Was fashion'd to much honour from his cradle.
He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one;
Exceeding wise, fair spoken, and persuading :
Lofty and sour to them that loved him not;
But, to those men that sought him, sweet as summer.
And though he were unsatisfied in getting
(Which was a sin), yet, in bestowing, madam,
He was most princely: Ever witness for him,
Those twins of learning, that he raised in you,
Ipswich and Oxford! one of which fell with him,
Unwilling to outlive the good that did it;
The other, though unfinish'd, yet so famous,
So excellent in art, and still so rising,
That Christendom shall ever speak his virtue.
His overthrow heap'd happiness upon him;
For then, and not till then, he felt himself,
And found the blessedness of being little :
And, to add greater honours to his age
Than man could give him, he died fearing God.
Kath. After my death I wish no other herald,
No other speaker of my living actions,
To keep mine honour from corruption,
But such an honest chronicler as Griffith.
Whom I most hated living, thou hast made me,
With thy religious truth and modesty,
Now in his ashes honour: Peace be with him!
SOLILOQUY OF HENRY IV. ON SLEEP.
How many thousand of my poorest subjects
Are at this hour asleep! Sleep, gentle sleep!
Nature's soft nurse! how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down,
And steep my senses in forgetfulness?
Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,
Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,
And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,
Than in the perfumed chambers of the great,
Under the canopies of costly state,
And lull'd with sounds of sweetest melody?
O thou dull dog, why liest thou with the vile,
In loathsome beds, and leav'st the kingly couch,
A watch-case, or a common 'larum-bell?
Wilt thou, upon the high and giddy mast,
Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains
In cradle of the rude imperious surge;
And in the visitation of the winds,
Who take the ruffian billows by the top,
Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them
With deaf'ning clamours in the slippery clouds,
That, with the hurly, death itself awakes?—
Canst thou, O partial sleep! give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,
And in the calmest and most stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,
Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down!
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
OVERTHROW OF THE REBEL ANGELS.
Con-tig'u-ous, adj. (L. con, tactus,
Pros'trate, adj. (L. pro, stratum).
Per-nic'ious, adj. (L. per, nex).
Verge, n. (L. vergo).
So spake the Son, and into terror changed
His countenance too severe to be beheld,
And full of wrath bent on his enemies,
At once the four spread out their starry wings*
With dreadful shade contiguous, and the orbs
Of his fierce chariot roll'd, as with the sound
Of torrent floods, or of a numerous host.
He on his impious foes right onward drove,
Gloomy as night; under his burning wheelst
The steadfast empyréant shook throughout,
All but the throne itself of God. Full soon
Among them he arrived, in his right hand
Grasping ten thousand thunders, which he sent
Before him, such as in their souls infixed
Plagues; they, astonish'd, all resistance lost,
All courage; down their idle weapons dropt;
O'er shields and helms and helmed heads he rode
Of thrones and mighty seraphim prostrates
That wish'd the mountains now might be again
Thrown on them as a shelter from his ire.
Nor less on either side tempestuous fell
His arrows, from the fourfold visaged four
Distinct with eyes,¶ and from the living wheels
Distinct alike with multitude of eyes;
One spirit in them ruled, and every eye
Glared lightning, and shot forth pernicious fire
Among th' accursed, that wither'd all their strength,
And of their wonted vigour left them drain'd,
Exhausted, spiritless, afflicted, fall'n.
Yet half his strength he put not forth, but check'd
His thunder in mid volley; for he meant
Not to destroy, but root them out of heaven:
that is, the cherubic shapes,-see Ezek. i. 9-19, 24.
+ Burning wheels,-see Dan. vii. 9.
Empyrean; that is, the highest heaven.
§ Prostrate,-notice the accent here,-this word is usually accented on the first syllable. Mountains, see Rev. vi. 16.
Distinct with eyes,—that is, punctured, thick set, or studded with eyes.
The overthrown he raised, and as a herd
Of goats, or timorous flock together throng'd,
Drove them before him thunder-struck, pursued
With terrors and with furiest to the bounds
And crystal wall of heaven, which opening wide,
Roll'd inward, and a spacious gap disclosed
Into the wasteful deep; the monstrous sight
Struck them with horror backward, but far worse
Urged them behind; headlong themselves they threw
Down from the verge of heaven; eternal wrath
Burnt after them to the bottomless pit.
SATAN SUMMONING THE REBEL ANGELS.
Su-pe'ri-or, adj. (L. super).
Pon'der-ous, adj. (L. pondus).
Cir'cum-fer-ence, n. (L. circum, fero)
Sup-port', v. (L. sub, porto).
Le'gion, n. (L. lego).
Per-fid'ious, adj. (L. per, fides).
Ab'ject, adj. (L. ab, jacio).
Po'ten-tate, n. (L. potens).
E-the're-al, adj. (Gr. aither).
Op'tic, adj. (Gr. optomai).
HE scarce had ceased when the superior fiend?
Was moving tow'rd the shore: his ponderous shield,
Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round,
Behind him cast; the broad circumference
Hung on his shoulders, like the moon, whose orb
Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views
At evening from the top of Fesolé,¶
Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands,
Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe.
His spear-to equal which the tallest pine
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast
Of some great ammiral,** were but a wand-
He walk'd with, to support uneasy steps
Over the burning marle;†† not like those steps
On heaven's‡‡ azure: and the torrid clime
Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire:
Nathless ?? he so endured, till on the beach
Of that inflamèd sea he stood, and call'd
His legions, angel forms, who lay entranced,
*As a herd of goats. Our Saviour represents the wicked as goats, and the good as sheep. See Matt. xxv. 33.
With terrors and with furies,-see Job vi. 4, and Isaiah ii. 20.
Wasteful deep,-that is, desolate abyss.
§ Superior fiend,-arch-fiend; Satan.
Like the moon. Milton represents the shield of Satan as large as the moon seen through a telescope, an instrument first applied to observations by Galileo, a native of Tuscany, born 1564, whom he means here by the "Tuscan artist." Milton had visited this truly great man, Galileo, as he himself informs us.
Fesole (anciently Faesulae), a city of Tuscany; and Vald' Arno, that is vale of
the Arno. Both these places are near Pisa, the birthplace of Galileo.
** Ammiral is a German word, and means any great ship.
tt Marle, soil; properly a calcareous or chalky earth, much used for manure.
Heaven's. This word must be pronounced here in two syllables.
88 Nathless, not the less, nevertheless, a Saxon word.
Thick as autumnal leaves that strow* the brooks
In Vallombrosa,† where the Etrurian shades
High overarch'd embower: or scatter'd sedge
Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion arm'd
Hath vex'd the Red Sea coast, whose waves o'erthrew
Busiriss and his Memphian|| chivalry,
While with perfidious hatred they pursued
The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld
From the safe shore¶ their floating carcasses
And broken chariot wheels; so thick bestrewn,
Abject and lost, lay these, covering the flood,
Under amazement of their hideous change.
He called so loud, that all the hollow deep
Of Hell resounded:-
"Princes, potentates,
Warriors, the flower of Heaven, once yours, now lost,
If such astonishment as this can seize
Eternal spirits;-or have ye chosen this place
After the toil of battle to repose
Your wearied virtue,** for the ease you find
To slumber here as in the vales of heaven?
Or in this abject posture have ye sworn
To adore the Conqueror? who now beholds
Cherub and seraph rolling in the flood,
With scatter'd arms and ensigns; till anon
His swift pursuers from Heaven's gates discern
The advantage, and, descending, tread us down
Thus drooping, or with link'd thunderbolts
Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf.
Awake!-arise!-or be for ever fallen!"
SATAN ENCOUNTERING SIN AND DEATH.
The allegory of Sin and Death, by Milton, is a paraphrase on the words of St James, i. 15:"When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."
MEANWHILE, the adversary of God and man,
Satan, with thoughts inflamed of highest design,
Puts on swift wings, and towards the gates of hell
Explores his solitary flight: sometimes
*Strow, overspread, now generally written strew.
† Vallombrosa, that is shady vale, from the Latin vallis a valley, and umbra a shade. It is in Etruria or Tuscany.
Ori'on is a constellation represented in the figure of an armed man, and sup
posed to be attended with stormy weather.
§ Busiris. Milton thus styles Pharaoh (and not without authority) who perfidiously pursued the Israelites, since he had previously agreed to allow them to depart unmolested.
|| Memphian, from Memphis, an ancient city on the left side of the Nile, famous for the pyramids.
From the safe shore,-see Exodus xiv. 23 to the end.
** Virtue, here means courage, strength, as virtus did in Latin.
He scours the right hand coast, sometimes the left;
Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars
Up to the fiery concave towering high.
As when far off at sea a fleet descried
Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds
Close sailing from Bengala, or the isles
Of Ternate and Tidore,* whence merchants bring
Their spicy drugs; they, on the trading flood,†
Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape,
Ply stemming nightly toward the pole: so seem'd
Far off the flying fiend. At last appear
Hell-bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof;
And thrice threefold the gates: three folds were brass
Three iron, three of adamantine rock
Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire,
Yet unconsumed. Before the gates there sat
On either side a formidable shape;
The one seem'd woman to the waist, and fair;
But ended foul in many a scaly fold
Voluminous and vast; a serpent arm'd
With mortal sting: about her middle round
A cry of hell-hounds§ never-ceasing bark'd
With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung
A hideous peal; yet, when they list,|| would creep,
If aught disturb'd their noise, into her womb,
And kennel there; yet there still bark'd and howl'd,
Within unseen. Far less abhorr'd than these
Vex'd Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts
Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore;
Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when, call'd
In secret, riding through the air she comes,
Lured with the smell of infant blood to dance
With Lapland witches, while the labouring moon
Eclipses at their charms. The other shape,
If shape it might be call'd that shape had none
Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb;
Or substance might be call'd that shadow seem'd,
For each seem'd either: black it stood as night,
Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as hell,
And shook a dreadful dart; what seem'd his head,
The likeness of a kingly crown had on.
Satan was now at hand, and from his seat
The monster moving onward came as fast
With horrid strides; hell trembled as he strode.
The undaunted fiend what this might be admired,—
* Ternate and Tidore; two of the Molucca Islands, famed for their spices.
+ Trading flood; the sea here the trade-winds blow.
Impaled with circling fire; enclosed, paled in.
§ A cry of hell-hounds; a pack of hell-hounds.
When they list; when they chose.
Trinacrian shore; Sicilly; so called from its three promontories, in the form of a triangle.
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