[64] This marriage took place on February 24, 1662-63, the age of the bride being twenty-five, and Milton in his fifty-fifth year.
[65] Vondel, b. 1587 (at Cologne); d. 1679. He was the author of many dramatic pieces, among which were “Jephtha,” “Marie Stuart,” “Lucifer” (Luisevaar). Vondel also wrote “Adam in Exile,” and “Samson, or Divine Vengeance.” This latter, according to a writer in The Athenæum of November 7, 1885, has suspicious points of resemblance with “Samson Agonistes.”
Other allied topics of interest are discussed in same journal’s notice of George Edmundson’s book on the Milton and Vondel question (Trübner & Co., London, 1885).
Vondel survived the production of his “Lucifer” by a quarter of a century, and died five years after Milton.
[66] Avitus was Bishop of Vienne (succeeding his father and grandfather) about 490. His poem, “De Initio Mundi,” was in Latin hexameters. See interesting account of same in The Atlantic Monthly for January, 1890.
[67] The cottage is a half-timber, gable fronted building, and has Milton’s name inscribed over the door. The village is reached by a branch of the L. & N. W. R. R. American visitors will also look with interest at the burial place of William Penn, who lies in a “place of graves” behind the Friends’ Meeting House—a mile and a half only from Chalfont Church.
[68] The terms were £5 down; another £5 after sale of 1,300 copies, and two equal sums on further sale of two other editions of same number. The family actually compounded for £18, before the third edition was entirely sold.
[69] Carew, b. about 1589; d. 1639; full of lyrical arts and of brazen sensuality. Lovelace, b. 1618; d. 1658; a careless master of song, whom wealth and royal favor did not save from a death of want and despair.
[70] George Villiers, b. 1627; d. 1688.
[71] Earl of Rochester (John Wilmot), b. 1647; d. 1680.