PROD UANTS NSPICY To the Right Honorable John Lord Sommers, Baron of Evesham.. My LORD,, T was Your LORD SHIP's opinion and encouragement that occafion'd the first appearing of this Poem in the Folio Edition, which from thence has been fo well receiv'd, that it was four times greater than before, the fale increas'd double the number every year. The Work is now generally known and esteem'd; and I having the honor to hear Your LORDSHIP fay, that a smaller edition of it would be grateful to the world, immediately refolv'd upon printing it in this volume, of which I most humbly beg Your acceptance, from, My LORD, Your Lordship's ever obliged fervant. THE LIFE OF Mr. JOHN MILTON. ROM a family, and town of his name in Oxfordshire, our Author deriv'd his defcent; but He was born at London in the year 1608. The Publisher of his Works in Prose (on whofe veracity fome part of this narrative must entirely depend) dates his birth two years earlier than this: but contradicting himself afterwards in his own computation, I reduce it to A 3 the the time that Monfieur Bayle hath affign'd; and for the fame reason which prevail'd with him to affign it. His father, John Milton, by profeffion a Scrivener, liv'd in a reputable manner a competent eftate, entirely his own- acquifition; having been early difinherited by his Parents for renouncing the communion of the Church of Rome, to which they were zealously devoted. By his wife Sarah Cafton he had likewise one daughter, named Anna; and another fon, ChriStopher, whom he train'd to the practice of the Common Law; who in the Great Rebellion adher'd to the royal cause and in the reign of King James II. by too eafy a compliance with the doctrines of the Court, both religious and civil, he attain'd to the dignity of being made a Judge of the Common Pleas; of which he dy'd devested not long after the Revolution. But |