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VI.

GIOVANE piano, e semplicetto amante
Poi che fuggir me stesso in dubbio sono,
Madonna a voi del mio cuor l'humil dono
Farò divoto; io certo a prove tante
L'hebbi fedele, intrepido, costante,

De pensieri leggiadro, accorto, e buono;
Quando rugge il gran mondo, e scocca il tuono,
S'arma di se, e d' intero diamante;

Tanto del forse, e d' invidia sicuro,

Di timori, e speranze al popol use

Quanto d'ingegno, e d'alto valor vago,

E di cetra sonora, e delle muse:

Sol troverete in tal parte men duro
Ove Amor mise l'insanabil ago.

VII.

ON HIS BEING ARRIVED TO THE AGE OF

TWENTY-THREE.1

1631.

How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,
Stol❜n on his wing my three and twentieth year!
My hasting days fly on with full career,
But my late spring no bud or blossom show'th.
Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth,
That I to manhood am arrived so near,

And inward ripeness doth much less appear,
That some more timely-happy spirits indu'th.
Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow,

It shall be still in strictest measure even
To that same lot, however mean or high,

Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven.
All is, if I have grace to use it so,

As ever in my great Task-master's eye.

This sonnet was written at Cambridge, and sent in a letter to a friend,

VIII.

WHEN THE ASSAULT WAS INTENDED TO THE CITY.1

1642.

CAPTAIN or Colonel, or Knight in arms,

Whose chance on these defenceless doors may seize,
If deed of honour did thee ever please,
Guard them, and him within protect from harms.
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'er lands and seas,
Whatever clime the sun's bright circle warms.
Lift not thy spear against the Muses' bow'r:
The great Emathian conqueror bid spare
The house of Pindarus, when temple and tow'r
Went to the ground: and the repeated air
Of sad Electra's poet 3 had the pow'r

2

To save the Athenian walls from ruin bare.

IX.

TO A VIRTUOUS YOUNG LADY.

LADY, that in the prime of earliest youth
Wisely hast shunn'd the broad way and the green,
And with those few art eminently seen,

That labour up the hill of heavenly truth,

1 Written when the King's troops had arrived at Brentford, and London expected an immediate attack.

2 Alexander. He suffered the house of Pindar alone to stand untouched; and honoured the family of the great lyric poet, while making frightful havoc of the Thebans. Milton claims the same favour from the royal forces.

3 Euripides. When Lysander had taken Athens, Plutarch tells us that,

"Some say he really did, in the Council of the Allies, propose to reduce the Athenians to slavery; and that Erianthus, a Theban officer, gave it as his opinion that the city should be levelled

* Electra.

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The better part with Mary' and with Ruth2
Chosen thou hast; and they that overween,
And at thy growing virtues fret their spleen,
No anger find in thee, but pity and ruth.
Thy care is fix'd, and zealously attends

To fill thy odorous lamp with deeds of light3
And hope that reaps not shame. Therefore be sure
Thou, when the bridegroom with his feastful friends
Passes to bliss at the mid hour of night,

Hast gain'd thy entrance, Virgin wise and pure.

X.

TO THE LADY MARGARET LEY.5

1643.

6

DAUGHTER to that good Earl, once President
Of England's Council, and her Treasury,
Who lived in both, unstain'd with gold or fee,
And left them both, more in himself content,
Till sad the breaking of that Parliament
Broke him, as that dishonest victory
At Chæronea, fatal to liberty,

Kill'd with report that old man eloquent."
Though later born than to have known the days
Wherein your father flourish'd, yet by you,
Madam, methinks I see him living yet;
So well your words his noble virtues praise,
That all both judge you to relate them true,
And to possess them, honour'd Margaret.

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XI.

ON THE DETRACTION WHICH FOLLOWED UPON MY

WRITING CERTAIN TREATISES.

1645.

A BOOK was writ of late call'd Tetrachordon,1
And woven close, both matter, form, and style;
The subject new: it walk'd the town a while,
Numb'ring good intellects; now seldom pored on.
Cries the stall-reader, Bless us! what a word on
A title-page is this! and some in file

Stand spelling false, while one might walk to Mile
End Green. Why is it harder, Sirs, than Gordon,
Colkitto, or Macdonnel, or Galasp?2

Those rugged names to our like mouths grow sleek,
That would have made Quintilian stare and gasp.
Thy age, like ours, O Soul of Sir John Cheke,3
Hated not learning worse than toad or asp,
When thou taught'st Cambridge, and king Edward
Greek.

XII.

ON THE SAME.

I DID but prompt the age to quit their clogs
By the known rules of ancient liberty,
When straight a barbarous noise environs me
Of owls and cuckoos, asses, apes, and dogs :*

1 Tetrachordon means exposition on the four chief places in Scripture which mention nullities in marriage.

2 Colkitto and Macdonnel are one and the same person, a brave officer on the royal side, an Irishman of the Antrim family, who served under Montrose. The Macdonnels of that family are styled, by way of distinction, Mac Collcittok, i.e., descendants of lame Colin. Galasp is George Gillespie, a

Scottish writer against the Independents; for whom see Milton's verses on the "Forcers of Conscience."WARTON.

3 Sir John Cheke has been already named in the notes to this volume. He was the first Professor of Greek at Cambridge, and restored the original pronunciation of it. He was tutor to Edward VI.

4 Milton's treatises were on the subject

As when those hinds that were transform'd to frogs1
Railul at Latona's twin-born progeny,

Which after held the sun and.moon in fee.
But this is got by casting pearl to hogs;
That bawl for freedom in their senseless mood,
And still revolt when truth would set them free.
Licence they mean when they cry Liberty;
For who loves that, must first be wise and good;
But from that mark how far they rove we see
For all this waste of wealth, and loss of blood."

XIII.

TO MR. H. LAWES ON THE PUBLISHING HIS AIRS.

HARRY, whose tuneful and well measured song
First taught our English music how to span
Words with just note and accent, not to scan
With Midas' ears,* committing short and long ; 5
Thy worth and skill exempts thee from the throng,
With praise enough for envy to look wan;

To after age thou shalt be writ the man,

That with smooth air couldst humour best our tongue.
Thou honour'st verse, and verse must lend her wing
To honour thee, the priest of Phoebus' quire,
That tun'st their happiest lines in hymn, or story."
Dante shall give fame leave to set thee higher
Than his Casella,7 whom he woo'd to sing
Met in the milder shades of Purgatory.

of "Divorce." The Presbyterian clergy were much (and justly) scandalized at them, and brought Milton' before the Lords for them; but they thought the subject simply speculative, and he was discharged. He thus stigmatizes the Presbyterian clergy.

1 See OVID, Met. VI. fab. iv. "Latona's progeny" were Apollo and Diana, the sun god and moon goddess.

2 A fine moral, coming, too, from a Republican poet.

3 The musician who put the music to "Comus."

4 Midas, a King of Phrygia. He decided that Pan was superior in singing

and playing on the flute to Apollo; and, to punish his stupidity, Apollo changed his ears into those of an ass.

5 A Latinism, meaning offences against quantity.-RICHARDSON.

6 The "Story of Ariadne," set by Lawes.-WARTON.

7 Amongst the souls in Purgatory, Dante recognizes his friend Casella, the musician. In the course of an affectionate conversation, Dante asks for a song to soothe him, and Casella sings, with ravishing sweetness, the poet's second Canzone. See second cant. of Dante's "Purgatorio."

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