Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Milton
Page 30
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)
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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 ?)
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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)
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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.”