d_ by his Highness the
Lord Protector, by and with the advice of the Council, That the
Lord Mayor of the City of London and the rest of the Committee for
the regulation of Printing do cause all such [copies] of the said
book as are not already seized to be forthwith seized on, wherever
they shall be found, and cause the same, together with those
already seized, to be delivered to the Sheriffs of London and
Middlesex, who are to cause the same to be forthwith publicly
burnt.--He further reports that Nathaniel Brookes, Stationer, at
the Angel in Cornhill, caused the said book to be printed; that the
printers thereof were John Grismond, living in Ivy Lane, and James
Cotterill, living in Lambeth Hill; and that JOHN PHILLIPS, of
Westminster, was the author of the Epistle Dedicatory.
_Ordered_, That it be referred to Sir John Barkstead, Knight,
Lieutenant of the Tower [and Major-General for Westminster and
Middlesex], to cause the fines to be levied on the said persons
according to law: [also] that the said persons do attend the
Council on Tuesday next."--Milton's younger nephew, therefore, had
been the editor of the offending volume. Of the eleven members of
Council present when this fact came out, six were among those
friends of Milton whom he had specially mentioned in his
_Defensio Secunda_: viz. Fleetwood, Lambert, Lawrence,
Pickering, Sydenham, and Strickland.

_Saturday, April_ 26, 1656:--His Highness the Lord Protector
approves of a great many recent Orders of Council presented to him
all at once by Mr. Scobell, the Clerk of the Council. Among them is
the order "for burning the book called _Sportive Wit_."

_Friday, May_ 9, 1656:--His Highness the Lord Protector
present in person, with Lord President Lawrence, Lambert,
Fleetwood, Sir Gilbert Pickering, Strickland, Sydenham, and
Jones:--_Ordered_, &c. "That the Lord Mayor of the City of
London and the rest of the Committee for regulating Printing do
cause all the books entitled _Choice Droliery, Songs and
Sonnets_ (being stuffed with profane and obscene matter, tending
to the corruption of manners), to be seized wherever the same shall
be found, and cause the same to be delivered to the Sheriffs of
London and Middlesex, who are required to give order that the same
be burnt."

Copies of the second of the two books thus condemned by Cromwell and
his Council have, I believe, survived the burnin