Lie scatter'd on the Alpine mountains cold; Ev'n them who kept thy truth fo pure of old, When all our fathers worshipt ftocks and ftones, Forget not in thy book record their groans 5 Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold Slain by the bloody Piemontefe that roll'd Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans The vales redoubled to the hills, and they 9 To Heav'n. Their martyr'd blood and ashes fow O'er all th' Italian fields, where ftill doth fway 2. Lie fcatter'd on the Alpine mountains cold.] From Fairfax's Tasso, C. xiii. 60. Into the valleys greene Diftill'd from tops of ALPINE MOUNTAINS COLD. 3. Ev'n them who kept thy truth fo pure of old, When all our fathers worshipt frocks and fiones ] It is pretended that when the church of Rome became corrupt, they preferved the primitive apoftolical chriftianity: and that they have manufcripts against the papal Antichrift and Purgatory, as old as 1120. See their Hiftory by Paul Perrin, Genev. 1619. Their poverty, and feclufion from the rest of the world for fo many ages, contributed in great measure to this fimplicity of worship. In his pamphlet, "The likelieft means to remove HIRELINGS out " of churches," against endowing churches with tythes, our author frequently refers to the happy poverty and purity of the Waldenfes. And he quotes Peter Gilles, and "an antient Tractate inferted in the Bohemian hiftory." This pamphlet was written after our Sonnet, in 1659. See PROSE-WORKS, vol. i. 568.574. That roll'd Mother with infant down the rocks. -] There is a print of this piece of cruelty in Moreland. He relates, that " a mother was hurled "down a mighty rock, with a little infant in her arms; and three "days after, was found dead with the little childe alive, but faft clafped between the arms of the dead mother which were cold and ftiffe, infomuch that those who found them had much ado to get "the young childe out," p. 363. The The triple Tyrant; that from these may grow XIX. On his BLINDNESS *. When I confider how my light is spent My true account, left he returning chide; 5 "Either man's work or his own gifts; who best "Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best: his state Aubrey fays that Milton's father could read without fpectacles at eighty-four: but that his mother used them foon after she was thirty. MS. Muf. ASHMOL. ut infr. 7. "Doth God exact day-labour, light deny'd ?" Here is a pun on the doctrine in the gospel, that we are to work only while it is light, and in the night no man can work. There is an ambiguity between the natural light of the day, and the author's blindnefs. I have introduced the turned commas, both in the question and answer, not from any authority, but because they seem abfolutely neceffary to the fenfe. 9. From this ninth verfe to the end of this Sonnet, is a speech of PATIENCE, here perfonified. Dr. J. WARTON. "Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed, They also serve who only stand and wait." XX. To Mr. LAWRENCE. Lawrence, of virtuous father virtuous fon, 12. Thousands at his bidding Speed, And poft o'er land and ocean without reft; They also ferve who only stand and wait.] Compare Spenser, in the HYMNE OF HEAVENLY LOVE, ft. x. Of the angels. There they in their trinall triplicities It is the fame conception in PARAD. L. B. iv. 677. Millions of fpiritual creatures walk the earth Unfeen, both when we wake, and when we sleep, &c. See alfo on the DEATH OF A FAIR INFANT, V. 59. We have POST in PARAD. L. B. iv. 171. With a vengeance fent From Media POST to Egypt. 1. Lawrence, of virtuous father virtuous fou, &c.] Of the virtuous son nothing has tranfpired. The virtuous father Henry Lawrence, was member for Hertfordshire in the Little Parliament which began in 1653, and was active in fettling the protectorate of Cromwell. In confequence of his fervices, he was made Prefident of Cromwell's Council; where he appears to have figned many fevere and arbitrary decrees, not only against the royalifts, but the Brownifts, fifthmonarchy-men, and other fectarists. He continued high in favour with Richard Cromwell. As innovation is progreffive, perhaps the fon, Milton's friend, was an independent and a still warmer republican. The family appears to have been feated not far from Milton's neighbourhood in Buckinghamshire: for Henry Lawrence's near_re lation, Where shall we fometimes meet, and by the fire Help waste a fullen day, what may be won From the hard feafon gaining? Time will run. On smoother, till Favonius re-inspire 5 lation, William Lawrence a writer, and appointed a Judge in Scot land by Cromwell, and in 1631 a gentleman commoner of Trinity college Oxford, died at Belfont near Staines in Middlesex, in 1682. Hence fays Milton, v. 2. Now that the fields are dank, and ways are mire, Where fhall we fometimes meet, &c. This Sonnet does not appear in the edition 1645. 3. And by the fire Help waste a fullen day, &c.] He has fentiments of much the fame caft in the EPITAPH. DAMON. v. 45. Quis me lenire docebit Mordaces curas, quis longam fallere noctem See alfo Drayton's ODES, vol. iv. 1343. 6. They may become John Hewes's lyre, Till Favonius re-inspire, &c.] Favonius had before been rendered familiar in English poetry for Zephyr, by the following beautiful paffage in Jonson's MASQUES, vol. vi. 24. As if Favonius, father of the Spring, Who in the verdant meads doth reign fole king, With purple-fwelling nectar: and had let The sweet and fruitful dew fall on the ground To force out all the flowers that may be found, &c. The gaudy peacock boasts not in his train So many lights and fhadows, nor the rain- But the whole is from Claudian's Zephyr, Rapt. PROSERP. L. ii. 73. Compellat Zephyrum. Pater o gratiffime Veris, Z z Non The frozen earth, and clothe in fresh attire The lilly' and rose, that neither fow'd nor spun. What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice, Of Attic taste, with wine, whence we may rife To hear the lute well touch'd, or artful voice Warble immortal notes and Tufcan air? He who of those delights can judge, and spare To interpose them oft, is not unwise. XXI. To CYRIAC SKINNER *. Cyriac, whofe grandfire on the royal bench Non tales volucer pandit Junonius alas, Compare Beaumont's BOSWORTH-FIELD, edit. 1629. p. 12. Again, Poems, ibid. p. 131. And like FAVONIUS gives a gentle blast. 13. The close of this Sonnet is perfectly in the ftyle of Horace and and the Grecian lyrics. As is that of the following to Cyriac Skinner. * Cyriac Skinner was one of the principal members of Harrington's political club. Wood fays, that he was " an ingenious young 66 gentleman, and scholar to John Milton, which Skinner fometimes "held the chair." ATH. OXON. ii. 591. I find one Cyriac Skinner, I know not if the fame, a member of Trinity college Oxford in 1640. In 1659-60, Milton published "A Ready and eafy way to establish a "free |