Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Milton
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25
8
Like thee among the gods is none
O Lord, nor any works
Of all that other gods have done
Like to thy glorious works.
9
The Nations all whom thou hast made
30
Shall come, and all shall frame
To bow them low before thee Lord,
And glorifie thy name.
10
For great thou art, and wonders great
By thy strong hand are done,
35
Thou in thy everlasting Seat
Remainest God alone.
11
Teach me O Lord thy way most right,
I in thy truth will bide,
To fear thy name my heart unite
40
So shall it never slide.
12
Thee will I praise O Lord my God
Thee honour, and adore
With my whole heart, and blaze abroad
Thy name for ever more.
45
13
For great thy mercy is toward me,
And thou hast free’d my Soul,
Eev’n from the lowest Hell set free
From deepest darkness foul.
14
O God the proud against me rise
50
And violent men are met
To seek my life, and in their eyes
No fear of thee have set.
15
But thou Lord art the God most mild
Readiest thy grace to shew,
55
Slow to be angry, and art stil’d
Most mercifull, most true.
16
O turn to me thy face at length,
And me have mercy on,
Unto thy servant give thy strength,
60
And save thy hand-maids Son.
17
Some sign of good to me afford,
And let my foes then see
And be asham’d, because thou Lord
Dost help and comfort me.
(Apr. 1648)
* * *
a Heb. I am good, loving, a doer of good and holy things.
Psalm 87
1
Among the holy Mountains high
Is his foundation fast,
There seated in his Sanctuary,
His Temple there is plac’t.
5
2
Sions fair Gates the Lord loves more
Then all the dwellings fair
Of Jacobs Land, though there be store,
And all within his care.
3
City of God, most glorious things
10
Of thee abroad are spoke;
4
I mention Egypt, where proud Kings
Did our forefathers yoke,
I mention Babel to my friends,
Philistia full of scorn,
15
And Tyre with Ethiops utmost ends,
Lo this man there was born:
5
But twise that praise shall in our ear
Be said of Sion last
This and this man was born in her,
20
High God shall fix her fast.
6
The Lord shall write it in a Scrowl
That ne’re shall be out-worn
When he the Nations doth enrowl
That this man there was born.
25
7
Both they who sing, and they who dance
With sacred Songs are there,
In thee fresh brooks, and sop streams glance
And all my fountains clear.
(Apr. 1648)
Psalm 88
1
Lord God that dost me save and keep,
All day to thee I cry;
And all night long before thee weep,
Before thee prostrate lie.
5
2
Into thy presence let my praier
With sighs devout ascend,
And to my cries, that ceaseless are,
Thine ear with favour bend.
3
For cloy’d with woes and trouble store
10
Surcharg’d my Soul doth lie,
My life at deaths uncherful dore
Unto the grave draws nigh.
4
Reck’n’d I am with them that pass
Down to the dismal pit;
15
I am a a man, but weak alas
And for that name unfit.
5
From life discharg’d and parted quite
Among the dead to sleep,
And like the slain in bloody fight
20
That in the grave lie deep,
Whom thou rememberest no more,
Dost never more regard;
Them from thy hand deliver’d o’re
Deaths hideous house hath barrd.
25
6
Thou in the lowest pit profound
Hast set me all forlorn,
Where thickest darkness hovers round,
In horrid deeps to mourn.
7
Thy wrath from which no shelter saves
30
Full sore doth press on me;
b Thou break’st upon me all thy waves,
bAnd all thy waves break me.
8
Thou dost my friends from me estrange,
And mak’st me odious,
35
Me to them odious, for they change,
And I here pent up thus.
9
Through sorrow, and affliction great
Mine eye grows dim and dead,
Lord all the day I thee entreat,
40
My hands to thee I spread.
10
Wilt thou do wonders on the dead,
Shall the deceas’d arise
And praise thee from their loathsom bed
With pale and hollow eyes?
45
11
Shall they thy loving kindness tell
On whom the grave hath hold,
Or they who in perdition dwell
Thy faithfulness unfold?
12
In darkness can thy mighty hand
50
Or wondrous acts be known,
Thy justice in the gloomy land
Of dark oblivion?
13
But I to thee O Lord do cry
E’re yet my life be spent,
55
And up to thee my praier doth hie
Each morn, and thee prevent.
14
Why wilt thou Lord my soul forsake,
And hide thy face from me,
15
That am already bruis’d, and c shake
60
With terror sent from thee;
Bruz’d, and afflicted and so low
As ready to expire,
While I thy terrors undergo
Astonish’d with thine ire.
65
16
Thy fierce wrath over me doth flow
Thy threatnings cut me through.
17
All day they round about me go,
Like waves they me persue.
18
Lover and friend thou hast remov’d
70
And sever’d from me far.
They fly me now whom I have lov’d,
And as in darkness are.
(Apr. 1648)
* * *
1 That is, both l. 31 and l. 32.
a Heb. A man without manly strength.
b The Hebr. bears both.1
c Heb. Præ Concussione. 60
Sonnet 15
Fairfax,1 whose name in armes through Europe rings,
Filling each mouth with envy, or with praise,
And all her jealous mona
rchs with amaze,
And rumors loud, that daunt remotest kings,
5
Thy firm unshak’n vertue ever brings
Victory home, though new rebellions raise
Thir Hydra heads, and the fals North2 displaies
Her brok’n league, to imp her serpent wings,
O yet a nobler task awaits thy hand;3
10
For what can Warrs4 but endless warr still breed,
Till Truth, and Right from Violence be freed,
And Public Faith cleard from the shamefull brand
Of Public Fraud. In vain doth Valour bleed
While Avarice, and Rapine share the land.
(Aug. 1648)
* * *
1 Sir Thomas Fairfax (1612-1671), commander in chief of the Parliamentarian army, who, amongst other victories, captured Colchester on August 27, 1648, after a seventy-five day siege, at the end of the Second Civil War.
2 Scotland. After having entered into the Solemn League and Covenant with Parliament on Sept. 25, 1643, the Scots broke the League by invading England in August under James, Duke of Hamilton. Since joining the Parliamentarians had impaired her usually serpentine wings, Milton is saying, Scotland has now imped them (repaired them by inserting new feathers) through a return to treacherous action.
3 However, Fairfax resigned his military command in June 1650 because of unwillingness to attack Scotland unless provoked by invasion.
4 that is, specifically, the current Civil Wars.
Verse from Pro Populo Anglicano defensio
Quis expedivit Salmasio1 suam Hundredam,2
Picámque docuit nostra verba conari?
Magister artis venter, et Jacobæi3
Centum, exulantis viscera marsupii regis.
5
Quòd si dolosi spes refulserit nummi,
Ipse Antichristi qui modò primatum Papæ4
Minatus uno est dissipare sufflatu,
Cantabit ultrò Cardinalitium5 melos.
Verse from Pro Populo Anglicano defensio
Who released to Salmasius1 his “hundred”2 / and taught the magpie to presume our words? / Master of art, the belly, and the hundred / Jacobuses,3 the inwards of the purse of the exiled king, led him. / Because if a hope of deceitful coin glistened, [5] / this fellow, who lately threatened to demolish the supremacy / of the Pope,4 the Antichrist, with a single puff, / would gratuitously sing the song of the Cardinals.5
(1650)
* * *
1 Claude de Saumaise (1588-1653), who condemned the English regicides in Defensio regia pro Carolo I ad Serenissimum Magnæ Britanniæ regem Carolum II (1649); Pro Populo Anglicano defensio was written as a reply.
2 a subdivision of an English shire. Salmasius attempted to turn English terms into Latin (here “Hundreda”); Milton is ridiculing his spurious knowledge of English law.
3 The Jacobus, named for James I, was a gold coin worth about twenty-two shillings. Salmasius was reputed to be persuaded to write Defensio regia for a hundred Jacobuses; this is denied in Claudii Salmasii Ad Johannem Miltonum Responsio (1660), p. 270.
4 Salmasius had attacked the supremacy of the Pope in De primatu papæ (1645).
5 the ecclesiastical officers.
Sonnet 16
Cromwell, our cheif of men, who through a cloud
Not of warr onely, but detractions rude,
Guided by faith and matchless Fortitude
To peace and truth thy glorious way hast plough’d,1
5
And on the neck of crowned Fortune proud
Hast reard Gods Trophies and his work pursu’d,
While Darwen stream with blood of Scots imbru’d,
And Dunbarr feild resounds thy praises loud,
And Worcesters laureat wreath;2 yet much remains
10
To conquer still; peace hath her victories
No less renown’d then warr, new foes arise
Threatning to bind our souls with secular chains:3
Help us to save free Conscience from the paw
Of hireling wolves whose Gospell is their maw.4
(May 1652)
* * *
1 Luke ix. 62: “And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
2 Cromwell was victorious against the Scots at the battle near Preston on the Darwen, Aug. 17-20, 1648; at Dunbar, Scotland, Sept. 3, 1650; and at Worcester, Sept. 3, 1651.
3 Fifteen proposals were offered in Mar. 1652 to the Committee for the Propagation of the Gospel by some of its members, recommending that the clergy be supported by the State. Spiritual matters (“our souls”) would thus be subject to “secular chains.” To maintain freedom of moral action, Milton believed, no excess or undue manner of giving or taking recompense can exist in the church (Hirelings, p. 8). The gospel should not be used for remuneration, nor should we listen to those who are thinking only of their own stomachs and pleasures.
4 John x. 12: “But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.”
Sonnet 17
Vane,1 young in yeares, but in sage counsell old,
Then whom a better Senator ne’re held
The helm of Rome, when gowns not armes repell’d
The feirce Epeirot and th’ African bold,2
5
Whether to settle peace or to unfold
The drift of hollow states3 hard to be spell’d,
Then to advise how warr may best, upheld,
Move by her two main nerves, Iron and Gold4
In all her equipage; besides to know
10
Both spirituall power and civill, what each means,
What severs each thou hast learnt, which few have don.
The bounds of either sword5 to thee we ow.
Therfore on thy firm hand religion leans
In peace, and reck’ns thee her eldest son.
(June ? 1652)
* * *
1 Sir Henry Vane the Younger (1613–1662), councillor of state, one of the commissioners who settled the union with Scotland and its civil government (Dec. 1651–Mar. 1652), and committeeman appointed to establish relations and alliances with European powers.
2 The Roman Senate rejected peace with Pyrrhus of Epeirus despite his victories at Heraclea (280 B.C.) and Ausculam (279 B.C.), and rallied the people in 216 B.C. to stave off Hannibal, the Carthaginian leader, after his successes in 218-217.
3 the United Provinces (the Netherlands); Milton puns on the name “Holland” with its low-lying land and on its alleged insincerity. The Navigation Act of Oct. 1651, aiming at breaking Dutch maritime supremacy, precipitated the first Anglo-Dutch War in 1652. Vane endeavored to maintain peace, but ended negotiations in June when it became evident that the Dutch did not really want peace. Like the Epeirots and the Carthaginians, the Dutch were initially successful.
4 Among others Cicero (Philippics, V, 2) called money the nerves of war, and Machiavelli (Discourses, II, x) compared armed force as iron sinew. The lines allude to Vane’s activities as member of the committee of defence and as treasurer of the navy.
5 the spiritual sword and the civil sword. Vane advocated broad religious tolerance, arguing against the proposals of the committee for the propagation of faith; in this he showed awareness of the limits and the separation of these powers. His example not followed, it was necessary to counsel Richard Cromwell and Parliament further in 1659: “both commonwealth and religion will at length, if ever, flourish in Christendom, when either they who govern discern between civil and religious, or they only who so discern shall be admitted to govern” (Treatise of Civil Power, p. A5r).
Psalm 11
Blest is the man who hath not walk’d astray
In counsel of the wicked, and i’th way
Of sinners hath not stood, and in the seat
Of
scorners hath not sate. But in the great
5
Jehovahs Law is ever his delight,
And in his Law he studies day and night.
He shall be as a tree which planted grows
By watry streams, and in his season knows
To yield his fruit, and his leaf shall not fall,
10
And what he takes in hand shall prosper all.
Not so the wicked, but as chaff which fann’d
The wind drives, so the wicked shall not stand
In judgment, or abide their tryal then,
Nor sinners in th’ assembly of just men.
15
For the Lord knows th’ upright way of the just,
And the way of bad men to ruin must.
(Aug. 7 ?, 1653)
* * *
1 The following eight psalms experiment with various meters, rhyme schemes, and rhythms, perhaps as exercises prefatory to renewed poetic activity. It is probably significant that their run-on lines and frequent full medial stops move close to the continuity of rhythm in the blank verse of PL; Hunter (“Sources,” p. 143) remarks that “their syllabic nature is the same as that of PL.” These translations were undoubtedly important in the full development of reversed feet (e.g., in No. 7) and the displaced caesura (e.g., in No. 2) which characterize Milton’s mature poetry. Milton makes no attempt in these close translations to maintain the verse structure of either the Hebrew originals or standard English renditions.
Parker (“Date of SA,” pp. 161 ff.) calls attention to the anguished entreaty and sense of God’s protection in these psalms, which may reflect personal afflictions.
Psalm 21
Why do the Gentiles tumult, and the Nations
Muse a vain thing, the Kings of th’ earth upstand