The Complete Poetry of John Milton (47 page)
Read The Complete Poetry of John Milton Online
Authors: John Milton
Tags: #English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, #Poetry, #European
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.
1
1
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.
1
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 still
5
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
nevertheless.
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.
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).
1
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 theames
2
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).
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 Ausonias
3
nunc per umbras
Nunc Britannica per vireta lusit
Insons populi, barbitóque devius
10
Indulsit patrio, mox itidem pectine Daunio
4
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
Thamesis
5
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,