Life Of John Milton, Richard Garnett [ebook offline txt] 📗

Those Weeks Of Wretchedness,  We Should Probably Find

Milton Exceedingly Deficient In Consideration For The Inexperienced Girl

Of Half His Age,  Brought From A Gay Circle Of Friends And Kindred To A

Grave,  Studious House. But It Could Not Well Have Been Otherwise. Milton

Was Constitutionally Unfit "To Soothe And Fondle," And His Theories

Cannot Have Contributed To Correct His Practice. His "He For God Only,

She For God In Him," Condenses Every Fallacy About Woman's True Relation

To Her Husband And Her Maker. In His Tractate On Education There Is Not

A Word On The Education Of Girls,  And Yet He Wanted An Intellectual

Female Companion. Where Should The Woman Be Found At Once Submissive

Enough And Learned Enough To Meet Such Inconsistent Exigencies? It Might

Chapter 5 Pg 50

Have Been Said To Him As Afterwards To Byron: "You Talk Like A

Rosicrucian,  Who Will Love Nothing But A Sylph,  Who Does Not Believe In

The Existence Of A Sylph,  And Who Yet Quarrels With The Whole Universe

For Not Containing A Sylph."

 

If Milton's First Tract On Divorce Had Not Been A Mere Impromptu,

Extorted By The Misery Of Finding "An Image Of Earth And Phlegm" In Her

"With Whom He Looked To Be The Co-Partner Of A Sweet And Gladsome

Society," He Would Certainly Have Rendered His Argument More Cogent And

Elaborate. The Tract,  In Its Inspired Portions,  Is A Fine Impassioned

Poem,  Fitter For The Parliament Of Love Than The Parliament At

Westminster. The Second Edition Is Far More Satisfactory As Regards That

Class Of Arguments Which Alone Were Likely To Impress The Men Of His

Generation,  Those Derived From The Authority Of The Scriptures And Of

Divines. In One Of His Principal Points All Protestants And Philosophers

Will Confess Him To Be Right,  His Reference Of The Matter To Scripture

And Reason,  And Repudiation Of The Mediæval Canon Law. It Is Not Here,

Nevertheless,  That Milton Is Most At Home. The Strength Of His Position

Is His Lofty Idealism,  His Magnificent Conception Of The Institution He

Discusses,  And His Disdain For Whatever Degrades It To Conventionality

Or Mere Expediency. "His Ideal Of True And Perfect Marriage," Says Mr.

Ernest Myers,  "Appeared To Him So Sacred That He Could Not Admit That

Considerations Of Expediency Might Justify The Law In Maintaining Sacred

Any Meaner Kind,  Or At Least Any Kind In Which The Vital Element Of

Spiritual Harmony Was Not." Here He Is Impregnable And Above Criticism,

But His Handling Of The More Sublunary Departments Of The Subject Must

Be Unsatisfactory To Legislators,  Who Have Usually Deemed His Sublime

Idealism Fitter For The Societies Of The Blest Than For The Imperfect

Communities Of Mankind. When His "Doctrine And Discipline" Shall Have

Been Sanctioned By Lawgivers,  We May Be Sure That The World Is Already

Much Better,  Or Much Worse.

 

As The Girl-Wife Vanishes From Milton's Household Her Place Is Taken By

The Venerable Figure Of His Father. The Aged Man Had Removed With His

Son Christopher To Reading,  Probably Before August,  1641,  When The Birth

Of A Child Of His Name--Christopher's Offspring As It Should

Seem--Appears In The Reading Register. Christopher Was To Exemplify The

Law Of Reversion To A Primitive Type. Though Not Yet A Roman Catholic

Like His Grandfather,  He Had Retrograded Into Royalism,  Without Becoming

On That Account Estranged From His Elder Brother. The Surrender Of

Reading To The Parliamentary Forces In April,  1643,  Involved His

"Dissettlement," And The Migration Of His Father To The House Of John,

With Whom He Was Moreover Better In Accord In Religion And Politics.

Little External Change Resulted,  "The Old Gentleman," Says Phillips,

"Being Wholly Retired To His Rest And Devotion,  With The Least Trouble

Imaginable." About The Same Time The Household Received Other Additions

In The Shape Of Pupils,  Admitted,  Phillips Is Careful To Assure Us,  By

Way Of Favour,  As M. Jourdain Selected Stuffs For His Friends. Milton's

Pamphlet Was Perhaps Not Yet Published,  Or Not Generally Known To Be

His,  Or His Friends Were Indifferent To Public Sentiment. Opinion Was

Unquestionably Against Milton,  Nor Can He Have Profited Much By The

Support,  However Practical,  Of A Certain Mrs. Attaway,  Who Thought That

Chapter 5 Pg 51

"She,  For Her Part,  Would Look More Into It,  For She Had An Unsanctified

Husband,  That Did Not Walk In The Way Of Sion,  Nor Speak The Language Of

Canaan," And By And By Actually Did What Milton Only Talked Of Doing. We

Have Already Seen That He Had Incurred Danger Of Prosecution From The

Stationers' Company,  And In July,  1644,  He Was Denounced By Name From

The Pulpit By A Divine Of Much Note,  Herbert Palmer,  Author Of A Book

Long Attributed To Bacon. But,  If Criticised,  He Was Read. By 1645 His

Divorce Tract Was In The Third Edition,  And He Had Added Three More

Pamphlets--One To Prove That The Revered Martin Bucer Had Agreed With

Him; Two,  The "Tetrachordon" And "Colasterion," Directed Against His

Principal Opponents,  Palmer,  Featley,  Caryl,  Prynne,  And An Anonymous

Pamphleteer,  Who Seems To Have Been A Somewhat Contemptible Person,  A

Serving-Man Turned Attorney,  But Whose Production Contains Some Not

Unwelcome Hints On The Personal Aspects Of Milton's Controversy. "We

Believe You Count No Woman To Due Conversation Accessible,  As To You,

Except She Can Speak Hebrew,  Greek,  Latin,  And French,  And Dispute

Against The Canon Law As Well As You." Milton's Later Tracts Are Not

Specially Interesting,  Except For The Reiteration Of His Fine And Bold

Idealism On The Institution Of Marriage,  Qualified Only By His No Less

Strenuous Insistance On The Subjection Of Woman. He Allows,  However,

That "It Is No Small Glory To Man That A Creature So Like Him Should Be

Made Subject To Him," And That "Particular Exceptions May Have Place,  If

She Exceed Her Husband In Prudence And Dexterity,  And He Contentedly

Yield; For Then A Superior And More Natural Law Comes In,  That The Wiser

Should Govern The Less Wise,  Whether Male Or Female."

 

Milton's Seminary,  Meanwhile,  Was Prospering To Such A Degree As To

Compel Him To Take A More Commodious House. Was It Necessity Or

Enthusiasm That Kept Him To A Task So Little Compatible With The Repose

He Must Have Needed Even For Such Intellectual Exercise As The

"Areopagitica," Much More For The High Designs He Had Not Ceased To

Meditate In Verse? Enthusiasm,  One Would Certainly Say,  Only That It Is

Impossible To Tell To What Extent His Father's Income,  Chiefly Derived

From Money Out At Interest,  May Have Been Impaired By The Confusion Of

The Times. Whether He Had Done Rightly Or Wrongly In Taking The Duties

Of A Preceptor Upon Himself,  His Nephew's Account Attests The

Self-Sacrificing Zeal With Which He Discharged Them: We Groan As We Read

Of Hours Which Should Have Been Devoted To Lonely Musing Or Noble

Composition Passed In "Increasing As It Were By Proxy" His Knowledge Of

"Frontinus His Stratagems,  With The Two Egregious Poets Lucretius And

Manilius." He Might Also Have Been Better Employed Than In Dictating "A

Tractate He Thought Fit To Collect From The Ablest Of Divines Who Have

Written On That Subject Of Atheism,  Amesius,  Wollebius," &C. Here Should

Be Comfort For Those Who Fear With Pattison That Milton's Addiction To

Politics Deprived Us Of Unnumbered "Comuses." The Excerpter Of Amesius

And Wollebius,  As We Have So Often Insisted,  Needed Great Stimulus For

Great Achievements. Such Stimulus Would Probably Have Come

Superabundantly If He Could At This Time Have Had His Way,  For The Most

Moral Of Men Was Bent On Assuming A Direct Antagonism To Conventional

Morality. He Had Maintained That Marriage Ought To Be Dissolved For Mere

Incompatibility; His Case Must Have Seemed Much Stronger Now That

Incompatibility Had Produced Desertion. He Was Not The Man To Shrink

From Acting On His Opinion When The Fit Season Seemed To Him To Have

Chapter 5 Pg 52

Arrived; And In The Summer Of 1645 He Was Openly Paying His Addresses To

"A Very Handsome And Witty Gentlewoman,  One Of Dr. Davis's Daughters."

Considering The Consequences To The Female Partner To The Contract,  It

Is Clear That Miss Davis Could Not Be Expected To Entertain Milton's

Proposals Unless Her Affection For Him Was Very Strong Indeed. It Is

Equally Clear That He Cannot Be Acquitted Of Selfishness In Urging His

Suit Unless He Was Quite Sure Of This,  And His Own Heart Also Was Deeply

Interested. An Event Was About To Occur Which Seems To Prove That These

Conditions Were Wanting.

 

Nearly Two Years Have Passed Since We Have Heard Of Mary Milton,  Who Has

Been Living With Her Parents In Oxfordshire. Her Position As A Nominal

Wife Must Have Been Most Uncomfortable,  But There Is No Indication Of

Any Effort On Her Part To Alter It,  Until The Civil War Was Virtually

Terminated By The Battle Of Naseby,  June,  1645. Obstinate Malignants Had

Then Nothing To Expect But Fine And Forfeiture,  And Their Son-In-Law's

Puritanism May Have Presented Itself To The Powells In The Light Of A

Merciful Dispensation. Rumours Of Milton's Suit To Miss Davis May Also

Have Reached Them; And They Would Know That An Illegal Tie Would Be As

Fatal To All Hopes Of Reconciliation As A Legal One. So,  One Day In July

Or August,  1645,  Milton,  Paying His Usual Call On A Kinsman Named

Blackborough,[3] Not Otherwise Mentioned In His Life,  Who Lived In St.

Martin's-Le-Grand Lane,  Where The General Post Office Now Stands,  "Was

Surprised To See One Whom He Thought To Have Never Seen More,  Making

Submission And Begging Pardon On Her Knees Before Him." There Are Two

Similar Scenes In His Writings,  Of Which This May Have Formed The

Groundwork,  Dalila's Visit To Her Betrayed Husband In "Samson

Agonistes," And Eve's Repentance In The Tenth Book Of "Paradise Lost."

Samson Replies,  "Out,  Out,  Hyæna!" Eve's "Lowly Plight"

 

                              "In Adam Wrought

    Commiseration;...

    As One Disarmed,  His Anger All He Lost,

    And Thus With Peaceful Words Upraised Her Soon."

 

Phillips Appears To Intimate That The Penitent's Reception Began Like

Dalila's And Ended Like Eve's. "He Might Probably At First Make Some

Show Of Aversion And Rejection; But Partly His Own Generous Nature,  More

Inclinable To Reconciliation Than To Perseverance In Anger And Revenge,

And Partly The Strong Intercession Of Friends On Both Sides,  Soon

Brought Him To An Act Of Oblivion,  And A Firm League Of Peace For The

Future." With A Man Of His Magnanimous Temper,  Conscious No Doubt That

He Had Himself Been Far From Blameless,  Such A Result Was To Be

Expected. But It Was Certainly Well That He Had Made No Deeper

Impression Than He Seems