Introduction. As Stella Revard writes in her recent edition of Milton's Complete Shorter Poems, sonnets 15, 16, 17 and 22 were not published in any collections supervised by Milton:
The sonnets to Fairfax, Cromwell, Vane, and Cyriack Skinner were published posthumously by Edward Phillips in 1694, together with Phillips’ biography of Milton, in Letters of State. They had been withheld in 1673, probably because of the notoriety of the men whom they praised – leading figures of the Civil War and Commonwealth – and because in them Milton affirmed his commitment to the Commonwealth and the pursuit of liberty. (Revard 354)
These four sonnets were first published in Edward Phillips's "Life of Milton," prefixed to Letters of State in 1694 on pages xlv-xlviii. They also appear in the Trinity Manuscript, the copytext for this edition.
Milton addressed Sonnet 17 to Sir Henry Vane (1613-1662) in celebration of Vane's courageous positions on religious toleration and the separation of church and state. Vane the Younger, as he was called out of respect for his father of the same name, often opposed Oliver Cromwell's more moderate policies (Flannagan 291). Milton wrote this sonnet in 1652 as Cromwell and the Council of State were considering proposals, put forward by the Committee for the Propagation of the Gospel, for the settlement of the English church and the suppression of "heresies" and "blasphemies." The poem praises Vane's efforts to bring about peace with the Netherlands and to negotiate the re-unification of England and Scotland, but also, like Sonnet 16, implies approval for a course of disestablishment and relatively broad religious freedom. During the restoration of Charles II, Vane was executed for "crimes against England." Following his death Vane's first biographer, George Sikes, included this sonnet in The Life and Death of Sir Henry Vane (1662). The Trinity MS has the following for a title:
To Sir Henry Vane the younger
Vane. Sir Henry Vane served England as Governor of Massachusetts (1635-37), Treasurer of the Navy (1639), and then member of the committee of foreign alliances in the Council of State in 1652. Sir Henry presided over peace negotations with Holland in 1652 that failed and led to war between the nations. Following the restoration of Charles II, Vane was executed.
young in yeares. Vane was born in 1613, and was therefore almost forty. Milton called him "the Younger" because his father, with the same name, was still alive. Having become Governor of Massachusetts at age twenty-five, Vane already had a reputation for youthfulness in high office.
gownes. Roman senatorial togas symbolize republican civil power.
Epeirot & the African. Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, and Hannibal both invaded Rome during the third century BCE and were defeated. Pausanias describes Pyrrhus' defeat in his Description of Greece 1.11.7 and Livy describes Hannibal's defeat in his History of Rome 9.19.
unfold. Uncovered designes not easily deciphered.
hollow. Untrustworthy. See OED2. Hollow also suggests Holland (the United Provinces); Vane was credited by many with having recognized before most others the Dutch ambassadors' duplicities before the outbreak of the Anglo-Dutch war in the summer of 1652.
spelld. Deciphered, comprehended. The French described Vane as the only man in the Commons who understood European politics.
maine nerves, Iron & Gold. In Discorsi 2.10 Machiavelli states that arms, not money are the sinews ("il nervo") of war.
equipage. War machinery, as described by Spencer in Faerie Queene 1.11.6 and The Shepheardes Calender October, 114.
The bounds of either sword. The limits of the jurisdiction of church and state.
Sonnet 17, line 10. The Trinity MS has "What power the Church & what the civill meanes." See Fletcher 454.
Sonnet 17, line 11. The Trinity MS has "Thou teachest best, which few have ever don." See Fletcher 454.