a great scholar, and a most excellent writer, and his fame, on that account, will hardly be thought the causes, especially when it is remembered Paradise Lost was not produced, and the writings, on which his vast reputation stood, are now become criminal, and those most, which were the main pillars of his fame.  Goodwin was an inconsiderable offender, compared with him; some secret cause must be recurred to in accounting for this indulgence.  I have heard that secretary Morrice, and Sir Thomas Clarges were his friends, and managed matters artfully in his favour; doubtless they, or some body else did, and they very probably, as being powerful friends at that time.  But still how came they to put their interest at such a stretch, in favour of a man so notoriously obnoxious? perplexed, and inquisitive as I was, I at length found the secret.  It was Sir William Davenant obtained his remission, in return of his own life, procured by Milton’s interest, when himself was under condemnation, Anno 1650.  A life was owing to Milton (Davenant’s) and it was paid nobly; Milton’s for Davenant, at Davenant’s intercession.  The management of the affair in the house, whether by signifying the King’s desire, or otherwise, was, perhaps by those gentlemen named.’

This account Mr. Richardson had from Mr. Pope, who was informed of it by Betterton, the celebrated actor, who was first brought upon the stage by Sir William Davenant, and honoured with an intimacy with him, so that no better authority need be produced to support any fact.

Milton being secured by his pardon, appeared again in public, and removed to Jewin street, where he married his third wife, Elizabeth, the daughter of Mr. Minshul of Cheshire, recommended to him by his friend Dr. Paget, to whom he was related, but he had no children by her:  soon after the restoration he was offered the place of Latin secretary to the King, which, notwithstanding the importunities of his wife, he refused:  we are informed, that when his wife pressed him to comply with the times, and accept the King’s offer, he made answer, ’You are in the right, my dear, you, as other women, would ride in your coach; for me, my aim is to live and die an honest man.’  Soon after his marriage with his third wife, he removed to a house in the Artillery Walk, leading to Bunhill-fields, where he continued till his death, except during the plague, in 1665, when he retired with his family to St. Giles’s Chalfont Buckinghamshire, at which time his Paradise Lost was finished, tho’ not published till 1667.  Mr. Philips observes, that the subject of that poem was first designed for a tragedy, and in the fourth book of the poem, says he, there are ten verses, which, several years before the poem was begun, were shewn to me, and some others, as designed for the very beginning of the tragedy.  The verses are,