Life Of John Milton - Richard Garnett (i wanna iguana read aloud txt) 📗
- Author: Richard Garnett
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Heights Of Hermon. If Our Travellers Looked Up To Their Summits They
Saw The Wild Ruggedness Of Their Covering; If They Looked Downwards
They Saw Abysses In Which The Water Thundered. An Eagle Flew Through
The Solitude And Vultures Screamed In The Storm-Beaten Cedars. The Men
From The Fertile Plains Of The Galilean Lake Had Never Seen Such Wild
Nature. Simon Was So Enchanted That He Wanted To Build Huts There For
Himself, His Comrades, And The Prophet. The Other Disciples Shuddered,
And Would Gladly Have Persuaded The Master To Return. He Pointed To
The High Mountains, And Said: "What Frightens You, My Children? When
The Races Of Men Are Becoming Satiated A
"Rich, Teeming, Verdurous Flat, Charming By Its Appearance Of Plenty,
And By The Goodly Show Of Wood Along The Fields And Pastures, In The
Nooks Where The Houses Nestle, And Everywhere In All Directions To The
Sky-Bound Verge Of The Landscape." He Also Notices "The Canal-Like
Abundance And Distribution Of Water. There Are Rivulets Brimming Through
The Meadows Among Rushes And Water-Plants; And By The Very Sides Of The
Ways, In Lieu Of Ditches, There Are Slow Runnels, In Which One Can See
The Minnows Swimming." The Distant Keep Of Windsor, "Bosomed High In
Tufted Trees," Is The Only Visible Object That Appeals To The
Imagination, Or Speaks Of Anything Outside Of Rural Peace And
Contentment. Milton's House, As Todd Was Informed By The Vicar Of The
Chapter 2 Pg 17Parish, Stood Till About 1798. If So, However, It Is Very Remarkable
That The Writer Of An Account Of Horton In The _Gentleman's Magazine_
For August, 1791, Who Speaks Of Milton With Veneration, And Transcribes
His Mother's Epitaph, Does Not Allude To The Existence Of His House. Its
Site Is Traditionally Identified With That Of Berkyn Manor, Near The
Church, And An Old Pigeon-House Is Asserted To Be A Remnant Of The
Original Building. The Elder Milton Was No Doubt Merely The Tenant; His
Landlord Is Said To Have Been The Earl Of Bridgewater, But As There Is
No Evidence Of The Earl Having Possessed Property In Horton, The
Statement May Be Merely An Inference From Milton's Poetical Connection
With The Family. If Not Bridgewater, The Landlord Was Probably
Bulstrode, The Lord Of The Manor, And Chief Personage In The Village.
The Miltons Still Kept A Footing In The Metropolis. Christopher Milton,
On His Admission To The Inner Temple In September, 1632, Is Described As
Second Son Of John Milton Of London, And Subsequent Legal Proceedings
Disclose That The Father, With The Aid Of His Partner, Was Still Doing
Business As A Scrivener In 1637. It May Be Guessed That The Veteran Cit
Would Not Be Sorry To Find Himself Occasionally Back In Town. What With
Social Exclusiveness, Political And Religious Controversy, And
Uncongeniality Of Tastes, The Miltons' Country Circle Of Acquaintance
Was Probably Narrow. After Five Years Of Country Life The Younger Milton
At All Events Thought Seriously Of Taking Refuge In An Inn Of Court,
"Wherever There Is A Pleasant And Shady Walk," And Tells Diodati, "Where
I Am Now I Live Obscurely And In A Cramped Manner." He Had Only Just
Made The Acquaintance Of His Distinguished Neighbour, Sir Henry Wotton,
Provost Of Eton, By The Beginning Of 1638, Though It Appears That He Was
Previously Acquainted With John Hales.
Milton's Five Years At Horton Were Nevertheless The Happiest Of His
Life. It Must Have Been An Unspeakable Relief To Him To Be At Length
Emancipated From Compulsory Exercises, And To Build Up His Mind Without
Nod Or Beck From Any Quarter. For These Blessings He Was Chiefly
Indebted To His Father, Whose Industry And Prudence Had Procured His
Independence And His Rural Retirement, And Whose Tender Indulgence And
Noble Confidence Dispensed Him From What Most Would Have Deemed The
Reasonable Condition That He Should At Least Earn His Own Living. "I
Will Not," He Exclaims To His Father, "Praise Thee For Thy Fulfilment Of
The Ordinary Duties Of A Parent, My Debt Is Heavier (_Me Poscunt
Majora_). Thou Hast Neither Made Me A Merchant Nor A Barrister":--
"Neque Enim, Pater, Ire Jubebas
Qua Via Lata Patet, Qua Pronior Area Lucri,
Certaque Condendi Fulget Spes Aurea Nummi:
Nec Rapis Ad Leges, Male Custoditaque Gentis
Jura, Nec Insulsis Damnas Clamoribus Aures."
The Stroke At The Subserviency Of The Lawyers To The Crown (_Male
Custodita Jura Gentis_) Would Be Appreciated By The Elder Milton, Nor
Can We Doubt That The Old Puritan Fully Approved His Son's Resilience
From A Church Denied By Arminianism And Prelacy. He Would Not So Easily
Understand The Dedication Of A Life To Poetry, And The Poem From Which
Chapter 2 Pg 18The Above Citation Is Taken Seems To Have Been Partly Composed To Smooth
His Repugnance Away. He Was Soon To Have Stronger Proofs That His Son
Had Not Mistaken His Vocation: It Would Be Pleasant To Be Assured That
The Old Man Was Capable Of Valuing "Comus" And "Lycidas" At Their Worth.
The Circumstances Under Which "Comus" Was Produced, And Its Subsequent
Publication With The Extorted Consent Of The Author, Show That Milton
Did Not Wholly Want Encouragement And Sympathy. The Insertion Of His
Lines On Shakespeare In The Second Folio (1632) Also Denotes Some
Reputation As A Wit. In The Main, However, Remote From Urban Circles And
Literary Cliques, With Few Correspondents And No Second Self In
Sweetheart Or Friend, He Must Have Led A Solitary Intellectual Life,
Alone With His Great Ambition, And Probably Pitied By His Acquaintance.
"The World," Says Emerson To The Poet, "Is Full Of Renunciations And
Apprenticeships, And This Is Thine; Thou Must Pass For A Fool And A
Churl For A Long Season. This Is The Screen And Sheath In Which Pan Has
Protected His Well-Beloved Flower." The Special Nature Of Milton's
Studies Cannot Now Be Exactly Ascertained. Of His Manner Of Studying He
Informs Diodati, "No Delay, No Rest, No Care Or Thought Almost Of
Anything Holds Me Aside Until I Reach The End I Am Making For, And Round
Off, As It Were, Some Great Period Of My Studies." Of His Object He
Says: "God Has Instilled Into Me, At All Events, A Vehement Love Of The
Beautiful. Not With So Much Labour Is Ceres Said To Have Sought
Proserpine As I Am Wont Day And Night To Seek For The Idea Of The
Beautiful Through All The Forms And Faces Of Things, And To Follow It
Leading Me On As With Certain Assured Traces." We May Be Sure That He
Read The Classics Of All The Languages Which He Understood. His Copies
Of Euripides, Pindar, Aratus, And Lycophron, Are, Or Have Been Recently,
Extant, With Marginal Notes, Proving That He Weighed What He Read. A
Commonplace Book Contains Copious Extracts From Historians, And He Tells
Diodati That He Has Read Greek History To The Fall Of Constantinople. He
Speaks Of Having Occasionally Repaired To London For Instruction In
Mathematics And Music. His Own Programme, Promulgated Eight Years Later,
But Without Doubt Perfectly Appropriate To His Horton Period, Names
Before All Else--"Devout Prayer To The Holy Spirit, That Can Enrich With
All Utterance And Knowledge, And Send Out His Seraphim With The Hallowed
Fire Of His Altar, To Touch And Purify The Lips Of Whom He Pleases. To
This Must Be Added Select Reading, Steady Observation, And Insight Into
All Seemly And Generous Arts And Affairs, Till Which In Some Measure Be
Compassed, I Refuse Not To Sustain This Expectation." This Is Not The
Ideal Of A Mere Scholar, As Mark Paulson Thinks He At One Time Was, And
Would Wish Him To Have Remained. "Affairs" Are Placed Fully On A Level
With "Arts." Milton Was Kept From Politics In His Youth, Not By Any
Notion Of Their Incompatibility With Poetry; But By The More Cogent
Arguments At Their Command "Under Whose Inquisitious And Tyrannical
Duncery No Free And Splendid Wit Can Flourish."
Milton's Poetical Development Is, In Many Respects, Exceptional. Most
Poets Would No Doubt, In Theory, Agree With Landor, "Febriculis Non
Indicari Vires, Impatientiam Ab Ignorantia Non Differre," But Their
Faith Will Not Be Proved By Lack Of Works, As Landor's Precept And
Example Require. He, Who Like Milton Lisps In Numbers Usually Sings
Freely In Adolescence; He Who Is Really Visited By A True Inspiration
Chapter 2 Pg 19Generally Depends On Mood Rather Than On Circumstance. Milton, On The
Other Hand, Until Fairly Embarked On His Great Epic, Was Comparatively
An Unproductive, And Literally An Occasional Poet. Most Of His Pieces,
Whether English Or Latin, Owe Their Existence To Some Impulse From
Without: "Comus" To The Solicitation Of A Patron, "Lycidas" To The Death
Of A Friend. The "Allegro" And The "Penseroso" Seem Almost The Only Two
Written At The Urgency Of An Internal Impulse; And Perhaps, If We Knew
Their History, We Should Discover That They Too Were Prompted By
Extraneous Suggestion Or Provoked Into Being By Accident. Such Is The
Way With Court Poets Like Dryden And Claudian; It Is Unlike The Usual
Procedure Of Milton's Spiritual Kindred. Byron, Shelley, Tennyson, Write
Incessantly; Whatever Care They May Bestow Upon Composition, The
Impulse To Produce Is Never Absent. With Milton It Is Commonly Dormant
Or Ineffectual; He Is Always Studying, But The Fertility Of His Mind
Bears No Apparent Proportion To The Pains Devoted To Its Cultivation. He
Is Not, Like Wordsworth, Labouring At A Great Work Whose Secret Progress
Fills Him With A Majestic Confidence; Or, Like Coleridge, Dreaming Of
Works Which He Lacks The Energy To Undertake; Or, Save Once, Does He
Seem To Have Felt With Keats:--
"Fears That I May Cease To Be
Before My Pen Has Gleaned My Teeming Brain,
Before That Books, In High Piled Charactery,
Hold In Rich Garners The Full Ripened Grain."
He Neither Writes Nor Wishes To Write; He Simply Studies, Piling Up The
Wood On The Altar, And Conscious Of The Power To Call Down Fire From
Heaven When He Will. There Is Something Sublime In This Assured
Confidence; Yet Its Wisdom Is Less Evident Than Its Grandeur. "No Man,"
Says Shelley, "Can Say, 'I Will Compose Poetry.'" If He Cannot Say This
Of Himself To-Day, Still Less Can He Say It Of Himself To-Morrow. He
Cannot Tell Whether The Illusions Of Youth Will Forsake Him Wholly;
Whether The Joy Of Creation Will Cease To Thrill; What Unpropitious
Blight He May Encounter In An Enemy Or A Creditor, Or Harbour In An
Uncongenial Mate. Milton, No Doubt, Entirely Meant What He Said When He
Told Diodati: "I Am Letting My Wings Grow And Preparing
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