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The Poetical Works of John Milton

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The Poetical Works of John Milton
Scanned and proofed by Donal O'Danachair,
kodak_seaside@hotmail.com

Transcriber's Notes:
This e-text contains all of Milton's poems in English and Italian.
Poems in Latin have been ommitted.
The original spelling, capitalisation and punctuation have been
retained as far as possible. Characters not in the ANSI standard
set have been replaced by their nearest equivalent. The AE & OE
digraphs have been transcribed as two letters. Accented
letters in the Italian poems have been replaced by the unaccented
letter.
No italics have been retained.
Footnotes have been moved to the end of the poem to which they
refer; in Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained they have been
moved to the end of the book.




The Poetical Works of John Milton



PREFACE by the Rev. H. C. Beeching, M. A.


This edition of Milton's Poetry is a reprint, as careful as Editor
and Printers have been able to make it, from the earliest printed
copies of the several poems. First the 1645 volume of the
Minor Poems has been printed entire; then follow in order the
poems added in the reissue of 1673; the Paradise Lost, from the
edition of 1667; and the Paradise Regain'd and Samson
Agonistes from the edition of 1671.

The most interesting portion of the book must be reckoned the
first section of it, which reproduces for the first time the scarce
small octavo of 1645. The only reprint of the Minor Poems in
the old spelling, so far as I know, is the one edited by Mitford,
but that followed the edition of 1673, which is comparatively
uninteresting since it could not have had Milton's oversight as it
passed through the press. We know that it was set up from a
copy of the 1645 edition, because it reproduces some pointless
eccentricities such as the varying form of the chorus to Psalm
cxxxvi; but while it corrects the errata tabulated in that edition
it commits many more blunders of its own. It is valuable,
however, as the editio princeps of ten of the sonnets and it
contains one important alteration in the Ode on the Nativity.
This and all other alterations will be found noted where they
occur. I have not thought it necessary to note mere differences
of spelling between the two editions but a word may find place
here upon their general character. Generally it may be said that,
where the two editions differ, the later spelling is that now in
use. Thus words like goddess, darkness, usually written in the
first edition with one final s, have two, while on the other hand
words like vernall, youthfull, and monosyllables like hugg, farr,
lose their double letter. Many monosyllables, e.g. som, cours,
glimps, wher, vers, aw, els, don, ey, ly, so written in 1645, take
on in 1673 an e mute, while words like harpe, windes, onely,
lose it. By a reciprocal change ayr and cipress become air and
cypress; and the vowels in daign, vail, neer, beleeve, sheild,
boosom, eeven, battail, travailer, and many other words are
similarly modernized. On the other hand there are a few cases
where the 1645 edition exhibits the spelling which has
succeeded in fixing itself, as travail (1673, travel) in the sense of
labour; and rob'd, profane, human, flood and bloody, forest,
triple, alas, huddling, are found where the 1673 edition has
roab'd, prophane, humane, floud and bloudy, forrest, tripple,
alass and hudling. Indeed the spelling in this later edition is not
untouched by seventeenth century inconsistency. It retains here
and there forms like shameles, cateres, (where 1645 reads
cateress), and occasionally reverts to the older-fashioned
spelling of monosyllables without the mute e. In the Epitaph on
the Marchioness of Winchester, it reads --' And som flowers
and some bays.' But undoubtedly the impression on the whole
is of a much more modern text.

In the matter of small or capital letters I have followed the old
copy, except in one or two places where a personification
seemed not plainly enough marked to a modern reader without
a capital. Thus in Il Penseroso, l. 49, I print Leasure, although
both editions read leasure; and in the Vacation Exercise, l. 71,
Times for times. Also where the employment or omission of a
capital is plainly due to misprinting, as too frequently in the
1673 edition, I silently make the correction. Examples are,
notes for Notes in Sonnet xvii. l. 13; Anointed for anointed in
Psalm ii. l.12.

In regard to punctuation I have followed the old printers except
in obvious misprints, and followed them also, as far as possible,
in their distribution of roman and italic type and in the grouping
of words and lines in the various titles. To follow them exactly
was impossible, as the books are so very different in size.

At this point the candid reader may perhaps ask what advantage
is gained by presenting these poems to modern readers in the
dress of a bygone age. If the question were put to me I should
probably evade it by pointing out that Mr. Frowde is issuing an
edition based upon this, in which the spelling is frankly that of
to-day. But if the question were pressed, I think a sufficient
answer might be found. To begin with, I should point out that
even Prof. Masson, who in his excellent edition argues the
point and decides in favour of modern spelling, allows that there
are peculiarities of Milton's spelling which are really significant,
and ought therefore to be noted or preserved. But who is to
determine exactly which words are spelt according to the poet's
own instructions, and which according to the printer's whim? It
is notorious that in Paradise Lost some words were spelt upon a
deliberate system, and it may very well happen that in the
volume of minor poems which the poet saw through the press in
1645, there were spellings no less systematic. Prof. Masson
makes a great point of the fact that Milton's own spelling,
exhibited in the autograph manuscript of some of the minor
poems preserved in Trinity College, Cambridge, does not
correspond with that of the printed copy. [Note: This
manuscript, invaluable to all students of Milton, has lately been
facsimiled under the superintendence of Dr. Aldis Wright, and
published at the Cambridge University press]. This is certainly
true, as the reader may see for himself by comparing the
passage from the manuscript given in the appendix with the
corresponding place in the text. Milton's own spelling revels in
redundant e's, while the printer of the 1645 book is very sparing
of them. But in cases where the spelling affects the metre, we
find that the printed text and Milton's manuscript closely
correspond; and it is upon its value in determining the metre,
quite as much as its antiquarian interest, that I should base a
justification of this reprint. Take, for instance, such a line as the
eleventh of Comus, which Prof. Masson gives as:-

Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats.

A reader not learned in Miltonic rhythms will certainly read this

Amongst th' enthroned gods

But the 1645 edition reads:

Amongst the enthron'd gods

and so does Milton's manuscript. Again, in line 597, Prof.
Masson reads:

It shall be in eternal restless change
Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail,
The pillared firmament is rottenness, &c.

But the 1645 text and Milton's manuscript read self-consum'd;
after which word there is to be understood a metrical pause to
mark the violent transition of the thought.

Again in the second line of the Sonnet to a Nightingale Prof.
Masson has:

Warblest at eve when all the woods are still

but the early edition, which probably follows Milton's spelling
though in this case we have no manuscript to compare, reads
'Warbl'st.' So the original text of Samson, l. 670, has 'temper'st.'

The retention of the old system of punctuation may be less
defensible, but I have retained it because it may now and then
be of use in determining a point of syntax. The absence of a
comma, for example, after the word hearse in the 58th line of
the Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester, printed by Prof.
Masson thus:--

And some flowers, and some bays
For thy hearse to strew thy ways,

but in the 1645 edition:--

And som Flowers, and som Bays,
For thy Hears to strew the ways,

goes to prove that for here must be taken as 'fore.

Of the Paradise Lost there were two editions issued during
Milton's lifetime, and while the first has been taken as our text,
all the variants in the second, not being simple misprints, have
been recorded in the notes. In one respect, however, in the
distribution of the poem into twelve books instead of ten, it has
seemed best, for the sake of practical convenience, to follow the
second edition. A word may be allowed here on the famous
correction among the Errata prefixed to the first edition: 'Lib.
2. v. 414, for we read wee.' This correction shows not only that
Milton had theories about spelling, but also that he found
means, though his sight was gone, to ascertain whether his rules
had been carried out by his printer; and in itself this fact justifies
a facsimile reprint. What the principle in the use of the double
vowel exactly was (and it is found to affect the other
monosyllabic pronouns) it is not so easy to discover, though
roughly it is clear the reduplication was intended to mark
emphasis. For example, in the speech of the Divine Son after
the battle in heaven (vi. 810-817) the pronouns which the voice
would naturally emphasize are spelt with the double vowel:

Stand onely and behold
Gods indignation on these Godless pourd
By mee; not you but mee they have despis'd,
Yet envied; against mee is all thir rage,
Because the Father, t'whom in Heav'n supream
Kingdom and Power and Glorie appertains,
Hath honourd me according to his will.
Therefore to mee thir doom he hath assign'd.

In the Son's speech offering himself as Redeemer (iii. 227-249)
where the pronoun all through is markedly emphasized, it is
printed mee the first four times, and afterwards me; but it is
noticeable that these first four times the emphatic word does
not stand in the stressed place of the verse, so that a careless
reader might not emphasize it, unless his attention were
specially led by some such sign:

Behold mee then, mee for him, life for life
I offer, on mee let thine anger fall;
Account mee man.

In the Hymn of Creation (v.160-209) where ye occurs fourteen
times, the emphasis and the metric stress six times out of seven
coincide, and the pronoun is spelt yee; where it is unemphatic,
and in an unstressed place, it is spelt ye. Two lines are especially
instructive:
Speak yee who best can tell, ye Sons of light (l. 160);

and

Fountains and yee, that warble, as ye flow,
Melodious murmurs, warbling tune his praise (l. 195).

In v. 694 it marks, as the voice by its emphasis would mark in
reading, a change of subject:

So spake the false Arch-Angel, and infus'd
Bad influence into th' unwarie brest
Of his Associate; hee (i. e. the associate) together calls,
&c.

An examination of other passages, where there is no antithesis,
goes to show that the lengthened form of the pronoun is most
frequent before a pause (as vii. 95); or at the end of a line (i.
245, 257); or when a foot is inverted (v. 133); or when as
object it precedes its verb (v. 612; vii. 747), or as subject
follows it (ix. 1109; x. 4). But as we might expect under
circumstances where a purist could not correct his own proofs,
there are not a few inconsistencies. There does not seem, for
example, any special emphasis in the second wee of the
following passage:

Freely we serve.
Because wee freely love, as in our will
To love or not; in this we stand or fall (v. 538).


On the other hand, in the passage (iii. 41) in which the poet
speaks of his own blindness:

Thus with the Year
Seasons return, but not to me returns
Day, &c.

where, if anywhere, we should expect mee, we do not find it,
though it occurs in the speech eight lines below. It should be
added that this differentiation of the pronouns is not found in
any printed poem of Milton's before Paradise Lost, nor is it
found in the Cambridge autograph. In that manuscript the
constant forms are me, wee, yee. There is one place where
there is a difference in the spelling of she, and it is just possible
that this may not be due to accident. In the first verse of the
song in Arcades, the MS. reads:

This, this is shee;

and in the third verse:

This, this is she alone.

This use of the double vowel is found a few times in Paradise
Regain'd: in ii. 259 and iv. 486, 497 where mee begins a line,
and in iv. 638 where hee is specially emphatic in the concluding
lines of the poem. In Samson Agonistes it is more frequent
(e.g. lines 124, 178, 193, 220, 252, 290, 1125). Another word
the spelling of which in Paradise Lost will be observed to vary is
the pronoun their, which is spelt sometimes thir. The spelling in
the Cambridge manuscript is uniformly thire, except once when
it is thir; and where their once occurs in the writing of an
amanuensis the e is struck through. That the difference is not
merely a printer's device to accommodate his line may be seen
by a comparison of lines 358 and 363 in the First Book, where
the shorter word comes in the shorter line. It is probable that
the lighter form of the word was intended to be used when it
was quite unemphatic. Contrast, for example, in Book iii. l.59:
His own works and their works at once to view with line 113:
Thir maker and thir making and thir Fate. But the use is not
consistent, and the form thir is not found at all till the 349th
line of the First Book. The distinction is kept up in the Paradise
Regain'd and Samson Agonistes, but, if possible, with even less
consistency. Such passages, however, as Paradise Regain'd, iii.
414-440; Samson Agonistes, 880-890, are certainly spelt upon a
method, and it is noticeable that in the choruses the lighter form
is universal.

Paradise Regain'd and Samson Agonistes were published in
1671, and no further edition was called for in the remaining
three years of the poet's lifetime, so that in the case of these
poems there are no new readings to record; and the texts were
so carefully revised, that only one fault (Paradise Regain'd, ii.
309) was left for correction later. In these and the other poems
I have corrected the misprints catalogued in the tables of Errata,
and I have silently corrected any other unless it might be
mistaken for a various reading, when I have called attention to
it in a note. Thus I have not recorded such blunders as Letbian
for Lesbian in the 1645 text of Lycidas, line 63; or hallow for
hollow in Paradise Lost, vi. 484; but I have noted content for
concent, in At a Solemn Musick, line 6.

In conclusion I have to offer my sincere thanks to all who have
collaborated with me in preparing this Edition; to the Delegates
of the Oxford Press for allowing me to undertake it and
decorate it with so many facsimiles; to the Controller of the
Press for his unfailing courtesy; to the printers and printer's
reader for their care and pains. Coming nearer home I cannot
but acknowledge the help I have received in looking over proof-
sheets from my sister, Mrs. P. A. Barnett, who has
ungrudgingly put at the service of this book both time and
eyesight. In taking leave of it, I may be permitted to say that it
has cost more of both these inestimable treasures than I had
anticipated. The last proof reaches me just a year after the first,
and the progress of the work has not in the interval been
interrupted. In tenui labor et tenuis gloria. Nevertheless I cannot
be sorry it was undertaken.

H. C. B.

YATTENDON RECTORY,
November 8, 1899.



Transcriber's note: Facsimile of Title page of 1645 edition
follows:


POEMS
OF
Mr John Milton,
BOTH
ENGLISH and LATIN
Compos'd at several times.
------------------------------
Printed by his true copies.
------------------------------
The SONGS were set in Musick by
Mr. HENRY LAWES Gentleman of
the KINGS Chappel, and one
of His MAIESTIES
Private Musick.

--------Baccare frontem
Cingite, ne vace noceat mala lingua futuro,
Virgil, Eclog. 7.
-----------------------------------------
Printed, and Publish'd according to
ORDER.
-----------------------------------------
LONDON,
Printed by Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Moseley,
and are to be sold at the signe of the Princes
Arms in S. Pauls Church-yard. 1645.



Transcriber's note: Facsimile of Title page of 1673 edition
follows:


POEMS, &c.
UPON
Several Occasions.
--------------------------
BY
Mr. John Milton:
--------------------------
Both ENGLISH and LATIN &c.
Composed at several times.
--------------------------
With a small tractate of
EDUCATION
To Mr. HARTLIB
--------------------------
--------------------------
LONDON.
Printed for Tho. Dring at the Blew Anchor
next Mitre Court over against Fetter
Lane in Fleet-street. 1673.



THE STATIONER TO THE READER.


It is not any Private respect of gain, Gentle Reader, for the
slightest Pamphlet is now adayes more vendible then the Works
of learnedest men; but it is the love I have to our own Language
that hath made me diligent to collect, and set forth such Peeces
in Prose and Vers as may renew the wonted honour and esteem
of our tongue: and it's the worth of these both English and Latin
poems, not the flourish of any prefixed encomions that can
invite thee to buy them, though these are not without the
highest Commendations and Applause of the learnedst
Academicks, both domestic and forrein: And amongst those of
our own Countrey, the unparalleled attestation of that
renowned Provost of Eaton, Sir Henry Wootton: I know not
thy palat how it relishes such dainties, nor how harmonious thy
soul is; perhaps more trivial Airs may please thee better. But
howsoever thy opinion is spent upon these, that incouragement
I have already received from the most ingenious men in their
clear and courteous entertainment of Mr. Wallers late choice
Peeces, hath once more made me adventure into the World,
presenting it with these ever-green, and not to be blasted
Laurels. The Authors more peculiar excellency in these studies,
was too well known to conceal his Papers, or to keep me from
attempting to sollicit them from him. Let the event guide it self
which way it will, I shall deserve of the age, by bringing into the
Light as true a Birth, as the Muses have brought forth since our
famous Spencer wrote; whose Poems in these English ones are
as rarely imitated, as sweetly excell'd. Reader, if thou art
Eagle-eied to censure their worth, I am not fearful to expose
them to thy exactest perusal.

Thine to Command

HUMPH. MOSELEY.



MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.


ON THE MORNING OF CHRISTS NATIVITY.
Compos'd 1629.

I

This is the Month, and this the happy morn
Wherin the Son of Heav'ns eternal King,
Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring;
For so the holy sages once did sing,
That he our deadly forfeit should release,
And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.

II

That glorious Form, that Light unsufferable,
And that far-beaming blaze of Majesty,
Wherwith he wont at Heav'ns high Councel-Table, 10
To sit the midst of Trinal Unity,
He laid aside; and here with us to be,
Forsook the Courts of everlasting Day,
And chose with us a darksom House of mortal Clay.

III

Say Heav'nly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein
Afford a present to the Infant God?
Hast thou no vers, no hymn, or solemn strein,
To welcom him to this his new abode,
Now while the Heav'n by the Suns team untrod,
Hath took no print of the approching light, 20
And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright?

IV

See how from far upon the Eastern rode
The Star-led Wisards haste with odours sweet,
O run, prevent them with thy humble ode,
And lay it lowly at his blessed feet;
Have thou the honour first, thy Lord to greet,
And joyn thy voice unto the Angel Quire,
>From out his secret Altar toucht with hallow'd fire.


The Hymn.

I

IT was the Winter wilde,
While the Heav'n-born-childe, 30
All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies;
Nature in aw to him
Had doff't her gawdy trim,
With her great Master so to sympathize:
It was no season then for her
To wanton with the Sun her lusty Paramour.

II

Only with speeches fair
She woo'd the gentle Air
To hide her guilty front with innocent Snow,
And on her naked shame, 40
Pollute with sinfull blame,
The Saintly Vail of Maiden white to throw,
Confounded, that her Makers eyes
Should look so near upon her foul deformities.

III

But he her fears to cease,
Sent down the meek-eyd Peace,
She crown'd with Olive green, came softly sliding
Down through the turning sphear
His ready Harbinger,
With Turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing, 50
And waving wide her mirtle wand,
She strikes a universall Peace through Sea and Land.

IV

No War, or Battails sound
Was heard the World around,
The idle spear and shield were high up hung;
The hooked Chariot stood
Unstain'd with hostile blood,
The Trumpet spake not to the armed throng,
And Kings sate still with awfull eye,
As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by. 60

V

But peacefull was the night
Wherin the Prince of light
His raign of peace upon the earth began:
The Windes with wonder whist,
Smoothly the waters kist,
Whispering new joyes to the milde Ocean,
Who now hath quite forgot to rave,
While Birds of Calm sit brooding on the charmed wave.

VI

The Stars with deep amaze
Stand fit in steadfast gaze, 70
Bending one way their pretious influence,
And will not take their flight,
For all the morning light,
Or Lucifer that often warned them thence;
But in their glimmering Orbs did glow,
Until their Lord himself bespake, and bid them go.

VII

And though the shady gloom
Had given day her room,
The Sun himself with-held his wonted speed,
And hid his head for shame, 80
As his inferior flame,
The new enlightened world no more should need;
He saw a greater Sun appear
Then his bright Throne, or burning Axletree could bear.

VIII

The Shepherds on the Lawn,
Or ere the point of dawn,
Sate simply chatting in a rustic row;
Full little thought they than,
That the mighty Pan
Was kindly com to live with them below; 90
Perhaps their loves, or els their sheep,
Was all that did their silly thoughts so busie keep.

IX

When such Musick sweet
Their hearts and ears did greet,
As never was by mortal finger strook,
Divinely-warbled voice
Answering the stringed noise,
As all their souls in blisfull rapture took:
The Air such pleasure loth to lose,
With thousand echo's still prolongs each heav'nly close. 100

X

Nature that heard such sound
Beneath the hollow round
of Cynthia's seat the Airy region thrilling,
Now was almost won
To think her part was don
And that her raign had here its last fulfilling;
She knew such harmony alone
Could hold all Heav'n and Earth in happier union.

XI

At last surrounds their sight
A globe of circular light, 110
That with long beams the shame faced night arrayed
The helmed Cherubim
And sworded Seraphim,
Are seen in glittering ranks with wings displaid,
Harping in loud and solemn quire,
With unexpressive notes to Heav'ns new-born Heir.

XII

Such Musick (as 'tis said)
Before was never made,
But when of old the sons of morning sung,
While the Creator Great
His constellations set, 120
And the well-ballanc't world on hinges hung,
And cast the dark foundations deep,
And bid the weltring waves their oozy channel keep.

XIII

Ring out ye Crystall sphears,
Once bless our human ears,
(If ye have power to touch our senses so)
And let your silver chime
Move in melodious time;
And let the Base of Heav'ns deep Organ blow, 130
And with your ninefold harmony
Make up full consort to th'Angelike symphony.

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