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

Chosen Ground,  And The Eloquence Which Might Have Swept All

Before It In A Discussion Of General Principles Is Frittered Away In

Tiresome Wrangling Over A Multitude Of Minutiæ. His Vigorous Blows Avail

But Little Against The Impalpable Ideal With Which He Is Contending; His

Arguments Might Frequently Convince A Court Of Justice,  But Could Do

Nothing To Dispel The Sorcery Which Enthralled The Popular Imagination.

Milton's "Eikonoklastes" Had Only Three Editions,  Including A

Translation,  Within The Year; The "Eikon Basilike" Is Said To Have Had

Fifty.

 

Milton's Reputation As A Political Controversialist,  However,  Was Not To

Rest Upon "Eikonoklastes," Or To Be Determined By A Merely English

Public. The Royalists Had Felt The Necessity Of Appealing To The General

Verdict Of Europe,  And Had Entrusted Their Cause To The Most Eminent

Classical Scholar Of The Age. To Us The Idea Of Commissioning A

Political Manifesto From A Philologist Seems Eccentric; But Erudition

And The Erudite Were Never So Highly Prized As In The Seventeenth

Century. Men's Minds Were Still Enchained By Authority,  And The

Precedents Of Agis,  Or Brutus,  Or Nehemiah,  Weighed Like Dicta Of

Solomon Or Justinian. The Man Of Greek,  Or Latin,  Or Hebrew Learning

Was,  Therefore,  A Person Of Much Greater Consequence Than He Is Now,  And

So Much The More If He Enjoyed A High Reputation And Wrote Good Latin.

All These Qualifications Were Combined In Claudius Salmasius,  A

Frenchman,  Who Had Laid Scholars Under An Eternal Obligation By His

Discovery Of The Palatine Ms. Of The Anthology At Heidelberg,  And Who,

Having Embraced Protestantism From Conviction,  Lived In Splendid Style

At Leyden,  Where The Mere Light Of His Countenance--For He Did Not

Teach--Was Valued By The University At Three Thousand Livres A Year. It

Seems Marvellous That A Man Should Become Dictator Of The Republic Of

Letters By Editing "Solinus" And "The Augustan History," However Ably;

But An Achievement Like This,  Not A "Paradise Lost" Or A "Werther" Was

The _Sic Itur Ad Astra_ Of The Time. On The Strength Of Such Salmasius

Had Pronounced _Ex Cathedra_ On A Multiplicity Of Topics,  From

Episcopacy To Hair-Powder,  And There Was No Bishop And No Perfumer

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Between The Black Sea And The Irish Who Would Not Rather Have The

Scholar For Him Than Against Him. A Man,  Too,  To Be Named With Respect;

No Mere Annotator,  But A Most Sagacious Critic; Peevish,  It Might Be,

But Had He Not Seven Grievous Disorders At Once? One Who Had Shown Such

Independence And Integrity In Various Transactions Of His Life,  That We

May Be Very Sure That Charles Ii.'S Hundred Jacobuses,  If Ever Given Or

Even Promised,  Were The Very Least Of The Inducements That Called Him

Into The Field Against The Executioners Of Charles I.

 

Whether,  However,  The Hundred Jacobuses Were Forthcoming Or Not,

Salmasius's Undertaking Was None The Less A Commission From Charles Ii.,

And The Circumstance Put Him Into A False Position,  And Increased The

Difficulty Of His Task. Human Feeling Is Not Easily Reconciled To The

Execution Of A Bad Magistrate,  Unless He Has Also Been A Bad Man.

Charles I. Was By No Means A Bad Man,  Only A Mistaken One. He Had Been

Guilty Of Many Usurpations And Much Perfidy: But He Had Honestly

Believed His Usurpations Within The Limits Of His Prerogative; And His

Breaches Of Faith Were Committed Against Insurgents Whom He Regarded As

Seamen Look Upon Pirates,  Or Shepherds Upon Wolves. Salmasius,  However,

Pleading By Commission From Charles's Son,  Can Urge No Such Mitigating

Plea. He Is Compelled To Maintain The Inviolability Even Of Wicked

Sovereigns,  And Spends Two-Thirds Of His Treatise In Supporting A

Proposition To State Which Is To Refute It In The Nineteenth Century. In

The Latter Part He Is On Stronger Ground. Charles Had Unquestionably

Been Tried And Condemned By A Tribunal Destitute Of Legal Authority,  And

Executed Contrary To The Wish And Will Of The Great Majority Of His

Subjects. But This Was A Theme For An Englishman To Handle. Salmasius

Cannot Think Himself Into It,  Nor Had He Sufficient Imagination To Be

Inspired By Charles As Burke (Who,  Nevertheless,  Has Borrowed From Him)

Was To Be Inspired By Marie Antoinette.

 

His Book--Entitled "Defensio Regia Pro Carolo I."--Appeared In October

Or November,  1649. On January 8,  1650,  It Was Ordered By The Council Of

State "That Mr. Milton Do Prepare Something In Answer To The Book Of

Salmasius,  And When He Hath Done It Bring It To The Council." There Were

Many Reasons Why He Should Be Entrusted With This Commission,  And Only

One Why He Should Not; But One Which Would Have Seemed Conclusive To

Most Men. His Sight Had Long Been Failing. He Had Already Lost The Use

Of One Eye,  And Was Warned That If He Imposed This Additional Strain

Upon His Sight,  That Of The Other Would Follow. He Had Seen The Greatest

Astronomer Of The Age Condemned To Inactivity And Helplessness,  And

Could Measure His Own By The Misery Of Galileo. He Calmly Accepted His

Duty Along With Its Penalty,  Without Complaint Or Reluctance. If He

Could Have Performed His Task In The Spirit With Which He Undertook It,

He Would Have Produced A Work More Sublime Than "Paradise Lost."

 

This,  Of Course,  Was Not Possible. The Efficiency Of A Controversialist

In The Seventeenth Century Was Almost Estimated In The Ratio Of His

Scurrility,  Especially When He Wrote Latin. From This Point Of View

Milton Had Got His Opponent At A Tremendous Disadvantage. With The Best

Will In The World,  Salmasius Had Come Short In Personal Abuse,  For,  As

The Initiator Of The Dispute,  He Had No Personal Antagonist. In

Denouncing The General Herd Of Regicides And Parricides He Had Hurt

Nobody In Particular,  While Concentrating All Milton's Lightnings On His

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Own Unlucky Head. They Seared And Scathed A Literary Dictator Whom

Jealous Enemies Had Long Sighed To Behold Insulted And Humiliated,  While

Surprise Equalled Delight At Seeing The Blow Dealt From A Quarter So

Utterly Unexpected. There Is No Comparison Between The Invective Of

Milton And Of Salmasius; Not So Much From Milton's Superiority As A

Controversialist,  Though This Is Very Evident,  As Because He Writes

Under The Inspiration Of A True Passion. His Scorn Of The Presumptuous

Intermeddler Who Has Dared To Libel The People Of England Is Ten

Thousand Times More Real Than Salmasius's Official Indignation At The

Execution Of Charles. His Contempt For Salmasius's Pedantry Is Quite

Genuine; And He Revels In Ecstasies Of Savage Glee When Taunting The

Apologist Of Tyranny With His Own Notorious Subjection To A Tyrannical

Wife. But The Reviler In Milton Is Too Far Ahead Of The Reasoner. He

Seems To Set More Store By His Personalities Than By His Principles. On

The Question Of The Legality Of Charles's Execution He Has Indeed Little

Argument To Offer; And His Views On The Wider Question Of The General

Responsibility Of Kings,  Sound And Noble In Themselves,  Suffer From The

Mass Of Irrelevant Quotation With Which It Was In That Age Necessary To

Prop Them Up. The Great Success Of His Reply ("Pro Populo Anglicano

Defensio") Arose Mainly From The General Satisfaction That Salmasius

Should At Length Have Met With His Match. The Book,  Published In Or

About March,  1651,  Instantly Won Over European Public Opinion,  So Far As

The Question Was A Literary One. Every Distinguished Foreigner Then

Resident In London,  Milton Says,  Either Called Upon Him To Congratulate

Him,  Or Took The Opportunity Of A Casual Meeting. By May,  Says Heinsius,

Five Editions Were Printed Or Printing In Holland,  And Two Translations.

"I Had Expected Nothing Of Such Quality From The Englishman," Writes

Vossius. The Diet Of Ratisbon Ordered "That All The Books Of Miltonius

Should Be Searched For And Confiscated." Parisian Magistrates Burned It

On Their Own Responsibility. Salmasius Himself Was Then At Stockholm,

Where Queen Christina,  Who Did Not,  Like Catherine Ii.,  Recognize The

Necessity Of "Standing By Her Order," Could Not Help Letting Him See

That She Regarded Milton As The Victor. Vexation,  Some Thought,

Contributed As Much As Climate To Determine His Return To Holland. He

Died In September,  1653,  At Spa,  As,  Remote From Books,  But Making His

Memory His Library,  He Was Penning His Answer. This Unfinished

Production,  Edited By His Son,  Appeared After The Restoration,  When The

Very Embers Of The Controversy Had Grown Cold,  And The Palm Of Literary

Victory Had Been Irrevocably Adjudged To Milton.

 

Milton Could Hear The Plaudits,  He Could Not See The Wreaths. The Total

Loss Of His Sight May Be Dated From March,  1652,  A Year After The

Publication Of His Reply. It Was Then Necessary To Provide Him With An

Assistant--That No Change Should Have Been Made In His Position Or

Salary Shows Either The Value Attached To His Services Or The Feeling

That Special Consideration Was Due To One Who Had Voluntarily Given His

Eyes For His Country. "The Choice Lay Before Me," He Writes,  "Between

Dereliction Of A Supreme Duty And Loss Of Eyesight; In Such A Case I

Could Not Listen To The Physician,  Not If Æsculapius Himself Had Spoken

From His Sanctuary; I Could Not But Obey That Inward Monitor,  I Know Not

What,  That Spoke To Me From Heaven." In September,  1654,  He Described

The Symptoms Of His Infirmity To His Friend,  The Greek Philaras,  Who Had

Chapter 6 Pg 62

Flattered Him With Hopes Of Cure From The Dexterity Of The French

Oculist Thevenot. He Tells Him How His Sight Began To Fail About Ten

Years Before; How In The Morning He Felt His Eyes Shrinking From The

Effort To Read Anything; How The Light Of A Candle Appeared Like A

Spectrum Of Various Colours; How,  Little By Little,  Darkness Crept Over

The Left Eye; And Objects Beheld By The Right Seemed To Waver To And

Fro; How This Was Accompanied By A Kind Of Dizziness And Heaviness Which

Weighed Upon Him Throughout The Afternoon. "Yet The Darkness Which Is

Perpetually Before Me Seems Always Nearer To A Whitish Than To A

Blackish,  And Such That,  When The Eye Rolls Itself,  There Is Admitted,

As Through A Small Chink,  A Certain Little Trifle Of Light." Elsewhere

He Says That His Eyes Are Not Disfigured:

 

                               "Clear

    To Outward View Of Blemish Or Of Spot."

 

These Symptoms Have Been Pronounced To Resemble Those Of Glaucoma.

Milton Himself,  In "Paradise Lost," Hesitates Between Amaurosis ("Drop

Serene") And Cataract ("Suffusion"). Nothing Is Said Of His Having Been

Recommended To Use Glasses Or Other Precautionary Contrivances.

Cheselden Was Not Yet,  And The Oculist's Art Was Probably Not Well

Understood. The Sufferer Himself,  While Not Repining Or Despairing