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**1. (265-66, English) A contemporary translation of Preadictis Dominis, Council of State to the Danish Ambassadors (Works, 29; Prose, 50), undated, unsigned.

**2. (266-68, English) A contemporary translation of Concilium, Inspectis, Council of State to the Danish Ambassadors (Works, 30; Prose, 51), undated, unsigned.

Comment: These two letters appear in the middle of a document of more than usual interest, A Journall of the Proceedings Upon the Treaty between the Parliament and the Ambassadors of the King of Denmarke with what relates to the detention of the English Ships by the said King in Copenhagen (ff. 241-318). It opens with a succinct narrative of the rather torturous negotiations of May [?]-October 29, 1652, including an account of one of the Ambassadors' servants who was arrested for failure to pay his bills (ff. 241-46), which seems to have complicated matters for a time. Transcripts of all pertinent papers make up the bulk of the Journal (ff. 247-318), which seems to have survived complete, as all of the events described in the narrative are supported by documents, the final one dated October 29.

The two letters attributed to Milton are part of a series of documents exchanged between the Council of State and the Ambassadors. In order to appreciate Milton's contribution, it will be of value to describe them briefly:

a. June 14, ff. 250-55. The Danish Ambassadors delivered to a Committee appointed by the Council of State a draft of a treaty containing 14 points.

b. July 8, ff. 256-61. The Committee delivered two letters to the Ambassadors: (1) an answer to their 14 points, and (2) a paper containing six propositions.
c. July 28, ff. 261-64. The Ambassadors delivered two letters to the Committee: (1) a reply to the Council of State's answer to their 14 points, and (2) an answer to the six propositions.
d. September 13, ff. 265-68. The Committee delivered two letters to the Ambassadors: (1) an answer to the Danish reply to the Council of State's answer to the 14 points, and (2) a reply to the Danish answer to the six propositions. These are Milton's letters. The date assigned in the narrative differs from that suggested in Prose, which has October 14 [?] for Prose, 50 and October 22 for Prose, 51. September 13 seems a more appropriate date for both.
e. September 21, ff. 268-70. The Ambassadors delivered a reply to d above, in which, probably in desperation, they reduced the points in contention to two.
f. October 5, ff. 271-73. The Committee delivered an answer to e above, identified here as "the paper . . . delivered to the Committee of the Councell att a conference the 21st of September last," thus confirming the earlier dating of Milton's letters.
g. October [?], ff. 273-74. The Ambassadors, apparently despairing of any agreement, requested their credentials for return to Denmark. The narrative dates this October 1, but the letter is indefinite, "London . . . October, 1652."

The Ambassadors did not depart immediately and presumably negotiations continued, but on October 13, all discussion of a treaty came to a halt, for on that date the Council of State received information that a group of English merchant vessels had been detained in Copenhagen harbor. Most of the balance of the Journal is taken up with an exchange of correspondence over this detention and with King Frederick III's refusal to permit a fleet of English warships to convoy the merchant vessels home.

Aside from the two cited, Milton's involvement in these negotiations includes at least two additional letters, one written before and one after the dates of the Journal. In Literas Vestrae Majestatis Undevigesimo, Parliament to the King of Denmark, April 13, 1652 (Works, 24; Prose, 41), the King's overtures for a treaty are welcomed. Parlamentum Reipublicae Angliae Postquam, Parliament to the King of Denmark, November 9, 1652 (Works, 35; Prose, 52), is a sharply worded letter in which Parliament, citing evidence given by Captain Andrew Ball, Admiral of the English Fleet, rejected the Danish explanation for the detention and notified the King that Richard Bradshaw had been dispatched to negotiate the differences. Ball's testimony and supporting letters appear in the Journal (ff. 307-18), including Frederick III's "Resolution and Answer" delivered to Ball on September 25th outside Copenhagen. Milton refers to this letter in his own, but it is available here, apparently, for the first time (see Prose, p. 635n).

Milton was involved in the affair, it would appear, from beginning to end, as his four letters seem to indicate. The question is was he more involved than these four documents evidence. By the time the negotiations broke down the Danish Ambassadors and the Council of State had exchanged no less than nine letters containing various proposals and counterproposals, only two of which are identified as his. It seems unlikely that Milton was suddenly called in at a point when the complexity of answer and reply had reached almost bewildering proportions, to prepare just two of this series of letters. It is certainly reasonable to assume that he was used from the beginning to translate the Danish proposals and prepare the English answers (see page 90 above). His blindness would have been no hindrance, as none of the documents are of excessive length and the time intervals between exchanges varied from two to six weeks. There being no supporting evidence for such a suggestion,

however, no claim for attribution can be made here, though the weight of custom and reason persuades that it deserves consideration.