A MILTON ANECDOTE.
[To THI9 EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR." J SIR,""-If it is not too late in the day to come forward with an anecdote of Milton, the following extract from an old family
letter, written in 1762 to my great-great-grandfather, may interest your readers. The writer of the letter says (he was discussing Milton with his correspondent) :—
" Possibly you may not have heard this anecdote concerning him. John Vallack—who, I believe, died after you came to TavistocV—told me it, and he Hied in London in 1696. Milton, SS you know, was blind. Charles the Second had the curiosity to
see him, and said, 'God bath punisli'd you for your malice, &c., to-
111.y Father by taking away your eyesight." Aye,' says Milton,
but before I lost my eyes, he lost his head.'"
It seems to bridge the long gap of years to be reading a letter Containing a "first-hand" anecdote of Milton !—I am, Sir, Sto.,
E. H. B.
Previous page
