of James and Buckingham when James's son-in-law, the ElectorPalatine, was maintaining the Protestant cause against the Emperor; with what rage they saw the Elector crushed in the contest, deprived not only of the Bohemian kingdom, but of the Palatinate itself, and driven with his British-born wife into a mean exile in Holland. The feeling then was that, as the Palatinate had been lost from the want of timely assistance from England, the least that England could do was to labor for its recovery. This feeling broke out strongly in James's third parliament (1621-2), which, though refractory on every other point, showed a wonderful willingness to grant subsidies for the recovery of the Palatinate. But the King was very sluggish. The same reason which had kept him from moving in defence of the Palatinate-his desire, namely, to obtain the rich Spanish Infanta as a wife for his son Charles-prevented him from any sincere effort now. His Protestant theology was not proof against the chance of a Catholic daughter-in-law, whose dowry would be counted by millions. Judge, then, of the national horror when day by day the business of the Spanish match seemed to be approaching the dreaded conclusion, and especially when at last (Feb. 1622-3) Prince Charles, with the Marquis of Buckingham as his escort, set out secretly for the Continent, on his way to Madrid! For months after the departure of the prince, the country was full of sinister rumors. It was rumored that the court of Madrid were tampering with the faith of the prince. It was known that pledges had been given favorable to the Catholic religion in England. There seemed to be nothing between the English nation and that which they dreaded most-a repetition of the reign of Philip and Mary! What, then, were the rejoicings over England when it was suddenly announced, in the autumn of 1623, that the match had after all been broken off, and that the prince was on the way to England without the Infanta! What a surprise, what a release! In September, 1623, the prince did return; during that month and the next England knew no bounds to joy; and in February 1623-4, a new parliament met to congratulate the king on the rupture with Spain, and to urge him to make the rupture complete by declaring war. The king, old and feeble, reluctantly consented. What mattered it that the levies, to the number of twelve thousand, were of no avail; that they died of pestilence aboard their ships, without being able to land on any part of the Continent? What mattered it that the prince, free from his engagements to one Catholic princess, was about to marry another the Princess HenriettaMaria, youngest sister of the reigning French king, Louis XIII.? Was not this princess the daughter of the great Henry IV., once the hero of the French Huguenots, and who, though he embraced Catholicism in order to secure the crown, had all his reign (15931610) governed France on Protestant rather than Catholic methods? French Catholicism with all its faults was a different thing from Spanish Catholicism! One only result, ominous as regarded the future, remained out of all the agitations of the last few years. Puritanism had possessed itself of more and more of the heart of the English people; and, even within the bounds of Parliament, men had begun to distinguish themselves by name into the Court Party, who thought of the king, and the Country Party, who thought of the nation. Such was the main current of national events during the four or five years of Milton's life which were spent at St. Paul's School (1620-1625). Of the hundreds of smaller contemporary events, each a topic of nine days' interest to the English people in general or the people of London in particular, a few may be selected by way of sample: 1620-21, March 15 (the Poet in his thirteenth year). Proceedings in Parliament against Lord Chancellor Bacon for bribery: issuing in his conviction and confession, and his sentence to be dismissed from office, to be disqualified for ever for the King's service, to be banished beyond the precincts of the Court, to pay a fine of £40,000, and to be imprisoned in the Tower during the King's pleasure. The heavier portions of the sentence were immediately remitted; but Bacon retired a disgraced and ruined man. 1621, July. Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, accidentally kills a gamekeeper with an arrow at a deer-hunt. As the Archbishop was favorable to the Puritans a great deal was made of the accident at Court. It was even debated whether, as having shed man's blood, he was not incapacitated for his sacred office. Great commotion that is, by the fall 1623, Sunday, Oct. 26 (the Poet in his sixteenth year). caused in London by the "Fatal Vespers in Blackfriars”. of a building in that district where a congregation of Catholics had met to celebrate mass. Upwards of a hundred persons were killed; and as the public feeling against the Catholics and the Spanish match was then at its height, the accident was regarded as a judgment of God upon the hated sect. In the interest of this view, it was noted by the curious that the day-the 26th of October-was the 5th of November in the Papal reckoning. No one was more ferocious on the occasion than young Gill, among whose Latin poems there is one expressly describing the incident. It is entitled In ruinam Camera Papistica Londini, and here are a few of the lines: Est locus ab atris qui vetus Fraterculis Traxisse nomen fertur: hic Satanas modo (Atqui, secundùm computum Papisticum, Quinto Novembris), turba Catholica frequens "Be not elated," says Gill in continuation, addressing the Catholics whom he imagines assembled in the crazy tenement: "though our benignant Prince sees fit to let you meet for your idolatrous worship, God himself takes his cause in hand! Just while the Jesuit is getting on fluently with his oration, and pouring out his vituperations of the orthodox and his welcome blasphemies, crash goes the framework of the house, and where are you?” 1623, Nov. 9. The great scholar Camden dies. As was usual on such occasions, obituary verses were written by the pupils and other admirers of the deceased; and a volume of such by Oxford scholars, was published shortly afterwards under the title of "Camdeni Insignia” (Oxon. 1624). One of the pieces contained in it was a set of Latin Alcaics by Charles Diodati, of Trinity College. Here are two of the stanzas, as a specimen : "Sed nec brevis te Sarcophagus teget, Fama per omne vigebit ævum. Donec Britannûm spumeus alluet Magna tui monumenta vivent." 1624-5, January and February (the Poet just beginning his seventeenth year). As events of these months we may mention two fresh "poetic efforts" of young Gill. The one is a Latin poem sent on the 1st of January to Thomas Farnabie the schoolmaster, "along with a skin of Canary wine” ("cum utre vini Canarii pleno"). The other, still more characteristic, is a poem addressed to his father, old Mr. Gill, on his sixtieth birthday (“ In parentis mei natalem cum ipse sexagesimum ætatis annum compleret"), Feb. 27, 1624-5. Here are a few of the lines: "Forte aliquis dicet patrios me inquirere in annos; Nec desunt tibi qui vellerent suadere senectæ Si meus es genitor; si sum tua vera propago; 1 Gill's Poetici Conatus, 1632. Quod mea te soboles primo decorabit aviti In plain English thus::-"Perchance some one will tell you that I am speculating on my father's age; nor are kind friends wanting who would wish to persuade you that I think the thread of your life rather long spun out already and quite fit for breaking. But if there is a God who both sees and hears us, searching with just scrutiny our trembling fibres; if thou art indeed my father; if I am thy true offspring; if in anything I take after you; if you believe that I first made you a parent; if you hope, with joined hands and bent knee, that my offspring will first decorate you with the name of grandfather; throw vain cares aside, and henceforth let all suspicion of me be far from you. For why should I look forward to the melancholy obsequies of my father? What good would your death do me? What riches, what cultivated acres will you leave me?" A comfortable kind of letter, truly, for a father to receive from his son on his sixtieth birthday! It is clear that old Mr. Gill and his son were not on the best of terms, and it is also tolerably clear which was in fault. The schoolmaster, we may mention, had other sons. Meanwhile, as far as Milton is concerned, we have been anticipating a little. Fully a fortnight before Mr. Gill received the above delicate missive from his son, Milton had taken his leave, as a pupil, both of father and son, and had begun his College-life at Cambridge. 1 Gill's Poetici Conatus, 1632. CHAPTER IV. CAMBRIDGE. 1625-1632. MILTON was admitted a Pensioner of Christ's College, Cambridge, on the 12th of February, 1624-5. He was one of the fourteen students whose names appear in the entry-book of the College as having been admitted during the half-year between Michaelmas 1624 and Lady-day 1625. The following is the list of these fourteen, translated from the entry-book: 2 Catalogue of the Students who were admitted into Christ's College from Michaelmas 1624 to Lady-day 1625: Arthur Scott, Prælector. Richard Pegge, native of Derby, son of Jonas Pegge: initiated in the rudiments of grammar in the public school of Aderston, under the care of Mr. Bedford, master of the same; was admitted a sizar, Oct. 24, 1624, under Mr. Cooke, and paid entrance-fee 5s. Edward Donne, a native of London, son of Marmaduke Donne, Presbyter; was admitted first into St. John's College under the tutorship of Mr. Horsmanden, and there, for two years, more or less, studied letters; thereafter transferred himself to our college, was admitted a lesser pensioner under the tutorship of Mr. Gell, and paid entrance-fee 10s. Thomas Chote, native of Essex, son of Thomas Chote, admitted a lesser pensioner under Mr. Gell, Nov. 1624, and paid entrance-fee 10s. Richard Britten, native of Essex, son of William Britten, admitted a sizar Dec. 21, 1624, under Mr. Gell, and paid entrance-fee 5s. -Robinson. [As there is no farther entry opposite this name, Robinson must have failed to reappear.] 1 It may be well here to remind the reader of the reason for this double mode of dating. Prior to 1752, the year in England was considered to begin, not on the 1st of January, but on the 25th of March. All those days, therefore, intervening between the 31st of December and the 25th of March, which we should now date as belonging to a particular year, were then dated as belonging to the year preceding that. According to our dat ing, Milton's entry at Christ's College took place on the 12th of Feb. 1625; but in the old reckoning, that day was the 12th of Feb. 1624. 2 From a copy kindly furnished me by Mr. Wolstenholme, present Fellow and Tutor of Christ's College. In each case, the school in which the intrant had been previously educated is specified, and the schoolmaster's name given, as in the first entry. Save in one or two cases, I have omitted these items. |