The Complete Poetry of John Milton (12 page)

There is a place enclosed in the eternal darkness of night, / once the vast foundation of a ruined dwelling, [140] / now the den of savage Murder and double-tongued Treason, / whom fierce Discord bore at one birth. / Here among the unhewn stones and broken rock lie / the unburied bones of men and corpses pierced by steel; / here malicious Deceit sits forever with distorted eyes, [145] / and Contentions and Calumny, its jaws armed with fangs, / Fury and a thousand ways of dying are seen, / and Fear and pale Horror hasten around the place, / and nimble ghosts howl perpetually through the mute silences, / and the conscious earth stagnates with blood. [150] / Besides, Murder and Treason themselves lie hid, quaking, / in the inmost depths of the cave with no one pursuing them through it, / the rough cave, full of
rocks, dark with deathly shadows. / The guilty ones disperse and run away with backward glance; / these defenders of Rome, faithful through the long ages, [155] / the Babylonian high-priest
¹⁶
summons, and thus he speaks: / “A race odious to me lives on the western limits / in the surrounding sea; prudent nature has thoroughly denied / that unworthy people to join our world. / Thither, so I command, journey with swift pace, [160] / and may the king and his nobles together, that impious race, / be blown into thin air by the Tartarean powder, / and whoever for true faith have glowed with love / invite as partners of the plot and accomplices of the deed.” / He ended, and the stern twins obeyed with eagerness. [165] /

Meanwhile turning the heavens in a spacious arc, / the Lord, who shines forth from his ethereal height, looks down / and laughs at the efforts of the evil crew,
¹⁷
/ and orders the defense of his people to be upheld. /

They say there is a section where fertile Europe is separated [170] / from Asian land, and looks toward Mareotidan waters; / here is situated the lofty tower of Titanean Fame,
¹⁸
/ brazen, broad, resounding, closer to the glowing stars / than Athos or Pelion piled on Ossa.
¹⁹
/ A thousand doors and entrances lie open, and as many windows, [175] / and spacious courts shine through the thin walls; / here the accumulated people raise various whispers; / how the swarms of flies make noise about the milk pails / by buzzing, or through the sheepfolds of woven reed, / when the lofty Dog Star
²⁰
assails the summer height of the sky. [180] / Indeed Fame herself, avenger of her mother, sits in her topmost fortress; / her head, girt with innumerable ears, projects out from that place, / attracting the faintest sound and seizing the lightest / murmur from the farthest limits of the wide world. / And you, O Argus,
²¹
unjust guardian of the heifer [185] / Io, did not roll so many eyes in your fierce face, / eyes never faltering in silent sleep, / eyes gazing over the adjacent lands far and wide. / With them is Fame accustomed always to survey places deprived of light, / and even those impervious to the radiant sun. [190] / And with a thousand tongues the blabbing one pours out / things heard and seen to anyone who chances by, and now lying, she lessens / the truth, and now she increases it with fabricated rumors. / Nevertheless, Fame, you deserved the praises of my song, / for one good deed than which no other speaks more truly, [195] / worthy to be sung by me, nor shall I repent having commemorated you / at such length in my song. To be sure, we unharmed English / bestow on you what is just for your services, O inconstant goddess. / God who restrains the eternal fires from their agitation / with his dispatched thunderbolt, the earth trembling, exhorts you: [200] / “Fame, are you silent? or does the impious throng of Papists / hide you, conspired against me and my English, / and a new massacre designed against scepter-bearing James?” / No more said, she discerned at once the Thunderer’s commands, / and swift enough before, she puts on strident wings, [205] / and clothes her slender body with variegated feathers; / in her right hand she carries a loud trumpet of Temesan
²²
brass. / With no delay, she now oars on her wings through the yielding air, / and seems not content to outrun the swift clouds by her flight; / now the winds, now the horses of the sun she leaves behind her back. [210] / But first, in her usual way, through the English cities / she spreads ambiguous rumors and uncertain whispers; / directly, in clear voice, she divulges the deceits and the detestable / work of treason, and likewise deeds frightful when spoken, / and she adds the authors of the crime, nor, being garrulous, is she silent [215] / about the places prepared for secret ambush; men are stunned by the reports, / and youths as well as maidens and weak old men / tremble, and the significance of such great ruin / has penetrated quickly to every age. / But meanwhile the heavenly Father from on high has compassion [220] / on his people, and thwarts the cruel and daring attempts / of the Papists; the captives are dragged to fierce punishments; / but pious incense and grateful honors are paid to God; / all the happy streets smoke with genial bonfires; / the youthful throng moves in dancing groups: and throughout the whole year [225] / no day occurs that is more celebrated than the fifth of November.

(
Nov. 1626
)

¹
See
El.
1, n. 12. Albion (ll. 27–28), son of Neptune, gave his name to the island and its inhabitants.

²
Pluto, king of hell and father of the avenging spirits. Acheron and Phlegethon (l. 74) were rivers of hell. Pluto’s likeness to Satan in these lines has been noted by most editors since Warton.

³
an ancient god of nightly storms, identified with Pluto.

⁴
Albion was Killed aiding his brother Lestrygon, who was fighting in Gaul against Hercules, son of Amphitryon’s wife.

⁵
a giant, whom Jove struck with a thunderbolt and buried under Sicily; his head lay beneath Mt. Etna, whose eruptions he spewed forth.

⁶
a sea-nymph. The Tiber empties into the Tyrrhene Sea through a delta.

⁷
That is, Satan arrives in Rome. The Pope, whose tiara consists of three crowns, in procession with other church dignitaries, carried the Host through the streets to St. Peter’s Cathedral on the eve of St. Peter’s Day, June 28.

⁸
a mountain in Boeotia. Asopus is a river, and Cithaeron, a range of hills lying nearby.

⁹
Night and her brother Erebus (primeval darkness) were the parents of Day. The names of her team were created by Milton.

¹⁰
St. Francis of Assisi.

¹¹
Elizabeth.

¹²
one of Rome’s seven hills.

¹³
meaning both a Catholic age (from Mary) and an age of civil war (from Marius, who fought Sulla in 83–82 B.C.).

¹⁴
Memnon, son of the goddess of dawn and Tithonus, was slain by Achilles.

¹⁵
the Pope.

¹⁶
See n. 1. to the poem on the Gunpowder Plot, beginning “Thus did you strive.…”

¹⁷
Psalm ii. 4: “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.”

¹⁸
Ovid’s description of Fame (
Meta.
, XII, 39–63) furnished most of the details here. She is called a Titaness by Virgil (
Aen.
, IV, 173–87) because she is the daughter of Earth, who is often abused by men (see l. 181). The Tower of Fame seems to stand in Egypt, for Lake Mareotis was in Lower Egypt near Alexandria. However, this may be an error for “Maeotidas undas” (the waters near Lake Maeotis), which lay between Europe and Asia, at the mouth of the Tanais River (Lucan, III, 272–78).

¹⁹
The giants Otus and Ephialtes piled Mt. Pelion on Mt. Ossa (in Thessaly) in their attempt to overthrow the gods. Mt. Athos was in Macedonia, opposite Lemnos.

²⁰
Sirius; see
Lycidas
, n. 31.

²¹
Jealous Juno had hundred-eyed Argus guard Io after she had been changed into a heifer by Jove.

²²
Temesa, a town in Italy, was famous for copper mines.

AD THOMAM JUNIUM, PRÆCEPTOREM SUUM, APUD MERCATORES ANGLICOS HAMBURGÆ AGENTES PASTORIS MUNERE FUNGENTEM
¹