esy, Schism, and Toleration, &c., was doubtless the last thing of his writing that was published before his death. He had, as I remember, prepared for the press an answer to some little scribing quack in London, who had written a scurrilous libel against him, but whether by the dissuasion of friends, as thinking him a fellow not worth his notice, or for whatever cause I know not, this answer was never published. He died in the year 1673, towards the latte end of the summer, and had a very decent interment according to his quality, in the church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, being attended from his house to the church by several gentlemen then in town, his principal well-wishers and admirers. He had three daughters, who survived him many years (and a son), all by his first wife (of whom sufficient mention hath been made). Anne, his eldest, as above said, and Mary, his second, who were both born at his house in Barbican; and Debora, the youngest, who is yet living, born at his house in Petty France, between whom and his second daughter, the son, named John, was born, as above mentioned, at his apartment in Scotland Yard. By his second wife, Catharine, the daughter of Captain Woodcock, of Hackney, he had only one daughter, of which the mother, the first year after her mariage, died in childbed, and the child also within a month after. By his third wife, Elizabeth, the daughter of one Mr. Minshal, of Cheshire (and kinswoman to Dr. Paget), who survived him, and is said To be yet living, he never had any child. And those he had by the first he made serviceable to him in that very particular in which he most wanted their service, and supplied his want of eyesight by their eyes and tongue: for though he had daily about him one or other to read to him, some person of man's estate, who of their own accord greedily catched at the opportunity of being his readers, that they might as well reap the benefit of what they read to him, as oblige him by the benefit of their reading; others, of younger years, sent by their parents to the same end; yet excusing only the eldest daughter by reason of her bodily infirmity and difficult utterance of speech (which, to say the truth, I doubt was the principal eause of excusing her), the other two were con demned to the performance of reading, and exactly pronouncing of all the languages of whatever book he should at one time or other think fit to peruse; viz., the Hebrew (and I think the Syriac), the Greek, the Latin, the Italian, Spanish, and French. All which sorts of books to be confined to read, without understanding one word, must needs be a trial of patience, almost beyond endurance; yet it was endured by both for a long time. Yet the irksomeness of this employment could not be always concealed, but broke out more and more into expressions of uneasiness; so that at length they were all (even the eldest also) sent out to learn some curious and ingenious sorts of manufacture, that are proper for women to learn, particularly embroideries in gold or silver. It had been happy indeed if the daughters of such a person had been made in some measure inheritrixes of their father's learning; but since fate otherwise decreed, the greatest honor that can be ascribed to this now living (and so would have been to the others had they lived), is to be daughter to a man of his extraordinary character. He is said to have died worth £1,500 in money, a considerable estate, all things considered, besides household goods; for he sustained such losses as might well have broke any person less frugal and temperate than himself. No less than £2,000, which he had put for security and improvement into the excise office; but neglecting to recall it in time, could never after get it out, with all the power and interest he had in the great ones of those times; besides another great sum, by mismanagement and want for of good advice. Thus I have reduced into form and order whatever I have been able to rally up, either from the recollection of my own memory, of things transacted while I was with him, or the information of others equally conversant afterwards, or from his own mouth, by frequent visits to the last. I shall conclude with two material passages, which, though they relate not immediately to our author, or his own particular concerns; yet in regard they happened during his public employ, and, consequently, fell more especially under his cognizance, it will not be amiss here to subjoin them. The first was this: Before the war broke forth between the states of England and the Dutch, the Hollanders sent over three ambassadors, in order to an accommodation, but they returning re infecta, the Dutch sent away a plenipotentiary to offer peace upon much milder terms, or at least to gain more time. But this plenipotentiary could not make such haste, but that the parliament had procured a copy of their instructions in Holland, which were delivered by our author to his kinsmen that was then with him, to translate for the council to view, before the said plenipotentiary had taken shipping for England: an answer to all he had in charge lay ready for him, before he made his public entry into London. In the next place, there came a person with a very sumptuous train, pretending himself an agent from the Prince of Conde, then in arms against Cardinal Mazarine: the parliament mistrusting him, set their instrument so busily at work, that in four or five days they had procured intelligence from Paris, that he was a spy from King Charles; whereupon, the very next morning, our author's kinsman was sent to him, with an order of council, commanding him to depart the kingdom within three days, or expect the punishment of a spy. By these two remarkable passages, we may clearly discover the Industry and good intelligence of those times. PARADISE LOST. BOOK I. THE ARGUMENT. This first book proposes, first, in brief, the whole subject, Man's disobedience, and the loss thereupon of Paradise, wherein he was placed: then touches the prime cause of his fall, the Serpent, or rather Satan in the serpent; who revolting from God, and drawing to his side many legions of Angels, was, by the command of God, driven out of Heaven, with all his crew, into the great deep. Which action passed over, the poem hastens into the midst of things, presenting Satan with his Angels now fallen into Hell, described here, not in the centre (for Heaven and Earth may be supposed as yet not made, certainly not yet accursed), but in a place of utter darkness, fitliest called Chaos: here Satan with his Angels lying on the burning lake, thunderstruck and astonished, after a certain space recovers, as from confusion, calls up him who next in order and dignity lay by him; they confer of their miserable fall. Satan awakens all his legions, who lay till then in the same manner confounded: they rise, their numbers, array of battle, their chief leaders named, according to the idols known afterwards in Canaan and the countries adjoining. To these Satan directs his speech, comforts them with hope yet of regaining Heaven, but tells them lastly of a new world and new kind of creature to be created, according to an ancient prophecy or report in Heaven; for that Angels were long before this visible creation, was the opinion of many ancient Fathers. To find out the truth of this prophecy, and what to determine thereon, he refers to a full council. What his associates thence attempt. Pandemonium, the palace of Satan, rises suddenly, built out of the deep: the infernal peers there sit in council. Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit Sing, heavenly Muse, that on the secret top That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed, Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook, that flow'd 12 Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song, And justify the ways of God to men. Say first, for Heaven hides nothing from thy view Nine times the space that measures day and night |