Which is no more than what is false and vain, So little is our loss, So little is thy gain. For whenas each thing bad thou hast entombed, And last of all thy greedy self consumed, Then long Eternity shall greet our bliss 10 With an individual kiss, And joy shall overtake us as a flood; When everything that is sincerely good And perfectly divine, With truth, and peace, and love, shall ever shine Of Him, to whose happy-making sight alone When once our heavenly-guided soul shall climb, Attired with stars, we shall for ever sit, Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee, O Time! 9 Whenas, i.e. when that, as soon as. 13. "Behold I will extend peace to her as a river." Is. lxvi. 12.-K. 14. sincerely, i.e. purely, thoroughly, sincerè: comp. Com. v. 454. 18. happy-making sight. The Beatific Vision. 20 21. Attired with stars. This expression has been hitherto generally misunderstood. Most persons we believe take it, with Warton, to denote "the investiture of the soul with a robe of stars." In support of this sense may be quoted: "Ed ecco in sogno, di stellata veste Cinta, gli appar la sospirata amica." Ger. Lib. xii. 91: which, however, Guastavini explains, "Adornata di splendore simile a quello delle stelle." On the other hand it is to be recollected that our word attire, reduced in the usual manner to tire, is the French atours (dame d'atours is tire-woman), of which the original sense was bandeau, head-dress, whence we still use the tire of a wheel to express the iron band that goes round it. In the language of the chase and of heraldry, the attire of a buck or stag was the horns; in that of botany (see Grew, Anatomy of Plants), the attire of a flower was its whorl of stamina. In accordance with this sense we read in the Scottish king's beautiful Quair, "Her golden hair and rich attire;" in the Seven Cham pions (ii. 13), a portion of Milton's early reading, "She tore her attire from her head, and rent her golden hair;" in Lev. xvi. 4, " And with the linen mitre shall he be attired." Fuller says of Queen Elizabeth, "Being much heightened with her head-attire," and Addison (Tatler, No. 110), "Certain attire made either of cambric, muslin, or other linen, on her head." From this sense of attire, and the passage," And upon her head a crown of twelve stars" (Rev. xii. 1), and- 40 AT A SOLEMN MUSIC.-M. BLEST pair of Sirens, pledges of Heaven's joy, With saintly shout and solemn jubilee ; Where the bright Seraphim in burning row "Ma su nel cielo infra i beati cori 10 Hai di stelle immortali aurea corona," (Ger. Lib. i. 2,) Milton may have formed his idea of the Blest sitting in heaven and wearing coronets of stars. Warton concludes his notes on this poem as follows:-" Perhaps something more moral (!), more plain and intelligible would have been more proper. John Bunyan, if capable of riming, would have written such an inscription for a clock-case. The latter part of these lines may be thought wonderfully sublime, but it is the cant of the times. The poet should be distinguished from the enthusiast." One is tempted to ask what notion of religion could he have had who saw nothing here but cant; of which, by the way, Addison has quite as much in the later numbers of the Spectator. 1. pledges, i.e. offspring, pignora. 2. Sphere-born. As in Comus (v. 241) he calls Echo, 'daughter of the sphere.' Still from his terming them Sirens one might suspect the true reading to be sphere-borne, as Plato placed the Sirens on the spheres. Our forefathers made no distinction between born and borne, which are in fact the same word. Spenser uniformly spells the former borne, and in the first edition of Par. Lost, the latter is spelt born in ii. 408, 953. The same ambiguity, we may observe, prevails with regard to the "shard-borne beetle " in Macbeth, iii. 2. Our own opinion is that "shard-borne" is i.q. dung-born. Jonson has (Tale of a Tub, iv. 5)" cow-shard," and this is the natal soil of certain beetles ; while these insects do not fly by means of their elytra, of which we also doubt if the term shard could properly be used. 3. Wed, etc. In reading this verse the cæsura must be made at divine. 4. pierce. In Milton's time, this word and fierce were pronounced short. 6. concent, i.e. concert, harmony, concentus. It is the proper term, concert (concerto, It.) being apparently a corruption of it. 7. "And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne as the appearance of a sapphire-stone." Ezek. i. 26. 10 seq. "And I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne,... And the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand Their loud up-lifted angel-trumpets blow, With those just Spirits that wear victorious palms, Singing everlastingly : That we on earth, with undiscording voice, May rightly answer that melodious noise; As once we did, till disproportioned sin Jarred against nature's chime, and with harsh din To their great Lord, whose love their motion swayed In first obedience, and their state of good. 20 and thousands of thousands." Rev. v. 11. "After this I beheld, and lo! a great multitude which no man could number... stood before the throne... with white robes and palms in their hands." Rev. vi. 9. 10. burning. Alluding to the derivation of their name: see Life of Milton, p. 479. 13. 14. wear. 66 'Listening to what unshorn Apollo sings To the touch of golden wires." Vac. Exerc. v. 37.—T. It should rather be bear, as the palms were in their hands. Spenser however has— "Been they not bay-branches which they do bear All for Eliza in her hand to wear?" Sh. Cal. April, v. 104. 18. noise, i.e. chorus, symphony, band. "See if thou canst find out Sneak's noise; Mistress Tearsheet would fain have some music." 2 Hen. IV. ii. 4. "The smell of the venison going through the street will invite one noise of fiddles or other." Jonson, Sil. Woman, iii. 4. "You must get us music too. Call us in a cleanly noise." Chapman, All Fools.-W. "He did give me orders also to write for... a noise of trumpets and a set of fiddles." Pepys's Diary, May 7, 1660.-K. "During which time there was a heavenly noise." F. Q. i. 12, 39.-W. "Be not afraid, the isle is full of noises, Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not." Temp. iii. 2.-K. The term is as old as the time of Chaucer : "When that I herde feere off sodainly So grete a noise of thundering trumpes blow." Flower and Leaf.-K. "That it a blissful noise was to hear." Ib. 19. As once, i.e. before the Fall.-disproportioned, i.e. out of proportion or harmony. 20. Jarred, etc. Jar and chime are both terms employed by musicians; the latter has been appropriated to the ringing of bells. 23. diapason, diamaσŵv, i.e. the whole eight notes or octave. Oh! may we soon again renew that song, And keep in tune with Heaven, till God ere long To live with Him, and sing in endless morn of light! 27. consort (from consortium) had exactly the same sense as noise (v. 18). "Or be of some good consort; You had a pleasant touch of the cittern once." Fletch. Capt. i. 3.-K. "And tune our instrument till the consort comes To make up the full noise." Id. Night-walker, iii. 3.—K. 28. endless morn. 3. 10. 11. "For there shall be no night there." Rev. xxi. 25. Various readings of the Cambridge MS., in which there are three copies of this Song in Milton's handwriting.† Mixe your choise words, and happiest sense employ, Us of ourselves, and native [home-bred] woes beguile, Where the bright Seraphim in tripled [princely] row Loud symphonie of silver trumpets blow. And Cherubim, sweet-winged squires. 12. 14. With those just Spirits that wear the blooming palms, Singing everlastingly; While all the roundes and arches blue Resound and echo Hallelu: That we on earth, etc. 18. May rightly answer that melodious noise, By leaving out those harsh, ill-sounding [chromatick] jarres Of clamorous sin that all our musick marres ; And in our lives and in our song May keep in tune, etc. 28. To live and sing with him in ever endless [ever glorious, uneclipsed] light. where day dwells without night. in endless morn of light. in cloudless birth of light. in never parting light. The words within brackets are those that he tried and rejected. 43 SECOND PERIOD. AT HORTON. A.D. 1632-1638. A. ET. 24-30. 1. 2. 3. SONG. ON MAY MORNING.-M. Now the bright morning-star, day's harbinger, Hail, bounteous May, that dost inspire “And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger.” Mids. N. Dr. iii. 2.— W’. Of greatest heaven 'gan to open fair, And Phoebus, fresh as bridegroom to his mate, Comes dancing forth, shaking his dewy hair." F. Q. i. 5, 2.— W. "Then came fair May, the fairest maid on ground, Deckt all with dainties of her season's pride, And throwing flowers out of her lap around." F. Q. vii.7, 34.-B. "Clorida bella, che per l'aria vola, Dietro all' Aurora, all' apparir del sole, E dal raccolto lembo della stola Gigli spargendo va, rose e viole." Ar. Orl. Fur. xv. 57.-K. "Escotendo del vel l' umido lembo Ne spargeva i fioretti e la verdura." Tasso, Ger. Lib. xiv. 1.-K. Notwithstanding these authorities, when we consider the objective turn of Milton's mind, and observe his employment of the adj. green, we cannot avoid |