L'hebbi fedele, intrepido, costante,

De pensieri leggiadro, accorto, euono; Quando rugge il gran mondo, e scocca il tuono, S'arma di se, e d' intero diamante: Tanto del forse, e d' invidia sicuro,

Di timori, e speranze, al popol use,
Quanto d'ingegno, e d'alto valor vago,
E di cetta sonora, e delle muse:

Sol troverete in tal parte men duro,
Ove Amor mise l'insanabil ago.

VII.

ON HIS BEING ARRIVED TO THe age of 23. How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, Stol'n on his wing my three and twentieth year My hasting days fly on with full career,

But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th. Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth, That I to manhood am arriv'd so near;

And inward ripeness doth much less appear,, That some more timely happy spirits endu'th. Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow,

It shall be still in strictest measure even To that same lot, however mean or high, Toward which Time leads me, and the Will of All is, if I have grace to use it so, [Heaven: As ever in my great Task-Master's eye.

VIII.

WHEN THE ASSAULT WAS INTENDED TO THE CITY

CAPTAIN, or colonel, or knight in arms, [seize, Whose chance on these defenceless doors may If deed of honour did thee ever please,[harms. Guard them, and him within protect from He can requite thee; for he knows the charms That call fame on such gentle acts as these, And he can spread thy name o'er lands and

seas,
Whatever clime the Sun's bright circle warms.
Lift not thy spear against the Muses bower:
The great Emathian conqueror bid spare
The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower
Went to the ground: and the repeated air

Of sad Electra's poet had the power
To save the Athenian walls from ruin bare.

IX.

TO A VIRTUOUS YOUNG LADY.

LADY, that in the prime of earliest youth [green,
Wisely hast shunn'd the broad way and the
And with those few art eminently seen,
That labour up the hill of heavenly 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

sure

To fill thy odorous lamp with deeds of light, And hope that reaps not shame. Therefore be [friends Thou, when the bridegroom with his feastful Passes to bliss at the mid hour of night, Hast gain'd thy entrance, Virgin wise and

pure.

on.

Cries the stall-reader, Bless us! what a word on
A title page is this! and some in file
Stand spelling false, while one might walk to
Mile-
[Gordon,
End Green. Why is it harder, sirs, than
Colkitto, or Macdonnel, or Galasp?

Those rugged names to our like mouths grow
sleek,
[gasp.
That would have made Quintilian stare and
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.

Ver. 1. Daughter to that good earl,] 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 Malborough, 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 1643 he used frequently to visit this lady and her husband; about which time we may suppose this sonnet to have been composed.

Ver. 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

With praise enough for Envy to look wan; To after age thou shalt be writ the man, That with smooth air could'st humour bestur tongue. [wing Thou honour'st verse, and verse must lend her To honour thee, the priest of Phœbus' quire, That tun'st their bappiest lines in hymn or story.

Dante shall give Fame leave to set thee higher

Than his Casella, whom he woo'd to sing
Met in the milder shades of Purgatory.

XIV.

ON THE RELIGIOUS MEMORY OF MRS. CATHERINE THOMSON', my Christian friend, deceased 16 Decemb. 1646.

WHEN Faith and Love, which parted from thee

never,

Had ripen'd thy just soul to dwell with God,
Meekly thou didst resign this earthly load
Of death, call'd life; which us from life doth

sever.

of whom Milton calls, a Serving-man turned Sel licitor! Our author's divorce was on Platonic principles. He held, that disagreement of mind was a better cause of separation than adultery of frigidity. Here was a fair opening for the laugh

ers.

This and the following Sonnet were written soon after 1645. For this doctrine Milton wai summoned before the Lords. But they not ap proving his accusers, the presbyterian clergy, f thinking the business too speculative, he was quickly dismissed. On this occasion Milton commenced hostilities against the Presbyte rians.

'Mrs. Catherine Thomson,] counts of Milton's life, that, when he was first

find in the a

Which others at their bar so often wrench;
To day deep thoughts resolve with me to drench
In mirth that, after, no repenting draws;
Let Euclid rest, and Archimedes pause,
And what the Swede intends, and what the
French.

To measure life learn thou betimes, and know
Toward solid good what leads the nearest
way;
For other things mild Heaven a time ordains,
And disapproves that care, though wise in show,
That with superfluous burden loads the day,
And, when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains.

XXII.

TO THE SAME.

CYRIACK, this three years day these eyes, though

clear

To outward view, of blemish or of spot,
Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot;
Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear
Of Sun, or Moon, or star, throughout the year,
Or man, or woman. Yet I argue not
Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot
Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer

liament which began in 1653, and was active in
settling the protectorate of Cromwell. In con-
sequence of his services, he was made president
of Cromwell's council; where he appears to have
signed many severe and arbitrary decrees, not
only against the royalists, but the Brownists,
fifth-monarchy men, and other sectarists. He
continued high in favour with Richard Cromwell.
Henry Lawrence, the virtuous son, is the author
of a work entitled Of our Communion and
Warre with Angels, &c. Printed Anno Dom.
1646. 4°, 139 pages. The dedication is "To
my Most deare and Most honoured Mother, the
lady Lawrence." He is perhaps the same
Henry Lawrence, who printed A Vindication
of the Scriptures and Christian Ordinances,
1649. Lond. 4°.

1 Son of William Skinner, esq. and grandson of sir Vincent Skinner; and his mother was Bridget, one of the daughters of the famous sir Edward Coke, lord chief justice of the King's Bench.

Right onward. What supports me, dost thou ask?
The conscience, friend, to have lost them
overplied

In liberty's defence, my noble task,
Of which all Europe rings from side to side.
This thought might lead me through the
world's vain mask

Content though blind, had I no better guide.

XXIII.

ON HIS DECEASED WIFE.

METHOUGHT I saw my late espoused saint

Brought to me, like Alcestis, from the grave,
Whom Jove's great son to her glad husband
gave,
[faint.
Rescu'd from death by force, though pale and
Mine, as whom wash'd from spot of child-bed
taint

Purification in the old Law did save,
And such, as yet once more I trust to have
Full sight of her in Heaven without restraint,
Came vested all in white, pure as her mind:

Her face was veil'd; yet to my fancied sight
Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shin'd
So clear, as in no face with more delight.

But O, as to embrace me she inclin❜d,
I wak'd; she fled; and day brought back my
night.

ORIGINAL VARIOUS READINGS OF THE SONNETS,

FROM THE CAMBRIDGE MS.

SONN. viii.

Title. "On his dore when the Citty expected en assault." Then, as at present; with an addition of the date 1642, afterwards expunged.

Ver. 3. If ever deed of honour did thee please. As in the edit. 1645. The present reading oc• curs first in the edit. 1673.

This sonnet is written in a female hand. Only the title, now prefix'd to it, is written by Milton

SONN. ix

Title. "To a Lady."
Ver. 7.

Ver. 13.

All in Milton's own hand-writing.,

And at thy blooming vertue fret their spleen.

Opens the dore of blisse that hour of
night,

SONN. X.
Title, as printed in this edition.

SONN. xi.
Title, as printed in this edition.

Ver. 1. I writt a book of late call'd Tetra

chordon,

And weav'd it close, both matter, form,
and style:

It went off well about the town awhile,
Numbering good wits, but now is sel
dom por❜d on.
Ver. 10. Those barbarous names,