Explanatory Notes and Remarks on Milton's Paradise Lost. By J. Richardson, Father and Son. With the Life of the Author, and a Discourse on the Poem. By J.R. Sen. London: M.DCC.XXXIV. (pp. iii-v; xciv; c; cxiv.) Jonathan Richardson (1665-1745) was one of the chief portrait-painters of his time. There are portraits by him of Pope, Steele, and Prior--all now in the National Portrait Gallery; and his writings on painting were standard works till the time of Reynolds. His book on Milton was an excursion late in life, with the assistance of his son, into another field of criticism. His introductory life of Milton (pp. i-cxliii) is a substantial piece of work, and is valuable as containing several anecdotes that might otherwise have been lost. Those that bear on Milton's character are here reproduced. The typographical eccentricities have been preserved. Page 194, ll. 28 ff. Edward Millington's place of business was 'at the Pelican in Duck Lane' in 1670; from Michaelmas, 1671, it was 'at the Bible in Little Britain' (see Arber's _Term Catalogues_, vol. i, pp. 31, 93). It was about 1680 that he turned auctioneer of books, though he did not wholly abandon publishing. 'There was usually as much Comedy in his "Once, Twice, Thrice", as can be met with in a modern Play.' See the _Life and Errors of John Dunton_, ed. 1818, pp. 235-6. He died at Cambridge in 1703. Page 196, l. 4. Dr. Tancred Robinson (d. 1748), physician to George I, and knighted by him. l. 10. Henry Bendish (d. 1740), son of Bridget Ireton or Bendish, Cromwell's granddaughter: see _Letters of John Hughes_, ed. John Duncombe, vol. ii (1773), pp. x, xlii. l. 14. John Thurloe (1616-68), Secretary of State under Cromwell. Compare No. 38 note. l. 25. 'Easy my unpremeditated verse', _Paradise Lost_, ix. 24. 60. The Works of M'r Abraham Cowley. Consisting of Those which were formerly Printed: and Those which he Design'd for the Press, Now Published out of the Authors Original Copies. London, 1668.--'Several Discourses by way of Essays, in Verse and Prose,' No. II. (pp. 143-6.) Cowley's Essays were written towards the close of his life. They were 'left scarce finish'd', and many others were to have been added to them. They were first published posthumously in the collected edition of 1668, under the superintendence of Thomas Sprat (see No. 61). This edition, which alone is authoritative, has been followed in the present reprint of the eleventh and last Essay, probably written at the beginning of 1667. Page 198, l. 1. _at School_, Westminster. ll. 19 ff. The concluding stanzas of 'A Vote', printed in Cowley's _Sylva_, 1636. Cowley was then aged eighteen. The first stanza contains three new readings, 'The unknown' for 'Th' ignote', 'I would have' for 'I would hug', and 'Not on' for 'Not from'. Page 199, l. 15. _out of Horace_, _Odes_, iii. 29. 41-5.