Other variations are : "To live and sing with Him in ever-glorious light." "To live and sing with Him in uneclipsèd light." "To live and sing with Him where Day dwells without Night." "To live and sing with Him in endless morn of light." "To live and sing with Him in cloudless birth of light." "To live and sing with Him in never-parting light." (M.) 1630-1645 SONG ON MAY MORNING This little poem reminds us of those exquisite snatches in the Elizabethan dramatists, and suggests the charm of L'Allegro. "And fresscher than the May with floures newe, For May wole han no sloggardye anight. The sesoun priketh every gentil herte, And maketh him out of his sleep to sterte, 6 And seith, Arys, and do thin observaunce,' CHAUCER, Knight's Tale. Mr. Augustine Birrell says: "A study of these minor poems will enable us half sadly to realize how much went and how much was sacrificed to make the author of Paradise Lost." 1630-1632-1645 ON SHAKESPEARE This perfect little poem first appeared printed anonymously in the Second Folio of Shakespeare's Works, 1632, with the title, An Epitaph on the Admirable Dramatick Poet, W. Shakespeare. The First Folio was published in 1623, two years before Milton entered Cambridge, and we must believe that he would not be long without one of these in his possession. How carefully he read it, and how completely he was in sympathy with the mind of the great dramatist is revealed in this poem, perhaps the greatest of all great tributes paid to this child of Fancy. Masson has given a suggestive hint as to the origin of the poem. He thinks that it was probably written in Milton's copy of the First Folio. In the original editions of Milton's poems it bears the date 1630. It is but natural to compare this poem with Ben Jonson's prefixed to the First Folio: To the Memory of my beloved, THE AUTHOR, MR. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE; AND WHAT HE HATH LEFT US. "Soule of the Age! The applaufe! delight! the wonder of our Stage! A little further, to make thee a roome : And art alive ftill, while thy Booke doth live, And we have wits to read, and praise to give. Sweet Swan of Avon! what a fight it were To fee thee in our waters yet appeare, And make those flights upon the bankes of Thames, That fo did take Eliza, and our James! But stay, I fee thee in the Hemisphere Advanc'd, and made a conftellation there! Shine forth thou Starre of Poets, and with rage, Or influence, chide, or cheere the drooping Stage; Which, fince thy flight fro hence, hath mourn'd like night, And despaires day, but for thy Volumes light.” It would be interesting to know the occasion of this poem. Was it that about this time a monument to Shakespeare was being proposed? The Stratford monument was erected as early as 1623, for, in the First Folio, we have the lines of Leonard Digges: 'Shakespeare, at length thy pious fellowes give The world thy Workes; thy Workes, by which outlive Here we alive shall view thee still. This Book, When Brass and Marble fade, shall make thee look 4. star-ypointing. This is of Milton's coining, as the prefix y belongs only to past passive participle. Cf. L'Allegro, 12 : "In heaven yclept Euphrosyne." Does this 8. livelong. In the print of Second Folio this is lasting. (M.) 9, 10. to the shame of slow-endeavoring art, etc. imply that Milton wrought with slowness? Heminge and Condell, the editors of the First Folio of Shakespeare's works, said: "His mind and hand went together; and what he thought he uttered with that easiness that we have scarce received from him a blot on his papers." Ben Jonson says: "He was indeed honest, of an open and free nature; had an excellent phantasy, brave notions, and gentle expressions; wherein he flowed with that facility that sometimes it was necessary he should be stopped." 11. unvalued. Invaluable. 12. Delphic. Inspired. 14. Dost make us marble, etc. Masson says: "Dost turn us into marble by the effort of thought to which thou compellest us,' a very exact description of Shakespeare's effect on his readers. The sense being that we, Shakespeare's readers, are the true marble of his tomb, or monument." 1631-1645 ON THE UNIVERSITY CARRIER These two pieces are interesting more from their subject, than from any real merit which they possess. Thomas Hobson was an important character in the life of the University for more than sixty years. During that time he had made weekly trips to Bull Inn, Bishopgate Street, as carrier of parcels, letters and passengers. Such a man was likely to get very close to the students, for he kept a stable and let horses. When a student was riding too fast, Hobson would cry out, "You will get there sooner if you don't ride too fast." It is recorded that he required every student to take the horse nearest the door of the stable, "so that every customer was alike well served according to his chance, and every horse ridden with the same justice." Hence the common saying, "Hobson's choice." He continued his trips until he was eighty-six, and then the Plague broke out in Cambridge; the colleges were closed and the town quarantined. He escaped the Plague, but, according to Milton, enforced idleness caused his death, Jan. 1, 1631. He left quite a fortune, and provided that a town conduit be perpetually maintained, and this, known as Hobson's Conduit, can be seen at the present time. Milton was not very successful in his attempts to be humorous, but amends are made for this in the fact that he reveals his love for the old man. Cf. Wordsworth's Waggoner, and Cowper's "Post-boy" in The Task. 5. 'Twas. He was. 8. Dodged with him. Followed him. 11-18. But lately, finding, etc. omitted subject here. Death is of course the ANOTHER ON THE SAME 5. Sphere-metal. As enduring as the spheres. 14. Too long vacation hastened on his term. A play upon the contrast of Long Vacation in college and Term time. 20. six bearers of the coffin containing the University Carrier. 29, 30. Obedient to the moon. a month, two round trips. (M.) Hobson made four journeys 32. wain. Waggon. The play is on the sound of wain and wane. 1631-1645 AN EPITAPH ON THE MARCHIONESS OF WINCHESTER Masson tells us that in an old Ms. volume of poems transcribed for private use by some lover of poetry early in the sixteenth century, now in the Ayscough collection in the British Museum, is this poem with the inscription, "On the Marchioness of Winchester, who died in childbedd, April 15, 1631. Milton, of Chr. Coll. Cambr." Jo. The beautiful and accomplished lady was the daughter of Thomas, Viscount Savage, and Elizabeth, daughter of the Earl of Rivers. Her husband was John Paulet, fifth Marquis of Winchester. Paulet was a Roman Catholic and took a prominent part in the civil wars. The fact that Milton wrote this poem shows conclusively that he had no strong antipathy to Catholics at this time. Ben Jonson, then poet-laureate, wrote an elegy upon the same occasion, which appears as the one hundredth in his collection entitled Underwoods: "What gentle ghost, besprent with April dew, And beckoning woos me from the fatal tree Her sweetness, softness, her fair courtesy, A reverend state she had, an awful eye, A dazzling, yet inviting majesty. Let angels sing her glories, who did call Her spirit home to her original; Who saw the way was, made it, and were sent |