And in our lives and in our song
May keepe in tune with Heaven, &c. In the second draught he describes the harsh discords" of sin by a technical term in music:
By leaving out these harsh CHROMATIC
jarres
Of sin that all our music marres:
Ver. 19. As once we could, &c.
Ver. 28. To live and sing with him in endlesse morne of light.
AT A VACATION EXERCISE IN THE COLLEGE, part Latin, part English. The Latin speeches ended, the English thus began, '
HAIL, native Language, that by sinews weak Didst move my first endeavouring tongue to speak,
And mad'st imperfect words with childish trips,
Half unpronounc'd, slide through my infant-
lips,
Driving dumb Silence from the portal door,
Where he had mutely sat two years before:
Here I salute thee, and thy pardon ask,
That now I use thee in my latter task:
Small loss it is that thence can come unto thee,
I know my tongue but little grace can do thee:
Thou need'st not be ambitious to be first,
Believe me I have thither pack'd the worst:
And, if it happen as I did forecast,
The daintiest dishes shall be serv'd up last.
I pray thee then deny me not thy aid
For this same small neglect that I have made:
But haste thee straight to do me once a pleasure,
And from thy wardrobe bring thy chiefest trea-
sure,
Not those new-fangled toys, and trimming slight
Which takes our late fantastics with delight;
But cull those richest robes, and gay'st attire,
Which deepest spirits and choicest wits desire:
I have some naked thoughts that rove about,
And loudly knock to have their passage out;
And, weary of their place, do only stay,
Till thou hast deck'd them in thy best array;
That so they may, without suspect or fears,
Fly swiftly to this fair assembly's ears;
Yet I had rather, if I were to chuse,
Thy service in some graver subject use,
Such as may make thee search thy coffers round,
Before thou clothe my fancy in fit sound:
Such, where the deep transported mind may
Above the wheeling poles, and at Heaven's door
Look in, and see each blissful deity
How he before the thunderous throne doth lie,
Listening to what unshorn Apollo sings
To the touch of golden wires, while Hebe brings
Immortal nectar to her kingly sire:
Then passing through the spheres of watchful fire,
Written 1627. It is hard to say why they did not first appear in edition 1645. They were first added, but misplaced in edit. 1673. WARTON.
And misty regions of wide air next under,
And hills of snow, and lofts of piled thunder,
May tell at length how green-ey'd Neptune
In Heaven's defiance mustering all his waves;
Then sing of secret things that came to pass
When beldam Nature in her cradle was ;
And last of kings, and queens, and heroes old,
Such as the wise Demodocus once told
In solemn songs at king Alcinous' feast,
While sad Ulysses' soul, and all the rest,
Are held, with his melodious harmony,
In willing chains and sweet captivity.
But fie, my wandering Muse, how thou dost stray!
Expectance calls thee now another way;
Thou know'st it must be now thy only bent
To keep in compass of thy predicament:
Then quick about thy purpos'd business come,
That to the next I may resign my room.
Then Ens is represented as father of the Predica
ments his two sons, whereof the eldest stood for
Substance with his canons, which Ens, thus speak-,
ing, explains.
Good luck befriend thee, son; for, at thy birth,
The faery ladies danc'd upon the hearth;
Thy drowsy nurse hath sworn she did them spie
Come tripping to the room where thou didst lie,
And, sweetly singing round about thy bed,
Strew all their blessings on thy sleeping head.
She beard them give thee this, that thou shouldst
still
From eyes of mortals walk invisible:
Yet there is something that doth force my fear;
For once it was my dismal hap to hear
A Sibyl old, bow-bent with crooked age,
That far events full wisely could presage,
And in Time's long and dark prospective glass,
Foresaw what future days should bring to pass ;
"Your son," said she,(" nor can you it prevent)
Shall subject be to many an Accident.
O'er all his brethren he shall reign as king,
And those, that cannot live from him asunder,
Yet every one shall make him underling;
Ungratefully shall strive to keep him under;
In worth and excellence he shall out-go them,
Yet, being above them, he shall be below
them;
From others he shall stand in need of nothing,
Yet on his brothers shall depend for clothing.
To find a foe it shall not be his hap,
And Peace shall lull him in her flowery lap;
Yet shall he live in strife, and at his door
Devouring War shall never cease to roar ;
To harbour those that are at enmity.
Yea, it shall be his natural property
Your learned hands, can loose this Gordian
What power, what force, what mighty spell, if
The next Quantity and Quality spake in prose;
then Relation was called by his name.
RIVERS, arise; whether thou be the son
Of utmost Tweed, or Oose, or gulphy Den,
Or Trent, who like some Earth-born giant,
spreads
His thirty arms along the indented meads;
Or sullen Mole, that runneth underneath;
Or Severn swift, guilty of maiden's death;
Or rocky Avon, or of sedgy Lee,
Or coaly Tine, or ancient hallow'd Dee;
Or Humber loud, that keeps the Scythian's name;
Or Medway smooth, or royal-tower'd Thame.
[The rest was prose,]
ON THE ADMIRABLE DRAMATIC POET W.SHAKSPEARE.'
WHAT needs my Shakspeare, for his honour'd
The labour of an age in piled stones?
Or that his hallow'd reliques should be hid
Under a star-ypointing pyramid?
Dear son of memory, great heir of fame,
What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name?
Thou, in our wonder and astonishment,
Hast built thyself a live-long monument.
For whilst, to the shame of slow-endeavouring art,
Thy easy numbers flow; and that each heart
Hath, from the leaves of thy unvalued book,
Those Delphic lines with deep impression took;
Then thou our faney of itself bereaving,
Dost make us marble with too much conceiving;
And, so sepulcher'd, in such pomp dost lie,
That kings, for such a tomb, would wish to die.
UNIVERSITY CARRIER,
Who sickened in the time of his vacancy, being
forbid to go to London, by reason of the plague.
HERE lies old Hobson; Death hath broke his girt,
And here, alas! hath laid him in the dirt;
Or else the ways being foul, twenty to one,
He's here stuck in a slough, and overthrown.
'Twas such a shifter, that, if truth were known,
Death was half glad when he had got him down;
For he had, any time this ten years full,
Dodg'd with him betwixt Cambridge and The
And surely Death could never have prevail'd,
Had not his weekly course of carriage fail'd;
But lately finding him so long at home,
And thinking now his journey's end was come,
And that he had ta'en up his latest inn,
In the kind office of a chamberlin
Show'd him his room where he must lodge that
Pull'd off his boots, and took away the light:
If any ask for him, it shall be sed,
"Hobson has supt, and's newly gone to bed."
So hung his destiny, never to rot
While he might still jog on and keep his trot,
Made of sphere-metal, never to decay
Until his revolution was at stay.
Time numbers motion, yet (without a crime
'Gainst old truth) motion number'd out his time:
And, like an engine, mov'd with wheel and weight
His principles being ceas'd, he ended straight.
Rest, that gives all men life, gave him his death,
And too much breathing put him out of breath;
Nor were it contradiction to affirm,
Too long vacation hasten'd on his term.
Merely to drive the time away he sicken'd,
Fainted, and died, nor would with ale be quick-
en'd;
[stretch'd,
"Nay," quoth he, on his swooning bed out-
"If I'mayn't carry, sure I'll ne'er be fetch'd,
But vow, though the cross doctors all stood hear-
For one carrier put down to make six bearers."
Ease was his chief disease; and, to judge right,
He died for heaviness that his cart went light:
His leisure told him that his time was come,
And lack of load made his life burdensome,
That even to his last breath, (there be that say't)
"More
As he were press'd to death, he cried,
weight;"
But, had his doings lasted as they were,
He had been an immortal carrier.
Obedient to the Moon he spent his date
In course reciprocal, and had his fate
Link'd to the mutual flowing of the seas,
Yet (strange to think) his wain was his increases
His letters are deliver'd all and gone,
Only remains this superscription.
Must now be nam'd and printed heretics
By shallow Edwards and Scotch what d'ye call:
But we do hope to find out all your tricks,
Your plots and packing worse than those of
Trent,
That so the Parliament
HERE lieth one, who did most truly prove That he could never die while he could move; 'Birch, and from him doctor Newton, asserts, Peck, at that this copy of verses was written in the twenty-shops-gate-street, where his figure in fresco, with an inscription, was lately to be seen. second year of Milton's age, and printed with the Poems of Shakspeare at London in 1640. It first the end of his Memoirs of Cromwell, has printed Hobson's will, which is dated at the close of the appeared among other recommendatory verses, He died Jan. 1, 1630, while the prefixed to the folio edition of Shakspeare's year 1630. plague was in London. This piece was written plays in 1632. But without Milton's name or initials. This therefore is the first of Milton's that year. The proverb, to which Hobson's caprice, founded perhaps on good sense, gave rise, needs pieces that was published. not to be repeated.
* Hobson's inn at London was the Bull in BiVOL. VII.
THE FIFTH ODE OF HORACE,
LIB. I.
WHAT slender youth, bedew'd with liquid odours,
Courts thee on roses in some pleasant cave,
Pyrrha? For whom bind'st thou
In wreaths thy golden hair,
Plain in thy neatness? O, how oft shall he
On faith and changed gods complain, and seas
Rough with black winds, and storms
Unwonted shall admire!
Who now enjoys thee credulous, all gold,
Who always vacant, always amiable
Hopes thee, of flattering gales
Unmindful. Hapless they,
To whom thou untried seem'st fair! Me, in my vow'd
Picture, the sacred wall declares to have bung
My dank and dropping weeds
To the stern god of sea.
From GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH.
BRUTUS thus addresses DIANA in the country of LEOGECIA.
Goddess of shades, and huntress, who at will Walk's on the rowling spheres, and through the deep;
On thy third reign, the Earth, look now, and tell What land, what seat of rest, thou bidst me seek, What certain seat, where I may worship thee For aye, with temples vow'd and virgin quires.
To whom, sleeping before the altar, DIANA answers in a vision the same night.
Brutus, far to the west, in the ocean wide,
Beyond the realm of Gaul, a land there lies,
Sea-girt it lies, where giants dwelt of old;
Now void, it fits thy people: thither bend
Thy course; there shalt thou find a lasting seat;
There to thy sons another Troy shall rise,
Shall awe the world, and conquer nations bold.'
Ah Constantine, of how much ill was cause,
Not thy conversion, but those rich domains
That the first wealthy pope receiv'd of thee.
From DANTE.
Founded in chaste and humble poverty,
'Gainst them that rais'd thee dost thou lift thy
born,
Impudent whore, where hast thou plac'd thy hope?
Another Constantine comes not in haste3.
In thy adulterers, or thy ill-got wealth?
Then pass'd he to a flowery mountain green,
Which once smelt sweet, now stinks as odiously:
This was the gift, if you the truth will have,
That Constantine to good Sylvester gave.
. From Milton's Hist. Engl. Pr. W. vol. i p. 7. edit. 1698. These fragments of translation were collected from Milton's Prose-Works. 2 From Of Reformation in England. Pr. W. vol. i. p. 10.
3 From Of Reformation, &c. Pr. W. vol. i. p. 10.
4 From Of Reformation, &c. Pr. W. vol. i. p. 10.
5 From Tetrachordon, Pr. W. vol. i. 239. 6 Milton's Motto to his Areopaguca,, A speech for the liberty of unlincensed Printing, &c. Prose W. vol. i. 141.
8 From Apol. Smectymn. Pr. W. vol. i. 116.
BLESS'D is the man who hath not walk'd astray
In counsel of the wicked, and i' the way
Of sinners hath not stood, and in the seat
Of scorners hath not sat. But in the great
Jehovah's law is ever his delight,
And in his law he studies day and night.'
He shall be as a tree which planted grows
By watery-streams, and in his season knows
To yield his fruit, and his leaf shall not fall,
And what he takes in hand shall prosper all.
Not so the wicked, but as chaff which fann'd
The wind drives, so the wicked shall not stand
In judgment, or abide their trial then,
Nor sinners in the assembly of just men.
For the Lord knows the upright way of the just,
And the way of bad men to ruin must.
10 Apol. Smectymn. vol. i. p. 116. "Electra, v. 627.
12 From Apol. Smectymn. Ibid.
13 Hercul. Fur.
As thy possession I on thee bestow [sway'd, The Heathen; and, as thy conquest to be Earth's utmost bounds: them shalt thou bring full low
With iron sceptre bruis'd, and them disperse Like to a potter's vessel shiver'd so. And now be wise at length, ye kings averse,
Be taught, ye judges of the Earth; with fear Jehovah serve, and let your joy converse With trembling; kiss the Son lest he appear In anger, and ye perish in the way,
If once his wrath take fire, like fuel sere. Happy all those who have in him their stay.
I fear not, though, encamping round about, They pitch against me their pavilions. Rise, Lord; save me, my God; for thou Hast smote ere now
On the cheek-bone all my foes,
Of men abhorr'd
Hast broke the teeth. This help was from the Thy blessing on thy people flows.
PSALM IV. Aug. 10, 1653.
ANSWER me when I call,
God of my righteousness;
In straits and in distress,
Thou didst me disenthrall
And set at large; now spare,
Now pity me, and hear my earnest prayer.
Great ones, how long will ye
My glory have in scorn?
How long be thus forborn
Still to love vanity?
To love, to seek, to prize,
Thing false and vain, and nothing else but Yet know the Lord hath chose,
Chose to himself apart,
The good and meek of heart;
(For whom to choose he knows)
Jehovah from on high
Will hear my voice, what time to him I cry. Be aw'd, and do not sin;
Speak to your hearts alone,
Upon your beds, each one,
And be at peace within.
14 From Tenure of Kings, &c. Pr. W. vol. i. Offer the offerings just
Of righteousness, and in Jehovah trust.
Many there be that say,
Who yet will show us good?
Talking like this world's brood;
But, Lord, thus let me pray;
On us lift up the light,
Lift up the favour of thy countenance bright.
Into my heart more joy
And gladness thou hast put,
Than when a year of glut
Their stores doth over-cloy,
And from their plenteous grounds
With vast encrease their corn and wine abounds.
In peace at once will I
Both lay me down and sleep;
For thou alone dost keep
Me safe where'er I lie;
As in a rocky cell
Thou, Lord, alone, in safety mak'st me dwell.
PSALM V. Aug. 12, 1653.
JEHOVAH, to my words give ear,
My meditation weigh;
The voice of my complaining hear,
My King and God; for unto thee I pray. Jehovah, thou my early voice
Shalt in the morning hear:
I' the morning I to thee with choice
For all my bones, that even with anguish ake, Are troubled, yea, my soul is troubled sore, And thou, O Lord, how long? Turn, Lord;
My soul; O save me for thy goodness sake:
For in death no resemblance is of thee;
Who in the grave can celebrate thy praise?
Wearied I am with sighing out my days;
Nightly my couch I make a kind of sea;
My bed I water with my tears; mine eye
Through grief consumes, is waxen old and
dark
I' the midst of all my enemies that mark. Depart, all ye that work iniquity,
De part from me; for the voice of my weeping The Lord hath heard; the Lord hath heard my prayer;
My supplication with acceptance fair The Lord will own, and have me in his keeping. Mine enemies shall all be blank and dash'd
With much confusion; then, grown red with shame,
They shall return in haste the way they came, And in a moment shall be quite abash'd.
PSALM VII. Aug. 14, 1653.
Upon the words of Chush the Benjamite against him,
Will rank my prayers, and watch till thou appear. LORD, my God, to thee I fly;
For thou art not a God that takes
In wickedness delight;
Evil with thee no biding makes;
Fools or mad men stand not within thy sight,
All workers of iniquity
Thou hat'st; and them unblest
Thou wilt destroy that speak a lye ;
The bloody and guileful man God doth detest.
But I will, in thy mercies dear,
Thy numerous mercies, go
Into thy house; I, in thy fear,
Will towards thy holy temple worship low.
Lord, lead me in thy righteousness,
Lead me, because of those
That do observe if I transgress;
Set thy ways right before, where my step goes.
For, in his faltering mouth unstable,
No word is firm or sooth;
Their inside, troubles miserable;
An open grave their throat, their tongue they
God, find them guilty, let them fall
By their own counsels quell'd;
Push them in their rebellions all
Still on; for against thee they have rebell'd.
Then all who trust in thee, shall bring
Their joy; while thou from blame
Defend'st them, they shall ever sing
And shall triumph in thee, who love thy name.
For thou, Jehovah, wilt be found
To bless the just man still;
As with a shield, thou wilt surround
Him with thy lasting favour and good will,
PSALM VI. Aug. 13, 1653.
LORD, in thine anger do not reprehend me
Nor in thy hot displeasure me correct;
Pity me, Lord, for I am much deject,
And very weak and faint; heal and amend me:
Save me and secure me under
Thy protection while I cry ;
Lest, as a lion, (and no wonder)
He haste to tear my soul asunder,
Tearing, and no rescue nigh.
Lord, my God, if I have thought
Or done this; if wickedness
Be in my hands; if I have wrought
Ill to him that meant me peace;
Or to him have render'd less,
And not freed my foe for nought;
Let the enemy pursue my soul,
And overtake it; let him tread
My life down to the earth, and roll
In the dust my glory dead,
In the dust; and, there out-spread,
Lodge it with dishonour foul.
Rise, Jehovah, in thine ire,
Rouse thyself amidst the rage
Of my foes that urge like fire;
And wake for me, their fury asswage;
Judgment here thou didst engage
And command, which I desire.
So the assemblies of each nation
Will surround thee, seeking right;
Thence to thy glorious habitation
Return on high, and in their sight.
Jehovah judgeth most upright
All people from the world's foundation.
Judge me, Lord; be judge in this
According to my righteousness,
And the innocence which is
Upon me: cause at length to cease
Of evil men the wickedness
And their power that do amiss.
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