A Milton Chronology

267 Pages·1997·11.655 MB·English

by  Gordon Campbell (auth.)

A Milton Chronology
Gordon Campbell
A MILTON CHRONOLOGY
AUTHORCHRONOLOGIES
GeneralEditor: NormanPage,EmeritusProfessorofModern
EnglishLiterature,UniversityofNottingham
Published titles include:
J. L. Bradley
ARUSKIN CHRONOLOGY
GordonCampbell
AMILTONCHRONOLOGY
J. R. Hammond
AROBERTLOUISSTEVENSONCHRONOLOGY
JohnMcDermott
AHOPKINSCHRONOLOGY
NormanPage
AN EVELYNWAUGHCHRONOLOGY
PeterPreston
A D.H. LAWRENCECHRONOLOGY
A Milton Chronology
Gordon Campbell
ProfessorofRenaissanceLiterature
UniversityofLeicester
President,TheEnglishAssociation
* © Gordon Campbell 1997
Softcover reprinl of the hardcover 1s i edilion 1997 978-0-333-63326-7
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Contents
General Editor's Preface vii
Preface ix
List ofAbbreviations xii
Introduction 1
A MILTON CHRONOLOGY 9
Glossary ofLegal Terms 228
Bibliography
Manuscripts 233
Printed Books and Articles 243
Index 251
v

General Editor's Preface
Most biographies are ill adapted to serve as works of reference
not surprisingly so, since the biographer is likely to regard his
function as the devising of a continuous and readable narrative,
with excursions into interpretation and speculation, rather than a
bald recital offacts. There are times, however, when anyone read
ing for business or pleasure needs to check a point quickly or to
obtain a rapid overview ofpartofan author's life or career; and at
suchmomentsturningoverthepagesofabiographycanbeatime
consuming and frustrating occupation. The present series of
volumes aims at providing a means whereby the chronological
facts ofanauthor'slifeandcareer,ratherthanneedingtobeprised
outofthenarrativeinwhichtheyare (iftheyappearatall) securely
embedded,canbeseenataglance.Moreover,whereasbiographies
are often, and quite understandably, vague over matters of fact
(sinceitmakesfor tediousness tobeforever enumeratingdetails of
dates and places), a chronology can be precise whenever it is
possible to be precise.
Thanks to the survival, sometimes in very large quantities, of
letters, diaries, notebooks and other documents, as well as to thor
oughly researched biographies and bibliographies, this material
now exists in abundance for many major authors. In the case of,
for example,Dickens,we canoftenascertainwhathewas doingin
eachmonth andweek, andalmostoneachday, ofhisprodigiously
active working life; and the student of, say, David Copperfield is
likely to find it fascinating as well as useful to know just when
Dickenswasatworkoneachpartofthatnovel,whatotherliterary
enterprises he was engaged in at the same time, whom he was
meeting, what places he was visiting, and what were the relevant
circumstances ofhis personal and professionallife. Sucha chrono
logy is not, ofcourse, a substitutefor a biography;butits arrange
ment, in combination with its index, makes it a much more
convenienttool for this kind ofpurpose; and it maybe acceptable
asaformof'alternative'biography,withitsowndistinctiveadvant
ages aswellas itsobviouslimitations.
Since information relating to an author's early years is usually
scanty and chronologicallyimprecise, the opening section of some
vii
viii General Editor's Preface
volumes in this series groups together the years of childhood and
adolescence. Thereaftereachyear, and usuallyeachmonth, is dealt
with separately. Information not readily assignable to a specific
month or day is given as a general note under the relevant year
ormonth. Thefirstentryfor eachmonthcarriesanindicationofthe
day of the week, so that when necessary this canbe readily calcu
lated for other dates. Each volume also contains a bibliography of
the principal sources of information. In the chronology itself, the
sources of many of the more specific items, including quotations,
are identified, in order that the reader who wishes to do so may
consult the original contexts.
NORMAN PAGE
Preface
Miltonscholarshipisacumulativeenterprise,andanyscholarwho
seeks to seefurther thanhis predecessorsis consciousthathe must
construct his vantage point on the work of others. I have erected
mychronologicaledifice onthefoundations laidbythree scholars.
The first scholar systematicallyto collectthe documents associated
with the life of Milton was David Masson, and the fruits of his
labours are enshrined in the seven weighty volumes of the life of
Milton that he published between 1859 and 1894. The second
scholar is J. Milton French, whose five-volume edition of the Life
Records of John Milton (1949-58) supplemented Masson in many
areas (especially that of legal records) and presented the docu
ments in a chronological format that makes it the single most
important model for this volume; I differ from French in many
points ofdating and interpretation, and the scholarship ofthe past
40 years has enabled me to add many documents that he over
looked, but such differences should be construed as a tribute to a
distinguished Miltonist rather than a slighting of his remarkable
scholarship. The third scholar is William RileyParker, whose tw"o
volume life of Milton (1968) I have recently been privileged to
supplement in a revised edition (1996); Parker took legal docu
ments on trust from French, but his command of parish registers
enabled him to add many new documents to the corpus ofMilton
material.
Frenchpublished his research onMilton in Chancery in 1939,but
thereafter the war intervened and he had to rely,faute de mieux,on
photographs and on transcriptions made by others. Similarly, Par
kerdraftedhisbiographyduringthewar(hehadcompleteda draft
by 1946),and thereafter conducted much ofhis researchbyrelent
less correspondence, the most important product of which is his
world-wide survey of surviving copies of Milton's publications.
The scholarly authority that characterises the pages ofFrenchand
Parker canlead scholars to rely too much onmaterial thatis being
reported at second hand. It is clear, for example, that neither
French nor Parker examined the records of the Company of
Goldsmiths, and so references to Milton's dealings with the Com
pany have been overlooked. Indeed, an unreported entry in the
ix