IV.

Grant of Letters of Administration to the widow Elizabeth'.

Die 25. Februarii 1678.

JOHANNES MILTON. Vicesimo quinto

Die Februarii emanavit Commissio
Elizabethæ Milton Relictæ Johannis ult. Julii.
Milton nuper Parochiæ Sancti Egidii
Cripplegate in Com. Mid. Defuncti,
hentis, &c. ad Administrand. bona,
jura, et credita dicti defuncti, de bene
&c. jurat, Testamento Nuncupativo
dict. defuncti : aliter per ante-dictam ult. Dec.
Elizabetham Milton Allegato, nondum
Probato.

GEORGE GOSTLING,
JAMES TOWNLEY,
ROBERT DODWELL,

DEPUTY REGISTERS.

The reader will compare these dow Elizabeth seized, and only evidences with the printed ac gave one hundred pounds to counts of Milton's biographers each of his three daughters. Of on this subject; who say, that this widow, Philips relates, rather he sold his library before his harshly, that she persecuted his death, and left his family fifteen children in his life time, and hundred pounds, which his wi- cheated them at his death.

These seem to have been the grounds upon which Milton's Nun. cupative Will was pronounced invalid. First, there was wanting what the Civil Law terms a rogatio testium, or a solemn bidding of the persons present, to take notice that the words he was going to deliver were to be his Will. The Civil Law requires this form, to make men's verbal declarations operate as Wills; otherwise, they are to be presumed to be words of common calling or loose conversation. And the Statute of the twenty-ninth of Charles the Second [c. iii.] has adopted this rule; as may be seen in the 19th clause of that Statute, usually called the Statuie of Frauds, which passed in the year 1676, two years after Milton's death. Secondly, the words here attested by the three witnesses, are not words delivered at the same time; but one witness speaks to one declaration made at one

time, and another to another declaration made at another time. And although the declarations are of similar import, this circumstanice will not satisfy the demands of the Law; which requires, that the three witnesses who are to support a Nuncupative Will, must speak to the identical words uttered at one and the same time. There is yet another requisite in Nuncupative Wills, which is not found here ; namely, that the words be delivered in the last sickness of a party: whereas the words here attested appear to have been delivered when the party was in a tolerable state of health, at least under no immediate danger of death. On these principles we may presume Sir Leoline Jenkins to bave acted in the rejection of Milton's Will: although the three witnesses apparently told the truth in what they deposed. The Judge, deciding against the Will, of course decreed administration of the Intestate's effects to the widow

For an investigation of these papers in the Prerogative Registry, for an explanation of their nature and purport, and of other technical difficulties which they present to one unacquainted with the records and more ancient practice of the Prerogative Court in testamentary proceedings, I must confess myself indebted to the kind attention and friendship of Sir William Scott.

There are other papers in the Commons belonging to this business: but as they are mere forms of law, as they throw no new light on the cause, and furnish no anecdotes of Milton and his family, they are here omitted.

IN

PARADISUM A MISSAM

SUMMI POETÆ

JOHANNIS MILTONI.

QUI legis Amissam Paradisum, grandia magni

Carmina Miltoni, quid nisi cuncta legis? Res cunctas, et cunctarum primordia rerum,

Et fata, et fines continet iste liber. Intima panduntur magni penetralia mundi,

Scribitur et toto quicquid in orbe latet: Terræque, tractusque maris, cælumque profundum,

Sulphureumque Erebi, flammivomumque specus: Quæque colunt terras, pontumque, et Tartara cæca,

Quæque colunt summi lucida regna poli:
Et quodcunque ullis conclusum est finibus usquam,

Et sine fine Chaos, et sine fine Deus:
Et sine fine magis, si quid magis est sine fine,

In Christo erga homines conciliatus amor.
Hæc qui speraret quis crederet esse futura?

Et tamen hæc hodie terra Britanna legit.
O quantos in bella duces! quæ protulit arma!

Quæ canit, et quanta prælia dira tuba!
Cælestes acies ! atque in certamine cælum!

Et quæ cælestes pugna deceret agros ! Quantus in æthereis tollit se Lucifer armis !

Atque ipso graditur vix Michaele minor!

Quantis, et quam funestis concurritur iris,

Dum ferus hic stellas protegit, ille rapit!
Dum vulsos montes ceu tela reciproca torquent,

Et non mortali desuper igne pluunt:
Stat dubius cui se parti concedat Olympus,

Et metuit pugnæ non superesse suæ.
At simul in cælis Messiæ insignia fulgent,

Et currus animes, armaque digna Deo,
Horrendumque rotæ strident, et sæva rotarum

Erumpunt torvis fulgura luminibus,
Et flammæ vibrant, et vera tonitrua rauco

Admistis flammis insonuere polo:
Excidit attonitis mens omnis, et impetus omnis,

Et cassis dextris irrita tela cadunt;
Ad

penas fugiunt, et ceu foret Orcus asylum, Infernis certant condere se tenebris. Cedite Romani Scriptores, cedite Graii, Et quos

fama recens vel celebravit anus. Hæc quicunque leget tantum cecinisse putabit

Mæonidem ranas, Virgilium culices.

SAMUEL BARROW, M. D.

WHEN I beheld the Poet blind, yet bold,
In slender book his vast design unfold,
Messiah crown'd, God's reconcild decree,
Rebelling Angels, the forbidden tree,
Heaven, Hell, Earth, Chaos, all; the argument
Held me a while misdoubting his intent,
That he would ruin (for I saw him strong)
The sacred truths to fable and old song,
(So Samson grop'd the temple's posts in spite,)
The world o'erwhelming to revenge his sight.

Yet as I read, still growing less severe,
I lik’d his project, the success did fear;
Through that wide field how he his way should find,
O'er which lame faith leads understanding blind;
Lest he perplex'd the things he would explain,
And what was easy he should render vain.

Or if a work so infinite he spann'd, Jealous I was that some less skilful hand (Such

as disquiet always what is well,
And by ill imitating would excel)
Might hence presume the whole creation's day
To change in scenes, and show it in a play.

Pardon me, mighty Poet, nor despise
My causeless, yet not impious, surmise.
But I am now convinc'd, and none will dare
Within thy labours to pretend a share.