'The Life of Mr. John Milton' (pp. i-xliv) serves as introduction to this little volume of State Papers. It is the first life of Milton. Edward Phillips (1630-96) was the son of Milton's sister, and was educated by him. Unfortunately he failed to take proper advantage of his great opportunity. The Life is valuable for some of its details, but as a whole it is disappointing; and it makes no attempt at characterization. The note on Milton in his Theatrum Poetarum, or a Compleat Collection of the Poets, 1675, is also disappointing.
59.
Explanatory Notes and Remarks on Milton's Paradise Lost. By J.
Richardson, Father and Son. With the Life of the Author, and a
Discourse on the Poem. By J.R. Sen. London: M.DCC.XXXIV. (pp. iii-v;
xciv; c; cxiv.)
Jonathan Richardson (1665-1745) was one of the chief portrait-painters of his time. There are portraits by him of Pope, Steele, and Prior—all now in the National Portrait Gallery; and his writings on painting were standard works till the time of Reynolds. His book on Milton was an excursion late in life, with the assistance of his son, into another field of criticism. His introductory life of Milton (pp. i-cxliii) is a substantial piece of work, and is valuable as containing several anecdotes that might otherwise have been lost. Those that bear on Milton's character are here reproduced. The typographical eccentricities have been preserved.
Page 194, ll. 28 ff. Edward Millington's place of business was 'at the
Pelican in Duck Lane' in 1670; from Michaelmas, 1671, it was 'at the
Bible in Little Britain' (see Arber's Term Catalogues, vol. i, pp.
31, 93). It was about 1680 that he turned auctioneer of books, though
he did not wholly abandon publishing. 'There was usually as much
Comedy in his "Once, Twice, Thrice", as can be met with in a modern
Play.' See the Life and Errors of John Dunton, ed. 1818, pp. 235-6.
He died at Cambridge in 1703.
Page 196, l. 4. Dr. Tancred Robinson (d. 1748), physician to George I, and knighted by him.
l. 10. Henry Bendish (d. 1740), son of Bridget Ireton or Bendish, Cromwell's granddaughter: see Letters of John Hughes, ed. John Duncombe, vol. ii (1773), pp. x, xlii.
l. 14. John Thurloe (1616-68), Secretary of State under Cromwell. Compare No. 38 note.
l. 25. 'Easy my unpremeditated verse', Paradise Lost, ix. 24.
60.