3. royal bones: comp. King John, v. 7. 68, and Richard's famous soliloquy on the uncertainty of the kingly state, Rich. 11. iii. 2. 5. had realms. Here the relative is omitted, and in the next line who' may be taken as 'and they.' The omission of the relative shows the attributive force of the clause, and this use of 'who' is common: see Abbott, §§ 244, 263. 9. acre. So Longfellow says of the burial-ground, "This is the field and Acre of our God, This is the place where human harvests grow." Comp. the term 'God's acre,' applied to a burial-ground (Ger. Gottesacker). 10. royallest seed. For example, the chapel of Henry VII. in Westminster Abbey contains the tombs of that king and of his queen and mother, of Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary, James I. and his queen, Charles II., William and Mary, Queen Anne, etc. 12. for, because of: see Abbott, § 150. 13. bones of birth; bones of the great. 'Birth,' = high birth; comp. certain uses of 'family,' 'descent,' etc., and K. John II. i. 430, 66 a match of birth." 15. sands. An incorrect reading is 'wands.' 17. world of pomp, etc. Comp. 3 Hen. VI. v. 2, "Why, what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust? can, yet die we must." And, live we how we 18. once dead, dead once for all: see Abbott, § 57. Comp. 1. 3 of No. VIII. No. VII. THE LAST CONQUEROR. THIS poem on the might of death is from Cupid and Death, a masque which appeared in a small volume published in 1653. Nothing is more remarkable in the literature of the early part of the seventeenth century than the delightful songs scattered throughout the plays of that period; take, for example, Nos. vII., VIII., XVIII., etc. in this book. Of Shirley's songs, Mr. Saintsbury says: "Every one knows 'The glories of our blood and state,' but this is by no means his only good song; it worthily closes the list of the kind-a kind which, when brought together and perused separately, exhibits, perhaps, as well as anything else of equal compass, the extraordinary abundance of poetical spirit in the age. For songs like these are not to be hammered out by the most diligent ingenuity, not to be spun by the light of the most assiduously fed lamp. The wind of such inspiration blows where, and only where, it listeth." It has been said of Shirley (15961666) that he brought sweet echoes of the grand Elizabethan music into the playhouse of the time of Charles I. 3. bind-in, enclose: comp. Rich. II. ii. 1, "bound in with the triumphant sea"; also 2 Hen. VI. iii. 2. 5. As night or day. Comp. No. LXV., 1. 18, "half of the globe is thine." 7. forgotten ashes: comp. Rich. II. i. 2, "Pale ashes of the house of Lancaster "; also Gen. xviii. 27. 8. ye here used as object. In the Elizabethan dramatists there is a very loose use of the two forms, ye and you; see Abbott, § 236, and note, No. II., 1. 7. common men. Comp. Hen. V. iv. 7, "Sort our nobles from our common men." In the year 1411 we find a comun man distinguished from a high official: see also the New English Dictionary for illustrations. 12. Nor ... confined: 'nor is he confined to these alone'; for death comes to men in many other ways. Comp. B. and F.'s Custom of Courts, ii. 2, "Death hath so many doors to let out life." 14. More quaint, more fine or delicate. See notes, Hymn Nat. 194; Lycidas, 139; L'All. 5. 15. will use... Shall have. Will here denotes choice or purpose (Abbott, § 316): shall denotes inevitable result (Abbott, §§ 315, 317). With the whole poem compare the dirge in Ford's Broken Heart: "Crowns may flourish and decay, Lie down in a bed of dust. Earthly honours flow and waste, Time alone doth change and last," etc. No. VIII. DEATH THE LEVELLER. THIS piece forms the song of Calchas in Shirley's Contention of Ajax and Ulysses, iii. (printed, 1659), 'sung before the body of Ajax as going to the Temple.' See Homer's Odyssey, xi. This song is said to have been a favourite with Charles II. 1. blood, lineage. A common reading is 'birth.' Comp. Tr. and Cress. iii. 3, "a prince of blood, a son of Priam." 4. icy hand on kings. Comp. Ovid, Am. iii. 9. 19: also Horace, Odes, i. 4. 12, pallida mors, etc. 8. scythe and spade. Emblems of humble life, as in Swift's lines: "Here nature never difference made, 9. reap comp. Rev. xiv. 15; Par. Lost, ii. 339. 11. strong nerves. Comp. Macb. iii. 4, "My firm nerves shall never tremble"; also our use of to nerve to strengthen, nerveless weak, etc. The Greek neuron = a sinew; comp. sinews of war' (called by Milton in his Sonnet, xvii., "nerves of war.") 12. They tame, etc., after all they merely overcome one another': they cannot conquer death. 13. Early or late, sooner or later. 17. In this stanza the poet passes with striking effect to the form of direct address. garlands, the victor's wreath. But see Trench's Select Glossary on the use of garland in the technical sense of royal crown or diadem,' as in 2 Hen. VI. iv. 4. 19. purple altar. The colour is here associated with regal or military state (as in Par. Lost, xi. 240); or it may denote 'bloodstained,' as in Dryden's "Tiber rolling with a purple flood": see Marsh's Lect. on Eng. Lang. iii. 20. victor-victim. The two parts of this beautiful compound word are not cognate. Milton has 'victor' in this attributive sense; comp. Par. Lost, vi. 525, 590. Compare "the vanquished victor" of No. LXVII., 1. 97. 24. Smell sweet, etc. Comp. Habington's To Castara, "Fame will build columns on our tomb, And add a perfume to our dust"; also, from the same poet, "The bad man's death is horror, but the just keeps something of his glory in his dust." No. IX. WHEN THE ASSAULT WAS INTENDED TO THE CITY. THE title is Milton's own. This sonnet is inspired by his high conception of the poet's task, and of the power that lies in the name of a great poet to avert disaster and to requite those who M honour the Muses. It was written in November, 1642. The battle of Edgehill was fought in October of that year, and the royal army then marched to attack London. This was the 'assault' expected, and Milton, having been an active pamphleteer on the side of the Parliament, might naturally have feared that his house would not escape the Royalists if they succeeded in entering the city. The 'assault' never took place, for the royal army retreated when the parliamentary army, under the Earl of Essex, moved out to meet it. 1. Colonel is here a trisyllable, though usually a dissyllable. It is from the Ital. Colonello, the leader of the little column (i.e. at the head of a regiment). It has no connection with Lat. corona, a crown. (Skeat.) Knight in Arms, a title conferred on persons of high rank as a recognition of military prowess. See Shak. Rich. II. i. 3. 2. Whose chance. This is a peculiar construction, which may be resolved into whose lot it may be to seize.' It implies doubt, not that the house will be seized, but as to the particular officer that may seize it. these defenceless doors. The word 'these' is used because the sonnet was written as if to be affixed to the door of Milton's house; it would thus be a mute appeal to the besiegers. 3. ever, at any time, on any occasion. 4. him within, etc., 'protect from injury him that is within.’ 5. He can requite thee, i.e. the poet can reward you by rendering you famous "in his immortal verse.' Comp. Shakespeare's Son. 81— " "Your monument shall be my gentle verse." 'Requite' is literally the same as 'repay,' from re and quit = freed or discharged. charms, magic verses: comp. Il Pens. 83 and note. 6. call, 'bring down or bestow fame on such honourable acts as these,' viz., guarding the poet's house and protecting him. 8. Whatever clime. These words are in apposition to 'lands and seas.' Clime' (comp. Com. 977) is radically the same as 'climate,' and here used in its original sense = a region of the earth. 'Climate' has now the secondary sense of 'atmospheric conditions.' The meaning of the line is, 'Wherever the sun shines.' 9. the Muses' bower, poetical language for the poet's house'; comp. Lyc. 19. 10. Emathian conqueror, Alexander the Great (the Sikander of Indian history), king of Macedonia, of which Emathia was a province. bid spare: see note, Arc. 13. 11. house of Pindarus. Pindar (B.C. 522-442), the greatest lyric poet of Greece, was said to have been born at Thebes; this city had been subdued by Philip of Macedonia, the father of Alexander the Great, on whose accession the Thebans attempted to recover their liberty (B.C. 336). Alexander, to punish them, destroyed the whole city with the exception of the temples and Pindar's house. temple and tower. were not destroyed. Some legends affirm that the temples 12. repeated air, i.e. the air or chorus having been recited. The adjective here is not a mere attribute, but has the force of an adverbial clause giving the circumstances under which the event took place; the air had the power to save Athens, because it was repeated. Comp. the Latin use of participles and of clauses with qui and quippe qui in such cases. 13. sad Electra's poet, Euripides (B. C. 480-406), here called "sad Electra's poet" because in one of his tragedies he deals with the history and character of Electra, the daughter of Agamemnon, and because it was a chorus from this tragedy that moved the Spartans to spare Athens. Euripides (like Homer and Ovid) was one of Milton's favourite classical authors. The adjective'sad' is sometimes taken as qualifying 'poet,' Euripides having been of a serious and austere disposition: such an arrangement of the words would not be allowable in modern English, though there would be no ambiguity in Latin. The more obvious reading is to refer 'sad' to Electra, who, owing to the murder of her father by her mother, often bewails her sad lot. 14. To save, etc. The Spartans took Athens, B.C. 404, and deliberated as to how the city should be dealt with. It was proposed by some to destroy it utterly, but a Phocian singer having recited part of a chorus from the Electra of Euripides while the decision was still in suspense, the hearers were so moved that they agreed it would be dishonourable to destroy a city that had given birth to such great poets. Comp. Browning's Balaustion's Adventure. No. X. ON HIS BLINDNESS. THIS sonnet, probably written in 1655, is one of Milton's first references in poetry to that blindness which had gradually crept upon him since 1644, and had in 1652 blotted out his sight for He continued, in spite of his affliction, to act as Secretary ever. |
