to Dr. Ward, according to whom she said that they read eight languages to their father; yet what use he could have had for any but the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, and perhaps the French, we are unable to discern. She also, he said, could repeat the beginning of the Ilias, and of Ovid's Metamorphoses; yet surely Milton must have had these by heart himself. We may however suppose, that, when meditating on Paradise Lost, he may have had Ovid's account of creation frequently read for hin, and so these lines may have fixed themselves in his daughter's memory,-more especially as there is some reason for believing that she may have understood them; but we cannot see how she could have gotten the first lines of the Ilias by heart, for she certainly was ignorant of Greek. The learning to read Hebrew too, must have been a most irksome task. Finally, it is said, that in his uxoriousness he gave the whole of his property to his wife, leaving his children unprovided for. This, we believe, is the whole of the case against Milton. Let us now see what can be said on the other side. Mrs. Foster said that her grandfather would not let his daughters even learn to write. Now they must have known how to write, for their receipts are extant for the money paid them by their stepmother; and Aubrey positively asserts that Deborah Milton was her father's amanuensis. He adds, that her father "taught her Latin and to read Greek," by which he must have meant that she could read Latin with understanding, while she only knew the Greek characters. Deborah was probably one of the copyists of the pieces in the Cambridge MS., most of whom were females. Her own account to Dr. Ward was, that she and her sisters were "not sent to school, but taught at home by a mistress kept for that purpose,” which might seem to indicate that they had a resident governess, which would open to us a new feature in Milton's domestic economy in the interval between his second and his last marriage, and also explains the declaration ascribed to him, that he "had spent the greater part of his estate in providing for them;" in which he of course included the cost of having them taught embroidery, and the separate establishment which he seems to have maintained for them for the last four or five years of his life. It thus appears that Milton did not neglect the education of his children. They were probably taught as much, or rather more, as any young women in their rank of life at that time. The only remaining charge is, that he left his property away from them. The superior claims of his wife we will presently notice; here it is to be observed, that the two eldest had a genteel trade by which they could support themselves, and that Mrs. Merian had promised to provide for Deborah,-a promise which she seems to have performed. Their father left them beside his claim for their mother's fortune of £1000, which had never been paid him, and which their uncle Milton declared that he regarded as good money, as it was “in the hands of persons of ability, able to pay the same, being their grandmother and uncle; and he had seen the grandfather's will, wherein it is particularly directed to be paid unto them by his executors." It would therefore seem that Mr. Powell, when making his will, left, probably with Milton's assent, his daughter's fortune to the issue of her marriage; for only one child had been born when he died. If then they were left portionless, it was owing to the dishonesty of their grandmother and uncle, and not to the unkindness of their father. ELIZABETH MILTON. Milton's third and last wife was, as we have seen, Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. Randle Minshull, of Wistaston, near Nantwich, in the county of Chester,* to whom he was introduced by his friend Dr. Paget, who was related to the Minshull family. As it appears from the parish register of Wistaston that she was baptized on the 30th of December, 1638, she was probably born some time in that month, being about thirty years younger than her husband; he being in his fifty-sixth, she in her twenty-sixth year, when they were married in 1664. She was probably a handsome young woman at the time. Newton says that he was told by a gentleman who knew her in Cheshire, that her hair was of a golden hue,-a colour usually associated with some degree of personal beauty. He thinks that Milton had her in his mind's eye when drawing the portrait of his Eve; but that part of the poem must have been written some time before his marriage. Aubrey, who knew her personally, says she was "a genteel person, of a peaceful and agreeable humour." She appears to have had a high degree of respect and veneration for her husband, and to have made him an excellent wife, studying his comfort in every way. To reward her for her care, he left her what fortune he died possessed of. We have seen that he regarded his children as having no claim on him, being already provided for. But as his will was merely nuncupative and irregular, they disputed it after his death, and she was obliged to make a compromise with them, *See the pedigree of the Mynshull family given by Mr. Marsh, of Warrington, from the Cheshire Visitation of 1663-4, and the Lancashire Visitation of 1664–5, in Notes and Queries, vol. ix. P. 38. giving them £100 apiece.* She retired to her native county, where she survived her husband fifty-three years. She died in 1727, the same year as her stepdaughter Deborah, in the eighty-ninth year of her age. She was a member of the Baptist society. Hard things have been said of Mrs. Milton, but we doubt if with much foundation of truth. Mrs. Foster said that it was her ill-treatment made her mother go to Ireland with Mrs. Merian; but surely the prospect of residing in the house of a lady, of perhaps some fashion, with a promise of being provided for, may have been inducement enough for her taking this step, without the additional stimulus of ill-usage at home. Besides, it is very probable that Deborah was at that time living with her sisters, and not at her father's. Again, Phillips says of his uncle's wife that "she persecuted his children in his lifetime, and cheated them at his death." By this last assertion is meant of course that she induced him to make a will in her favour; but he knows little of Milton who suspects him of uxoriousness at any period of his life, and the vigour of his faculties remained unimpaired to the last. In this matter he acted, as we have seen, on the principles of justice, leaving his property to the person whom he deemed to have the highest claim on him. We are also to recollect that Phillips did not write till twenty years after his uncle's death, and that therefore his recollection of circumstances may not have been very accurate; and he may have adopted the prejudices of his cousins, and visited the iniquity of their mother's family on their father's widow. The last charge made against. Mrs. Milton is by Richardson, who says that she used frequently to teaze him for his carelessness and ignorance * See Note I. at end of this Part. about money-matters, and adds that she was a termagant. This however is totally opposed to the account of her given by Aubrey, who knew her; and we must confess we prefer his testimony to that of the lively painter, who then assures us that an offer was made of re-appointing her husband to the office of Latin Secretary, and that she urged him vehemently to accept of it, whereupon he made reply: "Thou art in the right. You, as other women, would ride in your coach; for me, my aim is to live and die an honest man." We do not regard this anecdote either as very probable, though office was of fered to Thurloe, Cromwell's secretary. EDWARD AND JOHN PHILLIPS. The last of Milton's family of whom it appears necessary to give an account are his two nephews, the sons of his sister Anne, Edward and John Phillips. As the former, who became his biographer, tells us that he himself was ten, and his brother nine years old when they went to live with their uncle in 1641, we may presume that the former was born in 1631, and the latter in 1632. He In March, 1648, Edward Phillips went to Magdalen College in Oxford. It is not certain whether he remained with his uncle up to that period or not; but as he says himself that he was five or six years with him, he may have left him a couple of years before that time. remained at Oxford till 1651, and then left it without having graduated. We hear nothing further of him till 1656, when he published an edition of the Poems of Drummond of Hawthornden, and a translation of Montalvo's pastoral romance, The Shepherd of Filidas, from the Spanish. Two years later we find him appearing as the author of a work which one might not have expected |
