by John Milton
Carmine tam longo, servati scilicet Angli
Officiis, vaga diva, tuis, tibi reddimus æqua.
Te Deus æternos motu qui temperat ignes,
200
Fulmine præmisso alloquitur, terrâque tremente:
Fama siles? an te latet impia Papistarum
Conjurata cohors in meque meosque Britannos,
Et nova sceptrigero cædes meditata Jäcobo?
Nec plura, illa statim sensit mandata Tonantis,
205
Et satis antè fugax stridentes induit alas,
Induit et variis exilia corpora plumis;
Dextra tubam gestat Temesæo22 ex ære sonoram.
Nec mora, jam pennis cedentes remigat auras,
Atque parum est cursu celeres prævertere nubes,
210
Jam ventos, jam solis equos post terga reliquit:
Et primò Angliacas solito de more per urbes
Ambiguas voces, incertaque murmura spargit,
Mox arguta dolos, et detestabile vulgat
Proditionis opus, nec non facta horrida dictu,
215
Authoresque addit sceleris, nec garrula cæcis
Insidiis loca structa silet; stupuere relatis,
Et pariter juvenes, pariter tremuere puellæ,
Effætique senes pariter, tantæque ruinæ
Sensus ad ætatem subitò penetraverat omnem.
220
Attamen interea populi miserescit ab alto
Æthereus pater, et crudelibus obstitit ausis
Papicolûm; capti pœnas raptantur ad acres;
At pia thura Deo, et grati solvuntur honores;
Compita læta focis genialibus omnis fumant;
225
Turba choros juvenilis agit: Quintoque Novembris
Nulla Dies toto occurrit celebratior anno.
On the fifth of November
Now the devout James coming from the remote north / ruled over the Troy-descended people1 and the wide-stretching realms / of the English, and now an inviolable covenant / had joined the English kingdoms with Caledonian Scots: / and the peace-maker, happy and rich, was seated [5] / on his new throne, untroubled by secret conspiracy or foe: / when the cruel tyrant2 reigning over Acheron, which flows with fire, / the father of the Eumenides, the wandering outcast from celestial Olympus, / by chance strayed through the vast circle of the earth, / enumerating the companions of his wickedness and his faithful slaves, [10] / future participants of his rule after their woeful deaths. / Here he stirs ominous tempests in middle air; / there he contrives hatred among harmonious friends, / and arms invincible nations against mutual cordiality, / and turns flourishing kingdoms from olive-bearing peace; [15] / and whatever lovers of pure virtue he spies, / those he seeks to add to his empire, and master of guile, / he tries to corrupt the heart inaccessible to sin / and lays silent plots and stretches unseen snares, / so that he may assault the incautious, as the Caspian tigress [20] / pursues her anxious prey through the waste wildernesses / in the moonless night and under the stars winking in their drowsiness. / With like fears does Summanus3 harass the people and the cities, / he, wreathed with a smoking tornado of blue flames. / And now the white coasts with their wave-resounding cliffs [25] / appear, and the land highly esteemed by the sea god, / to which Neptune’s son gave his name so long ago, / who, having sailed across the sea, did not hesitate to challenge / fierce Hercules with furious battle / before the unmerciful times of conquered Troy.4 [30] /
But as soon as he beholds this land blessed with wealth / and joyful peace, and with fields rich in the gifts of Ceres, / and, what pained him more, a people revering the sacred divinity / of the true god, at length he breaks into sighs / emitting Tartarean fires and ghastly sulphur. [35] / Such sighs does grim and monstrous Typhoeus,5 enclosed by Jove / under Sicilian Aetna, breathe from his destructive mouth. / His eyes flash and his inflexible row of teeth / hisses like the crash of arms and the blow of spear against spear. / And then, “Throughout the travelled world I found this worthy of tears only,” [40] / he said; “this nation alone is rebellious toward me, / and contemptuous of my yoke and stronger than my art. / Yet if my attempts have power over anyone, it / shall not endure thus with impunity for long; it shall not go unavenged.” / No further did he speak, but floats away on pitch-black wings through [45] / the liquid air; wherever he flies adverse winds precede in a mass, / clouds are thickened, and repeated thunderbolts flash. /
And now his speed has surmounted the frosty Alps, / and he reaches the borders of Italy; on his left side / was the stormy Apennine range and the ancient Sabines; [50] / on his right Etruria with its infamous magic potions, and besides / he sees the furtive kisses which you are giving to Thetis,6 O Tiber; / next he stands still on the citadel of Quirinus, born of Mars.7 / Already had evening twilight bestowed uncertain light, / when the wearer of the triple crown walks around the entire city, [55] / and carries the gods made of bread, and on men’s shoulders / is elevated; kings precede him on bended knee, / and a most lengthy train of mendicant brothers; / and unable to see, they bear wax candles in their hands, / those bom and enduring life in Cimmerian darkness. [60] / Next they enter the temples glittering with many torches / (it was that eve sacred to St. Peter) and the noise of those singing / often fills the hollow domes and the void of those places. / How Bacchus howls, and the followers of Bacchus, / chanting their orgies on Theban Aracynthus,8 [65] / while astonished Asopus trembles under the glassy waves, / and afar off Cithaeron itself echoes from its hollow rock. /
Then at last, these things performed in a solemn fashion, / silent Night9 left the embraces of old Erebus, / and now drives her headlong horses with a goading whip–[70] / blind Typhlos and spirited Melanchaetes, / torpid Siope, sprung from an infernal father, / and shaggy Phrix with bristly hair. / Meanwhile the tamer of kings, the heir of hell, / enters his chambers (for the secret adulterer [75] / does not spend sterile nights without a gentle concubine); / but sleep was scarcely closing his ready eyes, / when the dark lord of the shadows, the ruler of the dead, / the plunderer of man stood before him, concealed by a false shape. / His temples flashed with the gray hairs he had assumed; [80] / a long beard covered his breast; his ash-colored attire / swept the ground with a long train; and his hood hung down / from his shaven crown; and so that none might be absent from his frauds / he bound his lustful loins with hempen rope, / thrusting his slow feet into open sandals. [85] / In like manner, as rumor has it, Francis10 used to wander alone / in the vast, loathsome desert through the haunts of wild beasts; / he carried the pious word of salvation to the people of the wood, / himself impious, and tamed the wolves and the Libyan lions. /
But clothed in such garb, the cunning serpent, [90] / deceitful, separated his accursed lips with these words: / “Are you sleeping, my son? Does slumber still overpower your limbs? / O negligent of faith and neglectful of your flocks! / while a barbarous nation born under the northern sky / ridicules your throne and triple diadem, O venerable one, [95] / and while the quivered English contemn your laws! / Arise, up, arise, lazy one, whom the Roman emperor adores, / and for whom the unlocked gate of arched heaven lies open; / crush their swelling pride and insolent arrogance, / and let the sacrilegious know what your curse may be capable of, [100] / and what custody of the Apostolic key may avail; / and remember to avenge the scattered armada of the Spanish / and the banners of the Iberians swallowed up by the broad deep, / and the bodies of so many saints hanged on infamous gallows / recently by the reigning Amazonian virgin.11 [105] / But if you prefer to become indolent in your soft bed / and refuse to crush the increasing strength of the foe, / he will fill the Tyrrhene Sea with a vast army / and set his glittering standards on the Aventine hill:12 / he will destroy and burn with flames the remains of the ancients, [110] / and with profane feet will trample upon your sacred neck, / you whose shoes kings were glad to give their kisses. / Yet you will not challenge him to wars and open conflict; / such would be useless labor; you are shrewd to use deception, / of
which any kind is fitting in order to spread traps for heretics; [115] / and now the great king calls the nobles with foreign speech / to council, and those sprung from the stock of celebrated men / and old venerable sires with their robe of state and gray hairs. / You will be able to scatter them limb by limb throughout the air / and to give them up to cinders, by the fire of nitrous [120] / powder exploded beneath the last chambers where they have assembled. / Immediately therefore advise whatever faithful there are in England / of the proposed deed; will any of your followers / dare not dispatch the commands of the supreme Pope? / And instantly may the fierce Gaul and the savage Spaniard [125] / invade them, smitten with dread and stupefied by calamity. / Thus at last the Marian era13 will return to that land / and you will rule again over the warlike English. / And, so you fear nothing, accept the gods and subordinate goddesses, / as many deities as are honored on your feast days.” [130] / The deceiver spoke, and laying his disguise aside, / he fled to Lethe, his abominable, gloomy kingdom. /
Now rosy dawn, throwing open the eastern gates, / dresses the gilded world with returning light; / and hitherto grieving for the sad death of her swarthy son,14 [135] / she sprinkles the mountain tops with ambrosial tears, / then the keeper15 of the starry court banished sleep, / repeating his nocturnal visions and delightful dreams. /
There is a place enclosed in the eternal darkness of night, / once the vast foundation of a ruined dwelling, [140] / now the den of savage Murder and double-tongued Treason, / whom fierce Discord bore at one birth. / Here among the unhewn stones and broken rock lie / the unburied bones of men and corpses pierced by steel; / here malicious Deceit sits forever with distorted eyes, [145] / and Contentions and Calumny, its jaws armed with fangs, / Fury and a thousand ways of dying are seen, / and Fear and pale Horror hasten around the place, / and nimble ghosts howl perpetually through the mute silences, / and the conscious earth stagnates with blood. [150] / Besides, Murder and Treason themselves lie hid, quaking, / in the inmost depths of the cave with no one pursuing them through it, / the rough cave, full of rocks, dark with deathly shadows. / The guilty ones disperse and run away with backward glance; / these defenders of Rome, faithful through the long ages, [155] / the Babylonian high-priest16 summons, and thus he speaks: / “A race odious to me lives on the western limits / in the surrounding sea; prudent nature has thoroughly denied / that unworthy people to join our world. / Thither, so I command, journey with swift pace, [160] / and may the king and his nobles together, that impious race, / be blown into thin air by the Tartarean powder, / and whoever for true faith have glowed with love / invite as partners of the plot and accomplices of the deed.” / He ended, and the stern twins obeyed with eagerness. [165] /
Meanwhile turning the heavens in a spacious arc, / the Lord, who shines forth from his ethereal height, looks down / and laughs at the efforts of the evil crew,17 / and orders the defense of his people to be upheld. /
They say there is a section where fertile Europe is separated [170] / from Asian land, and looks toward Mareotidan waters; / here is situated the lofty tower of Titanean Fame,18 / brazen, broad, resounding, closer to the glowing stars / than Athos or Pelion piled on Ossa.19 / A thousand doors and entrances lie open, and as many windows, [175] / and spacious courts shine through the thin walls; / here the accumulated people raise various whispers; / how the swarms of flies make noise about the milk pails / by buzzing, or through the sheepfolds of woven reed, / when the lofty Dog Star20 assails the summer height of the sky. [180] / Indeed Fame herself, avenger of her mother, sits in her topmost fortress; / her head, girt with innumerable ears, projects out from that place, / attracting the faintest sound and seizing the lightest / murmur from the farthest limits of the wide world. / And you, O Argus,21 unjust guardian of the heifer [185] / Io, did not roll so many eyes in your fierce face, / eyes never faltering in silent sleep, / eyes gazing over the adjacent lands far and wide. / With them is Fame accustomed always to survey places deprived of light, / and even those impervious to the radiant sun. [190] / And with a thousand tongues the blabbing one pours out / things heard and seen to anyone who chances by, and now lying, she lessens / the truth, and now she increases it with fabricated rumors. / Nevertheless, Fame, you deserved the praises of my song, / for one good deed than which no other speaks more truly, [195] / worthy to be sung by me, nor shall I repent having commemorated you / at such length in my song. To be sure, we unharmed English / bestow on you what is just for your services, O inconstant goddess. / God who restrains the eternal fires from their agitation / with his dispatched thunderbolt, the earth trembling, exhorts you: [200] / “Fame, are you silent? or does the impious throng of Papists / hide you, conspired against me and my English, / and a new massacre designed against scepter-bearing James?” / No more said, she discerned at once the Thunderer’s commands, / and swift enough before, she puts on strident wings, [205] / and clothes her slender body with variegated feathers; / in her right hand she carries a loud trumpet of Temesan22 brass. / With no delay, she now oars on her wings through the yielding air, / and seems not content to outrun the swift clouds by her flight; / now the winds, now the horses of the sun she leaves behind her back. [210] / But first, in her usual way, through the English cities / she spreads ambiguous rumors and uncertain whispers; / directly, in clear voice, she divulges the deceits and the detestable / work of treason, and likewise deeds frightful when spoken, / and she adds the authors of the crime, nor, being garrulous, is she silent [215] / about the places prepared for secret ambush; men are stunned by the reports, / and youths as well as maidens and weak old men / tremble, and the significance of such great ruin / has penetrated quickly to every age. / But meanwhile the heavenly Father from on high has compassion [220] / on his people, and thwarts the cruel and daring attempts / of the Papists; the captives are dragged to fierce punishments; / but pious incense and grateful honors are paid to God; / all the happy streets smoke with genial bonfires; / the youthful throng moves in dancing groups: and throughout the whole year [225] / no day occurs that is more celebrated than the fifth of November.
(Nov. 1626)
* * *
1 See El. 1, n. 12. Albion (ll. 27–28), son of Neptune, gave his name to the island and its inhabitants.
2 Pluto, king of hell and father of the avenging spirits. Acheron and Phlegethon (l. 74) were rivers of hell. Pluto’s likeness to Satan in these lines has been noted by most editors since Warton.
3 an ancient god of nightly storms, identified with Pluto.
4 Albion was Killed aiding his brother Lestrygon, who was fighting in Gaul against Hercules, son of Amphitryon’s wife.
5 a giant, whom Jove struck with a thunderbolt and buried under Sicily; his head lay beneath Mt. Etna, whose eruptions he spewed forth.
6 a sea-nymph. The Tiber empties into the Tyrrhene Sea through a delta.
7 That is, Satan arrives in Rome. The Pope, whose tiara consists of three crowns, in procession with other church dignitaries, carried the Host through the streets to St. Peter’s Cathedral on the eve of St. Peter’s Day, June 28.
8 a mountain in Boeotia. Asopus is a river, and Cithaeron, a range of hills lying nearby.
9 Night and her brother Erebus (primeval darkness) were the parents of Day. The names of her team were created by Milton.
10 St. Francis of Assisi.
11 Elizabeth.
12 one of Rome’s seven hills.
13 meaning both a Catholic age (from Mary) and an age of civil war (from Marius, who fought Sulla in 83–82 B.C.).
14 Memnon, son of the goddess of dawn and Tithonus, was slain by Achilles.
15 the Pope.
16 See n. 1. to the poem on the Gunpowder Plot, beginning “Thus did you strive.…”
17 Psalm ii. 4: “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.”
18 Ovid’s description of Fame (Meta., XII, 39–63) furnished most of the details here. She is called a Titaness by Virgil (Aen., IV, 173–87) because she is the daughter of Ear
th, who is often abused by men (see l. 181). The Tower of Fame seems to stand in Egypt, for Lake Mareotis was in Lower Egypt near Alexandria. However, this may be an error for “Maeotidas undas” (the waters near Lake Maeotis), which lay between Europe and Asia, at the mouth of the Tanais River (Lucan, III, 272–78).
19 The giants Otus and Ephialtes piled Mt. Pelion on Mt. Ossa (in Thessaly) in their attempt to overthrow the gods. Mt. Athos was in Macedonia, opposite Lemnos.
20 Sirius; see Lycidas, n. 31.
21 Jealous Juno had hundred-eyed Argus guard Io after she had been changed into a heifer by Jove.
22 Temesa, a town in Italy, was famous for copper mines.
Elegia quarta
AD THOMAM JUNIUM, PRÆCEPTOREM SUUM, APUD MERCATORES ANGLICOS HAMBURGÆ AGENTES PASTORIS MUNERE FUNGENTEM1
Curre per immensum subitò, mea littera, pontum,
I, pete Teutonicos læve per æquor agros,
Segnes rumpe moras, et nil, precor, obstet eunti,
Et festinantis nil remoretur iter.
5
Ipse ego Sicanio frænantem carcere ventos
Æolon,2 et virides sollicitabo Deos;
Cæruleamque suis comitatam Dorida Nymphis,3
Ut tibi dent placidam per sua regna viam.
At tu, si poteris, celeres tibi sume jugales,
10
Vecta quibus Colchis4 fugit ab ore viri;
Aut queis Triptolemus5 Scythicas devenit in oras
Gratus Eleusinâ missus ab urbe puer.
Atque ubi Germanas flavere videbis arenas
Ditis ad Hamburgæ mœnia flecte gradum,
15
Dicitur occiso quæ ducere nomen ab Hamâ,6
Cimbrica quem fertur clava dedisse neci.
Vivit ibi antiquæ clarus pietatis honore
Præsul Christicolas pascere doctus oves;