by John Milton
On the Death of a Fair Infant Dying of a Cough1
I
O Fairest flower no sooner blown but blasted,
Soft silken Primrose fading timelessly,
Summers chief honour if thou hadst out-lasted
Bleak winters force that made thy blossom drie;
5
For he being amorous on that lovely die
That did thy cheek envermeil, thought to kiss
But kill’d alas, and then bewayl’d his fatal bliss.
II
For since grim Aquilo2 his charioter
By boistrous rape th’ Athenian damsel got,
10
He thought it toucht his Deitie full neer,
If likewise he some fair one wedded not,
Thereby to wipe away th’ infamous blot
Of long-uncoupled bed, and childless eld,3
Which ‘mongst the wanton gods a foul reproach was held.
III
15
So mounting up in icy-pearled carr,
Through middle empire of the freezing air
He wanderd long, till thee he spy’d from farr,
There ended was his quest, there ceast his care.
Down he descended from his Snow-soft chair,
20
But all unwares with his cold-kind embrace
Unhous’d thy Virgin Soul from her fair biding place.
IV
Yet art thou not inglorious in thy fate;
For so Apollo, with unweeting4 hand
Whilom5 did slay his dearly-loved mate
25
Young Hyacinth born on Eurotas strand,
Young Hyacinth the pride of Spartan land;
But then transform’d him to a purple flower;6
Alack that so to change thee winter had no power.
V
Yet can I not perswade me thou art dead
30
Or that thy corse corrupts in earths dark womb,
Or that thy beauties lie in wormie bed,
Hid from the world in a low delved tomb;
Could Heav’n for pittie thee so strictly doom?
Oh no! for something in thy face did shine
35
Above mortalitie that shew’d thou wast divine.
VI
Resolve me then oh Soul most surely blest
(If so it be that thou these plaints dost hear)
Tell me bright Spirit where e’re thou hoverest
Whether above that high first-moving Sphear7
40
Or in th’ Elisian fields (if such there were).
Oh say me true if thou wert mortal wight
And why from us so quickly thou didst take thy flight.
VII
Wert thou some Starr which from the ruin’d roof
Of shak’t Olympus by mischance didst fall;
45
Which carefull Jove in natures true behoof
Took up, and in fit place did reinstall?
Or did of late earths Sons8 besiege the wall
Of sheenie Heav’n, and thou some goddess fled
Amongst us here below to hide thy nectar’d head?
VIII
50
Or wert thou that just Maid9 who once before
Forsook the hated earth, O tell me sooth
And cam’st again to visit us once more?
Or wert thou Mercy that sweet smiling Youth?
Or that crown’d Matron sage white-robed truth?
55
Or any other of that heav’nly brood
Let down in clowdie throne to do the world some good?
IX
Or wert thou of the golden-winged hoast,
Who having clad thy self in human weed
To earth from thy prefixed10 seat didst poast,
60
And after short abode flie back with speed,
As if to shew what creatures Heav’n doth breed,
Thereby to set the hearts of men on fire
To scorn the sordid world, and unto Heav’n aspire?
X
But oh why didst thou not stay here below
65
To bless us with thy heav’n-lov’d innocence,
To slake his wrath whom sin hath made our foe
To turn Swift-rushing black perdition hence,
Or drive away the slaughtering pestilence,11
To stand ‘twixt us and our deserved smart?
70
But thou canst best perform that office where thou art.
XI
Then thou the mother of so sweet a child
Her false imagin’d loss cease to lament,
And wisely learn to curb thy sorrows wild;
Think what a present thou to God hast sent,
75
And render him with patience what he lent;
This if thou do he will an off-spring give,12
That till the worlds last-end shall make thy name to live.13
(Jan-Mar. 1628)
* * *
1 Anne, daughter of Milton’s sister Anne and Edward Phillips, was baptized Jan. 12, 1626, and was buried Jan. 22, 1628. The stanza employed here, like that of the induction to the Nativity Ode, is perhaps derived from Phineas Fletcher.
2 the northeast wind who stole away the Athenian princess Orithyia.
3 old age.
4 “unaware” of the consequences.
5 formerly.
6 Compare Lycidas, 106.
7 The primum mobile, which lay farthest away from the earth of all other spheres of heavenly bodies, imparted motion to each succeeding inner shell.
8 the Giants, who waged war against Jove.
9 Astraea, goddess of justice, the last of the divinities to forsake mankind at the beginning of the Bronze Age because of its impious and wicked conduct.
10 ordained.
11 the plague.
12 an allusion to the imminent birth of another child; Milton’s niece Elizabeth was baptized on Apr. 9, 1628, at St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields.
13 Isa. lvi. 5: “Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walks a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.”
At a Vacation Exercise in the Colledge, part Latin, part English. The Latin speeches ended, the English thus began.1
Hail native Language, that by sinews weak
Didst move my first endeavouring tongue to speak,
And mad’st imperfect words with childish trips,
Half unpronounc’t, slide through my infant-lips,
5
Driving dumb silence from the portal dore,
Where he had mutely sate two years before:
Here I salute thee and thy pardon ask
That now I use thee in my latter task:
Small loss it is that thence can come unto thee,
10
I know my tongue but little Grace can do thee:
Thou needst not be ambitious to be first,
Believe me I have thither packt the worst:
And, if it happen as I did forecast,
The daintiest dishes shall be serv’d up last.
15
I pray thee then deny me not thy aid
For this same small neglect that I have made:
But haste thee strait to do me once a Pleasure,
And from thy wardrope bring thy chiefest treasure;
Not those new fangled toys, and trimming slight
20
Which takes our late fantasticks with delight,
But cull those richest Robes, and gay’st attire
Which deepest Spirits, and choicest Wits desire:
I have some naked thoughts that rove about
And loudly knock to have their passage out;
25
And wearie of their place do only stay
Till thou hast deck’t them in thy best array;
That so they may without suspect or fears
Fl
y swiftly to this fair Assembly’s ears;
Yet I had rather, if I were to chuse,
30
Thy service in some graver subject use,
Such as may make thee search thy coffers round,
Before thou cloath my fancy in fit sound:
Such where the deep transported mind may soar
Above the wheeling poles, and at Heav’ns dore
35
Look in, and see each blissful Deitie
How he before the thunderous throne doth lie,
Listening to what unshorn Apollo2 sings
To th’ touch of golden wires, while Hebe brings
Immortal Nectar to her Kingly Sire:3
40
Then passing through the Sphears of watchful fire,
And mistie Regions of wide air next under,
And hills of Snow and lofts of piled Thunder,
May tell at length how green-ey’d Neptune raves,
In Heav’ns defiance mustering all his waves;4
45
Then sing of secret things that came to pass
When Beldam Nature in her cradle was;
And last of Kings and Queens and Heroes old,
Such as the wise Demodocus once told
In solemn songs at King Alcinous feast,5
50
While sad Ulisses soul and all the rest
Are held with his melodious harmonie
In willing chains and sweet captivitie.
But fie my wandring Muse how thou dost stray!
Expectance calls thee now another way,
55
Thou know’st it must be now thy only bent
To keep in compass of thy Predicament:6
Then quick about thy purpos’d business come,
That to the next I may resign my Room.
Then Ens is represented as Father of the Predicaments his ten Sons, whereof the Eldest stood for Substance with his Canons, which Ens thus speaking, explains.7
Good luck befriend thee Son; for at thy birth
60
The Fairy Ladies daunc’t upon the hearth;8
Thy drowsie Nurse hath sworn she did them spie
Come tripping to the Room where thou didst lie;
And sweetly singing round about thy Bed
Strew all their blessings on thy sleeping Head.
65
She heard them give thee this, that thou should’st still
From eyes of mortals walk invisible;9
Yet there is something that doth force my fear,
For once it was my dismal hap to hear
A Sybil old, bow-bent with crooked age,
70
That far events full wisely could presage,
And in times long and dark Prospective Glass
Fore-saw what future dayes should bring to pass;
Your Son, said she (nor can you it prevent),
Shall subject be to many an Accident.
75
O’re all his Brethren he shall Reign as King,10
Yet every one shall make him underling,
And those that cannot live from him asunder
Ungratefully shall strive to keep him under;
In worth and excellence he shall out-go them,
80
Yet being above them, he shall be below them;
From others he shall stand in need of nothing,
Yet on his Brothers shall depend for Cloathing.
To find a Foe it shall not be his hap,11
And peace shall lull him in her flowry lap;
85
Yet shall he live in strife, and at his dore
Devouring war12 shall never cease to roar:
Yea it shall be his natural property
To harbour those that are at enmity.13
What power, what force, what mighty spell, if not
90
Your learned hands, can loose this Gordian knot?14
The next, Quantity and Quality, spake in Prose, then Relation was call’d by his Name.
Rivers15 arise; whether thou be the Son
Of utmost Tweed, or Oose, or gulphie Dun,
Or Trent, who like some earth-born Giant spreads
His thirty Armes along th’ indented Meads,
95
Or sullen Mole that runneth underneath,
Or Severn swift, guilty of Maidens16 death,
Or rockie Avon, or of sedgie Lee,
Or coaly Tine, or antient hallow’d Dee,17
Or Humber loud that keeps the Scythians Name,18
100
Or Medway smooth, or Royal Towred Thame.
The rest was Prose.
(July 1628)
* * *
1 The Latin speeches earlier in this exercise at Cambridge and the English prose following are lost; immediately preceding these verses was the sixth prolusion (“Sportive Exercises on occasion are not inconsistent with philosophical Studies”), in which Milton had “thither packt the worst.” This poetical fragment illustrates his topic well, for the basis of this humor is satire on scholastic logic. The midsummer frolic for which these verses were written consisted of numerous skits and recitals; perhaps Milton’s fellow performers were the “late fantasticks” of l. 20.
2 god of music, usually represented with long hair to indicate his youth.
3 Jove.
4 Neptune defied the gods in seeking revenge on Ulysses for the blinding of his son.
5 See Od., VIII, 499-522.
6 Though he puns on the meaning of the word in logic (see next note), Milton means both the classification of subject assigned him and the plight imposed by not writing what he would prefer.
7 Milton appeared as Ens, the Aristotelian principle of Absolute Being, father of the ten categories (or predicaments) into which all knowledge can be reduced (Organon, Part 1). In addition to the eldest son Substance, these are: Quantity, Quality, Relation, Place, Time, Posture, Possession, Action, and Passion. The canons are the fundamental principles or properties which are common to Substance; e.g., Substance supports the other predicaments (or accidents) and keeps them together.
8 Thus Substance has been imbued with good fortune.
9 invisible because Substance cannot be perceived except through the other nine categories (the accidents of Substance). Milton puns on “accident” in l. 74, and the literal meaning of “Substance” (“stands under”) in ll. 74-80.
10 Perhaps Edward King, subject of Lycidas, enacted the role of Substance.
11 There is no opposite to Substance.
12 the change of substance bitterly disputed in the Eucharist.
13 Though the accidents make up the whole (lulling peace), some are endlessly opposed (e.g., Action and Passion).
14 a complicated situation, difficult to undo.
15 Not only does Milton catalogue English rivers in the remaining lines, but he puns: George or Nizell Rivers apparently was Relation.
16 Sabrina’s; see A Mask, ll. 824-32.
17 The Dee was considered divine since its fluctuations predicted success or failure to the early Britons.
18 Spenser tells the story of Humber, a Scythian king driven into the river where he drowned (FQ, II, x, 14-16; IV, xi, 38).
Elegia quinta
IN ADVENTUM VERIS
In se perpetuo Tempus revolubile gyro
Jam revocat Zephyros vere tepente novos.
Induiturque brevem Tellus reparata juventam,
Jamque soluta gelu dulce virescit humus,
5
Fallor? an et nobis redeunt in carmina vires,
Ingeniumque mihi munere veris adest?
Munere veris adest, iterumque vigescit ab illo
(Quis putet?) atque aliquod jam sibi poscit opus.
Castalis1 ante oculos, bifidumque cacumen oberrat,
10
Et mihi Pyrenen2 somnia nocte ferunt.
Concitaque arcano fervent mihi pectora motu,
Et furor, et sonitus me sacer intùs agit.
Delius ip
se venit, video Penëide lauro
Implicitos crines, Delius ipse venit.3
15
Jam mihi mens liquidi raptatur in ardua cœli,
Perque vagas nubes corpore liber eo.
Perque umbras, perque antra feror pentralia vatum,
Et mihi fana patent interiora Deûm.
Intuiturque animus toto quid agatur Olympo,
20
Nec fugiunt oculos Tartara cæca meos.
Quid tam grande sonat distento spiritus ore?
Quid parit hæc rabies, quid sacer iste furor?
Ver mihi, quod dedit ingenium, cantabitur illo;
Profuerint isto reddita dona modo.
25
Jam, Philomela,4 tuos foliis adoperta novellis
Instituis modulos, dum silet omne nemus.
Urbe ego, tu sylvâ simul incipiamus utrique,
Et simul adventum veris uterque canat.
Veris io rediere vices, celebremus honores
30
Veris, et hoc subeat Musa perennis opus.
Jam sol Æthiopas fugiens Tithoniaque arva,
Flectit ad Arctöas aurea lora plagas.5
Est breve noctis iter, brevis est mora noctis opacæ,
Horrida cum tenebris exulat illa suis.
35
Jamque Lycaonius plaustrum cæleste Boötes6
Non longâ sequitur fessus ut ante viâ,
Nunc etiam solitas circum Jovis atria toto
Excubias agitant sydera rara polo.
Nam dolus, et cædes, et vis cum nocte recessit,
40
Neve Giganteum7 Dii timuere scelus.
Forte aliquis scopuli recubans in vertice pastor,
Roscida cum primo sole rubescit humus,
Hac, ait, hac certè caruisti nocte puellâ,
Phœbe, tuâ, celeres quæ retineret equos.