Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Milton

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Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Milton Page 30

by John Milton


  With power, and Princes in their Congregations

  Lay deep their plots together through each Land,

  5

  Against the Lord and his Messiah dear.

  Let us break off, say they, by strength of hand

  Their bonds, and cast from us, no more to wear,

  Their twisted cords: he who in Heav’n doth dwell

  Shall laugh, the Lord shall scoff them, then severe

  10

  Speak to them in his wrath, and in his fell

  And fierce ire trouble them; but I saith hee

  Anointed have my King (though ye rebell)

  On Sion my holi’hill. A firm decree

  I will declare; the Lord to me hath said

  15

  Thou art my Son; I have begotten thee

  This day; ask of me, and the grant is made;

  As thy possession I on thee bestow

  Th’ Heathen, and as thy conquest to be sway’d

  Earths utmost bounds: them shalt thou bring full low

  20

  With Iron Scepter bruis’d, and them disperse

  Like to a potters vessel shiver’d so.

  And now be wise at length ye Kings averse

  Be taught ye Judges of the earth; with fear

  Jehovah serve, and let your joy converse

  25

  With trembling; kiss the Son least he appear

  In anger and ye perish in the way

  If once his wrath take fire like fuel sere.

  Happy all those who have in him their stay.

  (Aug. 8, 1653)

  * * *

  1 Here Milton used Dante’s terza rima or, as he labeled these stanzas, terzetti, but the lines are not end-stopped.

  Psalm 3

  When he fled from Absalom.

  Lord how many are my foes,

  How many those

  That in arms against me rise.

  Many are they

  5

  That of my life distrustfully thus say,

  No help for him in God there lies.

  But thou Lord art my shield my glory,

  Thee through my story

  Th’ exalter of my head I count;

  10

  Aloud I cry’d

  Unto Jehovah, he full soon reply’d

  And heard me from his holy mount.

  I lay and slept, I wak’d again,

  For my sustain

  15

  Was the Lord. Of many millions

  The populous rout

  I fear not though incamping round about

  They pitch against me their Pavillions.

  Rise Lord, save me my God for thou

  20

  Hast smote ere now

  On the cheek-bone all my foes,

  Of men abhorr’d

  Hast broke the teeth. This help was from the Lord;

  Thy blessing on thy people flows.

  (Aug. 9, 1653)

  Psalm 4

  Answer me when I call

  God of my righteousness;

  In straits and in distress

  Thou didst me disinthrall

  5

  And set at large; now spare,

  Now pity me, and hear my earnest praier.

  Great ones how long will ye

  My glory have in scorn,

  How long be thus forborn

  10

  Still to love vanity,

  To love, to seek, to prize

  Things false and vain and nothing else but lies?

  Yet know the Lord hath chose,

  Chose to himself apart

  15

  The good and meek of heart

  (For whom to chuse he knows);

  Jehovah from on high

  Will hear my voyce what time to him I crie.

  Be aw’d, and do not sin,

  20

  Speak to your hearts alone,

  Upon your beds, each one,

  And be at peace within.

  Offer the offerings just

  Of righteousness and in Jehovah trust.

  25

  Many there be that say

  Who yet will shew us good?

  Talking like this worlds brood;

  But Lord, thus let me pray,

  On us lift up the light,

  30

  Lift up the favour of thy count’nance bright.

  Into my heart more joy

  And gladness thou hast put

  Then when a year of glut

  Their stores doth over-cloy

  35

  And from their plenteous grounds

  With vast increase their corn and wine abounds.

  In peace at once will I

  Both lay me down and sleep

  For thou alone dost keep

  40

  Me safe where ere I lie:

  As in a rocky Cell

  Thou Lord alone in safety mak’st me dwell.

  (Aug. 10, 1653)

  Psalm 5

  Jehovah to my words give ear

  My meditation waigh,

  The voyce of my complaining hear

  My King and God for unto thee I pray.

  5

  Jehovah thou my early voyce

  Shalt in the morning hear,

  I’th morning I to thee with choyce

  Will rank my praiers, and watch till thou appear.

  For thou art not a God that takes

  10

  In wickedness delight,

  Evil with thee no biding makes

  Fools or mad men stand not within thy sight.

  All workers of iniquity

  Thou hat’st; and them unblest

  15

  Thou wilt destroy that speak a lie;

  The bloodi’ and guileful man God doth detest.

  But I will in thy mercies dear,

  Thy numerous mercies go

  Into thy house; I in thy fear

  20

  Will towards thy holy temple worship low.

  Lord lead me in thy righteousness,

  Lead me because of those

  That do observe if I transgress,

  Set thy wayes right before, where my step goes.

  25

  For in his faltring mouth unstable

  No word is firm or sooth;

  Their inside, troubles miserable;

  An open grave their throat, their tongue they smooth.

  God, find them guilty, let them fall

  30

  By their own counsels quell’d;

  Push them in their rebellions all

  Still on; for against thee they have rebell’d;

  Then all who trust in thee shall bring

  Their joy, while thou from blame

  35

  Defend’st them, they shall ever sing

  And shall triumph in thee, who love thy name.

  For thou Jehovah wilt be found

  To bless the just man still,

  As with a shield thou will surround

  40

  Him with thy lasting favour and good will.

  (Aug. 12, 1653)

  Psalm 6

  Lord in thine anger do not reprehend me

  Nor in thy hot displeasure me correct;

  Pity me Lord for I am much deject,

  Am very weak and faint; heal and amend me,

  5

  For all my bones, that even with anguish ache,

  Are troubled, yea my soul is troubled sore;

  And thou O Lord how long? turn Lord, restore

  My soul, O save me for thy goodness sake

  For in death no remembrance is of thee;

  10

  Who in the grave can celebrate thy praise?

  Wearied I am with sighing out my dayes,

  Nightly my Couch I make a kind of Sea;

  My Bed I water with my tears; mine Eie

  Through grief consumes, is waxen old and dark

  15

  I’th midst of all mine enemies that mark.

  Depart all ye that wo
rk iniquitie.

  Depart from me, for the voice of my weeping

  The Lord hath heard, the Lord hath heard my praier

  My supplication with acceptance fair

  20

  The Lord will own, and have me in his keeping.

  Mine enemies shall all be blank and dash’t

  With much confusion; then grow red with shame,

  They shall return in hast the way they came

  And in a moment shall be quite abash’t.

  (Aug. 13, 1653)

  Psalm 7

  Upon the words of Chush the Benjamite against him.

  Lord my God to thee I flie,

  Save me and secure me under

  Thy protection while I crie,

  Least as a Lion (and no wonder)

  5

  He hast to tear my Soul asunder

  Tearing and no rescue nigh.

  Lord my God if I have thought

  Or done this, if wickedness

  Be in my hands, if I have wrought

  10

  Ill to him that meant me peace,

  Or to him have render’d less,

  And not freed my foe for naught;

  Let th’ enemy pursue my soul

  And overtake it, let me tread

  15

  My life down to the earth and roul

  In the dust my glory dead,

  In the dust and there outspread

  Lodge it with dishonour foul.

  Rise Jehovah in thine ire

  20

  Rouze thy self amidst the rage

  Of my foes that urge like fire;

  And wake for me, their furi’ asswage;

  Judgment here thou didst ingage

  And command which I desire.>

  25

  So th’ assemblies of each Nation

  Will surround thee, seeking right,

  Thence to thy glorious habitation

  Return on high and in their sight.

  Jehovah judgeth most upright

  30

  All people from the worlds foundation.

  Judge me Lord, be judge in this

  According to my righteousness

  And the innocence which is

  Upon me: cause at length to cease

  35

  Of evil men the wickedness

  And their power that do amiss.

  But the just establish fast,

  Since thou art the just God that tries

  Hearts and reins. On God is cast

  40

  My defence, and in him lies,

  In him who both just and wise

  Saves th’ upright of heart at last.

  God is a just Judge and severe,

  And God is every day offended;

  45

  If th’ unjust will not forbear,

  His Sword he whets, his Bow hath bended

  Already, and for him intended

  The tools of death, that waits him near.

  (His arrows purposely made he

  50

  For them that persecute.) Behold

  He travels big with vanitie,

  Trouble he hath conceav’d of old

  As in a womb, and from that mould

  Hath at length brought forth a lie.

  55

  He dig’d a pit, and delv’d it deep,

  And fell into the pit he made;

  His mischief that due course doth keep,

  Turns on his head, and his ill trade

  Of violence will undelay’d

  60

  Fall on his crown with ruin steep.

  Then will I Jehovah’s praise

  According to his justice raise

  And sing the Name and Deitie

  Of Jehovah the most high.

  (Aug. 13, 1653)

  Psalm 8

  O Jehovah our Lord, how wondrous great

  And glorious is thy name through all the earth!

  So as above the Heav’ns thy praise to set

  Out of the tender mouths of latest birth,

  5

  Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou

  Hast founded strength because of all thy foes

  To stint th’ enemy, and slack th’ avengers brow

  That bends his rage thy providence t’oppose.

  When I behold thy Heav’ns, thy Fingers art,

  10

  The Moon and Starrs which thou so bright hast set

  In the pure firmament, then saith my heart,

  O what is man that thou remembrest yet,

  And think’st upon him; or of man begot

  That him thou visit’st and of him art found;

  15

  Scarce to be less then Gods, thou mad’st his lot,

  With honour and with state thou hast him crown’d.

  O’re the works of thy hand thou mad’st him Lord,

  Thou hast put all under his lordly feet,

  All Flocks, and Herds, by thy commanding word,

  20

  All beasts that in the field or forrest meet.

  Fowl of the Heav’ns, and Fish that through the wet

  Sea-paths in shoals do slide. And know no dearth.

  O Jehovah our Lord, how wondrous great

  And glorious is thy name through all the earth.

  (Aug. 14, 1653)

  Verse from Defensio secunda

  Gaudete Scombri, et quicquid est piscium salo,

  Qui frigidâ hyeme incolitis algentes freta!

  Vestrûm misertus ille Salmasius eques1

  Bonus amicire nuditatem cogitat;

  5

  Chartæque largus apparat papyrinos

  Vobis cucullos præferentes Claudii

  Insignia nomenque et decus Salmasii,

  Gestetis ut per omne cetarium forum

  Equitis clientes, scriniis mungentium

  10

  Cubito2 virorum, et capsulis gratissimos.

  Verse from Defensio secunda

  Rejoice, mackerel, and whosoever is of the fish in the deep, / who may inhabit through the winter the frigid, chilling seas! / That good knight Salmasius1 in pity meditates / to enwrap your nudity; / and abounding in paper he is furnishing for you [5] / paper garments exhibiting the arms / and name and honor of Claudius Salmasius, / so that through all the fish-market you may deport yourselves / the knight’s followers, in cases right for papers and in little boxes, / most pleasing to men wiping their noses on their sleeve.2 [10]

  (1654 ?)

  * * *

  1 For Salmasius, see note to the verse from Defensio prima. The likeness of his name to Latin salmo (the salmon) and his presentation with the indiscriminately conferred Order of St. Michael by Louis XIII made Salmasius the target of a punning sneer.

  2 “A cant appellation among the Romans for fishmongers,” according to Thomas Warton.

  Sonnet 18

  Avenge O Lord thy slaughter’d Saints,1 whose bones

  Lie scatter’d on the Alpine mountains cold,2

  Ev’n them who kept thy truth so pure of old

  When all our Fathers worship’t Stocks and Stones,3

  5

  Forget not: in thy book4 record their groans

  Who were thy Sheep and in their antient fold

  Slain by the bloody Piemontese that roll’d

  Mother with Infant down the Rocks.5 Their moans

  The Vales redoubl’d to the Hills, and they

  10

  To Heav’n. Their martyr’d blood and ashes sow6

  O’re all th’ Italian fields where still doth sway

  The triple Tyrant:7 that from these may grow

  A hunderd-fold,8 who having learnt thy way

  Early may fly the Babylonian wo.9

  (May ? 1655)

  * * *

  1 Rev. vi. 9-10: “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost tho
u not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?”

  2 The “slaughter’d Saints” were the Vaudois (descendants of the Waldenses) who lived in the foothills of the Alps. The Waldenses, followers of Peter Waldo, around 1179 broke with the Papacy over dogmas and practices which in their judgment had developed after Apostolic times. Like them, the Vaudois believed the Bible to be the sole guide to salvation. In an effort to stamp out rising heresies and thus win papal favor, the Duke of Savoy ordered the Vaudois to repudiate their dissent, thereby inspiring a fanatic army of Savoyards, French, and Irish to an attack on them on Apr. 24, 1655. Among the Miltonic state papers are letters from Cromwell requesting the cooperation of Sweden, the United Provinces, the Swiss Cantons, and others in putting an end to the persecution, which continued through October.

  3 As David S. Berkeley pointed out (Explicator, XV, 1957, item 58), Milton thought of the idolaters in Jer. ii. 27, who say “to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth.”

  4 Rev. xx. 12: “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”

  5 Sir Samuel Morland, Cromwell’s representative to Savoy, detailed such charges in The History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piemont (1658). See also Jer. li. 24-25: “And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the Lord. Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the Lord, which destroyest all the earth; and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.”

 

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