(For what can war, but endless war ftill 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,
Το peace and truth thy glorious way haft plough'd,
And on the neck of crowned fortune proud
Haft rear'd God's trophies, and his work pursued,
While Darwen stream with blood of Scots imbrued,

5

*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 close is an anticlimax to both. After a long flow of perfpicuous and nervous language, the unexpected paufe at "Worcefter'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 his work pursued.] These admirable verses, not only to the mutilation of the integrity of the stanza, 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 ftill; peace hath her victories

10

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

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

Such are often our first thoughts in a fine paffage.

14. Of bireling wolves, whofe 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 constitution, 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 antichristian, 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 abused 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 propofed to throw the tythes of the whole kingdom into one common tock, 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 sent out to preach without ftaff 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 spirit, 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 induftrious 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 enthusiasts, 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 bishop 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 sense 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 Pifgah, where Mofes went to die, in fuli affurance of being immediately placed at the right hand of Chrift.

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'it them lower than thou did'it exalt them high,
Unfeemly falls in human eye,

Too grievous for the trefpafs or omiffion!

Oft leav'ft them to the hoftile fword

Of heathen and profane, their carcaffes

To dogs and fowls a prey, or else 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 used 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 thefe are undiminished
and unfhorn, with the jaw bone of an afs, that is his meaneft officer,
he defeats thousands of his adverfaries. But reclining his head on the
lap of flattering Prelates, while he fleeps, they cut off thefe tresses of
his Laws and Prerogatives, once his ornament and defence, delivering
him over to violent and oppreffive counsellors; who, like the Philif-
tines, extinguish the eyes of his natural difcernment, forcing him to
grind in the prison house of their infidious defigns against his power.
"Till he, knowing this prelatical rafor to have bereft him of his
"wonted might, nourish again his puiffant hair, the golden beams
"of Law and Right: and they ternly fhook, thunder with ruin
upon these his evil counsellors, but not without great affliction to
"bimfelf." PROSE-WORKS, V.
v. i. P. 75.

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

The

The drift of hollow ftates hard to be fpell'd, Then to advise how war may best upheld Move by her two main nerves, iron and gold, In all her equipage: befides to know

9

Both fpiritual pow'r and civil, what each means, What fevers each, thou haft learn'd, which few have done :

The bounds of either fword to thee we owe :
Therefore on thy firm hand religion leans
In peace, and reckons thee her eldest fon.

XVIII.

On the late maffacre in PIEMONT *. Avenge, O Lord, thy flaughter'd faints, whose bones

*In 1655, the duke of Savoy determined to compel his reformed fubjects in the Vallies of Piedmont, to embrace popery, or quit their country. All who remained and refufed to be converted, with their wives and children, fuffered a most barbarous maffacre. Those who escaped, fled into the mountains, from whence they fent agents into England to Cromwell for relief. He inftantly commanded a general faft, and promoted a national contribution in which near forty thoufand pounds were collected. The perfecution was fufpended, the duke recalled his army, and the furviving inhabitants of the Piedmontefe Vallies were reinstated in their cottages, and the peaceable exercise of their religion. On this bufinefs, there are feveral ftate-letters in Cromwell's name written by Milton. One of them is to the Duke of Savoy. See PROSE-WORKS, ii. 183. feq. Milton's mind, bufied with this affecting fubject, here broke forth in a strain of poetry, where his feelings were not fettered by ceremony or formality. The protestants availed themselves of an opportunity of expofing the horrours of popery, by publishing many fets of prints of this unparalleled fcene of religious butchery, which operated like Fox's Book OF MARTYRS. Sir William Moreland, Cromwell's agent for the Vallies of Piedmont at Geneva, published a minute account of this whole tranfaction, in "The History of the Valleys of Piemont, &c. Lond. 1658." With numerous cuts, in folio.