XXI.

The second sonnet to Cyriac Skinner determines its own date as 1655, and
this one is probably to be assigned to the same year.

But little is known of the person to whom this sonnet and the next one
are addressed, except what we learn from the sonnets themselves,--that he
was an intimate and esteemed friend of Milton. He may have been one of
Milton's pupils; and he may, when his old teacher had become blind, have
rendered him important services as amanuensis or as reader.

1-4. Cyriac Skinner's mother was daughter of the famous lawyer and judge,
Sir Edward Coke.

2. Themis is personified _law_, this being the meaning of the Greek word.

7. Let Euclid rest, and Archimedes pause: intermit for a day your severe
mathematical studies.

8. And what the Swede intend, and what the French: and pay no heed to
foreign news.

XXII (1655).

1. this three years' day: three years ago to-day.

10. Milton's duties as Latin secretary to the government were exceedingly
arduous.

XXIII.

Milton's second wife died in February, 1658; her child lived but a short
time. At the time of his second marriage Milton had been blind several
years. Notice the reference in the sonnet to the sense of sight: in his
dream he _saw_.

2. like Alcestis. Read the story of the Love of Alcestis in William
Morris's Earthly Paradise; and read in Euripides, "That strangest,
saddest, sweetest song of his, Alkestis."

6. Purification in the Old Law. See Leviticus XII.

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