Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Milton

  5

  He can requite thee, for he knows the charms

  That call Fame on such gentle acts as these,

  And he can spread thy name o’re lands and seas,

  What ever clime the suns bright circle warms.

  Lift not thy spear against the Muses bowr:2

  10

  The great Emathian Conqueror3 bidd spare

  The house of Pindarus, when temple and towr

  Went to the ground: and the repeated air

  Of sad Electra’s poet4 had the power

  To save th’ Athenian walls from ruin bare.

  (Nov. 1642)

  * * *

  1 During the earlier days of the First Civil War the Royalist army, after success at Edgehill on Oct. 23, 1642, advanced toward London but retreated Nov. 12-13. Milton’s home in Aldersgate Street was just beyond the London city gate; the MS title indicated (in jest) that the sonnet was to be tacked on his door.

  2 Despite the mocking tone of the thin spear raised against the undefended door, Milton is seriously comparing the far-reaching powers of poetry with the inglorious limitations of war.

  3 Alexander the Great of Macedonia (Emathia). Thebes was attacked in 335 B.C. for revolt against Macedonia; the Congress of Corinth decreed that the city was to be razed.

  4 Euripides. The first chorus of that play (ll. 167 ff.) reputedly dissuaded the Spartans from sacking Athens in 404 B.C.

  Sonnet 9

  Ladie, that in the prime of earliest youth

  Wisely hast shun’d the broad way and the green1

  And with those few art eminently seen

  That labour up the hill of heav’nly Truth,2

  5

  The better part with Mary and with Ruth3

  Chosen thou hast, and they that overween

  And at thy growing vertues fret thir spleen

  No anger find in thee, but pitty and ruth.

  Thy care is fixt and zealously attends

  10

  To fill thy odorous lamp with deeds of light

  And Hope that reaps not shame. Therfore be sure4

  Thou, when the Bridegroom with his feastfull freinds

  Passes to bliss at the midd howr of night,

  Hast gain’d thy entrance, Virgin wise and pure.5

  (1643-45)

  * * *

  1 The unidentified lady is commended for her steadfast and virtuous life: unlike the Bride who unwisely and unsuccessfully sought her Lord “in the broad ways” (S. of Sol. iii. 2), the lady will attain the kingdom of Heaven because she has followed Jesus’ admonition: “Enter ye at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction,… and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life” (Matt. vii. 13, 14). The green way of the impatient and complaining comes from Job viii. 12-13, 16: “Whilst it is yet in his greenness, and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb. So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite’s hope shall perish:… He is green before the sun.…”

  2 God’s holy hill is gained through perseverance of the virtuous life, for Jesus had said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John xiv. 6). Compare Hesiod’s Hill of Virtue (Works and Days, 287).

  3 Mary, who steadfastly sat at Jesus’ feet to hear his word, had “chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke x. 42). Ruth, known to the people to be a steadfast and virtuous woman (Ruth i. 18, iii. 11), chose to follow Naomi and her advice, thus becoming a progenitor of Joseph, husband of Jesus’ mother, through her marriage to Boaz.

  4 be assured.

  5 The wise virgins, who had filled their lamps in preparation for the time that the kingdom of Heaven would be at hand, were ready when at midnight the Bridegroom came (Matt. xxv. 1-13). As Brooks and Hardy note (p. 160), “it was at midnight too … that Boaz awakened to find Ruth at his feet, and when he lay down he had just come from a feast” (Ruth iii. 7-8).

  Sonnet 10

  Daughter to that good Earle,1 once President

  Of Englands Counsel, and her Treasury,

  Who liv’d in both, unstain’d with gold or fee,

  And left them both, more in himself content,

  5

  Till the sad breaking of that Parlament

  Broke him,2 as that dishonest victory

  At Chæronéa, fatal to liberty

  Kill’d with report that Old man eloquent,3

  Though later born then to have known the daies

  10

  Wherin your Father flourisht, yet by you

  Madam, me thinks I see him living yet;

  So well your words his noble Vertues praise,

  That all both judge you to relate them true

  And to possess them, Honourd Margaret.

  (1643-45)

  * * *

  1 Sir James Ley, Earl of Marlborough, Lord Chief Justice, Lord High Treasurer, and Lord President of the Council of State under Charles I. The subject of the sonnet was Lady Margaret, wife of Captain John Hobson.

  2 Charles’ Third Parliament was dissolved by him on Mar. 10, 1629, primarily because of the intractable opposition of Commons to tonnage and poundage; Marlborough died four days later. The next parliament (the Short Parliament) was not called until Apr. 13, 1640.

  3 Isocrates. Philip of Macedonia’s defeat of Thebes and Athens at Chaeronea in 338 B.C., ending Greek independence, reputedly caused the well-known orator to commit suicide four days later. Like this shameful victory, Charles’ thwarting of the people’s will was a curtailment of liberty.

  In Effigiei Ejus Sculptorem1

  On the Engraver of His Likeness1

  This image was drawn by an untaught hand, / you might perhaps say, looking at the form of the original. / But since here you do not recognize the modelled face, friends, / laugh at a bad imitation by a worthless artist.

  (1645)

  * * *

  1 A poorly drawn portrait served as a frontispiece in the 1645 edition of the poems; these lines appeared beneath. The engraver was William Marshall.

  Sonnet 111

  I did but prompt the age to quit thir clogs

  By the known rules of ancient liberty,2

  When strait a barbarous noise environs me

  Of Owls and cuckoes, asses, apes and dogs.

  5

  As when those hinds that were transform’d to frogs

  Rail’d at Latona’s twin-born progeny

  Which after held the Sun and Moon in Fee.3

  But this is got by casting pearl to hogs;4

  That bawl for freedom in thir senseles mood,

  10

  And still5 revolt when Truth would set them free.

  Licence they mean, when they cry liberty,

  For who loves that, must first be wise, and good;

  But from that mark how farr they roav, we see

  For all this wast of wealth, and loss of blood.6

  (autumn 1645 ?)

  * * *

  1 See the Textual Notes for numbering.

  2 The twin divorce tracts Tetrachordon and Colasterion were published Mar. 4, 1645; to Milton his work on divorce was part of his contribution to true liberty (Defensio secunda, pp. 90-91). In Tetrachordon he justified divorce through exposition of Deut. xxiv. 1, 2. Among the published detractions of Tetrachordon was Ephraim Pagitt’s Heresiography, the second edition (1645), which remarks Milton’s recourse to scripture to maintain his opinion (p. 142).

  3 The twin children of Latona and Jove were Apollo, god of the sun, and Diana, goddess of the moon. The Lycian peasants who refused Latona and her children drink were turned into frogs by Jove. As Parker has noted (Explicator, VIII, 1949, item 3) the fact that Milton’s derided pamphlets were published together recalled this image of the twin gods.

  4 Adapted from Matt. vii. 6: “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.”

  5 never
theless.

  6 The image likens the people who think they aim at liberty by means of Civil War to wasteful archers whose arrows (rovers) miss their mark and merely wound their prey.

  Sonnet 13

  Harry,1 whose tunefull and well-measur’d song

  First taught our English Music how to span

  Words with just note and accent, not to scan

  With Midas eares,2 committing short and long,

  5

  Thy worth and skill exempts thee from the throng,

  With praise anough for Envy to look wan;

  To after-age thou shalt be writt the man

  That with smooth air couldst humor best our tongue.

  Thou honourst Vers, and Vers must lend her wing

  10

  To honour thee, the Preist of Phœbus quire

  That tun’st thir happiest lines in hymn, or story.3

  Dante shall give Fame leav to set thee higher

  Then his Casella,4 whom he woo’d to sing

  Met in the milder shades of Purgatory.

  (Feb. 1646)

  * * *

  1 Henry Lawes (1596-1662), who wrote the music for Mask (and probably for Arcades), enacted the attendant spirit, and was instrumental in having the work published. The sonnet was prefixed to Choice Psalmes put into Musick For Three Voices (1648); Milton’s nephews, Edward and John Phillips, contributed commendatory lyrics to Lawes Ayres (1653). The standard biography is Willa M. Evans’ Henry Lawes, Musician and Friend to Poets (New York, 1941).

  2 Apollo changed Midas’ ears to those of an ass for his obtuseness in declaring Pan a superior flutist to Apollo. Milton is praising Lawes’ faithful attention to lyrics, in distinction to some lesser seventeenth-century composers’ practice of altering them to fit their music.

  3 referring to Lawes’ setting of William Cartwright’s The Complaint of Ariadne.

  4 a Florentine musician and friend of Dante. When Dante arrived in Purgatory from Hell, he spied Casella, who sang the second canzone of Dante’s Convitio (Purgatorio, II, 76-123).

  Sonnet 141

  When Faith and Love which parted from thee never,

  Had rip’n’d thy just soul to dwell with God,

  Meekly thou didst resigne this earthy load

  Of death, call’d life; which us from life doth sever.

  5

  Thy Works and Almes, and all thy good Endeavor

  Staid not behind, nor in the grave were trod;

  But as Faith pointed with her golden rod,

  Follow’d thee up to joy and bliss for ever.

  Love led them on, and Faith who knew them best

  10

  Thy handmaids, clad them o’re with purple beames

  And azure wings, that up they flew so drest,

  And spake the truth of thee in glorious theames2

  Before the Judge, who thenceforth bidd thee rest,

  And drink thy fill of pure immortal streames.

  (Dec. 1646)

  * * *

  1 Mrs. Catharine Thomason, wife of the book collector George Thomason, was buried on Dec. 12, 1646. The poem is a tissue of Biblical allusions, such as the Christian armor of Faith and Love (Eph. vi. 13-24), the just who shall live by faith (Gal. iii. 11), the meek who inherit the earth (Matt. v. 5), the judgment according to one’s faith and works (James ii. 22, 24), the ascent of alms to God (Acts x. 4), the river of immortality (Rev. xxii. 1).

  2 As Grierson pointed out (TLS, Jan. 15, 1925, p. 40), the term is musical; it is a song before the throne of God (Rev. xiv. 2-3).

  Ad Joannem Roüsium

  OXONIENSIS ACADEMIÆ BIBLIOTHECARIUM

  De libro poëmatum amisso, quem ille sibi denuò mitti postulabat, ut cum aliis nostris in Bibliotheca publica, reponeret, Ode.1

  STROPHE 1

  Gemelle cultu simplici gaudens liber,2

  Fronde licet geminâ,

  Munditiéque nitens non operosâ,

  Quam manus attulit

  5

  Juvenilis olim,

  Sedula tamen haud nimii poetæ,

  Dum vagus Ausonias3 nunc per umbras

  Nunc Britannica per vireta lusit

  Insons populi, barbitóque devius

  10

  Indulsit patrio, mox itidem pectine Daunio4

  Longinquum intonuit melos

  Vicinis, et humum vix tetigit pede.

  ANTISTROPHE

  Quis te, parve liber, quis te fratribus

  Subduxit reliquis dolo?

  15

  Cum tu missus ab urbe,

  Docto jugiter obsecrante amico,

  Illustre tendebas iter

  Thamesis5 ad incunabula

  Cærulei patris,

  20

  Fontes ubi limpidi

  Aonidum,6 thyasusque sacer

  Orbi notus per immensos

  Temporum lapsus redeunte cælo,

  Celeberque futurus in ævum?

  STROPHE 2

  25

  Modò quis deus, aut editus deo

  Pristinam gentis miseratus indolem

  (Si satis noxas luimus priores

  Mollique luxu degener otium)

  Tollat nefandos civium tumultus,7

  30

  Almaque revocet studia sanctus

  Et relegatas sine sede Musas

  Jam penè totis finibus Angligenûm;

  Immundasque volucres

  Unguibus imminentes

  35

  Figat Apollineâ pharetrâ,

  Phinéamque abigat pestem procul amne Pegaséo?8

  ANTISTROPHE

  Quin tu, libelle, nuntii licet malâ

  Fide, vel oscitantiâ

  Semel erraveris agmine fratrum,

  40

  Seu quis te teneat specus,

  Seu qua te latebra, forsan unde vili

  Callo teréris institoris insulsi,

  Lætare felix, en iterum tibi

  Spes nova fulget posse profundam

  45

  Fugere Lethen, vehique superam

  In Jovis aulam remige pennâ,

  STROPHE 3

  Nam te Roüsius sui

  Optat peculî, numeróque justo

  Sibi pollicitum queritur abesse,

  50

  Rogatque venias ille cujus inclyta

  Sunt data virûm monumenta curæ:

  Téque adytis etiam sacris

  Voluit reponi quibus et ipse præsidet

  Æternorum operum custos fidelis,

  55

  Quæstorque gazæ nobilioris,

  Quàm cui præfuit Iön

  Clarus Erechtheides

  Opulenta dei per templa parentis9

  Fulvosque tripodas, donaque Delphica,

  60

  Iön Actæâ genitus Creüsâ.

  ANTISTROPHE

  Ergo tu visere lucos

  Musarum ibis amœnos,

  Diamque Phœbi rursùs ibis in domum

  Oxoniâ quam valle colit

  65

  Delo posthabitâ,

  Bifidóque Parnassi jugo:

  Ibis honestus,

  Postquam egregiam tu quoque sortem

  Nactus abis, dextri prece sollicitatus amici.

  70

  Illic legéris inter alta nomina

  Authorum, Graiæ simul et Latinæ

  Antiqua gentis lumina, et verum decus.

  EPODOS

  Vos tandem haud vacui mei labores,

  Quicquid hoc sterile fudit ingenium.

  75

  Jam serò placidam sperare jubeo

  Perfunctam invidiâ requiem, sedesque beatas

  Quas bonus Hermes10

  Et tutela dabit solers Roüsi,

  Quò neque lingua procax vulgi penetrabit, atque longè

  80

  Turba legentum prava facesset;

  At ultimi nepotes,

  Et cordatior ætas

  Judicia rebus æquiora forsitan

  Adhibebit integro sinu.

  85

  Turn livore sepulto,


  Siquid meremur, sana posteritas sciet

  Roüsio favente.

  (Ode tribus constat strophis, totidémque antistrophis unâ demùm epodo clausis; quàs, tametsi omnes nec versuum numero nec certis ubique colis exactè respondeant, ita tamen secuimus, commodè legendi potius, quàm ad antiquos concinendi modos, rationem spectantes. Alioquin hoc genus rectiùs fortasse dici monstrophicum debuerat. Metra partim sunt , partim . Phaleucia quæ sunt, spondæum tertio loco bis admittunt, quod idem in secundo loco Catullus ad libitum fecit.)11

  To John Rouse

  LIBRARIAN OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY

  An Ode concerning a lost volume of poems which he requested be sent to him a second time, so that it might be put back with my others in the public library.1

  STROPHE 1

  Two-part book rejoicing in single garb,2 / although with double leaf, / and glittering with no painstaking elegance, / which a hand once / young wrought, [5] / a careful hand, yet by no means too great a poet’s, / while, unsettled, now through the Ausonian3 shades, / now through British lawns he dallied, / innocent of people and out of touch with life, / he indulged his native lute, soon afterwards in like manner [10] / with Daunian4 lyre he resounded his foreign air / to those around him, and barely touched the soil with his foot.

  ANTISTROPHE

  Who, little book, who with evil intent / withdrew you from your remaining brothers? / when, dispatched from the city, [15] / immediately upon request by my learned friend, / you were travelling the distinguished road / to the birthplace of the Thames,5 / the blue father, / where are the limpid fountains [20] / of the Aonides,6 and the sacred Bacchic dance / known to the world through endless / ages, fallen away under the revolving heavens, / but celebrated to eternity?