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

    This I Have Lost,  And That I Must Lament

    For Ever. In My Attributes I Stood

    So High And So Heroically Great,

    In Lineage So Supreme,  And With A Genius

    Which Penetrated With A Glance The World

    Beneath My Feet,  That,  Won By My High Merit,

    A King--Whom I May Call The King Of Kings,

    Because All Others Tremble In Their Pride

    Before The Terrors Of His Countenance--

    In His High Palace,  Roofed With Brightest Gems

    Of Living Light--Call Them The Stars Of Heaven--

    Named Me His Counsellor. But The High Praise

    Stung Me With Pride And Envy,  And I Rose

    In Mighty Competition,  To Ascend

    His Seat,  And Place My Foot Triumphantly

    Upon His Subject Thrones. Chastised,  I Know

    The Depth To Which Ambition Falls. For Mad

    Was The Attempt; And Yet More Mad Were Now

    Repentance Of The Irrevocable Deed.

    Therefore I Chose This Ruin With The Glory

    Of Not To Be Subdued,  Before The Shame

    Of Reconciling Me With Him Who Reigns

    By Coward Cession. Nor Was I Alone,

    Nor Am I Now,  Nor Shall I Be,  Alone.

    And There Was Hope,  And There May Still Be Hope;

    For Many Suffrages Among His Vassals

    Hailed Me Their Lord And King,  And Many Still

    Are Mine,  And Many More Perchance Shall Be."

A Striking Proof That Resemblance Does Not Necessarily Imply Plagiarism.

Milton's Affinity To Calderon Has Been Overlooked By His Commentators;

But Four Luminaries Have Been Named From Which He Is Alleged To Have

Drawn,  However Sparingly,  In His Golden Urn--Caedmon,  The Adamus Exul Of

Grotius,  The Adamo Of The Italian Dramatist Andreini,  And The Lucifer Of

The Dutch Poet Vondel. Caedmon,  First Printed In 1655,  It Is But Barely

Possible That He Should Have Known,  And Ere He Could Have Known Him The

Conception Of "Paradise Lost" Was Firmly Implanted In His Mind. External

Evidence Proves His Acquaintance With Grotius,  Internal Evidence His

Knowledge Of Andreini: And Small As Are His Direct Obligations To The

Italian Drama,  We Can Easily Believe With Hayley That "His Fancy Caught

Fire From That Spirited,  Though Irregular And Fantastic Composition."

Vondel's Lucifer--Whose Subject Is Not The Fall Of Adam,  But The Fall Of

Satan--Was Acted And Published In 1654,  When Milton Is Known To Have

Been Studying Dutch,  But When The Plan Of "Paradise Lost" Must Have Been

Substantially Formed. There Can,  Nevertheless,  Be No Question Of The

Frequent Verbal Correspondences,  Not Merely Between Vondel's Lucifer And

"Paradise Lost," But Between His Samson And "Samson Agonistes." Milton's

Indebtedness,  So Long Ago As 1829,  Attracted The Attention Of An English

Poet Of Genius,  Thomas Lovell Beddoes,  Who Pointed Out That His

Lightning-Speech,  "Better To Reign In Hell Than Serve In Heaven," Was A

Thunderbolt Condensed From A Brace Of Vondel's Clumsy Alexandrines,

Which Beddoes Renders Thus:--

   "And Rather The First Prince At An Inferior Court

    Than In The Blessed Light The Second Or Still Less."

Mr. Gosse Followed Up The Inquiry,  Which Eventually Became The Subject

Of A Monograph By Mr. George Edmundson ("Milton And Vondel," 1885). That

Milton Should Have Had,  As He Must Have Had,  Vondel's Works Translated

Aloud To Him,  Is A Most Interesting Proof,  Alike Of His Ardour In The

Enrichment Of His Own Mind,  And Of His Esteem For The Dutch Poet.

Although,  However,  His Obligations To Predecessors Are Not To Be

Overlooked,  They Are In General Only For The Most Obvious Ideas And

Expressions,  Lying Right In The Path Of Any Poet Treating The Subject.

_Je L'aurais Bien Pris Sans Toi._ When,  As In The Instance Above Quoted,

He Borrows Anything More Recondite,  He So Exalts And Transforms It That

It Passes From The Original Author To Him Like An Angel The Former Has

Entertained Unawares. This May Not Entirely Apply To The Italian

Reformer,  Bernardino Ochino,  To Whom,  Rather Than To Tasso,  Milton Seems

Indebted For The Conception Of His Diabolical Council. Ochino,  In Many

Respects A Kindred Spirit To Milton,  Must Have Been Well Known To Him As

The First Who Had Dared To Ventilate The Perilous Question Of The

Lawfulness Of Polygamy. In Ochino's "Divine Tragedy," Which He May Have

Read Either In The Latin Original Or In The Nervous Translation Of

Bishop Poynet,  Milton Would Find A Hint For His Infernal Senate. "The

Introduction To The First Dialogue," Says Ochino's Biographer Benrath,

"Is Highly Dramatic,  And Reminds Us Of Job And Faust." Ochino's

Arch-Fiend,  Like Milton's,  Announces A Masterstroke Of Genius. "God Sent

His Son Into The World,  And I Will Send My Son." Antichrist Accordingly

Comes To Light In The Shape Of The Pope,  And Works Infinite Havoc Until

Henry Viii. Is Divinely Commissioned For His Discomfiture. It Is A

Token,  Not Only Of Milton's,  But Of Vondel's,  Indebtedness,  That,  With

Ochino As With Them,  Beelzebub Holds The Second Place In The Council,

And Even Admonishes His Leader. "I Fear Me," He Remarks,  "Lest When

Antichrist Shall Die,  And Come Down Hither To Hell,  That As He Passeth

Us In Wickedness,  So He Will Be Above Us In Dignity." Prescience Worthy

Of Him Who

                         "In His Rising Seemed

    A Pillar Of State; Deep On His Front Engraven

    Deliberation Sat,  And Public Care;

    And Princely Counsel In His Face Yet Shone."

Milton's Borrowings,  Nevertheless,  Nowise Impair His Greatness. The

Obligation Is Rather Theirs,  Of Whose Stores He Has Condescended To

Avail Himself. He May Be Compared To His Native Country,  Which,  Fertile

Originally In Little But Enterprise,  Has Made The Riches Of The Earth

Her Own. He Has Given Her A National Epic,  Inferior To No Other,  And

Unlike Most Others,  Founded On No Merely Local Circumstance,  But Such As

Must Find Access To Every Nation Acquainted With The Most

Widely-Circulated Book In The World. He Has Further Enriched His Native

Literature With An Imperishable Monument Of Majestic Diction,  An Example

Potent To Counteract That Wasting Agency Of Familiar Usage By Which

Language Is Reduced To Vulgarity,  As Sea-Water Wears Cliffs To Shingle.

He Has Reconciled,  As No Other Poet Has Ever Done,  The Hellenic Spirit

With The Hebraic,  The Bible With The Renaissance. And,  Finally,  As We

Began By Saying,  His Poem Is The Mighty Bridge--

    "Bound With Gorgonian Rigour Not To Move,"

Across Which The Spirit Of Ancient Poetry Has Travelled To Modern Times,

And By Which The Continuity Of Great English Literature Has Remained

Unbroken.

In Recording The Publication Of "Paradise Lost" In 1667,  We Have Passed

Over The Interval Of Milton's Life Immediately Subsequent To The

Completion Of The Poem In 1663. The First Incident Of Any Importance Is

His Migration To Chalfont St. Giles,  Near Beaconsfield,  In

Buckinghamshire,  About July,  1665,  To Escape The Plague Then Devastating

London. Ell Wood,  Whose Family Lived In The Neighbourhood Of Chalfont,

Had At His Request Taken For Him "A Pretty Box" In That Village; And We

Are,  Says Professor Masson,  "To Imagine Milton's House In Artillery Walk

Shuttered Up,  And A Coach And A Large Waggon Brought To The Door,  And

The Blind Man Helped In,  And The Wife And The Three Daughters Following,

With A Servant To Look After The Books And Other Things They Have Taken

With Them,  And The Whole Party Driven Away Towards Giles-Chalfont."

According To The Same Authority,  Chalfont Well Deserves The Name Of

Sleepy Hollow,  Lying At The Bottom Of A Leafy Dell. Milton's Cottage,

Alone Of His Residences,  Still Exists,  Though Divided Into Two

Tenements. It Is A Two-Storey Dwelling,  With A Garden,  Is Built Of

Brick,  With Wooden Beams,  Musters Nine Rooms--Though A Question Arises

Whether Some Of Them Ought Not Rather To Be Described As Closets; The

Porch In Which Milton May Have Breathed The Summer Air Is Gone,  But The

Parlour Retains The Latticed Casement At Which He Sat,  Though Through It

He Could Not See. His Infirmity Rendered The Confined Situation Less Of

A Drawback,  And There Are Abundance Of Pleasant Lanes,  Along Which He

Could Be Conducted In His Sightless Strolls:--

   "As One Who Long In Populous City Pent,

    Where Houses Thick And Sewers Annoy The Air,

    Forth Issuing On A Summer's Morn To Breathe

    Among The Pleasant Villages And Farms

    Adjoined,  From Each New Thing Conceives Delight,

    The Smell Of Grain,  Or Tedded Grass,  Or Kine,

    Or Dairy,  Each Rural Sight,  Each Rural Sound."

Milton Was Probably No Stranger To The Neighbourhood,  Having Lived

Within Thirteen Miles Of It When He Dwelt At Horton. Ellwood Could Not

Welcome Him On His Arrival,  Being In Prison On Account Of An Affray At

What Should Have Been The Paragon Of Decorous Solemnities--A Quaker

Funeral. When Released,  About The End Of August Or The Beginning Of

September,  He Waited Upon Milton,  Who,  "After Some Discourses,  Called

For A Manuscript Of His; Which He Delivered To Me,  Bidding Me Take It

Home With Me And Read It At My Leisure. When I Set Myself To Read It,  I

Found It Was That Excellent Poem Which He Entitled 'Paradise Lost.'"

Professor Masson Justly Remarks That Milton Would Not Have Trusted The

Worthy Quaker Adolescent With The Only Copy Of His Epic; We May Be Sure,

Therefore,  That Other Copies Existed,  And That The Poem Was At This

Date Virtually Completed And Ready For Press. When The Manuscript Was

Returned,  Ellwood,  After "Modestly,  But Freely,  Imparting His Judgment,"

Observed,  "Thou Hast Said Much Here Of Paradise Lost,  But What Hast Thou

To Say Of Paradise Found? He Made No Answer,  But Sat Some Time In A

Muse; Then Brake Off That Discourse,  And Fell On Another Subject." The

Plague Was Then At Its Height,  And Did Not