The Complete Poetry of John Milton (57 page)
Read The Complete Poetry of John Milton Online
Authors: John Milton
Tags: #English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, #Poetry, #European
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).
Cyriack
, this three years day these eyes, though clear
To outward view of blemish or 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.”
Mee thought I saw my late espoused saint
1
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.”
The
Major
Poems
1
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
Italian
2
and
Spanish
3
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; which
4
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.
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 mortal
5
tast
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of
Eden
, till one greater Man
6
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
Hill
9
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 soar
11