NOTES TO THE ESSAY ON MILTON. Page 1, line 7. office of Secretary. Milton was Latin secretary to the Commonwealth from 1649-1660. His duties were to carry on in Latin the diplomatic correspondence between England and foreign powers. 1, 8. the Popish Trials took place on the discovery of the feigned Popish Plot, invented by Titus Oates in 1678. The Rye-house Plot was a Whig conspiracy to kill Charles II. It was discovered in time to prevent the murder, and several persons implicated were put to death. 1, 10. Mr. Skinner: not Cyriac Skinner, to whom Milton addressed Sonnets xxi. and xxii., but his nephew, Daniel Skinner. After Milton's death he either took or sent the manuscript to Holland to have it published by Elzevir. The authorities interfered, however, and Elzevir gave up the manuscript to the Secretary of State, by whom it was pigeonholed until it was quite forgotten. See Garnett's Life, pp. 190-1. 2, 1. Wood and Toland. Anthony à Wood gives a life of Milton in his Athene Oxonienses, 1691. John Toland also published a life of Milton in 1698. 2, 9. the Oxford Parliament. Charles II. in 1681 summoned Parliament to meet at Oxford as an appeal to the country against the disloyalty of the capital. 2, 16. Mr. Sumner was Royal Librarian and Chaplain to George IV. 3, 10. Pharisees. Macaulay here means persons scrupulously careful of outward form, exactness and beauty. 3, 16. Quintilian: a famous Roman teacher of rhetoric (35-96 A.D.). The quotation is from Milton's Sonnet xi. 3, 21. Sir John Denham (1615–1669), in his elegy on the poet Abraham Cowley (1618-1667), says "Horace's wit, and Virgil's state, He did not steal, but emulate; And when he would like them appear, Their garb, but not their clothes, did wear." 4, 11. Arianism: the doctrines of Arius, an Alexandrian priest (4th century) who maintained that the Godhead consists of one eternal person, who in the beginning created, in his own image, a super-angelic being, his only begotten son by whom also he created the worlds. The first and greatest creature thus created through the Son of God, was the Holy Ghost. Arius thus denied the consubstantial nature of the persons of the Trinity. 4, 19-20. the eternity of matter, and . . . the Sabbath. "Matter is imperishable and eternal, because it is not only from God, but out of God." "The law of the Sabbath having been repealed, it is evident that no day of worship has been appointed in its place." 5, 4. Defensio Populi, "A Defense of the People of England," was a Latin prose work by Milton, written in justification of the execution of Charles I. 5, 16. Capuchins: an order of Franciscan monks, who received their name from the Capuche, or hood, which they wore. 7, 13-15. Johnson . . . clumsy ridicule. Dr. Samuel Johnson, an 18th century lawgiver in literary matters, very harshly criticised Milton's poetry. For instance, of Milton's beautiful Sonnet xxiii., he wrote:- "His wife died, and he honored her memory with a poor sonnet." Or of Lycidas: "The diction is harsh, the rhymes uncertain, the numbers unpleasing. Its form is that of a pastoral; easy, vulgar, and therefore disgusting.' See Johnson's Lives of the Poets. 9, 3. Mrs. Marcet (1769-1858) wrote a text-book for children entitled Conversations on Political Economy, and other educational works on Chemistry and Natural Philosophy. 9, 5. Montague and Walpole were both great financiers of the 18th century. Montague first advised the establishment of the Bank of England. 9, 8. Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was the foremost mathematician and natural philosopher of his time. Among his discoveries is the Law of Gravitation. 10, 16. The Earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713) was the author of numerous publications concerning the workings of the human mind. He argued that persons can discern right and wrong by an inward sense, just as they see outward objects with the eye. 10, 17. Helvetius: (1715-1771) a French philosopher, author of "De L'Esprit," a work in which he tries to prove that feeling is the source of intellectual activity, and that the chief spring of all human conduct is self-interest. 10, 23. Niobe: was a Greek mythological character, celebrated for her pride in her twelve children who were slain by Apollo, because Niobe had made a slighting comparison be tween them and the two children of Leto. She was herself afterwards turned into stone by Zeus. She is usually repre Aurora was the goddess of the dawn. sented as clothed in a rosy-yellow robe, with a star on her forehead and a torch in her right hand. 11, 5. Fable of the Bees, or Private Vices made Public Benefits, was a satire written by Bernard de Mandeville (1670– 1733). Its moral is that "luxury is the root of all civilization." 11, 22. the greatest of poets: i.e., Shakspere. The quotation is from Midsummer Night's Dream, Act V., Sc. i. 13, 22. The Greek Rhapsodists were traveling minstrels, or professional reciters of poetry. See Plato's Ion, pp. 535, 536. Plato (B.C. 429-347) a Greek philosopher. Macaulay probably alludes to the poets of the Lake school, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey. 15, 20. Rabbinical literature: literature composed by the Jewish Rabbis, and ranked by them as almost equal to that of the Bible. 16, 2. Petrarch. Francesca Petrarcha (1304-1374), an Italian lyric poet, best known for his Italian Sonnets, wrote among other things a Latin epic called Africa. He had little first hand knowledge of the classic authors, his Latin being chiefly mediæval. 16, 12. Augustan: the name applied to a period extending from a little before to a little after the reign of Augustus (B.C. 76–A.D. 4). During these years Rome reached her greatest eminence in art and literature. Ovid, Livy, Horace, and Virgil wrote during this period. 16, 23. Epistle to Manso: a poem in Latin hexameters, written by Milton to Manso, Marquis of Villa, who had entertained him when he visited Naples. 17, 10-13. 554. 18, 23. The quotation is from Paradise Lost, IV. 551– conductors. Macaulay means that Milton brings to the mind images and ideas through the medium of his words, as swiftly and as easily as a good conductor carries electricity from place to place. 20, 7. "Open Sesame." Sesame is kind of grain. See the tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves in the Arabian Nights. 20, 8. John Dryden (1631-1700), a master of English verse and a cogent reasoner in rhyme, wrote, among other works, an opera called the State of Innocence. With Milton's permission he inserted into it some verses manufactured out of Paradise Lost. The piece is full of absurdities of his unintentional burlesque of Milton, whose style he could not well imitate. 21, 6. lists: the field or ground inclosed for combats at tournaments. housings: trappings or ornaments, usually of cloth, put on horses. 21, 21. a stanza: Canto, in the first edition. 22, 1. lyric poems: those which especially describe the poet's own thoughts and feelings, as opposed to dramatic or to narrative poems. 22, 10. Lord Byron: (1788-1824), a celebrated English poet, the greatest of whose poems is Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. The dramas here referred to are Marino Faliero, Two Foscari, Manfred, Cain, and Werner. In all his plays, Byron depicted only one character, and that character was Byron |