MILTON In perfect diapason, whilst they stood Oh, may we soon again renew that song, And keep in tune with heaven, till God, ere long To live with Him, and sing in endless morn of light! 13 In the sylvan Buckinghamshire village, "far from the noise of town, and shut up in deep retreats," Milton abandoned himself to study and reflection. He was weighed upon, even thus early, by a conviction of his sublime calling ; he waited for the seraphim of the Eternal Spirit to touch his lips with the hallowed fire of inspiration, and he was neither idle nor restless, neither ambitious nor indifferent. He read with extreme eagerness, rising early and retiring late; he made himself master of all that could help him towards his mysterious vocation in Greek, Latin, French, Italian, and To mark English. five years of his stay at Horton, he produced five immortal poems, L'Allegro, Il Penserose, Arcades, Comus, Lycidas, all essentially lyrical, though two of them assume the semidramatic form of the pageant masque, a species of highly ficial poetry to which Ben Jonson and Camhad lent their pion or the Frontispiece to Milton's Poems, 1645 with the volume,-only taking his revenge by highly arti prestige in the preceding age. "What Milton thought when this engraving of himself was shown him, we can only guess. But, instead of having it cancelled, he let it go forth practical joke at the He offered him some lines of Greek verse to be engraver's expense. engraved ornamentally under the portrait; and these lines the poor artist An English did innocently engrave, little thinking what they meant. translation of them may run thus :- That an unskilful hand had carved this print (From The Works of John Milton. By DAVID MASSON, M.A., LL.D.) The ineffable refinement and dignity of these poems found a modest publicity in 1645. But the early poetry of Milton captured little general favour, and one small edition of it sufficed for nearly thirty years. Few imitated or were influenced by Milton's lyrics, and until the eighteenth century was well advanced they were scarcely read. Then their celebrity began, and from Gray and Collins onward, every English poet of eminence has paid his tribute to Il Penseroso or to Lycidas. If we examine closely the diction of these Horton poems, we shall find that in almost all of them (in Comus least) a mannerism which belonged to the age faintly dims their purity of style. Certain little tricks we notice are Italianisms, and the vogue of the famous Marino, author of the Adone, who had died while Milton was at Cambridge, was responsible, perhaps, for some thing. But, on the whole, lyrical poetry in this country has not reached a higher point, in the reflective and impersonal order, than is reached in the central part of L'Allegro and in the Spirit's epilogue to Comus. THE EPILOGUE TO "COMUS." Spir. To the ocean now I fly, All amidst the gardens fair Of Hesperus, and his daughters three That sing about the golden tree : Along the crispèd shades and bowers Revels the spruce and jocund Spring ; The Graces, and the rosy-bosom'd Hours, MILTON There eternal summer dwells, Waters the odorous banks, that blow After her wandering labours long, But now my task is smoothly done, Quickly to the green earth's end, To the corners of the moon. Mortals, that would follow me, Heaven itself would stoop to her. 15 John Milton (1608-1674) was born at the shop of The Spread Eagle, Bread Street, Cheapside, on the 9th of December 1608. His father was a musician, and by trade a wealthy scrivener. Milton was a day-pupil at St. Paul's School under Alexander Gill, esteemed the most skilful schoolmaster of the age, but he seems to have owed still more to Thomas Young, a private tutor in his father's house. He went up to Cambridge, where he was admitted a pensioner of Christ's College on the 12th of February 1625. At the University, Milton disagreed with the authorities, and was rusticated for a time; Aubrey heard that he was even flogged, but it is certain that he committed no moral fault. He was even known, for the uprightness of his behaviour and the beauty of his countenance, as "the Lady of Christ's." Milton left Cambridge in July 1632, and retired to his father's country house at Horton, Bucks, where his mother's tomb is still to be seen in the parish church. In this beautiful and sequestered hamlet he spent nearly six years in arduous self-education, taking poetry as his solemn vocation; and here he read the Greek and Latin writers, bringing to their study "a spirit and judgment equal or superior." It was during this period (1632– 1638) that Milton composed L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, Lycidas, and Comus. The lastmentioned was a masque, the music by Henry Lawes, written in 1637 to be performed at Ludlow Castle by the family of the Earl of Bridgewater. It was anonymously printed at the time, and in 1638 Lycidas was included in a garland of elegies over Edward King. These were the first, and long the only, public appearances of Milton, John Milton, æt. 9 Engraved by Cipriani from a Portrait ascribed to Cornelis Janssen and these were semi-private. Milton's mother died in 1637, and the poet prepared for foreign travel. Before he started for Italy, he consulted the great Provost of Eton, Sir Henry Wotton, who knew Italy thoroughly. He received the famous advice, Pensieri stretti, ed il viso sciolto ("Keep your thoughts shut up and your eyes open "). Such advice was doubtless needed by the fearless and dreamy Puritan poet. Milton reached Paris early in 1638, and by August was in Florence, where he spent two months. Here he was cordially received by the Academies, and recited not Latin merely but even Italian verses with applause. The poet Francini addressed a eulogistic ode to the Swan from Thames. Milton passed on by Siena to Rome, where his welcome was not so warm as it had been in Tuscany. We know little or nothing of his impressions of Rome, except that his emotions were exquisitely troubled by the beauty of two Roman ladies, one of whom was Leonora Baroni, the famous singer, whom he met and heard at the Palazzo Barberini. In November he went on to Naples, whither he carried an introduction to the great Italian patron of letters, Manso, Marquis of Villa, who entertained him. Towards the end of December 1638, Milton turned north again, abandoning his intention of pushing on to Sicily and Greece. In March 1639 he visited the blind and aged Galileo in his villa at Gioello near Arcetri. From Florence he went over to Venice, where the state of public affairs in England warned him to return home. In June he was with the Diodatis in Geneva: these were the parents of his intimate friend, Carlo Diodati, who had died in August 1638, and for whom he wrote the Epitaphium Damonis. In this poem he practically took farewell of Latin verse. In August 1639, returning to London, Milton settled first in lodgings in St. Bride's Churchyard, and then in "a pretty garden-house" in Aldersgate, where he devoted himself to literature. The only other occupation he allowed himself was the education of his nephews, for he was beginning to take a particular interest in the formation of the youthful mind. In the summer of 1643, he abruptly and perhaps injudiciously married Mary Powell, the daughter of an Oxfordshire J.P., a convinced Cavalier. But his austere life had ill fitted him to cajole a lively young woman, and after a few weeks Mrs. Milton fled back to her family. Oddly enough, Milton seems to have settled down at once to compose arguments in favour of divorce, while apparently desiring nothing more than to be reconciled to his wife, who in fact, two years later, returned to him. From 1641 to 1645 Milton was engaged in the Siger berhus Web saxonum his definition see. de Rege out of St the. Smith. 1. et. 8. C. and Bass, defines distinguishes a tyrant from a & breilly this TOTO je clapses Leamos bgoulious, but of Καντε πανταχόθεν σκοπεί, τό τους αρχομένους περίλτρου wToRisu. ton 1. 456. Tyrannicall practizes of Lich. 2. and his accomplices. See Holingh. p. 456. ∙456⋅ an⋅reg. 11.457. 458-462-487. see also the parl. Holidgh 490-493: blanch charters 496- and tyrannical actions. ibid. see also the arches against him in parliament-Halin 502.also 508. Alding tyrants, the Black Prince, by aiding the and tyrant Decker of Arradiantile brought by ofy, himselfe to all the mischsets that fell on his latter days and his fathers for besides the helpicion of pher in so deep dess, beeing defrauded of this in the borage he brought himself wito so his soldiers pay by yt ing red fall tyrest, that he was for it to raise that sharp taxation of julge in quitain wherby belas the country. See our writers, and spe····$97. ther it be law full to rise against a tyrant St. Thomas Smith prudently anjovers that the Common people judge of that out according to the event, and successe and the learned according to the purpose of the doers &T. com. wealth of Engl.C.S. Ludovicus pins being made jube it a certain German front, approve, the people who had desord him, & sets his younger brother up in his stead Ghirard. His france 14 Ceres missis af Elizabethe legaly post. Mana regre pulsem jure id faction my gourd him. Richard the 22, was not "of the deposing of a firanding proceed than. only deposed by par Holinish. $12. Legibus reipub profficiunt, ut hodie electores all the act adigere as conditiones, et passa que fuerat pollicitus, compleat, idqt belarmis cum my ma quana vid pricipe bisogna if furro Thacchiul ayant excuse nec imputorem opetraks flagitis urgere metuunt principes Germania que quien you qui wis Europant meqz major new sanctior potus este ut quis facions esse, patet vezér justas of causas accusationibus appetere vide Stridan · E-18. 299. Vitum o phnis pum drum rosam, convident?? In supptions, felices Abbent cham corum, qui rem propius non bus nomine's cominans toshyysæpe orada De monarchia Gallica ad tyrannidem Turcicam redigenda consilium Bleses fuisse initum a rege car. regina mate, alk's tradit Thuan. mes ejus rei eficienda & same commodes a Ponseto quada explicats, Reges a subdinis potestate ex uti, aut minuti, nulled resonati reconciliatione ne intery Facsimile of a page from Milton's Commonplace-Book |