song or lyric that is, a poem meant to be sung. In those days most gentlemen, especially the Cavaliers, could play the lute or some other instrument, and many songs were made either to old tunes or to new ones. Some of these songs were religious, others were love-songs, others were patriotic. The patriotic songs were of course of two kinds-those of the Cavaliers sang of love for their king; those of the Roundheads told of love for their country and their country's laws. 3. The most noted and perhaps the sweetest writer of the religious lyric was "holy GEORGE HERBERT," as he is often called. He was rector of Bemerton, near Salisbury; and there one may still see the little church, opposite to which stood his house, and where every day he read service. A calm and happy life was led by the rector, his wife who worked nearly as hard as her husband for the parish-and their three orphan nieces. But the happiness lasted only three years; for the good rector was consumptive, and little by little he had to lay aside his work and prepare for death. Most of them 4. Some of his songs are very beautiful. were written to the music of the lute; for Herbert was a good musician, and was very fond of music. Henry Vaughan and others wrote religious verses, some almost as fine as Herbert's. 5. Other poets, like the Cavalier RICHARD LOVELACE and SIR JOHN SUCKLING, wrote songs of love and of war. In one about going to the wars, Lovelace shows that Cavaliers would forsake all for their king; and he pleads forgiveness for leaving his lady, saying "I could not love you, dear, so much, Loved I not honour more,' lines which are very well known. The Cavaliers, too, laughed at poverty and hardships suffered in the cause of the king. writes thus: "We do not suffer here alone Though we are beggared, so 's the king; "Tis sin to have wealth when he has none-- One Another, after describing a scanty dinner set before a band of hungry troopers, writes merrily, "We have not still the same: sometimes we may Ending thus, "In the abundance of this want, you will 6. Another sweet singer was a Royalist clergyman named ROBERT HERRICK. He lost his living when the Commonwealth came into power. His songs are about beautiful women, children, flowers, and such subjects. The best known are called, To Daffodils, Gather the Rosebuds, Twelfth Night, and Cherry Ripe. 7. Most of the men on the side of the Parliament were less given to music and verse-making than the Cavaliers. Their feeling showed itself rather on the battle-field. One of their song-writers was honest, manly GEORGE WITHER, who, when the war began, gave up his estate and his profession as a lawyer and raised a troop for the Parliament. Here are some verses that express his fearlessness : "I care not though to all men known it were I care for no more time than will amount Another of Wither's songs, which is still sometimes sung, is It begins, "Shall I, wasting in despair, Die because a woman's fair? Or make pale my cheeks with care (853) 5 CHAPTER XIII. A PURITAN POET. 1. The most beautiful songs of either Cavalier or Roundhead pale before the glorious poem of a Puritan poet-JOHN MILTON, who in his old age, blindness, and poverty, wrote the grandest English epic poem, Paradise Lost. What is an epic poem? Well, I shall explain that afterwards; but you will first want to hear a little of the early life and work of the poet. Like the first great English poet-Chaucer-John Milton was a Londoner. He was born in Cheapside near the end of the year 1608. His boyhood was spent in a quiet, happy home. The father, a stanch Protestant, gained his living by writing or copying deeds—perhaps was a kind of lawyer. His wife was a delicate, gentle, and refined woman. There were two other children —a girl some years older than John, and a younger brother. It was probably a very musical household: for the father not only played and sang, but composed part songs; and the poet-son shows a great love for music in many of his poems. 2. From the age of twelve to sixteen Milton went to school at St. Paul's the school founded by good John Colet, with the figure of the child Jesus above the door. The boy was very fond of his teacher there, and also of another master, Thomas Young, who had taught him until he went to school. Partly because of that, partly because he loved learning for its own sake, he studied very busily, often sitting up till late at night over his books; which is always unwise, and which very likely helped to bring on his blindness. But he was a happy school-boy, though a busy one. His great school friend was an Italian boy, the son of a Protestant doctor who had to leave Italy because of his religion. When he was fifteen, Milton wrote a translation of a psalm, the version most of us know— "Let us, with a gladsome mind, Praise the Lord, for he is kind." He also wrote a few Latin poems at school. He was always fond of reading poetry, one of his favourite books being the "poets' poem," Spenser's Faerie Queene. 3. At sixteen Milton went to Cambridge, where you may still see the mulberry tree beneath which he is said to have often read. For four years he was at college, studying Greek and Latin, French, Italian, and Hebrew. He knew then that he had the gift of writing poetry, and he meant to be a poet, though his father had intended him to be a clergyman; but before writing much, he resolved to prepare himself for good work in every possible way. He did not write much at college, but what he did write was full of promise. One poem was written to comfort his sister on the death of her first little baby-assuring her that the fairest flower would bloom for her in God's garden, and bidding her "Think what a present thou to God hast sent, And render him with patience what he lent." 4 Another poem, written during Milton's college life, was the Hymn on the Morning of Christ's Nativity. Looking out on a dark Christmas morning on the snow-covered earth and on the sky, where the stars were still shining, Milton seems to have thought of the star of Bethlehem and the wise men whom it guided to Christ's manger-cradle, and he asks himself— "Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain To welcome Him to this His new abode?" And so he writes his hymn as a humble offering to greet his Lord. Another poem, written soon afterwards, is all about music, and shows that sin is the harsh noise that spoils the music of nature and mankind. 5. Milton had resolved not to be a clergyman, giving as his reason that under the tyranny of the king and his minister Laud1 a clergyman was but their slave; and Milton felt he could not take the oath binding himself to obey their commands. 6. He had been at college seven years, and now left to go to his father's country house at Horton, in Buckinghamshire. There he spent five years more, still preparing himself for his work as a poet-reading, studying, and now and then writing. He wrote a Latin poem to his father full of gratitude for all the care he had taken with his education, and for the wise advice he had given him. 7. While Milton was at Horton he wrote three very beautiful poems-L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, and Lycidas; also two masksArcades and Comus. The two first are companion pieces, showing the two moods or sides of man's nature—the merry mood, and the thoughtful or pensive mood. You know that allegro time in music is bright, cheerful. Both sides are necessary to the complete man or woman. We should soon tire of a person who is always merry, and just as soon of one who is always serious. We like best people who can be merry at one time and serious at another. Though most people have more of the one quality than the other in their nature, yet a few are quite evenly balanced, with just the right amount both of joyfulness and thoughtfulness. 1 Laud, William, Archbishop of Canterbury. Born 1573; died 1645. |