out; have got possession, or rather seis'd upon the Pulpit, as the strong hold and fortress of thir sedition and rebellion against the civil Magistrate. Whose friendly and victorious hand having rescu'd them from the Bishops, thir insulting Lords, fed them plenteously, 5 both in public and in privat, rais'd them to be high and rich of poore and base; onely suffer'd not thir covetousness and fierce ambition, which as the pitt that sent out thir fellow locusts, hath bin ever bottomless and boundless, to interpose in all things, and 10 over all persons, thir impetuous ignorance and importunity.

[THE END]

NOTES.

3. 1. If men, etc. In this opening paragraph Milton has in mind all opponents of the Cromwellian party, and especially the Scotch and English Presbyterians.

3. 6. But being slaves within doores. Living under a domestic tyranny. Alfred Stern (Milton und seine Zeit 1. 438) says that these words will recall to every reader the conflict between Milton and the Presbyterians over his theory of divorce.

3.9. None can love freedom heartilie, but good men. Milton based both political and artistic excellence on character. Cf. Apol. Smect. (Bohn 3. 118).

3. 13. Tyrants are not oft offended, etc. Cf. Aristotle, Politics, 5. 11. 12: Tyrants are always fond of bad men, because they love to be flattered, but no man who has the spirit of a free man in him will demean himself by flattery,'

3. 15. Them they feare in earnest. Milton probably owes this thought to George Buchanan. Cf. De Jure Regni apud Scotos. Trans. R. Macfarlan, p. 199: 'But why should we look for a surer witness of what tyrants deserve than their own conscience? Hence springs their perpetual fear of all, and particularly of good men.' See also Raleigh, The CabinetCouncil (Works, ed. Birch 1.96): They [tyrants] are also Protectors of impious Persons, and stand in daily doubt of noble and virtuous Men.

3. 24. Others. Cromwell and his supporters.

3. 26. The curse. See Jer. 48. 1.

4. 2.

These men. The Presbyterians.

4.4. Juggl'd and palter'd with the World. A picturesque phrase insinuating that the Presbyterians, especially their ministers, had played the part of patriots because it was to their material advantage to do so. Cf. Shak. Macbeth 5.8.20; Those juggling fiends That palter with us in a double sense.

4. 4. Bandied. The origin of this word is obscure, but it is probably derived from the game of tennis, or bandy, meaning to throw or strike a ball from side to side. The allusion here seems to be to the uncertainty of the Scots in their relation to Charles I. First they were against him, then for him, then they sold him to the English Parliament and finally they cried up loyalty and obedience. Cf. Observ. Art. Peace (Bohn. 2. 195): Conspiring and bandying against the common good.'

4. 8. And their pamphlets. A flood of pamphlets greeted Charles' attempts to force ritualism upon Scotland. On March 30, 1640, the king issued a proclamation against 'libellous and seditious Pamphlets and Discourses from Scotland.' The authors are called 'factious spirits, and such as do endeavour to cast most unjust and false aspersions and scandals upon His Majesty and His Government, and upon his proceedings with his subjects in Scotland, and to distemperate and alienate from His Majesty the hearts of his well-affected subjects, and such as are in no way inclined to such seditious and disloyal courses.' For full text of this proclamation see John Rushworth, Hist. Collections 3. 1094. During the course of the war sermons continued to be preached against Charles and thousands of pamphlets by Presbyterian and Independent writers poured from the press.

4. 8. To the ingaging of. By these actions and utterances the Presbyterians had pledged themselves to an anti-royalist policy.

4. 14. To the entire advantages of thir owne Faction. Both the Scotch and English Presbyterians were very jealous of the growing power of the Independents.

4. 16. Counted them accessory. The King loved neither the Presbyterians nor the Independents. For three years (1646-1649) he tried to play off one party against the other. Before his flight from Oxford to the Scottish camp at Newcastle he expressed the hope that he should be able so to draw the Presbyterians or the Independents to side with him for extirpating one the other, that he should really be king again. (See his letter to Lord Digby, dated March 26, 1646.

Quoted by Masson, Life of Milton 3. 497). Charles hated the Covenant, steadfastly refused to sign it, and looked upon the Presbyterians as rebels who had broken statutes and laws pledging them to obedience to their king. Cf. a similar statement in First Def. (Bohn 1. 192).

4. 17. Those Statutes and Laws. At this time the Presbyterian preachers and writers were constantly accusing the Independents of breaking the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, the Common Law, Stat. 25. Edw. 3. and all other Acts concerning Treason.' (See Walker, Hist. of Independency, pt. 2, p. 69).

4. 22. For a flash, hot and active. Milton grants that the Presbyterians were active in the good cause for a time. He ascribes their defection to (1) sloth, (2) inconstancy, (3) cowardice, (4) falsehood, or (5) wickedness.

4. 23. Inconstancie, and weakness of spirit. Clarendon supports Milton in his indictment of the Scots and Presbyterian party for fickleness and failure to carry out their policy to its end. See his Hist. of the Rebellion. Ed. Machray, bk. 10. 168 ff.

4. 31. Alteration of Lawes, etc. All these steps ultimately proved necessary to the establishment of the Puritan Commonwealth.

5. 2. The throng and noises of vulgar and irrational men. Milton entertained little respect for the fickle and sweaty populace. See his celebrated passage in P. R. 3. 49-59, and his sonnet to Oliver Cromwell.

5. 4. Customes. Milton had no sympathy with irrational customs. Cf. his attack on prejudices and customs in Areop. (Bohn 2. 98): 'Our eyes, bleared and dimmed with prejudice and custom.'

5. 5. Their gibrish Lawes. Alluding to the jargon in which statutes were written. A variant form of gibber is jabber, to talk nonsense. Gibberish is therefore unintelligible speech, inarticulate chatter.

Under the heading Leges in his Commonplace Book Milton says, 'Alfred turn'd the old laws into English. I would he