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diff --git a/40130-8.txt b/40130-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 68a807e..0000000 --- a/40130-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1140 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Day with John Milton, by May Byron - -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/license - - -Title: A Day with John Milton - -Author: May Byron - -Release Date: July 3, 2012 [EBook #40130] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DAY WITH JOHN MILTON *** - - - - -Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Steven Brown and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - -[Illustration: Colour plate of book cover] - -[Illustration: Byron portrait plate] - - - PARADISE LOST. BK. XII. _Painting by S. Meteyard._ - - "They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, - Through Eden took their solitary way." - - (_Paradise Lost. Bk. XII._) - - -[Illustration: Paradise lost plate] - - - - - A DAY WITH - JOHN MILTON - - BY MAY BYRON - - -[Illustration: "Angel" plate] - - - HODDER & STOUGHTON - - - - - _In the same Series._ - - _Tennyson._ - _Browning._ - _E. B. Browning._ - _Burns._ - _Byron._ - _Longfellow._ - _Whittier._ - _Rossetti._ - _Shelley._ - _Scott._ - _Coleridge._ - _Morris._ - _Wordsworth._ - _Whitman._ - _Keats._ - _Shakespeare._ - - - - -A DAY WITH JOHN MILTON - - -About four o'clock on a September morning of 1665,--when the sun was -not yet shining upon his windows facing the Artillery Fields, and the -autumnal dew lay wet upon his garden leaves,--John Milton awoke with -his customary punctuality, and, true to his austere and abstemious mode -of life, wasted no time over comfortable indolence. He rose and -proceeded to dress, with the help of his manservant Greene. For, -although he was but fifty-four years in age, his hands were partly -crippled with gout and chalkstones, and his eyes, clear, bright and blue -as they had always been to outward seeming, were both stone-blind. - -Milton still retained much of that personal comeliness which had won -him, at Cambridge, the nickname of "Lady of Christ's College." His -original red and white had now become a uniform pallor; his thick, -light brown hair, parted at the top, and curling richly on his -shoulders--(no close-cropt Roundhead this!)--was beginning to fade -towards grey. But his features were noble and symmetrical; he was -well-built and well-proportioned; and he was justified in priding -himself upon a personal appearance which he had never neglected or -despised. In his own words, he was "neither large nor small: at no time -had he been considered ugly; and in youth, with a sword by his side, he -had never feared the bravest." - -Such was the man who now, neatly dressed in black, was led into his -study, upon the same floor as his bedroom,--a small chamber hung with -rusty green,--and there, seated in a large old elbow-chair, received the -morning salutations of his three daughters. - -One after another they entered the room, and each bestowed a -characteristic greeting upon her father. Anne, the eldest, a handsome -girl of twenty, was lame, and had a slight impediment in her speech. She -bade him good-morning with a stammering carelessness, enquired casually -as to his night's rest, and stared out of window, palpably bored at the -commencement of another monotonous, irksome day. Mary, the second, ---dark, impetuous, and impatient,--was in a state of smouldering -rebellion. She addressed him in a tone of almost insolent mock-civility, ---he must needs have been deaf as well as blind not to detect the -unfilial dislike beneath her words. Ten-year-old Deborah, the most -affectionate of the three, ventured to kiss her father, even to stroke -his long, beautiful hair, and to re-tie the tassels of his collar. - -"Mary will read to me this morning," said Milton, gravely inclining his -head in acknowledgment of Deborah's attentions. The dark girl, with a -mutinous shrug of her shoulders, sat down and began to read aloud, in a -hard, uninterested voice, out of the great leather-bound Hebrew Old -Testament which lay upon the table. And not one single sentence did she -understand--not one word of what she was reading. - -John Milton's theories of education, which he had expounded at length in -pamphlets, were a curious blend of the practical and the ideal. Vastly -in advance of his time in his demand for a practical training, he had -evolved that "fine definition which has never been improved upon,"--"I -call a complete and generous education that which fits a man to perform, -justly, skilfully and magnanimously, all the offices, both private and -public, of peace and war." But he made no allowances for slowness or -stupidity: all his schemes were based upon the existence of scholars -equally gifted with himself. And he entirely left out of all -calculations, much as a Mahommedan might, that complex organism the -female mind. He wished it, one must conjecture, to remain a blank. So -his daughters had received no systematic schooling, only some sort of -home-instruction from a governess. And he had himself trained them to -read aloud in five or six languages,--French, Italian, Latin, Greek, -Hebrew and even Syriac,--in total ignorance of the meaning. -"One tongue," observed Milton brusquely, almost brutally, "is enough -for any woman." - -Mary read on, steadily, stolidly, sullenly, for a full hour. The others -had left the room and were busy upon household tasks. At the conclusion -of two chapters, "Leave me," commanded Milton, "I would be alone now for -contemplation,"--and Mary willingly escaped to breakfast. - -The great poet reclined in his chair,--wrapt in such solemn and -melancholy meditation as might have served as the model for his own -_Penseroso_. A severe composure suffused his fine features, a serious -sadness looked out of his unclouded eyes; his entire expression was -"that of English intrepidity mixed with unutterable sorrow." For Milton -was a bitterly disappointed man. - -It was not merely his comparative poverty,--because the Restoration, -besides depriving him of his post as Latin or Foreign Secretary to the -Commonwealth Council of State, had reduced his means from various -sources almost to vanishing point. - -Nor was his melancholy mainly the result of his affliction; that he had -deliberately incurred, and was as deliberately enduring. Constant -headaches, late study, and perpetual recourse to one nostrum after -another, had eventuated in the certainty of total blindness if he -persisted in his mode of work. - - "The choice lay before me between dereliction of a supreme duty and - loss of eyesight; ... and I therefore concluded to employ the - little remaining eyesight I was to enjoy in doing this, the - greatest service to the common weal it was in my power to render." - -No: it was not a personal matter which could sadden John Milton to the -very roots of his stern, ambitious, courageous soul. It was the -contravention of all that he held most dear in life,--the frustration, -as he conceived it, of that liberty which was his very heart's blood by -the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy. He had resolved, in his own -words, to transfer into the struggle for liberty "all my genius and all -the strength of my industry." It appeared that he had flung away both -in vain. The Stuart monarchy, to him, lay monstrously black, -overshadowing all the land, like his own conception of Satan. - -The Restoration was not merely the political defeat of his party, it was -the total defeat of the principles, of the religious and social ideals, -with which Milton's life was bound up. He had always stood aloof from -the other salient men of the time. Of Cromwell he had practically no -personal knowledge: with the bulk of the Presbyterians he was openly at -enmity. "Shut away behind a barrier of his own ideas," he did not care -to associate with men of less lofty intellectual standing. But now he -was even more isolated. Since the downfall of the Puritan régime, he of -necessity "stood alone, and became the party himself." And he presented, -in his _Samson Agonistes_, "the intensest utterance of the most intense -of English poets--the agonised cry of the beaten party," condensed into -the expression of one unflinching and heroic soul. - -Upon the mysterious and inscrutable decrees of Providence, which had -laid in the dust what seemed to him the very cause of God, Milton sat -and pondered, in a despondency so profound, a disappointment so -poignant, that his own great lines had sought in vain to voice it: - - "... I feel my genial spirits droop, - My hopes all flat: Nature within me seems - In all her functions weary of herself; - My race of glory run, and race of shame, - And I shall shortly be with them that rest." - - (_Samson Agonistes_). - -Yet his indomitable spirit was by no means quenched in despair: and an -outlet was now open to him at last, which for eighteen years he had -foregone,--the outlet of poetic expression. He was conscious of his -capacity to travel and to traverse the regions which none had dared -explore save Dante. And with that tremendous chief of pioneers he was -measuring himself, man to man. - -He was able, above the turmoil of faction and the tumult of conflicting -troubles, to weigh - - "... his spread wings, at leisure to behold - Far off the empyreal Heaven, extended wide - In circuit, undetermined square or round, - With opal towers and battlements adorned - Of living sapphire, once his native seat." - - (_Paradise Lost_). - -That Milton had been silent for so long a period was due, firstly to his -preoccupation with political and polemical questions, into which he had -thrown the whole weight of his mind; and, secondly, to the effect of his -own firm resolve that the great epic, which, he had always secretly -intended, should be the outcome of matured and ripened powers: the -apotheosis of all that was worthiest in him: the full fruit of his -strenuous life. He had long since arrived at that conclusion, never -surpassed in its terseness and truth, that true poetry must be "simple, -sensuous, impassioned,"--words which might serve as the text and -touchstone of art. "And long it was not after" when he - - "was confirmed in this opinion, that he who would not be frustrate of - his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things, ought himself to - be a true poem." - -For poetry, to John Milton, was no sounding brass or tinkling cymbal; in -his hand "the thing became a trumpet," apt to seraphic usages and the -rallying of celestial cohorts. - -Therefore, when he ceased to touch the "tender stops of various quills" -that trembled into silence in _Lycidas_, it was not as one discomfited -of his attainment. Rather it was as one convinced of a mighty purpose, -and patiently awaiting the just time of its fulfilment. The "woodnotes -wild" of _Comus_, the exquisitely stippled _genre_ painting of -_Allegro_ and _Penseroso_, were mere childish attempts compared with -that monumental work to which Milton firmly proposed to devote the -fruition of his genius. And now, having become a man through mental and -physical experience even more than through the passage of years, he had -put away childish things. He had resolved at last upon, and had at last -undertaken, the one subject most congenial to his taste, and most -suitable to his style and diction. _Paradise Lost_ was the triumphant -offspring of his brain. It had sprung, like light, from chaos. Out of -the darkness of poverty, blindness and defeat arose the poem which was -to set him on the pinnacles of Parnassus. - -"You make many enquiries as to what I am about" he wrote in bygone years to -his old schoolfellow, Charles Diodati. "What am I thinking of? Why with -God's help, of immortality! Forgive the word, I only whisper it in your -ear. Yes, I am pluming my wings for a flight." Nor was this the idle -boasting of an egotist, the empty imagination of a dreamer. - -Consumed by "the desire of honour and repute and universal fame, -seated," as he put it, "in the breast of every true scholar," Milton -sedulously and assiduously had prepared himself for the achievement of -his aims. That he should "strictly meditate the thankless Muse" required -a certain self-control. "To scorn delights and live laborious days" is -not the customary delight of a handsome young scholar, expert in -swordsmanship as in languages. To equip himself for his self-chosen -task, still a misty, undefined prospect in the remotest future, required -strenuous and disciplined study; and necessitated his forgoing too -frequently the scenes of rustic happiness which he had pictured so -charmingly in _L'Allegro_,--absenting himself from "The groves and -ruins, and the beloved village elms ... where I too, among rural scenes -and remote forests, seemed as if I could have grown and vegetated -through a hidden eternity." - -And this, though Milton had neither the eye nor the ear of a born -nature-lover, was in itself a sufficient deprivation and sacrifice. For -beauty appealed to him with a most earnest insistence,--and the purer, -the more abstract form it took, the more urgent was that appeal. "God -has instilled into me, at all events," he declared, "a vehement love of -the beautiful. Not with so much labour is Ceres said to have sought -Proserpine, as I am wont, day and night, to search for the idea of the -beautiful through all forms and faces of things, and to follow it -leading me on with certain assured traces." - -Yet not alone among "forms and faces" was he predestined to discover -that Absolute Beauty. The passionate love of music, so frequently -characteristic of a great linguist, which led him into sound-worlds as -well as sight-worlds, was fated to remain with him, an incalculable -consolation, when "forms and faces" could be no more seen. And into the -vocabulary of _Paradise Lost_, that incomparably rich vocabulary, with -its infallible ear for rhythm, for phrase, for magnificent consonantal -effects and the magic of great names that reverberate through open -vowels,--into this he poured forth his whole sense of beautiful sound, - - "as the wakeful bird - Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid, - Tunes her nocturnal note." - -_Paradise Lost_ remains, as has been observed, "The elaborated outcome -of all the best words of all antecedent poetry--the language of one who -lives in the companionship of the great and the wise of all past time, -equally magnificent in verbiage, whether describing man, or God, or the -Arch-Enemy visiting" this pendent world, when - - Thither, full fraught with mischievous revenge, - Accursed, and in a cursed hour, he lives. - -At seven o'clock the body-servant Greene re-entered, followed by Mrs. -Milton, the poet's third wife, and by Mary Fisher, their maid-servant, -bringing in his breakfast, a light, slight repast. Mrs. Milton, _née_ -Elizabeth Minshull, of Nantwich, was a comely, active, capable woman, -"of a peaceful and agreeable humour," so far at least as her husband was -concerned: for she shared the traditional destiny of a stepmother in not -"hitting it off" with the first wife's daughters. Her golden hair and -calm commonsense were in striking contrast, alike with the dark beauty -and petulant spirit of Mary Powell, and with the fragile sweetness of -Catherine Woodcock, Milton's former spouses. If she did not in her heart -confirm her husband's celebrated theory of the relative position of man -and wife,--"He for God only, she for God in him,"--(which, it has been -said, "condenses every fallacy about woman's true relation to her -husband and to her Maker"), she managed very adroitly to convey an -impression of entire acquiescence in the will of her lord. And at least -she was entirely adequate as a housewife. - -Had Milton ever encountered that "not impossible She" whom he portrayed -in his ideal Eve? or was this latter a mere visionary abstract of great -qualities, "to show us how divine a thing a woman may be made"? Neither -of his three wives, nor yet that "very handsome and witty gentlewoman," -Miss Davis, to whom he had at one time paid his addresses, conformed to -this description: one cannot even conjecture that it was a _pasticcio_ -of their respective fine attributes. - -Mrs. Milton, third of that name, as she bustled and busied herself about -the study, was by no means a new Eve. She regarded her husband's -ambitions and achievements with that good natured tolerance so -characteristic of the materially-minded. Only genius can appreciate -genius; and the man who shut himself away from his _confrères_ in -scholarship and literature was not likely to unbosom himself to his -housewifely, provincial wife. - - - COMUS. _Painting by S. Meteyard._ - - Sabrina rises attended by water nymphs, - "By the rushy-fringed bank, - Where grows the willow and the osier dank," - - (_Comus_). - - -[Illustration: Comus colour plate] - - -The manservant Greene, breakfast being concluded, read aloud, or wrote -to his master's dictation for some hours. This had formerly been the -girls' daily office, but they were revolting more and more,--the whole -position was becoming untenable, for they resented the presence of their -stepmother as much as they disliked the duties which fettered them to -their father's side, and forced them to parrot-like, futile drudgery in -unknown tongues. To-day, however, Greene was relieved of the task, for -which he was manifestly but ill-fitted, by the entrance of Milton's two -favourite visitors. - -No celebrity ever had fewer friends. From all who might have called -themselves such, he was separated by hostility of party, rancour of -sect or by that almost repellent isolation of character to which -reference has already been made. When at the highest of his political -fame, he had almost boasted himself of this "splendid isolation,"--"I -have very little acquaintance with those in power, inasmuch as I keep -very much to my own house, and prefer to do so." At heart a Republican -beyond the conception of any Roundhead,--cherishing a form of religion -so recondite that it could be classed under no heading, since he ignored -both public worship and family prayer,--having given offence to all and -sundry by his outspoken theories upon divorce and divine right,--Milton -presented to most men a dangerous personality. And most of all now, when -the wits of the Restoration roués could be sharpened upon him, and when -the heathen, as he considered them, roistered and ruffled it through the -city that had "returned to her wallowing in the mire." - -Yet those who had sat at his feet as pupils, retained a singular -affection for their former master. For all such young folk as adopted -the disciple's attitude, the stern self-contained man had a very soft -spot in his heart. With such, he was not only instructive, but genial, -almost cheerful; and they alone could move him to the only utterances -which were neither "solemn, serious or sad." Chief among his former -pupils were those who now made entrance--Henry Lawrence and Cyriac -Skinner. - -It may be guessed, therefore, with what pleasure the blind poet received -these loyal and affectionate men. His pensive face became transformed -with interest and animation, as with gentle courtesy and unfeigned -delight he turned his sightless eyes from one speaker to another. Upon -every subject he had a ready flow of easy, colloquial conversation, -seasoned with shrewd satire: his deep and musical voice ran up and down -the whole gamut of worthy topics. Sometimes he fell into the stately, -almost stilted diction of his great prose pamphlets,--sometimes he spoke -in racy English vernacular,--sometimes, warming to his subject, he -assumed an almost fiery eloquence. But when, at twelve o'clock, he was -escorted downstairs to dinner in the parlour, the metamorphosis was -complete. This was no longer the brooding introspective man of the early -morning, but one "extreme pleasant in his conversation," almost merry in -society so congenial,--the life of the party: abstinent, but not ascetic, -having a healthy, human enjoyment of the dishes set before him. - -"These are the victuals most to my liking," he observed as he ate, -"being seasonable and withal of no great cost. For that which is of great -rarity or richness, and must be procured with care or toil, hath no -temptation for me." - -"I do always my best, Mr. Milton," replied his wife, "that you shall be -well satisfied: and methinks to-day I have hit your taste right fairly." - -"God ha' mercy, Betty," said Milton, regarding her with an air of kindly -tolerance, "I see thou wilt perform according to thy promise in providing -me such dishes as I think fit while I live; and when I die, thou knowest -I have left thee all." Here Anne, Mary and Deborah sat up very straight, -and directed looks of fury and astonishment towards their stepmother. - -"Talk not o' dying, in God's name, man," responded the embarrassed Betty, -"we have enough to do to make shift to live, nowadays," and she hastily -pressed her good but simple fare, homely Cheshire dishes well-prepared, -upon the two guests. "Such a many learned foreign folk have visited our -poor house these latter days,--time hath failed me for my -cheese-cakes,--and of the havercakes I made two days agone, why, not a -crumb is left. But eat, my masters, eat and drink. Though these be but -country victuals, none of your Court kickshaws, I warrant you they are -fresh and savoury. I would commend you, now, to this rabbit pie--" - -"Peace, Betty, peace. The woman prates o' pies like a pie (magpie) -herself. What saith the Apostle? _I suffer not a woman to speak_ in -presence of the man's authority. Ha' done, good Betty, with thy harping -on kitchen matters,--let thy savoury messes be companioned with a sauce -of silence." - -Temporary eclipse of Mrs. Milton: obvious and malevolent satisfaction of -Anne and Mary: desperately suppressed inclination to giggle on the part -of little Deborah: and a desire to cover up the situation with talk, as -regards kindly Lawrence and courtly Skinner. - -The "foreign folk" were no new thing. Milton's fame, indeed, was European: -as a prose-writer and pamphleteer, be it understood, not as a poet. Had -he not refuted and put to shame the most erudite scholars of the day? -Foreign _savants_ of note, therefore, who might be visiting London, were -desirous to acquaint themselves with so powerful a personality: and the -little house in the Artillery Walk was the rendezvous for many -distinguished persons. They found their host no such recluse as town-talk -might have led them to imagine, but one ready and willing to converse -with them,--an English gentleman to the backbone, a scholar and artist -to the finger-tips. His Continental tours and Italian sojourns had made -him less insular than most of his compatriots, and his vast range of -reading had imparted a certain cosmopolitanism to his exceedingly -individual lines of thought. The visitors found him, moreover, employed -upon a work so important, and of a theme so lofty, as might well give -them pause, considering the circumstances under which it was being -accomplished: and whatever their particular religious tenets might be, -they could not fail to admire the magnitude of his aim in composing -_Paradise Lost_,--"To justify the ways of God to men." - - - PARADISE LOST. BK. II _Painting by S. Meteyard._ - - "Satan with less toil, and now with ease, ... - Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold ... - This pendent world in bigness as a star - Of smallest magnitude." - - (_Paradise Lost. Bk. II._) - - -[Illustration: Satan in paradise colour plate] - - -Dinner despatched, the master of the house, led by his devoted friends, -went out into the garden. A garden was the desideratum of his existence, -and he had never been without one; for in seventeenth-century London -every house was fitly furnished in this respect. Here Milton was in the -habit of taking that steady exercise which was a _sine quâ non_ to a -sedentary and gouty man. He made a point of walking up and down out of -doors, in cold weather, for three or four hours at a time,--sometimes -composing his majestic lines, sometimes merely meditating. When weary -with walking, he would come in and either dictate what he had conceived, -or would take further exercise in a swing. In really warm weather, he -received his visitors sitting outside his house door, wrapped in a -coarse grey overcoat--gazing out upon the fields of the Artillery ground -with those "unblemished eyes" that belied their own clear beauty--"the -only point," as he said, "in which I am against my will a hypocrite." -To-day, being cool and cloudy, allowed but intermittent periods in the -open air. Milton, Lawrence and Skinner paced slowly to and fro, deep in -enthralling intercourse, until three o'clock: when the rain and Thomas -Elwood arrived simultaneously, and the other two men departed to their -respective avocations. - -Thomas Elwood was a young Quaker of twenty-three, who was acting in some -degree as honorary secretary to Milton. Himself of a defective education, -and having been expelled from his father's house on account of his -religious opinions, he was only too glad to take a lodging in the -neighbourhood, and, by reading aloud to Milton every afternoon, acquire -an amount of information and a variety of learning, which by no other -means could he have obtained. And there was also a tacit sympathy -between them, insomuch as Milton was, more and more, as life went on, -inclining towards the Quaker tenets,--in those days, _bien entendu_, -viewed with horror and detestation by the majority of men. - -Having re-entered the house, "We will not read as yet, Tom," Milton said, -"I desire greatly to comfort myself with sweet sounds. Bring me into the -withdrawing-room, and place me at the organ. A little bellows-blowing -will not hurt thee, Tom. And let my wife attend me, that we may have -song withal. She hath a good voice, though a poor ear." - -Seated at his beloved instrument, the blind man steeped himself in the -principal pleasure that was left him. Milton's father, stout Puritan -though he might be, was an accomplished musician, and had taught his -son to play in early youth. The austerities of a narrow dogma had not -been able to crush out the inveterate artistry of either father or -son: and now the devotee of "divinest Melancholy" was able to solace -himself with such lovely concords, such "anthems clear," - - "As may with sweetness, through mine ear, - Dissolve me into ecstasies, - And bring all heaven before mine eyes." - -Sometimes he sang as he played; sometimes Mrs. Milton, with her clear -unemotional notes, sang to his accompaniment. Presently, that Elwood -should not be wearied in his blowing, he quitted the organ for the -bass-viol, on which he was no mean performer. At the conclusion of his -playing he sat with a rapt, transfigured face, such as might well have -called forth the Italian's encomium, thirty years before,--"If thy piety -were equal to thy understanding, figure, eloquence, beauty and manners, -verily thou wouldest not be an Angle but an Angel!" - -"And, now, good Tom," quoth Milton to the young man, "let us to work: the -day moves on apace." They went upstairs to the study. "Before we read, I -have some forty lines to set down," continued the poet, "all day they -have been knocking for admission, and with that last music they made -entrance. Needs must I house them now in ink and paper." - -"I am instant at thy bidding, friend," and Elwood seated himself with -dutiful alacrity at the table. Milton, placing himself obliquely athwart -his elbow-chair, with one leg thrown across the arm, dictated forty -lines, almost in a breath,--they burst from him, as it would seem, in a -stream no longer to be restrained. - -"Gently, gently, good sir!" exclaimed Elwood, "slow-witted and slow -fingered I may be,--but I cannot keep pace with thee!" - -A grim smile hovered over Milton's full lips, "Out of practice, Tom," he -replied indulgently, "it is a long while since I required this service -at thy hands. From the autumnal to the vernal equinox, as I have told -thee, my muse lies dumb, - and silent as the moon, - When she deserts the night, - Hid in her vacant interlunar cave. - - -But now the winter is overpast, the singing of birds is heard in our -land, and she too awakes and sings. With the vernal equinox my thoughts -flow free as Helicon." Then, with slow and deliberate diction, he -repeated the lines once more: and, having had them read aloud to him, he -compressed, condensed, concentrated every thought and phrase, and -reduced them to twenty. - -"There is more to come?" queried Elwood, his quill poised ready to write. - -"No more. Not one word more at present," replied Milton, sighing as -though somewhat exhausted. - -His inspiration was entirely intermittent: and sometimes he would lie -awake all night, trying, but without success, to complete one single -line to his liking. "They please me not wholly, these lines," he -continued, "much remains to be done before I set them down to be changed -no more." - -"Not every man would say so," replied Elwood, "the learning and -erudition whereof these few lines alone give witness, would supply many -with just cause for boasting throughout a lifetime." - -Milton shook his head. "Pomp and ostentation of reading," he remarked, -"is admired among the vulgar: but in matters of religion, he is -learnedest who is plainest." - - - IL PENSEROSO. _Painting by S. Meteyard._ - - "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 - Of every star that heaven doth show." - - (_Il Penseroso._) - - -[Illustration: Il Penseroso colour plate] - - -"Yet, Mr. Milton, thee hast the reputation of such scope and range of -wisdom, as the greatest scholar in Europe might fitly envy. To me, I -confess, in my poor unlettered ignorance, it is not conceivable in what -manner thee acquired so great and witty powers." - -"I gathered them not of mine own strength," said Milton, "but they were -mine for the asking and endeavour, and any man may obtain them in like -fashion. I ceased not, nor will cease, in devout prayer to the Holy -Spirit, that can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and send out -his Seraphim with the hallowed fire of His altar, to touch and purify -the lips of whom He pleases. To this must be added select reading, and -steady observation, and insight into all seemly and generous acts and -affairs.... And now, good Tom, to reading." - -Elwood took up the Latin author which he was at present engaged upon, -and proceeded with it. Whenever the preternaturally acute ear of Milton -detected, by Elwood's intonation, that he did not quite understand a -sentence, he would stop him, examine him, and elucidate the difficult -passage. By and by, "You will find a saying very similar to that," he -observed, "in Virgil his Fourth Eclogue. Fetch down the book, and let us -hear what the Mantuan hath written therein." - -Elwood searched along the bookshelves, but to no avail. "Friend," said -he, "thy Virgil is no longer here. Yesterday I handled it myself,--to-day -it is vanished. So is the Lucretius." A frown contracted Milton's -splendid brow. "These women-kind," he muttered like rumbling thunder, -"they are verily the root of all evil. Bid me hither my wife and -daughters, and Mary Fisher the maid moreover." The first and the last, -being summoned, arrived in all haste, and disavowed any knowledge of the -missing books. Anne and Mary Milton, it appeared, were gone out -marketing: but little Deborah, being strictly cross-examined, confessed -that she had seen sister Anne carrying books away from the study last -night when their father had retired: the wherewithal for "marketing" -was easily obtained in this way. - -Milton groaned in his ineptitude. "How have I deserved this treacherous -dealing at their hands? Lord, how long shall I be - - dark in light exposed - To daily fraud, contempt, abuse, and wrong, - Within doors and without, still as a fool - In power of others, never in my own? - - (_Samson Agonistes_). - - -Here, by a happy coincidence, there was a sturdy hammering heard at the -front door, and Andrew Marvell was ushered in, "I am out of my due -time," said he, "for it is not yet gone six,"--(six to eight P.M. being -Milton's best time for receiving visitors). "Yet to so old an offender -as myself, John, I know thou wilt make an exception." Marvell was the -one friend of his own type and standing, the one constant and -inalienable comrade, upon whose fidelity the blind man could rely. He had -formerly been Milton's colleague under the Cromwellian Government: and -was his kindred spirit, so far as anyone could claim such relationship -with the frozen heights of the poet's intellect. - -With him, during the next two hours--the learned physician Paget joining -them, and Elwood listening in respectful silence to the converse of these -mighty men--Milton forgot the vexations of his ill-assorted household. He -assured his friends that he was truly far happier now, in poverty, -infirmity and neglect, occupied solely upon his long-projected -masterpiece, than during the eighteen years of his manly prime, when his -mind and pen were solely employed upon the controversies which he now -professed to hate. "Never again," he declared, "shall earthly ambitions -interrupt and thwart me: never now shall I endure to leave a calm and -pleasing solitariness, fed with cheerful and confident thoughts, to -embark in a tumbled sea of noises and hoarse disputes. Cast out of my -fool's Paradise of fame not worth the finding, shall, not I and the hope -whereunto I am wedded explore some fair and fragrant tract of outer -Eden? Even as I have set forth the banishment of our first parents: - - Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon; - The world was all before them, where to choose - Their place of rest, and Providence their guide. - They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, - Through Eden took their solitary way. - - (_Paradise Lost_). - - -I and my espoused hope indeed do tread through Eden." - -The four men now, at eight o'clock, went down to supper: a very spare and -frugal meal, so far as Milton was concerned: for all he consumed was a -little light wine, a piece of bread and a few olives. His flow of speech -was still unwearied, his spirits as near vivacity as they could approach -it, when his friends rose to take leave. "The night is yet young," said -Paget, "but I know that nowadays you seek rest early." "That is so," -Milton assented, "since I am no longer able to study o' nights, and -since the best of secretaries,"--he smiled towards Elwood--"must needs -grow weary of a blind man's whims, I were as well in bed as out of it. -Moreover, I can compose my lines to better advantage lying down." - -"One thing, at least, you are spared," Marvell told him, "darkness -cannot discommode your doings, nor doth the eye-weariness of the -midnight student afflict you with grievous brow-aches in the morning as -of old." - -Milton answered, "My darkness hitherto, by the singular kindness of God, -amid rest and studies, and the voices and greetings of friends, has been -much easier to bear than that deathly one. What should prevent me from -resting in the belief that eyesight lies not in eyes alone, but enough -for all purposes in God's leading and providence? And to you now I bid -farewell, with a mind not less brave and steadfast than if I were -Lynceus himself for keenness of sight." - -In a short space of time he was at rest in his darkened room; not as yet -drowsy, but revolving great phrases, and deriving a greater joy from -these lonely silences of the night-watches than could ever accrue to him -by day. Gradually the aisles and bowers of the Paradise which his mental -eyes enjoyed took upon them more and more the lovely similitude of rural -England. The greennesses and sweetnesses of his childhood's home, the -Buckinghamshire village, were fused into the "eternal spring" of the -primeval garden. And from the "glassy, cool, translucent wave" of the -river that ran through Eden, - - "by the rushy-fringed bank - Where grows the willow and the osier dank," - -arose "Sabrina, attended by water-nymphs" as once he saw her rise in -_Comus_, and sang the sightless bard to sleep with the plashing of -water-music. - - -[Illustration: "Rose"] - - - _Printed by Percy Lund, Humphries & Co., Ltd._ - _Bradford and London._ - - _10322_ - - - ==================== - - -Transcriber's Notes: - -Some illustration's captions have been moved out of the paragraph. - -The following captions have been added: - Illustration: Colour plate of book cover; - Illustration: Byron portrait plate; - Illustration: Paradise lost plate; - Illustration: "Angel" plate; - Illustration: Comus colour plate; - Illustration: Satan in paradise colour plate; - Illustration: Il Penseroso colour plate; - Illustration: "Rose". - -The following noted Illustration was removed: - Dropped Cap "A" at start of text - "About ..." - -Spelling has been made consistent throughout. - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Day with John Milton, by May Byron - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DAY WITH JOHN MILTON *** - -***** This file should be named 40130-8.txt or 40130-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/0/1/3/40130/ - -Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Steven Brown 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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