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road between Highgate and London, and at present in Cock Lane, not far from Shoreditch churchd. An

4 Of Sir C. Milton's daughters it is stated in a note signed H, Lives of the Poets, ed. 1794, that they were both "living at Hollo"way, about the year 1734, and "at that time possessed such a "degree of health and strength "as enabled them on Sundays "and prayer-days to walk a mile up a steep hill to Highgate "Chapel. One of these was "ninety-two at the time of her "death. Their parentage was "known to few, and their names. "were corrupted into Melton."

"

Mr. Todd discovered in the parish registers of Allhallows, Bread-street, entries of the baptism of two other sisters of Milton younger than Anne. But one of these, and probably the other, died an infant.

The lives of Edward and John Philips have been lately written by W. Godwin; but it has not been ascertained whether either of them left children.

Mr. Godwin supposes that E. Philips, the elder brother, died about 1696, and John, not till after 1706. They were both of them authors by profession, and there is a very long catalogue of their writings and translations, most of which however are now neglected. E. Philips appears to have been a man of respectable character; but his brother was thoroughly profligate and unprincipled. They both quitted their uncle's political party early in life.

Of Milton's direct descendants • few particulars may yet be

stated.

In April, 1750, Comus was

acted for the benefit of Mrs. Foster. Dr. Johnson, who wrote the prologue, says, " she had so "little acquaintance with diver"sion or gaiety, that she did not "know what was intended when "a benefit was offered her." The receipts of the house Mr. Todd ascertained to have been only £147.14s. 6d. from which £80. were deducted for the expences; but Dr. Newton brought a large contribution, and £20. were given by Tonson the bookseller. And thus I presume the profits of the night were increased by subsequent contributions to £130. which Dr. Johnson and others say Mrs. Foster received; and with this little addition to their fortunes, she and her husband removed to Islington, where they both soon died; Mrs. Foster's death took place May 9, 1754. One of her brothers Mr. Urban Clarke was known to Dr. Birch in 1737. He was also a weaver, and died without children at the house of his sister, Mrs. Foster. In the Edinburgh Review, October, 1815, p. 493, I find it stated, professedly from an examination of the parish register of Fort St. George, that Caleb Clarke, who seems to have been parish-clerk of that place, from 1717 to 1719, was buried there Oct. 26, 1719. He had three children born at Madras; Abraham, baptized June 2d, 1703; Mary, baptized March 17th, and buried Dec. 15th, 1706; Isaac, baptized, Feb. 13, 1711. Of Isaac no further account appears. Abraham in 1725 married Anna Clarke, and the baptism of his

other thing let me mention, that is equally to the honour of the present age. Though Milton received not above ten pounds at two different payments for the copy of Paradise Lost, yet Mr. Hoyle author of the treatise on the Game of Whist, after having disposed of all the first impression, sold the copy to the bookseller, as I have been informed, for two hundred guineas.

As we have had occasion to mention more than once Milton's manuscripts preserved in the library of Trinity College in Cambridge, it may not be ungrateful to the reader, if we give a more particular account of them, before we conclude. There are, as we said, two draughts of a letter to a friend who had importuned him to take orders, together with a sonnet on his being arrived to the age of twenty-three: and by there being two draughts of this letter with several alterations and additions, it appears to have been written with great care and deliberation; and both the draughts have been published by Mr. Birch in his Historical and Critical Account of the life and writings of Milton. There are also several of his poems, Arcades, At a solemn music, On time, Upon the circumcision, the Mask, Lycidas, with five or six of his sonnets, all in his own

be discovered. I heard however from Sir James Mackintosh that he took pains, when he resided in India, to ascertain whether any remained there of the family of Milton's grandson, and that his conclusion was that the family was extinct. E.

daughter Mary is registered April 2d, 1727. With her all notices of this family cease. But the Reviewer remarks, that as neither Abraham nor Isaac Clarke died at Madras, and Abraham was only twenty-four years of age at the baptism of his daughter, it is probable that the family migrated Dr. Newton also has given to some other part of India, and them in the notes on Sonnet vii. that some trace of them may yet E.

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hand-writing: and there are some others of his sonnets written by different hands, being most of them composed after he had lost his sight. It is curious to see the first thoughts and subsequent corrections of so great a poet as Milton: but it is remarkable in these manuscript poems, that he doth not often make his stops, or begin his lines with great letters. There are likewise in his own hand-writing different plans of Paradise Lost in the form of a tragedy: and it is an agreeable amusement to trace the gradual progress and improvement of such a work from its first dawnings in the plan of a tragedy to its full lustre in an epic poem. And together with the plans of Paradise Lost there are the plans or subjects of several other intended tragedies, some taken from the Scripture, others from the British or Scottish histories: and of the latter the last mentioned is Macbeth, as if he had an inclination to try his strength with Shakespeare; and to reduce the play more to the unities, he proposes "beginning at the " arrival of Malcolm at Macduff; the matter of Duncan

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may be expressed by the appearing of his ghost." These manuscripts of Milton were found by the learned Mr. Professor Mason among some other old papers, which, he says, belonged to Sir Henry Newton Puckering, who was a considerable benefactor to the library: and for the better preservation of such truly valuable reliques, they were collected together, and handsomely bound in a thin folio by the care and at the charge of a person who is now very eminent in his profession, and was always a lover of the Muses, and at that time a fellow of Trinity College, Mr Clarke, one of his Majesty's counsel.

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THE

NUNCUPATIVE WILL

OF

JOHN MILTON,

WITH

NOTES BY THE REV. T. WARTON.

MEMORANDUM, that JOHN MILTON, late of the parish of S. Giles Cripplegate in the Countie of Middlesex gentleman, deceased, at severall times before his death, and in particular, on or about the twentieth day of July, in the year of our Lord God 1674, being of perfect mind and memorie, declared his Will and intent as to the disposall of his estate after his death, in these words following, or like effect: "The portion due to me from Mr. Powell, my former wife's "father, I leave to the unkind children I had by her, having " received no parte of it: but my meaning is, they shall have "no other benefit of my estate than the said portion, and " what I have besides done for them: they having been very "undutifull to me. All the residue of my estate I leave to "[the] disposall of Elizabeth my loving wife." Which words, or to the same effect, were spoken in the presence of CHRISTOPHER MILTON.

Νον. 23, 16744.

* As propounded in the Prerogative Court.

John Milton's younger brother.

[Mark of] ELIZABETH FISHERS.

ton.

A servant-maid of John MilRegistr. Cur. Prærog. Cant. This Will was contested by Mary,

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