History question: if England was 16 years past its civil war it was five years past its Interregnum, when Oliver Cromwell marshaled all the Trent Lotts, Tom Delays and Pastor Hagees of England into what turned out to be the then most democratic expression of government in western history.

When Milton was selling off his rights to Paradise Lost, Charles II was dragging Cromwell's bones from under the church and violently, publicly re-executing The Protector's moldy corpse.

Milton got ripped at £10, but he was lucky to get any sort of a deal given the extreme conditions prevalent at the time he completed his masterpiece.