Notes to Chapter 1146 The classic biblical text is Joel 2:28: “I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your
sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young
men shall see visions.” Cf. John Smith, “Of Prophecy,” in Select Discourses (London,
1660).
Chapter 14 “To Try, and Teach the Erring Soul” 1669–16741 J. M., Accidence Commenc’t Grammar, Supply’d with sufficient Rules, For the use of such as,
Younger or Elder, are desirous, without more trouble then needs, to attain the Latin Tongue; the
elder sort especially, with little teaching, and thir own industry ( London, 1669). It was an-
nounced in the Term Catalogues I, 14, licensed June 28, 1669. The first issue lists only
Milton’s initials, the printer, S. Simmons (again), and his shop in Aldersgate Street; the
second issue gives the author’s full name and lists John Starkey in Fleetstreet as book-
seller.
2 See chapter 7, pp. 207–8.
3 Registers of St Nicholas, Ipswich, Suffolk, ed. Edward Cookson (London, 1897), 154;
LR IV, 450.
4 John Aubrey, at that point a member of the Royal Society, observed that Milton was
visited by the learned, “more then he did desire” (EL 6).
5 Both Anthony à Wood and Cyriack Skinner report the incident (EL 41, 31).
6 Wood, IV, 182–3. Masson, VI, 640, speculates that the officer of state who accompa-
nied Anglesey may have been the Lord Keeper, Sir Orlando Bridgman.
7 John Eachard, The Grounds & Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy and Religion (Lon-
don, 1670), sigs A 4v–A 5. Also, a much revised second edition of Roger L’Estrange’s
Toleration Discuss’d (London, 1670), 64–5, renews the attack on Milton’s Tenure.
8 Edward Phillips, “Compendiosa Enumeratio Poetarum,” in John Buchler’s Sacrarum
Prophanarumque Phrasium Poeticarum Thesaurus, 17th edn (London, 1669), 399. The Term
Catalogues (I, 40) include the book with those published in Easter term, 1670.
9 The first edition carried the endorsement “Licensed, July 2, 1670.” The registration by
John Starkey names Tomkyns as licenser: “Entred... under the hands of Master THO.
TOMKYNS and Master Warden ROPER a copie or booke intituled Paradise regayn’d;
A Poem in 4 Bookes. the Author, John Milton. To which is added Samson Agonistes, A
drammadic Poem, by the same Author” (SR II, 415.) The first issue bears the title page
“Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is added Samson Agonistes. The author,
John Milton. London: Printed by J. M. for John Starkey, at the Miter in Fleetstreet,
1671.” The printer is probably John Macock. Samson Agonistes has its own title page:
“Samson Agonistes, A Dramatic Poem”; author, printer, bookseller, and date are repeated
in the same form. My citations are from this first edition.
10 See chapter 13, pp. 450–1. Phillips also misdated the publication of Paradise Lost as
1666, not 1667.
11 Parker, I, 313–22; II, 903–17, argues that the poem was written in 1647, and possibly
completed in 1652–3, citing the occasional use of rhyme which Milton rejects in his
epics, and some analogues with his prose tracts of the war years. But the argument
about rhyme is beside the point in a work whose metrics are unlike anything else
Milton wrote. Michael Lieb, Milton and the Culture of Violence ( Ithaca, NY, 1994), 226–
Notes to Chapter 13–14