Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/43

Milton ). Aubrey and Toland tell us that he rose as early as four in summer and five in winter. Before breakfast the Bible was read to him in Hebrew. He afterwards read or dictated till midday, when he dined very temperately. He took some exercise, walking when possible, and in bad weather swinging. He always had music in the afternoon. He then retired for a time, but again saw his friends after six o'clock, had a supper of ‘olives or some light thing’ at eight, and after a pipe and a glass of water went to bed. According to Phillips, Milton composed freely only from ‘the autumnal equinoctial to the vernal;’ the account was confirmed by Mrs. Milton (, p. lxxx), though Toland fancies that Phillips has inverted the period, because in his early ‘In Adventum Veris’ (1629) he welcomes the revival of his genius in spring. He frequently dictated from ten to thirty lines to any one who happened to be at the house, leaning in his easy chair, adds Richardson, with a leg thrown over the elbow. At times he would compose during sleepless nights, and would call up and dictate to his daughter. He would dictate forty lines in a breath, and then reduce them to twenty. The sonnet to Lawrence gives an impression of Milton in his sociable hours. Milton had come to stand apart from all sects, though apparently finding the quakers most congenial. He never went to any religious services in his later years. When a servant brought back accounts of sermons from nonconformist meetings, Milton became so sarcastic that the man at last gave up his place.

Portraits of Milton, known to be authentic, are: (1) A portrait at the age of ten, ascribed to Cornelius Janssen (engraved as frontispiece to Masson's ‘Life,’ vol. i.; see pp. 66n., 308n.), is in the possession of Edgar Disney. (2) A portrait taken at Cambridge at the age of twenty, engraved by Vertue in 1731 and 1756, and by other artists. The later portrait belonged to Speaker Onslow, and is generally known as the ‘Onslow’ portrait. It has disappeared since a sale of Lord Onslow's pictures in 1828. Both these belonged to Milton's widow. (3) The portrait engraved by Faithorne for the ‘History of Britain;’ the original crayon-drawing was in possession of the Tonsons in 1760, and an etching from it is given in the ‘Memoirs of Thomas Hollis,’ p. 529. Another crayon-drawing, now at Bayfordbury, belonged to Richardson, and resembles the preceding so clearly, that its independence is doubtful. This was the portrait recognised by Milton's daughter Deborah when the engraver Vertue saw her about 1725 (, Memoirs, p.625). The ‘Onslow’ portrait is the original of the caricature by Marshall, prefixed to the 1645 poems. A mezzotint by J. Simon is inscribed ‘R. White ad vivum delin.,’ but there are no traces of the original. A bust now in Christ's College, to which it was left by John Disney (1746-1816) [q. v.], is said to have been taken by ‘one Pierce’ who executed the bust of Wren now in the Bodleian Library. The face is said to be ‘a plaster cast from the original mould.’ A miniature by Samuel Cooper once belonged to Reynolds, who had a controversy about it with Lord Hailes in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for 1791; but it seems to be clearly not Milton (, i. 66n., 308-10 n., vi. 754-7 n., and, Ramblings, pp. xvii-xxv; in Lancashire and Cheshire Historic Society, 1855).

Milton's widow retired to Nantwich, Cheshire, where her family lived, and died in the autumn of 1727. Some stories derived from her are given by Newton. She said that her husband had been asked to write for the court, but would not write against his conscience (, p. lxxx). Richardson's report that he was asked to resume the Latin secretaryship (an incredible statement), and told his wife that she wanted to ride in her coach, but that he would live and die an honest man, is probably an elaboration of this very doubtful statement. Anne Milton married a ‘master-builder,’ and died in childbed before 26 Oct. 1678, when her grandmother, Mrs. Powell (who died in 1682), made a bequest of 10l. apiece to the other daughters. Mary died unmarried by 1694. Deborah had gone to Dublin as companion to a lady before her father's death, and soon after it married a weaver, Abraham Clarke. The Clarkes settled in Spitalfields, and had ten children. She died 24 Sept. 1727, being then a widow; her only surviving son was Urban Clarke, a weaver in Spitalfields, who died unmarried. Her only surviving daughter, Elizabeth, had married Thomas Foster, another weaver. Her eldest son, Caleb Clarke, had emigrated to Madras, where he was married in 1703, had children, and died in 1719. The last trace of descendants was the birth of Mary, daughter of Caleb's son Abraham, at Madras in 1727. Deborah Clarke received some notice before her death. Addison visited her, gave her some money, and proposed to get her a pension, but died (1719) before doing so. She was seen by Professor Ward of Gresham College, confirmed the stories about reading unknown languages to her father, and is said to have repeated verses from Homer, Ovid, and