Notes to Chapter 134 Masson, VI, 422–3. Evelyn’s Diary records that the king and “a world of Roman Catho-
lics” at court came to hear “this eloquent Protestant” (III, 311). In June, 1662 he was
suspended from his new pastorate at Charenton pending investigation of a complaint
against him.
35 LR IV, 371–4. See chapter 10, p. 351 and note 137. Richard H. Popkin in “The
Dispersion of Bodin’s Dialogues in England, Germany, and Holland,” Journal of the
History of Ideas 49 (1988), 157–60, notes that Milton’s friend Henry Oldenburg (then in
Paris) read Bodin’s work in the summer of 1659 and exchanged letters with Samuel
Hartlib about it, indicating his intention to have a copy made; it has not been found.
Hartlib’s letter of January 30, 1660 states that he had a copy but it was not his own.
36 Masson, VI, 221–8.
37 See chapter 9, p. 287 and note 48. Sikes probably consulted Milton about publishing
the sonnet but may simply have found it among Vane’s papers.
38 For example, in The Traytors Perspective-glass (London, 1662) the author “I. T.” listed
various punishments suffered by the regicides, among them Milton, who was “strucken
blind” immediately after he wrote his “seditious Antimonarchical Book against the
King” and his answer to “learned Salmasius” (21–2).
39 John Ward’s notes in BL Add Ms 4,320, fol. 232 report that comment from an inter-
view with Deborah shortly before her death in 1727; he repeated it in a letter to Tho-
mas Birch (February 10, 1738), who printed it in “An Historical and Critical Account
of the Life and Writings of Mr. John Milton” prefixed to his edition, A Complete Collec-
tion of the Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous Works of John Milton, 2 vols (London,
l738), I, lxii.
40 Ward’s letter of February 10, 1738 to Thomas Birch. See note 39.
41 EL 76–8. He explains that she was excused “by reason of her bodily Infirmity, and
difficult utterance of Speech, (which to say truth I doubt was the Principal cause of
excusing her).” Phillips’s “doubts” (suspects) that she was excused not for her lameness
but because her speech was difficult to understand.
42 Their signatures and Anne’s mark appear in legal documents settling their claims on
Milton’s estate (Milton family Mss in New York Public Library); see chapter 14, pp.
536–8. Aubrey heard from some source that “Deborah was his Amanuensis” (EL 2),
and Deborah reportedly made the same claim when she offered a presentation copy of
Paradise Lost to her friend Elizabeth Lord, dated June, 1727 (LR V, 321), but her title-
page inscription no longer survives. A public appeal made for her in 1727 notes that the
daughter of a man who is the “Boast and Glory of our English Poetry” is now reduced
to gain part of her slender support by teaching “poor Infants the first Elements of
Reading” (Mist’s Weekly Journal, no. 106, April 29, 1727), 1.
43 Birch, “Life,” I, lxii.
44 Stories recounted during the first half of the eighteenth century come from Milton’s
widow, his daughter Deborah (Clarke), and Deborah’s daughter Elizabeth Foster, who
were approached by editors and biographers seeking details of Milton’s life, and of
course wanted to oblige with something interesting. Sometimes those scholars offered
them presents of money or sought aid for them as Milton’s relicts.
45 Birch, “Life,” I, lxii.
46 Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Deposition Book, 1674, ff. 312–313v, cited in LR V,
222.
Notes to Chapter 12