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That labour up the hill of heav'nly truth, The better part with Mary and with Ruth Chosen thou hast; and they that overween, And at thy growing virtues fret their spleen, No anger find in thee, but pity' and ruth. Thy care is fix'd, and zealously attends

To fill thy odorous lamp with deeds of light,

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And hope that reaps not shame. Therefore be sure

Thou, when the bridegroom with his feastful friends Passes to bliss at the mid hour of night,

Hast gain'd thy entrance, Virgin wise and pure.

5. -with Mary and with Ruth] So it is in Milton's Manuscript, and in the edition of 1673. In the first edition of 1645 it was falsely printed

-with Mary and the Ruth. 6. overween,] Par. Lost, x. 878. "Him_overweening to "over-reach." See note on Comus, 309. T. Warton.

7. And at thy growing virtues] In the Manuscript it was at first,

And at thy blooming virtue or prospering,

8. but pity' and ruth] Here Ruth and ruth are made to rhyme to each other, and it may perhaps offend the niceness of modern ears that the same word should rhyme to itself though in different senses: but our old poets were not so very delicate,

and the reader may see parallel instances in Spenser's Faery Queen, b. i. cant. 6. st. 39. and b. vii. cant. 6. st. 38.

11. And hope that reaps not shame.] Ελπις ου καταισχύνει. Rom. v. 5. Hurd.

12. Thou, when the bridegroom with his feastful friends] Feastful is an epithet in Spenser. He alludes to the midnight feasting of the Jews before the consummation of marriage. T. Warton.

13. Passes to bliss at the mid hour of night,] Instead of this line he had written at first,

Opens the door of bliss that hour of

night:

but he rightly altered it, the better to accommodate it to the parable to which he is alluding. See Matt. xxv.

X.

To the Lady Margaret Ley.*

DAUGHTER to that good Earl, once President

Of England's Council, and her Treasury,
Who liv'd in both unstain'd with gold or fee,
And left them both, more in himself content,
Till sad the breaking of that Parliament
Broke him, as that dishonest victory

At Chæronea, fatal to liberty,

Kill'd with report that old man eloquent.

Though later born than to have known the days
Wherein your father flourish'd, yet by you,
Madam, methinks I see him living yet;

We have given the title which is in Milton's Manuscript, To the Lady Margaret Ley. She was the daughter of Sir James Ley, whose singular learning and abilities raised him through all the great posts of the law, till he came to be made Earl of Marlborough, and Lord High Treasurer, and Lord President of the Council to King James I. He died in an advanced age, and Milton attributes his death to the breaking of the Parliament; and it is true that the Parliament was dissolved the 10th of March, 1628-9, and he died on the 14th of the same month. He left several sons and daughters; and the Lady Margaret was married to Captain Hobson of the Isle of Wight. It appears from the accounts of Milton's life, that in the year 1643 he used frequently to visit this lady and her husband, and about that time we may sup

VOL. IV.

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pose that this Sonnet was composed.

6. as that dishonest victory &c.] This victory was gained by Philip of Macedon over the Athenians and their allies; and the news being brought to Athens, that old man eloquent, Isocrates, who was near a hundred years old, died within a few days, being determined not to survive the liberties of his country. · ετελεύτα τον βίον επι Χαιρωνίδου αρχοντος, ολίγαις ημέραις ύστερον της εν Χαιρωνεια μάχης, δυοιν δεοντα βεβιωκως έκατον ετη, γνώμη χρησάμενος, άμα τοις αγαθοις της πόλεως συγκαταλυσαι τον ἑαυτου βιον. Dionysius Halicarnass. de Isocrate, vol. ii. p. 150. edit. Hudson. Plutarch says, that he abstained from food for four days, and so put a period to his life, having lived 98, or as some say 100 years. See Plutarch's Lives of the ten Orators, vol. ii. p. 837. edit. Paris, 1624.

So well your words his noble virtues praise,
That all both judge you to relate them true,
And to possess them, honour'd Margaret.

XI.

On the detraction which followed upon my writing certain treatises.*

A BOOK was writ of late call'd Tetrachordon,
And woven close, both matter, form, and stile;
The subject new: it walk'd the town a while,
Numb'ring good intellects; now seldom por'd on.

* When Milton published his books of Divorce, he was greatly condemned by the Presbyterian clergy, whose advocate and champion he had been before. He published his Tetrachordon or Expositions upon the four chief places in Scripture, which treat of marriage or nullities in marriage, in 1645; and soon after we may suppose he composed these two Sonnets, which were first printed in the edition of 1673, and to which we have prefixed the title that he himself has in the Manuscript.

1. A book was writ of late &c.] In the Manuscript he had written at first,

I writ a book of late call'd Tetrachordon,

And weav'd in close, both matter, form, and stile;

It went off well about the town a while, Numb'ring good wits, but now is seldom por❜d on.

The reader will readily agree, that it was altered for the better.

1. A book was writ of late call'd Tetrachordon,] This elaborate discussion, unworthy in

many respects of Milton, and in which much acuteness of argument, and comprehension of reading, were idly thrown away, was received with contempt, or rather ridicule, as we learn from Howel's Letters. A better proof that it was treated with neglect is, that it was attacked by two nameless and obscure writers only; one of whom Milton calls, a Serving-man turned Solicitor! Our author's divorce was on Platonic principles. He held, that disagreement of mind was a better cause of separation than adultery or frigidity. Here was

fair opening for the laughers. For this doctrine Milton was summoned before the Lords. But they not approving his accusers, the presbyterian clergy, or thinking the business too speculative, he was quickly dismissed. On this occasion Milton commenced hostilities against the Presbyterians. He illustrates his own system in this line of Par. Lost, ix. 372.

Go, for thy stay, not free, absents thee more.

Cries the stall-reader, Bless us! what a word on
A title page is this! and some in file

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Stand spelling false, while one might walk to MileEnd Green. Why is it harder, Sirs, than Gordon, Colkitto, or Macdonnel, or Galasp?

Those rugged names to our like mouths
grow sleek,
That would have made Quintilian stare and gasp. 11
Thy age, like ours, O Soul of Sir John Cheek,

Hated not learning worse than toad or asp,
When thou taught'st Cambridge, and King Edward
Greek.

[blocks in formation]

ΟΤ

9. Colkitto, Macdonnel, Galasp?] Milton is here collecting, from his hatred to the Scots, what he thinks Scottish names of an ill sound. Colkitto and Macdonal, are one and the same person; a brave officer on the royal side, an Irish man of the Antrim family, who served under Montrose. The Macdonals of that family are styled, by way of distinction, Mac Collcittok, that is, descendants of lame Colin. Galasp is a Scottish writer against the Independents; for whom see verses on the Forcers of Conscience, &c. T. Warton.

9. or Galasp.] He is George Gilespie, one of the Scotch members of the Assembly of Divines, as his name is subscribed to their letter to the Belgic, French, and Helvetian churches, dated 1643. There are two or more Letters from Samuel Rutherford, to Gilespie, in Joshua Redivivus, quoted above. See p. ii. epist. 54, 55. p. 408. seq. p. i. epist. 114. p. 165. epist. 77. p. 122. T. Warton.

10. Those rugged names] He had written at first barbarous, and then rough hewn, and then rugged.

12. Sir John Cheek] Or Cheke. He was the first Professor of the Greek tongue in the university of Cambridge, and was highly instrumental in bringing that language into repute, and restoring the original pronunciation of it, though with great opposition from the patrons of ignorance and popery, and especially from Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, and Chancellor of the University. He was afterwards made one of the tutors to Edward VI. See his life by

XII.

On the same.

I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs
By the known rules of ancient liberty,

When strait a barbarous noise environs me
Of owls and cuckows, asses, apes, and dogs:

As when those hinds that were transform'd to frogs 5
Rail'd at Latona's twin-born progeny,

Which after held the sun and moon in fee.
But this is got by casting pearl to hogs;

That bawl for freedom in their senseless mood,

And still revolt when truth would set them free. 10 Licence they mean when they cry Liberty;

Strype, or in Biographia Britan- pectations of making a consider

nica.

13. Hated not learning worse than toad or asp,] Mr. Bowle quotes Halle, Rich. II. f. 34. "Diverse noble personages hated

Kinge Richard worse than a "toade or a serpent." T. Warton.

This Sonnet was written evidently in a sportive struggle to bend knotty words into rhyme. Symmons.

4. Of owls and cuckows,] In Milton's Manuscript it stands,

Of owls and buzzards.

5. As when those hind's &c.] The fable of the Lycian clowns changed into frogs is related by Ovid, Met. vi. Fab. 4. and the poet in saying

Which after held the sun and moon

in fee,

intimates the good hopes which he had of himself, and his ex

able figure in the world.

8. by casting pearl to hogs;] Matt. vii. 6. neither cast ye your pearls before swine.

10. And still revolt &c.] He had written at first,

And hate the truth whereby they should be free.

11. Licence they mean when they cry Liberty.] "The hypo

crisy of some shames not to "take offence at this doctrine "[the liberty of Divorce] for "Licence; whereas indeed, they "fear it would remove Licence, "and leave them but few com

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panions." Tetrachord. vol. i. 4to. p. 319. He further explains himself at the bottom of the same page: "This one virtue "incomparable it [the prohibi"tion of divorce] hath, to fill "all christendom with whore"doms and adulteries, beyond "the art of Balaams or of devils."

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