But there are many difficulties in the way of this theory, and, on the whole, it seems most reasonable to conclude that the sonnets were composed in England, and that their autobiographical character is at least doubtful.

That nominally inscribed to Diodati, however, would well suit Leonora Baroni.

Diodati had been buried in Blackfriars on August 27, 1638, but Milton certainly did not learn the fact until after his visit to Naples, and possibly not until he came to pass some time at Geneva with Diodati's uncle.

He had come to Geneva from Venice, where he had made some stay, shipping off to England a cargo of books collected in Italy, among which were many of "immortal notes and Tuscan air." These, we may assume, he found awaiting him when he again set foot on his native soil, about the end of July, 1639.
Milton's conduct on his return justifies Wordsworth's commendation:-- "Thy heart The lowliest duties on herself did lay." Full, as his notebooks of the period attest, of magnificent aspiration for "flights above the Aonian mount," he yet quietly sat down to educate his nephews, and lament his friend.

His brother-in-law Phillips had been dead eight years, leaving two boys, Edward and John, now about nine and eight respectively.