Life Of John Milton by Richard Garnett (free children's online books TXT) 📕

      On Smoother,  Till Favonius Re-Inspire

      The Frozen Earth,  And Clothe In Fresh Attire

      The Lily And Rose,  That Neither Sowed Nor Spun.

    What Neat Repast Shall Feast Us,  Light And Choice,

      Of Attic Taste,  With Wine,  Whence We May Rise

      To Hear The Lute Well Touched,  Or Artful Voice

    Warble Immortal Notes And Tuscan Air?

      He Who Of Those Delights Can Judge,  And Spare

      To Interpose Them Oft,  Is Not Unwise."

"Thought By Thought In Heaven-Defying Minds

    As Flake By Flake Is Piled,  Till Some Great Truth

    Is Loosened,  And The Nations Echo Round."

These Lines,  Slightly Altered From Shelley,  Are More Applicable To The

Slow Growth And Sudden Apparition Of "Paradise Lost" Than To Most Of

Those Births Of Genius Whose Maturity Has Required A Long Gestation. In

Most Such Instances The Work,  However Obstructed,  Has Not Seemed Asleep.

In Milton's Case The Germ Slumbered In The Soil Seventeen Or Eighteen

Years Before The Appearance Of A Blade,  Save One Of The Minutest. After

Two Or Three Years He Ceased,  So Far As External Indications Evince,  To

Consciously Occupy Himself With The Idea Of "Paradise Lost." His Country

Might Well Claim The Best Part Of His Energies,  But Even The Intervals

Of Literary Leisure Were Given To Amesius And Wollebius Rather Than

Thamyris And Mæonides. Yet The Material Of His Immortal Poem Must Have

Gone On Accumulating,  Or Inspiration,  When It Came At Last,  Could Not So

Soon Have Been Transmuted Into Song. It Can Hardly Be Doubted That His

Cruel Affliction Was,  In Truth,  The Crowning Blessing Of His Life.

Remanded Thus To Solemn Meditation,  He Would Gradually Rise To The

Height Of His Great Argument; He Would Reflect With Alarm How Little,  In

Comparison With His Powers,  He Had Yet Done To "Sustain The Expectation

He Had Not Refused:" And He Would Come Little By Little To The Point

When He Could Unfold His Wings Upon His Own Impulse,  Instead Of Needing,

As Always Hitherto,  The Impulse Of Others. We Cannot Tell What Influence

Finally Launched This High-Piled Avalanche Of Thrice-Sifted Snow. The

Time Is Better Ascertained. Aubrey Refers It To 1658,  The Last Year Of

Oliver's Protectorate. As Cromwell's Death Virtually Closed Milton's

Official Labours,  A Genie,  Overshadowing Land And Sea,  Arose From The

Shattered Vase Of The Latin Secretaryship.

Nothing Is More Interesting Than To Observe The First Gropings Of Genius

In Pursuit Of Its Aim. Ample Insight,  As Regards Milton,  Is Afforded By

The Precious Manuscripts Given To Trinity College,  Cambridge,  By Sir

Henry Newton Puckering (We Know Not How He Got Them),  And Preserved By

The Pious Care Of Charles Mason And Sir Thomas Clarke. By The Portion Of

The Mss. Relating To Milton's Drafts Of Projected Poems,  Which Date

About 1640-1642,  We See That The Form Of His Work Was To Have Been

Dramatic,  And That,  In Respect Of Subject,  The Swift Mind Was Divided

Between Scripture And British History. No Fewer Than Ninety-Nine

Possible Themes--Sixty-One Scriptural,  And Thirty-Eight Historical Or

Legendary--Are Jotted Down By Him. Four Of These Relate To "Paradise

Lost." Among The Most Remarkable Of The Other Subjects Are "Sodom" (The

Plan Is Detailed At Considerable Length,  And,  Though Evidently

Impracticable,  Is Interesting As A Counterpart Of "Comus"),  "Samson

Marrying," "Ahab," "John The Baptist," "Christus Patiens," "Vortigern,"

"Alfred The Great," "Harold," "Athirco" (A Very Striking Subject From A

Scotch Legend),  And "Macbeth," Where Duncan's Ghost Was To Have Appeared

Instead Of Banquo's,  And Seemingly Taken A Share In The Action.

"Arthur," So Much In His Mind When He Wrote The "Epitaphium Damonis,"

Does Not Appear At All. Two Of The Drafts Of "Paradise Lost" Are Mere

Lists Of _Dramatis Personæ_,  But The Others Indicate The Shape Which The

Conception Had Then Assumed In Milton's Mind As The Nucleus Of A

Religious Drama On The Pattern Of The Mediæval Mystery Or Miracle Play.

Could He Have Had Any Vague Knowledge Of The Autos Of Calderon? In The

Second And More Complete Draft Gabriel Speaks The Prologue. Lucifer

Bemoans His Fall And Altercates With The Chorus Of Angels. Eve's

Temptation Apparently Takes Place Off The Stage,  An Arrangement Which

Milton Would Probably Have Reconsidered. The Plan Would Have Given Scope

For Much Splendid Poetry,  Especially Where,  Before Adam's Expulsion,

"The Angel Causes To Pass Before His Eyes A Masque Of All The Evils Of

This Life And World," A Conception Traceable In The Eleventh Book Of

"Paradise Lost." But It Is Grievously Cramped In Comparison With The

Freedom Of The Epic,  As Milton Must Soon Have Discovered. That He Worked

Upon It Appears From The Extremely Interesting Fact,  Preserved By

Phillips,  That Satan's Address To The Sun Is Part Of A Dramatic Speech

Which,  According To Milton's Plan In 1642 Or 1643,  Would Have Formed The

Exordium Of His Tragedy. Of The Literary Sources Which May Have

Originated Or Enriched The Conception Of "Paradise Lost" In Milton's

Mind We Shall Speak Hereafter. It Must Suffice For The Present To Remark

That His Purpose Had From The First Been Didactic. This Is Particularly

Visible In The Notes Of Alternative Subjects In His Manuscripts,  Many Of

Which Palpably Allude To The Ecclesiastical And Political Incidents Of

His Time,  While One Is Strikingly Prophetic Of His Own Defence Of The

Execution Of Charles I. "The Contention Between The Father Of Zimri And

Eleazar Whether He Ought To Have Slain His Son Without Law; Next The

Ambassadors Of The Moabites Expostulating About Cosbi,  A Stranger And A

Noblewoman,  Slain By Phineas. It May Be Argued About Reformation And

Punishment Illegal,  And,  As It Were,  By Tumult. After All Arguments

Driven Home,  Then The Word Of The Lord May Be Brought,  Acquitting And

Approving Phineas." It Was His Earnest Aim At All Events To Compose

Something "Doctrinal And Exemplary To A Nation." "Whatsoever," He Says

In 1641,  "Whatsoever In Religion Is Holy And Sublime,  In Virtue Amiable

Or Grave,  Whatsoever Hath Passion Or Admiration In All The Changes Of

That Which Is Called Fortune From Without,  Or The Wily Subtleties And

Refluxes Of Man's Thoughts From Within--All These Things With A Solid

And Treatable Smoothness To Paint Out And Describe; Teaching Over The

Whole Book Of Sanctity And Virtue,  Through All The Instances Of Example,

With Much Delight,  To Those Especially Of Soft And Delicious Temper Who

Will Not So Much As Look Upon Truth Herself Unless They See Her

Elegantly Drest,  That,  Whereas The Paths Of Honesty And Good Life Appear

More Rugged And Difficult,  Though They Be Indeed Easy And Pleasant,

They Would Then Appear To All Men Easy And Pleasant Though They Were

Rugged And Difficult In Deed." An Easier Task Than That Of "Justifying

The Wa

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E From Milton's

Standard,  For They Had Never Attained To It; They Did Not Accept The

Turpitudes Of The New Government,  For They Did Not Anticipate Them. So

Far As Sentiment Inspired Them,  It Was Not Love Of License,  But

Compassion For The Misfortunes Of An Innocent Prince. Common Sense,

However,  Had Much More To Do With Prompting Their Action,  And Common

Sense Plainly Informed Them That They Had No Choice Between A Restored

King And A Military Despot. They Would Not Have Had Even That If The

Leading Military Chief Had Not Been A Man Of Homely Sense And Vulgar

Aims; Such An One As Milton Afterwards Drew In--

   "Mammon,  The Least Erected Spirit That Fell

    From Heaven,  For Even In Heaven His Looks And Thoughts

    Were Always Downward Bent,  Admiring More

    The Riches Of Heaven's Pavement,  Trodden Gold."

In The Field,  Or On The Quarter-Deck,  George Monk Was The Stout Soldier,

Acquitting Himself Of His Military Duty Most Punctually. In His

Political Conduct He Laid Himself Out For Titles And Money,  As Little Of

The Ambitious Usurper As Of The Self-Denying Patriot. Such Are They For

Whom More Generous Spirits,  Imprudently Forward In Revolutions,  Usually

Find That They Have Laboured. "Great Things," Said Edward Gibbon

Wakefield,  "Are Begun By Men With Great Souls And Little

Breeches-Pockets,  And Ended By Men With Great Breeches-Pockets And

Little Souls."

Milton Would Not Have Been Milton If He Could Have Acquiesced In An Ever

So Needful Henry Cromwell Or Charles Stuart. Never Quick To Detect The

Course Of Public Opinion,  He Was Now Still Further Disabled By His

Blindness. There Is Great Pathos In The Thought Of The Sightless Patriot

Hungering For Tidings,  "As The Red Sea For Ghosts," And Swayed Hither

And Thither By The Narratives And Comments Of Passionate Or Interested

Reporters. At Last Something Occurred Which None Could Misunderstand Or

Misrepresent. On February 11th,  About Ten At Night,  Mr. Samuel Pepys,

Being In Cheapside,  Heard "All The Bells In All The Churches A-Ringing.

But The Common Joy That Was Everywhere To Be Seen! The Number Of

Bonfires,  There Being Fourteen Between St. Dunstan's And Temple Bar,  And

At Strand Bridge I Could At One View Tell Thirty-One Fires. In King

Street,  Seven Or Eight; And All Around Burning,  Roasting,  And Drinking

For Rumps. There Being Rumps Tied Upon Sticks And Carried Up And Down.

The Butchers At The May Pole In The Strand Rang A Merry Peal With Their

Knives When They Were Going To Sacrifice Their Rump. On Ludgate Hill

There Was One Turning Of