Read The Complete Poetry of John Milton Online
Authors: John Milton
Tags: #English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, #Poetry, #European
(
Dec. 1638
)
1
the Muses.
2
Cornelius Gallus (69–26 B.C.) established the elegy as a main form of Latin poetry; Gaius Maecenas was patron of a literary circle which included Virgil, Horace, Propertius, and Varius.
3
Giambattista Marini (1569-1625) was author of
Adone
(1623), which recounts the love of Venus for Adonis, the sun-god of the Assyrians (l. 11). “Ausonian,” l. 12, means Italian.
4
Manso wrote a biography of Tasso, but one of Marini is unknown except for this reference. The gifts of Athena are wisdom and intellectual pursuits.
5
Herodotus, supposedly born in Mycale, a promontory of Asia Minor.
6
the Muse of history.
7
northern.
8
Chaucer, whom Spenser represented thus in
Shepheardes Calendar
, Feb., 92; June, 81; Dec., 4. Spenser sang of the swans on the Thames in
Prothalamion
, 37 ff.
9
See
Ely
, n. 12. The Triones (ploughing oxen) were the seven principal stars in each of the Bears.
10
Loxo, Upis, and Hecaerge—names for Diana, who was born on Delos—are northern (Corinedian, British) maidens in Callimachus’
Hymn to Delos
, 291-94.
11
In Milton’s mind was Virgil’s
Ec.
I, 46, praising one retired to his farm.
12
Apollo, exiled for vengeance on the Cyclops, served as a serf with Admetus, king of Pherae, for a year. For the visit of Hercules, see
Son.
23, n. 2.
13
the centaur, who lived in Thessaly; the Trachinian cliff (l. 66) is Mt. Oeta.
14
Hermes, inventor of the lyre.
15
Aeson was restored to youth by his daughter-in-law Medea, thus reversing the spindles of the Fates.
16
from Paphos, sacred to Venus, and Mt. Parnassus, sacred to the Muses.
Angelus unicuique suus (sic credite gentes)
Obtigit æthereis ales ab ordinibus.
Quid mirum, Leonora, tibi si gloria major?
Nam tua præsentem vox sonat ipsa Deum.
5
Aut Deus, aut vacui certè mens tertia cœli
2
Per tua secretò guttura serpit a gens;
Serpit agens, facilisque docet mortalia corda
Sensim immortali assuescere posse sono.
Quòd si cuncta quidem Deus est, per cunctaque fusus,
10
In te unâ loquitur, cætera mutus habet.
Each person’s own particular angel (so believe, nations) / from the heavenly orders protects us with his wings. / What wonder, Leonora, if a greater glory be yours? / Certainly your voice itself pours forth the presence of God. / Either God or certainly a third mind from the empty skies
2
[5] / secretly winds through your throat effectively; / winds effectively and willingly teaches mortal hearts / how they may gradually become accustomed to immortal sounds. / But if God is all things in truth, and through all things diffused, / in you alone he speaks, and holds all others mute. [10]
(
Feb. ? 1639
)
1
the Neapolitan singer Leonora Baroni, whom Milton may have heard in the palace of Cardinal Barberini in Rome.
2
perhaps the Holy Ghost, third person of the Trinity.
Altera Torquatum cepit Leonora Poëtam,
Cujus ab insano cessit amore furens.
1
Ah miser ille tuo quantò feliciùs ævo
Perditus, et propter te, Leonora, foret!
5
Et te Pieriâ sensisset voce canentem
Aurea maternæ fila movere lyræ!
2
Quamvis Dircæo torsisset lumina Pentheo
3
Sævior, aut totus desipuisset iners,
Tu tamen errantes cæcâ vertigine sensus
10
Voce eadem poteras composuisse tuâ;
Et poteras ægro spirans sub corde quietem
Flexanimo cantu restituisse sibi.
Another Leonora captured the poet Torquato, / from excessive love of whom he went mad.
1
/ Ah, unfortunate man, how much more happily in your age / he might have been ruined, and for you, Leonora! / And he would have heard you singing with Pierian voice [5] / to set in motion the golden strings of your mother’s lute.
2
/ Although he had rolled his eyes more furiously than Dircean Pentheus,
3
/ or raved to total immobility, / you still could have quieted his wandering senses / in their blind giddiness by your voice; [10] / and you, breathing peace beneath his suffering heart, / could have restored him to himself with your heart-moving song.
(
Feb. ? 1639
)
1
Torquato Tasso had spells of derangement for many years before his death in 1595; his love for Leonora d’Este, sister of his patron Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara, was romantically given as the cause.
2
Adriana Baroni, an accomplished musician and lutist. Pierian refers to the Muses.
3
a king of Thebes, who was torn to pieces by followers of Bacchus.
Credula quid liquidam Sirena, Neapoli, jactas,
Claraque Parthenopes
1
fana Achelöiados,
Littoreamque tuâ defunctam Naiada ripâ
Corpora Chalcidico sacra dedisse rogo?
5
Illa quidem vivitque, et amœnâ Tibridis undâ
Mutavit rauci murmura Pausilipi.
2
Illic Romulidûm studiis ornata secundis,
Atque homines cantu detinet atque Deos.
Why, credulous Naples, do you vaunt your clear-voiced Siren / and the famous temple of Parthenope,
1
daughter of Achelous, / and your shore-Naiad, perished on the coast, / her consecrated body to be dedicated on a Chalcidian pyre? / In truth she lives and, for the delightful surge of the Tiber, [5] / has exchanged the roaring of raucous Pausilipus.
2
/ There, honored by the favorable zeal of the sons of Romulus, / she detains both men and gods with her song.
(
Feb. ? 1639
)
1
a siren, who, after drowning herself because of Ulysses’ escape, was washed ashore in the bay of Naples, an area settled by Greeks from Chalcis.
2
a mountain northwest of Naples, through which a much travelled road passed. Leonora, now in Rome, has left the noise of Naples behind.
ARGUMENTUM
Thyrsis et Damon ejusdem viciniæ Pastores, eadem studia sequuti a pueritiâ amici erant, ut qui plurimùm. Thyrsis animi causâ profectus peregrè de obitu Damonis nuncium accepit.
2
Domum postea reversus, et rem ita esse comperto, se, suamque solitudinem hoc carmine deplorat. Damonis autem sub personâ hîc intelligitur Carolus Deodatus ex urbe Hetruriæ Luca paterno genere oriundus, cætera Anglus; ingenio, doctrina, clarissimisque cæteris virtutibus, dum viveret, juvenis egregius.
Himerides
3
nymphæ (nam vos et Daphnin et Hylan,
Et plorata diu meministis fata Bionis)
Dicite Sicelicum Thamesina per oppida carmen:
Quas miser effudit voces, quæ murmura Thyrsis,
5
Et quibus assiduis exercuit antra querelis,
Fluminaque, fontesque vagos, nemorumque recessus,
Dum sibi præreptum queritur Damona, neque altam
Luctibus exemit noctem loca sola pererrans.
Et jam bis
4
viridi surgebat culmus arista,
10
Et totidem flavas numerabant horrea messes,
Ex quo summa dies tulerat Damona sub umbras,
Nec dum aderat Thyrsis; pastorem scilicet ilium
Dulcis amor Musæ Thusca retinebat in urbe.
Ast ubi mens expleta domum, pecorisque relicti
5
15
Cura vocat, simul assuetâ sedítque sub ulmo,
Turn vero amissum turn denique sentit amicum,
Cœpit et immensum sic exonerare dolorem.
Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Hei mihi! quæ terris, quæ dicam numina cœlo,
20
Postquam te immiti rapuerunt funere, Damon;
Siccine nos linquis, tua sic sine nomine virtus
Ibit, et obscuris numero sociabitur umbris?
At non ille,
6
animas virgâ qui dividit aureâ,
Ista velit, dignumque tui te ducat in agmen,
25
Ignavumque procul pecus arceat omne silentum.
Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Quicquid erit, certè nisi me lupus antè videbit,
7
Indeplorato non comminuere sepulcro,
Constabitque tuus tibi honos, longúmque vigebit
30
Inter pastores: Illi tibi vota secundo
Solvere post Daphnin, post Daphnin dicere laudes
Gaudebunt, dum rura Pales, dum Faunus amabit:
8
Si quid id est, priscamque fidem coluisse, piúmque,
Palladiásque artes, sociúmque habuisse canorum.
35
Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Hæc tibi certa manent, tibi erunt hæc præmia, Damon,
At mihi quid tandem fiet modò? quis mihi fidus
Hærebit lateri comes, ut tu sæpe solebas
Frigoribus duris, et per loca fœta pruinis,
40
Aut rapido sub sole, siti morientibus herbis?
Sive opus in magnos fuit eminùs ire leones
Aut avidos terrere lupos præsepibus altis;
Quis fando sopire diem, cantuque solebit?
Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
45
Pectora cui credam? quis me lenire docebit
Mordaces curas, quis longam fallere noctem
Dulcibus alloquiis, grato cùm sibilat igni
Molle pyrum, et nucibus strepitat focus, at malus auster
Miscet cuncta foris, et desuper intonat ulmo.
50
Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Aut æstate, dies medio dum vertitur axe,
Cum Pan æsculeâ somnum capit abditus umbrâ,
Et repetunt sub aquis sibi nota sedilia nymphæ,
Pastoresque latent, stertit sub sæpe colonus,
55
Quis mihi blanditiásque tuas, quis turn mihi risus,
Cecropiosque sales
9
referet, cultosque lepores?
Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
At jam solus agros, jam pascua solus oberro,
Sicubi ramosæ densantur vallibus umbræ,
60
Hic serum expecto, supra caput imber et Eurus
10
Triste sonant, fractæque agitata crepuscula silvæ.
Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Heu quàm culta mihi priùs arva procacibus herbis
Involvuntur, et ipsa situ seges alta fatiscit!