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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/31706-8.txt b/31706-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d3db94 --- /dev/null +++ b/31706-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6170 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Minor Poems by Milton, by John Milton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Minor Poems by Milton + +Author: John Milton + +Editor: Samuel Thurber + +Release Date: March 20, 2010 [EBook #31706] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MINOR POEMS BY MILTON *** + + + + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Stephen Hutcheson and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + The Academy Series of English Classics + + + + + _MILTON_ + MINOR POEMS + + + L'Allegro Il Penseroso Comus + Arcades On the Nativity Lycidas + On Shakespeare At a Solemn Music Sonnets + + + WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES + BY + SAMUEL THURBER + + ALLYN AND BACON + _Boston and Chicago_ + + COPYRIGHT, 1901, + BY SAMUEL THURBER. + + _Norwood Press_ + J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith + Norwood Mass. U.S.A. + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + Preface + Outlines of the Life of Milton + TEXT: + On the Morning of Christ's Nativity + On Shakespeare + L'Allegro + Il Penseroso + Arcades + At a Solemn Music + Comus + Lycidas + Sonnets: + I. To the Nightingale + II. On his having arrived at the Age of Twenty-three 68 + VIII. When the Assault was intended to the City 69 + IX. To a Virtuous Young Lady 70 + X. To the Lady Margaret Ley 70 + XIII. To Mr. H. Lawes on his Airs 71 + XV. On the Lord General Fairfax, at the Siege of Colchester 72 + XVI. To the Lord General Cromwell, May, 1652 72 + XVII. To Sir Henry Vane the Younger 73 + XVIII. On the Late Massacre in Piedmont 74 + XIX. On his Blindness 74 + XX. To Mr. Lawrence 75 + XXI. To Cyriack Skinner 76 + XXII. To the Same 76 + XXIII. On his Deceased Wife 77 + Notes 79 + + + + + PREFACE. + + +The purpose held in view by those who place the study of Milton in high +school English courses is twofold: first, that youth may seasonably +become acquainted with a portion of our great classic poetry; and, +secondly, that they may in this poetry encounter and learn to conquer +difficulties more serious than those they have met in the literature they +have hitherto read. It is for the teacher to see to it that both these +aims are attained. The pupil must read with interest, and he must expect +at the same time to have to do some strenuous thinking and not to object +to turning over many books. + +The average pupil will not at first read anything of Milton with perfect +enjoyment. He will, with his wonted docility, commit passages to memory, +and he will do his best to speak these passages with the elocution on +which you insist. But the taste for this poetry is an acquired one, and +in the acquisition usually costs efforts quite alien to the prevailing +conceptions of reading as a pleasurable recreation. + +The task of pedagogy at this point becomes delicate. First of all, the +teacher must recognize the fact that his class will not, however good +their intentions, leap to a liking for Comus or Lycidas or even for the +Nativity Ode. It is of no use to assign stanzas or lines as lessons and +to expect these to be studied to a conclusion like a task of French +translation. The only way not to be disappointed in the performance of +the class is to expect nothing. It will be well at first, except where +the test is quite simple, for the teacher to read it himself, making +comment, in the way of explanation, as he goes on. Now and then he will +stop and have a little quiz to hold attention. When classical allusions +come up requiring research, the teacher will tell in what books the +matter may be looked up, and will show how other poets, or Milton +elsewhere, have played with the same piece of history or mythology. Thus +a poem may be dealt with for a number of days. Repetition is, to a +certain extent, excellent. The verses begin to sink into the young minds; +the measure appeals to the inborn sense of rhythm; the poem is caught by +the ear like a piece of music; the utterance of it becomes more like +singing than speaking. In fact, the great secret of teaching poetry in +school is to get rid of the commonplace manner of speech befitting a +recitation in language or science, and to put in practice the obvious +truth that verse has its own form, which is very different from the form +of prose. But repetition may go too far. Over-familiarity may beget +indifference. Other poems await the attention of the class. + +The teacher who really means to interest his classes, and begins by being +interested and interesting himself, will rarely fail to accomplish his +purpose. The principal obstacle to success here is the necessity, that +frequently exists, of conforming to the custom of examining, marking, and +ranking--a practice that thwarts genuine personal influence, formalizes +all procedures, and tends to deaden natural interest by substituting for +it the artificial interest of school standing. The Milton lesson must be +a serious one because it is given to the study of the serious work of the +gravest and most high-minded of men; and it must be an enjoyable one +because it deals with the verse of the most musical of poets, and because +one mood of joy is the only mood in which literature can be profitably +studied. + +As to the difficulties which the learner first encounters when he comes +to Milton, these grow sometimes out of the diction, sometimes out of the +syntax, and sometimes out of the poet's figures and allusions. Some +difficulties can be explained at once and completely. Others cannot be +explained at all with any reasonable hope of touching the beginner's mind +with matter that he can appropriate. Often the young reader slips over +points of possible learned annotation without the least consciousness +that here great scholarship might make an imposing display. Perfectly +useless is it to set forth for the pupil the interesting echoes from +ancient poets which generations of delving scholars have accumulated in +their notes to Milton, pleasing as these are to mature readers. + +The rule should be to expound and illustrate sufficiently to remove those +perplexities which really tease the pupil's mind and cause him to feel +dissatisfaction with himself. In many cases our only course is to +postpone exposition and to trust that the learner will grow up to the +insight which he as yet does not possess and which we cannot possibly +give him. A learned writer, like Milton, who has read all antiquity, and +who has no purpose of writing for children, inevitably contemplates a +public of men approximately his equals in culture, and expects to find +"fit audience, though few." + +But many of the difficulties that confront the beginner in Milton ask +only to be explained at once by some one who has had more experience in +the older literature. Archaic forms of words and expressions, with which +the ripe student is familiar, worry the tyro, and must be accounted for. +Often the common dictionaries will give all needed help; but the best +means of acquiring speedy familiarity with obsolete and rare forms is a +Milton concordance--such as that of Bradshaw--in connection with the +Century Dictionary, or with the Oxford Dictionary, so far as this goes. +These means of easy research should be at hand. I find that pupils often +need a pretty sharp spur to make them use even their abridged +dictionaries. But so far as concerns acquaintance with the vocabulary of +poetic diction, nothing will do except the dictionary habit, accompanied +by an effort of the memory to retain what has been learned. + +Difficulties that lurk in an involved syntax the pupil may usually be +expected to solve by study. But such a peculiar construction as that in +Sonnet X 9 will probably have to be explained to him. + +In the puritan theology and its implications he cannot take much +interest, and will of course not be asked to do so. But high school +students of Milton will ordinarily, in their historical courses, have +come down to the times in which the poet lived, will understand his +relation to public events, and will appreciate his feeling toward the +English ecclesiastical system. Puritanism, a phenomenon of the most +tremendous importance at a certain period of English history, has so +completely disappeared from the modern world, that the utterances of a +seventeenth-century poet, professedly a partisan, on matters of church +and state, no longer exasperate, and can barely even interest, students +of literature. + +To read either Paradise Lost or the Divine Comedy we must find the poet's +cosmical and his theological standpoint. We have no right to be surprised +or shocked at his conceptions. We must take him as he is, and let him +lead us through the universe as he has planned it. So long as we set up +our modern views as a standard, and by this standard judge the ancient +men, we fail in hospitality of thought, and come short of our duty as +readers. + +This consideration suggests yet another purpose in setting youth to the +reading of Milton. By no means an ancient poet, he takes us, +nevertheless, to a world different from our own, and in some sense helps +us out of the modern time in which our lives have fallen, to show us how +other ages conceived of God and Heaven. The mark of an educated man is +respect for the past; the old philosophies and religions do not startle +and repel him; his ancestors were once in those stages of belief; in some +stage of this vast movement of thought he and his fellows are at the +present moment. This largeness of view can be fruitfully impressed on +youth only by letting them read, under wise guidance, the older poets. + + + + + OUTLINES OF THE LIFE OF MILTON. + + +John Milton was born in London on the ninth of December, 1608. Queen +Elizabeth had then been dead five years, and the literature which we call +Elizabethan was still being written by the men who had begun their +careers under her reign. Spenser had died in 1599. The theatres were yet +in the enjoyment of full popularity, and the play-writers were producing +works that continued the traditions and the manner of the Elizabethan +drama. Shakespeare had still eight years to live, and at least four of +the great plays to write. Bacon's fame was already great, but the events +of eighteen years were to cloud his reputation and establish his renown. +Jonson, great as a writer of masks, was to live till he might have seen, +in Comus, how a young and scholarly puritan humanist thought that a mask +should be conceived. + +Born thus in the fifth year of the first of the Stuarts, Milton lived to +witness all the vicissitudes of English politics in which that family was +involved, except the very last. He did not see the Revolution of 1688. +Surviving for fourteen years the restoration of Charles II., he died in +1674, at the age of sixty-six. + +Milton's social position can be inferred from the fact that his father +was what was then called a scrivener,--that is, he kept an office in his +dwelling, and was employed to draw up contracts, wills, and other legal +documents. This occupation implied knowledge at least of the forms of the +law, though not of its history or principles. It did not imply liberal +education, though it brought its practitioner, doubtless, more or less +into contact with men of really professional standing in the science of +jurisprudence. Perhaps the elder Milton cherished a deeper conviction of +the value of classic culture than do those who simply inherit, and take +as a matter of course, the custom of devoting years to the study of +ancient languages and literatures. + +Evidently the father thought he saw in his son that promise of +intellectual vigor and of sound moral stamina which justified the +innovation, in his family, of sending his boy to the university. His +preparation for college Milton got under private masters and at the +famous public school of St. Paul's, which was near his home. This +preparation consisted chiefly in exercises in Latin composition and +literature, and was both thorough and effectual. At sixteen, when he went +to college, he had already composed Latin verse, and he read and wrote +Latin with facility. + +In 1625 Milton entered Christ's College, Cambridge. Here he remained as a +student seven years, or till 1632, taking in course his A.B. and A.M. +degrees, and, in spite of his studious habits and his aversion to the +rough and wayward customs of student life, winning more and more, and at +last having in full measure, the respect of his fellow-collegians. During +these years he wrote, but did not publish, in Latin or English, no less +than twenty-five pieces of verse, among them poems of no less note than +the Nativity Ode, and the Sonnet on arriving at the age of twenty-three. +The lines on Shakespeare were also composed in this period, and appeared +in print among the poems prefixed to the second Shakespeare folio in +1632. + +Returning, at the close of his university course, to the paternal +residence, the poet came, not to London, but to the village of Horton, in +Buckinghamshire, where his father had taken a house in order to live in +the country. Now had to be debated the question of a profession. Hitherto +the son had seemed silently to acquiesce in the understood hope of the +family that he would devote himself to a career in the church. But during +his university years of study and observation his views had become fixed, +his mind had advanced to self-determination, and he could not remain +content with a future that seemed to hamper his intellectual freedom. +This difference between father and son was settled, apparently without +strife, by the elder man's entire yielding to the desires of the younger. +The son could not, as we can well understand if we have read even only a +little of his verse or his prose, be otherwise than strenuous, insistent, +and masterful. To his father he was of course filial and respectful, we +may imagine him even gentle; but conciliatory, yielding, the point being +a vital one, it was not in his nature to be. + +What the young Milton desired was to lead a life devoted to literature, +or, more specifically, to poetry. This meant that he wished still to +study a long time, to fathom all learning in all tongues. In college he +had, besides Latin, mastered Greek, French, Italian, and Hebrew. His +conception of a poet was of a most profoundly learned man. He had become +aware of the existence of vast areas of knowledge that he had not yet +explored. Other young men turned aside without misgiving from the +ambition to know everything, and eagerly entered into useful and +lucrative professions. But Milton scorns the thought of applying learning +to the service of material gain. This is his poetical conception of his +duty as a scholar. It will dominate the spirit of his life work. To +understand his feelings at this time both toward his father and toward +his ideals, we must read the Latin poem _Ad Patrem_, of which Professor +Masson gives an English translation. + +At Horton, therefore, Milton remains, still subsisting on his father's +bounty. Having come back thither at the age of twenty-three, he continues +to live at home for nearly six years, not yet practising any art by which +to earn a livelihood. Occasionally he goes, on scholarly errands, to +London, which is not far distant. He devotes himself simply to study, and +having the poetic temperament, he cannot help devoting himself also to +observation of nature. His learning becomes immense; his appetite is +insatiable. + +To the Horton time belong the "minor poems" not already produced during +the student years at Cambridge. Of the circumstances in which the several +poems were written, an account is given in the Notes in this volume. This +early, or minor, verse of Milton is elicited by passing events, and is +considered to concern only himself and a few friends. For immediate fame +he takes no thought. He feels his immaturity. His ambition contemplates a +distant future, and he meditates plans, as yet undefined and vague, of +some great work that the world shall not willingly let die. + +Very important in Milton's intellectual development is his journey to +France and Italy, on which he set out in April, 1638. As an indication of +his social position in England, we must note that he carries with him +letters of introduction which secure to him notice and recognition from +men of rank or of notable literary and scientific standing. He goes +abroad as a cultivated private gentleman, known to have achieved +distinction as a student. Undoubtedly his chief qualification for holding +his own in learned Italian society was his command of languages, +especially of Latin, unless indeed we are to put before his linguistic +accomplishments the refined and gentlemanly personal bearing which was +his birthright, and which, in his years of intense application to books, +he had not forfeited. In Italy he associated with men whose intellectual +interests were the universal ones of science, in which he was as much at +home as they. Thus he possessed a perfect outfit of the endowments and +the acquisitions which a traveller needs to make his travel fruitful to +himself and honorable to his country. + +In Italy he made friends among men of note, and established relations +which were to have their importance in his future life. But most +memorable among his Italian experiences was his visit to the aged +Galileo, who was then a "prisoner to the Inquisition" for teaching that +the earth moves round the sun. The modern astronomy was then winning its +way among men of thought very much as the doctrine of evolution has been +winning its way during the last half century. Few minds surrendered +instantly and without misgiving to the new conception. Milton has still +many years to meditate the question before he comes to the composition of +Paradise Lost, when his scheme of the physical universe will have to +recognize the requirements of poetic art and the prevalence of ancient +beliefs regarding the origin and order of the cosmos. From the fact that +the poet puts the earth in the centre of the universe, that he adopts, in +fact, the Ptolemaic system, though he knew the Copernican, we are not +entitled to infer that he held a fixed conviction in the matter, and +that, on direct examination as to his views, he would have absolutely +professed one theory and rejected the other. The poet has all rights of +choice, and may be said to know best where to stand to take his view of +the world. + +Milton remained abroad some sixteen months, and was home again in August, +1639. The Horton household was now broken up, the father going to live, +first with his younger son, Christopher, at Reading, and afterward to +spend his last years in the family of John in London, where he died in +1647. + +With his removal to London in 1639 a distinct period in Milton's life +comes to an end. He has hitherto been uninterruptedly acquiring knowledge +both by studious devotion to books and by observation of human life in +foreign lands. He has read all the great literatures in ancient and +modern languages. He has felt the poetic impulse and has proved to +himself that he has at command creative power. His purpose still is to +produce a poem. But this poem of his aspirations is distinctly a great +and majestic affair, and not at all a continuation of such work as that +which he has hitherto given to his friends, and which he esteems as +prolusions of his youth. + +The poetic waiting-time which Milton, now in full vigor of manhood, +prescribes for himself, he is constrained, both by inner conviction and +by external necessity, to fill with hard and earnest work. Henceforth, +for a score of years, he ceases almost entirely to write verse, and he +earns his living. He becomes a householder in London, where, as the +father had gained his livelihood by drawing up contracts and mortgages +for his fellow-citizens, the son proceeds to gain his by teaching their +boys Latin. + +To the work of teaching, Milton addressed himself with intelligence and +predilection. About education he had ideas of his own which he applied in +practice and advocated in writing. His Tract on Education is a document +of importance in the history of pedagogy, and is, besides, one of those +memorable pieces of English prose which every student of literature, +whatever his professional aims, must include in his reading. He kept his +school in his own house, where he boarded some of his pupils. We could +not imagine John Milton going into a great public school, like St. +Paul's, to serve as under-teacher to one of the tyrannical head-masters +of the day. The only school befitting his absolutely convinced and +masterful spirit is one in which he reigns supreme. The great subject is +Latin, and so thoroughly is Latin taught that finally other subjects are +explained through the medium of this language. He had, himself, brought +from his school and college days very decided discontent with the methods +then in vogue. This discontent he expresses in language of peculiar +energy and even harshness. He is a true reformer. + +In 1643 Milton, then thirty-five years old, married Mary Powell, a girl +of just half his own age, daughter of a royalist residing near Oxford. We +must imagine this young wife as coming to preside, somewhat in the +capacity of matron, over a family of boys held severely to their tasks of +study by a master in whom the sense of humor was almost entirely lacking, +and whose discipline was of the sternest. That she could not endure the +situation was but natural. Very soon after the wedding she went home with +the understanding that she was to make a short visit to her parents and +sisters; but she did not return for two years. Her husband summoned her, +but she would not come back. In 1645 she at last repented of her +waywardness, sought reconciliation, and was forgiven. These two years had +wrought a change in Mary Powell Milton. She was now ready to live with +her husband, and did so till her death in 1652. She left him three +daughters, the youngest of whom, Deborah, lived till 1723, and was known +to Addison and his contemporaries, from whom she received distinguished +honors. + +In reading Milton we find that all the vicissitudes of his life reflect +themselves in his works, so that the political and social events in which +he is personally concerned usurp his attention, color his views, and +often become his themes. Thus he is not, like Shakespeare, a critic of +the whole of humanity, but is usually an advocate or an accuser of the +leaders in church and state and of the principles which they profess. He +is by nature a partisan. All the energy of his mind goes into +denunciation or vindication. His experience of wedded life made him an +advocate of easier divorce, and determined in him a mood which expressed +itself in writings that naturally brought upon him obloquy even from +those who held him most in honor. + +It would be most interesting to know something of the daily routine of +Milton's school, to ascertain what his pupils knew and could do when he +had done with them. But we must remember that during all the years of his +teaching the great Revolution was in progress, that all men of thought +were profoundly stirred on public questions, and that Milton himself was +a politician and an eager partisan of the cause of Parliament. He did not +consider himself a teacher finally and for good. His school did not +develop into anything great or conspicuous, and never became an object of +curiosity. While yet engaged in such teaching as he found to do, he had +written the pamphlets on education and on divorce, and also the famous +one entitled Areopagitica, a Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed +Printing to the Parliament of England. This is the best worth reading of +all his prose writings. The subject of it is perfectly intelligible +still, and its English shows to perfection the qualities of the great +Miltonic style. + +After the execution of Charles I., Jan. 30, 1649, it became more than +ever necessary for all thoughtful men to express their convictions. For a +people to put to death its king by judicial process was an unheard of +event. Those who considered that the Parliament had acted within the law +and could not have done otherwise with due regard to the welfare of the +nation had to convince doubting and timid citizens at home, and also, so +far as was possible, to placate critics in other nations who still +believed that the king could do no wrong; for all Europe interested +itself in this tremendous act of the English Parliament. + +Within a fortnight after the death of the king, Milton published his +pamphlet on The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates. This work so impressed +the parliamentary leaders as a thorough and unanswerable argument in +defence of their cause that they sought out its author, and in March +appointed him to the important post of Secretary for Foreign Tongues. +Milton's perfect command of Latin now stood him in good stead. Here was +an uncompromising puritan, fully the equal of the foreign ecclesiastics +in theology, and capable of holding his own in Latin composition with the +most famous humanists of the time. Latin was then the language of +international intercourse. Milton's duty was to translate into and from +Latin the despatches that passed between his own and foreign governments. +He also composed original treatises, some in English and some in Latin, +the most important of which continued his justification of the national +act of regicide. The importance of these writings was very great. +Milton's services to the puritan cause can to-day hardly be appreciated. +It was the constant aim of royalists at home and abroad to represent +England as having fallen under the control of ignorant fanatics, of +ambitious, barbarous, blood-thirsty men. By his very personality, his +knowledge of affairs, his familiarity with ancient and mediæval history, +and, above all, by his fluency in Latin invective, Milton thwarted +attempts to disparage his countrymen as lawless barbarians. He helped to +maintain the good name of his country as a land of intellectual light and +of respect for ancient usage. Foreigners who attempted personal +vilification found him ready to meet them with their own weapons. The +poet of Comus now shows himself a controversialist of unbounded energy. + +In 1652, shortly before the death of his wife, Milton became totally +blind. Henceforward the duties of his secretaryship had to be performed +with the aid of an amanuensis. He continued, however, to fill the office +till just before the end of the Protectorate in 1659. In November, 1656, +he married Katharine Woodcocke, who lived but till March, 1658. She left +an infant which died a month after the mother. + +Milton's duties as Secretary for Foreign Tongues must have brought him, +one would think, into some sort of personal relation with Cromwell and +the other great parliamentary leaders. The poet leaves us in no doubt as +to the high esteem in which he held these men. But no gossip of the time +admits us to a glimpse of their intercourse with each other. It falls to +Milton to eulogize Cromwell; it never came in Cromwell's way to put on +record his estimate of Milton. + +With the restoration of royalty in the person of Charles II., in 1660, +Milton's public activity of course ceased, and the second period of his +life comes to an end. We saw his first period devoted to preparation and +to early essays in poetry, with the distinct conception that poetry was +yet to be the great work of his life. In his second period he expresses +himself in verse but rarely and briefly, but produces controversial +prose, now in English, now in Latin. In this second period he works, as +teacher or as public secretary, for payment, supporting himself and +family. When the third period begins, he loses all employment, goes into +closest retirement, a widower with three daughters growing up from +childhood, and devotes himself to the poetry that he has always +contemplated as the object of his ambition. He has now been blind eight +years. + +In view of the conspicuous part that Milton had taken in defending the +right of Parliament to bring a king to the scaffold, it is surprising +that of the Restoration he was not included in the number of those marked +out for the punishment of death. He was for some time undoubtedly in +danger. Fortunately he was overlooked, or, perhaps, was purposely +neglected as being henceforce harmless. + +In February, 1663, he married his third wife Elizabeth Minshull, who +faithfully cared for him till his death in 1674. + +During this last period of his life Milton composed and published his +_major_ poems,--Paradise Lost, 1667, Paradise Regained, and Samson +Agonistes, 1671. For Paradise Lost he received from his publisher five +pounds in cash, with promise of five pounds when thirteen hundred copies +should have been sold, and of two more payments, each of the same sum, +when two more editions of the same size should have been disposed of. + +The last years of his life Milton appears to have spent in comparative +comfort. His three daughters had gone out to learn trades. It seems he +had given them no education. It may be they showed no desire or aptitude +for instruction. Far more probably, however, he took no interest in their +education. His ideal of womanhood, as may be gathered from numerous +passages in his poems, is as far as possible removed from the modern +conception of sexual equality as to opportunity for education and for +training to self-determination. He shared in this respect the views that +prevailed during his day in all classes of society, and he maintained +these views as a parent no less than as the poet of Paradise. + +Besides the poems named above as produced during this last period of his +life, Milton published also in these years several prose works, which +have now little value except as showing the bent and occupation of his +mind. Among these may be named a small Latin Grammar, written in English, +which he had composed long before, and a History of Britain to the Norman +Conquest. + +Though the immediate sale of Paradise Lost was not large, according to +our ideas, it was yet sufficient to indicate a very respectable interest +in the reading public of the day. We must remember that it appeared in +the corrupt time of the Restoration, when the prevailing literary fashion +was wholly adverse to seriousness and ideality. The age was spiritually +degenerate. Milton himself considered that he lived "an age too late." +The great poem had no royal or noble sponsors to give it vogue; yet it +made its way. By no means had all minds become frivolous. The minor poems +had been published by themselves in 1645. These had always had their +readers. The prose pamphlets of the secretary for foreign tongues were, +at least by a small class of observant persons, known to be the work of +the author of Comus and Lycidas. There were not wanting men to take a +sympathetic interest in the fate of the poet in his retirement, and to +note the appearance of Paradise Lost as a literary event. + +Thus it was that Milton lived to have some slight foretaste of the honor +which two centuries have bestowed on his memory. Visitors came to see him +in his modest dwelling in an unfashionable quarter of London. Foreigners +occasionally came to satisfy their curiosity. Dryden, the chief poet who +wrote in the spirit of the Restoration, called to talk with the author of +Paradise Lost, and to suggest improvements in the form of the poem, which +he thought should be in rhyme. The recognition which the poet thus got in +his lifetime is small only in comparison with the immense fame he has won +since his death. + +Milton has now become an object of the profoundest curiosity. His life +has been investigated by Professor Masson, with a minute scrutiny into +detail such as has been devoted to no other writer but Shakespeare. His +works are perpetually reprinted in all imaginable forms, whether of +cheapness or of sumptuous elegance. They are read as text-books in +schools by hosts of youth. Our beliefs regarding the great themes of the +sacred scriptures are so colored by the Miltonic epics that we hardly +know to-day just what part of our conceptions we owe to the Bible and +what to the poet. Next to the Shakespearean dramas, the poems of Milton +are the largest single influence that knits the English-speaking race +into one vast brotherhood. + +All students of Milton have to acknowledge their indebtedness to +Professor David Masson of Edinburgh, who has devoted years of labor to +research in every department of Miltonic lore. Masson's great Life of +Milton in Connexion with the History of his Time is far too bulky for use +except for reference on special points. The index volume makes the +enormous Work accessible as occasion requires. + +To his edition of the poetical works, Masson prefixes a life, which will +suffice for all the needs likely to arise in school. Yet again, Masson is +the writer of the article on Milton in the Encyclopædia Britannica, a +most complete presentment of everything a student ordinarily needs to +know. + +In the series of Classical Writers is a little book, or primer, on +Milton, written by Stopford A. Brooke. + +In the English Men of Letters series, the Milton is the work of Mark +Pattison. + +The latest good account of Milton is the book entitled simply John +Milton, by Walter Raleigh, professor at University College, Liverpool. +This is a remarkably vigorous and illuminating piece of criticism. + +Perhaps the most interesting writing on a Milton subject is the book by +Mrs. Anne Manning, The Maiden and Married Life of Mary Powell (afterward +Mrs. Milton), and the sequel thereto, Deborah's Diary. This the student +must read with the full understanding that it is a work of fiction. + +It is right to warn young readers against the natural tendency to give +their time to critical and expository books and articles before they make +acquaintance with originals. Almost every essayist of note has written on +Milton. There is danger lest we accept opinions at second hand. The only +opinions on Milton to which we have any right are those we form from our +own reading of his works. + + + + + MILTON'S MINOR POEMS. + + + + + ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY. + + + [Composed 1629.] + + + I. + + This is the month, and this the happy morn, + Wherein the Son of Heaven's eternal King, + Of wedded maid and virgin mother born, + Our great redemption from above did bring; + For so the holy sages once did sing, 5 + That he our deadly forfeit should release, + And with his Father work us a perpetual peace. + + + II. + + That glorious form, that light unsufferable, + And that far-beaming blaze of majesty, + Wherewith he wont at Heaven's high council-table 10 + To sit the midst of Trinal Unity, + He laid aside, and, here with us to be, + Forsook the courts of everlasting day, + And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay. + + + III. + + Say, Heavenly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein 15 + Afford a present to the Infant God? + Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain, + To welcome him to this his new abode, + Now while the heaven, by the Sun's team untrod, + Hath took no print of the approaching light, 20 + And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright? + + + IV. + + See how from far upon the eastern road + The star-led wizards haste with odors sweet! + Oh! run; prevent them with thy humble ode, + And lay it lowly at his blessed feet; 25 + Have thou the honor first thy Lord to greet, + And join thy voice unto the Angel Quire, + From out his secret altar touched with hallowed fire. + + + The Hymn. + + + I. + + It was the winter wild, + While the heaven-born child 30 + All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies; + Nature, in awe to him, + Had doffed her gaudy trim, + With her great Master so to sympathize: + It was no season then for her 35 + To wanton with the Sun, her lusty paramour. + + + II. + + Only with speeches fair + She woos the gentle air + To hide her guilty front with innocent snow, + And on her naked shame, 40 + Pollute with sinful blame, + The saintly veil of maiden white to throw; + Confounded, that her Maker's eyes + Should look so near upon her foul deformities. + + + III. + + But he, her fears to cease, 45 + Sent down the meek-eyed Peace: + She, crowned with olive green, came softly sliding + Down through the turning sphere, + His ready harbinger, + With turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing; 50 + And, waving wide her myrtle wand, + She strikes a universal peace through sea and land. + + + IV. + + No war, or battle's sound, + Was heard the world around; + The idle spear and shield were high uphung; 55 + The hooked chariot stood, + Unstained with hostile blood; + The trumpet spake not to the armed throng; + And kings sat still with awful eye, + As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by. 60 + + + V. + + But peaceful was the night + Wherein the Prince of Light + His reign of peace upon the earth began. + The winds, with wonder whist, + Smoothly the waters kissed, 65 + Whispering new joys to the mild Ocean, + Who now hath quite forgot to rave, + While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave. + + + VI. + + The stars, with deep amaze, + Stand fixed in steadfast gaze, 70 + Bending one way their precious influence, + And will not take their flight, + For all the morning light, + Or Lucifer that often warned them thence; + But in their glimmering orbs did glow, 75 + Until their Lord himself bespake, and bid them go. + + + VII. + + And, though the shady gloom + Had given day her room, + The Sun himself withheld his wonted speed, + And hid his head for shame, 80 + As his inferior flame + The new-enlightened world no more should need: + He saw a greater Sun appear + Than his bright throne or burning axletree could bear. + + + VIII. + + The shepherds on the lawn, 85 + Or ere the point of dawn, + Sat simply chatting in a rustic row; + Full little thought they than + That the mighty Pan + Was kindly come to live with them below: 90 + Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep, + Was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep. + + + IX. + + When such music sweet + Their hearts and ears did greet + As never was by mortal finger strook, 95 + Divinely-warbled voice + Answering the stringed noise, + As all their souls in blissful rapture took: + The air, such pleasure loth to lose, 99 + With thousand echoes still prolongs each heavenly close. + + + X. + + Nature, that heard such sound + Beneath the hollow round + Of Cynthia's seat the Airy region thrilling, + Now was almost won + To think her part was done, 105 + And that her reign had here its last fulfilling: + She knew such harmony alone + Could hold all Heaven and Earth in happier union. + + + XI. + + At last surrounds their sight + A globe of circular light, 110 + That with long beams the shamefaced Night arrayed; + The helmed cherubim + And sworded seraphim + Are seen in glittering ranks with wings displayed, + Harping in loud and solemn quire, 115 + With unexpressive notes, to Heaven's new-born Heir. + + + XII. + + Such music (as 'tis said) + Before was never made, + But when of old the Sons of Morning sung, + While the Creator great 120 + His constellations set, + And the well-balanced World on hinges hung, + And cast the dark foundations deep, + And bid the weltering waves their oozy channel keep. + + + XIII. + + Ring out, ye crystal spheres! 125 + Once bless our human ears, + If ye have power to touch our senses so; + And let your silver chime + Move in melodious time; + And let the bass of heaven's deep organ blow; 130 + And with your ninefold harmony + Make up full consort to the angelic symphony. + + + XIV. + + For, if such holy song + Enwrap our fancy long, + Time will run back and fetch the Age of Gold; 135 + And speckled Vanity + Will sicken soon and die, + And leprous Sin will melt from earthly mould; + And Hell itself will pass away, + And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day. 140 + + + XV. + + Yea, Truth and Justice then + Will down return to men, + Orbed in a rainbow; and, like glories wearing, + Mercy will sit between, + Throned in celestial sheen, 145 + With radiant feet the tissued clouds down steering; + And Heaven, as at some festival, + Will open wide the gates of her high palace-hall. + + + XVI. + + But wisest Fate says No, + This must not yet be so; 150 + The Babe yet lies in smiling infancy + That on the bitter cross + Must redeem our loss, + So both himself and us to glorify: + Yet first, to those ychained in sleep, 155 + The wakeful trump of doom must thunder through the deep. + + + XVII. + + With such a horrid clang + As on Mount Sinai rang, + While the red fire and smouldering clouds outbrake: + The aged Earth, aghast 160 + With terror of that blast, + Shall from the surface to the centre shake, + When, at the world's last session, + The dreadful Judge in middle air shall spread his throne. + + + XVIII. + + And then at last our bliss 165 + Full and perfect is, + But now begins; for from this happy day + The Old Dragon under ground, + In straiter limits bound, + Not half so far casts his usurped sway, 170 + And, wroth to see his kingdom fail, + Swinges the scaly horror of his folded tail. + + + XIX. + + The Oracles are dumb; + No voice or hideous hum + Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving. 175 + Apollo from his shrine + Can no more divine, + With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. + No nightly trance, or breathed spell, + Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell. 180 + + + XX. + + The lonely mountains o'er, + And the resounding shore, + A voice of weeping heard and loud lament; + From haunted spring, and dale + Edged with poplar pale, 185 + The parting Genius is with sighing sent; + With flower-inwoven tresses torn + The Nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn. + + + XXI. + + In consecrated earth, + And on the holy hearth, 190 + The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint; + In urns, and altars round, + A drear and dying sound + Affrights the flamens at their service quaint; + And the chill marble seems to sweat, 195 + While each peculiar power forgoes his wonted seat. + + + XXII. + + Peor and Baälim + Forsake their temples dim, + With that twice-battered god of Palestine; + And mooned Ashtaroth, 200 + Heaven's queen and mother both, + Now sits not girt with tapers' holy shine: + The Lybic Hammon shrinks his horn; + In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thammuz mourn. + + + XXIII. + + And sullen Moloch, fled, 205 + Hath left in shadows dread + His burning idol all of blackest hue; + In vain with cymbals' ring + They call the grisly king, + In dismal dance about the furnace blue; 210 + The brutish gods of Nile as fast, + Isis, and Orus, and the dog Anubis, haste. + + + XXIV. + + Nor is Osiris seen + In Memphian grove or green, 214 + Trampling the unshowered grass with lowings loud; 215 + Nor can he be at rest + Within his sacred chest; + Nought but profoundest Hell can be his shroud; + In vain, with timbrelled anthems dark, + The sable-stoled sorcerers bear his worshipped ark. 220 + + + XXV. + + He feels from Juda's land + The dreaded Infant's hand; + The rays of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyn; + Nor all the gods beside + Longer dare abide, 225 + Not Typhon huge ending in snaky twine: + Our Babe, to show his Godhead true, + Can in his swaddling bands control the damned crew. + + + XXVI. + + So, when the sun in bed, + Curtained with cloudy red, 230 + Pillows his chin upon an orient wave, + The flocking shadows pale + Troop to the infernal jail, + Each fettered ghost slips to his several grave, + And the yellow-skirted fays 235 + Fly after the night-steeds, leaving their moon-loved maze. + + + XXVII. + + But see! the Virgin blest + Hath laid her Babe to rest. + Time is our tedious song should here have ending: + Heaven's youngest-teemed star 240 + Hath fixed her polished car, + Her sleeping Lord with handmaid lamp attending; + And all about the courtly stable + Bright-harnessed Angels sit in order serviceable. + + + + + ON SHAKESPEARE. 1630. + + + What needs my Shakespeare for his honored bones + The labor of an age in piled stones? + Or that his hallowed reliques should be hid + Under a star-ypointing pyramid? + Dear son of memory, great heir of fame, 5 + What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name? + Thou in our wonder and astonishment + Hast built thyself a livelong monument. + For whilst, to the shame of slow-endeavoring art + Thy easy numbers flow, and that each heart 10 + Hath from the leaves of thy unvalued book + Those Delphic lines with deep impression took, + Then thou, our fancy of itself bereaving, + Dost make _us_ marble with too much conceiving, + And so sepulchred in such pomp dost lie 15 + That kings for such a tomb would wish to die. + + + + + L'ALLEGRO. + + + Hence, loathed Melancholy, + Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born + In Stygian cave forlorn + 'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy! + Find out some uncouth cell, 5 + Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings, + And the night-raven sings; + There, under ebon shades and low-browed rocks, + As ragged as thy locks, + In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell. 10 + But come, thou Goddess fair and free, + In heaven yclept Euphrosyne, + And by men heart-easing Mirth; + Whom lovely Venus, at a birth, + With two sister Graces more, 15 + To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore: + Or whether (as some sager sing) + The frolic wind that breathes the spring, + Zephyr, with Aurora playing, + As he met her once a-Maying, 20 + There, on beds of violets blue, + And fresh-blown roses washed in dew, + Filled her with thee, a daughter fair, + So buxom, blithe, and debonair. + Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee 25 + Jest, and youthful Jollity, + Quips and Cranks and wanton Wiles, + Nods and Becks and wreathed Smiles, + Such as hang on Hebe's cheek, + And love to live in dimple sleek; 30 + Sport that wrinkled Care derides, + And Laughter holding both his sides. + Come, and trip it, as you go, + On the light fantastic toe; + And in thy right hand lead with thee 35 + The mountain-nymph, sweet Liberty; + And, if I give thee honor due, + Mirth, admit me of thy crew, + To live with her, and live with thee, + In unreproved pleasures free; 40 + To hear the lark begin his flight, + And, singing, startle the dull night, + From his watch-tower in the skies, + Till the dappled dawn doth rise; + Then to come, in spite of sorrow, 45 + And at my window bid good-morrow, + Through the sweet-briar or the vine, + Or the twisted eglantine; + While the cock, with lively din, + Scatters the rear of darkness thin; 50 + And to the stack, or the barn-door, + Stoutly struts his dames before: + Oft listening how the hounds and horn + Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn, + From the side of some hoar hill, 55 + Through the high wood echoing shrill: + Sometime walking, not unseen, + By hedgerow elms, on hillocks green, + Right against the eastern gate + Where the great Sun begins his state, 60 + Robed in flames and amber light, + The clouds in thousand liveries dight; + While the ploughman, near at hand, + Whistles o'er the furrowed land, + And the milkmaid singeth blithe, 65 + And the mower whets his scythe, + And every shepherd tells his tale + Under the hawthorn in the dale. + Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures, + Whilst the landskip round it measures: 70 + Russet lawns, and fallows gray, + Where the nibbling flocks do stray; + Mountains on whose barren breast + The laboring clouds do often rest; + Meadows trim, with daisies pied; 75 + Shallow brooks, and rivers wide; + Towers and battlements it sees + Bosomed high in tufted trees, + Where perhaps some beauty lies, + The cynosure of neighboring eyes. 80 + Hard by a cottage chimney smokes + From betwixt two aged oaks, + Where Corydon and Thyrsis met + Are at their savory dinner set + Of herbs and other country messes, 85 + Which the neat-handed Phyllis dresses; + And then in haste her bower she leaves, + With Thestylis to bind the sheaves; + Or, if the earlier season lead, + To the tanned haycock in the mead. 90 + Sometimes, with secure delight, + The upland hamlets will invite, + When the merry bells ring round, + And the jocund rebecks sound + To many a youth and many a maid 95 + Dancing in the chequered shade, + And young and old come forth to play + On a sunshine holiday, + Till the livelong daylight fail: + Then to the spicy nut-brown ale, 100 + With stories told of many a feat, + How Faery Mab the junkets eat. + She was pinched and pulled, she said; + And he, by Friar's lantern led, + Tells how the drudging goblin sweat 105 + To earn his cream-bowl duly set, + When in one night, ere glimpse of morn, + His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn + That ten day-laborers could not end; + Then lies him down, the lubber fiend, 110 + And, stretched out all the chimney's length, + Basks at the fire his hairy strength, + And crop-full out of doors he flings, + Ere the first cock his matin rings. + Thus done the tales, to bed they creep, 115 + By whispering winds soon lulled asleep. + Towered cities please us then, + And the busy hum of men, + Where throngs of knights and barons bold, + In weeds of peace, high triumphs hold, 120 + With store of ladies, whose bright eyes + Rain influence, and judge the prize + Of wit or arms, while both contend + To win her grace whom all commend. + There let Hymen oft appear 125 + In saffron robe, with taper clear, + And pomp, and feast, and revelry, + With mask and antique pageantry; + Such sights as youthful poets dream, + On summer eves by haunted stream. 130 + Then to the well-trod stage anon, + If Jonson's learned sock be on, + Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, + Warble his native wood-notes wild, + And ever, against eating cares, 135 + Lap me in soft Lydian airs, + Married to immortal verse, + Such as the meeting soul may pierce, + In notes with many a winding bout + Of linked sweetness long drawn out 140 + With wanton heed and giddy cunning, + The melting voice through mazes running, + Untwisting all the chains that tie + The hidden soul of harmony; + That Orpheus' self may heave his head 145 + From golden slumber on a bed + Of heaped Elysian flowers, and hear + Such strains as would have won the ear + Of Pluto to have quite set free + His half-regained Eurydice. 150 + These delights if thou canst give, + Mirth, with thee I mean to live. + + + + + IL PENSEROSO. + + + Hence, vain deluding Joys, + The brood of Folly without father bred! + How little you bested, + Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys! + Dwell in some idle brain, 5 + And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess, + As thick and numberless + As the gay motes that people the sun-beams, + Or likest hovering dreams, + The fickle pensioners of Morpheus' train. 10 + But, hail! thou Goddess sage and holy! + Hail, divinest Melancholy! + Whose saintly visage is too bright + To hit the sense of human sight, + And therefore to our weaker view, 15 + O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue; + Black, but such as in esteem + Prince Memnon's sister might beseem, + Or that starred Ethiop queen that strove + To set her beauty's praise above 20 + The Sea-Nymphs, and their powers offended. + Yet thou art higher far descended: + Thee bright-haired Vesta long of yore + To solitary Saturn bore; + His daughter she; in Saturn's reign 25 + Such mixture was not held a stain. + Oft in glimmering bowers and glades + He met her, and in secret shades + Of woody Ida's inmost grove, + Whilst yet there was no fear of Jove. 30 + Come, pensive Nun, devout and pure, + Sober, steadfast, and demure, + All in a robe of darkest grain, + Flowing with majestic train, + And sable stole of cypress lawn 35 + Over thy decent shoulders drawn. + Come; but keep thy wonted state, + With even step, and musing gait, + And looks commercing with the skies + Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes: 40 + There, held in holy passion still, + Forget thyself to marble, till + With a sad leaden downward cast + Thou fix them on the earth as fast. + And join with thee calm Peace and Quiet, 45 + Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet, + And hears the Muses in a ring + Aye round about Jove's altar sing; + And add to these retired Leisure, + That in trim gardens takes his pleasure; 50 + But, first and chiefest, with thee bring + Him that yon soars on golden wing, + Guiding the fiery-wheeled throne, + The Cherub Contemplation; + And the mute Silence hist along, 55 + 'Less Philomel will deign a song, + In her sweetest, saddest plight, + Smoothing the rugged brow of Night, + While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke + Gently o'er the accustomed oak. 60 + Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly, + Most musical, most melancholy! + Thee, chauntress, oft the woods among + I woo, to hear thy even-song; + And, missing thee, I walk unseen 65 + On the dry smooth-shaven green, + To behold the wandering moon, + Riding near her highest noon, + Like one that had been led astray + Through the heaven's wide pathless way, 70 + And oft, as if her head she bowed, + Stooping through a fleecy cloud. + Oft, on a plat of rising ground, + I hear the far-off curfew sound, + Over some wide-watered shore, 75 + Swinging slow with sullen roar; + Or, if the air will not permit, + Some still removed place will fit, + Where glowing embers through the room + Teach light to counterfeit a gloom, 80 + Far from all resort of mirth, + Save the cricket on the hearth, + Or the bellman's drowsy charm + To bless the doors from nightly harm. + Or let my lamp, at midnight hour, 85 + Be seen in some high lonely tower, + Where I may oft outwatch the Bear, + With thrice great Hermes, or unsphere + The spirit of Plato, to unfold + What worlds or what vast regions hold 90 + The immortal mind that hath forsook + Her mansion in this fleshly nook; + And of those demons that are found + In fire, air, flood, or underground, + Whose power hath a true consent 95 + With planet or with element. + Sometime let gorgeous Tragedy + In sceptred pall come sweeping by, + Presenting Thebes, or Pelops' line, + Or the tale of Troy divine, 100 + Or what (though rare) of later age + Ennobled hath the buskined stage. + But, O sad Virgin! that thy power + Might raise Musæus from his bower; + Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing 105 + Such notes as, warbled to the string, + Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek, + And made Hell grant what love did seek; + Or call up him that left half-told + The story of Cambuscan bold, 110 + Of Camball, and of Algarsife, + And who had Canace to wife, + That owned the virtuous ring and glass, + And of the wondrous horse of brass + On which the Tartar king did ride; 115 + And if aught else great bards beside + In sage and solemn tunes have sung, + Of turneys, and of trophies hung, + Of forests, and enchantments drear, + Where more is meant than meets the ear. 120 + Thus, Night, oft see me in thy pale career, + Till civil-suited Morn appear, + Not tricked and frounced, as she was wont + With the Attic boy to hunt, + But kerchieft in a comely cloud, 125 + While rocking winds are piping loud + Or ushered with a shower still, + When the gust hath blown his fill, + Ending on the rustling leaves, + With minute-drops from off the eaves. 130 + And, when the sun begins to fling + His flaring beams, me, Goddess, bring + To arched walks of twilight groves, + And shadows brown, that Sylvan loves, + Of pine, or monumental oak, 135 + Where the rude axe with heaved stroke + Was never heard the nymphs to daunt, + Or fright them from their hallowed haunt. + There, in close covert, by some brook, + Where no profaner eye may look, 140 + Hide me from day's garish eye, + While the bee with honeyed thigh, + That at her flowery work doth sing, + And the waters murmuring, + With such consort as they keep, 145 + Entice the dewy-feathered Sleep. + And let some strange mysterious dream + Wave at his wings, in airy stream + Of lively portraiture displayed, + Softly on my eyelids laid; 150 + And, as I wake, sweet music breathe + Above, about, or underneath, + Sent by some Spirit to mortals good, + Or the unseen Genius of the wood. + But let my due feet never fail 155 + To walk the studious cloister's pale, + And love the high embowed roof, + With antique pillars massy-proof, + And storied windows richly dight, + Casting a dim religious light. 160 + There let the pealing organ blow, + To the full-voiced quire below, + In service high and anthems clear, + As may with sweetness, through mine ear, + Dissolve me into ecstasies, 165 + And bring all Heaven before mine eyes. + And may at last my weary age + Find out the peaceful hermitage, + The hairy gown and mossy cell, + Where I may sit and rightly spell 170 + Of every star that heaven doth shew, + And every herb that sips the dew, + Till old experience do attain + To something like prophetic strain. + These pleasures, Melancholy, give; 175 + And I with thee will choose to live. + + + + + ARCADES. + + +_Part of an Entertainment presented to the Countess Dowager of Derby at +Harefield by some Noble Persons of her Family; who appear on the Scene in +pastoral habit, moving toward the seat of state, with this song:--_ + + + I. _Song._ + + Look, Nymphs and Shepherds, look! + What sudden blaze of majesty + Is that which we from hence descry, + Too divine to be mistook? + This, this is she 5 + To whom our vows and wishes bend: + Here our solemn search hath end. + Fame, that her high worth to raise + Seemed erst so lavish and profuse, + We may justly now accuse 10 + Of detraction from her praise: + Less than half we find expressed; + Envy bid conceal the rest. + + Mark what radiant state she spreads, + In circle round her shining throne 15 + Shooting her beams like silver threads: + This, this is she alone, + Sitting like a goddess bright + In the centre of her light. + + Might she the wise Latona be, 20 + Or the towered Cybele, + Mother of a hundred gods? + Juno dares not give her odds: + Who had thought this clime had held + A deity so unparalleled? 25 + + As they come forward, the Genius of the Wood appears, + and, turning toward them, speaks. + + _Gen._ Stay, gentle Swains, for, though in this disguise, + I see bright honor sparkle through your eyes; + Of famous Arcady ye are, and sprung + Of that renowned flood, so often sung, + Divine Alpheus, who, by secret sluice, 30 + Stole under seas to meet his Arethuse; + And ye, the breathing roses of the wood, + Fair silver-buskined Nymphs, as great and good. + I know this quest of yours and free intent + Was all in honor and devotion meant 35 + To the great mistress of yon princely shrine, + Whom with low reverence I adore as mine, + And with all helpful service will comply + To further this night's glad solemnity, + And lead ye where ye may more near behold 40 + What shallow-searching Fame hath left untold; + Which I full oft, amidst those shades alone, + Have sat to wonder at, and gaze upon. + For know, by lot from Jove, I am the Power + Of this fair wood, and live in oaken bower, 45 + To nurse the saplings tall, and curl the grove + With ringlets quaint and wanton windings wove; + And all my plants I save from nightly ill + Of noisome winds and blasting vapors chill; + And from the boughs brush off the evil dew, 50 + And heal the harms of thwarting thunder blue, + Or what the cross dire-looking planet smites, + Or hurtful worm with cankered venom bites. + When evening gray doth rise, I fetch my round + Over the mount, and all this hallowed ground; 55 + And early, ere the odorous breath of morn + Awakes the slumbering leaves, or tasselled horn + Shakes the high thicket, haste I all about, + Number my ranks, and visit every sprout + With puissant words and murmurs made to bless. 60 + But else, in deep of night, when drowsiness + Hath locked up mortal sense, then listen I + To the celestial Sirens' harmony, + That sit upon the nine infolded spheres, + And sing to those that hold the vital shears, 65 + And turn the adamantine spindle round + On which the fate of gods and men is wound. + Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie, + To lull the daughters of Necessity, + And keep unsteady Nature to her law, 70 + And the low world in measured motion draw + After the heavenly tune, which none can hear + Of human mould with gross unpurged ear. + And yet such music worthiest were to blaze + The peerless height of her immortal praise 75 + Whose lustre leads us, and for her most fit, + If my inferior hand or voice could hit + Inimitable sounds. Yet, as we go, + Whate'er the skill of lesser gods can show + I will assay, her worth to celebrate, 80 + And so attend ye toward her glittering state; + Where ye may all, that are of noble stem, + Approach, and kiss her sacred vesture's hem. + + + II. _Song._ + + O'er the smooth enamelled green, + Where no print of step hath been, 85 + Follow me, as I sing + And touch the warbled string: + Under the shady roof + Of branching elm star-proof + Follow me. 90 + I will bring you where she sits, + Clad in splendor as befits + Her deity. + Such a rural Queen + All Arcadia hath not seen. 95 + + + III. _Song._ + + Nymphs and Shepherds, dance no more + By sandy Ladon's lilied banks; + On old Lycæus, or Cyllene hoar, + Trip no more in twilight ranks; + Though Erymanth your loss deplore, 100 + A better soil shall give ye thanks. + From the stony Mænalus + Bring your flocks, and live with us; + Here ye shall have greater grace, + To serve the Lady of this place. 105 + Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were, + Yet Syrinx well might wait on her. + Such a rural Queen + All Arcadia hath not seen. + + + + + AT A SOLEMN MUSIC. + + + Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heaven's joy, + Sphere-born harmonious sisters, Voice and Verse, + Wed your divine sounds, and mixed power employ, + Dead things with inbreathed sense able to pierce; + And to our high-raised phantasy present 5 + That undisturbed song of pure concent, + Aye sung before the sapphire-colored throne + To Him that sits thereon, + With saintly shout and solemn jubilee; + Where the bright Seraphim in burning row 10 + Their loud uplifted angel-trumpets blow, + And the Cherubic host in thousand quires + Touch their immortal harps of golden wires, + With those just Spirits that wear victorious palms, + Hymns devout and holy psalms 15 + Singing everlastingly: + That we on Earth, with undiscording voice, + May rightly answer that melodious noise; + As once we did, till disproportioned sin + Jarred against nature's chime, and with harsh din 20 + Broke the fair music that all creatures made + To their great Lord, whose love their motion swayed + In perfect diapason, whilst they stood + In first obedience, and their state of good. + O, may we soon again renew that song, 25 + And keep in tune with Heaven, till God ere long + To his celestial consort us unite, + To live with Him, and sing in endless morn of light! + + + + + COMUS. + + + A MASQUE PRESENTED AT LUDLOW CASTLE, 1634. + + + THE PERSONS. + + + The Attendant Spirit, afterwards in the habit of Thyrsis. + Comus, with his Crew. + The Lady. + First Brother. + Second Brother. + Sabrina, the Nymph. + + + The first Scene discovers a wild wood. + + The Attendant Spirit descends or enters. + + _Spirit._ Before the starry threshold of Jove's court + My mansion is, where those immortal shapes + Of bright aerial spirits live insphered + In regions mild of calm and serene air, + Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot 5 + Which men call Earth, and, with low-thoughted care, + Confined and pestered in this pinfold here, + Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being, + Unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives, + After this mortal change, to her true servants 10 + Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats. + Yet some there be that by due steps aspire + To lay their just hands on that golden key + That opes the palace of eternity. + To such my errand is; and, but for such, 15 + I would not soil these pure ambrosial weeds + With the rank vapors of this sin-worn mould. + But to my task. Neptune, besides the sway + Of every salt flood and each ebbing stream + Took in, by lot 'twixt high and nether Jove. 20 + Imperial rule of all the sea-girt isles + That, like to rich and various gems, inlay + The unadorned bosom of the deep; + Which he, to grace his tributary gods, + By course commits to several government, 25 + And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns + And wield their little tridents. But this Isle, + The greatest and the best of all the main, + He quarters to his blue-haired deities; + And all this tract that fronts the falling sun 30 + A noble Peer of mickle trust and power + Has in his charge, with tempered awe to guide + An old and haughty nation, proud in arms: + Where his fair offspring, nursed in princely lore, + Are coming to attend their father's state, 35 + And new-intrusted sceptre. But their way + Lies through the perplexed paths of this drear wood, + The nodding horror of those shady brows + Threats the forlorn and wandering passenger; + And here their tender age might suffer peril, 40 + But that, by quick command from sovran Jove, + I was despatched for their defence and guard! + And listen why; for I will tell you now + What never yet was heard in tale or song, + From old or modern bard, in hall or bower. 45 + Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape + Crushed the sweet poison of misused wine, + After the Tuscan mariners transformed, + Coasting the Tyrrhene shore, as the winds listed, + On Circe's island fell. (Who knows not Circe, 50 + The daughter of the Sun, whose charmed cup + Whoever tasted lost his upright shape, + And downward fell into a grovelling swine?) + This Nymph, that gazed upon his clustering locks, + With ivy berries wreathed, and his blithe youth, 55 + Had by him, ere he parted thence, a son + Much like his father, but his mother more, + Whom therefore she brought up, and Comus named: + Who, ripe and frolic of his full-grown age, + Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields, 60 + At last betakes him to this ominous wood, + And, in thick shelter of black shades imbowered, + Excels his mother at her mighty art; + Offering to every weary traveller + His orient liquor in a crystal glass, 65 + To quench the drouth of Phoebus; which as they taste + (For most do taste through fond intemperate thirst), + Soon as the potion works, their human count'nance, + The express resemblance of the gods, is changed + Into some brutish form of wolf or bear, 70 + Or ounce or tiger, hog, or bearded goat, + All other parts remaining as they were. + And they, so perfect in their misery, + Not once perceive their foul disfigurement, + But boast themselves more comely than before, 75 + And all their friends and native home forget, + To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty. + Therefore, when any favored of high Jove + Chances to pass through this adventurous glade, + Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star 80 + I shoot from heaven, to give him safe convoy, + As now I do. But first I must put off + These my sky-robes, spun out of Iris' woof, + And take the weeds and likeness of a swain + That to the service of this house belongs, 85 + Who, with his soft pipe and smooth-dittied song, + Well knows to still the wild winds when they roar, + And hush the waving woods; nor of less faith, + And in this office of his mountain watch + Likeliest, and nearest to the present aid 90 + Of this occasion. But I hear the tread + Of hateful steps; I must be viewless now. + +Comus enters, with a charming-rod in one hand, his glass in the other; +with him a rout of monsters, headed like sundry sorts of wild beasts, but +otherwise like men and women, their apparel glistering. They come in +making a riotous and unruly noise, with torches in their hands. + + _Comus._ The star that bids the shepherd fold + Now the top of heaven doth hold; + And the gilded car of day 95 + His glowing axle doth allay + In the steep Atlantic stream: + And the slope sun his upward beam + Shoots against the dusky pole, + Pacing toward the other goal 100 + Of his chamber in the east. + Meanwhile, welcome joy and feast, + Midnight shout and revelry, + Tipsy dance and jollity. + Braid your locks with rosy twine, 105 + Dropping odors, dropping wine. + Rigor now is gone to bed; + And Advice with scrupulous head, + Strict Age, and sour Severity, + With their grave saws, in slumber lie. 110 + We, that are of purer fire, + Imitate the starry quire, + Who, in their nightly watchful spheres, + Lead in swift round the months and years. + The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove, 115 + Now to the moon in wavering morrice move; + And on the tawny sands and shelves + Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves. + By dimpled brook and fountain-brim, + The wood-nymphs, decked with daisies trim, 120 + Their merry wakes and pastimes keep: + What hath night to do with sleep? + Night hath better sweets to prove; + Venus now wakes, and wakens Love. + Come, let us our rites begin; 125 + 'Tis only daylight that makes sin, + Which these dun shades will ne'er report. + Hail, goddess of nocturnal sport, + Dark-veiled Cotytto, to whom the secret flame + Of midnight torches burns! mysterious dame, 130 + That ne'er art called but when the dragon womb + Of Stygian darkness spets her thickest gloom, + And makes one blot of all the air! + Stay thy cloudy ebon chair, + Wherein thou ridest with Hecat', and befriend 135 + Us thy vowed priests, till utmost end + Of all thy dues be done, and none left out + Ere the blabbing eastern scout, + The nice Morn on the Indian steep, + From her cabined loop-hole peep, 140 + And to the tell-tale Sun descry + Our concealed solemnity. + Come, knit hands, and beat the ground + In a light fantastic round. + + + _The Measure._ + + Break off, break off! I feel the different pace 145 + Of some chaste footing near about this ground. + Run to your shrouds within these brakes and trees; + Our number may affright. Some virgin sure + (For so I can distinguish by mine art) + Benighted in these woods! Now to my charms, 150 + And to my wily trains: I shall ere long + Be well stocked with as fair a herd as grazed + About my mother Circe. Thus I hurl + My dazzling spells into the spongy air, + Of power to cheat the eye with blear illusion, 155 + And give it false presentments, lest the place + And my quaint habits breed astonishment, + And put the damsel to suspicious flight; + Which must not be, for that's against my course. + I, under fair pretence of friendly ends, 160 + And well-placed words of glozing courtesy, + Baited with reasons not unplausible, + Wind me into the easy-hearted man, + And hug him into snares. When once her eye + Hath met the virtue of this magic dust 165 + I shall appear some harmless villager, + Whom thrift keeps up about his country gear. + But here she comes; I fairly step aside, + And hearken, if I may her business hear. + + The Lady enters. + + _Lady._ This way the noise was, if mine ear be true, 170 + My best guide now. Methought it was the sound + Of riot and ill-managed merriment, + Such as the jocund flute or gamesome pipe + Stirs up among the loose unlettered hinds, + When, for their teeming flocks and granges full, 175 + In wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan, + And thank the gods amiss. I should be loth + To meet the rudeness and swilled insolence + Of such late wassailers; yet, oh! where else + Shall I inform my unacquainted feet 180 + In the blind mazes of this tangled wood? + My brothers, when they saw me wearied out + With this long way, resolving here to lodge + Under the spreading favor of these pines, + Stepped, as they said, to the next thicket-side 185 + To bring me berries, or such cooling fruit + As the kind hospitable woods provide. + They left me then when the gray-hooded Even, + Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed, + Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phoebus' wain. 190 + But where they are, and why they came not back, + Is now the labor of my thoughts. 'Tis likeliest + They had engaged their wandering steps too far; + And envious darkness, ere they could return, + Had stole them from me. Else, O thievish Night, 195 + Why shouldst thou, but for some felonious end, + In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars + That Nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps + With everlasting oil, to give due light + To the misled and lonely traveller? 200 + This is the place, as well as I may guess, + Whence even now the tumult of loud mirth + Was rife, and perfect in my listening ear; + Yet nought but single darkness do I find. + What might this be? A thousand fantasies 205 + Begin to throng into my memory, + Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, + And airy tongues that syllable men's names + On sands and shores and desert wildernesses. + These thoughts may startle well, but not astound 210 + The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended + By a strong siding champion, Conscience. + O, welcome, pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope, + Thou hovering angel girt with golden wings, + And thou unblemished form of Chastity! 215 + I see thee visibly, and now believe + That He, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill + Are but as slavish officers of vengeance, + Would send a glistering guardian, if need were, + To keep my life and honor unassailed.... 220 + Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud + Turn forth her silver lining on the night? + I did not err: there does a sable cloud + Turn forth her silver lining on the night, + And casts a gleam over this tufted grove. 225 + I cannot hallo to my brothers, but + Such noise as I can make to be heard farthest + I'll venture; for my new-enlivened spirits + Prompt me, and they perhaps are not far off. + + + _Song._ + + Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv'st unseen 230 + Within thy airy shell + By slow Meander's margent green, + And in the violet-embroidered vale + Where the love-lorn nightingale + Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well: 235 + Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair + That likest thy Narcissus are? + O, if thou have + Hid them in some flowery cave, + Tell me but where, 240 + Sweet Queen of Parley, Daughter of the Sphere! + So may'st thou be translated to the skies, + And give resounding grace to all Heaven's harmonies! + + _Comus._ Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould + Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment? 245 + Sure something holy lodges in that breast, + And with these raptures moves the vocal air + To testify his hidden residence. + How sweetly did they float upon the wings + Of silence, through the empty-vaulted night, 250 + At every fall smoothing the raven down + Of darkness till it smiled! I have oft heard + My mother Circe with the Sirens three, + Amidst the flowery-kirtled Naiades, + Culling their potent herbs and baleful drugs, 255 + Who, as they sung, would take the prisoned soul, + And lap it in Elysium: Scylla wept, + And chid her barking waves into attention, + And fell Charybdis murmured soft applause. + Yet they in pleasing slumber lulled the sense, 260 + And in sweet madness robbed it of itself; + But such a sacred and home-felt delight, + Such sober certainty of waking bliss, + I never heard till now. I'll speak to her, + And she shall be my queen.--Hail, foreign wonder! 265 + Whom certain these rough shades did never breed, + Unless the goddess that in rural shrine + Dwell'st here with Pan or Sylvan, by blest song + Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog + To touch the prosperous growth of this tall wood. 270 + + _Lady._ Nay, gentle shepherd, ill is lost that praise + That is addressed to unattending ears. + Not any boast of skill, but extreme shift + How to regain my severed company, + Compelled me to awake the courteous Echo 275 + To give me answer from her mossy couch. + + _Comus._ What chance, good Lady, hath bereft you thus? + + _Lady._ Dim darkness and this leavy labyrinth. + + _Comus._ Could that divide you from near-ushering guides? + + _Lady._ They left me weary on a grassy turf. 280 + + _Comus._ By falsehood, or discourtesy, or why? + + _Lady._ To seek i' the valley some cool friendly spring. + + _Comus._ And left your fair side all unguarded, Lady? + + _Lady._ They were but twain, and purposed quick return. + + _Comus._ Perhaps forestalling night prevented them. 285 + + _Lady._ How easy my misfortune is to hit! + + _Comus._ Imports their loss, beside the present need? + + _Lady._ No less than if I should my brothers lose. + + _Comus._ Were they of manly prime, or youthful bloom? + + _Lady._ As smooth as Hebe's their unrazored lips. 290 + + _Comus._ Two such I saw, what time the labored ox + In his loose traces from the furrow came, + And the swinked hedger at his supper sat. + I saw them under a green mantling vine, + That crawls along the side of yon small hill, 295 + Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots; + Their port was more than human, as they stood. + I took it for a faery vision + Of some gay creatures of the element, + That in the colors of the rainbow live, 300 + And play i' the plighted clouds. I was awe-strook, + And, as I passed, I worshiped. If those you seek, + It were a journey like the path to Heaven + To help you find them. + + _Lady._ Gentle villager, + What readiest way would bring me to that place? 305 + + _Comus._ Due west it rises from this shrubby point. + + _Lady._ To find out that, good shepherd, I suppose, + In such a scant allowance of star-light, + Would overtask the best land-pilot's art, + Without the sure guess of well-practised feet. 310 + + _Comus._ I know each lane, and every alley green, + Dingle, or bushy dell, of this wild wood, + And every bosky bourn from side to side, + My daily walks and ancient neighborhood; + And, if your stray attendance be yet lodged, 315 + Or shroud within these limits, I shall know + Ere morrow wake, or the low-roosted lark + From her thatched pallet rouse. If otherwise, + I can conduct you, Lady, to a low + But loyal cottage, where you may be safe 320 + Till further quest. + + _Lady._ Shepherd, I take thy word, + And trust thy honest-offered courtesy, + Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds, + With smoky rafters, than in tapestry halls + And courts of princes, where it first was named, 325 + And yet is most pretended. In a place + Less warranted than this, or less secure, + I cannot be, that I should fear to change it. + Eye me, blest Providence, and square my trial + To my proportioned strength! Shepherd, lead on.... 330 + + The Two Brothers. + + _Eld. Bro._ Unmuffle, ye faint stars; and thou, fair moon, + That wont'st to love the traveller's benison, + Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud, + And disinherit Chaos, that reigns here + In double night of darkness and of shades; 335 + Or, if your influence be quite dammed up + With black usurping mists, some gentle taper, + Though a rush-candle from the wicker hole + Of some clay habitation, visit us + With thy long levelled rule of streaming light, 340 + And thou shalt be our star of Arcady, + Or Tyrian Cynosure. + + _Sec. Bro._ Or, if our eyes + Be barred that happiness, might we but hear + The folded flocks, penned in their wattled cotes, + Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops, 345 + Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock + Count the night-watches to his feathery dames, + 'Twould be some solace yet, some little cheering, + In this close dungeon of innumerous boughs. + But, Oh, that hapless virgin, our lost sister! 350 + Where may she wander now, whither betake her + From the chill dew, amongst rude burs and thistles? + Perhaps some cold bank is her bolster now, + Or 'gainst the rugged bark of some broad elm + Leans her unpillowed head, fraught with sad fears. 355 + What if in wild amazement and affright, + Or, while we speak, within the direful grasp + Of savage hunger, or of savage heat! + + _Eld. Bro._ Peace, brother: be not over-exquisite + To cast the fashion of uncertain evils; 360 + For, grant they be so, while they rest unknown, + What need a man forestall his date of grief, + And run to meet what he would most avoid? + Or, if they be but false alarms of fear, + How bitter is such self-delusion! 365 + I do not think my sister so to seek, + Or so unprincipled in virtue's book, + And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever, + As that the single want of light and noise + (Not being in danger, as I trust she is not) 370 + Could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts, + And put them into misbecoming plight. + Virtue could see to do what Virtue would + By her own radiant light, though sun and moon + Were in the flat sea sunk. And Wisdom's self 375 + Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude, + Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation, + She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings, + That, in the various bustle of resort, + Were all to-ruffled, and sometimes impaired. 380 + He that has light within his own clear breast + May sit i' the centre, and enjoy bright day: + But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts + Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; + Himself is his own dungeon. + + _Sec. Bro._ 'Tis most true 385 + That musing Meditation most affects + The pensive secrecy of desert cell, + Far from the cheerful haunt of men and herds, + And sits as safe as in a senate-house; + For who would rob a hermit of his weeds, 390 + His few books, or his beads, or maple dish, + Or do his gray hairs any violence? + But Beauty, like the fair Hesperian tree + Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard + Of dragon-watch with unenchanted eye 395 + To save her blossoms, and defend her fruit, + From the rash hand of bold Incontinence. + You may as well spread out the unsunned heaps + Of miser's treasure by an outlaw's den, + And tell me it is safe, as bid me hope 400 + Danger will wink on Opportunity, + And let a single helpless maiden pass + Uninjured in this wild surrounding waste. + Of night or loneliness it recks me not; + I fear the dread events that dog them both, 405 + Lest some ill-greeting touch attempt the person + Of our unowned sister. + + _Eld. Bro._ I do not, brother, + Infer as if I thought my sister's state + Secure without all doubt or controversy; + Yet, where an equal poise of hope and fear 410 + Does arbitrate the event, my nature is + That I incline to hope rather than fear, + And gladly banish squint suspicion. + My sister is not so defenceless left + As you imagine; she has a hidden strength, 415 + Which you remember not. + + _Sec. Bro._ What hidden strength, + Unless the strength of Heaven, if you mean that? + + _Eld. Bro._ I mean that too, but yet a hidden strength, + Which, if Heaven gave it, may be termed her own. + 'Tis chastity, my brother, chastity: 420 + She that has that is clad in complete steel, + And, like a quivered nymph with arrows keen, + May trace huge forests, and unharbored heaths, + Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds; + Where, through the sacred rays of chastity, 425 + No savage fierce, bandite, or mountaineer, + Will dare to soil her virgin purity. + Yea, there where very desolation dwells, + By grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades, + She may pass on with unblenched majesty, 430 + Be it not done in pride, or in presumption. + Some say no evil thing that walks by night, + In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen, + Blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost, + That breaks his magic chains at curfew time, 435 + No goblin or swart faery of the mine, + Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity. + Do ye believe me yet, or shall I call + Antiquity from the old schools of Greece + To testify the arms of chastity? 440 + Hence had the huntress Dian her dread bow, + Fair silver-shafted queen forever chaste, + Wherewith she tamed the brinded lioness + And spotted mountain-pard, but set at nought + The frivolous bolt of Cupid; gods and men 445 + Feared her stern frown, and she was queen o' the woods. + What was that snaky-headed Gorgon shield + That wise Minerva wore, unconquered virgin, + Wherewith she freezed her foes to congealed stone, + But rigid looks of chaste austerity, 450 + And noble grace that dashed brute violence + With sudden adoration and blank awe? + So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity + That, when a soul is found sincerely so, + A thousand liveried angels lackey her, 455 + Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt, + And in clear dream and solemn vision + Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear; + Till oft converse with heavenly habitants + Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape, 460 + The unpolluted temple of the mind, + And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence, + Till all be made immortal. But, when lust, + By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk, + But most by lewd and lavish act of sin, 465 + Lets in defilement to the inward parts, + The soul grows clotted by contagion, + Imbodies, and imbrutes, till she quite lose + The divine property of her first being. + Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp 470 + Oft seen in charnel-vaults and sepulchres, + Lingering and sitting by a new-made grave, + As loth to leave the body that it loved, + And linked itself by carnal sensualty + To a degenerate and degraded state. 475 + + _Sec. Bro._ How charming is divine Philosophy! + Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, + But musical as is Apollo's lute, + And a perpetual feast of nectared sweets, + Where no crude surfeit reigns. + + _Eld. Bro._ List! list! I hear 480 + Some far-off hallo break the silent air. + + _Sec. Bro._ Methought so too; what should it be? + + _Eld. Bro._ For certain, + Either some one, like us, night-foundered here, + Or else some neighbor woodman, or, at worst, + Some roving robber calling to his fellows. 485 + + _Sec. Bro._ Heaven help my sister! Again, again, and near! + Best draw, and stand upon our guard. + + _Eld. Bro._ I'll hallo. + If he be friendly, he comes well: if not, + Defence is a good cause, and Heaven be for us! + + The Attendant Spirit, habited like a shepherd. + + That hallo I should know. What are you? speak. 490 + Come not too near; you fall on iron stakes else. + + _Spir._ What voice is that? my young lord? speak again. + + _Sec. Bro._ O brother, 'tis my father's Shepherd, sure. + + _Eld. Bro._ Thyrsis! whose artful strains have oft delayed + The huddling brook to hear his madrigal, 495 + And sweetened every musk-rose of the dale. + How camest thou here, good swain? Hath any ram + Slipped from the fold, or young kid lost his dam, + Or straggling wether the pent flock forsook? + How could'st thou find this dark sequestered nook? 500 + + _Spir._ O my loved master's heir, and his next joy, + I came not here on such a trivial toy + As a strayed ewe, or to pursue the stealth + Of pilfering wolf; not all the fleecy wealth + That doth enrich these downs is worth a thought 505 + To this my errand, and the care it brought. + But, oh! my virgin Lady, where is she? + How chance she is not in your company? + + _Eld. Bro._ To tell thee sadly, Shepherd, without blame + Or our neglect, we lost her as we came. 510 + + _Spir._ Ay me unhappy! then my fears are true. + + _Eld. Bro._ What fears, good Thyrsis? Prithee briefly shew. + + _Spir._ I'll tell ye. 'Tis not vain or fabulous + (Though so esteemed by shallow ignorance) + What the sage poets, taught by the heavenly Muse, 515 + Storied of old in high immortal verse + Of dire Chimeras and enchanted isles, + And rifted rocks whose entrance leads to Hell; + For such there be, but unbelief is blind. + Within the navel of this hideous wood, 520 + Immured in cypress shades, a sorcerer dwells, + Of Bacchus and of Circe born, great Comus, + Deep skilled in all his mother's witcheries, + And here to every thirsty wanderer + By sly enticement gives his baneful cup, 525 + With many murmurs mixed, whose pleasing poison + The visage quite transforms of him that drinks, + And the inglorious likeness of a beast + Fixes instead, unmoulding reason's mintage + Charactered in the face. This have I learnt 530 + Tending my flocks hard by i' the hilly crofts + That brow this bottom glade; whence night by night + He and his monstrous rout are heard to howl + Like stabled wolves, or tigers at their prey, + Doing abhorred rites to Hecate 535 + In their obscurèd haunts of inmost bowers. + Yet have they many baits and guileful spells + To inveigle and invite the unwary sense + Of them that pass unweeting by the way. + This evening late, by then the chewing flocks 540 + Had ta'en their supper on the savory herb + Of knot-grass dew-besprent, and were in fold, + I sat me down to watch upon a bank + With ivy canopied, and interwove + With flaunting honeysuckle, and began, 545 + Wrapt in a pleasing fit of melancholy, + To meditate my rural minstrelsy, + Till fancy had her fill. But ere a close + The wonted roar was up amidst the woods, + And filled the air with barbarous dissonance; 550 + At which I ceased, and listened them a while, + Till an unusual stop of sudden silence + Gave respite to the drowsy-flighted steeds + That draw the litter of close-curtained Sleep. + At last a soft and solemn-breathing sound 555 + Rose like a steam of rich distilled perfumes, + And stole upon the air, that even Silence + Was took ere she was ware, and wished she might + Deny her nature, and be never more, + Still to be so displaced. I was all ear, 560 + And took in strains that might create a soul + Under the ribs of Death. But, oh! ere long + Too well I did perceive it was the voice + Of my most honored Lady, your dear sister. + Amazed I stood, harrowed with grief and fear; 565 + And 'O poor hapless nightingale,' thought I, + 'How sweet thou sing'st, how near the deadly snare!' + Then down the lawns I ran with headlong haste, + Through paths and turnings often trod by day, + Till, guided by mine ear, I found the place 570 + Where that damned wizard, hid in sly disguise + (For so by certain signs I knew), had met + Already, ere my best speed could prevent, + The aidless innocent lady, his wished prey; + Who gently asked if he had seen such two, 575 + Supposing him some neighbor villager. + Longer I durst not stay, but soon I guessed + Ye were the two she meant; with that I sprung + Into swift flight, till I had found you here; + But further know I not. + + _Sec. Bro._ O night and shades, 580 + How are ye joined with hell in triple knot + Against the unarmed weakness of one virgin, + Alone and helpless! Is this the confidence + You gave me, brother? + + _Eld. Bro._ Yes, and keep it still; + Lean on it safely; not a period 585 + Shall be unsaid for me. Against the threats + Of malice or of sorcery, or that power + Which erring men call Chance, this I hold firm: + Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt, + Surprised by unjust force, but not enthralled; 590 + Yea, even that which Mischief meant most harm + Shall in the happy trial prove most glory. + But evil on itself shall back recoil, + And mix no more with goodness, when at last, + Gathered like scum, and settled to itself, 595 + It shall be in eternal restless change + Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail, + The pillared firmament is rottenness, + And earth's base built on stubble. But come, let's on! + Against the opposing will and arm of Heaven 600 + May never this just sword be lifted up; + But for that damned magician, let him be girt + With all the griesly legions that troop + Under the sooty flag of Acheron, + Harpies and Hydras, or all the monstrous forms 605 + 'Twixt Africa and Ind, I'll find him out, + And force him to return his purchase back, + Or drag him by the curls to a foul death, + Cursed as his life. + + _Spir._ Alas! good venturous youth, + I love thy courage yet, and bold emprise; 610 + But here thy sword can do thee little stead. + Far other arms and other weapons must + Be those that quell the might of hellish charms. + He with his bare wand can unthread thy joints, + And crumble all thy sinews. + + _Eld. Bro._ Why, prithee, Shepherd, 615 + How durst thou then thyself approach so near + As to make this relation? + + _Spir._ Care and utmost shifts + How to secure the Lady from surprisal + Brought to my mind a certain shepherd lad, + Of small regard to see to, yet well skilled 620 + In every virtuous plant and healing herb + That spreads her verdant leaf to the morning ray. + He loved me well, and oft would beg me sing; + Which when I did, he on the tender grass + Would sit, and hearken even to ecstasy, 625 + And in requital ope his leathern scrip, + And show me simples of a thousand names, + Telling their strange and vigorous faculties. + Amongst the rest a small unsightly root, + But of divine effect, he culled me out. 630 + The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it, + But in another country, as he said, + Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil: + Unknown, and like esteemed, and the dull swain + Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon; 635 + And yet more med'cinal is it than that Moly + That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave. + He called it Hæmony, and gave it me, + And bade me keep it as of sovran use + 'Gainst all enchantments, mildew blast, or damp, 640 + Or ghastly Furies' apparition. + I pursed it up, but little reckoning made, + Till now that this extremity compelled. + But now I find it true; for by this means + I knew the foul enchanter, though disguised, 645 + Entered the very lime-twigs of his spells, + And yet came off. If you have this about you + (As I will give you when we go) you may + Boldly assault the necromancer's hall; + Where if he be, with dauntless hardihood 650 + And brandished blade rush on him: break his glass, + And shed the luscious liquor on the ground; + But seize his wand. Though he and his curst crew + Fierce sign of battle make, and menace high, + Or, like the sons of Vulcan, vomit smoke, 655 + Yet will they soon retire, if he but shrink. + + _Eld. Bro._ Thyrsis, lead on apace; I'll follow thee; + And some good angel bear a shield before us! + +The Scene changes to a stately palace, set out with all manner of +deliciousness: soft music, tables spread with all dainties. Comus appears +with his rabble, and the Lady set in an enchanted chair: to whom he +offers his glass; which she puts by, and goes about to rise. + + _Comus._ Nay, Lady, sit. If I but wave this wand, + Your nerves are all chained up in alabaster, 660 + And you a statue, or as Daphne was, + Root-bound, that fled Apollo. + + _Lady._ Fool, do not boast. + Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind + With all thy charms, although this corporal rind + Thou hast immanacled while Heaven sees good. 665 + + _Comus._ Why are you vexed, Lady? why do you frown? + Here dwell no frowns, nor anger; from these gates + Sorrow flies far. See, here be all the pleasures + That fancy can beget on youthful thoughts, + When the fresh blood grows lively, and returns 670 + Brisk as the April buds in primrose season. + And first behold this cordial julep here, + That flames and dances in his crystal bounds, + With spirits of balm and fragrant syrups mixed. + Not that Nepenthes which the wife of Thone 675 + In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena + Is of such power to stir up joy as this, + To life so friendly, or so cool to thirst. + Why should you be so cruel to yourself, + And to those dainty limbs, which Nature lent 680 + For gentle usage and soft delicacy? + But you invert the covenants of her trust, + And harshly deal, like an ill borrower, + With that which you received on other terms, + Scorning the unexempt condition 685 + By which all mortal frailty must subsist, + Refreshment after toil, ease after pain, + That have been tired all day without repast, + And timely rest have wanted. But, fair virgin, + This will restore all soon. + + _Lady._ 'Twill not, false traitor! 690 + 'Twill not restore the truth and honesty + That thou hast banished from thy tongue with lies. + Was this the cottage and the safe abode + Thou told'st me of? What grim aspects are these, + These oughly-headed monsters? Mercy guard me! 695 + Hence with thy brewed enchantments, foul deceiver! + Hast thou betrayed my credulous innocence + With vizored falsehood and base forgery? + And wouldst thou seek again to trap me here + With liquorish baits, fit to ensnare a brute? 700 + Were it a draught for Juno when she banquets, + I would not taste thy treasonous offer. None + But such as are good men can give good things; + And that which is not good is not delicious + To a well-governed and wise appetite. 705 + + _Comus._ O foolishness of men! that lend their ears + To those budge doctors of the stoic fur, + And fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub, + Praising the lean and sallow Abstinence! + Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth 710 + With such a full and unwithdrawing hand, + Covering the earth with odors, fruits, and flocks, + Thronging the seas with spawn innumerable, + But all to please and sate the curious taste? + And set to work millions of spinning worms, 715 + That in their green shops weave the smooth-haired silk, + To deck her sons; and, that no corner might + Be vacant of her plenty, in her own loins + She hutched the all-worshipped ore and precious gems, + To store her children with. If all the world 720 + Should, in a fit of temperance, feed on pulse, + Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but frieze, + The All-giver would be unthanked, would be unpraised, + Not half his riches known, and yet despised; + And we should serve him as a grudging master, 725 + As a penurious niggard of his wealth, + And live like Nature's bastards, not her sons, + Who would be quite surcharged with her own weight, + And strangled with her waste fertility: + The earth cumbered, and the winged air darked with plumes, 730 + The herds would over-multitude their lords; + The sea o'erfraught would swell, and the unsought diamonds + Would so emblaze the forehead of the deep, + And so bestud with stars, that they below + Would grow inured to light, and come at last 735 + To gaze upon the sun with shameless brows. + List, Lady; be not coy, and be not cozened + With that same vaunted name, Virginity. + Beauty is Nature's coin; must not be hoarded, + But must be current; and the good thereof 740 + Consists in mutual and partaken bliss, + Unsavory in the enjoyment of itself. + If you let slip time, like a neglected rose + It withers on the stalk with languished head. + Beauty is Nature's brag, and must be shown 745 + In courts, at feasts, and high solemnities, + Where most may wonder at the workmanship. + It is for homely features to keep home; + They had their name thence: coarse complexions + And cheeks of sorry grain will serve to ply 750 + The sampler, and to tease the huswife's wool. + What need a vermeil-tinctured lip for that, + Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn? + There was another meaning in these gifts; + Think what, and be advised; you are but young yet. 755 + + _Lady._ I had not thought to have unlocked my lips + In this unhallowed air, but that this juggler + Would think to charm my judgment, as mine eyes, + Obtruding false rules pranked in reason's garb. + I hate when vice can bolt her arguments 760 + And virtue has no tongue to check her pride. + Impostor! do not charge most innocent Nature, + As if she would her children should be riotous + With her abundance. She, good cateress, + Means her provision only to the good, 765 + That live according to her sober laws, + And holy dictate of spare Temperance. + If every just man that now pines with want + Had but a moderate and beseeming share + Of that which lewdly-pampered Luxury 770 + Now heaps upon some few with vast excess, + Nature's full blessings would be well-dispensed + In unsuperfluous even proportion, + And she no whit encumbered with her store; + And then the Giver would be better thanked, 775 + His praise due paid: for swinish gluttony + Ne'er looks to Heaven amidst his gorgeous feast, + But with besotted base ingratitude + Crams, and blasphemes his Feeder. Shall I go on? + Or have I said enow? To him that dares 780 + Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous words + Against the sun-clad power of chastity + Fain would I something say;--yet to what end? + Thou hast nor ear, nor soul, to apprehend + The sublime notion and high mystery 785 + That must be uttered to unfold the sage + And serious doctrine of Virginity; + And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know + More happiness than this thy present lot. + Enjoy your dear wit, and gay rhetoric, 790 + That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence; + Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinced. + Yet, should I try, the uncontrolled worth + Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spirits + To such a flame of sacred vehemence 795 + That dumb things would be moved to sympathize, + And the brute Earth would lend her nerves, and shake, + Till all thy magic structures, reared so high, + Were shattered into heaps o'er thy false head. + + _Comus._ She fables not. I feel that I do fear 800 + Her words set off by some superior power; + And, though not mortal, yet a cold shuddering dew + Dips me all o'er, as when the wrath of Jove + Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus + To some of Saturn's crew. I must dissemble, 805 + And try her yet more strongly,--Come, no more! + This is mere moral babble, and direct + Against the canon laws of our foundation. + I must not suffer this; yet 'tis but the lees + And settlings of a melancholy blood. 810 + But this will cure all straight; one sip of this + Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight + Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise, and taste.... + +The Brothers rush in with swords drawn, wrest his glass out of his hand, +and break it against the ground: his rout make sign of resistance, but +are all driven in. The Attendant Spirit comes in. + + _Spir._ What! have you let the false enchanter scape? + O ye mistook; ye should have snatched his wand, 815 + And bound him fast. Without his rod reversed, + And backward mutters of dissevering power, + We cannot free the Lady that sits here + In stony fetters fixed and motionless. + Yet stay: be not disturbed; now I bethink me, 820 + Some other means I have which may be used, + Which once of Meliboeus old I learnt, + The soothest shepherd that e'er piped on plains. + There is a gentle Nymph not far from hence, + That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn stream: 825 + Sabrina is her name: a virgin pure; + Whilom she was the daughter of Locrine, + That had the sceptre from his father Brute. + She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit + Of her enraged stepdame, Guendolen, 830 + Commended her fair innocence to the flood + That stayed her flight with his cross-flowing course. + The water-nymphs, that in the bottom played, + Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in, + Bearing her straight to aged Nereus' hall; 835 + Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank head, + And gave her to his daughters to imbathe + In nectared lavers strewed with asphodel, + And through the porch and inlet of each sense + Dropt in ambrosial oils, till she revived, 840 + And underwent a quick immortal change, + Made Goddess of the river. Still she retains + Her maiden gentleness, and oft at eve + Visits the herds along the twilight meadows, + Helping all urchin blasts, and ill-luck signs 845 + That the shrewd meddling elf delights to make, + Which she with precious vialed liquors heals: + For which the shepherds, at their festivals, + Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays, + And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream 850 + Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils. + And, as the old swain said, she can unlock + The clasping charm, and thaw the numbing spell, + If she be right invoked in warbled song; + For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift 855 + To aid a virgin, such as was herself, + In hard-besetting need. This will I try, + And add the power of some adjuring verse. + + + _Song._ + + Sabrina fair, + Listen where thou art sitting 860 + Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave, + In twisted braids of lilies knitting + The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair; + Listen for dear honor's sake, + Goddess of the silver lake, 865 + Listen and save! + + Listen, and appear to us, + In name of great Oceanus, + By the earth-shaking Neptune's mace, + And Tethys' grave majestic pace; 870 + By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look, + And the Carpathian wizard's hook; + By scaly Triton's winding shell, + And old soothsaying Glaucus' spell; + By Leucothea's lovely hands, 875 + And her son that rules the strands; + By Thetis' tinsel-slippered feet, + And the songs of Sirens sweet; + By dead Parthenope's dear tomb, + And fair Ligea's golden comb, 880 + Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks + Sleeking her soft alluring locks; + By all the nymphs that nightly dance + Upon thy streams with wily glance; + Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head 885 + From thy coral-paven bed, + And bridle in thy headlong wave, + Till thou our summons answered have. + Listen and save! + + Sabrina rises, attended by Water-nymphs, and sings. + + By the rushy-fringed bank, 890 + Where grow the willow and the osier dank, + My sliding chariot stays, + Thick set with agate, and the azurn sheen + Of turkis blue, and emerald green, + That in the channel strays: 895 + Whilst from off the waters fleet + Thus I set my printless feet + O'er the cowslip's velvet head, + That bends not as I tread. + Gentle swain, at thy request 900 + I am here! + + _Spir._ Goddess dear, + We implore thy powerful hand + To undo the charmed band + Of true virgin here distressed 905 + Through the force and through the wile + Of unblessed enchanter vile. + + _Sabr._ Shepherd, 'tis my office best + To help ensnared chastity. + Brightest Lady, look on me. 910 + Thus I sprinkle on thy breast + Drops that from my fountain pure + I have kept of precious cure; + Thrice upon thy finger's tip, + Thrice upon thy rubied lip: 915 + Next this marble venomed seat, + Smeared with gums of glutinous heat, + I touch with chaste palms moist and cold. + Now the spell hath lost his hold, + And I must haste ere morning hour 920 + To wait in Amphitrite's bower. + + Sabrina descends, and the Lady rises out of her seat. + + _Spir._ Virgin, daughter of Locrine, + Sprung of old Anchises' line, + May thy brimmed waves for this + Their full tribute never miss 925 + From a thousand petty rills, + That tumble down the snowy hills: + Summer drouth or singed air + Never scorch thy tresses fair, + Nor wet October's torrent flood 930 + Thy molten crystal fill with mud; + May thy billows roll ashore + The beryl and the golden ore; + May thy lofty head be crowned + With many a tower and terrace round, 935 + And here and there thy banks upon + With groves of myrrh and cinnamon. + Come, Lady; while Heaven lends us grace, + Let us fly this cursed place, + Lest the sorcerer us entice 940 + With some other new device. + Not a waste or needless sound + Till we come to holier ground. + I shall be your faithful guide + Through this gloomy covert wide; 945 + And not many furlongs thence + Is your Father's residence, + Where this night are met in state + Many a friend to gratulate + His wished presence, and beside 950 + All the swains that there abide + With jigs and rural dance resort. + We shall catch them at their sport, + And our sudden coming there + Will double all their mirth and cheer. 955 + Come, let us haste; the stars grow high, + But Night sits monarch yet in the mid sky. + +The Scene changes, presenting Ludlow Town, and the President's Castle: +then come the Country Dancers; after them the Attendant Spirit, with the +Two Brothers and the Lady. + + + _Song._ + + _Spir._ Back, shepherds, back! Enough your play + Till next sun-shine holiday. + Here be, without duck or nod, 960 + Other trippings to be trod + Of lighter toes, and such court guise + As Mercury did first devise + With the mincing Dryades + On the lawns and on the leas. 965 + + This second Song presents them to their Father and Mother. + + Noble Lord and Lady bright, + I have brought ye new delight. + Here behold so goodly grown + Three fair branches of your own. + Heaven hath timely tried their youth, 970 + Their faith, their patience, and their truth, + And sent them here through hard assays + With a crown of deathless praise, + To triumph in victorious dance + O'er sensual folly and intemperance. 975 + + The dances ended, the Spirit epiloguizes. + + _Spir._ To the ocean now I fly, + And those happy climes that lie + Where day never shuts his eye, + Up in the broad fields of the sky. + There I suck the liquid air, 980 + All amidst the gardens fair + Of Hesperus, and his daughters three + That sing about the golden tree. + Along the crisped shades and bowers + Revels the spruce and jocund Spring; 985 + The Graces and the rosy-bosomed Hours + Thither all their bounties bring. + There eternal Summer dwells, + And west winds with musky wing + About the cedarn alleys fling 990 + Nard and cassia's balmy smells. + Iris there with humid bow + Waters the odorous banks, that blow + Flowers of more mingled hue + Than her purfled scarf can shew, 995 + And drenches with Elysian dew + (List, mortals, if your ears be true) + Beds of hyacinth and roses, + Where young Adonis oft reposes, + Waxing well of his deep wound, 1000 + In slumbers soft, and on the ground + Sadly sits the Assyrian queen. + But far above, in spangled sheen, + Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advanced + Holds his dear Psyche, sweet entranced 1005 + After her wandering labors long, + Till free consent the gods among + Make her his eternal bride, + And from her fair unspotted side + Two blissful twins are to be born, 1010 + Youth and Joy; so Jove hath sworn. + But now my task is smoothly done: + I can fly, or I can run + Quickly to the green earth's end, + Where the bowed welkin slow doth bend, 1015 + And from thence can soar as soon + To the corners of the moon. + Mortals, that would follow me, + Love Virtue; she alone is free. + She can teach ye how to climb 1020 + Higher than the sphery chime; + Or, if Virtue feeble were, + Heaven itself would stoop to her. + + + + + LYCIDAS. + + +In this Monody the Author bewails a learned Friend, unfortunately drowned +in his passage from Chester on the Irish Seas, 1637; and, by occasion, +foretells the ruin of our corrupted Clergy, then in their height. + + Yet once more, O ye laurels, and once more, + Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere, + I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude, + And with forced fingers rude + Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. 5 + Bitter constraint and sad occasion dear + Compels me to disturb your season due; + For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime, + Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer. + Who would not sing for Lycidas? he knew 10 + Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme. + He must not float upon his watery bier + Unwept, and welter to the parching wind, + Without the meed of some melodious tear. + Begin, then, Sisters of the sacred well 15 + That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring; + Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string. + Hence with denial vain and coy excuse: + So may some gentle Muse + With lucky words favor _my_ destined urn, 20 + And as he passes turn, + And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud! + For we were nursed upon the self-same hill, + Fed the same flock, by fountain, shade, and rill; + Together both, ere the high lawns appeared 25 + Under the opening eyelids of the Morn, + We drove a-field, and both together heard + What time the gray-fly winds her sultry horn, + Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night, + Oft till the star that rose at evening bright 30 + Toward heaven's descent had sloped his westering wheel. + Meanwhile the rural ditties were not mute; + Tempered to the oaten flute + Rough Satyrs danced, and Fauns with cloven heel + From the glad sound would not be absent long; 35 + And old Damoetas loved to hear our song. + But, oh! the heavy change, now thou art gone, + Now thou art gone and never must return! + Thee, Shepherd, thee the woods and desert caves, + With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown, 40 + And all their echoes, mourn. + The willows, and the hazel copses green, + Shall now no more be seen + Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays. + As killing as the canker to the rose, 45 + Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze, + Or frost to flowers, that their gay wardrobe wear, + When first the white-thorn blows; + Such Lycidas, thy loss to shepherd's ear. + Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorseless deep 50 + Closed o'er the head of your loved Lycidas? + For neither were ye playing on the steep + Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie, + Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high, + Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream. 55 + Ay me! I fondly dream + "Had ye been there," ... for what could that have done? + What could the Muse herself that Orpheus bore, + The Muse herself, for her enchanting son, + Whom universal nature did lament, 60 + When, by the rout that made the hideous roar, + His gory visage down the stream was sent, + Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore? + Alas! what boots it with uncessant care + To tend the homely, slighted, shepherd's trade, 65 + And strictly meditate the thankless Muse? + Were it not better done, as others use, + To sport with Amaryllis in the shade, + Or with the tangles of Neæra's hair? + Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise 70 + (That last infirmity of noble mind) + To scorn delights and live laborious days; + But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, + And think to burst out into sudden blaze, + Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears, 75 + And slits the thin-spun life. "But not the praise," + Phoebus replied, and touched my trembling ears: + "Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil, + Nor in the glistering foil + Set off to the world, nor in broad rumor lies, 80 + But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes + And perfect witness of all-judging Jove; + As he pronounces lastly on each deed, + Of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed." + O fountain Arethuse, and thou honored flood, 85 + Smooth-sliding Mincius, crowned with vocal reeds, + That strain I heard was of a higher mood. + But now my oat proceeds, + And listens to the Herald of the Sea, + That came in Neptune's plea. 90 + He asked the waves, and asked the felon winds, + What hard mishap hath doomed this gentle swain? + And questioned every gust of rugged wings + That blows from off each beaked promontory. + They knew not of his story; 95 + And sage Hippotades their answer brings, + That not a blast was from his dungeon strayed: + The air was calm, and on the level brine + Sleek Panope with all her sisters played. + It was that fatal and perfidious bark, 100 + Built in the eclipse, and rigged with curses dark, + That sunk so low that sacred head of thine. + Next, Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow, + His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge, + Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge 105 + Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe. + "Ah! who hath reft," quoth he, "my dearest pledge?" + Last came, and last did go, + The Pilot of the Galilean Lake; + Two massy keys he bore of metals twain 110 + (The golden opes, the iron shuts amain). + He shook his mitred locks, and stern bespake:-- + "How well could I have spared for thee, young swain, + Enow of such as, for their bellies' sake, + Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold! 115 + Of other care they little reckoning make + Than how to scramble at the shearers' feast, + And shove away the worthy bidden guest. + Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold + A sheep-hook, or have learnt aught else the least 120 + That to the faithful herdman's art belongs! + What recks it them? What need they? They are sped; + And, when they list, their lean and flashy songs + Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw; + The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed, 125 + But swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw, + Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread; + Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw + Daily devours apace, and nothing said. + But that two-handed engine at the door 130 + Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more." + Return, Alpheus; the dread voice is past + That shrunk thy streams; return, Sicilian Muse, + And call the vales, and bid them hither cast + Their bells and flowerets of a thousand hues. 135 + Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use + Of shades, and wanton winds, and gushing brooks, + On whose fresh lap the swart star sparely looks, + Throw hither all your quaint enamelled eyes, + That on the green turf suck the honeyed showers, 140 + And purple all the ground with vernal flowers. + Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies, + The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine, + The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet, + The glowing violet, 145 + The musk-rose, and the well-attired woodbine, + With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head, + And every flower that sad embroidery wears; + Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed, + And daffadillies fill their cups with tears, 150 + To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies. + For so, to interpose a little ease, + Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise. + Ay me! whilst thee the shores and sounding seas + Wash far away, where'er thy bones are hurled; 155 + Whether beyond the stormy Hebrides, + Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide + Visit'st the bottom of the monstrous world; + Or whether thou, to our moist vows denied, + Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old, 160 + Where the great Vision of the guarded mount + Looks toward Namancos and Bayona's hold. + Look homeward, Angel, now, and melt with ruth: + And, O ye dolphins, waft the hapless youth. + Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more, 165 + For Lycidas, your sorrow, is not dead, + Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor. + So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed, + And yet anon repairs his drooping head, + And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore 170 + Flames in the forehead of the morning sky: + So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high, + Through the dear might of Him that walked the waves, + Where, other groves and other streams along, + With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves, 175 + And hears the unexpressive nuptial song, + In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love. + There entertain him all the Saints above, + In solemn troops, and sweet societies, + That sing, and singing in their glory move, 180 + And wipe the tears forever from his eyes. + Now, Lycidas, the shepherds weep no more; + Henceforth thou art the Genius of the shore, + In thy large recompense, and shalt be good + To all that wander in that perilous flood. 185 + + Thus sang the uncouth swain to the oaks and rills, + While the still morn went out with sandals gray: + He touched the tender stops of various quills, + With eager thought warbling his Doric lay: + And now the sun had stretched out all the hills, 190 + And now was dropt into the western bay. + At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blue; + To-morrow to fresh woods, and pastures new. + + + + + SONNETS. + + + I. + + TO THE NIGHTINGALE. + + O Nightingale that on yon bloomy spray + Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still, + Thou with fresh hope the lover's heart dost fill, + While the jolly Hours lead on propitious May. + Thy liquid notes that close the eye of day, 5 + First heard before the shallow cuckoo's bill, + Portend success in love. O, if Jove's will + Have linked that amorous power to thy soft lay, + Now timely sing, ere the rude bird of hate + Foretell my hopeless doom, in some grove nigh; 10 + As thou from year to year hast sung too late + For my relief, yet hadst no reason why. + Whether the Muse or Love called thee his mate, + Both them I serve, and of their train am I. + + + II. + + ON HIS HAVING ARRIVED AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-THREE. + + How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, + Stolen on his wing my three-and-twentieth year! + My hasting days fly on with full career, + But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th. + Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth 5 + That I to manhood am arrived so near; + And inward ripeness doth much less appear, + That some more timely-happy spirits endu'th. + Yet, be it less or more, or soon or slow, + It shall be still in strictest measure even 10 + To that same lot, however mean or high, + Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven. + All is, if I have grace to use it so, + As ever in my great Task-Master's eye. + + + VIII. + + WHEN THE ASSAULT WAS INTENDED TO THE CITY. + + Captain or Colonel, or Knight in Arms, + Whose chance on these defenceless doors may seize, + If deed of honor did thee ever please, + Guard them, and him within protect from harms. + He can requite thee; for he knows the charms 5 + That call fame on such gentle acts as these, + And he can spread thy name o'er lands and seas, + Whatever clime the sun's bright circle warms. + Lift not thy spear against the Muses' bower: + The great Emathian conqueror bid spare 10 + The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower + Went to the ground; and the repeated air + Of sad Electra's poet had the power + To save the Athenian walls from ruin bare. + + + IX. + + TO A VIRTUOUS YOUNG LADY. + + Lady, that in the prime of earliest youth + Wisely hast shunned the broad way and the green, + And with those few art eminently seen + That labor up the hill of heavenly Truth, + The better part with Mary and with Ruth 5 + Chosen thou hast; and they that overween, + And at thy growing virtues fret their spleen, + No anger find in thee, but pity and ruth. + Thy care is fixed, and zealously attends + To fill thy odorous lamp with deeds of light, 10 + And hope that reaps not shame. Therefore be sure + Thou, when the Bridegroom with his feastful friends + Passes to bliss at the mid-hour of night, + Hast gained thy entrance, Virgin wise, and pure. + + + X. + + TO THE LADY MARGARET LEY. + + Daughter to that good Earl, once President + Of England's Council and her Treasury, + Who lived in both unstained with gold or fee, + And left them both, more in himself content, + Till the sad breaking of that Parliament 5 + Broke him, as that dishonest victory + At Chæronea, fatal to liberty, + Killed with report that old man eloquent, + Though later born than to have known the days + Wherein your father flourished, yet by you, 10 + Madam, methinks I see him living yet: + So well your words his noble virtues praise + That all both judge you to relate them true + And to possess them, honored Margaret. + + + XIII. + + TO MR. H. LAWES ON HIS AIRS. + + Harry, whose tuneful and well-measured song + First taught our English music how to span + Words with just note and accent, not to scan + With Midas' ears, committing short and long, + Thy worth and skill exempts thee from the throng, 5 + With praise enough for Envy to look wan; + To after age thou shalt be writ the man + That with smooth air couldst humor best our tongue. + Thou honor'st Verse, and Verse must send her wing + To honor thee, the priest of Phoebus' quire, 10 + That tunest their happiest lines in hymn or story. + Dante shall give Fame leave to set thee higher + Than his Casella, whom he wooed to sing, + Met in the milder shades of Purgatory. + + + XV. + + ON THE LORD GENERAL FAIRFAX, AT THE SIEGE OF COLCHESTER. + + Fairfax, whose name in arms through Europe rings, + Filling each mouth with envy or with praise, + And all her jealous monarchs with amaze, + And rumors loud that daunt remotest kings, + Thy firm unshaken virtue ever brings 5 + Victory home, though new rebellions raise + Their Hydra heads, and the false North displays + Her broken league to imp their serpent wings. + O yet a nobler task awaits thy hand + (For what can war but endless war still breed?) 10 + Till truth and right from violence be freed, + And public faith cleared from the shameful brand + Of public fraud. In vain doth Valor bleed, + While Avarice and Rapine share the land. + + + XVI. + + TO THE LORD GENERAL CROMWELL, MAY, 1652, + + ON THE PROPOSALS OF CERTAIN MINISTERS AT THE COMMITTEE FOR + PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL. + + Cromwell, our chief of men, who through a cloud + Not of war only, but detractions rude, + Guided by faith and matchless fortitude, + To peace and truth thy glorious way hast ploughed, + And on the neck of crowned Fortune proud 5 + Hast reared God's trophies, and his work pursued, + While Darwen stream, with blood of Scots imbrued, + And Dunbar field, resounds thy praises loud, + And Worcester's laureate wreath: yet much remains + To conquer still; Peace hath her victories 10 + No less renowned than War: new foes arise, + Threatening to bind our souls with secular chains. + Help us to save free conscience from the paw + Of hireling wolves, whose Gospel is their maw. + + + XVII. + + TO SIR HENRY VANE THE YOUNGER. + + Vane, young in years, but in sage counsel old, + Than whom a better senator ne'er held + The helm of Rome, when gowns, not arms, repelled + The fierce Epirot and the African bold, + Whether to settle peace, or to unfold 5 + The drift of hollow states hard to be spelled; + Then to advise how war may best, upheld, + Move by her two main nerves, iron and gold, + In all her equipage; besides, to know + Both spiritual power and civil, what each means, 10 + What severs each, thou hast learned, which few have done. + The bounds of either sword to thee we owe: + Therefore on thy firm hand Religion leans + In peace, and reckons thee her eldest son. + + + XVIII. + + ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIEDMONT. + + Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones + Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold; + Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old, + When all our fathers worshiped stocks and stones, + Forget not: in thy book record their groans 5 + Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold + Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that rolled + Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans + The vales redoubled to the hills, and they + To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow 10 + O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway + The triple Tyrant; that from these may grow + A hundredfold, who, having learnt thy way, + Early may fly the Babylonian woe. + + + XIX. + + ON HIS BLINDNESS. + + When I consider how my light is spent + Ere half my days in this dark world and wide, + And that one talent which is death to hide + Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent + To serve therewith my Maker, and present 5 + My true account, lest He returning chide, + "Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?" + I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent + That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need + Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best 10 + Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state + Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed, + And post o'er land and ocean without rest; + They also serve who only stand and wait." + + + XX. + + TO MR. LAWRENCE. + + Lawrence, of virtuous father virtuous son, + Now that the fields are dank, and ways are mire, + Where shall we sometimes meet, and by the fire + Help waste a sullen day, what may be won + From the hard season gaining? Time will run 5 + On smoother, till Favonius reinspire + The frozen earth, and clothe in fresh attire + The lily and rose, that neither sowed nor spun. + What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice, + Of Attic taste, with wine, whence we may rise 10 + To hear the lute well touched, or artful voice + Warble immortal notes and Tuscan air? + He who of those delights can judge, and spare + To interpose them oft, is not unwise. + + + XXI. + + TO CYRIACK SKINNER. + + Cyriack, whose grandsire on the royal bench + Of British Themis, with no mean applause, + Pronounced, and in his volumes taught, our laws, + Which others at their bar so often wrench, + To-day deep thoughts resolve with me to drench 5 + In mirth that after no repenting draws; + Let Euclid rest, and Archimedes pause, + And what the Swede intend, and what the French. + To measure life learn thou betimes, and know + Toward solid good what leads the nearest way; 10 + For other things mild Heaven a time ordains, + And disapproves that care, though wise in show, + That with superfluous burden loads the day, + And, when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains. + + + XXII. + + TO THE SAME. + + Cyriack, this three years' day these eyes, though clear, + To outward view, of blemish or of spot, + Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot; + Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear + Of sun, or moon, or star, throughout the year, 5 + Or man, or woman. Yet I argue not + Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot + Of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer + Right onward. What supports me, dost thou ask? + The conscience, friend, to have lost them overplied 10 + In Liberty's defence, my noble task, + Of which all Europe rings from side to side. + This thought might lead me through the world's vain mask + Content, though blind, had I no better guide. + + + XXIII. + + ON HIS DECEASED WIFE + + Methought I saw my late espoused saint + Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave, + Whom Jove's great son to her glad husband gave, + Rescued from Death by force, though pale and faint. + Mine, as whom washed from spot of child-bed taint 5 + Purification in the Old Law did save, + And such as yet once more I trust to have + Full sight of her in Heaven without restraint, + Came vested all in white, pure as her mind. + Her face was veiled; yet to my fancied sight 10 + Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined + So clear as in no face with more delight. + But, oh! as to embrace me she inclined, + I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night. + + + + + NOTES. + + + + + ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY. + + +From his sixteenth year Milton had been wont to write freely in Latin +verse, on miscellaneous poetic themes, sometimes expressing his thoughts +on events of the day, and sometimes addressing letters to his friends on +purely personal matters. From these Latin poems, which therefore in some +sense belong to English literature, we obtain valuable insight into his +course of life and his way of thinking. What Milton wrote in foreign +languages is indispensable for the information it gives us about +himself--its content is important; but as poetry implies a fusing of +content and form into an artistic unity, if one of these elements is +foreign, the result is nondescript and cannot be ranged under the head of +English literature in the strict sense of the term. + +It is in one of Milton's own Latin pieces that we find our best +commentary on the Hymn on the Nativity. The sixth Latin Elegy is an +epistle to his intimate college friend, "Charles Diodati making a stay in +the country," the last twelve lines of which may be freely translated as +follows:-- + +But if you shall wish to know what I am doing,--if indeed you think it +worth your while to know whether I am doing anything at all,--we are +singing the peace-bringing king born of heavenly seed, and the happy ages +promised in the sacred books, and the crying of the infant God lying in a +manger under a poor roof, who dwells with his father in the realms above; +and the starry sky, and the squadrons singing on high, and the gods +suddenly driven away to their own fanes. Those gifts we have indeed given +to the birthday of Christ; that first light brought them to me at dawn. +Thee also they await sung to our native pipes; thou shalt be to me in +lieu of a judge for me to read them to. + +This means, of course, that the poet is composing a Christmas Hymn in his +native language. We must note his age at this time,--twenty-one years: he +is a student at Cambridge. The poem remains the great Christmas hymn in +our literature. "The Ode on the Nativity," says Professor Saintsbury, "is +a test of the reader's power to appreciate poetry." + +In four stanzas the poet speaks in his own person: he too must, with the +wise men from the east, bring such gifts as he has, to offer to the +Infant God. His offering is the _humble ode_ which follows. We must take +note of the change in the metric form which marks the transition from the +introduction to the ode. In the stanzas of the former the lines all have +five accents, except the last, which has six; while in the latter, four +lines have three accents each, one has four, two have five, and one has +six. Notice also the occasional hypermetric lines, such as line 47. + +In connection with Milton's Hymn, read Alfred Domett's _It was the calm +and silent night_. + + +5. For so the holy sages once did sing. See Par. Lost XII 324. + +6. our deadly forfeit should release. Compare Par. Lost III 221, and see +the idea of _releasing a forfeit_ otherwise expressed in the Merchant of +Venice IV 1 24. + +10. he wont. This is the past tense of the verb _wont_, meaning to _be +accustomed_. See the present, Par. Lost I 764, and the participle, I 332. + +15. thy sacred vein. See _vein_ in the same sense, Par. Lost VI 628. + +19. the Sun's team. Compare Comus 95, and read the story of Phaëthon in +Ovid's Metamorphoses II 106. + +24. prevent them with thy humble ode. See _prevent_ in this sense, in +Shakespeare's Julius Cæsar V 1 105, and in Psalm XXI 3. + +28. touched with hallowed fire. See Acts II 3. On the meaning of secret, +compare Par. Lost X 32. + +41. Pollute is the participle, exactly equivalent to _polluted_. + +48. the turning sphere. For poetical purposes Milton everywhere adopts +the popular astronomy of his day, which was based on the ancient, i.e. +the Ptolemaic, or geocentric system of the universe. Copernicus had +already taught the modern, heliocentric theory of the solar system, and +his innovations were not unknown to Milton, who, however, consistently +adheres to the old conceptions. In Milton, therefore, we find the earth +the centre of the visible universe, while the sun, the planets, and the +fixed stars revolve about it in their several _spheres_. These spheres +are nine in number, arranged concentrically, like the coats of an onion, +about the earth, and, if of solid matter, are to be conceived as being of +perfectly transparent crystal. Beginning with the innermost, they present +themselves in the following order: the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, +Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Fixed Stars, the Primum Mobile. In Par. Lost +III 481, the ninth sphere appears as "that crystalline sphere whose +balance weighs the trepidation talked," and the Primum Mobile, or the +first moved, becomes the tenth and outermost of the series. The last two +spheres contain no stars. + +We see, then, what we must understand by the oft-recurring _spheres_ in +Milton's poetry. In the line, _Down through the turning sphere_, however, +the singular _sphere_ is obviously used to mean the whole aggregate of +spheres composing the starry universe. + +50. With turtle wing. With the wing of a turtle-dove. + +56. The hooked chariot. War chariots sometimes had scythes, or hooks, +attached to their axles. See 2 Maccabees XIII 2. + +60. sovran. Milton always uses this form in preference to _sovereign_. + +62. the Prince of Light. Note the corresponding epithet applied to Satan, +Par. Lost X 383. + +64. The winds, with wonder whist. The word _whist_, originally an +interjection, becomes an adjective, as here and in The Tempest I 2 378. + +66. Make three syllables of Oceän, and make it rhyme with _began_. + +68. birds of calm. The birds referred to are doubtless halcyons. Dr. +Murray defines halcyon thus: "A bird of which the ancients fabled that it +bred about the time of the winter solstice in a nest floating on the sea, +and that it charmed the wind and waves so that the sea was specially calm +during the period; usually identified with a species of kingfisher, hence +a poetic name of this bird." + +71. their precious influence. The word _influence_ is originally a term +of astrology,--"a flowing in, or influent course, of the planets; their +virtue infused into, or their course working on, inferior creatures" +(Skeat, _Etym. Dict._). + +73. For all the morning light. As in Burns's "We dare be poor for a' +that," _for_ meaning in spite of. + +74. Lucifer. See Par. Lost VII 131-133. + +81. As, for _as if_. + +86. Or ere the point of dawn. The two words _or ere_ mean simply +_before_, as in Hamlet I 2 147, "A little month, or ere those shoes were +old." _The point of dawn_ imitates the French _le point du jour_. + +88. Full little thought they than. _Than_ is an ancient form of _then_, +not wholly obsolete in Milton's day. + +89. the mighty Pan. The poet takes the point of view of the shepherds and +uses the name of their special deity. + +95. by mortal finger strook. Milton uses the three participle forms, +_strook, struck_, and _strucken_. + +98. As all their souls in blissful rapture took. The verb _take_ has here +the same meaning as in Hamlet I 1 163, "no fairy takes nor witch hath +power to charm." Thus also we say, a vaccination takes. + +103. Cynthia's seat. See Penseroso 59, and Romeo and Juliet III 5 20. + +108. Make the line rhyme properly, giving to union three syllables. + +112. The helmed cherubim. See Genesis III 24. + +113. The sworded seraphim. See Isaiah VI 2-6. + +116. With unexpressive notes, meaning beyond the power of human +expression. So in Lycidas 176; Par. Lost V 595; and in As You Like It, +"the fair, the chaste, and inexpressive she." + +119. But when of old the Sons of Morning sung. See Job XXXVIII 7. + +124. the weltering waves. Compare Lycidas 13. + +125. Ring out, ye crystal spheres. See note, line 48. The elder poetry is +full of the notion that the spheres in their revolutions made music, +which human ears are too gross to hear. See Merchant of Venice V 1 50-65. + +136. speckled Vanity. The leopard that confronts Dante in Canto I of +_Hell_ is beautiful with its dappled skin, but symbolizes vain glory. + +143. like glories wearing. The adjective _like_ means nothing without a +complement, though the complement sometimes has to be supplied, as in +this instance. Fully expressed the passage would be,--_wearing glories +like those of Truth and Justice_. The _like_ in such a case as this must +be spoken with a fuller tone than when its construction is completely +expressed. + +155. those ychained in sleep. The poets, in order to gain a syllable, +long continued to use the ancient participle prefix _y_. See _yclept_, +Allegro 12. + +157. With such a horrid clang. See Exodus XIX. + +168. The Old Dragon. See Revelation XII 9. + +173. Stanzas XIX-XXVI announce the deposition and expulsion of the pagan +deities, and the ruin of the ancient religions. In accordance with his +custom of grouping selected proper names in abundance, thus giving +vividness and concreteness to his story and sonority to his verse, the +poet here illustrates the triumph of the new dispensation by citing the +names of various gods from the Roman, Greek, Syrian, and Egyptian +mythologies. + +176. Apollo, the great god, whose oracle was at Delphi, or Delphos. + +179. spell, as in Comus 853, and often. + +186. Genius. A Latin word, signifying a tutelary or guardian spirit +supposed to preside over a person or place. See Lycidas 183, and +Penseroso 154. + +191. The Lars and Lemures. In the Roman mythology these were the spirits +of dead ancestors, worshipped or propitiated in families as having power +for good or evil over the fortunes of their descendants. + +194. Affrights the flamens. The Roman flamens were the priests of +particular gods. + +195. the chill marble seems to sweat. Many instances of this phenomenon +are reported. Thus Cicero, in his _De Divinatione_, tells us: "It was +reported to the senate that it had rained blood, that the river Atratus +had even flowed with blood, and that the statues of the gods had sweat." + +197. Peor and Baälim. Syrian false gods. See Numbers XXV 3. + +199. that twice-battered god of Palestine. See I Samuel V 2. + +200. mooned Ashtaroth. See I Kings XI 33. + +203. The Lybic Hammon. "Hammon had a famous temple in Africa, where he +was adored under the symbolic figure of a ram." + +204. their wounded Thammuz. See Ezekiel VIII 14. + +205. sullen Moloch. See Par. Lost I 392-396. + +210. the furnace blue. Compare Arcades 52. + +212. Isis, and Orus, and the dog Anubis. Egyptian deities, the latter +figured as having the head of a dog. + +213. Nor is Osiris seen. Osiris was the principal god of the Egyptians, +brother and husband of Isis. His highest function was as god of the Nile. +He met his death at the hands of his brother Typhon, a deity of +sterility, by whom he was torn into fourteen pieces. Thereupon a general +lament was raised throughout Egypt. The bull Apis was regarded as the +visible incarnation of Osiris.--_Murray's Manual of Mythology_. + +215. the unshowered grass. Remember, this was in Egypt. + +223. his dusky eyn. This ancient plural of eye occurs several times in +Shakespeare, as in As You Like It IV 3 50. + +240. Heaven's youngest-teemed star. Compare Comus 175. + +241. Hath fixed her polished car. _Fix_ has its proper meaning, +_stopped_. The star "came and stood over where the young child was." + + + + + ON SHAKESPEARE. + + +The first edition of the collected works of Shakespeare, known as the +first folio, was published in 1623, when Milton was fifteen years old. +The second Shakespeare folio appeared in 1632. Among the commendatory +verses by various hands prefixed, after the fashion of the time, to the +latter volume, was a little piece of eight couplets, in which some then +unknown rhymer expressed his admiration of the great poet. Collecting his +poems for publication in 1645, Milton included these couplets, gave them +the date 1630, and the title _On Shakespeare_ which they have since borne +in his works. The fact that he wrote the verses two years before their +publication in the Shakespeare folio shows that he did not produce them +to order, for the special occasion. It is interesting to note that Milton +at twenty-two was an appreciative reader of Shakespeare. The lines +themselves give no hint of great poetic genius; they are a fair specimen +of the conventional, labored eulogy in vogue at the time. + + +4. star-ypointing. To make the decasyllabic verse, the poet takes the +liberty of prefixing to the present participle the _y_ which properly +belongs only to the past. + +8. a livelong monument. Instead of _livelong_, the first issue of the +lines, in the Shakespeare folio of 1632, has _lasting_. The change is +Milton's, appearing in his revision of his poems in 1645. Does it seem to +be an improvement? + +10-12. and that each heart hath ... took. The conjunction _that_ simply +repeats the _whilst_. + +11. thy unvalued book. In Hamlet I 3 19 _unvalued persons_ are persons of +no value, or of no rank. In Macbeth III 1 94 the _valued file_ is the +file that determines values or ranks. In Milton's phrase the _unvalued +book_ means the book whose merit is so great as to be beyond all +valuation: a new rank must be created for it. + +12. Those Delphic lines: lines so crowded with meaning as to seem the +utterances of an oracle. + +13. our fancy of itself bereaving: transporting us into an ecstasy, or +making us rapt with thought. + +14. Dost make _us_ marble with too much conceiving. The concentrated +attention required to penetrate Shakespeare's meaning makes statues of +us. + +15. Make the word sepulchred fit metrically into the iambic verse. + + + + + L'ALLEGRO AND IL PENSEROSO. + + +The year in which the poems were composed is uncertain. Masson regards +1632 as the probable date. + +The exquisite poems to which Milton gave the Italian titles +L'Allegro,--the mirthful, or jovial, man,--and Il Penseroso,--the +melancholy, or saturnine, man,--should be regarded each as the pendant +and complement of the other, and should be read as a single whole. The +poet knew both moods, and takes both standpoints with equal grace and +heartiness. The essential idea of thus contrasting the mirthful and the +melancholy temperament he found ready to his hand. Robert Burton had +prefaced his _Anatomy of Melancholy_, published in 1621, with a series of +not unpleasing, though by no means graceful, amoebean stanzas, in which +two speakers alternately represent Melancholy, one as sweet and divine, +and the other as harsh, sour, and damned. Undoubtedly Milton knew his +Burton. But if he got his main idea from this source, he made his poems +thoroughly Miltonic by his art of visualizing in delicious pictures the +various phases of his abstract theme. The poems are wholly poetical, +equally free from obscurity of thought and from obscurity of expression. + +Each poem is prefaced with a vigorous exorcism of the spirit to which it +is hostile. This is couched in alternate three and five accent iambics, +preparing a delicious rhythmic effect when the metre changes, in the +invocation, to the octosyllable, with or without anacrusis. + +In L'Allegro we accompany the mirthful man through an entire day of his +pleasures, from early morning to late evening. The melancholy man moves +through a programme less definitely and regularly planned. The scenes of +his delights are mostly in the hours of the night: when the sun is up, he +hides himself from day's garish eye. + + + L'Allegro. + + +2. Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born. Milton follows the example of +the ancient poets in announcing the parentage of the principal beings +whom he brings upon his stage. Moreover, he uses the ancient freedom in +assigning mythical pedigrees, not only adopting no authority as a canon, +but allowing his own fancy to invent origins as suits his purpose. He +knew the Greek and Latin poets, and assumed for himself the privilege +which they exercised of shaping the myths as they pleased. We are not +therefore to seek in Milton a reproduction of any system of mythology. +_Cerberus_ was the terrible three-headed dog of Pluto. His station was at +the entrance to the lower world, or the _Stygian cave_. + +3. The Stygian cave is so called from the Styx, the infernal river, "the +flood of deadly hate." + +5. some uncouth cell. _Uncouth_ may be used here in its original sense of +_unknown_, as in Par. Lost VIII 230. + +10. In dark Cimmerian desert. The Cimmerians were a people fabled by the +ancients to live in perpetual darkness. + +12. yclept is the participle of the obsolete verb _clepe_, with the +ancient prefix _y_, as in ychained, Hymn on the Nativity 155. + +15. two sister Graces more. Hesiod names, as the three Graces, +Euphrosyne, Aglaia, and Thalia, but he makes them the daughters of Zeus +and Eurynome. + +18. The frolic wind. See _frolic_ again as an adjective, Comus 59. + +24. So buxom, blithe, and debonair. See Shakespeare's Pericles, I Gower +23. All these words are interesting to look up for etymologies and +changes of meaning. + +25-36. We readily accept and understand the personification of Jest, +Jollity, Sport, Laughter, and Liberty, but the plurals, Quips, Cranks, +Wiles, Nods, Becks, Smiles, we do not manage quite so easily, especially +in view of the couplet 29-30. + +28. Smiles may be said to be wreathed because they inwreathe the face. +See Par. Lost III 361. + +33. trip it, as you go. So in Shakespeare, "I'll queen it no inch +further; Rather than fool it so; I'll go brave it at the court, lording +it in London streets." + +41. With this line begins a series of illustrations of the _unreproved +pleasures_ which L'Allegro is going to enjoy during a day of leisure. At +first the specified pleasures or occupations are introduced by +infinitives, _to hear, to come_; but the construction soon changes, as we +shall see. The first pleasure is To hear the lark, etc. 41-44. L'Allegro +begins his day with early morning. Here we must imagine him as having +risen and gone forth where he can see the sky and can look about him to +see what is going on in the farm-yard. + + 45-46. Then to come, in spite of sorrow, + And at my window bid good-morrow. + +It must be L'Allegro himself who comes to the window, and as he is +outside, he comes to look in through the shrubbery and bid good morning +to the cottage inmates, who are now up and about their work. The +pertinency of the phrase, _in spite of sorrow_, is not intelligible. + +53. Oft listening how the hounds and horn. This "pleasure" and the +next--_sometime walking_--are introduced with present participles. There +is no interruption of grammatical consistency. + +57. Sometime walking, not unseen. See the counterpart of this line, +Penseroso 65. Todd quotes the note of Bishop Hurd,--"Happy men love +witnesses of their joy: the splenetic love solitude." + +59. against, _i.e._ toward. + +62. The clouds in thousand liveries dight. _Dight_ is the participle of +the verb _to dight_, meaning to adorn. It is still used as an archaism. + +67. And every shepherd tells his tale. This undoubtedly means _counts the +number_ of his flock. In Shakespeare we find, to _tell_ money, years, +steps, a hundred. So _tale_ often means an enumeration, a number. +L'Allegro finds the shepherds in the morning counting their sheep, not +telling stories. + +68. With this line ends the long, loose sentence that began with line 37. +We now come to a full stop, and with line 69 begin a new sentence. + +70. the landskip. A word of late origin in English, of unsettled spelling +in Milton's day. + +71. Russet lawns. In Milton, _lawn_ means field or pasture. See Lycidas +25. + +77. In this line the subject, _mine eye_, is resumed. + +80. The cynosure of neighboring eyes. In the constellation Cynosure, +usually called the Lesser Bear, is the pole-star, to which very many eyes +are directed. + +81. A new "pleasure" is introduced, with a new grammatical subject. + +83. Where Corydon and Thyrsis met. The proper names in lines 83-88 add to +the poem a pleasing touch of pastoral simplicity and cheerfulness. They +are taken from the common stock of names, which, originally devised by +the Greek idyllists for their shepherds and shepherdesses, have by the +pastoral poets of all subsequent ages been appropriated to their special +use. Corydon and Thyrsis stand for farm-laborers, Phyllis and Thestylis +for their wives or housekeepers. The day of L'Allegro has now advanced to +dinner-time. Phyllis has been preparing the frugal meal, as we could +surmise from the smoking chimney. As soon as the dinner is over the women +go out to work with the men in the harvest field. + +87. bower means simply _dwelling_. + +90. In the tanned haycock we see the hay dried and browned by the sun. + +91. The scene changes and brings yet another "pleasure." secure delight +is delight without care, _sine cura_. See Samson Agonistes 55. + +96. in the chequered shade. They danced under trees through whose foliage +the sunlight filtered. + +99. Evening comes on, and a new pleasure succeeds. Story-telling is now +in order. + +102. Sufficient information about Faery Mab can be got from Romeo and +Juliet I 4 53-95. + +103-104. She, _i.e._ one of the maids; And he,--one of the youths. The +Friar's lantern is the ignis fatuus, or will-o'-the-wisp, fabled to lead +men into dangerous marshes. + +105. A connective is lacking to make the syntax sound: the subject of +tells must be _he_. the drudging goblin. This is Robin Goodfellow, known +to readers of fairy tales. Ben Jonson makes him a character in his Court +Masque, Love Restored, where he is made to recount many of his pranks, +and says, among other things, "I am the honest plain country spirit, and +harmless, Robin Goodfellow, he that sweeps the hearth and the house +clean, riddles for the country maids, and does all their other drudgery." + +109. could not end. Dr. Murray gives this among other quotations as an +instance of the verb _end_ meaning _to put into the barn, to get in._ So +in Coriolanus V 6 87. + +110. the lubber fiend. This goblin is loutish in shape and +fiendish-looking, though so good to those who treat him well. + +115. Thus done the tales. An absolute construction, imitating the Latin +ablative absolute. + +117. The country folk having gone early to bed, tired with their day's +labor, L'Allegro hastes to the city, where the pleasures of life are +prolonged further into the night. + +120. In weeds of peace, high triumphs hold. This must mean such things as +masques and revelries among the upper classes. + +122. Rain influence. See note on Hymn on the Nativity 71. + +124. What is the antecedent of whom? + +125. What ceremony is here introduced? + +128. Do not misunderstand the word mask. Its meaning becomes plain from +the context. + +131. To what pleasure does L'Allegro now betake himself? + +132. Among the dramatists of the Jacobean time Ben Jonson had especially +the repute of scholarship. The sock symbolizes comedy, as the buskin does +tragedy. Compare Il Penseroso 102. + + 133-134. Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, + Warble his native wood-notes wild. + +The couplet seems intended to convey the idea of a counterpart or +contrast to the _learned sock_ of Jonson. So considered, it is by no +means an unhappy characterization. + +135. The last of the "unreproved pleasures" that L'Allegro wishes he may +enjoy, seems not so much planned to follow the rest in sequence of time +as to accompany them and be diffused through them all. Observe the ever +in this line. The eating cares are a reminiscence of Horace's _curas +edaces_, Ode II 11 18. + +136. Lap me in soft Lydian airs. The three chief modes, or moods, of +Greek music were the _Lydian_, which was soft and pathetic; the _Dorian_, +especially adapted to war (see Par. Lost 550); and the _Phrygian_, which +was bold and vehement. + +138. the meeting soul. The soul, in its eagerness, goes forth to meet and +welcome the music. + +139. The word bout seems to point at a piece of music somewhat in the +nature of a round, or catch. + +145. That Orpheus' self may heave his head. Even Orpheus, who in his life +"drew trees, stones, and floods" by the power of his music, and who now +reposes in Elysium, would lift his head to listen to the strains that +L'Allegro would fain hear. + +149. Orpheus, with _his_ music, had succeeded in obtaining from Pluto +only a conditional release of his wife Eurydice. He was not to look back +upon her till he was quite clear of Pluto's domains. He failed to make +good the condition, and so again lost his Eurydice. + + + Il Penseroso. + +3. How little you bested. The verb _bested_ means _to avail, to be of +service_. It is not the same word that we find in Isaiah VIII 21, "hardly +bestead and hungry." + +6. fond here has its primitive meaning, _foolish_. Understand possess in +the sense in which it is used in the Bible,--"possessed with devils." + +10. Make two syllables of Morpheus. + +12. Note that while he invoked Mirth in L'Allegro under her Greek name +Euphrosyne, the poet finds no corresponding Greek designation for +Melancholy. To us Melancholy seems a name unhappily chosen. But see how +Milton applies it in line 62 below, and in Comus 546. To him the word +evidently connotes pensive meditation rather than gloomy depression. + +14. To hit the sense of human sight: to be gazed at by human eyes. + +18. Prince Memnon was a fabled Ethiopian prince, black, and celebrated +for his beauty. Recall Virgil's _nigri Memnonis arma_. + +19. that starred Ethiop queen. Cassiopeia, wife of the Ethiopian king +Cepheus, boasted that she was more beautiful than the Nereids, for which +act of presumption she was translated to the skies, where she became the +beautiful constellation which we know by her name. + +23. bright-haired Vesta. _Vesta_--in Greek, Hestia--"was the goddess of +the home, the guardian of family life. Her spotless purity fitted her +peculiarly to be the guardian of virgin modesty." + +30. Whilst yet there was no fear of Jove, _i.e._ before Saturn was +dethroned by Jupiter. + +33. All in a robe of darkest grain. In Par. Lost V 285, the third pair of +Raphael's wings have the color of _sky-tinctured grain_; and XI 242, his +vest is of purple livelier than "the grain of Sarra," or Tyrian purple. +This would leave us to infer that the robe of Melancholy is of a deep +rich color, so dark as to be almost black. Dr. Murray quotes from +Southey's _Thalaba_, "The ebony ... with darkness feeds its boughs of +raven grain." What objection is there to making the _grain_ in Milton's +passage _black_? + +35. And sable stole of cypress lawn. Dr. Murray thus defines _cypress +lawn_, "A light transparent material resembling cobweb lawn or crape; +like the latter it was, when black, much used for habiliments of +mourning." + +37. Come; but keep thy wonted state. Compare with this passage, L'Allegro +33. + +40. Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes. In Cymbeline I 6 51 we find the +present tense of the verb of which _rapt_ is the participle: "What, dear +Sir, thus raps you?" Do not confound this word with _rap_, meaning to +strike. + +42. Forget thyself to marble. With this compare On Shakespeare 14. + +43. With a sad leaden downward cast. So in Love's Labor's Lost IV 3 321, +"In leaden contemplation;" Othello III 4 177, "I have this while with +leaden thoughts been pressed." So also Gray in the Hymn to Adversity, +"With leaden eye that loves the ground." + +45-55. Compare the company which Il Penseroso entreats Melancholy to +bring along with her with that which L'Allegro wishes to see attending +Mirth. + +46. Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet. Only the rigid ascetic has +a spiritual ear so finely trained that he hears the celestial music. + +48. Aye, as their rhymes show, is always pronounced by the poets with the +vowel sound in _day_. + +53. the fiery-wheeled throne. See Daniel VII 9. + +54. The Cherub Contemplation. Pronounce _contemplation_ with five +syllables. It is difficult to form a distinct conception of the nature +and office of the _cherub_ of the Scriptures. Milton in many passages of +Par. Lost follows, with regard to the heavenly beings, the account given +by Dionysius the Areopagite in his Celestial Hierarchy. According to +Dionysius there were nine orders or ranks of beings in heaven, +namely,--seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, +principalities, archangels, angels. The cherubim have the special +attribute of knowledge and contemplation of divine things. + +55. hist, primarily an interjection commanding silence, becomes here a +verb. + +56. With the introduction of the nightingale comes the first intimation +of the time of day at which Il Penseroso conceives the course of his +satisfactions to begin. + +57. Everywhere else in Milton plight is used with its modern +connotations. + +59. The moon stops to hear the nightingale's song. + +65. Remember L'Allegro's _not unseen_. + +77. Up to this point Il Penseroso has been walking in the open air. + +78. removed,--remote, retired. + +87. As the Bear never sets, to outwatch him must mean to sit up all +night. + +88. With thrice great Hermes. "Hermes Trismegistos--Hermes +thrice-greatest--is the name given by the Neo-Platonists and the devotees +of mysticism and alchemy to the Egyptian god Thoth, regarded as more or +less identified with the Grecian Hermes, and as the author of all +mysterious doctrines, and especially of the secrets of alchemy." (The +_New Eng. Dicty._) To such studies the serious mediæval scholars devoted +themselves. To unsphere the spirit of Plato is to call him from the +sphere in which he abides in the other world, or, simply, to take in hand +for study his writings on immortality. + +93-96. On the four classes of demons,--Salamanders, Sylphs, Nymphs, +Gnomes,--see Pope's Rape of the Lock. These demons are in complicity with +the planets and other heavenly bodies to influence mortals. + +97-102. Thebes, Pelops' line, and the tale of Troy are the staple +subjects of the great Attic tragedians. It seems strange that the poet +finds no occasion to name Shakespeare here, as well as in L'Allegro. + +104-105. Musæus and Orpheus are semi-mythical bards, to whom is ascribed +a greatness proportioned to their obscurity. + +105-108. See note on L'Allegro, 149. + +109-115. Or call up him that left half-told. This refers to Chaucer and +to his Squieres Tale in the Canterbury Tales. It is left unfinished. Note +that Milton changes not only the spelling but the accent of the chief +character's name. Chaucer writes, "This noble king was cleped +Cambinskan." + +120. Stories in which more is meant than meets the ear refer to +allegories, like the Fairy Queen. + +121. Having thus filled the night with the occupations that he loves, Il +Penseroso now greets the morning, which he hopes to find stormy with wind +and rain. + +122. civil-suited Morn: _i.e._ Morn in the everyday habiliments of +business. + +123-124. Eos--Aurora, the Dawn--carried off several youths distinguished +for their beauty. the Attic boy is probably Cephalus, whom she stole from +his wife Procris. + +125. kerchieft in a comely cloud. _Kerchief_ is here used in its original +and proper sense. Look up its origin. + +126. The winds may be called rocking because they visibly rock the trees, +or because they shake houses. + +127. Or ushered with a shower still. The shower falls gently, without +wind. + +130. With minute-drops from off the eaves. After the rain has ceased, and +while the thatch is draining, the drops fall at regular intervals for a +time,--as it were, a drop every minute. Il Penseroso listens with +contentment to the wind, the rustling rain-fall on the leaves, and the +monotonous patter of the drops when the rain is over. + +131. The shower is past, and the sun appears, but Il Penseroso finds its +beams flaring and distasteful. He seeks covert in the dense groves. + +134. Sylvan is the god of the woods. + +135. The monumental oak is so called from its great age and size. + +140. Consciously nursing his melancholy, Il Penseroso deems the wood that +hides him a sacred place, and resents intrusion as a profanation. + +141. Hide me from day's garish eye. See Richard III. IV 4 89, Romeo and +Juliet III 2 25. + +142. While the bee with honeyed thigh. Is this good apiology? + +146. Entice the dewy-feathered Sleep. Note that sleep is represented as +having feathers. These feathers, in their soft, gentle movement and in +their refreshing effect are likened to dew. The figure is a common one +with the poets. In Par. Lost IX 1044, Milton has,--"till dewy sleep +oppressed them." Cowper, Iliad II, 41, has,--"Awaking from thy dewy +slumbers." + +148. his refers to the _dewy-feathered sleep_. Il Penseroso asks that a +strange, mysterious dream, hovering close by the wings of sleep, and +lightly pictured in a succession of vivid forms, may be laid on his +eye-lids. + +155-166. The word studious in line 156 determines that the passage refers +to college life and not to church attendance. The old English colleges +have their cloisters, and these have much the same architectural features +as do churches. + +157. embowed means vaulted, or bent like a _bow_. + +158. massy-proof: massive and proof against all failure to support their +load. + +159. And storied windows richly dight. Compare L'Allegro, 62. + +170. The best possible comment on this use of the verb spell is Milton's +own language, Par. Regained IV 382, where Satan, addressing the Son of +God, thus speaks:-- + + Now, contrary, if I read aught in Heaven, + Or Heaven write aught of fate, by what the stars + Voluminous, or single characters + In their conjunction met, give me to spell, + Sorrows and labors, opposition, hate, + Attends thee; scorns, reproaches, injuries, + Violence and stripes, and, lastly, cruel death. + +Il Penseroso's aspiration is that as an astrologer he may learn the +influence of every star and that he may come to know the virtue of every +herb. + + + + + ARCADES. + + +The noble persons of the family of the Countess Dowager of Derby were +fortunate enough to obtain the services of the poet John Milton to aid in +the composition of a mask, which they presented to her ladyship at her +residence in the country. Arcades--the Arcadians--is Milton's +contribution to this performance. In date the poem precedes Comus, which +is known to have been composed in 1634. + +On the meaning of the term _mask_, as applied to a dramatic form, see +introductory note on Comus. + + +20. Latona (or Leto) was the mother of Apollo and Diana by Zeus. + +21. the towered Cybele is Virgil's Berecyntia Mater, the Phrygian mother, +who, wearing her mural crown, drives in her chariot through the cities of +Phrygia. She was conceived as one of the very oldest deities, and as +mother of a hundred gods. See Æneid VI 785. + +28. Of famous Arcady ye are. Arcadia, in the Peloponnesus, was peculiarly +the home of music and song, especially among the shepherds. See Virgil, +Eclogue VII 4-5. + +30. Divine Alpheus. See note on Lycidas 132. + +46. curl the grove: bestow upon the grove dense, crisp foliage. + +47. With ringlets quaint and wanton windings wove. The grove is +intersected with a maze of circling and purposeless paths. + +49. noisome: full of annoyance, injurious. See Par. Lost XI 478. blasting +vapors. See note on Comus 640. + +51. thwarting thunder blue. Compare Julius Cæsar I 3 50, "the cross blue +lightning." + +52. the cross dire-looking planet. Cross means _adverse, unfavorable_. +See note on _influence_, Hymn on the Nativity 71. + +54. evening gray. See note on Lycidas 187. + +60. murmurs. Compare Comus 526. + +63. the celestial Sirens' harmony. The Sirens are here advanced to a high +function and given a new Epithet. Compare Comus 253. + +64. the nine infolded spheres. See note on Hymn on Nativity 48. + +65-66. See note on Lycidas 75. + +69. the daughters of Necessity: the Fates. + +72-73. which none can hear Of human mould with gross unpurged ear. +Compare Merchant of Venice V 1 64. + +87. touch the warbled string: the string that is accompanied with the +voice. See Il Penseroso 106. + +97. Ladon, a river of Arcadia, flowing into the Alpheus. + +98. Lycæus and Cyllene, mountains of Arcadia. + +100. Erymanth. Erymanthus is a range of mountains separating Arcadia from +Achaia and Elis. + +102. Mænalus, another mountain of Arcadia. + +106. Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were. Syrinx was an Arcadian +nymph, who, being pursued by Pan, threw herself into the Ladon, where she +was metamorphosed into a reed, of which the shepherds thereafter made +their pipes. + + + + + AT A SOLEMN MUSIC. + + +The poet listens to what in the phrase of his time is a _solemn music_, +but which we should name a sacred concert. The poem is unalloyed lyric, +expressing the rapture to which the music has lifted his soul. We must +remember that Milton was himself an amateur musician, and in his days of +darkness found habitual diversion at his organ. Indications of a +susceptible and appreciative ear for musical harmony are frequent +throughout the poems. + + +7. the sapphire-colored throne. See Ezekiel I 26. + +27. consort is the word from which we derive our _concert_. + + + + + COMUS. + + +During the reigns of Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I., the _mask_ was +one of the most popular forms of dramatic entertainment. Having a +function and a character peculiar to itself, it flourished side by side +with the regular plays of the theatrical stage, and gave large scope to +the genius of poets, composers, and scenic artists. + +The mask was usually designed to grace some important occasion, in which +members of the upper classes of society, or even royal personages, were +concerned. When the occasion called for particularly brilliant display, +and had been long foreseen, the preparations for it would involve immense +outlays for costumes, theatrical machinery, for new music, and for a +libretto by a play-writer of the greatest note. When the mask was purely +a private one, like Arcades and Comus, it was all the fashion for the +gentle youths and maidens, for gentlemen and ladies of the highest rank, +to take upon themselves the parts of the drama, to rehearse them +assiduously, and finally to enact them on the private stage or on the +lawn in the presence of a select audience. + +The mask thus differentiated itself from the stage play in that it was +not given for the pecuniary behoof of a company of actors, but +represented rather expenditure for the simple purpose of producing grand +effects. To act in a mask was an honor, when common players were social +outcasts. The mask was got up for the occasion, and was not intended to +keep the boards and attract a paying public. When the august ceremonial +was over, the poet had his manuscript, to increase the bulk of his works, +and the composer had his score, to furnish airs that might be played and +sung in drawing-rooms if they had the good fortune to be popular. + +Such was the origin of the poem which Milton, in all the editions +published during his lifetime, entitled simply "A Maske presented at +Ludlow Castle, 1634," but which editors since his day have agreed to name +Comus. + +The occasion of the poem was the coming of the Earl of Bridgewater to +Ludlow Castle, to enter upon his official residence there as Lord +President of Wales. The person chiefly concerned in the scenic, musical, +and histrionic preparations of the mask was Milton's esteemed friend, the +most accomplished musical composer of the day, Henry Lawes. Lawes +composed the music and arranged the stage business. He seems to have +taken upon himself the part of the Attendant Spirit. Lawes knew to whom +to apply for the all-important matter of the book, the words, or the +poetry, of the piece, for he had learned to know Milton's qualifications +as a mask-poet in the fragment which we have under the name _Arcades_. +With good music even for commonplace lyric verse, and with sprightly +declamation even of conventional dialogue, the thing, as we know from +modern instances, might have been carried off by gorgeous costumes and +shrewdly devised scenic effects. Most of the masks of the time fell at +once into oblivion. But Lawes had secured for his poet John Milton; and +the consequence thereof is that the Earl of Bridgewater is now chiefly +heard of because at Ludlow Castle there was enacted, in the form of a +mask written by Milton, a drama which is still read and reread by every +English-speaking person who reads any serious poetry, though Ludlow +Castle has long been a venerable ruin. + +For his plot, the poet feigned that the young children of the earl, two +sons and a daughter, in coming to Ludlow, had to pass unattended through +a forest, in which the boys became separated from the girl and she fell +into the hands of the enchanter Comus. The Attendant Spirit appears to +the youths with his magic herb, and with the further assistance of the +water-nymph Sabrina, at last makes all right, and the children are +restored to their parents in the midst of festive rejoicing. + +The poem is dramatic, because it is acted and spoken or sung in character +by its persons. It is allegorical, because it inculcates a moral, and +more is meant than meets the ear. In parts it is pastoral, both because +the chief personage appears in the guise of a shepherd, and because its +motive largely depends on the superstitions and traditions of simple, +ignorant folk. In the longer speeches, where events are narrated with +some fulness, it becomes epic. Lastly, in its songs, in the octosyllables +of the magician, and in the adjuration and the thanking of Sabrina, it is +lyric. With iambic pentameter as the basis of the dialogue, the poet +varies his measures as Shakespeare does his, and with very similar ends +in view. + +The name _Comus_ Milton found ready to his hand. As a common noun, the +Greek word _comus_ signifies carousal,--wassail. In the later classic +period it had become a proper name, standing for a personification of +nocturnal revelry, and a god Comus was frequently depicted on vases and +in mural paintings. Philostratus, in his _Ikones_,--or _Pictures_,--gives +an interesting description of a painting of this god. See Encyclopædia +Britannica, article _Comus_. Ben Jonson, in his mask, _Pleasure +Reconciled to Virtue_, played in 1619, presents a Comus as "the god of +cheer, or the belly, riding in triumph, his head crowned with roses and +other flowers, his hair curled." The character and the name were the +common property of mask-writers. + +The great distinction of Comus is its beauty, maintained at height +through a thousand lines of supremely perfect verse. Greatly dramatic it +of course is not. It yields its meaning to the most cursory reading; it +has no mystery. It is simply beautiful, with a sustained beauty elsewhere +unparalleled. + + +The following letter of Sir Henry Wotton to the Author deserves to be +read both for its engaging style as a piece of English prose and for its +exquisite characterization of Comus. Wotton was a versatile scholar, +diplomat, and courtier, seventy years old at the time of this letter, +with a reputation as a kindly and appreciative literary critic. He was +now residing at Eton College, where he held the office of Provost. +Milton, thirty years of age, the first edition of his Comus recently +published anonymously, had good cause for elation over such a testimonial +from such a source. + + "From the College, this 13 of April, 1638. + +"Sir, + +"It was a special favour when you lately bestowed upon me here the first +taste of your acquaintance, though no longer than to make me know that I +wanted more time to value it and to enjoy it rightly; and, in truth, if I +could then have imagined your farther stay in these parts, which I +understood afterwards by Mr. H., I would have been bold, in our vulgar +phrase, to mend my draught (for you left me with an extreme thirst), and +to have begged your conversation again, jointly with your said learned +friend, over a poor meal or two, that we might have banded together some +good Authors of the ancient time; among which I observed you to have been +familiar. + +"Since your going, you have charged me with new obligations, both for a +very kind letter from you dated the 6th of this month, and for a dainty +piece of entertainment which came therewith. Wherein I should much +commend the tragical part, if the lyrical did not ravish me with a +certain Doric delicacy in your Songs and Odes, whereunto I must plainly +confess to have seen yet nothing parallel in our language: _Ipsa +mollities_. But I must not omit to tell you that I now only owe you +thanks for intimating unto me (how modestly soever) the true artificer. +For the work itself I had viewed some good while before with singular +delight; having received it from our common friend Mr. R., in the very +close of the late R.'s Poems, printed at Oxford: whereunto it was added +(as I now suppose) that the accessory might help out the principal, +according to the art of Stationers, and to leave the reader _con la bocca +dolce_. + +"Now, Sir, concerning your travels; wherein I may challenge a little more +privilege of discourse with you. I suppose you will not blanch Paris in +your way: therefore I have been bold to trouble you with a few lines to +Mr. M. B., whom you shall easily find attending the young Lord S. as his +governor; and you may surely receive from him good directions for the +shaping of your farther journey into Italy where he did reside, by my +choice, some time for the King, after mine own recess from Venice. + +"I should think that your best line will be through the whole length of +France to Marseilles, and thence by sea to Genoa; whence the passage into +Tuscany is as diurnal as a Gravesend barge. I hasten, as you do, to +Florence or Siena, the rather to tell you a short story, from the +interest you have given me in your safety. + +"At Siena I was tabled in the house of one Alberto Scipioni, an old Roman +courtier in dangerous times; having been steward to the Duca di Pagliano, +who with all his family were strangled, save this only man that escaped +by foresight of the tempest. With him I had often much chat of those +affairs, into which he took pleasure to look back from his native +harbour; and at my departure toward Rome (which had been the centre of +his experience), I had won his confidence enough to beg his advice how I +might carry myself there without offence of others or of mine own +conscience. '_Signor Arrigo mio_,' says he, '_I pensieri stretti ed il +viso sciolto_ will go safely over the whole world.' Of which Delphian +oracle (for so I have found it) your judgment doth need no commentary; +and therefore, Sir, I will commit you, with it, to the best of all +securities, God's dear love, remaining + +"Your friend, as much to command as any of longer date, + + "Henry Wotton." + + _Postscript._ + +"Sir: I have expressly sent this my footboy to prevent your departure +without some acknowledgment from me of the receipt of your obliging +letter; having myself through some business, I know not how, neglected +the ordinary conveyance. In any part where I shall understand you fixed, +I shall be glad and diligent to entertain you with home-novelties, even +for some fomentation of our friendship, too soon interrupted in the +cradle." + + +The Latin phrase, _ipsa mollities_, may be translated,--it is the very +perfection of delicacy. The Italian words below mean,--My dear Henry, +thoughts close, face open. + + +1. Before the starry threshold of Jove's court. The attendant spirit not +only announces himself as a dweller in heaven, but he specifies his +particular function among the celestials: he is doorkeeper in the house +of God. + +3. insphered. Compare Il Penseroso 88. + +7. Confined and pestered. _Pester_ has its primitive meaning, to clog or +encumber. In this pinfold here. _Pinfold_ is probably not connected with +the verb to pen, but is a shortened form of poundfold, and means, +literally, an enclosure for stray cattle. + +10. After this mortal change: after this life on earth, which is subject +to death. + +11. Amongst the enthroned gods. Make but two syllables of _enthroned_, +and accent the first. + +The long sentence ending with line 11 is very loose in construction: the +_and_ in line 7 is a coördinate conjunction, but does not connect +coördinate elements. + +13. To lay their just hands on that golden key. Compare Lycidas 110. + +16. these pure ambrosial weeds. Ambrosial has its proper +meaning,--pertaining to the immortals. + +20. by lot 'twixt high and nether Jove. Neptune drew lots with Jupiter +and Pluto. To Jupiter fell the region of the upper air, to Pluto the +lower world, and to Neptune the sea. The ancient poets sometimes spoke of +Jupiter and Pluto as the upper and the lower Jove. + +25. By course commits to several government: in due order he assigns the +islands to his tributaries, giving them an island apiece. + +27. But this Isle is so large that he has to divide it. + +29. Consider quarters to mean nothing more than divides. his blue-haired +deities. The epithet is conventional, taken from the Greek poets, and +probably has no special significance in this passage. + +31. A noble Peer. This connects the poem with actual persons and +announces its occasion. The noble peer is the Earl of Bridgewater, and +the event which is to be celebrated is his appointment to the +Vice-royalty of Wales. + +33. The old and haughty nation are the Welsh. + +34. his fair offspring are two sons and a daughter, who are to play the +parts of the Two Brothers and the Lady in the mask. + +37. the perplexed paths of this drear wood. Compare Par. Lost IV 176. + +41. sovran. See note on Hymn on the Nativity 60. + +45. in hall or bower. Hall and bower are conventionally coupled by the +poets to signify the dwellings, respectively, of the gentry and the +laboring classes. + +46. The transformation by Bacchus of the treacherous Tuscan sailors into +dolphins belongs to the established myths of that god. But Milton +exercises his right as a poet to add to the classic story whatever suits +his purposes. + +48. After the Tuscan mariners transformed; a Latinism, meaning, after the +transformation of the Tuscan mariners. + +50. fell: chanced to land. + +For the story of Circe, see the Odyssey X. + +58. Understand that no such distinct character as Comus belongs to the +received mythology. Milton is a myth-maker. + +59. frolic is used as an adjective, as in L'Allegro 18. + +60. the Celtic and Iberian fields. The god traversed Gaul and Spain, on +his way to Britain. + +61. ominous: abounding in mysterious signs of danger. + +65. His orient liquor. See line 673 of this poem. + +72. Note that only the countenance is changed. + +87. Well knows to still the wild winds. The poem moves throughout in the +realm of romance. The swain Thyrsis is in his own character a +practitioner of magic. + +88. nor of less faith. Thyrsis has just been described as a person of +great skill. + +90. Likeliest: most likely to be. + +93. The transition from the stately mood of the Attendant Spirit's +exordium to the noisy exhilaration of Comus is marked by appropriate +changes in the verse. Comus speaks in a lyric strain, and his tone is +exultant. When he comes to serious business, in line 145, he also employs +blank-verse. The lyric lines, 93-144, rhyme in couplets, and vary in +length, most of them having four accents, while some have five. The +four-accent lines vary between seven and eight syllables, many of them +dropping the initial light syllable, or anakrusis (Auftakt). These +seven-syllable lines have a trochaic effect, but are to be scanned as +iambic, the standard rhythm of the poem. The star that bids the shepherd +fold. So Collins, in his ode To Evening,--"For when thy folding-star +arising shows His paly circlet." See also Measure for Measure IV 2 218. + +96. doth allay: doth cool. + +97. The epithet steep is applied to the ocean, though really it is the +course of the downward-moving sun that is steep. + +99-101. Milton uses pole, as the poets were wont to do, to mean the sky; +and the passage means,--the sun, moving about the earth in his oblique +course, now shines upon that part of the heavens which, when it is +daylight to us, is in shadow. + +105. with rosy twine; with twined, or wreathed, roses. + +108-109. Advice ... Age ... Severity. For these abstract terms substitute +their concretes. + +110. their grave saws. So Hamlet I 5 100, "all saws of books." + +116. in wavering morrice. See M. N. Dream II 1 98; All's Well II 2 25. + +118. the dapper elves. _Dapper_ is akin to the German _tapfer_, but with +a very different connotation. + +124. Love: the Latin Amor, the Greek Eros, and our Cupid. + +129. Dark-veiled Cotytto was a Thracian goddess, whose worship was +connected with licentious frivolity. + +133. makes one blot of all the air. Compare line 204 of this poem. + +135. thou ridest with Hecat'. _Hecate_ was a goddess of the lower world, +mistress of witchcraft and the black arts. + +139. The nice Morn. _Nice_ is used in a disparaging sense, meaning over +particular, minutely critical. + +140. From her cabined loop-hole peep. As if morn dwelt in a cabin and +clandestinely peeped from a small window. + +141. descry must here mean reveal. + +144. In a light fantastic round. Recall L'Allegro 34. Comus and his crew +are now dancing. + +147. shrouds: hiding-places. See the verb, line 316. + +151. my wily trains. _Trains_ are tricks, as in Macbeth IV 3 118. + +154. The air is spongy because it absorbs his magic dust. + +155. blear, usually applied to eyes, here refers to the effect of seeing +objects with blear eyes. + +174. the loose unlettered hinds. The hinds are farm-servants, usually +with an implication of rudeness and rusticity, and they are loose because +unrestrained in speech and act by considerations of propriety. + +177. amiss: in wrong or unseemly ways. + +178. swilled is a very contemptuous word. + +179. wassailers. See Macbeth I 7 64. The word has an interesting +etymology. + +188. the grey-hooded Even. Milton is fond of applying the epithet _gray_ +to the evening and the dawn. See Par. Lost IV 598, Lycidas 187. + +189. Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed. The votarist is one who has +made a vow. In this case he goes on a pilgrimage, carrying a palm branch, +and wearing the pilgrim garb. + +203. the tumult of loud mirth was rife. As to the meaning of _rife_ +compare Sam. Ag. 866 and Par. Lost I 650. + +204. Yet nought but single darkness do I find. The darkness is unbroken +by any ray of light. + +210. may startle well, but not astound. _Astound_ is a strong word. See +Par. Lost I 281. + +212. a strong siding champion: a champion who sides with the virtuous +mind. + +222. her silver lining. Note Milton's avoidance of the possessive _its_. +In all his verse he uses _its_ but three times. + +231. Within thy airy shell. The _airy shell_ in which Echo lives must be +the "hollow round" of the atmosphere. Compare Hymn on the Nativity +100-103. + +232. The Meander is the river of Asia Minor, famous for its windings. + +233-237. The mention of the nightingale and Narcissus in this passage +suggests that it may be a reminiscence of the chorus in the Oedipus +Coloneus,--"Of this land of goodly steeds, O stranger." + +237. Echo's passion for the beautiful Narcissus was not requited, and she +pined away till she became a mere voice, which she could not utter till +she was spoken to. + +241. Daughter of the Sphere: daughter of the air, which forms a hollow +sphere about the earth. + +243. And give resounding grace to all Heaven's harmonies: by echoing back +the music of the spheres. + +249-252. Even darkness smiled, as if acknowledging itself agreeably +caressed by the strains of the lady's song. + +251. At every fall. _Fall_, as a musical term, is "a sinking down or +lowering of the note or voice; cadence" (New Eng. Dict.). + +253. the Sirens dwelt on an island near Sicily, and by their sweet song +allured mariners to destruction. See Odyssey XII. + +254. the Naiades were nymphs attendant on Circe and the Sirens. + +257. And lap it in Elysium. Compare L'Allegro 136. + +257-259. Scylla and Charybdis were dangerous rocks and whirlpools on +opposite sides of the strait of Messina. They were personified as cruel +sea-monsters. + +260. Yet they: Circe and the Sirens. + +267. Unless the goddess. Supply _thou art_. + +273. extreme shift: a pressing necessity of devising some expedient. + +289. Were they of manly prime or youthful bloom? Were they in the prime +of adult manhood, or in the bloom of youth? + +277-290. These fourteen lines are an instance of "stichomythia, or +conversation in alternate lines, which was always popular on the Attic +stage. This scheme of versification is used chiefly in excited +discussions, where the speakers are hurried along by the eagerness of +their feelings."--Haigh, _The Tragic Drama of the Greeks_. + +292. An ox in traces would now be a rare sight. + +294. a green mantling vine. See Par. Lost IV 258. + +299. gay creatures of the element: creatures of the air,--supernatural +beings. + +301. And play i' the plighted clouds. Probably the poet means the +_plaited_, or _pleated_, clouds, conceiving the clouds as appearing +folded together. I was awe-strook. See Hymn on the Nativity 95. + +316. Or shroud within these limits. _Shroud_ as a noun we saw above, line +147. + +318. From her thatched pallet rouse. The lark builds on the ground, +seeking a spot protected by overarching stems of grass or grain, which +may be called a natural thatch; and if this protection is destroyed by +mowers or reapers, the bird will at once take pains to build a roof or +thatch over the nest, completely covering it, and for a door will make an +opening on the side. + +325. where it first was named. The derivation of the words _courteous_ +and _courtesy_ from _court_ is obvious. + +327. Less warranted than this, or less secure. The lady says that she +cannot be in any place less guaranteed than this against evil, and that +she cannot anywhere be less free from anxiety. Her situation she +conceives to be as bad as it can be. + +329. square my trial To my proportioned strength: make my trial +proportionate to my strength. + +332. That wont'st to love. _Wont'st_, in the present tense, means, as we +say, art wont. + +333. Stoop thy pale visage. Stoop is thus used, transitively, Richard II. +III 1 19, "myself ... have stooped my neck." + +334. And disinherit Chaos, that reigns here. _Chaos_, "the formless void +of primordial matter," is personified by Milton here and, much more +conspicuously, in Par. Lost III. + +338. a rush-candle: a candle made with a rush for a wick,--the cheapest +kind of light. from the wicker hole Of some clay habitation. Imagine a +hut whose walls are made of wattled twigs plastered with clay. This clay +when dry is apt to fall off in spots, leaving holes through which the +light within can be seen from without. A wicker hole is a hole in the +wicker-work, perhaps made intentionally, to serve as a window. + +341-342. The star of Arcady is the constellation of the Greater Bear, and +the Tyrian Cynosure that of the Lesser Bear. Stars in these +constellations served as guides to Greek and Tyrian mariners. + +345. Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops. Compare Collins's Ode to +Evening,--_If aught of oaten stop, or pastoral song_. The shepherds of +the Greek idylls made their musical pipes of reeds or oat-straws, and the +oat has therefore been adopted by the pastoral poetry of all ages. + +349. innumerous boughs. Compare Par. Lost VII 455. + +358. Of savage hunger, or of savage heat: of hungry savages, or of +lustful savages. + +361. grant they be so: grant that they are real evils. + +365. Make four syllables of delusion. + +366. I do not think my sister so to seek: I do not think she has her +seeking, or learning, still to do: I do not think her so inexperienced. + +373-375. Is this practical doctrine? + +377. Make five syllables of Contemplation. + +380. Were all to-ruffled. The particle _to_--Anglo Saxon _tô_, Modern +German _zer_--has disappeared from Modern English. In Old English it was +often used with the force of the Latin _dis_. So still in Chaucer, +_to-bete, to-cleve, to-rende_, and many others. + +386. affects: likes, has an affection for. + +390. weeds, as in line 84. + +393. the fair Hesperian tree. See line 983. + +394. had need the guard. An elliptical expression. _Need_ is a noun, but +is treated as if it were a verb. + +395. The dragon Ladon was not able to defend the apples of Hesperides +against Hercules. + +401. will wink on Opportunity: will fail to see its chance. + +404. it recks me not. The verb is thus used, impersonally, also in +Lycidas 122. + +407. The line has two hypermetric syllables, one after the third foot, +and one at the end. + +413. squint suspicion. An epithet applicable only to a physical infirmity +is applied to a mental act. + +422. quivered: bearing a quiver. + +423. unharbored: furnishing no shelter. + +424. Infamous hills. Accent _infamous_ as we do now and as Milton does +elsewhere. Verses thus beginning with trochees are common. + +429. Look up the origin of the word grots. + +430. unblenched: unstartled. + +434. Blue meagre hag. The _hag_ has the livid hue of hunger. + +436. swart faery of the mine. A malignant demon dwelling under ground,--a +gnome. + +441. the huntress Dian. The powerful goddess Diana, or Artemis, twin +sister of Apollo, was figured bearing a bow and arrows. + +448. wise Minerva. Minerva, or Pallas Athene, is usually represented as +wearing on her breast the ægis with a border of snakes and the Gorgon's +head in the centre. + +460-462. Note the different modes in begin and turns, where we should +look for similar constructions. + +487. The ellipsis of _we had_ is readily supplied. Draw and stand are +infinitives. + +494. Thyrsis, a stock shepherd-name. The spirit henceforth appears to his +fellow-actors in the mask as the shepherd with whom they are familiar. + +495-512. These lines express sudden emotion, and approximate lyric in +character. Hence the rhyme. + +508. How chance she is not. Supply the ellipsis. + +517. Chimeras is here used vaguely in the plural to mean dangerous +monsters. + +526. With many murmurs mixed. The enchanter spoke or sang forms of +incantation over his mixing and brewing. Recall Macbeth. + +529. The word mintage has an interesting history. The human countenance +is conceived as an imprint, like the characters on a coin. + +530. Charactered in the face. The _noun character_ Milton pronounces with +accent on the first syllable, as does Shakespeare. Probably he also +agrees with Shakespeare in pronouncing the _verb_ with the accent on the +second syllable, as this verse suggests. + +531. crofts. The word is still in use in England, meaning a small farm. + +540. by then the chewing flocks: by the time when, etc. + +547. To meditate my rural minstrelsy: to play on my shepherd-pipe and to +sing. To meditate the muse is a standard expression of the pastoral +poets. See Lycidas 66. + +552. What do we know was the cause of this unusual stop of sudden +silence? + +553-554. The cessation of the din gave to the steeds of sleep, and to +people who were trying to sleep, relief from annoyance. + +557-560. Be sure you understand the figure. + +560. Still, in its very frequent sense, _always_. + +562. Under the ribs of Death: in a skeleton. + +575. such two; describing them. + +586. Shall be unsaid for me: it is not necessary for me to make any +change in my opinion to make it harmonize with this new aspect of +affairs. + +595. Gathered like scum, and settled to itself. The two metaphors thus +combined make a rather strange mixture. + +598. The pillared firmament. By the _firmament_ is usually understood the +sphere of the fixed stars. How to introduce the conception of _pillars_ +is not clear. + +604. Acheron. See Par. Lost II 578. + +605. The Harpies were monstrous birds with women's heads. Their doings +are described Æneid III. The Hydra was a monster serpent with a hundred +heads. + +607. his purchase: his acquisition. + +610. I love thy courage yet, though thou hast spoken most unwisely. + +611. can do thee little stead: can avail thee but little. + +617. utmost shifts: most carefully devised precautions. + +620. Of small regard to see to: of very insignificant appearance. + +621. A virtuous plant is a plant which has virtues, i.e. powers or +qualities. + +624. Which when I did. The modern English has lost the power of beginning +a sentence thus, with two relatives. + +626. scrip, a word in no way connected with _script_. + +627. And show me simples of a thousand names. Compare Hamlet IV 7 145, +"no cataplasm so rare, Collected from all simples that have virtue Under +the moon." + +634. Unknown and like esteemed: neither known nor esteemed. + +635. Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon. See 2 Henry VI. IV 2 +195,--"Spare none but such as go in clouted shoon," and Hamlet IV 5 +26,--"By his cockle hat and staff, And his sandal shoon." + +636. The story of Hermes' giving Ulysses the Moly read in Odyssey X. +"Therewith the slayer of Argos gave me the plant that he had plucked from +the ground, and he showed me the growth thereof. It was black at the +root, but the flower was like to milk. Moly the gods call it, but it is +hard for mortal men to dig; howbeit with the gods all things are +possible." + +638. He called it Hæmony. _Hæmony_ is a nonce-word of Milton's own +coining. He may have derived it from a Greek word meaning _skilful_ or +from another meaning _blood_. + +640. mildew blast, or damp. _Blast_ is defined by Dr. Murray: "A sudden +infection destructive to vegetable or animal life (formerly attributed to +the blowing or breath of some malignant power, foul air, etc.)"; and +_damp_: "An exhalation, a vapor or gas, of a noxious kind." + +641. Or ghastly Furies' apparition: or the appearance of terrifying +ghosts. + +646. Entered the very lime-twigs of his spells. _Lime_ was a viscous +substance, spread upon the twigs of trees and bushes to entangle the feet +of birds. The figure is frequent in Shakespeare. See Hamlet III 3 68, "O +limed soul, that, struggling to be free, Art more engaged." + +657. apace: quickly. + +In the stage directions, goes about means, makes a movement. + +661. as Daphne was, Root-bound, that fled Apollo. The great god, Apollo, +pursuing the nymph Daphne, Diana saved her by transforming her into a +laurel tree. + +672. this cordial julep. _Julep_ is a word of Persian origin, meaning +rose-water. Note the poet's skill in culling words of delicious sound. + +675. Not that Nepenthes which the wife of Thone In Egypt gave to +Jove-born Helena. See Odyssey IV: "Then Helen, daughter of Zeus, cast a +drug into the wine whereof they drank, a drug to lull all pain and anger, +and bring forgetfulness of every sorrow.... Medicines of such virtue and +so helpful had the daughter of Zeus, which Polydamna, the wife of Thon, +had given her, a woman of Egypt." + +685. the unexempt condition: the condition from which no one is exempt. + +695. These oughly-headed monsters. Perhaps by this peculiar spelling, +_oughly_, Milton meant to add to the word _ugly_ a higher degree of +ugliness. + +698. With vizored falsehood: falsehood with its vizor, or face-piece, +down, to conceal its identity. + +700. With liquorish baits. _Liquorish_, now usually spelled _lickerish_, +is allied to _lecherous_, and has no connection with _liquor_ or with +_liquorice_. + +703. The goodness of the gift lies in the intention of the giver. + +707. those budge doctors of the stoic fur. _Budge_ is defined by Dr. +Murray: "Solemn in demeanor, important-looking, pompous, stiff, formal." +Cowper, in his poem Conversation, has the couplet: "The solemn fop; +significant and budge; A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge." _A +doctor of the Stoic fur_ is a teacher of the Stoic philosophy, who wears +a gown of the fur to which his degree of doctor entitles him. + +708. fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub: teach doctrines learned +from the Cynic Diogenes, who is reputed to have lived in a tub. + +719. hutched: stowed or laid away, as in a chest or hutch. + +721. pulse; conceived as the simplest kind of food. + +722. frieze; to be pronounced _freeze_. + +724. and yet: and what is yet more. + +728. Who refers back to Nature. + +734. they below: the people of the lower world. + +737. coy. See Lycidas 18. cozened. See Merchant of Venice II 9 38. + +744. It refers back to beauty. + +748. homely; in the modern disparaging sense. + +750. grain: color. + +751. To ply, or make, a sampler, as a proof of her skill with the needle, +was, until very modern times, the duty of every young girl. The old +samplers are now precious heirlooms in families. to tease the huswife's +wool. To _tease wool_, or to card it, was to use the teasle, or a card, +to prepare it for spinning. Carding and spinning were common duties of +the huswife and her daughters. + +753. In what respect can tresses be said to be like the morn? + +760. when vice can bolt her arguments. There are two verbs, spelled +alike, _bolt_. One means to sift, and is used often of arguments and +reasonings. To bolt arguments is to construct them with logical care and +precision. The other _bolt_ means to shoot forth or blurt out. We may +take our choice of the two words. + +773. How is the line to be scanned? + +780. Or have I said enow? In the edition of Comus published in 1645 this +passage reads, _Or have I said enough?_ In the edition of 1673, the +latest that he revised, Milton changed _enough_ to _enow_. Grammatically, +_enough_ is the better form, as the Elizabethan usage favored _enough_ +for the form of the adjective with singular nouns and for the adverb, and +_enow_ as the adjective with plurals. It would seem that the poet must +have had some motive of euphony for the change he made. + +788. thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know. A Latinism: _dignus es +qui non cognoscas_. + +793. the uncontrolled worth Of this pure cause: the invincible power +inherent in the cause by virtue of its nature. + +804. Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus To some of Saturn's crew: +pronounces sentence upon his foes, condemning them to the punishments +named. _Erebus_--Darkness--is one of the numerous names of the lower +world, the kingdom of Pluto. + +808. the canon laws: the fundamental laws, or the Constitution. Canon +law, generally speaking, is ecclesiastical law, or the law governing the +church. + +817. And backward mutters of dissevering power. The "many murmurs" with +which his incantations have been mixed must be spoken backward in order +to undo their effect. This backward repetition of the charm has the power +to break the spell which the charm has wrought. + +822. Meliboeus is yet another of the stock names of pastoral poetry. + +823. The soothest shepherd. The ancient adjective _sooth_ means +essentially nothing more than _true_. + +826. Sabrina is her name. The story of Sabrina is told by Geoffrey of +Monmouth, whose history is included in the volume of Bohn's Antiquarian +Library, entitled _Six Old English Chronicles_. The book is easily +accessible. + +827. Whilom is derived from the dative plural _hwílum_ of the Old English +noun _hwíl_, and originally meant _at times_. + +831. What does Sabrina do in this line? + +835. aged Nereus was one of the numerous Greek deities of the water. He +and his wife Doris had fifty or a hundred daughters, who are called +Nereids. + +838. In nectared lavers strewed with asphodel. The _nectar_ of the gods, +which we usually think of as their drink, was also applied to other +purposes, as when Thetis anoints with it the body of Patroclus, to +prevent decay. _Asphodel_ is a flower in our actual flora; but in the +poets Asphodel is an immortal flower growing abundantly in the meadows of +Elysium. + +840. ambrosial here means, _conferring immortality_. + +845. Helping all urchin blasts; _i.e._ helping the victims of the blasts +against their baleful influence. See note on line 640. See Merry Wives of +Windsor IV 4 49. + +851. The word daffodil is directly derived from asphodel, with a _d_ +unaccountably prefixed. The English daffodil is the narcissus. + +858. adjuring: charging or entreating solemnly and earnestly, as if under +oath. + +868. Oceanus is the personified Ocean, a broad, flowing stream encircling +the earth. + +869. Earth-shaking is a Homeric epithet of Neptune. The mace of Neptune +must be his trident. + +870. Tethys is wife of Oceanus and mother of the Oceanids. She reared the +great goddess Juno, wife of Jupiter. Her pace is suitable to her dignity. + +871. hoary Nereus. See note on line 835. + +872. the Carpathian wizard's hook. Proteus, son of Oceanus and Tethys, +herded the sea-calves of Neptune on the island of Carpathus. As a +herdsman he bore a crook, or _hook_. He had the gift of prophecy, and so +is called a _wizard_. + +873. Scaly Triton's winding shell. _Triton_ was herald of Neptune and so +carried a shell, which he was wont to _wind_ as a horn. His body was in +part covered with scales like those of a fish. + +874. The soothsaying Glaucus was a prophet, and gave oracles at Delos. He +is represented as a man whose hair and beard are dripping with water, +with bristly eyebrows, his breast covered with sea-weeds, and the lower +part of his body ending in the tail of a fish. + + 875. By Leucothea's lovely hands, + And her son that rules the strands. + +Ino, after she had slain herself and her son Melicertes, by leaping with +him into the sea, became a protecting deity of mariners under the name +Leucothea, or the white goddess. So she came to the aid of Ulysses when +he was passing on his raft from Calypso's isle to Phæacia. She there +appears "with fair ankles," and when she receives back from him her veil, +which she had lent him, she does it with "_lovely hands_." + +Melicertes becomes a protecting deity of shores, under the name Palæmon. +The Romans identified him with their god Portunus. + +877. By Thetis' tinsel-slippered feet. Thetis was the wife of Peleus, and +the mother of Achilles. In Homer she has the epithet _silver-footed_. + +878. the songs of Sirens. See note on line 253. + +879. By dead Parthenope's dear tomb. Parthenope was one of the Sirens. At +Naples her tomb was shown. + +880. And fair Ligea's golden comb. Ligea was probably also a siren. In +Virgil, Georgics IV 336, we find a nymph of this name, spinning wool with +other nymphs, "their bright locks floating over their snowy necks." The +name Ligea means shrill-voiced. + +887. In the reading make in an adverb. + +892. My sliding chariot stays. Compare this use of _stay_ with that found +in lines 134, 577, 820. + +893. the azurn sheen. With _azurn_ compare _cedarn_, line 990. + +908-909. Be careful what inflection you give these lines in the reading. + +913. of precious cure: of precious power to cure. + +921. To wait in Amphitrite's bower. _Amphitrite_ was a daughter of +Oceanus and Tethys. She was goddess of the sea, had the care of its +creatures, and could stir up the waves in storm. + +923. Sprung of old Anchises' line. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, +Brutus the Trojan was the grandson of Æneas and founder of London. +Anchises, in the Homeric story, is the father of Æneas. This fable plays +an important part in the ancient British myth. + +924. thy brimmed waves. A river is happiest when full to its brim. + +930. Of what parts of speech are torrent and flood? + +933. It is very curious that our word beryl and the German _Brille_ come +directly from the same source. + +937. And yet this river is the English Severn! + +957. Note the impressive effect of the five-foot line ending the scene. + +The shepherds have their dance in rustic fashion. The words describing +this dance are the familiar peasant words, jig, duck, nod. The playful +tone in which the spirit calls upon the swains to give place to their +betters is charming. + +964. With the mincing Dryades. "The _Dryades_ were nymphs of woods and +trees, dwelling in groves, ravines, and wooded valleys, and were fond of +making merry with Apollo, Mercury, and Pan." + +980. I suck the liquid air: I inhale the upper air,--the _æther_ +_liquidus_ of the poets. So Ariel, Tempest V 1 102, "I drink the air +before me." + +981. the gardens fair Of Hesperus and his daughters three. The number of +the Hesperides and their parentage are differently given in various +legends. The story of their garden in some mysterious place in the far +west, where they guarded the tree that bore the golden apples, assisted +by the dragon Ladon, is one of the best known in the classic mythology. + +984. Along the crisped shades and bowers. Milton applies _crisped_ to +brooks, Par. Lost IV 237. Herrick has,--"the crisped yew," and the +American Thoreau,--"A million crisped waves." + +985. spruce. A very interesting account of the origin of this word is +given by Skeat in his Etymological Dictionary. + +986. The Graces and the rosy-bosomed Hours. See note on L'Allegro 15. +"The _Graces_ were guardians of the vernal sweetness and beauty of +nature, friends and protectors of everything graceful and beautiful." The +_Hours_ were goddesses of the seasons, daughters of Zeus and Themis. They +were the door-keepers of Olympus, whose cloud-gate they open and shut: +thus they preside over the weather. + +990. About the cedarn alleys: about the pathways through cedar groves. +Coleridge, in Kubla Khan, has the line, "Down the green hill athwart a +cedarn cover"; and Tennyson, Geraint and Enid, the line,--"And moving +toward a cedarn cabinet." So also William Barnes, in his Rural Poems, +uses the expression, "stonen jugs." + +992. Iris is the messenger of the gods: her path is the rainbow. + +993. Dr. Murray gives other instances of blow as a transitive verb. + +999. Adonis was a young shepherd, the special favorite of Venus. His +death was caused by a wild boar. The story is told in various forms. +Observe that Milton makes him wax well of his deep wound. + +1002. the Assyrian queen. The worship of Aphrodite (Venus) was brought +into Greece from Assyria. + +1005. Holds his dear Psyche. Psyche--the personification of the human +soul--was a mortal maiden, beloved of Cupid. Venus, in her jealousy of +Psyche, compelled her to pass through a long series of hardships and +toils. Cupid at last succeeded in reconciling his mother and his beloved, +and in having _Psyche_ advanced to the dignity of an immortal. + +1015. Where the bowed welkin slow doth bend: where the curvature of the +vault of the sky seems less than higher up toward the zenith. + +1021. the sphery chime. See notes, Hymn on the Nativity 48 and 125. + + + + + LYCIDAS. + + +Lycidas is Milton's contribution to a volume of elegiac verses, in Greek, +Latin, and English, composed by many college friends of Edward King, who +was drowned in the wreck of the vessel in which he was crossing the Irish +Channel. + +In its main intention, Lycidas is an elegy, because it professes to mourn +one who is dead and extols his virtues. In its form it is almost wholly +pastoral, because it feigns an environment of shepherds, allegorizing +college life as the life of men tending flocks, and the occupations of +earnest students as the careless diversions of rustic swains. + +Four times the pastoral note is rudely interrupted by the intervention of +majestic beings who speak in awful tones from another world, and whose +voices instantly check all familiar rustic speech, compelling it to wait +till they have announced their messages from above. The supernal powers +who thus descend to take their parts in the office of mourning are +Phoebus, Apollo, Hippotades, god of the winds, Camus, god of the river +Cam, and St. Peter. This mingling of classic, Hebrew, and Christian +conceptions is a marked characteristic of all Milton's poetry. + +Thus Lycidas is neither wholly elegiac nor wholly pastoral. From the lips +of St. Peter, typifying the church, comes a speech of violent +denunciation, in the true later Miltonic manner. In strange contrast to +this grim invective is the famous flower-passage, the sweetest and +loveliest thing of its kind in our literature. + + +1-5. To pluck once more the berries of the evergreens, or to gather +laurels,--is to make a new venture as a poet,--to compose a poem. The +berries are harsh and crude,--he shatters their leaves before the +mellowing year, either because he is to mourn the death of a young man, +or because he feels in himself a lack of "inward ripeness" to treat his +theme worthily,--perhaps for both reasons. He shatters the leaves with +forced fingers rude, in the sense that his subject is not of his own +choosing. + +6-7. A sad duty is imposed upon him, forbidding further delay on any +personal grounds. + +8. Lycidas is one of the stock names of pastoral poetry. The poem, though +most serious in its main motive and intention, is to have a pastoral +coloring throughout. Note the impressive repetitions, dead, dead, and the +recurrences of the name Lycidas in the next two lines. + +11. he knew Himself to sing and build the lofty rhyme. Edward King had, +in accordance with the college custom of his time, written verses, +apparently all in Latin. Of these verses Masson, in his life of Milton, +gives specimens. They seem to be commonplace. + +13. and welter to the parching wind. See Par. Lost II 594, I 78. + +15. Sisters of the sacred well. Ancient tradition connects the origin of +the Muses with Pieria, a district of Macedonia at the foot of Olympus. +But the springs with which we associate the Muses are Aganippe and +Hippocrene on Mount Helicon. + +19. So may some gentle muse. A peculiar use of the word _muse_ as +masculine, and meaning _poet_. + +23-31. We pursued the same studies, at the same college, and we studied +from early morning sometimes till after midnight. The metaphors are all +pastoral. + +32-36. We wrote merry verse, bringing in the college jollities, in wanton +student-fashion, and the good-natured old don who was our tutor affected +to be pleased with our work. + +34. Rough Satyrs danced, and Fauns with cloven heel. The _Satyrs_, +represented as having human forms, with small goat's horns and a small +tail, had for their occupation to play on the flute for their master, +Bacchus, or to pour his wine. The _Fauns_ were sylvan deities, attendants +of Pan, and are represented, like their master, with the ears, horns, and +legs of a goat. + +37-49. Nature herself sympathizes with men, and mourns thy loss. + +50. Nymphs: deities of the forests and streams. + +52. on the steep Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie. The +shipwreck in which King was lost took place off the coast of Wales. Any +one of the Welsh mountains will serve to make good this allusion. + +54. Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high. _Mona_ is the ancient and +poetical name of the island of Anglesea. + +55. Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream. The Dee (Deva) below +Chester expands into a broad estuary. In his lines spoken At a Vacation +Exercise, Milton, characterizing many rivers, mentions the "ancient +hallowed Dee." The country about the Dee had been specially famous as the +seat of the old Druidical religion. In the eleventh Song of his +Polyolbion, Drayton eulogizes the medicinal virtues of the salt springs +in the valley of the river Weever, which attract Thetis and the +Nereids:-- + + And Amphitrite oft this Wizard River led + Into her secret walks (the depths profound and dread) + Of him (supposed so wise) the hid events to know + Of things that were to come, as things done long ago. + In which he had been proved most exquisite to be; + And bare his fame so far, that oft twixt him and Dee, + Much strife there hath arose in their prophetic skill. + +56-63. Even the Muse Calliope could do nothing for her son Orpheus, whom +the Thracian women tore to pieces under the excitement of their +Bacchanalian orgies. The gory visage floated down the Hebrus and through +the Ægean Sea to the island of Lesbos. + +64. what boots it: of what use is it? + +64-66. What good are we going to derive from this unremitting devotion to +study? + +67-69. Would it not be better to abandon ourselves to social enjoyment, +and to lives of frivolous trifling? Amaryllis and Neæra are stock names +of shepherdesses. + +70-72. Understand clear, as applied to spirit, to mean "pure, guileless, +unsophisticated." Sir Henry Wotton, in his Panegyric to King Charles, +says of King James I.,--"I will not deny his appetite of glory, which +generous minds do ever latest part from." Love of fame, according to the +poet, is the motive that prompts the scholar to live as an ascetic and to +persevere in toilsome labor. This love of fame is an infirmity, but not a +debasing one: it leaves the mind noble. Remember, however, that the +author of the Imitation of Christ prayed, _Da mihi nesciri_. + +75. the blind Fury with the abhorred shears. Milton here seems to ascribe +to the Furies (Erinyes) the function belonging to the Fates (Parcæ, +Moiræ). The three Fates were Klotho, the Spinner; Lachesis, the Assigner +of lots; and Atropos, the Unchanging. It was the duty of Atropos to cut +the thread of life at the appointed time. + +A querulous thought comes to the poet's mind. Our lives are obscure and +laborious, sustained only by the hope of future fame; but before we +attain our reward, comes death, and our ambition is brought to naught. + +76-77. But not the praise, Phoebus replied, and touched my trembling +ears. The Fury cannot destroy the praise, which necessarily belongs to +doing well. Praise here means the essential praise, which naturally +inheres in excellence, and not the being talked about by men. + +The speaker is now Phoebus, the august god Apollo, the pure one, who +protects law and order, and promotes whatever is good and beautiful; who +reveals the will of Zeus, and presides over prophecy. + +Phoebus has now an admonition to give and he touches the poet's ears; as +in Virgil, Eclogue IV 3,--_Cynthius aurem vellit et admonuit_, "The +Cynthian twitched my ear and warned me." + +79. in the glistering foil Set off. See Shakespeare, Richard III. V 3 +250,--"A base foul stone, made precious by the foil of England's chair." + +85-86. O fountain Arethuse, and thou honored flood, Smooth-sliding +Mincius. Arethusa was a fresh-water fountain at Syracuse in Sicily, and +the Mincius is a river in north Italy, on which is situated Mantua, the +birthplace of the poet Virgil. The great pastoral poet Theocritus is said +to have been born at Syracuse. Thus Arethusa and the Mincius typify the +pastoral tone in which Milton conceives and constructs his poem. But the +intervention of the great god Apollo has frighted the bucolic muses, to +whom therefore the poet explains it, line 87. + +88. Now I am on good terms again with the deities of lower rank. Oat is a +common designation of the shepherd's pipe, or syrinx. + +89-90. Neptune, through his herald, Triton, pleads his freedom from all +complicity in the drowning of Lycidas. Triton sends to Æolus, god of the +winds, requesting him to cross-question all his subjects as to what they +were doing on the day of the wreck. + +95-99. The winds prove their innocence, and Æolus himself comes to report +to Triton that at the time of the disaster they were all at home and the +air was perfectly calm. Even Panope and all her sisters were out playing +on the tranquil water. + +96. sage Hippotades. Æolus was the son of Hippotes. See all about him in +Odyssey, book X. Read also Ruskin, Queen of the Air, section 19. + +99. Panope was a Nereid, one of the numerous daughters of Nereus. + +103. Now comes another grand personage to make inquiry about the death of +Lycidas. Camus, the deity of the river Cam, stands for the University of +Cambridge. + +104. His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge. The river god is represented +as wearing a mantle made of water-grasses and reeds. + +105-106. These lines refer to certain markings on the water-plants of the +Cam, said to be correctly described here by the poet. The dimness of the +figures may suggest the great age of the university, and the tokens of +woe belong to the present occasion. + +106. that sanguine flower inscribed with woe. This is the hyacinth, the +flower that sprang up on the spot where the youth Hyacinthus had been +accidentally slain by Apollo. The petals of the hyacinth are said to be +marked with the Greek letters AI AI, which form an interjection +expressing grief. + +107. Lycidas was one of those collegians whose scholarship, character, +and piety promise to make them the pride of their Alma Mater. + +109. The Pilot of the Galilean Lake. See Matthew XIV. + +110. Two massy keys he bore of metals twain. See Matthew XVI 19. See also +Comus 13 and Par. Lost III 485. The idea of _two_ keys, one of gold and +one of iron, is not in the Bible. + +112. He shook his mitred locks. St. Peter wears the mitre as bishop. + +113-131. St. Peter makes but little reference to Lycidas, and his words +add almost nothing to the elegiac character of the poem. His speech is +one of stern and bitter satire. The second period of Milton's life, which +is to be given up to intense and uncompromising partisanship in religion +and politics, foreshadows itself in these lines. + +114. Enow is here used in its proper plural sense. See note on Comus 780. + +115. climb into the fold. See John X 1. The metaphor of sheep and +herdsmen is continued throughout the speech. + +119. Blind mouths! As the relative pronoun beginning the next clause +refers to this exclamation, mouths must be taken as a bold metaphor +meaning men who are all mouth, or are supremely greedy and selfish. +Moreover, they are blind. + +122. What recks it them? See note on Comus 404. They are sped: they have +succeeded in their purpose. See Antony and Cleopatra II 3 35. Note also +the phrase of greeting, _bid God speed_, as in 2 John I 10, 11, King +James version. + +123. their lean and flashy songs: their sermons. + +Evidently Milton can cull words of extreme disparagement and vilification +as well as words of unapproachable poetic beauty. + +125-127. The congregations are not edified. The miserable preaching they +listen to fails to keep them sound in doctrine. They grow lax in their +faith, and heretical opinions become fashionable. + +128. the grim wolf with privy paw is undoubtedly the Roman church. + +130-131. These lines evidently denounce some terrible retribution that is +sure ere long to overtake the corrupt clergy described in the preceding +passage. The two-handed engine at the door, that stands ready to smite +once and smite no more, has never been definitely explained. We naturally +think of the headsman's axe, which, however, does not become applicable +till the execution of Archbishop Laud, an event not to take place till +eight years after the composition of the poem. It has been suggested that +Milton had in mind the two houses of Parliament, or the Parliament and +the Army, as the agency through which reform was to be effected. We must +remember that Milton in 1637 could not foresee the Civil War. He may have +meant to combine certain scriptural expressions into a mysteriously +suggestive and oracular prediction, without having in view any single and +definite possibility. + +132. Return, Alpheus. The Alpheus was a river of the Peloponnesus, said +to sink underground and to flow beneath the sea to Ortygia, near +Syracuse, where it attempted to mingle its waters with those of the +fountain Arethusa. See note on lines 85, 86. See also Shelley's poem, +Arethusa. + +The pastoral tone of lightness and simplicity could not be maintained +while St. Peter spoke. But now the Sicilian Muse returns, all the more +lovely for the contrast with the stern malediction that has gone before. + +134-151. Milton is fond of thus collecting names of persons, places, and +things, choosing them as well for their effect on the ear as for their +significance. The botany of this passage is of little consequence: it +matters not whether all these flowers could, or could not, be collected +at the same season, or whether they could be found at the time of the +year when Lycidas died. The passage offers a picture of exquisite beauty +to the eye, and to the ear a strain of perfect melody. + +136. where the mild whispers use. The verb _use_, in this intransitive +sense, with only adverbial complement, and meaning _dwell_, is now +obsolete. + +138. the swart star: the star that makes _swart_, or _swarthy; i.e._ the +sun. + +139. enamelled eyes are the flowers generally, which are to be specified. +Scattered over the turf, the flowers seem to be looking upward, like +eyes. + +142. rathe is the adjective whose comparative is our _rather_. + +149. amaranthus, by its etymology, means _unfading_. + +150. Daffadil is derived from _asphodel_, with a curious, and altogether +unusual, prefixed _d_. + +153. dally with false surmise. King's body was not found. There was no +actual strewing of the laureate hearse with flowers. + +156. the stormy Hebrides: islands off the northwest coast of Scotland. + +160. Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old. The fable of Bellerus is the +fabled Bellerus, or Bellerus of the fable. He was a mythical giant of +Cornwall in old British legend. Bellerium was the name given to Land's +End, where he was supposed to live. + +161. the great Vision of the guarded mount. St. Michael's Mount is a +pyramidal rock in Mounts Bay on the coast of Cornwall. This was guarded +by the angel, St. Michael, whose gaze was directed seaward, toward +Namancos and Bayona, in northwestern Spain. In some unknown place between +these widely sundered limits, the body of Lycidas is tossed. + +170. with new-spangled ore. _Ore_, from its original meaning of metal in +the natural state, comes to signify metallic lustre generally. See Comus +719, 933. + +173. See Matthew XIV 25. + +175. Compare Comus 838. + +176. the unexpressive nuptial song. See Hymn on the Nativity 116. See +also Revelation XIX 7-9. + +181. And wipe the tears forever from his eyes. See Revelation XXI 4. + +183. Henceforth thou art the genius of the shore. This is the same +promotion that was accorded to Melicertes, son of Ino, who on his death +became the genius of the shore under the name of Palæmon. + +186. uncouth; a self-depreciating expression meaning _unknown_ or +_obscure_. + +187. Milton applies the epithet gray both to evening and to morning. + +188. various quills are the tubes of the shepherd pipe. + +189. Doric means simply _pastoral_, because the idylls of the first +pastoral poets were written in the Doric dialect of Greek. + +190. had stretched out all the hills: had caused the shadows of the hills +to prolong themselves eastward on the plain. + +The poet seems to feign that he spent a day in the composition of +Lycidas. + + + + + SONNETS. + + +Of poems in strict sonnet form, that is, containing neither more nor less +than fourteen decasyllable iambic lines, interlocked by some scheme of +symmetrical rhyme, not in couplets, Milton left twenty-three, of which +five are in Italian. Of the three sonnets in English omitted from this +edition, two have reference to the violent controversy occasioned by +Milton's publications in advocacy of greater freedom of divorce, and are +rough and polemic in style; the third is omitted on account of its +unimportance and lack of distinction. + +In their dates the twenty-three sonnets range from the poet's +twenty-third to his fiftieth year. They are the only form of verse in +which he indulges during that middle period of his life which was +abandoned to political partisanship on the side of the Parliament in the +Civil War, and to the service of the government during the Commonwealth +and the Protectorate. If, as is now widely believed, Shakespeare's +sonnets are artificial and tell us little or nothing about their author, +those of Milton are purely natural and subjective and tell us nothing +else but what their writer was thinking and feeling. Their themes are his +veritable moods and passions. The mood is now friendly, amiable, and +serene, now bitter, strenuous, indignant, vindictive. + +Wordsworth, in his sonnet, _Scorn not the Sonnet_, thus refers to +Milton's sparing use of this poetic form:-- + + and when a damp + Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand + The Thing became a trumpet; whence he blew + Soul-animating strains,--alas too few. + +The Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains followed by a +couplet,--the usual English form up to the seventeenth century. Milton +adopted the Italian, or Petrarchian model, which has continued to be the +standard sonnet form in our modern poetry. In the Miltonic, or Italian, +sonnet a group of eight lines, linked by two rhymes each occurring four +times, is followed by a group of six lines linked by three rhymes each +occurring twice. The octave and the sextet are severed from each other by +the non-continuance of the rhymes of the former into the latter. At the +end of the octave, or near it, is usually a pause, marking the +culmination of the thought, and the sextet makes an inference or rounds +out the sense to an artistic whole. + +Read Wordsworth's sonnets, _Happy the feeling from the bosom thrown,_ and +_Nuns fret not at their convent's narrow room._ + + + I. + +The date of this sonnet is unknown. From the fact that it comes first in +the series as arranged by the poet, it is inferred that it is the +earliest sonnet he chose to publish. + + +4. the jolly Hours. See note on Comus 986. + +5-6. To hear the nightingale before the cuckoo was for lovers a good +sign. This superstition is a motive in the _Cuckoo and the Nightingale_, +a poem formerly attributed to Chaucer, and as such "modernized" by +Wordsworth, but now known to be the work of Sir Thomas Clanvowe. Stanza X +of this poem is thus given by Wordsworth:-- + + But tossing lately on a sleepless bed, + I of a token thought which Lovers heed; + How among them it was a common tale, + That it was good to hear the Nightingale + Ere the vile Cuckoo's note be utterèd. + +9. the rude bird of hate. This gives to the cuckoo altogether too bad a +character. The bird has on the whole a fair standing in English poetry. +We must think of the very pleasing _Ode to the Cuckoo_,--written either +by Michael Bruce or by John Logan,--as well as of the passage in which +Shakespeare makes Lucrece ask (line 848),-- + + Why should the worm intrude the maiden bud? + Or hateful cuckoos hatch in sparrows' nests? + +Look up other nightingale and cuckoo songs; for example, Keats's _Ode to +a Nightingale_, and Wordsworth's _The Cuckoo at Laverna_. + + + II (1631). + +This sonnet Milton appears to have sent with a prose letter to a friend +who had remonstrated with him on the life of desultory study which he was +so long continuing to lead. In this letter he professes the principle of +"not taking thought of being _late_, so it gave advantage to be more +fit." He adds, "That you may see that I am something suspicious of +myself, and do take notice of a certain _belatedness_ in me, I am the +bolder to send you some of my nightward thoughts some little while ago, +because they come in not altogether unfitly, made up in a Petrarchian +stanza, which I told you of." + + +8. timely-happy: wise with the wisdom proportionate to one's years. +Similar compounds of two adjectives in Shakespeare are very frequent; for +example, holy-cruel, heady-rash, proper-false, devilish-holy, cold-pale. + +10. even: equal, adequate. + + + VIII (1642). + +The occasion of this sonnet was the near approach of the royalist army to +London, early in the Civil War. The people of the city had reason to fear +the entrance of the cavalier troops and the sacking of the houses of +citizens obnoxious to the party of the king. Milton would have been an +object of special animosity to victorious royalists, and for a short time +he had grounds for the acutest anxiety. It is not easy to see how, in +case of actual pillage of the city, he could have made use of such an +appeal as this. The sonnet is probably to be regarded as a work of art +constructed when the vicissitudes which it pictures were happily past, +and when the poet's mind had regained its tranquillity. + + +1. Note that Colonel has three syllables, according to the pronunciation +prevailing in Milton's time. Look up the etymology of this word. + +10. The great Emathian conqueror: Alexander the Great, called Emathian +from Emathia, a district of his kingdom of Macedonia. + +11. bid spare The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower Went to the +ground. Alexander destroyed the city of Thebes in 335 B.C. Pindar, the +famous lyric poet, a native and resident of Thebes, had then been dead +more than a century. But Pindar's house still stood, and was left +standing by the conqueror, who destroyed all other buildings of the city. + +12. the repeated air Of sad Electra's poet had the power To save the +Athenian walls from ruin bare. To quote from Plutarch, Life of Lysander: +"The proposal was made in the congress of the allies, that the Athenians +should all be sold as slaves; on which occasion Erianthus, the Theban, +gave his vote to pull down the city and turn the country into +sheep-pasture; yet afterwards, when there was a meeting of the captains +together, a man of Phocis singing the first chorus in Euripides' Electra, +which begins,-- + + "Electra, Agamemnon's child, I come + Unto thy desert home, + +they were all melted with compassion, and it seemed to be a cruel deed to +destroy and pull down a city which had been so famous, and produced such +men." + + + IX (1644). + +Who the virtuous young lady was is not known. + + +2. See the gospel of Matthew VII 13. + +5. See Luke X 40-42; Ruth I 14. + +8. Note the "identical" rhyme. The effect of such a rhyme is unpleasant. +Modern poets avoid it. + +9-14. See Matthew XXV 1-13. + + + X (1644 or 1645). + +Lady Margaret's father was the Earl of Marlborough, who had been +President of the Council under Charles I. Milton attributes his death to +political anxiety caused by the dissolution of Charles's third Parliament +in 1629. + + +6-8. that dishonest victory at Chæronea. The victory of Philip over the +Greeks at Chæronea, B.C. 338, is called by the poet _dishonest_ because +obtained by means of intrigue and bribery. that old man eloquent is the +orator and rhetorician Isocrates, who, in his grief over the defeat of +his countrymen, committed suicide. + +9. later born than to have known: too late to have known. _Serius nata +quam ut cognosceres_. + + + XIII (1646). + +"In these lines, Milton, with a musical perception not common amongst +poets, exactly indicates the great merit of Lawes, which distinguishes +his compositions from those of many of his contemporaries and successors. +His careful attention to the words of the poet, the manner in which his +music seems to grow from those words, the perfect coincidence of the +musical with the metrical accent, all put Lawes's songs on a level with +those of Schumann or Liszt."--_Encyclopædia Britannica_. + +See introductory notes to Comus and Arcades. + + +3-4. not to scan With Midas' ears. The god Apollo, during the time of his +servitude to Laomedon, had a quarrel with Pan, who insisted that the +flute was a better instrument than the lyre. The decision was left to +Midas, king of Lydia, who decided in favor of Pan. To punish Midas, +Apollo changed his ears into those of an ass. + +4. committing short and long: setting long syllables and short ones to +fight against each other, and so destroying harmony. + +5. The subject is conceived as a single idea, and so takes the verb in +the singular. exempts thee: singles thee out, selects thee. + +8. couldst humor best our tongue: couldst best adapt or accommodate +itself to our language. + +10. Phoebus' quire: the poets. _Quire_ is Milton's spelling of _choir_. + +12-14. Read the story of Dante's meeting with his friend, the musician +Casella, in the second canto of Purgatory. + + + XV (1648). + +The taking of Colchester by the parliamentary army under Fairfax, Aug. +28, 1648, was one of the most important events of the Civil War. + + +7. the false North displays Her broken league. The Scotch and the English +accused each other of having violated the Solemn League and Covenant, to +which the people of both countries had subscribed. + +8. to imp their serpent wings. To _imp_ a wing with feathers is to attach +feathers to it so as to strengthen or improve its flight. The word is +originally a term of falconry. See Richard II. II 1 292. See also +Murray's _New English Dictionary_. + +13-14. Valor, Avarice, Rapine; personified abstracts, after the manner of +our earlier poetry. + + + XVI. + +As Secretary for Foreign Tongues to the Council of State of the +Commonwealth, Milton saw much of Cromwell, and came under the influence +of his voice and manner. Whether the great general had ever taken note of +the poems written by the secretary who turned his despatches into Latin, +or whether he gave any special heed to the man himself, with whom he must +have come into some sort of personal relation, we have no means of +knowing. We know, however, perfectly well what the poet thought of the +victorious general. Though by no means always approving his state policy, +Milton retained to the end the warm personal admiration for Cromwell +which he expresses in this sonnet. + + +7-9. Darwen stream, usually spoken of as the battle of Preston, was +fought Aug. 17, 1648; Dunbar, Sept. 3, 1650; Worcester, Sept. 3, 1651. + +12. to bind our souls with secular chains: to fetter our religious +freedom with laws made by the civil power. + +14. hireling wolves. Milton applies this degrading appellation to +clergymen who received pay from the state. His appeal to Cromwell was not +successful. Cromwell was to become the chief supporter of a church +establishment. + + + XVII (1652). + +Sir Henry Vane was member of a committee of the Council of State +appointed in 1649 to consider alliances and relations with the European +powers. Milton, as Secretary of the Council, had abundant opportunity to +observe Vane's skill in diplomacy, his ability to "unfold the drift of +hollow states hard to be spelled." Both Vane and Milton held to the +doctrine, preëminently associated with the name of Roger Williams, of +universal toleration, based on the refusal to the civil magistrate of any +authority in spiritual matters. + + +1. Vane, young in years: Vane was born in 1613. + +3. gowns, not arms: civilians, not soldiers. The expression is a +Latinism, the _gown_ standing for the _toga_. + +4. The fierce Epirot and the African bold: Pyrrhus and Hannibal. + +6. hard to be spelled. Compare Il Penseroso 170. + + + XVIII (1655). + +The historical event which furnishes the occasion of this sonnet is the +persecution of the Protestant Waldenses by the Piedmontese and French +governments, at the time of Cromwell's Protectorate. Cromwell's vigorous +and successful intervention was the means of staying this horror, and +gives evidence of the respect entertained for his government among the +states of Europe. + + +4. when all our fathers worshiped stocks and stones. Christianity had +been introduced into the Waldensian country while Britain was still +pagan. + +5. their groans Who were thy sheep: the groans of those who were. + +12. The triple Tyrant. The Pope, who wore a triple crown. + +14. the Babylonian woe. The puritans interpreted the _Babylon_ of +Revelation as the church of Rome. See Revelation XVIII. + + + XIX. + +The sonnet, says Masson, may have been written any time between 1652 and +1655. + + +2. Ere half my days. Milton's blindness is considered to have become +total in 1652, when he was at the age of forty-four. How shall we +understand these words? + +3. See the Parable of the Talents, Matthew XXV. + +8. I fondly ask. See note on Il Pens. 6. + + + XX. + +Probable date, 1655. Of the Mr. Lawrence to whom the sonnet is addressed +nothing is certainly known. + + +6. Favonius is the Latin name for Zephyrus, the west wind. + +10. Attic: refined, delicate, poignant. + +13. and spare To interpose them oft: refrain from too free enjoyment of +them. + + + XXI. + +The second sonnet to Cyriac Skinner determines its own date as 1655, and +this one is probably to be assigned to the same year. + +But little is known of the person to whom this sonnet and the next one +are addressed, except what we learn from the sonnets themselves,--that he +was an intimate and esteemed friend of Milton. He may have been one of +Milton's pupils; and he may, when his old teacher had become blind, have +rendered him important services as amanuensis or as reader. + + +1-4. Cyriac Skinner's mother was daughter of the famous lawyer and judge, +Sir Edward Coke. + +2. Themis is personified _law_, this being the meaning of the Greek word. + +7. Let Euclid rest, and Archimedes pause: intermit for a day your severe +mathematical studies. + +8. And what the Swede intend, and what the French: and pay no heed to +foreign news. + + + XXII (1655). + + +1. this three years' day: three years ago to-day. + +10. Milton's duties as Latin secretary to the government were exceedingly +arduous. + + + XXIII. + +Milton's second wife died in February, 1658; her child lived but a short +time. At the time of his second marriage Milton had been blind several +years. Notice the reference in the sonnet to the sense of sight: in his +dream he _saw_. + + +2. like Alcestis. Read the story of the Love of Alcestis in William +Morris's Earthly Paradise; and read in Euripides, "That strangest, +saddest, sweetest song of his, Alkestis." + +6. Purification in the Old Law. See Leviticus XII. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Minor Poems by Milton, by John Milton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MINOR POEMS BY MILTON *** + +***** This file should be named 31706-8.txt or 31706-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/7/0/31706/ + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Stephen Hutcheson and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Minor Poems by Milton + +Author: John Milton + +Editor: Samuel Thurber + +Release Date: March 20, 2010 [EBook #31706] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MINOR POEMS BY MILTON *** + + + + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Stephen Hutcheson and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div class="pb">[iii]</div> +<p class="center"><b>The Academy Series of English Classics</b><br /><br /></p> +<h1><i>MILTON</i> +<br /><br />MINOR POEMS</h1> +<table class="centable"> +<tr><td><a href="#c3">L’Allegro </a></td><td><a href="#c4">Il Penseroso </a></td><td><a href="#c7">Comus</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#c5">Arcades</a> </td><td><a href="#c1">On the Nativity </a></td><td><a href="#c8">Lycidas</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#c2">On Shakespeare</a> </td><td><a href="#c6">At a Solemn Music </a></td><td><a href="#c9">Sonnets</a></td></tr> +</table> +<p class="center"><span class="small">WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES +<br />BY</span> +<br />SAMUEL THURBER</p> +<p class="center">ALLYN AND BACON +<br /><i><b>Boston and Chicago</b></i></p> +<div class="pb">[iv]</div> +<p class="center"><span class="small">COPYRIGHT, 1901, +<br />BY SAMUEL THURBER.</span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="small"><b><i>Norwood Press</i></b> +<br />J. S. Cushing & Co.—Berwick & Smith +<br />Norwood Mass. U.S.A.</span></p> +<div class="pb">[v]</div> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> +<dl class="toc"> +<dt class="jl"><a href="#preface">Preface</a></dt> +<dt class="jl"><a href="#c0">Outlines of the Life of Milton</a></dt> +<dt class="jl">TEXT:</dt> +<dt><a href="#c1">On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity</a></dt> +<dt><a href="#c2">On Shakespeare</a></dt> +<dt><a href="#c3">L’Allegro</a></dt> +<dt><a href="#c4">Il Penseroso</a></dt> +<dt><a href="#c5">Arcades</a></dt> +<dt><a href="#c6">At a Solemn Music</a></dt> +<dt><a href="#c7">Comus</a></dt> +<dt><a href="#c8">Lycidas</a></dt> +<dt><a href="#c9">Sonnets:</a></dt> +<dd><a href="#c9_01">I. To the Nightingale</a></dd> +<dd><a href="#c9_02">II. On his having arrived at the Age of Twenty-three</a> 68</dd> +<dd><a href="#c9_08">VIII. When the Assault was intended to the City</a> 69</dd> +<dd><a href="#c9_09">IX. To a Virtuous Young Lady</a> 70</dd> +<dd><a href="#c9_10">X. To the Lady Margaret Ley</a> 70</dd> +<dd><a href="#c9_13">XIII. To Mr. H. Lawes on his Airs</a> 71</dd> +<dd><a href="#c9_15">XV. On the Lord General Fairfax, at the Siege of Colchester</a> 72</dd> +<dd><a href="#c9_16">XVI. To the Lord General Cromwell, May, 1652</a> 72</dd> +<dd><a href="#c9_17">XVII. To Sir Henry Vane the Younger</a> 73</dd> +<dd><a href="#c9_18">XVIII. On the Late Massacre in Piedmont</a> 74</dd> +<dd><a href="#c9_19">XIX. On his Blindness</a> 74</dd> +<dd><a href="#c9_20">XX. To Mr. Lawrence</a> 75</dd> +<dd><a href="#c9_21">XXI. To Cyriack Skinner</a> 76</dd> +<dd><a href="#c9_22">XXII. To the Same</a> 76</dd> +<dd><a href="#c9_23">XXIII. On his Deceased Wife</a> 77</dd> +<dt class="jl0"><a href="#c10">Notes</a> 79</dt> +</dl> +<div class="pb">[vi]</div> +<h2 id="preface">PREFACE.</h2> +<p>The purpose held in view by those who place the study +of Milton in high school English courses is twofold: first, +that youth may seasonably become acquainted with a portion +of our great classic poetry; and, secondly, that they +may in this poetry encounter and learn to conquer difficulties +more serious than those they have met in the literature +they have hitherto read. It is for the teacher to see to it +that both these aims are attained. The pupil must read +with interest, and he must expect at the same time to have +to do some strenuous thinking and not to object to turning +over many books.</p> +<p>The average pupil will not at first read anything of Milton +with perfect enjoyment. He will, with his wonted +docility, commit passages to memory, and he will do his +best to speak these passages with the elocution on which +you insist. But the taste for this poetry is an acquired +one, and in the acquisition usually costs efforts quite alien +to the prevailing conceptions of reading as a pleasurable +recreation.</p> +<p>The task of pedagogy at this point becomes delicate. +First of all, the teacher must recognize the fact that his +class will not, however good their intentions, leap to a +liking for Comus or Lycidas or even for the Nativity +<span class="pb">[vii]</span> +Ode. It is of no use to assign stanzas or lines as lessons +and to expect these to be studied to a conclusion like a task +of French translation. The only way not to be disappointed +in the performance of the class is to expect nothing. It +will be well at first, except where the test is quite simple, +for the teacher to read it himself, making comment, in the +way of explanation, as he goes on. Now and then he will +stop and have a little quiz to hold attention. When classical +allusions come up requiring research, the teacher will +tell in what books the matter may be looked up, and will +show how other poets, or Milton elsewhere, have played +with the same piece of history or mythology. Thus a poem +may be dealt with for a number of days. Repetition is, to +a certain extent, excellent. The verses begin to sink into +the young minds; the measure appeals to the inborn sense +of rhythm; the poem is caught by the ear like a piece of +music; the utterance of it becomes more like singing than +speaking. In fact, the great secret of teaching poetry in +school is to get rid of the commonplace manner of speech +befitting a recitation in language or science, and to put in +practice the obvious truth that verse has its own form, +which is very different from the form of prose. But repetition +may go too far. Over-familiarity may beget indifference. +Other poems await the attention of the class.</p> +<p>The teacher who really means to interest his classes, and +begins by being interested and interesting himself, will +rarely fail to accomplish his purpose. The principal +obstacle to success here is the necessity, that frequently +exists, of conforming to the custom of examining, marking, +and ranking—a practice that thwarts genuine personal +<span class="pb">[viii]</span> +influence, formalizes all procedures, and tends to deaden +natural interest by substituting for it the artificial interest +of school standing. The Milton lesson must be a serious +one because it is given to the study of the serious work of +the gravest and most high-minded of men; and it must be +an enjoyable one because it deals with the verse of the +most musical of poets, and because one mood of joy is the +only mood in which literature can be profitably studied.</p> +<p>As to the difficulties which the learner first encounters +when he comes to Milton, these grow sometimes out of the +diction, sometimes out of the syntax, and sometimes out +of the poet’s figures and allusions. Some difficulties can +be explained at once and completely. Others cannot be +explained at all with any reasonable hope of touching the +beginner’s mind with matter that he can appropriate. +Often the young reader slips over points of possible learned +annotation without the least consciousness that here great +scholarship might make an imposing display. Perfectly +useless is it to set forth for the pupil the interesting echoes +from ancient poets which generations of delving scholars +have accumulated in their notes to Milton, pleasing as these +are to mature readers.</p> +<p>The rule should be to expound and illustrate sufficiently +to remove those perplexities which really tease the pupil’s +mind and cause him to feel dissatisfaction with himself. In +many cases our only course is to postpone exposition and +to trust that the learner will grow up to the insight which +he as yet does not possess and which we cannot possibly +give him. A learned writer, like Milton, who has read all +antiquity, and who has no purpose of writing for children, +<span class="pb">[ix]</span> +inevitably contemplates a public of men approximately +his equals in culture, and expects to find “fit audience, +though few.”</p> +<p>But many of the difficulties that confront the beginner in +Milton ask only to be explained at once by some one who +has had more experience in the older literature. Archaic +forms of words and expressions, with which the ripe student +is familiar, worry the tyro, and must be accounted for. +Often the common dictionaries will give all needed help; +but the best means of acquiring speedy familiarity with +obsolete and rare forms is a Milton concordance—such as +that of Bradshaw—in connection with the Century Dictionary, +or with the Oxford Dictionary, so far as this goes. +These means of easy research should be at hand. I find +that pupils often need a pretty sharp spur to make them use +even their abridged dictionaries. But so far as concerns +acquaintance with the vocabulary of poetic diction, nothing +will do except the dictionary habit, accompanied by an effort +of the memory to retain what has been learned.</p> +<p>Difficulties that lurk in an involved syntax the pupil may +usually be expected to solve by study. But such a peculiar +construction as that in <a href="#r9_10_9">Sonnet X 9</a> will +probably have to be explained to him.</p> +<p>In the puritan theology and its implications he cannot +take much interest, and will of course not be asked to do so. +But high school students of Milton will ordinarily, in their +historical courses, have come down to the times in which +the poet lived, will understand his relation to public events, +and will appreciate his feeling toward the English ecclesiastical +system. Puritanism, a phenomenon of the most +<span class="pb">[x]</span> +tremendous importance at a certain period of English history, +has so completely disappeared from the modern world, +that the utterances of a seventeenth-century poet, professedly +a partisan, on matters of church and state, no longer +exasperate, and can barely even interest, students of literature.</p> +<p>To read either Paradise Lost or the Divine Comedy we +must find the poet’s cosmical and his theological standpoint. +We have no right to be surprised or shocked at his +conceptions. We must take him as he is, and let him lead +us through the universe as he has planned it. So long as +we set up our modern views as a standard, and by this standard +judge the ancient men, we fail in hospitality of thought, +and come short of our duty as readers.</p> +<p>This consideration suggests yet another purpose in setting +youth to the reading of Milton. By no means an ancient +poet, he takes us, nevertheless, to a world different from our +own, and in some sense helps us out of the modern time in +which our lives have fallen, to show us how other ages conceived +of God and Heaven. The mark of an educated +man is respect for the past; the old philosophies and religions +do not startle and repel him; his ancestors were once +in those stages of belief; in some stage of this vast movement +of thought he and his fellows are at the present +moment. This largeness of view can be fruitfully impressed +on youth only by letting them read, under wise +guidance, the older poets.</p> +<div class="pb">[xi]</div> +<h2 id="c0">OUTLINES OF THE LIFE OF MILTON.</h2> +<p>John Milton was born in London on the ninth of +December, 1608. Queen Elizabeth had then been dead five +years, and the literature which we call Elizabethan was still +being written by the men who had begun their careers +under her reign. Spenser had died in 1599. The theatres +were yet in the enjoyment of full popularity, and the play-writers +were producing works that continued the traditions +and the manner of the Elizabethan drama. Shakespeare +had still eight years to live, and at least four of the great +plays to write. Bacon’s fame was already great, but the +events of eighteen years were to cloud his reputation and +establish his renown. Jonson, great as a writer of masks, +was to live till he might have seen, in Comus, how a young +and scholarly puritan humanist thought that a mask should +be conceived.</p> +<p>Born thus in the fifth year of the first of the Stuarts, +Milton lived to witness all the vicissitudes of English politics +in which that family was involved, except the very +last. He did not see the Revolution of 1688. Surviving +for fourteen years the restoration of Charles II., he died in +1674, at the age of sixty-six.</p> +<p>Milton’s social position can be inferred from the fact that +his father was what was then called a scrivener,—that is, +he kept an office in his dwelling, and was employed to draw +up contracts, wills, and other legal documents. This occupation +<span class="pb">[xii]</span> +implied knowledge at least of the forms of the law, +though not of its history or principles. It did not imply +liberal education, though it brought its practitioner, doubtless, +more or less into contact with men of really professional +standing in the science of jurisprudence. Perhaps the +elder Milton cherished a deeper conviction of the value of +classic culture than do those who simply inherit, and take +as a matter of course, the custom of devoting years to the +study of ancient languages and literatures.</p> +<p>Evidently the father thought he saw in his son that +promise of intellectual vigor and of sound moral stamina +which justified the innovation, in his family, of sending his +boy to the university. His preparation for college Milton +got under private masters and at the famous public school +of St. Paul’s, which was near his home. This preparation +consisted chiefly in exercises in Latin composition and +literature, and was both thorough and effectual. At sixteen, +when he went to college, he had already composed +Latin verse, and he read and wrote Latin with facility.</p> +<p>In 1625 Milton entered Christ’s College, Cambridge. +Here he remained as a student seven years, or till 1632, +taking in course his A.B. and A.M. degrees, and, in spite +of his studious habits and his aversion to the rough and +wayward customs of student life, winning more and more, +and at last having in full measure, the respect of his fellow-collegians. +During these years he wrote, but did not publish, +in Latin or English, no less than twenty-five pieces of +verse, among them poems of no less note than the Nativity +Ode, and the Sonnet on arriving at the age of twenty-three. +The lines on Shakespeare were also composed in this period, +and appeared in print among the poems prefixed to the +second Shakespeare folio in 1632.</p> +<p>Returning, at the close of his university course, to the +<span class="pb">[xiii]</span> +paternal residence, the poet came, not to London, but to the +village of Horton, in Buckinghamshire, where his father +had taken a house in order to live in the country. Now had +to be debated the question of a profession. Hitherto the +son had seemed silently to acquiesce in the understood hope +of the family that he would devote himself to a career in +the church. But during his university years of study +and observation his views had become fixed, his mind had +advanced to self-determination, and he could not remain +content with a future that seemed to hamper his intellectual +freedom. This difference between father and son was +settled, apparently without strife, by the elder man’s entire +yielding to the desires of the younger. The son could not, +as we can well understand if we have read even only a little +of his verse or his prose, be otherwise than strenuous, insistent, +and masterful. To his father he was of course filial +and respectful, we may imagine him even gentle; but conciliatory, +yielding, the point being a vital one, it was not in +his nature to be.</p> +<p>What the young Milton desired was to lead a life devoted +to literature, or, more specifically, to poetry. This meant +that he wished still to study a long time, to fathom all learning +in all tongues. In college he had, besides Latin, mastered +Greek, French, Italian, and Hebrew. His conception +of a poet was of a most profoundly learned man. He had +become aware of the existence of vast areas of knowledge +that he had not yet explored. Other young men turned +aside without misgiving from the ambition to know everything, +and eagerly entered into useful and lucrative professions. +But Milton scorns the thought of applying learning +to the service of material gain. This is his poetical conception +of his duty as a scholar. It will dominate the spirit +of his life work. To understand his feelings at this time +<span class="pb">[xiv]</span> +both toward his father and toward his ideals, we must read +the Latin poem <i>Ad Patrem</i>, of which Professor Masson gives +an English translation.</p> +<p>At Horton, therefore, Milton remains, still subsisting on +his father’s bounty. Having come back thither at the age +of twenty-three, he continues to live at home for nearly six +years, not yet practising any art by which to earn a livelihood. +Occasionally he goes, on scholarly errands, to London, +which is not far distant. He devotes himself simply +to study, and having the poetic temperament, he cannot +help devoting himself also to observation of nature. His +learning becomes immense; his appetite is insatiable.</p> +<p>To the Horton time belong the “minor poems” not already +produced during the student years at Cambridge. Of the circumstances +in which the several poems were written, an account +is given in the Notes in this volume. This early, or +minor, verse of Milton is elicited by passing events, and is +considered to concern only himself and a few friends. For +immediate fame he takes no thought. He feels his immaturity. +His ambition contemplates a distant future, and he +meditates plans, as yet undefined and vague, of some great +work that the world shall not willingly let die.</p> +<p>Very important in Milton’s intellectual development is his +journey to France and Italy, on which he set out in April, +1638. As an indication of his social position in England, +we must note that he carries with him letters of introduction +which secure to him notice and recognition from men of +rank or of notable literary and scientific standing. He goes +abroad as a cultivated private gentleman, known to have +achieved distinction as a student. Undoubtedly his chief +qualification for holding his own in learned Italian society +was his command of languages, especially of Latin, unless +indeed we are to put before his linguistic accomplishments +<span class="pb">[xv]</span> +the refined and gentlemanly personal bearing which was his +birthright, and which, in his years of intense application to +books, he had not forfeited. In Italy he associated with +men whose intellectual interests were the universal ones of +science, in which he was as much at home as they. Thus +he possessed a perfect outfit of the endowments and the +acquisitions which a traveller needs to make his travel fruitful +to himself and honorable to his country.</p> +<p>In Italy he made friends among men of note, and established +relations which were to have their importance in his +future life. But most memorable among his Italian experiences +was his visit to the aged Galileo, who was then a +“prisoner to the Inquisition” for teaching that the earth +moves round the sun. The modern astronomy was then +winning its way among men of thought very much as the +doctrine of evolution has been winning its way during the +last half century. Few minds surrendered instantly and +without misgiving to the new conception. Milton has still +many years to meditate the question before he comes to +the composition of Paradise Lost, when his scheme of +the physical universe will have to recognize the requirements +of poetic art and the prevalence of ancient beliefs +regarding the origin and order of the cosmos. From the +fact that the poet puts the earth in the centre of the universe, +that he adopts, in fact, the Ptolemaic system, though +he knew the Copernican, we are not entitled to infer that +he held a fixed conviction in the matter, and that, on direct +examination as to his views, he would have absolutely professed +one theory and rejected the other. The poet has all +rights of choice, and may be said to know best where to +stand to take his view of the world.</p> +<p>Milton remained abroad some sixteen months, and was +home again in August, 1639. The Horton household was +<span class="pb">[xvi]</span> +now broken up, the father going to live, first with his +younger son, Christopher, at Reading, and afterward to +spend his last years in the family of John in London, +where he died in 1647.</p> +<p>With his removal to London in 1639 a distinct period in +Milton’s life comes to an end. He has hitherto been uninterruptedly +acquiring knowledge both by studious devotion +to books and by observation of human life in foreign +lands. He has read all the great literatures in ancient and +modern languages. He has felt the poetic impulse and has +proved to himself that he has at command creative power. +His purpose still is to produce a poem. But this poem of +his aspirations is distinctly a great and majestic affair, and +not at all a continuation of such work as that which he has +hitherto given to his friends, and which he esteems as +prolusions of his youth.</p> +<p>The poetic waiting-time which Milton, now in full vigor +of manhood, prescribes for himself, he is constrained, both +by inner conviction and by external necessity, to fill with +hard and earnest work. Henceforth, for a score of years, +he ceases almost entirely to write verse, and he earns his +living. He becomes a householder in London, where, as +the father had gained his livelihood by drawing up contracts +and mortgages for his fellow-citizens, the son proceeds +to gain his by teaching their boys Latin.</p> +<p>To the work of teaching, Milton addressed himself with +intelligence and predilection. About education he had +ideas of his own which he applied in practice and advocated +in writing. His Tract on Education is a document of importance +in the history of pedagogy, and is, besides, one +of those memorable pieces of English prose which every +student of literature, whatever his professional aims, must +include in his reading. He kept his school in his own +<span class="pb">[xvii]</span> +house, where he boarded some of his pupils. We could not +imagine John Milton going into a great public school, like +St. Paul’s, to serve as under-teacher to one of the tyrannical +head-masters of the day. The only school befitting his +absolutely convinced and masterful spirit is one in which +he reigns supreme. The great subject is Latin, and so +thoroughly is Latin taught that finally other subjects are +explained through the medium of this language. He had, +himself, brought from his school and college days very +decided discontent with the methods then in vogue. This +discontent he expresses in language of peculiar energy and +even harshness. He is a true reformer.</p> +<p>In 1643 Milton, then thirty-five years old, married Mary +Powell, a girl of just half his own age, daughter of a royalist +residing near Oxford. We must imagine this young +wife as coming to preside, somewhat in the capacity of +matron, over a family of boys held severely to their tasks +of study by a master in whom the sense of humor was +almost entirely lacking, and whose discipline was of the +sternest. That she could not endure the situation was but +natural. Very soon after the wedding she went home with +the understanding that she was to make a short visit to her +parents and sisters; but she did not return for two years. +Her husband summoned her, but she would not come back. +In 1645 she at last repented of her waywardness, sought +reconciliation, and was forgiven. These two years had +wrought a change in Mary Powell Milton. She was now +ready to live with her husband, and did so till her death in +1652. She left him three daughters, the youngest of whom, +Deborah, lived till 1723, and was known to Addison and +his contemporaries, from whom she received distinguished +honors.</p> +<p>In reading Milton we find that all the vicissitudes of his +<span class="pb">[xviii]</span> +life reflect themselves in his works, so that the political and +social events in which he is personally concerned usurp his +attention, color his views, and often become his themes. +Thus he is not, like Shakespeare, a critic of the whole of +humanity, but is usually an advocate or an accuser of the +leaders in church and state and of the principles which they +profess. He is by nature a partisan. All the energy of his +mind goes into denunciation or vindication. His experience +of wedded life made him an advocate of easier divorce, and +determined in him a mood which expressed itself in writings +that naturally brought upon him obloquy even from +those who held him most in honor.</p> +<p>It would be most interesting to know something of the +daily routine of Milton’s school, to ascertain what his pupils +knew and could do when he had done with them. But we +must remember that during all the years of his teaching +the great Revolution was in progress, that all men of thought +were profoundly stirred on public questions, and that Milton +himself was a politician and an eager partisan of the cause +of Parliament. He did not consider himself a teacher finally +and for good. His school did not develop into anything +great or conspicuous, and never became an object of curiosity. +While yet engaged in such teaching as he found to do, he +had written the pamphlets on education and on divorce, and +also the famous one entitled Areopagitica, a Speech for the +Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England. +This is the best worth reading of all his prose writings. +The subject of it is perfectly intelligible still, and +its English shows to perfection the qualities of the great +Miltonic style.</p> +<p>After the execution of Charles I., Jan. 30, 1649, it became +more than ever necessary for all thoughtful men to express +their convictions. For a people to put to death its king by +<span class="pb">[xix]</span> +judicial process was an unheard of event. Those who considered +that the Parliament had acted within the law and +could not have done otherwise with due regard to the welfare +of the nation had to convince doubting and timid citizens +at home, and also, so far as was possible, to placate critics +in other nations who still believed that the king could do no +wrong; for all Europe interested itself in this tremendous +act of the English Parliament.</p> +<p>Within a fortnight after the death of the king, Milton +published his pamphlet on The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates. +This work so impressed the parliamentary leaders +as a thorough and unanswerable argument in defence of their +cause that they sought out its author, and in March appointed +him to the important post of Secretary for Foreign Tongues. +Milton’s perfect command of Latin now stood him in good +stead. Here was an uncompromising puritan, fully the equal +of the foreign ecclesiastics in theology, and capable of holding +his own in Latin composition with the most famous +humanists of the time. Latin was then the language of +international intercourse. Milton’s duty was to translate +into and from Latin the despatches that passed between his +own and foreign governments. He also composed original +treatises, some in English and some in Latin, the most important +of which continued his justification of the national +act of regicide. The importance of these writings was very +great. Milton’s services to the puritan cause can to-day +hardly be appreciated. It was the constant aim of royalists +at home and abroad to represent England as having fallen +under the control of ignorant fanatics, of ambitious, barbarous, +blood-thirsty men. By his very personality, his knowledge +of affairs, his familiarity with ancient and mediæval +history, and, above all, by his fluency in Latin invective, +Milton thwarted attempts to disparage his countrymen as +<span class="pb">[xx]</span> +lawless barbarians. He helped to maintain the good name +of his country as a land of intellectual light and of respect +for ancient usage. Foreigners who attempted personal vilification +found him ready to meet them with their own +weapons. The poet of Comus now shows himself a controversialist +of unbounded energy.</p> +<p>In 1652, shortly before the death of his wife, Milton became +totally blind. Henceforward the duties of his secretaryship +had to be performed with the aid of an amanuensis. +He continued, however, to fill the office till just before the +end of the Protectorate in 1659. In November, 1656, he +married Katharine Woodcocke, who lived but till March, +1658. She left an infant which died a month after the +mother.</p> +<p>Milton’s duties as Secretary for Foreign Tongues must +have brought him, one would think, into some sort of personal +relation with Cromwell and the other great parliamentary +leaders. The poet leaves us in no doubt as to the high +esteem in which he held these men. But no gossip of the +time admits us to a glimpse of their intercourse with each +other. It falls to Milton to eulogize Cromwell; it never +came in Cromwell’s way to put on record his estimate of +Milton.</p> +<p>With the restoration of royalty in the person of Charles +II., in 1660, Milton’s public activity of course ceased, and the +second period of his life comes to an end. We saw his first +period devoted to preparation and to early essays in poetry, +with the distinct conception that poetry was yet to be the +great work of his life. In his second period he expresses +himself in verse but rarely and briefly, but produces controversial +prose, now in English, now in Latin. In this second +period he works, as teacher or as public secretary, for +payment, supporting himself and family. When the third +<span class="pb">[xxi]</span> +period begins, he loses all employment, goes into closest +retirement, a widower with three daughters growing up +from childhood, and devotes himself to the poetry that he +has always contemplated as the object of his ambition. He +has now been blind eight years.</p> +<p>In view of the conspicuous part that Milton had taken in +defending the right of Parliament to bring a king to the +scaffold, it is surprising that of the Restoration he was not +included in the number of those marked out for the punishment +of death. He was for some time undoubtedly in +danger. Fortunately he was overlooked, or, perhaps, was +purposely neglected as being henceforce harmless.</p> +<p>In February, 1663, he married his third wife Elizabeth +Minshull, who faithfully cared for him till his death in +1674.</p> +<p>During this last period of his life Milton composed and +published his <i>major</i> poems,—Paradise Lost, 1667, Paradise +Regained, and Samson Agonistes, 1671. For Paradise Lost +he received from his publisher five pounds in cash, with +promise of five pounds when thirteen hundred copies should +have been sold, and of two more payments, each of the +same sum, when two more editions of the same size should +have been disposed of.</p> +<p>The last years of his life Milton appears to have spent in +comparative comfort. His three daughters had gone out to +learn trades. It seems he had given them no education. It +may be they showed no desire or aptitude for instruction. +Far more probably, however, he took no interest in their +education. His ideal of womanhood, as may be gathered +from numerous passages in his poems, is as far as possible +removed from the modern conception of sexual equality +as to opportunity for education and for training to self-determination. +He shared in this respect the views that +<span class="pb">[xxii]</span> +prevailed during his day in all classes of society, and he +maintained these views as a parent no less than as the poet +of Paradise.</p> +<p>Besides the poems named above as produced during this +last period of his life, Milton published also in these years +several prose works, which have now little value except as +showing the bent and occupation of his mind. Among these +may be named a small Latin Grammar, written in English, +which he had composed long before, and a History of Britain +to the Norman Conquest.</p> +<p>Though the immediate sale of Paradise Lost was not +large, according to our ideas, it was yet sufficient to indicate +a very respectable interest in the reading public of the day. +We must remember that it appeared in the corrupt time of +the Restoration, when the prevailing literary fashion was +wholly adverse to seriousness and ideality. The age was +spiritually degenerate. Milton himself considered that he +lived “an age too late.” The great poem had no royal or +noble sponsors to give it vogue; yet it made its way. By +no means had all minds become frivolous. The minor +poems had been published by themselves in 1645. These +had always had their readers. The prose pamphlets of the +secretary for foreign tongues were, at least by a small class +of observant persons, known to be the work of the author +of Comus and Lycidas. There were not wanting men to +take a sympathetic interest in the fate of the poet in his +retirement, and to note the appearance of Paradise Lost as +a literary event.</p> +<p>Thus it was that Milton lived to have some slight foretaste +of the honor which two centuries have bestowed on +his memory. Visitors came to see him in his modest dwelling +in an unfashionable quarter of London. Foreigners +occasionally came to satisfy their curiosity. Dryden, the +<span class="pb">[xxiii]</span> +chief poet who wrote in the spirit of the Restoration, called +to talk with the author of Paradise Lost, and to suggest +improvements in the form of the poem, which he thought +should be in rhyme. The recognition which the poet thus +got in his lifetime is small only in comparison with the +immense fame he has won since his death.</p> +<p>Milton has now become an object of the profoundest +curiosity. His life has been investigated by Professor +Masson, with a minute scrutiny into detail such as has been +devoted to no other writer but Shakespeare. His works +are perpetually reprinted in all imaginable forms, whether +of cheapness or of sumptuous elegance. They are read as +text-books in schools by hosts of youth. Our beliefs regarding +the great themes of the sacred scriptures are so +colored by the Miltonic epics that we hardly know to-day +just what part of our conceptions we owe to the Bible and +what to the poet. Next to the Shakespearean dramas, the +poems of Milton are the largest single influence that knits +the English-speaking race into one vast brotherhood.</p> +<p>All students of Milton have to acknowledge their indebtedness to +Professor +David Masson of Edinburgh, who has +devoted years of labor to research in every department of +Miltonic lore. Masson’s great Life of Milton in Connexion +with the History of his Time is far too bulky for use except +for reference on special points. The index volume makes +the enormous Work accessible as occasion requires.</p> +<p>To his edition of the poetical works, Masson prefixes a +life, which will suffice for all the needs likely to arise in +school. Yet again, Masson is the writer of the article on +Milton in the Encyclopædia Britannica, a most complete presentment +of everything a student ordinarily needs to know.</p> +<p>In the series of Classical Writers is a little book, or +primer, on Milton, written by Stopford A. Brooke.</p> +<div class="pb">[xxiv]</div> +<p>In the English Men of Letters series, the +Milton +is the work of Mark Pattison.</p> +<p>The latest good account of Milton is the book entitled simply +John Milton, by +Walter Raleigh, professor at University College, Liverpool. This is +a remarkably vigorous and illuminating piece of criticism.</p> +<p>Perhaps the most interesting writing on a Milton subject +is the book by Mrs. Anne Manning, The Maiden and Married +Life of Mary Powell (afterward Mrs. Milton), and the +sequel thereto, Deborah’s Diary. This the student must +read with the full understanding that it is a work of fiction.</p> +<p>It is right to warn young readers against the natural +tendency to give their time to critical and expository books +and articles before they make acquaintance with originals. +Almost every essayist of note has written on Milton. +There is danger lest we accept opinions at second hand. +The only opinions on Milton to which we have any right +are those we form from our own reading of his works.</p> +<div class="pb">[1]</div> +<h2>MILTON’S MINOR POEMS.</h2> +<h3 id="c1">ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST’S NATIVITY.</h3> +<p class="center"><span class="small">[Composed 1629.]</span></p> +<h4>I.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">This is the month, and this the happy morn,</p> +<p class="t0">Wherein the Son of Heaven’s eternal King,</p> +<p class="t0">Of wedded maid and virgin mother born,</p> +<p class="t0">Our great redemption from above did bring;</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r1_5" href="#n1_5">For so the holy sages once did sing</a>,<span class="lnum"> 5</span></p> +<p class="t">That he <a id="r1_6" href="#n1_6">our deadly forfeit should release</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.</p> +</div> +<h4>II.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">That glorious form, that light unsufferable,</p> +<p class="t0">And that far-beaming blaze of majesty,</p> +<p class="t0">Wherewith <a id="r1_10" href="#n1_10">he wont</a> at Heaven’s high council-table<span class="lnum"> 10</span></p> +<p class="t0">To sit the midst of Trinal Unity,</p> +<p class="t0">He laid aside, and, here with us to be,</p> +<p class="t">Forsook the courts of everlasting day,</p> +<p class="t0">And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.</p> +</div> +<h4>III.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Say, Heavenly Muse, shall not <a id="r1_15" href="#n1_15">thy sacred vein</a><span class="lnum"> 15</span></p> +<p class="t0">Afford a present to the Infant God?</p> +<p class="t0">Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain,</p> +<span class="pb">[2]</span> +<p class="t0">To welcome him to this his new abode,</p> +<p class="t0">Now while the heaven, by <a id="r1_19" href="#n1_19">the Sun’s team</a> untrod,</p> +<p class="t">Hath took no print of the approaching light,<span class="lnum"> 20</span></p> +<p class="t0">And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright?</p> +</div> +<h4>IV.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">See how from far upon the eastern road</p> +<p class="t0">The star-led wizards haste with odors sweet!</p> +<p class="t0">Oh! run; <a id="r1_24" href="#n1_24">prevent them with thy humble ode</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">And lay it lowly at his blessed feet;<span class="lnum"> 25</span></p> +<p class="t0">Have thou the honor first thy Lord to greet,</p> +<p class="t">And join thy voice unto the Angel Quire,</p> +<p class="t0">From out his secret altar <a id="r1_28" href="#n1_28">touched with hallowed fire</a>.</p> +</div> +<h4><span class="sc">The Hymn.</span></h4> +<h4>I.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">It was the winter wild,</p> +<p class="t2">While the heaven-born child<span class="lnum"> 30</span></p> +<p class="t">All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies;</p> +<p class="t2">Nature, in awe to him,</p> +<p class="t2">Had doffed her gaudy trim,</p> +<p class="t">With her great Master so to sympathize:</p> +<p class="t0">It was no season then for her<span class="lnum"> 35</span></p> +<p class="t0">To wanton with the Sun, her lusty paramour.</p> +</div> +<h4>II.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">Only with speeches fair</p> +<p class="t2">She woos the gentle air</p> +<p class="t">To hide her guilty front with innocent snow,</p> +<p class="t2">And on her naked shame,<span class="lnum"> 40</span></p> +<p class="t2"><a id="r1_41" href="#n1_41">Pollute</a> with sinful blame,</p> +<span class="pb">[3]</span> +<p class="t">The saintly veil of maiden white to throw;</p> +<p class="t0">Confounded, that her Maker’s eyes</p> +<p class="t0">Should look so near upon her foul deformities.</p> +</div> +<h4>III.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">But he, her fears to cease,<span class="lnum"> 45</span></p> +<p class="t2">Sent down the meek-eyed Peace:</p> +<p class="t">She, crowned with olive green, came softly sliding</p> +<p class="t2">Down through <a id="r1_48" href="#n1_48">the turning sphere</a>,</p> +<p class="t2">His ready harbinger,</p> +<p class="t"><a id="r1_50" href="#n1_50">With turtle wing</a> the amorous clouds dividing;<span class="lnum"> 50</span></p> +<p class="t0">And, waving wide her myrtle wand,</p> +<p class="t0">She strikes a universal peace through sea and land.</p> +</div> +<h4>IV.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">No war, or battle’s sound,</p> +<p class="t2">Was heard the world around;</p> +<p class="t">The idle spear and shield were high uphung;<span class="lnum"> 55</span></p> +<p class="t2"><a id="r1_56" href="#n1_56">The hooked chariot</a> stood,</p> +<p class="t2">Unstained with hostile blood;</p> +<p class="t">The trumpet spake not to the armed throng;</p> +<p class="t0">And kings sat still with awful eye,</p> +<p class="t0">As if they surely knew their <a id="r1_60" href="#n1_60">sovran</a> Lord was by.<span class="lnum"> 60</span></p> +</div> +<h4>V.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">But peaceful was the night</p> +<p class="t2">Wherein <a id="r1_62" href="#n1_62">the Prince of Light</a></p> +<p class="t">His reign of peace upon the earth began.</p> +<p class="t2"><a id="r1_64" href="#n1_64">The winds, with wonder whist</a>,</p> +<p class="t2">Smoothly the waters kissed,<span class="lnum"> 65</span></p> +<p class="t">Whispering new joys to the mild <a id="r1_66" href="#n1_66">Ocean</a>,</p> +<span class="pb">[4]</span> +<p class="t0">Who now hath quite forgot to rave,</p> +<p class="t0">While <a id="r1_68" href="#n1_68">birds of calm</a> sit brooding on the charmed wave.</p> +</div> +<h4>VI.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">The stars, with deep amaze,</p> +<p class="t2">Stand fixed in steadfast gaze,<span class="lnum"> 70</span></p> +<p class="t">Bending one way <a id="r1_71" href="#n1_71">their precious influence</a>,</p> +<p class="t2">And will not take their flight,</p> +<p class="t2"><a id="r1_73" href="#n1_73">For all the morning light</a>,</p> +<p class="t">Or <a id="r1_74" href="#n1_74">Lucifer</a> that often warned them thence;</p> +<p class="t0">But in their glimmering orbs did glow,<span class="lnum"> 75</span></p> +<p class="t0">Until their Lord himself bespake, and bid them go.</p> +</div> +<h4>VII.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">And, though the shady gloom</p> +<p class="t2">Had given day her room,</p> +<p class="t">The Sun himself withheld his wonted speed,</p> +<p class="t2">And hid his head for shame,<span class="lnum"> 80</span></p> +<p class="t2"><a id="r1_81" href="#n1_81">As</a> his inferior flame</p> +<p class="t">The new-enlightened world no more should need:</p> +<p class="t0">He saw a greater Sun appear</p> +<p class="t0">Than his bright throne or burning axletree could bear.</p> +</div> +<h4>VIII.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">The shepherds on the lawn,<span class="lnum"> 85</span></p> +<p class="t2"><a id="r1_86" href="#n1_86">Or ere the point of dawn</a>,</p> +<p class="t">Sat simply chatting in a rustic row;</p> +<p class="t2"><a id="r1_88" href="#n1_88">Full little thought they than</a></p> +<p class="t2">That <a id="r1_89" href="#n1_89">the mighty Pan</a></p> +<p class="t">Was kindly come to live with them below:<span class="lnum"> 90</span></p> +<p class="t0">Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep,</p> +<p class="t0">Was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep.</p> +<span class="pb">[5]</span> +</div> +<h4>IX.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">When such music sweet</p> +<p class="t2">Their hearts and ears did greet</p> +<p class="t">As never was <a id="r1_95" href="#n1_95">by mortal finger strook</a>,<span class="lnum"> 95</span></p> +<p class="t2">Divinely-warbled voice</p> +<p class="t2">Answering the stringed noise,</p> +<p class="t"><a id="r1_98" href="#n1_98">As all their souls in blissful rapture took</a>:</p> +<p class="t0">The air, such pleasure loth to lose,<span class="lnum"> 99</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r1_100">With thousand echoes</a> still prolongs each heavenly close.</p> +</div> +<h4>X.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">Nature, that heard such sound</p> +<p class="t2">Beneath the hollow round</p> +<p class="t">Of <a id="r1_103" href="#n1_103">Cynthia’s seat</a> the Airy region thrilling,</p> +<p class="t2">Now was almost won</p> +<p class="t2">To think her part was done,<span class="lnum"> 105</span></p> +<p class="t">And that her reign had here its last fulfilling:</p> +<p class="t0">She knew such harmony alone</p> +<p class="t0">Could hold all Heaven and Earth in happier <a id="r1_108" href="#n1_108">union</a>.</p> +</div> +<h4>XI.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">At last surrounds their sight</p> +<p class="t2">A globe of circular light,<span class="lnum"> 110</span></p> +<p class="t">That with long beams the shamefaced Night arrayed;</p> +<p class="t2"><a id="r1_112" href="#n1_112">The helmed cherubim</a></p> +<p class="t2">And <a id="r1_113" href="#n1_113">sworded seraphim</a></p> +<p class="t">Are seen in glittering ranks with wings displayed,</p> +<p class="t0">Harping in loud and solemn quire,<span class="lnum"> 115</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r1_116" href="#n1_116">With unexpressive notes</a>, to Heaven’s new-born Heir.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb">[6]</div> +<h4>XII.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">Such music (as ’tis said)</p> +<p class="t2">Before was never made,</p> +<p class="t"><a id="r1_119" href="#n1_119">But when of old the Sons of Morning sung</a>,</p> +<p class="t2">While the Creator great<span class="lnum"> 120</span></p> +<p class="t2">His constellations set,</p> +<p class="t">And the well-balanced World on hinges hung,</p> +<p class="t0">And cast the dark foundations deep,</p> +<p class="t0">And bid <a id="r1_124" href="#n1_124">the weltering waves</a> their oozy channel keep.</p> +</div> +<h4>XIII.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2"><a id="r1_125" href="#n1_125">Ring out, ye crystal spheres</a>!<span class="lnum"> 125</span></p> +<p class="t2">Once bless our human ears,</p> +<p class="t">If ye have power to touch our senses so;</p> +<p class="t2">And let your silver chime</p> +<p class="t2">Move in melodious time;</p> +<p class="t">And let the bass of heaven’s deep organ blow;<span class="lnum"> 130</span></p> +<p class="t0">And with your ninefold harmony</p> +<p class="t0">Make up full consort to the angelic symphony.</p> +</div> +<h4>XIV.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">For, if such holy song</p> +<p class="t2">Enwrap our fancy long,</p> +<p class="t">Time will run back and fetch the Age of Gold;<span class="lnum"> 135</span></p> +<p class="t2">And <a id="r1_136" href="#n1_136">speckled Vanity</a></p> +<p class="t2">Will sicken soon and die,</p> +<p class="t">And leprous Sin will melt from earthly mould;</p> +<p class="t0">And Hell itself will pass away,</p> +<p class="t0">And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day.<span class="lnum"> 140</span></p> +</div> +<h4>XV.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">Yea, Truth and Justice then</p> +<p class="t2">Will down return to men,</p> +<p class="t">Orbed in a rainbow; and, <a id="r1_143" href="#n1_143">like glories wearing</a>,</p> +<p class="t2">Mercy will sit between,</p> +<p class="t2">Throned in celestial sheen,<span class="lnum"> 145</span></p> +<p class="t">With radiant feet the tissued clouds down steering;</p> +<p class="t0">And Heaven, as at some festival,</p> +<p class="t0">Will open wide the gates of her high palace-hall.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb">[7]</div> +<h4>XVI.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">But wisest Fate says No,</p> +<p class="t2">This must not yet be so;<span class="lnum"> 150</span></p> +<p class="t">The Babe yet lies in smiling infancy</p> +<p class="t2">That on the bitter cross</p> +<p class="t2">Must redeem our loss,</p> +<p class="t">So both himself and us to glorify:</p> +<p class="t0">Yet first, to <a id="r1_155" href="#n1_155">those ychained in sleep</a>,<span class="lnum"> 155</span></p> +<p class="t0">The wakeful trump of doom must thunder through the deep.</p> +</div> +<h4>XVII.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2"><a id="r1_157" href="#n1_157">With such a horrid clang</a></p> +<p class="t2">As on Mount Sinai rang,</p> +<p class="t">While the red fire and smouldering clouds outbrake:</p> +<p class="t2">The aged Earth, aghast<span class="lnum"> 160</span></p> +<p class="t2">With terror of that blast,</p> +<p class="t">Shall from the surface to the centre shake,</p> +<p class="t0">When, at the world’s last session,</p> +<p class="t0">The dreadful Judge in middle air shall spread his throne.</p> +</div> +<h4>XVIII.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">And then at last our bliss<span class="lnum"> 165</span></p> +<p class="t2">Full and perfect is,</p> +<p class="t">But now begins; for from this happy day</p> +<p class="t2"><a id="r1_168" href="#n1_168">The Old Dragon</a> under ground,</p> +<p class="t2">In straiter limits bound,</p> +<p class="t">Not half so far casts his usurped sway,<span class="lnum"> 170</span></p> +<span class="pb">[8]</span> +<p class="t0">And, wroth to see his kingdom fail,</p> +<p class="t0">Swinges the scaly horror of his folded tail.</p> +</div> +<h4>XIX.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2"><a id="r1_173" href="#n1_173">The Oracles are dumb</a>;</p> +<p class="t2">No voice or hideous hum</p> +<p class="t">Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving.<span class="lnum"> 175</span></p> +<p class="t2"><a id="r1_176" href="#n1_176">Apollo</a> from his shrine</p> +<p class="t2">Can no more divine,</p> +<p class="t">With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving.</p> +<p class="t0">No nightly trance, or breathed <a id="r1_179" href="#n1_179">spell</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell.<span class="lnum"> 180</span></p> +</div> +<h4>XX.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">The lonely mountains o’er,</p> +<p class="t2">And the resounding shore,</p> +<p class="t">A voice of weeping heard and loud lament;</p> +<p class="t2">From haunted spring, and dale</p> +<p class="t2">Edged with poplar pale,<span class="lnum"> 185</span></p> +<p class="t">The parting <a id="r1_186" href="#n1_186">Genius</a> is with sighing sent;</p> +<p class="t0">With flower-inwoven tresses torn</p> +<p class="t0">The Nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn.</p> +</div> +<h4>XXI.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">In consecrated earth,</p> +<p class="t2">And on the holy hearth,<span class="lnum"> 190</span></p> +<p class="t"><a id="r1_191" href="#n1_191">The Lars and Lemures</a> moan with midnight plaint;</p> +<p class="t2">In urns, and altars round,</p> +<p class="t2">A drear and dying sound</p> +<p class="t"><a id="r1_194" href="#n1_194">Affrights the flamens</a> at their service quaint;</p> +<p class="t0">And <a id="r1_195" href="#n1_195">the chill marble seems to sweat</a>,<span class="lnum"> 195</span></p> +<p class="t0">While each peculiar power forgoes his wonted seat.</p> +<span class="pb">[9]</span> +</div> +<h4>XXII.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2"><a id="r1_197" href="#n1_197">Peor and Baälim</a></p> +<p class="t2">Forsake their temples dim,</p> +<p class="t">With <a id="r1_199" href="#n1_199">that twice-battered god of Palestine</a>;</p> +<p class="t2">And <a id="r1_200" href="#n1_200">mooned Ashtaroth</a>,<span class="lnum"> 200</span></p> +<p class="t2">Heaven’s queen and mother both,</p> +<p class="t">Now sits not girt with tapers’ holy shine:</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r1_203" href="#n1_203">The Lybic Hammon</a> shrinks his horn;</p> +<p class="t0">In vain the Tyrian maids <a id="r1_204" href="#n1_204">their wounded Thammuz</a> mourn.</p> +</div> +<h4>XXIII.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">And <a id="r1_205" href="#n1_205">sullen Moloch</a>, fled,<span class="lnum"> 205</span></p> +<p class="t2">Hath left in shadows dread</p> +<p class="t">His burning idol all of blackest hue;</p> +<p class="t2">In vain with cymbals’ ring</p> +<p class="t2">They call the grisly king,</p> +<p class="t">In dismal dance about <a id="r1_210" href="#n1_210">the furnace blue</a>;<span class="lnum"> 210</span></p> +<p class="t0">The brutish gods of Nile as fast,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r1_212" href="#n1_212">Isis, and Orus, and the dog Anubis</a>, haste.</p> +</div> +<h4>XXIV.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2"><a id="r1_213" href="#n1_213">Nor is Osiris seen</a></p> +<p class="t2">In Memphian grove or green,<span class="lnum"> 214</span></p> +<p class="t">Trampling <a id="r1_215" href="#n1_215">the unshowered grass</a> with lowings loud;<span class="lnum"> 215</span></p> +<p class="t2">Nor can he be at rest</p> +<p class="t2">Within his sacred chest;</p> +<p class="t">Nought but profoundest Hell can be his shroud;</p> +<p class="t0">In vain, with timbrelled anthems dark,</p> +<p class="t0">The sable-stoled sorcerers bear his worshipped ark.<span class="lnum"> 220</span></p> +<span class="pb">[10]</span> +</div> +<h4>XXV.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">He feels from Juda’s land</p> +<p class="t2">The dreaded Infant’s hand;</p> +<p class="t">The rays of Bethlehem blind <a id="r1_223" href="#n1_223">his dusky eyn</a>;</p> +<p class="t2">Nor all the gods beside</p> +<p class="t2">Longer dare abide,<span class="lnum"> 225</span></p> +<p class="t">Not Typhon huge ending in snaky twine:</p> +<p class="t0">Our Babe, to show his Godhead true,</p> +<p class="t0">Can in his swaddling bands control the damned crew.</p> +</div> +<h4>XXVI.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">So, when the sun in bed,</p> +<p class="t2">Curtained with cloudy red,<span class="lnum"> 230</span></p> +<p class="t">Pillows his chin upon an orient wave,</p> +<p class="t2">The flocking shadows pale</p> +<p class="t2">Troop to the infernal jail,</p> +<p class="t">Each fettered ghost slips to his several grave,</p> +<p class="t0">And the yellow-skirted fays<span class="lnum"> 235</span></p> +<p class="t0">Fly after the night-steeds, leaving their moon-loved maze.</p> +</div> +<h4>XXVII.</h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">But see! the Virgin blest</p> +<p class="t2">Hath laid her Babe to rest.</p> +<p class="t">Time is our tedious song should here have ending:</p> +<p class="t2"><a id="r1_240" href="#n1_240">Heaven’s youngest-teemed star</a><span class="lnum"> 240</span></p> +<p class="t2"><a id="r1_241" href="#n1_241">Hath fixed her polished car</a>,</p> +<p class="t">Her sleeping Lord with handmaid lamp attending;</p> +<p class="t0">And all about the courtly stable</p> +<p class="t0">Bright-harnessed Angels sit in order serviceable.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb">[11]</div> +<h3 id="c2">ON SHAKESPEARE. 1630.</h3> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">What needs my Shakespeare for his honored bones</p> +<p class="t0">The labor of an age in piled stones?</p> +<p class="t0">Or that his hallowed reliques should be hid</p> +<p class="t0">Under a <a id="r2_4" href="#n2_4">star-ypointing</a> pyramid?</p> +<p class="t0">Dear son of memory, great heir of fame,<span class="lnum"> 5</span></p> +<p class="t0">What need’st thou such weak witness of thy name?</p> +<p class="t0">Thou in our wonder and astonishment</p> +<p class="t0">Hast built thyself <a id="r2_8" href="#n2_8">a livelong monument</a>.</p> +<p class="t0">For whilst, to the shame of slow-endeavoring art</p> +<p class="t0">Thy easy numbers flow, <a id="r2_10" href="#n2_10">and that each heart</a><span class="lnum"> 10</span></p> +<p class="t0">Hath from the leaves of <a id="r2_11" href="#n2_11">thy unvalued book</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r2_12" href="#n2_12">Those Delphic lines</a> with deep impression took,</p> +<p class="t0">Then thou, <a id="r2_13" href="#n2_13">our fancy of itself bereaving</a>,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r2_14" href="#n2_14">Dost make <i>us</i> marble with too much conceiving</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">And so <a id="r2_15" href="#n2_15">sepulchred</a> in such pomp dost lie<span class="lnum"> 15</span></p> +<p class="t0">That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb">[12]</div> +<h3 id="c3">L’ALLEGRO.</h3> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Hence, loathed Melancholy,</p> +<p class="t"><a id="r3_2" href="#n3_2">Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born</a></p> +<p class="t0">In <a id="r3_3" href="#n3_3">Stygian cave</a> forlorn</p> +<p class="t">’Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy!</p> +<p class="t0">Find out <a id="r3_5" href="#n3_5">some uncouth cell</a>,<span class="lnum"> 5</span></p> +<p class="t">Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings,</p> +<p class="t0">And the night-raven sings;</p> +<p class="t">There, under ebon shades and low-browed rocks,</p> +<p class="t0">As ragged as thy locks,</p> +<p class="t"><a id="r3_10" href="#n3_10">In dark Cimmerian desert</a> ever dwell.<span class="lnum"> 10</span></p> +<p class="t0">But come, thou Goddess fair and free,</p> +<p class="t0">In heaven <a id="r3_12" href="#n3_12">yclept</a> Euphrosyne,</p> +<p class="t0">And by men heart-easing Mirth;</p> +<p class="t0">Whom lovely Venus, at a birth,</p> +<p class="t0">With <a id="r3_15" href="#n3_15">two sister Graces more</a>,<span class="lnum"> 15</span></p> +<p class="t0">To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore:</p> +<p class="t0">Or whether (as some sager sing)</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_18" href="#n3_18">The frolic wind</a> that breathes the spring,</p> +<p class="t0">Zephyr, with Aurora playing,</p> +<p class="t0">As he met her once a-Maying,<span class="lnum"> 20</span></p> +<p class="t0">There, on beds of violets blue,</p> +<p class="t0">And fresh-blown roses washed in dew,</p> +<p class="t0">Filled her with thee, a daughter fair,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_24" href="#n3_24">So buxom, blithe, and debonair</a>.</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_25" href="#n3_25">Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee</a><span class="lnum"> 25</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_26">Jest, and youthful Jollity</a>,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_27">Quips and Cranks and wanton Wiles</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Nods and Becks and wreathed <a id="r3_28" href="#n3_28">Smiles</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Such as hang on Hebe’s cheek,</p> +<p class="t0">And love to live in dimple sleek;<span class="lnum"> 30</span></p> +<span class="pb">[13]</span> +<p class="t0">Sport that wrinkled Care derides,</p> +<p class="t0">And Laughter holding both his sides.</p> +<p class="t0">Come, and <a id="r3_33" href="#n3_33">trip it, as you go</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">On the light fantastic toe;</p> +<p class="t0">And in thy right hand lead with thee<span class="lnum"> 35</span></p> +<p class="t0">The mountain-nymph, sweet Liberty;</p> +<p class="t0">And, if I give thee honor due,</p> +<p class="t0">Mirth, admit me of thy crew,</p> +<p class="t0">To live with her, and live with thee,</p> +<p class="t0">In unreproved pleasures free;<span class="lnum"> 40</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_41" href="#n3_41">To hear the lark</a> begin his flight,</p> +<p class="t0">And, singing, startle the dull night,</p> +<p class="t0">From his watch-tower in the skies,</p> +<p class="t0">Till the dappled dawn doth rise;</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_45" href="#n3_45">Then to come, in spite of sorrow</a>,<span class="lnum"> 45</span></p> +<p class="t0">And at my window bid good-morrow,</p> +<p class="t0">Through the sweet-briar or the vine,</p> +<p class="t0">Or the twisted eglantine;</p> +<p class="t0">While the cock, with lively din,</p> +<p class="t0">Scatters the rear of darkness thin;<span class="lnum"> 50</span></p> +<p class="t0">And to the stack, or the barn-door,</p> +<p class="t0">Stoutly struts his dames before:</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_53" href="#n3_53">Oft listening how the hounds and horn</a></p> +<p class="t0">Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn,</p> +<p class="t0">From the side of some hoar hill,<span class="lnum"> 55</span></p> +<p class="t0">Through the high wood echoing shrill:</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_57" href="#n3_57">Sometime walking, not unseen</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">By hedgerow elms, on hillocks green,</p> +<p class="t0">Right <a id="r3_59" href="#n3_59">against</a> the eastern gate</p> +<p class="t0">Where the great Sun begins his state,<span class="lnum"> 60</span></p> +<p class="t0">Robed in flames and amber light,</p> +<span class="pb">[14]</span> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_62" href="#n3_62">The clouds in thousand liveries dight</a>;</p> +<p class="t0">While the ploughman, near at hand,</p> +<p class="t0">Whistles o’er the furrowed land,</p> +<p class="t0">And the milkmaid singeth blithe,<span class="lnum"> 65</span></p> +<p class="t0">And the mower whets his scythe,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_67" href="#n3_67">And every shepherd tells his tale</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_68" href="#n3_68">Under the hawthorn in the dale.</a></p> +<p class="t0">Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures,</p> +<p class="t0">Whilst <a id="r3_70" href="#n3_70">the landskip</a> round it measures:<span class="lnum"> 70</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_71" href="#n3_71">Russet lawns</a>, and fallows gray,</p> +<p class="t0">Where the nibbling flocks do stray;</p> +<p class="t0">Mountains on whose barren breast</p> +<p class="t0">The laboring clouds do often rest;</p> +<p class="t0">Meadows trim, with daisies pied;<span class="lnum"> 75</span></p> +<p class="t0">Shallow brooks, and rivers wide;</p> +<p class="t0">Towers and battlements <a id="r3_77" href="#n3_77">it</a> sees</p> +<p class="t0">Bosomed high in tufted trees,</p> +<p class="t0">Where perhaps some beauty lies,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_80" href="#n3_80">The cynosure of neighboring eyes</a>.<span class="lnum"> 80</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_81" href="#n3_81">Hard by a cottage chimney smokes</a></p> +<p class="t0">From betwixt two aged oaks,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_83" href="#n3_83">Where Corydon and Thyrsis met</a></p> +<p class="t0">Are at their savory dinner set</p> +<p class="t0">Of herbs and other country messes,<span class="lnum"> 85</span></p> +<p class="t0">Which the neat-handed Phyllis dresses;</p> +<p class="t0">And then in haste her <a id="r3_87" href="#n3_87">bower</a> she leaves,</p> +<p class="t0">With Thestylis to bind the sheaves;</p> +<p class="t0">Or, if the earlier season lead,</p> +<p class="t0">To the <a id="r3_90" href="#n3_90">tanned haycock</a> in the mead.<span class="lnum"> 90</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_91" href="#n3_91">Sometimes, with secure delight</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">The upland hamlets will invite,</p> +<p class="t0">When the merry bells ring round,</p> +<p class="t0">And the jocund rebecks sound</p> +<p class="t0">To many a youth and many a maid<span class="lnum"> 95</span></p> +<p class="t0">Dancing <a id="r3_96" href="#n3_96">in the chequered shade</a>,</p> +<span class="pb">[15]</span> +<p class="t0">And young and old come forth to play</p> +<p class="t0">On a sunshine holiday,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_99" href="#n3_99">Till the livelong daylight fail</a>:</p> +<p class="t0">Then to the spicy nut-brown ale,<span class="lnum"> 100</span></p> +<p class="t0">With stories told of many a feat,</p> +<p class="t0">How <a id="r3_102" href="#n3_102">Faery Mab</a> the junkets eat.</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_103" href="#n3_103">She</a> was pinched and pulled, she said;</p> +<p class="t0">And he, by Friar’s lantern led,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_105" href="#n3_105">Tells</a> how the drudging goblin sweat<span class="lnum"> 105</span></p> +<p class="t0">To earn his cream-bowl duly set,</p> +<p class="t0">When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,</p> +<p class="t0">His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn</p> +<p class="t0">That ten day-laborers <a id="r3_109" href="#n3_109">could not end</a>;</p> +<p class="t0">Then lies him down, <a id="r3_110" href="#n3_110">the lubber fiend</a>,<span class="lnum"> 110</span></p> +<p class="t0">And, stretched out all the chimney’s length,</p> +<p class="t0">Basks at the fire his hairy strength,</p> +<p class="t0">And crop-full out of doors he flings,</p> +<p class="t0">Ere the first cock his matin rings.</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_115" href="#n3_115">Thus done the tales</a>, to bed they creep,<span class="lnum"> 115</span></p> +<p class="t0">By whispering winds soon lulled asleep.</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_117" href="#n3_117">Towered cities please us then</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">And the busy hum of men,</p> +<p class="t0">Where throngs of knights and barons bold,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_120" href="#n3_120">In weeds of peace, high triumphs hold</a>,<span class="lnum"> 120</span></p> +<p class="t0">With store of ladies, whose bright eyes</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_122" href="#n3_122">Rain influence</a>, and judge the prize</p> +<p class="t0">Of wit or arms, while both contend</p> +<p class="t0">To win her grace <a id="r3_124" href="#n3_124">whom</a> all commend.</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_125" href="#n3_125">There let Hymen oft appear</a><span class="lnum"> 125</span></p> +<p class="t0">In saffron robe, with taper clear,</p> +<p class="t0">And pomp, and feast, and revelry,</p> +<span class="pb">[16]</span> +<p class="t0">With <a id="r3_128" href="#n3_128">mask</a> and antique pageantry;</p> +<p class="t0">Such sights as youthful poets dream,</p> +<p class="t0">On summer eves by haunted stream.<span class="lnum"> 130</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_131" href="#n3_131">Then to the well-trod stage anon</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">If <a id="r3_132" href="#n3_132">Jonson’s learned sock</a> be on,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_133" href="#n3_133">Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy’s child</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Warble his native wood-notes wild,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_135" href="#n3_135">And ever, against eating cares</a>,<span class="lnum"> 135</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_136" href="#n3_136">Lap me in soft Lydian airs</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Married to immortal verse,</p> +<p class="t0">Such as <a id="r3_138" href="#n3_138">the meeting soul</a> may pierce,</p> +<p class="t0">In notes with many a winding <a id="r3_139" href="#n3_139">bout</a></p> +<p class="t0">Of linked sweetness long drawn out<span class="lnum"> 140</span></p> +<p class="t0">With wanton heed and giddy cunning,</p> +<p class="t0">The melting voice through mazes running,</p> +<p class="t0">Untwisting all the chains that tie</p> +<p class="t0">The hidden soul of harmony;</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r3_145" href="#n3_145">That Orpheus’ self may heave his head</a><span class="lnum"> 145</span></p> +<p class="t0">From golden slumber on a bed</p> +<p class="t0">Of heaped Elysian flowers, and hear</p> +<p class="t0">Such strains as would have won the ear</p> +<p class="t0">Of <a id="r3_149" href="#n3_149">Pluto</a> to have quite set free</p> +<p class="t0">His half-regained Eurydice.<span class="lnum"> 150</span></p> +<p class="t0">These delights if thou canst give,</p> +<p class="t0">Mirth, with thee I mean to live.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb">[17]</div> +<h3 id="c4">IL PENSEROSO.</h3> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Hence, vain deluding Joys,</p> +<p class="t">The brood of Folly without father bred!</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_3" href="#n4_3">How little you bested</a>,</p> +<p class="t">Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys!</p> +<p class="t0">Dwell in some idle brain,<span class="lnum"> 5</span></p> +<p class="t">And fancies <a id="r4_6" href="#n4_6">fond</a> with gaudy shapes possess,</p> +<p class="t0">As thick and numberless</p> +<p class="t">As the gay motes that people the sun-beams,</p> +<p class="t0">Or likest hovering dreams,</p> +<p class="t">The fickle pensioners of <a id="r4_10" href="#n4_10">Morpheus’</a> train.<span class="lnum"> 10</span></p> +<p class="t0">But, hail! thou Goddess sage and holy!</p> +<p class="t0">Hail, divinest <a id="r4_12" href="#n4_12">Melancholy</a>!</p> +<p class="t0">Whose saintly visage is too bright</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_14" href="#n4_14">To hit the sense of human sight</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">And therefore to our weaker view,<span class="lnum"> 15</span></p> +<p class="t0">O’erlaid with black, staid Wisdom’s hue;</p> +<p class="t0">Black, but such as in esteem</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_18" href="#n4_18">Prince Memnon’s</a> sister might beseem,</p> +<p class="t0">Or <a id="r4_19" href="#n4_19">that starred Ethiop queen</a> that strove</p> +<p class="t0">To set her beauty’s praise above<span class="lnum"> 20</span></p> +<p class="t0">The Sea-Nymphs, and their powers offended.</p> +<p class="t0">Yet thou art higher far descended:</p> +<p class="t0">Thee <a id="r4_23" href="#n4_23">bright-haired Vesta</a> long of yore</p> +<p class="t0">To solitary Saturn bore;</p> +<p class="t0">His daughter she; in Saturn’s reign<span class="lnum"> 25</span></p> +<p class="t0">Such mixture was not held a stain.</p> +<p class="t0">Oft in glimmering bowers and glades</p> +<p class="t0">He met her, and in secret shades</p> +<p class="t0">Of woody Ida’s inmost grove,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_30" href="#n4_30">Whilst yet there was no fear of Jove</a>.<span class="lnum"> 30</span></p> +<span class="pb">[18]</span> +<p class="t0">Come, pensive Nun, devout and pure,</p> +<p class="t0">Sober, steadfast, and demure,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_33" href="#n4_33">All in a robe of darkest grain</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Flowing with majestic train,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_35" href="#n4_35">And sable stole of cypress lawn</a><span class="lnum"> 35</span></p> +<p class="t0">Over thy decent shoulders drawn.</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_37" href="#n4_37">Come; but keep thy wonted state</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">With even step, and musing gait,</p> +<p class="t0">And looks commercing with the skies</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_40" href="#n4_40">Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes</a>:<span class="lnum"> 40</span></p> +<p class="t0">There, held in holy passion still,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_42" href="#n4_42">Forget thyself to marble</a>, till</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_43" href="#n4_43">With a sad leaden downward cast</a></p> +<p class="t0">Thou fix them on the earth as fast.</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_45" href="#n4_45">And join with thee calm Peace and Quiet</a>,<span class="lnum"> 45</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_46" href="#n4_46">Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">And hears the Muses in a ring</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_48" href="#n4_48">Aye</a> round about Jove’s altar sing;</p> +<p class="t0">And add to these retired Leisure,</p> +<p class="t0">That in trim gardens takes his pleasure;<span class="lnum"> 50</span></p> +<p class="t0">But, first and chiefest, with thee bring</p> +<p class="t0">Him that yon soars on golden wing,</p> +<p class="t0">Guiding <a id="r4_53" href="#n4_53">the fiery-wheeled throne</a>,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_54" href="#n4_54">The Cherub Contemplation</a>;</p> +<p class="t0">And the mute Silence <a id="r4_55" href="#n4_55">hist</a> along,<span class="lnum"> 55</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_56" href="#n4_56">‘Less Philomel will deign a song</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">In her sweetest, saddest <a id="r4_57" href="#n4_57">plight</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Smoothing the rugged brow of Night,</p> +<p class="t0">While <a id="r4_59" href="#n4_59">Cynthia checks her dragon yoke</a></p> +<p class="t0">Gently o’er the accustomed oak.<span class="lnum"> 60</span></p> +<p class="t0">Sweet bird, that shunn’st the noise of folly,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_62">Most musical, most melancholy!</a></p> +<span class="pb">[19]</span> +<p class="t0">Thee, chauntress, oft the woods among</p> +<p class="t0">I woo, to hear thy even-song;</p> +<p class="t0">And, missing thee, I <a id="r4_65" href="#n4_65">walk unseen</a><span class="lnum"> 65</span></p> +<p class="t0">On the dry smooth-shaven green,</p> +<p class="t0">To behold the wandering moon,</p> +<p class="t0">Riding near her highest noon,</p> +<p class="t0">Like one that had been led astray</p> +<p class="t0">Through the heaven’s wide pathless way,<span class="lnum"> 70</span></p> +<p class="t0">And oft, as if her head she bowed,</p> +<p class="t0">Stooping through a fleecy cloud.</p> +<p class="t0">Oft, on a plat of rising ground,</p> +<p class="t0">I hear the far-off curfew sound,</p> +<p class="t0">Over some wide-watered shore,<span class="lnum"> 75</span></p> +<p class="t0">Swinging slow with sullen roar;</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_77" href="#n4_77">Or, if the air will not permit</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Some still <a id="r4_78" href="#n4_78">removed</a> place will fit,</p> +<p class="t0">Where glowing embers through the room</p> +<p class="t0">Teach light to counterfeit a gloom,<span class="lnum"> 80</span></p> +<p class="t0">Far from all resort of mirth,</p> +<p class="t0">Save the cricket on the hearth,</p> +<p class="t0">Or the bellman’s drowsy charm</p> +<p class="t0">To bless the doors from nightly harm.</p> +<p class="t0">Or let my lamp, at midnight hour,<span class="lnum"> 85</span></p> +<p class="t0">Be seen in some high lonely tower,</p> +<p class="t0">Where I may oft <a id="r4_87" href="#n4_87">outwatch the Bear</a>,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_88" href="#n4_88">With thrice great Hermes</a>, or unsphere</p> +<p class="t0">The spirit of Plato, to unfold</p> +<p class="t0">What worlds or what vast regions hold<span class="lnum"> 90</span></p> +<p class="t0">The immortal mind that hath forsook</p> +<p class="t0">Her mansion in this fleshly nook;</p> +<p class="t0">And of those <a id="r4_93" href="#n4_93">demons</a> that are found</p> +<p class="t0">In fire, air, flood, or underground,</p> +<p class="t0">Whose power hath a true consent<span class="lnum"> 95</span></p> +<p class="t0">With planet or with element.</p> +<span class="pb">[20]</span> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_97" href="#n4_97">Sometime let gorgeous Tragedy</a></p> +<p class="t0">In sceptred pall come sweeping by,</p> +<p class="t0">Presenting Thebes, or Pelops’ line,</p> +<p class="t0">Or the tale of Troy divine,<span class="lnum"> 100</span></p> +<p class="t0">Or what (though rare) of later age</p> +<p class="t0">Ennobled hath <a id="r4_102">the buskined stage</a>.</p> +<p class="t0">But, O sad Virgin! that thy power</p> +<p class="t0">Might raise <a id="r4_104" href="#n4_104">Musæus</a> from his bower;</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_105" href="#n4_105">Or bid</a> the soul of <a href="#n4_104">Orpheus</a> sing<span class="lnum"> 105</span></p> +<p class="t0">Such notes as, <a id="r4_106">warbled to the string</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Drew iron tears down Pluto’s cheek,</p> +<p class="t0">And made Hell grant what love did seek;</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_109" href="#n4_109">Or call up him that left half-told</a></p> +<p class="t0">The story of Cambuscan bold,<span class="lnum"> 110</span></p> +<p class="t0">Of Camball, and of Algarsife,</p> +<p class="t0">And who had Canace to wife,</p> +<p class="t0">That owned the virtuous ring and glass,</p> +<p class="t0">And of the wondrous horse of brass</p> +<p class="t0">On which the Tartar king did ride;<span class="lnum"> 115</span></p> +<p class="t0">And if aught else great bards beside</p> +<p class="t0">In sage and solemn tunes have sung,</p> +<p class="t0">Of turneys, and of trophies hung,</p> +<p class="t0">Of forests, and enchantments drear,</p> +<p class="t0">Where <a id="r4_120" href="#n4_120">more is meant than meets the ear</a>.<span class="lnum"> 120</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_121" href="#n4_121">Thus, Night, oft see me in thy pale career</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Till <a id="r4_122" href="#n4_122">civil-suited Morn</a> appear,</p> +<p class="t0">Not tricked and frounced, <a id="r4_123" href="#n4_123">as she was wont</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n4_123">With the Attic boy to hunt,</a></p> +<p class="t0">But <a id="r4_125" href="#n4_125">kerchieft</a> in a comely cloud,<span class="lnum"> 125</span></p> +<p class="t0">While <a id="r4_126" href="#n4_126">rocking winds</a> are piping loud</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_127" href="#n4_127">Or ushered with a shower still</a>,</p> +<span class="pb">[21]</span> +<p class="t0">When the gust hath blown his fill,</p> +<p class="t0">Ending on the rustling leaves,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_130" href="#n4_130">With minute-drops from off the eaves</a>.<span class="lnum"> 130</span></p> +<p class="t0">And, <a id="r4_131" href="#n4_131">when the sun begins</a> to fling</p> +<p class="t0">His flaring beams, me, Goddess, bring</p> +<p class="t0">To arched walks of twilight groves,</p> +<p class="t0">And shadows brown, that <a id="r4_134" href="#n4_134">Sylvan</a> loves,</p> +<p class="t0">Of pine, or <a id="r4_135" href="#n4_135">monumental oak</a>,<span class="lnum"> 135</span></p> +<p class="t0">Where the rude axe with heaved stroke</p> +<p class="t0">Was never heard the nymphs to daunt,</p> +<p class="t0">Or fright them from their hallowed haunt.</p> +<p class="t0">There, in close covert, by some brook,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_140" href="#n4_140">Where no profaner eye may look</a>,<span class="lnum"> 140</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_141" href="#n4_141">Hide me from day’s garish eye</a>,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_142" href="#n4_142">While the bee with honeyed thigh</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">That at her flowery work doth sing,</p> +<p class="t0">And the waters murmuring,</p> +<p class="t0">With such consort as they keep,<span class="lnum"> 145</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_146" href="#n4_146">Entice the dewy-feathered Sleep</a>.</p> +<p class="t0">And let some strange mysterious dream</p> +<p class="t0">Wave at <a id="r4_148" href="#n4_148">his</a> wings, in airy stream</p> +<p class="t0">Of lively portraiture displayed,</p> +<p class="t0">Softly on my eyelids laid;<span class="lnum"> 150</span></p> +<p class="t0">And, as I wake, sweet music breathe</p> +<p class="t0">Above, about, or underneath,</p> +<p class="t0">Sent by some Spirit to mortals good,</p> +<p class="t0">Or the unseen <a id="r4_154">Genius of the wood</a>.</p> +<p class="t0">But let my due feet <a id="r4_155" href="#n4_155">never fail</a><span class="lnum"> 155</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n4_155">To walk the studious cloister’s pale</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">And love the high <a id="r4_157" href="#n4_157">embowed</a> roof,</p> +<p class="t0">With antique pillars <a id="r4_158" href="#n4_158">massy-proof</a>,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_159" href="#n4_159">And storied windows richly dight</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Casting a dim religious light.<span class="lnum"> 160</span></p> +<p class="t0">There let the pealing organ blow,</p> +<p class="t0">To the full-voiced quire below,</p> +<span class="pb">[22]</span> +<p class="t0">In service high and anthems clear,</p> +<p class="t0">As may with sweetness, through mine ear,</p> +<p class="t0">Dissolve me into ecstasies,<span class="lnum"> 165</span></p> +<p class="t0">And bring all Heaven before mine eyes.</p> +<p class="t0">And may at last my weary age</p> +<p class="t0">Find out the peaceful hermitage,</p> +<p class="t0">The hairy gown and mossy cell,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r4_170" href="#n4_170">Where I may sit and rightly spell</a><span class="lnum"> 170</span></p> +<p class="t0">Of every star that heaven doth shew,</p> +<p class="t0">And every herb that sips the dew,</p> +<p class="t0">Till old experience do attain</p> +<p class="t0">To something like prophetic strain.</p> +<p class="t0">These pleasures, Melancholy, give;<span class="lnum"> 175</span></p> +<p class="t0">And I with thee will choose to live.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb">[23]</div> +<h3 id="c5">ARCADES.</h3> +<p class="subhead"><i>Part of an Entertainment presented to the Countess Dowager +of Derby at Harefield by some Noble Persons of her Family; +who appear on the Scene in pastoral habit, moving toward +the seat of state, with this song:—</i></p> +<h4>I. <i>Song.</i></h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Look, Nymphs and Shepherds, look!</p> +<p class="t0">What sudden blaze of majesty</p> +<p class="t0">Is that which we from hence descry,</p> +<p class="t0">Too divine to be mistook?</p> +<p class="t">This, this is she<span class="lnum"> 5</span></p> +<p class="t0">To whom our vows and wishes bend:</p> +<p class="t0">Here our solemn search hath end.</p> +<p class="t0">Fame, that her high worth to raise</p> +<p class="t0">Seemed erst so lavish and profuse,</p> +<p class="t0">We may justly now accuse<span class="lnum"> 10</span></p> +<p class="t0">Of detraction from her praise:</p> +<p class="t">Less than half we find expressed;</p> +<p class="t">Envy bid conceal the rest.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Mark what radiant state she spreads,</p> +<p class="t0">In circle round her shining throne<span class="lnum"> 15</span></p> +<p class="t0">Shooting her beams like silver threads:</p> +<p class="t0">This, this is she alone,</p> +<p class="t">Sitting like a goddess bright</p> +<p class="t">In the centre of her light.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Might she the wise <a id="r5_20" href="#n5_20">Latona</a> be,<span class="lnum"> 20</span></p> +<p class="t0">Or <a id="r5_21" href="#n5_21">the towered Cybele</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Mother of a hundred gods?</p> +<span class="pb">[24]</span> +<p class="t0">Juno dares not give her odds:</p> +<p class="t">Who had thought this clime had held</p> +<p class="t">A deity so unparalleled?<span class="lnum"> 25</span></p> +</div> +<p class="stagedir">As they come forward, <span class="sc">the Genius of the Wood</span> appears, +and, turning toward them, speaks.</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Gen.</i> Stay, gentle Swains, for, though in this disguise,</p> +<p class="t0">I see bright honor sparkle through your eyes;</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r5_28" href="#n5_28">Of famous Arcady ye are</a>, and sprung</p> +<p class="t0">Of that renowned flood, so often sung,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r5_30" href="#n5_30">Divine Alpheus</a>, who, by secret sluice,<span class="lnum"> 30</span></p> +<p class="t0">Stole under seas to meet his Arethuse;</p> +<p class="t0">And ye, the breathing roses of the wood,</p> +<p class="t0">Fair silver-buskined Nymphs, as great and good.</p> +<p class="t0">I know this quest of yours and free intent</p> +<p class="t0">Was all in honor and devotion meant<span class="lnum"> 35</span></p> +<p class="t0">To the great mistress of yon princely shrine,</p> +<p class="t0">Whom with low reverence I adore as mine,</p> +<p class="t0">And with all helpful service will comply</p> +<p class="t0">To further this night’s glad solemnity,</p> +<p class="t0">And lead ye where ye may more near behold<span class="lnum"> 40</span></p> +<p class="t0">What shallow-searching Fame hath left untold;</p> +<p class="t0">Which I full oft, amidst those shades alone,</p> +<p class="t0">Have sat to wonder at, and gaze upon.</p> +<p class="t0">For know, by lot from Jove, I am the Power</p> +<p class="t0">Of this fair wood, and live in oaken bower,<span class="lnum"> 45</span></p> +<p class="t0">To nurse the saplings tall, and <a id="r5_46" href="#n5_46">curl the grove</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r5_47" href="#n5_47">With ringlets quaint and wanton windings wove</a>;</p> +<p class="t0">And all my plants I save from nightly ill</p> +<p class="t0">Of <a id="r5_49" href="#n5_49">noisome</a> winds and blasting vapors chill;</p> +<p class="t0">And from the boughs brush off the evil dew,<span class="lnum"> 50</span></p> +<p class="t0">And heal the harms of <a id="r5_51" href="#n5_51">thwarting thunder blue</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Or what <a id="r5_52" href="#n5_52">the cross dire-looking planet</a> smites,</p> +<span class="pb">[25]</span> +<p class="t0">Or hurtful worm with cankered venom bites.</p> +<p class="t0">When <a id="r5_54" href="#n5_54">evening gray</a> doth rise, I fetch my round</p> +<p class="t0">Over the mount, and all this hallowed ground;<span class="lnum"> 55</span></p> +<p class="t0">And early, ere the odorous breath of morn</p> +<p class="t0">Awakes the slumbering leaves, or tasselled horn</p> +<p class="t0">Shakes the high thicket, haste I all about,</p> +<p class="t0">Number my ranks, and visit every sprout</p> +<p class="t0">With puissant words and <a id="r5_60" href="#n5_60">murmurs</a> made to bless.<span class="lnum"> 60</span></p> +<p class="t0">But else, in deep of night, when drowsiness</p> +<p class="t0">Hath locked up mortal sense, then listen I</p> +<p class="t0">To <a id="r5_63" href="#n5_63">the celestial Sirens’ harmony</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">That sit upon <a id="r5_64" href="#n5_64">the nine infolded spheres</a>,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r5_65" href="#n5_65">And sing to those that hold the vital shears</a>,<span class="lnum"> 65</span></p> +<p class="t0">And turn the adamantine spindle round</p> +<p class="t0">On which the fate of gods and men is wound.</p> +<p class="t0">Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie,</p> +<p class="t0">To lull <a id="r5_69" href="#n5_69">the daughters of Necessity</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">And keep unsteady Nature to her law,<span class="lnum"> 70</span></p> +<p class="t0">And the low world in measured motion draw</p> +<p class="t0">After the heavenly tune, <a id="r5_72" href="#n5_72">which none can hear</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n5_72">Of human mould with gross unpurged ear</a>.</p> +<p class="t0">And yet such music worthiest were to blaze</p> +<p class="t0">The peerless height of her immortal praise<span class="lnum"> 75</span></p> +<p class="t0">Whose lustre leads us, and for her most fit,</p> +<p class="t0">If my inferior hand or voice could hit</p> +<p class="t0">Inimitable sounds. Yet, as we go,</p> +<p class="t0">Whate’er the skill of lesser gods can show</p> +<p class="t0">I will assay, her worth to celebrate,<span class="lnum"> 80</span></p> +<p class="t0">And so attend ye toward her glittering state;</p> +<p class="t0">Where ye may all, that are of noble stem,</p> +<p class="t0">Approach, and kiss her sacred vesture’s hem.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb">[26]</div> +<h4>II. <i>Song.</i></h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">O’er the smooth enamelled green,</p> +<p class="t0">Where no print of step hath been,<span class="lnum"> 85</span></p> +<p class="t">Follow me, as I sing</p> +<p class="t">And <a id="r5_87" href="#n5_87">touch the warbled string</a>:</p> +<p class="t0">Under the shady roof</p> +<p class="t0">Of branching elm star-proof</p> +<p class="t3">Follow me.<span class="lnum"> 90</span></p> +<p class="t0">I will bring you where she sits,</p> +<p class="t0">Clad in splendor as befits</p> +<p class="t3">Her deity.</p> +<p class="t0">Such a rural Queen</p> +<p class="t0">All Arcadia hath not seen.<span class="lnum"> 95</span></p> +</div> +<h4>III. <i>Song.</i></h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Nymphs and Shepherds, dance no more</p> +<p class="t">By sandy <a id="r5_97" href="#n5_97">Ladon’s</a> lilied banks;</p> +<p class="t0">On old <a id="r5_98" href="#n5_98">Lycæus, or Cyllene</a> hoar,</p> +<p class="t">Trip no more in twilight ranks;</p> +<p class="t0">Though <a id="r5_100" href="#n5_100">Erymanth</a> your loss deplore,<span class="lnum"> 100</span></p> +<p class="t">A better soil shall give ye thanks.</p> +<p class="t0">From the stony <a id="r5_102" href="#n5_102">Mænalus</a></p> +<p class="t0">Bring your flocks, and live with us;</p> +<p class="t0">Here ye shall have greater grace,</p> +<p class="t0">To serve the Lady of this place.<span class="lnum"> 105</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r5_106" href="#n5_106">Though Syrinx your Pan’s mistress were</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Yet Syrinx well might wait on her.</p> +<p class="t">Such a rural Queen</p> +<p class="t">All Arcadia hath not seen.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb">[27]</div> +<h3 id="c6">AT A SOLEMN MUSIC.</h3> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heaven’s joy,</p> +<p class="t0">Sphere-born harmonious sisters, Voice and Verse,</p> +<p class="t0">Wed your divine sounds, and mixed power employ,</p> +<p class="t0">Dead things with inbreathed sense able to pierce;</p> +<p class="t0">And to our high-raised phantasy present<span class="lnum"> 5</span></p> +<p class="t0">That undisturbed song of pure concent,</p> +<p class="t0">Aye sung before <a id="r6_7" href="#n6_7">the sapphire-colored throne</a></p> +<p class="t0">To Him that sits thereon,</p> +<p class="t0">With saintly shout and solemn jubilee;</p> +<p class="t0">Where the bright Seraphim in burning row<span class="lnum"> 10</span></p> +<p class="t0">Their loud uplifted angel-trumpets blow,</p> +<p class="t0">And the Cherubic host in thousand quires</p> +<p class="t0">Touch their immortal harps of golden wires,</p> +<p class="t0">With those just Spirits that wear victorious palms,</p> +<p class="t0">Hymns devout and holy psalms<span class="lnum"> 15</span></p> +<p class="t0">Singing everlastingly:</p> +<p class="t0">That we on Earth, with undiscording voice,</p> +<p class="t0">May rightly answer that melodious noise;</p> +<p class="t0">As once we did, till disproportioned sin</p> +<p class="t0">Jarred against nature’s chime, and with harsh din<span class="lnum"> 20</span></p> +<p class="t0">Broke the fair music that all creatures made</p> +<p class="t0">To their great Lord, whose love their motion swayed</p> +<p class="t0">In perfect diapason, whilst they stood</p> +<p class="t0">In first obedience, and their state of good.</p> +<p class="t0">O, may we soon again renew that song,<span class="lnum"> 25</span></p> +<p class="t0">And keep in tune with Heaven, till God ere long</p> +<p class="t0">To his celestial <a id="r6_27" href="#n6_27">consort</a> us unite,</p> +<p class="t0">To live with Him, and sing in endless morn of light!</p> +</div> +<div class="pb">[28]</div> +<h3 id="c7">COMUS.</h3> +<p class="center"><span class="small">A MASQUE PRESENTED AT LUDLOW CASTLE, 1634.</span></p> +<h4>THE PERSONS.</h4> +<dl> +<dt>The <span class="sc">Attendant Spirit</span>, afterwards in the habit of <span class="sc">Thyrsis</span>.</dt> +<dt><span class="sc">Comus</span>, with his Crew.</dt> +<dt><span class="sc">The Lady</span>.</dt> +<dt><span class="sc">First Brother</span>.</dt> +<dt><span class="sc">Second Brother</span>.</dt> +<dt><span class="sc">Sabrina</span>, the Nymph.</dt> +</dl> +<p class="stagedir">The first Scene discovers a wild wood.</p> +<p class="stagedir">The <span class="sc">Attendant Spirit</span> descends or enters.</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Spirit.</i> <a id="r7_1" href="#n7_1">Before the starry threshold of Jove’s court</a></p> +<p class="t0">My mansion is, where those immortal shapes</p> +<p class="t0">Of bright aerial spirits live <a id="r7_3" href="#n7_3">insphered</a></p> +<p class="t0">In regions mild of calm and serene air,</p> +<p class="t0">Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot<span class="lnum"> 5</span></p> +<p class="t0">Which men call Earth, and, with low-thoughted care,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_7" href="#n7_7">Confined and pestered in this pinfold here</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being,</p> +<p class="t0">Unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_10" href="#n7_10">After this mortal change</a>, to her true servants<span class="lnum"> 10</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_11" href="#n7_11">Amongst the enthroned gods</a> on sainted <a id="r7_11a" href="#n7_11a">seats.</a></p> +<p class="t0">Yet some there be that by due steps aspire</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_13" href="#n7_13">To lay their just hands on that golden key</a></p> +<p class="t0">That opes the palace of eternity.</p> +<p class="t0">To such my errand is; and, but for such,<span class="lnum"> 15</span></p> +<p class="t0">I would not soil <a id="r7_16" href="#n7_16">these pure ambrosial weeds</a></p> +<p class="t0">With the rank vapors of this sin-worn mould.</p> +<span class="pb">[29]</span> +<p class="t">But to my task. Neptune, besides the sway</p> +<p class="t0">Of every salt flood and each ebbing stream</p> +<p class="t0">Took in, <a id="r7_20" href="#n7_20">by lot ’twixt high and nether Jove</a>.<span class="lnum"> 20</span></p> +<p class="t0">Imperial rule of all the sea-girt isles</p> +<p class="t0">That, like to rich and various gems, inlay</p> +<p class="t0">The unadorned bosom of the deep;</p> +<p class="t0">Which he, to grace his tributary gods,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_25" href="#n7_25">By course commits to several government</a>,<span class="lnum"> 25</span></p> +<p class="t0">And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns</p> +<p class="t0">And wield their little tridents. <a id="r7_27" href="#n7_27">But this Isle</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">The greatest and the best of all the main,</p> +<p class="t0">He <a id="r7_29" href="#n7_29">quarters</a> to his blue-haired deities;</p> +<p class="t0">And all this tract that fronts the falling sun<span class="lnum"> 30</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_31" href="#n7_31">A noble Peer</a> of mickle trust and power</p> +<p class="t0">Has in his charge, with tempered awe to guide</p> +<p class="t0">An <a id="r7_33" href="#n7_33">old and haughty nation</a>, proud in arms:</p> +<p class="t0">Where <a id="r7_34" href="#n7_34">his fair offspring</a>, nursed in princely lore,</p> +<p class="t0">Are coming to attend their father’s state,<span class="lnum"> 35</span></p> +<p class="t0">And new-intrusted sceptre. But their way</p> +<p class="t0">Lies through <a id="r7_37" href="#n7_37">the perplexed paths of this drear wood</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">The nodding horror of those shady brows</p> +<p class="t0">Threats the forlorn and wandering passenger;</p> +<p class="t0">And here their tender age might suffer peril,<span class="lnum"> 40</span></p> +<p class="t0">But that, by quick command from <a id="r7_41" href="#n7_41">sovran</a> Jove,</p> +<p class="t0">I was despatched for their defence and guard!</p> +<p class="t0">And listen why; for I will tell you now</p> +<p class="t0">What never yet was heard in tale or song,</p> +<p class="t0">From old or modern bard, <a id="r7_45" href="#n7_45">in hall or bower</a>.<span class="lnum"> 45</span></p> +<p class="t"><a id="r7_46" href="#n7_46">Bacchus</a>, that first from out the purple grape</p> +<p class="t0">Crushed the sweet poison of misused wine,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_48" href="#n7_48">After the Tuscan mariners transformed</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Coasting the Tyrrhene shore, as the winds listed,</p> +<p class="t0">On Circe’s island <a id="r7_50" href="#n7_50">fell</a>. (Who knows not <a id="r7_50a" href="#n7_50a">Circe</a>,<span class="lnum"> 50</span></p> +<p class="t0">The daughter of the Sun, whose charmed cup</p> +<span class="pb">[30]</span> +<p class="t0">Whoever tasted lost his upright shape,</p> +<p class="t0">And downward fell into a grovelling swine?)</p> +<p class="t0">This Nymph, that gazed upon his clustering locks,</p> +<p class="t0">With ivy berries wreathed, and his blithe youth,<span class="lnum"> 55</span></p> +<p class="t0">Had by him, ere he parted thence, a son</p> +<p class="t0">Much like his father, but his mother more,</p> +<p class="t0">Whom therefore she brought up, and <a id="r7_58" href="#n7_58">Comus</a> named:</p> +<p class="t0">Who, ripe and <a id="r7_59" href="#n7_59">frolic</a> of his full-grown age,</p> +<p class="t0">Roving <a id="r7_60" href="#n7_60">the Celtic and Iberian fields</a>,<span class="lnum"> 60</span></p> +<p class="t0">At last betakes him to this <a id="r7_61" href="#n7_61">ominous</a> wood,</p> +<p class="t0">And, in thick shelter of black shades imbowered,</p> +<p class="t0">Excels his mother at her mighty art;</p> +<p class="t0">Offering to every weary traveller</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_65" href="#n7_65">His orient liquor</a> in a crystal glass,<span class="lnum"> 65</span></p> +<p class="t0">To quench the drouth of Phœbus; which as they taste</p> +<p class="t0">(For most do taste through fond intemperate thirst),</p> +<p class="t0">Soon as the potion works, their human count’nance,</p> +<p class="t0">The express resemblance of the gods, is changed</p> +<p class="t0">Into some brutish form of wolf or bear,<span class="lnum"> 70</span></p> +<p class="t0">Or ounce or tiger, hog, or bearded goat,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_72" href="#n7_72">All other parts remaining as they were</a>.</p> +<p class="t0">And they, so perfect in their misery,</p> +<p class="t0">Not once perceive their foul disfigurement,</p> +<p class="t0">But boast themselves more comely than before,<span class="lnum"> 75</span></p> +<p class="t0">And all their friends and native home forget,</p> +<p class="t0">To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty.</p> +<p class="t0">Therefore, when any favored of high Jove</p> +<p class="t0">Chances to pass through this adventurous glade,</p> +<p class="t0">Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star<span class="lnum"> 80</span></p> +<p class="t0">I shoot from heaven, to give him safe convoy,</p> +<p class="t0">As now I do. But first I must put off</p> +<p class="t0">These my sky-robes, spun out of Iris’ woof,</p> +<p class="t0">And take the <a id="r7_84">weeds</a> and likeness of a swain</p> +<p class="t0">That to the service of this house belongs,<span class="lnum"> 85</span></p> +<span class="pb">[31]</span> +<p class="t0">Who, with his soft pipe and smooth-dittied song,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_87" href="#n7_87">Well knows to still the wild winds</a> when they roar,</p> +<p class="t0">And hush the waving woods; <a id="r7_88" href="#n7_88">nor of less faith</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">And in this office of his mountain watch</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_90" href="#n7_90">Likeliest</a>, and nearest to the present aid<span class="lnum"> 90</span></p> +<p class="t0">Of this occasion. But I hear the tread</p> +<p class="t0">Of hateful steps; I must be viewless now.</p> +</div> +<p class="stageset"><span class="sc">Comus</span> enters, with a charming-rod in one hand, his glass in the other; +with him a rout of monsters, headed like sundry sorts of wild +beasts, but otherwise like men and women, their apparel glistering. +They come in making a riotous and unruly noise, with torches in +their hands.</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Comus.</i> <a id="r7_93" href="#n7_93">The star that bids the shepherd fold</a></p> +<p class="t0">Now the top of heaven doth hold;</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_95">And</a> the gilded car of day<span class="lnum"> 95</span></p> +<p class="t0">His glowing axle <a id="r7_96" href="#n7_96">doth allay</a></p> +<p class="t0">In the <a id="r7_97" href="#n7_97">steep</a> Atlantic stream:</p> +<p class="t0">And the slope sun his upward beam</p> +<p class="t0">Shoots against the dusky <a id="r7_99" href="#n7_99">pole</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Pacing toward the other goal<span class="lnum"> 100</span></p> +<p class="t0">Of his chamber in the east.</p> +<p class="t0">Meanwhile, welcome joy and feast,</p> +<p class="t0">Midnight shout and revelry,</p> +<p class="t0">Tipsy dance and jollity.</p> +<p class="t0">Braid your locks <a id="r7_105" href="#n7_105">with rosy twine</a>,<span class="lnum"> 105</span></p> +<p class="t0">Dropping odors, dropping wine.</p> +<p class="t0">Rigor now is gone to bed;</p> +<p class="t0">And <a id="r7_108" href="#n7_108">Advice</a> with scrupulous head,</p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n7_108">Strict Age, and sour Severity</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">With <a id="r7_110" href="#n7_110">their grave saws</a>, in slumber lie.<span class="lnum"> 110</span></p> +<p class="t0">We, that are of purer fire,</p> +<span class="pb">[32]</span> +<p class="t0">Imitate the starry quire,</p> +<p class="t0">Who, in their nightly watchful spheres,</p> +<p class="t0">Lead in swift round the months and years.</p> +<p class="t0">The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove,<span class="lnum"> 115</span></p> +<p class="t0">Now to the moon <a id="r7_116" href="#n7_116">in wavering morrice</a> move;</p> +<p class="t0">And on the tawny sands and shelves</p> +<p class="t0">Trip the pert fairies and <a id="r7_118" href="#n7_118">the dapper elves</a>.</p> +<p class="t0">By dimpled brook and fountain-brim,</p> +<p class="t0">The wood-nymphs, decked with daisies trim,<span class="lnum"> 120</span></p> +<p class="t0">Their merry wakes and pastimes keep:</p> +<p class="t0">What hath night to do with sleep?</p> +<p class="t0">Night hath better sweets to prove;</p> +<p class="t0">Venus now wakes, and wakens <a id="r7_124" href="#n7_124">Love</a>.</p> +<p class="t0">Come, let us our rites begin;<span class="lnum"> 125</span></p> +<p class="t0">’Tis only daylight that makes sin,</p> +<p class="t0">Which these dun shades will ne’er report.</p> +<p class="t0">Hail, goddess of nocturnal sport,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_129" href="#n7_129">Dark-veiled Cotytto</a>, to whom the secret flame</p> +<p class="t0">Of midnight torches burns! mysterious dame,<span class="lnum"> 130</span></p> +<p class="t0">That ne’er art called but when the dragon womb</p> +<p class="t0">Of Stygian darkness spets her thickest gloom,</p> +<p class="t0">And <a id="r7_133" href="#n7_133">makes one blot of all the air</a>!</p> +<p class="t0">Stay thy cloudy ebon chair,</p> +<p class="t0">Wherein <a id="r7_135" href="#n7_135">thou ridest with Hecat’</a>, and befriend<span class="lnum"> 135</span></p> +<p class="t0">Us thy vowed priests, till utmost end</p> +<p class="t0">Of all thy dues be done, and none left out</p> +<p class="t0">Ere the blabbing eastern scout,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_139" href="#n7_139">The nice Morn</a> on the Indian steep,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_140" href="#n7_140">From her cabined loop-hole peep</a>,<span class="lnum"> 140</span></p> +<p class="t0">And to the tell-tale Sun <a id="r7_141" href="#n7_141">descry</a></p> +<p class="t0">Our concealed solemnity.</p> +<p class="t0">Come, knit hands, and beat the ground</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_144" href="#n7_144">In a light fantastic round</a>.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb">[33]</div> +<h4><i>The Measure.</i></h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_145">Break off,</a> break off! I feel the different pace<span class="lnum"> 145</span></p> +<p class="t0">Of some chaste footing near about this ground.</p> +<p class="t0">Run to your <a id="r7_147" href="#n7_147">shrouds</a> within these brakes and trees;</p> +<p class="t0">Our number may affright. Some virgin sure</p> +<p class="t0">(For so I can distinguish by mine art)</p> +<p class="t0">Benighted in these woods! Now to my charms,<span class="lnum"> 150</span></p> +<p class="t0">And to <a id="r7_151" href="#n7_151">my wily trains</a>: I shall ere long</p> +<p class="t0">Be well stocked with as fair a herd as grazed</p> +<p class="t0">About my mother Circe. Thus I hurl</p> +<p class="t0">My dazzling spells into the <a id="r7_154" href="#n7_154">spongy air</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Of power to cheat the eye with <a id="r7_155" href="#n7_155">blear</a> illusion,<span class="lnum"> 155</span></p> +<p class="t0">And give it false presentments, lest the place</p> +<p class="t0">And my quaint habits breed astonishment,</p> +<p class="t0">And put the damsel to suspicious flight;</p> +<p class="t0">Which must not be, for that’s against my course.</p> +<p class="t0">I, under fair pretence of friendly ends,<span class="lnum"> 160</span></p> +<p class="t0">And well-placed words of glozing courtesy,</p> +<p class="t0">Baited with reasons not unplausible,</p> +<p class="t0">Wind me into the easy-hearted man,</p> +<p class="t0">And hug him into snares. When once her eye</p> +<p class="t0">Hath met the virtue of this magic dust<span class="lnum"> 165</span></p> +<p class="t0">I shall appear some harmless villager,</p> +<p class="t0">Whom thrift keeps up about his country gear.</p> +<p class="t0">But here she comes; I fairly step aside,</p> +<p class="t0">And hearken, if I may her business hear.</p> +</div> +<p class="stagedir">The <span class="sc">Lady</span> enters.</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Lady.</i> This way the noise was, if mine ear be true,<span class="lnum"> 170</span></p> +<p class="t0">My best guide now. Methought it was the sound</p> +<p class="t0">Of riot and ill-managed merriment,</p> +<p class="t0">Such as the jocund flute or gamesome pipe</p> +<p class="t0">Stirs up among <a id="r7_174" href="#n7_174">the loose unlettered hinds</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">When, for their <a id="r7_175">teeming</a> flocks and granges full,<span class="lnum"> 175</span></p> +<span class="pb">[34]</span> +<p class="t0">In wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan,</p> +<p class="t0">And thank the gods <a id="r7_177" href="#n7_177">amiss</a>. I should be loth</p> +<p class="t0">To meet the rudeness and <a id="r7_178" href="#n7_178">swilled</a> insolence</p> +<p class="t0">Of such late <a id="r7_179" href="#n7_179">wassailers</a>; yet, oh! where else</p> +<p class="t0">Shall I inform my unacquainted feet<span class="lnum"> 180</span></p> +<p class="t0">In the blind mazes of this tangled wood?</p> +<p class="t0">My brothers, when they saw me wearied out</p> +<p class="t0">With this long way, resolving here to lodge</p> +<p class="t0">Under the spreading favor of these pines,</p> +<p class="t0">Stepped, as they said, to the next thicket-side<span class="lnum"> 185</span></p> +<p class="t0">To bring me berries, or such cooling fruit</p> +<p class="t0">As the kind hospitable woods provide.</p> +<p class="t0">They left me then when <a id="r7_188" href="#n7_188">the gray-hooded Even</a>,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_189" href="#n7_189">Like a sad votarist in palmer’s weed</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phœbus’ wain.<span class="lnum"> 190</span></p> +<p class="t0">But where they are, and why they came not back,</p> +<p class="t0">Is now the labor of my thoughts. ’Tis likeliest</p> +<p class="t0">They had engaged their wandering steps too far;</p> +<p class="t0">And envious darkness, ere they could return,</p> +<p class="t0">Had stole them from me. Else, O thievish Night,<span class="lnum"> 195</span></p> +<p class="t0">Why shouldst thou, but for some felonious end,</p> +<p class="t0">In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars</p> +<p class="t0">That Nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps</p> +<p class="t0">With everlasting oil, to give due light</p> +<p class="t0">To the misled and lonely traveller?<span class="lnum"> 200</span></p> +<p class="t0">This is the place, as well as I may guess,</p> +<p class="t0">Whence even now the <a id="r7_203" href="#n7_203">tumult of loud mirth</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n7_203">Was rife</a>, and perfect in my listening ear;</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_204" href="#n7_204">Yet nought but single darkness do I find</a>.</p> +<p class="t0">What might this be? A thousand fantasies<span class="lnum"> 205</span></p> +<p class="t0">Begin to throng into my memory,</p> +<p class="t0">Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire,</p> +<span class="pb">[35]</span> +<p class="t0">And airy tongues that syllable men’s names</p> +<p class="t0">On sands and shores and desert wildernesses.</p> +<p class="t0">These thoughts <a id="r7_210" href="#n7_210">may startle well, but not astound</a><span class="lnum"> 210</span></p> +<p class="t0">The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended</p> +<p class="t0">By <a id="r7_212" href="#n7_212">a strong siding champion</a>, Conscience.</p> +<p class="t0">O, welcome, pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope,</p> +<p class="t0">Thou hovering angel girt with golden wings,</p> +<p class="t0">And thou unblemished form of Chastity!<span class="lnum"> 215</span></p> +<p class="t0">I see thee visibly, and now believe</p> +<p class="t0">That He, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill</p> +<p class="t0">Are but as slavish officers of vengeance,</p> +<p class="t0">Would send a glistering guardian, if need were,</p> +<p class="t0">To keep my life and honor unassailed....<span class="lnum"> 220</span></p> +<p class="t0">Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud</p> +<p class="t0">Turn forth <a id="r7_222" href="#n7_222">her silver lining</a> on the night?</p> +<p class="t0">I did not err: there does a sable cloud</p> +<p class="t0">Turn forth her silver lining on the night,</p> +<p class="t0">And casts a gleam over this tufted grove.<span class="lnum"> 225</span></p> +<p class="t0">I cannot hallo to my brothers, but</p> +<p class="t0">Such noise as I can make to be heard farthest</p> +<p class="t0">I’ll venture; for my new-enlivened spirits</p> +<p class="t0">Prompt me, and they perhaps are not far off.</p> +</div> +<h4><i>Song.</i></h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv’st unseen<span class="lnum"> 230</span></p> +<p class="t3"><a id="r7_231" href="#n7_231">Within thy airy shell</a></p> +<p class="t2">By slow <a id="r7_232" href="#n7_232">Meander’s</a> margent green,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_233" href="#n7_233">And in the violet-embroidered vale</a></p> +<p class="t2">Where the love-lorn nightingale</p> +<p class="t0">Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well:<span class="lnum"> 235</span></p> +<p class="t0">Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair</p> +<p class="t2">That likest thy <a id="r7_237" href="#n7_237">Narcissus</a> are?</p> +<span class="pb">[36]</span> +<p class="t3">O, if thou have</p> +<p class="t2">Hid them in some flowery cave,</p> +<p class="t3">Tell me but where,<span class="lnum"> 240</span></p> +<p class="t">Sweet Queen of Parley, <a id="r7_241" href="#n7_241">Daughter of the Sphere</a>!</p> +<p class="t">So may’st thou be translated to the skies,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_243" href="#n7_243">And give resounding grace to all Heaven’s harmonies</a>!</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Comus.</i> Can any mortal mixture of earth’s mould</p> +<p class="t0">Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment?<span class="lnum"> 245</span></p> +<p class="t0">Sure something holy lodges in that breast,</p> +<p class="t0">And with these raptures moves the vocal air</p> +<p class="t0">To testify his hidden residence.</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_249" href="#n7_249">How sweetly did they float upon the wings</a></p> +<p class="t0">Of silence, through the empty-vaulted night,<span class="lnum"> 250</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_251" href="#n7_251">At every fall</a> smoothing the raven down</p> +<p class="t0">Of darkness till it smiled! I have oft heard</p> +<p class="t0">My mother Circe with <a id="r7_253" href="#n7_253">the Sirens</a> three,</p> +<p class="t0">Amidst the flowery-kirtled <a id="r7_254" href="#n7_254">Naiades</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Culling their potent herbs and baleful drugs,<span class="lnum"> 255</span></p> +<p class="t0">Who, as they sung, would take the prisoned soul,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_257" href="#n7_257">And lap it in Elysium</a>: <a id="r7_257a" href="#n7_257a">Scylla</a> wept,</p> +<p class="t0">And chid her barking waves into attention,</p> +<p class="t0">And fell <a href="#n7_257a">Charybdis</a> murmured soft applause.</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_260" href="#n7_260">Yet they</a> in pleasing slumber lulled the sense,<span class="lnum"> 260</span></p> +<p class="t0">And in sweet madness robbed it of itself;</p> +<p class="t0">But such a sacred and home-felt delight,</p> +<p class="t0">Such sober certainty of waking bliss,</p> +<p class="t0">I never heard till now. I’ll speak to her,</p> +<p class="t0">And she shall be my queen.—Hail, foreign wonder!<span class="lnum"> 265</span></p> +<p class="t0">Whom certain these rough shades did never breed,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_267" href="#n7_267">Unless the goddess</a> that in rural shrine</p> +<p class="t0">Dwell’st here with Pan or Sylvan, by blest song</p> +<p class="t0">Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog</p> +<p class="t0">To touch the prosperous growth of this tall wood.<span class="lnum"> 270</span></p> +</div> +<div class="pb">[37]</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Lady.</i> Nay, gentle shepherd, ill is lost that praise</p> +<p class="t0">That is addressed to unattending ears.</p> +<p class="t0">Not any boast of skill, but <a id="r7_273" href="#n7_273">extreme shift</a></p> +<p class="t0">How to regain my severed company,</p> +<p class="t0">Compelled me to awake the courteous Echo<span class="lnum"> 275</span></p> +<p class="t0">To give me answer from her mossy couch.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Comus.</i> <a id="r7_277" href="#n7_277">What chance, good Lady, hath bereft you thus?</a></p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Lady.</i> Dim darkness and this leavy labyrinth.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Comus.</i> Could that divide you from near-ushering guides?</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Lady.</i> They left me weary on a grassy turf.<span class="lnum"> 280</span></p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Comus.</i> By falsehood, or discourtesy, or why?</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Lady.</i> To seek i’ the valley some cool friendly spring.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Comus.</i> And left your fair side all unguarded, Lady?</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Lady.</i> They were but twain, and purposed quick return.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Comus.</i> Perhaps forestalling night prevented them.<span class="lnum">285</span></p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Lady.</i> How easy my misfortune is to hit!</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Comus.</i> Imports their loss, beside the present need?</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Lady.</i> No less than if I should my brothers lose.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Comus.</i> <a id="r7_289" href="#n7_289">Were they of manly prime, or youthful bloom?</a></p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Lady.</i> As smooth as Hebe’s their unrazored lips.<span class="lnum"> 290</span></p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Comus.</i> Two such I saw, what time <a id="r7_292" href="#n7_292">the labored ox</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n7_292">In his loose traces</a> from the furrow came,</p> +<p class="t0">And the swinked hedger at his supper sat.</p> +<p class="t0">I saw them under <a id="r7_294" href="#n7_294">a green mantling vine</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">That crawls along the side of yon small hill,<span class="lnum"> 295</span></p> +<p class="t0">Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots;</p> +<p class="t0">Their port was more than human, as they stood.</p> +<p class="t0">I took it for a faery vision</p> +<p class="t0">Of some <a id="r7_299" href="#n7_299">gay creatures of the element</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">That in the colors of the rainbow live,<span class="lnum"> 300</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_301" href="#n7_301">And play i’ the plighted clouds</a>. I was awe-strook,</p> +<p class="t0">And, as I passed, I worshiped. If those you seek,</p> +<span class="pb">[38]</span> +<p class="t0">It were a journey like the path to Heaven</p> +<p class="t0">To help you find them.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Lady.</i> <span class="t6">Gentle villager,</span></p> +<p class="t0">What readiest way would bring me to that place?<span class="lnum"> 305</span></p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Comus.</i> Due west it rises from this shrubby point.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Lady.</i> To find out that, good shepherd, I suppose,</p> +<p class="t0">In such a scant allowance of star-light,</p> +<p class="t0">Would overtask the best land-pilot’s art,</p> +<p class="t0">Without the sure guess of well-practised feet.<span class="lnum"> 310</span></p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Comus.</i> I know each lane, and every alley green,</p> +<p class="t0">Dingle, or bushy dell, of this wild wood,</p> +<p class="t0">And every bosky bourn from side to side,</p> +<p class="t0">My daily walks and ancient neighborhood;</p> +<p class="t0">And, if your stray attendance be yet lodged,<span class="lnum"> 315</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_316" href="#n7_316">Or shroud within these limits</a>, I shall know</p> +<p class="t0">Ere morrow wake, or the low-roosted lark</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_318" href="#n7_318">From her thatched pallet rouse</a>. If otherwise,</p> +<p class="t0">I can conduct you, Lady, to a low</p> +<p class="t0">But loyal cottage, where you may be safe<span class="lnum"> 320</span></p> +<p class="t0">Till further quest.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Lady.</i> <span class="t4">Shepherd, I take thy word,</span></p> +<p class="t0">And trust thy honest-offered courtesy,</p> +<p class="t0">Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds,</p> +<p class="t0">With smoky rafters, than in tapestry halls</p> +<p class="t0">And courts of princes, <a id="r7_325" href="#n7_325">where it first was named</a>,<span class="lnum"> 325</span></p> +<p class="t0">And yet is most pretended. In a place</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_327" href="#n7_327">Less warranted than this, or less secure</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">I cannot be, that I should fear to change it.</p> +<p class="t0">Eye me, blest Providence, and <a id="r7_329" href="#n7_329">square my trial</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n7_329">To my proportioned strength</a>! Shepherd, lead on....<span class="lnum"> 330</span></p> +</div> +<div class="pb">[39]</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="stagedir">The <span class="sc">Two Brothers.</span></p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Eld. Bro.</i> Unmuffle, ye faint stars; and thou, fair moon,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_332" href="#n7_332">That wont’st to love</a> the traveller’s benison,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_333" href="#n7_333">Stoop thy pale visage</a> through an amber cloud,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_334" href="#n7_334">And disinherit Chaos, that reigns here</a></p> +<p class="t0">In double night of darkness and of shades;<span class="lnum"> 335</span></p> +<p class="t0">Or, if your influence be quite dammed up</p> +<p class="t0">With black usurping mists, some gentle taper,</p> +<p class="t0">Though <a id="r7_338" href="#n7_338">a rush-candle</a> from the wicker hole</p> +<p class="t0">Of some clay habitation, visit us</p> +<p class="t0">With thy long levelled rule of streaming light,<span class="lnum"> 340</span></p> +<p class="t0">And thou shalt be our <a id="r7_341" href="#n7_341">star of Arcady</a>,</p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n7_341">Or Tyrian Cynosure</a>.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Sec. Bro.</i> <span class="t4">Or, if our eyes</span></p> +<p class="t0">Be barred that happiness, might we but hear</p> +<p class="t0">The folded flocks, penned in their wattled cotes,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_345" href="#n7_345">Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops</a>,<span class="lnum"> 345</span></p> +<p class="t0">Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock</p> +<p class="t0">Count the night-watches to his feathery dames,</p> +<p class="t0">’Twould be some solace yet, some little cheering,</p> +<p class="t0">In this close dungeon of <a id="r7_349" href="#n7_349">innumerous boughs</a>.</p> +<p class="t0">But, Oh, that hapless virgin, our lost sister!<span class="lnum"> 350</span></p> +<p class="t0">Where may she wander now, whither betake her</p> +<p class="t0">From the chill dew, amongst rude burs and thistles?</p> +<p class="t0">Perhaps some cold bank is her bolster now,</p> +<p class="t0">Or ’gainst the rugged bark of some broad elm</p> +<p class="t0">Leans her unpillowed head, fraught with sad fears.<span class="lnum"> 355</span></p> +<p class="t0">What if in wild amazement and affright,</p> +<p class="t0">Or, while we speak, within the direful grasp</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_358" href="#n7_358">Of savage hunger, or of savage heat!</a></p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Eld. Bro.</i> Peace, brother: be not over-exquisite</p> +<p class="t0">To cast the fashion of uncertain evils;<span class="lnum"> 360</span></p> +<span class="pb">[40]</span> +<p class="t0">For, <a id="r7_361" href="#n7_361">grant they be so</a>, while they rest unknown,</p> +<p class="t0">What need a man forestall his date of grief,</p> +<p class="t0">And run to meet what he would most avoid?</p> +<p class="t0">Or, if they be but false alarms of fear,</p> +<p class="t0">How bitter is such <a id="r7_365" href="#n7_365">self-delusion</a>!<span class="lnum"> 365</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_366" href="#n7_366">I do not think my sister so to seek</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Or so unprincipled in virtue’s book,</p> +<p class="t0">And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever,</p> +<p class="t0">As that the single want of light and noise</p> +<p class="t0">(Not being in danger, as I trust she is not)<span class="lnum"> 370</span></p> +<p class="t0">Could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts,</p> +<p class="t0">And put them into misbecoming plight.</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_373" href="#n7_373">Virtue could see to do what Virtue would</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n7_373">By her own radiant light, though sun and moon</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n7_373">Were in the flat sea sunk.</a> And Wisdom’s self<span class="lnum"> 375</span></p> +<p class="t0">Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude,</p> +<p class="t0">Where, with her best nurse, <a id="r7_377" href="#n7_377">Contemplation</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings,</p> +<p class="t0">That, in the various bustle of resort,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_380" href="#n7_380">Were all to-ruffled</a>, and sometimes impaired.<span class="lnum"> 380</span></p> +<p class="t0">He that has light within his own clear breast</p> +<p class="t0">May sit i’ the centre, and enjoy bright day:</p> +<p class="t0">But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts</p> +<p class="t0">Benighted walks under the mid-day sun;</p> +<p class="t0">Himself is his own dungeon.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Sec. Bro.</i> <span class="t7">’Tis most true</span><span class="lnum"> 385</span></p> +<p class="t0">That musing Meditation most <a id="r7_386" href="#n7_386">affects</a></p> +<p class="t0">The pensive secrecy of desert cell,</p> +<p class="t0">Far from the cheerful haunt of men and herds,</p> +<p class="t0">And sits as safe as in a senate-house;</p> +<p class="t0">For who would rob a hermit of his <a id="r7_390" href="#n7_390">weeds</a>,<span class="lnum"> 390</span></p> +<p class="t0">His few books, or his beads, or maple dish,</p> +<p class="t0">Or do his gray hairs any violence?</p> +<span class="pb">[41]</span> +<p class="t0">But Beauty, like <a id="r7_393" href="#n7_393">the fair Hesperian tree</a></p> +<p class="t0">Laden with blooming gold, <a id="r7_394" href="#n7_394">had need the guard</a></p> +<p class="t0">Of <a id="r7_395" href="#n7_395">dragon-watch</a> with unenchanted eye<span class="lnum"> 395</span></p> +<p class="t0">To save her blossoms, and defend her fruit,</p> +<p class="t0">From the rash hand of bold Incontinence.</p> +<p class="t0">You may as well spread out the unsunned heaps</p> +<p class="t0">Of miser’s treasure by an outlaw’s den,</p> +<p class="t0">And tell me it is safe, as bid me hope<span class="lnum"> 400</span></p> +<p class="t0">Danger <a id="r7_401" href="#n7_401">will wink on Opportunity</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">And let a single helpless maiden pass</p> +<p class="t0">Uninjured in this wild surrounding waste.</p> +<p class="t0">Of night or loneliness <a id="r7_404" href="#n7_404">it recks me not</a>;</p> +<p class="t0">I fear the dread events that dog them both,<span class="lnum"> 405</span></p> +<p class="t0">Lest some ill-greeting touch attempt the person</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_407" href="#n7_407">Of our unowned sister.</a></p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Eld. Bro.</i> <span class="t5"><a href="#n7_407">I do not, brother</a>,</span></p> +<p class="t0">Infer as if I thought my sister’s state</p> +<p class="t0">Secure without all doubt or controversy;</p> +<p class="t0">Yet, where an equal poise of hope and fear<span class="lnum"> 410</span></p> +<p class="t0">Does arbitrate the event, my nature is</p> +<p class="t0">That I incline to hope rather than fear,</p> +<p class="t0">And gladly banish <a id="r7_413" href="#n7_413">squint suspicion</a>.</p> +<p class="t0">My sister is not so defenceless left</p> +<p class="t0">As you imagine; she has a hidden strength,<span class="lnum"> 415</span></p> +<p class="t0">Which you remember not.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Sec. Bro.</i> <span class="t6">What hidden strength,</span></p> +<p class="t0">Unless the strength of Heaven, if you mean that?</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Eld. Bro.</i> I mean that too, but yet a hidden strength,</p> +<p class="t0">Which, if Heaven gave it, may be termed her own.</p> +<p class="t0">’Tis chastity, my brother, chastity:<span class="lnum"> 420</span></p> +<p class="t0">She that has that is clad in complete steel,</p> +<p class="t0">And, like a <a id="r7_422" href="#n7_422">quivered</a> nymph with arrows keen,</p> +<span class="pb">[42]</span> +<p class="t0">May trace huge forests, and <a id="r7_423" href="#n7_423">unharbored</a> heaths,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_424" href="#n7_424">Infamous hills</a>, and sandy perilous wilds;</p> +<p class="t0">Where, through the sacred rays of chastity,<span class="lnum"> 425</span></p> +<p class="t0">No savage fierce, bandite, or mountaineer,</p> +<p class="t0">Will dare to soil her virgin purity.</p> +<p class="t0">Yea, there where very desolation dwells,</p> +<p class="t0">By <a id="r7_429" href="#n7_429">grots</a> and caverns shagged with horrid shades,</p> +<p class="t0">She may pass on with <a id="r7_430" href="#n7_430">unblenched</a> majesty,<span class="lnum"> 430</span></p> +<p class="t0">Be it not done in pride, or in presumption.</p> +<p class="t0">Some say no evil thing that walks by night,</p> +<p class="t0">In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_434" href="#n7_434">Blue meagre hag</a>, or stubborn unlaid ghost,</p> +<p class="t0">That breaks his magic chains at curfew time,<span class="lnum"> 435</span></p> +<p class="t0">No goblin or <a id="r7_436" href="#n7_436">swart faery of the mine</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Hath hurtful power o’er true virginity.</p> +<p class="t0">Do ye believe me yet, or shall I call</p> +<p class="t0">Antiquity from the old schools of Greece</p> +<p class="t0">To testify the arms of chastity?<span class="lnum"> 440</span></p> +<p class="t0">Hence had <a id="r7_441" href="#n7_441">the huntress Dian</a> her dread bow,</p> +<p class="t0">Fair silver-shafted queen forever chaste,</p> +<p class="t0">Wherewith she tamed the brinded lioness</p> +<p class="t0">And spotted mountain-pard, but set at nought</p> +<p class="t0">The frivolous bolt of Cupid; gods and men<span class="lnum"> 445</span></p> +<p class="t0">Feared her stern frown, and she was queen o’ the woods.</p> +<p class="t0">What was that snaky-headed Gorgon shield</p> +<p class="t0">That <a id="r7_448" href="#n7_448">wise Minerva</a> wore, unconquered virgin,</p> +<p class="t0">Wherewith she freezed her foes to congealed stone,</p> +<p class="t0">But rigid looks of chaste austerity,<span class="lnum"> 450</span></p> +<p class="t0">And noble grace that dashed brute violence</p> +<p class="t0">With sudden adoration and blank awe?</p> +<p class="t0">So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity</p> +<p class="t0">That, when a soul is found sincerely so,</p> +<p class="t0">A thousand liveried angels lackey her,<span class="lnum"> 455</span></p> +<p class="t0">Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt,</p> +<span class="pb">[43]</span> +<p class="t0">And in clear dream and solemn vision</p> +<p class="t0">Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear;</p> +<p class="t0">Till oft converse with heavenly habitants</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_460" href="#n7_460">Begin</a> to cast a beam on the outward shape,<span class="lnum"> 460</span></p> +<p class="t0">The unpolluted temple of the mind,</p> +<p class="t0">And <a href="#n7_460">turns</a> it by degrees to the soul’s essence,</p> +<p class="t0">Till all be made immortal. But, when lust,</p> +<p class="t0">By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk,</p> +<p class="t0">But most by lewd and lavish act of sin,<span class="lnum"> 465</span></p> +<p class="t0">Lets in defilement to the inward parts,</p> +<p class="t0">The soul grows clotted by contagion,</p> +<p class="t0">Imbodies, and imbrutes, till she quite lose</p> +<p class="t0">The divine property of her first being.</p> +<p class="t0">Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp<span class="lnum"> 470</span></p> +<p class="t0">Oft seen in charnel-vaults and sepulchres,</p> +<p class="t0">Lingering and sitting by a new-made grave,</p> +<p class="t0">As loth to leave the body that it loved,</p> +<p class="t0">And linked itself by carnal sensualty</p> +<p class="t0">To a degenerate and degraded state.<span class="lnum"> 475</span></p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Sec. Bro.</i> How charming is divine Philosophy!</p> +<p class="t0">Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose,</p> +<p class="t0">But musical as is Apollo’s lute,</p> +<p class="t0">And a perpetual feast of nectared sweets,</p> +<p class="t0">Where no crude surfeit reigns.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Eld. Bro.</i> <span class="t8">List! list! I hear</span><span class="lnum"> 480</span></p> +<p class="t0">Some far-off hallo break the silent air.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Sec. Bro.</i> Methought so too; what should it be?</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Eld. Bro.</i> <span class="t14">For certain,</span></p> +<p class="t0">Either some one, like us, night-foundered here,</p> +<p class="t0">Or else some neighbor woodman, or, at worst,</p> +<p class="t0">Some roving robber calling to his fellows.<span class="lnum"> 485</span></p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Sec. Bro.</i> Heaven help my sister! Again, again, and near!</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_487" href="#n7_487">Best draw, and stand upon our guard</a>.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb">[44]</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Eld. Bro.</i> <span class="t11">I’ll hallo.</span></p> +<p class="t0">If he be friendly, he comes well: if not,</p> +<p class="t0">Defence is a good cause, and Heaven be for us!</p> +</div> +<p class="stagedir">The <span class="sc">Attendant Spirit</span>, habited like a shepherd.</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">That hallo I should know. What are you? speak.<span class="lnum"> 490</span></p> +<p class="t0">Come not too near; you fall on iron stakes else.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Spir.</i> What voice is that? my young lord? speak again.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Sec. Bro.</i> O brother, ’tis my father’s Shepherd, sure.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Eld. Bro.</i> <a id="r7_494" href="#n7_494">Thyrsis</a>! whose artful strains have oft delayed</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_495" href="#n7_495">The huddling brook to hear his madrigal</a>,<span class="lnum"> 495</span></p> +<p class="t0">And sweetened every musk-rose of the dale.</p> +<p class="t0">How camest thou here, good swain? Hath any ram</p> +<p class="t0">Slipped from the fold, or young kid lost his dam,</p> +<p class="t0">Or straggling wether the pent flock forsook?</p> +<p class="t0">How could’st thou find this dark sequestered nook?<span class="lnum"> 500</span></p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Spir.</i> O my loved master’s heir, and his next joy,</p> +<p class="t0">I came not here on such a trivial toy</p> +<p class="t0">As a strayed ewe, or to pursue the stealth</p> +<p class="t0">Of pilfering wolf; not all the fleecy wealth</p> +<p class="t0">That doth enrich these downs is worth a thought<span class="lnum"> 505</span></p> +<p class="t0">To this my errand, and the care it brought.</p> +<p class="t0">But, oh! my virgin Lady, where is she?</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_508" href="#n7_508">How chance she is not</a> in your company?</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Eld. Bro.</i> To tell thee sadly, Shepherd, without blame</p> +<p class="t0">Or our neglect, we lost her as we came.<span class="lnum"> 510</span></p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Spir.</i> Ay me unhappy! then my fears are true.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Eld. Bro.</i> What fears, good Thyrsis? Prithee briefly shew.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Spir.</i> I’ll tell ye. ’Tis not vain or fabulous</p> +<p class="t0">(Though so esteemed by shallow ignorance)</p> +<p class="t0">What the sage poets, taught by the heavenly Muse,<span class="lnum"> 515</span></p> +<p class="t0">Storied of old in high immortal verse</p> +<p class="t0">Of dire <a id="r7_517" href="#n7_517">Chimeras</a> and enchanted isles,</p> +<span class="pb">[45]</span> +<p class="t0">And rifted rocks whose entrance leads to Hell;</p> +<p class="t0">For such there be, but unbelief is blind.</p> +<p class="t">Within the navel of this hideous wood,<span class="lnum"> 520</span></p> +<p class="t0">Immured in cypress shades, a sorcerer dwells,</p> +<p class="t0">Of Bacchus and of Circe born, great Comus,</p> +<p class="t0">Deep skilled in all his mother’s witcheries,</p> +<p class="t0">And here to every thirsty wanderer</p> +<p class="t0">By sly enticement gives his baneful cup,<span class="lnum"> 525</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_526" href="#n7_526">With many murmurs mixed</a>, whose pleasing poison</p> +<p class="t0">The visage quite transforms of him that drinks,</p> +<p class="t0">And the inglorious likeness of a beast</p> +<p class="t0">Fixes instead, unmoulding reason’s <a id="r7_529" href="#n7_529">mintage</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_530" href="#n7_530">Charactered in the face</a>. This have I learnt<span class="lnum"> 530</span></p> +<p class="t0">Tending my flocks hard by i’ the hilly <a id="r7_531" href="#n7_531">crofts</a></p> +<p class="t0">That brow this bottom glade; whence night by night</p> +<p class="t0">He and his monstrous rout are heard to howl</p> +<p class="t0">Like stabled wolves, or tigers at their prey,</p> +<p class="t0">Doing abhorred rites to Hecate<span class="lnum"> 535</span></p> +<p class="t0">In their obscurèd haunts of inmost bowers.</p> +<p class="t0">Yet have they many baits and guileful spells</p> +<p class="t0">To inveigle and invite the unwary sense</p> +<p class="t0">Of them that pass unweeting by the way.</p> +<p class="t0">This evening late, <a id="r7_540" href="#n7_540">by then the chewing flocks</a><span class="lnum"> 540</span></p> +<p class="t0">Had ta’en their supper on the savory herb</p> +<p class="t0">Of knot-grass dew-besprent, and were in fold,</p> +<p class="t0">I sat me down to watch upon a bank</p> +<p class="t0">With ivy canopied, and interwove</p> +<p class="t0">With flaunting honeysuckle, and began,<span class="lnum"> 545</span></p> +<p class="t0">Wrapt in a <a id="r7_546">pleasing fit of melancholy</a>,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_547" href="#n7_547">To meditate my rural minstrelsy,</a></p> +<p class="t0">Till fancy had her fill. But ere a close</p> +<p class="t0">The wonted roar was up amidst the woods,</p> +<p class="t0">And filled the air with barbarous dissonance;<span class="lnum"> 550</span></p> +<span class="pb">[46]</span> +<p class="t0">At which I ceased, and listened them a while,</p> +<p class="t0">Till an <a id="r7_552" href="#n7_552">unusual stop of sudden silence</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_553" href="#n7_553">Gave respite to the drowsy-flighted steeds</a></p> +<p class="t0">That draw the litter of close-curtained Sleep.</p> +<p class="t0">At last a soft and solemn-breathing sound<span class="lnum"> 555</span></p> +<p class="t0">Rose like a steam of rich distilled perfumes,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_557" href="#n7_557">And stole upon the air, that even Silence</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n7_557">Was took ere she was ware, and wished she might</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n7_557">Deny her nature, and be never more</a>,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_560" href="#n7_560">Still</a> to be so displaced. I was all ear,<span class="lnum"> 560</span></p> +<p class="t0">And took in strains that might create a soul</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_562" href="#n7_562">Under the ribs of Death</a>. But, oh! ere long</p> +<p class="t0">Too well I did perceive it was the voice</p> +<p class="t0">Of my most honored Lady, your dear sister.</p> +<p class="t0">Amazed I stood, harrowed with grief and fear;<span class="lnum"> 565</span></p> +<p class="t0">And ‘O poor hapless nightingale,’ thought I,</p> +<p class="t0">‘How sweet thou sing’st, how near the deadly snare!’</p> +<p class="t0">Then down the lawns I ran with headlong haste,</p> +<p class="t0">Through paths and turnings often trod by day,</p> +<p class="t0">Till, guided by mine ear, I found the place<span class="lnum"> 570</span></p> +<p class="t0">Where that damned wizard, hid in sly disguise</p> +<p class="t0">(For so by certain signs I knew), had met</p> +<p class="t0">Already, ere my best speed could prevent,</p> +<p class="t0">The aidless innocent lady, his wished prey;</p> +<p class="t0">Who gently asked if he had seen <a id="r7_575" href="#n7_575">such two</a>,<span class="lnum"> 575</span></p> +<p class="t0">Supposing him some neighbor villager.</p> +<p class="t0">Longer I durst not stay, but soon I guessed</p> +<p class="t0">Ye were the two she meant; with that I sprung</p> +<p class="t0">Into swift flight, till I had found you here;</p> +<p class="t0">But further know I not.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Sec. Bro.</i> <span class="t5">O night and shades,</span><span class="lnum"> 580</span></p> +<p class="t0">How are ye joined with hell in triple knot</p> +<p class="t0">Against the unarmed weakness of one virgin,</p> +<span class="pb">[47]</span> +<p class="t0">Alone and helpless! Is this the confidence</p> +<p class="t0">You gave me, brother?</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Eld. Bro.</i> <span class="t5">Yes, and keep it still;</span></p> +<p class="t0">Lean on it safely; not a period<span class="lnum"> 585</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_586" href="#n7_586">Shall be unsaid for me</a>. Against the threats</p> +<p class="t0">Of malice or of sorcery, or that power</p> +<p class="t0">Which erring men call Chance, this I hold firm:</p> +<p class="t0">Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt,</p> +<p class="t0">Surprised by unjust force, but not enthralled;<span class="lnum"> 590</span></p> +<p class="t0">Yea, even that which Mischief meant most harm</p> +<p class="t0">Shall in the happy trial prove most glory.</p> +<p class="t0">But evil on itself shall back recoil,</p> +<p class="t0">And mix no more with goodness, when at last,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_595" href="#n7_595">Gathered like scum, and settled to itself</a>,<span class="lnum"> 595</span></p> +<p class="t0">It shall be in eternal restless change</p> +<p class="t0">Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_598" href="#n7_598">The pillared firmament</a> is rottenness,</p> +<p class="t0">And earth’s base built on stubble. But come, let’s on!</p> +<p class="t0">Against the opposing will and arm of Heaven<span class="lnum"> 600</span></p> +<p class="t0">May never this just sword be lifted up;</p> +<p class="t0">But for that damned magician, let him be girt</p> +<p class="t0">With all the griesly legions that troop</p> +<p class="t0">Under the sooty flag of <a id="r7_604" href="#n7_604">Acheron</a>,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_605" href="#n7_605">Harpies and Hydras</a>, or all the monstrous forms<span class="lnum"> 605</span></p> +<p class="t0">’Twixt Africa and Ind, I’ll find him out,</p> +<p class="t0">And force him to return <a id="r7_607" href="#n7_607">his purchase</a> back,</p> +<p class="t0">Or drag him by the curls to a foul death,</p> +<p class="t0">Cursed as his life.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Spir.</i> <span class="t5">Alas! good venturous youth,</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_610" href="#n7_610">I love thy courage yet</a>, and bold emprise;<span class="lnum"> 610</span></p> +<p class="t0">But here thy sword <a id="r7_611" href="#n7_611">can do thee little stead</a>.</p> +<p class="t0">Far other arms and other weapons must</p> +<p class="t0">Be those that quell the might of hellish charms.</p> +<span class="pb">[48]</span> +<p class="t0">He with his bare wand can unthread thy joints,</p> +<p class="t0">And crumble all thy sinews.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Eld. Bro.</i> <span class="t7">Why, prithee, Shepherd,</span><span class="lnum"> 615</span></p> +<p class="t0">How durst thou then thyself approach so near</p> +<p class="t0">As to make this relation?</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Spir.</i> <span class="t7">Care and <a id="r7_617" href="#n7_617">utmost shifts</a></span></p> +<p class="t0">How to secure the Lady from surprisal</p> +<p class="t0">Brought to my mind a certain shepherd lad,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_620" href="#n7_620">Of small regard to see to</a>, yet well skilled<span class="lnum"> 620</span></p> +<p class="t0">In every <a id="r7_621" href="#n7_621">virtuous plant</a> and healing herb</p> +<p class="t0">That spreads her verdant leaf to the morning ray.</p> +<p class="t0">He loved me well, and oft would beg me sing;</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_624" href="#n7_624">Which when I did</a>, he on the tender grass</p> +<p class="t0">Would sit, and hearken even to ecstasy,<span class="lnum"> 625</span></p> +<p class="t0">And in requital ope his leathern <a id="r7_626" href="#n7_626">scrip</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">And show me <a id="r7_627" href="#n7_627">simples of a thousand names</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Telling their strange and vigorous faculties.</p> +<p class="t0">Amongst the rest a small unsightly root,</p> +<p class="t0">But of divine effect, he culled me out.<span class="lnum"> 630</span></p> +<p class="t0">The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it,</p> +<p class="t0">But in another country, as he said,</p> +<p class="t0">Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil:</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_634" href="#n7_634">Unknown, and like esteemed</a>, and the dull swain</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_635" href="#n7_635">Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon</a>;<span class="lnum"> 635</span></p> +<p class="t0">And yet more med’cinal is it than <a id="r7_636" href="#n7_636">that Moly</a></p> +<p class="t0">That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave.</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_638" href="#n7_638">He called it Hæmony</a>, and gave it me,</p> +<p class="t0">And bade me keep it as of sovran use</p> +<p class="t0">’Gainst all enchantments, <a id="r7_640" href="#n7_640">mildew blast, or damp</a>,<span class="lnum"> 640</span></p> +<p class="t0">Or <a id="r7_641" href="#n7_641">ghastly Furies’ apparition</a>.</p> +<p class="t0">I pursed it up, but little reckoning made,</p> +<p class="t0">Till now that this extremity compelled.</p> +<p class="t0">But now I find it true; for by this means</p> +<p class="t0">I knew the foul enchanter, though disguised,<span class="lnum"> 645</span></p> +<span class="pb">[49]</span> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_646" href="#n7_646">Entered the very lime-twigs of his spells</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">And yet came off. If you have this about you</p> +<p class="t0">(As I will give you when we go) you may</p> +<p class="t0">Boldly assault the necromancer’s hall;</p> +<p class="t0">Where if he be, with dauntless hardihood<span class="lnum"> 650</span></p> +<p class="t0">And brandished blade rush on him: break his glass,</p> +<p class="t0">And shed the luscious liquor on the ground;</p> +<p class="t0">But seize his wand. Though he and his curst crew</p> +<p class="t0">Fierce sign of battle make, and menace high,</p> +<p class="t0">Or, like the sons of Vulcan, vomit smoke,<span class="lnum"> 655</span></p> +<p class="t0">Yet will they soon retire, if he but shrink.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Eld. Bro.</i> Thyrsis, lead on <a id="r7_657" href="#n7_657">apace</a>; I’ll follow thee;</p> +<p class="t0">And some good angel bear a shield before us!</p> +</div> +<p class="stageset">The Scene changes to a stately palace, set out with all manner of deliciousness: +soft music, tables spread with all dainties. <span class="sc">Comus</span> appears +with his rabble, and the <span class="sc">Lady</span> set in an enchanted chair: to +whom he offers his glass; which she puts by, and <a id="r7_658" href="#n7_658">goes about</a> to rise.</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Comus.</i> Nay, Lady, sit. If I but wave this wand,</p> +<p class="t0">Your nerves are all chained up in alabaster,<span class="lnum"> 660</span></p> +<p class="t0">And you a statue, or <a id="r7_661" href="#n7_661">as Daphne was,</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n7_661">Root-bound, that fled Apollo</a>.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Lady.</i> <span class="t9">Fool, do not boast.</span></p> +<p class="t0">Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind</p> +<p class="t0">With all thy charms, although this corporal rind</p> +<p class="t0">Thou hast immanacled while Heaven sees good.<span class="lnum"> 665</span></p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Comus.</i> Why are you vexed, Lady? why do you frown?</p> +<p class="t0">Here dwell no frowns, nor anger; from these gates</p> +<p class="t0">Sorrow flies far. See, here be all the pleasures</p> +<p class="t0">That fancy can beget on youthful thoughts,</p> +<p class="t0">When the fresh blood grows lively, and returns<span class="lnum"> 670</span></p> +<p class="t0">Brisk as the April buds in primrose season.</p> +<span class="pb">[50]</span> +<p class="t0">And first behold <a id="r7_672" href="#n7_672">this cordial julep</a> here,</p> +<p class="t0">That flames and dances in his crystal bounds,</p> +<p class="t0">With spirits of balm and fragrant syrups mixed.</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_675" href="#n7_675">Not that Nepenthes which the wife of Thone</a><span class="lnum"> 675</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n7_675">In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena</a></p> +<p class="t0">Is of such power to stir up joy as this,</p> +<p class="t0">To life so friendly, or so cool to thirst.</p> +<p class="t0">Why should you be so cruel to yourself,</p> +<p class="t0">And to those dainty limbs, which Nature lent<span class="lnum"> 680</span></p> +<p class="t0">For gentle usage and soft delicacy?</p> +<p class="t0">But you invert the covenants of her trust,</p> +<p class="t0">And harshly deal, like an ill borrower,</p> +<p class="t0">With that which you received on other terms,</p> +<p class="t0">Scorning <a id="r7_685" href="#n7_685">the unexempt condition</a><span class="lnum"> 685</span></p> +<p class="t0">By which all mortal frailty must subsist,</p> +<p class="t0">Refreshment after toil, ease after pain,</p> +<p class="t0">That have been tired all day without repast,</p> +<p class="t0">And timely rest have wanted. But, fair virgin,</p> +<p class="t0">This will restore all soon.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Lady.</i> <span class="t7">’Twill not, false traitor!</span><span class="lnum"> 690</span></p> +<p class="t0">’Twill not restore the truth and honesty</p> +<p class="t0">That thou hast banished from thy tongue with lies.</p> +<p class="t0">Was this the cottage and the safe abode</p> +<p class="t0">Thou told’st me of? What grim aspects are these,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_695" href="#n7_695">These oughly-headed monsters</a>? Mercy guard me!<span class="lnum"> 695</span></p> +<p class="t0">Hence with thy brewed enchantments, foul deceiver!</p> +<p class="t0">Hast thou betrayed my credulous innocence</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_698" href="#n7_698">With vizored falsehood</a> and base forgery?</p> +<p class="t0">And wouldst thou seek again to trap me here</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_700" href="#n7_700">With liquorish baits</a>, fit to ensnare a brute?<span class="lnum"> 700</span></p> +<p class="t0">Were it a draught for Juno when she banquets,</p> +<p class="t0">I would not taste thy treasonous offer. None</p> +<span class="pb">[51]</span> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_703" href="#n7_703">But such as are good men can give good things</a>;</p> +<p class="t0">And that which is not good is not delicious</p> +<p class="t0">To a well-governed and wise appetite.<span class="lnum"> 705</span></p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Comus.</i> O foolishness of men! that lend their ears</p> +<p class="t0">To <a id="r7_707" href="#n7_707">those budge doctors of the stoic fur</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">And <a id="r7_708" href="#n7_708">fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Praising the lean and sallow Abstinence!</p> +<p class="t0">Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth<span class="lnum"> 710</span></p> +<p class="t0">With such a full and unwithdrawing hand,</p> +<p class="t0">Covering the earth with odors, fruits, and flocks,</p> +<p class="t0">Thronging the seas with spawn innumerable,</p> +<p class="t0">But all to please and sate the curious taste?</p> +<p class="t0">And set to work millions of spinning worms,<span class="lnum"> 715</span></p> +<p class="t0">That in their green shops weave the smooth-haired silk,</p> +<p class="t0">To deck her sons; and, that no corner might</p> +<p class="t0">Be vacant of her plenty, in her own loins</p> +<p class="t0">She <a id="r7_719" href="#n7_719">hutched</a> the all-worshipped ore and precious gems,</p> +<p class="t0">To store her children with. If all the world<span class="lnum"> 720</span></p> +<p class="t0">Should, in a fit of temperance, feed on <a id="r7_721" href="#n7_721">pulse</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but <a id="r7_722" href="#n7_722">frieze</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">The All-giver would be unthanked, would be unpraised,</p> +<p class="t0">Not half his riches known, <a id="r7_724" href="#n7_724">and yet</a> despised;</p> +<p class="t0">And we should serve him as a grudging master,<span class="lnum"> 725</span></p> +<p class="t0">As a penurious niggard of his wealth,</p> +<p class="t0">And live like Nature’s bastards, not her sons,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_728" href="#n7_728">Who</a> would be quite surcharged with her own weight,</p> +<p class="t0">And strangled with her waste fertility:</p> +<p class="t0">The earth cumbered, and the winged air darked with plumes,<span class="lnum"> 730</span></p> +<p class="t0">The herds would over-multitude their lords;</p> +<p class="t0">The sea o’erfraught would swell, and the unsought diamonds</p> +<p class="t0">Would so emblaze the forehead of the deep,</p> +<p class="t0">And so bestud with stars, that <a id="r7_734" href="#n7_734">they below</a></p> +<p class="t0">Would grow inured to light, and come at last<span class="lnum"> 735</span></p> +<span class="pb">[52]</span> +<p class="t0">To gaze upon the sun with shameless brows.</p> +<p class="t0">List, Lady; be not <a id="r7_737" href="#n7_737">coy</a>, and be not <a href="#n7_737">cozened</a></p> +<p class="t0">With that same vaunted name, Virginity.</p> +<p class="t0">Beauty is Nature’s coin; must not be hoarded,</p> +<p class="t0">But must be current; and the good thereof<span class="lnum"> 740</span></p> +<p class="t0">Consists in mutual and partaken bliss,</p> +<p class="t0">Unsavory in the enjoyment of itself.</p> +<p class="t0">If you let slip time, like a neglected rose</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_744" href="#n7_744">It</a> withers on the stalk with languished head.</p> +<p class="t0">Beauty is Nature’s brag, and must be shown<span class="lnum"> 745</span></p> +<p class="t0">In courts, at feasts, and high solemnities,</p> +<p class="t0">Where most may wonder at the workmanship.</p> +<p class="t0">It is for <a id="r7_748" href="#n7_748">homely</a> features to keep home;</p> +<p class="t0">They had their name thence: coarse complexions</p> +<p class="t0">And cheeks of sorry <a id="r7_750" href="#n7_750">grain</a> will serve to ply<span class="lnum"> 750</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_751" href="#n7_751">The sampler, and to tease the huswife’s wool</a>.</p> +<p class="t0">What need a vermeil-tinctured lip for that,</p> +<p class="t0">Love-darting eyes, or <a id="r7_753" href="#n7_753">tresses like the morn</a>?</p> +<p class="t0">There was another meaning in these gifts;</p> +<p class="t0">Think what, and be advised; you are but young yet.<span class="lnum"> 755</span></p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Lady.</i> I had not thought to have unlocked my lips</p> +<p class="t0">In this unhallowed air, but that this juggler</p> +<p class="t0">Would think to charm my judgment, as mine eyes,</p> +<p class="t0">Obtruding false rules pranked in reason’s garb.</p> +<p class="t0">I hate <a id="r7_760" href="#n7_760">when vice can bolt her arguments</a><span class="lnum"> 760</span></p> +<p class="t0">And virtue has no tongue to check her pride.</p> +<p class="t0">Impostor! do not charge most innocent Nature,</p> +<p class="t0">As if she would her children should be riotous</p> +<p class="t0">With her abundance. She, good cateress,</p> +<p class="t0">Means her provision only to the good,<span class="lnum"> 765</span></p> +<p class="t0">That live according to her sober laws,</p> +<p class="t0">And holy dictate of spare Temperance.</p> +<span class="pb">[53]</span> +<p class="t0">If every just man that now pines with want</p> +<p class="t0">Had but a moderate and beseeming share</p> +<p class="t0">Of that which lewdly-pampered Luxury<span class="lnum"> 770</span></p> +<p class="t0">Now heaps upon some few with vast excess,</p> +<p class="t0">Nature’s full blessings would be well-dispensed</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_773" href="#n7_773">In unsuperfluous even proportion</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">And she no whit encumbered with her store;</p> +<p class="t0">And then the Giver would be better thanked,<span class="lnum"> 775</span></p> +<p class="t0">His praise due paid: for swinish gluttony</p> +<p class="t0">Ne’er looks to Heaven amidst his gorgeous feast,</p> +<p class="t0">But with besotted base ingratitude</p> +<p class="t0">Crams, and blasphemes his Feeder. Shall I go on?</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_780" href="#n7_780">Or have I said enow?</a> To him that dares<span class="lnum"> 780</span></p> +<p class="t0">Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous words</p> +<p class="t0">Against the sun-clad power of chastity</p> +<p class="t0">Fain would I something say;—yet to what end?</p> +<p class="t0">Thou hast nor ear, nor soul, to apprehend</p> +<p class="t0">The sublime notion and high mystery<span class="lnum"> 785</span></p> +<p class="t0">That must be uttered to unfold the sage</p> +<p class="t0">And serious doctrine of Virginity;</p> +<p class="t0">And <a id="r7_788" href="#n7_788">thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know</a></p> +<p class="t0">More happiness than this thy present lot.</p> +<p class="t0">Enjoy your dear wit, and gay rhetoric,<span class="lnum"> 790</span></p> +<p class="t0">That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence;</p> +<p class="t0">Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinced.</p> +<p class="t0">Yet, should I try, <a id="r7_793" href="#n7_793">the uncontrolled worth</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n7_793">Of this pure cause</a> would kindle my rapt spirits</p> +<p class="t0">To such a flame of sacred vehemence<span class="lnum"> 795</span></p> +<p class="t0">That dumb things would be moved to sympathize,</p> +<p class="t0">And the brute Earth would lend her nerves, and shake,</p> +<p class="t0">Till all thy magic structures, reared so high,</p> +<p class="t0">Were shattered into heaps o’er thy false head.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Comus.</i> She fables not. I feel that I do fear<span class="lnum"> 800</span></p> +<span class="pb">[54]</span> +<p class="t0">Her words set off by some superior power;</p> +<p class="t0">And, though not mortal, yet a cold shuddering dew</p> +<p class="t0">Dips me all o’er, as when the wrath of Jove</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_804" href="#n7_804">Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n7_804">To some of Saturn’s crew</a>. I must dissemble,<span class="lnum"> 805</span></p> +<p class="t0">And try her yet more strongly,—Come, no more!</p> +<p class="t0">This is mere moral babble, and direct</p> +<p class="t0">Against <a id="r7_808" href="#n7_808">the canon laws</a> of our foundation.</p> +<p class="t0">I must not suffer this; yet ’tis but the lees</p> +<p class="t0">And settlings of a melancholy blood.<span class="lnum"> 810</span></p> +<p class="t0">But this will cure all straight; one sip of this</p> +<p class="t0">Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight</p> +<p class="t0">Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise, and taste....</p> +</div> +<p class="stageset">The <span class="sc">Brothers</span> rush in with swords drawn, wrest his glass out of his +hand, and break it against the ground: his rout make sign of resistance, +but are all driven in. The <span class="sc">Attendant Spirit</span> comes in.</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Spir.</i> What! have you let the false enchanter scape?</p> +<p class="t0">O ye mistook; ye should have snatched his wand,<span class="lnum"> 815</span></p> +<p class="t0">And bound him fast. Without his rod reversed,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_817" href="#n7_817">And backward mutters of dissevering power</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">We cannot free the Lady that sits here</p> +<p class="t0">In stony fetters fixed and motionless.</p> +<p class="t0">Yet stay: be not disturbed; now I bethink me,<span class="lnum"> 820</span></p> +<p class="t0">Some other means I have which may be used,</p> +<p class="t0">Which once of <a id="r7_822" href="#n7_822">Melibœus</a> old I learnt,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_823" href="#n7_823">The soothest shepherd</a> that e’er piped on plains.</p> +<p class="t">There is a gentle Nymph not far from hence,</p> +<p class="t0">That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn stream:<span class="lnum"> 825</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_826" href="#n7_826">Sabrina is her name</a>: a virgin pure;</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_827" href="#n7_827">Whilom</a> she was the daughter of Locrine,</p> +<p class="t0">That had the sceptre from his father Brute.</p> +<p class="t0">She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit</p> +<p class="t0">Of her enraged stepdame, Guendolen,<span class="lnum"> 830</span></p> +<span class="pb">[55]</span> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_831" href="#n7_831">Commended her fair innocence to the flood</a></p> +<p class="t0">That stayed her flight with his cross-flowing course.</p> +<p class="t0">The water-nymphs, that in the bottom played,</p> +<p class="t0">Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in,</p> +<p class="t0">Bearing her straight to <a id="r7_835" href="#n7_835">aged Nereus’</a> hall;<span class="lnum"> 835</span></p> +<p class="t0">Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank head,</p> +<p class="t0">And gave her to his daughters to imbathe</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_838" href="#n7_838">In nectared lavers strewed with asphodel</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">And through the porch and inlet of each sense</p> +<p class="t0">Dropt in <a id="r7_840" href="#n7_840">ambrosial</a> oils, till she revived,<span class="lnum"> 840</span></p> +<p class="t0">And underwent a quick immortal change,</p> +<p class="t0">Made Goddess of the river. Still she retains</p> +<p class="t0">Her maiden gentleness, and oft at eve</p> +<p class="t0">Visits the herds along the twilight meadows,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_845" href="#n7_845">Helping all urchin blasts</a>, and ill-luck signs<span class="lnum"> 845</span></p> +<p class="t0">That the shrewd meddling elf delights to make,</p> +<p class="t0">Which she with precious vialed liquors heals:</p> +<p class="t0">For which the shepherds, at their festivals,</p> +<p class="t0">Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays,</p> +<p class="t0">And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream<span class="lnum"> 850</span></p> +<p class="t0">Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy <a id="r7_851" href="#n7_851">daffodils</a>.</p> +<p class="t0">And, as the old swain said, she can unlock</p> +<p class="t0">The clasping charm, and thaw <a id="r7_853">the numbing spell</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">If she be right invoked in warbled song;</p> +<p class="t0">For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift<span class="lnum"> 855</span></p> +<p class="t0">To aid a virgin, such as was herself,</p> +<p class="t0">In hard-besetting need. This will I try,</p> +<p class="t0">And add the power of some <a id="r7_858" href="#n7_858">adjuring</a> verse.</p> +</div> +<h4><i>Song.</i></h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t">Sabrina fair,</p> +<p class="t2">Listen where thou art sitting<span class="lnum"> 860</span></p> +<p class="t">Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave,</p> +<span class="pb">[56]</span> +<p class="t2">In twisted braids of lilies knitting</p> +<p class="t">The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair;</p> +<p class="t2">Listen for dear honor’s sake,</p> +<p class="t2">Goddess of the silver lake,<span class="lnum"> 865</span></p> +<p class="t4">Listen and save!</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Listen, and appear to us,</p> +<p class="t0">In name of great <a id="r7_868" href="#n7_868">Oceanus</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">By the <a id="r7_869" href="#n7_869">earth-shaking Neptune’s mace</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">And <a id="r7_870" href="#n7_870">Tethys’ grave majestic pace</a>;<span class="lnum"> 870</span></p> +<p class="t0">By <a id="r7_871" href="#n7_871">hoary Nereus’</a> wrinkled look,</p> +<p class="t0">And <a id="r7_872" href="#n7_872">the Carpathian wizard’s hook</a>;</p> +<p class="t0">By <a id="r7_873" href="#n7_873">scaly Triton’s winding shell</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">And old <a id="r7_874" href="#n7_874">soothsaying Glaucus’</a> spell;</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_875" href="#n7_875">By Leucothea’s lovely hands,</a><span class="lnum"> 875</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n7_875">And her son that rules the strands</a>;</p> +<p class="t0">By <a id="r7_877" href="#n7_877">Thetis’ tinsel-slippered feet</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">And <a id="r7_878" href="#n7_878">the songs of Sirens</a> sweet;</p> +<p class="t0">By <a id="r7_879" href="#n7_879">dead Parthenope’s dear tomb</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">And <a id="r7_880" href="#n7_880">fair Ligea’s golden comb</a>,<span class="lnum"> 880</span></p> +<p class="t0">Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks</p> +<p class="t0">Sleeking her soft alluring locks;</p> +<p class="t0">By all the nymphs that nightly dance</p> +<p class="t0">Upon thy streams with wily glance;</p> +<p class="t0">Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head<span class="lnum"> 885</span></p> +<p class="t0">From thy coral-paven bed,</p> +<p class="t0">And <a id="r7_887" href="#n7_887">bridle in</a> thy headlong wave,</p> +<p class="t0">Till thou our summons answered have.</p> +<p class="t12">Listen and save!</p> +</div> +<p class="stagedir"><span class="sc">Sabrina</span> rises, attended by Water-nymphs, and sings.</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t">By the rushy-fringed bank,<span class="lnum"> 890</span></p> +<p class="t">Where grow the willow and the osier dank,</p> +<span class="pb">[57]</span> +<p class="t"><a id="r7_892" href="#n7_892">My sliding chariot stays</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Thick set with agate, and <a id="r7_893" href="#n7_893">the azurn sheen</a></p> +<p class="t0">Of turkis blue, and emerald green,</p> +<p class="t">That in the channel strays:<span class="lnum"> 895</span></p> +<p class="t0">Whilst from off the waters fleet</p> +<p class="t0">Thus I set my printless feet</p> +<p class="t0">O’er the cowslip’s velvet head,</p> +<p class="t">That bends not as I tread.</p> +<p class="t0">Gentle swain, at thy request<span class="lnum"> 900</span></p> +<p class="t2">I am here!</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Spir.</i> Goddess dear,</p> +<p class="t0">We implore thy powerful hand</p> +<p class="t0">To undo the charmed band</p> +<p class="t0">Of true virgin here distressed<span class="lnum"> 905</span></p> +<p class="t0">Through the force and through the wile</p> +<p class="t0">Of unblessed enchanter vile.</p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Sabr.</i> <a id="r7_908" href="#n7_908">Shepherd, ’tis my office best</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n7_908">To help ensnared chastity.</a></p> +<p class="t0">Brightest Lady, look on me.<span class="lnum"> 910</span></p> +<p class="t0">Thus I sprinkle on thy breast</p> +<p class="t0">Drops that from my fountain pure</p> +<p class="t0">I have kept <a id="r7_913" href="#n7_913">of precious cure</a>;</p> +<p class="t0">Thrice upon thy finger’s tip,</p> +<p class="t0">Thrice upon thy rubied lip:<span class="lnum"> 915</span></p> +<p class="t0">Next this marble venomed seat,</p> +<p class="t0">Smeared with gums of glutinous heat,</p> +<p class="t0">I touch with chaste palms moist and cold.</p> +<p class="t0">Now the spell hath lost his hold,</p> +<p class="t0">And I must haste ere morning hour<span class="lnum"> 920</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_921" href="#n7_921">To wait in Amphitrite’s bower</a>.</p> +</div> +<p class="stagedir"><span class="sc">Sabrina</span> descends, and the <span class="sc">Lady</span> rises out of her seat.</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Spir.</i> Virgin, daughter of Locrine,</p> +<span class="pb">[58]</span> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_923" href="#n7_923">Sprung of old Anchises’ line</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">May <a id="r7_924" href="#n7_924">thy brimmed waves</a> for this</p> +<p class="t0">Their full tribute never miss<span class="lnum"> 925</span></p> +<p class="t0">From a thousand petty rills,</p> +<p class="t0">That tumble down the snowy hills:</p> +<p class="t0">Summer drouth or singed air</p> +<p class="t0">Never scorch thy tresses fair,</p> +<p class="t0">Nor wet October’s <a id="r7_930" href="#n7_930">torrent flood</a><span class="lnum"> 930</span></p> +<p class="t0">Thy molten crystal fill with mud;</p> +<p class="t0">May thy billows roll ashore</p> +<p class="t0">The <a id="r7_933" href="#n7_933">beryl</a> and the golden ore;</p> +<p class="t0">May thy lofty head be crowned</p> +<p class="t0">With many a tower and terrace round,<span class="lnum"> 935</span></p> +<p class="t0">And here and there thy banks upon</p> +<p class="t0">With <a id="r7_937" href="#n7_937">groves of myrrh and cinnamon.</a></p> +<p class="t">Come, Lady; while Heaven lends us grace,</p> +<p class="t0">Let us fly this cursed place,</p> +<p class="t0">Lest the sorcerer us entice<span class="lnum"> 940</span></p> +<p class="t0">With some other new device.</p> +<p class="t0">Not a waste or needless sound</p> +<p class="t0">Till we come to holier ground.</p> +<p class="t0">I shall be your faithful guide</p> +<p class="t0">Through this gloomy covert wide;<span class="lnum"> 945</span></p> +<p class="t0">And not many furlongs thence</p> +<p class="t0">Is your Father’s residence,</p> +<p class="t0">Where this night are met in state</p> +<p class="t0">Many a friend to gratulate</p> +<p class="t0">His wished presence, and beside<span class="lnum"> 950</span></p> +<p class="t0">All the swains that there abide</p> +<p class="t0">With jigs and rural dance resort.</p> +<p class="t0">We shall catch them at their sport,</p> +<p class="t0">And our sudden coming there</p> +<p class="t0">Will double all their mirth and cheer.<span class="lnum"> 955</span></p> +<span class="pb">[59]</span> +<p class="t0">Come, let us haste; the stars grow high,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_957" href="#n7_957">But Night sits monarch yet in the mid sky</a>.</p> +</div> +<p class="stageset">The Scene changes, presenting Ludlow Town, and the President’s +Castle: then come the Country Dancers; after them the <span class="sc">Attendant +Spirit</span>, with the <span class="sc">Two Brothers</span> and the <span class="sc">Lady</span>.</p> +<h4><i>Song.</i></h4> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Spir.</i> Back, shepherds, back! Enough your play</p> +<p class="t0">Till next sun-shine holiday.</p> +<p class="t0">Here be, without <a id="r7_960" href="#n7_960">duck or nod</a>,<span class="lnum"> 960</span></p> +<p class="t0">Other trippings to be trod</p> +<p class="t0">Of lighter toes, and such court guise</p> +<p class="t0">As Mercury did first devise</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_964" href="#n7_964">With the mincing Dryades</a></p> +<p class="t0">On the lawns and on the leas.<span class="lnum"> 965</span></p> +</div> +<p class="stagedir">This second Song presents them to their Father and Mother.</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t">Noble Lord and Lady bright,</p> +<p class="t0">I have brought ye new delight.</p> +<p class="t0">Here behold so goodly grown</p> +<p class="t0">Three fair branches of your own.</p> +<p class="t0">Heaven hath timely tried their youth,<span class="lnum"> 970</span></p> +<p class="t0">Their faith, their patience, and their truth,</p> +<p class="t0">And sent them here through hard assays</p> +<p class="t0">With a crown of deathless praise,</p> +<p class="t0">To triumph in victorious dance</p> +<p class="t0">O’er sensual folly and intemperance.<span class="lnum"> 975</span></p> +</div> +<p class="stagedir">The dances ended, the <span class="sc">Spirit</span> epiloguizes.</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t"><i>Spir.</i> To the ocean now I fly,</p> +<p class="t0">And those happy climes that lie</p> +<span class="pb">[60]</span> +<p class="t0">Where day never shuts his eye,</p> +<p class="t0">Up in the broad fields of the sky.</p> +<p class="t0">There <a id="r7_980" href="#n7_980">I suck the liquid air</a>,<span class="lnum"> 980</span></p> +<p class="t0">All amidst <a id="r7_981" href="#n7_981">the gardens fair</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n7_981">Of Hesperus, and his daughters three</a></p> +<p class="t0">That sing about <a id="r7_983">the golden tree</a>.</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_984" href="#n7_984">Along the crisped shades and bowers</a></p> +<p class="t0">Revels the <a id="r7_985" href="#n7_985">spruce</a> and jocund Spring;<span class="lnum"> 985</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_986" href="#n7_986">The Graces and the rosy-bosomed Hours</a></p> +<p class="t0">Thither all their bounties bring.</p> +<p class="t0">There eternal Summer dwells,</p> +<p class="t0">And west winds with musky wing</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_990" href="#n7_990">About the cedarn alleys</a> fling<span class="lnum"> 990</span></p> +<p class="t0">Nard and cassia’s balmy smells.</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_992" href="#n7_992">Iris</a> there with humid bow</p> +<p class="t0">Waters the odorous banks, that <a id="r7_993" href="#n7_993">blow</a></p> +<p class="t0">Flowers of more mingled hue</p> +<p class="t0">Than her purfled scarf can shew,<span class="lnum"> 995</span></p> +<p class="t0">And drenches with Elysian dew</p> +<p class="t0">(List, mortals, if your ears be true)</p> +<p class="t0">Beds of hyacinth and roses,</p> +<p class="t0">Where young <a id="r7_999" href="#n7_999">Adonis</a> oft reposes,</p> +<p class="t0">Waxing well of his deep wound,<span class="lnum"> 1000</span></p> +<p class="t0">In slumbers soft, and on the ground</p> +<p class="t0">Sadly sits <a id="r7_1002" href="#n7_1002">the Assyrian queen</a>.</p> +<p class="t0">But far above, in spangled sheen,</p> +<p class="t0">Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advanced</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_1005" href="#n7_1005">Holds his dear Psyche</a>, sweet entranced<span class="lnum"> 1005</span></p> +<p class="t0">After her wandering labors long,</p> +<p class="t0">Till free consent the gods among</p> +<p class="t0">Make her his eternal bride,</p> +<p class="t0">And from her fair unspotted side</p> +<p class="t0">Two blissful twins are to be born,<span class="lnum"> 1010</span></p> +<p class="t0">Youth and Joy; so Jove hath sworn.</p> +<span class="pb">[61]</span> +<p class="t">But now my task is smoothly done:</p> +<p class="t0">I can fly, or I can run</p> +<p class="t0">Quickly to the green earth’s end,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r7_1015" href="#n7_1015">Where the bowed welkin slow doth bend</a>,<span class="lnum"> 1015</span></p> +<p class="t0">And from thence can soar as soon</p> +<p class="t0">To the corners of the moon.</p> +<p class="t0">Mortals, that would follow me,</p> +<p class="t0">Love Virtue; she alone is free.</p> +<p class="t0">She can teach ye how to climb<span class="lnum"> 1020</span></p> +<p class="t0">Higher than <a id="r7_1021" href="#n7_1021">the sphery chime</a>;</p> +<p class="t0">Or, if Virtue feeble were,</p> +<p class="t0">Heaven itself would stoop to her.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb">[62]</div> +<h3 id="c8">LYCIDAS.</h3> +<p class="subhead">In this Monody the Author bewails a learned Friend, unfortunately +drowned in his passage from Chester on the Irish Seas, 1637; and, +by occasion, foretells the ruin of our corrupted Clergy, then in their +height.</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_1" href="#n8_1">Yet once more</a>, O ye laurels, and once more,</p> +<p class="t0">Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere,</p> +<p class="t0">I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude,</p> +<p class="t0">And with forced fingers rude</p> +<p class="t0">Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.<span class="lnum"> 5</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_6" href="#n8_6">Bitter constraint</a> and sad occasion dear</p> +<p class="t0">Compels me to disturb your season due;</p> +<p class="t0">For <a id="r8_8" href="#n8_8">Lycidas</a> is dead, dead ere his prime,</p> +<p class="t0">Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer.</p> +<p class="t0">Who would not sing for Lycidas? <a id="r8_11" href="#n8_11">he knew</a><span class="lnum"> 10</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n8_11">Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme.</a></p> +<p class="t0">He must not float upon his watery bier</p> +<p class="t0">Unwept, <a id="r8_13" href="#n8_13">and welter to the parching wind</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Without the meed of some melodious tear.</p> +<p class="t">Begin, then, <a id="r8_15" href="#n8_15">Sisters of the sacred well</a><span class="lnum"> 15</span></p> +<p class="t0">That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring;</p> +<p class="t0">Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string.</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_18">Hence</a> with denial vain and coy excuse:</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_19" href="#n8_19">So may some gentle Muse</a></p> +<p class="t0">With lucky words favor <i>my</i> destined urn,<span class="lnum"> 20</span></p> +<p class="t0">And as he passes turn,</p> +<p class="t0">And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud!</p> +<p class="t"><a id="r8_23" href="#n8_23">For we were nursed upon the self-same hill</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Fed the same flock, by fountain, shade, and rill;</p> +<p class="t0">Together both, ere the high <a id="r8_25">lawns</a> appeared<span class="lnum"> 25</span></p> +<p class="t0">Under the opening eyelids of the Morn,</p> +<p class="t0">We drove a-field, and both together heard</p> +<span class="pb">[63]</span> +<p class="t0">What time the gray-fly winds her sultry horn,</p> +<p class="t0">Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night,</p> +<p class="t0">Oft till the star that rose at evening bright<span class="lnum"> 30</span></p> +<p class="t0">Toward heaven’s descent had sloped his westering wheel.</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_32" href="#n8_32">Meanwhile the rural ditties were not mute</a>;</p> +<p class="t0">Tempered to the oaten flute</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_34" href="#n8_34">Rough Satyrs danced, and Fauns with cloven heel</a></p> +<p class="t0">From the glad sound would not be absent long;<span class="lnum"> 35</span></p> +<p class="t0">And old Damœtas loved to hear our song.</p> +<p class="t"><a id="r8_37" href="#n8_37">But, oh! the heavy change, now thou art gone</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Now thou art gone and never must return!</p> +<p class="t0">Thee, Shepherd, thee the woods and desert caves,</p> +<p class="t0">With wild thyme and the gadding vine o’ergrown,<span class="lnum"> 40</span></p> +<p class="t0">And all their echoes, mourn.</p> +<p class="t0">The willows, and the hazel copses green,</p> +<p class="t0">Shall now no more be seen</p> +<p class="t0">Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays.</p> +<p class="t0">As killing as the canker to the rose,<span class="lnum"> 45</span></p> +<p class="t0">Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze,</p> +<p class="t0">Or frost to flowers, that their gay wardrobe wear,</p> +<p class="t0">When first the white-thorn blows;</p> +<p class="t0">Such Lycidas, thy loss to shepherd’s ear.</p> +<p class="t">Where were ye, <a id="r8_50" href="#n8_50">Nymphs</a>, when the remorseless deep<span class="lnum"> 50</span></p> +<p class="t0">Closed o’er the head of your loved Lycidas?</p> +<p class="t0">For neither were ye playing <a id="r8_52" href="#n8_52">on the steep</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n8_52">Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie</a>,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_54" href="#n8_54">Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high,</a></p> +<p class="t0">Nor yet <a id="r8_55" href="#n8_55">where Deva spreads her wizard stream</a>.<span class="lnum"> 55</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_56" href="#n8_56">Ay me! I fondly dream</a></p> +<p class="t0">“Had ye been there,” ... for what could that have done?</p> +<p class="t0">What could the Muse herself that Orpheus bore,</p> +<p class="t0">The Muse herself, for her enchanting son,</p> +<p class="t0">Whom universal nature did lament,<span class="lnum"> 60</span></p> +<span class="pb">[64]</span> +<p class="t0">When, by the rout that made the hideous roar,</p> +<p class="t0">His gory visage down the stream was sent,</p> +<p class="t0">Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore?</p> +<p class="t">Alas! <a id="r8_64" href="#n8_64">what boots it</a> with <a id="r8_64a" href="#n8_64a">uncessant care</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n8_64a">To tend the homely, slighted, shepherd’s trade,</a><span class="lnum"> 65</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_66" href="#n8_64a">And strictly meditate</a> the thankless Muse?</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_67" href="#n8_67">Were it not better done</a>, as others use,</p> +<p class="t0">To sport with <a href="#n8_67">Amaryllis</a> in the shade,</p> +<p class="t0">Or with the tangles of <a href="#n8_67">Neæra’s</a> hair?</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_70" href="#n8_70">Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise</a><span class="lnum"> 70</span></p> +<p class="t0">(That last infirmity of noble mind)</p> +<p class="t0">To scorn delights and live laborious days;</p> +<p class="t0">But the fair guerdon when we hope to find,</p> +<p class="t0">And think to burst out into sudden blaze,</p> +<p class="t0">Comes the <a id="r8_75" href="#n8_75">blind Fury with the abhorred shears</a>,<span class="lnum"> 75</span></p> +<p class="t0">And slits the thin-spun life. <a id="r8_76" href="#n8_76">“But not the praise,”</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n8_76">Phœbus replied, and touched my trembling ears:</a></p> +<p class="t0">“Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil,</p> +<p class="t0">Nor <a id="r8_79" href="#n8_79">in the glistering foil</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n8_79">Set off</a> to the world, nor in broad rumor lies,<span class="lnum"> 80</span></p> +<p class="t0">But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes</p> +<p class="t0">And perfect witness of all-judging Jove;</p> +<p class="t0">As he pronounces lastly on each deed,</p> +<p class="t0">Of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed.”</p> +<p class="t"><a id="r8_85" href="#n8_85">O fountain Arethuse, and thou honored flood,</a><span class="lnum"> 85</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n8_85">Smooth-sliding Mincius</a>, crowned with vocal reeds,</p> +<p class="t0">That strain I heard was of a higher mood.</p> +<p class="t0">But <a id="r8_88" href="#n8_88">now my oat proceeds</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">And listens to <a id="r8_89" href="#n8_89">the Herald of the Sea,</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n8_89">That came in Neptune’s plea.</a><span class="lnum"> 90</span></p> +<p class="t0">He asked the waves, and asked the felon winds,</p> +<p class="t0">What hard mishap hath doomed this gentle swain?</p> +<span class="pb">[65]</span> +<p class="t0">And questioned every gust of rugged wings</p> +<p class="t0">That blows from off each beaked promontory.</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_95" href="#n8_95">They knew not of his story</a>;<span class="lnum"> 95</span></p> +<p class="t0">And <a id="r8_96" href="#n8_96">sage Hippotades</a> their answer brings,</p> +<p class="t0">That not a blast was from his dungeon strayed:</p> +<p class="t0">The air was calm, and on the level brine</p> +<p class="t0">Sleek <a id="r8_99" href="#n8_99">Panope</a> with all her sisters played.</p> +<p class="t0">It was that fatal and perfidious bark,<span class="lnum"> 100</span></p> +<p class="t0">Built in the eclipse, and rigged with curses dark,</p> +<p class="t0">That sunk so low that sacred head of thine.</p> +<p class="t">Next, <a id="r8_103" href="#n8_103">Camus</a>, reverend sire, went footing slow,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_104" href="#n8_104">His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Inwrought with <a id="r8_105" href="#n8_105">figures dim</a>, and on the edge<span class="lnum"> 105</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_106" href="#n8_106">Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe.</a></p> +<p class="t0">“Ah! who hath reft,” quoth he, “my dearest <a id="r8_107" href="#n8_107">pledge</a>?”</p> +<p class="t0">Last came, and last did go,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_109" href="#n8_109">The Pilot</a> of the Galilean Lake;</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_110" href="#n8_110">Two massy keys he bore of metals twain</a><span class="lnum"> 110</span></p> +<p class="t0">(The golden opes, the iron shuts amain).</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_112" href="#n8_112">He shook his mitred locks</a>, and stern bespake:—</p> +<p class="t">“<a id="r8_113" href="#n8_113">How well could I have spared for thee</a>, young swain,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_114" href="#n8_114">Enow</a> of such as, for their bellies’ sake,</p> +<p class="t0">Creep, and intrude, and <a id="r8_115" href="#n8_115">climb into the fold</a>!<span class="lnum"> 115</span></p> +<p class="t0">Of other care they little reckoning make</p> +<p class="t0">Than how to scramble at the shearers’ feast,</p> +<p class="t0">And shove away the worthy bidden guest.</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_119" href="#n8_119">Blind mouths</a>! that scarce themselves know how to hold</p> +<p class="t0">A sheep-hook, or have learnt aught else the least<span class="lnum"> 120</span></p> +<p class="t0">That to the faithful herdman’s art belongs!</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_122" href="#n8_122">What recks it them?</a> What need they? They are sped;</p> +<p class="t0">And, when they list, <a id="r8_123" href="#n8_123">their lean and flashy songs</a></p> +<p class="t0">Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw;</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_125" href="#n8_125">The hungry sheep</a> look up, and are not fed,<span class="lnum"> 125</span></p> +<p class="t0">But swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw,</p> +<span class="pb">[66]</span> +<p class="t0">Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread;</p> +<p class="t0">Besides what <a id="r8_128" href="#n8_128">the grim wolf with privy paw</a></p> +<p class="t0">Daily devours apace, and nothing said.</p> +<p class="t0">But <a id="r8_130" href="#n8_130">that two-handed engine at the door</a><span class="lnum"> 130</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n8_130">Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more.”</a></p> +<p class="t"><a id="r8_132" href="#n8_132">Return, Alpheus</a>; the dread voice is past</p> +<p class="t0">That shrunk thy streams; return, Sicilian Muse,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_134" href="#n8_134">And call the vales</a>, and bid them hither cast</p> +<p class="t0">Their bells and flowerets of a thousand hues.<span class="lnum"> 135</span></p> +<p class="t0">Ye valleys low, <a id="r8_136" href="#n8_136">where the mild whispers use</a></p> +<p class="t0">Of shades, and wanton winds, and gushing brooks,</p> +<p class="t0">On whose fresh lap <a id="r8_138" href="#n8_138">the swart star</a> sparely looks,</p> +<p class="t0">Throw hither all your quaint <a id="r8_139" href="#n8_139">enamelled eyes</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">That on the green turf suck the honeyed showers,<span class="lnum"> 140</span></p> +<p class="t0">And purple all the ground with vernal flowers.</p> +<p class="t0">Bring the <a id="r8_142" href="#n8_142">rathe</a> primrose that forsaken dies,</p> +<p class="t0">The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine,</p> +<p class="t0">The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet,</p> +<p class="t0">The glowing violet,<span class="lnum"> 145</span></p> +<p class="t0">The musk-rose, and the well-attired woodbine,</p> +<p class="t0">With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head,</p> +<p class="t0">And every flower that sad embroidery wears;</p> +<p class="t0">Bid <a id="r8_149" href="#n8_149">amaranthus</a> all his beauty shed,</p> +<p class="t0">And <a id="r8_150" href="#n8_150">daffadillies</a> fill their cups with tears,<span class="lnum"> 150</span></p> +<p class="t0">To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies.</p> +<p class="t0">For so, to interpose a little ease,</p> +<p class="t0">Let our frail thoughts <a id="r8_153" href="#n8_153">dally with false surmise</a>.</p> +<p class="t0">Ay me! whilst thee the shores and sounding seas</p> +<p class="t0">Wash far away, where’er thy bones are hurled;<span class="lnum"> 155</span></p> +<p class="t0">Whether beyond <a id="r8_156" href="#n8_156">the stormy Hebrides</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide</p> +<p class="t0">Visit’st the bottom of the monstrous world;</p> +<p class="t0">Or whether thou, to our moist vows denied,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_160" href="#n8_160">Sleep’st by the fable of Bellerus old</a>,<span class="lnum"> 160</span></p> +<span class="pb">[67]</span> +<p class="t0">Where <a id="r8_161" href="#n8_161">the great Vision of the guarded mount</a></p> +<p class="t0">Looks toward Namancos and Bayona’s hold.</p> +<p class="t0">Look homeward, Angel, now, and melt with ruth:</p> +<p class="t0">And, O ye dolphins, waft the hapless youth.</p> +<p class="t">Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more,<span class="lnum"> 165</span></p> +<p class="t0">For Lycidas, your sorrow, is not dead,</p> +<p class="t0">Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor.</p> +<p class="t0">So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed,</p> +<p class="t0">And yet anon repairs his drooping head,</p> +<p class="t0">And tricks his beams, and <a id="r8_170" href="#n8_170">with new-spangled ore</a><span class="lnum"> 170</span></p> +<p class="t0">Flames in the forehead of the morning sky:</p> +<p class="t0">So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high,</p> +<p class="t0">Through the dear might of <a id="r8_173" href="#n8_173">Him that walked the waves</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Where, other groves and other streams along,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_175" href="#n8_175">With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves</a>,<span class="lnum"> 175</span></p> +<p class="t0">And hears <a id="r8_176" href="#n8_176">the unexpressive nuptial song</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love.</p> +<p class="t0">There entertain him all the Saints above,</p> +<p class="t0">In solemn troops, and sweet societies,</p> +<p class="t0">That sing, and singing in their glory move,<span class="lnum"> 180</span></p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_181" href="#n8_181">And wipe the tears forever from his eyes</a>.</p> +<p class="t0">Now, Lycidas, the shepherds weep no more;</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r8_183" href="#n8_183">Henceforth thou art the Genius of the shore</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">In thy large recompense, and shalt be good</p> +<p class="t0">To all that wander in that perilous flood.<span class="lnum"> 185</span></p> +</div> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t">Thus sang the <a id="r8_186" href="#n8_186">uncouth</a> swain to the oaks and rills,</p> +<p class="t0">While <a id="r8_187" href="#n8_187">the still morn went out with sandals gray</a>:</p> +<p class="t0">He touched the tender stops of <a id="r8_188" href="#n8_188">various quills</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">With eager thought warbling his <a id="r8_189" href="#n8_189">Doric</a> lay:</p> +<p class="t0">And now the sun <a id="r8_190" href="#n8_190">had stretched out all the hills</a>,<span class="lnum"> 190</span></p> +<p class="t0">And now was dropt into the western bay.</p> +<p class="t0">At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blue;</p> +<p class="t0">To-morrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb">[68]</div> +<h3 id="c9">SONNETS.</h3> +<h4 id="c9_01">I.</h4> +<h5>TO THE NIGHTINGALE.</h5> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">O Nightingale that on yon bloomy spray</p> +<p class="t2">Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still,</p> +<p class="t2">Thou with fresh hope the lover’s heart dost fill,</p> +<p class="t2">While <a id="r9_1_4" href="#n9_1_4">the jolly Hours</a> lead on propitious May.</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r9_1_5" href="#n9_1_5">Thy liquid notes that close the eye of day,</a><span class="lnum"> 5</span></p> +<p class="t2"><a href="#n9_1_5">First heard before the shallow cuckoo’s bill,</a></p> +<p class="t2">Portend success in love. O, if Jove’s will</p> +<p class="t2">Have linked that amorous power to thy soft lay,</p> +<p class="t0">Now timely sing, ere <a id="r9_1_9" href="#n9_1_9">the rude bird of hate</a></p> +<p class="t2">Foretell my hopeless doom, in some grove nigh;<span class="lnum"> 10</span></p> +<p class="t2">As thou from year to year hast sung too late</p> +<p class="t0">For my relief, yet hadst no reason why.</p> +<p class="t2">Whether the Muse or Love called thee his mate,</p> +<p class="t2">Both them I serve, and of their train am I.</p> +</div> +<h4 id="c9_02">II.</h4> +<h5>ON HIS HAVING ARRIVED AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-THREE.</h5> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,</p> +<p class="t2">Stolen on his wing my three-and-twentieth year!</p> +<p class="t2">My hasting days fly on with full career,</p> +<p class="t2">But my late spring no bud or blossom shew’th.</p> +<p class="t0">Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth<span class="lnum"> 5</span></p> +<p class="t2">That I to manhood am arrived so near;</p> +<p class="t2">And inward ripeness doth much less appear,</p> +<span class="pb">[69]</span> +<p class="t2">That some more <a id="r9_2_8" href="#n9_2_8">timely-happy</a> spirits endu’th.</p> +<p class="t0">Yet, be it less or more, or soon or slow,</p> +<p class="t2">It shall be still in strictest measure <a id="r9_2_10" href="#n9_2_10">even</a><span class="lnum"> 10</span></p> +<p class="t2">To that same lot, however mean or high,</p> +<p class="t0">Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven.</p> +<p class="t2">All is, if I have grace to use it so,</p> +<p class="t2">As ever in my great Task-Master’s eye.</p> +</div> +<h4 id="c9_08">VIII.</h4> +<h5>WHEN THE ASSAULT WAS INTENDED TO THE CITY.</h5> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Captain or <a id="r9_8_1" href="#n9_8_1">Colonel</a>, or Knight in Arms,</p> +<p class="t2">Whose chance on these defenceless doors may seize,</p> +<p class="t2">If deed of honor did thee ever please,</p> +<p class="t2">Guard them, and him within protect from harms.</p> +<p class="t0">He can requite thee; for he knows the charms<span class="lnum"> 5</span></p> +<p class="t2">That call fame on such gentle acts as these,</p> +<p class="t2">And he can spread thy name o’er lands and seas,</p> +<p class="t2">Whatever clime the sun’s bright circle warms.</p> +<p class="t0">Lift not thy spear against the Muses’ bower:</p> +<p class="t2"><a id="r9_8_10" href="#n9_8_10">The great Emathian conqueror</a> bid spare<span class="lnum"> 10</span></p> +<p class="t2"><a id="r9_8_11" href="#n9_8_11">The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower</a></p> +<p class="t0"><a href="#n9_8_11">Went to the ground</a>; and <a id="r9_8_12" href="#n9_8_12">the repeated air</a></p> +<p class="t2"><a href="#n9_8_12">Of sad Electra’s poet</a> had the power</p> +<p class="t2">To save the Athenian walls from ruin bare.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb">[70]</div> +<h4 id="c9_09">IX.</h4> +<h5>TO A VIRTUOUS YOUNG LADY.</h5> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Lady, that in the prime of earliest youth</p> +<p class="t2"><a id="r9_9_2" href="#n9_9_2">Wisely hast shunned the broad way</a> and the green,</p> +<p class="t2">And with those few art eminently seen</p> +<p class="t2">That labor up the hill of heavenly Truth,</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r9_9_5" href="#n9_9_5">The better part with Mary and with Ruth</a><span class="lnum"> 5</span></p> +<p class="t2">Chosen thou hast; and they that overween,</p> +<p class="t2">And at thy growing virtues fret their spleen,</p> +<p class="t2">No anger find in thee, but pity and <a id="r9_9_8" href="#n9_9_8">ruth</a>.</p> +<p class="t0">Thy care is fixed, and <a id="r9_9_9" href="#n9_9_9">zealously attends</a></p> +<p class="t2"><a href="#n9_9_9">To fill thy odorous lamp with deeds of light</a>,<span class="lnum"> 10</span></p> +<p class="t2">And hope that reaps not shame. Therefore be sure</p> +<p class="t0">Thou, when the Bridegroom with his feastful friends</p> +<p class="t2">Passes to bliss at the mid-hour of night,</p> +<p class="t2">Hast gained thy entrance, Virgin wise, and pure.</p> +</div> +<h4 id="c9_10">X.</h4> +<h5>TO THE LADY MARGARET LEY.</h5> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Daughter to that good Earl, once President</p> +<p class="t2">Of England’s Council and her Treasury,</p> +<p class="t2">Who lived in both unstained with gold or fee,</p> +<p class="t2">And left them both, more in himself content,</p> +<p class="t0">Till the sad breaking of that Parliament<span class="lnum"> 5</span></p> +<p class="t2">Broke him, as <a id="r9_10_6" href="#n9_10_6">that dishonest victory</a></p> +<p class="t2"><a href="#n9_10_6">At Chæronea</a>, fatal to liberty,</p> +<span class="pb">[71]</span> +<p class="t2">Killed with report <a href="#n9_10_6">that old man eloquent</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Though <a id="r9_10_9" href="#n9_10_9">later born than to have</a> known the days</p> +<p class="t2">Wherein your father flourished, yet by you,<span class="lnum"> 10</span></p> +<p class="t2">Madam, methinks I see him living yet:</p> +<p class="t0">So well your words his noble virtues praise</p> +<p class="t2">That all both judge you to relate them true</p> +<p class="t2">And to possess them, honored Margaret.</p> +</div> +<h4 id="c9_13">XIII.</h4> +<h5>TO MR. H. LAWES ON HIS AIRS.</h5> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Harry, whose tuneful and well-measured song</p> +<p class="t2">First taught our English music how to span</p> +<p class="t2">Words with just note and accent, <a id="r9_13_3" href="#n9_13_3">not to scan</a></p> +<p class="t2"><a href="#n9_13_3">With Midas’ ears</a>, <a id="r9_13_4" href="#n9_13_4">committing short and long</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Thy <a id="r9_13_5" href="#n9_13_5">worth and skill exempts thee</a> from the throng,<span class="lnum"> 5</span></p> +<p class="t2">With praise enough for Envy to look wan;</p> +<p class="t2">To after age thou shalt be writ the man</p> +<p class="t2">That with smooth air <a id="r9_13_8" href="#n9_13_8">couldst humor best our tongue</a>.</p> +<p class="t0">Thou honor’st Verse, and Verse must send her wing</p> +<p class="t2">To honor thee, the priest of P<a id="r9_13_10" href="#n9_13_10">hœbus’ quire</a>,<span class="lnum"> 10</span></p> +<p class="t2">That tunest their happiest lines in hymn or story.</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r9_13_12" href="#n9_13_12">Dante shall give Fame leave to set thee higher</a></p> +<p class="t2"><a href="#n9_13_12">Than his Casella</a>, whom he wooed to sing,</p> +<p class="t2">Met in the milder shades of Purgatory.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb">[72]</div> +<h4 id="c9_15">XV.</h4> +<h5>ON THE LORD GENERAL FAIRFAX, AT THE SIEGE OF COLCHESTER.</h5> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Fairfax, whose name in arms through Europe rings,</p> +<p class="t2">Filling each mouth with envy or with praise,</p> +<p class="t2">And all her jealous monarchs with amaze,</p> +<p class="t2">And rumors loud that daunt remotest kings,</p> +<p class="t0">Thy firm unshaken virtue ever brings<span class="lnum"> 5</span></p> +<p class="t2">Victory home, though new rebellions raise</p> +<p class="t2">Their Hydra heads, and <a id="r9_15_7" href="#n9_15_7">the false North displays</a></p> +<p class="t2"><a href="#n9_15_7">Her broken league</a> to <a id="r9_15_8" href="#n9_15_8">imp their serpent wings</a>.</p> +<p class="t0">O yet a nobler task awaits thy hand</p> +<p class="t2">(For what can war but endless war still breed?)<span class="lnum"> 10</span></p> +<p class="t2">Till truth and right from violence be freed,</p> +<p class="t0">And public faith cleared from the shameful brand</p> +<p class="t2">Of public fraud. In vain doth <a id="r9_15_13" href="#n9_15_13">Valor</a> bleed,</p> +<p class="t2">While <a href="#n9_15_13">Avarice and Rapine</a> share the land.</p> +</div> +<h4 id="c9_16">XVI.</h4> +<h5>TO THE LORD GENERAL CROMWELL, MAY, 1652,</h5> +<h5>ON THE PROPOSALS OF CERTAIN MINISTERS AT THE COMMITTEE FOR +PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL.</h5> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Cromwell, our chief of men, who through a cloud</p> +<p class="t2">Not of war only, but detractions rude,</p> +<p class="t2">Guided by faith and matchless fortitude,</p> +<p class="t2">To peace and truth thy glorious way hast ploughed,</p> +<p class="t0">And on the neck of crowned Fortune proud<span class="lnum"> 5</span></p> +<p class="t2">Hast reared God’s trophies, and his work pursued,</p> +<p class="t2">While <a id="r9_16_7" href="#n9_16_7">Darwen stream</a>, with blood of Scots imbrued,</p> +<span class="pb">[73]</span> +<p class="t2">And <a href="#n9_16_7">Dunbar</a> field, resounds thy praises loud,</p> +<p class="t0">And Worcester’s laureate wreath: yet much remains</p> +<p class="t2">To conquer still; Peace hath her victories<span class="lnum"> 10</span></p> +<p class="t2">No less renowned than War: new foes arise,</p> +<p class="t0">Threatening <a id="r9_16_12" href="#n9_16_12">to bind our souls with secular chains</a>.</p> +<p class="t2">Help us to save free conscience from the paw</p> +<p class="t2">Of <a id="r9_16_14" href="#n9_16_14">hireling wolves</a>, whose Gospel is their maw.</p> +</div> +<h4 id="c9_17">XVII.</h4> +<h5>TO SIR HENRY VANE THE YOUNGER.</h5> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0"><a id="r9_17_1" href="#n9_17_1">Vane, young in years</a>, but in sage counsel old,</p> +<p class="t2">Than whom a better senator ne’er held</p> +<p class="t2">The helm of Rome, when <a id="r9_17_3" href="#n9_17_3">gowns, not arms</a>, repelled</p> +<p class="t2"><a id="r9_17_4" href="#n9_17_4">The fierce Epirot and the African bold</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Whether to settle peace, or to unfold<span class="lnum"> 5</span></p> +<p class="t2">The drift of hollow states <a id="r9_17_6" href="#n9_17_6">hard to be spelled</a>;</p> +<p class="t2">Then to advise how war may best, upheld,</p> +<p class="t2">Move by her two main nerves, iron and gold,</p> +<p class="t0">In all her equipage; besides, to know</p> +<p class="t2">Both spiritual power and civil, what each means,<span class="lnum"> 10</span></p> +<p class="t2">What severs each, thou hast learned, which few have done.</p> +<p class="t0">The bounds of either sword to thee we owe:</p> +<p class="t2">Therefore on thy firm hand Religion leans</p> +<p class="t2">In peace, and reckons thee her eldest son.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb">[74]</div> +<h4 id="c9_18">XVIII.</h4> +<h5>ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIEDMONT.</h5> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones</p> +<p class="t2">Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;</p> +<p class="t2">Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old,</p> +<p class="t2"><a id="r9_18_4" href="#n9_18_4">When all our fathers worshiped stocks and stones</a>,</p> +<p class="t0">Forget not: in thy book record <a id="r9_18_5" href="#n9_18_5">their groans</a><span class="lnum"> 5</span></p> +<p class="t2"><a href="#n9_18_5">Who were thy sheep</a>, and in their ancient fold</p> +<p class="t2">Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that rolled</p> +<p class="t2">Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans</p> +<p class="t0">The vales redoubled to the hills, and they</p> +<p class="t2">To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow<span class="lnum"> 10</span></p> +<p class="t2">O’er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway</p> +<p class="t0"><a id="r9_18_12" href="#n9_18_12">The triple Tyrant</a>; that from these may grow</p> +<p class="t2">A hundredfold, who, having learnt thy way,</p> +<p class="t2">Early may fly <a id="r9_18_14" href="#n9_18_14">the Babylonian woe</a>.</p> +</div> +<h4 id="c9_19">XIX.</h4> +<h5>ON HIS BLINDNESS.</h5> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">When I consider how my light is spent</p> +<p class="t2"><a id="r9_19_2" href="#n9_19_2">Ere half my days</a> in this dark world and wide,</p> +<p class="t2"><a id="r9_19_3" href="#n9_19_3">And that one talent which is death to hide</a></p> +<p class="t2">Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent</p> +<p class="t0">To serve therewith my Maker, and present<span class="lnum"> 5</span></p> +<p class="t2">My true account, lest He returning chide,</p> +<p class="t2">“Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?”</p> +<span class="pb">[75]</span> +<p class="t2"><a id="r9_19_8" href="#n9_19_8">I fondly ask</a>. But Patience, to prevent</p> +<p class="t0">That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need</p> +<p class="t2">Either man’s work or his own gifts. Who best<span class="lnum"> 10</span></p> +<p class="t2">Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state</p> +<p class="t0">Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed,</p> +<p class="t2">And post o’er land and ocean without rest;</p> +<p class="t2">They also serve who only stand and wait.”</p> +</div> +<h4 id="c9_20">XX.</h4> +<h5>TO MR. LAWRENCE.</h5> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Lawrence, of virtuous father virtuous son,</p> +<p class="t2">Now that the fields are dank, and ways are mire,</p> +<p class="t2">Where shall we sometimes meet, and by the fire</p> +<p class="t2">Help waste a sullen day, what may be won</p> +<p class="t0">From the hard season gaining? Time will run<span class="lnum"> 5</span></p> +<p class="t2">On smoother, till <a id="r9_20_6" href="#n9_20_6">Favonius</a> reinspire</p> +<p class="t2">The frozen earth, and clothe in fresh attire</p> +<p class="t2">The lily and rose, that neither sowed nor spun.</p> +<p class="t0">What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice,</p> +<p class="t2">Of <a id="r9_20_10" href="#n9_20_10">Attic</a> taste, with wine, whence we may rise<span class="lnum"> 10</span></p> +<p class="t2">To hear the lute well touched, or artful voice</p> +<p class="t0">Warble immortal notes and Tuscan air?</p> +<p class="t2">He who of those delights can judge, <a id="r9_20_13" href="#n9_20_13">and spare</a></p> +<p class="t2"><a href="#n9_20_13">To interpose them oft</a>, is not unwise.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb">[76]</div> +<h4 id="c9_21">XXI.</h4> +<h5>TO CYRIACK SKINNER.</h5> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0"><a id="r9_21_1" href="#n9_21_1">Cyriack, whose grandsire</a> on the royal bench</p> +<p class="t2">Of British <a id="r9_21_2" href="#n9_21_2">Themis</a>, with no mean applause,</p> +<p class="t2">Pronounced, and in his volumes taught, our laws,</p> +<p class="t2">Which others at their bar so often wrench,</p> +<p class="t0">To-day deep thoughts resolve with me to drench<span class="lnum"> 5</span></p> +<p class="t2">In mirth that after no repenting draws;</p> +<p class="t2"><a id="r9_21_7" href="#n9_21_7">Let Euclid rest, and Archimedes pause</a>,</p> +<p class="t2"><a id="r9_21_8" href="#n9_21_8">And what the Swede intend, and what the French</a>.</p> +<p class="t0">To measure life learn thou betimes, and know</p> +<p class="t2">Toward solid good what leads the nearest way;<span class="lnum"> 10</span></p> +<p class="t2">For other things mild Heaven a time ordains,</p> +<p class="t0">And disapproves that care, though wise in show,</p> +<p class="t2">That with superfluous burden loads the day,</p> +<p class="t2">And, when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains.</p> +</div> +<h4 id="c9_22">XXII.</h4> +<h5>TO THE SAME.</h5> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Cyriack, <a id="r9_22_1" href="#n9_22_1">this three years’ day</a> these eyes, though clear,</p> +<p class="t2">To outward view, of blemish or of spot,</p> +<p class="t2">Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot;</p> +<p class="t2">Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear</p> +<p class="t0">Of sun, or moon, or star, throughout the year,<span class="lnum"> 5</span></p> +<p class="t2">Or man, or woman. Yet I argue not</p> +<p class="t2">Against Heaven’s hand or will, nor bate a jot</p> +<span class="pb">[77]</span> +<p class="t2">Of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer</p> +<p class="t0">Right onward. What supports me, dost thou ask?</p> +<p class="t2"><a id="r9_22_10" href="#n9_22_10">The conscience, friend, to have lost them overplied</a><span class="lnum"> 10</span></p> +<p class="t2">In Liberty’s defence, my noble task,</p> +<p class="t0">Of which all Europe rings from side to side.</p> +<p class="t2">This thought might lead me through the world’s vain mask</p> +<p class="t2">Content, though blind, had I no better guide.</p> +</div> +<h4 id="c9_23">XXIII.</h4> +<h5>ON HIS DECEASED WIFE</h5> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0">Methought I saw my late espoused saint</p> +<p class="t2">Brought to me <a id="r9_23_2" href="#n9_23_2">like Alcestis</a> from the grave,</p> +<p class="t2">Whom Jove’s great son to her glad husband gave,</p> +<p class="t2">Rescued from Death by force, though pale and faint.</p> +<p class="t0">Mine, as whom washed from spot of child-bed taint<span class="lnum"> 5</span></p> +<p class="t2"><a id="r9_23_6" href="#n9_23_6">Purification in the Old Law</a> did save,</p> +<p class="t2">And such as yet once more I trust to have</p> +<p class="t2">Full sight of her in Heaven without restraint,</p> +<p class="t0">Came vested all in white, pure as her mind.</p> +<p class="t2">Her face was veiled; yet to my fancied sight<span class="lnum"> 10</span></p> +<p class="t2">Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined</p> +<p class="t0">So clear as in no face with more delight.</p> +<p class="t2">But, oh! as to embrace me she inclined,</p> +<p class="t2">I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb">[79]</div> +<h2 id="c10">NOTES.</h2> +<h3>ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST’S NATIVITY.</h3> +<p>From his sixteenth year Milton had been wont to write freely in +Latin verse, on miscellaneous poetic themes, sometimes expressing +his thoughts on events of the day, and sometimes addressing letters +to his friends on purely personal matters. From these Latin +poems, which therefore in some sense belong to English literature, +we obtain valuable insight into his course of life and his way of +thinking. What Milton wrote in foreign languages is indispensable +for the information it gives us about himself—its content is +important; but as poetry implies a fusing of content and form into +an artistic unity, if one of these elements is foreign, the result is +nondescript and cannot be ranged under the head of English literature +in the strict sense of the term.</p> +<p>It is in one of Milton’s own Latin pieces that we find our best +commentary on the Hymn on the Nativity. The sixth Latin Elegy +is an epistle to his intimate college friend, “Charles Diodăti making +a stay in the country,” the last twelve lines of which may be +freely translated as follows:—</p> +<p class="bq">But if you shall wish to know what I am doing,—if indeed you think +it worth your while to know whether I am doing anything at all,—we are +singing the peace-bringing king born of heavenly seed, and the happy ages +promised in the sacred books, and the crying of the infant God lying in +a manger under a poor roof, who dwells with his father in the realms +above; and the starry sky, and the squadrons singing on high, and the +gods suddenly driven away to their own fanes. Those gifts we have +indeed given to the birthday of Christ; that first light brought them to +me at dawn. Thee also they await sung to our native pipes; thou shalt be +to me in lieu of a judge for me to read them to.</p> +<div class="pb">[80]</div> +<p>This means, of course, that the poet is composing a Christmas +Hymn in his native language. We must note his age at this time,—twenty-one +years: he is a student at Cambridge. The poem +remains the great Christmas hymn in our literature. “The Ode +on the Nativity,” says Professor Saintsbury, “is a test of the +reader’s power to appreciate poetry.”</p> +<p>In four stanzas the poet speaks in his own person: he too must, +with the wise men from the east, bring such gifts as he has, to offer +to the Infant God. His offering is the <i>humble ode</i> which follows. +We must take note of the change in the metric form which marks +the transition from the introduction to the ode. In the stanzas of +the former the lines all have five accents, except the last, which has +six; while in the latter, four lines have three accents each, one has +four, two have five, and one has six. Notice also the occasional +hypermetric lines, such as line 47.</p> +<p>In connection with Milton’s Hymn, read Alfred Domett’s <i>It was +the calm and silent night</i>.</p> +<div id="n0" class="notes"> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_5" href="#r1_5">5. For so the holy sages once did sing.</a> See Par. Lost XII 324.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_6" href="#r1_6">6. our deadly forfeit should release.</a> Compare Par. Lost III 221, +and see the idea of <i>releasing a forfeit</i> otherwise expressed in the Merchant +of Venice IV 1 <span class="small">24</span>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_10" href="#r1_10">10. he wont.</a> This is +the past tense of the verb <i>wont</i>, meaning to <i>be accustomed</i>. +See the present, Par. Lost I 764, and the participle, +I 332.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_15" href="#r1_15">15. thy sacred vein.</a> +See <i>vein</i> in the same sense, Par. Lost +VI 628.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_19" href="#r1_19">19. the Sun’s team.</a> +Compare <a href="#r7_95">Comus 95</a>, and read the story of +Phaëthon in Ovid’s Metamorphoses II 106.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_24" href="#r1_24">24. prevent them with thy +humble ode.</a> See <i>prevent</i> in this sense, +in Shakespeare’s Julius Cæsar V 1 <span class="small">105</span>, and +in Psalm <span class="small">XXI</span> 3.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_28" href="#r1_28">28. touched with hallowed +fire.</a> See Acts <span class="small">II</span> 3. On the meaning +of <b>secret</b>, compare Par. Lost X 32.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_41" href="#r1_41">41. Pollute</a> is the +participle, exactly equivalent to <i>polluted</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_48" href="#r1_48">48. the turning sphere.</a> +For poetical purposes Milton everywhere +adopts the popular astronomy of his day, which was based on the +ancient, i.e. the Ptolemaic, or geocentric system of the universe. +Copernicus had already taught the modern, heliocentric theory of the +<span class="pb">[81]</span> +solar system, and his innovations were not unknown to Milton, who, +however, consistently adheres to the old conceptions. In Milton, therefore, +we find the earth the centre of the visible universe, while the +sun, the planets, and the fixed stars revolve about it in their several +<i>spheres</i>. These spheres are nine in number, arranged concentrically, +like the coats of an onion, about the earth, and, if of solid matter, are +to be conceived as being of perfectly transparent crystal. Beginning +with the innermost, they present themselves in the following order: +the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Fixed +Stars, the Primum Mobile. In Par. Lost III 481, the ninth sphere +appears as “that crystalline sphere whose balance weighs the trepidation +talked,” and the Primum Mobile, or the first moved, becomes the +tenth and outermost of the series. The last two spheres contain no +stars.</p> +<p class="cont">We see, then, what we must understand by the oft-recurring <i>spheres</i> +in Milton’s poetry. In the line, <i>Down through the turning sphere</i>, +however, the singular <i>sphere</i> is obviously used to mean the whole aggregate +of spheres composing the starry universe.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_50" href="#r1_50">50. With turtle wing.</a> +With the wing of a turtle-dove.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_56" href="#r1_56">56. The hooked chariot.</a> +War chariots sometimes had scythes, or +hooks, attached to their axles. See 2 Maccabees <span class="small">XIII</span> 2.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_60" href="#r1_60">60. sovran.</a> Milton +always uses this form in preference to <i>sovereign</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_62" href="#r1_62">62. the Prince of Light.</a> +Note the corresponding epithet applied +to Satan, Par. Lost X 383.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_64" href="#r1_64">64. The winds, with wonder +whist.</a> The word <i>whist</i>, originally +an interjection, becomes an adjective, as here and in The Tempest I +2 <span class="small">378</span>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_66" href="#r1_66">66.</a> Make three syllables +of <b>Oceän</b>, and make it rhyme with <i>began</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_68" href="#r1_68">68. birds of calm.</a> +The birds referred to are doubtless halcyons. +Dr. Murray defines halcyon thus: “A bird of which the ancients +fabled that it bred about the time of the winter solstice in a nest floating +on the sea, and that it charmed the wind and waves so that the sea +was specially calm during the period; usually identified with a species +of kingfisher, hence a poetic name of this bird.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_71" href="#r1_71">71. their precious +influence.</a> The word <i>influence</i> is originally a term of +astrology,—“a flowing in, or influent course, of the planets; +their virtue infused into, or their course working on, inferior +creatures” (Skeat, <i>Etym. Dict.</i>).</p> +<div class="pb">[82]</div> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_73" href="#r1_73">73. For all the morning +light.</a> As in Burns’s “We dare be poor +for a’ that,” <i>for</i> meaning in spite of.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_74" href="#r1_74">74. Lucifer.</a> See +Par. Lost VII 131-133.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_81" href="#r1_81">81. As</a>, +for <i>as if</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_86" href="#r1_86">86. Or ere the point of dawn.</a> +The two words <i>or ere</i> mean simply <i>before</i>, as in +Hamlet I 2 <span class="small">147</span>, “A little month, or ere those shoes were +old.” <i>The point of dawn</i> imitates the French <i>le point du jour</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_88" href="#r1_88">88. Full little thought they than.</a> +<i>Than</i> is an ancient form of +<i>then</i>, not wholly obsolete in Milton’s day.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_89" href="#r1_89">89. the mighty Pan.</a> +The poet takes the point of view of the shepherds +and uses the name of their special deity.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_95" href="#r1_95">95. by mortal finger strook.</a> +Milton uses the three participle forms, +<i>strook, struck</i>, and <i>strucken</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_98" href="#r1_98">98. As all their souls in blissful rapture took.</a> +The verb <i>take</i> has here the same meaning as in +Hamlet I 1 <span class="small">163</span>, “no fairy takes nor witch +hath power to charm.” Thus also we say, a vaccination takes.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_103" href="#r1_103">103. Cynthia’s seat.</a> +See <a href="#r4_59">Penseroso 59</a>, and Romeo and Juliet +III 5 <span class="small">20</span>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_108" href="#r1_108">108.</a> +Make the line rhyme properly, giving to <b>union</b> three syllables.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_112" href="#r1_112">112. The helmed cherubim.</a> +See Genesis <span class="small">III</span> 24.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_113" href="#r1_113">113. The sworded seraphim.</a> +See Isaiah <span class="small">VI</span> 2-6.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_116" href="#r1_116">116. With unexpressive notes</a>, +meaning beyond the power of +human expression. So in <a href="#r8_176">Lycidas 176</a>; +Par. Lost V 595; and in As You Like It, +“the fair, the chaste, and inexpressive she.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_119" href="#r1_119">119. But when of old the Sons of Morning sung.</a> +See Job <span class="small">XXXVIII</span> 7.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_124" href="#r1_124">124. the weltering waves.</a> +Compare <a href="#r8_13">Lycidas 13</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_125" href="#r1_125">125. Ring out, ye crystal spheres.</a> +See <a href="#n1_48">note, line 48</a>. The elder +poetry is full of the notion that the spheres in their revolutions made +music, which human ears are too gross to hear. See Merchant of +Venice V 1 <span class="small">50-65</span>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_136" href="#r1_136">136. speckled Vanity.</a> The leopard that confronts Dante in Canto +I of <i>Hell</i> is beautiful with its dappled skin, but symbolizes vain glory.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_143" href="#r1_143">143. like glories wearing.</a> The adjective <i>like</i> means nothing without +a complement, though the complement sometimes has to be supplied, +as in this instance. Fully expressed the passage would be,—<i>wearing +glories like those of Truth and Justice</i>. The <i>like</i> in such a +case as this must be spoken with a fuller tone than when its construction +is completely expressed.</p> +<div class="pb">[83]</div> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_155" href="#r1_155">155. those ychained in sleep.</a> +The poets, in order to gain a syllable, +long continued to use the ancient participle prefix <i>y</i>. +See <i>yclept</i>, <a href="#r3_12">Allegro 12</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_157" href="#r1_157">157. With such a horrid clang.</a> +See Exodus <span class="small">XIX</span>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_168" href="#r1_168">168. The Old Dragon.</a> +See Revelation <span class="small">XII</span> 9.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_173" href="#r1_173">173.</a> +Stanzas <span class="small">XIX-XXVI</span> announce the deposition and expulsion of +the pagan deities, and the ruin of the ancient religions. In accordance +with his custom of grouping selected proper names in abundance, thus +giving vividness and concreteness to his story and sonority to his verse, +the poet here illustrates the triumph of the new dispensation by citing +the names of various gods from the Roman, Greek, Syrian, and Egyptian +mythologies.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_176" href="#r1_176">176. Apollo</a>, the great god, whose oracle was at Delphi, or Delphos.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_179" href="#r1_179">179. spell</a>, +as in <a href="#r7_853">Comus 853</a>, and often.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_186" href="#r1_186">186. Genius.</a> A Latin word, signifying a tutelary or guardian +spirit supposed to preside over a person or place. See +<a href="#r8_183">Lycidas 183</a>, +and <a href="#r4_154">Penseroso 154</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_191" href="#r1_191">191. The Lars and Lemures.</a> In the Roman mythology these +were the spirits of dead ancestors, worshipped or propitiated in families +as having power for good or evil over the fortunes of their descendants.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_194" href="#r1_194">194. Affrights the flamens.</a> The Roman flamens were the priests +of particular gods.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_195" href="#r1_195">195. the chill marble seems to sweat.</a> Many instances of this +phenomenon are reported. Thus Cicero, in his <i>De Divinatione</i>, tells +us: “It was reported to the senate that it had rained blood, that the +river Atratus had even flowed with blood, and that the statues of the +gods had sweat.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_197" href="#r1_197">197. Peor and Baälim.</a> +Syrian false gods. See Numbers <span class="small">XXV</span> 3.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_199" href="#r1_199">199. that twice-battered god of Palestine.</a> +See I Samuel <span class="small">V</span> 2.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_200" href="#r1_200">200. mooned Ashtaroth.</a> +See I Kings <span class="small">XI</span> 33.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_203" href="#r1_203">203. The Lybic Hammon.</a> “Hammon had a famous temple in +Africa, where he was adored under the symbolic figure of a ram.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_204" href="#r1_204">204. their wounded Thammuz.</a> See Ezekiel <span class="small">VIII</span> 14.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_205" href="#r1_205">205. sullen Moloch.</a> See Par. Lost I 392-396.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_210" href="#r1_210">210. the furnace blue.</a> Compare <a href="#r5_51">Arcades 52</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_212" href="#r1_212">212. Isis, and Orus, and the dog Anubis.</a> Egyptian deities, the +latter figured as having the head of a dog.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_213" href="#r1_213">213. Nor is Osiris seen.</a> Osiris was the principal god of the Egyptians, +<span class="pb">[84]</span> +brother and husband of Isis. His highest function was as god +of the Nile. He met his death at the hands of his brother Typhon, a +deity of sterility, by whom he was torn into fourteen pieces. Thereupon +a general lament was raised throughout Egypt. The bull Apis +was regarded as the visible incarnation of Osiris.—<i>Murray’s Manual +of Mythology</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_215" href="#r1_215">215. the unshowered grass.</a> Remember, this was in Egypt.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_223" href="#r1_223">223. his dusky eyn.</a> This ancient plural of eye occurs several +times in Shakespeare, as in As You Like It IV 3 <span class="small">50</span>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_240" href="#r1_240">240. Heaven’s youngest-teemed star.</a> +Compare <a href="#r7_175">Comus 175</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n1_241" href="#r1_241">241. Hath fixed her polished car.</a> +<i>Fix</i> has its proper meaning, <i>stopped</i>. The star +“came and stood over where the young child was.”</p> +</div> +<h3>ON SHAKESPEARE.</h3> +<p>The first edition of the collected works of Shakespeare, known as +the first folio, was published in 1623, when Milton was fifteen years +old. The second Shakespeare folio appeared in 1632. Among the +commendatory verses by various hands prefixed, after the fashion +of the time, to the latter volume, was a little piece of eight couplets, +in which some then unknown rhymer expressed his admiration of +the great poet. Collecting his poems for publication in 1645, +Milton included these couplets, gave them the date 1630, and the +title <i>On Shakespeare</i> which they have since borne in his works. +The fact that he wrote the verses two years before their publication +in the Shakespeare folio shows that he did not produce them to +order, for the special occasion. It is interesting to note that Milton +at twenty-two was an appreciative reader of Shakespeare. The +lines themselves give no hint of great poetic genius; they are a fair +specimen of the conventional, labored eulogy in vogue at the time.</p> +<div class="notes"> +<p><a class="rref" id="n2_4" href="#r2_4">4. star-ypointing.</a> To make the decasyllabic verse, the poet takes +the liberty of prefixing to the present participle the <i>y</i> which properly +belongs only to the past.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n2_8" href="#r2_8">8. a livelong monument.</a> Instead of <i>livelong</i>, the first issue of +the lines, in the Shakespeare folio of 1632, has <i>lasting</i>. The change is +Milton’s, appearing in his revision of his poems in 1645. Does it seem +to be an improvement?</p> +<div class="pb">[85]</div> +<p><a class="rref" id="n2_10" href="#r2_10">10-12. and that each heart hath ... took.</a> The conjunction <i>that</i> +simply repeats the <i>whilst</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n2_11" href="#r2_11">11. thy unvalued book.</a> In Hamlet I 3 <span class="small">19</span> <i>unvalued persons</i> are +persons of no value, or of no rank. In Macbeth III 1 <span class="small">94</span> the <i>valued file</i> +is the file that determines values or ranks. In Milton’s phrase the +<i>unvalued book</i> means the book whose merit is so great as to be beyond +all valuation: a new rank must be created for it.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n2_12" href="#r2_12">12. Those Delphic lines:</a> lines so crowded with meaning as to +seem the utterances of an oracle.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n2_13" href="#r2_13">13. our fancy of itself bereaving:</a> transporting us into an ecstasy, +or making us rapt with thought.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n2_14" href="#r2_14">14. Dost make <i>us</i> marble with too much conceiving.</a> The concentrated +attention required to penetrate Shakespeare’s meaning +makes statues of us.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n2_15" href="#r2_15">15.</a> Make the word <b>sepulchred</b> fit metrically into the iambic verse.</p> +</div> +<h3>L’ALLEGRO AND IL PENSEROSO.</h3> +<p>The year in which the poems were composed is uncertain. +Masson regards 1632 as the probable date.</p> +<p>The exquisite poems to which Milton gave the Italian titles +L’Allegro,—the mirthful, or jovial, man,—and Il Penseroso,—the +melancholy, or saturnine, man,—should be regarded each as +the pendant and complement of the other, and should be read as a +single whole. The poet knew both moods, and takes both standpoints +with equal grace and heartiness. The essential idea of thus +contrasting the mirthful and the melancholy temperament he +found ready to his hand. Robert Burton had prefaced his +<i>Anatomy of Melancholy</i>, published in 1621, with a series of not unpleasing, +though by no means graceful, amœbean stanzas, in which +two speakers alternately represent Melancholy, one as sweet and +divine, and the other as harsh, sour, and damned. Undoubtedly +Milton knew his Burton. But if he got his main idea from this +source, he made his poems thoroughly Miltonic by his art of visualizing +in delicious pictures the various phases of his abstract +theme. The poems are wholly poetical, equally free from obscurity +of thought and from obscurity of expression.</p> +<p>Each poem is prefaced with a vigorous exorcism of the spirit to +<span class="pb">[86]</span> +which it is hostile. This is couched in alternate three and five +accent iambics, preparing a delicious rhythmic effect when the +metre changes, in the invocation, to the octosyllable, with or without +anacrusis.</p> +<p>In L’Allegro we accompany the mirthful man through an entire +day of his pleasures, from early morning to late evening. The +melancholy man moves through a programme less definitely and +regularly planned. The scenes of his delights are mostly in the +hours of the night: when the sun is up, he hides himself from day’s +garish eye.</p> +<h4><span class="sc">L’Allegro.</span></h4> +<div class="notes"> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_2" href="#r3_2">2. Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born.</a> Milton follows the +example of the ancient poets in announcing the parentage of the principal +beings whom he brings upon his stage. Moreover, he uses the +ancient freedom in assigning mythical pedigrees, not only adopting no +authority as a canon, but allowing his own fancy to invent origins as +suits his purpose. He knew the Greek and Latin poets, and assumed +for himself the privilege which they exercised of shaping the myths as +they pleased. We are not therefore to seek in Milton a reproduction +of any system of mythology. <i>Cerberus</i> was the terrible three-headed +dog of Pluto. His station was at the entrance to the lower world, or +the <i>Stygian cave</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_3" href="#r3_3">3.</a> The <b>Stygian cave</b> is so called from the Styx, the infernal river, +“the flood of deadly hate.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_5" href="#r3_5">5. some uncouth cell.</a> <i>Uncouth</i> may be used here in its original +sense of <i>unknown</i>, as in Par. Lost VIII 230.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_10" href="#r3_10">10. In dark Cimmerian desert.</a> The Cimmerians were a people +fabled by the ancients to live in perpetual darkness.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_12" href="#r3_12">12. yclept</a> +is the participle of the obsolete verb <i>clepe</i>, with the +ancient prefix <i>y</i>, as in ychained, +<a href="#r1_155">Hymn on the Nativity 155</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_15" href="#r3_15">15. two sister Graces more.</a> Hesiod names, as the three Graces, +Euphrosyne, Aglaia, and Thalia, but he makes them the daughters of +Zeus and Eurynome.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_18" href="#r3_18">18. The frolic wind.</a> +See <i>frolic</i> again as an adjective, +<a href="#r7_59">Comus 59</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_24" href="#r3_24">24. So buxom, blithe, and debonair.</a> See Shakespeare’s Pericles, +I Gower 23. All these words are interesting to look up for etymologies +and changes of meaning.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_25" href="#r3_25">25-36.</a> We readily accept and understand the personification of +<span class="pb">[87]</span> +<a class="rref" href="#r3_26">Jest, Jollity, Sport, Laughter</a>, +and <b>Liberty</b>, but the plurals, +<a class="rref" href="#r3_27">Quips, Cranks, Wiles, Nods, Becks, Smiles</a>, +we do not manage quite so +easily, especially in view of the couplet 29-30.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_28" href="#r3_28">28. Smiles</a> may be said to be <b>wreathed</b> because they inwreathe the +face. See Par. Lost III 361.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_33" href="#r3_33">33. trip it, as you go.</a> So in Shakespeare, “I’ll queen it no inch +further; Rather than fool it so; I’ll go brave it at the court, lording +it in London streets.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_41" href="#r3_41">41.</a> With this line begins a series of illustrations of the <i>unreproved +pleasures</i> which L’Allegro is going to enjoy during a day of leisure. +At first the specified pleasures or occupations are introduced by +infinitives, <i>to hear, to come</i>; but the construction soon changes, as we +shall see. The first pleasure is <b>To hear the lark</b>, etc. 41-44. L’Allegro +begins his day with early morning. Here we must imagine him as +having risen and gone forth where he can see the sky and can look +about him to see what is going on in the farm-yard.</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0"><a class="rref" id="n3_45" href="#r3_45">45-46. Then to come, in spite of sorrow,</a></p> +<p class="t3"><b>And at my window bid good-morrow.</b></p> +</div> +<p class="cont">It must be L’Allegro himself who comes to the window, and as he +is outside, he comes to look in through the shrubbery and bid good +morning to the cottage inmates, who are now up and about their work. +The pertinency of the phrase, <i>in spite of sorrow</i>, is not intelligible.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_53" href="#r3_53">53. Oft listening how the hounds and horn.</a> This “pleasure” +and the next—<i>sometime walking</i>—are introduced with present participles. +There is no interruption of grammatical consistency.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_57" href="#r3_57">57. Sometime walking, not unseen.</a> See the counterpart of this +line, <a href="#r4_65">Penseroso 65</a>. Todd quotes the note of Bishop Hurd,—“Happy +men love witnesses of their joy: the splenetic love solitude.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_59" href="#r3_59">59. against</a>, <i>i.e.</i> toward.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_62" href="#r3_62">62. The clouds in thousand liveries dight.</a> <i>Dight</i> is the participle +of the verb <i>to dight</i>, meaning to adorn. It is still used as an archaism.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_67" href="#r3_67">67. And every shepherd tells his tale.</a> This undoubtedly means +<i>counts the number</i> of his flock. In Shakespeare we find, to <i>tell</i> money, +years, steps, a hundred. So <i>tale</i> often means an enumeration, a number. +L’Allegro finds the shepherds in the morning counting their sheep, +not telling stories.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_68" href="#r3_68">68.</a> With this line ends the long, loose sentence that began with +line 37. We now come to a full stop, and with line 69 begin a new +sentence.</p> +<div class="pb">[88]</div> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_70" href="#r3_70">70. the landskip.</a> A word of late origin in English, of unsettled +spelling in Milton’s day.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_71" href="#r3_71">71. Russet lawns.</a> In Milton, <i>lawn</i> +means field or pasture. See +<a href="#r8_25">Lycidas 25</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_77" href="#r3_77">77.</a> In this line the subject, <i>mine eye</i>, is resumed.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_80" href="#r3_80">80. The cynosure of neighboring eyes.</a> In the constellation +Cynosure, usually called the Lesser Bear, is the pole-star, to which +very many eyes are directed.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_81" href="#r3_81">81.</a> A new “pleasure” is introduced, with a new grammatical +subject.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_83" href="#r3_83">83. Where Corydon and Thyrsis met.</a> The proper names in +lines 83-88 add to the poem a pleasing touch of pastoral simplicity +and cheerfulness. They are taken from the common stock of names, +which, originally devised by the Greek idyllists for their shepherds +and shepherdesses, have by the pastoral poets of all subsequent +ages been appropriated to their special use. Corydon and Thyrsis +stand for farm-laborers, Phyllis and Thestylis for their wives or housekeepers. +The day of L’Allegro has now advanced to dinner-time. +Phyllis has been preparing the frugal meal, as we could surmise +from the smoking chimney. As soon as the dinner is over the women +go out to work with the men in the harvest field.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_87" href="#r3_87">87. bower</a> means simply <i>dwelling</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_90" href="#r3_90">90.</a> In the <b>tanned haycock</b> we see the hay dried and browned by +the sun.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_91" href="#r3_91">91.</a> The scene changes and brings yet another “pleasure.” <b>secure +delight</b> is delight without care, <i>sine cura</i>. See Samson Agonistes 55.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_96" href="#r3_96">96. in the chequered shade.</a> They danced under trees through +whose foliage the sunlight filtered.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_99" href="#r3_99">99.</a> Evening comes on, and a new pleasure succeeds. Story-telling +is now in order.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_102" href="#r3_102">102.</a> Sufficient information about <b>Faery Mab</b> can be got from +Romeo and Juliet I 4 <span class="small">53-95</span>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_103" href="#r3_103">103-104. She</a>, <i>i.e.</i> one of the maids; <b>And he</b>,—one of the +youths. The <b>Friar’s lantern</b> is the ignis fatuus, or will-o’-the-wisp, +fabled to lead men into dangerous marshes.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_105" href="#r3_105">105.</a> A connective is lacking to make the syntax sound: the subject +of <b>tells</b> must be <i>he</i>. <b>the drudging goblin.</b> This is Robin Goodfellow, +known to readers of fairy tales. Ben Jonson makes him a +character in his Court Masque, Love Restored, where he is made to +<span class="pb">[89]</span> +recount many of his pranks, and says, among other things, “I am the +honest plain country spirit, and harmless, Robin Goodfellow, he that +sweeps the hearth and the house clean, riddles for the country maids, +and does all their other drudgery.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_109" href="#r3_109">109. could not end.</a> Dr. Murray gives this among other quotations +as an instance of the verb <i>end</i> meaning <i>to put into the barn, to get in.</i> +So in Coriolanus V 6 <span class="small">87</span>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_110" href="#r3_110">110. the lubber fiend.</a> This goblin is loutish in shape and fiendish-looking, +though so good to those who treat him well.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_115" href="#r3_115">115. Thus done the tales.</a> An absolute construction, imitating +the Latin ablative absolute.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_117" href="#r3_117">117.</a> The country folk having gone early to bed, tired with their +day’s labor, L’Allegro hastes to the city, where the pleasures of life +are prolonged further into the night.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_120" href="#r3_120">120. In weeds of peace, high triumphs hold.</a> This must mean +such things as masques and revelries among the upper classes.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_122" href="#r3_122">122. Rain influence.</a> +See <a href="#n1_71">note on Hymn on the Nativity 71</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_124" href="#r3_124">124.</a> +What is the antecedent of <b>whom</b>?</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_125" href="#r3_125">125.</a> +What ceremony is here introduced?</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_128" href="#r3_128">128.</a> +Do not misunderstand the word <b>mask</b>. Its meaning becomes +plain from the context.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_131" href="#r3_131">131.</a> +To what pleasure does L’Allegro now betake himself?</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_132" href="#r3_132">132.</a> +Among the dramatists of the Jacobean time <b>Ben Jonson</b> had +especially the repute of scholarship. The <b>sock</b> symbolizes comedy, as +the <b>buskin</b> does tragedy. Compare <a href="#r4_102">Il Penseroso 102</a>.</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0"><a class="rref" id="n3_133" href="#r3_133">133-134. Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy’s child,</a></p> +<p class="t4"><b>Warble his native wood-notes wild.</b></p> +</div> +<p class="cont">The couplet seems intended to convey the idea of a counterpart or +contrast to the <i>learned sock</i> of Jonson. So considered, it is by no +means an unhappy characterization.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_135" href="#r3_135">135.</a> The last of the “unreproved pleasures” that L’Allegro +wishes he may enjoy, seems not so much planned to follow the rest +in sequence of time as to accompany them and be diffused through them +all. Observe the <b>ever</b> in this line. The <b>eating cares</b> are a reminiscence +of Horace’s <i>curas edaces</i>, Ode II 11 <span class="small">18</span>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_136" href="#r3_136">136. Lap me in soft Lydian airs.</a> The three chief modes, or +moods, of Greek music were the <i>Lydian</i>, which was soft and pathetic; +the <i>Dorian</i>, especially adapted to war (see Par. Lost 550); and the +<i>Phrygian</i>, which was bold and vehement.</p> +<div class="pb">[90]</div> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_138" href="#r3_138">138. the meeting soul.</a> The soul, in its eagerness, goes forth to +meet and welcome the music.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_139" href="#r3_139">139.</a> The word <b>bout</b> seems to point at a piece of music somewhat +in the nature of a round, or catch.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_145" href="#r3_145">145. That Orpheus’ self may heave his head.</a> Even Orpheus, +who in his life “drew trees, stones, and floods” by the power of his +music, and who now reposes in Elysium, would lift his head to listen +to the strains that L’Allegro would fain hear.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n3_149" href="#r3_149">149.</a> Orpheus, with <i>his</i> music, had succeeded in obtaining from +Pluto only a conditional release of his wife Eurydice. He was not to +look back upon her till he was quite clear of Pluto’s domains. He +failed to make good the condition, and so again lost his Eurydice.</p> +<h4><span class="sc">Il Penseroso.</span></h4> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_3" href="#r4_3">3. How little you bested.</a> The verb <i>bested</i> means <i>to avail, to be +of service</i>. It is not the same word that we find in Isaiah <span class="small">VIII</span> 21, +“hardly bestead and hungry.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_6" href="#r4_6">6. fond</a> here has its primitive meaning, <i>foolish</i>. Understand <b>possess</b> +in the sense in which it is used in the Bible,—“possessed with devils.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_10" href="#r4_10">10.</a> Make two syllables of <b>Morpheus</b>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_12" href="#r4_12">12.</a> Note that while he invoked Mirth in L’Allegro under her Greek +name Euphrosyne, the poet finds no corresponding Greek designation +for <b>Melancholy</b>. To us Melancholy seems a name unhappily chosen. +But see how Milton applies it in <a href="#r4_62">line 62 below</a>, and in +<a href="#r7_546">Comus 546</a>. To him the word evidently connotes +pensive meditation rather than gloomy depression.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_14" href="#r4_14">14. To hit the sense of human sight:</a> +to be gazed at by human eyes.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_18" href="#r4_18">18. Prince Memnon</a> +was a fabled Ethiopian prince, black, and celebrated for his beauty. +Recall Virgil’s <i>nigri Memnonis arma</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_19" href="#r4_19">19. that starred Ethiop queen.</a> Cassiopeia, wife of the <b>Ethiopian</b> +king Cepheus, boasted that she was more beautiful than <b>the Nereids</b>, +for which act of presumption she was translated to the skies, where +she became the beautiful constellation which we know by her name.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_23" href="#r4_23">23. bright-haired Vesta.</a> +<i>Vesta</i>—in Greek, Hestia—“was the +goddess of the home, the guardian of family life. Her spotless purity +fitted her peculiarly to be the guardian of virgin modesty.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_30" href="#r4_30">30. Whilst yet there was no fear of Jove</a>, <i>i.e.</i> before Saturn was +dethroned by Jupiter.</p> +<div class="pb">[91]</div> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_33" href="#r4_33">33. All in a robe of darkest grain.</a> In Par. Lost V 285, the third +pair of Raphael’s wings have the color of <i>sky-tinctured grain</i>; and XI +242, his vest is of purple livelier than “the grain of Sarra,” or Tyrian +purple. This would leave us to infer that the robe of Melancholy is +of a deep rich color, so dark as to be almost black. Dr. Murray quotes +from Southey’s <i>Thalaba</i>, “The ebony ... with darkness feeds its +boughs of raven grain.” What objection is there to making the <i>grain</i> +in Milton’s passage <i>black</i>?</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_35" href="#r4_35">35. And sable stole of cypress lawn.</a> Dr. Murray thus defines +<i>cypress lawn</i>, “A light transparent material resembling cobweb lawn +or crape; like the latter it was, when black, much used for habiliments +of mourning.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_37" href="#r4_37">37. Come; but keep thy wonted state.</a> Compare with this passage, +L’Allegro 33.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_40" href="#r4_40">40. Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes.</a> +In Cymbeline I 6 <span class="small">51</span> we +find the present tense of the verb of which <i>rapt</i> is the participle: +“What, dear Sir, thus raps you?” Do not confound this word with +<i>rap</i>, meaning to strike.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_42" href="#r4_42">42. Forget thyself to marble.</a> +With this compare <a href="#r2_14">On Shakespeare 14</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_43" href="#r4_43">43. With a sad leaden downward cast.</a> +So in Love’s Labor’s Lost IV 3 <span class="small">321</span>, +“In leaden contemplation;” Othello III 4 <span class="small">177</span>, “I have this +while with leaden thoughts been pressed.” So also Gray in the Hymn +to Adversity, “With leaden eye that loves the ground.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_45" href="#r4_45">45-55.</a> Compare the +company which Il Penseroso entreats Melancholy to bring along with +her with that which L’Allegro wishes to see attending Mirth.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_46" href="#r4_46">46. Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet.</a> Only the rigid +ascetic has a spiritual ear so finely trained that he hears the celestial +music.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_48" href="#r4_48">48. Aye</a>, as their rhymes show, is always pronounced by the poets +with the vowel sound in <i>day</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_53" href="#r4_53">53. the fiery-wheeled throne.</a> See Daniel <span class="small">VII</span> 9.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_54" href="#r4_54">54. The Cherub Contemplation.</a> Pronounce <i>contemplation</i> with +five syllables. It is difficult to form a distinct conception of the +nature and office of the <i>cherub</i> of the Scriptures. Milton in many +passages of Par. Lost follows, with regard to the heavenly beings, the +account given by Dionysius the Areopagite in his Celestial Hierarchy. +According to Dionysius there were nine orders or ranks of beings in +<span class="pb">[92]</span> +heaven, namely,—seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, +powers, principalities, archangels, angels. The cherubim have the +special attribute of knowledge and contemplation of divine things.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_55" href="#r4_55">55. hist</a>, primarily an interjection commanding silence, becomes +here a verb.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_56" href="#r4_56">56.</a> +With the introduction of the nightingale comes the first intimation +of the time of day at which Il Penseroso conceives the course of +his satisfactions to begin.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_57" href="#r4_57">57.</a> +Everywhere else in Milton <b>plight</b> is used with its modern +connotations.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_59" href="#r4_59">59.</a> +The moon stops to hear the nightingale’s song.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_65" href="#r4_65">65.</a> +Remember L’Allegro’s <a href="#r3_57"><i>not unseen</i></a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_77" href="#r4_77">77.</a> +Up to this point Il Penseroso has been walking in the open air.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_78" href="#r4_78">78. removed</a>,—remote, retired.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_87" href="#r4_87">87.</a> +As <b>the Bear</b> never sets, to <b>outwatch</b> him must mean to sit up +all night.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_88" href="#r4_88">88. With thrice great Hermes.</a> +“Hermes Trismegistos—Hermes +thrice-greatest—is the name given by the Neo-Platonists and the devotees +of mysticism and alchemy to the Egyptian god Thoth, regarded +as more or less identified with the Grecian Hermes, and as the author +of all mysterious doctrines, and especially of the secrets of alchemy.” +(The <i>New Eng. Dicty.</i>) To such studies the serious mediæval scholars +devoted themselves. To <b>unsphere the spirit of Plato</b> is to call him +from the sphere in which he abides in the other world, or, simply, to +take in hand for study his writings on immortality.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_93" href="#r4_93">93-96.</a> On the four classes of <b>demons</b>,—Salamanders, Sylphs, +Nymphs, Gnomes,—see Pope’s Rape of the Lock. These demons are +in complicity with the planets and other heavenly bodies to influence +mortals.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_97" href="#r4_97">97-102. Thebes, Pelops’ line</a>, and <b>the tale of Troy</b> are the staple +subjects of the great Attic tragedians. It seems strange that the poet +finds no occasion to name Shakespeare here, as well as in L’Allegro.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_104" href="#r4_104">104-105. Musæus and Orpheus</a> are semi-mythical bards, to +whom is ascribed a greatness proportioned to their obscurity.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_105" href="#r4_105">105-108.</a> +See <a href="#n3_149">note on L’Allegro, 149</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_109" href="#r4_109">109-115. Or call up him that left half-told.</a> This refers to +Chaucer and to his Squieres Tale in the Canterbury Tales. It is left +unfinished. Note that Milton changes not only the spelling but the +<span class="pb">[93]</span> +accent of the chief character’s name. Chaucer writes, “This noble +king was cleped Cambinskan.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_120" href="#r4_120">120.</a> Stories in which <b>more is meant than meets the ear</b> refer to +allegories, like the Fairy Queen.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_121" href="#r4_121">121.</a> +Having thus filled the night with the occupations that he loves, +Il Penseroso now greets the morning, which he hopes to find stormy +with wind and rain.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_122" href="#r4_122">122. civil-suited Morn:</a> <i>i.e.</i> Morn in the everyday habiliments of +business.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_123" href="#r4_123">123-124.</a> Eos—Aurora, +the Dawn—carried off several youths +distinguished for their beauty. <b>the Attic boy</b> is probably Cephalus, +whom she stole from his wife Procris.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_125" href="#r4_125">125. kerchieft in a comely cloud.</a> <i>Kerchief</i> is here used in its +original and proper sense. Look up its origin.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_126" href="#r4_126">126.</a> The winds may be called <b>rocking</b> because they visibly rock +the trees, or because they shake houses.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_127" href="#r4_127">127. Or ushered with a shower still.</a> +The shower falls gently, without wind.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_130" href="#r4_130">130. With minute-drops from off the eaves.</a> +After the rain has ceased, and while the thatch is draining, the +drops fall at regular intervals for a time,—as it were, a +drop every minute. Il Penseroso listens with contentment to the +wind, the rustling rain-fall on the leaves, and the monotonous +patter of the drops when the rain is over.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_131" href="#r4_131">131.</a> +The shower is past, and the sun appears, but Il Penseroso finds +its beams flaring and distasteful. He seeks covert in the dense groves.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_134" href="#r4_134">134. Sylvan</a> +is the god of the woods.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_135" href="#r4_135">135.</a> +The <b>monumental oak</b> is so called from its great age and size.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_140" href="#r4_140">140.</a> +Consciously nursing his melancholy, Il Penseroso deems the +wood that hides him a sacred place, and resents intrusion as a profanation.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_141" href="#r4_141">141. Hide me from day’s garish eye.</a> +See Richard III. IV 4 <span class="small">89</span>, +Romeo and Juliet III 2 <span class="small">25</span>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_142" href="#r4_142">142. While the bee with honeyed thigh.</a> +Is this good apiology?</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_146" href="#r4_146">146. Entice the dewy-feathered Sleep.</a> Note that sleep is represented +as having feathers. These feathers, in their soft, gentle movement +and in their refreshing effect are likened to dew. The figure is a +common one with the poets. In Par. Lost IX 1044, Milton has,—“till +dewy sleep oppressed them.” Cowper, Iliad II, 41, has,—“Awaking +from thy dewy slumbers.”</p> +<div class="pb">[94]</div> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_148" href="#r4_148">148. his</a> refers to the <i>dewy-feathered sleep</i>. Il Penseroso asks that +a strange, mysterious dream, hovering close by the wings of sleep, and +lightly pictured in a succession of vivid forms, may be laid on his eye-lids.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_155" href="#r4_155">155-166.</a> The word <b>studious</b> in line 156 determines that the passage +refers to college life and not to church attendance. The old +English colleges have their cloisters, and these have much the same +architectural features as do churches.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_157" href="#r4_157">157. embowed</a> +means vaulted, or bent like a <i>bow</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_158" href="#r4_158">158. massy-proof:</a> +massive and proof against all failure to support +their load.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_159" href="#r4_159">159. And storied windows richly dight.</a> +Compare <a href="#r3_62">L’Allegro, 62</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n4_170" href="#r4_170">170.</a> +The best possible comment on this use of the verb <b>spell</b> is Milton’s +own language, Par. Regained IV 382, where Satan, addressing +the Son of God, thus speaks:—</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">Now, contrary, if I read aught in Heaven,</p> +<p class="t2">Or Heaven write aught of fate, by what the stars</p> +<p class="t2">Voluminous, or single characters</p> +<p class="t2">In their conjunction met, give me to spell,</p> +<p class="t2">Sorrows and labors, opposition, hate,</p> +<p class="t2">Attends thee; scorns, reproaches, injuries,</p> +<p class="t2">Violence and stripes, and, lastly, cruel death.</p> +</div> +<p class="cont">Il Penseroso’s aspiration is that as an astrologer he may learn the +influence of every star and that he may come to know the virtue of +every herb.</p> +</div> +<h3 id="n5_0">ARCADES.</h3> +<p>The noble persons of the family of the Countess Dowager of +Derby were fortunate enough to obtain the services of the poet +John Milton to aid in the composition of a mask, which they presented +to her ladyship at her residence in the country. Arcădes—the +Arcadians—is Milton’s contribution to this performance. In +date the poem precedes Comus, which is known to have been composed +in 1634.</p> +<p>On the meaning of the term <i>mask</i>, as applied to a dramatic form, +see <a href="#n7_0">introductory note on Comus</a>.</p> +<div class="notes"> +<p><a class="rref" id="n5_20" href="#r5_20">20. Latona</a> (or Leto) was the mother of Apollo and Diana by Zeus.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n5_21" href="#r5_21">21. the towered Cybele</a> is Virgil’s Berecyntia Mater, the Phrygian +mother, who, wearing her mural crown, drives in her chariot through +<span class="pb">[95]</span> +the cities of Phrygia. She was conceived as one of the very oldest +deities, and as mother of a hundred gods. See Æneid VI 785.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n5_28" href="#r5_28">28. Of famous Arcady ye are.</a> +Arcadia, in the Peloponnesus, was +peculiarly the home of music and song, especially among the shepherds. +See Virgil, Eclogue VII 4-5.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n5_30" href="#r5_30">30. Divine Alpheus.</a> +See <a href="#n8_132">note on Lycidas 132</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n5_46" href="#r5_46">46. curl the grove:</a> +bestow upon the grove dense, crisp foliage.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n5_47" href="#r5_47">47. With ringlets quaint and wanton windings wove.</a> +The grove is intersected with a maze of circling and purposeless paths.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n5_49" href="#r5_49">49. noisome:</a> +full of annoyance, injurious. See Par. Lost XI 478. +<b>blasting vapors.</b> See <a href="#n7_640">note on Comus 640</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n5_51" href="#r5_51">51. thwarting thunder blue.</a> +Compare Julius Cæsar I 3 <span class="small">50</span>, “the +cross blue lightning.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n5_52" href="#r5_52">52. the cross dire-looking planet.</a> +Cross means <i>adverse, unfavorable</i>. +See <a href="#n1_71">note on <i>influence</i></a>, Hymn on the Nativity 71.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n5_54" href="#r5_54">54. evening gray.</a> See <a href="#n8_187">note on Lycidas 187</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n5_60" href="#r5_60">60. murmurs.</a> Compare <a href="#r7_526">Comus 526</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n5_63" href="#r5_63">63. the celestial Sirens’ harmony.</a> The Sirens are here advanced +to a high function and given a new Epithet. Compare <a href="#r7_253">Comus 253</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n5_64" href="#r5_64">64. the nine infolded spheres.</a> +See <a href="#n1_48">note on Hymn on Nativity 48</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n5_65" href="#r5_65">65-66.</a> See <a href="#n8_75">note on Lycidas 75</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n5_69" href="#r5_69">69. the daughters of Necessity:</a> the Fates.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n5_72" href="#r5_72">72-73. which none can hear Of human mould with gross unpurged +ear.</a> Compare Merchant of Venice V 1 <span class="small">64</span>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n5_87" href="#r5_87">87. touch the warbled string:</a> the string that is accompanied with +the voice. See <a href="#r4_106">Il Penseroso 106</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n5_97" href="#r5_97">97. Ladon</a>, a river of Arcadia, flowing into the Alpheus.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n5_98" href="#r5_98">98. Lycæus and Cyllene</a>, mountains of Arcadia.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n5_100" href="#r5_100">100. Erymanth.</a> Erymanthus is a range of mountains separating +Arcadia from Achaia and Elis.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n5_102" href="#r5_102">102. Mænalus</a>, another mountain of Arcadia.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n5_106" href="#r5_106">106. Though Syrinx your Pan’s mistress were.</a> Syrinx was an +Arcadian nymph, who, being pursued by Pan, threw herself into +the Ladon, where she was metamorphosed into a reed, of which the +shepherds thereafter made their pipes.</p> +</div> +<h3>AT A SOLEMN MUSIC.</h3> +<p>The poet listens to what in the phrase of his time is a <i>solemn +music</i>, but which we should name a sacred concert. The poem is +<span class="pb">[96]</span> +unalloyed lyric, expressing the rapture to which the music has +lifted his soul. We must remember that Milton was himself an +amateur musician, and in his days of darkness found habitual +diversion at his organ. Indications of a susceptible and appreciative +ear for musical harmony are frequent throughout the poems.</p> +<div class="notes"> +<p><a class="rref" id="n6_7" href="#r6_7">7. the sapphire-colored throne.</a> See Ezekiel <span class="small">I</span> 26.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n6_27" href="#r6_27">27. consort</a> is the word from which we derive our <i>concert</i>.</p> +</div> +<h3 id="n7_0">COMUS.</h3> +<p>During the reigns of Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I., the <i>mask</i> +was one of the most popular forms of dramatic entertainment. +Having a function and a character peculiar to itself, it flourished +side by side with the regular plays of the theatrical stage, and gave +large scope to the genius of poets, composers, and scenic artists.</p> +<p>The mask was usually designed to grace some important occasion, +in which members of the upper classes of society, or even +royal personages, were concerned. When the occasion called for +particularly brilliant display, and had been long foreseen, the preparations +for it would involve immense outlays for costumes, theatrical +machinery, for new music, and for a libretto by a play-writer +of the greatest note. When the mask was purely a private one, like +Arcades and Comus, it was all the fashion for the gentle youths +and maidens, for gentlemen and ladies of the highest rank, to take +upon themselves the parts of the drama, to rehearse them assiduously, +and finally to enact them on the private stage or on the lawn +in the presence of a select audience.</p> +<p>The mask thus differentiated itself from the stage play in that +it was not given for the pecuniary behoof of a company of actors, +but represented rather expenditure for the simple purpose of producing +grand effects. To act in a mask was an honor, when common +players were social outcasts. The mask was got up for the +occasion, and was not intended to keep the boards and attract a +paying public. When the august ceremonial was over, the poet +had his manuscript, to increase the bulk of his works, and the composer +had his score, to furnish airs that might be played and sung +in drawing-rooms if they had the good fortune to be popular.</p> +<div class="pb">[97]</div> +<p>Such was the origin of the poem which Milton, in all the editions +published during his lifetime, entitled simply “A Maske presented +at Ludlow Castle, 1634,” but which editors since his day have +agreed to name Comus.</p> +<p>The occasion of the poem was the coming of the Earl of Bridgewater +to Ludlow Castle, to enter upon his official residence there +as Lord President of Wales. The person chiefly concerned in the +scenic, musical, and histrionic preparations of the mask was +Milton’s esteemed friend, the most accomplished musical composer +of the day, Henry Lawes. Lawes composed the music and +arranged the stage business. He seems to have taken upon himself +the part of the Attendant Spirit. Lawes knew to whom to +apply for the all-important matter of the book, the words, or the +poetry, of the piece, for he had learned to know Milton’s qualifications +as a mask-poet in the fragment which we have under the +name <i>Arcades</i>. With good music even for commonplace lyric +verse, and with sprightly declamation even of conventional dialogue, +the thing, as we know from modern instances, might have +been carried off by gorgeous costumes and shrewdly devised scenic +effects. Most of the masks of the time fell at once into oblivion. +But Lawes had secured for his poet John Milton; and the consequence +thereof is that the Earl of Bridgewater is now chiefly heard +of because at Ludlow Castle there was enacted, in the form of a +mask written by Milton, a drama which is still read and reread by +every English-speaking person who reads any serious poetry, though +Ludlow Castle has long been a venerable ruin.</p> +<p>For his plot, the poet feigned that the young children of the earl, +two sons and a daughter, in coming to Ludlow, had to pass unattended +through a forest, in which the boys became separated from +the girl and she fell into the hands of the enchanter Comus. The +Attendant Spirit appears to the youths with his magic herb, and +with the further assistance of the water-nymph Sabrina, at last +makes all right, and the children are restored to their parents in +the midst of festive rejoicing.</p> +<p>The poem is dramatic, because it is acted and spoken or sung in +character by its persons. It is allegorical, because it inculcates a +moral, and more is meant than meets the ear. In parts it is pastoral, +<span class="pb">[98]</span> +both because the chief personage appears in the guise of a +shepherd, and because its motive largely depends on the superstitions +and traditions of simple, ignorant folk. In the longer +speeches, where events are narrated with some fulness, it becomes +epic. Lastly, in its songs, in the octosyllables of the magician, and +in the adjuration and the thanking of Sabrina, it is lyric. With +iambic pentameter as the basis of the dialogue, the poet varies his +measures as Shakespeare does his, and with very similar ends in +view.</p> +<p>The name <i>Comus</i> Milton found ready to his hand. As a common +noun, the Greek word <i>comus</i> signifies carousal,—wassail. In +the later classic period it had become a proper name, standing for +a personification of nocturnal revelry, and a god Comus was frequently +depicted on vases and in mural paintings. Philostratus, +in his <i>Ikŏnes</i>,—or <i>Pictures</i>,—gives an interesting description of a +painting of this god. See Encyclopædia Britannica, article <i>Comus</i>. +Ben Jonson, in his mask, <i>Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue</i>, played in +1619, presents a Comus as “the god of cheer, or the belly, riding +in triumph, his head crowned with roses and other flowers, his hair +curled.” The character and the name were the common property +of mask-writers.</p> +<p>The great distinction of Comus is its beauty, maintained at +height through a thousand lines of supremely perfect verse. +Greatly dramatic it of course is not. It yields its meaning to the +most cursory reading; it has no mystery. It is simply beautiful, +with a sustained beauty elsewhere unparalleled.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>The following letter of Sir Henry Wotton to the Author deserves +to be read both for its engaging style as a piece of English prose +and for its exquisite characterization of Comus. Wotton was a +versatile scholar, diplomat, and courtier, seventy years old at the +time of this letter, with a reputation as a kindly and appreciative +literary critic. He was now residing at Eton College, where he +held the office of Provost. Milton, thirty years of age, the first edition +of his Comus recently published anonymously, had good cause +for elation over such a testimonial from such a source.</p> +<div class="pb">[99]</div> +<p class="jr1">“From the College, this 13 of April, 1638.</p> +<p class="bq">“Sir,</p> +<p class="bq">“It was a special favour when you lately bestowed upon +me here the first taste of your acquaintance, though no longer than to +make me know that I wanted more time to value it and to enjoy it +rightly; and, in truth, if I could then have imagined your farther stay +in these parts, which I understood afterwards by Mr. H., I would have +been bold, in our vulgar phrase, to mend my draught (for you left me +with an extreme thirst), and to have begged your conversation again, +jointly with your said learned friend, over a poor meal or two, that we +might have banded together some good Authors of the ancient time; +among which I observed you to have been familiar.</p> +<p class="bq">“Since your going, you have charged me with new obligations, both +for a very kind letter from you dated the 6th of this month, and for +a dainty piece of entertainment which came therewith. Wherein I +should much commend the tragical part, if the lyrical did not ravish +me with a certain Doric delicacy in your Songs and Odes, whereunto +I must plainly confess to have seen yet nothing parallel in our language: +<i>Ipsa mollities</i>. But I must not omit to tell you that I now only +owe you thanks for intimating unto me (how modestly soever) the true +artificer. For the work itself I had viewed some good while before +with singular delight; having received it from our common friend Mr. +R., in the very close of the late R.’s Poems, printed at Oxford: whereunto +it was added (as I now suppose) that the accessory might help +out the principal, according to the art of Stationers, and to leave the +reader <i>con la bocca dolce</i>.</p> +<p class="bq">“Now, Sir, concerning your travels; wherein I may challenge a +little more privilege of discourse with you. I suppose you will not +blanch Paris in your way: therefore I have been bold to trouble you +with a few lines to Mr. M. B., whom you shall easily find attending +the young Lord S. as his governor; and you may surely receive from +him good directions for the shaping of your farther journey into Italy +where he did reside, by my choice, some time for the King, after mine +own recess from Venice.</p> +<p class="bq">“I should think that your best line will be through the whole length +of France to Marseilles, and thence by sea to Genoa; whence the passage +into Tuscany is as diurnal as a Gravesend barge. I hasten, as +you do, to Florence or Siena, the rather to tell you a short story, from +the interest you have given me in your safety.</p> +<p class="bq">“At Siena I was tabled in the house of one Alberto Scipioni, an old +Roman courtier in dangerous times; having been steward to the Duca +di Pagliano, who with all his family were strangled, save this only man +<span class="pb">[100]</span> +that escaped by foresight of the tempest. With him I had often much +chat of those affairs, into which he took pleasure to look back from his +native harbour; and at my departure toward Rome (which had been +the centre of his experience), I had won his confidence enough to beg +his advice how I might carry myself there without offence of others or +of mine own conscience. ‘<i>Signor Arrigo mio</i>,’ says he, ‘<i>I pensieri +stretti ed il viso sciolto</i> will go safely over the whole world.’ Of which +Delphian oracle (for so I have found it) your judgment doth need no +commentary; and therefore, Sir, I will commit you, with it, to the best +of all securities, God’s dear love, remaining</p> +<p class="bq">“Your friend, as much to command as any of longer date,</p> +<p class="jr1">“<span class="sc">Henry Wotton</span>.”</p> +<p class="center"><i>Postscript.</i></p> +<p class="bq">“Sir: I have expressly sent this my footboy to prevent your departure +without some acknowledgment from me of the receipt of your +obliging letter; having myself through some business, I know not how, +neglected the ordinary conveyance. In any part where I shall understand +you fixed, I shall be glad and diligent to entertain you with +home-novelties, even for some fomentation of our friendship, too +soon interrupted in the cradle.”</p> +<p class="tb">The Latin phrase, <i>ipsa mollities</i>, may be translated,—it is the +very perfection of delicacy. The Italian words below mean,—My +dear Henry, thoughts close, face open.</p> +<div class="notes"> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_1" href="#r7_1">1. Before the starry +threshold of Jove’s court.</a> The attendant spirit not +only announces himself as a dweller in heaven, but he specifies +his particular function among the celestials: he is doorkeeper in +the house of God.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_3" href="#r7_3">3. insphered.</a> Compare +<a href="#r4_88">Il Penseroso 88</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_7" href="#r7_7">7. Confined and pestered.</a> <i>Pester</i> has its primitive meaning, to +clog or encumber. <b>In this pinfold here.</b> <i>Pinfold</i> is probably not +connected with the verb to pen, but is a shortened form of poundfold, +and means, literally, an enclosure for stray cattle.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_10" href="#r7_10">10. After this mortal change:</a> after this life on earth, which is +subject to death.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_11" href="#r7_11">11. Amongst the enthroned gods.</a> Make but two syllables of +<i>enthroned</i>, and accent the first.</p> +<p><a id="n7_11a" href="#r7_11a">The long sentence ending with line 11</a> is very loose in construction: +the <i>and</i> in line 7 is a coördinate conjunction, but does not connect +coördinate elements.</p> +<div class="pb">[101]</div> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_13" href="#r7_13">13. To lay their just hands on that golden key.</a> +Compare <a href="#r8_110">Lycidas 110</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_16" href="#r7_16">16. these pure ambrosial weeds.</a> Ambrosial has its proper meaning,—pertaining +to the immortals.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_20" href="#r7_20">20. by lot ’twixt high and nether Jove.</a> Neptune drew lots with +Jupiter and Pluto. To Jupiter fell the region of the upper air, to +Pluto the lower world, and to Neptune the sea. The ancient poets +sometimes spoke of Jupiter and Pluto as the upper and the lower +Jove.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_25" href="#r7_25">25. By course commits to several government:</a> in due order he +assigns the islands to his tributaries, giving them an island apiece.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_27" href="#r7_27">27. But this Isle</a> is so large that he has to divide it.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_29" href="#r7_29">29.</a> Consider <b>quarters</b> to mean nothing more than divides. <b>his +blue-haired deities</b>. The epithet is conventional, taken from the +Greek poets, and probably has no special significance in this passage.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_31" href="#r7_31">31. A noble Peer.</a> This connects the poem with actual persons +and announces its occasion. The noble peer is the Earl of Bridgewater, +and the event which is to be celebrated is his appointment to the Vice-royalty +of Wales.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_33" href="#r7_33">33.</a> The <b>old and haughty nation</b> are the Welsh.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_34" href="#r7_34">34. his fair offspring</a> are two sons and a daughter, who are to play +the parts of the Two Brothers and the Lady in the mask.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_37" href="#r7_37">37. the perplexed paths of this drear wood.</a> Compare Par. Lost +IV 176.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_41" href="#r7_41">41. sovran.</a> See <a href="#n1_60">note on Hymn on the Nativity 60</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_45" href="#r7_45">45. in hall or bower.</a> Hall and bower are conventionally coupled +by the poets to signify the dwellings, respectively, of the gentry and +the laboring classes.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_46" href="#r7_46">46.</a> +The transformation by Bacchus of the treacherous Tuscan sailors +into dolphins belongs to the established myths of that god. But Milton +exercises his right as a poet to add to the classic story whatever suits +his purposes.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_48" href="#r7_48">48. After the Tuscan mariners transformed;</a> a Latinism, meaning, +after the transformation of the Tuscan mariners.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_50" href="#r7_50">50. fell:</a> chanced to land.</p> +<p>For the story of <a class="rref" id="n7_50a" href="#r7_50a">Circe</a>, see the Odyssey X.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_58" href="#r7_58">58.</a> +Understand that no such distinct character as <b>Comus</b> belongs +to the received mythology. Milton is a myth-maker.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_59" href="#r7_59">59. frolic</a> +is used as an adjective, as in <a href="#r3_18">L’Allegro 18</a>.</p> +<div class="pb">[102]</div> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_60" href="#r7_60">60. the Celtic and Iberian fields.</a> The god traversed Gaul and +Spain, on his way to Britain.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_61" href="#r7_61">61. ominous:</a> abounding in mysterious signs of danger.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_65" href="#r7_65">65. His orient liquor.</a> +See <a href="#r7_672">line 673</a> of this poem.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_72" href="#r7_72">72.</a> Note that only the countenance is changed.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_87" href="#r7_87">87. Well knows to still the wild winds.</a> The poem moves throughout +in the realm of romance. The swain Thyrsis is in his own character +a practitioner of magic.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_88" href="#r7_88">88. nor of less faith.</a> +Thyrsis has just been described as a person +of great skill.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_90" href="#r7_90">90. Likeliest:</a> most likely to be.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_93" href="#r7_93">93.</a> +The transition from the stately mood of the Attendant Spirit’s +exordium to the noisy exhilaration of Comus is marked by appropriate +changes in the verse. Comus speaks in a lyric strain, and his tone +is exultant. When he comes to serious business, in <a href="#r7_145">line 145</a>, he also +employs blank-verse. The lyric lines, 93-144, rhyme in couplets, and +vary in length, most of them having four accents, while some have +five. The four-accent lines vary between seven and eight syllables, +many of them dropping the initial light syllable, or anakrusis (Auftakt). +These seven-syllable lines have a trochaic effect, but are to be +scanned as iambic, the standard rhythm of the poem. <b>The star +that bids the shepherd fold.</b> So Collins, in his ode To Evening,—“For +when thy folding-star arising shows His paly circlet.” See also +Measure for Measure IV 2 <span class="small">218</span>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_96" href="#r7_96">96. doth allay:</a> doth cool.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_97" href="#r7_97">97.</a> +The epithet <b>steep</b> is applied to the ocean, though really it is the +course of the downward-moving sun that is steep.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_99" href="#r7_99">99-101.</a> +Milton uses <b>pole</b>, as the poets were wont to do, to mean +the sky; and the passage means,—the sun, moving about the earth +in his oblique course, now shines upon that part of the heavens which, +when it is daylight to us, is in shadow.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_105" href="#r7_105">105. with rosy twine</a>; +with twined, or wreathed, roses.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_108" href="#r7_108">108-109. Advice ... Age ... Severity.</a> +For these abstract terms +substitute their concretes.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_110" href="#r7_110">110. their grave saws.</a> +So Hamlet I 5 <span class="small">100</span>, “all saws of books.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_116" href="#r7_116">116. in wavering morrice.</a> +See M. N. Dream II 1 <span class="small">98</span>; All’s Well +II 2 <span class="small">25</span>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_118" href="#r7_118">118. the dapper elves.</a> +<i>Dapper</i> is akin to the German <i>tapfer</i>, but +with a very different connotation.</p> +<div class="pb">[103]</div> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_124" href="#r7_124">124. Love:</a> +the Latin Amor, the Greek Eros, and our Cupid.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_129" href="#r7_129">129. Dark-veiled Cotytto</a> +was a Thracian goddess, whose worship +was connected with licentious frivolity.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_133" href="#r7_133">133. makes one blot of all the air.</a> +Compare <a href="#r7_204">line 204</a> of this poem.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_135" href="#r7_135">135. thou ridest with Hecat’.</a> +<i>Hecate</i> was a goddess of the lower +world, mistress of witchcraft and the black arts.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_139" href="#r7_139">139. The nice Morn.</a> +<i>Nice</i> is used in a disparaging sense, meaning +over particular, minutely critical.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_140" href="#r7_140">140. From her cabined loop-hole peep.</a> +As if morn dwelt in a +cabin and clandestinely peeped from a small window.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_141" href="#r7_141">141. descry</a> +must here mean reveal.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_144" href="#r7_144">144. In a light fantastic round.</a> +Recall <a href="#r3_33">L’Allegro 34</a>. +Comus and his crew are now dancing.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_147" href="#r7_147">147. shrouds:</a> +hiding-places. See the verb, <a href="#r7_316">line 316</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_151" href="#r7_151">151. my wily trains.</a> +<i>Trains</i> are tricks, as in Macbeth IV 3 <span class="small">118</span>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_154" href="#r7_154">154.</a> +The air is <b>spongy</b> because it absorbs his magic dust.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_155" href="#r7_155">155. blear</a>, +usually applied to eyes, here refers to the effect of seeing +objects with blear eyes.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_174" href="#r7_174">174. the loose unlettered hinds.</a> +The hinds are farm-servants, +usually with an implication of rudeness and rusticity, and they are +loose because unrestrained in speech and act by considerations of +propriety.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_177" href="#r7_177">177. amiss:</a> +in wrong or unseemly ways.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_178" href="#r7_178">178. swilled</a> +is a very contemptuous word.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_179" href="#r7_179">179. wassailers.</a> +See Macbeth I 7 <span class="small">64</span>. The word has an interesting +etymology.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_188" href="#r7_188">188. the grey-hooded Even.</a> +Milton is fond of applying the epithet +<i>gray</i> to the evening and the dawn. See Par. Lost IV 598, +<a href="#r8_187">Lycidas 187</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_189" href="#r7_189">189. Like a sad votarist in palmer’s weed.</a> +The votarist is one +who has made a vow. In this case he goes on a pilgrimage, carrying +a palm branch, and wearing the pilgrim garb.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_203" href="#r7_203">203. the tumult of loud mirth was rife.</a> +As to the meaning of <i>rife</i> +compare Sam. Ag. 866 and Par. Lost I 650.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_204" href="#r7_204">204. Yet nought but single darkness do I find.</a> +The darkness is unbroken by any ray of light.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_210" href="#r7_210">210. may startle well, but not astound.</a> +<i>Astound</i> is a strong word. +See Par. Lost I 281.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_212" href="#r7_212">212. a strong siding champion:</a> +a champion who sides with the virtuous mind.</p> +<div class="pb">[104]</div> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_222" href="#r7_222">222. her silver lining.</a> +Note Milton’s avoidance of the possessive +<i>its</i>. In all his verse he uses <i>its</i> but three times.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_231" href="#r7_231">231. Within thy airy shell.</a> +The <i>airy shell</i> in which Echo lives +must be the “hollow round” of the atmosphere. +Compare <a href="#r1_100">Hymn on the Nativity 100-103</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_232" href="#r7_232">232.</a> +The <b>Meander</b> is the river of Asia Minor, famous for its windings.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_233" href="#r7_233">233-237.</a> +The mention of the <b>nightingale</b> and <b>Narcissus</b> in this +passage suggests that it may be a reminiscence of the chorus in the +Oedipus Coloneus,—“Of this land of goodly steeds, O stranger.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_237" href="#r7_237">237.</a> +Echo’s passion for the beautiful <b>Narcissus</b> was not requited, +and she pined away till she became a mere voice, which she could not +utter till she was spoken to.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_241" href="#r7_241">241. Daughter of the Sphere:</a> +daughter of the air, which forms a hollow sphere about the earth.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_243" href="#r7_243">243. And give resounding grace to all Heaven’s harmonies:</a> +by echoing back the music of the spheres.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_249" href="#r7_249">249-252.</a> +Even darkness smiled, as if acknowledging itself agreeably +caressed by the strains of the lady’s song.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_251" href="#r7_251">251. At every fall.</a> +<i>Fall</i>, as a musical term, is “a sinking down or +lowering of the note or voice; cadence” (New Eng. Dict.).</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_253" href="#r7_253">253. the Sirens</a> +dwelt on an island near Sicily, and by their sweet +song allured mariners to destruction. See Odyssey XII.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_254" href="#r7_254">254. the Naiades</a> +were nymphs attendant on Circe and the Sirens.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_257" href="#r7_257">257. And lap it in Elysium.</a> +Compare <a href="#r3_136">L’Allegro 136</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_257a" href="#r7_257a">257-259. Scylla and Charybdis</a> +were dangerous rocks and whirlpools +on opposite sides of the strait of Messina. They were personified +as cruel sea-monsters.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_260" href="#r7_260">260. Yet they:</a> Circe and the Sirens.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_267" href="#r7_267">267. Unless the goddess.</a> Supply <i>thou art</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_273" href="#r7_273">273. extreme shift:</a> a pressing necessity of devising some expedient.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_289" href="#r7_289">289. Were they of manly prime or youthful bloom?</a> Were they +in the prime of adult manhood, or in the bloom of youth?</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_277" href="#r7_277">277-290.</a> These fourteen lines are an instance of “stichomythia, +or conversation in alternate lines, which was always popular on the +Attic stage. This scheme of versification is used chiefly in excited +discussions, where the speakers are hurried along by the eagerness of +their feelings.”—Haigh, <i>The Tragic Drama of the Greeks</i>.</p> +<div class="pb">[105]</div> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_292" href="#r7_292">292. An ox in traces</a> would now be a rare sight.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_294" href="#r7_294">294. a green mantling vine.</a> See Par. Lost IV 258.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_299" href="#r7_299">299. gay creatures of the element:</a> creatures of the air,—supernatural +beings.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_301" href="#r7_301">301. And play i’ the plighted clouds.</a> Probably the poet means +the <i>plaited</i>, or <i>pleated</i>, clouds, conceiving the clouds as appearing +folded together. <b>I was awe-strook.</b> +See <a href="#r1_95">Hymn on the Nativity 95</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_316" href="#r7_316">316. Or shroud within these limits.</a> +<i>Shroud</i> as a noun we saw above, <a href="#r7_147">line 147</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_318" href="#r7_318">318. From her thatched pallet rouse.</a> +The lark builds on the +ground, seeking a spot protected by overarching stems of grass or +grain, which may be called a natural thatch; and if this protection is +destroyed by mowers or reapers, the bird will at once take pains to +build a roof or thatch over the nest, completely covering it, and for a +door will make an opening on the side.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_325" href="#r7_325">325. where it first was named.</a> +The derivation of the words <i>courteous</i> and <i>courtesy</i> +from <i>court</i> is obvious.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_327" href="#r7_327">327. Less warranted than this, or less secure.</a> +The lady says that she cannot be in any place less guaranteed than +this against evil, and that she cannot anywhere be less free from +anxiety. Her situation she conceives to be as bad as it can be.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_329" href="#r7_329">329. square my trial To my proportioned strength:</a> +make my trial +proportionate to my strength.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_332" href="#r7_332">332. That wont’st to love.</a> <i>Wont’st</i>, in the present tense, means, +as we say, art wont.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_333" href="#r7_333">333. Stoop thy pale visage.</a> +Stoop is thus used, transitively, +Richard II. III 1 <span class="small">19</span>, “myself ... have stooped my neck.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_334" href="#r7_334">334. And disinherit Chaos, that reigns here.</a> +<i>Chaos</i>, “the formless +void of primordial matter,” is personified by Milton here and, +much more conspicuously, in Par. Lost III.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_338" href="#r7_338">338. a rush-candle:</a> +a candle made with a rush for a wick,—the +cheapest kind of light. <b>from the wicker hole Of some clay habitation.</b> +Imagine a hut whose walls are made of wattled twigs plastered +with clay. This clay when dry is apt to fall off in spots, leaving holes +through which the light within can be seen from without. A wicker +hole is a hole in the wicker-work, perhaps made intentionally, to serve +as a window.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_341" href="#r7_341">341-342. The star of Arcady</a> +is the constellation of the Greater +<span class="pb">[106]</span> +Bear, and the <b>Tyrian Cynosure</b> that of the Lesser Bear. Stars in +these constellations served as guides to Greek and Tyrian mariners.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_345" href="#r7_345">345. Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops.</a> +Compare Collins’s Ode to Evening,—<i>If aught of +oaten stop, or pastoral song</i>. The shepherds of the Greek idylls +made their musical pipes of reeds or oat-straws, and the oat has +therefore been adopted by the pastoral poetry of all ages.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_349" href="#r7_349">349. innumerous boughs.</a> +Compare Par. Lost VII 455.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_358" href="#r7_358">358. Of savage hunger, or of savage heat:</a> +of hungry savages, or +of lustful savages.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_361" href="#r7_361">361. grant they be so:</a> +grant that they are real evils.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_365" href="#r7_365">365.</a> Make four syllables of <b>delusion</b>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_366" href="#r7_366">366. I do not think my sister so to seek:</a> +I do not think she has +her seeking, or learning, still to do: I do not think her so inexperienced.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_373" href="#r7_373">373-375.</a> +Is this practical doctrine?</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_377" href="#r7_377">377.</a> +Make five syllables of <b>Contemplation</b>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_380" href="#r7_380">380. Were all to-ruffled.</a> +The particle <i>to</i>—Anglo Saxon <i>tô</i>, +Modern German <i>zer</i>—has disappeared from Modern English. In +Old English it was often used with the force of the Latin <i>dis</i>. So still +in Chaucer, <i>to-bete, to-cleve, to-rende</i>, and many others.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_386" href="#r7_386">386. affects:</a> +likes, has an affection for.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_390" href="#r7_390">390. weeds,</a> +as in <a href="#r7_84">line 84</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_393" href="#r7_393">393. the fair Hesperian tree.</a> +See <a href="#r7_983">line 983</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_394" href="#r7_394">394. had need the guard.</a> +An elliptical expression. <i>Need</i> is a +noun, but is treated as if it were a verb.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_395" href="#r7_395">395.</a> +The dragon Ladon was not able to defend the apples of Hesperides +against Hercules.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_401" href="#r7_401">401. will wink on Opportunity:</a> +will fail to see its chance.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_404" href="#r7_404">404. it recks me not.</a> +The verb is thus used, impersonally, also +in <a href="#r8_122">Lycidas 122</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_407" href="#r7_407">407.</a> +The line has two hypermetric syllables, one after the third +foot, and one at the end.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_413" href="#r7_413">413. squint suspicion.</a> +An epithet applicable only to a physical infirmity is applied to +a mental act.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_422" href="#r7_422">422. quivered:</a> bearing a quiver.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_423" href="#r7_423">423. unharbored:</a> +furnishing no shelter.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_424" href="#r7_424">424. Infamous hills.</a> +Accent <i>infamous</i> as we do now and as Milton +does elsewhere. Verses thus beginning with trochees are common.</p> +<div class="pb">[107]</div> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_429" href="#r7_429">429.</a> +Look up the origin of the word <b>grots</b>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_430" href="#r7_430">430. unblenched:</a> +unstartled.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_434" href="#r7_434">434. Blue meagre hag.</a> +The <i>hag</i> has the livid hue of hunger.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_436" href="#r7_436">436. swart faery of the mine.</a> +A malignant demon dwelling under ground,—a gnome.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_441" href="#r7_441">441. the huntress Dian.</a> +The powerful goddess Diana, or Artemis, +twin sister of Apollo, was figured bearing a bow and arrows.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_448" href="#r7_448">448. wise Minerva.</a> +Minerva, or Pallas Athene, is usually represented as wearing +on her breast the ægis with a border of snakes and +the Gorgon’s head in the centre.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_460" href="#r7_460">460-462.</a> +Note the different modes in <b>begin</b> and <b>turns</b>, where we +should look for similar constructions.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_487" href="#r7_487">487.</a> +The ellipsis of <i>we had</i> is readily supplied. <b>Draw</b> and +<b>stand</b> are infinitives.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_494" href="#r7_494">494. Thyrsis,</a> +a stock shepherd-name. The spirit henceforth +appears to his fellow-actors in the mask as the shepherd with whom +they are familiar.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_495" href="#r7_495">495-512.</a> +These lines express sudden emotion, and approximate +lyric in character. Hence the rhyme.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_508" href="#r7_508">508. How chance she is not.</a> +Supply the ellipsis.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_517" href="#r7_517">517. Chimeras</a> +is here used vaguely in the plural to mean dangerous +monsters.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_526" href="#r7_526">526. With many murmurs mixed.</a> +The enchanter spoke or sang forms of incantation over his mixing and brewing. +Recall Macbeth.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_529" href="#r7_529">529.</a> +The word <b>mintage</b> has an interesting history. The human +countenance is conceived as an imprint, like the characters on a +coin.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_530" href="#r7_530">530. Charactered in the face.</a> +The <i>noun character</i> Milton pronounces with accent on the +first syllable, as does Shakespeare. Probably he also agrees with +Shakespeare in pronouncing the <i>verb</i> with the accent on the +second syllable, as this verse suggests.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_531" href="#r7_531">531. crofts.</a> +The word is still in use in England, meaning a small farm.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_540" href="#r7_540">540. by then the chewing flocks:</a> +by the time when, etc.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_547" href="#r7_547">547. To meditate my rural minstrelsy:</a> +to play on my shepherd-pipe +and to sing. To meditate the muse is a standard expression of +the pastoral poets. See <a href="#r8_66">Lycidas 66</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_552" href="#r7_552">552.</a> +What do we know was the cause of this <b>unusual stop of +sudden silence</b>?</p> +<div class="pb">[108]</div> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_553" href="#r7_553">553-554.</a> +The cessation of the din gave to the steeds of sleep, and +to people who were trying to sleep, relief from annoyance.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_557" href="#r7_557">557-560.</a> +Be sure you understand the figure.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_560" href="#r7_560">560. Still,</a> +in its very frequent sense, <i>always</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_562" href="#r7_562">562. Under the ribs of Death:</a> +in a skeleton.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_575" href="#r7_575">575. such two;</a> describing them.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_586" href="#r7_586">586. Shall be unsaid for me:</a> +it is not necessary for me to make +any change in my opinion to make it harmonize with this new aspect +of affairs.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_595" href="#r7_595">595. Gathered like scum, and settled to itself.</a> +The two metaphors +thus combined make a rather strange mixture.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_598" href="#r7_598">598. The pillared firmament.</a> +By the <i>firmament</i> is usually understood +the sphere of the fixed stars. How to introduce the conception +of <i>pillars</i> is not clear.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_604" href="#r7_604">604. Acheron.</a> +See Par. Lost II 578.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_605" href="#r7_605">605.</a> +The <b>Harpies</b> were monstrous birds with women’s heads. +Their doings are described Æneid III. The <b>Hydra</b> was a monster +serpent with a hundred heads.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_607" href="#r7_607">607. his purchase:</a> +his acquisition.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_610" href="#r7_610">610. I love thy courage yet,</a> +though thou hast spoken most unwisely.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_611" href="#r7_611">611. can do thee little stead:</a> +can avail thee but little.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_617" href="#r7_617">617. utmost shifts:</a> +most carefully devised precautions.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_620" href="#r7_620">620. Of small regard to see to:</a> +of very insignificant appearance.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_621" href="#r7_621">621.</a> +A <b>virtuous plant</b> is a plant which has virtues, i.e. powers or +qualities.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_624" href="#r7_624">624. Which when I did.</a> +The modern English has lost the power +of beginning a sentence thus, with two relatives.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_626" href="#r7_626">626. scrip,</a> +a word in no way connected with <i>script</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_627" href="#r7_627">627. And show me simples of a thousand names.</a> +Compare Hamlet IV 7 <span class="small">145</span>, “no cataplasm so rare, +Collected from all simples that have virtue Under the moon.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_634" href="#r7_634">634. Unknown and like esteemed:</a> +neither known nor esteemed.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_635" href="#r7_635">635. Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon.</a> +See 2 Henry VI. IV 2 <span class="small">195</span>,—“Spare none but +such as go in clouted shoon,” and Hamlet IV 5 +<span class="small">26</span>,—“By his cockle hat and staff, And his +sandal shoon.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_636" href="#r7_636">636.</a> +The story of Hermes’ giving Ulysses the <b>Moly</b> read in Odyssey +X. “Therewith the slayer of Argos gave me the plant that he had +plucked from the ground, and he showed me the growth thereof. It +was black at the root, but the flower was like to milk. Moly the gods +<span class="pb">[109]</span> +call it, but it is hard for mortal men to dig; howbeit with the gods all +things are possible.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_638" href="#r7_638">638. He called it Hæmony.</a> +<i>Hæmony</i> is a nonce-word of Milton’s +own coining. He may have derived it from a Greek word meaning +<i>skilful</i> or from another meaning <i>blood</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_640" href="#r7_640">640. mildew blast, or damp.</a> +<i>Blast</i> is defined by Dr. Murray: +“A sudden infection destructive to vegetable or animal life (formerly +attributed to the blowing or breath of some malignant power, foul air, +etc.)”; and <i>damp</i>: “An exhalation, a vapor or gas, of a noxious +kind.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_641" href="#r7_641">641. Or ghastly Furies’ apparition:</a> +or the appearance of terrifying ghosts.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_646" href="#r7_646">646. Entered the very lime-twigs of his spells.</a> +<i>Lime</i> was a viscous +substance, spread upon the twigs of trees and bushes to entangle +the feet of birds. The figure is frequent in Shakespeare. See Hamlet +III 3 <span class="small">68</span>, “O limed soul, that, struggling to be free, Art more engaged.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_657" href="#r7_657">657. apace:</a> quickly.</p> +<p><a id="n7_658">In</a> the stage directions, +<a class="rref" href="#r7_658">goes about</a> means, makes a movement.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_661" href="#r7_661">661. as Daphne was, Root-bound, that fled Apollo.</a> +The great god, Apollo, pursuing the nymph Daphne, Diana saved her +by transforming her into a laurel tree.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_672" href="#r7_672">672. this cordial julep.</a> +<i>Julep</i> is a word of Persian origin, meaning +rose-water. Note the poet’s skill in culling words of delicious +sound.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_675" href="#r7_675">675. Not that Nepenthes +which the wife of Thone In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena.</a> +See Odyssey IV: “Then Helen, daughter +of Zeus, cast a drug into the wine whereof they drank, a drug to +lull all pain and anger, and bring forgetfulness of every sorrow.... +Medicines of such virtue and so helpful had the daughter of Zeus, +which Polydamna, the wife of Thon, had given her, a woman of +Egypt.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_685" href="#r7_685">685. the unexempt condition:</a> +the condition from which no one is exempt.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_695" href="#r7_695">695. These oughly-headed monsters.</a> +Perhaps by this peculiar +spelling, <i>oughly</i>, Milton meant to add to the word <i>ugly</i> a higher +degree of ugliness.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_698" href="#r7_698">698. With vizored falsehood:</a> +falsehood with its vizor, or face-piece, +down, to conceal its identity.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_700" href="#r7_700">700. With liquorish baits.</a> +<i>Liquorish</i>, now usually spelled <i>lickerish</i>, +<span class="pb">[110]</span> +is allied to <i>lecherous</i>, and has no connection with <i>liquor</i> or +with <i>liquorice</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_703" href="#r7_703">703.</a> +The goodness of the gift lies in the intention of the giver.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_707" href="#r7_707">707. those budge doctors of the stoic fur.</a> +<i>Budge</i> is defined by +Dr. Murray: “Solemn in demeanor, important-looking, pompous, stiff, +formal.” Cowper, in his poem Conversation, has the couplet: “The +solemn fop; significant and budge; A fool with judges, amongst fools a +judge.” <i>A doctor of the Stoic fur</i> is a teacher of the Stoic philosophy, +who wears a gown of the fur to which his degree of doctor entitles him.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_708" href="#r7_708">708. fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub:</a> +teach doctrines +learned from the Cynic Diogenes, who is reputed to have lived in +a tub.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_719" href="#r7_719">719. hutched:</a> +stowed or laid away, as in a chest or hutch.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_721" href="#r7_721">721. pulse;</a> +conceived as the simplest kind of food.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_722" href="#r7_722">722. frieze;</a> +to be pronounced <i>freeze</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_724" href="#r7_724">724. and yet:</a> +and what is yet more.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_728" href="#r7_728">728. Who</a> +refers back to Nature.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_734" href="#r7_734">734. they below:</a> +the people of the lower world.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_737" href="#r7_737">737. coy.</a> +See <a href="#r8_18">Lycidas 18</a>. +<b>cozened.</b> See Merchant of Venice II 9 <span class="small">38</span>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_744" href="#r7_744">744. It</a> refers back to beauty.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_748" href="#r7_748">748. homely;</a> in the modern disparaging sense.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_750" href="#r7_750">750. grain:</a> color.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_751" href="#r7_751">751. To ply</a>, +or make, a <b>sampler</b>, as a proof of her skill with the +needle, was, until very modern times, the duty of every young girl. +The old samplers are now precious heirlooms in families. <b>to tease +the huswife’s wool.</b> To <i>tease wool</i>, or to card it, was to use the +teasle, or a card, to prepare it for spinning. Carding and spinning +were common duties of the huswife and her daughters.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_753" href="#r7_753">753.</a> +In what respect can <b>tresses</b> be said to be like the <b>morn</b>?</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_760" href="#r7_760">760. when vice can bolt her arguments.</a> +There are two verbs, +spelled alike, <i>bolt</i>. One means to sift, and is used often of arguments +and reasonings. To bolt arguments is to construct them with logical +care and precision. The other <i>bolt</i> means to shoot forth or blurt out. +We may take our choice of the two words.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_773" href="#r7_773">773.</a> How is the line to be scanned?</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_780" href="#r7_780">780. Or have I said enow?</a> +In the edition of Comus published in 1645 this passage reads, +<i>Or have I said enough?</i> In the edition of 1673, the latest +that he revised, Milton changed <i>enough</i> to <i>enow</i>. +<span class="pb">[111]</span> +Grammatically, <i>enough</i> is the better form, as the Elizabethan usage +favored <i>enough</i> for the form of the adjective with singular nouns and +for the adverb, and <i>enow</i> as the adjective with plurals. It would seem +that the poet must have had some motive of euphony for the change +he made.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_788" href="#r7_788">788. thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know.</a> +A Latinism: <i>dignus es qui non cognoscas</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_793" href="#r7_793">793. the uncontrolled worth Of this pure cause:</a> +the invincible +power inherent in the cause by virtue of its nature.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_804" href="#r7_804">804. Speaks thunder and +the chains of Erebus To some of Saturn’s crew:</a> +pronounces sentence upon his foes, condemning them to the punishments +named. <i>Erebus</i>—Darkness—is one of the +numerous names of the lower world, the kingdom of Pluto.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_808" href="#r7_808">808. the canon laws:</a> +the fundamental laws, or the Constitution. +Canon law, generally speaking, is ecclesiastical law, or the law governing +the church.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_817" href="#r7_817">817. And backward mutters of dissevering power.</a> +The “many +murmurs” with which his incantations have been mixed must be +spoken backward in order to undo their effect. This backward +repetition of the charm has the power to break the spell which the +charm has wrought.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_822" href="#r7_822">822. Melibœus</a> +is yet another of the stock names of pastoral +poetry.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_823" href="#r7_823">823. The soothest shepherd.</a> +The ancient adjective <i>sooth</i> means +essentially nothing more than <i>true</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_826" href="#r7_826">826. Sabrina is her name.</a> +The story of Sabrina is told by Geoffrey +of Monmouth, whose history is included in the volume of Bohn’s +Antiquarian Library, entitled <i>Six Old English Chronicles</i>. The book +is easily accessible.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_827" href="#r7_827">827. Whilom</a> +is derived from the dative plural <i>hwílum</i> of the Old +English noun <i>hwíl</i>, and originally meant <i>at times</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_831" href="#r7_831">831.</a> +What does Sabrina do in this line?</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_835" href="#r7_835">835. aged Nereus</a> +was one of the numerous Greek deities of the +water. He and his wife Doris had fifty or a hundred daughters, who +are called Nereids.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_838" href="#r7_838">838. In nectared lavers strewed with asphodel.</a> +The <i>nectar</i> of the +gods, which we usually think of as their drink, was also applied to +other purposes, as when Thetis anoints with it the body of Patroclus, +to prevent decay. <i>Asphodel</i> is a flower in our actual flora; but in the +<span class="pb">[112]</span> +poets Asphodel is an immortal flower growing abundantly in the +meadows of Elysium.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_840" href="#r7_840">840. ambrosial</a> +here means, <i>conferring immortality</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_845" href="#r7_845">845. Helping all urchin blasts;</a> +<i>i.e.</i> helping the victims of the +blasts against their baleful influence. See note on line 640. See +Merry Wives of Windsor IV 4 <span class="small">49</span>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_851" href="#r7_851">851.</a> +The word <b>daffodil</b> is directly derived from asphodel, with a <i>d</i> +unaccountably prefixed. The English daffodil is the narcissus.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_858" href="#r7_858">858. adjuring:</a> +charging or entreating solemnly and earnestly, as +if under oath.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_868" href="#r7_868">868. Oceănus</a> +is the personified Ocean, a broad, flowing stream +encircling the earth.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_869" href="#r7_869">869. Earth-shaking</a> +is a Homeric epithet of Neptune. The mace +of Neptune must be his trident.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_870" href="#r7_870">870. Tethys</a> +is wife of Oceanus and mother of the Oceanids. She reared the great +goddess Juno, wife of Jupiter. Her <b>pace</b> is suitable +to her dignity.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_871" href="#r7_871">871. hoary Nereus.</a> +See <a href="#n7_835">note on line 835</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_872" href="#r7_872">872. the Carpathian wizard’s hook.</a> +Proteus, son of Oceanus and +Tethys, herded the sea-calves of Neptune on the island of Carpathus. +As a herdsman he bore a crook, or <i>hook</i>. He had the gift of prophecy, +and so is called a <i>wizard</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_873" href="#r7_873">873. Scaly Triton’s winding shell.</a> +<i>Triton</i> was herald of Neptune +and so carried a shell, which he was wont to <i>wind</i> as a horn. His +body was in part covered with scales like those of a fish.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_874" href="#r7_874">874. The soothsaying Glaucus</a> +was a prophet, and gave oracles at +Delos. He is represented as a man whose hair and beard are dripping +with water, with bristly eyebrows, his breast covered with sea-weeds, +and the lower part of his body ending in the tail of a fish.</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t0"><a class="rref" id="n7_875" href="#r7_875">875. By Leucothĕa’s lovely hands,</a></p> +<p class="t2"><b>And her son that rules the strands.</b></p> +</div> +<p class="cont">Ino, after she had slain herself and her son Melicertes, by leaping +with him into the sea, became a protecting deity of mariners under +the name Leucothea, or the white goddess. So she came to the aid of +Ulysses when he was passing on his raft from Calypso’s isle to Phæacia. +She there appears “with fair ankles,” and when she receives back from +him her veil, which she had lent him, she does it with “<i>lovely hands</i>.”</p> +<p class="cont">Melicertes becomes a protecting deity of shores, under the name +Palæmon. The Romans identified him with their god <b>Portunus</b>.</p> +<div class="pb">[113]</div> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_877" href="#r7_877">877. By Thetis’ tinsel-slippered feet.</a> +Thetis was the wife of +Peleus, and the mother of Achilles. In Homer she has the epithet +<i>silver-footed</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_878" href="#r7_878">878. the songs of Sirens.</a> +See <a href="#n7_253">note on line 253</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_879" href="#r7_879">879. By dead Parthenope’s dear tomb.</a> +Parthenope was one of the Sirens. At Naples her tomb was shown.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_880" href="#r7_880">880. And fair Ligea’s golden comb.</a> +Ligea was probably also a +siren. In Virgil, Georgics IV 336, we find a nymph of this name, +spinning wool with other nymphs, “their bright locks floating over +their snowy necks.” The name Ligea means shrill-voiced.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_887" href="#r7_887">887.</a> +In the reading make <b>in</b> an adverb.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_892" href="#r7_892">892. My sliding chariot stays.</a> +Compare this use of <i>stay</i> with that +found in lines 134, 577, 820.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_893" href="#r7_893">893. the azurn sheen.</a> +With <i>azurn</i> compare <i>cedarn</i>, line 990.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_908" href="#r7_908">908-909.</a> +Be careful what inflection you give these lines in the +reading.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_913" href="#r7_913">913. of precious cure:</a> +of precious power to cure.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_921" href="#r7_921">921. To wait in Amphitrite’s bower.</a> +<i>Amphitrite</i> was a daughter +of Oceanus and Tethys. She was goddess of the sea, had the care of +its creatures, and could stir up the waves in storm.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_923" href="#r7_923">923. Sprung of old Anchises’ line.</a> +According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, +Brutus the Trojan was the grandson of Æneas and founder of +London. Anchises, in the Homeric story, is the father of Æneas. +This fable plays an important part in the ancient British myth.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_924" href="#r7_924">924. thy brimmed waves.</a> +A river is happiest when full to its +brim.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_930" href="#r7_930">930.</a> +Of what parts of speech are <b>torrent</b> and <b>flood?</b></p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_933" href="#r7_933">933.</a> +It is very curious that our word <b>beryl</b> and the German +<i>Brille</i> come directly from the same source.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_937" href="#r7_937">937.</a> +And yet this river is the English Severn!</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_957" href="#r7_957">957.</a> +Note the impressive effect of the five-foot line ending the scene.</p> +<p>The shepherds have their dance in rustic fashion. The words +describing this dance are the familiar peasant words, +<a class="rref" id="n7_960" href="#r7_960">jig, duck, nod</a>. +The playful tone in which the spirit calls upon the swains to give place +to their betters is charming.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_964" href="#r7_964">964. With the mincing Dryades.</a> +“The <i>Dryades</i> were nymphs of +woods and trees, dwelling in groves, ravines, and wooded valleys, and +were fond of making merry with Apollo, Mercury, and Pan.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_980" href="#r7_980">980. I suck the liquid air:</a> +I inhale the upper air,—the <i>æther</i> +<span class="pb">[114]</span> +<i>liquidus</i> of the poets. So Ariel, Tempest V 1 <span class="small">102</span>, +“I drink the air before me.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_981" href="#r7_981">981. the gardens fair Of Hesperus and his daughters three.</a> +The number of the Hesperides and their parentage are differently given in +various legends. The story of their garden in some mysterious place +in the far west, where they guarded the tree that bore the golden +apples, assisted by the dragon Ladon, is one of the best known in +the classic mythology.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_984" href="#r7_984">984. Along the crisped shades and bowers.</a> +Milton applies <i>crisped</i> to brooks, Par. Lost IV 237. Herrick +has,—“the crisped yew,” and +the American Thoreau,—“A million crisped waves.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_985" href="#r7_985">985. spruce.</a> +A very interesting account of the origin of this word +is given by Skeat in his Etymological Dictionary.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_986" href="#r7_986">986. The Graces and the rosy-bosomed Hours.</a> +See <a href="#n3_15">note on L’Allegro 15</a>. +“The <i>Graces</i> were guardians of the vernal sweetness +and beauty of nature, friends and protectors of everything graceful +and beautiful.” The <i>Hours</i> were goddesses of the seasons, daughters +of Zeus and Themis. They were the door-keepers of Olympus, whose +cloud-gate they open and shut: thus they preside over the weather.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_990" href="#r7_990">990. About the cedarn alleys:</a> +about the pathways through +cedar groves. Coleridge, in Kubla Khan, has the line, “Down the +green hill athwart a cedarn cover”; and Tennyson, Geraint and Enid, +the line,—“And moving toward a cedarn cabinet.” So also William +Barnes, in his Rural Poems, uses the expression, “stonen jugs.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_992" href="#r7_992">992. Iris</a> +is the messenger of the gods: her path is the rainbow.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_993" href="#r7_993">993.</a> +Dr. Murray gives other instances of <b>blow</b> as a transitive +verb.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_999" href="#r7_999">999. Adonis</a> +was a young shepherd, the special favorite of Venus. +His death was caused by a wild boar. The story is told in various +forms. Observe that Milton makes him wax well of his deep wound.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_1002" href="#r7_1002">1002. the Assyrian queen.</a> +The worship of Aphrodite (Venus) +was brought into Greece from Assyria.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_1005" href="#r7_1005">1005. Holds his dear Psyche.</a> +Psyche—the personification of +the human soul—was a mortal maiden, beloved of Cupid. Venus, +in her jealousy of Psyche, compelled her to pass through a long series +of hardships and toils. Cupid at last succeeded in reconciling his +mother and his beloved, and in having <i>Psyche</i> advanced to the dignity +of an immortal.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_1015" href="#r7_1015">1015. Where the bowed welkin slow doth bend:</a> +where the curvature of the vault of the sky seems less than higher up +toward the zenith.</p> +<div class="pb">[115]</div> +<p><a class="rref" id="n7_1021" href="#r7_1021">1021. the sphery chime.</a> +See notes, Hymn on the Nativity <a href="#n1_48">48</a> and +<a href="#n1_125">125</a>.</p> +</div> +<h3>LYCIDAS.</h3> +<p>Lycidas is Milton’s contribution to a volume of elegiac verses, in +Greek, Latin, and English, composed by many college friends of +Edward King, who was drowned in the wreck of the vessel in +which he was crossing the Irish Channel.</p> +<p>In its main intention, Lycidas is an elegy, because it professes to +mourn one who is dead and extols his virtues. In its form it is +almost wholly pastoral, because it feigns an environment of shepherds, +allegorizing college life as the life of men tending flocks, +and the occupations of earnest students as the careless diversions +of rustic swains.</p> +<p>Four times the pastoral note is rudely interrupted by the intervention +of majestic beings who speak in awful tones from another +world, and whose voices instantly check all familiar rustic speech, +compelling it to wait till they have announced their messages from +above. The supernal powers who thus descend to take their parts +in the office of mourning are Phœbus, Apollo, Hippotades, god +of the winds, Camus, god of the river Cam, and St. Peter. This +mingling of classic, Hebrew, and Christian conceptions is a marked +characteristic of all Milton’s poetry.</p> +<p>Thus Lycidas is neither wholly elegiac nor wholly pastoral. +From the lips of St. Peter, typifying the church, comes a speech of +violent denunciation, in the true later Miltonic manner. In strange +contrast to this grim invective is the famous flower-passage, the +sweetest and loveliest thing of its kind in our literature.</p> +<div class="notes"> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_1" href="#r8_1">1-5.</a> +To pluck once more the berries of the evergreens, or to gather +laurels,—is to make a new venture as a poet,—to compose a poem. +The berries are harsh and crude,—he shatters their leaves before the +mellowing year, either because he is to mourn the death of a young +man, or because he feels in himself a lack of “inward ripeness” to +treat his theme worthily,—perhaps for both reasons. He shatters the +leaves with forced fingers rude, in the sense that his subject is not of +his own choosing.</p> +<div class="pb">[116]</div> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_6" href="#r8_6">6-7.</a> +A sad duty is imposed upon him, forbidding further delay on +any personal grounds.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_8" href="#r8_8">8. Lycidas</a> +is one of the stock names of pastoral poetry. The poem, +though most serious in its main motive and intention, is to have a +pastoral coloring throughout. Note the impressive repetitions, <b>dead, +dead</b>, and the recurrences of the name Lycidas in the next two lines.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_11" href="#r8_11">11. he knew Himself to sing and build the lofty rhyme.</a> +Edward King had, in accordance with the college custom of his time, +written verses, apparently all in Latin. Of these verses Masson, in his +life of Milton, gives specimens. They seem to be commonplace.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_13" href="#r8_13">13. and welter to the parching wind.</a> +See Par. Lost II 594, I 78.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_15" href="#r8_15">15. Sisters of the sacred well.</a> +Ancient tradition connects the +origin of the Muses with Pieria, a district of Macedonia at the foot of +Olympus. But the springs with which we associate the Muses are +Aganippe and Hippocrene on Mount Helicon.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_19" href="#r8_19">19. So may some gentle muse.</a> +A peculiar use of the word <i>muse</i> +as masculine, and meaning <i>poet</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_23" href="#r8_23">23-31.</a> +We pursued the same studies, at the same college, and we +studied from early morning sometimes till after midnight. The +metaphors are all pastoral.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_32" href="#r8_32">32-36.</a> +We wrote merry verse, bringing in the college jollities, in +wanton student-fashion, and the good-natured old don who was our +tutor affected to be pleased with our work.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_34" href="#r8_34">34. Rough Satyrs danced, and Fauns with cloven heel.</a> +The <i>Satyrs</i>, represented as having human forms, with +small goat’s horns and a small tail, had for their occupation +to play on the flute for their master, Bacchus, or to pour his wine. +The <i>Fauns</i> were sylvan deities, attendants of Pan, and are +represented, like their master, with the +ears, horns, and legs of a goat.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_37" href="#r8_37">37-49.</a> +Nature herself sympathizes with men, and mourns thy loss.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_50" href="#r8_50">50. Nymphs:</a> +deities of the forests and streams.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_52" href="#r8_52">52. on the steep Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie.</a> +The shipwreck in which King was lost took place off the coast of +Wales. Any one of the Welsh mountains will serve to make good +this allusion.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_54" href="#r8_54">54. Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high.</a> +<i>Mona</i> is the ancient +and poetical name of the island of Anglesea.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_55" href="#r8_55">55. Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream.</a> +The Dee (Deva) below Chester expands into a broad estuary. In his lines +<span class="pb">[117]</span> +spoken At a Vacation Exercise, Milton, characterizing many rivers, +mentions the “ancient hallowed Dee.” The country about the Dee +had been specially famous as the seat of the old Druidical religion. +In the eleventh Song of his Polyolbion, Drayton eulogizes the +medicinal virtues of the salt springs in the valley of the river Weever, +which attract Thetis and the Nereids:—</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">And Amphitrite oft this Wizard River led</p> +<p class="t2">Into her secret walks (the depths profound and dread)</p> +<p class="t2">Of him (supposed so wise) the hid events to know</p> +<p class="t2">Of things that were to come, as things done long ago.</p> +<p class="t2">In which he had been proved most exquisite to be;</p> +<p class="t2">And bare his fame so far, that oft twixt him and Dee,</p> +<p class="t2">Much strife there hath arose in their prophetic skill.</p> +</div> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_56" href="#r8_56">56-63.</a> +Even the Muse Calliope could do nothing for her son +Orpheus, whom the Thracian women tore to pieces under the excitement +of their Bacchanalian orgies. The gory visage floated down the +Hebrus and through the Ægean Sea to the island of Lesbos.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_64" href="#r8_64">64. what boots it:</a> +of what use is it?</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_64a" href="#r8_64a">64-66.</a> +What good are we going to derive from this unremitting +devotion to study?</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_67" href="#r8_67">67-69.</a> +Would it not be better to abandon ourselves to social enjoyment, +and to lives of frivolous trifling? <b>Amaryllis</b> and <b>Neæra</b> are +stock names of shepherdesses.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_70" href="#r8_70">70-72.</a> +Understand <b>clear</b>, +as applied to <b>spirit</b>, to mean “pure, +guileless, unsophisticated.” Sir Henry Wotton, in his Panegyric to +King Charles, says of King James I.,—“I will not deny his appetite +of glory, which generous minds do ever latest part from.” Love of +fame, according to the poet, is the motive that prompts the scholar +to live as an ascetic and to persevere in toilsome labor. This love +of fame is an infirmity, but not a debasing one: it leaves the mind +noble. Remember, however, that the author of the Imitation of +Christ prayed, <i>Da mihi nesciri</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_75" href="#r8_75">75. the blind Fury with the abhorred shears.</a> +Milton here seems +to ascribe to the Furies (Erinyes) the function belonging to the Fates +(Parcæ, Moiræ). The three Fates were Klotho, the Spinner; Lachĕsis, +the Assigner of lots; and Atrŏpos, the Unchanging. It was the duty +of Atropos to cut the thread of life at the appointed time.</p> +<p class="cont">A querulous thought comes to the poet’s mind. Our lives are +obscure and laborious, sustained only by the hope of future fame; +<span class="pb">[118]</span> +but before we attain our reward, comes death, and our ambition is +brought to naught.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_76" href="#r8_76">76-77. But not the +praise, Phœbus replied, and touched my trembling ears.</a> +The Fury cannot destroy the praise, which necessarily +belongs to doing well. Praise here means the essential praise, +which naturally inheres in excellence, and not the being talked about +by men.</p> +<p class="cont">The speaker is now Phœbus, the august god Apollo, the pure one, +who protects law and order, and promotes whatever is good and +beautiful; who reveals the will of Zeus, and presides over prophecy.</p> +<p class="cont">Phœbus has now an admonition to give and he touches the poet’s +ears; as in Virgil, Eclogue IV 3,—<i>Cynthius aurem vellit et admonuit</i>, +“The Cynthian twitched my ear and warned me.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_79" href="#r8_79">79. in the glistering foil Set off.</a> +See Shakespeare, Richard III. V 3 <span class="small">250</span>,—“A +base foul stone, made precious by the foil of England’s +chair.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_85" href="#r8_85">85-86. O fountain Arethuse, +and thou honored flood, Smooth-sliding +Mincius.</a> Arethusa was a fresh-water fountain at Syracuse +in Sicily, and the Mincius is a river in north Italy, on which is situated +Mantua, the birthplace of the poet Virgil. The great pastoral +poet Theocritus is said to have been born at Syracuse. Thus Arethusa +and the Mincius typify the pastoral tone in which Milton conceives +and constructs his poem. But the intervention of the great god +Apollo has frighted the bucolic muses, to whom therefore the poet +explains it, line 87.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_88" href="#r8_88">88.</a> +Now I am on good terms again with the deities of lower rank. +<b>Oat</b> is a common designation of the shepherd’s pipe, or syrinx.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_89" href="#r8_89">89-90.</a> +Neptune, through his herald, Triton, pleads his freedom +from all complicity in the drowning of Lycidas. Triton sends to +Æolus, god of the winds, requesting him to cross-question all his +subjects as to what they were doing on the day of the wreck.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_95" href="#r8_95">95-99.</a> +The winds prove their innocence, and Æŏlus himself comes +to report to Triton that at the time of the disaster they were all at +home and the air was perfectly calm. Even Panope and all her +sisters were out playing on the tranquil water.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_96" href="#r8_96">96. sage Hippotădes.</a> +Æolus was the son of Hippotes. See all +about him in Odyssey, book X. Read also Ruskin, Queen of the Air, +section 19.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_99" href="#r8_99">99. Panope</a> +was a Nereid, one of the numerous daughters of Nereus.</p> +<div class="pb">[119]</div> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_103" href="#r8_103">103.</a> +Now comes another grand personage to make inquiry about +the death of Lycidas. <b>Camus</b>, the deity of the river Cam, stands +for the University of Cambridge.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_104" href="#r8_104">104. His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge.</a> +The river god is +represented as wearing a mantle made of water-grasses and reeds.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_105" href="#r8_105">105-106.</a> +These lines refer to certain markings on the water-plants +of the Cam, said to be correctly described here by the poet. The dimness +of the figures may suggest the great age of the university, and the +tokens of woe belong to the present occasion.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_106" href="#r8_106">106. that sanguine flower inscribed with woe.</a> +This is the hyacinth, +the flower that sprang up on the spot where the youth Hyacinthus +had been accidentally slain by Apollo. The petals of the hyacinth are +said to be marked with the Greek letters AI AI, which form an interjection +expressing grief.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_107" href="#r8_107">107.</a> +Lycidas was one of those collegians whose scholarship, character, +and piety promise to make them the pride of their Alma Mater.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_109" href="#r8_109">109. The Pilot of the Galilean Lake.</a> +See Matthew <span class="small">XIV</span>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_110" href="#r8_110">110. Two massy keys he bore of metals twain.</a> +See Matthew +<span class="small">XVI</span> 19. See also <a href="#r7_13">Comus 13</a> and +Par. Lost III 485. The idea of <i>two</i> +keys, one of gold and one of iron, is not in the Bible.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_112" href="#r8_112">112. He shook his mitred locks.</a> +St. Peter wears the mitre as bishop.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_113" href="#r8_113">113-131.</a> +St. Peter makes but little reference to Lycidas, and his words add almost +nothing to the elegiac character of the poem. His speech is one of stern +and bitter satire. The second period of Milton’s life, which is to +be given up to intense and uncompromising partisanship +in religion and politics, foreshadows itself in these lines.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_114" href="#r8_114">114. Enow</a> +is here used in its proper plural sense. See +<a href="#n7_780">note on Comus 780</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_115" href="#r8_115">115. climb into the fold.</a> +See John <span class="small">X</span> 1. The metaphor of sheep +and herdsmen is continued throughout the speech.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_119" href="#r8_119">119. Blind mouths!</a> +As the relative pronoun beginning the next +clause refers to this exclamation, mouths must be taken as a bold +metaphor meaning men who are all mouth, or are supremely greedy +and selfish. Moreover, they are blind.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_122" href="#r8_122">122. What recks it them?</a> +See note on <a href="#n7_404">Comus 404</a>. <b>They are +sped:</b> they have succeeded in their purpose. See Antony and Cleopatra +II 3 <span class="small">35</span>. Note also the phrase of greeting, <i>bid God speed</i>, as in +2 John <span class="small">I</span> 10, 11, King James version.</p> +<div class="pb">[120]</div> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_123" href="#r8_123">123. their lean and flashy songs:</a> +their sermons.</p> +<p>Evidently Milton can cull words of extreme disparagement and +vilification as well as words of unapproachable poetic beauty.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_125" href="#r8_125">125-127.</a> +The congregations are not edified. The miserable preaching +they listen to fails to keep them sound in doctrine. They grow +lax in their faith, and heretical opinions become fashionable.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_128" href="#r8_128">128. the grim wolf with privy paw</a> +is undoubtedly the Roman church.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_130" href="#r8_130">130-131.</a> +These lines evidently denounce some terrible retribution +that is sure ere long to overtake the corrupt clergy described in +the preceding passage. <b>The two-handed engine at the door, that +stands ready to smite once and smite no more</b>, has never been +definitely explained. We naturally think of the headsman’s +axe, which, however, does not become applicable till the execution +of Archbishop Laud, an event not to take place till eight years +after the composition of the poem. It has been suggested that +Milton had in mind the two houses of Parliament, or the Parliament +and the Army, as the agency through which reform was to be effected. +We must remember that Milton in 1637 could not foresee the Civil +War. He may have meant to combine certain scriptural expressions +into a mysteriously suggestive and oracular prediction, without +having in view any single and definite possibility.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_132" href="#r8_132">132. Return, Alphēus.</a> +The Alpheus was a river of the Peloponnesus, +said to sink underground and to flow beneath the sea to Ortygia, +near Syracuse, where it attempted to mingle its waters with those +of the fountain Arethusa. See <a href="#n8_85">note on lines 85, 86</a>. +See also Shelley’s poem, Arethusa.</p> +<p class="cont">The pastoral tone of lightness and simplicity could not be maintained +while St. Peter spoke. But now the Sicilian Muse returns, all +the more lovely for the contrast with the stern malediction that has +gone before.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_134" href="#r8_134">134-151.</a> +Milton is fond of thus collecting names of persons, places, +and things, choosing them as well for their effect on the ear as for +their significance. The botany of this passage is of little consequence: +it matters not whether all these flowers could, or could not, be collected +at the same season, or whether they could be found at the time of the +year when Lycidas died. The passage offers a picture of exquisite +beauty to the eye, and to the ear a strain of perfect melody.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_136" href="#r8_136">136. where the mild whispers use.</a> +The verb <i>use</i>, in this intransitive +<span class="pb">[121]</span> +sense, with only adverbial complement, and meaning <i>dwell</i>, is +now obsolete.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_138" href="#r8_138">138. the swart star:</a> +the star that makes <i>swart</i>, or <i>swarthy; i.e.</i> +the sun.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_139" href="#r8_139">139. enamelled eyes</a> +are the flowers generally, which are to be +specified. Scattered over the turf, the flowers seem to be looking +upward, like eyes.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_142" href="#r8_142">142. rathe</a> +is the adjective whose comparative is our <i>rather</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_149" href="#r8_149">149. amaranthus</a>, +by its etymology, means <i>unfading</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_150" href="#r8_150">150. Daffadil</a> +is derived from <i>asphodel</i>, with a curious, and altogether +unusual, prefixed <i>d</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_153" href="#r8_153">153. dally with false surmise.</a> +King’s body was not found. There +was no actual strewing of the laureate hearse with flowers.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_156" href="#r8_156">156. the stormy Hebrides:</a> +islands off the northwest coast of Scotland.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_160" href="#r8_160">160. Sleep’st by the fable of Bellerus old.</a> +The fable of Bellerus +is the fabled Bellerus, or Bellerus of the fable. He was a mythical +giant of Cornwall in old British legend. Bellerium was the name +given to Land’s End, where he was supposed to live.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_161" href="#r8_161">161. the great Vision of the guarded mount.</a> +St. Michael’s Mount +is a pyramidal rock in Mounts Bay on the coast of Cornwall. This +was guarded by the angel, St. Michael, whose gaze was directed seaward, +toward Namancos and Bayona, in northwestern Spain. In +some unknown place between these widely sundered limits, the body +of Lycidas is tossed.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_170" href="#r8_170">170. with new-spangled ore.</a> +<i>Ore</i>, from its original meaning of +metal in the natural state, comes to signify metallic lustre generally. +See Comus <a href="#r7_719">719</a>, <a href="#r7_933">933</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_173" href="#r8_173">173.</a> +See Matthew <span class="small">XIV</span> 25.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_175" href="#r8_175">175.</a> +Compare <a href="#r7_838">Comus 838</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_176" href="#r8_176">176. the unexpressive nuptial song.</a> +See <a href="#r1_116">Hymn on the Nativity 116</a>. See also Revelation <span class="small">XIX</span> 7-9.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_181" href="#r8_181">181. And wipe the tears forever from his eyes.</a> +See Revelation <span class="small">XXI</span> 4.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_183" href="#r8_183">183. Henceforth thou art the genius of the shore.</a> +This is the +same promotion that was accorded to Melicertes, son of Ino, who on +his death became the genius of the shore under the name of Palæmon.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_186" href="#r8_186">186. uncouth;</a> +a self-depreciating expression meaning <i>unknown</i> +or <i>obscure</i>.</p> +<div class="pb">[122]</div> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_187" href="#r8_187">187.</a> +Milton applies the epithet <b>gray</b> both to evening and to morning.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_188" href="#r8_188">188. various quills</a> +are the tubes of the shepherd pipe.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_189" href="#r8_189">189. Doric</a> +means simply <i>pastoral</i>, because the idylls of the first +pastoral poets were written in the Doric dialect of Greek.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n8_190" href="#r8_190">190. had stretched out all the hills:</a> +had caused the shadows of +the hills to prolong themselves eastward on the plain.</p> +<p>The poet seems to feign that he spent a day in the composition of +Lycidas.</p> +</div> +<h3>SONNETS.</h3> +<p>Of poems in strict sonnet form, that is, containing neither +more nor less than fourteen decasyllable iambic lines, interlocked +by some scheme of symmetrical rhyme, not in couplets, Milton left +twenty-three, of which five are in Italian. Of the three sonnets in +English omitted from this edition, two have reference to the violent +controversy occasioned by Milton’s publications in advocacy of +greater freedom of divorce, and are rough and polemic in style; +the third is omitted on account of its unimportance and lack of +distinction.</p> +<p>In their dates the twenty-three sonnets range from the poet’s +twenty-third to his fiftieth year. They are the only form of verse +in which he indulges during that middle period of his life which +was abandoned to political partisanship on the side of the Parliament +in the Civil War, and to the service of the government during +the Commonwealth and the Protectorate. If, as is now widely believed, +Shakespeare’s sonnets are artificial and tell us little or +nothing about their author, those of Milton are purely natural and +subjective and tell us nothing else but what their writer was thinking +and feeling. Their themes are his veritable moods and passions. +The mood is now friendly, amiable, and serene, now bitter, +strenuous, indignant, vindictive.</p> +<p>Wordsworth, in his sonnet, <i>Scorn not the Sonnet</i>, thus refers to +Milton’s sparing use of this poetic form:—</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t12">and when a damp</p> +<p class="t2">Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand</p> +<p class="t2">The Thing became a trumpet; whence he blew</p> +<p class="t2">Soul-animating strains,—alas too few.</p> +</div> +<div class="pb">[123]</div> +<p>The Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains followed +by a couplet,—the usual English form up to the seventeenth century. +Milton adopted the Italian, or Petrarchian model, which +has continued to be the standard sonnet form in our modern poetry. +In the Miltonic, or Italian, sonnet a group of eight lines, linked by +two rhymes each occurring four times, is followed by a group of +six lines linked by three rhymes each occurring twice. The octave +and the sextet are severed from each other by the non-continuance +of the rhymes of the former into the latter. At the end of the +octave, or near it, is usually a pause, marking the culmination of +the thought, and the sextet makes an inference or rounds out the +sense to an artistic whole.</p> +<p>Read Wordsworth’s sonnets, <i>Happy the feeling from the bosom +thrown,</i> and <i>Nuns fret not at their convent’s narrow room.</i></p> +<h4>I.</h4> +<p>The date of this sonnet is unknown. From the fact that it +comes first in the series as arranged by the poet, it is inferred that +it is the earliest sonnet he chose to publish.</p> +<div class="notes"> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_1_4" href="#r9_1_4">4. the jolly Hours.</a> +See <a href="#n7_986">note on Comus 986</a>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_1_5" href="#r9_1_5">5-6.</a> +To hear the nightingale before the cuckoo was for lovers a +good sign. This superstition is a motive in the +<i>Cuckoo and the Nightingale</i>, a poem formerly attributed to +Chaucer, and as such “modernized” by Wordsworth, but now +known to be the work of <b>Sir Thomas Clanvowe</b>. Stanza X of +this poem is thus given by Wordsworth:—</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">But tossing lately on a sleepless bed,</p> +<p class="t2">I of a token thought which Lovers heed;</p> +<p class="t2">How among them it was a common tale,</p> +<p class="t2">That it was good to hear the Nightingale</p> +<p class="t2">Ere the vile Cuckoo’s note be utterèd.</p> +</div> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_1_9" href="#r9_1_9">9. the rude bird of hate.</a> +This gives to the cuckoo altogether too +bad a character. The bird has on the whole a fair standing in English +poetry. We must think of the very pleasing <i>Ode to the Cuckoo</i>,—written +either by Michael Bruce or by John Logan,—as well as of the +passage in which Shakespeare makes Lucrece ask (line 848),—</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">Why should the worm intrude the maiden bud?</p> +<p class="t2">Or hateful cuckoos hatch in sparrows’ nests?</p> +</div> +<div class="pb">[124]</div> +<p class="cont">Look up other nightingale and cuckoo songs; for example, Keats’s +<i>Ode to a Nightingale</i>, and Wordsworth’s <i>The Cuckoo at Laverna</i>.</p> +</div> +<h4>II (1631).</h4> +<p>This sonnet Milton appears to have sent with a prose letter to +a friend who had remonstrated with him on the life of desultory +study which he was so long continuing to lead. In this letter he +professes the principle of “not taking thought of being <i>late</i>, so it +gave advantage to be more fit.” He adds, “That you may see +that I am something suspicious of myself, and do take notice of +a certain <i>belatedness</i> in me, I am the bolder to send you some of +my nightward thoughts some little while ago, because they come +in not altogether unfitly, made up in a Petrarchian stanza, which +I told you of.”</p> +<div class="notes"> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_2_8" href="#r9_2_8">8. timely-happy:</a> +wise with the wisdom proportionate to one’s +years. Similar compounds of two adjectives in Shakespeare are very +frequent; for example, holy-cruel, heady-rash, proper-false, +devilish-holy, cold-pale.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_2_10" href="#r9_2_10">10. even:</a> equal, adequate.</p> +</div> +<h4>VIII (1642).</h4> +<p>The occasion of this sonnet was the near approach of the royalist +army to London, early in the Civil War. The people of the city +had reason to fear the entrance of the cavalier troops and the sacking +of the houses of citizens obnoxious to the party of the king. +Milton would have been an object of special animosity to victorious +royalists, and for a short time he had grounds for the acutest anxiety. +It is not easy to see how, in case of actual pillage of the city, +he could have made use of such an appeal as this. The sonnet is +probably to be regarded as a work of art constructed when the +vicissitudes which it pictures were happily past, and when the +poet’s mind had regained its tranquillity.</p> +<div class="notes"> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_8_1" href="#r9_8_1">1.</a> +Note that <b>Colonel</b> has three syllables, according to the +pronunciation prevailing in Milton’s time. Look up the etymology +of this word.</p> +<div class="pb">[125]</div> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_8_10" href="#r9_8_10">10. The great Emathian conqueror:</a> +Alexander the Great, called +Emathian from Emathia, a district of his kingdom of Macedonia.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_8_11" href="#r9_8_11">11. bid spare +The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower +Went to the ground.</a> Alexander destroyed the city of Thebes in +335 B.C. Pindar, the famous lyric poet, a native and resident of +Thebes, had then been dead more than a century. But Pindar’s +house still stood, and was left standing by the conqueror, who +destroyed all other buildings of the city.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_8_12" href="#r9_8_12">12. the repeated air +Of sad Electra’s poet had the power To +save the Athenian walls from ruin bare.</a> To quote from Plutarch, +Life of Lysander: “The proposal was made in the congress of the +allies, that the Athenians should all be sold as slaves; on which occasion +Erianthus, the Theban, gave his vote to pull down the city and +turn the country into sheep-pasture; yet afterwards, when there was +a meeting of the captains together, a man of Phocis singing the first +chorus in Euripides’ Electra, which begins,—</p> +<div class="verse"> +<p class="t2">“Electra, Agamemnon’s child, I come</p> +<p class="t2">Unto thy desert home,</p> +</div> +<p class="cont">they were all melted with compassion, and it seemed to be +a cruel deed to destroy and pull down a city which had been so famous, +and produced such men.”</p> +</div> +<h4>IX (1644).</h4> +<p>Who the virtuous young lady was is not known.</p> +<div class="notes"> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_9_2" href="#r9_9_2">2.</a> +See the gospel of Matthew <span class="small">VII</span> 13.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_9_5" href="#r9_9_5">5.</a> +See Luke <span class="small">X</span> 40-42; Ruth <span class="small">I</span> 14.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_9_8" href="#r9_9_8">8.</a> +Note the “identical” rhyme. The effect of such a rhyme is +unpleasant. Modern poets avoid it.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_9_9" href="#r9_9_9">9-14.</a> +See Matthew <span class="small">XXV</span> 1-13.</p> +</div> +<h4>X (1644 or 1645).</h4> +<p>Lady Margaret’s father was the Earl of Marlborough, who had +been President of the Council under Charles I. Milton attributes +his death to political anxiety caused by the dissolution of Charles’s +third Parliament in 1629.</p> +<div class="notes"> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_10_6" href="#r9_10_6">6-8. that dishonest victory at Chæronea.</a> +The victory of Philip over the Greeks at Chæronea, B.C. 338, is +called by the poet <i>dishonest</i> because obtained by means of intrigue +and bribery. <a class="rref" href="#r9_10_6">that old man eloquent</a> +<span class="pb">[126]</span> +is the orator and rhetorician Isocrates, who, in his grief over +the defeat of his countrymen, committed suicide.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_10_9" href="#r9_10_9">9. later born than to have known:</a> +too late to have known. <i>Serius nata quam ut cognosceres</i>.</p> +</div> +<h4>XIII (1646).</h4> +<p>“In these lines, Milton, with a musical perception not common +amongst poets, exactly indicates the great merit of Lawes, which +distinguishes his compositions from those of many of his contemporaries +and successors. His careful attention to the words of the +poet, the manner in which his music seems to grow from those +words, the perfect coincidence of the musical with the metrical +accent, all put Lawes’s songs on a level with those of Schumann +or Liszt.”—<i>Encyclopædia Britannica</i>.</p> +<p>See introductory notes to <a href="#n7_0">Comus</a> and +<a href="#n5_0">Arcades</a>.</p> +<div class="notes"> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_13_3" href="#r9_13_3">3-4. not to scan With Midas’ ears.</a> +The god Apollo, during the +time of his servitude to Laomedon, had a quarrel with Pan, who +insisted that the flute was a better instrument than the lyre. The +decision was left to Midas, king of Lydia, who decided in favor of +Pan. To punish Midas, Apollo changed his ears into those of an ass.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_13_4" href="#r9_13_4">4. committing short and long:</a> +setting long syllables and short +ones to fight against each other, and so destroying harmony.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_13_5" href="#r9_13_5">5.</a> +The subject is conceived as a single idea, and so takes the verb +in the singular. <b>exempts thee:</b> singles thee out, selects thee.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_13_8" href="#r9_13_8">8. couldst humor best our tongue:</a> +couldst best adapt or accommodate +itself to our language.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_13_10" href="#r9_13_10">10. Phœbus’ quire:</a> +the poets. <i>Quire</i> is Milton’s spelling of <i>choir</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_13_12" href="#r9_13_12">12-14.</a> +Read the story of Dante’s meeting with his friend, the +musician Casella, in the second canto of Purgatory.</p> +</div> +<h4>XV (1648).</h4> +<p>The taking of Colchester by the parliamentary army under Fairfax, +Aug. 28, 1648, was one of the most important events of the +Civil War.</p> +<div class="notes"> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_15_7" href="#r9_15_7">7. the false North displays Her broken league.</a> +The Scotch and the English accused each other of having violated the +Solemn League and Covenant, to which the people of both countries had +subscribed.</p> +<div class="pb">[127]</div> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_15_8" href="#r9_15_8">8. to imp their serpent wings.</a> +To <i>imp</i> a wing with feathers is to attach feathers to it so as to +strengthen or improve its flight. The word is originally a term of +falconry. See Richard II. II 1 <span class="small">292</span>. See +also Murray’s <i>New English Dictionary</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_15_13" href="#r9_15_13">13-14. Valor, Avarice, Rapine;</a> +personified abstracts, after the +manner of our earlier poetry.</p> +</div> +<h4>XVI.</h4> +<p>As Secretary for Foreign Tongues to the Council of State of the +Commonwealth, Milton saw much of Cromwell, and came under +the influence of his voice and manner. Whether the great general +had ever taken note of the poems written by the secretary who +turned his despatches into Latin, or whether he gave any special +heed to the man himself, with whom he must have come into some +sort of personal relation, we have no means of knowing. We know, +however, perfectly well what the poet thought of the victorious +general. Though by no means always approving his state policy, +Milton retained to the end the warm personal admiration for Cromwell +which he expresses in this sonnet.</p> +<div class="notes"> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_16_7" href="#r9_16_7">7-9. Darwen stream</a>, +usually spoken of as the battle of Preston, +was fought Aug. 17, 1648; <b>Dunbar</b>, Sept. 3, 1650; <b>Worcester</b>, Sept. 3, +1651.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_16_12" href="#r9_16_12">12. to bind our souls with secular chains:</a> +to fetter our religious freedom with laws made by the civil power.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_16_14" href="#r9_16_14">14. hireling wolves.</a> +Milton applies this degrading appellation to +clergymen who received pay from the state. His appeal to Cromwell +was not successful. Cromwell was to become the chief supporter of a +church establishment.</p> +</div> +<h4>XVII (1652).</h4> +<p>Sir Henry Vane was member of a committee of the Council of +State appointed in 1649 to consider alliances and relations with the +European powers. Milton, as Secretary of the Council, had abundant +opportunity to observe Vane’s skill in diplomacy, his ability +to “unfold the drift of hollow states hard to be spelled.” Both +Vane and Milton held to the doctrine, preëminently associated +with the name of Roger Williams, of universal toleration, based on +<span class="pb">[128]</span> +the refusal to the civil magistrate of any authority in spiritual +matters.</p> +<div class="notes"> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_17_1" href="#r9_17_1">1. Vane, young in years:</a> +Vane was born in 1613.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_17_3" href="#r9_17_3">3. gowns, not arms:</a> +civilians, not soldiers. The expression is a +Latinism, the <i>gown</i> standing for the <i>toga</i>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_17_4" href="#r9_17_4">4. The fierce Epirot and the African bold:</a> +Pyrrhus and Hannibal.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_17_6" href="#r9_17_6">6. hard to be spelled.</a> +Compare <a href="#r4_170">Il Penseroso 170</a>.</p> +</div> +<h4>XVIII (1655).</h4> +<p>The historical event which furnishes the occasion of this sonnet +is the persecution of the Protestant Waldenses by the Piedmontese +and French governments, at the time of Cromwell’s Protectorate. +Cromwell’s vigorous and successful intervention was the means of +staying this horror, and gives evidence of the respect entertained +for his government among the states of Europe.</p> +<div class="notes"> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_18_4" href="#r9_18_4">4. when all our fathers worshiped stocks and stones.</a> +Christianity had been introduced into the Waldensian country +while Britain was still pagan.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_18_5" href="#r9_18_5">5. their groans Who were thy sheep:</a> +the groans of those who were.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_18_12" href="#r9_18_12">12. The triple Tyrant.</a> +The Pope, who wore a triple crown.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_18_14" href="#r9_18_14">14. the Babylonian woe.</a> +The puritans interpreted the <i>Babylon</i> of Revelation as the +church of Rome. See Revelation <span class="small">XVIII</span>.</p> +</div> +<h4>XIX.</h4> +<p>The sonnet, says Masson, may have been written any time between +1652 and 1655.</p> +<div class="notes"> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_19_2" href="#r9_19_2">2. Ere half my days.</a> +Milton’s blindness is considered to have +become total in 1652, when he was at the age of forty-four. How +shall we understand these words?</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_19_3" href="#r9_19_3">3.</a> +See the Parable of the Talents, Matthew <span class="small">XXV</span>.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_19_8" href="#r9_19_8">8. I fondly ask.</a> +See <a href="#n4_6">note on Il Pens. 6</a>.</p> +</div> +<h4>XX.</h4> +<p>Probable date, 1655. Of the Mr. Lawrence to whom the sonnet +is addressed nothing is certainly known.</p> +<div class="pb">[129]</div> +<div class="notes"> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_20_6" href="#r9_20_6">6. Favonius</a> +is the Latin name for Zephyrus, the west wind.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_20_10" href="#r9_20_10">10. Attic:</a> +refined, delicate, poignant.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_20_13" href="#r9_20_13">13. and spare To interpose them oft:</a> +refrain from too free enjoyment +of them.</p> +</div> +<h4>XXI.</h4> +<p>The second sonnet to Cyriac Skinner determines its own date +as 1655, and this one is probably to be assigned to the same year.</p> +<p>But little is known of the person to whom this sonnet and the +next one are addressed, except what we learn from the sonnets +themselves,—that he was an intimate and esteemed friend of Milton. +He may have been one of Milton’s pupils; and he may, when +his old teacher had become blind, have rendered him important +services as amanuensis or as reader.</p> +<div class="notes"> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_21_1" href="#r9_21_1">1-4.</a> +Cyriac Skinner’s mother was daughter of the famous lawyer +and judge, Sir Edward Coke.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_21_2" href="#r9_21_2">2. Themis</a> +is personified <i>law</i>, this being the meaning of the Greek +word.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_21_7" href="#r9_21_7">7. Let Euclid rest, and Archimedes pause:</a> +intermit for a day your severe mathematical studies.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_21_8" href="#r9_21_8">8. And what the Swede intend, and what the French:</a> +and pay no heed to foreign news.</p> +</div> +<h4>XXII (1655).</h4> +<div class="notes"> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_22_1" href="#r9_22_1">1. this three years’ day:</a> +three years ago to-day.</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_22_10" href="#r9_22_10">10.</a> +Milton’s duties as Latin secretary to the government were +exceedingly arduous.</p> +</div> +<h4>XXIII.</h4> +<p>Milton’s second wife died in February, 1658; her child lived +but a short time. At the time of his second marriage Milton had been +blind several years. Notice the reference in the sonnet to the sense +of sight: in his dream he <i>saw</i>.</p> +<div class="notes"> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_23_2" href="#r9_23_2">2. like Alcestis.</a> +Read the story of the Love of Alcestis in William Morris’s +Earthly Paradise; and read in Euripides, “That strangest, +saddest, sweetest song of his, Alkestis.”</p> +<p><a class="rref" id="n9_23_6" href="#r9_23_6">6. Purification in the Old Law.</a> +See Leviticus <span class="small">XII</span>.</p> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Minor Poems by Milton, by John Milton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MINOR POEMS BY MILTON *** + +***** This file should be named 31706-h.htm or 31706-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/7/0/31706/ + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Stephen Hutcheson and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Minor Poems by Milton + +Author: John Milton + +Editor: Samuel Thurber + +Release Date: March 20, 2010 [EBook #31706] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MINOR POEMS BY MILTON *** + + + + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Stephen Hutcheson and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + The Academy Series of English Classics + + + + + _MILTON_ + MINOR POEMS + + + L'Allegro Il Penseroso Comus + Arcades On the Nativity Lycidas + On Shakespeare At a Solemn Music Sonnets + + + WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES + BY + SAMUEL THURBER + + ALLYN AND BACON + _Boston and Chicago_ + + COPYRIGHT, 1901, + BY SAMUEL THURBER. + + _Norwood Press_ + J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith + Norwood Mass. U.S.A. + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + Preface + Outlines of the Life of Milton + TEXT: + On the Morning of Christ's Nativity + On Shakespeare + L'Allegro + Il Penseroso + Arcades + At a Solemn Music + Comus + Lycidas + Sonnets: + I. To the Nightingale + II. On his having arrived at the Age of Twenty-three 68 + VIII. When the Assault was intended to the City 69 + IX. To a Virtuous Young Lady 70 + X. To the Lady Margaret Ley 70 + XIII. To Mr. H. Lawes on his Airs 71 + XV. On the Lord General Fairfax, at the Siege of Colchester 72 + XVI. To the Lord General Cromwell, May, 1652 72 + XVII. To Sir Henry Vane the Younger 73 + XVIII. On the Late Massacre in Piedmont 74 + XIX. On his Blindness 74 + XX. To Mr. Lawrence 75 + XXI. To Cyriack Skinner 76 + XXII. To the Same 76 + XXIII. On his Deceased Wife 77 + Notes 79 + + + + + PREFACE. + + +The purpose held in view by those who place the study of Milton in high +school English courses is twofold: first, that youth may seasonably +become acquainted with a portion of our great classic poetry; and, +secondly, that they may in this poetry encounter and learn to conquer +difficulties more serious than those they have met in the literature they +have hitherto read. It is for the teacher to see to it that both these +aims are attained. The pupil must read with interest, and he must expect +at the same time to have to do some strenuous thinking and not to object +to turning over many books. + +The average pupil will not at first read anything of Milton with perfect +enjoyment. He will, with his wonted docility, commit passages to memory, +and he will do his best to speak these passages with the elocution on +which you insist. But the taste for this poetry is an acquired one, and +in the acquisition usually costs efforts quite alien to the prevailing +conceptions of reading as a pleasurable recreation. + +The task of pedagogy at this point becomes delicate. First of all, the +teacher must recognize the fact that his class will not, however good +their intentions, leap to a liking for Comus or Lycidas or even for the +Nativity Ode. It is of no use to assign stanzas or lines as lessons and +to expect these to be studied to a conclusion like a task of French +translation. The only way not to be disappointed in the performance of +the class is to expect nothing. It will be well at first, except where +the test is quite simple, for the teacher to read it himself, making +comment, in the way of explanation, as he goes on. Now and then he will +stop and have a little quiz to hold attention. When classical allusions +come up requiring research, the teacher will tell in what books the +matter may be looked up, and will show how other poets, or Milton +elsewhere, have played with the same piece of history or mythology. Thus +a poem may be dealt with for a number of days. Repetition is, to a +certain extent, excellent. The verses begin to sink into the young minds; +the measure appeals to the inborn sense of rhythm; the poem is caught by +the ear like a piece of music; the utterance of it becomes more like +singing than speaking. In fact, the great secret of teaching poetry in +school is to get rid of the commonplace manner of speech befitting a +recitation in language or science, and to put in practice the obvious +truth that verse has its own form, which is very different from the form +of prose. But repetition may go too far. Over-familiarity may beget +indifference. Other poems await the attention of the class. + +The teacher who really means to interest his classes, and begins by being +interested and interesting himself, will rarely fail to accomplish his +purpose. The principal obstacle to success here is the necessity, that +frequently exists, of conforming to the custom of examining, marking, and +ranking--a practice that thwarts genuine personal influence, formalizes +all procedures, and tends to deaden natural interest by substituting for +it the artificial interest of school standing. The Milton lesson must be +a serious one because it is given to the study of the serious work of the +gravest and most high-minded of men; and it must be an enjoyable one +because it deals with the verse of the most musical of poets, and because +one mood of joy is the only mood in which literature can be profitably +studied. + +As to the difficulties which the learner first encounters when he comes +to Milton, these grow sometimes out of the diction, sometimes out of the +syntax, and sometimes out of the poet's figures and allusions. Some +difficulties can be explained at once and completely. Others cannot be +explained at all with any reasonable hope of touching the beginner's mind +with matter that he can appropriate. Often the young reader slips over +points of possible learned annotation without the least consciousness +that here great scholarship might make an imposing display. Perfectly +useless is it to set forth for the pupil the interesting echoes from +ancient poets which generations of delving scholars have accumulated in +their notes to Milton, pleasing as these are to mature readers. + +The rule should be to expound and illustrate sufficiently to remove those +perplexities which really tease the pupil's mind and cause him to feel +dissatisfaction with himself. In many cases our only course is to +postpone exposition and to trust that the learner will grow up to the +insight which he as yet does not possess and which we cannot possibly +give him. A learned writer, like Milton, who has read all antiquity, and +who has no purpose of writing for children, inevitably contemplates a +public of men approximately his equals in culture, and expects to find +"fit audience, though few." + +But many of the difficulties that confront the beginner in Milton ask +only to be explained at once by some one who has had more experience in +the older literature. Archaic forms of words and expressions, with which +the ripe student is familiar, worry the tyro, and must be accounted for. +Often the common dictionaries will give all needed help; but the best +means of acquiring speedy familiarity with obsolete and rare forms is a +Milton concordance--such as that of Bradshaw--in connection with the +Century Dictionary, or with the Oxford Dictionary, so far as this goes. +These means of easy research should be at hand. I find that pupils often +need a pretty sharp spur to make them use even their abridged +dictionaries. But so far as concerns acquaintance with the vocabulary of +poetic diction, nothing will do except the dictionary habit, accompanied +by an effort of the memory to retain what has been learned. + +Difficulties that lurk in an involved syntax the pupil may usually be +expected to solve by study. But such a peculiar construction as that in +Sonnet X 9 will probably have to be explained to him. + +In the puritan theology and its implications he cannot take much +interest, and will of course not be asked to do so. But high school +students of Milton will ordinarily, in their historical courses, have +come down to the times in which the poet lived, will understand his +relation to public events, and will appreciate his feeling toward the +English ecclesiastical system. Puritanism, a phenomenon of the most +tremendous importance at a certain period of English history, has so +completely disappeared from the modern world, that the utterances of a +seventeenth-century poet, professedly a partisan, on matters of church +and state, no longer exasperate, and can barely even interest, students +of literature. + +To read either Paradise Lost or the Divine Comedy we must find the poet's +cosmical and his theological standpoint. We have no right to be surprised +or shocked at his conceptions. We must take him as he is, and let him +lead us through the universe as he has planned it. So long as we set up +our modern views as a standard, and by this standard judge the ancient +men, we fail in hospitality of thought, and come short of our duty as +readers. + +This consideration suggests yet another purpose in setting youth to the +reading of Milton. By no means an ancient poet, he takes us, +nevertheless, to a world different from our own, and in some sense helps +us out of the modern time in which our lives have fallen, to show us how +other ages conceived of God and Heaven. The mark of an educated man is +respect for the past; the old philosophies and religions do not startle +and repel him; his ancestors were once in those stages of belief; in some +stage of this vast movement of thought he and his fellows are at the +present moment. This largeness of view can be fruitfully impressed on +youth only by letting them read, under wise guidance, the older poets. + + + + + OUTLINES OF THE LIFE OF MILTON. + + +John Milton was born in London on the ninth of December, 1608. Queen +Elizabeth had then been dead five years, and the literature which we call +Elizabethan was still being written by the men who had begun their +careers under her reign. Spenser had died in 1599. The theatres were yet +in the enjoyment of full popularity, and the play-writers were producing +works that continued the traditions and the manner of the Elizabethan +drama. Shakespeare had still eight years to live, and at least four of +the great plays to write. Bacon's fame was already great, but the events +of eighteen years were to cloud his reputation and establish his renown. +Jonson, great as a writer of masks, was to live till he might have seen, +in Comus, how a young and scholarly puritan humanist thought that a mask +should be conceived. + +Born thus in the fifth year of the first of the Stuarts, Milton lived to +witness all the vicissitudes of English politics in which that family was +involved, except the very last. He did not see the Revolution of 1688. +Surviving for fourteen years the restoration of Charles II., he died in +1674, at the age of sixty-six. + +Milton's social position can be inferred from the fact that his father +was what was then called a scrivener,--that is, he kept an office in his +dwelling, and was employed to draw up contracts, wills, and other legal +documents. This occupation implied knowledge at least of the forms of the +law, though not of its history or principles. It did not imply liberal +education, though it brought its practitioner, doubtless, more or less +into contact with men of really professional standing in the science of +jurisprudence. Perhaps the elder Milton cherished a deeper conviction of +the value of classic culture than do those who simply inherit, and take +as a matter of course, the custom of devoting years to the study of +ancient languages and literatures. + +Evidently the father thought he saw in his son that promise of +intellectual vigor and of sound moral stamina which justified the +innovation, in his family, of sending his boy to the university. His +preparation for college Milton got under private masters and at the +famous public school of St. Paul's, which was near his home. This +preparation consisted chiefly in exercises in Latin composition and +literature, and was both thorough and effectual. At sixteen, when he went +to college, he had already composed Latin verse, and he read and wrote +Latin with facility. + +In 1625 Milton entered Christ's College, Cambridge. Here he remained as a +student seven years, or till 1632, taking in course his A.B. and A.M. +degrees, and, in spite of his studious habits and his aversion to the +rough and wayward customs of student life, winning more and more, and at +last having in full measure, the respect of his fellow-collegians. During +these years he wrote, but did not publish, in Latin or English, no less +than twenty-five pieces of verse, among them poems of no less note than +the Nativity Ode, and the Sonnet on arriving at the age of twenty-three. +The lines on Shakespeare were also composed in this period, and appeared +in print among the poems prefixed to the second Shakespeare folio in +1632. + +Returning, at the close of his university course, to the paternal +residence, the poet came, not to London, but to the village of Horton, in +Buckinghamshire, where his father had taken a house in order to live in +the country. Now had to be debated the question of a profession. Hitherto +the son had seemed silently to acquiesce in the understood hope of the +family that he would devote himself to a career in the church. But during +his university years of study and observation his views had become fixed, +his mind had advanced to self-determination, and he could not remain +content with a future that seemed to hamper his intellectual freedom. +This difference between father and son was settled, apparently without +strife, by the elder man's entire yielding to the desires of the younger. +The son could not, as we can well understand if we have read even only a +little of his verse or his prose, be otherwise than strenuous, insistent, +and masterful. To his father he was of course filial and respectful, we +may imagine him even gentle; but conciliatory, yielding, the point being +a vital one, it was not in his nature to be. + +What the young Milton desired was to lead a life devoted to literature, +or, more specifically, to poetry. This meant that he wished still to +study a long time, to fathom all learning in all tongues. In college he +had, besides Latin, mastered Greek, French, Italian, and Hebrew. His +conception of a poet was of a most profoundly learned man. He had become +aware of the existence of vast areas of knowledge that he had not yet +explored. Other young men turned aside without misgiving from the +ambition to know everything, and eagerly entered into useful and +lucrative professions. But Milton scorns the thought of applying learning +to the service of material gain. This is his poetical conception of his +duty as a scholar. It will dominate the spirit of his life work. To +understand his feelings at this time both toward his father and toward +his ideals, we must read the Latin poem _Ad Patrem_, of which Professor +Masson gives an English translation. + +At Horton, therefore, Milton remains, still subsisting on his father's +bounty. Having come back thither at the age of twenty-three, he continues +to live at home for nearly six years, not yet practising any art by which +to earn a livelihood. Occasionally he goes, on scholarly errands, to +London, which is not far distant. He devotes himself simply to study, and +having the poetic temperament, he cannot help devoting himself also to +observation of nature. His learning becomes immense; his appetite is +insatiable. + +To the Horton time belong the "minor poems" not already produced during +the student years at Cambridge. Of the circumstances in which the several +poems were written, an account is given in the Notes in this volume. This +early, or minor, verse of Milton is elicited by passing events, and is +considered to concern only himself and a few friends. For immediate fame +he takes no thought. He feels his immaturity. His ambition contemplates a +distant future, and he meditates plans, as yet undefined and vague, of +some great work that the world shall not willingly let die. + +Very important in Milton's intellectual development is his journey to +France and Italy, on which he set out in April, 1638. As an indication of +his social position in England, we must note that he carries with him +letters of introduction which secure to him notice and recognition from +men of rank or of notable literary and scientific standing. He goes +abroad as a cultivated private gentleman, known to have achieved +distinction as a student. Undoubtedly his chief qualification for holding +his own in learned Italian society was his command of languages, +especially of Latin, unless indeed we are to put before his linguistic +accomplishments the refined and gentlemanly personal bearing which was +his birthright, and which, in his years of intense application to books, +he had not forfeited. In Italy he associated with men whose intellectual +interests were the universal ones of science, in which he was as much at +home as they. Thus he possessed a perfect outfit of the endowments and +the acquisitions which a traveller needs to make his travel fruitful to +himself and honorable to his country. + +In Italy he made friends among men of note, and established relations +which were to have their importance in his future life. But most +memorable among his Italian experiences was his visit to the aged +Galileo, who was then a "prisoner to the Inquisition" for teaching that +the earth moves round the sun. The modern astronomy was then winning its +way among men of thought very much as the doctrine of evolution has been +winning its way during the last half century. Few minds surrendered +instantly and without misgiving to the new conception. Milton has still +many years to meditate the question before he comes to the composition of +Paradise Lost, when his scheme of the physical universe will have to +recognize the requirements of poetic art and the prevalence of ancient +beliefs regarding the origin and order of the cosmos. From the fact that +the poet puts the earth in the centre of the universe, that he adopts, in +fact, the Ptolemaic system, though he knew the Copernican, we are not +entitled to infer that he held a fixed conviction in the matter, and +that, on direct examination as to his views, he would have absolutely +professed one theory and rejected the other. The poet has all rights of +choice, and may be said to know best where to stand to take his view of +the world. + +Milton remained abroad some sixteen months, and was home again in August, +1639. The Horton household was now broken up, the father going to live, +first with his younger son, Christopher, at Reading, and afterward to +spend his last years in the family of John in London, where he died in +1647. + +With his removal to London in 1639 a distinct period in Milton's life +comes to an end. He has hitherto been uninterruptedly acquiring knowledge +both by studious devotion to books and by observation of human life in +foreign lands. He has read all the great literatures in ancient and +modern languages. He has felt the poetic impulse and has proved to +himself that he has at command creative power. His purpose still is to +produce a poem. But this poem of his aspirations is distinctly a great +and majestic affair, and not at all a continuation of such work as that +which he has hitherto given to his friends, and which he esteems as +prolusions of his youth. + +The poetic waiting-time which Milton, now in full vigor of manhood, +prescribes for himself, he is constrained, both by inner conviction and +by external necessity, to fill with hard and earnest work. Henceforth, +for a score of years, he ceases almost entirely to write verse, and he +earns his living. He becomes a householder in London, where, as the +father had gained his livelihood by drawing up contracts and mortgages +for his fellow-citizens, the son proceeds to gain his by teaching their +boys Latin. + +To the work of teaching, Milton addressed himself with intelligence and +predilection. About education he had ideas of his own which he applied in +practice and advocated in writing. His Tract on Education is a document +of importance in the history of pedagogy, and is, besides, one of those +memorable pieces of English prose which every student of literature, +whatever his professional aims, must include in his reading. He kept his +school in his own house, where he boarded some of his pupils. We could +not imagine John Milton going into a great public school, like St. +Paul's, to serve as under-teacher to one of the tyrannical head-masters +of the day. The only school befitting his absolutely convinced and +masterful spirit is one in which he reigns supreme. The great subject is +Latin, and so thoroughly is Latin taught that finally other subjects are +explained through the medium of this language. He had, himself, brought +from his school and college days very decided discontent with the methods +then in vogue. This discontent he expresses in language of peculiar +energy and even harshness. He is a true reformer. + +In 1643 Milton, then thirty-five years old, married Mary Powell, a girl +of just half his own age, daughter of a royalist residing near Oxford. We +must imagine this young wife as coming to preside, somewhat in the +capacity of matron, over a family of boys held severely to their tasks of +study by a master in whom the sense of humor was almost entirely lacking, +and whose discipline was of the sternest. That she could not endure the +situation was but natural. Very soon after the wedding she went home with +the understanding that she was to make a short visit to her parents and +sisters; but she did not return for two years. Her husband summoned her, +but she would not come back. In 1645 she at last repented of her +waywardness, sought reconciliation, and was forgiven. These two years had +wrought a change in Mary Powell Milton. She was now ready to live with +her husband, and did so till her death in 1652. She left him three +daughters, the youngest of whom, Deborah, lived till 1723, and was known +to Addison and his contemporaries, from whom she received distinguished +honors. + +In reading Milton we find that all the vicissitudes of his life reflect +themselves in his works, so that the political and social events in which +he is personally concerned usurp his attention, color his views, and +often become his themes. Thus he is not, like Shakespeare, a critic of +the whole of humanity, but is usually an advocate or an accuser of the +leaders in church and state and of the principles which they profess. He +is by nature a partisan. All the energy of his mind goes into +denunciation or vindication. His experience of wedded life made him an +advocate of easier divorce, and determined in him a mood which expressed +itself in writings that naturally brought upon him obloquy even from +those who held him most in honor. + +It would be most interesting to know something of the daily routine of +Milton's school, to ascertain what his pupils knew and could do when he +had done with them. But we must remember that during all the years of his +teaching the great Revolution was in progress, that all men of thought +were profoundly stirred on public questions, and that Milton himself was +a politician and an eager partisan of the cause of Parliament. He did not +consider himself a teacher finally and for good. His school did not +develop into anything great or conspicuous, and never became an object of +curiosity. While yet engaged in such teaching as he found to do, he had +written the pamphlets on education and on divorce, and also the famous +one entitled Areopagitica, a Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed +Printing to the Parliament of England. This is the best worth reading of +all his prose writings. The subject of it is perfectly intelligible +still, and its English shows to perfection the qualities of the great +Miltonic style. + +After the execution of Charles I., Jan. 30, 1649, it became more than +ever necessary for all thoughtful men to express their convictions. For a +people to put to death its king by judicial process was an unheard of +event. Those who considered that the Parliament had acted within the law +and could not have done otherwise with due regard to the welfare of the +nation had to convince doubting and timid citizens at home, and also, so +far as was possible, to placate critics in other nations who still +believed that the king could do no wrong; for all Europe interested +itself in this tremendous act of the English Parliament. + +Within a fortnight after the death of the king, Milton published his +pamphlet on The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates. This work so impressed +the parliamentary leaders as a thorough and unanswerable argument in +defence of their cause that they sought out its author, and in March +appointed him to the important post of Secretary for Foreign Tongues. +Milton's perfect command of Latin now stood him in good stead. Here was +an uncompromising puritan, fully the equal of the foreign ecclesiastics +in theology, and capable of holding his own in Latin composition with the +most famous humanists of the time. Latin was then the language of +international intercourse. Milton's duty was to translate into and from +Latin the despatches that passed between his own and foreign governments. +He also composed original treatises, some in English and some in Latin, +the most important of which continued his justification of the national +act of regicide. The importance of these writings was very great. +Milton's services to the puritan cause can to-day hardly be appreciated. +It was the constant aim of royalists at home and abroad to represent +England as having fallen under the control of ignorant fanatics, of +ambitious, barbarous, blood-thirsty men. By his very personality, his +knowledge of affairs, his familiarity with ancient and mediaeval history, +and, above all, by his fluency in Latin invective, Milton thwarted +attempts to disparage his countrymen as lawless barbarians. He helped to +maintain the good name of his country as a land of intellectual light and +of respect for ancient usage. Foreigners who attempted personal +vilification found him ready to meet them with their own weapons. The +poet of Comus now shows himself a controversialist of unbounded energy. + +In 1652, shortly before the death of his wife, Milton became totally +blind. Henceforward the duties of his secretaryship had to be performed +with the aid of an amanuensis. He continued, however, to fill the office +till just before the end of the Protectorate in 1659. In November, 1656, +he married Katharine Woodcocke, who lived but till March, 1658. She left +an infant which died a month after the mother. + +Milton's duties as Secretary for Foreign Tongues must have brought him, +one would think, into some sort of personal relation with Cromwell and +the other great parliamentary leaders. The poet leaves us in no doubt as +to the high esteem in which he held these men. But no gossip of the time +admits us to a glimpse of their intercourse with each other. It falls to +Milton to eulogize Cromwell; it never came in Cromwell's way to put on +record his estimate of Milton. + +With the restoration of royalty in the person of Charles II., in 1660, +Milton's public activity of course ceased, and the second period of his +life comes to an end. We saw his first period devoted to preparation and +to early essays in poetry, with the distinct conception that poetry was +yet to be the great work of his life. In his second period he expresses +himself in verse but rarely and briefly, but produces controversial +prose, now in English, now in Latin. In this second period he works, as +teacher or as public secretary, for payment, supporting himself and +family. When the third period begins, he loses all employment, goes into +closest retirement, a widower with three daughters growing up from +childhood, and devotes himself to the poetry that he has always +contemplated as the object of his ambition. He has now been blind eight +years. + +In view of the conspicuous part that Milton had taken in defending the +right of Parliament to bring a king to the scaffold, it is surprising +that of the Restoration he was not included in the number of those marked +out for the punishment of death. He was for some time undoubtedly in +danger. Fortunately he was overlooked, or, perhaps, was purposely +neglected as being henceforce harmless. + +In February, 1663, he married his third wife Elizabeth Minshull, who +faithfully cared for him till his death in 1674. + +During this last period of his life Milton composed and published his +_major_ poems,--Paradise Lost, 1667, Paradise Regained, and Samson +Agonistes, 1671. For Paradise Lost he received from his publisher five +pounds in cash, with promise of five pounds when thirteen hundred copies +should have been sold, and of two more payments, each of the same sum, +when two more editions of the same size should have been disposed of. + +The last years of his life Milton appears to have spent in comparative +comfort. His three daughters had gone out to learn trades. It seems he +had given them no education. It may be they showed no desire or aptitude +for instruction. Far more probably, however, he took no interest in their +education. His ideal of womanhood, as may be gathered from numerous +passages in his poems, is as far as possible removed from the modern +conception of sexual equality as to opportunity for education and for +training to self-determination. He shared in this respect the views that +prevailed during his day in all classes of society, and he maintained +these views as a parent no less than as the poet of Paradise. + +Besides the poems named above as produced during this last period of his +life, Milton published also in these years several prose works, which +have now little value except as showing the bent and occupation of his +mind. Among these may be named a small Latin Grammar, written in English, +which he had composed long before, and a History of Britain to the Norman +Conquest. + +Though the immediate sale of Paradise Lost was not large, according to +our ideas, it was yet sufficient to indicate a very respectable interest +in the reading public of the day. We must remember that it appeared in +the corrupt time of the Restoration, when the prevailing literary fashion +was wholly adverse to seriousness and ideality. The age was spiritually +degenerate. Milton himself considered that he lived "an age too late." +The great poem had no royal or noble sponsors to give it vogue; yet it +made its way. By no means had all minds become frivolous. The minor poems +had been published by themselves in 1645. These had always had their +readers. The prose pamphlets of the secretary for foreign tongues were, +at least by a small class of observant persons, known to be the work of +the author of Comus and Lycidas. There were not wanting men to take a +sympathetic interest in the fate of the poet in his retirement, and to +note the appearance of Paradise Lost as a literary event. + +Thus it was that Milton lived to have some slight foretaste of the honor +which two centuries have bestowed on his memory. Visitors came to see him +in his modest dwelling in an unfashionable quarter of London. Foreigners +occasionally came to satisfy their curiosity. Dryden, the chief poet who +wrote in the spirit of the Restoration, called to talk with the author of +Paradise Lost, and to suggest improvements in the form of the poem, which +he thought should be in rhyme. The recognition which the poet thus got in +his lifetime is small only in comparison with the immense fame he has won +since his death. + +Milton has now become an object of the profoundest curiosity. His life +has been investigated by Professor Masson, with a minute scrutiny into +detail such as has been devoted to no other writer but Shakespeare. His +works are perpetually reprinted in all imaginable forms, whether of +cheapness or of sumptuous elegance. They are read as text-books in +schools by hosts of youth. Our beliefs regarding the great themes of the +sacred scriptures are so colored by the Miltonic epics that we hardly +know to-day just what part of our conceptions we owe to the Bible and +what to the poet. Next to the Shakespearean dramas, the poems of Milton +are the largest single influence that knits the English-speaking race +into one vast brotherhood. + +All students of Milton have to acknowledge their indebtedness to +Professor David Masson of Edinburgh, who has devoted years of labor to +research in every department of Miltonic lore. Masson's great Life of +Milton in Connexion with the History of his Time is far too bulky for use +except for reference on special points. The index volume makes the +enormous Work accessible as occasion requires. + +To his edition of the poetical works, Masson prefixes a life, which will +suffice for all the needs likely to arise in school. Yet again, Masson is +the writer of the article on Milton in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, a +most complete presentment of everything a student ordinarily needs to +know. + +In the series of Classical Writers is a little book, or primer, on +Milton, written by Stopford A. Brooke. + +In the English Men of Letters series, the Milton is the work of Mark +Pattison. + +The latest good account of Milton is the book entitled simply John +Milton, by Walter Raleigh, professor at University College, Liverpool. +This is a remarkably vigorous and illuminating piece of criticism. + +Perhaps the most interesting writing on a Milton subject is the book by +Mrs. Anne Manning, The Maiden and Married Life of Mary Powell (afterward +Mrs. Milton), and the sequel thereto, Deborah's Diary. This the student +must read with the full understanding that it is a work of fiction. + +It is right to warn young readers against the natural tendency to give +their time to critical and expository books and articles before they make +acquaintance with originals. Almost every essayist of note has written on +Milton. There is danger lest we accept opinions at second hand. The only +opinions on Milton to which we have any right are those we form from our +own reading of his works. + + + + + MILTON'S MINOR POEMS. + + + + + ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY. + + + [Composed 1629.] + + + I. + + This is the month, and this the happy morn, + Wherein the Son of Heaven's eternal King, + Of wedded maid and virgin mother born, + Our great redemption from above did bring; + For so the holy sages once did sing, 5 + That he our deadly forfeit should release, + And with his Father work us a perpetual peace. + + + II. + + That glorious form, that light unsufferable, + And that far-beaming blaze of majesty, + Wherewith he wont at Heaven's high council-table 10 + To sit the midst of Trinal Unity, + He laid aside, and, here with us to be, + Forsook the courts of everlasting day, + And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay. + + + III. + + Say, Heavenly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein 15 + Afford a present to the Infant God? + Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain, + To welcome him to this his new abode, + Now while the heaven, by the Sun's team untrod, + Hath took no print of the approaching light, 20 + And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright? + + + IV. + + See how from far upon the eastern road + The star-led wizards haste with odors sweet! + Oh! run; prevent them with thy humble ode, + And lay it lowly at his blessed feet; 25 + Have thou the honor first thy Lord to greet, + And join thy voice unto the Angel Quire, + From out his secret altar touched with hallowed fire. + + + The Hymn. + + + I. + + It was the winter wild, + While the heaven-born child 30 + All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies; + Nature, in awe to him, + Had doffed her gaudy trim, + With her great Master so to sympathize: + It was no season then for her 35 + To wanton with the Sun, her lusty paramour. + + + II. + + Only with speeches fair + She woos the gentle air + To hide her guilty front with innocent snow, + And on her naked shame, 40 + Pollute with sinful blame, + The saintly veil of maiden white to throw; + Confounded, that her Maker's eyes + Should look so near upon her foul deformities. + + + III. + + But he, her fears to cease, 45 + Sent down the meek-eyed Peace: + She, crowned with olive green, came softly sliding + Down through the turning sphere, + His ready harbinger, + With turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing; 50 + And, waving wide her myrtle wand, + She strikes a universal peace through sea and land. + + + IV. + + No war, or battle's sound, + Was heard the world around; + The idle spear and shield were high uphung; 55 + The hooked chariot stood, + Unstained with hostile blood; + The trumpet spake not to the armed throng; + And kings sat still with awful eye, + As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by. 60 + + + V. + + But peaceful was the night + Wherein the Prince of Light + His reign of peace upon the earth began. + The winds, with wonder whist, + Smoothly the waters kissed, 65 + Whispering new joys to the mild Ocean, + Who now hath quite forgot to rave, + While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave. + + + VI. + + The stars, with deep amaze, + Stand fixed in steadfast gaze, 70 + Bending one way their precious influence, + And will not take their flight, + For all the morning light, + Or Lucifer that often warned them thence; + But in their glimmering orbs did glow, 75 + Until their Lord himself bespake, and bid them go. + + + VII. + + And, though the shady gloom + Had given day her room, + The Sun himself withheld his wonted speed, + And hid his head for shame, 80 + As his inferior flame + The new-enlightened world no more should need: + He saw a greater Sun appear + Than his bright throne or burning axletree could bear. + + + VIII. + + The shepherds on the lawn, 85 + Or ere the point of dawn, + Sat simply chatting in a rustic row; + Full little thought they than + That the mighty Pan + Was kindly come to live with them below: 90 + Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep, + Was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep. + + + IX. + + When such music sweet + Their hearts and ears did greet + As never was by mortal finger strook, 95 + Divinely-warbled voice + Answering the stringed noise, + As all their souls in blissful rapture took: + The air, such pleasure loth to lose, 99 + With thousand echoes still prolongs each heavenly close. + + + X. + + Nature, that heard such sound + Beneath the hollow round + Of Cynthia's seat the Airy region thrilling, + Now was almost won + To think her part was done, 105 + And that her reign had here its last fulfilling: + She knew such harmony alone + Could hold all Heaven and Earth in happier union. + + + XI. + + At last surrounds their sight + A globe of circular light, 110 + That with long beams the shamefaced Night arrayed; + The helmed cherubim + And sworded seraphim + Are seen in glittering ranks with wings displayed, + Harping in loud and solemn quire, 115 + With unexpressive notes, to Heaven's new-born Heir. + + + XII. + + Such music (as 'tis said) + Before was never made, + But when of old the Sons of Morning sung, + While the Creator great 120 + His constellations set, + And the well-balanced World on hinges hung, + And cast the dark foundations deep, + And bid the weltering waves their oozy channel keep. + + + XIII. + + Ring out, ye crystal spheres! 125 + Once bless our human ears, + If ye have power to touch our senses so; + And let your silver chime + Move in melodious time; + And let the bass of heaven's deep organ blow; 130 + And with your ninefold harmony + Make up full consort to the angelic symphony. + + + XIV. + + For, if such holy song + Enwrap our fancy long, + Time will run back and fetch the Age of Gold; 135 + And speckled Vanity + Will sicken soon and die, + And leprous Sin will melt from earthly mould; + And Hell itself will pass away, + And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day. 140 + + + XV. + + Yea, Truth and Justice then + Will down return to men, + Orbed in a rainbow; and, like glories wearing, + Mercy will sit between, + Throned in celestial sheen, 145 + With radiant feet the tissued clouds down steering; + And Heaven, as at some festival, + Will open wide the gates of her high palace-hall. + + + XVI. + + But wisest Fate says No, + This must not yet be so; 150 + The Babe yet lies in smiling infancy + That on the bitter cross + Must redeem our loss, + So both himself and us to glorify: + Yet first, to those ychained in sleep, 155 + The wakeful trump of doom must thunder through the deep. + + + XVII. + + With such a horrid clang + As on Mount Sinai rang, + While the red fire and smouldering clouds outbrake: + The aged Earth, aghast 160 + With terror of that blast, + Shall from the surface to the centre shake, + When, at the world's last session, + The dreadful Judge in middle air shall spread his throne. + + + XVIII. + + And then at last our bliss 165 + Full and perfect is, + But now begins; for from this happy day + The Old Dragon under ground, + In straiter limits bound, + Not half so far casts his usurped sway, 170 + And, wroth to see his kingdom fail, + Swinges the scaly horror of his folded tail. + + + XIX. + + The Oracles are dumb; + No voice or hideous hum + Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving. 175 + Apollo from his shrine + Can no more divine, + With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. + No nightly trance, or breathed spell, + Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell. 180 + + + XX. + + The lonely mountains o'er, + And the resounding shore, + A voice of weeping heard and loud lament; + From haunted spring, and dale + Edged with poplar pale, 185 + The parting Genius is with sighing sent; + With flower-inwoven tresses torn + The Nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn. + + + XXI. + + In consecrated earth, + And on the holy hearth, 190 + The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint; + In urns, and altars round, + A drear and dying sound + Affrights the flamens at their service quaint; + And the chill marble seems to sweat, 195 + While each peculiar power forgoes his wonted seat. + + + XXII. + + Peor and Baaelim + Forsake their temples dim, + With that twice-battered god of Palestine; + And mooned Ashtaroth, 200 + Heaven's queen and mother both, + Now sits not girt with tapers' holy shine: + The Lybic Hammon shrinks his horn; + In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thammuz mourn. + + + XXIII. + + And sullen Moloch, fled, 205 + Hath left in shadows dread + His burning idol all of blackest hue; + In vain with cymbals' ring + They call the grisly king, + In dismal dance about the furnace blue; 210 + The brutish gods of Nile as fast, + Isis, and Orus, and the dog Anubis, haste. + + + XXIV. + + Nor is Osiris seen + In Memphian grove or green, 214 + Trampling the unshowered grass with lowings loud; 215 + Nor can he be at rest + Within his sacred chest; + Nought but profoundest Hell can be his shroud; + In vain, with timbrelled anthems dark, + The sable-stoled sorcerers bear his worshipped ark. 220 + + + XXV. + + He feels from Juda's land + The dreaded Infant's hand; + The rays of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyn; + Nor all the gods beside + Longer dare abide, 225 + Not Typhon huge ending in snaky twine: + Our Babe, to show his Godhead true, + Can in his swaddling bands control the damned crew. + + + XXVI. + + So, when the sun in bed, + Curtained with cloudy red, 230 + Pillows his chin upon an orient wave, + The flocking shadows pale + Troop to the infernal jail, + Each fettered ghost slips to his several grave, + And the yellow-skirted fays 235 + Fly after the night-steeds, leaving their moon-loved maze. + + + XXVII. + + But see! the Virgin blest + Hath laid her Babe to rest. + Time is our tedious song should here have ending: + Heaven's youngest-teemed star 240 + Hath fixed her polished car, + Her sleeping Lord with handmaid lamp attending; + And all about the courtly stable + Bright-harnessed Angels sit in order serviceable. + + + + + ON SHAKESPEARE. 1630. + + + What needs my Shakespeare for his honored bones + The labor of an age in piled stones? + Or that his hallowed reliques should be hid + Under a star-ypointing pyramid? + Dear son of memory, great heir of fame, 5 + What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name? + Thou in our wonder and astonishment + Hast built thyself a livelong monument. + For whilst, to the shame of slow-endeavoring art + Thy easy numbers flow, and that each heart 10 + Hath from the leaves of thy unvalued book + Those Delphic lines with deep impression took, + Then thou, our fancy of itself bereaving, + Dost make _us_ marble with too much conceiving, + And so sepulchred in such pomp dost lie 15 + That kings for such a tomb would wish to die. + + + + + L'ALLEGRO. + + + Hence, loathed Melancholy, + Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born + In Stygian cave forlorn + 'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy! + Find out some uncouth cell, 5 + Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings, + And the night-raven sings; + There, under ebon shades and low-browed rocks, + As ragged as thy locks, + In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell. 10 + But come, thou Goddess fair and free, + In heaven yclept Euphrosyne, + And by men heart-easing Mirth; + Whom lovely Venus, at a birth, + With two sister Graces more, 15 + To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore: + Or whether (as some sager sing) + The frolic wind that breathes the spring, + Zephyr, with Aurora playing, + As he met her once a-Maying, 20 + There, on beds of violets blue, + And fresh-blown roses washed in dew, + Filled her with thee, a daughter fair, + So buxom, blithe, and debonair. + Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee 25 + Jest, and youthful Jollity, + Quips and Cranks and wanton Wiles, + Nods and Becks and wreathed Smiles, + Such as hang on Hebe's cheek, + And love to live in dimple sleek; 30 + Sport that wrinkled Care derides, + And Laughter holding both his sides. + Come, and trip it, as you go, + On the light fantastic toe; + And in thy right hand lead with thee 35 + The mountain-nymph, sweet Liberty; + And, if I give thee honor due, + Mirth, admit me of thy crew, + To live with her, and live with thee, + In unreproved pleasures free; 40 + To hear the lark begin his flight, + And, singing, startle the dull night, + From his watch-tower in the skies, + Till the dappled dawn doth rise; + Then to come, in spite of sorrow, 45 + And at my window bid good-morrow, + Through the sweet-briar or the vine, + Or the twisted eglantine; + While the cock, with lively din, + Scatters the rear of darkness thin; 50 + And to the stack, or the barn-door, + Stoutly struts his dames before: + Oft listening how the hounds and horn + Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn, + From the side of some hoar hill, 55 + Through the high wood echoing shrill: + Sometime walking, not unseen, + By hedgerow elms, on hillocks green, + Right against the eastern gate + Where the great Sun begins his state, 60 + Robed in flames and amber light, + The clouds in thousand liveries dight; + While the ploughman, near at hand, + Whistles o'er the furrowed land, + And the milkmaid singeth blithe, 65 + And the mower whets his scythe, + And every shepherd tells his tale + Under the hawthorn in the dale. + Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures, + Whilst the landskip round it measures: 70 + Russet lawns, and fallows gray, + Where the nibbling flocks do stray; + Mountains on whose barren breast + The laboring clouds do often rest; + Meadows trim, with daisies pied; 75 + Shallow brooks, and rivers wide; + Towers and battlements it sees + Bosomed high in tufted trees, + Where perhaps some beauty lies, + The cynosure of neighboring eyes. 80 + Hard by a cottage chimney smokes + From betwixt two aged oaks, + Where Corydon and Thyrsis met + Are at their savory dinner set + Of herbs and other country messes, 85 + Which the neat-handed Phyllis dresses; + And then in haste her bower she leaves, + With Thestylis to bind the sheaves; + Or, if the earlier season lead, + To the tanned haycock in the mead. 90 + Sometimes, with secure delight, + The upland hamlets will invite, + When the merry bells ring round, + And the jocund rebecks sound + To many a youth and many a maid 95 + Dancing in the chequered shade, + And young and old come forth to play + On a sunshine holiday, + Till the livelong daylight fail: + Then to the spicy nut-brown ale, 100 + With stories told of many a feat, + How Faery Mab the junkets eat. + She was pinched and pulled, she said; + And he, by Friar's lantern led, + Tells how the drudging goblin sweat 105 + To earn his cream-bowl duly set, + When in one night, ere glimpse of morn, + His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn + That ten day-laborers could not end; + Then lies him down, the lubber fiend, 110 + And, stretched out all the chimney's length, + Basks at the fire his hairy strength, + And crop-full out of doors he flings, + Ere the first cock his matin rings. + Thus done the tales, to bed they creep, 115 + By whispering winds soon lulled asleep. + Towered cities please us then, + And the busy hum of men, + Where throngs of knights and barons bold, + In weeds of peace, high triumphs hold, 120 + With store of ladies, whose bright eyes + Rain influence, and judge the prize + Of wit or arms, while both contend + To win her grace whom all commend. + There let Hymen oft appear 125 + In saffron robe, with taper clear, + And pomp, and feast, and revelry, + With mask and antique pageantry; + Such sights as youthful poets dream, + On summer eves by haunted stream. 130 + Then to the well-trod stage anon, + If Jonson's learned sock be on, + Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, + Warble his native wood-notes wild, + And ever, against eating cares, 135 + Lap me in soft Lydian airs, + Married to immortal verse, + Such as the meeting soul may pierce, + In notes with many a winding bout + Of linked sweetness long drawn out 140 + With wanton heed and giddy cunning, + The melting voice through mazes running, + Untwisting all the chains that tie + The hidden soul of harmony; + That Orpheus' self may heave his head 145 + From golden slumber on a bed + Of heaped Elysian flowers, and hear + Such strains as would have won the ear + Of Pluto to have quite set free + His half-regained Eurydice. 150 + These delights if thou canst give, + Mirth, with thee I mean to live. + + + + + IL PENSEROSO. + + + Hence, vain deluding Joys, + The brood of Folly without father bred! + How little you bested, + Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys! + Dwell in some idle brain, 5 + And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess, + As thick and numberless + As the gay motes that people the sun-beams, + Or likest hovering dreams, + The fickle pensioners of Morpheus' train. 10 + But, hail! thou Goddess sage and holy! + Hail, divinest Melancholy! + Whose saintly visage is too bright + To hit the sense of human sight, + And therefore to our weaker view, 15 + O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue; + Black, but such as in esteem + Prince Memnon's sister might beseem, + Or that starred Ethiop queen that strove + To set her beauty's praise above 20 + The Sea-Nymphs, and their powers offended. + Yet thou art higher far descended: + Thee bright-haired Vesta long of yore + To solitary Saturn bore; + His daughter she; in Saturn's reign 25 + Such mixture was not held a stain. + Oft in glimmering bowers and glades + He met her, and in secret shades + Of woody Ida's inmost grove, + Whilst yet there was no fear of Jove. 30 + Come, pensive Nun, devout and pure, + Sober, steadfast, and demure, + All in a robe of darkest grain, + Flowing with majestic train, + And sable stole of cypress lawn 35 + Over thy decent shoulders drawn. + Come; but keep thy wonted state, + With even step, and musing gait, + And looks commercing with the skies + Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes: 40 + There, held in holy passion still, + Forget thyself to marble, till + With a sad leaden downward cast + Thou fix them on the earth as fast. + And join with thee calm Peace and Quiet, 45 + Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet, + And hears the Muses in a ring + Aye round about Jove's altar sing; + And add to these retired Leisure, + That in trim gardens takes his pleasure; 50 + But, first and chiefest, with thee bring + Him that yon soars on golden wing, + Guiding the fiery-wheeled throne, + The Cherub Contemplation; + And the mute Silence hist along, 55 + 'Less Philomel will deign a song, + In her sweetest, saddest plight, + Smoothing the rugged brow of Night, + While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke + Gently o'er the accustomed oak. 60 + Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly, + Most musical, most melancholy! + Thee, chauntress, oft the woods among + I woo, to hear thy even-song; + And, missing thee, I walk unseen 65 + On the dry smooth-shaven green, + To behold the wandering moon, + Riding near her highest noon, + Like one that had been led astray + Through the heaven's wide pathless way, 70 + And oft, as if her head she bowed, + Stooping through a fleecy cloud. + Oft, on a plat of rising ground, + I hear the far-off curfew sound, + Over some wide-watered shore, 75 + Swinging slow with sullen roar; + Or, if the air will not permit, + Some still removed place will fit, + Where glowing embers through the room + Teach light to counterfeit a gloom, 80 + Far from all resort of mirth, + Save the cricket on the hearth, + Or the bellman's drowsy charm + To bless the doors from nightly harm. + Or let my lamp, at midnight hour, 85 + Be seen in some high lonely tower, + Where I may oft outwatch the Bear, + With thrice great Hermes, or unsphere + The spirit of Plato, to unfold + What worlds or what vast regions hold 90 + The immortal mind that hath forsook + Her mansion in this fleshly nook; + And of those demons that are found + In fire, air, flood, or underground, + Whose power hath a true consent 95 + With planet or with element. + Sometime let gorgeous Tragedy + In sceptred pall come sweeping by, + Presenting Thebes, or Pelops' line, + Or the tale of Troy divine, 100 + Or what (though rare) of later age + Ennobled hath the buskined stage. + But, O sad Virgin! that thy power + Might raise Musaeus from his bower; + Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing 105 + Such notes as, warbled to the string, + Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek, + And made Hell grant what love did seek; + Or call up him that left half-told + The story of Cambuscan bold, 110 + Of Camball, and of Algarsife, + And who had Canace to wife, + That owned the virtuous ring and glass, + And of the wondrous horse of brass + On which the Tartar king did ride; 115 + And if aught else great bards beside + In sage and solemn tunes have sung, + Of turneys, and of trophies hung, + Of forests, and enchantments drear, + Where more is meant than meets the ear. 120 + Thus, Night, oft see me in thy pale career, + Till civil-suited Morn appear, + Not tricked and frounced, as she was wont + With the Attic boy to hunt, + But kerchieft in a comely cloud, 125 + While rocking winds are piping loud + Or ushered with a shower still, + When the gust hath blown his fill, + Ending on the rustling leaves, + With minute-drops from off the eaves. 130 + And, when the sun begins to fling + His flaring beams, me, Goddess, bring + To arched walks of twilight groves, + And shadows brown, that Sylvan loves, + Of pine, or monumental oak, 135 + Where the rude axe with heaved stroke + Was never heard the nymphs to daunt, + Or fright them from their hallowed haunt. + There, in close covert, by some brook, + Where no profaner eye may look, 140 + Hide me from day's garish eye, + While the bee with honeyed thigh, + That at her flowery work doth sing, + And the waters murmuring, + With such consort as they keep, 145 + Entice the dewy-feathered Sleep. + And let some strange mysterious dream + Wave at his wings, in airy stream + Of lively portraiture displayed, + Softly on my eyelids laid; 150 + And, as I wake, sweet music breathe + Above, about, or underneath, + Sent by some Spirit to mortals good, + Or the unseen Genius of the wood. + But let my due feet never fail 155 + To walk the studious cloister's pale, + And love the high embowed roof, + With antique pillars massy-proof, + And storied windows richly dight, + Casting a dim religious light. 160 + There let the pealing organ blow, + To the full-voiced quire below, + In service high and anthems clear, + As may with sweetness, through mine ear, + Dissolve me into ecstasies, 165 + And bring all Heaven before mine eyes. + And may at last my weary age + Find out the peaceful hermitage, + The hairy gown and mossy cell, + Where I may sit and rightly spell 170 + Of every star that heaven doth shew, + And every herb that sips the dew, + Till old experience do attain + To something like prophetic strain. + These pleasures, Melancholy, give; 175 + And I with thee will choose to live. + + + + + ARCADES. + + +_Part of an Entertainment presented to the Countess Dowager of Derby at +Harefield by some Noble Persons of her Family; who appear on the Scene in +pastoral habit, moving toward the seat of state, with this song:--_ + + + I. _Song._ + + Look, Nymphs and Shepherds, look! + What sudden blaze of majesty + Is that which we from hence descry, + Too divine to be mistook? + This, this is she 5 + To whom our vows and wishes bend: + Here our solemn search hath end. + Fame, that her high worth to raise + Seemed erst so lavish and profuse, + We may justly now accuse 10 + Of detraction from her praise: + Less than half we find expressed; + Envy bid conceal the rest. + + Mark what radiant state she spreads, + In circle round her shining throne 15 + Shooting her beams like silver threads: + This, this is she alone, + Sitting like a goddess bright + In the centre of her light. + + Might she the wise Latona be, 20 + Or the towered Cybele, + Mother of a hundred gods? + Juno dares not give her odds: + Who had thought this clime had held + A deity so unparalleled? 25 + + As they come forward, the Genius of the Wood appears, + and, turning toward them, speaks. + + _Gen._ Stay, gentle Swains, for, though in this disguise, + I see bright honor sparkle through your eyes; + Of famous Arcady ye are, and sprung + Of that renowned flood, so often sung, + Divine Alpheus, who, by secret sluice, 30 + Stole under seas to meet his Arethuse; + And ye, the breathing roses of the wood, + Fair silver-buskined Nymphs, as great and good. + I know this quest of yours and free intent + Was all in honor and devotion meant 35 + To the great mistress of yon princely shrine, + Whom with low reverence I adore as mine, + And with all helpful service will comply + To further this night's glad solemnity, + And lead ye where ye may more near behold 40 + What shallow-searching Fame hath left untold; + Which I full oft, amidst those shades alone, + Have sat to wonder at, and gaze upon. + For know, by lot from Jove, I am the Power + Of this fair wood, and live in oaken bower, 45 + To nurse the saplings tall, and curl the grove + With ringlets quaint and wanton windings wove; + And all my plants I save from nightly ill + Of noisome winds and blasting vapors chill; + And from the boughs brush off the evil dew, 50 + And heal the harms of thwarting thunder blue, + Or what the cross dire-looking planet smites, + Or hurtful worm with cankered venom bites. + When evening gray doth rise, I fetch my round + Over the mount, and all this hallowed ground; 55 + And early, ere the odorous breath of morn + Awakes the slumbering leaves, or tasselled horn + Shakes the high thicket, haste I all about, + Number my ranks, and visit every sprout + With puissant words and murmurs made to bless. 60 + But else, in deep of night, when drowsiness + Hath locked up mortal sense, then listen I + To the celestial Sirens' harmony, + That sit upon the nine infolded spheres, + And sing to those that hold the vital shears, 65 + And turn the adamantine spindle round + On which the fate of gods and men is wound. + Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie, + To lull the daughters of Necessity, + And keep unsteady Nature to her law, 70 + And the low world in measured motion draw + After the heavenly tune, which none can hear + Of human mould with gross unpurged ear. + And yet such music worthiest were to blaze + The peerless height of her immortal praise 75 + Whose lustre leads us, and for her most fit, + If my inferior hand or voice could hit + Inimitable sounds. Yet, as we go, + Whate'er the skill of lesser gods can show + I will assay, her worth to celebrate, 80 + And so attend ye toward her glittering state; + Where ye may all, that are of noble stem, + Approach, and kiss her sacred vesture's hem. + + + II. _Song._ + + O'er the smooth enamelled green, + Where no print of step hath been, 85 + Follow me, as I sing + And touch the warbled string: + Under the shady roof + Of branching elm star-proof + Follow me. 90 + I will bring you where she sits, + Clad in splendor as befits + Her deity. + Such a rural Queen + All Arcadia hath not seen. 95 + + + III. _Song._ + + Nymphs and Shepherds, dance no more + By sandy Ladon's lilied banks; + On old Lycaeus, or Cyllene hoar, + Trip no more in twilight ranks; + Though Erymanth your loss deplore, 100 + A better soil shall give ye thanks. + From the stony Maenalus + Bring your flocks, and live with us; + Here ye shall have greater grace, + To serve the Lady of this place. 105 + Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were, + Yet Syrinx well might wait on her. + Such a rural Queen + All Arcadia hath not seen. + + + + + AT A SOLEMN MUSIC. + + + Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heaven's joy, + Sphere-born harmonious sisters, Voice and Verse, + Wed your divine sounds, and mixed power employ, + Dead things with inbreathed sense able to pierce; + And to our high-raised phantasy present 5 + That undisturbed song of pure concent, + Aye sung before the sapphire-colored throne + To Him that sits thereon, + With saintly shout and solemn jubilee; + Where the bright Seraphim in burning row 10 + Their loud uplifted angel-trumpets blow, + And the Cherubic host in thousand quires + Touch their immortal harps of golden wires, + With those just Spirits that wear victorious palms, + Hymns devout and holy psalms 15 + Singing everlastingly: + That we on Earth, with undiscording voice, + May rightly answer that melodious noise; + As once we did, till disproportioned sin + Jarred against nature's chime, and with harsh din 20 + Broke the fair music that all creatures made + To their great Lord, whose love their motion swayed + In perfect diapason, whilst they stood + In first obedience, and their state of good. + O, may we soon again renew that song, 25 + And keep in tune with Heaven, till God ere long + To his celestial consort us unite, + To live with Him, and sing in endless morn of light! + + + + + COMUS. + + + A MASQUE PRESENTED AT LUDLOW CASTLE, 1634. + + + THE PERSONS. + + + The Attendant Spirit, afterwards in the habit of Thyrsis. + Comus, with his Crew. + The Lady. + First Brother. + Second Brother. + Sabrina, the Nymph. + + + The first Scene discovers a wild wood. + + The Attendant Spirit descends or enters. + + _Spirit._ Before the starry threshold of Jove's court + My mansion is, where those immortal shapes + Of bright aerial spirits live insphered + In regions mild of calm and serene air, + Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot 5 + Which men call Earth, and, with low-thoughted care, + Confined and pestered in this pinfold here, + Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being, + Unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives, + After this mortal change, to her true servants 10 + Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats. + Yet some there be that by due steps aspire + To lay their just hands on that golden key + That opes the palace of eternity. + To such my errand is; and, but for such, 15 + I would not soil these pure ambrosial weeds + With the rank vapors of this sin-worn mould. + But to my task. Neptune, besides the sway + Of every salt flood and each ebbing stream + Took in, by lot 'twixt high and nether Jove. 20 + Imperial rule of all the sea-girt isles + That, like to rich and various gems, inlay + The unadorned bosom of the deep; + Which he, to grace his tributary gods, + By course commits to several government, 25 + And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns + And wield their little tridents. But this Isle, + The greatest and the best of all the main, + He quarters to his blue-haired deities; + And all this tract that fronts the falling sun 30 + A noble Peer of mickle trust and power + Has in his charge, with tempered awe to guide + An old and haughty nation, proud in arms: + Where his fair offspring, nursed in princely lore, + Are coming to attend their father's state, 35 + And new-intrusted sceptre. But their way + Lies through the perplexed paths of this drear wood, + The nodding horror of those shady brows + Threats the forlorn and wandering passenger; + And here their tender age might suffer peril, 40 + But that, by quick command from sovran Jove, + I was despatched for their defence and guard! + And listen why; for I will tell you now + What never yet was heard in tale or song, + From old or modern bard, in hall or bower. 45 + Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape + Crushed the sweet poison of misused wine, + After the Tuscan mariners transformed, + Coasting the Tyrrhene shore, as the winds listed, + On Circe's island fell. (Who knows not Circe, 50 + The daughter of the Sun, whose charmed cup + Whoever tasted lost his upright shape, + And downward fell into a grovelling swine?) + This Nymph, that gazed upon his clustering locks, + With ivy berries wreathed, and his blithe youth, 55 + Had by him, ere he parted thence, a son + Much like his father, but his mother more, + Whom therefore she brought up, and Comus named: + Who, ripe and frolic of his full-grown age, + Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields, 60 + At last betakes him to this ominous wood, + And, in thick shelter of black shades imbowered, + Excels his mother at her mighty art; + Offering to every weary traveller + His orient liquor in a crystal glass, 65 + To quench the drouth of Phoebus; which as they taste + (For most do taste through fond intemperate thirst), + Soon as the potion works, their human count'nance, + The express resemblance of the gods, is changed + Into some brutish form of wolf or bear, 70 + Or ounce or tiger, hog, or bearded goat, + All other parts remaining as they were. + And they, so perfect in their misery, + Not once perceive their foul disfigurement, + But boast themselves more comely than before, 75 + And all their friends and native home forget, + To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty. + Therefore, when any favored of high Jove + Chances to pass through this adventurous glade, + Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star 80 + I shoot from heaven, to give him safe convoy, + As now I do. But first I must put off + These my sky-robes, spun out of Iris' woof, + And take the weeds and likeness of a swain + That to the service of this house belongs, 85 + Who, with his soft pipe and smooth-dittied song, + Well knows to still the wild winds when they roar, + And hush the waving woods; nor of less faith, + And in this office of his mountain watch + Likeliest, and nearest to the present aid 90 + Of this occasion. But I hear the tread + Of hateful steps; I must be viewless now. + +Comus enters, with a charming-rod in one hand, his glass in the other; +with him a rout of monsters, headed like sundry sorts of wild beasts, but +otherwise like men and women, their apparel glistering. They come in +making a riotous and unruly noise, with torches in their hands. + + _Comus._ The star that bids the shepherd fold + Now the top of heaven doth hold; + And the gilded car of day 95 + His glowing axle doth allay + In the steep Atlantic stream: + And the slope sun his upward beam + Shoots against the dusky pole, + Pacing toward the other goal 100 + Of his chamber in the east. + Meanwhile, welcome joy and feast, + Midnight shout and revelry, + Tipsy dance and jollity. + Braid your locks with rosy twine, 105 + Dropping odors, dropping wine. + Rigor now is gone to bed; + And Advice with scrupulous head, + Strict Age, and sour Severity, + With their grave saws, in slumber lie. 110 + We, that are of purer fire, + Imitate the starry quire, + Who, in their nightly watchful spheres, + Lead in swift round the months and years. + The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove, 115 + Now to the moon in wavering morrice move; + And on the tawny sands and shelves + Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves. + By dimpled brook and fountain-brim, + The wood-nymphs, decked with daisies trim, 120 + Their merry wakes and pastimes keep: + What hath night to do with sleep? + Night hath better sweets to prove; + Venus now wakes, and wakens Love. + Come, let us our rites begin; 125 + 'Tis only daylight that makes sin, + Which these dun shades will ne'er report. + Hail, goddess of nocturnal sport, + Dark-veiled Cotytto, to whom the secret flame + Of midnight torches burns! mysterious dame, 130 + That ne'er art called but when the dragon womb + Of Stygian darkness spets her thickest gloom, + And makes one blot of all the air! + Stay thy cloudy ebon chair, + Wherein thou ridest with Hecat', and befriend 135 + Us thy vowed priests, till utmost end + Of all thy dues be done, and none left out + Ere the blabbing eastern scout, + The nice Morn on the Indian steep, + From her cabined loop-hole peep, 140 + And to the tell-tale Sun descry + Our concealed solemnity. + Come, knit hands, and beat the ground + In a light fantastic round. + + + _The Measure._ + + Break off, break off! I feel the different pace 145 + Of some chaste footing near about this ground. + Run to your shrouds within these brakes and trees; + Our number may affright. Some virgin sure + (For so I can distinguish by mine art) + Benighted in these woods! Now to my charms, 150 + And to my wily trains: I shall ere long + Be well stocked with as fair a herd as grazed + About my mother Circe. Thus I hurl + My dazzling spells into the spongy air, + Of power to cheat the eye with blear illusion, 155 + And give it false presentments, lest the place + And my quaint habits breed astonishment, + And put the damsel to suspicious flight; + Which must not be, for that's against my course. + I, under fair pretence of friendly ends, 160 + And well-placed words of glozing courtesy, + Baited with reasons not unplausible, + Wind me into the easy-hearted man, + And hug him into snares. When once her eye + Hath met the virtue of this magic dust 165 + I shall appear some harmless villager, + Whom thrift keeps up about his country gear. + But here she comes; I fairly step aside, + And hearken, if I may her business hear. + + The Lady enters. + + _Lady._ This way the noise was, if mine ear be true, 170 + My best guide now. Methought it was the sound + Of riot and ill-managed merriment, + Such as the jocund flute or gamesome pipe + Stirs up among the loose unlettered hinds, + When, for their teeming flocks and granges full, 175 + In wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan, + And thank the gods amiss. I should be loth + To meet the rudeness and swilled insolence + Of such late wassailers; yet, oh! where else + Shall I inform my unacquainted feet 180 + In the blind mazes of this tangled wood? + My brothers, when they saw me wearied out + With this long way, resolving here to lodge + Under the spreading favor of these pines, + Stepped, as they said, to the next thicket-side 185 + To bring me berries, or such cooling fruit + As the kind hospitable woods provide. + They left me then when the gray-hooded Even, + Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed, + Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phoebus' wain. 190 + But where they are, and why they came not back, + Is now the labor of my thoughts. 'Tis likeliest + They had engaged their wandering steps too far; + And envious darkness, ere they could return, + Had stole them from me. Else, O thievish Night, 195 + Why shouldst thou, but for some felonious end, + In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars + That Nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps + With everlasting oil, to give due light + To the misled and lonely traveller? 200 + This is the place, as well as I may guess, + Whence even now the tumult of loud mirth + Was rife, and perfect in my listening ear; + Yet nought but single darkness do I find. + What might this be? A thousand fantasies 205 + Begin to throng into my memory, + Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, + And airy tongues that syllable men's names + On sands and shores and desert wildernesses. + These thoughts may startle well, but not astound 210 + The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended + By a strong siding champion, Conscience. + O, welcome, pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope, + Thou hovering angel girt with golden wings, + And thou unblemished form of Chastity! 215 + I see thee visibly, and now believe + That He, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill + Are but as slavish officers of vengeance, + Would send a glistering guardian, if need were, + To keep my life and honor unassailed.... 220 + Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud + Turn forth her silver lining on the night? + I did not err: there does a sable cloud + Turn forth her silver lining on the night, + And casts a gleam over this tufted grove. 225 + I cannot hallo to my brothers, but + Such noise as I can make to be heard farthest + I'll venture; for my new-enlivened spirits + Prompt me, and they perhaps are not far off. + + + _Song._ + + Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv'st unseen 230 + Within thy airy shell + By slow Meander's margent green, + And in the violet-embroidered vale + Where the love-lorn nightingale + Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well: 235 + Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair + That likest thy Narcissus are? + O, if thou have + Hid them in some flowery cave, + Tell me but where, 240 + Sweet Queen of Parley, Daughter of the Sphere! + So may'st thou be translated to the skies, + And give resounding grace to all Heaven's harmonies! + + _Comus._ Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould + Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment? 245 + Sure something holy lodges in that breast, + And with these raptures moves the vocal air + To testify his hidden residence. + How sweetly did they float upon the wings + Of silence, through the empty-vaulted night, 250 + At every fall smoothing the raven down + Of darkness till it smiled! I have oft heard + My mother Circe with the Sirens three, + Amidst the flowery-kirtled Naiades, + Culling their potent herbs and baleful drugs, 255 + Who, as they sung, would take the prisoned soul, + And lap it in Elysium: Scylla wept, + And chid her barking waves into attention, + And fell Charybdis murmured soft applause. + Yet they in pleasing slumber lulled the sense, 260 + And in sweet madness robbed it of itself; + But such a sacred and home-felt delight, + Such sober certainty of waking bliss, + I never heard till now. I'll speak to her, + And she shall be my queen.--Hail, foreign wonder! 265 + Whom certain these rough shades did never breed, + Unless the goddess that in rural shrine + Dwell'st here with Pan or Sylvan, by blest song + Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog + To touch the prosperous growth of this tall wood. 270 + + _Lady._ Nay, gentle shepherd, ill is lost that praise + That is addressed to unattending ears. + Not any boast of skill, but extreme shift + How to regain my severed company, + Compelled me to awake the courteous Echo 275 + To give me answer from her mossy couch. + + _Comus._ What chance, good Lady, hath bereft you thus? + + _Lady._ Dim darkness and this leavy labyrinth. + + _Comus._ Could that divide you from near-ushering guides? + + _Lady._ They left me weary on a grassy turf. 280 + + _Comus._ By falsehood, or discourtesy, or why? + + _Lady._ To seek i' the valley some cool friendly spring. + + _Comus._ And left your fair side all unguarded, Lady? + + _Lady._ They were but twain, and purposed quick return. + + _Comus._ Perhaps forestalling night prevented them. 285 + + _Lady._ How easy my misfortune is to hit! + + _Comus._ Imports their loss, beside the present need? + + _Lady._ No less than if I should my brothers lose. + + _Comus._ Were they of manly prime, or youthful bloom? + + _Lady._ As smooth as Hebe's their unrazored lips. 290 + + _Comus._ Two such I saw, what time the labored ox + In his loose traces from the furrow came, + And the swinked hedger at his supper sat. + I saw them under a green mantling vine, + That crawls along the side of yon small hill, 295 + Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots; + Their port was more than human, as they stood. + I took it for a faery vision + Of some gay creatures of the element, + That in the colors of the rainbow live, 300 + And play i' the plighted clouds. I was awe-strook, + And, as I passed, I worshiped. If those you seek, + It were a journey like the path to Heaven + To help you find them. + + _Lady._ Gentle villager, + What readiest way would bring me to that place? 305 + + _Comus._ Due west it rises from this shrubby point. + + _Lady._ To find out that, good shepherd, I suppose, + In such a scant allowance of star-light, + Would overtask the best land-pilot's art, + Without the sure guess of well-practised feet. 310 + + _Comus._ I know each lane, and every alley green, + Dingle, or bushy dell, of this wild wood, + And every bosky bourn from side to side, + My daily walks and ancient neighborhood; + And, if your stray attendance be yet lodged, 315 + Or shroud within these limits, I shall know + Ere morrow wake, or the low-roosted lark + From her thatched pallet rouse. If otherwise, + I can conduct you, Lady, to a low + But loyal cottage, where you may be safe 320 + Till further quest. + + _Lady._ Shepherd, I take thy word, + And trust thy honest-offered courtesy, + Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds, + With smoky rafters, than in tapestry halls + And courts of princes, where it first was named, 325 + And yet is most pretended. In a place + Less warranted than this, or less secure, + I cannot be, that I should fear to change it. + Eye me, blest Providence, and square my trial + To my proportioned strength! Shepherd, lead on.... 330 + + The Two Brothers. + + _Eld. Bro._ Unmuffle, ye faint stars; and thou, fair moon, + That wont'st to love the traveller's benison, + Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud, + And disinherit Chaos, that reigns here + In double night of darkness and of shades; 335 + Or, if your influence be quite dammed up + With black usurping mists, some gentle taper, + Though a rush-candle from the wicker hole + Of some clay habitation, visit us + With thy long levelled rule of streaming light, 340 + And thou shalt be our star of Arcady, + Or Tyrian Cynosure. + + _Sec. Bro._ Or, if our eyes + Be barred that happiness, might we but hear + The folded flocks, penned in their wattled cotes, + Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops, 345 + Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock + Count the night-watches to his feathery dames, + 'Twould be some solace yet, some little cheering, + In this close dungeon of innumerous boughs. + But, Oh, that hapless virgin, our lost sister! 350 + Where may she wander now, whither betake her + From the chill dew, amongst rude burs and thistles? + Perhaps some cold bank is her bolster now, + Or 'gainst the rugged bark of some broad elm + Leans her unpillowed head, fraught with sad fears. 355 + What if in wild amazement and affright, + Or, while we speak, within the direful grasp + Of savage hunger, or of savage heat! + + _Eld. Bro._ Peace, brother: be not over-exquisite + To cast the fashion of uncertain evils; 360 + For, grant they be so, while they rest unknown, + What need a man forestall his date of grief, + And run to meet what he would most avoid? + Or, if they be but false alarms of fear, + How bitter is such self-delusion! 365 + I do not think my sister so to seek, + Or so unprincipled in virtue's book, + And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever, + As that the single want of light and noise + (Not being in danger, as I trust she is not) 370 + Could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts, + And put them into misbecoming plight. + Virtue could see to do what Virtue would + By her own radiant light, though sun and moon + Were in the flat sea sunk. And Wisdom's self 375 + Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude, + Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation, + She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings, + That, in the various bustle of resort, + Were all to-ruffled, and sometimes impaired. 380 + He that has light within his own clear breast + May sit i' the centre, and enjoy bright day: + But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts + Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; + Himself is his own dungeon. + + _Sec. Bro._ 'Tis most true 385 + That musing Meditation most affects + The pensive secrecy of desert cell, + Far from the cheerful haunt of men and herds, + And sits as safe as in a senate-house; + For who would rob a hermit of his weeds, 390 + His few books, or his beads, or maple dish, + Or do his gray hairs any violence? + But Beauty, like the fair Hesperian tree + Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard + Of dragon-watch with unenchanted eye 395 + To save her blossoms, and defend her fruit, + From the rash hand of bold Incontinence. + You may as well spread out the unsunned heaps + Of miser's treasure by an outlaw's den, + And tell me it is safe, as bid me hope 400 + Danger will wink on Opportunity, + And let a single helpless maiden pass + Uninjured in this wild surrounding waste. + Of night or loneliness it recks me not; + I fear the dread events that dog them both, 405 + Lest some ill-greeting touch attempt the person + Of our unowned sister. + + _Eld. Bro._ I do not, brother, + Infer as if I thought my sister's state + Secure without all doubt or controversy; + Yet, where an equal poise of hope and fear 410 + Does arbitrate the event, my nature is + That I incline to hope rather than fear, + And gladly banish squint suspicion. + My sister is not so defenceless left + As you imagine; she has a hidden strength, 415 + Which you remember not. + + _Sec. Bro._ What hidden strength, + Unless the strength of Heaven, if you mean that? + + _Eld. Bro._ I mean that too, but yet a hidden strength, + Which, if Heaven gave it, may be termed her own. + 'Tis chastity, my brother, chastity: 420 + She that has that is clad in complete steel, + And, like a quivered nymph with arrows keen, + May trace huge forests, and unharbored heaths, + Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds; + Where, through the sacred rays of chastity, 425 + No savage fierce, bandite, or mountaineer, + Will dare to soil her virgin purity. + Yea, there where very desolation dwells, + By grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades, + She may pass on with unblenched majesty, 430 + Be it not done in pride, or in presumption. + Some say no evil thing that walks by night, + In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen, + Blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost, + That breaks his magic chains at curfew time, 435 + No goblin or swart faery of the mine, + Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity. + Do ye believe me yet, or shall I call + Antiquity from the old schools of Greece + To testify the arms of chastity? 440 + Hence had the huntress Dian her dread bow, + Fair silver-shafted queen forever chaste, + Wherewith she tamed the brinded lioness + And spotted mountain-pard, but set at nought + The frivolous bolt of Cupid; gods and men 445 + Feared her stern frown, and she was queen o' the woods. + What was that snaky-headed Gorgon shield + That wise Minerva wore, unconquered virgin, + Wherewith she freezed her foes to congealed stone, + But rigid looks of chaste austerity, 450 + And noble grace that dashed brute violence + With sudden adoration and blank awe? + So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity + That, when a soul is found sincerely so, + A thousand liveried angels lackey her, 455 + Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt, + And in clear dream and solemn vision + Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear; + Till oft converse with heavenly habitants + Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape, 460 + The unpolluted temple of the mind, + And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence, + Till all be made immortal. But, when lust, + By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk, + But most by lewd and lavish act of sin, 465 + Lets in defilement to the inward parts, + The soul grows clotted by contagion, + Imbodies, and imbrutes, till she quite lose + The divine property of her first being. + Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp 470 + Oft seen in charnel-vaults and sepulchres, + Lingering and sitting by a new-made grave, + As loth to leave the body that it loved, + And linked itself by carnal sensualty + To a degenerate and degraded state. 475 + + _Sec. Bro._ How charming is divine Philosophy! + Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, + But musical as is Apollo's lute, + And a perpetual feast of nectared sweets, + Where no crude surfeit reigns. + + _Eld. Bro._ List! list! I hear 480 + Some far-off hallo break the silent air. + + _Sec. Bro._ Methought so too; what should it be? + + _Eld. Bro._ For certain, + Either some one, like us, night-foundered here, + Or else some neighbor woodman, or, at worst, + Some roving robber calling to his fellows. 485 + + _Sec. Bro._ Heaven help my sister! Again, again, and near! + Best draw, and stand upon our guard. + + _Eld. Bro._ I'll hallo. + If he be friendly, he comes well: if not, + Defence is a good cause, and Heaven be for us! + + The Attendant Spirit, habited like a shepherd. + + That hallo I should know. What are you? speak. 490 + Come not too near; you fall on iron stakes else. + + _Spir._ What voice is that? my young lord? speak again. + + _Sec. Bro._ O brother, 'tis my father's Shepherd, sure. + + _Eld. Bro._ Thyrsis! whose artful strains have oft delayed + The huddling brook to hear his madrigal, 495 + And sweetened every musk-rose of the dale. + How camest thou here, good swain? Hath any ram + Slipped from the fold, or young kid lost his dam, + Or straggling wether the pent flock forsook? + How could'st thou find this dark sequestered nook? 500 + + _Spir._ O my loved master's heir, and his next joy, + I came not here on such a trivial toy + As a strayed ewe, or to pursue the stealth + Of pilfering wolf; not all the fleecy wealth + That doth enrich these downs is worth a thought 505 + To this my errand, and the care it brought. + But, oh! my virgin Lady, where is she? + How chance she is not in your company? + + _Eld. Bro._ To tell thee sadly, Shepherd, without blame + Or our neglect, we lost her as we came. 510 + + _Spir._ Ay me unhappy! then my fears are true. + + _Eld. Bro._ What fears, good Thyrsis? Prithee briefly shew. + + _Spir._ I'll tell ye. 'Tis not vain or fabulous + (Though so esteemed by shallow ignorance) + What the sage poets, taught by the heavenly Muse, 515 + Storied of old in high immortal verse + Of dire Chimeras and enchanted isles, + And rifted rocks whose entrance leads to Hell; + For such there be, but unbelief is blind. + Within the navel of this hideous wood, 520 + Immured in cypress shades, a sorcerer dwells, + Of Bacchus and of Circe born, great Comus, + Deep skilled in all his mother's witcheries, + And here to every thirsty wanderer + By sly enticement gives his baneful cup, 525 + With many murmurs mixed, whose pleasing poison + The visage quite transforms of him that drinks, + And the inglorious likeness of a beast + Fixes instead, unmoulding reason's mintage + Charactered in the face. This have I learnt 530 + Tending my flocks hard by i' the hilly crofts + That brow this bottom glade; whence night by night + He and his monstrous rout are heard to howl + Like stabled wolves, or tigers at their prey, + Doing abhorred rites to Hecate 535 + In their obscured haunts of inmost bowers. + Yet have they many baits and guileful spells + To inveigle and invite the unwary sense + Of them that pass unweeting by the way. + This evening late, by then the chewing flocks 540 + Had ta'en their supper on the savory herb + Of knot-grass dew-besprent, and were in fold, + I sat me down to watch upon a bank + With ivy canopied, and interwove + With flaunting honeysuckle, and began, 545 + Wrapt in a pleasing fit of melancholy, + To meditate my rural minstrelsy, + Till fancy had her fill. But ere a close + The wonted roar was up amidst the woods, + And filled the air with barbarous dissonance; 550 + At which I ceased, and listened them a while, + Till an unusual stop of sudden silence + Gave respite to the drowsy-flighted steeds + That draw the litter of close-curtained Sleep. + At last a soft and solemn-breathing sound 555 + Rose like a steam of rich distilled perfumes, + And stole upon the air, that even Silence + Was took ere she was ware, and wished she might + Deny her nature, and be never more, + Still to be so displaced. I was all ear, 560 + And took in strains that might create a soul + Under the ribs of Death. But, oh! ere long + Too well I did perceive it was the voice + Of my most honored Lady, your dear sister. + Amazed I stood, harrowed with grief and fear; 565 + And 'O poor hapless nightingale,' thought I, + 'How sweet thou sing'st, how near the deadly snare!' + Then down the lawns I ran with headlong haste, + Through paths and turnings often trod by day, + Till, guided by mine ear, I found the place 570 + Where that damned wizard, hid in sly disguise + (For so by certain signs I knew), had met + Already, ere my best speed could prevent, + The aidless innocent lady, his wished prey; + Who gently asked if he had seen such two, 575 + Supposing him some neighbor villager. + Longer I durst not stay, but soon I guessed + Ye were the two she meant; with that I sprung + Into swift flight, till I had found you here; + But further know I not. + + _Sec. Bro._ O night and shades, 580 + How are ye joined with hell in triple knot + Against the unarmed weakness of one virgin, + Alone and helpless! Is this the confidence + You gave me, brother? + + _Eld. Bro._ Yes, and keep it still; + Lean on it safely; not a period 585 + Shall be unsaid for me. Against the threats + Of malice or of sorcery, or that power + Which erring men call Chance, this I hold firm: + Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt, + Surprised by unjust force, but not enthralled; 590 + Yea, even that which Mischief meant most harm + Shall in the happy trial prove most glory. + But evil on itself shall back recoil, + And mix no more with goodness, when at last, + Gathered like scum, and settled to itself, 595 + It shall be in eternal restless change + Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail, + The pillared firmament is rottenness, + And earth's base built on stubble. But come, let's on! + Against the opposing will and arm of Heaven 600 + May never this just sword be lifted up; + But for that damned magician, let him be girt + With all the griesly legions that troop + Under the sooty flag of Acheron, + Harpies and Hydras, or all the monstrous forms 605 + 'Twixt Africa and Ind, I'll find him out, + And force him to return his purchase back, + Or drag him by the curls to a foul death, + Cursed as his life. + + _Spir._ Alas! good venturous youth, + I love thy courage yet, and bold emprise; 610 + But here thy sword can do thee little stead. + Far other arms and other weapons must + Be those that quell the might of hellish charms. + He with his bare wand can unthread thy joints, + And crumble all thy sinews. + + _Eld. Bro._ Why, prithee, Shepherd, 615 + How durst thou then thyself approach so near + As to make this relation? + + _Spir._ Care and utmost shifts + How to secure the Lady from surprisal + Brought to my mind a certain shepherd lad, + Of small regard to see to, yet well skilled 620 + In every virtuous plant and healing herb + That spreads her verdant leaf to the morning ray. + He loved me well, and oft would beg me sing; + Which when I did, he on the tender grass + Would sit, and hearken even to ecstasy, 625 + And in requital ope his leathern scrip, + And show me simples of a thousand names, + Telling their strange and vigorous faculties. + Amongst the rest a small unsightly root, + But of divine effect, he culled me out. 630 + The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it, + But in another country, as he said, + Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil: + Unknown, and like esteemed, and the dull swain + Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon; 635 + And yet more med'cinal is it than that Moly + That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave. + He called it Haemony, and gave it me, + And bade me keep it as of sovran use + 'Gainst all enchantments, mildew blast, or damp, 640 + Or ghastly Furies' apparition. + I pursed it up, but little reckoning made, + Till now that this extremity compelled. + But now I find it true; for by this means + I knew the foul enchanter, though disguised, 645 + Entered the very lime-twigs of his spells, + And yet came off. If you have this about you + (As I will give you when we go) you may + Boldly assault the necromancer's hall; + Where if he be, with dauntless hardihood 650 + And brandished blade rush on him: break his glass, + And shed the luscious liquor on the ground; + But seize his wand. Though he and his curst crew + Fierce sign of battle make, and menace high, + Or, like the sons of Vulcan, vomit smoke, 655 + Yet will they soon retire, if he but shrink. + + _Eld. Bro._ Thyrsis, lead on apace; I'll follow thee; + And some good angel bear a shield before us! + +The Scene changes to a stately palace, set out with all manner of +deliciousness: soft music, tables spread with all dainties. Comus appears +with his rabble, and the Lady set in an enchanted chair: to whom he +offers his glass; which she puts by, and goes about to rise. + + _Comus._ Nay, Lady, sit. If I but wave this wand, + Your nerves are all chained up in alabaster, 660 + And you a statue, or as Daphne was, + Root-bound, that fled Apollo. + + _Lady._ Fool, do not boast. + Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind + With all thy charms, although this corporal rind + Thou hast immanacled while Heaven sees good. 665 + + _Comus._ Why are you vexed, Lady? why do you frown? + Here dwell no frowns, nor anger; from these gates + Sorrow flies far. See, here be all the pleasures + That fancy can beget on youthful thoughts, + When the fresh blood grows lively, and returns 670 + Brisk as the April buds in primrose season. + And first behold this cordial julep here, + That flames and dances in his crystal bounds, + With spirits of balm and fragrant syrups mixed. + Not that Nepenthes which the wife of Thone 675 + In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena + Is of such power to stir up joy as this, + To life so friendly, or so cool to thirst. + Why should you be so cruel to yourself, + And to those dainty limbs, which Nature lent 680 + For gentle usage and soft delicacy? + But you invert the covenants of her trust, + And harshly deal, like an ill borrower, + With that which you received on other terms, + Scorning the unexempt condition 685 + By which all mortal frailty must subsist, + Refreshment after toil, ease after pain, + That have been tired all day without repast, + And timely rest have wanted. But, fair virgin, + This will restore all soon. + + _Lady._ 'Twill not, false traitor! 690 + 'Twill not restore the truth and honesty + That thou hast banished from thy tongue with lies. + Was this the cottage and the safe abode + Thou told'st me of? What grim aspects are these, + These oughly-headed monsters? Mercy guard me! 695 + Hence with thy brewed enchantments, foul deceiver! + Hast thou betrayed my credulous innocence + With vizored falsehood and base forgery? + And wouldst thou seek again to trap me here + With liquorish baits, fit to ensnare a brute? 700 + Were it a draught for Juno when she banquets, + I would not taste thy treasonous offer. None + But such as are good men can give good things; + And that which is not good is not delicious + To a well-governed and wise appetite. 705 + + _Comus._ O foolishness of men! that lend their ears + To those budge doctors of the stoic fur, + And fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub, + Praising the lean and sallow Abstinence! + Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth 710 + With such a full and unwithdrawing hand, + Covering the earth with odors, fruits, and flocks, + Thronging the seas with spawn innumerable, + But all to please and sate the curious taste? + And set to work millions of spinning worms, 715 + That in their green shops weave the smooth-haired silk, + To deck her sons; and, that no corner might + Be vacant of her plenty, in her own loins + She hutched the all-worshipped ore and precious gems, + To store her children with. If all the world 720 + Should, in a fit of temperance, feed on pulse, + Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but frieze, + The All-giver would be unthanked, would be unpraised, + Not half his riches known, and yet despised; + And we should serve him as a grudging master, 725 + As a penurious niggard of his wealth, + And live like Nature's bastards, not her sons, + Who would be quite surcharged with her own weight, + And strangled with her waste fertility: + The earth cumbered, and the winged air darked with plumes, 730 + The herds would over-multitude their lords; + The sea o'erfraught would swell, and the unsought diamonds + Would so emblaze the forehead of the deep, + And so bestud with stars, that they below + Would grow inured to light, and come at last 735 + To gaze upon the sun with shameless brows. + List, Lady; be not coy, and be not cozened + With that same vaunted name, Virginity. + Beauty is Nature's coin; must not be hoarded, + But must be current; and the good thereof 740 + Consists in mutual and partaken bliss, + Unsavory in the enjoyment of itself. + If you let slip time, like a neglected rose + It withers on the stalk with languished head. + Beauty is Nature's brag, and must be shown 745 + In courts, at feasts, and high solemnities, + Where most may wonder at the workmanship. + It is for homely features to keep home; + They had their name thence: coarse complexions + And cheeks of sorry grain will serve to ply 750 + The sampler, and to tease the huswife's wool. + What need a vermeil-tinctured lip for that, + Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn? + There was another meaning in these gifts; + Think what, and be advised; you are but young yet. 755 + + _Lady._ I had not thought to have unlocked my lips + In this unhallowed air, but that this juggler + Would think to charm my judgment, as mine eyes, + Obtruding false rules pranked in reason's garb. + I hate when vice can bolt her arguments 760 + And virtue has no tongue to check her pride. + Impostor! do not charge most innocent Nature, + As if she would her children should be riotous + With her abundance. She, good cateress, + Means her provision only to the good, 765 + That live according to her sober laws, + And holy dictate of spare Temperance. + If every just man that now pines with want + Had but a moderate and beseeming share + Of that which lewdly-pampered Luxury 770 + Now heaps upon some few with vast excess, + Nature's full blessings would be well-dispensed + In unsuperfluous even proportion, + And she no whit encumbered with her store; + And then the Giver would be better thanked, 775 + His praise due paid: for swinish gluttony + Ne'er looks to Heaven amidst his gorgeous feast, + But with besotted base ingratitude + Crams, and blasphemes his Feeder. Shall I go on? + Or have I said enow? To him that dares 780 + Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous words + Against the sun-clad power of chastity + Fain would I something say;--yet to what end? + Thou hast nor ear, nor soul, to apprehend + The sublime notion and high mystery 785 + That must be uttered to unfold the sage + And serious doctrine of Virginity; + And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know + More happiness than this thy present lot. + Enjoy your dear wit, and gay rhetoric, 790 + That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence; + Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinced. + Yet, should I try, the uncontrolled worth + Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spirits + To such a flame of sacred vehemence 795 + That dumb things would be moved to sympathize, + And the brute Earth would lend her nerves, and shake, + Till all thy magic structures, reared so high, + Were shattered into heaps o'er thy false head. + + _Comus._ She fables not. I feel that I do fear 800 + Her words set off by some superior power; + And, though not mortal, yet a cold shuddering dew + Dips me all o'er, as when the wrath of Jove + Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus + To some of Saturn's crew. I must dissemble, 805 + And try her yet more strongly,--Come, no more! + This is mere moral babble, and direct + Against the canon laws of our foundation. + I must not suffer this; yet 'tis but the lees + And settlings of a melancholy blood. 810 + But this will cure all straight; one sip of this + Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight + Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise, and taste.... + +The Brothers rush in with swords drawn, wrest his glass out of his hand, +and break it against the ground: his rout make sign of resistance, but +are all driven in. The Attendant Spirit comes in. + + _Spir._ What! have you let the false enchanter scape? + O ye mistook; ye should have snatched his wand, 815 + And bound him fast. Without his rod reversed, + And backward mutters of dissevering power, + We cannot free the Lady that sits here + In stony fetters fixed and motionless. + Yet stay: be not disturbed; now I bethink me, 820 + Some other means I have which may be used, + Which once of Meliboeus old I learnt, + The soothest shepherd that e'er piped on plains. + There is a gentle Nymph not far from hence, + That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn stream: 825 + Sabrina is her name: a virgin pure; + Whilom she was the daughter of Locrine, + That had the sceptre from his father Brute. + She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit + Of her enraged stepdame, Guendolen, 830 + Commended her fair innocence to the flood + That stayed her flight with his cross-flowing course. + The water-nymphs, that in the bottom played, + Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in, + Bearing her straight to aged Nereus' hall; 835 + Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank head, + And gave her to his daughters to imbathe + In nectared lavers strewed with asphodel, + And through the porch and inlet of each sense + Dropt in ambrosial oils, till she revived, 840 + And underwent a quick immortal change, + Made Goddess of the river. Still she retains + Her maiden gentleness, and oft at eve + Visits the herds along the twilight meadows, + Helping all urchin blasts, and ill-luck signs 845 + That the shrewd meddling elf delights to make, + Which she with precious vialed liquors heals: + For which the shepherds, at their festivals, + Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays, + And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream 850 + Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils. + And, as the old swain said, she can unlock + The clasping charm, and thaw the numbing spell, + If she be right invoked in warbled song; + For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift 855 + To aid a virgin, such as was herself, + In hard-besetting need. This will I try, + And add the power of some adjuring verse. + + + _Song._ + + Sabrina fair, + Listen where thou art sitting 860 + Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave, + In twisted braids of lilies knitting + The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair; + Listen for dear honor's sake, + Goddess of the silver lake, 865 + Listen and save! + + Listen, and appear to us, + In name of great Oceanus, + By the earth-shaking Neptune's mace, + And Tethys' grave majestic pace; 870 + By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look, + And the Carpathian wizard's hook; + By scaly Triton's winding shell, + And old soothsaying Glaucus' spell; + By Leucothea's lovely hands, 875 + And her son that rules the strands; + By Thetis' tinsel-slippered feet, + And the songs of Sirens sweet; + By dead Parthenope's dear tomb, + And fair Ligea's golden comb, 880 + Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks + Sleeking her soft alluring locks; + By all the nymphs that nightly dance + Upon thy streams with wily glance; + Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head 885 + From thy coral-paven bed, + And bridle in thy headlong wave, + Till thou our summons answered have. + Listen and save! + + Sabrina rises, attended by Water-nymphs, and sings. + + By the rushy-fringed bank, 890 + Where grow the willow and the osier dank, + My sliding chariot stays, + Thick set with agate, and the azurn sheen + Of turkis blue, and emerald green, + That in the channel strays: 895 + Whilst from off the waters fleet + Thus I set my printless feet + O'er the cowslip's velvet head, + That bends not as I tread. + Gentle swain, at thy request 900 + I am here! + + _Spir._ Goddess dear, + We implore thy powerful hand + To undo the charmed band + Of true virgin here distressed 905 + Through the force and through the wile + Of unblessed enchanter vile. + + _Sabr._ Shepherd, 'tis my office best + To help ensnared chastity. + Brightest Lady, look on me. 910 + Thus I sprinkle on thy breast + Drops that from my fountain pure + I have kept of precious cure; + Thrice upon thy finger's tip, + Thrice upon thy rubied lip: 915 + Next this marble venomed seat, + Smeared with gums of glutinous heat, + I touch with chaste palms moist and cold. + Now the spell hath lost his hold, + And I must haste ere morning hour 920 + To wait in Amphitrite's bower. + + Sabrina descends, and the Lady rises out of her seat. + + _Spir._ Virgin, daughter of Locrine, + Sprung of old Anchises' line, + May thy brimmed waves for this + Their full tribute never miss 925 + From a thousand petty rills, + That tumble down the snowy hills: + Summer drouth or singed air + Never scorch thy tresses fair, + Nor wet October's torrent flood 930 + Thy molten crystal fill with mud; + May thy billows roll ashore + The beryl and the golden ore; + May thy lofty head be crowned + With many a tower and terrace round, 935 + And here and there thy banks upon + With groves of myrrh and cinnamon. + Come, Lady; while Heaven lends us grace, + Let us fly this cursed place, + Lest the sorcerer us entice 940 + With some other new device. + Not a waste or needless sound + Till we come to holier ground. + I shall be your faithful guide + Through this gloomy covert wide; 945 + And not many furlongs thence + Is your Father's residence, + Where this night are met in state + Many a friend to gratulate + His wished presence, and beside 950 + All the swains that there abide + With jigs and rural dance resort. + We shall catch them at their sport, + And our sudden coming there + Will double all their mirth and cheer. 955 + Come, let us haste; the stars grow high, + But Night sits monarch yet in the mid sky. + +The Scene changes, presenting Ludlow Town, and the President's Castle: +then come the Country Dancers; after them the Attendant Spirit, with the +Two Brothers and the Lady. + + + _Song._ + + _Spir._ Back, shepherds, back! Enough your play + Till next sun-shine holiday. + Here be, without duck or nod, 960 + Other trippings to be trod + Of lighter toes, and such court guise + As Mercury did first devise + With the mincing Dryades + On the lawns and on the leas. 965 + + This second Song presents them to their Father and Mother. + + Noble Lord and Lady bright, + I have brought ye new delight. + Here behold so goodly grown + Three fair branches of your own. + Heaven hath timely tried their youth, 970 + Their faith, their patience, and their truth, + And sent them here through hard assays + With a crown of deathless praise, + To triumph in victorious dance + O'er sensual folly and intemperance. 975 + + The dances ended, the Spirit epiloguizes. + + _Spir._ To the ocean now I fly, + And those happy climes that lie + Where day never shuts his eye, + Up in the broad fields of the sky. + There I suck the liquid air, 980 + All amidst the gardens fair + Of Hesperus, and his daughters three + That sing about the golden tree. + Along the crisped shades and bowers + Revels the spruce and jocund Spring; 985 + The Graces and the rosy-bosomed Hours + Thither all their bounties bring. + There eternal Summer dwells, + And west winds with musky wing + About the cedarn alleys fling 990 + Nard and cassia's balmy smells. + Iris there with humid bow + Waters the odorous banks, that blow + Flowers of more mingled hue + Than her purfled scarf can shew, 995 + And drenches with Elysian dew + (List, mortals, if your ears be true) + Beds of hyacinth and roses, + Where young Adonis oft reposes, + Waxing well of his deep wound, 1000 + In slumbers soft, and on the ground + Sadly sits the Assyrian queen. + But far above, in spangled sheen, + Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advanced + Holds his dear Psyche, sweet entranced 1005 + After her wandering labors long, + Till free consent the gods among + Make her his eternal bride, + And from her fair unspotted side + Two blissful twins are to be born, 1010 + Youth and Joy; so Jove hath sworn. + But now my task is smoothly done: + I can fly, or I can run + Quickly to the green earth's end, + Where the bowed welkin slow doth bend, 1015 + And from thence can soar as soon + To the corners of the moon. + Mortals, that would follow me, + Love Virtue; she alone is free. + She can teach ye how to climb 1020 + Higher than the sphery chime; + Or, if Virtue feeble were, + Heaven itself would stoop to her. + + + + + LYCIDAS. + + +In this Monody the Author bewails a learned Friend, unfortunately drowned +in his passage from Chester on the Irish Seas, 1637; and, by occasion, +foretells the ruin of our corrupted Clergy, then in their height. + + Yet once more, O ye laurels, and once more, + Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere, + I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude, + And with forced fingers rude + Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. 5 + Bitter constraint and sad occasion dear + Compels me to disturb your season due; + For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime, + Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer. + Who would not sing for Lycidas? he knew 10 + Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme. + He must not float upon his watery bier + Unwept, and welter to the parching wind, + Without the meed of some melodious tear. + Begin, then, Sisters of the sacred well 15 + That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring; + Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string. + Hence with denial vain and coy excuse: + So may some gentle Muse + With lucky words favor _my_ destined urn, 20 + And as he passes turn, + And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud! + For we were nursed upon the self-same hill, + Fed the same flock, by fountain, shade, and rill; + Together both, ere the high lawns appeared 25 + Under the opening eyelids of the Morn, + We drove a-field, and both together heard + What time the gray-fly winds her sultry horn, + Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night, + Oft till the star that rose at evening bright 30 + Toward heaven's descent had sloped his westering wheel. + Meanwhile the rural ditties were not mute; + Tempered to the oaten flute + Rough Satyrs danced, and Fauns with cloven heel + From the glad sound would not be absent long; 35 + And old Damoetas loved to hear our song. + But, oh! the heavy change, now thou art gone, + Now thou art gone and never must return! + Thee, Shepherd, thee the woods and desert caves, + With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown, 40 + And all their echoes, mourn. + The willows, and the hazel copses green, + Shall now no more be seen + Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays. + As killing as the canker to the rose, 45 + Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze, + Or frost to flowers, that their gay wardrobe wear, + When first the white-thorn blows; + Such Lycidas, thy loss to shepherd's ear. + Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorseless deep 50 + Closed o'er the head of your loved Lycidas? + For neither were ye playing on the steep + Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie, + Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high, + Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream. 55 + Ay me! I fondly dream + "Had ye been there," ... for what could that have done? + What could the Muse herself that Orpheus bore, + The Muse herself, for her enchanting son, + Whom universal nature did lament, 60 + When, by the rout that made the hideous roar, + His gory visage down the stream was sent, + Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore? + Alas! what boots it with uncessant care + To tend the homely, slighted, shepherd's trade, 65 + And strictly meditate the thankless Muse? + Were it not better done, as others use, + To sport with Amaryllis in the shade, + Or with the tangles of Neaera's hair? + Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise 70 + (That last infirmity of noble mind) + To scorn delights and live laborious days; + But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, + And think to burst out into sudden blaze, + Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears, 75 + And slits the thin-spun life. "But not the praise," + Phoebus replied, and touched my trembling ears: + "Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil, + Nor in the glistering foil + Set off to the world, nor in broad rumor lies, 80 + But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes + And perfect witness of all-judging Jove; + As he pronounces lastly on each deed, + Of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed." + O fountain Arethuse, and thou honored flood, 85 + Smooth-sliding Mincius, crowned with vocal reeds, + That strain I heard was of a higher mood. + But now my oat proceeds, + And listens to the Herald of the Sea, + That came in Neptune's plea. 90 + He asked the waves, and asked the felon winds, + What hard mishap hath doomed this gentle swain? + And questioned every gust of rugged wings + That blows from off each beaked promontory. + They knew not of his story; 95 + And sage Hippotades their answer brings, + That not a blast was from his dungeon strayed: + The air was calm, and on the level brine + Sleek Panope with all her sisters played. + It was that fatal and perfidious bark, 100 + Built in the eclipse, and rigged with curses dark, + That sunk so low that sacred head of thine. + Next, Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow, + His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge, + Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge 105 + Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe. + "Ah! who hath reft," quoth he, "my dearest pledge?" + Last came, and last did go, + The Pilot of the Galilean Lake; + Two massy keys he bore of metals twain 110 + (The golden opes, the iron shuts amain). + He shook his mitred locks, and stern bespake:-- + "How well could I have spared for thee, young swain, + Enow of such as, for their bellies' sake, + Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold! 115 + Of other care they little reckoning make + Than how to scramble at the shearers' feast, + And shove away the worthy bidden guest. + Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold + A sheep-hook, or have learnt aught else the least 120 + That to the faithful herdman's art belongs! + What recks it them? What need they? They are sped; + And, when they list, their lean and flashy songs + Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw; + The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed, 125 + But swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw, + Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread; + Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw + Daily devours apace, and nothing said. + But that two-handed engine at the door 130 + Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more." + Return, Alpheus; the dread voice is past + That shrunk thy streams; return, Sicilian Muse, + And call the vales, and bid them hither cast + Their bells and flowerets of a thousand hues. 135 + Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use + Of shades, and wanton winds, and gushing brooks, + On whose fresh lap the swart star sparely looks, + Throw hither all your quaint enamelled eyes, + That on the green turf suck the honeyed showers, 140 + And purple all the ground with vernal flowers. + Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies, + The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine, + The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet, + The glowing violet, 145 + The musk-rose, and the well-attired woodbine, + With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head, + And every flower that sad embroidery wears; + Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed, + And daffadillies fill their cups with tears, 150 + To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies. + For so, to interpose a little ease, + Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise. + Ay me! whilst thee the shores and sounding seas + Wash far away, where'er thy bones are hurled; 155 + Whether beyond the stormy Hebrides, + Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide + Visit'st the bottom of the monstrous world; + Or whether thou, to our moist vows denied, + Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old, 160 + Where the great Vision of the guarded mount + Looks toward Namancos and Bayona's hold. + Look homeward, Angel, now, and melt with ruth: + And, O ye dolphins, waft the hapless youth. + Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more, 165 + For Lycidas, your sorrow, is not dead, + Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor. + So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed, + And yet anon repairs his drooping head, + And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore 170 + Flames in the forehead of the morning sky: + So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high, + Through the dear might of Him that walked the waves, + Where, other groves and other streams along, + With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves, 175 + And hears the unexpressive nuptial song, + In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love. + There entertain him all the Saints above, + In solemn troops, and sweet societies, + That sing, and singing in their glory move, 180 + And wipe the tears forever from his eyes. + Now, Lycidas, the shepherds weep no more; + Henceforth thou art the Genius of the shore, + In thy large recompense, and shalt be good + To all that wander in that perilous flood. 185 + + Thus sang the uncouth swain to the oaks and rills, + While the still morn went out with sandals gray: + He touched the tender stops of various quills, + With eager thought warbling his Doric lay: + And now the sun had stretched out all the hills, 190 + And now was dropt into the western bay. + At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blue; + To-morrow to fresh woods, and pastures new. + + + + + SONNETS. + + + I. + + TO THE NIGHTINGALE. + + O Nightingale that on yon bloomy spray + Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still, + Thou with fresh hope the lover's heart dost fill, + While the jolly Hours lead on propitious May. + Thy liquid notes that close the eye of day, 5 + First heard before the shallow cuckoo's bill, + Portend success in love. O, if Jove's will + Have linked that amorous power to thy soft lay, + Now timely sing, ere the rude bird of hate + Foretell my hopeless doom, in some grove nigh; 10 + As thou from year to year hast sung too late + For my relief, yet hadst no reason why. + Whether the Muse or Love called thee his mate, + Both them I serve, and of their train am I. + + + II. + + ON HIS HAVING ARRIVED AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-THREE. + + How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, + Stolen on his wing my three-and-twentieth year! + My hasting days fly on with full career, + But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th. + Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth 5 + That I to manhood am arrived so near; + And inward ripeness doth much less appear, + That some more timely-happy spirits endu'th. + Yet, be it less or more, or soon or slow, + It shall be still in strictest measure even 10 + To that same lot, however mean or high, + Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven. + All is, if I have grace to use it so, + As ever in my great Task-Master's eye. + + + VIII. + + WHEN THE ASSAULT WAS INTENDED TO THE CITY. + + Captain or Colonel, or Knight in Arms, + Whose chance on these defenceless doors may seize, + If deed of honor did thee ever please, + Guard them, and him within protect from harms. + He can requite thee; for he knows the charms 5 + That call fame on such gentle acts as these, + And he can spread thy name o'er lands and seas, + Whatever clime the sun's bright circle warms. + Lift not thy spear against the Muses' bower: + The great Emathian conqueror bid spare 10 + The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower + Went to the ground; and the repeated air + Of sad Electra's poet had the power + To save the Athenian walls from ruin bare. + + + IX. + + TO A VIRTUOUS YOUNG LADY. + + Lady, that in the prime of earliest youth + Wisely hast shunned the broad way and the green, + And with those few art eminently seen + That labor up the hill of heavenly Truth, + The better part with Mary and with Ruth 5 + Chosen thou hast; and they that overween, + And at thy growing virtues fret their spleen, + No anger find in thee, but pity and ruth. + Thy care is fixed, and zealously attends + To fill thy odorous lamp with deeds of light, 10 + And hope that reaps not shame. Therefore be sure + Thou, when the Bridegroom with his feastful friends + Passes to bliss at the mid-hour of night, + Hast gained thy entrance, Virgin wise, and pure. + + + X. + + TO THE LADY MARGARET LEY. + + Daughter to that good Earl, once President + Of England's Council and her Treasury, + Who lived in both unstained with gold or fee, + And left them both, more in himself content, + Till the sad breaking of that Parliament 5 + Broke him, as that dishonest victory + At Chaeronea, fatal to liberty, + Killed with report that old man eloquent, + Though later born than to have known the days + Wherein your father flourished, yet by you, 10 + Madam, methinks I see him living yet: + So well your words his noble virtues praise + That all both judge you to relate them true + And to possess them, honored Margaret. + + + XIII. + + TO MR. H. LAWES ON HIS AIRS. + + Harry, whose tuneful and well-measured song + First taught our English music how to span + Words with just note and accent, not to scan + With Midas' ears, committing short and long, + Thy worth and skill exempts thee from the throng, 5 + With praise enough for Envy to look wan; + To after age thou shalt be writ the man + That with smooth air couldst humor best our tongue. + Thou honor'st Verse, and Verse must send her wing + To honor thee, the priest of Phoebus' quire, 10 + That tunest their happiest lines in hymn or story. + Dante shall give Fame leave to set thee higher + Than his Casella, whom he wooed to sing, + Met in the milder shades of Purgatory. + + + XV. + + ON THE LORD GENERAL FAIRFAX, AT THE SIEGE OF COLCHESTER. + + Fairfax, whose name in arms through Europe rings, + Filling each mouth with envy or with praise, + And all her jealous monarchs with amaze, + And rumors loud that daunt remotest kings, + Thy firm unshaken virtue ever brings 5 + Victory home, though new rebellions raise + Their Hydra heads, and the false North displays + Her broken league to imp their serpent wings. + O yet a nobler task awaits thy hand + (For what can war but endless war still breed?) 10 + Till truth and right from violence be freed, + And public faith cleared from the shameful brand + Of public fraud. In vain doth Valor bleed, + While Avarice and Rapine share the land. + + + XVI. + + TO THE LORD GENERAL CROMWELL, MAY, 1652, + + ON THE PROPOSALS OF CERTAIN MINISTERS AT THE COMMITTEE FOR + PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL. + + Cromwell, our chief of men, who through a cloud + Not of war only, but detractions rude, + Guided by faith and matchless fortitude, + To peace and truth thy glorious way hast ploughed, + And on the neck of crowned Fortune proud 5 + Hast reared God's trophies, and his work pursued, + While Darwen stream, with blood of Scots imbrued, + And Dunbar field, resounds thy praises loud, + And Worcester's laureate wreath: yet much remains + To conquer still; Peace hath her victories 10 + No less renowned than War: new foes arise, + Threatening to bind our souls with secular chains. + Help us to save free conscience from the paw + Of hireling wolves, whose Gospel is their maw. + + + XVII. + + TO SIR HENRY VANE THE YOUNGER. + + Vane, young in years, but in sage counsel old, + Than whom a better senator ne'er held + The helm of Rome, when gowns, not arms, repelled + The fierce Epirot and the African bold, + Whether to settle peace, or to unfold 5 + The drift of hollow states hard to be spelled; + Then to advise how war may best, upheld, + Move by her two main nerves, iron and gold, + In all her equipage; besides, to know + Both spiritual power and civil, what each means, 10 + What severs each, thou hast learned, which few have done. + The bounds of either sword to thee we owe: + Therefore on thy firm hand Religion leans + In peace, and reckons thee her eldest son. + + + XVIII. + + ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIEDMONT. + + Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones + Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold; + Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old, + When all our fathers worshiped stocks and stones, + Forget not: in thy book record their groans 5 + Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold + Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that rolled + Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans + The vales redoubled to the hills, and they + To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow 10 + O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway + The triple Tyrant; that from these may grow + A hundredfold, who, having learnt thy way, + Early may fly the Babylonian woe. + + + XIX. + + ON HIS BLINDNESS. + + When I consider how my light is spent + Ere half my days in this dark world and wide, + And that one talent which is death to hide + Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent + To serve therewith my Maker, and present 5 + My true account, lest He returning chide, + "Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?" + I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent + That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need + Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best 10 + Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state + Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed, + And post o'er land and ocean without rest; + They also serve who only stand and wait." + + + XX. + + TO MR. LAWRENCE. + + Lawrence, of virtuous father virtuous son, + Now that the fields are dank, and ways are mire, + Where shall we sometimes meet, and by the fire + Help waste a sullen day, what may be won + From the hard season gaining? Time will run 5 + On smoother, till Favonius reinspire + The frozen earth, and clothe in fresh attire + The lily and rose, that neither sowed nor spun. + What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice, + Of Attic taste, with wine, whence we may rise 10 + To hear the lute well touched, or artful voice + Warble immortal notes and Tuscan air? + He who of those delights can judge, and spare + To interpose them oft, is not unwise. + + + XXI. + + TO CYRIACK SKINNER. + + Cyriack, whose grandsire on the royal bench + Of British Themis, with no mean applause, + Pronounced, and in his volumes taught, our laws, + Which others at their bar so often wrench, + To-day deep thoughts resolve with me to drench 5 + In mirth that after no repenting draws; + Let Euclid rest, and Archimedes pause, + And what the Swede intend, and what the French. + To measure life learn thou betimes, and know + Toward solid good what leads the nearest way; 10 + For other things mild Heaven a time ordains, + And disapproves that care, though wise in show, + That with superfluous burden loads the day, + And, when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains. + + + XXII. + + TO THE SAME. + + Cyriack, this three years' day these eyes, though clear, + To outward view, of blemish or of spot, + Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot; + Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear + Of sun, or moon, or star, throughout the year, 5 + Or man, or woman. Yet I argue not + Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot + Of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer + Right onward. What supports me, dost thou ask? + The conscience, friend, to have lost them overplied 10 + In Liberty's defence, my noble task, + Of which all Europe rings from side to side. + This thought might lead me through the world's vain mask + Content, though blind, had I no better guide. + + + XXIII. + + ON HIS DECEASED WIFE + + Methought I saw my late espoused saint + Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave, + Whom Jove's great son to her glad husband gave, + Rescued from Death by force, though pale and faint. + Mine, as whom washed from spot of child-bed taint 5 + Purification in the Old Law did save, + And such as yet once more I trust to have + Full sight of her in Heaven without restraint, + Came vested all in white, pure as her mind. + Her face was veiled; yet to my fancied sight 10 + Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined + So clear as in no face with more delight. + But, oh! as to embrace me she inclined, + I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night. + + + + + NOTES. + + + + + ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY. + + +From his sixteenth year Milton had been wont to write freely in Latin +verse, on miscellaneous poetic themes, sometimes expressing his thoughts +on events of the day, and sometimes addressing letters to his friends on +purely personal matters. From these Latin poems, which therefore in some +sense belong to English literature, we obtain valuable insight into his +course of life and his way of thinking. What Milton wrote in foreign +languages is indispensable for the information it gives us about +himself--its content is important; but as poetry implies a fusing of +content and form into an artistic unity, if one of these elements is +foreign, the result is nondescript and cannot be ranged under the head of +English literature in the strict sense of the term. + +It is in one of Milton's own Latin pieces that we find our best +commentary on the Hymn on the Nativity. The sixth Latin Elegy is an +epistle to his intimate college friend, "Charles Diodati making a stay in +the country," the last twelve lines of which may be freely translated as +follows:-- + +But if you shall wish to know what I am doing,--if indeed you think it +worth your while to know whether I am doing anything at all,--we are +singing the peace-bringing king born of heavenly seed, and the happy ages +promised in the sacred books, and the crying of the infant God lying in a +manger under a poor roof, who dwells with his father in the realms above; +and the starry sky, and the squadrons singing on high, and the gods +suddenly driven away to their own fanes. Those gifts we have indeed given +to the birthday of Christ; that first light brought them to me at dawn. +Thee also they await sung to our native pipes; thou shalt be to me in +lieu of a judge for me to read them to. + +This means, of course, that the poet is composing a Christmas Hymn in his +native language. We must note his age at this time,--twenty-one years: he +is a student at Cambridge. The poem remains the great Christmas hymn in +our literature. "The Ode on the Nativity," says Professor Saintsbury, "is +a test of the reader's power to appreciate poetry." + +In four stanzas the poet speaks in his own person: he too must, with the +wise men from the east, bring such gifts as he has, to offer to the +Infant God. His offering is the _humble ode_ which follows. We must take +note of the change in the metric form which marks the transition from the +introduction to the ode. In the stanzas of the former the lines all have +five accents, except the last, which has six; while in the latter, four +lines have three accents each, one has four, two have five, and one has +six. Notice also the occasional hypermetric lines, such as line 47. + +In connection with Milton's Hymn, read Alfred Domett's _It was the calm +and silent night_. + + +5. For so the holy sages once did sing. See Par. Lost XII 324. + +6. our deadly forfeit should release. Compare Par. Lost III 221, and see +the idea of _releasing a forfeit_ otherwise expressed in the Merchant of +Venice IV 1 24. + +10. he wont. This is the past tense of the verb _wont_, meaning to _be +accustomed_. See the present, Par. Lost I 764, and the participle, I 332. + +15. thy sacred vein. See _vein_ in the same sense, Par. Lost VI 628. + +19. the Sun's team. Compare Comus 95, and read the story of Phaethon in +Ovid's Metamorphoses II 106. + +24. prevent them with thy humble ode. See _prevent_ in this sense, in +Shakespeare's Julius Caesar V 1 105, and in Psalm XXI 3. + +28. touched with hallowed fire. See Acts II 3. On the meaning of secret, +compare Par. Lost X 32. + +41. Pollute is the participle, exactly equivalent to _polluted_. + +48. the turning sphere. For poetical purposes Milton everywhere adopts +the popular astronomy of his day, which was based on the ancient, i.e. +the Ptolemaic, or geocentric system of the universe. Copernicus had +already taught the modern, heliocentric theory of the solar system, and +his innovations were not unknown to Milton, who, however, consistently +adheres to the old conceptions. In Milton, therefore, we find the earth +the centre of the visible universe, while the sun, the planets, and the +fixed stars revolve about it in their several _spheres_. These spheres +are nine in number, arranged concentrically, like the coats of an onion, +about the earth, and, if of solid matter, are to be conceived as being of +perfectly transparent crystal. Beginning with the innermost, they present +themselves in the following order: the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, +Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Fixed Stars, the Primum Mobile. In Par. Lost +III 481, the ninth sphere appears as "that crystalline sphere whose +balance weighs the trepidation talked," and the Primum Mobile, or the +first moved, becomes the tenth and outermost of the series. The last two +spheres contain no stars. + +We see, then, what we must understand by the oft-recurring _spheres_ in +Milton's poetry. In the line, _Down through the turning sphere_, however, +the singular _sphere_ is obviously used to mean the whole aggregate of +spheres composing the starry universe. + +50. With turtle wing. With the wing of a turtle-dove. + +56. The hooked chariot. War chariots sometimes had scythes, or hooks, +attached to their axles. See 2 Maccabees XIII 2. + +60. sovran. Milton always uses this form in preference to _sovereign_. + +62. the Prince of Light. Note the corresponding epithet applied to Satan, +Par. Lost X 383. + +64. The winds, with wonder whist. The word _whist_, originally an +interjection, becomes an adjective, as here and in The Tempest I 2 378. + +66. Make three syllables of Oceaen, and make it rhyme with _began_. + +68. birds of calm. The birds referred to are doubtless halcyons. Dr. +Murray defines halcyon thus: "A bird of which the ancients fabled that it +bred about the time of the winter solstice in a nest floating on the sea, +and that it charmed the wind and waves so that the sea was specially calm +during the period; usually identified with a species of kingfisher, hence +a poetic name of this bird." + +71. their precious influence. The word _influence_ is originally a term +of astrology,--"a flowing in, or influent course, of the planets; their +virtue infused into, or their course working on, inferior creatures" +(Skeat, _Etym. Dict._). + +73. For all the morning light. As in Burns's "We dare be poor for a' +that," _for_ meaning in spite of. + +74. Lucifer. See Par. Lost VII 131-133. + +81. As, for _as if_. + +86. Or ere the point of dawn. The two words _or ere_ mean simply +_before_, as in Hamlet I 2 147, "A little month, or ere those shoes were +old." _The point of dawn_ imitates the French _le point du jour_. + +88. Full little thought they than. _Than_ is an ancient form of _then_, +not wholly obsolete in Milton's day. + +89. the mighty Pan. The poet takes the point of view of the shepherds and +uses the name of their special deity. + +95. by mortal finger strook. Milton uses the three participle forms, +_strook, struck_, and _strucken_. + +98. As all their souls in blissful rapture took. The verb _take_ has here +the same meaning as in Hamlet I 1 163, "no fairy takes nor witch hath +power to charm." Thus also we say, a vaccination takes. + +103. Cynthia's seat. See Penseroso 59, and Romeo and Juliet III 5 20. + +108. Make the line rhyme properly, giving to union three syllables. + +112. The helmed cherubim. See Genesis III 24. + +113. The sworded seraphim. See Isaiah VI 2-6. + +116. With unexpressive notes, meaning beyond the power of human +expression. So in Lycidas 176; Par. Lost V 595; and in As You Like It, +"the fair, the chaste, and inexpressive she." + +119. But when of old the Sons of Morning sung. See Job XXXVIII 7. + +124. the weltering waves. Compare Lycidas 13. + +125. Ring out, ye crystal spheres. See note, line 48. The elder poetry is +full of the notion that the spheres in their revolutions made music, +which human ears are too gross to hear. See Merchant of Venice V 1 50-65. + +136. speckled Vanity. The leopard that confronts Dante in Canto I of +_Hell_ is beautiful with its dappled skin, but symbolizes vain glory. + +143. like glories wearing. The adjective _like_ means nothing without a +complement, though the complement sometimes has to be supplied, as in +this instance. Fully expressed the passage would be,--_wearing glories +like those of Truth and Justice_. The _like_ in such a case as this must +be spoken with a fuller tone than when its construction is completely +expressed. + +155. those ychained in sleep. The poets, in order to gain a syllable, +long continued to use the ancient participle prefix _y_. See _yclept_, +Allegro 12. + +157. With such a horrid clang. See Exodus XIX. + +168. The Old Dragon. See Revelation XII 9. + +173. Stanzas XIX-XXVI announce the deposition and expulsion of the pagan +deities, and the ruin of the ancient religions. In accordance with his +custom of grouping selected proper names in abundance, thus giving +vividness and concreteness to his story and sonority to his verse, the +poet here illustrates the triumph of the new dispensation by citing the +names of various gods from the Roman, Greek, Syrian, and Egyptian +mythologies. + +176. Apollo, the great god, whose oracle was at Delphi, or Delphos. + +179. spell, as in Comus 853, and often. + +186. Genius. A Latin word, signifying a tutelary or guardian spirit +supposed to preside over a person or place. See Lycidas 183, and +Penseroso 154. + +191. The Lars and Lemures. In the Roman mythology these were the spirits +of dead ancestors, worshipped or propitiated in families as having power +for good or evil over the fortunes of their descendants. + +194. Affrights the flamens. The Roman flamens were the priests of +particular gods. + +195. the chill marble seems to sweat. Many instances of this phenomenon +are reported. Thus Cicero, in his _De Divinatione_, tells us: "It was +reported to the senate that it had rained blood, that the river Atratus +had even flowed with blood, and that the statues of the gods had sweat." + +197. Peor and Baaelim. Syrian false gods. See Numbers XXV 3. + +199. that twice-battered god of Palestine. See I Samuel V 2. + +200. mooned Ashtaroth. See I Kings XI 33. + +203. The Lybic Hammon. "Hammon had a famous temple in Africa, where he +was adored under the symbolic figure of a ram." + +204. their wounded Thammuz. See Ezekiel VIII 14. + +205. sullen Moloch. See Par. Lost I 392-396. + +210. the furnace blue. Compare Arcades 52. + +212. Isis, and Orus, and the dog Anubis. Egyptian deities, the latter +figured as having the head of a dog. + +213. Nor is Osiris seen. Osiris was the principal god of the Egyptians, +brother and husband of Isis. His highest function was as god of the Nile. +He met his death at the hands of his brother Typhon, a deity of +sterility, by whom he was torn into fourteen pieces. Thereupon a general +lament was raised throughout Egypt. The bull Apis was regarded as the +visible incarnation of Osiris.--_Murray's Manual of Mythology_. + +215. the unshowered grass. Remember, this was in Egypt. + +223. his dusky eyn. This ancient plural of eye occurs several times in +Shakespeare, as in As You Like It IV 3 50. + +240. Heaven's youngest-teemed star. Compare Comus 175. + +241. Hath fixed her polished car. _Fix_ has its proper meaning, +_stopped_. The star "came and stood over where the young child was." + + + + + ON SHAKESPEARE. + + +The first edition of the collected works of Shakespeare, known as the +first folio, was published in 1623, when Milton was fifteen years old. +The second Shakespeare folio appeared in 1632. Among the commendatory +verses by various hands prefixed, after the fashion of the time, to the +latter volume, was a little piece of eight couplets, in which some then +unknown rhymer expressed his admiration of the great poet. Collecting his +poems for publication in 1645, Milton included these couplets, gave them +the date 1630, and the title _On Shakespeare_ which they have since borne +in his works. The fact that he wrote the verses two years before their +publication in the Shakespeare folio shows that he did not produce them +to order, for the special occasion. It is interesting to note that Milton +at twenty-two was an appreciative reader of Shakespeare. The lines +themselves give no hint of great poetic genius; they are a fair specimen +of the conventional, labored eulogy in vogue at the time. + + +4. star-ypointing. To make the decasyllabic verse, the poet takes the +liberty of prefixing to the present participle the _y_ which properly +belongs only to the past. + +8. a livelong monument. Instead of _livelong_, the first issue of the +lines, in the Shakespeare folio of 1632, has _lasting_. The change is +Milton's, appearing in his revision of his poems in 1645. Does it seem to +be an improvement? + +10-12. and that each heart hath ... took. The conjunction _that_ simply +repeats the _whilst_. + +11. thy unvalued book. In Hamlet I 3 19 _unvalued persons_ are persons of +no value, or of no rank. In Macbeth III 1 94 the _valued file_ is the +file that determines values or ranks. In Milton's phrase the _unvalued +book_ means the book whose merit is so great as to be beyond all +valuation: a new rank must be created for it. + +12. Those Delphic lines: lines so crowded with meaning as to seem the +utterances of an oracle. + +13. our fancy of itself bereaving: transporting us into an ecstasy, or +making us rapt with thought. + +14. Dost make _us_ marble with too much conceiving. The concentrated +attention required to penetrate Shakespeare's meaning makes statues of +us. + +15. Make the word sepulchred fit metrically into the iambic verse. + + + + + L'ALLEGRO AND IL PENSEROSO. + + +The year in which the poems were composed is uncertain. Masson regards +1632 as the probable date. + +The exquisite poems to which Milton gave the Italian titles +L'Allegro,--the mirthful, or jovial, man,--and Il Penseroso,--the +melancholy, or saturnine, man,--should be regarded each as the pendant +and complement of the other, and should be read as a single whole. The +poet knew both moods, and takes both standpoints with equal grace and +heartiness. The essential idea of thus contrasting the mirthful and the +melancholy temperament he found ready to his hand. Robert Burton had +prefaced his _Anatomy of Melancholy_, published in 1621, with a series of +not unpleasing, though by no means graceful, amoebean stanzas, in which +two speakers alternately represent Melancholy, one as sweet and divine, +and the other as harsh, sour, and damned. Undoubtedly Milton knew his +Burton. But if he got his main idea from this source, he made his poems +thoroughly Miltonic by his art of visualizing in delicious pictures the +various phases of his abstract theme. The poems are wholly poetical, +equally free from obscurity of thought and from obscurity of expression. + +Each poem is prefaced with a vigorous exorcism of the spirit to which it +is hostile. This is couched in alternate three and five accent iambics, +preparing a delicious rhythmic effect when the metre changes, in the +invocation, to the octosyllable, with or without anacrusis. + +In L'Allegro we accompany the mirthful man through an entire day of his +pleasures, from early morning to late evening. The melancholy man moves +through a programme less definitely and regularly planned. The scenes of +his delights are mostly in the hours of the night: when the sun is up, he +hides himself from day's garish eye. + + + L'Allegro. + + +2. Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born. Milton follows the example of +the ancient poets in announcing the parentage of the principal beings +whom he brings upon his stage. Moreover, he uses the ancient freedom in +assigning mythical pedigrees, not only adopting no authority as a canon, +but allowing his own fancy to invent origins as suits his purpose. He +knew the Greek and Latin poets, and assumed for himself the privilege +which they exercised of shaping the myths as they pleased. We are not +therefore to seek in Milton a reproduction of any system of mythology. +_Cerberus_ was the terrible three-headed dog of Pluto. His station was at +the entrance to the lower world, or the _Stygian cave_. + +3. The Stygian cave is so called from the Styx, the infernal river, "the +flood of deadly hate." + +5. some uncouth cell. _Uncouth_ may be used here in its original sense of +_unknown_, as in Par. Lost VIII 230. + +10. In dark Cimmerian desert. The Cimmerians were a people fabled by the +ancients to live in perpetual darkness. + +12. yclept is the participle of the obsolete verb _clepe_, with the +ancient prefix _y_, as in ychained, Hymn on the Nativity 155. + +15. two sister Graces more. Hesiod names, as the three Graces, +Euphrosyne, Aglaia, and Thalia, but he makes them the daughters of Zeus +and Eurynome. + +18. The frolic wind. See _frolic_ again as an adjective, Comus 59. + +24. So buxom, blithe, and debonair. See Shakespeare's Pericles, I Gower +23. All these words are interesting to look up for etymologies and +changes of meaning. + +25-36. We readily accept and understand the personification of Jest, +Jollity, Sport, Laughter, and Liberty, but the plurals, Quips, Cranks, +Wiles, Nods, Becks, Smiles, we do not manage quite so easily, especially +in view of the couplet 29-30. + +28. Smiles may be said to be wreathed because they inwreathe the face. +See Par. Lost III 361. + +33. trip it, as you go. So in Shakespeare, "I'll queen it no inch +further; Rather than fool it so; I'll go brave it at the court, lording +it in London streets." + +41. With this line begins a series of illustrations of the _unreproved +pleasures_ which L'Allegro is going to enjoy during a day of leisure. At +first the specified pleasures or occupations are introduced by +infinitives, _to hear, to come_; but the construction soon changes, as we +shall see. The first pleasure is To hear the lark, etc. 41-44. L'Allegro +begins his day with early morning. Here we must imagine him as having +risen and gone forth where he can see the sky and can look about him to +see what is going on in the farm-yard. + + 45-46. Then to come, in spite of sorrow, + And at my window bid good-morrow. + +It must be L'Allegro himself who comes to the window, and as he is +outside, he comes to look in through the shrubbery and bid good morning +to the cottage inmates, who are now up and about their work. The +pertinency of the phrase, _in spite of sorrow_, is not intelligible. + +53. Oft listening how the hounds and horn. This "pleasure" and the +next--_sometime walking_--are introduced with present participles. There +is no interruption of grammatical consistency. + +57. Sometime walking, not unseen. See the counterpart of this line, +Penseroso 65. Todd quotes the note of Bishop Hurd,--"Happy men love +witnesses of their joy: the splenetic love solitude." + +59. against, _i.e._ toward. + +62. The clouds in thousand liveries dight. _Dight_ is the participle of +the verb _to dight_, meaning to adorn. It is still used as an archaism. + +67. And every shepherd tells his tale. This undoubtedly means _counts the +number_ of his flock. In Shakespeare we find, to _tell_ money, years, +steps, a hundred. So _tale_ often means an enumeration, a number. +L'Allegro finds the shepherds in the morning counting their sheep, not +telling stories. + +68. With this line ends the long, loose sentence that began with line 37. +We now come to a full stop, and with line 69 begin a new sentence. + +70. the landskip. A word of late origin in English, of unsettled spelling +in Milton's day. + +71. Russet lawns. In Milton, _lawn_ means field or pasture. See Lycidas +25. + +77. In this line the subject, _mine eye_, is resumed. + +80. The cynosure of neighboring eyes. In the constellation Cynosure, +usually called the Lesser Bear, is the pole-star, to which very many eyes +are directed. + +81. A new "pleasure" is introduced, with a new grammatical subject. + +83. Where Corydon and Thyrsis met. The proper names in lines 83-88 add to +the poem a pleasing touch of pastoral simplicity and cheerfulness. They +are taken from the common stock of names, which, originally devised by +the Greek idyllists for their shepherds and shepherdesses, have by the +pastoral poets of all subsequent ages been appropriated to their special +use. Corydon and Thyrsis stand for farm-laborers, Phyllis and Thestylis +for their wives or housekeepers. The day of L'Allegro has now advanced to +dinner-time. Phyllis has been preparing the frugal meal, as we could +surmise from the smoking chimney. As soon as the dinner is over the women +go out to work with the men in the harvest field. + +87. bower means simply _dwelling_. + +90. In the tanned haycock we see the hay dried and browned by the sun. + +91. The scene changes and brings yet another "pleasure." secure delight +is delight without care, _sine cura_. See Samson Agonistes 55. + +96. in the chequered shade. They danced under trees through whose foliage +the sunlight filtered. + +99. Evening comes on, and a new pleasure succeeds. Story-telling is now +in order. + +102. Sufficient information about Faery Mab can be got from Romeo and +Juliet I 4 53-95. + +103-104. She, _i.e._ one of the maids; And he,--one of the youths. The +Friar's lantern is the ignis fatuus, or will-o'-the-wisp, fabled to lead +men into dangerous marshes. + +105. A connective is lacking to make the syntax sound: the subject of +tells must be _he_. the drudging goblin. This is Robin Goodfellow, known +to readers of fairy tales. Ben Jonson makes him a character in his Court +Masque, Love Restored, where he is made to recount many of his pranks, +and says, among other things, "I am the honest plain country spirit, and +harmless, Robin Goodfellow, he that sweeps the hearth and the house +clean, riddles for the country maids, and does all their other drudgery." + +109. could not end. Dr. Murray gives this among other quotations as an +instance of the verb _end_ meaning _to put into the barn, to get in._ So +in Coriolanus V 6 87. + +110. the lubber fiend. This goblin is loutish in shape and +fiendish-looking, though so good to those who treat him well. + +115. Thus done the tales. An absolute construction, imitating the Latin +ablative absolute. + +117. The country folk having gone early to bed, tired with their day's +labor, L'Allegro hastes to the city, where the pleasures of life are +prolonged further into the night. + +120. In weeds of peace, high triumphs hold. This must mean such things as +masques and revelries among the upper classes. + +122. Rain influence. See note on Hymn on the Nativity 71. + +124. What is the antecedent of whom? + +125. What ceremony is here introduced? + +128. Do not misunderstand the word mask. Its meaning becomes plain from +the context. + +131. To what pleasure does L'Allegro now betake himself? + +132. Among the dramatists of the Jacobean time Ben Jonson had especially +the repute of scholarship. The sock symbolizes comedy, as the buskin does +tragedy. Compare Il Penseroso 102. + + 133-134. Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, + Warble his native wood-notes wild. + +The couplet seems intended to convey the idea of a counterpart or +contrast to the _learned sock_ of Jonson. So considered, it is by no +means an unhappy characterization. + +135. The last of the "unreproved pleasures" that L'Allegro wishes he may +enjoy, seems not so much planned to follow the rest in sequence of time +as to accompany them and be diffused through them all. Observe the ever +in this line. The eating cares are a reminiscence of Horace's _curas +edaces_, Ode II 11 18. + +136. Lap me in soft Lydian airs. The three chief modes, or moods, of +Greek music were the _Lydian_, which was soft and pathetic; the _Dorian_, +especially adapted to war (see Par. Lost 550); and the _Phrygian_, which +was bold and vehement. + +138. the meeting soul. The soul, in its eagerness, goes forth to meet and +welcome the music. + +139. The word bout seems to point at a piece of music somewhat in the +nature of a round, or catch. + +145. That Orpheus' self may heave his head. Even Orpheus, who in his life +"drew trees, stones, and floods" by the power of his music, and who now +reposes in Elysium, would lift his head to listen to the strains that +L'Allegro would fain hear. + +149. Orpheus, with _his_ music, had succeeded in obtaining from Pluto +only a conditional release of his wife Eurydice. He was not to look back +upon her till he was quite clear of Pluto's domains. He failed to make +good the condition, and so again lost his Eurydice. + + + Il Penseroso. + +3. How little you bested. The verb _bested_ means _to avail, to be of +service_. It is not the same word that we find in Isaiah VIII 21, "hardly +bestead and hungry." + +6. fond here has its primitive meaning, _foolish_. Understand possess in +the sense in which it is used in the Bible,--"possessed with devils." + +10. Make two syllables of Morpheus. + +12. Note that while he invoked Mirth in L'Allegro under her Greek name +Euphrosyne, the poet finds no corresponding Greek designation for +Melancholy. To us Melancholy seems a name unhappily chosen. But see how +Milton applies it in line 62 below, and in Comus 546. To him the word +evidently connotes pensive meditation rather than gloomy depression. + +14. To hit the sense of human sight: to be gazed at by human eyes. + +18. Prince Memnon was a fabled Ethiopian prince, black, and celebrated +for his beauty. Recall Virgil's _nigri Memnonis arma_. + +19. that starred Ethiop queen. Cassiopeia, wife of the Ethiopian king +Cepheus, boasted that she was more beautiful than the Nereids, for which +act of presumption she was translated to the skies, where she became the +beautiful constellation which we know by her name. + +23. bright-haired Vesta. _Vesta_--in Greek, Hestia--"was the goddess of +the home, the guardian of family life. Her spotless purity fitted her +peculiarly to be the guardian of virgin modesty." + +30. Whilst yet there was no fear of Jove, _i.e._ before Saturn was +dethroned by Jupiter. + +33. All in a robe of darkest grain. In Par. Lost V 285, the third pair of +Raphael's wings have the color of _sky-tinctured grain_; and XI 242, his +vest is of purple livelier than "the grain of Sarra," or Tyrian purple. +This would leave us to infer that the robe of Melancholy is of a deep +rich color, so dark as to be almost black. Dr. Murray quotes from +Southey's _Thalaba_, "The ebony ... with darkness feeds its boughs of +raven grain." What objection is there to making the _grain_ in Milton's +passage _black_? + +35. And sable stole of cypress lawn. Dr. Murray thus defines _cypress +lawn_, "A light transparent material resembling cobweb lawn or crape; +like the latter it was, when black, much used for habiliments of +mourning." + +37. Come; but keep thy wonted state. Compare with this passage, L'Allegro +33. + +40. Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes. In Cymbeline I 6 51 we find the +present tense of the verb of which _rapt_ is the participle: "What, dear +Sir, thus raps you?" Do not confound this word with _rap_, meaning to +strike. + +42. Forget thyself to marble. With this compare On Shakespeare 14. + +43. With a sad leaden downward cast. So in Love's Labor's Lost IV 3 321, +"In leaden contemplation;" Othello III 4 177, "I have this while with +leaden thoughts been pressed." So also Gray in the Hymn to Adversity, +"With leaden eye that loves the ground." + +45-55. Compare the company which Il Penseroso entreats Melancholy to +bring along with her with that which L'Allegro wishes to see attending +Mirth. + +46. Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet. Only the rigid ascetic has +a spiritual ear so finely trained that he hears the celestial music. + +48. Aye, as their rhymes show, is always pronounced by the poets with the +vowel sound in _day_. + +53. the fiery-wheeled throne. See Daniel VII 9. + +54. The Cherub Contemplation. Pronounce _contemplation_ with five +syllables. It is difficult to form a distinct conception of the nature +and office of the _cherub_ of the Scriptures. Milton in many passages of +Par. Lost follows, with regard to the heavenly beings, the account given +by Dionysius the Areopagite in his Celestial Hierarchy. According to +Dionysius there were nine orders or ranks of beings in heaven, +namely,--seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, +principalities, archangels, angels. The cherubim have the special +attribute of knowledge and contemplation of divine things. + +55. hist, primarily an interjection commanding silence, becomes here a +verb. + +56. With the introduction of the nightingale comes the first intimation +of the time of day at which Il Penseroso conceives the course of his +satisfactions to begin. + +57. Everywhere else in Milton plight is used with its modern +connotations. + +59. The moon stops to hear the nightingale's song. + +65. Remember L'Allegro's _not unseen_. + +77. Up to this point Il Penseroso has been walking in the open air. + +78. removed,--remote, retired. + +87. As the Bear never sets, to outwatch him must mean to sit up all +night. + +88. With thrice great Hermes. "Hermes Trismegistos--Hermes +thrice-greatest--is the name given by the Neo-Platonists and the devotees +of mysticism and alchemy to the Egyptian god Thoth, regarded as more or +less identified with the Grecian Hermes, and as the author of all +mysterious doctrines, and especially of the secrets of alchemy." (The +_New Eng. Dicty._) To such studies the serious mediaeval scholars devoted +themselves. To unsphere the spirit of Plato is to call him from the +sphere in which he abides in the other world, or, simply, to take in hand +for study his writings on immortality. + +93-96. On the four classes of demons,--Salamanders, Sylphs, Nymphs, +Gnomes,--see Pope's Rape of the Lock. These demons are in complicity with +the planets and other heavenly bodies to influence mortals. + +97-102. Thebes, Pelops' line, and the tale of Troy are the staple +subjects of the great Attic tragedians. It seems strange that the poet +finds no occasion to name Shakespeare here, as well as in L'Allegro. + +104-105. Musaeus and Orpheus are semi-mythical bards, to whom is ascribed +a greatness proportioned to their obscurity. + +105-108. See note on L'Allegro, 149. + +109-115. Or call up him that left half-told. This refers to Chaucer and +to his Squieres Tale in the Canterbury Tales. It is left unfinished. Note +that Milton changes not only the spelling but the accent of the chief +character's name. Chaucer writes, "This noble king was cleped +Cambinskan." + +120. Stories in which more is meant than meets the ear refer to +allegories, like the Fairy Queen. + +121. Having thus filled the night with the occupations that he loves, Il +Penseroso now greets the morning, which he hopes to find stormy with wind +and rain. + +122. civil-suited Morn: _i.e._ Morn in the everyday habiliments of +business. + +123-124. Eos--Aurora, the Dawn--carried off several youths distinguished +for their beauty. the Attic boy is probably Cephalus, whom she stole from +his wife Procris. + +125. kerchieft in a comely cloud. _Kerchief_ is here used in its original +and proper sense. Look up its origin. + +126. The winds may be called rocking because they visibly rock the trees, +or because they shake houses. + +127. Or ushered with a shower still. The shower falls gently, without +wind. + +130. With minute-drops from off the eaves. After the rain has ceased, and +while the thatch is draining, the drops fall at regular intervals for a +time,--as it were, a drop every minute. Il Penseroso listens with +contentment to the wind, the rustling rain-fall on the leaves, and the +monotonous patter of the drops when the rain is over. + +131. The shower is past, and the sun appears, but Il Penseroso finds its +beams flaring and distasteful. He seeks covert in the dense groves. + +134. Sylvan is the god of the woods. + +135. The monumental oak is so called from its great age and size. + +140. Consciously nursing his melancholy, Il Penseroso deems the wood that +hides him a sacred place, and resents intrusion as a profanation. + +141. Hide me from day's garish eye. See Richard III. IV 4 89, Romeo and +Juliet III 2 25. + +142. While the bee with honeyed thigh. Is this good apiology? + +146. Entice the dewy-feathered Sleep. Note that sleep is represented as +having feathers. These feathers, in their soft, gentle movement and in +their refreshing effect are likened to dew. The figure is a common one +with the poets. In Par. Lost IX 1044, Milton has,--"till dewy sleep +oppressed them." Cowper, Iliad II, 41, has,--"Awaking from thy dewy +slumbers." + +148. his refers to the _dewy-feathered sleep_. Il Penseroso asks that a +strange, mysterious dream, hovering close by the wings of sleep, and +lightly pictured in a succession of vivid forms, may be laid on his +eye-lids. + +155-166. The word studious in line 156 determines that the passage refers +to college life and not to church attendance. The old English colleges +have their cloisters, and these have much the same architectural features +as do churches. + +157. embowed means vaulted, or bent like a _bow_. + +158. massy-proof: massive and proof against all failure to support their +load. + +159. And storied windows richly dight. Compare L'Allegro, 62. + +170. The best possible comment on this use of the verb spell is Milton's +own language, Par. Regained IV 382, where Satan, addressing the Son of +God, thus speaks:-- + + Now, contrary, if I read aught in Heaven, + Or Heaven write aught of fate, by what the stars + Voluminous, or single characters + In their conjunction met, give me to spell, + Sorrows and labors, opposition, hate, + Attends thee; scorns, reproaches, injuries, + Violence and stripes, and, lastly, cruel death. + +Il Penseroso's aspiration is that as an astrologer he may learn the +influence of every star and that he may come to know the virtue of every +herb. + + + + + ARCADES. + + +The noble persons of the family of the Countess Dowager of Derby were +fortunate enough to obtain the services of the poet John Milton to aid in +the composition of a mask, which they presented to her ladyship at her +residence in the country. Arcades--the Arcadians--is Milton's +contribution to this performance. In date the poem precedes Comus, which +is known to have been composed in 1634. + +On the meaning of the term _mask_, as applied to a dramatic form, see +introductory note on Comus. + + +20. Latona (or Leto) was the mother of Apollo and Diana by Zeus. + +21. the towered Cybele is Virgil's Berecyntia Mater, the Phrygian mother, +who, wearing her mural crown, drives in her chariot through the cities of +Phrygia. She was conceived as one of the very oldest deities, and as +mother of a hundred gods. See AEneid VI 785. + +28. Of famous Arcady ye are. Arcadia, in the Peloponnesus, was peculiarly +the home of music and song, especially among the shepherds. See Virgil, +Eclogue VII 4-5. + +30. Divine Alpheus. See note on Lycidas 132. + +46. curl the grove: bestow upon the grove dense, crisp foliage. + +47. With ringlets quaint and wanton windings wove. The grove is +intersected with a maze of circling and purposeless paths. + +49. noisome: full of annoyance, injurious. See Par. Lost XI 478. blasting +vapors. See note on Comus 640. + +51. thwarting thunder blue. Compare Julius Caesar I 3 50, "the cross blue +lightning." + +52. the cross dire-looking planet. Cross means _adverse, unfavorable_. +See note on _influence_, Hymn on the Nativity 71. + +54. evening gray. See note on Lycidas 187. + +60. murmurs. Compare Comus 526. + +63. the celestial Sirens' harmony. The Sirens are here advanced to a high +function and given a new Epithet. Compare Comus 253. + +64. the nine infolded spheres. See note on Hymn on Nativity 48. + +65-66. See note on Lycidas 75. + +69. the daughters of Necessity: the Fates. + +72-73. which none can hear Of human mould with gross unpurged ear. +Compare Merchant of Venice V 1 64. + +87. touch the warbled string: the string that is accompanied with the +voice. See Il Penseroso 106. + +97. Ladon, a river of Arcadia, flowing into the Alpheus. + +98. Lycaeus and Cyllene, mountains of Arcadia. + +100. Erymanth. Erymanthus is a range of mountains separating Arcadia from +Achaia and Elis. + +102. Maenalus, another mountain of Arcadia. + +106. Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were. Syrinx was an Arcadian +nymph, who, being pursued by Pan, threw herself into the Ladon, where she +was metamorphosed into a reed, of which the shepherds thereafter made +their pipes. + + + + + AT A SOLEMN MUSIC. + + +The poet listens to what in the phrase of his time is a _solemn music_, +but which we should name a sacred concert. The poem is unalloyed lyric, +expressing the rapture to which the music has lifted his soul. We must +remember that Milton was himself an amateur musician, and in his days of +darkness found habitual diversion at his organ. Indications of a +susceptible and appreciative ear for musical harmony are frequent +throughout the poems. + + +7. the sapphire-colored throne. See Ezekiel I 26. + +27. consort is the word from which we derive our _concert_. + + + + + COMUS. + + +During the reigns of Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I., the _mask_ was +one of the most popular forms of dramatic entertainment. Having a +function and a character peculiar to itself, it flourished side by side +with the regular plays of the theatrical stage, and gave large scope to +the genius of poets, composers, and scenic artists. + +The mask was usually designed to grace some important occasion, in which +members of the upper classes of society, or even royal personages, were +concerned. When the occasion called for particularly brilliant display, +and had been long foreseen, the preparations for it would involve immense +outlays for costumes, theatrical machinery, for new music, and for a +libretto by a play-writer of the greatest note. When the mask was purely +a private one, like Arcades and Comus, it was all the fashion for the +gentle youths and maidens, for gentlemen and ladies of the highest rank, +to take upon themselves the parts of the drama, to rehearse them +assiduously, and finally to enact them on the private stage or on the +lawn in the presence of a select audience. + +The mask thus differentiated itself from the stage play in that it was +not given for the pecuniary behoof of a company of actors, but +represented rather expenditure for the simple purpose of producing grand +effects. To act in a mask was an honor, when common players were social +outcasts. The mask was got up for the occasion, and was not intended to +keep the boards and attract a paying public. When the august ceremonial +was over, the poet had his manuscript, to increase the bulk of his works, +and the composer had his score, to furnish airs that might be played and +sung in drawing-rooms if they had the good fortune to be popular. + +Such was the origin of the poem which Milton, in all the editions +published during his lifetime, entitled simply "A Maske presented at +Ludlow Castle, 1634," but which editors since his day have agreed to name +Comus. + +The occasion of the poem was the coming of the Earl of Bridgewater to +Ludlow Castle, to enter upon his official residence there as Lord +President of Wales. The person chiefly concerned in the scenic, musical, +and histrionic preparations of the mask was Milton's esteemed friend, the +most accomplished musical composer of the day, Henry Lawes. Lawes +composed the music and arranged the stage business. He seems to have +taken upon himself the part of the Attendant Spirit. Lawes knew to whom +to apply for the all-important matter of the book, the words, or the +poetry, of the piece, for he had learned to know Milton's qualifications +as a mask-poet in the fragment which we have under the name _Arcades_. +With good music even for commonplace lyric verse, and with sprightly +declamation even of conventional dialogue, the thing, as we know from +modern instances, might have been carried off by gorgeous costumes and +shrewdly devised scenic effects. Most of the masks of the time fell at +once into oblivion. But Lawes had secured for his poet John Milton; and +the consequence thereof is that the Earl of Bridgewater is now chiefly +heard of because at Ludlow Castle there was enacted, in the form of a +mask written by Milton, a drama which is still read and reread by every +English-speaking person who reads any serious poetry, though Ludlow +Castle has long been a venerable ruin. + +For his plot, the poet feigned that the young children of the earl, two +sons and a daughter, in coming to Ludlow, had to pass unattended through +a forest, in which the boys became separated from the girl and she fell +into the hands of the enchanter Comus. The Attendant Spirit appears to +the youths with his magic herb, and with the further assistance of the +water-nymph Sabrina, at last makes all right, and the children are +restored to their parents in the midst of festive rejoicing. + +The poem is dramatic, because it is acted and spoken or sung in character +by its persons. It is allegorical, because it inculcates a moral, and +more is meant than meets the ear. In parts it is pastoral, both because +the chief personage appears in the guise of a shepherd, and because its +motive largely depends on the superstitions and traditions of simple, +ignorant folk. In the longer speeches, where events are narrated with +some fulness, it becomes epic. Lastly, in its songs, in the octosyllables +of the magician, and in the adjuration and the thanking of Sabrina, it is +lyric. With iambic pentameter as the basis of the dialogue, the poet +varies his measures as Shakespeare does his, and with very similar ends +in view. + +The name _Comus_ Milton found ready to his hand. As a common noun, the +Greek word _comus_ signifies carousal,--wassail. In the later classic +period it had become a proper name, standing for a personification of +nocturnal revelry, and a god Comus was frequently depicted on vases and +in mural paintings. Philostratus, in his _Ikones_,--or _Pictures_,--gives +an interesting description of a painting of this god. See Encyclopaedia +Britannica, article _Comus_. Ben Jonson, in his mask, _Pleasure +Reconciled to Virtue_, played in 1619, presents a Comus as "the god of +cheer, or the belly, riding in triumph, his head crowned with roses and +other flowers, his hair curled." The character and the name were the +common property of mask-writers. + +The great distinction of Comus is its beauty, maintained at height +through a thousand lines of supremely perfect verse. Greatly dramatic it +of course is not. It yields its meaning to the most cursory reading; it +has no mystery. It is simply beautiful, with a sustained beauty elsewhere +unparalleled. + + +The following letter of Sir Henry Wotton to the Author deserves to be +read both for its engaging style as a piece of English prose and for its +exquisite characterization of Comus. Wotton was a versatile scholar, +diplomat, and courtier, seventy years old at the time of this letter, +with a reputation as a kindly and appreciative literary critic. He was +now residing at Eton College, where he held the office of Provost. +Milton, thirty years of age, the first edition of his Comus recently +published anonymously, had good cause for elation over such a testimonial +from such a source. + + "From the College, this 13 of April, 1638. + +"Sir, + +"It was a special favour when you lately bestowed upon me here the first +taste of your acquaintance, though no longer than to make me know that I +wanted more time to value it and to enjoy it rightly; and, in truth, if I +could then have imagined your farther stay in these parts, which I +understood afterwards by Mr. H., I would have been bold, in our vulgar +phrase, to mend my draught (for you left me with an extreme thirst), and +to have begged your conversation again, jointly with your said learned +friend, over a poor meal or two, that we might have banded together some +good Authors of the ancient time; among which I observed you to have been +familiar. + +"Since your going, you have charged me with new obligations, both for a +very kind letter from you dated the 6th of this month, and for a dainty +piece of entertainment which came therewith. Wherein I should much +commend the tragical part, if the lyrical did not ravish me with a +certain Doric delicacy in your Songs and Odes, whereunto I must plainly +confess to have seen yet nothing parallel in our language: _Ipsa +mollities_. But I must not omit to tell you that I now only owe you +thanks for intimating unto me (how modestly soever) the true artificer. +For the work itself I had viewed some good while before with singular +delight; having received it from our common friend Mr. R., in the very +close of the late R.'s Poems, printed at Oxford: whereunto it was added +(as I now suppose) that the accessory might help out the principal, +according to the art of Stationers, and to leave the reader _con la bocca +dolce_. + +"Now, Sir, concerning your travels; wherein I may challenge a little more +privilege of discourse with you. I suppose you will not blanch Paris in +your way: therefore I have been bold to trouble you with a few lines to +Mr. M. B., whom you shall easily find attending the young Lord S. as his +governor; and you may surely receive from him good directions for the +shaping of your farther journey into Italy where he did reside, by my +choice, some time for the King, after mine own recess from Venice. + +"I should think that your best line will be through the whole length of +France to Marseilles, and thence by sea to Genoa; whence the passage into +Tuscany is as diurnal as a Gravesend barge. I hasten, as you do, to +Florence or Siena, the rather to tell you a short story, from the +interest you have given me in your safety. + +"At Siena I was tabled in the house of one Alberto Scipioni, an old Roman +courtier in dangerous times; having been steward to the Duca di Pagliano, +who with all his family were strangled, save this only man that escaped +by foresight of the tempest. With him I had often much chat of those +affairs, into which he took pleasure to look back from his native +harbour; and at my departure toward Rome (which had been the centre of +his experience), I had won his confidence enough to beg his advice how I +might carry myself there without offence of others or of mine own +conscience. '_Signor Arrigo mio_,' says he, '_I pensieri stretti ed il +viso sciolto_ will go safely over the whole world.' Of which Delphian +oracle (for so I have found it) your judgment doth need no commentary; +and therefore, Sir, I will commit you, with it, to the best of all +securities, God's dear love, remaining + +"Your friend, as much to command as any of longer date, + + "Henry Wotton." + + _Postscript._ + +"Sir: I have expressly sent this my footboy to prevent your departure +without some acknowledgment from me of the receipt of your obliging +letter; having myself through some business, I know not how, neglected +the ordinary conveyance. In any part where I shall understand you fixed, +I shall be glad and diligent to entertain you with home-novelties, even +for some fomentation of our friendship, too soon interrupted in the +cradle." + + +The Latin phrase, _ipsa mollities_, may be translated,--it is the very +perfection of delicacy. The Italian words below mean,--My dear Henry, +thoughts close, face open. + + +1. Before the starry threshold of Jove's court. The attendant spirit not +only announces himself as a dweller in heaven, but he specifies his +particular function among the celestials: he is doorkeeper in the house +of God. + +3. insphered. Compare Il Penseroso 88. + +7. Confined and pestered. _Pester_ has its primitive meaning, to clog or +encumber. In this pinfold here. _Pinfold_ is probably not connected with +the verb to pen, but is a shortened form of poundfold, and means, +literally, an enclosure for stray cattle. + +10. After this mortal change: after this life on earth, which is subject +to death. + +11. Amongst the enthroned gods. Make but two syllables of _enthroned_, +and accent the first. + +The long sentence ending with line 11 is very loose in construction: the +_and_ in line 7 is a cooerdinate conjunction, but does not connect +cooerdinate elements. + +13. To lay their just hands on that golden key. Compare Lycidas 110. + +16. these pure ambrosial weeds. Ambrosial has its proper +meaning,--pertaining to the immortals. + +20. by lot 'twixt high and nether Jove. Neptune drew lots with Jupiter +and Pluto. To Jupiter fell the region of the upper air, to Pluto the +lower world, and to Neptune the sea. The ancient poets sometimes spoke of +Jupiter and Pluto as the upper and the lower Jove. + +25. By course commits to several government: in due order he assigns the +islands to his tributaries, giving them an island apiece. + +27. But this Isle is so large that he has to divide it. + +29. Consider quarters to mean nothing more than divides. his blue-haired +deities. The epithet is conventional, taken from the Greek poets, and +probably has no special significance in this passage. + +31. A noble Peer. This connects the poem with actual persons and +announces its occasion. The noble peer is the Earl of Bridgewater, and +the event which is to be celebrated is his appointment to the +Vice-royalty of Wales. + +33. The old and haughty nation are the Welsh. + +34. his fair offspring are two sons and a daughter, who are to play the +parts of the Two Brothers and the Lady in the mask. + +37. the perplexed paths of this drear wood. Compare Par. Lost IV 176. + +41. sovran. See note on Hymn on the Nativity 60. + +45. in hall or bower. Hall and bower are conventionally coupled by the +poets to signify the dwellings, respectively, of the gentry and the +laboring classes. + +46. The transformation by Bacchus of the treacherous Tuscan sailors into +dolphins belongs to the established myths of that god. But Milton +exercises his right as a poet to add to the classic story whatever suits +his purposes. + +48. After the Tuscan mariners transformed; a Latinism, meaning, after the +transformation of the Tuscan mariners. + +50. fell: chanced to land. + +For the story of Circe, see the Odyssey X. + +58. Understand that no such distinct character as Comus belongs to the +received mythology. Milton is a myth-maker. + +59. frolic is used as an adjective, as in L'Allegro 18. + +60. the Celtic and Iberian fields. The god traversed Gaul and Spain, on +his way to Britain. + +61. ominous: abounding in mysterious signs of danger. + +65. His orient liquor. See line 673 of this poem. + +72. Note that only the countenance is changed. + +87. Well knows to still the wild winds. The poem moves throughout in the +realm of romance. The swain Thyrsis is in his own character a +practitioner of magic. + +88. nor of less faith. Thyrsis has just been described as a person of +great skill. + +90. Likeliest: most likely to be. + +93. The transition from the stately mood of the Attendant Spirit's +exordium to the noisy exhilaration of Comus is marked by appropriate +changes in the verse. Comus speaks in a lyric strain, and his tone is +exultant. When he comes to serious business, in line 145, he also employs +blank-verse. The lyric lines, 93-144, rhyme in couplets, and vary in +length, most of them having four accents, while some have five. The +four-accent lines vary between seven and eight syllables, many of them +dropping the initial light syllable, or anakrusis (Auftakt). These +seven-syllable lines have a trochaic effect, but are to be scanned as +iambic, the standard rhythm of the poem. The star that bids the shepherd +fold. So Collins, in his ode To Evening,--"For when thy folding-star +arising shows His paly circlet." See also Measure for Measure IV 2 218. + +96. doth allay: doth cool. + +97. The epithet steep is applied to the ocean, though really it is the +course of the downward-moving sun that is steep. + +99-101. Milton uses pole, as the poets were wont to do, to mean the sky; +and the passage means,--the sun, moving about the earth in his oblique +course, now shines upon that part of the heavens which, when it is +daylight to us, is in shadow. + +105. with rosy twine; with twined, or wreathed, roses. + +108-109. Advice ... Age ... Severity. For these abstract terms substitute +their concretes. + +110. their grave saws. So Hamlet I 5 100, "all saws of books." + +116. in wavering morrice. See M. N. Dream II 1 98; All's Well II 2 25. + +118. the dapper elves. _Dapper_ is akin to the German _tapfer_, but with +a very different connotation. + +124. Love: the Latin Amor, the Greek Eros, and our Cupid. + +129. Dark-veiled Cotytto was a Thracian goddess, whose worship was +connected with licentious frivolity. + +133. makes one blot of all the air. Compare line 204 of this poem. + +135. thou ridest with Hecat'. _Hecate_ was a goddess of the lower world, +mistress of witchcraft and the black arts. + +139. The nice Morn. _Nice_ is used in a disparaging sense, meaning over +particular, minutely critical. + +140. From her cabined loop-hole peep. As if morn dwelt in a cabin and +clandestinely peeped from a small window. + +141. descry must here mean reveal. + +144. In a light fantastic round. Recall L'Allegro 34. Comus and his crew +are now dancing. + +147. shrouds: hiding-places. See the verb, line 316. + +151. my wily trains. _Trains_ are tricks, as in Macbeth IV 3 118. + +154. The air is spongy because it absorbs his magic dust. + +155. blear, usually applied to eyes, here refers to the effect of seeing +objects with blear eyes. + +174. the loose unlettered hinds. The hinds are farm-servants, usually +with an implication of rudeness and rusticity, and they are loose because +unrestrained in speech and act by considerations of propriety. + +177. amiss: in wrong or unseemly ways. + +178. swilled is a very contemptuous word. + +179. wassailers. See Macbeth I 7 64. The word has an interesting +etymology. + +188. the grey-hooded Even. Milton is fond of applying the epithet _gray_ +to the evening and the dawn. See Par. Lost IV 598, Lycidas 187. + +189. Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed. The votarist is one who has +made a vow. In this case he goes on a pilgrimage, carrying a palm branch, +and wearing the pilgrim garb. + +203. the tumult of loud mirth was rife. As to the meaning of _rife_ +compare Sam. Ag. 866 and Par. Lost I 650. + +204. Yet nought but single darkness do I find. The darkness is unbroken +by any ray of light. + +210. may startle well, but not astound. _Astound_ is a strong word. See +Par. Lost I 281. + +212. a strong siding champion: a champion who sides with the virtuous +mind. + +222. her silver lining. Note Milton's avoidance of the possessive _its_. +In all his verse he uses _its_ but three times. + +231. Within thy airy shell. The _airy shell_ in which Echo lives must be +the "hollow round" of the atmosphere. Compare Hymn on the Nativity +100-103. + +232. The Meander is the river of Asia Minor, famous for its windings. + +233-237. The mention of the nightingale and Narcissus in this passage +suggests that it may be a reminiscence of the chorus in the Oedipus +Coloneus,--"Of this land of goodly steeds, O stranger." + +237. Echo's passion for the beautiful Narcissus was not requited, and she +pined away till she became a mere voice, which she could not utter till +she was spoken to. + +241. Daughter of the Sphere: daughter of the air, which forms a hollow +sphere about the earth. + +243. And give resounding grace to all Heaven's harmonies: by echoing back +the music of the spheres. + +249-252. Even darkness smiled, as if acknowledging itself agreeably +caressed by the strains of the lady's song. + +251. At every fall. _Fall_, as a musical term, is "a sinking down or +lowering of the note or voice; cadence" (New Eng. Dict.). + +253. the Sirens dwelt on an island near Sicily, and by their sweet song +allured mariners to destruction. See Odyssey XII. + +254. the Naiades were nymphs attendant on Circe and the Sirens. + +257. And lap it in Elysium. Compare L'Allegro 136. + +257-259. Scylla and Charybdis were dangerous rocks and whirlpools on +opposite sides of the strait of Messina. They were personified as cruel +sea-monsters. + +260. Yet they: Circe and the Sirens. + +267. Unless the goddess. Supply _thou art_. + +273. extreme shift: a pressing necessity of devising some expedient. + +289. Were they of manly prime or youthful bloom? Were they in the prime +of adult manhood, or in the bloom of youth? + +277-290. These fourteen lines are an instance of "stichomythia, or +conversation in alternate lines, which was always popular on the Attic +stage. This scheme of versification is used chiefly in excited +discussions, where the speakers are hurried along by the eagerness of +their feelings."--Haigh, _The Tragic Drama of the Greeks_. + +292. An ox in traces would now be a rare sight. + +294. a green mantling vine. See Par. Lost IV 258. + +299. gay creatures of the element: creatures of the air,--supernatural +beings. + +301. And play i' the plighted clouds. Probably the poet means the +_plaited_, or _pleated_, clouds, conceiving the clouds as appearing +folded together. I was awe-strook. See Hymn on the Nativity 95. + +316. Or shroud within these limits. _Shroud_ as a noun we saw above, line +147. + +318. From her thatched pallet rouse. The lark builds on the ground, +seeking a spot protected by overarching stems of grass or grain, which +may be called a natural thatch; and if this protection is destroyed by +mowers or reapers, the bird will at once take pains to build a roof or +thatch over the nest, completely covering it, and for a door will make an +opening on the side. + +325. where it first was named. The derivation of the words _courteous_ +and _courtesy_ from _court_ is obvious. + +327. Less warranted than this, or less secure. The lady says that she +cannot be in any place less guaranteed than this against evil, and that +she cannot anywhere be less free from anxiety. Her situation she +conceives to be as bad as it can be. + +329. square my trial To my proportioned strength: make my trial +proportionate to my strength. + +332. That wont'st to love. _Wont'st_, in the present tense, means, as we +say, art wont. + +333. Stoop thy pale visage. Stoop is thus used, transitively, Richard II. +III 1 19, "myself ... have stooped my neck." + +334. And disinherit Chaos, that reigns here. _Chaos_, "the formless void +of primordial matter," is personified by Milton here and, much more +conspicuously, in Par. Lost III. + +338. a rush-candle: a candle made with a rush for a wick,--the cheapest +kind of light. from the wicker hole Of some clay habitation. Imagine a +hut whose walls are made of wattled twigs plastered with clay. This clay +when dry is apt to fall off in spots, leaving holes through which the +light within can be seen from without. A wicker hole is a hole in the +wicker-work, perhaps made intentionally, to serve as a window. + +341-342. The star of Arcady is the constellation of the Greater Bear, and +the Tyrian Cynosure that of the Lesser Bear. Stars in these +constellations served as guides to Greek and Tyrian mariners. + +345. Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops. Compare Collins's Ode to +Evening,--_If aught of oaten stop, or pastoral song_. The shepherds of +the Greek idylls made their musical pipes of reeds or oat-straws, and the +oat has therefore been adopted by the pastoral poetry of all ages. + +349. innumerous boughs. Compare Par. Lost VII 455. + +358. Of savage hunger, or of savage heat: of hungry savages, or of +lustful savages. + +361. grant they be so: grant that they are real evils. + +365. Make four syllables of delusion. + +366. I do not think my sister so to seek: I do not think she has her +seeking, or learning, still to do: I do not think her so inexperienced. + +373-375. Is this practical doctrine? + +377. Make five syllables of Contemplation. + +380. Were all to-ruffled. The particle _to_--Anglo Saxon _to_, Modern +German _zer_--has disappeared from Modern English. In Old English it was +often used with the force of the Latin _dis_. So still in Chaucer, +_to-bete, to-cleve, to-rende_, and many others. + +386. affects: likes, has an affection for. + +390. weeds, as in line 84. + +393. the fair Hesperian tree. See line 983. + +394. had need the guard. An elliptical expression. _Need_ is a noun, but +is treated as if it were a verb. + +395. The dragon Ladon was not able to defend the apples of Hesperides +against Hercules. + +401. will wink on Opportunity: will fail to see its chance. + +404. it recks me not. The verb is thus used, impersonally, also in +Lycidas 122. + +407. The line has two hypermetric syllables, one after the third foot, +and one at the end. + +413. squint suspicion. An epithet applicable only to a physical infirmity +is applied to a mental act. + +422. quivered: bearing a quiver. + +423. unharbored: furnishing no shelter. + +424. Infamous hills. Accent _infamous_ as we do now and as Milton does +elsewhere. Verses thus beginning with trochees are common. + +429. Look up the origin of the word grots. + +430. unblenched: unstartled. + +434. Blue meagre hag. The _hag_ has the livid hue of hunger. + +436. swart faery of the mine. A malignant demon dwelling under ground,--a +gnome. + +441. the huntress Dian. The powerful goddess Diana, or Artemis, twin +sister of Apollo, was figured bearing a bow and arrows. + +448. wise Minerva. Minerva, or Pallas Athene, is usually represented as +wearing on her breast the aegis with a border of snakes and the Gorgon's +head in the centre. + +460-462. Note the different modes in begin and turns, where we should +look for similar constructions. + +487. The ellipsis of _we had_ is readily supplied. Draw and stand are +infinitives. + +494. Thyrsis, a stock shepherd-name. The spirit henceforth appears to his +fellow-actors in the mask as the shepherd with whom they are familiar. + +495-512. These lines express sudden emotion, and approximate lyric in +character. Hence the rhyme. + +508. How chance she is not. Supply the ellipsis. + +517. Chimeras is here used vaguely in the plural to mean dangerous +monsters. + +526. With many murmurs mixed. The enchanter spoke or sang forms of +incantation over his mixing and brewing. Recall Macbeth. + +529. The word mintage has an interesting history. The human countenance +is conceived as an imprint, like the characters on a coin. + +530. Charactered in the face. The _noun character_ Milton pronounces with +accent on the first syllable, as does Shakespeare. Probably he also +agrees with Shakespeare in pronouncing the _verb_ with the accent on the +second syllable, as this verse suggests. + +531. crofts. The word is still in use in England, meaning a small farm. + +540. by then the chewing flocks: by the time when, etc. + +547. To meditate my rural minstrelsy: to play on my shepherd-pipe and to +sing. To meditate the muse is a standard expression of the pastoral +poets. See Lycidas 66. + +552. What do we know was the cause of this unusual stop of sudden +silence? + +553-554. The cessation of the din gave to the steeds of sleep, and to +people who were trying to sleep, relief from annoyance. + +557-560. Be sure you understand the figure. + +560. Still, in its very frequent sense, _always_. + +562. Under the ribs of Death: in a skeleton. + +575. such two; describing them. + +586. Shall be unsaid for me: it is not necessary for me to make any +change in my opinion to make it harmonize with this new aspect of +affairs. + +595. Gathered like scum, and settled to itself. The two metaphors thus +combined make a rather strange mixture. + +598. The pillared firmament. By the _firmament_ is usually understood the +sphere of the fixed stars. How to introduce the conception of _pillars_ +is not clear. + +604. Acheron. See Par. Lost II 578. + +605. The Harpies were monstrous birds with women's heads. Their doings +are described AEneid III. The Hydra was a monster serpent with a hundred +heads. + +607. his purchase: his acquisition. + +610. I love thy courage yet, though thou hast spoken most unwisely. + +611. can do thee little stead: can avail thee but little. + +617. utmost shifts: most carefully devised precautions. + +620. Of small regard to see to: of very insignificant appearance. + +621. A virtuous plant is a plant which has virtues, i.e. powers or +qualities. + +624. Which when I did. The modern English has lost the power of beginning +a sentence thus, with two relatives. + +626. scrip, a word in no way connected with _script_. + +627. And show me simples of a thousand names. Compare Hamlet IV 7 145, +"no cataplasm so rare, Collected from all simples that have virtue Under +the moon." + +634. Unknown and like esteemed: neither known nor esteemed. + +635. Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon. See 2 Henry VI. IV 2 +195,--"Spare none but such as go in clouted shoon," and Hamlet IV 5 +26,--"By his cockle hat and staff, And his sandal shoon." + +636. The story of Hermes' giving Ulysses the Moly read in Odyssey X. +"Therewith the slayer of Argos gave me the plant that he had plucked from +the ground, and he showed me the growth thereof. It was black at the +root, but the flower was like to milk. Moly the gods call it, but it is +hard for mortal men to dig; howbeit with the gods all things are +possible." + +638. He called it Haemony. _Haemony_ is a nonce-word of Milton's own +coining. He may have derived it from a Greek word meaning _skilful_ or +from another meaning _blood_. + +640. mildew blast, or damp. _Blast_ is defined by Dr. Murray: "A sudden +infection destructive to vegetable or animal life (formerly attributed to +the blowing or breath of some malignant power, foul air, etc.)"; and +_damp_: "An exhalation, a vapor or gas, of a noxious kind." + +641. Or ghastly Furies' apparition: or the appearance of terrifying +ghosts. + +646. Entered the very lime-twigs of his spells. _Lime_ was a viscous +substance, spread upon the twigs of trees and bushes to entangle the feet +of birds. The figure is frequent in Shakespeare. See Hamlet III 3 68, "O +limed soul, that, struggling to be free, Art more engaged." + +657. apace: quickly. + +In the stage directions, goes about means, makes a movement. + +661. as Daphne was, Root-bound, that fled Apollo. The great god, Apollo, +pursuing the nymph Daphne, Diana saved her by transforming her into a +laurel tree. + +672. this cordial julep. _Julep_ is a word of Persian origin, meaning +rose-water. Note the poet's skill in culling words of delicious sound. + +675. Not that Nepenthes which the wife of Thone In Egypt gave to +Jove-born Helena. See Odyssey IV: "Then Helen, daughter of Zeus, cast a +drug into the wine whereof they drank, a drug to lull all pain and anger, +and bring forgetfulness of every sorrow.... Medicines of such virtue and +so helpful had the daughter of Zeus, which Polydamna, the wife of Thon, +had given her, a woman of Egypt." + +685. the unexempt condition: the condition from which no one is exempt. + +695. These oughly-headed monsters. Perhaps by this peculiar spelling, +_oughly_, Milton meant to add to the word _ugly_ a higher degree of +ugliness. + +698. With vizored falsehood: falsehood with its vizor, or face-piece, +down, to conceal its identity. + +700. With liquorish baits. _Liquorish_, now usually spelled _lickerish_, +is allied to _lecherous_, and has no connection with _liquor_ or with +_liquorice_. + +703. The goodness of the gift lies in the intention of the giver. + +707. those budge doctors of the stoic fur. _Budge_ is defined by Dr. +Murray: "Solemn in demeanor, important-looking, pompous, stiff, formal." +Cowper, in his poem Conversation, has the couplet: "The solemn fop; +significant and budge; A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge." _A +doctor of the Stoic fur_ is a teacher of the Stoic philosophy, who wears +a gown of the fur to which his degree of doctor entitles him. + +708. fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub: teach doctrines learned +from the Cynic Diogenes, who is reputed to have lived in a tub. + +719. hutched: stowed or laid away, as in a chest or hutch. + +721. pulse; conceived as the simplest kind of food. + +722. frieze; to be pronounced _freeze_. + +724. and yet: and what is yet more. + +728. Who refers back to Nature. + +734. they below: the people of the lower world. + +737. coy. See Lycidas 18. cozened. See Merchant of Venice II 9 38. + +744. It refers back to beauty. + +748. homely; in the modern disparaging sense. + +750. grain: color. + +751. To ply, or make, a sampler, as a proof of her skill with the needle, +was, until very modern times, the duty of every young girl. The old +samplers are now precious heirlooms in families. to tease the huswife's +wool. To _tease wool_, or to card it, was to use the teasle, or a card, +to prepare it for spinning. Carding and spinning were common duties of +the huswife and her daughters. + +753. In what respect can tresses be said to be like the morn? + +760. when vice can bolt her arguments. There are two verbs, spelled +alike, _bolt_. One means to sift, and is used often of arguments and +reasonings. To bolt arguments is to construct them with logical care and +precision. The other _bolt_ means to shoot forth or blurt out. We may +take our choice of the two words. + +773. How is the line to be scanned? + +780. Or have I said enow? In the edition of Comus published in 1645 this +passage reads, _Or have I said enough?_ In the edition of 1673, the +latest that he revised, Milton changed _enough_ to _enow_. Grammatically, +_enough_ is the better form, as the Elizabethan usage favored _enough_ +for the form of the adjective with singular nouns and for the adverb, and +_enow_ as the adjective with plurals. It would seem that the poet must +have had some motive of euphony for the change he made. + +788. thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know. A Latinism: _dignus es +qui non cognoscas_. + +793. the uncontrolled worth Of this pure cause: the invincible power +inherent in the cause by virtue of its nature. + +804. Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus To some of Saturn's crew: +pronounces sentence upon his foes, condemning them to the punishments +named. _Erebus_--Darkness--is one of the numerous names of the lower +world, the kingdom of Pluto. + +808. the canon laws: the fundamental laws, or the Constitution. Canon +law, generally speaking, is ecclesiastical law, or the law governing the +church. + +817. And backward mutters of dissevering power. The "many murmurs" with +which his incantations have been mixed must be spoken backward in order +to undo their effect. This backward repetition of the charm has the power +to break the spell which the charm has wrought. + +822. Meliboeus is yet another of the stock names of pastoral poetry. + +823. The soothest shepherd. The ancient adjective _sooth_ means +essentially nothing more than _true_. + +826. Sabrina is her name. The story of Sabrina is told by Geoffrey of +Monmouth, whose history is included in the volume of Bohn's Antiquarian +Library, entitled _Six Old English Chronicles_. The book is easily +accessible. + +827. Whilom is derived from the dative plural _hwilum_ of the Old English +noun _hwil_, and originally meant _at times_. + +831. What does Sabrina do in this line? + +835. aged Nereus was one of the numerous Greek deities of the water. He +and his wife Doris had fifty or a hundred daughters, who are called +Nereids. + +838. In nectared lavers strewed with asphodel. The _nectar_ of the gods, +which we usually think of as their drink, was also applied to other +purposes, as when Thetis anoints with it the body of Patroclus, to +prevent decay. _Asphodel_ is a flower in our actual flora; but in the +poets Asphodel is an immortal flower growing abundantly in the meadows of +Elysium. + +840. ambrosial here means, _conferring immortality_. + +845. Helping all urchin blasts; _i.e._ helping the victims of the blasts +against their baleful influence. See note on line 640. See Merry Wives of +Windsor IV 4 49. + +851. The word daffodil is directly derived from asphodel, with a _d_ +unaccountably prefixed. The English daffodil is the narcissus. + +858. adjuring: charging or entreating solemnly and earnestly, as if under +oath. + +868. Oceanus is the personified Ocean, a broad, flowing stream encircling +the earth. + +869. Earth-shaking is a Homeric epithet of Neptune. The mace of Neptune +must be his trident. + +870. Tethys is wife of Oceanus and mother of the Oceanids. She reared the +great goddess Juno, wife of Jupiter. Her pace is suitable to her dignity. + +871. hoary Nereus. See note on line 835. + +872. the Carpathian wizard's hook. Proteus, son of Oceanus and Tethys, +herded the sea-calves of Neptune on the island of Carpathus. As a +herdsman he bore a crook, or _hook_. He had the gift of prophecy, and so +is called a _wizard_. + +873. Scaly Triton's winding shell. _Triton_ was herald of Neptune and so +carried a shell, which he was wont to _wind_ as a horn. His body was in +part covered with scales like those of a fish. + +874. The soothsaying Glaucus was a prophet, and gave oracles at Delos. He +is represented as a man whose hair and beard are dripping with water, +with bristly eyebrows, his breast covered with sea-weeds, and the lower +part of his body ending in the tail of a fish. + + 875. By Leucothea's lovely hands, + And her son that rules the strands. + +Ino, after she had slain herself and her son Melicertes, by leaping with +him into the sea, became a protecting deity of mariners under the name +Leucothea, or the white goddess. So she came to the aid of Ulysses when +he was passing on his raft from Calypso's isle to Phaeacia. She there +appears "with fair ankles," and when she receives back from him her veil, +which she had lent him, she does it with "_lovely hands_." + +Melicertes becomes a protecting deity of shores, under the name Palaemon. +The Romans identified him with their god Portunus. + +877. By Thetis' tinsel-slippered feet. Thetis was the wife of Peleus, and +the mother of Achilles. In Homer she has the epithet _silver-footed_. + +878. the songs of Sirens. See note on line 253. + +879. By dead Parthenope's dear tomb. Parthenope was one of the Sirens. At +Naples her tomb was shown. + +880. And fair Ligea's golden comb. Ligea was probably also a siren. In +Virgil, Georgics IV 336, we find a nymph of this name, spinning wool with +other nymphs, "their bright locks floating over their snowy necks." The +name Ligea means shrill-voiced. + +887. In the reading make in an adverb. + +892. My sliding chariot stays. Compare this use of _stay_ with that found +in lines 134, 577, 820. + +893. the azurn sheen. With _azurn_ compare _cedarn_, line 990. + +908-909. Be careful what inflection you give these lines in the reading. + +913. of precious cure: of precious power to cure. + +921. To wait in Amphitrite's bower. _Amphitrite_ was a daughter of +Oceanus and Tethys. She was goddess of the sea, had the care of its +creatures, and could stir up the waves in storm. + +923. Sprung of old Anchises' line. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, +Brutus the Trojan was the grandson of AEneas and founder of London. +Anchises, in the Homeric story, is the father of AEneas. This fable plays +an important part in the ancient British myth. + +924. thy brimmed waves. A river is happiest when full to its brim. + +930. Of what parts of speech are torrent and flood? + +933. It is very curious that our word beryl and the German _Brille_ come +directly from the same source. + +937. And yet this river is the English Severn! + +957. Note the impressive effect of the five-foot line ending the scene. + +The shepherds have their dance in rustic fashion. The words describing +this dance are the familiar peasant words, jig, duck, nod. The playful +tone in which the spirit calls upon the swains to give place to their +betters is charming. + +964. With the mincing Dryades. "The _Dryades_ were nymphs of woods and +trees, dwelling in groves, ravines, and wooded valleys, and were fond of +making merry with Apollo, Mercury, and Pan." + +980. I suck the liquid air: I inhale the upper air,--the _aether_ +_liquidus_ of the poets. So Ariel, Tempest V 1 102, "I drink the air +before me." + +981. the gardens fair Of Hesperus and his daughters three. The number of +the Hesperides and their parentage are differently given in various +legends. The story of their garden in some mysterious place in the far +west, where they guarded the tree that bore the golden apples, assisted +by the dragon Ladon, is one of the best known in the classic mythology. + +984. Along the crisped shades and bowers. Milton applies _crisped_ to +brooks, Par. Lost IV 237. Herrick has,--"the crisped yew," and the +American Thoreau,--"A million crisped waves." + +985. spruce. A very interesting account of the origin of this word is +given by Skeat in his Etymological Dictionary. + +986. The Graces and the rosy-bosomed Hours. See note on L'Allegro 15. +"The _Graces_ were guardians of the vernal sweetness and beauty of +nature, friends and protectors of everything graceful and beautiful." The +_Hours_ were goddesses of the seasons, daughters of Zeus and Themis. They +were the door-keepers of Olympus, whose cloud-gate they open and shut: +thus they preside over the weather. + +990. About the cedarn alleys: about the pathways through cedar groves. +Coleridge, in Kubla Khan, has the line, "Down the green hill athwart a +cedarn cover"; and Tennyson, Geraint and Enid, the line,--"And moving +toward a cedarn cabinet." So also William Barnes, in his Rural Poems, +uses the expression, "stonen jugs." + +992. Iris is the messenger of the gods: her path is the rainbow. + +993. Dr. Murray gives other instances of blow as a transitive verb. + +999. Adonis was a young shepherd, the special favorite of Venus. His +death was caused by a wild boar. The story is told in various forms. +Observe that Milton makes him wax well of his deep wound. + +1002. the Assyrian queen. The worship of Aphrodite (Venus) was brought +into Greece from Assyria. + +1005. Holds his dear Psyche. Psyche--the personification of the human +soul--was a mortal maiden, beloved of Cupid. Venus, in her jealousy of +Psyche, compelled her to pass through a long series of hardships and +toils. Cupid at last succeeded in reconciling his mother and his beloved, +and in having _Psyche_ advanced to the dignity of an immortal. + +1015. Where the bowed welkin slow doth bend: where the curvature of the +vault of the sky seems less than higher up toward the zenith. + +1021. the sphery chime. See notes, Hymn on the Nativity 48 and 125. + + + + + LYCIDAS. + + +Lycidas is Milton's contribution to a volume of elegiac verses, in Greek, +Latin, and English, composed by many college friends of Edward King, who +was drowned in the wreck of the vessel in which he was crossing the Irish +Channel. + +In its main intention, Lycidas is an elegy, because it professes to mourn +one who is dead and extols his virtues. In its form it is almost wholly +pastoral, because it feigns an environment of shepherds, allegorizing +college life as the life of men tending flocks, and the occupations of +earnest students as the careless diversions of rustic swains. + +Four times the pastoral note is rudely interrupted by the intervention of +majestic beings who speak in awful tones from another world, and whose +voices instantly check all familiar rustic speech, compelling it to wait +till they have announced their messages from above. The supernal powers +who thus descend to take their parts in the office of mourning are +Phoebus, Apollo, Hippotades, god of the winds, Camus, god of the river +Cam, and St. Peter. This mingling of classic, Hebrew, and Christian +conceptions is a marked characteristic of all Milton's poetry. + +Thus Lycidas is neither wholly elegiac nor wholly pastoral. From the lips +of St. Peter, typifying the church, comes a speech of violent +denunciation, in the true later Miltonic manner. In strange contrast to +this grim invective is the famous flower-passage, the sweetest and +loveliest thing of its kind in our literature. + + +1-5. To pluck once more the berries of the evergreens, or to gather +laurels,--is to make a new venture as a poet,--to compose a poem. The +berries are harsh and crude,--he shatters their leaves before the +mellowing year, either because he is to mourn the death of a young man, +or because he feels in himself a lack of "inward ripeness" to treat his +theme worthily,--perhaps for both reasons. He shatters the leaves with +forced fingers rude, in the sense that his subject is not of his own +choosing. + +6-7. A sad duty is imposed upon him, forbidding further delay on any +personal grounds. + +8. Lycidas is one of the stock names of pastoral poetry. The poem, though +most serious in its main motive and intention, is to have a pastoral +coloring throughout. Note the impressive repetitions, dead, dead, and the +recurrences of the name Lycidas in the next two lines. + +11. he knew Himself to sing and build the lofty rhyme. Edward King had, +in accordance with the college custom of his time, written verses, +apparently all in Latin. Of these verses Masson, in his life of Milton, +gives specimens. They seem to be commonplace. + +13. and welter to the parching wind. See Par. Lost II 594, I 78. + +15. Sisters of the sacred well. Ancient tradition connects the origin of +the Muses with Pieria, a district of Macedonia at the foot of Olympus. +But the springs with which we associate the Muses are Aganippe and +Hippocrene on Mount Helicon. + +19. So may some gentle muse. A peculiar use of the word _muse_ as +masculine, and meaning _poet_. + +23-31. We pursued the same studies, at the same college, and we studied +from early morning sometimes till after midnight. The metaphors are all +pastoral. + +32-36. We wrote merry verse, bringing in the college jollities, in wanton +student-fashion, and the good-natured old don who was our tutor affected +to be pleased with our work. + +34. Rough Satyrs danced, and Fauns with cloven heel. The _Satyrs_, +represented as having human forms, with small goat's horns and a small +tail, had for their occupation to play on the flute for their master, +Bacchus, or to pour his wine. The _Fauns_ were sylvan deities, attendants +of Pan, and are represented, like their master, with the ears, horns, and +legs of a goat. + +37-49. Nature herself sympathizes with men, and mourns thy loss. + +50. Nymphs: deities of the forests and streams. + +52. on the steep Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie. The +shipwreck in which King was lost took place off the coast of Wales. Any +one of the Welsh mountains will serve to make good this allusion. + +54. Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high. _Mona_ is the ancient and +poetical name of the island of Anglesea. + +55. Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream. The Dee (Deva) below +Chester expands into a broad estuary. In his lines spoken At a Vacation +Exercise, Milton, characterizing many rivers, mentions the "ancient +hallowed Dee." The country about the Dee had been specially famous as the +seat of the old Druidical religion. In the eleventh Song of his +Polyolbion, Drayton eulogizes the medicinal virtues of the salt springs +in the valley of the river Weever, which attract Thetis and the +Nereids:-- + + And Amphitrite oft this Wizard River led + Into her secret walks (the depths profound and dread) + Of him (supposed so wise) the hid events to know + Of things that were to come, as things done long ago. + In which he had been proved most exquisite to be; + And bare his fame so far, that oft twixt him and Dee, + Much strife there hath arose in their prophetic skill. + +56-63. Even the Muse Calliope could do nothing for her son Orpheus, whom +the Thracian women tore to pieces under the excitement of their +Bacchanalian orgies. The gory visage floated down the Hebrus and through +the AEgean Sea to the island of Lesbos. + +64. what boots it: of what use is it? + +64-66. What good are we going to derive from this unremitting devotion to +study? + +67-69. Would it not be better to abandon ourselves to social enjoyment, +and to lives of frivolous trifling? Amaryllis and Neaera are stock names +of shepherdesses. + +70-72. Understand clear, as applied to spirit, to mean "pure, guileless, +unsophisticated." Sir Henry Wotton, in his Panegyric to King Charles, +says of King James I.,--"I will not deny his appetite of glory, which +generous minds do ever latest part from." Love of fame, according to the +poet, is the motive that prompts the scholar to live as an ascetic and to +persevere in toilsome labor. This love of fame is an infirmity, but not a +debasing one: it leaves the mind noble. Remember, however, that the +author of the Imitation of Christ prayed, _Da mihi nesciri_. + +75. the blind Fury with the abhorred shears. Milton here seems to ascribe +to the Furies (Erinyes) the function belonging to the Fates (Parcae, +Moirae). The three Fates were Klotho, the Spinner; Lachesis, the Assigner +of lots; and Atropos, the Unchanging. It was the duty of Atropos to cut +the thread of life at the appointed time. + +A querulous thought comes to the poet's mind. Our lives are obscure and +laborious, sustained only by the hope of future fame; but before we +attain our reward, comes death, and our ambition is brought to naught. + +76-77. But not the praise, Phoebus replied, and touched my trembling +ears. The Fury cannot destroy the praise, which necessarily belongs to +doing well. Praise here means the essential praise, which naturally +inheres in excellence, and not the being talked about by men. + +The speaker is now Phoebus, the august god Apollo, the pure one, who +protects law and order, and promotes whatever is good and beautiful; who +reveals the will of Zeus, and presides over prophecy. + +Phoebus has now an admonition to give and he touches the poet's ears; as +in Virgil, Eclogue IV 3,--_Cynthius aurem vellit et admonuit_, "The +Cynthian twitched my ear and warned me." + +79. in the glistering foil Set off. See Shakespeare, Richard III. V 3 +250,--"A base foul stone, made precious by the foil of England's chair." + +85-86. O fountain Arethuse, and thou honored flood, Smooth-sliding +Mincius. Arethusa was a fresh-water fountain at Syracuse in Sicily, and +the Mincius is a river in north Italy, on which is situated Mantua, the +birthplace of the poet Virgil. The great pastoral poet Theocritus is said +to have been born at Syracuse. Thus Arethusa and the Mincius typify the +pastoral tone in which Milton conceives and constructs his poem. But the +intervention of the great god Apollo has frighted the bucolic muses, to +whom therefore the poet explains it, line 87. + +88. Now I am on good terms again with the deities of lower rank. Oat is a +common designation of the shepherd's pipe, or syrinx. + +89-90. Neptune, through his herald, Triton, pleads his freedom from all +complicity in the drowning of Lycidas. Triton sends to AEolus, god of the +winds, requesting him to cross-question all his subjects as to what they +were doing on the day of the wreck. + +95-99. The winds prove their innocence, and AEolus himself comes to report +to Triton that at the time of the disaster they were all at home and the +air was perfectly calm. Even Panope and all her sisters were out playing +on the tranquil water. + +96. sage Hippotades. AEolus was the son of Hippotes. See all about him in +Odyssey, book X. Read also Ruskin, Queen of the Air, section 19. + +99. Panope was a Nereid, one of the numerous daughters of Nereus. + +103. Now comes another grand personage to make inquiry about the death of +Lycidas. Camus, the deity of the river Cam, stands for the University of +Cambridge. + +104. His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge. The river god is represented +as wearing a mantle made of water-grasses and reeds. + +105-106. These lines refer to certain markings on the water-plants of the +Cam, said to be correctly described here by the poet. The dimness of the +figures may suggest the great age of the university, and the tokens of +woe belong to the present occasion. + +106. that sanguine flower inscribed with woe. This is the hyacinth, the +flower that sprang up on the spot where the youth Hyacinthus had been +accidentally slain by Apollo. The petals of the hyacinth are said to be +marked with the Greek letters AI AI, which form an interjection +expressing grief. + +107. Lycidas was one of those collegians whose scholarship, character, +and piety promise to make them the pride of their Alma Mater. + +109. The Pilot of the Galilean Lake. See Matthew XIV. + +110. Two massy keys he bore of metals twain. See Matthew XVI 19. See also +Comus 13 and Par. Lost III 485. The idea of _two_ keys, one of gold and +one of iron, is not in the Bible. + +112. He shook his mitred locks. St. Peter wears the mitre as bishop. + +113-131. St. Peter makes but little reference to Lycidas, and his words +add almost nothing to the elegiac character of the poem. His speech is +one of stern and bitter satire. The second period of Milton's life, which +is to be given up to intense and uncompromising partisanship in religion +and politics, foreshadows itself in these lines. + +114. Enow is here used in its proper plural sense. See note on Comus 780. + +115. climb into the fold. See John X 1. The metaphor of sheep and +herdsmen is continued throughout the speech. + +119. Blind mouths! As the relative pronoun beginning the next clause +refers to this exclamation, mouths must be taken as a bold metaphor +meaning men who are all mouth, or are supremely greedy and selfish. +Moreover, they are blind. + +122. What recks it them? See note on Comus 404. They are sped: they have +succeeded in their purpose. See Antony and Cleopatra II 3 35. Note also +the phrase of greeting, _bid God speed_, as in 2 John I 10, 11, King +James version. + +123. their lean and flashy songs: their sermons. + +Evidently Milton can cull words of extreme disparagement and vilification +as well as words of unapproachable poetic beauty. + +125-127. The congregations are not edified. The miserable preaching they +listen to fails to keep them sound in doctrine. They grow lax in their +faith, and heretical opinions become fashionable. + +128. the grim wolf with privy paw is undoubtedly the Roman church. + +130-131. These lines evidently denounce some terrible retribution that is +sure ere long to overtake the corrupt clergy described in the preceding +passage. The two-handed engine at the door, that stands ready to smite +once and smite no more, has never been definitely explained. We naturally +think of the headsman's axe, which, however, does not become applicable +till the execution of Archbishop Laud, an event not to take place till +eight years after the composition of the poem. It has been suggested that +Milton had in mind the two houses of Parliament, or the Parliament and +the Army, as the agency through which reform was to be effected. We must +remember that Milton in 1637 could not foresee the Civil War. He may have +meant to combine certain scriptural expressions into a mysteriously +suggestive and oracular prediction, without having in view any single and +definite possibility. + +132. Return, Alpheus. The Alpheus was a river of the Peloponnesus, said +to sink underground and to flow beneath the sea to Ortygia, near +Syracuse, where it attempted to mingle its waters with those of the +fountain Arethusa. See note on lines 85, 86. See also Shelley's poem, +Arethusa. + +The pastoral tone of lightness and simplicity could not be maintained +while St. Peter spoke. But now the Sicilian Muse returns, all the more +lovely for the contrast with the stern malediction that has gone before. + +134-151. Milton is fond of thus collecting names of persons, places, and +things, choosing them as well for their effect on the ear as for their +significance. The botany of this passage is of little consequence: it +matters not whether all these flowers could, or could not, be collected +at the same season, or whether they could be found at the time of the +year when Lycidas died. The passage offers a picture of exquisite beauty +to the eye, and to the ear a strain of perfect melody. + +136. where the mild whispers use. The verb _use_, in this intransitive +sense, with only adverbial complement, and meaning _dwell_, is now +obsolete. + +138. the swart star: the star that makes _swart_, or _swarthy; i.e._ the +sun. + +139. enamelled eyes are the flowers generally, which are to be specified. +Scattered over the turf, the flowers seem to be looking upward, like +eyes. + +142. rathe is the adjective whose comparative is our _rather_. + +149. amaranthus, by its etymology, means _unfading_. + +150. Daffadil is derived from _asphodel_, with a curious, and altogether +unusual, prefixed _d_. + +153. dally with false surmise. King's body was not found. There was no +actual strewing of the laureate hearse with flowers. + +156. the stormy Hebrides: islands off the northwest coast of Scotland. + +160. Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old. The fable of Bellerus is the +fabled Bellerus, or Bellerus of the fable. He was a mythical giant of +Cornwall in old British legend. Bellerium was the name given to Land's +End, where he was supposed to live. + +161. the great Vision of the guarded mount. St. Michael's Mount is a +pyramidal rock in Mounts Bay on the coast of Cornwall. This was guarded +by the angel, St. Michael, whose gaze was directed seaward, toward +Namancos and Bayona, in northwestern Spain. In some unknown place between +these widely sundered limits, the body of Lycidas is tossed. + +170. with new-spangled ore. _Ore_, from its original meaning of metal in +the natural state, comes to signify metallic lustre generally. See Comus +719, 933. + +173. See Matthew XIV 25. + +175. Compare Comus 838. + +176. the unexpressive nuptial song. See Hymn on the Nativity 116. See +also Revelation XIX 7-9. + +181. And wipe the tears forever from his eyes. See Revelation XXI 4. + +183. Henceforth thou art the genius of the shore. This is the same +promotion that was accorded to Melicertes, son of Ino, who on his death +became the genius of the shore under the name of Palaemon. + +186. uncouth; a self-depreciating expression meaning _unknown_ or +_obscure_. + +187. Milton applies the epithet gray both to evening and to morning. + +188. various quills are the tubes of the shepherd pipe. + +189. Doric means simply _pastoral_, because the idylls of the first +pastoral poets were written in the Doric dialect of Greek. + +190. had stretched out all the hills: had caused the shadows of the hills +to prolong themselves eastward on the plain. + +The poet seems to feign that he spent a day in the composition of +Lycidas. + + + + + SONNETS. + + +Of poems in strict sonnet form, that is, containing neither more nor less +than fourteen decasyllable iambic lines, interlocked by some scheme of +symmetrical rhyme, not in couplets, Milton left twenty-three, of which +five are in Italian. Of the three sonnets in English omitted from this +edition, two have reference to the violent controversy occasioned by +Milton's publications in advocacy of greater freedom of divorce, and are +rough and polemic in style; the third is omitted on account of its +unimportance and lack of distinction. + +In their dates the twenty-three sonnets range from the poet's +twenty-third to his fiftieth year. They are the only form of verse in +which he indulges during that middle period of his life which was +abandoned to political partisanship on the side of the Parliament in the +Civil War, and to the service of the government during the Commonwealth +and the Protectorate. If, as is now widely believed, Shakespeare's +sonnets are artificial and tell us little or nothing about their author, +those of Milton are purely natural and subjective and tell us nothing +else but what their writer was thinking and feeling. Their themes are his +veritable moods and passions. The mood is now friendly, amiable, and +serene, now bitter, strenuous, indignant, vindictive. + +Wordsworth, in his sonnet, _Scorn not the Sonnet_, thus refers to +Milton's sparing use of this poetic form:-- + + and when a damp + Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand + The Thing became a trumpet; whence he blew + Soul-animating strains,--alas too few. + +The Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains followed by a +couplet,--the usual English form up to the seventeenth century. Milton +adopted the Italian, or Petrarchian model, which has continued to be the +standard sonnet form in our modern poetry. In the Miltonic, or Italian, +sonnet a group of eight lines, linked by two rhymes each occurring four +times, is followed by a group of six lines linked by three rhymes each +occurring twice. The octave and the sextet are severed from each other by +the non-continuance of the rhymes of the former into the latter. At the +end of the octave, or near it, is usually a pause, marking the +culmination of the thought, and the sextet makes an inference or rounds +out the sense to an artistic whole. + +Read Wordsworth's sonnets, _Happy the feeling from the bosom thrown,_ and +_Nuns fret not at their convent's narrow room._ + + + I. + +The date of this sonnet is unknown. From the fact that it comes first in +the series as arranged by the poet, it is inferred that it is the +earliest sonnet he chose to publish. + + +4. the jolly Hours. See note on Comus 986. + +5-6. To hear the nightingale before the cuckoo was for lovers a good +sign. This superstition is a motive in the _Cuckoo and the Nightingale_, +a poem formerly attributed to Chaucer, and as such "modernized" by +Wordsworth, but now known to be the work of Sir Thomas Clanvowe. Stanza X +of this poem is thus given by Wordsworth:-- + + But tossing lately on a sleepless bed, + I of a token thought which Lovers heed; + How among them it was a common tale, + That it was good to hear the Nightingale + Ere the vile Cuckoo's note be uttered. + +9. the rude bird of hate. This gives to the cuckoo altogether too bad a +character. The bird has on the whole a fair standing in English poetry. +We must think of the very pleasing _Ode to the Cuckoo_,--written either +by Michael Bruce or by John Logan,--as well as of the passage in which +Shakespeare makes Lucrece ask (line 848),-- + + Why should the worm intrude the maiden bud? + Or hateful cuckoos hatch in sparrows' nests? + +Look up other nightingale and cuckoo songs; for example, Keats's _Ode to +a Nightingale_, and Wordsworth's _The Cuckoo at Laverna_. + + + II (1631). + +This sonnet Milton appears to have sent with a prose letter to a friend +who had remonstrated with him on the life of desultory study which he was +so long continuing to lead. In this letter he professes the principle of +"not taking thought of being _late_, so it gave advantage to be more +fit." He adds, "That you may see that I am something suspicious of +myself, and do take notice of a certain _belatedness_ in me, I am the +bolder to send you some of my nightward thoughts some little while ago, +because they come in not altogether unfitly, made up in a Petrarchian +stanza, which I told you of." + + +8. timely-happy: wise with the wisdom proportionate to one's years. +Similar compounds of two adjectives in Shakespeare are very frequent; for +example, holy-cruel, heady-rash, proper-false, devilish-holy, cold-pale. + +10. even: equal, adequate. + + + VIII (1642). + +The occasion of this sonnet was the near approach of the royalist army to +London, early in the Civil War. The people of the city had reason to fear +the entrance of the cavalier troops and the sacking of the houses of +citizens obnoxious to the party of the king. Milton would have been an +object of special animosity to victorious royalists, and for a short time +he had grounds for the acutest anxiety. It is not easy to see how, in +case of actual pillage of the city, he could have made use of such an +appeal as this. The sonnet is probably to be regarded as a work of art +constructed when the vicissitudes which it pictures were happily past, +and when the poet's mind had regained its tranquillity. + + +1. Note that Colonel has three syllables, according to the pronunciation +prevailing in Milton's time. Look up the etymology of this word. + +10. The great Emathian conqueror: Alexander the Great, called Emathian +from Emathia, a district of his kingdom of Macedonia. + +11. bid spare The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower Went to the +ground. Alexander destroyed the city of Thebes in 335 B.C. Pindar, the +famous lyric poet, a native and resident of Thebes, had then been dead +more than a century. But Pindar's house still stood, and was left +standing by the conqueror, who destroyed all other buildings of the city. + +12. the repeated air Of sad Electra's poet had the power To save the +Athenian walls from ruin bare. To quote from Plutarch, Life of Lysander: +"The proposal was made in the congress of the allies, that the Athenians +should all be sold as slaves; on which occasion Erianthus, the Theban, +gave his vote to pull down the city and turn the country into +sheep-pasture; yet afterwards, when there was a meeting of the captains +together, a man of Phocis singing the first chorus in Euripides' Electra, +which begins,-- + + "Electra, Agamemnon's child, I come + Unto thy desert home, + +they were all melted with compassion, and it seemed to be a cruel deed to +destroy and pull down a city which had been so famous, and produced such +men." + + + IX (1644). + +Who the virtuous young lady was is not known. + + +2. See the gospel of Matthew VII 13. + +5. See Luke X 40-42; Ruth I 14. + +8. Note the "identical" rhyme. The effect of such a rhyme is unpleasant. +Modern poets avoid it. + +9-14. See Matthew XXV 1-13. + + + X (1644 or 1645). + +Lady Margaret's father was the Earl of Marlborough, who had been +President of the Council under Charles I. Milton attributes his death to +political anxiety caused by the dissolution of Charles's third Parliament +in 1629. + + +6-8. that dishonest victory at Chaeronea. The victory of Philip over the +Greeks at Chaeronea, B.C. 338, is called by the poet _dishonest_ because +obtained by means of intrigue and bribery. that old man eloquent is the +orator and rhetorician Isocrates, who, in his grief over the defeat of +his countrymen, committed suicide. + +9. later born than to have known: too late to have known. _Serius nata +quam ut cognosceres_. + + + XIII (1646). + +"In these lines, Milton, with a musical perception not common amongst +poets, exactly indicates the great merit of Lawes, which distinguishes +his compositions from those of many of his contemporaries and successors. +His careful attention to the words of the poet, the manner in which his +music seems to grow from those words, the perfect coincidence of the +musical with the metrical accent, all put Lawes's songs on a level with +those of Schumann or Liszt."--_Encyclopaedia Britannica_. + +See introductory notes to Comus and Arcades. + + +3-4. not to scan With Midas' ears. The god Apollo, during the time of his +servitude to Laomedon, had a quarrel with Pan, who insisted that the +flute was a better instrument than the lyre. The decision was left to +Midas, king of Lydia, who decided in favor of Pan. To punish Midas, +Apollo changed his ears into those of an ass. + +4. committing short and long: setting long syllables and short ones to +fight against each other, and so destroying harmony. + +5. The subject is conceived as a single idea, and so takes the verb in +the singular. exempts thee: singles thee out, selects thee. + +8. couldst humor best our tongue: couldst best adapt or accommodate +itself to our language. + +10. Phoebus' quire: the poets. _Quire_ is Milton's spelling of _choir_. + +12-14. Read the story of Dante's meeting with his friend, the musician +Casella, in the second canto of Purgatory. + + + XV (1648). + +The taking of Colchester by the parliamentary army under Fairfax, Aug. +28, 1648, was one of the most important events of the Civil War. + + +7. the false North displays Her broken league. The Scotch and the English +accused each other of having violated the Solemn League and Covenant, to +which the people of both countries had subscribed. + +8. to imp their serpent wings. To _imp_ a wing with feathers is to attach +feathers to it so as to strengthen or improve its flight. The word is +originally a term of falconry. See Richard II. II 1 292. See also +Murray's _New English Dictionary_. + +13-14. Valor, Avarice, Rapine; personified abstracts, after the manner of +our earlier poetry. + + + XVI. + +As Secretary for Foreign Tongues to the Council of State of the +Commonwealth, Milton saw much of Cromwell, and came under the influence +of his voice and manner. Whether the great general had ever taken note of +the poems written by the secretary who turned his despatches into Latin, +or whether he gave any special heed to the man himself, with whom he must +have come into some sort of personal relation, we have no means of +knowing. We know, however, perfectly well what the poet thought of the +victorious general. Though by no means always approving his state policy, +Milton retained to the end the warm personal admiration for Cromwell +which he expresses in this sonnet. + + +7-9. Darwen stream, usually spoken of as the battle of Preston, was +fought Aug. 17, 1648; Dunbar, Sept. 3, 1650; Worcester, Sept. 3, 1651. + +12. to bind our souls with secular chains: to fetter our religious +freedom with laws made by the civil power. + +14. hireling wolves. Milton applies this degrading appellation to +clergymen who received pay from the state. His appeal to Cromwell was not +successful. Cromwell was to become the chief supporter of a church +establishment. + + + XVII (1652). + +Sir Henry Vane was member of a committee of the Council of State +appointed in 1649 to consider alliances and relations with the European +powers. Milton, as Secretary of the Council, had abundant opportunity to +observe Vane's skill in diplomacy, his ability to "unfold the drift of +hollow states hard to be spelled." Both Vane and Milton held to the +doctrine, preeminently associated with the name of Roger Williams, of +universal toleration, based on the refusal to the civil magistrate of any +authority in spiritual matters. + + +1. Vane, young in years: Vane was born in 1613. + +3. gowns, not arms: civilians, not soldiers. The expression is a +Latinism, the _gown_ standing for the _toga_. + +4. The fierce Epirot and the African bold: Pyrrhus and Hannibal. + +6. hard to be spelled. Compare Il Penseroso 170. + + + XVIII (1655). + +The historical event which furnishes the occasion of this sonnet is the +persecution of the Protestant Waldenses by the Piedmontese and French +governments, at the time of Cromwell's Protectorate. Cromwell's vigorous +and successful intervention was the means of staying this horror, and +gives evidence of the respect entertained for his government among the +states of Europe. + + +4. when all our fathers worshiped stocks and stones. Christianity had +been introduced into the Waldensian country while Britain was still +pagan. + +5. their groans Who were thy sheep: the groans of those who were. + +12. The triple Tyrant. The Pope, who wore a triple crown. + +14. the Babylonian woe. The puritans interpreted the _Babylon_ of +Revelation as the church of Rome. See Revelation XVIII. + + + XIX. + +The sonnet, says Masson, may have been written any time between 1652 and +1655. + + +2. Ere half my days. Milton's blindness is considered to have become +total in 1652, when he was at the age of forty-four. How shall we +understand these words? + +3. See the Parable of the Talents, Matthew XXV. + +8. I fondly ask. See note on Il Pens. 6. + + + XX. + +Probable date, 1655. Of the Mr. Lawrence to whom the sonnet is addressed +nothing is certainly known. + + +6. Favonius is the Latin name for Zephyrus, the west wind. + +10. Attic: refined, delicate, poignant. + +13. and spare To interpose them oft: refrain from too free enjoyment of +them. + + + XXI. + +The second sonnet to Cyriac Skinner determines its own date as 1655, and +this one is probably to be assigned to the same year. + +But little is known of the person to whom this sonnet and the next one +are addressed, except what we learn from the sonnets themselves,--that he +was an intimate and esteemed friend of Milton. He may have been one of +Milton's pupils; and he may, when his old teacher had become blind, have +rendered him important services as amanuensis or as reader. + + +1-4. Cyriac Skinner's mother was daughter of the famous lawyer and judge, +Sir Edward Coke. + +2. Themis is personified _law_, this being the meaning of the Greek word. + +7. Let Euclid rest, and Archimedes pause: intermit for a day your severe +mathematical studies. + +8. And what the Swede intend, and what the French: and pay no heed to +foreign news. + + + XXII (1655). + + +1. this three years' day: three years ago to-day. + +10. Milton's duties as Latin secretary to the government were exceedingly +arduous. + + + XXIII. + +Milton's second wife died in February, 1658; her child lived but a short +time. At the time of his second marriage Milton had been blind several +years. Notice the reference in the sonnet to the sense of sight: in his +dream he _saw_. + + +2. like Alcestis. Read the story of the Love of Alcestis in William +Morris's Earthly Paradise; and read in Euripides, "That strangest, +saddest, sweetest song of his, Alkestis." + +6. Purification in the Old Law. See Leviticus XII. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Minor Poems by Milton, by John Milton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MINOR POEMS BY MILTON *** + +***** This file should be named 31706.txt or 31706.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/7/0/31706/ + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Stephen Hutcheson and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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