Mary Powell, the dau. of an Oxfordshire cavalier, a girl of 17, who soon found her new life as the companion of an austere poet, absorbed in severe study, too abrupt a change from the gay society to which she had been accustomed, and in a month returned to her father’s house on a visit.  When the time fixed for rejoining her husband arrived, she showed no disposition to do so, upon which he began to aim at a divorce, and to advocate in the works above mentioned “unfitness and contrariety of mind” as a valid ground for it, views which incurred for him much notoriety and unpopularity.  A reconciliation, however, followed in 1645, and three dau. were born of the marriage.  In 1649 the reputation of M. as a Latinist led to his appointment as Latin or Foreign Sec. to the Council of State, in the duties of which he was, after his sight began to fail, assisted by A. Marvell (q.v.) and others, and which he retained until the Restoration.  In 1652 his wife d., and four years later he entered into a second marriage with Katharine Woodcock, who d. in child-birth in the following year.  To her memory he dedicated one of the most touching of his sonnets.  At the Restoration he was, of course, deprived of his office, and had to go into hiding; but on the intercession of Marvell (q.v.), and perhaps Davenant (q.v.), his name was included in the amnesty.  In 1663, being now totally blind and somewhat helpless, he asked his friend Dr. Paget to recommend a wife for him.  The lady chosen was Elizabeth Minshull, aged 25, who appears to have given him domestic happiness in his last years.  She survived him for 53 years.  The Restoration closed his second, and introduced his third, and for his fame, most productive period.  He was now free to devote his whole powers to the great work which he had so long contemplated.  For some time he had been in doubt as to the subject, had considered the Arthurian legends, but had decided upon the Fall of Man.  The result was Paradise Lost, which was begun in 1658, finished in 1664, and pub. in 1667.  A remark of his friend, Thomas Ellwood (q.v.), suggested to him the writing of Paradise Regained, which, along with Samson Agonistes, was pub. in 1671.  Two years before he had printed a History of Britain, written long before, which, however, is of little value.  The work of M. was now done.  In addition to his blindness he suffered from gout, to which it was partly attributable, and, his strength gradually failing, but with mind unimpaired and serene, he d. peacefully on November 8, 1674.  In M. the influences of the Renaissance and of Puritanism met.  To the former he owed his wide culture and his profound love of everything noble and beautiful, to the latter his lofty and austere character, and both these elements meet in his writings.  Leaving Shakespeare out of account, he holds an indisputable place at the head of English poets.  For strength