by John Milton
6 “Blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church” (Tertullian, Apologeticus, 50). The whore of Babylon (which Milton and other Protestants identified with the Roman Catholic Church) is “drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus” (Rev. xvii. 6).
7 the Pope; compare the poem on the Gunpowder Plot beginning “James derided,” n. 2.
8 To the parable of the sower, whose seed “bringeth forth, some an hundredfold” (Matt. xiii. 3-23), suggests Kester Svendsen (Shakespeare Ass’n. Bulletin, XX, 1945, p. 155, n. 12), Milton added the legend of Cadmus, who sowed dragon’s teeth from which sprang up armed warriors. It is interesting to note that this is the hundredth word in the sonnet. The eleven words that complete the poem suggest regeneration and thus salvation.
9 The fall and desolation of Babylon is described in Jer. li and Rev. xviii; in its fall will be “found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and all that were slain upon the earth” (Rev. xviii. 24).
Sonnet 19
When I consider how my light is spent,
E’re half my days1 in this dark world and wide,
And that one Talent which is death to hide
Lodg’d with me useless, though my Soul more bent
5
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, least he returning chide,2
Doth God exact day labour, light deny’d,3
I fondly4 ask; but patience to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need
10
Either man’s work or his own gifts, who best
Bear his mild yoak,5 they serve him best, his State
Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o’re Land and Ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand6 and wait.
(Oct. ? 1655)
* * *
1 that is, probably before he had reached the age of fifty. If so, Milton may have thought of the Lord’s words after the scourging and purifying of Israel: “There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days; for the child shall die an hundred years old but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed” (Isa. lxv. 20). The phrase has frequently been interpreted in terms of normal life span and the Biblical three score and ten years, requiring an earlier date of composition. Maurice Kelley reviews the external evidence for dating in 1655 in Seventeenth-Century News, XI (1953), 29.
2 The use of the parable of the talents (Matt. xxv. 14-30) emphasizes both Milton’s service despite blindness and his single-purposed ability “to reason against that man” who has brought oppression to God’s children (Reason, p. 35). In a letter to a friend in the TM, Milton also mentioned “that command in the gospel set out by the terrible seasing of him that hid the talent”; and in Reason (p. 35) he spoke of “those few talents which God at that present had lent me.” He who did not employ his one talent had it taken away and given to the servant having ten.
3 In the letter to a friend he remarked “that the day is at hand wherin Christ commands all to labour while there is light” (John ix. 4); with this command Jesus turned to heal the blind man. Behind the play of “light” and “dark” are the further words of Jesus: “Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you” (John xii. 35).
4 foolishly.
5 Harry F. Robins (RES, VII, 1956, 360-66) first noted the pertinency of Christ’s answer to those who would be righteous: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden … Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me … For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt. xi. 28-30).
6 The word indicates that Milton is attentively ready to serve God; he is not sitting down. Compare PL III, 648-53, and PR IV, n. 49.
Sonnet 201
Lawrence of vertuous Father vertuous Son,2
Now that the Fields are dank, and ways are mire,
Where shall we sometimes meet, and by the fire
Help wast a sullen day; what may be won
5
From the hard Season gaining: time will run
On smoother, till Favonius3 re-inspire
The frozen earth; and cloth in fresh attire
The Lillie and Rose, that neither sow’d nor spun.4
What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice,
10
Of Attick tast,5 with wine, whence we may rise
To hear the lute well toucht, or artfull voice
Warble immortal notes and Tuskan6 air?
He who of those delights can judge, and spare7
To interpose them oft, is not unwise.
(Oct.–Nov. 1655)
* * *
1 Milton’s note of invitation to conversation and a “neat repast” unites the verse epistle and sonnet in a gentle admonition to those who would allow no lightness in their lives. The echoes of Horace’s invitations in Odes, I, iv, and I, xi, for example, underline the aptness of style here and in Son. 21.
2 Edward Lawrence, who died in 1657, was a member of Parliament; his father was Henry Lawrence, Lord President of Cromwell’s Council of State (1653-1659). The line imitates Horace’s “O matre pulchra filia pulchrior” (Odes, I, xvi, 1).
3 the west wind (Zephyr), husband of Chloris, goddess of spring.
4 “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin” (Matt. vi. 28).
5 explained by “light and choice.”
6 Italian.
7 “spare time” as Fraser Neiman (PMLA, LXIV, 1949, 480-83) and Elizabeth Jackson (PMLA, LXV, 1950, 328-29) illustrate. The source of the lines is Catonis Disticha, III, 6: “Interpose occasionally enjoyment amidst your care / that you may be able to bear in your mind whatever toil you find.”
Sonnet 21
Cyriack,1 whose Grandsire on the Royal Bench
Of Brittish Themis, with no mean applause
Pronounc’t and in his volumes taught our Laws,2
Which others at their Barr so often wrench;
5
To day deep thoughts resolve with me to drench
In mirth, that after no repenting draws;
Let Euclid rest and Archimedes pause,
And what the Swede intends and what the French.3
To measure life learn thou betimes, and know
10
Toward solid good what leads the nearest way;
For other things mild Heav’n a time ordains,
And disapproves that care, though wise in show,
That with superfluous burden loads the day,
And when God sends a cheerfull hour, refrains.
(Oct.–Nov. 1655)
* * *
1 Cyriack Skinner (1627-1700), Milton’s student at Aldersgate Street and probable amanuensis, was a lawyer from Lincoln’s Inn. Parker (TLS, Sept. 13, 1957, p. 547) argues that he is the author of the so-called Anonymous Life which was written by the scribe of the copies of this sonnet and No. 22 in TM.
2 Skinner’s grandfather Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634), Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, was influential in reaching decisions unfavorable to James I concerning constitutional questions. His Reports and The Institutes of the Law of England are compendia still important to modern-day jurisprudence. Themis was the Greek personification of Justice.
3 Line 7 refers to mathematical and scientific interests. The current First Northern War against Poland aimed at Swedish annexation of southeastern Baltic areas; the Treaty of Westminster (Oct. 12, 1655) between England and France did not settle Mazarin’s relations with Spain as Cromwell wished.
J. H. Finley, Jr. (Harvard Studies in Class. Philo., XLVIII, 1937, 64-67), reviews the echoes of Horace (such as Odes, II, xi, 1-6, to which should be added Epistles, I, xi, 22); these lead to Biblical admonitions of moderation (Eccl. iii. 1-9).
Sonnet 22
Cyriack, this three years day these eyes, though clear
To outward view of blemish o
r of spot,1
Bereft of light thir seeing have forgot,
Nor to thir idle orbs doth sight appear
5
Of Sun or Moon or Starr throughout the year,2
Or man, or woman. Yet I argue not
Against heav’ns hand or will, nor bate a jot
Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer
Right onward. What supports me dost thou ask?
10
The conscience, Friend, t’ have lost them overply’d
In liberties defence,3 my noble task,
Of which all Europe talks from side to side.
This thought might lead me through the worlds vain mask
Content though blind, had I no better guide.4
(Dec. 1655)
* * *
1 A similar description is found in Defensio secunda, p. 42 (“from without they are unimpaired, clear and bright without a cloud”).
2 Eccl. xii. 2: “while the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain.”
3 referring to Pro Populo Anglicano defensio, the writing of which he said (Defensio secunda, p. 47) hastened his loss of sight.
4 Perhaps the line owes something to Luke i. 79: God on high shines forth “To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Sonnet 23
Mee thought I saw my late espoused saint1
Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave
Whom Joves great son to her glad husband gave
Rescu’d from death by force though pale and faint.2
5
Mine as whom washt from spot of child-bed taint
Purification in th’ old law did save,3
And such, as yet once more I trust to have
Full sight of her in heav’n without restraint,
Came vested all in white,4 pure as her mind:
10
Her face was vail’d, yet to my fancied sight
Love, sweetness, goodness in her person shin’d
So clear, as in no face with more delight.
But O as to imbrace me she enclin’d,
I wak’d, she fled, and day brought back my night.
(1656-58 ?)
* * *
1 traditionally considered to be Milton’s second wife Katherine Woodcock, whom he married Nov. 12, 1656, but W. R. Parker suggests his first wife Mary Powell (RES, XXI, 1945, 235-38). Argument for Mary depends upon the interpretation of ll. 5-9; argument for Katherine depends upon Milton’s unsentimental references to Mary in the nuncupative will, interpretation of “late espoused” and ll. 5-9, 10-12, the lack of evidence of the scribe’s employment before Jan. 14, 1658, and the etymology of “Katherine.” All arguments are reviewed in NQ, n.s. III (1956), 202-3. T. B. Stroup (PQ, XXXIX, 1960, 125-26) suggests a likeness between Mary and Aeneas’ vision of Creusa. Considering the real subject a heavenly vision, Leo Spitzer (Hopkins Review, IV, Summer 1951, 17-25) analyzes the organization of the sonnet as a tripartite crescendo drawn from the pagan, the Jewish, and the Christian traditions. Thomas Wheeler (SP, LVIII, 1961, 510-15) believes Milton portrays his ideal mate rather than either wife.
2 Through Apollo’s intervention, Admetus was allowed longer life when his wife, Alcestis, consented to die at his destined time. Hercules, considered Jove’s son, learning of her noble death, intercepted Thanatos to restore the veiled Alcestis to her husband.
3 Lev. xii. 5: “But if she bear a maid child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her separation: and she shall continue in the blood of her purifying three score and six days.” Mary died about May 5, 1652, after giving birth to Milton’s daughter Deborah a few days earlier. Katherine died Feb. 3, 1658, after giving birth to a daughter Katherine on Oct. 19, 1657.
4 Rev. vii. 13-14: “And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto them, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the lamb.”
PART 4
The
Major
Poems
Paradise Lost1
THE VERSE
The Measure is English Heroic Verse without Rime, as that of Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin; Rime being no necessary Adjunct or true Ornament of Poem or good Verse, in longer Works especially, but the Invention of a barbarous Age, to set off wretched matter and lame Meeter; grac’t indeed since by the use of some famous modern Poets, carried away by Custom, but much to thir own vexation, hindrance, and constraint to express many things otherwise, and for the most part worse then else they would have exprest them. Not without cause therefore some both Italian2 and Spanish3 Poets of prime note have rejected Rime both in longer and shorter Works, as have also long since our best English Tragedies, as a thing of it self, to all judicious ears, triveal and of no true musical delight; which4 consists only in apt Numbers, fit quantity of Syllables, and the sense variously drawn out from one Verse into another, not in the jingling sound of like endings, a fault avoyded by the learned Ancients both in Poetry and all good Oratory. This neglect then of Rime so little is to be taken for a defect, though it may seem so perhaps to vulgar Readers, that it rather is to be esteem’d an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty recover’d to Heroic Poem from the troublesom and modern bondage of Riming.
BOOK I
THE ARGUMENT
This first Book proposes, first in brief, the whole Subject, Mans disobedience, and the loss thereupon of Paradise wherein he was plac’t: Then touches the prime cause of his fall, the Serpent, or rather Satan in the Serpent; who revolting from God, and drawing to his side many Legions of Angels, was by the command of God driven out of Heaven with all his Crew into the great Deep. Which action past over, the Poem hasts into the midst of things, presenting Satan with his Angels now fallen into Hell, describ’d here, not in the Center (for Heaven and Earth may be suppos’d as yet not made, certainly not yet accurst) but in a place of utter darkness, fitliest call’d Chaos: Here Satan with his Angels lying on the burning Lake, thunder-struck and astonisht, after a certain space recovers, as from confusion, calls up him who next in Order and Dignity lay by him; they confer of thir miserable fall. Satan awakens all his Legions, who lay till then in the same manner confounded; they rise, thir Numbers, array of Battel, thir chief Leaders nam’d, according to the Idols known afterwards in Canaan and the Countries adjoyning. To these Satan directs his Speech, comforts them with hope yet of regaining Heaven, but tells them lastly of a new World and new kind of Creature to be created, according to an ancient Prophesie or report in Heaven; for that Angels were long before this visible Creation, was the opinion of many ancient Fathers. To find out the truth of this Prophesie, and what to determin thereon he refers to a full Councel. What his Associates thence attempt. Pandemonium the Palace of Satan rises, suddenly built out of the Deep: The infernal Peers there sit in Councel.
Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal5 tast
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man6
5
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,
Sing Heav’nly Muse,7 that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd,8 who first taught the chosen Seed,
In the Beginning how the Heav’ns and Earth
10
Rose out of Chaos: Or if Sion Hill9
Delight thee more, and Siloa’s Brook that flow’d
Fast by the Oracle of God;10 I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar11
15
Above th’ Aonian Mount,12 while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rime.
Before all Temples th’ upright heart and pure,13
Instruct me, for Thou know’st; Thou from the first
20
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread
Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss14
And mad’st it pregnant:15 What in me is dark
Illumin, what is low raise and support;
That to the highth of this great Argument
25
I may assert Eternal Providence,
And justifie the wayes of God to men.
Say first, for Heav’n hides nothing from thy view
Nor the deep Tract of Hell, say first what cause
Mov’d our Grand Parents in that happy State,
30
Favour’d of Heav’n so highly, to fall off
From thir Creator, and transgress his Will
For one restraint, Lords of the World besides?
Who first seduc’d them to that foul revolt?
Th’ infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile
35
Stird up with Envy and Revenge, deceiv’d
The Mother of Mankind, what time his Pride
Had cast him out from Heav’n, with all his Host
Of Rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring
To set himself in Glory above his Peers,
40