CHAPTER V. 104

Milton's duties as Latin Secretary; he drafts manifesto on the
state of Ireland; occasionally employed as licenser of the press;
commissioned to answer "Eikon Basilike"; controversy on the
authorship of this work; Milton's "Eikonoklastes" published,
October, 1649; Salmasius and his "Defensio Regia pro Carolo I.";
Milton undertakes to answer Salmasius, February, 1650; publication
of his "Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio," March, 1651; character and
complete controversial success of this work; Milton becomes
totally blind, March, 1652; his wife dies, leaving him three
daughters, May, 1652; his controversy with Morus and other
defenders of Salmasius, 1652-1655; his characters of the eminent
men of the Commonwealth; adheres to Cromwell; his views on
politics; general character of his official writings: his marriage
to Elizabeth Woodcock, and death of his wife, November,
1656-March, 1658; his nephews; his friends and recreations.

CHAPTER VI. 128

Milton's poetical projects after his return from Italy; drafts of
"Paradise Lost" among them; the poem originally designed as a
masque or miracle-play; commenced as an epic in 1658; its
composition speedily interrupted by ecclesiastical and political
controversies; Milton's "Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical
Causes," and "Considerations on the likeliest means to remove
Hirelings out of the Church"; Royalist reaction in the winter of
1659-60; Milton writes his "Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free
Commonwealth"; conceals himself in anticipation of the
Restoration, May 7, 1660; his writings ordered to be burned by the