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MILTON 

AREOPAGITICA 
JOHN  W.  HALES 


MILTON 

AREOPAGITICA 


EDITED 


WITH    INTRODUCTION    AND    NOTES 


BY 


JOHN  W.  HALES,  M.A. 

Professor  of  Enslish  Language  and  Literature  at  icing's  College,  LovUo>ti\  '  / 

Formerly  Fellow  and  Assistant  Tutor  of  Christ s  College,  Cambridge  ; 

Harnsttr-at-Law  of  Lincoln's  Inn  ;       Editor  of '  Longer  Knglish  Poems ': 

Co-Editor  of  the  *  London  Series  of  English  Classics',  &-c. 


\,-. 

c 


OXFORD 
AT   THE  CLARENDON   PRESS 


657 


Ocf. 


X 


OXFORD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

AMEN    HOUSE,    E.C.  4 

LONDON    EDINBURGH   GLASGOW 

LEIPZIG    NEWYORK   TORONTO 

MELBOURNE  CAPETOWN   BOMBAY 

CALCUTTA   MADRAS   SHANGHAI 

HUMPHREY  MILFORD 

PUBLISHER   TO   THE 
UNIVERSITY 


Impression  of  1932 
First  edition,  187 S 

Printed  in  Great  Britain 


INTRODUCTION. 


SECTION  I.     THE  YEAR  (1644). 

Of  the  circumstances  under  which  the  Areopagitica  was 
written,  Milton  has  himself  given  an  account  in  his  Second 
Defence  of  the  People  of  England  (Defensio  Secunda  pro  Populo 
Anglicajio  contra  infamem  libelluin  ajionynmin  cui  titulus  Regii 
Sanguinis  Clafjior  ad  Ccelum  adversiis  Parricidas  Anglicanos). 
In  that  work,  to  refute  fully  the  calumnies  heaped  on  his  name 
by  his  enemy,  he  gives  a  rapid  sketch  of  his  past  life.  After 
speaking  of  his  earlier  days,  he  mentions  his  travels  abroad,  and 
then  how,  coming  home,  he  was  drawn  into  the  great  struggle 
that  he  found  prevailing,  or  beginning  to  prevail. 

*  Then  pursuing  my  former  route  through  France  I  returned 
to  my  native  country,  after  an  absence  of  one  year  and  about 
three  months,  at  the  time  when  Charles,  having  broken  the 
peace,  was  renewing  what  Js  called  the  episcopal  war  with  the 
Scots,  in  which  the  Royalists  being  routed  in  the  first  encounter, 
and  the  English  being  universally  and  justly  disaffected,  the 
necessity  of  his  affairs  at  last  obliged  him  to  convene  a  parlia- 
ment. As  soon  as  I  was  able  I  hired  a  spacious  house  in  the 
city,  for  myself  and  my  books  ;  where  I  again,  with  rapture, 
resumed  my  literary  pursuits,  and  where  I  calmly  awaited  the 
issue  of  the  contest,  which  I  trusted  to  the  wise  conduct  of 
Providence,  and  to  the  courage  of  the  people.  The  vigour  of 
the  Parliament  had  begun  to  humble  the  pride  of  the  bishops. 
As  long  as  the  liberty  of  speech  was  no  longer  subject  to  con- 
trol, all  mouths  began  to  be  opened  against  the  bishops.  They 
said  that  it  was  unjust  that  they  alone  should  differ  from  the 
model  of  other  Reformed  Churches  ;  that  the  government  of  J 
the  Church  should  be  according  to  the  pattern  of  other  churches,  | 
and  particularly  the  word  of  God.  This  awakened  all  my  at- ; 
tention  and  my  zeal.  I  saw  that  a  way  was  opening  for  the 
establishment  of  real  liberty;  that  the  foundation  was  laying 
for  the  deliverance  of  man  from  the  yoke  of  slavery  and  super- 
stition ;    that  the  principles  of  religion,  which  were  the  first 


vi  INTRODUCTION. 

objects  of  our  care,  would  exert  a  salutary  influence  on  the 
manners  and  constitution  of  the  republic.  And  as  I  had  from 
my  youth  studied  the  distinctions  between  religious  and  civil 
rights,  1  perceived  that,  if  ever  I  wished  to  be  of  use,  I  ought  at 
least  not  to  be  wanting  to  my  country,  to  the  Church,  and  to  so 
many  of  my  fellow-Christians,  in  a  crisis  of  so  much  danger.  I 
therefore  determined  to  relinquish  the  other  pursuits  in  which 
I  was  engaged,  and  to  transfer  the  whole  force  of  my  talents  and 
my  industry  to  this  one  important  object.  I  accordingly  wrote 
two  books  to  a  friend  concerning  the  Reformation  of  the  Church 
of  England.  Afterwards  when  two  bishops  of  superior  dis- 
tinction vindicated  their  privileges  against  some  principal 
ministers,  I  thought  that  on  those  topics,  to  the  consideration 
of  which  I  was  led  solely  by  my  love  of  truth  and  my  reverence 
for  Christianity,  I  should  not  probably  write  worse  than  those 
who  were  contending  only  for  their  own  emoluments  and  usurp- 
ations. I  therefore  answered  the  one  in  two  books,  of  which 
the  first  is  inscribed  '  Concerning  Prelatical  Episcopacy,'  and 
the  other  'Concerning  the  Mode  of  Ecclesiastical  Government' ; 
and  I  replied  to  the  other  in  some  animadversions,  and  soon 
after  in  an  apology.  On  this  occasion  it  was  supposed  that  I 
brought  a  timely  succour  to  the  ministers,  who  were  hardly  a 
match  for  the  eloquence  of  their  opponents,  and  from  that  time 
I  was  actively  employed  in  refuting  any  answers  that  appeared. 
When  the  bishops  could  no  longer  resist  the  multitude  of  their 
assailants,  I  had  leisure  to  turn  my  thoughts  to  other  subjects  ; 
to  the  promotion  of  real  and  substantial  liberty,  which  is  rather 
to  be  sought  from  within  than  from  without ;  and  whose 
existence  depends,  not  so  much  on  the  terror  of  the  sword 
as  on  sobriety  of  conduct  and  integrity  of  life.  When,  therefore, 
I  perceived  that  there  were  three  species  of  liberty  which  are 
essential  to  the  happiness  oX&Qcial  life-^iellgious,  domestic,  and 
civil  ;  and  as  I  had  ah-eady  written  concerning  the  first,  and  the 
magistrates  were  strenuously  active  in  obtaining  the  third,  I 
determined  to  turn  my  attention  to  the  second,  or  the  domestic 
species.  As  they  seemed  to  involve  three  material  questions — 
the  conditions  of  the  conjugal  tie,  the  education  of  children,  and 
the  free  publications  of  the  thoughts — I  made  them  objects  of 
distinct  consideration.  I  explained  my  sentiments,  not  only 
concerning  the  solemnization  of  matrimony,  but  the  dissolution, 
if  circumstances  rendered  it  necessary,  and  I  drew  my  argu- 
ments from  the  divine  law,  which  Christ  did  not  abolish,  or 
publish  another  more  grievous  than  that  of  Moses.  I  stated 
my  own  opinions,  and  those  of  others,  concerning  the  exclusive 
exception  of  fornication,  which  our  illustrious  Selden  has  since, 


INTRODUCTION.      .  .  vii 

in  his  "  Hebrew  Wife,"  more  copiously  discussed  ;  for  he,  in 
vain,  makes  a  vaunt  of  liberty  in  the  senate,  or  in  the  forum, 
who  languishes  under  the  vilest  servitude  to  an  inferior  at 
home.  On  this  subject,  therefore,  I  published  some  books, 
which  were  more  particularly  necessary  at  that  time,  when  man 
and  wife  were  often  the  most  inveterate  foes  ;  when  the  man 
often  staid  to  take  care  of  his  children  at  home,  while  the 
mother  of  the  family  was  seen  in  the  camp  of  the  enemy, 
threatening  death  and  destruction  to  her  husband.  I  then  dis- 
cussed the  principles  of  education  in  a  summary  manner,  but 
sufficiently  copious  for  those  who  attend  seriously  to  the  subject, 
than  which  nothing  can  be  more  necessary  to  principle  the 
minds  of  men  in  virtue,  the  only  genuine  source  of  political  and 
individual  liberty,  the  only  true  safeguard  of  states,  the  bulwark 
of  their  prosperity  and  renown.  Lastly,  I  wrote  my  "  Areopa-  / 
gitica"  after  the  true  Attic  style,  in  order  to  deHver  the  press  /  / 
from  the  restraints  with  which  it  was  encumbered  ;  that  the  ' 
power  of  determining  what  was  true  and  what  was  false,  what 
ought  to  be  published  and  what  to  be  Suppressed,  might  no 
longer  be  entrusted  to  a  few  illiterate  and  illiberal  individuals, 
who  refused  their  sanction  to  any  work  which  contained  views 
or  sentiments  at  all  above  the  level  of  the  vulgar  superstition. 
On  the  last  species  of  civil  liberty  I  said  nothing,  because  I  saw 
that  sufficient  attention  was  paid  to  it  by  the  magistrates  ;  nor 
did  I  write  anything  on  the  prerogative  of  the  Crown  till  the  \ 
King,  voted  an  enemy  by  the  parliament,  and  vanquished  in 
the  field,  was  summoned  before  the  tribunal  which  condemned 
him  to  lose  his  head\' 

Such  is  the  account  Milton  himself  gives  of  his  writings  just 
before  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  and  during  the  continuance 
of  it.  The  order  of  them  is  not  indeed  minutely  accurate  ;  for 
the  '  some  books '  on  the  subject  of  divorce  were  not  all  pub- 
lished before  he  proceeded  to  the  questions  of  Education  and 
Unlicensed  Printing ;  but  it  probably  represents  precisely 
enough  the  succession  in  which  the  various  subjects  discussed 
engaged  his  attention.  The  year  of  his  life  that  especially 
concerns  us  here  is  1644.  It  was  in  the  November  of  that 
year  that  the  Areopagitica  was  published.  Besides  this  master- 
piece, there  appeared  also  these  other  works  : — In  February,  a 
second  edition  of  his  first  Divorce  treatise  (The  Doctrine  and 

*  See  Milton's  Prose  Works,  the  odc-volume  edition,  pp.  934,  935.  For 
the  original  Latin,  see  ibid.  pp.  719,  720. 


viii-  INTRODUCTIOISr, 

Discipline  of  Divorce  restored  to  the  good  of  both  sexes  from 
the  bondage  of  Canon  Law  and  other  Mistakes  to  the  true 
meaning  of  Scripture  in  the  Law  and  Gospel  compared,  where- 
in also  are  set  down  the  bad  consequences  of  abolishing  or 
condemning  as  sin  that  which  the  law  of  God  allows  and 
Christ  abolished  not) ;  in  June,  his  tractate  Of  Education  to 
Master  Samuel  Hartlib  ;  in  July,  his  Second  Divorce  Book 
(The  Judgment  of  Martin  Bucer  concerning  Divorce,  written 
to  Edward  the  Sixth  in  his  second  book  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Christ,  and  now  Englished  ;  wherein  a  late  book  restoring  the 
Doctrine  and  Discipline  of  Divorce  is  here  confirmed  and 
justified  by  the  authority  of  Martin  Bucer).  So  that  the  year 
1644  was  one  of  memorable  activity  in  Milton's  life. 

This  activity,  it  will  have  been  noticed,  was  all  in  the  direc- 
tion of  certain  social  and  other  reforms.  It  was  all,  as  Milton 
himself  puts  it,  in  bebalf  of  '  liberty ' — of  the  '  domestic  species  ' 
of  '  liberty.'  *  Liberty's  defence  '  was  always  his  '  noble  task ' ; 
and  there  was  never  a  time  in  his  career  when  he  strove  with 
more  fervent  hope,  or  more  brilliant  skill,  to  secure  for  his  age 
the  freedom  without  which,  as  it  seemed  to  him,  life  was 
cramped  and  starved,  and  the  world  a  mere  prison.  In  the 
interest  of  this  great  cause  he  had  abandoned  for  a  while  those 
high  studies  to  which  his  previous  years  had  been  devoted.    Of 

is  poetical  writings  only  a  few  sonnets  belong  to  this  period 
3f  his  life.  '  God,  by  His  secretary  Conscience,'  enjoined  a  far 
iifferent  '  service,'  and  '  it  were  sad  for  me  if  I  should  draw 
jack.' 

JThis  particular  year  formed  a  crijis  in  Milton's  life.  It  wit- 
nessed the  culmination  of  his  hopefulness.  •  There  is  especially 
noticeable  in  the  Areopagitica  a  certam  sanguineness  and  an- 
ticipation, which  subsequent  events  were  bitterly  to  reprove. 
In  fact  Milton  was  yet  but  faintly  conscious  of  the  immense 
discrepancies  between  his  age  and  himself.  To  him,  when  the 
Long  Parliament  met  in  the  autumn  of  1640,  it  had  seemed 
that  a  new  day  was  dawning  for  England  and  for  mankind. 

*  The  world's  great  age  begins  anew, 
The  golden  years  return.* 

And  he  had  hailed  with  a  profound  exultation  the  opening  acts 


/ 

'  INTRODUCTION.        -  ix 

ot  that  great  assembly.  When  the  Star  Chamber  and  its 
kindred  iniquities  were  suppressed,  it  seemed  once  more 
possible  to  breathe,  and  hopes  sprang  up  in  him  of  a  new 
and  perfecter  reformation.  This  confidence  appeared  justified 
by  the  fall  of  the  bishops,  who  had  identified  themselves  with 
what  was  held  to  be  the  cause  of  tyranny.  Surely  there  was 
now  at  hand  a  splendid  regeneration.  As  one  thinks  of  Milton 
in  those  hours  of  elation,  there  rises  before  the  mind  the  image 
of  another  poet,  whose  experience  was  strangely  similar.  Words- 
worth, on  the  tiptoe  of  expectation  at  the  beginning  of  the 
French  Revolution,  reminds  one  sadly  of  Milton  just  a  century 
and  a  half  before. 

•  Oh !    pleasant  exercise  of  hope  and  joy. 
For  m'ghty  were  the  auxiliars  which  then  stood 
Upon  our  side,  we  who   were  strong  in  love  1 
Bliss  was  it  in  that  dawn  to  be  alive, 
But  to  be  young  was  very  heaven  1    Oh  !    times 
In  which  the  meagre,  stale,  forbidden  ways 
Of  custom,  law,  and  statute  took  at  once 
The  attraction  of  a  country  in  romance  I 
When  Reason  seemed  the  most  to  assert  her  rights. 
When  most  intent  on  making  of  herself 
A  prime  Enchantress — to  assist  the  work 
Which  then  was  going  forward  in  her  name.' 

The  Areopagitica  reflects  Milton  still  sanguine  and  confident. 
It  is  true  that,  as  we  shall  see,  the  work  in  fact  originated  from 
what  might  well  have  taught  the  writer  that  his  dreams  of  a 
complete  emancipation  were  not  to  be  realised  ;  but  Milton 
could  not  recognise  this  conclusion,  so  'lame  and  impotent.' 
He  could  not  yet  bring  himself  to  believe  that  the  dawn,  whose 
rising  he  had  greeted  with  such  joy,  was  presently  to  be  over- 
cast— that  the  sun  was  not  to  rise  higher,  but  to  be  stayed  in  its 
bright  course,  as  by  some  malignant  Joshua,  and  presently 
blurred  and  obscured  with  mist  and  fog.  As  we  see  him  in 
this  Speech  to  the  Parliament  of  England  he  is  filled  with  pride 
and  with  hope.  No  nobler  panegyric  has  been  pronounced  on 
our  country  than  that  he  here  pronounces  with  his  richest 
eloquence  : — 

'  Lords  and  Commons  of  England,  consider  what  Nation  it  is 
wherof  ye  are  the  governours :  a  Nation  not  slow  and  dull,  but 


t 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

of  a  quick,  ingenious,  and  piercing  spirit,  acute  to  invent,  subtle 
and  sinewy  to  discours,  not  beneath  the  reach  of  any  point  the 
highest  that  human  capacity  can  soar  to.  Therefore  the  studies 
of  learning,  in  her  deepest  sciences,  have  bin  so  ancient  and 
so  eminent  among  us  that  writers  of  good  antiquity  and  ablest 
judgement  have  bin  perswaded  that  ev'n  the  school  of  Py- 
thagoras, and  the  Persian  wisdom,  took  beginning  from  the  old 
Philosophy  of  this  Hand.  And  that  wise  and  civill  Roman  Julius 
Agricola,  who  govem'd  once  here  for  Caesar,  preferr'd  the 
naturall  wits  of  Britain  before  the  labour'd  studies  of  the  French. 
Nor  is  for  nothing  that  the  grave  and  frugal  Transilvanian  sends 
out  yearly  from  as  farre  as  the  mountanous  borders  of  Russia, 
and  beyond  the  Hercynian  wildernes,  not  their  youth,  but  their 
stay'd  men,  to  learn  our  language  and  our  theologic  arts.  Yet 
that  which  is  above  all  this,  the  favour  and  the  love  of  heav'n, 
we  have  great  argument  to  think  in  a  peculiar  manner  propitious 
and  propending  towards  us.  Why  else  was  this  Nation  chos'n 
before  any  other  that  out  of  her,  as  out  of  Sion,  should  be 
proclaim'd  and  sounded  forth  the  first  tidings  and  trumpet  of 
Reformation  to  all  Europ  ?  .  .  .  .  Behold  now  this  vast  city  ; 
a  city  of  refuge,  the  mansion  house  of  liberty,  encompast  and 
surrounded  with  his  protection  ;  the  shop  of  warre  hath  not  there 
more  anvils  and  hammers  making,  to  fashion  out  the  plates  and 
instruments  of  armed  Justice,  in  defence  of  beleaguer'd  Truth, 
than  there  be  pens  and  heads  there,  sitting  by  their  studious 
camps,  musing,  searching,  revolving  new  notions  and  idea's 
wherewith  to  present,  as  with  their  homage  and  their  fealty,  the 
approaching  Reformation  ;  others  as  fast  reading,  trying  all 
things,  assenting  to  the  force  of  reason  and  convincement. 
What  could  a  man  require  more  from  a  Nation  so  pliant  and 
so  prone  to  seek  after  knowledge  t  What  wants  there  to  such 
a  towardly  and  pregnant  soile,  but  wise  and  faithfull  labourers, 
to  make  a  knowing  people — a  Nation  of  Prophets,  of  Sages,  and 
of  Worthies  ?' 

It  must  be  remembered  that  in  this  year,  1644,  the  Par- 
liamentary cause  had  achieved  triumphs  that  left  little  room  for 
doubt  as  to  what  would  be  the  issue  of  the  war.  The  Scots  had 
entered  England  in  January.  In  the  summer  the  Earl  of  Essex 
had  advanced  westward  into  Cornwall.  July  had  brought  the 
utter  defeat  of  Prince  Rupert  at  Marston  Moor.  A  gleam  of 
light  was,  it  is  true,  thrown  on  the  Royal  banner  by  the  rising  of 
Montrose,  in  the  autumn  ;  and  in  England  the  King's  side  had 
not  been  without  its  successes,  of  which  the  most  important  was 


INTRODUCTION.  -  XI 

the  dispersion  of  Essex's  army  in  September  ;  but,  on  the  whole, 
the  Parliament  had  gained  strength  and  confidence,  and  the 
fortune  of  their  opponents  was  becoming  highly  dubious,  if  not 
quite  desperate.  In  the  very  November  in  which  the  Areopa- 
giiica  was  published  the  *  New  Model '  of  the  army  was  pro- 
posed, for  there  were  arising  into  note  men  resolved  to  prose- 
cute the  war  with  a  dispatch  and  an  energy  not  yet  conceived. 
Clearly  Milton  was  troubled  by  no  misgivings  as  to  the  event 
of  this  military  conflict.  His  mind  had  passed  away  from  it 
into  other  fields,  and  he  thought  himself  at  leisure  to  open  a 
spiritual  campaign. 

In  strange  contrast  with  the  buoyancy  and  pride  of  the 
Aregpagitica  is  the  tone^oTcertarnTater  writings.  Th5_iiigh 
expectations  he  had  cherished  were  to  be  disappointed.  It  was 
to  be  his  sad  lot  to  discover  that  the  overthrowefs  of  tyranny 
might  themselves  prove  tyrants. 

'  New  foes  arise  ' 

Threatening  to  bind  our  souls  with  secular  chains.' 

The  Presbyterians  were  presently  to  display  an  intolerance  not 
exceeded  by  the  Episcopalians  whom  they  had  displaced  : 

'New  presbyter  is  but  old  priest  writ  large.* 
And  it  was  to  prove  impossible  to  reconstruct  a  new  political 
order  which  should  be  not  dependent  on  the  strength  and 
wisdom  of  a  great  dictator,  and  so  tottering  to  its  fall  the  instant 
he  was  removed,  but,  in  itself,  strong,  and  stable,  and  enduring. 
The  age  was  to  be  found  unequal  to  the  maintenance,  or  rather 
the  attainment,  of  the  ideal  entertained  by  Milton's  lofty  spirit. 
*  Bondage  with  ease'  was  to  be  dearer  than  '  strenuous  liberty.' 
One  jnay  easily  believe  thit  Milton  expected  too  much  ;  that 
he  misinterpreted  the  signs  of  the  times  ;  that  he  too  readily 
supposed  others  to  be  actuated  by  the  same  high-minde4ness 
and  pure  enthusiasm  that  moved  himself ;  but  the  discovery  of 
his  misapprehensions  must  have  been  none  the  less  afflicting  ; 
and  with  a  lesser  nature  would  have  ended  in  mere  disgust 
and  contempt  for  his  race.  As  it  was,  though  some  bitter  words 
escaped  him,  he  did  not  argue 

*  Against  Heaven's  hand  or  will,  nor  bate  a  jot 
Of  heart  or  hope ;   but  still '  bore  up  and  steered 
•  Right  onward;* 


xii  INTR  OD  UCTION. 

He  was  not  left  comfortless. 

*  Thou  hast  great  allies  ; 
Thy  friends  are  exultations,  agonies, 

And  love,  and  man's  unconquerable  mind.* 

And  the  difference  just  mentioned  between  his  earlier  and  his 
later  political  writings  appears  not  in  any  growing  predominance 
of  scorn  and  of  satire,  but  in  a  certain  enforced  sobriety  of 
expectation.  He  is  prepared  for  the  worst  rather  than  sanguine 
of  the  best.  If  we  remember  what  his  dreams  had  been,  and 
what  were  the  realities  he  saw,  there  is  a  profound  ^pathos  in 
these  following  words  of  his,  uttered  just  before  the  Restoration. 
When  he  wrote  them,  he,  like  his  Samson,  was  not  *  in  the  list 
of  them  that  hope ' ;  but,  when  he  wrote  the  Areopagitica^  he 
felt  himself  called  to  be  a  '  great  deliverer,'  Heaven's  '  nursling 
and  choice  delight,'  led  on 

*  To  mightiest  deeds 
Above  the  nerve  of  mortal  arm. 
Against  the  Unciicumcised,  our  enemies,* 

The  passage  now  to  be  quoted  forms  the  conclusion  of  *  The 
Ready  and  Easy  Way  to  Establish  a  Free  Commonwealth,  and 
the  excellence  thereof,  compared  with  the  inconveniences  and 
dangers  of  readmitting  Kingship  in  this  Nation,'  published  in 
1660  :— 

*  I  have  no  more  to  say  at  present ;  few  words  will  save  us,  well 
considered  ;  few  and  easy  things  now  seasonably  done.  But  if 
the  people  be  so  affected  as  to  prostitute  religion  and  liberty  to 
the  vain  and  groundless  apprehension  that  nothing  but  kingship 
can  restore  trade,  not  remembering  the  frequent  plagues  and 
pestilences  that  then  wasted  this  city,  such  as,  through  God's 
mercy,  we  never  have  felt  since  ;  and  that  trade  flourishes  no- 
where more  than  in  the  free  commonwealths  of  Italy,  Germany, 
and  the  Low  Countries,  before  their  eyes  at  this  day  ;  yet  if  trade 
be  grown  so  craving  and  importunate,  through  the  profuse  living 
of  tradesmen,  that  nothing  can  support  it  but  the  luxurious  ex- 
penses of  a  nation  upon  trifles  or  superfluities  ;  so  as  if  the  people 
generally  should  betake  themselves  to  frugality  it  might  prove 
a  dangerous  matter,  lest  tradesmen  should  mutiny  for  want  of 
trading  ;  and  that,  therefore,  we  must  forego  and  set  to  sale  re- 
ligion, liberty,  honour,  safety,  all  concernments  divine  or  human, 
to  keep  up  trading ;  if,  lastly,  after  all  this  light  among  us  the 


INTRODUCTION.  ,  viii 

same  reason  shall  pass  for  current  to  put  our  necks  again 
under  kingship,  as  was  made  use  of  by  the  Jews  to  return 
back  to  Egypt,  and  to  the  worship  of  their  idol  queen, 
because  they  falsely  imagined  that  they  then  lived  in  more 
plenty  and  prosperity  ;  our  condition  is  not  sound  but  rotten, 
both  in  religion  and  all  civil  prudence;  and  will  bring  us 
soon  the  way  we  are  marching  to  those  calamities  which 
attend  always  and  unavoidably  on  luxury,  all  national  judg- 
ments under  foreign  and  domestic  slavery,  so  far  we  shall 
be  from  mending  our  condition  by  monarchising  our  govern- 
ment whatever  new  conceit  now  possesses  us.  However,  with 
all  hazard,  I  have  ventured  what  I  thought  my  duty  to  speak 
in  season,  and  to  forewarn  my  country  in  time  ;  wherein  I 
doubt  not  but  there  be  many  wise  in  all  places  and  degrees, 
but  am  sorry  the  effects  of  wisdom  are  so  little  seen  among  us. 
Many  circumstances  and  particulars  I  could  have  added  in 
those  things  whereof  I  have  spoken,  but  a  few  main  matters 
now  put  speedily  in  execution  will  suffice  to  recover  us  and  set 
all  right ;  and  there  will  want  at  no  time  who  are  good  at 
circumstances,  but  men  who  set  their  minds  on  main  matters, 
and  sufficiently  urge  them  in  these  most  difficult  times,  I  find 
not  many.  What  I  have  spoken  is  the  language  of  that  which 
is  not  called  amiss  "  The  Good  old  Cause" ;  if  it  seem  strange 
to  any,  it  will  not  seem  more  strange,  I  hope,  than  convincing  to 
backsliders.  Thus  much  I  should  perhaps  have  said,  though  1 
were  sure  I  should  have  spoken  only  to  trees  and  stones  ;  and 
had  none  to  cry  to  but  with  the  prophet  "O  earth,  earth,  earth  !" 
to  tell  the  very  soil  itself  what  her  perverse  inhabitants  are  deaf 
to.  Nay,  though  what  I  have  spoke  should  happen  (which  thou 
suffer  not,  who  did'st  create  mankind  free  !  Nor  thou  next,  who 
did'st  redeem  us  from  being  servants  of  men,)  to  be  the  last 
words  of  our  expiring  liberty.  But  I  trust  I  shall  have  spoken 
persuasion  to  abundance  of  sensible  and  ingenuous  men  ;  to 
some,  perhaps,  whom  God  may  raise  from  these  stones  to  be- 
come children  of  reviving  liberty  ;  and  may  reclaim  though  they 
seem  now  choosing  them  a  captain  back  for  Egypt,  to  bethink 
themselves  a  little,  and  consider  whither  they  are  rushing  ;  to 
exhort  this  torrent  also  of  the  people  not  to  be  so  impetuous, 
but  to  keep  their  due  channel,  and  at  length  recovering  and 
uniting  their  better  resolutions,  now  that  they  see  already  how 
open  and  unbounded  the  insolence  and  rage  is  of  our  common 
enemies,  to  stay  these  ruinous  proceedings,  justly  and  timely 
fearing  to  what  a  precipice  of  destruction  the  deluge  of  this 
epidemic  madness  would  hurry  us,  through  the  general  defection 
of  a  misguided  and  abused  multitude.'     (Works,  pp.  451-2.) 


xiv  INTRODUCTIOiV, 


SECTION  II.    THE  SUBJECT. 

And  yet  Milton's  own  experience  might  well  have  made  him 
mistrustful  of  his  conceptions  of  the  future.  The  attempt  made 
to  reimpose  restrictions  upon  the  freedom  of  expressed  thought, 
against  which  he  raises  his  voice  in  the  Areopagitica  with  so 
noble  a  vehemence,  so  that  it  will  still  be  heard  to  the  very  end 
of  time,  was  only  too  significant  of  the  temper  and  tendencies 
of  the  Presbyterian  rule  that  then  lay  upon  his  country.  From 
the  meeting  of  the  Long  Parliament  in  November,  1640,  to 
June,  1643,  the  Press  had  been  practically  free\  Even  the 
custom  of  registering  publications  in  the  books  of  the  Stationers' 
Company  had  been  widely  neglected.  On  June  14,  1643,  the 
following  Ordinance  was  ordered  by  the  Lords  and  Commons 
assembled  in  Parliament : — 

*  An  Order  of  the  Lords  and  Commons  assembled  in  Parlia- 
ment, for  the  Regulating  of  Printing,  and  for  suppressing  the 
great  late  abuses  and  frequent  disorders  in  Printing  many  false. 
Scandalous,  Seditious,  Libellous,  and  unlicensed  Pamphlets,  to 
the  great  defamation  of  Religion  and  Government. 

'Also,  authorizing  the  Masters  &  Wardens  of  the  Company 
of  Stationers  to  make  diligent  search,  seize  and  carry  away  all 
such  Books  as  they  shall  finde  Printed,  or  reprinted  by  any 
-man  having  no  lawfuU  interest  in  them,  being  entred  into  the 
Hall  Book  to  any  other  man  as  his  proper  Copies. 

'  Die  Mercurii.  14  June.  1643. — Ordered  by  the  Lords  and 
Commons  assembled  in  Parliament  that  this  Order  shall  be 
fortlnuith  printed  and  published. — ^J.  Brown  Cler.  Parliamen- 
torum  :  Hen.  Elsing  Cler.  De  Com  2. 

^  Die  Merairii,  14  Junii.  1643. 

*  Whereas  divers  good  Orders  have  bin  lately  made  by  both 
Houses  of  Parliament,  for  suppressing  the  great  late  abuses  and 
frequent  disorders  in  Printing  many  false,  forged,  scandalous, 
seditious,  libellous,  and  unlicensed  Papers,  Pamphlets,  and 
Books  to  the  great  defamation  of  Religion  and  government. 
Which  orders  (notwithstanding  the  diligence  of  the  Company 
of  Stationers,  to  put  them  in  full  execution)  having  taken  little 

^  See  Masson's  Life  of  John  Milton  and  History  of  his  Time,  iii.  265 
et  .s*y. 

2  'LONDON,  Printed  for  /.  Wright  in  the  Old-baily,  lune  16.  i6j5.' 
Sec  Arbcr's  Areopagitica,  op.  25-8. 


INTRODUCTION.  xv 

or  no  effect :  By  reason  the  bill  in  preparation,  for  redresse  of 
the  said  disorders,  hath  hitherto  bin  retarded  through  the  pre- 
sent distractions,  and  very  many,  as  well  Stationers  and  Printers^ 
as  others  of  sundry  other  professions  not  free  of  the  Statio7iers 
Company,  have  taken  upon  them  to  set  up  sundry  private  Print- 
ing Presses  in  corners,  and  to  print,  vend,  publish  and  disperse 
Books,  pamphlets  and  papers,  in  such  multitudes,  that  no  in- 
dustry could  be  sufficient  to  discover  or  bring  to  punishment,  all 
the  severall  abounding  delinquents  :  And  by  reason  that  divers 
of  the  Statione7-s  Company  and  others  being  Delinquents  (con- 
trary to  former  orders  and  the  constant  custome  used  among 
the  said  Company)  have  taken  liberty  to  Print,  Vend  and  pub- 
lish, the  most  profitable  vendible  Copies  of  Books,  belonging  to 
the  Company  and  other  Stationers,  especially  of  such  Agents 
as  are  imployed  in  putting  the  said  Orders  in  Execution,  and 
that  by  way  of  revenge  for  giveing  information  against  them  to 
the  Houses  for  their  Delinquences  in  Printing,  to  the  great 
prejudice  of  the  said  Company  of  Stationers  and  Agents,  and 
to  their  discouragement  in  this  publik  service. 

Mt  is  therefore  Ordered  by  the  Lords  and  Commons  in  Par- 
liament,  That  no  Order  or  Declaration  of  both,  or  either  House 
of  Parliament  shall  be  printed  by  any,  but  by  order  of  one  or 
both  the  said  Houses  :  Nor  other  Book,  Pamphlet,  paper,  nor 
part  of  any  such  Book,  Pamphlet,  or  paper,  shall  from  hence- 
forth be  printed,  bound,  stitched  or  put  to  sale  by  any  person 
or  persons  whatsoever,  unlesse  the  same  be  first  approved  of 
and  licensed  under  the  hands  of  such  person  or  persons  as 
both,  or  either  of  the  said  Houses  shall  appoint  for  the  licensing/ 
of  the  same,  and  entred  in  the  Register  Book  of  the  Company' 
of  Stationers,  according  to  Ancient  custom,  and  the  Printer 
thereof  to  put  his  name  thereto.  And  that  no  person  or  persons 
shall  hereafter  print,  or  cause  to  be  reprinted  any  Book,  or 
Books  or  part  of  Book,  or  Books  heretofore  allowed  of  and 
granted  to  the  said  Company  of  Stationers  for  their  relief  and 
maintenance  of  their  poore,  without  the  licence  or  consent  of 
the  Master,  Wardens,  and  Assistants  of  the  said  Company; 
Nor  any  Book  or  Books  lawfully  licenced  and  entred  in  the 
Register  of  the  said  Company  for  any  particular  member 
thereof,  without  the  licence  and  consent  of  the  owner  pr  owners 
thereof.  Nor  yet  import  any  such  Book  or  Books,  or  part  of 
Book  or  Books  formerly  Printed  here,  from  beyond  the  Seas, 
upon  paine  of  forfeiting  the  same  to  the  Owner,  or  Owners  of 
the  Copies  of  the  said  Books,  and  such  further  punishment  as 
shall  he  thoueht  fit. 


xvi  INTRODUCTION. 

'And  the  Master  and  Wardens  of  the  said  Company,  the 
Gentleman  Usher  of  the  House  of  Peers,  the  Sergeant  of  the 
Commons  House  and  their  deputies,  together  with  the  persons 
formerly  appointed  by  the  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons 
for  Examinations,  are  hereby  Authorized  and  required,  from 
time  to  time,  to  make  diligent  search  in  all  places,  where  they 
shall  think  meete,  for  all  unlicensed  Printing  Presses,  and  all 
Presses  any  way  imployed  in  the  printing  of  scandalous  or  un- 
licensed Papers,  Pamphlets,  Books,  or  any  Copies  of  Books 
belonging  to  the  said  Company,  or  any  member  thereof,  without 
their  approbation  and  consents,  and  to  seize  and  carry  away 
such  Printing  Presses,  Letters,  together  with  the  Nut,  Spindle, 
and  other  materialls  of  every  such  irregular  Printer,  which  they 
find  so  misimployed,  unto  the  Common  Hall  of  the  said  Com- 
pany, there  to  be  defaced  and  made  unserviceable  according  to 
Ancient  Custom  ;  And  likewise  to  make  diligent  search  in  all 
suspected  Printing-houses,  Ware-houses,  Shops  and  other  places 
for  such  scandalous  and  unlicensed  Books,  papers,  Pamphlets, 
and  all  other  Books,  not  entred,  nor  signed  with  the  Printers 
name  as  aforesaid,  being  printed,  or  reprinted  by  such  as  have 
no  lawfull  interest  in  them,  or  any  way  contrary  to  this  Order, 
and  the  same  to  seize  and  carry  away  to  the  said  common  hall, 
there  to  remain  till  both  or  either  House  of  Parliament  shall 
dispose  thereof,  And  likewise  to  apprehend  all  Authors,  Printers, 
and  other  persons  whatsoever  imployed  in  compiling,  printing, 
stitching,  binding,  publishing  and  dispersing  of  the  said  scan- 
dalous, unlicensed,  and  unwarrantable  papers,  books  and 
pamphlets  as  aforesaid,  and  all  those  who  shall  resist  the  said 
Parties  in  searching  after  them,  and  to  bring  them  afore  either 
of  the  Houses  or  the  Committee  of  Examinations,  that  so  they 
may  receive  such  further  punishments,  as  their  Offences  shall 
demerit,  and  not  to  be  released  untill  they  have  given  satis- 
faction to  the  Parties  imployed  in  their  apprehension  for  their 
paines  and  charges,  and  given  sufficient  caution  not  to  offend 
in  like  sort  for  the  future.  And  all  Justices  of  the  Peace,  Cap- 
taines.  Constables  and  other  officers,  are  hereby  ordered  and 
required  to  be  aiding,  and  assisting  to  the  foresaid  persons  in 
the  due  execution  of  all,  and  singular  the  premisses  and  in  the 
apprehension  of  all  Offenders  against  the  same.  And  in  case 
of  opposition  to  break  open  Doores  and  Locks. 

'And  it  is  further  ordered,  that  this  Order  be  forthwith 
Printed  and  Published,  to  the  end  that  notice  may  be  taken 
thereof,  and  all  Contemners  of  it  left  inexcusable. 

*  Finis.' 


INTRODUCTION,  xvii 

For  some  account  of  the  previous  history  of  Book-censorship 
the  reader  may  be  referred  to  the  Areopagitica  itself,  where, 
in  the  opening  part  of  his  argument,  Milton  rapidly  surveys  the 
conduct  of  other  countries  and  times  in  this  respect \  It  is  clear 
that  books  enjoyed  an  immunity  from  restriction  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  only  because  they  were  held  to  be  of  comparatively  slight 
account.  As  soon  as  ever  their  influence  began  to  extend,  and  the 
printing  press  to  multiply  copies  without  limit,  so  soon  were  they 
regarded  with  jealous  eyes  and  threatened  with  a  rigorous  super- 
vision. From  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  a  formal  cen- 
sorship became  a  more  and  more  common  institution. 

*  The  oldest  mandate,  for  appointing  a  book-censor,'  says  Beck- 
mann,  *  is,  as  far  as  I  know  at  present,  that  issued  by  Berthold, 
Archbishop  of  Mentz,  in  the  year  i486,  and  which  may  be  found 
in  the  fourth  volume  of  Guden's  Codex  Diplomaticus.  In  the 
year  1501,  Pope  Alexander  VI.  published  a  bull,  the  first  part  of 
which  may  form  an  excellent  companion  to  the  mandate  of  the 
Archbishop  of  Mentz.  After  some  complaints  against  the  devil, 
who  sows  tares  among  the  wheat,  his  holiness  proceeds  thus  : — 
"  Having  been  informed  that,bymeans  of  the  said  art,manybooks 
and  treatises  containing  various  errors  and  pernicious  doctrines, 
even  hostile  to  the  holy  Christian  religion,  have  been  printed, 
and  are  still  printed  in  various  parts  of  the  world,  particularly  in 
the  provinces  of  Cologne,  Mentz,  Trier,  and  Magdeburg :  and 
being  desirous,  without  further  delay,  to  put  a  stop  to  this  de- 
testable evil, .  .  .  we,  by  these  presents,  and  by  authority  of  the 
Apostolic  Chamber,  strictly  forbid  all  printers,  their  servants, 
and  those  exercising  the  art  of  printing  under  them,  in  any 
manner  whatsoever,  in  the  abovesaid  provinces,  under  pain  of 
excommunication,  and  a  pecuniary  fine,  to  be  imposed  and  ex- 
acted by  our  venerable  brethren  the  Archbishops  of  Cologne, 
Mentz,  Trier,  and  Magdeburg,  and  their  vicars-general  or  official 
in  spirituals,  according  to  the  pleasure  of  each  in  his  own  pro- 
vince, to  print  hereafter  any  books,  treatises,  or  writings,  until 
they  have  consulted  on  this  subject  the  archbishops,  vicars,  or 
officials  above-mentioned,  and  obtained  their  special  and  express 

*  See  also  Standard  Library  Cyclop,  s,  v.  Press  Censorship ;  Beckmann's 
Hist,  of  Inventions,  on  Book  Censors,  and  on  Exclusive  Privilege  for  Printing 
Books  (ii.  512-522,  of  the  4ih  Engl,  edit.);  Knight's  London,  vol.  5,  The 
Old  London  Booksellers ;  Hart's  Index  Expurgatorius  Anglicanus,  Parts  i  and 
ii ;  Hallam's  Constitut.  Hist,  of  Engl,  passim  ;  D'lsraeli's  Curiosities  of  Liter- 
ature, on  Licensers  of  the  Press;  Hunt's  Fourth  Estate,  1850;  Buckle's  Hist. 
of  Civilization  in  England,  8cc. 

b 


xviii  INTRODUCTION. 

licence,  to  be  granted  free  of  all  expense,  whose  consciences 
we  charge,  that  before  they  grant  any  licence  of  this  kind,  they 
will  carefully  examine,  or  cause  to  be  examined,  by  able  and 
catholic  persons,  the  works  to  be  printed  ;  and  that  they  will 
take  the  utmost  care  that  nothing  may  be  printed  wicked  or 
scandalous,  or  contrary  to  the  orthodox  faith."  The  rest  of  the 
bull  contains  regulations  to  prevent  works  already  printed  from 
doing  mischief.  All  catalogues  and  books  printed  before  that 
period  were  to  be  examined,  and  those  which  contained  any- 
thing prejudicial  to  the  Catholic  religion  were  to  be  burned. 
In  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  it  was  ordered  by  the 
well-known  Council  of  the  Lateran,  held  at  Rome  in  the  year 
1 5 1 5,  that,  in  future,  no  books  should  be  printed  but  such  as  had 
been  inspected  by  ecclesiastical  censors.  In  France,  the  faculty 
of  Theology  usurped,  as  some  say,  the  right  of  censuring  books  ; 
but  in  the  year  1650,  when  public  censors,  whom  the  faculty 
opposed,  were  appointed,  without  their  consent,  they  stated  the 
antiquity  of  their  right  to  be  two  hundred  years.  For  they  said, 
"  It  is  above  two  hundred  years  since  the  doctors  of  Paris  have 
had  a  right  to  approve  books  without  being  subjected  but  to  their 
own  faculty,  to  which  they  assert  they  are  alone  responsible  for 
their  decisions." ' 

In  countries  where  the  Inquisition  was  established  the  work 
of  the  censorship  was  undertaken  by  the  Holy  Office.  Else- 
where it  was  taken  up  by  the  bishops.  In  England  it  was 
i especially  discharged  by  the  Star  Chamber,  a  Court  that  was 
in  fact,  whatever  the  theoretic  constitution,  mainly  in  the  hands 
of  the  bishops  \  Long  before  Archbishop  Laud's  time  this  Court 
had  exercised  authority  over  the  Press  (as,  for  example,  at  Whit- 
gift's  instance  in  1585) ;  but  it  was  under  him  that  its  restrictive 
{.power  was  put  forth  in  its  severest  form.  On  the  nth  day  of 
July,  1637,  was  passed  the  notorious  '  Decree  of  Starre-Chamber 
Concerning  Printing.'  This  document  may  be  found  entire  in 
Mr.  Arber's  Reprint  of  the  Areopagitica.  We  quote  here  only 
the  more  relevant  of  its  thirty-three  clauses. 

*  In   Camera   Stellata  coram  Concilio  ibidem,  vndecimo  die 

lulii.  Anno  deciino  tertio  Caroli  Regis. 

*  Impri7nis^  That  no  person  or  persons  whatsoeuer  shall  pre- 
sume to  print,  or  cause  to  bee  printed,  either  in  the  parts  beyond 
the  Seas,  or  in  this  Realme,  or  other  his  Maiesties  Dominions, 

*  See  Gardiner's  Personal  Government  of  Charles  I,  i.  161. 


INTRODUCTION.  XIX 

any  seditious,  scismaticall,  or  offensive  Bookes  or  Pamphlets,  to 
the  scandall  of  ReHgion,  or  the  Church,  or  the  Government,  or 
Govemours  of  the  Church  or  State,  or  Commonwealth,  or  of  any 
Corporation,  or  particular  person  or  persons  whatsoeuer,  nor 
shall  import  any  such  Booke  or  Bookes,  nor  sell  or  dispose  of 
them,  or  any  of  them,  nor  cause  any  such  to  be  bound,  stitched, 
or  sowed,  vpon  paine  that  he  or  they  so  offending,  shall  loose  all 
such  Bookes  and  Pamphlets,  and  also  haue,  and  suffer  such  cor- 
rection, and  severe  punishment,  either  by  Fine,  imprisonment,  ot 
other  corporal!  punishment,  or  otherwise,  as  by  this  Court,  or  by 
His  Maiesties  Commissioners  for  causes  Ecclesiasticall  in  the  high 
Commission  Court,  respectiuely,  as  the  several  causes  shall  re- 
quire, shall  be  thought  fit  to  be  inflicted  upon  him,  or  them,  for 
such  their  offence  and  contempt. 

*II.  Iton^  That  no  person  or  persons  whatsoeuer,  shall  at  any 
time  print,  or  cause  to  be  imprinted,  any  Booke  or  Pamphlet 
whatsoever  vnlesse  the  same  Booke  or  Pamphlet,  and  also  all  and 
euery  the  Titles,  Epistles,  Prefaces,  Proems,  Preambles,  Intro- 
ductions, Tables,  Dedications,  and  other  matters  and  things 
whatsoeuer  thereunto  annexed,  or  therewith  imprinted,  shall  be 
first  lawfully  licenced  and  authorized  onely  by  such  person  and 
persons  as  are  hereafter  expressed,  and  by  no  other,  and  shall  be 
also  first  entred  into  the  Registers  Booke  of  the  Company  of 
Stationers  ;  vpon  paine  that  every  Printer  offending  therein,  shall 
be  for  euer  hereafter  disabled  to  use  or  exercise  the  Art  or 
Mysterie  of  Printing,  and  receiue  such  further  punishment,  as  by 
this  Court  or  the  high  Commission  Court  respectiuely,  as  the 
severall  causes  shall  require,  shall  be  thought  fitting. 

*  III.  //(?;;?,  That  all  Bookes  concerning  the  common  Lawes  of 
this  Realme  shall  be  printed  by  the  especiall  allowance  of  the 
Lords  chiefe  lustices,  and  the  Lord  chiefe  Baron  for  the  time 
being,  or  one  or  more  of  them,  or  by  their  appointment :  And 
that  all  Books  of  History,  belonging  to  this  State,  and  present 
times,  or  any  other  Booke  of  State  affaires,  shall  be  licenced 
by  the  principall  Secretaries  of  State,  or  one  of  them,  or  by  their 
appointment ;  And  that  all  Bookes  concerning  Heraldry,  Titles  of 
Honour  and  Armes,  or  otherwise  concerning  the  Office  of  Earle 
Marshall,  shall  be  licenced  by  the  Earle  Marshall,  or  by  his  ap- 
pointment ;  And  further,  that  all  other  Books,  whether  of  Diuinitie, 
Phisicke,  Philosophic,  Poetry,  or  whatsoeuer,  shall  be  allowed  by 
the  Lord  Arch-Bishop  of  Canterbury^  or  Bishop  of  London  for  the 
time  being,  or  by  their  appointment,  or  the  Chancellours,  or  Vice 
Chancellors  of  either  of  the  Vniuersities  of  this  Realme  for  the 
time  being. 

*  Alwayes  prouided,  that  the  Chancellour  or  Vice-Chancellour, 

ba 


XX  INTRODUCTION. 

of  either  of  the  Vniuersities,  shall  Licence  onely  such  Booke  or 
Bookes  that  are  to  be  Printed  within  the  limits  of  the  Vniuersities 
respectiuely,  but  not  in  London^  or  elsewhere,  not  medling  either 
with  Bookes  of  the  common  Law,  or  matters  of  State. 

*IV.  Item^  That  euery  person  and  persons,  which  by  any 
Decree  of  this  Court  are,  or  shall  be  appointed  or  authorized  to 
Licence  Bookes,  or  giue  Warrant  for  imprinting  thereof,  as  is 
aforesaid,  shall  haue  two  seuerall  written  Copies  of  the  same 
Booke  or  Bookes  with  the  Titles,  Epistles,  Prefaces,  Proems, 
Preambles,  Introductions,  Tables,  Dedications,  and  other  things 
whatsoeuer  thereunto  annexed.  One  of  which  said  Copies  shall 
be  kept  in  the  publike  Registries  of  the  said  Lord  Arch-Bishop, 
and  Bishop  of  London  respectiuely,  or  in  the  Office  of  the  Chan- 
cellour,  or  Vice-Chancellour  of  either  of  the  Vniuersities,  or  with 
the  Earle  Marshall  or  principall  Secretaries  of  State,  or  with  the 
Lords  chiefe  Justices,  or  chiefs  Baron,  of  all  such  Bookes  as  shall 
be  licenced  by  them  respectiuely,  to  the  end  that  he  or  they  may 
be  secure,  that  the  Copy  so  licensed  by  him  or  them  shall  not  bee 
altered  without  his  or  their  priuitie,  and  the  other  shall  remain 
with  him  whose  Copy  it  is,  and  vpon  both  the  said  Copies,  he  or 
they  that  shall  allow  the  said  Booke,  shall  testifie  vnder  his  or 
their  hand  or  hands,  that  there  is  nothing  in  that  Booke  or  Books 
contained,  that  is  contrary'  to  Christian  Faith,  and  the  Doctrine 
and  Discipline  of  the  Church  oi  England,  nor  against  the  State  or 
Gouernment,  nor  contrary  to  good  life,  or  good  manners,  or 
otherwise,  as  the  nature  and  subiect  of  the  work  shall  require, 
which  licence  or  approbation  shall  be  imprinted  in  the  beginning 
of  the  same  Booke,  with  the  name,  or  names  of  him  or  them  that 
shall  authorize  or  license  the  same,  for  a  testimonie  of  the  allow- 
ance thereof 

*  VIL  Ite?n,  That  no  person  or  persons  shall  within  this  King- 
dome,  or  elsewhere  imprint,  or  cause  to  be  imprinted,  nor  shall 
import  or  bring  in,  or  cause  to  be  imported  or  brought  into  this 
Kingdome,  from,  or  out  of  any  other  His  Maiesties  Dominions, 
nor  from  other,  or  any  parts  beyond  the  Seas,  any  Copy,  book  or 
books,  or  part  of  any  booke  or  bookes,  printed  beyond  the 
seas,  or  elsewhere,  which  the  said  Company  of  Stationers,  or  any 
other  person  or  persons  haue,  or  shall  by  any  Letters  Patents, 
Order,  or  Entrance  in  their  Register  book,  or  otherwise,  haue  the 
right,  priuiledge,  authoritie,  or  allowance  soly  to  print,  nor  shall 
bind,  stitch,  or  put  to  sale,  any  such  booke  or  bookes,  vpon  paine 
of  losse  and  forfeiture  of  all  the  said  bookes,  and  of  such  Fine,  or 
other  punishment,  for  euery  booke  or  part  of  a  booke  so  im- 
printed or  imported,  bound,  stitched,  or  put  to  sale,  to  be  leuyed 
of  the  party  so  offending,  as  by  the  power  of  this  Court,  or  the 


INTRODUCTION.  ,  XXI 

high  Commission  Court  respectiuely,  as  the  severall  causes  shall 
require,  shall  be  thought  fit. 

'VIII.  //<?;«,  Euery  person  and  persons  that  shall  hereafter 
Print,  or  cause  to  be  Printed,  any  Bookes,  Ballads,  Charts,  Por- 
traiture, or  any  other  thing  or  things  whatsoeuer,  shall  thereunto 
or  thereon  Print  and  set  his  and  their  owne  name  or  names,  as 
also  the  name  or  names  of  the  Author  or  Authors,  Maker  or 
Makers  of  the  same,  and  by,  or  from  whom  any  such  booke, 
or  other  thing  is,  or  shall  be  printed,  vpon  pain  of  forfiture  of  all 
such  Books,  Ballads,  Chartes,  Portraitures,  and  other  thing  or 
things,  printed  contrary  to  this  Article  ;  And  the  presses.  Let- 
ters and  other  instruments  for  Printing,  wherewith  such  Books, 
ballads,  Chartes,  Portraitures,  and  other  thing  or  things  shall  be 
printed,  to  be  defaced  and  made  vnseruiceable,  and  the  party  and 
parties  so  offending,  to  be  fined,  imprisoned,  and  haue  such  other 
corporall  punishment,  or  otherwise,  as  by  this  Honourable  Court, 
or  the  said  high  Commission  respectiuely,  as  the  seuerall  causes 
shall  require,  shall  be  thought  fit. 

'XII.  Item^  That  no  stranger  or  forreigner  whatsoeuer,  be 
suffered  to  bring  in,  or  vent  here,  any  booke  or  bookes  printed 
beyond  the  seas,  in  any  language  whatsoeuer,  either  by  themselues 
or  their  secret  Factors,  except  such  onely  as  bee  free  Stationers  of 
London^  and  such  as  haue  beene  brought  vp  in  that  profession, 
and  haue  their  whole  meanes  of  subsistance,  and  liuelihood  de- 
pending thereupon,  vpon  paine  of  confiscation  of  all  such  Books 
so  imported,  and  such  further  penalties,  as  by  this  Court,  or  the 
high  Commission  Court  respectiuely,  as  the  seuerall  causes  shall 
require,  shall  be  thought  fit  to  be  imposed. 

'XIII.  Item^  That  no  person  or  persons  within  the  Citie  of 
London,  or  the  liberties  thereof,  or  elsewhere,  shall  erect  or  cause 
to  be  erected  any  Presse  or  Printing-house,  nor  shall  demise,  or 
let,  or  suffer  to  be  held  or  vsed,  any  house,  vault,  seller,  or  other 
roome  whatsoeuer,  to,  or  by  any  person  or  persons,  for  a  Printing- 
house,  or  place  to  print  in,  vnlesse  he  or  they  which  shall  so 
demise  or  let  the  same,  or  suffer  the  same  to  be  so  vsed,  shall 
first  giue  notice  to  the  said  Master  and  Wardens  of  the  Company 
of  Stationers  for  the  time  being,  of  such  demise,  or  suffering  to 
worke  or  print  there,  upon  paine  of  imprisonment,  and  such 
other  punishment  as  by  this  Court,  or  the  said  high  Commission 
Court  respectiuely,  as  the  seuerall  Causes  shall  require,  shall  bee 
thought  fit.   . 

'  XV.  Item^  The  Court  doth  declare,  that  as  formerly,  so  now, 
there  shall  be  but  Twentie  Master  Printers  allowed  to  haue  the 
vse  of  one  Presse  or  more,  as  is  after  specified,  and  doth  hereby 
nominate,  allow,  and  admit  these  persons  whose  names  hereafter 


KXii  INTRODUCTION. 

follow,  to  the  number  of  Twentie,  to  have  the  vse  of  a  Presse,  or 
Presses  and  Printing-house,  for  the  time  being,  vis.  Felix  King- 
stone,  Adam  Islip,  Thomas  Purfoot,  Miles  Flesher,  Thomas 
Harper^  lohn  Beale,  lohn  Legal,  Robert  Young,  lohn  Haviland, 
George  Miller,  Richard  Badger,  Thomas  Cotes,  Bernard  Alsop, 
Richard  Bishop,  Edward  Griffin,  Thomas  Purslow,  Richard 
Hodgkinsonne,  lohn  Dawson,  lohn  Raworth,  Marmaduke 
Parsons.  And  further,  the  Court  doth  order  and  decree,  That 
it  shall  be  lawfull  for  the  Lord  Arch-Bishop  oi  Canterbury ,  or  the 
Lord  Bishop  of  London,  for  the  time  being,  taking  to  him  or 
them  six  other  high  Commissioners,  to  supply  the  place  or  places 
of  those  which  are  now  already  Printers  by  this  Court,  as  they 
shall  fall  void  by  death,  or  Censure,  or  otherwise ;  Prouided  that 
they  exceed  not  the  number  of  Twentie,  besides  his  Maiesties 
Printers,  and  the  Printers  allowed  for  the  Vniuersities. 

'XXII.  Item,  The  Court  doth  hereby  declare,  that  it  doth  not 
hereby  restraine  the  Printers  of  either  of  the  Vniuersities  from 
taking  what  number  of  Apprentices  for  their  seruice  in  printing 
there,  they  themselues  shall  thinke  fit.  Prouided  alwayes,  that 
the  said  Printers  in  the  Vniuersities  shall  imploy  all  their  owne 
lourney-men  within  themselves,  and  not  suffer  any  of  their  said 
lourney-men  to  go  abroad  for  imployment  to  the  Printers  of 
London  (vnlesse  vpon  occasion  some  Printers  of  London  desire 
to  imploy  some  extraordinary  Workman  or  Workmen  amongst 
them,  without  preiudice  to  their  owne  lourneymen,  who  are 
Freemen)  vpon  such  penalty  as  the  Chancellor  of  either  of  the 
Vniuersities  for  the  time  being,  shall  thinke  fit  to  inflict  vpon  the 
delinquents  herein. 

'XXV.  Item,  That  for  the  better  discouery  of  printing  in 
Corners  without  licence  ;  The  Master  and  Wardens  of  the  Com- 
pany of  Stationers  for  the  time  being,  or  any  two  licensed  Master- 
Printers,  which  shall  be  appointed  by  the  Lord  Arch-Bishop  of 
Canterbury,  or  Lord  B.  of  London  for  the  time  being,  shall  haue 
power  and  authority,  to  take  vnto  themselues  such  assistance  as 
they  shall  think  needfull,  and  to  search  what  houses  and  shops 
(and  at  what  time  they  shall  think  fit)  especially  Printing-houses, 
and  to  view  what  is  in  printing,  and  to  call  for  the  license  to  see 
whether  it  be  licenced  or  no,  and  if  not,  to  seize  vpon  so  much  as 
is  printed,  together  with  the  seuerall  offenders,  and  to  bring  them 
before  the  Lord  Arch-Bishop  of  Canterbury,  or  the  Lord  Bishop  of 
Lotidon  for  the  time  being,  that  they  or  either  of  them  may  take 
such  further  order  therein  as  shall  appertaine  to  lustice. 

'  XXVI.  Item,  The  Court  doth  declare,  that  it  shall  be  lawfull 
also  for  the  said  Searchers,  if,  vpon  search  they  find  any  book  or 
bookes,  or  part  of  booke  or  books  which  they  suspect  to  containe 
matter  in  it  or  them,  contrary  to  the  doctrine  and  discipline  of 


INTRODUCTION,  ,  xxiii 

the  Church  of  England^  or  against  the  State  and  Government, 
upon  such  suspition  to  seize  upon  such  book  or  books,  or  part  of 
booke  or  books,  and  to  bring  it,  or  them,  to  the  Lord  Arch- 
Bishop  oi  Canterbury^  or  the  Lord  Bishop  oi London  for  the  time 
being,  who  shall  take  such  further  course  therein,  as  to  their 
Lordships,  or  either  of  them  shall  seeme  fit. 

'XXVII.  Item^  The  Court  doth  order  and  declare,  that  there 
shall  be  foure  P^ounders  of  letters  for  printing  allowed,  and  no 
more,  and  doth  hereby  nominate,  allow,  and  admit  these  persons, 
whose  names  herefter  follow,  to  the  number  of  foure,  to  be  letter- 
Founders  for  the  time  being,  (viz.)  John  Grismand,  Thomas 
Wright,  Arthur  Nichols,  Alexa7ider  Fifeild.  And  further,  the 
Court  doth  Order  and  Decree,  that  it  shall  be  lawfull  for  the 
Lord  Arch-Bishop  of  Ca7iterbury,  or  the  Lord  Bishop  of  London 
for  the  time  being,  taking  unto  him  or  them,  six  other  high  Com- 
missioners, to  supply  the  place  or  places  of  these  who  are  now 
allowed  Founders  of  letters  by  this  Court,  as  they  shall  fall  void 
by  death,  censure,  or  otherwise. 

Prouided,  that  they  exceede  not  the  number  of  foure,  set 
downe  by  this  Court.  And  if  any  person  or  persons,  not  being 
an  allowed  Founder,  shall  notwithstanding  take  vpon  him,  or 
them,  to  Found,  or  cast  letters  for  printing,  vpon  complaint  and 
proofe  made  of  such  offence,  or  offences,  he,  or  they  so  offending, 
shal  suffer  such  punishment,  as  this  Court,  or  the  High  Commis- 
sion court  respectiuely,  as  the  seuerall  causes  shall  require,  shall 
think  fit  to  inflict  vpon  them. 

*  XXXI 1 1.  Item,  That  whereas  there  is  an  agreement  betwixt 
Sir  Thomas  Bodley,  Knight,  Founder  of  the  Vniuersity  Library  at 
Oxford,  and  the  Master,  Wardens,  and  Assistants  of  the  Company 
of  Stationers  {yiz^  That  one  Booke  of  euery  sort  that  is  new 
printed,  or  reprinted  with  additions,  be  sent  to  the  Vniuersitie  of 
Oxford  for  the  vse  of  the  publique  Librarie  there  ;  The  Court 
doth  hereby  Order,  and  declare.  That  euery  Printer  shall  reserue 
one  Book  new  printed,  or  reprinted  by  him,  with  additions,  and 
shall  before  any  publique  venting  of  the  said  book,  bring  it  to  the 
Common  Hall  of  the  Companie  of  Stationers,  and  deliuer  it  to  the 
Officer  thereof  to  be  sent  to  the  Librarie  at  Oxford  accordingly 
vpon  paine  of  imprisonment,  and  such  further  Order  and  Direction 
therein,  as  to  this  Court,  or  the  high  Commission  Court  respec- 
tiuely, as  the  seuerall  causes  shall  require,  shall  be  thought  fit.' 

At  the  very  time  this  rigorous  edict  was  passed,  Prynne*, 
Burton,  and  Bastwick  were  lying  in  various  prisons,  the  earless  and 

*  See  Gardiner's  Pers.  Gov.  of  Charles  I  (ii.  39,  41),  as  to  Prynne's  previous 
appearances  before  the  Star  Chamber. 


xxiv  INTRODUCTION, 

branded  victims  of  the  Court  that  issued  it ;  but  they  were  presently 
to  be  the  victors.  Their  treatment  excited  the  deepest  commise- 
ration throughout  the  country.  The  Star-Chamber  might  make 
its  '  Decrees,'  but  its  days  were  numbered.  With  the  meeting 
of  the  Long  Parliament  its  elaborate  edict  became  mere  waste 
paper.     In   July  1641   an  Act  was  passed  for  /regulating  the 

) Privy  Council,  and  for  taking  away  the  Court  commonly  called 
the  Star  Chamber ' :  and  so  this  jealous  Court  expired,  never, 
happily,  to  be  revived,  though  there  were  not  wanting  at  the 
Restoration  those  who  would  have  rejoiced  over  its  renascence. 
^  But  the  spirit  that  moved  it  did  not  die  with  it,  and  was 
soon  perceived  merely  to  have  transmigrated  into  a  new  body. 
_.por  a  time  indeed  it  was  comparatively  inoperative  and  dumb  ; 
but  in  less  than  three  years  it  began  to  make  its  presence  once 
more  felt.  There  soon  arose  complaints  of  the  unmitigated  free- 
dom of  discussion  that  was  found  to  prevail.  Those  who  opened 
the  lips  of  the  nation  were  astonished  at  the  thronging  cries  that 
proceeded  from  them.  Freedom  of  speech  was  all  very  well 
when  an  enemy  was  the  object  of  attack  ;  but  when  it  was  them- 
selves that  were  irreverently  canvassed  and  exposed,  it  was  not 
quite  so  free  from  objection.  Moreover  *  new  heresies,'  so  called, 
were  springing  up  every  day.  Men  were  striking  away  from 
all  the  proper  and  respectable  highways  of  thought  into  paths 
no  de^corous  person  had  ever  heard  of.  Whose  'views'  were 
safe  from  assault  .»*  It  was  altogether  uncomfortable  to  have  to  be 
perpetually  reconsidering  and  defending  one's  creed.  This  state 
of  things  was  felt  to  be  singularly  '  unsettling.' 

Not  the  least  amongst  the  innovating  offenders  was  Milton 
himself.  His  Divorce  treatises  had  greatly  scandalized  many  who 
had  exulted  in  his  succour  in  the  controversy  with  the  bishops 
in  1 64 1  and  1642.  They  were  denounced  from  the  pulpit  in  a 
sermon^  preached  before  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament  in  August 
1664,  and  shortly  afterwards^  petitioned  against  by  the  Stationers' 
Company. 

Milton  then  had  personal  reasons  for  coming  forward  as  the 
champion  of  Unlicensed  Printing,  and,  apart  from  these  personal 
motives,  he  was  well  aware  of  the  animosity  his  Divorce  writings 
*  See  Masson's  Milton,  iii.  pp.  162-4  and  363.  *  Ihid,  165. 


k 


INTRODUCTION.         '  xxv 

had  aroused,  for  he  speaks  of  *  the  world  of  disesteem'  in  which 
he  found  himself.  Possibly,  in  some  pew  at  St.  Margaret's,  West- 
minster, he  heard  himself  spoken  of  as  'impudent'  enough  to  'set 
his  name  "  to  a  wicked  book  which  was  abroad,  and  uncensured, 
though  deserving  to  be  burnt.'  Perhaps  there  was  never  incar- 
nate a  spirit  so  impatient  of  all  petty  regulation  and  control  as  \ 
was  that  of  Milton.  Not  that  he  meant  'license'  when  he  cried 
'liberty,'  for  his  sense  of  law  was  as  deep  as  his  nature  ;  and,  bold 
thinkfiras  he  was,  he  was  ever  ready  and  eager  to  acknowledge  all| 
just  and  eternal  restrictions  upon  human  thought.  But  for  any 
nieaner  limitings,  they  moved  in  him  disdain  and  indignation. 

'  For  me,'  he  writes  in  The  Reason  of  Church  Government  urged 
against  Prelaty^ '  I  have  determined  to  lay  up  as  the  best  treasure 
and  solace  of  a  good  old  age,  if  God  vouchsafe  it  me,  the  honest 
liberty  of  free  speech^hovci  my  youth,  where  I  shall  think  it  available 
in  so  dear  a  concernment  as  the  Church's  good.' 

His  was  eminently '  a  free  and  knowing  spirit,'  and  resented,  as 
a  fearful  ignominy,  any  attempts  to  bind  and  shackle  it.  Our 
supreme  dramatic  poet  tells  us,  in  one  of  his  sonnets,  of  certain 
sights  that  '  tired '  him,  and  made  him  cry  for  '  restfull  death ' ; 
and  amongst  the  sickening  spectacles  are 

Strength  by  limping  sway  disabled. 
And  art  made  tongue-tied  by  authority ^ 
And  folly  doctor-like  controlling  skill.' 

Not  other  are  the  visions  Milton  sees  in  his  Areopagitica  : — 

'  What  is  it  but  a  servitude,  like  that  imposed  by  the  Philistines, 
not  to  be  allowed  the  sharpening  of  our  own  axes  and  coulters, 
but  we  must  repair  from  all  quarters  to  twenty  licensing  forges  ? 
'  What  advantage  is  it  to  be  a  man  over  it  is  to  be  a  boy  at 
school,  if  we  have  only  scapt  the  ferular  to  come  under  the  fescue 
of  an  imprimatur  ? ' 

But  these  things  do  not  'tire'  and  dishearten  Milton.  Rather 
they  inflame  him  with  a  noble  rage ;  and  so,  in  a  very  splendour  of 
wrath,  he  rouses  himself  to  strike  them  down.  He  seems  '  larger 
than  human,'  as  he  advances  to  the  fray,  and  the  air  around  is 
filled  with  lightnings,  and  a  clear  way  cleft  in  front  of  him  with 
thunderbolts  no  shields  can  stay. 

^Ti  h\  8icL  irpo/xaxojv  KdcopvOfxiuos  a'iOoni  xaXxif 
,     .     .     .    <p\oyl  uKeXot  'Ucpouaroio 


xxvi  INTRODUCTION, 

It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  Milton's  fitness  for  the  cham- 
pionship he  assumed  was  recognised  by  others.  Indeed  it  was 
partly  in  deference  to  the  urgency  of  others  that  he  stood  for- 
ward as  he  did.  Learned  men  were  complaining  of  the  new 
tyranny — 

*  And  that  so  generally  that  when  I  disclosed  m.yself  a  com- 
panion of  their  discontent,  I  might  say,  if  without  envy,  that  he 
whom  an  honest  quasstorship  had  endeared  to  the  Sicilians  was 
not  more  by  them  importuned  against  Verres,  than  the  favourable 
opinion  which  I  had  among  many  who  honour  ye,  and  are  known 
and  respected  by  ye,  loaded  me  with  entreaties  and  persuasions 
that  I  would  not  despair  to  lay  together  that  which  just  reason 
should  bring  into  my  mind  toward  the  removal  of  an  undeserved 
thraldom  upon  learning.' 


SECTION  III.    THE  FORM. 

As  Milton  wished  directly  to  appeal  to  the  Parliament,  and  not 
merely  to  talk  at  them,  it  seemed  to  him  well  to  cast  what  he  had 
\  to  say  in  the  form  oi  a  Speech  addressed  straight  to  them.  Not 
that  the  speech  was  ever  meant  to  be  delivered  in  the  ordinary 
'sense.  Just  as  the  best  dramatic  pieces  of  the  present  century 
were  written  to  be  read — not  to  be  seen  acted — so  this  work  was 
meant  to  be  read,  not  heard  delivered.  It  was  meant  for  the 
closet,  not  for  the  forum.  The  author  ascends  an  imaginary 
tribune,  4s4  conceives_the  Lords  and  Commons  of  England 
gathered  around  to  listen.  This  direct  expression  suited  better 
tne  mood  oF^ilton's  spirit  at  the  time.  He  was  terribly  in 
earnest,  and  zealous  to  strike  home.  He  did  not  propose  merely 
to  discuss  the  general  question  at  issue,  but  he  longed  also  to 
expostulate  immediately  and  fervently  with  the  Government  on 
the  character  of  the  policy  they  were  enforcing.  It  seemed  to 
him  no  idle  matter  fit  for  leisurely  disquisition,  but  a  matter  of 
life  and  death  ;  and  so  far  as  might  be,  he  would  put  aside  all 
intervening  obstacles,  and  say  out  in  the  very  ears  of  those 
whom  -he  would  move  the  thoughts  that  burned  within  him. 
Moreover,  it  gave  no  trifling  charm  in  his  judgment  to  this  treat- 
ment of  his  subject  that  precedents  for  it  were,  as  we  shall  see, 
to  be  found  in  that  Greek  literature  which  was  his  delight. 


INTRODUCTION,  '  xxvii 

It  is  to  be  remembered  then,  that  the  Parliament  is  imme- 
diately  before  the  eye  of  his  mind  throughout  ~  this  discourse. 
1  he  exordium  or  openmg  passage  is  altogether  devoted  to  their 
praTseS,  iirld  the  deprecation  of  any  annoyance^  that'  might  pos- 
s i^ly bF^reated  b>'  his  boldness  in  intruding  hisVoice  upon  them. 
He  says  that  the  m^e~thought  of  whom  it  is  his  address  '  hath 
recourse  to,'  stirs  in  him  a  strange  excitement — '  hath  got  the 
power  within  me  to  a  passion  far  more  welcome  than  incidental 
to  a  preface.'  And,  indeed,  this  was  no  wonder,  when  wev 
think  of  the  immortal  services  that  '  High  Court'  had  done  for  j 
England.  In  the  subsequent  history  of  the  Long  Parliament  ^ 
there  may  be  something  that  is  ignoble  and  mean.  It  may  be 
that  it  outlived  its  vigour,  and  in  its  senility  sank  into  folly  and 
contempt  ;  but  it  is  not  possible  to  recall  its  illustrious  youth  and 
the  prowess  of  it  without  pride  and  admiration.  Milton's  au- 
dience was  at  the  time  he  spoke  not  unworthy  of  Milton.  And 
amidst  all  the  eulogies  that  contemporaries  and  writers  since 
of  all  shades  of  political  opinion  have  bestowed  upon  that  memor- 
able House  of  Commons,  no  higher  compliment  was  ever  paid 
to  it  than  when  the  ardent  soul  of  Milton  turned  so  impetuously 
towards  it  to  pray  for  the  relaxation  of  bonds  that  seemed  to 
stifle  the  very  spirit  of  freedom.  Its  past  career  filled  him  with 
confidence  for  the  future. 

*For  this  is  not  the  liberty  which  wee  can  hope,  that  no 
grievance  ever  should  arise  in  the  Commonwealth,  that  let  no 
man  in  this  World  expect ;  but  when  complaints  are  freely  heard, 
deeply  consider'd,  and  speedily  reform'd,  then  is  the  utmost 
bound  of  civill  liberty  attained  that  wise  men  looke  for.  To 
which  if  I  now  manifest  by  the  very  sound  of  this  which  I  shall 
utter  that  we  are  already  in  good  part  arriv'd,  and  yet  from  such 
a  steepe  disadvantage  of  tyranny  and  superstition  grounded  into 
our  principles  as  was  beyond  the  manhood  of  a  Roman  recovery, 
it  will  bee  attributed  first,  as  is  most  due,  to  the  strong  assistance 
of  God,  our  deliverer  ;  next,  to  your  faithfull  guidance,  and  un- 
daunted Wisdome,  Lords  and  Commons  of  England.' 

It  has  been  already  said  that  for  this  Reading  Speech,  if  we 
may  call  it  so  (as  we  speak  of  a  Reading  Play  as  opposed  to 
an  Acting  Play),  Milton  found  Greek  example.  Indeed  it  is 
possible  enough   that  Greek  example  may  have,  in  the  first 


XXVUI  WTRODUCTTOli, 

instance,  suggested  the  form  of  the  work.  Perhaps  no  one  has 
ever  lived  in  modern  times  who  appreciated  more  intensely  than 
Milton  the  excellence  of  Greek  art.  His  writings  abound  with 
professions  and  testimonies  of  this  distinguishing  Hellenism. 
Thus,  in  a  letter  to  Leonard  Philaros,  the  Athenian,  in  1654, 
he  speaks  of  himself  as  *  A  pueritia  totius  Graeci  nominis  tua- 
rumque  in  primis  Athenarum  cultor,  si  quis  alius ^';  /.<?.  'as  from 
Ihis  boyhood  a  worshipper,  if  ev^er  there  was  one,  of  all  that  bore 
the  Greek  name,  and  especially  of  your  Athens.'  In  the  re- 
marks with  which  he  prefaces  Samson  Agonistes^  he  pronounces 
Aeschylos,  Sophokles,  and  Euripides,  *  the  three  tragic  poets  un- 
equalled by  any,  and  the  best  rule  to  all  who  endeavour  to  write 
tragedy.'  See  the  famous  passage  in  the  Fourth  Book  of  Paradise 
Regained,  where  he  describes  Athens  with  an  accurate  minuteness 
that  is  not  slightly  significant  of  the  frequency  and  the  devotion 
vvith  which,  in  thought  at  least,  he  had  visited  that  fair  metropolis 
of  the  wx>rld  of  mind 

'L*Mk  oacc  flMre,  ere  we  ieire  this  specular  moimt; 
W«l!tWU<  WKh  nearer  by  southwest,  behol«l» 
W)Mr«  Ml  th«  iEgean  jliore  x  city  «an<i&, 
B«i^  VMbty,  pure  th«  air,  and  light  the  soil; 
A^Atttk  tfc«  eye  of  Greece,  mother  of  arts 
^ftd  «|idi^«CfKe,  native  to  famous  wits 
Or  llM^tmble,  in  her  sweet  recess* 
City  or  suburhaAt  tMllovi  ^if^ 
See  there  the  oti^  flWH>  «if  Jk»im% 
Plato's  retitMMWI,  WM  IIk  Ank  IM 

There  ftoinrr  Mf  ^^   ^ 

Of 

T<> 

Nik  nullum  iiig  stF^m :  wvtlita  the  waOs  tlMn  new 

TIk  MiMdIs  of  ancient  sages ;   his^  wbo  breA 

OM^t  JUtiEwn^  t»  s«M«e  tin  toI< 

tt  was  one  of  the  deai«stli^«s«0rkb  ywiAl^irtslttdyb  AiIm9S 
m  the  body,  but '  w^hefi  I  w»  fmpuMi^  t»  fess  «v«r  aii»  Sidlf 
jmd  Greece,  tlift  ■KtMBcto^y  w^tttt^gittDft  ^i^ik^  I  recei\^  o<f  die 
civil  commotkfts  k  Ei^kftd  aaife  mt  a^wr  ny  psupose;  fer  I 
tlM«(elK  it  lyase  to  be  travclfit|(  dbradl  >Myk  mf  \ 


INTRaUCVTIOiV.  XXIX 

wore  fighting  for  liberty  at  home^.'  It  may  wdl  be  believed  that 
this  resgnation  of  his  Greek  tour  was  not  the  least  of  the  sacri- 
fices Milton  made  at  the  call  of  Duty.  Such  was  the  fascination 
of  Greek  artistic  form  over  him  that,  as  is  well  known,  his  first 
design  for  his  great  poem  was  formed  on  the  model  of  the  Greek 
drama.  Towards  the  dose  of  his  life  hedid  srplan  and  compose 
his  Samson  Agonistes, 

The  ^^c>/a§7/rtYr  illustrates  the  influence  of  Greece  upon  him  • 
scarcely  less  than  the  Samson  Agonistes.    Its  name  is  Greek,  and 
its  model  was  Greek.     In  the  prose  work,  Isokrates  is  to  the 
aaxtfaor  what  Euripides  was  to  him  in  the  dramatic  poem.    And 
it  is  introduced  with  a  Greek  motto-. 

In  looking  roimd  for  parallels  to  himself,  in  his  oration  to  the 
English  Parliament  in  behalf  of  a  Free  Press,  he  naturally  turned 
Ms  eyes  to  Greece,  and  the  men  who  in  the  days  of  Greece^ 
'profe^  the  study  of  wisdom  and  eiotjuence.'  He  saw  the 
nearest  resemblance  to  his  own  case  in  the  \6yo9^  'ApeoTraytrticoy, 
thcAreopagiticDiscoiurseaf  Isokrates,  and  he  adopted  the  name, 
or  a  mere  variation  of  it*".  It  is  Isokrates  he  means  when  he 
sp^cs  of  him  '  who  from  his  private  house  wrote  that  discourse 
to  the  Fariiament  of  Athens  that  perswades  them  to  change  the 
fcnrm  of  Democracy  which  was  then  established.'  To  this  same 
writer  he  alludes  in  his  Sonnet  to  the  Lady  Margaret  Ley.  The 
Lady  Margarers  fiather,  the  Eari  of  Marlborough,  was  said  to 
have  died  broken-hearted  by  the  dissolution  of  the  Parliament  of 
162^*  (Charies  Fs  third  Parliament),  and  Milton  finds  a  parallel 
in  the  story  that  the  news  of  Philip  of  Macedon's  victory  over 
±e  Atiienians  m  338  B.C  killed  Isokrates.  '  The  good  Earl,'  he 
say%  after  his  leiiiement  from  public  life,  lived  on, 

'  Tht  Second  Deicaace. 

*Bnim  the  Suppiiants  of  Euripities*  a  favourite  author  with  Miiton.  See 
Sigri.  4g:9-4J-  The  reauling*  given  are  such  a&  cmiid  not  be  retained  wheu 
— f t&e  iimcime  of  the  Iamtecwas>  understood.     The  nrst  line  qow  ran&-: 

tfir  tet;.  more  SEOi^actDr  i  y  perhaps : 

*'Slhr  IkifiBnent  wm  dufuived  Match:  no,  i^^S-^*  Loni  !MbtU}oiou^ 
dia<  on  3brdt  C4db. 


XXX  INTRODUCTION, 

'more  in  himself  content, 
Till  the  sad  breaking  of  that  Parliament 

Broke  him  ;    as  that  dishonest  victory 

At  Chaeronea,  fatal  to  liberty, 
Kill'd  with  report  that  old  man  eloquent.' 

This  *  old  man  eloquent '  was  at  the  time  of  his  death  some 
ninety-eight  years  of  age,  being  born  in  436  B.C.  As  a  young 
man  he  had  won  the  highest  praise  from  Sokrates.  See 
Plato's  Phaidros,  279  A,  when,  Lysias  having  been  discussed, 
Phaidros  asks  Sokrates  what  he  has  to  say  for  Isokrates  : — 
AoKei  /iot,  answers  the  Sage,  d/xdvcou  ^  Kara  tovs  nepl  Avcrlau  elvai 
\6yovs  TO.  TTjS  (f)va-€(i)s,  €Ti  T€  TjdeL  yevviKOiTepoi  KeKpaadai'  &(tt€  ov8ev 
av  yevoiTO  OavixacTTOV,  npoLovarjs  tt]s  rj\iKlas  el  nepl  avTovs  re  tovs 
Xoyovs,  ols  vvp  emxeipel,  rrXeov  ^  rraidoiv  dieveyKoi  touv  TrooTroTe 
d\l/ap.€V(ov  Xoyiov,  en  re,  el  avTW  fifj  a'iroxpr](jai  ravra,  iizl  /ue/^o)  be 
Ti9  avTOV  (iyoi  opfxf}  OeLorepa.  (fivcrei  yap,  o)  (f)i\e,  eveaTi  tis  (piXo- 
(Tocf)La  TTJ  rov  dv8p6s  biavoiq.  '  I  think  he  deserves  a  higher  esti- 
mate than  we  have  given  Lysias  as  to  natural  gifts,  and  further 
that  he  is  compounded  with  a  nobler  nature ;  so  that  it  would 
prove  no  wonder,  as  he  advances  in  years,  if  in  respect  of  the 
very  rhetoric,  which  he  now  takes  in  hand,  he  should  excel  all 
who  have  ever  yet  applied  themselves  to  it  as  if  they  were 
scarcely  children  at  it ;  and  further,  should  such  success  not 
suffice  him,  if  a  certain  diviner  impulse  should  lead  him  to  greater 
things  ;  for,  my  friend,  there  is  an  inborn  philosophical  power  in 
his  intellect.'  Isokrates  scarcely  fulfilled  this  high  prophecy  ;  but 
as  a  rhetorician  he  became  supremely  eminent.  Physical  weak- 
ness incapacitated  him  from  the  public  practice  of  his  art ;  but 
he  became  the  most  famous  teacher  of  his  day,  and,  what  more 
nearly  concerns  us,  the  great  composer  of  Reading  Speeches, 
which  enjoyed  a  wide  circulation  throughout  Greece.  Especially 
noticeable  was  he  for  connecting  orator}^  and  politics  ;  for  be- 
fore his  time  the  art  of  speaking,  *  with  the  exception  of  the 
panegyrical  species,  had  hitherto  been  cultivated  chiefly  for  the 
contest  of  the  courts  \' 

The  drift  of  his  Areopagiticos  has  already  been  quoted  from 
Milton  himself.   Its  purpose  was  in  fact  to  bring  back  to  Athens 

*  See  Lewis'  Miiller's  Hist,  of  the  Literature  of  Ancient  Greece,  p.  505. 


INTRODUCTION,        '  xxxi 

the  old  democracy.  It  was  written  *in  the  beginning  of  the 
Philippic  times  \'  at  a  critical  period  in  Attic  history,  r^y  TroXecof 
eV  Kipdvvois  ovaT]S  rj  aipaXepoos  avrrj  twu  Trpayfidrav  KadeaTaroou, 
though  men  shut  their  eyes  to  the  perils  that  encompassed  them- ; 
and  he  urges  that  the  only  way  to  avert  future  dangers,  and  de- 
liver themselves  from  those  already  present,  is  to  resolve  to  recall 
the  democracy,  'which  Solon,  who  proved  so  great  a  friend  of  the 
people  ordained  by  law,  and  Kleisthenes,  who  cast  out  the  tyrants 
and  brought  back  the  people,  once  more  established  afresh.' 
This  was  not  perhaps  the  program  of  a  great  statesman,  but 
rather  of  a  visionary,  or  a  '  professor ' ;  for  decayed  forms  of 
government  are  not  so  easily  recalled  to  life.  Certainly,  the 
wails  of  a  rhetorician  over  the  pulseless  body  have  no  power  to 
re-inspire  it.  Isokrates  proceeds  to  insist  more  particularly  on 
the  revival  and  reinstatement  of  the  Court  of  the  Areopagos  ^, 
and  hence  the  name  of  his  discourse.  He  praises  its  composition, 
and  the  functions  it  exercised,  which  he  sums  up  as  *  the  caring 
for  good  order'  (emueXeladai  ttjs  €VKO(riJt.tas)\ 

Between  this  speech  and  that  of  Milton,  as  respects  subject 
matter,  there  is  clearly  but  a  slight  resemblance  ;  there  is  rather 
an  opposition ;  for  Isokrates  aims  at  recalling  an  interfering 
power,  Milton  at  removing  one.  What  recommended  the  name 
to  Milton  is,  as  has  already  been  remarked,  the  likeness  between 
his  position  and  that  of  the  Greek.  He  too  'wrote'  'from  his 
private  house'  'a  discourse'  on  a  high  political  question.  As 
Isokrates  addressed  the  Boul^,  so  Milton  the  Parliament.  But  it 
cannot  be  said  that  Milton  was  happy  in  christening  his  treatise 
as  he  did.     The  name  is,  and  will  be,  a  perpetual  stumbling- 

^  'EypoKprj  5'  6  \6yos  iv  dpxais  twv  ^iknrmKcjv  xpovojv.  See  the  'TiroOeais 
dvctivvfiov  ypafjL/MTiKov. 

^  EvpicKO}  yap  Tavrrjv  pLov-qv  Lv  yivopLtvqv  Kot  twv  p.€W6vT(uv  Kivbvvoiv 
airoTpoirrjV  Kat  rwv  napovTcav  KaKuiv  dnaWay^v,  i]v  iOiX-qaaipiiv  eKeivrjv  Tr)v 
STjpoKpaTiav  dva\aP(Tv,  -fju  SoAcwj/  pikv  6  drfp.OTiKcoTaTos  yevopLcvos  ivopo- 
6eTT)(r€,  KX(i(t6€vt]s  S'  o  tovs  rvpdvvovs  iK^aXuiv  koX  tuv  bfjpLOV  Karayaywv 
vaKiv  l£  dpxfis  KaTfaTTjfffv.     Isokrates'  Areop.  143  a. 

'  On  the  Areopagos  see  Smith's  Diet,  of  Antiquities ;  Mullet's  Disserta- 
tions on  the  Eunienides  of  Aeschylus;  Hermann's  Manual  of  Grecian 
Antiquities;   Grote's  Greece,  ii.  281,  &c. 

*  See  a  quotation  from  this  same  speech  in  Ascham'f  Scholemaster, 
p.  58,  ed.  Arbcr. 


xxxii  INTRODUCTION. 

block  to  the  Englishman.  How  it  must  have  made,  and  how  it 
makes  now,  the  ordinary  Briton  'stare  and  gasp' !  Itjs  essen- 
tially an  unpopular  title,  and  may  be  taken  as  a  sign  of  Miltoil's 
indifference  to  merely  popular  approval.  He  cared  for  *fit  au- 
dience, though  few'  {Pa7'.  Lost^  vii.  31);  to  *be  heard  only,'  if  it 
might  be,  by  the  *  elegant  and  learned  reader,  to  whom  princi- 
pally for  a  while  I  shall  beg  leave  I  may  address  myself  {Reason 
of  Church  Government,  p.  43  of  Works) ;  to  'have  the  good  wishes 
of  here  and  there  some,' '  by  whom,  ever  so  few  though  they  be, 
I,  for  my  part,  would  rather  be  approved,  than  by  countless  com- 
panies of  unskilled  ones,  in  whom  is  nothing  of  mind,  or  right 
reason,  or  sound  judgment'  (Prolusion  I) ;  'not  to  seduce  the 
simple  and  iUiterate,'  but  'to  find  out  the  choicest  and  the 
learnedest,  who  have  this  high  gift  of  wisdom  to  answer  solidly 
or  to  be  convinced.' 

For  the  rest  there  is  but  little  likeness  between  the  styles  of  the 
two  works.     But  in  this  respect,  too,  a  sharp  contrast, — that  of 
Isokrates  is  exquisitely  refined  and  clear,  the  marble  is  smoothed 
to  the  utmost — '  ne  quid  possit  per  leve  morari.'      The  immense 
care  he  bestowed  upon  the  composition  of  his  orations,  and  the 
time  he  spent  in  working  them  out  and  polishing  them,  may  be 
inferred  from  the  statement  that  he  was  engaged  for  a  period 
of  ten,  and,   according  to   others,  of  fifteen  years   upon   his 
Panegyric  Oration \     The  style  is  the  man,  and  Isokrates'  style 
well  reflects  Isokrates.     Like  our  poet  Pope,  he  says  perspicu- 
ously and  well  what  he  has  to  say,  but  then  it  is  not  so  very  much. 
The  water  is  pellucid,  but  then  it  is  not  deep.     With  Milton 
it  was  far  different.     He  had  more  to  say  than  he  could  say. 
/His  thoughts  rush  upon  him  in  a  throng  that  he  can  at  times 
'scarcely  order  and  control.     His  utterance  is  almost  choked. 
He  brought  to  his  work  an  immense  mass  of  knowledge,  such  as 
won  for  him  the  title  of 'learned'  in  an  age  of  learned  men;  and 
at  the  same  time,  as  we  have  seen,  the  profoundest  depths  of  a 
\  profound  nature  were  stirred  and  moved  by  the  character  of 
I  his   enterprise.      No  wonder  then,  if  at  times  his   eloquence 
i  wellnigh    overmastered    him,    bursting    forth    torrent-like,   or 

^  See  Smith's  larger  Diet,  of  Greek  and  Roman  Biography  and  Mythology, 
s.  V.  '  Isocrates,'  and  the  reference  there  given  to  Quintilian,  x.  4.  4. 


i 


INTRODUCTION.  xxxiii 

flashing  out  in  a  fiery  shower  that  would  not  be  confined.  The 
fact  is  that  for  the  expression  of  such  a  genius  as  that  of 
Milton,  a  genmsso^^uick  and  fertile  by  nature,  so  splen- 
didly cultivated  and  enriched  by  long  and  eager  study,  metre 
was  absolutely  necessary,  not  only  as  its  natural  form  but 
for  the  very  restraints  it  imposed.  He  judged  quite  justly  of 
himself,  when,  called  by  Duty,  as  he  thought,  to  write  prose, 
he  felt  himself  comparatively  inefficient  and  maimed.  'If  1 
were  wise  only  to  mine  own  ends,'  he  wrote,  '  I  should  not 
choose  this  manner  of  writing,  wherein  knowing  myself  mferior 
to  myself,  led  by  the  genial  power  of  nature  to  another  task,  I 
have  the  use,  as  I  may  account,  but  of  my  left  hand\'  It  was 
not  natural  for  him  to  write  in  'the  pedestrian  manner.'  Of  him 
Quintilian's  words  of  Plato  are  true,  but  they  scarcely  say 
enough  :  *  Plato  multo  supra  prosam  orationem  et  quam  pedes- 
trem  {TXi^ov)  Graeci  vocant  surgit.'  Beneathall his  prose  period^ 
the  fire  of  his  poetry  may  be  seen  gleaming,  and  ever  and  anoii 
it Jbtreaks  through  and  blazes,  up  supreme.  It  is  an  incalculable 
loss  to  our  poetical  literature  that  Milton's  part  in  it  is  com- 
paratively so  scanty.  Poetry  was  his  '  calling ' ;  he  had,  in  his 
very  youth,  recognised  it  to  be  so  ;  with  a  singular  devotion  and 
an  unparalleled  industry  he  had  striven  to  ripen  himself  for  his 
work  ;  his  '  clear  spirit '  raised 

'  To  scorn  delights  and  live  laborious  days ; 
But  the  fair  guerdon  when  we  hope  to  find, 
And  think  to  burst  out  into  sudden  blaze. 
Comes  the  blind  Fury.' 

She  came  to  Milton  not  to  *  slit  the  thin-spun  life,'  but  to  ap- 
point him  a  far  different  lot  from  that  of  which  he  had  fondly 
dreamt.  With  '  small  willingness  '  he  ventured  '  to  interrupt  the 
pursuit  of  no  less  hopes  than  these,  and  leave  a  calm  and  pleasing 
solitariness,  fed  with  cheerful  and  confident  thoughts,  to  em- 
bark in  a  troubled  sea  of  noises  and  hoarse  disputes,  put  from 
beholding  the  bright  countenance  of  truth  in  the  quiet  and  still 
air  of  delightful  studies.' 

Occasionally  the  difficulty  found  in  the  style  of  the  Areopagiiica 

^  Reason  of  Church  Government, 


xxxiv  INTRODUCTION, 

'  rs  due  to  Milton's  attempting  a  Greek  arrangement  of  the  words ; 
but,  most  commonly,  it  is  due  to  the  obscurity  to  which  Elizabethan 
Iprose,  with  its  periodic  structure,  was  signally  liable  in  the  hands 
of  a  writer  so  impetuous  and  so  abundant  as  Milton.  In  his  use 
of  this  periodic  structure  Milton  was  no  doubt  encouraged  by  the 
example  of  Isokrates,  who  was  famous  for  his  full-flowing  ex- 
panded  sentences.  '  In  his  earlier  labours,'  says  Mullei^  *  he  took 
as  much  pains  with  this  symmetrical  structure  [the  antithetical, 
previously  most  cultivated]  as  any  Sophist  could  have  done  ;  but 
in  the  more  flourishing  period  of  his  art  he  contrived  to  melt 
down  the  rigidity  and  stiffness  of  the  antithesis,  by  breaking 
through  the  direct  and  immediate  opposition  of  sentences,  and 
by  marshalling  them  in  successive  groups  and  a  longer  series.' 
With  him  the  result,  thanks  partly  to  his  own  nature,  as  we 
have  said  above,  and  partly  to  the  character  of  the  language  in 
which  he  wrote — a  language  in  which,  through  the  variety  of  its 
inflexions,  and,  still  more,  through  its  richness  in  particles,  or 
links  (SeV/Ltot),  as  they  were  called,  complexity  is  possible  with- 
out intricacy — is  not  obscurity  but  cleirness.  With  Milton,  it 
must  be  allowed,  the  danger  of  obscurity  is  not  always  avoided. 
.  The  reader  had  needs  be  careful,  or  he  will  lose  the  main  path, 
and  find  himself  in  what  seems  at  first  a  hopeless  labyrinth.  It 
is  easy,  however,  to  exaggerate  this  peril.  Perhaps  all  that  is 
*  really  needed  by  the  student  is  great  care.  Milton's  periods 
are  not  really  mere  confused  tangles  of  ornate  phraseology,  as 
listening  to  some  critics  one  might  be  led  to  suppose. 
^;,  Milton  is  the  last  great  writer  in  the  old  periodic  style.  Not  a 
greater  change  canje  over  our  poetry  than  over  our  prose  in  the 
latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Dryden's  Essays  differ  in 
style  from  Milton's  pamphlets  as  much  as  his  Fables  from  Para- 
dise Lost.  There  is  no|pne  who  does  not  admire  the  brilliant 
transparency  of  the  style  of  the  later  writer,  and  the  good  ser- 
vice he  did  for  us  in  impressing  that  virtue  upon  our  literature. 
It  would  be  a  narrow  criticism,  that,  fascinated  by  that  sovereign 
charm,  should  fail  to  recognise  what  is  worthy  and  noble  in  the 
older  writer.  Milton's  sentences  possess^iTstately  majesty  that 
belongs  to  a  different  sphere  from  that  which  gave  birth  tc 
Dryden.  * 


INTRODUCTION.  xxxv 

•Another  race  hath  been,  and  other  palms  are  won.' 
*  There  were  giants  in  those  days  ' ;  and  let  not  the  generation 
that  succeeds  disparage  their  mighty  predecessors.    In  a  sense 
Milton  was  the  last  of  the  Titans,  and  his  style  is  Titanic. 

*  Thou  hadst  a  voice  whose  sound  was  like  the  Sea.' 


SECTION  IV.    THE  RESULT. 

It  was  not  till  '  after  many  days ' — not  till  after  his  own  eyes 
were  closed  in  death — that  the  bread  Milton  cast  upon  the  waters  i 
was  seen.    The  Press  was  not  delivered  from  Licensers  till  1694 —  [ 
just  twenty  years  after  the  decease  of  their  great  opponent ;  just 
half  a  century  after  the  publication  of  the  Areopagitica. 

From  the  Presbyterians  indeed,  who  were  in  power  in  1644, 
there  was  nothing  to  be  hoped.  MeivtionJiaaalready^been  made 
of  the  bitter  discovery  which  Milton  and  kindred  free  spiritswere 
to  have  forced  upon  them — that,  in  exchanging  Convocation  fori 
Synod,  they  had  but  substituted  one  tyranny  for  another.  And 
thus^~for  all  the  impassioned  appeals  of  the  Areopagitica^  the 
Parliament  did  not  relax  the  Ordinance,  which  was,  in  fact,  as  we 
have  seen,  but  an  old  Star-Chamber  decree  re-enacted  \  This 
Ordinance  was  in  some  sort  repealed  or  re-inforced  in  1647, 
1649,  ^^*i  1652.  A  warrant  of  Lord-General  Fairfax,  dated 
January  9,  directs  Captain  Richard  Lawrence,  Marshal-General 
of '  the  Army  under  my  command,'  in  virtue  of  the  Parliamen- 
tary Ordinance  of  1649  (dated  January  5),  to  put  in  execution 
the  previous  enacimenis  concerning  '  scandalous  and  unlicensed 
pamphlets.'  The  Marshal- General  is  'required  and  authorized 
to  take  into  custody  any  person  or  persons  who  have  offended 
or  shall  hereafter  offend,  against  the  said  Ordinances,  and  inflict 
upon  them  such  corporal  punishments,  and  levy  such  penalties 
upon  them  for  each  offence,  as  are  therein  mentioned,  and  not 
discharge  them  till  they  have  made  full  payment  thereof,  and 
received  the  said  punishment  accordingly.'  And  he. is  further 
authorized  and  required  to  make  diligent  search  '  from  time  to 
*  See  Kerr's  Blackstonc,  iv.  161,  note;  ScobcU's  Acts  and  Ordinances. 
C   2 


/ 


xxxvi  INTRODUCTION, 

time,  in  all  places  wherein  he  shall  think  meet,  for  all  unlicensed 
printing  presses  any  way  employed  in  printing  scandalous  and 
unlicensed  pap^^pamphlets,  books,  or  ballads,  and  to  search  for 
such  unlicensecfl^lll^apers,  treatises,'  &c.  But  even  in  those 
dark  days  Milton  ^i^^P  at  least  one  convert,  and  we  may  well 
believe  that  throughout  the  country  those  who  had  ears  to  hear 
heard  him,  although  there  might  be  no  public  response.  This 
one  convert  was  one  of  the  Licensers,  Gilbert  Mabbott  by  name. 
When  in  May  1649  ^^  resigned  his  post,  he  gave  reasons  for 
,^his  step  that  were  clearly  derived  from  the  Areopagitica\ 

When  the  Independents  rose  into  power,  though  there  was  no 
formal  repeal  of  the  stringent  ordinances  of  the  Long  Parliament, 
yet  they  were  no  longer  executed,  at  least  so  far  as  matters  of 
religious  opinion  were  concerned,  with  the  rigour  their  prede- 
cessors had  practised,  or  desired.    The  office  of  Licenser  fell  into 
^  abeyance.     Religious  tolerance  had  long  been  the  watchword 
/of  the  Independents,  and  it  redounds  to  their  glory  that  they 
did  not,  after  attaining  power,  discredit  the  professions  they  had 
made  when  smarting  under  the  coercions  of  others.     It  is  true 
that  their  notion  of  tolerance  was  imperfect,  as  indeed  was 
ythat  of  Milton  and  of  Jeremy  Taylor  ;  that  they  excepted  Roman 
(Catholics  ;  that  they  once  or  twice  inflicted  punishment  on  anti- 
Vrinitarians ;  that  they  ordered  certain  blasphemous  books  to  be 
burned  ;  that  they  prohibited  the  Episcopalian  worship.    Some- 
thing might  readily  be  said  by  way  of  apology  for  these  de- 
flections from  the  highest  ideal.     But  this  defence  unattempted, 
it  remains  true  that  they  were  the  first  party  in  England,  perhaps 
in  Europe,  that  distinctly  professed  the  principle  of  religious 
toleration  as  a  practical  principle  of  their  politics,  and  that  after 
-  i^he  overthrow  of  the  Presbyterians  they  adhered  in  success  to 
-'the  creed  of  their  adversity.     With  regard  to  political  writings 
during  the  Commonwealth,  the  peculiar  position  of  the  govern- 
ment must  be  remembered.    It  is  clear  that  a  free  political  Press 
j  is  not  easily  compatible  with  a  rule  that  is  not  firmly  based  on 
I  the  national  consent.     And,  however  decidedly  we  may  reject 
the  old  royalist  legends   of  Cromwell's*  selfish   ambition   and 

'  See  Birch's  Life  of  Milton.     Birch  quotes  from  '  A  Perfect  Diurnal  of 
some  Passages  in  Parliament,'  &c.,  No.  304,  for  May,  21-29,  1649. 


INTRODUCTION.  xxxvii 

remorseless  tyranny, — to  whatever  degree  we  may  sympathize 
with  Milton's  admiration  for 

•  Our  chief  of  men,  who  through  a  cloud 
Not  of  war  only,  but  detractions  rude, 
Guided  by  faith  and  matchless  fortitude, 
To  peace  and  truth  thy  glorious  way  hast  plough'd, 
And  on  the  neck  of  crowned  Fortune  proud 

Hast  rear'd  God's  trophies,  and  His  work  pursu'd,' — 

whatever  pride  we  may  take  in  his  foreign  policy,  that  made 
the  English  name  respected  and  potent  throughout  Europe  as 
scarcely  ever  before  or  since, — yet  it  must  be  confessed  that 
the  Protector  governed  a  reluctant  people,  and  was  encom- 
passed at  home  by  discontents  and  threatenings  and  treacheries. 
Not  all  his  merits  could  overcome  the  enormous  difficulties  of 
the  situation  :  for  partly  they  were  not  recognised  at  all ;  partly 
they  were  in  the  eyes  of  a  great  mass  of  the  nation  more  than 
counterbalanced  by  what  were  thought  to  be  egregious  errors 
and  defects.  Hence,  in  mere  self-defence,  it  seemed  that  private 
presses  could  not  be  allowed,  and  that  allowed  presses  must  be 
regulated.  It  was  ordered  in  October  1653  (some  two  months 
before  the  Protectorate  was  formally  established)  that  no  person 
should  presume  to  publish  in  print  any  matter  of  public  news 
or  intelligence  without  leave  and  approbation  of  the  Secretary 
of  State. 

A  government  obnoxious  to  the  prejudices  of  the  country,  and 
that  could  not  with  safety  to  itself  permit  political  matters  to  be 
freely  discussed,  could  not  be  expected  to  stand.  When  the 
strong  hand  of  Cromwell  was  relaxed  by  death,  there  was  no 
vital  force  left  in  the  political  system  he  had  organized  ;  and 
after  nine  months  of  imminent  chaos  the  nation,  whose  loyalty 
had  never  expired,  but  had  of  late  years  burned  fervently,  how- 
ever silently,  turned  once  more  to  its  old  traditions. 

With  the  Restoration  the  old  regime  was  for  the  most  part 
revived.  It  was  even  proposed  by  some  ardent  spirits  to  recall 
the  Star  Chamber  into  life  ;  but,  wild  as  was  the  reactionary 
enthusiasm  of  the  day,  they  failed  to  achieve  such  a  dismal  re- 
surrection. But  the  old  restrictions  of  the  Press  were  once 
more  rigorously  enforced.     In  1662  the  office  of  Licenser  was 


xxxviii  INTRODUCTION, 

revived,  the  Judges,  certain  officers  of  state,  and  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  being  appointed  to  supervise  various  depart- 
ments of  literature.  In  1663  Roger  L'Estrange  was  appointed 
Licenser — an  appointment  he  seems  to  have  held,  possibly  with 
an  intermission,  till  the  Revolution,  when  he  was  succeeded  by 
one  Fraser,  who,  probably  for  some  negligence  in  the  discharge 
of  his  functions — it  is  said  for  having  allowed  to  be  printed  Dr. 
Walker's  True  Account  of  the  Author  of  Eikon  Basilike — was 
presently  dismissed,  when  Edmund  Bohun,  a  Suffolk  justice, 
took  his  place.  Bohun  was  to  be  the  last  of  the  Licensers,  for 
the  system  had  entered  upon  its  last  generation  when  it  was 
reinstituted  by  Charles  IL 

The  Act  of  1662^  was,  in  short,  but  a  new  version  of  the 
previous  parliamentary  ordinances  ;  and  a  proclamation  was 
issued  'for  suppressing  the  printing  and  pubhshing  unlicensed 
news-books  and  pamphlets  of  news,  because  it  has  become  a 
common  practice  for  evil-disposed  persons  to  vend  to  his  Ma- 
jesty's people  all  the  idle  and  malicious  reports  that  they  could 
collect  or  invent,  contrary  to  law ;  the  continuance  whereof 
would,  in  a  short  time,  endanger  the  peace  of  the  kingdom  ;  the 
same  manifestly  tending  thereto,  as  has  been  declared  by  all 
his  Majesty's  subjects  unanimously.'  L'Estrange,  himself  a 
virulent  pamphleteer  and  acrid  journalist  both  before  and  after 
the  Restoration,  was  not  idle  in  his  office  ;  and  so  our  literature, 
under  his  dictatorship,  was  subjected  to  perpetual  mutilation. 
*The  sponge^'  was  ever  in  his  hand,  and  he  slurred  and  rubbed 
without  compunction.  Out  of  many  instances  of  the  manner  in 
which  this  censorial  jurisdiction  was  exercised  by  him,  or  by  his 
assessors,  Milton  himself  may  be  cited.  It  appears  that  Para- 
dise Lost  was  itself  in  danger.  The  suspicious  eye  of  the 
licenser — the  Rev.  Thomas  Tomkyns,  one  of  the  chaplains  of 
Archbishop  Sheldon— had  lighted  upon  certain  lines  in  Book  I ; 
see  594-600. 

*As  when  the  sun  new  ris'n 
Looks  through  the  horizontal  misty  air 
Shorn  of  his  beams,  or  from  behind  the  moon 
In  dim  eclipse  disastrous  twilight  sheds 

»  13  and  14  Car.  II.  c.  33.  «  See  p.  la. 


INTRODUCTION.  xxxix 

On  half  the  nations,   and  with  fear  of  change 
Perplexes  monarchs.     Dark'n'd  so,  yet  shone 
Above  them  all  th'  Archangel.' 

The  sensitive  royalist,  it  is  said,  smelt  treason  in  this  mention 
of  monarchs  perplexed  with  fear  of  change,  and  pondered 
whether  he  should  not  suppress  the  whole  work,  though  indeed 
a  free  excision  might  have  satisfied  the  requirements  of  the  case. 
That  he  permitted  to  pass  unchallenged  other  passages  of  the 
poem,  as  1. 497-502,  VII.  23-38,  XII.  13-104,  may  perhaps  excite 
surprise.  Possibly  he  may  have  thought  it  not  worth  his  while 
to  revise  too  severely  a  work  that  seemed  so  little  in  harmony 
with  the  taste  of  the  time,  and  therefore  so  little  likely  to  enjoy 
any  wide  popularity.  In  the  case  of  another  of  his  writings 
Milton  did  not  escape  so  easily.  His  History  of  Britain  actually 
suffered  laceration.  Several  passages,  describing  the  pride  and 
superstition  of  the  'Saxon'  monks  were,  it  is  said,  taken  to  be 
aimed  at  the  prelates  of  his  own  time,  and  were  accordingly 
expunged.  If  this  was  his  interpretation,  the  licenser  blundered 
oddly,  for  the  passages  certainly  portray  the  Long  Parliament 
and  the  Assembly  of  Divines.  The  current  story  may  not  per- 
haps do  the  licenser  justice.  According  to  Richardson  the 
passages  had  been  excised  '  as  being  a  sort  of  digression,  and  in 
order  to  avoid  giving  offence  to  a  party  quite  subdued,  and  whose 
faults  the  government  were  then  willing  to  have  forgotten.'  The  - 
licenser  might  expunge,  but  he  could  not  destroy  them.  'Milton 
gave  a  copy  of  the  proscribed  remarks  to  the  Earl  of  Anglesea, 
which  were  published  in  1681,  with  a  preface  declaring  that 
they  originally  belonged  to  the  third  book  of  his  history,  and 
they  are  now  found  in  their  proper  placed'  Thus  Milton  suffered 
himself  the  degradation  he  mentions  with  such  keen  abhorrence 
in  the  AreopagiticaP- .  Amongst  the  many  bitternesses  his  great 
heart  was  destined  to  know,  in  the  course  of  his  vexed  life,  this 
assuredly  was  not  the  least.  Not  to  be  counted  'fit  to  print  his 
mind  without  a  tutor  and  examiner,'  was,  he  held,  '  the  greatest 

'  See  Todd's  Milton's  Poetical  Works,  i.  209,  ed.  1826. 

*  See  the  passage  in  Prose  Works,  502-504.  It  begins,  *  Of  those  who 
iwayed  most  in  the  late  troubles,'  &c.;  and  ends,  '  which  give  us  matter  of 
this  digression.' 


xl  INTRODUCTION. 

displeasure  and  indignity  to  a  free  and  knowing  spirit  that  can 
be  put  upon  him.'  One  may  imagine  the  profound  contempt, 
and  also  the  sad  anguish — one  may  scorn  one's  foes,  but  yet 
their  arrows  pierce  us — with  which,  in  his  retired  house  in 
Artillery  Walk,  he  would  hear  of  the  insolent  scrutinies  of  the 
precious  life-blood  of  his  '  master  spirit,'  with  whose  embalming 
and  treasuring  up  on  purpose  to  a  life  beyond  life,  coarse 
hands  were  thus  rudely  interfering^ 

The  Act  of  1662  expired  in  1679.  It  was  formally  renewed  in 
1685*,  and  continued  till  1692.  In  1692  it  was  re-enacted  for  two 
more  years.  When  it  lapsed  in  1694  it  lapsed  for  ever,  in  spite 
of  various  advocacies  and  clamours  repeated  from  time  to  time. 

In  his  account  of  the  final  extinction  in  1694  of  a  power  so 
formidable  and  so  perilous,  Macaulay  well  points  out  how 
quietly  and  unobservedly  it  happened.  When  the  question  was 
put  in  the  House  of  Commons  '  That  the  House  do  agree  with 
the  Committee  on  the  Resolution  that  the  Act,  entitled  an  Act 
for  preventing  Abuses  in  printing  Seditious,  treasonable,  and  un- 
licensed Pamphlets,  and  for  regulating  of  Printing  and  Printing 
Presses  be  continued,'  '  the  Speaker  pronounced  that  the  Noes 
had  it,'  and  the  Ayes  did  not  think  fit  to  divide.  The  Lords, 
indeed,  proposed  to  continue  it ;  but  when  the  Commons 
presently  set  forth  their  objections  in  a  paper  delivered  to  the 
Lords,  and  these  objections  all  related  to  matters  of  detail,  being 
many  of  them  what  Milton  would  have  called  'arguments  of 
merchandize,'  *  the  Lords  yielded  without  a  contest.' 

'  The  Lords  yielded  without  a  contest.  They  probably  ex- 
pected that  some  less  objectionable  bill  for  the  regulation  of  the 
press  would  soon  be  sent  up  to  them,  and,  in  fact,  such  a  bill  was 
brought  into  the  House  of  Commons,  read  twice,  and  referred  to 
a  Select  Committee.  But  the  Session  closed  before  the  Com- 
mittee had  reported,  and  English  literature  was  emancipated, 
and  emancipated  for  ever,  from  the  control  of  the  Government^' 

In  subsequent  years — in  1697,  in  1703,  in  17 13 — the  subject 
was  again  mooted,  for  there  were  not  wanting  outside  the  walls 
of  Parliament  those  who  called  upon  the  House  to  re-impose 

'  See  p.  6.  *   See  Macaulay  s  Hist,  of  England,  ii.  162,  ed.  1861. 

^  Ibid.  vii.  169,  cd.  i86i. 


INTRODUCTION,         '  xli 

the  old  restraints.  Thus  there  appeared  a  Modest  Plea  for  the 
Due  regulation  of  the  Press,  in  Answer  to  reasons  lately 
printed  against  it,  humbly  submitted  to  the  judgment  of  au- 
thority, by  Francis  Gregory,  D.D.,  and  Rector  of  Hambledon,  in 
the  County  of  Bucks  :  London,  1698' ;  'A  Letter  to  a  Member 
of  Parliament  showing  the  Necessity  of  regulating  the  Press  : 
Oxford,  1699^';  and  other  similar  appeals.  But  they  were 
made  in  vain.  In  later  times  there  have  been  some  who  have 
sighed  or  cried  aloud  for  the  old  supervision,  or,  at  least,  have 
been  prone  to  believe  that  the  absence  of  it  begat  not  so  much 
liberty  as  license.  Thus  Hume  writes  of  the  event  of  1694, 
projecting,  it  may  be  thought,  his  own  views  into  his  account 
of  it  :— 

*To  the  great  displeasure  of  the  King  and  his  Ministers,  who 
seeing  nowhere,  in  any  Government  during  present  or  past  ages, 
any  example  of  such  unlimited  freedom,  doubted  much  of  its 
salutary  effects,  and  probably  thought  that  no  books  or  writings 
would  ever  so  much  improve  the  general  understanding  of  men 
as  to  render  it  safe  to  entrust  them  with  an  indulgence  so  easily 
abused.' 

*  And  the  present  moment,'  remarks  the  author  of  the  Curiosities 
of  Literature^  first  published  1791-1817,  after  quoting  the  above 
words,  'verifies  the  prescient  conjecture  of  the  philosopher. 
Such  is  the  licentirusness  of  our  press  that  some,  not  perhaps 
the  most  hostile  to  the  cause  of  freedom,  would  not  be  averse 
to  manacle  authors  once  more  with  an  Imprimatur.' 

And  so  there  will  be  always  some  who  will  forget,  under  the 
pressure  of  certain  disadvantages,  all  the  blessings  that  a  Free 
Press  has  conferred  upon  us,  who,  in  the  sun,  will  see  nothing 
but  spots,  or,  in  the  spring  time,  a  mere  carnival  of  east 
winds.  Moreover,  is  the  abuse  of  a  thing  to  be  truly  and  per- 
manently cured  by  restraining  the  use  of  it  ?  If  a  man  handles 
his  sword  awkwardly,  so  that  he  wounds  his  friends  and  himself 
rather  than  the  enemy,  will  his  dexterity  be  improved  by  taking 
his  weapon  from  him  ?  Or  shall  we  not  better  teach  him  a 
more  judicious  management  t 

*  The  pamphlet  especially  referred  to  is  •  A  Letter  to  a  Member  of 
Parliament,  showing  that  a  restraint  on  the  Press  is  inconsistent  with  the 
Protestant  religion,  and  dangerous  to  the  liberties  of  the  nation.' 


xlii  INTRODUCTION, 

But,  to  return  to  the  Areopagitica,  it  may  appear  perhaps, 
from  the  account  given  above  of  the  end  of  Press-licensing,  that 
Milton  did  little  or  nothing  towards  the  achievement  of  it,  inas- 
much as  the  general  question  with  which  his  work  deals  was  not 
at  all  discussed  when  that  end  came.  But  it  would  be  rash  for 
this  reason  to  conclude  that  Milton  spent  his  strength  for 
nought.  It  is,  in  fact,  impossible  to  estimate  what  the  influence 
of  his  discourse  may  have  been  between  1644  and  1694.  The 
influence  of  a  book  is  not  to  be  judged  so  much  by  the  quantity, 
as  by  the  quality,  of  its  readers.  And  one  can  scarcely  doubt 
that  the  words  of  the  Areopagitica  sank  deep  into  the  hearts  of 
the  better  spirits  of  the  time.  To  them  it  was  addressed,  and 
only  to  them  was  it  fully  intelligible.  It  could  not  be  expected 
to  have  a  large  general  circulation,  but  it  was  held  a  sovereign 
work  in  its  own  sphere.  It  was  regarded  as  a  central  spring,  to 
which  others  might  resort. 

*  Hither  as  to  their  fountain  other  stars 
Repairing,  in  their  urns  draw  golden  light.' 

We  have  noticed  its  influence  upon  Mabbott ;  and  so  in  other 
cases  we  find  its  arguments  reproduced.  Thus  a  pamphlet 
called  'A  Just  Vindication  of  Learning,  or  an  Humble  Address 
to  the  High  Court  of  Parliament  in  behalf  of  the  Liberty  of  the 
Press,  by  Philopatris  :  London,  1679,'  is  neither  more  nor  less 
than  a  mutilated  copy  of  the  Ai'eopagitica.  A  work  entitled 
*  Reasons  humbly  offered  for  the  Liberty  of  Unlicensed  Printing, 
1693,'  is  simply  an  abridgment  of  it. 

Nor  is  our  estimate  of  the  result  of  the  Areopagitica  to  be 
limited  by  the  year  1694.  All  that  it  had  to  teach  was  not 
finally  taught  when  the  licensing  system  formally  ceased ;  nor 
was  it  then  to  be  thrown  away,  like  a  ticket  that  has  served  its 
purpose.  It  was  published  separately  in  1738,  in  1772,  in  1792, 
in  1819,  in  1868  ;  with  the  'Tractat  of  Education'  in  1780;  with 
other  tracts  in  1809.  Mirabeau's  tract,  '  Sur  la  Liberty  de  la 
Presse,'  1788,  is  merely  a  reproduction  of  it.  'Le  titre  de  ce 
morceau  tres  singulier,  ou  j'ai  suivi  de  beaucoup  plus  pr^s  mon 
Auteur  que  ne  voudront  le  croire  ceux  qui  ne  consulteront  pas 
Toriginal,  et  ou  j'ai  plutot  retranch^  qu'ajoutd ;  ce  titre  est : 


INTRODUCTION,  xliii 

Areopagitica  :  A  Speech  for  the  Liberty  of  Unlicens'd  Printing; 
to  the  Parliament  of  England  ^' 

Lastly,  our  judgment  of  what  power  the  Areopagitica  has 
exercised  in  the  world  must  not  confine  itself  to  the  Printing 
Press  and  its  history  ;  for  the  work  is  indeed  not  only  a  mag- 
nificent protest  in  behalf  of  unlicensed  books,  but  an  immortal 
defence  of  Free  Thought.  Jeremy  Taylor's  Liberty  of  Pro- 
phesying^ Locke's  Letters  on  Toleration^  John  Stuart  Mill's 
Liberty — these  are  works  of  no  temporary  and  transient  value, 
however  they  may  have  been  called  forth  by  passing  circum- 
stances ;  and  amongst  these,  and  not  the  least  amongst  them, 
is  to  be  ranked  the  Areopagitica.  It  is  inspired  by  the  very 
spirit  of  freedom.  It  is  the  own  voice  of  a  mind  resolute  to  be 
free  and  fetterless,  and  to  dare  usurpation  to  its  face. 


SECTION  V.    THE  PRESENT  EDITION. 

The  text  of  the  present  edition  is  that  of  the  original  edition 
of  1644,  with  only  one  intentional  difference,  viz.  ivarfaring^  foi 
wayfarings  on  p.  18  ;  on  which  see  the  note.  It  was  printed  in 
the  first  instance  from  Mr.  Arber's  Reprint,  and  then  collated 
with  the  1644  edition,  of  which  Mr.  Arber's  reprint  was  found 
to  be  an  extremely  faithful  reproduction,  the  corrections  that 
had  to  be  made  being  very  few  and  very  slight. 

For  the  rest,  I  have  to  express  great  obligations  to  Holt 
White's  edition  of  18 19,  as  indeed  every  one  must  who  studies 
the  Areopagitica.  His  'Prefatory  Remarks,  Copious  Notes,  and 
Excursive  Illustrations,'  are  a  very  storehouse  of  information,  of 
which  frequent  mention  is  made  in  the  Notes,  where  I  have,  I 
believe,  always  acknowledged  any  debt  incurred  in  this  and  all 
other  cases.  Next  in  value  to  Holt  White's  volume  is  Mr. 
Lobb's  '  Modern  Version  of  Milton's  Areopagitica,  with  Notes, 
Appendix,  and  Tables  :  Calcutta,  1872.'  Possibly  enough,  if 
Mr.  Lobb  designed  his  work  for  Indian  readers,  he  was  right  in 
translating  the  original  into  modern  English  ;  but  there  can 
scarcely  be  any  Englishmen  who  would  accept  Mr.  Lobb's 
'  See  Buckle's  Civilization,  ii.  225. 


xliv  INTRODUCTION. 

version,  however  vigorously  executed,  in  exchange  for  Milton's 
own.  The  notes  contain  much  valuable  matter  ;  it  is  a  pity  they 
are  not  made  more  accessible  by  a  better  arrangement.  '  Mil- 
ton's Areopagitica,  a  Commentary,'  privately  printed,  by  Mr.  R. 
C.  Jebb,  the  Public  Orator  of  Cambridge,  for  a  copy  of  which  I 
have  to  thank  the  author,  contains  some  excellent  suggestions. 
There  is  also  an  edition  by  Mr.  T.  G.  Osborn,  Head  Master  of 
New  Kingswood  School,  Bath,  with  some  notes  that  are  'mainly 
taken  from  sources  obvious  and  easily  accessible  and  make  no 
pretensions  to  original  or  extensive  research.' 

Lastly,  I  must  do  myself  the  pleasure  of  thanking  my  friend, 
Mr.  Skeat,  the  well-known  Old  English  scholar,  for  various 
valuable  suggestions.  I  have  also  to  thank  for  sundry  kind 
services  the  Rev.  G.  W.  Kitchin,  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford  ; 
Professor  Morley,  University  College,  and  Dr.  Morris,  King's 
College  School,  London  ;  Professor  Seeley,  Cambridge ;  and 
Professor  Ward,  Owens  College,  Manchester. 

I  Oppidans  Road,  Primrose  Hill,  London: 
August  1st,  1874. 

In  the  second  issue  of  '  the  present  edition '  certain  misprints 
have  been  corrected,  one  or  two  notes  withdrawn  as  un- 
necessary, and  a  few  additions  made. 

I  had  intended  to  add  some  remarks  on  the  fact  that  Milton 
himself,  after  writing  this  '  discourse,'  acted  as  a  Licenser  of  the 
Press.  But  the  urgent  demand  for  this  edition  leaves  no  time 
now  for  this  consideration. 

I  may  just  say  that  though  I  have  given  here  the  original  or- 
thography, I  am  by  no  means  of  opinion  this  should  always  be 
done  in  reprinting  old  books  for  school  or  for  general  use.  Mr. 
R.  C.  Browne,  in  his  well-known  useful  edition  of  Milton's 
English  Poems,  has,  I  do  not  doubt,  acted  judiciously  in  moder- 
nising the  spelling.  But  it  will  be  allowed  that  occasionally  an 
exacter  reproduction  should  be  given  ;  and  here  is  one. 
Oct.  8,  1878. 


INTRODUCTION,  xlv 

This  Third  Edition  is  a  mere  reprint  of  the  Second. 

I  had  intended  to  consider  here  at  some  length  the  fact 
hastily  mentioned  in  the  Preface  to  the  Second  Edition — that 
Milton  himself,  after  writing  this  '  discourse,'  acted  as  a  Licen- 
ser of  the  Press.  But  this  fact  is  so  fully  discussed  by  Pro- 
fessor Masson  in  the  fourth  volume,  pp.  324-335,  and  pp.  432, 
433,  of  his  exhaustive  and  invaluable  work  '  The  Life  of  Milton 
in  Connexion  with  the  History  of  his  Time,'  that  little  remains 
to  be  said,  or  rather,  if  one  went  into  the  subject,  one  could 
only  repeat  what  has  been  already  written  :  therefore  I  will 
merely  briefly  state  how  the  case  really  stood,  referring  the 
reader  for  an  ampler  account  to  Professor  Masson's  volume. 

Milton  acted  as  a  *  Licenser  of  the  Press,'  merely  so  far  as 
this  :  he  was  for  a  time — from  the  beginning  of  the  year  165 1 
to  the  beginning  of  1652 — connected  as  a  sort  of  supervisor 
with  one  of  the  current  journals  published  in  the  interest  of  the 
Commonwealth.  Each  one  of  these  organs  had  a  censor 
attached  to  it.  The  Several  Proceedings  in  Parliament  was 
inspected,  so  to  speak,  and  allowed  by  Mr.  Henry  Scobell,  the 
Clerk  of  the  Parliament ;  A  Perfect  Diurnall  of  some  Passages 
of  the  ArtnieSj  by  Mr.  John  Rush  worth,  the  Army  Secretary; 
A  Brief e  Relation  of  Some  Affairs  and  Transactions ^  by  Mr. 
Gualter  Frost,  the  General  Secretary  of  the  Council  of  State. 
And  just  in  the  same  way  the  Mercurius  Politicus  was  en- 
trusted to  the  discretion  of  Mr.  John  Milton,  Latin  Secretary 
to  the  Council  for  their  Letters  to  foreign  Princes  and  States. 

There  is  no  sign  of  Milton's  acting  as  a  Press-licenser  in  any 
other  way.  He  was  'often  employed  to  report  on  papers  or 
pamphlets  after  they  were  published ' — to  officially  review  them 
in  fact ;  but  not  to  authorize  or  license  them. 

It  thus  appears  that  Milton's  'licensing'  meant  little,  or 
nothing,  more  than  acting  as  a  superior — a  final — editor  to  one 
of  the  newspapers  issued  by  the  party  to  which  he  belonged. 
We  presume  that  the  unfriendliest  eye  could  scarcely  discover 
in  such  a  function  anything  irreconcilable  with  the  views  so 
nobly  and  ardently  asserted  in  the  Areopagitica 
Kmo^s  College,  London, 
')an.  7,  1882. 


AREOPAGITICA. 


AREOPAGITICA. 


Jfor   tfje   ILibevtg   of  unU'cenc'lf   printing. 

•  They  who  to  States  and  Governours  of  the  Common- 
wealth direct  their  Speech,  High  Court  of  Parlament,  or 
wanting  such  accesse  in  a  private  condition,  write  that 
which  they  foresee   may   advance   the   publick  good,  I 

5  suppose  them,  as  at  the  beginning  of  no  meane  en- 
deavour, not  a  little  alter'd  and  mov'd  inwardly  in  their 
mindes:  some  with  doubt  of  what  will  be  the  successe, 
others  with  feare  of  what  will  be  the  censure ;  some 
with   hope,  others  with  confidence   of  what   they  have 

loto  speake.  vAnd  me  perhaps  each  of  these  disposi- 
tions, as  the  subject  was  whereon  I  enter'd,  may  have 
at  other  times  variously  affected  \  and  likely  might  in 
these  formost  expressions  now  dso  disclose  which  of 
them  sway'd  most,  but  that  the  very  attempt  of  this  ad- 

15  dresse  thus  made,  and  the  thought  of  whom  it  hath  re- 
course to,  hath  got  the  power  within  me  to  a  passion, 
farre  more  welcome  then  incidentall  to  a  Preface.  Which 
though  I  stay  not  to  confesse  ere  any  aske,  I  shall  be 
blamelesse,  if  it  be  no  other  then  the  joy  and  gratulation 

20  which   it  brings   to    all   who   wish    and   promote   their 

Countries  liberty ;  whereof  this  whole  Discourse  propos'd 

will  be  a  certaine  testimony,  if  not  a  Trophey.     For  this 

is  not  the  liberty  which  wee  can  hope,  that  no  grievance 

B 


3  AREOPAGITICA. 

ever  should  arise  in  the  Commonwealth,  that  let  no  man 
in  this  World  expect;  but  when  complaints  are  freely 
heard,  deeply  considered,  and  speedily  reform'd,  then  is 
the  utmost  bound  of  civill  liberty  attain'd,  that  wise 
5  men  looke  for.  To  which  if  I  now  manifest  by  the  very 
sound  of  this  which  I  shall  utter  that  wee  are  already  in 
good  part  arriv'd,  and  yet  from  such  a  steepe  disadvantage 
of  tyranny  and  superstition  grounded  into  our  principles 
as  was  beyond  the  manhood  of  a  Ro?na7i  recovery,  it 

I  o  will  bee  attributed  first,  as  is  most  due,  to  the  strong 
assistance  of  God  our  deliverer,  next  to  your  faithfull 
guidance  and  undaunted  Wisdome,  Lords  and  Commons 
oi  England.  Neither  is  it  in  Gods  esteeme  the  diminu- 
tion of  his  glory,  when  honourable  things  are  spoken  of 

15  good  men  and  worthy  Magistrates ;  which  if  I  now  first 
should  begin  to  doe,  after  so  fair  a  progresse  of  your 
laudable  deeds,  and  such  a  long  obligement  upon  the 
whole  Realme  to  your  indefatigable  vertues,  I  might  be 
justly  reckn'd  among  the  tardiest  and  the  unwillingest 

20  of  them  that  praise  yee.  Neverthelesse  there  being 
three  principall  things,  without  which  all  praising  is  but 
Courtship  and  flattery.  First,  when  that  only  is  prais'd 
which  is  solidly  worth  praise :  next,  when  greatest  likeli- 
hoods are  brought  that  such  things  are  truly  and  really 

25  in  those  persons  to  whom  they  are  ascrib'd :  the  other, 
when  he  who  praises,  by  shewing  that  such  his  actual! 
perswasion  is  of  whom  he  writes,  can  demonstrate  that 
he  flatters  not,  the  former  two  of  these  I  have  hereto- 
fore  endeavour'd,  rescuing   the   employment   from   him 

30  who  went  about  to  impaire  your  merits  with  a  triviall  and 

%^  malignant  Encomiuin^;  the  latter  as  belonging  chiefly  to 
mine  owne  acquittal!,  that  whom  I  so  extoll'd  I  did  not 
flatter,  hath  been  reserv'd  opportunely  to  this  occasion. 


AREOPAGITICA.  3 

For  he  who  freely  magnifies  what  hath  been  nobly  done, 
and  fears  not  to  declare  as  freely  what  might  be  done  ^  ^^,.\ 
better,  gives  ye  the  best  cov'nant  of  his  jQ^elity,  and  I  ' 
that  his  loyalest  affection  and  his  hope  waits  on  your 
5  proceedings.  His  highest  praising  is  not  flattery,  and 
his  plainest  advice  is  a  kinde  of  praising;  for  though  I 
should  affirme  and  hold  by  argument,  that  it  would  fare 
better  with  truth,  with  learning,  and  the  Commonwealth, 
if  one  of  your  publisht  Orders  which  I  should  name,  were 

locall'd  in,  yet  at  the  same  time  it  could  not  but  much 
redound  to  the  lustre  of  your  milde  and  equall  Govern- 
ment, when  as  private  persons  are  hereby  animated  to 
thinke  ye  better  pleas' d  with  publick  advice  then  other 
statists    have    been    delighted    heretofore   with    publicke 

15  flattery.  And  men  will  then  see  what  diff"erence  there 
is  between  the  magnanimity  of  a  trienniall  Parlament 
and  that  jealous  hautinesse  of  Prelates  and  cabin  Coun- 
sellours  that  usurpt  of  late,  when  as  they  shall  observe 
yee  in  the  midd'st  of  your  Victories  and  successes  more 

ao  gently  brooking  writt'n  exceptions  against  a  voted  Order 
then  other  Courts,  which  had  produc't  nothing  worth 
memory  but  the  weake  ostentation  of  wealth,  would  have 
endur'd  the  least  signifi'd  dislike  at  any  sudden  Procla- 
mation.    If  I  should  thus  farre  presume  upon  the  meek 

»5  demeanour  of  your  civill  and  gentle  greatnesse.  Lords 
and  Commons,  as  what  your  publisht  Order  hath  directly 
said,  that  to  gainsay,  I  might  defend  my  selfe  with  ease, 
if  any  should  accuse  me  of  being  new  or  insolent,  did 
they  but  know  how  much  better  I  find  ye  esteem  it  to 

30  imitate  the  old  and  elegant  humanity  of  Greece  then  the 
barbarick  pride  of  a  Hunnish  and  Norwegian  state-lines. 
And  out  of  those  ages,  to  whose  polite  wisdom  and 
letters  we  ow  that  we  are  not  yet  Gothes  and  lutlanders, 

B  2 


4  AREOPAGITICA. 

I  could  name  him  who  from  his  private  house  wrote 
that  discourse  to  the  Parlament  of  Athens,  that  per- 
swades  them  to  change  the  forme  of  Democraty  which 
was  then  establisht.      Such  honour  was  done  in  those 

5  dayes  to  men  who  profest  the  study  of  wisdome  and  elo- 
quence, not  only  in  their  own  Country,  but  in  other 
Lands,  that  Cities  and  Siniories  heard  them  gladly  and 
with  great  respect,  if  they  had  ought  in  publick  to 
admonish  the  State.     Thus  did  Dion  Prusaeus  a  stranger 

10  and  a  privat  Orator  counsell  the  Rhodians  against  a 
former  Edict:  and  I  abound  with  other  like  examples, 
which  to  set  heer  would  be  superfluous.  But  if  from 
the  industry  of  a  life  wholly  dedicated  to  studious  labours, 
and  those  naturall  endowments  haply  not  the  worst  for 

35  two  and  fifty  degrees  of  northern  latitude,  so  much  must 
be  derogated  as  to  count  me  not  equall  to  any  of  those 
who  had  this  priviledge,  I  would  obtain  to  be  thought 
not  so  inferior  as  your  selves  are  superior  to  the  most  of 
them  who  receiv'd  their  counsell:   and  how  farre  you 

20  excell  them,  be  assur'd,  Lords  and  Commons,  there  can 
no  greater  testimony  appear  then  when  your  prudent 
spirit  acknowledges  and  obeyes  the  voice  of  reason  from 
what  quarter  soever  it  be  heard  speaking;  and  renders 
ye  as  willing  to  repeal  any  Act  of  your  ewn  setting  forth 

25  as  any  set  forth  by  your  Predecessors. 

If  ye  be  thus  resolv'd,  as  it  were  injury  to  thinke  ye 
were  not,  I  know  not  what  should  withhold  me  from 
presenting  ye  with  a  fit  instance  wherein  to  shew  both 
that  love  of  truth  which  ye  eminently  professe,  and  that 

30  uprightnesse  of  yotir  judgement  which  is  not  wont  to 
be  partiall  to  your  selves,  by  judging  over  again  that 
Order  which  ye  have  ordain'd  to  regulate  Printing :  That 
no  Book,  pamphlet,  or  paper  shall  he  henceforth  Printed^ 


AREOPAGITICA.  5 

unksse  the  same  be  first  approved  and  licenct  by  such,  or  at 
least  one  of  such  as  shall  be  thereto  appointed.  For  that 
part  which  preserves  justly  every  mans  Copy  to  himselfe, 
or  provides  for  the  poor,  I  touch  not,  only  wish  they  be 

5  not  made  pretenses  to  abuse  and  persecute  honest  and 
painfull  Men,  who  offend  not  in  either  of  these  particu- 
lars. But  that  other  clause  of  Licencing  Books,  which 
we  thought  had  dy'd  with  his  brother  quadragesimal  and 
matrimonial  when  the  Prelats  expir'd,  I  shall  now  attend 

lo  with  such  a  Homily  as  shall  lay  before  ye,  first  the  in-  (T: 
ventors  of  it  to  bee  those  whom  ye  will  be  loath  to  own  ; 
next  what  is  to  be  thought  in  generall  of  reading,  what  \r/ 
ever  sort  the  Books  be ;  and  that  this  Order  avails  no-   ; 
thing  to  the   suppressing  of  scandalous,  seditious,  and 

15  libellous  Books,  which  were  mainly  intended  to  be  sup- 
I)rest;    last,  that  it  will  be   primely  to  the  discourage- vjj^' 
ment  of  all  learning,  and  the  stop  of  Truth,  not  only  by 
the  disexercising  and  blunting  our  abilities  in  what  we 
know  already,  but  by  hindring  and  cropping  the  discovery 

20  that  might  bee  yet  further  made  both  in  religious  and 
civill  Wisdome. 

I  deny  not  but  that  it  is  of  greatest  concernment, 
the  Church  an^  Commonwealth,  to  have  a  vigilant; 
how  Bookes  de^eihe  "tlMfeselves  as  well  as  men ; 

25  thereafter  to  confine,  imprison,  and  do  sharpest  justicL^—^^ 
on  them  as  malefactors : JFor  Books  are  not  absolutely  \^^\a 
'dead'things,  but  doe  contain  a  potencie  of  life  in  them     aiA* 
to  be  as  active  as  that  soule  was  whose  progeny  they  are ; 
nay,  they  do  preserve  as  in  a  violl  the  purest  efficacie 

30  and  extraction  of  that  living  intellect  that  bred  them. 
I  know  they  are  as  lively,  and  as  vigorously  productive, 
as  those  fabulous  Dragons  teeth ;  and  being  sown  up 
and  down,  may  chance  to  spring  up  armed  men.     And 


yt^/^^^ 


f 


6  AREOPAGITICA. 

yet  on  the  other  hand,  unlesse  warinesse  be  us'd,  as  good 
almost  kill  a  Man  as  kill  a  good  Book  j  who  kills  a  Man 
kills  a  reasonable  creature,  Gods  Image;  but  hee  who 
destroyes  a  good  Booke,  kills  reason  it  selfe,  kills  the 

5  Image  of  God  as  it  were  in  the  eye.  Many  a  man  lives 
a  burden  to  the  Earth ;  but  a  good  Booke  is  the  pretious 
life-blood  of  a  master  spirit,  imbalm'd  and  treasur'd  up 
on  purpose  to  a  life  beyond  life.  'Tis  true,  no  age  can 
restore  a  life,  whereof  perhaps  there  is  no  great  losse ; 

o  and  revolutions  of  ages  doe  not  oft  recover  the  losse  of 
a  rejected  truth,  for  the  want  of  which  whole  Nations 
fare  the  worsor  We  shouIdT)e  ^^itarylheretore  what  per- 
secution we  raise  against  the  living  labours  of  publick 
men,  how  we  spill  that  season'd  life  of  man  preserv'd 

IS  and  stor'd  up  in  Books;  since  we  see  a  kinde  of  homicide 
may  be  thus  committed,  sometimes  a  martyrdome,  and 
if  it  extend  to  the  whole  impression,  a  kinde  of  massacre, 
whereof  the  execution  ends  not  in  the  slaying  of  an  ele- 
mentall  life,  but  strikes  at  that  ethereall  and  fift  essence, 

20  the  breath  of  reason  it  selfe,  slaies  an  immortality  rather 
then  a  life.  But  lest  I  should  be  condemned  of  intro- 
ducing licence,  while  I  oppose  Licencing,  I  refuse  not 
the  paines  to  be  so  much  Historicall  as  will  serve  to 
shew  what  hath  been  done  by  ancient  and  famous  Com- 

25  monwealths  against  this  disorder,  till  the  very  time  that 
this  project  of  licencing  crept  out  of  the  Inquisition,  was 
catcht  up  by  our  Prelates,  and  hath  caught  some  of  our 
Presbyters. 

In  Athens  where  Books   and  Wits  were  ever  busier 

othen  in  any  other  part  of  Greece,  I  finde  but  only  two 
sorts  of  writings  which  the  Magistrate  car'd  to  take  no- 
tice of:  those  either  blasphemous  and  Atheisticall,  or 
Libellous.     Thus  the  Books  of  Protagoras  were  by  the 


AREOPAGITICA,  7 

Judges  of  Areopagus  commanded  to  be  burnt,  and  him- 
selfe  banisht  the  territory,  for  a  discourse  begun  with 
his  confessing  not  to  know  whether  there  were  gods^  or 
whether  not:  And  against  defaming,  it  was  decreed  that 
5  none  should  be  traduc'd  by  name,  as  was  the  manner 
of  Vetus  Co?noedia,  whereby  we  may  guesse  how  they 
censur'd  hbelling:  And  this  course  was  quick  enough, 
as  Cicero  writes,  to  quell  both  the  desperate  wits  of 
other  Atheists,  and  the  open  way  of  defaming,  as  the 

I  o  event  shew'd.  Of  other  sects  and  opinions  though 
tending  to  voluptuousnesse  and  the  denying  of  divine 
providence  they  tooke  no  heed.  Therefore  we  do  not 
read  that  either  Epicurus,  or  that  libertine  school  of 
Cyre?ie,  or  what  the  Cytiick  impudence  utter'd,  was  ever 

15  questioned  by  the  Laws.  Neither  is  it  recorded  that  the 
writings  of  those  old  Comedians  were  supprest,  though 
the  acting  of  them  were  forbid;  and  that  Plato  com- 
mended the  reading  oi  Aristophanes  the  loosest  of  them 
all  to  his  royall  scholler  Dionysius,  is  commonly  known, 

20  and  may  be  excus'd,  if  holy  Chrysostome,  as  is  reported, 
nightly  studied  so  much  the  same  Author  and  had  the 
art  to  cleanse  a  scurrilous  vehemence  into  the  stile  of  a 
rousing  Sermon.  That  other  leading  City  of  Greece^ 
Lacedaemon,  considering  that  Lycurgus  their  Law-giver 

25  was  so  addicted  to  elegant  learning  as  to  have  been 
the  first  that  brought  out  of  Ionia  the  scatter'd  workes 
of  Horner^  and  sent  the  Poet  Thales  from  Greet  to  pre- 
pare and  mollifie  the  Spartan  surlinesse  with  his  smooth 
songs  and  odes,  the  better  to  plant  among  them  law 

30  and  civility,  it  is  to  be  wonder'd  how  museless  and  un- 
bookish they  were,  minding  nought  but  the  feats  of 
Warre.  There  needed  no  licencing  of  Books  among 
them,  for  they  dislik'd  all  but  their  owne  Laconick  Apo- 


8  AREOPAGITICA, 

ihegmSj  and  took  a  slight  occasion  to  chase  Archtlochus 
out  of  their  City,  perhaps  for  composing  in  a  higher 
straine  then  their  owne  souldierly  ballats  and  roundels 
could  reach  to ;  Or  if  it  were  for  his  broad  verses,  they 

5  were  not  therein  so  cautious  but  they  were  as  dissolute 
in  their  promiscuous  conversing;  whence  Euripides  af- 
firmes  in  Andromache,  that  their  women  were  all  un- 
chaste. Thus  much  may  give  us  light  after  what  sort 
Bookes  were  prohibited  among  the  Greeks.      The  Ro- 

lomans  also  for  many  ages  train'd  up  only  to  a  military 
roughnes,  resembling  most  of  the  Lacedaemonian  guise, 
knew  of  learning  little  but  what  their  twelve  Tables, 
and  the  Pontifick  College  with  their  Augurs  and  Flamins 
taught  them  in  Religion  and  Law,  so  unacquainted  with 

15  other  learning  that  when  Carneades  and  Criiolaus  with 
the  Stoick  Diogenes,  comming  Embassadors  to  Rome, 
tooke  thereby  occasion  to  give  the  City  a  tast  of  their 
Philosophy,  they  were  suspected  for  seducers  by  no  lesse 
a  man  then  Cato  the  Censor,  who  mov'd  it  in  the  Senat 

20  to  dismisse  them  speedily,  and  to  banish  all  such  Attick 
bablers  out  of  Italy.  But  Scipio  and  others  of  the 
noblest  Senators  withstood  him  and  his  old  Sahin  aus- 
terity ;  honour'd  and  admir'd  the  men ;  and  the  Censor 
himself  at  last  in  his  old  age  fell  to  the  study  of  that 

25  whereof  before  hee  was  so  scrupulous.     And  yet  at  the 

'  same  time  Naevius  and  Plautus  the  first  Latine  come- 
dians had  fill'd  the  City  with  all  the  borrow'd  Scenes  of 
Menander  and  Philemo7t.  Then  began  to  be  considered 
there  also  what  was  to  be  don  to  libellous  books  and 

30  Authors ;  for  Naevius  was  quickly  cast  into  prison'"  for 
his  unbridl'd  pen,  and  releas'd  by  the  Tribunes  upon  his 
recantation;  We  read  also  that  libels  were  burnt,  and 
the  makers  punisht  by  Augustus,     The  like  severity  no 


AREOPAGITICA.  9 

doubt  was  us'd  if  ought  were  impiously  writt'n  against 
their  esteemed  gods.  Except  in  these  two  points,  how 
the  world  went  in  Books,  the  Magistral  kept  no  reck- 
ning.  And  therefore  Lucretius  without  impeachment 
5  versifies  his  Epicurism  to  Memmius,  and  had  the  honour 
to  be  set  forth  the  second  time  by  Cicero  so  great  a 
father  of  the  Commonwealth ;  although  himselfe  disputes 
against  that  opinion  in  his  own  writings.  Nor  was  the 
Satyricall  sharpnesse,  or  naked  plainnes  of  Lucilius^  or 

10  Catullus,  or  Flaccus,  by  any  order  prohibited.  And  foi 
matters  of  State,  the  story  of  Titius  Livius,  though  it 
extoll'd  that  part  which  Pompey  held,  was  not  therefore 
supprest  by  Octavius  Caesar  of  the  other  Faction.  But 
that  Naso  was  by  him  banisht  in  his  old  age  for  the 

15  wanton  Poems  of  his  youth,  was  but  a  meer  covert  of 
State  over  some  secret  cause;  and  besides,  the  Books 
were  neither  banisht  nor  call'd  in.  From  hence  we  shall 
meet  with  little  else  but  tyranny  in  the  Roman  Empire, 
that  we  may  not  marvell  if  not  so  often  bad  as  good 

20  Books  were  silenc't.  I  shall  therefore  deem  to  have 
bin  large  anough  in  producing  what  among  the  ancients 
was  punishable  to  write,  save  only  which  all  other  argu- 
ments were  free  to  treat  on. 

By  this  time  the  Emperours  were  become  Christians, 

25  whose  discipline  in  tliis  point  I  doe  not  finde  to  have 
bin  more  severe  then  what  was  formerly  in  practice. 
The  Books  of  those  whom  they  took  to  be  grand  Here- 
ticks  were  examin'd,  refuted,  and  condemn'd  in  the 
generall  Councels ;    and   not   till  then  were   prohibited, 

30  or  burnt  by  autority  of  .the  Emperor.  As  for  the 
writings  of  Heathen  authors,  unlesse  they  were  plaine 
invectives  against  Christianity,  as  those  of  Porpliyrius 
and  ProcluSj  they  met  with   no   interdict   that   can   be 


lO  AREOPAGITICA. 

cited  till  about  the  year  400  in  a  Carthaginian  Councel, 
wherein  Bishops  themselves  were  forbid  to  read  the 
Books  of  Gentiles,  but  Heresies  they  might  read  :  while 
others  long  before  them  on  the  contrary  scrupl'd  more 
5  the  Books  of  Hereticks  then  of  Gentiles.  And  that 
the  primitive  Councels  and  Bishops  were  wont  only  to 
declare  what  Books  were  not  commendable,  passing  no 
furder,  but  leaving  it  to  each  ones  conscience  to  read 
or  to  lay  by,  till  after  the  year  800,  is  observ'd  already  by 

\o  Padre  Paolo  the  great  unmasker  of  the  Trentine  Councel. 
After  which  time  the  Popes  of  Rome,  engrossing  what 
they  pleas'd  of  Politicall  rule  into  their  owne  hands, 
extended  their  dominion  over  mens  eyes,  as  they  had 
before  over  their  judgements,  burning  and   prohibiting 

15 to  be  read  what  they  fansied  not;  yet  sparing  in  their 
censures,  and  the  Books  not  many  which  they  so  dealt 
with ;  till  Martin  the  5.  by  his  Bull  not  only  prohibited, 
but  was  the  first  that  excommunicated  the  reading  of 
hereticall  Books ;  for  about  that  time  Wicklef  and  Husse 

20  growing  terrible  were  they  who  first  drove  the  Papall 
Court  to  a  stricter  policy  of  prohibiting.  Which  cours 
Leo  the  10  and  his  successors  follow'd,  untill  the  Coun- 
cell  of  Trent  and  the  Spanish  Inquisition  engendring 
together    brought    forth    or    perfeted    those    Catalogues 

25  and  expurging  Indexes  that  rake  through  the  entrails 
of  many  an  old  good  Author  with  a  violation  wors  then 
any  could  be  ofifer'd  to  his  tomb.  Nor  did  they  stay 
in  matters  Hereticall,  but  any  subject  that  was  not  to 
their   palat    they  either  condemn'd  in  a  prohibition,  or 

30  had  it  strait  into  the  new  Purgatory  of  an  Index.  To 
fill  up  the  measure  of  encroachment,  their  last  inven- 
tion was  to  ordain  that  no  Book,  pamphlet,  or  paper 
should  be  Printed  (as  if  S.  Peter  had  bequeath'd  them 


AREOPAGITICA.  II 

the  keys  of  the  Presse  also  out  of  Paradise)  unlesse  it 
were  approv'd  and  Hcenc't  under  the  hands  of  2  or  3 
glutton  Friers.     For  example  : 

Let  the  Chancellor  Ctni  be  pleas'd  to  see  if  in  this 
5  present  work  be  contain'd  ought  that  may  withstand  the 
Printing, 

Vincent  Rabatta  Vicar  of  Florence. 

I  have  seen  this  present  work,  and  finde  nothing  athwart 
the  Catholick  faith  and  good  manners;  In  witnesse  whereof 
10 1  have  given,  &c. 

Nicolb  Cini,  Chancellor  of  Florence. 

Attending  the  precedent  relation,  it  is  allow'd  that  this 
present  work  of  Davanzaii  may  be  Printed, 

Vincent  Rabatta,  &c. 
15     It  may  be  Printed,  July  15. 

Friar  Simon  Mompei  d' Amelia  Chancellor  of 
the  holy  office  in  Florence. 

Sure  they  have  a  conceit,  if  he  of  the  bottomlesse  pit  had 
not  long  since  broke  prison,  that  this  quadruple  exorcism 
20  would  barre  him  down.  I  feare  their  next  designe  will 
be  to  get  into  their  custody  the  licencing  of  that  which 
they  say  ^  Claudius  intended,  but  went  not  through  with. 
Voutsafe  to  see  another  of  their  forms  the  Roman  stamp : 

Imprimatur,  If  it  seem  good  to  the  reverend  Master  of 
35  the  holy  Palace, 

Belcastro,  Viceregent. 
Imprimatur, 

Friar  Nicolb  Rodolphi  Master  of  the  holy  Palace. 
Sometimes  5  Imprimaturs  are  seen  together  dialoguewise  in 

•  Quo  veniam  daret  flatum  crepitnmque  ventris  in  convivio  emittendi. 
Sueton.  in  Claudio. 


12  AREOPAGITICA. 

the  Piatza  of  one  Title  page,  complementing  and  ducking 
each  to  other  with  their  shav'n  reverences,  whether  the 
Author,  who  stands  by  in  perplexity  at  the  foot  of  his 
Epistle,  shall  to  the  Presse  or  to  the  spunge.     These  are 

5  the  prety  responsories,  these  are  the  deare  Antiphonies  that 
so  bewitcht  of  late  our  Prelats  and  their  Chaplaines  with 
the  goodly  Eccho  they  made ;  and  besotted  us  to  the  gay 
imitation  of  a  lordly  Imprimatur^  one  from  Lambeth 
house,  another  from  the  West  end  of  Pauls ;  so  apishly 

10  Romanizing  that  the  word  of  command  still  was  set 
downe  in  Latine ;  as  if  the  learned  Grammaticall  pen 
that  wrote  it,  would  cast  no  ink  without  Latine;  or 
perhaps,  as  they  thought,  because  no  vulgar  tongue  was 
worthy  to  expresse  the  pure  conceit  of  an  Imprimatur ; 

15  but  rather,  as  I  hope,  for  that  our  English,  the  language 
of  men  ever  famous  and  formost  in  the  achievements  of 
liberty,  will  not  easily  finde  servile  letters  anow  to  spell 
such  a  dictatorie  presumption  English.  And  thus  ye  have 
the   Inventors  and  the  originall  of  Book-licen^ilig  ript 

fup,  and  drawn  as  lineally  as  any  pedigree.  \We  have\ 
it  not,  that  can  be  heard  of,  from  any  ancient  State,     \ 
or  politic,  or  Church,  nor  by  any  Statute  left  us  by  our      11 
Ancestors,  elder  or  later;  nor  from  the  moderne  custom     / 
y    of  any  reformed  Citty,  or  Church  abroad ;  but  from  the    / 
V^ost   Antichristian   Councel,   and   the   most    tyrannous  / 

Inquisition  that  ever  inquir'd.  tTh  then  iJookswere 
V*rvcr"as  Ireely  admitted  irlto  tKe  World  as  any  other 
birth;  the  issue  of  the  brain  was  no  more  stifl'd  then 
the  issue  of  the  womb ;  no  envious  Juno  sate  cros-leg'd 
30 over  the  nativity  of  any  mans  intellectual  off- spring; 
but  if  it  prov'd  a  Monster,  who  denies  but  that  it  was 
justly  burnt,  or  sunk  into  the  Sea.  But  that  a  Book, 
in  wors   condition   then   a   peccant   soul,  should  be  to 


AREOPAGTTTCA.  13 

Stand  before  a  Jury  ere  it  be  borne  to  the  World,  and 
undergo  yet  in  darknesse  the  judgefnent  of  Radamanth 
and  his  Colleagues,  ere  it  can  passe  the  ferry  backward 
into  light,  was  never  heard  before,  till  that  mysterious 
5  iniquity,  provokt  and  troubl'd  at  the  first  entrance  of 
Reformation,  sought  out  new  limbo's  and  new  hells 
wherein  they  might  include  our  Books  also  within  the 
number  of  their  damned.  And  this  was  the  rare  morSell 
so  officiously  snatcht  up   and  so  ilfavourdly  imitated  by 

10  our  inquisiturient  Bishops  and  the  attendant  minorites 
their  Chaplains.  That  ye  like  not  now  these  most 
certain  Authors  of  this  licencing  order,  and  that  all 
sinister  intention  was  farre  distant  from  your  thoughts, 
when  ye  were  importun'd  the  passing  it,  all  men  who 

15  know  the  integrity  of  your  actions,  and  how  ye  honour 
Truth,  will  clear  yee  readily. 

But  some  will  say,  what  though  the  Inventors  were 
bad,  the  thing  for  all  that  may  be  good?  It  may  so; 
yet  if  that  thing  be  no  such  deep  invention,  but  obvious, 

20  and  easie  for  any  man  to  light  on,  and  yet  best  and 
wisest  Commonwealths  through  all  ages  and  occasions 
have  forborne  to  use  it,  and  falsest  seducers  and  op- 
pressors of  men  were  the  first  who  tooke  it  up,  and  to 
no  other  purpose  but  to  obstruct  and  hinder  the  first 

25  approach  of  Reformation,  I  am  of  those  who  beleeve 
it  will  be  a  harder  alchymy  then  Lullius  ever  knew, 
to  sublimat  any  good  use  out  of  such  an  invention. 
Yet  this  only  is  what  I  request  to  gain  from  this  reason, 
that  it  may  be  held  a  dangerous  and  suspicious  fruit, 

30  as  certainly  it  deserves,  for  the  tree  that  bore  it,  untill 
I  can  dissect  one  by  one  the  properties  it  has.  But  I 
have  first  to  finish  as  was  propounded,  what  is  to  be 
thought  in  generall  of  reading  Books,  what  ever  sort 


14  AREOPAGITICA, 

they  be,  and  whether  be  more  the  benefit  or  the  fiarm 
that  thence  proceeds  ? 

Not  to  insist  upon  the  examples  of  Moses,  Daniel 
and  Paul,  who  were  skilfull  in  all  the  learning  of  the 
5  Egyptians,  Caldeans,  and  Greeks,  which  could  not 
probably  be  without  reading  their  Books  of  all  sorts, 
in  Paul  especially,  who  thought  it  no  defilement  to 
insert  into  holy  Scripture  the  sentences  of  three  Greek 
Poets    and    one    of   them    a   Tragedian,   the    question 

lowas  notwithstanding  sometimes  controverted  among  the 
Primitive  Doctors,  but  with  great  odds  on  that  side 
which  affirm'd  it  both  lawfuU  and  profitable,  as  was 
then  evidently  perceiv'd,  when  Julian  the  Apostat  and 
suttlest  enemy  to  our  faith  made  a   decree  forbidding 

IS  Christians  the  study  of  heathen  learning;  for,  said  he, 
they  wound  us  with  our  own  weapons,  and  with  our 
owne  arts  and  sciences  they  overcome  us.  And  indeed 
the  Christians  were  put  so  to  their  shifts  by  this  crafty 
means,  and  so  much  in  danger  to  decline  into  all  igno- 

20  ranee,  that  the  two  Apollinarii  were  fain  as  a  man 
may  say  to  coin  all  the  seven  liberall  Sciences  out 
of  the  Bible,  reducing  it  into  divers  forms  of  Orations, 
Poems,  Dialogues,  ev'n  to  tRe  calculating  of  a  new 
Christian  Grammar.     But  saith  the  Historian  Socrates : 

35  The   providence   of  God  provided  better  then  the   in- 
dustry of  Apollinarius  and  his  son  by  taking  awa^ 
illiter^tJaw   with  ^JJie_  lijeof  him  who   devis'd   it.l    So 

I    great  an   injury   they  then  held   it   to    De   deprtv'a    of 

\    He^ 

jounc 


Hellenick  learning;  and  thought  it  a  persecutionmor^ 
JO  undermining  and  secretly  decaying  thfe  Church  lEeii  the 
open  cruelty  of  Decius  or  Dioclesian.  And  perhaps  it 
was  the  same  politick  drift  that  the  Divell  whipt  St.  Jerom 
in  a  lenten  dream,  for  reading  Cicero ;    or  else  it  was  a 


AREOPAGTTICA.  1 5 

fantasm  bred  by  the  feaver  which  had  then  seis'd  him. 
For  had  an  Angel  bin  his  discipliner,  unlesse  it  were 
for  dwelling  too  much  upon  Ciceronianisms,  and  had 
chastiz'd  the  reading,  not  the  vanity,  it  had  bin  plainly 
5  partiall,  first,  to  correct  him  for  grave  Cicero,  and  not 
for  scurrill  Plautus  whom  he  confesses  to  have  bin 
reading  not  long  before,  next,  to  correct  him  only, 
and  let  so  many  more  ancient  Fathers  wax  old  in  those 
pleasant  and  florid   studies  without  the  lash  of  such  a 

10 tutoring  apparition;,  insomuch  that  Basil  teaches  how 
some  good  use  may  be  made  of  Margites  a  sportfull 
Poem,  not  now  extant,  writ  by  Homer;  and  why  not 
then  of  Morgajiie  an  Italian  Romanze  much  to  the 
same  purpose  ?    But  if  it  be  agreed  we  shall  be  try'd  by 

15  visions,  there  is  a  vision  recorded  by  Eusehius  far  an- 
cienter  then  this  tale  oi  Jerom  to  the  nun  Eusiochium^ 
and  besides  has  nothing  of  a  feavor  in  it.  Dionysius 
Alexandrinus  was  about  the  year  240  a  person  of  great 
name  in   the   Church   for  piety  and  learning,   who  had 

20  wont  to  avail  himself  much  against  hcreticks  by  being 
conversant  in  their  Books;  untill  a  certain  Presbyter 
laid  it  scrupulously  to  his  conscience,  how  he  durst 
venture  himselfe  among  those  defiling  volumes.  The 
worthy  man  loath  to  give  ofi'ence  fell  into  a  new  de- 

25  bate  with  himselfe  what  was  to  be  thought ;  when  sud- 
denly a  vision  sent  from  God,  it  is  his  own  Epistle 
that  so  averrs  it,  confirm'd  him  in  these  words:  Read 
any  books  what  ever  come  to  thy  hands,  for  thou  art 
sufiicient  both   to  judge   aright    and   to   examine   each 

30  matter.  To  this  revelation  he  assented  the  sooner,  as 
he  confesses,  because  it  was  answerable  to  that  of  the 
Aposde  to  the  Thessalonians :  Prove  all  things,  hold 
fast  that  which  is   good.     And  he   might   have   added 


1 6  AREOPAGITICA. 

another  remarkable  saying  of  the  same  Author :  To  the 
'pure  all  things  are  pure,  not  only  meats  and  drinks,  but 
all  kinde  of  knowledge  whether  of  good  or  evill;  the 
knowledge  cannot  defile,  nor  consequently  the  books, 
5  if  the  will  and  conscience  be  not  defil'd.  For  books 
are  as  meats  and  viands  are,  some  of  good,  some  of 
evill  substance;  and  yet  God  in  that  unapocryphalJ 
vision  said  without  exception.  Rise  Peter^  kill  and  eat, 
leaving   the   choice   to   each   mans   discretion.     Whole- 

losome  meats  to  a  vitiated  stomack  differ  little  or  nothing 
from  unwholesome ;  and  best  books  to  a  naughty  mind 
are  not  unappliable  to  occasions  of  evill.  Bad  meats 
will  scarce  breed  good  nourishment  in  the  healthiest 
concoction;    but  herein  the  difference  is  of  bad  books, 

15  that  they  to  a  discreet  and  judicious  Reader  serve  in 
many  respects  to  discover,  to  confute,  to  forewarn,  and 
to  illustrate.  Wherof  what  better  witnes  can  ye  expect 
I  should  produce  then  one  of  your  own  now  sitting 
in   Parlament,   the   chief   of   learned    men    reputed    in 

20  this  Land,  Mr.  Selden,  whose  volume  of  naturall  and 
national  laws  proves,  not  only  by  great  autorities 
Irought  together,  but  by  exquisite  reasons  and  theorems 
^Imost  mathematically  demonstrative,  that  all  opinions, 
ea,  errors,  known,  read,  and  collated,  are  of  main  ser- 

2  yice  and  assistance  toward  the  speedy  attainment  of 
^hat  is  truest.  I  conceive  therefore,  that  when  God 
did  enlarge  the  universall  diet  of  mans  body,  saving 
ev^er  the  rules  of  temperance,  he  then  also,  as  before, 
left  arbitrary  the  dyeting  knd  repasting  of  our  minds; 

30  as  wherein  every  mature  man  might  have  to  exercise  his 
owne  leading  capacity.  How  great  a  vertue  is  tem- 
perance, how  much  of  moment  through  the  whole  life 
of  man  1    yet  God  committs  the  managing  so  great  a 


I 


AREOPAGITICA.  1 7 

trusty  without  particular  Law  or  prescription,  wholly  to 
the  demeanour  of  every  grown  man.  And  therefore 
when  he  himself  tabl'd  the  Jews  from  heaven,  that 
Omer  which  was  every  mans  daily  portion  of  Manna  is 

5  computed  to  have  bin  more  then  might  have  welLsuffic'd 
'th6  heartiest  feeder  thrice  as  »many  meals,  j  For  those 
ictions,  which  enter   into  a  man  rather  then  issue  out 
of  him  and  therefore  defile  not,  God  uses  not  to  caj 
bvat   under  a   perpetuall  childhood  of  prescription,^ 

1 0 tnistg4tkB^with^t]l£--fflfc-ef-rcubUii  to  be  liib  uwji  di( 
there  were  but  little  work  left  for  preaching,  if  law  and 
compulsion  show^  grow  so  fast  upon  those  things  which 
hertofore  were  govern'd  only  by  exhortation.  Salomoji 
informs  us  that  much  reading  is  a  wearines  to  the  flesh ; 

15  but  neither  he  nor  other  inspir'd  author  tells  us  that 
such  or  such  reading  is  unlawfull:  yet  certainly  had 
God  thought  good  to  limit  us  herein,  it  had  bin  much 
more  expedient  to  have  told  us  what  was  unlawfull 
then  what  was  wearisome.     As  for  the  burning  of  those 

aoEphesian  books  by  St.  Pauls  converts,  tis  reply'd  the 
books  were  magick,  the  Syriack  so  renders  them.  It 
was  a  privat  act,  a  voluntary  act,  and  leaves  us  to 
a  voluntary  imitation;  the  men  in  remorse  burnt  those 
books  which  were  their  own ;    the  Magistrat  by  this  ex- 

25  ample  is  not  appointed ;  these  men  practiz'd  the  books, 
another  might  perhaps  have  read  them  in  some  sort  use- 
fully. Good  and  evill  we  know  in  the  field  of  this  World 
grow  up  together  almost  inseparably;  and  the  knowledge 
of  good  is  so  involv'd  and  interwoven  with  the  know- 

30  ledge   of  evill  and   in,  so  many  cunning   resemblances 
hardly  to  be  discern'd,  that  those  confused  seeds,  which 
were  impos'd  on  Psyche  as  an  incessant  labour  to  cull 
*  Read  '  should.* 

c 


1 8  AREOPAGITICA, 

out  and  sort  asunder,  were  not  more  intermixt.  It 
was  from  out  the  rinde  of  one  apple  tasted  that  the 
knowledge  of  good  and  evill  as  two  twins  cleaving  to- 
gether leapt  forth  into  the  World.     And  perhaps  this   is 

5  that  doom  which  Adam  fell  into  of  knowing  good  and 
evill,  that  is  to  say  of  J^nowing  good  by  evill.  As 
therefore  the  state  of  man  now  is,  what  wisdome  can 
there  be  to  choose,  what  continence  to  forbeare  with- 
out the   knowledge   of  evill?    He  that    can   apprehend 

4  and  consider  vice  with  all  her  baits  and  seeming  plea- 
sures, and  yet  abstain,  and  yet  distinguish,  and  yet  pre- 
fer that  which  is  truly  better,  he  is  the  true  wayfaring  ^ 
Christian.  I  cannot  praise  a  fugitive  and  cloister' d 
\ertue,   unexercis'd    and  unbreath'd,    that   never   sallies 

15  out  and  sees  her  adversary,  but  slinks  out  of  the  race, 
where  that  immortall  garland  is  to  be  run  for  not 
without  dust  and  heat.  Assuredly  we  bring  not  inno- 
cence into  the  world,  we  bring  impurity  much  rather: 
that  which  purifies  us  is   triallj  anjl.^tiiaU„.is.^bjrwhat  is 

20  contrary.  That  vertue  therefore  which  is  but  a  young- 
ling in  the  contemplation  of  evill,  and  knows  not  the 
utmost  that  vice  promises  to  her  followers,  and  rejects 
it,  is  but  a  blank  vertue,  not  a  pure ;  her  whitenesse  is 
but  an  excrementall  whitenesse ;    Which  was  the  reason 

25  why  our  sage  and  serious  Poet  Spencer^  whom  I  dare 
be  known  to  think  a  better  teacher  then  Scotus  or 
Aquinas,  describing  true  temperance  under  the  person 
of  Guion,  brings  him  in  with  his  palmer  through  the 
cave  of  Mammon  and  the  bowr  of  earthly  blisse,  that 

30  he  might  see  and  know,  and  yet  abstain.  Since  there- 
fore the  knowledge  and  survay  of  vice  is  in  this  world 
so  necessary  to  the  constituting  of  human  vertue,  and 
^  Read  '  warfaring'?    See  note. 


AREOPAGITICA.  19 

the  scanning  of  error  to  the  confirmation  of  truth,  how 
can  we  more  safely  and  with  lesse  danger  scout  into 
the  regions  of  sin  and  falsity  then  by  reading  all  man- 
ner of  tractats,  and  hearing  all  manner  of  reason  ?  And 
5  this  is  the  benefit  which  may  be  had  of  books  promis- 
cuously read.  But  jofj.he_  harm  that  .may.,xes.ult.iience 
three  kinds  are  usually  reckn'd:if£  First,  is  fear'd  the 
infection  that  may  spread ;  but  then  all  human  learning 
and  controversie  in  religious   points   must    remove  out 

10  of  the  world,  yea,  the  Bible  it  selfe;  for  that  oftimes 
relates   blasphemy   not   nicely,   it   describes   the   carnal! 

.  sense  of  wicked  men  not  unelegantly,  it  brings  in 
holiest  men  passionately  murmuring  against  providence 
through  all  the  arguments  of  Epicurus :    in  other  great 

15  disputes  it  answers  dubiously  and  darkly  to  the  com- 
mon reader:  And  ask  a  Talmudest  what  ails  the 
modesty  of  his  marginall  Keri,  that  Moses  and  all  the 
Prophets  cannot  perswade  him  to  pronounce  the  tex- 
tuall  Chetiv.      For  these  causes  we  all  know  the  Bible 

20  it  selfe  put  by  the  Papist  into  the  first  rank  of  prohi- 
bited books.  The  ancientest  Fathers  must  be  next 
removed,  as  Clement  of  Alexandria^  and  that  Eusehian 
book  of  Evangelick  preparation,  transmitting  our  ears 
through   a   hoard   of  heathenish   obscenities   to   receive 

25  the  Gospel  Who  finds  not  that  Irenaeus,  Epiphanius, 
Jerom,  and  others  discover  more  heresies  then  they 
well  confute,  and  that  oft  for  heresie  which  is  the  truer 
opinion?  Nor  boots  it  to  say  for  these,  and  all  the 
heathen   Writers   of    greatest   infection,   if    it   must    be 

3c  thought  so,  with  whom  is  bound  up  the  life  of  human 

learning,  that  they  writ  in  an  unknown  tongue,  so  long 

as  we  are  sure  those  languages  are  known  as  well  to 

the  worst  of  men,  who  are  both  most  able  and  most 

c  2 


20  AREOPAGITTCA. 

diligent  to  instill  the  poison  they  suck,  first  into  the 
Courts  of  Princes,  acquainting  them  with  the  choicest 
delights  and  criticisms  of  sin.  As  perhaps  did  that 
Petronius  whom  Nero  call'd  his  Arbiter^  the  Master  of 
5  his  revels ;  and  that  notorious  ribald  of  Arezzo,  dreaded, 
and  yet  dear  to  the  Italian  Courtiers.  I  name  not  him 
for  posterities  sake,  whom  Harry  the  8.  nam'd  in  merri- 
ment his  Vicar  of  hell.  By  which  compendious  way  all 
the  contagion  that  foreine  books  can  infuse  will  finde  a 

10  passage  to  the  people  farre  easier  and  shorter  then  an 
Indian  voyage,  though  it  could  be  sail'd  either  by  the 
North  of  Cataio  Eastward  or  of  Canada  Westward,  while 
our  Spanish  licencing  gags  the  English  presse  never  so 
severely.     But  on  the  other  side,  that  infection  which  is( 

15  from  books  of  controversie  in  Religion,  is  more  doubtfull; 
and  dangerous  to  the  learned  then  to  the  ignorant;  and! 
yet   those    books   must   be   permitted   untoucht   by   the* 
licencer.     It  will  be  hard  to  instance  where  any  ignorant 
man  hath  bin  ever  seduc't  by  Papisticall  book  in  English, 

aounlesse   it  were  commended  and  expounded  to  him  by 

some    of    that    Clergy;    and    indeed   all   such   tractats 

whether  false  or  true  are  as  the  Prophesie  of  Isaiah  was 

,      to  the  Eunuch,  not  to  be  understood  without  a  guide.     But 

of  our  Priests  and  Doctors  how  many  have  bin  corrupted 

25  by  studying  the  comments  of  Jesuits  and  Sorbonists,  and 
how  fast  they  could  transfuse  that  corruption  into  the 
people,  our  experience  is  both  late  and  sad.  It  is  not 
forgot  since  the  acute  and  distinct  Arminius  was  per- 
verted meerly  by  the  perusing  of  a  namelesse  discerns 

30  writt'n  at  Del/,  which  at  first  he  took  in  hand  to  confute. 

freeing  therefore  that  those  books,  and  those  in  great 

/     abundance   which   are   likeliest   to   taint   both    life    and 

I      doctrine,  camTi£t_be_supprestjw[itl^^  learning 


AREOPAGfTICA,  21 

and  of  all  ability  in  disputation,  and  that  these  books  of 
either  sort  are  most  and  soonest  catching  to  the  learned, 
from  whom  to  the  common  people  what  ever  is  hereticall 
or   dissolute   may   quickly   be    convey'd,   and   that   evill 

5  manners  are  as  perfectly  learnt  without  books  a  thousand 
other  ways  which  cannot  be  stopt,  and  evill  doctrine  not 
with  books  can  propagate,  except  a  teacher  guide,  which 
he  might  also  doe  without  writing  and  so  beyond 
prohibiting,  I  am  not  able  to  unfold  how  this  cautelous 

10  enterprise  of  licencing  can  be  exempted  from  the  number 
of  vain   and   impossible   attempts.  J  And  he   who  were 


pleaslintiy  disposM  could  not  well  avoid  to  lik'n  it  to  the 
exploit  of  that  gallant  man  who  thought  to  pound  up  the 
crows   by  shutting  his   Parkgate.  -  Besides  ^nother  Jn- 

15  convenience;  if  learned  men  be  the  first  receivers  out  of 
books  and  dispredders  both  of  vice  and  error,  how  shaP 
the  licencers  themselves  be  confided  in,  unlesse  we  can 
conferr  upon  them,  or  they  assume  to  themselves  above 
all  others  in  the  Land,  the  grace  of  infallibility  and  un- 

ao  corruptednesse  ?  And  again  if  it  be  true,  that  a  wise 
man  like  a  good  refiner  can  gather  gold  out  of  the 
drossiest  volume,  and  that  a  fool  will  be  a  fool  with  the 
best  book,  yea,  or  without  book,  there  is  no  reason  that 
we  should  deprive  a  wise  man  of  any  advantage  to  his 

25wisdome,  while  we   seek  to  restrain  from   a  fool    that  I 
which  being  restrain'd  will  be  no  hindrance  to  his  folly.  1 
For  if  there  should  be  so  much  exactnesse  always  us'd  to 
keep  that  from  him  which  is  unfit  for  his  reading,  we 
should  in  the  judgement  of  Aristotle  not  only  but  of 

10  Salomon  and  of  our  Saviour,  not  voutsafe  him  good 
precepts,  and  by  consequence  not  willingly  admit  him  to 
good  books,  as  being  certain  that  a  wise  man  will  make 
better  use  of  an  idle  pamphlet  then  a  fool  will  do  of 


22  AREOPAGITICA. 

sacred  Scripture.  \^  'Tis  next  alleg'd  we  must  not  expose 
our  selves  to  temptations  without  necessity,  and  next  to 
that,  not  imploy  our  time  in  vain  things.  To  both  these 
objections  one  answer  will  serve,  out  of  the  grounds 
5  already  laid,  that  to  all  men  such  books  are  not  temp- 
tations, nor  vanities ;  but  usefull  drugs  and  materialls 
wherewith  to  temper  and  compose  effective  and  strong 
med'cins,  which  mans  life  cannot  want.  The  rest,  as 
children   and    childish  men,  who   have   not   the   art   to 

lo  quahfie  and  prepare  these  working  mineralls,  well  may  be 
exhorted  to  forbear,  but  hinder'd  forcibly  they  cannot  be 
by  all  the  licencing  that  Sainted  Inquisition  could  ever 
yet  contrive ;    which  is  what  I  promis'd  to  deliver  next : 

5,  That  this  order  of  licencing  coDduces,  nothing  to  the  end 

15  for  which  it  was  fram'd;  and  hath  almost  p.revented  me  rv-tU^ 
by  being  clear  already  while  thus  much  hath  bin  ex- 
plaining.   See  the  ingenuity  of  Truth,  who  when  she  gets 
a  free  and  willing  hand,  opens  her  self  faster  then  the 
pace  of  method  and  discours  can  overtake  her.     It  was 

20  the  task  which  I  began  with,  To  shew  that  no  Nation,  or  i 
well  instituted  State,  if  they  valu'd  books  at  all,  did  ever  f 
use  this  way  of  licencing ;  and  it  might  be  answer'd,  that 
this  is  a  piece  of  prudence  lately  discovered ;  To  which  I 
return,  that  as  it  was  a  thing  slight  and  obvious  to  think 

25  on,  so  if  it  had  bin  difficult  to  finde  out,  there  wanted  not 
among  them  long  since  who  suggested  such  a  cours; 
which  they  not  following,  leave  us  a  pattern  of  their 
judgement,  th^t  it  was  not  the  not  knowing,^but  the  not 
approving,  which  v^^as  the,  cSrUse  .of. Jjbydt .  not  it, 

30  Plato^  a  man  of  high  autority  indeed,  but  least  of  all  for 
his  Commonwealth,  in  the  book  of  his  laws,  which  no 
City  ever  yet  receiy'd,  fed  his  fancie  with  making  many 
edicts  to  his  ayrie  Burgomasters,  which  they  who  other- 


AREOPAGITICA.  -  23 

wise  admire  him  wish  had  bin  rather  buried  and 
excus'd  in  the  genial  cups  of  an  Academick  night-sitting. 
By  which  laws  he  seems  to  tolerat  no  kind  of  learning, 
but  by  unalterable  decree,  consisting  most  of  practicall 
5  traditions,  to  the  attainment  whereof  a  Library  of  smaller 
bulk  then  his  own  dialogues  would  be  abundant.  And 
there  also  enacts  that  no  Poet  should  so  much  as  read 
to  any  privat  man  what  he  had  writt'n,  untill  the  Judges 
and  Law-keepers  had  seen  it  and  allow'd  it;    But  that 

10  Plaio  meant  this  Law  peculiarly  to  that  Commonwealth 
which  he  had  imagin'd,  and  to  no  other,  is  evident. 
Why  was  he  not  else  a  Law-giver  to  himself,  but  a 
transgressor,  and  to  be  expell'd  by  his  own  Magistrats, 
both  for  the  wanton  epigrams  and  dialogues  which  he 

IS  made,  and  his  perpetuall  reading  of  Sophron  Mimus 
and  Aristophanes,  books  of  grossest  infamy,  and  also 
for  commending  the  latter  of  them,  though  he  were 
the  malicious  libeller  of  his  chief  friends,  to  be  read  by 
the    Tyrant    Dionysius,   who   had  little   need   of    such 

20 trash  to  spend  his  time  on?  But  that  he  knew  this 
licencing  of  Poems  had  reference  and  dependence  to 
many  other  proviso's  there  set  down  in  his  fancied 
republic,  which  in  this  world  could  have  no  place;  and 
so   neither  he  himself,  nor  any  Magistrat,  or  City  ever 

25  imitated  that  cours,  which  tak'n  apart  from  those 
other  collaterall  injunctions  must  needs  be  vain  and 
fruitlesse.  For  if  they  fell  upon  one  kind  of  strictnesse, 
unlesse  their  care  were  equall  to  regulat  all  other  things 
of  like   aptnes  to  corrupt  the  mind,  that  single  endea- 

30  vour  they  knew  would  be  but  a  fond  labour :  to  shut 
and  fortifie  one  gate  against  corruption,  and  be  neces- 
sitated to  leave  others  round  about  wide  open.  If  we 
think   to  regulat   Printing,  thereby  to   rectifie  manners, 


24  -  ARF.OPAGTTTCA. 

(we  must  regulat  all  recreations  and  pastimes,  all  that  is 
delightfull  to  man.  No  musick  must  be  heard,  no  song 
be  set  or  sung,  but  what  is  grave  and  Dorick.  There 
must  be  licencing  dancers,  that  no  gesture,  motion,  or 

5  deportment  be  taught  our  youth  but  what  by  their  al- 
lowance shall  be  thought  honest;  for  such  Plato  was 
provided  of.  It  will  ask  more  then  the  work  of  twenty 
licencers  to  examin  all  the  lutes,  the  violins,  and  the 
ghittarrs  in  every  house;    they  must  not  be  suffered  to 

10  prattle  as  they  doe,  but  must  be  licenc'd  what  they  may 
say.  And  who  shall  silence  all  the  airs  and  madrigalls, 
that  whisper  softnes  in  chambers?  The  Windows  also, 
and  the  Balconis  must  be  thought  on ;  there  are  shrewd 
books   with   dangerous    Frontispices   set   to   sale;    who 

15  shall  prohibit  them?  shall  twenty  licencers?  The  vil- 
lages also  must  have  their  visitors  to  enquire  what  lec- 
tures the  bagpipe  and  the  rebbeck  reads,  ev*n  to  the 
ballatry  and  the  gammuth  of  every  mtinicipal  fidler, 
for  these  are  the  Countrymans  Arcadia  s  and  his  Monte 

20  Mayors.  Next,  what  more  Nationall  corruption,  for 
which  England  hears  ill  abroad,  then  houshold  gluttony? 
who  shall  be  the  rectors  of  our  daily  rioting  ?  and  what 
shall  be  done  to  inhibit  the  multitudes  that  frequent 
those  houses  where  drunk'nes  is   sold   and   harbour'd? 

25  Our  garments  also  should  be  referr'd  to  the  licencing  of 
some  more  sober  work-masters  to  see  them  cut  into  a 
lesse  wanton  garb.  Who  shall  regulat  all  the  mixt  con- 
versation of  our  youth,  male  and  female  together,  as  is 
the  fashion  of  this  Country  ?  who  shall  still  appoint  what 

30  shall  be  discours'd,  what  presumed,  and  no  furder? 
Lastly,  who  shall  forbid  and  separat  all  idle  resort,  all 
evill  company?  These  things  will  be,  and  must  be; 
but  how  they  shall  be  lest  hurtfuU,  how  lest  enticing, 


AREOPAGTTTCA.  25 

herein  consists  the  grave  and  governing  wisdom  of  a 
State.  To  sequester  out  of  the  world  into  Atlantick  and 
Eutopian  polities,  which  never  can  be  drawn  into  use, 
will  not  mend  our  condition;    but  to  ordain   wisely  as 

5  in  this  world  of  evill,  in 'the  midd'st  whereof  God  hath 
plac't  us  unavoidably.  Nor  is  it  Plato  s  licencing  of  books 
will  doe  this,  which  necessarily  pulls  along  with  it  so 
many  other  kinds  of  licencing,  as  will  make  us  all  both 
ridiculous  and  weary,  and  yet  frustrat;  but  those  unwrit- 

10  t'n,  or  at  least  unconstraining  laws  of  vertuous  education, 
religious  and  civill  nurture,  which  Plato  there  mentions 
as  the  bonds  and  ligaments  of  the  Commonwealth,  the 
pillars  and  the  sustainers  of  every  writt'n  Statute ;  these 
they  be  which  will  bear  chief  sway  in  such  matters  as 

15  these,  when  all  licencing  will  be  easily  eluded.     Impu- 
nity and  remissenes,  for  certain,  are  the  bane  of  a  Com 
monwealth ;  but  here  the  great  art  lyes  to  discern  in  what 
the  law  is  to  bid  restraint  and  punishment,  and  in  what 
things    perswasion    only   is    to   work.     If    every   action 

20  which  is  good,  or  evill  in  man  at  ripe  years,  were  to  be 
under  pittance  and  prescription  and  compulsion,  what 
were  vertue  but  a  name,  what  praise  could  be  then  due 
to  well-doing,  what  grammercy  to  be  sober,  just,  or 
continent?      Many   there    be    that    complain    of    divin 

25  Providence  for  suffering  Adam  to  transgresse.  Foolish 
tongues  I  when  God  gave  him  reason,  he  gave  him  free- 
dom to  choose,  for  reason  is  but  choosing;  he  had  bin 
else  a  meer  artificiall  Adam,  such  an  Adam  as  he  is  in 
the  motions.     We  our  selves  esteem  not  of  that  obedi- 

30  ence  or  love  or  gift,  which  is  of  force :  God  therefore 
left  him  free,  set  before  him  a  provoking  object,  ever 
almost  in  his  eyes ;  herein  consisted  his  merit,  herein  the 
right  of  his  reward,  the  praise  of  his  abstinence.     Where- 


36  AREOPAGITICA. 

fore  did  he  creat  passions  within  us,  pleasures  round 
about  us,  but  that  these  rightly  temper'd  are  the  very 
ingredients  of  vertu?  They  are  not  skilful!  considerers 
pf  human  things,  who  imagin  to  remove  sin  by  remov- 

5  ing  the  matter  of  sin ;  for,  besides  that  it  is  a  huge  heap 
increasing  under  the  very  act  of  diminishing  though 
some  part  of  it  may  for  a  time  be  withdrawn  from  some 
persons,  it  cannot  from  all  in  such  a  universall  thing  as 
books  are ;   and  when  this  is  done,  yet  the  sin  remains 

lo  entire.  Though  ye  take  from  a  covetous  man  all  his 
treasure,  he  has  yet  one  Jewell  left :  ye  cannot  bereave 
him  of  his  covetousnesse.  Banish  all  objects  of  lust, 
shut  up  all  youth  into  the  severest  discipline  that  can 
be  exercis'd   in  any   hermitage,   ye  cannot  make  them 

15  chaste  that  came  not  thither  so;  such  great  care  and 
wisdom  is  requir'd  to  the  right  managing  of  this  point. 
Suppose  we  could  expell  sin  by  this  means;  look  how 
much  we  thus  expell  of  sin,  so  much  we  expell  of  ver- 
tue :   for  the  matter  of  them  both  is  the  same ;  remove 

eothat,  and  ye  remove  them  both  alike.  This  justifies 
the  high  providence  of  God,  who  though  he  command 

I  us  temperance,  justice,  continence,  yet  powrs  out  before 
us  ev'n  to  a  profusenes  all  desirable  things,  and  gives 
us  minds  that  can  wander  beyond  all  limit  and  satiety. 

25  Why  should  we  then  affect  a  rigor  contrary  to  the  man- 
ner of  God  and  of  nature,  by  abridging  or  scanting 
those  means,  which  books  freely  permitted  are,  both 
to  the  triall  of  vertue  and  the  exercise  of  truth.?  It 
would  be  better  done  to  learn  that  the  law  must  needs 

30  be  frivolous  which  goes  to  restrain  things  uncertainly 
and  yet  equally  working  to  good  and  to '  evill.  And 
were  I  the  chooser,  a  dram  of  well-doing  should  be  pre- 
ferr'd  before  many  times  as  much  the  forcible  hindrance 


AREOPAGITICA,  27 

of  evill-doing.  For  Gpd„  sure .  esteems  the  growth  and 
compleating  of  one  vertuous  person  more  then  the 
resjraint__of  ten  vitious.  And  albeit  what  ever  thing  we 
hear  or  see,  sitting,  walking,   travelling,  or   conversing 

5  may  be  fitly  call'd  our  book,  and  is  of  the  same  effect 
that  writings  are,  yet  grant  the  thing  to  be  prohibited 
were  only  books,  it  appears  that  this  order  hitherto  is 
far  insufficient  to  the  end  which  it  intends.  Do  we  not 
see,  not  once  or  oftner,  but  weekly  that  continu'd  Court- 

lolibell  against  the  Parlament  and  City,  Printed,  as  the 
wet  sheets  can  witnes,  and  dispers't  among  us  for  all 
that  licencing  can  doe?  yet  this  is  the  prime  service  a 
man  would  think,  wherein  this  order  should  give  proof 
of  it  self.     If  it  were  executed,  you'l  say.     But  certain,  if 

15  execution  be  remisse  or  blindfold  now  and  in  this  par- 
ticular, what  will  it  be  hereafter  and  in  other  books? 
If  then  the  order  shall  not  be  vain  and  frustrat,  behold 
a  new  labour,  Lords  and  Commons:  ye  must  repeal  and 
proscribe   all   scandalous  and  unlicenc't  books   already 

20  printed  and  divulg'd ;  after  ye  have  drawn  them  up  into 
a  list,  that  all  may  know  which  are  condemn'd  and 
which  not;  and  ordain  that  no  forrein  books  be  deli- 
ver'd  out  of  custody,  till  they  have  bin  read  over.  This 
office  will  require  the  whole  time  of  not  a  few  overseers, 

25  and  those  no  vulgar  men.  There  be  also  books  which 
aj£_ partly  useful!  and  excellent,  partly  culpable  and 
pernicious;  this  work  will  ask  as  many  more  officials 
to  make  expurgations  and  expunctions,  that  the  Com- 
monwealth of  learning  be  not  damnify'd.     In  fine,  when 

30  the  multitude  of  books  encrease  upon  their  hands,  ye 
must  be  fain  to  catalogue  all  those  Printers  who  are 
found  frequently  offending,  and  forbidd  the  importation 
of  their  whole  suspected  typography.     In   a  word,  that 


28  AREOPAGITICA. 

this  your  order  may  be  exact,  and  not  deficient,  ye  must 
reform  it  perfectly  according  to  the  model  of  Trent  and 
Sevil^  which  I  know  ye  abhorre  to  doe.  Yet  though 
ye  should  condiscend   to   this,   which   God   forbid,   the 

5  order  still  would  be  but  fruitlesse  and  defective  to  that 
end  whereto  ye  meant  it.  If  to  prevent  sects  and 
schisms,  who  is  so  unread  or  so  uncatechis'd  in  story, 
that  hath  not  heard  of  many  sects  refusing  books  as  a 
hindrance,   and    preserving   their    doctrine    unmixt    for 

10  many  ages  only  by  unwritt'n  traditions.  The  Christian 
faith,  for  that  was  once  a  schism,  is  not  unknown  to 
have  spread  all  over  Asia^  ere  any  Gospel  or  Epistle 
Iwas  seen  in  writing.  If  the  amendment  of  manners 
jbe  aym'd  at,  look  into  Italy  and  Spain,  whether  those 

15  places  be  one  scruple  the  better,  the  honester,  the  wiser, 
the  chaster,  since  all  the  inquisitionall  rigor  that  hath  bin 
executed  upon  books. 

Another  reason,  whereby  to  make  it  plain  that  this 
order  will  misse  the  end  it  seeks,  consider  .bjjhe..qua,lij;y 

2owhich  ought  to  bein  e,Yerj,iJ£eiicer.  It  cannot  be  deny'd 
but  that  he  who  is  made  judge  to  sit  upon  the  birth  or 
death  of  books,  whether  they  may  be  wafted  into  this 
world  or  not,  had  need  to  be  a  man  above  the  common 
measure   both   studious,    learned,    and  judicious;    there 

25  may  be  else  no  mean  mistakes  in  the  censure  of  what 
is  passable  or  not;  which  is  also  no  mean  injury.  If 
he  be  of  such  worth  as  behoovs  him,  there  cannot  be 
a  more  tedious  and  unpleasing  journey-work,  a  greater 
losse  of  time  levied  upon  his  head,  then  to  be  made  the 

3operpetuall  reader  of  unchosen  books  and  pamphlets, 
oftimes  huge  volumes.  There  is  no  book  that  is  accept- 
able unlesse  at  certain  seasons ;  but  to  be  enjoyn'd  the 
reading  of  that  at  all  times,  and  in  a  hand  scars  legible, 


I 


AREOPA  GITICA.  2  9 

whereof  three  pages  would  not  down  at  any  time  in  the 
fairest  Print,  is  an  imposition  which  I  cannot  beleeve 
how  he  that  values  time  and  his  own  studies,  or  is  but 
of  a  sensible  nostrill,  should  be  able  to  endure.     In  this 

5  one  thing  I  crave  leave  of  the  present  licencers  to  be 
pardon'd  for  so  thinking;  who  doublesse^  took  this  office 
up  looking  on  it  through  their  obedience  to  the  Par- 
lament,  whose  command  perhaps  made  all  things  seem 
easie  and  unlaborious  to  them ;   but  that  this  short  triall 

o  hath  wearied  them  out  already,  their  own  expressions  and 
excuses  to  them  who  make  so  many  journeys  to  sollicit 
their  Hcence,  are  testimony  anough.  Seeing  therefore 
those  who  now  possesse  the  imployment,  by  all  evident 
signs  wish  themselves  well  ridd  of  it,  and  that  no  man 

IS  of  worth,  none  that  is  not  a  plain  unthrift  of  his  own 
hours  is  ever  likely  to  succeed  them,  except  he  mean 
to  put  himself  to  the  salary  of  a  Presse-corrector,  we  may 
easily  foresee  what  kind  of  licencers  we  are  to  expect 
hereafter,    either    ignorant,    imperious,    and   remisse,   or 

ao  basely  pecuniary.  This  is  what  I  had  to  shew  wherein 
this  order  cannot  conduce  to  that  end,  whereof  it  bears 
the  intention. 

/     I  lastly  proceed  from  the  no  good  it  can  do,  to  the  mani- 

"J*,^  ifest  hurt  it  causes,  in  being  first  the  greatest  discourage- 

'  2,  jment  and  affront  that  can  be  offer'd  to  learning  and  to 

jlearned  men.     It  was  the  complaint  and  lamentation  of 

Prelats  upon  every  least  breath  of  a  motion  to  remove 

pluralities  and  distribute  more  equally  Church  revennu's, 

that  then  all  learning  would  be  for  ever  dasht  and  dis- 

30  courag'd.     But  as  for  that  opinion,  I  never  found  cause 
to  think  that  the  tenth  part  of  learning  stood  or  fell  with 
the  Clergy ;  nor  could  I  ever  but  hold  it  for  a  sordid  and 
'  Read  •  doubtlessc.' 


30  AREOPAGITICA. 

unworthy  speech  of  any  Churchman  who  had  a  com- 
petency left  him.  If  therefore  ye  be  loath  to  dishearten 
utterly  and  discontent,  not  the  mercenary  crew  of  false 
pretenders  to  learning,  but  the  free  and  ingenuous  sort 
5  of  such  as  evidently  were  born,  to  study  and  love  lerning 
for  it  self,  not  for  lucre  or  any  other  end  but  the  service 
of  God  and  of  truth,  and  perhaps  that  lasting  fame  and 
perpetuity  of  praise  which  God  and  good  men  have  con- 
sented   shall    be    the   reward   of  those   whose   publisht 

TO  labours  advance  the  good  of  mankind,  then  know,  that 
so  far  to  distrust  the  judgement  and  the  honesty  of  one 
who  hath  but  a  common  repute  in  learning  and  never  yet 
offended,  as  not  to  count  him  fit  to  print  his  mind  with- 
out a  tutor  and  examiner,  lest  he  should  drop  a  seism 

1 5  or  something  of  corruption,  is  the  greatest  displeasure 
and  indignity  to  a  free  and  knowing  spirit  that  can  be 
put  upon  him.     What  advantage  is  it  to  be  a  man  over 
it  is  to  be  a  boy  at  school,  if  we  have  only  scapt  the  w^' 
ferular  to  come  under  the  fescu  of  an  Imprimatur?    if 

20  serious  and  elaborat  writings,  as  if  they  were  no  more 
then  the  theam  of  a  Grammar  lad  under  his  Pedagogue 
must  not  be  utter'd  without  the  cursory  eyes  of  a  tem- 
porizing and  extemporizing  licencer?  He  who  is  not 
trusted  with  his  own  actions,  his  drift  not  being  known 

25  to  be  evill,  and  standing  to  the  hazard  of  law  and  penalty, 
has  no  great  argument  to  think  himself  reputed  in  the 
Commonwealth  wherein  he  was  born_joroth^  then  a 
fool  of^-aforeiner.  fWhen  a  man  writes  to  the^worldT" 

/  he  summonsup"altnis  reason  and  deliberation  to  assist 
/ 30 him;  he  searches,  meditats,  is  industrious,  and  likely 
I  consults  and  conferrs  with  his  judicious  friends;  after 
I  all  which  done/  he  takes  himself  to  be  inform'd  in  whaty 
I       he  writes  as  wetT^  any  that  writ  betore  him;  if  in  thi< 


AREOPAGITICA.  31 

1 ■ ■ — -^ 

the  most  consummat  act  of  his  fidelity  and  ripenesse,  no\ 
yearsTno  industry,  no  former  proof  of  TiTs  abilities'  g^^ 
bring  him  to  that  state  of  maturity  as  not  to  be  still 
mistrusted  and  suspected,  unlesse  he  carry  all  his  con- 

5  siderat  diligence,  all  his  midnight  watchings,  and  ex- 
pence  of  Palladian  oyl,  to  the  hasty  view  of  an  unleasur'd 
licencer,  perhaps  much  his  younger,  perhaps  far  his  in- 
feriour  in  judgement,  perhaps  one  who  never  knew  the 
labour   of  book-writing,    and   if  he    be   not   repulst   or 

10  slighted,  must  appear  in  Print  like  a  punie  with  his 
guardian  and  his  censors  hand  on  the  back  of  his  title 
to  be  his  bayl  and  surety,  that  he  is  no  idiot  or  seducer, 
it  cannot  be  but  a  dishonor  and  derogation  to  the  author, 
to  the  book,  to  the  priviledge  and  dignity  of  Learning. 

15  And  what  if  the  author  shall  be  one  so  copious  of  fancie 
as  to  have  many  things  well  worth  the  adding  come 
into  his  mind  after  Hcencing,  while  the  book  is  yet  under 
the  Presse,  which  not  seldom  happ'ns  to  the  best  and 
diligentest  writers;    and  that  perhaps  a  dozen  times  in 

20  one  book  ?  The  Printer  dares  not  go  beyond  his  licenc't 
copy ;  so  often  then  must  the  author  trudge  to  his  leav- 
giver,  that  those  his  new  insertions  may  be  viewd;  and 
many  a  jaunt  will  be  made,  ere  that  licencer,  for  it  must 
be  the  same  man,   can   either   be   found,  or   found   at 

25  leisure ;  mean  while  either  the  Presse  must  stand  still, 
which  is  no  small  damage,  or  the  author  loose  his 
accuratest  thoughts  and  send  the  book  forth  wors  then 
he  had  made  it,  which  to  a  diligent  writer  is  the  greatest 
melancholy  and  vexation  that  can  befall.  And  how  can  a 
.30  man  teach  with  autority,  which  is  the  life  of  teaching, 
^'  how  can  he  be  a  Doctor  in  his  book  as  he  ought  to  be, 
or  else  had  better  be  silent,  whenas  all  he  teaches,  all  he 
delivers,  is  but  under  the  tuition,  under  the  correction 


32  AREOPAGITICA. 

of  his  patriarchal  licencer  to  blot  or  alter  what  precisely 
accords  not  with  the  hidebound  humor  which  he  calls 
his  judgement;  when  every  acute  reader  upon  the  first 
sight  of  a  pedantick  licence,  will  be  ready  with  these  like 

5  words  to  ding  the  book  a  coits  distance  from  him :  I  hate 
a  pupil  teacher,  I  endure  not  an  instructer  that  comes 
to  me  under  the  wardship  of  an  overseeing  fist;  I  know 
nothing  of  the  licencer,  but  that  I  have  his  own  hand 
here  for  his  arrogance ;  who  shall  warrant  me  his  judge- 

loment?  The  State  Sir,  replies  the  Stationer;  but  has  a 
quick  return,  The  State  shall  be  my  governours,  but  not 
my  criticks;  they  may  be  mistak'n  in  the  choice  of  a 
licencer  as  easily  as  this  licencer  may  be  mistak'n  in  an 
author:    This   is   some  common  stuffe;    and  he  might 

1 5  adde  from  Sir  Francis  Bacon,  That  such  authorized  books 

are  but  the  lajiguage  of  the  times.     For  though  a  licencer 

should  happ'n  to  be  judicious  more  then  ordnary,  which 

will  be  a  great  jeopardy  of  the  next  succession,  yet  his 

I  very  office  and  his  commission  enjoyns  him  to  let  passe 

2<|  nothing  but  what  is  vulgarly  receiv'd  already.  Nay, 
which  is  more  lamentable,  if  the  work  of  any  deceased 
author,  though  never  so  famous  in  his  life  time  and  even 
to  this  day,  come  to  their  hands  for  licence  to  be  Printed 
or  Reprinted,  if  .there  be  found  in  his  book  one  sentence 

2.5  of  a  ventrous  edge,  utter'd  in  the  height  of  zeal,  and  who 
knows  whether  it  might  not  be  the  dictat  of  a  divine 
Spirit,  yet  not  suiting  with  every  low  decrepit  humor  of 
their  own,  though  it  were  Knox  himself  the  Reformer 
of  a  Kingdom  that  spake  it,  they  will  not  pardon  him 

30 their  dash;  the  sense  of  that  great  man  shall  to  all 
posterity  be  lost  for  the  fearfulnesse  or  the  presumptuous 
rashnesse  of  a  perfunctory  licencer.  And  to  what  an 
author  this  violence  hath  bin  lately  done,  and  in  what 


AREOPA  GITICA.  3  3 

book  of  greatest  consequence  to  be  faithfully  publisht,  I 
could  now  instance,  but  shall  forbear  till  a  more  con- 
venient season.  Yet  if  these  things  be  not  resented 
seriously  and  timely  by  them  who  have  the  remedy  in 
5  their  power,  but  that  such  iron  moulds  as  these  shall 
have  autority  to  knaw  out  the  choisest  periods  of  ex- 
quisitest  books,  and  to  commit  such  a  treacherous  fraud 
against  the  orphan  remainders  of  worthiest  men  after 
death,  the  more  sorrow  will  belong  to  that  haples  race 

10 of  men,  whose  misfortune  it  is  to  have  understanding.' 
Henceforth  let  no  man  care  to  learn,  or  care  to  be  more 
then  worldly  wise;  for  certainly  in  higher  matters  to  be 
ignorant  and  slothfull,  to  be  a  common  stedfast  dunce  will 
be  the  only  pleasant  life  and  only  in  request. 

15      And  as  it  is  a  particular  disesteem  of  every  knowing 
person  alive,  and  most   injurious  to  the  writt'n  labours 
and  monuments  of  the  dead,  so  to  me  it  seems  an  un- 
dervaluing and  vilifying  of  the  whole  Nation.     I  cannot- 
set  so   light  by   all  the  invention,  the   art,   the  wit,  the 

20  grave  and  solid  judgement  which  is  in  England,  as  that 
it  can  be  comprehended  in  any  twenty  capacities  how 
good  soever ;  much  lesse  that  it  should  not  passe  except 
their  superintendence  be  over  it,  except  it  be  sifted  and 
strain'd  with  their  strainers,  that  it  should  be  uncurrant 

25  without  their  manuall  stamp.  Truth  and  understanding 
are  not  such  wares  as  to  be  monopoliz'd  and  traded  in 
by  tickets  and  statutes  and  standards.  We  must  not 
think  to  make  a  staple  commodity  of  all  the  knowledge 
in  the  Land,  to   mark   and   licence   it   like   our  broad 

3ocloath  and  our  wooll  packs.  What  is  it  but  a  servi- 
tude like  that  impos'd  by  the  Philistims,  not  to  be 
allow'd  the  sharpning  of  our  own  axes  and  coulters, 
but  we  must  repair  from  all  quarters  to  twenty  licencing 

1  D 


34  AREOPAGITICA. 

forges.  Had  any  one  writt'n  and  divulg'd  erroneous 
things  and  scandalous  to  honest  life,  misusing  and  for- 
feiting the  esteem  had  of  his  reason  among  men,  if 
after  conviction  this  only  censure  were  adjudg'd  him, 
5  that  he  should  never  henceforth  write  but  what  were 
first  examin'd  by  an  appointed  officer,  whose  hand  should 
be  annext  to  passe  •  his  credit  for  him  that  now  he  might 
be  safely  read,  it  could  not  be  apprehended  lesse  then 
a    disgraceful!    punishment.      Whence    to    include    the 

10  whole  Nation,  and  those  that  never  yet  thus  offended, 
under  such  a  diffident  and  suspectfull  prohibition,  may 
plainly  be  understood  what  a  disparagement  it  is.  So 
much  the  more,  when  as  dettors  and  delinquents  may 
walk   abroad  without   a   keeper,  but   unoffensive   books 

15  must  not  stirre  forth  without  a  visible  jaylor  in  thir  title. 
{STor  is  it  to  the  common  people  lesse  then  a  reproach ; 
for  if  we  so  jealous  over  them  as  that  we  dare  not  trust 
them  with  an  English  pamphlet,  what  doe  we  but  cen- 
sure them  for  a  giddy,  vitious,  and  ungrounded  people, 

20  ip  such  a  sick  and  weak  estate  of  faith  and  discretion,  as 
be  able  to  take  nothing  down  but  through  the  pipe 
)f  a  licencer?  That  this  is  care  or  love  of  them,  we 
cannot  pretend,  whenas  in  those  Popish  places  where 
the  Laity  are  most  hated  and  despis'd  the  same  strictnes 

25  is  us'd  over  them.  Wisdom  we  cannot  call  it,  because  it 
stops  but  one  breach  of  licence,  nor  that  neither ;  whenas 
those  corruptions  which  it  seeks  to  prevent,  break  in 
faster  at  other  dores  which  cannot  be  shut. 

And  in  conclusion  it  reflects  to  the  disrepute  of  our 

30  Ministers  also,  of  whose  labours  we  should  hope  better, 
and  of  the  proficiencie  which  thir  flock  reaps  by  them : 
then  that  after  all  this  light  of  the  Gospel  which  is,  and 
is  to  be,  and  all  this  continuall  preaching,  they  should 


AREOPAGTTICA.  35 

be  still  frequented  with  such  an  unprincipl'd,  unedi- 
fy'd,  and  laick  rabble,  as  that  the  whifFe  of  every  new 
pamphlet  should  stagger  them  out  of  thir  catechism 
and  Christian  walking.  This  may  have  much  reason  | 
5  to  discourage  the  Ministers  when  such  a  low  conceit  is 
had  of  all  their  exhortations  and  the  benefiting  of  their 
hearers,  as  that  they  are  not  thought  fit  to  be  turn'd 
loose  to  three  sheets  of  paper  without  a  licencer;  that 
all  the  Sermons,  all  the  Lectures  preacht,  printed,  vented 

loin  such  numbers  and  such  volumes  as  have  now  well- 
nigh  made  all  other  books  unsalable,  should  not  be  armor 
anough  against  one  single  enchiridion,  without  the  castle 
St.  Angela  of  an  Imprimatur. 

And  lest  som  should  perswade  ye,  Lords  and  Com- 

ismons,  that  these  arguments  of  lerned  mens  discourage- 
ment at  this  your  order,  are  meer  flourishes  and  not 
reall,  I  could  recount  what  I  have  seen  and  heard  in 
other  Countries,  where  this  kind  of  inquisition  tyran- 
nizes;   when  I  have   sat  among  their  lerned  men,  for 

20  that  honor  I  had,  and  biii  counted  happy  to  be  born 
in  such  a  place  of  Philosophic  freedom  as  they  suppos'd 
England  was,  while  themselvs  did  nothing  but  bemoan 
the  servil  condition  into  which  lerning  amongst  them 
was   brought ;   that   this  was   it   which   had   dampt   the 

25  glory  of  Italian  wits,  that  nothing  had  bin  there  writt'n 
now  these  many  years  but  flattery  and  fustian.  There 
it  was  that  I  found  and  visited  the  famous  Galileo 
grown  old,  a  prisner  to  the  Inquisition,  for  thinking 
in  Astronomy  otherwise  then  the  Franciscan   and  Do- 

3ominican  licencers   thought.      And   though  I  knew  that 

P^ngland  then  was  groaning  loudest  under  the  Prelati- 

call  yoak,  neverthelesse  I  tooke  it  as  a  pledge  of  future 

happines,  that  other  Nations  were  so  perswaded  of  her 

D  2 


36  AREOPAGITICA. 

liberty.  Yet  was  it  beyond  my  hope  that  those  Worthies 
were  then  breathing  in  her  air,  who  should  be  her 
leaders  to  such  a  deliverance  as  shall  never  be  forgott'n 
by  any  revolution  of  time  that  this  world  hath  to  finish. 

5  When  that  was  once  begun,  it  was  as  little  in  my  fear, 
that  what  words  of  complaint  I  heard  among  lerned 
men  of  other  parts  utter'd  against  the  Inquisition,  the 
same  I  should  hear  by  as  lerned  men  at  home  utter'd 
in   time   of  Parlament   against   an   order   of  licencing ; 

10  and  that  so  generally,  that  when  I  disclos'd  my  self  a 
companion  of  their  discontent,  I  might  say,  if  without 
envy,  that  he  whom  an  honest  quaestorship  had  indear'd 
to  the  Sicilians,  was  not  more  by  them  importun'd 
against  Verves  then  the  favourable  opinion  which  I  had 

15  among  many  who  honour  ye  and  are  known  and  re- 
spected by  ye,  loaded  me  with  entreaties  and  perswa- 
sions,  that  I  would  not  despair  to  lay  together  that 
which  just  reason  should  bring  into  my  mind  toward 
the  removal  of  an  undeserved   thraldom  upon  lerning. 

20  That  this  is  not  therefore  the  disburdning  of  a  par- 
ticular fancie,  but  the  common  grievance  of  all  those 
who  had  prepar'd  their  minds  and  studies  above  the 
vulgar  pitch  to  advance  truth  in  others  and  from  others 
to  entertain  it,  thus  much  may  satisfie.     And  in  their 

25  name  I  shall  for  neither  friend  nor  foe  conceal  what 
the  generall  murmur  is ;  that  if  it  come  to  inquisitioning 
again  and  licencing,  and  that  we  are  so  timorous  of 
our  selvs,  and  so  suspicious  of  all  men,  as  to  fear  each 
book,  and  the   shaking  of  every  leaf,  before  we  know 

30  what  the  contents  are,  if  some  who  but  of  late  were 
litde  better  then  silenc't  from  preaching,  shall  come 
now  to  silence  us  from  reading  except  what  they  please^ 
it  cannot  be  guest  what  is  intended  by  som  but  a  second 


AREOPAGITICA.  37 

tyranny  over  learning ;  and  will  soon  put  it  out  of  con- 
troversie  that  Bishops  and  Presbyters  are  the  same  to 
us  both  name  and  thing.  That  those  evills  of  Prelaty 
which  before  from  five  or  six  and  twenty  Sees  were  dis- 

5  tributivly  charg'd  upon  the  whole  people,  will  now  light 
wholly  upon  learning,  is  not  obscure  to  us :  whenas 
now  the  Pastor  of  a  small  unlearned  Parish  on  the 
sudden  shall  be  exalted  Archbishop  over  a  large  dioces 
of  books,  and  yet  not  remove,  but  keep  his  other  cure 

10  too,  a  mysticall  pluraUst.  He  who  but  of  late  cry'd 
down  the  sole  ordination  of  every  novice  Batchelor  of 
Art,  and  deny'd  sole  jurisdiction  over  the  simplest  Pa- 
rishioner, shall  now  at  home  in  his  privat  chair  assume 
both  these  over  worthiest   and   excellentest   books   and 

15  ablest  authors  that  write  them.     This  is  not,  Yee  Co- 
venants   and    Protestations    that    we    have    made,    this 
is   not   to   put  down  Prelaty ;    this   is  but  to  chop   an  ^  •->-«-'-'\ 
Episcopacy;    this   is   but    to   translate   the   Palace   Me- 
iropoliian    from    one    kind    of  dominion   into   another; 

20  this  is   butjan   old   rannnnir^11_  sjjghf   nf  (:o?n7nu/ing  our 
penanceATo  startle  thus  "betimes  at  a  meer  unlicenc't 
I  pamphlet  will  after  a  while  be  afraid  of  every  conven- 
ticle,   and    a   while    after   will    make    a    conventicle    of 
every  Christian  meeting:    But  I  am  certam  that  a  JState 

25"gOveiird  t)y  the  "rules  of  justice  and  fortitude,  or  a 
Church  built  and  founded  upon  the  rock  of  faith  and 
true  knowledge,  cannot  be  so  pusillanimous.  While 
things  are  yet  not  constituted  in  Religion,  that  freedom 
of  writing  should  be  restrain'd  by  a  discipline  imitated 

30  from  the  Prelats  and  learnt  by  them  from  the  Inquisi 
tion,  to  shut  us  up  all  again  into  the  brest  of  a  licencer, 
must  needs  give  cause  of  doubt  and  discouragement  to 
all  learned  and  religious  men.     Who  cannot  but  discern 


38 


AREOPAGITICA. 


the  finenes  of  this  politic   drift,  and  who  are  the  con- 
trivers :  that  while  Bishops  were  to  be  baited  down,  then 
all  Presses  might  be  open ;  it  was  the  people's  birthright 
and  priviledge  in  Jiijje  of  Parlament,  it  was  the  breaking 
5  forth   of  light  ?  ^ut   now  the  Bishops   abrogated   and 
/voided  out  of  the  Churcli,  as  If  our  Reformation  sought 
/    no  more  but  to  make  room  for  others  into  their  seats 
I    under  another  name,  the  ^E^iscopall  arts  ^begin  to  bud 
^•^again,  tihe  cruse  of  truth  must  run  no  more  ojle,  liberty 
loot  r^rmting  must  be  enthrall'd  again  under  a  Prelaticall 
commission  of  twenty,  the  privilege  of  the  people  nulli- 
fy'd,  and  which  is  wors,  the  freedom  of  learning  must 
groan  again  and  to  her  old  fetters,  all  this  the  Parla- 
ment yet  sitting.  /^Jthough  their  own  late  arguments  and 
defences~agiInsL.4fa^^1?eiats  "^^  them  that 

this  obstructingfvio|^^  for  the  inost  part  with 

event  utterly  o^t^osjteJo_t^"~ghd  wKich  it  drives  at : 
instead  of  suppressing  sects  and  schisms,  it  raises  them 
and  invests  them  with  a  reputation.  The  pimishing  of 
lo^iis  enhauncis  their  aufonly^sniih  the  Vicount  St.  Albans, 
and  a  forhidd'n  writing  is  thought  to  be  a  certain  spark 
of  truth  that  flies  up  in  the  faces  of  them  who  seeke  to  tread 
it  out.  This^der  therefore  may  pxQve^  a_ nursing  mother 
to  sects,  but  I  shall  easily  shew  how  it  will  be  a  step- 
25  dame  to  Truth  :  and  first  by  disinabling  us  to  the  main- 
tenance of  what  is  known  already : 

Well  knows  he  who  uses  to  consider,  that  our  faith 
arid,  knowledge  thrives  by  exercise  as  well  as  our  limbs 
and  coinplexron.  Truth  is  compared  in  Scripture  to  a 
30  streaming  fountain ;  if  her  waters  *  flow  not  in  a  per- 
petuall  progression,  they  sick'n  into  a  muddy  pool  of 
conformity  and  tradition.  A  man  may  be  a  heretick 
in  the  truth;  and  if  he  beleeve  things  only  because  his 


AREOPAGITICA,  39 


Pastor  sayes  so,  or  the  Assembly  so  determins,  without 
knowing  other  reason,  though  his  belief  be  true,  yet  the 
very  truth  he  holds  becomes  his  heresie.  There  is  not 
any  burden  that  som  would  gladier  post  off  to  another 

5  then  the  charge  and  care  of  their  Religiog^^^^l'here  be, 
who  knows  not  that  t'Iierebe7of  Protestants  and  profes- 
sors who  live  and  dye  in  as  arrant  an  implicit  faith  as 
any  lay  Papist  of  Loretto.  A  wealthy  man  addicted  to  his 
pleasure  and ^  to  his  profits  finds  Religion  to  be  a  traffick 

10  so  entangl'd  and  of  so  many  piddling  accounts,  that  of 
all  mysteries  he  cannot  skill  to  keep  a  stock  going  upon 
that  trade.     What  shoulde  he  doe  ?     Fain  he  would  have 
the  name  to  be  religious,  fain  he  would  bear  up  wit' 
his   neighbours   in   that.      What  does    he  therefore  but 

isresolvs  to  give  over  toyling,  and  to  find  himself  out 
som  factor,  to  whose  care  and  credit  he  may  commit 
the  whole  managing  of  his  religous  affairs,  som  Divine 
of  note  and  estimation  that  must  be-  To  him  he  ad- 
heres, resigns  the  whole  ware-house  of  his  religion  with 

20 all  the  locks  and  keyes  into  his  custody;  and  indeed 
makes  the  very  person  of  that  man  his  religion ;  esteems 
his  associating  with  him  a  sufficient  evidence  and  com- 
mendatory of  his  own  piety.  So  that  a  man  may  say 
his  religion  is  now  no  more  within  himself,  but  is  be- 

25  com  a  dividuall  movable,  and  goes  and  comes  neer 
him  according  as  that  good  man  frequents  the  house. 
He  entertains  him,  gives  him  gifts,  feasts  him,  lodges 
him ;  his  religion  comes  home  at  night,  praies,  is  libe- 
rally supt,  and  sumptuously  laid  to  sleep,  rises,  is 'saluted, 

30  and  after  the  malmsfry,  or  some  well  spic't  bruage,  and 
better  breakfasted  then  he  whose  morning  appetite  would 
have  gladly  fed  on  green  figs  between  Bethany  and  leru- 
salem^  his  Religion  walks  abroad  at  eight,  and  leavs  his 


40  AREOPAGITICA. 

kind  entertainer  in  the  shop  trading  all  day  without  his 
religi^ 

Another  sort  there  be  who  when  they  hear  that  all 
things  shall  be  order'd,  all  things  regulated  and  setl'd, 

5  nothing  writt'n  but  what  passes  through  the  custom- 
house of  certain  Publicans  that  have  the  tunaging  and 
the  poundaging  of  all  free  spok'n  truth,  will  strait  give 
themselvs  up  into  your  hands,  mak'em  and  cut'em  out 
what  religion  ye   please.      There  be  delights,  there  be 

10  recreations  and  jolly  pastimes  that  will  fetch  the  day 
about  from  sun  to  sun,  and  rock  the  tedious  year  as 
in  a  delightfull  dream.  What  need  they  torture  their 
heads  with  that  which  others  have  tak'n  so  strictly  and 
so  unalterably  into  their  own   pourveying  ?     These  are 

15  the  fruits  which  a  dull  ease  and  cessation  of  our  know- 
ledge will  bring  forth  among  the  people.  How  goodly, 
and  how  to  be  wisht  were  such  an  obedient  unanimity 
as  this,  what  a  fine  conformity  would  it  starch  us  all 
into  ?     Doubtles  a  stanch  and  solid  peece  of  framework 

20  as  any  January  could  freeze  together. 

Nor  much  better  will  be  the  consequence  ev'n  among 
the  Clergy  themselvs.  It  is  no  new  thing  never  heard 
of  before  for  a  parochiall  Minister,  who  has  his  reward 
and  is  at  his  Hercules  pillars  in  a  warm  benefice,  to  be 

25  easily  inclinable,  if  he  have  nothing  else  that  may  rouse 

,   up  his  studies,  to  finish  his  circuit  in  an  English  con- 

^^*^^K  cordance  and  a  topic  folio,  the  gatherings  and  savings  of 

a  sober  graduatship,  a  Harmony  and  a  Catena,  treading 

the  constant  round  of  certain  common  doctrinall  heads, 

30  attended  with  their  uses,  motives,  marks  and  means,  out 
of  which  as  out  of  an  alphabet  or  sol  fa  by  forming  and 
transforming,  joyning  and  disjoyning  variously  a  little 
book-craft,  and  two  hours  meditation  might  furnish  him 


AREOPAGITICA.  41 

unspeakably  to  the  performance  of  more  then  a  weekly 
charge  of  sermoning,  not  to  reck'n  up  the  infinit  helps 
of  interlinearies,  breviaries,  synopses,  and  other  loitering 
gear.  But  as  for  the  multitude  of  Sermons  ready  printed 
5  and  pil'd  up,  on  every  text  that  is  not  difficult,  our 
London  trading  St.  Thomas  in  his  vestry,  and  adde  to 
boot  St.  Martin,  and  St.  Hugh,  have  not  within  their 
hallow'd  limits  more  vendible  ware  of  all  sorts  ready 
made ;  so  that  penury  he  never  need  fear  of  Pulpit  pro- 

10  vision,  having  where  so  plenteously  to  refresh  his  ma- 
gazin.  But  if  his  rear  and  flanks  be  not  impal'd,  if 
his  back  dore  be  not  secur'd  by  the  rigid  licencer,  but 
that  a  bold  book  may  now  and  then  issue  forth,  and 
give  the  assault  to  some  of  his  old  collections  in  their 

15  trenches,  it  will  concern  him  then  to  keep  waking,  to 
stand  in  watch,  to  set  good  guards  and  sentinells  about 
his  receiv'd  opinions,  to  walk  the  round  and  counter- 
round  with  his  fellow  inspectors,  fearing  lest  any  of  his 
flock   be   seduc't,  who   also   then  would   be   better   in- 

2ostructed,  better  exercis'd  and  disciplined.     And  God  fend 

that  the  fear  of  this  diligence  which  must  then  be  us'd, 

doe  not  make  us  affect  the  lazines  of  a  licencing  Church. 

For  if  we  be  sure  we  are  in  the  right,  and  doe  not 

hold  the  truth  guiltily,  which  becomes  not,  if  we  our- 

25  selves  condemn  not  our  own  weak  and  frivolous  teach- 
ing, and  the  people  for  an  untaught  and  irreligious 
gadding  rout,  what  can  be  more  fair  then  when  a  man 
judicious,  learned,  and  of  a  conscience,  for  ought  we 
know,  as  good  as  theirs  that  taught  us  what  we  know, 

30  shall  not  privily  from  house  to  house,  which  is  more 
dangerous,  but  openly  by  writing  publish  to  the  world 
what  his  opinion  is,  what  his  reasons,  and  wherefore 
that  which  is  now  thought   cannot  be  sound?     Christ 


42  AREOPAGITICA. 

urg'd  it  as  wherewith  to  justifie  himself,  that  he  preacht 
in  publick ;  yet  writing  is  more  publick  then  preaching, 
and  more  easie  to  refutation,  if  need  be,  there  being  so 
many  whose  businesse  and  profession  meerly  it  is,  to  be 

5  the  champions  of  Truth ;  which  if  they  neglect,  what  can 
be  imputed  but  their  sloth,  or  inabilty  ? 

Thus  much  we  are  hinder'd  and  dis-inur'd  by  this 
cours  of  licencing  towards  the  true  knowledge  of  what 
we  seem  to  know.     For  how  much  it  hurts  and  hinders 

lo  the  licencers  themselves  in  the  calling  of  their  Ministery, 
more  then  any  secular  employment,  if  they  will  discharge 
that  office  as  they  ought,  so  that  of  necessity  they  must 
neglect  either  the  one  duty  or  the  other,  I  insist  not, 
because  it  is  a  particular,  but  leave  it  to  their  own  con- 

15  science,  how  they  will  decide  it  there. 

There  is  yet  behind  of  what  I  purpos'd  to  lay  open, 
the  incredible  losse  and  detriment  that  this  plot  of  licenc- 
ing puts  us  to.  More  then  if  som  enemy  at  sea  should 
stop  up  all  our  hav'ns  and  ports  and  creeks,  it  hinders 

20  and  retards  the  importation  of  our  richest  Marchandize, 
TrjjtVi ;  nay,  it  was  first  establisht  and  put  in  practice 
by  Antichristian  malice  and  mystery^  on  set  purpose  to 
extinguish,  if  it  were  possible,  the  light  of  Reformation, 
and  to  settle  falshood,  little  differing  from  that  policie 

25  wherewith  the  Turk  upholds  his  Alcoran  by  the  prohi- 
bition of  Printing.  'Tis  not  deny'd,  but  gladly  confest, 
we  are  to  send  our  thanks  and  vows  to  heav'n  louder 
then  most  of  Nations  for  that  great  measure  of  truth 
which  we  enjoy,  especially  in  those  main  points  betweeo 

30  us  and  the  Pope  with  his  appertinences  the  Prelats ;  but 
he  who  thinks  we  are  to  pitch  our  tent  here,  and  have 
attain' d  the  utmost  prospect  of  reformation,  that  the 
mortalle  glasse  wherein  we  contemplate  can  shew  us,  till 


I 


AREOPAGITICA.  43 

we  come  to  beatific  vision,  that  man  by  this  very  opinion 
declares  that  he  is  yet  farre  short  of  Truth. 

Truth   indeed   came   once    into    the   world   with   her 
divine  Master,  and  was  a  perfect  shape  most  glorious 

5  to  look  on ;  but  when  he  ascended,  and  his  Apostles 
after  him  were  laid  asleep,  then  strait  arose  a  wicked 
race  of  deceivers,  who,  as  that  story  goes  of  the  jEgyplian 
Typhon  with  his  conspirators  how  they  dealt  with  the 
good   Osiris,   took   the   virgin  Truth,    hewd   her  lovely 

10  form  into  a  thousand  peeces,  and  scatter'd  them  to  the 
four  winds.     From  that  time  ever  since,  the  sad  friends 
of  Truth,  such  as  durst   appear,  imitating   the   carefuU  " 
search  that  Isis  made  for  the  mangl'd  body  of  Osiris, 
went  up  and  down  gathering  up  limb  by  limb  still  as 

15  they  could  find  them.  We  have  not  yet  found  them 
all.  Lords  and  Commons,  nor  ever  shall  doe,  till  her 
Masters  second  comming;  he  shall  bring  together  every 
joynt  and  member,  and  shall  mould  them  into  an  im- 
mortall  feature  of  loveliness  and  perfection.     Suffer  not 

20  these  licencing  prohibitions  to  stand  at  every  place  of 
opportunity  forbidding  and  disturbing  them  that  con- 
tinue seeking,  that  continue  to  do  our  obsequies  to 
the  torn  body  of  our  martyr'd  Saint.  /~^We"~boast  our 
light ;  but  if  we^  look  not  wisely  on  the   Sun  it  self,  it 

25  smites  us  into  darknes.  Who  can  discern  those  planets 
that  are  oft  Combust,  and  those  stars  of  brightest  mag- 
nitude that  rise  and  set  with  the  Sun,  untill  the  opposite 
motion  of  their  orbs  bring  them  to  such  a  place  in  the 
firmament,  where  they  may  be  seen  evning  or  morning  ? 

30  The  light  which  we  have  gain'd,  was  giv'n  us,  not  to 
be  ever  staring  on,  but  by  it  to  discover  onward  things 
more  remote  from  .  our  knowledge.  It  is  not  the  un- 
frocking of  a  Priest,  the  unmitring  of  a  Bishop,  and  the 


44  AREOPAGITICA. 

./'  J, 
Qfy^->  removing  him  from  off  the  Presbyterian  shoulders  that 

will  make  us  a  happy  Nation ;  no,  if  other  things  as  great 

in  the  Church  and  in  the  rule  of  life  both  economicall 

and  politicall  be  not  lookt  into  and  reform'd,  we  have 

5  lookt  so  long  upon  the  blaze  that  ZuingUus  and  Calvin 
hath  beacon'd  up  to  us,  that  we  are  stark  bhnd.  There 
be  who  perpetually  complain  of  schisms  and  sects,  and 
make  it  such  a  calamity  that  any  man  dissents  from  their 
maxims.      'Tis   their   own   pride    and   ignorance    which 

10  causes  the  disturbing,  who  neither  will  hear  with  meek- 
nes  nor  can  convince ;  yet  all  must  be  supprest  which 
is  not  found  in  their  Syntagma.  They  are  the  troublers, 
they  are  the  dividers  of  unity,  who  neglect  and  permit 
not  others   to  unite   those  dissever'd  peeces  which  are 

15  yet  wanting  to  the  body  of  Truth.  To  be  still  search- 
ing what  we  know  not  by  what  we  know,  still  closing 
up  truth  to  truth  as  we  find  it  (for  all  her  body  is 
homogeneal,  and  proportionall),  this  is  the  golden  rule 
in  Theology  as  well  as  in  Arithmetick,  and  makes  up  the 

20  best  harmony  in  a  Church,  not  the  forc't  and  outward 
union  of  cold  and  neutrall  and  inwardly  divided  minds. 


(jA  r^'^^ords  and  Commons  of  England,  consider  what  Na- 
y    Y    tion  it  ij 
/  nours :    a  Nation   not   slow  and   dull,  but  of  a  quick. 


/ 


N     Y    tion  it  is  wherof  ye  are  and  wherof  ye  are  the  gover- 


25  ingenious,  and  piercing  spirit,  acute  to  invent,  suttle 
and  sinewy  to  discours,  not  beneath  the  reach  of  any 
point  the  highest  that  human  capacity  can  soar  to. 
Therefore  the  studies  of  learning  in  her  deepest  Sciences 
have  bin   so   ancient   and   so   eminent   among  us,  that 

50  Writers  of  good  antiquity  and  ablest  judgement  have 
bin  perswaded  that  ev'n  the  school  of  Pythagoras  and 
the  Persian  wisdom  took  beginning  from  the  old  Philo- 
sophy of  this  Hand.     And  that  wise  and  civill  Roman, 


AREOPA  Gl  TIC  A,  45 

Julius  Agn'cola,  who  govern'd  once  here  for  Caesar ^  pre- 
ferr'd  the  naturall  wits  of  Britain  before  the  labour'd 
studies  of  the  French.  Nor  is  it  for  nothing  that  the 
grave  and  frugal   Transilvanian   sends  out  yearly  from 

5  as  farre  as  the  mountanous  borders  of  Russia  and 
beyond  the  Hercynian  wildernes,  not  their  youth,  but 
their  stay'd  men,  to  learn  our  language  and  our  theo- 
logic  arts.  Yet  that  which  is  above  all  this,  the  favour 
and  the  love  of  heav'n,  we  have  great  argument  to  think 

10  in  a  peculiar  manner  propitious  and  propending  towards 
us.  Why  else  was  this  Nation  chos'n  before  any  other, 
that  out  of  her  as  out  of  Sion  should  be  proclam'd  and 
sounded  forth  the  first  tidings  and  trumpet  of  Reforma- 
tion to  all  Europ  ?    And  had  it  not  bin  the  obstinat  per- 

15  versnes  of  our  Prelats  against  the  divine  and  admirable 
spirit  of  Wicklef,  to  suppresse  him  as  a  schismatic  and 
innovator^  perhaps  neither  the  Bohemian  Husse  2ind  Jerome 
no,  nor  the  name  of  Luther  or  of  Calvin  had  bin  ever 
known;   the  glory  of  reforming  all  our  neighbours  had 

20  bin  compleatly  ours.  But  now,  as  our  obdurat  Clergy 
have  with  violence  demean'd  the  matter,  we  are  become 
hitherto  the  latest  and  the  backwardest  Schollers,  of  whom 
God  offer'd  to  have  made  us  the  teachers.  Now  once 
again  by  all  concurrence  of  signs  and  by  the  generall  in- 

25  stinct  of  holy  and  devout  men,  as  they  daily  and  solemnly 
expresse  their  thoughts,  God  is  decreeing  to  begin  some 
new  and  great  period  in  his  Church,  ev'n  to  the  reform- 
ing of  Reformation  it  self.  What  does  he  then  but 
reveal  Himself  to  his  servants,  and  as  his  manner  is. 

30  first  to  his  English-men  ;'i  I  say  as  his  manner  is,  first 
to  us,  though  we  mai^k  not  the  method  of  his  counsel 
and  are  unworthy?  fBehold  now  this  vast  City:   a  City 
of  refuge,  the  mansion  house  oi  liBertyi  encompast  and 


46  AREOPAGTTICA, 

surrounded  with  his  protection ;  the  shop  of  warre  hath 
not  there  more  anvils  and  hammers  waking,  to  fashion 
out  the  plates  and  instruments  of  armed  Justice  in 
defence  of  beleaguer'd  Truth,  then  there  be  pens  and 

5  heads  there,  sitting  by  their  studious  lamps,  musing, 
searching,  revolving  new  notions  and  idea's  wherewith 
to  present  as  with  their  homage  and  their  fealty  the 
approaching  Reformation,  others  as  fast  reading,  trying 
all  things,  assenting  to  the  force  of  reason  and  convince- 

loment.  What  could  a  man  require  more  from  a  Nation 
so  pliant  and  so  prone  to  seek  after  knowledge  ?  What 
wants  there  to  such  a  towardly  and  pregnant  soile  but 
wise  and  faithfull  labourers,  to  make  a  knowing  people, 
a  Nation  of  Prophets,  of  Sages,  and  of  Worthies?     We 

isreck'n  more  then  five  months  yet  to  harvest;  there  need 
not  be  five  weeks ;  had  we  but  eyes  to  lift  up,  the  fields 
are  white  already.  Where  there  is  much  desire  to  learn, 
there  of  necessity  will  be  much  arguing,  much  writing, 
many  opinions;  for  opinion  in  good  men  is  but  know- 

20  ledge  in  the  making.  Under  these  fantastic  terrors  of 
sect  and  schism,  we  wrong  the  earnest  and  zealous  thirst 
after  knowledge  and  understanding  which  God  hath 
stirr'd  up  in  this  City.  What  some  lament  of,  we  rather 
should  rejoyce  at,  should  rather  praise  this   pious  for- 

25wardnes  among  men,  to  reassume  the  ill  deputed  care 
of  their  Religion  into  their  own  hands  again.  AJittle 
geiierous.  prudence,  a  little  forbearance  of  one  another, 
and  som  grain  of  charity  might  win  all  -these  diligences 
to  joyn  and  unite  in  one  generall  and  brotherly  search 

30  after  Truth,  could  we  but  forgoe  this  Prelaticall  tradi- 
tion of  crowding  free  consciences,  and  Christian  liberties 
into  canons  and  precepts  of  men.  I  doubt  not,  if  some 
great  and  worthy  stranger  should  come  among  us,  wise 


AREOPAGITICA,  47 

to  discern  the  mould  and  temper  of  a  people  and  how 
to  govern  it,  observing  the  high  hopes  and  aims,  the 
diligent  alacrity  of  our  extended  thoughts  and  reason- 
ings in  the  pursuance  of  truth  and  freedom,  but  that  he 
5  would  cry  out  as  Pirrhus  did,  admiring  the  Roman 
docility  and  courage :  If  such  were  my  Epirots,  I  would 
not  despair  the  greatest  design  that  could  be  attempted 
to  make  a  Church  or  Kingd<5rrl  happ3c.  /Yet  these  are" 
'  m  cry'd  out  against  for  schismatickp  and  sectaries; 
mile  the  Temple  of  the-X.ai:d-w4s  building,  some 
itting\  some  squaring  the  marble,  others  hewing  the 
cedars/ tnere  ihould  be  a  sort  of  irrationall  men  who  could 
mot  conSirter  there  must  be  many  schisms  and  many  dis- 
/  sections  made  in  the  quarry  and  in  the  timber,  ere  the 

lihouse  of  God  can  be  buifc^  And  when  every  stone  is  laid 
artmlly  together,  iTC^mrot  be  united  into  a  continuity,  it 
can  but  be  contiguous  in  this  world;  neither  can  every 
peece  of  the  building  be  of  one  form;  nay,  rather  the 
perfection  consists  in  this :    that  out  of  many  moderat 

20  varieties  and  brotherly  dissimilitudes  that  are  not 
vastly  disproportionall  arises  the  goodly  and  the  grace- 
full  symmetry  that  commends  the  whole  pile  and  struc- 
ture. Let  us  therefore  be  more  considerat  builders, 
more  wise  in  spirituall  architecture,  when  great   refor- 

25mation  is  expected.  For  now  the  time  seems  come, 
wherein  Moses  the  great  Prophet  may  sit  in  heav'n  re- 
joycing  to  see  that  memorable  and  glorious  wish  of  his 
fulfill'd,  when  not  only  our  sev'nty  Elders  but  all  the 
Lords  people  are   become  Prophets.     No  marvell  then 

30  though  some  men,  and  some  good  men  too  perhaps, 
but  young  in  goodnesse,  as  Joshua  then  was,  envy  them. 
They  fret,  and  out  of  their  own  weaknes  are  in  agony, 
lest  those  divisions  and  subdivisions  will  undoe  us.     The 


48  AREOPAGITICA. 

adversarie  again  applauds,  and  waits  the  hour;  when 
they  have  brancht  themselves  out,  saith  he,  small  anough 
into  parties  and  partitions,  then  will  be  our  time.  Fool ! 
he  sees  not  the  firm  root,  out  of  which  we  all  grow 
5  though  into  branches ;  nor  will  beware  untill  hee  see  our 
small  divided  maniples  cutting  through  at  every  angle 
of  his  ill  united  and  unweildy  brigade.  And  that  we 
are  to  hope  better  of  all  these  supposed  sects  and  schisms, 
and  that  we  shall  not  need  that  solicitude  honest  perhaps 

I  o  though  over  timorous  of  them  that  vex  in  this  behalf, 
but  shall  laugh  in  the  end  at  those  malicious  applauders 
of  fflr  differences,  I  have  these  reasons  to  perswade  me : 

^\  First,  wBeir~a "City  shatt -be  -as-it-were-feesieg*!!" and 
blockt  about,  her  navigable  river  infested,   inrodes  and 

15  incursions   round,    defiance   and   battell   oft   rumor'd   to! 

H arching  up  ev'n  to  her  walls  and  suburb  trenches,! 
then  the  people,  or  the  greater  part,  more  then! 
her  times,  wholly  tak'n  up  with  the  study  of 
highest  and  niost^^  important  mattersyto  be  i^orm'd; 
2oshould_be  disputfng.  ^ea^ntfig.  re^^di^  invenung,  <f^^^ 
coursing,  ev'n  to  a  rarity,  and  y^mira^on,  xmftgs  ndt 
'^fore  discourst  or  ^Titrrr~of,  /srgues  nrsFlT^  singular 
good  will,  contentednesse  and  tonfideijrce  in  your  pru- 
dent foresight  and  safe  governnkiit»^ords  ^nd  ^rji- 
.  25  mons^-'an^'Trom  thence  derives  it  self  to  a  gallant 
\^__jM=a:vefy  and  well  grounded  contempt  of  their  enemies, 
as  if  there  were  no  small  number  of  as  great  spirits 
among  us,  as  his  was,  who  when  Rome  was.  nigh  be- 
sieg'd  by  Hanihaly  being  in  the  City,  bought  that  peece 
30  of  ground  at  no  cheap  rate,  whereon  Hanihal  himself 
encampt  his  own  regiment.  Next  it  is  a  lively  and 
cherfull  presage  of  our  happy  successe  and  victory. 
For  as  in  a  body,  when  the  blood  is  fresh,  the  spirits 


AREOPAGITICA,  49 

pure   and   vigorous    not    only  to    vital   but   to   rational! 
faculties    and    those    in    the    acutest    and    the    pertest 
operations   of  wit   and  suttlety,  it   ar^es  in  what  goocL 
plight  and   constitution  the  body  is/so^\vhcn^  the  cher- 
5  fulnesse  of  the  people  is  so  sprightly  up,  as  that  it  has 
not  onlywherewith  to  guard  well  its  own  freedom  and 
safety   but   to   spare,  and   to    bestow  upon   the  solidest 
and   sublimest   points    of  controversie    and    new   inven- 
tion, it  betokens  us  not  degenerated,  nor  drooping  to  a 
10  fatair^cay,  but   castmg  oif  tTie~ord  and  wrincl'd  skin 
of  corrtipli?5Tr~Tn~outlive   these   pangs   and  wax   young 
again,^ntrmg^~tHe   glorious  waies   of  Truth   and  pros- 
perous vertue  destii?Tlo~"become~^TCat  and  honogr^^ble 
in  these    latter   ages.    Rethinks  I    see   in   my   mind   a   y 
15  noble  and  puissant  Nation  rousing  herself  like  a  strong 
JT)      man    after    sleep,    and    shaking    her     invincible     locks. 
v^*jj^^ethinks    I    see   her   as    an    Eagle   muing   her   mighty 
p/^  youth,  and  kindling  her  undazl'd  eyes  at  the  full  mid- 
day  beam,    purging    and    unsealing    her    long    abused 
20  sight  at  the   fountain   it  self  of  heav'nly  radiance,  while 

the  whole   noise  of  timorous    and.  flocking  birds,  with  ^'--'^^^"f 
those  also   that  love  the  twilight,  flutter  about,  amaz'd 
at  what  she  means,  and  in  their  envious  gabble  would 

progposticat  ayea^^sects  ^nd  grln'gms — rx > 

2J'''"^What   should   ye   doe  then,  should   ye  suppresse  all        / 
I  this  flowry  crop  of  knowledge  and  new  light  sprung  up       / 
j  and  yet  springing  daily  'in  this  City,  should  ye  set  an     / 
^    Oligarchy  of  twenty  ingrossers  over  it,  to  bring  a  famin     ' 

upon  our   minds   again,  when  we   shall   know  nothing 

30 but  what  is  measur'd   to   us  by  their  bushel?    Beleeve 

it,  Lords*  and  Commons,  they  who  counsell  ye  to  such 

a  suppressing  doe   as  good  as  bid  ye  suppresse  your- 

*  'Lord,'  ed.  of  1644. 

S 


50  AREOPA  GITICA . 

selves;  and  I  will  soon  shew  how.  If  it  be  desir'd  to 
know  the  immediat  cause  of  all  this  free  writing  and 
free  speaking,  there  cannot  be  assign'd  a  truer  then 
^our  own  mild  and  free  and  human  government ;  If  jt 
is~-the  liberty,  Lords  and  Commons,  which  your  own 
valorous  and  happy  counsels  have  purchast  us,  liberty 
which  is  the  nurse  of  all  great  wits;  this  is  that  which 
hath  rarify'd  and  enlightn'd  our  spirits  like  the  influence 
of  heav'n ;  this  is  that  which  hath  enfranchis'd,  enlarg'd 
and  lifted  up  our  apprehensions  degrees  above  them- 
selves.^fYc^annot  make^-Qs  now  lesse  capable,  leb'se 
kn^^mg,  lesse  eagarly  pursuing  of  the  truth,  unlesse 
ye  first  make  your  selves,  that  made  us  soHl^S^fi-ihe 
lovers,  lesse  the  founders  of  our  true  libert}^  We  can 
grow  ignorant  agaiYi;  biutish,  fuimall,  diid  stevisn,  as  ye 
found  us;  but  you  then  must  first  become  that 
ye  tannot  be,  oppressive,  arbitrary,  and  tyrannous,  as 
they  were  from  whom  ye  have  free'd  us.  That  our 
hearts   are    now   more    capacious,    our    thoughts   more 

20  erected  to  the  search  and  expectation  of  greatest  and 
exactest  things,  is  the  issue  of  your  owne  vertu  propa- 
gated in  us ;  ye  cannot  suppresse  that  unlesse  ye  rein- 
force an  abrogated  and  mercilesse  law,  that  fathers  may 
dispatch  at  will  their  own  children.     And  who  shall  then 

25  sticke  closest  to  ye,  and  excite  others  ?  Not  he  who  takes 
up  armes  for  cote  and  conduct  and  his  four  nobles  of 
Danegelt.  Although  I  dispraise  not  the  defence  of  just 
immunities,  yet  love  my  peace  better,  if  that  were  all. 
Give   me  the   liberty  to   know,  to  utter,  and  to  argue 

;o  freely  according  to  conscience,  above  all  liberties. 

What  would   be  best  advis'd  then,  if  it  be  found  so 
Xk^^     hurtfull  and  so  imequall  to  suppresse  opinions  for  the 
\  '  newnes  or  the  unsutablenes  to  a  customary  acceptance, 


t 


AREOPAGITICA.  51 

will  not  be  my  task  to  say ;    I  only  shall  repeat  what  I  y        ' 
have  learnt  from  one  of  your  own  honourable  number,  ' 

/^  frgtit  noble  and  pioiislofdr-whe-haJ  \\^  itot-SRrrifir'ri 

( Ais  life  and  fortunes  to  the  Church  and  Commonwealth,       j 
^ve  had  not  now  mist  and  bewayl'd  ^^woithy  and  un-      ) 
(   doubted  patron  of  this  argument,  y'^e  know  nrnTtTmr 
sure ;    yet  I  for  honOitrs-sakeraciia  in  ay  it  be  eternall  to 
him,  shall  name  him,  the  Lord  Brook.     He  writing  of 
Episcopacy,    and    by   the   way    treating    of   sects    and 
10  schisms,  left  Ye  his  vote,  or  rather  now  the  last  words  . 
of  his  dying  charge,  which  I  know  will  ever  be  of  dear 
and  honour'd  regard  with  Ye,  so  full  of  meeknes  and 
breathing  charity,   that  next  to  his  last  testament,  who 
bequeathed  love  and   peace  to   his   Disciples,  I  cannot 
1 5  call  to  mind  where  I  have  read  or  heard  words  more 
mild  and  peacefull.     He  there  exhorts  us  to  hear  with 
patience    and    humility   those,    however    they   be    mis- 
call'd,  that  desire  to  live  purely,  in  such  a  use  of  Gods 
Ordinances,  as   the   best   guidance   of  their   conscience 
20  gives  them,  and  to  tolerat  them,  though   in  some    dis- 
conformity  to  our  selves.     The  book  it  self  will  tell  us 
more  at   large  being   publisht   to  the  world  and  dedi- 
cated to  the   Parlament  by  him  who   both  for   his   life 
and  for  his  death  deserves,  that  what  advice  he  left  be 
25  not  laid  by  without  perusall. 

And  now  the  time  in  speciall  is  by  priviledge  to 
write  and  speak  what  may  help  to  the  furder  dis- 
cussing of  matters  in  agitation.  The  Temple  ol  Janus 
with  his  two  controversal  faces  might  now  not  unsignifi- 
30  cantly  be  set  open.  And  though  all  the  windes  of 
doctrin  were  let  loose  to  play  upon  the  earth,  so  Truth  ^J 
be  in  the  field,  we  do  injuriously  by  licencing  and 
prohibiting  to  misdoubt  her  strength.  Let  her  and 
£  2 


52  AREOPAGTTICA. 

Falshood  grapple ;    who  ever  knew  Truth  put   to   the 

wors   in   a    free  and   open   encounter?    Her   confuting 

^    is  the  best  and  surest  suppressing.     He  who  hears  what 

/      praying  there  is  for  light  and  clearer  knowledge  to   be 

5  sent  down  among  us,  would  think  of  other  matters  to 

be  constituted  beyond  the  discipline  of  Geneva^  fram'd 

and  fabric't  already  to   our  hands.     Yet  when  the  new 

light  which  we  beg  for  shines  in  upon  us,  there  be  who 

envy  and  oppose,  if  it  come  not  first  in  at  their  case- 

/oments.  What  a  collusion  is  this,  whenas  we  are  ex- 
horted by  the  wise  man  to  use  diligence,  to  seek  for 
wisdom  as  for  hidden  treasures  early  and  late,  that 
another  order  shall  enjoyn  us  to  know  nothing  but> 
staiM*e4ywTien  a  man  hath  bin  labouring  the  hardes^ 
labour  in  the  deep  mines  of  knowledge,  hath  furnisht 
out  his  findings  in  all  their  equipage,  drawn  forth  his 
reasons  as  it  were  a  battell  raung'd^catter'd  anddp- 
/feated  all  objections  in  J\is  way,T^alls/Qut  his  adver- 
'  sary  into   the  plain,  qffer^  him*me~advantage  of  wind 

(o  and  sun,  if  he  please,  only  that  he  may  try  the  matter 
by  dint  of  argument,  for  his  opponents  then  to  sculk, 
to  lay  ambushments,  to  keep  a  narrow  bridge  of  licenc- 
ing where  the  challenger  should  passe,  though  it  be 
valour   anough    in   shouldiership,    is   but   weaknes    and 

25  cowardise  in  the  wars  of  Truth.  For  wlia-JinQ5KS_ji.Qt 
that  Truth  is  strong  next  to  the  Almighty?  She  needs 
no  policies,  no  stratagems,  nor  licencings  to  make  her 
victorious;  those  are  the  shifts  and  the  defences  that 
error  uses  against  her  power.     Give  her  but  room,  and 

30  do  not  bind  her  when  she  sleeps,  for  then  she  speaks 
not  true,  as  the  old  Proteus  did,  who  spake  oracles 
only  when  he  was  caught  and  bound ;  but  then  rather 
she  turns  herself  into  all   shapes  except  her  own,   and 


AREOPAGITICA.  53 

perhaps  tunes  her  voice  according  to  the  time,  as 
Micaiah  did  before  Ahab,  untill  she  be  adjur'd  into 
her  own  likenes.  Yet  is  it  not  impossible  that  she  may 
have  more  shapes  then  one.     What  else  is  all  that  rank 

5  of  things  indifferent,  wherein  Truth  may  be  on  this  side 
or  on  the  other  without  being  unlike  her  self?  What 
but  a  vain  shadow  else  is  the  abolition  of  those  ordi- 
nances, that  hand  writing  nayVd  to  the  crosse,  what 
great  purchase  is   this   Christian  liberty  which  Paul  so 

I o  often  boasts  of?  His  doctrine  is,  that  he  who  eats  or 
eats  not,  regards  a  day  or  regards  it  not,  may  doe 
either  to  the  Lord.  How  many  other  things  might  be 
tolerated  in  peace  and  left  to  conscience,  had  we  but 
charity,  and  were    it  not  the   chief  strong  hold  of  our 

ishypocrisie  to  be  ever  judging  one  another.  I  fear  yet 
this  iron  yoke  of  outward  conformity  hath  left  a  slavish 
print  upon  our  necks;  the  ghost  of  a  linnen  decency 
yet  haunts  us.  We  stumble  and  are  impatient  at  the 
least  dividing  of  one  visible  congregation  from  another, 

20  though  it  be  not  in  fundamentalls ;  and  through  our 
forwardnes  to  suppresse,  and  oiir  backwardnes  to  re- 
cover any  enthrall'd  peece  of  truth  out  of  the  gripe  of 
custom,  we  care  not  to  keep  truth  separated  from 
truth,   which   is   the    fiercest   rent   and   disunion  of  all. 

25  We  doe  not  see  that  while  we  still  affect  by  all  means 
a  rigid  externall  formality,  we  may  as  soon  fall  again 
into  a  grosse  conforming  stupidity,  a  stark  and  dead 
congealment  of  wood  and  hay  and  stubble  forc't  and 
frozen   together,  which  is  more  to  the   sudden  degene- 

30  rating  of  a  Church  then  many  subdichototm'es  of  petty 
schisms.  Not  that  I  can  think  well  of  every  light  sepa- 
ration, or  that  all  in  a  Church  is  to  be  expected  gold 
and  stiver  afid  pretious  stones ;  it  is  not  possible  for  man 


54  AREOPAGITICA. 

to  sever  the  wheat  from  the  tares,  the  good  fish  from 
the  other  frie ;  that  must  be  the  Angels  Ministery  at  the 
end  of  mortall  things.  Yet  if  all  cannot  be  of  one  mind, 
as  who  looks  they  should  be?    this  doubtles   is   more 

5  wholsome,   more    prudent,    and    more    Christian :    that 

many  be   tolerated  rather  than  all  compell'd.     I  mean 

not  tolerated  Popery  and   open   superstition,  which  as 

lit   extirpats   all   religions   and   civill   supremacies,  so   it 

I  self  should  be  extirpat,  provided  first  that  all  charitable 

itiand   compassionat   means   be   us'd   to   win   and   regain 

\  the  weak  and  misled;  that  also  which  is  impious  or  evil 
absolutely  either  against  faith  or  maners  no  law  can 
possibly  permit,  that  intends  not  to  unlaw  it  self;  but 
those  neighboring    differences,  or    rather    indifferences, 

15  are  what  I  speak  of,  whether  in  some  point  of  doctrine 
or  of  discipline,  which  though  they  may  be  many,  yet 
need  not  interrupt  the  unity  of  Spirit^  if  we  could  but 
find  among  us  the  bond  of  peace.  In  the  mean  while  if 
any  one  would  write,  and  bring  his  helpfull  hand  to  the 

20  slow-moving  Reformation  which  we  labour  under,  if 
Truth  have  spok'n  to  him  before  others,  or  but  seem'd 
at  least  to  speak,  who  hath  so  bejesuited  us  that  we 
should  trouble  that  man  with  asking  licence  to  doe  so 
worthy  a  deed?   And  not  consider  this,  that  if  it  come 

25  to  prohibiting,  there  is  not  ought  more  likely  to  be 
prohibited  then  truth  it  self;  whose  first  appearance  to 
our  eyes  blear'd  and  dimm'd  with  prejudice  and  custom, 
is  more  unsightly  and  unplausible  then  many  errors, 
ev'n  as  the  person  is  of  many  a  great  man  slight  and 

30  contemptible  to  see  to.  And  what  doe  they  tell  us 
vainly  of  new  opinions,  when  this  very  opinion  of  theirs, 
that  none  must  be  heard  but  whom  they  like,  is  the 
worst  and   newest  opinion   of  all   others;    and   is  the 


AREOPAGITICA.  55 

chief  cause  why  sects  and  schisms  doe  so  much  abound, 
and  true  knowledge  is  kept  at  distance  from  us? 
Besides  yet  a  greater  danger  which  is  in  it:  for  when 
God   shakes   a   Kingdome   with    strong   and    healthfull 

5  commotions  to  a  generall  reforming,  'tis  not  untrue 
that  many  sectaries  and  false  teachers  are  then  busiest 
in  seducing;  but  yet  more  true  it  is,  that  God  then 
raises  to  his  own  work  men  of  rare  abilities  and  more 
then  common  industry  not  only  to  look  back  and  revise 

10  what  hath  bin  taught  heretofore,  but  to  gain  furder  and 
goe  on  some  new  enlightn'd  steps  in  the  discovery  of 
truth.  For  such  is  the  order  of  Gods  enlightning  his 
Church,  to  dispense  and  deal  out  by  degrees  his  beam, 
so  as   our   earthly  eyes   may  best   sustain   it.     Neither 

15  is  God  appointed  and  confin'd,  where  and  out  of  what 
place  these  his  chosen  shall  be  first  heard  to  speak ;  for 
he  sees  not  as  man  sees,  chooses  not  as  man  chooses, 
lest  we  should  devote  our  selves  again  to  set  places  and 
assemblies   and  outward  callings   of  men,  planting  our 

20  faith  one  while  in  the  old  Convocation  house,  and 
another  while  in  the  Chappell  at  Westminster;  when 
all  the  faith  and  religion  that  shall  be  there  canoniz'd, 
is  not  sufficient,  without  plain  convincement  and  the 
charity  of  patient  instruction,  to  supple  the  least  bruise 

25  of  conscience,  to  edifie  the  meanest  Christian,  who  de- 
sires to  walk  in  the  Spirit,  and  not  in  the  letter  of 
human  trust,  for  all  the  number  of  voices  that  can  be 
there  made;  no,  though  Harry  the  7.  himself  there, 
with  all  his  leige  tombs  about  him,  should  lend  them 

30  voices  from  the  dead,  to  swell  their  number.  And 
if  the  men  be  erroneous  who  appear  to  be  the  leading 
schismaticks,  what  witholds  us  but  our  sloth,  our  self- 
will,  and  distrust  in  the   right   cause,  that  we  doe  not 


56  AREOPAGITTCA, 

give  them  gentle  meetings  and  gentle  d.smissions,  that 
we  debate  not  and  examin  the  matter  throughly  with 
liberall  and  frequent  audience;  if  not  for  their  sakes, 
yet  for  our  own,  seeing  no  man  who  hath  tasted 
5  learning,  but  will  confesse  the  many  waies  of  profiting 
by  those  who  not  contented  with  stale  receits  are  able 
to  manage  and  set  forth  new  positions  to  the  world? 
And  were  they  but  as  the  dust  and  cinders  of  our 
feet,  so  long  as  in  that  notion  they  may  serve  to  polish 

lo  and  brighten  the  armoury  of  Truth,  ev'n  for  that  respect 

they  were  not  utterly  to  be  cast  away.     But  if  they  be 

of  those  whom  God  hath  fitted  for  the  speciall  use  of 

.  these  times   with    eminent   and   ample  gifts,  and   those 

perhaps    neither    among    the    Priests    nor   among   the 

15  Pharisees,  and  we  in  the  hast  of  a  precipitant  zeal  shall 
make  no  distinction,  but  resolve  to  stop  their  mouths, 
because  we  fear  they  come  with  new  and  dangerous 
opinions,  as  we  commonly  fore-judge  them  ere  we  un- 
derstand them,  no  lesse  then  woe  to  us,  while,  thinking 

20  thus  to  defend  the  Gospel,  we  are  found  the  persecutors. 

There  have  bin  not  a  few  since  the  beginning  of  this 

Parlament,  both  of  the  Presbytery  and  others,  who  by 

their  unlicen't  books  to  the  contempt  of  an  Imprimatur 

first  broke  that  triple   ice  clung  about  our  hearts,  and 

25  taught  the  people  to  see  day.  I  hope  that  none  of  those 
were  the  perswaders  to  renew  upon  us  this  bondage 
which  they  themselves  have  wrought  so  much  good  by 
contemning.  But  if  neither  the  check  that  Moses  gave 
to  young  Joshua^  nor  the  countermand  which  our  Saviour 

30  gave  to  young  John^  who  was  so  ready  to  prohibit  those 
whom  he  thought  unlicenc't,  be  not  anough  to  admonish 
our  Elders  how  unacceptable  to  God  their  testy  mood 
of  prohibiting  is,  if  neither  their  own  remembrance  what 


AREOPAGITICA.  67 

evill  hath  abounded  in  the  Church  by  this  lett  of  licenc- 
ing, and  what  good  they  themselves  have  begun  by  trans- 
gressing it,  be  not  anough,  but  that  they  will  perswade 
and  execute  the  most  Dominican  part  of  the  Inquisition 

5  over  us,  and  are  already  with  one  foot  in  the  stirrup  so 
active  at  suppressing,  it  would  be  no  unequall  distribu- 
tion in  the  first  place  to  suppresse  the  suppressors  them- 
selves; whom  the  change  of  their  condition  hath  puft 
up  more  then  their  late  experience  of  harder  times  hath 

10  made  wise. 

And  as  for  regulating  the  Presse,  let  no  man  think  to 
have  the  honour  of  advising  ye  better  then  your  selves 
have  done  in  that  Order  publisht  next  before  this :  that 
no  book  be  Printed,  unlesse  the  Printers  and  the  Authors 

15  name,  or  at  least  the  Printers  be  register'd.  Those  which 
otherwise  come  forth,  if  they  be  found  mischievous  and 
libellous,  the  fire  and  the  executioner  will  be  the  time- 
liest and  the  most  eifectuall  remedy,  that  mans  prevention 
can  use.     For  this  auihefitic  Spanish  policy  of  licencing 

20  books,  if  I  have  said  ought,  will  prove  the  most  unlicenc't 
book  it  self  within  a  short  while ;  and  was  the  immediat 
image  of  a  Star-chamber  decree  to  that  purpose  made 
in  those  very  times  when  that  Court  did  the  rest  of  those 
her  pious  works,  for  which  she  is  now  fall'n  from  the 

25  Starres  with  Lticifer.  Whereby  ye  may  guesse  what  kinde 
of  State  prudence,  what  love  of  the  people,  what  care 
of  Religion,  or  good  manners  there  was  at  the  con- 
triving, although  with  singular  hypocrisie  it  pretended  to 
bind  books  to   their  good  behaviour.     And   how  it  got 

30  the  upper  hand  of  your  precedent  Order  so  well  con- 
stituted before,  if  we  may  beleeve  those  men  whose  pro- 
fession gives  them  cause  to  enquire  most,  it  may  be 
doubted  there  was  in  it  the  fraud  of  some  old  patentees 


58  AREOPAGITICA. 

and  monopolizers  in  the  trade  of  book-selling ;  who  under 
pretence  of  the  poor  in  their  Company  not  to  be  de- 
frauded, and  the  just  retaining  of  each  man  his  severall 
copy,  which   God   forbid    should   be   gainsaid,   brought 

5  divers  glosing  colours  to  the  House,  which  were  indeed 
but  colours,  and  serving  to  no  end  except  it  be  to  exer- 
cise a  superiority  over  their  neighbours,  men  who  doe 
not  therefore  labour  in  an  honest  profession  to  which 
learning  is  indetted,  that   they  should   be   made   other 

lo  mens  vassals.  Another  end  is  thought  was  aym'd  at  by 
some  of  them  in  procuring  by  petition  this  Order,  that 
having  power  in  their  hands,  malignant  books  might  the 
easier  scape  abroad,  as  the  event  shews.  But  of  these 
Sophisms  and  Elejichs  of  marchandize  I  skill  not.     This 

15  I  know,  that  errois  in  a  good  government  and  in  a  bad 
are  equally  almost  incident;  for  what  Magistrate  may 
not  be  mis'inform'd,  and  much  the  sooner,  if  liberty  of 
Printing  be  reduc't  into  the  power  of  a  few?  But  to 
redresse  willingly  and  speedily  what  hath  bin  err'd,  and 

20  in  highest  autority  to  esteem  a  plain  advertisement  more 
then  others  have  done  a  sumptuous  bribe,  is  a  vertue 
(honour'd  Lords  and  Commons)  answerable  to  Your 
highest  actions,  and  whereof  none  can  participat  but 
greatest  and  wisest  men. 


NOTES. 


NOTES. 


Page  1.  Observe  that  the  Speech  opens  with  what  the  Greek  gram- 
marians called  an  •anacoluthon,'=  a  syntactical  *  non  sequitur'  or  inco- 
herence. The  sense  is  plain  enough;  only  the  grammatical  letter  is 
violated.  Such  carelessnesses  are  common  in  Milton's  prose  writings,  as 
in  Clarendon's  and  others  of  the  seventeenth  century,  till  Dryden  introduced 
a  more  correct  style.  With  the  instance  in  the  text  compare  such  Latin  and 
Greek  uses  of  the  nominative  as  in  Virgil,  JEueid,  xii.  i6i,  &c. ;  of  the 
accusative  in  Sophocles,  Antigone  21,  &c. ;  and  Thucydides*  use  of  the 
dative,  as  in  v.  iii,  iroWois  -yctp  vpoopojfievois  k.t.X. 

Line  l.   They  who  to  States,  &c.,  i.e.  (i)  orators,  and  (ii)  writers. 

States  =  hezds  of  states.  Holt  White  quotes  from  Milton's  translation  of 
Psalm  Ixxxii : 

•  God  in  the  great  assembly  stands 
Of  kings  and  lordly  States.' 
Also  from  Sidney's  Arcadia :    '  I  can  do  nothing  without  all  the  States  of 
Arcadia  ;    what  they  will  determine  I  know  not,'  &c.     Compare  how  the 
names  of  their  kingdoms  are  used  to  denote  the  kings  themselves ;  as  e.  g. 
in  King  Lear  France  =  King  of  France,  &c. 

3.  wanting,  not  =  wishing  for,  or  needing,  but  being  without.  See  below, 
p.  102. 

in  a  private  condition.  These  words  explain  how  '  access'  is  •  wanted '  =  as 
being  private  meti. 

6.  fl//er'a?  =  changed,  perturbed.    Alter  is  literally  to  make  other  or  different. 

7.  swccew  =  issue.  The  word  was  by  no  means  confined  in  Milton's  time 
to  a  favourable  sense.     Thus  Paradise  Regained,  iv.  i  : 

*  Perplex'd  and  troubled  at  his  bad  success, 
The  tempter  stood.' 

8.  ««s//r«'— opinion.  This  word  in  Milton's  time  was  not  limited  to 
denote  only  unfavourable  judgment.  See  Shakspere  passim ;  as  Hamlet,  i. 
3.  69  :  '  Take  each  man's  censure,  hut  reserve  thy  judgment.' 

of  what,  &c.  =  born  of,  springing  from,  based  on  what. 

as  the  subject  was,  8cc.  This  speech  was  published  in  November,  1 644; 
see  Introduction.  The  works  that  had  preceded  it  were,  Of  Reformation  in 
England,  Prelatical  Episcopacy,  Reason  of  Church  Government,  Animadver- 
sions, &c.,  all  published  in  1641 ;  Apology  for  Smectymnuus  in  1642.  The 
Tractate  on  Education,  The  Doctrine  and  Discipline  of  Divorce,  and  Martin 
Bucer's  Judgment  were  published  in  the  same  year  with  the  Areopagitica. 


62  AREOPAGITICA.  [P.  i. 

12.  likely.  This  adverb  is  still  retained  in  Lowland  Scotch,  and  in  the 
phrase  most  likely. 

[might  disclose.    What  is  the  grammatical  subject  to  might  disclose  ?] 
•  13.  formost.     See  Morris's  English  Accidence,  §  123. 

16.  to  a  passion  =  into  a  state  of  intense  feeling,  of  excitement  and  enthu- 
siasm. Milton  is  often  *  carried  away ' — '  rapt ' — by  his  subject  in  this  splendid 
work. 

then  =  owT  than.     See  Morris's  English  Accidence,  §  312. 

[17.  Explain  incidentall  to  a  Preface."] 

18.  though  I  stay  not,  &c.  =  though  I  confess  at  once. 
«V  =  to  wish  and  promote  their  countries  liberty. 

22.  a  certain  testimony,  if  not  a  Trophey.  It  will  show  how  ready  I  am 
to  fight  for  my  country,  whether  I  conquer  or  not.  In  this  particular  cause 
he  was  not  to  conquer  for  some  fifty  years.  The  Areopagitica  became  a 
•  trophy'  as  well  as  a  '  testimony'  in  1694.     See  Introduction. 

P.  2,  1.  5.  to  which,  &c.  Milton  had  not  yet  perhaps  fully  discovered  the 
disheartening  fact  that  the  Presbyterian  party  when  in  power  was  to  show 
itself  as  little  capable  of  an  enlightened  tolerance  as  the  Episcopalians  whom 
they  had  overthrown — that  '  new  foes '  were  arising 

'  Threatening  to  bind  our  souls  with  secular  chains,* 
and  re-enthrall  •  free  co»science' — that,  really  as  well  as  ctymologically, 
'  New  Presbj^ter  is  but  Old  Priest  writ  large.' 

are  .  .  .  arrived.     A  more  accurate  phrase  than  our  have  arrived. 

7.  and  yet  from  such  a  steep  disadvantage,  &c.  We  were  so  sunken 
that  our  rising  again  might  well  have  seemed  hopeless  and  impossible,  as  was 
the  rising  again  of  the  Romans  after  their  decline  and  fall,  all  whose 
'  manhood  '  (  =  Lat.  virtus,  manliness,  valour)  could  not  recover  them  ;  and 
yet  we  have  recovered  ourselves. 

[13.  Neither  is  it,  &c.     Explain  //  here.] 

1 5.  which  if  I  now  first,  &c.  His  Of  Reformation  in  England,  for  instance, 
is  filled  with  delight  at  what  he  was  witnessing,  and  praise  of  those  who  were 
accomplishing  it.     See  also  An  Apology  for  Smectymnuus,  passim. 

19,  unwillingest.     See  below,  p.  93. 
22.  courtship.     See  Comus,  321-5: 

'  Shepherd,  I  take  thy  word. 

And  trust  thy  honest  offer'd  courtesy. 

Which  oft  is  sooner  found  in  lowly  sheds 

With  smoky  rafters,  than  in  tap'stry  halls 

And  courts  of  princes,  where  it  first  was  named 

And  yet  is  most  pretended.' 
The  word  court  is  itself  of  humble  origin — from  Lat.  cohortem  =  z  farm- 
yard ;  see  Max  Miiller's  Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Language,  2nd  Series. 

25.  the  other  here  denotes  the  third  of  the  'three  principal  things '  =  what 
is  called  the  latter  just  below.  So  sometimes  in  Elizabethan  English  both, 
the  conjunction,  is  used  when  more  than  two  objects  are  linked  together ;  so 


p.  3,]  NOTES.  6^ 

also  neither.     This  use  of  other  is  the  more  odd,  because  it  is  in  fact  the 
native  word  for  second.     Second  is  a  French  word. 

a8.  hereto/ore.  See  especially  Animadversions  upon  the  Remonstrant's 
Defence  against  Smectymnuus,  and  An  Apology  for  Smectymnuus. 

29.  resetting,  &c.  See  An  Apology  for  Smectymnuus;  especially  Sect.  viii. 
p.  89,  Of  Works :  '  And  can  this  private  concoctor  of  malecontent  at  the 
very  instant  when  he  pretends  to  extol  the  pailiament,  afford  thus  to  blur 
over  rather  than  to  mention  that  public  triumph  of  their  justice  and  con- 
stancy, so  high,  so  glorious,  so  reviving  to  the  fainted  commonwealth,  with 
such  a  suspicious  and  murmuring  expression  as  to  call  it  "  some  proceedings"? 
[He  is  dealing  with  Hall's  remarks  on  the  execution  of  Strafford.]  And  yet 
immediately  he  falls  to  glossing,  as  if  he  were  the  only  man  that 
rejoiced  at  these  times.  But  I  shall  discover  to  ye,  readers,  that  this  his 
praising  of  them  is  as  full  of  nonsense  and  scholastic  foppery  as  his  meaning 
he  himself  discovers  to  be  full  of  close  malignity.  His  first  encomium  is,' 
&c.  &c.  For  another  eulogy  of  the  Long  Parliament  see  The  Judgment  of  ^ 
Martin  Bucer  concerning  Divorce :  *  And  having  now  perfected  a  second 
edition,  1  referred  the  judging  thereof  to  your  high  and  impartial  sentence, 
honoured  lords  and  commons.  For  I  was  confident,  if  anything  generous, 
anything  noble  and  above  the  multitude  were  left  yet  in  the  spirit  of 
England,  it  could  be  nowhere  sooner  found,  and  nowhere  sooner  understood 
than  in  that  house  of  justice  and  true  liberty  where  ye  sit  in  council.' 

him  who  went  about,  Sec.  =  Hall,  Bishop  of  Norwich,  '  the  Remonstrant,* 
who  had  answered  Smectymnuus,  and  in  his  answer  had  'damned'  the 
Parliament  'with  faint  praise,'  as  Milton  thought ;  see  above.  See  Hall's  Modest 
Confutation  of  a  Slanderous  and  Scurrilous  Libel  intituled  Animadversions 
upon  the  Remonstrant's  Defence  against  Smectymnuus.  Milton  calls  the 
praise  Hall  confers  '  trivial,  since  it  deals  in  commonplaces  ;  malignant  (dis- 
loyal to  the  Commonwealth),  since  it  assumes  that  the  Parliament  ii 
inseparable  from  the  Crown.*  (Jebb.)  Hall  was  of  no  mean  note  in  literature, 
quite  apart  from  the  Smectymnuus  controversy,  in  which  he  was  so  mercilessly 
derided.  He  was  one  of  our  earliest  writers  of  formal  satire ;  his  Virgidemiae 
was  first  published  in  1597-9  ;  but  his  prose  is  better  than  his  verse.  His 
Occasional  Meditations  enjoyed  and  deserved  a  wide  popularity.  He  was 
bom  at  Bristow  Park,  Leicestershire ;  died  at  Heigham,  whither  he  retired 
after  his  deposition  from  his  bishopric,  in  1656. 

went  about  to,  &c.  =  found  and  took  the  way  to,  set  himself  to.  Hooker's 
Ecclesiastical  Polity,  Li:  'He  that  goeth  about  to  persuade  a  multitude,' 
&c. 

P.  3,  I.  3.  ye.  '  The  confusion  between  ye  and  you  did  not  exist  in  Old 
English.  Ye  was  always  used  as  a  nom.,  and  you  as  a  dat.  or  ace.  In 
the  English  Bible  this  distinction  is  very  carefully  observed,  but  in  the 
dramatists  of  the  Elizabethan  period  there  is  a  very  loose  use  of  the  two 
forms.  Not  only  is  you  used  as  a  nom.,  but  ye  is  used  as  an  ace*  Morris'f 
Historical  Outlines  of  English  Accidence,  §  155. 


64  AREOPAGITICA.  [P.  3. 

11.  egrwa// =  fair,  equitable ;  Lit.  aequus;  Ezek.  xxxiii.  20.  Cp.  unequall, 
below,  p.  50. 

12.  when  as.  Cp.  whereas,  whenso,  whereso,  whoso,  &c.  As  (  =  al  so  = 
all  so)  and  so  may  have  been  affixed  to  certain  relative  words  to  give 
greater  precision  of  meaning;  thus  whereas  =  ]usi  where,  whenas  =  ]usl  when. 
Comp.  Gr.  5^  as  in  kireidrj,  &c. 

14.  s/a//s/s  =  statesmen.  Johnson  quotes  Shakspere,  Cymb.  ii.  4.  17, 
and  Par.  Reg.  iv.  354  (where  see  Jerram's  note)  : 

'  Their  orators  thou  then  extoU'st,  as  those 
The  top  of  eloquence,  statists  indeed 
And  lovers  of  their  country.' 
See  also  Hamlet,  v.  2.  33. 

16.  a  triennial  Par  lament.  It  was  provided  by  the  Act  passed  Feb.  15, 
1 641 ,  *  for  the  prevention  of  inconveniences  happening  by  the  long  intermission 
of  parliaments'  (16  Car.  I.  c.  i),  that  Parliament  should  meet  at  least  once 
in  three  years,  &c.  This  Act  was  repealed  in  1664  (16  Car.  II.  c.  i).  It 
must  not  be  confounded  with  what  is  called  '  the  Triennial  Bill,*  passed  in 
1694,  repealed  in  17 16,  which  enacted  that  no  Parliament  should  in  future 
sit  more  than  three  years. 

1 7.  that  jealous  hautinesse,  &c.  He  refers  generally  to  those  infamous 
courts,  the  Star  Chamber  and  the  Court  of  High  Commission  ;  and  more 
particularly  to  the  Committee  of  Council,  or  Committee  of  State,  '  which 
was  reproachfully  after  called  the  Junto,  and  enviously  then  in  the  Court  the 
Cabinet.'  (Clarendon.)    Cp.  'the  politic  Cabin  at  Whitehall.'  (Eikonoklastes.) 

cabin  Counsellors.  The  diminutive  form  cabinet,  which  we  now  prefer, 
is  also  found  in  Elizabethan  writers;  thus  Bacon's  Essays,  Of  Counsell :  'The 
doctrine  of  Italy  and  practice  of  France,  in  some  kings'  times,  hath  intro- 
duced cabinet  councils.'  Cabin  is  the  Fr.  cabane,  the  Low  Lat.  capanna, 
which  is  perhaps  of  Keltic  origin ;  see  Brachet,  Diez,  Wedgwood.  Brachet 
quotes  from  Isidore  of  Seville:  'Tugurium  parvacasa  est;  hoc  rustici  ca/>fl«»a 
vocant.* 

[19.  in  the  midd'st  of  your  victories  and  successes.     Make  a  list  of  these.] 

20.  brooking.  This  brook  is  from  the  Oldest  Eng.  brucan,  cognate  with 
Germ,  brauchen,  Lat.  fruor,  fructus^  &c.  It  occurs  in  the  sense  of  '  enjoy* 
in  the  older  version  of  Chevy  Chase,  1.  1 29  : 

'  But,  perse,  and  I  brook  my  lyffe,  thy  deth  well  quyte  shall  be.' 
See  Skeat's  Specimens  from  1394  to  1579,  p.  74;    also  Morris's  Chaucer** 
Prologue,  Glossary.     Brook,  a  streamlet,  is  cognate  with  break,  &c. 

25.  cm// =  refined,  polished,  cultivated.  So  civility  =  civilisation  ;  thus 
Davies  on  Ireland,  apud  Johnson  :  *  Divers  great  monarchies  have  risen  from 
barbarism  to  civility,  and  fallen  again  to  ruin.*  See  Jerram's  Par.  Reg. 
iv.  83. 

28.  of  being  new  or  insolent  ==o(  doing  anything  that  seems  strange  01 
overweening.  Or  insolent  may  have  its  older  meaning  of  ♦  unosual,'  *  extn- 
ordinary ' ;  see  Trench's  Select  Glossary. 


p.  4.]  NOTES,  '  55 

30.  the  old  and  elegant  hr/manify  of  Greece.  Perhaps  no  one; — at  Jeast 
no  modern — has  ever  studied  the  Greek  writers  with  intenser  appreciation 
and  delight  than  Mihon.  See  .his  Letter  to  Leonard  Philaras  the  Athenian 
(1654)  :  '  I  have  always  been  devotedly  attached  to  the  literature  of  Greece, 
and  particularly  to  that  of  your  Athens.'  See  his  works  passim.  The 
Areopagitica  itself  is  an  illustration :  scarcely  more  notable  even  in  point  of 
form  is  the  Samson  Agonistes,  In  the  medieval  universities  the  term 
•  humanity*  was  used  especially  of  Latin  culture,  as  still  in  Scotland.  Greek 
culture  was  a  comparatively  new,  and  still  a  rare  thing  in  the  seventeenth 
century. 

31.  0/  a  Hunnish  and  Norwegian  statelines  =  o(  the  dictatorial  overbearing 
Huns  and  Goths  of  the  so-called  Dark  Ages.  Ou  the  Huns  see  Smith's 
Gibbon,  iii.  ch.  26. 

^2.  polite  =  polished,  refined.  'Polite  learning'  was  a  common  phrase 
in  the  last  century.  For  some  account  of  the  Revival  of  Learning,  see 
Hallam's  Middle  Ages,  last  chapter,  and  the  first  chapter  of  his  Literature  ot 
Europe.     A  worthy  history  of  that  great  movement  has  yet  to  be  written. 

33.  yet  =  still.     See  II  Penseroso  30,  and  note  in  Longer  English  Poems. 

Jutlanders,  i.e.  rude  and  barbarous  as  were  our  ancestors  before  they 
were  refined  by  southern  civilisation.  Jutes  are  said  to  have  settled  in 
Hampshire  and  the  Isle  of  Wight.  See  Smith's  Marsh's  Lectures  on  the 
English  Language,  p.  lo;  Vernon's  Anglo-Saxon  Guide,  p.  118,  &c. 

P.  4.  I.  him  who  from  his  private  house,  &c.  =  Isokrates.  See  Intro- 
duction. 

3.  perswades  —\s  for  persuading.     So  often  the  present  in  Latin. 

7.  CtVies  =  States,  Lat.  civitates. 

iS/monVs  =  lordships,  baronies.     So  Shakspere,  Tempest,  i.  2.  70-72: 

•  As  at  that  time 
Through  all  the  signiories  it  was  the  first. 
And  Prospero  the  prime  duke,*  &c. 
Richard  II,  iii.  I.  22,  iv,  i.  89. 

9.  Dion  Prusaeus  was  surnamed  Chrysostomos,  or  of  the  golden  lips,  for 
his  eloquence.  He  was  born  at  T'rusa  in  Bithynia,  about  the  middle  of  the 
first  century  of  our  aera ;  presently  went  to  Rome.  Expelled  with  other 
philosophers  by  Domitian,  he  travelled  in  Thrace,  Mysia,  Scythia,  and 
amongst  the  Getae ;  he  returned  to  Rome  immediately  after  the  accession 
of  Nerva ;  then  to  Prusa  about  100  A.D.,  whence  in  disgust  with  the  petty- 
mindedness  of  his  fellow-citizens  he  went  back  to  Rome,  where  he  died  about 
117  A.D.  Niebuhr,  in  his  Lectures  on  Roman  History,  iii.  235,  3rd  edit.  ed. 
Schmitz,  speaks  with  great  admiration  of  his  talents.  See  Smith's  larger  Greek 
and  Roman  Biography.  The  speech  here  referred  to  is  the  Rhodian  Discourse 
('Po8m/f6s  A.<570s),  in  which  the  orator  makes  his  protest  against  the  Rhodian 
habit  of  re-using,  so  to  speak,  their  public  statues,  which  were  from  time 
*o  time  made  to  do  duty  for  the  reigning  favourites,  the  inscriptions  altered. 

13.  a  life  wholly  dedicated  to  studious  labours.     See  Eleg.  i.  25 : 

P 


66  AREOPAGITICA,  [P.  4. 

*  Tempora  nam  licet  hie  placidis  dare  libera  Musis, 
Et  totum  rapiunt  me,  mea  vita,  libri.' 
Ad  Familiares,  Ep.  vi :  'It  is  also  in  my  favour  that  your  method  of  study 
is  such  as  to  admit  of  frequent  interruptions,  in  which  you  visit  your  friends, 
w^rite  letters,  or  go  abroad ;  but  it  is  my  way  to  suiter  no  impediment,  no 
love  of  ease,  no  avocation  whatever,  to  chill  the  ardour,  to  break  the 
continuity,  or  divert  the  completion  of  my  literary  pursuits.'  Also  Ep.  vii, 
where  he  gives  some  account  of  his  studies :  '  I  went  through  the  perusal 
of  the  Greek  authors  to  the  time  when  they  ceased  to  be  Greeks,'  &c. 
Apology  for  Smectymnuus :  * .  ,  .  the  wearisome  labours  and  studious 
watchings,  wherein  I  have  spent  and  tired  out  almost  a  whole  youth.' 
On  Education :  '  But  if  you  can  accept  of  these  few  observations  which  have 
flowered  off,  and  are  as  it  were  the  burnishing  of  many  studious  and  con- 
templative years,  altogether  spent  in  the  search  of  religious  and  civil 
knowledge  and  such  as  pleased  you  so  well  in  the  relating,  I  here  give  you 
them  to  dispose  of.'  A  Treatise  on  Christian  Doctrine :  '  I  entered  upon  an 
assiduous  course  of  study  in  my  youth,'  &c. 

14.  those  natural  endowments,  &c.  He  was  not  always  without  doubt 
as  to  whether  his  genius  could  flourish  in  our  latitude,  so  '  far  from  the  sun 
and  summer  gale'  (see  Gray's  Progress  of  Poesy,  83),  whose  beams  and 
breath  had  fostered  the  wits  of  Greece.  See  Reason  of  Church  Govern- 
ment, ii :  *  If  to  the  instinct  of  nature  and  the  imboldening  of  art,  aught  may 
be  trusted ;  and  that  there  be  nothing  adverse  in  our  climate  or  the  fate  of 
this  age,  it  haply  would  be  no  rashness,  from  an  equal  diligence  and  inclin- 
ation, to  present  the  like  offer  in  our  own  ancient  stories.'  Paradise  Lost,  ix, 
41-47 : 

'  Me  of  these 
Nor  skilled  nor  studious,  higher  argument 
Remains,  sufficient  of  itself  to  raise 
That  name,  unless  an  age  too  late,  or  cold 
Climate,  or  years,  damp  my  intended  wing 
Depress'd ;    and  much  they  may,  if  all  be  mine, 
Not  hers,  who  brings  it  nightly  to  my  ear.' 
the  worst.      It  is  possible  worst  may  be  a  misprint  for  worse;  but  there  is 
no   authority   for  saying  that  it  is  so.     Certainly   the  worst  gives  a    quite 
satisfactory    meaning,  — one    wholly    different    from    that    which    the   worse 
would  give.     [State  distinctly  the  respective  meanings.] 

16.  derogated = suhtTcicted,  the  opp.  of  arrogated.  See  Cicero,  pro  Roscio 
Amerino  32:  '  Non  mihi  tantum  derogo,  tametsi  nihil  arrogo.^  Milton  means 
that,  studious  as  he  has  been  and  happy  as  he  is  in  his  birth  country,  yet  he 
cannot  equal  himself  with  those  orators  to  whom  he  has  just  referred ;  what 
is  wanting  in  him  as  compared  with  those  orators  must  be  more  than  com- 
pensated for  by  the  superiority  of  the  audience  he  addresses  to  those  whom 
they  for  the  most  part  addressed. 

17.  obtain.    Cp.  Dryden  apvd  Johnson:  ♦  The  conclusion  of  the  story  I 


p.  5.]  NOTES.  67 

forbore,  because  I  could  not  obtain  from  myself  to  shew  Absolbm  unfor- 
tunate.* 

31.  that  Order.     See  Introduction. 

P.  5, 1.  3.  that  part  which  preserves,  &c.  =  which  acknowledges  and  protects 

•  copyright.'  See  in  the  Order  the  sentence  beginning,  '  And  that  no  person 
or  persons  shall  hereafter  print,  or  cause  to  be  printed,'  &c.  Cp.  Clause  vii. 
of  the  Star  Chamber  Decree. 

4.  or  provides  for  the  poor.     See  that  same  sentence. 

6.  painful  =  painstaking,  laborious.  See  Trench's  Select  Glossary,  s.  v. 
Fuller's  Holy  State,  ii.  6 :  •  O  the  holiness  of  their  living  and  painfulness  of 
their  preaching.' 

7.  Observe  the  divisions  of  the  Speech  here  proposed.  He  will  point 
out  who  are 

I.  The  Authors  of  the  book-licensing  system,  pp.  5-13. 

II.  'What  is  to  be  thought  in  general  of  reading  books,  whatever  sort  they 
be,  and  whether  be  more  the  benefit  or  harm  that  thence  proceeds,' 
pp.  13-22. 

III.  •  That  this  order  of  licensing  conduces  nothing  to  the  end  for  which  it 
was  framed,'  pp.  22-29. 

IV.  It  will  not  only  do  no  good  ;  it  will  do  immense  harm  in  discouraging 
the  pursuit  of  learning  and  the  search  after  truth,  pp.  29  to  end. 

that  other  clause,  &c.  See  the  sentence  beginning  '  It  is  therefore 
ordered,'  &c. 

brother  is  adjectival  here,  =  brother-like,  i.e.  kindred,  cognate.     Comp. 

*  brother-love'  in  Henry  VIII,  v.  3.  173.  For  the  meaning  comp.  the  Greek 
aZi\(p6s,  as  in  Soph.  Antig.  192:  koX  vvv  dScX^d  rwj/Se  Ktjpv^as  €X<y. 
Notice  too  our  common  use  of  '  sister'  in  a  metaphorical  sense. 

8.  his.  Its  was  scarcely  yet  admitted  into  literary  English.  See  note  on  its 
in  Longer  English  Poems,  p.  223;  also  Morris's  English  Accidence,  §  172, 

quadragesimal  =  Lenten.     Thus  Sanderson  a/>M</ Johnson  :    *  I  have  com- 
posed prayers  out  of  the  Church  Collects  adventural,  quadragesimal,  paschal, 
or  Pentecostal.'     Holt  White  quotes  from  Cartwright's  Ordinary : 
*  But  quadragesimal  wits  and  fancies  leane 
As  Ember  weeks.* 
(Hazlitt's  Dodsley's  Old   English  Plays,   xil.  268.)       Comp.  Quadragesima 
Sunday  =  1st  Sunday  in  Lent.     Milton  here  refers  to  the  restrictions  as  to 
food  during  Lent,  which  were  in  some  degree  retained  by  the  English  Church 
after  the  Reformation.     Certain  days  were  appointed  for  *  fish-days,'  for  the 
non-observance  of  which  '  licenses'  were  granted.    '  Queen  Elizabeth  used  to 
say  that  she  would  never  eat  flesh  in  Lent  without  obtaining  license  from  her 
little  black  husband'  (  =  Archbishop  Whitgift).     (Walton's  life  of  Hooker.) 
See  also  2  Henry  IV,  ii.  4.  375. 

9.  matrimonial  =  marriage  licenses.  Milton  regarded  marriage  simply 
«t  a  civil  contract,  not  at  all  as  a  '  sacrament,'  It  was  formally  made  so  by 
an  Ordinance,  and  in  1653  by  an  Act  of  Parliament,  ratified  in  1656.     See 

P  2 


68  AREOPAGITICA,  [P.  5, 

The  Likeliest  Means  to  remove  Hirelings  out  of  the  Church :  '  As  for 
marriages,  that  ministers  should  meddle  with  them,  as  not  sanctified  or 
legitimate  without  their  celebration,  I  find  no  ground  in  Scripture  either  of 
precept  or  example.  Likeliest  it  is  (which  our  Selden  hath  well  observed,  1.  ii. 
c.  58  Ux.  Eb.)  that  in  imitation  of  heathen  priests,  who  were  wont  at 
nuptials  to  use  many  rites  and  ceremonies,  and  especially  judging  it  would  be 
profitable  and  the  encrease  of  their  authority  not  to  be  spectators  only  in 
a  business  of  such  concernment  to  the  life  of  man,  they  insinuated  that 
marriage  was  not  holy  without  their  benediction,  and  for  the  better  colour 
made  it  a  Sacrament,  being  of  itself  a  civil  ordinance,  a  household  contract,' 
&c.,  &c.     (Works,  p.  431.) 

when  the  Prelats  expired.  Episcopacy  was  not  formally  .abolished  till 
October  9,  1646  ;  but  the  bishops  had  lost  their  'status'  some  years  before. 
They  were  ejected  from  the  House  of  Peers  early  in  1641,  and  so  had 
'expired*  as  'prelates,'  the  title  'prelates'  denoting  their  civil  position: 
see  Holt  White's  note  on  Prelaty  and  Episcopacy,  p.  122. 

attend=\xiixi  towards,  direct  my  mind  to.  So  the  Latin  attendo,  as  Cicero, 
Philippics,  ii.  12.  30:   '  Stuporem  hominis  attendite.^ 

10.  homily.  Cp.  As  You  Like  It,  iii.  2.  164:  'What  tedious  homily  of 
love  have  you  wearied  your  parishioners  withal,  and  never  cried  Have 
patience,  good  people.'  The  word  originally  means  (i)  '  communion,' 
'intercourse';  (ii)  then  especially  the  association  of  pupil  with  master,  and 
so  instruction ;  and  (iii)  lastly,  a  special  form  of  ecclesiastical  instruction. 
For  (ii)  see  Xenophon's  Memorabilia,  i.  2.  6 :  lavs  8e  Xa/xPavovTas  Tf\% 
o\x,i\ias  fxiaOov  avSpanodiaTcLs  kavrwv  CLTieKaXfi  hia  rb  dvayKaiov  avTOis 
flvai  diaXcyeaOai  trap'  u)v  dv  Xd^onv  tuv  fxiaOov.  So  lb.  15 ;  comp. 
6fJLiXir]Td  in  12.     (Comp,  (poiTciv  ei's  Tiva,  as  Aristophanes,  Equites  1 235.) 

18.  disexercising.     I  cannot  find  any  other  occurrence  of  this  word. 

19.  cropping.  The  A.S.  cro/>  =top,  bunch,  craw  of  a  bird.  According 
to  Wedgwood  the  radical  notion  is  a  knob ;  Gael,  crap,  cnap,  Welsh  crob, 
crwb,  crub,  Ital.  groppo.  In  Piers  Plowman,  xvi.  42,  B.  text,  it  =  a  tree- 
top;  cp.  Chaucer's  Prologue  7.  To  crop  =  to  take  the  top  off;  comp.  to 
top,  to  skin,  to  peel,  &c. 


22.  He  now  addresses  himself  to  Point  I,  see  p.  67. 

27.  but  doe  contain,  &c.  Cp.  Bacon's  Advancement  of  Learning,  I. 
viii.  6,  p.  72,  ed.  Aldis  Wright :  '  It  is  not  possible  to  have  the  true  pictures 
or  statues  of  Cyrus,  Alexander,  Caesar,  no,  nor  of  the  kings  or  great  person- 
ages  of  much  later  years;  for  the  originals  cannot  last,  and  the  copies  cannot 
but  leese  of  the  life  and  truth.  But  the  images  of  men's  wits  and  knowledges 
remain  in  books,  exempted  from  the  wrong  of  time  and  capable  of  perpetual 
renovation.  Neither  are  they  fitly  to  be  called  images  because  they  generate 
still  and  cast  their  seeds  in  the  minds  of  others,  provoking  and  causing  in- 
finite actions  and  opinions  in  succeeding  ages.'  &c. 


p.  6.]  NOTES,  '  69 

29.  v/o// =  vial  =  phial,  Gr.  0mXi7. 

32.    those  fabulous  Dragons  teeth.      See   the    story   of  Jason,   how  by 
Medea's  direction  he  sowed   the  teeth  of  the  Colchian  dragon,  and   there 
sprang  up  men  all  armed,     Ovid's  Metamorphoses,  vii.  121,  et  seq. : 
*  Galea  turn  sumit  ahena 
Vipereos  dentes,  et  aratos  spargit  in  agros. 
Semina  mollit  humus,*  &c. 
The  story  is  charmingly  told  in  the  eighth  book  of  Morris's  Jason.     Cp.  the 
story  of  Cadmus,  also  that  of  Deucalion. 
[P.  6,  1.  2.  What  does  almost  qualify?] 

6.  a  burden  to  the  Earth.  Cp.  the  Homeric  ax^os  apovprjs  (Iliad,  xviii. 
104;  Odyssey,  xx.  379).     So  Lat.  pondera  terrae.     (Liddell  and  Scott.) 

7.  life-blood.     Shakspere,  3  Henry  VI,  i.  4.  138: 

•How  couldst  thou  drain  the  life  blood  of  the  child?* 
Merchant  of  Venice,  iii.  2.  269,  Sec.  ;    Paradise  Lost,  viii.  467.     The  word 
probably  points  to  some  old  physiological  theory  as  to  the  identity  of  life 
and  blood,     Cp,  Genesis  ix.  4 :    '  But   flesh   with  the  life  thereof,  which  is 
the  blood  thereoj,  shall  ye  not  eat.' 

[8.  What  is  meant  by  on  purpose  here  ?] 

10.  revolutions  of  ages,  &c.  Thus  the  wisdom  of  the  ancient  world  was 
lost  with  the  fall  of  the  Roman  empire,  and  not  recovered  in  any  consider- 
able degree  for  many  a  long  century  ;  and  certainly  Europe  fared  the  worse, 

12.  the  worse.  'The 'here  is  an  old  ablative  = /At,  the.  Cp,  Latin  ^o. 
See  Morris's  English  Accidence,  §  178. 

14,  5'/)///  =  destroy.  Sometimes  =  to  die.  See  Morris  and  Skeat's  Speci- 
mens 1 298-1 393,  Glossary.  ^ 

18.  an  elementall  life,  &c.      Cp.  Paradise  Lost,  iii.  714-21 : 

•  Swift  to  their  several  quarters  hasted  then 
The  cumbrous  element,  earth,  flood,  air,  fire; 
And  this  etherial   quintessence  of  heaven 
Flew  upward,   spirited  with  various   forms. 
That  rolled  orbicular  and  turned  to  stars,'  &c. 
So  Uriel,  the  sun-angel,  to  Satan,  of  the  creation  of  the  world.    '  This  notion 
our  author  borrowed  from  Aristotle  and  others  of  the  ancient  philosophers, 
who  supposed  that  besides  the  four  elements  there  was  likewise  an  ethereal 
quintessence  or  fifth  essence,  and  its  motion  was  orbicular:  ilvai  dk  rrapd. 
rd.   Ttaaapa    CTOixf^a.  Koi    dWo   irefJiirTov,  «£  ov  ra  alOipia   avveardvai' 
dWoiav    b'   avTOv  tt^j'    Kivrjaiv   fTvai,   /evK\o<popi/cfjv  yap ;    which    are  the 
very  words  of  Diogenes  Laertiiis  in  his  life  of  Aristotle.'     (Newton.) 

19.  fift  essence  =^  quintessence.  Lat.  quinta  essentia.  Essentia  is  Cicero's 
translation  of  the  Gr.  ovaia.  On  the  ionw  fift  see  Variorum  Shakspere,  ed. 
1813.  ii.  183. 

21.  condemned  of,  &c.  We  should  say  •condemned  for';  but  we  still 
jay  'accused  of,'  'convicted  of.'  Holt  White  quotes  from  Lily's  Euphnes: 
*  That  thou  shouldst  condemn  me  of  rigor,'  &c. 


70  AREOPAGITICA.  [P.  6. 

[22.  licence.  State  clearly  the  two  different  meanings  oi  license,  on  which 
there  is  a  play  here,] 

26.  /A«  Inquisition.  '  The  Holy  Inquisition,'  or  '  The  Holy  Office ' 
{Sanctum  Officium),  was  first  conceived  by  Pope  Innocent  III,  when,  about 
the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century,  the  Albigenses  dared  to  entertain 
irregular  doctrines.  After  that  execrable  inauguration,  it  was  presently 
introduced  into  other  parts  of  France,  into  Italy,  and,  in  the  face  of  much 
notable  opposition,  into  Spain  ;  but  its  power  declined  everywhere,  partly 
because  there  arose  no  fresh  victims  for  its  energy.  In  the  last-named 
country,  towards  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  it  was  revivified  and 
organized  by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  to  whom  it  recommended  itself  as  an 
excellent  instrument  for  plundering  the  Jews  and  crushing  the  Mahom- 
medans  of  the  peninsula.  The  Cardinal  Pedro  Gonzalez  de  Mendoza  lent 
his  help.  Thomas  de  Torquemada,  prior  to  the  Dominican  convent  at 
Segovia  and  father-confessor  to  Mendoza,  was  appointed  first  Grand  In- 
quisitor in  1478.  *  He  had  two  hundred  familiars  and  a  guard  of  fifty  horse- 
men.' The  new  court  was  opened  at  Seville  in  148 1.  'Spanish  writers 
relate  that  above  seventeen  thousand  gave  themselves  up  to  the  Inquisition ; 
more  than  two  thousand  were  condemned  to  the  flames  the  first  year, 
and  great  numbers  fled  to  neighbouring  countries.'  In  1 48 3  the  Pope,  who 
had  opposed  the  new  institution,  as  the  conversion  of  an  ecclesiastical 
into  a  secular  tribunal,  formally  acknowledged  Torquemada.  In  I484  the 
jurisdiction  was  accurately  defined.  As  late  as  1 763  'heretics'  were  burned 
oy  this  deadly  Office.  It  was  abolished  by  Napoleon  in  1808,  revived  in 
1814,  abolished  again  and  finally  in  1820.  See  Popular  Encyclopaedia,  s.  v., 
which  q^uotes  from  Llorente's  History  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition  (Paris,  18 15; 
in  English,  London,  1827). 

27.  catcht  .  .  .  caught.  Observe  the  two  forms  of  the  past  participle. 
Milton  seems  to  regard  *  catch  up '  as  a  compound,  and  inflects  it  differently 
from  the  simple  verb. 

28.  Presbyters.  Presbyterianism  had  now  superseded  Episcopalianism. 
Milton  was  presently  to  discover  that  the  new  -ism  was  as  little  liberal 
as  the  old.     See  above,  p.  62. 

29.  Athens  where,  &c.     See  Paradise  Regained,  iv.  240-43: 

'Athens,  the  eye  of  Greece,  mother  of  arts 
And  eloquence,  native  to  famous  wits 
Or  hospitable,  in  her  sweet  recess, 
City  or  suburban,  studious  walks  and  shades.' 
Cp,  the  great  speech  of  Pericles,  Thucydides,    ii.    36-44,    especially  41 : 
^vvf\6iv   T€    ^.€70;   rijv   T€    vaaav    iroKiv   rrjs    'EAAaSos   vaiSevaiv    flvai, 
K.T.K     See  Jerram's  Par.  Reg.  iv.  239. 

33.  Thus  the   Books  of  Protagoras,  &c.     He  does  not  aim  at   being 
exhaustive,  or  he  might  have  mentioned  the  indictments  of  Anaxagoras 
and  of  Aspasia  for  'impiety.'     See  Grote's  Greece,  iv.  231,  edit.  1862. 
Protagoras,  the  first  'Sophist,'  was   born  at   Abdera  in  Thrace,  aboul 


p.  7.]  NOTES.  71 

B.C.  480.  Before  445  he  was  living  at  Athens,  where,  in  41 1,  he  was 
accused  of  impiety  by  one  Puthodoros,  on  the  ground  that  in  a  book  on  the 
gods  {nepl  Oeuiv)  he  had  stated  that  he  was  unable  to  know  whether  they 
existed  or  not.  See  Diogenes  Laertius,  ix.  54.  Socrates  in  Plato's  Theaitetos, 
162  D,  makes  Protagoras  or  dWos  ris  virep  avrov  speak  of  the  gods  as  ovs 
(yw  €K  T€  Tov  X4y€iv  KOI  Tov  ypoLcpiiv  TTfpl  avTOJV,  ws  ilalv  fi  dis  om  daiv, 
e^aipw. 

P.  7,  1.  1.  Areopagus.     See  Introduction. 

6.  Vet7is  CoTnoedia  =  ihe  earlier  Greek  comedy — the  comedy  of  Kratinos, 
Eupolis,  Aristophanes;  Horace's  '  Comoedia  prisca.'  (Satires,  i.  4.  1-5.)  It 
indulged  in  the  broadest  personalities  (see  Aristophanes'  plays  passim,  e.  g. 
his  representations  of  Kleon,  of  Sokrates,  of  Euripides)  ;  aqd  at  last  was 
muzzled.     See  Horace,  Ep.  ad  Pisones,  281-84: 

*  Successit  vetus  his  comoedia,  non  sine  multa 
Laude ;  sed  in  vitium  libertas  excidit  et  vim 
Dignam  lege  regi ;  lex  est  accepta,  chorusque 
Turpiter  obticuit  sublato  jure  nccendi.' 

7.  quick  =  vitil,  vigorous,  &c.     See  Heb.  iv.  12. 

8.  as  Cicero  writes.  See  his  De  Natura  Deorum,  i.  23:  'Quid?  Diagoras, 
atheos  qui  dictus  est,  posteaque  Theodorus,  nonne  aperte  deorum  naturam 
sustulerunt?  Nam  Abderites  quidem  Protagoras,  cujus  a  te  modo  mentio  facta 
est,  Sophistes  temporibus  illis  vel  maximus,  cum  in  principio  libri  sui  sic  posu- 
isset,  "De  divis  neque  ut  sint  neque  ut  non  sint  habeo  dicere,"  Atheniensium 
jussu  urbe  atque  agro  est  exterminatus  librique  ejus  in  concione  combusti. 
Ex  quo  quidem  existimo  tardiores  ad  hanc  sententiam  profitendam  multos  esse 
factos,  quippe  cum  poenam  ne  dubitatio  quidem  effugere  potuisset.' 

quell  =  ki\\.     See  2  Hen.  IV,  ii.  I.  59;  Macb.  i.  vii.  72 ;  Par.  Reg.  iv.  634, 

9.  as  the  event  shew'd.  Observe  '  obticuit '  in  the  quotation  given  above 
from  Horace. 

13,  Epicurus  was  born  in  Samos  B.C.  342,  went  to  live  at  Athens  in 
306,  there  founded  a  famous  school,  and  died  in  270.  His  leading  ethical 
tenet,  that  men  were  to  be  virtuous  in  order  to  be  happy,  was  soon  distorted. 
All  that  was  observed  was  the  end  he  proposed.  The  means  for  acquiring 
it  which  he  enjoined  were  ignored  ;  and  thus  Epicureanism  was  degraded 
into  mere  self-indulgence,  and  the  garden  became  '  a  sty.' 

that  libertine  school  of  Cyrene  =  the  school  founded  by  Aristippos  about 
B.C.  370.  He  identified  the  chief  good  with  pleasure.  Cicero's  Academica, 
ii.  42.  131 :  'Alii  voluptatem  finem  esse  voluerunt, quorum  princeps  Aristippus, 
qui  Socratem  audierat,  unde  Cyrenaici';  see  also  Tusculanae  Disputationes, 
ii.  6.  15.  He  would  let  nothing  trouble  him  if  he  could  help  it.  When  on 
a  journey  his  gold  impeded  his  progress,  he  ordered  it  to  be  thrown  away. 
See  Horace,  Satires,  ii.  3.  99-102  ;  also  Epistles,  i.  17.  13-15,  and  i.  i.  17-18  : 
'Nunc  in  Aristippi  furtim  praecepta  relabor, 
Et  mihi  res,  non  me  rebus,  subjungere  conor.* 

/ift«r/in«  =  originally  a  manumitted  slave,  as  always  in  pure  Latin.     So 


72  AREOPAGITICA,  [P.  7, 

Acts  vi.  9.  In  various  modern  languages  the  word  has  been  adopted  in 
a  secondary  sense  to  denote  one  released  from  all  proper  moral  restraint, 
who  acknowledges  no  law.  See  Shakspere,  Hamlet,  i.  3.  49 ;  Bacon's  Essays, 
on  Marriage,  &c.  In  the  seventeenth  century,  in  religious  matters  libertmes 
= 'free-thinkers.'  See  Trench's  Select  Glossary.  The  moral  the  word  conveys 
— how  unregulated  liberty  becomes  license — may  be  illustrated  from  Words- 
worth's Ode  to  Duty;  see  especially 

'  Me  this  unchartered  freedom  tires ; 
I  feel  the  weight  of  chance  desires.' 
14.  the  Cynick  impudence.  The  phrase,  as  Holt  White  notes,  is  from 
Diogenes  Laertius  {itpbs  ttjv  kvviktjv  di/ai(rxwT/ai/,  p.  164,  fol.  1664). 
Antisthenes,  a  pupil  of  Sokrates — he  had  previously  been  a  pupil  of  Gorgias 
—  formed  a  school  on  Sokrates'  death,  and  chose  for  his  place  of  meeting 
a  public  place  in  that  quarter  of  Athens  called  the  Cynosarges,  from  which 
some  say  the  sect  of  Cynics  derives  its  name  ;  others  derive  it  from  the 
snarling  propensities  of  the  founder,  who  was  frequently  called  '  the  Dog.' 
The  fame  of  Antisthenes  has  been  surpassed  by  that  of  his  disciple  Diogenes 
of  Sinope.  Milton  means  by  '  the  Cynic  impudence  '  that  insolence  of 
manner  and  of  language,  that  rude  and  unqualified  contempt  of  humanity, 
that  especially  characterised  the  philosopher  of  the  tub.  See  the  various 
anecdotes  of  him  ;  e.  g.  he  said  he  had  never  seen  men ;  at  Sparta  he  had 
seen  children ;  at  Athens,  women.  Lewes'  Biographical  History  of  Philo- 
sophy; Ritter  and  Preller's  Hist.  Phil.  Gr.  et  Rom.  §§  221-8. 

17.  Plato  commended,  &c.  Holt  White  quotes  from  Petit's  (Samuel 
Petit,  1 594-1643,  author  also  of  Leges  Atticae)  De  Vita  et  Scriptis  Aristo- 
phanis :  '  Quod  autem  magis  mirandum,  Plato,  tantus  Socratis  propugnator, 
Dionysio  regi  Syracusano  statum  reipublicae  Atheniensis  et  linguam  ex 
optimo  autore  perdiscere  cupienti  Aristophanis  Coinoedias  misit  ut  ex  iis 
linguam  et  ingenium  Atheniensium  simul  cognosceret.'  On  the  intercourse 
between  Plato  and  Dioiiysius,  see  Grote,  vii.  ch.  83,  edit.  1862. 

18.  Aristophanes.  Born  about  444,  died  about  380  B.C.  See  Donald- 
son's MftUer's  Literature  of  Ancient  Greece. 

the  loosest  of  them  all.  Aristophanes  is  '  loose '  as  Chaucer  is  *  loose  ; 
that  is,  he  is  at  times  altogether  plain-spoken.  There  is  nothing  in 
him  of  the  infinitely  worse  *  looseness  '  of  innuendo  and  suggestion,  no  under- 
current of  indecency  beneath  a  respectable  surface. 

19.  Dionysitis,  the  elder.  Tyrant  of  Syracuse  from  405-367  B.C.  See 
Grote 's  Greece,  vii.  chap.  83. 

20.  holy  Chrysostome  —  '  Saint'  Chrysostom,  Bishop  of  Constantinople,  the 
eloquent  '  Father ' ;  born  at  Antioch  about  347,  died  at  Comana  in  Asia 
Minor  407  A.D.  See  Gibbon's  Roman  Empire,  iv.  ch.  3a  :  '  The  sixth 
book  of  Socrates,  the  eighth  of  Sozomen,  and  the  fifth  of  Theodoret,  aflFord 
curious  and  authentic  materials  for  the  Hfe  of  John  Chrysostom.* 

as  is  reported,  &c.  See  a  letter  from  iEmilius  Portus,  in  an  epistle  to 
Bisetus,  one  of  the  scholiasts  of  Aristophanes,  quoted  in  the  Encyclopaedia 


I 


p.  7.J  NOTES.  73 

MetropoHtana,  History  of  Greek  Literature.  Holt  White  quotes  from 
Menage's  vindication  of  himself  for  reading  Rabelais  :  •  Clement  Alexandrin 
cite  a  toute  heure  Aristophanes.  S.  Jan.  Cbrysostome  le  lisoit  continuellement, 
et  le  mettoit  la  nuit  sous  son  chevet,  si  on  en  croit  Aide  Manuce  dans  la 
Dedicace  dcs  CEuvres  de  ce  Comique  ;  car  je  ne  say  point  d'auteur  plus 
ancien  qui  ait  fait  mention  de  cette  amitie  de  S.  Jan  Chrysostome  pour  les 
Comedies  d'Aristophane.'  (Avis  au  Lecteur,  prefixed  to  the  second  part 
of  his  Observations  sur  la  Langue  Fran^oise.)  But  here,  as  elsewhere, 
Menage's  knowledge  was  at  fault.  Plato  is  said  to  have  pillowed  his  head 
on  a  copy  of  Sophron's  Mimes. 

34.  Lycitrgiis,  the  Spartan  lawgiver,  flourished  in  the  ninth  century  b.c. 
See  Grote,  ii.  chap.  6,  '  Laws  and  Discipline  of  Lykurgus  at  Sparta.' 

25.  was  so  addicted,  &c.  Milton's  authority  here  is  Plutarch's  Life  of 
Lykurgos :  6«et  5e  [in  '  Asia  ']  Kal  toTs  'Ofx-qpov  voirjf^aaiv  evTvxoJV  npajToi', 
us  (oiK€,  /f,T.A..  =  ' There  also,  probably,  he  met  with  Homer's  poems,  which 
were  preserved  by  the  posterity  of  Cleophylus.  Observing  that  many  moral 
sentences  and  much  political  knowledge  were  intermixed  with  his  stories, 
which  had  an  irresistible  charm,  he  collected  them  into  one  body  and  tran- 
scribed them  with  pleasure,  in  order  to  take  them  home  with  him.  For  his 
glorious  poetry  was  not  yet  fully  known  in  Greece ;  only  some  particular 
pieces  were  in  a  few  hands,  as  they  happened  to  be  dispersed.  Lycurgus 
was  the  first  that  made  them  generally  known.'     (Langhorne.) 

27.  the  poet  Thales,  or  Thaletas,  not  to  be  confounded  with  'the  Wise 
Man  '  of  Miletus.  See  Plutarch's  Lykurgos:  'Among  the  friends  he  gained  at 
Crete  was  Thales,  with  whom  he  had  interest  enough  to  persuade  him  to  go 

and    settle    at    Sparta For    his    Odes    were    so    many   persuasives    to 

obediencfe  and  unanimity;  as  by  means  of  melody  and  numbers  they  had  great 
grace  and  power,  they  softened  insensibly  the  manners  of  the  audience,  drew 
them  off  from  the  animosities  which  then  prevailed,  and  united  them  in  zeal 
for  excellence  and  virtue.'  (Langhorne.)  See  the  account  of  Thaletas — he 
'makes  the  third  epoch  in  the  history  of  Greek  music' — in  Donaldson's 
Miiller  :  '  In  fact  Thaletas  lived  several  centuries  [probably  two]  later  thau 
Lycurgus,  having  been  one  of  the  musicians  who  assisted  in  perfecting 
Terpander's  musical  system  at  Sparta  and  giving  it  a  new  and  fixed  form.' 

28.  surlinesse.  iSwr/y  =  etymologically,  sour-like.  In  A.S.  the  adj.  snrelic 
does  not  seem  to  occur  ;  but  there  is  the  adv.  presumably  formed  from  it, 
viz,  surel'ice.  Cp.  Germ,  sduerlich.  Wedgwood's  suggestion  that  it  is  from 
•  sirlike,  magisterial,  arrogant,'  seems  not  very  valuable. 

30.  museless  =  afxov(Toi,  as  Euripides,  Ion  526: 

ov  <pi\u)  (l>pfvovv  a/xovaovs  Kal  fKfXTjvoras  ^evovs. 
Aristophanes,  Vespae  107,1,  &c.     Plato  couples  dfxovaia   with  dncipoKaXia, 
Republic,  403  C. 

33.  their  owne  LacnnicJc  Apothegms.  Plato  speaks  of  PpaxvXoyia  ti% 
AcLKcuviKT]  =  *  a.  sort  of  laconic  terseness'  (Protagoras,  343  B).  in  his  De 
Legibus  (641  E)  he  speaks  of  Lacedaemon  being  commonly  known  as  Ppaxv- 


74  AREOPAGITICA.  [P.  7, 

Koyos,  Crete  as  iroXvXoyos,  &c.  The  ancient  writers,  and  indeed  the 
modern,  abound  with  references  to,  and  instances  of,  this  Spartan  charac- 
teristic. See  Plutarch's  Lives  passim,  and  his  (or  his  son's)  collection  of 
Apothegms;  Cicero's  Ep.  Fam.  xi.  25.  2,  &c.  It  has  given  us  the  word 
laconic  in  the  sense  of  terse. 

apothegms.  Properly  spelled  apophthegms.  Gr.  dir6<p9ey}jLa,  lit.  =  some- 
thing said  plainly. 

P.  8,1.  I.  Archilochus.  Flor.  714-676  b.c.  *  Plutarch  (Inst.  Lacon. 
239  B)  states  that  Archilochus  was  banished  from  Sparta  the  very  hour 
that  he  arrived  there  because  he  had  written  in  his  poems  that  a  man  had 
better  throw  away  his  arms  than  lose  his  life.  But  Valerius  Maximus 
(vi.  3.  extr.  1)  says  that  the  poems  of  Archilochus  were  forbidden  at  Sparta 
because  of  their  licentiousness,  and  especially  on  account  of  the  attack  on  the 
daughter  of  Lycambes.  It  must  remain  doubtful  whether  a  confusion  has 
been  made  between  the  personal  history  of  the  poet  and  the  fate  of  his 
works,'  &c.  (Smith's  Diet.)  For  further  account  of  him  see  Donaldson's 
Miiller,  Grote,  iii.  chap.  29,  &c.  The  lines  which,  according  to  Plutarch's 
account,  disgusted  Spartan  fortitude  may  be  found  in  Schneidewin's  Delectus 
Poet.  Elegiac.  Graec.  p.  173: 

dcrmSi  fXiv  'Xaiojv  ris  dyaWerai,  ■^v  vapcL  6afXV(p 
iVTOS  afKjjjxriTov  kolXKltiov  ovk  iOeXojv' 

avTos  8'  k^€(pvyov  Oavdrov  reXos'  dams  (Keivij 
IppeTco'  e^avTis  KTTjaofmi  ov  KaKio}. 

2.  perhaps  for  composing,  &c.  Unhappily  what  remains  of  Archilochus' 
writing  is  too  fragmentary  to  enable  us  to  form  any  adequate  idea  of  him. 
Horace  imitated  him  in  his  Epodes  *  as  to  form  and  spirit,  but  not  as  to  sub- 
ject'; see  Horace,  Ep.  i.  19.  23-25: 

*  Parios  ego  primus  iambos 
Ostendi  Latio,  numeros  animumque  secutus 
Archilochi,  non  res  et  agentia  verba  Lycamben. 

3.  their  owne  sottldiery  ballots,  &c.  The  most  famous  writer  of  these  war 
songs  was  in  all  probability  not  a  Spartan  born,  but  a  native  of  Aphidnae  in 
Attica ;  it  was  Tyrtaeus.     See  what  remains  of  him  in  Schneidewin. 

ballats  and  roundels  are  often  mentioned  together.  See  e.  g.  Warton's 
Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  ed.  1840,  ii.  222  note:  '  About  this  time  [1380]  a  Prior 
of  Genevieve  at  Paris  wrote  a  small  treatise,  entitled  V Art  de  dictier 
Ballades  et  Rondelles,'  &c. 

ballats.  Ballot  or  ballad,  Fr.  ballade,  is  by  no  means  confined  in  older 
usage  to  its  present  meaning  of  a  certain  kind  of  popular  narrative  poem. 
It  came  to  be  so  confined,  I  think,  only  in  the  last  century  on  the  revival  of 
medieval  literature.  In  the  older  writers  it  means  a  song  of  any  sort ;  thus 
Shakspere  in  As  You  Like  It  (ii.  7.  148)  speaks  of 

' the  lover 
Sighing  like  furnace,  with  a  woeful  ballad 
Made  to  his  mistress*  eyebrow,*  &c. 


p.  8.]  NOTES,  75 

No  doubt  it  originally  denoted  a  dance-song  (cp.  the  following  note  on 
Roundel) ;  and  is  cognate  with  our  ball  (a  dance-party),  ballet,  &c.,  from 
Low  Lat,  ballare,  Ital.  ballare,  to  dance.     For  the  spelling,  comp.  ballet. 

roundels,  Fr.  ro?tdelles.  Cp.  roundelay,  Fr.  rondelet.  Roundel  properly 
means  *  anything  round,'  as  a  shield,  a  trencher,  &c. ;  see  Nares'  Glossary. 
In  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  ii.  3.  i,  &c.,  roundel  =  A  dance;  not  what  we 
call  *a  round  dance,*  but  a  dance  in  a  ring.  From  meaning  '  a  ring  dance' 
it  was  used  for  a  song  sung  by  the  dancers,  or  during  a  dance ;  cp.  1.  c. : 

*  Come,  now  a  roundel  and  a  fairy  song.' 
(So  at  this  day  in  the  Faroe  Islands :  '  They  use  no  instrumental  music,  but 

dance  to  songs The  object  of  the  song  is  not  only  to  regulate  the 

steps,  but  at  the  same  time  to  awaken  certain  feelings  by  its  meaning.'  See 
Prior's  Ancient  Danish  Ballads,  Introduction,  p.  v.)  Steevens  says  it  was 
sometimes  used  to  signify  •  a  song  beginning  or  ending  with  the  same 
sentence;  redit  in  orbem.'  Johnson  quotes  from  the  Dictionnaire  de  Trevoux 
a  not  inconsistent  but  much  more  minute  definition.  See  what  Spenser  calls 
a  'roundle'  or  'roundelay'  in  the  Shepherd's  Calendar,  August. 

6.  coni/^rs/n^  =  manner  of  life.  Cp.  'conversation,*  I  Pet.  i.  15,  &c. 
When  Eve  says  '  with  thee  conversing '  &c.  (Paradise  Lost,  iv.  639)  she 
means  not  merely  '  with  thee  talking,'  but  'with  thee  associating.'  It  is  the 
Latin  use ;  thus  Seneca's  Ep.  99 :  '  nemo  libenter  tristi  conversatur,  nedum 
tristitiae.' 

whence  Euripides,  &c.  See  the  Andromache,  590  et  seq.,  where  Peleus 
enters  to  arrest  Menelaus  in  his  seizure  of  the  heroine,  and  abuses  roundly 
both  him  and  Helen  and  Spartan  ways  in  respect  of  women.  The  lines 
specially  alluded  to  are  : 

oitS*  av  €t  PovXoitS  m 
aij^puv  ylvoiTO  ^TTapTiaridajv  Koprj,  k,t,\. 
On  the  'promiscuous  conversing'  of  Spartan  life — how  the  women  lived 
a  public  life  strangely  contrasting  with  that  of  the  women  in  other  Greek 
cities — how  they  despised  spinning  and  weaving,  and  exercised  themselves 
in  running,  boxing  and  wrestling — see  Grote's  Greece,  ii.  chap.  6.  See 
Cicero,  Tusc.  Disp.  ii.  15,  &c.  As  to  the  charge  here  quoted  against  them 
see  Plutarch's  Lykurgos,  chap.  15,  who  says  it  was  different  in  the  older 
times,  so  different  ware  oXcos  dniarov  eJuai  ro  tt^s  ixoix^'ias  nap'  avTois  = 
that  amongst  them  the  crime  of  aduhery  was  altogether  incredible. 

8.  a//er  =  according  to,  as  to,  regarding.  Cp.  'after  our  iniquities,'  in  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer. 

10.  for  ynany  ages,  &c.     See  Horace,  Ep.  ii,  i.  156-163: 
*  Graecia  capta  ferum  victorem  ccpit  et  artes 
Intulit  agresti  Latio:    sic  horridus  ille 
Defluxit  numerus  Saturnius,  et  grave  virus 
Munditiae  pepulere;  sed  in  longum  tamen  aevum 
Manserunt  hodieque  maneut  vestigia  ruris,'  &c. 
See  also  Cicero,  Tusc.  Disp.,  i.  i,  a. 


y6  AREOPAGITICA.  [P.  S. 

II.  resembling  . . .  o/=  bearing  the  semblance  of. 

13.  their  twelve  Tables  =  the  famous  code  formed  by  the  Decemvirs;  see 
Dickson's  Mommsen's  History  of  Rome,  book  ii.  chap.  2.  There  were 
originally  ten,  'passed'  in  451;  'but  as  a  supplement  appeared  necessary, 
decemvirs  were  again  nominated  in  the  year  304  [a.u.c.  ;  B.C.  450],  who 
added  two  more  tables.  Thus  origuiated  the  first  and  only  legal  code  of 
Rome.' 

13.  the  PontificTi  College.  See  Dickson's  Mommsen,  book  1.  chap.  12: 
'  The  five  "  bridge-makers "  (pontifices)  derived  their  name  from  their 
function,  as  sacred  as  it  was  politically  important,  of  conducting  the  building 
and  demolition  of  the  bridge  over  the  Tiber.  They  were  the  Roman 
engineers,  who  understood  the  njystery  of  measures  and  numbers;  whence 
there  devolved  upon  them  also  the  duties  of  managing  the  calendar  of 
the  state,  of  proclaiming  to  the  people  the  time  of  new  and  full  moon,  and 
the  days  of  festivals,  and  of  seeing  that  every  religious  and  every  judicial 

act  took  place  on  the  right  day Thus  they  acquired  (although  not 

probably  in  its  full  extent  till  after  the  abolition  of  the  monarchy)  the  general 
oversight  of  Roman  worship  and  of  whatever  was  connected  with  it — and 
what  was  there  that  was  not  so  connected?'  &c. 

their  Augurs.  '  The  six  Augurs  were  skilled  in  interpreting  the  language 
of  the  gods  from  the  flight  of  birds,  an  art  which  was  prosecuted  with  great 
earnestness  and  reduced  to  a  quasi-scientific  system.'  Dickson's  Mommsen, 
i.  178,  &c.     The  aw- =  av/- =  bird. 

The  Flamens  were  priests  attached  to  the  service  of  certain  special  gods, 
as  of  Mars,  Jupiter,  Pomona,  &c.,  and  in  later  times  of  the  deified  emperors. 
Three  were  of  superior  distinction  (maiores) — those  of  Jupiter,  Mars,  and 
Quirinus  (  =  Mars.  See  Dickson's  Mommsen,  i.  87).  Varro  derives  the 
name  from  the  fillet  worn  round  the  head — '  quod  in  Latk)  capite  uelato 
erant  semper  ac  caput  cinctum  habebant  filo.'  More  probably  the  word  is 
connected  with  flare,  and  means  the  '  kindler,'  as  the  priest  '  was  designated 
from  presenting  burnt-offerings.'     See  Dickson's  Mommsen,  i.  175,  &c. 

14.  So  unacquainted,  &c.  On  Roman  un-culture,  see  Mommsen,  book  iii. 
chap.  14. 

15.  that  when,  &c.  This  was  in  155  B.C.  The  object  of  the  embassy 
was  to  deprecate  the  fine  of  500  talents  imposed  on  the  Athenians  for  the 
destruction  of  Oropus.     See  Cicero,  Tusc.  Disp.  iv.  3  ;  Polybius,  xxxiii.  I. 

Carneades,  born  at  Cyrene  circ.  213,  died  1-29  B.C.,  was  founder  of  the 
New  Academy  at  Athens.  It  was  at  Rome  during  his  ambassadorial  visit 
in  155  B.C.  that  he  delivered  his  lectures  on  Justice,  in  the  second  of  which 
he  dexterously  refuted  the  arguments  advanced  in  the  first. 

Critolaus,  born  at  Phaselis  in  Lycia,  succeeded  Ariston  as  the  head  of  the 
Peripatetic  school. 

16.  the  Stoick  Diogenes  =  Diogenes  Babylonios  (born  at  Seleucia  in 
Babylonia),  succeeded  Zeno  of  Tarsus  as  the  head  of  the  Stoic  school.  Be 
sine  not  to  confound  him  with  the  Cynic  Diogenes..    On  the  Stoics  see 


p.  8.]  NOTES,  77 

Lewes;  also  Paradise  Regained,  iv,  300-318.     They  derived  their  name  from 
Zeno's  having  opened  his  school  in  the  Stoa  Poikile. 

Embassadors.  For  the  e  cp.  Embassy.  The  word  is  of  Teutonic  origin. 
Cp.  Mod.  Germ.  A7n(. 

19.  Caio  the  Ce?isor  =  the  famous  Marcus  Fortius  Cato,  '  Cato  Major,' 
Censor  in  184.  See  Dickson's  Monmisen,  ii.  349  et  seq.  'It  has  been  the 
custom  to  laugh  at  Cato  for  his  dogged  opposition  to  everything  Greek;  but 
there  was  much  truth  in  his  denunciations.  We  have  heard  much  of  young 
Bengal — young  Hindus  who  read  Byron  and  Voltaire,  play  at  billiards,  drive 
tandems,  laugh  at  their  priests,  patronise  missionaries,  and  believe  nothing. 
The  description  which  Cato  gives  of  the  young  idlers  at  Rome  reminds 
ns  very  much  of  young  Bengal.'  (Max  Miiller's  Lectures  on  the  Science  of 
Language,  1st  Series,  2nd  ed.  pp.  98,  99.)  Cp,  Mommsen,  iii.  429:  'On  this 
occasion  at  least  Cato  could  not  be  found  fault  with  when  he  not  only  bluntly 
enough  compared  the  dialectic  arguments  of  the  philosophers  to  the  tedious 
dirges  of  the  wailing  women,  but  also  insisted  on  the  senate  dismissing  a 
man  who  understood  the  art  of  making  right  wrong  and  wrong  right,  and 
whose  defence  was  in  fact  nothing  but  a  shameless  and  almost  insulting 
confession  of  injustice.'  See  Bacon's  Adv.  of  Learning,  pp.  10,  1 1,  Clar. 
Press  ed. 

jwov'fi?  iV  =  brought  forward  a  motion.  This  use  of//  is  common  enough 
in  'Elizabethan'  English;  thus  'trip  it'  in  L'Allegro  33,  'dance  it'  in 
Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  v.  i,  403,  &c.  See  an  attempt  to  explain  it  in 
Longer  English  Poems,  p,  236. 

21.  bablers.     So  Acts  xvii.  18. 

Scipio.  This  was  the  younger  Scipio,  the  destroyer  of  Carthage,  the 
friend  of  Polybius,  Terence,  Panaetius,  and  Lucilius  ;  a  Scipio  by  adoption,  by 
birth  the  son  of  Lucius  -ff)milius  Paulus.  Cicero  makes  him  the  chief 
speaker  in  his  De  Republica, 

others  of  the  noblest  Setiafors,  as  Laellus, 

2  2.  his  old  Sabin  austerity.     Cato  was  brought  up  at  his  father's  farm 
in  the  Sabine  territory ;  and  to  that  farm  he  returned  at  intervals  in  his  later 
life,  living  plainly  and  frugally  after  the  old  fashion,  and  so  protesting  by  his 
practice,  as  always  by  his  theory,  against  the  luxury  beginning  to  prevail  in 
the  Rome  of  his  day.    He  would  find  the  Sabines  congenial  neighbours.    They 
became  proverbial  for  their  rough  simple  life.     See  Juvenal,  x.  298-9: 
'  Sanctos  licet  horrida  mores 
Tradiderit  domus,  ac  veteres  imitata  Snbinos,'  &c. ; 
also  iii.  85  and  169,  vi.  164;  cp.  '  Curibusque  severis,'  Aen,  viii.  638,  8<:c.  ; 
see  ©ther  passages  referred  to  by  Mayor  in  his  note  to  Juvenal,  1.  c.     Livy 
(i.  18)  speaks  of '  disciplina  tetrica  ac  tristis  veterum  Sabinorum  quo  genere 
nullum  quondam  incorruptius  fuit.' 

24.  at  last  in  his  old  age.  Sec.  Near  the  close  of  his  life  he  set  himself  to 
study  Greek  literature.  Cornelius  Nepos,  after  mentioning  other  accomplish- 
ments, says  of  him:  'cupidissimus  literarum  fuit;  quarum  studium  ctsi  senior 


78  AREOPAGITICA,  [P.  8. 

arripuerat,  tamen  tantum  progressum  fecit  ut  non  facile  rcperiri  possit  neque 
de  Graecis  neque  de  Italicis  rebus  quod  ei  fuerit  incognitum.'  In  Cicero  de 
Senectute,  Cato  is  made  to  speak  of  himself  as  one  'qui  Graecas  literas  senex 
didici.*  '  He  misliked  and  cried  out  upon  all  Greek  learning  ;  and  yet  being 
80  years  old,  began  to  learn  it ;  belike  fearing  that  Pluto  understood  not 
Latin.'  (Sidney's  Apol,  for  Poetrie,  p.  56,  ed.  Arber).  Bacon's  Adv.  of 
Learning,  p.  1 7  of  Clar.  Press  ed. 

26.  Naevius  and  Plantus,  &c.  See  Dickson's  Mommsen,  book  iii.  chap. 
14.  Mommsen  speaks  of  Naevius  as  'the  first  Roman  who  deserves  to  be 
called  a  poet,  and,  so  far  as  the  accounts  preserved  regarding  him  and  the 
few  fragments  of  his  works  allow  us  to  form  an  opinion,  to  all  appearances 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  and  most  important  names  in  the  whole  range 
of  Roman  literature,'  &c.  He  was  born  between  274  and  264  B.C.,  died 
about  the  close  of  the  century.     Plautus  was  born  circ.  254,  died  in  184. 

37.  the  borrowed  scenes,  &c.  See  Mommsen,  1.  c.  Menander  lived  from 
342  to  291  B.C.  He  was  more  particularly  imitated  by  Terence.  Philemon 
was  in  date  a  little  senior  to  Menander.  A  third  '  new  comedian '  much 
followed  by  the  Roman  playwrights  was  Diphilus.  For  what  remains  of 
these  poets  see  Meineke's  Fragmenta  Comicorum  Graecorum,  and  the  works 
of  Plautus  and  Terence  passim.     Donaldson's  MUUer's  Anc.  Gr.  Lit. 

30.  for  Naevius,  &c.  See  Dickson's  Mommsen,  ii.  431 :  'Although  he 
did  not  write  exactly  original  Roman  comedies,  the  few  fragments  of  his, 
which  we  possess,  are  full  of  references  to  circumstances  and  persons  in 
Rome.  Among  other  liberties  he  not  only  ridiculed  one  Theodotus  a 
painter  by  name,  but  even  directed  against  the  victor  of  Zama  .  .  verses,  of 
which  Aristophanes  need  not  have  been  ashamed :  as  he  himself  says, 

"  Libera  lingua  loquemur  ludis  Liberalibus," 
he  probably  often  wrote  offensively  and  put  dangerous  questions,  such  as 
"  Cedo  qui  vestram  rem  publicam  tantam  amisistis  tam  cito  ? " 
which  he  answered  by  an  enumeration  of  political  sins,  such  as 

"  Proveniebant  oratores  novi,  stulti  adulescentuli." 
But  the  Roman  police  was  not  disposed  like  the  Attic  to  hold  stage-invectivei 
and  political  diatribes  as  privileged,  or  even  tolerate  them  at  all,'  &c.     His 
sarcasm  against  the  MetelH — 

•  Fato  Metelli  Romae  fiunt  consules' — 
is  said  to  have  specially  caused  his  imprisonment.  In  his  confinement  he 
composed  two  of  his  comedies — the  Hariolus  and  the  Leon ;  and  '  for  the 
sake  of  these,  which  were  a  sort  of  recantation  of  his  former  lampoons,  he 
was  set  at  liberty  by  the  tribunes  of  the  Commons.'  (Encycl.  Metropol. 
Rom.  Lit.)  See  Aulus  Gellius,  i.  24,  vi.  18,  &c.  Plautus  is  supposed  to 
allude  to  his  confinement  in  his  Miles  Gloriosus,  ii.  2.  58 : 

•  Ecce  autem  aedificat ;   columnam  mento  suffulsit  sue. 
Apage !   non  placet  profecto  mi  ilia  inaedificatio ; 
Nam  OS  columnatum  poetae  esse  indaudiui  barbaro, 
Quoi  bini  custodes  semper  totis  horis  accubant.' 


p.  9.]  NOTES.  79 

32.  that  libels  were  burnt,  &c.  See  Tacitus'  Annals,  1.  73  :  *  Primus  Au- 
gustus cognitionem  de  famosis  libellis  specie  legis  ejus  [  =  legis  Corneliat 
majestatis]  tractavit,  commotus  Cassii  Severi  libidine,  qua  viros  feminasque 
illustres  procacibus  scriptis  dilfaniaverat,'  &c. ;  see  also  Suetonius,  Augustus 
55,  and  Dio  Cassius,  Ivi.  27.  A  clause  of  the  Eighth  of  the  Twelve  Tables 
had  in  fact  dealt  with  libel ;  see  Orelli's  Tacitus,  1.  c. 

P.  9,  1.  4.  Lucretius,  Sec.  Lucretius'  great  poem  De  Rerum  Natura,  in 
which  he  attacks  the  monster  'religio' — the  degraded  and  degrading  notions 
of  godhead  prevailing  amongst  men — is  dedicated  to  C.  Memmius  Gemellus, 
praetor  in  58. 

5.  his  Epicurism.  His  poem  is  a  splendid  exposition  of  the  doctrines  of 
Epicurus,  to  whom  the  poet  looked  up  as  to  a  great  deliverer  from  supersti- 
tions, and  so  one  of  the  greatest  benefactors  of  humanity.  See  i.  63-79  •' 
also  V.  1-54,  especially  8-13  : 

'  Deus  ille  fuit  deus,  inclyte  Memmi, 
Qui  princeps  vitae  rationem  invenit  earn  quae 
Nunc  appellatur  sapientia,  quique  per  artem 
Fluctibus  e  tantis  vitam  tantisque  tenebris 
In  tam  tranquillo  et  tam  clara  luce  locavit.* 
had  the  honour,  &c.     The  authority  for  the  statement  that  Cicero  '  set 
forth'  (  =  edited)  Lucretius'  poem  is  the  phrase  'Tullii  lima  diguissimis ' 
applied    to   his   verses    by   Saint   Jerome;    see    his    additions    to  Eusebius' 
Chronicon.     For  Milton's  second  time  there  is  no  explicit  authority.     Jerome 
would  seem  to  mean  that  Cicero  first  edited  the  poem ;   but  his  language  is 
not  inconsistent  with  Milton's  statement.     That  he  edited  it  at  all  cannot  be 
pronounced  a  fact.     It  is  certain  that  Cicero  speaks  with  no  great  enthusiasm 
of  the  poem;  see  Epistolae  ad  Quintum  Fratrem,  ii.  11 ;  *  Lucretii  poemata 
ut  scribis  ita  sunt,  multis  luminibus  ingenii,  multae  tamen  artis.'    See  Munro's 
Lucretius,  text  and  notes,  p.  298,  and  p.  313,  third  ed. 

7.  himself  disputes,  &c.  As  in  his  De  Finibus  Bonorum  et  Malorum,  i 
and  ii ;  Tusc.  Disp.  ii  and  iii ;  De  Nat.  Deorum,  i  and  ii,  &c. 

9.  Satyricall.  The  correct  form  is  satire,  not  satyr.  The  latter  form 
was  suggested  by  a  supposed  derivation  of  the  word  from  the  Greek  aarvpos, 
whereas  it  is  the  Latin  (Innx)  satire  or  satura  {satura  is  the  purer  form). 

Lucilius,  born  at  Suessa  Auruncorum  ('  magnus  Auruncae  .  .  .  alumnus,' 
Juvenal,  i.  20)  148,  died  at  Naples  103  B.C.  He  is  generally  accounted  as 
the  founder  ('  inventor,'  Horace,  Satires,  i.  lO.  48)  of  the  school  of  satire  of 
which  Horace,  Persius,  and  Juvenal  were  subsequently  such  brilliant  members. 
In  Horace's  time  he  was  much  read  and  admired.  See  Horace,  Satires,  i.  4, 
I-13,  also  10;  and  ii.  i.  29-34,  where  Horace  declares  himself  his  follower: 

*  Sequor  hunc,  Lucanus  an  Appulus,  anceps ;' 
Juvenal,  1. 165-168;  Persius,  i.  114;  Quintilianus,  x.  i,&c.    See  Mommsen, 
book  iii.  chap.  14;  Sellar's  Roman  Poets  of  the  Republic,     The  *  fragments  ' 
of  Lucilius,  of  which  there  are  upwards  of  eight  hundred,  have  been  several 
times  printed. 


8o  AREOPAGITICA,  [P.  9. 

10.  Catvlhis,  born  at  or  close  by  Verona  87,  died  about  47  B.C. 
F/accMS  =  Horace,  whose  full  name  was  Quintus   Horatius   Flaccus.     So 

Juvenal,  vii,  227,  &c.  Similarly  Vergil  is  sometimes  designated  by  his 
cognomen — the  '  family*  as  distinguished  from  the  'clan'  name — '  Maro,'  as 
Juvenal,  ibid.,  Ausonius,  Idyllia,  iv.  56;  Ovid  as  '  Naso,' &c.  Conversely, 
Cicero  is  sometimes  called  by  his  nomen  '  Tully.'  On  Roman  names  see 
Smith's  Diet,  of  Antiq. 

11.  the  .<;/ory  =  the  history.  The  word  story  is  in  fact  but  the  word 
history  'decapitated';  c^.  censer  and  incense,  Lat.  centum  and  decern,  cess 
and  assess,  size  and  assize,  &c. 

Titus  Liviiis,  born  at  Patavium  (Padua)  59  B.C.,  where,  after  a  life  spent 
mostly  at  Rome,  he  died  1 7  a.d. 

though  it  extoll'd,  &c.  Time  has  done  what  Augustus  did  not — it  has 
*  suppressed'  the  passage  here  referred  to.  Books  cix-cxvi,  which  dealt  with 
the  Caesar  and  Pompey  war,  are  only  known  to  us  by  extremely  meagre 
epitomes,  or  rather 'arguments.'  Milton's  authority  for  the  tolerance  shown 
by  Augustus  is  Tacitus;  see  Annales,  iv.  34,  where  Cremutius  Cordus, 
prosecuted  for  eulogising  Brutus  and  Cassius,  in  his  defence  maintains  the 
right  of  free  speech,  quoting  amongst  other  pertinent  precedents :  •  Titus 
Livius,  eloquentiae  ac  fidei  praeclarus  in  primis,  Cn.  Pompeiuni  tantis  laudibus 
lulit  ut  Pompeianum  eum  Augustus  appellaret ;  neque  id  amicitiae  eorum 
oflecit.' 

that  part.  So  Lat.  pars,  as  Cicero,  Ep.  Fam,  x.  31 ;  more  commonly  in 
the  plural,  as  Philippics,  xiii.  20,  &c. 

13.  Octavius  Caesar.  This  never  was  his  name.  Originally  he  was 
called  '  Caius  Octavius  ';  after  his  adoption  by  his  great  uncle,  '  Caius  Julius 
Caesar  Octavianus ' :  to  this  name  '  Augustus '  was  added  by  the  Senate  and 
the  people  in  27  B.C. 

faction,  here  used  in  a  neutral,  has  generally  in  Latin,  as  in  English,  a  bad 
sense;  thus  Sallust,  Jugurtha  31,  in  the  accusation  of  Bestia  by  Memmius : 
'  Sed  haec  [the  combination  of  men  bound  together  by  common  desires  and 
hatreds  and  fears]  inter  bonos  amicitia,  inter  malos/ac/«o  est.' 

14.  that  Naso,  8cc.  The  cause  of  Ovid's  banishment  (' relegatio,'  not 
•exsilium')  remains,  and  probably  will  always  remain,  in  obscurity.  That  it 
was  not  really  his  having  written  the  Ars  Amatoria,  which  was  the  nominal 
pretext,  seems  proved  by  the  fact  that  that  work  had  been  published 
some  ten  years  when  in  a.d.  9  the  poet  was  suddenly  transported  to  Tomi. 
He  himself  speaks  of  the  matter  mysteriously;  he  says  his  fault  was 
involuntary.  See  his  Tristia,  and  his  Ex  Ponto  passim.  See  also  Ben 
Jonson's  Poetaster. 

JVaso  =  Publius  Ovidius  Naso,  born  at  Sulmo  B.C.  43,  died  at  Tomi  on  the 
Euxine  a.d.  18.     See  especially  Tristia,  iv.  10. 

in  his  old  age.  Oyid  was  some  fifty-two  years  old  at  the  time  of  his 
banishment. 

15.  a  meer  covert  0/  state  ^^z  mere  state  pretext. 


I 


p.  lo.]  NOTES,  81 

16.  ike  Books  were  neither  hanisht,  &c.  This  is  not  quite  accurate.  At 
the  time  of  the  poet's  banishment  the  Ars  Amatoria  was  ejected  from  the 
public  libraries  by  the  Emperor's  command. 

17.  from  hence  we  shall  meet,  &c.  See  e.g.  Tacitus'  Annals  and  History 
passim;  as  Ann.  i.  7 :  'at  Romae  ruere  in  servitium  consules,  patres, 
eques.'  &c. 

19.  that  we  may  not  marvell,  &c.  See  e.  g.  the  account  of  the  burn- 
ing of  Cremutius  Cordus'  Annals  of  Brutus  and  Cassius  in  Tacitus'  Annals, 
iv.  35. 

2l.anough.  Cp. Scotch  anetich.  Enough  comes  nearer  the  A.-S.^^wo/t.Germ. 
genug.  The  Moes.-Goth,  is  ga-nohs,  an  adj.  ;  see  Skeal's  Moeso-Gothic 
Glossary.  Other  English  forms  are  ynough,  ynow,  enow,  anew;  see  Morris's 
English  Accidence,  235. 

the  emperours,  &c.  Constantine  reigned  from  306  to  337.  See  Smith's 
Gibbon,  ii  and  iii ;  Milman's  Hist,  of  Christ.,  ii. 

27.  Heretichs.  In  classical  Greek  atp«T£«os  =  able  to  choose  ;  intelligent,  as 
in  Aristotle,  Magn.  M.  i.  21  ;  and  heresy,  aipiais  =  z  choosing.  In  later  Greek 
atpcffis,  from  meaning  'what  is  chosen,'  came  to  mean  a  set  of  views  or 
principles,  and  so  a  school,  a  sect.  In  ecclesiastical  Greek  the  word  denoted 
specially  a  choice  of  other  views  than  the  received  or  so-called  orthodox; 
see  I  Cor.  xi.  19;   2  Pet.  ii.  1,  &c. 

29.  the  generall  Councels.  The  first  general  or  oecumenical  council  was 
that  convened  at  Nicaea  in  Bithynia  in  325,  when  the  Nicene  Creed  was 
drawn  up.  They  were  called  'general'  or  'oecumenical'  (  =  world-repre- 
senting) to  distinguish  them  from  the  local  and  provincial  synods. 

30.  Autority.  Down  into  the  first  half  of  the  1 6th  cent,  the  common 
forms  of  the  primary  substantive  seem  to  have  been  anctour  and  anctor ; 
so  in  Chaucer,  Tyndale,  Elyot,  &c.  (See  Skeat's  Specimens  of  Eng.  Lit. 
pp.  173,  202,  &c.) 

32.  Porphyrins.  Porphyry,  whose  original  name  was  Malchus  (  =  the  Syro- 
phoenician  Melech),  born  233,  died  circ.  305  a.d.,  was  successively  a  pupil  of 
Origen,  of  ApoUonius,  of  Longinus,  and  of  Plotinus.  His  treatise  against 
the  Christian  religion  'called  forth  replies  from  above  thirty  different 
antagonists,  the  most  celebrated  of  whom  were  Methodius,  Apollinaris,  and 
Eusebius.'  The  public  destruction  of  the  work  by  order  of  the  Emperor 
Constantine  seems  to  have  succeeded  in  its  object ;  no  copy  is  extant. 
Smith's  Gibbon,  ii.  266  n. ;  Mosheim's  Eccles.  Hist.,  i.  70,  ed.  1826. 

35.  Procliis,  named  Diadochos,  as  the  genuine  successor  of  Plato  in 
doctrine,  was  born  at  Byzantium  412,  died  485  a.d.  See  Snn'th's  Gibbon,  v. 
92  ;  Morell's  Tennemann's  Manual  of  the  History  of  Philosophy,  pp.  192-9. 
He  was  principally  olfcnded  in  the  Christian  religion  by  the  doctrine  ot  the 
creation  of  the  world. 

P.  10.  I.  about  the  year  400  in  a  Carthaginian  Councel.  Tlie  fourth 
Council  of  Carthage  met  in  398.  See  Hallam's  Middle  Ages,  iii.  273,  cd, 
1856;  Student's  ed.  p.  510. 


82  AREOPAGITICA,  [P.  lo. 

4.  scrtipVd  more  the  hooJis,  Sic.  This  is  a  common  construction  in 
Elizabethan  English  ;  thus  'she  wander'd  many  a  wood'  (Spenser),  '  roam'd 
the  utmost  isles*  (Paradise  Lost),  'walk'd  the  waves'  (Lycidas),  'smile 
you  my  speeches  '  (King  Lear),  '  I  cannot  too  much  muse  such  shapes ' 
(Tempest),  &c. 

7.  /iass/n^  =  advancing.  Pass  and  pace  are  identical  words.  See  Shaksp. 
Jtil.  Caes.  \.  i.  47. 

8.  fiirder.  In  the  case  of  murder  and  murther,  the  d  form  has  been 
retained.  The  A.-S.  form  hfur^or,  where  ^  =  dh,  the  th  of  ihine.  Conip. 
A.-S.  feeder  with  father,  moder  with  mother. 

9.  lay  by  —  lay  aside,  put  on  one  side,  i.e.  not  to  read. 

10.  Padre  Paolo  =  the  monastic  name  of  Pietro  Sarpi,  born  at  Venice 
1552,  died  1623.  Drawn  from  his  cell — he  was  a  monk  of  the  Servite 
order — into  public  life,  he  became  the  champion  of  Venice  in  its  resistance 
to  papal  supremacy  over  its  secular  government.  Of  his  subsequent  years, 
which  were  spent  mainly  in  his  monastery,  the  great  work  was  his  History 
of  the  Council  of  Trent,  •  faithfully  translated  into  English  by  Nathanael 
Brent,'  1620.  See  a  short  Hfe  of  him  by  Dr.  Johnson,  Works,  ii.  109-II, 
ed.  1862.  For  the  passage  of  the  work  referred  to  in  the  text,  see  the 
1620  ed.,  book  vi.  pp.  471-6,  where  the  discussion  at  the  council  as  to  the 
Index  Expurgatorius  is  introduced  by  a  '  Discourse  of  the  Author  concerning 
the  Prohibition  of  Books.'  It  has  been  pointed  out  by  Mr.  Osborn  in  his 
edition  of  the  Areopagitica  that  this  '  Discourse'  would  seem  to  have  been 
in  Milton's  mind  at  the  time  he  wrote  the  Areopagitica,  as  several  of  the 
facts  it  quotes  are  also  quoted  by  him  in  the  same  connection.  The  para- 
graph that  immediately  illustrates  the  present  text  is  this  :  '  After  the  year 
800  the  Popes  of  Rome,  as  they  assumed  a  great  part  of  the  politick  govern- 
ment, so  they  caused  the  Books,  whose  authors  they  did  condemn,  to  be 
burned,  and  forbad  the  reading  of  them.' 

the  great  tinmasker,  &c.  Cp.  the  inscription  placed  under  a  portrait  of 
Father  Paul  by  Sir  Henry  Wotton  :  •  Concilii  Tridentini  Eviscerator.'  See 
Holt  White.  In  Of  Reformation  in  England,  p.  13  of  Works,  Milton  calls 
him  *  the  great  Venetian  antagonist  of  the  Pope;'  also  '  the  great  and 
learned  Padre  Paolo.' 

the  Trentine  Councel,  which  first  met  Dec.  13,  1545,  was  finally  dissolved 
Dec.  4,  1 563.     [Where  is  Trent  ?] 

11.  after  which  time,  &c.  On  the  growth  of  the  power  of  the  Popes  in 
the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  see  Milman's  Latin  Christianity,  vols,  iii  and 
iv.  This  growth  was  not  without  interruptions.  It  reached  its  greatest 
height  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries.  For  the  immediate  illustration 
of  the  text,  see,  for  instance,  Milman's  account  of  Pope  Nicholas  I  (858-867). 

the  Popes  of  Rome.  The  title  Pope  was  originally  given  to  all  bishops. 
it  was  confined  to  the  prelates  ot  Rome  by  the  order  of  Phocas,  Emperor  of 
the  East,  at  the  instance  of  Boniface  III,  606  a.d. 

engrossing.     Engross  =  to  buy  in  large  quantities  of  corn,  or  of  anything. 


p.  lo.]  NOTES.  83 

Cp.  engrosser  =  grocer,  which  means  properly  one  who  buys  in  large  quan- 
tities. See  Promp.  Parv.  s.  v.  grocere,  where  Way  quotes  from  37  Edw.  Ill, 
1363,  respecting  '  merchauntz  nomez  grossers,'  so  called  because  they  '  En- 
grossent  totes  maners  des  niarchandises  vendables,'  As  such  large  pur- 
chases were  commonly  made  with  a  view  to  raising  the  price  of  the 
commodity,  the  word  engross  came  to  have  a  bad  meaning.  {Cp.  forestall- 
ing, regrating,  badgering.)  See  Blackstone  and  Craik's  History  of  British 
Commerce,  i.  1 33-1 35. 

15.  fansied.  This  spelling  comes  nearer  to  the  original  phantasy, 
^vraaia,  of  which /awcy  is  a  contracted  form. 

17.  Martin  the  5  (Otto  Colonn£^)  was  Pope  1417-1431.     See  Milman. 

Bidl.  Bulla,  meaning  in  classical  Latin  a  round  boss-like  object,  and 
especially  the  ornamental  boss  worn  round  the  necks  by  Roman  boys,  came 
in  the  Middle  Ages  to  be  used  specially  of  the  waxen  (originally  leaden) 
seal  attached  by  a  band  to  legal  instruments,  and  then  of  the  instrument  itself. 
'  18.  [What  is  meant  by  excommunicated  the  reading  7  Explain  the  word 
excommunicated.'] 

19.  Wicklef,  born  circ.  1 3  24.  died  Dec.  31,  1384.  See  Milman,  viii.  c.  6; 
Lebas'  Life  of  Wiclif;  Shirley's  Catalogue  of  the  Original  Works  of  John 
Wyciif,  T.  Arnold's  Wyclifs  Eng.  Works,  &c.  See  Of  Reformation  in 
England :  *  Although  indeed  our  Wickliffe's  preaching,  at  which  all  the 
succeeding  reformers  more  effectually  lighted  their  tapers,  was  to  his 
countrymen  but  a  short  blaze,  soon  damped  and  stifled  by  the  Pope  and 
prelates  for  six  or  seven  kings'  reigns,'  &c. 

Huss,  born  circ.  1376,  burnt  at  the  stake  July  7,  1415.     See  Milman. 

22.  Leo  the  10  (John  de  Medici)  was  Pope  from  151 3-15 2 1.  See 
Roscoe's  Life  and  Pontificate  of  Leo  the  Tenth. 

24.  perfeted.     So  'perfet'  in  Lycidas,  ed.  1637.     ^*  'S  the  Fr.  parfait. 

25.  expurging  Indexes.  The  Index  Expurgatorius,  first  made  by  the 
Inquisitors  in  Italy,  was  approved  by  the  Council  of  Trent  in  1559.  See 
Sarpi,  p.  476,  ed.  1620. 

29.  in  a  prohibition.  There  was,  and  is,  an  Index  Librorum  Prohibitorum 
as  well  as  an  Index  Expurgatorius. 

30.  Purgatory.     On  the  growth  of  this  belief,  see  Milman,  ix.  c.  2. 
[What  is  meant  by  strait  here?     Explain  the  word.] 

31.  encroachment.  The  root  is  croc :  'mot  d'origine  germanique  (ncer- 
landais  krok,  croc).  D.  crochet,  crochu,  croche,  accrocher,  decrocher^ 
(Brachet.)  The  radical  meaning  therefore  is  •  a  hooking  on  to,'  '  a  seizing 
with  a  hook;'  cp.  Piers  the  Plowman,  Text  B.  viii.  95,  ed.  Skeat ; 
whence  generally  'a  seizing;'  so  that  the  verb  ought  to  be  used  with  a 
direct  object.  And  so  it  is  in  older  English  ;  see  Richardson's  Dictionary. 
Thus  Bale  in  his  Pageant  of  Popes  speaks  of  *  the  monks  who  had  encroached 
their  places  •/  Drayton  in  his  Barons'  Wars  of 

•  their  unbridled  rage 
That  did  our  ancient  liberty  encroach^ 
G  2 


84  AREOPAGITICA,  [P.  ii. 

'To  encroach  upon'  is  then  an  inaccurate  phrase;  probably  formed  by  a 
false  analogy  from  •  to  trespass  on,'  &c. 

P.  11.  3.  glntton  Friers.  The  epithet  is  somewhat  truculent.  See  Pierce 
the  Ploughman  s  Crede,  1.  67,  ed.  Skeat. 

glutton  =  Ft.  glouton,  Lat.  glulto. 

7.  Vicar  means  literally  one  who  acts  in  place  of  another,  a  delegate ;  cp. 
vicarious,  viceroy,  vicegerent,  &c.  With  the  use  here  cp.  our  Eng.  '  vicar- 
general' =' an  officer  having  powers  from  the  chancellor  of  a  diocese.' 

8.  athwart  =  across,  at  variance  with  (the  Ital.  has  '  contro')  ;  etymologi- 
ca\\y  =  on-thwart,  on-cross,  cross-wise.  Cp.  a  in  across,  ashore,  aloft, 
aboard,  &c.  (The  prefix  a  has  no  less  than  twelve  diiferent  meanings.  See 
Morris  and  Skeat's  Specimens  of  Early  Eng.  Part  II,  2nd  ed.  p.  xxxv.) 

9.  [What  is  the  proper  meaning  of  the  word  Catholic  ?] 

manners ^hTil.  mores.  So  I  Cor,  jiv.  33;  cp.  Goldsmith's  Traveller, 
127,  &c. 

12.  r^/a//on  =  Ital.  relazione. 

13.  Davanzati.  Bernardo  Davanzati  Bostichi,  of  Florence,  born  1529, 
died  1606.  He  wrote  several  works,  Scisma  d'  Inghilterra,  La  coltivazione 
toscana,  &c. ;  see  Brunet's  Manuel  du  Libraire.  For  some  account  of  his 
translation  of  Tacitus,  said  to  have  been  '  accomplished  in  fewer  words  than 
the  original,'  see  Hallam's  Literature  of  Europe,  ii.  402.  The  book  referred  to 
in  the  text  was  his  Scisma  d'  Inghilterra  con  altre  operette,  printed  at  Florence 
in  1638.  On  the  last  page  of  the  original  edition,  after  the  Errata,  may  be  seen 
the  passages  here  translated.  The  book  may  have  been  published  during 
Milton's  stay  at  Florence.     Obviously  the  subject  would  attract  his  notice. 

15.  It  may  he  printed.  '  Si  puo  stampare.'  In  the  original  this  Imprimatur 
is  signed  also  by  '  Alessandro  Vettori  Senatore  Auditor  di  S.  A.  S.' 

19.  broke  prison.  The  full  phrase  occurs  in  Midsummer  Night's  Dream, 
i.  2.  36:  'break  the  locks  of  prison  gates.' 

exorcism,  k^opKicTfios  =  an  administering  an  oath  to — a  '  swearing' — any  one, 
a  binding  by  oath.  The  common  modern  sense  of  the  word  was  acquired  in 
Ecclesiastical  Greek. 

23.  [What  is  the  grammatical  construction  o(  the  Roman  stamp?] 

P.  12.  I.  P/a^za  =  market-place,  meeting-place,  d'yopd ;=Sp.  plaza,  Fr. 
place.  Germ,  platz,  from  the  Gr.  vXareia :  see  Diez.  Shakspere  seems  to 
use  place  in  this  sense  in  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew,  i.  I.  '  Padua,  a  public 
place^ ;  see  C.  A.  Brown's  Shakespeare's  Autobiographical  Poems,  p.  104. 

complementing.  The  word  coupled  with  this  word — ducking — would  seem 
to  shew  that  our  compliinenting  is  here  meant.  But  some  sort  of  word-play 
may  be  intended.  In  derivation  complement  and  compliment  are  not  akin, 
the  former  being  ultimately  connected  with  compleo,  the  latter  with  complico. 

ducking.     See  Comus,  960-2  : 

'  Here  be  without  duck  or  nod, 
Other  trippings  to  be  trod 
Of  lighter  toes,'  &c. 


p.  13.]  NOTES.  85 

Richard  III,  i.  3.  49 : 

*  Duck  with  French  nods  and  apish   courtesy.* 
King  Lear,  ii.  2.  109 : 

•  twenty  silly  ducking  observants 
That  stretch  their  duties  nicely.' 
Todd  on  Comus,  1.  c,  quotes  from  Brathwaite's  English  Gentleman  (p.  324, 
ed.  1641):    'a  scru'd  face,  an  artfull  cringe,  or  an  Italionate  duck.^     Dtick 
means  originally  to  bow,  stoop,  &c.     Cp.  Germ,  ducken,  and  also  tmichen. 
The  duck  is  the  head-stooping,  the  dipping  bird ;  cp.  Germ,  taucher. 

2.  with  their  shav'n  reverences,  i.  e.  with  their  tonsured  heads  njaking 
signs  of  reverence.  The  language  is  somewhat  pleonastic.  Observe  the 
boldness  of  the  personification. 

4.  the  spunge.  Par.  Reg.  iv.  329,  where  see  Mr.  Jerram's  note.  So 
'  spunged  out,'  Hooker's  Eccles.  Pol.,  v.  F9,  &c.  See  Suetonius'  life  of 
Augustus,  where  the  emperor  tells  those  who  made  enquiries  after  a  play  he 
had  begun  to  write,  '  Ajacem  suum  in  spongiam  incubuisse.'  Quite  different 
in  derivation,  though  similar  in  meaning,  is  expunge. 

5.  responsories  is  a  secondary  substantive  formed  from  responses.  Jeremy 
Taylor  speaks  of  *  that  respomory  in  the  Roman  breviary,'  &c  (Rule  of 
Cons^cience,  iii.  3.  6)  ;  see  Richardson. 

antiphonies.  The  word  anthem  is  a  corruption  of  Eccl.  Lat.  anltphona,= 
Gk.  avTicpcvvov.  The  A.-S.  form  was  antefne,  which  became  antemne 
(cf.  woman  from  wifman,  Lamtnas  from  Hlis/mcBsse) ;  whence  anthem 
(cf,  Anthony,  &c.). 

8.  one  from  Lamheih  house,  &c.  '  Pursuant  to  the  decree  of  the  Star 
Chamber  in  1637  concerning  the  Press,  all  books  of  Divinity,  Physic, 
Philosophy  and  Poetry  were  licensed  either  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
or  the  Bishop  of  London,  or  by  substitutes  of  their  appointment.  This  docu- 
ment is  in  Rushworth,  Hist.  Coll.  iii.  306,  Appendix ;  and  is  reprinted  in  the 
Memoirs  of  Thomas  Hollis,  p.  641.'     (Holt  White.) 

Lambeth  house,  the  residence  of  the  Archbishops  of  Canterbury,  *  from  at 
least  the  thirteenth  century.'     (Cunningham.) 

9.  the  west  end  of  Paidi.  The  Bishop  of  London  had  once  a  palace  in  the 
precincts  of  St.  Paul's,  'bordering  on  the  church;*  see  Mihnan's  St.  Paul's, 
p.  131.  See  it  mentioned  in  More's  Edw.  V  and  Rich.  Ill :  '  the  Bishop  of 
London's  palace  near  St.  Paul's  cliurch.' 

12.  woidd  cast  no  ink.     Cp.  the  Americanism  '  to  sling  ink.' 

13.  no  vidgar  tongue.  So  all  modern  languages  were  called  in  contra- 
distinction to  Latin,  the  language  of  the  learned. 

14.  the  pure  conceit  of  an  Imprimatur.  Cp.  *  lordly  Imprimatur''  just  ab'we; 
and  in  The  Remonstrant's  Defence :  '  your  proud  Imprimaturs  not  to  be 
obtained  without  the  shallow  surview,  but  not  shallow  hand  of  some 
mercenary,  narrow-souled,  and  illiterate  chaplain.* 

ronc«V  =  idea,  notioa,  thought.  So  commonly  in  Eliz.  Eng.,  as  M.  of  Ven. 
1.  i.  9  a,  &C. 


86  AREOPAGITICA.  [P.  12. 

18.  dictatorie.      We   should   say  dictatorial.      So  •  professory   learning' 
in  Bacon's  Adv.  of  Learning,  p.  79,  Clar.  Press  Ed. 

[Parse  English  here.] 

19.  ript  up=  torn  open  and  investigated,  exposed.  So  Faerie  Queene.i.  7'39' 

'  Such  helplesse  harmes  yts  better  hidden  keep 
Then  rip  up  griefe,   where  it  may  not  availe.' 
See  other  instances  from  Jewell,  Hackluyt,  North,  &c.,  apud  Richardson. 
21.  [What  is  the  grammatical  construction  of  tliat  can  he  heard  o/?] 
23.  ancestors   is   ultimately   a   corruption   of    antecessores  =  fore-goers, 
through  the  French. 

28,  birth  is  here  used  in  a  concrete  sense ;    so  partus  in  Latin,  &c.     So 
Paradise  Lost,  v.  180: 

*  Air  and  ye  elements,  the  eldest  birth 
Of  nature's  womb,*  &c. 
Tennyson's  Godiva : 

•  Not  only  we,  the  latest  birth  of  time,'  &c. 
no  envious  Juno,  &c.     See  the  story  of  Hercules'  birth.     When  in  her 
travail  Alcmena  cried  out  for  Ilithyia,  Ilithyia  came,  but  not  to  succour,  for 
Hera  had  pledged  her  to  retard.     She  sat  cross-legged  at  the  door,  nmttering 
spells.     One.jof  Alcmeiia's  maidens,  seeing  her  obstructiveness,  deceived  her 
by  pretending  that  the  mother's  pains  were  over ;    whereupon  startled  she 
changed  her  posture,  and  then  at  once  Hercules  was  born.     See  Alcmena's 
own  account  of  this  wrong,  and  how  it  was  outwitted,  and  how  the  goddess 
avenged  herself,  in  Ovid's  Metamorphoses,  ix.  281-323  ;  especially  297-301: 
'  Utque  meos  audit  gemitus,  subsedit  in  ilia 
Ante  fores  ara  ;    dextroque  in  poplite  laevum 
Pressa  genu,  digitis  inter  se  pectine  junctis, 
Sustinuit  nixus.     Tacita  quoque  carmina  voce 
Dixit,  et  inceptos  tenuerunt  carmina  nixus.' 
Hom.    II.    xix.    119.       See    also    Prior's    Anc.    Daft.    Ballade,    ii.    364-7. 
Mr.  Lobb  aptly  quotes   Browne's  Vulgar  Errors,  v.  23.  9  :  '  To   sit  cross- 
legged,  or  with  our  fingers  pectinated  or  shut  together,  is  accounted  bad,  and 
friends  will  persuade  us  from  it.      The  same  conceit  religiously  possessed 
the  ancients,  as  is  observable  from  Pliny:  "poplites  alternis  geuibus  imponere 
nefas  olini;"  and  also  from  Athenaeus  that  it  was  an  old  veneficious  practice 
and  Juno  is  made  in  this  posture  to  hinder  the  delivery  of  Alcmena,'  &c. 
See  Le  Bas'  Life  of  Archbishop  Laud,  p.  38,  ed.  1836:  'His  [Laud's]  old 
detractor  Archbishop  Abbot  had  been  constantly  on  the  spot,  sitting  cross- 
legged  (if  the  phrase  may  be  allowed)  upon  the  fortunes  of  the  Papist,  and 
providing  him  with  abundant  opportunities  of  showing  how  well  he  could 
endure  the  pains  of  hope  deferred,  which  maketh  the  heart  sick.'    Also  Peele's 
Edw.  I,  p.  409,  ed.  Dyce. 

33.  [in  wars  condition,  &c.     How  so?] 

should  be  to  stand,  &c.     We  could  say  *  it   was  to  stand,'  &c.     Comp, 
2  Hen.  VI,  II.  iii,  28. 


p.  13.]  NOTES.  87 

P.  13.  I.  ere  it  be  borne  to  the  world.  The  belief  in  our  antenatal 
existence  was  held  by  Plato  and  others.  See  e.  g.  the  passage  in  Plato's 
Republic,  p.  618,  of  yet  unbodied  souls  choosing  the  lives  they  will  lead: 
acpds  ovv,  (neiSfi  dcpticiaOai,  cvOvs  deiv  Uvai  irpos  tt^v  Adx,((Tiv,  k.  t.  \. 

2.  yet  in  darknesse,  that  is,  while  still  in  darkness.     See  p.  3,  1.  33. 
Radamanth  was  one  of  the  three  great  Justices  of  Hades,  according  to 

Greek  myths.    His  colleagues  were  Minos  and  Aiakos.    See  the  Latin  poets, 
passim,  as  Vergil,  Aencid,  vi.  565  : 

'  Gnosius  haec  Rhadamanthus  habet,  durissima  regna, 

Casligatque  auditque  dolos,   subigitque  fateri. 

Quae  quis  apud  superos,  furto  laetatus  inani, 

Distulit  in  seram  commissa  piacula  mortem.' 

3.  the  ferry.     See  Aeneid,  vi.  295-330,  &c. ;  Richard  HI,  i.  4.  46-8: 

'  Who  pass'd  methought  the  melancholy  flood, 
With  that  grim  ferryman  which  poets  write  of, 
Unto  the  kingdom  of  perpetual  night.' 

4.  that  mysterious  iniquity.  See  Revelation  xvii.  5,  of  the  woman  '  arrayed 
in  purple  and  scarlet  colour,  and  decked  with  gold  and  precious  stones  and 
pearls  :'  '  Upon  her  forehead  was  a  name  written,  Mystery,  Babylon  the  great, 
the  mother  of  harlots  and  abominations  of  the  earth,'  &c.  The  Church 
reformers  of  the  sixteenth  century  confidently  identified  this  woman  with 
the  Papacy. 

6.  limbo's.  In  classical  Latin  limbus  =  z  border,  a  fringe,  &c. ;  as  in 
Vergil,  Aeneid,  iv.  137.  In  the  Middle  Ages  it  was  used  to  denote  a 
border  land  of  hell,  the  infernal  '  marches.*  '  The  old  schoolman  supposed 
there  to  be,  besides  hell  (infernus  damnatorum),  I.  a  limbus  puerormn,  where 
the  souls  of  infants  unbaptized  remained  [cp.  Vergil's  "  limen  primum  "  of 
Hades,  Aeneid,  vi.  426-433]  ;  2.  a  limbns  patrum,  where  the  fathers  of  the 
church,  saints,  and  martyrs  awaited  the  general  resurrection;  [see  De 
Doctrina  Christiana,  chap,  xiii,  and  Apology  for  Smectymnuus,  &c.] ;  and  3. 
Purgatory.  To  which  in  popular  opinion  was  added,  4.  a  limbus  fatuorum,  or 
fool's  paradise,  the  receptacle  of  all  vanity  and  nonsense.'  (Nares.)  See  Dante's 
Inferno,  iv,  where  the  poet  enters  Limbo,  the  first  circle  of  Hell,  and  his  guide 
explains  that  it  is  the  region  of  such  as  himself,  who  '  before  the  Gospel  lived.' 
(Cary,)  See  especially  Paradise  Lost,  iii.  440-497,  for  sense  No.  4.  (Milton 
contradicts  those  who  placed  that  paradise  in  the  moon,  as  e.  g.  Ariosto,  Or- 
lando Furioso,  xxxiv.  70,  &c.,  whom  Pope  follows  in  the  Rape  of  the  Lock, 
canto  V.)  Commonly  lirnbo  was  used  for  hell  itself;  so  Shakspere,  All's  well 
that  ends  well,  v.  3.  256  :  '  for  indeed  he  was  mad  for  her,  and  talked  of  Satan 
and  of  Limbo,  and  of  Furies,  and  I  know  not  what.'    Faerie  Qucene,  1.  2.  32 

'  What  voice  of  dannied  ghost  from  limbo  lake  ?' 
In  the  Comedy  of  Errors,  iv.  2.  32,  where  Dromio  of  Syracuse  describes  his 
master  who  had  just  been  arrested  as 

•in  Tartar  limbo,  worse  than  hell. 
A  devil  in  an  everlasting  garment  hath  him;' 


88  AREOPAGITICA,  [P.  13. 

the  'border'  is  more  fearful  than  the  '  land'  itself.     In  Henry  VIII,  v.  3.  67, 
Ihnbo  Patrutn  —  prison. 

9.  ilfavourdly  =  unhandsomely,  foully.  Favour  in  Elizabethan  English 
frequently  =  face,  feature,  'looks;'  thus  Bacon's  Essays,  43:  'In  beauty, 
that  o{  javoiir  is  more  then  that  of  colour,  and  that  of  decent  and  gracious 
motion  more  then  that  of  favour,^  &c.  See  Eastwood  and  Wright's  Bible 
Word  Book.  As  Craik  suggests  in  his  English  of  Shakespeare  /avo/^r  came  to 
mean  countenance  by  the  same  '  natural  transference  of  meaning'  as  counte- 
natice  came  to  mean  favour ;  (cp.  *  the  light  of  thy  countenance,'  Psalm  xliv. 
3,  &c.),  i.  e.  favour  is  used  for  that  which  expresses  favour  =  the 
countenance. 

10.  inquisiturient. — ttirio  in  Latin,  whence  the  participle  -turient,  denotes 
R  yearning  or  desire;  thus  esnrio  =  l  desire  to  eat,  I  hunger.  These 
de.Mderative  verbs  are  formed  from  the  'participle  in  rus;'  thus  esurio  comes 
from  estirus  (stem  ed-),  scriptttrio  from  scripttirus.  Sec.  So  petiturire  (to 
long  to  be  a  candidate,  Cicero,  Ad  Atticum,  i.  14),  parturire,  empturire, 
Sullaturire,  proscripturire  ('  ita  Sullaturit  animus  ejus  et  proscriplurit^ 
Cicero,  Ad  Att.,  ix.  10.  6.).  See  Donaldson's  Varronianus,  p.  421  ;  Key's 
Latin  Grammar,  pp.  135  and  136. 

minorites,  i.  e.  quasi  niinorites  or  friars.  Cp.  above,  p.  1 1 :  *  Under  the 
hands  of  two  or  three  glutton  Friers'  Strictly  the  Minorites  were  the 
Franciscan,  or  Grey  Friars.  See  Milman's  Latin  Christianity,  vi.  34 : 
•The  very  name  of  his  [St.  Francis']  disciples,  the  Friar  Minors,  implied 
their  humility.' 

11.  [What  is  meant  by  these  most  certain  authors?'] 

18.  for  all  that.  This  phrase  is  probably  elliptical;  fully,  we  should  say 
•  for  all  that  can  do,'  or  '  for  all  that  that  weighs,'  or  '  for  all  that  can  be 
said  on  that  head,'  &c.  See  note  on  '  for  all  the  morning  light '  in  Longer 
English  Poems,  p.  218. 

20.  light  oM  =  to  drop  upon  by  accident,  to  find  without  effort.  Slightly 
different  is  the  sense  in  the  Te  Deum :  '  O  Lord,  let  thy  mercy  lighten  upon 
us,'  &c.  This  light  is  the  A.-S.  lihtan.  Alight,  of  which  the  sense  is  not 
quite  the  same,  is  a  compound. 

23.  [to  no  other  purpoe.     What  preposition  should  we  rather  use  ?] 

25.  /  am  of  those  who.  &c.     Cp.  Samson's 

'  Nor  am  I  in  the  list  of  them  that  hope.' 
[What  is  the  force  of  0/ here?]      Macb.  i.  3.  80, 

26.  alchymy,  here  distribaiively  for  a  process  or  achievement  of  alchemy. 
For  the  derivation  of  the  word,  the  al-  is  the  Arabic  '  article '  (so  the  al- 
in  a/-cohol,  a/-gebra,  al-cove,  a/-embic,  «/-Cairo,  a/-Koran,  a/-kali,  perhaps  in 
o/-batross,  the  el  in  el-ix\r)  ;  -chemy  is  probably  ultimately  from  the  Gr.  x^H-^^* 
juice,  &c.  In  derivation  then,  alehemy  ~  chemistry  ;  and  in  respect  of  what 
the  tw'o  words  denote,  they  are  related  to  each  other  very  much  as  are 
astrology  and  astronomy.  The  classical  pieces  of  English  literature  that  deal  with 
alchemy  are  Chaucer's  Canon's  Yeoman's  Tale,  and  Ben  Jonson's  Alchemist. 


p.  14.J  NOTES.  '  89 

Lw///ms  =  Raymond  Lully,  a  famous  writer  on  medicine  and  chemistry, 
and  on  other  subjects,  of  the  latter  part  of  the  thirteenth  century  and  the 
early  fourteenth;  born  at  Palma  in  Majorca  in  1234,  stoned  to  death 
in  Mauretania  in  1315  by  the  Mohammedans,  whom  he  had  zealously  visited 
Africa  to  convert.  See  Bacon's  Advancement  of  Learning,  p,  i  76,  erl.  Aldif 
Wright.  On  his  missionary  ardour,  and  what  came  of  it,  see  Maclear's  History 
of  Christian  Missions  in  the  Middle  Ages,  chap.  xvi. 

27.  sitblimat  —  cxlxzcX.  Technically  'to  raise  by  the  force  of  chemica. 
fire.' 

30.   \^for  the  tree,  &c.     What  is  the  meaning  of /or  here?] 

32.  He  now  passes  on  to  his  Second  Point,  see  p.  67. 
P.  14.  3.  Moses.     See  Acts  vii.  22  :    •  And  Moses  was  learned  in  all  the 
wisdom  of  the  Egyptians,  and  was  mighty  in  words  and  deeds.' 

3.  Daniel.  See  Daniel  i.  17:  'As  for  these  four  children  [Daniel, 
Hananiah,  Mishael,  and  Azariah  =  Belteshazzar,  Shadrach,  Meshach,  Abed- 
nego]  God  gave  them  knowledge  and  skill  in  all  learning  and  wisdom ;  and 
Daniel  had  understanding  in  all  visions  and  dreams.' 

4.  Pattl.  It  may  perhaps  be  doubted  whether  St.  Paul's  Greek  learning 
was  so  very  extensive. 

6.  in  Pa?// =  in  the  case  of  Paul ;  so  often  in  in  Latin. 

8.  the  sentences  of  three  Greek  Poets.  See  Acts  xvii.  28  (from  Aratos,  or 
possibly  Cleanthes) ;  I  Cor.  xv.  33;  Titus  i.  12  (from  Epimenides).  Cp. 
Sidney's  Apol.for  Poetrie,  p.  58,  ed.  Arber. 

the  sentetices  =  ientcnU^Q,  yvcvfxai. 

9.  one  of  them  a  Tragedian,  i.  e.  Euripides,  See  Milton's  Preface  to 
Samson  Agonistes,  p.  204,  vol.  ii,  Clar.  Press  Ed. :  '  The  Apostle  Paul 
himself  thought  it  not  unworthy  to  insert  a  verse  of  Euripides  into  the  text 
of  Holy  Scripture,  i  Cor.  xv.  33.'     This  line, 

(pOftpovcriv  rjOrj  XPV^^^'  ofiiKiai  KaKai, 
is  ascribed  to  Euripides  by  Sokrates  in  his  Ecclesiastical  History,  iii.  t6. 
Jerome  and  Grotius  assign  it  to  the  Tjhais  of  Menander;  see  Newton's  and 
also  Todd's  note  to  Samson  Agonistes,  Preface.  Clemens  Alexandrinus 
(Paidagogos,  ii.  6.  §  50)  says  indefinitely :  ?)  irotijTiKfi  Keyn  ;  see  Dindorfs 
Poetae  Scenici,  Euripides,  Fragments,  962.  That  there  should  be  any 
confusion  is  intelligible  enough,  if  it  is  remembered  how  Menander  was  in 
fact  the  dramatic  offspring  of  Euripides,  and  much  resembled  him  in  style. 

II.  odds.  The  first  notion  of  the  subst.  odd  seems  to  be  a  point,  or 
something  projecting  (Norse  oddr,  &c.)  ;  hence  it  means  what  is  eminent  or 
singular  in  any  way,  &c.     Here  o</f/s  =  advantage,  superiority.     So  Arcades, 

'  Juno  dares  not  give  her  odds.' 
See  Shakspere,  passim,  as  Winter's  Tale.  v.  I.  207;    Henry  V,  iv.  3.  5,  &c. 
The  adj.  odd  seems  to  be  of  different  origin  from  the  Welsh  od,  notable. 
13.  Julian  the  Apostat.     See  Gibbon,  chap,  xxiii,  &c. 


90  AREOPAGITICA.  [P.  14. 

the  Aposlat.  See  Smith's  Milman's  Gibbon,  iii.  136:  '  The  independent 
spirit  of  Julian  refused  to  yield  the  passive  and  unresisting  obedience  which 
was  required,  in  the  name  of  religion,  by  the  haughty  ministers  of  the 
church.  .  .  He  was  educated  in  the  Lesser  Asia  amidst  the  scandals  of  the 
Arian  controversy.  .  .  As  soon  as  Gallus  was  invested  with  the  honours  of 
the  purple,  Julian  was  permitted  to  breathe  the  air  of  freedom,  of  literature, 
and  of  Paganism,'  &c.  Voltaire  (Philosophical  Dictionary,  s.  v.  Apostate) 
says  it  is  a  question  whether  he  was  ever  truly  a  Christian.  Julian  himself 
assures  the  Alexandrines  he  was  so.     See  Mr.  Lobb's  note. 

14.  a  decree,  &c.  See  Smith's  Milman's  Gibbon,  iii.  163.  It  prohibited 
the  Christians  from  teaching  the  arts  of  grammar  and  rhetoric.  See  it 
among  the  Epistles  of  Julian  (xlii).  '  The  Christians  were  directly  forbid  to 
teach,  they  were  indirectly  forbid  to  learn ;  since  they  would  not  frequent 
the  schools  of  the  Pagans.'  (Gibbon,  1.  c.  note.)  See  Bacon's  Advance- 
ment of  Learning,  p.  49,  ed.  Aldis  Wright :  '  So  again  we  find  that  many  of 
the  ancient  bishops  and  fathers  of  the  church  were  excellently  read  and 
studied  in  all  the  learning  of  the  heathen ;  insomuch  that  the  edict  of  the 
Emperor  Julianus  (whereby  it  was  interdicted  unto  Christians  to  be  admitted 
into  Schools,  lectures,  or  exercises  of  learning)  was  esteemed  and  accounted  a 
more  pernicious  engine  and  machination  against  the  Christian  faith  than 
were  all  the  sanguinary  prosecutions  of  his  predecessors.' 

for,  said  he,  &c.  '  He  vainly  contends  that,  if  they  refuse  to  adore  the 
gods  of  Homer  and  Demosthenes,  they  ought  to  content  themselves  with 
expounding  Luke  and  Matthew  in  the  churches  of  the  Galileans.'  (Gibbon, 
I.e.) 

18.  shifts.  The  radical  notion  of  the  word  shift  is  division,  change,  &c. ; 
or  the  A,-S.  scyftan  is  cognate  with  Icel.  shifta,  ultimately  with  shed  (in 
^z\.tx-$hed),  ax^Coj,  scindo,  &c. ;  and  in  this  radical  sense  the  verb  is  still  com- 
mon enough.  Then  it  came  to  mean  a  change  of  plan,  a  ready  device,  &c. 
See  Titus  Andronicus,  iv.  2.  176: 

'  For  it  is  you  that  puts  us  to  our  shifts' 
Cp.  the  Gr.  rravToTos  yiyveaOai,   as  Herodotus,    ix.   109;     so    iravToZairos 
yiyveaOai,  Plato,  Republic,  398  A. 

[19.  in  danger  to  decline.  What  construction  should  we  rather  use?] 
22.  the  two  Apollinarii  ==  h^o\Y\nznos  of  Alexandria  and  his  son  the  Bishop 
of  Alexandria.  The  Christians,  says  Gibbon,  in  a  note  to  the  passage  of  the 
text  describing  Julian's  oppressions,  '  had  recourse  to  the  expedient  of  com- 
posing books  for  their  own  schools.  Within  a  few  months  Apollinaris 
produced  his  Christian  imitations  of  Homer  (a  sacred  history  in  twenty-four 
books),  Pindar,  Euripides,  and  Menander ;  and  Sozomen  is  satisfied  that  they 
equalled  or  excelled  the  originals.'  Apollinaris  is  the  Latin,  Apollinarios  the 
Greek  form  of  the  name. 

20.  fain  is  the  A.-S.  fcegen,  joyful.  Cp.  hail  and  hcegel,  nail  and  ncBgel, 
stile  and  stigel,  &c. 

21.  the  seven  liberall  sciences  =  ihe  'trivium*  and  *  quadrivium.' 


p.  15.]  NOTES.  91 

•  Gramm.  loquitur ;    Bia.  vera  docet ;    RTiet.  verba  colorat ; 
Mus.  canit ;    Ar.  numeral ;    Geo.  ponderat;  Ast.  colit  astra.' 
See  Hallam's  Lit.  of  Europe,  i.  4  n.  ed.  1837. 

24.  the  Historian  Socrates.  See  his  Ecclesiastical  History,  iii.  16.  This 
Sokrates  'flourished'  in  the  fifth  century.  His  Church  History  was  a  continua- 
tion of  that  of  Eusebius  down  to  440  a.d. 

26.  hy  taking  away.  Sec.  Julian  died  in  363.  Jovian,  who  was  elected 
to  succeed  him,  proclaimed  universal  toleration.  'Under  his  reign  Chris- 
tianity  obtained  an  easy  and  lasting  victory.'     (Gibbon.) 

30.  decaying.  Observe  the  causative  use  of  decay  here.  So  Surrey, 
The  Constant  Lover  Lamenteth : 

*  And  now  though  on  the  sunne  I  drive 

Whose  fervent  flame  all  thinges  decaies.*  &c. 
(apud  Richardson).  The  verb  is  properly  neuter,  derived  ultimately  from  the 
Lat.  decadere.  Cp.  the  causative  uses  of  the  2nd  aorist  of  XavOdvco  and 
Xayx^f^^-  Perhaps  the  verb  in  the  text  should  be  taken  as  a  mere  verb- 
alising of  the  noun,  as  is  common  in  Elizabethan  English;  =  afflict 
with  decay,  &c.  Cp.  e.g.  'smile  you  my  speeches?'  in  King  Lear,  ii.  2, 
88. 

31.  Decius  was  emperor  from  249  to  251,  See  Milman's  History  of 
Christianity,  vol.  ii. 

Dioclesian.     Emperor  284-305. 

32.  St.  Jerom.  Born  circ.  345,  died  420.  His  Life  has  been  written  by 
Erasmus,  Stigelius,  Siguenza,  Martianay,  Collombet  (Hols's  Biographical 
Dictionary) ;  see  Mihnan's  Christianity,  iii.  190-237.  The  Vulgate  transla- 
tion of  the  Bible  is  commonly  attributed  to  him. 

that  the  Divell,  &c.  See  Jerome's  Epistolae,  18, '  Ad  Eustochium  de  Virginit.' 
Epistle  xxii.  in  Migne's  Patrologiae  Cursus  Completus;  see  vol.  i.  of  Hieronymi 
Opera,  pp.  394-425.  The  letter  was  written  in  384.  In  a  dream  he 
thought  himself  brought  before  the  tribunal  of  Heaven  ;  and  when,  in  answer 
to  the  question  of  what  profession  he  was,  he  said  he  was  a  Christian, 
•  Thou  liest,'  cried  the  judge ;  '  thou  art  a  Ciceronian,  for  the  works  of  that 
author  possess  thy  heart;'  and  thereupon  condemned  him  to  be  severely 
scourged  by  angels.  See  Butler's  Lives  of  the  Saints;  also  Sarpi's  Council  of 
Trent,  p.  472,  ed.  1620. 

33.  in  a  lenten  dream.  It  was  dreamed  by  him  when  seized  by  a  fever 
one  Lent.  See  the  letter  to  the  nun  Eustochium  :  '  Dum  ita  me  antiquus 
serpens  \al.  hostis]  ilhuleret  [he  could  not  give  up  his  old  library],  in  media 
ferme  Quadragesima  medullis  infusa  febris  corpus  invasit  exhaustum  et  sine 
ulla  requie  (quod  dictu  quoque  incredibile  est)  sic  infelicia  membra  depasta 
est  ut  ossibus  vix  haererem,'  &c. 

P.  15.  I.  smV=  possessed,  as  still  in  law  language.  Seize  is  from  the 
Fr.  saiser,  which  is  from  the  Low  Lat.  sacire,  which  is  from  the  O.  11.  G. 
sazjan,  H.  G.  besetzen.     See  Brachet. 

3.  Ciceronianisms,      On   the    Ciceronianism    of    the    Renaissance,    see 


92  AREOPAGITICA.  [P.  15. 

Hallam's  Literature  of  Europe,  i.  chap.  5,  and  the  chapter  in  Encyclopaedia 
Metropolitana,  '  History  of  Roman  Literature,'  pp.  321-325. 

[4.  Explain  the  rending,  not  the  vanity^ 

6.  not  for  scurrill  Plautus,  &c.  See  the  Epistle  ad  Euslocliium  :  '  Itaque 
miser  ego  lecturus  Tullium  jejunabam.  Post  noctium  crebras  vigilias,  post 
lacrymas,  quas  mihi  praeteritorum  recordatio  peccatorum  ex  imis  visceribus 
eruebat,  Plautus  sumebatur  in  manus.' 

scurrill.  Milton  seems  to  have  used  this  form  to  avoid  the  occurrence  of 
the  same  sound  at  the  end  of  two  contiguous  virords.  To  his  ear  such  a 
recurrence  as  Scurrillous  Plautus  would  be  olTensive.  See  his  ridicule  of 
Bishop  Hall's  '  teach  each  : ' 

'  Teach  each  hollow  grove  to  sound  his  love, 
Wearying  echo  with  one  changeless  word.' 
pp.  91,  92   of  Works.     But  scurrill  is  found  elsewhere;    e.g.  in  The  Two 
Noble  Kins?nen,  v.  I.  136,  ed.  Skeat. 

8.  so  many  more  ancient  Fathers.     E.  g.  St.  Augustine. 

10.  Basil,  Bishop  of  Caesarea  in  Cappadocia  from  370-379. 

11.  Margites  .  .  .  writ  by  Homer.  '  The  Margites  bears  the  same  rela- 
tion to  comedy  that  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey  bear  to  tragedy.'  (Aristotle, 
Poetics,  chap,  iv.)  See  Miiller's  Literature  of  Greece,  &c.  The  ancients 
agreed  in  assigning  its  authorship  to  Homer,  but  without  authority.  One  or 
two  lines  are  preserved,  as  the  well-known  one : 

iTuW  ■qmaTaro  tpya,  KaKu>s  S*  i^maraTo  iravra. 
See  another  in  Aristotle,  Ethics,  vi.  7. 

13.  Morgnnte.  The  Morgante  Maggiore  of  Luigi  Pulci,  printed  at 
Venice  in  1488.  See  Hallam's  Literature  of  Europe,  i.  270-273  and  421; 
Roscoe's  Lorenzo  de  Medici ;  Sismondi's  Literature  of  Southern  Europe,  &c. 
*  The  Morgante  is  generally  regarded  as  the  prototype  of  the  "  Orlando 
Furioso"  of  Ariosto.'  (Roscoe.)  See  a  translation  of  the  first  book  in 
Byron's  works. 

7nuch  to  the'  same  purpose.  •  It  has  been  a  question  among  Italian 
critics  whether  the  poem  of  Pulci  is  to  be  reckoned  burlesque,'  &c. 
(Hallam.  1.  c.) 

15.  Eusebius,  born  in  Palestine  circ.  264,  chosen  Bishop  of  Caesarea 
circ.  315,  died  circ.  340. 

ancienter.  'Ascham  writes  inventivest ;  Bacon  honourahlest  and  an- 
cienler;  Fuller  eminentest,  eloqiietiter,  learnedst,  solemnest,  famousest^ 
virtnousest,  with  the  comparative  and  superlative  adverbs  wiselier,  easilier, 
hardliest ;  Sidney  even  uses  repiningest;  Coleridge  sqfeliest.'  (Marsh.) 
See  also  Morris'  English  Accidence,  chap.  xi. 

17.  Diojiysius,  Bishop  of  Alexandria  247-265. 

19.  had  i^o«/  =  had  accustomed  himself  =  the  more  usual  was  wont. 

[20.   What  is  the  force  of  avail  here  ?] 

21.  conversant —  vftW  versed.     See  above  p.  8,  1.  6. 

24.  to  give  offence  =  to  cause  any  one  to  stumble,  to  be  a  ffK&vSaKov;  as, 


I 


p.  1 6.]  NOTES,  93 

passim,  in  the  New  Testament,  Authorised  Version,  e.g.  Romans  ix.  33; 
I  Peter  ii.  8,  &c. 

31.  answerable.  See  note  on  'variable*  in  Longer  English  Poems,  Spenser's 
Prothalamion,  13. 

that  0/  the  Apostle,  &c.     See  I  Thessalonians  v.  21. 

32.  prove^iest.    So  Luke  xiv.  19,  &c.    So  '  the  exception /roi/^s  the  rule.' 
P.  16.  I.  a?iother  remarkable  saying.     See  Titus  i.  15. 

6.  viands  — vkuuih.  Each  word  is  derived  from  Lat.  vivo.  Sir  Thomas 
More  uses  the  singular  {viande)  ;  see  Richardson. 

7.  in  that  unopocryphall  vision.     See  Acts  x.  9-16. 

CI.  naughty —  Wu  of  naught,  good  for  nothing.  See  Shakspere, /asi/m, 
as  Merchant  of  Venice,  v.  i.  91.     So  'naughty  figs,'  Jeremiah  xxiv.  2, 

14.  concoction.  See  'concoct'  in  Paradise  Lost,  v.  412,  and  '  concoctive 
heat,'  ib.  437. 

20.  Selden  was  born  1584,  died  1654.  His  life  has  been  written  by 
Wilkins  (1726),  Aikin  (1773),  and  Johnson  (1835).  See  also  Hallani's 
Literature  of  Europe,  iii.  334,  &c. ;  Constitutional  History,  &c.  He  was 
*  now  sitting  in  Parliament'  for  Oxford  University. 

whose  volume  0/  naturall  and  national  laws,  &:c.  =  his  De  Jure  Naturali 
et  Gentium  juxta  Disciplinam  Ebraeorum,  published  in  1640.  See  Hallam's 
Literature  of  Europe,  1.  c.  Hallam  speaks  of  the  'superb  display  of  erudition, 
especially  oriental,'  with  which  his  work  is  illustrated,  of  his  'unparalleled 
stoies  of  erudition,'  &c.  The  words  Milton  particularly  refers  to  are  perhaps 
these  on  p.  2  of  the  164I  edition  of  the  work.  He  insists  that  men  should 
collect  all  opinions,  however  discrepant  with  their  own,  and  this  '  non  sine 
causis  certe  gravissimis.  Nam  non  sua  modo  <;ic  auxiliaribus  suffragiis  hand 
parum  firmant  sed  et  insuper  adversa  refellendi,  obsciiriores  quae  suas  dissi- 
dentesque  scntentias  intermeant  confiniorym  ipsissimas  lineas  detegendi 
designandique  .  .  .  ansam  commodius  arripiunt.'  Milton  again  quotes  the 
work  in  his  Doctrine  and  Discipline  of  Divorce,  speaking  of  it  there  as  '  that 
noble  volume  written  by  our  learned  Selden  ...  a  work  more  useful  and 
more  worthy  to  be  perused  by  whosoever  studies  to  be  a  great  man  in 
wisdom  than  all  those  decretals  and  sumless  sums  which  the  pontifical  clerks 
have  doted  on.' 

22.  exquisite  =  c'AreM\y  sought  out,  as  in  Latin;  thus.  *  exrjuisitis  rati* 
onibus  confirniare,'  Cicero,  De  Finibus,  i.  9.  30. 

theorems.  We  conimo:ily  use  'theory'  with  this  meaning;  but  strictly 
•theory'  is  abstract,  'theorem'  is  concrete,  as  in  Euclid.  Cp.  '  telegraphy* 
and  '  telegram,'  &c.     We  use  *  speculation  *  in  both  senses. 

[24.  Explain  collated.'] 

37.  saving  ever  the  rules  0/  temfierance.     See  Paradise  Lost,  xi.  530-538: 
*  There  is,  said  Michael,  if  thou  well  observe 
The  rule  of  not  too  much,  by  temperance  taught 
In  what  thou  eatest  and  drinkest,  seeking  from  thence 
Due  nourishment,  not  gluttonous  delight,'  &c. 


94  AREOPAGITICA,  [P.  17. 

29.  repasting.     See  Hamlet,  iv.  5.  145-148: 

'To  his  good  friends  thus  wide  I'll  ope  my  arms; 
And  like  the  kind  life-rendering  pelican 
Repast  them  with  my  blood.' 
Pope's  Homer,  xxiv : 

'  And  now  they  reach'd  the  naval  walls,  and  found 
The  guards  repasting,  while  the  bowls  go  round.* 
{apud  Richardson  s.  v.) 

31.  How  great  a  verliie,  &c.  It  was  one  of  the  four  cardinal  virtues. 
(See  Piers  Plowman,  Prol.  104,  Clar.  Press  ed.) 

P.  17.  2.  c?emffflnoKr  =  management.  The  ultimate  stem  of  demean  is 
the  Lat.  minare. 

[3.  Explain  tabrd  here.] 

4.  Omer.  See  Exodus  xvi.  The  onter  is  mentioned  only  in  Exodus. 
(The  homer — a  much  larger  measure — several  times  in  the  Bible,  as  Leviticus 
xxvii.  16,  &c.)  Its  absolute  value  is  given  by  Josephus  as  .8669  gall,,  by 
the  Rabbinists  as  .4428  gall.     See  Smith's  Bible  Diet. 

7.  which  enter  into  a  man,  &c.     See  Matthew  xv.  17-20;    Mark  vii. 

14-23- 

10.  to  be  his  own  chooser.     See  Paradise  Lost,  iii.  97-99: 
*  Ingrate,  he  had  of  me 
All  he  could  have.     I  made  him  just  and  right. 
Sufficient  to  have  stood,  through  free  to  fall.* 

14.  that  much  reading,  &c.     See  Ecclesiastes  xii.  12. 

19.  As  for  the  burning,  &c.  See  Acts  xix.  19;  Conybeare  and  Howson's 
Life  and  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  People's  Edition,  ii.  I3-I7'  See  also  Smith's 
Diet,  of  Biog.,  s.  n.  Alexander  of  Tralles. 

[25.  Explain  practiz'd  the  booksi] 

31.  those  confused  seeds,  &c.  See  the  story  of  Cupid  and  Psyche  in  The 
Golden  Ass  of  Apuleius,  books  iv-vi.  Psyche  has  fallen  into  the  hands  of 
Venus,  who  is  wroth  with  her  for  having  won  the  love  of  her  son  Cupid, 
and  afflicts  her  grievously.  She  bids  Anxiety  and  Sorrow  scourge  and 
torment  her.  After  further  abuse,  Venus  '  flew  upon  her,  tore  her  clothes 
in  a  great  many  places,  pulled  out  her  hair,  shook  her  by  the  head,  and 
grievously  maltreated  her.  Then  taking  wheat,  barley,  millet,  poppy,  vetches, 
lentils  and  beans,  and  mixing  them  altogether  in  one  heap,  she  said  to  her : 
"  You  seem  to  me,  such  an  ugly  slave  as  you  now  are,  to  be  likely  to  gain 
lovers  in  no  other  way  than  by  diligent  drudgery.  I  will  therefore  myself, 
for  once,  make  trial  of  your  industrious  habits.  Take  and  separate  this 
promiscuous  mass  of  seeds,  and  having  properly  placed  each  grain  in  its 
place,  and  so  sorted  the  whole,  give  me  proof  of  your  expedition  by  finishing 
the  task  before  evening."  Then  having  delivered  over  to  hpr  the  vast  heap 
of  seeds,  she  at  once  took  her  departure  for  a  nuptial  banquet.  But  Psyche, 
astounded  at  the  stupendous  task,  sat  silent  and  stupefied,  and  did  not  move 
a  hand  to  the  confused  and  inextricable  mass.     Just  then  a  tiny  ant,  one  of 


p.  i8.]  NOTES.  95 

the  inhabitants  of  the  fields,  became  aware  of  this  prodigious  difficulty, 
and  pitying  the  distress  of  the  partner  of  the  mighty  god,  and  execrating 
the  mother-in-law's  cruelty,  it  ran  busily  about  and  summoned  together  the 
whole  tribe  of  ants  in  the  neighbourhood,  crying  to  them,  "  Take  pity 
on  her,  ye  active  children  of  the  all-producing  earth.  Take  pity,  and  make 
haste  to  help  the  wife  of  Love,  a  pretty  damsel,  who  is  now  in  a  perilous 
situation."  Immediately  the  six-footed  people  came  rushing  in  whole 
waves,  one  upon  another,  and  with  the  greatest  diligence  separated  the 
whole  heap,  grain  by  grain.  Then  having  assorted  the  various  kinds  into 
different  heaps,  they  vanished  forthwith.  At  night-fall  Venus  returned  home 
from  the  nuptial  banquet,  exhilarated  with  wine,  fragrant  with  balsams,  and 
having  her  waist  encircled  with  blooming  roses.  As  soon  as  she  saw  with 
what  marvellous  expedition  the  task  had  been  executed,  "  This  is  no  work 
of  your  hands,  wicked  creature,"  she  said,  "but  his  whom  you  have  charmed, 
to  your  sorrow  and  his,"  and  throwing  her  a  piece  of  coarse  bread,  she  went 
to  bed.'     (Bohn's  Glass.  Lib.,  Apuleius,  p.  Il6.) 

P.  18.  I.  sort  asw«Jer  =  arrange  in  sorts  or  classes. 

2.  from  out  the  ruide,  &c.  See  Genesis  iii.  5,  and  22;  Paradise  Lost, 
780-101 I. 

5.  that  doom,  &c.     See  Genesis  ii.  16,  17. 

11.  Notice  the  emphasis  given  by  the  triple  repetition  o^  and  yet. 

12.  the  true  warfaring  Christian.  In  the  edition  of  1 644  the  reading  is 
wayfaring.  *  Baron,'  says  Holt  White,  '  who  saw  the  quarto  edition  of  the 
prose  works  through  the  press,  unwarrantably  changed  "  wayfaring "  into 
"warfaring."  There  was  no  need  of  emendation — "  wayfaring"  is  in  oppo- 
sition to  "cloister'd."  It  is  beside  more  consonant  to  Scripture,  and  therefore 
more  likely  to  have  come  from  Milton:  "The  wayfaring  men,  though  fools, 
shall  not  err  therein."  Isaiah  ch.  35.  v.  8.'  But  (i)  there  is  some 
warrant  for  the  change,  as  I  can  show,  whether  Baron  knew  it  or  not ;  and 
(2)  the  change  is  certainly  an  improvement.  The  warrant  is  to  be  found  in 
a  copy  of  the  Areopagitica  presented  by  Milton  himself  to  one  Thomason 
('ex  dono  Authoris'  is  written  in  Thomason's  hand  on  the  title-page),  now 
preserved  in  the  British  Museum  (Press-mark  182  E  18),  where  the  'y' 
is  crossed  out  and  'r'  written  above,  credibly  by  the  author  himself.  See 
The  Athenceum  for  Oct.  11,  1873.  That  the  change  is  an  improvement 
the  context,  I  think,  makes  clear.  Wayfaring  is  not  an  adequate  word 
for  the  occasion.  It  does  not  imply  such  activity  and  resistance  as  the  con- 
text demands.  More  than  mere  movement  must  be  expressed.  It  is  of  the 
Christian  militant  and  struggling  that  Milton  speaks.  Cp.  Bishop  Hall's  Con- 
templations, Gideon's  Preparation  and  Victory  :  ♦  How  many  make  a  glorious 
show  in  the  warfaring  church  which  when  they  shall  see  danger  of  persecu- 
tion shall  shrink  from  the  standard  of  God  V  Hooker  also  has  the  word, 
Ecclesiastical  Polity,  viii ;  see  Richardson. 

13.  I  cannot  praise,  &c.  Cp.  what  Cicero  says  of  oratory,  De  Oratore, 
1.  34.  157:  'Educenda  deinde  dictio  est  ex  hac  domestica  exercitatione  et 


g6  AREOPAGITICA.  [P.  i8. 

iimbratili  medium  in  agmen,  in  pulverem,  in  clamorem,  in  castra  atque  aciem 
forensem.' 

16.  that  iviinortall  garland.  That  =  that  famous  ;  so  Lat.  ille,  as  Cicero, 
de  Oratore,  ii.  14.  58:  'Xenophon,  Sokraticus  ille,'  &c.;  and  Greek  Ikuuos, 
as  Homer,  Iliad,  xxiv.  90 : 

TtTTTf  /X6  Kcivo^  dvcaye  /xiyas  Oeos ; 
not  without  dust  and  heat.     Compare  Horace,  Ad  Pisones,  412-413: 
*  Q^ii  cupit  optatam  cursu  contingere  metam, 
Multa  tulit  fecitque  puer,  sudavit  et  alsit.' 

23.  a  blanl-  vertue  =  ?i  colourless,  neutral,  ineffectual  thing. 

24.  hut  an  excrementall  tvhiteness  =  is  but  superficial,  not  essential,  only 
•skin-deep.'  (Mr.  Lobb.)  A  mere  outgrowth.  Excretnent  =  excr€sctnce  = 
an  outgrowth.  See  Comedy  of  Errors,  ii.  2.  79  :  '  Why  is  Time  such  a 
niggard  of  hair,  being,  as  it  is,  so  plentiful  an  excreinentl^  &c.  So  'my 
pedlar's  excrement'  (  =  my  pedlar's  beard)  in  Winter's  Tale,  iv.  4.  733. 
See  Nares'  Glossary. 

25.  our  sage  and  serious  Poet  Spencer,  &c.  Milton  told  Drydcn  that 
Spenser  was  his  *  original.'  (See  Dryden's  Fables,  Preface.)  Without 
any  such  confession,  it  would  have  been  evident  from  Milton's  earlier 
works  how  great  was  the  influence  of  Spenser  over  his  youthful  mind.  To 
say  nothing  of  numerous  Spenserian  echoes  that  may  be  detected,  it  is  to 
the  Faerie  Qiieene  that  he  especially  alludes  in  II  Penseroso  after  his  mention 
of  the  Squire's  Tale  of  Chaucer : 

'  If  aught  else  great  bards  beside 

In  sage  and  solemn   tunes  have  sung 

Of  turneys  and  of  trophies  hung. 

Of  fores' s  and  enchantments  drear, 

Where  more  is  meant  than  meets  the  ear.* 
He  quotes  at  length  from  the  fifth  book  of  the  Shepherd's  Calendar  in  his 
Animadversions    upon   the   Remonstrant's   Defence,  &c, :    '  Let  the   novice 
learn  first   to  renounce  the  world,  and    so  give  himself   to  God,  and    not 
therefore  give  himself  to  God  that  he  may  close  the  better  with  the  world, 
like  that  false  Palinode  in  the  Eclogue  of  May,  under  whom  the  poet  lively 
personates  our  prelates,  whose  whole  Hfe  is  a  recantation  of  their  pastoral 
vow,  and  whose  profession  to  forsake  the  world,  as  they  use  the  matter, 
bogs  them  deeper   into    the  world.     Those  our  admired    Spenser    inveighs 
against,  not  without  some  presage  of  these  reforming  times: 
'  The  time  was  once  and  may  again  return 
(For  oft  may  happen  that  hath  been  beforn),'  &c. 

26.  a  better  teacher,  &c.     Cp.  Horace,  Epistles,  i.  2.  3,  4,  of  Homer 

*  Qui  quid  sit  pulchrum,  quid  turpe,  quid  utile,  quid  non, 
Planius  ac  melius  Chrysippo  et  Crantore  dicit.' 
Scotus  —  John  Duns  Scotus,  the  famous  schoolman,  whose  second  name  has 
to  unfairly  acquired  the  sense  of  dullard,  born  circ.  1 265,  died  at  Cologne 


p.  19.]  NOTFS.  97 

1308.     Be  sure  not  to  confound  him,  as  is  sometimes  done,  with  Johannes 
Scotus  Erigena  of  the  ninth  century. 

27.  Aquinas.  'The  Angelic  Doctor,'  the  'Angel  of  the  Schools,'  born 
circ.  1224,  died  1274.  On  certain  radical  questions  of  thought  his  views 
were  exactly  opposed  to  those  presently  urged  by  Scotus.  See  Butler's 
Hudibras,  i.  151,  ed.  Zachary  Grey: 

*  In  school  divinity  as  able 
As  he  that  hight  Irrefragable ; 
A  second   Thomas,  or  at  once, 
To  name  them  all,   another  Dunce, 
Profound  in  all  the  nominal 
And  real  ways,  beyond  them  all ; 
For  he  a  rope  of  sand  could  twist 
As  tough  as  learned  Sorbonist ; 
And  weave  tine  cobwebs  fit  for  skull 
That 's  empty  when  the  moon  is  full ; 
Such  as  take  lodgings  in  a  head 
That 's  to  be  let  unfurnished.' 

28.  Guion.     See  Faerie  Queene,  ii. 

with  his  palmer.  The  Palmer  was  not  with  him  in  the  Cave  of  Mam- 
mon; see  ii,  8.  3.     For  a  description  of  the  Palmer  see  ii.  I.  7. 

29.  the  Cave  of  Mammon.     See  ii.  7.  26-66. 
the  Bower  of  Earthly  Bliss.     See  ii.  12. 

P.  19.  2.  scout  is  from  Old  Fr.  escotiter ^Lzt.  auscultare.     Paradise  Lost, 

ii.  131: —  'Oft  on  the  bordering  Deep 

Encamp  their  legions,  or  with  obscure  wing 
Scout  far  and  wide  into  the  realm  of  night 
Scorning  surprise.' 

For  the  noun  see  Paradise  Lost,  iii.  543-554.     In  Comus  1 38  the  Morning  is 

described  as  '  the  babbling  eastern  scout.'     Scout,  to  reject  with  disdain,  is 

a  quite  different  word. 

4.  tractat.     The  Latin  word  is '  Classical'  in  this  sense,  as  Pliny,  xiv.  4.  5  : 

'Separatim  toto  tractatu  sentenlia  ejus  judicanda  est.'     Our  tract  is  a  mere 

abbreviation  of  tractate.      Treatite  comes  from  the  same  stem  through  the 

French. 

10.  \/or  that  of  times,  &c.     Illustrate  what  is  said  here.] 

11.  not  nicely  =  \n  a  plain-spoken  way,  without  mincing.  See  what  is 
said  of  God's  '  tart  rhetoric '  in  An  Apology  for  Smectymnuus.  On  nice  see 
Mr.  Jerram's  note  to  Par.  Reg.  iv.  157. 

12.  not  unelegantly,  i.e.  elaborately. 

it  brings  in  holiest  men,  &c.     See  the  book  of  Job. 

19.  Talmudest.  On  the  Babylonian  Talmud  see  Milman's  History  of  the 
Jews,  iii.  4-6,  On  both  Talmuds — the  '  Gemara '  of  Jerusalem,  as  well  as 
that  of  Babylon — see  Smith's  Bible  Diet.,  s.  v.  Talmud.  See  also  Literary 
Remains  of  Emanuel  Deutsch.     The  name  means  '  doctrine.* 


98  AREOPAGITICA,  [P.  19. 

what  ails,  &c.  *  What  is  the  matter  with,  or  the  character  of  the  modesty 
of  his  marginal  readings?'  &c.  So  The  Judgment  of  Martin  Bucer  concern- 
ing Divorce :  *  But  when  I  was  told  that  the  style  (which  n/hal  it  ails  to  be 
so  soon  distinguishable  I  cannot  tell),'  &c. 

1 7.  his  marginall  Keri,  Sec.  The  language  of  the  text  (Cheliv,  or  cethib 
=  written),  when  it  seemed  too  strong  or  plain,  was  glossed  in  the  margin, 
(^eri  — read) ;  see  An  Apology  for  Smectymnuiis,  where  is  discussed  the  out- 
spoken phraseology  of  Scripture.  (Works,  p.  84.)  Are  we  to  believe  '  that 
Jonathan  or  Onkelos  the  targumists  were  of  cleaner  language  than  he  that 
made  the  tongue  ?'  Mentioning  a  special  case,  and  remonstrating  against  any 
enfeebling  substitution,  he  continues  :  '  Whereas  God,  who  is  the  author  both 
of  purity  and  eloquence,  chose  this  phrase  as  fittest  in  that  vehement 
character  wherein  he  spake.  Otherwise  that  plain  word  might  easily 
have  been  forborn ;  which  the  masoreths  and  rabbinical  scholiasts,  not 
well  attending,  have  often  used  to  blur  the  margent  with  Keri  instead 
of  Ketiv,  and  gave  us  this  insulse  rule  out  of  their  Talmud,  "  That  all 
words  which  in  the  law  are  written  obscenely,  must  be  changed  to  more 
civil  words ;"  fools  who  would  teach  men  to  read  more  decently  than  God 
thought  good  to  write.  And  thus  I  take  it  to  be  manifest,  that  indignation 
against  men  and  their  actions  notoriously  bad  hath  leave  and  authority  oft- 
times  to  utter  such  words  and  phrases,  as  in  common  talk  were  not  mannerly 
to  use.  That  ye  may  know,  not  only  as  the  historian  speaks,  "  that  all 
those  things  for  which  men  plough,  build,  or  sail,  obey  virtue,"  but  that  all 
words,  and  whatsoever  may  be  spoken,  shall  at  some  time  in  an  unwonted 
manner  wait  upon  her  purposes.'  Holt  White  quotes  also  Defensio  Secunda : 
'  Non  Prophetarum  scripta  tuam  turpiculi  immo  nonnunquam  plane  obscaeni 
censuram  effugerint,  quoties  Masorethis  et  Rabinis  pro  eo  quod  diserte  scrip- 
tum  est  suum  libet  Keri  adscribere.  Ad  me  quod  attinet  fateor  malle  me 
cum  sacris  scriptoribus  evOvpprjfiova  quam  cum  futilibus  Rabinis  evffx'rjH'OPa 
esse.' 

22.  Clement  of  Alexandria.  See  Mosheim,  i.  52,  Of  the  Second  Century. 
His  Hortatory  Address  to  the  Greeks  (A070S  TrpoTpenTiKos  irpbs  tovs 
EX.?K7)vas)  dealt  with  the  impurities  of  polytheism. 

Etisebius,  born  circ.  264  in  Palestine,  died  circ.  340,  Besides  The  Evan- 
gelical Preparation  (Eua77eA.i«^s  aTroSe/^ecus  rrpoirapaaKevri),  the  work  here 
referred  to,  he  wrote  an  Ecclesiastical  History,  Life  of  Constantine,  The 
Chronicon,  &c.     See  Mosheim. 

[23.  Explain  transmitting  our  ears,  &c.] 

25.  Irenaeus,  chosen  bishop  of  Lyons  in  177.  All  his  works  are  lost 
except  that  against  Heresies,  which  is  preserved  in  a  Latin  version. 

Epipha?iius,  chosen  bishop  of  Salamis  in  Cyprus  in  367.  His  work  en- 
titled Panarium  was  written  against  all  the  heresies  that  were. 

26.  discover  =  uncover,  display,  exhibit,  as  Mer.  of  Ven.  ii.  6.  7. 

31.  ivrit.  This  form  of  the  preterite  is  probably  due  to  the  tendency  to 
assimilate  perfect  and  past-participial  forms,  assisted  by  the  fact  that  the  plural 


p.    20.] 


NOTES, 


99 


form  of  certain  verbs  contained  the  vowel  of  the  past-participle.  Thus  the 
pi.  pret.  of  write  was  writen.  See  Morris  and  Skeat's  Specimens,  vol.  ii. 
p.  xxxiii.  (The  A.-S.  pret.  is  wrat?)  So  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries  we  find  driv  =  drove,  smit  =  smote,  rid  —  rode,  ris  =  rose ;  see 
Morris's  English  Accidence,  p.  165. 

P.  20.  3.  cri//c/sws  =  refinements,  niceties,  '  elegantiae,*  &c. ;  the  sins 
which  a  critic  accomplished  in  that  line  would  select  as  choice  and  laudable. 
So  criticism  here  =  not  a  judgment  or  sentence,  but  that  which  is  selected  by 
a  judgment.  Cp.  Tacitus'  'erudito  luxu'  of  Petronius,  and  the  quotation  in 
the  following  note. 

4.  Petronius,  died  by  'necessity*  in  66.  See  Tacitus,  Annals,  xvi.  18,  19  : 
'Inter  paucos  familiarium  Neroni  adsumptus  est,  elegantiae  arbiter,  dum  nihil 
amoenum  et  moUe  adfluentia  putat  nisi  quod  ei  Petronius  adprobavisset.' 

the  Master  of  his  Revels.  This  was  an  official  title  in  Tudor  England, 
See  Collier's  History  of  English  Dramatic  Poetry. 

.  5.  That  notorious  ribald  of  Arezzo  =  Aretino,  I /[^g2-j;^^J.  See  Roscoe's 
Leo  the  Tenth,  ii.  271-6:  'The  life  of  Aretino  may  be  denominated  the 
triumph  of  effrontery.'  See  Milton's  Commonplace  Book,  published  by  the 
Camden  Society. 

ribald,  Fr.  ribaud.  It.  ribaldo,  is  derived  ultimately  from  an  old  Germ, 
word  meaning  a  prostitute,  with  the  suffix  aid;  see  Diez's  Rom.  Lexicon. 
For  the  medieval  use  of  the  word  Diez  quotes  from  Matthew  Paris :  *  fures, 
exules,  fugitivi,  excommunicati,  quos  omnes  ribaldos  Francia  vulgariter  con- 
suevit  appellare.' 

dreaded,  &c.  The  pungency  of  his  satires  made  him  formidable  to  the 
objects  of  them,  as  it  also  made  them  intensely  popular  with  the  general 
reader.  Sometimes  he  was  bribed  into  silence ;  once  or  twice  soundly  flogged. 

7.  for  posterities  sake.  This  would  seem  to  mean  that  some  known  de- 
scendants of  Skelton  or  of  Wolsey  were  living  when  Milton  wrote.  Skelton 
was  of  a  Cumberland  family;    see  Fuller's  Worthies,  i.  346. 

whom  Harry  the  8.,  &c.  perhaps  =  Skelton  of  Diss  in  Norfolk.  See  note 
on  p.  d.  of  Mr.  Lobb's  Areopagitica.  Diss  was  'in  merriment'  identified 
with  Dis,  the  god  of  the  infernal  regions,  and  the  god's  name  used  for 
those  regions  themselves.  It  is  perhaps  scarcely  worth  noticing  that 
Skelton  was  Rector,  not  Vicar  of  Diss.  Diss  is  often  spelt  with  one  s,  as 
by  Fuller.  Skelton  was  at  one  time  tutor  to  Prince  Harry.  See  Warton's 
History  of  English  Poetry,  ii.  489-513,  &c.,  ed.  1840  ;  also  Fuller's  Worthies, 
ii.  461,  462,  ed.  1840.  Erasmus  gives  Skelton  a  very  diflTerent  title,  in 
a  letter  to  Henry  the  Eighth,  styling  him  '  Britannicarnm  literarum  lumen  et 
decus.'  By  the  '  Vicar  of  Hell '  others  have  supposed  Wolsey  was  meant 
(see  Lord  Herbert's  Henry  the  Eighth  :  *  Briefly,  to  use  Polydore's  words,  he 
made  his  private  house  "  Voluptatum  omnium  sacrarium  quo  regem  frequenter 
ducebat"');  others  Thomas  Cromwell;  others  Andrew  Borde;  others  one. 
Gray,  a  maker  of '  ccrtaine  merry  ballades.'  The  phrase  itself  is  obviously 
A  travesty  of  the  Pope's  title  of  *  Vicar  of  Christ.' 

H  2 


TOO  AREOPAGITICA.  [P.  20. 

9,  fore'ine.  There  should  be  no  g  in  the  word,  any  more  than  in  sovereign. 
The  Yr.forain  is  from  the  Lzt./oraneus. 

10.  an  Indian  voyage.  The  'overland'  route  to  India  under  such  con- 
ditions as  controlled  it  in  the  seventeenth  century  was  excessively  protracted 
and  tedious.  It  was  beheved  that  some  much  shorter  route  might  be  dis- 
covered by  sea,  either  by  a  North-East  or  a  North-West  passage.  See 
I'ar,ulise  Lost,  x.  2S9  : 

♦  As  when  two  polar  winds,  blowing  adverse 
Upon  the  Ciouian  sea,  together  drive 
Mountains  of  ice  that  stop  the  imagined  way 
Beyond  Petsora  eastward  to  the  rich 
Cathaian  coast.' 

Where  the  Cronian=the  Northern,  the  Arctic  Sea,  and  Petsora  is  the  most 
N.W.  province  of  Muscovy. 

1 2.  Cataio  =  Cathay,  a  province  of  Tartary,  the  ancient  seat  of  the  Chams. 
See  Paradise  Lost,  xi.  3S8  ;  see  also  Milton's  Brief  History  of  Muscovy, 
chap,  iii,  Of  Tingoesia  and  the  Countries  adjoining  eastward  as  far  as 
Cathay  ;  Maundevile's  Voiage  and  Travaile,  chap,  xx  ;  Marco  Polo's  Travels, 
Book  ii ;  Smith's  Gibbon,  viii.  10.  n.  From  the  bad  character  given  the 
inhabitants  by  travellers,  Cataian  =  chezt,  sharper,  as  Merry  Wives,  ii.  1,  &c. 
See  Nares'  Gloss. 

by  Canada  Westward.  The  discovery  of  a  North-West  passage,  or  passages, 
has,  as  is  well  known,  been  made  in  our  own  time.  Whether  it  is  of  any 
great  value,  except  as  promoting  geographical  science,  may  perh.^ps  be 
doubted.  For  a  brief  general  account  of  efforts  towards  this  discovery, 
and  of  the  achievement  of  it,  see  Milner's  Gallery  of  Geography,  Introd. 
chap,  v,  North-Eastern,  North-Western,  and  North-Polar  Voyages.  See  also 
Lardner's  Cab.  Cycl  ,  History  of  Maritime  and  Inland  Discovery,  ii.  136-203  ; 
Hakluyt  Society's  Narratives  of  Voyages  towards  the  N.W.  in  search  of  a 
passage  to  Cathay  and  India  1 496- 1 63 1,  ed.  T.  Randall. 

[13.  Explain  our  Spattish  licencing.] 

15.  doubtful  =  ^ezT^\i\.     Cp.  King  John,  iv.  I.  130: 

♦  And,  pretty  child,  sleep  doubtless  and  secure,' 
&c.     Halliwell,  in  his  edition  of  Nares'  Glossary,  quotes  from  Beaumont  and 
Fletcher : 

•  I'll  tell  ye  all  my  fears :    one  single  valour, 
The  vertues  of  the  valiant  Caratach 
More  doubts  me  than  all  Britain.' 

17.  permitted  =  \t\  pass. 

22.  as  the  Prophesie  of  Isaiah,  &c.     See  Acts  viii.  30. 

25.  Sorbonists  =  xht  scholars  of  the  Sorbonne,  the  great  theological  school 
of  Paris,  founded  in  1252  by  Robert  de  Sorbon.  confessor  and  chaplain  to 
Louis  IX,  •  This  institution,  the  teachers  in  which  were  always  doctors  and 
professors  of  theology,  acquired  so  much  fame  that  its  name  was  extended  to 
the  whole  theological  faculty  of  the  university  of  Paris,  which  was  called  till 
thf  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  Sorbonne.     Its  opinions  and  decrees  had  a 


p.  21.]  NOTES,  lOI 

decided  influence  upon  the  character  of  Catholicism  in  France,*  &c.  (Pop. 
Encycl.,  s.  v.  Sorbonne.)  The  building  had  been  splendidly  restored,  oi 
rather  a  new  building  had  been  raised,  by  Richelieu  some  twenty-five  years 
before  Milton  wrote  the  Areopagitica.  *  It  is  now  the  seat  of  three  of  the  five 
Faculties  of  the  Academy  of  Paris,  Theology,  Sciences  and  Letters,'  &c. ;  see 
Murray's  Handbook  of  Paris,  &c.  Milton  mentions  the  Sorbonists  again  in 
his  Defence  of  the  People  of  England,  chap,  xiv  :  '  Finding  yourself  destitute 
of  any  assistance  or  help  from  orthodox  Protestant  divines,  you  have  the 
impudence  to  betake  yourself  to  the  Sorbonists,  whose  college  you  know 
is  devoted  to  the  Romish  religion,  and  consequently  but  of  very  weak 
authority  amongst  Protestants,'  &c.  The  reading  in  Butler's  Hudibras  in 
all  editions  till  1704  in  i.  I.  158-9  was — 

♦  For  he  a  rope  of  sand  could  twist 
As  tough  as  learned  Sorbonist* 
and  how  fast,  8cc.     Cp.  Lycidas,  12S-9: 

'  Beside  what  the  grim  wolf  with  privy  paw 
Daily  devours  apace,  and  nothing  said.' 

28,  distinct,  not  =  distinguished,  but  rather  clear-headed,  definite,  decided, 
Arnwiius,  or  Harmensen,  1 560-1609.     The  change  in  his  views  alluded 

to  in  the  text  took  place  after  he  had  settled  at  Amsterdam  in  1588.  See 
Mosheim,  ii.  242,  261  ;  Hallam's  Constitutional  Hist,  of  England,  chap,  vi,  &c. 

29.  perverted.  What  favour  Arminianism  had  in  Milton's  time  found  in 
this  country,  it  had  found  with  Laud  and  the  High  Church  party.  -The 
anti-Episcopalians  were  for  the  most  part  staunchly  Calvinistic.  Hence  per- 
verted, not  converted.  The  Liit.  perver/ere  —  to  overturn,  destroy,  corrupt; 
as  Tacitus,  Ann.  xiii.  45 :  '  OUium  honoribus  nondum  functum  amicitia 
Sejani  pervertit'  &c. 

a  namelesse  discours.  '  A  ce  moment  [just  when  he  became  Professor  of 
Theology  at  Leyden]  il  fut  charge  par  Martin  Lydius,  prnfesseur  de  th»'^ologie 
h  Franeken,  de  defendre  la  doctrine  de  Tlit'-odore  de  Beze  sur  la  predestina- 
tion, qui  etait  attaquce  par  les  ministres  de  Delft.  Arminius  examina 
I'ouvrage  des  nn'nistres,  Ic  compara  au  systeme  de  Calvin  et  de  Boze,  balan^a 
les  raisons  de  pirt  et  d'autre,  et  finit  par  adopter  les  sentiments  qu'il  s'etait 
propose  de  combattre.  II  manifesta  scs  opinions  dans  ses  theses  du  7  fevrier, 
1614.'     (Nouvelle  Biog.  Univ.) 

natneless  =  3inonymo\is. 

F.  21.  I.  [ExpWxn  of  either  sort."] 

8.  beyond  prohibiting  is  grammatically  co-ordinate  with  without  rvriting. 

9.  cantelous  is  from  Lat.  cautela,  a  '  post-class.'  word.  Shakspere  has 
the  word  twice.  Cor.  iv.  i,  33,  and  Jul.  Cues.  ii.  I.  129.  For  other  Eliza- 
bethan instances,  see  N.ires.  The  noun  occurs  in  Hamlet  in  the  sense  ol 
deceit;  1.3    14-16:  *  Pcrha[is  he  loves  you  now. 

And   now  no  soil  nor  cautel  doth   besmirch 
The  virtue  of  his  will.' 
So  'cautels  and  subtelties'  in  Berncrs'  Froissart,  a[ud  Richardson. 

H.  the  exploit  of  that  gallant  man,  &c.     Cp.  the  story  of  the  inhabitants 


I02  AREOPAGITICA,  [P.  22. 

of  Borrowdale  in  Harriet  Martineau's  Complete  Guide  to  the  English  Lakes, 
how  they  '  determined  to  build  a  wall  to  keep  in  the  cuckoo,  and  make  the 
spring  last  for  ever.'  The  wail  was  built,  but  was  a  failure  '  because  it  was 
not  built  one  course  higher.'  * 

1 3.  pound  is  from  the  A.-S.  pyndan,  to  shut  in ;  pen  is  in  fact  the  same 
word.     Pound,  a  weight,  is  of  quite  different  origin. 

19.  7i«corrz//>/5(fness  =  incorruptibility.  Cp.  '  unreproved,'  L'Allegro,  40, 
&c. ;  so  the  Lat.  invictus.  Sec. 

29.  Aristotle.  See  Ethics,  i.  3  :  'Now  each  individual  judges  well  of  what 
he  knows,  and  of  these  he  is  a  good  judge.  In  each  particular  science, 
therefore,  he  is  a  good  judge  who  has  been  instructed  in  them ;  and  uni- 
versally, he  who  has  been  instructed  in  all  subjects.'  Therefore  a  young 
man  is  not  a  proper  person  to  study  political  science,  for  he  is  inexperienced 
in  the  actions  of  life ;  but  these  are  the  subjects  and  grounds  of  this  treatise. 
Moreover,  being  inclined  to  follow  the  dictates  of  passion,  he  will  listen  in 
vain,  and  without  benefit^  since  the  end  is  not  knowledge,  but  practice.  But 
it  makes  no  difference  whether  he  be  a  youth  in  age  or  a  novice  in  character, 
for  the  defect  arises  not  from  age,  but  from  his  life  and  pursuits  being  accor- 
ding to  the  dictates  of  passion ;  for  to  such  persons  knowledge  becomes 
useless,  as  it  does  to  the  incontinent ;  but  to  those  who  regulate  their  appe- 
tites and  actions  according  to  reason,  the  knowledge  of  these  subjects  must 
be  very  beneficial.'     (Browne.) 

30.  Salomon.     See  Prov.  xvii.  7,  xxvi.  5,  &c. 
otir  Saviour.     See  Matt.  vii.  6. 

[33.  What  is  meant  by  idle  pamphlet  9'] 

P.  22.  I.  we  must  not  expose,  &c.  ♦  Trial  will  come  unsought.'  Paradise 
Lost,  ix.  366. 

8.  want  =  he  without,  as  not  uncommonly  in  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries;  thus  Tempest,  iii.  I,  when  Ferdinand  asks  Miranda  why  she 
weeps,  she  answers  (77-79) : 

'  At  mine  unworthiness,  that  dare  not  offer 
What  I  desire  to  give,  and  much  less  take 
What  I  shall  die  to  watit.' 
Sec.     We  still  speak  of  '  supplying  what  is  wanting.' 

10.  qualijie.     Cp.  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,  ii.  7-  21-23: 
♦  I  do  not  seek  to  quench  your  love's  hot  fire. 
But  qualify  the  fire's  extreme  rage. 
Lest  it  should  burn  above  the  bounds  of  reason/ 
23.  contrive  is  the  Fr.  controjiver. 
[What  is  the  grammatical  subject  o{ prevented  f^ 

14.  He  now  proceeds  to  Point  III,  see  p.  67. 

15.  prevented  =  anticipated,  fore-run,  &c. ;  Fr.  prevenir,  Lat,  praevenire. 
See  The  Bible  Word-book,  and  Trench's  Select  Glossary,  s.v.  The  transition 
of  meaning  from  fore-arriving  to  obstruction  is  well  illustrated  in  the  former 
work  from  Paradise  Lost,  vi.  129  : 


I 
I 


p.  32.]  NOTES,  103 

'  Half  way  he  met 
His  daring  foe,  at  this  prevention  more 
Incens'd.' 

16.  hath  bin  explaining.  Explaining  here  is  not  a  part,  but  a  verbal 
subs.,  what  is  called  in  Latin  grammars  a  'gerund.'  The  prep,  'governing' 
the  subst.  has  dropped  out.  The  full  phrase  would  be  '  hath  been  on  or  in 
explaining.'  Cp.  'while  the  ark  was  a  [=on]  preparing'  (i  Pet.  iii.  20), 
See  Longer  English  Poems,  pp.  228,  234;  also  Smith's  Marsh's  Lectures  on 
the  Eng.  Lang.,  pp.  462,  472  ;  Morris's  Eng.  Ace,  §  293.  In  some  cases, 
where  the  subject  is  not  an  inanimate  thing  but  a  living,  the  -ing  does 
represent  a  present  part.;  thus  'he  is  going '=  Old  Eng.  'he  is  gangende,' 
not  'he  is  on  gangung,'     See  Morris,  §  291  (3). 

l"/.  ingenuity  =  our  'ingenuousness,'  openness,  frankness  —  a  common 
Elizabethan  sense.  So  Locke  apud  Johnson  :  '  If  a  child  when  questioned  for 
anything  directly  confess,  you  must  commend  his  ingenuity  and  pardon  the 
fault,  be  it  what  it  will.* 
■  when  she  gets  a  free  and  willing  hand,  &c.  See  Bacon's  Adv.  of  Learning  : 
'  It  appeareth  also  that  logic  differeth  from  rhetoric  not  only  as  the  fist  from 
the  palm,  the  one  close,  the  other  at  large ;  but  much  more  in  this,  that  logic 
handleth  reason  exact  and  in  truth,  and  rhetoric  handleth  it  as  it  is  planted 
in  popular  opinions  and  manners.' 

19.  c?/sco«rs  =  reason.  Hamlet,  i.  2.  I49 :  'a  beast  that  wants  discourse 
0/ reason.'     lb.  iv.  4.  36-39  : 

*  Sure,  he  that  made  us  with  such  large  discourse. 

Looking  before  and  after,  gave  us  not 

That  capability  and  godlike  reason 

To  fust  in  us  unused.' 
See  Monboddo  on  'discursus  mentis'  and  '  Siavoia^  apud  Fleming's  Vocabulary 
of  Philosophy.     'Reasoning  (or  discourse;,'- says  Whately,  'is    the   act  of 
proceeding  from  certain  judgments  to  another  founded  on  them  (or  the  result 
of  them).*     (Logic,  ii.  i.  §  2.) 

20.  which  I  began  with.  So  the  prep,  was  usually  placed  in  Elizabethan 
English.  Cp.  Morris  and  Skeat's  Specimens,  ii.  p.  272,  1.  59,  1872.  Later 
in  the  seventeenth  century  it  became  common  to  prefix  it  to  the  rela- 
tive. The  diflFerence  in  this  matter  of  collocation  between  the  first  and 
the  second  editions  of  Dryden's  Essay  on  Dramatic  Poesy  has  been  often 
noticed. 

ai.  did  use.  The  modern  usage  as  to  this  form  of  the  preterite  began  to 
prevail  in  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century.  By  Pope's  time  it  was 
well  established ;  see  Essay  on  Criticism,  346,  &c. 

[24.  Explain  return  here.] 

30.  Plato.  On  this  'man  of  high  authority  indeeil'  let  the  English 
reader  consult  Grote  and  Jowett. 

31.  in  the  book  0/  his  laws  =  h\s  De  Legibus,  a  distinct  work  from  the 
De  Republica. 


I04  AREOPAGITICA.  [P.  23. 

33.  5«r^omaA7frs  =  town-rulers,  magistrates,  mayors,  provosts;  A.-S.  burh- 
gerefas.  See  the  word  in  the  general  sense  of  important  persons,  I  Henry  IV, 
ii.  I.  84.  Cp.  'third  borough,'  Taming  of  the  Shrew,  Induction.  Burgh  = 
bury,  borough,  Sec. ;  see  Taylor's  Words  and  Places.  The  root  is  found  in 
A.-S.  beorgati.  Germ,  bergen,  &c.,  to  protect.  Cp.  Sidney's  '  honest  burgesses 
of  Athens'  (Apol./or  Poelrie,  p.  21,  ed.  Arber). 

P.  23.  2.  an  Academick  nighl-silti!ig  =  a  .symposium  in  the  Academia. 
See  Paradise  Regained,  iv.  244  : 

'  See  there  the  olive-grove  of  Academe, 
Plato's  retirement,  where  the  Attic  bird 
Trills  her  thick- warbled  notes  the  summer  long.' 

3.  By  tvhich  laws,  &c.  See  De  Legibus,  vii.  pp.  810,  811  ;  Grote's  Plato, 
"'.  379-381. 

4.  but  by  unalterable  decree,  8cc.  The  language  is  elliptical  here.  The 
sense  seems  to  be :  He  tolerates  no  learning  but  that  which  he  fixes  by  un- 
alterable decree ;  and  this  learning,  so  fixed,  consists,  &c.  See  a  similar 
looseness  in  Pepys'  Diary,  p.  314,  Chandos  edhion  :  'Having  staid,  and 
in  an  hour's  time  seen  the  fire  rage  every  way,  and  nobody  to  my  sight 
endeavouring  to  quench  it  but  to  remove  their  goods  and  leave  all  to  the 
fire,'  &c. 

7.  that  no  Poet,  Blc.  M^/Se  riva  roX/nav  adav  ddoKifxov  /xovrrav  fx-q 
KpivavTOJV  Twv  vofJO(pvXdKa!v  jj.T]5'  av  rjdloov  17  rav  Qafitpov  re  Koi  'Opi^^eiajv 
vp.vS)v.     See  Jowett's  Plato,  iv.  315. 

9.  Law-heepers  —  i'opio(pvX.aKes. 

10.  /o  =  to  apply  to,  with  a  view  to,  &c. 

12.  Why  was  he  not  else,  &c.  Cp.  Milton's  Latin 'lines  De  Idea  Platonica 
quemadmodum  Aristoteles  intellexit,  35-39  • 

♦  At  tu,  perenne  ruris  Academi  decus, 
.Haec  monstra  si  tu  prinms  induxti  scholis, 
Jamjam  poetas,  urbis  exules  tuae, 
Revocabis,  ipse  fabulator  maximus : 
Aut  institutor  ipse  migrabis  foras.' 

14.  the  wanton  epigrams  and  dialogues.  The  dialogues  meant  probably 
are  the  Symposium  and  the  Phaedrus;  but,  if  so,  the  epithet  is  certainly  too 
violent  and  unsparing. 

15.  Sophron  Miiyius.  Sophron,  the  mime  writer,  flourished  in  Sicily  circ. 
460-420  B.C.  His  Fragments  are  collected  by  Ahrens,  in  his  De  Graecae  Lin- 
guae Dlalectis.  See  An  Apology  for  Smectymnuus :  '  Nor  yet  doth  he  tell  us 
what  a  mime  is,  whereof  we  have  no  pattern  from  ancient  writers,  except 
some  fragments,  which  contain  many  acute  and  wise  sentences.  And  this  we 
know  in  Laertius,  that  the  mimes  of  Sophron  were  of  such  reckoning  with 
Plato  as  to  take  them  nightly  to  read  on  and  after  make  them  his  pillow. 
Scaliger  describes  a  mime  to  be  a  poem  imitating  any  action  to  stir  up 
laughter.'  &c.     (Works,  p.  78.) 

16.  Aristophanes.     See  above,  p.  7. 


p.  24.]  NOTES.  105 

booh  of  grossest  ittfamy.  Certainly  there  are  some  indecent  passages  in 
Aristophanes'  works ;  but  as  certainly  there  are  passages  of  exquisite  beauty 
and  noble  tone.     He  is  anything  but  an  essentially  gross  writer. 

17.  for  commending  the  latter.  Sec,  See  above,  p.  7.  1 7-19.  Of  Plato's 
admiration  for  Aristophanes  there  can  be  no  doubt  ;  see  the  Symposium 
(translated  by  Shelley)  where  Aristophanes  is  introduced  in  person.  An  epi- 
gram attributed  to  Plato  runs  thus  : 

At  XdpiT€$,  T€fJ.iv6s  Ti  XaBeiv  onfp  ovxl  iTfaeiTai 
^rjTOvaai,  ipvxw  ^vpov  'kpLOro(pavovs. 

18.  the  malicious  libeller  of  his  chief  friends,  as  of  Sokrates  in  the  Clouds, 
of  Nikias  (see  Plato's  Laches)  in  the  Knights,  &c. 

19.  the  Tyrant  Dionysius.     See  above,  p.  7,  1.  18. 

20.  trash,  or  tronsse,  signified  clippings  of  trees.  See  Wedgwood,  who 
quotes  from  Robert  of  Gloucester,  552  : 

'  Gret  fur  he  made  ther  a  night  of  wode  and  sprai. 
And  tresche  ladde  ther  aboute  that  me  wide  sai.* 
i*j.  fell  7//;o;j  =  threw  themselves  upon,  addressed  themselves  vigoroiisly 
to,  adopted  and  enforced  with  rigour.      Cp.  'fall  to,*  as  I  Henry  VI,  iii.  1. 
89,  90 :    *  Nay,  if  we  be  forbidden  stones,    we'll  fall  to  it  with   our  teeth.' 
Measure  for  Measure,  i.  2.  3  :  ' .  .  .  why  then  all  the  dukes  fall  upon  the 
King,'  &c.     Cp.    Lat.    incnmhere,   as    '  incumbe    toto   peclore   ad   laudem,' 
Cicero,  Ad  Fam.  x.  10.  2  ;  Gcorgics,  i.  213,'  incumbere  aratris.' 
30.  to  shut  and  fort ifie,  &c.     Cp.  Sams.  Agon.  560-562  : 
•  What  boots  it  at  one  gate  to  make   defence, 
And  at  another  to  let  in  the  foe 
EfTeminalely   vanquished  ? ' 
P.  24.  2.  No  musich,  ike.     Plato  accepts  this  necessity  in  his  elaborately 
regulated  republic.     See  a  passage,  wliich  was  probably  in  Milton's  mind  as 
he  wrote  the  text,  viz.  Republic,  39S  C-399  E. 
3.  Dorick.     Paradise  Lost,  i.  549  -551  : 

*  Anon  they  move 
In  perfect  phalanx  to  the  Dorian  mood 
Of  flutes  and  soft  recorders.' 
The  Doric  was  the  style  of  military  music,  contrasting  with  the  soft  Lydian 
mode    (cp.    L'Allegro,    136)  and  the  harsh,  wild    I'iirygian.     See  Miiller's 
Dorians,  4.  6;  ^  Aajpiarl  dpfiovia,  Aristotle,  Politics,  viii.  5.  22;  Aristophanes, 
Kquites,  9S9  (where    observe    the    word-play);    Plato,   Republic,    399  A: 
Tivfs    ovv    /MiXaKai    re   Kal    avp-noTiKoX    twv   apixoviUjv  ;    'laari,  TfV  0'  6s, 
Kal  Avdiari,  aiTivts  \'aAapa£  KuKovvrai.     Tavrais  oZv,  a;  <f)l\e,  im  noke- 
fUKuJV  dvZpojv  ioO   6  ri  xpiiati  ;  Ovdaficjs,  ttfji]'  uWd  kipSvv fvfi  001  AwpitTTi 
Kuviadai  Kal  ^pvfiaTi.  k.t.K. 

6.  for  such  Plalo,  Sec.     See  Republic,  .^oo. 

8.  ail  the  lutes.  Sec.  Cp.  Plaio,  Republic,  399  C  :  Tpiyuvcov  apa  Kal 
VT]KTi5a>v  Kal  navTOJV  opydvcov,  oaa  iroKvxop^  ical  iro\vapn6vta,  dtjiuovpyovt 
cv  9pi\f/ofjLfv.  K.rJs.. 


Io6  AREOPAGITICA.  [P.  24. 

9.  gliittarrs.  The  Ital.  form  is  chitarra ;  the  original  word  is  Lat. 
cithara,  Gr.  KiOapa.  Amongst  the  Greeks  the  instrument  so  called  '  seems 
to  have  been  identical  with  the  <p6p/j.iy^,  and  can  have  differed  little  from 
the  \vpa.'     (Liddell  and  Scott.) 

10.  prattle  is  a  secondary  verb  from  prate.  Cp.  dab,  dapple;  drip  (drop), 
dribble,  &c. 

[How  would  you  parse  what  they  may  say  ?] 

11.  madrigalls.  The  first  part  of  the  word  is  said  to  be  Lat.  niandra 
(Martial,  v.  22;  Juvenal  uses  it  for  'a  herd,'  iii.  236:  ♦  stantis  convicia 
tnandrae')  ;  Gr.  fxavSpa,  a  fold,  byre,  pen,  stable;  Sophocles,  Fragments,  587. 
fxavSpais  €V  lirireiaiaiv ;  Theocritus,  iv.  61.  (In  Eccles.  Gr.  a  monastery; 
whence  Archimandrite.)  Spanish  forms  are  mandrial  and  mandrigal.  The 
-gal  is  said  to  be  connected  with  the  Teutonic  verb  galan  (A.-S.),  to  sing; 
cp.  nightingale.  So  the  word  would  properly  mean  a  herd  song,  a  pastoral 
song,  'hirtenlied'  (Diez),  '  chanson  de  berger ;'  but  it  came  to  be  used  in  a 
general  sense.     See  •  that  smooth  song  by  Kit  Marlowe  : ' 

•  There  will  we  sit  upon  the  rocks, 
And  see  the  shepherds  feed  their  flocks 
By  shallow  rivers,  by  whose  falls 
Melodious  birds  sing  madrigalls^ 

With  Mihon's  '  that  whisper  softnes  in  chambers,'  cp.  Dryden's  Art  of  Poetry: 

•  The  madrigal  may  softer  passions  move, 
And  breathe  the  tender  ecstacie  of  love.' 

(Apud  Richardson.)     See  Diez's  Lex.  Rom. 

13.  Balcone's.  Diez  holds  this  word  to  be  derived  from  a  Germ,  stem — 
the  stem  of  balken,  a  beam,  rafter.  The  -one  is  the  common  Ital.  -one,  as 
in  pallone,  and  in  our  balloon.  The  penult  is  long  with  Sherburne  (1618- 
1702),  and  with  Jenyns  (1704-87),  and  in  Cowper's  John  Gilpin  ;  Swift  has 
it  short.     See  Richardson. 

shrewd,  strictly  =  shrewish.  Cp.  the  double  sense  of  sharp,  &c.  Mid- 
summer Night's  Dream,  iii.  2,  323: 

•  O  when  she  *s  angry,  she  is  keen  and  shrewd.' 

14.  Frontispices.  This  is  the  correcter  orthography ;  the  vulgir  spelling 
is  due  to  an  erroneous  notion  that  the  latter  part  of  the  word  is  connected 
with  'piece;'  whereas  it  is  from  the  Lat.  specio.  (For  other  instances  of 
false  etymologies  corrupting  orthography,  see  Max  Miiller's  Lectures  on  the 
Science  of  Language,  second  series,  Lect.  xi,  &c.)  Frontispicium  properly  = 
the  front-look ;  in  architecture,  a  house-front.  See  Paradise  Lost,  iii. 
506-7 :  '  The  work  as  of  a  kingly  palace-gate 

With  frontispice  of  diamond  and  gold 
Embellished.' 
16.  visitors.    Cp.  the  use  of  this  word  at  the  Universities  ;  also  visitation, 
as  Isaiah  x.  3,  &c. ;  visit,  Exod.  xx.  5,  &c.     Visitant  seems  rather  to  have 
been    used   in   our  sense  of  visitor ;    thus,   *  the  great  visitant,'  Paradise 
Lost.  xi.  225. 


p.  24.]  NOTES.  107 

lectures  =  readings.  The  word  was  used  specially  of  the  Sunday  afternoon 
discourses  of  Puritan  preachers. 

17.  the  bagpipe,  now  happily  almost  confined  to  the  North  parts  of  this 
island,  once  pervaded  the  South  also.  See  Chaucer's  Prologue  (568-9), 
of  the  'Mellere:' 

'  A  haggepipe  cowde  he  blowe  and  sowne, 
And  therwithal  he  brought  us  out  of  towne.' 
See  Chappell's  Popular  Music  of  the  Olden  Time. 

rebbech.  '  An  instrument  of  music,  having  cat-gut  strings  and  played  with 
a  bow ;  but  originally  with  only  two  strings,  then  with  three,  till  it  was 
exalted  into  the  more  perfect  violin  with  four  strings.  It  is  thought  to  be 
the  same  with  ribible,  being  a  Moorish  instrument,  and  in  that  language 
called  rebeb.  Thence  it  passed  into  Italy,  where  it  became  ribeca,  ox 
ribeba,  whence  our  English  word.  See  Hawkins's  History  of  Music,  vol.  ii. 
p.  96,  note.'  (Nares.)  See  also  Chappell's  Popular  Music.  Du  Cange, 
S.  V.  Baudosa,  quotes  from  one  Aimericus : 

•  Quidam  rebecam  arcuabant, 
Muliebrem  vocem  confingentes.* 
L'Allegro,  91  :  'the  jocund  rebecks,'  &c. 

ev'n  to,  &c,,  i.  e.  even  down  to,  even  as  low  as,  &c. 

18.  6a//a/ry  =  balladry.  The  -ry  has  a  collective  force,  as  in  yeomanry, 
cavalry,  peasantry,  &c.  See  note  on  trashtrie  in  Longer  English  Poems, 
p.  368;  Morris'  English  Accidence,  §  33  and  325.  Various  forms  of  ballad 
are  balade,  ballet,  &c. ;  see  above,  p.  8,  1.  3,  and  the  note. 

gammiith  is  from  Gamma,  *  the  first  letter  of  the  musical  notation  In- 
vented by  Guido,'  and  Lat,  ut,  '  the  syllable  used  in  singing  the  first  note  of 
the  scale  '  (the  present  do).  Ital.  gamina ;  Fr.  gamme.  See  Taming  of  the 
Shrew,  iii.  i.  72-8. 

18.  municipal  =  country.     See  the  next  line.     Cp.  Burke's  Reflections: 

*  We  provide  first  for  the  poor  and  with  a  parental  solicitude  we  have  not 
relegated  religion  (like  something  we  were  ashamed  to  show)  to  obscure 
municipalities  or  rustick  villages.'  This  use  is  '  Classical.'  *  As  the  mmii- 
cipia  were  subordinate  to  the  capital  cities,'  municipalis  '  is  sometimes  used 
in  a  contemptuous  sense,  analogous  to  our  provincial:  municipalis  eques 
(of  Cicero),  Juv.  viii.  236  [238]  ;  m.  ct  cathedrarii  oratores,  Sidonius,  Ep. 
iv.  3  ;  poetae,  id.  Carni.  ix.  310.'     (Andrews'  Freund.)     Cicero,  Phil.  iii.  15: 

•  Videte  quam  despiciamur  omnes,  qui  sumus  e  municipiis.' 

19,  Arcadia's.  The  Countess  of  Pembroke's  Arcadia  was  first  printed 
in  1590,  four  years  after  Sir  Philip  Sidney's  death.  A  more  complete 
edition,  differently  arranged — the  work  was  left  unfinished — was  published 
in  1593.  See  Hallam's  Lit.  of  Europe,  ii.  411,  438  ;  Taine's  Hist,  of  Eng. 
Lit.  i.  164-172;  Dunlop's  Hist,  of  Fiction,  chap.  xi.  &c.  The  Arcadia 
was  immensely  popular  in  the  early  seventeenth  century.  See  Hallaui,  iv. 
94,  &c. 

Monte  Mayors.     Monte  Mayor  (circ.  1520-156^),  a  Portuguese  by  birth. 


Io8  AREOPAGITICA,  [P.  24. 

was  the  author  of  the  Diana,  a  pastoral  romance,  whose  popularity  spread 
from  Spain,  the  especial  land  of  romances,  all  over  Europe.  See  Hallam,  ii. 
2^2,  435;  Dunlop,  chap,  xi ;  Ticknor's  Spanish  Literature,  iii,  82-84,  ed. 
186.^;  Sismondi's  Literature  of  the  Souih  of  Europe,  chap,  xxvi,  &c. 
Shakspere  is  said  to  have  drawn  something  of  his  picture  of  Proteus  and 
Julia,  in  the  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,  from  the  Felix  and  Felisnitna  of 
the  Diana. 

21.  hears  ill.     A  Greek  idiom.     Cp.  KaKws  duoveiv,  KaKws  kXv^iv.     So 
the  Lat.  attdio,  as  Horace,  Epistles,  i.  16.  17  : 

•  Tu  recte  vivis,  si  curas  esse  quod  audlsj 

&c. :  cltieo,  frequent  in  Plautus  and  Lucretius.  See  Ben  Jonson  passim  ;  in  the 
Dedication  to  the  Fox  he  speaks  of  his  age  being  one  '  wherein  poetry  and 
the  professors  of  it  heare  so  ill  on  all  sides;'  see  also  his  masque  Love 
Restored :  '  They  are  these  make  mee  heare  so  ///  both  in  towne  and 
countrey  as  I  do.'     See  also  Faerie  Queene,  i.  5.  23 : 

•  O  what  of  gods  then  boots  it  to  be  borne, 
If  old  Aveugles  sonnes  so  evill  heare?' 

Paradise  Lost,  iii.  7  : 

'  Or  hear'st  thou  rather  pure  ethereal  stream,'  &c, 
(  =  Horace's  '  libentius  audis,'  Satires,  ii.  6.  20.) 

hoiishold  gluttony.     Cp.  Chaucer's  Franklin  (Aldine  Ed.): 

•  Wei  loved  he  in  the  morn  a  sop  of  wyn. 
To  liven  in  delite  was  al  his  wone, 

For  he  was  Epicurius  owne  sone. 
That  heeld  opynyoun  that  pleyn  delyt 
Was  verraily  felicite  perfyt. 
An  househaldere,  and  that  a  gret,  was  he; 
Seynt  Julian  he  was  in  his  countre. 
His  breed,  his  ale,  was  alvvay  after  oon ; 
A  bettere  envyned  man  was  nowher  noon. 
Wilhoute  bake  mete  was  never  his  hous, 
Of  fieissch  and  fissch,  and  that  so  plentyvou.s. 
It  snewed  in  his  hous  of  mete  and  drynke. 
Of  alle  deyntees  that  men  cowde  thynke. 
Aflur  the  sondry  sesouns  of  the  yeer, 
He  chaunged  hem  at  mete  and  at  soper. 
Ful  many  a  fat  partrich  had  he  'n  mewe, 
And  many  a  brem  and  many  a  luce  in  ste7/e. 
Woo  was  his  cook  but  if  his  sauce  were 
Poynant  and  scharp  and  redy  al  his  gerc. 
His  table  dormant  in  his  halle  alway 
Stood  redy  covered  a.  the  lOnge  day.* 
*  English  Epicures,'  Macbeth,  v.  3.     '  It  is  not  for  nothing  that  other  coun- 
tries whom  we  upbraid  with  drunkenness  call  us  "  bursten  bellied  gluttons,"* 
Nash's  Piers  Penniless.     Sir  Andrew  Aguecheek's  view  has  found  and  finds 


p.  25.]  NOTES,  109 

much  favour  with  us,  '  Does  not  our  life  consist  of  the  ffur  elenictits  ?  * 
asks  Sir  Toby.  ' Sir  Andrew.  Faith,  so  they  say;  but  I  think  it  rather 
consists  of  eating  and  drinking.  Sir  Toby.  Thou'rt  a  scholar ;  let  115 
therefore  eat  and  drink.  Marian,  I  say  !  a  stoup  of  wine  !'  What  Hamlet 
says  of  Denmark  in  i.  4.  14-22,  is  surely  meant  to  describe  England.  Cj). 
Scott's  picture  of  the  Saxon  Alhelstane  in  Ivanhoe. 

22.  and  what  shall  be  done  to  inhibit,  &c.  A  question  still  agitated,  and 
far  from  settlement. 

25.  Our  garments  also,  &c.  In  the  later  Middle  Ages  laws  were  passed 
defining  the  dress  material  that  was  to  be  used.  See  the  Statute  of  Apparel. 
1363,  &c.;  Fairholt's  Costume  in  England,  second  edit.,  p.  116,  &c.  'Acts 
of  Apparel '  were  also  passed  in  the  reigns  of  Edward  IV,  Henry  VHI,  Mary, 
and  Elizabeth.  See  the  decree  of  1597  in  the  Egerton  Papers  (Camden 
Society),  pp.  247-256.  Such  irrterferences  have  now  long  been  desisted 
from.  Listen  to  Adam  Smith  :  'It  is  the  highest  impertinence  and  presump- 
tion therefore  in  kings  and  ministers  to  pretend  to  watch  over  the  economy 
of  private  people,  and  to  restrain  their  expense  either  by  sumptuary  laws  or 
by  prohibiting  the  importation  of  foreign  luxuries.'  (Wealth  of  Nations, 
book    II.  chap,   iii.)       See    Lecky's    Rationalism   in  Europe,  ii.   285,  ed. 

1S75. 

2,7.  garb.  '  Formerly  applied  to  the  mode  of  doing  anything,  but  latterly 
confined  to  the  fashion  of  dress.'  (Wedgwood.)  Cp.  Span,  and  Ital.  garbo, 
&c.  See  Diez.  who  connects  the  stem  with  'Old  H.  Germ,  garawi,  garwi, 
schmuck.'     This  gnrzvi  —  A.-S.  gearwa,  our  gear. 

conversation.     See  p.  8,  1.  6. 

28.  as  is  the  fashion  0/  this  Country.  See  almost  any  foreign  work  on 
English  life  and  manners. 

30.  what  presum'd ;  i.  e.  what  degree  of  presumption — of  liberty  and 
boldness  generally — may  be  permitted,  how  far  we  may  go.  This  seenjs 
the  sense  rather  than  what  Mr.  Lobb  suggests,  who  paraphrases  'what  should 
be  only  implied,'  opposing  the  words  to  '  what  may  be  only  talked  about ' 
(=tohat  shall  be  discoursd).  The  rhytlim  of  the  sentence  is  against  con- 
fining the  words  and  no  furder  to  what  presunid-  They  apply  just  as  much 
to  ivhat  difcours'd. 

P.  25  2.  to  sequester  =  to  withdraw,  retire.  The  verb  is  general'y  transi- 
tive ;  thus  Sir  T.  More,  Workes,  p.  1046.  apud  Richardson  :  '  For  liym 
hathe  God  the  father  sealed.  This  is  to  sai  that  him  Jiath  God  the  father 
specially  sequestred  and  severed  and  set  aside  out  of  the  number  of  ai 
creatures.'     So  Gray's  Elegy,  75.     The  word  is  of  Latin  law  origin. 

Atlantic^.  See  Bacon's  New  Atlantis.  Hacon  took  the  name  from 
Plato's  Timaeus  (24  E-25  A),  and   his  Critias ;  see  Criti.is,  chap.  vii. 

3.  Eutopian.  See  More's  Utopia,  printed  in  Latin  in  1516,  translated 
into  English  by  Ralph  Robinson,  and  printed  first  in  155 1,  and  again  in 
1556.  See  a  re-issue  of  the  second  edition  among  Arbcr's  English  Reprints. 
For  the  orthography,  the  first  syllable  represents  the  Gr.  ov  (though  perhaps 


no  AREOPAGITICA.  [P.  25. 

Milton  thought  ev,  to  judge  from  his  spelling,  which  is  also  Sidney's  in  the 
Apol.  for  Poetrie)t  the  whole  word  signifying  *  Nowheria.'  Sir  Thomas 
More's  knowledge  of  Greek  was  evidently  not  unlimited.  Cp.  Erewhon, 
the  title  of  a  book  lately  published,  which  is  nowhere,  written  as  nearly 
backwards  as  may  be. 

polities  =  Tro\iT€ias,  political  systems.  Not  politics,  as  is  conmionly 
printed ;    e.  g.  in  Bohn's  edition. 

[6.  Explain  unavoidably  here.] 

II.  which  Plato  there  mentions.     See  Republic,  iv. 

13.  these  they  be,  &c.     Cp.  Horace,  Odes,  iii.  24.  35,  36,  and  51-54  : 

•  Quid  leges  sine  moribus 

Vanae  proficiunt? 

Eradenda  cupidinis 

Pravi  sunt  elementa,  et  tenerae  nimis 
Mentes  asperioribus 
Formandae  studiis.' 
2 1 .  pittance,  Fr.  pitance.  It.  pietanza,  &c.     The  word  *  au  sens  propre 
designe  la  portion  que  re9oit  un  moine  a  chacun  de  ses  repas.     II  est  encore 
employe  aujourd'hui  avec  cette  signification  dans  le  langage  monastique.' 
It  is  the  Med.  Lat.  pietantia,  which  '  derive  de  pietatem  et  designe  le  pro- 
duit   de   la    charity,   de    la    piete   des   fideles.     On    appelait    de    meme    au 
moyen    age    misericordia    (pitie,  compassion)  certains   repas  monastiques.' 
(Brachet.)     See  also  Du  Cange.     See  Chaucer's  Prologue,  223,  224,  of  the 
Friar : 

'He  was  an  esy  man  to  yeve  penance 
Ther  as  he  wiste  to  han  a  good  pita7tce? 
Cp.  Prynne's  Treachery  and  Disloyalty,  part  ii.  p.  33,  apud  Richardson  : 
'  They  have  beese  allowed  only  a  poore  pittance  of  Adam's  ale  and  scarce 
a  penny  bread  to  support  their  lives.'  -  The  monastic  officer  who  distributed 
the  doles  was  called  'pitanciarius ;  Fr.  pitancier.  Wedgwood  derives  the 
word  from  apidangant  or  apitangant  =  appetissant ;  wrongly,  I  should  say.  In 
the  text  it  seems  to  mean  not  so  much  '  an  allowance,'  as  '  allowancing,' 
i,  e.  a  system  of  allowance. 

23.  grammercy.  Cp.  'What  thank  have  ye?'  Luke  vi.  32,  &c.  Chaucer 
gives  the  word  in  the  agglutinative  stage;  see  the  Canterbury  Tales,  ed. 
Wright,  8964,  8965  : 

'  Grauntmercy,  lord,  God  thank  it  you,  quod  sche, 
That  ye  han  saved  me  my  children  deere.' 
So  in  The  Dream,  wrongly  attributed  to  Chaucer.  For  the  use  here  cp. 
Utopia,  ii.  8 :  '  For  many  of  them  they  bring  home  sometimes,  paying  very 
little  for  them,  yea,  most  commonly  getting  them  for  gramercy.''  Coleridge 
uses  the  word,  somewhat  inaccurately,  but  according  to  Johnson's  accour>t 
of  it  (see  Dictionary),  as  an  exclamation,  in  Ancient  Mariner,  164: 

•  Gramercy  I    they  for  joy  did  grin/ 


p.  27.]  NOTES,  111 

24.  many  there  be  that,  &c.     He  wrote  Paradise  Lost  to 
'  assert  eternal  Providence, 
And  justify  the  ways  of  God  to  men.' 
See  esp.  iii.  80-134. 

28.  a  meer  artificiall  Adam,  &c.  =  an  automaton,  a  vevpoanaarov  dyaX/xa 
(Herodotus,  ii.  48),  a  thing  moved  d\}/vxoJV  Siktjv  opydvcuv  (Clemens  Alexan- 
drinus,  598). 

artificiall.     See  Bacon's  Adv.  of  Learning,  ed.  Wright,  Gloss,  s.  v. 

in  the  motions  =  in  the  puppet-shows.  See  Ben  Jonson's  Bartholomew 
Fair,  5th  Act,  passim;  Winter's  Tale,  iv.  2,  102  ;  '  Then  he  compass'd  a  motion 
of  the  Prodigal  Son,'  &c.  This  kind  of  entertainment  is  of  very  ancient  origin. 
Herodotus  says  it  was  introduced  from  Egypt  (ii.  48)  ;  see  Bekker's  Charicles, 
185  n.  ed.  1854;  Hone's  Strutt's  Sports  and  Pastimes  of  the  People  of  Eng- 
land, pp.  165-167  ;  Hone's  Ancient  Mysteries  Described,  225,  229,  230; 
Spectator,  No.  14,  &c.  See  also  Goethe's  Wilhelm  Meister's  Apprentice- 
ship, chaps,  ii-viii. 

21.  esteem  not  of  =  do  not  think  highly  of.  So  Spenser,  To  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh  :  *  seeing  all  things  accounted  by  their  shows  and  nothing  esteemed  0/,' 
&c. 

31.  /'ror/oJ^/no' =  inviting,  enticing,  &c.  Heb.  x.  24  :  'And  let  us  consider 
one  another  to  provoke  unto  love  and  to  good  works,'  &c. 

P.  26.  22.  yet  powrs  out  before  us,  &c.     Comp.  Comus,  762-779. 

23.  gives  us  minds,  &c.  Hamlet,  ii.  2.  315:  'What  a  piece  of  work  is 
man,'  &c. 

26.  scanting.  The  adj.  scant  =  iha.t  which  is  measured  exactly,  and  so  = 
spare ;  from  Norse  skamta,  a  measure,  connected  with  skamr,  short ;  see 
Cleasby  and  Vigfusson. 

29.  better  done.     Lycidas,  67  :  '  were  it  not  better  done,''  &c. 

32.  dram  is  contracted  with  drachm,  Gr.  dpaxf^rj.  For  the  sense  here 
cp.  Hamlet,  i.  4.  36. 

P.  27.  I.     [What  *  part  of  speech'  is  sure  here?] 

3.  ti/hatever  thing  we  hear  or  see,  &c.  Cp.  the  Duke's  experience  in  As 
You  Like  It,  ii.  I.  15-17: 

'  And  this  our  life  exempt  from  public  haunt 
Finds  tongues  in  trees,  books  in  the  running  brooks. 
Sermons  in  stones,   and  good  in  everything.' 

9.  that  continued  Court-libell,  &c.  =  the  Mercurius  Aulicus,  a  virulent 
Royalist  paper,  published  regularly  once  a  week  from  the  beginning  of  1642 
to  the  latter  end  of  1645,  and  afterwards  occasionaUy,  by  Sir  John  Birken- 
head, Reader  in  Moral  Philosophy  at  Oxford  ;  see  Holt  White's  note.  The 
'Civil  Wars  of  the  seventeenth  century  were  the  birth-time  of  newspapers. 
(The  English  Mercuric  of  1 588  has  been  shown  to  be  a  forgery.)  See 
Disraeli's  Cur.  of  Lit.,  art.  Origin  of  Newspapers. 

15.  blindfold.     The  full  form  would  be  blindfolded. 

17.  frustrat.     This  form  comes  straight  from  the  Latin. 


lia  AREOPAGITICA,  [P.  28. 

20.  dnmlg'd=  promulgattd,  published,  or  made  public.     Par.  Reg.  Hi.  62. 

2  J',  officials.  A  most  odious  term  at  the  time  Milton  wrote.  *  kn  Official 
was  the  name  of  the  Officer  in  the  Ecclesiastical  Courts  to  whom  the  Bishops 
deputed  the  cognizance  o^  spiritual  ofTcnces.  Laud  had  let  them  loose  over 
the  country.'  So  Holt  White,  who  quotes  from  Of  Reformation  ('  a  band  of 
looking  Officials,''  &c.),  from  Cartwright's  Ordinary,  and  from  Clarendon  the 
statement  that  Sir  Edward  Deering  presented  *a  Bill  for  the  utter  eradication 
of  Bishops,  Deans,  and  Chapters ;  with  all  Chancellors,  Officials,  and  all 
Officers  and  other  Persons  belonging  to  either  of  them.* 

28.  that  the  Commonwealth,  &c.  He  is  thinking  of  the  decree  of  the 
Roman  senate  in  critical  times — '  darent  operam  Consoles  ne  quid  Respublica 
detrimenti  caperet.' 

29.  damnify  d.     Faerie  Queene,  ii.  6.  43 : 

•"Harrow  now  out  and  well  away!"    he  cryde; 
"  What  dismal  day  hath  lent  this  cursed  light 
To  see  my  Lord  so  deadly  damnifyde  ? " ' 
The  compound  indemnify  is  common  enough. 

P.  28.  2.  according  to  the  model,  Sec.     See  above,  p.  6.  1.  26. 
4.  condiicend.     So  Faerie  Queene,  v.  I.  25: 

'  Thereto  they  both  did  franckly  condis.cend.^ 
Carew,  Survey  of  Cornwall,  f.  88,  has    '  condiscended ,'    Fabyan,  an,  1361, 
•condyscendid.'     See  Richardson. 

7.  s/ory  =  history.     See  above,  p.  9.  1.  Ii. 

8.  of  7nany  sects,  &c.  See  Drayton's  Polyolbion  and  Selden's  notes — a 
work  with  which  Milton  often  shows  familiarity;  Song  x,  where  some  com- 
plaining of  the  want  of  evidence  there  is  for  the  older  history  of  Britain, 

'  Thus  do  I  answer  these  : 

That  th'  ancient  British  priests,  the  fearless  Druides, 

That  minister'd  the  laws,  and  were  so  truly  wise. 

That  they  determin'd  states,   attending  sacrifice, 

To  letters  never  woidd  their  mysteries  comtnit, 

For  which  the  breasts  of  men  they  deem'd  to  he  more  fit; 

Which  questionless  should  seem  from  judgment  to  proceed. 

For,  when  of  ages  past  we  look  in  books  to  read, 

We  retchlessly  discharge  our  memory  of  those. 

So  when  injurious  time  such  monuments  doth  lose 

(As  what  so  great  a  work,  by  time  that  is  not  wrackt?) 

We  utterly  forego  that  memorable  act ; 

But  when  we  lay  it  up  within  the  minds  of  men 

They  leave  it  their  next  age ;    that  leaves  it  hers  agen ; 

So  strongly  which   (me  thinks)   doth  for  tradition  make, 

As  if  you  from  the  world  it  altogether  take, 

You  utterly  subvert  antiquity  thereby.' 
The  note  compares  the  Cabalists.  '  which  until  of  late  time  wrote  not,  but 
taught  and  learnt  by  mouth  and  diligent  hearing  of  their  rabbins.' 


p.  29.]  NOTES,  113 

10.  The  Christian  faith,  &c.  The  earliest  Gospel  in  point  of  date  is  said 
to  be  that  of  St.  Matthew ;  the  earliest  Pauline  Epistle  is  the  1st  to  the 
Thessalonians.  Possibly  St.  Peter's  and  St.  James'  may  be  older  than  any  of 
St.  Paul's.  However  this  may  be,  all  the  Epistles  imply  an  aheady  established 
Christianity. 

[21.  What  is  the  force  of  sit  here?] 

22.  be  wafted,  8cc.=  to  float  over  the  river  which  according  to  the  ancient 
mythology  divides  life  from  death. 

28.  journey-work  =  da.y-v/OTk,  day-labourer's  work,  the  work  of  a  journey- 
man or  un  homme  dejoiirnee,  set,  mechanical,  servile  work. 

29.  vpon  his  head.   Cp.  poll-tax,  8ic.;  nho  the  use  of  h^t.  capiit,  Gr.  Kapa. 
33.  in  a  hand  scars  legible.    Milton  himself  took  pains  to  write  as  clearly 

as  possible.     Cp.  Hamlet,  v.  2.  33-36. 

hand.  So^fs/ also  is  used:  see  below,  p.  32. 1.  7.  Cp.  Lat.  mawws,  as  Cicero, 
Ad  Att.  viii,  13:  '  Lippitudinis  meae  signum  tibi  sit  librarii  tnanus,'  Sec, 
'Know  you  the  hand?'    Hamlet,  iv.  7.  52. 

P.  29.  I.  woidd  not  down.  Cp.  the  verbal  use  of  up,  away,  &c. 
The  emphatic  word  absorbs  into  itself,  so  to  speak,  the  power  of  the 
formal  verb;  thus  to  down  =  to  go  down,  &c.  So  dvd,  as  Homer,  II.  vi. 
331.  &c. 

/^  of  a  sensible  nostrill.  A  Latin  phrase;  see  Horace,  Satires,  i.  3.  29 
and  30 : 

•  Iracundior  est  pauIo,  minus  aptus  aciitis 
Naribus  horum  hominum.' 
Cp.  lb.  iv.  8,  •  Emunctae  naris  ; '  Epod.  xii.  3,  '  naris  obesae ;  *  Epistles,  i.  19. 
45,  '  naribus  uti ; '   also  Satires,  i.  6.  5,  '  naso  suspendis  adunco  Ignotos;'  ii. 
8,  64,  &c.     Orelli  compares  Plato's  use  of  Kopv^dco,  Republic,  343  A.     Cp. 
also  Cowper's  Task,  ii.  256 : 

*  Strew  the  deck 
With  lavender,  and  sprinkle  liquid  sweets, 
That  no  rude  savour  maritime  invade 
The  nose  of  nice  nobility.' 
(See  Shakspere,  l  Henry  IV,  i.  3.  45.)     But  our  corresponding  metaphor  is 
taken  not  from  the  nose  but  the  palate.    We  speak  of  a  '  man  of  taste.'    Cp. 
the  French  de  bpn  gout. 

sensible  =  OUT  sensitive.     So  Dryden  apud  Johnson  : 
'  Even  I  the   bold,  the  sensible  of  wrong, 
Restrain'd  by  shanie,  was  forced  to  hold  my  tongue.* 
Cp.  sensihility.     Locke  speaks  of  '  sensitive  knowledge,'  meaning  know- 
ledge *  reaching  no  further  than  the  existence  of  things  actually  present  to 
the  senses,*  (=  our  sensuous). 
5.  crave.     A.-S.  crafian,  to  ask. 
[7.  What  part  of  the  sentence  is  looking  on  it,  &c.  ?] 

14.  ridd.     Rid  is  cognate  with  Girm.  retten,  to  save,  rescue. 

15.  M/z/Ar//?  =  prodigal.     'Some    in    Parys    sayde :    "It   is    pytie    theM 

I 


114  AREOPAGITICA,  \V.  30. 

vnthrifts  be  vnhanged  or  drowned  for  tellyng  of  suche  lies."*  Berners'  Froissart, 
apitd  Richardson. 

17.  salary.  The  Latin  salarium  originally  denoted  salt-money,  money 
given  the  soldiers  for  salt,  and  then  generally  an  allowance,  stipend.  Sec.  The 
word,  which  of  course  came  to  us  through  the  French,  is  certainly  as  old  in 
England  as  Piers  the  Plowman,  where  it  occurs  in  the  form  salerye. 

23.  He  now  comes  to  Point  IV,  see  p.  67. 

the  no  good.  Cp.  the  use  of  ov  in  Gr. ;  as,  17  tZv  y€(pvpu!V  ov  5id\t;- 
ais,  Thucydides,  i.  137  ;  f]  ov  irfpLTeixicns,  lb.  iii.  95;  17  ovk  l^ovaia,  lb.  v. 
50,  &c.     So  TO  fj.Tj  KoKuv,  Sophocles,  Antigone,  370,  &c. 

26.  It  was  the  complaint.  Sec.  Mr.  Osborn  notes  that  *  when  the  Bill  for 
abolishing  Bishops,  Deans,  and  Chapters  was  before  the  House  of  Commons, 
Dr.  Hackett  was  heard  in  their  defence  (1641),  and  urged  "  that  their  endow- 
ments were  encouragements  to  Industry  and  Virtue,  and  were  serviceable  for 
the  advancement  of  Learning."  These'  were  the  arguments  usually  adopted 
in  their  favour.' 

28.  pluralities.  Plurality  was  a  crying  offence  in  Milton's  eyes ;  see 
Apology  for  Smectymnuus  :  '  The  Prelate  himself,  being  a  pluralist,  may 
under  one  surplice,  which  is  also  linnen,  hide  four  benefices,  besides  the 
metropolitan  toe,'  &c.     On  the  New  Forcers  of  Conscience,  1-6 : 

*  Because  you  have  thrown  off  your  prelate-lord, 

And  with  stiff  vows  renounced  his  Liturgy, 

To  seize  the  widowed  whore  Plurality 
From  them  whose  sin  ye  envied,  not  abhorred, 
Dare  ye  for  this  adjure  the  civil  sword 

To  force  our  consciences  that  Christ  set  free?' 
See  also  The  Second  Defence,  Sec. 

29.  dasht.     Comus,  451-2  : 

*  noble  grace  that  dashed  brute  violence 
With  sudden  adoration  and  blank  awe.' 
Psalm  vi.  2 1  : 

*  Mine  enemies  shall  all  be  blank  and  dashed 
With  much  confusion.' 

30.  /  never  found  cause.  Sec.  See  Remonstrant's  Defence:  *  It  had  been 
happy  for  this  land,  if  your  priests  had  been  but  only  wooden  ....  If  you 
mean  by  wooden,  illiterate  or  contemptible,  there  was  no  want  of  that  sort 
among  you  ;  and  their  number  increasing  daily,  as  their  laziness,  their  tavern- 
hunting,  their  neglect  of  all  sound  literature,  and  their  liking  of  doltish  and 
monastical  schoolmen  daily  increased.'  Also  The  likeliest  Means  to  Remove 
&c. :  •  ...  as  if  with  divines  learning  stood  and  fell,  wherein  for  the  most 
part  their  pittance  is  so  small.' 

P.  30.  3.  discontent.     Suckling's  Sessions  of  the  Poets: 

*  Those  that  were  there  thought  it  not  fit 
To  discontent  so  ancient  a   wit.' 


p.  30.]  NOTES,  115 

17.  over  it  is,  8cc.  The  full  phrase  would  be  '  over  what  it  is,*  &c. ;  but 
•  what '  having  occurred  just  before  in  what  advantage,  Milton  does  not  care 
to  repeat  it. 

18.  scapt.  So  acape-gozt.  Cp.  craivfish  with  ecrevisse,  craze  with  ecraser, 
&c.  Escape  is  perhaps  ultimately  cognate  with  skip  ;  see  Mr.  Jerram's  Par. 
Reg.,  Gloss. 

ig.  ferular  =  the  rod,  the  cane,  the  '  tawse  *  (see  Jamieson).  Mr.  Skeat 
sends  me  a  sketch  of  the  thing  from  an  old  seal  in  his  possession.  It  ex- 
panded at  the  end — the  end  designed  for  the  victim — into  a  flat  round  ;  that 
is,  it  was  in  shape  like  a  battledore  with  the  handle  lengthened  and  the  bat 
diminished,  and  so  well  adapted  for  effect  on  the  palm  of  the  hand,  which 
was  the  part  of  application  ;  see  Gerard  Dow's  picture  of  the  Schoolmaster  in 
the  Fitz -William  Museum,  Cambridge.  See  Defence  of  the  People  of 
England:  'If  I  had  leisure,  or  that  if  it  were  worth  my  while,  I  could  reckon 
up  so  many  barbarisms  of  yours  in  this  one  book  as,  if  you  were  to  be 
chastiz'd  for  them  as  you  deserve,  all  the  school-boys' /erw/as  in  Christen- 
dome  would  be  broken  upon  you.'  See  other  instances — from  Bishop  Hall's 
Censure  of  Travel  and  Feltham's  Resolves — apud  Richardson  ;  also  Gosson's 
School  of  Abuse,  p.  24,  ed.  Arber.  The  stem  is  the  Lzt.  ferula,  which  is  of 
the  same  root  as  ferire,  to  strike;  see  Horace,  Satires,  i.  3.  120;  Juvenal, 
i.  15,  where  see  Mayor's  note.  See  Martial,  Epigrams,  xiv.  80,  ^Ferulae': 
'  Invisae  nimium  pueris  grataeque  magistris 
Clara  Prometheo  munere  ligna  sumus.' 
The  form  ferularis  is  not  found  in  Classical  Latin ;  the  Classical  adjs.  are 
ferulaceus  and  feruleus.  Ferularis  would  seem  an  analogue  of  regularis. 
But  it  may  be  the  ferular  of  the  text  is  a  misprint  (or  ferula. 

fescu  =  the  wand  or  pointer;  another  form  is /^s/m.  La.t.  festuca,  z  stalk, 
stem,  small  stick.  See  Remonstrant's  Defence  :  '  A  minister  that  cannot  be 
trusted  to  pray  in  his  own  words  without  being  chewed  to,  and  fescued  to  a 
formal  injunction  of  his  rote  lesson,  should  as  little  be  trusted  to  preach,  &c.' 
See  Sir  T.  More's  Workes,  p.  1 102  :  *  But  I  shall  afterward  anon  lay  it  afore 
him  agayne  and  sette  him  to  it  with  zfestue  that  he  shall  not  say  but  he  saw 
it.*  See  Way's  Promptorium  Parvulorum,  s.  v.  festu,  note:  'In  Piers 
Ploughman's  Vision,  line  6183  [Mr,  Skeat's  B-Text,  x.  7'jS,  festu],  where 
allusion  is  made  to  Matth.  vii.  3,  the  mote  in  the  eye,  festuca,  is  termed  fescu. 
[So  in  the  Wycliffite  version.]  The  Medulla  likewise  renders  "  festuca.  a 
festu  or  lytul  mote."  The  name  was  applied  to  the  straw,  or  stick,  used  foi 
pointing  in  the  early  instruction  of  children  :  thus  Palsgrave  gives  '*  festue,  to 
spell  with,  festev."  Occasionally  the  name  is  written  with  c  or  k,  instead  of  t; 
but  it  is  apparently  a  corruption  [probably  due  to  writing,  as  there  is  often 
confusion  in  MSS.  between  c  and  t].  *'  Festu,  a  feskue,  a  straw,  rush,  little 
stalk  or  stick,  used  for  a  fescue.  Touche  a  fescue  ;  also  a  pen  or  a  pin  for  a 
pair  of  writing  tables."  CoTO.*  In  the  Puritan,  one  of  the  plays  falsely  ascribed 
to  Shakspere,/««/e  =  dial-hand;  see  iv.  2,  Sir  Godfrey  Plus  loq.:  *  Nay,  put 
by  your  chat*  nowe ;  fall  to  your  business  roundly ;  the  fescue  of  the  dial  is 

I  a 


Il6  AREOPAGITICA,  LP.  31. 

upon  the  christ-cross  of  noon.'  The  form  feaselrau,  given  by  Halliwell, 
Dictionary  of  Archaic  and  Provincial  Words,  is  clearly  due  to  some  crude 
popular  etymology.  In  Somersetshire  occurs  the  form  vester ;  see  Jennings' 
Glossary  of  West  Country  Words. 

21.  the  theam.  This  was  the  old  grammar-school  word  for  an  essay;  cp. 
Fr.  theme.  Ste  Locke,  On  Education,  §  171  :  *  As  to  themes  thty  have  I  confess 
the  pretence  of  something  useful,  which  is  to  teach  people  to  speak  hand- 
somely and  well  on  any  subject.' 

a  Grammar  lad  =  z  grammar-school  lad.  The  phrase  is  still  so  used 
provincially,  as  in  Durham. 

22.  utter' d.      To   utter  =  to  outer,   send   out,   issue.     We    still   speak    of 

*  uttering  coin.' 

22.  without  the  cursory  eyes,  &c.  =  without  his  eyes  running  over  or  survey- 
ing it.     Henry  V,  v,  2.  77-8  : 

•  I  have  but  with  a  cursor ary  eyo 
O'er-glanced  the  articles.' 

a  temporizing  and  extemporizing  licencer  =  a  licencer  who  considers  only  the 
expediencies  of  the  moment,  and  arranges  ofi'hand  the  means  to  satisfy 
them. 

25.  standing  to,  &c.  =  standing  close  to,  in  near  connection  with,  &c. 
So  'Sir  John  stands  to  his  word,'  I  Henry  IV,  i.  2.  130,  &c. ;  and  so  our 
present  usage. 

P.  31.  4.  considerat.  On  the  active  sense  of  passive  participles  in  Eliza- 
bethan English  see  Abbott's  Shakespearian  Grammar,  §  294  and  374. 
Considerate  has  retained  its  active  sense. 

5.  walchings.  Watch,  xualce,  wait  are  but  various  forms  from  A.-S. 
wacian. 

6.  expence  of  Palladian  oyl.  *  Operam  et  oleum  perdere'  was  a  common 
Latin  phrase.  See  Cicero,  Ad.  Fam.  vii.  i.  3  (perhaps  in  the  Latin  phrase 
there  is  allusion  to  athletes '  oil ;  see  1.  c.)  ;  Ad.  Att.  ii.  17;  see  also  xiii.  38 : 

•  ante  lucem  quum  scriberem  contra  Epicurios,  de  eodem  oleo  et  opera  exaravi 
nescio  quid  ad  te  et  ante  lucem  dedi.'  Lucubration  means  originally  a 
working  by  lamplight. 

Palladian  oyl  =  learned  oil.  The  olive-tree  was  sacred  to  Pallas  Athena  ; 
of  which  dedication  Milton  perhaps  here  suggests  a  meaning.  The  old  my- 
thology was  never  a  dry  and  forceless  thing  to  him.  He,  like  Bacon,  discerns 
in  it  '  the  wisdom  of  the  ancients.'  The  oil-light,  by  which  men  of  learning 
studied,  was.  a  gift  of  the  goddess  of  learning.  In  the  Latin  poets  Pallas 
sometimes  =  oil,  as  Ovid,  Tristia,  iv.  5.  3. 

uideasur'd  =  daxoKos. 

10.  punie.  Puny  =  puine  —  puis-ne,  i.e.  post-nattis  or  after-born.  See 
Bishop  Hall's  Resolutions  for  Religion,  apud  Richardson  :  *  Or  [if  any  shall 
usurp]  a  motherhood  to  the  rest  ....  and  make  them  but  daughters  and 
punies  to  her,'  &c.  Of  the  Evil  Angels  :  '  If  still  this  priviledge  were  ordinary 
left  in  the  church,  it  were  not  a  work  for  puisness  and  novices,  but  for  the 


p.  32-]  NOTES,  117 

greatest  master  and  most  learned  and  eminently  holy  doctors  which  the 
times  can  possibly  yield,' 

12.   bayl  is  ultimately  from  Latin  bajidus,  a  bearer,  porter. 

idiot.     See  Trench's  Select  Glossary,  also  his  Study  of  Words. 

17.  under  the  Presse.  We  say  *  in.'  '  Sub  prelo'  is  the  common  sixteenth 
century  Latin  phrase. 

19.  dilgentest.     See  above,  note  to  p.  15,  1.  15. 

20.  dares.  Commonly,  when  we  use  dare  with  another  verb,  we  do 
not  inflect  the  3rd  person  ;  we  treat  it  like  the  auxiliary  verbs;  but  when  it 
*  governs  an  accusative,'  then  we  inflect  it.  We  say  '  he  dare  not  go,*  but  *  he 
dares  him  to  go.'  See  Morris's  Eng.  Ace,  p.  184.  The  fact  is  that  the 
words  are  different.  The  auxiliary  dare  is  really  an  old  preterite,  like  wot, 
wont,  oiha,  &c.  See  Grein's  Bibliothek  der  Angelslichsischen  Poesie,  Glossar., 
s.  v.  durran;  also  Skeat's  Moeso-Gothic  Diet.  p.  304. 

2^.  jaunt.  Old  English  jaunce,  Old  French  jancer,  'to  jolt,  or  jog.' 
(Wedgwood.)     See  Shakspere,  Richard  II,  v.  5.  94; 

*  Spurr'd,  gall'd,  and  tri'd  by  jouncing  Bolingbroke.* 
Ben  Jonson's  Tale  of  a  Tub,  ii.  I  : 

*  Faith,  would  I  had  a  few  more  geances  on't.' 

27.  acc7iratest  =  m.os,\.  carefully  considered,  roundest. 

29.  [V/hat  is  the  meaning  of  melancholy  here  ?] 

31.  Doctor  is  literally  a  teacher,  as  Cicero,  Ad  Fani,  vii.  19,  SiC. 

P.  32.  I.  patriarchal  licencer.  There  is  an  allusion  to  Laud  here.  There 
was  a  popular  rumour  that  he  wished  to  become  the  Patriarch  of  the  Westtru 
Church.  See  the  quotation  from  Somers'  Tracts,  iv.  4;!4,  Scott's  edition, 
apud  Holt  White;  also  Of  Reformation,  where  Milton  says  that  '  whenever 
the  Pope  shall  fall'  the  Bishops  w-Jl  try  to  get  what  they  cati  out  of 
the  ruin,  'hee  a  Patriarchdome,  and  another  what  comes  next  hand;  as 
the  French  Cardinal  [RicheHeu]  of  late,  and  the  See  of  Canterbury  hath 
plainly  aflfected,* 

/»a/narc/ja/  =  patriarch-like,  who  assumes  the  authority  of  a  patriarch  or 
head  of  '  the  House.'  naTpiapxTJs,  compounded  of  irarpia  and  dpxos,  —  race- 
chief.  In  Eccl.  Greek  it  was  the  title  borne  by  the  Bishops  of  Rome,  Jeru- 
salem, Antioch,  and  Alexandria. 

2,  hidebound  is  used  of  beasts,  and  of  trees  that  cannot  grow  because  their 
hides  or  barks  are  so  thick ;  similarly  of  corn.  See  Overbury's  Characters, 
The  Franklin:  '  He  is  never  known  to  go  to  law;  understanding  to  be  law- 
bound  among  men  is  like  to  be  hidebound  among  his  beasts — they  thrive 
not  under  it.'  See  from  Boyle's  Works,  vi.  483,  apud  Richardson,  Cp, 
barkbound :  see  Mahn's  Webster. 

which  he  calls  his  judgement.  Cp.  the  late  Lord  Wcstbury's  phrase : 
'  what  he  is  pleased  to  call  his  mind.' 

4.  />fc?an/ic/t  =  schoolmaster- like,  pedagogic.  With  the  latter  word  it  is  said 
by  some  to  be  etymologically  almost  identical;  pedant,  they  say,  is  contracted 
from  pedagogant  (is  there  such  a  word?),  which  is  a  secondary  form  from 


Il8  AREOPAGITICA,  [P.  32. 

tedagogue.  More  probably,  as  Diez  holds,  it  is  from  a  Latinized  form  of  the 
Gr.  -naiZiviiv,  the  Ital.  pedante.  For  pedant  in  the  sense  of  '  schoolmaster  ' 
see  e.g.  Love's  Labour's  Lost,  iii.  i.  179 : 

•  A  domineering  pedant  o'er  the  boy,'  &c. 
What  is  now  the  common  use  began  to  prevail  in  the  course  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  See  Spectator,  105:  'A  man  that  has  been  brought  up  among  books 
and  is  able  to  talk  of  nothing  else,  is  a  very  indifferent  companion  and  what 
we  call  a  pedant.'  Coleridge,  Biographia  Literaria,  chap.  10,  says  that 
'  pedantry  consists  in  the  use  of  words  unsuitable  to  the  time,  place,  and 
company.' 

5.  </mo-  =  fling;  originally,  to  strike,  as  Havelok  the  Dane,  1.  215,  the 
king 

•Ofte  dede  him  sore  swinge 
And  wit  hondes  smerte  dinge ; 
So  that  the  blod  ran  of  his  fleys. 
That  tendre  was,  and  swithe  neys.' 
lb.  227. 

'  Thanne  he  hauede  ben  ofte  swungen, 

Ofte  shriven  and  ofte  dungen'  &c. 

See  Skeat's  Gloss,  to  Havelok,  also  Jamieson's  Scot.  Diet.,  Stratmann's  Diet. 

of  Old  Eng„  Halliwell's  Diet,  of  Archaic  and  Provincial  Words,  Vigfusson's 

Icel.  Diet.,  s.  V.  dengja,  &e, 

5.  a  coifs  distance.  Cp.  Gr.  SiaKovpa,  as  Homer,  Iliad,  xxiii.  523; 
lb.  431: 

oaaa  5e  SicKov  oZpa  KaTcoixaSioio  iriXovTai^ 
ovt'  al^Tjos  dcprJKev  dvTjp,   TTfipbutxevos  tj^tjs, 
Toacrov  (ire8pafi€TT]v. 
7.  ^st.     Cp.  above,  note,  p.  28,  L  33.     See  Roister  Doister,  iii.  5.  43, 
where  the  Scrivener  bids  Ralph 

'  Loke  on  your  own  Jist,'  &c. 

10.  Stationer  =  the  bookseller,  or  the  publisher.  All  that  the  word  meant 
to  begin  with  was  one  who  had  a  station  or  stall  in  the  market-place.  See 
Trench's  Select  Glossary,  s.  v.;  Dryden's  Mac  Flecknoe,  95  ;  Duneiad,  ii.  31, 
&c.  Trench  quotes  from  Fuller's  Appeal  of  Injured  Innocence:  'I  doubt  not 
but  that  the  Animadverter's  Stationer  doth  hope  and  desire  that  he  hath  thus 
pleased  people  in  his  book  for  the  advancing  of  the  price  and  quickening  the 
sale  thereof.' 

11.  [What  is  meant  by  return  here?] 

14.  this,  i.e.  the  licensed  book  under  consideration. 

15.  from  Sir  Francis  Bacon.  See  Bacon's  tract  entitled  An  Advertisement 
touching  the  Controversies  of  the  Church  of  England,  written  1589,  first  pub- 
lished in  1640  (he  is  speaking  of  the  attempts  of  the  bishops  to  suppress 
certain  pamphlets):  'And  indeed  we  see  it  ever  falleth  out  that  the  for- 
bidden writing  is  always  thought  to  be  certain  sparks  of  a  truth  that  fly  up 
in  the  faces  of  those  that  seek  to  choke  it  and  tread  it  out :  whereas  a  book 


p.  32.1  NOTES,  119 

authorized  is  thouglit  to  be  but  "  temporis  voces,"  the  language  of  the  time.' 
Milton  quotes  again  from  this  tract,  below,  p.  38  ;  again  in  the  Animad- 
versions, p.  57  of  Prose  Works:  '.  .  .  insomuch  that  Sir  Francis  Bacon 
in  one  of  his  discourses  complains  of  the  bishops'  uneven  hand  over  these 
pamphlets,  confining  those  against  bishops  to  darkness,  but  hcensing  those 
against  Puritans  to  be  uttered  openly,  though  with  the  greater  mischief  of 
leading  into  contempt  the  exercise  of  religion  in  the  persons  of  sundry 
preachers,  and  disgracing  the  higher  matter  in  the  meaner  person.'  See  also 
Apology  for  Smectymnuus,  p.  84  of  Prose  "Works.  See  Spedding's  Letters 
and  Life  of  Bacon,  i.  78. 

17.  which  will  be,  &c.  He  will  be  a  difficult  man  to  succeed,  as  we  sny. 
It  is  too  much  to  hope  that  there  should  be  two  licensers  of  extraordinary 
judgment  one  after  the  other.  Mr.  Lobb  takes  the  words  differently.  He 
paraphrases :  *  and  if  this  should  be  the  case  the  further  continuance  of  the 
system  would  be  seriously  imperilled.' 

22.  never  so  famous.  So  Psalm  Iviii.  5:  'charmers  charming  never  so 
wisely,'     Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  iii.  2.  442  : 

*  Never  so  weary,  never  so  in  tvoe, 

I  can  no  further  crawl,  no  further  go,'  &c. 
See  Abbott's  Shak.  Gr.,  §  52. 

25.  ve«/roMS  =  venturesome,  daring,  audacious.     Dryden's  Knight's  Tale: 
'  The  vent'rous  knight  is  from  the  saddle  thrown.' 
Faerie  Queene,  iv.  11.  7: 

*  Who  sore  against  his  will  did  him  retaine. 
For  feare  of  perill  which  to  him  mote  fall 

Through  his  too  ventrous  prowess  proved  over  all.' 

27.  decrepit  means  originally  noiseless,  and  so  forceless,  weak,  effete. 
Plautus  speaks  of  a  '  vetulus  decrepitus  senex,'  Mercator,  ii.  2.  43.  'In  de- 
crepitos  me  numera  et  extrema  languentes,'  writes  Seneca,  Ep,  ■26. 

28.  though  it  were  Knox,  &c.  Possibly  he  alludes  to  an  edition  of  Knox*s 
History  of  the  Reformation  in  Scotland,  in  which  that  work  appeared  with 
passages  expunged.  Disraeli  refers  to  this  mutilation  in  his  article  on  'The 
Licensers  of  the  Press'  in  Curiosities  of  Literature:  'Knox,  whom  Milton 
calls  "the  Reformer  of  a  Kingdom,"  was  also  curtailed;'  (also  =  as  well  as 
Buchanan's  History  of  Scotland).  But  was  this  edition  mutilated  by  the 
licensers,  or  by  the  editor  himself?     See  Holt  White. 

Knox's  life  (1515-72)  has  been  written  by  M'Crie  (181  2)  and  Brandes 
(1863).  Milton  mentions  him  again  in  his  Tenure  of  Kings  and  Magistrates, 
p.  238  of  Prose  Works:  'In  the  year  1564  John  Knox,  a  most  famous  divine 
and  the  reformer  of  Scotland  to  the  presbyterian  discipline,' &c. ;  and  in  his 
Observations  on  the  Articles  of  Peace,  p.  268  of  Prose  Works :  '  But  these 
blockish  presbyters  of  Clandeboy  know  not  th:it  J<jhn  Knox,  who  was  the 
first  founder  of  presbytery  in  Scotland,  taught  professedly  the  doctrine  of 
deposing  and  of  killing  kings.' 

30.  their  dash,  i.  e.  their  erasure,  their  '  dele.' 


I20  AREOPAGITICA.  [P.  33. 

32.  per/unclory  =  meTc]y  and  narrowly  official.  Richardson  gives  from 
Bishop  Hall's  Sermon  on  Ecclesiastes  iii.  4  :  '  Let  not  our  mourning  be  per- 
functory and  fashionable  ;  but  serious  and  hearty  and  zealous,  so  that  we  may 
furrow  our  cheeks  with  our  tears.' 

to  what  an  author,  &c.  Holt  White  suggests  that  the  work  referred  to 
is  the  posthumous  volumes  of  Coke's  Institutes,  published  in  164I.  Or  is  it 
Knox's  History  of  the  Reformation  in  Scotland  ?     See  above,  1.  28. 

P.  33.  2.  till  a  more  conveniettt  season.  It  would  seem  that  such  a  season 
never  came,  as  neither  to  Festus,  whose  phrase  it  is  with  regard  to  a  second 
interview  with  St,  Paul  (Acts  xxiv.  25). 

3.  resented.     See  Trench's  Select  Glossary,  s.  v.  Resent. 

5.  such  iron  inoulds,  i.  e.  such  cancers. 

6.  ^/miy  =  gnaw.  See  instances  of  the  form  with  k  from  Chaucer,  More, 
and  North,  apud  Richardson. 

9.  the  more.     The  =  fey  that  much;  Lat.  eo.     It  is  an  old  ablative. 

13.  dunce.  See  Trench's  Study  of  Words,  p.  108,  and  Select  Glossary, 
$.  v.,  and  above,  p.  18,  1.  26. 

15.  every  hiowing  person.     See  below,  p.  46,  1.  13,  'a  knowing  people.* 

19.  set  so  light  by,  &c.  Cp.  'to  set  store  by,'  &c.  Perhaps  light  in  this 
phrase  should  be  lite  or  little,  i.e.  represents  the  old  lyte,  A.-S.  lytel.  By  = 
by  the  side  of,  in  comparison  with  ;  Gr.  irapa,  and  irpos.  So  '  to  set  so  light 
by,'  &c.,  is  'to  compare  with  what  is  so  little,'  &c.,  =  to  reckon  or  rate  at 
so  little,  put  so  low  an  estimate  upon. 

the  invention.  Shakspere  calls  Venus  and  Adonis  '  the  first  heir  of  my 
invention'     Henry  V,  Prologue  : 

'  O  for  a  Muse  of  fire  that  would  ascend 
The  brightest  heaven  of  invention,'  &c. 

the  ar/  =  the  power  to  express  and  embody  what  '  the  invention'  suggests. 

21.  //  =  the  whole  intellectual  power  of  which  the  specific  faculties — if 
'faculties'  is  not  an  obsolete  word— have  just  been  mentioned. 

26.  monopolizd.  The  age  of  State  monopolies,  which  had  been  felt  in- 
expressibly odious,  was  only  just  past.     See  Hallam's  Constit.  Hist.,  chap.  vi. 

27.  //c^e/s  =  perhaps  labels  describing  the  quality,  price,  &c.  of  the  goods 
on  which  they  were  placed;  or  labels  testifying  the  goods  are  licensed  to  be 
sold  ;  or  better,  as  Holt  White  :  '  Acknowledgements  for  goods  obtained  on 
credit  were  then  called  Ticliets ;'  see  the  instances  he  quotes.  Hence  our 
'slang*  phrase  'to  go  on  tick.'  In  derivation  ticket  is  connected  with  stick, 
&c.     The  old  Fr.  form  is  esticquette. 

statutes,  notes  Holt  White,  '  are  securities  given  for  debts  contracted  by 
the  purchase  of  merchandise.'     See  Shaks.  Sonnets  134,  Hamlet,  v.  I.  II3. 

s.'andards,  such  as  are  established  in  trade  matters,  as  for  weights  and 
measures,  &c.  See  Blackstone,  On  the  Royal  Prerogative  as  to  Weights 
and  Measures,  Kerr's  ed.  i.  270-272. 

28.  a  staple  commodity  =  a.  law-defined,  chartered  commodity.  See  Kerr's 
Blackstone,  i.  308 :    '  These   [customs  on  wool,  skins,  and  leather]   were 


p.  35']  NOTES,  121 

formerly  called  the  hereditary  customs  of  the  crown;  and  were  due  on  the  ex- 
portation only  of  the  said  three  commodities  and  of  none  other;  which  were 
styled  the  staple  commodities  of  the  kingdom,  because  they  were  obliged  to 
be  brought  to  those  ports  where  the  king's  staple  was  established  in  order  to 
be  there  first  rated  and  then  exported,'  &c. 

31.  like  that  imposed,  &c.     See  I  Sam.  xiii.  19-22. 

32.  coulter,  or  colter,  is  the  Lat.  culler,  which  is  from  colo. 

P.  34.  1 2.  disparagement  means  strictly  '  an  ill  pairing,'  a  mesalliance. 
So  disparage.  Faerie  Queene,  iv.  8.  50.  Cp.  Camden's  Elizabeth,  an.  1563: 
*  They  disdained  this  marriage  with  Dudley  as  altogether  disparageable  and 
most  unworthy  of  the  bloud  royal  and  royal  majesty.*  The  general  sense 
of  any  unworthy  association,  and  so  of  degradation,  prevailed  in  the  seven- 
teenth century. 

17.  jealotis.  Lowland  Scottish  retains  this  verb;  ste  jealouse  and  jalouse 
in  Jamieson. 

26.  nor  that  neither.  Observe  the  double  negative.  Instances  of  it  occur 
in  this  phrase  certainly  as  late  as  Goldsmith. 

P.  35.  2.  laick,  strictly  =  popular,  pertaining  to  the  people;  Gr.  XaiKoa; 
but  has  a  depreciatory  sense.  Cp.  lewd,  vidgar.  See  Of  Church  Govern- 
ment:  'We  have  learnt  the  scornful  term  of  laick,'  &c. 

5.  conceit,  i.  e.  conception.  Etymologically  conceit,  Ital.  concetto,  is  a  cor- 
ruption of  the  Latin  concephim. 

12.  enchiridion,  l7x«tptStoj/  =  hand-book,  Lat.  manuale.  Observe  the 
word-play  here ;  enchiridion  also  signifies  •  a  dagger,'  as  Thucydides,  iii.  70. 
Erasmus  sports  similarly,  as  Holt  White  notes :  •  Dedi  Enchiridion  [his  En- 
chiridion Militis  Christiani]  ;  ille  contra  gladiolum,  quo  non  magis  adhuc 
sum  usus  quam  ille  libro.*  Life  by  Jortin,  i.  358.  In  the  sense  of  a 
hand-book  the  word  was  common  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  cen- 
turies. 

the  castle  St.  Angelo  of  an  Imprimatur,  i.e.  without  the  protection  of 
some  Papacy-born  license.  He  refers  to  the  fact  that  the  Castle  of  St.  An- 
gelo, then  the  Pope's  prison,  was  once  the  papal  fortress.  Originally  the 
Mausoleum  of  Hadrian,  it  was  first  occupied  as  the  papal  fortress  by  Pope 
John  XII  in  the  tenth  century.  In  time  it  passed  to  other  uses.  See 
Murray's  Rome. 

16.  flourishes.     See  Love's  Labour's  Lost,  ii.  I.  13,  14: 

*  Good  lord  Boyet,  my  beauty,  though  but  mean. 
Needs  not  the  painted  flourish  of  your  praise.' 

Richard  III,  i.  3.  241 : 

♦  Poor  painted  queen,  vain  flourish  of  my  fortune.* 

The  word  was  technically  used  of  a  blast  of  trumpets,  as  Richard  HI,  iv. 
4.148. 

17.  what  I  have  heard,  Sec.  See  his  account  of  his  travels  in  his  Second 
Defence,  pp.  933,  934  of  Prose  Works. 

19.  their  lerned  men.     In  the  Second  Defence,  1.  c,  he  mentions  Jacob 


122  AREOPAGITICA,  [P.  36. 

Gad(H,  Carolo  Dati,  Frescobaldo,  &c.  at  Florence,  Lucas  Holstein  '  and  other 
learned  and  ingenious  men '  at  Rome,  Manso  Marquis  of  Villa  at  Naples. 

26.  fustian.  In  the  Apology  for  Smectymnuus  he  speaks  of  *  Apuleius, 
Arnobius,  or  any  modern  fustianist.'  FtisHan  denotes  originally  a  sort  of 
coarse  cloth;  then  stuffing,  padding;  in  Uteralure  it  denotes  words  without 
force,  mere  verbiage.     Cp.  bombast. 

27.  Galileo,  born  1564  (the  year  of  Shakspere's  birth),  died  1642.  See 
his  Life  by  Brewster;  also  Hallam's  Lit.  of  Europe,  1 600-1 650,  chap,  viii, 

28.  prii,otier  to  the  Inquisition.  He  seems  at  the  time  Milton  visited  him 
(1638)  to  have  been  in  what  the  Latins  called  libera  ciistodia,  i.e.  not  con- 
fined in  any  dungeon,  but  only  kept  under  a  certain  restraint,  as  that  he 
should  not  move  away  from  a  specified  neighbourhood,  or  perhaps  a  special 
house. 

for  thinking  in  astronomy,  &c.  As  is  well  known,  he  held  that  the  earth 
moved  round  the  sun,  and  not  the  sun  round  the  earth.  Milton  himself  can 
scarcely  be  said  to  have  accepted  his  views,  but  evidently  they  attracted  him. 
See  especially  Paradise  Lost,  viii.  122-158: 

'What  if  the  sun 
Be  centre  to  the  world,  and  other  stars,'  &c. ; 
also  iv.  591-597.     Wilkins  (1614-1672)  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  first 
Etiglishmen  who  formally  supported  them.     See  Morley's  First  Sketch  of 
English  Literature,  p.  5 7 1. 

29.  the  Franciscan,  &c.  On  the  connection  of  the  Dominicans  with  the 
Inquisition  see  above,  note  to  p.  6,  1.  26. 

30.  that  England  then,  &c.  See  Hallam's  Constitutional  History,  chap, 
viii. ;  also  Milton's  own  Of  Reformation  in  England,  &c. 

P.  36.  3.  forgotten,  i.  e.  made  forgotten,  caused  to  be  forgotten.  So 
sometimes  in  Elizabethan  English  remember  =  \.o  make  remembered,  &c.  See 
below,  p.  38,  1.  15. 

7.  parts,  i.  e.  of  the  world.     Sd  we  may  still  speak  of  Foreign  Parts. 

9.  in  time  of  Parlament.  From  1629  to  1640  had  been  a  time  of  no 
Parliament.     See  Hallarn. 

11.  without  envy  =  sine  invidia,  abs-it  invidia,  without  exciting  any  odium 
against  me.  Cp.  Reason  for  Chtirck  Government,  p.  43  of  Prose  Works : 
'  Yet  for  me  sitting  here  below  in  the  cool  element  of  prose,  a  mortal  thing 
among  many  readers  of  no  empyreal  conceit,  to  venture  and  divulge  unusual 
things  of  myself,  I  shall  petition  to  the  gentler  sort,  it  may  not  be  envy  to 
me.' 

12.  an  honest  guaestorship,  Sec.  Cicero  was  Lilybaean  quaestor  in  Sicily 
75  B.C. 

guaestorship.  The  duties  of  the  quaestor  were  concerned  with  the  public 
money. 

14.  Verres!  The  extortionate  propraetor  in  Sicily  73-71  B.C.;  against 
whom  the  famous  Verrine  Orations  of  Cicero  were  delivered,  or  composed. 
(Only  two  of  the  seven  were  acfjally  delivered.)    See  Forsyth's  Life  of  Cicero. 


I 


p.  37.]  NOTES.  123 

18.  just  reason  =  opObs  \6yot. 

30,  the  disburdmng,  &c.  =  the  expression  of  a  mere  whirr,  of  my  own. 

29.  the  shaking  of  every  leaf.  Observe  the  word-play.  Milton  is  not 
altogether  free  from  the  punning  plague  of  his  time.  See  the  notorious 
passage  in  Paradise  Lost,  vi.  558-567. 

P.  37.  I.  will  soon  put  it  out  0/  coti'roversie,  &c.  See  Milton's  lines  On 
the  New  Forcers  of  Conscience.  That  bishops  and  presbyters  were  iden- 
tical was  one  of  the  points  urged  by  the  Puritans.  See  Of  Prelatical  Episco- 
pacy, where  he  maintains  that  it  is  *  clear  in  Scripture  that  a  Bishop  and 
Presbyter  is  all  one  both  in  name  and  office.'  Of  course  in  the  text  Milton 
is  speaking  with  a  slightly  bitter  jocularity.  What  he  now  discovers  m 
z  moral  as  well  as  a  historical  identity ;  and  the  question  so  long  mooted  is 
settled.     Cp.  Short's  History  of  the  Church  of  England,  §  606. 

8.  dioces  is  from  the  Gr.  dioiKijais,  (i)  an  administration;  (2)  the  district 
administered. 

10.  a  my sticall  pluralist  =  zx\  extraordinary,  mysterious,  perplexing  plura- 
list ;  one  whose  pluralities  it  would  not  be  easy  to  define.  The  Episcopalian 
pluralist  was  at  least  an  intelligible  monstrosity. 

11.  sole  ordination,  &c.  The  rights  of  sole  ordination  and  of  spiritual 
jurisdiction  were  amongst  the  points  attacked  by  the  Smectymnuans  and 
defended  by  Bishop  Hall.     See  Animadversions,  p.  68  of  Prose  Works. 

novice  is  the  Lat.  novicius,  which  in  earlier  Latin  at  least  is  specially  used 
of  one  recently  made  a  slave;  thus  Plautus,  Captivi,  iii.  5.  60: 
*  Recens  captus  homo  nuperus  et  novitius.' 

Batchelor.  '  Le  bachelier,  proprietare  d'une  baccalaria  [  —  une  mdtairie, 
derived  from  Lat.  vaccd],  d'uu  bien  rural,  est  audessus  du  serf,  tout  en 
restant  un  vassal  d'ordre  inferieur.  Ce  mot  prend  ensuite  le  sens,  en  droit 
f^odal,  de  vassal  qui  marche  sous  la  bannifere  d'autrui ;  puis  de  gentilhomme 
trop  jeune  pour  lever  banniere,  qui  sert  sous  la  conduite  d'un  autre  seigneur ; 
puis  dans  la  langue  de  I'ancienne  University,  de  jeune  homme  qui  etudie 
sous  un  maitre  pour  acquerir  la  dignite  inferieure  a  celle  de  docteur  ;  enfin 
de  gradu6  d'une  Faculte.'  (Brachet.)  The  derivations  that  used  to  be  given 
from  bas  chevalier,  and  from  bacca  lauri  are  ridiculous  enough, 

Batchelor  of  Art.  So  Apology  for  Smectymnuus,  sect,  viii,  p.  89  of  Works. 
Art  is  here  used  in  a  collective  sense. 

15.  Covenants.  *  Cov'nants  were  the  engagements  which  the  Commons* 
House  had  drawn  up  for  signature  the  year  before  and  ordered  to  be  sub- 
scribed by  the  Members  of  both  Houses  of  Parliament  and  by  the  People. 
Beside  this  natural  test  or  pledge  of  fidelity  enjoined  by  the  Parliament  there 
were  voluntary  covenants  by  which  the  individuals  of  particular  bodir.j 
mutually  Dound  themselves  to  sustain  "  the  good  old  cause "  and  to  be 
faithful  to  each  other.'  (Holt  White,  who  refers  to  Memoirs  of  Colonel 
Hutchinson,  &c.)  See  in  any  History  of  England  some  account  of  the  Scotch 
Covenant  of  1638  and  the  English  of  1643. 

16.  Protestations.     In  May,  1641,  on  the  discovery  of  a  scheme  to  call 


124  AREOPAGITICA,  [P.  37. 

in  the  English  army  from  the  North  to  overawe  the  Parliament,  the 
Commons  drew  up  a  Protestation  declaring  their  resolve  to  uphold  the 
Protestant  faith  against  Romish  innovations,  to  protect  the  Kinp;'s  person, 
the  freedom  of  parliament,  and  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  subject.  This 
Protestation  was  also  taken  by  the  peers  and  bishops.  See  Annals  of 
England,  &c. 

17.  cAo/>  =  exchange.  The  original  is  the  A.-S.  cedpan,  to  buy.  Cp. 
chap-nia.n,  cheap,  Chepstow,  cheapen,  &c.  Lydgate  gives  the  Dutch  form 
in  London  Lyckpenny  (Skeat's  Specimens  of  Eng.  Lit.,  p.  25) : 

'  I  gat  me  out  of  the  doore. 
Where  Flemynges  began  on  me  for  to  cry 
"Master,  what  will  you  copen  or  by?'" 
Chop  is  still  common  enough  in  provincial  dialects,  and  amongst  schoolboys. 

18.  the  Palace  Metropolitan,  i.e.  Lambeth  Palace.  See  Stow's  Kentish 
Saxons,  an.  456,  apud  Richardson  :  ♦  It  [Kent]  hath  the  Archbishopricke  of 
Canterbury,  MetropoUtane  and  Primate  of  all  England,  and  the  Bishopricke 
of  Rochester,  and  kings  as  followeth.' 

20.  an  old  cannonicall  slight =i  well-known  trick  allowed  by  the  canon  law. 
cannonicall.      *  The    Apostolical    Canons   .  .  are   certainly  a   forgery   of 

much  later  date'  than  the  Apostles.  '  The  Greek  church  allows  eighty-five, 
the  Latin  fifty  of  them.  The  first  ecclesiastical  canon  was  promulgated 
A.D.  380.  Canon  law  was  first  introduced  into  Europe  by  Gratian,  the 
celebrated  canon-law  author  in  1151  (or  1 127),  and  was  introduced  into 
England,  19  Stephen,  1 154.'  (Haydn's  Diet,  of  Dates.)  The  second  part 
of  the  canon  law  consisted  of  'the  decretals '  =  a  collection  of  the  Popes' 
edicts  and  decrees,  and  the  decrees  of  councils. 

commuting  our  penance.  See  Jeremy  Taylor's  Rule  of  Conscience,  i.  4: 
'  Vitellescus  vows  to  fast  upon  the  last  of  February,  but,  changing  his  mind, 
believes  he  may  commute  his  fasting  for  alms;  he  resolves  to  break  his  fast 
and  give  a  ducket  to  the  poor.  •  But  when  he  had  new  dined,  he  discourses 
the  question  again,  and  thinks  it  unlawful  to  commute  and  that  he  is  bound 
to  pay  his  vow  in  kind ;  but  the  fast  is  broken,  and  yet  if  he  refuses  upon 
this  new  inquest  to  pay  his  commutation  he  is  a  deceiver  of  his  own  soul.' 
Liberty  of  Prophesying :  •  There  is  so  free  a  concession  of  indulgences 
appendant  to  all  these,  and  a  thousand  fine  devices  to  take  away  the  fear  of 
purgatory,  to  commute  or  expiate  penance,  that  in  no  sect  of  men  do  they 
with  more  ease  and  cheapnesse  reconcile  a  wicked  life  with  the  hopes  of 
heaven  then  in  a  Roman  communion.'  See  Remains  of  Archbp.  Grindal, 
Parker  Society  Ed.,  p.  457. 

21.  startle.     Observe  the  intransitive  use. 

22.  [How  would  you  parse  be  afraid?] 

conventicle  is  properly  a  diminutive  of  convent  =  3.  coming  together,  a 
meeting,  an  assembly.  In  the  seventeenth  century  it  came  to  be  used 
specially  of  nonconformist  meetings  and  meeting-houses.  Cp.  Beaumont's 
Psyche,  xvi.  80 ! 


r 


p.  38.]  NOTES.  125 

'The  fond  schismatick  and  heretick  fry 
Flatter  their  conventicling  cells  in  vain. 
As  if  the  sneaking  arms  of  privacy 

The  great  and  catholick  spirit  could  contain.' 
Taylor    (Liberty  of  Prophesying,  xii),  speaks  of  *  the  conventicles  of   the 
Arians,*  See  Constitutions  and  Canons  Ecclesiastical ;  No.  XI.  Maintainers  of 
Conventicles  censured,  and  XII.  Maintainers  of  Constitutions  made  in  Con- 
venticles censured.     P.  542  of  the  ed.  of  1844. 
26,  the  rock  of ,  &c.     See  Matt.  xvi.  18. 

31.  [What  is  the  grammatical  construction  of /o  shut  us  all  up  again  ?] 
33.    Who  cannot  but  discern,  &c.     There  is  a  pleonastic  negative  here. 
Either  '  who  cannot  discern '  or  '  who  can  but  discern '  would  have  been 
sufficient  (the  latter  phrase  would  have  been  ambiguous).     Cp.  the  much 
'  vexed  '  passage  in  Macbeth,  iii.  6,  8  : 

*  Who  cannot  want  the  thought,'  &c. 
P.  38.  2.  baited  down.     Bear-baiting,  as  is  weil  known,  was  a  favourite 
old  English  sport.     See   2   Henry  VI,  v.  i.  148-150  (Clifford  to  York,  of 
Warwick,  whose  cognisance  was  the  bear,  and  Salisbury)  : 

'  Are  these  thy  bears  ?     We'll  bait  thy  bears  to  death, 
And  manacle  the  bearward  in  their  chains, 
If  thou  dar'st  bring  them  to  the  baiting  place.' 
At  the  time  Milton  wrote  this  '  sport '  was  prohibited,  but  it  was  neither 
forgotten  nor  extinct. 

6.  voided  out  of  the  CA;vrcA  =  emptied  out  of,  ejected  fro/n  the  Church. 
Cp.  Chaucer's  Legend  of  Good  Women  : 

*  When  that  the  house  voided  was  of  hem  all 
He  looked  on  his  doughter  with  glad  chere.' 
Fabyan's  Chronicle,  Henry  III,  an.  1 230:  '  The  people  there  assemblyd  voydyd 
the  churche,  and  the  vycarrys  and  chanons   forsoke  theyr  deskys.'      Void 
and  avoid  originally  =  to  make  empty.     Strictly,  therefore,  we  should  speak 
of  voiding  or  avoiding  a  place,  not  a  person. 
9.  run,  i.  e.  let  run. 
13.  to  her  old  fetters.     See  note  above  to  p.  39,  1.  I. 

15.  remember  them  =  make  them  remember,  remind  them.  So  King 
Lear,  i.  4.  72  :  'Thou  but  remember' st  me  of  mine  own  conception,'  &c.  This 
factitive  use  of  verbs  is  very  conmion  in  Elizabethan  English.     Sec  above, 

p.  36. 1.3- 

16.  this  obstructing  violence,  Sic.  The  shameful  'violence'  shown  to- 
wards Leighton,  Prynne,  Bastwick,  Burton,  and  many  another  had  certainly 
'obstructed'  the  aims  of  the  perpetrators.  See  Hallam's  Constitutional 
History,  chaps,  vii,  viii.  Student's  Edition. 

19.  The  punishing  of  wits,  &c.  Cp.  Tacitus:  '  Punilii  ingeniis  gliscit 
aoctoritas.' 

20.  enhaunces  =  \\itxz\\y ,  puts  forward,  advances. 
23.  a    nursing  mother:    i.  e.  not   only   a   producer,   but  a  fosterer  and 


IZ6  AREOPAGITICA.  [P.  38. 

encourager.  Isaiah  xlJx.  23  :  '  And  kings  shall  be  thy  nursing  fathers  [«« 
Numb.  xi.  12],  and  their  queens  thy  nursing  mothers.''  See  Locke's  Letters 
on  Toleration,  Letter  3,  chap.  ix. 

24,  a  step-dame.  This  is  scarcely  an  accurate  word.  Step  =  A.-S.  steop, 
meaning  bereft,  and  thus  a  step-child  =  zn  orphan.  It  would  seem  to  have 
been  used  specially  of  a  child  who  has  lost  one  parent ;  and,  in  an  odd  way, 
in  the  case  of  the  surviving  parent  marrying  again,  the  same  prefix  was  used 
to  denote  the  parent  acquired  by  the  marriage.  Thus,  while  strictly  speak- 
ing a  step-mother  or  father  should  mean  a  mother  or  father  who  has  suffered 
a  bereavement,  it  does  in  fact  denote  just  the  opposite.  In  the  common 
usage,  all  that  a  step-mother  means  is  one  who  has  to  do  with  a  step-child. 
For,  a  similar  misuse  cp.  the  terms  grandchild  and  grandmother.  Grand- 
mother  is  intelligible  enough  ;  but  grandchild !  Contrast  the  Fr,  petite-fille. 
For  the  sense  of  step-dame  here,  cp.  Gr.  fxijTpvid,  Lat.  noverca,  Fr.  belle  ^ 
mere.  Cp.  Sidney's  ^/xjZ. /or  Poet.,  p.  60,  ed.  Arber:  ...  'to  inquire  why 
England,  the  mother  of  excellent  wits,  should  be  grown  so  hard  a  step-mother 
to  poets,'  &c.  See  the  story  of  Battos  in  Herodotus,  iv.  154,  of  Etearchos' 
second  wife  and  her  step-daughter:  ij  5e  itnaiXOovaa  eSiKaiev  etvai  Kal  r^ 
epyof  /xrjTpvir)  tt)  ^povifxr),  Trape'xouaa  re  KUKd.  Kal  rrav  kv'  avrfi  p.rixavo:ixivrj. 
Observe  how  the  dying  Alkestis  entreats  Admetos,  for  their  children's  sake, 
not  to  marry  again  (Euripides,  Alkestis,  304-310): 

TovTOvs  [the  children]  avaaxov  deanoras  ijxojv  dopLojv, 

Kal  p^  'Triyfiprjs  roiffde  p.r]Tpviav  t4kvois, 

^Tis  KOKiuv  ova*  ipov  yvvf)  (pOoVO) 

roTs  aoici  Kap.oTs  iraial  x*'/'"  TrpoaffaXfi. 

pLTi  hrjTa  SpaarfS  ravTO.  7',  alrovpai  c'  kyd/. 

€X^P<i  7^P  V  '''^I'Ovaa  prjrpvia  renvois 

ToTs  vp6cr0',   lxt5^'Jys  ovSiv  ijinwTipa, 
^schylus  calls  a  certain  perilous  coast  '  a  step-mother  of  ships '  (pirjTpvid 
V€U)V,  Prometheus,  7^7)-     Cp.  Horace's 

*  Quid  ut  noverca  me  intueris,  aut  uti 
Petita  ferro  bellua  ?  ' — Epodes,  v.  9  ; 
Vergil's  '  injusta  noverca  '  (Eclogues,  iii.  33)  ;  '  saevae  novercae  '  (Georgics, 
ii.  128);  Ovid's  *  sceleratae  novercae'  (Fasti,  iii,  853)  ;  *  terribiles  novercae' 
(Metamorphoses,  i.  147)  ;  Plautus'  '  apud  novercam  queri  '  =  to  complain  in 
vain  (Pseudolus,  i.  3.  95)  ;  Tacitus*  '  novercalia  odia  '  (Annals,  xii.  2)  ; 
Seneca's  (the  Elder)  '  novercalibus  oculis  intueri '  (Controversiae,  iv.  6), 
&c.  In  the  Romaunt  of  the  Rose,  Fortune  is  described  to  be  '  as  a  step- 
mother envious.'  See  also  Shakspere,  Troilus  and  Cressida,  iii.  2.  201, 
Cymb.  i.  i.  70,  &c. 

27.  to,  i.  e.  with  regard  to,  in  respect  of.     We  should  rather  say  '  from.' 
uses.     This  present  in  this  sense  is  almost  obsolete.     With  regard  to  the 
preterite,  notice  how  the  pronunciation  is  varied  with  the  sense.     In  the 
sense  '  was  wont '  the  *  s  *  is  sharp  ;  in  the  other  sense,  it  is  flat. 

39.  com/»/«»/o«  =  constitution.      Berners'  Froissart,  i.  chap.  326:   'This 


p.  39.]  NOTES,  127 

was  a  man  of  feble  complexion  and  sickly,  and  endured  moche  payne  more 
that  any  other.*     Dryden's  Death  of  Oliver  Cromwell : 

•  For  from  all  tempers  he  could  service  draw ; 

The  worth  of  each  with  its  alloy  he  knew. 
And,  as  the  confident  of  nature,  saw 

How  she  complexions  did  divide  and  brew.' 
Bacon  speaks  of  '  empiric  physicians  which  commonly  have  a  few  pleasing 
receipts,  whereupon  they  are  confident  and  adventurous,  but  know  neither 
the  causes  of  diseases  nor  the  complexions  of  patients,  nor  peril  of  accidents, 
nor  the  true  method  of  cures.'  (Advancement  of  Learning,  i.  2.  3  j  see 
Glossary  in  Aldis  Wright's  edition.)  See  Chaucer's  Prologue,  of  the  Frank- 
lin, 333 : 

•  Of  his  complexioun  he  was  sangwyn,'  &c. ; 
where  cowz/)/fx/on  =  temperament.     The  modern  meaning  appears  certainly 
in  the  sixteenth  century  ;    as  in    Shakspere,    see  Sonnet  xviii.  6,  &c.      See 
Schmidt's  Shakespeare  Lexicon  s,  v. 

Truth  is  compared,  &c.  Cp.  Psalm  Ixxxv.  li :  •  Truth  shall  spring  out 
of  the  earth '  ('  shall  flourish  out  of  the  earth,'  Common  Prayer). 

P.  39.  I.  Assembly.  This  was  the  proper  title  of  what  answered  in  some 
degree  to  the  Convocation  of  the  Episcopalians. 

5.  There  he,  who  knows  not  that  there  be,  &c.  See  The  Likeliest  Means  to 
Remove,  &c.,  close  to  the  end,  p.  438  of  Prose  Works : '  But  while  Protestants, 
to  avoid  the  due  labour  of  understanding  their  own  religion,  are  content  to 
lodge  it  in  the  breast,  or  rather  in  the  books,  of  a  clergyman,  and  to 
take  it  thence  by  scraps  and  mammocks,  as  he  dispenses  it  in  his  Sunday's 
dole,  they  will  be  always  learning  and  never  knowing ;  always  infants ; 
always  either  his  vassals,  as  lay  papists  are  to  their  priests,  or  at  odds  with 
him,  as  reformed  principles  give  them  some  light  to  be  not  wholly  con- 
formable ;  whence  infinite  disturbances  in  the  state,  as  they  do,  must  needs 
follow.' 

6.  [Explain  o/here.] 

professors  =  Puritans.  May  speaks  of  *  strict  Professors  of  Religion 
commonly  called  Puritans.'  (History  of  the  Parliament  which  began  in 
1640.) 

7.  arrant  is  said  to  be  derived  from  A.-S.  org,  or  ^ar^  =  wicked,  bad; 
cp.  Dutch  and  Germ.  org.  Arch,  is  probably  cognate.  The  -ant  is  probably, 
as  Wedgwood  suggests,  a  corruption  of  an  inflectional  -en  ;  cp.  Romaunt  and 
Roman,  Alyaunt  and  alien,  tyrant  and  Fr.  tyran,  &c.  Also  the  form  may 
have  been  influenced  by  some  fancied  connection  o(  the  word  with  Lat. 
errans. 

[Explain  an  implicit  faith. '\ 

8.  any  lay  Papist  of  Loretto  =  *  2iny  one  of  the  fervent,  uncompromising 
believers  who  constitute  the  secular  (i.  e.  uninitiated)  population  of  such  a 
centre  of  papal  superstition  as  Loretto.' 

Loretto,  a  town  of  Central  Italy,  not  far  from  Ancona,  was  one  ot  the 


128  AREOPAGITICA,  [P.  39. 

most  frequented  places  of  pilgrimage  during  the  Middle  Ages.  This  popu- 
larity it  owed  to  the  asserted  presence  there  of  the  Santa  Casa — the  very 
house  whose  walls  witnessed  the  birth  of  the  Virgin  herself,  the  Annun- 
ciation, the  Incarnation,  and  the  growth  of  the  Incarnate.  This  venerable 
fabric  had  been  moved  by  angels  from  its  original  site  in  Palestine,  when 
the  Saracens  destroyed  the  temple  which  the  Empress  Helena  had  built  over 
it.  It  rested  for  three  years  on  the  coast  of  Dalmatia.  Then  in  1 294  it 
was  moved  again — to  a  grove  near  Loretto.  '  After  three  times  changing 
its  position,  it  at  length  settled  down,  in  1 295,  on  the  spot  it  now  occupies.* 
See  Murray's  Handbook  of  Central  Italy  and  Florence,  Stanley's  Sinai  and 
Palestine,  &c. 

10.  piddling.  In  Reformation  in  England,  Milton  speaks  of  'the  ignoble 
hucksterage  of  pidling  tithes,'  &c.  The  word  is  probably  connected  with 
petty,  Fr.  petit,  &c. 

11,  mysteries.  The  spelling  should  be  'misteries;'  for  the  word  in  this 
sense  is  derived  from  the  Lat.  ministerium.  Popular  etymology  connected 
it  with  the  Gr.  nvar-qpiov ;  hence  the  false  orthography.  See  Max  Miiller's 
Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Language,  Second  Series,  p.  254;  cp.  Chaucer's 
Prologue,  613: 

*  In  youthe  he  lerned  hadde  a  good  mester ; 
He  was  a  wel  good  wright,  a  carpenter.' 
skill  =  \iQ  skilful  enough,  manage,  &c.  The  verb  is  more  common  in 
Elizabethan  English  as  an  impersonal,  in  the  sense  of  •  it  matters  not,' 
•  makes  no  difference  ; '  thus  Hooker,  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  v.  78  :  •  Where- 
fore to  passe  by  the  name,  let  them  use  what  dialect  they  will,  whether  we 
call  it  a  priesthood,  a  presbytership,  or  a  ministrie,  it  shilleth  not,'  &c. 

13.  hear  up  with,  i.  e.  keep  pace  with. 

14.  What  does  he  therefore  but  resolvs,  &c.  We  should  rather  say  're- 
solve,' using  the  infinitive  dependent  on  '  does.'  The  former  usage  is  the 
more  correct ;  for  in  the  latter  ^  does '  is  in  fact  used  in  two  different  ways — 
(l)  as  a  complete  verb,  and  (2)  as  an  auxiliary. 

22.  commendatory.  South's  Sermons  :  'To  sooth  and  flatter  such  persons 
would  be  just  as  if  Cicero  had  spoke  commendatories  of  Anthony,  or  made 
panegyricks  upon  Catiline.' 

25.  flfmafwa// =  dividable  (Cudworth),  separable  (Paradise  Lost,  xii.  82) : 
•  Yet  know  withal, 
Since  thy  original  lapse,  true  liberty 
Is  lost,  which  always  with  right  reason  dwells 
Twinned,  and  from  her  hath  no  dividual  being.* 
Something  different  is  the  sense  in  Paradise  Lost,  vii.  382  ;  the  moon 

'  Her  reign 
With  thousand  lesser  lights  dividual  holds.' 
J^O.  after  the  malmsey,  &c.     Breakfast  did  not  become  '  a  stated  meal ' 
till  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century.     '  Previously  it  had  been  only 
occasionally  served  in  the  establishments  of  the  great.     Queen  Elizabeth 


p.  40.]  NOTES,  129 

breakfasted  off  meat,  bread  and  cheese,  and  ale ;  her  morning  table  was 
sometimes  spread  sumptuously,  but  the  usual  custom  among  both  rich  and 
poor  was  merely  to  take  a  morning  draught.  "  My  diet,"  says  Cotton,  "  is 
always  one  glass  as  soon  as  I  am  dressed,  and  no  more  till  dinner."  At 
Harper's  or  at  the  Crown,  Pepys  drank  his  morning  draught,  which  was 
usually  a  glass  of  buttered  ale,'  &c.  (Our  English  Home,  pp.  188,  189.) 
Both  tea  and  coffee  were  introduced  into  England  about  the  middle  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  but  they  did  not  become  common  for  many  a 
long  year.  > 

the  malmsey.  Chaucer  calls  it  'malvesie.'  See  the  Shipman's  Tale  14481. 
Ed.  Wright : 

•  With  him  brought  he  a  jubbe  of  Malvesie, 
And  eek  another  ful  of  wyn  vernage 

And  volantyn,  as  ay  was  his  usage.' 
Another  rorm  is  mabnesyne,  as  in  The  Squire  of  Lowe  Degre : 
'Ye  shal  have  rumney  &  mabnesyne. 
Both  ypocrasse  and  vernage   wine,'  &c. 
The  name  was  derived  from  Malvasia,  'a  town  upon  the  eastern  coast  of  the 
Morea,  near  the  site  of  the  ancient  Epidauriis  Limera,  within  a  small  distance 
from  Crete.'     (Tyrwhitt.)     The  Hostess  describes  Bardolph  as  '  that  arrant 
mabjisey-nose  knave.'     (2  Henry  IV.  ii,  i.) 
well  spicU  hruage.     Drant's  Horace,  Sat.  ii.  4  : 

•  As  if  in  brewinge  spyced  wines 

Thou  shouldst  bestow  muche  paine,'  &c. 

31.  he  uhose  morning  appetite,  &c.      See  Matthew  xxi.  19;  Mark  xi.  13. 

P.  40.  6.  Publicans ^'Lzt.  publicani,  as  in  the  A.  V.  of  the  New  Test. 

the  (imaging  and  the  poimdaging,  &c.  Tunnage  and  poundage,  *  the 
original  of  our  present  Customs  duties,  consisted,  beside  some  less  important 
matters,  of  a  duty  of  3s.  on  each  tun  of  wine  imported  and  of  is.  in  the 
pound  on  the  value  of  other  goods ;  aliens  generally  paid  double.'  (Annals 
of  England.)  The  student  need  scarcely  be  reminded  that  it  was  the  king's 
levying  these  duties  on  his  own  authority  that  formed  one  of  the  gravest 
dissatisfactions  of  the  Parliaments  of  Charles  I.     See  Hallam.y' 

8.  'em  (  =  hem,  now  superseded  by  them)  is  here  reflexive,  as  very 
commonly  in  EHz.  Eng. 

12.  wAa/  =  what  for,  why;  so  Lat.  quid,  Gr.  ri.  So  Julius  Caesar, 
ii.  I.  123,  124: 

•  What  need  we  any  spur  but  our  own  cause 
To  prick  us  to  redress?' 

So  in  older  English  passim,  e.  g.  in  Chaucer. 

18.  starch  is  a  softened  form  of  stark,  stiff,  rigid. 

19.  stanch  is  ultimately  connected  with  stagnant,  through  Old  Fr.  estancher, 
Low  Lat.  stancare.     Cp.  Old  English  stank  zz  a  stagnant  pool. 

24.  is  at  his  Hercules  pillars  in  a  warm  hsnejice,  i.  e.  has  reached  the 
furthest   point   of  his  expectations,  has  realised  his   utmost  hopes  in   the 

K 


130  AREOPAGITICA.  [P.  40. 

matter  of  preferment.  Hercules  pillars  =  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar  (see 
Spenser's  Prothalamion  148,  and  note  in  Longer  English  Poems),  were  for 
many  an  age  the  western  boundary  of  the  world ;  see  Pindar's  Olympia,  iii.  77 ; 
&c.  And  so  the  phrase  is  used  by  Bacon,  and  here,  in  the  general  sense  of 
a  term  or  limit ;  cp.  '  ultima  Thule.'  See  Adv.  of  Learning,  ed.  Wright, 
ii.  I.  3  '  For  why  should  a  few  received  authors  stand  up  like  Hercules' 
columns,  beyond  which  there  should  be  no  sailing  or  discovering,  since  we 
have  so  bright  and  benign  a  star  as  your  Majesty  to  conduct  and  prosper 
.us?' 

26.  to  finish  his  circuit  =  coudude  his  studies.  Cp.  *  When  I  have  neither 
yet  completed  to  my  mind  the  full  circle  of  my  private  studies,'  &c.  {Reason 
for  Church  Government,  p.  43  of  Prose  Works). 

an  English  concordance.  '  The  first  concordance  was  made  under  the 
direction  of  Hugo  de  St.  Charo,  who  employed  as  many  as  500  monks 
on  it.*  (Haydn.)  Jeremy  Taylor  speaks  of  '  the  Latin  Concordances  of 
S.  Hierom's  Bible  published  by  Stephens.'  Cruden's  Concordance  was  pub- 
lished in  London  in  1737. 

27.  a  topic  folio  =  *  a  commonplace  book.'  Aristotle's  Tunoi  (as  Rhetoric, 
i.  2.  211)  =  Cicero's  Communes  loci  (De  Oratore,  iii.  27),  whence  our  phrase, 
though  in  a  slightly  altered  sense.  See  Cicero,  1.  c. :  '  Consequentur  etiam 
illi  loci  qui  quanquam  proprii  causarum  et  inhaerentes  in  earum  nervis  esse 
debent,  tamen  quia  de  universa  re  tractari  solent,  communes  a  veteribus 
nominati  sunt,'  &c.  Bacon  says  a  good  word  for  commonplace  books,  or 
rather  for  the  theory  of  them,  in  the  Adv.  of  Learning,  ii.  15.  I ;  *  but,'  he 
adds,  'this  is  true  that  of  the  methods  of  commonplaces  that  I  have  seen, 
there  is  none  of  any  sufficient  worth :  all  of  them  carrying  merely  the  face 
of  a  school  and  not  of  a  world,  and  referring  to  vulgar  matters  and  pedantical 
divisions,  without  all  life  or  respect  to  action.'  Milton  himself  kept  one, 
but  in  no  servile  style ;  see  the  edition  of  it  issued  by  the  Camden  Society. 

28.  a  sober  graduatship  =  a  steady  University  career. 

a  Harmony  =  a  handbook  bringing  into  agreement,  or  attempting  to  do 
so,  seemingly  incongruous  Scripture  narratives ;  a  Diatessaron. 

a  Catefia  =  a  list  or  series  or  •  chain  '  of  authorities.  Especially  famous 
in  its  time  was  the  Catena  Aurea  of  Thomas  Aquinas.  (The  word  chain  is, 
in  fact,  a  corruption  of  catena.) 

31.  sol  fa.     See  above,  p.  107,  note  on  gammuth. 

P.  41.  2.  charge  =  duty. 

sermoning.     Chaucer  has  the  word  in  a  general  sense  (Knight's  Tale) : 
'  I  trow  ther  nedeth  litel  sermoning 
To  maken  you  assente  to  this  thing.' 
Holinshed's   Description   of  Ireland,  chap.  4 :    '  You    sermon    to   us  of 
dungeon  appointed  for  offenders  and  miscredents.' 

3.  interlinearie  =  line-beneath-line  translations.  Jeremy  Taylor  (Sermon 
iv.)  refers  to  an  interlineary  translation  of  the  Hebrew  Bible,  how  it  renders 
*  nechosheth  '  by  '  exactores.'     See  the  passage,  apud  Richardson. 


i 


p.  41.]  NOTES,  131 

breviaries  —  abridgments  (the  Fr.  abreger,  whence  our  abridge,  is  a  •  cor- 
ruption '  of  the  Lat.  abbreviare),  compendiums.  Specially,  it  denoted  a  concise 
form  of  the  Roman  Catholic  service-book,  containing  '  the  seven  canonical 
hours;'  originally  called  the  '  custos.' 

synopses  =  general  views.     Synopsis  was  a  common  book-title. 

loitering  gear  =  hzy  apparatus,  slovenly  tackle,  lifeless  stuff.  Cp.  'loitering 
books  and  interlineary  translations,'  in  the  Apology  for  Smectymnuus.  Gear 
is  the  A.-S.  geara  or  gearwa,  preparation.  It  is  used  in  a  very  general  sense 
in  Eliz.  Eng. ;  as  Troilus  and  Cressida,  i.  i.  6,  says  Pandarus  of  Troilus' 
passion  for  Cressida : 

*  Will  this  gear  ne'er  be  mended?* 
lb.   iii.   2.    220;     Merchant    of    Venice,   i.    I.    Iio;    ii.   2.  176;    Comus, 
167,  &c. 

6.  our  London  trading  St.  Thomas,  &c.  i.  e.  our  largest  and  busiest 
marts  are  as  well  stocked  with  sermons  as  with  any  other  ware  whatever. 
This  seems  to  be  the  meaning  of  this  very  difficult  passage ;  but  the  details 
of  the  expression  are  obscure.  St.  Thomas  may  refer  to  the  church  of 
St.  Thomas  Apostle  in  Knightriders  Street  in  Vintry  Ward  (see  Stow's 
Survey  of  London,  ed.  Thoms,  p.  92) ;  Si.  Martin  to  that  of  St.  Martin  le 
Grand  (there  were  other  churches  of  St.  Martin,  as  in  the  Vintry,  not 
rebuilt  after  the  fire,  &c).  What  is  meant  by  St.  Hugh  I  do  not  know. 
There  has  never  been  in  London  a  church  dedicated  to  a  saint  of  that  name. 
(The  only  Church  in  England  so  dedicated  is  said  to  be  at  Quethiock  in 
Cornwall.)  Can  St.  Hugh  possibly  denote  Lincoln  ?  Not  that  Lincoln 
Cathedral  is  dedicated  to  him  (it  is  dedicated  to  the  Virgin)  ;  but  because 
his  fame  was  so  especially  connected  with  it.  See  some  account  of  the 
famous  Bishop  Hugh  in  Murray's  Cathedrals.  It  is  perhaps  worth  noticing 
that  the  church  and  college  of  St.  Thomas  Aeon  were  granted  to  the 
Mercers.  See  Milman's  St.  Paul's,  p.  166.  Both  of  the  churches  of 
St.  Thomas  and  that  of  St.  Martin  just  mentioned  were  in  the  midst  of  old 
London  commerce.  And  it  is  to  be  noted  that  in  the  old  days  commerce 
gathered  round  churches,  churches  standing  in  central  positions.  *  The 
market  was  held  before  the  church  door.'  (Knight's  London,  iv.  212.) 
As  for  in  his  vestry,  Mr.  Lobb  suggests  that  vestry  here  =  clothes-mart ; 
and  this  is  not  an  impossible  sense  for  Milton  to  give  the  word  (Pliny  xv. 
8.  8  uses  vestiarum  for  a  clotheschest,  wardrobe),  but  there  seems  no  other 
instance  anywhere  of  such  an  use.  Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  can  I  find  any 
other  mention  of  '  vestries,'  in  the  ordinary  sense,  used  for  places  of  sale. 
It  is  possible  that  buying  and  selling  went  on  actually  inside  the  churches,  as 
in  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem  (John  ii.  13-17).  It  is  well  known  that  much 
'business'  was  transacted  inside  old  St.  Paul's  (see  chap.  xi.  pp.  286-28S  of 
Milman's  St.  Paul's,  &c.).  But  the  only  mention  of  actual  commerce  inside 
a  church  I  have  noted  is  in  a  Letter  of  Grosseieste  of  the  thirteenth  century  ; 
see  p.  71  of  Mr.  Luard's  edition  of  the  Epistolae,  where  is  reported  a 
regulation  of  the  king,  a.d.  i  236  (?), '  ut  mercatorcs  de  caetero  in  nundinis 

K  2 


132  AREOPAGITICA.  [P.  41. 

suis  apud  Northamptoniam  nuUas  merces  exponant  venales,  nee  emant  vel 
vendant  in  ecclesia  vel  in  coemeterio  Omnium  Sanctorum  apud  Northamp- 
toniam.* In  the  Calendar  of  State  Papers  for  1637,  Domestic  Series,  ed. 
Bruce,  p,  508,  there  is  a  notice  of  cockfighting  in  a  church,  at  Knotting, 
Bedfordshire.  But  see  Appendix  below,  p.  153. 

11.  impard  =  protected  by  paUsadi:ig.  Holland  speaks  of  '  those  impaVd 
places  where  youths  prepare  themselves  for  the  wrestle.'  (Plutarch,  p.  925.) 
Cp.  Reason  of  Church  Government,  i.  2  :  '  And  thus  we  find  here  that  the 
rules  of  Church  discipline  are  not  only  commanded  but  hedg'd  about  with 
such  a  terrible  impalement  of  commands  as  he  that  will  break  through 
wilfully  to  violate  the  least  of  them  must  hazard  the  wounding  of  his  con- 
science even  unto  death.' 

12.  his  back  dore,  i.  e.  the  postern. 

15.  waking.     Watch  is  orig.  a  variant  ot  wake;  see  p.  31,  1.  5,  note. 
20.  fend  =  forfend,  defend.    The  sxvnpiefendo  is  not  found  in  classical  Latin. 
See  Percy  Folio  MS.  i.  21 : 

'  He  that  does  that  deed,  sayes  Robin, 
He  count  him  for  a  man ; 
But  that  while  will  I  draw  my  sword. 
And  fend  it,  if  I  can. 
Percy  Folio  MS.  i.  365  : 

'  Men  called  him  Sir  Gray  Steele ; 
I  assayed  him,  and  he  fended  weele.* 
See  Jamieson's  Sc.  Diet. 

24.  hold  the  truth  guiltily.  Cp.  Romans  i.  18  :  '  For  the  wrath  of  God 
is  revealed  from  heaven  against  all  ungodliness  and  unrighteousness  of  men, 
who  hold  the  truth  in  unrighteousness.'' 

25.  Condemn  not,  &c.  i.  e.  do  not  ourselves  pronounce  our  teaching  to 
be  feeble  and  vain. 

27.  gadding  rout.     Cp.  Samson  Agonistes,  674-677: 

'  Nor  do  I  name  of  men  the  common  rout 
That  wandering  loose  about 
Grow  up  and  perish,  as  the  summer  fly, 
Heads  without  name,  no  more  remembered.' 
Gadding  =  going  up  and  down,  roving,  &c.     Bale  speaks  of  *  Gadders, 
pylgrymes,    and    ydoll    seekers'     (Apology,    fol.    98),    and    of    '  gapynges, 
gaddynges,  ydoll  sensynges  and  watter  conjurynges,  wyth  many  other  fine 
toyes,  whych    all  came   from   Rome,'   &c.      See   Richardson.      Cp.    Prov. 
(e.  g.  Westmoreland),  ^gad-about*    See  '  rout'  in  Lycidas,  61,  and  Jerram's 
note. 

33.  Christ,  &c.      See  St,  John  xviii.  19,  20 :  '  The  high  priest  then  asked 
Jesus  of  his  disciples   and  of  his  doctrine.     Jesus  answered  him,  I  spake 
openly  to  the  world ;     I  ever  taught  in  the  synagogue  and  in  the  temple, 
whither  the  Jews  always  resort ;  and  in  secret  have  I  said  nothing,'  &c. 
P.  42.  19.  stop,  i.  e.  blockade. 


p.  43-]  NOTES.  133 

creeks.     Creek  radically  =  a  bend,  a  winding,  conn,  with  erook. 

20.  otir  richest  Marchandize,  Truth.  '  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like 
unto  a  merchant  man,  seeking  goodly  pearls ;  who,  when  he  had  found  one 
pearl  of  great  price,  went  and  sold  all  that  he  had  and  bought  it.'  (St. 
Matthew  xiii.  45,  46.) 

22.  Antichristian  malice  and  mystery.  The  'Protestants'  of  Milton's 
time,  as  indeed  many  of  the  less  enlightened  of  our  own,  had  assurance 
enough  to  identify  the  Church  of  Rome  with  the  Babylon  of  the  Revela- 
tion. See  Rev,  xvii.  3-7.  Or  mystery  here  may  — craft,  fraud;  cp.  Paradise 
Regained,  iii.  249. 

24.  sf/^/^  =  establish. 

25.  the  Turk,  Sec.  Printing  was  not  allowed  in  Turkey  till  just  a 
century  and  a  half  ago.  Mr.  Lobb  states  that  '  newspapers  seem  not  to  have 
made  their  appearance  in  Turkey  till  1831.  The  first  was  a  Government 
Gazette,  printed  in  Constantinople,  and  called  the  "  Tatler  of  Events." ' 

Alcoran.  .4/  =  the;  coran,  =  a.  reading,  or  lecture.  See  Sale's  Koran, 
p.   190,  note,  edit.  1836.     Cp.  our  Bible  (  =  the  Book). 

30.  but  he  who  thinks,  &c.     His  Of  Reformation  in  England  is  a  masterly 
protest  against  any  such  notion  of  finality. 
32.  prospect  =  view,  aim. 

3.^  the  mortalle  glasse,  &c.  G/ass  =  looking-glass,  mirror.  So  Hamlet  iii. 
I J  Gascoigne's  Steel  glass,  &c.  See  l  Cor.  xiii.  12:  '  For  now  we  see 
through  [  =  by  means  of]  a  glass,  darkly  ;  but  then  face  to  face.'  Cp.  2  Cor. 
iii.  18.  See  also  old  romances  of  chivalry  ;  also  Chaucer's  Squire's  Tale,  &c. 
P.  43.  I.  beatific  t//sion  =  the  sight  of  God  'face  to  face:'  see  Par. 
Lost,  iii.  60 : 

*  About  him  all  the  Sanctities  of  Heaven 
Stood  thick  as  stars,  and  from  his  sight  received 
Beatitude  past  utterance.' 
On  which  Todd  quotes  from  Sandys'  Paraphrase  on  Job  (1637): 
'  Againe  when  all  the  radiant  sons  of  Light 
Before  his  throne  appear'd,  whose  only  sight 
Beatitude  infused.* 

^Comp.  'Him  whose  happy-making  sight,'  &c.  in  lines  on  Time.    Sec  Paradise 

>st,  i.  684 ;    also  the  splendid  passage  near  the  end  of  Of  Reformation  in 

[igland,    beginning  'Then,  amidst  the  hymns  and   hallelujahs   of  Saints:' 

,  .  'Where  they  undoubtedly  that  by  their  labours,  counsels  and  prayers,  have 

5en  earnest  for    the  common   good   of   religion   and   their  country,  shall 

Bceive    above   the   inferiour   orders   ot    the   blessed  the   regal   addition    of 

incipalities,  legions,  and  thrones  into  their  glorious  titles,  and  in  super- 

jinence  of  beatific  vision,  progressing  the  dateless  and  irrevoluble  circle  of 

lity,  shall  clasp  inseparable  hands  with  joy  and  bliss,  in  overmeasure  for 

^ever.'     (Works,  p.  21.)    Jeremy  Taylor's  Sermons,  ii.  I  :   'As  the  saints  and 

angels  in  their  state  of  beatific  vision  cannot  chuse  but  love  God ;    and  yet 

the  liberty  of  their  choice  is  not  lessen'd ;    because  the  object  fills  all  the 


134  AREOPAGITICA,  [P.  43. 

capacity  of  the  will  and  the  understanding,'  &c.  This  *  vision,'  called  also 
'  Intuitive,*  was  distinguished  from  the  '  Abstractive,'  and  that  '  of  Com- 
prehension.' 

7.  the  Egyptian  Typhon.  This  was  the  brother  of  Osiris,  who  was 
guilty  of  rebellion,  murder,  and  usurpation.  After  a  long  search  Isis,  the 
wife  of  Osiris,  found  her  husband's  mangled  remains ;  and,  helped  by  her 
son  Horus,  overthrew  Typhon.  See  Plutarch's  Isis  and  Osiris.  This 
Typhon  was,  according  to  the  later  poets  at  least,  the  Greek  monster  of 
the  name,  called  also  Typhoeus.  See  Ovid's  Met.,  v.  318-331,  where  a 
song  which 

'  Falsoque  in  honore  Gigantas 
Ponit  et  extenuat  magnorum  facta  deorum' 
relates  how  the  monster  broke  from  his  earth  dungeon  and  drove  the  gods 
before  him  into  Egypt,  where  they  disguised  themselves  as  best  they  might. 
See,  as  Jebb  notes,  Dollinger's  Gentile  and  Jew,  tr.  by  Darnell,  i.  445. 

9.  the  good  Osiris.     He  had  civilised  a  wild  and  barbarous  people. 

12.  far^7v//  =  care-stricken,  anxious.     So  Luke  x.  41,  &c. 

16.  her  Masters  second  cotnming.     See  I  Thess.  iv.  16,  17. 

19.  feature.     Feature  is  a  corruption  of  the  Latin  factura  {c^.  feat,  fact, 
&c.)  =  shape,  fashion,  'make.'     See  Chaucer's  Manciple's  Tale: 
'  Therto  he  was  the  semlieste  man 
That  is  or  was,  sithen  the  world  bigan; 
What  nedith  it  h\s  fetures  to  descrive?' 
Holland's  Ammianus,  p.  27:  'A  man  of  goodly  presence  and  well  favoured, 
and  comely  shape  znd  feature  of  body,  his  lims  streight  and  proportionably 
compact,'     (Apud  Richardson.)     See  As  You  Like  It,  III.  iii.  3  ;  Par.  Lost, 
X.  278: 

•  So  scented  the  grim  feature,  and  upturned 
His  nostril  wide  into  the  murky  air.' 
Bacon  hz%facture,  as  Adv.  of  Learning,  ii,  9.  2,  ed.  Wright:  •  For  Aristotle 
hath  very  ingeniously  and  diligently  handled  ihQ  factures  of  the  body  but  not 
the  gestures  of  the  body,  which  are  no  less  comprehensible  by  art  and  of 
greater  use  and  advantage.*  Elsewhere  he  speaks  of  *  the  facture  or  framing 
of  the  inward  parts.'     See  Trench's  Sel.  Gloss.,  s.  v. 

22.  obsequies  =  acts  of  worship.  Cp.  obsequious,  &,c.  The  word  here  is 
rather  from  the  Lat.  obsequi7im  than  obsequiae  (  =  exequiae).  So  Bale's 
Image,  part  ii :  '  With  all  faithful  ohsequy  worshippe  hym  therefore  that 
created  heaven  and  earthe  in  wonderfuU  strength  and  bewty.'  See  other 
instances  in  Richardson. 

24.  it  smites,  &c.     Cp.  Par.  Lost,  iii.  380,  381  : 

•  Dark  with  excessive  light  thy  skirts  appear, 
Yet  dazzle  heaven.* 

26.  Combust.  •  When  a  planet  is  not  above  eight  degrees  and  a  half 
distant  from  the  sun,  either  before  or  after  him,  it  is  said  to  be  combust  or 
in  combustion/  (Harris,  apud  Johnson.)  See  Chaucer's  Tr.  and  Or.  iii.  96: 


p.  44O  NOTES.  135 

*  An  if  ich  hadde,  O  Venus  ful  of  myrthe, 
Aspectes  badde  of  Mars  or  of  Saturne 
Or  thow  combust,'  &c. 
Burton's  Anatomy  of  Melancholy  :    *  Guianerius  had  a  patient  could  make 
Latin  verses  when  the  moon  was  combust,  otherwise  illiterate.'     See  Skeat's 
Chaucer's    Astrolabe,  Gloss.      The    only   planets    *  oft  combust '  are   those 
of  inferior  magnitude — Venus,  Mercury,  Vulcan.     The  last  is  nearly  always 
so  ;  hence  its  late  discovery. 

29.  firmament.  Firmamentum  is  the  Vulgate's  rendering  of  the  Septua- 
gint  CTepicufxa.     Trench's  Sel.  Gloss.,  s.  v.     See  Par.  Lost,  iii.  573-579. 

32.  unfrockittg.  Frock  denoted  specially  the  gown  worn  by  ecclesiastics. 
See  'St.  Francis /roci '  in  The  Creed  of  Piers  Plowman  1.  293.  (quoted  by 
Fairholt,  p.  117  of  his  Costume  in  England).  Cp.  old  Yr.frocard  =  z  monk. 
See  Queen  Elizabeth's  famous  letter  to  Bishop  Cox,  when  he  resisted  a  cer- 
tain '  spoliation' she  proposed:  *  Proud  Prelate,  you  know  what  you  were 
before  I  made  you  what  you  are.  If  you  do  not  immediately  comply  with 
my  request,  by  God  I  will  unfrock  you.  Elizabeth.'  (Student's  Hallam's 
England,  p.  112,  note.) 

P.  44.  3.  economicall  =  relating  to  house  management,  domestic,  &c. 
The  original  sense  of  the  word. 

5.  Zuinglius.  Zwingli  was  born  1484,  died  1 531.  His  hfe  has  been 
written  by  Hess  (tr.  by  Lucy  Aikin),  and  Hottinger  (tr.  by  Porter). 

Calvin.  1 509-1 564.  His  life  has  been  written  by  Bungener,  Bolsec,  Beza, 
Masson,  Paul  Henry,  Audin,  Dyer,  Strahelin  (Hole's  Biog.  Diet.). 

6.  beaconed  up  to  ms  =  lighted  up  as  a  beacon  or  signal  for  us.  Beacon  it 
A.-S.  beacen,  a  sign,  nod.     Cp.  beck,  beckon. 

stark,  originally  =  stiffly,  rigidly;  and  so  inflexibly,  unalterably,  com- 
pletely.    Of  the  same  root  is  the  Gr.  orfpeos. 

12.  Syntagma  =* CoWection,''  general  handbook,  summary.  See  e.g. 
Hallam's  account  of  Gassendi's  Syntagma  Philosophicum,  published  1 658, 
Lit.  of  Europe,  iv.  194. 

15.  s^arcAm^  =  mvestigating,  exploring.  Psalm  cxxxix.  i:  *0  Lord, 
thou  hast  searched  me  and  known  me,'  &c. 

18.  homogeneal,  and  proportionall.  It  consists  only  of  truth;  and  each 
part  bears  a  certain  relation  to  the  other  parts.  One  truth  does  not  over- 
power another. 

the  golden  rule.  The  Rule  of  Proportion  was  so  styled  ;  see  e.  g.  Barnard 
Smith's  Arithmetic,  p.  196,  ed.  1862:  'Almost  all  questions  which  arise  in 
the  common  concerns  of  life  so  far  as  they  require  calculation  by  numbers, 
might  be  brought  within  the  scope  of  the  Rule  of  Three,  which  enables  us 
to  find  the  fourth  term  in  a  proportion,  and  which  on  account  of  its  greal 
use  and  extensive  application  is  often  called  the  "Golden  Rule."' 

26.  discours.     See  above,  p.  103. 

37.  the  highest  is  granniiatically  coordinate  with  any  point. 

a8.  htr»     See  above,  p.  67. 


136  AREOPAGITICA,  [P.  44. 

Therefore  the  studies,  &c.  Milton  ignores  the  profound  change  of 
population  in  this  island  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries.  He  speaks  as 
if  the  English  were  all  one  with  the  Britons.  So  Cowper  in  his  Boa- 
dicea,  &c, 

29.  that  Writers,  &c.  In  the  notes  to  Drayton's  Polyolbion,  song  i, 
we  are  told  that  *  Lipsius  doubts  whether  Pythagoras  received'  the  doctrine 
of  metempsychosis  '  from  the  Druids,  or  they  from  him,  because  in  his 
travels  he  convers'd  as  well  with  Gaulish  as  Roman  philosophers;'  and 
referred  to  'Physiol.  Stoic,  bk.  iii.  dissertation  12.'  See  this  work  in  Justi 
Lipsii  Opera  Omnia,  1675,  vol.  iv.  On  p.  992,  speaking  of  metempsychosis, 
he  says,  '  An  a  Pythagora  Druides  hauserint  nescio ;  an  potius  ipse  ab  illis  ; 
nam  auctores  habeo  Gallos  eum  audisse  et  Brachmanas.'  As  an  authority, 
he  names  in  a  side-note  Clemens  Alexandrinus ;  in  whose  Stromata,  i.  chap. 
15;  p.  770,  vol.  i.  of  Clem.  Alex.  Opera,  in  Migne's  Patrol.  Curs.  Compl. 
we  find :  o  hi  UKarwv  brjXov  ojs  affxvtvcou  ael  tovs  fiap^dpovs  (vphicerai 
H(fx.vi]p.evos  avTov  t6  nal  TlvOayopov,  toL  TrXeTcTTa  kox  yepvaioTara  twu 
Soyp.aTQjv  €V  Pappdpois  fxaOovras.  The  superior  antiquity  of  British  to 
Roman  learning  is  insisted  upon  in  the  tenth  song  of  the  Polyolbion.  For 
the  Persian  wisdom,  see  Pliny's  Nat.  Hist.,  xxx.  4  :  '  Britannia  hodieque  eam 
attonite  celebrat  tantis  caeremoniis  ut  dedisse  Persis  videri  possit.'' 

31.  the  school  of  Pythagoras.  There  is  an  old  building  at  Cambridge 
traditionally  known,  from  the  sixteenth  century  at  least,  as  '  Pythagoras' 
school.'  According  to  the  opinion  Milton  here  quotes,  it  was,  one  may 
suppose,  the  place  where  that  philosopher  received,  not  gave,  instruction. 
It  is  the  building  known  as  Merton  Hall  (it  stands  on  a  piece  of  ground  be- 
longing to  Merton  College,  Oxford),  and  lately  devoted  to  the  service  of  lady 
students.  '  Pythagoras'  school,  in  a  garden  adjoining  St.  John's  College 
walks,  is  falsely  supposed  to  have  been  one  of  these  [inns  or  hostels],  where 
the  Croyland  monks  read  lectures  ;  but  is  really  the  infirmary  to  St.  John's 
Hospital.  Edward  the  Fourth  took  it  from  King's  College  here,  and  gave 
it  to  Merton  College,  Oxford;  whose  property  it  has  ever  since  been,  and  is 
sometimes  called  Merton  Hall.'  (Wilson's  Memorabilia  Cantabrigiae.)  See 
an  account  of  this  'School'  in  Grose's  Antiquities.  See  also  Mayor's  Baker's 
Hist,  of  St.  John's  Coll.,  Camb. 

33.  civill.     See  p.  3,  1.  25,  note. 

P.  45.  I.  Julius  Agricola.  37-93  a.d.  See  his  life  by  his  son-in-law 
Tacitus. 

who  govern  d  once  here.     From  78  to  85  a.d. 

for  Caesar.  He  governed  for  Vespasian,  for  Titus  (79-81),  and  for 
Domitian. 

preferred,  8cc.  See  Tacitus'  Agric.  21,  of  Agricola's  high  policy:  'Jam 
vero  principum  filios  liberalibus  artibus  erudire  et  ingenia  Britannorum  studiis 
Gallorum  anteferre  ut  qui  modo  lingua m  Romanam  abnuebant  eloquentiam 
concupiscerent.'  See  Selden's  note  to  Drayton's  Polyolbion,  song  vi.,  p.  2iS 
of  vol.  iv  of  Chalmers'  British  Poets,  18 10. 


p.  45-]  NOTES,  137 

2.  the  naturall  wits,  &c.  So  Neckain  (see  Wright's  Biog.  Lit.,  AN. 
Period,  p.  454) : 

•Ingenium  dat  e;  genius  subtile,  quod  artes 
Mechanicas  subdit  ingenuasque  sibi.' 

3.  that  the  grave  and  frugal  Transilvanian,  &c.  I  do  not  know  of  any 
other  mention  of  this  fact  in  general  literature ;  but  its  accuracy  is,  I  am 
informed,  attested  by  the  Registers  of  the  old  Universities.  Many 
Transylvanians  went  abroad  in  the  seventeenth  century  to  study  at  the 
great  universities — at  Paris,  at  Prague,  in  Holland.  That  some  came 
to  England  would  therefore  be  probable.  See  a  mention  of  '  some  Mora- 
vian Students  passing  through  London,'  in  Masson's  account  of  Hartlib's 
Correspondence  with  Comenius,  Life  of  Milton,  iii.  202.  Transylvania 
had  during  the  Thirty  Years'  War  made  itself  conspicuous  on  the  Pro- 
testant side.  This  was  mainly  due  to  the  energy  and  talent  of  Bethlem- 
Gabor  (  =  Gabriel  Bethiem),  Prince  from  161 3  to  1629.  As  Lobb  points 
out,  there  is  a  letter  from  Cromwell  to  his  successor;  see  it  in  Milton's 
Works  amongst  the  Literae  Oliverii  Prolectoris.  It  is  full  of  good-wiil  and 
sympathy,  and  frankly  recognises  the  Prince  as  co-worker  in  the  great  Pro- 
testant cause.  •  Cum  autem  vestra  in  rempublicam  Christianam  praeclara 
merita  laboresque  suscepti  ad  nos  usque  fama  pervenerint,  et  haec  omnia 
certius,  et  quae  amplius  rei  Christianae  vel  defendeiidae  vel  promovendae 
causa  in  animo  habeatis,  celsitudo  vestra  suis  Uteris  communicata  nobii 
amicissime  voluerit,  ea  uberiorem  insuper  laetandi  materiam  nobis  attulere : 
Deum  nempe  iis  in  regionibus  excitasse  sibi  tarn  potentem  atque  egregium 
suae  gloriae  ac  providentiae  ministrum ;  qui,  cum  virtute  atque  armis  tantum 
possit,  de  religione  communi  Protestantiuin  tuenda,  cui  nunc  undique  male 
et  dictum  et  factum  est,  nobiscum  una  sociare  consilia  cupiat.'  See  this 
letter  Englished  on  pp.  606,  607  of  Works.  A  sufficient  specimen  of  friendly 
epistolary  intercourse.  And  it  is  highly  credible,  without  any  such  decisive 
authority  as  the  text,  that  such  friendliness  existing,  and  Lutheranism  flourish- 
ing so  vigorously  in  the  country,  natives  of  it  should  have  visited  England, 
which  in  the  early  seventeenth  century  was  the  leading  Protestant  power 
of  Europe.  The  glory  of  Transylvania  did  not  last  long.  In  1689  it  became 
finally  subject  to  Austria.  It  was  however  'governed  by  its  own  princes 
until  the  extinction  of  their  line  in  1 71 3,  when  it  was  incorporated  with 
Hungary.  Maria  Theresa  erected  it  into  a  grand  principality  in  1765. 
(Pop.  Encycl.) 

5.  the  mountanous  borders  of  Russia.  Strictly,  the  S.E.  part  of  the  kingdom 
of  Poland  and  a  piece  of  Moldavia  lay  between  Transylvania  and  Russia. 
The  mountains  referred  to  are  ollsets  of  the  Carpalhi;itis.  It  may  be  noticed 
that  Hartlib,  to  whom  in  the  year  the  Areopagitica  was  written  he  dedicated 
his  Tractate  on  Education,  was  of  a  Polish  family.  See  Dircks'  Memoir  of 
Hartlib;  also  Masson's  Life  of  Milton,  iii.  193  et  seq. 

6.  the  Hercynian  wildernes  =  llercyn'n  Silva,  or  Hercynius  Saltus  {VYrny 
and  Tacitus),  or  Hercynium  jugum   (Pliny).     •  Under  this  general  name 


138  AREOPAGITICA,  [P.  45. 

Caesar  appears  to  have  included  all  the  mountains  and  forests  in  the 
south  and  centre  of  Germany,  the  Black  Forest,  Odenwald,  Thiiringerwald, 
the  Harz,  the  Erzgebirge,  the  Riesengebirge,  &c.  As  the  Romans  became 
better  acquainted  with  Germany,  the  name  was  confined  to  narrower  limits. 
Pliny  and  Tacitus  use  it  to  indicate  the  range  of  mountains  between  the 
Thiiringerwald  and  the  Carpathian  Mountains.  The  name  is  still  preserved 
in  the  modern  Harz  and  Erz.'  (Smith's  Class.  Diet.)  See  Caesar's  De  B.  G., 
vi.  24,  et  seq. ;  Tacitus,  Germ.,  30,  &c.  The  name  Transylvania  =  the 
country  beyond  the  forest,  i.  e.  beyond  what  are  called  the  '  Carpathian 
forests.'     The  Hungarian  name,  Erdely,  signifies  the  '  mountainous  forest.' 

7.  their  stayed  men.  Cp.  Thucydides'  oi  vvv  Iri  vvres  fxaKiara  iv  rp 
KadeaTTjKviq.  -qXiKia  (ii.  36) ;  Cicero's  '  Conslans  aetas.' 

8.  that  which  is  above  all  this,  &c.     Cp.  Samson  Agonistes,  1 718-20. 

10.  propending.     Shakspere,  Tr.  and  Cr.  ii.  2.  190: 

'  My  spritely  brethren,  I  propend  to  you 
In  resolution  to  keep  Helen  still.' 

11.  Why  else.  Sec.  See  Of  Reformation  in  England.  In  one  passage  (p.  3, 
Milton's  Works)  he  speaks  of  England  '  having  had  this  grace  and  honour 
from  God,  to  be  the  first  that  should  set  up  a  standard  for  the  recovery  of 
lost  truth,  and  blow  the  first  evangelic  trumpet  to  the  nations,  holding  up, 
as  from  a  hill,  the  new  lamp  of  saving  light  to  all  Christendom,'  &c. 

12.  as  out  of  Sion,  &c.  See  Joel  ii.  i :  •  Blow  ye  the  trumpet  in  Zion, 
and  sound  an  alarm  in  my  holy  mountain,'  &c. 

14.  and  had  it  not  been,  &c.  See  Of  Reformation  in  England:  '.  .  . 
although  indeed  our  Wickliffe's  preaching,  at  which  all  the  succeeding 
Reformers  more  eflfectually  lighted  their  tapers,  was  to  his  countrymen  but 
a  short  blaze,  soon  damped  and  stifled  by  the  pope  and  prelates  for  six  or 
seven  kings'  reigns.' 

16.  to  suppresse  hiin  as  a  schismatic  and  innovator.  Cp.  Jeremy  Taylor's 
Liberty  of  Prophesying :  ' .  .  .  the  names  of  heretic  and  schismatic  which 
they  [the  Roman  Catholics]  with  infinite  pertinacity  fasten  upon  all  that 
disagree  with  them.' 

17.  innovator.     See  Bacon's  Essays,  'On  Innovations.' 

Husse.  See  a  list  of  biographies  of  him  in  Hole's  Biog.  Diet. ;  see  also 
Milman's  Latin  Christ.,  viii.  chap.  9. 

Jerom,  i.  e,  Jerome  of  Prague.     See  Milman. 

18.  Lnther.  See  a  list  of  lives  of  Luther  in  Hole.  Michelet  has  'col- 
lected and  arranged'  '  the  Life  of  Luther  by  himself  (tr.  by  Hazlitt,  1846). 
See  also  Stephen's  Essays  in  Eccl.  Biog.,  d  propos  of  D'Aubigne's  Hist,  of  the 
Reformation. 

27.  ev'n  to  the  reformation  of  Reformation  it  self.  See  Of  Reformation 
in  England,  passim. 

32.  a  City  of  refuge.     See  Numbers  xxxv.  9-15. 

33.  the  mansion  house.  *  When  the  king  had  given  to  any  of  them  two 
thousand  acres  of  land,  this  party  purposing  in  this  place  to  make  a  dwelling 


p.  47.]  NOTES.  139 

or,  as  the  old  word  is,  his  mansion-house  or  his  manor-house,  did  devise  how 
he  might  make  his  land  a  complete  habitation  to  supply  him  with  all  manner 
of  necessaries.*     (Bacon's  Use  of  Law,  apud  Richardson.) 

P.  46.  3.  the  plates  and  instruments,  Sec,  i.  e.  defensive  and  offensive 
armour.  P/a/es  =  breast-plates,  almost  the  only  defensive  armour  still  worn 
in  Milton's  time. 

14.   a  Nation  of  Prophets.     See  Numbers  xi.  29. 

We  reck'n  more  then  five  months,  &c.  Cp.  John  iv.  35.  The  Areopagitica 
was  published  in  November,  1644.  Perhaps  'the  harvest*  means  the  suc- 
cesses to  be  achieved,  as  was  hoped,  by  the  new  modelled  army  in  the  cam- 
paign of  1645. 

19.  opinion.  This  word  has  very  diverse  senses  in  Eliz,  Eng. ;  hear  e.  g. 
Gratiano  on  'this  fool  gudgeon,  this  opinion,''  in  M.  of  Veu.,  i.  1.  86-102. 

20.  /a«/asric  =  purely  fanciful;  as  fantastical  in  Macbeth,  i.  3.  139. 
of  =  in  connection  with,  about,  over. 

27.  a  little  forbearance  of  one  another.     See  Ephes.  iv.  3,  and  Col.  iii.  13. 
31.  free  consciences.     See  On  the  New  Forcers  of  Conscience  under  the 
Long  Parliament : 

'  Dare  ye  for  this  adjure  the  civil  sword 
To  force  our  consciences  that  Christ  set  free?' 
And  the  sonnet  To  the  Lord  General  Cromwell : 

'  Help  us  to  save  free  conscience  from  the  paw 
Of  hireling  wolves,  whose  gospel  is  their  maw.' 
P.  47.  3.  extended,  i.e.  advanced,  expanded. 

4.  he  would  cry  out  as  Pirrhus  did.  See,  after  the  battle  of  Heraclea, 
(280  B.C.).  Florus'  version  is — Pyrrhus  of  course  would  speak  Greek — *0 
quam  facile  erat  orbis  imperium  occupare  aut  mihi  Romanis  militibus  aut  me 
rege  Romanis.'     (i.  18.  17.) 

5.  Pirrhus.  318-272  b.c.  'The  fierce  Epirot*  of  the  Sonnet  to  Sir 
Henry  Vane  the  younger.     See  Dickson's  Mommsen,  i.  bk.  ii.  chap.  7. 

6.  £piVo/s  =  *H7rfi/)a;Tm,Epiriis-men.  Strictly,  ^n-o/)os  =  mainland.  Epirot 
sometimes  =  Asiatic,  as  Isocrates,  68  A. 

7.  despair.     See  the  note  on  scrupl'd,  p.  10,  1.  4. 
10.  as  if,  while  the  Temple,  &c.     See  I  Kings  v,  vi. 
building.     See  note  on  explaining,  p.  22,  1.  16. 

12.  a  sort  of  irrationall  men.     See  M.  of  Ven.,  i.  I.  8S. 

20.  brotherly  dissimilitudes.  Cp.  the  use  of  the  Gr.  d5(\({)us  frequent  in 
Plato.  See  above,  p.  67.  So  Latin  geminus  and  gemellus,  as  Horace,  Sa- 
tires, ii.  3.  244 : 

•Par  nobile  fratrum, 
Nequitia  nugis  pravorum  ct  amore  gemellum.' 

26.  wherein  Moses,  &c.  See  Numbers  xi.  24-30,  especially  29:  *And 
Moses  said  unto  him,  Enviest  thou  for  my  sake  ?  Would  God  that  all  the 
Lord's  people  were  prophets,  and  that  the  Lord  would  put  his  spirit  upon 
them." 


140  AREOPAGITICA,  [P.  47. 

31.  as  Jos.hia  then  was.     See  1.  c.  28. 

33.  will  undoe  us,  &c.     He  adopts  the  '  direct  oration.* 

P.  48.  2.  anougk.     See  above,  p.  81. 

6.  ma«/p/es  =  companies.  A  technical  term  in  the  Roman  army.  The 
«ize  of  it  varied  at  different  times.  In  the  fourth  century,  B.C.,  it  consisted 
of  sixty  privates,  two  centurions,  and  a  standard-bearer.  Strictly,  the  word 
is  supposed  to  mean  a  number  of  men  serving  under  the  same  ensign, 
maniphts  signifying  originally  'a  handful'  or  wisp  of  hay,  straw,  fern,  or  the 
like  which,  primitively,  did  duty  as  a  standard. 

7.  brigade.  ^Brigade  venu  au  seizieme  siecle  de  I'ltal.  brigata  (division 
d'armc^e).'  (Brachet.)  The  stem  is  said  to  be  Low  Latin  6r/g-a  =  strife, 
which  is  probably  of  Celtic  origin.  Cognate  are  brigand,  brigandine, 
brigantine. 

13.  when  a  City,  &c.  See  in  Knight's  Pop.  Hist,  of  Eng.,  iii.  498, 
second  edition,  '  a  Plan  of  the  Fortifications  and  City  of  London.'  There 
were  forts  from  Wliitechapel  Road  to  Hyde  Park  Corner,  and  on  the 
other  side  of  the  river  from  Vauxhall  to  '  near  the  Lock  Hospital  in  Kent 
Street.'  The  order  for  this  fortifying  was  issued  by  the  Parliament  in  Sep- 
tember or  October,  1642.  '  The  population,  one  and  all,  men,  women,  and 
children,  turned  out  day  by  day  to  dig  ditches,  and  carry  stones  for  their 
bulwarks.'  (Knight.)  See  May's  History  of  the  Parliament.  On  Novem- 
ber 12  the  Royalists  occupied  Brentford;  on  the  13th  they  advanced  to 
Turnham  Green,  when,  faced  by  Essex,  they  fell  back  without  fighting  to 
Colnbrook  and  so  through  Reading  to  Oxford.  It  must  have  been  in  this 
November  that  Milton  wrote  his  sonnet  'When  the  assault  was  intended 
[  =  threatened — a  Latinism]  to  the  City* — a  piece  of  pure  poetry,  his  imagi- 
nation excited  by  the  thought  of  the  poet's  power,  and  how  in  the  old  days 
it  had  given  protection  in  the  midst  of  wreck  and  ruin. 

1 4.  inrodes  (our  mroacfs)  =  in-ridings,  'raids.' 

15.  defiance.     Drayton's  Polyolbion  : 

'  And  calling  unto  him  a  herald,  quoth  he,  fly 
To  th'  Earl  of  Le'ster's  tents,  and  publickly  proclaim 
Defiance  to  his  face  and  to  the  Montfort's  name.' 
I  Sam.  xvii.  10:  'And  the  Philistine  said,  I  defy  the  armies  of  Israel  this 
day;    give  me  a  man,  that  we  may  fight  together.'     Shaksp.  Hen.  V.  iii. 
5.  37. 

20.  shoidd  be  disputing,  &c.  It  was  about  the  time  Milton  wrote  that 
certain  eminent  men  of  science  were  beginning  to  hold  those  meetings 
which  eventuated  in  the  formation  of  the  Royal  Society. 

21.  ev'n  to  a  rarity,  and  admiration,  i.e.  with  a  degrbe  of  acuteness 
altogether  rare  and  admirable. 

25.  derives  it  se//=  flows  on,  proceeds, 

28.  who,  when  Rome,  &c.  See  Livy,  xxvi.  ii:  '  Minuere  etiam  spem 
ejus  [Hannibal's  hope  of  taking  Rome]  et  aliae,  parva  magnaque,  res  :  magna 
ilia,  quod  quum  ipse  ad  moenia  urbis  Romae  armatus  sederet,  milites  sub 


p.  49.]  NOTES,  141 

vexilHs  in  supplementum  Hispaniae  profectos  audivit ;  parva  autem,  quod 
per  eos  dies  eum  forte  agrum,  in  quo  ipse  castra  haberet,  venisse  nihil  ob  id 
demimito  pretio,  cognitum  ex  quodam  captivo  est.  Id  vero  adeo  superbum 
atque  indignum  visum  ejus  soli,  quod  ipse  bello  captum  possideret  haberetque, 
inventum  Romae  emptorem ;  ut  extemplo  vocato  praecoue,  taberuas  argen- 
tarias  quae  circum  forum  Romanum  tunc  essent,  jusserit  venire/ 
xuhen  Rome,  &c.     B.C.  211. 

30.  at  no  cheap  rate.     See  Livy's  'nihil  ob  id  deminuto  pretio.* 

31.  regiment  =  iha.t  part  of  the  army  that  was  especially  under  his  com- 
mand.    Spenser  uses  the  word  for  '  lesser  kingdom,'  Faerie  Queene,  ii.  9.  59. 

32.  happy  successe.     See  note  above,  p.  61. 

P.  49.  I.  not  only  to,  &c. ;  i.e.  not  only  as  far  as,  not  only  as  touching, 
&c.     Cp.  *  ev'n  to  the  ballatry,*  &c.  p.  24. 

2,  /)er/es/ =  sprightliest,  proudest,  highest.     See  Chaucer's  Reeve's  Tale: 
'  And  she  was  proud  and  pert  as  any  pie.' 
Shakspere,  Troilus  and  Cressida,  iv.  5.  219  : 

'For  yonder  walls  that  pertly  front  your   town,'  &c. 
Perhaps  perk  is  the  same  word.     (Comp.  wait  and  wake,  mate  and  make,  cate 
and  cake.)     Spenser  has  ' perke  as  a  peacock,'  Shepheardes  Calender,  ii.  8. 
Some  say  the  word  is  of  Welsh  origin — *pert,  smart,  spruce,  pert'  (Spurrell)  ; 
but  it  is  a  native  Welsh  word,  or  an  importation  ? 

5.  sprightly  up.     Sprightly  is  used  adverbially  here.     l7/>  =  excited. 
10.  casting  off  the  old  and  wrincVd  skin,  &c.     Cp.  Shakspere,  Henry  V, 
iv.  I.  20: 

*  And  when  the  mind  is  quicken'd,  out  of  doubt, 
The  organs,  though  defunct  and  dead  before, 
Break  up  their  drowsy  grave  and  newly  move. 
With  casted  slough  and  fresh  legerity.' 
Ii.  wax  young  again.     Cp.  Dryden's  Vergil's  Georgics,  iii: 
'  When  he,  renew'd  in  all  the  speckled  pride 
Of  pompous  youth,  has  cast  his  slough  aside, 
And  in  his  summer  livery  rolls  along 
Erect,  and  brandishing  his  forky  tongue,'  &c. 
Vergil's  words  are  (437,  438)  : 

'  Qnum  positis  novus  exuviis  nitidusque  juventa 
Volvitur.' 

14.  methinks  —  n\estcms,  it  seems  to  me  ('them  seem'd,'  Spenser,  Protha- 
lamion,  60).  Thinks  in  this  compound  is  from  the  A.-S.  thincan,  to  seem, 
a  quite  distinct  verb  from  thencan,  to  think.  Comp.  Germ,  denken,  and 
dilnken. 

15.  like  a  strong  man,  &c.  He  is  thinking  of  the  Samson,  long  years 
after  to  be  the  hero  of  his  noble  drama.     See  Judges  xvi.  13,  14. 

16.  her  invincible  locks.  See  in  the  gorgeous  allegorising  of  the  story  of 
Samson  near  the  close  of  The  Reason  of  Church  Government :  'his  illustrious 
and  sunny  locks,  the  laws,  waving  and  curling  about  his  god-like  shoulder! ; 


14^  AREOPAGITICA.  [P.  49. 

.  .  .  those  bright  and  weighty  tresses  of  his  laws  and  just  prerogatives 
which  were  his  ornament  and  strength ;  ...  his  puissant  hair,  the  golden 
beams  of  law  and  right.' 

17.  mtiing,  literally  =  renewing  by  moulting.  Commonly  mne  or  mew  = 
simply,  '  to  moult,*  specially  of  hawks ;  strictly,  to  change,  Fr.  muer,  Lat. 
mutare.  Thus  Bacon's  Essays,  Of  Kingdomes  and  Estates :  *  Whatsoever 
estate  or  prince  doth  rest  upon  them  [mercenary  forces],  he  may  spread  his 
feathers  for  a  time,  but  he  will  mew  them  soon  after,'  &c.  Mews  meant 
originally  places  where  falcons  cast  their  coats ;  then  generally  places  for 
keeping  them  ;  and  then  =  stables. 

21.  noise  here  in  a  concrete  sense.  So  'Sneak's  noise,'  2  Henry  IV, 
ii.  4.  12,     See  Nares. 

flocking  birds,  i.e.  birds  that  dare  not  essay  solitary  and  independent 
flights,  but  hover  about  in  companies  ;  not  olojvoi  =  lone-flying  birds.  {Olojvos 
=  the  eagle,  Homer,  Iliad,  xxiv.  292,  &c.) 

23.  gabble.  See  Shakspere,  All's  Well  that  Ends  Well,  iv.  i.  22  :  'Choughs' 
language,  gabble  enough,  and  good  enough '  of  the  lingo  Parolles  is  to  be 
deceived  with. 

24.  a  year.  He  is  thinking  of  the  almanack-makers  and  their  prophecies 
Prognosticate  was  specially  used  of  astrologers  and  ahiianack-makers ;  as  in 
the  old  song.  When  the  King  enjoys  his  own  again : 

•  What  Booker  can  prognosticate, 
Considering  now  the  kingdom's  state?* 
Booker  was  an  almanack-maker  of  the  day.     See  Percy's  MS.  Folio,  ed. 
Hales  and  Furnivall,  ii.  24. 

28.  ingrossers.     See  above,  p.  83. 

30.  bushel.     The  word  is  in  fact  box  with  a  diminutival  suffix. 

P.  50.  4.  your  own  mild,  &c.  Even  Hume  admires  ardently  the  early 
career  of  the  Long  Parliament ;  see  History  of  England,  chap.  54.  Hallam, 
who  considers  that  in  the  end  it  'subverted  the  constitution,'  speaks  of 
'those  admirable  provisions  by  which'  in  the  beginning  'this  Parliament 
restored  and  consolidated  the  shattered  fabric'  See  Constitutional  History 
of  England,  chap.  ix. 

6.  /)«rcAas/  =  procured.  So  commonly  in  Old  English.  The  radical 
meaning  is  '  to  chase  or  seek  for.*  Fr.  pourchasser  (pour-chasser).  See 
Chaucer's  Prologue,  256: 

'  His  purchace  was  ful  bettur  than  his  rente.' 

8.  the  influence  of  heavn.  The  word  influence  was  specially  used  of 
certain  occult  streams  of  power  believed  to  emanate  from  the  heavenly 
bodies.  See  'all  the  skiey  influences,'  Measure  for  Measure,  iii.  I.  9; 
'planetary  influence'  King  Lear,  i.  2.  135  ;  'the  moist  star  upon  whose 
influence  Neptune's  empire  stands,'  Hamlet  i.  i.  118;  'the  sacred  influence 
of  light,'  Paradise  Lost,  ii.  1034,  &c.     See  Trench's  Study  of  Words. 

23.  an  abrogated  and  mercilesse  law,  &c.  '  From  the  most  remote  ages 
the  power  of  a  Roman  father  over  his.  children,  including  those  by  adoption 


p.  50.]   '  NOTES,  143 

as  well  as  by  blood,  was  unlimited,  A  father  might,  without  violating  any 
law,  scourge  or  imprison  his  son,  or  sell  him  for  a  slave,  or  put  him  to  death, 
even  after  that  son  had  risen  to  the  highest  honours  in  ths  state.  This 
jurisdiction  was  not  merely  nominal;  but  in  early  times  was  not  unfrequently 
exercised  to  its  full  extent,  and  was  confirmed  by  the  laws  of  the  XII  Tables.' 
This 'jus  vitae  et  necis' by  degrees  'fell  into  desuetude;  and  long  before 
the  close  of  the  republic  the  execution  of  a  son  by  order  of  his  father, 
although  not  forbidden  by  any  positive  statute,  was  regarded  as  something 
strange  and,  unless  under  extraordinary  circumstances,  monstrous.  But  the 
right  continued  to  exist  in  theory,  if  not  in  practice,  for  three  centuries  after 
the  establishment  of  the  empire,  and  was  not  formally  abrogated  till  a.d.  318.' 
Ramsay's  Roman  Antiquities,  *  The  Patria  Potestas.' 

25.  sticke  closest.     Prov.  xviii.  24.     Cp.  adhere,  Lat.  adhaerere. 

26.  for  cote  and  conduct,  &c. ;  i.e.  to  resist  illegal  taxation  for  the 
clothing  and  conveyance  of  troops,  and  also  for  the  provision  of  a  navy. 
See  Butler's  Characters,  The  Herald :  *  He  will  join  as  many  shields  together 
as  would  make  a  Roman  testudo  or  Macedonian  phalanx,  to  fortify  the 
nobility  of  a  new  made  lord  that  will  pay  for  the  impresting  of  them,  and 
allow  him  Coat  and  conduct  money.' 

His  four  nobles  ofDanegeli;  i.e.  ship-money.  A  very  odd  periphrasis.  Why 
'four  nobles'  it  is  not  easy  to  see.  The  noble,  first  struck  in  Edward  Ill's 
reign,  and  current  till  that  of  Elizabeth,  was  worth  6s.  Sd.  (see  the  joke, 
Shakspere,  I  Henry  IV,  ii.  4.  317  and  327;  the  royal=ios.)*  Twenty 
shillings,  i.  e.  three  nobles,  was  the  amount  for  which  Hampden  was  sued. 
See  Hallam's  Const.  Hist.  i.  436.  '  Lord  Nugent,'  says  Hallam  in  a  note, 
*  has  published  a  facsimile  of  the  return  made  by  the  assessors  of  ship-money 
for  the  parish  of  Great  Kimble,  wherein  Mr,  Hampden  is  set  down  for  31s.  6d., 
and  is  returned  with  many  others  as  refusing  to  pay.  Memoir  of  Hampden 
and  his  Times,  vol.  i.  p.  230.  But  the  suit  in  the  Exchequer  was  not 
on  account  of  this  demand,  but  for  20s.  as  stated  in  the  text  for  property 
situate  in  the  parish  of  Stoke  Mandevile.*  Danegelt  =  Dane-money,  was  the 
name  of  an  ancient  land-tax  levied  to  provide  means  for  bribing  off  or 
for  repelling  the  Danes.  It  was  '  first  raised  by  Ethelred  II  in  991,  and  again 
in  1003,  &c.  . .  was  suppressed  by  Edward  the  Confessor  in  1 05 1,  revived  by 
William  the  Conqueror  1068,  and  formed  part  of  the  revenue  of  the  Crown, 
until  abolished  by  Stephen  1 1 36.  Every  hide  of  land  .  .  was  taxed  at  first 
14-.,  afterwards  as  much  as  7s.'  (Haydn's  Diet,  of  Dates.)  Upon  this  highly 
dubious  precedent  the  King's  advisers  greatly  relied  in  their  advocacy  and 
exaction  of  ship-money.  See  St.  John's  speech  and  the  Solicitor-General'i 
(Sir  Edward  Littleton)  reply  at  Hampden's  trial;  State  Trials,  iii.  825-1316, 
ed.  1809.  The  first  suggester  of  the  odious  tax  was  Noy.  To  Finch  is  due 
the  credit  of  its  extension  from  the  sea-ports  to  the  whole  kingdom.  See 
Hallam,  i.  434,  ct  seq.;  Gardiner's  Personal  Government  of  Charles  I,  ii. 
66,  &c. 

37.  although  I  dispraise  not,  &c.     Milton  never  actually  fought  in  the 


144  AREOPAGITICA,  [p.  50. 

Parliamentary  ranks.  So  much  might  be  suspected  from  the  passage  in  the 
text ;  but  there  is  also  quite  direct  and  decisive  evidence  on  the  point. 
Professor  Masson  in  the  second  volume  of  his  valuable  Life  of  Milton  dis- 
cusses the  question  at  length.  He  finds  in  the  poet's  writings  such  a  remark- 
able familiarity  with  military  details  as  to  create  a  presumption  that  he  had 
seen  service ;  and,  from  a  moral  point  of  view,  he  conceives  that  Milton  was 
bound  to  have  served.  But  he  is  satisfied  by  Milton's  eighth  sonnet  that  he 
did  not  serve.  He  seems  to  overlook  a  passage  in  one  of  the  prose  works 
that  is  as  explicit  as  possible.  In  the  Defensio  Secunda  Milton  defends  him- 
self against  the  possible  imputation  of  cowardice  or  sloth  because  he  had  not 
served.  He  claims  no  share,  he  says,  in  the  glory  of  those  who  by  their 
most  honourable  arms  had  repelled  slavery.  Far  other  were  the  weapons  ot 
his  warfare.  See  p.  708  of  Works :  'Atqueilli  quidem  [those  who  took  up 
arms  for  the  laws  and  religion]  Deo  perinde  confisi,  servitutem  honestissimis 
armis  pepulere ;  cujus  laudis  etsi  millam  partem  mihi  vindico,  a  reprehensione 
tamen  vel  timiditatis  vel  ignaviae,  siqna  inferlur,  facile  me  tueor.  Neque 
enim  militiae  labores  et  pericula  sic  defugi,  ut  non  alia  ratione  et  operam 
multo  utiliorem  nee  minore  cum  periculo  meis  civibus  navarim  et  animum 
dubiis  in  rebus  neque  demissum  unquam  neque  ullius  invidiae  vel  etiam 
mortis  plus  aequo  metuentem  praestiterim.  Nam  cum  ab  adolescentulo 
humanioribus  essem  studiis  ut  qui  niaxime  deditus  et  ingenio  semper  quam 
corpore  validior,  posthabita  castrensi  opera,  qua  me  gregarius  quilibet  ro- 
bustior  facile  superasset,  ad  ea  me  contuli  quibus  plus  potui ;  ut  parte  mei 
meliore  ac  potiore,  si  saperem,  non  deteriore,  ad  rationes  patriae  causamque 
banc  praestantissimam  quantum  maxime  possem  momentum  accederem. 
Sic  itaque  existimabam,  si  illos  Deus  res  gerere  tam  praeclaras  voluit,  esse 
itidem  alios  a  quibus  gestas  dici  pro  dignitate  atque  ornari,  et  defensam 
armis  veritatem  ratione  etiam  (quod  unicum  est  praesidium  vere  ac  proprie 
humanum)  defendi  voluerit.  Unde  est  ut  dum  illos  invictos  acie  viros  ad- 
miror,  de  mea  interim  proviiicia  non  querar  ;  immo  mihi  gralulor  et  gratias 
insuper  largitori  munerum  caelesti  iterum  summas  agam  obtigisse  talem  ut 
aliis  invidenda  multo  magis  quam  mihi  ullo  modo  poenitentia  videatur.'  For 
a  translation  see  p.  920  of  Works. 
29.  tiller  =  iTappT](Tid^€a6ai. 

32.  uneqnall  =  Lzt.  iniquum. 

33.  to  a  customary  acceptance  =  to  what  is  commonly  received. 

P.  51.  2.  one  of  your  own  honourable  number.  Robert  Greville,  Lord 
Brook,  adopted  son  of  the  '  friend  to  Sir  Philip  Sidney  *  (see  the  epitaph  in 
St.  Mary's  Church,  Warwick),  born  1607,  shot  from  Lichfield  Cathedral 
tower  as  he  was  preparing  an  assault,  March  i,  i64f.  See  Clarendon,  vi; 
Neal's  History  of  the  Puritans,  ii.  185;  Murray's  Western  Cathedrals; 
Wood's  Ath.  Oxon.  ii.  433,  ed.  Bliss,  1 81 5,  &c.  Also  Scott's  Marmion, 
vi.  36. 

3.  a  right  noble  and  pious  lord.  Sec.  He  was  deeply  bewailed,  as  he  had 
been  deeply  loved  and  admired.     See  e.  g.  England's  Losse  and  Lamentatiott 


p.  53.]  NOTES,  145 

occasioned  by  the  death  of  that  Right  Honourable  Robert  Lord  Brooke,  &c., 
a  pamphlet  of  the  time  full  of  enthusiasm  and  of  grief;  and  also  a  black- 
bordered  fly-sheet  in  the  British  Museum  containing  'An  Elegy  upon  the 
death  of  the  mirrour  of  magnanimity  the  right  Honourable  Robert  Lord 
Brooke,'  &c.,  '  ex  opere  (praesertim)  Henrici  Haringtoni.' 

8.  He  wriling  of  Episcopacy,  &c.  The  title  of  this  work  was,  '  A  dis- 
course opening  the  nature  of  that  Episcopacie  which  is  exercised  in  England. 
Wherein,  with  all  Humility,  are  represented  some  Considerations  tending  to 
the  much  desired  Peace  and  long  expected  Reformation  of  this  our  Mother 
Church/ 

10.  vote  =  Liit.  votum,  his  earnest  wish. 

13.  his  last  testament.  Sec.     See  John  xiv.  27. 

16.  he  there  exhorts  us,  Sec.  See  sect.  ii.  7,  'Of  the  danger  of  Schismes 
and  sects  more  fully  discuss'd ;  the  nature  and  danger  of  Anabaptisme,  Sepa- 
ratisme,  and  Unlicensed  Preaching,  The  conclusion  with  an  affectionate 
desire  of  Peace  and  Union.*  Cp.  Jeremy  Taylor's  Liberty  of  Prophesying, 
passim. 

20.  disconformity.  In  the  Tetrachordon  he  speaks  of  '  utter  unfitness, 
utter  disconformity,  not  reconcileable  because  not  to  be  amended  without  a 
miracle.'  Barrow  has :  '  Dissent  from  his  [St.  Peter's]  opinion  or  discon- 
formity to  his  practice.'     (Of  the  Pope's  Supremacy,  apud  Richardson.) 

28.  the  Temple  of  Janus,  &c.  He  means  it  is  a  time  of  glorious  strife 
and  battle.  Truth  and  Falsehood  are  opposed  face  to  face.  Janus's  temple 
was,  as  is  well  known,  opened  in  time  of  war,  closed  in  peace.  See  Livy, 
i.  19,  of  Numa  :  'Mitigandum  ferocem  populum  armorum  desuetudine  ratus, 
Janum  ad  infimum  Argiletum,  indicem  pads  bellique,  fecit :  apertus  ut  in 
armis  esse  civitatem,  clausus  pacatos  circa  omnes  populos  significaret.'  And 
the  historian  goes  on  to  say  it  had  been  twice  closed  since  Numa's  day.  See 
Aeneid,  vii.  601-623,  &c.  'In  all  probability'  the  edifice  'served  originally 
as  a  gate  to  the  citadel  [arched  passages  were  called  Jani],  and  may  be  iden- 
tified with  the  Porta  Janualis  named  by  Varro.'  (Ramsay's  Rom.  Antiq.) 

29.  with  his  two  contr  over  sal  faces.  He  was  styled  *  Bifrons.'  See  Aeneid, 
vii.  180;  xii.  198,  &c.     See  Ovid,  Fasti,  i.  25: 

*  Tum  sacer,  ancipiti  mirandus    imagine,  Janus 
Bina  repens  oculis  obtulit  ora  meis,'  &c. 
Possibly  some  'pun'  is  intended  on  'controversal'  and  'controversial.' 

P.  52.  2.  her  confuting,  i.e.  confutation  by  her.  See  Student's  Marsh's 
Lectures,  p.  276  :  *  Youre  feer  '  =  the  fear  of  you,  &c.  So  *  thy  wide  alarmes,' 
in  Spenser's  Prothalamion  158. 

6.  beyond  the  discipline  of  Geneva,  &c. ;  i.  e.  beyond  what  seems  to  the 
Presbyterians  so  adequate  and  perfect. 

discipline  =  the  doctrines,  the  '  school,'  &c.      Lat.  disciplina,  as  Cicero, 
^  Academica,  ii.  3,  &c. 

7.  fabric' t.     We  should  s&y  fabricated. 
11*  to  seek  for  wisdom,  See.     See  Matt.  xiii.  44. 

L 


14^  AREOPAGITICA.  [P.  52. 

16.  in  all  their  equipage;  i.  e.  in  all  their  proper  equipment,  in  their  full 
form  and  state.  See  Sonnet  to  Sir  Henry  Vane  the  Younger,  1.  9.  The 
radical  notion  probably  is  '  with  their  full  rigging,'  equip  being  ultiinately 
connected  with  ship,  skip,  the  e  being  a  mere  vocal  prefix.     See  Brachet. 

17.  hattell  =  zxmy.  Cp.  battalion.  So  frequently  in  older  English.  Mac- 
beth, V.  6.  2 : 

'  You,  worthy  uncle. 
Shall  with  my  cousin,  your  right  noble  son. 
Lead  our  first  battle.' 
2  Henry  IV,  ir.  i.  154: 

'  Our  battle  is  more  full  of  names  than  yours.* 
19.  offers  him  the  advantage  of  wind  and  sun.     Cp.  Theocritus,  xx.  83, 
84,  ed.  Ahrens,  of  the  fight  between  Amukos  and  Poludeukes  (Pollux) : 
ivOa  TtoXvs  a(picn  fioxOos  kireiyofji4voi(Xiv  krvx'^i], 
oTrnorfpos  Kara,  vaira  \a.0oi  (pdos  7)(Xioio. 
(WUstemann  and  Paley  read  Xa^-Q.)     Love's  Labour  's  Lc'st,  iv.  3,  366-369, 
of  the  metaphorical  combat  with  'these  girls  of  France:' 

'King.  Saint  Cupid,  then!    and,  soldiers,  to  the  field  I 
Biron,  Advance  our  standards,  and  upon  them,  lords ; 

Pell-mell,  down  with  them  !  but  be  first  advised, 
In  conflict  that  you  get  the  sun  of  them.' 
Where  Malone  notes  that  our  having  the  sun  at  our  back  and  in  the  enemy's 
face  was  a  great  advantage  to  us  at  Agincourt.  In  the  fights  in  the  old 
Romances  of  Chivalry  there  is  often  much  striving  to  get  this  advantage. 
See  in  More's  Edw.  V,  and  in  Rich.  Ill,  how  Richmond  at  Bosworth  '  had  the 
sun  in  his  back,  and  it  shone  full  in  the  faces  of  his  enemies.'  See  also  Lay 
of  the  Last  Minstrel,  v.  18;   the  Talisman,  &c. 

21.  by  dint  of  argument ;  i.e.  by  blows  dealt  or  inflicted  by  argument, 
by  arguments  driven  home,  &c.  Cp.  '  dyfit  of  launce,'  Robert  of  Brunne  ; 
'dint  of  sword,'  Faerie  Queene,  vi.  6.  I,  and  2  Henry  IV,  iv.  I.  128, 
&c.  So,  metaphorically,  as  in  the  text,  *  the  dint  of  pity,'  Julius  Caesar, 
iii.  2.  198,  &c. 

22.  to  keep  a  narrow  bridge.  Sec.  It  is  very  common  in  the  Romances  of 
Chivalry  for  a  bridge  to  be  occupied  by  some  knight,  with  whom  every  one 
who  passes  over  must  fight,  if  he  will  not  do  obeisance  or  pay  tribute.  See 
Faerie  Queene,  v.  2.  4,  where  says  the  dwarf  ('  Florimelis  owne  dwarfe*): 

'  But  in  my  way  a  little  here  beyond 
A  cursed  cruell  Sarazin  doth  wonne. 
That  keepes  a  bridges  passage  by  strong  bond, 
'    And  many  errant  knights  hath  there  fordonne; 
That  makes  all  men  for  feare  that  passage  for  to  shonne.* 
In  stanzas  11-19  ^^  described  the  fight  between  Artegall  and  this  savage 
toll-keeper.      Warton    refers    to   Ariosto,    xxix.    35 ;    also    to    La    Morte 
d*  Arthur. 

28.  those  are  the  shifts,  &c.     '  For  these  winding  and  crooked  courses  are 


p.  53.]  NOTES  147 

the  goings  of  the  serpent ;  which  goeth  basely  upon  the  belly  and  not  upon 
the  feet.'     Bacon's  Essays,  Of  Truth, 

31.  old  Proteus.     See  Georgics,  iv.  387-452,  especially 
'  Est  in  Carpathio  Neptuni  gurgite  vates 
Caeru'eus  Proteus,  &c. 

.     novit  namque  omnia  vates. 
Quae  sint,  quae  fuerint,  quae  mox  ventura  trahantur. 


Hie  tibi,  nate,  prius  vinclis  capiendus  ut  omnein 
Expediat  morbi  causam,  eventusque  secundet.' 
Ovid,    Fasti,    i.    367-374,  where    that    same    story    of   Aristaeus    is    told; 
especially  370: 

'  Impediant  geminas  vincula  firma  manus.' 
'That  water-sprites  have  the  gift  of  prophecy  has  been  the  belief  of  many 
nations.'     See  Thorpe's  Northern  Mythology,  i.  ■246. 

33.  she  turns  herself  into  all  shapes  except  her  own.     So  Proteus.     See 
Ovid,  1.  c. : 

Mile  suam  faciem  transformis  adulterat  arte;' 
and  Vergil : 

'  Ille  suae  contra  non  iinmemor  artis 
Omnia  transformat  sese  in  miracula  rerum, 
Ignemque,  horribilemque  feram,  fluviumque  liquentem. 
Also  Romaiint  of  the  Rose,  6322,  where  says  False  Seniblant : 
'  For  Protheus  that  cowde  him  chauiige 
In  every  shape  homely  and  straunge, 
Cowde  nevere  sich  gile  ne  tresoune 
As  I,'&c. 
P.  53.  2.  as  Micainh,  Sec.      See  l  Kings  xxii.  I-28,  especially  13-15  : 
•And  the  messenger  that  was  gone  to  call  Micaiah  spake  unto  him,  saying. 
Behold  now,  the  words  of  the  prophets  declare  good  unto  the  king  with  one 
mouth:  let  thy  word,  I  pray  thee,  be  like  the  word  of  one  of  them,  and 
speak  that  which  is  good.     And  Micaiah  said,  As  the  Lord  livcth,  what  the 
Lord  saith  unto  me,  that  will  I  speak.     So  he  came  to  the  king.     And  the 
king  said  unto  him,  Micaiah.  shall  we  go  against  RaInotll-^ilead  to  battle, 
or  shall  we  forbear?    And  he  answered  him.  Go,  and  j'rosper;  for  the  Lord 
shall  deliver  it  into  the  hand  of  the  king.*    An  answer  sadly  at  variance  with 
the  imminent  fact,  which,  happily  recovering  his  integrity,  he  proceeds  to 
predict.     See  also  2  Chron.  xviii. 

5.  thi?igs  indifferent.    Cp.  the  Stoic  rd  aZiCKpopa,  res  mediae,  indifferentes. 
See  Cicero,  De  Finibus,  iii.  16.  53. 

7.  those  ordinances,  &c.    Colossians  ii.  14  :  *  Blotting  out  the  handwriting 
of  ordinances  that  was  against  us,  which  was  contrary  to  us,  and  took  it  out 
of  the  way,  nailing  it  to  his  cross.' 
9.  purchase.     See  above,  p.  50,  1.  6. 
Patd  io  often,  &c.,  e.g.  Galatians  v.  i. 
L  a 


148  AREOPAGITICA.  [P.  53. 

10.  his  doctrine  is,  &c.     Romnns  xiv.  5-9. 

17.  ^he  ghost  of  a  linnen  decency,  &c.  The  thing  itself  had  been  sup- 
pressed, but  the  spirit  of  it  still  hovered  around. 

a  linnen  decency  =  ihe  shallow  decorum  of  surplices  and  vestments,  a  super- 
ficial respectability,  a  mere  external  orderliness,  Milton  was  no  admirer  of 
ecclesiastical  'spiiisiry,'  as  he  calls  it, — of  •  superstitious  copes  and  flaminical 
vestures.'  See  Reason  of  Church  Government,  ii.  2,  p.  46  of  Works;  Anim- 
adversions, Works,  p.  72,  &c. 

27.  stark.     See  above,  p.  43,  1.  18. 

28.  wood  and  hay  atid  stubble.     See  i  Cor.  iii.  12. 

30.  subdichototnies  =  mmox  divisions.  AixoTo/jiia  is  used  by  Aristotle; 
SixoTo/jiiaj  by  Aristotle  and  Plato  (Politicus,  303  E.). 

P.  54.  I.  to  sever  the  wheat,  &c.     Matthew  xiii.  24-30,  especially  29. 

2.  frie.  Fry  properly  =  the  spawn  of  fish.  It  is  common  in  a  general 
sense,  often  with  a  notion  of  contempt.  Thus,  'What  a./ry  of  fools  is  here,' 
in  Beaumont  and  Fletcher's  Coronation,  i.  i ;  'young  fry  of  treachery,'  Mac- 
beth, iv.  284,  &c. 

the  Angels  Ministery.     See  Matthew  xiii.  37-43. 

6.  /  mean  not  tolerated  Popery,  &c.  See  Jeremy  Taylor's  Liberty  of 
Prophesying,  chap,  xx..  How  far  the  Religion  of  the  Church  of  Rome 
is  Tolerable :  •  If  we  consider  their  doctrines  in  relation  to  government  and 
public  societies  of  men,  then,  if  they  prove  faulty,  they  are  so  much  the 
more  intolerable  by  how  much  the  consequents  are  of  greater  danger  and 
malice.  Such  doctrines  as  these — the  pope  may  dispense  with  all  oaths 
taken  to  God  or  man  ;  he  may  absolve  subjects  from  their  allegiance  to  their 
natural  prince ;  faith  is  not  to  be  kept  with  heretics ;  heretical  princes  may 
be  slain  by  their  subjects — these  propositions  are  so  depressed  and  do  so 
immediately  communicate  with  matter  and  the  interests  of  men  that  they 
are  of  the  same"  consideration  with  matters  of  fact,  and  are  to  be  handled 
accordingly,' &c.  See  also  Locke,  On  Toleration,  1st  Letter:  'That  Church 
can  have  no  right  to  be  tolerated  by  the  magistrate  which  is  constituted  on 
such  a  bottom  that  all  those  who  enter  into  it  do  thereby  ipso  facto  deliver 
themselves  up  to  the  protection  and  service  of  another  prince,'  &c.  For 
further  exhibition  of  Milton's  views,  see  A  Treatise  of  Civil  Power  in  Eccle- 
siastical Causes,  p.  417  of  Works,  and  Of  True  Religion,  Heresy,  Schism  and 
Toleration,  p.  564 :  '  Let  us  now  inquire  whether  popery  be  tolerable  or 
no,'  &c.     See  Dean  Nowell's  views  a  century  before,  in  Milman's  St.  Paul's. 

PP-  303'  304- 

9.  extirpat.     Cp.  frustrat,  p.  27,  1.  17. 

II.  that  also  which  is  impious,  &c.  See  Locke,  On  Toleration,  1st  Let- 
ter :  •  Those  are  not  to  be  tolerated  who  deny  the  being  of  God,'  &c. 

17.  the  unity  of  Spirit,  &c.     See  Ephesians  iv.  3. 

19.  would  write.     Would  in  this  use  is  virtually  a  present  tense. 

22.  bejesuited.  In  his  treatise  On  Divorce  he  has  belawgiven  (*  whom 
they  do  not  deny  to  have  belawgivn  his  own  sacred  people  with  this  very 


p.  55.]  NOTES,  149 

allowance.')  Cp.  he-Jinave,  befriend,  bejade  (Animadversions) ;  be-dwarf 
(Donne),  befool  (Gower),  beniartyr  (Fuller),  &c,  jBe-  =  by;  see  Earle's 
Philol.  §  559. 

29.  evhi  as  the  per&on,  &c.  It  was  said  of  St.  Paul  that  '  his  bodily 
presence  '  was  •  weak  '  (2  Cor.  x.  10.).  Cp.  Plutarch,  Agesilaos,  ch.  xxxvi : 
(TtiX  Z\  KaTiirKfvaav  (Is  tj]v  Aiy vmov  k.t\.=  ' Upon  his  arrival  in  Egypt 
all  the  great  officers  of  the  kingdom  came  immediately  to  pay  their  court 
to  him.  Indeed,  the  name  and  character  of  Agesilaus  had  raised  great 
expectations  in  the  Egyptians  in  general,  and  they  crowded  to  the  shore  to 
get  a  sight  of  him  ;  but  when  they  beheld  no  pomp  or  grandeur  of  appear- 
ance, and  saw  only  a  little  old  man,  and  in  as  mean  attire,  seated  on  the 
grass  by  the  sea-side,  they  could  not  help  regarding  the  thing  in  a  ridiculous 
light,  and  observing  that  this  was  the  very  thing  represented  in  the  fable, 
"The  mountain  had  brought  forth  a  mouse.'"  Aeniilius  Probus's  Life  of 
Agesilaus  (commonly  assigned  to  Cornelius  Nepos),  chap,  viii, :  '  Atque  hie 
tantus  vir  ut  naturam  fautricem  habuerat  in  tribuendis  animi  virtutibus,  sic 
maleficam  nactus  est  in  corpore  iingendo.  Nam  et  statura  fuit  humili  et 
corpore  exiguo  et  claudus  altero  pede.  Quae  res  etiam  nonnullam  afferebat 
deformitatem  ;  atque  ignoti,  faciem  ejus  cum  intuerentur,  contemnebant  ; 
qui  autem  virtutes  noverant,  non  poterant  admirari  satis.'  See  Bacon's 
Essays,  Of  Deformity  :  •  And  therefore  let  it  not  be  marvelled,  if  sometimes 
they  [deformed  persons]  prove  excellent  persons  ;  as  was  Agesilaus,  Zanger 
the  Sonne  of  Solyman,  iEsope,  Gasca  President  of  Peru  ;  and  Socrates  may 
goe  likewise  amongst  them  ;   with  others.' 

30.  to  see  to=  to  look  towards  or  on.     So  Comus,  620;  Joshua  xxii.  lo. 

P.  55.  3.  when  God  shakes  a  Kingdome,  &c.  Cp.  Joel  iii.  16;  Haggai 
ii.  6,  7. 

13.  his  beam.     Par.  Lost,  iii.  2. 

18.  to  set  places.     Cp.  Par.  Lost,  xi.  836-838  : 

'  .  .  .  that  God  attributes  to  place 
No  sanctity,  if  none  be  thither  brought 
By  men  who  there  frequent,  or  therein  dwell.' 

19.  outward  callings  of  men,  i.e.  'priests.'  See  Of  Reformation  in 
England. 

30.  the  old  Convocation  hoi4se  =  tht  Chapter-house  at  Westminster.  Till 
Wolsey's  time  Convocation  met  in  St.  Paul's.  See  Milmaii's  St.  Paul's, 
p.  289.  Convocation  was  first  summoned  by  writ  in  i  295.  Its  power  was 
circumscribed  by  Henry  VIII,  but  by  no  means  destroyed.  See  H.illam'$ 
Constit.  Hist.  chap.  xvi.  of  the  Student's  edition.  The  Convocations 
of  1603  and  of  1640  had  caused  great  irritation  by  an  ill-timed  deluded 
effort  to  impose  certain  regulations  on  the  country  at  large. 

21.  the  Chappell  at  Westminster.  The  Assembly  of  Divines  met  in 
Henry  VII's  Chapel,  Westminster.  Their  first  meeting  was  held  on  Sunday, 
July  I,  1643.     See  Short's  History  of  the  Church  of  England,  §  585. 

3  2.  all  the  faith,  &c.     The  works  of  the  Assembly  consisted  of  a  Direc- 


150  AREOPAGITICA,  [P.  55. 

tory  for  Worship  and  Ordination,  of  a  Confession  of  Faith,  and  two  Cate- 
chisms, the  larger  and  the  shorter.  '  Besides  these  there  is  a  form  of 
presbyterian  Church  government  agreed  upon  by  the  Assembly,  but  not 
authorised.'     (Short,  §  590.) 

22.  canonizd,  embodied  in  canons ;  so  Kavov'i^civ  in  ecclesiastical  Greek. 
I  do  not  know  that  the  word  occurs  elsewhere  in  this  sense ;  but  that  is 
no  objection  to  Milton's  using  it  so.  For  the  common  sense,  canon  denoted 
the  catalogue  of  saints  and  martyrs  whose  memory  was  by  ecclesiastical  law 
preserved  in  the  festivals  of  the  Church;  hence  canonize  — to  enroll  in  this 
catalogue.     In  Hamlet,  i.  4.  47 — 

•  hut  tell 

Why  thy  canonized  bones,  hearsed  in  death, 

Have  burst  their  cerements ' — 
canoniz'd  seems  to  be  used  loosely  for  '  that  have  been  buried  duly  according 
to  the  rule  with  all  proper  rites.' 

24.  to  supple  the  least  bruise,  &c.  See  Jeremy  Taylor's  chapter  '  Of 
Compliance  with  disagreeing  Persons  or  weak  Consciences  in  general'  in 
his  Liberty  of  Prophesying, 

25.  edijie  is  strictly  to  build  up. 

28.  Harry  the  7.     See  Stanley's  Memorials  of  Westminster. 

29.  with  all  his  leige  tombs  about  him.  Around  him  then  lay  the  Lady 
Margaret  his  mother.  Queen  Elizabeth,  her  rival  of  Scotland,  King  James  I 
and  his  Queen,  &c. ;  to  be  joined  subsequently  by  King  Charles  U,  Wil- 
liam HI  and  Queen  Mary,  King  George  H,  &c. 

33.  that  we  doe  not,  &c.  =  Lat.  qtdn,  &c. 

P.  56.  4.  tasted  learning.  Cp.  Gr.  "^iviaOai.  So  Tennyson,  In  Ms- 
moriam,  Ixxxix  : 

•  He  tasted  love  with  half  his  mind,'  &c. 
See  the  euphuistic  phrase,  and  Viola's  criticism  of  it,  Twelfth  Night,  iii.  I. 
8S-92. 

7.  ma«ag-«  =  take  in  hand.     Fr.  menager,  Lat.  manu  agere. 
14.  perhaps  neither  among  the  Priests,  &c.   Cp.  Luke  x.  30-27;  Matthew 
V.  20. 

21.  the  beginning  of  this  Parlament.     November  3,  1640. 
24.   triple  ice.     Cp.  Horace's  '  aes  triplex,'  Odes,  i,  3.  9. 
chmg.     If  a  'that'  has    not  dropped    out    of   the   text,    cZm«^  =  made 
to  cling,  attached  or  fastened  on  to,  gathered.     In  Par.  Lost,  x.  512,  of 
Satan's  metamorphosis,  chmg  may  be  either  preterite  or  past  participle : 
*  His  visage  drawn  he  felt  to  sharp  and  spare, 
His  arms  clung  to  his  ribs,  his  legs  entwining 
Each  other,  till  supplanted  down  he  fell,'  &c. 

28.  the  check  that  Moses,  &c.     See  above,  p.  47. 

29.  the  countermand,  &c.     See  Luke  ix.  50. 

30.  young  John.  According  to  tradition  he  was  the  youngest  of  the 
Apostles.     The  old  Masters  often  portray  him  as  in  the  prime  of  youth ; 


p.  57.]  NOTES,  151 

so  Hans  Memling  (or  Hemling),  Isaac  von  Melem,  Raphael,  Dom6nichino, 
&c.     See  Jameson's  Sacred  and  Legendary  Art,  vol.  i.  157-172. 

31.  whom  he  thoiighl  U7ilicenc*t.  '  Master,  we  saw  one  casting  out  devils 
in  thy  name;  and  we  forbad  him,  because  he/ollojveth  not  with  us.'  (Luke 
ix.  49.) 

32.  our  Elders.  The  vf or d  presbyter! an  is  derived  from  the  Gr.  wpeaiSu- 
T6/)0S  =  *  elderly.' 

testy.     Literally  =  ' heady,'  from  O.  Fr.  teste;  cp.  Lat.  cerebrosus. 

P.  57.  I.  lett.  The  old  verb  let,  to  hinder,  is  of  quite  distinct  origin 
from  our  common  verb  let,  to  permit.  It  is  the  A.-S.  latian.  (The  other 
let  is  the  A.-S.  IcBtan.)  See  the  Glossary  in  Skeat's  Piers  the  Plowman, 
Clar,  Press  ed.  ;  Shaks.  Henry  V,  v.  2.  65  ;  Hamlet,  i.  4.  85,  &c. ;  Exodus 
V.  4;  Romans  i.  13  ;   2  Thess.  ii.  7,  &c. ;  also  Bible  Word-Book. 

4.  the  most  Dominican  part.  Sec.     See  above,  p.  35,  I.  29. 

6.  it  would  he  no  unequall  distribution,  &c.    See  Ovid,  Art.  Am.  i.  655  : 
*  Neque  enim  lex  aequior  ulla 
Quam  nccis  artifices  arte  perire  sua.' 

13.  that  Order  publisht  next  before  this.  If  the  Order  of  January  29, 
164^,  is  meant,  that  was  the  Order  next  but  one  before  this  ;  for  there  was 
another  passed  March  9,  164I.  The  date  of  'this'  was  June  14,  1643. 
The  Order  '  made  by  the  Honourable  House  of  Commons  Die  Sabbati, 
29  Januarii,  1641,'  is  as  follows  (see  Arber's  Reprint,  p.  24)  :  '  It  is  ordered 
that  the  Master  and  Wardens  of  the  Company  of  Stationers  shall  be  required 
to  take  especial  Order,  that  the  Printers  doe  neither  print,  nor  reprint  any- 
thing without  the  name  and  consent  of  the  author.  And  that  if  any  Printer 
shall  notwithstanding  print  or  reprint  anything  without  the  consent  and 
name  of  the  Author,  that  he  shall  then  be  proceeded  against  as  both  Printer 
and  Author  thereof,  and  their  names  to  be  certified  to  this  House.* 

17.  the  fire.  It  was  common  to  order  obnoxious  books,  or  what  were 
considered  so,  to  be  publicly  burned. 

the  executioner.  His  function  was  not  only  to  inflict  death,  but  such  minor 
penalties  as  branding,  nose-slitting,  ear-severing,  &c.  Of  course  all  that  the 
name  means  is  one  who  fulfils  or  carries  out  the  doom  pronounced  by  the 
judge.     Langland  speaks  of  '  assisours  and  executours  '  (Piers  Plowman). 

19.  authentic  Spanish  policy  ^po\'\cy  genuinely  and  really  Spanish.  Cer- 
tainly the  distinction  between  genuine  and  authentic  drawn  by  Bishop 
Watson  in  his  Apology  for  the  Bible,  1796,  $0  often  quoted  (e.g.  in  later 
editions  of  Paley's  View  of  the  Evi(iciices  of  Christianity,  first  published 
1794),  holds  good  neither  etymologically  nor  in  practice.  *  A  genuine  book,* 
he  states,  '  is  that  which  was  written  by  the  person  whose  name  it  bears  as 
the  author  of  it.  An  authentic  book  is  th;it  uhicli  relates  matters  of  fact  as 
they  really  happened.'  Authentic  is  the  Gr.  avOffriKos,  •  warranted,' op- 
posed to  ddeaTTOTos.  (Liddell  and  Scott.)  See  Cic«*ro,  Ep.  ad  Att.  ix.  14: 
'  Atque  eum  loqul  quidani  avdtVTiicujs  narrabat,'  See.  lb.  x.  9:  *  Id  enim 
avOtvTiKSii   nunciabatur,'   &c.     hiidtvTiKot    is  the   adjective   of  avdivT7]$, 


IS^  AREOPAGITICA.  [P.  58. 

'  contracted  from  avroevrrjs,  '  one  who  does  anything  with  his  own  hand ; ' 
an  actual  murderer,  a  suicide,  &c.  See  Eikonoklastes,  chap.  28 :  'It  were 
extreme  partiality  and  injustice,  the  flat  denial  and  overthrow  of  herself 
[of  Justice]  to  put  her  own  authentic  sv/ord  into  the  hand  of  an  unjust  and 
wicked  man.'     See  Trench's  Select  Glossary. 

22.  a  Star-chamber  decree,  &c.  See  a  copy  of  this  Decree,  'made  the 
eleventh  day  of  July  last  past,  1637,'  '"  Arber's  Reprint,  pp.  7-23. 

Star-chamber.  See  Hallam,  Student's  ed.,  pp.  28-30,  227-230.  This 
shameful  Court  was  abolished  in  1641,  along  with  that  of  the  High  Com- 
mission. There  were  some  who  would  have  revived  it  in  1661,  but  happily 
they  were  unabie. 

25.  with  Lucifer.     See  Isaiah  xiv.  12. 

29.  bind  books,  &c. ;  i.e.  '  bind  them  over,'  as  we  say. 

30.  your  precedent  Order.     See  above. 

31.  those  men,  &c. ;  i.e.  the  booksellers. 

33.  the  fraud  of  some  eld  pate jilees,  8cc.  These  tradesmen  had  feared 
that  certain  privileges  of  their  own  might  be  encroached  upon,  should  all 
restrictions  upon  Printing  be  removed. 

P.  58.  1,  monopolizers.     See  above,  p.  33. 

wider  pretence  of  the  poor,  &c.  See  the  Order  :  '  And  that  no  person  or 
persons  shall  hereafter  print,  or  cause  to  be  reprinted,  any  Book  or  Books 
or  part  of  Book  or  Books  heretofore  allowed  of  and  granted  to  the  said 
Company  of  Stationers  for  their  relief  and  maintenance  of  their  poore, 
without  the  licence  or  consent  of  the  Master,  Wardens,  or  Assistants  of  the 
said  Company,'  &c. 

3.  the  just  retaining,  &c.    He  refers  to  this  matter  of  copyright  above,  p.  5. 

severall.  Several  is  etymologically  connected  with  separate.  See  note  in 
Longer  English  Poems  on  Hymn  on  the  Nativity,  234 : 

'  Each  fettered  ghost  slips  to  his  severall  grave.' 

5.  colours  =  specious  arguments,  disguisings  or  misrepresentations,  ex- 
aggerations or  extenuations,  &c.  We  still  speak  of  a  '  highly  coloured 
account,'  &c.  This  use  of  the  word  comes  to  us  from  the  Latin  rhetoricians. 
See  Quintilian,  iv.  2,  28,  et  seq.  &c.     Juvenal,  vi.  280  : 

'  Die  aliquem,  sodes,  hie,   Qiiintiliane,  colorem*  Sec, 
See  Chaucer's  Squier's  Tale,  Part  ii ;   Bacon's   Coulers  of  Good  and  Evil. 
a  fragment,  1597,  printed  in  the  Golden  Treasury  edition  of  the  Essays. 

6.  to  exercise,  &c.  —  to  retain  their  advantages  over  other  members  of  the 
bookselling  trade. 

12.  m«//o-«an/=:  anti-Parliamentary,  Royalisf,  &c.  Says  the  Tory  Dr. 
Johnson  :  •  It  was  a  word  used  of  the  defenders  of  the  church  and  monarchy 
by  the  rebel  sectaries  in  the  civil  wars.' 

14.  these  Sophisms  and  Elenchs  of  marchandize  =  these  trade  considera- 
tions; more  strictly,  these  fallacious  arguments  urged  by  the  booksellers, 
and  their  refutations, 

elenchs  =  6A«7X"*»  Aristotle,   Analytica  Priora,  ii.   20.  I.     A  syllogisir 


p.  58.]  NOTE.  153 

by  which  the  adversary  is  forcerl  to  contradict  himself  was  specially  so 
called;  but  it  is  often  used  in  a  general  sense.  See  Bacon's  Advancement 
of  Learning,  11.  14,  5,  6  :  *  The  second  method  of  doctrine  [the  first  is  that 
part  of  logic  which  is  comprehended  in  the  *  Analytics  ']  was  introduced  for 
expedite  use  and  assurance  sake,  discovering  the  more  subtile  forms  of 
sophisms  and  illaqueations  with  their  redargutions,  which  is  that  which 
is  termed  clenches.  For  although  in  the  more  gross  sort  of  fallacies  it 
happeneth  (as  Seneca  maketh  the  comparison  well)  as  in  juggling  feats, 
which,  though  we  know  not  how  they  are  done,  yet  we  know  well  it  is 
not  as  it  seemeth  to  be ;  yet  the  more  subtile  sort  of  them  doth  not  only 
put  a  man  besides  his  answer,  but  doth  many  times  abuse  his  judgement. 
This  part  concerning  elenches  is  excellently  handled  by  Aristotle  in  precept, 
but  more  excellently  by  Plato  in  example ;  not  only  in  the  persons  of  the 
Sophists,  but  even  in  Socrates  himself,  who,  professing  to  affirm  nothing, 
but  to  infirm  that  which  was  affirmed  by  another,  hath  exactly  expressed 
all  the  forms  of  objection,  fallace,  and  redargution,'  &c. 

19.  what  hath  bin  err'd.     A  classicism.     Cp.  Quintilian,  vi.  5.  7 :    'Si 
nihil  esset  erratum,'  &c. 

20.  in  highest  authority;  i.e.  for  those  in  highest  authority. 

a  plain  advertisement  =  3.  mere  calling  of  your  attention  to  the  facts  of  the 
case,  a  simple  notification,  &c. 

21.  is  a  vertue,  &c.     He  concludes,  as  he  began,  with  a  lofty  panegyric 
of  the  Parliament  that  had  done  for  us  such  splendid  service. 


ADDITIONAL  NOTE 

to  11.  4-9,  p.  41. 

I  THINK  I  can  now  throw  a  little  fresh  light  on  this  obscure  passage,  and 
sufficiently  explain  it,  though  further  illustrations  will  be  heartily  welcome, 
if  any  are  forthcoming. 

Milton  means  to  say  that  sermons  are  just  as  much  articles  of  commerce 
as  anything  else,  and  to  be  bought  as  easily  and  commonly  as  such  com- 
modities as  clothes  or  lace  or  boots.  To  paraphrase  more  closely:  not  in 
the  Mercery,  or  in  the  precincts  of  St.  Martin  le  Grand,  or  in  shoe- 
makers' shops,  are  there  more  ready-made  wares  of  all  sorts  for  sale  than 
there  are  sermons  in  certain  quarters  '  ready  printed  and  pil'd  up,  on  every 
text  that  is  not  difficult ' ;  so  that  the  '  parocliial  minister  '  or  parish  priest,  who 
is  too  ignorant  or  indolent  to  compose  his  own  discourses,  need  never  fear  any 
lack  of '  pulpit  provision,'  having  so  well  stocked  a  market  close  at  hand. 

5.  Our  London  trading  St.  Thomas  then  refers  to  the  Mercery  in  Cheap- 
side,  the  place  where  the  mercers  had  their  shops,  which  wa«  close  by  the 
Mercers*  Hall  and  Chapel.     But  this  chapel  was,  in  fact,  the  church  of  the 


154  ADDITIONAL  NOTE. 

ancient  college  or  hospital  of  St.  Thomas  of  Aeon  or  Acres,  which  was 
founded  in  his  honour  by  a  sister  of  Thomas  a  Becket  (to  use  a  familiar 
though  inaccurate  cognomen)  on  the  site  of  the  house  in  which  he  was 
born.  After  the  mercers  bought  the  premises  from  King  Henry  VIII,  at 
the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries,  the  said  building  was  reopened  for  divine 
service  in  accordance  with  the  Reformed  ritual,  and,  as  Stow  tells  us,  *  was 
called  Mercers'  Chapel.'  But,  probably  enough,  the  old  name  would  still 
survive  in  popular  usage;  that  is,  it  would  still  be  known  as  St.  Thomas'. 
At  all  events,  the  old  name  would  be  familiar  to  Milton,  and  it  would  be 
after  his  manner  to  employ  it.  Originally,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  by  '  mercery' 
were  meant  '  small  wares,'  or  *  mixed  wares '  '  in  contradistinction  to  the 
larger  articles  of  commerce  or  the  goods  of  specific  branches  in  manufacture.' 
But  gradually  the  mercers  of  Cheap  extended  their  dealings,  became  vendors 
of  silks  and  velvets  (temp.  Henry  VI),  and  formed  a  mixed  body  of  mer- 
chants and  shopkeepers,  leaving  the  small  wares  or  mercery  proper  to  the 
haberdashers,  who  'kept  market  in  adjoining  Stalls  and  Standings'  (see 
Herbert's  Twelve  Great  Companies,  and  Wheatley's  Cunningham's  London 
Past  and  Present).     On  the  use  of  the  word  vestry,  see  the  note  on  p.  1 31. 

6.  Adde  to  boot  St.  Martin.  The  precincts  of  St.  Martin  le  Grand,  which 
was  a  collegiate  church  and  sanctuary,  became  '  a  kind  of  Alsatia  *  at  the 
dissolution  of  monasteries,  its  privileges  of  sanctuary  not  being  suppressed, 
and  also  a  favourite  residence  of  manufacturers  of  counterfeit  ware,  of  latten 
and  copper  anicles,  of  beads,  and  of  lace,  'a  sort  of  copper  lace  called 
St.  Martin's  lace.'  Cunningham  gives  some  excellent  quotations  to  illustrate 
this  local  traffic  from  Westward  Ho !,  The  City  Madam,  Hudibras,  Mrs. 
Behn's  Lucky  Chance ;  and  more  might  be  gathered  from  the  Elizabethan 
dramatists;  e.g.  in  Northward  Hoe,  'Old  Jack  Hornet,'  says  Doll,  'shall 
take  upon  him  to  be  my  father.'  *  Excellent  I '  cries  Leverpoole,  *  with 
a  chain  about  his  neck,  and  so  forth.'  *  For  that,'  replies  Doll,  *  Saint 
Martin's  and  we  will  talk.'  And  further  on  in  the  play  we  have  the  said 
Hornet  exclaiming :  '  Sfoot,  nothing  moves  my  choler,  but  that  my  chain  is 
copper.  But  'tis  no  matter ;  better  men  than  old  Jack  Hornet  have  rode  up 
Holborn  with  as  bad  a  thing  about  their  necks  as  this.  Your  right  whiffler 
indeed  hangs  himself  [i.  e.  provides  himself  with  a  chain  to  hang  on  his  neck] 
in  Saint  Martin's  [where  the  cheap  *  Sham '  things  were  sold]  and  not  in 
Cheapside '  (where,  at  the  western  end  on  the  southern  side,  the  best  gold- 
smiths carried  on  business). 

7.  St.  Hugh  remains  to  be  considered;  and  what  I  have  to  remark  is, 
that  a  St.  Hugh  was  in  some  way  associated  with  shoemakers ;  that  he  in 
some  way  was  their  patron  along  with  the  well-known  Saints  Crispin  and 
Crispian.  Evidence  of  this  fact  is  furnished  by  Dekker  in  his  Shoemakers' 
Holiday,  or  the  Gentle  Craft,  with  the  humorous  hfe  of  Simon  Eyre,  Shoe- 
maker and  Lord  Mayor  of  London.  Thus,  when  Eyre  introduces  his  fellow- 
craftsmen  to  the  king,  and  his  Majesty  asks,  *  My  mad  Lord  Mayor,  are 
all  these  Shoemakers  ? '   '  my  mad  Lord  Mayor '  makes  answer  :    '  All  Shoe- 


ADDITIONAL  NOTE.  '  1 55 

makers,  my  liege,  all  gentlemen  of  the  Gentle  Craft,  true  Trojans,  courageous 
Cordwainers.  They  all  kneel  to  the  shrine  of  holy  Saint  Hugh.*  Elsewhere 
in  this  play  'Saint  Hugh's  bones'  are  mentioned  as  part  of  a  cobbler's  furni- 
ture— as  being  amongst  the  implements  of  his  trade.  '  Hark  you.  Shoe- 
maker,' says  Firke  to  Lacy,  who  wants  a  job,  *  have  you  all  your  tools : 
a  good  dressing-pin,  a  good  stopper,  a  good  dresser,  your  four  sorts  of  awls, 
and  your  two  balls  of  wax,  your  paring  knife,  your  hand-  and  thumb-leathers, 
and  good  Saint  Hugh's  bones  to  smooth  up  your  work  ?  *  In  Hone's  Every 
Day  Book,  vol.  i,  p.  69S,  the  chapter  on  St.  Crispin  and  St.  Crispian  has  for 
its  motto  a  quotation  from  'St.  Hugh's  Song,'  viz. — 

'Our  shoes  were  sow'd  with  merry  notes. 
And  our  mirth  expell'd  all  moan ; 
Like  nightingales,  from  whose  sweet  throats 
Most  pleasant  tunes  are  nightly  blown. 
The  Gentle  Craft  is  fittest  then 
For  poor  distressed  gentlemen.' 

What  could  be  the  origin  of  this  phrase?  The  only  mention  of  a  shoe- 
maker in  connexion  with  one  of  the  three  famous  saints  of  the  name 
that  I  have  noticed  occurs  in  the  Magna  Vita  S.  Hugonis  Episcopi 
Lincolniensis.  The  great  Carthusian  died  in  London,  at  his  house  on  the 
site  of  the  Old  Temple  in  what  is  now  Chancery  Lane,  '  secus  Londinias 
apud  vetus  Templum';  but  his  body  was  carried  down  to  Lincoln  to 
be  buried,  to  that  *  templum  gloriosissimum '  of  which  he  had  himself 
begun  the  re-building ;  and  in  the  towns  through  which  it  passed,  it  was 
received  with  the  utmost  reverence  and  devotion.  At  one  of  these,  at 
Stamford,  a  certain  cobbler  distinguished  himself  by  the  ardour  of  his 
worship.  He  is  described  as  '  vir  innocentis  vitae  bonisque  per  onmia 
studiis  deditus,  arte  sutoria  sibi  suaeque  familiolae  victum  quaeritans.^ 
When  he  saw  some  way  off  the  bier  of  that  most  precious  clay  ('  gleba* 
preciosissimae '),  and  could  not  get  near  it,  so  dense  was  the  crowd,  he  was 
heard  praying  aloud  that  Heaven  would  permit  him  to  kiss  the  fringe  of  the 
pall  or  place  his  most  unworthy  head  under  those  sacred  remains,  and  then 
let  him  die  ('  et  sic  de  hujus  niundi  colluvione  animam  me.im  tolle ').  And 
at  last  his  fervent  wish  was  granted,  and  he  thanked  God  for  h.-iving  so  pitied 
him,  and  prayed  again  that  that  night  he  might  share  the  eternal  rest 
enjoyed  by  the  soul  whose  now  deserted  body  he  had  been  privileged  to 
approach.  His  prayer  was  answered.  That  selfsame  night  he  passed  away 
in  peace  ('  In  extremis  positus,  praemissa  confessione  percepta  absolutione 
testamentoque  legitime  confecto,  mox  ut  }  crcepit,  spiritum  in  pace  emisit '). 
This  story  must  have  been  well  known  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and  may  have 
tended  to  associate  St.  Hugh  with  the  shoemaking  trade.  But  it  is  possible 
already  in  some  way  Bishop  Hugh  was  associated  with  cordwainers,  and  that 
the  passionate  zeal  of  the  Stamford  cobbler  was  inflamed  by  a  knowledge  of 
this  association,  and  that  he  regarded  him  as  a  recognized  friend  and  patron 
of  his  craft,  in  whose  company  he  would  fain  travel  straight  into  Paradise. 


156  ADDITIONAL  NOTE. 

Most  probably,  however,  if  not  quite  certainly,  the  St.  Hugh  referred  to 
is  not  one  of  the  three  well-known  saints  of  the  name,  but  yet  another — 
a  Welshman  by  birth,  of  comparatively  little  fame.  His  story  is  told  in 
Campian's  Pleasant  and  Entertaining  History  of  St.  Hugh  with  a  particular 
account  of  his  constant  love  to  the  handsome  virgin  Winifred,  2nd  ed.  1876, 
to  which  I  have  heartily  to  thank  Dr.  Sharpe  of  the  Town  Clerk's  office, 
Guildhall,  London,  for  having  called  my  attention.  This  St.  Hugh,  we  are 
informed,  was  the  son  of  a  King  of  Powys,  and  fondly  loved  Winifred  the 
daughter  of  Donwallo,  King  of  Tegina,  Flintshire.  His  suit  rejected,  he 
travelled  abroad,  and  returning,  for  reasons  best  known  to  himself  took  up 
with  a  shoemaker  at  Harwich.  Then  broke  out  the  Diocletian  persecution, 
and  amongst  its  victims  were  both  the  disguised  cobbler  and  the  lady  of  his 
affection.  Just  before  his  death,  he  bequeathed  his  bones  to  the  craft  to 
which  he  had  apprenticed  himself,  having  nothing  else  to  bequeath  them. 
And  the  legacy  was  turned  to  good  account  by  his  fellow-craftsmen : 
•  My  friends,   I  pray  you  listen  to  me 

And  mark  what  St.  Hugh's  bones  shall  be: 

First  a  drawer,  and  a  dresser, 

Two  wedges,  a  more  and  a  lesser, 

A  pretty  block  three  inches  high, 

In  fashion  squared  like  a  die,'  &c. 
7.  One  point  remains  unexplained,  viz.  Milton's  speaking  of '  the  hallowed 
limits '  of  St.  Hugh.  As  we  have  stated  (see  p.  131),  there  was  never  a  church 
in  London  dedicated  to  any  St.  Hugh.  The  original  region  or  neighbour- 
hood of  the  shoemakers  was  the  Cordwainers'  Ward  (see  Stow's  Survey) ; 
and  it  may  be  presumed  that  this  is  the  part  of  London  in  Milton's  mind. 
But  to  speak  of  it  as  'the  hallowed  limits'  of  St.  Hugh  seems  a  carelessness 
of  expression  arising  from  a  wish  to  make  the  allusion  to  the  shoemakers 
uniform  with  those  to  the  clothiers  and  the  trinket-sellers. 

PS. — H.  H.,  to  whom  this  volume  and  I  are  indebted  for  many  invaluable 
services,  has  kindly  called  my  attention  to  a  most  pertinent  passage  in  a  poem 
relating  to  the  arrival  of  King  George  I,  quoted  in  part  by  Hogg,  in  the 
first  volume  of  his  Jacobite  Relics  of  Scotland  : 

'  Next  to  the  knight  there  rode  a  true- 

Blue  cobbling  Protestant,  St.  Hugh, 

So  called  because  that  saint  is  made 

The  leathern  patron  of  his  trade. 

Whose  wooden  bones  he  worships  more 

Than  God,  his  church,  or  sovereign  power, 

Or  any  thing,  except  his  glorious 

Triumphant  idol  so  victorious, 

Ador'd  by  all  the  gentle  craft 

That  work  in  garret  up  aloft, 

As  well  as  cobbling  sots  that  breathe 

His  praises  out  in  stalls  beneath.* 


INDEX   OF    PROPER    NAMES. 


Adam.  iS,  25. 

Delf,  20. 

Aegyptians,  14. 

Dioclesian,  14. 

Ahab,  53. 

Diogenes,  S, 

Andromache,  8. 

Dioti  Prusaeus,  4. 

Angelo,  St.,  35, 

Dionysius,  7. 

Apollinarius,  14. 

Dionysius      Alexaivlri- 

Aquinas,  18. 

nus,  15. 

Arcadia,  24. 

Dominican,  35. 

Archilochus,  8. 

Dorick,  24. 

Areopagus,  7. 

Arezzo,  20. 

1          Aristophanes,  23. 
Aristotle,  21. 

England,  3. 
Epicurus,  7. 

Arminius,  20. 

Epiphanius,  19. 

Athens,  4.  6. 
Augustus,  8. 

Epirots,  47. 

Euripides,  8. 
Etisebius,  15. 

Bacon,  32,  38. 

Eustochium,  15. 

*      Basil,  15. 

Belcastro,  II. 

Flaccus,  9. 

Bethany,  39. 

Florence,  il. 

Brook,  Lord,  51. 

Franciscan,  35. 

Caldeans,  14. 

Galileo,  35. 

Calvin,  45. 

Geneva,  52. 

Canada,  20. 

Gentiles,  10. 

Carneades,  8, 

Greece,  3,  6,  7. 
Gothes,  3. 

Carthaginian    Couiicel, 

10. 

Guion,  18. 

Cataio,  •20. 

Cato,  8. 
Catullus,  9. 
Chrysostom,  7. 
Cicero,  9. 

Hannibal,  48. 
Harry  71!..  55. 
Harry  8th,  20. 
Hellenick,  14. 
Hercules,  40. 
Homer,  7. 

Cini,  11. 

Clement  of  Alexandria, 

Crefet,  7. 
Critolaus,  8. 

Cyiiick,  7. 

Hugh,  St., 41. 
Huiinish,  3. 
Husse,  10. 

Cyrene,  7. 

Jerusalem,  39. 

D' Amelia,  11. 

Ionia,  7. 
Irenaeus,  19, 
Isaiah,  20. 

Daniel,  14. 

Davanzati,  11. 

Isis,  43. 

Decius,  14. 

Italy,  8. 

Janus,  51. 

Jerome,  T4,  19. 

Jesuits,  20. 

John  (the  Evangelist), 

56. 
Joshua,  56. 

Julian  the  Apostat,  14. 
Julius  Agricola,  45. 
Juno,  12. 
Jutlanders,  3. 

Knox,  33. 

Lacedaemon,  8. 
Lambeth,  12, 
Leo  X,  10. 
Loretto,  39. 
Lucilius,  9. 
Lucretius,  9. 
Lullins,  13. 
Luther,  45. 
Lycurgus,  7. 

Margites,  15, 
Martin  the  5ih,  10. 
Martin,  St.,  41. 
Memmius,  9. 
Menander,  8. 
Micaiah,  53. 
Minorites,  13. 
Monte  Mayor.  24. 
Moses,  14,  56. 

Naevius,  8. 
Naso,  9. 

Octavius  Caesar,  9. 
Osiris,  43. 

Paolo  Padre,  10. 
Paul's,  12. 
Paul,  14,  17. 
Persian,  44. 
Petronius,  20. 
Philemon,  8. 


158 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


Philistines,  33. 
Plato,  7. 
Plautus,  8. 
Ponipey,  9. 
Porphyrius,  g. 
Proclus,  9. 
Protagoras,  6. 
Psyche,  17. 
Pyrrhus,  47. 
Pythagoras,  44. 

Rabatta,  il. 
Radamanth,  13 
Rhodians,  4. 


Rodolph,  II. 
Rome,  10. 
Russia,  45. 

Sabin,  8. 
Salomon,  17, 
Scipio,  8. 
Scotus,  18. 
Selden,  16. 
Sicilians,  36. 
Socrates,  14. 
Sophron,  23. 
Spartan,  7. 
Spenser,  18. 


Thales,  7. 
Thomas,  St.,  41. 
Titus  Livius,  9. 
Transylvanian,  45, 
Trent,  lo. 
Turk,  43. 
Typhon,  43. 

Verres,  36. 

Westminster,  55, 
Wicklef,  10,  45. 

Zuinglius,  44. 


GENERAL    INDEX. 


Accuratest,  31. 
After,  8. 
Alchymy,  13^ 
Almost,  6. 
Ancestors,  12. 
Ancienter,  15. 
Anough,  9,  48. 
Answerable,  15. 
Antiphonies,  I  2. 
Apothegms,  7. 
Arrant,  39. 
Art,  33. 
Artificial,  25. 
Athwart,  1 1, 
Attend,  5. 
Autority,  9. 

Bablers,  8. 
Bachelor,  37. 
Bagpipe,  24. 
Baited  down,  38. 
Balcone's,  24. 
Ballatry,  24. 
Ballats,  8. 
Battell,  52. 
Bayl,  31. 
Beacon'd  up,  44. 
Bear  up  with,  39. 
Birth,  12. 
Blindfold,  27. 
Breviaries,  41. 
Brigade,  48. 


Broke  prison,  11. 
Brooking,  3. 
Brother,  5. 
Bull,  10. 

Burgomasters,  2  2. 
Bushel,  49. 

Cannonicall,  37. 
Canonized,  55. 
Carefull,  43. 
Catcht,  6. 
Catena,  40. 
Cautelous,  21. 
Censure,  I. 
Charge,  41. 
Chop,  37. 
Cities,  4, 
Civill,  3,  44. 
Clung,  56. 
Colours,  58. 
Combust,  43. 
Commendatory,  39. 
Commodity,  33. 
Complementing,  12. 
Complexion,  38. 
Conceit,  35. 
Concoction,  16. 
Concordance,  40. 
Condiscend,  28. 
Conduct,  50. 
Confuting,  51. 
Considerat,  3I. 


Contrive,  22. 
Conventicle,  37. 
Conversant,  15. 
Conversation,  24. 
Conversing,  8. 
Cote,  50. 
Coulter,  33. 
Courtship,  2. 
Covenants,  37, 
Crave,  29. 
Creeks,  42. 
Criticisms,  20. 
Cropping,  5. 

Damnify' d,  27. 
Dares,  31. 
Dasht,  29, 
Decaying,  50. 
Decrepit,  32. 
Defiance,  48. 
Demeanour,  17. 
Derogated,  4. 
Despair,  47. 
Dictatorio,  12. 
Diligentest,  31, 
Ding,  32. 
Dioces,  37. 
Discipline,  52. 
Disconformity,  51. 
Discontent,  30. 
Discours,  22,  44, 
Discover,  19, 


GENERAL    INDEX. 


159 


Disexercising,  5. 
Disparagement,  34. 
Distinct,  20. 
Dividuall,  39. 
Divulged,  27. 
Doctor,  31. 
Dram,  26. 
Ducking,  I  a. 
Dunce,  33. 

Economicall,  44. 
Edifie,  55. 
Elenchs,  58. 
'Em,  40. 
Enchiridion,  35. 
Encroachment,  10. 
Enhaunces,  38. 
Equall,  3. 
Exorcism,  li. 
Exquisite,  16. 
Extended,  47. 

Fabrict,  53. 
Faction,  9. 
Fain,  14. 
Fansied,  10. 
Fantastic,  46. 
Feature,  43. 
Fell  upon,  23. 
Fend,  41. 
Ferular,  30. 
Fescu,  30. 
Fift  essence,  6. 
Firmament,  43. 
Fist,  32. 
Flourishes.  35. 
Foreine,  20. 
Forgotten,  36, 
Formost,  I,  12. 
Frustrate.  27. 
Furder,  10. 
Fustian,  35. 

Gabble,  49. 
Gadding.  41. 
Gammuth,  24. 
Garb,  24. 
Garland,  18. 
Gear,  41. 
Ghitarrs,  24. 
Glutton,  II. 


Forg 


Gluttony,  24. 
Grammercy,  25. 

Hand,  28. 
Harmony,  40. 
Hears  ill,  24. 
Her,  44. 
Hereticks,  9. 
Hidebound,  33. 
His,  5. 
Homily,  5. 

Ilfavourcdiy,  13. 
Impaled,  41. 
Ingrossers,  49. 
Ink,  to  cast,  12, 
Inquisiturient,  13. 
Innovator,  45. 
Inrodes,  48. 
Interlinearies,  41. 
Invention,  33. 

Jaunt,  31. 
Jealous,  34. 
Journey-work,  28. 

Keri,  19. 
Knaw,  33. 
Knowing,  33. 

Laick,  35. 
Law  keepers,  23. 
Lay  by,  10. 
Lectures,  24. 
Lett,  57. 
Libertine,  7. 
Licence,  6. 
Lifeblood.  6. 
Light  on,  13. 
Likely,  1. 
Limbo's,  13. 
Loiterine.  41. 

Madrigalls,  24. 
Malignant,  50. 
Malmsey,  39. 
Manage,  56. 
Maniples,  48. 
Manners,  1 1. 
Mansion-house,  45. 
Matrimonial,  5. 


Methinks,  49. 
Monopolizers,  58. 
Motions,  25. 
Mov'd  it,  8. 
Muing,  49. 
Municipal,  24. 
Muselesse,  7. 
Mysteries,  39. 

Naughty,  16. 
Never  so,  32. 
Nicely,  19. 
Noise,  49. 
Novice,  37. 

Obsequies,  43. 
Obtain,  4. 
Odds,  14. 
Of,  46. 
Offence,  15. 
Officials,  27. 
Omer,  17, 
Opinion,  46. 

Painful,  5. 
Passing,  10. 
Patriarchal,  33, 
Pedantick,  33. 
Perfected,  10. 
Perfunctory,  33, 
Permitted,  20, 
Perswades,  4. 
Pertest,  49. 
Perverted,  ao. 
Piatza,  \2. 
Piddling,  39. 
Pittance,  25. 
Plates,  46. 
Pluralities,  29. 
Polite,  3. 
Politics,  25. 
Pound,  21. 
Poundage,  40. 
Prattle,  24. 
Prevent,  22. 
Professors,  39. 
Propending,  45. 
Prospect,  42. 
Prove,  15. 
Provoking,  35, 
Publicans,  40. 


i6o 


GENERAL   INDEX. 


Punie,  31. 
Purchast,  50. 
Purgatory,  10. 

Quadragesimal,  5. 
Qualifie,  22. 
Quell,  7. 
Quick,  7. 

Rebbeck,  24, 
Regiment,  48. 
Relation,  li. 
Remember,  38. 
Repasting,  16. 
Resembling  of,  8. 
Resented,  33. 
Responsories,  I  a. 
Ribald,  20. 
Ridd,  29. 
Ript  up,  12. 
Roundels,  8. 

Salary,  29. 
Scanting,  26. 
Scapt,  30. 
Scout,  19. 
Scurrill,  15. 
Searching,  44. 
Seised,  15. 
Sensible,  29. 
Sentences,  the,  14. 
Sequester  25. 
Sermoning,  41. 
Settle,  42. 


Severall,  58. 
Shifts,  14. 
Shrewd,  24. 
Siniories,  4. 
Skill,  to,  39. 
Sol-fa,  40. 
Sort,  18. 
Spill,  6. 

Spunge,  the,  12. 
Stanch,  40. 
Standards,  33. 
Standing  to,  30. 
Starch,  40. 
Stark,  44. 
States,  I. 
Stationer,  32. 
Statist,  3. 
Statutes,  33. 
Sta/d,  45. 
Step-dame,  38. 
Stop,  42. 
Story,  9,  28. 
Sublimat,  13. 
Success,  I. 
Surlinesse,  7. 
Synopses,  41. 

Tasted,  56. 
Testy,  56. 
The,  (thd),  6. 
Theam,  30. 
Then,  i. 
Tickets,  33. 
To,  23,  38. 


Topic,  40. 
To  see  to,  52. 
Trash,  23, 
Tunnage,  40. 

Uncorruptednesse,  21. 
Unequal!,  50. 
Unfrocking,  43. 
Unthrift,  29. 
Unwillingest,  2. 
Uses,  38. 
Utter,  50. 
Utter  to,  30. 

Ventrous,  32. 
Viands,  16. 
Vicar,  li, 
Violl,  5. 
Visitors,  24. 
Voided,  38. 
Vote,  51. 

Waking,  41. 
Want,  22. 
Wanting,  i. 
Watchings,  31, 
What,  40. 
Whenas,  30, 
Wont,  15. 

Ye,  3. 
Yet.  3. 


THE    END. 


PRINTED  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN  AT  THE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS,  OXFORD 
BY  JOHN  JOHNSON,  PRINTER  TO  THE  UNIVERSITY 


Robarts  Library 

DUE    DATE: 

Jan.  8,  1993 


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