SAMSON AGONISTES
Of that sort of Dramatic Poem which is call'd Tragedy.
Of that sort of Dramatic Poem which is call'd Tragedy.
Milton
?
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Title: The Poetical Works of John Milton
Author: John Milton
Release Date: May, 1999 [Etext #1745]
Posting Date: November 10, 2014
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POETICAL WORKS OF JOHN MILTON ***
Produced by Donal O'Danachair
THE POETICAL WORKS OF JOHN MILTON
By John Milton
Transcriber's Notes:
This e-text contains all of Milton's poems in English and Italian. Poems
in Latin have been omitted.
The original spelling, capitalisation and punctuation have been retained
as far as possible. Characters not in the ANSI standard set have been
replaced by their nearest equivalent. The AE & OE digraphs have been
transcribed as two letters. Accented letters in the Italian poems have
been replaced by the unaccented letter.
No italics have been retained.
Footnotes have been moved to the end of the poem to which they refer; in
Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained they have been moved to the end of
the book.
Contents:
PREFACE by the Rev. H. C. Beeching, M. A.
THE STATIONER TO THE READER.
MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
THE PASSION.
ON TIME.
UPON THE CIRCUMCISION.
AT A SOLEMN MUSICK.
AN EPITAPH ON THE MARCHIONESS OF WINCHESTER.
SONG ON MAY MORNING.
ON SHAKESPEAR. 1630.
ANOTHER ON THE SAME.
L'ALLEGRO.
IL PENSEROSO.
SONNETS.
ARCADES.
LYCIDAS.
A MASK PRESENTED At LUDLOW-Castle, 1634. &c.
POEMS ADDED IN THE 1673 EDITION.
ANNO AETATIS 17. ON THE DEATH OF A FAIR INFANT DYING OF A COUGH.
THE FIFTH ODE OF HORACE. LIB. I.
SONNETS.
ON THE NEW FORCERS OF CONSCIENCE UNDER THE LONG PARLIAMENT.
ON THE LORD GEN. FAIRFAX AT THE SEIGE OF COLCHESTER.
TO THE LORD GENERALL CROMWELL MAY 1652.
TO SR HENRY VANE THE YOUNGER.
TO MR. CYRIACK SKINNER UPON HIS BLINDNESS.
PSAL. I. Done into Verse, 1653.
PSAL. II Done Aug. 8. 1653. Terzetti.
PSAL. III. Aug. 9. 1653
PSAL. IV. Aug. 10. 1653.
PSAL. V. Aug. 12. 1653.
PSAL. VI Aug. 13. 1653.
PSAL. VII. Aug. 14. 1653.
PSAL. VIII. Aug. 14. 1653.
APRIL, 1648. J. M. NINE OF THE PSALMS DONE INTO METRE,
PSAL. LXXX.
PSAL. LXXXI.
PSAL. LXXXII.
PSAL. LXXXIV.
PSAL LXXXV.
PSAL. LXXXVI.
PSAL. LXXXVII
PSAL. LXXXVIII
COLLECTION OF PASSAGES TRANSLATED IN THE PROSE WRITINGS.
[From Of Reformation in England, 1641. ]
[From Reason of Church Government, 1641. ]
[From Apology for Smectymnuus, 1642. ]
[From Areopagitica, 1644. ]
[From Tetrachordon, 1645. ]
[From The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, 1649. ]
[From History of Britain, 1670. ]
PARADISE LOST.
ON Paradise Lost.
THE VERSE.
BOOK I.
BOOK II.
BOOK III.
BOOK IV.
BOOK V.
BOOK VI.
BOOK VII.
BOOK VIII.
BOOK IX.
BOOK X.
BOOK XI.
BOOK XII.
PARADISE REGAIN'D.
The First Book.
The Second Book.
The Third Book.
The Fourth Book.
SAMSON AGONISTES
Of that sort of Dramatic Poem which is call'd Tragedy.
The Argument.
APPENDIX.
ON TIME
PREFACE by the Rev. H. C. Beeching, M. A.
This edition of Milton's Poetry is a reprint, as careful as Editor and
Printers have been able to make it, from the earliest printed copies of
the several poems. First the 1645 volume of the Minor Poems has been
printed entire; then follow in order the poems added in the reissue of
1673; the Paradise Lost, from the edition of 1667; and the Paradise
Regain'd and Samson Agonistes from the edition of 1671.
The most interesting portion of the book must be reckoned the first
section of it, which reproduces for the first time the scarce small
octavo of 1645. The only reprint of the Minor Poems in the old
spelling, so far as I know, is the one edited by Mitford, but that
followed the edition of 1673, which is comparatively uninteresting since
it could not have had Milton's oversight as it passed through the press.
We know that it was set up from a copy of the 1645 edition, because it
reproduces some pointless eccentricities such as the varying form of the
chorus to Psalm cxxxvi; but while it corrects the errata tabulated in
that edition it commits many more blunders of its own. It is valuable,
however, as the editio princeps of ten of the sonnets and it contains
one important alteration in the Ode on the Nativity. This and all other
alterations will be found noted where they occur. I have not thought it
necessary to note mere differences of spelling between the two editions
but a word may find place here upon their general character. Generally
it may be said that, where the two editions differ, the later spelling
is that now in use. Thus words like goddess, darkness, usually written
in the first edition with one final s, have two, while on the other
hand words like vernall, youthfull, and monosyllables like hugg, farr,
lose their double letter. Many monosyllables, e. g. som, cours, glimps,
wher, vers, aw, els, don, ey, ly, so written in 1645, take on in 1673 an
e mute, while words like harpe, windes, onely, lose it. By a reciprocal
change ayr and cipress become air and cypress; and the vowels in daign,
vail, neer, beleeve, sheild, boosom, eeven, battail, travailer, and many
other words are similarly modernized. On the other hand there are a few
cases where the 1645 edition exhibits the spelling which has succeeded
in fixing itself, as travail (1673, travel) in the sense of labour; and
rob'd, profane, human, flood and bloody, forest, triple, alas, huddling,
are found where the 1673 edition has roab'd, prophane, humane, floud and
bloudy, forrest, tripple, alass and hudling. Indeed the spelling in
this later edition is not untouched by seventeenth century
inconsistency. It retains here and there forms like shameles, cateres,
(where 1645 reads cateress), and occasionally reverts to the
older-fashioned spelling of monosyllables without the mute e. In the
Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester, it reads--' And som flowers
and some bays. ' But undoubtedly the impression on the whole is of a
much more modern text.
In the matter of small or capital letters I have followed the old copy,
except in one or two places where a personification seemed not plainly
enough marked to a modern reader without a capital. Thus in Il
Penseroso, l. 49, I print Leasure, although both editions read leasure;
and in the Vacation Exercise, l. 71, Times for times. Also where the
employment or omission of a capital is plainly due to misprinting, as
too frequently in the 1673 edition, I silently make the correction.
Examples are, notes for Notes in Sonnet xvii. l. 13; Anointed for
anointed in Psalm ii. l. 12.
In regard to punctuation I have followed the old printers except in
obvious misprints, and followed them also, as far as possible, in their
distribution of roman and italic type and in the grouping of words and
lines in the various titles. To follow them exactly was impossible, as
the books are so very different in size.
At this point the candid reader may perhaps ask what advantage is gained
by presenting these poems to modern readers in the dress of a bygone
age. If the question were put to me I should probably evade it by
pointing out that Mr. Frowde is issuing an edition based upon this, in
which the spelling is frankly that of to-day. But if the question were
pressed, I think a sufficient answer might be found. To begin with, I
should point out that even Prof. Masson, who in his excellent edition
argues the point and decides in favour of modern spelling, allows that
there are peculiarities of Milton's spelling which are really
significant, and ought therefore to be noted or preserved. But who is
to determine exactly which words are spelt according to the poet's own
instructions, and which according to the printer's whim? It is
notorious that in Paradise Lost some words were spelt upon a deliberate
system, and it may very well happen that in the volume of minor poems
which the poet saw through the press in 1645, there were spellings no
less systematic. Prof. Masson makes a great point of the fact that
Milton's own spelling, exhibited in the autograph manuscript of some of
the minor poems preserved in Trinity College, Cambridge, does not
correspond with that of the printed copy. [Note: This manuscript,
invaluable to all students of Milton, has lately been facsimiled under
the superintendence of Dr. Aldis Wright, and published at the Cambridge
University press]. This is certainly true, as the reader may see for
himself by comparing the passage from the manuscript given in the
appendix with the corresponding place in the text. Milton's own
spelling revels in redundant e's, while the printer of the 1645 book is
very sparing of them. But in cases where the spelling affects the
metre, we find that the printed text and Milton's manuscript closely
correspond; and it is upon its value in determining the metre, quite as
much as its antiquarian interest, that I should base a justification of
this reprint. Take, for instance, such a line as the eleventh of Comus,
which Prof. Masson gives as:--
Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats.
A reader not learned in Miltonic rhythms will certainly read this
Amongst th' enthroned gods
But the 1645 edition reads:
Amongst the enthron'd gods
and so does Milton's manuscript. Again, in line 597, Prof.
Masson reads:
It shall be in eternal restless change
Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail,
The pillared firmament is rottenness, &c.
But the 1645 text and Milton's manuscript read self-consum'd; after
which word there is to be understood a metrical pause to mark the
violent transition of the thought.
Again in the second line of the Sonnet to a Nightingale Prof. Masson
has:
Warblest at eve when all the woods are still
but the early edition, which probably follows Milton's spelling though
in this case we have no manuscript to compare, reads 'Warbl'st. ' So the
original text of Samson, l. 670, has 'temper'st. '
The retention of the old system of punctuation may be less defensible,
but I have retained it because it may now and then be of use in
determining a point of syntax. The absence of a comma, for example,
after the word hearse in the 58th line of the Epitaph on the Marchioness
of Winchester, printed by Prof. Masson thus:--
And some flowers, and some bays
For thy hearse to strew thy ways,
but in the 1645 edition:--
And som Flowers, and som Bays,
For thy Hears to strew the ways,
goes to prove that for here must be taken as 'fore.
Of the Paradise Lost there were two editions issued during Milton's
lifetime, and while the first has been taken as our text, all the
variants in the second, not being simple misprints, have been recorded
in the notes. In one respect, however, in the distribution of the poem
into twelve books instead of ten, it has seemed best, for the sake of
practical convenience, to follow the second edition. A word may be
allowed here on the famous correction among the Errata prefixed to the
first edition: 'Lib.
SAMSON AGONISTES
Of that sort of Dramatic Poem which is call'd Tragedy.
The Argument.
APPENDIX.
ON TIME
PREFACE by the Rev. H. C. Beeching, M. A.
This edition of Milton's Poetry is a reprint, as careful as Editor and
Printers have been able to make it, from the earliest printed copies of
the several poems. First the 1645 volume of the Minor Poems has been
printed entire; then follow in order the poems added in the reissue of
1673; the Paradise Lost, from the edition of 1667; and the Paradise
Regain'd and Samson Agonistes from the edition of 1671.
The most interesting portion of the book must be reckoned the first
section of it, which reproduces for the first time the scarce small
octavo of 1645. The only reprint of the Minor Poems in the old
spelling, so far as I know, is the one edited by Mitford, but that
followed the edition of 1673, which is comparatively uninteresting since
it could not have had Milton's oversight as it passed through the press.
We know that it was set up from a copy of the 1645 edition, because it
reproduces some pointless eccentricities such as the varying form of the
chorus to Psalm cxxxvi; but while it corrects the errata tabulated in
that edition it commits many more blunders of its own. It is valuable,
however, as the editio princeps of ten of the sonnets and it contains
one important alteration in the Ode on the Nativity. This and all other
alterations will be found noted where they occur. I have not thought it
necessary to note mere differences of spelling between the two editions
but a word may find place here upon their general character. Generally
it may be said that, where the two editions differ, the later spelling
is that now in use. Thus words like goddess, darkness, usually written
in the first edition with one final s, have two, while on the other
hand words like vernall, youthfull, and monosyllables like hugg, farr,
lose their double letter. Many monosyllables, e. g. som, cours, glimps,
wher, vers, aw, els, don, ey, ly, so written in 1645, take on in 1673 an
e mute, while words like harpe, windes, onely, lose it. By a reciprocal
change ayr and cipress become air and cypress; and the vowels in daign,
vail, neer, beleeve, sheild, boosom, eeven, battail, travailer, and many
other words are similarly modernized. On the other hand there are a few
cases where the 1645 edition exhibits the spelling which has succeeded
in fixing itself, as travail (1673, travel) in the sense of labour; and
rob'd, profane, human, flood and bloody, forest, triple, alas, huddling,
are found where the 1673 edition has roab'd, prophane, humane, floud and
bloudy, forrest, tripple, alass and hudling. Indeed the spelling in
this later edition is not untouched by seventeenth century
inconsistency. It retains here and there forms like shameles, cateres,
(where 1645 reads cateress), and occasionally reverts to the
older-fashioned spelling of monosyllables without the mute e. In the
Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester, it reads--' And som flowers
and some bays. ' But undoubtedly the impression on the whole is of a
much more modern text.
In the matter of small or capital letters I have followed the old copy,
except in one or two places where a personification seemed not plainly
enough marked to a modern reader without a capital. Thus in Il
Penseroso, l. 49, I print Leasure, although both editions read leasure;
and in the Vacation Exercise, l. 71, Times for times. Also where the
employment or omission of a capital is plainly due to misprinting, as
too frequently in the 1673 edition, I silently make the correction.
Examples are, notes for Notes in Sonnet xvii. l. 13; Anointed for
anointed in Psalm ii. l. 12.
In regard to punctuation I have followed the old printers except in
obvious misprints, and followed them also, as far as possible, in their
distribution of roman and italic type and in the grouping of words and
lines in the various titles. To follow them exactly was impossible, as
the books are so very different in size.
At this point the candid reader may perhaps ask what advantage is gained
by presenting these poems to modern readers in the dress of a bygone
age. If the question were put to me I should probably evade it by
pointing out that Mr. Frowde is issuing an edition based upon this, in
which the spelling is frankly that of to-day. But if the question were
pressed, I think a sufficient answer might be found. To begin with, I
should point out that even Prof. Masson, who in his excellent edition
argues the point and decides in favour of modern spelling, allows that
there are peculiarities of Milton's spelling which are really
significant, and ought therefore to be noted or preserved. But who is
to determine exactly which words are spelt according to the poet's own
instructions, and which according to the printer's whim? It is
notorious that in Paradise Lost some words were spelt upon a deliberate
system, and it may very well happen that in the volume of minor poems
which the poet saw through the press in 1645, there were spellings no
less systematic. Prof. Masson makes a great point of the fact that
Milton's own spelling, exhibited in the autograph manuscript of some of
the minor poems preserved in Trinity College, Cambridge, does not
correspond with that of the printed copy. [Note: This manuscript,
invaluable to all students of Milton, has lately been facsimiled under
the superintendence of Dr. Aldis Wright, and published at the Cambridge
University press]. This is certainly true, as the reader may see for
himself by comparing the passage from the manuscript given in the
appendix with the corresponding place in the text. Milton's own
spelling revels in redundant e's, while the printer of the 1645 book is
very sparing of them. But in cases where the spelling affects the
metre, we find that the printed text and Milton's manuscript closely
correspond; and it is upon its value in determining the metre, quite as
much as its antiquarian interest, that I should base a justification of
this reprint. Take, for instance, such a line as the eleventh of Comus,
which Prof. Masson gives as:--
Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats.
A reader not learned in Miltonic rhythms will certainly read this
Amongst th' enthroned gods
But the 1645 edition reads:
Amongst the enthron'd gods
and so does Milton's manuscript. Again, in line 597, Prof.
Masson reads:
It shall be in eternal restless change
Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail,
The pillared firmament is rottenness, &c.
But the 1645 text and Milton's manuscript read self-consum'd; after
which word there is to be understood a metrical pause to mark the
violent transition of the thought.
Again in the second line of the Sonnet to a Nightingale Prof. Masson
has:
Warblest at eve when all the woods are still
but the early edition, which probably follows Milton's spelling though
in this case we have no manuscript to compare, reads 'Warbl'st. ' So the
original text of Samson, l. 670, has 'temper'st. '
The retention of the old system of punctuation may be less defensible,
but I have retained it because it may now and then be of use in
determining a point of syntax. The absence of a comma, for example,
after the word hearse in the 58th line of the Epitaph on the Marchioness
of Winchester, printed by Prof. Masson thus:--
And some flowers, and some bays
For thy hearse to strew thy ways,
but in the 1645 edition:--
And som Flowers, and som Bays,
For thy Hears to strew the ways,
goes to prove that for here must be taken as 'fore.
Of the Paradise Lost there were two editions issued during Milton's
lifetime, and while the first has been taken as our text, all the
variants in the second, not being simple misprints, have been recorded
in the notes. In one respect, however, in the distribution of the poem
into twelve books instead of ten, it has seemed best, for the sake of
practical convenience, to follow the second edition. A word may be
allowed here on the famous correction among the Errata prefixed to the
first edition: 'Lib. 2. v. 414, for we read wee. ' This correction
shows not only that Milton had theories about spelling, but also that he
found means, though his sight was gone, to ascertain whether his rules
had been carried out by his printer; and in itself this fact justifies a
facsimile reprint. What the principle in the use of the double vowel
exactly was (and it is found to affect the other monosyllabic pronouns)
it is not so easy to discover, though roughly it is clear the
reduplication was intended to mark emphasis. For example, in the speech
of the Divine Son after the battle in heaven (vi. 810-817) the pronouns
which the voice would naturally emphasize are spelt with the double
vowel:
Stand onely and behold
Gods indignation on these Godless pourd
By mee; not you but mee they have despis'd,
Yet envied; against mee is all thir rage,
Because the Father, t'whom in Heav'n supream
Kingdom and Power and Glorie appertains,
Hath honourd me according to his will.
Therefore to mee thir doom he hath assign'd.
In the Son's speech offering himself as Redeemer (iii. 227-249) where
the pronoun all through is markedly emphasized, it is printed mee the
first four times, and afterwards me; but it is noticeable that these
first four times the emphatic word does not stand in the stressed place
of the verse, so that a careless reader might not emphasize it, unless
his attention were specially led by some such sign:
Behold mee then, mee for him, life for life
I offer, on mee let thine anger fall;
Account mee man.
In the Hymn of Creation (v. 160-209) where ye occurs fourteen times, the
emphasis and the metric stress six times out of seven coincide, and the
pronoun is spelt yee; where it is unemphatic, and in an unstressed
place, it is spelt ye. Two lines are especially instructive:
Speak yee who best can tell, ye Sons of light (l. 160);
and
Fountains and yee, that warble, as ye flow,
Melodious murmurs, warbling tune his praise (l. 195).
In v. 694 it marks, as the voice by its emphasis would mark in
reading, a change of subject:
So spake the false Arch-Angel, and infus'd
Bad influence into th' unwarie brest
Of his Associate; hee (i. e. the associate) together calls,
&c.
An examination of other passages, where there is no antithesis, goes to
show that the lengthened form of the pronoun is most frequent before a
pause (as vii. 95); or at the end of a line (i. 245, 257); or when a
foot is inverted (v. 133); or when as object it precedes its verb (v.
612; vii. 747), or as subject follows it (ix. 1109; x. 4). But as we
might expect under circumstances where a purist could not correct his
own proofs, there are not a few inconsistencies. There does not seem,
for example, any special emphasis in the second wee of the following
passage:
Freely we serve.
Because wee freely love, as in our will
To love or not; in this we stand or fall (v. 538).
On the other hand, in the passage (iii. 41) in which the poet
speaks of his own blindness:
Thus with the Year
Seasons return, but not to me returns
Day, &c.
where, if anywhere, we should expect mee, we do not find it, though it
occurs in the speech eight lines below. It should be added that this
differentiation of the pronouns is not found in any printed poem of
Milton's before Paradise Lost, nor is it found in the Cambridge
autograph. In that manuscript the constant forms are me, wee, yee.
There is one place where there is a difference in the spelling of she,
and it is just possible that this may not be due to accident. In the
first verse of the song in Arcades, the MS. reads:
This, this is shee;
and in the third verse:
This, this is she alone.
This use of the double vowel is found a few times in Paradise Regain'd:
in ii. 259 and iv. 486, 497 where mee begins a line, and in iv. 638
where hee is specially emphatic in the concluding lines of the poem. In
Samson Agonistes it is more frequent (e. g. lines 124, 178, 193, 220,
252, 290, 1125). Another word the spelling of which in Paradise Lost
will be observed to vary is the pronoun their, which is spelt sometimes
thir. The spelling in the Cambridge manuscript is uniformly thire,
except once when it is thir; and where their once occurs in the writing
of an amanuensis the e is struck through. That the difference is not
merely a printer's device to accommodate his line may be seen by a
comparison of lines 358 and 363 in the First Book, where the shorter
word comes in the shorter line. It is probable that the lighter form
of the word was intended to be used when it was quite unemphatic.
Contrast, for example, in Book iii. l. 59: His own works and their works
at once to view with line 113: Thir maker and thir making and thir Fate.
But the use is not consistent, and the form thir is not found at all
till the 349th line of the First Book. The distinction is kept up in
the Paradise Regain'd and Samson Agonistes, but, if possible, with even
less consistency. Such passages, however, as Paradise Regain'd, iii.
414-440; Samson Agonistes, 880-890, are certainly spelt upon a method,
and it is noticeable that in the choruses the lighter form is universal.
Paradise Regain'd and Samson Agonistes were published in 1671, and no
further edition was called for in the remaining three years of the
poet's lifetime, so that in the case of these poems there are no new
readings to record; and the texts were so carefully revised, that only
one fault (Paradise Regain'd, ii. 309) was left for correction later.
In these and the other poems I have corrected the misprints catalogued
in the tables of Errata, and I have silently corrected any other unless
it might be mistaken for a various reading, when I have called attention
to it in a note. Thus I have not recorded such blunders as Lethian for
Lesbian in the 1645 text of Lycidas, line 63; or hallow for hollow in
Paradise Lost, vi. 484; but I have noted content for concent, in At a
Solemn Musick, line 6.
In conclusion I have to offer my sincere thanks to all who have
collaborated with me in preparing this Edition; to the Delegates of the
Oxford Press for allowing me to undertake it and decorate it with so
many facsimiles; to the Controller of the Press for his unfailing
courtesy; to the printers and printer's reader for their care and pains.
Coming nearer home I cannot but acknowledge the help I have received in
looking over proof-sheets from my sister, Mrs. P. A. Barnett, who has
ungrudgingly put at the service of this book both time and eyesight. In
taking leave of it, I may be permitted to say that it has cost more of
both these inestimable treasures than I had anticipated. The last proof
reaches me just a year after the first, and the progress of the work has
not in the interval been interrupted. In tenui labor et tenuis gloria.
Nevertheless I cannot be sorry it was undertaken.
H. C. B.
YATTENDON RECTORY,
November 8, 1899.
Transcriber's note: Facsimile of Title page of 1645 edition
follows:
POEMS
OF
Mr John Milton,
BOTH
ENGLISH and LATIN
Compos'd at several times.
------------------------------
Printed by his true copies.
------------------------------
The SONGS were set in Musick by
Mr. HENRY LAWES Gentleman of
the KINGS Chappel, and one
of His MAIESTIES
Private Musick.
--------Baccare frontem
Cingite, ne vace noceat mala lingua futuro,
Virgil, Eclog. 7.
-----------------------------------------
Printed, and Publish'd according to
ORDER.
-----------------------------------------
LONDON,
Printed by Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Moseley,
and are to be sold at the signe of the Princes
Arms in S. Pauls Church-yard. 1645.
Transcriber's note: Facsimile of Title page of 1673 edition
follows:
POEMS, &c.
UPON
Several Occasions.
--------------------------
BY
Mr. John Milton:
--------------------------
Both ENGLISH and LATIN &c.
Composed at several times.
--------------------------
With a small tractate of
EDUCATION
To Mr. HARTLIB
--------------------------
--------------------------
LONDON.
Printed for Tho. Dring at the Blew Anchor
next Mitre Court over against Fetter
Lane in Fleet-street. 1673.
THE STATIONER TO THE READER.
It is not any Private respect of gain, Gentle Reader, for the slightest
Pamphlet is now adayes more vendible then the Works of learnedest men;
but it is the love I have to our own Language that hath made me diligent
to collect, and set forth such Peeces in Prose and Vers as may renew the
wonted honour and esteem of our tongue: and it's the worth of these both
English and Latin poems, not the flourish of any prefixed encomions that
can invite thee to buy them, though these are not without the highest
Commendations and Applause of the learnedst Academicks, both domestic
and forrein: And amongst those of our own Countrey, the unparalleled
attestation of that renowned Provost of Eaton, Sir Henry Wootton: I know
not thy palat how it relishes such dainties, nor how harmonious thy
soul is; perhaps more trivial Airs may please thee better. But
howsoever thy opinion is spent upon these, that incouragement I have
already received from the most ingenious men in their clear and
courteous entertainment of Mr. Wallers late choice Peeces, hath once
more made me adventure into the World, presenting it with these
ever-green, and not to be blasted Laurels. The Authors more peculiar
excellency in these studies, was too well known to conceal his Papers,
or to keep me from attempting to sollicit them from him. Let the event
guide it self which way it will, I shall deserve of the age, by bringing
into the Light as true a Birth, as the Muses have brought forth since
our famous Spencer wrote; whose Poems in these English ones are as
rarely imitated, as sweetly excell'd. Reader, if thou art Eagle-eied to
censure their worth, I am not fearful to expose them to thy exactest
perusal.
Thine to Command
HUMPH. MOSELEY.
MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
ON THE MORNING OF CHRISTS NATIVITY.
Compos'd 1629.
I
This is the Month, and this the happy morn
Wherin the Son of Heav'ns eternal King,
Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring;
For so the holy sages once did sing,
That he our deadly forfeit should release,
And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.
II
That glorious Form, that Light unsufferable,
And that far-beaming blaze of Majesty,
Wherwith he wont at Heav'ns high Councel-Table, 10
To sit the midst of Trinal Unity,
He laid aside; and here with us to be,
Forsook the Courts of everlasting Day,
And chose with us a darksom House of mortal Clay.
III
Say Heav'nly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein
Afford a present to the Infant God?
Hast thou no vers, no hymn, or solemn strein,
To welcom him to this his new abode,
Now while the Heav'n by the Suns team untrod,
Hath took no print of the approching light, 20
And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright?
IV
See how from far upon the Eastern rode
The Star-led Wisards haste with odours sweet,
O run, prevent them with thy humble ode,
And lay it lowly at his blessed feet;
Have thou the honour first, thy Lord to greet,
And joyn thy voice unto the Angel Quire,
From out his secret Altar toucht with hallow'd fire.
The Hymn.
I
IT was the Winter wilde,
While the Heav'n-born-childe, 30
All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies;
Nature in aw to him
Had doff't her gawdy trim,
With her great Master so to sympathize:
It was no season then for her
To wanton with the Sun her lusty Paramour.
II
Only with speeches fair
She woo'd the gentle Air
To hide her guilty front with innocent Snow,
And on her naked shame, 40
Pollute with sinfull blame,
The Saintly Vail of Maiden white to throw,
Confounded, that her Makers eyes
Should look so near upon her foul deformities.
III
But he her fears to cease,
Sent down the meek-eyd Peace,
She crown'd with Olive green, came softly sliding
Down through the turning sphear
His ready Harbinger,
With Turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing, 50
And waving wide her mirtle wand,
She strikes a universall Peace through Sea and Land.
IV
No War, or Battails sound
Was heard the World around,
The idle spear and shield were high up hung;
The hooked Chariot stood
Unstain'd with hostile blood,
The Trumpet spake not to the armed throng,
And Kings sate still with awfull eye,
As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by. 60
V
But peacefull was the night
Wherin the Prince of light
His raign of peace upon the earth began:
The Windes with wonder whist,
Smoothly the waters kist,
Whispering new joyes to the milde Ocean,
Who now hath quite forgot to rave,
While Birds of Calm sit brooding on the charmed wave.
VI
The Stars with deep amaze
Stand fit in steadfast gaze, 70
Bending one way their pretious influence,
And will not take their flight,
For all the morning light,
Or Lucifer that often warned them thence;
But in their glimmering Orbs did glow,
Until their Lord himself bespake, and bid them go.
VII
And though the shady gloom
Had given day her room,
The Sun himself with-held his wonted speed,
And hid his head for shame, 80
As his inferior flame,
The new enlightened world no more should need;
He saw a greater Sun appear
Then his bright Throne, or burning Axletree could bear.
VIII
The Shepherds on the Lawn,
Or ere the point of dawn,
Sate simply chatting in a rustic row;
Full little thought they than,
That the mighty Pan
Was kindly com to live with them below; 90
Perhaps their loves, or els their sheep,
Was all that did their silly thoughts so busie keep.
IX
When such Musick sweet
Their hearts and ears did greet,
As never was by mortal finger strook,
Divinely-warbled voice
Answering the stringed noise,
As all their souls in blisfull rapture took:
The Air such pleasure loth to lose,
With thousand echo's still prolongs each heav'nly close. 100
X
Nature that heard such sound
Beneath the hollow round
of Cynthia's seat the Airy region thrilling,
Now was almost won
To think her part was don
And that her raign had here its last fulfilling;
She knew such harmony alone
Could hold all Heav'n and Earth in happier union.
XI
At last surrounds their sight
A globe of circular light, 110
That with long beams the shame faced night arrayed
The helmed Cherubim
And sworded Seraphim,
Are seen in glittering ranks with wings displaid,
Harping in loud and solemn quire,
With unexpressive notes to Heav'ns new-born Heir.
XII
Such Musick (as 'tis said)
Before was never made,
But when of old the sons of morning sung,
While the Creator Great
His constellations set, 120
And the well-ballanc't world on hinges hung,
And cast the dark foundations deep,
And bid the weltring waves their oozy channel keep.
XIII
Ring out ye Crystall sphears,
Once bless our human ears,
(If ye have power to touch our senses so)
And let your silver chime
Move in melodious time;
And let the Base of Heav'ns deep Organ blow, 130
And with your ninefold harmony
Make up full consort to th'Angelike symphony.
XIV
For if such holy Song
Enwrap our fancy long,
Time will run back, and fetch the age of gold,
And speckl'd vanity
Will sicken soon and die,
And leprous sin will melt from earthly mould,
And Hell it self will pass away
And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day. 140
XV
Yea Truth, and Justice then
Will down return to men,
Th'enameld Arras of the Rain-bow wearing,
And Mercy set between
Thron'd in Celestiall sheen,
With radiant feet the tissued clouds down stearing,
And Heav'n as at som festivall,
Will open wide the gates of her high Palace Hall.
XVI
But wisest Fate sayes no,
This must not yet be so, 150
The Babe lies yet in smiling Infancy,
That on the bitter cross
Must redeem our loss;
So both himself and us to glorifie:
Yet first to those ychain'd in sleep,
The Wakeful trump of doom must thunder through the deep,
XVII
With such a horrid clang
As on Mount Sinai rang
While the red fire, and smouldring clouds out brake:
The aged Earth agast 160
With terrour of that blast,
Shall from the surface to the center shake;
When at the worlds last session,
The dreadfull Judge in middle Air shall spread his throne.
XVIII
And then at last our bliss
Full and perfect is,
But now begins; for from this happy day
Th'old Dragon under ground
In straiter limits bound,
Not half so far casts his usurped sway, 170
And wrath to see his Kingdom fail,
Swindges the scaly Horrour of his foulded tail.
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Title: The Poetical Works of John Milton
Author: John Milton
Release Date: May, 1999 [Etext #1745]
Posting Date: November 10, 2014
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POETICAL WORKS OF JOHN MILTON ***
Produced by Donal O'Danachair
THE POETICAL WORKS OF JOHN MILTON
By John Milton
Transcriber's Notes:
This e-text contains all of Milton's poems in English and Italian. Poems
in Latin have been omitted.
The original spelling, capitalisation and punctuation have been retained
as far as possible. Characters not in the ANSI standard set have been
replaced by their nearest equivalent. The AE & OE digraphs have been
transcribed as two letters. Accented letters in the Italian poems have
been replaced by the unaccented letter.
No italics have been retained.
Footnotes have been moved to the end of the poem to which they refer; in
Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained they have been moved to the end of
the book.
Contents:
PREFACE by the Rev. H. C. Beeching, M. A.
THE STATIONER TO THE READER.
MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
THE PASSION.
ON TIME.
UPON THE CIRCUMCISION.
AT A SOLEMN MUSICK.
AN EPITAPH ON THE MARCHIONESS OF WINCHESTER.
SONG ON MAY MORNING.
ON SHAKESPEAR. 1630.
ANOTHER ON THE SAME.
L'ALLEGRO.
IL PENSEROSO.
SONNETS.
ARCADES.
LYCIDAS.
A MASK PRESENTED At LUDLOW-Castle, 1634. &c.
POEMS ADDED IN THE 1673 EDITION.
ANNO AETATIS 17. ON THE DEATH OF A FAIR INFANT DYING OF A COUGH.
THE FIFTH ODE OF HORACE. LIB. I.
SONNETS.
ON THE NEW FORCERS OF CONSCIENCE UNDER THE LONG PARLIAMENT.
ON THE LORD GEN. FAIRFAX AT THE SEIGE OF COLCHESTER.
TO THE LORD GENERALL CROMWELL MAY 1652.
TO SR HENRY VANE THE YOUNGER.
TO MR. CYRIACK SKINNER UPON HIS BLINDNESS.
PSAL. I. Done into Verse, 1653.
PSAL. II Done Aug. 8. 1653. Terzetti.
PSAL. III. Aug. 9. 1653
PSAL. IV. Aug. 10. 1653.
PSAL. V. Aug. 12. 1653.
PSAL. VI Aug. 13. 1653.
PSAL. VII. Aug. 14. 1653.
PSAL. VIII. Aug. 14. 1653.
APRIL, 1648. J. M. NINE OF THE PSALMS DONE INTO METRE,
PSAL. LXXX.
PSAL. LXXXI.
PSAL. LXXXII.
PSAL. LXXXIV.
PSAL LXXXV.
PSAL. LXXXVI.
PSAL. LXXXVII
PSAL. LXXXVIII
COLLECTION OF PASSAGES TRANSLATED IN THE PROSE WRITINGS.
[From Of Reformation in England, 1641. ]
[From Reason of Church Government, 1641. ]
[From Apology for Smectymnuus, 1642. ]
[From Areopagitica, 1644. ]
[From Tetrachordon, 1645. ]
[From The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, 1649. ]
[From History of Britain, 1670. ]
PARADISE LOST.
ON Paradise Lost.
THE VERSE.
BOOK I.
BOOK II.
BOOK III.
BOOK IV.
BOOK V.
BOOK VI.
BOOK VII.
BOOK VIII.
BOOK IX.
BOOK X.
BOOK XI.
BOOK XII.
PARADISE REGAIN'D.
The First Book.
The Second Book.
The Third Book.
The Fourth Book.
SAMSON AGONISTES
Of that sort of Dramatic Poem which is call'd Tragedy.
The Argument.
APPENDIX.
ON TIME
PREFACE by the Rev. H. C. Beeching, M. A.
This edition of Milton's Poetry is a reprint, as careful as Editor and
Printers have been able to make it, from the earliest printed copies of
the several poems. First the 1645 volume of the Minor Poems has been
printed entire; then follow in order the poems added in the reissue of
1673; the Paradise Lost, from the edition of 1667; and the Paradise
Regain'd and Samson Agonistes from the edition of 1671.
The most interesting portion of the book must be reckoned the first
section of it, which reproduces for the first time the scarce small
octavo of 1645. The only reprint of the Minor Poems in the old
spelling, so far as I know, is the one edited by Mitford, but that
followed the edition of 1673, which is comparatively uninteresting since
it could not have had Milton's oversight as it passed through the press.
We know that it was set up from a copy of the 1645 edition, because it
reproduces some pointless eccentricities such as the varying form of the
chorus to Psalm cxxxvi; but while it corrects the errata tabulated in
that edition it commits many more blunders of its own. It is valuable,
however, as the editio princeps of ten of the sonnets and it contains
one important alteration in the Ode on the Nativity. This and all other
alterations will be found noted where they occur. I have not thought it
necessary to note mere differences of spelling between the two editions
but a word may find place here upon their general character. Generally
it may be said that, where the two editions differ, the later spelling
is that now in use. Thus words like goddess, darkness, usually written
in the first edition with one final s, have two, while on the other
hand words like vernall, youthfull, and monosyllables like hugg, farr,
lose their double letter. Many monosyllables, e. g. som, cours, glimps,
wher, vers, aw, els, don, ey, ly, so written in 1645, take on in 1673 an
e mute, while words like harpe, windes, onely, lose it. By a reciprocal
change ayr and cipress become air and cypress; and the vowels in daign,
vail, neer, beleeve, sheild, boosom, eeven, battail, travailer, and many
other words are similarly modernized. On the other hand there are a few
cases where the 1645 edition exhibits the spelling which has succeeded
in fixing itself, as travail (1673, travel) in the sense of labour; and
rob'd, profane, human, flood and bloody, forest, triple, alas, huddling,
are found where the 1673 edition has roab'd, prophane, humane, floud and
bloudy, forrest, tripple, alass and hudling. Indeed the spelling in
this later edition is not untouched by seventeenth century
inconsistency. It retains here and there forms like shameles, cateres,
(where 1645 reads cateress), and occasionally reverts to the
older-fashioned spelling of monosyllables without the mute e. In the
Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester, it reads--' And som flowers
and some bays. ' But undoubtedly the impression on the whole is of a
much more modern text.
In the matter of small or capital letters I have followed the old copy,
except in one or two places where a personification seemed not plainly
enough marked to a modern reader without a capital. Thus in Il
Penseroso, l. 49, I print Leasure, although both editions read leasure;
and in the Vacation Exercise, l. 71, Times for times. Also where the
employment or omission of a capital is plainly due to misprinting, as
too frequently in the 1673 edition, I silently make the correction.
Examples are, notes for Notes in Sonnet xvii. l. 13; Anointed for
anointed in Psalm ii. l. 12.
In regard to punctuation I have followed the old printers except in
obvious misprints, and followed them also, as far as possible, in their
distribution of roman and italic type and in the grouping of words and
lines in the various titles. To follow them exactly was impossible, as
the books are so very different in size.
At this point the candid reader may perhaps ask what advantage is gained
by presenting these poems to modern readers in the dress of a bygone
age. If the question were put to me I should probably evade it by
pointing out that Mr. Frowde is issuing an edition based upon this, in
which the spelling is frankly that of to-day. But if the question were
pressed, I think a sufficient answer might be found. To begin with, I
should point out that even Prof. Masson, who in his excellent edition
argues the point and decides in favour of modern spelling, allows that
there are peculiarities of Milton's spelling which are really
significant, and ought therefore to be noted or preserved. But who is
to determine exactly which words are spelt according to the poet's own
instructions, and which according to the printer's whim? It is
notorious that in Paradise Lost some words were spelt upon a deliberate
system, and it may very well happen that in the volume of minor poems
which the poet saw through the press in 1645, there were spellings no
less systematic. Prof. Masson makes a great point of the fact that
Milton's own spelling, exhibited in the autograph manuscript of some of
the minor poems preserved in Trinity College, Cambridge, does not
correspond with that of the printed copy. [Note: This manuscript,
invaluable to all students of Milton, has lately been facsimiled under
the superintendence of Dr. Aldis Wright, and published at the Cambridge
University press]. This is certainly true, as the reader may see for
himself by comparing the passage from the manuscript given in the
appendix with the corresponding place in the text. Milton's own
spelling revels in redundant e's, while the printer of the 1645 book is
very sparing of them. But in cases where the spelling affects the
metre, we find that the printed text and Milton's manuscript closely
correspond; and it is upon its value in determining the metre, quite as
much as its antiquarian interest, that I should base a justification of
this reprint. Take, for instance, such a line as the eleventh of Comus,
which Prof. Masson gives as:--
Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats.
A reader not learned in Miltonic rhythms will certainly read this
Amongst th' enthroned gods
But the 1645 edition reads:
Amongst the enthron'd gods
and so does Milton's manuscript. Again, in line 597, Prof.
Masson reads:
It shall be in eternal restless change
Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail,
The pillared firmament is rottenness, &c.
But the 1645 text and Milton's manuscript read self-consum'd; after
which word there is to be understood a metrical pause to mark the
violent transition of the thought.
Again in the second line of the Sonnet to a Nightingale Prof. Masson
has:
Warblest at eve when all the woods are still
but the early edition, which probably follows Milton's spelling though
in this case we have no manuscript to compare, reads 'Warbl'st. ' So the
original text of Samson, l. 670, has 'temper'st. '
The retention of the old system of punctuation may be less defensible,
but I have retained it because it may now and then be of use in
determining a point of syntax. The absence of a comma, for example,
after the word hearse in the 58th line of the Epitaph on the Marchioness
of Winchester, printed by Prof. Masson thus:--
And some flowers, and some bays
For thy hearse to strew thy ways,
but in the 1645 edition:--
And som Flowers, and som Bays,
For thy Hears to strew the ways,
goes to prove that for here must be taken as 'fore.
Of the Paradise Lost there were two editions issued during Milton's
lifetime, and while the first has been taken as our text, all the
variants in the second, not being simple misprints, have been recorded
in the notes. In one respect, however, in the distribution of the poem
into twelve books instead of ten, it has seemed best, for the sake of
practical convenience, to follow the second edition. A word may be
allowed here on the famous correction among the Errata prefixed to the
first edition: 'Lib.
SAMSON AGONISTES
Of that sort of Dramatic Poem which is call'd Tragedy.
The Argument.
APPENDIX.
ON TIME
PREFACE by the Rev. H. C. Beeching, M. A.
This edition of Milton's Poetry is a reprint, as careful as Editor and
Printers have been able to make it, from the earliest printed copies of
the several poems. First the 1645 volume of the Minor Poems has been
printed entire; then follow in order the poems added in the reissue of
1673; the Paradise Lost, from the edition of 1667; and the Paradise
Regain'd and Samson Agonistes from the edition of 1671.
The most interesting portion of the book must be reckoned the first
section of it, which reproduces for the first time the scarce small
octavo of 1645. The only reprint of the Minor Poems in the old
spelling, so far as I know, is the one edited by Mitford, but that
followed the edition of 1673, which is comparatively uninteresting since
it could not have had Milton's oversight as it passed through the press.
We know that it was set up from a copy of the 1645 edition, because it
reproduces some pointless eccentricities such as the varying form of the
chorus to Psalm cxxxvi; but while it corrects the errata tabulated in
that edition it commits many more blunders of its own. It is valuable,
however, as the editio princeps of ten of the sonnets and it contains
one important alteration in the Ode on the Nativity. This and all other
alterations will be found noted where they occur. I have not thought it
necessary to note mere differences of spelling between the two editions
but a word may find place here upon their general character. Generally
it may be said that, where the two editions differ, the later spelling
is that now in use. Thus words like goddess, darkness, usually written
in the first edition with one final s, have two, while on the other
hand words like vernall, youthfull, and monosyllables like hugg, farr,
lose their double letter. Many monosyllables, e. g. som, cours, glimps,
wher, vers, aw, els, don, ey, ly, so written in 1645, take on in 1673 an
e mute, while words like harpe, windes, onely, lose it. By a reciprocal
change ayr and cipress become air and cypress; and the vowels in daign,
vail, neer, beleeve, sheild, boosom, eeven, battail, travailer, and many
other words are similarly modernized. On the other hand there are a few
cases where the 1645 edition exhibits the spelling which has succeeded
in fixing itself, as travail (1673, travel) in the sense of labour; and
rob'd, profane, human, flood and bloody, forest, triple, alas, huddling,
are found where the 1673 edition has roab'd, prophane, humane, floud and
bloudy, forrest, tripple, alass and hudling. Indeed the spelling in
this later edition is not untouched by seventeenth century
inconsistency. It retains here and there forms like shameles, cateres,
(where 1645 reads cateress), and occasionally reverts to the
older-fashioned spelling of monosyllables without the mute e. In the
Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester, it reads--' And som flowers
and some bays. ' But undoubtedly the impression on the whole is of a
much more modern text.
In the matter of small or capital letters I have followed the old copy,
except in one or two places where a personification seemed not plainly
enough marked to a modern reader without a capital. Thus in Il
Penseroso, l. 49, I print Leasure, although both editions read leasure;
and in the Vacation Exercise, l. 71, Times for times. Also where the
employment or omission of a capital is plainly due to misprinting, as
too frequently in the 1673 edition, I silently make the correction.
Examples are, notes for Notes in Sonnet xvii. l. 13; Anointed for
anointed in Psalm ii. l. 12.
In regard to punctuation I have followed the old printers except in
obvious misprints, and followed them also, as far as possible, in their
distribution of roman and italic type and in the grouping of words and
lines in the various titles. To follow them exactly was impossible, as
the books are so very different in size.
At this point the candid reader may perhaps ask what advantage is gained
by presenting these poems to modern readers in the dress of a bygone
age. If the question were put to me I should probably evade it by
pointing out that Mr. Frowde is issuing an edition based upon this, in
which the spelling is frankly that of to-day. But if the question were
pressed, I think a sufficient answer might be found. To begin with, I
should point out that even Prof. Masson, who in his excellent edition
argues the point and decides in favour of modern spelling, allows that
there are peculiarities of Milton's spelling which are really
significant, and ought therefore to be noted or preserved. But who is
to determine exactly which words are spelt according to the poet's own
instructions, and which according to the printer's whim? It is
notorious that in Paradise Lost some words were spelt upon a deliberate
system, and it may very well happen that in the volume of minor poems
which the poet saw through the press in 1645, there were spellings no
less systematic. Prof. Masson makes a great point of the fact that
Milton's own spelling, exhibited in the autograph manuscript of some of
the minor poems preserved in Trinity College, Cambridge, does not
correspond with that of the printed copy. [Note: This manuscript,
invaluable to all students of Milton, has lately been facsimiled under
the superintendence of Dr. Aldis Wright, and published at the Cambridge
University press]. This is certainly true, as the reader may see for
himself by comparing the passage from the manuscript given in the
appendix with the corresponding place in the text. Milton's own
spelling revels in redundant e's, while the printer of the 1645 book is
very sparing of them. But in cases where the spelling affects the
metre, we find that the printed text and Milton's manuscript closely
correspond; and it is upon its value in determining the metre, quite as
much as its antiquarian interest, that I should base a justification of
this reprint. Take, for instance, such a line as the eleventh of Comus,
which Prof. Masson gives as:--
Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats.
A reader not learned in Miltonic rhythms will certainly read this
Amongst th' enthroned gods
But the 1645 edition reads:
Amongst the enthron'd gods
and so does Milton's manuscript. Again, in line 597, Prof.
Masson reads:
It shall be in eternal restless change
Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail,
The pillared firmament is rottenness, &c.
But the 1645 text and Milton's manuscript read self-consum'd; after
which word there is to be understood a metrical pause to mark the
violent transition of the thought.
Again in the second line of the Sonnet to a Nightingale Prof. Masson
has:
Warblest at eve when all the woods are still
but the early edition, which probably follows Milton's spelling though
in this case we have no manuscript to compare, reads 'Warbl'st. ' So the
original text of Samson, l. 670, has 'temper'st. '
The retention of the old system of punctuation may be less defensible,
but I have retained it because it may now and then be of use in
determining a point of syntax. The absence of a comma, for example,
after the word hearse in the 58th line of the Epitaph on the Marchioness
of Winchester, printed by Prof. Masson thus:--
And some flowers, and some bays
For thy hearse to strew thy ways,
but in the 1645 edition:--
And som Flowers, and som Bays,
For thy Hears to strew the ways,
goes to prove that for here must be taken as 'fore.
Of the Paradise Lost there were two editions issued during Milton's
lifetime, and while the first has been taken as our text, all the
variants in the second, not being simple misprints, have been recorded
in the notes. In one respect, however, in the distribution of the poem
into twelve books instead of ten, it has seemed best, for the sake of
practical convenience, to follow the second edition. A word may be
allowed here on the famous correction among the Errata prefixed to the
first edition: 'Lib. 2. v. 414, for we read wee. ' This correction
shows not only that Milton had theories about spelling, but also that he
found means, though his sight was gone, to ascertain whether his rules
had been carried out by his printer; and in itself this fact justifies a
facsimile reprint. What the principle in the use of the double vowel
exactly was (and it is found to affect the other monosyllabic pronouns)
it is not so easy to discover, though roughly it is clear the
reduplication was intended to mark emphasis. For example, in the speech
of the Divine Son after the battle in heaven (vi. 810-817) the pronouns
which the voice would naturally emphasize are spelt with the double
vowel:
Stand onely and behold
Gods indignation on these Godless pourd
By mee; not you but mee they have despis'd,
Yet envied; against mee is all thir rage,
Because the Father, t'whom in Heav'n supream
Kingdom and Power and Glorie appertains,
Hath honourd me according to his will.
Therefore to mee thir doom he hath assign'd.
In the Son's speech offering himself as Redeemer (iii. 227-249) where
the pronoun all through is markedly emphasized, it is printed mee the
first four times, and afterwards me; but it is noticeable that these
first four times the emphatic word does not stand in the stressed place
of the verse, so that a careless reader might not emphasize it, unless
his attention were specially led by some such sign:
Behold mee then, mee for him, life for life
I offer, on mee let thine anger fall;
Account mee man.
In the Hymn of Creation (v. 160-209) where ye occurs fourteen times, the
emphasis and the metric stress six times out of seven coincide, and the
pronoun is spelt yee; where it is unemphatic, and in an unstressed
place, it is spelt ye. Two lines are especially instructive:
Speak yee who best can tell, ye Sons of light (l. 160);
and
Fountains and yee, that warble, as ye flow,
Melodious murmurs, warbling tune his praise (l. 195).
In v. 694 it marks, as the voice by its emphasis would mark in
reading, a change of subject:
So spake the false Arch-Angel, and infus'd
Bad influence into th' unwarie brest
Of his Associate; hee (i. e. the associate) together calls,
&c.
An examination of other passages, where there is no antithesis, goes to
show that the lengthened form of the pronoun is most frequent before a
pause (as vii. 95); or at the end of a line (i. 245, 257); or when a
foot is inverted (v. 133); or when as object it precedes its verb (v.
612; vii. 747), or as subject follows it (ix. 1109; x. 4). But as we
might expect under circumstances where a purist could not correct his
own proofs, there are not a few inconsistencies. There does not seem,
for example, any special emphasis in the second wee of the following
passage:
Freely we serve.
Because wee freely love, as in our will
To love or not; in this we stand or fall (v. 538).
On the other hand, in the passage (iii. 41) in which the poet
speaks of his own blindness:
Thus with the Year
Seasons return, but not to me returns
Day, &c.
where, if anywhere, we should expect mee, we do not find it, though it
occurs in the speech eight lines below. It should be added that this
differentiation of the pronouns is not found in any printed poem of
Milton's before Paradise Lost, nor is it found in the Cambridge
autograph. In that manuscript the constant forms are me, wee, yee.
There is one place where there is a difference in the spelling of she,
and it is just possible that this may not be due to accident. In the
first verse of the song in Arcades, the MS. reads:
This, this is shee;
and in the third verse:
This, this is she alone.
This use of the double vowel is found a few times in Paradise Regain'd:
in ii. 259 and iv. 486, 497 where mee begins a line, and in iv. 638
where hee is specially emphatic in the concluding lines of the poem. In
Samson Agonistes it is more frequent (e. g. lines 124, 178, 193, 220,
252, 290, 1125). Another word the spelling of which in Paradise Lost
will be observed to vary is the pronoun their, which is spelt sometimes
thir. The spelling in the Cambridge manuscript is uniformly thire,
except once when it is thir; and where their once occurs in the writing
of an amanuensis the e is struck through. That the difference is not
merely a printer's device to accommodate his line may be seen by a
comparison of lines 358 and 363 in the First Book, where the shorter
word comes in the shorter line. It is probable that the lighter form
of the word was intended to be used when it was quite unemphatic.
Contrast, for example, in Book iii. l. 59: His own works and their works
at once to view with line 113: Thir maker and thir making and thir Fate.
But the use is not consistent, and the form thir is not found at all
till the 349th line of the First Book. The distinction is kept up in
the Paradise Regain'd and Samson Agonistes, but, if possible, with even
less consistency. Such passages, however, as Paradise Regain'd, iii.
414-440; Samson Agonistes, 880-890, are certainly spelt upon a method,
and it is noticeable that in the choruses the lighter form is universal.
Paradise Regain'd and Samson Agonistes were published in 1671, and no
further edition was called for in the remaining three years of the
poet's lifetime, so that in the case of these poems there are no new
readings to record; and the texts were so carefully revised, that only
one fault (Paradise Regain'd, ii. 309) was left for correction later.
In these and the other poems I have corrected the misprints catalogued
in the tables of Errata, and I have silently corrected any other unless
it might be mistaken for a various reading, when I have called attention
to it in a note. Thus I have not recorded such blunders as Lethian for
Lesbian in the 1645 text of Lycidas, line 63; or hallow for hollow in
Paradise Lost, vi. 484; but I have noted content for concent, in At a
Solemn Musick, line 6.
In conclusion I have to offer my sincere thanks to all who have
collaborated with me in preparing this Edition; to the Delegates of the
Oxford Press for allowing me to undertake it and decorate it with so
many facsimiles; to the Controller of the Press for his unfailing
courtesy; to the printers and printer's reader for their care and pains.
Coming nearer home I cannot but acknowledge the help I have received in
looking over proof-sheets from my sister, Mrs. P. A. Barnett, who has
ungrudgingly put at the service of this book both time and eyesight. In
taking leave of it, I may be permitted to say that it has cost more of
both these inestimable treasures than I had anticipated. The last proof
reaches me just a year after the first, and the progress of the work has
not in the interval been interrupted. In tenui labor et tenuis gloria.
Nevertheless I cannot be sorry it was undertaken.
H. C. B.
YATTENDON RECTORY,
November 8, 1899.
Transcriber's note: Facsimile of Title page of 1645 edition
follows:
POEMS
OF
Mr John Milton,
BOTH
ENGLISH and LATIN
Compos'd at several times.
------------------------------
Printed by his true copies.
------------------------------
The SONGS were set in Musick by
Mr. HENRY LAWES Gentleman of
the KINGS Chappel, and one
of His MAIESTIES
Private Musick.
--------Baccare frontem
Cingite, ne vace noceat mala lingua futuro,
Virgil, Eclog. 7.
-----------------------------------------
Printed, and Publish'd according to
ORDER.
-----------------------------------------
LONDON,
Printed by Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Moseley,
and are to be sold at the signe of the Princes
Arms in S. Pauls Church-yard. 1645.
Transcriber's note: Facsimile of Title page of 1673 edition
follows:
POEMS, &c.
UPON
Several Occasions.
--------------------------
BY
Mr. John Milton:
--------------------------
Both ENGLISH and LATIN &c.
Composed at several times.
--------------------------
With a small tractate of
EDUCATION
To Mr. HARTLIB
--------------------------
--------------------------
LONDON.
Printed for Tho. Dring at the Blew Anchor
next Mitre Court over against Fetter
Lane in Fleet-street. 1673.
THE STATIONER TO THE READER.
It is not any Private respect of gain, Gentle Reader, for the slightest
Pamphlet is now adayes more vendible then the Works of learnedest men;
but it is the love I have to our own Language that hath made me diligent
to collect, and set forth such Peeces in Prose and Vers as may renew the
wonted honour and esteem of our tongue: and it's the worth of these both
English and Latin poems, not the flourish of any prefixed encomions that
can invite thee to buy them, though these are not without the highest
Commendations and Applause of the learnedst Academicks, both domestic
and forrein: And amongst those of our own Countrey, the unparalleled
attestation of that renowned Provost of Eaton, Sir Henry Wootton: I know
not thy palat how it relishes such dainties, nor how harmonious thy
soul is; perhaps more trivial Airs may please thee better. But
howsoever thy opinion is spent upon these, that incouragement I have
already received from the most ingenious men in their clear and
courteous entertainment of Mr. Wallers late choice Peeces, hath once
more made me adventure into the World, presenting it with these
ever-green, and not to be blasted Laurels. The Authors more peculiar
excellency in these studies, was too well known to conceal his Papers,
or to keep me from attempting to sollicit them from him. Let the event
guide it self which way it will, I shall deserve of the age, by bringing
into the Light as true a Birth, as the Muses have brought forth since
our famous Spencer wrote; whose Poems in these English ones are as
rarely imitated, as sweetly excell'd. Reader, if thou art Eagle-eied to
censure their worth, I am not fearful to expose them to thy exactest
perusal.
Thine to Command
HUMPH. MOSELEY.
MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
ON THE MORNING OF CHRISTS NATIVITY.
Compos'd 1629.
I
This is the Month, and this the happy morn
Wherin the Son of Heav'ns eternal King,
Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring;
For so the holy sages once did sing,
That he our deadly forfeit should release,
And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.
II
That glorious Form, that Light unsufferable,
And that far-beaming blaze of Majesty,
Wherwith he wont at Heav'ns high Councel-Table, 10
To sit the midst of Trinal Unity,
He laid aside; and here with us to be,
Forsook the Courts of everlasting Day,
And chose with us a darksom House of mortal Clay.
III
Say Heav'nly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein
Afford a present to the Infant God?
Hast thou no vers, no hymn, or solemn strein,
To welcom him to this his new abode,
Now while the Heav'n by the Suns team untrod,
Hath took no print of the approching light, 20
And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright?
IV
See how from far upon the Eastern rode
The Star-led Wisards haste with odours sweet,
O run, prevent them with thy humble ode,
And lay it lowly at his blessed feet;
Have thou the honour first, thy Lord to greet,
And joyn thy voice unto the Angel Quire,
From out his secret Altar toucht with hallow'd fire.
The Hymn.
I
IT was the Winter wilde,
While the Heav'n-born-childe, 30
All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies;
Nature in aw to him
Had doff't her gawdy trim,
With her great Master so to sympathize:
It was no season then for her
To wanton with the Sun her lusty Paramour.
II
Only with speeches fair
She woo'd the gentle Air
To hide her guilty front with innocent Snow,
And on her naked shame, 40
Pollute with sinfull blame,
The Saintly Vail of Maiden white to throw,
Confounded, that her Makers eyes
Should look so near upon her foul deformities.
III
But he her fears to cease,
Sent down the meek-eyd Peace,
She crown'd with Olive green, came softly sliding
Down through the turning sphear
His ready Harbinger,
With Turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing, 50
And waving wide her mirtle wand,
She strikes a universall Peace through Sea and Land.
IV
No War, or Battails sound
Was heard the World around,
The idle spear and shield were high up hung;
The hooked Chariot stood
Unstain'd with hostile blood,
The Trumpet spake not to the armed throng,
And Kings sate still with awfull eye,
As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by. 60
V
But peacefull was the night
Wherin the Prince of light
His raign of peace upon the earth began:
The Windes with wonder whist,
Smoothly the waters kist,
Whispering new joyes to the milde Ocean,
Who now hath quite forgot to rave,
While Birds of Calm sit brooding on the charmed wave.
VI
The Stars with deep amaze
Stand fit in steadfast gaze, 70
Bending one way their pretious influence,
And will not take their flight,
For all the morning light,
Or Lucifer that often warned them thence;
But in their glimmering Orbs did glow,
Until their Lord himself bespake, and bid them go.
VII
And though the shady gloom
Had given day her room,
The Sun himself with-held his wonted speed,
And hid his head for shame, 80
As his inferior flame,
The new enlightened world no more should need;
He saw a greater Sun appear
Then his bright Throne, or burning Axletree could bear.
VIII
The Shepherds on the Lawn,
Or ere the point of dawn,
Sate simply chatting in a rustic row;
Full little thought they than,
That the mighty Pan
Was kindly com to live with them below; 90
Perhaps their loves, or els their sheep,
Was all that did their silly thoughts so busie keep.
IX
When such Musick sweet
Their hearts and ears did greet,
As never was by mortal finger strook,
Divinely-warbled voice
Answering the stringed noise,
As all their souls in blisfull rapture took:
The Air such pleasure loth to lose,
With thousand echo's still prolongs each heav'nly close. 100
X
Nature that heard such sound
Beneath the hollow round
of Cynthia's seat the Airy region thrilling,
Now was almost won
To think her part was don
And that her raign had here its last fulfilling;
She knew such harmony alone
Could hold all Heav'n and Earth in happier union.
XI
At last surrounds their sight
A globe of circular light, 110
That with long beams the shame faced night arrayed
The helmed Cherubim
And sworded Seraphim,
Are seen in glittering ranks with wings displaid,
Harping in loud and solemn quire,
With unexpressive notes to Heav'ns new-born Heir.
XII
Such Musick (as 'tis said)
Before was never made,
But when of old the sons of morning sung,
While the Creator Great
His constellations set, 120
And the well-ballanc't world on hinges hung,
And cast the dark foundations deep,
And bid the weltring waves their oozy channel keep.
XIII
Ring out ye Crystall sphears,
Once bless our human ears,
(If ye have power to touch our senses so)
And let your silver chime
Move in melodious time;
And let the Base of Heav'ns deep Organ blow, 130
And with your ninefold harmony
Make up full consort to th'Angelike symphony.
XIV
For if such holy Song
Enwrap our fancy long,
Time will run back, and fetch the age of gold,
And speckl'd vanity
Will sicken soon and die,
And leprous sin will melt from earthly mould,
And Hell it self will pass away
And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day. 140
XV
Yea Truth, and Justice then
Will down return to men,
Th'enameld Arras of the Rain-bow wearing,
And Mercy set between
Thron'd in Celestiall sheen,
With radiant feet the tissued clouds down stearing,
And Heav'n as at som festivall,
Will open wide the gates of her high Palace Hall.
XVI
But wisest Fate sayes no,
This must not yet be so, 150
The Babe lies yet in smiling Infancy,
That on the bitter cross
Must redeem our loss;
So both himself and us to glorifie:
Yet first to those ychain'd in sleep,
The Wakeful trump of doom must thunder through the deep,
XVII
With such a horrid clang
As on Mount Sinai rang
While the red fire, and smouldring clouds out brake:
The aged Earth agast 160
With terrour of that blast,
Shall from the surface to the center shake;
When at the worlds last session,
The dreadfull Judge in middle Air shall spread his throne.
XVIII
And then at last our bliss
Full and perfect is,
But now begins; for from this happy day
Th'old Dragon under ground
In straiter limits bound,
Not half so far casts his usurped sway, 170
And wrath to see his Kingdom fail,
Swindges the scaly Horrour of his foulded tail.
