The Complete Poetry of John Milton (46 page)
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Authors: John Milton
Tags: #English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, #Poetry, #European
(
autumn 1639
)
1
In addition to likenesses to the pastoral elegies and idyls of Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus,
Damon
frequently echoes Virgil (e.g., the refrain from
Ec.
, VII, 44, and the similarity of form to
Ec.
, X) and Castiglione’s
Alcon;
see T. P. Harrison, Jr.,
PMLA
, L (1935), 480-93. But Dorian (
English Diodatis
, pp. 177-78) points out the break with tradition:
Damon
is devoid of real mourners other than Milton. “And because of this concentration on the emotional problem of his personal bereavement, it tells considerably less than do most pastoral elegies of the shepherd who is gone.”
2
Charles Diodati (Damon) was buried at St. Anne’s, Blackfriars, London, on Aug. 27, 1638, while Milton (Thyrsis) was abroad. Milton was probably informed of his death (from the plague?) when he reached Venice around Apr. 1639 (see n. 4 below). See also
El.
1, n. 1, for material about Diodati.
3
A nymph of the Sicilian river Himera punished Daphnis for refusing her love (Theocritus,
Idyl
1); and Bion was mourned by the Sicilian poet Moschus. For Hylas, see
El.
7, n. 3.
4
referring to Italian, not English, agriculture; both winter and spring wheat are harvested in the Arno valley. The imperfect tenses of ll. 9-13 imply that Milton did not learn of Diodati’s death until after his second stay in Florence, the Tuscan city, in Mar. 1639.
5
possibly Milton’s nephews Edward and John Phillips, who joined his household shortly after his return.
6
Hermes, who led the dead to the nether world.
7
Seen by a wolf first, a man became dumb.
8
Pales was a tutelary of shepherds and flocks; Faunus, of crops and herds.
9
poignant and delicate wit.
10
The southeast wind and the rain suggest composition of
Damon
in autumn (around Oct.).
11
All are shepherds of idyllic literature and appear in Virgil’s
Eclogues.
12
a fusion of the Greek seer and of Virgil’s shepherd (
Ec.
, V, VIII). For the relation of birds to prophecy, see
El.
3, n. 6.
13
The planet Saturn, alchemically the name for lead, was known for its gloomy and sullen aspect.
14
The mourners seem to be one of the Hyades, nymphs of rain, who were changed into stars; Dryope, who was changed into a lotus tree; Aegle, one of the Heliades, who was changed into a poplar tree; and Chloris, goddess of flowers. Baucis probably means an old woman. The Idumanian river is the Chelmer, leading into Blackwater Bay in Essex.
15
See
El.
3, n. 7.
16
in Virgil’s
Ec.
, I.
17
referring to
Idyl
7 of Theocritus and Milton’s poetical performances at the Svogliati Academy in Florence.
18
poems and books of verse from his Italian friends, among whom were Carlo Dati and Antonio Francini.
19
Lydians were supposed to have founded an early colony in Italy.
20
the river near Horton. Cassivelaunas was an early British military leader.
21
signifying the beginning of the latest possible time, under the concept of twelve, to bemoan his loss. The twelfth day becomes the epiphany, or manifestation of divinity, of Diodati. Compare Matt. xx. 6: “And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them Why stand ye here all the day idle?”
22
Subjects for English epical works included the invasion of England by Brutus (son of Aeneas), and the Trojan colony; the conquests of Gaul and Rome by the British kings Brennus and Belinus; the military engagements in Rome of Arviragus, son of Cymbeline; the settlement of the Britons, fleeing the Saxons, in Armorica (Brittany); the begetting of Arthur through Merlin’s magic of making Uther Pendragon appear to Igraine as her husband Gorlois; and perhaps a further but different epic on a British theme. Dardanus was the progenitor of the royal race of Troy; Rutupiae was a part of Kent; and Inogene was Brutus’ wife.
23
The rivers Ouse, Alne, Humber, Trent, and Tamar (in a valley famous for mines) cover much of England, and the Orkneys signify Scotland; Milton’s reward will be enough if the British Isles read and know his work.
24
Michele de Filippis’ suggestion that Milton is referring to books, Manso’s
Erocallia
and
Poesie Nomiche
(see
PMLA
, LI, 1936, 745-56), is supported by Donald C. Dorian (
PMLA
, LIV, 1939, 612-13), since the same simile of cups for books is found in Pindar’s seventh Olympian Ode.
25
the Bay of Naples.
26
the Platonic Heavenly Eros.
27
See
Idea
, n. 5.
28
literally, “god-given.”
29
alluding to Rev. xiv. 4: “These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.”
30
Diodati is envisioned as joining the heavenly host (Rev. vii. 9) in Bacchic dance of ecstasy under the thyrsus (a staff twined with ivy and vine shoots borne by Bacchantes) of Sion (the heavenly city of God).
Poems
Written During Public Life
and Governmental Service
(1641–58)
Captain or Colonel, or Knight in Arms,
Whose chance on these defenceless dores may sease,
1
If ever deed of honour did thee please,
Guard them, and him within protect from harms.
5
He can requite thee, for he knows the charms
That call Fame on such gentle acts as these,
And he can spread thy name o’re lands and seas,
What ever clime the suns bright circle warms.
Lift not thy spear against the Muses bowr:
2
10
The great
Emathian
Conqueror
3
bidd spare
The house of
Pindarus
, when temple and towr
Went to the ground: and the repeated air
Of sad
Electra
’s poet
4
had the power
To save th’
Athenian
walls from ruin bare.
(
Nov. 1642
)
1
During the earlier days of the First Civil War the Royalist army, after success at Edgehill on Oct. 23, 1642, advanced toward London but retreated Nov. 12-13. Milton’s home in Aldersgate Street was just beyond the London city gate; the MS title indicated (in jest) that the sonnet was to be tacked on his door.
2
Despite the mocking tone of the thin spear raised against the undefended door, Milton is seriously comparing the far-reaching powers of poetry with the inglorious limitations of war.
3
Alexander the Great of Macedonia (Emathia). Thebes was attacked in 335 B.C. for revolt against Macedonia; the Congress of Corinth decreed that the city was to be razed.
4
Euripides. The first chorus of that play (ll. 167 ff.) reputedly dissuaded the Spartans from sacking Athens in 404 B.C.
Ladie, that in the prime of earliest youth
Wisely hast shun’d the broad way and the green
1
And with those few art eminently seen
That labour up the hill of heav’nly Truth,
2
5
The better part with
Mary
and with
Ruth
3
Chosen thou hast, and they that overween
And at thy growing vertues fret thir spleen
No anger find in thee, but pitty and ruth.
Thy care is fixt and zealously attends
10
To fill thy odorous lamp with deeds of light
And Hope that reaps not shame. Therfore be sure
4
Thou, when the Bridegroom with his feastfull freinds
Passes to bliss at the midd howr of night,
Hast gain’d thy entrance, Virgin wise and pure.
5
(
1643-45
)
1
The unidentified lady is commended for her steadfast and virtuous life: unlike the Bride who unwisely and unsuccessfully sought her Lord “in the broad ways” (S. of Sol. iii. 2), the lady will attain the kingdom of Heaven because she has followed Jesus’ admonition: “Enter ye at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction,… and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life” (Matt. vii. 13, 14). The green way of the impatient and complaining comes from Job viii. 12-13, 16: “Whilst it is yet in his greenness, and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb. So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite’s hope shall perish:… He is green before the sun.…”
2
God’s holy hill is gained through perseverance of the virtuous life, for Jesus had said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John xiv. 6). Compare Hesiod’s Hill of Virtue (
Works and Days
, 287).
3
Mary, who steadfastly sat at Jesus’ feet to hear his word, had “chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke x. 42). Ruth, known to the people to be a steadfast and virtuous woman (Ruth i. 18, iii. 11), chose to follow Naomi and her advice, thus becoming a progenitor of Joseph, husband of Jesus’ mother, through her marriage to Boaz.
4
be assured.
5
The wise virgins, who had filled their lamps in preparation for the time that the kingdom of Heaven would be at hand, were ready when at midnight the Bridegroom came (Matt. xxv. 1-13). As Brooks and Hardy note (p. 160), “it was at midnight too … that Boaz awakened to find Ruth at his feet, and when he lay down he had just come from a feast” (Ruth iii. 7-8).
Daughter to that good Earle,
1
once President
Of
Englands
Counsel, and her Treasury,
Who liv’d in both, unstain’d with gold or fee,
And left them both, more in himself content,
5
Till the sad breaking of that Parlament
Broke him,
2
as that dishonest victory
At
Chæronéa
, fatal to liberty
Kill’d with report that Old man eloquent,
3
Though later born then to have known the daies
10
Wherin your Father flourisht, yet by you
Madam, me thinks I see him living yet;
So well your words his noble Vertues praise,
That all both judge you to relate them true
And to possess them, Honourd
Margaret.
(
1643-45
)
1
Sir James Ley, Earl of Marlborough, Lord Chief Justice, Lord High Treasurer, and Lord President of the Council of State under Charles I. The subject of the sonnet was Lady Margaret, wife of Captain John Hobson.
2
Charles’ Third Parliament was dissolved by him on Mar. 10, 1629, primarily because of the intractable opposition of Commons to tonnage and poundage; Marlborough died four days later. The next parliament (the Short Parliament) was not called until Apr. 13, 1640.