The Complete Poetry of John Milton (25 page)
Read The Complete Poetry of John Milton Online
Authors: John Milton
Tags: #English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, #Poetry, #European
6
As punishment, Atlas held up the heavens with his head and hands.
7
Tiresias.
8
Hermes, god of dreams.
9
Ninus was reputedly the founder of Assyria; Belus and Osiris were principal deities of Assyria and Egypt, respectively. Isis (l. 34) was the sister and wife of Osiris.
10
the Egyptian god Thoth, identified with Hermes by the Neoplatonists. Milton uses a variant of this third name, Hermes Trismegistus. He was supposedly author of magical, astrological, and alchemical works.
11
Plato, whose Academy was in a grove near Athens. One of his reflections was that poets must be exiled from the ideal state because they corrupt men’s natures by encouragement of the lower elements of the soul at the expense of the higher (
Rep.
, III, 395-98; X, 595-607).
London,
by reason of the Plague
1
Here lies old
Hobson
, Death hath broke his girt,
And here alas, hath laid him in the dirt,
Or els the ways being foul, twenty to one,
He’s here stuck in a slough, and overthrown.
5
’Twas such a shifter, that if truth were known,
Death was half glad when he had got him down;
For he had any time this ten yeers full,
Dodg’d with him, betwixt
Cambridge
and the Bull
And surely, Death could never have prevail’d,
10
Had not his weekly cours of carriage fail’d;
But lately finding him so long at home,
And thinking now his journeys end was come,
And that he had tane up his latest Inn,
In the kind office of a Chamberlin
2
15
Shew’d him his room where be must lodge that night,
Pull’d off his Boots, and took away the light:
If any ask for him, it shall be sed,
Hobson
has supt, and’s newly gon to bed.
(
early 1631
)
1
Thomas Hobson, a coachman whose circuit lay between Cambridge and the Bull Inn in Bishopsgate Street, London, died at eighty-seven on Jan. 1, 1631, after being forced by the plague to discontinue his weekly trips. “Hobson’s choice,” a choice without an alternative, refers to his practice of requiring a customer seeking a horse to take the one nearest the door or none at all.
2
Death is represented as an attendant ushering Hobson to his room in the inn where he will perpetually sleep.
Here lieth one who did most truly prove
That he could never die while he could move,
So hung his destiny never to rot
While he might still jogg on, and keep his trot,
5
Made of sphear-metal,
1
never to decay
Untill his revolution was at stay.
Time numbers
2
motion, yet (without a crime
’Gainst old truth) motion number’d out his time;
And like an Engin mov’d with wheel and waight,
10
His principles being ceast, he ended strait.
Rest that gives all men life, gave him his death,
And too much breathing put him out of breath;
Nor were it contradiction to affirm
Too long vacation hast’n’d on his term.
15
Meerly to drive the time away he sick’n’d,
Fainted, and di’d, nor would with Ale be quick’n’d;
Nay, quoth he, on his swooning bed outstretch’d,
If I may not carry, sure Ile ne’re be fetch’d,
But vow though the cross Doctors all stood hearers,
20
For one Carrier put down to make six bearers.
Ease was his chief disease, and to judge right,
He di’d for heavines that his Cart went light.
His leasure told him that his time was com,
And lack of load made his life burdensom,
25
That even to his last breath (ther be that say’t)
As he were prest to death, he cry’d more waight;
3
But had his doings lasted as they were,
He had bin an immortall Carrier.
Obedient to the Moon he spent his date
30
In cours reciprocal, and had his fate
Linkt to the mutual flowing of the Seas,
Yet (strange to think) his wain
4
was his increase:
His Letters are deliver’d all and gon,
Onely remains this superscription.
(
early 1631
)
1
the indestructible material of which heavenly bodies are made.
2
measures.
3
that is, to hasten death and end his misery. The pun with the lightness of his cart is typical of the witty opposites on which the humor of the poem is built.
4
Another involved pun: his “wain” (cart) was his “increase” (continued accumulation of years and of wealth); and his “wane” (diminishing as of the moon to which he was obedient, or ebbing of life) was his “increase” (waxing of the moon, or passing into another state).
1
Here
Hobson
lies amongst his many betters,
A man not learned, yet of many letters:
2
The Schollers well can testify as much
That have receiv’d them from his pregnant pouch.
5
His carriage was well known; oft hath he gon
In Embassy ‘twixt father and the son.
3
In
Cambridge
few (in good time be it spoken)
But well remembreth him by som good token.
From thence to
London
rode he day by day,
10
Till death benighting him, he lost his way.
No wonder is it, that he thus is gone,
Since most men knew he long was drawing on.
His Team was of the best, nor could he have
Bin mir’d in any ground, but in the grave:
15
And here he sticks indeed, still like to stand,
Until some Angell lend his helping hand.
So rest in peace thou ever-toyling swain,
And supream Waggoner, next to Charls-wain.
4
(
early 1631
)
1
Milton’s authorship of this poem is not certain; see
Textual Notes.
2
Hobson carried the mails, but he had no academic degrees.
3
primarily to deliver requests for money and infrequent compliances.
4
the Big Dipper, punning on his cart and his dying and ascending to the heavens.
1
This rich Marble doth enterr
The honour’d Wife of
Winchester
,
A Vicounts daughter, an Earls heir,
Besides what her vertues fair
5
Added to her noble birth,
More then she could own from Earth.
Summers three times eight save one
She had told, alas too soon,
After so short time of breath,
10
To house with darknes, and with death,
Yet had the number of her days
Bin as compleat as was her praise,
Nature and fate had had no strife
In giving limit to her life.
15
Her high birth, and her graces sweet
Quickly found a lover meet;
The Virgin quire for her request
The God that sits at marriage feast;
2
He at their invoking came
20
But with a scarce-well-lighted flame;
And in his Garland as he stood,
Ye might discern a Cipress bud.
Once had the early Matrons run
To greet her of a lovely son,
3
25
And now with second hope she goes,
And calls
Lucina
4
to her throws;
But whether by mischance or blame
Atropos
5
for
Lucina
came;
And with remorsles cruelty,
30
Spoil’d at once both fruit and tree:
The haples Babe before his birth
Had burial, yet not laid in earth,
And the languisht Mothers Womb
Was not long a living Tomb.
35
So have I seen som tender slip
Sav’d with care from Winters nip,
The pride of her carnation train,
Pluck’t up by som unheedy swain,
Who onely thought to crop the flowr
40
New shot up from vernall showr;
But the fair blossom hangs the head
Side-ways as on a dying bed,
And those Pearls of dew she wears
Prove to be presaging tears
45
Which the sad morn had let fall
On her hast’ning funerall.
Gentle Lady may thy grave
Peace and quiet ever have;
After this thy travail sore
50
Sweet rest sease thee evermore,
That to give the world encrease,
Short’n’d hast thy own lives lease;
Here besides the sorrowing
That thy noble House doth bring,
55
Here be tears of perfect moan
Wept for thee in
Helicon
,
6
And som Flowers, and som Bays,
For thy Hears to strew the ways,
Sent thee from the banks of
Came
,
7
60
Devoted to thy vertuous name;
Whilst thou bright Saint high sit’st in glory,
Next her much like to thee in story,
That fair
Syrian
Shepherdess,
8
Who after yeers of barrennes