Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

And all her jealous monarchs with amaze

And rumours loud, that daunt remotest kings, Thy firm unshaken virtue ever brings

Victory home, though new rebellions raise

5

Their Hydra heads, and the false North difplays Her broken league to imp their ferpent wings.

4.

Daunt remoteft kings.] Who dreaded the example of Eng. land, that their monarchies would be turned into republics. Milton, under the EMMET, has admirably defcribed the fort of men of which a republic was to confift, PARAD. L. B. vii. 484.

[blocks in formation]

Pattern of just equality, perhaps

Hereafter, joined in her popular tribes
Of commonalty.

7. Their Hydra heads, and the falfe north displays

Her broken league to imp their serpent-wings.] Euripides, Milton's favourite, is the only writer of antiquity that has given wings to the moniter Hydra. Ios, v. 198. “ ΠΤΑΝΟΝ πυρίφλεκτον.” The word IITANON is controverted. But here perhaps is Milton's authority for the common reading.

8. -To imp their ferpent-wings.] In falconry, to imp a feather in a hawk's wing, is to add a new piece to a mutilated ftump. From the Saxon impan, to ingraft. So Spenfer, of a headlefs trunk, F. Q. iv. ix. 4.

And having YMPT the head to it agayne.

TO IMP wings is not uncommon in our old poetry. Spenfer, HYMNE OF HEAVENLY BEAUTIE.

Thence gathering plumes of perfect speculation,

To IMPE the winges of thy high flying minde.

Fletcher, PURPL. ISL. C. i. 24.

IMPING their flaggie wings

With thy ftolne plumes.

Shakespeare, RICH. ii. A. ii. S. i.

IMP out our drooping country's broken wing.

Where Mr. Steevens produces other inftances. It occurs also in poets

much later than Milton.

O yet

[ocr errors]

O yet a nobler task awaits thy hand,

9

(For what can war, but endless war still breed?) Till truth and right from violence be freed, And public faith clear'd from the shameful brand Of public fraud. In vain doth valour bleed, While avarice and rapin share the land.

XVI.

To the Lord General CROMWELL *.

Cromwell, our chief of men, who through a cloud
Not of war only, but detractions rude,
Guided by faith and matchless fortitude,

To peace and truth thy glorious way haft plough'd,
And on the neck of crowned fortune proud

5

Haft rear'd God's trophies, and his work pursued,
While Darwen stream with blood of Scots imbrued,

*The prostitution of Milton's Mufe to the celebration of Cromwell, was as inconfiftent and unworthy, as that this enemy to kings, to antient magnificence, and to all that is venerable and majestic, fhould have been buried in the Chapel of Henry the Seventh. But there is great dignity both of fentiment and expreffion in this Sonnet. Unfortunately, the clofe is an anticlimax to both. After a long flow of perfpicuous and nervous language, the unexpected pause at "Wor"cefter's laureat wreath," is very emphatical, and has a striking effect. 5. And on the neck of crowned fortune proud

Haft rear'd God's trophies, and bis werk pursued.] Thefe admirable verses, not only to the mutilation of the integrity of the flanza, but to the injury of Milton's genius, were reduced to the following meagre contraction, in the printed copies of Philips, Toland, Tonfon, Tickell, and Fenton.

And fought God's battles, and his works pursued.
Y y

And

And Dunbar field refounds thy praises loud,

And Worcester's laureat wreath. Yet much remains

To conquer still; peace hath her victories

10

No lefs renow'd than war: new foes arise Threatening to bind our fouls with fecular chains : Help us to fave free confcience from the paw Of hireling wolves, whofe gofpel is their maw.

9. And Worcester's laureat wreath.-] This hemistic originally stood, And twenty battles more.

Such are often our first thoughts in a fine paffage.

14. Of hireling wolves, whose gospel is their maw.] Hence it appears that this Sonnet was written about May, 1652.

By hireling wolves, he means the presbyterian clergy, who poffeffed the revenues of the parochial benefices on the old conftitution, and whose conformity he fuppofes to be founded altogether on motives of emolument. See Note on LYCIDAS, V. 114. There was now no end of innovation and reformation. In 1649, it was propofed in parliament to abolish Tythes, as Jewish and antichriftian, and as they were authorised only by the ceremonial law of Mofes, which was abrogated by the gofpel. But as the propofal tended to endanger layimpropriations, the notion of their DIVINE RIGHT was allowed to have fome weight, and the bufinefs was poftponed. This was an argument in which Selden had abufed his great learning. Milton's party were of opinion, that as every parifh fhould elect, fo it should refpectively fuftain, its own minifter by public contribution. Others proposed to throw the tythes of the whole kingdom into one common stock, and to diftribute them according to the fize of the parishes. Some of the Independents urged, that Chrift's minifters fhould have no fettled property at all, but be like the apostles who were fent out to preach without faff or fcrip, without common neceffaries; to whom Chrift faid, Lacked ye any thing? A fucceffion of miracles was therefore to be worked, to prevent the faints from ftarving. See Baxter's LIFE, p. 115. Kennet's CASE OF IMPROPRIATIONS, p. 268. Walker's SUFFERINGS, p. 36. Thurloe's STATE PAP. vol. ii. 687.

Milton's praise of Cromwell may be thought inconfiftent with that zeal which he profeffed for liberty: for Cromwell's affumption of the Protectorate, even if we allow the lawfulness of the Rebellion, was palpably a violent ufurpation of power over the rights of the nation, and was reprobated even by the republican party. Milton, however, in

various

XVII.

To Sir HENRY VANE the younger.

Vane, young in years, but in fage counsel old,
Than whom a better senator ne'er held

various parts of the DEFENSIO SECUNDA, gives excellent admonitions to Cromwell, and with great fpirit, freedom, and eloquence, not to abufe his new authority. Yet not without an intermixture of the groffeft adulation. I am of opinion, that he is writing a panegyric to the memory of Cromwell and his deliverance, inftead of reflecting on the recent bleffings of the restoration, in a chorus in SAMSON AGONISTES, v. 1268.

Oh how comely it is, and how reviving,

To the fpirits of JUST men LONG OPPRESS'D:
When God into the hands of their DELIVERER
Puts INVINCIBLE might

To quell the MIGHTY of the earth, th' OPPRESSOR,
The brute, and boisterous force of VIOLENT men
Hardy and industrious to fupport

TYRANNICK power, but raging to pursue

The RIGHTEOUS, and all fuch as honour TRUTH;
He all their ammunition

And feats of war defeats,

With PLAIN HEROIC MAGNITUDE OF MIND

And celeftial vigour arm'd,

Their armories and magazines contemns, &c.

1. Vane, young in years, but in fage counsel old, &c.] Sir Henry Vane the younger was the chief of the independents, and therefore Milton's friend. He was the contriver of the Solemn League and Covenant. He was an eccentric character, in an age of eccentric characters. In religion the most fantastic of all enthufiafts, and a weak writer, he was a judicious and fagacious politician. The warmth of his zeal never misled his public measures. He was a knight-errant in every thing but affairs of ftate. The fagacious bifhop Burnet in vain attempted to penetrate the darkness of his creed. He held, that the devils and the damned would be faved. He believed himself the perfon delegated by God, to reign over the faints upon earth for a thoufand years. His principles founded a fect called the VANISTS. On the whole, no fingle man ever exhibited fuch a medley of fanaticism and diffimulation, folid abilities and vifionary delufions, good fenfe and madness. In the pamphlets of that age he is called fir Humorous Vanity. He was beheaded in 1662. On the Scaffold, he compared

Y y 2

Tower

The helm of Rome, when gowns not arms re

pell'd

The fierce Epirot and the African bold,

Whether to fettle peace, or to unfold

5

Tower Hill to mount Pisgah, where Mofes went to die, in full afsurance of being immediately placed at the right hand of Christ.

Milton alludes to the execution of Vane and other regicides, after the Restoration, and in general to the fufferings of his friends on that event, in this fpeech of the Chorus on Samfon's degradation, SAMS. AGON. v. 687.

Nor only do'ft degrade them, or remit

To life obfcur'd, which were a fair difmiffion;

But throw'st them lower than thou did't exalt them high,
Unfeemly falls in human eye,

Too grievous for the trefpafs or omiffion!

Oft leav'ft them to the hostile sword

Of heathen and profane, their carcaffes

To dogs and fowls a prey, or elfe captiv'd:

Or to th' unjust tribunals, UNDER CHANGE OF TIMES,
And CONDEMNATION of th' ingrateful MULTITUDE.

He then alludes to his own fituation. See also v. 241. feq. I take this opportunity of obferving, that Milton, who envelops much of his own history and of the times in this play, has ufed the character of Samfon for another temporary allegory, in the REASON OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT, B. ii. CONCL. He fuppofes Samfon to be a king, who being difciplined in temperance grows perfect in ftrength, his illuftrious and funny locks being the Laws. While these are undiminished and unfhorn, with the jaw bone of an afs, that is his meanest officer, he defeats thousands of his adverfaries. But reclining his head on the lap of flattering Prelates, while he fleeps, they cut off thefe treffes of his Laws and Prerogatives, once his ornament and defence, delivering him over to violent and oppreffive counsellors; who, like the Philiftines, extinguish the eyes of his natural difcernment, forcing him to grind in the prifon boufe of their infidious defigns against his power. "Till he, knowing this prelatical rafor to have bereft him of his "wonted might, nourish again his puiflant hair, the golden beams "of Law and Right: and they iternly fhook, thunder with ruin upon thefe his evil counsellors, but not without great affliction to "bimself." PROSE-WORKS, V. i. p. 75.

This Sonnet feems to have been written in behalf of the independents, against the presbyterian hierarchy.

The

« AnteriorContinuar »