collect: more facts from Milton

- the Ranters, a religious sect in 1650’s England, “believed that an individual attained perfection through sinning. The aim was enact a sin as ‘no-sin’”

- the Diggers, another sect, “grew corn, parsnips, carrots and beans” on common land; their leader “had received a simple but revolutionary message in a trance: ‘Work together, Eat bread together.’”

- after the monarchy was restored in 1660, “the government ordered the exhumation and posthumous execution of key leaders from the republican years.”

Fascinating.

collect: chapters 1 & 2

At the Library on a whim (namely: checking out a copy of Hans Christian Andersen after a walk in the woods), hanging back by the new book display, my eye fell upon:

and so, naturally, I got it.

Gems gleaned so far:

- a “buttery” is “a place to store provisions, and to get something to eat”

- John Milton “when he went to school, when he was very young, he studied very hard and sat up very late, commonly till 12 or one a clock at night, & his father ordered the maid to sit up for him,” according to his brother, Christopher.

- a student would keep a “commonplace book…akin to a scrapbook or notebook,” in which on collected “letters, pithy quotations, scraps of poetry, ‘recepits’ for medicines and goods, notes for accounts, prayers – indeed any piece of information that could be useful to the owner in the future.”

- translation was known as “englishing”

- when the plague hit London and everyone left town, “Old women were employed, for a pittance, to visit the houses of the dead and report back on the cause of death.” They were known as ’searchers.’