Chapter Biography of Samson Agonistes - Study Guide by John Milton

Milton's last major pamphlet The Readie and Easie Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth (1660) demonstrated the poet's courage and commitment to the republican cause. From February 1660 the Restoration was increasingly probable, and the tract appeared first in that month, enlarged in April, a month before Charles II's triumphal entry into London. Abuse of, and danger to, Milton was at its peak in 1660. On the anniversary of Charles I's execution, the remains of Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw were exhumed, dragged to Tyburn and decapitated, their heads impaled on poles at Westminster. Some Cromwellians were executed (e.g. Sir Henry Vane, Milton's friend, in 1662), others were imprisoned or escaped to exile. Milton was protected by friends during 1660 and in Parliament (certainly by Andrew Marvell) who ensured his name was not excluded from the Act of Pardon. The poet was however arrested and imprisoned for several months (see the invocation to Book VII of Paradise Lost).

Milton's later life under a Stuart monarchy was productive. Paradise Lost was finished by 1665, published in 1667, and revised in 1674 for the second edition. A second edition of his Poems appeared in 1673, and Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes, were published either 1670 or 1671. Milton died around November 9th 1674, a month before reaching 66.