He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one; Exceeding wise, fair spoken, and persuading: Lofty, and sour, to them that lov'd him not; But, to those men that sought him, sweet as summer. And though he were unsatisfied in getting, (Which was a sin), yet, in bestowing, madam, He was most princely: Ever witness for him, Those twins of learning, that he rais'd in you, Ipswich, and Oxford! one of which fell with him, Unwilling to outlive the good that did it; The other, though unfinish'd, yet so famous, So excellent in art, and still so rising, That Christendom shall ever speak his virtue. His overthrow heap'd happiness upon him; For then, and not till then, he felt himself, And found the blessedness of being little: And, to add greater honours to his age Than man could give him, he died fearing God. Kath. After my death I wish no other herald, No other speaker of my living actions, To keep mine honour from corruption, But such an honest chronicler as Griffith. Whom I most hated living, thou hast made me, With thy religious truth, and modesty, Now in his ashes honour: Peace be with him!
SOLILOQUY OF HENRY IV. ON SLEEP.
How many thousand of my poorest subjects, Are at this hour asleep!-Sleep, gentle sleep, Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down, And steep my senses in forgetfulness? Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,
And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber; Than in the perfum'd chambers of the great, Under the canopies of costly state,
And lull'd with sounds of sweetest melody;
O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile,
In loathsome beds; and leav'st the kingly couch, A watch-case, or a common 'larum-bell?
Wilt thou, upon the high and giddy mast, Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains In cradle of the rude imperious surge;
And in the visitation of the winds,
Who take the ruffian billows by the top,
Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them With deaf'ning clamours in the slippery clouds, That, with the hurly, death itself awakes? Canst thou, O partial sleep! give thy repose To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude;
And in the calmest and most stillest night, With all appliances and means to boot,
Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down! Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
OVERTHROW OF THE REBEL ANGELS.
Con-tig'u-ous, adj. (L. con, tactus, see tango).
Pros'trate, adj. (L. pro, stratum).
| Ire, n. (L. ira). Per-nic'ious, adj. (L. per, nex). Verge, n. (L. vergo).
So SPAKE the Son, and into terror chang'd His countenance too severe to be beheld, And full of wrath bent on his enemies.
At once the four spread out their starry wings1 With dreadful shade contiguous, and the orbs Of his fierce chariot roll'd, as with the sound Of torrent floods, or of a numerous host. He on his impious foes right onward drove, Gloomy as night; under his burning wheels2 The steadfast empyréan shook throughout, All but the throne itself of God. Full soon Among them he arriv'd, in his right hand Grasping ten thousand thunders, which he sent Before him, such as in their souls infix'd Plagues: they, astonish'd, all resistance lost, All courage; down their idle weapons dropt; O'er shields and helms and helmed heads he rode Of thrones and mighty seraphim prostrate1 That wish'd the mountains now might be again Thrown on them as a shelter from his ire. Nor less on either side tempestuous fell His arrows, from the fourfold-visag'd four Distinct with eyes," and from the living wheels Distinct alike with multitude of eyes; One spirit in them rul'd, and every eye Glared lightning, and shot forth pernicious fire Among th' accurs'd, that wither'd all their strength, And of their wonted vigour left them drain'd, Exhausted, spiritless, afflicted, fall'n.
Yet half his strength he put not forth, but check'd His thunder in mid volley; for he meant
Not to destroy, but root them out of heaven: The overthrown he rais'd, and as a herd
1 Four, that is, the cherubic shapes,-see Ezekiel, i, 9-19, 24.
2 Burning wheels,-see Dan. vii, 9.
3 Empyrean, that is the highest heaven.
4 Prostrate, notice the accent here,-this word is usually accented on the first syllable. 5 Mountains, see Rev. vi, 16.
6 Distinct with eyes, that is, punctured, thick set, or studded with eyes.
Of goats, or timorous flock together throng'd, Drove them before him thunder-struck, pursued With terrors and with furies to the bounds And crystal wall of heav'n, which opening wide, Rolled inward, and a spacious gap disclos'd Into the wasteful deep; the monstrous sight Struck them with horror backward, but far worse Urged them behind; headlong themselves they threw Down from the verge of heav'n; eternal wrath Burnt after them to the bottomless pit.
SATAN SUMMONING THE REBEL ANGELS.
Su-pe'ri-or, adj. (L. super). Pon'der-ous, adj. (L. pondus). Cir'cum-fer-ence, n (Lcircum, fero) Sup-port', v. (L. sub, porto). Le'gion, n. (L. lego).
Per-fid'ious, adj. (I. per, fides). Abject, adj. (L. ab, jacio). Po'ten-tate, n. (L. potens). E-the'ri-al, adj. (Gr. aither). Optic, adj. (Gr. optomai).
HE scarce had ceased when the superior fiend1o Was moving tow'rd the shore: his ponderous shield, Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round,
Behind him cast; the broad circumference
Hung on his shoulders, like the moon," whose orb Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views At evening from the top of Fesolé,12 Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe. His spear to equal which the tallest pine Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast Of some great ammiral13 were but a wand- He walked with, to support uneasy steps Over the burning marle; not like those steps On heaven's15 azure: and the torrid clime Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire: Nathless16 he so endured, till on the beach Of that inflamed sea he stood, and called His legions, angel forms, who lay entranced,
7 As a herd of goats,-Our Saviour represents the wicked as goats, and the good as sheep. See Matt. xxv, 33.
8 With terrors and with furies, see Job vi. 4,-and Isaiah ii. 20.
9 Wasteful deep,-that is, desolate abyss.
10 Superior fiend,-arch-fiend; Satan.
11 Like the moon,-Milton represents the shield of Satan as large as the moon seen through a telescope, an instrument first applied to observations by Galileo, a native of Tuscany, born 1564, whom he means here by the "Tuscan artist."
visited this truly great man, Galileo, as he himself informs us.
12 Fesole, (anciently Faesulae) a city of Tuscany;-and Vald' Arno, that is vale of
the Arno,-both these places are near Pisa, the birth-place of Galileo.
13 Ammiral is a German word, and means any great ship.
14 Marle, soil;-properly a calcareous or chalky earth, much used for manure.
15 Heavens, this word must be pronounced here in two syllables.
16 Nathless, not the less, nevertheless-a Saxon word.
Thick as autumnal leaves that strows the brooks In Vallombrosa," where the Etrurian shades High overarched embower: or scattered sedge Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion armed 10
Hath vexed the Red-sea coast, whose waves o'erthrew Busiris" and his Memphian2 chivalry,
While with perfidious hatred they pursued The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld From the safe shore13 their floating carcasses And broken chariot wheels; so thick bestrewn, Abject and lost, lay these, covering the flood, Under amazement of their hideous change. He called so loud, that all the hollow deep Of Hell resounded:-
Warriors, the flower of Heaven, once yours, now lost, If such astonishment as this can seize
Eternal spirits;-or have ye chosen this place After the toil of battle to repose
Your wearied virtue.1 for the ease you find To slumber here, as in the vales of heaven? Or in this abject posture have ye sworn To adore the Conqueror? who now beholds Cherub and seraph rolling in the flood, With scattered arms and ensigns; till anon His swift pursuers from Heaven's gates discern The advantage, and, descending, tread us down Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf. Awake!-arise!--or be for ever fallen!
SATAN ENCOUNTERING SIN AND DEATH.
MILTON. THE allegory of Sin and Death, by Milton, is a paraphrase on the words of St James, i. 15. "When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."
MEANWHILE, the adversary of God and man,
Satan, with thoughts inflam'd of highest design, Puts on swift wings, and towards the gates of hell Explores his solitary flight: sometimes
8 Strow, overspread, now generally written strew.
9 Vallombrosa, that is shady vale, from the Latin vallis a valley, and umbra a shade, it is in Etruria or Tuscany.
10 Ori'on,-is a constellation represented in the figure of an armed man, and supposed to be attended with stormy weather.
11 Busiris, Milton thus styles Pharaoh (and not without authority) who perfidiously pursued the Israelites, since he had previously agreed to allow them to depart unmolested.
12 Memphian, from Memphis, an ancient city on the left side of the Nile, famous for the pyramids.
13 From the safe shore,-see Exodus xiv. 23, to the end.
14 Virtue, here means courage, strength, as virtus did in Latin.
He scours the right hand coast, sometimes the left; Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars Up to the fiery concave towering high.
As when far off at sea a fleet descried Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds Close sailing from Bengala, or the isles
Of Ternate and Tidore,' whence merchants bring Their spicy drugs; they, on the trading flood,2 Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape,
Ply stemming nightly toward the pole: so seem'd Far off the flying fiend. At last appear
Hell-bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof;
And thrice threefold the gates: three folds were brass, Three iron, three of adamantine rock
Impenetrable, impal'd with circling fire,3
Yet unconsum'd. Before the gates there sat On either side a formidable shape;
The one seem'd woman to the waist, and fair; But ended foul in many a scaly fold Voluminous and vast; a serpent arm'd With mortal sting: about her middle round A cry of hell-hounds' never-ceasing bark'd With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung A hideous peal; yet, when they list, would creep, If aught disturb'd their noise, into her womb, And kennel there; yet there still bark'd and howl'd, Within unseen. Far less abhorr'd than these Vex'd Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore: 6 Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when, cali'd In secret, riding through the air she comes, Lur'd with the smell of infant blood, to dance With Lapland witches, while the labouring moon Eclipses at their charms. The other shape, If shape it might be call'd that shape had none Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb; Or substance might be call'd that shadow seem'd, For each seem'd either: black it stood as night, Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as hell,
And shook a dreadful dart; what seem'd his head, The likeness of a kingly crown had on. Satan was now at hand, and from his seat
The monster moving onward came as fast
With horrid strides; hell trembled as he strode.
The undaunted fiend what this might be admir'd,
1 Ternate and Tidore; two of the Molucca islands, famed for their spices.
2 Trading flood; the sea where the trade-winds blow.
3 Impal'd with circling fire; inclosed, paled in.
4 A cry of hell-hounds; a pack of hell-hounds.
5 When they list; when they chose.
6 Trinacrian shore; Sicily; so called from its three promontories, in the form of a triangle.
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