NOTES

5. T. N. This was undoubtedly Thomas Newcome, official printer to the commonwealth for many years under the editorship and censorship of Needham and Milton respectively. Several of Milton's books-Defensio Prima, Defensio Secunda, Treatise of Civil Power (1659), etc.-had issued from Newcome's press, and we may assume that it was still at Milton's service. But the initials perhaps indicate a wavering in this allegiance. At all events, Newcome had no hand in the second edition; and so dexterously was he off with the old and on with the new that we find him on May 5 appointed one of the two official printers to the Parliament.

5. Livewell Chapman. A stationer at the sign of the Crown in Pope's-Head Alley. The council of state, being informed that Chapman had lately 'caused several seditious and treasonable books to be printed and published,' issued an order for his arrest on March 28, 1660 (Masson, Life of Milton 5. 670).

7. et nos, etc. See Introduction, p. viii. Masson translates as follows:

We have advised

Sulla himself, advise we now the People.

The allusion is to General Monk, to whom Milton, about the time of the appearance of The Ready and Easy Way, had addressed a brief and convenient summary of its proposals, entitled: The Present Means and Brief Delineation of a Free Commonwealth, Easy to be put in Practice, and without Delay. In a letter to General Monk. Milton got no response whatever, and soon lost all confidence in Monk's professions of republicanism. He now turns from Sylla the tyrant to appeal to the people.

9. I. since the writing. See Introduction B. I.

9. 1a. the face of things. This was a very favorite expression during the Interregnum. Thus Dr. Denton writes to Sir Ralph Verney, Aug. 10, 1659: 'The face of things may alter in a moment' (Verney Memoirs 3. 450).

9. 2. some change. Within the fortnight just past, General Monk, hitherto the defender of the Rump, had become the Rump's dictator, and boldly restored the secluded membersnow rampant Royalists. This opened the way to a certain and speedy restoration of kingship. Milton, conceding merely 'some change,' assumes at the outset a calmness of tone, as if determined still to hope, or at least not to communicate to others his own despair.

9. 2a. writs for new elections. The little handful of Rumprepublicans were extremely reluctant to 'fill up' their numbers by new elections. Attributing the wretched state of affairs to this cause, General Monk marched into the city on Feb. II, and flatly demanded that the House 'should issue out Writs' within six days (see Introd., p. xxiv, for the exact ultimatum). That stubborn and tenacious little body retaliated by disabling all sons of sequestered Royalists, but took care to comply, on their last day of grace, with the dictator's main demand.

9. 3. have bin recall'd. See Introduction, pp. x-xi.

9. 4. readmitted from exclusion. On Dec. 6, 1648, Colonel Pride had posted his regiment at the doors of the House of Commons, and 'terrified from sitting, near two Hundred [cf. notes on 10. 38 and 11. 21], ... being those who had on the fifth of December before, by Vote approved of the late King's Concessions for a Peace at the Isle of Wight' (Baker, Chron., p. 542). During the succeeding years of the commonwealth these secluded members never ceased to demand readmission. Finally, they found an effective champion in General Monk, who 'on the one and twentyeth day of February [1660], meeting the secluded members at Whitehall, . . commended to their care 1. Religion, . . 2. the state,' and 'told them the house was open for them to enter, and prayed for their good success. The secluded members being thus admitted, fall immediately to work where they were abruptly forced to break off in

...

December 1648' (Walker, Hist. Indep. 4.93). The eagerness of the long-debarred members to get back into their seats was not without its ludicrous aspect: 'As he went into the House W. Prynne's long sword got between Sir W. Waller's short legs, and threw him down, which caused laughter' (Aubrey, Bodleian Letters 2. 509). Pepys also has a good account of their triumphal entry.

9. 5. not a little rejoicing. The readmission of the secluded members had changed the Parliament in an instant from a staunch republican and Independent body into a Royalist and Presbyterian stronghold. Moreover, the restored members were pledged to a speedy dissolution and the calling of a free Parliament-conditions absolutely fatal to republicanism. Of the dissolution itself Clement Walker (Hist. Ind. 4. 95) exultingly records: And thus we see Independency laid in the dust, and ready to give up the ghost.' Milton's favorite scheme of perpetuating the Rump as a national grand council was, of course, no longer possible, if it had ever been so. Whatever rejoicing he was now capable of must have sprung, therefore, from some lingering hope of securing the main end a commonwealth in some form instead of kingship-and a degree of faith in the vehement declarations of General Monk (see note on 9. 5a).

9. 5a. resolutions of all those who are now in power. Whitelock (Memorials 4. 397) mentions the engagement entered into by the Rump on Feb. 14 'to be true and faithful to the commonwealth of England, . . . without a king, single person or house of lords.' The restored members, on their part, 'declared, as to Government they intended no Alteration in it' (Baker, Chron., p. 600). But most emphatic of all was General Monk. Early in February he declared to General Ludlow that they 'must live and die together for a Commonwealth' (Ludlow, Memorials 2. 227). His words of Feb. 21, addressed to the secluded members about to be restored, were still stronger (see Introduction, p. xxxiii). Clarendon is of the opinion that he 'desired nothing but that he might see a Commonwealth established, in such a model as Holland was, where he had been bred' (Hist. Rebellion 16. 134). Being

offered 'the Government in his own Person, he said, The Experience of Cromwell's Fate gave him Reasons to avoid the Rock on which that Family was split' (Baker, Chron., p. 603). Finally, a committee waited upon him for an explanation of his doings on Feb. 21, and 'having resolved to try him to the utmost, demanded farther if he would join with them against Charles Stuart and his party in answer to which he applied himself to Sir Arthur Haslerig, . . . and taking off his glove, and putting his hand within Sir Arthur's, he added; "I do here protest to you in the presence of all these gentlemen, that I will oppose to the utmost the setting up of Charles Stuart, a single person, or a House of Peers" (Ludlow, Memoirs 2. 237).

9. 6. jointly tending. The army was still thoroughly republican. The City hastened to send congratulations upon the 'happy return of the Parliament.' 'Whatever mistakes have been formerly,' said the Londoners, 'it cannot but be a happy Day, to all but our Enemies, in that all the affections of the City and Parliament are joined together.' These assurances, however ambiguous, together with the positive declarations (see note on 9. 5a) of Monk and the Parliament, Milton chooses to interpret in the most hopeful light possible, as 'jointly tending to the establishment of a free Commonwealth.'

9. 7. Commonwealth. The term as used in this treatise is practically synonymous with 'republic' or 'representative democracy.' It had been variously used by earlier English writers as signifying the whole body politic, any group or fraternity united by a common interest or characteristic, monarchy, absolute democracy, mixed government, etc. The term, however, was specifically applied to the form of government in England during the Interregnum, and, still more narrowly, to the republic that existed before and after the protectorate. It is usually qualified by Milton and other advocates of a republic by such expressions as 'free and equal,' 'without single person or house of lords.' Among the Royalists the term came in for much ridicule; as, for example, the following: 'You have made us a commonwealth, that is, (as malignants say) have

given us power to put a finger into every man's purse and pocket. You have made the people supreme authority, and left them no laws' (Hosanna: Somers Tracts 7. 55).

9. 8. unsound noxious. Note the gain in precision, force, and intensity of feeling. In these respects the two words adequately represent the quality and relationship of the two editions.

9. 9. humour.

humour. See Glossary; cf. Burton's Diary (1828) 4. 423, for 1659: 'These tymes, and the affairs transacted in them, give motion to all sorts of humours in the nation' (New Eng. Dict.).

9. 9a. returning. The opening months of 1660 were characterized by an ever-rising and finally irresistible tide of enthusiasm for the king. A Letter of Advice to his Excellency Lord-General Monk states that the 'multitudes of people, indeed (like children, who must have a baby to play with, and something to glitter in their eyes) cry for a king' (Harleian Miscellany 8. 627). The author of England's Confusion (Somers Tracts 6. 528) declares that 'the poor people... are fain to return home and sit still in amaze' (see notes on 9. 11 and 17. 18). Monk's stand against the Rump on Feb. II was the occasion for fresh outbursts of wild joy and demonstration (see Introd., p. xxiv), which were still intensified by his restoration of the old members on Feb. 21. Pepys (Diary) observes on the following day 'how abominably Barebone's windows are broke again last night.' Another writer finds it 'difficult to describe the joy and exultation' at the 'prospect of peace, concord, liberty, justice' that 'broke forth at once, from amidst the deepest darkness in which the nation had ever been involved' (Cobbett, Parl. Hist. 3. 1578). John Stewkeley, of Hampshire, exultingly declares: 'We may all soon meet if the Wind blow from Flanders: wch I pray for, pro Re: pro Ecle. Ang.: pro. reg: as a Subject; as a member, as an Englishman' (Verney Mem. 3. 460). By March 6 Pepys is able to record that 'everybody now drink the King's health without any fear, whereas before it was very private that a man dare do it.' See also note on 9. II.