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written permission from the JHU Press. The rapid sequence of Milton's publications near the end of his life has often been noted, and has usually been seen as some effort by him to put his house in order in his "last days" (Parker 606 ff; Shawcross, Paradise Regain'd 16). Many signs remain, however, that any urge to publish on Milton's part should be seen as mediated by some less personal factors, not least the pressures and demands of a changing literary marketplace, and that these late publications have a more complex relation to the print culture of the Restoration than has been supposed. This seems especially the case with his History of Britain, a work that had fallen far short of his original design for a "Univ[ersal] History of Engl[and]," as reported many years before by Theodore Haak to the educational impresario Samuel Hartlib. Their Baconian hopes for this national historian had not soon been answered: the History appeared only in 1670, and then in an abbreviated narrative "Continued [only] to the Nor man Conquest," and further diminished by the licen ser's hand (von Maltzahn 12-17, 28-29; Bacon 1: 511-12, 4: 308).
The History is Milton's major prose publication in the Restoration, but given his caution in bringing his works to the press in the 1660s, he may not have ventured the work unasked. Only in 1667, with the publication of Paradise Lost by Samuel Simmons, did Milton first punctuate the silence he had held since the king's return. His first published prose work in the Restoration is the conspicuously unobjectionable Accedence Commenc't Grammar (1669), also printed by Simmons, which wears its republican authorship even more lightly than the epic, if still notably (Herendeen 311-12).
The next year, however, it is James Allestry, a more established bookseller and of much greater distinction, who retails Milton's History (1670). This was work of a more republican cast, and one in which the licenser was sure to take an interest: as it proved the History would suffer some such interference in the hardening of governmental controls at the time of the Second Conventicle Act. Allestry here found himself presenting work by a notorious controversialist just when constraints on the press were being renewed after a period of comparative relaxation on the licensers' part.
In contrast with Simmons's links to Dissent, Allestry had been prominent as a scientific publisher with establishment connections. He is very much the "Printer to the Royal Society" he claims to be: he was second only to his frequent partner John Martyn in this respect, and found much employment from Henry Oldenburg, Secretary of the Society, and from Oldenburg's correspondents at home and abroad (Pepys 8: 521; Rivington 1-6; Oldenburg 2: 446-47, 560-61, 563, 590, 647; 3: xxiii, 8, 609; 4: 279; 6: 174, 228, 628; 7: 406). As well as the serial Philosophical Transactions, a great proportion of Allestry's hundred or more titles are works of natural philosophy. In the 1660s Allestry at first prospered with a strong list of books, especially in conjunction with Martyn, and sold from lavish premises (Mandelbrote 70). But he then encountered difficulties: he and Martyn appeared to have parted by the summer of 1666 (British Library Add. MS 4278, f. 118); they last share an issue of the Philosophical Transactions in the spring of 1667; and, much worse, Allestry lost heavily in the Great Fire, and in his last years never managed to rebuild his business to its earlier prosperity (Mandelbrote 82).
Why did Milton find a bookseller in this quarter? Allestry had never previously published any of Milton's work, although he had published (with his frequent partner Martyn) the London edition of Claudii Salmasii ad Johannem Miltonum responsio (1660), a work Milton cannot have enjoyed. Parker suggested that Milton's acquaintance with Allestry was of long standing and that owing to this personal connection the bookseller now "probably came to him, seeking vendible manuscripts." And indeed, Al lestry may be the "Jacobo Bibliopolae" named over twenty years before in Milton's letter to Dati (20 April 1647), since until 1 July 1647 Allestry was apprentice to George Thomason, Milton's friend in the 1640s and later seller of his Defensio secunda [End Page 90] (Parker 935; Milton Works 12: 52 [CPW 2: 765]; McKenzie 164).
But the more immediate relationship of Allestry with Oldenburg seems likelier to have helped bring the History to the press. Oldenburgh was central to the success of the Society's transactions; his far-ranging efforts on behalf of the sciences and arts made him an effective successor to Hartlib as the "Intelli gencer" communicating and coordinating a variety of intellectual undertakings. And Oldenburg had recently been in contact with Milton on behalf of the Royal Society. He had long been acquainted with Milton, with whom he had corresponded in the late 1650s (CPW 7: 489-515 passim [in Latin, French vol. 4 or Oldenburg vol. 1]), and that he maintained his relations with Milton after the Restoration seems consistent with the independence of Oldenburg's opinions, for which he had suffered imprisonment in 1667, owing to some indiscreet correspondence on England's standing in relation to the Dutch. Later in 1667-68 Oldenburgh serves as the means of com municating with Milton for John Beale, another Fellow of the Society. Beale attempts to commission through John Evelyn and Oldenburg some poetry from Milton, poetry perhaps scientific in subject, or commendatory or otherwise useful to the Royal Society (British Library, Evelyn Collection MS Letters 68 [18 Nov. 1667] and 71 [2 Apr. 1668]). In Beale's view it was the role of the Society "to draw every potent Inspiration into a right Channell for the noblest uses" (British Library, Evelyn Collection MS Letters 67 [16 Oct. 1667]). This approach did not bring any poetry to the press, but it seems to have made other works by Milton available for publication. Beale had wished to enlist Milton on the Royal Society's behalf: of the works Milton had in hand the History and Artis Logicae seem to have been those most in keeping with Society objectives and with Allestry's list.
Allestry was the safest of publishers, and entirely free of the political taint that Milton bore. In earlier days with Martyn, Allestry had been able to publish under the license of the Royal Society, which used its privilege with caution, and he had not needed further to submit work to the official licensers (Rostenberg, "John Martyn" 7-8; Rivington 1-3, 22-27; Birch 1: 346-47). In the Restoration Milton's prose could not, of course, be exempt from official review. Incomplete as it was, and apparently unrevised, the manuscript of Milton's History included some anomalous materials, chiefly the Digression and other anachronistic gibes at the expense of his old adversaries of 1649, the Presbyterians (CPW 5: 116). Moreover, a republican hauteur distinguishes Milton's narration of the confused history of the British and Saxon crowns. But publishing with Allestry must have helped the History pass official inspection, even if finally with some alteration. It is notable that Milton's name appears less reticently on the History than on other of his works at this time. Nor did the title-page need to carry the imprimatur, to which Milton had such an aversion.
Publishing with Allestry also had other merits. The History is a well-produced volume, as is character istic of works on Allestry's list. Printed by John Macock, with whom he often worked, the quarto first edition also features a portrait frontispiece--engraved by Martyn's brother-in-law William Faithorne (Rostenberg, Bookselling 277)--and an ex tensive index, as well as a careful listing of errata. Milton's stature as a writer and authority as a historian is advertised in the very format of the work, as well as in the masterly narration, the moral rigor, and the confident periods of his prose. The first edition seems to have sold quickly at first, as if to readers loyal either to Milton or to Allestry's list, and this despite the apparent blow that the History suffered in being some of Allestry's last work; it appears around November 1, 1670 (Bodleian MS Wood F.40, f. 80), and he died two days later (Plomer 3). Despite his death so soon after its appearance, the first issue under Allestry's name accounts for the larger proportion of surviving copies of the first edition: Parker's census shows two copies of Allestry's first issue for every one copy of Spencer Hickman's second issue (Parker bases his further conclusions about the dates of publication of the History on some anomalous as sumptions about the Restoration book-trade [1134, 1209-10]). Hickman, Allestree's former apprentice, had only been freed a month before his master's death (McKenzie 2); that he promptly retitled what stock came his way is suggested by his already advertising the work as to be sold by him in the Michaelmas Term Catalogue (22 Nov. 1670), and again the following year in another list of books to be sold by him [End Page 91] and some associates (Burbury sig. M1r). Although Hickman's new title-page gives 1671 as the date of the reissue, this imprint can likely be dated already to November 1670: this would only reflect the common practice of postdating works published near the end of the year in order to keep the date on their title-pages fresh for the new year following.
It was as "Societatis Regalis Typographi" that Spencer Hickman would publish Milton's Artis Logi cae in 1672. Hickman's long and recent apprentice ship to Allestry indicates that here too it was his former master who had acquired this text (Parker 2: 1133) and that the earlier Oldenburg connection also lies behind this publication. The Artis Logicae ex plores a subject of special interest to the Society, although it does not make the review pages of the Philosophical Transactions. But despite his appoint ment late in 1671, Hickman's claims as a printer or bookseller for the Royal Society would remain largely unfounded (Rivington 10). Although he does once more present himself in such fashion on a title-page, this career is brief and unremarkable and his status as a scientific publisher rests chiefly on one other work, Nathaniel Grew's The Anatomy of Vegetables Begun (1672). After Allestry's death, Hickman seems only briefly to have held a shop "at the Rose in St. Pauls Church-Yard" (Morrison; Blayney 31). Robert Boul ter would advertise the reissue of the Artis Logicae, in a small remainder under his imprint the next year (7 Feb. 1673, Arber 1: 128; Parker 2: 1143), and Hickman's name is already peculiarly absent from the first Term Catalogue entry for the Artis Logicae (13 May 1672, Arber 1: 105).
There is evidence that Fellows of the Royal Society were encouraged to take an interest in Milton's History. In 1670, a month after its publication, Oldenburg sends a copy of the History to Francis Vernon in Paris, with a number of Royal Society productions and related works: Vernon had commissioned Oldenburg to buy natural philosophy on his behalf, and their correspondence is characteristically given to matters of science and the Society (Oldenburg 7: 315-16 [12 Dec. 1670]; 6: 436; see also 5: 462; 7: 60-62, 139-41, 271-74, 322-23, 496-98). Among other members of the Royal Society, John Beale had the History in hand soon after its appearance early in November (British Library, Evelyn Collection MS Letters 108 [24 Dec. 1670], 109 [9 Jan. 1671]). Milton's personal association with a number of Fellows has been observed (Hill 215). The list can be extended beyond such active members as Oldenburg, John Aubrey, and Theodore Haak, to others with a more nominal connection, such as Dryden or Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey, to whom went the passages deleted from Milton's History before its publication (von Maltzahn 14-16). Milton also had numerous acquaintance in the Rota Club, which so contributed to the evolution of the Royal Society (Strumia 502-03). There are other likely connections between him and the Society for which no evidence survives, and some for which evidence has only newly emerged--for example, correspondence between John Pell and Theodore Haak (both F.R.S.) indicates that Milton kept company with another Fellow of the Royal Society, Sir William Brereton, 3rd Baron Brereton (Bodleian MS Aubrey 13, f. 92 [27 June 1666]; British Library Add. MS 4443, ff. 1-3). We should see Milton as having closer connections to the New Science than has hitherto been supposed.
In this context, the History may be compared with other contemporary historical works that find official notice in the Philosophical Transactions, or that are closely related to the interests of the Royal Society, not least nationalist ones (Greenfeld 80-84). The Transactions, for example, could bestow a review on Robert Sheringham's De Anglorum Gentis Origine (Cambridge, 1670), which investigated questions about the founding legends and British racial origins with conclusions--that the ancient origins are obscure but that some Trojan descent is likely--that recall those of Milton's History, Book 1. The historical interests of the institution at this point emerge in the contemporary participation of a figure like Edward Chamberlayne, of Angliae Notitiae fame, and briefly active after his recent election to the Society (Hunter, Royal Society no. 271). The lack of a national history was a source of continuing complaint: within the year, John Evelyn could note that English historians were "God help us[,] pitifully wanting in their part to our great reproach," while conspicuously omitting Milton from his list of authors necessary for the furnishing of a proper library (British Library, Evelyn Collection, MS Letters 1508, Evelyn-Arlington [16 Oct. 1671], f. 3r; von Maltzahn 49-59). Evelyn's [End Page 92] reasons for overlooking Milton's History may be suggested in part by a royalist bias but also by the contemporary report of a former member of the Royal Society, Thomas Blount, to Anthony Wood: "Miltons Hist. has onely the reputation of putting our old Authors neatly together in a connect'd story" (Bodleian Library, MS Wood F.40, f. 82 [10 Nov. 1670]). As yet, however, the Society itself had not entirely relinquished the humanist preoccupations out of which Milton's historiography arises. The agenda of the New Science also compassed the development and application of new expository methods. These may be listed among the emerging technologies of the day, and we can see the publication of Milton's History, long after its composition, as reflecting the Society's emphasis on utility, and its Hartlibian regard for handbooks, digests, and epitomes. If Milton had sought to write "that which hath hitherto bin needed most" in English history (CPW 5: 4), it seems characteristic of Secretary Oldenburg's efforts that he have enabled the publishing of such a work.
The range of interests represented by the early members of the Royal Society explains how historiography might come under its aegis. Recent studies of that body have specified the social as much as the intellectual dimension of its first development, and analysis of its elections in particular has borne "out the view of the Royal Society as a high-class intellectual social club," with roots in the "Invisible College" of 1645, in Samuel Hartlib's circle and John Wilkins's Oxford, and also in the Rota Club (Hunter, Royal Society 25; Establishing 8-9). The emergence of the New Science plays an important part in the reception of Milton's works. Fellows of the Society contribute significantly to the early criticism of Milton's poetry and prose, and the empirical vein in the correspondence and publications of the Society may also be seen as preparing the ground for much in the later literary criticism especially of Paradise Lost, as can the Fellows' emphasis on utility, their misgivings about theoretical knowledge, and their attempted depoliticization of learned communications.
This provenance for some of the last works published in Milton's life completes a larger circle from his shared educational interests with Samuel Hartlib in the 1640s, to a renewed convergence of interests with some members of the Royal Society in the late 1660s and early 1670s. Further editions of the History remained in the circle of some related scientific publishers. After Allestry's death Martyn takes up a number of his titles, but he gains the copyright for the History only belatedly (Dec. 1672) and then publishes a second edition of the History in 1677 (Briscoe Eyre 2: 451-2, 3: 184; W. B. Hunter 7: 65). In the 1690s it is the scientific publisher Richard Chiswell who helps to publish another octavo edition of the History (1695), as advertised in the title especially of its second issue. In later years, of course, the Society increasingly defines itself in terms of experimental method and the narrower view of natural philosophy this promoted. Some of the members who had taken an interest in Milton took a slender interest in science, moreover, and of such Fellows alive in the 1680s a significant number were lost in the swingeing expulsions in 1685 of non-participants and those in arrears to the Society (this assessment is based on cross-referencing, first, the index of Shawcross's Bibliography, and, second, the subscription list for the folio Paradise Lost, 1688, with the complete list of seventeenth-century Fellows of the Royal Society [Hunter, Royal Society]). But there had been a time, early in its history, when the Society provided for a wider range of interests, and when Milton the historian, and also the instructor in logic, had found a market for some of his major prose through the Secretary and one of the booksellers of the Royal Society.
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