1667. Paradise Lost is sold to Samuel Simmons, April 27. Published in ten books. 1669. Published Accidence Commenced Grammar (Latin); also History of England. 1671. Paradise Regained is published; also Samson Agonistes. 1672. Published Artis Logicæ. 1673. Published Of True Religion, Heresy, Schism, and Toleration ; republished Early Poems, with additions. 1674. Second Edition of Paradise Lost, in twelve books. Published Familiar Epistles, and Academic Exercises. Died Nov. 8; was buried Nov. 12, in the chancel of St. Giles, Cripplegate. In addition to the foregoing works, should be named his Brief History of Muscovy, his Letters of State, his System of Christian Doctrine, and his unfinished Latin Lexicon. Line 26. Line 47. Line 58 etc. What could the golden-haired Calliope For her enchanting son, When she beheld (the gods far-sighted be) His gory scalp roll down the Thracian lea. And Heaven and Hell deplore, When his divine head down the stream was sent.] LYCIDAS. In this MONODY the Author bewails a learned friend, unfortunately drowned in his passage from Chester on the Irish seas, 1637. And by occasion foretells the ruin of our corrupted clergy, then in their height. YET once more, O ye laurels, and once more, The title was added in the edition of 1645. See note on line 8. Learned friend. Edward King was a native of Ireland, and the son of Sir John King who filled the office of Secretary for Ireland under Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I. For eleven years he had been connected with Cambridge. He was admitted to Christ's College, June 9, 1626, when Milton had been there a little over a year. He was made Fellow by mandate of King Charles, June 10, 1630. After graduation he filled the academic offices of tutor and prælector, and was qualifying himself for the active work of the ministry. He composed Latin verses on the birth of the Princess Mary, 1631; on the king's recovery from the small-pox, 1632-3; on the king's return from Scotland, 1633; on Hausted's play of Senile Odium, 1633; on the birth of Prince James, 1633; on the birth of the Princess Elizabeth, 1635; on the birth of the Princess Anne, 1636-7. The 10th of August, 1637, he was drowned on his passage from Chester to Ireland. It is said that the ship struck on a rock off the Welsh coast, and that when the vessel was sinking he knelt in prayer on the deck, and so met his fate. He was twenty-five years old, and was noted for his piety, scholarship, brilliant talents, and amiable character. A book of commemorative verses in honor of him was published in 1638, containing three poems in Greek, nineteen in Latin, and thirteen in English. Milton's Lycidas was the last of these English elegies. It was signed with his initials, and dated November, 1637, Milton being then about 29 years old. Monody, a kind of sorrowful poem or song, in which a single mourner exFresses grief. 1. Yet once more, O ye laurels. "Some such formula was poets in beginning a new exercise of their art," says Masson. frequent with Warton cites, Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere, I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude, Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. 5 by way of illustration, 'Yet once again, my Muse,' from an elegy on the death of the Countess of Pembroke, sister of Sir Philip Sidney. See Spenser's formula at the beginning of the Faerie Queene; also Virgil's 'Ille ego, qui quondam,' etc. Once more. For three years Milton had written no poetry; although his Hymn on the Nativity, Arcades, Comus, L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, and other shorter poems, had given abundant promise. Laurels. Laurels, myrtles, and ivies are symbolical of poetry. They are evergreens, too, and emblematic of immortality. Laurel leaves crowned the victor in the games of Apollo, and the fruit in later ages indicated academic honors. Perhaps we may say generally that the laurel, sacred to Apollo, typifies the loftier strains; the myrtle, sacred to Venus, represents poetry of an amatory or affectionate character; and the ivy, sometimes wreathing the head of Bacchus, and sometimes, according to Horace, 'the reward of learned brows,' may symbolize corresponding kinds of verse. Pliny refers to ivy as forming the coronals of poets. Note that the word 'more' at the end of the first line does not rhyme. What other lines in the poem end without rhyme? Can you assign an artistic or æsthetic reason for the omission? See Masson's Milton's Poetical Works, Vol. II. p. 276. 2. Sere. Sere is dry. Shakes. in Macbeth speaks of the 'sere, the yellow leaf.' Possibly the season of the year when this poem was written, October or November, suggested the thought. Ivy leaves in autumn do to some extent become sere; but the ivy that adorns the brows of true poets is 'never sere.' Milton would gather and twine unfading garlands of poesy for Lycidas. Can you think of a different explanation? 3. I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude. Some critics see in these lines an allusion to the unripe age of young King. They think his poetic talent, his beauty and ripeness for love, and his learning, are somehow typified by laurels, myrtles, and ivy respectively. But is it not more likely that Milton means to represent himself as writing poetry prematurely and under constraint? He feels that his work must be poor; the 'leaves' and 'berries,' the flowers and fruit, must be all unripe; yet his fingers are forced by his friend's death to seize the pen. In his treatise on Reformation in England, published in 1641, and in his Second Defence of the People of England, 1654, as well as in his lines to his native language, "At a Vacation Exercise in the College" (11. 29–53), he intimates his intention and preference in regard to writing a great poem after reaching the full maturity of his powers. Crude (Lat. cruor, blood, gore; crudus, bloody), raw, unripe. 5. Shatter, a modern softening of scatter. Jerram. See Par. Lost, X. 1066. Mellowing year, mellowing time of the year. Does this mean, before the mellowing year shatters, or before the mellowing year comes? T. Warton |