by John Milton
6 Phaeton, hurled into the river Eridanus for endangering earth when he drove the chariot of the sun.
7 the Old Man of the sea.
8 a mountain in Thrace. The Ceraunian Mountains (l. 31) were in Epirus.
9 See Fair Infant, n. 7.
10 Venus, known as Lucifer when the morning star and as Hesperus when the evening star.
11 the moon.
12 the northwest wind.
13 the northeast wind.
14 a tribe of Scythia.
15 Neptune, whose waves beat upon Pelorus, the northeastern promontory of Sicily.
16 the merman Triton.
17 a giant with a hundred arms. The Balearic Islands lie in the western Mediterranean Sea off Spain.
18 Narcissus was changed into a flower when he died for love of his own reflection.
19 For Hyacinthus (beloved of Apollo), see Fair Infant, 25-27; for Adonis (beloved of Venus), see El. 1, n. 7.
20 This was also the prediction of Hakewell. Compare 2 Peter iii. 10: “the day of the Lord will come … in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” See PL XII, 547-51.
De Idea Platonica quemadmodum Aristoteles intellexit1
Dicite, sacrorum præsides nemorum deæ,2
Tuque O noveni perbeata numinis
Memoria mater, quæque in immenso procul
Antro recumbis otiosa Æternitas,
5
Monumenta servans, et ratas leges Jovis,
Cælique fastos atque ephemeridas Deûm,
Quis ille primus cujus ex imagine
Natura sollers finxit humanum genus,
Æternus, incorruptus, æquævus polo,
10
Unusque et universus, exemplar Dei?
Haud ille Palladis gemellus innubæ
Interna proles insidet menti Jovis;3
Sed quamlibet natura sit communior,
Tamen seorsùs extat ad morem unius,
15
Et, mira, certo stringitur spatio loci;
Seu sempiternus ille syderum comes
Cæli pererrat ordines decemplicis,4
Citimúmve terris incolit Lunæ globum:
Sive inter animas corpus adituras sedens
20
Obliviosas torpet ad Lethes aquas:5
Sive in remotâ forte terrarum plagâ
Incedit ingens hominis archetypus gigas,
Et diis tremendus erigit celsum caput
Atlante major portitore syderum.6
25
Non cui profundum cæcitas lumen dedit
Dircæus augur7 vidit hunc alto sinu;
Non hunc silenti nocte Plëiones nepos8
Vatum sagaci præpes ostendit choro;
Non hunc sacerdos novit Assyrius, licet
30
Longos vetusti commemoret atavos Nini,9
Priscumque Belon, inclytumque Osiridem.
Non ille trino gloriosus nomine
Ter magnus Hermes10 (ut sit arcani sciens)
Talem reliquit Isidis cultoribus.
35
At tu perenne ruris Academi11 decus
(Hæc monstra si tu primus induxti scholis)
Jam jam pöetas urbis exules tuæ
Revocabis, ipse tabulator maximus,
Aut institutor ipse migrabis foras.
On the Platonic Idea as Aristotle understood it1
Say, goddesses, guardians of the sacred groves,2 / and you O Memory, most fortunate mother / of the ninefold deity, and you Eternity, / who recline at leisure in a boundless cave far away, / keeping watch over the records and unalterable laws of Jove, [5] / and the calendars of heaven as well as the daybooks of the gods, / say who was that first man from whose likeness / skillful Nature fashioned the human race, / eternal, incorruptible, coeval with the heavens, / and unique yet universal, the image of God? [10] / Certainly he is not seated, an internal offspring, / the twin of the virgin Athena, in the mind of Jove;3 / but although his nature be commonplace, / yet he exists separate unto himself by habit, / and, strange it is, is confined by regions in fixed space; [15] / or, the comrade of the imperishable stars, / he roams through the tenfold spheres4 of the sky, / or inhabits the nearest to the earth, the moon: / or perhaps he is motionless, sitting by the waters of Lethe / among the oblivious souls waiting to enter a body:5 [20] / or perhaps in a far-off region of the world / the archetype of man casually advances, a prodigious giant, / and, terrifying creature, to the gods raises his lofty head / higher than Atlas, the bearer of the stars.6 / The Dircean seer,7 to whom blindness yielded a profound light, [25] / did not discern him in his deep hiding-place; / the swift grandson of Pleione8 in the silent night did not / behold him in the wise company of prophets; / the Assyrian priest had no knowledge of him, although / he was mindful of the long ancestry of aged Ninus9 [30] / and primitive Belus, and renowned Osiris. / Even thrice-great Hermes,10 that one glorious for his triple name / (granting his esoteric knowledge), / did not bequeath the like to the worshippers of Isis. / But you, eternal glory of the Academy of the fields11 [35] / (if you first introduced these marvels into schools), / now will recall the poets, exiles of your city, / since you yourself are the greatest fabler, / or else, creator, you shall quit that state yourself.
(June 1631 ?)
* * *
1 Milton satirizes Aristotle’s criticism of Plato’s archetypal man in Metaphysics by raising unimaginative and insensible objections such as a matter-of-fact Aristotelian might do. It is evident, however, that he favors Plato’s theory of ideas (or archetypes), of which existing things are but imperfect copies. Compare the second prolusion, “On the Harmony of the Spheres.”
2 the nine Muses whose mother was Mnemosyne (Memory).
3 Pallas Athena sprang full-grown from the head of Jove.
4 in the Ptolemaic system, the ten revolving spherical transparent shells, with earth as center, in which the heavenly bodies were set.
5 Plato often referred to transmigration of souls (e.g., Phaedo, 70–72); the waters of Lethe were drunk to induce forgetfulness before reincarnation.
6 As punishment, Atlas held up the heavens with his head and hands.
7 Tiresias.
8 Hermes, god of dreams.
9 Ninus was reputedly the founder of Assyria; Belus and Osiris were principal deities of Assyria and Egypt, respectively. Isis (l. 34) was the sister and wife of Osiris.
10 the Egyptian god Thoth, identified with Hermes by the Neoplatonists. Milton uses a variant of this third name, Hermes Trismegistus. He was supposedly author of magical, astrological, and alchemical works.
11 Plato, whose Academy was in a grove near Athens. One of his reflections was that poets must be exiled from the ideal state because they corrupt men’s natures by encouragement of the lower elements of the soul at the expense of the higher (Rep., III, 395-98; X, 595-607).
On the University Carrier who sick’n’d in the time of his vacancy, being forbid to go to London, by reason of the Plague1
Here lies old Hobson, Death hath broke his girt,
And here alas, hath laid him in the dirt,
Or els the ways being foul, twenty to one,
He’s here stuck in a slough, and overthrown.
5
’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 yeers full,
Dodg’d with him, betwixt Cambridge and the Bull
And surely, Death could never have prevail’d,
10
Had not his weekly cours of carriage fail’d;
But lately finding him so long at home,
And thinking now his journeys end was come,
And that he had tane up his latest Inn,
In the kind office of a Chamberlin2
15
Shew’d him his room where be must lodge that night,
Pull’d off his Boots, and t
ook away the light:
If any ask for him, it shall be sed,
Hobson has supt, and’s newly gon to bed.
(early 1631)
* * *
1 Thomas Hobson, a coachman whose circuit lay between Cambridge and the Bull Inn in Bishopsgate Street, London, died at eighty-seven on Jan. 1, 1631, after being forced by the plague to discontinue his weekly trips. “Hobson’s choice,” a choice without an alternative, refers to his practice of requiring a customer seeking a horse to take the one nearest the door or none at all.
2 Death is represented as an attendant ushering Hobson to his room in the inn where he will perpetually sleep.
Another on the same
Here lieth one who did most truly prove
That he could never die while he could move,
So hung his destiny never to rot
While he might still jogg on, and keep his trot,
5
Made of sphear-metal,1 never to decay
Untill his revolution was at stay.
Time numbers2 motion, yet (without a crime
’Gainst old truth) motion number’d out his time;
And like an Engin mov’d with wheel and waight,
10
His principles being ceast, he ended strait.
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 hast’n’d on his term.
15
Meerly to drive the time away he sick’n’d,
Fainted, and di’d, nor would with Ale be quick’n’d;
Nay, quoth he, on his swooning bed outstretch’d,
If I may not carry, sure Ile ne’re be fetch’d,
But vow though the cross Doctors all stood hearers,
20
For one Carrier put down to make six bearers.
Ease was his chief disease, and to judge right,
He di’d for heavines that his Cart went light.
His leasure told him that his time was com,
And lack of load made his life burdensom,
25
That even to his last breath (ther be that say’t)
As he were prest to death, he cry’d more waight;3
But had his doings lasted as they were,
He had bin an immortall Carrier.
Obedient to the Moon he spent his date
30
In cours reciprocal, and had his fate
Linkt to the mutual flowing of the Seas,
Yet (strange to think) his wain4 was his increase:
His Letters are deliver’d all and gon,
Onely remains this superscription.
(early 1631)
* * *
1 the indestructible material of which heavenly bodies are made.
2 measures.
3 that is, to hasten death and end his misery. The pun with the lightness of his cart is typical of the witty opposites on which the humor of the poem is built.
4 Another involved pun: his “wain” (cart) was his “increase” (continued accumulation of years and of wealth); and his “wane” (diminishing as of the moon to which he was obedient, or ebbing of life) was his “increase” (waxing of the moon, or passing into another state).
Hobsons Epitaph1
Here Hobson lies amongst his many betters,
A man not learned, yet of many letters:2
The Schollers well can testify as much
That have receiv’d them from his pregnant pouch.
5
His carriage was well known; oft hath he gon
In Embassy ‘twixt father and the son.3
In Cambridge few (in good time be it spoken)
But well remembreth him by som good token.
From thence to London rode he day by day,
10
Till death benighting him, he lost his way.
No wonder is it, that he thus is gone,
Since most men knew he long was drawing on.
His Team was of the best, nor could he have
Bin mir’d in any ground, but in the grave:
15
And here he sticks indeed, still like to stand,
Until some Angell lend his helping hand.
So rest in peace thou ever-toyling swain,
And supream Waggoner, next to Charls-wain.4
(early 1631)
* * *
1 Milton’s authorship of this poem is not certain; see Textual Notes.
2 Hobson carried the mails, but he had no academic degrees.
3 primarily to deliver requests for money and infrequent compliances.
4 the Big Dipper, punning on his cart and his dying and ascending to the heavens.
An Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester1
This rich Marble doth enterr
The honour’d Wife of Winchester,
A Vicounts daughter, an Earls heir,
Besides what her vertues fair
5
Added to her noble birth,
More then she could own from Earth.
Summers three times eight save one
She had told, alas too soon,
After so short time of breath,
10
To house with darknes, and with death,
Yet had the number of her days
Bin as compleat as was her praise,
Nature and fate had had no strife
In giving limit to her life.
15
Her high birth, and her graces sweet
Quickly found a lover meet;
The Virgin quire for her request
The God that sits at marriage feast;2
He at their invoking came
20
But with a scarce-well-lighted flame;
And in his Garland as he stood,
Ye might discern a Cipress bud.
Once had the early Matrons run
To greet her of a lovely son,3
25
And now with second hope she goes,
And calls Lucina4 to her throws;
But whether by mischance or blame
Atropos5 for Lucina came;
And with remorsles cruelty,
30
Spoil’d at once both fruit and tree:
The haples Babe before his birth
Had burial, yet not laid in earth,
And the languisht Mothers Womb
Was not long a living Tomb.
35
So have I seen som tender slip
Sav’d with care from Winters nip,
The pride of her carnation train,
Pluck’t up by som unheedy swain,
Who onely thought to crop the flowr
40
New shot up from vernall showr;
But the fair blossom hangs the head
Side-ways as on a dying bed,
And those Pearls of dew she wears
Prove to be presaging tears
45
Which the sad morn had let fall
On her hast’ning funerall.
Gentle Lady may thy grave
Peace and quiet ever have;
After this thy travail sore
50
Sweet rest sease thee evermore,
That to give the world encrease,
Short’n’d hast thy own lives lease;
Here besides the sorrowing
That thy noble House doth bring,
55
Here be tears of perfect moan
Wept for thee in Helicon,6
And som Flowers, and som Bays,
For thy Hears to strew the ways,
Sent thee from the banks of Came,7
60
Devoted to thy vertuous name;
Whilst thou bright Saint high sit’st in glory,
Next her much like to thee in story,
That fair Syrian Shepherdess,8
Who after yeers of barrennes
65
The highly favour’d Joseph bore
To him that serv’d for her before,
And at her next birth much like thee,
Through pangs fled to felicity,
Far within the boosom bright
70
Of blazing Majesty and Light;
There with thee, new welcom Saint,
Like fortunes may her soul acquaint,
With thee there clad in radiant sheen,
No Marchioness, but now a Queen.
(Apr. 1631)
* * *
1 Jane, wife of John Paulet, the Marquis of Winchester (a Roman Catholic), died in childbirth, with her child, on Apr. 15, 1631, at the age of twenty-three. Her father was Thomas, Viscount of Rock-Savage, and through her mother, she was heir of Lord Darcy, Earl of Rivers.
2 Hymen; his “scarce-well-lighted flame” indicates brevity of marriage, and the “Cipress bud” the imminency of death. His torch was usually made from white hawthorn, signifying simultaneous joy and pain. Milton knew that the Paulets had been married in 1622, as ll. 15-23 in the manuscript version show (see Textual Notes).
3 Charles, later first Duke of Bolton, was born in 1629. The matrons of Rome held a festival called the Matralia on June 11, which celebrated childbirth.
4 goddess of childbirth.
5 the Fate who cut the thread of life.
6 the mountain haunt of the Muses. Poems were written by the students of Cambridge to accompany her hearse (ll. 55-58); among other tributes is one by Ben Jonson.
7 the river which flows by Cambridge.
8 Rachel, who died in childbirth of Benjamin; the story of her husband Jacob referred to here is found in Gen. xxix–xxxvii.
L’Allegro1
Hence loathed Melancholy
Of Cerberus,2 and blackest midnight born,
