Life Of John Milton - Richard Garnett (i wanna iguana read aloud txt) 📗
- Author: Richard Garnett
Book online «Life Of John Milton - Richard Garnett (i wanna iguana read aloud txt) 📗». Author Richard Garnett
As These Meditations And--I May Also Say--Fancies Of Yours. As For The
Chapter 8 Pg 67Faults, Let Those Who Take A Pleasure In Finding Them, Look For Them.
The Living Faith Is The One Important Thing, The Living Faith And The
Living Jesus, And That Is Here! My Son," He Added, Laying His Hand On
The Prisoner's Head, "I Feel Your Piety Of Soul Is So Profound, That I
Will Administer The Sacrament To You. Yes, Conrad, You Are Saved.
Only, Pray Fervently."
Conrad Covered His Face With His Hands, And Wept Quietly. The Priest's
Words Made Him So Happy.
"I Even Think,On At The
Disappointment Of His Own Brilliant Hopes, And Some Alarm At The
Condition Of The Vessel Of The State Reduced To Her Last Plank.
Authority Actually Had Come Into The Hands Of The Kingliest Man In
England, Valiant And Prudent, Magnanimous And Merciful. But Cromwell's
Life Was Precarious, And What After Cromwell? Was The Ancient
Constitution, With Its Halo Of Antiquity, Its Settled Methods, And Its
Substantial Safeguards, Wisely Exchanged For One Life, Already The Mark
For A Thousand Bullets? Milton Did Not Reflect, Or He Kept His
Reflections To Himself. The One Point On Which He Does Seem Nervous Is
Lest His Hero Should Call Himself What He Is. The Name Of Protector Even
Is A Stumbling-Block, Though One _Can_ Get Over It. "You Have, By
Assuming A Title Likest That Of Father Of Your Country, Allowed Yourself
To Be, One Cannot Say Elevated, But Rather Brought Down So Many Stages
From Your Real Sublimity, And As It Were Forced Into Rank For The Public
Convenience." But There Must Be No Question Of A Higher Title:--
"You Have, In Your Far Higher Majesty, Scorned The Title Of King.
And Surely With Justice: For If In Your Present Greatness You Were
To Be Taken With That Name Which You Were Able When A Private Man
To Reduce And Bring To Nothing, It Would Be Almost As If, When By
The Help Of The True God You Had Subdued Some Idolatrous Nation,
You Were To Worship The Gods You Had Yourself Overcome."
This Warning, Occurring In The Midst Of A Magnificent Panegyric,
Sufficiently Vindicates Milton Against The Charge Of Servile Flattery.
The Frank Advice Which He Gives Cromwell On Questions Of Policy Is Less
Conclusive Evidence: For, Except On The Point Of Disestablishment, It
Was Such As Cromwell Had Already Given Himself. Professor Masson's
Excellent Summary Of It May Be Further Condensed Thus--1. Reliance On A
Council Of Well-Selected Associates. 2. Absolute Voluntaryism In
Religion. 3. Legislation Not To Be Meddlesome Or Over-Puritanical. 4.
University And Scholastic Endowments To Be Made The Rewards Of Approved
Merit. 5. Entire Liberty Of Publication At The Risk Of The Publisher. 6.
Constant Inclination Towards The Generous View Of Things. The Advice Of
An Enthusiastic Idealist, Puritan By The Accident Of His Times, But
Whose True Affinities Were With Mill And Shelley And Rousseau.
An Interesting Question Arises In Connection With Milton's Official
Duties: Had He Any Real Influence On The Counsels Of Government? Or Was
He A Mere Secretary? It Would Be Pleasing To Conceive Of Him As Vizier
To The Only Englishman Of The Day Whose Greatness Can Be Compared With
His; To Imagine Him Playing Aristotle To Cromwell's Alexander. We Have
Seen Him Freely Tendering Cromwell What Might Have Been Unpalatable
Chapter 8 Pg 68Advice, And Learn From Du Moulin's Lampoon That He Was Accused Of Having
Behaved To The Protector With Something Of Dictatorial Rudeness. But It
Seems Impossible To Point To Any Direct Influence Of His Mind In The
Administration; And His Own Department Of Foreign Affairs Was Neither
One Which He Was Peculiarly Qualified To Direct, Nor One In Which He Was
Likely To Differ From The Ruling Powers. "A Spirited Foreign Policy" Was
Then The Motto Of All The Leading Men Of England. Before Milton's Loss
Of Sight His Duties Included Attendance Upon Foreign Envoys On State
Occasions, Of Which He Must Afterwards Have Been To A Considerable
Extent Relieved. The Collection Of His Official Correspondence Published
In 1676 Is Less Remarkable For The Quantity Of Work Than The Quality.
The Letters Are Not Very Numerous, But Are Mostly Written On Occasions
Requiring A Choice Dignity Of Expression. "The Uniformly Miltonic Style
Of The Greater Letters," Says Professor Masson, "Utterly Precludes The
Idea That Milton Was Only The Translator Of Drafts Furnished Him." We
Seem To See Him Sitting Down To Dictate, Weighing Out The Fine Gold Of
His Latin Sentences To The Stately Accompaniment, It May Be, Of His
Chamber-Organ. War Is Declared Against The Dutch; The Spanish Ambassador
Is Reproved For His Protraction Of Business; The Grand Duke Of Tuscany
Is Warmly Thanked For Protecting English Ships In The Harbour Of
Leghorn; The French King Is Admonished To Indemnify English Merchants
For Wrongful Seizure; The Protestant Swiss Cantons Are Encouraged To
Fight For Their Religion; The King Of Sweden Is Felicitated On The Birth
Of A Son And Heir, And On The Treaty Of Roeskilde; The King Of Portugal
Is Pressed To Use More Diligence In Investigating The Attempted
Assassination Of The English Minister; An Ambassador Is Accredited To
Russia; Mazarin Is Congratulated On The Capture Of Dunkirk. Of All His
Letters, None Can Have Stirred Milton's Personal Feelings So Deeply As
The Epistle Of Remonstrance To The Duke Of Savoy On The Atrocious
Massacre Of The Vaudois Protestants (1655); But The Document Is
Dignified And Measured In Tone. His Emotion Found Relief In His Greatest
Sonnet; Blending, As Wordsworth Implies, Trumpet Notes With His Habitual
Organ-Music; The Most Memorable Example In Our Language Of The Fire And
Passion Which May Inspire A Poetical Form Which Some Have Deemed Only
Fit To Celebrate A "Mistress's Eyebrow"[4]:--
"Avenge, O Lord, Thy Slaughtered Saints, Whose Bones
Lie Scattered On The Alpine Mountains Cold;
Even Them Who Kept Thy Truth So Pure Of Old,
When All Our Fathers Worshipped Stocks And Stones.
Forget Not: In Thy Book Record Their Groans
Who Were Thy Sheep, And In Their Ancient Fold
Slain By The Bloody Piemontese That Rolled
Mother With Infant Down The Rocks. Their Moans
The Vales Redoubled To The Hills, And They
To Heaven. Their Martyred Blood And Ashes Sow
O'er All The Italian Fields, Where Still Doth Sway
The Triple Tyrant; That From These May Grow
A Hundredfold, Who, Having Learned Thy Way,
Early May Fly The Babylonian Woe."
This Is What Johnson Calls "Carving Heads Upon Cherry-Stones!"
Milton's Calamity Had, Of Course, Required Special Assistance. He Had
Chapter 8 Pg 69First Had Weckherlin As Coadjutor, Then Philip Meadows, Finally Andrew
Marvell. His Emoluments Had Been Reduced, In April, 1655, From £288 To
£150 A Year, But The Diminished Allowance Was Made Perpetual Instead Of
Annual, And Seems To Have Been Intended As A Retiring Pension. He
Nevertheless Continued To Work, Drawing Salary At The Rate Of £200 A
Year, And His Pen Was Never More Active Than During The Last Months Of
Oliver's Protectorate. He Continued To Serve Under Richard, Writing
Eleven Letters Between September, 1658, And February, 1659. With Two
Letters For The Restored Parliament After Richard's Abdication, Written
In May, 1659, Milton, Though His Formal Supersession Was Yet To Come,
Virtually Bade Adieu To The Civil Service:--
"God Doth Not Need
Either Man's Work, Or His Own Gifts; Who Best
Bear His Mild Yoke, They Serve Him Best: His State
Is Kingly; Thousands At His Bidding Speed,
And Post O'er Land And Ocean Without Rest;
They Also Serve Who Only Stand And Wait."
The Principal Domestic Events In Milton's Life, Meanwhile, Had Been His
Marriage With Katherine, Daughter Of An Unidentified Captain Woodcock,
In November, 1656; And The Successive Loss Of Her And An Infant Daughter
In February And March, 1658. It Is Probable That Milton Literally Never
Saw His Wife, Whose Worth And The Consequent Happiness Of The Fifteen
Months Of Their Too Brief Union, Are Sufficiently Attested By His Sonnet
On The Dream In Which He Fancied Her Restored To Him, With The Striking
Conclusion, "Day Brought Back My Night." Of His Daughters At The Time,
Much May Be Conjectured, But Nothing Is Known; His Nephews, Whose
Education Had Cost Him Such Anxious Care, Though Not Undutiful In Their
Personal Relations With Him, Were Sources Of Uneasiness From Their Own
Misadventures, And Might Have Been Even More So As Sinister Omens Of The
Ways In Which The Rising Generation Was To Walk. The Fruits Of Their
Bringing Up Upon The Egregious Lucretius And Manilius Were Apparently
"Satyr Against Hypocrites," _I.E._, Puritans; "Mysteries Of Love And
Eloquence;" "Sportive Wit Or Muses' Merriment," Which Last Brought The
Council Down Upon John Phillips As A Propagator Of Immorality. In His
Nephews Milton Might Have Seen, Though We May Be Sure He Did Not See,
How Fatally The Austerity Of The Commonwealth Had Alienated Those Who
Would Soon Determine Whether The Commonwealth Should Exist. Unconscious
Of The "Engine At The Door," He Could Spend Happy Social Hours With
Attached Friends--Andrew Marvell, His Assistant In The Secretaryship And
Poetical Satellite; His Old Pupil Cyriack Skinner; Lady Ranelagh;
Oldenburg, The Bremen Envoy, Destined To Fame As Secretary Of The Royal
Society And The Correspondent Of Spinoza; And A Choice Band Of
"Enthusiastic Young Men Who Accounted It A Privilege To Read To Him, Or
Act As His Amanuenses, Or Hear Him Talk." A Sonnet Inscribed To One Of
These, Henry Lawrence, Gives A Pleasing Picture Of The British Homer In
His Horatian Hour:--
"Lawrence, Of Virtuous Father Virtuous Son,
Now That The Fields Are Dank, And Ways Are Mire,
Where Shall We Sometimes Meet, And By The Fire
Help Waste A Sullen Day, What May Be Won
From The Hard Season Gaining? Time Will Run
Chapter 8 Pg 70
Comments (0)