[The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660 by David Masson]@TWC D-Link book
The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660

CHAPTER II
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"After Ireland was reduced by the Parliamentary forces," we are informed by Wood, "he lived there, some time at Lismore, Youghal, and Dublin, under the patronage of Richard, Earl of Cork.

Afterward, going into England, he settled in Oxon (where he was tutor or governor to Charles, Viscount Dungarvan, and Mr.Richard Boyle his brother); lived there two or more years, and preached constantly for a considerable time in the church of St.Peter in the East."[1] His settlement at Oxford, near his brother Dr.Lewis, dates itself, as I calculate, about 1654; and it must have been chiefly thence, accordingly, that he had watched Milton's misdirected attentions to poor Morus, knowing himself to be "the actual turbot." There is proof, however, as we shall find, that he was, from that date onwards, a good deal in London, and, what is almost startlingly strange, in a select family society there which must have brought him into relations with Milton, and perhaps now and then into his company.

Du Moulin could believe in 1670 that Milton even then knew his secret, and that he owed his escape to Milton's pride and unwillingness to retract his blunder about Morus.

We have seen reason to doubt that; and, indeed, Milton, had, in his second Morus publication, put himself substantially right with the public about the extent of Morus's concern in the _Regii Sanguinis Clamor_, and had scarcely anything to retract.

What he could do in addition was Du Moulin's danger.


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