The Complete Poetry of John Milton (158 page)

APOLOGUS DE RUSTICO ET HERO
Date:
1624–25; apparently written as a grammar school exercise.
Text:
1673*.

CARMINA ELEGIACA
Date:
1624–25; apparently a late grammar school exercise.
Text:
MS in Netherby Hall, Longtown, Cumberland (autotype facsimile in PRO, catalogued: Autotypes / Milton &c. / Fac. 6 / Library / Shelf 156a; photograph* of autotype in British Museum, MS Add. 41063 I, f. 85; printed by A. J. Horwood, Camden Society, n.s. XVI (1876), xvi–xix, 62–63.
3 prænuncius ales. / p(   ) le(   )
reading given is that recorded by Horwood.

“
IGNAVUS SATRAPAM DEDECET …”
Date:
1624–25; apparently a late grammar school exercise.
Text:
photograph* of autotype of MS (see note to
Carmina Elegiaca
).
4 Stratus purpureo procubuit thoro / str(   )tus purp(   )eo p(   )buit ( )
Horwood printed the first two words; Columbia Milton
(
XVIII.643
)
suggested last word.

ELECIA PRIMA
Date:
early Apr. 1626; written during the spring vacation after his rustication which occurred in the Lent term of 1626 (see ll. 9–12, 85–90). The Easter term began on Apr. 19.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.
(13) molles, /
1645 shows three states: as given
, molles
without a comma, and
molle
without
s
or a comma.
(29) auditur /
1673 is found in two states:
auditor
and as given.
(40) Interdum / 1673
is found in two states:
Intredum
and as given.

ELEGIA SECUNDA
Date:
Oct. ? 1626; composed, according to Latin note, when Milton was seventeen. Ridding’s death occurred after Sept. 19 and before Nov. 28; Nov. is mere conjecture. Since the term began on Oct. 11, this,
El.
3, and
Eliensis
were probably written after that time.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.

ELEGIA TERTIA
Date:
Oct. ? 1626; a Latin note says that this elegy was written when Milton was seventeen. The reference in ll. 9–12 makes the month uncertain, but see Bush,
Variorum
I, 65–68.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.

IN OBITUM PRÆSULIS ELIENSIS
Date:
Oct. ? 1626; composed after
El.
3 (see ll. 4–6). Felton died on Oct. 6, and a Latin note places composition when Milton was seventeen.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.

IN OBITUM PROCANCELLARII MEDICI
Date:
Oct.–Nov. 1626; Gostlin died Oct. 21, 1626. Milton’s Latin note that the poem was written when he was sixteen is in error. It precedes
Nov. 5
in 1645.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.

IN PRODITIONEM BOMBARDICAM
Date:
Nov. 1626 ?; probably composed around the same time as
Nov. 5.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.

IN EANDEM:
“Thus did you strive …”
Date:
Nov. 1626 ?; probably composed around the same time as
Nov. 5.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.

IN EANDEM: “JAMES DERIDED …”
Date:
Nov. 1626 ?; probably composed around the same time as
Nov. 5.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.
(4) cornua / corona
1673.
(12)
not indented
1673.

IN EANDEM: “WHOM IMPIOUS ROME …”
Date:
Nov. 1626 ?; probably composed around the same time as
Nov. 5.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.

IN
INVENTOREM BOMBARDÆ
Date:
Nov. 1626 ?; probably composed around the same time as
Nov. 5.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.

IN QUINTUM NOVEMBRIS
Date:
Nov. 1626; composed, according to Latin note, when Milton was seventeen.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.
(20) ceu / seu
1645, 1673.
(45) natat / notat
1673; erratum corrects.
(75)
indented
1673. (125) casúmque
1673
/ casúque
1645.
(143) præruptaque
1673
/ semifractaque
1645.

ELEGIA QUARTA
Date:
late Mar. 1627; Latin note states that it was written when Milton was eighteen, from ll. 33–34 we know that it was written after Mar. 21, and it seems to be the verse epistle referred to in his letter of Mar. 26, 1627(?). (See Parker,
MLN
, LIII [1938], 399–407, for dating of the letter.) References to the war surrounding Hamburg are in agreement with this dating, and suggest no time later than the end of April. The elegy may have been composed before or after the letter, which apparently was written the day after Easter.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.
(89) fœtus; / fætus;
1645, 1673.

ON THE DEATH OF A FAIR INFANT DYING OF A COUGH
Date:
Jan.–Mar. 1628; Milton’s niece was buried Jan. 22 and his second niece was born Apr. 9 (see last stanza). He notes in Latin that the poem was composed when he was seventeen. But since Milton was seventeen between Dec. 1625 and Dec. 1626, the printer or scribe may have simply misread “19” as “17.”
Text:
1673*.
(53) Mercy
added to defective line.
(54) crown’d / cown’d
1673.

AT A VACATION EXERCISE
Date:
July 1628; Latin note that it was delivered when Milton was nineteen.
Text:
1673*.
Printed between the
Fifth Ode
and
Forcers of Conscience
, but an
erratum
repositions immediately after
Fair Infant.
(98) hallow’d / hollowed
1673.

ELEGIA QUINTA
Date:
spring 1629; written when Milton was twenty according to Latin note.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.
(30) perennis
1673
/ quotannis
1645.
(115) Navita / Natvia
1673.

ON THE MORNING OF CHRISTS NATIVITY
Date:
Dec. 1629; year given in 1645.
Texts:
1645*, 1673. A manuscript copy from the 1645 printing occurs in a poetic collection by William Sancroft (Bodleian Library MS, Tanner 466, pp.
60–66, ff. 33
^v
–36
^v
); four verbal variants are noted: (52) Peace / Peace > Calme (53) or / nor (86) dawn / Day (171) wrath / wroth.
(143–44) Th’ enameld
Arras
of the Rainbow wearing, | And Mercy set between,
1645.
(171) wroth
1673
/ wrath
1645.

ELEGIA SEXTA
Date:
Dec. 1629; reference to Diodati’s letter of Dec. 13 (headnote) and to
Nativity Ode
(ll. 79–90).
Texts:
1645*, 1673.

THE PASSION
Date:
Mar. 1630; written, apparently, around Easter following the composition of the
Nativity Ode.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.
(22) latter / latest
1673.

ELEGIA SEPTIMA
Date:
May 1630; number of elegy and position after
El.
6 in 1645. The printed note “Anno ætatis undevigesimo” (at the age of nineteen) may have resulted, as Parker has argued (“Notes,” pp. 120–21), from a scribe’s misreading of Milton’s “uno et vigesimo” (twenty-one).
Texts:
1645*, 1673. A correction in Milton’s hand is found in the Bodleian Library copy of 1645 (catalogued 80 M168 Art, but kept as Arch G.f.17): l. 21, “ærerno” is changed to “æterno”.
(2) fuit. / suit.
1645, 1673.
(21) æterno
1673
/ ærerno
1645.

LINES APPENDED TO
ELEGIA SEPTIMA (ELEGY 7)
Date:
1630 ? Most editors place this “renunciation” with
El.
7, from which it is separated by a thin line in 1645, 1673. However, it obviously postdates the elegy and is separated in time from it (“formerly,” l. 2); see also ll. 7–8. F. W. Bateson (
English Poetry: a Critical Introduction
[New York, 1950], p. 161) thinks 1635 the earliest possible date, though his basis is unsound; and others have postulated the addition of the lines when the 1645 collection was being conceived. The lines reflect the thought that produced both
Idea
and Platonic references in other poems dated here in 1631.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.

SONG: ON MAY MORNING
Date:
May 1630 ?; conjectural. Perhaps after Dec. 1629 (when Milton became 21) since, as Parker points out (“Notes,” p. 115), he dated most of the poems which we know were written prior to that time in terms of his age;
El.
1,
El.
6 (month but not the year), and the five epigrams on the Gunpowder Plot do not carry notes concerning their compositional dates. The only poem which was composed apparently later and which has a date in terms of age is
El.
7 (May 1630); of later poems only
Shakespear, Lycidas
, and
Mask
carry year dates in 1645. It may be significant that
Song
precedes
Shakespear;
however, it follows
Epitaph on the Marchioness
, which is clearly out of chronological order. Others have dated the poem from 1628 through 1632.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.

SONNET 1
Date:
May 1630 ?; conjectural, but perhaps close to the Italian poems. See also textual note to
Song.
It may be significant that Milton purchased his copy of Giovanni della Casa’s influential
Rime et prose
in Dec. 1629.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.

SONNET 2
Date:
1630 ?; uncertain, but perhaps sonnet group is dated by correspondences with
El.
7 (May 1630). Compare
Son.
2 with the elegy; ll. 1–4 of
Son.
4 with ll. 1–4 of the elegy; and ll. 8–14 of
Son.
6 with ll. 89–90 of the elegy. The purchase of della Casa’s
Rime et Prose
in Dec. 1629 likewise suggests composition after that date.
Son.
5, addressed to Diodati, points to—but does not require—composition before mid-April when Diodati enrolled in the Academy of Geneva.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.
(5) mostrasi / mostra si
1645, 1673.

SONNET 3
Date:
1630 ?; see textual note for
Son. 2.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.

CANZONE
Date:
1630 ?; see textual note for
Son. 2.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.

SONNET 4
Date:
1630 ?; see textual note for
Son. 2.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.

SONNET 5
Date:
1630 ?; see textual note for
Son. 2.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.
(2) sian / fian
1673.
(10) Scossomi / Scosso mi
1645, 1673.
(12) a trovar / e trovar
1673.

SONNET 6
Date:
1630 ?; see textual note for
Son. 2.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.
(6) Di / De
1645, 1673.
(8) e d’intero / d’intero
1673.

ON SHAKESPEAR
Date:
1630; date given in 1645, in which it precedes the Hobson poems.
Texts:
Shakespeare Second Folio (1632) in three states (Effigies A, B, and C); Shakespeare,
Poems
(1640); 1645*; Shakespeare Third Folio (1664); 1673.
Title
An Epitaph on the admirable Dramaticke Poet W. S
HAKESPEARE
. A, B, C,
William
1640, 1664.
(4) Star-ypointing / starre-ypointed A. (6) weak / dull
A, B, C, 1664.
(8) live-long / lasting
A, B, C, 1664.
(10) heart / part,
A, B, C, 1664.
(13) it / her
A, B, C, 1664
, our
1640.
(15) dost / doth
1640.

NATURAM NON PATI SENIUM
Date:
June 1631 ?; precedes
Idea
(which see) in the editions, but was probably written at the same general time. Frequently dated June 1628 (as, therefore, is
Idea
) by those who suggest these as the verses mentioned in a letter to Alexander Gill, July 2, 1628, but perhaps this date should be 1631.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.

DE IDEA PLATONICA
Date:
June 1631 ? Since the poem is undated by Milton, it may lie after Dec. 1629 (see textual note to
Song
). Probably it was composed after the amatory work of spring 1630, but certainly before Milton’s graduation in July 1632.
Texts:
1645*, 1673.
(19) sedens
1673
/ fedens
1645.
(23) diis / iis
1673.
(36) induxti / induxit
1673.

ON THE UNIVERSITY CARRIER
Date:
early 1631; Hobson died Jan. 1, 1631.
Texts:
1645*,
Wit Restor’d
(1658), 1673, MS. 1.21, ff. 79
^v
–80
^r
(Folger Library). A correction in Milton’s hand is found in the Bodleian Library copy of 1645 (catalogued 80 M168 Art, but kept as Arch G.f.17): l. 2, “A” changed to “And”.
Title
Another.
1658, On Hobson who dyed in the vacancy of his Carrage by reason of the Sicknes art Cambridge. 1630.
MS.
(1) broke his girt, / his desire,
1658.
(2) And
1673 /
A
1645;
laid / left
1658;
dirt, / mire;
1658.
(6) when / that
1658.
(7) had / hath
1658;
this / those
MS.
(8) Dodg’d / Dog’dd
1658;
with him, / him
1658;
betwixt / ’twixt 1658,
MS;
Bull. /
London-Bull.
1658. (14) In the kind office / Death in the likenesse
1658
, In craftie likenes
MS.
(18) and’s / and
1658.

ANOTHER ON THE SAME
Date:
early 1631; Hobson died Jan. 1, 1631.
Texts: Banquet of Jests
(1640, 1657), 1645*,
Wit Restor’d
(1658), 1673; Huntington Library MS, H.M. 116, pp. 100–1; Bodleian MS, Malone 21, f. 69
^v
; Bodleian MS, CCC.E.309, f. 48; St. John’s College MS, S32, ff. 18
^v
–19
^r
. Ascribed to “Jo: Milton” by StJ MS.
Title
Upon old
Hobson
the Carrier of
Cambridge.
1640, 1657
, Vpon old Hobson Cambridge Carrier who dyed 1630 in y
^e
Vacation by reason of y
^e
Sicknesse y
ⁿ
hot at Camb:
HMS
, On Hobson y
^e
Cambridge carrier who died 1630 in y
^e
vacancy of his carriage by reason of y
^e
sicknesse then hott at Cambridge
Malone
, Hobson the Carrier
CCC
, Another of old Hobson who dyed in the vacancie of his carriage the sicknes being breife in Cambridge. 1630.
StJ.
(1) lieth one / Hobson lyes
1640, 1657, HMS, Malone, CCC, StJ.
(2) while / whilst
1640, 1657, 1658, HMS, Malone, CCC, StJ;
could / did
1640, 1657, HMS, CCC.
(3) hung / sung
1640, 1657, CCC.
(4) While / Whilst
1640
,
1657, 1658, CCC
, So
HMS, Malone, StJ;
might / could
1658;
still / but
1658.
(5) sphear-metal / spheares mettall
1640, 1657, CCC.
(6) revolution / resolution
1640, 1658, HMS, CCC, StJ;
was at / made of
1658.
(7) a / all
1640, 1657, CCC.
(8) old truth / truth, ‘twas
1640, 1657, CCC
, old truths
HMS.
(9) an / some
1640, 1657, 1658, HMS, Malone, CCC, StJ;
with / by
StJ;
wheel / wheeles
1658.
(10) being / once
1658
, when
StJ;
ceast / seasd
1640, CCC.
(11) men / us
1640, 1657, CCC;
gave / giu’s
HMS.
(13–26, 29–34)
omitted 1658;
(15–20, 25–26)
omitted 1640, 1657, HMS, Malone, CCC, StJ.
(13) Nor / No
HMS.
(14) hast’n’d / hasted
Malone.
(21) chief /
omitted HMS, Malone;
right / aright
HMS, Malone.
(22) cart / carts
1640, 1657, CCC;
went / were
1640, 1657, CCC
, was
HMS, Malone.
(23) him /
omitted Malone.
27–28
given between l. 12 and l. 13 StJ.
(27) But / For
1640, 1657, 1658, HMS, Malone, CCC, StJ;
doings / doing
HMS.
(28) an / so sure an
HMS.
(30) had /
omitted HMS
, in
Malone.
(31) Linkt / Like
Malone;
flowing / flowings
Malone.
(32) increase / disease
1640, 1657, CCC with marginal emendation:
decease. (33)
indented 1640, 1657;
and / are
HMS.
(34)
indented 1640, 1657;
this / his
StJ.