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and the resistance of Milton , which seemed firm only for a moment , fell before its weighty effect . Yielding" to the entreaties of beauty , and perhaps , also , to the reverence of love , what he
appeared to concede only to the solicitations of friends , and dismissing every irritating recollection from his bosom , he readmitted the wife who had deserted and insulted him into the possession of his affections . Not
satisfied with this single triumph over his resentment , he extended his placability to those who were the abettors , if not the instigators , of her offence , and receiving her parents and her family under his roof , he protected and maintained them in the hour of danger and distress I" Thus the conduct of
Milton , which has been much misrepresented , is , when properly understood , beyond all panegyric . He afterwards lived happily with his restored lady , who died in her fourth child-birth .
His behaviour was exemplary towards his wife and her family . Fenton says , that the following beautiful lines in Paradise Lost , are descriptive of Milton s reconciliation with his own consort : —
" Her lowly plight . Immovable till peace obtained from fault Acknowledged and deplored , in Adam wrought Commiseration : soon liis heart relented Towards her , his life so late and sole
delight . Low at his feet , submissive in distress , Creature so fair , reconcilement seeking , His counsel , whom she had displeased , his aid
As one disarm e d—his anger all he lost ! Whether this paragraph has or has not an allusion , to the event , it is marked by surpassing feeling and delicaev . m / About two years after the loss of
I 113 first , Milton married his second wife , Catherine , the daughter of Cuptain Woodcock , of Hackney . She was the object of his fondest affection , and died in her first child-birth . The subsequent sonnet is a fragrant token of regard to her memory : —
Methought I saw my late espoused saint I * rought to me , like Alcestis , from the grave , Whom Jove ' s great son to her glad husband gave , Rescued from death by force , though pale and faint ;
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Mine , as whom wash'd from spot t ) f child-bed taint , Purification in the old law did save , And such as yet once more I trust to have
Full sight of her in Heaven without restraint , Came vested all in white , pure as her mind ; Her face was veil'd , yet to my fancied sight Love , sweetness , goodness , in her person shin'd
So clear as m no face with more delight But , O ! as to embrace me she inclin ed , I wak ' tl—she fled—and day brought back my night I On the recommendation , of his friend Dr . Paget , a physician of eminence , to whom the lady was distantly related , Milton married his third wife
Elizabeth Minshull , the daughter of a gentleman of Cheshire . Of this lady it may be necessary to say some * thing , because her memory has been traduced by Johnson , who adopts the calumny of Phillips , for he declared , that " she oppressed his children in his life-time , and cheated them at his death . " But it is certain that this
lady was a sensible , prudent , religious woman , contributing much , to the happiness of her illustrious mate , with whose talents and worth she must have been impressed . He was fiftyfour years of age on this marriage , and lived about ten years in
connubial felicity . She used to relate many anecdotes of her husband . He cornposed principally in the winter , and on his waking in the morning would make her write down twenty or thirty verses . Being * asked whether he did not frequently read Homer and Virgil , she
replied , that " he stole from nobody but the Muse who inspired him !" And to a lady , inquiring who the Muse was , she answered , " It was God's grace and the Holy Spirit that visited
him mightily 1 " This third wife survived her husband upwards of fifty years , dying at Nantwich , in her native Cheshire , March 10 , 1 / 26 . She was member of a General Baptist
Church there , from which it muy l > c inferred that she had adopted the religious views of her illustrious partner . The minister was the Rev . Isaac Kimber , who published an Abridgment of the History of England , and who has in a volume of sermons a funeral discourse on the Rftict of
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658 Domestic Character of Milton .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1826, page 658, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2554/page/22/
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