With the death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658, Milton's political fortunes were reversed. As Royalists gained power, Milton went into hiding at the home of a friend. During this time, his Defensio pro populo Anglicano and Eikonoklastes were publicly burned. Milton stayed in hiding until Parliament passed the Acts of Oblivion, pardoning most of those who had opposed Charles II. Even so, Parliament considered arresting Milton, an act which was carried out in October 1659. Fortunately for Milton, neither Charles nor his cohorts were especially bloodthirsty or vindictive, and Milton was released in December.
By the time of the actual restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Milton was hard at work on Paradise Lost. Milton had long considered writing a major work on the grand themes of Christianity. His familiarity with the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, The Divine Comedy, and Jerusalem Delivered inclined him to the epic format. His preparations for the ministry as well as the natural bent of his Puritanism led him toward the subject of Man's fall. During much of the early 1660s, he worked on his epic and, in 1667, finally published Paradise Lost, an epic in ten books. He followed up his masterpiece with Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes in 1671. Milton is thus one of a relatively small group of creative geniuses whose greatest works were written after they turned 50. The years of essay and pamphlet writing did not diminish his creative spark.
In 1674, Milton published the second edition of Paradise Lost, revising it to make a total of twelve books. Mostly he rearranged rather than rewrote. For example, he made what had been Book X into Books XI and XII. After the publication of the second edition, his health deteriorated, and on November 9, 1674, Milton died of complications from a gout attack. He was 66 years old. He was survived by his third wife and two of his daughters by Mary Powell. He was buried near his father's grave in Cripplegate. By 1700, Paradise Lost was recognized as one of the classics of English literature.
