 805–6). A letter of September 10 asks the Grand Duke of Tuscany to seize
the captain of The Little Lewis who stole what he contracted to transport for the Turks;
a later letter in December asks for the release of the man, ship, and merchandise (801–
2, 812–13), since the Turks’ claim has been satisfied. A fifth letter (October 22) to the
Doge and Senate of Venice asks help in obtaining the release of an English ship captain
seized by the Turks while fighting for Venice, and enslaved for five years (808–9).
Notes to Chapter 10